Let’s return to working with the Horus Heresy series of novels. Turning back to focus on one my personal favorites, and one book I believe discusses the issues of the Horus Heresy from a “good guy” point of view, It is also told from the mentality of the rebel, the freedom seeking ‘cowboys’ of the American mid west, or the roaming Ronin of Japanese lore.
Jagatai Khan is the Primarch of the White Scars legion of Space Marines. They focus on speed, and cunning tactics over brute direct force like many of their brother legions rely upon. With a culture rooted in Eastern philosophy akin to the Tengri shamanism of the Huns and Bulgars. Like Tengri believers the Scars see themselves as a part of a greater whole. They revere the great sky(the stars upon which their massive war space ships transverse across), and the sky-father is replaced in their mythos simply by the Emperor.
Importantly for our discussion of chaos, and corruption, for all intents and purposes you would believe, especially with a western mentality, that Jagatai Khan is the perfect candidate to be an “evil” primarch. However it is the Khans inquisitive nature, and cultural beliefs that lead him to follow only the truth of any matter before acting. Hence when the Khan hears his brother Leman Russ has burnt his other brother’s(Magnus the Red) home-world
to the ground, he refuses to act on either side as he knows corruption is afoot. Was Russ mistaken, or corrupt, or did Magnus truly bring this ruin down upon his head? The Khan unlike so many actors in this drama of novels, refuses to take anyones word alone, and instead heads to the destroyed home world of the Thousand Sons, Magnus, to see first hand what had occurred.
There the Khan meets the ghostly image of his brother Magnus, who tries to persuade him to see things from his point of view. The Khan however will not be swayed, no matter how flawed his father is, it is irrelevant he was born to be a warrior, so why trade one warlord for another is the Khans argument. This novel also leaves us with one of the most poignant quotes in the entire series that goes along with the Khans extremely pragmatic way of observing the Horus Heresy chain of events.
“There is only one unforgivable lie…that lie is to say we have accomplished all, and now must only build our walls higher and shelter behind them. All Emperors are liars.”
unappliedsemantics 