Horus Heresy: Difference between revisions

** Nathaniel Garro would have died on Isstvan Extremis before carrying news of the Heresy to Terra if he hadn't received emergency medical treatment from Fabius Bile, of all people. Doubtless he would have ignored Garro (or put a surreptitious bolt in his head) had he any inkling of how much trouble he would be.

* [[Dramatis Personae]] - Every book has one or two pages listing the main and peripheral characters. Thankfully, they don't spoil much.

* [[Dreaming the Truth]] - As above.

* [[Driven to Suicide]] - {{spoiler|Fulgrim}} nearly does this. What he actually does is much, ''much'' worse.

* [[Evil Former Friend]] - During the Great Crusade, Horus and Sanguinius were closer than any other Primarch. Anyone familiar with 40K's backstory is ''well aware'' of how that turns out.

* [[Evil Weapon]] - Damn it, {{spoiler|Fulgrim}}, a talking sword is ''not a good thing.''

* [[Famed in Story]]

* [[A Father to His Men]] - Every primarch to their legion. Up until half of them go rogue, anyway. Then it gets a bit less pleasant.

* [[The Federation]]: The Interex come off as this compared to the Imperium, which is already showing signs of being [[The Empire]]. They're a highly technologically advanced society who cherish peace and are willing to extend the hand of friendship to aliens; not only is their society literally built on a centuries old alliance with a once-dying alien race called the Kinebrach, they defeated the disturbingly Tyranid-like Megarachnids and chose to simply strip them of space-faring capabilities and imprison them on an otherwise uninhabited world around which they posted warning beacons, as opposed to simply massacring them. One interex character, when questioned about this, proclaims that they had no right to annihilate another species just because it was different. Furthermore, they are well aware of the dangers of Chaos and regard it rationally and openly as a threat that must be opposed by all sentient beings. In fact, they are hesitant to embrace the Imperium because they see its brutal, war-like ways and fear it is already tainted by Chaos. Naturally, they are plunged into war with the Imperium and utterly destroyed by it.

* [[Fiery Redhead]] - Leman Russ, Magnus the Red and Angron

* [[The Fettered]] - Zahariel, Tarvitz, Loken, most other non-traitors (and a few of those as well).

* [[Five Rounds Rapid]] - quoted as a [[Shout Out]] in ''Fallen Angels'', used in spirit in a number of other places, usually when a new Legion first faced Chaos-based nasties.

* [[Foregone Conclusion]] - virtually every single major event in the entire series. What makes it interesting is the few loyalists who remain in the Traitor legions, and the characterisation of those characters who had previously been relatively one-dimensional villains.

** The whole of the Horus Heresy itself. We all know how this ends.

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: Ahrimahn was terrified of the legion being killed by mutations ever since his brother died from them.

* [[A Friend in Need]]

* [[Genius Loci]]

* [[Glory Hound]] - The majority of the Emperor's Children.

* [[The Good Chancellor]] - Malcador the Sigillite, mentioned in passing in game materials, finally appears here. The Emperor's [[Old Retainer|right-hand man]], he plots on a level that would make Lord Vetinari jealous, while holding everything together day-to-day.

* [[Good Old Ways]]

* [[Gone Horribly Right]]: Loken tells Karkasy to tell the truth, no matter how ugly and horrible it is, in ''Horus Rising''. By ''False Gods'', Karkasy is still telling the truth, as ugly and horrible as it is, by pretty much slandering the Imperium and supporting an outlawed cult. {{spoiler|Horus has Karkasy killed for it}}.

* [[Hearing Voices]] - ''Don't listen''

* [[Heel Realization]] - {{spoiler|Fulgrim}}, leading to his [[Despair Event Horizon]]. Not that it helps him much.

* [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]] - Loken, Garro, Tarvitz, though the last is to a somewhat lesser extent. The Saint, Keeler, too.

** Don't forget Iacton Qruze, who not only was one of the few Sons of Horus loyalists, but actually [[Meaningful Rename|renamed his men back to Luna Wolves]], and after escaping to Terra became one of the first Inquisitors together with Garro.

* [[I Take Offense to That Last One]]

** Horus was like this a lot in ''Horus Rising''. Unfortunately subverted at the end of the novel, when things go to hell, claiming that it wasn't his fault (which it wasn't) decided he had enough and killed everything.

* [[It Got Worse]] - Oh let us count the ways.

* [[It Was a Gift]] - Every important Space Marine has one or two of these. Primarchs have them up the wazoo. They vary in importance from "offhand mention" to "will be referenced in another book" to "major overarching plot point".

* [[Kick Them While They Are Down]] - The traitors do this a lot. {{spoiler|Eidolon's attack in ''Galaxy In Flames'' intentionally starts with the wounded and [[The Medic]]. Lucius does it to Solomon Demeter in ''Fulgrim''.}}

* [[Kill Me Now or Forever Stay Your Hand]]

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]

* [[Musical Assassin]] - Warsingers.

* [[My Eyes Are Up Here]] - Euphrati Keeler says this trope almost word-for-word to Ignace Karkasy in "False Gods"

** In fact Horus ''did'' have one during his {{spoiler|climactic duel with the Emperor during the Siege of Terra. In the brief moments before he was completely obliterated by the Emperor's psychic onslaught, the man Horus once was came back and he basically had time for this trope, followed by "I'm sorry"... and then he dies.}}

*** Partially subverted and averted in Ages of Darkness. A loyalist Thousand Son attempts to "heal" (using his physic powers to show him how wrong his actions were) Equerry Kharn of the World Eaters. He fails, but his last revenge before Kharn kills him is the knowing that Kharn will forever live with the knowledge that his betrayal was wrong (and that he could willingly have turned back). He then wonders what effect this will have on Kharn in the future...

* [[Nerdgasm]] - An [[In Universe]] example in ''Nemesis'' when the Eversor member of the execution squad sees the weapons he is getting. Played for laughs and [[Fan Disservice]].

* [[New Era Speech]] - Zadkiel gives one in ''Battle For the Abyss'';

** Arguablly The Emperor is guilty of this with his 'rebuke' of the Word Bearers and Lorgar. As pointed out in Novel its not like their religious aspect was anything new, So why wait so long to bring them to task. And of course in such a public humiliating way to? Hell the fact that Magnus AND RUSS of all people agreed that the rebuke was a bad idea should have been a big clue!

** The Emperor, again, this time with a good deal less doubt about it. He made sorcery illegal, which Magnus the Red and his Thousand Sons legion reluctantly accepted. However, when Magnus {{spoiler|foresaw Horus' betrayal}}, he broke his promise and contacted the Emperor directly via sorcery. The result? {{spoiler|The Emperor sends Leman 'I Hate Written Knowledge' Russ to apprehend Magnus on Prospero, better known as ''the greatest library in the universe'' after the Black Library. Russ and company believe that the warning was an attempt by Magnus to scare the Emperor into allowing sorcery again, and proceed to destroy Prospero and force Magnus to turn to Tzeentch to save what remained of his legion.}}

** Also Garviel Loken to [[Intrepid Reporter|Mersadie Oliton]], though he has an excuse--like most Astartes, he is somewhere between [[Celibate Hero]] and outright [[Asexuality]], though it's never made clear whether this is due to their [[Bio Augmentation]] or their ideology and focus.

* [[Old Retainer]] - Every Legion has at least one. They vary in plot importance and even background from book to book. [[The Good Chancellor|Malcador]] is this to the Emperor.

** Angron in ''Galaxy In Flames'': {{spoiler|After virus bombing Isstvan III fails to kill the Space Marines who would have stayed loyal, Angron leads an assault force of the World Eaters and starts by tearing up his own former Legionarries. The assault is so violent that Saul Tarvitz, a Space Marine, actually runs away.}}

** In ''A Thousand Sons'', when Azhek Ahriman meets Leman Russ for the first time, the sheer amount of aggression emanating from Russ's aura is so strong it causes Ahriman a minor [[Brown Note]] and he has to ''cut himself off'' from the warp for a moment to keep from going nuts.

* [[Our Dragons Are Different]] - {{spoiler|The Void Dragon, locked under Mars by the Emperor after he found it weakened on Earth. Being C'tan, the only reason it's even called a "dragon" is that it chose that form on Earth.}}

* [[Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions]] - "The Imperial Truth". Which would be great, if those pesky daemons didn't keep popping up. Not that the Emperor doesn't have a [[Gods Need Prayer Badly|really good reason]] to try and quash knowledge of Chaos.

*** Or to push a secular worldview that admits that there are entities in the Warp, strips them of all their mysticism and openly explains what they are, why they do what they do, and how they operate. Thus was the culture of the interex, who did a much better job of holding out against the Dark Gods than the Imperium did under the Emperor's direct guidance. Case in point, they fell only because one of the Word Bearers (already corrupted to Chaos by that point) used Horus's first contact diplomacy as a way to sneak in and provoke a war between the Interex and the Imperium, which the much more warlike and much more brutal Imperium, naturally, won.

* [[The Paragon Always Rebels]] - Obviously. Ironically, Horus reveals that he thinks [[The Paragon]] is really Sanguinius. He's right.

* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: {{spoiler|Corax}}

* [[Sealed Evil in A Can]] -- in ''Mechanicum'' and ''Fallen Angels''.

* [[Shoot the Dog]]: About five get shot in the last quarter or so of ''False Gods'', to show {{spoiler|Horus}} [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]].

* [[Shoot Your Mate]]

* [[Treachery Cover Up]] - Erebus, and the whole of the Word Bearers, aparently.

* [[Turncoat]] - Oh ''come on.''

** Also in ''Nemesis''.

* [[Ubermensch]] - Magnus the Red is determined to be this.

* [[Vision Quest]] - {{spoiler|The Temple of the Serpent Lodge.}}

* [[Voice With an Internet Connection]] - Revealed to be the specialty of the Vanus Temple<ref>This was originally an in-joke on the part of the developers, as "vanus" is latin for "empty", meaning that in the 41st millennium, there was no 6th temple.</ref>

** {{spoiler|and, perhaps most disturbingly of all, that Horus going mad with grief and slaughtering the ENTIRE Imperium of Man... would be the best possible outcome of the Heresy!}}

* [[Weather Dissonance]]

** Atleast half the Primarch are like this, notably Konrad Curze, who became a [[Complete Monster]] for the <s> Emprah</s> Emperor. Too bad the Emperor is kind of a dick.

* [[Wham Line]]: In ''The Outcast Dead'':

* [[Wicked Cultured]] - Horus is ''a nice guy''. Fulgrim is a patron of the arts. Magnus ''really'' likes books and libraries. Lorgar is said to be at heart more visionary and philosopher than warrior, as much as a guy with a giant spiked mace can be.

* [[With Due Respect]] - As their Primarchs goes snooker-loopy, their [[Only Sane Man|loyalist soldiers]] still ask, politely, if they're quite sure of what they're doing.

* [[Words Can Break My Bones]] - Warsingers, to an extent; they use their (heavily implied to be Slaaneshi-given) powers to create deadly magical effects through their singing. Also, {{spoiler|Eidolon and the Noise Marines.}}

** Invoked in Prospero Burns, where {{spoiler|in a flashback we are re-introduced to Abnett's reality warping proto-language, Enuncia. Using it murders someone and causes the invoker to bleed from the mouth}}