Why didn't the Chaos gods save Horus's soul?

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Iur_tae_mont**

Nor was is Tactical Genius

**Darth Bob**

If this thread turns into a festering cesspool of Creed jokes, I swear to god I will kill you all.

**Ratbarf**

Why, the only person who could possibly find and kill us all would have to be a tactical gen..... CREEEEEED!

**Melissia**

The fluff I read, which was admittedly old (and probably retconned given that new Horus Heresy novels have come out since then) was that the Chaos Gods were afraid of the psychic attack that the Emperor used to destroy Horus' soul-- that it was so powerful it could also damage or even destroy them.

**micahaphone**

Monster Rain wrote:

puma713 wrote:
Gwar! wrote:

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Horus#The_Betrayal

The sacrifice of the Custodian bought the Emperor time to deliver a finishing blow to Horus. With iron resolve, he gathered his full strength and delivered a massive psychic blow that killed Horus almost instantly and obliterated his very soul. In his final moments, the powers of Chaos were driven from him and the Emperor sensed his favored son's return to sanity for a fraction of a second before he finally died.

Man, that last part is kinda sad. As Horus is being utterly destroyed, he looks back at his father in a completely lucid and loving state.

He had a bit of a moment of Clarity after the Dropsite Massacre too, IIRC.

Maybe that's why the Chaos Gods let him be extinguished. He wasn't one hundred percent committed. His boy Abaddon though...

So Horus was Darth Vader, and Abaddon's Darth Maul. Heck of a lot better statically, but still can't do anything and somehow gets stomped by the new guy.

**Alpharius**

I'm OK with that, provided Abaddon gets sliced in half, soon!

**Nurglitch**

More like Abbadon is Dark Vader and Horus is Darth Maul, in that Horus shows up in the prequel and gets curbed before the end of the first episode, while Abbadon lasts 10,000 years relatively intact.

**Alpharius**

Ack - good point!

So, Abaddon is due to realize his mistakes soon and turn on...

...

...someone... as he returns to the fold?

Nah, I'll stick with him 'getting sliced in half'.

**Nurglitch**

Meh, everyone knows the smart money is on Ahriman.

**Samus_aran115**

Because they had bigger plans for other people. Although it would have been quite easy to resurrect him, the great changer figured it wasn't worth the effort to keep him around, I guess. Besides, Horus wasn't even really aware of the extent of the Chaos Gods yet, afaik. It was so early in the heresy, I doubt you could even call him a worshiper.

**Iur_tae_mont**

Alpharius wrote:I'm OK with that, provided Abaddon gets sliced in half, soon!

I want Abbaspawn before Filet Abbadon.

**lukesdabest**

you want a recent source for Horus soul exploding. the HH art books have it. mind you The HH novels will change the final battle cuz GW lkes being annoying that way. Even if his soul was still ou there stupid lil Abby blew up his body and the cloning planet it was on.

**Kommissar Kel**

Alpharius wrote:I'm OK with that, provided Abaddon gets sliced in half, soon!

only if he Break-dance fights somebody first.

Luke: draws another parallel with post-rebellion/new republic Starwars; Emperor Palpatine has a cloning facility with hundreds of Clones that he can re-inhabit using his Force-Magicks and it gets blown up by Luke(or maybe Anakin Solo, or someone else, I don't remember been over a decade since I read it).

**Lokirfellheart**

asimo77 wrote:Didn't the Emperor obliterate his soul, so the Chaos gods had nothing to work with?

I agree with that. It seems to work with the contents of the horus heresy book too.

But didn't the gods ressurect abaddon after he got shot in the face by a slowed inquisitor? Surely the inquisitor destroyed his soul in one way or another.

**Black Corsair**

Maybe Failaddon eternal fails are due to Chaos gods very special punishment, think about it, you have lived for 10.000 years, and everytime you fail, so everytime he must drown himself in anger,doubts, any kind of desperation you can imagine... if he turns into a spawn, end of the game, he's a mass of inconscious gak.... but, without daemonhood, or spawnhood, he will still being mortal with all the consecuences, he will fail and again and again and again, and he will be forever concious of his own fails tor regret it... eternally MUAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!........

**AgeOfEgos**

From White Dwarf #161;

The Emperor sees the trap that has been set for him. He has been restraining himself, trying not to hurt one who had been as a son to him. Now he sees that there is no trace of his trusted comrade left. He knows that he must stop this semblance of his former friend and avenge the fallen Terminator. He must strike one deadly blow. He will get no other chance.

He gathers every particle of his power, focuses it into a mighty bolt of pure force, more coherent than a laser, more destructive than an exploding sun. He aims it as Horus, a lance of power destined for the madman's heart. Horus senses the upsurge of energy and turns to face the Emperor, a look of horror on his face.

The Emperor lets fly. It strikes the Warmaster. Horus screams as destruction rains down on him, twisting and writhing in titanic agony. He strives frantically to counter the Emperor's deathblow but his struggles become more feeble as the lethal energies play over him.

Driven by all the force of his rage and pain and hatred the Emperor wills Horus's death. He senses the forces of Chaos retreat, disengaging themselves from their pawn. As they do so sanity returns to the Warmaster. The Emperor sees realisation of the atrocities he has committed flicker across Horus' face. Tears glisten there.

Horus is free but the Emperor knows he himself is dying and that the Powers of Chaos may once again possess the Warmaster and he will not be there to stop them. He cannot take that risk. Horus must die. Yet for a second, looking into his old friends face, he hesitates, unable to do the deed. Then he thinks of the slaughter that still goes on outside, may go on forever. Resolve hardens within him.

He forces all mercy and compassion from his mind, empties it of all knowledge of friendship and coimraderie and love. His eyes lock with Horus and see understanding there. Then with full cold knowledge of what he is doing the Emperor destroys the Warmaster.

Sounds like they were scared of the power the Emperor was unleashing.

**abaddon=gargamel**

Gwar! wrote:
Iur_tae_mont wrote:I think the More appropriate question is: Why has Abaddon the Failure not been given the gift of Spawndom?

Horus only failed once.

But yeah. Horus' Soul was destroyed.
This.

Horus managed to very nearly kill the Empra and GOT TO TERRA, THE MOST GUARDED PLACE IN THE IMPERIUM and actually did massive damage. All this is no more than a few years.

10,000 years and 13 tries and Abbadon hasn't even been able to get out the damn EoT.

Thats the direct cause of Creed.

Creed. His influence was there before his existence. Anyways, the Ruinous Powers That Be have decided that Abaddon remains head of the CSM for one good reason: he has a cool looking sword. Also, he has good diplomatic skills. Also, the fact that he is Horus's son has to count for something. In addition, Horus did regain his sanity in his final moments, so perhaps the gods are just waiting for Abaddon to become the epicsauce he is destined to be.

**IvanTih**

Nurglitch wrote:Public wikis, and especially Lexicanum, are terrible sources of information. Seriously, take any book, watch any show, listen to any music, and then read the wiki. The constant misinformation is endemic to the medium as stuff gets lost in translation. Better to just use them as portals to the original material (if it's cited...) rather than rely on what's essentially some random's opinion.

Ahem,I edit Lexicanum,I always transcribe text from my sources so no disinformation,unless some jackass edits it.
Chaos Gods retreated from Horus because they would be affected by the Emperor's attack(my theory).

**NeedsMoreDakka**

Nurglitch wrote:Meh, everyone knows the smart money is on Ahriman.

This.

Ahriman needs to hurry up and find the Black Library and turn Abbadon to dust.

It will be like the high school reunion where the prom king jock runs into the nerd he always picked on and it turns out hes a billionare.

**Extinction Angel**

I'd say until the Horus Heresy books redo the battle on Horus' battle barge the original material stands just fine. I have a feeling they will retcon the reason Horus' shield drop and have Aximand be responsible. This would give us a great little showdown between Abaddon and Aximand while Horus and the Emperor do their thing.

And just to add to the Abaddon discussion,

I don't think the big four don't want humanity wiped out. Much like the silly cabal plot hook suggests, if Horus, or Abaddon for that matter, fully succeeded, humanity would crumble from within and eventually become weak enough to reduce the power the big four have. The less humans there are, the weaker the ruinous powers become. But conversely, the more strife, death, affliction, and doubt there are, the more powerful they become.

One really good way to maximize this paradoxical balance is to be continually at war. Attack, retreat, regroup, do it again. If Abaddon actually manages to destroy Cadia and the Eye of Terror can expand, the Powers win a big victory. It becomes eaasier to invade real space and Abaddon has a forward base for launching attacks deeper into the heart of the Imperium. But if he keeps failing, They are still happy because their agendas are still perpetuated and souls are still munched. It's sort of a reverse Sisyphus.

**Grundz**

Anyone else think the emperor washing his soul of all the sunshine and rainbows is more literal, and is why he is a soul sucking zombie now basically, and not because of his wounds?

**IvanTih**

Grundz wrote:Anyone else think the emperor washing his soul of all the sunshine and rainbows is more literal, and is why he is a soul sucking zombie now basically, and not because of his wounds?

That was exactly said in Realm of Chaos book.The Emperor lost his immortality because of the attack,but that is old fluff and it isn't cannon.