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Torghun Khan

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Torghun Khan was a member of the White Scars during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy.

Biography

Born Haren Svensellen in Terra's Scandinavian region, Haren dreamed of joining the Luna Wolves and had a great reverence for their Primarch, Horus. However, due to his cadre of aspirants passing more candidates than their target, Haren was reassigned to an under-strength legion, the White Scars, and his dreams of glory in Horus' Legion were shattered. While he eventually accepted his place in the White Scars, and took a new name - Torghun - from his Primarch's homeworld of Chogoris, he never lost his admiration for Horus.[1a]

Eventually he became Khan of the Brotherhood of the Moon. Hakeem, also a Terran, served under him during a punitive operation against the rebellious world of Urj, which had been conquered by the White Scars 20 years previous. The Brotherhood was then ordered to assist a contingent of Luna Wolves let by Verulam Moy in conquering the Tarschi of the Tarsch Belt. Torghun and Hakeem did their best to allay Moy's reluctance at accepting the help of the V Legion, and changed battle tactics from hit and run to take and hold, a fighting style that the Luna Wolves held in higher regard. The battle went well, and in the post action celebration, Moy and Hakeem invited Torghun to join a warrior lodge society.[2]

During the Chondax Campaign, Torghun became a close comrade of Shiban Khan.[1b] By the time the Legion left Chondax, the lodges within the White Scars had begun to make moves to force their Primarch Jaghatai Khan to side with Horus.[1b] Torghun assisted Hasik Noyan-Khan in taking control of the White Scars fleet while the Great Khan was investigating on Prospero.[1c] The conspiracy was uncovered by Shiban, who led his Brotherhood of the Storm aboard the Swordstorm. On orders of Hasik, Torghun and his forces battled Shiban's boarding party. Torghun was reluctant through the entire ordeal but he genuinely believed that siding with Horus was the only way to preserve the Imperium.[1d] When Jaghatai made it back to his fleet, Torghun, Hasik, and other pro-Horus conspirators Goghal Khan and Hibou Khan willingly surrendered themselves. Held as a prisoner by his own Legion thereafter, Torghun eventually joined the ranks of the Sagyar Mazan.[1e]

Four years after the events on Prospero, Torghun was one of the few remaining Sagyar Mazan and its highest-ranking survivor, leading near-suicidal raids against traitor forces without support from his own Legion. Torghun had embraced his sentence of atonement through death with honor, and having seen the depths to which the traitor legions had fallen, felt that his own punishment was by comparison "reward beyond price."[3a] when Jaghatai Khan called for a rendezvous of the Legion at Dark Glass he answered the call despite the pleas of his subordinates to ignore it. After an acrimonious reunion with the bitter Shiban Khan, where his former brother branded him an eternal traitor, Torghun found his ultimate chance for atonement during the ensuing Battle of Catallus. By the Khagan's command, Torghun led the remaining Sagyar Mazan aboard the abandoned Swordstorm in a feint designed to trap Mortarion aboard the doomed vessel and allow for his own Legion to escape into the Webway. After setting the Swordstorm's engine to overload, Torghun was slain by Mortarion himself; the primarch noted that he seemed to be joyful as he died.[3b]

Although Torghun had nearly been killed by Shiban at their reunion, Shiban's subsequent battle saw the shedding of much of the bitterness that had clouded him since the insurrection four years prior. He regretted his treatment of Torghun, but was comforted by the knowledge that he had not died alone.[3c] After the Legion successfully returned to Terra, Shiban made his way to Torghun's hometown, where he met the last surviving member of the Svensellen family, a distant descendant of Torghun's brother, and presented her with Torghun's sword. Thereafter, during the Siege of Terra, he adopted Torghun's battle cry, "No backwards step," as his own.[4]

Sources