The new edition of Warhammer: The Horus Heresy is on the way, and we’re bringing you new models and an exploration into key moments from the saga every week in April. Yesterday we revealed a new Praetor with some truly magnificent facial hair, and today we delve back into the origins of Horus’ fall to darkness.
Last week we returned to Ullanor, where the Emperor’s decision to name Horus as Warmaster was the first step towards the Heresy… or was it? The seeds of Horus’ fall were actually sown some 60 years before, on a backwater world called Davin.
The humans of Davin had evolved a warrior culture over the millennia, forming into lodges that venerated the predatory beasts which roamed the plains. Unknown to the secular Imperium, they were also in thrall to the Dark Gods of Chaos. The Luna Wolves and Word Bearers brought the planet to Imperial compliance, so thoroughly outclassing the warriors of the lodges that they quickly surrendered. The Luna Wolves moved on, but the Word Bearers remained to bring the Imperial Truth to the Davinites. As they taught, they learned, and the Legion adopted the fraternal ideas behind the lodges.
As the Great Crusade continued, the Word Bearers spread these lodges to other Legions. As Lorgar and his sons became corrupted by the Ruinous Powers, so too did the lodges, spreading seeds of treachery that would later bear bitter fruit, as Horus Heresy author Graham McNeill explains.
Graham: “It all comes back to Erebus and the lodges, right? They're one of those things that, on the surface, are nothing new in warrior cultures, but they were the first rot in the heartwood that eventually toppled the mightiest oaks."
Some time after Ullanor, Erebus of the Word Bearers, by now a high priest of the Dark Gods, requested the new Warmaster’s aid on Davin. The Imperial governor had rebelled, fleeing to the planet’s moon. Horus personally led the assault against the traitor and his fate was sealed. On a rotted and pestilent moon, Horus was struck down by a tainted blade wielded by the traitorous governor, now in thrall to the plague god Nurgle. This blade – the Anathame – used warp magic to penetrate the Warmaster’s defences and poison him, despite his formidable primarch physiology.
Desperate to save their genesire by any means possible, the Sons of Horus took their primarch back to Davin on Erebus’ advice, interring him within the temple of the Serpent Lodge, where the corrupted Word Bearer led sinister rituals that started Horus down his dark path.
Graham: “Davin is where Horus takes his first steps on the road to treachery, so it’s one of the most pivotal moments in the Heresy saga. It’s a real turning point, where – if his warriors hadn’t been so determined to save him, and Horus had died – perhaps the Emperor’s dream could have been fulfilled. The road to Hell is, as they say, paved with good intentions…"
Horus’ road led away from Davin as he set his sights on Terra, but this world still had a part to play. The Chaos-worshipping Davinites spread throughout the Imperium, tainting countless civilisations and unleashing armies of daemons upon the beleaguered defenders of the Emperor’s realm. The planet itself – now a daemon world – was the epicentre of the Ruinstorm, the great warp storm that divided the galaxy. Late in the war, the primarchs Sanguinius, Lion El’Jonson, and Roboute Guilliman destroyed Davin, opening the path for loyalist reinforcements to reach Terra – and finally ending its baleful influence on the Imperium.
You can find out more about Davin in the Horus Heresy novels False Gods and Ruinstorm, and chart the influence of the Davinite exodus in The Damnation of Pythos. Discover which Legion you’re best suited for on the Horus Heresy website, and let us know on Facebook how crucial you think Daivn and the lodges were to Horus’ fall.