-Warmaster Horus before the heresy (Horus Heresy II: False Gods)


It happened that after the Emperor created the Primarchs, the infants were stolen from the chamber in which they lay. The forces of chaos made off with the infants and carried them through the warp. Unable to destroy the infants because of the powerful protections laid on them by the Emperor, the daemonic powers of the warp nonetheless did their best to alter and mould the Emperors work to their own evil ends. Thus it was that the best of the Emperor's creations became corrupted from the outset.

Sanguinius came to land on the second moon of Baal, there the infant Primarch was found by one of the wandering tribes of humans who called themselves the Folk of pure Blood, or simply, the Blood. Sanguinius's Life nearly came to an end there and then, for the touch of Chaos had changed him. Tiny vestigal wings, like those of an angel, emerged from his back. Many were those who wanted to kill the child as a mutant, while others wanted to spare the boy, for in every other way, he was as perfect a child as ever seen. Eventually humanity prevailed and the child was spared.

Sanguinius grew quickly and learned everything his parents could teach him. After three weeks he was as large as a three year old child, and could walk. As he grew his wings grew also, changing into mighty pinions that could bare him aloft on the desert air. By this time he was one year old, he looked and acted like a man in his youthful prime. He could walk without a rad-suit in the poison desert, and could shatter mighty boulders with a single blow.

When a wandering band of mutants surprised the tribe, Sanguinius slew them all, although they numbered over a hundred. This was the first time the members of the Blood had ever seen him truly angry, for he felt his comrades lives were in danger. When the blood-rage overtook him he was indeed terrible to behold. His full primarch powers came upon him and a nimbus of light played about his head.

Sanguinius distinguished himself in the fateful years that followed. He soon rose to leadership of the Blood, and under his guidance they rolled back the mutant tide. For a time Mankind had a breathing space on the moon called Baal Secundus. Sanguinius was worshiped as a god by his followers.

It was shortly after that fate intervened once more. The Emperor had searching across the galaxy for his lost children and his incredible pyschic powers led him to Baal. His ship landed at the conclave of the Blood and he walked straight to the home vehicle of Sanguinius.

Others among the Primarchs are said to have fought against the Emperor when they first met but this was not the case with Sanguinius. He immediately recognised the Emperor for who he was and bent his knee before the Lord of Mankind. The Emperor raised him up and looked upon his people and saw they were fair and noble. The best of the warriors were to become Space Marines using the gene-seed extracted from Sanguinius, the rest were to defend mankinds birthright upon Baal Secundus.

Thus were born the Blood Angels, among the chapters of the first founding. They joined the Emperor's fleet and sailed across the Sea of Stars to participate in the Great Crusade.

Sanguinius distinguished himself during the siege of Earth, when it looked as if the Imperial Palace and the entire home world might fall under the iron heel of Chaos. He organised the final defence of the Emperor's Palace, he slew a giant Bloodthirster of Khorne singlehandedly and held the Ultimate Gate alone when all others had fled. When the Emperor teleported aboard Horus's battle-barge for his final confrontation with the rebel warmaster, Sanguinius was there also.

Battle raged throughout the daemon-infested spacecraft, and Sanguinius became seperated from the Emperor. While he was still alone he chanced upon Horus and , although bearing the wounds of his earlier actions, knowing it would almost certainly spell his doom, he immediately attacked the Warmaster. But Sanguinius was no match for Horus at the height of his daemon-provided power, and was slain by the Warmaster with contemptuous ease. The psychic echo of his death can still be heard by us, causing a madness and a fury to come upon us as we see dark visions of our Primarchs final hours.

To this day, we Blood Angels are among the most feared and least trusted of all Space Marine Chapters, our souls haunted by the horror of those ancient events and our bodies wracked by a secret and terrible thirst.

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During the dark days of the Horus Heresy the Blood Angels Chapter of Space Marines found itself embattled upon Earth itself. The full force of Chaos was arrayed against them, and as the armies of Horus fought their way toward the centre of the Emperor's palace, all appeared lost. Yet, as the most lowly Adept of the multitudinous offices of the Adeptus Terra knows, in the end the Earth was saved and Horus defeated, though at a terrible cost. The story of the Death Company of the Blood Angels is just one of the many echoes of those great events which still affect the Imperium today. As the forces of Horus closed in around the Emperor the position seemed hopeless. The battle, and with it the fate of humanity, would be resolved within a matter of hours at the most. The outcome seemed no longer in any doubt, and the Emperor and the remnants of the loyal Space Marine Legions prepared for final stand. They were doomed and humanity was condemned to eternal damnation in the hells of Chaos, yet they were determined to prove their defiance to the last. If Chaos must triumph, as it surely would, then it would do so only in the face of the greatest resistance possible. The Blood Angels had fought long and hard since the bombardment began. They were already battle weary, but within them the human spirit burned as vigorously as ever. The winged Primarch Sanguinius seemed to be everywhere at once. Wherever the fighting was thickest he appeared, soaring over the battlefield and swooping down upon the daemonic hordes below. Together with his Space Marines he had defied the might of Angron, the Chaos Primarch of Khorne whose World Eater Chaos Space Marines had devastated a hundred human worlds. Yet the onslaught was too great, and the Blood Angels had been beaten back to the Ultimate Gate in the Emperor's Palace.

As the Emperor and his Primarchs gathered for a final stand, Horus made the fatal mistake which cost him victory. To this day no-one can say why Horus chose to drop the defensive shields around his ship, allowing the Emperor to teleport aboard and destroy Horus. Historicii of the Adeptus Terra point to the expected arrival of the Space Wolves and Dark Angels Legions, maintaining that Horus was deliberately throwing down a challenge to the Emperor in an attempt to lure him into a trap. If this is correct, Horus was determined to resolve the conflict before the arrival of the other Space Marine Legions. But it seems unlikely that Horus did not know the relief force was still several days away. Even with these additional Space Marines it is hard to imagine how the Emperor could defeat the inexhaustible hordes of Chaos. The Ecclesiarch Deacis IX wrote, "Perhaps it was some vestige of humanity within the monster that he had become which finally betrayed Horus. His love for the Emperor, once sincere but long since turned hate, may yet have overcome Chaos in the end." Maybe it was so. The veil of history was drawn over those events 10,000 years ago, and such things will never be known for certain. According to all records of those troubled times the Emperor, Sanguinius, and a small force of Space Marines in Terminator Armour boarded the Warmaster's space fortress. The story has become part of the folk-myth of the Imperium, and is told a hundred different ways, but on the following details most versions agree. As they materialised the boarding party found themselves divided, and Sanguinius was positioned closest of all to Horus himself. It is said that the Warmaster offered Sanguinius a place beside him, a Princedom in Hell, and everlasting life as a minion of the Chaos Gods. For the last time in his life Sanguinius renounced Chaos and prepared for battle. Horus was once the most mighty of all the Primarchs. Now he bore heinous marks of his Chaos Masters. He was swollen with power, gigantic of size and distorted in his daemonic form. Now he was more powerful than any mortal creature. For his part Sanguinius still bore the wounds of his battle on Earth. He had fought Daemons and survived, but against Horus he was as an insect to a hungry and gigantic monstrosity.

It was a short and bloody battle before the brazen throne of Horus. The blade of Sanguinius sang as it spun through the air, cutting and stabbing at the Warmaster's Armour. The armour of Horus bled where that blade touched it, for now the Warmaster and his armour were one, it had grown to be part of him. It was not for long that Horus endured this whirling dance. He lashed out clumsily. Lightning Claws arced through the air, catching upon bulkheads and doors, tearing great gashes and sending molten metal shrieking across the floor. Soaring over Horus' head, Sanguinius easily avoided those sluggish strokes, and eagerly sought out a weak spot in Horus' defenses. As he flew he spotted a damaged link of armour on the Warmaster's neck, and Sanguinius stabbed out with all his remaining strength. His blade lodged at once in the Warmaster's armour. Horus screamed more with anger than with pain, and reached out to strike the winged Primarch. Steel talons dripping with plasmic energy closed upon the winged Angel of Baal.

According to some versions of the tale it was this wound that Sanguinius struck which opened a chink through the armour of Horus, enabling the Emperor to slay his enemy. The Blood Angels certainly say as much in their doctrine. They pray to Sanguinius as they do to the Emperor, for he remains their patron and guide in death as he once was in life. In any case, when the Emperor found the Warmaster it was as he stood over the broken body of Sanguinius, the Primarch's wings twisted and feathers still at last. The rest of the tale has no direct bearing upon the future of the Blood Angels and is well known. Suffice to say the Emperor defeated Horus after a long and hard-fought battle in which the Emperor was himself mortally wounded, and after which he was placed in the eternal stasis of the Golden Throne from which he has ruled the Imperium ever since.

After the final battle was over, and the forces of Chaos were retreating towards the Eye of Terror, the established Space Marine Legions were reorganized into the smaller Space Marine Chapters. The Blood Angels had lost many warriors in the war, but worst of all the genetic banks which provided their implants had been partially destroyed. The only way to make good the damage was to reculture gene-seed from the body of Sanguinius, the Primarch whose genetic structure had been used to create the Blood Angels. Live germ cells were isolated within Sanguinius' body, and eventually new implants were cultured. In this way the Chapter was rebuilt using the gene-seed of Sanguinius taken from his dead body. At the time all seemed well, and it was only over the following millennia that the gene-seed showed traces of mutation. Such matters are not unusual. Every Chapter's gene-seed is subject to a process of evolution or decay, and so must be vigorously examined and periodically purged of fault. As a result most Chapters have idiosyncrasies, but in the case of the Blood Angels these were to prove very strange indeed.


Excerpt from 2nd edition Wargear


Of all the sorrows of the Horus Heresy the doom of the Emperor weighs most heavily. Yet even this woe would have been greater were it not for Sanguinius Primarch of the Blood Angels, the Winged Angel at the Emperor's right hand, and foremost Guardian of the Master of Mankind. As battle raged across the orbital fortress of Horus the Great Betrayer, Sanguinius found and fought the enemy, and was destroyed by the Warmaster, a broken angel cast down at the feet of abomination. This was how the Emperor found his greatest enemy and his most loyal friend, and so began the battle for the Heart of Mankind, over the body of the Winged Angel. It is said it was through the chink in Horus' armour opened by Sanguinius that the Emperor was able to deliver the fatal blow. Thus the brightest of all the Emperor's host did not die in vain, crushed upon the steps of Horus' foul altar, but dying gave the Emperor the one chance to destroy forever the Great Betrayer.

Of all the Primarchs of the Space Marines it is Sanguinius whose temples rise aside those of the Emperor, and whose name is cherished by ordinary folk in gratitude for the life that was taken and the life that was spared. Alone of all the Primarchs his memory is honoured by a sanctified day of celebration, the Sanguinala, when Adepts across the galaxy wear upon their breast the red badge of the Lord Angel.