Alpharius Omegon

Alpharius Omegon (also known as the Last Primarch) was one of the twenty Primarchs created by the Emperor in the earliest days of the Imperium, just after the end of the Age of Strife. Like the other Primarchs, he was transported from the Emperor's gene-lab beneath Terra through the Warp by the Gods of Chaos and placed on a far-away world in an attempt to prevent the coming of the Age of the Imperium and the expansion of the Imperium across the Milky Way Galaxy.

Secrets and Lies
It should be noted that the Alpha Legion's trademark secrecy extends to the records of their Primarch. Little recorded information on his background exists, and almost all of what is currently known by the Imperium comes from the information provided by Inquisitor Kravin of the Ordo Malleus. Inquisitor Kravin was subsequently believed to have been tainted by the Alpha Legion and his current whereabouts are unknown. Hence, much of the Imperial data concerning the Primarch could be considered suspect, and indeed there are some who believe the whole Kravin affair was an Alpha Legion plot to plant misinformation in the Imperial records.

Omegon
The greatest secret of the Alpha Legion Primarch is apparently told to none outside the Legion, and has always been thus. For, unlike any of the other Primarchs, Alpharius actually has an identical twin: Omegon. It is unknown if the Emperor intended this when he created the last Primarch, or was ever even aware that his final Primarch's embryo had split into two during their gestation. Alpharius and Omegon are both the Primarch of the Alpha Legion, although "Alpharius" was the public face of the Legion and appeared as the more senior of the two. Though as both Primarchs were physically identical it is possible for them to switch places and have "Omegon" play the public role. They have been described as "one soul in two bodies" and collectively have been referred to as simply "Alpharius Omegon". While the Astartes of the Alpha Legion made attempts to all look alike, both Alpharius and Omegon were still somewhat distinctive. Taller than the rest of the Legion, slightly copper-skinned, bald and possessed of a heavy brow, they somewhat resembled their brother Primarch, Horus. Unlike him, Alpharius and Omegon had piercing eyes that seemed to glitter, appearing to shift colour from a cold arctic blue to a shimmering green. The overall impression was one of nobility and intelligence. One way to tell the two twin Primarchs apart was when Omegon was performing as commander of Effrit Stealth Squad; large portions of his Power Armour and other gear were painted black and otherwise darkened. The armour worn by Alpharius was not particularly different from that of an ordinary Alpha Legionary.

Pre-Heresy
Alpharius was the last of the lost Primarch sons of the Emperor to be found, only a few decades before the end of the Great Crusade and the start of the Horus Heresy. While most of the other Primarchs, aside from Rogal Dorn, were found on the worlds they had been cast upon by the Warp, Alpharius apparently came upon Horus' fleet himself in an unnamed star system.

Using a ragtag fleet of primitive one and two-man fighters, he cleverly put the advance ship of the Luna Wolves' fleet in a precarious position, which necessitated the intervention of Horus himself. Arriving on his endangered cruiser, he soon learned that a small team of boarders was making its way towards the bridge. The cruiser was at high alert as the five boarders burst onto the bridge. Quickly four of them were dispatched by Bolt Pistol shots from Horus. The fifth one, who towered over the Luna Wolves' Space Marines, dodged Horus' fifth shot, and continued to advance regardless of the gunfire. At the last instant, Alpharius stopped his assault, as both he and Horus realised the situation. Horus laughed, for he had found his last brother.

Pleased beyond measure, instead of immediately sending him to Terra to meet the Emperor of Mankind, Horus kept Alpharius with him for some months. The two formed a strong bond, with Alpharius and his ragtag alliance of pirates quickly embracing the Imperium. Both brothers were greatly impressed with each other, although Alpharius refused to reveal his homeworld, denying that each world in the star system that the brothers brought into compliance was his point of origin. Eventually, Alpharius had to journey to meet his father, the Emperor. Their meeting was, as were all times when the Emperor found one of his lost sons, surrounded with much celebration. However, since the Great Crusade was in full swing, little time was spent in idle rejoicing and Alpharius was quickly given command of the XX Space Marine Legion, created from Alpharius' genetic material just a few decades before. Renamed the Alpha Legion, they followed their Primarch on the Great Crusade.

Alpharius quickly developed a unique approach to Adeptus Astartes operations, focusing on the philosophies of initiative and flexibility, as well as extensive use of subterfuge and non-Astartes specialist operatives. This multitudinous, almost unstructured approach, rankled Roboute Guilliman, the Primarch of the Ultramarines, leading him to question Alpharius' approach to fighting. A violent discussion erupted between the two which was closed when Guilliman pointed to his own Legion's record, something that Alpharius could never hope to achieve, since his Alpha Legion was almost two hundred years younger than the Ultramarines.They parted company acrimoniously, Alpharius believing Guilliman hated him. He resolved to ignore the Ultramarine Primarch from then on.

However, the criticism stuck; Alpharius began to push his Legion even further. More and more Alpharius purshed his Legion into situations that would take the more difficult course of action to force his Space Marines to grow. Plans were made more complex, more subtle, while at the same time relying on more and more factors to achieve victory. Training was more intense and new strategies and approaches were constantly developed, as Alpharius sought to prove the worth of both his Legion and his martial philosophy.

The Horus Heresy
It has long been supposed that since Alpharius was only familiar with one other Primarch, Horus, it was self-explanatory why he chose the side he did at the outset of the Heresy. Indeed, the very plan at Isstvan V where Horus struck his first blow against the Loyalist Legions by destroying most of the Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders Legions in a massive ambush, was very reminiscent of plans that Alpharius had created in the past. However, it is possible that there is another reason for Alpharius leading his Legion to the side of the Traitors, a secret known only inside the Legion. Around two years before the beginning of the Heresy, Alpharius Omegon was apparently contacted by members of a xenos organisation led by the Eldar but comprising an alliance of individuals drawn from a host of different intelligent species, called the Cabal, who brought to him visions of the impending civil war within the Imperium, and expanded knowledge of the nature and designs of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. It is believed that the Cabal convinced Alpharius that the only way to permanently defeat Chaos in the galaxy was to ensure that Horus was victorious. It is perhaps for this reason that Alpharius Omegon, secretly true to the Imperium and loyal to the Emperor, may have chosen to join the heretics.

The Cabal, through its human agent John Grammaticus, explained that the Cabal had foreseen two possible outcomes to the coming Heresy. The first vision had the Alpha Legion remaining loyal to the Emperor and fighting against Horus, ending in the Emperor's victory. However, the Emperor would be gravely wounded and entombed inside the cybernetic sarcophagus of the Golden Throne, neither alive nor dead and no longer able to actively guide humanity. Ten millennia would pass and the Imperium of Man would be fated to slowly decay, until ultimately Chaos would come back and defeat mankind, condemining humanity to eventual extinction. The second outcome had the Alpha Legion joining forces with Horus and Chaos Undivided and fighting the Emperor. In this vision, Horus was victorious and slew the Emperor. The Traitor Legions would defeat the Loyalists and Terra would belong to Horus, now the greatest Daemon Prince of Chaos. The vision continued with Horus, after slaying his father, shocked into sanity by his conscience and violently freed from Chaos' hold over him. Disgusted with himself and loathing what he had done, Horus would seek to exterminate the corrupted human race in a vast orgy of bloodshed which would consume the entire Imperium in a single century.The humanity would become extinct, the Chaos Powers would also be destroyed by the destruction mankind, since ultimately their existence largely depended upon the colective psychic emanations of humanity.

The Cabal, an alliance of xenos Eldar and a somewhat unwilling human psyker named John Grammaticus, burdened the Alpha Legion with these two visions which they promised would come to pass. The Alpha Legion were told the fate of the entire galaxy rested upon their Legion's decision alone. The Cabal had no time to reach or to attempt to convince anotherof the Space Marine Legions of what was to come. Either the Alpha Legion ensured the human race died in a century of incredible violence, sparing the other races of the galaxy from Chaos forever, or they ensured the human race and the Imperium lived on for ten thousand years of bloodshed and decay, dooming the entire galaxy to brutal war and Chaos.

The Alpha Legion decided to join Horus' rebellion and made the decision that they believed the Emperor would have chosen, to sacrifice humanity for the ultimate eradication of Chaos. Yet their sacrifice seems to have been made in vain, as Horus did not find victory and the Imperium persevered despite the Alpha Legion's decision to support Chaos. This can only lead one to wonder if the Cabal and their future predictions were wrong, if the Cabal secretly served the interests of Chaos and lied to Alpharius simply to corrupt yet another Astartes Legion or if something else occurred that has yet to be discovered. It is noteworthy to mention that John Grammaticus, the human agent who made first contact with the Alpha Legion on the Cabal's behalf, was a man very similar to the Emperor himself. John was a mutant psyker who had been alive for thousands of years, and had even met the Emperor face to face once, before the Emperor had finished uniting the various factions of men on Terra during the Unification Wars of the 30th Millennium.

Post-Heresy
During the Horus Heresy, Alpharius Omegon appeared more interested in proving his own Legion's worth by fighting, at every chance he got, the best of the Loyalist legions. Thus, even after Horus was cast down and the Heresy over, the Alpha Legion kept on fighting, moving more and more towards the galactic east, towards the Ultramarines. It was on the world known as Eskrador that Alpharius and Roboute Guilliman would meet for the last time. Believing that Guilliman would adopt his standard deployment procedures as later outlined in the Codex Astartes, Alpharius was surprised by the Ultramarines, as a splinter force including their Primarch made a quick strike at the Alpha Legion's headquarters. Both Primarchs met in combat and Alpharius was killed. Believing the combat over, for what Astartes Legion could ever survive the loss of their Primarch in battle, the Ultramarines were taken by surprise by the remaining elements of the Alpha Legion, when they struck back a day later. After a week of constant fighting and heavy losses, the Ultramarines' strike force managed to reunite with their main elements, and quickly evacuated the planet. Even though they had lost their Primarch, the Alpha Legion had soundly beaten the Ultramarines, who proceeded to bombard their foes' position from orbit. It should be noted, however, that Alpharius's death is still considered suspect even by the Ultramarines, and he may still be at large. On the other hand, it is possible that "Alpharius" did indeed die and his twin "Omegon" took sole command of the Alpha Legion. Whatever the truth, the Primarch of the Alpha Legion has not been seen since the Horus Heresy and the Alpha Legion's retreat into the Eye of Terror.