The Dornian Heresy - The Bolter and Chainsword

Imperium in such a state of upheaval
there was an entire galaxy of skulls
ripe for the harvesting. The idea that
Khorne himself had prevented them
from reaching Terra in time did not go
down well with the Space Wolves,
with Wolf Lords openly voicing their
disgust. At last, however, Russ turned
them aside, and they set course for
Fenris, leaving a swathe of butchered
worlds in their wake.
The Scourging of Fenris
As the Imperium regained its strength,
it took to reclaiming the worlds which
had sided with Chaos during the
Dornian Heresy. The ancestral
homeworlds of the so-called Traitor
Legions were particular prizes for
them, but were something that could
only be attempted by massed crusades
of the loyalist Astartes. Excepting
Macragge, which has not fallen to this
day, Fenris was the last Astartes
homeworld to fall. For long periods it
was isolated by swirling warp storms
from the Eye of Terror which, as
though attracted by the worship of the
Blood God, had swept out to
encompass Fenris. Still the
consummate raider, Russ used the brief
periods in which the warp was calm to
bring the judgement of Khorne down
upon the already weakened Imperium,
always returning to Fenris just before
the storms descended once more.
Eventually, three years shy of the
second century anniversary of the
Emperor's entombment inside His
Golden Throne, the warp-storms
enshrouding Fenris briefly cleared and
a crusade was launched to assault the
world with overwhelming strength.
The loyalists had hoped that their
relative isolation would have caused
the skull-takers to turn upon one
another, depleting their numbers, but
this was not to be.
During the Scourging of Fenris, every
isolated island became a battleground.
The animals and even the landscape
itself seemed to rise up as though
60
driven by the will of the Blood God to
oppose the invaders. The war of
attrition stretched from weeks to
months, but finally, under a burning
sun that filled the sky with ominous
portent, the Imperial forces broached
the walls of the Fang itself. Though
there were other legions and indeed
primarchs fighting across Fenris, only
the Thousand Sons led by Magnus, the
Word Bearers commanded by Lorgar
and the Black Templars under High
Lord Abaddon set foot inside the Space
Wolves mighty fortress-monastery.
In the centuries since the Wolf-King
and the cyclops had fought to a
standstill on Prospero, Russ had
become both a daemon-primarch and
an avatar of Khorne. In such a clash no
mere mortal could hope to survive, and
the Fang‟s massive halls were choked
with the dead of both sides. Then, after
three days, the loyalist simply
withdrew and returned to their ships.
The only sign the Space Wolves found
of their primarch was his frostblade,