The tale of the Horus Heresy has more twists and turns than an Alpha Legion battle plan, with sure victories snatched at the last moment and certain doom averted often by sheer chance. The path that leads to the 41st Millennium we all know and love was just one of many possible outcomes, and it got us thinking: What if Horus had actually pulled it off?
You can begin to forge your own path when Warhammer: The Horus Heresy pre-orders go live tomorrow, while the Horus Heresy novel series gives us a few insights from minds far more advanced than our own. Surely anything could be better for humanity than ten thousand years of grim darkness?
Way back in the 31st Millennium, a band of xenos free-thinkers called the Cabal had a plan. Eternal enemies of Chaos itself, they surmised that a victory for Horus would cause the ultimate end to their arch-nemesis. The Emperor’s death would be a worthy sacrifice – or an added bonus.
In Dan Abnett’s Legion, they rope the Alpha Legion into this scheme , attempting to convince the still-loyal Alpharius to join their cause and ensure a Traitor victory. Horus’ victory was meant to be short-lived, as the self-loathing at what he’d done combined with trouble caused by his less stable brothers would lead to an even more apocalyptic war between the Chaotic remnants of the Imperium.
Soon, humanity itself would die off and deprive the Chaos Gods of their main food supply, forcing them into hibernation after expending all their effort in the war. Bad news for humans, but good news for just about everyone else in the galaxy. A certain Aeldari Farseer eliminated the Cabal before their plan could come to fruition – would it have worked, though?
A few spanners were already in the works. The Emperor wouldn’t accept Horus winning Terra, and tasked Vulkan, Primarch of the Salamanders, with destroying the Golden Throne in the event of a Traitor victory – plunging the entire planet into a rift in reality. Aware of this, the Cabal told John Grammaticus to assassinate Vulkan once and for all in The Unremembered Empire.
Vulkan survived to reach Terra in Old Earth, so a victory for Horus would have annihilated the core of Traitor and Loyalist forces alike. We’d be left with the scattered remains of a Traitor armada, broadly leaderless and beset by internal rivalries, and the Ultramarines arriving to find a conspicuous lack of Terra in the Sol System.
Could this mean that Ultramar rises to become the new centre of human civilisation in the galaxy? Our boys in blue would certainly think so… although we wouldn’t want to be in the room when Roboute Guilliman and his older, taller brother draw straws for leadership of Imperium Secundus. Er. Imperium Tertius?
Assuming the destruction of Terra completely destroys everyone caught in the blast – the regenerating Vulkan and daemonic Primarchs like the Red Angel Angron and newly-serpentine Fulgrim included – we’re left with precious few Primarchs still on the board. Lion El’Jonson would almost certainly still make his way back to Caliban for a ruckus with Luther, but in much slower fashion due to the loss of the Astronomicon – giving his former friend enough time to build up even more rebellious forces.
Perturabo, having already ditched the Siege of Terra in a characteristic fit of pique, seems like the type to keep building up his own Empire of Iron too. With his logistical genius at the helm it would almost certainly grow to immense proportions – and a conflict with his similarly-organised blue-clad brother seems inevitable.
Even these answers prompt further questions. With the Death Guard reduced to grimy space-dust and the few remaining Thousand Sons busily mutating on Sortiarius, could the banished Mortarion and Magnus the Red even return from the Warp? How would the twin empires of the Ultramarines and Iron Warriors contend with the arrival of the Beast? Will Konrad still self-loathe himself to death when his own prophecies ring untrue?
Where do you think humanity would end up if Horus clinched his victory? Let us know on the Warhammer: The Horus Heresy Facebook page, and get ready to fight your own battles in the Age of Darkness when Warhammer: The Horus Heresy comes to pre-orders tomorrow. That’s right, tomorrow – it’s finally here.