"Fall to Chaos"
- —Book's tag-line
The First Heretic is the fourteenth volume in the Horus Heresy series of novels.
Synopsis[]
The First Heretic details the fall to Chaos of the Primarch Lorgar and his Word Bearers, the XVIIth Legion of Astartes.
The story is told largely from the point of view of Argel Tal, a captain of the Word Bearers, and spans about 50 Terran years, starting 47 years before the events on Isstvan V and leading up to the time when the Word Bearers are on their way to assault Calth as related in Book 8.
Following the humiliating censure of Lorgar and the XVIIth Legion by the Emperor Himself for introducing religious worship of the Emperor as the God of Mankind on the world of Khur, Lorgar is swayed by two of his most trusted lieutenants Kor Phaeron and the the Chaplain Erebus, who were already in secret allegiance with Chaos.
Eventually both the primarch and his Legion abandon the Imperium following the Pilgrimage of Lorgar into the Eye of Terror, and in full accord with Horus take part in the Isstvan V Drop Site Massacre.
Sources[]
- The First Heretic (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden