The lost primarchs…

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**Cognitive**

I mean, they got culled along with their legions, right? Perhaps Leman took part in those?

**Lord Zarkov**

With the reveals that at least one of them being purged probably had something to do with the Rangdan Xenocides, I’m fairly partial to the idea that their cardinal sin was having*lost*.

In the early stages the heavy defeat of a legion and especially the death of a primarch would be critical. Better to purge it and avoid the creeping doubt.

Would explain why even the primarchs wanted their memories purged of it.

**Tawnis**

Wakshaani wrote:
Well, whatever the lost primarchs did, it had to be worse than falling to Chaos and turning traitor. Not sure about Legion XI, but II?

The hints we have floating around are SPARSE... there's the notations in the books about "cursed Geneseed" that resulted in mutations, the Cursed Founding that used geneseed that resulted in every chapter having major issues (probably using that lost legion's geneseed), and that's about it.

But we can extrapolate a bit.

The greatest fear of the Emperor was that his creations would replace humanity. He didn't want a new generation of Humans Plus, he just wanted Humans, so when he made bio-weapons like the Thunder Warriors, he had plans to remove them and, more importantly, to keep them from EVER supplanting humanity.

There's one, and only one, person ever mentioned with a Primarch-ish name, with a dedicated following of warriors who do things above and beyond what others can, with a mysterious history and no evidence of them actually existing.

Athena.

There's an entire cult of warrior women dedicated to her, her wisdom, her martial talent, and who are hunted by the Imperium … one member of this outlawed cult is part of the Last Chancers, and you can find out more about her there, BUT, that's the other clue that leads to this:

One of the Lost primarchs was Athena, and she believed in women fighting. What if she had female marines, the oft-demanded, always-refused Holy Grail? What if she found a way to tweak Geneseed to have it work in women and when the Emperor found out, he FREAKED, because this would allow for marines to spawn a new Humanity, one that would replace his, and he not only had to stop this but had to make sure it was eradicated from the Imperial record to make sure no one else would ever try it again?

The survivors of her legion continue to keep her memory and legacy alive as the Cult of Athena, but absolutely no records of a Primarch by that name can be found.

Speculative, but it'd fit.

While I think that this would be really cool conceptually, there is one part where it doesn't jive. When Malcador is talking to Dorn, he very explicitly states that ALL the Primarchs are Male. That he made the argument to the Emporer to make them all female instead and was rebuffed.

That's not to say, that a branch of the theory is impossible though. Perhaps the Primarch was an exceptional geneticist and, though being male himself, adjusted it to work on women, his prototype being Athena. Food for thought.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
I recall reading somewhere that one of the lost Primarchs was considered very "innocent" by his brothers.

Perhaps they didn't want to purge all Xenos and had established a society to work with them much like the Interex?

**Theophony**

I think one Primarch got killed, probably against the Rangdang, and the Legion felt "Lost" and had failed their Primarch and the Emperor. Those that survived were probably the ones that were taken in to be Ultramarines and bolstered them. The Ultramarines had the support structure to assimilate all of this new "Material" and bring it up to their standards. The warriors, and possibly their previous victories, were then just added to the Ultramarine tallies.

The other Primarch I believe probably failed the Emperors dreams. Either by siding with an alien species, or by not dying and bending a knee to an alien such as the Rangdang. This would be the Primarch that Leman Russ eludes to being the one he had to put down as he was the Emperors Executioner. I could see the Primarch and his most loyal followers making a stand and trying to tell his brothers and cousin space marines that the Emperors plan would not work and there was a way for Unity with other species. This could even have been an attempt by the Cabal to lure this primarch into their fold and plan before they went after Alpharius.

Suppossedly the remenants of the two lost chapters were subsumed into two other chapters. Ultramarines definitely got recruits, and I've heard both Imperial Fist and Word Bearers as the other legion. Though I think Word Bearers makes a better argument as they would have been the Emperors cheerleaders and would have brainwashed the ones who thought they failed the Emperor and turned them into religious Zealots. Though I kind of want the Imperial Fists to have taken in the one that joined the Aliens, which would give a good reason for why some of the Fists, who are known for their shootiness, have become righteous crusaders who want to burn the witch, heretic and the alien

. Almost like the brainwashing to get rid of their thoughts of working with the aliens went a bit too far

.

**Polonius**

This is well trod ground in the hobby. It's important to understand that in early editions of 40k, the source materials were usually in universe, with unreliable narrators or a specific POV. Early background simply showed a "read out" of the legions, and showed "redacted" or "records expunged" for the two lost legions. This isn't a secret, like the Dark Angels have. It's a mystery. You kind of had to look for it (or do math), and GW, ot it's credit, left it out there like a little easter egg.

Because it was meant to be a mystery to the reader, it simply indicated that the source you were reading was redacted. It never suggested that nobody knew about the lost legions, this is clearly absurd as there are plenty of beings from the Heresy alive today, such as the big traitor characters, Bjorn the fell handed, and probably some Admech weirdness. I'm imaging the secret is kept pretty quiet, but it can't be devastating secret, because the traitors have no reason to protect the lost legions or the Empire.

We know that the lost legions were struck from the records, but the traitor legions weren't. so, whatever they did was worse than treason, which doesn't leave much. My long time theory was that it was cowardice or failure, basically they just were an embarrassment and quietly put down. My buddy's related theory is that they were, were a part of, or otherwise knew about a flaw or error that the Emperor made.

Personally, I like mysteries in my setting. Questions that aren't answered are more interesting that any answer, so I don't worry too much about it.

**jareddm**

Polonius wrote:

We know that the lost legions were struck from the records, but the traitor legions weren't. so, whatever they did was worse than treason

I will always disagree with this piece. The actions of the Horus Heresy were so grand, so all encompassing, and the Imperium stretched so thin that it could be that it simply wasn't possible to do a full coverup. We know there was some effort to do so because even Inquisitors were often not aware of the traitor primarchs. I propose instead that the missing primarchs did not have to do anything remotely as bad as the Horus Heresy. There was simply more resources to wipe them out completely. It takes a lot less effort to hide a stain on the rug than half the house burning down.

**Irbis**

Cognitive wrote:
I mean, they got culled along with their legions, right? Perhaps Leman took part in those?

Nope. He stated that prior to fighting Magnus, there was only one primarch vs primarch fight - and that was his drunken authority brawl with Angron (ending with Agron kicking his butt both ways). He even states he wasn't sure if it's possible/how to kill a primarch - which suggests whoever killed lost two (if they died, of course) was not Imperial in origin and there were no witnesses to it. Or maybe Emperor did it without witnesses.

Tawnis wrote:
While I think that this would be really cool conceptually, there is one part where it doesn't jive. When Malcador is talking to Dorn, he very explicitly states that ALL the Primarchs are Male. That he made the argument to the Emporer to make them all female instead and was rebuffed.

Are male? Or were male?

What if they were changed into female, much like Sangy got wings, or Alpharius become two?

It would explain the Emperor's comment why lost two had to be purged in every clairvoyant instance he had - because urge to replace humanity would be too strong and had to be stopped before Imperium no longer had resources to do this.

**Pacific**

MDG made a good post above about how difficult it is for us to track historical events that have happened even a few thousand years ago, let alone in ten thousand years.

There is an interview with Rick Priestly where he says the that they were just meant to have been lost in legend. It's so, so long ago that you all you have left are a few names scrawled down and no-one really knew what or who they were, or even if they existed at all.

Of course the game and universe has come on a long way since then..

**Cybtroll**

The problem is that we have now character alive and kicking in 40k that were around during the 30k....

So, what was intended to be a mythical age, is more akin to the relationship we have with the WW2.

**Gert**

Guilliman had his mind wiped. He doesn't know who the lost Primarchs are or why they were erased.

**Crimson**

Cybtroll wrote:
The problem is that we have now character alive and kicking in 40k that were around during the 30k....

So, what was intended to be a mythical age, is more akin to the relationship we have with the WW2.

Yes. And that's painfully dumb.

**Tawnis**

Pacific wrote:
MDG made a good post above about how difficult it is for us to track historical events that have happened even a few thousand years ago, let alone in ten thousand years.

There is an interview with Rick Priestly where he says the that they were just meant to have been lost in legend. It's so, so long ago that you all you have left are a few names scrawled down and no-one really knew what or who they were, or even if they existed at all.

Of course the game and universe has come on a long way since then..

I remember reading somewhere that the original intent was to allow people to create their own traitor or loyalist legion which is why they left 2 blank.

**Gert**

That was the reason in Rogue Trader, yeah but it got dropped super fast when GW solidified the difference between the Legions and the Chapters.

**insaniak**

jareddm wrote:
Polonius wrote:

We know that the lost legions were struck from the records, but the traitor legions weren't. so, whatever they did was worse than treason
I will always disagree with this piece. The actions of the Horus Heresy were so grand, so all encompassing, and the Imperium stretched so thin that it could be that it simply wasn't possible to do a full coverup. We know there was some effort to do so because even Inquisitors were often not aware of the traitor primarchs. I propose instead that the missing primarchs did not have to do anything remotely as bad as the Horus Heresy. There was simply more resources to wipe them out completely. It takes a lot less effort to hide a stain on the rug than half the house burning down.

As I mentioned back up the thread a-ways, the big difference between the Lost Legions and those who followed Horus is that the Traitor Legions are still running around. Deleting them from records would do far more damage than good.

In the 2nd edition fluff, it was mentioned that both of the Lost Legions fought in the Great Crusade, and also in the early stages of the Horus Heresy on Horus' side. The easy conclusion there was that they were Traitor Legions who were completely destroyed, and presumably the other Traitors would have been similarly treated if they had been completely eradicated. The retcon in the Horus Heresy novels of those two Legions being gone well before the Heresy started changed things somewhat.

**Irbis**

Pacific wrote:
MDG made a good post above about how difficult it is for us to track historical events that have happened even a few thousand years ago, let alone in ten thousand years.

Eh, I really disagree with this logic. We don't know what happened in stone age. Imperium had superadvanced computers for 10.000 years, including multiple organizations who would fanatically look after the primarch records and spread them. Church (because they are angels in religion), SM chapters, Mechanicus (because they were first servants of the omnissiah), etc, etc. Losing records in such situation would be much harder than paper from old records rotting away in dark ages.

Tawnis wrote:
I remember reading somewhere that the original intent was to allow people to create their own traitor or loyalist legion which is why they left 2 blank.

IIRC that's a retcon. I have seen theories the two blank ones were made by people who left GW because original, first list of legions does list all 20 of them, missing ones being Valedictors and Rainbow Warriors (imagine the screeching at the last name today). They even get nods in modern fluff, both home worlds showing up on maps of important chapters.

**Voss**

Irbis wrote:
Pacific wrote:
MDG made a good post above about how difficult it is for us to track historical events that have happened even a few thousand years ago, let alone in ten thousand years.

Eh, I really disagree with this logic. We don't know what happened in stone age. Imperium had superadvanced computers for 10.000 years, including multiple organizations who would fanatically look after the primarch records and spread them. Church (because they are angels in religion), SM chapters, Mechanicus (because they were first servants of the omnissiah), etc, etc. Losing records in such situation would be much harder than paper from old records rotting away in dark ages.

Except, of course, they canonically don't have computers. Deliberately, because of Totally-not-the-Butlerian-Jihad.
Even in the HH, they don't have historians, they have Remembrancers (political propagandists), and its only gotten worse since.

The Imperium has nothing like a real history, nor any real desire to do it. There's passing references to wars that happen between bureaucratic factions just over the 'correct' calendar, let alone all the dogmatic nonsense of the Imperial cult.

**Arachnofiend**

It doesn't really matter how good your record keeping is when the records keep getting altered for political convenience; even in our world we have plenty of copies of ancient texts, the problem is that they were copied by Medieval monks so we can't be 100% sure what was in the original text and what was modified to be a little bit more Catholic.

**Gert**

Irbis wrote:

Eh, I really disagree with this logic. We don't know what happened in stone age. Imperium had superadvanced computers for 10.000 years, including multiple organizations who would fanatically look after the primarch records and spread them. Church (because they are angels in religion), SM chapters, Mechanicus (because they were first servants of the omnissiah), etc, etc. Losing records in such situation would be much harder than paper from old records rotting away in dark ages.

We don't even know what caused the Bronze Age Collapse and that was only about 3000 years ago.
As for the Ecclesiarchy, it's their job to make the Primarchs sound as saintly as possible and that doesn't require fact. As well as that, there are thousands of cults, sects, and denominations all fighting each other over which interpretation of the Emperor's word is the truest. Entire wars of faith have been fought and the losing side erased from history.
Add to that the fact that the Imperium doesn't use things like tablets or laptops but instead uses ink and parchment to record events. In the latest Dawn of Fire book, we even see a glance at how records are kept on Terra. The Imperium takes everything and dumps it on indentured scribes who then have to inform an overseer, who might then take it to their superior, who will then decide if it goes to a judge, who then decides if it gets sent higher up the chain, and on and on it goes. Imperial bureaucracy is a leviathan of failure and personal ambition comes before affirmative action.
History is recorded and checked by organisations like the Inquisition to ensure its purity and "validity", where once again personal ambition can interfere. Why let something go into the official histories when you can use it as blackmail?
What's special about the lost Primarchs is they were specifically erased on the orders of the Emperor Himself, not a subordinate like Malcador or a member of the Council of Terra. When the Emperor gives an order you don't mess it up. Also, mind wipes like with Dorn and Guilliman.

**insaniak**

Irbis wrote:
[...missing ones being Valedictors and Rainbow Warriors (imagine the screeching at the last name today). .

The Rainbow Warriors are still around, and there doesn't seem to be any particular amount of screeching about it.

**Irbis**

Arachnofiend wrote:
It doesn't really matter how good your record keeping is when the records keep getting altered for political convenience; even in our world we have plenty of copies of ancient texts, the problem is that they were copied by Medieval monks so we can't be 100% sure what was in the original text and what was modified to be a little bit more Catholic.

That funnily enough would be a much better reason for the records to be altered/contradictory, but Space Marines aren't really the types to meddle with records too much (they even have separate department whose main duty is keeping these, and Chaplains/Captains also maintain records in their own sections, too) so you'd expect at least the main 9 original legion worlds to have mostly complete, unredacted archive. Well, 8 because Wolfwolfs are stupid and probably illiterate too

Gert wrote:
We don't even know what caused the Bronze Age Collapse and that was only about 3000 years ago.

We do. Sea Peoples. Now, who exactly these were and why they invaded is debatable, but we have records of it from all over the region, and it honestly sometimes feels that stone age civilizations make better records than Imperium, which is kinda dumb. I'd prefer literally ANY other explanation, such as Vandire censoring the archives (and even then there should be copies somewhere), not grimdumb 'we forgot to write any of this down' GW does

As for the Ecclesiarchy, it's their job to make the Primarchs sound as saintly as possible and that doesn't require fact. As well as that, there are thousands of cults, sects, and denominations all fighting each other over which interpretation of the Emperor's word is the truest. Entire wars of faith have been fought and the losing side erased from history.

Sure, but there is 'main' cult and they should have their archives more or less intact. Like Vatican library/archives in RL.

Add to that the fact that the Imperium doesn't use things like tablets or laptops but instead uses ink and parchment to record events. In the latest Dawn of Fire book, we even see a glance at how records are kept on Terra.

First, they do use computer archives. Second, even if they used parchment, that gak is durable. We have parchment and papyrus texts dating back all the way to the beginnings of writing. If ancient Egyptian making paper out of random weeds can do good enough job for it to survive 6000 years, Imperium really has no excuse with their vastly more advanced materials.

Voss wrote:
Except, of course, they canonically don't have computers. Deliberately, because of Totally-not-the-Butlerian-Jihad.

Except they do. What do you think is in servo skulls? Hint - it's not grey matter. What powers titans, mechanicus robots, knights and land raiders? AI, or at least something very close to it (which might not be 'true' Dark Age AI but it's still lightyears more advanced than anything we have now).

**Iron_Captain**

It is over 10,000 years later. As far as we can tell, history doesn't get preserved for that long (trust me on this, I am an archaeologist).

Certainly, it is physically possible for a record to survive that long, but for it to also still be a coherent narrative and make sense to people 10,000 years later? No way.
The oldest deciphered writing we have is about 6000 years old. This would have to be double as old as that. Language shift alone would prevent people from understanding such ancient records. And even if you decipher the writing system and the language (which is only possible if you find some sort of Rosetta Stone), you'd still be stuck with only sparse, very fragmentary records at best. The chances of any of those holding a coherent narrative about the lost Primarchs is incredibly low, and with the fact that said knowledge was actively suppressed and destroyed for centuries it is pretty much non-existent.

And no, computers don't make records last longer. Quite the contrary, computers tend to break down long before stone or papyrus do. Furthermore, changes in technology such as storage mechanism and data reading methods could easily render older records unintelligible.

It is however, possible for records to have survived that long if there was a group of people in existence throughout that entire long time period who actively work to preserve those records. There is only one group in the Imperium who have existed for that long, would have had access to the records in the first place and also have a potential interest in preserving them. In other words, the only place where records on the lost Primarchs could likely be found is in the libraries and archives of the Adeptus Custodes, strictly off-limits to anyone besides the Custodes and the Emperor himself.

**Voss**

Irbis wrote:

Voss wrote:
Except, of course, they canonically don't have computers. Deliberately, because of Totally-not-the-Butlerian-Jihad.

Except they do. What do you think is in servo skulls? Hint - it's not grey matter. What powers titans, mechanicus robots, knights and land raiders? AI, or at least something very close to it (which might not be 'true' Dark Age AI but it's still lightyears more advanced than anything we have now).

Nope. Imperial data storage solutions are largely wired grey matter and are largely crap. Storage and retreival is a laborious, long and ugly process. The most recent Dawn of Fire book has the ship captain of _Custodes warship_ is verbally dictating records on their active war zone to some twisted haemonculus (in the alchemical, not dark eldar sense) creature, and the thing physically writing things down, and the thing reading back and reciting records in her own voice. It basically takes her an evening to record the current position of enemy fleet elements and her suggestions on how to prosecute the very basics of a naval campaign, largely because of the thing she's forced to deal with in lieu of proper data storage.

What _powers_ titans, knights and etc are fusion reactors. What they operate on are bizarre animalistic overlays that mostly focus on aggression, not data storage. Having weird forms of targeting assistance on your warmachines doesn't tell you anything about how they store historical records on hive world #24,323. On Terra their idea of data storage is physically writing notes down, receiving them via actual living messengers from all over the galaxy, and carrying them from office to office, and then discarding them down a couple levels where feral gangs are actively shown scavenging and bleaching paper in return for food, and the new paper gets notes and fall through the whole course-of-generations process to be lost, scavenged and bleached again. This is not a society that has its crap together when it comes to records, data or public memory.

**insaniak**

Irbis wrote:
What do you think is in servo skulls? Hint - it's not grey matter.

Except it is. That's exactly why they're, you know... skulls.

AI is prohibited in the Imperium, except in very limited forms that, like robots and titans, require human oversight to function.

**Pacific**

@Irbis - I was going to reply but Iron_Captain already wrote a pretty comprehensive reply there.

From my own experience, I know of the difficulty of trying to get data from a system that was installed in the 1980s into a modern format, and how difficult that can be with differing inputs/outputs, data degradation etc. That's over 30 years, I can't imagine over 10,000 years and a galaxy worth of operating systems!

There was quite a good post-apocalyptic novel named Second Sleep, by Robert Harris, where mankind had had a new dark age in the near future and things had regressed to a kind of pre-industrial/medieval society. There is basically a complete lack of near history 'pre-fall' because everything was 'in the clouds'. They don't know what that means, but from an archaeologists perspective it meant a complete dearth of actual historical records, photos, documents etc. but everything was stored in a now completely inaccessible digital format.
It's quite an interesting thought actually, how little would remain of current society if a civilisation-ending event was to happen now or in the near future.

Gert wrote:
Guilliman had his mind wiped. He doesn't know who the lost Primarchs are or why they were erased.

I know it's always been this way, but if you ever wanted evidence that the miniatures drive the lore (rather than the other way around) then you only have to look at Cawl/Primaris, Guilliman's return etc.

**Gert**

Guilliman not know 2 of his siblings doesn't have any impact on his return. So far all he knows is that there were 2 lost Primarchs but that's it and the person who did the mind wipe is kinda dead. Of course we could have a Traitor General situation where witnessing his siblings return could undo the mind wipe.

**DalekCheese**

Cybtroll wrote:
The problem is that we have now character alive and kicking in 40k that were around during the 30k....

So, what was intended to be a mythical age, is more akin to the relationship we have with the WW2.

No.
An incredibly tiny fraction of humanity is anywhere near Guilliman. Like, single trillionths. Or less, more likely.
An even tinier fraction would ever be talked to about the Heresy.
An even tinier fraction (much more likely none) would be talked to about the missing Primarchs.
This information would not be disseminated to the Imperium at large.
Please think about what you type.

**Cybtroll**

Yet, we know more about Guilliman shoes than about entire unnamed Hive World.
And it's not only Guilliman: it's Cawl who related to ALL the Chapter of Space Marine, the old Bjorn and now also Custodes and all the immortals roaming the setting.

What's the objection? That people at large don't know about what happens 10k year ago? Who cares! They don't even know about Chaos, but we know more about Chaos than what Chaos know about himself.
It is entirely irrelevant what's disseminated to the Imperium at large because A) that's not our point of view and B) the concept itself is decided of meaning, there's nothing as "the" Imperium at large, there's only world differents from each other (and that's in my opinion one of the only remaining steong point in the setting).

You can't pretend to apply in exactly the same way the mythical obfuscation that you had when the only living entities between the two period were either psycho demonic chaotic worshippers and a very old and sleepy Dreadnought to a time when the REGENT of the Imperium is someone that was alive back then, his technofiliac right hand was alive too, and we have a race of highlander to whom the Emperor belong that are still around.

It's even farther away than apples and oranges. So, please think about what you write.

**DalekCheese**

Cybtroll wrote:
Yet, we know more about Guilliman shoes than about entire unnamed Hive World.
And it's not only Guilliman: it's Cawl who related to ALL the Chapter of Space Marine, the old Bjorn and now also Custodes and all the immortals roaming the setting.

What's the objection? That people at large don't know about what happens 10k year ago? Who cares! They don't even know about Chaos, but we know more about Chaos than what Chaos know about himself.
It is entirely irrelevant what's disseminated to the Imperium at large because A) that's not our point of view and B) the concept itself is decided of meaning, there's nothing as "the" Imperium at large, there's only world differents from each other (and that's in my opinion one of the only remaining steong point in the setting).

You can't pretend to apply in exactly the same way the mythical obfuscation that you had when the only living entities between the two period were either psycho demonic chaotic worshippers and a very old and sleepy Dreadnought to a time when the REGENT of the Imperium is someone that was alive back then, his technofiliac right hand was alive too, and we have a race of highlander to whom the Emperor belong that are still around.

It's even farther away than apples and oranges. So, please think about what you write.

I see that you’re in Italy. While your English is undoubtedly better than my Italian, I think there may have been something lost here.

You said that we now have a character who is alive in 40k who was alive in 30k.
You then said that what was intended to be a mythical age is now closer to our relationship with WWII because of this.

Now, the Heresy is not, I would say, that close to WWII in my personal, out of universe perception- the implication of your post was thus, I would argue, that for people in 40k the Heresy IU is now more like WWII is for us OU- and that that is because of Guilliman still being around.
Now, our out of universe knowledge of 30k isn’t so comprehensive because Guilliman is around; the 30k novel series has been around much longer than RG’s been in 40k. It makes no sense for you to be referring to any out of universe knowledge of the Heresy- only an in-universe knowledge of it.
Which is, as I said, barely changed.

**LumenPraebeo**

DalekCheese wrote:
I see that you’re in Italy. While your English is undoubtedly better than my Italian, I think there may have been something lost here.

You said that we now have a character who is alive in 40k who was alive in 30k.
You then said that what was intended to be a mythical age is now closer to our relationship with WWII because of this.

Now, the Heresy is not, I would say, that close to WWII in my personal, out of universe perception- the implication of your post was thus, I would argue, that for people in 40k the Heresy IU is now more like WWII is for us OU- and that that is because of Guilliman still being around.
Now, our out of universe knowledge of 30k isn’t so comprehensive because Guilliman is around; the 30k novel series has been around much longer than RG’s been in 40k. It makes no sense for you to be referring to any out of universe knowledge of the Heresy- only an in-universe knowledge of it.
Which is, as I said, barely changed.

Relation between us and WW2 as in 2nd hand knowledge. There are tens of,perhaps even hundreds of millions of people at present on Earth who are given wrong accounts about WW2, and some who are entirely ignorant, whether intentionally or unintentionally, about very important and specific details such as motivations, cassus belli, racism, discrimination, and all the sins of our fathers that have made our world what it is today.

**yukishiro1**

40k is better as a setting with more mystery than as a setting with less mystery IMO. Just like how the Alien franchise was a lot scarier and more compelling before they told you all the lame stuff about goo, when you didn't know what the Xenomorph was, where it came from, etc.

Unless they have something truly compelling to do with the missing primarchs, I'd rather they stay missing and shrouded in mystery than have a reveal for the sake of a reveal that's inevitably going to be disappointing compared to all the speculation.