Dark Angels Lore: Where are they now?

[FoursCompany]

Just trying to catchup on what the DA have been up to and where they sit in the current timeline? I think I read somewhere that after Azreal received the Primaris reinforcements from Gulliman he went across the rift to the Imperium Nihilus? What’s their current status and recent goings on right now?

[Karhedron]

One piece of fluff was that they were not happy with having Greyshields (who they regarded as outsiders) being forced into their ranks and seem to have done their best to send them on suicide missions. They are more accepting of their home-grown Primaris brethren and those who have crossed the Rubicon. The first Primaris have been inducted into the Deathwing although this is not yet represented on the tabletop.

[WrathOfTheLion]

3 hours ago, Karhedron said:

One piece of fluff was that they were not happy with having Greyshields (who they regarded as outsiders) being forced into their ranks and seem to have done their best to send them on suicide missions. They are more accepting of their home-grown Primaris brethren and those who have crossed the Rubicon. The first Primaris have been inducted into the Deathwing although this is not yet represented on the tabletop.

Bladeguard Veterans are Deathwing, so it's somewhat represented. You can also make a Deathwing Redemptor Dreadnought, Deathwing Primaris Captain, Deathwing Repulsors, etc.

 

You can't really do a full army of them alone as of now. They're very much supplemental.

Edited December 24, 2022 by WrathOfTheLion

[FarFromSam]

Since the lore around primaris Is so terrible,  in my head cannon they don't exist.   Just an upgraded model is all.   Hopefully,  if the Lion returns they don't botch that too.

[Chaplain Raeven]

We'll get a alot more background very soon if the rumours about the upcoming campaign are true.

[N1SB]

Just sharing some lore in recent Black Library novels/anthologies.  I cite these as snapshots, single data points, but might not reflect the whole trend.  These might be interesting "exception to the rule" type stories.

 

 

1st Attempt at Primaris Interrogator-Chaplain Blew Up In Their Faces

 

 

9th edition kicked off with Nexus + Other Stories, the introductory anthology to the world of 40k (it literally says START HERE in the corner).  The Dark Angels had a dedicated short story called "The Test of Faith".  In it, they were trying to induct a Primaris Chaplain as one of the secretive Interrogators.

 

This attempt at a Primaris Interrogator-Chaplain failed so badly, he had to be given the Emperor's Peace and his death kinda covered up.

 

Edit - to clarify, he was a Greyshield, not one raised from within Dark Angels from the start.

 

The Firstborn Interrogators actually debated what exactly went wrong.  Knowing the significance of him being their first subject, they put extra effort into it.  They were fighting a psyker and something about a psychic attack, or Primaris physiology, made it so he absolutely cannot take the idea of the Fallen.

 

My theory?  It's to do with how Belisarius Cawl indoctrinated the Primaris.  He had them stuck in like stasis/cryogenic tubes for 10,000 years, refining the Primaris process, but they weren't exactly doing nothing.  He played these engrams straight into their brains, programming them.  Because by that time the Horus Heresy was already a thing, he might've hard-coded loyalty into them.  Something about that conditioning was incompatible with what the Interrogators have to learn; they mentioned they really tried to mindwipe this first Primaris Interrogator attempt, to the point his own Greyshield friends didn't recognise him as his old personality was kinda scrubbed.  But this is just my take, trying to stitch together the lore.

 

 

Luther Either Escaped or Was Deliberately Let Out

 

 

In Luther: First of the Fallen, we see a lot from Luther's perspective.  It turns out he's not quite the conspiracy mastermind; he hadn't even exactly decided what to do when the Lion returned to Caliban.  What he wanted was Caliban's independence from the Imperium, having been disillusioned with it.

 

It was Typhon, with whom Luther fought alongside with before, who got Erebus trying to "convert" him.  Erebus came with a book on Chaos and Luther was like, "Oh, sorcery, I got a few of these of my own," Erebus was all like, "lol wut,"  Typhon was like, "See?  Told you."  Luther was studying some sorcery in his spare time, because there were these ancient tomes on the supernatural on Caliban (there clearly was some Chaos influence there, like their Great Beasts).  With the Lion exiling him there, he needed a hobby, this was it.

 

After he was captured, Luther was stuck in this stasis prison cell.  For him, it's like only days had passed.  What'd happen is every once in a while a Chapter Master would want to ask him something in their hunt for other Fallen.  They'd turn off his stasis field, he'd get slapped around for a bit, they'd ask him about some specific Fallen commander or something they're trying to track, Luther'd reminisce about someone by that name back on Caliban and...it'd turn out he knew nothing of value.

 

To these Chapter Masters, Luther'd probably come off as a genuine dotard, talking about the good ol' days on Caliban, constantly confused because he's probably still concussed from the last time a Chapter Master slapped him silly, while trying to focus on what they're talking about now.

 

At the end of the book, there was an attack on The Rock and the door to his cell was open, and he got out.  It's not clear if whoever was attacking and disabled the power to his stasis prison or someone deliberately let him go, but he took the chance and the book ends with him walking out.

 

 

 

 

Just some things I noticed and brushed up on after seeing this thread.  Nothing I take too seriously, just fun things I picked up.

Edited December 28, 2022 by N1SB

[jaxom]

• Daemon-Prince Marbas raided the Rock and broke Luther free.
• Guilliman delivered Greyshield reinforcements, doesn't mention the Fallen.
• The Greyshields are expendable, and repeatably mind-wiped until some of them realize the Furnace can help prevent it.
• The Dark Angels pointed the Tau at attacking Allhallow, home world of the Angels of Absolution, because there is a psychic virus loose there.
• The Unforgiven are maintaining contact with each other and sharing information about the state of the galaxy, post-Rift.
• The Rock is in Imperium Nihilus, most of the Chapter is spread out at the moment.
• The 5th Company, fresh from Warzone Stygies, is sent to Prospero for a second team-up with the Grey Knights. Lazarus determines the Grey Knights did not learn about the Fallen during the first daemonic invasion of the Rock in the Fenris system.
• The Rubicon Primaris and the "we sourced the neophytes and trained them" Primaris are trusted.

[Gamiel]

Also this have happened

 

[phandaal]

6 hours ago, jaxom said:

The Dark Angels pointed the Tau at attacking Allhallow, home world of the Angels of Absolution, because there is a psychic virus loose there.

 

Wish this would just get deleted from the lore. Such a terrible story beat.

 

So wildly off base for Dark Angels to send xenos to attack an Unforgiven homeworld. Angels of Absolution may not believe in shame for the Fallen but they still actively participate in hunting them.

 

Would take the astropathic equivalent of one phone call from the Dark Angels to get the Angels of Absolution mobilized. Instead we get something so out of character that it may as well have happened in an alternate universe.

 

All because Phil Kelly needed the plot to happen so he could get some "Tau vs Fortress Monastery" fanfic published.

 

Ok, soapbox rant over.

[jaxom]

1 hour ago, phandaal said:

Ok, soapbox rant over.

 

War of Secrets is a decent chunk of why I went from mainlining Dark Angels to avoiding them like the plague. If something were to happen to re-orient them away from everything being bad decisions and Fallen-this Fallen-that, then I might come back to the fold. Until then, I hate them with the passion that can only come from curdled love.

[Chaplain Raeven]

11 hours ago, phandaal said:

 

Wish this would just get deleted from the lore. Such a terrible story beat.

 

 

Agreed. Sending Xenos to do their dirty work. We all know they would burn the planet themselves if the population was tainted. Hell, they still fly around on the remnants of the last homeworld that betrayed them. 

[Raziel-TX]

Reading all this new lore is causing my eye balls to itch…
 

Not to throw off the topic but whatever happened to Brother Bethor?

Edited December 29, 2022 by Raziel-TX

[Interrogator Stobz]

2 hours ago, Raziel-TX said:

Reading all this new lore is causing my eye balls to itch…
 

Not to throw off the topic but whatever happened to Brother Bethor?

The writers must have been tasked to destroy the last 35 years of Dark Angel extraordinary and unhealthy hatred of themselves and everyone else theme.

Or maybe we're just a bit twitchy after gatekeeping for all that time. But at least we still have the keys LOLZ.

[UtariOnzo]

So, others have done a fine job of summarising the current state of the Dark Angels and Unforgiven within the lore, so I hope to be able to indulge in a small rant.

 

I’m hoping the return of the Lion is going to start an era of moving away from the Fallen. Almost every short story and book involving Dark Angels references them, and has lead to an absurd situation where the writers have to go to ever more humiliating lows in order to come up with new and abhorrent ways to demonstrate how far the Unforgiven will go in the quest to hunt the Fallen. I believe the writers themselves are probably sick of this circle of misery themselves, because across multiple stories and authors of late several voice-piece characters have directly confronted just how hollow the Chapter has become.

 

From Azrael deciding firmly that the Chapter will not resist any punishment coming to it if the returned Son knew about the Fallen and having a monologue piece of his own in the Unforgiven trilogy about how the hunt is besmirching everything the 1st accomplished and continues to accomplish, to Interrogator Chaplain Boreas belatedly realising all of the secrecy and lies blinds the Angels to whats in front of them, Gav Thorpe and others seem to be clearly signalling that the Inner Circle is self aware enough that the Hunt is more damaging than the secret itself. And if they’re going out of their way to do that, in Thorpe’s case especially on multiple occasions, it tends to be the authors trying to speak their mind too.

 

So, while it’s clear the writers themselves are shoving these absurd plot lines down our eye throats, I get the impression this is mostly because GW and Black Library management have allowed themselves to be painted into a corner and possibly require the Fallen be included because, I guess they think it’s expected? Maybe Thorpe and Kelly just hate the Angels and are actively sabotaging our lore? That one seems less likely, I just don’t buy that argument without some kind of admission coming from their mouths. But they might well dislike the forced insertion of the Fallen into everything.

 

How would I like this ever escalating circus of silliness to be resolved? What’s the off ramp? Luther. I think Luther’s escape and rumours of his building a fallen legion is GW setting up a future conclusion, or at the least a partial conclusion, to the Unforgiven’s Hunt more so than even the Lion returning. The fact our Primarch is so strongly hinted to be coming back probably ties directly into that too. Now, what form that conclusion will take is beyond me, maybe Luther takes the knee to his adoptive son/brother in a plea of forgiveness along with a bunch of the less chaosified fallen and Cypher, or maybe he goes against all that previous babbling about feeling sorry for what he did and becomes the evil arch nemisis once again. Who knows. What needs to happen however is either the secret comes out, or the Dark Angels find some humility and realise the Hunt is not the be all and end all so they can reclaim their honour while continuing it in some fashion. Or at the least the writers find something else new and interesting to tell stories of the 1st in, because we’re done hyperfocusing on the Fallen now we’ve had it out with Luther. We can totally keep it in the character of the Chapter still in some form, but it’s time to let it lie and move on for now!

 

I don’t want to entirely lose the Inner Circle and secrets within secrets aspect of the Unforgiven, the Hunt has been an important aspect of our lore for a very long time. But when it’s become a noose around the neck of the Dark Angel’s narrative, something needs to be done to change, because really, who actually enjoyed seeing Azrael cause the destruction of Caliban and willingly letting Cypher go, or some Interrogator Chaplain conspire to let Xenos attack a fellow Unforgiven Chapter’s homeworld, or another IC inducting a techmarine into the Deathwing because ‘we need everyone we can get!’? And I’ll admit I enjoyed a lot of the Unforgiven trilogy! As for just not writing stories about Fallen in place of bolter porn against other Chaos/Xenos, I really feel both the audience for books and the writers themselves need a moment of catharsis or some kind of resolution/pay off, because just ignoring the arc is sweeping the next novel-for-selling-new-models with an even higher stakes Fallen caper (!!!) under the rug.

 

Thank you if you managed to get through all that early morning rabble. I just want more interesting and less ridiculous stories. Is that too much to ask?

[Harleqvin]

On 12/27/2022 at 9:12 AM, N1SB said:

Just sharing some lore in recent Black Library novels/anthologies.  I cite these as snapshots, single data points, but might not reflect the whole trend.  These might be interesting "exception to the rule" type stories.

 

 

1st Attempt at Primaris Interrogator-Chaplain Blew Up In Their Faces

 

 

9th edition kicked off with Nexus + Other Stories, the introductory anthology to the world of 40k (it literally says START HERE in the corner).  The Dark Angels had a dedicated short story called "The Test of Faith".  In it, they were trying to induct a Primaris Chaplain as one of the secretive Interrogators.

 

This attempt at a Primaris Interrogator-Chaplain failed so badly, he had to be given the Emperor's Peace and his death kinda covered up.

 

Edit - to clarify, he was a Greyshield, not one raised from within Dark Angels from the start.

 

The Firstborn Interrogators actually debated what exactly went wrong.  Knowing the significance of him being their first subject, they put extra effort into it.  They were fighting a psyker and something about a psychic attack, or Primaris physiology, made it so he absolutely cannot take the idea of the Fallen.

 

My theory?  It's to do with how Belisarius Cawl indoctrinated the Primaris.  He had them stuck in like stasis/cryogenic tubes for 10,000 years, refining the Primaris process, but they weren't exactly doing nothing.  He played these engrams straight into their brains, programming them.  Because by that time the Horus Heresy was already a thing, he might've hard-coded loyalty into them.  Something about that conditioning was incompatible with what the Interrogators have to learn; they mentioned they really tried to mindwipe this first Primaris Interrogator attempt, to the point his own Greyshield friends didn't recognise him as his old personality was kinda scrubbed.  But this is just my take, trying to stitch together the lore.

 

 

Luther Either Escaped or Was Deliberately Let Out

 

 

In Luther: First of the Fallen, we see a lot from Luther's perspective.  It turns out he's not quite the conspiracy mastermind; he hadn't even exactly decided what to do when the Lion returned to Caliban.  What he wanted was Caliban's independence from the Imperium, having been disillusioned with it.

 

It was Typhon, with whom Luther fought alongside with before, who got Erebus trying to "convert" him.  Erebus came with a book on Chaos and Luther was like, "Oh, sorcery, I got a few of these of my own," Erebus was all like, "lol wut,"  Typhon was like, "See?  Told you."  Luther was studying some sorcery in his spare time, because there were these ancient tomes on the supernatural on Caliban (there clearly was some Chaos influence there, like their Great Beasts).  With the Lion exiling him there, he needed a hobby, this was it.

 

After he was captured, Luther was stuck in this stasis prison cell.  For him, it's like only days had passed.  What'd happen is every once in a while a Chapter Master would want to ask him something in their hunt for other Fallen.  They'd turn off his stasis field, he'd get slapped around for a bit, they'd ask him about some specific Fallen commander or something they're trying to track, Luther'd reminisce about someone by that name back on Caliban and...it'd turn out he knew nothing of value.

 

To these Chapter Masters, Luther'd probably come off as a genuine dotard, talking about the good ol' days on Caliban, constantly confused because he's probably still concussed from the last time a Chapter Master slapped him silly, while trying to focus on what they're talking about now.

 

At the end of the book, there was an attack on The Rock and the door to his cell was open, and he got out.  It's not clear if whoever was attacking and disabled the power to his stasis prison or someone deliberately let him go, but he took the chance and the book ends with him walking out.

 

 

 

 

Just some things I noticed and brushed up on after seeing this thread.  Nothing I take too seriously, just fun things I picked up.

I have an odd thought about Luther getting free. Mainly is that the Watchers let him go. I have more thoughts on it, but that's the main one, as the Watchers would've stopped him otherwise.

 

On 12/27/2022 at 9:55 AM, jaxom said:

• Daemon-Prince Marbas raided the Rock and broke Luther free.
• Guilliman delivered Greyshield reinforcements, doesn't mention the Fallen.
• The Greyshields are expendable, and repeatably mind-wiped until some of them realize the Furnace can help prevent it.
• The Dark Angels pointed the Tau at attacking Allhallow, home world of the Angels of Absolution, because there is a psychic virus loose there.
• The Unforgiven are maintaining contact with each other and sharing information about the state of the galaxy, post-Rift.
• The Rock is in Imperium Nihilus, most of the Chapter is spread out at the moment.
• The 5th Company, fresh from Warzone Stygies, is sent to Prospero for a second team-up with the Grey Knights. Lazarus determines the Grey Knights did not learn about the Fallen during the first daemonic invasion of the Rock in the Fenris system.
• The Rubicon Primaris and the "we sourced the neophytes and trained them" Primaris are trusted.

Currently it hasn't been revealed who let Luther free or where he's gone.
 

I can't recall if the first Ravenwing guy, and the first Deathwing guy were from Guilliman/Cawl batch. But Primaris the " we sourced and trained batch" aren't all trusted. They still fall under issues of who knows what's been done to them to make them to make this new "breed". They possibly are more likely to be trusted, maybe. But we know there is going to be more trusting happening mainly because we know Azzy is crossing the Rubicon.

 

On 12/28/2022 at 4:04 AM, Chaplain Raeven said:

 

Agreed. Sending Xenos to do their dirty work. We all know they would burn the planet themselves if the population was tainted. Hell, they still fly around on the remnants of the last homeworld that betrayed them. 

That was strange due to the fact that it's widely known within the lore the DA have abhorred the Alien, and aren't even fond of abhumans (like even in 3rd ed you couldn't ally with Guard if they had ratlings or Ogryns, iirc.) The Watchers have been the only ones they have seemed to be ok with, ever even dating back to the HH.

 

On 2/13/2023 at 3:04 AM, UtariOnzo said:

So, others have done a fine job of summarising the current state of the Dark Angels and Unforgiven within the lore, so I hope to be able to indulge in a small rant.

 

I’m hoping the return of the Lion is going to start an era of moving away from the Fallen. Almost every short story and book involving Dark Angels references them, and has lead to an absurd situation where the writers have to go to ever more humiliating lows in order to come up with new and abhorrent ways to demonstrate how far the Unforgiven will go in the quest to hunt the Fallen. I believe the writers themselves are probably sick of this circle of misery themselves, because across multiple stories and authors of late several voice-piece characters have directly confronted just how hollow the Chapter has become.

 

From Azrael deciding firmly that the Chapter will not resist any punishment coming to it if the returned Son knew about the Fallen and having a monologue piece of his own in the Unforgiven trilogy about how the hunt is besmirching everything the 1st accomplished and continues to accomplish, to Interrogator Chaplain Boreas belatedly realising all of the secrecy and lies blinds the Angels to whats in front of them, Gav Thorpe and others seem to be clearly signalling that the Inner Circle is self aware enough that the Hunt is more damaging than the secret itself. And if they’re going out of their way to do that, in Thorpe’s case especially on multiple occasions, it tends to be the authors trying to speak their mind too.

 

So, while it’s clear the writers themselves are shoving these absurd plot lines down our eye throats, I get the impression this is mostly because GW and Black Library management have allowed themselves to be painted into a corner and possibly require the Fallen be included because, I guess they think it’s expected? Maybe Thorpe and Kelly just hate the Angels and are actively sabotaging our lore? That one seems less likely, I just don’t buy that argument without some kind of admission coming from their mouths. But they might well dislike the forced insertion of the Fallen into everything.

 

How would I like this ever escalating circus of silliness to be resolved? What’s the off ramp? Luther. I think Luther’s escape and rumours of his building a fallen legion is GW setting up a future conclusion, or at the least a partial conclusion, to the Unforgiven’s Hunt more so than even the Lion returning. The fact our Primarch is so strongly hinted to be coming back probably ties directly into that too. Now, what form that conclusion will take is beyond me, maybe Luther takes the knee to his adoptive son/brother in a plea of forgiveness along with a bunch of the less chaosified fallen and Cypher, or maybe he goes against all that previous babbling about feeling sorry for what he did and becomes the evil arch nemisis once again. Who knows. What needs to happen however is either the secret comes out, or the Dark Angels find some humility and realise the Hunt is not the be all and end all so they can reclaim their honour while continuing it in some fashion. Or at the least the writers find something else new and interesting to tell stories of the 1st in, because we’re done hyperfocusing on the Fallen now we’ve had it out with Luther. We can totally keep it in the character of the Chapter still in some form, but it’s time to let it lie and move on for now!

 

I don’t want to entirely lose the Inner Circle and secrets within secrets aspect of the Unforgiven, the Hunt has been an important aspect of our lore for a very long time. But when it’s become a noose around the neck of the Dark Angel’s narrative, something needs to be done to change, because really, who actually enjoyed seeing Azrael cause the destruction of Caliban and willingly letting Cypher go, or some Interrogator Chaplain conspire to let Xenos attack a fellow Unforgiven Chapter’s homeworld, or another IC inducting a techmarine into the Deathwing because ‘we need everyone we can get!’? And I’ll admit I enjoyed a lot of the Unforgiven trilogy! As for just not writing stories about Fallen in place of bolter porn against other Chaos/Xenos, I really feel both the audience for books and the writers themselves need a moment of catharsis or some kind of resolution/pay off, because just ignoring the arc is sweeping the next novel-for-selling-new-models with an even higher stakes Fallen caper (!!!) under the rug.

 

Thank you if you managed to get through all that early morning rabble. I just want more interesting and less ridiculous stories. Is that too much to ask?

Part of the reason we keep getting the Fallen integrated into most DA and Gang's stories is due to the fact that that is a main factor for them, it's talked about in every codex we have ever had.
To be honest I don't think there will be a going away of the Fallen in DA stories (or the game,) in fact it will be brought in more, so. i do believe there will be a furthering the story for DA & Gang witht the Fallen with GW having stated that there are Legion-ish sized massing happening of Fallen, Luther having been set free (for whatever reason by whoever,) they will more than likely be brought into the limelight (more about them in Books, and being brought into the game properly.)

 

The authors having the higher ups in the Inner Circle knowing the hunt is more damaging than the secret makes sense as there shouldn't be a reason they wouldn't notice that.

 

To me Azrael having a hand in the destruction of Caliban made sense for furthering the how/what caused the time dispersment of Fallen, and had been set up for a bit with events in HH, and very likely is going to be brought in again (or at least parts of the trio of items/things/beings,) along with the oddness of prophecy with DA. At least to me a self fulfilling prophecy seemed the way it was going to go.
 

The techmarine being made Deathwing wasn't out of norm at the time, as in 3rd you could have a techmarine in Dw. Techmarines not being in Dw was something they implemented in later 4th ed with the codex to try to give DA more character with the whole "Secrets" thing...

The Int-Chap using Xenos to kill all those Primaris was dumb by all means.

 

There isn't rumoring of Luther legion building (in lore that is.)

 

I do think we should have some more Non-Fallen DA stories (not just Azrael, or Ezekiel.) some of the last ones were Purging of Kadilus, and Pandorax.