Solomon Voss

Solomon Voss was a well-known wordsmith and instrumental as one of the preeminent founding members behind the creation of the Order of Remembrancers during the Great Crusade, to help witness and record the events of the founding of the Imperium of Mankind that would be available for later generations of Humanity. He initially served with the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet under the command of Warmaster Horus of the Luna Wovles Legion, but transferred to another Imperial Expeditionary Fleet. When word reached the wordsmith of the Warmaster's betrayal at Istvaan III, Voss sought out the newly renamed Sons of Horus, in order to gain understanding the reasoning behind such treason and record what he witnessed, for future posterity.

History
Solomon Voss was the wordsmith (author) of such vaunted works as The Edge of Illumination, witness to the first conquests of the Great Crusade, and according to many, the finest wordsmith of the age. As a wordsmith, he was tolerated amongst the elite of the Imperium for his abilities to turn their deeds into words that could inflame the passions and ardour of men. Before the the Triumph of Ullanor, Solomon Voss was one of many Imperial intellectuals who had struck upon the idea of creating a unique order composed of a thousand artists sent out with the Expeditionary Fleets to reflect the truth of the Great Crusade. Voss was instrumental in petitioning the Emperor to create this order of artists who would witness, record and reflect the light of the Imperial Truth spread by the Great Crusade so that an accurate record of the Imperium's founding would always be available to later generations. The Council of Terra took this idea under consideration and later ratified the creation of the Order of Remembrancers.

Initially, Voss was a part of the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet, one of the largest and most powerful fleets deployed during the Great Crusade. The 63rd was the personal fleet of Horus, the Warmaster of the Imperium and the supreme commander of the Great Crusade after the Emperor returned to Terra. Some time before Horus' mortal wounding on the feral moon of Davin, Voss had transferred from the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet to the 817th Expeditionary Fleet. Voss was on the world of Hattusa when word reached him of Horus' rebellion against the Emperor.

Unable to come to terms with the reason why the Warmaster rebelled against the Emperor, Voss sought to see the truth with his own eyes; to witness it and make sense of what he saw and give these events some sort of context. Voss felt that as a Remembrancer it was his duty to make sense of great events for posterity. He knew that others would doubt or would not believe that the brightest son of the Imperium could turn against it. If it was true that Horus had become the vilest of Traitors, he wanted that truth explored in the works of as many Remembrancers as possible.

He prepared to depart to Istvaan V by calling in favours and contacts, but before he could leave, the Edict of Dissolution came through and by the order of the Council of Terra the Order of Remembrancers was no more. The Council had felt that the Remembrancers could not be allowed to wander through a civil war recording the shame of the Legiones Astartes -- and all Mankind -- in literature, paintings and songs. The position presented at the time was perfectly logical; since the Imperium was at war with itself, there was no telling how far the treachery of Horus had spread. The Corps of Remembrancers was to be dissolved back into Imperial society. Those already amongst the Expeditionary Fleets were ordered to cease their recording of events.

Collaborating with Askarid Sha, an illuminator and calligraphist who had lettered Voss' work into scrolls and tomes as beautiful as his words, the two Remembrancers set out for Istvaan V to seek out Horus' fleet in violation of the Imperial orders. Voss had contacts throughout the Expeditionary Fleets, on both sides of the war. By the time Voss and his companion reached Istvaan V, the Drop Site Massacre had already occurred. He never reached the surface but the void around the battered planet was choked with debris from destroyed vessels. The Sons of Horus captured Voss and the other 20 Remembrancers he had convinced to come along to show the truth of the tragedy engulfing the Imperium. Taken to the audience chamber aboard Horus' flagship the Vengeful Spirit, the Remembrancers were gunned down by Horus' Justaerin Terminators. Voss alone was spared execution, to act as the personal Remembrancer of Horus himself -- a sole witness to every dark and bloody moment and every word of hate spewed by the Arch-Traitor. Eventually Voss was released by his captors and was sent away from Horus' fleet to be captured by the Imperial authorities. Horus wanted the Imperium to know that the Imperial Truth was dead.

The Remembrancer was brought to a nameless fortress hidden from the sun on the dark side of Saturn's moon of Titan (the future Fortress-Monastery of the Grey Knights Space Marine Chapter) and placed within one of the multitude of anonymous cells, newly constructed to serve as a place for the interrogation of turncoats and the execution of Traitors. Voss was questioned by none other than the Imperial Fists' Primarch, Rogal Dorn, with the former Luna Wolves Astartes Iacton Qruze acting on behalf of Malcador the Sigillite as a silent witness and executioner. The truth learned by Voss and revealed to Dorn was that the Imperium would never regain its former glory because there was no longer any trust. Voss argued that the ideals of truth, reason and illumination were dead and that if the Imperium truly had nothing to fear from Horus and the Traitors' cause, his final work on what he witnessed amongst the Traitors should be revealed to all within the Emperor's realm. The truth of what Voss had revealed about the rifts emerging in the Imperium enraged the Primarch. Dorn exited the chamber cell and clad himself in his Power Armour. Returning to Voss' cell, Qruze pulled his large Power Sword from its scabbard. But instead of Qruze carrying out the execution, Dorn took the sword from Qruze and executed the Remembrancer himself. All of Voss' work was burned by Imperial decree and he was declared a Traitor to the Imperium posthumously.