 The story focuses on the Emperor's 21 genetically engineered lieutenants, the Primarchs, and the legions of genetically-enhanced superhuman soldiers that they lead, the Legiones Astartes, which find themselves divided into loyalist and traitor factions as they struggle for religious hegemony.The shared universe was originally created in 1987 by Games Workshop, parent company of series publisher Black Library, as the campaign setting for the "Warhammer 40,000" tabletop miniatures wargame and in 2006 Black Library began publishing "The Horus Heresy" series.The series consists of full-length novels, and novel-length compilations of novellas or short stories, written by a number of authors.