Colchis was a world of old gods. It was said that religion was in the air, in the touch of the sun and the taste of the dust. To its people, worship of higher powers was as much a part of them as the beating of their hearts and the crying of their children. Bound in feudal traditions, Colchis had once been a world of high technology, but those days lay forgotten in Old Night. Life was easy for some and hard for others, and all the people knew the same truths that their fathers had known and their mothers had taught. That disease came and culled generations, but that these times would pass, for nothing could remain unchanged. That war would come like rain and stain the land with blood, but there were always promises of joy even when all seemed lost. All people died, and queens fell and new queens rose, but the gods remained. Primarch Lorgaria vanished from the Emperor’s gene-laboratory beneath the Himalazian Mountains on Terra while still an infant in her gestation capsule, along with the 19 other primarchs, who were all transported through the Warp and scattered to random Human-inhabited worlds across the galaxy. Her capsule came to rest on the theocratic Feudal World of Colchis. When the infant Lorgaria fell from the sky, her Legion had yet to be born on Terra, and the faith of Colchis was held in the hands of a ruling priesthood called the Covenant. A nomadic tribe of desert outcasts called the Declined, led by the chieftain Fan Morgal, found the strange infant’s shattered capsule and took her in. They named the child Lorgaria, or the Rain-Caller in the Colchisian tongue. Seventeen local days later, Lorgaria—already grown to the size of a young child—was discovered by Kor Phaeron, an exiled priest of the Covenant, and his caravan of exiles. Kor Phaeron had been cast out from the Colchisian capital of Vharadesh, the City of Grey Flowers, for advocating more forceful and aggressive conversion tactics. The predominant religion on Colchis was that of the Covenant, later known as the Old Faith—a polytheistic worship of four divine beings who were, in truth, the Chaos Gods under gentler guises. Immediately sensing greatness in the girl and believing her blessed by the Powers, Kor Phaeron convinced Lorgaria to become his disciple. He murdered Fan Morgal and the Declined to conceal her true origins. Despite enduring Kor Phaeron’s vicious emotional and physical abuses, Lorgaria came to fervently believe in the Covenant’s faith. She studied every fragment of its theology, coming to believe in a singular god she named “The One”, a supreme being who bound the four lesser gods together within itself. Kor Phaeron dismissed these beliefs as heresy and punished her cruelly, attempting to shape her devotion into dependence. Yet even as he abused her, he sought to use her gifts to seize control of the Covenant and rule Colchis through her. Despite this, Lorgaria remained fiercely loyal. She saved Kor Phaeron’s life during a mutiny by the caravan’s crew, standing between him and their blades. She also grew close to others among the exiles, including the mercenary captain Axata and the enslaved teacher Nairo. Lorgaria soon surpassed her master. Her voice carried power beyond mortal charisma. Her sermons drew followers like fire draws moths. She rose to become Archpriestess of the Godsworn, her believers devoted to the One. After the mutiny, Kor Phaeron ceased his physical abuse and named her “Bearer of the Word.” Her fame spread across Colchis. She liberated slaves and raised a vast army of the faithful, marching upon the capital of Vharadesh. After a blazing sermon before the city gates, they opened to her. The lower priests presented the corpses of the ruling hierarchs as tribute. City after city fell—some through conversion, others through slaughter for refusing the One. The last city to resist was Gahevarla, protected by an ancient storm generator. Lorgaria walked into the raging maelstrom and parted the storm, allowing her armies to claim the city. With its fall, she became ruler of all Colchis. She named Kor Phaeron High Priest, yet told the faithful their work had only begun. Her visions intensified—of a golden warrior in radiant armor and a towering one-eyed giant in blue robes. She declared the return of Colchis’ true god was near. The Covenant branded her a heretic. War followed. The Schism Wars lasted six years, ending when Lorgaria and her warriors stormed the Cathedral of Illumination, slaughtering its monks and breaking the Old Faith’s power. One-third of Colchis turned against her. The First Great Purge followed. Now ruling as High Archpriestess, Lorgaria promised the people that their god would come within a year. They would know Him as The Emperor. And He came. When the Emperor of Mankind descended upon Colchis with Magnus the Red at His side, Lorgaria fell to one knee. The planet followed. She embraced Him as her god. The Emperor took her finest warriors and forged them into the XVII Legion, the Imperial Heralds, born from her own gene-seed. Lorgaria joined the Great Crusade, spreading His “truth” across the stars—though she defied His wish for atheism. Her faith only deepened. She wrote the Lectitio Divinitatus, a holy text proclaiming the Emperor’s divinity—a book that would one day become the foundation of the Imperial Cult. Her presence changed her Legion’s soul. Victory was no longer enough. Faith was everything. The XVII became apostles, chaplains, and warriors of ritual and word. War became sacrament. Death became doctrine. Belief became their weapon. All her life, Lorgaria sought purpose. And in the God-Emperor, she believed she had found it.