The Primarchs: Lion El'Jonson

[Phoebus]

Or worse — a through line that the person writing for the faction in question dismissed.

[Fedor]

You could also have the Order as ultimately or partially a force for aristocratic societal stagnation on Caliban and lead into the revolt of Luther that way. Get some different viewpoints from non-knights on Caliban.

 

Might be a bit too real history transplant though

[Roomsky]

Further thoughts on the DA's role throughout the Heresy, and in relation to this book:

 

If Kyme's Salamanders are the Heresy's SW prequel trilogy (poorly done, but with vision), the Dark Angels are the sequel trilogy (uneven quality, total absence of a through-line). I'm honestly not sure why they got so much exposure, their big moment is after the Heresy. At least focus on their engagements against the traitors, like with the Thramas stories, rather than build up to an event that won't be published under the same brand.

 

On top of that, there is no through-line between any but Descent and Fallen. They used to have one, but then Gav Thorpe karate-chopped its head off in a novella(!!) As such, I feel like every new author has said to themselves "well, the other entries weren't as popular as we wanted, maybe this angle will give the people what they want. Feudal Knight Fantasy? No. Bolter Porn? No. Thorpe's bloated vision of the chapter? No. Ah well, how about Forge World intricacies at the expense of all character.

 

Like, I get that an author will want their take on a legion to focus on a different cast from the others, with the added bonus of making the universe seem larger. But I mean, Corswain, Nemiel, or Alajos could have at least featured. Luther could have been discussed. Holguin and Redloss barely even speak.

 

I want to like the Dark Angels. They look cool. The Wings are cool. The Lion is cool. I don't even have issue with every story featuring the Fallen.

 

But the Heresy just gives them so little, packaged as so much. I don't know if any other legion got it this rough. 

 

At least we'll always have Savage Weapons, The Great Wolf, and Dreadwing.

[bluntblade]

I argued against the "no through-line" thing until December. Now it's just set in stone because yeah, the original intent has been retrospectively revealed to be so different to what the middle chapter gave us.

 

So in that spirit, I look at Savage Weapons and that introspective little look at the Legion, and wonder what could've been had their whole arc unfolded in that spirit. Though I would like to know what Athalos' deal will be too, please.

Edited April 5, 2020 by bluntblade

[Fedor]

I still have a hard time getting the elevation of Savage Weapons above the other stuff. I enjoy it ok, no less than the bulk of the other Dark Angels stories, but it's some light legion fluff of the likes we get in this Primarchs book (the emphasis on knightly greetings etc)built around a questionably executed Primarch fight. Some good dialogue for Lion and Curze, but it also drove the potential of the Dark Angels having some realpolitk and ambiguity of intention in the heresy right into the ground.

 

I didn't necessarily want to see an Angels of Darkness plays both sides scenario play fully out, but something a bit murkier and more in the ballpark of what Wraight did with the Scars -rather than full on loyalist would have been more interesting imo. Going into it this was a primarch that sabotaged Horus plans for the dropsite yet had the chance to head there himself, but made no effort. That was one thing Fallen Angels did ok at the end with keeping things open as to the extent of the Lion's possible loyalties.

Edited April 5, 2020 by Fedor

[Allart01]

the original intent has been retrospectively revealed to be so different to what the middle chapter gave us.

 

I have suspected this for a long time, but when/where has it actually been confirmed?

I really felt like there were originally big plans for Zahariel and Nemiel, but they'd been scrapped at some point.

Edited April 5, 2020 by The_Bloody

[bluntblade]

I was actually referring to something non-BL in veiled terms. But Savage Weapons seemed like a depiction of the DA before they had to be all secretive and stuff. Like Alajos and Corswain represent the upright and steadfast First Legion, whose standing will be put into permanent jeopardy with Luther's turn.

[mc warhammer]

I still have a hard time getting the elevation of Savage Weapons above the other stuff. I enjoy it ok, no less than the bulk of the other Dark Angels stories, but it's some light legion fluff of the likes we get in this Primarchs book (the emphasis on knightly greetings etc)built around a questionably executed Primarch fight. Some good dialogue for Lion and Curze, but it also drove the potential of the Dark Angels having some realpolitk and ambiguity of intention in the heresy right into the ground.

 

I didn't necessarily want to see an Angels of Darkness plays both sides scenario play fully out, but something a bit murkier and more in the ballpark of what Wraight did with the Scars -rather than full on loyalist would have been more interesting imo. Going into it this was a primarch that sabotaged Horus plans for the dropsite yet had the chance to head there himself, but made no effort. That was one thing Fallen Angels did ok at the end with keeping things open as to the extent of the Lion's possible loyalties.

yeah, i feel we might be in the minority, but i wouldn't have minded a bit more murk for the dark angels on the lion's side as opposed to luther's. give them a real reason to be secretive rather than just...i'm not even really sure why they are anymore.

[Phoebus]

I still have a hard time getting the elevation of Savage Weapons above the other stuff. I enjoy it ok, no less than the bulk of the other Dark Angels stories, but it's some light legion fluff of the likes we get in this Primarchs book (the emphasis on knightly greetings etc)built around a questionably executed Primarch fight. Some good dialogue for Lion and Curze, but it also drove the potential of the Dark Angels having some realpolitk and ambiguity of intention in the heresy right into the ground.

 

I didn't necessarily want to see an Angels of Darkness plays both sides scenario play fully out, but something a bit murkier and more in the ballpark of what Wraight did with the Scars -rather than full on loyalist would have been more interesting imo.

But that’s the thing: it’s a different time, altogether, and I think the reason “Savage Weapons” succeeds because it gets that. Descent of Angels and Fallen Angels give us a secretive Order, but never bother to tell us why it’s secretive to begin with. What is the reason if not the author deciding that the the Order and the Dark Angels Legion had to be secretive, taciturn and compartmentalized on account of the Dark Angels Chapter being depicted thusly?

 

Going into it this was a primarch that sabotaged Horus plans for the dropsite yet had the chance to head there himself, but made no effort. That was one thing Fallen Angels did ok at the end with keeping things open as to the extent of the Lion's possible loyalties.

I may be waaaay off on this, but I can’t help but think that a lot of readers projected what Astelan had to say about the Lion in Angels of Darkness to what Lee was trying to convey. I think it’s clear Lee is trying to tell a story that shows how the Lion’s behavior and mindset could lead to people to question his priorities and loyalties even if he himself is completely loyal. The closing scene isn’t meant to make the reader doubt whether the Lion is loyal; it’s meant to be tragic: against all odds, the Lion succeeded in his mission* only to have it all be for naught because the brother he trusted was, in fact, a traitor.

 

* Of course, the entire venture to Diamat ends up being a massive red herring. A few chapters into The Lost and the Damned, we’re reminded by Rogal Dorn that the fleet Horus has assembled is so massive that the siege cannons the Lion recovered are effectively irrelevant. That in turn raises questions regarding Dorn’s obsession with building open-top fortifications, but whatever.

 

yeah, i feel we might be in the minority, but i wouldn't have minded a bit more murk for the dark angels on the lion's side as opposed to luther's. give them a real reason to be secretive rather than just...i'm not even really sure why they are anymore.

Again, that’s the thing: the reason for the secrecy of the post-Heresy Dark Angels was the corruption of Luther and the destruction of Caliban.

 

Oh, sure, someone could come up with a compelling reason for the Order and the Lion to be “murky” as well, but what would this attempt at moral equivalence achieve? Luther and his followers already had theIr argument against the Lion: he chose to side with the Imperium of Man, whose rule is predicated on violent conquest and totalitarian governance. Luther lost the moral high ground when he is eventually seduced by the Ruinous Powers, but that’s neither here nor there.

Edited April 6, 2020 by Phoebus

[DarkChaplain]

See, I didn't have the impression that The Order was necessarily secretive, beyond having a Lord Cypher, whose mystery came more from the fact that somebody among the Order's finest had abandoned name and title to become a spiritual embodiment of their, well, order. There were some rituals, but even those were more to impress their way upon newer recruits (walking the spiral and such), and reinforce the chain of command.

 

They became more secretive after Luther's return, both due to the supposed Knights Lupus replacing their Lord Cypher (as implied), Luther's doubts about the Lion and the Imperium, and the growing network of schemes within the Calibanite Dark Angels. The Knights Lupus were presented a couple of times as a source of corruption, which in my view includes their secrecy and gathering of arcane tomes. That's stuff that the Lion and Luther brought back to Aldurukh, and Luther later used that stuff extensively. It's knowledge on the nature of the Great Beasts and eventually also the Ouroboros that can corrupt a man - and it does so to Zahariel, to an extent. There's reason enough to be secretive about it. One could argue they should've burned it to begin with, but it's not without value, either.

That the entire rebellion and Astelan's orchestrated betrayals are subject to secrecy is a given, too.

 

And that the Lion doesn't like to play with open cards has been clear all along, even though he was somewhat more open in Descent of Angels than later works.

 

The Order was a collective of knights, on a world dominated by knightly orders of all kinds, including the arcane/obscure ones that literally captured (and probably bred) the Great Beasts to use them for their own gains. Their traditions, such as they were, are probably simply going along with a few of the general cultural norms and expectations at the time; the Lion's arrival and supremacy over the Order didn't bring them about, but unlike the others, the Order made some changes to how things were going to work on Caliban, by eradicating the Beasts. Their spiral-walking and what not were probably around for centuries already, and they're something the Lion grew up with.

 

Generally, yes, Astelan was a bull:cusster. He was mad about being snubbed by the Lion and manipulated things. But at the same time, the Lion still believed in his own supremacy over his brothers, and his pride being wounded by Horus becoming Warmaster has been a theme throughout. Heck, we last see the Lion commenting about Guilliman's plans and how he's gonna tear Roboute a new one, just for the next book, being The Unremembered Empire, basically saying the Lion is cool with it after all. The Lion's discontent, his bruised pride, his brooding nature, they've all been badly utilized in the series, despite my enjoyment of both Angels of Caliban and Dreadwing.

 

What would be gained? Luther would be a far more interesting character, as would his rebellion be more compelling. Was he right in mistrusting the Lion somehow, or was it really just jealousy? Did he know more? Is the Lion really bringing ruin to Caliban and his Legion, through his own ego?

Right now, the rebellion on Caliban is mostly an economic thing, channeled through a rejected father/lieutenant, an angry chapter master and a librarian who got daemonically influenced to burn the house down. It's all very much on the table, with little ambiguity or even just proper justification any longer - especially not with Luther and co being perfectly aware of the Heresy, supporting Typhon's fleet of Death Guard, who were running from loyalist Dark Angels under Corswain, or even just them playing hosts to Loken and Qruze, who have been rescued by an implied Cypher, whose identity is still not clear, or who might be dead now, with retcons abound regarding the Calibanite DAs having fought alongside the Luna Wolves before.

 

That is to say, the entire plotline has gotten a lot less interesting and compelling since the Lion just came out to say he's loyal as all feth, with no reason to doubt him anymore. He knows about things going down on Caliban, but prohibits his Legion to make course for it again and again (including Corswain, who sent an envoy on his own). It's too clean. Before, you could make an argument for the Lion being a prideful dick with his own motivations and potential schemes to put himself above the rest. Now, he's just a prideful dick with anger issues who is very good at beating up Konrad Curze, unless written by Abnett.

[Fedor]

Phoebus i could have phrased that better about the Fallen Angels ending. I didn't think at the time it had much if anything to do with AoD either and generally agree with your take on that, i just mean it did a good job of leaving things open for further authors to go in various directions with the legion, including the questionable loyalties (even if only for a time) route if wanted . SW seemed to be a definitive step in hammering things down into the unflinching loyalists vs Caliban rebels route.

 

It was still quite early in the series at the time and i wouldn't have minded something a bit more complex for the Dark Angels motivations. We have enough unflinchingly loyal to one side or the other legions and it ties well enough into their overall lore without needing to be as cut and dry as a biased party like Astelan tried to portray it, or be attempts at moral equivalence. Imperium secundus did seem initially like it might be doing this kind of thing with the Ultramarines, though it ended up pretty tame as far as shady actions hidden from history go and Lion/Dark Angels were already cast as foil to the potentially opportunistic empire builders.

[Phoebus]

See, I didn't have the impression that The Order was necessarily secretive, beyond having a Lord Cypher, whose mystery came more from the fact that somebody among the Order's finest had abandoned name and title to become a spiritual embodiment of their, well, order. There were some rituals, but even those were more to impress their way upon newer recruits (walking the spiral and such), and reinforce the chain of command.

I should have been clearer. It is, like you say, a ritualistic — pantomime, even — sort of secrecy. My issue with it is that it’s introduced in a vacuum, and if Scanlon was drawing on anything more than the Dark Angels’ pre-existing themes as a reference point, he doesn’t really indicate it.

 

And that the Lion doesn't like to play with open cards has been clear all along, even though he was somewhat more open in Descent of Angels than later works.

I don’t dispute that this is how the Lion was presented in the Heresy series. The Lion being presented as secretive or anti-social isn’t a problem for me; it’s that there’s no real exposition for his character. We have some very broad nods to his isolated upbringing, but it’s not until The Lion that Thorpe gives us something juicy: the Lion doesn’t distrust everyone around him because he’s Tarzan in M30-31, but because before the Order found him he had to deal with the likes of Tzeentchian daemons.

 

Beyond that, let me offer this: I think your synopsis of the Dark Angels story arc is more or less spot on, and I don’t think there’s much debate around what it is and what it means at this point (as opposed to a few years ago, when arguments abounded about where the Lion’s loyalties lay).

 

What would be gained? Luther would be a far more interesting character, as would his rebellion be more compelling. Was he right in mistrusting the Lion somehow, or was it really just jealousy? Did he know more? Is the Lion really bringing ruin to Caliban and his Legion, through his own ego?

Again, insofar as moral high ground can be found in this series, I think Luther had it by default: my feelings on the quality of the writing aside, the Order was clearly conveyed as a meritocratic institution that valued the lives of people and was dedicated to the protection of innocents. In that sense, Luther being opposed to the Imperium and heartbroken by the Lion’s immediate loyalty to the Emperor should be compelling on that basis alone. Him unwittingly succumbing to the lure of the Ruinous Powers (not unlike how the Thousand Sons did, with regard to seeing sorcery as a weapon/tool) would have given us a tragic hero who quite literally just wanted Caliban to be free — of both a tyrannical empire and the daemonic powers at its core.

 

What we got instead was a Luther who came very close to letting a being he considered his brother to be murdered out of sheer jealousy — and that’s by his stated admission. By the time the events of Angels of Caliban occur, he is motivated at least as much by opportunism and self-importance as by idealism. He lies and manipulates people and consciously excuses it, and relies on Zahariel’s psychic powers to get buy-in for his coup. I sincerely doubt the Lion being something other than a loyal son somewhere on the spectrum would make the Luther we got more compelling; it would simply mean both men were some degree of detestable.

 

He knows about things going down on Caliban, but prohibits his Legion to make course for it again and again (including Corswain, who sent an envoy on his own).

This, to me, is the worst part of the Dark Angels’ narrative, and stretches all the way back to Descent of Angels. We’re not just talking about characters who aren’t that compelling. It’s the writing team’s decision to effectively hand-wave away the bizarre decisions the Lion and his lieutenants make, and to hide the motivations behind the same.

 

It's too clean. Before, you could make an argument for the Lion being a prideful dick with his own motivations and potential schemes to put himself above the rest.

Let me offer this: is it not possible for the Lion to be entirely loyal to the Emperor, but to nonetheless be suspicious of Guilliman’s motives and driven by his own post-Heresy ambitions? My issue with the Lion’s depiction in recent years isn’t that he’s portrayed as a taciturn bastard driven by his ambition, but that in execution he comes off as no deeper than how Saturday morning cartoon villains. Edited April 6, 2020 by Phoebus

[mc warhammer]

 

yeah, i feel we might be in the minority, but i wouldn't have minded a bit more murk for the dark angels on the lion's side as opposed to luther's. give them a real reason to be secretive rather than just...i'm not even really sure why they are anymore.

Again, that’s the thing: the reason for the secrecy of the post-Heresy Dark Angels was the corruption of Luther and the destruction of Caliban.

 

Oh, sure, someone could come up with a compelling reason for the Order and the Lion to be “murky” as well, but what would this attempt at moral equivalence achieve? Luther and his followers already had theIr argument against the Lion: he chose to side with the Imperium of Man, whose rule is predicated on violent conquest and totalitarian governance. Luther lost the moral high ground when he is eventually seduced by the Ruinous Powers, but that’s neither here nor there.

 

yeah, but that's what i'm getting at. pre split angels still seem to be vaguely sneaky and i'm unsure as to why

 

my personal preference for a murkier lion notwithstanding

[StrangerOrders]

 

 

yeah, i feel we might be in the minority, but i wouldn't have minded a bit more murk for the dark angels on the lion's side as opposed to luther's. give them a real reason to be secretive rather than just...i'm not even really sure why they are anymore.

Again, that’s the thing: the reason for the secrecy of the post-Heresy Dark Angels was the corruption of Luther and the destruction of Caliban.

 

Oh, sure, someone could come up with a compelling reason for the Order and the Lion to be “murky” as well, but what would this attempt at moral equivalence achieve? Luther and his followers already had theIr argument against the Lion: he chose to side with the Imperium of Man, whose rule is predicated on violent conquest and totalitarian governance. Luther lost the moral high ground when he is eventually seduced by the Ruinous Powers, but that’s neither here nor there.

 

yeah, but that's what i'm getting at. pre split angels still seem to be vaguely sneaky and i'm unsure as to why

 

my personal preference for a murkier lion notwithstanding

 

Actually this book states that not only were they always sneaky, the Lion actually made the less sneaky when he was found.

[mc warhammer]

 

 

 

yeah, i feel we might be in the minority, but i wouldn't have minded a bit more murk for the dark angels on the lion's side as opposed to luther's. give them a real reason to be secretive rather than just...i'm not even really sure why they are anymore.

Again, that’s the thing: the reason for the secrecy of the post-Heresy Dark Angels was the corruption of Luther and the destruction of Caliban.

 

Oh, sure, someone could come up with a compelling reason for the Order and the Lion to be “murky” as well, but what would this attempt at moral equivalence achieve? Luther and his followers already had theIr argument against the Lion: he chose to side with the Imperium of Man, whose rule is predicated on violent conquest and totalitarian governance. Luther lost the moral high ground when he is eventually seduced by the Ruinous Powers, but that’s neither here nor there.

 

yeah, but that's what i'm getting at. pre split angels still seem to be vaguely sneaky and i'm unsure as to why

 

my personal preference for a murkier lion notwithstanding

 

Actually this book states that not only were they always sneaky, the Lion actually made the less sneaky when he was found.

 

yeah, that just doesn't work well for me, at least in its current depiction.

[Phoebus]

In earlier titles, such as Deliverance Lost and The First Heretic, it was described that certain traits were genetically coded into the Legions — e.g., the canine material in the VI Legio’s gene-seed, the XVII Legio being predisposed to loyalty, and so on. If I had to guess, we’ll be told the I Legio was built to be secretive and taciturn.

[Tymell]

I just forced my way through this one...which probably tells you how I felt about it :p

 

To be fair, it was mostly the last part I had to force myself through. Overall, I can't say I enjoyed this, though it does have some bits and ideas I liked a lot.

 

Cards on the table: I'm not really a Dark Angels fan. I know some people are super into them, and can have discussions for page after page about their lore, motivations, history, etc. I'm not one of those folks. I've never really been particularly interested in them, and for some that might lessen the impact of my own take on this. I'd like to think I went in with an open mind, but take my words as you will.

 

The secretive aspect of the legion is emphasised heavily, but I can't say it really did anything for me, nor felt properly justified. I agree with a previous user on here that it works against this specific opponent, but in most other situations I can't see how it would really be useful. It just felt like layers of mysteriousness and obfuscation for their own sake, and more often than not I was left asking "But why though?". It -is- an emphasised legion trait, which I think is better than a bland "marines of colour X" approach, but I feel like it could've been explored and expanded upon more.

 

The prose is very descriptive. A lot of text describing places and people, often going on too long IMO. In connection with this, it feels very "tell don't show", especially in parts going on about how great the Dark Angels are. I get it, this is their book and should highlight their qualities, but I would've liked a lot more "show" and a lot less "tell" in that regard.

 

The pacing was also odd. It feels like it set things up nicely...then skipped the second act entirely and went straight into the third...and then added a fourth act after it had already had its climax. It's hard to describe, but felt very off to me, and was badly hampered by the last part of the book, which I really didn't like. It didn't ruin story or characters or anything, I just found it incredibly boring and tedious to read. The sort of action sequences where you know exactly what's going to happen, but it takes so many pages to get there. Having already had what I felt was the best part of the book didn't help.

 

On that note, I do feel there are some really good parts/ideas in here:

 

I really like the notion of the Dark Angels as the Emperor's exterminators. Not quite the same as the Wolves (and I'd argue that any apparent dismissiveness of their role is primarily because we're getting it from the First's POV), rather than acting like an internal police force, the DA are granted access to incredibly dangerous weapons, and used in situations that call for them. They're there to remove obstacles from the Emperor's path without question. It feels like an ultimate expression of what the space marines are, and that feels fitting for the First, the Angels of Death.

 

I also like the Lion's strategy of starving the enemy out, it feels nicely clever, and I enjoyed the scene between him and Duriel as he explains it. Equally enjoyable was the bit later where the Lion ensnares a khrave that's trying to enter his mind. The Lion is master of his own mind, and it backfires wonderfully on the alien. That was great, and although it wasn't outright stated that he allowed that intrusion as part of a trap, I like to imagine it that way.

 

On a minor note, I also appreciated some of the old-school Heresy vibes here. The fact that there's a remembrancer present, the talk of different humours, it very much hearkened back to the early works of the series.

 

So yeah, some good ideas and moments, but as a whole it feels messy. The pacing is off, the story never really goes anywhere, the last part is a chore and Lion's development is passable but nothing special. It was better than Guymer's other Primarchs book, where I came out of it thinking -less- of the Iron Hands because they seemed outright incompetent, but for me this still continues the unfortunate trend of the loyalist Primarch books being less interesting then the traitor ones (with some exceptions, of course).

 

5/10

[Matcap86]

In earlier titles, such as Deliverance Lost and The First Heretic, it was described that certain traits were genetically coded into the Legions — e.g., the canine material in the VI Legio’s gene-seed, the XVII Legio being predisposed to loyalty, and so on. If I had to guess, we’ll be told the I Legio was built to be secretive and taciturn.

This is literally a line in the book. With the Lion wondering about it, as both Terran and Calibanite marines share the same humours

Edited May 5, 2020 by matcap86

[Karhedron]

The stuff about the Dark Angels being the original and a template for others to initially emulate is quite new isn't it? The idea of them getting and keeping a lot of earlier and more esoteric equipment etc..

It has been expanded certainly. However the seeds of it go back to at least 2nd edition with things like the Dark Angels being the only Chapter with enough TDA to equip the entire first company.

[b1soul]

"XVII Legio being predisposed to loyalty"

 

That did not go well at all eh

[Lord_Caerolion]

Well, loyal to their Primarch. Which went very well (from a certain point of view).

[bluntblade]

I thought it was a matter of zeal with them as well.

[Phoebus]

It was a case of their strength being corrupted into a weakness.

 

The seeds of the corruption of the Word Bearers were planted through Lorgar’s beliefs, which channeled their genetic predisposition for loyalty through religious dogma. By the time Heresy begins, they‘ve been made to think the truth is more important than what the truth actually means. The fact that the Ruinous Powers are real is what matters to the Word Bearers, because it makes validates their beliefs. The fact that what their gods demand from them validates the Emperor’s lie doesn’t even seem to ever enter into their thinking.

 

It’s not a concept that applies to every Traitor Legion (well, at least not equally), but it definitely wasn’t unique to the Word Bearers. To name another example, the Emperor’s Children at their best were a legion that pursued excellence in all things. The Ruinous Powers twisted their aspiration for perfection into hubris, narcissism, and self-aggrandizement.

Edited May 7, 2020 by Phoebus

[DarKnight]

The Dark Angels have indeed suffered where the knightly theme is concerned: at one extreme, authors wouldn’t really touch on it at all; at the other, they relied on generalized tropes. I enjoyed the effort Dembski-Bowden put into “Savage Weapons,” but I don’t think any Black Library author has ever really presented an extensive vision of what “knights” from a world like Caliban would be like. Point of fact, I’m not sure to what extent they’ve considered whether chivalry — as a social and cultural institution — could survive in a Death World inimical to human life. In my humble opinion, the “knights” we might expect to find on Caliban would probably draw far more from pre-chivalric warrior ethos or from the Christian military orders than the bland nobility and “Sars” we see in Descent of Angels and Fallen Angels.

Irrelevant side-rant follows:

If the past of Caliban were open to development or re-writing, I would pitch it as an attempt to establish a Knight World gone horribly wrong: an arboreal amalgam of Barbarus and Fenris whose flora, fauna, and very atmosphere ensured the Knights themselves didn’t survive. What slivers of humanity do persist do so in isolated fortresses formed from the remnants of the colony ships that brought them here millennia before the Lion’s arrival. The Sacristans devolved to mere artificers; the greatest of them lived out hermit-like existences in forge-fortresses within the most dangerous and remote wilderness, to prevent the surviving scraps of the Dark Age of Technology from falling in the hands of ever-more barbarous warlords. In time, they are thought of as “wizards” by a warrior caste that borrows far more from John Blanche’s sketchbooks than any knightly genre.

For the Order to be conceived in such a savage environment would be a miracle in itself. I envision them being a group of warriors whose most amazing quality was their belief that the lives of the people meant something; that they deserved protection without owing slavery. I imagine them discovering the remnants of an ancient colony-ship buried beneath what would become Aldurukh, and within it the remnants of an archive that described a far finer, civilized world: laws, decency, and honor. They also find the lore those long-dead ancestors compiled, which hinted at the horrific nature of Caliban: that the Great Beasts were shaped by the very energies that suffuse the planet, and that those same forces are responsible for the ever-growing number of witch-kin and the horrors they bring about. That, in turn, becomes the impetus for the secretive nature of the Order, and it is they who possess libraries of forbidden lore — not the Knights of Lupus. They wish to keep the remnants of humanity of safe, but don’t want them to learn that they may very well be damned.

And so, the Order becomes this brotherhood of “knights” in the sense that they are monastic and indoctrinated through a life-long regiment of discipline, tests, initiations, etc., meant to safeguard them from the influences of their own planet. These are things only the Grand Masters of the Order can know of. After the Lion arrived and was initiated to the Order’s secrets, his ruthless pragmatism conceived of the need for the Crusade to unify Caliban: only by bringing the remnants of humanity under the aegis of the Order can the evil suffusing Caliban be mitigated.

Luther would be left behind after the Emperor arrived not because of some bizarre reaction to near-treason, but because he, too, is a Grand Master and privy to what Caliban does. Because the Lion has first-hand knowledge of the supernatural, he becomes the first to learn that the problems of Caliban are writ large across the Galaxy (though perhaps not to the extent of learning of the Ruinous Powers). Caliban thus becomes a secondary consideration to him, which leads to his rift with Luther. In turn, Luther despairs of ever “fixing” Caliban and is seduced by forbidden sorcerous lore (fight fire with fire, etc.). Que the fall.

The rituals of initiation and culture of secrecy of the Order would translate to tactical and strategic compartmentalization in the Dark Angels Legion — not a case where you didn’t know who was who in a given Order or what their rank was in a given Ordination. Initiations into mysteries would continue, with those centering on Warp entities, suppressed Xenos lore, actions whose records have been redacted, and so on.

This is the most beautiful thing I have ever read.

[Augustus]

I really, really enjoyed it. It really highlighted the strengths of the Lion.

Much of what we have seen of him has been like Phoebus said: Themes telling the story instead of the other way around. And we get the "The Lion can't read people " 

 

Here we have a Primarch that is secretive, demanding, silent, and brooding but this is portrayed as being done with a purpose and accepted in the Legion. Moreso, it is explicitly hinted(is that a thing) to be in the genetic makeup. None of the characters bemoan the fact. Really cool. 

 

I also enjoy reading about new characters. I sometimes don't like that in a universe setting we read about the same 3-4 characters in each legion (seemingly so at any rate) and with the traitor legions it feels like no one died. I was happy to buy it.  I've been out of the scene for a while but a nice Dark Angel book will bring me back. 

Edited May 11, 2020 by Augustus