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Lorgar

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Lorgar - Word Bearers Primarch as a daemon prince.

Lorgar

The Primarch Lorgar vanished from the gene-labs on Luna while still an infant, along with the other nineteen Primarchs. How or why he disappered is uncertain, but it is known that he was found on a feudal planet named Colchis. The infant Lorgar was discovered by followers of the predominant religion on the world, the Covenant, and was raised amongst them. Studying within a temple of the Covenant, Lorgar quickly became a devout preacher, his skill in oratory and the power of his charisma winning him many followers. However, as Lorgar grew in standing amongst the people, members of the Covenant began to grow jealous of his popularity.

Lorgar's youth was plagued by visions of a mighty warrior in gleaming bronze armour coming to Colchis, a cyclopean giant in blue robes standing beside him. At one point, the visions reached such intensity that Lorgar claimed that the prophesied return of Colchis' god was soon to occur. He began to preach this news to the people of Colchis, causing disruptions to the rule of the Covenant as people converted to his beliefs. Lorgar's enemies in the Covenant saw this as the opportunity they had been waiting for to remove the threat that Lorgar was to the status quo, declaring him a heretic.

Those who came forward to arrest Lorgar were killed by his followers. The Covenant split into two factions, and a holy war of immense proportions erupted, eventually forcing the entire population of the world to choose a side. This war lasted six years, ending when Lorgar and his supporters stormed the temple at which the Primarch had trained, killing the monks within.

The Coming of the Emperor

Less than a year after the victory of Lorgar's people, a landing craft carrying the Emperor and Magnus the Red, along with two Tactical Squads of Thousand Sons Space Marines descended from orbit and landed near the temple. Lorgar was said to immediately recognise these people as the ones in his visions, and swore his fealty to his father and creator.

Every facet of the Covenant's belief structure was reorganised towards the worship of the Emperor as their saviour, and the people of Colchis united behind their new god. The elaborate celebrations and displays of piety lasted for months, although it was said that the Emperor did not approve of this, wishing to rejoin the Great Crusade as soon as possible. At the conclusion of the celebrations, Lorgar was made commander of the Seventeenth Space Marine Legion, which came to be known as the Word Bearers.

The Great Crusade

Lorgar led his Legion throughout the Great Crusade, the Word Bearers seeking to eliminate all blasphemy and heresy within the new Imperium. Ancient texts and icons were burned. The construction of vast monuments and cathedrals venerating the Emperor was supervised. The greatest Chaplains of the Word Bearers produced enormous works on the divinity and righteousness of the Emperor, and gave grand speeches and sermons to the masses. The progress of the Word Bearers was slow, but domination of the defeated was complete.

However, the Emperor was not pleased with the lack of progress the Word Bearers were showing, and was even more dismayed at their religious zeal; one of the main goals of the Great Crusade was to free Humanity from the ignorance of religion. And so the Emperor personally reprimanded Lorgar, informing him that the mission of the Space Marines was for battle, not faith. Lorgar was said to mourn the Emperor's command for a month, speaking to nobody, wearing only hairshirt robes. The Emperor was about to reprimand the Legion again for their lack of action when news reached him that the Word Bearers had gone back on the offensive, and this time, worlds fell before them in rapid order.

The Corruption

It was this event that turned the Word Bearers to Chaos. Whilst Lorgar brooded over the Emperor's reproach, Kor Phaeron, his trusted lieutenant and closest friend, whispered to Lorgar of the great Chaos gods: beings that welcomed, even demanded zealous worship and devotion. Lorgar was slowly poisoned against the Emperor by Kor Phaeron, who was appointed Master of the Faith, and was tasked with converting the entire legion to Chaos. The Word Bearers came to venerate the gods of Chaos, but instead of throwing their support to one god, they worshipped Chaos Undivided, a pantheon composing the four Chaos gods.

It has been suggested that in fact it was Lorgar and the Word Bearers who converted Horus to the worship of Chaos, by introducing his legion: the Luna Wolves, to the warrior lodges which were picked up from the world of Davin. Later, in a plot involving the Word Bearer Chaplain Erebus, Horus was manipulated to return to Davin, where he could be wounded, and in a state more malleable to conversion.

The Legion kept their new devotion secret, until Warmaster Horus declared his own faith in Chaos, and began the galactic civil war known as the Horus Heresy. The Word Bearers quickly joined the rebellion, and many of the worlds they had conquered since their conversion turned as well, having been corrupted by the Word Bearers during their conquest.

The majority of the Legion was ordered by Horus to see to the entanglement and possible destruction of the Ultramarines Legion, so that their vast forces could not be brought to bear against Horus' march towards Holy Terra. This was a task the Word Bearers took up with joy, for as he chastised the Word Bearers for their faith, the Ultramarines had become the favoured Legion of the Emperor. The assault on Ultramar was led by Kor Phaeron, who swore to utterly destroy the Ultramarines. The Word Bearers ambushed the Ultramarines at Calth, an attack which eventually turned against them, when help from the Ultramarines homeworld Macragge arrived the Word Bearers were routed from the system.

The rest of the Word Bearers were led by Lorgar to Terra, where Horus and his forces were repulsed and defeated after a fifty-five day siege. The Legion took refuge within the Eye of Terror and the Maelstrom, vast wounds in space where the Immaterium leaked into reality.

After the Heresy

Eventually, the atrocities committed by the Word Bearers have allowed for Lorgar's ascension to Daemonhood, becoming the equal of a god in the eyes of his Legion. It is said his birth scream echoed across the Immaterium with triumphant vindication, his faith and devotion rewarded with immortality and unbridled power. He now watches over the Legion from the daemonworld of Sicarus, directing their efforts to raid, pillage and destroy the Imperium.

Sources

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