Primarchs: The Horus Heresy

These stories will transport you to the heart-breaking internecine conflict known as the Horus Heresy. Each one of these audio dramas is a stirring tale of a long, vicious war that rages on into the 41st Millennium. Some of Black Library's best-known names have crafted thrilling, revealing and sometimes surprising audio dramas that shed more light on the galaxy spanning conflicts of the Horus Heresy.

Piamen is a tranquil world in the far reaches of the galaxy. Since throwing off the yoke of alien invaders, they have remained free and peaceful...until the coming of the Imperium. When they refuse to join mankind's star-spanning empire, a force of Legiones Astartes is despatched to bring the planet to compliance. And when the Night Lords come, darkness falls. Piamen will never be the same....

As the Horus Heresy rages and the death toll rises, one more will be added to the numberless dead: Sibel Niasta, personal astropath to the First Lord of the Imperium, Malcador the Sigillite. As her end approaches, Malcador sits vigil by her bedside, and the pair discuss their friendship and what it means - how the past and present have shaped Malcador and the Imperium, and what the future holds.

As the Ultramarines flagship Macragge's Honour comes under attack, Seargeant Ammon rushes to the quarters of Tarasha Euten, the primarch's chamberlain. Euten has been by Guilliman's side since he was a child and counselled him across the decades. Old in body but still sharp and wise, she gives the sergeant a lesson in leadership, using an example from the primarch's youth. Prepare to discover how young Roboute conquered the hill tribes and brought peace to Macragge...just not in the way the history books record. 

The Thousand Sons have thrown in their lot with the traitor Horus, and Terra awaits them. Their appointed task shall be to break the psychic defences around the Imperial Palace - but not even Magnus the Red has the magical might to defy the Emperor's will so brazenly. He needs a weapon. Amidst the ruins of the city of Tizca lies what he needs, the legacy of a world long dead and a war that brings shame to the Crimson King. Now, he and his favoured son Ahriman seek that weapon - and Ahriman will also have answers to questions he didn't even know need asked....

The 33rd Grand Battalion of the Iron Warriors, newly raised and seeing battle for the first time, have the honour of the primarch himself, Perturabo, leading them. But the Hammer of Olympia is there for more than just battle - he is evaluating his new officers and deciding their fates. And with a force of Imperial Fists allied to their cause, Perturabo sees the perfect opportunity to teach his new warriors the difference between the stone of the VII Legion and the Iron of his own.

As the Imperium of Mankind spreads across the galaxy, bringing all of humanity into its embrace, the advance is spearheaded by the primarchs, superhuman sons of the immortal Emperor. Each of these heroes is a warrior born and a leader bred, but darkness lurks in the hearts of some and threatens to tear apart all that they have worked to build. This audio drama anthology contains three full-cast tales, starring the primarchs Konrad Curze, better known as the sinister Night Haunter, and Perturabo, the Lord of Iron.

Long before the coming of the Imperium, the realm of Ultramar was ruled by Roboute Guilliman, the last Battle King of Macragge. Even after learning of his true heritage as a primarch son of the Emperor of Mankind, he strove to expand his domain as efficiently and benevolently as possible, with the XIII Legion Ultramarines as his alone to command.

Many are the sagas of Leman Russ, Lord of Winter and War, most fearsome of the Emperor's primarch sons. At the height of the Great Crusade, his Space Wolves fight to bring the rebel world of Dulan to compliance. Enraged by the defiance of the tyrant Durath, Russ has pledged to strike him down personally - but his brother Lion El'Jonson of the Dark Angels advises more caution. With the might of two Legions arrayed against Durath, tensions nevertheless run high, and the rivalry between the Wolf and the Lion threatens to engulf them all.

Lord of the mystical and uncanny, Magnus the Red has long studied the ancient crafts of sorcery. A psyker without peer, save only for the Emperor himself, he commands his loyal followers of the Thousand Sons Legion in the Great Crusade, though also vigilant for any lost knowledge they might recover from the remains of dead human civilisations.

Born to a life of political conflict, Perturabo was always considered a child prodigy among the people of Olympia - indeed, his philosophical and scientific works were beyond compare. But then, after his rediscovery by the Emperor and decades of thankless military campaigning on the Great Crusade, the primarch begins to resent his Legion's place in the Imperium.

On the world of Colchis, mighty religions rule a decaying society in the name of absent gods - until the arrival of Lorgar. Primarch, prophet, leader of destiny, the Golden One is raised by Kor Phaeron, priest of the Covenant, to be his weapon in a quest for power. As religious war spreads across the planet, spearheaded by the Brotherhood of Lorgar, the primarch is plagued by visions of the future and the coming of the Emperor.

The Great Crusade has swept across half the galaxy, a million human worlds now embracing the truth and reason that comes with allegiance to the rule of Terra. But even such unparalleled success comes at a cost. Rumours abound that the Emperor plans to step back from the Crusade and raise one of his primarch sons to lead in his stead. Faced with the bitterly noncompliant human empire of Gardinaal and a leaderless host of Ultramarines, Thousand Sons and Emperor’s Children at his Legion’s command, the Iron Hands primarch Ferrus Manus decides to make an example that even the Emperor cannot ignore.

For long years, the White Scars have fought for the Imperium, bringing worlds to compliance. But when a new project, to embed psykers in the Space Marine Legions, seems likely to come to fruition, Jaghatai Khan must decide if he will comply...Listen to it because Chris Wraight returns to the Khan of Khans with a tale set at the height of the Great Crusade and showing the momentous decisions that, in some ways, led to the darkest events of the Horus Heresy.

As the Emperor marshals his armies to reclaim the galaxy for the glory of mankind, one by one his Space Marine Legions are reunited with their missing primarchs. The XVIII Legion are still waiting to find their true identity, unaware their own lord has been found. In the Taras Division, legionaries face annihilation as they take a last, desperate stand against a monstrous ork invasion. Meanwhile, on Nocturne, Vulkan has raised and trained a new force of warriors. Now it is the time for him to lead his sons into battle.

During the Great Crusade, it falls to the primarch Corax of the Raven Guard to humble the immense void-cities of the Carinae. Determined to bring these worlds into compliance, he unleashes the might of his Legion and a massive war host of the Imperial Army. But the lords of Carinae are well defended and without remorse....

As the Emperor travels the galaxy at the head of his Great Crusade, few events are as important as rediscovering his scattered sons, the Primarchs, and bestowing them as the masters of their Legions. United, a Legion becomes a reflection of its Primarch, both in his strengths and his flaws. For the Twelfth Legion, once the War Hounds and now the World Eaters, the line between strength and flaw is almost impossible to separate.

Of all the Emperor’s immortal sons, the primarchs, it is Konrad Curze whose legend is the darkest. Born in the shadows of Nostramo, a world of murderers, thieves and worse, is it any surprise that he became the figure of dread known only as the Night Haunter? Heed now the tragic story of the creature Konrad Curze, master of the Night Lords Legion, of how he became a monster and a weapon of terror. He who once served the Imperium saw the truth in a maddening universe and the hypocrisy of a loveless father, and embraced the only thing that made any sense - darkness. 

Each primarch is an exemplary being, derived from the Emperor’s own genetic stock to embody a facet of His personality. Their powers are unfathomable, but only one of them is the First. Lion El’Jonson is the paragon of what it is to be a primarch. His Legion, pre-eminent for most of their long history, typify the virtues of temperance, pride and martial excellency that the Lion embodies. They are the Emperor’s last line and final sanction. They are His Dark Angels.