Campaign · The galaxy · the rim of the Eye of Terror · 014.M31 — 019.M31
The Great Scouring
The counter-offensive after the death of Horus: the traitors are driven towards the Eye, Mars is liberated, Caliban perishes in the Lion’s domestic war, Skalathrax finishes off the XII, the Iron Cage cripples the VII. The Codex is still to come, the Legions are already finished.
Outcome A strategic loyalist victory: the Imperium is held, the traitors are driven into the Eye. Tactically — a scorched galaxy and the end of the Legion era.
Commanders
Loyalists
Traitors
- Theatre
- The galaxy · the rim of the Eye of Terror
- Period
- 014.M31 — 019.M31
- Legions
Analysis
On the map the Scouring is easy to mistake for a “victorious colouring-in”. The canon is harsher. The traitors flee not because the loyalists have suddenly grown stronger but because the centre of their politics (Horus) has been destroyed. The loyalists advance with bled-white Legions. The I Legion spends its blow on Caliban (015.M31), not on the pursuit: Luther’s domestic heresy matters more to the Lion than a galactic mop-up. The XII at Skalathrax (015.M31) kills itself. The IV does not flee in panic — Perturabo builds a trap into which Dorn will walk in 019 (the Iron Cage). The boundaries of the Scouring’s dates drift in the sources (up to ~021.M31); the atlas cuts at 019. To be honest: many battles of the Scouring are not spelled out in the novels; do not fill the map with invented battles. Those that exist are Caliban, Skalathrax, Eskrador (a disputed canon concerning Alpharius) and the Iron Cage.
Order of battle
Loyalists: the XIII as the best-preserved army, the remnants of the VII, VI, IX and I (before/after Caliban), fragments of the X/XVIII/XIX, the Imperial Army. Traitors: the retreating fleets of the XVI under Abaddon, the IV as an organised force, the rest — warbands and daemon courts.
Turning points
- The Start of the Clean-up — The Great Scouring
Without Horus the traitor armada is no longer a target but refugees with teeth.
- The Destruction of Caliban — Destruction of Caliban
The Lion against Luther. The I Legion acquires an eternal internal war.
- Skalathrax — Battle of Skalathrax
The XII is cut down by its own. The berserker Legion no longer exists as an army.
- The Iron Cage — The Iron Cage
Perturabo takes revenge on Dorn. The VII is almost destroyed and ready to be broken up into Chapters.
Events of the campaign
- The Great Scouring Loyalist victory
After Horus’s death the Imperium launched a galactic counter-offensive to burn out the taint of the Heresy.
- Liberation of Mars Loyalist victory
After the lifting of the Siege of Terra the Imperium retook Mars from the Dark Mechanicum.
- Destruction of Caliban Pyrrhic loyalist victory
Grief-stricken at the fate of the Emperor, mortally wounded and interred on the Golden Throne, Lion El’Jonson returned to Caliban — and his ships were met by a salvo of planetary guns: his old…
- Battle of Skalathrax Atrocity
On the daemonic world of Skalathrax in the Eye of Terror the World Eaters met the hated Emperor’s Children in their last battle as a single Legion.
- Battle of Eskrador Traitor victory
In the course of the Scouring the Alpha Legion clashed with the Ultramarines on Eskrador.
- The Iron Cage Pyrrhic loyalist victory
On Sebastus IV Perturabo raised the “Eternal Fortress” — a trap of bunkers and trenches in the shape of an eight-pointed star, to lure and bleed the hated Imperial Fists.
Significance
The transition from the Heresy to the Imperium of the 41st millennium. The Legions will die as a form; the war will not.
How to look in the atlas
- Time slider 14.8…19 — this is the epilogue part of the timeline; it exists only because the events behind it really exist.
- Legions filter I at 15.3: the Lion spends the blow on Caliban, not on the pursuit. This shows as the absence of an arrow towards the Eye.
Sources
- Lexicanum: Great Scouring
- Forge World Black Book III: Extermination
- WH40k Fandom: Iron Cage
- The End and the Death III (arc epilogue)
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