XII Legion 'World Eaters': Origins & History (Warhammer & Horus Heresy Lore)

humanity always had killers for humanity has always needed killers we have for our sins always seem to have had a war where the violent of our society have found their place were those with tendencies and imbalances that set them so apart from the rest of the species made a home and vocation for themselves upon blood-soaked battlefields we have ever tried to deny the simple truth of our own nature and pretend in our grand delusion that we long ago conquered these spiritual demons of our own worst inclinations yes with every advent of a new era the spectre of war inevitably returns and mankind once again turns to those who we label is wrong as recidivist has broken beautiful things to do the bloody work that no one else can do as well as they even in an age of wonderous unity when the light of the Imperial truth clothed through the ignorance and superstition of the galaxy we had need of such men and the price we paid for their service will now forever haunt us know then that this is a record of the butchers of the Great Crusade the starties soaked to their bones in the viscera of a million worlds the twelfth Legion world eaters factual data concerning the origin of the twelfth Legion during the unification Wars is markedly fragmentary compared to other legions both due to the legions own disdain for keeping such records and the nature of their birth itself it appears that no particular bias was paid to location of the initial recruitment grounds but rather towards the neophytes themselves potential Legionnaires were reportedly psychologically screened from bulk influxes of Terrans to ensure that those with aggressive and competitive traits were fast-tracked for a start ease conditioning it is unclear whether it was undertaken to ensure better candidates were selected to match the psychological traits inherent in the legions gene seed or if it was a deliberate effort to mold the Legion from its inception into a highly bellicose force of arms whatever the thinking the 12th proved immediately to be just that violent and pugnacious in excess of their fellow estar T's legions first recorded engagement the 12th participated in was during the South Africa Liberation deployed as shock assault troops in the emperor's vanguard despite their small numbers the 12th laid into the enemy both upon the open battlefield and in their fortified positions with such vicious dedication that the enemy was utterly routed in the face of their bloody advance however despite the great victory they had attained the master of mankind held the Legion in close reserve for the remainder of the unification Wars and indeed for the majority of the subsequent solar reclamation it was of course standard military practice to hold forces in reserves in case of a sudden reversal of fortunes during wartime yet for what region the 12th were selected none can truly say the Legion trained relentlessly maintaining both constant readiness and a steady stream of recruitment on the few occasions they were deployed the word unleashed appears throughout almost every record concerning them remembrances of the time speak of a legion that took a violent delight in the slaughter they meet it out for they would tear into the foe with scant regard for their own losses butchering all who stood before them with chain acts and ladies it was fitting then that in the aftermath of the 12th predation of the narcos rolls the cific hives the emperor dubbed the 12th his war hounds and granted them the use of the red canine as their sigil the Great Crusade saw the legion subdivided into many independent commands as the twelfths worked well as assault elements within a wider expeditionary fleet the largest of these contingents some 8,000 Astarte strong was itself its own expedition known as the bloody 13th amongst the forces of the Imperium with their savagery only matched and even then barely so by that of the 6th Legion the 12th rapidly became known as the best shock troops the crusade could call upon serving well as frontline troops in hundreds of active theatres and with a special predilection shown for engagements where the single killing stroke would break a stalemate or end a campaign before it had even begun through the sheer viciousness of their preferred tactics the war hands developed a rather dark reputation amongst the armies of the Imperium it was undeniable to any who observed them fight that engagements undertaken by the 12th would end in only one of two ways hard-fought slaughter or simple wanton butchery how the enemy performed would not change either how the Legion fought or the outcome of the battle either the 12th would incur a high number of casualties or it would not the result was always the same for in the wake of the war hands-only carnage and murder remained the foe would be utterly defeated one way or another the efficacy of this was undoubtable the 12th was notably ill-disciplined with officers having to maintain an exceptionally harsh code of conduct over there men as jewels to the death or at the very least maiming were quite common amongst the Legion a star teased from other legions found them difficult to operate with effectively for the 12th was unpredictable and often displayed wanton disregard for the chain of command unleashed again became the accepted term for how a deployment of the war hands was referred to as once the dogs had slipped their chain nothing but destruction of the enemy would allow them to be brought to heel again the first Legion master of the 12th Abram grew here was known to openly sneer at those who objected to the legions dis temperate nature and often kept his war hounds at a guarded distance from their cousins the war canceled not unaware of this steadily began assigning the 12th to annihilation operations believing their most suitable for campaigns where simple extermination was the goal as opposed to the liberation of a human population the 12th could simply not be deployed in theaters where collateral damage was to be kept to a minimum as in their unrestrained violence Legion was often quite heedless of the difference between enemy soldiers and civilians formation seconded to the 12th were of a similar nature the Legion developed a close association with the bellicose Titans of the liji Oh attacks around who a dark pal of suspicion had lain ever since their participation in the Loren Alpha massacres imperial army regiments fighting in theatres alongside the Legion were often drawn from the most savage and barbaric of newly compliant worlds and the war hounds were known to pick the most violent of these regiments as potential recruitment grounds for the Legion itself while the Legion carved its bloody trail across the galaxy it's Primark was himself butchering his way across his adopted home world much of the records surrounding an groans findings remained sequestered the view of all but the most privileged of chronic lies upon the standing orders of the Emperor himself crap Aeneas speculum his story a names the world he fell to as new Syria although the planets exact location and even its continued existence none can truly speak to it was a technologically advanced world prosperous with the market wealth gap between the greater populous and the nobility who were recorded as having lived lives of wanton decadence to occupy the minds of the masses the majority of whom lived in conditions of abject poverty the aristocracy of new Syria had created a culture of gladiatorial death matches in massive stadiums across the world hitting cybernetically enhanced humans against one another in regular tournaments apocryphal accounts states that a slaver discovered the infant Primark in the mountains outside the vast city-state of deshi surrounded by the bloody remains of scores of aliens Imperial historians speculates that these xenos were in fact al dari acting perhaps on some foul vision imparted to them by their Farseer of the dreadful being this child was to become whatever their reasoning they had been defeated and the remnants of their attempt demonstrated to the slaver that this child was a prize indeed brought back to the city the boy was sold to the ruling clan the Talcher who implanted him with the bio neuro enhancements received by all gladiators of new Syria the aptly named butchers nails quite what these devices original intent was is lost to history as is their origins but they are in effect relics of the Dark Age of technology and their manufacture a secrets uniquely preserved upon new Syria itself the nails are cybernetic implants directly attached through the subjects skull into their cerebral cortex resembling as the name suggests huge nails that have been hammered through the bone plate ugly and direct devices these implants merged with the subject system to massively stimulate adrenaline production boosting aggression speed strength in the heat of combat they have the added effect of corrupting the subjects mind forcibly removing instincts pertaining to caution reason and morality warriors with the nails were not simply emotional assault Amata but instead rage-filled murder machines or to the nobility the perfect spectacle and ron so named by his new owners was thrown into the gladiator pits immediately where the rapidly aging youth quickly earned a reputation for unparalleled skill with blade and axe despite reaping the heads of hundreds of opponents the pry marks pride in his skill extended to the development of a warrior code imbued with the teachings of the most honorable pit masters and trainers to those gladiators who fought with honor and grin would extend mercy sparing their lives his combination of skill and character made him a star in the deshi arena and thousands would travel to the city to watch him fight the Primarch as much as he enjoyed the adulation was nonetheless restive ill-at-ease with his captivity his numerous attempts at escape failed as his masters had had many centuries to clad their arenas and warriors with the finest technological impediments possible knowing he could not succeed alone and Ron brought many of those he had defeated under his wing training them breaking bread with them earning their trust gathering around him bloody band of the toughest and most skilled fighters with the nobility of deshi unaware of the plotting happening in their pits and the coffers swelling with the wealth and Ron's fame was garnering them they announced that the city would hold the bloodiest games they announced that the city would hold the grandest blood games in the planets history gathering only the best and most vicious gladiators from every corner of New Syria unwittingly the nobility played straight into their champions hands at the height of a mock battle in the midst of the games and Ron and his band turned upon the guards butchering them before the stunned crowd before rampaging to freedom the firearms of the guards reaped a bloody bill cutting down hundreds but the primark escaped with over two thousand of his cybernetically enhanced comrades as well as the weapons and technology liberated from the stores of the city-state the gladiators fled into the mountains where over the next several years they would destroy all armies the great and good of new Syria sent to dislodge them despite Hank Ron's leadership and his own skill as a warrior attrition hunger and mountain conditions took their toll upon the gladiator army who eventually were surrounded upon the harsh peak of fed and more by armies from across new Syria as the band prepared to sell their lives dearly they were astonished to find in their midst a mighty figure clad in gold the Emperor himself had come to new Syria he had been observing the course of the guerrilla war from orbit seeing his son and granite chief victory after victory against insurmountable odds the master of mankind offered the primarch command of the twelfth Legion a chance to live past the dawn and lead warriors cast in his own image across the Stars but an Grande refused his honor would not permit him to desert his people from the eve of obliteration and he bade the Emperor leave and permit him a good death surrounded by his fellow slaves although the Emperor acquiesce he knew that his son no matter his skill would die in the coming battle pry marks were not impervious to harm and even the Lord of lightnings own sons could perish the loss of one of his irreplaceable progeny on a backwater world under such conditions was simply unacceptable and being unable to sway his son's mind the Emperor ordered him teleported into the hold of his flagship suddenly deprived of their leader in a blaze of light the slaves despaired and proved no match for the armies arrayed against them as the Imperial flagship broke orbit the gladiators were slaughtered to a man the reunion of this primark and his genetic Sons was for the 12th harder than any other legion while the exact circumstances of the aftermath of his rescue are shadowed by dark rumour it is known that an groans rage was boundless he was transferred aboard the 12th legions battleship adamant resolve sealed within a cargo halt berserk with fury the command echelon of the Legion attempted to make contact with their gene father convinced they could affect some change in him and every single war hound who came before him was killed including Legion master Greer and many of the senior captains it took the resolve of a Centurion of the 8th assault company a warrior known as Karn to calm his Primarch sire neither yielding to the onslaught nor begging for mercy Karn related to his genetic sire through the considerable pain of the beating he was in during the exploits of the twelfth Legion and of the Great Crusade supine broken and bloody at hand groans fees the Centurions refusal to submit broke the pry marks rage and demonstrated to him that his new sons were not the honorless rabble he believed them to be and that command of the Legion was not supplication at the Emperor's behest but rather freedom to conquer the galaxy in whatever manner he's so pleased ngrams investiture in the 12th came to completion upon bode 5 world of the war hands that would remain their base of operations as the fra mark had not conquered his homeworld in the manner of his brothers primarch found his legion wanting and made sweeping changes to its practices the disciplinary procedures of the 12th known for being incredibly harsh for anistar his legion were nothing compared to what the prime mark would instigate to there a gladiator king combat was the only test of a warrior's mettle and so training beyond the most basic levels would now be as deadly to the hounds as any actual battlefield live rounds bare blades jewels to the death all were now part and parcel of life for the Legion both in and out of active duty enhancing the brutality of an already brutal force of arms where his long dead gladiator band referred to themselves as he eaters of cities and Ron now renamed his sons in their honour the twelfth Legion were the war hounds no more only the world eaters remained attempts at removing the butchers nails from his skull had proved nearly fatal to the Primarch even when the attempts were undertaken by the Emperor himself whatever Dark Age of Technology mechanisms were at the core of the nails they were now as much a part of angren as the organs the Emperor had grown for him seeing a use for them however the Primarch ordered the mechanical attendance of his legion to replicate the implants for use in baseline starties to bolster the aggression and pain tolerance of the already violent world eaters under his command early attempts were spectacular failures for the nails had been ill understood even by the savants of new Syria and many a new world eager recruit was left catatonic utterly broken in mind were simply dead despite the mortality rates the Primark was undeterred and successive study and batch implantations began to render steady improvements until the implantation was mandatory for all new recruits and retroactive surgery was rolled out for the legions veterans it may surprise some viewers of this record to know that there were few objections Karn now the equity to his father was known in conversation with his cousin authorities of other legions to have referred to the nails with no love but simply as a necessary evil through which the legion was able to feel perversely closer to their tortured Primarch in effect sharing the pain he felt every minute of every day under their Primark the worst aspects of the twelfth Legion were exacerbated to a stunning degree other legions previously wary of their bloody cousins now actively avoided fighting alongside the world eaters were possible and where cooperation was utterly necessary learned to simply let anger on and his sons have free reign over whatever was assigned to them as they would simply disobey any commands they did not feel like following anyway Roebuck Kulemin Primark of the 13th Legion ultramarines pleaded with his father to sense her the 12th after seeing them in action during the cleansing of erragadda observing with disgust that the world eaters simply built a ramp of their own corpses in order to summit the walls of the basalt Citadel and butcher its defenders why the Emperor did not is not exactly clear especially when the actions of the eighth Legion knight Lords and 17th Legion word bearers drew his direct criticism chroniclers have posited that it was out of a sense of guilt for what he had done to his son upon finding him or regret for having been unable to remove the nails from his skull whether or not the master of mankind was capable of feeling such things one can simply guess but he spoke not of his sons bloody actions and the collateral damage entailed by a world leaders deployment was simply accepted by the Imperium as a cost of their undeniable efficiency it was in this state that the Legion would find itself when they answered the summons of war master Horace strong yes with an impressive victory roll were distrusted even hated for their reckless abandon and the joy they seemed to take in meeting out their butchery but as with all such broken men in history they would find themselves well at home in the dark times that were to follow until the next record Ave Imperator gloria in excelsis tara this video would honestly not be possible without the incredible support of my subscribers on patreon all of whom I owe an outstanding debt of gratitude to if you'd like to support the show please head on over to patreon comm forward slash oculus Imperia and until then have a Imperator

Channel: Oculus Imperia

Views: 132,253

Keywords: Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Lore, Warhammer 40k Lore, Warhammer 30k, Horus Heresy, Horus Heresy Lore, Forge World, Games Workshop, Astartes, Primarchs, Space Marines, Adeptus Astartes

Id: k6nbsdYdVqo

Length: 22min 34sec (1354 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 28 2018