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The [[Primarch]] of the Word Bearers, [[Lorgar]], vanished while still an infant, just like all of the other Primarchs. He was discovered on a [[Feudal World]] named [[Colchis]], which he had eventually unified in a series of brutal religious wars in response to his visions of the [[Emperor]]'s coming arrival. When the Emperor did arrive, as Lorgar had foreseen, the Primarch dropped to his knee, leading the population of his world in rejoicing and worship of the Emperor as a god. At the conclusion of these festivities, the Emperor bade Lorgar take his best warriors and induct them into his Space Marine Legion (At that time Known as "The Imperial Heralds"^147h) and join him on the [[Great Crusade]]. Lorgar appointed trustworthy regents to rule over Colchis and devoutly complied with his father's direction.

Despite being pledged to the Great Crusade for around a century, the Emperor had never once rebuked Lorgar or his Legion for their zealous worship even though such doctrine clashed with the Emperor's [[Imperial Truth]]. However 43 years prior to the events of [[Isstvan V]] the Emperor brought his wrath to bear on the Word Bearers. The Emperor ordered the [[Ultramarines|XIII Legion]] to utterly destory the city of [[Monarchia]], a perfect city that was testament to all that Lorgar and the Word Bearers stood for. In the ashes of the city the entire XVII Legion gathered to be reprimanded by the Emperor, [[Roboute Guilliman]] and [[Malcador the Sigilite]]. The Legion in its entirety was forced to kneel in the ashes of their greatest achievement and repledge themselves to the [[Great Crusade]] and to the Emperor.^77a

In time, Lorgar came to realise that his worship of the Emperor as a god had been false. He still however maintained his view that faith was central to the human psyche and that it was still plausable that his views could be validated. His search began by investigating the [[Chaos|Old Faith]] of his homeworld, which in his certainty that the Emperor was a god he had destroyed during the [[The Brotherhood|First Purge of the Brotherhood]] prior to being discovered by the Emperor. He returned to Colchis to seek the answers he so desperatley needed and sought the council of [[Magnus the Red]], the wisest among the Primarchs.^87b

Lorgar came to realise that all of the belief systems which featured in countless other human cultures aross the galaxy shared a common origin and underlying message. He believed that because all the countless legends of divinity, from so many disparate cultures, all agreed on other powers than exist beyond the veil, that the human species' most natural instict could not be false. Thus he took [[The Pilgrimage]], a mythological journey to [[Eye of Terror|the place where gods and mortals meet]] in an attempt to discover the universal truth of the universe and enlighten humanity and his father.^97c

The Word Bearers Legion rejoined the Great Crusade as a front for the Pilgrimage and scattered itself across the stars, bringing more worlds into compliance than any other Legion in the last fifty years of the Crusade. Lorgar himself joined the [[Expedition Fleet|1,301st Expedition Fleet]] and eventually came to the planet [[Cadia]] where they recieved validation for their theories that all of the Old Faiths across the galaxy shared similar origins, and thus shared a universal truth. [[Ingethel]], a native of Cadia was anointed by the [[Chaos Gods|gods]] as Lorgar's guide in revealing the Primordial Truth and undertook a ritual to do so which elevated her to the ranks of the [[daemon|daemonic]] as Ingethel the Ascended.^107d

Ingethel the Ascended led the Serrated Sun Chapter of the Word Bearers into the [[Eye of Terror|Great Eye]] where the failure of the [[Eldar|Eldar Empire]] was witnessed first hand. Ingethel informed the Word Bearers that the Eldar failed and suffered [[the Fall]] because at the moment of their ascension they were unable to accept the [[Chaos|Primordial Truth]]. They gave birth to a [[Slaanesh|god of pleasure and promise]], yet they felt no joy.^117e Their new god awoke to find it's worshippers abandoning it out of ignorance and fear, thus was the endless storm of the [[Eye of Terror|Great Eye]] formed, an echo of the birth-cries of the Eldar's new god.^127f The nature of the Primordial Truth was revealed to the Word Bearers in the ashes of the Eldar Empire, they learnt that in order for humanity as a species to survive they must not commit the same sins the Eldar did, they must instead accept Chaos.

The Pilgrimage ultimately proved that the Emperor's [[Imperial Truth]] was in fact a lie and that gods truly did exist. Lorgar and the Word Bearers spent the remaining years of the Great Crusade attempting to enlighten humanity about the universal truths of the universe, swaying several Primarchs to their cause, the most notable being [[Horus|Horus Lupercal]]. When it became clear that humanity could not be enlightened without bloodshed whilst it remained shackled to the lies of the Emperor, Lorgar helped orchestrate the [[Isstvan V|Massacre at Isstvan V]] and the [[Horus Heresy]] itself.^137g

*⁷:[[The First Heretic (Novel)]]:*^7a:[[The First Heretic (Novel)]], pp. 60-66.:*^87b:[[The First Heretic (Novel)]], pp. 155-169.:*^97c:[[The First Heretic (Novel)]], pp. 166-169.:*^107d:[[The First Heretic (Novel)]], pp. 236-263.:*^117e:[[The First Heretic (Novel)]], ppp. 289.:*^127f:[[The First Heretic (Novel)]], ppp. 290.:*^137g:[[The First Heretic (Novel)]], pp. 341-343.:*^147h:[[The First Heretic (Novel)]], ppp. eBook336.