Fall of Prospero

The Fall of Prospero, also referred to as the Scouring of Prospero or the Burning of Prospero, was the name of the sanctioned Imperial reprisal against the Thousand Sons Legion of Space Marines' homeworld of Prospero at the start of the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium by the Space Wolves Legion and elements of the Adeptus Custodes and the Sisters of Silence as a punishment for their flagrant violation of the Emperor of Mankind's edicts against the use of sorcery in the Imperium made at the Council of Nikaea.

The Red Sorcerers of Prospero
Magnus the Red was the most powerful psyker of all the Primarchs, the genetically-engineered superhuman sons of the Emperor of Mankind who led the Legions of the Space Marines. He had been raised on the Planet of Sorcerers, Prospero. This unusual human world embraced the psychic mutations amongst its population. These psykers were not outcast by their fellow Prosperines but were instead embraced as their world's leaders. When the nascent Primarch was found in his pod that had fallen from the heavens, he became a ward of the psychic scholars and leaders of Prospero, and quickly gained the same powers. He soon surpassed his primary master in the psychic arts and became the planet’s preeminent sorcerer and leader of the ruling Commune of Prospero. Elevated to be the rightful leader of Prospero, he unified its sometimes squabbling Cults of Sorcerers, and set towards rebuilding Prospero into a centre of knowledge and the occult.

When the Emperor was reunited with his long lost son, he cautioned Magnus about the dangers of sorcery and the nature of the warp. The Emperor knew that Magnus was a very powerful psyker and possessed an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Feeling that is was far more dangerous for his son to remain ignorant of the secrets of the Immaterium and the ancient, dark intelligence which resided there, the Emperor showed Magnus the truth. Feigning shock and horror at the Emperor's revelations, Magnus agreed to renounce sorcery and to lead his people away from the study of the occult, but he secretly dismissed his father's warnings. For Magnus had already peered into the Warp with his one great eye and had become obsessed with the potential promise of power.

Sorcery of the Thousand Sons
Eventually Magnus was reunited with his genetic progeny of the XV Legion of Space Marines. The XV Legion was formally named the Thousand Sons by the Emperor and given their own expeditionary fleet so that they might begin to make contributions to the Great Crusade the Emperor had unleashed to reunify all of humanity within the newborn Imperium of Man. Like their genetic father, the Thousand Sons had inherited powerful psychic talents, as their genomes possessed their Primarch's own psychically-potent genes. However, the Legion's gene-seed was genetically unstable, often resulting in unwanted mutations known as the "Flesh Change" by the Legionaries, and were much feared, as the spiral of degenrative mutation ultimately reduced a proud Thousand Sons Astartes into a mindless mutant abomination. The majority of those afflicted by the Flesh-Change were put into stasis by the Legion in the hope that someday in the future a cure would be able to be found to reverse the onset of these crippling mutations. The number of active Astartes within the XV Legion soon began to dwindle to dangerously low levels as a result of the ravages of the Flesh-Change.

By the time the Thousand Sons were reunited with their Primarch Magnus, their number had depleted to only one thousand active Astartes - literally 'one thousand sons'. Through unknown means, Magnus restored his afflicted sons and made the XV Legion whole once again. The Legion quickly adopted Prospero as its new homeworld and many of Magnus's followers on the planet were recruited in the Legion's ranks. Despite the Emperor's earlier warnings, the Primarch continued to obsess with the forbidden knowledge of the warp and the dabbling in sorcery. He secretly taught the Thousand Sons the ways of the Sorcerers of Prospero, to embrace their psychic talents as a gift rather than suffer them as a curse. The Thousand Sons had become a secret cabal of warlocks.

Throughout the Great Crusade the psychic talents of the Thousand Sons were brought to the fore as they fought bravely in numerous campaigns, leaving few in doubt of their achievements. However, there were those Primarchs such as Leman Russ of the Space Wolves, Mortarion of the Death Guard and Corax of the Raven Guard whom never could bring themselves to fully trust Magnus and his Thousand Sons. Leman Russ condemned the Thousand Sons as warlocks whom employed fell magicks. Mortarion openly accused the Red King of dabbling in sorcery most foul and Corax twice refused to field his Legion alongside the Thousand Sons.

Space Marine Librarians
Magnus the Red saw the potential in exploiting the powers of psychically talented Astartes and was instrumental in the development of the Space Marine Librarians. In some of the Space Marine Legions psychic mutation was relatively common and it was felt by some of the Primarchs that such individuals should be allowed to continue to use their innate psychic abilities. This would allow these gifted battle-brothers to be of use to their Legion without presenting any danger. Magnus and a number of other Primarchs created a program of training and development for psykers that supplemented the traditional process of creating a Space Marine. The Emperor had been asked to approve of the recruitment of these so-called psykers into the ranks of some of the other Legions, and so, he sanctioned these first experiments with these psychic Astartes as a means of controlling the spontaneous outbreaks of psychic mutation within the ranks of certain legions. The librarians quickly proved to be loyal and effective warriors gaining acceptance by the Emperor for their presence on the field of battle. The librarians soon became a powerful addition to the ranks of the Space Marine Legions.

However, there were those Primarchs whom raised their voices in dissent, arguing amongst themselves and with the Emperor about the use of Librarians. Some desired to expand their Librarius departments and recruit even more librarians into their ranks, whilst other Primarchs vehemently opposed the entire notion of the Librarians and felt that they should be expunged from their ranks altogether. Primarchs such as Leman Russ felt that they were no better than warlocks. Corax and Rogal Dorn refused to commit their Legions to fight alongside those Legions that made use of Librarians. Mortarian accused his brother Magnus of using the forbidden arts of sorcery.

Dismayed at the accusations leveled against Magnus, the Emperor was concerned about the Librarians and the dangers they possibly presented when he was no longer fighting alongside his Space Marine Legions. Before departing for Earth to continue his great work in the seclusion of his Palace vaults, he summoned the War Council to session on the world of Nikaea to address the Librarian crisis.

Council of Nikaea
To solve this growing dispute over the use of psychic abilities once and for all, the Emperor summoned the War Council to the planet of Nikaea to resolve the use of psychic powers in the Imperium of Man as a whole and for Magnus to face charges of sorcery. This great conclave consisted of all the Primarchs as well as other chief Imperial officials of the various organisations of the Imperium. From his throne upon a high dais, the Emperor presided over the proceedings on Nikaea in the ancient amphitheatre as each side made their representations to him. Primarch Mortarion repeated his charge of Magnus employing the use of sorcery whilst Magnus defended his actions and extolled the great deeds achieved by the Librarians. He also pointed out the Imperium's absolute reliance on psykers such as the use of Astropaths and Navigators as evidence to help his cause.

The Council of Nikaea had been the Trial of Magnus the Red - for he was accused of sorcery and of introducing sorcerous practises to the Space Marine Legions through the institution of the Librarians. The Emperor barely contained his wrath as he pronounced judgement on Magnus, for he had entrusted his son years before to obey his bidding. He had entrusted Magnus with secrets of the warp to which only they were privy, but now it appeared that his son had disobeyed his edicts and at the very least dabbled in the occult and the forbidden black arts of sorcery.

Henceforth, with the exceptions of the Navigators and Astropaths whom were properly trained and sanctioned by the Imperium, the Legions were no longer to employ psykers within their ranks. He commanded that the Primarchs were to close their Librarius departments forthwith and not to indulge their undoubted psychic talents. The Council also created a new position amongst the Space Marine Legions, the Space Marine Chaplain, to uphold the Imperial Truth and help maintain the purity of an Astartes Legion's dedication to the Emperor's commands.

Furthermore, Magnus was ordered to return to Prospero to reorganise his legion, disband the Legion’s Librarius and redeploy the librarians to the battle companies. The Emperor censured his use of psychics and dismissed Magnus with a final threat - a fate that had befallen the Lost Primarchs of the II and XI Legion, 'If you treat with the warp, Magnus, I shall visit destruction upon you. And your legions name will be struck from the Imperial records for all time.'

Retreat to Prospero
Bitterly disappointed at the outcome of the Council of Nikaea, Magnus secretly raged against the Emperor and his unjust ruling. The Emperor had made his feelings clear, that Magnus was to cease all use of sorcery and psychics on pain of death. His father had censured him for such activity and warned him he would have no hesitation in destroying him if he were to disobey his commands. The Crimson King had no intention of giving up the promised power and glories of the Warp and continued to study the Immaterium and its secrets. He met with his senior Librarians and persuaded them to collude with his plan to secretly continue their studies of the occult and sorcery in secret.

Note: A recall order was transmitted throughout the Legion, with the bulk of them being present on Prospero just before the future events surrounding the Burning of Prospero happened. However, some of the Thousand Sons' legionnaires had survived as they had not arrived before these events occurred. This would include those Thousand Sons that had been sent away aboard their Legion's fleet elements such as Captain Menes Kalliston of the 4th Fellowship.

Magnus's Precognition
The Warmaster Horus was being treated on the feral planet of Davin. Unbeknown to anyone else the Warmaster was being seduced by the Ruinous Powers and would soon challenge the Emperor. Magnus, meditating on Prospero, peered into the Warp with his one good eye and foresaw the pact with Chaos that the dying Warmaster had made. He also foresaw the epic events that were yet to unfold and could prove dire to the survival of the Imperium - Horus's betrayal, the deaths of some of his Primarch brothers and of those who would betray their oaths to the Emperor and those that would defend him. The only fate the vision did not reveal was Magnus's own.

Burdened with the information by this precognitive vision, Magnus gathered about him the secret cabal of his Legion's Sorcerer Librarians to discuss and interpret the meaning and implications of these dire portents. After much deliberation they resolved to contact their beloved Emperor and warn him of Horus's impending betrayal. Using the power of his Legion's greatest sorcerers to convey the news of the impending civil war to the Emperor himself on Terra via the most forbidden of sorcerous spells, rather than the more unreliable and limited, but legal means of astrotelepathy.

Magnus's Warning
Troubled by the revelations of a terrible vision of Horus's betrayal and the coming galactic civil war, Magnus risked censure by employing the use of a daemonic spell to warn the Emperor. Why Magnus chose to warn his father in this fashion is not clear, for surely he knew the Emperor would recognise the taint of Chaos used to employ this forbidden sorcery. Nevertheless, the cabal of sorcerers joined their Primarch to cast this mighty spell, projecting the potent conjuration towards Terra through time and space. Magnus's spell breached the protective wards and hexes around the Imperial Palace and into the subterranean levels of the palace's dungeon deep within the earth. The spell lanced directly into the Emperor's brain, instantaneously filling him with the knowledge of the dark precognitive vision of Magnus and of the details of Horus's impending betrayal.

The Emperor's Wrath
''‘They are sorely misguided if they think the Warp has the power to overcome my Will. My vengeance shall haunt them across all of time and they shall never know peace. They have earned themselves only eternal damnation.’'' - The Emperor’s Promise

Magnus's daemonic conjuration of unprecedented power had breached the psychic defences of the Emperor's Palace on Terra. Magnus felt that this was to be his moment of triumph and vindication as only through the power of sorcery had Horus's betrayal been revealed. Surely his father would at long last would see the value of its use. But instead of vindication, Magnus received nothing but anger. The Emperor was not pleased with the Crimson King's warnings, and flew into a terrible rage that Magnus should dare to so flagrantly disobeyed his orders to renounce sorcery and psychics as well as Magnus's blatant deception as evidence of the worst sort of oath breaking. Completely ignoring the contents of Magnus's warning, he called forth the Primarch Leman Russ of the mighty Space Wolves Legion, commanding him to move on the world of Prospero and prosecute the rebel Primarch and his Legion. For consorting with the warp in direct contradiction of his edicts, they were to be shown no mercy.

The Wolf King brought forth the entire VI Legion to sanction Prospero - an entire Legion to punish an entire Legion. The fleet components assembled at Thardia, translating to three further assembly points, gathering strength as they went. Amongst them were forces were a contingent of Legio Custodes, bequeathed by the Emperor himself to strengthen their cause. This was a sure sign that the Primarch's mission had the full authority of the Emperor. Accompanying Russ was also a fleet of Black Ships, with orders to carry back to Terra any psykers or sorcerers left on the planet after the Thousand Sons had been dealt with.

The Space Wolves were also aided by the Silent Sisterhood. These Untouchables who carried the pariah gene, were psychic blanks who were immune to psychic assaults and anathema to the likes of the sorcerers of Prospero. The Space Wolves and the Custodians were tasked with defeating Magnus's legion on the field of battle, and arresting the malcontent Primarch. The Sisters of Silence were to apprehend and detain any and all surviving psykers for transportation to Earth, were they would be judged and have due sentence served upon them.

The prospect of prosecuting the Emperor's decree was not a palatable one, for the Space Wolves understood that even without their warlock sorcery, the Thousand Sons were to be taken seriously, for they were Astartes. That fact alone put them on a different order of being. Moreover, Prospero was their homeworld. A Legion was always strongest at its base. But the sanction of the Thousand Sons would be executed, regardless of the cost. Victory would be no easy task for either side to achieve.

Thunder from Fenris
As the sanction fleet burned in towards Prospero, it became evident that the planet had not lit its planetary defences. The grids were down from outer orbital to close surface. Individual cities were screened, but that was standard operation and not a response to the approaching threat. There were signs that civilian ships had fled or were fleeing the planet and the system in considerable numbers. Some of the escaping vessels were overtaken and boarded. Their crews and passengers were taken captive and interrogated by the rune priests, so that every useful scrap of information could be gathered.

With no response from the ground, the armada moved into high anchor above Prospero and assumed a geostationary assault pattern. Thousands of weapons were trained on the planet below: energy weapons, mass-drivers and bombardment cannons. The ships drifted sedately like grand liners in a regatta among the stars. Russ's flagship, the Hrafnkel opened the assault, its massive weapon systems blinking as etched lines of icy light stabbed down. Moments later, the rest of the fleet opened fire.

The first bombs from the Space Wolf fleet struck Prospero just before dawn. The orbital defence platforms had been caught completely unawares. One minute their augurs had been silent, the next a vast fleet of ships had appeared, a buckshot spread of torpedoes already arcing towards the orbital batteries and missile defences. Most were knocked out before they were able to launch a single weapon or power up a single gun. The lucky few that managed a snap shot were bracketed and obliterated moments later.

Though Magnus had kept his Legion blind to the approach of the Emperor’s vengeance, the Thousand Sons' sorcerers of the Raptora cult maintained a constant kine-barrier (magical barrier) over the captial city of Tizca. Not even Magnus the Red could undo that protection without someone noticing.

The first warning anyone had of the imminent attack was a hot wind that seemed to come straight from the sky, pressing down on the city like the pressure before a storm. It tasted of metal and burnt oil. Static leapt from the pyramids’ tops, sparking from silver tower to silver tower. The sour grey of pre-dawn erupted in light as the lowered clouds were lit with inner radiance.

This was swiftly followed by the tremendous crash of atmospheric discharge, like thunder without the lightning. Multiple sonic booms from hypersonic projectiles shattered the graveyard silence, and those citizens of Tizca who still slept were shaken from their beds by the echoes as percussive blasts rolled through the city. Like a stabbing finger of raw light, the first energy lance struck Prospero a kilometre north-east of Tizca.

The total saturation of the target area ensured that capital city was completely engulfed, enough to level a continent’s worth of metropolises. Yet Tizca endured. The kine-shields of the Raptora were the strongest defences any city in the Imperium could boast. Harder than the thickest adamantium and more unyielding than layer upon layer of voids, the invisible umbrella of protection soaked up the violence of the bombardment, though at fearsome cost to the warriors who maintained it.

Magnus the Red watched as the lightstorm blistered and burst over his city. The sky was stained a bloody orange as airbursting incendiary rounds burned the clouds away, and a tear fell from his eye as he watched the land around Tizca die. The forests were burning to ash and the wild grasslands blazed with secondary fires, reducing the unspoiled countryside to a wasteland in a matter of minutes. The Desolation of Prospero was complete. Now the Primarch knew how his father felt with his psychic intrusion. He knew that this was his fate and accepted his just punishment for his arrogance in flagrantly disobeying the Emperor's edicts.

Ground Assault
Shortly after the bombardment, the invaders came in their thousands - wave after wave of drop-ships, assault boats and gunships sped inbound to the planet's surface. Behind them came bulkier cargo transports bearing armoured vehicles and artillery pieces. The kine-shields of the Raptora could not protect Tizca from the attack, but their cover was no longer needed. The bombardment from orbit had ceased, and packs of roaring Stormbirds led the charge, skimming low over the water towards the Tizca’s port. Hundreds of craft flew over the churning seas, leaving foaming breakers in their wake. The idea that any enemy could reach the surface of Prospero to launch an assault had been discounted, and as a consequence, there were no antiaircraft batteries to meet the oncoming craft. The route into Tizca was wide open.

The first craft, an enormous, blade-like Stormbird with steel-grey sides and the image of twin wolves painted on its blunt, pugnacious prow smashed into the eastern quarter of the capital city known as Old Tizca, blasting its way into the berths with a salvo of missiles and a sawing blast of cannon fire. Landing skids deployed at the last second, and the craft came down hard in the wreckage. No sooner had it set down than the assault ramps dropped and a savage giant leapt down. Leman Russ set foot on Prospero, the first invader ever to do so. He roared to the skies, and the devastation wrought by his fleet above was pleasing to him. Two enormous wolves howled at his sides, and a score of his most powerful warriors fought their way into the port.

As the Space Wolves drew first blood, Prospero’s military responded. The citizen militias of Tizca rose in defence of their city, gathering what arms they could and taking up firing positions on rooftops and at windows. No one was fool enough to think they would be anything more than irritants to the Space Wolves, but to let the invaders simply walk into Tizca without a fight was as abhorrent as it was unthinkable.

The Skyguard Air Command launched every squadron of their two-man skimmers from their hangars to the south. These disc-like aircraft were armed with heat lances and missile pods, and the sky above the city became a frantic mess of gunfire, streaking missiles, explosions and dogfights as the two forces dueled for supremacy.

The Prospero Imperial Army regiments of Prosperine Spireguard attempted to bear the brunt of the Wolves' assault, meeting the demented barbarian warriors of the Space Wovles bravely, but futilely on the field of battle. The Spireguard, already on high alert after the commencement of the bombardment, moved out en masse under the guidance of the Thousasnd Sons’ Corvidae cult. Ordered to defend Tizca, they did not falter from that order despite the overwhelming odds arrayed against them.

Elements of the 15th Prosperine Assault Infantry, under Captain Sokhem Vithara, occupied the upper slopes of Old Tizca, anchoring their defence between the fire-wreathed pyramid of the Pyrae cult, the Skelmis Tholus a kilometre west and the Corvidae pyramid. Vithara set up his command post in the vestibule of the Kretis gallery, the oldest repository of artwork and sculpture on Prospero.

In the south-west of the city, the Prospero Assault Pioneers rallied what little was left of their soldiers after avalanches caused by the orbital shelling swallowed three of their barracks. The northern Palatine Guard deployed on the edges of the burning port, occupying the high parapets of overlooking libraries and galleries of the Nephrate district. Their commander, Katon Aphea, was the heir apparent to one of Prospero’s oldest families, a young and gifted officer with great potential. He anchored his defence on the Caphiera Tholus and positioned his troops with a tactical acumen that would have been lauded at any Imperial Army scholam.

Leman Russ and his Wolves overran Aphea’s position in less than two minutes. Tizca burned as dawn’s light crept over the horizon, but for all that the Space Wolves had struck an overwhelmingly bloody blow, they had yet to face the city’s true defenders. The Thousand Sons deployed, and suddenly the fight took on a very different character.

Brother Against Brother
Old Tizca was no more. The peaceful warren of antiquated streets was now ashes and burning rubble. Warriors picked careful paths through the smouldering ruins, firing from the hip or fighting with axes and swords. The coastline was invisible, obscured by fog-banks of artillery fire. Spurts of yellow fire followed by dull metallic coughs snatched at the clouds, and another portion of his beloved city would vanish in a rippling series of fiery detonations. What had once been a wondrous beacon of illumination for all who cared to look upon it was now a maelstrom of battle. The northern spur of the city was a raging inferno, its palaces ablaze and its parklands ashen wastelands. Further south, the port was a giant black stain on the horizon, its structures demolished in the wake of the Space Wolves' attack.

Though the majority of the Spireguard had been swept away in the opening moments of the battle, the Thousand Sons rallied magnificently and prevented the battle becoming a rout. A thin line of warriors in crimson armour linked the six pyramids of Tizca, forming a circular perimeter with Occullum Square at its centre. The Pyramid of Photep was the southernmost of the pyramids, the glittering water surrounding it awash with sodden pages of ancient wisdom lost forever in the name of fear.

The Thousand Sons were dying. Scores of them died in the opening minutes of the Wolf King’s attack, his fury unstoppable and his power immeasurable. Clad in the finest battle-plate and armed with a frostblade that clove warriors in two with single strokes, his fury was that of a pack hunter who knows his brothers are with him. His huscarls were grimly efficient butchers of men, their Terminator armour proof against all but the luckiest shots and blades.

Though the Sorcerer Librarians could see no more of the hateful Sisters of Silence, they were still there, for their powers were weakening, bleeding from like spilled ink from a quill. The Emperor's Custodes slew with powerful strokes of their Guardian Spears, hewing Power Armour and flesh with efficient killing strokes. The slaughter continued, as the Space Wolves quickly thinned the ranks of the beleaguered Thousand Sons. Their doom would soon be upon them, for fewer than 1,500 Astartes of the Legion remained alive. With more than three times their number and facing no less a warrior than the Primarch Russ, this was a battle that could only end one way.

The line faltered in both directions as it compensated for the force of collision between the opposing sides. Then it seemed as though the carnivorous lust of the Space Wolves would entirely overwhelm the warriors of the Thousand Sons. This was the moment they started to die in any significant numbers. Unable to oppose the brutality of the Wolves the Thousand Sons finally relented, and unleashed their maleficarum upon them, but by doing so, they had inadvertently justified the sanction against them - for they were now no better than the warlocks for which they had been portrayed. Using their vile magicks, they pushed backed the Space Wolves assaults and slew a great number of the maddened warriors. It seemed the tides of battle had turned, and that the Thousand Sons may yet be able to salvage the day from the Wolves. But soon a new enemy opposed the sorcerers of Prospero.

The Tide Turns
The Silent Sisterhood made their presence known as the Null Maidens poured down from the black heaps of burning rubble into the fight. They uttered no war cry or challenge as the blankness of them washed across the Thousand Sons' line. The rank clouds of maleficarum burned away, or blew aside like fog in a night wind. The Thousand Sons choked on the words of their conjurations, gagging upon the utterances of their spells. They staggered back, clutching at their throats, pawing at the neck seals of their helms, blood spurting and leaking through visor slits. Arcane gestures and motions seized up and crippled their hands into palsied, arthritic claws. Seconds after they had stunned and disempowered the sorcerers of the Thousand Sons with their insidious silence, the sister-warriors struck, surging through the recoiled mass of Space Wolves, and began to hack and slice with their longswords. The Space Wolves moved alongside the Null Maidens to take advantage as the Thousand Sons wavered in their attacks. But the Thousand Sons managed to rally and concentrate their efforts against the Untouchable warriors, thinning their ranks until the were able to once again, make use of their psychic abilities.

Some of the Captains of the Thousand Sons attempted to reform their lines and attempt a counter attack into the formidable lines of the unstoppable Space Wolves. Using their innate psychic abilities they managed to drive a wedge into their lines and firmly reestablish their defences. But this small victory was short-lived with the arrival of the Wolf King and his bodyguard. Realising their doom was upon them, the commanders of the Thousand Sons attempted to eliminate the Space Wolves' Primarch. Captain Auramagma of the Pyrae Cult attempted to halt the slaughter of the Wolf King by launching an attack of concentrated flame. This only momentarily staggered Russ and he somehow managed to nullify the aetheric attack and reflect Auramagma's attack upon him, incinerating him with his own warp spawned fire.

The Thousand Sons' line could not hold against the unbridled savagery of Leman Russ, as their final stand was being made in the shadow of the Pyramid of Photep. Shards of crystalline glass floated on the oil scummed waters surrounding Magnus the Red’s lair. The surviving populace of Tizca, who had escaped the initial wrath of the invaders, sheltered within, the last of a great lineage of scholars who had not only endured Old Night, but thrived in its wake.

The Thousand Sons also faced the feral wrath of the bestial Wulfen, afflicted Astartes of the Space Wolves that suffered from the genetic curse of the Canis Helix of their gene-seed. Their razor-sharp fangs and talons tore into the ranks of the battered Thousand Sons. Only the most accurate shots would put them down, and they shrugged off wounds that would have killed even an Astartes. Their claws tore through battle-plate with ease, and their teeth were as vicious as any energised blade. The single-minded savagery was unlike anything the Thousand Sons had fought before, and they fell back from these newly unleashed terrors, horrified that the Space Wolves would dare employ such degenerate abominations.

The Wulfen punched a bloody hole in the Thousand Sons’ line, tearing it wider with every second, and dozens of warriors fell beneath the tearing blades of their claws. Howls of triumph filled the air as the gap the Wulfen had opened was filled with Custodes and Space Wolf warriors. Bands of Thousand Sons were surrounded and hacked down by frost-bladed axes and glittering Guardian Spears.

Thousand Sons First Captain Ahzek Ahriman backed along the great basalt causeway over the water towards the Pyramid of Photep, their last refuge on Tizca. The best and bravest of the Legion, all that survived to sell their lives in sight of their Primarch, went with him towards the bronze gates that led inside. The howling of the Wulfen built to a deafening crescendo. And high above, those howls were finally answered.

Magnus's Final Command
Magnus the Red finally answered the pleas of his dying sons as he finally made his presence known. He presented a glorious sight, clad in golden armour and his wild red hair ablaze with aetheric energy. His flesh burned with the touch of immense power, greater than anything it had ever contained before. His bladed staff threw off blinding arcs of lightning that destroyed armoured vehicles in thunderous explosions. Magnus swept his eye across the horrified Space Wolves, and all who met his gaze died in an instant as they were driven to madness by the stygian depths of infinite chaos they saw there. Only Leman Russ and his wolf companions stood unfazed by this vision of Magnus, a gleam of anticipation in the Wolf King’s eyes, as though he relished the idea of the coming conflict.

Using his powerful sorcery, Magnus slowed time down in order to issue his final orders to his most favoured son and senior Captain, bidding him to lead the surviving Astartes of the Thousand Sons within the Pyramid of Photep. There, Magnus's equerry Amon awaited him, bearing a priceless gift for Ahriman to bear away from Prospero. Reaching down the Primarch touched the jade scarab in the centre of Ahriman’s breast-plate. The crystal shone with a pale light, and Ahriman felt the immense power resting within it. Magnus explained that this crystal had been cut from the Reflecting Caves, and that every warrior of the Thousand Sons Legion bore one set in his armour. When the moment came, Ahriman would know what it was meant to do, and that he was to concentrate all of his energies on the this crystal and those of his battle-brothers. Not totally understanding his Primarch's cryptic words, Ahriman reluctantly withdrew.

Though it broke his heart, Ahriman acquiesced, and the world swelled around him as the flow of time restored its integrity from the distortion Magnus’ arrival had caused. The bellows of burning pyres and immaterial thunder rolled across the face of the world once more, and the deafening fire of weapons roared even louder than before. The howl of the Wolf King blotted them all out. First Captain Ahriman and the remaining Thousand Sons turned and ran towards the sanctuary within the Pyramid of Photep.

Masses of people filled the pyramid, terrified civilians and exhausted Spireguard. The Thousand Sons poured inside, their armour black and dripping from the nightmarish deluge drowning the world beyond. The horrifying scale of the loss staggered Ahzek Ahriman - at a conservative estimate, he guessed that just over a thousand warriors had escaped the attack of the Wulfen. Only a tenth of the Legion had survived the Spaces Wolves furious assault. Pushing down his grief, Ahriman searched for Amon. The Equerry held a chest up for Ahriman to open. Ahriman reached up and took hold of the lock, which snapped open at his touch. He opened the lid and drew in a breath as he saw the book within, its cover red and cracked with age, as though it were an archaeological find instead of a working grimoire, for it was none other than the legendary Book of Magnus. Ahriman was now its guardian. He wanted his Primarch to return and retrieve his grimoire, but understood with sudden clarity that was never going to happen, for Magnus had no expectation of surviving his duel with Leman Russ.

Ahriman soon found other senior members of the Thousand Sons had survived the Wolves' assault, including veteran members such as the Equerry Amon, Hathor Maat and Sobek. But it soon became clear that number of his fellow Thousand Sons had succumbed to the Flesh-Change during the height of the battle, including the Lore-Keeper of the Corvidae Cult. Dozens of his fellow battle-brothers had to be put down, until at last all that remained appeared to be free of mutation. All told, only 1,242 warriors had survived the razing of Prospero.

The Crimson King versus the Wolf King
The Crimson King and the Wolf King struggled with the fate of a world balanced on the outcome, battling like gods of ancient legends. Forking traceries of lightning shot upwards from the ground, isolating them from the host of Wolves and Custodes. Russ rained blow after blow on Magnus, shattering the horned breastplate, and in return Magnus struck his brother with a searing blast of cold fire that cracked his armour and set light to his braided hair. The Wolf King’s frostblade struck at Magnus, but his golden axe turned the blow aside as they spun and twisted in an epic battle beneath the madness of a blazing storm of sheet lightning and pounding thunder. This was a battle fought on every level: physical, mental and spiritual, with each primarch bending every ounce of their almost limitless power to the other’s destruction.

Magnus used his powerful aetheric magicks, battering Russ with fists wreathed in fire and lightning. Russ was a primarch and such powers as could shatter armies had little effect on him save to drive him to higher fits of rage. Magnus drove his fist into Russ’ chest, the icy breastplate cracking open with a sound like planets colliding, and shards of ceramite stabbed the Wolf King’s heart. In return, Russ snapped Magnus’ arm back, shattering it into a thousand pieces. A blade of pure thought unsheathed from Magnus’ other arm, and he drove it deep into Russ’ chest through his shattered armour.

The blade burst from Russ’ back and the Wolf King let loose with a deafening bellow of pain. A chorus of the wolves added their howls to that of their master. The two enormous lupine monsters that accompanied Russ leapt upon Magnus, fastening their jaws upon his legs. Magnus slammed his fist into the black wolf's head, driving it to the ground with a strangled yelp, its skull surely shattered. With a bellow of anger, Magnus tore the white wolf from his leg with a thought and hurled it away over the heads of the army at Russ’ back.

Magnus and Russ were locked in battle high above the causeway, the furious horror of their struggle obscured by ethereal fire and bursts of lightning. A flare of black light erupted and Russ cried out in agony. His blade lashed out blindly and struck a fateful blow against Magnus’s most dreaded weapon: his eye. Magnus reeled back from the Wolf King, one hand clutched to his eye as his shattered arm crackled with regenerative energies. As broken and bloodied as Leman Russ was, he was brawler enough to seize his opportunity. He barreled into Magnus and gripped him around the waist like a wrestler, roaring as he lifted his brother’s body high above his head. All eyes turned to Russ as he brought Magnus down across his knee, and the sound of the Crimson King’s back breaking tore through every warrior of the Thousand Sons’ heart.

The Wolf King howled his triumph to the blackened heavens, and a rain of blood replaced the oil-black downpour as Prospero wept for her fallen son. Russ dropped Magnus to the mud and brought the frostblade Mjalnar around to take the head of his defeated foe. With the last of his strength, Magnus turned his head, and his ravaged eye found his favoured son, Ahriman, 'This is my last gift to you.'

Leman Russ’ blade swept down, but before its lethal edge struck, Magnus whispered eldritch words of power as his body underwent an instantaneous dissolution, its entire structure unmade with a word, and Ahriman gasped as vast and depthless power surged into his body. As it swept through him, he knew what he had to do. Ahriman clasped his hands upon the jade scarab set in his breastplate. He knew everything about that gem, and pictured the identical artefact on the chest of each warrior of the Thousand Sons. Even as he visualised them, the power in him spread to the entire Legion as Magnus gave the last of his strength to save his sons, teleporting his beloved and infamous City of Light, Tizca, from the surface of Prospero and through the Warp and into the Eye of Terror, upon the Daemon World known as the Planet of the Sorcerers. This new world preserved all of their precious (and heretical) knowledge hidden within its libraries that the Thousand Sons had gathered from all across the galaxy during the Great Crusade.

Aftermath
Magnus had willingly sacrificed his flesh that had contained his essence, and in so doing, had ascended to a more evolved form, one free from the constraints of mortality and the limits of reality. He now appeared before his surviving sons as a large form wreathed in the light of stars and the power of infinite possibility, with brilliant wings of shimmering aetheric fire. Later, the Daemon Primarch Magnus, became a Lord of Change and potent daemon himself.

The Thousand Sons themselves succumbed to 'gift' of their patron god, Tzeentch - the full return of their aberrant genetic mutations, which threatened to turn all of the surviving Thousand Sons into mindless, gibering Chaos Spawn. Appalled by the return of the dreaded Flesh-Change, Ahriman led a secret cabal of the most powerful sorcerers that had survived the destruction of Prospero and led them in the invocation of a powerful daemonic spell known as the Rubric of Ahriman. The spell was successful, but its success came at a high price: for those battle-brothers of the Legion that lacked psychic abilities were transformed into living automatons. Their bodies were turned to so much dust, and their spirits were forever sealed within their suits of Power Armour - every joint magically sealed, forever trapping their souls within.

The small minority of Thousand Sons Astartes who did not succumb to the Rubric soon found their psychic abilities increased to a tremendous degree. The ritual also accomplished its goal, halting the dreaded mutations, both in the surviving sorcerers and their undead brethren. Magnus was enraged by Ahriman's audacious spell and what it had done to his sons, but was secretly pleased with the level of sorcerous knowledge the Legion had attained through their metamorphosis. Confronting the cabal, Magnus nearly slew Ahriman, but Tzeenth intervened personally, sparing Ahriman's life, for he had proven to be a useful pawn.

Magnus exiled Ahriman and his remaining collaborators from the Planet of the Sorcerers and ordered them to forever roam the galaxy in search of understanding and knowledge of the true meaning of Chaos.

The Thousand Sons Legion

 * Magnus - Primarch of the Thousand Sons Legion
 * Ahzek Ahriman - 1st Fellowship Captain and former Chief Librarian of the Thousand Sons Legion and Magister Templi of the Corvidae Cult
 * Phosis T'Kar - 2nd Fellowship Captain and Magister Templi of the Raptora Cult (Deceased)
 * Hathor Maat - 3rd Fellowship Captain
 * Khalophis - 6th Fellowship Captain (Deceased)
 * Phael Toron - 7th Fellowship Captain (Deceased)
 * Auramagma - 8th Fellowship Captain Magister Templi of the Pyrae Cult (Deceased)
 * Amon - 9th Fellowship Captain and Equerry to Magnus the Red
 * Anku Anen - Guardian of the Great Library (Deceased)
 * Sobek - Practicus to Ahriman

Planetary Defence Forces

 * Northern Palatine Guard - This Imperial Army regiment, under the command of Katon Aphea, deployed on the edges of the burning port of Old Tizca, occupying the high parapets of overlooking libraries and galleries of the Nephrate district. They were overran by Leman Russ and his Wolves in less than two minutes.
 * Prosperine Spireguard - The primary Imperial Army regiment and defenders of Prospero. There were some survivors that were present at the Pyramid of Photep at the conclusion of the battle.
 * 15th Prosperine Assault Infantry - Imperial Army regiment under the command of Captain Sokhem Vithara. They defended the old eastern quarter of the capital city, known as Old Tizca from the Space Wolves Legion.
 * Prospero Assault Pioneers - An Imperial Army regiment that rallied in defence of their homeworld after the majority of their regiment was wiped out when three of their four barracks were destroyed in the initial orbital bombardment. It is assumed that they were wiped out.
 * Skyguard Air Command - Prospero's primary air force. They launched every squadron of their two-man skimmers from their hangars to the south. Armed with heat lances and missile pods, their disc-like aircraft duelled for supremacy with the Loyalist forces above the skies of Tizca. It is assumed that they were annihilated in the ensuing conflict.