#a novel is more than a sequence of events with appended tags to inform you of who is doing what

[bonesingerofyme-loc]

Scorch the earth like phosphex, son

In light of The End and the Death Part I being right around the corner and Garro: Knight of Grey having just released, here’s a repost of some thoughts on how moronic deluded irrational incapable of reading some Chaos fans are, here at the end.

There is a significant amount of what appears to be refusal among Chaos/traitor fans in accepting what Chaos is, even though it's been evident since pretty much forever.

The Horus Heresy, since it was just a couple paragraphs, was pretty clearly about how the traitors were duped, used, and dumped by the chaos gods all in the name of fucking up the Emperor and ruining the Imperium. Horus was abandoned by the Four at the last critical moment because it didn't matter anymore. They'd won the game. The Emperor would be a ruined husk, the Imperium would wither on the vine and turn into a bloated, monstrous husk that would feed them anyway.

The entire Heresy has been a manipulation by gods of hell. Nothing about this is debatable or even subtext. From the start, it was the Four wanting to fuck up the Emperor and everyone were tools.

It's a riot when the meme 'traitors losing, per usual' comes up in every Heresy and Siege of Terra novel. What the fuck is a win for the traitors? They're sworn to Chaos. They are being puppeteered by daemons. This isn't a clash of ideologies, this isn't a civil war, this is an extinction event for an entire species orchestrated by Great Old Ones from beyond the veil. This isn't fucking Grant vs Lee. Any win is a loss by definition - the end goal of chaos is to obliterate the materium and devour everyone.

There are no ideals to traitors. Lotara Sarrin, queen that she is, said it best in this book: she followed Horus because she wanted to. All of them dress up their reasoning in flimsy justifications, but it all boils down to, basically, fear and petulance. Fear of death or ignominy, or petulance at not getting what they want.

The traitors wanted to tear down the Imperium over a complete and utter lie, perpetuated by everyone, and hey, they fucking succeeded. The Imperium is dead and its corpse will live for 10,000 years. Horus said let the galaxy burn, and burn it did. They wanted to destroy the Emperor's dream and they did. They wanted to kill Terra and they did. They wanted to break the Legions and they did. They wanted to strangle the Imperium's concept of enlightenment and they did. The traitors achieved all of their goals, save one, which was conquering the galaxy itself, which wouldn't have lasted anyway because they all fucking hated each other and it would've fallen into internecine war immediately. The Cabal were really stupid, but that they got right.

It's a riot when 'traitors losing, per usual' comes up when the Heresy has been 58 books of the traitors running absolutely amok over the loyalists, massacring named characters left and right while getting off scot-free because of the imbalance of named characters in 40k. They spent 58 books tearing down the Imperium with barely any rebuke, and then have spent 7 novels murdering Terra and inexorably crushing every last point of resistance before them.

But because your favorite Chaos Champion didn't get do a sick ollie and blow up the Palace all by themselves, they keep losing, per usual.

I guess people just want bolter porn? Maybe that's what I'm missing? I don't know. I don't get it.

In the end, it's amusing when 'traitors losing, per usual', has been the expected canonical outcome in a pragmatic sense since Warhammer was Rogue Trader. Kind of the whole reason 40k exists is because the traitors ultimately did lose the material side of the conflict. Horus dies. The daemon primarchs are banished. The Scouring drives them all into the Eye.

But remember - even if the loyalists manage to eke out a brutal, pyrrhic, slogging victory, it's a stupid, nonsensical, totally lopsided loss for the traitors. I mean, Magnus only killed Vulkan hundreds of times and then shredded him into a semi-lucid skeletal thing with questionable cognition while Vulkan managed to banish Magnus for a period of time but hey, Magnus went down like an absolute chump. Sanguinius only was beaten to shit and back, skewered, strangled, and left barely able to stand while he banished Angron back to the warp for a time, but you know - total chump.

It's funny because by definition, the traitor primarchs can't lose. They are immortal. They last forever. They've had endless victories through the Heresy, driven by fate because their future is already written. But when Jaghatai sacrifices himself for a momentary victory over Mortarion, at the cost of his life and the loyalists losing a massive asset - Mortarion went out like a chump.

It's a funny kind of perspective, because it reminds me of the in-universe mentality of these characters, always complaining they didn't get enough attention and love, all while being actual immortal demigod superhumans with infinite power at their fingertips. Or like chaos fans, complaining they don't win all the time even though the whole series is about them winning nonstop for seven in-universe years until an 11th hour, barely worth it, catastrophic conclusion that is essentially a chaos win, anyway.