Editing Lion El'Jonson (section)

==Capabilities==
Even amongst his brothers the Lion was renowned for his brilliant mind. Whether understanding tactics and logistics with the same effortless ease as Guilliman, or doing warp jump calculations in his head faster than the ship's computers, the Lion demonstrated a level of excellence that even the most gifted of his brothers struggled to match. To many he was the consummate general and was arguably the most imaginative tactician amongst the Primarchs, with only Corax, and perhaps Horus, having demonstrated similar levels of situational flexibility and quick thinking.

His tendencies in campaigns were essentially the opposite of Primarchs like Guilliman and Dorn. Where his two brothers liked to plan for everything the enemy could potentially do even before a battle got underway. As an example of this, when Guilliman was worried that the Lion was trying to usurp his position in Imperium Secundus, he asked his mother what could he do against an intellect that matched his own. They agreed that the Lion was a character of action; while he could plan well enough, it was actually his ''determination'' that was the root of his success. In contrast, Guilliman's strength was that when given a task, he would spend twice as much time planning rather than doing, and that if he was ever required to stop the Lion, he would start preparing his plans.

As a "character of action", the Lion tended to make a broad flexible plans and then if the situation changed, tended to "wing it" with insane skill. He was capable of a level of adaptability and improvisation which could leave his more bookish brothers looking flat-footed. Essentially, he preferred to ''feel'' situations out rather than creating codified plans to deal with every contingency. His battle record demonstrates that the Lion's reliance on his instincts, combined with how the structure and inner workings of the legion functioned, worked to such a degree that the Dark Angels had nearly as many military compliances under their belts as the Luna Wolves by the time Horus became Warmaster.

Because of their complimentary attributes; when the Lion and Guilliman are seen planning together, before turning to ask Sanguinius if he wanted to add his input. Sanguinius laughed at this and stated that there wasn’t anything he could possibly add, as the Lion and Guilliman would have already thought of anything he could possibly have come up with.

However, he did have his flaws as a commander. While the Lion was a virtually peerless tactician, able to seamlessly adapt to changing situations and improvise brilliantly. He had a hands-off approach to his Legion, and had no particular renown for either [[Perturabo|micromanagement]] or [[Roboute Guilliman|grand strategy]]; While he was Grand Master of both the '''Hexagrammaton''' and the many orders of the '''Hekatonystika''' and was privy to all of their ways and secrets, he largely stood back and allowed the system to work as intended rather than intervene directly. In fact when he first took command of his Legion, he split his forces into equally sized fleets and generally left them to sort things out by themselves. The Lion made command appointments and issued broad orders, but was otherwise not particularly visible to his Legion the same way that some other Primarchs were. The self reliance of those under his command would in turn alienate the Lion from his Legion, many of whom had no contact with him for decades at a time.

His primary problem was that while his capacity for noticing details seemed to go unmatched, his hyperfocus made him lose sight of other factors surrounding him, essentially losing sight of the forest for the sake of the trees. He was certainly obsessed with chasing Curze down until the end of the Imperium Secundus; the Lion had considered Curze’s escape a personal failing on his part, and was determined to bring him to justice for all he had done. As Lord Protector of Ultramar, while he continued to win successive engagements against the [[Word Bearers]] and [[World Eaters]], those were always secondary to his personal goal of capturing his brother, and the strategic value of those victories was minimal. Also, the distraction of the hunt also meant that when '''Sotha''' fell only one ships worth of Dark Angels was present to protect it; although those that took part, would be later honored for their bravery; they had willingly sacrificed themselves, and their ship to buy the defenders more time. Yet if Curze had not flagrantly mouthed off at Tsagualsa, the Lion might still have been stuck at Thramas for the duration of the war, so something has to be said for drawing his ire...

He was also a superlative swordsman as evidenced by the fact he could draw his blade and strike a blow faster than Konrad Curze could react, and could block and counter a blow that Guilliman had not even seen coming. When the Lion went to war, he fought with clinical movements; a ruthless economy of muscle and motion, each thrust and parry executed to perfection. He was however, sometimes caught off guard when he underestimated his opponent (he is described as sounding bored during his fight with Curze at the start), such as when Curze simply gave up trying to match the Lion with a blade and simply spear-tackled him in their first confrontation; which could have led to his defeat and potential death- a mistake he would not go on to repeat.

During his time among the Order the Lion had learned the lesson to command without doubt. Luther had impressed upon him the need to be unwavering in his convictions even in the face of impossible odds. Later during the Heresy he wondered if he'd learnt this lesson too well, and that what was once firm leadership had now become uncompromising tyranny.

===Possible Psyker===
It has been theorised that due to their nature all the Primarchs are inherently psychic to some extent. Each was imbued with warp energy at the time of his creation by the Emperor. The Lion is no exception, and has demonstrated abilities that could be psychic in origin.

*Prophetic Dreams: A long time before the arrival of the Emperor on Caliban, the Lion’s dreams had been haunted by visions of a golden light (the Emperor) descending upon Caliban from the heavens to change it forever, but every time he tried to reach out to the light (possibly his attempt to reach Terra or just his attempts to truly relate to others), it would vanish, leaving him alone in the dark (possibly foretelling the death of the Emperor or even the Lion's own eventual fate: alone, hidden in an unreachable chamber beneath the Rock for 10,000 years).
**[[Sanguinius|Fabulous Hawk-boy]] and [[Konrad Curze|Batman]] also had the power to divine the future through dream and possibly ecstatic state of the mind (and soul, considering Warp shenanigans), but [[Forge World]] [[Extra Heresy|didn't give them access to the Divination psychic discipline]], unlike Magnus and Lorgar. Too bad, [[Munchkin|precognition]] would suit both Sanguinius and the Lion, and they wouldn't need to run away from [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Daemons of the Ruinstorm (30k)|Arch-Dæmons]].
*Whilst descending into the labyrinthine mines under Sarosh, Zahariel realises that the smoke filling the tunnels was in fact etheric energies, visible only to Brother-Librarian Israfael and himself. Zahariel took note that the Lion seemed to be able to see these energies too, since his gaze seemed to follow the drifting trails of pain and anguish traced in the smoke. (He seems to be able to see and feel ethereal and warp based energies including warp taint.)
*When fighting daemons the Lion has demonstrated an ability very similar to a Librarian wielding a Force weapon; seemingly unconsciously channeling the rage and fury from deep within himself along his sword in the form of cleansing white flames causing his demonic opponents to explode. If all the Primarchs inherited some ability from the Emperor the Lion could very well have inherited his father’s ability to destroy souls entirely. Whether or not he knew this (or could have used it to defeat Horus and permanently kill Daemon princes is debatable). Daemons were known as [[Wat|nephilim on Caliban]] and the Lion remembers hunting these otherworldly beings within the deepest depths of the deep woods, [[Awesome|killing them with nothing but his bare hands.]]
*The Lion has used mental shields to hide his mind/presence from his demonic opponents (a trick he picked up when he was alone in the wilds of Caliban) and to keep others from reading his mind; he was apparently quite the discussion of interest among the legions' librarians before they were disbanded. Why the legion's librarians were trying to read their own Primarch's mind is unknown, but that kind of activity probably didn't make the Lion trust them any better.
*Dreadwing has the Lion pulling a Corax, appearing as if from thin air. A meeting of the representatives of the six wings, and a great number of the high ranking members of the fleet's mortal officers and support staff is called. They start by bowing to the Primarch's empty throne before engaging in a heated debate on how they should move forward. As the debate reaches the boiling point the Lion suddenly appears seated upon the throne, despite it being surrounded by observers. It's very likely that the Lion was seated in the throne the entire time.
*It is implied in "Angels of Caliban" that El'Jonson has some kind of passive psychic abilities that allows him to sense his surroundings and the people and creatures around him. This is apparently how he managed to survive the horrors of Caliban during his early years and allows him to “instinctively” react (jedi-like) to actions and situations far faster than even his demigod siblings would normally be able to (e.g. the Lion effortlessly blocking a blow that Guilliman couldn’t even see coming). "Dreadwing" implies that the Dark Angels may have inherited a watered down version of this power; their "instincts" for hidden perils far surpassing that of the other 'hunters' among the Space Wolves or White Scars. Along with a predisposition to the dark that could only be rivalled by the Raven Guard.

It shouldn’t come as to much of a surprise given his childhood but his abilities seem to be tailored towards hunting down and killing warp entities.

The idea that the Primarchs all had psychic potential has been pretty much confirmed in ''Inferno'', where it states that they were all transcendent beings, forged not just of physical matter but of psychic force, in some this quality was channeled into superhuman physicality (Vulkan, Mortarion), but others held power to manipulate the Warp either directly or subconsciously as prophetic foresight (Sanguinius, Curze), preternatural stealth (Corax) or an aura of majesty beyond the mortal (Lion).

Note that this is of course [[High Lords of Terra|Black Librarian]] [[Heresy]] since [[Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader|old Fluff]] gives a quite different version of the Primarchs: all of them being "as powerful as the Emperor and even more powerful in a way". This would be impossible if they were not Psykers. All of them. And the old Fluff also specifically states that they were meant to be healed from the taint of Chaos (i.e. immune to the Perils of the Warp which had cause the Shamans to combine in order to form the Imperial Soul), but that they were a disappointment in this regard because of their too early exposure to the Warp (implied to be responsible for various mutations, such as Magnus' horntits, Sanguinius' wings, and Lorgar's [[Blood Ravens Force Commander|hairetical]] baldness), which also explains why the Emperor forbade them to use psychic powers at Nikea. In 6th edition (and kind of in 7th too), it can also be pointed that Primarchs stats are similar to those of a normal human specializing in Biomancy. Which is totally unsurprising since their (and tellingly, the ''Astartes'') physical abilities even without their armor is far beyond any amount of bio or gene enhancement. In fact, the capabilities of the Iron Hands bionics go beyond what machines are capable of. If augmenting humans like that would have the same results as Astartes, that is what the Emperor would have done, implying a subconscious...techno-sorcery ''and'' biomancy perhaps for all Space Marines and Primarchs.

As of 10th edition and the Lion's return in Arks of Omen, Jonson very wields a new form of short range teleportation/warp travel, able to traverse across or even to different planets from orbit, through forest wreathed passages used by the Watchers in the Dark.