This changed, around ten years into the Great Crusade. Their reputation was for reliable competence, but nothing more. However, to be blunt, they did not excel in the same way as – say – the Luna Wolves. They won a string of well-received victories against Xenos filth and non-compliant humans, working well with their fellow Astartes, and showing a strong degree of intra-Legion coordination in doing so. The XV set out on the Crusade, competent and effective, but not remarkable or particularly distinct from their brothers. When one thousand Legionaries were ready, they were inducted as a Legion by the Emperor himself.Īs he bade his “Thousand Sons” to rise, the storms broke and abated. The only thing which set them apart in these early days was the inexplicable “deliberate and exacting criteria” imposed upon the Legion intake, with “strictures imposed that were beyond that of their fellow Legions.” They only took stable, culturally sophisticated candidates, which meant the Legion was initially very small, and grew very slowly indeed.

The XV began as, frankly, an unremarkable Legion. The Emperor was – of course – unconcerned by this phenomenon, and instead responded by arranging the founding of key Imperial factions such as the SIlent Sisterhood. These potent storms caused panic and upheaval, with shipping disrupted and mutation rife. They were born during a series of violent warp storms shortly after the conclusion of the Unification Wars, and at the start of the Great Crusade. The Thousand Sons initially had a veiled and unclear purpose.

In fact, if not for a few twists of fate, they may never have turned from the Emperor at all.Ī Legion composed entirely of Psykers, they stood as a unique fighting force in the nascent Imperium of Man, a dedicated project of the Emperor which eventually fell afoul of the Edict of Nikea, the machinations of the Lord of Change and, ultimately, the Wolves of Fenris. The Thousand Sons are not the archetype of a Traitor Legion – they do not throw themselves howling into the foe like the World Eaters, or openly worship the Empyrean in the same way as the Word Bearers.

Horus heresy inferno pdf