Warhammer: In the Name of Nirvana

"That's right! Coexistence!"

"This is the door to a new era."

As the giant in pearly white armor raised one of his hands, the entire room lit up with the rays of the sun.

Warmaster Horus, his deep voice was so full of vitality, and hundreds of sparkling honors and medals dispelled the original cold dampness in the room: even the bone-chilling marble sculptures were filled with the sound of the Wolf Shepherd. It became alive in front of the warm eyes.

"This is also the final solution I came up with after meditating during this period."

"meditation?"

The figure working at the desk was obviously amused by this word: the owner of this cold office, Macragge and the unquestioned ruler of the five hundred worlds, finally raised his untired eyes, Sasha threw the quill that made a noise aside.

"You have not been in this habit before, my brother Horus."

Guilliman stood up. His fully armed figure seemed restrained in this not-so-large office. The refreshing decorative vegetation beside the table and the fancy wall with a giant military flag hanging behind him seemed like a prison. Living in the prison of the original body all embodies a Markula style of conformity.

At least in Horus's opinion, this gorgeous attire made him feel a little uncomfortable.

"Please wait a moment."

Fortunately, the friendly attitude of the Macragges greatly improved this situation.

I saw that Guilliman did not greet his brother immediately, but spent about two to three minutes sorting out the crumbling books and messy notes next to him: like a squirrel busy preparing for the winter, The same as adjusting your own warehouse.

Although in the eyes of the Wolf Shepherd, these adjustments were useless: Guilliman's office still showed great chaos, but it was mixed with a little order that only the Lord of Macragge himself could understand.

Makes people scratch their heads.

But also fascinating.

Especially those jingling tablets and meditators, which seemed to be placed randomly everywhere, but in fact occupied all the good views: the primarch behind the desk only had to move his eyes to The latest information he needs can be easily extracted, which greatly improves the overall work efficiency.

The Warmaster secretly remembered this, and he decided to handle his office in the same way after returning to deal with the massive amount of paperwork in the future: If the Wolf Shepherd wants to be the best among the brothers, he will One must humbly draw on the best in everyone.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting."

While Horus was jotting down notes quickly in his mind, a slightly apologetic Guilliman walked up to him, holding a bronze wine bottle in one hand and handing over a glass with the other. Aromatic fruit wine.

Horus took the wine glass, took a polite sip, and then raised his brows.

"Avalon's?"

"They do have better wine."

The Primarch did not deny it.

"Morgan keeps her home planet in the most original ecological development model and plans the future of Avalon based on the template of the paradise world: although there is no hive city and commendable industrial products, Avalon's luxury industry also includes tourism. The industry has long been famous throughout the Far Eastern Star Territory.”

"That's understandable."

Horus took another sip of the wine: it was much stronger than the Baal that Sanguinius had given him.

"But where should she establish the capital of the entire Far Eastern Frontier?"

"The queen of her glory."

Guilliman picked up the wine glass and led Horus to the enclosed courtyard behind a secret door. This was where he entertained guests: the high hanging ceiling was decorated with fake sun rays and cloud scenes. Lush vegetation is the most popular style in Avalon right now. The flowing niches are carved with the emblem of the double-headed eagle, and the shining colors come from the dim Nostramo.

The Warmaster also noticed that on both sides of the top of the arch that Guilliman pushed forward, there were hanging the skulls of a giant beast, respectively engraved with the personal symbols of the Lion King and the Lord of the Red Sand; and the one in the center of the courtyard was The small fountain was clearly carved from Olympian marble; the stone chair they were about to sit on was a strange creamy white color, and stones of this color were almost only found on the home planet of the Raven Guard.

This courtyard, which is more than ten meters square, can fully illustrate Guilliman's greatest confidence.

"I know: the Dawn Goddess."

The two brothers walked side by side, without any followers behind them: Horus and Guilliman were friends for the time being, the Macraggeans would entertain his brothers alone, and the Wolf God also left his guards behind. He left the door so that he could discuss in private some secrets that could subvert the galaxy with his most valued potential allies.

"Horus: Are you here to be a lobbyist for Malcador or Terra?"

Perhaps because he felt that the pleasantries before this had been enough, as soon as he sat down, Guilliman very politely got to the point: although he acted calmly, Horus still felt nervous under the calmness.

He tried to suppress his laughter.

"I have no interest, brother: nor am I qualified to interfere with your decision."

"That's it."

The Macragge nodded. Although he said nothing, the Warmaster could still understand Man's thoughts: As the situation in Badab became more and more rigid, more and more Terran fleets were arriving one after another. , the Lord of Five Hundred Worlds can no longer hold on.

In the final analysis, Guilliman had never thought of the possibility of confronting Terra head-on: he was just angry for a moment, suffering heavy losses on Nikaea and being angered by the pretentiousness of the High Lords.

The Warmaster could understand this very well. Although he did not lose anything on Nikaea, he did not like the tone of the High Lords: but if he were to become an enemy of Holy Terra, Horus would never dare to do so.

Therefore, the Wolf God could quite understand Guilliman's current complex state of mind.

He also felt sad for his brother from the bottom of his heart. In his opinion, Guilliman did make some mistakes, but they were far from serious enough to be publicly executed: no Primarch had ever suffered such a huge insult.

When he rushed to Badab, Horus actually leaned towards the Five Hundred Worlds: but he must never show it.

"What are you going to do, brother?"

Horus put down his wine glass and did not waste time on other issues: he watched Guilliman's face gradually fall into bitterness, his eyes wandering in the air, obviously he had lost all the reason to continue to insist.

"What else can I do."

The Primarch sighed.

"To be honest, I have planned to accept the invitation of the Master of the Seal and meet him on the Bucephalus: Malcador hopes to sign a gentleman's agreement with me, at least on the surface, not to make the situation so ugly, but he will definitely not give up what he wants."

"Bucephalus?"

The Warmaster nodded.

That was the Master of the Seal's flagship at the moment. If Guilliman took the initiative to go there, it would undoubtedly be a sign of his surrender: after all, peace treaties are usually signed in the halls of the victorious country, and there are rarely exceptions.

"Do you need me to go with you?"

The Wolf God suggested.

"After all, there is a third party present, so the Sigillite will not dare to act too much."

"Thank you very much."

Guilliman did not refuse: having a recognized witness is always a good thing.

"But in any case, I did lose this round, Brother Horus. Terra has figured out my bottom line from the beginning, and my response method is not calm enough. The Great Whirlpool area is destined to be lost: but this is not a bad thing for me."

The Primarch looked at the fountain in front of him, his voice almost muttering to himself.

"Anyway, I didn't intend to interfere too much in these things in the core area of ​​the Empire."

"Developing peacefully in the corner of the Five Hundred Worlds is also in line with my initial expectations."

"..."

Horus' pupils moved, and there were stormy waves in his eyes.

"You mean..."

He asked tentatively.

"As a whole, the Five Hundred Worlds intend to withdraw from the order left by the Emperor?"

"No, it's not that serious."

Guilliman's tone was brisk.

"It's just that from now on, I don't plan to have any direct contact with Holy Terra."

"The Five Hundred Worlds will of course be part of the Emperor's [Grand Order], but I have decided to become the nameless part of it: I will no longer develop towards the Heart of the Galaxy, and I don't plan to interfere in sensitive areas like Badab. I will stay outside of Terra's vision and handle the internal affairs of the Five Hundred Worlds."

"Like Morgan?"

"It's a bit difficult: but I believe I can learn more from Morgan."

Guilliman did not deny this point of view.

"It seems that the things here in Badab have indeed made you think a lot, brother."

Horus spoke a little slowly. He was obviously running his brain at a fast speed, thinking about Guilliman's change of attitude, whether it was good or bad for his plan.

After a few seconds, the brilliant smile told the answer in the heart of the Wolf God.

"Indeed."

The Macragge people were a little emotional.

"To be honest, sometimes I even thank those high lords."

"It was their hostile behavior that created just the right amount of pressure, so that I could no longer escape reality. Those problems that had been ignored in the past few decades were just picked out so nakedly, forcing me to start thinking about how to solve them."

"In this way, the original indecision was replaced by the determination in an emergency. When I started to think and made up my mind, I found that some of the original problems were not so difficult to solve: it was just that I had been avoiding them before."

"It is precisely because of the [enemy] that I can no longer deceive myself."

"For example, the internal transformation of the social structure of the Five Hundred Worlds, I originally planned to delay it for another 20 to 30 years, but this time, the high lords forced me to prepare immediately: and the facts proved that the harm caused by the transformation was much smaller than I originally expected."

"Blessings are where disasters depend, and disasters are where blessings lie..."

The Wolf God hummed an ancient saying taught to him by Chagatai Khan.

"So: Is this why you are willing to surrender here at Badab?"

"Of course not."

Guilliman glanced at him.

"Honestly, Horus, I am still a little confused: how did it evolve from a small problem in a galaxy to this point? It's as if I just made a wrong decision and the entire galaxy is about to be pushed into the abyss by my own hands."

"This... is too scary."

"Yes, it is too scary."

Horus nodded in response, but what he was thinking about was not Guilliman's words.

When the Lord of Macragge was extremely scared because he almost started a galactic war himself, the thing that the Wolf God feared in his heart was the huge fleet that Holy Terra could easily mobilize now.

It was not a force that [a mere] Astartes Legion could resist...

The Wolf God's eyes were dim, but he quickly adjusted: he smiled at his Macragge brother: Guilliman's sigh was just right for the topic that Horus wanted to talk about next.

"But you don't have to blame yourself, my brother Guilliman."

"If you have to say: you just handled one problem a little roughly."

"Which problem?"

"It's simple: from the beginning, you shouldn't have sent your Ultramarines."

"In other words, the Astartes must never clash with mortal military forces."

"..."

Guilliman was silent for a while, and he carefully thought about the meaning of Horus' words.

After a few seconds, the Macragge looked at his brother with a serious face.

"What do you want to say, Horus?"

"Very simple."

The Wolf God smiled: he could finally reveal his ambitions.

"Remember the word I just said?"

"Coexistence."

Guilliman answered without hesitation.

"You said it represents the [New Era]?"

"Yes."

The Wolf God stretched out a finger and tapped his temple slowly.

"Think about it, Guilliman, think about it."

"Why did you seem to have made just one wrong decision, and let the situation in Badab deteriorate to this extent: such a thing would never happen in the past, at least during the Great Crusade, we never heard of any crisis."

"But why is it different now?"

Horus looked at Guilliman's somewhat confused eyes with full confidence.

"Because the times have changed, brother."

"And you haven't adapted to its changes."

"You haven't realized that the behavior of the old era is not applicable to the system of the new era."

"Or..."

"During the Great Crusade, our Gene Father was still active in the galaxy. He was the greatest common denominator of all of us and the absolute authority that could arbitrate all conflicts: it was precisely because of the existence of the Emperor that there would never be such a so-called crisis during the Great Crusade."

"But now, the Emperor has returned to his loyal sacred Terra, and the greatest common denominator above our heads has disappeared. Each of us has become a scattered king, representing the huge power under our command, but lacking an authority that can arbitrate these powers."

"So, when your power and the power of Terra collide with each other, there is no one like the Emperor who can stand up to arbitrate the friction between you: and when the original rules are lost, the first thing that emerges must be the most basic violence. When both sides take their own violence to the stage, a crisis will naturally break out."

"You can also say: rituals are broken and music is ruined."

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"And if we want to avoid this crisis as much as possible in the future, we must build a system as quickly as possible, a new system that is suitable for managing and arbitrating all of us after the Emperor leaves: the Emperor did not leave this system for us, so now we can only find a way ourselves."

"That is to say..."

Guilliman hesitated.

"You want to create laws, Horus?"

"Not that exaggerated."

The wolf god hurriedly shook his head.

"I just don't want things like Badab to happen again in the future."

"Then, back to the topic just now."

The Warmaster leaned forward, and he exuded a kind of charm in his gestures, a breath of wisdom that can only be born after serious thinking: this breath deeply attracted Guilliman at this time.

He decided to continue listening: Horus said exactly what he wanted to hear.

"Guilliman: At what step do you think the Badab crisis was completely out of control?"

The Primarch thought for a while.

"When I sent out the Ultramarines?"

"Yes."

The Wolf Shepherd nodded.

"Although what I'm going to say may sound a little incorrect, I want to say that if you only send mortal troops, and Terra also only sends mortal troops, then even if these mortal troops shed a lot of blood in the Maelstrom area, the Badab crisis will never get out of control."

"Because armed conflicts between mortals in the Empire have long been commonplace: various power departments in Terra are fighting in armed internal battles, and wars are breaking out between planetary governors, not to mention that the struggles between various forge worlds have long developed to the point where mechanical arks and Titan legions are sent to each other."

"These are all normal: until you send the Ultramarines to join the fight."

"This is not normal."

"Because in the past, the Astartes never intervened in these struggles between mortals. They are the power that belongs only to the Emperor and the power that belongs only to the Great Crusade: although there are no explicit regulations, everyone tacitly agrees that the Astartes Legion is neutral. They will not encroach on the power that belongs to mortals, and they will not shoot bullets at the citizens of the Empire."

"Now, this default rule has actually been broken."

"For all to see: a Primarch can send Astartes to intervene in the struggles of mortals."

"He has reason, ability and qualifications to do so."

"This changes everything."

"Because in the past, during the Great Crusade, the neutrality of the Astartes was based on the premise that they were completely obedient to the Emperor. At that time, the top leader of each legion was actually the Emperor. Ah Stats are nothing more than unconscious blades in the hands of the Emperor, so mortals naturally don’t have to worry about their threats.”

"But now that the Emperor has left, the actual and nominal supreme command of each Legion of Astartes has passed into our hands, becoming the military force of our Primarchs, who are also vassals of the Empire. The King is part of the power structure: the Astartes are no longer neutral in nature."

"It's just because of your actions that everyone became aware of this problem."

"That is: it is entirely possible for the current Astartes warriors to point their guns at humans."

"And this time, there is no supreme power that can stop them from doing this."

"In the past, the Astartes were angels, figures who walked in the heavens with the Emperor."

"And now, the Astartes are the warriors of the Primarch Lords: they have passed into the mortal world."

"They appear in the human world in an inhuman manner."

"This will cause panic."

"To put it more fundamentally, after the Emperor left, a problem that had been overshadowed by the Emperor's glory before was placed in front of us Primarchs and Astartes: in the Empire of Man, What position will these battle angels under our command be in in the future?"

"Do you rule the mortals, lead the mortals, or disappear in the mortal world?"

"Have you ever thought about it, Guilliman?"

"..."

The Lord of the Five Hundred Worlds did not speak: in the past years, he had certainly thought about and pondered similar questions, but Guilliman felt that he was absent-minded and the ambiguous answers were not suitable to come up with at this time.

"So, that's what I said, the first problem exposed by the Badab crisis."

"That is the question of how Astartes warriors and mortals will get along in the future."

"Anything else?"

"certainly."

Horus smiled.

"Two more."

"You should know one of them without me telling you, right?"

"cough……"

The Macragge coughed, looking a little embarrassed.

"This...my...brother..."

"It doesn't matter."

Horus laughed and patted his brother's shoulder heartily.

"Never mind, Guilliman: I have the same problem."

"The second issue exposed by the Badab crisis is the most obvious, that is, the Terran government as a central agency, and us, the original body as local vassal kings, naturally have a contradiction between centralization and decentralization. : This has been an old trick for tens of thousands of years. There is no need to be embarrassed about these things, brother. "

"Conflicts will break out sooner or later. You are just unfortunate enough to be the first one."

"yes."

Guilliman thought quickly.

"Horus, do you already have a solution to this problem?"

"Let's talk about it later."

The Shepherd God showed a mysterious smile.

"Wait until I finish talking about the third question, which is also the least obvious, but the most fatal question."

"Guilliman, my brother."

"Tell me, are your five hundred worlds part of the human empire?"

"Of course!"

Guilliman didn't even think about it.

"If that's the case: why do the people of Five Hundred Worlds oppose the empire itself?"

"..."

All of a sudden, the Lord of Macragge withered like an eggplant beaten by frost.

"Is this...this..."

"Don't mind."

Horus continued to pat him on the shoulder.

"I'm not here to ask questions, because I have the same problem: when I went to the Galaxy North, I discovered that the world there actually did not agree with the empire's rule. Although they surrendered to the flag of the double-headed eagle, they had The Emperor and the Empire have no sense of belonging."

“That’s right: belonging!”

"That's the third question."

"Why do your five hundred worlds have such boiling malice towards Holy Terra? Why do my people complain about the empire: because they lack a sense of belonging, and they lack the imagination that citizens of the human empire should have. community.”

"In other words: they lack a universal value that identifies them with the human empire."

"Macragges and Terrans, Avalonians and Calibans, although they all belong to the human civilization, and although they all submit to the rule of the Emperor and the Two-Headed Eagle, there is nothing else. Nothing in common: their aesthetics and philosophies may be different, their societies and morals may be different, and even the languages ​​they speak may not be understandable to each other.”

"Under such circumstances, how can they have a unified understanding of the empire?"

“They lack a [community].”

"No matter where you are from, what language you speak, what morals you identify with, what kind of society you live in, and what goals you have: as long as you identify with this [it], you can be regarded as a community of the people of the Human Empire."

"This community can be race, ideology, common ideals or religion..."

"But it must not be nothing."

"But now: the community of the Human Empire is exactly nothing."

"In the past, it could be the Great Crusade, the dream of recreating human civilization, the hatred of alien races, and the desire to regain those ancient territories: but they are all in the past, and they are no longer applicable to the new era."

"The Great Crusade is coming to an end, human civilization has long been revived, countless alien races have been crushed by us, and even the oldest frontiers are returning to the embrace of the double-headed eagle: perhaps in the next few generations, such a glorious victory can still retain an imagined community ? "

"But what about after that? "

"What about a few hundred years, a few thousand years, or even longer? "

"Even the most glorious victory will have a bleak day. "

"The human empire cannot always rely on the Great Crusade to unite everyone, to unite the one million worlds under the double-headed eagle: we must create a community, a community that can transcend time and space and make the citizens of the entire empire feel a sense of belonging. "

"Until then, the human empire can be called a real country. "

"This is the biggest problem. "

"Also: the third problem we need to solve in the future. "

"A unified sense of belonging. "

"The contradiction between the central and local governments. "

"And the living space of the Astartes. "

"These are the three problems facing the empire in the future. "

"It is also in front of us. "

"Horus stood up: his majestic body is so similar to countless legends.

"And now, my brother."

"I have brought a solution: a solution that can solve these three problems."

"I am not sure how it will work, so I brought it to you."

"And hope to get your comments."

——————

"I call it: Imperial Federalism."