Wrath of Magnus summary and spoilers

All right, as with Mont'ka last year, I'll be doing a summary and detailed spoilers of Wrath of Magnus before following up with a detailed analysis of the formations (I've already done a post on the Horrors), Formation-based Detachments, psychic powers, Warlord Traits, etc. and perhaps even a review of the new Thousand Sons units. I'll split them up into several posts so that it won't be too much to read, and finally I'll post that sample list build and ask you guys once more which army you would like to see me build and field on the tabletop. You know the drill.

As always, this post is for readers and fans who can't be bothered or do not have the time to read through 100+ pages of fluff, or cannot afford the book (or maybe you want to buy Traitor Legions instead of this book) and so are unable to read it, but you are very curious to know what transpired in the second part of the Warzone Fenris saga. So I've summed up the fluff for you so you can save time and money, or get convinced to buy the awesome book. Yeah. As always, spoiler alert: this summary will obviously contain spoilers (duh), so if you don't want to be spoiled, turn away now. You've been warned.

So let's get started!

Curse of the Wulfen: The story so far...

Well, I'll do a quick wrap up of the horrible mess that was Curse of the Wulfen. I'll be honest, I didn't like it. Not because it's too Space Wolves-centric (it is what it is), but because of the screwed up storyline that made no sense.

Basically, the whole of Curse of Wulfen can be summed up into this: wild Wulfen appears! Space Wolves get rattled, but Logan Grimnar decides to round them up and bring them back to the Chapter because they're brethren. This leads the Space Wolves to become cowardly, selfish, arrogant bastards who plunge into the respective warzones/planets they were assigned to, snatch their Wulfen brothers out of the jaws of Daemon armies, then basically fly away instead of saving the planet that's being besieged by Daemons. Yes. The Space Wolves ain't got time to stay and fight, they're just going to leave the poor Imperium civilians to their fates after grabbing their Wulfen brothers, because Wulfen are more important than NPCs...I mean insignificant humans of the Imperium. Along the way, the Dark Angels are tricked into thinking their Scouts got murdered by Wulfen, and they launch an investigation that eventually leads to them persecuting the poor Space Wolves, which was not helped by their arrogant, dismissive, self-centered and cowardly attitudes. The Grey Knights, awesome as they are, gets involved because, you know Daemons and they're our Imperium's finest Daemonhunters.

Turns out everything was a trap, and while the Space Wolves Great Companies were off rescuing and bringing their Wulfen back, the entire Fenris system was invaded by Daemons and Alpha Legion. Just as planned. Rushing back to their system, where entire planets except Fenris were infected by Daemons (also thanks to the handiwork of the Alpha Legion), the returning Great Companies launched their counterattacks and try to reclaim their planets. They succeed for the most part, except on Midgardia, where after Logan Grimnar banishes an Infernal Tetrad, or rather, he fought them and they disappeared before burying him under tons of solid rock. Just as planned.

Well, anyway, as I said, they succeed for the most part, with Ragnar Blackmane saving Arvann Stern and the Grey Knights from demise and forging an alliance between the two forces. Too little, too late, unfortunately, because the Imperial fleet has arrived and under the Dark Angels' leadership they begin orbital bombardment of the Fenris planets...or in other words, Exterminatus. Who's pulling the strings? The Changeling, who has taken the guise of a Vox Seneschal and was sowing discord and deceit among vox communication to convince the Dark Angels and friends that the Space Wolves cannot be saved, and thus led to the orbital bombardment. Yay.

Take that, Space Wolves! It's revenge for razing Propsero 10,000 years ago! I've never thought that flippant, spiteful thought would be proven right when I first read Curse of the Wulfen and as it turned out the Thousand Sons are indeed involved. What delicious irony. Maybe I'm a Divination Psyker?

Jokes aside, let's move on to the Wrath of Magnus, which takes place shortly after the the orbital bombardment begins.

Chapter 1: Crisis Point

So Ragnar Blacknane and Arvann Stern plus Inquisitor Banist de Mornay (who we'll never hear about again after this) show up on the Rock...no, not Dwayne Johnson, we're talking about the planetary fragment fortress-battleship thingy that serves as the Dark Angels' homeworld. Anyway, they show up, argue with the Dark Angels a bit, and lo and behold! Brother-Captain Arvann Stern, being the stern Grey Knight that he is, begins pointing fingers. Okay, for good reason, for he has identified the culprit who deceived the Dark Angels and the Imperial fleet into bombarding the planets in the Fenris system - our good old friend the Changeling!

Suffice to say, battle erupts within the Rock, and the Changeling leads our heroes in a merry chase along its interiors, all the while summoning Daemons. Specifically Horrors, because you know, we need to showcase the newest unit and their latest ability. Anyway, the Dark Angels and our heroes fight back, but killing the Pink Horrors the Changeling summoned ended up splitting them into Blue Horrors - two for every single Pink Horror slain - and killing the Blue Horrors in turn splits them up into more Brimstone Horrors! Oh, the horror! What horror!

Our heroes leave the horrifying Horrors to the poor serfs (who gets flamed to death courtesy of Flickering Fire) and the rest of the Dark Angels to chase and track down the laughing, retreating Changeling, who continues with his devious schemes. The Changeling isn't done with his subterfuge, for in addition to deceiving the Imperium to bombing the hell out of Fenris worlds, he's also trying to reveal the Fallen Ones and the secrets of the Dark Angels to the Imperium and also get them persecuted in the same way the Dark Angels first persecuted the Space Wolves. Delicious irony there. The Dark Angels, particularly Supreme Grand Master Azrael, somehow know the Changeling's motives, and are pretty desperate to stop him before he causes the demise and exocommunication of the Chapter, and chase after him as much as possible, while inwardly grumbling about the Grey Knights and other dudes being busybodies. In the midst of this, Stern had a trio of Paladins teleport into the Rock, which ended up burning the defensive wards that countered Daemonic presence. This ended up bringing the Daemonic contamination to unsafe levels a la DooM, but the Grey Knights couldn't be bothered. After all, the Rock rocks!

Oh, and you have Grand Master Belial and the Deathwing showing up to beat the Daemons and Horrors into oblivion, because you know, you can't have the Dark Angels show up without featuring a couple of pages on their infamous Deathwing. That, and the Space Hulk: Deathwing game is released later this month, so why the hell not?

And in the midst of it all, we've a couple of Blue Scribes sneaking into the Rock, stealing the Dark Angels' ancient scrolls and grimoires from their archives, then running back to Magnus with their loot. Awesome.

The Changeling tricks his way through security systems by pretending to be Azrael, killing the human elements who suspects something while fooling the machines and servitors, in order to free the Fallen who were imprisoned within the Rock. Dude dances around merrily while leading his pursuers in a wild goose chase and freeing the Fallen, while aiming to release the greatest enemy of them all, Luther of Caliban who's said to be the nemesis of Lion El'Jonson himself.

Poor Changeling bites off more than he can chew when he runs into the Guardian of the deepest cells, a diminutive figure in white robes and a graven crozius in both arms. Anti-psyker? Blank? Super Dark Angel? I dunno. Anyway, the poor Changeling was so scared he would rather run off and face the heroes than remain in the company of this badass guy for a second longer, and...well, you can probably guess the rest. The Changeling got short-changed, getting killed by Blackmane. With that done, all the Daemons aboard the Rock were mopped up in short order, the Dark Angels put a stop to the orbital bombardment and Exterminatus they started, and the resistance begins in earnest.

Unfortunately, they're too late. Magnus in the Sorcerer's Planet, smirks. "Just as planned." And then he launched his Silver Towers upon Fenris, which had so far not been touched by Daemonic invasion. Yeah, he's calculated everything so far, and only now did he intend to invade Fenris.

The Silver Towers land on the opposite side of the planet because the Fang would take a huge bite out of them if they tried to assault it directly. From there, hidden by the arcane cloaking spells (*cough, Invisibility, cough*), the Thousand Sons begin their march across the ice floes.

On Midgardia, we see Egil Iron Wolf and friends lose the battle against Nurgle, for they pretty much infected everything. However, when Egil loses contact with Logan Grimnar underground, he panics, runs off to find his High King before you can say, "still a better story than Twilight" while delegating command to Conran. Just as well, because Conran pulls off a ballsy move where he has his strike cruisers perform orbital strikes with pinpoint accuracy, destroying the quagmire that was sucking in their armored vehicles and tanks and incinerating Nurgle's minions. Take that, you disgusting, rotting Daemons!

Egil is unable to find Logan, unfortunately, though not for the lack of trying. He does, however, find a piece of Logan's helm, a gilded wolf's skull thingy, but that's it. He is summoned back to the surface by Conran, only to see that the Imperial fleet demonstrated to poor Conran how best to do an orbital strike - nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. Poor Egil gets pissed off and orders his fleet to shoot the Dark Angels fleet. They trade shots for a while before the officers on board both fleets cool down and understand that it's not productive for allies to be infighting when you've got an entire Daemonic Incursion on the planet right below you.

Anyway, even though Egil couldn't find Logan he has the next best thing. The wolf skull thingy, which he gives to the Rune Priests who do their magic thing and pinpoint Logan's exact location. Yay, I guess? Grimnar didn't meet a grim ending, after all.

The Space Wolves finally find out about the Silver Towers and they launch their assault, only to get their asses kicked by the Thousand Sons. Revenge is sweet, hell yeah. You raze Propsero? You're gonna get what you deserve, you whining Space Puppies! Despair sets in further when they realize they can't destroy any of the Silver Towers, and they...well, as I said, get their asses kicked.

Chapter 2: The Fires of Flameheit

What's a Flameheit? No idea? Well, it's the season when Fenris goes closest to its sun, the Wolf's Eye, and the temperature shoots up. Stuff gets hot, icebergs melt - basically Global Warming at its most dangerous.

Anyway, with the Thousand Sons establishing a foothold, Magnus the Red appears, jumps into Fenris and basically causes an artificial Flameheit, heating up the ice world and causing icebergs to melt. Sweet.

Long story short, because this gets a little longwinded otherwise, Magnus and Ahriman and the Exiles plan all sorts of elaborate magical rituals to destroy the planet, cause the volcano to erupt corrupted lava and Daemonic forces, summon Daemons in Fenris, and hatch an elaborate plan to flow a bunch of Pyromancers (Exalted Sorcerers who specialize in pyromancy) and their legions of Horrors right inside the Fang itself and take it from the inside by destroying the generators, which would power down its weapons. Oh, and they also cursed the population of Fenris, making them mutate and stuff, you know, the same mutating gene-seed the Thousand Sons used to have and were persecuted for when they tried to suppress it with their psychic powers? Now Fenris has the same curse on them. Anyway, Magnus has this cool plan of sending his pyromancers and Horrors into the Fang by making use of the lava. Yes, you heard that right. Lava. Basically his pyromancers turn into fire elemental thingys, and with the Horrors, swim into the lava and all the way into the geothermal machines of the Fang, which were powered by geothermal energy rising from the lava. From there they rise up and sneak into the Fang. Excellent plan.

The Space Wolves, on the other hand, were not pleased with the invasion of their world - one goes, "how dare you invade Fenris!" - kind of hypocritical considering what they did to Propsero. Very rich of them. Anyway, they attack, only to have their asses kicked again. The battle within the Fang also went well for the Thousand Sons, with the Horrors and pyromancer sorcerers wreaking havoc and killing scores of Space Wolves and Wulfen. Yes, the Wulfen aren't forgotten, they've been integrated into the Space Wolves' great companies and are fighting alongside the Space Wolves against the Daemons. Anyway, they get slaughtered, but the Dreadnoughts have finally been roused from their slumber. The Lair of the Ancients. Actually, the process of awakening started way earlier, but obviously waking up half-dead Space Marines on life support from a long stasis sleep is something that will take quite some time. Even if they're genetically engineered superhumans, they're still half-dead (otherwise they wouldn't be interned inside a Dreadnought in the first place) and stasis does play a lot of tricks on their ancient bodies. They were just about to be mobilized for the war effort outside on Fenris when the internal invasion of Fang begins, so instead of going outside, they go inside and begin fighting the Daemons and Sorcerers that attacked from within the fortress. They suffer heavy casualties, but manage to turn the tide. Fortunately, the Sorcerers manage to divert the Dreadnoughts' attention away from them with countless Horrors, and one of them, Xarax Throtep, sneaks off into the reactor room to destroy the reactors.

Fang is now weaponless, powered down and offline. Let the Thousand Sons' invasion begin in earnest!

Oh, and Bjorn the Fell-Handed makes an appearance, leading the Dreadnought charge against the Daemons and Sorcerers inside Fang. It's not like we forgot him or anything.

Chapter 3: The Serpent and the Wolf

Remember the teaser picture that Games Workshop teased us with all those months ago, before announcing Wrath of Magnus? Yeah. The picture of the serpent and wolf snarling at each other above the surface of Fenris while dozens of Silver Towers fall is featured here. A very beautiful and apt picture, if I may say so.

Egil Iron Wolf succeeds in bringing Logan Grimnar back. Yay. He does so by using the teleport homer to teleport to the precise location the Rune Priests divined for him, and then teleports Logan and all the Champions of Fenris out, so everyone is safe and sound, except for those who were already dead. Logan was furious when he learns of the news, but before heading to Fenris he has one last job to do.

"We've come to finish the job."

Okay, that's James Raynor, not Logan Grimnar. Anyway, he recognizes that the Dark Angels had the right idea in Exterminatus. Midgardia could not be saved. It was corrupted beyond salvation, with Nurgle's influence infecting the entire planet's biosphere and ecosystem. Even if they've defeated the Daemons, Nurgle's plague drones remained too far entrenched within, and there was only one course of action left.

Extreme Exterminatus.

Wait, what could be more extreme than Exterminatus, you may wonder? Well...total Exterminatus. As in, total destruction of the planet by blowing the entire thing up. Not just orbital bombardment and sterilizing the surface, nope. We need to blow the entire planet up.

And that's what Logan did. Basically, they opened up the Grand Generatorium, which leads to the core of the world, in order for the planet-destroying projectile they named Morkai's Tooth, to fly all the way into the core and create a chain reaction to blow Midgardia up. That means another long-winded descent into Midgardia's surface, running underground with the Grey Knights, clearing a path through the Nurgle plague drones and Daemons, saving Midgardians while at it because you know, Space Wolves have to be the good guys (except that they screwed it up in Curse of the Wulfen - I guess Midgardians' lives are more important than the other humans you abandoned in that book), and opening up Grand Generatorium on the ground. Then they fly back up, shoot Morkai's Tooth inside and BOOM!

The explosion was so powerful that the Silver Towers disappeared, much to the Imperial Fleet's relief. HA HA HA HA! But nope, that was all part of the plan. The Thousand Sons chuckled, "just as planned" because the Silver Towers harnessed all that destructive energy and warp energy and all that arcane stuff you expect from Sorcerers, that resulted from Midgardia's explosion, and returned to the Sorcerer's Planet with all that energy. Awesome.

Anyway, Logan is pissed off and he orders for a return to Fenris. Time for revenge...for the Thousand Sons, you mean.

On another note, why Midgardia was infested by Nurgle plague drones and Nurgle Daemons was because Magnus struck a deal with Montarion, who's the Primarch of the Death Guard. Montarion was allowed to choose any world, and he chose Midgardia. But he was stupid enough to let the Space Wolves destroy it, and Magnus can only shake his head at the Nurgle's servant's rage and chuckle to himself, "just as planned." Awesome. I agree. Just as planned, yeah. Take that, you stupid Nurgle dudes.

Logan and all the remaining Space Wolves land on Fenris through drop pods. Yay. They all consolidate and attack the Thousand Son's base that's set up at the Burning Lake. Not going to go into detail over the fight, but basically Thousand Sons use sorcery, psychic and awesome powers to beat the Wolves into submission, while the Space Wolves rely on plot armor and story devices and deus ex machina to survive and plough through the relentless, immortal army of the Thousand Sons.

The Space Wolves eventually come up against the elite of the Thousand Sons army, the Scarab Occult Terminators, and Ahriman, who is leading them. Ahriman, being the badass that he is, slays a lot of Space Wolves before inexplicably disappearing after Arjac Rockfist hits him with a thrown Foehammer. Yes, I was like, "WTF?! DUDE! You don't do that to Ahriman! You just don't!" What a stupid way to defeat Ahriman. I couldn't help but bury my face in my palm. Yes, I know the Space Wolves have to win eventually, but the manner of this banishment was just...ridiculous and anticlimatic. This is Ahriman, who has 4 novels written about him. You just don't treat him like a cliched villain to be defeated so ignominiously. You just don't.

Dark Angels, Grey Knights and all sort of allies all help the Space Wolves push forward, and they manage to break through the indomitable Scarab Occult Terminators eventally (the bias against Chaos is clear here - Thousand Sons don't have many named characters, while the Imperium has so many named heroes running amuck with plot armor). They assault Magnus, who basically proceeds to beat up everyone, being the awesome badass that he is. Madness? This is MAGNUS! Anyway, he pulls this awesome move by smashing the Battle Barges and Strike Cruisers in orbit together, much like he said he can do in Graham McNeill's novels Thousand Sons and Prospero Burns. Now we get to see him in action!

The Grey Knights, just like the Space Wolves, get their asses kicked. Even with five Nemesis Dreadknights ploughing through the Daemons like they were nothing, Magnus just gazed upon them and destroyed all five of them in one go. Yeah. Gaze of Magnus rules! More Grey Knights die, and even the Grand Master Valdar Aurikon pays for his folly of thinking he can take on a Daemon Primarch with his life, and dies. Like...nobody cares, because nobody knows who the hell Valdar Aurikon is. You're not Arvann Stern or that stupid Mary Sue Kaldor Draigo. Kaldor Draigo can defeat Montarion and carve his name into the Daemon Primarch's heart, but he's nothing against Magnus. Magnus will kill him with just a gaze. Seriously.

Anyway, what fell Magnus eventually was Logan Grimnar wielding the Axe Morkai, which was a weapon of Khorne. Egil Iron Wolf provided a good distraction by attacking Magnus with a lascannon. Yes, a lascannon. He paid for the folly with his life when Magnus pulled off this cool move where he stopped the las-beam in midair, then pulled Egil right in front of the las-beam before unfreezing it. Poor dude was vaporized from the waist up - he never stood a chance. Hah! That will teach you to mess with a Primarch! Unfortunately, this bought Logan time to ram the Axe Morkai into Magnus's chest, cracking the breastplate and cutting deep into his flesh.

Magnus swatted Logan away like the irritating fly he is, but the blow was done. All the Grey Knights attacked as once, pouring their arcane powers into his wound and banished him. Oh dear. When Magnus was banished, he took his Daemon hordes and the Thousand Sons with him.

The Imperium has won. The Thousand Sons and Magnus have been defeated. Or so it seems.

Aftermath is Space Wolves cleaning up the mess, death toll done, Bjorn the Fell-Handed cleaning out the Fang, etc. Sad to say, like Armageddon, the tribesmen of Fenris who were exposed to the Daemons, witnessed them or fought them, were basically taken away by the Grey Knights and the Inquisition, to be wiped clean or killed because you know, Grimdark. On any other day, Logan Grimnar would have desperately fought to save them, defy the Inquisition and Grey Knights in that usual badass manner of his - you remember how he basically saved the Guardsmen and Armageddon from Exterminatus by confronting the Inquisition? He did the same for Alaric Prime as well, having his Space Wolf Strike Cruisers defend the world from the Inquisition.

However, this time he had to give in because the Space Wolves were battered, wrecked and destroyed. Reduced to a fraction of their former strength, they had no power to stand up to the Inquisition, plus Logan realized he couldn't risk another civil war - not so soon after the Space Wolves and Dark Angels nearly came to blows with each other. Not to mention, there was the threat that they would force Fenris into Exterminatus if he didn't comply. So Logan was left without a choice. Defiant he may be, but a fool he is not. Ugh.

Most of the worlds could be reclaimed and resettled, except poor Midgardia, who was forever destroyed.

The Space Wolves then departed for the Cadian Gate to bolster the war efforts against Abaddon the Despoiler and his 13th Black Crusade. This taught them a lesson and hardened their determination and resolve against the forces of Chaos, after all, and they don't want Cadia to suffer the same fate as the Fenris system. I hope you learned your lessons well, Space Wolves. Now go defend Cadia and kick Abaddon back into the Eye of Terror!

Small teaser at the end, apparently the Inquisition sent news of a Daemon Primarch's appearance to Holy Terra, and the High Lords basically put 12 sacred seals on a simple parchment and sent it to the depths of the Imperial Palace. Apparently there dwelled a secret order that were living weapons of the Emperor - human in appearance but with the power to unmake a god. The picture on the opposite page is a Sister of Silence. Hmm...so appearance of the Sisters of Silence soon? Cool, I guess, but can they really unmake a god? I mean, the Sisters of Silence got their asses kicked by normal Sorcerers of the Thousand Sons. What makes the High Lords think they can stand up to a Daemon Primarch? I guess we'll find out.

And last but not least, another teaser at the end. Magnus is smirking, even though he has been banished back into the Warp, because everything went "just as planned!" Thanks to Midgardia's destruction, he gathered enough arcane energy to complete a ritual, and he basically teleported the Planet of the Sorcerers from the Warp into Reality. I think he teleported it into Prospero's system, because it says "within sight of Prospero's surface, the empty void shuddered as if in great pain." Then the planet burst into being there. So yeah, not in the Fenris system as some people online have been speculating. The Planet of the Sorcerers has materialized in the Prospero system. This teleportation causes all sorts of weird stuff to happen, barrier between reality and the Warp cracking, galaxy going mad, etc. And the Imperium will never be the same again.

As I said, just as planned.

Chapter 4: Sons of the Cyclops

No fluff or summary here, I'm afraid. Just pictures of the various cabals and cults of the Thousand Sons, their colors, and a bit of background information. Oh, and explanation on how Tzeentch's sacred number of nine ampifies their power and all that, how all their armies are organized in nines, and stuff like that. Makes sense, given how Tzeentch's number is nine. That's why you'll always see 9 in the Tzeentch and Thousand Sons formations, all 9 of these dudes are led by a single leader. For example, an Exalted Sorcerer will lead 3 Sorcerers, 3 Aspiring Sorcerers with their Rubric Marine squads and 3 Scarab Occult Sorcerers with their Terminator squads - so a total of 9 units. Same with Warpflame Host, that's why a Herald of Tzeentch will lead 9 units of Flamers/Exalted Flamers/Horrors in any combination. And Magnus/Exalted Sorcerer/Daemon Prince/Ahriman leaading 9 Scarab Occult Terminators. Or an Exalted Sorcerer leading 9 squads of Tzaangors. You get the drift.

So that's it for summary and spoilers. The fluff is great and the book's worth getting just to read all that campaign alone. Most of the fluff is cool, except for Ahriman's ridiculous defeat, but other than that it was a pretty good campaign. I hope you've enjoyed it and I'll see you guys next time!