Editing Dark Angels (section)

=== LOYAL? Or Traitor? ===
{{Blam|+++INNER CIRCLE ACCESS GRANTED+++}}

Gav Thorpe's '''Angels of Darkness''' was intended to display that the Dark Angels' quest for redemption had made them sinister and brutal, not label them as being traitors (as the wider audience and /tg/ often treats them as). This is because most people took '''Astelan''' and the accusations he leveled at the modern-day Chapter and the Lion as truth, not taking into account his jealousy of the Lion nor his skewed interpretation of events and logical fallacies (something that Gav himself has tried to remind people of). Astelan thought the Lion to be a traitor and opened fire on the fleet when they were in orbit around Caliban without ''any'' attempt at negotiation or communication. The fleet returned fire in self-defense, so Astelan drew the [[FAIL|perfectly logical and sound]] conclusion that the Lion had betrayed them. It doesn't seem to matter as much as people think it does, however, as Gav himself said that it wasn't an objective view of what happened on Caliban but a character study on a member of the Fallen.

Admittedly, though, some of Astelan's theories do make just a little too much sense to be easily dismissed, like his belief that the Dark Angels' paranoia and obsession with secrecy is just as much a gene-inheritance from the Lion as it is a post-heresy development. It's possible it's something el'Jonson developed (or was tainted with) as an infant in the darkness of old Caliban. However, Astelan's mind and his recollections of things are unreliable - not only is he a Fallen Angel, he is trying to cause others to fall as well. We only have his word to take for it (not to mention that he ended up consorting with [[Typhus]] against the loyalist Dark Angels over the course of The Unforgiven).

Another factor that hasn't helped the First Legion's tainted reputation was the implication that the Unforgiven would be destroyed in their entirety if their secret went out - skewing the Dark Angels from ultra-loyalists trying their damnedest to reach some sort of absolution for their wrongdoings and mistakes into a bunch of cowardly extremists concerned only with self-preservation and their honor. This confusion is the result of an attempt to raise the stakes despite universal proof that their assumption is completely wrong. This coupled with the increasing plot emphasis on them abandoning their allies demonstrates some authors prioritizing shock value at the expense of any actual depth the Chapter might have once had. Even though only the Inner Circle hunt Fallen and every other Marine is kept away from hunts, which would mean abandoning allies to hunt Fallen would be outright impossible because only a handful of people in the Chapter are allowed to hunt Fallen. They are supposedly a calculating, heavily coordinated group orchestrating a covert operation of monumental proportions, yet they [[Derp|clumsily attract the attention of the very people]] they are trying to keep their secrets from.

About the only positive thing that can be said about all this is that it at least provokes discussion. As it stands, it's simply lazy writing. The writers at GW could do a lot with what the Unforgiven would be willing to do or to sacrifice in the name of their hunt for the Fallen, but right now it's demonstrative of just how threadbare DA fluff has become in recent years. As fun as it is to hypothesize whether or not they're loyal or traitor, the truth probably has more to do with who they're loyal to. The Dark Angels themselves are more like the [[Soul Drinkers]] rather than full on Chaos Marines: more devoted to Emps and humanity as a whole than the rotting Imperium.

To clarify, the First Legion ''(and later Chapter and all their successors)'' are indeed loyal and not traitors. The Lion himself has now been quoted as saying "Loyalty is its own reward", which sort of kills the whole "they might be closet traitors" thing. There is even an example where the Dark Angels encounter a Consecrators Marine that had fallen to Nurgle. When he was captured, the loyalists explained that there would be no taking him back to the Rock to be interrogated. They did not consider him "Fallen", since he was not deceived by [[Luther]] who led astray the Angels on Caliban. This traitor was considered weak for allowing Chaos to get to him and was promptly executed and his body left in the dust. Come to think of it, other than the Fallen who fell to Chaos (which seems to not actually be many of them), the Dark Angels don’t seem to have had anyone turn to Chaos, neither Marine nor Chapter. No other Legion can claim such a thing.

In conclusion, the sons of the Lion are ostensibly loyal, albeit with a massive guilty conscience that ''(unlike the [[White Scars]] who resolved their internal issues at the time and look back on it as a shameful memory with no guilt placed on the modern descendants of the Legion)'' the Unforgiven <u>cannot</u> let go of, because the sins of the past are '''not''' ancient history as long as these Fallen Angels keep falling out of space and time to remind them of it. So, what might have begun as a relatively innocuous "stomp the traitor" exercise has devolved into a millennia-long slog. The Unforgiven continue to skirt the grey area as each abandoned battlefield or trusted ally silenced adds to their burden of collective guilt. By now, the actions they have taken to continue the Hunt have become more shameful than the original crime. Therefore rather than the shame fading with the passage of time it only becomes more imperative for them to complete their task.

This is spelled out bluntly by [[Troll|Cypher himself]] in ''The Unforgiven''. While every legion took part in the [[Great Scouring]], the Dark Angels did so in secret, never admitting to having traitors and Horus sympathizers in their ranks like the other eight legions did. Most Fallen were totally unaware of the Heresy and, as a result, they either fell to Chaos of their own accord or were deceived. Now in the 41st Millennium it's FAR too late to rectify this; the time for earning forgiveness is long past. However, perhaps the Dark Angels' true redemption is near despite their long-running record of questionable actions. The [[Iron Hands]] have been recovering from their fatalistic attitude and repressed emotions in the wake of the Gaudinian Heresy. Perhaps the Dark Angels can finally get past their shame, especially since the recent Horus Heresy books and other lore have explicitly made the Lion's loyalties very clear.

Despite the Unforgiven being prepared to do anything and everything in order to keep their secrets hidden, Supreme Grand Master Azrael has stated that should the day ever arrive when the Imperium discovers their dark history and turns its fury upon the sons of the Lion, then the Unforgiven will refuse to raise arms against the Imperium. Not one shot will be fired or blade drawn in their own defense. Although they are prepared to do some very shady things in order to keep their secrets hidden, they are unwilling to plunge the Imperium into what would assuredly be a very costly civil war that the Imperium really can’t afford to fight. '''They will not be responsible for a second Horus Heresy, or a Badab 2.0'''. The recent lore has really hammered home that, in spite of how suspicious and shady the Dark Angels are, they have never been ''delusional.'' They know what they are doing is wrong, but they have a ten-thousand-year promise to fulfill.

With the resurrection of Guilliman, this oath would be tested like never before. With the knowledge that Guilliman had spent time around Cypher and members of the Fallen, Azrael had every reason to believe that the game was up when Guilliman's armada appeared above the Rock. The temptation to strike back against their potential executioners and to protect his brothers was very real. Yet despite the possible ramifications, Azrael kept true to his word and ordered the Unforgiven to stand down (good thing old Guilliman still doesn't know the truth).

With the release of the new Codex, Phil Kelly himself said on Twitch TV the full recount of the events on Caliban, short history Dark Angels Good, Fallen Bad, ''just kill the [[Troll|joke]], [[Luke|its not funny anymore]].'' A bit odd considering how he'd go on to release a book where, due to a Fallen releasing a highly infectious psychic plague, the Dark Angels made a deal with the Tau to terminate those infected upon a planet belonging to the [[Angels of Absolution]] (yes, that includes killing the small number of Angels, as they had also been infected) before it spread to other systems. The justification that the book gives is that they could not be seen to be doing it themselves (even though they would have lost nothing by just telling them); they in turn would do the same to the human population under the Tau's protection. It was either a choice of killing a handful of marines or allowing a potentially apocalyptic plague to run rampant across the galaxy.
The Angels are not only one of their successor Chapters, but the Dark Angels even go so far as to supply the Tau with gear that would allow the Tau in question to detect all those that had been infected. The Tau in question may have taken it a bit further than anyone might have imagined (it's the Tau from the game Fire Warrior, he might as well have been screaming "Blood for the blood God"). The whole story is very ham-fisted and ends with the stationed Angels of Absolution finding out, and then promptly covering it up.