LEGION timeline and the Horus Heresy (spoilers)

[Nineswords]

Apologies to all if you haven't read LEGION by Dan Abnett yet that came out several years ago. As part of my ongoing analysis of the Alpha Legion, I'm piecing together a detailed timeline of all Alpha Legion actions. Having re-read Legion and cross referencing with several other HH books, here's my timeline of events.

Timeline of Events

The events of Legion place the Ullanor campaign continuously with that of the Nurth pacification, which means the first Imperial casualties of the Heresy are in fact caused by the Alpha Legion, just shy of a year and a half before Horus’ actions on Istvaan III that mark the beginning of the Heresy.

Nurth, two years before the Heresy

• Alpha Legion forces are already present on Nurth, at the request of Horus
• Nurthene insurgent forces decimate local Imperial Army forces of the Geno Two-Five Chiliad, future Legion operative Peto Soneka’s unit is cut down. It is revealed they were bait to draw out Nurthene forces, so that the Alpha Legion could infiltrate a key Nurthene settlement Tel Utan

(Ullanor campaign underway at this point)

+ 5 weeks, Visages/Tel Khat

• Deceased Alpha Legion operative discovered by Imperial Army. Soneka attempts transports the body to another outpost west of Tel Khat for further examination, intercepted by Alpharius;

+3 days, Mon Lo Harbour

• Grammaticus’ infiltration into Mon Lo Harbour, subsequent disorientation and abduction by Alpha Legion forces in the House of the Hydra;

+3 days, Mon Lo Harbour

• Mon Lo emanates a continuous screaming sound; recorded warp activity around the harbour;
• Namatjira reveals that a formal meeting with the Alpha Legion will occur the following day;

+1 day, Mon Lo Harbour

• 'The Great Welcome’ - a formal ceremony where Lord Commander Namatjira and the Imperial Army openly meets with the Alpha Legion for the first time;
• Evening: Namatijira discusses ideology with the primarch and 3 representatives of the Alpha Legion, Grammaticus’ botched infiltration of said meeting.

+ 3 days, Alpha Legion asset, location unknown

• Rukhsana’s ‘abduction’ and interrogation by Alpharius in the desert regarding the whereabouts of Grammaticus;

Short period later, Black Dawn

• Grammaticus presents himself to Soneka. Is escorted to CR583, where they are met by Ingo Pech and Thias Herzog;

Last day on Nurth

• Grammaticus’ explanation of The Black Cube. Convinces Alpharius to quit Nurth and meet the Cabal;
• Alpha Legion reconstitution policy and extraction of Imperial forces on Nurth;

+1 month after Nurth: The Great Triumph on Ullanor

• Horus Lupercal named Warmaster by the Emperor of Mankind;
• The Great Triumph happens 202 years after the beginning of the Great Crusade (source: Horus Rising) and just over 21 months before Istvaan III

+5 months after Nurth, 42 Hydra/Eolith Halting Site

• Alpha Legion’s meeting with the Cabal - twin primarchs, Soneka and Shere shown the Acuity;
• Destruction of Imperial forces by the Alpha Legion

Conclusions:

• We know that the Triumph of Ullanor occurred about 202 years after the beginning of the Great Crusade in the early 31st Millenium
• As noted by various cross references, Alpha Legion fire the first shots as it were, a year and a half (17 months) before Horus Lupercal reveals his treachery on Istvaan III.
• This would mean that that in those 21 months, Horus would have needed to be injured on Davin and planned the Heresy. Is this correct? ('Warp unreliable' time frames not withstanding!)

[Xisor]

Good work, though this raises something of a conundrum. Despite being rather interesting: if Ullanor's only 11 months before Isstvan III, that leaves almost no time at all for the events of Nikaea/Russ/Magnus/Prospero/Terra. Or the big 'the Emperor's abandoned the Crusade' feeling to set in... if he's only been gone a year or so.

Hmm. Are you sure of the date for Ullanor?

[Nineswords]

I actually had to plot it out and its 21 months and a week from Ullanor, not 11 which makes the whole thing more feasible. I've decided to actually do an entire Heresy Timeline for all the books. The Great Triumph is probably the one singular event that everyone can refer to as a datum as we know that a. It marks the effective end of the Great Crusade 202 years after the Emperor sets forth from Terra, and b. It's so important pretty much every book references it. The bit I am really interested in is the 21 months from Ullanor right through to Istvaan III.



nb one small square = 1 month

[Kiro]

I look forward to seeing your HH timeline. Surprised this hasn't been done before!

[Nineswords]

I re-read HORUS RISING and added the events there. You can see there is a significant inconsistency already, and would be more like 3 years+ of events leading to Istvaan III. The one point of reference would be the Great Triumph at Ullanor. I'm actually really looking forward to visualising the Horus Heresy timeline as determined in the books, not to point out indiscrepencies (explained by warp travel effecting time), but trying to understand the relationships between the primarchs.