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Its mentioned in relation to the Word Bearers that their gene seed gives them a powerful sense of loyalty and duty that can often manifest in religious revelation. So it stands to reason that this might be the case for some of the other legions. I bring this up because somebody was doing a what if video suggesting which loyalist primarchs could have filled the roles of the traitors. He seemed to think Gulliman would be like Lorgar and I was like "No. Just no.". He also thought the Blood Angels would turn to Slannesh....

But I reckon Dorn and the Imperial Fists would be much more likely. The basic reason is of course because of the Black Templars. When the old legion was split, what remained of it, they were into 3 parts: IF, BT and CF. So that means a full third of the old legion embraced Sigismunds fanatical religious revelation of the Emperor as a God.

Now, yes. Dorn himself was adamantly against the notion of the Emperor being a God. In fact he essentially exiles Sigismund over this. Surely the Primarch indicates the tendencies of the geneseed? You could also argue that like Garro, Sigismund is a personal case and doesn't reflect anything in the geneseed of the Imperial Fists. However, the sheer fact that 1/3rd of the Legion came to believe in this philosophy and went on to do it for 10,000 years speaks for itself. So it wasn't just Sigismund.

Basically, I think that the Imperial Fists tendency to have an intense sense of duty, loyalty and devotion, is exactly like the Word Bearers and has every potential to veer into religious practice. If you think about it, Sigismund was himself staunchly against the notion until Euphrati Keeler convinced him and made Sigismund realize there was a supernatural element to the Emperor. This threw him into a moral crisis since he would be defying the Emperor to deny a true religious revelation. This mental trap is what makes the Imperial Fists more likely to become religious.

Now I think the difference to the Word Bearers is two fold. The Imperial Fists only give loyalty where its due and aren't blindly loyal. They're also more tempered and tough like stone whereas the Word Bearers are hot headed and brash. Compare Sigismunds reaction to being chastised by Dorn to the Emperors shaming of Lorgar. Sigismund's resolve never wavered and he never rejects either his faith or loyalty to his master. He simply decides that he will serve and not allow it to affect his judgment again. But Lorgar is too enraged and full of ego to act as Sigismund did. He wants to be a Prophet and so turns his back on the Emperor in bitterness and hatred. He can't accept internalizing his faith like Sigismund does. Ultimately this weakness of character damned Lorgar and his legion.

 Totalwar1402 wrote:
When the old legion was split, what remained of it, they were into 3 parts: IF, BT and CF.

And the Excoriators. And the Fists Exemplar. So the BT had, at most, a fifth of the legion. That said, I still think your point has some merit.

I feel a big part of the belief of the BT comes about now only because of Keeler, but also because of Sigismund's own charisma. I actually feel that post-Heresy, with Sigismund still technically disowned, he was free to his own beliefs. And especially in the face of the existence of Chaos and daemons, I imagine there would be a not insignificant number of Imperial Fists who would trust in what he says.

Fists have a tendency to do exactly what they are told and not budge an inch, so I imagine all it would take is a few chapter masters to worship the emp, spread it through the chapter and then they will not question it in the slightest

They might have had a Dark Angels-esque situation with half (or around half) of the legion turning traitor.

 gnome_idea_what wrote:
They might have had a Dark Angels-esque situation with half (or around half) of the legion turning traitor.

Still working my way through the HH novels, but IIRC, didnt dorn take horuses betrayal the worst out of all the primarchs?

 Backspacehacker wrote:

 gnome_idea_what wrote:
They might have had a Dark Angels-esque situation with half (or around half) of the legion turning traitor.

Still working my way through the HH novels, but IIRC, didnt dorn take horuses betrayal the worst out of all the primarchs?

Sangunious takes it the worst. He was best buddies with Horus.