In the years before the return of Lorgar and the discovery of his homeworld of Colchis by the expanding fleets of the Imperium in 857.M30, the XVII th Legion was known amongst the vast hosts of the Great Crusade by designations other than the "Word Bearers." The Emperor named them the "Imperial Heralds" at their inception, an elegant title that spoke of the grand purpose for which they had been created, whilst their fellow Astartes warriors named them the "Iconoclasts," a more brutal appellation coined in appreciation of the zeal with which they cast down the idolatrous temples and cultic strongholds of Old Night. For over four standard decades the XVII th Legion wore a false face of loyalty and planted the seeds that would eventually bloom into a galaxy-spanning civil war. The precise nature of their preparations is only open to supposition, but much can be deduced from Lorgar's character and the atrocities that would come later. First, it seems likely that the Word Bearers' renewed energy in the Great Crusade was a cover for its rapid growth in size, as well as the seeding of its new corrupting creed and belief in Chaos onto new worlds. It must also have been during this time that the Legion was cleansed of dissent. The last of the old Iconoclasts, the few Terrans, and those who would not embrace the new faith must have been put quietly to the sword. The corruption of much of the apparatus of the Imperium also must have occurred in this time. So it was that when Horus finally fell to the temptations of the Ruinous Powers, Lorgar had already long prepared the ground for war. The second factor which allowed Lorgar to convert his Legion to the belief in the Emperor's divinity was the nature of the Great Crusade itself. Across countless fronts the Legions fought, suffered casualties and recruited anew. As this attrition mixed the old with the new, so the blood of the mostly Terran-born Iconoclast Imperial Heralds was diluted with that of Colchis and then with dozens of worlds on the bloody edge of conquest. These were sons who had never seen the light of Sol, nor known the Legion as it had been. They accepted what was taught to them because it was the only truth offered. In the case of those of Colchis, the belief in the divine was already ingrained into every thought from birth. When all was done, when the final Imperial Herald had embraced the faith, when the last of the old Iconoclasts had died, then Lorgar added the final flourish of ritual to seal his victory. The Imperial Heralds would become known instead as the Word Bearers. To the rest of the Imperium, still ignorant of the change wrought in the XVII Legion, the name reflected their part in bringing the Imperial Truth to all humanity. To Lorgar it was an affirmation of his purpose: to give humanity faith in the god at its pinnacle. There are very few fantasy or modern SciFi novels that are literary masterpieces and this is not one of them. But I am pretty critical and I thought all the stories were extremely well written. The battles and events took me in my mind to those places so I consider that to be a key success when reading.

Helbrute • Ferrum Infernus Dreadnought • Contemptor Dreadnought • Sonic Dreadnought • Berserker Dreadnought • Hellforged Leviathan Dreadnought • Deredeo Dreadnought

The organisational make-up of each Host differs wildly as well, and can change depending on the whims of the Dark Apostle that leads it. Often they will suddenly alter the hierarchy of their Host for reasons known only to themselves. These changes often result in seemingly unwieldy or tactically inflexible formations. The Word Bearers themselves accept these changes without question. [1]

After the death of Horus aboard his own flagship, the battleship Vengeful Spirit in orbit of Terra, the XVII Legion ultimately took refuge within the Warp rifts of the Eye of Terror and the Maelstrom, vast wounds in space where the Immaterium leaked into reality.Yet Roboute Guilliman and a large portion of his Legion had remained off-world as a result of the Word Bearers' devious assault upon the Ultramarines fleet. Guilliman immediately gathered reinforcements in the wake of the Calth Atrocity and swore to hunt down his brother Lorgar and make the Word Bearers pay for what the treachery they had unleashed upon Ultramar and its people. Warhammer Community: This Free Horus Heresy Mission Sees Ghastly Word Bearers Procurators Descend on the Blood Angels - The Scouring of Gilden's Star PDF (Posted on 27/06/2022) (Last accessed on 27 June 2022) The truth of the events that followed the razing of Monarchia can be pieced together by those scholars willing to seek out potentially heretical sources of knowledge. Feeling betrayed by the Emperor, Lorgar withdrew to his private chambers aboard his flagship, the Fidelitas Lex, refusing audience to all but Kor Phaeron, the Word Bearers' First Captain and Cardinal. Kor Phaeron was Lorgar's adoptive father and had raised him from infancy on Colchis as a member of the Covenant. Kor Phaeron had served as Lorgar's chief lieutenant and primary advisor since his time as the ruling theocrat of Colchis. Lorgar also called the Legion's First Chaplain Erebus to his side, who had long been another trusted advisor. Kor Phaeron and Erebus sympathised with Lorgar's unrequited religious longings, and felt that the Word Bearers Legion should serve gods truly worthy of their worship. Kor Phaeron and Erebus explained that they knew of such gods, the divine beings once worshipped by the Old Faith of Colchis and thus, Lorgar learned of the existence of the Chaos Gods, who not only accepted the zealous worship he offered, but demanded it. Thus the seeds of the Horus Heresy were first sown amongst the Word Bearers. Intrigued, Lorgar demanded that the Legion find these gods, and Kor Phaeron and Erebus, both of whom had been secret devotees of Chaos for decades, proposed a pilgrimage. Fulgrim refused to leave his delights and return to the war effort, forcing the two sides to battle. As Lorgar held off Fulgrim, Zardu Layak uttered the True Name of the newly ascended Emperor's Children Daemon Primarch.

If you read a lot of Warhammer then you're used to the general flow of things. The good guys will be most likely be outnumbered at some point, things maybe are lookin' bleak, but they find the strength to pull through and save the day... Not here.Eventually, Lorgar was discovered on a Feudal World named Colchis, which he had eventually unified in a series of brutal religious wars in response to his visions of the Emperor's coming arrival. When the Emperor did arrive, as Lorgar had foreseen, the Primarch dropped to his knee, leading the population of his world in rejoicing and worship of the Emperor as a god. At the conclusion of these festivities, the Emperor bade Lorgar take his best warriors and induct them into his Space Marine Legion (at that time known as the Imperial Heralds [7h]) and join him on the Great Crusade. Lorgar appointed trustworthy regents to rule over Colchis and devoutly complied with his father's direction. [Needs Citation] Vox Dominus — Carrion-class. An extremely huge ship, commanded by Dark Apostle Nahren. Lost in the warp for a few seconds while most of the 3rd host were aboard, and returned to real space with all the ship's crew dead and with the Garden of Nurgle taken root on the ship. [20]

As the majority of the Word Bearers Legion continued to battle across the Ultima Segmentum, those of the XVII Legion led by Zardu Layak participated in the Siege of Terra, where Horus and his forces were repulsed and defeated after a fifty-five-solar-day siege. Following the fanatical exploits of First Acolyte Marduk and the 34th Host, this omnibus edition collects all three novels of the Word Bearers series along with brand new content. Once the truth was revealed, it was only a matter of time before the Emperor would be moved to censure the Word Bearers. The links of cause and effect are poorly recorded, but it seems that the Emperor waited for some time after the initial reports reached his court. That He sent missions to assay many more worlds conquered by the Word Bearers is known. We can only speculate as to why: perhaps He did not want to believe it of His son, perhaps He wanted to be sure, perhaps He was simply gathering information before acting. Some sources indicate that the Emperor confronted Lorgar during this time, that He even told him that if he persisted he would have to suffer the consequences. Imperial scholars cannot know now if this is true, too much has been forgotten, and too much more must never be remembered. What is known, at least, is that the Emperor acted. It was a pattern they repeated across Ancient Terra in the last days of the Unification Wars, earning themselves a second name. Few spoke of the XVII th Legion as the Imperial Heralds. To their brother Legions and the people of the newborn Imperium, they were the Iconoclasts.

Necromunda

M42 - With the formation of the Great Rift and Noctis Aeterna, the Word Bearers begin a wave of unprecedented activity in Segmentum Solar which included instigating large uprisings. Even by the 5th year into the Indomitus Crusade, a sizable force of World Bearers continued to operate perilously close to Terra. [51] The Great Crusade was a war of expansion spread across the galaxy. Numberless fleets and hundreds of thousands of armies came into operation, separated by vast distances and joined only by the tenuous links of Warp travel and astrotelepathy. The sheer scale and dynamism of such an endeavour made absolute knowledge a rare commodity. Chaos Space Marines • Havocs • Chosen • Chaos Terminators • Possessed ( Greater Possessed) • Khorne Berzerkers • Plague Marines • Noise Marines • Rubric Marines • Obliterators ( Mutilators) • Dark Disciple • Shrivetalon • Butcher • Cultists ( Accursed Mutant • Torments) • Chaos Spawn • Fallen When the Word Bearers launched their surprise assault on Calth, it marked the beginning of their righteous campaign of vengeance against the hated Ultramarines Legion. But for one young acolyte of Kor Phaeron, it is not the sons of Guilliman that he seeks to bring low - through infernal pacts and daemonic power he strives to carve out a destiny for himself in the midst of the greatest war that the galaxy has ever seen. The name of Marduk shall be spoken with awe for millennia still to come...