Event · M30–M31
Battle of Tarsus
The Battle of Tarsus was an engagement fought on the Aeldari maiden world of Tarsus during the Great Crusade. It is dated only to the beginning of the Horus Heresy, with no narrower date recorded. It arose when the Farseer Eldrad Ulthran met the Primarch Fulgrim there to warn him of Horus’s treachery, only to find that Fulgrim, already wounded by Eugen Temba’s anathame, had been corrupted by Slaanesh and carried a corrupted blade. Eldrad ordered his guards to kill Fulgrim, but the attempt failed: the Wraithlord Khiraen Goldhelm, Eldrad’s adviser, was destroyed, and accounts also record that Fulgrim destroyed an Avatar of Khaine. Eldrad did not travel to Terra to warn the Emperor directly, and he survived the battle, afterwards distrusting humanity. Accounts differ on how the engagement ended. One holds that Eldrad’s force withdrew and that Fulgrim then virus-bombed several maiden worlds; another that the Imperials won the fight and virus bombs were afterwards ordered against the newly discovered worlds; a third that Fulgrim virus-bombed Tarsus itself in the aftermath; and a fourth that virus bombs fell upon the maiden world before the Primarch could be killed, with Khiraen lost in the melee.
See where Battle of Tarsus occurred on the galactic map during the Horus Heresy.
Locations
Involved characters
- Eldrad Ulthran (Eldrad Ulthran met Fulgrim on the maiden world of Tarsus during the Great Crusade, as the Horus Heresy was beginning, with no narrower date recorded. He warned Fulgrim of Horus’s treachery and attempted to have him killed, rather than travelling to Terra. Accounts differ on whether his force withdrew before virus bombs were used, whether the bombs followed an Imperial victory, and whether Tarsus alone or several maiden worlds were bombed.)