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What are some things(especially small things) that could of been done to prevent the Horus Heresy?

The Emperor telling the Primarchs about the Warp and its dangers.

The Emperor not telling Lorgar off is a pretty big one.

Coolyo294 wrote:The Emperor telling the Primarchs about the Warp and its dangers.

Sorta this.

Basically, the Emperor not being so secretive with his Primarchs.

Not being a total dick to some of them would probably help too.

Not leaving the Primarchs to play unsupervised would seem like the big one.

Telling them about the Warp wouldn't necessarily have helped. Might even have simply sped things along. 'Knowledge begets Heresy' after all...

The Emperor showing more understanding with the Primachs, telling the Primarchs what he was doing on Terra, and not creating the Senatorum Imperialis to rule over humanity, the Primarchs felt that right belonged to the Space Marines.

The Emperor should have read a couple guides to fatherhood. That may have helped.

Here's an easy one: Loken actually acting on his suspicion of Erebus, or at least friggin telling somebody about it.

Loken is a great character and I realize they couldn't have Loken prevent the heresy in the heresy novels. However it still annoyed me to no end when Loken noticed something wrong and decided to keep it to himself, determined to look into it more "later".

Kill Erebus and Kor Phareon, and probably kill Lorgar. Probably should purge the entire word bearers legion.

Really they were the key weak point in the entire plot. They wanted gods, the Emperor refused to give them a god, so they went looking elsewhere for gods. The Chaos Gods then used that as a wedge to bring down the Imperium.

I'm not saying that there wouldn't have bene other problems either (Magnus and the thousand sons are not a trivial problem in that regard, nor is the Cult of the Emperor, or the various daemonic forces they ended up exposed to) but failing to turn Horus would hamper them greatly.

Ther'es a host of other minor things that could have been changed to fix things: handling the growth of the bureacracy and administrato to handle the Imperium is one, Being more open with his inner circle (ESPECIALLY the Primarchs - one key factor in the fall was their sense of isolation and abandonment after the Emperor returned to TErra, and the Emperor was not trusting enough/too fearful to be honest.) Mor ehonesty about the nature or threat of Chaos would also have worked - don't call them gods or daemons, just call thema kind of Xenos creature like Enslavers who play at being gods. More flexibility on the use of psychic powers and in religion probably wouldn't have hurt either.

The Eldar could have just killed the human race when they were still nothing but comical tree beasts way back in the day and the Emperor would never have been born, the primarchs would have never been created, and Horus would have never rebelled against the big E...

That's one way it could have been prevented

I don't think it could've been prevented, since Chaos always finds a way. However, the damage it did to the Imperium could've been limited.

The emperor not overreacting and blowing Lorgar's city to oblivion....

Like some people have already said, communication would have stopped the Horus Heresey. Mainly, the emperor should have stayed with his armies and not left children with dangerous toys and the such.

Void__Dragon wrote:

Coolyo294 wrote:The Emperor telling the Primarchs about the Warp and its dangers.

Sorta this.

Basically, the Emperor not being so secretive with his Primarchs.

Not being a total dick to some of them would probably help too.

This. I mean think of how he dealt with Angron the first time they met. How hard would it have been to save his damn gladiator buddies from being slaughtered then he would have been loyal to the end. Same for giving Petrubo some actual credit for the sacrifices his legion made throughout the crusade and letting Horus know what his plan is when he left him in charge. For someone who spent thousands of years planning for his big moment he makes some obvious social blunders.

It never could have...tis all in the emperor's grand plan, you don't think that one of the most powerful warp presences other than the big 4 wouldn't notice one of his sons talking to possibly the most deadly of the chaos gods? We will never know what was said when the emperor boarded Horus' barge, but hey, the emperor can see the future and has been alive for some 48 000 years, and only decided to make his presence known in the 30th millennium I believe it would be impossible, it would of happened one way or another...

The emperor conceding that his "children" could be flawed.

Because his belief that they were not, and his stubbornly blind refusal to even consider the idea, meant the fall, when it did happen was just going to be so much worse.

Oh, he could have read "Paradise Lost" by Milton, too.
He is a mythical figure that is a combination of King Arthur, Jesus and Chuck Velociraptor, who was born a couple of thousand years ago (from our reckoning) - you'd have thought he might have at least picked up and read it.

Then he would have seen it coming. I did, and it blind freddy could have seen that one coming.

Deathsadvocate wrote:

Void__Dragon wrote:

Coolyo294 wrote:The Emperor telling the Primarchs about the Warp and its dangers.

Sorta this.

Basically, the Emperor not being so secretive with his Primarchs.

Not being a total dick to some of them would probably help too.

This. I mean think of how he dealt with Angron the first time they met. How hard would it have been to save his damn gladiator buddies from being slaughtered then he would have been loyal to the end. Same for giving Petrubo some actual credit for the sacrifices his legion made throughout the crusade and letting Horus know what his plan is when he left him in charge. For someone who spent thousands of years planning for his big moment he makes some obvious social blunders.

I concur. With each Primarch bar maybe Fulgrim and Mortarion, he royally fethed them over.

1. Telling the Primarchs about the Warp and it's dangers.

2. Keeping a better eye on them.

3. Founding the Inquisition and giving them grater authority then he give to his Primarchs.

4. Start preaching to all Human worlds about science and philosophy and tell the Adeptus Mechanicus to stat inventing something for real and not just using STC to copy/paste it.

Teleporting himself down to Angron, instead of teleporting Angron up to him.

Going a different direction at Nikea and soulbinding the Sons, (totally stolen from Dornian Heresy alt-history)

Recognizing Kor Phareon as Chaos worshiping scum at some point would have helped.

Noticing that Caliban had a freaking daemon inside it wouldn't have hurt.

Remembering to send Horus a card on his birthday.

Phantom wrote:The Emperor not telling Lorgar off is a pretty big one.

This. I say again, THIS^^^^^

What he did to Lorgar was a monumental failure of good leadership. He publicly humiliated Lorgar. Instead of talking to him face to face somewhere like in a closed room on a battle barge, he HUMILIATED Lorgar and his entire legion, no less infront of his 'rival' brother.

Honestly, the Emperor brought the entire thing down on his own head. Angron, Lorgar, secrecy about his plans and I'm sure there are other specifics I'm forgetting right now.

Phantom wrote:The Emperor not telling Lorgar off is a pretty big one.

This. If the big E had never told lorgar to stop worshiping him, erebus would have never done any of that conspiring business.

Not made the primarchs in the first place....

There are a few,

1. The council of Nikea should have never reached its conclusion.
2. Actually listening to Magnus warning, that was later verified by a space wolf rune priest.
3. Having a better communication system in place in general.
4. tell them about the warp, chaos, webway.
5. When leaving the crusade, leave a combination of primarchs in charge ( check and balence)
6. Kill lorgar, the big E knows about chaos gods make the logical step that lorgar will find them and end him before it happens.

iproxtaco wrote:
I concur. With each Primarch bar maybe Fulgrim and Mortarion, he royally fethed them over.

Mortarion never really got on with the Emperor, not after the Emperor saved his butt and killed his once father on Barbarus, you know, what Mortarion swore he would do.

Angron for sure he did a number on and Curze, Magnus possibly was for his own protection, Lorgar should maybe have listened to what his father wanted in the first place, but his reprimand was rather OTT. Horus got rewarded, as did Fulgrim, Alpharius was closer to Horus as he was found by him and spent little time with the Emperor.

Now Peturabo, who was to blame, you could say the Emperor, but possibly it could have been Horus, after all, he was the Warmaster and in control of all the Imperiums forces. This is what the IA article on the Iron Warriors hints at.

So really, was the Emperor to blame for them turning?

Samus_aran115 wrote:

Phantom wrote:The Emperor not telling Lorgar off is a pretty big one.

This. If the big E had never told lorgar to stop worshiping him, erebus would have never done any of that conspiring business.

Erebus and Kor Phaeron would've found away to bring about some form of corruption. They never let the old ways of Colchis go.

I would say the only way to prevent the Heresy would be to stop the Chaos Gods from abducting the Primarchs, either that or just not bother with them.

1.Tell Lorgar not to spread lies about him being a god
2.Horus should have had the balls to just execute Erebus when he began whispering into his ear about the power of Chaos
3.Put Sanguinius in charge ( even Horus would have preferred that)
4.Give all the primarchs a ruling position among humanity, not making the senate.
5.Not making a gakload of ten-thousand strong legions. Instead, just make thousand strong chapters and put different primarchs as their grand masters (not give them absolute power over the chapters)
6.???
7.Profit

stitching logars mouth shut and telling fulgrim to put down the pwiddy sword would have been a start

Battle Brother Ambrosius wrote:1.Tell Lorgar not to spread lies about him being a god

He did that, that's the fething problem. Humiliating Lorgar and his entire Legion in amid the ashes of a city they created, in front of Guilliman and a bunch of Ultramarines. More imortantly, the Emperor wasn't even going to do himself. He had Malcador do the honors, and only cam down from his big ship once he discovered Lorgar wouldn't listen to someone who had no authority over a Primarch. Doing a bit sooner too, he only left the Word Bearers to do their thing for about 150 years.

2.Horus should have had the balls to just execute Erebus when he began whispering into his ear about the power of Chaos

The fault lies with the Emperor, again. Horus was vulnerable to Chaos because the Emperor didn't tell him why He left, and then started handing over control of the Imperium to a bunch of mortal humans back on Terra, without even as much as a thankyou to any of the Primarchs.

3.Put Sanguinius in charge ( even Horus would have preferred that)

I don't know about this one. Horus was always the best and brightest, the figure-head of the Primarchs, he was the best Warmaster.

4.Give all the primarchs a ruling position among humanity, not making the senate.

Depends. I'd never give the Lion, Curze, Angron, Perturabo, or any of the Traitor Primarchs any sort of authority except for Horus, of course.

5.Not making a gakload of ten-thousand strong legions. Instead, just make thousand strong chapters and put different primarchs as their grand masters (not give them absolute power over the chapters)

The system during the Heresy worked fine, it's the Primarchs that were the problem.

iproxtaco wrote:
The fault lies with the Emperor, again. Horus was vulnerable to Chaos because the Emperor didn't tell him why He left, and then started handing over control of the Imperium to a bunch of mortal humans back on Terra, without even as much as a thankyou to any of the Primarchs.

Is Horus 5, does he need his hand held? He could have manned up to the task and took his fathers words for what they were, that he wasn't ready to reveal his plans yet. Wasn't being made Warmaster reward enough to make him feel appreciated? I agree with you on the mortals part, it must have been rather disheartening to say the least. You're out there building this Empire only to be bossed about by some pencil pusher.

iproxtaco wrote:The system during the Heresy worked fine, it's the Primarchs that were the problem.

I agree, it wouldn't have made the blindest bit of difference. If you had even more Chapters doing what they want more trouble could have been caused. At least there were only 9 legions running around, not 500ish traitor Chapters if half turned based on now for example.

1: Instead of crushing Lorgar's beliefs, gently point out that he needed fast progress, and normal humans could be used to instruct the conquered planets in the religions of the Word Bearers. And kill Kor before he becomes a marine.

2: Help Angron instead of kidnapping him.

3: Tell the primarchs about daemons and how they can possess people.

4: Instead of Warmaster, divide authority equally among the primarchs.

5: Find a solution to the Nikea problem. Either personally teach Magnus and let him pass that on to his legion, or soul bind them.

6: Don't divide the Iron Warriors, or at least give them authority in siege warfare to represent the work they do.

It sounds like the Emperor didn't read the manual on parenting. If he had the Imperium would be better off.