Editing Nobledark Imperium Drafts (section)

=== Remembering Old Earth ===

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"''When I first saw Old Earth for the first time, I was reminded of an Exodite world more than anything else. It was so rustic. The people talked about rediscovering mono-molecular structures and anti-gravity, as if these were groundbreaking innovations. I was shocked, how could this be the capital of the same empire whose ships dominated the stars, and whose warriors helped the Eldar to free me from my captivity. And yet, the people there seemed so proud. Proud that they had clawed their way out of the dirt and the darkness. Their society had only just begun to rebuild itself from the horrors of their Fall, and yet they looked back on the little they had accomplished so far, and felt optimistic about the future.''"<br>
-Grand Empress Isha, on her first impressions of Old Earth

 
For the average Imperial citizen outside of Segmentum Solar, the ancient nations of Old Earth from the Unification Wars are long forgotten. Those who are history buffs or lived in the Sol system itself might know these old Terran states. Having been born at the end of the Age of Strife, the primarchs knew full well that many countries had come and gone before theirs, particularly after the War of the Beast caused so much destruction that the entirety of survivors on Old Earth could have comfortable fit into the continent of Europe. After the War of the Beast, many of the primarchs labored to preserve as much of they could of their country’s history and customs, so that their people would not be forgotten. This is not to say that they were the only people to write of their nations, many did so as a way of working out their grief and to try to preserve some vestige of their culture after the War of the Beast. But the nineteen of them were the Emperor’s primarchs, and when they spoke people tended to listen.
 
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The Emperor himself of wrote a little bit of what daily life was like in Terrawatt, when it became clear to him that his old home was gone and not coming back. However, in later years, some scholars have privately criticized this account as having been overly mythologized. Between his accounts and the drier, more methodical logs of Malcador, it is possible to get a reasonable approximation of what pre-Unification life was like in the Terrawatt Clan. Given his eidetic memory as a Man of Gold, it is likely the Emperor remembers more about Unification-era Earth than what he has put down on paper, but between his duties as head of state and the feelings such memories would dredge up it is unlikely they will ever be written down.

 
Of the primarchs themselves, starting with Horus, he chronicled the entire rise of the Imperium from the start of unification for the migrant fleets of Sol to the end of the War of The Beast. Some have criticized Horus' Chronical after his death when a few historians noticed the lack of historical accuracy when writing about the Great Crusade. The best records by the primarchs of life on Old Earth pre-Unification come from Fulgrim, Guilliman, and Vulkan. Fulgrim managed to write a lengthy autobiography after his Legion was reduced to just shy of three companies in the Iron Cage. Going into great detail about his everyday life, readers are able to especially immerse themselves in his childhood of living in Merika to an eerie amount of degree. Everything after the childhood section of the book is known for being historically inaccurate and turning into the self-gratifying propaganda of later parts in his life. In addition to his general writings and thought experiments, Guilliman had his entire family history saved to an audio recording then transcribed to a book. The genealogy writes about members from this nobility starting at the end of the Age of Strife till the end of the Great Crusade. Vulkan often referred to the Afrique League (and its history both before and after the Warlord) in passing in the many writings he published over his long, long life, including one book entirely devoted to the topic and several different essays on many subjects, ranging from philosophy and theology, economics to warfare. These provide some of the best glimpses we have into life in the Afrique League.

 
Surprisingly, Jaghatai Khan wrote extensively on his life, mostly poetry about what life was like under the Despot of Ursh and how it got so much better after he threw off the yoke of his oppressors. He also wrote poetry about his wife and the simpler lives of his people after the Khanate was established to remind him why he does what he does. Unfortunately, most of it was written in Neo-Mongolian, which meant it was only legible to Pastoral Worlders, and even then only just (being about as similar to modern Pastoral Worlder languages as Old English was to 21st century English). Dorn’s writings, much like the man himself, were straightforward, rather spartan, and only ever discussed a single subject. The nature of the Calbi military of that era would be remembered if nothing else. Although he did not survive the War of the Beast, Sanguinius mentioned his old homeland in his Meditations, where he collected his visions and wrote on topics like philosophy and ethics. As part of that, he had a very detailed and honest description of pre-Unification Duscht Jemanic, as he was a firm believer of history and examining mistakes to avoid repeating them.The Lion actually wrote a little bit about Franj, in part to work out the grief of losing his old home and in part to spite Luther for trying to sully Franj’s name. However, the most famous work attributed to the Lion may not have been actually written by him. The book was done in a clunky style as if written by Lion and the finished product was found in his quarters on his writing desk but at that time Lion was in the main medi-bay of The Rock living off of IV drips. It was Holguin, Master of the Deathwing, who found the book when it became clear that Lion was not going to wake up any day soon and someone had to tidy up Lion's room. Holguin never admitted to writing the book. Dark Angel folk belief has it that Cypher did it for no easily describable reason.

 
Other primarchs either would not or could not write about their home countries. Although Magnus the Red was concerned with preserving knowledge and history and wrote extensively on warpcraft and daemonology, he wrote very little on his life as a subject of Ursh. As far as he was concerned before the Imperium he had no home nation, only jailers. About the closest he ever came was when he contributed to the writing of ''The Chronicles of Ursh'', mostly chronicling how horrible Ursh was. Historians have sometimes doubted his more outrageous claims, but in almost every case they have turned out to be true. Angron, in his better days, refused to write down his experiences in the Nord Afrik conclaves, even going so far as to claim “being subjugated by the Imperium was the best thing that could have happened to the country. If it became so far forgotten it was as if it never existed so much the better.” Nevertheless, a great deal of insight can be gained into from Angron’s poetry. The earliest pieces offer harrowing glimpses into the society of the Nord Afrik conclaves in its dying years. Interspersed are more cheerful things about his children or sorrowful things about his biological family. Angron’s’ poetry was not good by any means but that was because he was a warrior rather than a poet for a living. However, as the years pass the poetry became worse. The subject matter gets better for the most part but the style, vocabulary, rhythm, punctuation, spelling and legibility of the hand written notes start to decline noticeably. Not long before War of the Beast he apparently just gave up on it.

 
Perturabo probably would have written about Macedonia and the Great and Everlasting Tharkian Empire if he was asked during the Great Crusade, but afterwards he refused to do so. To him, it was just one more way he failed his people, and writing about his people for posterity felt like writing an obituary rather than a historical record. Corax did not have a happy life before the Imperium. Trying to write about his life reminded him of his old family, and it hurt to think of that subject. Like Magnus, the closest he came was advising those who wrote ''The Chronicles of Ursh''. Ferrus Manus did not write anything about Orioc as he saw no difference between the Antarctic Mechanicus and the Mechanicus as a whole, and as the Mechanicus was perfect and enduring and already drowning in data there was no need to. Curze just plain did not want to talk about it. Mortarion also did not. He would not sully the name of Gredbriton by associating himself with it too hard. Leman Russ was not much of a writer, although others in his employ were.

 
Lorgar was well-known for writing and talking extensively on things he did not like, but he was first and foremost a warrior-chaplain. He was more concerned about the good of the people now than the problems of the long past. However writings on the Yndonesian Bloc do survive, most notably from Lorgar’s father Archbishop Kor Phaeron. Alpharius and Omegon ████████ █████████ █████████████{Historical document confiscated by order of the Inquisition. Ave Hydra, Hydra Dominatus.}███ ███████ ███████ █ ███████ ████████ ███████████ █████████ ███████

 
Sadly, despite all their efforts, the primarchs largely failed in this endeavor. The customs and cultures of the nation-states of Old Earth in M41 are about as well remembered as the provinces of the old Roman Empire were by the third millennium, essentially trivia only of interest to historians. The only nation-state that is well-remembered with any degree of accuracy is Ursh, and that was more as a cautionary tale to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past than for historical posterity. Ursh is best remembered in the galactic midlands, the Imperial worlds too far from Old Earth to actually know Earth's history without a degree, but close enough that legends of the primarchs are still pretty popular. Still, the legends that get told a lot are the ones about king Oscar and his primarchs fighting heroic battles against the old Chaos king and his Habnervars (local low Gothic dialect, some kind of horrible monster) or how captain Horus took so long tricking the Chaos Gods over and over that he was almost late to fight the great grot. Sure, the old story teller could regale you with the tale of how Guilliman went to school for a long time and got married to a nice lady, all of this in Franj, or he could make some shit up off the top of his head about what Fulgrim found in the Rockies, but nobody ever asks.

 
When the nation-states are remembered, they are primarily remembered in a semi-mythologized fashion based on their role in the Unification, typecast as heroes and villains instead of being remembered for the people who actually lived there. The White Scars spit on the memory of Ursh and its people, forgetting that for many of them their great-great grandmother was an Urshii serf who was just as oppressed by the old regime. The people of the Imperium sneer at the Yndonesian Bloc and its brutal theocracy, forgetting that Lorgar, one of the Imperium's greatest humanitarians, came from its ranks. Franj is often remembered as being the motivation of betrayal for Luther, the arch-traitor, forgetting all the people in Franj who were horrified by Luther's ideals and would ultimately end up paying for his mistakes.

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