Editing Council of Nikaea (section)

==Why Nikaea really happened?==
{{Topquote|The enemy fears the warp as much as they plunge themselves into it|Leman Russ - prior to the Siege of Terra}}

The root causes of the council of Nikaea are described across several books in the Horus Heresy series. Ostensibly '''everyone''' acknowledged the importance of psykers in the Imperium and within the Astartes, but [[Leman Russ]] and [[Mortarion]] both maintained that the [[Thousand Sons]] - and by reflection the Librarians in general - were in danger of becoming Sorcerers and ''[[Skub|had]]'' to be stopped.

[[Mortarion]] had already been told that the Emperor planned Nikaea about 70 years '''before''' it happened which means that the result was rigged before it even started,and shows that the Emperor's intention with the Nikaea edict really was to prevent abuses of sorcery and further temptations from unclean sources, thereby eliminating the use of all psykers except for soul-bound Astropaths and those exceptions in Russ' Legion ''(see below)'' until the Webway Project was completed. Of course, this is somewhat stupid if true because if the Emperor had meant to ban Astartes psykers all along, why would he not have nipped the problem in the bud then and there? The more likely scenario in-universe is that Malcador simply lied to Mortarion to placate him, and that the Emperor had not yet made up his mind regarding the issue.

But considering Nikaea in retrospect, Russ ''(and most of the other Primarchs knee deep in daemon filth for that matter)'' had come to realise that the loyalists had been maneuvered into ridding themselves of an important weapon that could have been used against the enemy in the war which followed; guns and bullets could only do so much against an unnatural enemy against whom blades and symbols fared much better (symbolic relation to daemon summoning causes swords and fire to be highly effective against them, perhaps this is even why the Salamanders were a major target at the beginning of the Horus Heresy). While Russ was still proud of what he did at Prospero (because deciding to follow Horus's suggestion instead of the Emperor's order is something to be very proud of) and firmly believed Magnus deserved everything he got, he acknowledges that Horus changed the order from "capture" to "kill" because the traitors genuinely ''feared'' Magnus' sorcery and its capabilities (especially if Magnus and co became faithful in the Emperor), which would have helped the loyalists win the war via curbstomping all their nifty daemon buddies and ruining their new Warp powers; though Russ also points out that Magnus could have just as easily become a second [[Horus]] because no one knew which way his path would take. Therefore sweeping such a powerful figure from the board early makes a degree of strategic sense, and with hindsight Magnus turned traitor anyway.

Ohthere Wyrdmake and Leman Russ claimed repeatedly that the [[Rune Priest]]s were not using the power of the warp and were instead harnessing the power of "[[Fenris]]" so that their Priests were somehow different from the Librarius. Just because you had to be a psyker and had to use your psyker powers to do Rune Priest shit doesn't mean it's psychic. Duh. So when Russ later arrived at Terra prior to the Siege he proposed returning to Fenris to have his Priests divine a method for defeating Horus, claiming that the only way to defeat their enemies was to use their own power against them. [[Rogal Dorn]] (at that point the only Primarch who had absolutely adhered to the result of Nikaea) calls Russ a hypocrite because of it. Keep in mind that Dorn is always very certain to tell the absolute truth so far as he knows it. He no doubt understood Leman's own beliefs and arguments... and dismissed them as bullshit. Of course it was later revealed that Russ's "Spirit of Fenris" schtick was actually ''not'' bullshit somehow, and that for all intents and purposes there is in fact such a thing. It is possible that the Fenrisians simply believed in the whole "Spirit of Fensis" thing to such a degree that the Warp manifested such a construct in the same sort of way that the Eldar used to create immaterial gods for their own purposes. Only for the Fenrisians it was an accident, similar to the Ork phuckery which makes purple a stealthy color through collective belief and Warp/WAAAAARGH energy.

But if Russ and the Emperor supposedly understood so well the power and the corruption of the Warp, why not simply ask the Librarius to reform similarly to the Rune Priests? The [[White Scars]] already had a similar - "older" as Russ put it - tradition that emphasized limiting the amount of power drawn from the source, so why not have the entire Librarius follow the same principle? Russ does privately admit to [[Malcador]] that perhaps Dorn was correct and that he really was a hypocrite for calling for the censure of others while flouting the rules himself. Malcador points out that the Emperor always made exceptions for Russ because his purpose was singular - fighting other Primarchs, explicitly pointing to [[Primarch#Two Missing Primarchs|those they do not name]], then Horus and the Traitors - and that the Emperor trusted Russ to carry out that duty where no one else could. In part due to these contradictions and the special treatment he received, Russ resolved to have a long examination of his Rune Priests and their relationship with the warp after the war was completed.

Why let the Thousands Sons simply go by their way without any supervision when [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodians]] were attached to the Word Bearers for arguably far less? Because [[Lorgar]] had already displeased the Emperor and been punished with the razing of '''Monarchia''' while the proclamation at Nikaea was simply a warning. Magnus was not the only proponent of the Librarius and they were left to police themselves with the [[Chaplain]]s being instituted to keep an eye on them. Following the Prospero clusterfuck, squads of [[Space Wolves]] were attached to all of the Legions to ensure their compliance with the Edict anyway (which raises the question as to what Russ & Co were hoping to achieve because if it came down to it, a handful of regular space puppies vs. a Primarch...)

This very likely boils down to whether the Emperor knew ''who'' was going to betray him and ''when'', especially considering the first move in the great game the Emperor plays against [[Chaos]] is the corruption of [[Horus|"The Lord of Hearts"]] by the [[Lorgar|"Chosen"]] which happened three years after Nikaea (at '''Davin'''). It has already been established that the Emperor's foresight was not infallible and the fate of each Primarch was malleable. Since the Webway project relied heavily upon Magnus operating the [[Golden Throne]], if the Emperor had any idea then of how bad it would become then why continue with the project? And if there was any need to single Magnus out for further censure why not drag him to Terra in chains to be kept under lock and key until his powers were needed? [[Burning of Prospero|...oh right]].

Whatever popular opinion on the subject is, the truth of the "trial of Magnus the Red" is that the arguments of said Magnus at the [[Council of Nikaea]] were quite childish, being "inspired" by the allegory of the Cave of Plato but having its significance completely subverted into a bunch of progressivist, utopian bullshit. Originally, the Cave of Plato was an allegory on the metaphysics of ontology and about the initiatic endeavour of ''anamnesis'' (''ἀνάμνησις''), which is operated by the mind (''νοῦς'') as part of the philosophical process of reaching into the realm of forms known as the ''Hyperuraniôn'' (which, in 40K, would count as the [[Warp|Immaterium]]), to acquire knowledge and perfect society (this is basically the only aspect of the Cave of Plato which goes along with the Cave of Magnus version). According to Heraclitus, "everything flows, nothing stands still" (''τὰ πάντα ῥεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει''); it is the flux of Becoming, and also the inspiration behind the alchemical / chemical tenet "''rien ne se perd, rien ne se crée, tout se transforme''" of Lavoisier & Anaxagoras. Since of the Indo-European Tri-Functions, the mechanical and organic aspects proper to the lowest Function, ''Epithumia'' (''ἐπιθυμία''), do not survive death but are obliterated, the "reincarnated" elements linked with the two other Functions have to be re-learned from experience - or rather to be remembered, since in theory they were already there - so as to leave the stream of Becoming and step into the one of Being, unlike those who are just obeying orders or bodily impulses. In other words, the effects of the [[Rubric]] of [[Ahriman]], turning Marines into slaves without any spiritual function left and only a shadow of bodily one, may be a parody rewarding / punishing Magnus' foolish revamp of the Cave of Plato; likewise for the Burning of Prospero and destruction of Tizca. Indeed, Anamnesis was basically the lifestyle of the immortal Shamans before Chaos energies infusing the Warp eventually caused them to make the [[Emperor]].

There is also another possibility, which is that the Emperor called the Council in order to judge Magnus not publically, but privately. Essentially, he may have wanted to give Magnus enough rope to hang himself, and then sit back and see if he would do it or not. For if the Emperor had reached a decision regarding the Librarius prior to the time of the Council, he could have simply issued an edict to the Legions disbanding the Librarius whenever he wished to. He was the Emperor; he had no need to consult anyone regarding his decisions, and his word was law. On that note, the Emperor was the only person at the Council whose judgement was in any way relevant, which meant that the creation of a Council was completely pointless. In-universe, the Emperor is the smartest material being in existence, so it follows that his summoning of a Council to "decide" a matter in which it had absolutely no authority must have had some ulterior motive. Given these factors, is entirely possible that the purpose of the Council was to give Magnus an opportunity to listen to detractors of his, and perhaps show enough humility to come to some sort of compromise. It is also likely that the Emperor was testing Magnus's character to see if he was capable of enough self-reflection to realize the dangers of what he was doing. If that was the case, then Magnus failed utterly. He even went so far as to claim, even after the Emperor's judgement, that if he was guilty of anything, it was the simple pursuit of knowledge. Magnus's bullshit reworking of the Cave of Plato allegory probably didn't help him at all in that regard either. For if Magnus knew the story, then the idea that the Emperor did not is fairly ludicrous. Hell he may have been around when the original was penned, or may even have known Plato personally. This fundamental alteration of a story about the folly of revealing knowledge to whose who do not want it, to one with the exact opposite moral, was likely one of the most salient points against Magnus in the Emperor's final ruling. Especially if he thought that Magnus was trying to deceive him, which unless Magnus literally forgot that the Emperor was in the audience at the time, he appears to have been attempting to do. The Emperor's speech at the end of the Council, warning of the dangers of arrogance in the pursuit of power, might as well have been addressed to Magnus personally. Additionally, it is worth noting that the Emperor had summoned Russ in secret to the Council, and had kept him in reserve under the cloaking presence of Sisters of Silence just in case Magnus threw a temper tantrum. What this means is up for debate, but the fact that the Emperor had his personal executioner present at Nikaea with orders to target Magnus specifically, is rather ominous.