Sons of the Emperor: Five Horus Heresy Primarchs Ready for Battle
The Great Crusade was an age of legends walking among men. Twenty demigods led humanity’s expansion across the galaxy, each one a masterwork of genetic engineering and a reflection of the Emperor’s own power.
With Horus Heresy 3rd Edition on the horizon, there’s never been a better time to explore the stories of these legendary figures. We’ve painted several Horus Heresy Primarchs over the years, and each commission tells a different story. Some represent loyalty tested to breaking points. Others show the price of ambition and the corruption of noble ideals. All of them capture that crucial moment in human history when brothers turned against each other and the galaxy burned.
Here are five Primarchs from our commission history – titans whose choices shaped the fate of mankind.
Our Primarchs Collection
Jaghatai Khan - The Warhawk of Chogoris
The most recent addition to our Primarch collection captures the Great Khan in his element. Jaghatai represents something unique among his brothers – complete freedom of action combined with absolute loyalty to the Emperor.
Raised among the nomadic tribes of Chogoris, Jaghatai learned warfare from horseback before he ever saw a bolt round fired. His approach to combat emphasized speed, precision, and striking where enemies least expected. While other Primarchs built static battle lines or engineered complex stratagems, the Khan simply appeared where he was needed most.
During the Heresy, Horus believed the White Scars would join his rebellion. He was catastrophically wrong. Jaghatai’s loyalty never wavered, but his methods remained his own. He fought for seventy years after the Heresy ended, always moving, always hunting the enemies of mankind. Then he vanished into the Webway pursuing Drukhari raiders and hasn’t been seen since.
Magnus the Red - The Crimson King
Magnus represents the most tragic fall among the loyalist Primarchs. This commission captures him at the height of his power, before corruption and damnation claimed him.
Magnus was never meant to be a traitor. His greatest crime was trying to save the Imperium by warning the Emperor about Horus’s betrayal. Using forbidden psychic powers, he breached the psychic defenses around Terra and delivered his message. In doing so, he accidentally damaged the Emperor’s secret Webway project and proved to his father that he couldn’t be trusted with power.
The Emperor ordered Leman Russ to bring Magnus back to Terra for judgment. But Horus intercepted those orders and convinced Russ to destroy the Thousand Sons instead. When the Space Wolves arrived at Prospero, they came for war, not arrest.
Magnus could have fought back. His psychic might could have stopped the assault. Instead, he accepted what he believed was the Emperor’s judgment and allowed his world to burn. Only when he watched his sons die did he finally resist – and by then it was too late for anything but damnation.
Magnus fell because he loved knowledge more than wisdom, because he believed his intentions mattered more than his actions, and because he trusted his brothers to show mercy they weren’t capable of giving. His story reminds us that even godlike beings can be undone by their own nobility.
Horus Lupercal - The Warmaster
Here stands the architect of the galaxy’s greatest betrayal. This commission shows Horus at the moment of his triumph – when he held the Imperium in his grasp and could have remade it according to his vision.
Horus was everything the Emperor wanted in a son. Charismatic, brilliant, capable of inspiring absolute loyalty from his brothers and his warriors. When the Emperor chose him as Warmaster, it surprised no one. Horus had always been first among equals, the natural leader his brothers turned to when they needed guidance.
But being chosen as Warmaster revealed something darker in Horus’s nature. He craved his father’s approval, and when the Emperor seemed to withdraw from the Crusade, Horus felt abandoned. Chaos whispered that he deserved recognition, that his father had used him and discarded him, that he could rule better than the distant Emperor.
The corruption of Horus wasn’t sudden. It was careful, methodical, playing on his pride and his genuine desire to protect humanity. By the time he realized what he’d become, the choice between loyalty and rebellion had already been made. The Warmaster who wanted to save the Imperium became the traitor who nearly destroyed it.
Horus’s fall proves that even the greatest among us can be corrupted if we place our own desires above our duties. His rebellion cost humanity everything it could have become.
Leman Russ - The Wolf King
The Emperor’s executioner stands ready for war. This commission captures Russ in his element – a loyal son prepared to do whatever terrible things his father demands.
Leman Russ was the Emperor’s solution to problems that couldn’t be solved with diplomacy or standard military action. When the Thunder Warriors needed to be eliminated, Russ did it. When entire populations needed to be brought into compliance through fear, Russ provided that fear. When Magnus the Red needed to be punished for his hubris, Russ delivered that punishment.
The burning of Prospero became Russ’s defining moment. He arrived expecting to arrest his brother and instead found himself ordered to destroy an entire Legion. Russ never questioned those orders, never hesitated to follow them through. To him, loyalty meant obedience, and obedience meant doing what needed to be done regardless of personal cost.
But Russ wasn’t just a mindless weapon. He understood the burden he carried. Being the Emperor’s executioner meant making choices that would haunt him forever. He knew his actions at Prospero were monstrous, but he believed they were necessary. That willingness to accept damnation for the greater good made him both admirable and terrifying.
Centuries after the Heresy ended, Leman Russ disappeared. Some say he went seeking a cure for the Emperor’s condition. Others believe he entered the Eye of Terror hunting his traitor brothers. The truth doesn’t matter – what matters is that when duty called, he answered, no matter the cost.
Ferrus Manus - The Gorgon of Medusa
Our earliest Primarch commission shows Ferrus Manus in all his grim determination. The Gorgon represents the price of unwavering loyalty during the Heresy’s opening moves.
Ferrus was a perfectionist who despised weakness in any form. His silver hands, gained from killing an ancient Necron construct on Medusa, symbolized his belief that flesh was inferior to metal, that sentiment was inferior to logic, that weakness deserved only elimination.
This philosophy made him incredibly effective as a military commander but left him vulnerable to manipulation. When Fulgrim – his closest brother and dearest friend – fell to Chaos, Ferrus couldn’t understand how perfection could choose corruption. His inability to accept that reality led him straight into the trap at Isstvan V.
Ferrus died because he loved his brother too much to believe Fulgrim was truly lost. Even facing a daemon-possessed Fulgrim wielding a corrupted blade, Ferrus held back, hoping to save someone who was already damned. That moment of mercy cost him his life and denied the Imperium one of its finest generals.
The Gorgon’s death marked the true beginning of the Horus Heresy. Before Isstvan V, many believed the conflict could be resolved through negotiation or limited warfare. Ferrus’s execution proved that Horus intended to win through any means necessary, that the traitors would kill their own brothers without hesitation.
Ready to Commission Your Own Primarch?
Each Primarch represents a different aspect of heroism, tragedy, and the burden of power. Whether you’re drawn to Jaghatai’s independence, Magnus’s pursuit of knowledge, Horus’s charisma, Russ’s loyalty, or Ferrus’s determination, these figures offer incredible opportunities for storytelling through miniatures.
Want to see your own Primarch leading your Heresy-era forces? These legendary figures deserve nothing less than our best work.
Send us a message and let’s discuss painting your chosen son of the Emperor!
Check our Instagram, to see more of our recent projects.