Editing Lion El'Jonson (section)

===Reaction To Horus becoming Warmaster===

{{Topquote|He counted all men of power to think as he did, yet while the Lion and the Wolf of Luna shared many traits, they were not the same. When news of Horus' new rank reached the Lion he did not pause in his campaigns, did not offer congratulations or lament his own fortune and this, more than the reaction of any of his other brothers, gave the Warmaster pause.|Horus' reaction to the Lion's reaction to Horus becoming Warmaster}}

Surprisingly, despite their differences, both Russ and the Lion shared a similar reaction to Horus becoming Warmaster. Whilst many of their brothers threw massive temper tantrums and acted like spoiled brats, both the Lion and Russ accepted the decision with cynical resolve, unsurprised that it was Horus that had been chosen. Neither had been pleased with the decision, but neither of them could doubt his fitness for the role, for none of the primarchs had ever matched Horus’s achievements, nor the intimacy of his bond with the Emperor. Well, except for [[Sanguinius]], that is.

Initially, after Horus’s appointment, there was a silent but very [[Slaanesh|awkward tension]] between Horus and the Lion. The relationship between the two primarchs had always been fractious (Horus believed that the Lion felt he should be the most revered primarch because his Legion was the first). It had never spilled over into open confrontation, but Horus knew that their new circumstances would put their already straned brotherly bonds under additional pressure. Surprisingly it was the Lion and not Horus who made the effort to extend the olive branch, an offer that Horus could not afford to ignore.

The position of Warmaster does not make you the next Emperor in waiting, but as shown in “Unremembered Empire”, was the highest military position in the Imperium. Horus as the <s>first found</s> (at least officially; according to new lore, that position actually belongs to [[Alpharius]], though we only have ''his'' word on that...) already had a long and proven record that had yet to be beaten, although the Lion seems to have been catching him up pretty quickly. Horus also had one thing that the Lion, despite his brilliance, did not: his natural charisma - the ability to get people to do what he wanted and to act as a mediator between his various brothers, who would normally be at each other’s throats. The Lion was both introverted as fuck and had a stubborn, independent streak which meant that although he would follow the orders he was given, he would do it “his way”, which might not gel well with what other people may have wanted.

In the short story '''The Board is Set''', the symbolic depiction of the piece used to represent the Lion is the ''"Double-Edged Sword"'', which indicates that the Emperor may have known that the Lion had the capacity to bring both favourable and unfavourable consequences and therefore kept him away from the position of Warmaster for that very reason (though ironically he did trust him and his legion with a [[Psyker|SUPER]] [[Men of Iron|SEKRIT]] MacGuffin arsenal of [[Dark Age of Technology|Dark Age]]-era artifacts that [[Adeptus Mechanicus|nobody else]] in the Imperium possessed). Additionally, [[Lorgar]] was given a vision apparently showing all the Primarchs that would side with Horus during the Heresy. One of the Primarchs shown fits the description of the young Lion arriving on Caliban. The [[Chaos Gods]] seem to have really wanted and fully expected the Lion to have joined their side during the Heresy. The fact that the Lion stayed loyal either shows that the Emperor made the right choice with the Lion, or that the sword hadn't swung both ways yet. However, it's more likely that the double-edged sword was the depiction of a loyal tool that can cut friend or foe without hesitation; a Lion that can kill his enemies but also a brother gone astray, as proven in his readiness to strike down [[Fallen Angels|fallen]] brothers if need to.