Wulfen in Horus Heresy

[gmaleron]

Hey guys its been a little while but I am starting to get rumblings for Horus Heresy again, in particular actually running a Legion! Now I had never looked at the Space Wolves and I have a question regarding them and one that I hope will generate discussion on the topic or idea of them:

 

-Where Wulfen around during the Horus Heresy?

 

-What are the chances that they will be a Special Unit when the Space Wolf Legion is actually released?

 

I only ask because I think it would be so amazing and awesome, and unlike any army I have done before to run an army of Werewolf Space Marines! Thanks for the replies!

[Dantay VI]

Yes wulfen were around during the Horus Heresy and were put into their own great company.

 

Hence the 13th company from the old Codex: Eye of terror and also the Old Ragnar Blackmane series of books after Bill King stpped doing them and Lee Lightner took over. I believe in the last book 2 books Ragnar goes into a shadow dimesion and meets Bulveye, the 13th company commander and an ancient rune priest. During the story, Madox, Ragnars T-Son arch enemy is trying to curse all the SpaceWolves to become Wulfen and open a portal to allow Magnus back into the physical universe.

 

The Rune Priest uses the old psychic power "the gate" to deliver Ragnar back to the real universe at the end. So yes Wufen were around.

 

As to whether they get their own units, who knows... Maybe the stress and all the warp shenanigans on Prospero caused a few to relinquish control to the wolf within... or maybe they won't and wulfen will remain one of the imperiums worst kept secrets..

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Forgeworld seems to be pushing legion-specific units as much as possible - if they're making special units and models for ideas so general as "a bunch of guys with flamers" or "World Eaters terminators, except angrier", I would be very surprised if the Wulfen don't get their place in the Legion's rules.

[mactire]

I hope not. The mark of the wulfen is either a curse or a blessing of the geneseed, depending on your point of view. If a marine cannot control the wulfen it leads to uncontrollable fury and then degeneration of his form, ultimately becoming a total feral state (there are no wolves on fenris). In the current fluff only Bran Redmaw is capable of pulling himself back from the brink, so a unit of these wulfen would be more akin to the BA death company and really only be of use as ablative wounds, which we have fen wolves for, which in my opinion are what the cursed have become. So in my theory there's your wulfen unit.

[Atia]

yep, the 13th was the "Wulfen Company". There are also Wulfen in the new Audio Drama Raptor ;)

[Leif Bearclaw]

I hope not. The mark of the wulfen is either a curse or a blessing of the geneseed, depending on your point of view. If a marine cannot control the wulfen it leads to uncontrollable fury and then degeneration of his form, ultimately becoming a total feral state (there are no wolves on fenris). In the current fluff only Bran Redmaw is capable of pulling himself back from the brink, so a unit of these wulfen would be more akin to the BA death company and really only be of use as ablative wounds, which we have fen wolves for, which in my opinion are what the cursed have become. So in my theory there's your wulfen unit.

Couple of things to bear in mind. Firstly, the old EoT 'Wulfen' aren't exactly the same as Bran (they stayed Marine size, retained their armour etc.), and I'd expect a FW Wulfen unit to follow that pattern. But, another interpretation, Bran's fluff says how the other Lords were worried about his ascension, but it ultimately boiled down to Bjorn saying it was OK, because Marines like Bran weren't unprecedented. Then we consider the nature of 30k, it's the time of legend, when gods strode the galaxy and everything was bigger and better than what survived the 10,000 year Age of the Imperium. Who's to say that Marines like Bran weren't far more common in the lost age, when the gene-seed was better understood, the ultimate Alpha still led the Rout, men were real mean and mutant werewolf monsters were real mutant werewolf monsters.

A bit more for the OP, the Wulfen are specifically mentioned in PB during the attack on Propspero, where the 13th breaks the Son's lines after the Wolves initial assault is stalled by all the psychic shenanigans. So0 they're most certainly there, and I'd be extremely surprised if we don't get some form of Wulfen unit (assuming they ever actually release Inferno ).

[Dantay VI]

Bran is far from the only Space Wolf to come back from going Wulfen.

 

Again referring back to the Space Wolf series of books, a wolf aboard a Space Hulk in the prelude section of the last novel succumbs and to the wulfen and then reverts back in front of Ragnar... In BAttle of the Fang Helfist starts to give in to the wulfen after losing his pack leader, but Tromm Rossek brings him back for a time before finally submitting totally to the Wolf within and going down in a blaze of glory.

 

The WOlf Lords were not afraid of Bran being marked by the wulfen, more the fact he would be taking command of a great company and being the upfront representative of them all. If he was seen in his wulfen guise it could spell the doom for the chapter. Until Bjorn sanctioned his rise to Wolf Lord that is, however Logan has Bran monitored. (IA11).

[Conn Eremon]

The most recent Collected Visions book put it that the Wulfen curse was suffered by Terran and Fenrisian Legionaries alike.