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

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Treachery Cover Up: Following the rebellion, the Dark Angels have hidden all information regarding the destruction of Caliban and the Fallen's existence. This includes up to and including killing Inquisitors who investigate Caliban's destruction. In Ravenwing it's revealed that the Inner Circle keep a lot of the truth about the Horus Heresy from the rank and file battle-brothers, such as it's existence. Warmaster. Yet this was one of the few miscalculations made by the shrewd intellect of the Warmaster. He counted all men of power to think as he did, yet while the Lion and the Wolf of Luna shared many traits, they were not the same. As with much knowledge regarding the I st Legion and its master, there was a vast body of rumour and little fact regarding the earliest years of the Primarch Lion El'Jonson. There were three Space Marine Legions Horus sought to remove from the path of his heresy before it began. The White Scars he hoped to preserve for his own use, the Blood Angels he hoped to destroy or corrupt -- but the Dark Angels he hoped to banish, to send far enough away that by the time they could return, his grim business would be complete.

Interservice Rivalry: In Ravenwing the Fifth Company begin developing a rivalry the Ravenwing over deployment, with the Fifth Company feeling that the Ravenwing get the more glorious deployment with the Fifth being placed in a support role. Sammael does have a good reason for deploying the Ravenwing, specifically to hunt for renegade Space Marines, but he can't tell the Fifth that. Combined with a massive The Reveal in The Unforgiven when Annael detonates his Dark Talon's warp engine over the rift that connects the present to the past, specifically the Battle of Caliban, and in doing so closes the rift in the present but aggravates it in the past, sending it towards Caliban. Though the narrative doesn't say it out loud, it very heavily implies that it was that moment that caused the destruction of Caliban and the scattering of the Fallen through time and space, which would explain why so many of the Fallen arrived in 40k. Azrael and Sapphon both see this and it's hinted the former actually understood what he saw, since he alone knows what really happened to Caliban, but he knows he can never ever tell anyone else in the Chapter what he now knows is the truth: The Chaos Gods didn't destroy Caliban, the Dark Angels did.Curze remained captive aboard the Invincible Reason and occasionally the Lion would visit to speak with him in an attempt to gather information from his prophetic visions, but the Night Haunter rarely proved cooperative. This was the determination of the Lion, that he would set aside even those whom he held dearest in the name of duty. Some would name it arrogance and others, with the benefit of hindsight, would call it foolhardy, but it was ever the way of the Lion. It was not the cold logic of battle favoured by some among the primarchs, but the proud imperative of duty and excellence -- that those who faltered be set aside, no matter how justified or small the failing, and the worthy grow stronger through the trials they faced.

The new Jonson model can be built with four different helmets. His aged features – which rather remind us of British character actor Charles Dance – reflect Jonson’s incredible age. Unlike Roboute Guilliman, who spent most of the thousands of years since the Horus Heresy in stasis, Jonson was alive but asleep. He learned to keep silent, lest he grant advantage to those that stalked him, he learned to fight only when he could win, lest he be wounded too gravely to survive, and he learned that once battle was joined it could end only in death, that the strong would survive and the weak would fall. He fought for his life with nothing but his bare hands and a determination so inhumanly strong that it served him better than any iron-forged blade. Averted with his boss Sapphon, the Master of Sanctity, who belives that The End Does Not Justify The Means and that the Dark Angels need to be a lot more careful about how they hunt the Fallen, and much less willing to do whatever it takes to satisfy their own honour. His greatest fear is Asmodai taking his place and bringing the Dark Angels into conflict with the Inquisition and other Astartes Chapters, something that previous events involving Asmodai show is not a hollow fear, it's a very legitimate one. This being true, it throws the events on Dulan, and the grudge they are supposed to have given birth to, into a strange light. That the two fought is not in doubt, for too many sources agree on it; that either came to hold a grudge is implausible. If anything, the record of the two primarchs suggests a deep bond of trust and mutual respect. Eventually, the Dark Angels made course for Terra on the Lion's command, but arrived too late to influence the outcome of the Siege of Terra or prevent the Emperor from being mortally wounded by Horus and interred on the Golden Throne.The titanic struggle between the two former friends resulted in the destruction of Caliban and the loss of the Dark Angels' primarch, as well as the escape of Luther's allies who had sided with the Ruinous Powers. Known as the Fallen Angels amongst their former battle-brothers of the I st Legion, it became the overriding goal of the Dark Angels and all of their Successor Chapters (collectively known as the Unforgiven) after the Second Founding to hunt down every one of the Fallen and get them to repent their betrayal of the Emperor and the Lion. Lion El'Jonson would soon leave for distant Terra and his new destiny, bringing his uncompromising and remorseless style of warfare to the ranks of the Imperial forces. To him would fall the role of watchman at the edge of the Emperor's domain, the bane of monsters and beasts and the bearer of weapons too terrible to entrust to any other.