Horus Heresy

In the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe, the Horus Heresy was a galaxy-spanning civil war that marked the end of the Great Crusade. First described in the 1988 Games Workshop book "", it was used as the background for the original "Epic-scale" Space Marine and Adeptus Titanicus games since, providing a justification for inter-imperial warfare, it spared the effort to include different armies in the basic games boxes.Fact|date=August 2008

A series of novels based on the events of the Horus Heresy have been released by the Black Library (Games Workshop's publishing arm). The war is also the focus of "Horus Heresy", a collectible card game produced by Sabertooth Games, and a hex based wargame released by Games Workshop in 1993 with the same name. [ [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3170 Horus Heresy] at BoardGameGeek]

So far (as of October 2008) the novel series spans 8 novels. According to the back of "Battle for the Abyss", 9th book titled "Mechanicum" and written by Graham McNeill is due to be published in December 2008. This book has yet to appear on the Black Library.

Cause

After a crusade to reunite the planets inhabited by humans, the Emperor of the new Imperium made Horus, the first and supposedly most trustworthy of the Primarchs, the commander in chief of his armed forces while he himself left on further Crusades. This caused anger among some Primarchs, the leaders of the Space Marines, especially those who felt slighted by other decisions of the Emperor or had grievances against their brothers. Horus was corrupted by visions produced by the Chaos gods, and turned against the Emperor. He led several other Primarchs, as well as their Legions, against the Emperor. Most of those who turned against the Emperor became, or already were, corrupted by Chaos.

Literature

As of 2005 the background material has started to be expanded with a collection of art books and novels created by various authors from the Black Library, set in this time period as opposed to the circa 40,000 AD era of most Warhammer 40,000 literature. An initial scene-setting trilogy featuring the Luna Wolves and portraying the fall of their Primarch, the Warmaster Horus and the beginning of the Heresy through the eyes of the 10th captain of the legion Garviel Loken was released and since the completion of said trilogy, the novel range has expanded to include the actions for other legions in the war and the role of various Imperial organisations; as of present day further novels are still being added to the series, and the novels have only covered up to the Istvaan V massacres in the timeline of the Heresy. In some cases the new material introduced in the card game, art books and novels has led to continuity conflicts with the older material, although the information provided in the novel series is generally assumed to be canonical and superseding the older material.

Footnotes

References

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*2nd Edition Warhammer 40,000 Codex Imperialis
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