What if the Imperium learnt of Luther's treachery?

[Wade Garrett]

There's the tiniest problem of Terra being the most heavily defended world in the Imperium...without massive internal turmoil like Vandire caused even if the DA and all their successors made a Tuchula precision Warp Jump right on top of the throneworld the end result would be akin to dragonfly vs logging truck.

[Raven Angel]

I think Tchulcha will ultimately be responsible for the destruction of Caliban

[cypherthefallenangel]

I think that the highlords would give the DA a slap on the wrist. To declare us excomunicatus tratorus over a 10k year old civil war that the loyalist angels won would be a bad for the imperium. Really bad. in the 41 millenium, The imperium is vastly weaker and steadily loosing ground to xenos and heretics every day. They could not afford a huge civil war. this wouldn't be as easy as some would think.

The dark angels and their successors are among the best tacticians in the empire. They stand solid where others flee. so lets say with the legion builder fluff the dark angels could field 50k marines(half a legion), plus a larger than normal fleet of star ships.

Now the DA aren't stupid they know 50k marines cant stand against the might of the imperium alone. In come the all those recruitment worlds and there planetary guard armies, navys, and possibly titan legions that could be coursed or commandeered into service by the unforgiven. Guard are spineless and easily swayed. renegade marines might also goin the cause. That could be possibly billions of troops and millions of tanks, aircraft, fleets, etc. spread out through the galaxy. the vast resources needed to quell this rebellion would seriously hurt the empire. The loss of all the formerly loyal armies and fleets. Plus double that for its own losses. Lost planets, lost forge worlds and shipyards

Barring the reforging of the lions sword and the lions return to stand before the emperor. The unforgiven would eventually be crushed and their remnants would become much like the fallen they hunted for 10k years. With the billions of deaths of this conflict would insight large and widespread deamon incursions(”blood for the blood god” and all that) . Abadon wont just sit on his ass, bam another black crusade. Orks are drawn to conflict like a moth to a lamp. the eldar pulling strings and playing games. Tau would be seizing weakened sub-sectors for the greater good. lots of chapters wiped out. All of this would straign the imperiums over tax resources. The whole thing would cripple the imperium for a long time and accelerate the fall of man.

It would be much smarter to just shame the 1st legion and let 10k years of faithful service be their penance.

This is how I think it would go down anyway.

[Phoebus]

I think Wade Garrett has it; the issue is not so much what some Dark Angels did 10,000 years ago, but what the Unforgiven have done since.

 

Now, that having been said, I think I'm going to be the naysayer here.  Would the High Lords declare that the Dark Angels have committed crimes in the eyes of the Imperium?  Sure.  Would they try to destroy the Unforgiven as a whole?  Of course not.

 

The High Lords can't simply not afford to destroy the Dark Angels; quite frankly, they probably can't do so.  The High Lords suspect the Dark Angels of "Legion building".  It's almost certainly why the First Legion's Geneseed is used so rarely.  But even so, one could convincingly argue that the Unforgiven number anywhere from forty to sixty Chapters.  While that's a drop in the bucket of the Imperium's overall forces, the thing to remember is that the Imperium's forces don't operate in a vacuum.  40k is about the Imperium of Mankind being pressed to the limits by threats from every corner.  If the Dark Angels were to be declared Excommunicate Traitoris, can you imagine the resources that would be needed to take out a force the size of half a Legion?  There's rarely been a time when the Imperium could spare such forces.  More importantly, they couldn't spare the losses they would incur in taking out such a force.

 

No, I imagine if the High Lords were to discover what Luther did - and put together how that influenced the Dark Angels' behavior and deeds in the past ten millennia - they would turn a loss into a gain and demand the Unforgiven undertake some sort of penitent Crusade on behalf of the Imperium.  In their eyes, since the Dark Angels' agenda has so often been in conflict with that of the Imperium, they might get more out of them that way than they had when they were operating independently.

 

A lot of this ultimately comes down to how meaningful the Dark Angels' crimes were post-Heresy (meaning, after Caliban was destroyed).  Is feuding with another Chapter something that would see them destroyed?  No.  The Lamenters, Executioners, and Mantis Warriors did far worse violence on their fellow Astartes than the Dark Angels did against the Black Templars.  What about abandoning millions of Imperial soldiers to die?  It's not as if the Imperium is going to develop a conscience there.  Again, the main issue is control.  The High Lords will want control over such a powerful force more than they will want to destroy it.