favorite primarch

[Jarl Kjaran Coldheart]

@dues lox: the numbers of the legions remains a hotly debated point. some believe they legions were 100,000 strong while others belive they were much much smaller.

 

WLK

 

We now also have the comment in Raven's Flight about the Raven Guard being 80,000 strong, and them being considered one of the smaller legions!

 

So, this supports the larger figure of 250,000 in Collected Visions. Personally, I have thought that the larger numbers always made more sense - if you think the entire Imperium was carved out in a mere 250 years, and the Legions were armies, they were the major deciding factor in the combat that took place to take control of systems and wipe out alien empires, rather than the 'strike force' of 40k marine chapters. Imagine the potential population of a system of worlds, or of an Orc Empire, and I think for the ability to conquer and then subjugate then figures in the tens of thousand are just too small, even considering the power of a marine.

 

Regarding the Horus - Gulliman debate, I think the proof of the pudding as far as this is concerned is in who the Emperor chose to be Warmaster. I think the Emperor saw in Horus more of himself than any other Primarch, in his brilliance as a leader as well as his abilities as a director of armies, and this is the reason he left control of the Great Crusade in his hands. Regardless of the morality of the issue, you have to admit that Horus came within a hairs breath of pulling his rebellion off, and of managing to push 7 of the other Primarchs to his own cause. I can't imagine another Primarch who would have been able to accomplish this, and despite Gulliman's brilliance you just don't get the same impression of a dynamic character.

 

well i havent got ahold of Raven's Flight yet, but i am happy they established the numner for a small legion. personally, i always liked the ieda of the SM legions being massive.

 

WLK

[Legatus]

As far as I know the Black Library books have operated with the "100k average" Legion sizes since "Collected Vision", so that book does not really establish anything.

[Pacific81]

Well, it means we now have 3 different books/stories supporting the larger legion numbers. Collected Visions, the short story 'Call of the Lion' in Tales of Heresy, and now Raven's Flight.

 

I don't think it really makes a difference in any kind of practical sense, but it does alter the conception of how the Great Crusade played out in terms of the surrounding narrative.

[Rhammidarigaaz]

To add my two cents on Primarch talk...

 

It used to be that my favored Primarch was Sanguinius... noble, willing martyr archetype (foresaw his doom), sacrifice, blessed... these are all things that I favor. Second to Sanguinius was Leman Russ.

 

Dan Abnett rocked my world in the A Thousand Sons/Prospero Burns trailer by suggesting (or outright saying) that the reason why the Emperor created and allowed the crazy Space Wolves to be was to bring down another space marine legion. My mind = blown.

 

If anything like this turns out to be the case (and I really hope that it does), Leman Russ rises to the top. Sanguinius' stands at the Eternity Gate and Horus' battle barge (though that might be retconed into not a battle barge) are epic, but that Leman Russ and his Wolves could have been created by the Emperor with any sort of thought to bringing down another legion is epic in a whole different way.

 

Also, ya know, Russ won't let little things like death stop him from being at the war at the end of the universe.