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Hi folks,

I've been thinking about this a bit recently and was wondering if there's any information out there (or just speculation!) on what Horus was planning to do if he won the Heresy, killed the Emperor, took the throne etc. I've read a decent chunk of the Horus Heresy novels (up to Crimson King atm) but not all, and not the Forgeworld books either (and some of them a long time ago, so there's probably lots I'm forgetting). Is there much concrete info? It seems that, at least at first, he was planning just to rule the Imperium, not destroy it, right? So what was his plan to replace the Astronomican if the Emperor was dead? How would he have ruled? I would assume from his rhetoric that it would involve Astartes having most positions of power, probably (even more) veneration of the military and warrior culture. He obviously aligned himself with Chaos, but in a way that (again, at least at first) he seemed to be thinking he was using it, not vice-versa, so did he ever actually intend on pledging 'his' Imperium to Chaos - attempting to institute Chaos worship across the galaxy, etc? I know that but I think it's safe to say that wasn't what he planned! So what info, if any, is out there on what his vision for the galaxy was?

He wanted to leave the Emperor's union , but he had not a good plan for how or what to do after he left.

Just "slay the Emperor and then everything will be great again".

If the Emperor was required for the Astronomicon, how could the Emperor have gone on Crusade in the first place? Because he was on Crusade for centuries before returning to Terra. Probably the beacon is stronger and clearer with the Emperor focusing it, but that just means Horus would have ruled a smaller empire - and the Imperium was smaller during the time of the Horus Heresy anyways.

Malcador shows exactly what would happen if chaos had won, the entire universe would be dragged into the warp, it has a part where a deamon the size of several planets consumes a fleeing fleet of imperial ships.

nareik wrote:
He wanted to leave the Emperor's union , but he had not a good plan for how or what to do after he left.

Just "slay the Emperor and then everything will be great again".

What you did there. I see it and appreciate it.

-----------------------------

Yeah, it never seemed like he had much of a plan other than to depose the Big E.

 John Prins wrote:
If the Emperor was required for the Astronomicon, how could the Emperor have gone on Crusade in the first place? Because he was on Crusade for centuries before returning to Terra. Probably the beacon is stronger and clearer with the Emperor focusing it, but that just means Horus would have ruled a smaller empire - and the Imperium was smaller during the time of the Horus Heresy anyways.

I could be completely wrong, but I was under the impression that the Emperor was still directing the Astronomican remotely, essentially, when he was off Terra.

If we can extrapolate from the slightly disappointing way Graham McNeill wrote his fall, his plan was to make sure that there were lots of monuments to both his glory and the Imperial Truth.

My impression was that his plans were kind of vague, he thought he could use chaos become emperor and put his people in charge. But chaos inevitably started twisting him straight away so I doubt he ever bothered to firm up his plans. He rapidly became a very different person as chaos twisted his perceptions and personality and I doubt the Chaos gods much cared for the specifics of what would follow as long as their power was secured and the Emperor defeated.

nareik wrote:
He wanted to leave the Emperor's union , but he had not a good plan for how or what to do after he left.

Just "slay the Emperor and then everything will be great again".

This isn't as odd as it seems TBH.a lotta sepertist and revolutionary movements don't have much of a plan for once they take power. which inevitably leads to a collpase once they acheive their goals

Pandion40 wrote:
My impression was that his plans were kind of vague, he thought he could use chaos become emperor and put his people in charge. But chaos inevitably started twisting him straight away so I doubt he ever bothered to firm up his plans. He rapidly became a very different person as chaos twisted his perceptions and personality and I doubt the Chaos gods much cared for the specifics of what would follow as long as their power was secured and the Emperor defeated.

So this seems to basically be the consensus - his focus was on the victory itself, plus Chaos started affecting him and muddying the waters.

probably hadn't even thought that far ahead. I know I wouldnt have. Probably just go to the pub and wait for it to all blow over.

The Cabal were convinced that Horus' forces would turn upon themselves; I suspect that would have been the immediate result. Perturabo was hunting for weapons to do that with on Tallarn, for example. Likely we'd have seen Horus attempting to purge the overly Chaos God tainted/controlled, and we'd have had Mortarion/Perturabo/Horus/Alpharius fighting with Angron/Fulgrim/Lorgar/Magnus (and Curze lurking on the sidelines doing Christ knows that).

After that, it would probaly just degrade further into more quarrels as time went on. Alpharius and Curze wouldn't much longer survive after the Chaos tainted went, being as unpopular as they were. And with everyone else gone, Mortarion and Perturabo are sufficiently petty they'd end up fighting with Horus over some imagined slight at some point, possibly even as a result of Alpharius' final machinations.

The end result being the implosion of all the Primarchs; except for Angron and Fulgrim who would just be banished back to the Warp.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
probably hadn't even thought that far ahead. I know I wouldnt have. Probably just go to the pub and wait for it to all blow over.

great reference to an even greater movie!

 Ketara wrote:
The Cabal were convinced that Horus' forces would turn upon themselves; I suspect that would have been the immediate result. Perturabo was hunting for weapons to do that with on Tallarn, for example. Likely we'd have seen Horus attempting to purge the overly Chaos God tainted/controlled, and we'd have had Mortarion/Perturabo/Horus/Alpharius fighting with Angron/Fulgrim/Lorgar/Magnus (and Curze lurking on the sidelines doing Christ knows that).

After that, it would probaly just degrade further into more quarrels as time went on. Alpharius and Curze wouldn't much longer survive after the Chaos tainted went, being as unpopular as they were. And with everyone else gone, Mortarion and Perturabo are sufficiently petty they'd end up fighting with Horus over some imagined slight at some point, possibly even as a result of Alpharius' final machinations.

The end result being the implosion of all the Primarchs; except for Angron and Fulgrim who would just be banished back to the Warp.

Magnus was also a DP at that point.

The answer is..party hardy.

recaf wrote:
Hi folks,

I've been thinking about this a bit recently and was wondering if there's any information out there (or just speculation!) on what Horus was planning to do if he won the Heresy, killed the Emperor, took the throne etc. I've read a decent chunk of the Horus Heresy novels (up to Crimson King atm) but not all, and not the Forgeworld books either (and some of them a long time ago, so there's probably lots I'm forgetting). Is there much concrete info? It seems that, at least at first, he was planning just to rule the Imperium, not destroy it, right? So what was his plan to replace the Astronomican if the Emperor was dead? How would he have ruled? I would assume from his rhetoric that it would involve Astartes having most positions of power, probably (even more) veneration of the military and warrior culture. He obviously aligned himself with Chaos, but in a way that (again, at least at first) he seemed to be thinking he was using it, not vice-versa, so did he ever actually intend on pledging 'his' Imperium to Chaos - attempting to institute Chaos worship across the galaxy, etc? I know that

Spoiler:

the Cabal predict that an Imperium under Horus would self-destruct and take humanity with it

but I think it's safe to say that wasn't what he planned! So what info, if any, is out there on what his vision for the galaxy was?

I'm pretty sure in Horus' s head he would rule justly and fairly, with Astartes leading humanity rather than baseline humans.

He was obviosuly deluded..

The first thing he'd do is wash his hands.

He'd never get past that step, even as his new empire crumbles around him.

 John Prins wrote:
If the Emperor was required for the Astronomicon, how could the Emperor have gone on Crusade in the first place? Because he was on Crusade for centuries before returning to Terra. Probably the beacon is stronger and clearer with the Emperor focusing it, but that just means Horus would have ruled a smaller empire - and the Imperium was smaller during the time of the Horus Heresy anyways.

I'm pretty sure he could do it from a distance but it got harder and harder. I'm definitely sure the Imperium isn't bigger at the time of the Heresy too, the whole Crusade was meant to be the Imperiums high point.

His initial plan is to replace the Emperor, have the Legions rule the Imperium. It's not correct that towards the end Chaos has completely corrupted him as Wolfsbane showed the "true Horus" , he's just very driven and very angry.

The original things which led him towards Erebus influence was the fear of the Legions being betrayed once the peace was won, the lies he felt he had been told by the Emperor and the Legions diminishing power to rule the Crusade. The irony of course being that the future he is shown in the sickness dream is the future he will create.........

The astronomicon is initially powered by the Emperor using a part of his psychic power, but later, what will become the Golden Throne, is created and fed psykers to free the Emperor up for the webway war.

Even as he enters the Sol system Horus believes he can triumph over the Chaos Gods.

He can believe a lot of things.