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What kind of primarch would Angron have been sans Nails?


b1soul

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Assuming that the Butchers Nails never existed...

 

- He would still have risen up in revolt against the High-Riders. Depending on how much the Nails were inhibiting his tactical acumen, he may or may not have ended up in the situation that the Emperor canonically found him in. I would like to think that without the Nails, he would be a more brutal version of Corax, exterminating the slavers instead of subjugating them. 

 

- He would not have had so little regard for his sons. Betrayer described him (in his last days before ascension to Daemonhood) as eating and drinking with his men, laughing with them at their gladiatorial fights, and even pausing to have long conversations with his ship's archivists. I think that is a glimpse to what Angron could have been. 

 

- The Devourers would have a job. :P

I see him becoming a sort of mix between Russ and Ferrus Manus, lots of warrior spirit and honour, but with a strong streak of 'darwinism' and unacceptance of failure and frailty.

 

He'd never be close-combat Guilliman. Even without the nails, his time of captivity as a gladiator would likely breed a brutal warrior anyhow.

Don't think sanity would've led Angron to victory, automatically. He'd still have very limited manpower on his side. His hope would be to go Corax and do things carefully, but even then, it's a tremendous disadvantage. He'd be closer, that's for sure, but I can also see him getting in the same situation as he did with the Nails.

 

Would he react differently with no nails, if the Emperor teleported him and let his friends die? Probably...but for worse. He wouldn't have butchered the War Hounds' officers, but would've truly bonded with them and Russ would have no lesson to teach his brother on loving his sons.

 

Then, come the Heresy, Angron would turn, since he still didn't forgive the Emperor for what he did to him nor the fact that he's a tyrant. And Horus would perhaps have a less dangerous Primarch on his side, but an even more effective Legion. Can you imagine the WE's numbers without their 'Look, a shining muzzel! Must catch it!' drive?

As for who's the biggest douche to his men, I think it's a toss-up between Angron and Perturabo 

I dunno, Pertuarbo takes it imo, as of Extermination. Despite having read it, I still don't get why he ordered the IV decimated. Angron was just angry, Pertuarbo was calculated and premeditated with his douchery towards his Legion.

Angron would be able to lead a slave uprising though. Curze conquered a world completely on his own. Different strategies sure, but I have no doubt that Angron would have conquered his homeworld.

 

Ignoring their individual traits for a second, Mortarion united a world of low-tech, untrained humans and formed them into an army which he used to conquer the entire planet, except the one mansion of his adoptive father. The Khan did the same, except he conquered the entire planet. Corax also did the same.

 

The strategies each used is really a nature v nurture debate. If the Khan had landed on Deliverance would he have used the same strategies that Corax used? Who knows.

 

Anyway, my point is that there is precedent for Primarchs conquering their homeworlds from a weak starting position. Angron with the Nails only ever cared about fighting, because it was the only time the Nails weren't tearing his brain apart. Angron without the Nails would have united the slaves in a glorious uprising and threw down the Highriders. Hell a Grey Knight managed to lead a xenos/renegade uprising on a Khornate gladiator world, a world of ordinary humans vs a Primarch? Easy.

Assuming the same numbers disadvantage, his best bet would be to run into hiding and infiltrate Nuceria's palace to slay the king. Even if it didn't turn the planet to him, at least he'd be able to defend the place with less men.

 

That's something the lack of Nails helps with :)

Cramming butcher's nails into pit-gladiators was standard procedure on Nuceria, so for Angron to lack them he'd have to never have been a slave to begin with. He might have grown up in the filth that the high riders forced the population into, or even as a high rider himself. Who knows how he'd have turned out then. Maybe he'd have fought to bring justice to the downtrodden people, or at least to their ruthless leaders. Or maybe he'd have approved the mutilation of those deemed distasteful to society into mindless berzerkers and become an even bigger jerk than Perturabo. It's a little like 'what if Corax was raised not by the slaves, but by their captors?'

 

If there's one alternate universe thing I want to know about Warhammer 40,000, it's what Angron (and the War Hounds) would have been without the nails. Even if I'm not sure I'd enjoy the results.

Some Primarchs were tyrants in their own way, but they always worked for the bigger and better picture for Mankind on their planets.So it's a fair assumption a Nail-Free, highborn Angron might've kept the gladiators in a free regimen for recruitment but make do with the Nails.

 

Still, he could've been both a gladiator and Nail-free, if the procedure was deemed impossible due to his phisiology or he was deemed ferocious enough already..

 

Either way, either/both Nuceria and how it brought Angron up make me think there's a fair chance of him going rogue anyway...but it's a dangerous assumption, I know.

I see him becoming a sort of mix between Russ and Ferrus Manus, lots of warrior spirit and honour, but with a strong streak of 'darwinism' and unacceptance of failure and frailty.

 

He'd never be close-combat Guilliman. Even without the nails, his time of captivity as a gladiator would likely breed a brutal warrior anyhow.

I second these thoughts.

If Angron had been adopted by the Lords of one of the city states that controlled his home world.  Angron would have develpoed a strong "Brotherhood" with the army he leads.  Like how the War Hounds had strong ties to brotherhood.  He also would have conqured all of the other city states on the planet and ended all of thier little wars. 

 

The Emperor would have arrived to find a peaceful would living with a warrior code maybe even warrior caste as the rulers.  Duels used to settle disputes and as ways of testing a warriors skills.  I'm thinking a hollywood version of the Tokugawa shogunate period in Japan.  With Shogun Angron, of course. 

Corax with muscle, and a detached disdain and insightfullness towards the virtues (or lack of) of the Emperor and his Imperium to rival the Khan's. 

 

As a fighter, not so close to the top ranks amongst his brothers as he once was, given that they can actually defend against him now. 

They can't lure him into situations where half a Legion is aiming at him while his sons fight the other half, either :p Not as easily, at least

 

Also, his strength must be around the same, and with a planet so centered around war, I'd say he'd get proper training. He'd be almost as good a fighter and a much better commander, for sure.

I always think of Angron's speech about how just because he thinks the Emperor is a murderous tyrannical monster, that doesn't mean he isn't loyal. He kills whomever the murderous tyrannical monster wants dead, and he enjoys killing them too; he's just under no illusions about who he serves.

 

It's bitter, but it's also insightful, and while the Nails amp up his enjoyment of killing, I don't know that the speech seems quite Nails-motivated. It's impossible to know whether he would have come around to that same point of view about the Emperor's monstrosity or not without the Nails.

I always think of Angron's speech about how just because he thinks the Emperor is a murderous tyrannical monster, that doesn't mean he isn't loyal. He kills whomever the murderous tyrannical monster wants dead, and he enjoys killing them too; he's just under no illusions about who he serves.

 

It's bitter, but it's also insightful, and while the Nails amp up his enjoyment of killing, I don't know that the speech seems quite Nails-motivated. It's impossible to know whether he would have come around to that same point of view about the Emperor's monstrosity or not without the Nails.

 

I was thinking that myself. If he did conquer the planet in a slave uprising, there would be no reason for the Emperor to snatch him, so no reason for him to hate the Emperor. Although, given his upbringing and his view of the highriders, he may still see the Emp as a tyrant. I see non-Nails Angron as a lot like Corax, backstory wise, and I think they would be the closest brothers. Corax doesn't make any comparison between the Emperor and his slave-masters, so maybe Angron wouldn't either.

 

Saying that the Khan doesn't really have a positive view of the Emperor, and he's loyal, was in full command of his homeworld and was never a slave either, so who knows really.

Without the Nails, Angron would have become a refined and sensitive philosopher poet, always with a flower in his lapel, and an abhorrence of crude violence. His eloquence and empathy would have made him the imperium's greatest diplomat, renowned for bringing whole worlds into peaceful compliance. ;)

 

Seriously, how can we even speculate about his character without the nails? Maybe by looking at the War Hound's pre Angron disposition, if that...

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