Cypher

Cypher, the Fallen Angel. Is rumored to have descended from Desmond Miles.

HE'S COMING, HE'S COMING, HE'S COMING!... Yeah, Right. He came. He's here.

Cypher is a pretty impressive Independent Character who Games Workshop neglected releasing rules for despite his model being available for fucking ever and being referenced every 12 seconds in Dark Angels fluff. He was originally notable for having a 4+ on 3D6 completely unmodifiable proof against everything bullshit saving throw on death that served no function but to prevent the other player getting the victory points for killing him since he was still removed even if he passed it. Thanks, Second Ed Codex: Chaos! With the Dataslate from Digital Editions, nearly everyone can now field this bastard in their 6E army.

He's basically a Fallen Dark Angel who dual-wields pistols - one Plasma, one Bolt ,both master-crafted, and both possibly archaeotech - and wears a sweet bone white hoodie over his power armor. Whenever he pops up on the Dark Angel radar, the Inner Circle loses its shit and dispatches the Deathwing and Ravenwing to bring the fucker in but they never can. They've claimed kills, but he always fucking shows up again.

List of Cypher's Achievements / Troll-List

• Circa M31 Cypher presents himself at the Rock to the Dark Angels and their twelve successors, explaining that Fallen Angels are going to be dropping out of time and spilling the beans. So they form the Unforgiven to keep the secret under wraps.
• 632.M32 Destroyed/Disappeared a Dark Angels successor chapter (the Lions Sable) and a Dark Angels Supreme Grand Master, then returned the Lion Helm & Sword of Secrets to the Dark Angels
• 822.M33 Once again, gave back the Lion Helm & Sword of Secrets after the Dark Angels lost them to Orks.
• 997.M33 Corrupted the Angels of Redemption's recruiting world for some reason (more than likely exposed corruption, but since the planet paid its taxes on time, no one cared). At some point Cypher also guides the Dark Angels to the Feral World of Kimmeria, where Azrael is from.
• M34-M35 Was on the Ur Council during the Nova Terra Interregnum and RULED HALF THE IMPERIUM.
• 624.M36 Fought the C'Tan Deceiver IN THE WARP. The paradox of that shit caused his phase knife to exist outside of the space-time continuum and so he has it, but doesn't have it. Cypher broke physics.
• 665.M38 Impersonated an Inquisitor and deleted the Imperial records about himself and the Dark Angels.
• 200-500.M39 Hangs out with the Alpha Legion NOTHING HAPPENED, A PERSON WHO DOES NOT EXIST DOES NOT ASSOCIATE WITH PEOPLE WHO DO NOT EXIST
• 518.M39 Betrays the Alpha Legion PEOPLE WHO DO NOT EXIST and the Dark Angels incidentally reclaim a hundred planets from them while hunting for Cypher. The High Lords of Terra give them a whole bunch of medals which they wear with pride.
• Late M39 Kills the Grand Master of the Interrogator Chaplains, Belagor, delivering this bad ass line "Luckily for you I do not equate justice with torture so I promise you this will be swift."
• 976.M41 Single-handedly saves a planet from Chaos, leaves one loyalist survivor who becomes Cypher's fall guy when the Dark Angels come checking.
• 989.M41 Pisses off Lugft Huron and the Red Corsairs swear to kill him. Get in the queue guys.
• 997.M41 The High Lords of Terra get worried about broadcasts from the "Voice of the Emperor" and send SEVERAL members of the Officio Assassinorum to deal with it. None return.
• 998.M41 Ophidium Gulf Incident
• 999.M41 Gets into a fight with Belial of the Dark Angels who is the chapter's greatest warrior. Belial's weapons fail.
• Late M41 Cypher attempts to kill an Inquisitor who is close to figuring out the secret of the Fallen Angels, the Ravenwing spoil the kill, potentially causing themselves problems later.
• The aftermath of 13th Black Crusade While the "Voice of the Emperor" has caused a lot of uprisings, it becomes clear that the Cadian sector is now more faithful and prepared than it has ever been (much to Abaddon's irritation). The Dark Angels discover the source of the broadcasts was the ruins of Old Caliban and switch it off.
• M42(?) (Some years after the battle of Koth Ridge) Cypher presents himself to the Dark Angels and precipitates a sequence of events whereby it is implied that the Dark Angels of the future are involved with the destruction of Caliban.

6th (and 7th) Edition

His Dataslate comes with some insane(AWESOME) changes and were updated along with the limited edition of the 7E Dark Angels codex.

For one, he can be a non-FOC HQ (But never Warlord) for a Sisters of Battle (eh?), Blood Angels, Grey Knights (Meaning that Kaldor Draigo's even more of a dick than Azrael thought), Imperial Guard, Chaos Space Marines, Space Wolves (How?), Vanilla Marines and Inquisition (WOT) army. I mean seriously, how would even HALF of these armies accept this bastard as an ally?(master of disguise) And the kicker is that he'll cost -1 Ld on your real warlord. He can't join a Dark Angels army, and if he's up against Dark Angels, every model with the Deathwing rule gains Hatred (Everyone).

As an Independent Character, he gets ATSKNF, Fleet, Hit & Run, frag & krak grenades and Infiltrate. His sword also gives him Eternal Warrior and Shrouded. Also note that he has BS 10. THE SHIT, GEEDUBS.

	Pts	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
Cypher:	190	7	10	4	4	3	8	3	10	3+

Also, that old rule about his daring escape is around again with three modes if Dark Angels are on the field:

• If a Dark Angel is within D6" when he goes down, he's worth 3 flippin' Victory Points for being caught alive.
• If anyone else is within D6" when he goes down, he awards no extra Victory Points for his capture. If there's both a Dark Angel and another dude around when he drops, it becomes a random roll who gets him.
• If nobody's around D6" when he goes down, he'll just leg it and nobody wins a Victory Point.
• If Cypher's still alive at the end of a game, his side wins d3 extra Victory Points.

If no Dark Angels are on the field then Cypher does not award his kill/victory point unless an enemy is within D6" of him when his last wound is lost or he is otherwise removed from the field.

His guns manage to gain some major use, as his plasma pistol ignores Gets Hot! and they allow him to overwatch at full BS. He can also shoot both pistols twice or shoot them once each before or after running. In assault, he'll also make half his attacks (rounding up) at S4 AP5 (using his bolt pistol) and the rest at S7 AP2 (using his plasma pistol), which usually means 2 plasma shots and 2-3 bolt pistol shots as he have 3 base attacks, +1 for two pistols and +1 on the charge, meaning that anything without 3+ wounds and solid invuln in challenge with him is pretty much dead. Note, that this happens on initiative eight.

He also can bring up to 3 Chosen of Chaos squads with himself, to represent his Fallen subordinates/puppets. Those Chosen does not take any slots, have ATSKNF and Infiltrate and can use Cypher's Ld if he's around at the cost of being unable to take any Chaos-y upgrades, like marks or icons, as well as no dedicated transports.

So, looking back, we can summarize the following:
1- he's awesome
2- he's the dark angel equivalent to my little pony on /tg/
3- his rules are cool, do the fluff justice, and will make DA player you face lose. Their. Mind. Just as planned.

The Green Knight/Green Man

Through Zahariel's eyes in "Angels of Caliban" Cypher is seen as a green armoured knight with leafs adorning his helmet and cloak, wielding a bright green blade. This may seem weird but it seems to be a reference to The Green Knight of Arthurian legends.

Totally not similar in anyway.

The Green Knight can appear as one of Arthur's greatest champions where he is often portrayed as an exorcist and one of the most powerful knights in Arthur's court, or he is transformed into the Green Knight in order to test Arthur's court. His major role in Arthurian literature includes being a judge and tester of knights, and as such the other characters see him as friendly but terrifying and somewhat mysterious. He was also a Brettonian rather obviously.

Or as a reference to the green man, a vegetation being in medieval art; a recollection of a figure from Celtic mythology; a Christian symbol; or the Devil himself. very fitting for Caliban don't you think.

Gallery

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  You will never find a better artwork for him than this... For now at least. Also, possibly the only official illustration that has him wearing appropriately pre-Heresy armour.

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  Possibly the first-ever artwork of him.

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  The dude has a skull fetish, you'd think he wants to be a chaplain.

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  His bolt pistol... No idea why it changes details with every artwork though...