The Primarchs

MORNINGSTAR (2019)

Written by Graham McNeill

Performed by: Sean Connolly, Richard Reed, Claire Wyatt Scripted by Reverend

LIST OF CHARACTERS:

• Magnus the Red, Primarch of the Thousand Sons Legion; • Ahriman, sorcerer of the Thousand Sons Legion;

• Shaitan

2

(Magnus and Ahriman slowly tread together on the surface of Sortiarius) Ahriman: “Where are we going, my lord? Only echoes of the past lie beyond the ash rains”.

Magnus: “Do you fear the past, Ahzek?”

Ahriman: “No, my Primarch. But I have no wish to relive it. Wolves took everything from us on Prospero. Why should I wish to gaze again on the ashes and bones of our grief?”

Magnus: “More than our pain lies there, my son. Our shared history is to be found in the dust and glass of Tizca. I see it all when I close my eye, the subtle1 light glinting from the pyramid of Photep, the high clouds over the mountains”.

Ahriman: “What else do you see, my lord?”

Magnus: “I see the sun rising anew and history repeating her tale unconsciously. The end of that golden age was a precursor2 to this bloody one. Just as this bloody age will herald the next. The winding3 course of time will bring us round to the same spot again”.

Ahriman (smiling): “Ahahaha”.

Magnus: “What? Have I amused you in some way?”

Ahriman: “No, my lord. I am just pleased to see you restored. It has been too long since I heard you speak in the manner of a teacher”.

Magnus: “But for you I might never have spoken again. My mind was broken and adrift4. All that I was or ever could be was fading into the great ocean. You brought me back, made me remember myself”.

Ahriman: “You are my father. What kind of son would I be, had I allowed your light to fade? You are Magnus, the Crimson King. Your mind outshines5 the brightest star”

Magnus: “Once, perhaps, but with your help we may regain the last best part of my soul. Then my mind will regain its luster6 and shine out when it is needed most”.

Ahriman: “My help? Ask, my lord, my life is yours”.

Magnus: “Be careful what you so blithely7 offer, Ahzek. What I will ask of you will break your heart”.

Ahriman: “I… don’t understand”.

(Magnus continues his tread)

Magnus: “You will and you may hate me for it”.

1 неуловимый, тонкий; едва различимый

2 предшественник; предтеча, предвестник

3 извилистый; вьющийся; петляющий, витой, спиральный, бессвязный, хаотичный

4 плывущий по течению; брошенный на произвол судьбы

5 затмить (в яркости, блеске, роскоши)

6 глянец, блеск; отражённый свет, лоск, блеск, великолепие

7 небрежный, несерьёзный

3

* * *

Magnus: “Tizca, City of Llight! I remember it as it was, before I tore it from Prospero and brought us to this terrible place. It was the jewel of the Imperium, a center of learning and knowledge, of culture and beauty”.

Ahriman: “I… remember it well. But what is to be gained by returning to gaze upon so darker memory? The grieves of Prospero’s destruction are set in stone. It is to the future we must look. It is the Warmaster who is shaping it”.

Magnus: “I hear an unspoken ‘without us’ at the end of that sentence. You think I tarry8 too long on this nameless world?”

Ahriman: “I… do not presume to know your mind, my lord. Since we have not yet set sail for Terra, I trust you have good reason”.

Magnus: “I have, but you have made a neophyte’s mistake”.

Ahriman: “My lord?”

Magnus: “You assume the past is fixed, that it is as you say ‘etched in stone’. But it is not. It is a tale we tell ourselves, written with smoke and mist on a windy day. Our memories are the least reliable of narrators. They lie to us all the time. They have to or else we would go mad”.

(Magnus stops)

Magnus: “Ah, here we are. The pyramid of Photep. Fifty thousand workers toiled9 to build this wonder, all bent to their craft with love. It was glorious to see it grow closer to the sun with every passing day”.

Ahriman: “Amon told me of its construction”.

Magnus: “Why do you think I had it built by the people of Prospero? Why did I not simply employ my mind to craft it?”

Ahriman: “Because there is virtue in the act of doing something by hand”.

Magnus (laughing): “Ha-ha-ha! Indeed, but of all the Thousand Sons you are likely the only one who would ever say so”.

Ahriman: “I wish I had been here to see it rise”.

Magnus: “Instead, you were there to see it fall”.

Ahriman: “Is that why we have returned?”

Magnus: “In a manner of speaking. Tell me, Ahzek, do you remember Morningstar?”

Ahriman: “Morningstar? No, my lord, what is it? A planet? A weapon?”

Magnus: “It is both”.

* * *

8 медлить, мешкать, пребывать; останавливаться; жить, проживать

9 усиленно трудиться над (чем-л.); выполнять тяжёлую работу

4

(Magnus and Ahriman enter the pyramid)

(debris and small rubble fall from the walls)

Ahriman: “My lord, it is dangerous to be within the ruins of the pyramid. What remains of its upper structure could collapse at any moment”.

Magnus: “Your fellowship is Corvidae, but are your powers of the Raptora so weak that you could not save us if it did?”

Ahriman: “Since our tutelary’s10 betrayed us, none of my disciplines have been strong of late. I would not like to risk our fates on the strength of my powers”.

Magnus: “We are in no danger, at least not from the structure”.

(distant howl)

Ahriman: “What was that? Wolves? Again?”

Magnus: “The wolves are gone. Only their ghosts remain”.

Ahriman: “Ghosts are not without power”.

(Magnus halts near a door)

Magnus: “We have arrived”.

Ahriman: “But…eh… sire, there is nothing here, only rack and ruin11”.

Magnus: “Just wait and listen”.

(whispers emerge from the distance and grow louder) Ahriman (almost whispering): “What is out there, sire? You… named them ghosts, but… whose ghosts are they?”

Magnus: “Mine, Ahzek. They are my ghosts. As above, so below”.

(debris starts crumpling down)

Ahriman: “What are you doing?”

Magnus: “Unearthing the past. Many years ago I buried my guilt beneath Prospero, but now it is time to bring it (with effort) back… into… the light”.

(Magnus employs his powers to the rise the Morningstar) Ahriman: “What is that?”

Magnus: “A portion of an ancient starship, a long forgotten Wayfarer12 from our species’ earliest days of galactic exploration. It is also the prison for a terrible power, a psychic entity unlike any I have known”.

Ahriman: “Where did it come from?”

Magnus: “A place I tried to make us all forget”.

10 опекунский, охраняющий; опекающий

11 полное разорение

12 путник, странник

5

(Magnus grabs his bolt gun)

Ahriman: “These ghosts, do they mean us harm?”

Magnus: “Oh, most assuredly they do”.

Ahriman: “To arms, sire!”

(Ahriman and Magnus open fire on the approaching phantoms) Magnus: “The small perturbations13 we miss or ignore. Tiny flaws we regard as inconsequential14. They have far-reaching consequences”.

Ahriman (firing at ghosts, crying out loud): “My lord! What are these ghosts? They are the spirits of Prospero’s burning?”

Magnus: “No, Ahzek. These unquiet spirits are the dead of a world I murdered”.

Ahriman (screaming): “My lord! AAAAA!”

Magnus: “Ahzek? Enough, Shaitan! I am here. It is time!”

* * *

(menacing silence engulfs the chambers)

Shaitan: “I said that you would return, Magnus of the one eye, king of blood and ruination”.

(Ahriman moans while standing up)

Ahriman: “What is that?”

Shaitan: “Tell him, Magnus, it is Shaitan, the voice of my greatest shame. Tell him of Morningstar”.

Ahriman: “Morningstar? That name again, what is it?”

Magnus: “It was a world our Legion and the IVth came to in days long gone, in the time when my brothers and I were united in purpose. Sons with a beloved father and brothers for whom anyone of would gladly die”.

Ahriman: “When was this? During the Crusade?”

Magnus: “Yes, you know, He always hated that word”.

Ahriman: “Who?”

Magnus: “My father. To him the word ‘crusade’ implied vengeance, a ravaging15 of worlds and a pitiless doom to all enemies. That was not our purpose nor our creed.

But never was more apt16 than on Morningstar”.

Ahriman (angrily): “So how is it I have never heard of Morningstar? I am chief Librarian of the Thousand Sons. I keep the legacy of all our Legion’s wars and deeds.

And that name is unknown to me”.

13 пертурбация, возмущение, смятение, расстройство; возмущение, нарушение спокойствия

14 неуместный; не имеющий отношения к делу, несущественный; неважный, незначительный

15 опустошение, уничтожение

16 подходящий, соответствующий, уместный; удачный

6

Shaitan: “Because he willed it so”.

Ahriman: “I… do not understand’.

Magnus: “Morningstar was dying. Global extinction-level events were tearing it apart. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, geomagnetic tsunamis. We saved as many of its inhabitants as we could, but hidden beneath the world I discovered what was driving the planet to its doom. A gestalt17 psychic entity of tortured souls that named itself Shaitan”.

Shaitan (laughing grimly): “Ha-ha-ha-ha! Tell him… the rest”.

Magnus: “To late I realized the seed of its malice18 might exist in any of the minds we evacuated from the planet surface. I knew there was only one way to prevent its escape”.

Ahriman (shocked): “No…”

Magnus: “We turned the guns of our warships on the refugee fleets in orbit and destroyed them. And then we unleashed Exterminatus on the world below to burn all traces of Shaitan from its surface”.

Ahriman (voice trembling): “You… killed them all”.

Magnus: “I did, but I sought to spare all my sons the awful burden of that terrible necessity, but not a day goes by when I do not regret what we had to do to the people of that world”.

Ahriman (angrily, although insulted): “You… violated the sanctity of our minds? You made us… forget?”

Magnus: “I did. For what father does not desire to spare his sons pain? I never told you because I knew how you would look upon me forever after, knowing what I had done”.

Ahriman (screaming angrily): “We could have born that pain, father! Look at what our Legion has endured since that day! You took the choice away from us! You know better than any of us that the path of life is strewn19 with pain and suffering! To shield us from that was to leave us vulnerable to its slings and arrows in the future.

To endure pain, to learn from it is to grow stronger and wiser. Did you not teach us to learn from our failures? To look upon them as lessons and embrace the darkness so as to loosen its treacherous claws?”

Magnus (calmly): “I did and I am sorry. My son, can you ever forgive me?”

Ahriman: “But if you destroyed the refugees and burned the planet, who then are these ghosts? Why does the Shaitan endure?”

Shaitan: “Yes, tell him why!”

17 "гештальт" (обобщенный чувственный образ); целостная форма; образ; структура "видения"

18 злоба, злой умысел; преступное намерение

19 посыпать, усыпать (песком, цветами), разбрасывать; разбрызгивать

7

Magnus: “Because I brought the innocent dead of Morningstar with me. I gave them a new dwelling place within my great grimoire. In what I believed would be a new world of wonder for them to dwell. It was a solve to my conscience, a way to believe I could retain my honor, but even in that I failed”.

Ahriman: “What do you mean?”

Magnus: “Because it is not possible even for a god to make a warded arcane space completely protected from corruption. The outside, the darkness always finds a way in because nothing can be completely walled off from the rest of reality. So even the ultimate fortress inevitably harbors20 the snake of its undoing21. I wrought paradise, but for those trapped within it became a nightmare”.

Shaitan: “Is that guilt I hear?”

Magnus (emotionally): “Yes, damn you! Is that what you want me to say?”

Shaitan: “No, Magnus. That is not what I wanted to hear, for I despise guilt. It is regret and despair over that which cannot be undone. It is like devouring glass or dust of this world and expecting sustenance22. It is the knives fathers wield on their sons to keep them in check. The scourge23 the priest uses on the golem. It is the catalyst for untold acts of selfishness and stupidity. Truly there are few more treacherous emotions than guilt”.

Magnus: “You are wrong. Guilt reminds us of our better natures. It tells us to be better. The man who feels no guilt for his wrong doings is the monster we should all fear”.

Shaitan: “Then name me ‘monster’ for I will have none of it”.

Ahriman: “Sire, we must leave. Whatever sins of the past lie within that vessel, we should leave them be”.

Shaitan (laughing hysterically): “Ha-ha-ha! You should listen to him, Magnus!”

Magnus (emotionally): “No! I cannot!”

Ahriman: “Why, my lord?”

Magnus: “Because we are going to make war on the surface of Terra. We will be fighting in the most consequential battle that has ever been fought or ever will be.

And we are not ready. I am not ready”.

(Magnus starts casting a spell)

Ahriman: “My lord? No!”

Magnus: “I am Magnus the Red, the Crimson King! I name thee Shaitan ‘In Servitutum Abduso’! I bind thy malice forever to the pages of this book!”

(Shaitan starts screaming)

20 дать убежище; приютить, скрывать; утаивать; укрывать

21 уничтожение; гибель

22 питание; пища

23 плеть, бич

8

Shaitan (insanely): “AAAAAAAA!”

(books falls loosely in Magnus’s hands)

Magnus: “It is done”.

Ahriman: “What is done, my lord? What is in your grimoire now?”

Magnus: “The weapon we need to finish this”.

* * *

(Magnus and Ahriman walk away)

Ahriman: “It is a heavy burden you bear, my lord”.

Magnus: “Not so heavy as yours, I think. I have disappointed you and for that I am truly sorry”.

Ahriman (sighing): “Eh, it is no easy thing for a son to know his father is not who he thought he was”.

Magnus: “A pain I know all too well”.

Ahriman: “Perhaps, we all damaged sons, my lord. I think maybe we forgot that it is the fate of fathers to one day disappoint their sons”.

Magnus: “And it is the duty of sons to one day outstrip24 their fathers”.

Ahriman: “Hm, what is that? A vision of the future?”

Magnus: “No, merely an observation as old as time. Will you tell your brothers of Morningstar and what I did to them?”

Ahriman: “The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance”.

Magnus (laughing): “Ha-ha-ha, you quote your own writings back to me”.

Ahriman: “The words were Ohrmuzd’s. My brother said them to me outside the walls of Susa when we were children. He was always the wisest of us”.

Magnus: “Ah, Ohrmuzd. I miss him still, but you did not answer my question. Will you tell them?”

Ahriman: “Do you… wish me to?”

Magnus: “No, but not for the reason you might think. This sin must be mine to confess. I will tell them of Morningstar and ask their forgiveness for robbing them of their memory. If they absolve25 me, I swear to you I will prove worthy of that devotion”.

Ahriman: “And that is the only time you have hidden the truth from us? Swear to me on the souls of all your sons, that there are no more secrets in our shared past”.

(Magnus and Ahriman halt)

Magnus: “I swear it”.

24 превосходить (в чём-л.), обгонять, обходить, опережать

25 прощать, отпускать грехи; освобождать от греха (в чём-л.) 9

Ahriman: “Then you have my forgiveness”.

Magnus (sighing): “Thank you, Ahzek. You are my most favored son and I cannot do this without you. Trust me, we will be tested like never before on Terra. To breach the psychic defenses of my father’s fortress will require us all to push the very limits of our powers”.

Ahriman: “We will tear down the veils between worlds and rip the Emperor from his Throne for you, my lord”.

Magnus: “I know, you will, my son. I know you will”.