Angels of Caliban (Spoilers)

[Roomsky]

Thanks for the spoilers, it at the very least looks more interesting than "Lion v Curze round 4" would suggest.

 

In your opinion OP, how does it compare to Deliverance Lost? (personal unfavorite)

[Robbienw]

No more Firewing info other than Griffayn.  

 

Hasy, Belath has just over 30 warriors, thereabouts.  1 marine to command each transport ship, and his command group.

 

Roomsky, I much preferred this to Deliverance lost.  I liked Gav's characterisation of the Lion.  I thought the Caliban sections might drag, but they were great.

 

As for Curze wanting to die, he does.  But he will not make this easy or throw himself on a blade, not for the Lion at least.  He fought the Lion to his fullest ability, and was most definitely trying to kill him.

[Robbienw]

Ok, I'm finished, yay!

 

 

Caliban. Zahariels actions in the grand hall have caused chaos. The cups indicating possible allegiance have been knocked over. Luther is horrified, he didn't want it to come to this. Griffayn has attacked Asmodeus, Asmodeus is protecting himself with a psy shield. Zahariel heads into the melee and kills a loyalist. The Lord Cypher takes a deliberate shot at Zahariel. One of the other mystai takes the shot for Zahariel, a plasma blast to the face.

Cypher runs from the hall, Zahariel and the mystai pursue. Cypher kills one of them. Then Watchers in the Dark appear. Zahariel is confused, he believes they serve the soul of Caliban the Ourbourus. They do not. They explain it is not the soul of Caliban, it is a prisoner of Caliban, it is an invader. Zahariel doesn't believe them. Cypher and Zahariel fight. Zahariel works out the true purpose of the order was to fight on the watchers behalf, to contain the Ourbourus.

Cypher tries to kill Zahariel, but Zahariel is too powerful with the power of the Ourbourus and the support of the mystai. He forces the Watchers to withdraw with the power of the Ourbourus. He neutralises Cypher and removes his helm. He recognises Cyphers face. Cypher warns Zahariel he knows nothing of the price of Chaos. Zahariel kills Cypher.

Ultramar. Curzes trial. Many marines of all legions and citizens of macragge have come to watch. Sanguinius and Guilliman converse on the rights and wrongs of actually having a trial for Curze. The Lion brings Curze into the arena. Curze concedes all of the accusations against him are true, but refuses to accept responsibility for them, as he says he was made by the emperor to behave this way. He sees Azkaellon in the stands and taunts him.

Curze is his usual self, highly manipulative. He reveals the nature of the lions attack on the Illyrium mountains. Guilliman is furious, sanguinius too although he doesn't show it. The lion argues he was right, but Guilliman and sanguinius won't have it. The lion considers beheading Curze there and then, but does not in the face of sanguinius's disapproval. Guilliman takes the lions sword (the actual Lions Sword no less) and breaks it in two. He takes Curze away, back to his cell. Sanguinius says the triumvirate between the 3 primarchs is broken and orders the Lion and the Dark Angel to leave Imperium Secundus!!! Bit of a golly gee moment there, that escalated quickly!!! Still he has been pushing sanguinius and Guilliman to the limits of their comfort zones, Guilliman in particular since unrembered empire.

Caliban, onboard Belaths battle barge the Spear of Truth. It was Astelans old battle barge before it was taken away by the lion. Astelan is talking with Galedan, saying he could go anywhere away from Caliban now.

The ship is locked onto by orbital defences. Luther comes through on visual. Astelans taking of he ships had not been authorised by Luther. 18 loyalist marines were killed in the grand hall incident, Luther blames Astelan. Astelan says he did it to see if Luther really was prepared to fight against the dark Angels. They threaten each other. They reach an understanding, Astelan will do the dirty work for Luther. Astelan and Luther agree having Caliban is not enough and they must expand their base of power. Luther has decided the first star system they will take.
Ultramar. The Dark Angels withdraw from macragge civitas in their ships. Holguin
is bade farewell amicably by Drakus Gorod and Azkaellon. The deathwing are the last to leave.

The Dark Angels fleet makes for the system mandeville point. The Lion considers events in his quarters. A single Watcher in The Dark appears, he speaks to it briefly. He resolves to head for Caliban.

Caliban. Luther talks to an assembly of 15,000 marines, his words broadcast to the others to the others in orbit. Astelan and Griffayn stand with him. Some oratory follows. He states neither the emperor or Horus is their master. At the end of he speech Zahariel is made the new Lord Cypher!!

Ultramar, in tuchulchas chamber on the invincible reason. The lion is pondering if he should have gone back to Caliban with Luther and co after the Zaramund incident. Holguin, Redloss, Myrdun, Stenius and Lady Fiana arrive. Holguin has the still broken lion sword (is gav setting up another future Cypher here perhaps?!??)

He tells them they are returning to Caliban. He explains his plan to return and reunite with Corswain and the rest of the legion, then return to Caliban and fortify it. They will continue the campaign against Horus from there, from a position of strength (remember at this point he still thinks the emperor is dead).

He orders Tuchulcha to move them through the ruinstorm, when the fleet reaches the mandeville point, so it looks like a normal warp jump. He does not want Guilliman to know about Tuchulcha. Holguin says somethings about Curze, and the Lion has a moment of realisation. He orders Tuchulcha to teleport himself and Holguin into sanguinius's chambers immediately.
Ultramar. Sanguinius has dissolved the trial and has declared Curze a traitor. Guilliman and sanguinius are about to execute Curze. Guilliman vacilitates. Sanguinius moves forward to do it with his bare hands, taking on an angelic aspect as he does. Curze is starting to think his vision was wrong and if angry and confused.

Suddenly the Lion and Holguin teleport in. Both of them are agony from the translation. The Lion pleads with them not to kill Curze (as Curze said he would earlier in the book).

Space marine guards pour into the hall. The tell the Lion and Holguin to drop their weapons. Guilliman demands an explanation.

The lion tells them they have made a mistake, Curze must not die here. He tells them of curzes prediction where he saw his blade being broken and the lion begging for curzes life to be spared. Proof his visions are real.

Curze has seen that an assassin, sent by the emperor, would end his life. The emperor cannot dispatch an assassin if he is dead. The Lion says that if Curze is telling the truth, then the emperor is alive. They reason if Curze was destined to survive now as part of it, they must not kill him. Sanguinius realises his vision of dying at Horuses hands is probably true also.

The Lion knows he will have to stay at macragge with his marines, whilst a way is found to breach the ruinstorm for all of them (presumably he still doesn't want to reveal the existence of Tuchulcha to the others). He cannot go to Caliban yet, despite the Watchers warning that something was happening there.
The lion kneels and asks Guilliman and sanguinius for forgiveness. He pledges that he will be Curzes keeper.

Guillimans face is ashen, sanguinius expression is dark as they look at each. Guilliman says 'But if the Emperor still lives...' and the consider the implications of what he has done (staying in macragge building imperium secundus rather than trying to dispel or get through the ruinstorm to reinforce dad!).

They are silent for a moment. Then Curze does a Saturday morning cartoon villain laugh.

The Epilogue, 012 M31. The Terminus Est arrives in a system. It is badly damaged, very shot up. More Death Guard vessels, of typhons Grave Wardens, follow over the next few days. They are badly damaged as well. Typhon is exhausted. The damage has been done over the past year, they have been attacked relentlessly by Corswain and his Dark Angels.

They scan the system, there has been a large battle here recently, there are many wrecked ships. They are being watched by system monitors.

They detect a a battle barge, a first legion ship. They believe it is Corswains forces. They receive an incoming hail. It's Luther.

'Welcome back to Zaramund, old friend' says Luther.

The end!

In Gavs afterword he confirms that all of the historical and organisational information on the Dark Angels legion, from being the prototype marines in the unification wars to the current organisation, is directly from Alan Bligh of Forgeworld. Gav states there are a few more stories and interesting events before the dark Angels 30k story is complete. He also states Imperium Secundus is pretty much over and done, and they are poised on the next great leap of the heresy.

I'm itching to find out more! Personally, as a massive DA fan, I thought this book was great. Other heresy fans may find the Caliban parts boring, but this novel does move the story on, and signals the finish of imperium secundus.

I'm fully expecting in the next book with Guilliman, Sanguinius and the Lion, whenever that will be, to see them finding the way a way to break the ruinstorm, and by the end see them heading back out to fight Horuses forces.
I also want to know if Holguin will end up becoming the next Cypher, what with him having the broken sword! He is keeping it to be fixed when he gets the opportunity, so it could be reforged by the time of the Caliban fight, so could be a red herring.

Also Farith Redloss rules. Did I mention he took out a world eaters dreadnaught with his axe? It was a Leviathan dreadnaught as well!

 

[Guest]

Corswain *swoon* :) 

 

He needs a figure... Badly.

[Robbienw]

Yes he does!  As does Redloss.

[Fire Golem]

Ooh that end sounds pretty good. And I guess we know where Typhon has been now. And yeah I can't wait to see the model for Corswain. And the rules (Alan Bligh was once asked how hard it was making the rules for the best Astartes swordsman, regarding Sigismund, and apparently he replied 'we haven't written rules for Corswain yet').

[Allart01]

 

Damn, what drama queens Sanguinius and Guilliman are.
The Lion brought Curze to them, after all, to decide together what to do.

He could have acted on his own right, and he did not.

 

[depthcharge12]

Redloss confirmed OP :P

[deathspectersgt7]

I may have to break my oath not to read another 30k story.

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

I'm resisting the need to build a Dreadwing army, but warp-rift Glaive... gravRaider... phosphex everything...

We can just pray that FW will give us some rules for that too

Failing that, we have IHF, who is a great substitute for patience (I don't want to wait at least a year for Angels fluff!)

Damn it, if the I^st Legion gets a Glaive, there's no way in hell the X^th don't get one with a Graviton Surge Projector

I am interested in the precedent for Legion specific vehicles - although we've had the RG Darkwing, I've always avoided Legion specific tanks and such, but one or two unique variants could be cool

[HaSY]

 

Zahariel recognises Cypher. Who is him? Thought can see more of Corswain here but he gets exciting off screen mentions

Thanks Robbienw for such finishing and letting us know! You are awesome! Cant wait to expedite my shipping when the book is available.

[Kelborn]

Oh man.

 

What a plot. Really enjoyed it, thank you!

 

Though

Zahariel becomes the new Cypher

makes sense and would explain his behavior in 40k.

But then again what and how does the one Cypher of Warzone Pandorax fit in?

Excited to see how it will continue. :D

[b1soul]

As for Curze wanting to die, he does.  But he will not make this easy or throw himself on a blade, not for the Lion at least.  He fought the Lion to his fullest ability, and was most definitely trying to kill him.

This is exactly what I'm saying

 

Yes...Curze is a madman with mood swings

 

He has a bleak outlook and attaches almost zero joy to his continued existence...but when he's hopped up on Primarch adrenaline and engaging a brother in combat, he is trying to slaughter his opponent.

 

Nothing I've read indicates that Curze fights half-heartedly when he actually fights.

 

He may bare his neck to Sanguinius after the two disengage...but just before that he's slashing at Sanguinius with vicious intent

 

He's insane and unpredictable.

[Augustus]

Agreed. Also the Lion was raised on fighting warp beasts with nothing but his willy primarch abilities. If any primarch could go into literal beast mode and fight Curze it would be him. Curze bested the Lion in Savage weapons perhaps because the Lion was still holding on to his veneer of civility. But he could drop that and fight Curze in "beast" mode lol.

[b1soul]

Curze bested the Lion in Savage weapons perhaps because the Lion was still holding on to his veneer of civility. But he could drop that and fight Curze in "beast" mode lol.

According to ADB, Savage Weapons was a draw. There was an interesting debate over this back in 2011

 

 

 

 

I would say yeah, there's always a chance the Lion might've saved himself, who knows, but that chance looked very slim

 

I would say Lion's best chance of winning that fight were

1) instead of stabbing Curze in the stomach, he should've just killed him outright with his surprise attack...if you're gonna fight dirty you might as well kill your enemy

and 2) not taking Curze lightly while exchanging blows in the beginning

but he blew all his advantages and ended up being choked out like a bi tch and probably only survived because one of his marines stepped in

ADB:

You guys can take things so literally sometimes, and indulge in the craziest flights of fancy elsewhere.

 

Sure, when the fight was broken up, the Lion was on the losing side. But how many squillions of fights between heroes/characters/protagonists/villains have we seen where the guy on the losing side has a second wind (cracking a rock against the head of the guy strangling him) and turns the tide a moment later. It happens all the time. These are warriors that can fight for days and days. Yet another mortal wound is nothing to them.

 

The Lion won a little bit.

Then Curze won a little bit.

A Dark Angel intervenes and gets slapped away.

It ends as a draw several minutes later.

 

Anyone saying it was a definite thing is miles out of whack. It was specifically a draw at the start of their war. In fact, all we know about the two primarchs meeting up again in the rest of the Heresy is that at some point, the Lion slits Curze's throat and Curze gets a serious scar from it (mentioned in Blood Reaver).

 

I was wondering, several readers (including myself) compared the fight to something more akin to a scrap between brothers, especially at the end when they are being held back and are shouting at each other. Is this how you wished to portray their feud or was it meant to be taken as a literal fight similar to Ferrus and Fulgrim or Corax and Lorgar?

 

ADB:

Bingo.

 

I thought it was an interesting dynamic, and sets up the real duel between them to come.

I really liked your story (best story of the lot IMO) and I'm actually a Lion fan

 

but IN MY HUMBLE OPINION, given the way the fight was described, it appeared to me that the Lion clearly lost and would have died had it not been for Corswain's intervention

 

I say this because you wrote "[Corswain] could focus on nothing but the Lion lying in the dirt, his slack neck in a heretic’s grip"

whereas earlier Curze was at a disadvantage, "slack neck" implies to me that the Lion was unconscious and truly at the mercy of Curze

and after Corswain intervened it took the Lion quite a while to get back into the fight

 

I don't think I'm indulging in wishful thinking because I don't wish that Curze dominated the Lion, I would rather it was the other way around because I'm actually biased in favour of the Lion

 

Curze was stabbed through the spine. And was OK afterwards. With that context in mind, some choking and a few bashings of the cranium against the ground will probably not kill a Primarch.

yes, but why was the Lion's neck "slack" then?

"slack" sounds like the Lion had gone limp...just pointing it out

ADB:

Someone going limp for a second is hardly The End. We don't know what would've happened, because it was interrupted, but all the people saying it takes a lot to kill a primarch are on the right track.

 

Considering the fight carried on for several minutes afterwards, it's very obviously not the end, and it ended in a draw. But even before that, it's madness to take things beyond literally, to the point of scouring word by word for some nuance of truth. It is what it is, and add your own knowledge to it. What's to say the Lion wouldn't have had a surge of energy (like, well, in every single similar fight between main characters in any novel and movie) and hurled Curze off, or rammed a dagger into the guy's armour joints? Doesn't that seem much more obvious than "The word 'slack' means the Lion was a dead man"?

 

The fight wasn't finished. It was interrupted. That's the freaking point. It's about doubt. It began with the Lion winning, and was interrupted as Curze was winning. There's no more to it than that.

 

Seriously, these WHO BEATS WHO threads are the bane of creativity and sanity.

 

The answer is never "Whoever the author likes best" or "X, because he's better."

 

The answer is always "Whoever gets the upper hand because of circumstance."

 

And in this case, it was both of them, at different moments. The real fight between them is obviously yet to come - and all we know about that is that the Lion manages to slit Curze's throat.

ADB:

We already know the Lion slits Curze's throat later in the Heresy. And that also assumes that "all the Dark Angel players out there" need "placating". I've seen less than 10 people online say the Lion was 100% going down and Curze dominated him in that fight. I've seen and talked to hundreds that didn't take that view. It's dangerous to assume a forum opinion is anything more than the tiniest minority.

 

 

 

It's a victory in the sense it ends when Curze is on top, definitely. I'd never dispute that. But I still, after not only writing it, but re-reading it 800 times, and speaking to countless people about it - fail to see how it's supposedly definitive. To say the Lion was absolutely screwed requires doing more than reading the thing, it requires assuming that in this one fight, a primarch is suddenly not as capable of shrugging off injury as in every other fight we've seen them, and a few minutes of being smacked around were enough to end him completely, rather than leave him battered and dazed at his lowest ebb in the battle. Why anyone would assume that was The End, rather than the moment before he gets his second wind or taps into a reserve of strength (like in, well, every single protagonist fight in movies and books) is beyond me. I'm not sure why that's so hard to imagine, especially when coupled with what we know of primarchs. In fact, ignoring that and saying "Gosh, the Lion is screwed" sort of requires some immense leaps of logic not offered in the text.

 

It also requires a devotion to the word "slack" rather than taking the bigger picture and adding it to established primarch lore, and assuming things way beyond the text presented. He was messed up for a little bit, sure. That was the point. He got breathing room when one of his Legion was smart and brave enough to interfere. I'm sure three minutes after it, if the fight hadn't been interrupted, Curze would have needed breathing room - only his men wouldn't have chosen to aid him.

 

People are entitled to their opinions, without a doubt. But let's just say I'm not losing sleep over a tiny handful of people online insisting it reads as X, when everything else, and every other opinion, points to Y.

 

Aaron, could you please explain why the Lion does not do anything while Curze is trying to dislodge Corswain?

The explanation that popped up in my head was that the Lion was down and out, and needed time to recover.

I'm not trying to be a smart aleck, it's a legitimate question.

 

ADB:

your question makes no sense. The answer is obvious. "Aaron, could you please explain why the Lion does not do anything while Curze is trying to dislodge Corswain?"

 

He does do something. He stands up immediately, and advances on Curze after retrieving his blade. It's there in the text, as plain as day. How is that "doing nothing"?

 

Curze gets stabbed. He rises and flails to get Corswain off. He does so. It doesn't take long. The Lion is up, recovers his sword, and advances immediately.

 

How is that someone completely down and out for good?

ADB:

Y'know, I've just realised - after all that - what a few of you are talking about.

 

Suddenly it makes so much more sense.

 

Will edit this reply in a few; need to pick up Katie from work.

 

EDIT:

 

Righto.

 

I've been just as guilty as over-analysing and being declarative as anyone else, which is weird, since my writing is always so carefully played out to show absolute neutrality. I never prefer Faction X to Faction Y, and I never suggest otherwise in my writing. It's a common criticism for a lot of writers, however.

 

If you look at The First Heretic, some people say Guilliman was being a smarmy bastard, other people say Lorgar was imagining it, and was deluded. That's the point. It's an objective look that shows the scene from no one's personal perspective, but it shows exactly what everyone believes, without being from their point of view. That's crucial, in my opinion, for a scene like that. It was a conscious choice, and quite hard to right, but I'm glad it worked well.

 

Savage Weapons isn't like that, because we're seeing it from Corswain's perspective. It's not an objective look on Everything That Happened; it's a series of slices of one character making out what details he can. That's why so much of the fight goes isn't there - because Corswain can't see it happening. Does Corswain think the Lion is going to go down for good? Yeah, probably. Is that objectively the truth? No, of course not. Not from everything we know, not from the fact we see it end perfectly 50/50 minutes later. Your focus determines your reality. He sees it, and that's described well, but most people reading it are aware it's a Dark Angel perspective.

 

As a writer, I ultimate chose that I wanted the Dark Angels to win the Thramas Crusade, and I wanted the Lion to slit Curze's throat, effectively being one of the few primarchs to legitimately beat another. And it was a conscious choice with Savage Weapons to show:

 

- The Dark Angels care about their primarch more than the Night Lords care about theirs.

- The Dark Angels are smart enough to try to tip the odds of an otherwise balanced fight, while the Night Lords get distracted with bloodshed or are too arrogant to care.

- The Lion was better than Curze with weapons, but Curze was better in a feral rough and tumble brawl.

- Curze is Chaos-tainted already, and had an advantage, but it still ends at 50/50. This implies the Lion is "better", for want of a better word.

- The fight ebbs and flows, with the advantage changing places. Had it gone on for longer, it probably would've swapped back.

 

The last one is the debate, natch. Now, objectively, we should know that primarchs can take a beating; that the Lion is up immediately afterwards; that it ends 50/50 a moment later; that we're seeing it through Corswain's limited, biased, worried eyes; and that the Lion takes a serious beating, but nothing worse than we've seen other primarchs take before, and manage a last-second recovery.

 

But the debate here, as from Corswain's perspective, I'd say you're right - absolutely, he thought the Lion was screwed. It definitely looked like that to him.

 

Objectively? No. It's clearly a story from his perspective. Very clearly. It's intensely subjective, and with all we know about the primarchs, we can see his bias clearly.

 

The problem arises when people take these versus threads and over-analyse them, seeing every morsel of information as solid fact, rather than biased perspective. Some stories are objective, written from an outsider's view. They're built by details of what's actually happening. Some are subjective, written from a character's point of view. They're built from examples of how a character perceives the events taking place. The danger is in taking that as solid objective fact. What Corswain saw was coloured by his worry and loyalty - thankfully, the objective facts (the Lion leaps up and goes for his sword right after, etc.) show that he was biased.

 

But it's an easy mistake to make. In this fandom, where people are precious and hungry for every comparative fact, it's easy to assume that every source is unbiased. Which is a shame, really. It lessens the impact of some great writing, in a lot of cases, when people are so hungry for information that they miss the point a little.

 

So, what do we know for sure, objectively? We know the Lion wasn't as injured as Corswain thought, as he gets right back up and goes for his sword. That's right there in the text. Do we know for sure if the Lion would have survived without the aid? No, of course we don't. We can infer it, we can guess it, and it's likely from everything we know of the primarchs (...and the fact the author secretly had already decided the Dark Angels were going to win the Thramas Crusade... Ahem...) but ultimately none of that matters. Either way, it's a guess. There's no evidence, but for a biased, panicked bystander.

 

That's where the misunderstanding is arising from. Corswain is a subjective narrator. You're taking his assumptions and perceptions as canon for how powerful a primarch is, and the ultimate end of a fight. We never saw that fight end, so we don't know. We can't know. From Cor's POV in the story, yeah, absolutely, he thought the Lion was down for the count.

 

Fortunately, later actions show he was wrong. That's the true part, the unbiased, objective part. That's how you balance a subjective bias, and show the other side: you show how the character is wrong, or another way of looking at it.

 

[Augustus]

Yeah. I remember that cluster-fart. I'm on the side of her won but that it was perfectly OK.

 

More neutral: Curze seized the upper hand by reverting to a more primal fighting technique which the Lion is also more than capable of employing. :D

[Marshal Rohr]

Did they happen to mention what year it was when the IS ended?

[Robbienw]

HaSY:  

 

 

Unfortunately we don't get to find out who the previous Cypher is, just that Zahariel knows him.

 

[Robbienw]

Marshal Rohr:

 

 

I think it ends in 011 M31. Its not directly stated at the end, but it started in 011 M31, and the story takes place over a short period of around 30 to 40 days.

The epilogue part with typhon is in 012 M31.

 

[Robbienw]

A few minor details i forgot to include:

 

 

There is a special Deathwing unit called the Secta Mortis. There are 30 of them with Holguin when he goes into Macragge Civitas. No specific details are given on them other than that. Presumably they are terminators like the rest of the Deathwing.

The Dark Angels have less Mechanicum personnel than other Legions. This is because they were fully formed as a fighting force before the Emperors alliance with Mars, and their support structure was made up of the emperors terran technicians, and this has continued through the centuries of the crusade. They do have some mechanism personnel, but noticeably fewer then the other legions.

The warp weapon technology the Dark Angels possess is specifically stated to be of Terran design, not martian.

 

[b1soul]

Yeah. I remember that cluster-fart. I'm on the side of her won but that it was perfectly OK.

More neutral: Curze seized the upper hand by reverting to a more primal fighting technique which the Lion is also more than capable of employing. :D

I always thought it was just a just a little bit odd that Curze seemed to outbrawl the Lion with such apparent ease.

 

I think it comes down to:

1. The Lion had been suppressing his savage side for a long time...and probably could not tap into that side immediately

 

2. The Lion seemed to be overconfident/arrogant when he was cutting up Curze in the beginning. He seemed to be taking Curze a bit lightly ... going on about Curze has no skill etc.

[Marshal Rohr]

Did gave go into details about the organization of the legion besides Deathwing =terminators, dread wing= destroyers kind of thing? It seems like the squads form into chapters which form into hosts, with host being the highest level of organization.

[HaSY]

HaSY:  

 

 

Unfortunately we don't get to find out who the previous Cypher is, just that Zahariel knows him.

 

Thanks for the reply!

Do you come across any internal art in the book?

 

Is Holguin in terminator armor as well?

[Taliesin]

Hi Robbie,

 

Now that you've finished it, can you answer my initial question?

 

Quick question, the 5 characters names after Zahariel, Master of Mystai, are these all supposed to be Librarians since they have no title and are mentioned alongside him?

 

Also, second question, there seem to be a fair number of Librarians in this one, is that correct? Which ones get the most airtime?

[Robbienw]

Marshal Rohr,

Yes there is a massive amount of info on the Dark Angels legion organisation in the book. Gav mentions in his authour afterword the info comes from Alan Bligh.

I have made thread in the Dark Angels section of the forum, it is titled Dark Angels 30k Organisation. It has all the info you see, check it out