Warhammer 40000 Codexery

Primarchs

The genetic fathers of the twenty Space Marine Legions; nine turned to Chaos in the Horus Heresy.

In Warhammer 40,000 the Primarchs are the genetic "fathers" of the original 20 Space Marine Legions. They were introduced, with the Legions, in the 1990 book Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned by Rick Priestley and Bryan Ansell.

Quick Facts

Number
20 (2 redacted)
Turned traitor
9 Legions
First described
Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned (1990)

Lore & Background

The same book first described the Horus Heresy, the civil war of the 30th millennium in which nine Legions converted to the worship of the Chaos Gods and rebelled against the Emperor. Two of the 20 Legions and their Primarchs are never named and are described as "redacted" from the Imperium's records; Priestley explained that this illustrates the Imperium's habit of erasing embarrassing or incriminating events and people.

More in Lore & History

Elsewhere in Warhammer 40000

Spotted an error? Know more?

Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced

Comments

Loading…
Open in the interactive codex →