Word Bearers: The Omnibus

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There they have remained, returning to the worlds of the Imperium since the end of the Heresy only to raid, pillage, and destroy. The omnibus also introduces somebody I consider to be the coolest character I've read so far, Burias Drak'Shal. Burias is a bloodthirsty madman who is possessed by a demon. He can transform into this demon at will to cause mass bloodshed. The demon however can easily take over Burias and cause him to lose command of his own body... maybe for eternity. Burias even gets his own little short story at the end of the omnibus to fully flesh out his rise and fall. In a way, the book is just as much about Burias as it is Marduk.

If there is a hierarchy of treachery, then the Word Bearers sit in its highest circle. Once the most devoted and rigorous of warriors, it was not enough that they fell, but they pulled their brother Space Marine Legions into the abyss with them. While the treachery of others came like a storm, or the final flowering of a long buried seed, the Word Bearers' betrayal was poison distilled over long years. The largest known Host numbered over two thousand Chaos Marines at its peak. The size of this force required that the Dark Apostle be served by two chief lieutenants, his First Acolyte and a champion, entitled as the Coryphaus. The role of the Coryphaus is to be the intermediary between the Dark Apostle and his host. This allows the Dark Apostle to be seen primarily as a spiritual and distant figure. Furthermore, the Coryphaus is essentially in charge of the majority of tactical decisions on the battlefield, freeing the Dark Apostle to commune with the Darker powers, fuel the hatred of the host and ponder strategic matters. Additionally, the Host possessed an Icon Bearer and an elite unit of over two hundred Terminators known as the Anointed. [4] One of the conflicts during the Great Crusade was the Corrinos Campaign where the Word Bearers fought with renegade Psykers that didn't want to join the Imperium. [18f] A Legion Kneels Those of the Covenant who came forward to arrest Lorgar were killed by his followers. The Covenant split into two factions, and a holy war of immense proportions erupted, eventually forcing the entire population of the world to choose a side. This war lasted six standard years, ending when Lorgar and his Godsworn supporters stormed the temple of the Covenant known as the Cathedral of Illumination in the heart of the City of Grey Flowers, the world's capital of Vharadesh, at which the Primarch had trained, killing the monks within and eliminating the heart of the conservative religious resistance to his ideas concerning the One God. Lorgar, now the Archpriest of the reformed Covenant, promised the masses that their new God would arrive on Colchis no more than a year after their victory and that they would know him only as "The Emperor." Kor Phaeron expressly explained to his adopted son that he remained a believer in the other gods of the Old Faith, but that he also believed that the One God was the most powerful of their number. This continued belief in the Old Ways, also maintained by many other Colchisians after the Godsworn's victory, would lay the foundation for the Word Bearers' eventual turn to Chaos. When the Emperor and the Great Crusade's Expeditionary Fleet reached Colchis, and He descended with Magnus the Red at His side, there could be no doubt in Lorgar's mind that he knelt before his god. Beside him a planet knelt and believed the same. Lorgar saw this preordained meeting as the confirmation of his many visions and prophecies, and so, the Primarch and his people wholeheartedly embraced the ruler of the Imperium as their promised messiah and God-Emperor. In this trilogy of explosive tales, the traitorous sons of Lorgar are plunged into war zones and blistering space battles, facing destruction from all fronts as they enslave the Imperial planet Tanakreg, decipher an ancient necron artefact and take on all manner of vile xenos in their quest to tear down the Imperium of Man.From its earliest days, the XVII th stood apart from its brother Legions in its Astartes' duty and outlook. While all the Legiones Astartes fought with utter devotion, the warriors of the XVII th Legion carried with them an air of zealotry. Recruited from the sons of exterminated foes of the Emperor, they were trained and raised to know the crimes of their forebears and the price of forgiveness. While others went to war with righteousness, the XVII th Legion fought with the cold fury that only the condemned and redeemed can know. The rumours came first: whispers passed between Imperial forces who had fought alongside the Word Bearers. Talk began to circulate of the ritualistic practices of the XVII th Legion, of the fervour of their zeal and devotion to the Great Crusade. Some even went so far as to wonder if the Iconoclasts of old had not succumbed to the superstitious practices they had once persecuted. The rumours multiplied, but if they reached the highest circles of the Imperium, they triggered no action. After the Legion was reunited with its lost Primarch, he renamed the XVII th Legion the Word Bearers, which was in line with his belief that the Emperor of Mankind was the divine saviour of humanity. At present, the Word Bearers' greatest foes amongst the servants of the Emperor are the Ultramarines and their Successor Chapters, who the Word Bearers have hated and seen as rivals since the time of the Great Crusade.

Eventually, Lorgar was discovered on a Feudal World named Colchis, which he had eventually unified in a series of brutal religious wars in response to his visions of the Emperor's coming arrival. When the Emperor did arrive, as Lorgar had foreseen, the Primarch dropped to his knee, leading the population of his world in rejoicing and worship of the Emperor as a god. At the conclusion of these festivities, the Emperor bade Lorgar take his best warriors and induct them into his Space Marine Legion (at that time known as the Imperial Heralds [7h]) and join him on the Great Crusade. Lorgar appointed trustworthy regents to rule over Colchis and devoutly complied with his father's direction. [Needs Citation] Spartan • Fellblade • Typhon • Cerberus • Falchion • Mastodon • Lord of Skulls • Death Wheel • Plaguereaper • Plague Centurion The zealous determination with which the Word Bearers fight is one of their greatest assets. This is represented by their Legion Trait, which makes them incredibly resistant to the effects of morale and serves as a dark mirror to the And They Shall Know No Fear ability of loyalist Chapters. Dark Disciple began, and to be honest, I was waiting for a twist. If the first novel was just so much 'bolter porn' to draw in some of the target audience of the miniatures game, perhaps the author was setting things up to become more interesting later on. Perhaps this is part of my disappointment, expecting this sort of development, as it never showed up. More bolter fire, more pointless characters, more dull and uninteresting ranting on how weak the false Emperor is and how his followers need to suffer as gloriously as possible. The story has no momentum, the characters have little motivation, and stakes never escalate, meaning the ultimate end of this tedious tale is a tedious ending. Considering all the things that could be done with warrior-priests of Warhammer's interesting pantheon of Chaos gods, the disappointment merely deepens.

Hammer and Bolter

Lorgar was an unusual Primarch because he was less martial in nature than his brothers, and possessed an abiding faith that religion represented the pinnacle of human expression and a deeply-held belief that the Emperor of Mankind was actually a divine being made manifest in the mortal realm. For the Warhammer enthusiast, I can't imagine that this omnibus would not be loved for the content of the stories alone. These bearers of the word and death were chosen from those who had shown supreme devotion to the Imperial Truth. Such a mantle once bestowed was never removed. Some, on seeing such a warrior, would surrender, and renounce their false beliefs. Others would refuse. Many heralds would die at the hands of defiant enemies, pulled down by human hands after slaying hundreds. Dark Apostles still carry their ritual Crozius Arcanum as they did before their fall, although the resulting Accursed Crozius have long since been corrupted and debased into deadly icons dedicated to the Chaos Gods themselves. Not only does this make them lethal assault weapons, it also marks the bearer as receiving the dark favour of the Gods, granting them protection from their enemies and allowing them a much deeper connection with the denizens of the warp. They are said to have a Senior War-Captain and an Apprentice in each of the Hosts led by a Dark Apostle. The Senior War-Captain is called a Coryphaus who leads the Word Bearer host and his words are only second to the Dark Apostle, the Apprentice of the Dark Apostle is named as a First Acolyte and will inherit a portion of the Host when the Dark Apostle and the Dark Council sees it fit. Usually the untimely death of a Dark Apostle is marked with a great loss and weeks of ceremonies are held in his commemoration, in that time the Captains of the dead Apostle's Host are summarily executed for allowing such a thing to happen and the host absorbed into the ranks of a more able Dark Apostle. [Needs Citation] Dark Apostle - http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Dark_Apostle_(Novel)#.Uk05mYasi-0 Buy the ebook here

The foundations of new cities were sunk in the embers of the old, vast monuments and cathedrals dedicated to the worship of the Emperor were erected upon the mounds of corpses belonging to those who had resisted conversion. The worlds they re-founded grew and prospered. Their people utterly loyal to the Imperium and the Emperor; they were Compliant, but they were alone in an unholy land. Though they did not see it, their piety was doomed from the moment the Word Bearers brought them to it. He has since isolated himself within the Templum Inficio on the Daemon World of Sicarus where he has remained for thousands of Terran years, forbidding anyone to interrupt his meditation, thus allowing the Word Bearers to be taken over by a Dark Council of the Word Bearers' This omnibus is quite the who's who. There are some MAJOR figures that grace us with an appearance. A huge player from the Horus Heresy is here. It's not just a cameo either. He gets a significant amount of bookage for himself. Also, I'm amazed that GW let Reynolds get away with this one but a freaking Chaos God pops in to say hello! I've never seen that one done before.

Alone of all of the Traitor Legions, the Word Bearers field Chaplains, called Dark Apostles, though these Arch-heretics preach not the glory of the Emperor but of the Ruinous Powers. One of the greatest perils the Word Bearers present to the Imperium is the taint they so actively seek to spread. While most other Traitor Legions fight for their own ends or simply to spill blood, the Word Bearers continue the crusade to unite the Materium and the Warp their Primarch began in the aftermath of the Emperor's censure so long ago. There are very few fantasy or modern SciFi novels that are literary masterpieces and this is not one of them. But I am pretty critical and I thought all the stories were extremely well written. The battles and events took me in my mind to those places so I consider that to be a key success when reading. Through their actions they corrupted the Warmaster Horus and brought on the terrible galactic civil war of the Horus Heresy in all its savagery. Today they bend all their considerable efforts towards the overthrow of the " Corpse Emperor" in the Long War and spreading the "truth" of Chaos to all Mankind. Faith is the soul of any army; be it vested in primitive religion or enlightened truth. It makes even the least soldier mighty, the craven is remade worthy and through its balm any hardship may be endured. Faith ennobles all of the worlds the soldier undertakes be they so base or vile, and imports to them the golden spark of transcendent purpose." Lorgar was an unusually pious Primarch. While other Legions were rapidly conquering planet after planet, the Word Bearers proceeded much more slowly, as they would build temples and shrines in veneration of the Emperor, who was also deemed the God of the Imperium by Lorgar, on each newly conquered planet. All forms of blasphemy and heresy that threatened the Emperor's realm, all manner of ancient scrolls, books, artworks and icons were burned and smashed before the advancing ranks of the Legion. In their place, vast monuments and cathedrals, all dedicated to the Emperor, were erected upon the mounds of dead of those who had resisted conversion. The greatest Chaplains of the Legion produced enormous works on the divinity and righteousness of the Emperor, and Lorgar himself delivered countless speeches and sermons, converting millions to the Emperor with his words alone. [Needs Citation]

A council of nine Chaos Lords and Dark Apostles of the Word Bearers – known as the Coven Triplicatus – has accompanied Abaddon to Vigilus. There, they seek to raise the warp-tainted Noctilith Crowns at key nexus points across the world’s surface to bring about its damnation. On the Battlefield It was a pattern they repeated across Ancient Terra in the last days of the Unification Wars, earning themselves a second name. Few spoke of the XVII th Legion as the Imperial Heralds. To their brother Legions and the people of the newborn Imperium, they were the Iconoclasts. M42 - With the formation of the Great Rift and Noctis Aeterna, the Word Bearers begin a wave of unprecedented activity in Segmentum Solar which included instigating large uprisings. Even by the 5th year into the Indomitus Crusade, a sizable force of World Bearers continued to operate perilously close to Terra. [51]

On the Battlefield

Warhammer Community: Andy Clark's Bearers of the Word – Article One (Posted on 19/02/2017) (Last accessed on 15 July 2020) When battle was truly joined, it was towards the Ultramarines Legion that the Word Bearers turned the I am partial to the Empire of mankind so even though I enjoyed the stories, I could not root for the traitors and was torn reading the book as literally millions of loyal citizens and dozens of venerable heroes are wiped out in the face of Chaos cruelty.