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Shadow Crusade

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The Shadow Crusade
Betrayer final.jpg
Angron and Lorgar battle Ultramarines in the Shadow Crusade]
Conflict Horus Heresy
Date 007-008.M31 (Main Phase, conflict rages throughout the entire Heresy)
Location Ultramar, Nuceria
Outcome Strategic Traitor Victory
-Ruinstorm created
-Ultramar isolated
Tactical Loyalist Victory
-Ultramar mostly defended
Combatants
Traitors Imperium
Commanders
Primarch Lorgar
Primarch Angron
Vel-Kheredar
Erebus
Kharn
Argel Tal (KIA)
Vorias (KIA)
Centurion Delvarus
Princeps Venric Solostine(KIA)
Primarch Roboute Guilliman
Primarch Lion El'Jonson (Later)[6]
Orfeo Cassandar(KIA)
Princeps Maxamillien Delantry (KIA)
Strength
100,000 Word Bearers[4]
150,000 World Eaters[4]
Legio Audax
Two Furious Abyss class Battleships
Night Lords elements
Ultramarines
Dark Angels (Later)[6]
Ultramar Auxilia
Legio Lysanda
Legio Oberon
Casualties
At least 50,000 Word Bearers[8]
Tens of thousands of World Eaters
Fidelitas Lex
Heavy losses for the Ultramarines
~100 worlds ruined[7]

The Shadow Crusade was a campaign of the Horus Heresy. Making up the second theater of the Eastern Fringe campaign of the Heresy alongside the Calth Front, it was a campaign by the Word Bearers and World Eaters against the 500 worlds of Ultramar.[1]

Overview

During the Word Bearers offensive against the Ultramarines in the Battle of Calth, Lorgar led another contingent of Word Bearers in conjunction with Angron and his World Eaters targeting the rest of Ultramar. The ultimate goal of Lorgar was to create a massive Warp storm known as the Ruinstorm, which would create an impenetrable veil around Ultramar and the eastern half of the Galaxy, cutting off the largest of the Emperor's Legions from Terra. The Ruinstorm had first been summoned by Erebus during the Battle of Calth, but to mature it fully Lorgar needed to unleash a campaign of bloodshed and misery.[1]

The Word Bearers and World Eaters launched a far bloodier and reckless offensive on their way across the eastern Galaxy, rampaging across the 500 worlds of Ultramar. Initially the two legions were on tense terms, as Angron delayed the advance by insisting on the butchering of entire worlds of little strategic value. The tensions between Angron and Lorgar boiled over to a standoff that was only interrupted by an attack by Dark Eldar.[4]

One of the most pitched of the campaign was the Battle of Armatura, where the traitor fleet led by two gigantic Furious Abyss-class battleships smashed through massive Ultramarine defenses. During the butchery Lorgar realized that Angron's fury was consuming him as the Butcher's Nails could not handle a Primarch's brain. Lorgar, wishing Angron be elevated to serve the Dark Gods, decided to journey to his homeworld of Nuceria to find the secrets of the Butcher's Nails. While Lorgar led a small force to Angron's world, the rest of the traitor fleet splintered into many small parties which brought destruction upon every Ultramar world they encountered.[1] Talassar and Percepton are other worlds that are known to have been attacked by the traitors.[5]

When the two Primarchs arrived at Nuceria however they discovered that the slave-lords of the world had massacred Angron's comrades and told the population that he had fled during their last stand. Infuriated, Angron ordered that the World Eaters and Word Bearers purge Nuceria of its population. During the ensuing battle, the Ultramarines led by Guilliman arrived, determined to exact vengeance on the traitors for the Battle of Calth. The three immensely powerful but vastly outnumbered traitor Battleships (Conqueror, Fidelitas Lex, and Trisagion) faced a rag-tag Ultramarines fleet of 40 smaller vessels. The ensuing battle in space was nearly even, in large part thanks to the vast power of the Trisagion. However due to their numbers Ultramarines vessels were able to move past the traitor blockade and land forces on Nuceria. They also managed to bring down the Fidelias Lex, losing twelve ships in the process.[1]

On the ground, loyalist and traitor astartes and Titans began to engage each other in pitched combat. Lorgar went on to duel Guilliman himself during the battle, and the two were largely evenly matched. However Angron then arrived, and defeated the Primarch in a furious rage. But while Guilliman managed to escape thanks to an intervention by nearby Ultramarines, this was precisely what Lorgar had wanted and the Word Bearers Primarch began a Khornate ritual. Using Angron's rage as a conduit, Lorgar channeled the power of Khorne and surged the Red Angel with the powers of Chaos. Angron was transformed into a hulking, even more bloodthirsty avatar of violence and rage that had overcome the debilitating effects of the Butcher's Nails. With his brother empowered and the Ruinstorm now at its crescendo, the traitor fleet withdrew.[1]

Thanks to the mass carnage and pain unleashed, the Word Bearers were successful in strengthening the Ruinstorm, creating havoc across Ultima Segmentum and effectively dividing the Imperium in half.[2] Those loyalist legions now isolated from Terra; not only the Ultramarines but also Dark Angels and Blood Angels, were forced to muster at Macragge where Guilliman eventually formed Imperium Secundus.[3] The Dark Angels continued to purge traitor forces from Ultramar during the hunt for Konrad Curze, most notably during the Battle of Zepath.[6]

Even after Terra became the focus of the war and the Primarchs left to wage battle elsewhere, fighting continued to rage in Ultramar from remnants of the Shadow Crusade. These included the Butcher Fleets of the World Eaters and the Argolian Massacres of the Word Bearers.[11]

Notable Individual Actions of the Shadow Crusade

Related Articles

Sources


Battles of the Horus Heresy
005-006.M31 Battle of Isstvan IIIFirst Battle of ProsperoWar Within the WebwayBattle of the Somnus CitadelUnrest on CalibanSchism of MarsBattle of DiamatDrop Site MassacreBattle of the Rangda SystemFirst Battle of ParamarManachean WarSignus CampaignTreachery at Advex-MorsSiege of CthoniaBattle for Felweather Keep‎
007-008.M31 Battle of PhallBattle of RavendelveRuin of MaerdanBattle of the Alaxxes NebulaPale Stars CampaignBreaking of the Perfect FortressChondax CampaignSecond Battle of ProsperoFirst Siege of Hydra CordatusBattle of the Furious AbyssBattle of CalthBattle of ArmaturaBetrayal at IthracaDeath of CanopusShadow CrusadeCrusade of IronDoom of BorminaDefence of TyrosDefence of the Three PlanetsBattle of UlixisAmbush at EspandorBattle of Aquila AtollBattle of Drooth IIPercepton CampaignBattle of IydrisThramas CrusadeFall of Baztel IIIBattle of VannaheimSecond Battle of ParamarBattle of Constanix IIMezoan CampaignBattle of BodtBattle of DwellErellian SubjugationSiege of Baal
009-010.M31 Battle of MolechBreaking of AnvillusXana IncursionCarnage of MoroxSangraal CampaignBattle of ArissakBattle of PerditusBattle of SothaDrussen AtrocityScouring of Gilden's StarBattle of NyrconBattle of TallarnCataclysm of IronBattle of NocturneWar of DrakesBattle of PlutoSiege of InwitBurning of Ohmn-MatBitter War
011-014.M31 Reaving of the Xibana ReachesLorin Alpha CampaignSubjugation of TyrinthMalagant ConflictBattle of the Kalium GateBattle of CatallusAxandrian IncidentBattle of the Haddon SystemJarrazr IncursionBattle of TralsakTarren SuppressionBalthor Sigma InterventionBattle of AbsolomScouring of the Ollanz ClusterBattle of ZepathSecond Battle of ZaramundBattle of AnuariBattle of PyrrhanSecond Battle of DavinArgolian MassacresBattle of TrisolianBattle of YarantBattle of KradeBattle of DelugeBattle of Heta-GladiusBattle of the Aragna ChainBattle of KallethBattle of the Diavanos SystemBattle of DesperationBattle of Beta-GarmonWar for AgaropsDefence of RyzaBattle of ThagriaPassage of AngelsThassos IncidentBattle of Zhao-ArkhadSerpent's CoilSiege of BarbarusForicaan CampaignBattle of VezdellBurning of VrexorDawn of DesolationDeath of ChemosBattle of Luth TyreYdursk IncidentFall of TenzebarSolar WarRaid on LunaSiege of TerraGreat Scouring