Games Workshop - Warhammer 40,000 - Dark Angels: The Lion & Retinue

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Luther, Zahariel and five hundred other Dark Angels drawn from among the veterans of both Terra and Caliban were to find themselves returned to Caliban, not in exile, but neither in triumph. During the 200 th year of the Great Crusade, 998.M30, the Dark Angels Legion was carrying out an Imperial Compliance campaign against the Shield Worlds of the so-called Gordian League -- a confederation of Human worlds who were allied with degenerate xenos. As Sanguinius prepared to execute Curze for his crimes, both the Lion and his lieutenant teleported directly into the chamber and told Sanguinius to stop. As troops entered the room, demanding the Lion surrender, El'Jonson explained his reasons for the intrusion. Eventually both Legions sent reinforcements in response to this incident. Each side dragged away their respective primarchs from the scene of the combat. Both primarchs survived this brutal confrontation and went on to continue the contest between their Legions for control of the Aegis Sub-sector.

There is great poetic justice in how all these “DA-holes” have to eat humble pie and accept the fallen, and I'm sure that the Lion is getting his head-punching fist ready to deal with any dissenters... Lost Common Knowledge: Astelan is able to identify the presence of another Fallen in a spaceborne fleet by the strategies it employs — strategies that were common sense at the time of the Heresy but have been all but forgotten in the present day. Even Belial, a recognized master of space combat in modern times, has trouble keeping up with his explanation.His first acts were to merge many of the teachings of Caliban's techno-feudal aristocracy with those of the I st Legion Hexagrammaton, fusing the best of Terra and Caliban to create something new and more refined, and to gather the scattered fragments of his Legion together. With the first generations of recruits taken from the ranks of the worthy among the knights of Caliban still undergoing implantation of gene-seed, hypnogogic indoctrination and live-fire training, the Lion prepared to embark on a crusade of his own. This campaign would also delay the Dark Angels Legion from reinforcing the Loyalists. The Thramas System was of particular importance, as it comprised a number of Mechanicum Forge Worlds whose loyalty was still to the Emperor. Unyielding, technologically capable, ruthless and insular, the Dark Angels at the time of the Horus Heresy would once again be a powerful and highly independent Legion, used to operating on their own to conduct large-scale campaigns and Compliance actions. Unusual Euphemism: Because of the numerous layers of secrecy surrounding Dark Angel history and lore, the senior members have adopted a number of indirect manners of referring to classified matters in places the rank and file might hear.

Even if he were somehow to prevail against Perturabo and the other Legions sent to confront him in the Isstvan System, the Warmaster couldn't claim total victory so long as the Emperor was safe in His palace. For Horus to triumph, the Emperor had to die. And that meant a long and costly siege of Terra. Therefore, the Warmaster would come to claim the siege engines of Diamat. By this creed of strength and excellence the I st Legion, the Dark Angels, lived and died, continuing the work of the Emperor in the last days of the Great Crusade. Wherever the tide of Imperial conquest slowed they were to be found, bright swords and grim resolve against the worst horrors of the galaxy. Lion El'Jonson, now long parted from the forests of Caliban and a staunch believer in the dream of Human empire embodied in his gene-father, fought with every moment given to him.Five of the primarchs, including four who had fought at Isstvan V, met in person, including Horus, Fulgrim, Angron, Mortarion and Lorgar. Three appeared through the use of hololithic emitters that transmitted their signals through the Warp, including Perturabo, Konrad Curze and Magnus the Red, who had only recently joined the Traitors after the Scouring of Prospero when the broken remains of his XV th Legion had been transported by Tzeentch into the Eye of Terror to the Planet of the Sorcerers. Hope Spot: He doesn't comment on it, but Belial seems to have taken Boreas's words closer to heart. In Master of Sanctity he splits his forces in the battle of Tharsis, leaving a transport escorting a captured Fallen vulnerable in favor of having troops left over to defend the Imperial citizens. They feature in the novel Angels of Darkness, the The Legacy of Caliban trilogy, and the Space Marine Battles novel The Purging of Kadillus, all by Gavin Thorpe. They also feature in the Horus Heresy novels Descent of Angels and Fallen Angels, Azrael, and The Lion: Son of the Forest.

The Lion could stand against any of his kin, match blades with Fulgrim and stalemate the strategies of Roboute Guilliman and, though some might exceed him in the details of some tasks there were none that were his equal in the grander scope of battle, none whose will could match the bloody-minded determination of the Lion. His talents and resolute confidence, which some might have called arrogance, won him few friends but saw him placed at the head of his Legion faster than any of the primarchs to be rediscovered before him.upon titles and rewards, for his grim and solitary habits had always kept him distant from others, and he saw not the change his rise had