 To be a Paragon, one must sacrifice. We must surrender ourselves to fate and to our own abilities. If you should wish to protect the innocent, to champion the truth, to deliver upon the manifest destiny of our human species, well you had best come prepared to pay the highest of costs, for the galaxy is and has ever been a dangerous and hateful place. It can still amaze me that there remain those amongst us willing to stand against such tides, to plant their bodies in the way of such a torrent of hate and detlair. No. No further. These Paragons of all our virtues, they are to be rightfully lauded, for who amongst us can say that we have truly sacrificed, to have truly given our all for the sake of a noble and righteous cause that is higher than ourselves. The subjects of this record should forever be remembered as such, for they amongst almost all their comrades in the Collegiate Titanica embodied the virtues of the era they helped usher in like no others. They were the truest of his messengers and for that they were to pay the ultimate price. No then, this is the record of those Paragons, the true messengers of the Titanica, the legio prosaegius. The legio prosaegius was, since its inception, a child of two worlds, quite unique amongst their brethren in the Collegiate Titanica for this very reason, whereas the majority of the God-engined legions fought and operated closely with their feudal overlords in the Mechanicum of Mars, prosaegius distinguished itself quite early in the Great Crusade, with the fervour by which they adopted the secular tenets of the Emperor's Imperial Truth. The Mechanicum, majoritly comprised of ardent followers of the Machine God, extended its faith and the Imperial allowance of it to its client organisations, the Titanica included, meaning that it was not uncommon to find ardent worshippers of the Deus Mechanicus and the Omnisiah amongst the various Titan legions. Prosaegius bucked the trend, aligning itself fervently with the Emperor's atheistic philosophy, the Imperial Truth, and, uh, spurning the heritage of their Martian birth. To the engine crews of this legio, the Emperor and his Imperium represented a hope for humanity hitherto undreamed of, and his promises of galactic manifest destiny with the loftiest of all possible endeavours. The move was initially not a popular one, and won the legio little favour amongst the Synod of Mars, nor amongst the older legios, such as Mortus or Ignatum, both of whom saw their cousins as easily swayed innocents at best and close to treasonous heretics at worst. They did, however, win them very eager political allies amongst the Imperial Divisio Militaris, the overall commanding body of the Imperium's military assets. Paigned as they were perennially, with attempting to leverage the significant military might of Red Mars, while also dealing with its impenetrable web of feudal fealties, the Divisio championed the legio-presidius in both external propaganda and internal communiques, as paragons of human unity. Eager to win the allegiance of a legion of god-engines, presidius was a boon unheard of to the Imperium, and was rushed to the crusade's frontlines because of this, both as a very visible statement of early unity between Imperium and Mechanicum, and for the obviously sheer projection of force their god-engines could muster. It was upon the world of Tentrion that the legio would first make its power known. An earth-comparable planet close to Terra on stable warp corridors towards Corward, Tentrion was a haven, redolent of the age of technology, having survived the downfall of the species during the Age of Strife remarkably unblemished. Its infrastructure and population were in full command of an advanced technological base and quite advanced infrastructure and industry. Its galactic position made it a prized target for early expeditionary fleets, but the militarized world promised to mount stiff resistance, having rebuffed every early emissary of the Imperium. The regime of Tentrion, unwilling to renounce their sovereignty, claimed the emperor and the Imperium had no right upon their domain. The pond effects of the planet openly decrying the master of mankind as a tyrant worse than any old knight could have conjured. Despite the dire casualty and material cost predictions, the Great Crusade could not have been allowed to falter at such a critical point in its infancy, nor against such a vital potential conquest. The fleets of both Imperium and Mechanicum smashed in system, sweeping away enemy ships and orbital defences both, only to be met with ground armies far in excess of estimated numbers, as well as towering automated weapons platforms, building-sized constructs, each a match for an entire Exurtus imperialis regiment. The presence of engine-class opposition necessitated the deployment of the legio prestigious, and as had been the case with all post-Solar Reclamation campaigns involving Titans, up until that point, command echelons expected the devastation to be near total, resigning themselves to a campaign of extermination and annihilation that would leave the world's vaunted infrastructure and population not but ash. Where God engines walked, it was commonly known, nothing survived but drifting clouds of city dust. It was entirely expected that the legio prestigious would follow the tendencies of their bloody compatriots in the legio mortis. They did not. Instead of laying into the foe with abandon, the first grandmaster of the legio, Bohemond of Old Thair, baited the gun constructs of the Pontifex away from populated areas, using his own under-strength manapole to draw the enemy out. He wagered that the ruler would not miss such an opportunity to significantly blood the invaders, and in this he was correct. After five days of engine warfare, the Pontifex's treasured war machines were demolished, and the God engines of prestigious were triumphant, bellowing their war horns in victory. Bohemond, his warlord having sustained significant damage during the engagement, would not survive to see the Imperium's compliance extended to Tantrion, but the victory of his legio could not have been more of a success for the Imperium. Comporting himself and his crews with a self-sacrificing honor, not typically seen amongst the usually detached crews of the Colesia Titanica, the first grandmaster had spared the population of the planet, the horrors of an apocalyptic engine war, vastly improving the Imperium's image in their eyes, and to the unbridled relief of both the Divisio Militaris and the War Council, delivering a vital staging ground for future crusade operations almost intact. The propaganda victory alone was worth almost as much as the mineral and industrial wealth of Tantrion, as vidreals throughout the newfound Imperium were packed with footage of the proud engines of Prasagius, were splendid in all of the entirely secular. Finery, the Imperium could muster. Striding proudly down the conquered thoroughfares of the world cities, with crowds cheering upon their arrival, they made a fine sight indeed, and the remembrances of the time sung their praises. History records that the Emperor himself named them the deliverers of his will during the compliance ceremony, naming the legio Prasagius as the truest messengers of my grand intent. The title the legio readily adopted for the remainder of his service, and won the Divisio Militaris quickly spread far and wide. Prasagius went on to become an incredibly useful tool in the Imperium's military apparatus. Their insistence upon honorable engagement and the utter hatred they possessed for indiscriminate weapon use placed them in a significant demand as far as crusade operations went. Worlds like Tantrion existed rarely, mounting crucial targets for crusade expeditionary fleets, worlds that could be expected to mount significant resistance, but also ones the Imperium needed or wished to be delivered as intact as possible. Prasagius' reputation as his true messengers could likewise be counted upon to bolster morale in previously thought unwinnable theatres, as well as proving to the foe that they faced an honorable and just regime, not merely petty invaders, bloodthirsty annihilators, or tin pot despots. This would often mean that the legio Prasagius was placed in extraordinarily challenging scenarios, especially since other Titan legios, unimpressed or distrustful of the true messengers for their vaunted status within the Imperium, would wield their political clout to avoid. Should the crews of Prasagius have ever felt spurred by this, they gave no indication of it. In fact, quite the opposite, as they appeared to relish any opportunity to bring the Emperor's truth to the unenlightened, and to do so with all the martial distinction they had become known for. The true messengers routinely found themselves assigned to vanguard expeditionary fleets, often fighting alongside the 17th Legion Imperial heralds, later the word-bearers, and 13th Legion war-born, later the ultramarines, as both of these Astartes' forces had additionally developed reputations for being both Imperial truth standard-bearers and deliverers of fully intact and highly compliant worlds in their own fashion. From the clawing dust wastes of Akiron to the macro-cities of Benthur, they fought with the fury of the zealot, tempered with the disposition of the knight. Engine crews developing a targeting solution regimen and fire-controlled discipline second to none amongst the legios of the Caligia. Often, this level of self-control came at a high price, both in the blood of their crews and the bodies of their engines. Yet the true messengers never once balked at this, deeming such losses as the red price for humanity's manifest destiny. Initially, it never truly hindered their overall operational efficacy, as a divisio-militarist lent heavily upon the Mechanicum to ensure the legio was constantly and promptly resupplied with all they could need to continue being the engine heralds of his word. This was, however, not to last. The Mechanicum and the Caligia responded bitterly. An intense rivalry developed between Prasagius and the legios Mortus and Serta Vora, both of whom had victory tallies equal to or in excess of the true messengers, but ones stained with both dark rumor and verifiable evidence of unnecessary massacres over eager genocides and generally wanton destruction. These legios and others like them wore their dark fame as a badge of honor, decrying Prasagius as simpletons unwilling to get their hands dirty with the true and terrible cost of war. Worse still, they spurned what they saw as the legio's moral superiority and almost traitorous relationship with the Imperium, as further evidence of dereliction of duty, for were not the engines of the Omnisire, the machine god's destructive potency incarnate, were not Prasagius' heretics for denying the full devastating potential of the weapons they wielded. Such comments had rarely more weight than being unsubtle and slanderous boasts between princeps and official receptions, but in the background, Mortus and Serta Vora wielded their political strength to isolate the true messengers further from their brethren, pushing them to the forefront of the bloodiest and most brutal battles a crusade could throw at the Imperium. While each time the true messengers emerged unbowed and unbroken, the sheer rate of attrition mounted, a combination of both their relentless pursuit of honorable combat and the viciousness of the foes that they faced. Worse still, the long arm of their rivals extended deep into the feudal web of Mechanicum Hierarchy, tying up replacement engines in morasses of red tape and barely acknowledged legal precedents, forcing Prasagius to send wounded engines to distant forges for repairs. Having emerged into Galicia Titanica as the scions of the mighty Legiogrophonicus, Prasagius had initially been graded as a primus strength legio, with the standing ability of fielding over 300 engines, many amongst them the heaviest of classes. Warlord Carnivore and Mirage class god engines formed a sizable amount of true messenger numbers, including Imperator superclass engines too. Their reputation had seen them subdivided into hundreds of separate maniples and demi-maniples, as a divisio-militarist sought to spread their image and capabilities as far and wide amongst the crusade as possible. This, in combination with the machinations of others, bled the legion dry. By 000 M31, Prasagius had been reduced to a third of its initial engine complement, staggering losses for any legio, yet won the true messengers had borne with their customary stoicism. Grim resolve, however, could not prevent the undeniable truth that the now tertius-grade legio had lost its combat efficacy, and risked annihilation should its admittedly admirable commitment to ever being in the crusade's van continue. Help would come from an unexpected quarter, however. Envoy's from the primarch, Robute Gulliman, of the 13th legion Ultramarines, brought to the princeps of Prasagius an offer in their dire times. A new home, and a new role. Eager to both bolster the defences of his rapidly burgeoning realm of Ultramar, and to reward what he saw as sterling service, Gulliman had prevailed upon the magi of the Forge world of Gantz to fully refit and resupply the true messengers, being the only true standing Forge within his sphere of influence. It was a fortuitous bargain, one of a typically Gulliman fashion of both parity and caniness. Gantz desired to shock the yoke of its obligations to the distant but powerful Forge of Akatran, and its bellicose legio destructor. Gulliman desired to bring both the magi under his wing and shore up Ultramar's defences, and Prasagius sorely needed a safe harbor. It was upon Gantz that the legio would spend the next six years standard of its existence, withdrawn almost in full from the crusade frontlines to repair, refit, and renew itself as the guardians of their newfound home. They were, perhaps predictably, not totally ground bound to the Forge itself, as the warrior spirit of the legio's cruise could not abide such idle secondment as Praetorians to an albeit up-and-coming, but nevertheless very safe Forge. It was rare indeed in those years that the task force of Gulliman's Ultramarines would venture forth from Ultramar without engine class support from the true messengers, and the titan barks bearing the god engines of the legio would often ply the lanes of Gulliman's realm, lest Xenos foes attempt to penetrate its borders during times of relative peace. On such event, the Herod migration to Prantium in 005 M31 was repulsed largely due to the legio's timely intervention, their usual restraint abandoned to blood themselves against the hideous alien foe. The true messengers merged from their sequesterment in Ultramar, the legio renewed, returned through the efforts of the Magi of Gantz to a full primus grade status, and now renowned throughout Ultramar for their valor and heroism. Their issues with distant petulant legios seemed a thing of the past, as Gantz's prosperity had only increased under their watch, and now unshackled from the political concerns of their mechanic and brethren, and with the support of, as ardent a figure, as the Primarch Gulliman, the future of the legio looked brighter than ever. When the warmaster, Horus Lupacal, Bade Gulliman muster at the fresh colony world of Calth, prosagius honored their Ligelord's call with Zeal, for what true servant of the Imperium would not relish such an opportunity as it presented. To fight alongside not only the 13th Legion, but the 17th and their Primarch, Lorgar, Aurelion, in annihilating the hated greenskins, and indeed to do so with honor alongside their erstwhile rivals in the legio Sertivora, to heal the wounds of old emnities through victorious combat, what could possibly be finer? The true messengers made full wake for Calth in full legio strength, preparing to usher in a new era not only for their legacy, but for Ultramar, the Imperium, and the Emperor. It would seem fate, the warmaster, and the legio Sertivora would tragically have other plans in store for them, until such a time as I can bear to relate that tale. 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.