Thoughts on the "hidden legion" inner circle motif

[Bryan Blaire]

:devil: No no, no one needs a cell. Like I said, in the end, the numbers themselves aren't really the issue, it's the hiding how they are operating, even if it is just in the Hunt and not in any other fashion. The whole point of splitting up the Legions was to remove the amount of power held by a single figure so that a Marine Civil War couldn't happen again. The numbers themselves, whether 2K Marines or 2 million Marines, don't matter, it's the intent to operate in this fashion that would be the issue. The Legions are just expected to no longer exist. Now, the Space Wolves still have a larger than Codex number, but they've always been up front with their F-off attitude, and as I said, as the Emperor's Executioners, they may have had special dispensation from the Sigillite after the Emperor's death or some such, or it may have just been a "Come and make us" and frankly, no one probably wanted to do that after the Heresy "ended". The Dark Angels have hidden that they may not have stopped being a Legion because they don't want the scrutiny the Wolves have invited by doing what they did. Now that they've been hiding the secret though, they have to keep doing so...

 

Another reason not to be concerned is that we don't actually know when in relation to each other the HH novels and the new DA codex were developed. Chances are the fluff info in the Codex was done a while before printing happened, while the HH books may have only been completed the year or so they were published. The numbers really aren't the issue though, it's the intent/operational details surrounding the Chapters...

[Brother Immolator]

That's what I get for being too lazy to get up and check the publication dates. Can somebody carry me to cell 42 please?

 

With pleasure,lay down on the slab.Ill call the interrogator in a sec.

 

The wolves might have more numbers because they have 2 more or so companies if i am not mistaken (make that three if you count the 13th).Even if you double the numbers of a great company vs a standard marine company you will reach 2,5k marines.

 

The BT and the DA on the other hand...The BT crusades are not accounted for but speculation places them on between 2k to 5k marines.

 

The DA on the other hand have 7 formal successors.That means 8k marines if we accept the fact that there no other successor chapters out there eluding the records of the imperium as the Consecrators (or was it the guardians of the covenant?) that appeared out of nowhere.

 

Barring the wolves the largest signature are the DA with the possibility of the templars following them.

 

An interesting thought though:I am not aware if the division of the DA legion happened before or after the Lion died.Did he divided the Legion on Terra immediately after the siege,or he just agreed to and planed to do so once on Caliban?I would lean towards the latter since it would make sense to keep the successors on the tight grip of the inner circle.

[Cactus]

Thanks Bryan, but I did deserve a mild chastening for my hypocrisy. I rant (offline) about people spouting nonsense without citing their sources or even referring to them. With particular regard to certain sub-forums not too far from here. It does every Dark Angel good to be reminded that no-one is infallible. :D

 

An interesting thought though:I am not aware if the division of the DA legion happened before or after the Lion died.Did he divided the Legion on Terra immediately after the siege,or he just agreed to and planed to do so once on Caliban?I would lean towards the latter since it would make sense to keep the successors on the tight grip of the inner circle.

I doubt there's anything even approaching concrete information about the sequence of those events. My working assumption, culled from 20-ish years of vague information, is that Jonsson returned to Caliban as soon as he knew the battle for Terra had been 'won', there was a big ol' fight with Luther, he vanished, and his senior officers were left to pick up the pieces and deal with the introduction of the Codex Astartes and break up of the legion. The last two pages of The Lion novella suggest that he had every reason to want to return to Caliban ASAP, and once Horus was defeated I see no reason for him to delay any further.

 

Does anyone have any ideas how the surviving loyal Dark Angels explained his disappearance and their exploding planet? Keeping the Fallen a secret in the 41st millennium isn't too hard, just don't talk about it, but at the time people like Dorn and Guilliman would surely have asked some quite probing questions. Corswain demonstrated balls of steel in Savage Weapons but could he tell a primarch to butt out and mind his own business?

 

I think my bedtime reading will be three editions of the Dark Angels' backstory. Good night.

[Brother Immolator]

Does anyone have any ideas how the surviving loyal Dark Angels explained his disappearance and their exploding planet? Keeping the Fallen a secret in the 41st millennium isn't too hard, just don't talk about it, but at the time people like Dorn and Guilliman would surely have asked some quite probing questions. Corswain demonstrated balls of steel in Savage Weapons but could he tell a primarch to butt out and mind his own business?

 

I think my bedtime reading will be three editions of the Dark Angels' backstory. Good night.

 

Freak warpstrom,was the order of the day.