Of all my lord’s brothers, Lorgar is the one I still argue with in my head. The argument never ends, because both of us are right.
The Prophet of Colchis
His pod came down on Colchis, and the priesthood of its Spire Temples raised him — the old priest Kor Phaeron at his shoulder, a name to remember and to curse. The boy spent his nights in high observatories, staring at the stars, foreseeing in visions the arrival of a god. Understand this against the sneers you may have heard: Lorgar did not fail to conquer his homeworld. He conquered it utterly, in a great religious war, with faith as his siege engine — and had a whole world kneeling in readiness for the day the sky opened.
The Golden One
When the Emperor came — Magnus beside him — Lorgar knelt at once, in tears. And there the flaw entered the gold: he mistook his secular father for the divinity of his visions. His Seventeenth Legion, the Word Bearers, crusaded as he preached — slowly, thoroughly, raising monuments and cathedrals, leaving behind the most devout and loyal worlds in the Imperium and falling ever further behind the pace of conquest. He was unmistakable on the field: skin literally inked gold with scrolling Colchisian script, kohl-rimmed eyes full of prophetic sadness, dark stone-grey plate worked with cuneiform, a heavy tome chained at his shoulder and the crozius Illuminarum in his fist.
How the Emperor answered that worship — Monarchia, the ash, the censure — belongs to a darker page. Here, let him stand as he was: the son who loved most, and understood least.
Questions from the Archive
Where was Lorgar found?
On Colchis, raised in the Spire Temples under Kor Phaeron. He conquered the entire world through a great religious war before the Emperor arrived, guided by visions of a coming god.
What legion did Lorgar command?
The Seventeenth Legion, the Word Bearers, who prioritised total cultural and religious conversion over speed — leaving the most devout worlds in the Imperium behind them.
Did Lorgar wear gold armour?
No — the Golden One’s skin itself was gold-inked and tattooed with Colchisian script; his Crusade-era plate was dark stone-grey worked with cuneiform, and he wielded the crozius Illuminarum.