Davian Thule
Captain Davian Thule (Also known as Davian Cool) was a captain of the Blood Ravens 4th company. He appeared in Dawn of War Dark Crusade and throughout the entire Dawn of War II franchise, where he lost sorta lost his accented voice, sounding a bit gruff, and got interred into a Dreadnought afterwards.
Dawn of War
Thule first appeared in DoW:DC as the Captain leading 3 companies of Blood Ravens to pacify the planet of Kronus and secure knowledge that pertains to their chapter's history. He was victorious in the end but had his eye poked out when he fought with the Necron Lord there, it is theorized that the cron lord also got his throat, explaining why he lost his sexy accent in DoWII. In his victory, he found certain relics and information about the Chapter's past and it changed how he looked at his chapter forever, which would indicate that the whole prospect of the Blood Ravens stemming from a Thousand Sons cult is true or he found Kyras' stash of /d/-themed porn there.
Dawn of War II
Captain Thule then returned in DoWII, leading the forces on Calderis. He's so badass that all he does is mounts on top of a hill and starts shooting everything with his heavy bolter without flinching, just to show everyone that he's awesome that way. Much later during the Tyranid incursion, he was mortally wounded and poisoned by a Tyranid warrior and was put on stasis to prevent the poison from utterly killing him.
There's a mission on Typhon that requires you to obtain a Tyranid bio-toxin sample as so Apothecary Gordian can create an antidote for Thule and for a certain poison to kill the Hive Mind. After you get the bio-toxin sample, he deep strikes as a Dreadnought in the same mission to help you battle the Tyranid Hive Tyrant that appears there. After that' he's pretty much available for use in any mission you desire, and boy, will he mess up anyone's day. Give him the ability to self-repair, venerable status and optimize him to be either choppy or shooty (shooty is a bit better), and watch him plow through everything like an IG Baneblade against a lame Cultist rush. He's an invaluable assets for some of the hard-ass bosses like Warboss Bonesmasha and the Avatar of Khaine and is tied with Cyrus for being the most useful member of your team.
With an assault cannon and hellfire rounds and a mighty strike, he can very quickly obliterate large masses of enemies, sweeping away everything at a distance and sending anything that gets close to him flying and get stunned, and if he does take damage; just activate his absurdly fast self repair and watch him start up the rampage all over again, hell he can even charge and send everything in his path flying like bowling pins. And the upside to all of this? All of these abilities recharge very quickly.
If you go all in with Dread Claws, he's pretty much a walking rape machine in CQC. Aim his furious charge skill on a group of enemies and use mighty strike when he stops and viola! 80% of the units in that horde are dead or horribly messed up. He's also one of the damned best tankers this way if you didn't want a choppy Force Commander. The only downside to this is that he's slow, so bosses with the AoE/charge attacks can mess him up and you need one of your guys to carry the "Rites of Repair" item if you haven't gotten his self-repair ability yet, and with that you will still need that item to patch him back up right away in a fight if he gets incapacitated.
Chaos Rising
Thule returns later in Chaos Rising, still as a Dreadnought. He can't be corrupted like the other squad members but will permanently leave your squad if your hair-etical force commander starts being too heretical. He's basically the ace-in-the-hole for all your missions like in the last game, he can tank and/or screw up the hard bosses in levels like Araghast the Pillager, the second Eldar Avatar of Khaine, if you're pure until the end, Martellus' fucking Chaos Predator (FUUU!!!!), and motherfucking Ulkair (MOTHERFUUUUU!!!!). He can also make enemy armor shit brix from a distance now as mult-meltas are now available as an arm weapon.
If you do trade him for a couple of tainted wargear and powers, you just screwed everything up because he's way better than most of the Chaos powers because hot damn, as good as his hellfire assault cannon sweep was; it is no match for the sheer rapage that the Multimelta sweep unleashes (the multimelta sweep can eat up over a hundred thousand hit points in one go if you use it right) and the Multimelta can still do a shit ton of damage in it's normal firing mode. And using it in combination with the mighty strike is just pure rape. You'll stun your targets allowing you to quickly work out the optimum range and begin the multimelta sweep's pure unrestrained buttfuck of anyone unlucky enough to be on the wrong end of your weapon, combine this with venerable dreadnought hood and your team will pretty much always be buffed.
If only he were on the table-top...
Retribution
Thule also returns in Retribution and probably for the last time in the series, he is also no longer playable. He's the target for Eliphas' first mission for revenge and is sadly killed. Many who depended on his sheer power and fluff over the course of three games will miss him and shed Manly Tears upon his death, a number of tears only rivaled by those shed when you have to brutally slaughter Sergeant Merrick in the first Tyranid mission. We like to pretend that the Venerable dreadnought honor guard unit you can use in place of Martellus in the Space Marine Campaign is him. No we don't just pretend it's him, we know it's him...right? *sobs* Strangely enough, the Chaos Dreadnaught that you can take in Neroth's place outshines him (even though his whiny bitching about wanting to die is infinitely more annoying.) Which leads us to suspect it's not him... *sob*
Let's Look at This Logically
First, let us postulate that the Imperial Endings are the canon endings, as DoWIII would be rather hard to make if all the important heroes from DoW and DoWII kicked the bucket. This means that Eliphas was killed on Typhon by Diomedes. During Space Marine Mission 1, Diomedes mentions that the Blood Ravens had finally discovered Eliphas after a decade, which implies that there had not been previous skirmishes between Eliphas and the Blood Ravens on Typhon, which in turn implies that Thule and co. were not massacred. Therefore, Thule and the heroes of Aurelia are still alive and well. Frankly, it surprises me that 1d4Chan is willing to give a Word Bearer reject lackey of the Chaos Lord it has dubbed as "Failbaddon" the benefit of the doubt.
However, using the argument DOW III will be hard to make without Hair-gel, Cyrus, Avitus and the rest is idiotic. As we don't yet know whether the old cast will be in III or if it would focus on a new chapter, or perhaps even on another race entirely. Secondly, the majority of the Aurelian Crusaders are already dead or indisposed. Avitus is dead, Thaddeus and Hair-Gel and the rest are likely executed or sentence to the Crusade of Absolution. Avitus was killed by Tarkus. Thule was set up as 'the only sane man' during Chaos Rising, as it has become almost completely canon that Hair-Gel was turning to heresy, so it makes dramatic sense to kill Thule off to complete the tragedy. As it stands, this 'logical' theory demands that we take the Imperial Endings as canon, which depends on the idea that DoW III will indeed focus on the Blood Ravens. If so, why did Relic hold that poll asking "which Space Marine chapter would you like to see in the next game"?.
Hence, it is so that /tg/ must prepare itself for the possibility that Davian Thule might be dead. No one has to like it, of course. But hiding behind a fragile wall of weak reasoning will not make things better.
Memorable Quotes
- "Emperor protect... let none find us wanting..." *blows up*
- "Oh, Davian, He cannot hear you." (Probably non-canon)
CURSE YOU, ELIPHAS!!!!
- I have grown practiced at killing you, Eliphas.* - Clearly not practiced enough, given how that fight ended. (Probably non-canon)
- "Commander... you must step back from madness... do not make yourself into my enemy..." - What Thule says after every third mission if you're turning evil.
- "I am Davian Thule. And I shall be your death, alien." - Before he fucked over a Hive Tyrant.
- "We are NOT Brothers, Heretic!" - A fine to thing to say to every Chaos Marine who tries acting like Eliphas.