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We all know the pre-heresy Thousand Sons were red with silver/gold trim and the post-heresy Thousand Sons were blue and yellow/gold.

I haven't read nearly enough the Horus Heresy books, but I'm wondering if the reasoning for this change is ever explained? One of the wiki articles mentions the red was burned away when Ahriman confronted Amon, but this would have been well after the Horus Heresy and the article didn’t provide any reference for me to read so it could just as easily been fan made.

Does anyone know when it happened and why? From the artwork we see they have the new colors on Horus’s ship when he attacks Terra. But beyond that I haven’t had much luck finding anything.

Another question I have is if Magnus in demon form has ever been described or drawn? For a founding chapter, there’s surprisingly little available for the Thousand Sons. Even in the Horus Heresy books. They kind of were introduced, betrayed, and disappeared in a single book and never seen or heard from again.

Original Thousand Sons are still red/silver/gold. Ahriman's warband is the one with blue/gold/yellow recolouring.

No idea about Magnus' daemon form though.

Magnus' Daemon form is the same as his original form, Dude is a red one eyed ogre, You don't get more daemonic than that.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Magnus

About 2/3 of the way down the page is what he looks like... also the old epic mini had him looking like a one eyed monkey... bur his existence as a daemon prince, much like fulgrim, means his form is mutable

This is Magnus as a Daemon Prince, there was an actual model for him in Epic.

Battle of the Fang STRONGLY implied he could, and did, change his form, as it suited him

BrianDavion wrote:
Battle of the Fang STRONGLY implied he could, and did, change his form, as it suited him

Well he worships the God of Change...

 Wyzilla wrote:


This is Magnus as a Daemon Prince, there was an actual model for him in Epic.

I doubt he looks like a blue winged midget with a tower up his rectum nowadays.

 Finlandiaperkele wrote:
Original Thousand Sons are still red/silver/gold. Ahriman's warband is the one with blue/gold/yellow recolouring.

No idea about Magnus' daemon form though.

Do you have a reference for this by chance? Nothing I've found implies only Ahriman's cabal was blue and gold. Plus wouldn't he have changed his colors after he was banished? This is before the heresy ended:

The change for Ahrimans cabal is detailed in the BL book Ahriman Exile, and happens after the Heresy and after the rubric

it does appear to be just his allied group that changed colour.

The artwork above is fantastic, but doesn't tie in with the established story on a number of points.

Has anyone read Battle of the Fang? What colour are the TS in that?

In that picture Ahriman has Amon's helmet, A helmet he took off dead Amon thousands of years later.
I wouldn't count on it as canon or whatever.

Who is the snakey looking dude next to Fulgrim?

Ingethel the asceneded. It was Lorgars daemon guide.

The painting predates the novels by several years, I've always wondered if the artist originally intended it to BE Fulgrim, with the prettyboy next to him actually being Eidolon as the old Epic Fulgrim Daemon Prince model also had four arms and a snake tail in lieu of legs.

Nah , they had thier own names when split into separate pictures. The art was commissioned for the sabretooth horus heresy game.

The BL authors clearly liked it tho, as both the Maloghurst, Red angel, Kelbor Hal and Ingethel have featured in multiple novels

 Khonsu wrote:

I doubt he looks like a blue winged midget with a tower up his rectum nowadays.

Might look like a winged midget, but he would be nearly as tall as an Imperial Knight.

That is a bloody cool picture, even if retconned fluff makes it all out of whack.

I always thought of post heresy 1k sons as blue and gold rubric marines.

 Rippy wrote:
That is a bloody cool picture, even if retconned fluff makes it all out of whack.

I always thought of post heresy 1k sons as blue and gold rubric marines.

Same. I've not read any official fluff saying the blue and yellow was Ahriman's own colors. Someone above mentioned this was revealed in Ahriman Exile, so I'm gonna pick a copy of that up this evening and give it a read. Perhaps it will shed some light. But still never seen anything from the GW side of things to say Thousand Sons are anything but blue and gold.

Nvs wrote:

 Rippy wrote:
That is a bloody cool picture, even if retconned fluff makes it all out of whack.

I always thought of post heresy 1k sons as blue and gold rubric marines.

Same. I've not read any official fluff saying the blue and yellow was Ahriman's own colors. Someone above mentioned this was revealed in Ahriman Exile, so I'm gonna pick a copy of that up this evening and give it a read. Perhaps it will shed some light. But still never seen anything from the GW side of things to say Thousand Sons are anything but blue and gold.

Their Legion colors were red and gold with white accents. it has been established as fluff in several sources. I think the blue and gold was adopted once they fell to chaos, much like the pink and black of the emperor's children after the heresy.

 GKTiberius wrote:

Nvs wrote:

 Rippy wrote:
That is a bloody cool picture, even if retconned fluff makes it all out of whack.

I always thought of post heresy 1k sons as blue and gold rubric marines.

Same. I've not read any official fluff saying the blue and yellow was Ahriman's own colors. Someone above mentioned this was revealed in Ahriman Exile, so I'm gonna pick a copy of that up this evening and give it a read. Perhaps it will shed some light. But still never seen anything from the GW side of things to say Thousand Sons are anything but blue and gold.

Their Legion colors were red and gold with white accents. it has been established as fluff in several sources. I think the blue and gold was adopted once they fell to chaos, much like the pink and black of the emperor's children after the heresy.

Right, I guess I didn't word myself properly. What I meant was until this thread, I was never under the impression that Thousand Sons were anything but blue and gold in their post-heresy colors. But the book exile apparently says only Ahriman's group was blue.

'Ahrimans group' may be a simplification. I need to give it a reread, but basically a lot of Tsons changed colour,but not ALL of them.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also of interest: In the black legion supplement, the Sons of the Cyclops, have black armour with gold trim.
Their icon is the Tsons Legion icon, with the eye of horus at its centre.

Cool. I'm just trying to get some of this stuff squared away. Thousand Sons have always interested me, but I was primarily an Eldar player in 2nd and 3rd, and haven't given them serious thought/effort since then.

With the CSM codex being redone sometime this year and hopefully FW getting to SW and TS next year, it may be about time to sink some more money into this hobby.

Nvs wrote:


With the CSM codex being redone sometime this year

First I've heard of that..

I am longingly waiting for FW to come out with their TS stuff. It will cost me a fortune!

 GKTiberius wrote:
much like the pink and black of the emperor's children after the heresy.

... Is that true? They've made that canon now? Last I knew, a long time ago, the Children decorated their armour in as much colour and boldness as they could. But pink is the official now?

No wonder all Slaaneshi armies look like that now...

I was under the impression it was the color of the slanesshi marines in the codex, but then again i haven't looked at a chaos codex since at least 5th. i don't really know if they are that color in the 6th ed codex.