Editing Leman Russ (section)

==The Next Step==
Russ conquered and took. He bartered and traded. He united the people of Asaheim under his rule. Somehow, the Emprah heard of it and realized it all had to be the work of a Primarch. So then he attended a royal banquet in the Hall of the Mountain Ki- I mean Leman Russ. The Emprah, taking a leaf out of Odin's book, disguised himself as some old geezer, then waited until the right moment to reveal his true identity. When he did Russ refused to bow down and challenged him to several contests, he ate so much the Emprah was forced to back down. Russ drank so much the Emprah was forced to back down. By now, the Emprah was fairly surprised at finally being out-done by someone else, Russ gazed upon the Emperor and challenged him in combat, and so did the Emprah raise his Power Glove into the air for all to see, and so did he then bring it down on Leman Russ's head, knocking him the fuck out in one solid hit.

[[Image:russ_furry_original.jpg|300px|thumb|frame|right|...and this is the first portrayal getting ready for a furry con.]]

Of course fluff changes and a 1-hit KO wasn't very fulfilling, so the new lore arrived: After the Emperor revealed himself Leman Russ skipped the eating and drinking contests and just challenged the Emperor to a fight. It is unknown whether the Emperor was in his full armour and actually had his Power Fist at the time, or whether he used his psychic powers; but the duel lasted for hours. (Presumably Russ did a lot better this time by virtue of not being drunk.) In the end, though the Emperor, presumably pissy that Leman was waving his cock in his face by just straight up fighting him, punched him square in the face and dropped him. When Russ awoke, he laughed it off and swore loyalty to the one who managed to beat him. Afterwards he ended up in command of the one Space Marine legion that knows how to eat, drink, brawl and make war upon any asshole that mocks their Thunderwolf.

Rumour has it that the Emp was so pleased with Russ' prowess, that he tasked him and the Space Wolves to be his executioners and it seems Russ is the reason the 2nd and 11th Legions no longer exist. So he has experience fucking up a Primarch, which is pretty goddamn manly. (Not confirmed by any sources and is not more than passing conversation in one Black Library novel, other than that, yeah totally definitely didn't kill the other legions. Also if you take how he acted with Angron and Magnus, he totally hated his job of being the executioner... and apparently thought Lorgar was a pretty cool guy; the title of executioner is very much a self given title; Russ believed that he had the “right” to unofficially police his brothers, just like he did with Angron (the Emperor was never even consulted, Russ just decided that he wanted too do it)- Vulkan once mentioned that the Wolves being sent by Russ to watch over the other Primarchs was considered to be a bit of a joke.

The novel "Betrayer" give's Angron's version of their run-in, where he tells to Lorgar what happened. Russ had taken it upon himself to school the World Eaters as he was disgusted by their behavior. Angron was having none of Russ's babbling and picked a fight with him by insulting the Big.E. Angron eventually downed Russ in single combat while the World Eaters ended up killing Wolves faster than the Wolves killed them - but this was because Angron was fighting to kill while Russ was trying to teach. It ended with the Space Wolves nearest the battling Primarchs outmaneuvering the World Eaters and winning a tactical victory by surrounding Angron, some more hissing vitriol between the two Primarchs and Angron leaving. The World Eaters believed they won that battle due to a higher kill count and the Wolves left disappointed that their legion brothers were too retarded to see the lesson Russ was trying to teach. It is pretty telling that even <u>Lorgar</u> replied to Angron that he was a complete tool on that night and would have been killed after hearing him boast of how he won against Russ. With that said, Lorgar was able to get Angron to learn the lesson Russ was trying to teach him by just talking to him ''for two minutes'', and he did it without getting a shit load of his own men killed or getting his ass handed to him in a duel. Not only does it show just how badly Russ failed at what he had set out to do on the Night of the Wolf, but also how his own hotheadedness and fundamental inability to understand his brothers can royally bite him in the ass.

In addition, Russ “plan” wasn’t a very good one: in order to surround Angron the Wolves left themselves outnumbered in the rest of the field, which resulted in the World Eaters killing them at a much greater rate. They did achieve localized superiority around Angron as Russ wanted, but at the cost of losing superiority across the rest of the battlefield. If Angron hadn’t stopped he would have very likely killed Russ, the surrounding Wolves would have tried to kill him (not sure they could have succeeded), then the Wolves themselves would have been surrounded by some very angry and vengeful Worlds Eaters. Good thing Angron walked away or Russ’ plan would have resulted in two potentially dead Primarchs and two crippled legions - not sure this was very well thought out?

Apart from that, Russ and his Space Wolves had a goddamn good time during the Great Crusade, although it hasn't been written about so this is all we can guess. Until ''Inferno'' dropped. It turns out that Russ and his legion earned their “dark” reputation during the process of fighting the Rangdan Xenocides, which saw entire Army regiments, Titan Legions and [REDACTED] Space Marine Legions (could be Chapters, could actually be entire Legions) wiped out (they along with the Lion and his legion were charged to [[/tg/ gets shit done|do what must be done!]]) With the Luna Woves up to the eyes in glorious warfare in the Galactic East, Russ and the VI headed north along with the I Legion - this is the war that ended the I's time as the largest Legion. The end of the Xenocides entailed a series of bio-pogroms which left the Wolves with a very ugly reputation, and from then on Russ' role was the doer of necessary dirty deeds.