Legio VII: Illuminators

Legio VII: Illuminators

Primarch’s Name: Mohktal
Homeworld: Bodtsan
Background: Thinker
Psychic Potential: Good
Gene-seed: Stable
Talent: Psychic Titan
Legio VII: Illuminators
Colors: Crimson and Silver
Battle Cry: All is Emptiness!

Primarch History


In a manner similar to the third primarch, the seventh descended to a spare and austere world and was found and raised by monks. There the similarities ended for the monks of Bodtsan that discovered and raised Mohktal were unconcerned with education, maintaining knowledge or understanding the material physics of the universe and more concerned with enlightenment through self-denial and austerity.

The monks initiated Mohktal into a world of meditation and a belief system that rejected emotions, comfort, material wealth, desire and personal achievement. By rejecting these things the monks believed they were able to embrace and understand the forces of the universe and the body.

The key to understanding the forces of both body and universe lay in what the monks coined Arcane Geometries - the lines of the body and the world where power flowed. Through ritual tattooing and study the powers could be harnessed for use.

The teachings of the monks granted the young primarch control over his intense psychic powers and with their steady guidance he exerted ever finer control and deeper understanding of the teachings. In time his mastery surpassed all others and the student became the teacher.

As the new master of the monastery Mohktal's greatest achievement was the discovery of the Words of Power - special symbols that supplemented the Arcane Geometries by further concentrating the flow of power and offering increased protection from the malign influences.

At this time the outside world of Bodtsan began to intrude into the Primarch's spiritual studies. The many empires of his world continued to squabble and fight each other, spreading misery, pain, and anger. The noise of such disharmony impinged on the flow of power through Bodtsan.

So, in order to facilitate his own studies Mohktal left the monastery and set out into the wider world in order to end the disharmony. Mohktal did not evangelize his beliefs and preach on the street nor did he raise an army and strike down enemies. Instead he simply began to mediate disputes and arguments. Small at first but word of his impartiality and intense wisdom spread and he was rapidly consulted by national leaders and warlords. Through his own teachings and his psychic powers Mohktal inspired peace, catharsis and understanding. Step by step the global strife and wars of Bodtsan faded into a sustainable peace.

Mohktal claimed and occupied no position of authority or rank and issued no decrees or laws but remained the arbiter of all great decisions. The Congress of Leaders would seek his guidance in areas of dispute or contention as they made the decisions for the people of Bodtsan and Mohktal would offer his sage guidance.

In this way the seventh Primarch became the de facto leader of his world in the brief years before the Emperor arrived on Bodtsan, an arrival that Mohktal had anticipated long before. The two great psychics met and without a word spoken Mohktal joined the Emperor on the Great Crusade.

Legion Organization

For the sake of simplicity Mohktal has adopted the traditional organizational model set forth by the VI legion as such things are necessary but ultimately irrelevant. The method of elevation and promotion within the seventh is by understanding and embracing the Teachings and inscribing the flesh with the lines of the Arcane Geometries and the Words of Power.

Divided into Seven Orders of 10,000 astartes the Illuminators are great believers in the power of symbols and see their peak strength of 70,000 as another indication of the Teachings in the geometry of the universe. Each Order is lead by a Disciple, the closest students and followers of Mohktal and the Teachings.

As a result of Mohktal's gene-seed, every member of the Illuminators is psychic but this does not obviate the need for Librarians within the seventh legion. Instead Librarians of the Illuminators fulfill a very special role.

Combat Doctrine

The psychic powers of the Illuminators manifest themselves very differently from those of other legions. Instead of casting lightning bolts or summoning kinetic shields and prognostication the psychic powers of Mohktal and the Illuminators manifests through the body of each warrior.

In practical terms this means that the astartes of the Seventh can temporarily enhance their own bodies to perform physical actions at levels surpassing other astartes. For the most part this is seen in modest increases in strength, speed, or agility on the battlefield. The truly impressive actions are those of the Librarians who use special objects known as Focii to perform the unbelievable: some librarians can rend or explode enemies and vehicles with a touch or strike while others can heal the grievously wounded in moments.

The Focii also grant the librarians of the Illuminators the traditional abilities of other librarians such as destructive lightning, fire, and kinetic shields as well as the ability to bind psychic power into mundane objects for brief periods. Most often this is used with bolters to create special "Inferno" bolts that burn through most armors with ease.

All of this power is not without a cost - when drawing their psychic power through their bodies the Illuminators sometimes suffer from "Disharmonious Feedback" where for some reason, the power they unleash does not behave as planned and lashes out uncontrollably, resulting the loss of a limb or organ. This flaw mostly afflicts Librarians and then not with great frequency.

The possibility of such unfortunate harm coming to the Legion in combat as well as the dictates of the Teachings mean that when encountering a human foe that intends to resist integration into the Imperium are offered a chance to negotiate for terms of surrender or peace. When these offers are rejected, the Legion goes to war with their foes with a cool, calm practicality and efficiency.

The Alien and the degenerate Mutant receive no offers of negotiation or discourse for they are Disharmony incarnate and must be utterly destroyed for the sake of the Galaxy and humanity.

Legion Beliefs and Practices

In keeping with the austerity and rejection of personal achievement preached by the Teachings, the Illuminators do not decorate their armor, vehicles or vessels beyond the occasional Word of Power to the degree that they are often called cultureless or 'plain'. This is rendered untrue when a warrior of the Illuminators is seen without his armor.

Entirely without hair, the astartes of the seventh are tatooed from head to toe. The markings lay out the lines of power within the body and these lines, whorls and arrows are marked out with the Words of Power. The size of these markings range from the size of a man's palm to marks that need magnification to see clearly. These markings adorn fingertips, palms, eyebrows, lips, scalps, spines - every part of the body is decorated and embellished in extreme detail.

When it comes to relations with other legions the Illuminators are known to be open but often stand apart from their cousins as a result of the very different culture of the Illuminators. The rejection of personal glory, achievement and celebration makes it somewhat difficult for the development of close bonds between the Illuminators and outsiders.

However that has not stopped the Legion from developing a large following of mortals ranging from mystics and ascetics to diplomats, negotiators and lawmakers. These followers have come to study Mohktal's Teachings from the Legion either to find personal peace and calmness or to mediate conflicts and spread harmony across humanity's worlds.

A significant number of these students have not departed from the Legion's company but instead have remained and actually gained authority within the Legion and its support structure. These mortals are known as Galasvik, or "young students/learners" in Bodtsani. So it not unusual to see the mortal Galasvik gain positions of authority educating newly initiated astartes into the Teachings, or for a handful who have been elevated through genetic and cybernetic enhancements to even lead squads into battle or serve in specialized positions within the Legion and its fleet.

Recruitment and Gene-Seed

The recruitment process of the Illuminators is confined to Bodtsan by order of Mohktal. The feeling is that Bodtsan provides the appropriate cultural and military background for induction into the Legion. This limitation keeps the flow of recruits for the Legion at a sustainable if unimpressive level. This is intentionally works with the purity monitoring efforts with the legion's geneseed.

Mohktal's geneseed is remarkably stable in light of his considerable psychic powers and the Legion aggressively works to maintain that stability. The greatest threat to the stability of the geneseed comes from the destructive effects of Disharmonious Feedback. To that end the legion's apothecaries endeavor to harvest the progenoids from living hosts as soon as it reaches maturity and preferably before an astartes reaches the higher levels of the Teachings.

The strict monitoring of purity and lackluster recruitment combine to prevent the legion from growing beyond its peak strength of 70,000 astartes.

The Well of Silence

Despite their serene and ascetic nature, the Illuminators are noted for having a certain morbid, peculiar fascination with the mortal remains of their fallen brothers.

When an Illuminator dies, the body is recovered and ceremonially interred in special chambers populated on Bodtsan by colonies of type of ant. These ant colonies strip away the empty flesh and leave the clean bones behind. These bones are then taken to the Well of Silence within the Sky Tower, the fortress monastery of the Illuminators. The bones of the honored dead are sunk down into the cold, still, clear waters of the Well of Silence to join all those others who have died walking the path of Mohktal's teachings. There the skeletal remains are contemplated by Illuminators and their mortal colleagues.

During Heresy

After the reveal of Iskanderos’ surprising knowledge of psychic arts and his challenge against Terra, the Council sent Mohktal to lead an all-out assault against the Imperial Redeemers’ homeworld, dubbed Operation Starfall. It was thought that with the Illuminators’ psychic warfare focus, and the arcane mastery exhibited by the Iconoclasts and even the Gargoyles, the Conqueror would be hard pressed to use his knowledge of the arcane to protect himself. With additional Great Company-strength forces from the Grim Angels, the Steel Wardens, and the Angel Kings providing auxiliary support, the Council expected to outnumber the rebels and to leave the result in no doubt.

Though Mohktal had little desire for this outcome, he recognized the attack as his duty, and led it with quiet competence and dedication expected from him. Unfortunately, the very selection of Legions for the attack proved to be his doom. With both Gargoyles and Iconoclasts already under the sway of the Ruinous Powers, Mohktal remained unaware of the coming betrayal until it was too late. As a result, the Illuminators suffered horrendous casualties, losing all but one of their higher-ranking officers, most of their Librarians, and almost the entirety of their fleet and armored assets.

Mohktal himself faced Iskanderos on board the Amitabha, the Seventh Legion’s flagship. Though the Primarch of the Illuminators was a skilled warrior capable of withstanding devastating attacks in physical and metaphysical realms, even he was unprepared for the power granted to Iskanderos by Chaos. The confrontation between the two Primarchs left Mohktal a comatose wreck, unable to affect the unfolding disaster.

A desperate boarding action by Grim Angels attached to the loyalist force secreted the Seventh Primarch away from his dying flagship, however, the Illuminators were a spent force, unable to mount much of a threat to the rebels for the duration of the Heresy. Though the sole surviving Disciple, Kian Ranseng, was eventually nursed to health and took the mantle of a Legion Master, the force under his command was measured in hundreds at best.

With the loyal Legions suddenly in short supply, the Council attempted a desperate plan to use Mohktal’s genetic material to both restore the Seventh Legion as a coherent fighting force, and to swell their own numbers with fresh – and, some said, disposable – troops. Despite the vehement opposition of Kian Ranseng, the plan went through with the aid of secret and, some say, forbidden technology. Unfortunately, the Legion Master’s suspicions were well founded.

The new Astartes created from Mohktal’s gene-seed were stronger, faster, and more resilient than their predecessors, however, they carried a terrible flaw not immediately apparent. Just as the first formations of the reborn Illuminators entered service, the new Legionaries started to exhibit multiple forms of mutation. In some cases, it manifested as largely cosmetic changes, however, most of the time it twisted their forms, occasionally making the clone recruits devolve into mindless frenzied beasts.

Fed up with the Council’s politics and meddling, Kian Ranseng gathered the few remaining pure Illuminators loyal to him, and attempted a daring rescue of the Seventh Primarch from the Council’s wards on Terra. This rescue attempt was thwarted – not by the Council, but by the sudden emergence of Mohktal, who proceeded to lay waste to everything the Council threw at him.

The Seventh Primarch was awake, and he was none too pleased about his treatment at the hands of his erstwhile brothers. With powers of the Empyrean surging through him, Mohktal caused untold devastation across the containment wards, releasing some of the most dangerous criminals and traitor agents in the process and slaughtering Custodes sent to contain him.

Ranseng attempted to reason with his gene-father, however, found that Mohktal had changed. No longer the epitome of cold, rational serenity and self-discipline, the Seventh Primarch was now a feral thing of unbound psychic power and instinctual violence. Glimpses of inhuman, terrible forms surfaced beneath his flesh, each stranger and more impossible than the last.

Kian Ranseng wept at the sight of his father corrupted into this, yet deep in his hearts he knew his duty. Gathering all of his resolve, the Legion Master of the Illuminators commanded his surviving men to confront Mohktal in a desperate, almost certainly futile assault.

Though the Illuminators fought bravely, they were certainly outmatched. Whatever possessed Mohktal cared little for safety or self-preservation, and was no longer concerned with the careful application of psychic powers, and the few remaining warriors of the Seventh Legion were hard pressed to survive.

Their salvation, however, was at hand, though it came from an unexpected source. Just as fully half of the Illuminators lay dead or incapacitated, an actinic burst of teleportation revealed the presence of Nyxos, the Primarch of the Grim Angels, accompanied by a retinue of power-armored warriors. These, however, were no ordinary Legionaries.

For decades or even centuries, Nyxos had carefully amassed an array of living impossibilities – blanks, pariahs, psychic nulls, beings so rare that only hundreds could be found in the galaxy of trillions, and even fewer were capable of surviving the onerous process of transformation into a Space Marine. Now, these warriors were brought together as one to face down the corrupted Seventh Primarch, proving their unique value once and for all.

The feral monster that once was Mohktal of the Seventh recoiled from the nulls surrounding his brother. For a moment, glimpses of his former self seemed to shimmer through the façade of corruption – noble, wise, pure. Then, Nyxos struck.

With a scream of rage incarnate, Nyxos cut his brother down. Mohktal’s dying screams were said to resonate through the winds of Terra for months to come, the psychic echo of his final death remaining long after it should have dissipated.

Though the Illuminators set out to free their Primarch, they had instead witnessed his doom. Only three hundred warriors still wore the colors of the Seventh Legion after Mohktal’s death, and even they were now taken into custody by Nyxos, their loyalty considered uncertain in these dark times. Before long, the last Illuminators occupied the same containment cells they sought to free their father from.

During the Fall of Terra, and with Nyxos and Rogr Hemri off-world, Dyal Rulf released Kian Ranseng and his men from captivity, making Ranseng swear an oath to stand by the side of the Consecrators in the coming battle. Though the remaining Illuminators distinguished themselves during Terra’s last days, their numbers were too few to make a significant impact on the result. When the outcome of the battle was in little doubt, Legion Master Ranseng and his men stood by the side of Rulf in his final confrontation with Iskanderos, dying by the side of the Thirteenth Primarch in the final, desperate delaying action.

Post-Heresy

With Bodtsan cut off from much galactic travel due to frequent Warp storms, no significant galactic polity could verify whether or not the Seventh Legion persisted in some form even after their apparent destruction. Among many of the Imperial successor states, the Illuminators’ homeworld became a thing of legend, the mythical location of the greatest repository of arcane knowledge in the galaxy (though it is unclear how Bodtsan acquired such reputation, as the Illuminators were not known to actively gather such lore in their heyday).

Though it would seem that the very name of the Illuminators should have been extinguished after the Fall of Terra, reports continued to surface of Astartes in crimson and silver operating in small groups across the galaxy, often accompanied by post-human warriors wearing situation-appropriate camouflage and using the tactics reminiscent of Thirteenth Legion of old. No definite records exist on whether these warriors are true survivors of the Illuminators Legion or another group emulating their predecessors; with the rarity of these appearances, they may as well be hearsay or wishful thinking.

The few researchers who investigated the matter over the centuries suspect that perhaps, during the final flight of loyalist refugees from Terra, a small number of Illuminators managed to make their way onto the blockade runners or transports departing the old Throne World. If it is indeed the truth, then it is not inconceivable that some of those warriors might have made the long and perilous journey to Bodtsan, though their small numbers would have many any rebuilding effort exceedingly difficult.

Perhaps, some of the mutant abominations created from Mohktal’s gene-seed retained enough semblance of mind and sanity to pursue the path of their forefathers. Perhaps the elusive Spears of Eternity, last seen near Terra at the time of the Fall, took interest in the plight of the Illuminators, though, as with most things pertaining to the Third Legion, the answer is shrouded in secrecy. Perhaps the Consecrators, themselves present at Terra during its Fall, and since curiously elusive, had a part in preserving the legacy of Mohktal. Or perhaps, the minimal Seventh Legion garrison on their homeworld held true to their Primarch’s teachings and chose to rebuild the Legion’s strength before venturing out into the unforgiving, cruel galaxy. Until such time as the Illuminators appear in full force, or one of the many seekers find fabled Bodtsan, the truth may never be known.

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