hh5节译：帝国真理的代价

Price of the Imperial Truth

In the years before the return of Lorgar and the discovery of Colchis by the expanding fleets of the Imperium in 857.M30, the XVIlth Legion was known amongst the vast hosts of the Great Crusade by designations other than the 'Word Bearers'. The Emperor named them the Imperial Heralds at their inception, an elegant title that spoke of the grand purpose for which they had been created, whilst their fellow warriors named them the Iconoclasts, a more brutal appellation coined in appreciation of the zeal with which they cast down the idolatrous temples and cultic strongholds of Old Night.

在帝国拓张舰队于857.M30发现科尔奇斯并迎回珞珈之前的岁月中，第十七军团在大远征庞大部队集群中的名称还并非是“怀言者”。帝皇在他们创建时赐名为帝国使者，这个雅致的头衔说明了第十七军团是为了怎样的宏伟目标而创造的，而兄弟军团的战士们则称之为圣像破坏者，这个更为残酷野蛮的称谓符合他们对于自己摧毁旧夜时期偶像崇拜的神庙和邪教据点的狂热行为的认同。

Through the earliest years of the Great Crusade, the Iconoclasts were the foremost champions of the Imperial Truth, the vanguard of any assault against those of human descent who would deny the Emperor's dream of unity. They burned clean the fane-cities of psychic cults, overthrew grotesque xenos overlords who claimed for themselves the mantle of gods and delivered their human thralls into the expanding Imperium. Those who strayed from the strictures of the Imperial Truth, whether they be alien tyrants or misguided human survivors of the Age of Strife, were subject to their uncompromising judgement. None could fault the fearsome devotion of these warriors, for the fleets of the Imperial Heralds were the cutting edge of the Great Crusade, cleansing the taint of Old Night with the terrible power of their unflinching resolve and blind belief in the teachings of their Emperor. The tally of their victories could not easily be counted, though some amongst the highest circles of the Officio Militaris whispered that if the Iconoclasts remained unchecked, they would be left with an empire of ashes and corpses, for it was not the way of the XVIIIth Legion to spare their wrath from those who failed to meet their exacting standards of purity. Then came the discovery of Colchis, and everything changed.

在大远征的早期岁月中，圣像破坏者是帝国真理最重要的冠军，在所有讨伐那些否认帝皇统一之梦的人类族裔的进攻中，他们都是先锋。他们焚灭干净灵能邪教的邪殿都城，推翻那些将自己鼓吹为神明的丑恶异形霸主，并将遭受它们奴役的人类纳入不断拓张中的人类帝国。对于那些偏离了帝国真理约束之人，无论对方是异形暴君还是误入歧途的纷争纪元人类幸存者，都将受到他们毫无让步的审判。没有人能贬低这些勇士们可怕的奉献精神，因为帝国使者军团的舰队是大远征的切割锋刃，他们依靠着坚定决心所带来的恐怖力量和帝皇教导所赋予的盲目信念来清洗旧夜的污垢?。他们的胜利多到无法轻易计算，军务庭的某些高层甚至窃窃私语到：倘若圣像破坏者继续不加区分地进行毁灭，他们将会留下一个灰尘和尸体堆砌成的帝国，因为对于不符合他们那苛刻的纯洁标准的一切，第十七军团的一贯做法就是用自己的盛怒将他们焚尽屠绝。但随着对于科尔奇斯世界的发现，一起都发生了变化。

Long a world mired in religious strife, it was on Colchis that Lorgar, 17th Primarch and soon-to-be lord of the Imperial Heralds, was re-united with the Emperor. As with all the Legions, the return of the XVIIth’s Primarch had a profound impact on the Imperial Heralds, one that at first seemed beneficial to their character. Where once the Imperial Heralds had been cold and aloof to all, obsessed with their own bitter crusade, they became common sights within the established worlds of the Imperium and amongst the many Great Crusade fleets, eager to engage with their brothers and to praise their newfound lord. Where once destruction and death had been their only purpose, Lorgar taught them to build and to believe in the Emperor's grand vision for the future of Mankind. That he also spread his misguided belief in the deified Emperor, the religion he had founded at the moment of the Emperor's arrival on Colchis, is now well known, and its spread throughout the Imperial Heralds was to culminate in their re-consecration as the Word Bearers. The annals of the Great Crusade and other contemporary historical documents record no comment by the Emperor on the open secret of Lorgars indiscretions, whether to rebuke or to encourage them. It is assumed that while no open censure was recorded against the Word Bearers in their earliest years, the Emperor remonstrated with Lorgar in private; indeed many of the writings of Lorgar's brother Primarchs infer such occurrences, yet these attempts came to naught. While the Emperor had apparently been willing to tolerate this while it did not interfere with the progress of the Great Crusade, as the newly dubbed Word Bearers began to delay longer and longer at their conquests, building temples and fanes in His honour, many among the Officio Militaris and the Emperors inner council began to question their priorities. In 963.M30 the Emperor sent Malcador the Sigillite, first among his councillors, and Roboute Guilliman of the Ultramarines to correct Lorgar's ways. At His order, the Word Bearers were publicly censured and the city of Monarchia on the distant world of Khur, along with its false temples, was destroyed by the warriors of Ultramar as an object lesson in the folly of false religion. The entirety of the XVIIth Legion was then forced to kneel in the ashes of their devotion while the Ultramarines stood over them in judgement, that which they had seen as worthy devotion now labelled treasonous.

在科尔奇斯这个长期陷入宗教纷争的世界上，珞珈——第十七原体和帝国使者军团不久之后的主人，与帝皇重聚。就像所有军团那样，第十七军团原体的回归对帝国使者军团产生了深远的影响，而这种影响在起初看起来对他们的性格是有益的。帝国使者军团曾经冷酷疏远一切，痴迷于他们自己的苦涩远征，而现在他们是帝国建立的（定居）世界和许多大远征舰队的常客，而且热衷于密切接触自己的兄弟和赞美他们新发现的主父。毁灭和死亡曾是他们仅有的目标，而现在珞珈则教导他们去建造和信仰帝皇对于人类未来所构想的宏伟愿景。他也在传播他那旨在神化帝皇的误入歧途的信仰——他在帝皇君临科尔奇斯时建立的这门宗教现在已经非常著名了，这种宗教随着帝国使者重新接受怀言者这个圣名而在军团中达到传播高潮。大远征编年史和当代其他历史档案并未记录帝皇对于珞珈这些轻率鲁莽的公开秘密的评论，既无指责，也无鼓励。我们认为帝皇虽然在早期并未对怀言者的行径进行公开指责，但他也对珞珈进行了规劝；事实上我们从珞珈的许多兄弟原体们所留下的手迹也能推测出这些事件，但这些努力并无效果。不过珞珈的行为并未干涉到大远征的进程，帝皇也就愿意容忍。但随着被新命名为怀言者的第十七军团在征服行动中耽误的时间越来越长，以荣耀帝皇为理由修建圣堂和庙宇，军务庭和帝皇的内部议会中的许多成员也开始质疑他们是否区分出了轻重缓急。帝皇在963.M30派遣掌印者马卡多——帝国议会之首和极限战士原体罗伯特 基里曼前去纠正珞珈的道路。在帝皇的命令下，怀言者军团遭到了当众惩戒，坐落于遥远的Khur世界上的完美之城与城中那些虚伪的圣堂也被一并摧毁，这被当成是一堂展现虚伪宗教愚行的针对性课程。整个第十七军团都被迫在他们热心奉献的城市的灰烬中下跪，而极限战士军团站在他们面前进行审判。怀言者们见证了自己认为值得奉献的一切现在被贴上了大逆不道的标签。

After a period of seclusion, Lorgar returned to the forefront of the Great Crusade, redoubling the efforts of the Word Bearers and bringing dozens of worlds into swift Compliance, thus avoiding further scrutiny from the Emperor. Few at that time imagined that his new zeal could have been anything other than that of an errant son who sought to atone for his mistakes. Yet in the years to come, many would look back at these actions and see the earliest hidden signs of the coming treachery.

在一段世界的隐居之后，珞珈回到了大远征前线，率领怀言者军团加倍奋战，并令十数个世界快速归顺，这避免了来自帝皇的进一步详细审查。在当时，几乎所有人都误认为他这份新的狂热只是一名误入歧途的儿子在试图弥补他的过错，但在之后即将到来的岁月中，很多人将会回望这些行为，并发现隐藏其中的即将到来的叛乱的信号。