Chapter 2: The Emperor's Children
The Emperor's Children: the shattered diamonds of the Imperium, who have selflessly defended the defenseless from horrors that have time and again brought them to the brink of extinction.
It is the wish of the sons of Fulgrim that those who remember them do so not with pity for the losses they've suffered, but with happiness and gratitude for the fruits of their labour.
The Emperor's Children were one of the most popular Legions in the eyes of the general public for the amount of ruined and war torn worlds they have turned into Paradise Worlds.
Numberless were the peerless works of art created by the IIIrd Legion, which range from simple paintings to the Legion's Voidships.
Yet, the majority of these works of art, and the entirety of the IIIrd Legions service, was done not for the Legion itself, but for the people of the Imperium, no matter their origin or prestige.
The source of the Emperor's Children's selfless service can be traced all the way back to their founding on Terra.
During the days of the Unification Wars, the continent of Europa was ruled by a tribe of Techno-Barbarians that somewhat retained their sense of civilization.
Untouched by the savagery deemed common for their ilk, Europa nonetheless housed it's own evils.
The Empire was ruled by numerous noble houses who held the majority of wealth and resources while the commonfolk worked tirelessly to be rewarded with scraps.
The poor peasants of Europa were treated no better than slaves, with only just enough difference between the tyranny of the nobles and that of more common Techno-Barbarians to keep them from leaving. They were also subjugated to Witch Hunts, though it is unclear whether any Psykers were among the Europan populace, or if this was simply an excuse to legally murder any who the ruling Elite found wanting...it is even rumored that some were condemned simply for the corrupt rulers amusement.
All of this changed when the forces of the Newborn Imperium arrived at Europa.
Europa would be delivered from tyranny...but not by the Emperor himself.
Centuries prior, before the Dark Age of Technology died in the fires of the Age of Strife, the Maidens came to Terra.
The centuries between their recruitment into the Emperor's armies and the fall of the ancient human civilization whose name has been forgotten to time was spent training the Maidens, all pacifists by nature, in the ways of war.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash are known to have been the most excellent students in these early days, though the horrors of war would awaken slumbering spirits of wrath and ruin within the hearts of others that would make the two most combative seem tame by comparison.
Yet, the mother of the 3rd Primarch was no such warrior. Though she had learned how to use the weapons crafted for her by the Emperor's own hand, they would only be used defensively. Instead, the Maiden of the Emperor's Children would conquer a thousand worlds through word and wit alone. Negotiating and debating with the arrogant rulers of the most selfish regimes until they believed that surrendering to the Imperium had been their plan all along, and only realizing that they had lost their power when it was too late.
This warrior of words was the Maiden of Generosity, and her name was Rarity.
It would be this Maiden who would introduce the ruling tyrants of Europa to the Imperium. Striding towards their front gates unguarded and unarmed, yet clothed in form fitting Power Armor that was only just inferior to that of an Astartes.
Seeing this armor told even the simple minded guards who met her at the gates that the snow skinned woman before them was far more than her frail form let on. This may have been the only reason she wasn't set upon immediately.
"Who dares disturb me?" Inquired the Europan King Theo the IVth when the doors to his Throne Room opened unexpectedly.
His guards were the first beings he saw, but then he saw her.
His bloated jaw fell slack at the sight of the woman before him. Standing over 6 feet tall in purple armor with a golden trim, her face a blanket of snow covered by a tidal wave of flawless amethyst colored hair. He found himself becoming lost in her sapphire eyes, the pupils in particular. Though larger than average, the dark windows into the woman's soul reflected naught but warmth and light.
Had the king believed in such things, he would've mistaken her for an angel...but he didn't.
King Theo, like all his predecessors, was king by regicide. Though the former Techno Barbarian had long since grown comfortable in his power. A warrior's muscles being melted away by years of Sloth and Gluttony as he helped himself to every piece of food and feminine flesh he could wrap his greasy fingers around. And Rarity had a fairly slim waist.
"Ho? Well, I don't know you are. But I look forward to finding out." The King said in a raspy voice as he breathed through his mouth.
The welcoming look in Rarity's eyes never flickered as she gave the king a respectful bow. "Greetings your Majesty. I come before you as a humble messenger for my Lord, who wishes to extend his hand to you in friendship and unity."
King Theo's smirk faltered but a moment before returning. "Does he now? And just how much of Europa does he want in exchange."
Rarity shook her head in dismissal. "None my lord, you are welcome to continue ruling Europa as it's king and fly your banner beside ours as we unite Terra under the banner of our collective master: The Master of Mankind. And you will be generously rewarded."
King Theo was shocked silent...and then he busted out laughing. "GAH HAHAHAHAHAHAA! MASTER OF MANKIND!? OH HOHOHOHOHO! I HAVE TURNED AWAY MY FAIR SHARE OF ARROGANT FOOLS WHO SOUGHT TO TAKE MY KINGDOM FROM ME! BUT I'VE NEVER ENCOUNTERED ANYONE WITH THEIR HEAD THAT FAR UP THEIR-"
The King fell silent as Rarity's welcoming look vanished, replaced by an expression that said typical.
King Theo's composure returned to him. "I'll give you a choice woman. Be my newest concubine, and I'll send a messenger to tell your Emperor you died. Or you can refuse...and I'll send a messenger to tell him you died."
Rarity's reply was a sharp wrinkle of her nose, one that the King returned. "Kill her."
The guards hesitated, put off by the woman's air of confidence, but they nonetheless aimed their primitive bolt guns at the Maiden and fired.
There was a flash of light that faded as quickly as it appeared, revealing nothing but bullet holes in the Throne Room's walls.
King Theo's jaw once again fell slack...with fear. A witch...a REAL witch...and I've provoked her.
"Find her!" King Theo all but whispered in a distant voice as he came to terms with the fact that a witch, who should only serve themselves and be the greatest form of power the unclean can possess, had a master that wanted Europa for himself.
He was pulled from his thoughts when he realized his guards were just standing there, just as frightened as he was. "FIND HER!!!
The search for Rarity would last two days before King Theo recalled his forces and prepared for an invasion, yet it was in vain.
Rarity had not fled Europa as the King had believed. Instead, she redirected her negotiations to the common folk.
She told the oppressed people of Europa of herself, her fellow Maidens, and their intent to unify Terra and beyond. The commoners regarded her promises as King Theo had, though with far more respect.
Their respect would grow when Rarity began using her psychic gifts to disrupt executions and steal extra food from the ruling nobility, all while teleporting from one side of the country to the other between sightings.
Though the Maidens had once possessed significant power in their own right, the Emperor had altered the Maidens both physically and spiritually, allowing Rarity's sorcery to match that of her fellow: Twilight Sparkle.
These attacks upon the stability of King Theo's rule would endure for almost a month before the tyrant took notice of commoners whispering praise to the Maiden and hoping for her success. Infuriated by what he saw as betrayal, King Theo ordered 500 random commoners to be executed, as a means of luring the Maiden into a trap.
King Theo grinned from ear to ear as the last few peasents were rounded up. In a few moments, his men would gun them down like dogs.
That vile witch always appeared at the last possible moment, either as a dramatic flair, or to ensure that his men were completely focused on the kill to come, before either attacking the executioner, or removing the condemned from harm's way before anyone had a chance to react.
But this time, a hundred armed soldiers aimed automatic weapons into a shallow pit full of peasents, and each man had two others at his back 10 feet away and 5 feet apart. It was simply impossible for a witch, who could only appear and disappear and use mind tricks, to deflect all of that without being killed.
King Theo raised a hand, and his men readied their weapons.
"FIRE!!!" Shouted King Theo, waiting to see where the witch would appear.
The same flash that had been pegged as the calling card for her teleportation appeared...within the pit.
The soldiers fired. A bright glow radiated over the peasants heads, deflecting the bolt rounds back.
King Theo let out a most unkingly yelp as a stray bullet came dangerously close to ending his reign of terror, causing him to flinch and shut his eyes.
When he opened them again, he saw the witch standing amongst the cowering peasents, her raised hand channeling a force field of psychic energy.
Rarity twisted her wrist and pulled her arm inward. Her shield reacted to the motion by drawing itself into a sphere in the Maidens hand, which she then launched into the sky where it exploded in a bright flash of light.
King Theo and his men shielded their eyes from the light. When their vision returned to them, Rarity stood before King Theo and his Honor Guard, wielding a masterfully crafted Power Saber. "This little dance between us has lasted long enough your majesty. Let's end it."
"BUTCHER THAT SOW!!!" Howled the tyrant.
Rarity had made fools of the nobility and brought hope and salvation to the people of Europa, her final card to play was a simple show of force.
King Theo's Honor Guard were the closest to traditional Techno Barbarians, each one a hulking wall of muscle wielding a monstrous Chain Ax similar to those that would be favored by the World Eaters since their founding.
The brutes were no match for the Maiden of Generosity, who danced between them with the grace of an Eldar and struck to disable their weapons rather than end their lives.
Awed by the display, King Theo's execution force made no conscious effort to assist the honor guard until King Theo snapped them out of it.
But they were not the only ones moved by Rarity's actions. When the execution force turned their Bolt Guns onto the Maiden, the civilians they had intended to execute scrambled out of the pit and mobbed them.
The moment shots were fired into the crowd of civilians, Rarity's dance took on a very different rhythm.
Rarity had fought the half dozen men with skill and grace alone, but now she brought her sorcery to bare, teleporting to the nearest gunmen with his bolter up and swiftly disarming him before disappearing and reappearing to do so again.
King Theo howled with fury that his forces were being matched by unarmed commoners and a single witch, yet the King did not realize...Rarity had already won.
Though the Maiden had come to Europa alone, a respectable portion of the Emperor's army lied in wait just beyond the small country's borders.
When Rarity had launched her energy shield into the air, she had signaled that army to attack Europa and conquer it in the Emperor's name.
The Techno Barbarians had been ready for an external siege...but so had the commoners.
Though many still doubted Rarity's promises, the news of an approaching army spurred a great many of them to rise up in rebellion.
If the wrong group of people rebelled at the wrong time, the Techno Barbarians would've crushed them mercilessly. But Rarity had made a point of focusing her efforts in aspiring hope in the closest cities to her attacking force, ensuring that the earliest rebellions would act in concert with her invasion and bring a swifter, cleaner victory.
The combination of invasion and rebellion was too much for the Europan military to handle, and five cities fell within the first day. On top of this, Rarity and the civilians had not only survived their battle, but had forced King Theo's retreat before enemy reinforcements arrived and forced Rarity's escape through a massive group teleportation.
King Theo's thugs tried their best to keep the news from circulating, but Rarity's ability to bring messengers and portions of her army to any city in Europa at any time made such impossible. It is unanimously believed that the Maiden could've brought her entire army into the tyrant's Throne Room and ended the war instantly, but chose her approach with the intent of building hope and trust with the Europan people.
Her strategy worked flawlessly, more and more commoners rose up in rebellion. There were even some among the Techno Barbarians who defected to the Imperium, though these are believed to have simply chosen the winning side.
After only a week since the invasion began, just over a month after Rarity first entered the country, Europa flew the Raptor Imperialis, and King Theo was incarcerated within the ancient prison known as Khangba Marwu.
Rarity spent the next month with the people of Europa...for two reasons.
The first was, naturally, to ensure a problemless transition from government to government. The first week was spent interviewing and handpicking the best candidates to govern the nation-state in order to ensure that another tyrant wouldn't rise to power.
The second was to ensure the liberated Europans knew her for who and what she was. There were a great many who had witnessed her miraculous feats, and mistook her for something Divine.
It was a problem shared between the Maidens, and was an even greater problem for the Emperor. But none of the powerful beings knew how to dissuade such thinking without making it a crime, which was unacceptable by the Maidens.
It is for this reason that Rarity refused the new Governor's offer for her to stay in the castle of the denounced King Theo, and instead spent her days within the inns of the commonfolk, paying for room and board in spite of every Innkeeper's protests.
She did this to ensure the people of Europa saw her for who she was, to tell them of her life before the Emperor.
She was no angel from the heavens, but a humble seamstress for a small town. She demonstrated her abilities by forming clothes fit for royalty for the people of Europa, teaching those who were willing to learn, and ensuring that one of her former students from the newborn Imperium would linger in Europa to carry on her teachings.
Yet, the insistence remained. No mere mortal human could do what the Maidens could, it was simply impossible...and they were correct.
Rarity had applied her talent for manipulation well, leaving the faintest hints to the truth in her every story of her past, while ensuring that none would piece it together until they were ready to accept it.
Yet, this would not happen within a month, and Rarity was forced to leave Europa in order to continue her part to play in the Unification Wars.
Upon returning to the acting Capital of the Imperium in the Himalazian Mountains, she was greeted with terrible news. The Primarchs, genetically built sons of the Emperor, 9 of which shared the DNA of the 9 Maidens, had been spirited across the galaxy.
Until this time, Rarity was still unsure of how to feel about the Primarchs, hers in particular. The thought of 'building' a son unnaturally, and one that was meant to be a lord of war, was unnerving to say the least.
But at the thought of his life being at risk, her maternal insticts awakened and threw her into a fit of desperation...one that ultimately turned to despair.
It would still be nearly a century before the end of the Unification Wars and the birth of the Great Crusade. At this stage, it was impossible to search for the Primarchs.
The Maidens all took it differently, some took a reprieve to mourn what they feared was the death of sons they would never know. Others, Rainbow Dash in particular, redoubled their efforts to see Terra united under the banner of the Emperor so they could take to the stars with all haste.
For Rarity, she looked to the Emperor for guidance.
"He's alive?" The Maiden said, more to herself than to the Emperor.
"Yes, your son lives. They all do, though only one has landed."
Rarity went through a mixture of emotions, to know that he was alive brought relief, but understanding that could change in an instant brought fear anew, and knowing she could still do nothing to save him brought her a sense of helplessness...he...him...it only dawns on her that her Primarch...her son didn't even have a name, and knowing that she had not even thought of it, and had rarely thought of him, threatened to overwhelm her with guilt.
"I understand your pain, but you can make it right...with your grandsons."
Rarity's flood of emotions was drowned beneath a tidal wave of shock. "M-mu my WHAT!!!"
The Emperor rarely showed emotion, but he is known to crack a humorous smile at the majority of the Maidens' more mundane moments. "Your grandsons." He said again.
Rarity retained her shock as she processed the Emperor's words...before it gave way to anger. "You're...you're REPLACING THEM!?!?"
The Emperor's smile disappeared. "Nothing can replace them, but just as they were meant to be my greatest servants...so shall the Legiones Astartes be theirs."
Rarity was the first among the Maidens to learn of the Emperor's Angels of Death, created from the genetic material of the Primarchs being implanted in young prepubescent boys.
The Emperor also took additional material from the Maidens for very specific Geneseeds. He had long since explained his vision of the Horus Heresy and it's relation with their sons, but he had also seen individual Astartes become great monsters in their own right.
While the addition of the Maiden's DNA within the Primarchs would affect their Geneseed, he did not wish to chance the nature vs nurture aspect of these Champions of madness, and thus reserved Geneseeds that were purely constructed of the Maidens genetic makeup for these individuals.
These individuals would later become some of the greatest heroes the Imperium had ever known, with the Emperor's word only just allowing people to see glimpses of what could've been.
After enduring the process of the Geneseed's construction from her being, Rarity returned to the nation-state of Europa to find suitable Aspirants for her Legion.
Upon her return, she found that the seeds she had planted in the Europans' minds had begun to bloom. Though there were still those kneeled to her as if she were a goddess, most gave but a bow of respect before carrying on with their day to day activities...though the Maiden noticed some of the residents had watched her as if waiting for her to attack them.
The truth of the Maidens alien origins had never been kept from the Imperium, but while it is widely accepted by Imperial citizens today, revealing the truth to early Terrans had it's consequences.
When Rarity confessed the discovered truth openly, many sympathizers of the old regime came out of hiding and attempted to insight rebellion. The attempts were ill fated, but not for imperial intervention. The sympathizers were simply incapable of turning Europa against it's alien savior.
Rarity looked on with pity as a husband and wife were dragged off by authorities, screaming curses at the Maiden as she passed.
A cursory glance was given to the confiscated explosives to reassure herself that the family's incarceration was necessary before Rarity refocused on her reason for coming here...the boy.
Rarity couldn't believe it when she heard that a child had turned in their own family, but she was determined to find out why, and to make sure he knew that he was appreciated.
To her dismay, the boy had been largely ignored by the authorities that arrested his parents. He simply sat on the steps of his home, hugging his knees into his chest.
"Thank you." The boy started when he realized he wasn't alone, and again when he realized who was addressing him.
The boy stuttered for a moment, giving the Maiden cause to giggle. "There is no need to be shy. It is I who should be awestruck by someone as brave as you."
The boy stopped stuttering and regained some composure...but turned his gaze from the Maiden as though in shame. "You shouldn't thank me...I didn't do it for you."
Rarity nodded in understanding. "I know, you did it to stop your parents from hurting innocent people. I'm sure they're all as grateful as I."
The boy looked at her curiously before averting his gaze again. "...what's gonna happen to me now?"
The Europan populace may be better off for Rarity's efforts, but it was still struggling. Many orphans had grown to adulthood before they could be adopted. This boy would likely be no different. "Well, I have an option...but I have to warn you, it could be very dangerous."
The boy's eyes locked with hers. "I...I've heard of this. Mom and dad said you were stealing children to be turned into soldiers."
Rarity bit back harsher words. "I-I am not stealing them! I've only taken volunteers from Orphanages who are fully aware of the risks."
The boy laughed at Rarity's reaction. "Either way, if it means I can help people, help humanity, then I'll do it."
Rarity smiled at his conviction. "I'm still going to have to tell you a story that might scare you out of it. But for now...what is your name?"
"Rylanor."
Rarity, like most of the Maidens, did not employ the use of the Emperor's Thunder Warriors, seeing them as too destructive for her taste. Thus, the birth of the IIIrd Legion's first company of a hundred Legiones Astartes all but doubled the Maiden's effectiveness.
For the savagery that most of Terra was subjected to, very few provinces could be taken bloodlessly. The first and most well known was the province known as Merica, which would later birth the greatest numbers of artists to bring Rarity's teachings to the stars.
In time, over a full and bloody century since the disappearance of the Primarchs, the Imperium of Man was ready to expand from Terra into the Segmentum Solar.
The IIIrd Legion, known at this time as Generosity's Gems, assisted in the taming of the populace of Terra's moon: Luna, though the final blow would be dealt by Celestia and the XVIth Legion.
Soon after Luna and Mars were brought to heel, Rarity and the other Psychic Maidens began to feel a sensation, as if something far beyond their sight were calling out to them. The mystery of this phenomenon would be solved when Celestia traced her calling to the world of Cthonia...to her son.
The confirmation that the psychic phenomenon was leading the Maidens to their respective Primarchs was all the Emperor needed to know. The Legions led by psychic Maidens were given first priority on the construction of the ships that would see humanity retake the stars. Within months, Generosity's Gems were starbound.
In spite of her concerns for her son, Rarity and the IIIrd did not shirk their duties to the newborn Imperium. Planets would be scanned for hostilities and have the necessary number of Astartes and diplomats deployed to ensure a safe and stable transition. The first years were so stable, Rarity would've thought the Emperor had exaggerated.
...but for the others.
Astropathic messages kept the Maidens in contact with one another as they branched out. From these, Rarity learned of the Imperium's first encounters with Xenos races and the horrors they had wrought upon humanity.
Reports of conflict were swiftly followed by reports of victory. Tyrants were ripped from their thrones almost in a day. While the Maidens made every attempt to show mercy, the majority of the modern Imperium's Alien Auxiliaries descended from unrepentant Penal Legions, and there are some species that had to be wiped out at the words of the Maidens themselves.
Not all of these reports together could wound Rarity's heart more than the single worst of them. The XIVth Legion had encountered a world besieged by Xenos so hostile and dangerous, that after fighting a month long battle that cut the Legion in half, Fluttershy saw no choice but to do the one thing every Maiden swore they would never do: subject the planet to Exterminatus.
As though the state of the galaxy were not frightening enough, Rarity began to feel her son's psychic call going quiet.
"He landed on THIS ONE!?" Rarity screamed after taking in the sight of the rotting world her son had been marooned on. An ugly world that seemed incapable of sustaining anything greater than swamps.
"It would appear so Lady Rarity. Shall I deploy a landing party?" Asked Rylanor, no longer the boy that had chosen innocent lives over his family, now the leader of Rarity's personal Honor Guard.
"Yes, your father has been on his own for long en-huh?" Rarity was taken from her thoughts when the psychic call that had grown quiet returned...not to call her to the planet, but to delay her arrival.
Rarity mentally questioned the change in the psychic link, but then images came to her mind...images of a planet far worse than the murky swamp world below her. A dead world whose populace could only wait to run out of food. A world...that was healing.
"My lady? Is everything all right?" Rylanor asked.
"...He is not ready to leave." Rarity replied.
Rarity's son, The Primarch Fulgrim, landed upon a planetwide wasteland known as Chemos.
Chemos was a bleak, unforgiving planet warmed by a small binary star and surrounded by a thick nebula dust cloud. The result was a world that was forever shrouded in perpetual twilight.
It had been settled by humanity during the Dark Age of Technology as a Mining World, but it was isolated from its neighbours by the great Warp Storms that marked the Age of Strife. The planet had been steadily running out of resources ever since, until only a scant few fortress factories were left to supply food for the dwindling population.
The need for survival saw the sacrifice of the people's livelihood. Art and leisure were all but forgotten as every waking hour was spent maintaining the vapor mines and synthesisers. A great many unsatisfied souls would end their lives every generation, adding to the survivability of the remaining populace and their dwindling resources.
Yet, even with these suicides. It became necessary to cull the homeless and the orphaned to further lengthen the dying world's lifespan. Children that could not be cared for by their own parents were put to the sword with no exception...until Fulgrim.
Scouts from the police force of the fortress factory Callax discovered the young Demigod, and were so smitten by the boy's godlike presence that they prostrated themselves before their rulers and begged that his life be spared.
Fulgrim was spared and given into the hands of one of his rescuers, a member of the Caretakers, to raise as his own child.
Named after an ancient deity of the Chemosian people, Fulgrim in time became a new legend to the people of that suffering world. At half the age at which most of the other people of Callax went to work in the vapour mines and synthesisers, Fulgrim proved able to fulfill all the obligations of an adult labourer.
He came to understand the ramshackle Chemosian mining technology with an intuitive ease that allowed him to begin to modify it with his extraordinary technical acumen, dramatically increasing its efficiency.
By the time he was only 15 Terran years of age, Fulgrim had risen from the rank of a simple labourer to become one of the Executives who governed the fortress-factory of Callax. As a leader, Fulgrim learned of the terrible plight that faced Callax and all the other settlements of Chemos as their technology and population gradually declined in the face of their resource shortages.
Under Fulgrim's direction, teams of engineers travelled far from Callax and the other fortress-factories, reclaiming and repairing many of the most ancient and far-flung of the world's original mining outposts, many of which had not been used since before the start of the Age of Strife. Mining production skyrocketed, and as resources began to pour in large amounts into the treasuries of the fortress-factories of Chemos for the first time in millennia, Fulgrim supervised the construction of even more sophisticated and efficient extraction machinery. This industrial efficiency soon grew to the point that Chemos' mines were actually producing surpluses for the first time in decades, allowing the world to begin to purchase food and other needed materials in large quantities from passing interstellar traders. Fulgrim, now the recognised planetary leader, fostered the re-emergence of Chemosian art and culture, important aspects of human life that had long been sacrificed to Chemos' resource shortage and need for constant labour.
It is in the midst of Chemos' rebirth that Rarity found her son. Fulgrim knew what her arrival meant, but felt the need to finish rebuilding Chemos on his own.
Rarity recognized this as an aspect of her personality. Fulgrim was shaping the planet as she would sew a dress in her time before the Imperium. And so, she chose to leave until Fulgrim had finished his work.
The wisdom of this choice has been argued since it was made, there were even those among Generosity's Gems who felt it was the wrong choice. But records would show that Rarity made her choice as one of her final acts of nostalgia for her old life.
...It would prove to be a tragic mistake for the IIIrd Legion.
As years turned to decades, and more Legions knew their Primarchs than not, Generosity's Gems had grown accustomed to the darkness among the stars.
While most Legions acted as shock troops, Rarity's grandsons adopted a more supporting role upon the battlefield. Sergeants would command Imperial Army companies alongside their squads, and direct their younger Battle Brothers to lend assistance in whatever manner was necessary.
But while supporting the Imperial war efforts would cement the Legions popularity, their primary method of conquest remained negotiation. It was believed that once a planet's ruler opened it's ears to Rarity and her grandsons, victory was assured...until Proxima.
The Compliance of Proxima, a joint effort between Rarity and the Emperor himself, signaled the beginning of the 3rd Legion's first time of strife. For the calls for peace were but a lure for a heinous trap.
When the Emperor, Rarity, and their respective honor guards met with the Proximan rulers, the Maiden was fired upon by one of the most powerful weapons in the galaxy: a Vortex Weapon.
The Emperor intervened, taking the shot for Himself, and needed to be escorted from the ensuing battle.
Rarity directed the Emperor's Children alongside the Adeptus Custodes, but her efforts only allowed three of her sons to follow her and the Emperor in withdrawal.
The Emperor is said to have directed great praise to the Maiden and her sons, but when He authorized them to enact Exterminatus, Generosity's Gems collectively pleaded to be allowed to conquer Proxima rather than destroy it. For the sake of any innocent lives yet on the planet.
Ultimately, the Emperor denied them, foreseeing that the Legion would not survive, and dismissed them that
His own fleet may carry out His orders.
For months Rarity and her sons would express their anger at the Emperor's actions, yet the truth of His foresight would soon reveal itself.
Due to an unforeseen accident within the Gene Labs of Luna, where the Astartes Geneseed is held, a large portion of the 3rd Legion's Geneseed was destroyed. Hindering the Legion's growth.
Soon after, a fast acting viral blight infected several of the Geneseed vaults on Terra, further adding to their losses.
Yet, extinction was not to be the IIIrd Legion's destiny...for the Primarch's call to Rarity sounded once more.
Rarity couldn't believe her eyes. Had she not seen Chemos as it was before, she would never have drawn comparisons between the dead world it was and the beautiful marble that grew larger as her Thunderhawk descended onto it's surface.
Led by her psychic signal, she guided the pilot to a beautiful city populated by humans of exquisite taste. Everywhere the Seamstress looked, a new dress caught her eye, more beautiful than the last.
The dropship landed in the town center, where Rarity's bodyguards deployed to stand opposite men in inferior, but more beautiful power armor.
Yet, the beauty of the guards paled in comparison to whom they were guarding. The Primarch was adorned not with armor, but with dress robes of the finest silk. Colored a dark amethyst with a lavender trim and magenta highlights. His ivory locks framing an approving smile as he looked upon the Astartes.
His approval swiftly turned to amazement, for Rarity had chosen similar attire. A white dress adorned with diamonds that caught in the sun, with platinum bracelets adorned with amethysts, and a tiara and choker of the same.
Rarity was just as stunned. But for a different reason. Though she felt she had mentally prepared herself to meet her Primarch...her son, to actually see him in the flesh caused a surge of emotion that threatened to undo the Maiden's professionalism.
"...I'm sorry." Rarity hadn't known what to expect, but it certainly wasn't that. "Wu-what?"
"I had known what you came for years ago, but I didn't know what strife would befall you in my absence...I thought you could wait until.." The Primarch hesitated.
Rarity's eyes widened. He knew. He knew the state of his Legion. But how?
"I am not as gifted as Magnus, but your blood coursing through my veins has added to my psychic potential. And when you came before, I learned everything. And now that you've returned...I am so sorry. I was selfish."
Rarity acquired a sad smile. "Only as selfish as your mother. I left you here to finish your work because I wanted you to have memories of a time before this war that you were born to fight. So you could be a normal person before you became a conquerer of worlds...the fall of the Legion is my fault.
Upon hearing this, Fulgrim's hesitation died, and he began walking towards his mother, who followed and met him halfway...the embrace between them was meant to be immortalized in a painting, but none who have tried felt that their attempt was worthy.
Reuniting with their Primarch triggered a rebirth for the 3rd Legion, it would only be two decades before they were able to stand on their own again. In the meantime, Generosity's Gems served alongside the Terran Wolves as an auxiliary.
The Emperor often accompanied them as well, developing a deep bond with Fulgrim who came to admire Him for all that He was doing for humanity and the selfless sacrifices He had made. This would culminate in Fulgrim requesting to rename the 3rd Legion. The request was accepted by the Emperor and Rarity and Generosity's Gems, now the Emperor's Children.
In the years that followed, Fulgrim grew closer to his brothers, not only those born of the Maidens, but also those born only of the Emperor...he even earned the respect of Lion El'Jonson through a duel.
But there was one whose bond with Fulgrim was that of a true brother:Ferrus Manus.
The Phoenician met the Gorgon in the Imperial Forge by chance. He had arrived to forge a weapon worthy of leading his sons to victory.
Upon hearing of Fulgrim's purpose in the forge, Ferrus laughed at the absurdity of one as 'pretty' as Fulgrim toiling in a forge. Seeing the mockery as a declaration of war, Fulgrim promised to forge a weapon that the Gorgon could never hope to rival.
Fulgrim wiped the sweat from his brow as he concluded his work. It did not please him to look at it, but he knew that brute wasn't interested in beauty. Only power.
Forgebreaker, that was the name Fulgrim gave his creation, a giant Warhammer that would rival Dawnbringer forevermore. Fulgrim had to put genuine effort behind lifting the great weapon.
As Fulgrim turned around, he imagined Ferrus Manus producing a similar weapon to compare against Forgebreaker. It would be another day or so before the faintest flaw could be found in either weapon.
But Fulgrim had faith in his ability. He had poured his heart and soul into ensuring that Ferrus Manus would leave this forge chewing on his tongue, searching for the faintest criticism, and finding none.
"Are you finally finished? I've been waiting for quite some time." Came the cold voice of the forge's only other occupant.
"Hmph, if you had to wait longer than 20 seconds, I would've forfeited the competition. That was our agreement." Fulgrim reminded his brother.
"But for four seconds more...on three." Ferrus declared.
"One." Started Fulgrim.
"Two." Continued Ferrus.
"THREE!!!" The Primarchs shouted at the same time as they turned and ignited their weapons Power Fields
All of Fulgrim's expectations disappeared. He knew that he had lost the moment he saw it. Beautiful could not describe the sword in Ferrus' hands, it transcended beauty.
The sword itself was gold, but what set it apart from any other Power Sword bar the Emperor's own was that it's Power Field appeared as flames rather than lightning, giving it the appearance of a Phoenix Feather.
Fulgrim had miscalculated. He was so certain that Ferrus sought to compare power and functionality, he had never considered that his brother sought to make a weapon more beautiful than Fulgrim's. And he had done so.
"...It's...it's bea-" "Magnificent." The interruption tore Fulgrim's eyes from the sword and allowed him to see that the Gorgon was just as awestruck by Fulgrim's Hammer.
Catching himself, Fulgrim replied. "Y-yes I...I had thought that you would only care for practicality and power, so I built Forgebreaker to compete with Vulkan's hammer."
"Heh...I knew you only had eyes for looks. If I could make a flamboyant weapon without sacrificing functionality. I felt that your weapon would prove weaker...You would shatter this thing with one strike." Ferrus bowed his head.
"Ha! Only you would think to parry a hammer with a sword. I could never strike a capable swordsman with a weapon like this. My mother and Lucieus would've cut me down a hundred times over before I could even raise it." Fulgrim stated while lifting the hammer to demonstrate it's weight.
Ferrus accepted the surrender. "Your arms are a bit small. Perhaps it would be better in my hands."
"And perhaps I can show you what to avoid when fighting a competent swordsman with a fine blade." Fulgrim added as passed Forgebreaker with one hand, and extended the other to take Ferrus' sword.
When Fulgrim acquired the Power Sword Fireblade, he had believed that he had built an everlasting bond with the Gorgon...but it was not to be.
Ferrus openly distrusted the Maidens and their sons, and even without this, his personality clashed not only with Fulgrim, but with the Imperium as a whole.
The Iron Hands were the most violent Legion in the Imperium, with so few peaceful compliances that you could count them on your hands.
Fulgrim nonetheless made every attempt to keep his bond with the Gorgon, and probably would've done so...but for the Laer.
The Laer were a xenos race that had been openly hostile to the Expeditionary Fleet that had discovered them.
If any other Legion had spoken up first, things might've been different. But Fulgrim claimed that he could bring the Laer into compliance in no less than three months.
Even Rarity claimed that Fulgrim was being reckless, but in the end, Fulgrim convinced her to relent, promising that he could bring the Laer into Imperial Compliance.
Confronting the Laer almost immediately shattered Fulgrim's confidence, and he swiftly learned that peace was never an option.
The Emperor's Children function primarily as negotiators and support for the Imperial Army, and Fulgrim had insisted on his Legion handling this alone. The war was devastating.
It seemed that Fulgrim would be forced to retreat and regroup, but salvation came in the form of the Iron Hands.
Ferrus Manus had naught but respect for his brother, but knew that his pride was his greatest shortcoming. If Fulgrim needed reinforcements, he would suffer long beyond learning such before sending a call for help.
And so, the Iron Hands followed the Emperor's Children in secret, and only deployed when interference was undoubtedly necessary.
The purge of the Laer was thorough and absolute, none survived. And Ferrus Manus vowed to keep his involvement a secret for the sake of Fulgrim's pride. For years, there was no sign of what was to come...until the Diasporex.
The Diasporex was a nomadic, democratic confederation of humans and aliens who lived aboard a vast collection of ancient starships, maintaining a network of solar collectors around various stars to fuel their vessels' power generators. The aliens who existed in alliance with the Diasporex humans were a large quadrupedal species that lacked eyes and made use of cybernetic enhancements.
The Emperor's Children learned of the Diasporex when the Iron Hands called them to assist in their extermination, claiming that they were hostile and dangerous. Having no reason not to believe the Gorgon, Fulgrim committed his Expeditionary Fleet to the conflict.
The Diasporex fought a hit and run battle for many weeks, until the Emperor's Children discovered and assaulted their refueling stations. Drawn out of hiding and into open conflict, the two Legions made short work of the enemy.
Fulgrim's armored boots echoed through the halls of the Fist of Iron as he approached his brother's quarters, his face set with concern.
Please, let him be wrong. The Phoenician thought to himself as he entered Ferrus' private chambers and saw his brother examining a cybernetic implant taken from the Diasporex.
"Just as I suspected, completely inferior." The Gorgon said to himself with an arrogant smirk before crushing the implant and tossing it aside. "Get rid of it." He ordered the serfs that were already moving to follow his orders.
"I do not recall you being so emotional. Your smile used to be so rare." Fulgrim stated.
At last, the Gorgon noticed him. "Ha! Far be it from me not to appreciate victory against annoying weaklings. I can't tell you how furious I was to need you for this."
Fulgrim smirked. There was the proud perfectionist he had grown to love. "Did you consider asking them to hold still for you?"
Ferrus laughed as he rose from his seat, and Fulgrim's smile vanished as he caught sight of the Laer Blade Ferrus kept as a trophy on his waist.
Ferrus noticed his brother's distaste. "You're not still upset that I've taken up swordsmanship, are you?"
"N-no! It's just...something about that sword...unnerves me." Fulgrim shuddered as he confessed.
"Ah well, it is a xeno weapon after all. And you definitely suffered more from the Laer than I did." Ferrus reasoned. "Nevermind that, what brings you here?"
Fulgrim steeled himself, once more praying that he was wrong. "When we took the Diasporex Flagship. One of the aliens cried for mercy."
Ferrus arched an eyebrow. "Huh, I wasn't aware those things could speak."
"They can't. The message was telepathic." Fulgrim corrected.
"Ah. So what of it? Why should we care?" Ferrus asked.
"Because it claimed that it just wanted to be left alone. And looking at how the Diasporex fought, I believe it." Fulgrim explained.
The Gorgon's expression became hostile, very hostile. "So you're calling me a liar? Is that it?"
"Brother...you've been acting strange ever since the Laer Campaign. I've read the reports, I've heard the rumors, and now...what's happening to you?" Fulgrim all but pleaded for an explanation
Ferrus' eyes drifted downward. His scowl remained for a time, but then it twisted into an amused smile as he began to laugh. "What's happening? Hehehehe, I am discarding weakness. The Diasporex may not have attacked me, but they provoked me...with their weakness."
Fulgrim eyes widened with horrible realization. "You...you exterminated them because they were inferior. THE ENTIRE PURPOSE OF THE IMPERIUM IS TO STRENGTHEN US!!"
Ferrus waved off Fulgrim's hysteria. "It would've been a waste of our resources to include those scum."
"THAT IS NOT YOUR CALL TO MAKE!!" Fulgrim shouted. Trying desperately to reason with his brother.
"Actually, it is. Unless the Emperor himself overturns me. But he was not here, so I judged the Diasporex myself...and found them wanting." Ferrus said with no attempt to disguise his arrogance.
Fulgrim was speechless for a moment. The man that stood before him was a farcry from the brother he loved. "...The Emperor will hear of this."
Fulgrim knew that his words were the death of his bond with Ferrus Manus. But it was the only choice he could make.
Ferrus said nothing. He stared for a moment, and then he went to a weapon stand holding Forgebreaker and retrieved the mighty hammer. Presenting it to Fulgrim.
Fulgrim nodded in agreement as he reached for the hammer. He had expected such a reaction.
...he hadn't expected Ferrus to draw the Laer Blade and cut off the hammer's head.
The Iron Hands were censured by the Emperor and sent to relieve the Iron Warriors by request of Rainbow Dash, where they would remain until the end of the Ullanor Campaign.
But none of this did anything to mend Fulgrim's wounded heart. Even his mother knew nothing of the grief of a friendship being torn apart in such a cruel manner. And so, Fulgrim sulked in isolation for a very long time.
It would not be until the Emperor's Children were called to reinforce the Death Guard in the war against the Megarachnids that Fulgrim emerged. Not with Forgebreaker, nor with the Fire Blade, but the 3rd Legion's holiest weapon: the burning spear known as Phoenix Beak.
The Megarachnids were one of the deadliest xenos species the Imperium had ever encountered. After the deaths of the Blood Angels tied to the 140th Expeditionary Fleet, the Death Guard were sent to purge the alien threat with extreme prejudice.
It brought tears to every Maiden's heart when they saw what Fluttershy had become, but the pitiless xenocidal warrior known as Death's Reaper was exactly what the Imperium needed her to be.
Yet, even with the Death Guard's experience in war, and the Emperor's Children serving as support, the Megarachnids pushed them to their limit and reaped a bloody toll from both Legions...until the Angel arrived.
Seeking vengeance for his lost sons, the Primarch Sanguinius brought several IXth Legion companies into the fray.
Rarity's first impression of the Angel of Baal was unnerving, for how seamlessly he fought beside Fluttershy in a maelstrom of slaughter that proved him a dark equal to Death's Reaper. Yet, Sanguinius had two sides to his personality, and later revealed himself to share Rarity's love of the fine arts.
The addition of a third Primarch should've spelt the doom for the Megarachnids, but to the surprise of all, interference came in the form of an undiscovered human civilization called the Interex.
The Interex revealed that they had marooned the Megarachnids upon their homeworld of Murder after defeating them in a war long past. The Interex chose not to exterminate them so as not to have the blood of an entire species on their hands.
Fluttershy argued that the Megarachnids should be eradicated. While Rarity wouldn't lose sleep over the gate of the aggressive species, it pained her to see Fluttershy ready to slaughter them. And so, she argued that the Megarachnids were not a threat so long as Murder remained cut off from the wider galaxy.
In the end, it was decided that the fate of the Megarachnids would be determined after the Interex were brought into the Imperial fold. To this end, the newly appointed Warmaster Horus and his mother were contacted and given control of the situation.
Years passed, the Imperium grew in strength, but without warning or provocation...tragedy struck.
Luna, the Lady of the Night, had been killed while trying evacuate the innocent from the surface of the rebelling world Nostromo.
All the Imperium mourned the Maidens death, but Konrad Kurze was struck with more fear than grief. For it was not his remorseless killers that had destroyed Nostromo, but those amongst the Night Lords that were more aligned with Luna's ideals than Kurze himself.
This convinced Kurze that his Legion's fall from grace was inevitable. That the Emperor's efforts to save his soul from damnation had been for naught.
Rarity and the other Maidens tried to console the grief-stricken Primarch for fear that he planned to cull his Legion and commit suicide, but their efforts were wasted...until the most terrifying of the Maiden-Born, Angron of Nuceria, came forth with a plan to ensure the VIIIth Legion could never harm the innocent.
To this end, Applejack contacted Rarity and requested that she use her contacts amongst the Imperial Aeldari to secure passage to Commoragh. Their mission: break the Dark Eldar over their knee before leaving the Dark City under the Night Lords' care, who in turn would be watched by Companies of the Emperor's Children and the World Eaters.
Commoragh was more than any one Legion could handle, but with the World Eaters forming the speartip, the Emperor's Children providing support, and the Night Lords flushing out ambush attempts, the Drukhari gradually lost ground.
It was during this campaign that Rarity was scarred across her face. Though she had been scarred before, a blade had never touched her face until her duel with Lelith Hesperax...who was promptly slain in fury by the IIIrd Legion's most legendary hero.
Blood poured from his body onto the shower floor as he washed away the filth of the last battle and revealed his many scars, old and fresh alike.
The campaign was over, the Dark Eldar only existed as refugees hiding in lower dregs and allyways of their city, as it should be.
He despised having to let them live. He knew that the Night Lords needed something to keep them occupied while they stayed in this self-appointed exile. He had agreed to it at first...but then they ruined her.
Rarity, the Mother of his Father, the source of Fulgrim's greatness, the source of his own greatness, whose beauty was unmatched by any in all the universe...scarred by a knife-earred whore.
The water ceased as he shut off the shower and stepped out. As he did, his eyes lazily drifted to the mirror.
His reflection stared back at him. Even in fury, he was beautiful. He represented everything that the Emperor's Children aspired to be. As close to perfection as an Astartes could come, and now... A Maiden was less perfect than he.
His fist shattered the mirror and dented the Adamantine wall behind it as he realized what sort of blasphemy had crossed his mind. He then stared at his bleeding, mangled hand in rage and regret that he could be so arrogant...before noticing a piece of glass before him in the perfect shape for him to use as an impromptu knife.
Taking the blade in his ruined hand, Lucius carved the perfection from his flesh.
The Commoragh Campaign saw the Emperor's Children removed from the birth of the Nikea edict, but Rarity was pleased to hear that no censure had been passed, save the one passed on the Space Wolves after a Rune Priest went mad and attacked a group of Thousand Sons.
After that, the galaxy seemed to have finally yielded. For nearly a century, there was nothing more dangerous than rogue Orks and stubborn Aeldari who refused to abandon their claim on the galaxy. But then, with no warning or sign, Leman Russ laid siege to Prospero just as Ultramar became divided by civil war.
"We've emerged from the Warp. Powering down Gellar Fields." Called out a voice on the vox. As soon as the psychic barrier was down, Rarity, Fulgrim, and every Librarian present extended their presence as if they were stretching out their arms.
An Astropathic message sent ahead ensured that the Thousand Sons were aware of their evacuation plan, and Librarians were materializing within the IIIrd Legion's flagship with groups of their kin...but Starlight and Magnus were nowhere to be found.
Just as she began to fear the worst, Rarity felt a strong pull, and recognized the psychic signature of Magnus the Red.
She pulled with all her might, and allowed the Primarch to teleport onto Generosity of the Emperor. The sight haunted her forevermore.
Magnus' back had been broken, and his injuries so severe that not even an Astartes in Terminator armor could've survived...but the broken Primarch was all but invisible to Rarity for what lay beside him.
Torn metal and ravaged meat bled under the Primarch's hand. It was so unrecognizable that Rarity only knew the body's identity for a single tuft of hair that wasn't covered in blood...hair that was half cyan and half amethyst.
"...ss...st-Starlight..." Rarity was dumbstruck at the reality of what she saw. Starlight Glimmer was dead, eaten alive by Leman Russ.
"Stay with Magnus mother, I will handle this." Fulgrim offered, but Rarity refused.
"No, we will lay her to rest later. First, we will avenge her.
Upon rescuing the survivors of Prospero, the Emperor's Children deployed to the Azure District on the western side of the planet's capital alongside the Death Guard.
The Emperor's Children did not lose sight of their objective. They acted as support, not as the spearhead. But none of them protested the cynical nature of the Death Guard as they had against the Megarachnids.
Fulgrim and Rarity commanded opposite flanks beside Fluttershy and Mortarion's assault. Cutting down any that survived the onslaught and cutting off reinforcements.
The Daemons were known to the Maidens, and no match for their own sorcery. But the Wulfen were a different matter entirely.
To know that every Wulfen was once an Astartes caused Rarity to ponder how many of them were but victims in this madness. She would hesitate to cut them down in the hopes that they could be saved. Those beside her did not protest the expended energy in fighting mercifully...for they believed that the war would end swiftly.
Reports came in that Perturabo had opened fire upon Rainbow Dash and that the Iron Warriors fell into infighting. Jaghatai Khan and his White Scars made to assist, but doing so had left their flanks exposed.
The Space Wolves lept upon the sign of weakness, leaving only a skeleton force and a horde of Daemons to face the Emperor's Children and the Death Guard.
Faced with no choice but to continue their mission to purge the enemy from their side of the planet, Rarity nonetheless called to deploy the second wave.
Saul Tarvitz grit his teeth as another Wulfen yelped in pain as he ran it through, before he pulled his sword free and beheaded one of the foul shebeasts that leapt at him from behind.
It hadn't escaped his notice that the feminine abominations came at the IIIrd Legion in greater numbers than the others of their kind. And he swore that he could hear them whispering to him and his brothers...though he didn't care to listen.
He was torn from his thoughts as the heavens fell upon him. Iron Hands drop pods descended onto the Emperor's Children, killing some, and driving others from cover to be cut down by the enemy. ARE THEY MAD!? The IIIrd Legion Captain thought to himself...he soon received his answer.
Tarvitz watched as the Iron Hands departed their drop pods...and began to massacre his Company.
Before Tarvitz could react, he felt the telltale tingling of his teeth that forshadowed teleportation.
A massive Iron Hands Terminator appeared just to his side and swung a Thunder Hammer at him. Tarvitz barely survived by leaping into the air, he then twisted upside down and performed a 360° spin, his sword finding a gap in the traitor's armor.
Tarvitz landed behind the headless Terminator before it even began to fall. He saw his brothers beginning to push back...and also saw the female creatures that had plagued him and his brothers fighting alongside the Iron Hands, appearing to bask in their presence.
"By the Elements...what have you done?"
As Xth Legion drop pods rained down upon the Emperor's Children, the Iron Hands sent Thunderhawks behind the enemy lines. They did not carry Astartes, but rather the Iron Tenths most dangerous mortal followers: the Warsingers of Istvaan III.
The telepathic psykers summoned and herded the Daemonettes of Slaanesh with their siren's call, and allowed themselves to be butchered in a Chaotic ritual that summoned forth Kanathara, a Keeper of Secrets whose hooves shatter mountains and whose voice lulls the sun.
While the Greater Daemon moved to take Rarity's soul for its Dark Master, Fulgrim faced a far deadlier foe, his brother.
Ferrus Manus revealed that he had slowly been possessed by a Daemon within the Laer Blade. And though he had managed to break free and imprison the Daemon, the ordeal had revealed to him his weakness, and further drove him to pursue perfection.
Fulgrim argued that this wasn't him, that he was still a puppet to the Great Enemy. Ferrus stated that if it were true, then he was too weak to free himself, and needed perfection all the more.
The two Primarchs clashed as only Demigods could. As brother fought brother on one side of the western front, Rarity desperately fought to reform a proper battle line before the arrival of Kanathara.
An attempt was made to contact the Death Guard for reinforcements, but it only revealed that they too had been betrayed by the Salamanders, with Vulkan fighting Mortarion and Fluttershy simultaneously.
With no reinforcements and no preparations, Rarity made the desperate decision to teleport to Kanathara's location and face the Daemon head on.
The Maiden of Generosity is a far weaker sorcerer than the other magically inclined Maidens, but the nature of their Warp Craft made them Anathema to the horrors of the immaterium.
Rarity's first attack banished hundreds of Daemonettes, the rest choosing to fall back and allow the Greater Daemon to fight alone.
Kanathara would not be so easily felled. But Rarity's speed and agility allowed her to avoid the Daemon's counterstrikes.
Unfortunately, the Daemonettes did not remain cowed forever, they simply waited for Kanathara to hold the Maiden's attention until the right moment to strike.
That moment would never come. Sensing the threat, Magnus the Red rejoined the battlefield with the last remnants of his broken Legion.
The Crimson King teleported between Rarity and Kanathara and smote the Daemon where it stood. Allowing Rarity to return to the allied lines and find that the Emperor's Children under her command had successfully drove back the Iron Hands with the aid of the Thousand Sons.
From there, Magnus led a counterattack against the Salamanders while Rarity moved to reinforce Fulgrim as the Night Lords arrived in system.
Unfortunately, Rarity's efforts to save her son were in vain. She arrived on the scene of Fulgrim's battle against Ferrus Manus...as the Gorgon removed his brother's head.
Rarity's despair fed the Dark Prince, who showed it's gratitude by raising Ferrus Manus above his mortal limits, ascending him to Daemonhood.
As the Gorgon's living metal spread to encase his entire body, Rarity's despair gave way to fury, her psychic powers amplifying a hundred fold and manifesting in the form of crystallized energy that she willed to go forth and impale the fallen Primarch.
Rarity collapsed in exhaustion, tears of grief blinding her from all but the frozen wave of diagonal stalagmites that had impaled and enveloped Ferrus Manus.
The tension began to leave, and she began to fall unconscious...until the cracking started.
With no small amount of effort, Ferrus Manus burst forth from what was meant to be his grave. The Daemon Primarch had lost all semblance of humanity, bearing a serpentine lower half, two pairs of arms, and a nest of snakes protruding from his skull.
Yet, the Gorgon's perfection had been forever denied. Three of Rarity's crystal spikes impaled his flesh before his transformation was complete, and they then melted away and left fist sized gaps in the Gorgon's iron scales.
"You...how dare you!?" The Gorgon's voice was both a hiss and a snarl, a whisper and a roar,echoing from the ends of the galaxy and inside Rarity's mind.
The Maiden tried to stand, to summon forth her power from before or even a simple spell, but it was useless. She was spent.
"How dare you do this to me...you filthy xenos wench...I WAS ALMOST PERFECT!!!" The Gorgon struck like a viper, Rarity couldn't even summon the strength to put her arms between them.
"YOU WON'T HAVE HER!!!" The Gorgon was thrown to the side as the vengeful form of Rylanor crashed into him. Rarity didn't have a chance to react before she was pulled from the blood soaked ground by an Astartes who then took off at a full sprint.
Rarity's world was a blur. All around her, the Emperor's Children did battle with the Iron Hands, forsaking their flawless technique in favor of berserker rage.
A feral scream alerted Rarity to an attack from a Daemonette. No sooner was the scream cut off along with the Daemon's head by the Marine carrying her. Lucius.
When next they were engaged, drop pods landed between Lucius and the enemy. The Night Lords sprang forth on wings of fire and fury, delivering just punishment onto the Daemon and the traitor alike.
Rarity turned her eyes to the sound of a Thunderhawk coming in low. "It's...it's not ours." The Maiden's words barely a whisper and were only heard by Lucius.
"LOOK OUT!!!" Shouted Saul Tarvitz who pushed the other Astartes out of the way as the Iron Hands Thunderhawk fired a strafing run.
Lucius rolled out of the way while holding his mother like an infant in his arms, when he righted himself he kept on running...shedding a single tear as he stepped over his brother's body.
The Thunderhawk had landed, and enemy reinforcements would engage them soon, but salvation had arrived. An Emperor's Children Thunderhawk appeared in the skies above them.
Lucius ran as fast as an Astartes could, cutting down anything that dared stand against him, but as Rarity's eyes drifted to the sky...she saw a foreboding shadow descending upon them.
"Luci-" Rarity's attempt to warn her son was cut short as the Iron Hands Assault Marine crashed into him. Destroying his battery pack and planting him into the ground.
Rarity's armor prevented Lucius' body from crushing her, but she was nonetheless helpless to defend herself from the raised chainsword that rushed to her neck.
Lucius threw the flat of his deactivated Power Sword between the chainsword and it's target, diverting the Assault Marine's attention towards him.
The traitor removed his foot from Lucius' back and stomped on his sword arm before striking to behead the scarred warrior.
Shots rang out and the traitor fell. Lucius recollected Rarity with his functioning arm and ran as fast as he could...ignoring the blood flowing from his neck.
The Dropsite Massacre scarred the Imperium as a whole, but not even the Thousand Sons suffered as many losses as the Emperor's Children. Fulgrim had been slain, along with most of their Commanders, and Rarity had been incapable of giving orders in her state.
Fortunately, the Night Lords had been accompanied by their guards from the Emperor's Children and the World Eaters. The Companies guarding the Dark City were switched out annually, and the Emperor's Children Company stationed there at the time were the elite Ist Company led by Lord Commander Eidolon.
Eidolon took over as Legion Master while Rarity retreated to her quarters to grieve, and ordered the IIIrd Legion to return to Chemos for reinforcements...they only found despair.
Fabius Bile:
When the Emperor created the holy Geneseed of the Astartes from the genetic material of the Primarchs, he also created some from the genetic material from the Maidens themselves for select individuals who would become legends in their own right.
However, the prophecies that showed every deviation of the Imperium's future all shared one common villain, one man whom the Emperor forbade to become Astartes.
Born amongst the nobility of Europa, Fabius Bile was accustomed to a life of luxury...a life that ended when the nobles were robbed of their power.
Fabius was initially offered a place amongst the IIIrd Legion by Rarity, but once she heard the boy's name. She withdrew her offer.
Bitter and vengeful. Fabius would dream of the life that Rarity had taken from him that night, and in this same dream he would be visited by a messenger of Slaanesh.
This messenger would take the form of Fabius Bile's future self and guide him down the path to his destiny.
Fabius would pledge himself to the IIIrd Legion as a serf. He would then rise through the ranks and earn the special privileges that would ensure his victory. Including Chemical Rejuvenation lengthening his life until the discovery of Fulgrim.
When the IIIrd Legion made Chemos it's home world, Fabius Bile was permitted to live there as a teacher of medicine. There, Fabius Bile secretly poisoned his every patient with a horrid concoction that allowed those infected to hear the whispers of the Warp as if they were Psykers.
On the eve of the Dropsite Massacre, Fabius' long waiting came to an end, and Chemos was devoured by a Warpstorm known as the Maw of Slaanesh.
What the Maw spat out was a living nightmare. All that lived was in pain, and many of them embraced it. And at the center of it all stood Fibius Bile, reforged as an Astartes by the Daemon that guided him and the will of Slaanesh.
When the shattered remnants of the Emperor's Children returned to Chemos, they found a world despoiled by the horrors of the Dark Prince. What few of their brothers survived had been driven insane and now serve under Fabius Bile.
Vowing to destroy this Usurper, Eidolon committed his forces to purging the corrupted planet.
Fabius and Eidolon commanded roughly equal numbers of Astartes, but the maddened Cultists and Daemonettes turned the tide in favor of the heretics, making a ground war all but impossible. Eidolon sought to commit Exterminatus, but Rarity, in a fit of grief-stricken madness, refused to let her son's homeworld be so callously destroyed.
This hesitation would prove costly, as Fabius Bile sent forth a fleet of Warp-tainted warships to assault the limping IIIrd Legion Fleet. The extinction of the Emperor's Children seemed imminent...But salvation emerged from the darkness.
Guided by his visions of catastrophe, Konrad Curze led his Legion to the rescue of the Emperor's Children and, ever the monster whose help is unwanted but forever needed, destroyed Chemos in the same manner as Nostromo.
Rarity's screams of despair wounded her sons far more than the mercy-killing of their homeworld, and many feared that she would demand vengeance upon the Night Lords. That is, until Curze himself arrived onboard their flagship to explain himself to the distraught Maiden.
None besides the two holy figures know what words passed between them, but when they emerged from the Maidens private chambers, Rarity's mind was whole again...though her tears never truly faded.
Chemos was gone, but Fabius Bile managed to escape, and though the temptation to hunt him down was great, the atrocities committed by letting him live were nothing compared to what would've occurred had the two Legions not set their sights elsewhere.
While the Dark Angels and Space Wolves waged war against the Sons of Horus and the ruined Blood Angels and Alpha Legion, and the Iron Warriors clashed with the White Scars, the Iron Hands and Salamanders had seized the opportunity to bolster the Lion's forces. Enslaving a large portion of the Imperium and increasing production across numerous Forge Worlds.
With so many Loyalist Legions deposed, it fell to the Night Lords and Emperor's Children to rally the mortal warriors of the Imperial Army.
The weakened IIIrd Legion contacted worlds still loyal to the Imperial Truth and rallied their forces while the Night Lords descended on worlds taken by the traitors and led multiple rebellions. In a year's time, the Astartes were spearheading an Imperial Fleet of thousands of ships bearing billions of defiant souls.
The Night Lords followed the visions of their Primarch elsewhere, leaving Rarity and Eidolon to lead the mortal army. Thus began a campaign of liberation that would occupy the Emperor's Children until the siege of Terra.
Hive World Vostroya:When the Emperor's Children sent out their call for aid, the people of Vostroya refused to reinforce them, stating that the men they would send to fight would serve the Imperium better building weapons for those on the front lines.
The Emperor's Children accepted their logic and allowed the Vostroyan people to evade Active Duty on the frontlines.
Wrought with grief after the Heresy's end, Vostroya intended to draft every firstborn son of every family into the Imperial Army.
To their surprise, an Emperor's Children Chaplain visited the Hive World's Planetary Governor, and requested that the Emperor's Children be permitted to use Vostroya as a Recruitment World to make up for the devastation their Legion had suffered.
The Governor of Vostroya couldn't form a reply. It was known to him that the Astartes could simply demend his service. And yet, the most desperate Legion of them all would merely request his assistance.
Vostroya's destiny was changed by this encounter, but only slightly. The Vostroyan Firstborn serve honorably and by choice. Not as a penitant regiment of the Imperial Guard, but as the 15th battle company of the Emperor's Children.
After seven years of unfathomable bloodshed, the Siege of Terra had begun. Though the Emperor's Children wished to make all haste to reinforce their allies, they had received word that the Death Guard were in more dire need of aid.
The Megarachnids, an ancient foe of both Legions that had been spared extinction for the sake of diplomacy with the Interex, had returned as a far more dangerous threat.
Though the Heretics beneath the Lion's banner were the most hateful and xenophobic of Mankind, they knew that the Imperium's xenos allies needed to be countered if they were to achieve victory. To this end, Vulkan and Ferrus Manus saw fit to grant the Megarachnids the one thing they didn't have last time, technology.
The vile xenos marooned upon Murder ensured that Rarity would always regret her decision to oppose Fluttershy's wish to slaughter them. Celebrating their freedom with a crusade of carnage against random worlds with no importance or commonality.
The Death Guard had tried to stop them, but were now in danger of being overwhelmed.
Determined to right this wrong, the first recorded vox message between the arriving Emperor's Children and the surviving Death Guard is Rarity apologizing to Fluttershy and stating Now we do it your way.
The battle was long and hard, and bled the wounded Legions even more. In total, only 2,200 Astartes would reinforce Terra, and 1,500 were Death Guard.
The Salamanders would attempt to crush the wounded Legions outright, but their assault left them open for hidden Night Lords and Alpha Legionnaires who ensured the limping Legions would have very little interaction with the enemy until the made planet fall.
The two weakened Legions were ultimately unable to do more than fill in gaps in the other fronts, adding to the enemy's losses while reducing their own until...the end.
News of the Emperor's fall, of Horus and Celestia's deaths, shook the Imperium to its core. And nearly every ship still capable of flight took the Astartes Legions after the World Eaters and Word Bearers already hot on the Traitors heels. Even the ruined Death Guard would participate in the Great Scouring.
But the Emperor's Children were too shattered and too weak. Rarity and Eidolon would spend twenty years on Holy Terra attempting to reassemble their Legion. Once again taking in orphans left behind by the scars of war.
When the IIIrd Legion was ready to take its ships into the stars once more, they found the Thousand Sons waiting for them.
Prospero. The world that witnessed the birth of the Lion's Heresy, had witnessed the death of a Maiden and a Primarch, had been reshaped by Rarity's grief.
The ethereal crystals Rarity had summoned to impale Ferrus Manus were spreading across the ruined world. They would need to be removed in order for the planet to be inhabitable once more, and so Magnus the Red had decided to make his former homeworld into a Shrine World. A planet sized memorial not only for the victims of the Dropsite Massacre, but the Heresy as a whole.
After a brief period of mourning, the Emperor's Children resumed their duties defending Humanity and it's allies from all who would disown Harmony in the name of Chaos or selfishness...yet their suffering had not yet ended.
Eidolon brought his hammer down upon another twisted parody of an Astartes before spinning it around to dissuade two others who were swiftly engaged by his brothers.
Eidolon left them to fight alone. He hated doing so, but he had to hurry, he had to stop the bastard from escaping with her.
He brought his hammer down on a bulkhead and blew it open...revealing a horrible sight.
Humans, equines, and hybrid creatures, all twisted parodies of his mother and some bearing the marks of Slaaneshi corruption, stood between him and his objective. Rarity, in stasis in her true alien form, held by crawling horrors at the side of the Corruptor of Chemos: Fabius Bile.
Rarity's abduction was the final death of the IIIrd Legion. What rose in it's place was no noble Phoenix, but a dark vengeful creature whose sole purpose was to reclaim what it had lost.
Eidolon became single minded in his pursuit of Fabius Bile, to the point of almost ignoring any endangered world or system that had no relation to the Clone Lord and chasing down even the faintest lead with the zealotry of a witch hunter. This reckless abandoning of his duties to the wider Imperium caused a schism in the Legion that may have lead to civil war...were it not for the 2nd Founding.
As more and more Legions became leaderless in the centuries since the Lion's Heresy, Lorgar decreed that more Legions were needed. Thus, trusted commanders of the Legions would take 500 Astartes and form a new Legion with it's own doctrines and traditions.
Several Legions split from their parent Legions gracefully and with respect. The two Child Legions of the Emperor's Children fled a drifting Hulk.
The Vostroyan Firstborn could no longer keep their bargain as a part of the IIIrd, and the old traditions were kept alive through the Lamenters. For the Emperor's Children themselves are incapable of selfless behavior, they had too much, and too much had been wrongfully stolen from them. Should Rarity ever be recovered...perhaps their wounds may heal.
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I thought you abandoned this story. What legion are you gonna write next in few years?
11317589
Not abandoned, just...life sucks. I'm buying a tablet and taking a page out of Majorkill's book. Fuck labor work.
Of course, that's only one reason. The other is that my stupid ass was trying to put everything together in my and then write it from memory when I had the time. This time, I'm going to write a barebones summary of what I want to happen and then gradually add details.
Hopefully it won't take me two years to drop the next...having said that, I'm moving 4 states south next month and still working 10 hour shifts until then. So the Iron Warriors probably won't be out for awhile even if I employ this new strategy.
Good story! Like how Fabius Bile was written in and his eventual bit of revenge. Took a bit to see the Dark Angel parallels though.
11321232
Yeah, admittedly the Dark Angels thing was a last minute thing. Like I literally thought that up the day I finished the chapter.
Interesting.
10771764
So Guillimen was not corrupted?
11439429
Guilliman's role is 'Magnus if everyone else was smart about it'.
11440856
So 50/50 then?
11440939
He did something he shouldn't have, swore his Legion to secrecy, and half of them went nuts because of it.
11442035
I see.