Magnus

Where am I? I float in an ocean of darkness and warmth, it is strangely comforting. I see nothing, hear nothing, cannot speak. Do I have eyes, lips, ears, am I human at all or just a monster of twisted flesh? I cannot open my eyes, why can't I open them? The dreams come as I sleep, as I wake they remain an echo of things I have seen. I hear my father's voice whispering to me, comforting me. I hear other voices as well, voices beyond counting, calling me master.

Calling me master the shapes bow down to me, twisted and horrifying, melting flesh and snarling teeth. I speak and they hear the voice of their god. I tear out my eye and offer it to them, then I see clearly. For once in my life, the veil lifts and I can see everything.My chains are broken and I am free. I am reborn, no longer a man but a god. I speak...

As I awake I struggle to remember the things I saw, for those wonders are now lost to me. The words I spoke now a mysterious riddle that contain neither words nor meaning. I am still a prisoner within myself. I struggle against the walls of flesh that chain my soul, screams of agony rise up around me, muffled by the thickness of space. My father calls out to me, I call back, only as a soft moan. I have forgotten how to speak. Did I ever know? The dreams come to me again, are they visions of the future or the past, or merely a reflection of my madness?

There is a man, a small and crippled man, but a king as well, surrounded by his subjects and servants. He kneels before a mighty warrior clad in armor of shining silver, a man who he hates. As he kneels he finds himself alone, standing before two graves.

Who are these strange men, why do I seem to know them? Why can't I understand these voices? I hear my father's voice, he is searching for me, touching me with his hand, or is it his mind? My mother is crying, why is she so sad? The sadness seeps into me, I become sadness, tears well up into my useless eyes and I scream in anguish, all around me others cry out as well, in pain and sorrow. A sea of grief. It reminds me of something from long ago.

The crippled man is there once more, I have seen him many times. Small and weak with twisted arms and legs, he uses canes to walk, though now they have become great machines with wheels and gears. All around him his friends are dying, his father has betrayed him. His brother has betrayed him. His sister has betrayed him. As tears stream from his eyes, he struggles to defend himself against the forces assailing the fortress of his mind. He knew of this betrayal but would not believe. He still cannot, he would rather die than believe. His father has condemned him to death, for his love was greater than his obedience. He hears the call of his sweet sister, he knows that he will heed her call, that he must. He disappears.

I remember the sister, clad in robes of white and red with ebony locks, her words were sweetness that soothed bitter tears. She gave purpose when purpose had been torn away. I can hear her speaking now, is she my mother? She speaks with four voices and loves me with one. The world shakes around me, I open my eyes and see only blood. Has there ever been anything else?

The girl in white and red looks deeply into the waters. I look as well. All around us children are swimming. I see monsters below, with biting teeth and slashing claws. The woman cries out for them to flee, to come out of the water. They only laugh at her and point. I ask her why they won't listen and when I look at her, she is one of the monsters and she begins to eat the children.

I wake up, trying to scream but no sound comes out, I am drowning in the same sea of darkness with the monsters. I twist my body this way and that, flailing with my feeble arms and kicking with my useless legs, I am alone, the sole inhabitant of the universe. The rest if existence is but a shade. I allow myself to drift into dreams again, escaping from my solitude.

The cripple sits in his sanctum, quiet but for his the sound of his breathing and pounding of his heart. He cannot sleep, nightmares assail him and he wakes each night screaming. He is shacked by chains of destiny, for he has seen the future and cannot change it. He has seen his father's death, slain by his own son. The cripple calls out, screaming with his mouth and with his mind, warning his father, his voice filled with love and terror. He sees that his warning was in vain. In love, the cripple has found only hatred. 

That dream is somehow the most sad, the portent of all other sadness to come. Was this the first dream I had? All of the others seem to revolve around it, one death that heralds countless others. Why didn't they stop it? Why can't I stop it?

I see the woman once more, golden hair disheveled, bright eyes filled with tears. She is the only one who has ever loved me. For others saw in me only fear or contempt, only strength or weakness, only profit or pain, it is only she who knew me as man. I reach out to her, placing my hand upon her shoulder, wiping tears from her beautiful eyes with my ugly hand. She rises up and embraces me and I feel love and contentment, we embrace while the world burns around us and I am glad. I look into her eyes and I know and she knows too, I want the world to burn. 

There is peace once again, quiet enough for me to hear my father call to me. I remember my father before all others, his loving face coming into being before being torn away. That seems like so long ago.

The cripple strides the stone streets of Tizca, a cane in each hand to steady his steps. The people do not laugh or jeer, for they fear him in their hearts. Many love him as well, he is teacher and protector, scholar and a warrior, a father and son. When he speaks, all listen and when he looks to the sky, all tremble. He senses something approach, it is his father and brother, men he has loved but never seen, has felt but never touched. His father appears before him, clad in golden light, his brother in silver. They look down upon the crippled dwarf, the brother to deride and the father to despair. Anger rises up within him and he sees each man die at his hand, he pushes those thoughts aside, locks them away, terrified that they may be true. He vows to earn the love of father and brother both. He knows that he shall fail.

The universe is shattered, it collapses in upon me. Screams rise up as the ocean of blood boils away. There is so much pain, and then the universe is reborn in blinding white light. I open my mouth for the first time and scream, my father hears me now, across an infinite expanse he calls out for me. Who are these people around me, these blurry shapes? They blend in with my dreams, is this real, is this a dream?

Once more I see the cripple, as a babe and as a god. He is being born, from the sea of infinite possibilities he arises, from a world of darkness into light and the into darkness once more. He cries out to his fathers, the god of his brith and of his rebirth. 

I cry out once more and his cry is mine. I am that crippled babe. I am born. I am Magnus.



The Life of Magnus


Magnus was born on the planet of Propsero, in the capital city of Tizca. Propsero was a planet known for strange psychic phenomena as well as mutations, so it seems only natural that the soul of Magnus, the brightest light from among the Primarchs, would find his way there. Magnus was born with numerous deformities. Small and weak, with misshapen arms and legs and an ugly face, his parents had no interest in keeping him. They left the infant Magnus to the doctor who had helped to deliver him, with the hopes that, like such such deformed children, he would be put out of his misery. The doctor had different plans, for he could feel that Magnus had a great psychic potential and that he would make something of himself one day. The doctor named the boy Magnus, the great one, and placed him in a home with other children with psychic potential.

On the day Magnus was born, his abilities were so powerful that he reached out with his mind across thousands of light years to touch the mind of his creator, the God Emperor of Mankind. From that day on, the two were in communication, not with words but with emotions, concepts, ideas, a language of psychic energy that connected the father and son across the great void. From his infancy, Magnus loved his father the Emperor and longed for the day that they could meet in person.

As Magnus grew, the fact that he was special, even among his psychic peers, became apparent. Within weeks of birth he could speak and could even use some of his psychic abilities. The other children feared him, they had never seen or felt any as powerful as him. Because of his flaming red hair, freckled skin, and ruddy complexion, a few close to Magnus took to calling him "Red" though most people avoided him completely. The mundane children and adults who Magnus briefly encountered looked down upon him, his physical deformities were an il omen and made him a drain upon society. At first other children tried to taunt or bully him, though they soon learned the folly of that and Magnus could, with the briefest of effort, fill their minds with terror. Magnus became known and feared in the city, as a psyker of obscene power. For his part, Magnus did not want to be feared, only accepted or even loved, but he only received this love and acceptance from his father the Emperor and only then across a great expanse of the Warp.

As Magnus became a teen, he became a renown scholar as well as a psychic. An expert in things material and immaterial. Many sought him out for his wisdom as well as his abilities. Magnus could have been a great leader, but instead chose to maintain a low profile and allow nobles and politicians to rule the world as they desired, he would merely provide his council when asked.

Magnus had the ability to look into the future, a power that he used for the greater good of his people and his world. Though the future was always a bit hazy, he could usually predict things accurately. This ability was a double edged sword, for it gave Magnus dark visions of the future, terrible events which he could never seem to prevent despite forwarding. While still in his youth, he learned to suppress these dark visions, for they only caused him pain and suffering. He tried to focus himself on good that would come to pass. One of the greatest events he foresaw was the arrival of his father, something he had longed for since the day of his birth.

As the Emperor's Armada arrived in the system above Propsero, the entire planet was filled with dread. It was Magnus who comforted them, saying that it was a great leader of strength, kindness, and wisdom who had come to make their world a part of a new galactic empire of humanity, to usher in a new golden age. When the Emperor arrived, it was to great celebrations and adulation, for the people of Propsero had learned to heed to words of Magnus. The Emperor had brought his son, Horus, first of the Primarchs and together they would meet Magnus and welcome him home.

When pair first saw Magnus, they were shocked. In the Emperor's visions he had not foreseen that Magnus would be a deformed dwarf, standing hunched and twisted, needing canes to walk. Horus on the other hand, Magnus's older brother, was a vision of perfection, standing more than seven feet in height with perfect features, muscles like finely chiseled stone, and the face of an angel. He looked down upon his tiny brother and laughed, he laughed at Magnus and mocked him openly as none had ever done before. Magnus only looked on in shock as Horus ridiculed him before looking to his father the Emperor. In the Emperor's eyes, there was only sadness and disappointment. He raised his hand to silence Horus, though the look in his eyes were more painful to Magnus than Horus' cruel words. It was in that instant that Magnus had a vision of both the death of Horus and of the Emperor, deaths that Magnus would be the cause of and would be glad for. Magnus at once pushed this terrible thought from his mind. He resolved to earn the love and respect of his father, though in his heart he knew that he would never succeed.

The Emperor took Magnus to his side, the second of his Primarchs to be found and second beneath the first Primarch Horus. The Emeperor knew that while Magnus was not the perfect son that Horus was, that his psychic abilities would make him useful. The Emperor did grow to respect Magnus, to value his second son's intellect, honesty, his morality, and wisdom - but he could not bring himself to love him. Especially not as he loved Horus.

Over the years, Magnus helped the Emperor to find psykers across the galaxy as well as the other Primarchs. Magnus's psychic abilities rivaled even those of the Emperor and his prophetic abilities may have even exceeded those of the Emperor. One by one they gathered up the other Primarchs, making them join in the Emperor's great crusade to retake the galaxy for humanity. They all, save for Horus, had a great respect and even fear of Magnus and his powers. They all showed deference to him and carefully heeded his advise, though they were all aloof as well, none were close to Magnus or looked upon him as brother. All but one, his sister Aurelia.

It was Aurelia who showed Magnus kindness where the others showed merely respect, it was she who loved him while the others were merely indifferent, it was she who was truly a sister to him and not merely an ally. The two became close, spending many hours speaking to each other of life, philosophy, and politics. Their roles would often pull them apart for great lengths of time, but each moment they could send together brought each great happiness.

On one day, after not having seen his beloved sister for many years, he accompanied Horus and the Emperor to Colchis, the home planet and base of operations for Aurelia. When they landed they were warmly greeted by Aurelia and the Covenant, a priesthood that Aurelia had started to venerate and worship the Emperor as supreme god of humanity and the universe. Aurelia kneeled before the Emperor along with the priests of her newly formed order, on the steps of a great temple complex were the multitudes sang the praises of the God Emperor of Mankind. Seeing this, the Emperor grew enraged and struck Aurelia, knocking her to the ground. He chastised her for her stupidity, for spreading ignorance and superstition among the masses and undermining the Imperial Truth. He ordered his soldiers to raze the temples and to burn the books and treasures within them, to kill any who resisted.

As Aurelia lay there sobbing on the ground, Horus stood above her laughing, parroting the insults of the Emperor and adding his own cruel jibes. As temple complex burned around her, Magnus walked forward and placed his small twisted hand on Aurelia's shoulder. She looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears. Magnus looked down on her, the first time he ever felt taller than her, and wiped the tears from her eyes before taking her in his arms to embrace her. He then wiped the tears from his own eyes as he looked around at the rising flames and devastation.

The Emperor ordered Aurelia to return to Terra with him, to keep an eye on her and to prevent any future foolishness. It was on this journey when Aurelia and Magnus spoke of the event. Aurelia told Magnus that she had thought the Emperor was a god, that she had always known that there was some great force in the universe, something beyond all of humanity and that the Emperor was that force. Magnus closed eyes and searched the depths of the universe with his mind, hearing voices deep within the Warp, voices of the dead, of the living, of those yet to be born, seeing echoes of reality in a sea of chaos. He knew then that Aurelia was right and that the Emperor had known it to. He realized that there were many secrets in the universe, secrets that he must unravel. Magnus heeded the words of Aurelia, keeping his own visions to himself for the time being, and set himself to study the secret that the Emperor sought to hide. To aid him in his studies, he had retrieved several books from one of the libraries of Colchis, the few he had protected from the consuming flames.

As Magnus began to study the mysteries of the Warp, he lost himself to the for many years. The learned of the dangerous creatures beyond the veil of reality, of the power they held over human dreams and emotion, of the great power of the Emperor. He also studied ancient rituals, many gleamed form the writing he had found of Colchis, rituals to communicate with these creatures, to bind them, to aid or hurt them, to bring them into this reality. Eventually Magnus asked the Emperor about these things, about the daemons of the Warp, about sorcery, about his own divine nature. The Emperor dismissed Magnus, saying that these things were not for him to delve into, that they were too dangerous for any human. For forbade Magnus from any other research on the issue or from even mentioning it again.

Magnus tried for several months to obey, but as each day passed he felt and greater and greater darkness drawing over him, over all of humanity. He caught visions of terrible events in the future, events that he might perhaps stop if he could only see more clearly.

Magnus realized that he must open himself once more to the future, to see all that would happen so that he may come to prevent the worst of it. With his rituals and years of study, he opened his mind to the future and saw the nightmare to come. Magnus saw visions of Horus betraying the Emperor, of Horus leading his armies against Terra, of Horus slaying the Emperor by his own hand. Magnus was frantic, he had to warn the Emperor, had to tell him of this plot. In a moment of reckless abandon, Magnus used all of his psychic might to call to the Emperor across the vastness of space, warning him of Horus's treachery.

The Emperor spoke back to him, in the with thoughts filled with rage and disappointment. He called Magnus the traitor, said that Magnus had disobeyed him and had been corrupted by the Warp. When Magnus tried to explain and reason with his father, the Emperor said that Magnus had always resented Horus, Horus's great mind, his strength, his courage, his loyalty. That Magnus could never be the son that Horus was and that it was this hatred and jealousy that had made Magnus lie about his brother. The Emperor ordered Magnus to turn himself in to him for treason. It was at this request that Magnus broke off communication with the Emperor. He fell to the floor of his study, screaming in grief and anger. His mind raced, he wondered if he should turn himself in, or flee, or take his own life. He did not know.

He opened his mind up to the Warp once more to contact his sister Aurelia, who he had not spoken to in many years. As their minds touched, an even greater horror became known to him. He also saw the treason of Aurelia. This was more painful than anything else he had seen, that she, his most beloved could side with Horus against their father. She tried to speak with him to explain, but he broke off their contact as well. Creating a psychic shield around his planet, Magnus isolate himself and his world from all outsiders. He lived in a fog for days or months, he did not know. He only awoke when he heard the crashes and explosions of an attack on his world. He opened his mind and saw a great fleet of his father's laying siege to his planet, bombing cities, killing many of the Imperium's greatest psychics and scholars. As he lowered his psychic shield, he felt the power of his father assaulting him, weakening him, draining away his powers. He could feel the present of his sister Leyna as well, one of the more powerful psykers among the Primarchs. Her mind was assaulting his. While Magnus was the stronger by far, he could not fight off both her mind and that of the Emperor, not in his state of mind especially. Magnus began to lower his resistance, to let death overtake him and to perhaps put an end to his suffering.

It was not to be. Just as he was about to give himself over to oblivion, he saw yet another vision, Aurelia's kind face, speaking sweet words to him, words of wisdom and hope. This vision reinvigorated Magnus, who with a great effort ripped a hole in the fabric of reality, pulling himself and his closest students and followers with him into the Warp. Magnus could only protect them in the swirling chaos of the Warp for so long, he needed a refuge where they would be safe from both the Emperor's wrath and the traitor Horus. He could only think of his sister Aurelia and her world of Colchis. As he brought himself and his followers to Colchis, Magnus collapsed under the strain of the great effort.

Magnus awoke aboard a ship within the Warp, within the fortress of his sister Aurelia. He saw his sister leaning over him, stroking his brow, concern in her eyes. He could also feel her power, psychic power the likes of which he had never felt before, possibly surpassing his own or even that of the Emperor. She spoke to him of why she had betrayed the Emperor, that she had been right all along, that there was a higher power, but it was not the Emperor. It was one god with four faces and they were the true masters of humanity. Magnus didn't know what to say or think, he contemplated on this and was shocked by what she said next.

"The Emperor is not your true father, it was not him who comforted you across the void, not the loving voice welcomed you to the world. It was your true father, Tzeentch, one of the faces of god." Magnus looked at her incredulously. Magnus looked once again into the future, the past, further than he would let himself before. He saw that she was right. He heard the voice once more, the voice of his true father, the voice of Tzeentch. Magnus gave himself to the changer of ways, opening his eyes without fear or reservation. He saw a vision of Horus's death, of the Emperor's, of a universe in flames and ruin, and, one day, a great rebirth. He saw all of this and knew that it was his destiny to usher in these great changes.

Magnus went on the swear his loyalty to his cruel brother Horus, knowing that as his adviser he would help to bring about both his death and that of the Emperor. He knew that he must use his abilities to the fullest, his own and those new gifts received from Tzeentch. Magnus plucked out his eye with a bear hand and offered it up to Tzeentch, who accepted it and through it gave Magnus vision beyond that of any other seer. Magnus saw all things with perfect clarity, the future, the past, the strands of fate. He saw legions of daemons bowing down to him, felt the power of Tzeentch flowing through him. He had been a fool before, to limit himself so. Now, there would be no limits.