Warhammer: Filial Piety Makes Power

Chapter 315 The Age of the Primarchs is Over
Upon receiving news of Lady Yotton's assassination attempt, Guilliman did not hesitate and immediately returned to Macurag. After disappearing for a week, he chose to return to Holy Terra.

No one knows where Guilliman went during that week, nor what he went through, but the Ultramarines, who had never been stationed in Hallow Terra to avoid suspicion, followed him back.

Without any rest, Guilliman returned to Holy Terra and continued his political work. A sense of unease spread throughout Holy Terra, but the Ultramarines dealt with it all with the strictest control measures.

When Corax and Dorn returned to Holy Terra, Guilliman immediately convened the High Lords Council, intending to appoint Space Marines as councilors to participate in politics.

However, the proposal was met with opposition from the entire council. These mortal officials, promoted by Guilliman, argued that the laws of the Emperor must not be violated, and that Space Marines should never participate in politics, as this was an ancestral precept left by the Emperor.

At this moment, Guilliman finally understood why Horus looked down on mortals so much, how foolish, how depraved, and how utterly absurd they were.

An overwhelming rage began to burn within Guilliman, making him wish he could slap the insect in front of him to death.

If it weren't for those space wolves fighting to the death, if it weren't for the blood ravens sneaking into Macragge to steal and discovering it in advance, if it weren't for my Hill...

Guilliman no longer wanted to bother with those formalities. "I've been so lenient with you, yet you've taken advantage of my kindness and even tried to murder my mother."

What else can we do? Only kill!

668.M32,

The Great Purge: There are no official Imperial records of this period, but it can be gleaned from the movements of the three founding squads: Ultramarines, Imperial Fists, and Raven Guard.

In the five years following 668, a brutal civil war broke out in the Sun Starfield, the core of the empire.

In order to deal with the mountains of corpses, the small number of Midnight Lords were even reassigned to Holy Terra to establish a large number of paper-mâché workshops.

703.M32,

Eleven Slaughter: After a five-year-long purge, Guilliman did not completely dissolve the High Lords Council, but instead gradually devolved imperial power to mortal officials.

However, Guilliman also followed the traditional imperial practice of having every official's political statistics compiled and eliminating the bottom 10% every ten years.
Perhaps due to the excessive repression he had experienced before, Guilliman went from one extreme to the other, directly initiating an offline monarchy.

The gist is that I set a KPI, and I don't care what methods or means you use. If you don't meet the target I set for you by the deadline, you will all die.

Guilliman even made sure that local officials also benefited from the 11% levy this time.

In a short time, the previously bloated government system was streamlined to an extreme degree, and every ordinary official enjoyed the pleasure of their work.

More abstractly, if a normal regime implemented such benevolent policies, it would probably perish within a few years. However, after implementing the death-based KPIs, the empire actually began to develop rapidly.

This phenomenon, once it appeared, made Guilliman's previous life as a beast of burden seem rather clownish.

803.M32,

A joint effort to force Guilliman's abdication: Under Guilliman's benevolent rule for over a century, not only imperial officials but also governors of local planets could no longer tolerate it and began to protest.

The cries from the rebellious regions instantly caught the attention of the Regent, who, without hesitation, announced his abdication to the entire Empire through the Divine Seal Network, appointing Dorne as Regent.

And he, Robert Guilliman, served as the Imperial Warmaster!
However, the empire governs the world with loyalty and righteousness. Although I agree to your request, it does not mean that I understand your rebellion. So wash your necks and wait for me. I will come and kill you right away.

But what Guilliman didn't know was that almost everyone who held the title of Imperial Warmaster had a bad ending.

The first Warmaster, Olpeson, ran away quickly; the second Warmaster, Mordred, died quickly; the third Warmaster, Horus, became a blooper; the fourth Warmaster, Johnson, was bombarded; and the fifth Warmaster, Feralus, was left with only a skull.

Sure enough, with Guilliman's abdication, the curse that had been hanging over the Imperial Warmaster soon came true.

811.M32,

Nothing particularly noteworthy happened within the Empire that year. The Great Vortex continued to spew out its garbage, and Abaddon began his fourth Dark Crusade. People died on this planet, aliens appeared on that world, and every now and then a few psykers went out of control.

Despite the seemingly constant natural disasters, the empire was already enjoying good times, but these good times did not last long.

Perhaps because being undefeated all the time was a bit embarrassing, Abaddon learned his lesson this time. After four failed expeditions, he actually started to take advantage of the Emperor's petty loan scheme.

Faced with this self-important little thing, the Four Gods certainly wouldn't refuse, and they all provided funding for the Black Legion.

Although they didn't know why their own Demon Realm looked like it had been chewed up by a dog, the Four Gods believed it must be the work of the weasel.

We're half-dead and recuperating now, so you weasels won't have an easy time either. We don't expect Abaddon to have any effect, as long as it annoys the weasels, then it's all worth it.

Therefore, Slaanesh, the strongest lesser god, decided to take advantage of the situation and sent out his top henchman, Feralus. Khorne, the gambling addict, would not let this opportunity pass and sent out Angron, whom he disliked from the start.

With the strong support of his two uncles, and the addition of himself as the Chaos Warmaster, Abaddon suddenly felt confident again and immediately launched the Fifth Dark Crusade. He had let the previous skirmishes slide, but now that they dared to leave the Eye of Terror and completely unleash their power, Guilliman didn't hesitate and personally led the expedition.

813.M32,

The fifth Chaos Expedition was a complete failure, and the Empire emerged victorious.

However, upon discovering that Angron was among the Black Legion, Guilliman did not retreat but instead charged forward impulsively.

But Guilliman wasn't stupid either. Although I don't know how to use any special psionic abilities, there are many of us Ultramarines. We used orbital bombardment to bombard the area and immediately blew Angron half to death.

Seeing that Angron was half-crippled, Gideon was immediately seized by his glue addiction and led the Primarch Guard to board the enemy, wanting to go forward and finish them off.

Then Guilliman was slit in the throat by the Steel Serpent, who had been hiding in the shadows.

Thanks to the Primarch's stretcher team's selfless rescue, Guilliman survived but fell into a deep sleep and was placed in Hera Fortress as an exhibit.

When the news reached Dorne and Corax, the two Primarchs were furious, but there was nothing they could do but continue to support the Empire before them.

However, the Four Gods, who have already recovered, will absolutely not allow the empire to get back on track.

872.M32,

Salvation Crisis: To relieve the pressure on Dorn, Corax begins putting out fires across the Empire, but as time goes on, the Empire begins to decline.

The state religion, which once assisted the regent in tending the empire's people, gradually deteriorated and inevitably succumbed to hedonism after accumulating enormous wealth.

Meanwhile, the mechanical engineering movement gradually became stagnant, technological development stalled, and small cliques formed one after another.

Under these circumstances, Corax could only launch internal reforms for the empire based on his own understanding.

Just as the Raven King was making his move, a rebellion broke out on his home planet, the Salvation Star, with a large number of rebels rising up against the tyranny of the empire.

After nearly two millennia of growth and reproduction, those who once followed the Primarch's uprising have instead become the new oppressors.

To quell the rebellion, Corax had no choice but to lead the Raven Guard to suppress it, but when they arrived at the planet of salvation, a sudden warp storm struck.

The Chaos Fleet, which had been preparing for some time, descended from the sky and unleashed plague gas upon the unsuspecting Raven Guards.

The Ravenguards were reduced to a mere ten percent, and the Raven King was completely missing. However, according to survivors, the corrupted Primarch Mortarion and Angron were present during the sudden attack.

888.M32,

Keep a secret: As the 32nd millennium drew to a close, under the long-standing pressure of extreme exploitation and the psychological stress of his brothers disappearing one after another, Dorne fell into a kind of unsettling rage.

To alleviate this pressure and to clean up the various problems that have emerged in the Empire, Dorne initiated the Final Wall Accord, summoning all chapters within the Empire to launch a mini-expedition.

For the next two centuries, Dorn led the Imperial Fist Chapter and oversaw the military activities of the entire Imperial Chapter.

Just as the internal strife subsided, Dorn encountered a supernatural phenomenon in which the crimson flames intensified. Shortly after the flames dissipated, he died in a spaceboard battle at the hands of the World Eaters. His body vanished without a trace, leaving only a severed hand.

999.M32,

The Pope of the State Religion, Luo Jia, who resides deep within the palace, awakens and, after learning about the situation from Xiang Jinjun, secretly disappears from everyone's sight.

In the same year, Marshal Waldo of the Imperial Guard disappeared, along with the Apollo Spear. The legend of the King in Yellow began to circulate throughout the Empire.

000.M33,

A full century has passed since the last demigod departed, and after the initial turmoil, the Empire has gradually adapted to an era without a Primarch.

Perhaps due to some kind of innate talent, after 2000 years of gradual domestication, the empire still uses the political framework established during Guilliman's time.

The state religion, now free of restrictions, also extensively glorified these vanished Primarchs after their departure.

Soon, theocracy gradually oppressed the monarchy, and the state religion violated the prohibition set by Pope Loka and began to gradually enter the political center of the empire, eventually gaining a seat in the High Lords Council.

However, heroes are as numerous as carp crossing a river, and the empire is not lacking in extraordinary men who want to change the status quo. But whether they are villains or heroes, they will all fall into despair when faced with the empire's enormous size.

With the arrival of the 33rd millennium, the Primarch, who once walked alongside humanity, has become a figure of mythology.

Thus, the era of the Primarchs came to an end!
(End of this chapter)