Laphis

Laphis is a shrine world of Ultramar, held within the Macragge System as a place of pilgrimage and devotion. Its sanctuaries are tended in honour of the Imperial Creed and the martial traditions of the Ultramarines, drawing the faithful from across the sub-sector to mark rites of passage, war dead, and the turning of the Imperial calendar.

During the 13th Black Crusade, Laphis fell to the Alpha Legion, who seized its shrines and held the world against the forces of Ultramar. The occupation did not endure: an Ultramarines counter-attack retook Laphis, ending the Alpha Legion’s presence there and restoring the world to the Imperium.

Accounts of who commanded that counter-attack differ. One tradition credits Marneus Calgar, Chapter Master of the Ultramarines, with leading the relief of Laphis. A separate account instead places Roboute Guilliman himself on the ground, directing the counter-attack in person. The two traditions have not been reconciled, and are recorded here as distinct rather than merged into a single scene.

The fall and recovery of Laphis belongs to the wider chronology of the 13th Black Crusade, when Abaddon the Despoiler’s forces struck across many fronts and Ultramar itself stood among the Imperium’s most contested domains. Within the Macragge System, Laphis’s brief occupation stands as one of the few confirmed Alpha Legion footholds inside Ultramar during that crusade, and its restoration remains bound to the wider defence of Guilliman’s realm.