“The First Legion vs. the Dragon” and “Caliban as a Knight W

[Azoriel]

These are two theories I’ve been sporting which have no basis in existing fluff (but could conceivably fit into it).  I'm posting this as a food for thought sort of deal.

The First Legion vs. the Dragon:  The First Legion and Mars have never had a very good relationship, yet Marian red is featured very prominently on Dark Angel power armor in Unremembered Empire.  I would attribute this to the very real probability that the First Legion (being the first active legion) did most of the fighting when the Emperor was expanding his conquest from Terra to Mars.  Given that the Emperor had to convince a technologically advanced (and maybe even superior?) Mars that submission was preferable to annihilation, the fighting between the forces of Terra and Mars would’ve been extremely brutal, with bad blood between the participants lasting well after hostilities were concluded.  After the war, the First Legion would accent their black armor with Martian gold and red in recognition of their conquest of Mars - a reminder which would no doubt foster ill will in any member of the Mechanium who could remember the conflict.  Similarly, the First Legion would be leery of the Cult of Mars, being an incomplete compliance with and even outright divergence from the Emperor’s atheistic Imperial Truth.

Caliban as a Knight World:  Even prior to being made part of the Imperium, STC technologies such as bolt pistols, chainswords, and powered armor were not unknown to Caliban.  According to this theory, Caliban was once a Knight World, complete with Knight Titans, but lost their supporting Forge World when it was swallowed and destroyed by the Eye of Terror’s expansion.  As the flora grew increasingly dense and the fauna increasingly hostile under the influence of the Eye, the lumbering Knight Titans became cumbersome and impractical to operate.  Those remaining tech priests now trapped on Caliban would have adapted their talents to the conditions imposed, and miniaturized what Titan technologies they could down to powered suits for the Knight houses to wear (which would later become the knightly Orders).  Forced to produce their wares by hammer and anvil rather than by factory, they would be unable to replicate the fusion cores found in Titans and power these suits by battery instead.  Said battery packs would not be able to support continuous activity for very long, thus behooving the knights of Caliban to ride destriers between fights to conserve battery power.  In this transition, the relationship between the tech priests and the Knight Houses to shift from sponsor and benefactor to servant and master.  The successors of these tech priests (the Cult of Caliban?) would be highly divergent from the Cult of Mars, being more loyal to their knightly protectors than than Magi or their Omnissiah, and ultimately serve to further alienate the Dark Angels from Mars when these Calibanites later became serfs to the Legion.

I enjoy sporting these theories to rationalize why things are the way they are, though I also think they overcomplicate the First Legion's backstory in a way that doesn't really contribute to DA lore in 40K (or even 30K) in a meaningful fashion.  Thoughts?

[Stercus]

Some interesting ideas. You could do a really good diorama of a decayed and rusty knight chassis being reclaimed by the forest.

[Aradiel]

The first problem with your theory is that the Emperor never conquered Mars, and the Mechanicus are not actually a Imperial organization. The Imperium and the Mechanicus have a alliance and mutual defence pact, but are otherwise separate and independent organizations. if you have not done so you should read the novel Mechanicum as it actually describes the arrival of the Emperor to Mars

[Azoriel]

Ah, poop.  :(  Looks like I've got some reading homework to do...