The Lion - Son of the Forest by Mike Brooks

[BitsHammer]

12 minutes ago, Knockagh said:

I didnt buy this when I saw it was by Brooks and I know folks will howl when I say this but I really wish Gav Thorpe had been given this. He has made the DA. I’ve been reading Cypher and I’m pretty suprised how well French has written them. So if Gav was unacceptable to the masses surely he would have been a better option than the ork comedy guy? The choice of author for what should have been a massive book is really odd. Are BL having trouble encouraging writers to write??

Brooks has written plenty that wasn't Ork comedy. That's like saying ADB is the Night Lords guy while ignoring the other good books he's written.

[Roomsky]

12 minutes ago, Knockagh said:

I didnt buy this when I saw it was by Brooks and I know folks will howl when I say this but I really wish Gav Thorpe had been given this. He has made the DA. I’ve been reading Cypher and I’m pretty suprised how well French has written them. So if Gav was unacceptable to the masses surely he would have been a better option than the ork comedy guy? The choice of author for what should have been a massive book is really odd. Are BL having trouble encouraging writers to write??

 

Brooks himself admitted he was surprised Thorpe didn't get the project. That said, Brooks' books seem to get a lot of attention - even his weakest (Huron) got in the top 10 through that community vote last year.

 

Obviously holding off on judgment until I have it in hand, but I'm a bit disappointed it's not being taken in a more radical direction. I'm sure I come across as a Brooks apologist for saying it - but considering the bombast he usually puts into his books, this sounds 100% like a studio mandate first and a story second.

[BitsHammer]

I agree that his hands were likely tied to fit within certain boundaries, but I don't think he wrote a bad story even with constraints.

 

I get that there are some bitter feelings towards the book but it sounds more like people wanted a Lion who comes out of sleep and vows to break his sword off in Guilliman's backside.and.are upset that GW didn't go that direction.

 

That Lion was something the community invented though and assumed would.exist and I have trouble faulting GW for not matching expectations for something they never even hinted at doing.

 

For those yet to read it, this is a tie in book for Arks of Omen. It serves one job: establishing how the Lion started traveling with the Fallen, why his armour looks like that now and where he found his wargear. The Lion doesn't meet Guilliman,.Luther, or Cypher. Nor does it say those meetings in the future with be sunshine and rainbows over a tea party.

 

The book answers the questions asked, gives us a plausible set up that allows the Lion to be gathering the Fallen for his Arks of Omen story and that is it.

 

Brooks was handed that assignment and frankly gave us one of the better tie in books GW has done for something like this.

 

So I get that it's a #NotMyLion book for some but honestly that has more to do with the fanfiction people wrote for the Lion before he.returned and not some kind of unfulfilled promise from GW. The Lion doesn't come back and start trying to fix the governments Imperium Nihlus like Guilliman, instead he is hunting any foe that sets itself against humanity.

 

Maybe that's not enough for some people but that is what I would expect from the Primarch novel who cleared the forests of Caliban of great beasts. It's what I expect of the Primarch who destroyed the Rangdan from not only the galaxy but history. It's what I expect of the Primarch who put the extermination of the Khrave over Ullanor.

 

I am only now listening to Descent of Lion's but from Luther, from his Primarch novel, from the short story I quoted earlier in the thread I went into the book expecting a knight who rides out to slay monsters, not a hollowed Dark Souls boss so caught up in their rage they keep making the same mistakes endless times. 

 

The Lion may walk the spiral and the spiral may repeat but as a Primarch if he always makes the same mistakes forever it undercuts his Primarch genius. The Lion is not defined by his rage. That is Angron's personality. Stagnation is Mortarion's. Politics is Guilliman's. The Lion's personality is defines by the hunt. And as long as he hunts then I can't say he isn't the Lion.

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

1 hour ago, phandaal said:

This book is written in present tense?

 

Only the chapters where the Lion is the focus. There are also chapters told in first person from a different character's POV and from third person in chapters that feature a certain other character. Both of the latter are in standard past tense.

[DarkChaplain]

15 minutes ago, BitsHammer said:

The Lion may walk the spiral and the spiral may repeat but as a Primarch if he always makes the same mistakes forever it undercuts his Primarch genius. The Lion is not defined by his rage. That is Angron's personality. Stagnation is Mortarion's. Politics is Guilliman's. The Lion's personality is defines by the hunt. And as long as he hunts then I can't say he isn't the Lion.

 

This is even a thing in the Heresy, where his whole deal for years is hunting down Curze in the Thramas Crusade. And when Curze escapes, he's right back to hunting him in Ultramar. When he can't make it to Terra, he hunts down the traitor legions' assets and homeworlds as best he can, too, exterminating them. And when he hears of Caliban having turned, he goes straight back there to hunt down Luther.

 

And unlike Guilliman, who literally woke up from stasis after being mortally wounded during the later scouring years, with most of his brothers gone or dead already, and merely a couple remaining, but the overall course of the Imperium being "okay", just to find that after his split-moment stasis-death, everything is upended, the Imperium is screwed, the Lion hasn't been in stasis. He's physically aged. He's been asleep, dreaming whatever dreams a Primarch has. Unlike Guilliman, he isn't immediately faced with stuff like the Rift opening, Terra being under Siege and Xenos bringing him back to life, and his own Chapter being right there with him, worshipping him.

 

The Lion made an extreme amount of mistakes throughout the Great Crusade and Heresy. He thought he was the smartest of 'em all, just to have that arrogance blow up in his face with many he thought close turning on him. Heck, and then Luther strikes him down and regrets his actions.

Frankly, I'd be disappointed if Lion El'Jonson didn't reflect on the Heresy, with the benefit of hindsight and ten millennia having passed since, turning the galaxy into a totally different shape.

 

And there's still plenty of room for tension between him and Guilliman, or other imperial institutions. The two have not met even at the furthest point of the studio timeline. But of course he'd be relieved to find that Guilliman is alive, he isn't alone (which Guilliman was, and it made him miserable and cynical within a few short years! Guilliman in 40k isn't the same person he was back in the Heresy or before, or even the Scouring) and there's still hope for the Imperium. He's not learned of all the nitty-gritty, hasn't had a philosophical debate with his brother, or learned of all the madness that's been going on.

 

The Lion, as we see him so far, has had a very limited field of view yet. Heck, he didn't even know Imperium Sanctus was a thing! He thought everywhere was ruined like Nihilus. He can only act on the parameters he's aware of, and those are mostly to do with himself, his own actions and his own role in a galaxy in turmoil. And the last time he remembers that being the case - literally during his time scouring traitor homeworlds on the way to Terra, when the Astronomican went out and he believed Terra to have been fallen - he made big mistakes, gave in to a course of vengeance born from despair, and ended up being too late to make a difference during the Siege or rout of the traitor legions.

 

I'd be shocked if a Primarch that didn't have his brains scrambled by cortical implants or chaos juice was incapable of reflecting on this stuff and realize, man, I need to do better.

[b1soul]

@Knockagh

Wouldn't label Brooks as just the Ork comedy guy. His Alpharius and Navigators are pretty darn good. If his Lion is anywhere near as well developed as his Alpharius, we're in for a treat.

[SkimaskMohawk]

I thought alpharius was excellent....until he got out of the palace, after that, the book lost a lot of momentum and was pretty mediocre. So it's easy to imagine a novel that has spots of brilliance but also some pretty generic sections, especially if its an explicit tie-in piece. The only one who was able to elevate those was Reynolds.

[Fedor]

It definitely sounds like a setup tie-in book, rather than a complete story in itself. I don't mind a more self-reflective, weary Knight Lion that is trying to atone for past sins. Ideally, he'd eventually fail and die, or fall to chaos, but still. The character arc they've had him on since Crusade and related works (going back to Angels of Caliban) as mr utterly ruthless war crimes just hasn't really convinced me, outside of the hunter aspect also being emphasised, which is solid.  There's just too much baggage from earlier portrayals, and the fact that as one of the flagship "big 4" tabletop loyalist primarchs, they just don't fully commit to it, also wanting a mellowing buddy buddy good guy (by 30k standards) relationship with the other big loyalist 3. Ferrus and great crusade Mortarion were already better characters for exploring the truly brutal great crusade side of the primarchs.

 

So,  is this actually going to be the start of a coherent Lion 40K series? Or will it be like Guillimans return, where we don't actually get much directly for years afterward, and he just becomes another part of the background. This doesn't sound like it's going to be a worthwhile standalone, compared to how Haley approached Guilliman in the dark imperium books, but might work better if there are coherent plans for a longer narrative outside of the broad strokes, studio campaign side.

 

GW campaign supplement stuff tends to end up forgetting/abandoning a lot of what they set up, or revisiting it in a half-arsed, clunky manner years down the line. Silent King anyone? Taking his name a bit too literally i think. I don't have much faith all this stuff about keys to old one super weapons and teleporting planets are going to amount to anything if left up to the studio writers, especially not soon.

 

They're already moving on to other things with the new edition's tyrannic war plot.

[wecanhaveallthree]

I'll try and reduce this down to the most absolutely simple terms possible to cut across 'not my Lion' or 'character development is good' or 'I like Old Man Lion'.

 

Everybody likes character development, but the Lion does not 'develop' in Son of the Forest. A deeply, incredibly flawed character who has committed some serious atrocities against his own people, right down to blowing up his home planet, is simply and easily forgiven. Without any intervening space or time for reflection, backsliding, gradual realisation and change (as one would expect from such a deeply flawed man), we are simply presented with a character who has already done all the difficult soul-searching off-panel and appears, fully (re)formed, upon the page.

 

In even simpler terms, the Lion goes from Green Ranger to White Ranger without the several interleaving arcs and everybody is okay with this, even though the last time we saw him he was blowing up Megazord with the Dragon Flute.

 

Redemption is fun. Antiheroes are fun. We tune in each week to see if Tommy will come back to the fold. Will he? Won't he? Will he overcome his issues, the things about him that drove him to the edge in the first place, despite all the good we can see in him? We hope he will. We enjoy the struggle, the conflict. The rising above - the falling short. What irks me so much about Son of the Forest is that I feel cheated of that. I was eager to see the Lion return, how he would come to grips with everything, how - if - he would strive to do better in a world notably worse, notably more ruthless than the one he once new. Would this new state of affairs suit him more than the ordered brutality of the Great Crusade? Would it be one great Forest, where that feral boy who hunted beasts would emerge once more? Would all the worst traits of the Lion come to the fore - the paranoia, the isolation, the swift slaying?

 

It's none of that. It's simply the new Lion, no baggage, no muss, no fuss. Simple and clean and boring.

[BitsHammer]

I do think the book could have been longer and gone deeper but I have a feeling Brooks was on a deadline and had to have it ready for the Arks of Omen release, and that's fine. It's nothing new for a company to do that kind of thing and it had to cover certain bases. It's why I see it as a really solid tie in book, not a start of a new series or even hoping that we get much out of GW (though I would like to hope the Dark Angels get something like the Black Templars supplement because that was a wonderful look into the chapter post Guilliman's visit). To me it more sets up a "this is what the Lion is about now" thing we can see taken forward, or not. 

 

Honestly I've been inspired to jump in feet first into revisiting Dark Angels because I like the set up and honestly hope we new plots come out of this that we haven't gotten out of the repeating cycle of Fallen stories over the years.

[UtariOnzo]

For a tie in book? Yeah, it wasn’t half bad. Definitely felt rushed and constrained, with each bullet point that needed to be met doing so at something akin to break neck speed, but not anything I can fault him for.

 

Spoiler

The character development within the Fallen/Risen and the Lion, however, was something I did enjoy. I like this more sorrowful, remorseful Lion. He still has enough of the keen edge of his youth, but is much more reflecting as a wiser predator aught be after hard earned lessons. I only wish Brooks had more time to develop the interactions between Risen and Lion, to maybe flesh out the distrust more and the growing reliance upon one another.

 
 

Over all a decent read if you don’t go into it with preconceived ideas of how you want it to go

[Nagashsnee]

Ok it was orthodox Easter and things got hectic but i had a chance to sit down and mull it over.  And while i agree with much of what others have said my main issue and what holds this back for me has not been covered.

 

Spoiler

 Which is namely the novel fails (for me at least) to create ANY tension. The lion wakes up in a weird warp realm? Its fine the watchers are there to guide him away from danger. 

Ooo he  pops up on a chaos occupied world? Its fine he immediately finds  friendlies to give him the basic info and the chaos forces are few, scattered and generaly low challenge. 

He starts finding some fallen? No issues they are by and large all good fallen who just want a second chance and join up in his merry band with little effort and no effort of dishonest intentions ( even red helm guy seems a solid dude). 

Oooh naval battle, OMG we actually get a proper rundown of the fleets in question and it appears that the writer knows basic BFG FANTASTIC. Wow that chaos fleet is...bigger, better the sheet ship tonnage difference is brutal.... and chaos is team killing its own ships and blindly handing the Lion a easy W. 

 

None of these encounters are bad, but they never come across as an obstacle that our protagonist needs to struggle against and give us the reader a well earned victory, they pop up, get solved and we move on to the next one. The lion is never in danger, the situation never feels hopeless, the struggles are generally downhill.  

 

Likewise the Lions reaction to modern 40k never makes me feel we are gearing up for a struggle, his general attitude is 'politics meh, i will gather a army and roflestomp all threats cause i am the Lion'. 

 

Say what you want about G mans return, but it very much painted a bleak picture, goals to achieve and the struggle that would ensure (even if they primaris cheatcoded some of it away). Even in the 10th edition trailer he is TIRED. He is not winning, things are not going well, he is struggling.   I just never got that feeling at any point with the Lion, his biggest struggle was him realizing that it will now take him 0.001 seconds more to kill a chaos terminator due to his great age.   This book is not so much a journey as a series of QuickTime events where the illusion of failure is maintained by the player not realizing that him smashing X or not will not change the scripted outcome. 

 

I would be a 6/10 but it goes down to 5/10 for the sin of having around 21+ fallen marines in easy journey time from a single planet.  How the DA struggle to find them we will never know. 

 

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Nagashsnee

[Blindhamster]

I find it mental that the idea of the lion having matured seems boring, to me he is interesting precisely because we see what the difference years can make for one of the primarchs will be. 
 

guilliman was in stasis, the lion wasn’t. As a result, the former is mostly the same individual, the latter has grown more significantly.

 

I like it.

 

also glad they didn’t go for a pointless civil war plot that would have been boring.

[Nagashsnee]

31 minutes ago, Blindhamster said:

I find it mental that the idea of the lion having matured seems boring, to me he is interesting precisely because we see what the difference years can make for one of the primarchs will be. 

 

Its because he did not earn it, he did not grow, reflect or learn, He went from 30k lion goes to sleep to new old man lion, this creates a conflict to us readers as it raises a very important question 'when did this happen'?. 

 

He literally just woke up, now this could have been solved if we were shown he was active dreaming, or that his mind was wandering the warp/caliban/forest and pondering on things. But we dont. He wakes up and knows nothing, so how does the book reconcile this character change? Not enough time passes in the book and not enough introspection is show to make it feel EARNED.  Plus for all this talk of aging it has no real consequences, he doesnt lose any fights, it doesnt cost him anything in the book. And apperantly he beats deamon Angron to a pulp in single combat so he AINT that old.  

 

I like old man Lion, i think he will be better to read about then 30k arch paranoid/team killing Lion. But the transition was NOT in my view handled well.  It reminded me of the fall of Horus in the first three HH books, we go from good charisma bro horus to betray/murder my sons horus way way too fast and it never felt like change or growth. Just a author telling me this guy is X now and no longer Y.  

 

Mayhaps a chapter or two focusing on him pondering his actions in the hh/the fall of caliban in depth and him coming to the realization he F up rather then a quick 1 paragraph mistakes were made thought here and there would have made this transition easier. Cause again i dont think most people have issues with the idea of a mature lion, but rather the very rushed execution. 

[Ayatollah_of_Rock_n_Rolla]

44 minutes ago, Blindhamster said:

 

guilliman was in stasis, the lion wasn’t. As a result, the former is mostly the same individual, the latter has grown more significantly.

 

 

Spoiler

Lion's last memories are from siege of Caliban, than he wakes up in 42nd millenium. There's no difference between him and RG or reason why he should be more mature.

 

[Petitioner's City]

I must admit I rather loved this novel and am surprised to see the critical reception!

 

Not Mike's best work (I think his underappreciated necromunda books are these), but I read this quickly and happily, and liked this unique brotherhood the fallen present - in which ideologically opposed members still are able to entreaty one another or share time together and not just immediately fight - it's intriguing, for 40k.

 

Indeed, I like that the conflict between these facets of Angels is very limited, and forgiveness, debt and honour are all important parts of the myths that underwrite the Angels. 

 

[Allart01]

As I approached the end of the novel, I have come to a weird conclusion.

I actually agree with both camps in this topic.

 

 

I virtually like all the bullet points.

 

- Old Man Lion reflecting on past mistakes

- A new meaning to the Hunt and his role as Lord Protector

- The Lion's Protectorate in Imperium Nihilus

- The different representations of the Fallen and their redemption

 

This is all very good to me.

In fact, I love it.

 

But I have to agree that the delivery wasn't perfect.

It lacked something.

Depth, gravitas, layers.

Everything was smooth, easy, and went a little too conveniently from point A to point B without much struggle or conflict.

Unlike some of the fraters, I like the new direction for the Lion, but I can't really disagree with one of the posters who said it didn't really feel completely earned.

 

Overall, I'd say the novel has some very evident strenghts and weaknesses.

By the last page, I could see both pretty clearly.

 

This is definitely a subjective book, more than usual, and I can see why it may disappoint people with different expectations or a desire for tastier reveals.

 

If anything, I'm not so chuffed at having missed the LE at this point - there is clearly bigger stuff to come, and this was just a tie in/set up.

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Allart01

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

Since I'm not exactly a Dark Angels scholar and that MIGHT be important to answering this question...

 

Anyone have any theories regarding Lohoc? Who is really under that helmet?

[BitsHammer]

7 minutes ago, Lord Nord said:

Since I'm not exactly a Dark Angels scholar and that MIGHT be important to answering this question...

 

 

  Hide contents

Anyone have any theories regarding Lohoc? Who is really under that helmet?

 

 I have a small theory:

Spoiler

Lohoc is likely mutated by Chaos and wants to die a loyalist instead of as a traitor.

 

 

[Scribe]

Again, it didnt need to be a civil war, but I think my expectations for the book were just way higher than others.

 

If @wecanhaveallthree is providing a full summary here, and he just 'woke up a new man' then its just a complete miss to me.

[BitsHammer]

7 minutes ago, Scribe said:

Again, it didnt need to be a civil war, but I think my expectations for the book were just way higher than others.

 

If @wecanhaveallthree is providing a full summary here, and he just 'woke up a new man' then its just a complete miss to me.

I don't think he woke up a new man but let me give a summary spoiler of the early story:

Spoiler

So the Lion woke up near a brook with no memories of basically anything and sees the Fisher King and is stopped from wading into the water to reach him by a Dark Watcher who flat out tells him that the shadowy fish things in the water would destroy him.

 

The Watchers call the woods they're in "home" so that adds to their mystery. It also stops him from entering a castle he sees because he isn't strong enough yet.

 

His path through the woods takes him to a place where he finds some people being attacked by monsters he beats with his armoured fists. The people mention having a protector and he takes the lion looking one to skin as they go to meet them. 

 

The protector is a Dark Angel Destroyer who immediately draws his bolt pistols and starts shooting while calling Johnson a traitor. The Lion manages to subdue him without killing him.

Here's the how Johnson and the First Fallen reconcile

Spoiler

Watching Terra burn, because he was too late. Returning to Caliban, and watching it burn around him. Facing Luther, and the tidal wave of grief that struck him when he realised what his old friend had become, a tidal wave which strikes him once more and nearly bears him under. And then… and then…

Nothing. Just the forest, and the river.

The Lion pins the Space Marine down before he can reach for the combat knife or the chainsword at his belt. He glances down at the black armour, battered and worn, and still carrying signs that would mean nothing to those outside the Legion, but which to the Lion are as clear as the faces of the people around him.

‘Knight of the second Destroyer squad in Third Company, Fifteenth Chapter. Diacon of the Order of the Three Keys, and initiate of the Dreadwing.’ More memories rise to the surface, furnishing him with the name that belongs to those ranks. ‘Zabriel.’

The Space Marine’s expression cannot be seen behind the faceplate of his armour, but Lion El’Jonson feels his struggling stop. It is replaced by a different sort of tension, however, one which the Lion can still sense. Warriors of the Legiones Astartes do not know fear, but something not entirely dissimilar has Zabriel in its grip, if the primarch is any judge.

‘Get off him!’ someone screams, ten feet behind the Lion and three to his right. ‘He is our protector!’

‘He is a traitor,’ the Lion growls, the words resonating in his throat, and solidifying in his brain as they pass his lips. Yes, a traitor, just like Luther. 

The Lion remembers the designations of all those he ordered back to Caliban, and Zabriel’s squad was amongst them. ‘A traitor who has now tried to murder me for the second time.’

‘You are the traitor!’ the Space Marine rages from beneath him. ‘You abandoned us, you abandoned Caliban, and you abandoned the Imperium!’

‘Lies!’ the Lion snarls, but Zabriel’s words latch their claws into freshly reopened wounds. The Lion knows he did not intend to abandon the Imperium, but how many times did he question himself whether what he was doing was the correct course of action? Chemos, Nuceria, Barbarus: they all died at the hands of his sons in an attempt to draw the traitors away from Terra, and open a path for Sanguinius and the Blood Angels. Should the Dark Angels have forged on regardless? Should the Lion have turned his Legion into the spear tip so favoured by the Sons of Horus, and gone for his treacherous brother’s throat?

Would that have saved his father’s life?

‘Lies? Then where have you been for ten thousand years?’ Zabriel demands.

The Lion opens his mouth to call him a fool, but the words won’t come. He wants to demand Zabriel repeat himself, but that would be pointless: the Lion heard him perfectly. The words themselves are not in doubt. It is the meaning behind them that has paralysed Lion El’Jonson into unfamiliar indecision.

He swallows, sits back, and releases Zabriel’s arms. ‘Take your helmet off.’

‘What?’

‘Take your helmet off,’ the Lion growls, ‘or I will remove it for you.’

 

For a moment, the Lion thinks Zabriel is going to go for his weapons, but then the Dark Angel reaches up and disengages his helmet as instructed. The Lion is already reassessing the state of his traitorous son’s wargear. It is battered, yes, but battered and repaired imperfectly, time and time again. These are not the marks of one giant combat, but the result of repeated use, far beyond when Legion protocol would dictate that the parts be replaced. Zabriel lifts his helmet clear, and his face is revealed. The Lion searches his memory, and finds a near match: Zabriel, Terran, skin a cool mid-brown, hair black, eyes a dark sapphire. A veteran from the earliest days of the Legion, he was already a mature Space Marine by the time the Lion took command.

The face revealed is heavily lined, the dark hair is shot through with grey, and multiple small keloids mark the skin, where Zabriel has been injured and it has scarred. The Lion has never seen a Space Marine this… old. Some of the enhanced, like Lorgar’s wretch Kor Phaeron, yes; those warriors were never a Space Marine’s equal, being raised up while older, and lacking the advanced gene-smithing that kept the ravages of time at bay so effectively. A true Space Marine, though?

The Lion reaches up slowly with one armoured hand, and rubs gently at the lines he knows mark his own face. He had no idea what he was looking at when he saw his reflection in the river; nothing with which to compare it. Now he remembers how he looked the last time he saw himself, and he wonders.

He shakes his head, clinging to what he knows. ‘No. Ten thousand years is an impossibility. A primarch… I cannot be sure how we would age. But a Space Marine would be long dead, I am certain of it.’

‘The warp storm scattered us not just through space, but also through time,’ Zabriel says. ‘I re-emerged perhaps four hundred years ago. Four hundred years of running and hiding from my little brothers,’ he adds scornfully. ‘We were always single-minded once we engaged a foe, but ten thousand years of hatred in an attempt to extinguish guilt? Truly, my lord Lion, you taught your sons well.’

‘What mockery is this?’ the Lion snarls. ‘We returned to Caliban from Terra, only to find the system held against us! You opened fire on us without warning, and your leaders had made pacts with–’ He becomes aware again of the people around them, too scared to get close but too fascinated to draw back. Some of them are within earshot, for sure. ‘With powers I will not name,’ he finishes, lowering his voice. ‘I cannot explain how I have come to be here, for my memory was impaired until I laid eyes upon you, and some things are still hidden from me, but one thing is plain – as soon as you saw me, you tried to kill me again! Why should my loyal sons not hunt traitors like yourself?’

Zabriel sighs and rests his head back on the ground, his aspect of one who is weary beyond all reason. ‘I knew nothing of the powers of which you speak. I had no contact with
our leaders, Luther and Astelan and the others, save briefly and in passing. I was not party to any order to open fire upon your fleet. But as for my reaction to seeing you…’

He raises his head, and looks the Lion in the eye. It is not an experience the Lion is used to; even in his old memories there were few that could hold his gaze for any length of time.

‘I saw you once only after you ordered us to Caliban. The fleet was raining fire upon us, and our brothers had landed to make war. I caught a glimpse of you, for the first time in years, as you cut your way through some new recruits who had never laid eyes on you, and whose first true battle wearing the armour of the First Legion was against their gene-father and his executioners. They died in moments and you pressed on, presumably in search of Luther. I did not see you again. However, even with what came  afterwards, even when the planet splintered and the warp reached out to seize us all, it was the expression on your face that remained with me then, and for all the long years since. 

 

‘It was hatred and rage, pure and unfettered. You were intent upon our deaths, and we knew better than any others that once you set your mind to something, you could not be deterred. When I saw you here, having walked out of the forest, I could not mistake your features despite the age that has overtaken you, for your face has haunted my dreams for centuries. Either you were a Chaos-spawned mockery of my primarch, spewed forth from the Great Rift to torment me, or you were the Lion here to finally kill me. I
was prepared to tolerate neither without a fight.’ The Lion searches Zabriel’s face with his eyes and stretches out with all his senses, but he can sense no falsehood. The Space Marine’s twin heartbeat does not betray him, and there is no scent of deception, although to be sure, having been borne to the ground and disarmed by a primarch would trigger a fight-or-flight reflex in anyone, against which background the subtle scents of heightened anxiety would be difficult to make out. 

The Lion is bitterly aware that he has not always been the best judge of character. On Diamat, he handed siege machines over to Perturabo in the mistaken belief that his brother was going to use them to crush Horus’ nascent rebellion. Instead, those guns spelled doom for the Raven Guard and the Salamanders at Isstvan V. How much grief and bloodshed could have been spared had he been able to trust Guilliman from the moment the Dark Angels arrived through the Ruinstorm at Macragge? Instead, both of them kept their secrets, with disastrous consequences. 

 

And on, and on. Should he have seen what Lorgar’s obsessive love of their father concealed? Should he have recognised that Angron’s rage would never be satisfied? Should he, most crucially, have perceived the flaws in Horus Lupercal? It was not in his nature – the Lion and the First Legion had always faced outwards, searching for the danger in the darkness beyond humanity’s borders, not looking over their shoulders – but it is a failure that gnaws at him nonetheless. But how could Lion El’Jonson be expected to
see the worm inside the heart of one of the greatest diplomats and strategists humanity had ever known, when he had not even been able to foresee the thoughts and actions of his own Legion?

He has no answers. None of his brothers are here, even the ones he could trust. He must, as he so often has, do this alone. ‘You say I abandoned the Imperium,’ he says, his voice low and dangerous. ‘Do you swear to me by whatever you hold most dear that you remained loyal? That whatever the allegiances of your commanders, you, Zabriel, loved the Emperor and humanity, and that you only raised your hand to your brothers and to me because you thought you were betrayed in turn?’

Zabriel’s eyes still do not leave his. ‘I swear it.’

The Lion hesitates, but how can he decry his gene-son for not realising the failures of his commanders, when the Lion himself had never detected his own brothers’ treachery until it was too late? Besides which, these people consider Zabriel to be their protector, which at least implies that he has not fallen into the same sort of darkness as the heretics of Horus’ rebellion. 

 

‘Your story of ten thousand years is hard to accept,’ Lion El’Jonson says, ‘but I believe these words.’ He rises, and reaches down to offer a hand to Zabriel; a gesture as much as it is assistance, for a Space Marine needs no help to get to his feet.

Zabriel does not move. ‘And do you also swear?’ 

 

Lion El’Jonson frowns. ‘Swear what?’

‘Do you swear to me by whatever you hold most dear that you remained loyal? That you, the Lion, loved the Emperor and humanity, and that you only raised your hand to your gene-sons because you thought you were betrayed?’

The Lion growls deep in his throat at being questioned so by one of his warriors, but he holds his tongue. It seems he has much to learn, and Zabriel’s obvious age immediately suggests that he may know more than any of the humans of Camarth. Besides, the Lion has no reason not to give the honest answer beyond that of stubborn pride, and he has seen how that can tear the galaxy apart. 

 

‘I swear it,’ he says. Zabriel reaches up to accept his hand, and the Lion
pulls him to his feet. 

So going through all of that I don't think the Lion just accepted the Fallen (later in the story they make it clear that he is on guard for betrayal from the former Fallen and they are likely on guard against him), and if it wasn't because that a Primarch is a living lie detector to a level that not even an Astartes can manage it he wouldn't have trusted what he was told even a little. Between that and his own failings still being fresh in his memory he's definitely more willing to accept things than if a normal person had been told the same story.

[Scribe]

OK, fair enough.

 

Does it explain his 'wood walking'?

[BitsHammer]

6 minutes ago, Scribe said:

OK, fair enough.

 

Does it explain his 'wood walking'?

It seems to be related to the Watchers somehow as the one he meets in there after waking up called it "Home". That said it seems to be an ability innate to him so it could be an extension of the warp stuff that a Primarch is made out of.

[Scribe]

Hmm, not sure I like that direction, but we will see.

[BitsHammer]

38 minutes ago, Scribe said:

Hmm, not sure I like that direction, but we will see.

I think not explaining it entirely now let's them do more with it later.