Robute Guilliman

Origins Like the other Primarchs, Roboute Guilliman was one of twenty genetically engineered 'children' of the Emperor. Like his brothers, as a mere infant he was taken by the Powers of Chaos and cast through the Warp to a distant planet in an effort to prevent the Imperium's rise to dominance over the galaxy.

Little Guilliman's capsule ended up on the planet Macragge, where it was discovered by a group of nobles hunting in the forest. Inside it they found a child surrounded by a glowing aura. He was then taken to Konor (one of the two Consuls who ruled Macragge), who adopted the child as his son.

Roboute's arrival at Macragge was a portentous event, and many people reported strange occurrences. The most notable was that when Konor slept, he had dreams in which he saw the Emperor, and at one point found himself beside the Falls of Hera, in the Valley of Laponis. Upon awakening, he put on his armor and went to the Falls of Hera, and there they found the child. And considering it a premonition, it was then that Konor gave the child a name, calling him Roboute, meaning "The Great One."

Roboute was a prodigy, growing rapidly both physically and intellectually. By the age of ten, he had mastered all the subjects that the greatest scholars of Macragge could teach him, and his insights into history, philosophy and science often astonished his elders. His greatest talent, however, was as a military leader. Such was his skill that at one point his father gave him command of an expeditionary force to Illyrium. This was a mountainous region at the northern edge of Macragge, whose savage inhabitants had terrorised civilised regions for years, as well as successfully resisting every military campaign waged against them.

Not only was Roboute able to wage a brilliant campaign, he also earned the respect of the wild men, ensuring that they never again threatened the more civilised territories of Macragge. However, upon returning to the capital, he found the city in disarray. Gallan, his father's co-Consul, had attempted a coup d'état. Gallan used a portion of the Macragge nobility, who were comfortably in power, wealth and social position at the expense of countless numbers of slaves, to be averse to Konor's legislations which favoured the common people with whom he was immensely popular.

As they approached the city, Roboute and his soldiers found it in chaos, being ransacked by a mob of Gallan's men, while the Consul's house was under siege. Roboute left his men to restore order to the city while he hurried to the Consul's house. He eventually succeeded in lifting the siege, only to find his father near death surrounded by his loyal bodyguards. He had been mortally wounded by one of Gallan's hired assassins. However, with his dying breath he told Roboute who was responsible. Roboute crushed the rebellion quickly, and amid a wave of popular satisfaction, assumed the title of sole Consul of Macragge. He set about punishing the betrayal and realizing his father's vision. Gallan and his co-conspirators were executed on a promontory that would henceforth be called "Galan's Rock" and their lands and wealth were redistributed among the people. With superhuman energy, Roboute reorganized the entire social structure of Macragge, creating a meritocracy where ministries and honors were given to the worker, rather than the wealthy and influential. Under his leadership, Macragge prospered as never before.

While Roboute continued his war against the rebels of Illyrium, the Emperor of Mankind and his armies had arrived on the neighbouring planet of Espandor. It was there that the Emperor heard tales of the extraordinary son of Consul Konor, and realised that he had found one of the lost Primarchs. However, due to an unexpected Warp storm, his ship was blown far off course; and by the time he reached Macragge, Roboute had been ruling for nearly five years. When the Emperor arrived at Macragge, he found a self-sufficient, prosperous world with a strong and well-equipped military, and trade ties to nearby Systems. Impressed, the Emperor assigned command of the Ultramarines Legion to Guilliman, and moved the Legion's forward base to Macragge.

With the exception of the Luna Wolves, no Legion conquered as many worlds, or as quickly, or in such good condition, as the Ultramarines during the Great Crusade. Whenever Guilliman liberated a world, he would not leave until he had established a self-sufficient defence system and left behind advisors to increase industry, establish trade with the rest of the Imperium, and form a government whose first concern would always be the welfare of the people.

With his main base relocated to Macragge, Guilliman was given independent command of the Crusade for the region, and quickly set out on a series of new conquests. His now twelfth expeditionary fleet was reformed under his command and supplied with warships of the latest Martian designs as a blessing from the Emperor. New conquests were immediate, as the newly appointed Ultramarines rapidly expanded their reach from Macragge, identifying suitable targets for Compliance and subsequently selecting discovered xenos races for eradication. Interrupted only when summoned by the Emperor's will to join larger campaigns, for nearly a century the Twelfth Expeditionary Fleet stretched as far as the galactic north where it ended abruptly before the dead zones that bound the galaxy to the galactic east and south. Like the point of Ultima Thule, where the stars paled and emptied into the limitless darkness of the exo-galactic void.

During this period, the Ultramarines, according to some records, managed to liberate more worlds than any other force from the Primarch, and the planets that Roboute Guilliman brought into the Imperium always benefited from his intense passion for efficient and orderly government. Each time Guilliman and the Ultramarines conquered a world, his forces would expend just as much effort in establishing it anew, setting up self-sustaining defences.

At the same time, with the help of his new advisors, Guilliman created a highly efficient military machine on Macragge and its surrounding worlds, providing the Ultramarines with a steady stream of new recruits. This factor, combined with the minimal casualties they suffered thanks to Guilliman's tactical skill, allowed the Ultramarines to become the largest of all the Space Marine Legions. By the time Horus was appointed Warmaster, the Ultramarines were, by any official assessment, the largest Space Marine Legion by number of Legionaries by a considerable margin. Due to this expansion, the now massive 12th Expeditionary Fleet was subdivided into around twenty smaller expeditionary and pursuit fleets, allowing the Legion to reach further afield, each still numbering dozens of ships and thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of legionaries. The numerical strength of the Ultramarines Legion, in excess of 250,000 Astartes, would be an achievement not to be surpassed, though in secret the late expansion of the Word Bearers, who originally numbered approximately 100,000 Astartes, would come to rival it by some assessments, while wilder claims about the Alpha Legion's strength also have them running closer than official records would indicate.

This scale of military strength and the quasi-autonomous 'empire within an empire' status that maintained it, Ultramar having attained a dominion popularly ascribed to the Five Hundred Worlds before the outbreak of war, would have dire and unforeseen consequences for the Ultramarines and their Primarch. Separated and inviolable in the east, and possessing great power in their own right, the Legion's very existence made them a threat to the Traitor's conspiracy that could not be ignored, though on Calth they would see the Warmaster's plan and the Word Bearer's desire for vengeance shattered.

When Horus was appointed Warmaster by the Emperor, the reaction amongst the Primarchs was mixed. Some supported the appointment out of affection for Horus, some opposed it, and others cynically accepted it. However, Guilliman, Rogal Dorn, and Jaghatai Khan supported the appointment, believing in their cool, rational judgement that Horus was truly the most worthy of them. For this reason, and because of their military genius, Horus valued Guilliman and Dorn as his closest advisors.

Privately, Guilliman held four of his brothers in the highest regard: Dorn, Sanguinius, Leman Russ and Ferrus Manus. He referred to them as The Daring, and declared that he could win any war, hands down, if he had all four of them and their Legions at his side.

When the Horus Heresy broke out, Guilliman and the Ultramarines were tricked by Horus, who sent them into the Veridian System while he carried out his traitorous plot. When the betrayal was revealed, the Ultramarines were poorly placed to react.

As the Ultramarines regrouped their forces at Calth in Ultramar, they were attacked by the Word Bearers. However, the Word Bearers had overlooked two main points: the unwavering fighting spirit of the Ultramarines, and Guilliman's brilliant leadership. Finally, with the defeat of the Word Bearers and the knowledge of Horus' deception, Guilliman immediately set course for Holy Terra. Travelling at top speed, the Legion was only hours away, along with several other Legions.

Ultimately, that was what decided the fate of the Imperium as Horus was forced to gamble on allowing the Emperor to teleport to his Battle Barge.

In the aftermath of the Great Betrayal, the Emperor was incapacitated, and Space Marine numbers had been decimated by defections to Chaos and losses in battle. The Ultramarines became the primary Loyalist Legion, and Guilliman assumed the title of Lord Commander of the Imperium. Over the next few years, with Guilliman at the helm and leading the Ultramarines across the galaxy, worlds lost to Chaos were reclaimed, while others were prevented from falling to rebellion or invasion from outside the Imperium.

At the same time, Guilliman reorganised the Space Marine Legions into Chapters and wrote the Codex Astartes, the tome that the Ultramarines (and many other Chapters) would strictly follow.

Guilliman led the assault against the Alpha Legion at the Battle of Eskrador, and due to Alpharius' vanity, used a surprise attack on the Traitors' hearts and killed Alpharius in a duel. However, he and the Ultramarines were greatly mistaken in their belief that the serpent would die without its head; for in fact the symbol of the Alpha Legion is a hydra, a multi-headed serpent. The Ultramarines were driven back time and again by the Traitor Marines, undaunted by the loss of their Primarch. Guilliman eventually withdrew his forces back into orbit and bombarded the planet from above.

Roboute Guilliman continued to serve with the Ultramarines Chapter, leading them for a hundred years after the Second Founding. During those years, Guilliman was said to have led several raids, alongside his surviving brother Primarchs, against the remaining Chaos Space Marines. Guilliman would finally meet his final fate during the Battle of Thessala in 121.M31, when the traitor Primarch Fulgrim of the Emperor's Children, who had become a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh, defeated him. While Alpharius had largely not embraced the Powers of Chaos, and was essentially the original, unchanged Primarch when he was slain, Fulgrim had been in the Eye of Terror, harvesting terrible powers, and had been turned by Slaanesh into a mighty Daemon Prince; lacking human appearance, but with his original purity corrupted and augmented by the Ruinous Powers. Fulgrim was now a serpentine creature of immense stature, and with multiple arms. Each member wielded a poisoned blade, and in the clash stabbed Guilliman in the neck. Unable to save him, the Apothecaries buried Guilliman within a stasis field, where he would remain frozen in the instant of his death, while Fulgrim and his people escaped back to the Eye of Terror.

For nine millennia, his mortal body lay in stasis, deep within the Shrine of Guilliman; within the Temple of Correction, one of the most sacred places in all of the Imperium. Some pilgrims claimed that the Primarch's wounds healed slowly, a feat that was a testament to the Emperor's power. Others denied the phenomenon, pointing out the utter impossibility of change within a stasis field. Yet, one had only to believe the stories to witness the Primarch's miracle for oneself.

Guilliman thought back to his meeting with his father, he did not like to visit the memory it was as if the memory forced itself upon him, that being amongst ancient machines, fuelled by foul technology and then the golden light and pain. Coldness, that was the defining feeling of his meeting with the Emperor, endless and terrible coldness, he had approached the meeting with trepidation fearing what he would find, was his father dead? was he mad? could they speak? Between the time of the Emperor's ascension to the throne and Guilliman's death, the Emperor had spoken to no one. How could he persist for ten thousand years? His withered corpse was surrounded by banks of groaning machinery. The sacrifice required to keep the Emperor alive sickened the Primarch. The sight of him seemed dead. Guilliman expected nothing, yet he spoke, with words of light and fire. It was like speaking to a star. His words burned the Primarch. The Lord of Mankind had spoken to his returned Primarch.

The full might of the 13th Black Crusade assaulted the Cadian Fortress World, which stood as the sole sentinel of the Cadian Gate, the only foreseeably stable exit from the Warp Storm known as the Eye of Terror. Though severely outnumbered and assailed from all sides, the Imperial defenders held firm, mounting a valiant defence under the superlative leadership of the Lord Castellan of Cadia, Ursarkar E. Creed. As the conflict grew increasingly desperate, many heroes of the Imperium gathered on Cadia. Space Marines from multiple Chapters lent their strength to the defence, including the Black Templars of Grand Marshal Amalrich, and the Imperial Fists of Captain Tor Garadon, who brought the Star Fortress Phalanx into the war. Saint Celestine fell upon Cadia in its darkest hour, her miracles instilling faith in its ragged protectors. Inquisitor Katarinya Greyfax, a prisoner of the Necron Lord Trazyn the Infinite, was freed from captivity to lend her prodigious will and talent to the cause. However, the key to victory over Cadia was discovered by the ancient Martian techno-priest, Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Urged on by the Harlequin Sylandri Veilwalker, and aided by Trazyn the Infinite, he had unlocked the secrets of the Necron-built black pylons that studded the surface of Cadia and other worlds throughout the Cadia System. Abaddon had long sought out these ancient and mysterious structures to destroy during his many Black Crusades, which thinned the veil between reality and the Immaterium. In truth, Cawl had been on his way to honour an ancient pact made with the Lord of Ultramar many millennia ago, but in Cadia he saw a chance to reverse the Despoiler's work and perhaps close the Eye of Terror forever. But that was not to be.

Though the Emperor's servants fought with determination and courage, Cawl's efforts were undone as the pylons were destroyed and Cadia was dealt a final, mortal blow. The few remaining Imperial defenders were forced to flee before the flood of Chaos Forces that assailed the doomed world. As they did so, a terrible warp rift yawned in their wake as the Eye of Terror began to expand. Yet there remained one chance for salvation: Cawl's ancient covenant called upon him to protect the mysterious artefact he carried within an armoured auto-reliquary. The surviving warriors of the Imperium declared themselves the Celestine Crusade in honour of the Living Saint that still made her way through the darkness, and headed for the Macragge System within the Realm of Ultramar, with the Despoiler's forces hot on their heels.

At the same time, the Eldar race had been shaken to its foundations by a cosmic upheaval of great significance. Ynnead, the Eldar God of the Dead, had awakened in the æther and chosen an ancient Eldar from the ancient Craftworld Biel-Tan as his prophet. Yvraine, the Daughter of Shadows, had walked many paths during her long life. She had eventually become a famed Corsair leader until a mutiny forced her to flee into the Webway, where she ended up in the Dark City of Commorragh, the primary home of the Drukhari. Fighting as a gladiator in the dark city’s infamous Crucibael arena, she defeated many foes before falling to a priestess of Morai-Heg, however, as she rested between life and death, she was resurrected by Ynnead and chosen to act as his prophet in the material realm. His rebirth caused great discord within Commorragh, and the Dark City was besieged by the daemonic servants of Slaanesh, fleeing from the Drukhari forces of the Supreme Overlord of the Dark City.

Slaanesh. Fleeing from the Drukhari forces of the Dark City's Supreme Overlord Asdrubael Vect, Yvraine, aided by a mysterious warrior known as the Visarch, and followed by some of the Drukhari who believed in her cause, successfully brought news of the Whispering God's awakening to Craftworld Biel-Tan. While there, the Craftworld experienced a rapid and terrible cycle of death and rebirth that gave birth to the Yncarne, avatar of Ynnead. Some of the Eldar embraced Yvraine's belief that the cycle of death and rebirth would be their salvation, and became her followers, known as the Ynnari, the Reborn. Others rejected this upstart's teachings as arrogant and dangerously extreme. But Yvraine pressed on regardless, setting out from Biel-Tan in search of the five time-lost swords of Morai-Heg and formulating a desperate plan to turn the tides of Chaos.

It was this mission that brought Yvraine across the Webway to the frozen moon of Klaisus in orbit of the Fortress World of Kasr Holn in the Cadia System, leading an army of Eldar from every faction who once again claimed the ancient name of Aeldari. They emerged from the moon's Webway gate just in time to rescue the Celestine Crusade from their pursuers. Turning away from the Heretic Astartes of the Black Legion, the Ynnari negotiated common cause with the Crusaders, agreeing to aid them in reaching the Realm of Ultramar. Thus, as the Warp Storms swelled and spread across the galaxy, the gathered pilgrims hastened across the Webway, carrying a thin veneer of hope between them.

In the final years of the 41st Millennium, the star realm of Ultramar suffered sustained attack from countless enemies. Menacing shapes stirred in the intergalactic void, the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan travelling inexorably towards Guilliman's realm. The Archarsonist of Charadon, one of the greatest Ork warlords in the galaxy, led a monstrous Waaagh! from his lawless domain, intent on overrunning the Ultramarines' eastern defences. The greatest threat of all, however, was posed by the dark servants of Chaos.

A great horde of traitors, renegades, mutants and madmen descended upon Ultramar under the leadership of the foul Daemon Prince M'kar the Reborn. That invasion plunged dozens of worlds into bloody battle, the war spreading from the worlds of Espandor and Tarentus to the oceanic Talassar. Eventually, however, after long months of sadness, bloodshed and loss, the Ultramarines prevailed. M'kar was defeated and his armies driven back, pursued into the void beyond the borders of Ultramar.

A period of rebuilding and consolidation then began in Ultramar, as Marneus Calgar and his Chapter led the efforts of their people to shore up the battered defences of their realm. It was a period of rest and recovery that was ended all too quickly.

Acting on the prophetic revelations of the Sorcerer Zaraphiston, Abaddon the Despoiler launched a new coalition of Chaos warbands against the defences of Ultramar. Although the Despoiler himself was involved in the ongoing fighting of the 13th Black Crusade around the recently shattered Cadian Gate, his influence as Arch-Champion and Warmaster of the Dark Gods was far-reaching. He was then able to gather a sizable force of warriors from the Black Legion, Iron Warriors, Night Lords and a host of other traitor factions, and launch them against the worlds of Ultramar. While a few warbands raided the outer star systems in an effort to immobilize potential loyalist reinforcements, the main traitor horde rode the tempestuous currents of the Warp directly towards the Macragge System. A desperate and bloody invasion then began... High in the Atheron Mountains of the Sanctuary World of Laphis in the Macragge System, eldritch energies stirred. They flowed in barely perceptible currents, kicking up dust and ash as they swept across a corpse-strewn plateau. They slowly quickened, unseen forces tugging at the flames that lapped at the shattered main battle tanks and causing the billowing smoke to form into slow-moving vortices. A handful of living warriors remained on that barren mountaintop, Chaos Space Marines clad in the brutal armour of the Black Legion. They stood amidst the dead of the recent battle, some of their own fallen scattered among the piles of Ultramar Defence Auxilia. The Traitors checked portable homing devices and raised Spiked Bolters, shifting their weapons as they searched for the source of the ethereal buildup. Harsh voices barked challenges through fanged Vox grills, while sensors swept the blue sky

cobalt and the huge mountain shapes that rose beyond the edge of the plateau. Still no enemy revealed itself.

With sudden fury, the energies of the building roared, throwing the Traitor Astartes to the ground. The surging power was drawn inward to a tight point, and there it coalesced into a towering structure. Tall and graceful, the curved building gleamed to the eye as if it had stood atop the mountain for a thousand standard years. The air swam around it, and from within it spat out a shower of firepower. Roars of rage and pain erupted from the Traitors as the monomolecular discs tore through their armour and shattered lenses. They sprayed their dark blood across the sun-bleached stone. Severed limbs encased in black power armour clattered across the ground as the former heretics were torn to pieces by the sudden firestorm.

As the Chaos Space Marines staggered, the Ynnari and Celestines emerged from the Webway's entrance. Yvraine and the Visarch led a much reduced force; deeming it unwise to suddenly appear on the fringes of Ultramar at the head of an entire warband, many of their followers, led by Farseer Eldrad Ulthran and Autarch Meliniel, had departed on other crucial missions. The two remaining Eldar leaders raced across the plateau with breathtaking speed, fortified by the death of their enemies and weaving like dancers around the shells that roared in their direction. The Visarch slid low, slipping beneath a flurry of fire to slam his sword through the breastplate of a Traitor. Meanwhile, Yvraine leapt nimbly over a hail of gunfire, planted one foot on the Black Legionnaire's Bolter and leapt over his head. The Priestess of Ynnead swept her sword in a flashing arc, and her victim's helm left her neck an instant before her form crumbled.

he stopped, and his victim's helmet left his neck an instant before his form crumbled into glowing ash.

More warriors emerged from nowhere to join the Ynnari charge. Fleet-footed Dire Avengers and Incubi charged alongside the Black Templar Space Marines, their deep-rooted hatred cast aside. Grand Marshal Marius Amalrich and Inquisitor Katarinya Greyfax stormed out of the Webway side by side, blades lashing out to spill heretical blood once more. The winged figure of Saint Celestine soared above them, her Geminae Superia leaping at her side with Bolt Pistols ablaze. The Battle Sisters of the Order of Our Martyred Lady followed them into battle, guns blazing as they spat fire at the traitorous foe. Behind them all came the Magos Belisarius Cawl, gliding on his many mechanical legs as his precious auto-reliquary sped along behind him. Skitarii and Battle Servitors advanced with him, and the ground shook as a pair of imposing Knights of House Taranis came up from the rear.

The Heretic Astartes of the Black Legion did not panic at this sudden assault, as lesser warriors might have done. However, their numbers were few and their attackers had the advantage of total surprise. Mass-reactive bolter rounds blew away a handful of Skitarii, and two of the Visarch's Incubi were struck down and killed in melee blows. However, between the flashing blades of the Celestines and the Ynnari, who seemed to move with greater speed and skill for the moment, all but a few of the Black Legionaries were quickly cut down.

As quickly as it had begun, the one-sided battle was over. The Celestines and Ynnari stood amongst the freshly fallen dead, their weapons smoking in their hands. Brief orders were given, the warriors trotting off to establish a perimeter bristling with weapons around the Webway portal. The Eldar and humans had fought together, yet they remained wary of each other, leaving unspoken gaps between their formations as they spread out. (I'll skip the rest of what happened and go straight to Guilliman's resurrection.)

Entering the resting place of Roboute Guilliman was like stepping into the sad life of a warrior. The chamber itself was vast, a vaulted sepulchre through which a Warlord-class Titan might have walked unhindered. Marble columns held aloft a ceiling of tinted tempered glass and obsidian inlaid with lunar silver. Guilliman’s finest works were depicted in spectacular friezes and statues, arranged around the chamber and artfully lit by luminescent flickers to lend the images as much gravity as possible. Enormous braziers of devotional incense burned throughout the sanctuary, saturating the air with subtle aromas, while the acclamations of cherubs cast a constant murmur of martial arias and reverential prayers.

Despite the grandeur of the shrine, the eyes of the pilgrims were drawn to the splendid figure enthroned within a halo of clear white light at one end of the chamber. There, upon a throne of finely wrought marble, gold and adamantium, sat Roboute Guilliman. Esoteric machinery hovered above the Primarch's throne, thrumming and humming as it fed vast energies through grooved cables to envelop him in a rippling stasis field. Guilliman sat as if in repose, his eyes closed, his blood glistening like a jewel in a delicate necklace around his throat. Guilliman wore his finely crafted power armour, still marred by the damage it had sustained during his final duel with the Primarch Daemon Fulgrim. Upon his knees was placed a greatsword of prodigious size, the 'Emperor's Blade', once wielded by the hand of the Master of Mankind. Though the Primarch sat peacefully upon his throne, the force of his presence was palpable.

The pilgrims approached the throne in reverent silence, their Ultramarine escort marching alongside them and Cawl’s auto-reliquary at their rear. The group paused near the foot of the steps leading up to the Primarch, where countless Ultramarines had knelt in communion for millennia. Marneus Calgar stepped forward to stand at the base of the steps, bowing his head reverently to his Primarch for a moment before turning to the assembled pilgrims. The sounds of the raging battle were still audible, even in this hallowed place, muffled and distant but inescapable.

Calgar took a deep breath, then asked once more for Belisarius Cawl to state his business here. The Chapter Master had obliged his visitors thus far, but with a desperate battle raging outside the walls of his fortress, he could offer them no more time or patience.

Archmagos Cawl bowed his head and told an incredible tale. Cawl explained that, in the years before Guilliman was mortally wounded, the Primarch had summoned him into his confidence. Cawl’s memengrams of that meeting were weathered and incomplete, but he believed Guilliman had seen in him the potential for great things. Roboute Guilliman had praised the tech-priest for his great work, one for which he would be amply rewarded with information only a Primarch could provide. Cawl declared that he was not at liberty to reveal the nature of his task, avoiding Calgar’s angry response by explaining that his work had been split into two distinct parts, and that he was here to fulfil the first of these. He brought a magnificent new suit of armour fit for the Primarch of the Ultramarines, one whose auxiliary systems possessed the power to heal Guilliman’s grievous wounds. Stunned silence reigned at this announcement. To bring back a living, breathing Primarch, to revive a son of the Emperor

Primarch could provide. Cawl declared that he was not at liberty to reveal the nature of his task, avoiding Calgar’s angry response by explaining that his work had been split into two distinct parts, and that he was here to fulfil the first of these. He brought a magnificent new suit of armour fit for the Primarch of the Ultramarines, one whose auxiliary systems possessed the power to heal Guilliman’s grievous wounds. Stunned silence reigned at this announcement. To bring back a living, breathing Primarch, to restore one of the Emperor’s finest sons to the Imperium in its hour of need; such a notion filled the Imperial warriors with awe.

Yvraine spoke, explaining her presence at this seminal moment. She was the Emissary of Ynnead, the Eldar God of the Dead, and her powers would be vital to Guilliman’s restoration. Reading the bewilderment on the faces of her audience, Yvraine explained with great impatience that such a miracle could not be accomplished without sacrifice. Cawl had worked hard to fulfill the Primarch’s request, but without Ynnead’s aid, the fruits of that labor would not be enough. For Roboute Guilliman to live once more, he must first die.

Where Cawl’s words had been met with shocked silence, Yvraine raised a storm. Calgar raged in fury at the notion, vowing that no xenos witch would ever lay a hand upon the Primarch as long as he breathed. Grandmaster Aldrik Voldus moved to stand beside Calgar, his expression grim, and Greyfax and Marshal Amalrich followed suit. The surrounding Ultramarines raised their weapons, aiming them at Cawl, the Ynnari, and even the hulking form of the auto-reliquary itself. They awaited only their master’s command to open fire.

However, others raised their voices in support of this apparent folly. Cawl loudly stated that he was bound by the terms of his pact with Guilliman.

They raised their weapons, aiming them at Cawl, the Ynnari, and even the hulking form of the auto-reliquary itself. They waited only for their master's command to open fire.

Others, however, raised their voices in support of this apparent folly. Cawl loudly blurted out that he was bound by the terms of his pact with Guilliman, and that he must complete it. Saint Celestine also spoke, imploring those around her to have faith, and stating that this was, indeed, the will of the Emperor. The most unexpected of the defenders was Chief Librarian Tigurius, who stepped forward to stand beside Cawl. Tigurius spoke in a calm voice that cut through the clamor, asking Calgar to trust his counsel and saying once again that he had seen hints of this future in his visions. It was a scene of anger and confusion, but it was about to get worse. more than he had seen hints of this future in his visions. It was a scene of anger and confusion, but it was about to get worse.

Shattered Holiness Schematics of the armor Archmagos Belisarius Cawl reveals the contents of his self-reliquary, the Armour of Destiny, which can restore the mortally wounded Primarch Roboute Guilliman to life. Amidst the storm of angry voices and brandished weapons, the Vox of Marneus Calgar rang insistently in his ear. Angry, the Chapter Master accepted the priority, but his words of rebuke died on his lips. Calgar's voice boomed with shock, his warning cry coming a split second before the stained tempered glass of the sanctuary roof exploded inwards.

Shattered glass filled the air, shards the size of Storm Shields embedded in walls, floors and armoured bodies. A huge shape crashed into the shrine, a plummeting mass of blue metal travelling at the speed of a runaway mag-train. Diving down at an oblique angle, an Ultramarine Thunderhawk crashed to the ground.

The ship crashed into the shrine and slid out of control. The ship was badly damaged, flames belching from breaches in its hull, one wing torn off. It careened across the shrine floor, away from the pilgrims and their Ultramarines guards, crashing through a marble column and toppling it in a thunderous avalanche of precious stones. The Thunderhawk crashed into the shrine’s far wall, knocking over a statue of Guilliman battling Alpharius, before crashing onto its side with a deafening crash.

Even as the crashed vehicle was coming to a halt, its assault ramp opened with a shriek of broken metal. Spilling out from within were Chaos Space Marines clad in twisted black and gold armour, spiked jump packs fused to their backs and deafening war cries echoing from their Vox.

The Ultramarines responded with instant efficiency, Bolters and Assault Cannons roaring to life. A hail of gunfire ripped through the Black Legion Raptors, blood pouring from their avian forms as they thrashed and danced amidst the gunfire. Still, the Ultramarines were not fast enough to prevent catastrophe. Shouting their defiance, a trio of Raptors charged through the hail of fire to strike at the spiked icons on the temple floor. Tall spears of adamantium and iron, the icons were adorned with macabre trophies and anointed with daemonic blood. Empyric energies swirled around them, and reality was torn apart by the calamitous thunder of teleportation beacons.

As the surviving Raptors leapt forth, a massive wedge of Black Legion Terminators appeared, dozens of elite assassins clad in spiked and fang-adorned Dreadnought tactical armour. Yvraine took advantage of the confusion and used her sword to cut the stasis field’s life-support cables.

Roboute Guilliman died.

At that moment the autoreliquary opened, absorbing the Primarch, throne and all. The Black Legionaries intensified their attack, as if they knew something was going to happen. Celestine was wounded, the defences about to collapse. The most prominent Black Legionaries were mere metres from the foot of Guilliman’s throne when the rune panels on Cawl’s autoreliquary flickered from red to green. A chime rang, a clear, pure note. The Archmagos himself, fighting consecutively alongside the Ynnari and Chief Librarian Tigurius, gave an uncharacteristic burst of binary triumph. The next moment, the autoreliquary’s extended armour folded back with a gaseous hiss to reveal a sight of breathtaking splendour.

And from it emerges in all splendor the Primarch of the Ultramarines.

Roboute Guilliman lives.

Where Roboute Guilliman had once sat, pale and locked in stasis, the Primarch now stood awake, alert and very much alive. His presence was immense, commanding like a clap of thunder that suddenly filled the sanctuary with its crushing pressure. Guilliman was clad in magnificent new armour, an ornate masterpiece that had travelled from the forges of Mars within the self-reliquary of Cawl. In one hand the Ultramarines Primarch held the Emperor’s Blade, now lit from hilt to tip with leaping flames, and in his eyes was a look of such murderous intensity that even the Loyalists within the sanctuary lusted to see it.

It was as if a spell had been cast upon the shrine. Even beyond the din of war, friend and foe alike stared in awe at the legendary figure reborn among them. An incoherent cry of rage shattered the silence as a lone Khorne Berzerker charged through the stunned combatants before launching a flying leap towards the Primarch. Guilliman moved with such speed that even the Ynnari would have struggled to match him. His flaming blade drew a pyrotechnic arc through the air as he swung, cleaving the Berzerker at the waist and sending its severed halves tumbling to the ground.

As the armoured corpse of the Chaos puppet fell to the ground, the spell was broken. With a great howl of hatred, the warriors of the Black Legion launched themselves towards Roboute Guilliman. Wordlessly, the noble demigod strode to meet them, and the carnage truly began.