Fallen in 30k

[Daemon Prince Marbas]

How could one best represent Luther's traitor faction of Calibanite Dark Angels in 30k?

[Brother Tyler]

At this point they're just members of the Dark Angels Legion under the command of Luther.

[Qkhitai]

In terms of modelling or gameplay? Modelling wise, the only thing I can think of is maybe adding things like lodge symbols and other crypto-heretical icons. Someone mentioned somewhere that some Dark Angels in the GC/HH era wore more greens on their armour to symbolise the forests of Caliban? I don't know what the official source for that is, but although that would suit the DA actually on Caliban, it doesn't make much sense for the Fallen as they're all depicted wearing black in 40k. I think there would be a stronger tendency towards MkIV though, as a lot of them are fresh recruits outfitted with the newer armours in the lead up to the Heresy.

 

Gameplay wise there's that RoW for traitors in a loyalist legion, Outcast Sons I think. And again, maybe a preference towards newer weaponry, wargear and vehicles, as opposed older stuff like volkites etc.

[Brother-Captain Gilead]

When considering making an army like this, I would first figure out which band of people on Caliban you are trying to represent. When everything was going on at Terra, Caliban had at least four different factions that we know of at this moment:

1. Full on chaos worshipping Dark Angels, both Terran and Caliban-born
2. Caliban-born Dark Angels that were loyal to Luther and Caliban, not the Imperium
3. Terran-born Dark Angels that were loyal to the Emperor and considered the Lion as misguided at best, traitorous at worst allied with Luther in an alliance of convenience
4. A faction of Terran-born and Caliban-born Dark Angels that were loyal to the Imperium and the Lion and tried to get a warning out

Depending on which of these factions are present in your army you could see all sorts of power armor present. That being said, most of the Fallen Angels would have been from the second group who would have worn Caliban-made Mark IV power armor because that was the only group that was actively growing as Luther ramped up recruitment in his efforts to garrison the planet in preparation for an Imperial invasion force (this has always been intriguing to me as a sidenote: Caliban was technologically advanced enough to produce everything a space marine needed with no support required from a Forge World).

[Indefragable]

When considering making an army like this, I would first figure out which band of people on Caliban you are trying to represent. When everything was going on at Terra, Caliban had at least four different factions that we know of at this moment:

• Full on chaos worshipping Dark Angels, both Terran and Caliban-born
• Caliban-born Dark Angels that were loyal to Luther and Caliban, not the Imperium
• Terran-born Dark Angels that were loyal to the Emperor and considered the Lion as misguided at best, traitorous at worst allied with Luther in an alliance of convenience
• A faction of Terran-born and Caliban-born Dark Angels that were loyal to the Imperium and the Lion and tried to get a warning out

Depending on which of these factions are present in your army you could see all sorts of power armor present. That being said, most of the Fallen Angels would have been from the second group who would have worn Caliban-made Mark IV power armor because that was the only group that was actively growing as Luther ramped up recruitment in his efforts to garrison the planet in preparation for an Imperial invasion force (this has always been intriguing to me as a sidenote: Caliban was technologically advanced enough to produce everything a space marine needed with no support required from a Forge World).

The fact that there’s so many sub-brands of “traitor” Dark Angels on Caliban shows how butchered their backstory has gotten. <eye roll> (not at you at GW).

[bluntblade]

I don't know about the ones who turn Traitor, but in the BL books Russ encounters a recently assembled Chapter of Dark Angels and notes some very dark green among their livery.

[Brother-Captain Gilead]

bluntblade reminds me of that one short story that I can't remember the name of right now, but which actually has a major clue on the timeline of dark green entering the livery of individual Dark Angels. In this story we meet Astelan as he is leading an expeditionary fleet engaged in diplomatic negotiations to institute compliance when he is suddenly joined by a chapter master who was born on Caliban and who also had dark green in his livery. Since Astelan was also among those space marines sent to Caliban to oversee recruitment with Luther after the incident on Saresh, this means that Caliban-born Dark Angels were already integrating dark green into their livery really early in the timeline (so early that it took place before the incident at Saresh but late enough that a Caliban-born true space marine has had enough time to make it to chapter master).

 

As to the sub-brands of traitor Dark Angels I actually think it adds to their story, does not diminish it. It would make sense that different people would react differently to being sent back to Caliban, some of them would come to terms with it and end up horrified at what Luther started doing, some of them would react badly like Luther and start dreaming of an independent Caliban, some of them would reject Calibanites altogether as a flawed bunch but would make alliances of convenience to survive and some of them would be susceptible to the influence of Chaos and go off the deep end. I think the earlier version where Luther was so good at oratory that he turned an entire demi-legion into traitors was a bit too simplistic and I prefer the one where Luther was trying to maintain control over all of these different groups with their different agendas and motivations.

[bluntblade]

Yeah, there's a third party of DA who were raised up by Luther and sent out for garrison duties in DA territories. They ended up separate from his secessionist faction, going by what we've seen so far.