Dead – or close enough – for nearly 10,000 years, Roboute Guilliman’s return to the galaxy could not have come at a more dire time for the fate of humanity. With the success of the Archenemy’s 13th Black Crusade, the fall of Cadia, and the cataclysmic birth of the Great Rift, the Imperium of Man had teetered almost past the brink by the time the Primarch of the Ultramarines was roused from stasis by some fairly unusual friends.
His brothers are either all long dead or corrupted beyond recognition, and he can’t even remove his armour without dying. But who’s the man inside that armour? That’s the question that Wade is answering on this week’s episode of Loremasters, new to Warhammer+ today.
One thing we do know about him – he’s as good with a spreadsheet as he is with a blade. We’ve decided to celebrate his raw organisational ability with a short list of the times he overcame adversity by just being really, really, good at project management.
1) Carving out a star empire of his own without any help
Before Roboute was discovered on Macragge by the Great Crusade, he came of age amid a brutal war. Rapidly thwarting those who conspired against his adoptive father for the rulership of his home planet, the young primarch’s organisational abilities blossomed, and by the time the Emperor made it to Macragge, Guilliman had already brought many nearby planets into the peaceful fold of Ultramar. How? A mixture of force, force of personality, and a preternatural talent for bureaucracy.*
2) Rewriting all the rules after the biggest civil war in history
A difference of opinion that killed trillions, corrupted billions, and split the entire Milky Way would be tricky to recover from for any central administration. Since it took pretty much every human authority figure off the board all at once, it required a superhuman intellect to restructure the Imperium – and make sure that warring supersoldiers couldn’t upset the applecart ever again. Guilliman’s military reorganisation was so successful, it became the standard for the Adeptus Astartes for the next 10,000 years. Pretty impressive for one man and one book.
3) Kicking off the Indomitus Crusade in the Imperium’s darkest hour
The coming of the Great Rift really was a very bad time for mankind. Fully half the galaxy was lost from the Emperor’s light, forced to fend for itself as horrible warp shenanigans wracked countless planets in ways not seen since the Horus Heresy. It took a man of Guilliman’s prodigious retentiveness to organise the Indomitus Crusade – a never-before-seen gathering of Imperial military might combining forces as varied as the Astra Militarum, Inquisition, Adeptus Custodes, Imperial Navy, Adeptus Mechanicus, and of course the Adeptus Astartes – all mustered and dispatched in record time to bring hope to the hopeless.
Of course, Loremasters is far from the only new show coming to Warhammer+ this week. See for yourself –
We’ve got the thrilling seventh episode of Angels of Death – will we find out what gambit Hadriel has up his sleeve to rescue the Sword of Baal from an onslaught of Genestealers? Then there’s the inaugural Battle Report from Warhammer Underworlds featuring guest star Phil Kelly, while the Warhammer Vault swells with lore from Realmgate Wars Book 5 and another issue of White Dwarf. And, of course, you can read more on the details of Guilliman’s prodigious planning powers in the Warhammer Vault too.
Now’s a great time to get in on all this action – Warhammer+ subscribers who spend £100** or more at a time on the Games-Workshop.com webstore in November are earning 10% back in the form of vouchers, rising in £50 increments. So if you get all your Christmas shopping done in one go this month, you’ll be able to spoil yourself with a little treat come December. Sign up below!
* Roboute really drew the least glamorous option when the Emperor was handing out unique gene-talents to his sons…
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