Erebus

Overview

Erebus is the Dark Apostle and former First Chaplain of the Word Bearers. He is one of the original architects of the Horus Heresy.

He is a gifted orator and a manipulator who used the Warrior Lodges and later the Serpent Lodges to spread doubt and corruption through the Legions. His body is inscribed with sacred texts of Chaos. Many of the most fateful events of the Heresy were shaped by his hand. Erebus was First Chaplain of the Word Bearers, a Colchisian priest and one of the main architects of the Horus Heresy. Alongside Lorgar and Kor Phaeron he turned the Word Bearers to the Dark Gods. He stole the Kinebrach Anathame from the Interex and handed it to the Davinite traitors who wounded Horus, which delivered the Warmaster to the Serpent Lodge's rituals. Since the Heresy he has been one of the Dark Apostles of the Word Bearers' Dark Council on Sicarus.

Origins

He was born on Colchis and became a priest of the Old Way. Alongside Kor Phaeron, he followed Lorgar after the primarch was found.

On Colchis, the Word Bearers' homeworld, he served the Covenant, the ancient priesthood that worshipped the Old Gods. When Lorgar was found and began preaching the Imperial Truth, Erebus and Kor Phaeron encouraged his search for a deeper faith. That search eventually led the primarch into the arms of Chaos.

Aaron Dembski-Bowden's short story Child of Chaos reveals that Erebus was not his original name. The boy who took it was born to common parents on Colchis and loved to deceive and manipulate, starting with teasing desert scorpions. His parents constantly compared him to the village's pride, a pious, studious child called Erebus. He took their advice to be more like Erebus literally: he strangled the boy with a garrotte, copied his facial tattoos and left to train as a priest of the Covenant in the city of Vharedesh. One day, seeing his face split into four in a cracked mirror, he understood that the Ruinous Powers had always been guiding him. When the Emperor came to Colchis, Erebus was the only one there who did not feel overwhelmed by His presence. He felt only excitement at seeing the man he meant to bring down.

Key events

1. Organized the Serpent Lodges that spread corruption through the Legions.
2. Helped arrange Horus's fall on Davin.
3. Instructed Typhon to bring the Death Guard into the Heresy.
4. Accompanied Lorgar on the pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror that convinced the primarch of the truth of Chaos.
5. Supplied the xenos anathame blade used to wound Horus on Davin.
6. Fled into the Eye of Terror after the Siege, where he remains a Dark Apostle.

Dan Abnett's Horus Rising has him steal the anathame from the Interex's Hall of Devices, starting that war, and False Gods follows the plan through to Davin. Horus was finally pushed too far after Signus Prime. In Fear to Tread, Erebus blamed the Warmaster for ruining his plans for the Blood Angels, and Horus flayed the tattooed face from his skull with his own athame. Nick Kyme's Vulkan Lives finds him banished by both Horus and Lorgar, his face growing back mutated, yet still convinced he is the Heresy's shadow king. During the Siege, Warhawk shows him summoning all four kinds of Greater Daemon against the Perpetual Erda, then stabbing her when she spits in his face.

Dan Abnett's The End and the Death gives him a final atrocity. Aboard the Vengeful Spirit, after Horus had fallen, he found Garviel Loken keeping watch over the Warmaster's body and stabbed him in the back while Abaddon watched in horror. Erebus explained that daemons are born from moments of supreme treachery. Loken's murder would echo through the warp and help create Samus, the daemon whose whispers set the Heresy in motion, so the snake would swallow its own tail.

Battles & campaigns

• The Interex: His theft of the Anathame provoked a war that should never have happened.
• Davin: He arranged Horus's wounding and corruption.
• Calth: He played a key part in the Word Bearers' betrayal of the Ultramarines.

Personality

Manipulative, patient and devout to Chaos.

Erebus is a patient, cunning schemer who believes the Chaos Gods are the only true divinity. He prefers to work through others, letting his pawns take the blame. His betrayals have made him widely loathed, yet his instinct for survival has allowed him to outlast many of his enemies.

Weapons & Vehicles

Plague Knife & BaleswordMelee Weapon

The corroded, pus-dripping combat blades of the Death Guard Plague Marines, so saturated with Nurgle's supernatural contagions that a s…

Thunder HammerMelee Weapon

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Plasma Gun & Plasma IncineratorRanged Weapon

A volatile directed-energy rifle that hurls bolts of miniature sun-hot plasma capable of vaporising Terminator plate and tank armour—at…

Drach'nyenRelic Weapon

The Echo of the First Murder—an ancient, bound Daemon greatsword wielded by Warmaster Abaddon the Despoiler that rends reality and woun…

PossessedElites · Unit

Chaos Space Marines who have surrendered their bodies to daemons, twisting into horrific mutated killers.

Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.

Connections

Characters (3)

• 
  Horus Lupercal manipulated by · Black Legion

  Erebus engineered Horus's fall to Chaos on Davin.

• 
  Khârn the Betrayer enemy · World Eaters

  Erebus manipulated Kharn's friends and nearly died when Kharn discovered his schemes.

• 
  Lorgar Aurelian mentor · Word Bearers

  Erebus was the First Chaplain who guided Lorgar towards the Chaos Gods.

Factions

• Word Bearers primary faction

Related units (1)

Chaos Cultists

Some links are thematic parallels (marked "parallel") rather than recorded meetings. See the connections web.

Legacy

Erebus is the First Chaplain of the Word Bearers and one of the chief architects of the Horus Heresy, the man who steered the Warmaster's corruption after Davin. He is despised even by many traitors for his lies, yet remains a tireless missionary of the Pantheon. His survival into the 41st Millennium shows how the Heresy's original schemers still shape the Long War. Erebus's career is a long chain of betrayals, and his own Legion has suffered many of them.

After the Heresy he sat on the Dark Council of Sicarus, competing with Kor Phaeron for control of the Legion. During the 13th Black Crusade, the Eye of Terror campaign material had him sacrifice millions of captives across the Cadian Sector to summon a daemon army.

Appearances & sources

• Horus Rising and False Gods (Dan Abnett, Graham McNeill)
• The First Heretic and Betrayer (Aaron Dembski-Bowden)
• Know No Fear (Dan Abnett)