Magnus the Red

The Primarch of the Thousand Sons Chaos Space Marine Legion, Magnus the Red is one of the few surviving Primarchs, and is in the current timeline an extremely powerful Daemon Prince of the Chaos God Tzeentch. A giant in both physical and mental terms whilst a mortal inhabitant of the materium, Magnus had also tremendous innate psychic ability, and constantly tried to study and understand the Warp, becoming a sorcerer of formidable power. Magnus thought he could eventually control the Great Ocean of the Warp, however his prodigious and careless application of his psychic gifts would eventually cause his fall from favour with his father, the Emperor, and with the majority of his brother Primarchs. Indeed it would prove to be his mortal undoing, as, forewarned of Horus' fall to the Ruinous Powers of Chaos, his attempt to use his psychic abilities to alert the Emperor to the situation eventually brought about his own damnation and servitude to the Dark God Tzeentch.

Thinking that for better or worse he had no other viable option, Magnus lead his own Legion to the banner of Horus and fought on his side during the Great Betrayal, ultimately surviving those events and being elevated to the position of a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch. He has spent the majority of the millennia since the end of the Horus Heresy ensconced atop his tower upon the Planet of the Sorcerers, planning the ultimate destruction of the Imperium he believes betrayed him and his Legion.

Early Life
Magnus was unique among the Primarchs in that he remembered his origin as a "son" of the Emperor - and had a sort psychic communication with his father even during his "gestation". This points that his tremendous psyker talents were a planned attribute of his gene-stock. As an infant, he found himself on the remote colony world of Prospero. He was fortunate to land there, as anywhere else his skin color and mutant psyker powers would have made him an outcast, shunned and hunted. Prospero was a world of outcast human psykers, making him nothing special in the eyes of the mutant colonists. They had chosen Prospero for its remoteness from Terra. When Magnus fell from the skies, it was like a portentous comet. His pod landed in the central plaza of the planet's one major city, Tizca, the City of Light.

He became a ward of the psychic scholars and quickly gained their powers, surpassing them in many ways. Magnus mastered every psychic training program and soon surpassed the greatest adepts of the Prosperan commune. By that time he had so much control of his psychic powers, he was by far the most powerful person on the planet. One day, Magnus performed something to change the world forever. Instead of channelling psychic energy from the Warp to the materium, he looked into the Warp with his cyclopean eye, going from the student to absolute master instantly.

Discovery by the Emperor
With such a mind in the Warp, it was not long until the Emperor noticed him. When his fleet arrived and the Emperor stepped foot upon the planet, he and Magnus immediately embraced and conversed as if the two had known each other for years; as indeed they may have done, in the mind if not in the flesh.

The Thousand Sons Legion Magnus inherited were rife with psychic mutations, as their genomes were now based on Magnus' own mutant genes. He took them in as his own sons and began training them in the ways of the psyker. Individuals from within the Imperium who were fearful of these rampant mutations began to voice their opinions openly, but Magnus silenced them.

Magnus fought bravely and successfully during the Great Crusade, but he was always a wild and impetuous commander. Due to his early brush with Chaos during his abduction, Magnus had an inherent affinity for the Warp and the secrets within its fabric. Throughout the Crusade he came into contact with long isolated cultures where psychics had been allowed to flourish. Although warned by the Emperor to shun such matters, Magnus began to gather arcane lore from across the galaxy. From this material he compiled the monumental tome of sorcery called the Book of Magnus.

The further from Terra the Crusade traveled, the more strange Warp-influenced creatures they came across. This naturally made Magnus look suspicious, as his control of the Warp was similar to the abilities displayed by these creatures. The Space Wolf Primarch Leman Russ and the Death Guard Primarch Mortarion both distrusted Magnus due to his use of the powers of the Warp and because of his mastery of deceit in warfare where they would have used more straightforward physical strength.

To solve this dispute, the Emperor called for a debate on the use of psychic powers. They gathered on the world of Nikaea and the Emperor presided over the resulting debate during what became known as the Council of Nikaea. The Council collectively found that the use of sorcery in the Imperium was illegal, but psykers were to be properly trained within certain limits for the benefit of the Imperium. Magnus was not happy, but was forced to comply, which he did. However, the Council of Nikaea would be the last time Magnus and the Emperor would ever meet in the flesh.

Horus Heresy
While meditating on Prospero, Magnus foresaw Horus being corrupted by Chaos and the future events of the Horus Heresy: The betrayal of the Emperor by half the Space Marine Legions, and the sundering of the Imperium. The only fate the vision did not mention was Magnus' own. Burdened with the information by this precognitive vision, Magnus used the power of his Legion's greatest sorcerers to convey the news of the impending civil war to the Emperor himself via sorcery, rather than the unreliable means of astrotelepathy.

Upon receiving the message, the Emperor was furious at Magnus' oath-breaking, particularly because the strong psychic message broke the seal on his Webway project, an attempt to break into and use the Eldar Webway that would render dangerous Warp travel obsolete. The Emperor saw Magnus as the traitor, not his beloved Horus, whom he did not believe was capable of every betraying him. Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves Legion, who had always been averse to sorcery, was ordered to bring Magnus swiftly to Terra to account for his actions. During his voyage to Prospero, Leman Russ was ordered by Horus to destroy Magnus' Legion rather than simply bring them to account. Horus, as the Imperial Warmaster, carried the authority of the Emperor himself, and was therefore able to fool Russ into believing this was the Emperor's will. Accompanying the Space Wolves were a full contingent of Adeptus Custodes, and the elite anti-psyker (Pariah gene-bearing) units, the Sisters of Silence.

The assault of Prospero took the Thousand Sons by total surprise. Raining death down from orbit the Space Wolves destroyed the capital city of Tizca, along with its libraries and all the hard-won psychic knowledge which sent Magnus into a deep melancholy. Upon landing on the planet, the Space Wolves were met with fierce resistance but ferocious attacks of the Space Wolves were slowly pushing the Thousand Sons back. Magnus then took to the battlefield and broke the assault with his great psychic powers. His gaze was said to turn even the staunchest Long Fangs to stone with pure fear. Leman Russ moved to meet the Thousand Sons Primarch in melee combat. It was a battle of titanic proportion in which Magnus used his sorcerous powers to increase his already large size. At the climax of the battle, Magnus shattered Russ' breastplate with a mighty punch, puncturing one of the Primarch's hearts. As Magnus was drawing his fist back for another strike, Leman clung onto his opponent's arm and when he was close enough, kicked Magnus in his single eye. With Magnus blinded, Russ seized his opportunity to lift Magnus into the air and broke Magnus' back. In his moment of greatest need, Tzeentch came to Magnus and offered to save all that he had wrought if Magnus offered his fealty. To save himself, his Legion, his world, and all the psychic knowledge he had accumulated, Magnus pledged himself to the Chaos God of Change and Sorcery. His new patron's response was immediate. The City of Light was transported into the Eye of Terror. Prospero was destroyed that day, but Magnus and his Legion survived. By the time the Thousand Sons were seen next, they had joined up with Horus' force on his way to Terra, and Magnus had become the most powerful of all Tzeentch's daemonic servants.

After the Emperor defeated Horus, the Thousand Sons claimed a planet for themselves within the Eye of Terror. Now, Magnus' ever-changing form resides on the Planet of Sorcerers. Here, Magnus stands atop his tallest of towers, the Tower of the Cyclops, and its vast sorcerous eye surveys the entire planet as he plots the destruction of the Imperium of Man to gain his vengeance against the Emperor he believes betrayed him long ago.