Event · M31
Death of Innocence
The Death of Innocence is a name attached to the opening violence of the Schism of Mars, the Mechanicum civil war on the Red Planet in the Horus Heresy. It belongs to the early years of the Age of Darkness, in the first phase of the Heresy (M31), when the Adeptus Mechanicus was still bound to the Imperium by the accord that had governed Mars and the Emperor since the Great Crusade. Accounts differ on how narrowly the name applies: it is recorded chiefly as a description of the moment the priesthood of Mars ceased to be a single body, rather than as a separate campaign with its own commanders and dates. The causes lie in a long-standing division within the Mechanicum over knowledge, obedience and the authority of the Fabricator General. Kelbor-Hal, who held that office, is recorded as having aligned Mars with the Warmaster, Horus, and as having moved against those in the priesthood who remained loyal to the Emperor. Loyalist adepts, among them Dalia Cythera, and Titan Legions and forge-world garrisons that would not follow the Fabricator General, were drawn into open fighting across the forges, the manufactorums and the Tharsis region. The conflict is held to have begun in 007.M31, and it ended the pretence that the Mechanicum could remain neutral while the Imperium broke apart. The aftermath was a divided Mars, with rebel and loyalist forces contesting its forges and its stores of knowledge, and a Mechanicum that would take opposing sides for the remainder of the Heresy. Later tradition treats the Schism of Mars as the turning point at which the Dark Mechanicum emerged as a lasting element of Horus’s cause. The event links the world of Mars on the map to the Schism of Mars on the timeline, and it is best read alongside the Horus Heresy, the Adeptus Mechanicus and the fate of the forge worlds that chose between the two sides. Detail on individual engagements beyond these outlines is sparse, and this account does not attempt to supply it.
See where Death of Innocence occurred on the galactic map during the Horus Heresy.