Why is Lucius even there?

[Sanct]

No one makes the perfect choice (hurr hurr) so lots of mistakes could have been made but they aren't known to us.  Especially since Fulgrim and quite a few others are on a downward spiral at this point and lots of decisions aren't making sense.  

Like the failure to support Dementer.  Why try to indirectly kill him and his company when you're sending thousands of others into a deathtrap later.

 

 

"Send those we cannot trust. Oh, and the utter douches"

 

That was Lorgar's reason for Calth.  His strategic abilities are revered.

[Hyaenidae]

Lucius was a sublime swordsman but he had enemies in the III Legion. Remember that the III Legion force sent to Isstvan III was led by Eidolon, not Fulgrim himself. 

 

Eidolon disliked (and/or was jealous of) Lucius. There was also the matter of Lucius's friendship with Tarvitz. As far as Eidolon was concerned, it was one stone, two birds. 

 

 

Bit of a res, but I'm listening to the Fulgrim audio book right now and came across this bit:

 

[following the Emperor's Children's assault on DS191, which takes place after Fulgrim has secretly joined Horus]

 

'My lord,' pressed Vespasian, 'why were captains Vairosean and Kaesoron held back from supporting Captain Demeter? But for the intervention of Tarvitz and Lucius, Solomon's men would be dead.'

 

'Tarvitz and Lucius saved Captain Demeter?' asked Fulgrim, and Vespasian was shocked to see a hint of annoyance surface on Fulgrim's face. 'How...courageous of them.'

 

This was probably another factor in Lucius being sent to die on Isstvan III: he had angered Fulgrim and inadvertently sided himself with those too staunchly loyal to be swayed into rebellion.

 

These are probably as solid an answer we're gonna get for the OP's question. At the end of the day, though, one must ask what kind of rational decisions a Legion of debased psychopaths who worship a god of sex, drugs, and loud ass music, would be expected to make. I'm impressed that Eidolon remembered to not send his Dad down to Istvaan on accident.

 

There's a price to pay when you side with madness for quick power.

 

Why do people assume Graham McNeil actually thinks this out? His books are littered with inconsistencies so much (The Outcast Dead and Vengeful Spirit notably) that they release another book to answer those questions (often unsatisfactorily).

 

Sadly, this is irrelevant, as it still is canon (if loose). It's up to us, the fans, to make sense of it and work with (or around) it, based on a common-sense approach; the Occam's Razor of 30k.

 

The III Legion is no longer sane. So, one cannot expect sane decisions or actions from them. 

[Hesh Kadesh]

[ 

 

Why do people assume Graham McNeil actually thinks this out? His books are littered with inconsistencies so much (The Outcast Dead and Vengeful Spirit notably) that they release another book to answer those questions (often unsatisfactorily).

 

 

Sadly, this is irrelevant, as it still is canon (if loose). It's up to us, the fans, to make sense of it and work with (or around) it, based on a common-sense approach; the Occam's Razor of 30k.

 

The III Legion is no longer sane. So, one cannot expect sane decisions or actions from them.

Canon is precisely what we choose. Or else backflipping Terminators and Grey Knights being mind controlled by Genestealers are 'canon'. As are differences in power between Primarchs being able to kill Titans by shouting at them to some being unable to kill more than a single space wolf. So yes, metaknowledge is relevant as much as it had been if Smaug had been present at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields being ridden by Ringwraith Ninjas.

[Fire Golem]

 

[

Why do people assume Graham McNeil actually thinks this out? His books are littered with inconsistencies so much (The Outcast Dead and Vengeful Spirit notably) that they release another book to answer those questions (often unsatisfactorily).

Sadly, this is irrelevant, as it still is canon (if loose). It's up to us, the fans, to make sense of it and work with (or around) it, based on a common-sense approach; the Occam's Razor of 30k.

 

The III Legion is no longer sane. So, one cannot expect sane decisions or actions from them.

Canon is precisely what we choose. Or else backflipping Terminators and Grey Knights being mind controlled by Genestealers are 'canon'. As are differences in power between Primarchs being able to kill Titans by shouting at them to some being unable to kill more than a single space wolf. So yes, metaknowledge is relevant as much as it had been if Smaug had been present at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields being ridden by Ringwraith Ninjas.

Well, no, those things are canon. You don't get to choose what is and isn't canon, you get to choose what you accept in your personal canon. All those things are in novels by Black Library and therefore as far as GW are concerned, are canon. The thing about Smaug blatantly isn't canon because it never happened.

 

Now I'm not saying those things make sense or are good writing but what they are, is canon.

[helterskelter]

We have to accept much will change or be "revealed" such is the nature of progress. Such as in Angel Exterminatus Lucius

getting back up from death all by himself, assuming he now just gets resurrected if the killer takes no pride

[Hesh Kadesh]

Actually, the God-Emperor once told me that the best way to look at it was this: 40K fiction is not an interpretation of the game universe, the game universe being the ‘true’ or ‘definitive’ one; 40K fiction and the game are BOTH interpretations of a definitive universe unavailable to us. It took a long LONG time get 40K fiction properly rolling. Once every one agreed on the working model explained above, everything started to... oh, that’s an analogy I don’t want to finish writing.

tL;DR. Pick and choosing canon is the status quo of the hobby universe. Authors (or at least Abnett, plus ADB having the conversation) write with this in kind at least.

[Augustus]

I figured that since he died his soul now belongs to Slanesh thereby allowing he/she/* to do whatever he/she/* wills.