The Tragic Fall Of The Noble Thousand Sons | Warhammer 40k Lore 

To be honest, I didn't have "feeling bad for immortal Space Wizards" on my bingo card for 2023 but here we are What I did have however was the Majorkill Plush 2.0 : www.makeship.com/products/majorkill-plush-2 Everyone who buys can request a free video message

Magnus's fall could have been avoided with the Emperor having a five minute chat about what was going on.

Currently reading The Crimson King and 30k Ahriman is literally the perfect Space Marine psyker. Gets his men to train and work without their psychic abilities to keep their skills sharp and prepared if they're ever caught without them. Encourages caution against overuse of their abilities and fully acknowledges the risks of being a psyker. Insists the legion are Astartes first and psykers second. Was willing to train mortals to use their gifts but made sure they were well aware of the risks. Also the main dude to council against whatever dumb shit Magnus wants to try because he's literally OP. Magnus may have saved them from the flesh change (temporarily) but that's about all the good he did for them. They were what you want from a psychic legion. Big E royally fucked up at the Council of Nikea though, a sensible compromise of the librarius was literally offered up.

"The knowledge of sorcery is like sea water, the more that is drunk, the thirstier the drinker becomes, and the more surely they are poisoned." - Kva 'He who is Divided', Caster of Runes from the Space Wolves

Ahriman is awesome. He is so damn ruthless and powerful and has actual goals and wants to save his brothers.

Thousand Sons even still have their Prospero Spireguard, consisted of human disciplined soldiers which they actually respect. Not to mention Magnus and Thousand Sons actually were close friends with the most cool and chill Primarchs and their legions, Jaghatai Khan and Sangunius. There was also a confrantation between Konrad Curze and Magnus. Konrad wanted to bomb and destroy the conquered planets library, where Magnus and Thousand Sons were desperately trying to shield and protect it. In the end, Magnus had to relent. During the Horus Heresy, Siege of Terra, Mortarion and Magnus were ordered to attack Imperial Palace together with their Legions. When the Primarchs met, Magnus greeted Mortarion with respect and kindness. Eventhough Mortarion hated his guts. Magnus even casted some sort of healing spell on Mortarion that somewhat eased his pain and cleared his blurry vision. Mortarion somewhat appreciated this gesture. Now granted there was a bit of subtle manipulation on Magnus’s part as he wanted Mortarion to perform well so he could be a good distraction while he infiltrated the palace itself… but still i would like to think there is still some part of goodness left in him. Magnus never really had any malice towards anyone. Not until all the anti-psycher shit started to happen. He and his legion were benevolent by nature. But their downfall ultimately came from their unique powers which caused them to be arrogant. Especially Magnus. He thought, with his great wisdom and psychic gifts, he knew better than most. Sometimes even more than the emperor. He shared the same dream with the emperor. But alas.. its a cruel and tragic universe. The road to hell is paved by good and noble intentions. FUN FACTS: Some Thousand Son sorcerers even believed they could cure the Butchers Nails

Magnus and Angron got the most tragic fates they definitely deserved better its why they’re my fav Traitor Primarchs including Perturabo.

Prospero is my fav HH conflict because of its tragedy and as it covers my fav factions, as well. Magnus was about to stay to his failures but even messed that one up. Imagine if he'd surrendered himself to Russ right away to protect his sons. The Sons could still be loyal and shift the entire power balance within the heresy.

Recently read "a thousand sons" and it really made me appreciate Magnus and his legion. I really feel bad for them. I'm not on the team of "Magnus did nothing wrong" but I definetely understand where they are coming from now.

My favorite legion. An important detail though: the Emperor told the Wolves to arrest Magnus and the 1k Sons, not kill them. But iirc Horus intercepted the signal and told the Wolves to destroy them.

Thousand Sons my beloved Jokes aside, I really wish more people were into Thousand Sons - I love their story and the tragedy of their fall, especially the tragedy of Magnus. Shame you didn't mention Phosis T'kar, he was an absolute unit.

Malcador when Magnus broke the human webway: “GOOD GRIEF HE’S NAKED!!!”

10:20 this Astartes was Phosis T'kar who was captain of the 3rd brotherhood i think. He was a really OP thousand son and during the battle of prospero he was actually disappointed at how easy it was for him to kill custodes. When he saw leman massacring his brothers he unleashed his full power and went after him, killing many of lemans bodyguards however valdor stepped infront of him (its worth noting that at this point T'kar was so hyped on warp juice that he knows he could kill valdor right at that moment if he wanted too) but T'kar had fully succumbed to the flesh change and was now an ugly ass eldritch horror, realising this and understanding the true fate of the legion he allowed valdor to strike him down. Honestly a really badass thousand sons and one of my favourites

I want to point out that Magnus is currently making a sanctuary for psykers while rebuilding Prospero, not murdering and pillaging and dominating like Abaddon or infecting billions like Mortarion. Considering how shitty the Imperium treats Psykers, Magnus' psyker empire is truly the best possible thing if you are one. And after the Great Rift forming, there's a shit ton more psykers than ever before. And many non psykers end up just becoming Tzaangors which isn't all that bad either. I know this comes off incredibly bias, but I really do think the nascent Prospero 2.0 is probably the best place to be in the current timeline.

The Thousand Sons don't deserve their fate, just like Yarrick doesn't deserve his previous model to be his last, Majorkill please make a mini dedicated to the late Old Man of Armageddon

I love how he goes on and on about all the stuff the Thousands sons did to keep their sorcery in check and just conveniently forgets to mention Magnus was the one who taught them all of it 😂

Getting a video about how each of the pre heresy primarchs would have reacted to being in Guillimans position would be pretty cool ngl , seeing how they react to the new religious imperium, suppressed disappointment like Guilliman or anger and rage?

I’ve always read Magnus’ choice of suicide by Space Wolves as the best option, Big E was being absolutely blind thinking they could bring the Thousand Sons in. Magnus at this point had seen the true Tzeencth who might have been the peak of his power in lore with all the change and things in motion of the Heresy. He knew many of his sons would not accept chains especially from Space Wolves and would have fought or caused more subtle problems. Magnus now knew his legion was basically a bunch of little chaos bombs only a few could straight up resist the change if Tzeencth willed it against them. If they got on the Space Wolves ships and entered the warp the Space Wolves would have been eradicated and the Thousand Sons would have fallen all the same. Tzeencth would hit them with a warp storm so hard because he’s not letting his little pet project slip away. Then imagine the battle of Prospero constrained to ships were if a gellar field goes down suddenly the full might and demons of the warp could join them. Only Russ and a handful of plot protected souls would have fought out of that and we know Magnus wouldn’t have escaped with Russ because he felt incapable to leave his boys to their fate. Tzeencth might have been at his most powerful and still ended up with the most broken soul shattered of the chaos primarchs and a resentful super weakened legion. Thousand Sons were born with Tzeencth’s hand up their asses and he still had to break every single one of them to get them dancing to his bullshit.

What I love the most is how, just as Magnus was arrogant during Council, so was the Emperor, thinking that he can just "ban" many people to not be themselves while he finishes his project.

Thousand Sons have some of the best Traitor Marine characters. Ahriman is incredibly strong and is so ballsy he wants to run Caegorache's pockets to reverse his Rubric while Khayon is just a badass in all ways by casually making Magnus kneel and being such a Chad not even the Inquisition killed him on sight when he "surrendered" to them.

Learning Ahriman was really the good guy all along was the heresy I never knew I needed

Loyal thousand sons were epic. Loyal Magnus at his prime was the kind of good guy you’d want by your side. One of the best and tragic tales to come out of black library

The Thousand Sons were doomed from the beginning the moment Tzeentch placed the Flesh Change curse upon their geneseed.

I read Talon of Horus about Abbapussy but the main character is a Thousand Sons sorcerer and talks about the fall of Prospero and how the Rubric Marines came to be. The Thousand sons are heartbroken on losing their brothers, somehow in a 40k story the author conveyed just deep sorrowful loss. Like losing a loved family member, and to be tricked by Tzeench the surviving Thousand Son sorcerer are split, most of them fucking hate what happened but some felt it was necessary. The Rubic marines are these dead, animated golems, but there's that little piece of a soul left inside them and they talk, and it's just how the dialogue was written but it's heartbreaking hearing them comply with the orders Khayon is giving them like that last bit of humanity Tzeench couldn't rip out of them is doing it out of love. Highly recommend for other nerds, very good read.

A flash of insight struck Yvraine. ‘Ahzek Ahriman!’ she shouted, ‘I have that which you seek. I can restore your brethren!’ A stone’s throw away, the Visarch cut at the webway’s exterior with the Sword of Silent Screams, but he could not scratch it. The Yncarne hissed in pain to her flank, trailers of purple mist unwinding from its body as it was dissolved by the aether behind. ‘And why should I believe that?’ came the sorcerous voice in Yvraine’s head. ‘You have no power here, in my new domain.’ She felt white heat as something loomed behind, the fell gaze of godly eyes burning down upon her with terrible, inhuman focus. ‘Open your eyes!’ she cried, secretly praying to Ynnead that her desperate gambit would work. She pressed her hands upon the psychocrystal of the webway’s exterior, focussed on the armoured Legionaries within, and reversed the cycles of their existence. A dozen of the Thousand Sons Rubric Marines, previously levelling firepower into the Reborn with the emotionless efficiency of automatons, staggered backwards as if struck. They looked at one another, clutched their hearts, and fell back, rallying around Ahriman before taking up the defensive stances of the Emperor’s Legiones Astartes. Yvraine could just make out their words as they frantically sought to make sense of their situation. ‘Ahzek? Is that you, brother?’ ‘Where are the Athenaeans? These are Eldar we face this day!’ ‘In the name of Magnus, what is going on?’ Ahriman shook his head as if stunned, his wide shoulders shaking uncontrollably with mirth, grief, or a mixture of the two. He brought his cupped hands together once more and yanked Ynnead’s luminaries downward with a shout of pure exultation. A lurch of the stomach, and Yvraine suddenly found herself in the swirling tide of battle once more, the Visarch and the Yncarne quickly taking up positions behind her. ‘Do it,’ she said to her companions, siphoning the rich reservoir of Eldar life force that flooded the tunnels into a single burst of invigorating energy. In a flash, the Iyandeni giant Soulseeker was there, trailing white flame as his wraithblade carved a chasm through the crystal of the webway’s superstructure with an ear-splitting scream. Stepping to the edge of the fissure, the Yncarne opened its maw impossibly wide. It inhaled so mightily the resurrected Thousand Sons were drawn towards it, stumbling over the edge of the chasm to fall away into the void beneath. Ahriman screamed in denial, riding his disc after them on a trail of fire. ‘The Whispering God gives new life,’ said Yvraine as her Reborn surged forward around her for the kill, ‘just as he takes life away.’ This scene always stuck with me. Ahriman becoming very emotional after seeing his brothers turn back to flesh and blood after thousands of years. (Gathering Storm: Fracture of Biel-Tan)

"The minds of gods are not for mortals to know, or to judge. Accept that Tzeentch has a place for all of us in his grand scheme, and be happy in the part you have to play." - Proclamation of Magnus the Red to the Thousand Sons

Magnus didn't mess up the Fall of Prospero by shutting himself away. He messed it up when he couldn't hold to his convictions and decided to fight anyway. Like his brother Pertuabo, Magnus assumed that the Emperor would never forgive him and that his only option was to betray him or be destroyed. He chose to die rather than betray his father, unlike Pertuabo. He handicapped his legion to ensure minimal casualties to the loyalists when they attacked because he knew Horus wanted to destroy two loyal legions at the same time. The tragedy is that even though Horus told Russ to destroy the Thousand Sons, it still could have been avoided if Magnus hadn't assumed that there was no hope for himself and his legion.

The Thousand Son were the army that initially introduced and brought me into the hobby so there will always be a soft spot in my heart for them, though I'm a Dark Eldar player to the core nowadays

I believe that a couple of Rubric Marines got resurrected by Yvraine and the Yncarne just to get murdered again a few moments later. They were like “In the name of Magnus, wtf is going on?”. You can find this bit on reddit.

i recently finished fury of magnus and it had 2 really cool moments for the red man the 1st was saving some refugees from getting crushed by debris and the second was him rejecting the emperor's chance to rejoin the loyalist all because he didn't want to lose his sons in place of a new legion. he may be bad now but magnus is still awesome in some ways or at least was.

Magnus is a story of "pride before the fall"

This just makes me wonder what a "Emperor sides with Magnus" timeline would look like, because him aggravating the anti-psyker primarchs enough would be an absolutely hilarious way for all the demon primarchs to be originally anti-psyker.

Imagine if the Emperor sent the Lion to Prospero instead... or even Gulliman. After Monarchia Gulliman would try ANYTHING to avoid hurting another brother like that and exhaust every diplomatic option.

I ... didn't know anything except that Space Wolves attacked them. I guessed that they were doing bad sorcery or something. ...damn! This is on another level entirely! Thank you for this!

i love the space wolf story about the runepriest who had a thousand sons sorcerer in his mind, he leads an expedition to prospero to find some old space wolves, and he forms a "friendship" with the sorcerer and lets him return to his own body, healing it when he did.

There is so much really good development of Magnus and TS characters in the lore, but I have a hard time embracing them because of their aesthetic and their ridiculous armor. However, spot on video, mate!

How awesome would it be to see the thousand sons flip back to the imperium down the line

If things had gone differently, the Thousands Sons could easily have remained a Loyalist Legion. After all, Magnus was the only one of the traitor Primarchs who was opposed to Horus at the start, Magnus even tried to warn the Emperor of Horus' betrayal, though this was to be his most reckless move and biggest mistake which turned the Emperor against him and believing that HE was the traitor rather than Horus. If this one move had gone differently, Magnus might have been one of the most significant of the Loyalist Primarchs who warned of the Horus Heresy before it could get started properly. Too bad Magnus wasn't sensible enough.

ahhh one of my favourite Pre heresy legions. Amazing guys. They were psykers and they had everything to do with the arcane but they were the most logical lads there. Educated, with academic attidude, cool in character, noble. I really loved them. Their fall in my opinion was one the greatest tragedies in Horus Heresy era

I really wish there where still some loyal thousand sons they are my favorite legion style wise.

The tragedy of the Thousand Sons is one of my favorite parts of 40k. Ahriman is tied up there with Ragnar Blackmane as my favorite character. My two favorite factions caught in a never ending brutal rivalry. Kinda like the rivalry I have with studying and going to school to do something helpful for others and wanting to go out to drink/have fun/ and possibly an impromptu fight with frat dirtbags.

I have a million dollar idea. Make a MajorKill vs. Weshammer M.M.A. pay per view. I'd buy that. Lol.

The only communication leman tried was the spy he thought magnus sent to fenris the spy actually was sent by a demon, the same demon that manipulated the custodes at the council of nikaea. Magnus was prepared to accept his punishment but leman had Horus and valdor in his ear

While I admit that I’m not the biggest fan of the chaos marine legions I will admit that there are plenty of chaos marine characters I love. This video proving that Ahriman is one of them.

Long have we waited for this video and it shall be added to our galactic library. All is dust

the summary of magnus the red's story. : good intentions paved his road to hell

MajorKill you need to get on the PKA podcast you’d kill it joking around with them.

Hey. Real talk about the plush. The first was great quality. If this one is the same, it will be a real treat. Love them.

"The thousand sons existed, this would later bite them in the ass in a horrible way."

I think this is your best video yet, probably because you had a better passion to sarcasm ratio. Keep it up.

Seeing as how crucial Magnus was in the Emperor’s plan (being his replacement for the throne), how unbelievably stupid it was to alienate his son, and even to send the one legion you know hated the T-Sons guts.

Shit was really harsh for Ahrimab in particular, he even had plans of becoming a wine maker when the crusade was over and was even good friends with regular humans, he was the chillest marine I've seen and then he got thrown in this downward spiral of fuck ups

One detail you messed up was at the Trial, everyone besides Mortarion was just giving emotional reasons as their arguments while Magnus was countering them logically. Then Mortarion starts giving a logical, rational argument, which while he does have a bias against psykers after witnessing the horrors of his adoptive father, he was able to concisely describe and explain the dangers of psyker magic. Which led to Magnus getting emotional with the analogy and allegory (anallegory?) and Big E's subsequent approval of the removal. I quite like Mortarion

i still feel magnus isn't as bad as you say he is. Certainly he screwed up, but he's no perturabo. Still good video all around, the thousands sons are easily my favorite traitor legion with the death guard right behind them.

When you name your sorcerous planet after a Shakespearean magus, you are inviting drama to your doorstep.

I'm so glad I subbed to you a few years ago you've helped me really get into 40k and allowed me to brainwash my friends into it via warp sorcery

A legion I wish was told more was the Sons of Horus

One thing that I always thought was sad about the Thousand Sons is Magnus' bad behavior gets passed down to his sons. Arrogance, but a flavor of, "Since I'm the best, I know what must be done to solve this problem." which ends up making it worse. Magnus destroying the Webway Project while being told by the Emperor to cut that psyker shit out was his big moment. Ahriman was told by Magnus to "Cut that finding a cure to the flesh change shit out." and caused the Rubric. I don't remember the sorcerer's name, but in the third Mephiston book, the lead bad guy was trying to start a spell to help Magnus materialize the Planet of the Sorcerers into real space. Mephiston screwed his plan over, which caused Magnus' plan to be heavily delayed.

“Magic is like my beer. The more you drink it, The more y want to kick you in the balls” -Leman Russ (probably)

You really cover some great topics on your channel

I think it'd be interesting if Magnus were redeemed at some point. I have no idea how that would work with him being a daemon primarch and all, but of all of the traitor primarchs his has always struck me as the fall that could possibly be resolved via some kind of intervention by Big E. Plus in the Dark Imperium novels Guilliman makes it clear that he understands Magnus was done dirty by the Emperor when he was just trying to help, and that Big E's secrecy about Chaos was the real problem. "Bringing back a primarch" by actually having a traitor renounce Chaos would also be a crazy-ass lore curve ball with fascinating implications - both with what becomes of Magnus, and ALSO how the Imperium would react.

I'm pretty sure that the Thousand Son's were Tzeentch's # 1 pick. Unlike Nurgle, and Khorne. Who's #1 picks were Iron Warriors, and Blood Angels, respectively... I'm not sure who Slaanesh's were, but im pretty sure it was Emperors Children...

Could you make a vid about everything that can happen to a soul after death?

Emperor's children: Were doing everything they could to be the best, they wanted to show the wonder and beauty of humanity, to be exemplars in as many arts as possible. When their ultra charismatic father lead them down that path, they fell into a trap they couldn't climb out of Iron warriors: wanted to be seen and acknowledged by the other legions, and wanted a father that would show them compassion like Dorn or Guilliman did theirs. Instead Pertarabo declared Decimation for a hard fought victory and treated them like crap. Night Lords: The loyal terrans were weeded out and driven mad by the edicts of Conrad, or they were assassinated by the super violent children from Nostromo. world eaters: the 12th were honorable and brutal warriors, and eagerly wished to see their primarch. But angron hated them from day 1, and only seemed to listen to Kharn, who pushed angron to be even more violent. They did everything to try and get Angron to accept them, and nothing was ever good enough. Death Guard: Motarian turned a completely sensible legion into pure attrition warfare, and Typhus sold his father and brothers out to nurgle. Luna wolves: They followed their father into damnation after seeing the unstoppable titan of justic and honor die. They embraced his changes and followed him like children too blind to see the mental scars on their parent. Word Bearers: All the loyalists were silently purged, ironically dying martyr's deaths at the hads of the first heretics. The aloha legion were basically shown a spoiler: and had to make a choice. the legion, and even their primarch quietly began fighting each other through covert means, unable to reach a real decision on what to do.

Video idea each primarchs reaction to chaos and demons

Good to see you finally giving the 15th some love!

the thousand sons and prospero burns are two of my favorite 40k books, i love this !

Great video mate 😁👍

Agreed the thousand sons are my favourite legion and them falling to Chaos was heartbreaking

The interesting tidbits you can pick up here and there about the Thousand Suns usually turn out to be tragic. Take Ahriman, for example. In ADB's second Abaddon novel, Khayon (a former Thousand Son who is now basically Abaddon's chief assassin) talks about how Ahriman believes himself to be unchanged by Tzeentch even after all this time. He goes on to say he's seen the screaming void where Ahriman's face used to be. Apparently wielding awesome warp magic for ten millennia can fuck with your head a wee bit, figuratively and literally.

He ordered a thousands of those damn things. He is fighting to sell 400. He is almost out. Poor guy. I genuinely feel for him.

Brother, can you please do a video breaking down the ranks and roles in accordance of the codex astartes including breaking down types of captains like the first captains role

Leman: ew, your sons are got some nasty mutations Also Leman: wolfen

LETS GOOOOOO ANOTHER THOUSAND SONS VID

MajorKill is the best War Hammer RU-vidr.

Thanks for covering the thousand Sons :D

Good content MK.

We need the Emperor to beat Tzeentch in *Paradox-Billiards-Vostroyan-Roulette-Fourth Dimensional-Hypercube-Chess-Strip Poker* to win Magnus’ soul back!!

That Gold/Red Egyptian aesthetic was also fantastic. I loved their Loyalist color scheme.

You should cover the Sabbat worlds crusades

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I have absolutely loved the Thousand Sons lore since the 2nd ed Chaos codex back in the 90s.

Hey majorkill. Keep up the awesome videos. Was wondering if you already posted the winners of your painting competition. Cheers

*Me who used to love the Thousand Sons just because they looked cool and colorful watching this video.* "Ah hell yeah even more of a reason to love them!"

Damn, now I wanaa see one on the Alpha Legion

"IT WAS LORGAR FAULT GODDAMNED IT!!" Red Turkey 🦃

Fancy Watch You Got There Majorkill.

Honestly Magnus should have been one of the 3 Primarchs to know about Chaos from the start the not telling anyone was a bad call.

My Thousand Sons legion and Corvidea Cult tattoos appreciate this video.

I feel like it should be Magnus trying to reason with Russ, but Russ' deep hatred for his brother and psykers, just tells Mognus that there's no mercy, and just starts orbital bombardment on the planet.

What a timing, i just end reading the Thousand Son in the Robutian Heresy.

THANKS for this videos! thats why the sons are my army! of course the mortal wounds are also not bad 😅

I see now that General Radahn got his armor from the Magnus thriftshop

Grimdark media is equal parts tragedy, cautionary tale, and parody, and that's what makes it great.

Absolutely great seeing my favorite dusty bois getting some love

All things been said and done Phosis T’kar’s tiger knee to a sister of battle was dope af

tbh bro after Ultramarines these guys are my favorite

The biggest tragedy in 40k is the price of the minis

Can we have an Emperor Palpatine vs Chaos infused Horus pls

Major please release new video soon i had to skip this once cuz it was too sad i couldnt handle it

Counterpoint: coolest looking traitor marines