Horus Heresy · atlas

Dispute in the canon · 4 positions

Who shielded the Emperor on the Vengeful Spirit

Positions

  1. Position 1

    The mortal guardsman Ollanius Pius is the original Imperial myth (first appearance: White Dwarf 109, 1988; Realm of Chaos). It is this version that became the icon of the cult. The in-universe vessel of the story in the Siege cycle is Corporal Ollanius Piers (105th Tercio of the Upland Grenadiers): he carried a banner bearing the Emperor’s likeness, and the remembrancer Hari rewrote this as “shielded the Emperor with his own body”.

    • Lexicanum: Ollanius Pius
    • Lexicanum: Ollanius Piers
    • White Dwarf 109 (1988)

  2. Position 2

    The Custodian is the version of a later retcon; in the Siege cycle he is Caecaltus Dusk.

    • Lexicanum: Ollanius Pius

  3. Position 3

    The Space Marine is the third version of the retcon. In the Siege cycle two Astartes at once end up beside the Emperor on the Vengeful Spirit — Garviel Loken and Leetu — and the novel does not say which of them is “the one”.

    • Lexicanum: Ollanius Pius
    • The End and the Death (Dan Abnett)

  4. Position 4

    The Perpetual Ollanius Persson is the working version of Abnett’s ending: he places the anathame in the Emperor’s hands.

    • The End and the Death (Dan Abnett)
    • Lexicanum: Ollanius Persson

Our position

The atlas has the character Ollanius Persson; the Pius myth lives in the glossary and the canon notes rather than as a separate duplicate event. The retcon is neither struck out nor “defeated”: the final novels bring all three figures together at once — the Space Marines, the Custodian and the “guardsman” exist simultaneously, and this is the authors’ resolution of the dispute, not a choice made by the atlas.

  • The End and the Death III (D. Abnett)
  • Index Astartes / Collected Visions

Events of the dispute

  1. 014.M31 Death of Sanguinius · the Emperor against Horus Loyalist victory

    Horus lowered the shields of the “Vengeful Spirit”, luring the Emperor. Sanguinius reached him first — and was killed, refusing to betray the Emperor (thus the Black Rage was born).

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