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Responding to a previous thread about the reasons the Traitor Primarchs fell I wonder what would have happened had Chaos scattered the Emperors Sons differently.

Would any of the Primarchs have gotten better start by having their home worlds swapped around a bit?

Could Gulliman have made Nostromo a beacon for humanity?

Could Perturabo have built great things if he found himself on Caliban?

Would Horus be swayed having been a gladiator on Nuceria?

Angron would have done better anywhere other than Nuceria. No nails would have seen him be a fierce champion for The Emperor with loyalty probably surpassing Horus.

Where do you think the Primarchs should have ended up?

It is interesting to imagine how the primarchs would have changed the planet they were found on, and been changed by those planets and their people, but I think the bigger change would be , now Horus wouldn't have been the favoured son because he would not be the first Primarch discovered.

Maybe there would have been no Heresy at all because someone else would have been the first found and most likely the favourite and so appointed as Warmaster.

Aash wrote:
It is interesting to imagine how the primarchs would have changed the planet they were found on, and been changed by those planets and their people, but I think the bigger change would be , now Horus wouldn't have been the favoured son because he would not be the first Primarch discovered.

Maybe there would have been no Heresy at all because someone else would have been the first found and most likely the favourite and so appointed as Warmaster.

The Heresy was guaranteed in some form that it would happen the moment the Primarchs were spirited away from the Emperor's direct guidance in raising them, it was just a matter of circumstances of how many Primarchs would rebel and how effectively they would go about it.

Any Primarch that landed on Nuceria would likely have just ended up like Angron, or possibly worse depending on the circumstances. I think the ideal one would actually be Vulkan to some extent, because his Perpetual nature would allow the Emperor to remove the Nails (if he was implanted with them) and still allow him to regenerate back without them being present in his body.

Perturabo being found first would actually have helped out his whole issue of wanting to be recognized and martyr complex since he would have the Emperor's undivided attention and have a higher likelihood of doing more of what he wanted to do which was architecture versus just grunt work/siege efforts.

Nostramo is a tough one, given that its a cesspool of villainy, I think you need a Primarch with the charisma or administrative ability to reform the actual populace to deal with their issues rather than rule through fear like Curze did.

Magnus not being sent to Prospero is actually really good and bad at the same time, since he'd be very likely to be persecuted and make him much more hidebound with his powers. Best place for him outside of Prospero would be being found either first on Cthonia so the Emps can actually school him properly on psychic stuff, or Nocturne.

Curze and Sanguinius would probably do pretty well on Prospero given their precognition and that the people on the planet could help them master their visions more effectively. Possibly Lorgar as well given his psychic background and predilection for scholarly pursuits.

I think if Angron had landed on Colchis instead of Lorgar, he would have become an even greater messiah than Lorgar. His empathic ability to remove pain would have made hime something like a christ like figure.

What if Magnus had landed on Fenris instead? Perhaps he would taken a more shamanistic, but careful approach to his power.

The bottom of the question is: did the primarchs turn the way they did because the Emperor had designed them to, or were they shaped by their homeworlds?

Whoever landed on Nuceria would have most likely gotten nails in his brain, so the end result would have been the same. Whoever was sent to Fenris would likely have adopted a viking/wolf theme...
If Guilliman landed on Nostramo, how could he become a great administrator? On a world ruled by corruption and violence, who would teach him to be a competent and fair ruler?
On the flip side, if Curze ended up on one of the nice planets, being raised by friendly people, would he have turned into a monster terrorizing that world anyways?

It's all about nature vs nurture... If the Primarchs' core personalities were determined by how the Emperor made them, then they would have ended up the same through a different path. If the Emperor didn't have that kind of influence on their destiny, then everything would end up almost the same, with one guy taking another's place.

 Tiennos wrote:
Whoever was sent to Fenris would likely have adopted a viking/wolf theme...

Or not. Inwit is supposedly ice world too and yet Fists show exactly zero Inuit/eskimo themes.

If Guilliman landed on Nostramo, how could he become a great administrator? On a world ruled by corruption and violence, who would teach him to be a competent and fair ruler?

Hard to say. It's possible he would become Batman to Curze's Night Haunter. Or maybe he would become great administrator, but brutal and ruthless one, trying to suppress crime by force. Either way, it would be Nostraman 500 worlds then, not Ultramar.

On the flip side, if Curze ended up on one of the nice planets, being raised by friendly people, would he have turned into a monster terrorizing that world anyways?

Why would he? All he needed was a family and purpose. Granted, if he replaced Mortarion or Angron he would still be on slippery slope towards being one but having actual social contacts would help massively.

It's all about nature vs nurture... If the Primarchs' core personalities were determined by how the Emperor made them, then they would have ended up the same through a different path. If the Emperor didn't have that kind of influence on their destiny, then everything would end up almost the same, with one guy taking another's place.

That's one of the dumbest retcons in HH - old lore suggested it was mostly nurture. New one has tons of hints they were supposed to become like that anyway, and the abduction changed very little, which is very lazy and unimaginative to me.