Angels of Absolution
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| Angels of Absolution | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Founding | Second Founding | |
| Successors of | Dark Angels | |
| Primarch | Lion El'Jonson | |
| Specialty | Getting over their dark and edgy past | |
| Allegiance | Imperium | |
| Colours | Bone White and Green | |
The Angels of Absolution are a Second Founding successor chapter of the Dark Angels. They are perhaps the successor with their heads on the straightest, since they realize that the sins of their forebearers are not their own, and thus they don't have to seek out forgiveness from the Emperor, though that doesn't mean they don't join in a merry game of 'Hunt the Fallen Angels' once in a while.
The Angels of Absolution are for the most part similar in temperament, outlook and everything else to their parent chapter. It is just on the one belief that they (quite sensibly) differ; they believe the actions of their forebearers in combating the corrupted angels during the Fall cleansed their blood of the guilt and that their many acts in the Emperor's name since then have only confirmed that. Considering they are talking about 10,000 years here you can see where they are coming from. Just how many oceans of blood does the Emperor need to wash that much guilt off, damn?
They are also proof that, deep down, the Dark Angels have a sense of humour. In the 7th Edition Dark Angels codex, they are cited as having a "gallows humour" and are prone to "sardonic banter" and "bleak irony." Which means they are awesome.
They don't yet have the balls to tell their parent chapter to man up and stop being so emo about the whole fallen thing. Or, maybe they did and the Dark Angels ignored them. Or maybe the Dark Angels mistook it for them taking the piss?
Unlike a number of successor chapters, they have a number of mentions of campaigns they have undertook, which has given them some colour and personality.
They show up in Forgeworld's Siege of Vraks campaign towards the end under orders from Azrael to capture Arkos the Faithless and regain the honour lost by their parent chapter earlier in the campaign. Interestingly, the fluff in the book shows that the Angels of Absolution have Sternguard Veteran squads, or, at the very least, 1st company veteran squads that can use Specialised Ammunition, which is something that the other Dark Angels successors do not have access to since they all have Deathwing equivalents. (The only way to represent this on the tabletop would be to use Codex: Space Marines.). This has been corrected in the updated Imperial Armour: Siege of Vraks book, where the picture above has had the numbers switched to represent the "First" squad of the "Fourth" company, rather than the "Fourth" squad of the "First" company, citing that as members of the Unforgiven, the 1st Company only ever takes the field in Terminator Armour. Maybe one of the writers read this page?
Relics & Honours
Like any other chapter, the Angels of Absolution have their own relics. Redemption's Lament was a master-crafted, sanctified power sword. It was handed over to the Deathwatch around the same time that the chapter stopped referring to themselves as "Unforgiven". The battle-brother who left it behind saying: "its fate no longer dwelt with its brethren".
However, the blade completely FREAKS OUT the Angels of Absolution, subtly eroding their sanity with its presence, which is particularly interesting as per the rules, since the Angels of Absolution don't break down the same way that Dark Angels and other successors do. Instead they gain corruption if they fail to deal with their ever-increasing level of insanity, essentially becoming closer to renegades themselves. So it's clear that the blade is a reminder to members of the chapter of something particularly bad... perhaps they've been a bit premature about absolving themselves of their guilt?