Primarch
The Primarchs were the twenty genetically-engineered "sons" of the Emperor. Using his own DNA in their creation, the Primarchs were designed to be far superior to even Space Marines: they were taller, stronger, faster and more intelligent. They were also incredibly charismatic and were well suited to their role as the generals and leaders of the Imperium of Man. Such a pity then that they ended up being bunch of squalling siblings who were responsible for plunging the Imperium into its current messed up state. Even the loyalist primarches contributed to screwing things up good and proper, by either disappearing, getting killed or failing to keep the Imperium along their father's vision.
History
The Primarchs were created in a secret underground laboratory on what used to be the Himalayas, under the tightest security. All of them were derived from a subset of the Emperor's DNA that served as a template, which was altered differently for each of the Primarchs; it is also thought that he engineered them spiritually as well using long-forgotten psychic techniques. As the Raven Guard discovered after the Emperor granted them access to the original data from the Primarchs' creation, many of the Primarchs' gene-samples were wildly divergent from the original template- some had long gene sequences deleted, while others had non-human DNA spliced into them for reasons only known to the Emperor. (A particularly intriguing discovery was one sample labeled "Subject VI", which had extensive amounts of canine DNA added to it.) However, due to insidious dickery and in spite of the safeguards the Emperor had set up, the forces of Chaos were able to spirit the Primarchs away from the laboratory and scatter them across the universe. Just as planned. Somehow, the Emperor knew his sons were still alive, but had no clue to where they could be, so he decided to go ahead with his Space Marine project. Using DNA samples from each Primarch before they were abducted, the Emperor created twenty legions of Space Marines, in what would later be called the First Founding.
Each of the young Primarchs were forced to adapt to the lifestyle on their new homeworld, something which would influence and mould them throughout their lives. The Primarchs rapidly grew to adulthood and quickly rose to power, often becoming the leaders of their world. As the Emperor crusaded to unify the galaxy he would occasionally stumble upon another long-lost son. When this happened, the Emperor would hold a celebration in honor of this discovery, give the Primarch their legion to command, then tell them to fuck off and start conquering worlds while he fapped to his favoured offspring. The Emperor was a dick like that.
The first Primarch the Emperor discovered was Horus, who would become the Emperor's favoured son. The majority of Primarchs somehow recognized the Emperor on sight, immediately pledging their allegiance to their father. A few (such as Leman Russ and Vulkan) only swore allegiance after being bested in a contest. Angron outright refused to follow the Emperor, preferring to die in battle along with his rebels in their fight against the oppressive Not-Romans. The Emperor simply shrugged and abducted his son, leaving Angron's followers to get slaughtered. Angron never really got over that dick move.
At the end of the period known as the Great Crusade, Horus, who had recently been promoted to the title of Warmaster, fell to Chaos and rebelled. It didn't take long for eight other of his fellow Primarchs to join his side against the Emperor, resulting in a full-scale civil war known as the Horus Heresy. Funnily enough, most of the Primarchs who sided with Horus were those who felt that the Emperor had taken a giant, steaming dump on them. So while the Emperor is the greatest tactician, biologist, warlord, and leader in the history of mankind, he's worse than a crack-addled transient junkie as a father.
Primarchs and Legions
| Legion Number | Name | Homeworld | Name of the Legion | Allegiance | Current Status |
| I | Lion El'Jonson | Caliban | Dark Angels | Alive, | |
| II | +++Records expunged+++ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| III | Fulgrim | Chemos | Emperor's Children | Traitor | Daemon Prince of Slaanesh, ruler of the Pleasure World. |
| IV | Perturabo | Olympia | Iron Warriors | Traitor | Daemon Prince, ruler of Mendregard. |
| V | Jaghatai Khan | Chogoris/Mundus Planus | White Scars | Loyal | Unknown, disappeared into the Webway while hunting Dark Eldar. |
| VI | Leman Russ | Fenris | Space Wolves | Loyal | Unknown, disappeared into the Eye of Terror but promised to return one day. |
| VII | Rogal Dorn | Inwit | Imperial Fists | MEGA ULTRA Loyal | Assumed deceased, disappeared while boarding a Chaos cruiser during a Black Crusade. His skeletal hands were recovered and placed in shrines. Rumored to still be alive. |
| VIII | Konrad Curze | Nostramo | Night Lords | Batman | Deceased, assassinated by Callidus assassin. His body was never found. |
| IX | Sanguinius | Baal | Blood Angels | Loyal | Deceased, slain by Horus. May or may not be the Sanguinor. |
| X | Ferrus Manus | Medusa | Iron Hands | Loyal | Deceased, slain by Fulgrim and his head offered to Horus as a gift. Fulgrim still has the body. Some claim he is still alive on Mars, though it may be not actually be him. |
| XI | +++Records expunged+++ | ||||
| XII | Angron | Nuceria | World Eaters | Traitor | Daemon Prince of Khorne. Expelled into the Warp. |
| XIII | Roboute Guilliman | Macragge | Ultramarines | SUPER Loyal | In stasis, technically alive. Might be getting better somehow, unfortunately. |
| XIV | Mortarion | Barbarus | Death Guard | Traitor | Daemon Prince of Nurgle, ruler of Plague Planet. Banished by Grey Knights. |
| XV | Magnus the Red | Prospero | Thousand Sons | I never asked for this | Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, ruler of the Planet of Sorcerers. |
| XVI | Horus Lupercal | Cthonia | Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus/Black Legion | Double Traitor | Utterly, completely, absolutely, unbelievably, mind bogglingly deceased, utterly annihilated at the hands of the Emperor. |
| XVII | Lorgar Aurelian | Colchis | Word Bearers | Traitor Prime | Daemon Prince, ruler of Sicarius. |
| XVIII | Vulkan | Nocturne | Salamanders | Loyal | Dead(?) - it's a long story. Believed to return eventually. |
| XIX | Corvus Corax | Deliverance | Raven Guard | Loyal | Missing, last seen heading for the Eye of Terror. Some believe he will return. |
| XX | Alpharius Omegon | They're not telling | Alpha Legion | It's complicated | Fuck knows |
It Sucks To Be Loyal
Traitors
- General downside to those who became Daemon Princes is that the further they go from the Eye of Terror, the more their power wanes;
- Horus was killed by the Emperor during the Siege of Terra, who utterly destroyed his soul. His legion enshrined his corpse until the Emperor's Children stole it. Fabius Bile managed to successfully clone him, but Abaddon killed the clone to cement his position as his successor as Warmaster of Chaos. Horus is very dead, but that was his fault for being a fuckwit.
- Angron is a Daemon Prince of Khorne. Still gets shit done, but did get his arse handed to him by the Grey Knights on Armageddon.
- Mortarion is a fucktwit who rarely does anything of interest, but is a Daemon Prince of Nurgle. Got some open heart surgery, courtesy of Draigo/Ward.
- Fulgrim's soul was trapped in a painting while his body was possessed by a daemon for a brief time before swapping places with the daemon and taking its powers (or so he claims). Later becomes a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh.
- Lorgar is a lazy fucknut who does nothing since they fled to the Eye of Terror, but still a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. Taught Abaddon how to summon daemons.
- Magnus the Red is... derping out, and screaming Just as planned every time something happens, but he's a Daemon Prince. He sometimes also gets shit done, leading armies to the Space Wolves' planet and screwing with the Imperium, keeping his big red trollface on all the time until he gets his ass tossed back into the Warp. Occasionally mopes about how he never wanted to be a traitor originally.
- Perturabo becomes irrelevant after he goes on to drop entirely out of post-Heresy fluff, but is still a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. Helps Failbaddon in a couple of Black Crusades by giving him some Daemon Engines. It doesn't really help, though. There was that one moment where Horus asked Rogal Dorn if the Iron Warriors could penetrate the Imperial Palace (So totally Not heresy).
- Konrad Curze allowed a Callidus assassin to infiltrate his lair and kill him, apparently wanting to die after becoming the very thing he fought against.
- Alpharius / Omegon... your head will explode, so we won't bother explaining the specifics. Surely, they are making plans so intricate and troll-worthy that even Tzeentch could not comprehend all the subtleties behind them. He is, according to the OFFICIAL story, dead. But who knows?
Loyalists
- Ferrus Manus was killed by Fulgrim during the Drop Site Massacre. His body was not recovered, so some Iron Hands think he might still be alive. But the fact that he was decapitated by Fulgrim after being defeated and had his head delivered to Horus makes this claim fairly dubious. Just don't say that to the Iron Hands, though. Unless you want free open-heart surgery from a ceramite and steel power fist.
- Sanguinius was killed by Horus. His body was recovered, and he's the only Primarch who doesn't have any legends about returning, though there are some theories on the identity of the Sanguinor. For what it's worth, Fear to Tread shows that the Sanguinor is indistinguishable from Sanguinius himself and had enough power to appear in the mind of an Apothecary shortly before the Blood Angels were deployed to the Signus system.
- Lion El'Jonson returned to Caliban only to discover
that his friend Luther had stabbed him in the back.THAT LUTHER HAD A PLANET-WIDE PARTY AND EVENTUALLY PASSED OUT INTO A COMA AFTER DRINKING 2 TANKERS OF SPACE WOLF-GRADE ALCOHOL. He sleeps deep within the Rock, originally on life support and now fully-healed (but none of the Dark Angels seem to know this). Perhaps this is the advancement of the storyline DUN DUN DUN! - Genghis, er, Jaghatai Khan disappeared into the Webway after chasing a group of Dark Eldar. The White Scars think he will return someday, and when you consider the fact that time is just as weird there as it is in the rest of the Warp, there is a small possibility he's still around.
- Leman Russ disappeared into the Eye of Terror but promised the Space Wolves that he would return for the Final Battle. Magnus appears to know where he is now, but he sure as hell isn't telling the Space Wolves. Reports during the Thirteenth Black Crusade claim that a figure matching Russ's description was seen leading the 13th Great Company have surfaced, but were never verified.
- Rogal Dorn disappeared during a Black Crusade in a desperate ship boarding action. Only his skeletal hands were recovered and enshrined.
- Roboute Guilliman is perfectly preserved in a stasis field, seconds from death. It is rumored that he is healing, even though it is impossible for anything to change inside a stasis field. Most people credit the healing to be the power of the Emperor, which says something about the Imperium as that's considered a valid argument. It says something further about the setting in that a number of fans believe that this is a valid argument. This may be true following the Iron Heart device in Angel Exterminatus healing someone in stasis, very very slowly. Fortunately, being suspended in a stasis field ensures you feel whatever you were feeling at the instant of your immersion for the duration.
Rawbutt Girlyman was in excruciating pain, ensuring that the living embodiment of the Great Beast's nightmarish seed is, to say the very least, not a happy camper. The human body is programmed to dull pain as it dies and Astartes modification takes this to the extreme. He's probably high as a kite now. Matt Ward seeks the power to resurrect Gulliman. In his quest to do so, he created Kaldor Draigo.That would be the case if it was just a normal blade that cut his throat. Too bad that it was laced with, not just poison, but Slaaneshi-demon "Pain is the greatest pleasure in the universe" poison. A Stasis Field stops Time, so from Rowboats Perspective its been only Minutes or Seconds since he was placed in Stasis and whatever he felt during that short amount of time is probably not very significant. - Vulkan got the shit kicked out of him during the Drop Site Massacre, whereupon his fluff split into two mutually-exclusive paths:
- Codex: Space Marines states that his body was never found, only a book containing only the names of nine powerful relics and a bunch of annoying riddles as to where they might be found, penned by Vulkan himself. In the 41st millennium, the Salamanders believe that he is still alive and that collecting the nine relics - they've found five so far - will reveal his location.
- In Vulkan Lives the big V had to be dragged into a Thunderhawk in bloody tatters. Kurze captured him and tortured him to death... repeatedly; Vulkan would not stay dead. After an indeterminate amount of time and deaths, Vulkan managed to escape by teleporting himself into orbit around Macragge and reentering its atmosphere. When he recovered and learned that Kurze was planetside, he flipped out and went after him. A well-meaning Perpetual stabbed him with a fulgurite (a spearhead-shaped piece of stone that contains a bit of the Emperor's power), hoping to either cure his madness or kill him for good. Now apparently dead, Vulkan was put in a stasis capsule inscribed with the words "Unbound Flame," with an honor guard of Salamanders until his remains could be returned to Nocturne. As of the end of Deathfire, he somehow managed to return to life again, although there's no indication as to whether or not he's still a Perpetual.
- Corax disappeared into the Eye of Terror as an atonement for putting down the mutant hordes he created in trying to create Space Marines out of desperation. Quoth the Raven: "Nevermore."
So the surviving traitors (with the possible exceptions of Alpharius and Omegon) are Daemon Princes (which, ignoring the brain-rape, fucking rules) while all of the loyalists are dead, have disappeared, or are in comas. The chapters have legends which hold that the Primarchs will return and heal the Emperor, launching a new Great Crusade. Note: when GW says “disappeared” they actually mean “we are going to bring them back in a massive deus ex machina”. No they don't. They're not idealistic. Well, seeing what they did with FB in the End Times one may hope they wouldd actually do move the plot of 40k past 999.M41 so that they can all come back and die again.
Two Missing Primarchs
Who are the two missing Primarchs, you ask? Sigmar and Archaon (depending on how WHFB fits in with 40K, if it does). Or maybe (per /tg/ canon) Rachnus Rageous and Tialoc Ekans. Samus and Guts are also contenders.
...
Okay, fine. Nobody really knows. What has been established is that they got killed for some reason and the existence of their Legions was wiped from record by the Emperor. The surviving marines from their Legions were then allegedly gobbled up by the Ultramarines, for some retarded reason. Curse you, Smurfs.
Games Workshop have mentioned Primarchs besides the eighteen above on other occasions, but they backtracked since. Back in the first edition of Warhammer 40,000, all twenty First Founding Chapters were known, as were their Primarchs (though, at the time, the Primarch was just the first Chapter Master). Of these, the Valedictors and Rainbow Warriors were declared in a later White Dwarf to have been founded after the Second Founding.
Later, in the short story Hell in a Bottle from the novel Into the Maelstrom, a chapter known as the Iron Hearts get fucked over by a Chaos Lord. The short story also mentions that the Chapter has a Primarch known as Rubinek. Of course, this was just a huge cock-up on the author's part, who himself admitted that he meant Chapter Master.
The Horus Heresy novels fill in some of the blanks, but they still leave a lot of questions open. In The Lightning Tower Rogal Dorn says that the lost Primarchs' disappearances were "separate tragedies", so it seems like they disappered in two different incidents. Deliverance Lost suggests that whatever happened to the missing Primarchs occurred sometime before the Emperor found Corvus Corax, as Corax asked the Emperor why there were only sixteen other Primarchs waiting for him if he was the nineteenth found; the Emperor avoided the question, claiming that "it would be a discussion for another day". This is no longer the case, somehow, as he was now the third-to-last primarch found, right before the second missing primarch. The First Heretic specifies that the missing Legions were purged at least 43 years before the Drop Site Massacre, so we can conclude that neither one took part in the Horus Heresy. At the same time, members of the Word Bearers Seventh Company travelling through time with Ingethel the Ascended reveal rumors that the surviving members of the lost Legions were folded into the Ultramarines (their Chaplain thinks the rumor is a load of grox-shit, but their Captain does note that the Ultramarines are on record as receiving an increase in troops). Finally, it also adds that the remaining Primarchs had to swear an oath never to speak of their missing brothers and that the missing Primarchs' corresponding legions were personally purged by the Emperor, so it had to have been something extraordinarily bad. Leman Russ mentions in Prospero Burns that the Space Wolves had fought other Space Marines before the attack on Prospero, which may have something to do with the purge. A senior Space Wolf describes Russ' "wyrd" as being "the Emperor's executioner". Several books since have backed this up. In The Dark King, when asked if he will report the Night Lords for censure, Dorn remarks that he feared to add another empty statue to the Emperor's palace, implying that the missing legions were exterminated for committing severe atrocities. Gene-seed flaws might have played a major part- in Fear To Tread, Sanguinius admits to Horus that he had not told the Emperor about the Red Thirst because he feared that the Emperor would purge the Blood Angels in the same way as the missing Legions. In Scars there's a reference to rumours and "whispers of past atrocities" that only a Primarch could kill another Primarch. Russ also turns up and talks a bit about fighting Magnus, and the resulting "shame". So if he's responsible for offing one or two of his brothers, they must've done something pretty fucking heinous.
Out of universe, Rick Priestley admitted that the unknown legions were supposed to be a reference to the three Roman legions wiped out in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, whose numbers were never reused after they slain to a man by German barbarians (as well as a way to let fans design their own Legions to fill in the gaps for themselves). Clearly he didn't think out the implications that this would have on the setting.
Rules on the Tabletop
Thanks to Forge World, not only do we have models for the Primarchs, but rules as well. As you can guess, they are ungodly rape machines who can easily win their points back and more. That's not to say they're invincible, though; they can still be killed if you screw up badly enough. All currently released Primarchs have the following statlines:
| WS | BS | S | T | W | I | A | Ld | Sv | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Horus: | 8 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5+1 | 10 | 2+/3++ |
| Angron: | 9 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 6+1 | 10 | 3+/4++ |
| Fulgrim: | 8 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 2+/5++/3++ in CC |
| Mortarion: | 7 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 2+/4++ |
| Ferrus Manus: | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 2+/3++ |
| Konrad Curze: | 8 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 5+1 | 10 | 2+/4++ |
| Vulkan: | 7 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 10 | 2+/3++ |
| Lorgar: | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 4+1 | 10 | 2+/4++ |
| Perturabo: | 8 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 10 | 2+/3++ |
| Rogal Dorn: | 8 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 10 | 2+/4++ |
| Corvus Corax: | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6/5 | 7 | 6/5 | 10 | 2+/5++ or 3+/5++ |
| Alpharius: | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 2+/4++ |
| Guilliman: | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4+1 | 10 | 2+/4++ |
| Magnus the Red: | |||||||||
| Leman Russ: | |||||||||
| Jaghatai Khan: | |||||||||
| Lion El'Jonson: | |||||||||
| Sanguinius: |
Each of them have one or two close-combat weapons, all of which are AP2 or 1, backed by some decent gun to lay some dakka down while they run to the glorious melee. Their Primarch rule grants them the combined benefits of Fleet, Fearless, Fear, IWND, Eternal Warior, and Adamantium Will, and as ICs they can join squads as well (though most of the Primarchs are better run solo). Each of them have a page worth of special rules and unique wargear, some of which is stupidly powerful to the point of broken, but that's OK since even the cheapest of the Primarchs costs more than 350 pts. and eats an extremely valuable Lord of War slot that might otherwise be spent on a Thunderhawk or a Fellblade.
Pimpin Rides
Also worth mentioning, that Perturabo and Dorn are special enough to get their own personal special/unique vehicle, other primarchs may get their own vehicles in the future (who knows?). However, rules dictate that neither vehicle can be taken in games under 3000 points. Meaning you can only use it in 3000+ matches.
- Perturabo gets to ride in a Shadowsword with the Command Tank upgrade. Not only that, but Perturabo is so awesome, he managed to somehow give it 15 troop capacity, meaning it can take 12 Power Armoured dudes + himself, or 6 Terminators for his bodyguard. But, it doesn't stop there! It also has a single Void Shield! It costs 25pts more than a normal Shadowsword with the same upgrades, but strictly speaking it does NOT have BS4 unless you take the targeter sponsons as the Legion Crew upgrade is not mentioned (the command tank upgrade is), but it's so awesome, who cares? It's called the Tormentor.
- Dorn, on the other hand, gets a customised Thunderhawk Gunship, the Aetos Dios. This ship has Turbo Laser as standard, plus a single Void Shield to protect it, it also has It Will Not Die so can regenerate some of it's hull points and finally it ALSO has a 4+ invulnerable save against missiles, all on top of being a flyer which means you can only snap-shot at it, all for the bargain cost of 600 points - which is actually 320 points CHEAPER than a normal Legion Thunderhawk with a Turbo-Laser.
See Also
Return of the Primarchs: A What IF? series filled with pure AWESOME and MANLY TEARS.
A little side note, if you want an awesome look at the Primarchs in all their Crusadey goodness, go look at Aerion the Faithful's Libris Primaris project. http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/152862-artwork-libris-primaris/
Gallery
Loyal
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Lion El'Jonson.
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Jaghatai Khan.
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Leman Russ.
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Rogal Dorn.
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Sanguinius.
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Ferrus Manus.
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Roboute Guilliman.
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Vulkan.
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Corvus Corax.
Traitor
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Horus Lupercal.
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Fulgrim.
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Perturabo.
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Konrad Curze/Night Haunter.
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Angron.
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Mortarion.
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Magnus the Red.
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Lorgar Aurelian.
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Alpharius/Omegon.
| The Primarchs of the Space Marine Legions |
|---|
 Loyalist Corvus Corax - Ferrus Manus - Jaghatai Khan Leman Russ - Lion El'Jonson - Roboute Guilliman Rogal Dorn - Sanguinius - Vulkan |
 Traitor Alpharius/Omegon - Angron - Fulgrim Horus - Konrad Curze/Night Haunter - Lorgar Magnus the Red - Mortarion - Perturabo |