Amon

Amon, Captain of the Thousand Sons 9^th Fellowship, Tutor of Magnus, magister templi of the Corvidae and Keeper of the Keys.

Amon was a sorcerer who served as a tutor to the Primarch Magnus the Red, before the arrival of the Thousand Sons Space Marine Legion on the world of Prospero during the Great Crusade of the late 30th Millennium.

He later rose to become the leader or "magister templi" of the Corvidae cult of precognitives and captain of the 9^th Fellowship of the Thousand Sons Legion.

Amon was a figure whose repute was known well beyond his Legion during the time of the Great Crusade, for he often served both as his primarch's equerry and as emissary to both other Space Marine Legions and the Imperium's circles of power, yet he remained a solitary and mysterious figure, even to his Legion brothers.

It was said of Amon that he had served as Magnus' tutor once, before the coming of the Emperor to Prospero, though the student soon far outstripped the master.

If true then it is likely that he survived the conversion process to become an Astartes as an adult, perhaps aided by the Crimson King's direct intervention, and emerged as both a potent warrior and powerful psyker.

Most of his career beyond his public duties remained in shadow and it is believed that he was in fact master of his Legion's intelligence gathering organisation, known as the "Hidden Ones" and also ranked high within the chambers of the Legion's Order of Blindness.

As a potent psyker, Amon became the founder of the XV Legion's Corvidae Cult and its first Magister Templi. He also served as Equerry to Magnus, responsible for the primarch's security and for officiating certain sorcerous rituals, amongst other duties.

Amon's fate was to see him survive the Battle of Prospero an embittered and wounded figure, who became increasingly isolated from his one-time peers and master.

He would go on to survive the bloody wars of the Horus Heresy as well, eventually becoming a member of the Cabal of Ahriman and vanishing from recorded history after Ahriman's exile from the XV Legion.

However, Amon eventually turned on Ahriman in an attempt to undo the great Rubric he had cast. Ahriman gained the upper hand and used his sorcery to reduce Amon's body to dust.

History

Early Years

When Magnus came to Prospero, it was said that a great comet had borne him to the ground, for the impact he had on the people of Prospero was as great as his impact upon the planet's crust. The Tizcan commune, which was the name the survivors of the assault of the vile Warp entities known as the Psychneuein gave to their little enclave, was a place rooted in tradition, but they had some skill in wielding the power of the Æther.

Of course, they did not know it by that name, and the powers they had, while enough to keep the psy-predators at bay, were little more than the enchantments of idiot children. The young primarch was schooled in the ways of the commune, and he quickly learned everything they had to teach. He had endured Amon's tutorials and sermons regarding the power of the Great Ocean (the Warp) on Prospero, while knowing that greater power lay within his reach.

Amon had been kind to him, and had accepted the knowledge of his growing obsolescence with good grace, for Magnus outstripped him in learning and power at an early age. Yet, like the Emperor of Mankind would at a later time, Amon had warned Magnus of peering too deeply into the Ocean's depths.

In truth, Magnus had outstripped the learning of all the Prosperines' greatest scholars within a standard year of his arrival. Their teachings were too dogmatic, too linear and too limiting for the potential of a primarch's mind. His intellect was superior in every way to those that taught him. With his teachings, he knew they could be so much more.

To increase his understanding of his powerful psychic abilities, Magnus took a walk into the desolation of Prospero. True power comes only to those who have fully tested themselves against their greatest fears. Within the commune of Tizca, the primarch knew no fear, no hunger or want and had no drive to push his abilities to their full potential. Magnus needed to be tested to the very limits of his powers to see if he even had limits.

Out in the wilds, Magnus knew he would either find the key to fully unlock his powers or die in the attempt. A year after his coming to Prospero, the primarch walked from the gates of Tizca and marched into the wilderness for nearly forty solar days.

Through his observations, Magnus learned to harness his powerful abilities during his long trek. He had already begun his second grimoire when Amon had come upon the young primarch squatting amongst a carpet of stones fallen from a ruined statue, the remains of Prospero's past.

Amon was much moved and began to write poetry about each of the incredible designs and patterns of the shattered stones. Magnus believed that there were hidden designs amongst the shards of rock there, the workings of the universe laid bare. Together, Amon and Magnus returned home, where he read his poetry, and the primarch showed the masters of Tizca the workings in his grimoires.

So amazed were they that they joined Magnus on a pilgrimage back to the cliff where the remains of the fallen statue were located. The shards were just as he had described them, and the masters of Tizca were overcome with emotion, filling their own grimoires with fantastical writing. Some wrote about triangles, others described the circles, while yet others concentrated all their attention on the glittering spectrum of coloured stones.

Temporarily lax in their mental discipline, the Psychneuein were drawn to the large commune of psykers in Tizca in their thousands, blackening the sky with their numbers as they descended like a plague from ancient times. They swarmed from their darkened caves, organically shifting clouds of deadly clades, the relentless buzzing of thousands of crystalline wings representing the sound of inevitable doom.

The males swarmed in, a hurricane of snapping mandibles and tearing claws, and fifty men died in the time it takes to draw breath. Behind the males came the females, engorged with clutch upon clutch of immaterial eggs. Their furious reproductive hunger was insatiable, and dozens of the primarch's friends fell to their knees in horror as they felt the Psychneuein eggs take root in their brains.

The beasts swirled around them, battering the Prosperines with psychic thrusts, scrabbling at their mental barriers to seed their minds with their eggs, and only the strongest of them remained. Amon and eight of the psychic masters of Tizca stood with the primarch, and as the Psychneuein attacked again, Magnus knew this was what he had been seeking all along, a true test of his abilities. He would finally discover whether he had limits. Magnus would see if he was the master of his powers or was to be found wanting.

As the Psychneuein came at the Prosperine defenders again, something magnificent happened. The primarch felt something move within him, feeling changed, as though an immense power that had lain within him, dormant and untapped, surged to life. As Magnus contemplated the moment of his death, raging fires erupted from his hands.

The primarch hurled torrents of flame into the sky, as though he had always known he had such powers, and smote hundreds of Psychneuein to ruin with every gesture. Soon, the other Tizcan masters displayed hence-unknown abilities as well, as walls of flame sprang up at their mental command. Others were able to pluck beasts from the air and dash them on the rocks with the power of their minds. Still other defenders were able to will the vital fluids within the Psychneuein to boil within their exo-skeletons.

Amon saw images of the future and imminent danger seared though his mind, and he cried words of warning to his fellows, telling them of dangers to come and of how they might avoid them. Some of the other defenders sensed the lust within the Psychneuein to plant their psychic seed within the humans' minds, the relentless animal hunger that drove them to feed and propagate.

They reached into the minds of the beasts and twisted their perceptions so that they became blind to the humans. With these newfound abilities, the later psychic cults of the Thousand Sons Legion were born.

Reunification

Approximately five standard years after the XV Legion of the Legiones Astartes began the Great Crusade to reclaim and reunify the Human-settled galaxy, these Astartes began to manifest unusually powerful psychic abilities, which was a welcome development for these Space Marines as they sought to further emulate the Emperor.

This development was reluctantly tolerated by the Emperor, who was greatly wary of psychic abilities wielded by anyone other than Himself or Malcador the Sigillite, because the XV Legion's abilities proved to be a powerful weapon for the Imperium during the Great Crusade.

Throughout that long campaign, the XV Legion made extensive use of sorcerers, and their Warp-derived powers would leave whole populations in thrall to their will rather than carrying out a planetary conquest through a costly full frontal assault like the other Space Marine Legions. This tactic earned the ire of the Primarch Leman Russ of the Space Wolves Legion who saw anything less then a frontal assault as dishonourable and cowardly.

Soon, the XV Legion's joy at their psychic gifts turned to revulsion and horror as a wave of ghastly, degenerative mutations began to affect large portions of the battle-brothers of the XV Legion.

These mutagenic changes were called the "flesh-change" by the Legionaries, and were much feared, as the spiral of degenerative mutation ultimately reduced a proud XV Legion Astartes into a mindless mutant abomination that would later be recognised by the Imperium as a gibbering Chaos Spawn.

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.

Fortunately, for the XV Legion the Emperor's Great Crusade finally arrived at the isolated world of Prospero and the Thousand Sons were reunited with their Primarch Magnus. The flesh-change had become a pandemic at this point, but the entire Legion was transported to the newly discovered world to meet their gene-father.

After the initial reunion with one of His lost sons and the celebrations that followed, the Emperor and the vast majority of the Great Crusade's large fleet departed Prospero, leaving the XV^th Legion behind. By then the rampant mutations within the Legion had spontaneously gone out of control after the departure of the Emperor.

The Thousand Sons Primarch Magnus intervened to save his genetic children, and through mysterious means in dealing with the Warp was able to save those that had been the least affected by the rampant mutations, though at the cost of one of his eyes. In the end, the XV Legion only numbered a thousand battle-brothers that had managed to be saved by their primarch.

Great Crusade

Amon, Equerry to Magnus, Magister Templi of the Corvidae and Captain of the Thousand Sons 9^th Fellowship.

Following their reunification with their gene-sire and the stabilisation of their gene-seed, the newly renamed Thousand Sons Legion began the arduous process of replenishing their diminished ranks with potential initiates from the people of Prospero. Amon was one of the first Prosperine neophytes inducted into the Thousand Sons Legion at the direct invitation of Magnus.

The rest of Amon's early career as a Legionary is not well known, for when he next appeared in recorded history during the closing days of the Great Crusade, he had already ceded his role as magister templi of the Corvidae Cult to the Terran-born Ahzek Ahriman.

Amon had quickly risen to the esteemed rank of 9^th Fellowship captain and served as the primarch's Equerry, his duty to attend upon his primarch's every need. Parts of his past may have been deliberately hidden, for Amon was a master of deception and subterfuge, having served as the Master of the Hidden Ones. It was said that amongst the members of the Thousand Sons, even the powerful psychic might of the Chief Librarian Ahriman was useless in detecting Amon's presence with either his mindsight or true sight.

The so-called Hidden Ones were a specialist unit of the Thousand Sons that served as the Legion's Scout Auxilia. Imperial historical accounts show that there is the distinct possibility that these specialised reconnaissance troops served a far more sinister role for the XV Legion that was more akin to espionage agents than a unit of typical Scout Marines composed of Astartes neophytes engaged in reconnaissance-in-force and combat infiltration missions. However, the Hidden Ones also carried out those types of missions.

As his primarch's Equerry, Amon served as counterpoint and foil for his master's decisions. As few Astartes would ever dare show hesitation or speak against one of the very sons of the Emperor, Magnus saw the wisdom of keeping one such bold individual at hand, a kinsman whose words of caution or alternate viewpoints could be more valuable than a thousand warriors once in the field.

Amon's duties also included maintaining the personal security of Magnus, especially within his private sanctum where the Rehati, the inner coven of advisors and trusted confidants of Magnus the Red, would gather. The Rehati were drawn from the ranks of the elite captains of the Thousand Sons' Fellowships (companies).

Council of Nikaea

The XV Legion was eventually able to rebuild its numbers (though the Thousand Sons Legion would never become as large as its fellow Legions) and return to the Great Crusade, led by their Primarch Magnus. Using their psychic gifts, the resurgent Thousand Sons Legion brought a number of worlds into Imperial Compliance, bringing them into the welcoming fold of the Imperial Truth.

Their primary methods of victory included the use of diplomatic guile and trickery, a modus operandi that was not questioned by the rest of the Imperium. But these methods grew less effective as the XV Legion's expeditionary fleet entered more dangerous regions of unknown space where extensive hostile forces were encountered.

Many of these new enemies of Mankind employed psychic powers similar to those that the Thousand Sons wielded. The XV Legion used their own potent psychic gifts and sorcerous abilities to bring these enemies of Mankind into Compliance or to exterminate them altogether.

Over the following decades some of the primarchs voiced their dissent that these so-called "psyker" Astartes were allowed to exist and be a part of the Emperor's righteous Great Crusade. Rumours and condemnations began to spread about the Thousand Sons Legion amongst the other expeditionary fleets. The most vocal of these detractors were the primarchs of the Death Guard, Imperial Fists and Raven Guard Legions -- Mortarion, Rogal Dorn and Corvus Corax, respectively.

The majority of the Astartes of the XV Legion had been afflicted by the rampant genetic mutation within their ranks. Those that still remained unafflicted had seen their psychic abilities increase dramatically in power level. Soon the Thousand Sons' detractors raised their objections to the Emperor Himself, calling for the XV Legion's disbandment and for the Legion to be expunged from the Imperial records like the II and XI Legions.

The Emperor was also displeased by the Thousand Sons' dabblings in manipulating the corrupting powers of the Warp and later forbid the use of sorcery by either Magnus the Red or the members of his Legion after an Imperial Conclave was called on the world of Nikaea to deal with the question of psykers.

While fighting in the Great Crusade, the Thousand Sons would secretly gather the sacred texts and forbidden research into psychic phenomena of several thousand conquered worlds and compile them into the infamous tome of sorcery known as the Book of Magnus.

However, serious suspicion began to surround Magnus as the hatred towards mutants and psykers spread through the Imperium as the crusade progressed and the Legions learned how dangerous the use of psychic abilities could be on world after world that had been ravaged by them during the Age of Strife.

After much debate in the Imperium over the use of psykers, the Emperor called an Imperial conclave of all the primarchs and chief Imperial officials at the remote and volatile planet of Nikaea to deal with the issue once and for all. The highest authorities in the young Imperium were present or were represented, including the Emperor and his Sigillite and Regent Malcador, who officiated over the council.

At the forefront of the debate was Magnus, who argued very passionately for his cause and the important contributions that psykers and the use of sorcery could make to the improvement of the Imperium and to speeding up the successful conclusion of the Great Crusade.

The main opponents to the use of psykers were the Space Wolves who shared their Primarch Leman Russ' hatred of sorcery as unclean and cowardly and the Death Guard, whose Primarch Mortarion testified in person against the use of psychic powers as he had known them to be abused on his own homeworld of Barbarus.

When a consensus emerged among the council's participants that psykers and their powers represented a potential danger to the people of the Imperium, the Emperor's edicts were that in the interest of unity, no one was to be censured for prior actions involving the use of psychic abilities.

However, the future use of psychic abilities by the Imperium's military forces was banned (except the use of Astropaths, Navigators, and very strictly sanctioned and controlled psykers who were authorised to carry out Imperial business, like the Sisters of Silence).

All Astartes Legion Librarians were to be disbanded, and their members returned to conventional combat duty. In effect, Magnus and the Thousand Sons were banned from practicing "sorcery" or using the psychic abilities and knowledge they so coveted.

During the council an unknown Warp entity took the guise of Amon in order to further the plans of the Chaos Gods to place the Thousand Sons and the Space Wolves at each others' throats. This entity, in a complicated, multi-tiered and long-planned scheme driven by Tzeentch, presented a version of events to Kasper Ansbach Hawser that implicated Hawser as a Hidden One of the Thousand Sons, planted and controlled by Amon in a spying operation designed to give the Thousand Sons intelligence on the Space Wolves.

When confronted by Bjorn of the Space Wolves and Amon Tauromachian of the Legio Custodes, the simulacrum of Amon responded with violence before escaping.

This event only reinforced the belief amongst several senior Imperial figures that the Thousand Sons were out of control and was immediately told to the Emperor.

The event may have had bearing upon the eventual decision of the Emperor concerning the fate of the Thousand Sons and the ban placed on Librarians in general by the Edicts of Nikaea. The real Amon was later said to have been at Magnus' side thoughout the Council, unaware of the actiosn taken by his doppelganger.

Horus Heresy

Amon, Equerry to Magnus the Red, wields a stolen Guardian Spear.

Though they had been ordered by the Emperor to cease and desist all psychic activities and dabbling in the occult, Amon willingly went along with his primarch's decision to continue with their studies of the Warp. Magnus was keeping a monstrous secret from his captains while he worked feverishly and alone in his private library and the vaults beneath Tizca.

Amon and Ankhu Anen, Guardian of the Great Library of Prospero and member of the Corvidae Cult, had shared Ahriman's knowledge that something was wrong, but even their combined power was unable to pierce the veils of the future to see what so concerned their primarch. Magnus had foreseen a terrifying vision of the Warmaster Horus falling from grace and dragging the burgeoning Imperium of Man into a war more terrible than any of them could imagine -- an Age of Darkness that had been prophesied tens of thousands of standard years before by the ancient Aegyptos of Old Terra.

Though he did not exactly know the means in which Horus would fall, all he could perceive from his vision is that something primordial and corrupt would take root in his soul. Magnus had foreseen that the Luna Wolves Legion would soon be making war on a moon of Davin, and the fates were conspiring to fell Horus with a weapon of dreadful sentience.

In his weakened and blinded state, the enemies of all life would make their move to ensnare his warrior heart. Without the intervention of the Thousand Sons, they would succeed and split the galaxy asunder. The works that Magnus had Amon researching since the Council of Nikaea held the key to Horus Lupercal's salvation. With the help of his fellowship captains, Magnus would project himself across the Warp and attempt to shield his brother from his enemies.

During the battle against Chaos-spawned undead on Davin's moon, whose Planetary Governor, Eugen Temba, had been corrupted by the forces of the Chaos God Nurgle, Horus was poisoned by a xenos blade dedicated to Nurgle known as the Kinebrach Anathame that had been stolen from the human civilisation of the Interex by First Chaplain Erebus of the Word Bearers.

This occurred after Horus and the Luna Wolves of the 63^rd Expeditionary Fleet had made a disastrous first contact with that Human civilisation. Erebus then gifted the weapon to the Chaos-corrupted form of the Imperial Army commander Eugen Temba who the Warmaster had left behind to govern Davin sixty standard years before.

Once Horus had been mortally wounded by the arcane weapon, Erebus saw his chance to further the designs of Chaos, persuading the Luna Wolves' Warrior Lodge to allow a group of Davinite shamans -- Chaos Cultists all -- located on the surface of Davin at the Temple of the Serpent Lodge to heal him. The Luna Wolves, besides themselves with grief and the fear that their beloved primarch would die, agreed to the suggestion, despite its direct violation of the atheistic creeds of the Imperial Truth.

During the dark rituals that followed within the temple, Horus' spirit was transferred from his body into the Immaterium. There, he bore witness to a nightmare vision of the future. He saw the Imperium of Man as a repressive, violent theocracy, where the Emperor and several of His primarchs (but not Horus) were worshiped as gods by the masses. While this vision of the Imperial future granted by the Chaos Gods was a true one, it was ironically an outcome largely created by the Warmaster's own actions.

Magnus had also travelled into the Warp via sorcery to try and stop Horus from turning to Chaos. Magnus explained to Horus within the Immaterium that the Warmaster's vision was only one of many possible futures, but one that Horus alone could prevent. Horus, already jealous and resentful of the Emperor for leaving the Great Crusade behind to work on the Imperial Webway project, and fearful that when the Great Crusade ended he would have no further chance to win glory and amdiration, proved all too receptive to the Ruinous Powers' manipulation.

During his sojourn across the Warp, Magnus realised the treachery ran deeper than he had first thought. It seemed the powers that sought to ensnare Horus had already claimed others of the Imperium who were in thrall to Chaos -- Lorgar and his Word Bearers.

Now that events had been set in motion, Magnus ordered Amon, Ahriman and the rest of the Corvidae Cult to unravel the strands of the future. The Thousand Sons needed to know more of what was to come. He ordered them to do whatever it took -- whatever the cost might be.

The Fall of Prospero

"The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself: ye, all which it inherits shall dissolve, and like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rock behind!"

— From the Prophecy of Amon

Magnus next attempted to forewarn the Emperor of the impending betrayal of his favourite son. However, knowing that he would have to find a means of quickly warning the Emperor, Magnus used sorcery once more to send his message to the Emperor. The message penetrated the potent psychic defences of the Imperial Palace on Terra, shattering all the psychic wards the Emperor had placed on the Palace -- including those within His secret project in the Imperial Palace's dungeons, where He was proceeding with the creation of the human extension into the Webway.

Refusing to believe that Horus, His most beloved and trusted son, would actually betray Him, the Emperor instead mistakenly perceived the traitor to the Imperium to be Magnus and his Thousand Sons, who had long suffered from a near-debilitating run of mutations because of the instability of Magnus' own genome as well as being practicioners of sorcery that brought them into constant contact with the dangerous entities of the Empyrean.

The Emperor ordered the Primarch Leman Russ, Magnus' greatest rival, to mobilise his Space Wolves Legion and the witchhunters known as the Sisters of Silence and take Magnus into custody to be returned to Terra to stand trial for violating the Council of Nikaea's prohibitions against the use of sorcery within the Imperium.

While en route to the Thousand Sons Legion's homeworld of Prospero, Horus convinced Russ, who had always been repelled by Magnus' reliance on psychic powers, to launch a full assault on Prospero instead even though Magnus had been entirely willing to face the Emperor's judgment once he realised he was being manipulated by the entities that called the Immaterium home.

Amon's loyalty and confidence to Magnus was severely shaken when he discovered that his primarch had murdered Captain Baleq Uthizzar, the captain of the 5th Fellowship and magister templi of the Athanean Cult, for knowing too much about the impending assault by the encroaching Space Wolves Legion.

Taking Amon into his confidence, the primarch and his former tutor traveled the Aether together in their astral forms. Magnus showed Amon the approaching fleet of the VI Legion. He admitted to his former tutor that he had been wrong about everything. All the things that Amon had taught the adolescent primarch had been arrogantly dismissed out of hand, for Magnus presumed he already knew. He had been warned by Amon about the gods of the Warp, which the primarch had rejected, calling his tutor a superstitious old fool.

The primarch confessed that he had done terrible things, but he tried to convince Amon that he had done them for the right reasons. Magnus had drawn a veil around Prospero. None could see out as their punishment by the Emperor drew closer, not even the sorcerers of the Corvidae Cult. Magnus accepted his punishment for his hubris, and would sit by and do nothing as his Legion was wiped out for their violation of the Emperor's Decree Absolute at Nikaea.

Amon could not abide his primarch's decision, whether it was the right thing to do or not. He could not sit idly by and accept the inevitability of the Thousand Sons' pre-ordained destiny. Magnus explained to his oldest friend the reason he had not struck at the Space Wolves' because it was what the Ruinous Powers had wanted him to do since he had first come to Prospero by their design.

The Chaos Gods wanted Magnus to take arms against their doom, knowing that if he did, it would only confirm everything those who hated and feared the Thousand Sons had always believed. In that moment of his primarch's dire revelation, Amon confessed to his gene-sire that before Magnus had come to Prospero he had suffered a recurring nightmare.

Amon had dreamt that everything he held dear was swept away and destroyed. It plagued him for years, but on the day the infant primarch had arrived from the heavens like a comet, the dream stopped. He never had it again. Amon convinced himself that it was nothing more than an ancestral memory of Old Night, but it was not. He knew that now, for he had foreseen this moment in time. The destruction of everything he held dear, everything on Prospero, was coming to pass.

Despite everything Magnus had done, the primarch still believed that his fate was his own. He was a loyal son of the Emperor, and he would never betray Him, for the primarch had already broken His father's heart and His greatest creation, the Imperial Webway extension.

Magnus intended to accept his fate and though history might judge the Thousand Sons as Traitors, at least Magnus and his sons would know the truth. They would know that they were loyal unto the end because they accepted their fate. Magnus urged Amon to do the same. Amon refused to acquiesce to his gene-sire's wishes. He would not sit passively by, waiting to die like some infirm, decrepit animal. Amon would fight for his people and his home.

After the Space Wolves' fleet translated in-system, they proceeded to destroy Prospero's orbital defences. They then commenced with a tremendous orbital bombardment that reduced Prospero to cinders, except its capital, Tizca, a beautiful city and the seat of Magnus and the XV Legion, that was at all times protected by a powerful telekinetic kine-shield. This shield was maintained by one of the Thousand Sons' sorcerous cults, and Magnus did not disable it, knowing that such action would alert his Legion.

Because of the shield, an Imperial invasion of Tizca had to take place. A huge force of landing vehicles and support craft descended on the city, whose defences had been left mostly unmanned. Establishing a beachhead in the spaceport area, the Space Wolves began slaughtering thousands of Prosperines and burning everything in sight.

Yet the Thousand Sons' rank-and-file did not share Magnus' acceptance of defeat and punishment, so they took up arms against the Loyalist invaders. The Thousand Sons managed to hold Tizca (the only surviving city on the planet) for a period of time before they were eventually pushed back.

Before Magnus reluctantly faced the wrath of his brother, Leman Russ, he entrusted Amon with a precious gift, his most prized possession, the Book of Magnus. This massive tome contained the collected knowledge of sorcery as dictated by Magnus. It was said that this work was one of the most complete treatises on psykers, witchcraft and sorcery in the galaxy, a compilation of all the knowledge and experiments gathered by Magnus during the conquests the Thousand Sons made for the Imperium during the Great Crusade.

Amon was charged with its safekeeping and to ensure that it was passed on to Chief Librarian Ahriman. Magnus eventually, reluctantly, took to the battle against the Loyalist forces when Leman Russ and his Wulfen were unleashed on the last pyramid of Tizca still standing.

At the height of the Battle of Prospero, Magnus and Leman Russ took part in a devastating duel in which Russ was ultimately victorious. Mortally wounded, with his back broken, Magnus invoked ancient sorceries in order to escape Prospero by opening a gateway through the Warp into the Eye of Terror where a Daemon World (the Planet of the Sorcerers) had been prepared for Magnus and the remnants of his Legion by their new patron god, Tzeentch. Magnus was subsequently "rewarded" by Tzeentch by being transformed into a Daemon Prince.

Rubric of Ahriman

Following their exile into the Eye of Terror, Ahriman's love and admiration for his gene-sire had turned to hatred and contempt. When the "flesh-change" once again ran rampant amongst the survivors of the Thousand Sons and Magnus seemed to accept it, Ahriman set out to find a cure for the flesh-change himself. In his own hatred and hubris and utterly unaware of the ludicrousness of attempting to use the very energy of change to stop change, Ahriman delved into the sorcerous knowledge held in the Book of Magnus.

Distilling the colossal collections of formulae, incantations and rites, and infusing the results with his own hatred of Magnus and angst at the fate of his Legion, Ahriman devised the canvas of a mighty arcane spell that would ultimately undo all the woe that had befallen his battle-brothers and thus protect them from the flesh-change for all eternity. Preliminary testing of the spell he called the Rubric generated great promise, but he quickly discovered that he lacked the raw power required to achieve permanent results.

He then set to work gathering those amongst the remaining officers of the Thousand Sons who, like him, were disgusted by what had befallen their Legion and their primarch. Gathering in a fell circle around Ahriman, this cabal of sorcerers lent their power to Ahriman, who then unleashed the full power of his desperate spell.

Amon was amongst those who had joined Ahriman's breakaway cabal, those who had always been the most headstrong and those with the most psychic power in the XV Legion. Those that had remained faithful to the primarch were the second-rate, the ones who had not dared to join the casting of the Rubric. The counter-sorcery affected them all, preserving less than a hundred of the Legion's sorcerers and condemning the rest, the Rubricae, to dust.

The majority of battle-brothers of the Legion who lacked the psychic gift could not deal with the cataclysmic amounts of sorcerous energy which poured into them. Their flesh burned on the spot, their bodies reduced to ash inside their armour.

And yet, the energies released sealed all the joints of their Power Armour as it burned their bodies. When their souls attempted to depart their ruined bodies, they found themselves trapped inside their armour; dead, yet still alive, without a body but unchanging for all eternity.

In the aftermath of the cataclysm, it became clear that the Rubric had either succeeded beyond all possible expectations or failed abominably, depending on how one looked at it. Ahriman himself, along with most of his cabal, were horrified by the result. Their brethren were now as they had intended, protected from the "flesh-change," though they paid for this protection with the destruction of their physical bodies. It was only later that Ahriman saw the awful truth of what he had wrought.

Instead of purging the flesh of ravening mutations, each of the Thousand Sons had been transformed into unliving automata. Magnus, angered beyond reason, assaulted the tower where Ahriman had gathered his coven. The other Chaos Sorcerers immediately knelt and abased themselves before Magnus' fury, but Ahriman remained standing, vindicated in his beliefs and utterly unrepentant.

Before the Daemon Primarch could strike down his former chief librarian, the Architect of Fate, Tzeentch himself, intervened, staying Magnus' hand. Instead, Ahriman and the rest of his cabal were banished from the Planet of the Sorcerers.

Exile and Death

"If I have to burn half of the Eye of Terror and raze the Planet of the Sorcerers to find the means, I will break your Rubric, and let our Legion die at last."

— Amon confronting Ahriman for the last time

Ahriman wearing the armour that once belonged to Amon before his death.

As Ahriman was exiled, so too was his cabal, but Amon was determined to find all the secrets of the Rubric and perhaps restore some of his mindless brothers back to life. Over the next one thousand standard years as he continued to amass more power, he founded his own powerful warband known as the Brotherhood of Dust which consisted of many exiled Thousand Sons.

He also gathered voidships, other Chaos Space Marines, hundreds of Rubricae and a number of apprentices, who themselves became formidable Chaos Sorcerers in their own right.

It was Amon's intent to see the suffering of his Legion ended, for he would undo the fell magic of the Rubric that had doomed his former Battle-Brothers to their unlife, so that he could release their tortured souls. Yet, despite all his grand schemes and designs, he still needed the wayward Ahriman, for only he possessed the necessary knowledge of the Rubric.

Amon sent out emissaries all over the galaxy chasing up rumours, no matter how minor, of the possible whereabouts of the former Thousand Sons Chief Librarian. During his quest, Amon came across other former members of the Thousand Sons. He sent his emissaries to his former brothers in the hopes of enticing them to join his warband.

If they accepted, they would become a part of the Brotherhood of Dust, however, those that refused faced the prospect of annihilation -- both themselves and those that followed them. In the meantime, Ahriman had been hiding amongst a Renegade warband dedicated to Khorne, known as The Harrowing.

Somehow the Brotherhood of Dust managed to track the psychic spoor of Ahriman to the warband. Amon sent an emissary named Tolbek, a former Thousand Sons Legionary and member of Ahriman's cabal. An adept of the Pyrae Cult in the long-broken traditions of Prospero, Tolbek had been one of the first to join Ahriman's cabal. Tolbek had played his part in the Rubric that destroyed their Legion and shared in their banishment.

Tolbek, escorted by a pair of Rubric Marines, went over to the warband's vessel, the Blood Crescent, to entreat with the warband's leader Gzrel. During the subsequent audience aboard The Harrowing's ship, Tolbek divined the true identity of Ahriman, who had been masquerading as a lowly sorcerous initiate named Horkos -- who was looked upon with contempt by his fellow Renegades as the lowest of the low and an oath-breaker.

Recognising Tolbek, and realising his identity had been compromised, Ahriman unleashed his suppressed sorcerous abilities against both his allies and the Thousand Sons sorcerer.

After killing the majority of The Harrowing's leaders, Ahriman was confronted by Tolbek. Ahriman telepathically invaded Tolbek's mind, attempting to discover why he had been sought out. But the cunning sorcerer immolated his own mind, attempting to pull Ahriman's psychically-linked consciousness into oblivion with him.

Ahriman just barely managed to escape Tolbek's insidious trap. Tolbek died as his body erupted into flames, eventually collapsing into a pile of ash.

Before the Chaos Space Marines aboard the warship Tolbek had arrived on realised that their master was dead, Ahriman took the captured vessel he was aboard and fled into the Warp. During Ahriman's quest to determine who had sought him out, Amon sent numerous minions to do his bidding, including Warp creatures and a half-Daemon Prince, all of which failed to kill him. Despite Amon's best efforts, Ahriman managed to discover his former brother's location and infiltrate his fleet.

Unfortunately, before Ahriman could launch a surprise assault upon Amon, he was betrayed by the mistress of the ship he had stolen, his location compromised. Ahriman managed to emerge victorious after battling against three of Amon's Chaos Sorcerers, but was badly wounded during the fighting.

Amon eventually appeared in person and subdued the wounded Ahriman with powerful wards of binding and hexes, and brought him aboard his flagship, the Sycorax. While imprisoned, Amon convinced Ahriman to give him the invaluable information he desired so that he could undo the Rubric, and Ahriman finally succumbed.

Ahriman's allies came to rescue him and they managed to effect his escape, but the former Librarian was soon confronted by the angry Amon, who unleashed a powerful psychic attack. During the ensuing duel, Ahriman revealed the final secret of the Rubric to his former brother -- it was a part of all Thousand Sons, bound into their very beings -- the Rubric ran through them all, linking them, sustaining them. Its power was in Ahriman's hands.

Unable to pull his mind away from Ahriman, the Chaos Sorcerer caused Amon to spontaneously combust from the powerful psychic energy unleashed from the arcane spell. Amon's armour came apart, each component pulling away from the other, spilling grey dust into the turning wind.

The vortex of power enveloped Ahriman and lifted him into the air, the separate pieces of Amon's armour aligning itself over his unarmoured, splayed body. Then, one plate at a time, they slid into place over Ahriman's flesh. Finally Amon's horned helm slipped over Ahriman's skull.

The minds of the living sorcerers of the Brotherhood of Dust teetered on the edge of indecision. The dead Rubricae simply waited. Raising his hands, Ahriman summoned Warpflames from the floor, which scoured the red lacquer from the armour of every Rubricae and sorcerer. Then the flames flickered blue, and the silver armour became polished sapphire.

Ahriman looked across the ranks of blue armour. Slowly, he knelt and bowed his head. He assumed the mantle of leadership of the Brotherhood of Dust, including its massive fleet and army of followers. It is not known if the Brotherhood of Dust is the same warband, now known as the Prodigal Sons, that Ahriman currently leads in the late 41st Millennium.

Appearance and Personality

Amon was said to possess close-cropped grey hair, with skin that had the appearance and colour of old vellum. Amon was described as a quiet, private fellow, not easily given to company. Like many such solitary men, he was a poet and deeply interested in the hidden nature of things.

When Ahriman sought to undo the "flesh change" that ravaged his fellow battle-brothers after their escape during the Burning of Prospero, he formed a cabal, and they began their work hidden from the eye of Magnus. Amongst the conspirators had been the most powerful psykers in an entire Legion of warlocks.

Once considered one of the most loyal of Magnus' sons, Amon had been the hardest to persuade to join Ahriman's cabal, the most doubting, the one most loyal to the primarch besides Ahriman. He followed Ahriman, believing in him and allowing himself to dream as he did. That trust bought him the destruction of everything he held dearest.

He had burned his hopes because he had trusted the former Chief Librarian. Though the Rubric of Ahriman could not be undone, Amon became convinced that the only way to save their Legion was to end it -- a quest that ultimately led to his death and the absorption of his powers by his former brother and bitterest enemy -- Ahriman.

Amon gained new armour after his exile. It was said he had a horned helm and blue robes. Ahriman took this armour after Amon's death so the armour worn by Ahriman during his exile from Sortiarius originally belonged to Amon.

Powers and Abilities

Amon's precognitive psychic abilities developed at a young age, although they manifested as dreams rather than conscious visions. Amon's first precognitive vision occurred before Magnus had come to Prospero in the form of a recurring nightmare.

He had dreamt that everything he held dear was swept away and destroyed. It plagued him for years, but on the day the infant primarch had arrived from the heavens like a comet, the dream stopped. He never had it again.

Amon convinced himself that it was nothing more than an ancestral memory of Old Night, but tragically, this was not the case. Only on the eve of his homeworld's destruction did he later realise that he had forseen the Burning of Prospero.

Amon was the master of his Legion's external intelligence network, many of whom, thanks to the Thousand Sons' ability to twist the minds and manipulate the memories of others through their psychic powers, didn't even known whom they truly served. Such hidden servants and the scryings and divinations of Amon and his adjutants could be exploited to force an enemy's plans to become known and manoeuvres to be anticipated.

Amon was also a master of deception and subterfuge, having served as the Master of the Legion Auxilia known as the Hidden Ones. It was said that amongst the members of the Thousand Sons, even the powerful psychic might of Chief Librarian Ahriman was useless in detecting Amon's presence with either his mindsight or true sight.

Wargear

Magistus Amon during the Horus Heresy era

• Armour of Shades - Woven into the fabric of Amon's suit of Artificer Armour were layers upon layers of psychically-charged glyphs and wave forms designed to augment Amon's own abilities to pass unseen, or even appear as another when he wished. This armour was later radically altered in design and aesthetics after Amon's fall to Chaos and was later claimed by Ahriman after he slew the elder sorcerer.
• Master-Crafted Force Sword
• Archaeotech Pistol
• Dust of the Devourers - Kept within the concealed chamber of a reliquary staff, Amon carried the dust-like remains of slain Psychneuein mind-parasites. These Warp-born predators afflicted thankfully few worlds, but Prospero was one. The hungering psychic essence of these creatures was bound like a murderous echo to their dust, and it was in Amon's power to invoke it with lethal results.
• Arcane Litanies - The bearer of Arcane Litanies was protected from the powers of the Warp and the denizens that dwelled within.
• Frag Grenades
• Krak Grenades

Canon Conflict

In the novel A Thousand Sons, Amon is said to be the tutor of the adolescent Primarch Magnus, before the arrival of the Emperor and the Astartes of the XV Legion on Prospero.

This heavily implies that Amon was already a full grown man at this time, and would therefore not have been eligible for the full array of required genetic enhancements, gene-seed implantation and the additional organ transplants required to become a full-fledged, transhuman Space Marine warrior.

It is thus highly probable that Amon, like Kor Phaeron of the Word Bearers Legion and Luther of the Dark Angels, instead received advanced Imperial rejuvenat treatments and limited gene-forging to make him exalted above normal Humans, but not a true Astartes. This is not currently stated anywhere within the novel or other canon sources.

Trivia

Also spelled Amun, Amen, or Ammon, Amon was originally a local deity of the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes on Old Earth. He was attested to have been worshipped by Egyptians since the Old Kingdom period of the early 3rd Millennium BC together with his spouse Amaunet. At the inception of the 11th Dynasty (ca. 21st century BC), he rose to the position of patron deity of Thebes.

After the rebellion of Thebes against the Semitic invaders and conquerors of Egypt known as the Hyksos and with the rule of the Pharaoh Ahmose I, Amun acquired national importance, expressed in his fusion with the sun god, Ra, as Amun-Ra.

Amun-Ra retained chief importance in the Egyptian pantheon throughout the New Kingdom period (with the exception of the "Atenist heresy" under Akhenaten). Amun-Ra in this period (16th to 11th Centuries BC) held the position of transcendental, self-created creator deity "par excellence", and he was the champion of the poor or troubled and central to personal piety in ancient Egypt.

Amun-Ra's position as King of the Gods developed to the point of virtual monotheism where other gods became simply manifestations of him. With Osiris, Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods in later cultural periods. As the chief deity of the Egyptian Empire of the New Kingdom period, Amun-Ra also came to be worshipped outside of Egypt, in Ancient Libya and Nubia, and in the incarnation of Zeus-Ammon came to be identified with Zeus, the chief deity of the Olympians, in Ancient Greece.

Amon, spelled Aamon, is also a Goetic demon and a Marquis of Hell who governs forty infernal legions in Judeo-Christian demonology. He bears the head of a raven and is able to foresee the future.

Videos

Warhammer 40,000 Grim Dark Lore Part 14 – A Thousand Sons

Sources

• The Horus Heresy - Book Seven: Inferno (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 147, 149, 218-219
• A Thousand Sons (Novel) by Graham McNeill, pp. 6, 27-29, 84, 120, 140-142, 175-177, 192-194, 201-204, 220-221, 251, 258-260, 262, 264
• Prospero Burns (Novel) by Dan Abnett, pp. 6, 296, 300-304, 342-356, 365, 371, 428
• Ahriman: Exile (Novel) by John French, pp. 190, 207-209, 211, 215, 255, 259, 300, 301, 366, 368, 375, 379, 383-384, 392, 400-404, 406, 422-428, 432-433, 437-438, 443, 445, 447, 463-473
• Battle of the Fang (Novel) by Chris Wraight, pg. 47
• The Horus Heresy: Legions (Video Game)