Editing Imperium Secundus (section)

==Formation==
Imperium Secundus was formed out of the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar that Roboute Guilliman still had contact with following the outbreak of the warp storm named the Ruinstorm and [[Lorgar Aurelian]]'s Shadow Crusade. Cut off from the Imperium and only able to make short Warp jumps, the Ultramarines were effectively isolated from the wider galaxy for years. Imperium Secundus was Guilliman's attempt at preserving [[The Emperor|his father's]] legacy. With no astropathic messages coming in or out, and no light of the Astronomicon to guide them, Guilliman was forced to contend with the possibility that the Emperor lay defeated and that the rest of the Imperium was ashes in the wake of the [[Horus Heresy]].

On the planet Sotha in a system neighboring Maccragge, Loyalist [[Warsmith]] [[Barabas Dantioch]] was researching the Pharos device on Guilliman's behalf prior to the Ruinstorm. He eventually succeeded in partially awakening the device, using its limited function to reestablish FTL communication across Ultramar and illuminating Ultramar, akin to the Astronomicon. With the Pharos, the Imperium Secundus was able to establish contact with 400 Ultramarian worlds, and drew in war refugees from across the region, particularly from across the Loyalist legions.

Besides the Ultramarines and auxilia, Imperium Secundus came to house token forces from most Loyalist Legions, though the balance of power shifted with the arrival of [[Lion El'Jonson]] and his [[Dark Angels]]. Though they weren't close brothers prior to the Heresy, the Lion greeted Guilliman warmly, and the two retreated to the Fortress of Hera and conferred over the direction of the new Imperium. The situation would become more complicated with [[Sanguinius]] and the [[Blood Angels]] arrival; the mysterious arrival of a (briefly) deceased [[Vulkan]] from orbit, and his mysterious resurrection into a howling madman; coinciding with [[Konrad Curze]] escaping from Dark Angels custody at roughly the same time, Konrad's presence being a secret the Lion did not share with Guilliman. This was the first crack in the foundations of future power Imperium Secundus.

Curze would go on to rampage across Ultramar; nearly unstoppable, he killed many civilians, politicos, and Astartes. Kurze was only brought to a standstill when he fought the maddened and implacable Vulkan. After a brief, bloody, and confused struggle, Vulkan was [[Cake|killed for good]], and Konrad was briefly banished to [[the Warp]] by a pair of assassins from [[The Cabal|an unknown power]]. With their troubled but deceased Loyalist brother laid in state and their Traitor brother just gone, the Lion, Guilliman, and Sangiunius discussed the state of the Imperium. They agreed that if the Emperor was dead and Horus was ascendant in the galaxy beyond the Ruinstorm, then the Emperor's legacy would live on, and they would be the torchbearers into the darkness of an uncertain future.

The three Primarchs would rule the new Imperium Secundus as a triarchy. Even before the arrival of his brothers, Guilliman was reluctant to name himself as the head of this new empire, lest his actions echo that of [[Horus| another brother]] whose ambition and treachery turned him against their father. With that concern in mind, the Lion and Guilliman agreed that a reluctant Sanguinius being named the Imperator Regis, or the regent emperor. Guilliman was named the Lord Warden as the head of the civil government, and Lion El'Jonson was named Lord Protector of Imperium Secundus as the leader of military forces.

===Misrepresentation===
[[Warsmith]] [[Barabas Dantioch]] of the [[Iron Warriors]] was lured into the service of Guilliman on the promise that his skills would be put to good use fortifying the Imperial Palace in the inevitable [[Siege of Terra]]; it seems Dantioch never got that far and was assigned a position on Sotha, and possibly post-heresy his soldiers were [[Silver Skulls|just absorbed into the Ultramarines]] rather than making any meaningful contribution.

While this might sound cold and callous, there are the two following points to consider. First, the 500 worlds of Ultramar were effectively cut off from Terra by the [[Ruinstorm]], so Dantioch might never have been able to get back. Second, as a Loyalist from a Traitor Legion, Dantioch and his men would have been mistrusted (if not outright imprisoned like the Outcast Dead or worse, executed); therefore, being absorbed into the Ultramarines would have been as wise a choice as any. It might not be the contribution Dantioch and his men wanted, but it definitely beats getting [[blam]]-med. Also probably the origin of [[Silver Skulls|these guys]].

===Mustering Forces to Himself===
What Guilliman found on Sotha was a pre-Imperial device that acted similarly to the [[Astronomican]]. This device was known as the [[Pharos]]. Instead of a psychic lighthouse like the Astronomican, the Pharos shone like a lantern and illuminated targeted worlds in the Warp, allowing safe passage to them even through thick warp storms. As it would happen, it later transpired that the Pharos was of [[Necron]] design (originally it was made as part of a FTL communication network) and was powered by an imprisoned shard of a C'tan called Zarhulash the Potentate, which explains both why it's capable of piercing through the malaise of the warp's ill effects so completely, as well as why daemons seem to so revile the thing. Guilliman ordered that the Pharos be shone on Macragge so that lost loyalists' fleets could find their way to him though the Ruinstorm.

This had the intended effect as beaten stragglers from the broken legions of the [[Iron Hands]], [[Salamanders]] and [[Raven Guard]] found their way to Macragge. It also brought in those ships from the [[Imperial Fists]] Retribution Fleet that managed to retreat from Phall and some [[White Scars]] who were not at Chondax for some reason. Badly beaten, and with their own primarchs [[Ferrus Manus|dead]] or [[Vulkan|assumed dead]], they swore allegiance to Guilliman until such time as the Emperor could be aided.

Some [[Space Wolves]] and a fleet of [[Dark Angels]] led by the Lion also showed up, but Macragge had always been their destination, since they had business in Ultramar.

AND if that's not enough the '''entire''' [[Blood Angels]] Legion ''(except for about eleven men left on [[Baal]], the "Lost Sons")'' from the Battle of [[Signus]] turned up on Guilliman's doorstep too.

Now this is where it gets ugly: both the Blood Angels and Imperial Fists [[RAGE|were actually looking for Terra]], so it could definitely be said that all these arrivals starved Terra of valuable resources and actually hindered the war effort. In fact this was ''explicitly'' stated to [[Lorgar]] by [[Kairos Fateweaver]] prior to the battle at [[Calth]] (the only time both of the damn bird's heads were compelled to speak the truth at the same time): they warned him that if Guilliman died, then Horus would have no chance at the Siege of Terra.

However, it is also known the Pharos was simply one part of a larger galactic network. It may be that Guilliman was incapable of redirecting its energies onto Terra, implying he was simply making the most practical use of the tools available. Not only that, but the Pharos was described as an "empathic" device which responded to the desires of its user, but had mostly unknown capabilities. By shining it at Macragge, one could take from that that it responded to Macragge's (and by extension Guilliman's) desire to regroup and fortify. Which, given the Ultramarines just got [[Shadow Crusade|savagely attacked and mauled]] by [[Lorgar]] and [[Angron]], made sense even if it had poor consequences for the Imperium at large.

===Empire Building / Desire for Power===
Guilliman was renowned for empire-building, and his attempt at usurping the Imperium was actually anticipated by both the [[Emperor]] and [[Malcador the Sigillite]]. They discuss the matter together and are thankful that [[Lion El'Jonson]] takes his own initiative to resolve the matter. Now the Lion [[skub|may or may not]] have had his own agenda as he had attempted to gain military power himself earlier in the war, but at least he argued that it was to the Imperium's benefit for him to be [[Warmaster]] and to be of better service to his father. The Lion was very clear on the issue with his brother Guilliman - he saw his brother's new Imperium as a threat equally as grave as [[Horus]] to the kingdom that his father had built, although he had no problem with Guilliman declaring him Warmaster of the Imperium Secundus in all but name.

Even Konrad Curze thought it was hilarious and internally mocked Guilliman in the "look at me, look at me, I'm building an Empire!" fashion. But then he was batshit insane to start with.

===Counterpoint===
Guilliman was ''very'' politically minded and was careful not to take the position of Regent for himself lest he be seen as a usurper of his father's Empire. So he resolved to ensure that the position would go to another Primarch as only a member of the blood would have the qualities to rule (just not himself). Unfortunately, the first Primarch to arrive (Vulkan) had gone completely insane and thus was incapable of taking the position.

When the Lion arrived on Macragge, the issue of whether Guilliman should hand over rulership to him did come up. Unfortunately, Guilliman described the Lion as too inscrutable to be properly trusted with the position, and in turn the Lion could not trust Guilliman due to what the entire enterprise represented. (They never actually came to blows with one another over the matter, but nearly did since BOTH brothers were keeping secrets from one another, such as the locations of [[Konrad Curze]] & [[Vulkan]].) So when [[Sanguinius]] and his fleet arrived, the two of them showed some common sense and unanimously decided to hand over the position of [[Regent]] to him. At the very least, both brothers could be described as sincere in their desire to put aside their differences and [[get shit done]] for the Imperium, therefore assigning the regency to Sanguinius was a matter of convenience for both parties involved.

Deathfire also shows that since Konrad Curze managed to single-handedly bypass all the security measures Guilliman put in place (along with the disparate World Eater and Word Bearer raiding groups still plaguing Ultramar), he turned Macragge into a military fortress, complete with curfews, decreasing civil liberties, and the Ultramarines acting as police force. Those were the very things setting up Imperium Secundus was supposed to prevent, causing Guilliman considerable emotional distress that wouldn't be expected from someone who merely wished to build an empire.

Guilliman's intentions were apparently sincere, if not their execution. The three Primarchs eventually found out that the Emperor was still alive due to a combination of Sanguinius's visions of his death at the hands of Horus and Kurze's precognition of his being slain by an assassin sent by the Emperor. Guilliman himself was utterly mortified at everything he had done based on the assumption the greater Imperium had fallen and left for Terra alongside the Lion and Sanguinius at once. Curze, having spent the past few years terrorizing Macragge on the (very twisted) premise that what he was doing was what his father truly wanted, promptly pissed himself laughing from the irony of it all.