Istvaan V

The war had not yet been declared.

That would come at Istvaan.

That would come with the order Horus gave to the ships in orbit, the order to commence the viral bombing of the Istvaan the Third surface, targeting not the enemy, but the loyalist elements within his own legion, the Luna Wolves, who had not been told what their Warmaster had become and who would need to be silenced before the betrayal could be made open.

That would come with the message sent to Horus' chosen confederates among the legion masters, the signal that the time of quiet preparation was over and the time of open war had begun.

But before the declaration, in the last days of the world that the Great Crusade had built, there was a particular quality to the silence.

Those who could not.

Those who could not were to be eliminated.

Istvaan the Third was not a military objective.

It was good.

The other bits were you could take battlefield assets from the Istvaan V Maelfice Journals, because GW made them, we may as well use the damn rules.

Yeah.

I totally missed that.

Lucius is kind of a free agent within the legion.

He's kind of respected for his prowess, but he's also not really, like, not a leader of guys, you know what I mean? He's, you know, he is a scarred-up duelist, and he does actually carry the now inert Laer blade, which was gifted to him by Fulgrim after Isstvan V.

The legion, I mean, we should say as well, like, the le- like, the Emperor's Children, who are once, like, you know, the champions of the emperor, their weapons, their armor, even their, like, ships, it describes in the novel, like, how it's always been transformed, it's been corrupted, it's all gaudy and disgusting.

And as Lucius is walking its corridors, he actually meets up with, uh, Eidolon again.

There's a ...

You know, most of the Legion's important people are here, but F- Fabius will show up in the story, I promise.

But Fulgrim, the Primarch, you know, he's killed Ferrus Manus on Isstvan V, you know, not that long ago.

He makes this really obscene entrance, and he's, like, bedecked in, like, makeup and finery, and the Emperor's Children are, like, cheering.