The Luna Wolves are said to have originated from a world called Cthonia; this planet allegedly existed in one of Terra's closest neighbouring star systems. Being within reach even for non-warp spacecraft, Cthonia had been colonised, built upon, tunneled and mined out most likely since the dawn of space travel. As such, all natural resources had been stripped away and used up millennia before the arrival of the Primarch Horus Lupercal, and the ancient mining technology had long since been rediscovered and removed by the Adepts of Mars. The planet that remained was largely redundant and abandoned, completely riddled with catacombs, crumbling industrial plants and exhausted mine-workings. It is noted as no longer extant in current Imperial records, believed to have cataclysmically lost geo-structural integrity in the centuries after the Horus Heresy. Many put this down to the fact that the planet was tunneled and mined right though to the (dead) planetary core, but there is much conjecture that Cthonia was deliberately destroyed, by person or persons unknown. [1]

The wearing of pelts of such augmented canid predators increasingly marked out the field commanders and officers of the Luna Wolves. The XVI th would not be the only Space Marine Legion to bear such a title and embrace this imagery as their own, but they were the first. Richard: I fell in love with dwarves and the fantasy tropes that they inspire when I was at school, so when I stumbled onto Warhammer in my teens it was inevitable that I would eventually collect an army of Dwarfs. The specialties and wargear of squads in the Luna Wolves included all of those generally found in other Legions, including those designated Destroyer and Seeker units, who were shunned by some and existed in lesser quantities. The Luna Wolves also maintained considerable resources in terms of armour and vehicles, with tithed industrial worlds they had brought into Imperial Compliance and good relations with the Mechanicum ensuring a steady supply of munitions and materials for the XVI th Legion, which spent such political coin readily. It is called the Horus Heresy, after all. The Warmaster’s ultimate betrayal was rooted in pride, fear, and ambition – helped along by the machinations of the Dark Gods.According to Erebus, the Chaos Gods were concerned only with the immaterium – a realm the Emperor planned to conquer and annihilate as he’d done all else. Hadn’t Horus protested the formation of the Council of Terra, mere mortals rather than the Astartes who deserved to rule? He’d help foil his father’s dastardly plans, and in exchange they’d save his life, give him power, and fulfil his wildest dreams. Records, tainted as they may be, place the Sons of Horus at a fighting strength of approximately 130,000-170,000 Space Marines in the period leading up to the Isstvan III Atrocity. Although the figure may have been higher, this estimate would also tally with more general assessments of the Sons of Horus Legion being in the upper quarter of the Legions in terms of the Space Marine manpower available to them. Refusing to believe that Horus, his most beloved and trusted son, would actually betray him, the Emperor instead mistakenly perceived the traitor to the Imperium to be Magnus and his Thousand Sons, who had long suffered from a near-debilitating run of mutations because of the instability of Magnus' own genome and were known to have practiced the sorcery that had been expressly outlawed in the Imperium at the Council of Nikaea several Terran years before.

He took up the Emperor's old offer and renamed the XVI th Legion the Sons of Horus after being convinced to do so by his brother Primarch Sanguinius of the Blood Angels Legion just before his experiences on Davin. Horus was now allied body and soul to the Ruinous Powers of Chaos, and he had a new vision for the Imperium with himself rather than the Emperor at its head.

Lastly I apply Citadel’s ‘Leadbelcher’ to the deepest looking ‘chips’ to represent battle damage thats worn right down to the metal. To finish the green I then line highlight the armour panels with ‘Lupercal Green’ by brush to give both the chipping effect and panels more definition. Other highly creditable claims state that the Emperor found Horus, the first of his lost sons, but neither source specifies where, or the location of this finding. Surrounded in millennia of myths and allegory, the truth of Horus' origins will more than likely never be known. As a result, Horus was for many standard years the Emperor's only son, and there was a great affinity between them. The Emperor spent much time with his protege, teaching and encouraging him. Horus was soon placed in command of the XVI th Legion, which had already come to be known as the Luna Wolves -- 10,000 Astartes created from his own genetic code. With these superhuman warriors to lead, Horus accompanied the Emperor for the first thirty standard years of the Great Crusade that had begun in ca. 800.M30, and together they forged the initial interstellar expansion of the young Imperium of Man. Tactical Squads made up half this strength numerically, with the Legion placing in general great importance on the use of Tactical Squads in every deployment. The rest consisted of two veteran units, three reconnaissance units, a heavy support squad and multiple batteries of support weaponry. Horus personally faced off with the Nurglite mutant that had been Temba aboard the grounded ruins of his Imperial Cruiser. In the course of that battle, the potent living metal of the Chaos blade wielded by that plague-infused monstrosity left Horus with a bleeding, toxic wound in his shoulder that his Legion's Apothecaries could not heal despite all the advanced technology available to them.

The following information is not to be regarded as officially sanctioned and/ or is not written from an in-universe point of view. A detailed explanation of the term "Trivia" as used in the Lexicanum can be found here. Despoiler Squads - The Tactical Squads known as Despoiler Squads were designed to be held in reserve and unleashed once a weakness in an enemy line had been identified. Trained in fire saturation techniques and carrying additional close combat weaponry for use in overrunning enemy positions, the so-called Despoiler Squads showed the dominance of the Tactical Squad in Horus' tactical thinking. Such was the effectiveness of this tactic that its use was copied in several different Legions. The gene-seed of the Luna Wolves was always considered reliably pure. However, following their dedications to Chaos, the Space Marines of the Sons of Horus started to exhibit random mutations, and it is likely that this taint went right down to the gene-seed level. The regular practice of seeking Daemonic possession may also have accelerated the effect. [1] A star system targeted for Imperial Compliance would often fall to the Legion in a single engagement: Luna Wolves warships would cut in from the system's edge, forming a spear formation that would break into many smaller blade tips to strike at the target system's planets, moons and space stations. Orbital bombardment and simultaneous mass orbital drops would break the enemy's strength and will to resist.This is an absolutely stunning and inspiring guide to painting the Sons of Horus. I am very excited to share it with you.

The XVI th Legion was originally a flexible fighting force, able to adapt to almost any combat situation. The Legion possessed an efficient chain of command, which fell into disarray after its primarch, Horus, was killed during the Battle of Terra. In the years immediately following the end of the Horus Heresy, the Sons of Horus' discipline broke down completely, as the Legion dissolved into a number of competing warbands of The rank of Captain within the Legion also held subtle variations of authority. Generally those in command of a lower numbered company outranked those in a higher numbered company, while those who had once had overall command of a campaign were considered superior to those officers he had commanded during that action. At the top of this informal but very real hierarchy of Legion officers were those Captains who served as Horus' closest advisors and in particular the First Captain of the Legion who commanded the elite 1 st Company and also served as his primarch's principal field officer and second-in-command. On his return, the boy was scolded by Khaggedon for not slaughtering them all like a proper ganger – and as snooping mechadendrites approached their stronghold, his doomed father offered Horus a way to truly earn a fancy new kill-name. He asked the young warrior to kill him. Nergüi obliged, catalysing his transformation into a true Primarch – and Horus was born. Talk about foreshadowing. Yet as the character of any Legion was an echo of their primarch, one can see the flaws of the father in the pride of his gene-sons. Brutal, ruthless and unwavering but also honourable, and once loyal beyond question, the history of the Luna Wolves is the history of the ambition of the Imperium itself, and the flaws that broke its founder's dreams of unification and glory for all Mankind asunder.The Orks of Ullanor represented the largest concentration of Greenskins ever faced by the military forces of the Imperium of Man before the Third War for Armageddon began during the late 41 st Millennium. Following the defeat of the Orks of Ullanor largely due to the tactics and leadership of Horus, the Emperor of Mankind returned to Terra to begin work on his vast project to open up the Aeldari Webway for Mankind's use. In his place to command the vast forces of the Great Crusade he left Horus. M31 — The Siege of Cthonia. Captain Vheren Ashurhaddon leads a sizable force to retake the legion's Homeworld from the loyalists. Thus, many of the original XVIth are believed to have had a separate, somewhat unusual origin; they were effectively kidnapped from the world of Cthonia by 'recruitment squads' sent from Terra charged with the task of rounding up thousands of individuals from the violent gangs that infested the ancient world. These 'recruits' were then taken to the geno-laboratories on Luna for the modification and indoctrination required to become Space Marines. [1]