Primarch Confrontations at the Siege of Terra

[b1soul]

When the HH series finally reaches the Siege, which confrontations are you looking forward to the most...not necessarily fights but I'd of course welcome a few well-written, epic throw-downs

 

Are you looking forward to unexpected revelations, perhaps even retcons?

 

Any general thoughts on how you'd like the encounters to be handled?

 

I can think of . . .

 

Horus vs. Sanguinius

 

Angron vs. Sanguinius (perhaps just a stare down but maybe they go at it)

 

Khan vs. Mortarion at the Lion's Gate (potential duel)

 

Khan vs. Fulgrim (less likely)

 

Who could Dorn face? I would like him to face Curze...but Curze has been absurdly over-used

[Marshal Loss]

Perturabo would be the obvious choice for Dorn. We've never actually seen them meet face to face before, and it could set up the big showdown to come - the Iron Cage. 

[1ncarnadine]

I think I'm more looking forward to the non-Primarch confrontations.

 

I want to know who Khârn cuts apart as he breaches the walls, and who or what puts him down in turn. And I want to know who Sigismund casts down as he curses Abaddon's name atop the battlements.

 

Otherwise, we have a lot of room. We should have Mortarion vs the Khan, that seems obvious. Would love to see Perturabo meet up with Dorn somehow, just to have a little grudge match. Even if it's slinging rocks at each other from different walls. But then we have no clue what Lorgar, Curze, Fulgrim, Angron, Omegonpharius, or Magnus get up to during the Siege. Especially that last one... I wonder how they deal with Magnus when he joins in. The Ordo Sinister? Alan Bligh used to say there were a lot of things that were "break glass in case of emergency" available to the loyalists on Terra, and that things would get crazy. It's hard to say how much of that was just in his head though, and that we'll never know about now. 

[helterskelter]

I would like Dorn vs Omegon. Genuinely don't think Curze is going to be on Terra so this is the fight I'm after. For some reason I think Omegon will be able to duke it with him, and leave Dorn on his backside before slipping away, he's not fighting for Horus, but for Alpharius, and Dorn needs to live for Humanities sake.

More a dressing down than a fight.

[foamy248]

I would like Dorn vs Omegon. Genuinely don't think Curze is going to be on Terra so this is the fight I'm after. For some reason I think Omegon will be able to duke it with him, and leave Dorn on his backside before slipping away, he's not fighting for Horus, but for Alpharius, and Dorn needs to live for Humanities sake.

More a dressing down than a fight.

Ooh, that's really good. I'd like to see the more emotional side of a primarch who is usually so scheming and taciturn. It would be a massively stark contrast if he is fighting for the vengeance/memory of his brother/only true friend. Does Dorn know about Omegon? If not, well... the look on wittle Wogal's face would be priceless. Additionally, it could be the chance to reveal more about Omegon, perhaps why there were two of them, or how he even cam into creation. It could be the chance to lift Omegon from being Alpharius' boring shadow to someone deep, interesting and unique (or as unique as a genetically identical twin can be)!

[b1soul]

Do we know for sure which Traitor Primarchs will be on Terra?

 

Horus definitely

Angron...check

Mortarion...check

Fulgrim should be debauching somewhere among the civilian population

 

Lorgar...check?

Magnus...check?

Perturabo...check?

 

Curze...unknown

Omegon...unknown

 

Correct me if I'm wrong. Sounds like one hell of a party.

 

Also...what about the time-span?

 

The Siege could last for years, yes?

[Mellow]

It started at breakfast time and was done by bedtime.

[NKCougar]

Do we know for sure which Traitor Primarchs will be on Terra?

 

Horus definitely

Angron...check

Mortarion...check

Fulgrim should be debauching somewhere among the civilian population

 

Lorgar...check?

Magnus...check?

Perturabo...check?

 

Curze...unknown

Omegon...unknown

 

Correct me if I'm wrong. Sounds like one hell of a party.

 

Also...what about the time-span?

 

The Siege could last for years, yes?

Horus, Angron, Lorgar, Magnus, Mortarion, Fulgrim, and Perturabo were definitely there. Omegon is more of an unknown quantity and Curze, I think, will be a prisoner still.

 

You'll also have Dorn, Khan, Sanguinius, and Valdor/the Sigilite on the blue team, so there will be plenty of carnage to go around. I would like to see what kind of showing those last two will put out, as they're fairly unknown factors in battle. We know they're OP, just not specific levels of OP.

[R_F_D]

The old IA article for the Luna Wolves states 55 days for the siege but that was in White Dwarf 268.

[b1soul]

55 days eh? I hope they make it longer

 

Aa for Valdor, he can't take out a primarch but he'd be an even deadlier champ-killer than Sig

[R_F_D]

55 days eh? I hope they make it longer

 

Aa for Valdor, he can't take out a primarch but he'd be an even deadlier champ-killer than Sig

 

I'm pretty sure in one of the IA articles there was a narrative of the Siege, trying to find it now.

[Indefragable]

Do we know for sure which Traitor Primarchs will be on Terra?

 

Horus definitely

Angron...check

Mortarion...check

Fulgrim should be debauching somewhere among the civilian population

 

Lorgar...check?

Magnus...check?

Perturabo...check?

 

Curze...unknown

Omegon...unknown

 

Correct me if I'm wrong. Sounds like one hell of a party.

 

Also...what about the time-span?

 

The Siege could last for years, yes?

 

The obvious ones:

Sanguinius vs Angron (fists, swords, words, arm wrestling, checkers, anyway it happens....)

Sanguinius vs Horus

Emperor vs Horus

 

Dorn vs Perturabo would be great, although I don't know if a good ol' fashioned knuckle-down would make the most sense.

If I were writing the Siege of Terra, I would have both Dorn and Pert have an abacus where they account for the math of the siege. They both know it is only a matter of time--and thus math--for any fortress to fall. And so there is juxtaposition between Perturabo watching the ____ wall fall and moving a bead along an abacus. And Dorn watches the same wall falls and turns to mark his own abacus. And then Pert sees Titans go do _____ and he moves another bead along. And Dorn.....does not. Wait...what? But why wouldn't he do the same? Oh....that's because _____ was a trap and several Titans are downed and the others forced to withdraw. Pert, unperturbed,  returns the bead he just moved back to its starting place.

 

Khan vs Magnus would feature awesomely tragic dialogue. Would they even trade blows if given the opportunity? I can imagine it being a lite version of Sanguinus vs Horus where they keep trying to turn the other. Good chance to show just how messed up Magnus has become to help ease the transition from remorseful-accidental-traitor to full blown moustache-twirler we see in M41.

 

Khan vs Fulgrim: interesting, but I kind of have a feeling that Fulgrim is going to be off doing the whole planet umm.... his own thing which starts to show the fragmentation of the Traitors, even at the height of their unity

 

Khan vs Lorgar: would be interesting. In no small part because the two of them have very little history. It would be kind of interesting to see the two of them square off based solely on hearsay and each other's reputations, rather than any sort of personal relationship.

The Warhawk. Lorgar thought. Horus always said none could match his speed. Lorgar smiled. "Well, let's see if he can outrun the warp...."

 

The Preacher. The Urizen. The Aurellian. All strange titles to the Khan. Such terms only reinforced his feeling of isolation from the rest of the Imperium. None of them mattered, however. What did matter was that so many of his brothers had looked up Lorgar as the runt of the litter. A master orator, but a poor combatant. Many a boast had been made of how he was always the easiest to defeat. Khan snarled and gripped his gun-dao tighter. That was exactly what worried him. On the steppes of Chogoris, the least dangerous-looking prey were always the poisonous ones.

 

-me spitballing

 

Khan vs Perturabo. Hmmm

 

 

Dorn vs Fulgrim: iI have trouble picturing it, which makes it ripe for exploration

 

Dorn vs Lorgar: The "most" loyal of all the primarchs vs the "least" loyal of all the primarchs. Epic dialogue about what "loyalty,"  "duty," "purpose," etc... mean.

 

Dorn vs Magnus: hmmm

Magnus: "walls will not protect you against my mind bullets!"

Dorn: "they will if they were built with hexagrammatic wards built in"

 

Sanguinius vs Mortarion: so, going to be my best to remove my own bias on this one. This would be an interesting one because we have absolutely minimal--if any--interaction between these two at all. As far as I am aware, Mort never even mentions or refers to Sanguinius ever in any of the literature or vice versa. Which of course makes it a juicy opportunity to explore. Now, putting my fanboy hat aside for a moment, especially because it seems like Mort has been a bit of a whipping boy in the series already, if this did happen, Sanguinius would have to absolutely wreck face. For the same reasons Sanguinius "has" to beat Angron if it actually comes to blows: because then it sets up his utter annihilation by Horus to have significance. The reader needs to go into the Sang vs Horus showdown thinking "man, if anyone has a shot against god-power Horus, it's Sanguinius." Otherwise Sanguinius is just a winged Olianus Pious.

 

Sanguinius vs Lorgar: I would have to think on this one, but somehoe it does not jump out at me

 

Sanguinius vs Magnus: mind bullets

 

Sanguinius vs Fulgrim: I have a sneaky feeling this will happen in Ruinstorm, but if not, then hey, it's not like Sanguinius will have another opportunity. I think this is actually unlikely because Sang will (mostly) be at the Palace itself while Fulgrim will be a few continents away [EDITED FOR PRIMETIME VIEWING].

 

I have a feeling Constantin Valdor is gonna buy it at the Siege. Maybe from Angron? It just makes sense to me that he would go down for narrative reasons. One, it shows just how devastating the Siege was (and "enough" people survive as it is....see below). Two, it would help establish just how BAMF _____ [insert character here) is.

Hidden Content

My guess would be Angron in this case because for all the hype around him, we haven't really seen Angron going to town. Constantin Valdor, Commander of the Emperor's Own, finest warrior of the finest body of warriors in the Imperium, he of 40,000 names, Conqueror of--oh. He's dead. Daemon Prince Angron chopped him in half. Yea, that would do the trick. Sorry to all the Valdor fans

Third, it would help show how the Imperium declines after SoT. Without his right-hand man and most trusted advisors (Valdor, Malcador), we start to see how the Emperor's will is interpreted rather than embodied moving forward.

 

The biggest wildcard will be Horus himself. I think we all have the mental image of him coordinating the entire battle from orbit. But if anything has been shown time and time again in the HH series, it's that Horus is a lead-from-the-front kind of dude. So it only makes sense that he would be in the thick of it (especially with all his new powers?). But then why would he need to drop his shields to lure Big E out? A great-unanswered question that should be one of the most fun parts to explore when the books come out.

Theory: the power of the chaos gods have changed Horus more than anyone knows. Rather than be at the head of his armies like he is best known to do, he instead is content to let others do his dirty work and sit back in his realm command throne, detached from what's happening in reality. To become a god....

 

As for non-Primarchs, we know the following survive:

• Raldoran (BA)
• Azkaellon (BA)
• Amit (BA)
• Sigimund (IF)
• Khârn (WE)
• Lucius (EC)

[NKCougar]

<p>

 

 

Do we know for sure which Traitor Primarchs will be on Terra?

 

Horus definitely

Angron...check

Mortarion...check

Fulgrim should be debauching somewhere among the civilian population

 

Lorgar...check?

Magnus...check?

Perturabo...check?

 

Curze...unknown

Omegon...unknown

 

Correct me if I'm wrong. Sounds like one hell of a party.

 

Also...what about the time-span?

 

The Siege could last for years, yes?

The obvious ones:

Sanguinius vs Angron (fists, swords, words, arm wrestling, checkers, anyway it happens....)

Sanguinius vs Horus

Emperor vs Horus

 

Dorn vs Perturabo would be great, although I don't know if a good ol' fashioned knuckle-down would make the most sense.

If I were writing the Siege of Terra, I would have both Dorn and Pert have an abacus where they account for the math of the siege. They both know it is only a matter of time--and thus math--for any fortress to fall. And so there is juxtaposition between Perturabo watching the ____ wall fall and moving a bead along an abacus. And Dorn watches the same wall falls and turns to mark his own abacus. And then Pert sees Titans go do _____ and he moves another bead along. And Dorn.....does not. Wait...what? But why wouldn't he do the same? Oh....that's because _____ was a trap and several Titans are downed and the others forced to withdraw. Pert, unperturbed, returns the bead he just moved back to its starting place.

 

Khan vs Magnus would feature awesomely tragic dialogue. Would they even trade blows if given the opportunity? I can imagine it being a lite version of Sanguinus vs Horus where they keep trying to turn the other. Good chance to show just how messed up Magnus has become to help ease the transition from remorseful-accidental-traitor to full blown moustache-twirler we see in M41.

 

Khan vs Fulgrim: interesting, but I kind of have a feeling that Fulgrim is going to be off doing the whole planet umm.... his own thing which starts to show the fragmentation of the Traitors, even at the height of their unity

 

Khan vs Lorgar: would be interesting. In no small part because the two of them have very little history. It would be kind of interesting to see the two of them square off based solely on hearsay and each other's reputations, rather than any sort of personal relationship.

The Warhawk. Lorgar thought. Horus always said none could match his speed. Lorgar smiled. "Well, let's see if he can outrun the warp...."

 

The Preacher. The Urizen. The Aurellian. All strange titles to the Khan. Such terms only reinforced his feeling of isolation from the rest of the Imperium. None of them mattered, however. What did matter was that so many of his brothers had looked up Lorgar as the runt of the litter. A master orator, but a poor combatant. Many a boast had been made of how he was always the easiest to defeat. Khan snarled and gripped his gun-dao tighter. That was exactly what worried him. On the steppes of Chogoris, the least dangerous-looking prey were always the poisonous ones.

 

-me spitballing

 

Khan vs Perturabo. Hmmm

 

 

Dorn vs Fulgrim: iI have trouble picturing it, which makes it ripe for exploration

 

Dorn vs Lorgar: The "most" loyal of all the primarchs vs the "least" loyal of all the primarchs. Epic dialogue about what "loyalty," "duty," "purpose," etc... mean.

 

Dorn vs Magnus: hmmm

Magnus: "walls will not protect you against my mind bullets!"

Dorn: "they will if they were built with hexagrammatic wards built in"

 

Sanguinius vs Mortarion: so, going to be my best to remove my own bias on this one. This would be an interesting one because we have absolutely minimal--if any--interaction between these two at all. As far as I am aware, Mort never even mentions or refers to Sanguinius ever in any of the literature or vice versa. Which of course makes it a juicy opportunity to explore. Now, putting my fanboy hat aside for a moment, especially because it seems like Mort has been a bit of a whipping boy in the series already, if this did happen, Sanguinius would have to absolutely wreck face. For the same reasons Sanguinius "has" to beat Angron if it actually comes to blows: because then it sets up his utter annihilation by Horus to have significance. The reader needs to go into the Sang vs Horus showdown thinking "man, if anyone has a shot against god-power Horus, it's Sanguinius." Otherwise Sanguinius is just a winged Olianus Pious.

 

Sanguinius vs Lorgar: I would have to think on this one, but somehoe it does not jump out at me

 

Sanguinius vs Magnus: mind bullets

 

Sanguinius vs Fulgrim: I have a sneaky feeling this will happen in Ruinstorm, but if not, then hey, it's not like Sanguinius will have another opportunity. I think this is actually unlikely because Sang will (mostly) be at the Palace itself while Fulgrim will be a few continents away [EDITED FOR PRIMETIME VIEWING].

 

I have a feeling Constantin Valdor is gonna buy it at the Siege. Maybe from Angron? It just makes sense to me that he would go down for narrative reasons. One, it shows just how devastating the Siege was (and "enough" people survive as it is....see below). Two, it would help establish just how BAMF _____ [insert character here) is.

Hidden Content

My guess would be Angron in this case because for all the hype around him, we haven't really seen Angron going to town. Constantin Valdor, Commander of the Emperor's Own, finest warrior of the finest body of warriors in the Imperium, he of 40,000 names, Conqueror of--oh. He's dead. Daemon Prince Angron chopped him in half. Yea, that would do the trick. Sorry to all the Valdor fans

Third, it would help show how the Imperium declines after SoT. Without his right-hand man and most trusted advisors (Valdor, Malcador), we start to see how the Emperor's will is interpreted rather than embodied moving forward.

 

The biggest wildcard will be Horus himself. I think we all have the mental image of him coordinating the entire battle from orbit. But if anything has been shown time and time again in the HH series, it's that Horus is a lead-from-the-front kind of dude. So it only makes sense that he would be in the thick of it (especially with all his new powers?). But then why would he need to drop his shields to lure Big E out? A great-unanswered question that should be one of the most fun parts to explore when the books come out.

Theory: the power of the chaos gods have changed Horus more than anyone knows. Rather than be at the head of his armies like he is best known to do, he instead is content to let others do his dirty work and sit back in his realm command throne, detached from what's happening in reality. To become a god....

 

As for non-Primarchs, we know the following survive:

• Raldoran (BA)
• Azkaellon (BA)
• Amit (BA)
• Sigimund (IF)
• Khârn (WE)
• Lucius (EC)

From what I understand of previous lore, Valdor survived the siege and stepped down as commander in order to personally serve the Emperor.

 

More in spoilers.

 

 

Although I wouldn't be surprised to see him bite the dust here, since there's so little information about him post siege.

 

Khan v Magnus is one I'm hoping for. Explore how Magnus' (almost complete) restoration has changed the balance between them - the best part of Magnus is Janus now. Will the Khan even choose to recognize this Magnus, or will he decide that it is no longer truly magnus?

 

Concerning Perturabo and Horus: I listed them together because I think, for at least a while, they will either be on the same ship or holding counsel together in order to best break the Palace. I'll be highly disappointed if the Rogal Dorn v Perturabo duel takes the form of an actual fight - let the masters of fortifications (and breaking them) fight on a mental and logistical level.

 

Doesn't Horus have to save his legion from Sanguinius at some point?

 

Khan v Fulgrim would be excellent. I want to see the Khagan leave Fulgrim "choking on it", that fight just has to happen after a boast like that.

 

Lorgar will be doing Lorgar things. I don't expect to see him do anything more than mow down defenders, I don't think he'll be fighting primarchs. Even with his psychic power, I could see Sanguinius or Khan clown stomping him. Watch for a sudden lore retcon with Erebus and Kor Phaeron at least attempting to betray and kill him, though I hope it doesn't happen - I want to see Lorgar receive the ultimate vindication by ascending to daemonhood.

 

Mortarion and the Khan has been set up and teased for quite a while, that confrontation is likely.

 

As for Sanguinius, fanboying aside, I still expect he'll be the star of the figurative show. He has been built up for the entire series as the only one who could stand on equal ground with Horus. Lorgar himself even says that Angron is the only one (aside from Horus) of the primarchs that would stand a chance against an enraged Sangypoo. Based off old lore, in the Siege he doesn't actually go toe-to-toe with Angron, just stares him down after terms are delivered. At some point Sanguinius will defend the eternity gate and solo a Bloodthirster gauntlet ending with Ka'Bhanda's spine snapped over his knee. I'm actually a little worried about him getting the Mary Sue treatment since we've seen so little BA action and they get so much done during the siege. Hopefully ADB takes the reins on Sanguinius during these events, I think he'll be able to keep it from going too far.

 

Can't think of anything else right now so I'll edit in what occurs to me later.

 

Edited June 22, 2017 by NKCougar

[TheAlephNull]

I would like Dorn vs Omegon. Genuinely don't think Curze is going to be on Terra so this is the fight I'm after. For some reason I think Omegon will be able to duke it with him, and leave Dorn on his backside before slipping away, he's not fighting for Horus, but for Alpharius, and Dorn needs to live for Humanities sake.

More a dressing down than a fight.

This is the best idea I've read on here all year.

[Chapter Master Valrak]

Siggy is going to take on Khârn, I think this is how Khârn will be left for dead? Maybe Siggy couldn't come to kill his friend and just left his wounds to take him.

 

I too think Valdor will fall at the siege, hope he goes in an epic way.

 

Does Angron survive the siege? I cannot recall anything written about that, would be amazing if maybe Valdor sacrifices himself to banish him from the actual siege.

[R_F_D]

Old fluff has Angron as the last traitor to leave Terra, shaking his fist (I think).

[Kelborn]

Didn't Khârn die on Terra and was resurrected by Khorne?

 

So a Khârn vs. Sigi fight would be the way to go here.

 

As for the Primarchs, all traitors were on Terra, except Magnus and Omegon, 'cause we don't know of what about them, correct?

 

So I'd assume:

 

Fulgrim doing what he "wants".

 

Angron vs. Sangi: could be awesome but we already got Sangi vs. the greater demon of Khorne (forgot his name), so this might be a bit of a repitition

 

Khan vs. Mortarion: HELL YES! Awesome, tragic, potential for great dialogues!

 

Dorn vs. Perturabo: The builder vs. the destroyer

 

I think that they should avoid using the loyalists Primarchs too much, for example giving them 2 or more duels. Yes, there are way more traitors than loyalists but even a Primarch can't fight the entirety of 55 days, including several Primarch vs Primarch duels, imho.

[Mellow]

Khârn or Abaddon will probably kill Valdor.

 

Pretty sure Horus would normally take a leading part in any Siege but since he's only there to kill The Emperor he's just "saving himself to make his first time a special one" ;)

[Sothalor]

I might be going against the grain here, but I don't particularly care to see more Primarch v Primarch fights during the Siege. I personally think the series is at its strongest when the Primarchs remain nigh-mythical figures of all, best experienced through other character viewpoints from around and below them.

 

As a point of argument, I'd actually say that the majority of the time we've gotten a Primarch as a protagonist, as a PoV character, the results have been disappointing or divisive at best. Deliverance Lost did no favors for Corax. Sanguinius was underwhelming in Fear to Tread. Vulkan Lives was... yeah. Unremembered Empire was all over the place.

 

 

Furthermore, I'd argue that making Primarch v Primarch, Round 19 (or whatever number we're up to after the umpteenth throw-down that has no consequences because we already know they go on past the Heresy) diminishes the prospect of what the Siege should be. The Imperial Palace itself is the size of a continent, delving into the bedrock of the world. Legions - legions, hundreds of thousands of Astartes - and uncounted number of Solar Auxilia and Imperial Army and Knight Households and Titan Legios all crash together in a world-leveling cataclysm. Throne's sake, Khârn is supposed to have hit a kill counter of a million breaching Lions Gate.

 

Even the Primarchs can only be in one place at any one time (well, except for maybe Magnus post-shards or whatever the hell is going on with him). They should be droplets in an ocean in the face of what's happening during the Siege of Terra. Take Dorn and Perturabo, for instance. The fortifier and the siegemaster. I'm sorry, but in what universe would they be having a face-to-face confrontation, much less a fistfight? They're coordinating the attack and defense of the most heavily fortified stronghold, on a continental scale. It should be an undertaking of such complexity and coordination that servitor brains are literally bursting into flames as they struggle to handle the workload. Their captains and seneschals, Space Marines with centuries of experience, should be weeping as they see their gene-fathers direct and coordinate impossible feats of logistics and strategy, somehow divining the ebb and flow of battle from data-streams so cluttered and overloaded that it's just noise and gibberish to everybody else. In my opinion, the most interaction that Dorn and Perturabo should have during the Siege is right before the first wave of landings; maybe Perturabo calls Dorn for a brief conversation - understated, dignified, perhaps reflecting on how they ended up in this situation. And then they're both too damn busy for anything else.

 

 

Alright, this came off a little more of a rant than I'd intended. My point is that I don't think the setting or the story is particularly well-served by putting all of the focus on the Primarchs. To reduce the Siege to a series of Primarch confrontations diminishes the scale of it, and in some ways the tragedy of it. Some of this perspective is undoubtedly colored by the 8th Edition background, which comes off as "And then Roboute Guilliman went and personally punched out every threat to the Imperium, from Baal to Macragge!" Whatever happened to, "But the universe is a big place, and whatever happens, you will not be missed..."?

[Jimm]

I'd love to see Lorgar put the hurt on valdor, Dorn or Khârn. Can't see him ever touching Sanguinius.

 

I love seeing his journey through the hh from quietly spoken almost joke of a primarch to raging out and smashing possessed fulgrim round the head and even horus noticing his change. Would be a fit ending for Lorgar in hh to show he can't be pushed around any more and commands some respect.

[bluntblade]

I'd rather Khârn fall to a Zerg rush of Blood Angels.

 

As for Dorn and Pert, I want them duelling through their armies, with the battle rendered as a colossal chess match.

[b1soul]

I'd rather Khârn fall to a Zerg rush of Blood Angels.

Amit and Azkaellon would suffice

[Vesper]

As for non-Primarchs, we know the following survive:

• Raldoran (BA)
• Azkaellon (BA)
• Amit (BA)
• Sigimund (IF)
• Khârn (WE)
• Lucius (EC)

 

And Abaddon !

 

Speaking of which, my money's on Abaddon vs Valdor in the inner palace.

[b1soul]

Unless Abb is Chaos-buffed...I don't see him doing very well

[Vesper]

Considering the showing of Custodes during the Heresy so far, I'd say a First Captain clearly has a chance against Valdor.