WHY MARS WAS ABANDONED BY THE IMPERIUM!

Hey everyone Rho here!

Today we're discussing why Mars, fabled home of the Mechanicum & Adeptus Mechanicus was abandoned by the Imperium during the Horus Heresy with the decision of Rogal Dorn...

A Spoiler Warning to begin as today we will be discussing events from the Warhammer 40,000 Horus Heresy series story "Cybernetica" by author Rob Sanders. As always I really recommend you read the stories for yourself first without spoilers! As that's the best way to enjoy the lore for yourself.

Games Workshop does not endorse or support this video. All views and opinions expressed in this video belong to Wolf Lord Rho and in no way reflect the views or opinions of Games Workshop Ltd.

A huge thank you to all my subscribers, your support truly means a lot to me. If your new, please consider subscribing to help the channel grow.

All art used in this video belongs to the artists.

Music belongs to Wolf Lord Rho.

[ravenniwolvarious]

I can legitimately believe Dorn would have done it and still been surprised when the Mechanicus declared outright war on Terra. Man was subtle as a brick.

[donpackundo]

"He who defends everything defends nothing"
The Imperium could retake mars later, but if the Terra falls, everything will fall along with it.

[wchamp]

With all due respect, Dorn was correct. He did not have the resources to literally fight two world wars. Without Terra. Nothing else would matter

[mersenniusprime]

As usual, Dorn is absolutely right, but really should have invested in some night classes on speaking and diplomacy. The security of the Segmentum Solar is obviously more important than the security of Mars. If Horus arrived in system, it would not have mattered who won the Martian war, as Horus would immediately take the planet back. All available resources had to be put to maintaining strategic distance from the traitor fleet - Mars did not pose an immediate threat and could wait. Between Terra and Mars, Terra is obviously more important. The death of the Emperor was the death of all hope for humanity, and the loss of the Throneworld was an incalculable boon for Horus, given all the unspeakable terrors housed in the vaults. Mars, by contrast, was immeasurably less important. In an all-out war for mere survival, the rational decision would have been to abandon and even consider the exterminatus of Mars. Dorn's faults were only in an exceptionally poor delivery and in failing to understand that Mars was absolutely insane and believed themselves the equal of Terra. Without Mars, humanity would have lost a great deal of its technology and industrial capacity. Without Terra, there is literally nothing stopping the entire Segmentum from falling into the warp and getting eaten by daemons forever. The same can be said of the War of the Beast. Mars cannot stand on its own because the Emperor is the only thing holding Chaos at bay. There is no reciprocity here; Terra is more important. Dorn understood that, but obviously did not realize that Mars did not.

[zeran]

When you consider most of the mechanicus rebelled, and the at the time head was the one who led it, it could be argued, that the mechanicus betrayed the imperium and the treaty they signed. Those who remained "loyal", where in fact traitors to the mechanicus but loyal to the imperium and thus attempting to paint them selves as the mechanicus while it is in open war against the imperium is not a very logical one.

[ZeroBl_]

Dorn: *Exterminatus on Mars*
Every f*cking Magos in the universe: "So you have choosen death" *Every mechanicus planet joins the traitors*

Just... WTF Dorn?

[Ronin-]

You know there's a conversation during Mass Effect 3 between Shepard and Garrus that always stuck with me where they're talking about the concept of war and annihilation on a scale that large being boiled down to raw math. Do you commit to sacrifice a million lives here so that a million and a half lives over there might live, how do you make the hard moral choices when faced with such scale. Does giving in to sheer logic at that point absolve you of the moral weight of consigning a planet to death. Moments like these with Dorn and Mars are needed in 40k more often to ground the reality of these sorts of dilemmas. We see acts like exterminatus used too frivolously in the story.

[nathangillispie]

If Dorn tried to hold Mars, he would have lost Terra. In the end, nothing mattered but holding Terra. You will get Mars back later, as happened.

[Matihood]

Imagine if Terra was instead in a state of civil war and the Fabricator-General suggested exterminatus on the craddle of humanity, arguing that it would've been much more resource-efficient than reclaiming the planet.

[olorin]

Well i mean i don't think he said Mars was worthless or anything, he basically said entire Mars got way too much firepower and with all their machines to be taken over quickly and casualties would be too high

[UncleMikeDrop]

Tangentially related, but I believe the Emperor should have begun his rise to power by infiltrating then rising to the top of the Mechanicum.

[ghostbearr]

The Mechanicum book clearly established that defending or trying to any action on Mars with Horus being able to strike the system to be suicidal. In one, the 3 battles of still functioning forges had 60 titans closing in on 200 space marines some Mechanicum forces.

[NERV_Mars]

Dorn didn’t understand that he was talking to a civilian that war forced to step up. Browbeating the mecha-man was the dumbest thing he could have done.

And yes, that memory does mean Mars will abandon Terra with no second thoughts.

[d.staten]

Dorn destroys Mars. Frees humanity from the machine cult. Inspires man back to the scientific methods once more.

[johnlocke]

Mars insists on an independency caveat in the treaty then gets butthurt when they're told to act independently with a guerilla war of attrition against the traitors. Dorn suggested the correct tactical decision of annihilating Mars to deprive the enemy supply chain. Ideal? No. Necessary? Could be!

[cookiemathew]

Rogal displaying why he was never and will never be a good war master, while being the best choice for the protector of terra. He has his duty and can see the big picture while not being a political creature (humanity was meant to be ruled and governed by humans).

[Kishinzz]

Let's be honest here, most of it comes down to GW writers being awful at understanding human relations and/or warfare.
Holing up on your capital isn't a strategy, it's putting yourself on a timer and giving the enemy free reign on everything else.
As for Mars itself, it should've been a puppet state of Terra long ago, let alone being capable of betraying it.

[chloek]

2nd most important planet is the key to the answer and Terra is number 1 so dorn was making the correct call

[John-jcty]

it didnt need to be a threat. if rogal exterminated mars, the mechanicum in terra would have known it and maybe some would have changed their minds. no need for the fab general to tell them anything. rogal should have seen this not as a threat but as a consequence.

[IronYetiHistory]

In Mechanicum, the Martian schism never seemed to be an equal struggle that the traitors got the upper hand in. I got the impression there were far far more on the side of Kelbor Hal. Getting into a meat grinder before Horus got to the Sol system did not make any tactical sense. It's also never stated one way or another if the Emperor let Rogal in on the gist of what was in the Vaults of Moravec. Which big E had to know Kelbor and friends were going to go crack open as soon as possible. That seems like it would have been a huge problem to also have to deal with.