Once again blown away by people misreading Lorgar.
On reddit, I keep seeing "The Emperor was mad at his slow compliance rate but the reason for that was because the Word Bearers were taking time to win planets over with relatively bloodless methods and remaining to ensure a smooth transition" takes, that this is proof he was a good, peaceful and kind man before Chaos.
Lorgar's already spent 7yrs committing a planetwide forced conversion on Colchis. Lorgar makes it sound relatively mundane when he talks about it (and he seems to avoid talking about it) but that's because he really doesn't want to say "I subjugated an entire populace and mass murdered anyone who refused to convert"
Consider what he's actually doing during his Great Crusade era compliances, what it requires, what is involved.
Lorgar is the Spanish Conquistadors; he's invading a planet and forcing a religion on the citizens. He's committing cultural genocide. He's killing anyone who doesn't get with the program; there is absolutely zero room for religious tolerance in the eyes of the Word Bearers. What do you think is happening to the people who don't want to convert? Do you think they're going "Welp to each their own"? No, dude, they're being killed, enslaved or lobotomized, which is then used to scare any other reluctant citizens into converting.
It's textbook colonialism.
And yeah Lorgar and the Word Bearers think they're doing the people a kindness; they're bringing them to the light of the one true god, they're helping them eradicate their Heretical barbarian cultural practices. But that's religious psycho logic. That's Ben Shapiro and the Daily Wire insisting Europeans actually helped the Native Americans by "civilizing them" with Judeo-Christian values. Like yeah sure they murdered millions of indigenous people in the process and brutally enforced European culture/religion on them and viewed them as ignorant savages, but they did it to help them! It was for a good reason, come onnn!
Just because he was killing less people than, say, the Lion and was sticking around to oversee their religious/cultural transition does not mean he was a good guy. He was just a different kind of oppressive, bigoted imperialist.
In some ways he's worse, because some post-compliance planets are allowed to keep some of their cultural heritage, as long as it vibes with basic tenets of the Imperial Truth. "Pay your tithes, run a secular society, don't fuck around with xenos and we'll leave you be" basically. You have some amount of autonomy. When Lorgar and Angron show up at Nuceria in Betrayer, the Nucerians are taken aback because they haven't even really heard from the Imperium since they joined 200 years ago.
The Word Bearers, meanwhile, become an occupying force for YEARS to ensure the eradication of your faith and culture. They stick around. You don't want the Imperium sticking around.
It's basic unreliable narrator shit. Just because a character tells you they're a good guy doesn't mean it's true. Of course they think they're a good guy, they're biased.
For instance, Lorgar insists Monarchia was the "perfect city" but what little we know isn't that great. Cyrene is a teenage sex worker who has to walk around with a knife strapped to her thigh for safety. They're stoning people. They're turning heretics and criminals alike into servitors. Some guy got lynched for selling dog meat as lamb. It's an oppressive theocratic society.
In conclusion: you do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to Lorgar.
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