My 2nd attempt at an alternative Heresy. Allegiances were distributed randomly.
As such...
In this environment, the young Primarch grew up as a priest. He studied diligently and quickly rose to a position of leadership in the church. He had many supporters, in part because of his insistence that minor deviation in ritual was acceptable. In fact, Lorgar grew up with a belief that all religion ultimately stemmed from one deity, and all procedures were ultimately merely a form of worship. This belief strengthened over time, and inevitably led to Lorgar being declared a heretic.
“He might be a giant with golden skin, and it might be pain for men to look at him. Still, his words are heresy, and if he is superhuman- heresy is heresy. All that proves is that he has made deals with demons.”
-Living Saint Gecam
During Lorgar’s time with the orthodox church, he had gained many allies. When he was excommunicated, many of them denounced him, but most went with him into exile. Among them was Lorgar’s main student, Kor Phaeron.
Phaeron bolstered Lorgar’s faith during these dark times, always calming the Primarch down. He claims that he saw the Gods during this time, during meditation. He wisely chose to keep this new knowledge from his teacher, as it was clear that it could be interpreted wrongly, and the last thing Phaeron wanted to do is to join the crowds that were abandoning Lorgar.
After sulking for several years, though, Lorgar at last decided to fight back. Under the wise council of Phaeron, he gathered all of those dissatisfied with the Church. At the same time, Lorgar convinced large portions of the Church, already considered doubters, that their loyalty should not be to an organization but to a religion. When he declared independence, as civil war erupted across Colchis, even many previously loyal leaders joined Lorgar, either for faith or profit.
The conflict itself was short, but bloody. Lorgar discouraged looting of enemy cathedrals, though it was done anyway. He emphasized conversion instead. Personally, he was a massive presence on the battlefield, as well as an inspirational one. Although he had a distaste for killing, he was intelligent enough to know that the conflict could not be won by peaceful means. After a three-day siege of the capital city, Helram, Lorgar entered the Ultimate Cathedral.
The great monument, the center of the Church’s power, amazed Lorgar with its opulence. Decorated skulls lined the walls, and sacred pages written on metal covered the ceiling. Lorgar had been there before, yet it had been far humbler in those days. Now, it seemed like a place for only the elite, a place where money could flow in large amounts.
Lorgar, awed by the massive, exclusive waste, could do little save to ask Phaeron for a torch. Phaeron gave him one, and the Ultimate Cathedral was set to flames.
Though the building itself was destroyed utterly, Lorgar and his force made every effort to save the lives of the faithful still in it. In fact, though, no living thing was found inside, save the Living Saint Gecan (the head of the Church). Upon interrogation, Lorgar learned that the Cathedral had been closed to the public soon after Lorgar’s exile.
Resistance virtually ended after the fall of Helram, and soon Lorgar announced a new, less centralized regime. Ruined monasteries and cathedrals were rebuilt, and the economy of Colchis did even better than before, as Lorgar proved a very able ruler.
The Ultimate Cathedral, though, was never rebuilt.
The arrival of his father, along with Magnus, shocked Lorgar. Here was a being that fit all definitions of divinity! The golden armor and impossible face of the deity were clear signs, and the power and benevolence that the Emperor would soon demonstrate underlined it. The Emperor said Lorgar was his son, and Lorgar eagerly accepted his position as demigod and general.
The only troubling point was that the Emperor did not acknowledge his divinity. Rather, he softly talked of the Imperial Truth, of a concept that no worship at all should take place. Lorgar felt doubtful over his existence then, at the moment of his greatest triumph. Still, rather quickly he came to the conclusion that it was only the Emperor’s modesty that prevented him from seeking worshippers.
“True gods,” Lorgar said, “do not flaunt their divinity. Only a god would not desire to be worshipped.”
Soon after meeting with his father and brothers, Lorgar met his children. The XVII Legion of the Astartes was named the Imperial Heralds, and their meeting with Lorgar went perfectly. Lorgar’s allies on Colchis, including Kor Phaeron, underwent the process of Astartes creation. Kor Phaeron himself, like several other notable figures, was too old to undergo the full implantation process, but rose to a high position in the Legion nevertheless.
Lorgar renamed his Legion the Word Bearers, declaring that they “must, and will, bear the word of the Emperor across the galaxy, for He is the only deity deserving of worship.“ “We are not only His army- we are his missionaries!” was first spoken in his speech and soon became part of the official, ritualized battle cry of the Word Bearers.
Phaeron privately doubted Lorgar’s words on this topic, knowing of the True Gods, but nevertheless went along.
The Word Bearers were ridiculed for their faith by some, especially the Primarch of the Luna Wolves, Horus. Horus was known for having a rift with his father, and as such Lorgar didn’t pay his words much attention. In fact, Lorgar almost considered Horus a fallen angel of sorts, having left the divine embrace for mundane, unimportant matters.
The Word Bearers marched across many places, everywhere bringing their word of the Divine Emperor. Planets turned by them were brought into line with the Imperium’s beliefs. Nevertheless, Lorgar desired never to copy the opulent and isolating despots that once governed his planet. He always walked among the people he was converting in peace, and he never oppressed the religion that they were practicing, instead merging it with his Imperial Faith.
At the same time, Lorgar followed his father’s doctrine of destroying xenos, and to them he offered no chance of conversion.
The Word Bearers’ worlds would become some of the most devout, and indeed even after what the Imperium knows as the Betrayal- and the Word Bearers as the Discovery- these worlds stood by the Emperor. When Lorgar battled to take control of the ice-world of Gefobr, he was roundly repulsed on arrival, but within a year the world was loyal to the Emperor and the faith. Many years later, after the Discovery, Gefobr again pushed Lorgar back, and despite the powers of the True Gods the planet never fell.
The Word Bearers Legion swelled quickly, but Lorgar followed his father’s recommendation on its size. Out of all Legions, the Word Bearers most precisely confined to the 100 000-Astartes limit.
Despite all of this, Lorgar’s worship of the Emperor was tempered by Phaeron’s reminding him of his youth on Colchis. The last thing Lorgar wanted was for his beloved Imperium to become a copy of the wasteful, exclusive Covenant- of the church that he had warred with then. Colchis itself, though a rich planet, was far from a trade hub. Instead, Lorgar used an open immigration policy and high taxes to create from Colchis a kind of religious sanctuary.
Among his brothers, he most closely allied himself with Vulkan of the Salamanders for his modest compassion and Sanguinius of the Blood Angels for his peaceful friendliness.
This calm state of satisfaction ended approximately a hundred years after Lorgar’s joining the Great Crusade. Out of nowhere, on a world conclusively turned to the Emperor’s worship, Lorgar’s father appeared. In fury, the Emperor bombed the major cities of the planet, barely bothering to evacuate the people. Next, he announced to the Word Bearers that they would be punished. When Lorgar- also driven to anger- inquired as to why the Emperor was doing this, the Emperor declared that the cause was Lorgar’s refusal to stop worshipping him as a god.
Lorgar was devastated, but realized immediately the parallels to the events on Colchis a hundred years prior. As the Emperor used his psychic powers to make the entire Legion kneel, Lorgar resisted and instead took out a sword.
The duel was short and hopeless. Even the power of a Primarch (and Lorgar was the weakest of his brothers at close combat, due to a general distaste for fighting) could not compare to the Emperor’s psychic might. Lorgar was pushed down, and on the ground he faced the Emperor’s judgment.
The Emperor did not yet desire to kill one of his children. Instead, he announced that Lorgar could return to the Great Crusade, but any further “disloyalty” would be responded to with the total destruction of both Lorgar and the entire XVII Legion by Russ’ Space Wolves.
These executioners were widely renowned across the Astartes, and as such Lorgar saw no other choice than to acquiesce to the Emperor’s orders for now, and risk open rebellion later. It was in that despair, however, that Lorgar received the famous communiqué from Rogal Dorn…
After the Emperor betrayed him, Lorgar was absolutely unapproachable. He now understood that the Emperor was completely unworthy of divine status, but the beliefs of a hundred years are not easily overturned. Lorgar desired something, anything, that would give a line out of the sheer magnitude of his mistake.
Kor Phaeron chose this moment to talk to Lorgar of the True Gods, but Lorgar refused to listen. He clearly saw the evil of the Emperor, but still could not understand how his brothers could possibly not understand their father’s darkness. Instead, they remained paradoxically loyal.
The call from Rogal Dorn shattered these doubts. Here was a Primarch that comprehended his father’s dark side. Here was an offer to join a potential rebellion decades in the making. Here was a chance- though belated and uncertain- of overthrowing the Covenant once more.
Dorn saw the Emperor as an idealist, lost in his little world of plans and paying little attention to the darkness prevalent in reality. Lorgar saw the Emperor as a traitor, and soon came to understand- by means of a furious correspondence with Dorn- that this carelessness came from a head concerned only with what should be, and with itself. Together Dorn and Lorgar hashed out a plan for the fall of the Imperium.
Lorgar feigned loyalty, and although he no longer dedicated shrines to the Emperor, he kept all other marks, such as keeping his Legion size to 100 000. For a few decades the Great Crusade continued as normal, but thirty years after the Discovery, Lorgar’s patience was at an end. The Emperor’s most favored sons- Fulgrim and Roboute Guilliman- had become Warmasters, a way of putting their Legions above the Space Marines at large. The Emperor didn’t even notice the insulting connotation, proving his indifference.
“We have valiantly fought for the Emperor for many years, yet in response he destroyed our greatest work. We are the second Legion to have seen the True Gods, and we are days away from having the biggest Legion of all supporting us, with eight others. Their oaths will be to me and the Gods. They will not be to this Emperor’s lapdog, the so-called Warmaster Guilliman. Phaeron, your suggestion borders on betrayal of the Word Bearers. It is denied.”
-Lorgar
Emissaries were sent out to nine Legions. Sanguinius’ Blood Angels were not found- they had grown tired of waiting for freedom. Two other conversion attempts failed. On Davin, Chaplain Erebus was strangled by Horus Lupercal. Meanwhile, the delegation to the Night Lords returned at a quarter of its original strength, at high speed.
Nevertheless, at the designated meeting place- a system known as Isstvan- eight fleets were soon gathered. Some of the Primarchs had dedicated themselves to a god: the bloody Perturabo to Khorne, the cunning Ferrus Manus to Tzeentch, the depressed Vulkan to Nurgle and the careful Jaghatai Khan to Slaanesh. The Lion, Dorn, Lorgar and the mysterious Angron had all selected not to put their faith in a single god, but to support Chaos Undivided.
There were many loyalists still in all eight Legions, and Lorgar came to the decision to send all of those down to the surface and bomb them all to death. This was followed through, but unfortunately a number of loyalists- led by Alexis Polux of Dorn’s Fists- had not descended to the planet, and soon caused a space battle. To make matters worse, Perturabo and Ferrus Manus ended up unable to control their tempers. Soon even those that were supposed to be allied in the cause of the True Gods were fighting each other.
It is a testament to Lorgar’s faith and leadership that the Word Bearers followed the example of their lord during the Week, and stayed out of the fighting. The few Word Bearer loyalists were exterminated, of course, and Isstvan III’s surface was bombed, by a Word Bearer Captain named Argel Tal. Other than that, Word Bearer ships remained observers, and at times peacemakers (such as when Kor Phaeron negotiated a ceasefire between the Iron Warriors and the Iron Hands).
Throughout this madness, Lorgar stayed in his ship and meditated, communing with the divine. After a week, he at last exited with a message: the Discoverers (the eight Legions allied with Lorgar) would head to Terra, and quickly.
Lorgar split the Discoverers into two fleets: the First was composed of the Iron Warriors, Salamanders, Fists and White Scars whereas the Second was made up of the Dark Angels, the Iron Hands, the World Eaters and the Word Bearers themselves. Despite the names, the two fleets were meant to arrive on Terra simultaneously and pound the Emperor into dust.
It was not to be.
The Second Fleet was continuously harassed by spies, geneseed problems that seemed to come from nowhere, and the Luna Wolves. Horus’ Legion never attacked the Second Fleet in force, because even the Luna Wolves were not the size of four Legions. Despite this, even minor incursions were enough to slow Lorgar’s advance.
When the Second Fleet arrived at Terra, they found the First in ruins. Four Legions had fought and died under the Imperial Palace’s walls. Dorn’s mastery of siegecraft had not been enough to open the Palace’s gates.
Three Primarchs were rescued by Ferrus Manus; Perturabo, though, was not through a series of events that is still unclear. The remnants of these Legions were saved as well. Then, the Second Fleet descended on Terra.
Ferrus Manus used a few stratagems to defend the landing pads and the Lion’s siege weapons. Then, the four Discoverer Legions smashed into the walls of the palace. Dorn- resting on the Word Bearers’ ships- informed Lorgar as to the weakest points in the defense.
Exactly when, or why, the World Eaters disappeared is unknown. Either way, the attack became significantly more difficult in their absence.
Nevertheless, Lorgar succeeded- even as the Ultramarines and Emperor’s Children pushed the Discoverers back from the Imperial Palace’s walls- in cracking open the bunker of the Throne Room.
He was not met there by the Emperor.
It was Fulgrim, a Warmaster, Lorgar’s brother. Lorgar’s fury was without bounds. Advancing on Fulgrim, empowered by the powers of four Chaos Gods, he replayed the events on Colchis in his shining head. He had been betrayed, and now he was denied the satisfaction of killing his betrayer.
The duel was long, but in the end Fulgrim lay dead below Lorgar’s feet. Lorgar, too, was incredibly wounded by Fulgrim’s attacks. In fact, his wounds were such that he barely saw the Emperor arrive in the room and touch Fulgrim’s hand, a moment of mourning at the height of his Imperium’s fall.
He did not have a torch.
Terra was Helram, now, and this was real. Helram had been practice, but this was reality. It was the same- abandoned, rich, exclusive.
With one eye, Lorgar observed his “father” say farewell to Fulgrim, and once more he realized how much he wanted to burn this world of worthless riches- burn it all away.
He had no torch.
His soul would have to do.
Lorgar gave his life and his very soul then to kill the Emperor. It is not known how he did this; in any case, Lorgar was utterly destroyed. The bodies found later in the Throne Room were Fulgrim’s and the Emperor’s, though the latter was soon entombed on a Golden Throne as a relic.
As the Emperor’s death greatly weakened the Imperium, so Lorgar’s had a huge negative effect on the Word Bearers. Kor Phaeron barely gathered the Legion and managed to escape Terra; it was fortunate that the fleet presence of the Discoverers was still far greater than that of the Loyalist Legions.
Phaeron thought about heading immediately for the Eye of Terror, but chose to first visit his homeworld of Colchis for one last time. The Imperium’s procedure for dealing with the worlds of “Traitor Legions” such as the II and XI was well-known, and as such Colchis’ doom was- Phaeron knew- not far off.
The final visit was fraught with arguments, as Colchis itself was not completely against the Emperor. Nevertheless, war had not stained the soils of Lorgar’s homeworld a second time. Phaeron took thirty thousand recruits to add to the seventy thousand that had survived the Siege of Terra, and then tried to leave for a new home in the Eye of Terror.
Unfortunately, during the escape from Colchis, the Ultramarines caught up with the Word Bearers.
The Word Bearers were forced to make an emergency series of jumps away from Colchis as Roboute Guilliman destroyed their homeworld. The rearguard was massacred by the Ultramarines. Cathedral after cathedral, many filled with those still loyal, was obliterated through orbital bombardment.
During transit, Phaeron announced to the infuriated Word Bearers and Initiates that they would take an eye for an eye and attack Ultramar, while Guilliman was distracted.
Calth was the first world of Ultramar to fall to the Word Bearers and their summoned daemons, and its once-fertile plains were filled with sacrificial pyres to the True Gods. Next, Phaeron attacked Macragge. The orbital defenses did their best to ward away the Word Bearers, but in the end a defensive force of perhaps a thousand Astartes had to deal with an attack, led by Captain Zadkiel, of twenty-five thousand.
Most of Macragge was under Word Bearer control in a matter of days, but the polar fortresses held out for weeks. As the Southern Fortress was at last breached, Zadkiel received the order to retreat to the ships, as Guilliman was coming.
He obeyed.
He could have taken it, he knew. He had a massive advantage in numbers, and the Gods had been on his side. True, the reinforcements would have been an issue, but they wouldn’t have been fast enough. Their precious homeworld would have become a shrine to the Gods, never more useful to traitors.
He could have taken it, he knew. He just wouldn’t get out of Macragge alive.
The retreat from Macragge was orderly, and Phaeron’s ships traced a curved path to the Eye of Terror. This time, the Ultramarines were left without a scapegoat for their mistakes and instead had to rebuild their damaged, daemonically tainted home.
Phaeron, meanwhile, arrived at the Eye of Terror from the north with what was likely the most intact of the seven Chaos Legions. It was an entry unexpected by the Legions already there, but an extremely fortunate one. With it, Phaeron more or less gave the Chaos Legions a theoretical leader.
They didn’t accept him. Five Primarchs were still alive, and would soon be promoted to Daemon Princes. Even the Iron Warriors, though, opposed Phaeron simply because- ultimately- his Legion had failed on Terra. Despite all the success, Kor Phaeron had to confront a horrifying truth in the Eye.
The war had been lost.
The War of Discovery, however, was not the end of the Word Bearers. The recruits from Colchis, and many others from worlds conquered by the Word Bearers after their conversion, swelled the size of the Legion back to a hundred thousand, where Phaeron decreed it would stay as a reminder of the Legion’s past.
Being limited in numbers, though, did not mean the XVII were weak. On the contrary, the Word Bearers have always put great pride in having every recruit be truly favored by the Gods. More than anything else, recruiting into the XVII is governed by omens and signs. The other way of overcoming their numerical disadvantage has been to summon daemons- lots of them.
Over the years, most of the XVII’s leadership has ascended to the status of a Daemon Prince. Kor Phaeron was the first, transcending after the Battle of Ophelia- an engagement, in M32, in which the Imperial Guard attempted to corner the Word Bearer leadership. They succeeded, but Phaeron fought his way out, in the process destroying the planet utterly. It is notable, though, that every other Word Bearer Daemon Prince has come from the ranks of the Symbiotes (which will be discussed in detail later).
The Word Bearers have since fought many battles, following the will of the Gods and Kor Phaeron. Their ultimate goal is the downfall of Terra and the Imperium via a new War of Discovery, and until then they are content to fight battles as the Gods suggest. Most attacks happen against Segmentum Obscurus. Despite the beliefs of many Imperial scholars, though, the Word Bearers have no overarching mission, such as finding recruits or the meaning of the divine. Rather, they trust the Gods.
The Word Bearers’ greatest military success was the 101 Incident. In the first contact between the Word Bearers and the Necrons, in an area known as Outpost 101, the robotic fleets infringed on a Word Bearer fort. The undead were defeated, but the Daemon Prince Nrewaj Fan fell in the fighting. Furious at the loss of one of his strongest subordinates, Kor Phaeron ordered the extermination of the entire species and the capture of all worlds under which they slept. The project is ongoing, but dozens of Tomb Worlds have been successfully neutralized and captured, their populace taken into the Eye.
The Word Bearers’ most startling half-success was the Macharian Heresy. After Warmaster Macharius (the first non-Astarte human to fill the position, ever) fell, his absurdly massive conquests quickly were invaded by thousands of Word Bearers, with the intent of creating a new Eye of Terror. The invasion began as a huge success, with several members of Macharius’ War Council defecting, though after about two hundred conquests insurrections in worlds thought taken brought the invasion to a halt. The Emperor’s Children arriving in the area did not help, either. Eventually the Heresy’s front was pushed back to a cluster of twenty worlds (now Daemon Worlds), where it now remains.
In any case, the Word Bearers remain a very real threat in the galaxy. Unpredictable, they are the closest organization to a true arm of the Chaos Gods in the Materium- a hundred thousand screaming Astartes whose only goal is worship.
The Word Bearers are unilaterally led by the Daemon Prince Kor Phaeron, the Student of Lorgar. His authority is largely unchallenged, not in the least because he has a tendency of bloodily destroying most breakaway factions.
Phaeron is supported by the Symbiotes. These consist of approximately a thousand Word Bearers who share their body with a daemon. This grants them great wisdom and insight into the ways of the Gods, and most promising leaders are quickly inducted into the Symbiotes’ ranks. Considered the greatest of the Symbiotes is Argel Tal, the first Symbiote, promoted during the Battle of Macragge. His counsel has proven quite valuable to Phaeron, and his abilities on the battlefield are frightening.
”Honor? Do not talk to me of honor. The most honorable are the first to be killed; the least honorable are the second. I have walked the battlefields for ten thousand years; I know what it is like to pretend to be human. You cannot simply scheme. You must fight, and die, and be reborn.
You do not understand? It is as I expected. You are not worthy. No matter how powerful you are in the Warp, you are not worthy. You are a mere daemon. I need a Symbiote.”
-Argel Tal
Before the Discovery, the XVII was divided into several “brotherhoods”, analogues to other Legions’ Great Companies. These have remained, though now an informal group. Rather, the Legion is subdivided into ninety Companies, each composed of approximately thousand Astartes and led by a Minor Council of ten Symbiotes. In reality these Companies rarely fight together, and are mostly a rough bookkeeping tool.
It is notable, though, that not all Word Bearers are part of Kor Phaeron’s dominion. Captain Zadkiel spent half a millennium (in late M37) as a Symbiote, but then something changed. Casting out his daemon, he announced that the entity was in fact possessing him and that the entire idea of the Symbiotes was a plan by Phaeron to weed out potential political opponents and stick them under a daemon.
Zadkiel’s forces number a few thousand Astartes. They rarely deal with daemons, and in fact do not spend much time inside the Eye of Terror at all. Phaeron considers them to be misguided, but of course the seed of doubt planted by Zadkiel has grown over time, and there is a distinct possibility of- sooner or later- a coup dethroning the Student.
During the Great Crusade, the Word Bearers were the least combat-oriented of the Astartes, focusing more on diplomacy. Since then, this focus has translated into a love of Chaos Cults run by humans and of turning Imperial planets with minimal damage. Alternatively, when war does break out, daemons are typically summoned to help the advance.
In actual combat, Word Bearers fight without many distinguishing tactics, codified or otherwise. Ranged weaponry is typically used; the positions of Assault Squads are filled by daemons and Symbiotes. These attempt to engage the enemy as quickly and powerfully as possible. Despite this, on occasion tactics will suddenly change at the will of the Gods.
The mortal warriors of the XVII have been described as cowardly, which is of course a completely false description. What is true is that a Word Bearer will not fight at close range unless necessary, and the Legion has no antipathy towards tactical retreats. This does not mean that a Word Bearer squad galvanized by a Chaplain’s speeches won’t stand to the last: the XVII’s tactics are anything but predictable, like the Gods they serve.
On a larger scale, the Word Bearers will typically try to turn conquered planets into Daemon Worlds. As such, they will occupy population centers and sacrifice the inhabitants rather than simply bombing everything from orbit. Converted planets are often defended from Imperial attacks, but the Word Bearers prefer to claim new horizons for the Gods. As such, the Word Bearers’ preference for Daemon Worlds can be explained by this as well; after all, worlds already swarming with Warp-beings are far harder to take and require far less defense.
Any isolation from the Warp will hurt the Word Bearers, but not physically- there are not many psykers in their ranks. As such, though they hunt the Necrons with a special fury, the ancient robots do not pose a specific threat to them, excluding of course the Symbiotes and Daemon Princes- which, though important leaders, are not necessary on the battlefield.
The Word Bearers’ original homeworld was Colchis, a verdant planet of beautiful cathedrals and sprawling cities. It was annexed to the Imperium as a sanctuary, though soon it became overloaded with the poor and the lazy; this was only accelerated by the recruitment of the most fit into the Word Bearers. By the time of the Discovery War, significant parts of the planet had become slums, and most of the populace either supported Lorgar’s promise of a new era or viewed Lorgar as having abandoned them. Both factions were wiped out by the Ultramarines, who performed an Exterminatus on the world.
After this destruction, the Word Bearers fled to the Eye. Their homeworld there is a planet known as Sicarus. It’s a land of red, barren soil and great city-towers topped by pyres to the Gods. The smoke from these is so strong that it blots out the sky. The Word Bearers live in these towers the majority of the time; some journey onto the surface itself, but the quantity of daemons there is so great that even the devout can often get eaten or simply trampled. Still, there is no other place in the galaxy so close to the divine impetus of the Chaos Gods, and the XVII treasures it for this.
The Word Bearers hold the Gods to be the exemplars of everything good, and their daemonic servants as the children of those. Lorgar’s belief that all faiths have a common root has become Legionwide dogma that the Chaos Gods are that root, and though his teachings of acceptance and modesty have remained key parts of the Legion’s unwritten code, they have been linked to accepting fate (Nurgle) and pain (Slaanesh), or other God-related concepts.
The Primarch himself is held in high regard by the Legion, and Lorgar’s successes are remembered better than his failures. Still, Kor Phaeron is generally held as greater.
The XVII’s gene-seed has been reshaped by the Gods, providing it with a far greater chance of mutation. As such, every line and every Marine is unique.
The Word Bearers’ battle cry is long and depends highly on the circumstances, but its end is firmly engraved in every Marine’s mind:
Leader- “So slay! So scheme! So sting! So smile! Go forth…”
Chorus- “For the Gods!”
As such...
Index Astartes: Word Bearers
Origins
When the twenty children of the Emperor of Mankind, the godlike Primarchs, were scattered, the pod marked XVII landed on the planet of Colchis. This temperate world was quite hospitable for life, but more notable were the extreme religious beliefs of the populace. The religion in itself wasn’t strange- a standard belief in a supreme deity, combined with a number of saints- but the devotion was unusual, and the magnificent cathedrals of Colchis were well-known throughout the future sector.Origins
In this environment, the young Primarch grew up as a priest. He studied diligently and quickly rose to a position of leadership in the church. He had many supporters, in part because of his insistence that minor deviation in ritual was acceptable. In fact, Lorgar grew up with a belief that all religion ultimately stemmed from one deity, and all procedures were ultimately merely a form of worship. This belief strengthened over time, and inevitably led to Lorgar being declared a heretic.
“He might be a giant with golden skin, and it might be pain for men to look at him. Still, his words are heresy, and if he is superhuman- heresy is heresy. All that proves is that he has made deals with demons.”
-Living Saint Gecam
During Lorgar’s time with the orthodox church, he had gained many allies. When he was excommunicated, many of them denounced him, but most went with him into exile. Among them was Lorgar’s main student, Kor Phaeron.
Phaeron bolstered Lorgar’s faith during these dark times, always calming the Primarch down. He claims that he saw the Gods during this time, during meditation. He wisely chose to keep this new knowledge from his teacher, as it was clear that it could be interpreted wrongly, and the last thing Phaeron wanted to do is to join the crowds that were abandoning Lorgar.
After sulking for several years, though, Lorgar at last decided to fight back. Under the wise council of Phaeron, he gathered all of those dissatisfied with the Church. At the same time, Lorgar convinced large portions of the Church, already considered doubters, that their loyalty should not be to an organization but to a religion. When he declared independence, as civil war erupted across Colchis, even many previously loyal leaders joined Lorgar, either for faith or profit.
The conflict itself was short, but bloody. Lorgar discouraged looting of enemy cathedrals, though it was done anyway. He emphasized conversion instead. Personally, he was a massive presence on the battlefield, as well as an inspirational one. Although he had a distaste for killing, he was intelligent enough to know that the conflict could not be won by peaceful means. After a three-day siege of the capital city, Helram, Lorgar entered the Ultimate Cathedral.
The great monument, the center of the Church’s power, amazed Lorgar with its opulence. Decorated skulls lined the walls, and sacred pages written on metal covered the ceiling. Lorgar had been there before, yet it had been far humbler in those days. Now, it seemed like a place for only the elite, a place where money could flow in large amounts.
Lorgar, awed by the massive, exclusive waste, could do little save to ask Phaeron for a torch. Phaeron gave him one, and the Ultimate Cathedral was set to flames.
Though the building itself was destroyed utterly, Lorgar and his force made every effort to save the lives of the faithful still in it. In fact, though, no living thing was found inside, save the Living Saint Gecan (the head of the Church). Upon interrogation, Lorgar learned that the Cathedral had been closed to the public soon after Lorgar’s exile.
Resistance virtually ended after the fall of Helram, and soon Lorgar announced a new, less centralized regime. Ruined monasteries and cathedrals were rebuilt, and the economy of Colchis did even better than before, as Lorgar proved a very able ruler.
The Ultimate Cathedral, though, was never rebuilt.
The Great Crusade
The arrival of his father, along with Magnus, shocked Lorgar. Here was a being that fit all definitions of divinity! The golden armor and impossible face of the deity were clear signs, and the power and benevolence that the Emperor would soon demonstrate underlined it. The Emperor said Lorgar was his son, and Lorgar eagerly accepted his position as demigod and general.
The only troubling point was that the Emperor did not acknowledge his divinity. Rather, he softly talked of the Imperial Truth, of a concept that no worship at all should take place. Lorgar felt doubtful over his existence then, at the moment of his greatest triumph. Still, rather quickly he came to the conclusion that it was only the Emperor’s modesty that prevented him from seeking worshippers.
“True gods,” Lorgar said, “do not flaunt their divinity. Only a god would not desire to be worshipped.”
Soon after meeting with his father and brothers, Lorgar met his children. The XVII Legion of the Astartes was named the Imperial Heralds, and their meeting with Lorgar went perfectly. Lorgar’s allies on Colchis, including Kor Phaeron, underwent the process of Astartes creation. Kor Phaeron himself, like several other notable figures, was too old to undergo the full implantation process, but rose to a high position in the Legion nevertheless.
Lorgar renamed his Legion the Word Bearers, declaring that they “must, and will, bear the word of the Emperor across the galaxy, for He is the only deity deserving of worship.“ “We are not only His army- we are his missionaries!” was first spoken in his speech and soon became part of the official, ritualized battle cry of the Word Bearers.
Phaeron privately doubted Lorgar’s words on this topic, knowing of the True Gods, but nevertheless went along.
The Word Bearers were ridiculed for their faith by some, especially the Primarch of the Luna Wolves, Horus. Horus was known for having a rift with his father, and as such Lorgar didn’t pay his words much attention. In fact, Lorgar almost considered Horus a fallen angel of sorts, having left the divine embrace for mundane, unimportant matters.
The Word Bearers marched across many places, everywhere bringing their word of the Divine Emperor. Planets turned by them were brought into line with the Imperium’s beliefs. Nevertheless, Lorgar desired never to copy the opulent and isolating despots that once governed his planet. He always walked among the people he was converting in peace, and he never oppressed the religion that they were practicing, instead merging it with his Imperial Faith.
At the same time, Lorgar followed his father’s doctrine of destroying xenos, and to them he offered no chance of conversion.
The Word Bearers’ worlds would become some of the most devout, and indeed even after what the Imperium knows as the Betrayal- and the Word Bearers as the Discovery- these worlds stood by the Emperor. When Lorgar battled to take control of the ice-world of Gefobr, he was roundly repulsed on arrival, but within a year the world was loyal to the Emperor and the faith. Many years later, after the Discovery, Gefobr again pushed Lorgar back, and despite the powers of the True Gods the planet never fell.
The Word Bearers Legion swelled quickly, but Lorgar followed his father’s recommendation on its size. Out of all Legions, the Word Bearers most precisely confined to the 100 000-Astartes limit.
Despite all of this, Lorgar’s worship of the Emperor was tempered by Phaeron’s reminding him of his youth on Colchis. The last thing Lorgar wanted was for his beloved Imperium to become a copy of the wasteful, exclusive Covenant- of the church that he had warred with then. Colchis itself, though a rich planet, was far from a trade hub. Instead, Lorgar used an open immigration policy and high taxes to create from Colchis a kind of religious sanctuary.
Among his brothers, he most closely allied himself with Vulkan of the Salamanders for his modest compassion and Sanguinius of the Blood Angels for his peaceful friendliness.
This calm state of satisfaction ended approximately a hundred years after Lorgar’s joining the Great Crusade. Out of nowhere, on a world conclusively turned to the Emperor’s worship, Lorgar’s father appeared. In fury, the Emperor bombed the major cities of the planet, barely bothering to evacuate the people. Next, he announced to the Word Bearers that they would be punished. When Lorgar- also driven to anger- inquired as to why the Emperor was doing this, the Emperor declared that the cause was Lorgar’s refusal to stop worshipping him as a god.
Lorgar was devastated, but realized immediately the parallels to the events on Colchis a hundred years prior. As the Emperor used his psychic powers to make the entire Legion kneel, Lorgar resisted and instead took out a sword.
The duel was short and hopeless. Even the power of a Primarch (and Lorgar was the weakest of his brothers at close combat, due to a general distaste for fighting) could not compare to the Emperor’s psychic might. Lorgar was pushed down, and on the ground he faced the Emperor’s judgment.
The Emperor did not yet desire to kill one of his children. Instead, he announced that Lorgar could return to the Great Crusade, but any further “disloyalty” would be responded to with the total destruction of both Lorgar and the entire XVII Legion by Russ’ Space Wolves.
These executioners were widely renowned across the Astartes, and as such Lorgar saw no other choice than to acquiesce to the Emperor’s orders for now, and risk open rebellion later. It was in that despair, however, that Lorgar received the famous communiqué from Rogal Dorn…
The Great Betrayal
After the Emperor betrayed him, Lorgar was absolutely unapproachable. He now understood that the Emperor was completely unworthy of divine status, but the beliefs of a hundred years are not easily overturned. Lorgar desired something, anything, that would give a line out of the sheer magnitude of his mistake.
Kor Phaeron chose this moment to talk to Lorgar of the True Gods, but Lorgar refused to listen. He clearly saw the evil of the Emperor, but still could not understand how his brothers could possibly not understand their father’s darkness. Instead, they remained paradoxically loyal.
The call from Rogal Dorn shattered these doubts. Here was a Primarch that comprehended his father’s dark side. Here was an offer to join a potential rebellion decades in the making. Here was a chance- though belated and uncertain- of overthrowing the Covenant once more.
Dorn saw the Emperor as an idealist, lost in his little world of plans and paying little attention to the darkness prevalent in reality. Lorgar saw the Emperor as a traitor, and soon came to understand- by means of a furious correspondence with Dorn- that this carelessness came from a head concerned only with what should be, and with itself. Together Dorn and Lorgar hashed out a plan for the fall of the Imperium.
Lorgar feigned loyalty, and although he no longer dedicated shrines to the Emperor, he kept all other marks, such as keeping his Legion size to 100 000. For a few decades the Great Crusade continued as normal, but thirty years after the Discovery, Lorgar’s patience was at an end. The Emperor’s most favored sons- Fulgrim and Roboute Guilliman- had become Warmasters, a way of putting their Legions above the Space Marines at large. The Emperor didn’t even notice the insulting connotation, proving his indifference.
“We have valiantly fought for the Emperor for many years, yet in response he destroyed our greatest work. We are the second Legion to have seen the True Gods, and we are days away from having the biggest Legion of all supporting us, with eight others. Their oaths will be to me and the Gods. They will not be to this Emperor’s lapdog, the so-called Warmaster Guilliman. Phaeron, your suggestion borders on betrayal of the Word Bearers. It is denied.”
-Lorgar
Emissaries were sent out to nine Legions. Sanguinius’ Blood Angels were not found- they had grown tired of waiting for freedom. Two other conversion attempts failed. On Davin, Chaplain Erebus was strangled by Horus Lupercal. Meanwhile, the delegation to the Night Lords returned at a quarter of its original strength, at high speed.
Nevertheless, at the designated meeting place- a system known as Isstvan- eight fleets were soon gathered. Some of the Primarchs had dedicated themselves to a god: the bloody Perturabo to Khorne, the cunning Ferrus Manus to Tzeentch, the depressed Vulkan to Nurgle and the careful Jaghatai Khan to Slaanesh. The Lion, Dorn, Lorgar and the mysterious Angron had all selected not to put their faith in a single god, but to support Chaos Undivided.
There were many loyalists still in all eight Legions, and Lorgar came to the decision to send all of those down to the surface and bomb them all to death. This was followed through, but unfortunately a number of loyalists- led by Alexis Polux of Dorn’s Fists- had not descended to the planet, and soon caused a space battle. To make matters worse, Perturabo and Ferrus Manus ended up unable to control their tempers. Soon even those that were supposed to be allied in the cause of the True Gods were fighting each other.
It is a testament to Lorgar’s faith and leadership that the Word Bearers followed the example of their lord during the Week, and stayed out of the fighting. The few Word Bearer loyalists were exterminated, of course, and Isstvan III’s surface was bombed, by a Word Bearer Captain named Argel Tal. Other than that, Word Bearer ships remained observers, and at times peacemakers (such as when Kor Phaeron negotiated a ceasefire between the Iron Warriors and the Iron Hands).
Throughout this madness, Lorgar stayed in his ship and meditated, communing with the divine. After a week, he at last exited with a message: the Discoverers (the eight Legions allied with Lorgar) would head to Terra, and quickly.
Lorgar split the Discoverers into two fleets: the First was composed of the Iron Warriors, Salamanders, Fists and White Scars whereas the Second was made up of the Dark Angels, the Iron Hands, the World Eaters and the Word Bearers themselves. Despite the names, the two fleets were meant to arrive on Terra simultaneously and pound the Emperor into dust.
It was not to be.
The Second Fleet was continuously harassed by spies, geneseed problems that seemed to come from nowhere, and the Luna Wolves. Horus’ Legion never attacked the Second Fleet in force, because even the Luna Wolves were not the size of four Legions. Despite this, even minor incursions were enough to slow Lorgar’s advance.
When the Second Fleet arrived at Terra, they found the First in ruins. Four Legions had fought and died under the Imperial Palace’s walls. Dorn’s mastery of siegecraft had not been enough to open the Palace’s gates.
Three Primarchs were rescued by Ferrus Manus; Perturabo, though, was not through a series of events that is still unclear. The remnants of these Legions were saved as well. Then, the Second Fleet descended on Terra.
Ferrus Manus used a few stratagems to defend the landing pads and the Lion’s siege weapons. Then, the four Discoverer Legions smashed into the walls of the palace. Dorn- resting on the Word Bearers’ ships- informed Lorgar as to the weakest points in the defense.
Exactly when, or why, the World Eaters disappeared is unknown. Either way, the attack became significantly more difficult in their absence.
Nevertheless, Lorgar succeeded- even as the Ultramarines and Emperor’s Children pushed the Discoverers back from the Imperial Palace’s walls- in cracking open the bunker of the Throne Room.
He was not met there by the Emperor.
It was Fulgrim, a Warmaster, Lorgar’s brother. Lorgar’s fury was without bounds. Advancing on Fulgrim, empowered by the powers of four Chaos Gods, he replayed the events on Colchis in his shining head. He had been betrayed, and now he was denied the satisfaction of killing his betrayer.
The duel was long, but in the end Fulgrim lay dead below Lorgar’s feet. Lorgar, too, was incredibly wounded by Fulgrim’s attacks. In fact, his wounds were such that he barely saw the Emperor arrive in the room and touch Fulgrim’s hand, a moment of mourning at the height of his Imperium’s fall.
He did not have a torch.
Terra was Helram, now, and this was real. Helram had been practice, but this was reality. It was the same- abandoned, rich, exclusive.
With one eye, Lorgar observed his “father” say farewell to Fulgrim, and once more he realized how much he wanted to burn this world of worthless riches- burn it all away.
He had no torch.
His soul would have to do.
Lorgar gave his life and his very soul then to kill the Emperor. It is not known how he did this; in any case, Lorgar was utterly destroyed. The bodies found later in the Throne Room were Fulgrim’s and the Emperor’s, though the latter was soon entombed on a Golden Throne as a relic.
The Escape
As the Emperor’s death greatly weakened the Imperium, so Lorgar’s had a huge negative effect on the Word Bearers. Kor Phaeron barely gathered the Legion and managed to escape Terra; it was fortunate that the fleet presence of the Discoverers was still far greater than that of the Loyalist Legions.
Phaeron thought about heading immediately for the Eye of Terror, but chose to first visit his homeworld of Colchis for one last time. The Imperium’s procedure for dealing with the worlds of “Traitor Legions” such as the II and XI was well-known, and as such Colchis’ doom was- Phaeron knew- not far off.
The final visit was fraught with arguments, as Colchis itself was not completely against the Emperor. Nevertheless, war had not stained the soils of Lorgar’s homeworld a second time. Phaeron took thirty thousand recruits to add to the seventy thousand that had survived the Siege of Terra, and then tried to leave for a new home in the Eye of Terror.
Unfortunately, during the escape from Colchis, the Ultramarines caught up with the Word Bearers.
The Word Bearers were forced to make an emergency series of jumps away from Colchis as Roboute Guilliman destroyed their homeworld. The rearguard was massacred by the Ultramarines. Cathedral after cathedral, many filled with those still loyal, was obliterated through orbital bombardment.
During transit, Phaeron announced to the infuriated Word Bearers and Initiates that they would take an eye for an eye and attack Ultramar, while Guilliman was distracted.
Calth was the first world of Ultramar to fall to the Word Bearers and their summoned daemons, and its once-fertile plains were filled with sacrificial pyres to the True Gods. Next, Phaeron attacked Macragge. The orbital defenses did their best to ward away the Word Bearers, but in the end a defensive force of perhaps a thousand Astartes had to deal with an attack, led by Captain Zadkiel, of twenty-five thousand.
Most of Macragge was under Word Bearer control in a matter of days, but the polar fortresses held out for weeks. As the Southern Fortress was at last breached, Zadkiel received the order to retreat to the ships, as Guilliman was coming.
He obeyed.
He could have taken it, he knew. He had a massive advantage in numbers, and the Gods had been on his side. True, the reinforcements would have been an issue, but they wouldn’t have been fast enough. Their precious homeworld would have become a shrine to the Gods, never more useful to traitors.
He could have taken it, he knew. He just wouldn’t get out of Macragge alive.
The retreat from Macragge was orderly, and Phaeron’s ships traced a curved path to the Eye of Terror. This time, the Ultramarines were left without a scapegoat for their mistakes and instead had to rebuild their damaged, daemonically tainted home.
Phaeron, meanwhile, arrived at the Eye of Terror from the north with what was likely the most intact of the seven Chaos Legions. It was an entry unexpected by the Legions already there, but an extremely fortunate one. With it, Phaeron more or less gave the Chaos Legions a theoretical leader.
They didn’t accept him. Five Primarchs were still alive, and would soon be promoted to Daemon Princes. Even the Iron Warriors, though, opposed Phaeron simply because- ultimately- his Legion had failed on Terra. Despite all the success, Kor Phaeron had to confront a horrifying truth in the Eye.
The war had been lost.
The Long War
The War of Discovery, however, was not the end of the Word Bearers. The recruits from Colchis, and many others from worlds conquered by the Word Bearers after their conversion, swelled the size of the Legion back to a hundred thousand, where Phaeron decreed it would stay as a reminder of the Legion’s past.
Being limited in numbers, though, did not mean the XVII were weak. On the contrary, the Word Bearers have always put great pride in having every recruit be truly favored by the Gods. More than anything else, recruiting into the XVII is governed by omens and signs. The other way of overcoming their numerical disadvantage has been to summon daemons- lots of them.
Over the years, most of the XVII’s leadership has ascended to the status of a Daemon Prince. Kor Phaeron was the first, transcending after the Battle of Ophelia- an engagement, in M32, in which the Imperial Guard attempted to corner the Word Bearer leadership. They succeeded, but Phaeron fought his way out, in the process destroying the planet utterly. It is notable, though, that every other Word Bearer Daemon Prince has come from the ranks of the Symbiotes (which will be discussed in detail later).
The Word Bearers have since fought many battles, following the will of the Gods and Kor Phaeron. Their ultimate goal is the downfall of Terra and the Imperium via a new War of Discovery, and until then they are content to fight battles as the Gods suggest. Most attacks happen against Segmentum Obscurus. Despite the beliefs of many Imperial scholars, though, the Word Bearers have no overarching mission, such as finding recruits or the meaning of the divine. Rather, they trust the Gods.
The Word Bearers’ greatest military success was the 101 Incident. In the first contact between the Word Bearers and the Necrons, in an area known as Outpost 101, the robotic fleets infringed on a Word Bearer fort. The undead were defeated, but the Daemon Prince Nrewaj Fan fell in the fighting. Furious at the loss of one of his strongest subordinates, Kor Phaeron ordered the extermination of the entire species and the capture of all worlds under which they slept. The project is ongoing, but dozens of Tomb Worlds have been successfully neutralized and captured, their populace taken into the Eye.
The Word Bearers’ most startling half-success was the Macharian Heresy. After Warmaster Macharius (the first non-Astarte human to fill the position, ever) fell, his absurdly massive conquests quickly were invaded by thousands of Word Bearers, with the intent of creating a new Eye of Terror. The invasion began as a huge success, with several members of Macharius’ War Council defecting, though after about two hundred conquests insurrections in worlds thought taken brought the invasion to a halt. The Emperor’s Children arriving in the area did not help, either. Eventually the Heresy’s front was pushed back to a cluster of twenty worlds (now Daemon Worlds), where it now remains.
In any case, the Word Bearers remain a very real threat in the galaxy. Unpredictable, they are the closest organization to a true arm of the Chaos Gods in the Materium- a hundred thousand screaming Astartes whose only goal is worship.
Organization
The Word Bearers are unilaterally led by the Daemon Prince Kor Phaeron, the Student of Lorgar. His authority is largely unchallenged, not in the least because he has a tendency of bloodily destroying most breakaway factions.
Phaeron is supported by the Symbiotes. These consist of approximately a thousand Word Bearers who share their body with a daemon. This grants them great wisdom and insight into the ways of the Gods, and most promising leaders are quickly inducted into the Symbiotes’ ranks. Considered the greatest of the Symbiotes is Argel Tal, the first Symbiote, promoted during the Battle of Macragge. His counsel has proven quite valuable to Phaeron, and his abilities on the battlefield are frightening.
”Honor? Do not talk to me of honor. The most honorable are the first to be killed; the least honorable are the second. I have walked the battlefields for ten thousand years; I know what it is like to pretend to be human. You cannot simply scheme. You must fight, and die, and be reborn.
You do not understand? It is as I expected. You are not worthy. No matter how powerful you are in the Warp, you are not worthy. You are a mere daemon. I need a Symbiote.”
-Argel Tal
Before the Discovery, the XVII was divided into several “brotherhoods”, analogues to other Legions’ Great Companies. These have remained, though now an informal group. Rather, the Legion is subdivided into ninety Companies, each composed of approximately thousand Astartes and led by a Minor Council of ten Symbiotes. In reality these Companies rarely fight together, and are mostly a rough bookkeeping tool.
It is notable, though, that not all Word Bearers are part of Kor Phaeron’s dominion. Captain Zadkiel spent half a millennium (in late M37) as a Symbiote, but then something changed. Casting out his daemon, he announced that the entity was in fact possessing him and that the entire idea of the Symbiotes was a plan by Phaeron to weed out potential political opponents and stick them under a daemon.
Zadkiel’s forces number a few thousand Astartes. They rarely deal with daemons, and in fact do not spend much time inside the Eye of Terror at all. Phaeron considers them to be misguided, but of course the seed of doubt planted by Zadkiel has grown over time, and there is a distinct possibility of- sooner or later- a coup dethroning the Student.
Combat Doctrine
During the Great Crusade, the Word Bearers were the least combat-oriented of the Astartes, focusing more on diplomacy. Since then, this focus has translated into a love of Chaos Cults run by humans and of turning Imperial planets with minimal damage. Alternatively, when war does break out, daemons are typically summoned to help the advance.
In actual combat, Word Bearers fight without many distinguishing tactics, codified or otherwise. Ranged weaponry is typically used; the positions of Assault Squads are filled by daemons and Symbiotes. These attempt to engage the enemy as quickly and powerfully as possible. Despite this, on occasion tactics will suddenly change at the will of the Gods.
The mortal warriors of the XVII have been described as cowardly, which is of course a completely false description. What is true is that a Word Bearer will not fight at close range unless necessary, and the Legion has no antipathy towards tactical retreats. This does not mean that a Word Bearer squad galvanized by a Chaplain’s speeches won’t stand to the last: the XVII’s tactics are anything but predictable, like the Gods they serve.
On a larger scale, the Word Bearers will typically try to turn conquered planets into Daemon Worlds. As such, they will occupy population centers and sacrifice the inhabitants rather than simply bombing everything from orbit. Converted planets are often defended from Imperial attacks, but the Word Bearers prefer to claim new horizons for the Gods. As such, the Word Bearers’ preference for Daemon Worlds can be explained by this as well; after all, worlds already swarming with Warp-beings are far harder to take and require far less defense.
Any isolation from the Warp will hurt the Word Bearers, but not physically- there are not many psykers in their ranks. As such, though they hunt the Necrons with a special fury, the ancient robots do not pose a specific threat to them, excluding of course the Symbiotes and Daemon Princes- which, though important leaders, are not necessary on the battlefield.
Homeworld
The Word Bearers’ original homeworld was Colchis, a verdant planet of beautiful cathedrals and sprawling cities. It was annexed to the Imperium as a sanctuary, though soon it became overloaded with the poor and the lazy; this was only accelerated by the recruitment of the most fit into the Word Bearers. By the time of the Discovery War, significant parts of the planet had become slums, and most of the populace either supported Lorgar’s promise of a new era or viewed Lorgar as having abandoned them. Both factions were wiped out by the Ultramarines, who performed an Exterminatus on the world.
After this destruction, the Word Bearers fled to the Eye. Their homeworld there is a planet known as Sicarus. It’s a land of red, barren soil and great city-towers topped by pyres to the Gods. The smoke from these is so strong that it blots out the sky. The Word Bearers live in these towers the majority of the time; some journey onto the surface itself, but the quantity of daemons there is so great that even the devout can often get eaten or simply trampled. Still, there is no other place in the galaxy so close to the divine impetus of the Chaos Gods, and the XVII treasures it for this.
Beliefs
The Word Bearers hold the Gods to be the exemplars of everything good, and their daemonic servants as the children of those. Lorgar’s belief that all faiths have a common root has become Legionwide dogma that the Chaos Gods are that root, and though his teachings of acceptance and modesty have remained key parts of the Legion’s unwritten code, they have been linked to accepting fate (Nurgle) and pain (Slaanesh), or other God-related concepts.
The Primarch himself is held in high regard by the Legion, and Lorgar’s successes are remembered better than his failures. Still, Kor Phaeron is generally held as greater.
Gene-seed
The XVII’s gene-seed has been reshaped by the Gods, providing it with a far greater chance of mutation. As such, every line and every Marine is unique.
Battle-cry
The Word Bearers’ battle cry is long and depends highly on the circumstances, but its end is firmly engraved in every Marine’s mind:
Leader- “So slay! So scheme! So sting! So smile! Go forth…”
Chorus- “For the Gods!”