Event · M30

Jaghatai unifies Chogoris

Jaghatai unifies Chogoris denotes the rise of the primarch Jaghatai Khan on the steppe world known to the Imperium as Mundus Planus and to its people as Chogoris, culminating in the reunion with the Emperor of Mankind and the Khan’s assumption of command over the Fifth Legion. The infant primarch came to rest in the Empty Quarter, a barren grassland west of the Palatine’s empire, and was found by Ong Khan, leader of the Talskar, who took the child as a gift from the gods. Raised among the nomad horsemen, Jaghatai excelled as a warrior and saw beyond the perpetual tribal warfare of the steppes. The killing of Ong Khan by the rival Kurayed tribe shaped him. Even as a youth he gathered the Talskar, razed the Kurayed, and mounted the enemy leader’s head upon his tent, then swore to end the fighting among the tribes. Over successive summers he defeated hunting packs sent by the Palatine, absorbed conquered tribes into the Talskar, made military service mandatory, and broke up old tribal identities by splitting and merging bands. Promotion followed merit. Companions who would serve him for centuries — among them Qin Xa, Hasik and Targutai Yesugei — gathered about him in this period. When an avalanche separated him from his people he was seized by a Palatine hunting band; he returned one mutilated rider with the head of the Palatine’s son and a warning that the steppe peoples were no longer toys. The Palatine marched west with armoured infantry and cavalry; Subedei meanwhile led a second force across the Kuzil Quan desert. Light tribal horse-archers wore down the tight ranks until the Palatine fled to his capital with a remnant of bodyguards. Tribal elders then proclaimed Jaghatai Great Khan of the whole land. He offered cities surrender or destruction, took the Palatine’s head, and within twenty years ruled the largest empire the world had known, though his people largely returned to tribal life under his generalship rather than settle as administrators. Six months later the Emperor arrived. Jaghatai recognised in him the power to unite the stars as he had united the steppes, knelt before his generals, and accepted command of the Fifth Legion, then known as the Star Hunters. He set about assimilating the mostly Terran legionaries into Chogorian culture and tactics while Chogorian recruits were raised, and after the battle against the Nephilim on Hoadh the Legion took the name White Scars. Quan Zhou in the Khum Karta mountains later stood as the fortress-monastery of the Chapter that descended from that Legion.

See where Jaghatai unifies Chogoris occurred on the galactic map during the Horus Heresy.

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