 The eras of the Imperium were an age of discovery, and all of the sinister and occluded paradoxes that came with it. The galaxy was a dark and dangerous place, a volume riven and wrecked after the millennia of terror and destruction that the Age of Strife had unleashed upon it. A volume riven and wrecked after the millennia of terror and destruction that the Age of Strife had unleashed upon it. Everywhere in these ruins there lurked horrors and mysteries in equal measure, but hope too after a fashion. The surviving colonies of humanity that had outlasted old night now found themselves a subject of a questing emperor of terror who sought to reunite them with their species. The stories of these reunions are legion, and no two are alike. In some worlds the Imperium Aquila was raised high with triumphant adulation as the populace embraced the coming Imperium with open arms and blessed relief. While on others there were those who denied the writ of terror, and for their obstinacy felt the tread of the legion as a startes and the wrath of their bolters. These are the polar points of a spectrum, and contained within that spectrum are uncountable tales that make up those unique years of Crusade and Imperium. For the Mechanicum of Mars the situation was no different, but the examples, perhaps even stranger. A far less centralized society than the Imperium it was partnered to, Mechanicum's web of loyalties bound by common culture and creed made reuniting Lost Forge worlds a more difficult prospect in many cases, and with one forge in particular, the tale would be one that tested the boundaries of the era, and the darker era that followed it, in ways unprecedented. Herein is presented that tale. Know then that this is a record of Ocedentalum Thule, the last port on the edge of the ever blackness and of its mysteries, paradoxes, and heresies, the history of the Zana Incursion. The mystery of Zana is an old one, older in fact than the Imperium itself. Its first recorded instance within Imperial Record came from essentially simultaneously logged reports from multiple rogue trader expeditions that were forging through millennia the defunct warp corridors towards the Galactic West. These ran the typical gamut of such reports, they were vastly contradictory and frequently hyperbolic, rogue traders being what they are, speaking of everything from a singular isolated human outpost amid the darkness of the void to an empire of machines spanning several systems, nay, a sector, nay, several sectors. On one hand it was a forbidden domain of dark imaginings wreathed with all the techno-terrors of old night, while on the other it was a beacon of progress and humanity holding at bay the predations of wild space, ruled over either by beings recognizably Martian in aspect or deathless cyber things of utterly unknowable provenance, depending, of course, on which Flotilla filed which report. The only thing that any of these accounts had to tie them together in any capacity was the name, a single word, Zana. This sole point of similarity set off identifiable marker tags within adeptus administratum and divisio militaris logistical processing, demanding the delegation of more resources to its investigation. A combined report was prepared and filed, having slavishly combed through the reels of rogue trader's statements to establish the following, somewhere in the very western edges of the galactic reaches, technologically advanced power existed, that was either human or had once been, and one that stood a high probability of being a hitherto unknown or undiscovered forge offshoot of Martian colonization efforts. Both prior to and during the Age of Strife, Mars had sent many a colony ship into the furthest reaches of the galaxy to establish worlds in her own image. Prior to the coming of old night, this had been led by the Martian regime of the dark age of technology, replete as they were with all the greatest and most terrible scientific imaginings of that benighted epoch. During the Age of Strife, these expeditions had been altogether more perilous, formed of Mechanicum of Mars' generation ships cast forth into the chaotic warp, blindly stumbling along with millennia-old astro-navigation charts and equipment, with neary and navigator to spare amongst them. Great Crusade, Imperium, in partnership with Mechanicum, was intent on reuniting these lost forges with greater humanity, and just as the records of the worlds born of Terra were impossible to verify, so too were those of Mars. Only scraps of knowledge remained of pre-stripe Martian colonies, and those born of strife-era Mechanicum efforts, well, besides a few notable exceptions, it was impossible to even ascertain if the colony ships that had been sent out had survived their very first warp jumps. Mechanicum were exceptions, Gryphon, for instance, but by and large, the fate of these expeditions remained unknown. Xana could be ancient beyond reckoning, or born of just such a lost ship of Mars, not a millennia ago. What form it had become would be anyone's guess, and certainly the rogue traders were of no help in that particular regard. The quest to discover the truth of Xana proceeded in much the same manner as the Crusade's efforts to establish links with other rumoured lost worlds of humanity, but it must be noted that it received apparently significant attention from two parties worthy of discussion, namely the Emperor of Mankind and the Fabricator General of the Mechanicum. In the case of the latter, it has been suggested the sheer hyperbole of those early reports captured their attention, for often was it that some kernel of truth lay behind the outlandish claims of rogue traders. While Mars very much doubted a scion of itself occupied sectors worth of space, it certainly seemed likely that this Xana was a powerful and independent polity, and as they had no record of its existence at all, one who may contain a fabulous wealth of technological and scientific information and resources. The Emperor, his motivations can only be speculated upon. Perhaps he thought that in Xana, he may find a lead on one of his lost sons, the Primarchs, or was worried that this realm was one that could potentially rival in power his budding Imperium. It is known that, unlike other cases, he personally dispatched several deep-void scout ships. Both the efforts of Mars and Terra, Emperor and Fabricator General were seemingly for naught, however. Their expeditions either did not return, or did so empty-handed, for decades on end. More pressing concerns with Crusade affairs, as well as more promising leads for more verifiable realms, would ultimately begin to bleed about attention and resources away from the search for Xana, until, in 843 and 30, a chance encounter would shift the course of history. Ironically, it was thanks to another rogue trader, one Mamzell Casolida of the D'Aniassi dynasty. Finding herself fleeing from a devastating encounter with the flotilla of Fra'al Xenos Corsairs, D'Aniassi recorded three massive and apparently automated warships on her all-specs logs upon the edge of the intergalactic gulf. Fearing death would claim her and her ship, D'Aniassi was surprised to receive hails instead of gunfire. The barks offered aid to the stricken rogue trader, bearing in addition both the greetings and offer of parlay between the sovereign forge domain of Xana and the emperor of the Imperium. Born by the warships to the forge itself, D'Aniassi and her galleon were repaired and refitted with what she described as stunning time and was treated with utmost courtesy by the rulers of a world she termed a beacon on the shore of night. Xana, by the rogue trader's careful and meticulous account, was a world in orbit around a supermassive gas giant. The system's mainline star was in good health, but apparently was set alone in the void. There was nothing astrocortography would dare term a local constellation neighbor in the nearby volume for hundreds of light years. D'Aniassi's dubbing of the world as a beacon was apt. Xana was an island perched on the very precipice of the galaxy. Beyond there lay only the cold darkness of the intergalactic gulf and all its unknowable horrors. Quite how the lords of Xana came to know of the emperor, despite this being their first contact, we shall never know and serves as the introductory mystery, shall we say, of that strange world. The initial negotiations between the Imperium and Xana were perfectly cordial, but on the imperial side clouded by a deep and immediate suspicion for many of those involved. The Forge World, already a paradox since its name was first logged, only proved to be more so as information trickled in upon it. Of course, the reunion and apparently good faith reunion at that, with any lost world of humanity, was a moment to be celebrated. But Xana represented a paradox that left some far too ill at ease to dismiss their fears. The world was recognizably Mechanicum Dogma aligned, worshipping the machine god in clear synchronicity with the religion of Red Mars. This established its birth as sometime during the Age of Strife, significantly after the Mechanicum had unified Mars and had begun sending expeditionary ships into the galaxy at large. However, unlike, say, Calibrax, it was no outpost of hardy settlers clinging to survival, and unlike Lucius or Gryphon, it was not verifiably arc-established in that it had maintained contact with Mars throughout the Age of Strife. Initial estimates indeed appeared to point to Xana outstripping Lucius and Gryphon both, in terms of its output and establishment. It was clearly a forge whose roots were deep and old. It had leveraged its technology to rearrange the very orbital alignment of its solar system, ensnaring planetary and demi-planetary bodies into the planet's own gravitic well through means Mechanicum Logistechs were furiously speculating over. The host, or central forge, had allowed newer forge fanes to spring up both planetside in orbit and elsewhere in the system, each one more mature than almost any other single arc-established forge. It had its own navy of warships of an unknown design, not to mention a host of automata ships, like those encountered by the rogue trader Dianne Assi, that had many within the Mechanicum immediately concerned for the independence of those machine minds. It had even created its own Titan Legion, recognizably based upon the precepts of the Martian triad Feren Morgulum, whose disposition of god-engines placed them in the primus-grade category of the Colesia Titanica, alongside the likes of the legios Mortus, or Poseidius, or even Ignatum. In summation, as was whispered amongst Imperial and Mechanicum negotiators both, Xana did not make sense. Absolutely no record of its foundation was either found upon Mars or was provided by the Xanians, nor would the Magi of that world confirm how old the forge was. Even the timeframe involved, sheer establishment and advancement of Xana, it was, if not an impossibility, than an almost absurd improbability. Powerful realms of humanity had been encountered in their plentitude, but those had been so divergent from the cultures and creeds of Terra and Mars as to almost be separate from the human species. Xana, in such immaculate alignment with the Martian norm, yet seemingly in possession of a history and status that would be more at home in a society born of the dark age of technology, raised innumerable questions and was answering none. As one Divisio Militaris official noted, Xana is a gift simply too perfect to be trusted. It is either our greatest good fortune in these times of war, or it is a serpent lying in wait to slay us. My mind perceives the former, but my soul warns of the latter. Had the Magi of Xana been more willing to address these concerns, perhaps history would have taken a different course. But alas, this was far from the case. They were cordial, yes, but not what could be considered friendly, per se. Theirs was a guarded distance maintained in those early years, a clearly maintained barrier that the Xanian Mechanicum kept between them and all outsiders. Their massive military capabilities, they explained as a necessity born of years of Xenos predations. While their apparent lack of clear origin was, so they claimed, the result of solar storms of unique severity that had caused irreparable damage to their oldest data looms and archival macro stacks. Ambassadors from the fabricator general politely asked to examine what archives a forge currently possessed, and when these polite requests were politely denied, escalated these to demands that were equally sternly rebuffed. Negotiations on just how Xana would enter the Imperial fold were still ongoing, and none from the mysterious forge would cede an iota of their sovereignty to the Lords of Sol until such a time as the Accords were concluded. At no point did they display any form of hostility towards the Great Crusade, quite the opposite, appearing in all stated aspects to celebrate their reunion with humanity. But any negotiator worth their salt could see that the threat was implicit. Xana did not desire war, but should they be backed into the proverbial corner, none would deny that hostilities would be inevitable. Younger or ill-experienced Acolytes may question how this is possible, for was it not the avowed policy of the early Imperium, submit or face destruction? Was it not the Emperor's choice offered to all humanity? His way was the only way, and to gain say it was annihilation itself. The situation was often far less cleanly cut than the iterators or their propaganda reels may have implied. The offer of clemency and integration, or invasion and obliteration, was only presented to foes of the Imperium that they could easily best, or reasonably best. Essentially, it was one given from a position of strength, from where victory could be assured within a decent cost. Sondry examples of this occur within official record, with the first being the Mechanicum itself, whose integration into the Emperor's realm came with the Treaty of Olympus and not the Legion as a startes on Mars' red soil. The second being Xana, with its galactic isolation, massive military disposition, formidable navy, and, frankly, impossible to assess technological capabilities, threatened to be a campaign that some within the Divisional Militarist estimated would be the most significant armed engagement in the Western Crusades history, potentially one of the costliest the early Imperium had ever endured. The lack of insight over the capabilities of the Legion, which forced cost-benefit estimates to be placed as high as scaling would allow. An entire Astartes Legion would be needed, that much was clear, as well as not one but several Titan Legios, since the war would invariably be fought on an engine scale against a primus great legio of Xana's own. The Divisional Militarist voices added to this that preferably more than one Astartes Legion should be called upon, and an estimate of perhaps one million troops from the Exertus Imperialis should be supplied for ancillary combat support. Even if an imperial victory could be carried in those days, none would say with certainty when it would be, and if the resulting conquest would, at the end of however many years or decades of war, be even worth the struggle in the first place. This was simply a conflict the Imperium could ill afford, if it could afford it at all, and now that their existence had been revealed to Xana, any obvious delay in integration would clearly be read by the isolated forge as a prelude to invasion, forcing both sides into a game of arms race brinksmanship that would only delay an inevitable conflagration. Negotiation then was the only option, and it is highly likely the Xanian Magi were well aware of the favorable position they were in to leverage whatever they wanted from the clearly eager but wary Imperium. After a tense several years of negotiations, the Treaty of Compliance was signed between the Lords of Xana and the representatives of the Emperor, with the approval but barely disguised anger of the fabricator general. It was one of, if not the most generous series of accords signed by the early Imperium, remaining a curious artifact of those halcyon times even to this day. Xana would retain its sovereignty within the Empire, falling under the right and jurisdiction of the Mechanicum and its diffuse Byzantine web of futile obligations. However, its secrets would be its own. There was no legal compulsion for Xana to divest its technological and scientific knowledge to Mars, explaining the wrath of the fabricator general for having been cheated out what he no doubt desired as a kingly prize. Xana was free to conduct its secrets and affairs, provided it paid due diligence to the precepts and restrictions upon technological development as demanded by the machine god and emperor both. Although the question of how this would be enforced was not directly addressed, something of a diplomatic massaging one imagines. In return for this, Xana would arm and supply the great crusade and provide harbour and garrison repair and refit for all expeditionary fleets that either requested or required it. The accords were, for the Imperium, incredibly well timed. No sooner had they been concluded, and the great crusade would encounter its most devastating conflict yet, the rang down xenocides. The tagmata of Xana, devised of magi of the local order reductor, whole legions of cybernetica automata, and supported by two newly formed titan legios, Volchurum and Caedianos, raised from the massive god engine strength of the forge, joined the first legion dark angels in the fires of that first xenocide. That the Imperium survived this war, as well as the two xenocides to come, is thanks in no small part to both the forces of Xana and its productive might, as arms, armour and armaments all flowed from the forge to arm the desperate imperial forces holding back the Xenos tides. Not only was the Imperium saved, but canny operators within it noted that, thanks to the conflict, the Empire had a much greater idea of the capabilities their new ally possessed, not to mention the fact that the xenocides had bled and bloodied the forge of a large part of its initial military disposition. Though it would enter the latter half of the great crusade, a diminished remnant of its former strength, Xana nevertheless retained an almost legendary quality across the Imperium. Its secretive magi, its galactic isolation, its apparently peerless technology, all yet continued in both popular imagination and reality both, but with that original independence retained through absolute and total observance to the stipulation of the Treaty of Compliance. Rumours, as they are wont to do, persisted, however. Whispers of sinister experiments, forbidden research and hidden heresies conducted out there in the dark upon that island in the void. But given the lack of ease of scrutiny, they remained just rumours. Clipsed too very visibly by the quite evident macabreities of the magi of say Serum or Vos. In this way, did Xana persist? Comfortably isolated, perfectly diligent, quietly distrusted. In the years immediately preceding the heresy, subsequent to the Daven incident, it is known that Horace Lupercow, Warmaster of the Imperium, dispatched agents galaxy-wide in order to secure allies for his upcoming insurrection. The Warmaster was a being of towering strategic intelligence and knowing that all such entreaties were able to be made under the cover of total and utter trust in his loyalties. These agents, however, did not appear to reach Xana before the Istvan atrocity and the outbreak of hostilities between traitor and loyalist forces. The ruling polity of Xana, the Vodian Consistory, appeared initially to not take a single side. When pressed, their only statement was that the heresy was an internal matter for the great crusade's military, and as per their remit under the Treaty of Compliance, it would continue to supply the Imperium while retaining independence of political sovereignty and taking no direct involvement. What Xanian tagmata were abroad across the Galactic reaches were quietly withdrawn to their home system where possible, although the same could not be said for the maniples of the legios Volchurum and Cydianos, nor especially the forces of Night Household Malonex, engines of whom had been present during the scouring of Prospero and were believed even now to be at the van of the Warmaster's forces. Shipments and the supply chain from the forge were initially uninterrupted despite the news of Horace's treachery, continuing to ferry the wealth of Xana to both loyalist and traitor forces. These, however, began to dwindle, even before the coming of the ruined storm, until finally they ceased. There was no imperial reason for this. The rogue traders and chartist captains, as well as scattered loyalist elements in the Western fringes, reported no war-proof tumult at was afflicting the Galactic Corps and East. Repeated demands were made from officials loyal to either Emperor or Warmaster, and even those within the rapidly sundering Mechanicum II for the confirmation of Xana's loyalty to their cause, all of which rebuked with the same denial of involvement and the same cold courtesy of claiming the heresy was an imperial internal affairs matter. Around this time, it was reported a macro-arc convoy sworn to terror disappeared in Xana's near local volume, as well as a rogue trader flotilla bearing the eye of Horace. Neither were losses of any critical worth, but they were noted for the location. It is unknown whether either side decided to press the Vodian Consistory for confirmation of warp readings pointing to immaterial issues that would have destroyed these fleets, but one suspects that if they had, the answer would have been predictable. The first move by Xana, that was in any way overt, would not take place until late 008 M30, some two and a half years after the Dropside Massacre, when a tagmata in the forges' ashen bone panoply intervened in a battle on a mining world known as Gilder's Grave on the western edges of the Vicodax Sector. These forces drove back the trader-aligned naval blockade that had isolated the world with stunning rapidity, only to turn their guns on its loyalist defenders, massacring them to a man and looting the entire planet of its extracted resources, notably all of its excavated rare earth minerals as well as the entirety of its macro-engineering machinery, all before disappearing into the void. This pattern would be repeated on numerous occasions, Xanian tagmata performing calculated raids on loyalist and trader holdouts of value, ideally in the middle of ongoing conflicts where they would be least expected, only to disappear back to their home system. They appeared to be utterly uninterested in claiming any territory outside of the Xana system, merely in acquiring resources. Although to what use they would be, only speculation could be drawn. It is noteworthy that Imperial assayers predicted that Xana had long before contact run down its stock of raw materials, on the planet's side and was somewhat dependent on incoming natural resources to maintain productivity. Either way, the higher echelons of both the trader and loyalist commands draw two conclusions. Either Xana was uninterested in anything save its own affairs and was indeed avowedly neutral, or it was simply biding its time in order to give a clear victor in the conflict a chance to emerge. It presented a problem, yes, but also an opportunity. Both sides dedicated probe expeditions in order to render more information. Mysterious Forge was an issue for both. It was true, but it was a prize, nevertheless. Its sinister reputation and storied past, not least its vital intervention in the Rangdan Xenocides, rendered it for both sides a potentially deadly ally and an equally deadly prospect of an enemy. Reports from the expeditions clearly revealed what Terra and Horus had feared and expected. Dozens of macro carriers were extant in the asteroid belt that ringed the gas giant Xana-1, and many more likely were concealed within its rocky ring. Between them and the Forge world of Xana-2, there was a constant traffic of cargo loaders. This massive military buildup could be utilized for one of three outcomes. By the Vodian Consistory itself, they were to present to whichever side they had decided to ship this great boon to. After all, for all the storage capabilities these conveyors possessed, it appeared for all the world that whatever was being contained within was being readied for delivery to a prospective client. Both sides moved quickly upon this revelation. On Terra, the Praetorian, Rogaldorn, Primarch of the Seventh Legion, Imperial Fists, issued a very publicly visible declaration. Xana was Tratoris Perditia, blast to the Imperium and Loyalist Mechanicum and would exist evermore under the penalty of death for refusing to declare for Terra and Mars. At the same time, another more official Imperial dispatch was sent via the agents of Malkador, the Sigillite, offering the Vodian Consistory, Clemency, from Dorn's Rit, should Xana pledge, however loudly or quietly they desired, for the Emperor. And for whatever arms and armaments they were stockpiling to be delivered immediately and with all haste to Terra, to serve in the Praetorian's fortification of Sol and the surrounding segmentum. Warmaster, however, took a far subtler route. In a stroke of canny political operating, Horace did not dispatch one of his true Mechanicum emissaries. These magi who had declared for his banner saw themselves as the true lords of the Red Planet. And while their aims for the future of their polity were far from what the Mechanicum had been under its partnership with Terra, Horace reasoned that the coldness the Martian envoys to Xana had been received with in the past was reason enough to try a different route. The plenipotentiary of the Warmaster was a Davenite Lodge Priest, one of those strange animalistic cultists that had borne Horace through his recovery upon that fell world and in dire retrospect, were clearly devotees of the ruinous powers of the Dark Pantheon. Identified by panicked loyalist agents as one Unvecar noon, he was quite unlike what any would have expected, a bizarre barbarian looking individual bedecked with feathers and bones. Belying his appearance, however, his words were canny, civilized and above all, honeyed. In contrast with the agents of the Sigillite, he did not make any demands, only offers. This was no stick, like the Declaration of Dorn. It was only a carrot. Unvecar noon offered boons. It was a tactic often leveraged by the Warmaster in his dealings with the Mechanicum. Just as his Primarch brothers and elements of the Legion as a startes had been one to his banner by their various displeasures and hatreds of aspects of the Imperium and its rule, so too did Horus exploit the grievances of the Mechanicum forges that were historically at odds with Mars. Cyclothraith and Serum, for instance, are perfect examples, worlds and systems won by Horus by offering them independence of rule and experimentation free from the restrictions yoked upon them by the Red Planet. In many ways, the diffuse and fractious Mechanicum made this a far easier task than the same amongst the Imperium, what with its complex web of feudalism being no difficult thing to sunder with promises of less responsibilities and more freedom. Unvecar noon proffered such freedom to the Lords of Zanna, pointing to the crimes committed against them by the Imperium with its tithes and demands. The losses the Tagmata Zanna had endured fighting the Emperor's enemies and the diligence of how they had supplied the Imperium, but the lack of gratitude the Terra bade towards them. Under Horus's new Imperium, the Emissary promised, the accords Zanna would be allied under would be far more to their liking, but none of the ignorant meddling of Martian law were the heavy-handed bans the Emperor had placed upon their research and development. All the secrets of science they wished to uncover would be theirs to play with, Horus's envoy promised, just so long as the forge would supply the Warmaster in his struggle to oust the tyrannical Emperor. The details of the new accords were, however, far more complicated in their establishment, and it was confirmable that the Vodian Consistory, even after an agreement in implication had been reached with the agents of the Warmaster, continued in bad faith or at least opportunism, to liaise with the Emissaries of the Sigilite, playing both sides for seemingly as long as possible. However, the die had been cast. Zanna's future was more clearly aligned with the freedom offered by this Davenite Priest, and in a stroke redolent of ancient contracts, this new era for the forge would be sealed with an exchange of gifts. Of course, the full might of Xanian industry would be rendered unto Horus, as well as the bulk of the armaments the forge had been stockpiling, but in a stroke that surprised observers, the Consistory announced its intention to deliver to the Warmaster a truly unique gift, or rather, three of them, a trio of Ordinatus. The classification Ordinatus is a term reserved by the Mechanicum for the most powerful land-based weapons platforms they were capable of maintaining and developing, typically mounted on massive tracked motility carriages and shielded to almost impervious degrees against outside attack. An Ordinatus is a weapon whose power eclipses all others, beyond those mounted on a kilometers-long spacecraft. Ordinati took no consistent pattern. It was a designation and a class rather than a nomad of rule. Weaponry could take the form of matter cyclone projectors, rad conflagrators, or magna beams, but what united them was their sheer potency and destructive potential. These devices were city slaughterers and engine slayers, creations capable of turning the tide of battle with a single shot or bringing down even the mightiest god engines of the Titan legions, whose power they often outclassed. Ordinati of the Primaris grade were things ancient indeed, unique creations of the dark age of technology whose artifice was lost to time and whose rights of maintenance were a secret known only to a scant few. Ordinati of the Minoris grade were only Minoris in comparison to the un-eclipsable power of the Primaris grade. To even dub them, Minoris denigrates the potential for civilization-ending annihilation they carried. Their manufacture during the years of the great crusade were reserved to only the most advanced of forge worlds, steeped in ancient and secret knowledges. And even in this case, the creation was a process of decades, a painstakingly difficult process fraught with danger and undertaken rarely. This then was the Boon Zana was to present to Horus. Three Ordinati's eulatours, battle ready and carrying sonic destructor cannons that surpassed in lethality any single device in the entire traitor arsenal. Even the diamantine siege weapons bequeathed in ignorance by the lion to 4th Legion Primarch Pertorabo prior to the drop-side massacre. The gift was kingly indeed, a staggering statement on the part of Zana and one whose motivations must be examined further. One is of the mind that such a move was almost certainly a stab in the side of Mars and, more particularly, her fabricator general, Kelbor Hale. Sworn to the Warmaster for his own aims, Hale had retained every single Ordinatus he controlled and that was controlled by his Mechanicum Phyftems and Satrapies. Releasing to the Warmaster only what devices, automata or tagmata he deemed acceptable. With this trio, Zana made a move unlike any other Mechanicum polity had and likely did so to seek to supplant or weaken the fabricator general in the eyes of the Warmaster and to become the preeminent forge to be relied upon once Horus' new Imperium was birthed. The handover of the Ordinatei was to be conducted with full ceremonial majesty. Named Nepothax, Mithrax and Asherax after ancient Terran divinities, the weapons would be first demonstrated to the Warmaster's chosen emissary on the dead moon of Zana to Siphony, a war world utilized by the Magi of the Forge as weapons and technology testing grounds. The envoy in question would this time, now 009 M30, be no priest of Daven but a member of the Sons of Horus themselves. Raxhal Coridon, captain within the elite Catulan Reavers of the legions first company was a bloody figure who had won much a claim for his butchering of his former Astartes brothers during the purging of loyalist elements on Istvan III. Coridon's status had only increased following the dropside massacre, becoming quite the rising star within the legion for his efficacy in leading traitor compliance actions across segmentum obscurus. He was known to carry the favor of the Warmaster with a pride that equaled his brutal efficiency and was clearly selected for the role of emissary for both the prestige he represented as a member of the legion's first company but also for the sheer violence he implied by his very existence. Both of these were to be reinforced by the vessel that bore Coridon to the Forge world itself. The Geryon-class Grand Cruiser named Kiketrace Tyrannus seized as a prize from the Imperium during the Battle of Port Moor. Her hull, previously a finely wrought artifice of white and gold, was now scoured black by the fires of war that the sons of Horus and Coridon specifically had flung her might into. A fitting symbol for the once fine warships fall from grace at the hands of her new masters. Within her escort flotilla was born four Isos-class fleet tenders, armed transports within whose holds was held the gift of the Warmaster for the Vodian Consisterery. The dead and destroyed of Istvan itself and scores of other battlefields that had felt the wrath of the sons of Horus. Tuzana, the Warmaster, presented nothing less than the knowledge of the legion as Astartes, torn to pieces shredded to wreckage but with all the secrets of the emperor's gene craft and artifice there for the Magi to pick apart like carrion birds. There was no collection of detritus. It was lore of a priceless quantity, a feast for inquiring minds now unshackled from the rules that had previously bound them. It was an absolute statement of the new paradigm Tuzana would occupy in partnership with Horus Lupercal. Yet, as history would so often have it, this was not to be the end of the story. Revelations unexpected lay in Tuzana's future. But for that tale to be complete, one must retire for now. Until such a time as I return, Ave Imperator, Gloria and Excelsis Terra. This video and this channel were made possible thanks to the very kind donations and support from my Patreon subscribers. If you'd like to help support the channel, head on over to patreon.com slash Oculus Imperia. If you'd like to receive more updates about the channel and any future videos, you can contact me or follow me on Twitter at Oculus Imperia. Otherwise, please like, subscribe, comment, let me know your feedback. And as ever, thank you very much for watching.