The End and the Death Part II Spoilers

I'm sure there's a bunch of The End and the Death Part II spoiler summaries floating around on the Internet - even saw a few videos on Youtube in the recommendation page. And Valrak has promised to do a video summary of it, having to rerecord the whole thing because the audio is corrupted. So I won't really summarize the whole book because I'm sure people can just watch the videos or read it on Reddit or something.

Instead, I'm going to talk about the more...uh, minor characters that are often overlooked. I see most of the videos talking about the Dark King and his identity. Turns out I'm wrong. I thought he would be Samus, while people are misled by the book into thinking it's Horus Lupercal. Nope. Instead, the Dark King is the Emperor Himself, and I'm sure you've already watched a video or two talking about that. Or even read about it somewhere (Goonhammer provided the spoiler). Nope, instead, I'm going to talk about the minor characters. I'll break it down by cast and characters.

Ollanius Persson and friends

First, we have Ollanius Persson and his band of merry dudes. As you all know, they basically broke into the Palace, the Inner Sanctum and spoke to Vulkan, but were sent away to the gaols or something. However, because space and time had been warped in the palace, the Chaos and Traitors and Daemons are pouring into the Inner Sanctum and flooding the palace. In the midst of the chaos, Ollanius and friends escape and jump into a room, only to be transported into some weird space that's aboard the Vengeful Spirit. I say the Vengeful Spirit, but the warp has caused time and space to be so warped that you have entire cities or landscapes from Terra inside the Vengeful Spirit. It's a little confusing.

Anyway, with little to go on, Ollanius and his merry band orientate themselves through the red thread left by Hebet Zybes, which was weird because they obviously haven't been through the area before, so how could Zybes have left the red thread around? Unfortunately, as they follow the clues, they are attacked by Erebeus, who wants the anathema knife that Ollanius has in his possession. A fight breaks out, and basically everybody except Ollanius, John Grammaticus, Leetu and Actae were killed (I think Katt might have survived, but it's hinted she's dead, though if she died, it's probably off screen unlike the rest). Graft is the true MVP. "I am doing good works!" He says as he smacks Erebeus about with his servo-arms. That was gold. Unfortunately, Erebeus is too powerful and sends him flying (and Actae tosses Graft's broken body back at him with telekinesis) before obliterating him with a word of power. John also tries to retaliate with cognitae or whatever that language is (it's in the Eisenhorn, Ravenor and Belaquin series), which captures Erebeus's interest, but his jaw got mangled during the fight and he fails to do anything. To save Ollanius, John and Leetu, Actae distracted Erebeus with her psychic powers and attempted to bury them both under tons of debris. Obviously, Erebeus escaped, but Actae remained trapped until Rogal Dorn finds and frees her from the rubble - more on that later.

Ollanius, as people would tell you, speaks to the Emperor, who's on the verge of becoming the Dark King, and convinces him to let go of the power. When the Emperor does so, everyone gets healed and restored to full health (so John can speak once more). After that, they separate, and Ollanius and John leave to tie the red thread around the area so that they can guide their past selves to that location. Time, causality and stuff like that.

That's a hint that Ollanius Persson might actually be Theseus, for he has apparently braved a labyrinth and fought a Minotaur or at least some monster in the ancient past.

Other notable characters show up, such as Garviel Loken, who somehow survived a brush with Samus and even sent the daemon tumbling out of the Vengeful Spirit and toward the planet below, and he joins up with Ollanius's band. Oh, and in the midst of drawing too much power from the warp, the Emperor when almost becoming the Dark King ended up burning out all of his Custodian Guards. Only Proconsul Caecaltus Dusk survives, the last of the Hetaeron, because of Malcador's spit. No kidding. If you remember, in part I, Malcador spat and drew a sigil on his armor, and Caecaltus refused to let the Tech-priests clean it off, and that was what saved his life. The rest all got burned out, unfortunately.

Ezekyle Abaddon

The End and the Death Part II isn't just about Horus Lupercal, the Emperor and the Primarchs. It's also a story about fathers and sons, the sons in particular having signficance in the Imperium to come. The first sons appear and feature prominently, and that's the purpose behind this spoiler article - while everyone is fixated on the Emperor, Horus, Sanguinius and the Primarchs, I wanted to share more about the various sons, particularly the first sons, of the Primarchs.

Abaddon, as you all know, decided to leave the battle and fly back to the Vengeful Spirit, especially when he saw that this was no longer a war between legionaries, but with daemons taking over. He also wants to find and protect his father from the Emperor. Funnily enough, when he and his still loyal squads embark onto their Thunderhawks, the Thunderhawks essentially teleport onto the launch bay of the Vengeful Spirit without even having to take off. Blame the warp. Abaddon and his companies make for the Bridge and find nothing there, except the insane equerry who was driven mad by Horus or something. They break through the bridge to go to the Court of Lupercal, only to end up in that barren ruined city landscape I mentioned above. They are assaulted by Hort Lupercali and Word Bearers running away from the Dark King, their minds having burned out into insanity just from being in the Dark King's presence.

In the end, Abaddon meets up with Erebeus, who escaped Actae's psychic trap, and he somehow controls the insane Word Bearers with a few words of power, and rally both Sons of Horus and Word Bearers (I think the Hort Lupercali were just slaughtered outright, poor mortal soldiers), just in time to stand against Constantine Valdor and his Custodians who have managed to track their way to the Emperor's location after His rejection of the Dark King burned a path through the daemons that were hindering them.

Sigismund

I might as well include Fafnir Rann here, but we'll talk about the axe dude later. Anyway, Sigismund is important because there's a bunch of cool new lore regarding the Black Templars. Sigismund has handed command to Archamus so that he can go around beheading the Traitors' command and leadership by challenging and eliminating their officer cadres and champions. While doing that, he runs into Euphrati Keeler and her pilgrims, who were about to get massacred by a bunch of Sons of Horus. Now this is the really cool part. Sigismund isn't alone. Instead, he has amassed a force called "Seconds." His Seconds. Dan Abnett acknowledges that it's impossible for Sigismund to be a one-man army, and instead his role of champion is to duel officers, leaders and warlords, and he sticks to that. The Seconds are an army of not just brother marines from the Loyalist Legions (or Loyalist Marines who defected from their Traitor Legions), but also includes Excertus Imperialis - basically Imperial Army, for those of you who don't speak High Gothic. Anyway, mortal soldiers and Astartes Legionnaires alike serve as Sigismund's Seconds and keep the masses of the Traitor hosts away while Sigismund decapitates their officer cadres and commanders. It's almost like a precursor to the Black Templars.

Furthermore, the significance of Sigismund encountering Euphrati Keeler and becoming a pilgrim, or at least becoming part of her pilgrimage, is to mold him into his future role as the Eternal Crusader. I know the Goonhammer guys were upset with this and said Sigismund's arc is done and there's no need to cover him, but I strongly disagree with them. I think Sigismund's section is one of the highlights of the book, perhaps because of my Black Templars bias, but mostly because I think the Seconds and the entire holy pilgrimage thing actually add to the overall Black Templars and Holy Crusaders fluff that are to come.

I also think that this pilgrim army, along with Sigismund and his Seconds, will probably come across Abaddon and Erebeus's companies before long and help Valdor overcome them in part III, but that remains to be seen. Euphrati Keeler and Sigismund hear the Emperor's call, and they're marching the pilgrim army and Seconds toward the Emperor now. I think they get waylaid by Death Guard, but that battle will probably in the third part.

It also gives a lot of narrative fluff for people enacting Siege of Terra matches. You can have anyone be in Sigismund's Seconds. A small force of White Scars Outrider and Jetbikes who broke off to join Sigismund. An armored company of Imperial Army (or Militia). Even Imperial Knights (I'm planning to have my Knights of House Yato join Sigismund as Seconds!). Their purpose is to fight the rest of the Traitor army while Sigismund engages their commanders, so enemy armored tanks, Knights, etc. are being held back by our own armor and Knights while Sigismund plows forward like the weapon that he is.

About Fafnir Rann, he's still alive and kicking somewhere, but what's interesting is that during one of his defensive missions, he actually overhears Rogal Dorn muttering to himself (in an attempt to keep himself sane while being imprisoned in the Red desert for centuries, he was reciting passages from various books and tomes, including something about the morality in war), and he tries to dig the wall, but obviously that doesn't succeed. Rann has no choice but to abandon the effort and defend the palace from the Traitor hosts. Fortunately, Rogal Dorn manages to break through the wall himself and escape into that same landscape in the Vengeful Spirit, which is how he ends up finding Actae eventually. It's all the same space, enigmatically enough. Rogal is probably helped by the Emperor, and His rejection of the Dark King (which basically sent a psychic shockwave throughout Terra and the Vengeful Spirit and scoured everything daemonic) loosens a brick in the wall, which Rogal claws through and digs until there was an opening big enough for him to escape.

Corswain

Corswain comes with Cypher (Zahariel), and they're still defending the Beacon from Typhus and the Death Guard. Unfortunately, Typhus does some psychic thing that burned out the Librarians' efforts, so Zahariel has to personally take over to reactivate the Beacon of the Astronomicon, while Corswain vows to buy him and the surviving Librarians as much time they need as the Death Guard asaults the Ist Legion once more.

Raldoron

Raldoron and the Sanguinary Guard fight against Word Bearers and Sons of Horus to allow their Primarch Sanguinius to slip through the gates so that he can face Horus Lupercal. After they succeed, they manage to either wipe out the Sons of Horus or drive them into a retreat, but now couldn't follow Sanguinius - apparently, the ship is fighting them as much as the occupants within it. The Vengeful Spirit, which allowed Sanguinius to pass through because it was Horus's trap, now stops his sons from following after him, but Raldoron and friends hear the call of the Emperor after He rejected the Dark King aspect and are headed toward Him so that they can find and assist their father.

Nassir Amit, which I'll mention here since he's part of the Blood Angels, also shows up here and there. Like Fafnir Rann, he's trying to protect a falling Imperial Sanctum from the invading traitors, who manage to subvert the usual routes and get into the palace because of the warp twisting space about. There's also a Space Wolf guy Amit bantered with, but I can't remember his name, and...to be honest, though he's a cool character, he doesn't really contribute much to the plot other than reinforce the whole "space and dimensions have been distorted" thing.

Ahzek Ahriman

And now this is my favorite part, and the reason why I wrote this article to begin with. I told you, right? This isn't just about the Emperor and the Primarchs. It's also about the Primarchs' sons, particularly their first sons. Corswain. Sigismund. Raldoron. Typhus. Abaddon. Erebeus. And now even Ahzek Ahriman of the Thousand Sons show up. And being a Thousand Sons guy...yeah, I just needed an excuse to write about Ahriman's role in the Siege of Terra and The End and the Death part II.

Unlike the other Traitor Legions, the Thousand Sons didn't join Horus Lupercal willingly. They were forced into it by circumstances, abandoned and rejected by the Imperium and discarded by the Emperor even though they were fulfiling the role He bred them into. Ahriman explains this to Sindermann, when the iterator asks for "the other side's" perspective. However, joining the Traitors has some benefits, for Horus doesn't really care what they do, nor will he persecute them like the Imperium does. Nonetheless, the Thousand Sons aren't sworn to Horus's cause, and they only find themselves on the "winning" side by circumstances.

So, instead of engaging in wanton slaughter like the World Eaters and the Sons of Horus, Ahriman slips away to the Emperor's Library to save the knowledge and information stored in all those books before the Traitors can burn them away. He also thinks there is knowledge there that can help him save his Legion (the Flesh-change). He is aware that if Horus wins, even the Legions who sided with him will suffer in the new dark age, and he is making preparations against that, desiring to carve out a small niche for the Thousand Sons to survive and perhaps even prosper in the new, dark universe under Horus's reign. He runs into Kyril Sindermann, Mauer and the archivist there, the three of them anxiously waiting for Garviel Loken after he disappeared into the Vengeful Spirit. Fortunately for Sindermann, Mauer and the archivist, Ahriman has no interest in pointless killing. He's only there to save the Emperor's knowledge because he knows Horus has ordered everything to be burned. They fear him at first, but Ahriman has a lot of respect for Sindermann and the Remembrancers' Order, whose purpose he exhorted and fought for during the days of the Great Crusade, and the two begin to have a civil conversation.

Of course, Ahriman isn't exactly a good guy, just...civilized. He does ruthlessly plunder knowledge from their minds without permission and his mere presence intimidates them, but he doesn't hurt them. He does offer to mercy kill them, knowing that the World Eaters and Sons of Horus would slaughter them painfully when they break into the library, and just consents when Sindermann and the rest reject the offer. Ahriman is a really chill guy - when Sindermann or Mauer (I can't remember) says that he scares them, he replaces his power armor with robes through sorcery and asks, "Better?"

"Yes," Sindermann says, even though it really isn't. Basically, Ahriman's appearance looks like a wraith, his skin somehow having become translucent or something. I guess he spent too much time in the warp (in the Planet of Sorcerers or something). But I think this little act of humanity really hits home. The Traitors aren't some monolithic blithering killers, each has their own agendas and quirks.

Instead, he focuses more on plundering the knowledge from the Emperor's archives through sorcery, spreading ink all around or whatever. You know, sorcerer stuff. He also continues speaking somewhat politely to Sindermann and Mauer, who finally regain their wits to ask him questions. Like a few other characters in the book (I think the Admiral of the Jovian or Saturn fleet or something), Ahriman lays down a tarot deck and draws the exact same cards, but he is the first to notice that the Dark King isn't Horus. He realizes that the Dark King is the Emperor, and he explains this to Sindermann and friends.

When the Emperor rejects the Dark King power, Ahriman also senses the shift and informs Sindermann and friends that something has changed. Honestly, he's quite the swell guy. I think Dan Abnett did an awesome job of not reducing all of the Traitor Legions into mindless, psychotic murderers, for that would make them little more than villainous caricatures. Ahriman's civility, yet ruthless way of plundering knowledge, gives the other side more depth and doesn't just make them one-dimensional villains. I really love the inclusion of Ahriman.

Ferrus Manus

I don't know whether to bring this up, and if other Warhammer 40,000 influencers or lore video people have already mentioned it, but Ferrus Manus does show up in the Vengeful Spirit to talk to Sanguinius and warn him of Horus's power. What's particularly interesting is that he talks about some space being worse than death for all those Primarchs who died, even Angron - basically, even though the Daemon Primarchs can't exactly die, when they were slain, they were sent back to this space, and they all hate and resent Lupercal for it, for he was the one who dragged them into this...deceived them and brought about their fall. That sort of thing. Thought it was worth a mention. Alpharius (yes, it's confirmed that he's dead, Rogal Dorn killed him), Angron, Mortarion, etc. are all there. I believe Magnus too, but he wasn't mentioned for some reason. Strange.

He also knows Sanguinius is about to die, and he and the other fallen Primarchs really wanted to see Horus get his ass kicked, but they know it's not to be. Nonetheless, they send Sanguinius off anyway (or Ferrus does because the rest are just howling and groaning in the background), because they know something significant will happen.

Sanguinius dies in the battle against Horus, but I guess no one expected anything different. Oh, well. Ouch. Not gonna elaborate on that because I'm sure every influencer or whoever will have that covered. Valrak, in particular, has already gone over the duel.

Well, that's probably all I have for now, and I won't keep you waiting. Let me know if you have any questions about the book. Till then!