Event · M31

Destruction of Chemos

The Destruction of Chemos was the Passage of the Angels action in which Lion El’Jonson’s Dark Angels destroyed Chemos, homeworld of the Emperor’s Children, in about 012–013.M31. Chemos had been a mining and manufacturing world whose industry Fulgrim had raised into compliance-era prosperity; in the Heresy it remained a Traitor asset in the southern Imperium. As part of the Passage of the Angels—also called the Passage of the Angel of Death and the Crusade of Vengeance—the Lion led the Dark Angels in a campaign of extermination against worlds loyal to Horus after the Ruinstorm no longer barred their path. Old Night weaponry and a doctrine of denial rather than occupation left a trail of ruined planets; Chemos was among the vital worlds recorded as destroyed, alongside Barbarus and, in related accounts, Nuceria. By stripping such resource worlds from the Warmaster’s rear, the campaign reduced Horus’s capacity to sustain a protracted siege of Terra and contributed to the acceleration of his Solar offensive. The Lion did not learn at once how far those burns had shaped the wider war; intelligence in the Passage was scarce, and debate continued among his commanders whether to sail for Terra or to continue the annihilation. Chemos’s destruction stands as one of the named homeworld killings of that crusade.

See where Destruction of Chemos occurred on the galactic map during the Horus Heresy.

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