2d4chan - User contributions [en]

Transformers

2017-12-22T15:39:43Z

2601:147:4200:6280:C99C:DF2:BBC9:C7D9: the Cybertron games and Prime are the same continuity

[[File:Generation 1 by DonFig.jpg|800px|thumbnail|center|And these are just your characters from G1!]]

'''Transformers''' is a series of Robot Toys created by [[Hasbro]] and Takara Tomy that typically turn into cars and other vehicles. Robots are cool, cars are cool and so they became popular. In 1984 they made some comics and a cartoon show. The comics show created a lot of toy sales and the toys kept the shows and comics popular. Over the years they changed things up to sell more toys and new series were made, some worked quite well (Beast Wars, Prime) others did not (Armada, Energon, Cybertron).

Why does this have no tabletop or role playing game? Only [[/co/|comics, cartoons,]] [[/a/|anime,]] [[/v/|and finally video games.]] So much potential. Seriously, it's a setting about sentient, shapeshifting robots fighting a war that spans motivations from political to racial to theological. Hasbro owns [[Magic: The Gathering]] and [[Dungeons & Dragons]] via [[Wizards of the Coast]], so it's not like they've never done tabletop stuff before. How the fuck has nobody realised the money-making potential there?

==Main Guys==
As the series come and go, a certain bevvy of characters seem to be archetypal to the Transformers. Not helped by the fact that, ever since the flop of ''Beast Machines'' and the riotous financial successes of the Bay, Hasbro seems to only ever stick with recycling Generation One, with some other characters jumping continuities. These are the Transformers who appear in some form or another in every iteration of the setting.

*'''Optimus Prime''': Leader of the Autobots, [[Lawful Good]] to the computer-core, the Big Red Hero-bot himself. There's always an Optimus leading the Autobots, and he usually turns into some kind of red truck or hauler. His name is the Latin words for "best" and "first", and he really is both. In the original show (and in the Michael Bay movies -- one of the decent things about them -- and Transformers Prime and the Cybertron games), he was voiced by Peter Cullen, whose awesome deep voice you probably hear in your head whenever you read any of his dialogue. Check it out: ''"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings."'' Also has the record of dying the most times out of anyone ever, making one wonder how the hell the GM lets him get away with it each time. Might be because he always goes out fighting, never like a punk.

*'''Megatron''': If there's an Optimus Prime, there's always a Megatron, the Evil (of some flavor, depending on the series) to his Lawful Good. Megsy remains pretty consistent throughout his appearances, usually varying only in what level of honor he has (which usually depends on his backstory; sometimes he started as a charismatic gladiator turned freedom fighter against the corrupt Cybertronian government -- [[Angron]], anyone? -- but sometimes he's just nuts) and/or how much of a cold-blooded psychopath he is. He used to turn into a gun (which could inexplicably shrink down to be small enough to be wielded by another Decepticon or even the occasional ''human''), with the <s>barrel</s> scope giving him a wicked arm cannon in robot mode, but nowadays he usually turns into a tank or a jet. He was first voiced by Frank Welker, whose versatile voice was also used for just about every other Decepticon except for Starscream (and probably at least one role in just about every cartoon ever made). David Kaye did a bang-up job voicing Predcacon Leader Megatron in Beast Wars, ''Yeeesss''.
**'''Galvatron''':Whenever there is a Megatron there is a Galvatron. He's everything you love about the M taken up to eleven. This guy is seriously bad news, he's probably insane and violent enough to give Doombreed pause and he's probably the strongest non-God transformer there is in G1 comics it takes a friggin' time vortex to finally put him down. After a dying Megatron found himself adrift in space, he had a lovely chat with the physical Cybertronian God,Unicron who reconstructed him into this indentity. Didn't work for long though; Galvy kind of went off the reservation pretty quickly.

*'''Bumblebee''': The yellow kid-friendly one, he's usually the main one to interact with the resident token humans. He usually turns into a sports car. Can be surprisingly badass in some adaptations -- his ''Beast Wars'' counterpart, Cheetor, went on to basically take Optimus Primal's place as leader of the Maximals in ''Beast Machines''. In the Michael Bay movies, he became a mute who talks only in radio quotes/beeps and boops like a 60s robot which just got ANNOYING. His Prime Counterpart retained the mute quirk, but his voicebox was eventually repaired by the time of the sequel series.

*'''Grimlock''': A fuckmothering [[AWESOME|robot Tyrannosaurus]] that usually breathes fire. He's the leader of a pack of other robot dinosaurs called the '''Dinobots'''. He's not exactly smart (well sometimes, he's either a stupid beast or a no nonsense leader with a speech problem), but who cares about that? HE'LL FUCKING EAT YOU. No seriously he once ripped Shockwave's arm off and ate it.

*'''Starscream''': Megatron's loud-mouthed, whiny, scheming, sneaky, backstabbing second-in-command who always wants to lead the Decepticons. He is neither strong enough to bump Megsy off, [[Sindri Myr|smart enough to trick him to his death]], or [[Eliphas|charismatic enough to persuade others he's a better boss]]. Sometimes Megatron himself wonders why he keeps Starscream around, but (when the writers remember) he is actually an extremely competent air commander who leads The Seekers, Decepticons who are typically recolors of him with the most prominent being Skywarp and Thundercracker. In Animated, the Seekers were replaced by actual clones all named after classic Seekers with the only one original to the series being [[Rule 63]]. Starscream usually turns into the latest and greatest fighter jet (unless he's turning into some Cybertronian future-jet) historically an F-15, F-16, or F-22. In the original cartoon, his catchphrase (delivered in the classic 80s-villain screech as his first voice actor also voiced the similarly screechy Cobra Commander in G.I. Joe) was probably ''"Decepticons, RETREEEAT!"'' Was also voiced by fucking Tom ''"Spongebob Squarepants"'' Kenny in Animated; man, is that a blow to your dignity. Nowadays, though, he's more consistently competent (and given a more menacing voice by [[Steve Blum]] in Transformers Prime). Is such a total backstabbing traitor that "The Starscream" has entered pop-culture as a term to describe someone who seems more dedicated to fucking his own team over in ostensible pursuit of power than to actually beating the guys he's supposed to fight.

*'''Soundwave''': A major character for the Decepticons as Megatron's legitimately loyal number two. Is also the biggest source of nostalgia because he turns into a fucking tapedeck. <strike>Even though he lacks a personality</strike>'''SOUNDWAVE SUPERIOR; PAGE WRITER INFERIOR''', he manages to be awesome merely through dogged determination and because he's the one guy who'll never give anyone any bullshit. He has a number of minions who turn into cassettes (or goddamn guitars in Animated's case), but the main ones are '''Rumble''' (Whose arms turn into piledrivers so he can cause earthquakes), '''Frenzy''' (Who has a sonic scream), '''Ravage''' (A fucking robot jaguar who turns into a cassette), '''Laserbeak''' and '''Buzzsaw''' (robot birds), and '''Ratbat''' (a robot bat). The IDW comic gave him an origin about how he used to be homeless due to his mind reading powers until Laserbeak and Ravage found him and helped him control them. In the Marvel G1 comics he acted as toady to whichever Decepticon had usurped Megatron that month while steadily scheming to increase his own power, making him like Starscream but actually competent. He also spoke in complete sentences and had a functioning mouth.

*'''Shockwave''': The real mad scientist of the Decepticons, whose arm is a gun and also turned into a gun in G1 (a giant flying gun). While he's also pretty loyal to Megatron, he's nowhere near Soundwave levels because his true loyalty is to pure logic. There are several times where he became an bigger threat than Megatron, requiring both Autobots and Decepticons to stop him. Most series have him involved with the Dinobots, either by creating them, or just they have major beef with him (he doesn't give a shit as he has better things to do). He's another guy who happened to be blessed by [[Steve Blum]] in the Cybertron series. The IDW comics gave him an origin about how he used to be an idealistic Noblebright senator (and Optimus' BFF) until he got unpersoned and mutilated by the corrupt Cybertronian government. Ouch. His Prime adaptation is fucking badass and intimidating, both in voice work and design, but unfortunately he suffers from Villain Incompetence Syndrome whenever the good guys show up, like so many other good bad guys.

*'''Unicron''': Unicron was originally introduced as the big bad for the '86 movie, a planet-sized, planet-eating bringer of doom (basically, if Galactus was the Death Star), voiced by ''the'' Orson Welles in his last role. The third season episode "Call of the Primitives" revealed his original, long since abandoned, origin as a planet-destroying creation of an alien mad scientist. Later media, beginning with the Marvel comics, changed his origin to Transformers' Satan, a god-like destroyer tricked into trapping himself inside a planet, but learned how to possess the world and reshape it into his own image. That fucking anime trilogy not only pulled this interpretation back, but made it "official", saying there's only one Unicron in the entire multiverse - at least, they tried. The comics pay more attention to it, but the shows tend to avoid it; witness Prime, where Unicron is actually sleeping at the heart of Earth instead of running around eating planets.

*'''Primus''': The Emprah to Unicron's Chaos God, except he's an actual god... who actually transformed into a planet and fell asleep for a fuckton of years. In this form, he became Cybertron and created the Cybertronian race. Like his evil counterpart, Unicron, he hails from the 80's comics and didn't make an appearance on screen (other than references to a pseudo-Bible named the "Covenant of Primus" in ''Beast Wars'') until the Energon Trilogy, which is where he's stayed.

==Generation One==
The original, the alpha iteration, the place where it all to began. Sometimes mockingly called Geewun because of the nostalgia fags who hate on everything that come after it. No matter how good they are. At the time, it was just called "The Transformers", with a "four-issue limited series" from Marvel that ended up running for 80 issues, a cartoon by the same name for three seasons (and two more seasons in Japan) from 1984-87 and the animated film "The Transformers: The Movie" in 1986. The movie's soundtrack is awesomely 80's, and it features the amazing song "The Touch" when Optimus Prime fights Megatron. Quite literally, this movie shit all over Bay's multi-million crappers... and that's the problem; the movie was so good that it marked the peak for the young franchise and it began a downhill slide from there, with the show scrambling to cope with all the losses (yeah, lots of people died here, even Optimus), while the toys began getting gimmickier without getting better.

The "Generation One" title was applied retroactively after Hasbro released the "Generation 2" line in 1993. By the way, G2 was the reason Transformers was considered dead for most of the 90's. The comic was that cheap sort of [[Edgy|"gritty for no real reason"]] the 90's was infamous for and the toys had pretty much burned themselves out and no gimmick could really help them on that. There was also a short-lived "Transformers G2" show, but it was just G1 with new CGI openings/endings and scene changes, so it only lasted a few episodes before flopping.

Of note is that if you want to experience G1 without having to dig up the eps from some torrent or Netflix, you can get ''Transformers Devastation'', which is essentially a G1 ep in vidya form produced by Platinum Studios, the guys responsible for balls-to-the-walls hypefests like ''Metal Gear Rising'', ''Bayonetta'', and ''The Wonderful 101'' (aka /m/ the game). Most of the actors are present, there's murderfests and speed, and big bosses. Also you get to run idiots over (but no pedestrians). Only letdown is the short length of the game and the lack of a Decepticon story and Abominus.
===Marvel's The Transformers===
What a lot of people who weren't kids in 1984 may not remember is that the first piece of long-form Transformers fiction ever was not the cartoon, but the Marvel comic book, produced in direct partnership with Hasbro as an expansion on the toy bios and character names that Marvel had already written to jam the random designs that had been licensed from Takara into a cohesive toyline. Most of the themes and tropes that people think of as "Transformers" were developed by Marvel, from the idea of living robots coming to Earth in search of energy to the most common origin for the planet-eating Unicron. Sometimes, Marvel published gripping stories exploring the dynamic of mechanical life forms adapting to an entirely alien environment and the humans caught in their crossfire. Sometimes they published stories about robot professional wrestling and evil car washes. Still, the stories had soul, and the comic ended up lasting a full year after the toyline it was made to promote ended in America. (As a sign of the times, one of the reasons the comic was canceled were its low sales of ''70,000 copies an issue.'')

British kids got an additional treat in the form of original stories from Marvel's UK division, printed in between serialized edits of the US issues in weekly installments. Most of these were done by the inimitable '''Simon Furman,''' who went on to write the US Transformers comic as well and has become the most prolific writer of Transformers fiction in the world.

==Beast Wars==
The first Western-released sequel to G1 (there were two Japanese-only continuations to G1 that never got released outside of Japan and the G2 comic mentioned above), a CGI show created by Mainframe (also responsible for ReBoot and [[War Planets]]). Set up as a "loose sequel" to G1, it involves new transformer races called "Maximals" (Autobots) and "Predacons" (Decepticons).

A Predacon terrorist leader styling himself after the original Megatron, including taking his name, hijacks an artifact with a mysterious connection to Megatron the first and goes on the run into deep space with a band of terrorists, planning on restarting the Great War and this time causing a Predacon victory. A Maximal deep-space exploration vessel commanded by Optimus Primal attempts to intercept, and both vessels end up stranded on a mysterious alien world, where an overabundance of raw energon forces them to adopt the forms of local fauna to preserve themselves. The two forces promptly start trying to wipe each other out and then escape the planet. There's also a sideplot involving an ancient alien civilization that ends itself just before the Season 3 finale.

They would eventually find out that this strange world was actually Earth, which was where Megatron II was trying to get all along, and they find the wreckage of the Ark of the original series, when new Megatron decides to headshot Prime in order to change the future for his benefit. It kinda flops when new Optimus takes part of old Optimus's soul, gets another upgrade, and becomes sorta-truck. It inspires Megatron II to try the same trick with his namesake, turning himself into a huge firebreathing dragon-bot.

Though Hasbro would mostly consign this story to oblivion after Beast Machines, the characters of Blackarachnia (sexy spider-bot who changes from evil to good thanks to love) and Waspinator (the walking punching bag who the heroes almost invariably blow up only to be fixed later), along with the concept of the Spark (essentially, Transformers' souls) would be re-used in later eras. More importantly, this show saved the franchise after Generation 2 almost killed it.

==Beast Machines==
Sequel series to ''Beast Wars''. On returning to Cybertron, our heroes are attacked by armies of transforming cookie-cutter drones. It eventually turns out that Megatron broke free from the Maximals' prison and flew back to Cybertron before them; he infected the entire planet with a cyber-virus that put them all into comas, ripped out their hearts/souls and stashed them in some hidden bunker, and melted down their bodies to rebuild them into mindless robot slaves.

Awesomely grimdark concept, but hampered by two huge flaws. Firstly, a super-annoying green aesop, which was very clumsily handled because this is a planet of talking robots, not nature. More importantly, major character derailment - it was made by a different team to ''Beast Wars'', and they weren't even allowed to watch the first series to familiarize themselves with how the Maximals were supposed to behave, so it'd be "more accessible".

Probably the reason why Hasbro only recycles G1 instead of trying to do its own thing with new shows, the way these two shows did. Even though it was their own damn fault, because they ''made'' this series into what it was. Time has been kinder to it, though, after the initial rage and denouncement.

==Robots in Disguise (2001)/Car Robots==
An obscure anime that came out roughly a few months before ''Armada''. Best known for its gag dub and general comedic focus that makes it surprisingly laughable, and certainly more fun to watch than any of the ''Energon Trilogy''. Usually forgotten about, except for the fact that Megatron here has six fucking modes of transformation (ten after upgrading to Galvatron). In this series Decepticons are instead Predacons like Beast Wars with actual Decepticons being created mid-series, starting with an evil clone of Optimus called "''Scourge''". General consensus is that is far from the best or worst series, it's just "meh."

==Energon Trilogy==
Comprised of the shows ''Armada'', ''Energon'', and ''Cybertron'', which are also called the ''Unicron Trilogy'' due to the antagonist's return to the spotlight after being virtually nonexistent since The Movie. Anime reinterpretation of G1, decaying from "poor but watchable" to "completely unwatchable drek" for all the reasons people hate [[/a/]]: bad dubbing, overly lengthy scenes of nothing, a shift to crappy CGI, and a plot that is so terribly paced and search-questy that you'd be praying for your GM to be railroading this. On the plus-side: competent badass Starscream (who unfortunately inspired a whole generation of [[Edgy|Linkin Park listening wannabes]]). On the downside: far too much focus on humans and not enough on giant robots trying to kill each other. Kicker, from the later series, is considered one of the worst human sidekicks the Transformers have ever had.
It has been said that, for all the failings of ''Beast Machines'', at least it's better than Armada and Energon.

===Galaxy Force===
Transformers Galaxy Force, The show that was butchered into Transformers Cybertron is more fondly remembered by fans. As it made of the strange choice of dubbing a male character into a woman. While butchering most of the series by making it a gag-dub by giving [[derp| alien robots stupid accents]]. While putting dialouge over scenes that didn't require them. The kids are also less annoying while the dub shoehorned in older versions of the Armada and Energon brats at the last minute during the final episode. This is because Gonzo created it as independent entry until Hazblow retconned it into the Energon trilogy.

==Michael Bay Films==
The dark force known as Michael Bay brought Transformers back as a series of live-action + CGI movies. Considered the [[Matt Ward]] of the Transformers universe, Bay's movies are rage-inducing [[fail]]s that have far too much focus on annoying human characters and on lowbrow humor. Seriously, in the first movie, we don't get to see an Autobot for, like, thirty minutes while dealing with very bland characters who get billed way too much, and we have to facepalm our way through an awful gag about Bumblebee basically ''pissing on a guy''. The second one is no better with two black/redneck stereotypes as ''heroes'', a gag about balls, and a two-for-one gag about farting/incontinence - from a Transformer, no less. Real classy, Bay.

About the only shallow redeeming qualities it has is that the CGI Transformers look amazing (even if some neckbeards have cracked up over how they're "not accurate" to the G1 character modes), the fight scenes are suitably glorious for giant alien death-machines ripping each other to pieces (when you can see it clearly), and most importantly is it has introduced Transformers to a whole new generation of fans, who can hopefully be shown the good stuff instead of thinking this garbage is the true representative of the setting.

After the trilogy Bay made a fourth movie which actually manages to make some considerable improvements (not that it was that hard), like a lot more of focus on Optimus Prime, killing the scrappy comic relief during the first part of the movie and more consistent fighting scenes, plus DINOBOTS! charging the enemy. There is also more grimdark as Optimus finally decides enough is enough after having tried to protect mankind for more than five years while having his whole team slaughtered by those he sworn to protect, and pulls a gun against a human frakker who was teaming up with the mercenary Lockdown to kill Autobots and use their remains to make their own giant robots that turn into cars (except instead of literally creating Galvatron last time, this time it's like the T-1000 where they turn into nanobot swarms). On the downside, though, the humans are still pointless tagalongs (though this is a new set of humans, no Shia Lebouf to be found here), there are more pointless stereotypes (Like Weeaboo Samurai-bot Drift, Crosshairs who gets a fucking trenchcoat when he transforms, and Hound, [[Awesome|who somehow has a cigar and a wire-beard]]), the Dinobots don't even show up until the last few minutes of the movie, and there's this ridiculous need to hammer in the "us vs. them" mentality between the humans making their own Transformers and Lockdown trying to kill Optimus because he's betrayed their makers by siding with the humans.
Than everything goes to shit during "The Last Knight". While ripping off the "Earth is Unicorn" thing from Transformers Prime.

==Animated==
G1 inspired series with notoriously unusual but smooth animation. This time, Optimus Prime and his crew are lowly space janitors who stumble across a superweapon from the Great War and have to defend it against Megatron ('''GIVING HIM A GODDAMN ENGLISH ACCENT FUCK YES'''), who seeks to use it to restart the war and this time ensure Decepticon victory. This version's Optimus is much younger and less experienced than usual; funnily enough, he was voiced by the actor who voiced Megatron in Beast Wars. Generally noted for having the best human sidekick (who turns out to really be part-transformer anyways). The other Autobots also tend to have some interesting characterizations from "Complete dumb muscle who surprisingly knows everything about building [[Webway|Space Bridges]]" Bulkhead to "[[Weeaboo]] Robo-Ninja" Prowl to "MY EGO IS AS BIG AS MY CHIN AND MY ASSHOLEITUDE IS EVEN BIGGER!" Sentinel Prime. The Decepticons sometimes do better vis ze German schizophrenic Blitzwing, the [[Lorgar|borderline-religiously loyal]] Lugnut, and badass robo-Clint Eastwood Lockdown.

The series was weird in that alongside the Decepticons were also some gimmicky human villains, from a Shakespearean Robin Hood knockoff, to a cute little girl who's a mad scientist, to another mad scientist who rips off Transformer heads to replicate an old G1 gimmick. These villains were a bit ridiculous, but it helped break up the monotony of the constant 'con fighting, especially when Megatron was reduced to a state worse than [[Abaddon]] as a head. The creators came up with the idea to emphasize just how dangerous the 'cons are, compared to their Autobot opponents; when ''one'' 'con shows up, it's an emergency that takes the whole team to try and pull out a win. Hell, ''Starscream'' could beat up the entire Autobot team in his first few appearances before they figured out how to handle him.

==Cybertron Series==
There were many, MANY, video games made for every part of the Transformers, but most of them ranged from forgettable to utter shit to [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Mystery_of_Convoy memetically terrible.] The closest we got to a good original game series (so no whining about the Movie-Games) were the games ''War for Cybertron'' and ''Fall of Cybertron'', both made by High Moon Studios.

These games act as the [[Horus Heresy]] to G1's 40k by explaining how Optimus became a leader and how Megatron became a dictator while their war and its demand eventually destroyed their homeworld. (These games are also technically part of the backstory for Hasbro's "Aligned continuity" shared with Transformers Prime and a couple prose stories, but as usual there are enough discrepancies to throw a wrench in that quite nicely.) While the gameplay itself isn't much more than a basic third-person shooter, the vast amount of references to the rest of the series and the rather well-written story and characters make it stand out. ''Fall of Cybertron'' may be considered one of the most grimdark settings to see wide release, while not being as totally ham-handed with it as Beast Machines. It also helps that the second game gave some bonus variety in some segments by giving you a level as MOTHERFUCKING GRIMLOCK, and another where you get to play as a combiner (who has an awesome helicopter-arm, but is otherwise not very memorable besides being huge.) Overall great fights, no crappy human sidekicks, an awesome OST and all the grimdarkness needed to make any neckbeard enjoy it quite much, also ESCALATION mode will ensure you endless hours of good bloodless carnage.

There is a (sorta) third game called ''Rise of the Dark Spark'', which decides to make the stupid decision of merging this series to the Bayformers continuity. It was released as tie in game with fourth movie and has less of budget, clearly shown with its number of glitches, lack of variety in levels (mostly just enemies till the game lets you move on) and downright ugly environments for the levels set on Earth. The only thing to remember is that the Cybertron segments are still awesome, while later parts will just shoehorn you with mutebee and Drift (who at least has an awesome special attack), with one level playing as Grimlock again and lacking any Decepticon plot post-Cybertron.

===Prime===
G1 inspired CGI series that somehow salvages the fairly decent elements of Michael Bay's crapfest movies (e.g. Peter Cullen and Frank Welker reprising their respective roles, artstyle, some character elements/background lore, [[Rip and Tear]]), takes place in the same universe as the Cybertron games and crafts an awesome show out of it. Animation is fucking amazing, with fight scenes that rival if not trump the Michael Bay films. Very dark and gritty as well, where one of the Autobots [[Awesome|(voiced by the Rock himself, mind you)]], gets whacked in ''the first episode.'' The Autobots are not only outnumbered and outgunned by the Decepticons, but they also have to contend with MECH, a human terrorist organization that seeks to cannibalize Cybertronians for their advanced technology.

The biggest problem with this series is Miko, who competes with Kicker (from the abovementioned ''Energon Trilogy'') for the title of worst human character in Transformers history. Obnoxiously gung-ho and always charging off into danger, even when told not to, invariably making things worse for the Autobots in the process. Still, this series easily has some of the best human characters otherwise, most notably Agent Fowler, who in the company of giant alien killing machines manages to be a badass in his own right.

Then there's Predacons Rising; the made-for-tv movie meant to serve as a series finale... it was questionable at best. Plot holes everywhere, very little focus on the actual Predacons in the title, and characters doing stupid and random things to simply fit the plot. It was basically a segue into the next series; Robots in Disguise.

===Robots in Disguise===
In this series Prime's relegated mentor-figure role, while Bumblebee (once again with a voice) has to take command of an ex-con, a stickler, and a slightly-smarter Grimlock in helping some kid and his dad's junkyard and detaining runaway Decepticon inmates, all of whom aren't related to the main bads, so this series was more original than most of the kiddie-aimed series. There was a 'con in it called Slapper. The show really doesn't become good until the Starscream miniseries after season three, and the Soundwave/Autobot Counsel arc of the fourth season. Which also introduces combiners into the Prime/Cybertron continuity.

==Cyberverse==
Not much is known about. Since it features Bumblebee and [[Mary Sue|Windblade]] from Geewun. We can assume it takes place inside the Prime Wars trilogy. Which is based on IDWs Combiner Wars and the arcs after it.

==Oddities==
There have been a ''lot'' of Transformers series out there. Many of them are just spinoffs of G1 or silly throwaways like [[What|Transformers Mr. Potato Head,]] but some of them are good enough or just weird enough to be worth mentioning here. For full details, see TFWiki below.
===Transformers Rescue Bots===
The 30-minute toy commercial for the preschool-focused "Rescue Bots" toyline. In the same continuity as Transformers Prime above, which would lead to much lulz if the writers ever had the balls to let them cross over to any significant degree. Features four young Autobots who slept through the whole war in stasis and were recalled to Earth by Optimus Prime; being too inexperienced to handle the rigors of war with the Decepticons, they were assigned to the ''[[wikipedia:Eureka (U.S. TV series)|Eureka]]''-esque island of Griffin Rock, where they perform rescue operations with their human partners. Instead of open combat, the 'bots and their human partners battle with out-of-control inventions and mundane disasters; the only true antagonist of the series is the [[steampunk]] gentleman-scientist Doctor Morocco, voiced by [[Slaanesh| <s>Slaanesh</s> Tim Curry.]] Surprisingly watchable for a kids' show, ''Rescue Bots'' has the distinction of being the longest-running Transformers cartoon ever, with four full seasons and a sequel series on track to air in 2019.
===Unit: E===
In the third season of Transformers Prime, the writers started dropping references to other Hasbro properties like ''M.A.S.K.'' and ''G.I. Joe'' in connection with a government agency called "Unit E." This was intended to be a "backdoor launch" to a whole shared universe in the vein of the massively profitable Marvel Cinematic Universe, consisting of just about every brand Hasbro owns that has ever been remotely popular with any demographic, ever. These ranged from the sensible (''M.A.S.K.'' was another transforming-toy brand from the 80s that Hasbro absorbed, and ''G.I. Joe'' has a long history of Transformers crossovers) to the oddball but justifiable (''Jem and the Holograms'' was Hasbro's big new girl-toy push in the 80s and was occasionally used as a sight gag in the G1 cartoon) to blatant halo-effect attempts that made no sense at all ([[Dungeons & Dragons]]? Stretch Armstrong? '''''Candy Land?!''''') The framing device for this insanity was the eponymous Unit: E, a group of explorers who scanned the multiverse for "the Eerie, the Else, the Eternities of Infinity" from an installation placed in the "slipstream" outside of reality. ([[Quest:TG_Meta_Quest|Sounds kinda familiar, don't it?]])

Perhaps fortunately for all involved, this product of Marketing's cocaine-fueled fever dreams did a faceplant into the sun and nothing came of it except for a one-shot comic book released at Comic-Con and the aforementioned namedrops in Prime. Hasbro never let go of the idea of seeing if their properties would blend, though, and in 2016 IDW was given the green light to weld their previously-separate licensed comics (including Transformers, Joe, Micronauts, Rom: Spaceknight, and yes, Jem) together through a ''Secret Wars''-style crossover event called ''Revolution.'' From this point IDW's comics are set in the '''Hasbro Universe,''' with such fiction-bending events as the Decepticon Skywarp joining G.I. Joe and a multi-property superhero team called the Revolutionaries joining forces. Their next crossover, ''First Strike'', is currently ongoing.

===Transformers: Kiss Players===
After the ignominious conclusion of the Energon Trilogy, Takara decided to make their next installment of the Transformers franchise smaller and more adult-focused. Welding the bits of their various G1-sequel lines (including the "collector's choice" ''Binaltech'' line and the grab-bag ''Robotmasters'' line) with the G1 cartoon and their own anime into a single (confusing as all hell) timeline, Transformers Kiss Players takes place immediately after the events of the 1986 movie. After Unicron exploded in 2005, the broken body of Galvatron was sent hurtling towards Earth where it (what else?) destroyed Tokyo. In response, the Earth Defense Command was formed to kick the Transformers off the goddamn planet before they blew up any other national capitals, which they did with a Transformer-hostile energy field and using the tech from Galvatron's corpse to make mass-produced Autorooper mecha. Unfortunately for them, Galvatron's reentry scattered fragments of his and Unicron's life-force into Earth's atmosphere, fragments that activated in 2006. The "Galvatron cells" fused with whatever they touched, turning them into biomechanical monsters called the Legion. Humans who came in contact with the Galvatron cells inexplicably did not turn into monsters, but instead could fuse with both Autoroopers and Transformers by ''kissing them.''

You see, Kiss Players was written by longtime Transformers fan and freelance toy designer Yuki Ohshima, who took Takara's desire for an otaku-targeted series as an invitation to ''freak the fuck out of people'' and gave them a freaky-ass magical girl horror story in the vein of ''Narutaru'' and Madoka Magica that just happened to have Transformers in it. [[Loli|A bunch of suspiciously young-looking women]] got dropped into a psychosexual nightmare in the name of shock value, and the Western Transformers fanbase crapped their pants over "pedophilia" showing up next to "their" childhood toys, accusing Oshima of wanting to [[Chris Orksen|diddle the kiddle.]] The Japanese fans, for their part, were mostly apologetic towards the Western fanbase and confused as to why the hell Takara thought that Freudian horror and moe were at all compatible with giant robots whaling on each other. The second part of the line (''Kiss Players Position'') dumped the original fiction's baggage in favor of taking cute girls on a whirlwind tour of the Transformers universe, but by that point the Western fans had already made up their mind. To this day Kiss Players is still the go-to acceptable target for "at least it's not as bad as..." jokes on TFWiki. The toys themselves were decent at least, being retools of the well-received ''Binaltech''/''Alternators'' collectible toys with vinyl loli figures packaged in the box, so picking those up is perfectly fine if you're willing to deal with faggots calling you a weeb.

== See Also ==
While no official roleplaying or tabletop games exist, the idea of "giant robots turning into vehicles" is so cool that lots of homebrew and independent mecha RPGs include mechas or characters that are ''totally NOT the Transformers, we swear!'' For example:

* [[Giant Guardian Generation]]
* [[Horizon]] - Mechamorphosis is literally "Transformers with the serial numbers filed off, done by way of [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 3.5".
* [[Mechagenasis]] - Another "Transformers with the serial numbers filed off" game, this time done for [[True20]].
* [[Battlechangers]] - Blatantly Transformers-based RPG, in both an original version and a [[Pathfinder]] version (Battlechangers Ironworks).
* [[Mekton]] - Extremely flexible with what it can do: the rules for transforming are simple (as far as Mekton goes anyway) and adapting to a Transformers setting is as easy as actually reading up on them, but the game's hilariously broken.
* [[Rifts]] - Some homebrew stuff floating around on the net for playing Transformers exists. Pity it relies on the godawful RIFTS mechanics...
* [[Codex: Transformers]] - A case of 1d4chan getting shit done, adapting Transformers into yet another [[Warhammer 40000]] faction.
* [[Setting:Transformers]] - A tie-in article to the above trying to develop the lore to explain why Codex: Transformers is a thing.

== External Links ==
* [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Main_Page TFWiki.net], the unofficial Transformers wiki.

[[Category:Not related]][[Category:Approved Media]]

Battlesuit

2017-12-22T12:03:54Z

2601:147:4200:6280:C99C:DF2:BBC9:C7D9: /* {{anchor|XV46|XV-46}} XV46 Vanguard Void Suit */

[[File:Stitch16.jpg|right|thumb|500px|From Cool to absolute godless[[Skub]].]]

'''Battlesuits''' are powered combat exoskeletons used by the forces of the [[Tau|Tau Empire]] to fill a number of tactical roles on the battlefield. The Tau have developed several different battlesuit models, each equipped with different technologies and weapons pertaining to the suit's purpose in battle. [[Stealthsuit|Some]] are built to be [[Just As Planned|small, stealthy and precise]], while [[Riptide|others]] are built to be [[RAPE|lumbering battlemechs that ionize everything in their paths]] while soaking up weapons fire like they're being pelted with [[Lasgun|spitballs]].

Each model's designation is preceded by the letters "XV", which derives from the Tau term "Her'Ex'Vre", meaning "Mantle of the Hero". Note that some sources place a hyphen between the "XV" and the numbers, and others don't. The first (or only) number in designation indicates a weight class of the suit, while the last indicates it's purpose:
# Still in development model
# Undergoing field testing
# Custom-built model
# Command and control-compatible model
# Outfitted with stealth technology
# Suit, designed for a void operations
# Suit, designed for infiltration
# Suit, designed for long range fire support
# Suit, designed for shock assault and close range firefights
Sometimes there's a secondary numerical designation separated from the first with a hyphen. Those are just number assigned to a specific loadout for heavily customizable models. Sometimes they fit with a primary purpose designation (like XV-8-06 being designed for void operations or XV-46-4 being command and control model), and sometimes they don't (XV-8-05 is not even compatible with stealth technology, XV-9-01 is a finished mass-produced model)
==Role on the Battlefield==

Tau battlesuits are not like [[Imperial]] [[power armor]] in their roles. They serve as command platforms for 'Vre, 'El, and 'O level officers as well as heavy mobile weapons platforms, able to swiftly relocate from firing position to firing position while laying down constant barrages of long range firepower. Most of them are outfitted with [[jetpack]]s for this purpose. All battlesuit pilots are veteran soldiers that have at least four years of combat experience and have passed their first trial by fire. Most [[Fire Warrior|Fire Warriors]] accept the honor of piloting these revered machines for the [[Greater Good]], although there are some traditional crazies who shun the use of battlesuits and instead choose to continue to lead their Shas'la as front-line field commanders, and some refuse the option of ranking up to Ui or higher ranks altogether in order to pilot tanks and speeders.

==Models==
[[File:XV02.png|thumb|right|200px|Trying to roleplay for Top Gun is often a recommendation.]]
=== {{anchor|XV02|XV-02}} XV02 Pilot Battlesuit===
An experimental model made for vehicle pilots (obviously) currently undergoing field testing; although it provides less protection than Fire Warrior armor, it compensates by allowing pilots to interface more effectively with their vehicles, negating the need for multiple crew members. This works in tandem with the vehicle's A.I. by processing the cadre tactical network and incoming data quickly so that the pilot can react extremely rapidly to enemies attacking his vehicle or nearby units.

The only one known to exist is in the possession of Shas'la T'au Sha'ng (a.k.a. Longstrike), who was selected for his reputation as a peerless [[Hammerhead Gunship|Hammerhead]] pilot. The battlesuit also features a multitude of specialised systems, plug sockets, vents, a wrist-mounted control panel and other technobabble shenanigans that all allow Longstrike to pilot his personal tank without the need of those pesky annoyances called people. The battlesuit also incorporates a Blacksun Filter, but nobody cares for that.

=== {{anchor|XV15|XV-15}} XV15 Stealthsuit ===
[[File:XV15.png|thumb|left|200px|XV25's rented cousin.]]
Little more than modified Fire Warrior armor, the XV15 was outfitted with stealth systems allowing it to infiltrate, jetpacks for mobility, and burst cannons for firepower. It also carried [[markerlight]]s. These older units are being phased out in favor of the XV25 series after the Imperium got their hands on an intact helmet from one, and the Tau fear it will be reverse-engineered and countered by the humans. In a surprisingly unlikely move that somehow did not cause the AdMech to lobotomize everyone involved in the project with a siege drill for associating with xeno-tech, the Imperium did actually manage to reverse engineer the suits and learn about the technology, although the Tau were two steps ahead of them by rolling out the more advanced XV25 stealth suits as their new recon platform. The meta reason both these and the XV25's exist is because these were metal kits, and were replaced by the later plastic kits which were designed to look more like a mecha (AKA the shit that makes people buy Tau models) and less like a Fire Warrior with some extra equipment. Crunchwise, they're the same unless you consider the crunch changes between editions to be the difference. Use the models you like and have access to.

[[File:XV22.jpg|thumb|left|300px|The addition of partner drones is always a guarantee.]]
[[File:ShadowsunNov.jpg|200px|thumb|right|0% blueberry edition.]]

=== {{anchor|XV22|XV-22}} XV22 Command Suit ===
Officially part of the stealthsuit line, this heavier unit is quite expensive to produce; as such, it is limited in use to commanders (like [[Shadowsun|Commander Shadowsun]] and [[Shas'o Kais]], who as you can see above have different versions of the suit; Shadowsun's has a unique helmet that resemble the later XV95, while Shas'o's resembles a Crisis Suit). With the right equipment and abilities you can make it go three times faster than a normal stealthsuit ([[Ork|red paint optional]]). This was originally built as a prototype design for a next-generation stealthsuit pattern, but finding ways to mass-produce the required components proved more difficult than anticipated. After the Imperium managed to reverse-engineer some of the XV15 suits ([[Advancing the Storyline|which, for some reason, doesn't cause the Inquisition to foam at the mouth anymore]]) recovered from the battlefield, the Tau had to compromise by moving forward with the less advanced but easier to manufacture XV25.

[[File:StealthSuit.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Citadel exclusive "Tau Stealth" paint. Order it now.]]
=== {{anchor|XV25|XV-22}} XV25 Stealthsuit ===
[[File:XV25.png|thumb|right|300px|Now in camo edition!]]

''Main article: [[Stealthsuit Team]]''

An improvement over the XV15 which is larger, heavier and better armored while still retaining the maneuverability and subtlety of the XV15 series. Development and deployment of the XV25 was largely due to the fact that the Imperium managed to acquire a functioning sample of the old XV15 stealth suit during the [[Damocles Crusade]], compromising its use as a recon platform. Larger and more powerful reactor allows XV25 to be outfitted with a fusion blaster instead of it's basic burst cannon, and the suit also have one hard point on it's back for an additional support system, although those are usually issued only to squad leaders.

The main wearers of these suits are of course the Stealthsuit Team, whose battleline roles include assasinations, sniping, sabotage and ambushes.

=== {{anchor|XV46|XV-46}} XV46 Vanguard Void Suit ===
Basically a Tau version of [[Terminator|Terminator armor]], bigger than the XV2 series, smaller than the XV8 and as heavily armoured as XV88 while still light enough to have jetpacks. It is designed solely for operating in spaceborn situations at (unusually for the Tau) close quarters, which means boarding action and [[Space Hulk]]-type investigation missions. The XV46 is highly effective against [[Genestealers|certain xenos species]] that are famous for slaughtering Terminators like they are nothing. With a fuckton of burst cannons, flamers and fusion guns on each of the suits, the little buggers would have a hard enough time getting close, but then there are electroshocks, grav-repulsors, and photon grenades to zap any fuckers lucky enough to break through the walls of fire, all triggered automatically. To make the Tau version of Space Hulk even less [[grimdark]], these suits are even equipped with smart ejection systems which are programmed to deliver the pilot back on board his ship if his suit gets wrecked. How this works without [[warp]] based tech is a crapshoot. Being both niche equipment and difficult to manufacture critical parts for, XV46s are rarely seen outside of Space Hulk missions. Even rarer is the XV-46-4 Commander variant.

The XV46 doesn't appear in the tabletop wargame; [[Fantasy Flight Games]] made it up for the [[Deathwatch (RPG)|Deathwatch RPG]]. As a result, there's no images of it. It how ever is used in [[Battlefleet Gothic Armada]], to which the Tau seemingly tie them to bombers before letting them get dropped along with the payload onto enemy ships through their shields. Which suggests that the Tau in some extent would have capabilities to play a serious game of blue gremlin on the wing with other species, this combination is also particularily enraging for eldar who have little to no defense against such an unusually bold action from the Tau. Since GW took forever to get the [[Deathwatch]] 7E Codex out. It would be a miracle for other FFG IP to get official rules and a model at all.

=== {{anchor|XV8|XV-8}} XV8 Crisis Battlesuit ===
[[File:Tau Crisis Suit Close Up.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Keep trying, Gue'La. You have a 1 in 18 chance of actually wounding me.]]
'' Main Article: [[XV-8 Crisis Battlesuit]]''
<gallery>
Image:XV8.jpg|XV8 Team
Image:XV81.jpg|XV-81
Image:XV84.png|XV-84
Image:XV89.png|XV-89</gallery> <gallery>
Image:XV8-05.jpg|XV-8-05 Enforcer
Image:XV-8-02.png|XV-8-02 Iridium
Image:Coldstar.png|XV-8-06 Coldstar
Image:Shas'o R'Myr.png|R'Myr's special XV8.
</gallery>

XV8 Crisis Battlesuits are the Tau Empire's general-purpose combat battlesuits, capable of being equipped for a variety of combat situations. Due to the large amount of variants they have, check the main article for more information.

=== {{anchor|XV88|XV-88}} XV88 Broadside Battlesuit===
[[File:XV88.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Battlesuit evolution.]]
''Main article: [[XV88 Broadside Battlesuit]]''

XV88 Broadside Battlesuits are fire support platforms outfitted with either a large Heavy Rail Rifle or a massive array of missiles to lay waste to the enemies of the Greater Good from afar.

[[File:XV9 smug face.jpg|200px|thumb|right|I'll tell you what's a hazard: being hostile and near this motherfucker.]]
=== {{anchor|XV9|XV-9}} XV9 Hazard Battlesuit ===
[[File:XV9.jpg|thumb|left|450px|XV9 AKA We are getting into Gundam territory now.]]
Another Forgeworld blessing. Unlike most Tau battlesuits, the XV9 Hazard model is designed solely for fast and hard close-range engagements rather than having the option of going either close or long, or being cloaked while engaging the enemy up close, which is quite odd since this is a bit of a deviation from traditional Tau combat doctrine, which is all about far away [[Shooty|shootiness]]. Being a dedicated spear-tip suit, Hazard is designed with close combat in mind, with it's frame being more agile than other suits (which is represented by less horrible WS and Initiative on the tabletop), photon grenades to halt enemy charges and vectored retro thrusters to jump out of meat grinder.

XV-9 have three hard points, with two generally being equipped with a matching pair of guns (leaving only one for support systems) compared to Crisis' four, although given it have in-built retro-thrusters and photon grenade launchers it can and usually does have up to 5 systems with enough reactor capacity to power them all, even though weapon options available to Hazard suit are generally more devastating and power-hungry. Since it's main weapons are Twin-linked Burst cannons, which take up two hardpoints on conventional suits and the other options would likely count as two hard points if crisis suits could take them, the Hazard has the equivalent of 7! Crisis suit hard points:
::'''Twin-linked burst cannons''' are for mulching down infantry with enough dakka to make Orks jealous.
::'''Fusion cascades''', which are melta miniguns, less powerful than basic fusion blasters and more short-ranged but with a higher rate of fire, so they're more effective against light/medium vehicles, monsters and terminators rather than heavy tanks.
::'''Phased ion guns''' which were supposed to be "assault cannons-lite", and are more "well rounded" choice, being decent against both light and heavy infantry or light vehicles, though heavily outclassed by the previous two gun options.
::'''Pulse Submunition Rifles''', commonly referred by a player base as "shotguns", these are the most long ranged and expensive guns available to Hazard. They cover a huge area with a cover-ignoring blasts to root out heavy cover campers.

It should be noted that the number 9 is a significant number to the Tau given that they count in an octal numeral system (there is no 8 or 9; 10 comes immediately after 7), as opposed to [[humanity]]'s decimal system. [[Awesome|This means that to the Tau, the XV9 is literally cranked up to 11.]]

Shas'o R'alai has his own XV9 equipped with a shield and experimental next-gen PSR that fires in bursts and is loaded with a wide range extra-powerful (but unstable) experimental ammo.

[[File:XV95.jpeg|200px|thumb|right|<center>Striking hard and fast.</center>]]

=== {{anchor|XV95|XV-95}} XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit ===
[[File:XV95 2.png|thumb|left|200px|Blitzkrieg, Mecha style.]]
Ghostkeel is a really big and powerful stealth suit that can and would fight well in a straight fight rather than relying on flanking maneuvers and infiltration to hit vulnerable flanks and retreat out of harms way like your regular Stealth teams. It's the same weight class and size as Hazard, but has extensive armour plating for nearly double the survivability. Unlike the XV15 and XV25, the XV95 doesn't have full stealth system on itself, but rather its parts are spread between the battlesuit and its stealth drones, meaning only with a combination of both can the team becomes nigh-invisible, while separately they appear to be only slightly camouflaged, which, combined with an exceptional tankiness of the Ghostkeel, and mediocre survivability of his drones makes the XV-95 one of the few battlesuits that would take hits for its drones instead of drones shielding him with their cold, expendable, mechanical bodies. But being nigh-invisible is not enough for XV-95 - it carries an electronic warfare equipment in it's left hand like a gun, and use it to fuck up enemy targeting systems even more, unless they are at point-blank range, and can overcharge it to shock-and-awe any opponent trying to gun them down, ensuring it can't hit shit, although it's a one-use trick, as the suit need to recharge for a while to deliver this sensory shock again.

On the offense, Ghostkeel has a set of twin-linked standard battlesuit guns on it's back (sadly, only limited to flamers, burst cannons and fusion blasters), and a single BFG in it's right hand, which could be a fusion collider, which is an extra bigger fusion blaster with extra barrel that shoots small blasts, or an ion raker, which looks and fires like bigger badder cyclic ion blaster with double the normal mode firing rate (for SIX autocannon-grade shots per burst), double overcharge blast size and slightly higher range. On top of that, Ghostkeel also have two extra hard points for supporting system (meaning up to five hard points total) for extra customization options.

Lastly, much like Hazard suits, XV-95 aren't half as terrible in close combat as most other Tau battlesuits. While Ghostkeel may lack the speed, agility, counter-charge systems and vector thrusters of an XV-9, what it have is a sheer brutal strength - your typical five-man space marine demi-squad would quickly find a hard way that a single Ghostkeel is not an easy prey in close combat, as its single punch is enough to turn a marine into a screaming pile of meat paste flavored with broken bones and ceramite shards. Hell its not that hard for a Ghostkeel to kick (quite literally) through a tank's armour or even fortification walls.

=== {{anchor|XV104|XV-104}} XV104 Riptide Battlesuit ===
[[File:XV104.jpg|thumb|left|300px|The most spammable and rage inducing walker, second only to the Wraithknight.]]
[[File:Nova Reactor Energy.jpg|200px|thumb|right|"So this is the power of the Nova Reactor... Not bad, not bad at all..."]]
A new, extra-large battlesuit (at twice the size of the XV8) that made its first appearance in the 6th edition codex, the Riptide resembles the bastard offspring of a Gundam (specifically the ZZ Gundam, what with its XBAWKS HUEG build, optional missile system and destructive but stupidly risky energy weapon) and a Metal Gear. Arguably more of a vehicle than a suit of armor, the Riptide's primary weapon can be either a heavy burst cannon or an ion accelerator (with twin smart missile systems, fusion blasters or plasma rifles as backup weapons), while its defensive prowess is supplemented by a portable shield generator. All of these can be made significantly more powerful if the prototype Nova reactor built into the suit is used to charge the weapon or shield; however, doing so runs the risk of overloading the generator, releasing deadly radiation that can injure or kill the pilot.

While incredibly powerful, the Riptide's primary drawback ([[fluff]]-wise) is that the materials used to manufacture it are rare. Thus, their numbers remain fairly small within the Tau Empire's forces. Not that you'd know since every goddamn Tau list has them flying out of their asses. Then again, every Imperial Guard force on the tabletop is full of elite veterans, heavy tanks and flyers instead of swarms of regular Guardsmen...

An extremely [[Rape|cheesetastic tactic]] on the tabletop with this fella is to model it to be as low as possible (like crouching forward) and then put it behind a piece of very big cover, like a bastion. It moves out during the movement phase, revs the Nova reactor, blasts nearby enemies into oblivion, then jet boosts back behind the bastion during the assault phase to block enemy LoS.

=== {{anchor|XV107|XV-107}} XV107 R'varna Battlesuit ===
[[File:Xv-107-rvarna-battlesuit.jpg|400px|thumb|right|That's a nice gargantuan creature you have there…it'd be a shame if something were to happen to it...]]
[[File:XV107.png|left|thumb|300px|When you gotta take care of those 'Nids. Accept no substitudes.]]
Essentially a Riptide (made by [[Forge World]] of all folks) that threw mobility away for more armour and two exceedingly huge pulse submunition cannons (think plasma cluster bomb) for the purpose of fucking everything up for the enemy. Its Nova Reactor also grants some unusual properties like a turn with Fleet, an electromagnetic shockwave that hits everyone around it, or double-firing weapons, but is no less risky to use. The fluff behind this involves an Earth Caste engineer from Sept Ke'lshan, called Sho'Aun, who managed to go behind the Ethereals' backs by building something so huge, expensive (even in in-universe terms), and lethal when he was supposed to make more stealthsuits. One [[Tyranids|Tyranid]] swarm later, however, he revealed this behemoth and with it helped dumpster all of the 'Nids and save the Sept.

One interesting note of mention is that in the early days of the R'varna's conception, before it was officially announced, there was indeed a rumor floating around that Forgeworld was actually designing a new stealthsuit. This was before 6th Edition Tau were even released, so it makes sense that nobody even knew about the Riptide aside from the weeks preceding the new codex, but what is interesting is that, given the fluff behind the R'varna, it's almost as though Forgeworld chuckled at the rumors and used those as a basis for their fluff, going so far as to craft the rumors of a stealthsuit into the XV107's fundamental history. '''The more you know!''' The X7 designation this suit have means it's supposed to be an infiltration unit, which is the exact opposite of what R'Varna actually does - this is likely the result of it being developed as a part of Stealth Suit program.

Unlike plenty of other things in lore, the R'varna, with its big-ass pulse submunitions cannons, is as big a rape machine on the table as it is in the fluff. With the ability to fire two pie plates a turn at AP4 and S6 (and FOUR plates using the Nova Reactor) the thing turns [[Tyranids]] to garden mulch, and [[Orks]] to fertilizer. The cannons have Cluster Fire, which means that, the bigger the target the more hits it receives and at higher strength. Thus, while anything with Very Bulky, Bike, Jetbike, Cavalry or Beast takes two hits at +1S, MCs Buildings and Vehicles take THREE S8 hits per hit. Kinda feels [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScmfbOwRreU like this] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBC1Qob27sM more like this]. All in all, the R'varna is considered to be horribly, horribly, horribly broken by non-Tau players, and by Tau players still using it to be the most [[cheese|deliciously cheddar]] thing since [[Fish of Fury|Fish of Fury]].

[[File:XV109.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Bringing the Greater Good close and personal]]

=== {{anchor|XV109|XV-109}} XV109 Y'Vahra Battlesuit===
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3lrhPeK6gU ''Hi, it's Sho'Aun with the Y'vahra, you'll be saying "wow" everytime you use this Tau'']. A regular Riptide doesn't do well too close to an enemy, this one does well at close or medium range. This is for the blobs, the Deathwing, the Armoured Ceramite'd AV14. Made in Ke'lshan Sept by Sho'Aun, you know that guy always makes good stuff. This is a Riptide that embraces its mobility and gets a super-flamer, a mega-haywire gun and has super-jetpacks able to turn it into a flying monstrous creature once each two turns. This one was made with the opposite goal of a Riptide: to jump in close and take the fight to the enemy, fling a burst of flechettes as it lands and then jump back out before it can be overwhelmed. With its S6 Torrent (at 6") Plasma Flamer that goes either AP3 Heavy 1 or AP2 Heavy 2 Gets Hot, and its S8 AP3 Haywire Cannon that also blinds, it can effectively total entire enemy units in one volley, and even more so with the Nova Reactor on (which gives it some more tricks, like the ability to Jink or move back into reserves while in close combat). As a trade off, however, it is a little bit more fragile than Riptide, and it's Nova Reactor options are also weaker, more focused on extra mobility and surviving/escaping close combat rather than blasting shit to death or, you know, the ever frustrating for your opponent 3++ against everything. Combined with extremely uncomfortable range of all of it's weapons Y'Vahra tends to go down much quicker than the Riptide.

=== {{anchor|KV128|KV-128}} KV128 Stormsurge Ballistic Suit===
[[File:Stompin on marines.jpeg|200px|thumbnail|right|Teaching [[Abaddon|certain spiky gue-la]], how to be cool despite the lack of arms]]
[[File:KV128.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Teaching the Imperial Guard that they too, can utilise missile spam.]]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUnjxftU6r0&feature=youtu.be&t=96 <strike>A WEAPON TO SURPASS METAL GEAR</strike>] The new and improved chicken walkers!

The Tau have decided the Riptide still wasn't big enough and made an even larger battlesuit. The Stormsurge is armed with a one of two giant pulse cannons: the first is much like AdMech eradication beamer in that it gets stronger but loses the blast radius as the target comes closer, except it starts at 30" with S9 AP5 large blast and finishes with the almighty D at almost point-blank range; and the other variant of the cannon is pretty much just a railgun with a large blast. Its hilariously large pair of missile pods, combined with an SMS on its back and a pair of airbursting frag projectors it can get, would vomit out so much anti-infantry firepower across half of the board in one volley you'd probably need to buy double the number of dice you already have to just resolve its shooting: entire armies of GEQs would melt the moment this thing opens fire, and even terminators or monstrous creatures would be hard pressed to survive once they start failing their saves under that hail of wounds. It also houses four Destroyer missiles, which are AP1 Seeker Missiles which become strength D when guided by a marker light, and as all four could be fired simultaneously (if you had scored enough ML tokens), could easily kill four regular vehicles or almost any other superheavy/gargantuan on turn one from across the board. But there's more! The stabilizing rods on its legs aren't just for cool looks: KV128 can stabilize itself, losing ability to move and stomp for firing EVERY FUCKING GUN IT HAS TWICE. This rape train, however, ''does'' have brakes, as the Stormsurge is extremely squishy for its size and firepower, basically being as survivable as two Carnifexes; it's pretty much a heavy artillery piece that needs to stay way back and be protected in order to take its points back, and is the one more geared for anti-infantry, so if you're looking for something to deal with Knights and Titans, look below for a proper front line Tau titan. Its squishiness probably has something to do with it being the only Battlesuit so far that has its pilots (or gun operators, looks like it has a couple of these) sitting without any cover over their heads.

=== KX139 Ta'Unar Supremacy Armour ===
[[File:KX139.jpg|200px|thumbnail|right|<center>[[StarCraft|THOR IS HERE!]]</center>]]
[https://youtu.be/2vKz7WnU83E?t=46 To fight monsters, we created monsters of our own]

A new super-heavy Overcompensator Class battlesuit, massive enough to claim the title of Tau [[Titan]]. After multiple run-ins with Imperial Knights and Tyranid bio-titans, the Ethereals were forced to admit the necessity of Titan-sized static defenses to deal with counter-expansion attempts into their own territory and asked the same Earth Caste nutter who made the R'varna and the Y'varha, Sho'Aun, to make something capable of fending off super-heavy assault forces too strong for their bombers to deal with.

He did not disappoint.

Yes, it lacks jet packs (much like its brother the R'varna), but you won't need one, you gave it to your enemy so they can RUN. FAR. AWAY. The Ta'Unar is armed to the teeth and damn hard to kill with T:9 and 10 wounds. Although it's a Gargantuan Creature like the [[Wraithknight]], it can fire Overwatch at BS2 with its two smart missile systems and two twin-linked burst cannons. Its main guns are no less effective- for arm weapons, it can equip either a Heavy 5 multimelta or an ion cannon that can fire either 6 shots at S7 AP3 or 3 shots at S9 AP2. The back-mounted Pulse Ordnance Multi-Driver can fire either a Strength D Massive Blast with 72" range or a S8 AP3 Apocalyptic Barrage (3) with Pinning and Ignores Cover with a range of 12-120". Defensively, it has a 2+/5++ save that improves to 4++ against shooting attacks, and it can sacrifice the invulnerable save for a turn to cut the number of wounds suffered from a "Deathblow" result on the Destroyer table in half. Its only real flaws are that it's expensive as all hell to field (both points-wise and in real-world costs, being a Forge World exclusive and all).

In the place of the Pulse Ordnance Multi-Driver, it can instead take a Nexus Meteor Missile System or a Heavy Rail Cannon Array for free. The Nexus Meteor Missile System is a Blinding Apocalyptic Mega-Blast with 24-120" range with S 10/7/5 and AP 1/4/5, because fuck that guy and everyone remotely close to him. The latter on the other hand is technically two weapons, which can be fired simultaneously. It incorporates a Cluster Shell Launcher (a 36" range Apocalyptic Barrage (4) weapon with S6 AP4 and pinning meant to lock down anyone in relatively close range) and the Heavy Rail Cannon itself, a 120" ranged monster with the almighty D, AP1, a 3" blast, and the nasty rule "Mass Induction Targeting"- when using it to attack any superheavy or GMC, you roll twice on the Destroyer table and pick the higher result, therefore doubling your chances of getting that 6. Perfect for ruining any Titan's day!

For what you get, 600 points is very cheap, for the 'that guy' out there, ask a beginner for a 600 point game, this will do you nicely ;)

{{Tau}}

Dark Angels

2017-12-22T04:35:45Z

2601:147:4200:6280:C99C:DF2:BBC9:C7D9: /* 42nd Millennium */

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Dark Angels
|Heraldry = [[File:Darkangelslogo.png]]
|Battle Cry = "Repent! For tomorrow you die!" or "For the Lion!"
|Number = I
|Founding = [[First Founding]]
|Successors of = None
|Successor Chapters = Hell of a lot of Chapters:{{Blam|+++Completely autonomous+++}}, most notably the [[Blades of Vengeance]], [[Angels of Defiance]], [[Disciples of Caliban]], [[Consecrators]], [[Angels of Absolution]], [[Angels of Redemption]], [[Angels of Vengeance]] and [[Guardians of the Covenant]].
|Chapter Master = [[Azrael]].
|Primarch = [[Lion El'Jonson]].
|Homeworld = [[The Rock]], originally [[Caliban]].
|Specialty = [[Plasma]], [[Deathwing|terminators]], [[Ravenwing|bikes]], :[[Fallen Angels|{{Blam|+++Hunting down the filthy traitors to the imperium!+++}}]]
|Strength = 1,000 (officially, :{{Blam|+++Much more counting chapter serfs, officers, pilots and the like+++}}|Allegiance = [[Imperium of Man|:{{Blam|+++Loyal since day one+++}}]]
|Colours = Green, black, bone white
}}
{{editwar}}
{{Topquote|The best way of keeping a secret is to pretend there isn't one.|Margaret Atwood}}

{{Topquote|Got a secret, can you keep it? Swear this one you'll save! Better lock it in your pocket, taking this one to the grave.|The Pierces, Secret}}

{{Topquote|Be careful who you trust, the devil was once an angel.|Unknown}}

:{{Blam|+++Welcome to the Dark Angels Page, your entrance is being monitored by [[Chaplain|Interrogator-Chaplain]] [[Zacharias]], any question you have will be answered the best we could, doesn’t matter if you are [[Imperial Guard|a lowly servant of the emperor]], an Inquisitor, Primaris Spaces Marine brother or Dark Angel Initiate.+++}}
:{{Blam|+++'''THIS ARTICLE IS ABSOLUTELY TRUE AND IS REWRITTEN FOR YOUR OWN PROTECCTION. ALL MESSAGES WRITTEN IN RED ARE THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH ABOUT OUR HISTORY.+++}}
:{{Blam|+++Any intent to follow links without the approved authorization may end in your unfortunate demise.+++}}
== Frequently asked questions==
•Why are you called the Unforgiven?.
[[Imperial Truth|:{{Blam|+++For failing to protect the emperor in its darkest hour +++}}]]

*Why is your rank Interrogator Chaplain?.
[[Fallen Angels|:{{Blam|+++The rank comes with the responsibility of seeking the repentance of the heretic astartes, traitors, etc.+++}}]]

•I recall that in the index astartes your armor is black, why is green now?.
:{{Blam|+++Contrary to some heretic rumors, our armor is green so we don’t be confused with our [[Raven Guard|raven guard]] brothers, the only Dark Angels wearing black are the operatives and pilots of our Ravenwing company, [[Cypher|if you see some Astartes wearing Ancient gear with Dark angels iconography]] please report them to the nearest dark angel officer so [[FATAL|they be put in line with the codex astartes reglamentation]].+++}}

•I have seen some [[Watchers in the Dark|little beings]] with Dark Angels Carring some relics, what are these?.
:{{Blam|+++Worry not, these are just chapter serfs, not associated with xenos In any way+++}}

•What happened to [[Caliban]] your home world?.

[[Black Templars|:{{Blam|+++We have seen more convenient to convert us to a fleet based chapter, in this manner we can bring the emperors justice where is needed, Caliban was adapted to be the now AWESOME SHIP KNOW AS THE ROCK+++}}]].

•What happened to your primarch, where is [[Lion El'Jonson]]?.
:{{Blam|+++Whit a heavy heart we tell you he is lost, maybe killed by the forces of Chaos, no proof of is LOYAL body to be found, like all evidence of his whereabouts buried under a rock, someday he will return to guide us again +++}}.

•What happened to the allies that where fighting alongside the Dark angels and suddenly they have Disappeared?.

[[Exterminatus|:{{Blam|+++We inform you we dont know, only bolt shells and plasma burns were encountered, we suspect an ambush from the despised traitor legions.+++}}]]

'''The '''Dark Angels''' (also known as the '''"The Unforgiven"''' are amongst the most accomplished and powerful [[Space Marine]] Chapters in the Imperium. Their grim determination and relentless persecution of their foes are legendary, and their combat record tells a long tale of selfless heroism. :{{Blam|+++One of the most loyal chapters in the Imperium+++}}

== Litany of the Dark Angels: Space Hulk Deathwing ==
'''Heralds of the coming Doom, by cry of Raven, we are drawn.'''

'''This oath of war and vengeance, on blade of exalted iron sworn, with blood anointed swords aloft, advance we, into Dread’s dark shade.'''

'''Punishment divine unleashed with hate, a wrathful storm of bolt and blade.'''

'''Purge with plasma, fist, and shell, bring cleansing fire’s righteous breath.'''

'''For the Emperor, Knights of Caliban! The Lion’s anointed Angels of Death!'''

'''No forgiveness'''.

'''No retreat.'''

== The Unforgiven ==

Their [[Primarch]] is [[Lion El'Jonson]] a.k.a The Lion. As a result, the Dark Angels are totally :{{Blam|+++Awesome and without a fault +++}} their Primarch happening to be named after a [[Wikipedia:Lionel_Johnson|homosexual poet]] who wrote a poem called "The Dark Angel" and might've dated [[Fulgrim| Oscar Wilde]]. Oh, and their homeworld is called [[The Rock]], [[Grimdark|:{{Blam|+++A rufege for peace and meditation where nothing sinister ever happens +++}}]] (it's actually a mobile Space station that can take out most of Battlefleet Solar on its own.). They were the posterboys for both [[6th edition|6E]] and [[Citadel Miniatures|Citadel's]] "new" line of paints. Fuck yeah, we guess? Russian fa/tg/uys believe that Dark Angels are Jews for whatever reason (it's because ALL DA names are in Hebrew, silly). Interestingly, they also employ retainers known as the [[Watchers in the Dark]]. These :{{Blam|+++Adorable sword hugging beings are chapter serfs, they are so small because they need to be that small for cleaning those corners in the rock more easily.+++}}

When dealing with the Dark Angels it is important to bear in mind that they are the very embodiment of the phrase [[Vindicare|“the end justifies the means”]] and they will go to any lengths and do anything that they need to in order to :{{Blam|+++protect the Imperium from the perils of the universe.+++}}

The new Codex heavily implies that they may be at Legion strength, :{{Blam|+++As we have now more reinforcements from the Ultima Founding, leading to more sucessor chapters, thanks Lord Commander Guilliman.+++}}The lack of clarification on this matter and the suspiciously close cooperation between the Dark Angels and their successor chapters hasn't gone unnoticed by the [[Inquisition]], although their attempts at exposing the Dark Angels' secrets [[Abaddon|haven't met with much success]] thus far. However, one reason they and their successors work together so well is likely due to the fact that the pre-heresy Dark Angels Legion was already assembled out of chapters. After the heresy, they merely needed to give the chapters names instead of numbers and have the chapters adopt different heraldry and colors; as such, the Dark Angels and their successor chapters might still be (functionally and unofficially) a (more-or-less) cohesive Legion.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByQ7L5aRu1A Their theme] by [[HMKids]],which SHOWS THEIR ABSOLUTE LOYALTY. [[FATAL|:{{Blam|+++If you have any doubts regarding the Dark Angels ABSOLUTE LOYALTY then you should follow this servoskull down this totally not in any way dark and ominous corridor towards room 42 where brother Asmodai will be waiting to answer any questions you might have.+++}}]]
They have apparently also become the love-chapter of some of GW's writers, since they now have the best motorcycle squads around (yes, apparently even better than the [[White Scars]]), the "last" (they might have a ton of them or be making new ones!) jetbike in the Imperium, and [[Watchers in the Dark|invulnerable "Chapter Serfs"]].

=== Gene-Seed ===

[[File:Penance by majesticchicken.jpg|thumb|left|400px|The Dark Angels, the flagbearers of grimdark gothic design.]]

Much like the Ultrasmurfs, the Dark Angels have some of the most stable gene-seeds of all the progenitor chapters, with no significant mutations documented. Due to this and the fact that they were the first Legion produced by the Emperor, they remain one of the most favorable ones to use for founding successor chapters. Although, the High Lords are supposedly iffy about using the DA's gene seed due to the rumors that all Dark Angel successors stay in one command structure, with the Dark Angels still calling the shots, effectively all of their descendant chapters still act as part of a legion. Never-the-less, because there's no official proof of this, the Inquisition cannot call an Exterminatus on the Rock. [[Deathwing|:{{Blam| +++Or if you have, please report yourself with the material in hand, so we can fix this issue.+++}}]]

One of the Lion’s greatest legacy’s to his sons is his [[Perturabo|strategic]] [[Roboute Guilliman|genius]] – a quality passed on to his sons through the Chapter’s gene-seed. This trait manifests exponentially as a Dark Angel ascends toward the rank of Company Master. Such officers can plan a campaign to the last detail, execute faultless assaults, and assemble impenetrable defences instinctively. Central to this ability is the deployment of the correct mix of squads, vehicles and support elements. To this end, the Dark Angels form strike forces – self-contained armies assembled to prosecute a specific campaign or defeat a particular foe.

According to the :{{Blam|+++Words of brother [[Ezekiel]]+++}}, Librarians from the Unforgiven can pick up the unique psychic signatures of those who bear traces of their shared Primarch. Even the most spliced or tainted gene-seed of Lion El’Jonson emits a distinct signal powerful enough to detect. Basically all you need to do is put a Dark Angels Librarian near a :{{Blam|+++A Fellow Dark Angel playing a millenia game of hide and seek+++}} and they might as well have a great big flashing neon light saying “SON OF THE LION HERE COME AND GET ME”. (This has precedent in earlier fluff, such as the battle for [[Rynn's World]], where the death of 600 [[Crimson Fists]] nearly kills a nearby librarian)

=== Battle Cry ===
Unlike more warlike chapters like the [[Space Wolves|Space Corgis]] or the [[Black Templars]], who would go into battle screaming on how they're going to skullfuck the enemies of man, the Dark Angels go into battle in cold, efficient silence, almost similar to that of [[Angry Marine]] Terminators, who are so enraged that they march into battle with stone hearts and steel faces. In fact, their "Repent! For tomorrow you die!" is less of a battle cry and more of a foreboding proclamation against their real targets :[[Fallen Angels|{{Blam|+++The damnable traitors from the nine legions+++}}.]] This makes more sense, the more you realize what the Chaplains do to the [[Cultist-chan|Dark Angels' greatest obsession]] :{{Blam|+++Teach them to love the imperium and the real fiasco of following chaos.+++}} in the depths of The Rock, until they repent.

==History==
[[File:Dark_Angels_chapter-crusade-hersey_.jpg|200px|right|thumb| Dark Angels Crusade/Horus Heresy symbol]]

The original Dark Angels had black armour, back in the days of the [[Beakie|Corvus pattern helmets]]. Modern Dark Angels instead use a dark green colour, except for the [[Deathwing]] and [[Ravenwing]] companies, which are composed entirely of bone-white Terminators and black Fast Attack units respectively. They were introduced in the Deathwing expansion to 1st edition ''[[Space Hulk]]'' with a spiffy background story by Bill King.
*To paint your armour black was to show that you served the emperor directly in the same way Sigismund did when he was chosen to serve as the first Emperor's Champion.
*It could be that one of the reasons for swapping the black for the green was because they no longer felt worthy of it. The Dark Angels are literally wearing their shame for all to see but no one else knows it.

Due to a slight mutation in their [[gene-seed]], the Dark Angels had a slight predisposition to be [[Grimdark|shy]], but other than that, they are cool.

Veterans wear robes and capes and such on the field of battle representing any number of ritualistic ranks and titles that are mostly unknown to those outside of the Chapter but harken back to the traditions of "The Order", plus they look pretty [[awesome]].

===Great Crusade===
[[File:Lance Decurion.jpg|200px|right|thumb| Dark Angels Lance Decurion]]

[[File:Luther.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Luther, :{{Blam|+++If you see this man in your sector report inmediately to the Inner Circle+++}}]]

:{{Blam|+++For the eyes of Dark Angels Commanders only, skip until you see the :) sign.+++}}

*Numeration: the 1st Legion
*Primogenitor: Lion El'Jonson
*Cognomen: The First, Primaris Angelus Mortis (Honorific)
*Observed strategic tendencies: Combined arms and multi-spectra warfare, Exterminatus and purgation campaigns, extended independent void operations.
*Noteworthy Domains: Caliban(home world), Terra, an unknown number of void outposts and watch fortresses on the Imperium’s fringes.
*Allegiance: Fedelitas Tenebrae(Latin for shadows/darkness or “to the”/”from, out of” the shadows/darkness; seeing as GW use dog-Latin, you could theoretically say that it could mean something like 'Questionable' or ‘Obscured Loyalty’).

Not simply a [[First Founding|Legion]] numbered "one", they were quite literally the First legion created by the Emperor and in their earliest incarnation fought as the personal army of the Master of Mankind in the dawning years of the [[Great Crusade]]. HH: Extermination tells us that as the prototype Legion the Dark Angels served as the template for all the Legions that would follow after which the Emperor decided to make the following legions more specialised and engineered their development towards different roles, and as a standard by which these successors would be measured (however they would eventually get supplanted by the empire-building [[Ultramarines]] when [[Codex Astartes|times changed]]). So basically the Emperor simply intended the First Legion to sally forth and "just be Space Marines".

That meant the Dark Angels had to figure out warfare all on their own, and the techniques they developed would have entire Legions built upon those principles when they were raised later on. By the time of the Heresy, there existed six specialised "Wings" or “Hosts”; each acted as an independent formation that was both a part of the main body of the legion but also separate from it at the same time. Each was dedicated to a different form of warfare, of which two survived into the later 40k:
*[[Ravenwing]] - Cavalry & Fast Attack. The Ravenwing protocol originated from the early Legion's rapid moving search and destroy formations. These formations were revived and expanded upon as they offered a form of rapid strike warfare that the Knights of Caliban both understood and had perfected over many generations.They also act as the First Legions infiltration, information gathering and espionage specialists ([[Alpha Legion]] says hi) (Or do they?)
*[[Deathwing]] - Veterans in Artificer Armour and Terminator Armour. There is an elite Deathwing unit called the Secta Mortis. According to the Angels of Caliban novel. The Secta Mortis had gold helmets and wore Terminator Armour. They took over as Sanguinius's bodyguards after Konrad Cruze killed members of the Invictus and [[Sanguinary Guard]].
*'''Stormwing''' - Boarding Assault Marines. Possible void warfare specialists.
*'''Dreadwing''' - Were apparently the 1st Legion's "dirty tricks department" with all sorts of secret and very nasty gear that they really shouldn't have - really shocking stuff. The commander wields a big axe. They are called in when you [[Exterminatus|just want something gone and you really don’t care about the collateral damage.]] '''“We have come. We are death.”'''
:*despite the devastation caused by the Dreadwing upon Macragge, [[Laurie Goulding]] has hinted that this was actually them showing restraint and “you should see what they COULD have used…”
*'''Ironwing''' - Heavy emphasis on Battle tanks and mechanised infantry. <s>'''Iron'''ically</s> Interestingly, the '''Iron'''wing protocol was used as the template for the '''Iron''' Warriors and the '''Iron''' Hands when it came time to raise those Legions, despite the fact they hadn't been named yet.
*'''Firewing''' - Because as we (and every Ork in existence) all know putting flames onto something automatically makes it better. (Why the actual fuck did they not call it the Flamewing? Firewing sounds fucking stupid) WRONG-Fire refers to dakka, as aevery ork knows is better, they probably provide fire support (from here on I support the changing of the name to the Dakkawing).

The wings were originally organised into six hosts, collectively known as the hexagrammatron and run across and through the normal Dark Angels structure of orders, chapters, and companies (similar to how the DA company veterans work in 40k) and every Dark Angel from the lowest to the highest is a member of one of the wings. They were made this way so they could fight in any conceivable situation. Each of the wings/hosts is commanded by an officer known as a Voted-Lieutenant and several Voted-Successors who are outside of the normal legion command structure.
* Holguin - Voted-Lieutenant of the Deathwing, wields a 9 ft greatsword (as of Angels of Caliban is now in possession of the broken shards of the Lion Sword)
* Farith Redloss - Voted-Lieutenant of the Dreadwing (takes out a World Eaters Leviathan Dreadnaught with his axe)
* Griffayn ‘The Spear-Cast’ - Voted-Lieutenant of the Firewing (For some reason his rank is held in abeyance) *his legion rank is held in abeyance not his Firewing rank*

A Dark Angels membership to a particular wing seems to not only be based on their abilities but also their personality, attitude and personal mind set; for example the Dreadwing are made up of the most brutal, destructive and warmongering members of the Dark Angels whilst the Ravenwing (if they are anything like their 40k counterparts) are made up of the most impulsive, wild (by DA standards) and inquisitive members (being a speed freak helps). How they are designated into each wing is unknown perhaps they are given extensive physiological evaluations or maybe they just have some sort of [[Harry Potter]]-esque sorting hat.
The main body of the Legion seems to have been made up of at least 30 Orders(the 30th is the highest mentioned so far) each with a grand master and a paladin(Champion) in command of around 5000+ warriors split up into an yet unknown number of chapters each led by its own Chapter Master.

Guilliman noted that there were also many secret orders and mysterious hierarchies within the ranks of the Dark Angels; hierarchies of knowledge, trust and authority invisible to outsiders. Alongside the Orders, secret Hosts and Wings there was also mention of Thrones and Powers, whatever the hell they were. (It’s very likely that these are named after the Nine Choirs of Angels which consist of 1. Seraphim, 2. Cherubin, 3. Thrones 4. Domininations, 5. Virtues, 6. Powers. 7. Principalities, 8. Archangels, 9. Angels, with the lowest "Angels" being the standard battle brother)
*It has been hinted that because of the Dark Angels’ highly traditional and sectarian nature it made them ‘immune’ to the intrusions of the warrior lodges and acted as a similar buffer to infiltrations and manipulations from the likes of the Alpha Legion. http://gavthorpe.co.uk/2015/09/23/more-dark-angels-secrets-revealed/
*This is no longer "hinted": Luther laughed at Erebus's suggestion of the creation of a Dark Angel warrior lodge.

In this fashion, acting all on their own without support from the other legions that followed they killed lots of [[Orks]] and other xenos scum for great justice and were the most successful Legion during the early years of the Crusade.

Once the most numerous and powerful of the legions, their numbers would be depleted by decades of savage warfare, particularly in the wars of the [[Rangdan Xenocides]] where their numbers fell below 166,000 after they lost almost 50,000 marines preventing the destruction of the entire northern Imperium by an unknown menace from the outer darkness. The scars of these battles would change them, as would their reunification with their Primarch and his adopted world of Caliban. Unyielding, technologically capable, ruthless and insular the Dark Angels by the time of the Heresy were once again a powerful and highly independent Legion used to operating on its own to conduct large scale campaigns and compliance actions. When the Legion was first reunited with their Primarch, the massive influx of warriors into the Legion following the rediscovery of Caliban was able to provide the First with an additional 20,000 new Dark Angels. However, this would not last as just before the Heresy started Luther, who had by then decided Caliban should be free of what he saw as the Imperium’s tyranny, began to starve the legion of any new legionaries, armour, weapons and ammunition. He began by cancelling the deployment of 4212 new recruits to the Legion, he would also reduce the time it took to implant and train new legionaries to about two years, so by mid heresy there was around 45,000 new Dark Angels on Caliban who were swearing oaths of fealty not to the Emperor but to Caliban and the Order. (Not everyone was pleased with this, especially those who had originated from Terra.)

Some time during the Crusade some planetary ruler insulted [[Leman Russ]] and he got all pissy about it. Then Lion ended up killing the leader and Leman was like "Whatchu do that fo' fool?" because ''he'' wanted to take the bitch-ass out. And Lion was like "fuck off, furry," despite his own furtastic name and his dickish kill-stealing. Leman, never being good with words, reason, or sobriety, megaton punched the Lion. The two of them fought for a day or two, an epic struggle between cool-headed tactician and hot-blooded barbarian, douchebag and bro-tard. Then Leman said "this is stupid" and started laughing... then the Lion knocked him out.

In true [[anime]] fashion, after Leman regained consciousness and was less-inebriated, the two eventually became best buds and treated it as water under the bridge; their respective chapters still carry on the friendly rivalry, a pair of champions engaging in sacred and [[Derp|non-fatal]] honour duels whenever the Spess Lions and [[Space Wolves|Space Corgis]] meet. One particular incident during the Heresy had a member of the watch-pack that had been sent to keep an eye on Guilliman being paired off against the Lion himself after the wolves pushed the issue. The Lion who had more important things to do and wanted it over as quickly as possible stepped forward and nominated himself, the fight (if that’s what you want to call it) was as predictably hilarious as you would imagine it would be. And a couple of light years away, the [[Tyranids]] eat a planet while two of the most important Space Marine chapters waste time on this Nerf-chainsword-duel-honour-bullshit because ''that's how they roll''.

:{{Blam|+++ :) +++}}

=== Horus Heresy ===
Much of the history of the First Legion during the events of the Horus Heresy are largely unknown to the Imperium at large, thus you will find that :{{Blam|+++Paper records are highly flammable, thus we put here all we could have recover.+++}}

During the [[Horus Heresy]] Lion El'Jonson rushed to come to the aid of the [[Emperor]], fighting his way through the [[Night Lords]], [[Death Guard]] and [[Lost and the Damned|traitor guard]] to reach [[Terra]]. Stopping off at [[Macragge]] to kick [[Roboute Guilliman]] out of inaction and start actually paying attention to the Horus Heresy. In fact, despite all of the mystery surrounding the intentions of the First Legion, the Emperor still had complete faith in them. A discussion between Him and [[Malcador the Sigillite]] during [[Graham McNeill]]'s Vengeful Spirit proves that even the Emperor expected Guilliman to procrastinate and start building his own Empire and they were somewhat relieved when Russ told them that the Lion had intervened.

Despite all this he didn't make it to Terra in time because :{{Blam|+++Warp troubles.+++}}.Afterwards he returned home to [[Caliban]] only to find that shit hit the fan when :{{Blam|+++ Servitors where behind Schedule to finish the most awesome battle station ever.+++}} When daybreak came Caliban was nothing more.:{{Blam|+++ This stressful days was the cause the lion went on vacation, the remaining Dark Angels painted their armor green, as pennance and because green was the shit back then, all of this caused one battle brother to say"I hate mondays"+++}}

Because Caliban was far away from many Imperial Worlds, the core leaders of the Dark Angels known as the :{{Blam|+++Inner circle Because that band rocks, decided to destroy every history, evidence and blueprint of the rock, to protect it from fallen in the wrong hands+++}}
The Imperium's not exactly sure what happened to Caliban as anyone who investigates about this matter, even [[Inquisitor|Inquisitors]] :{{Blam|+++Who are most welcome never come back to their job, after our wild partys.+++}}

Ahem, to carry on where my predecessor left off after his :{{Blam|+++Natural vacation+++}}, the Dark Angels became the most obscure chapter in the millennium following the Horus Heresy. Where as Imperial officials can try to order around chapters like the Space Corgis and Black Templars, the Dark Angels can never be approached because they can't be found 90% of the time. They are known for mysteriously appearing out of nowhere to aid Imperial forces and disappear just as fast, even if the forces they were aiding were still in need of their help. This has led to much complaint from Imperial commanders, who are often understandably pissed off.:{{Blam|+++We sincerely apologize, but we try to be multi tasking+++}}

===After the destruction of Caliban===
[[File:The rock-Fenris.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Dark Angels arrive in style.]]
Ever since that fateful day ten thousand years ago, the Dark Angels have striven to prove to the Emprah and their Primarch that they are still cool guys to hang around with, despite :{{Blam|+++Their grim nature+++}}. To this end they have acquired toys like plasma cannon jetbikes, more suits of Terminator Armour than most chapters can shake their chainswords at, and a mini-[[Wikipedia:Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp|Gitmo]] in a flying chunk of planet to :{{Blam|+++Capture enemies of the Imperium from the nine traitor legions+++}}, in order to prove :{{Blam|+++The Imperium RULEZ+++}}

:{{Blam|+++INNER CIRCLE ONLY+++}}
[[Luther]] himself was kept within a special cell equipped with stasis fields (both to keep him from escaping something that didnt work, and to prevent him from dying of old age before some kind of confession can be extracted from him). Last seen he was barking mad from Chaos withdrawing its influence from him. But his ramblings have occasionally assisted the Dark Angels in and locating lost relics within the Rock. Recently, he's been claiming that the time for the Lion to return and absolve the Chapter of its past is growing closer...

:{{Blam|+++Watcher in the dark office memo+++}}

Unknown to the Dark Angels, Lion El'Jonson is alive and well- after his duel with Luther, we the Watchers in the Dark brought him to a hidden chamber in the depths of the Rock so he could be healed of his wounds. He is fully healed, and now all that is needed for the last loyal Primarch to return [[Games Workshop|is for the Emperor to give him the signal to do so.]]
:{{Blam|+++ :) +++}}

It’s important to bear in mind that the Dark Angels themselves do not have the whole story regarding :{{Blam|+++The traitor marines from other legions+++}} and Caliban's :{{Blam|+++Upgrade in the most AWESOME SHIP+++}}. When the legion first arrived back at Caliban during the Scouring they would have been unaware of the events that had led up to Astelan ordering the attack on the fleet. After the destruction of Caliban they would have found themselves in a position where they had not only lost their Emperor and their Primarch but their home world as well. The legion had been tarnished beyond repair by those that they had once considered sworn brothers and worst of all they didn’t know why. All they had left was the Legion and so the assembled masters of the Dark Angels decided to cover up what had happened in order to protect and preserve what was left of the once mighty First; they had been under the impression that :{{Blam|+++Traitor marines that like to wear black+++}} had all been slain during the planet's destruction. Once :{{Blam|+++Said traitors+++}} began to reappear it would prove to be a decision that would eventually end up damning them and all those that would follow. The present day Dark Angels are forced to shoulder the burdens and consequences of those decisions made so long ago, that they themselves had taken no part in. Where in other chapters the ascension into the higher ranks is a thing of justified pride and honour within the Unforgiven it is a soul crushing experience as their delusions of honour and false glory are systematically torn down around them as the chapters dark secrets are revealed to them one by one.

The Dark Angels and their successors have spent the past 10,000 years hunting down :{{Blam|+++Said traitors+++}}, slowly and painstakingly piecing together the pieces of an elaborate jigsaw of lies and deceit. Who knew what and who was responsible for what all those millennia ago, was this particular:{{Blam|+++Traitor and heretic.+++}} one of the architects of the betrayal or was he just an unwitting pawn who was just following orders and if so then who gave that order. As they have slowly filtered the lies from the truths and sifted through the many different contradicting :{{Blam|+++Traitors lies about+++}} the Dark Angels have uncovered many unsettling truths that had been unknown to them before but still the masters of the Unforgiven are aware that they do not have the full story and that there are still many dark revelations to come. Not least that the Black Legion counts (or counted) a :{{Blam|+++Traitors wearing stolen Dark angels Armours in obviously Black Legion colors+++}}

===42nd Millennium===
With the return of Magnus and his assault on Fenris, then the return of Guilliman, his Terran Crusade, then the subsequent Indomitus Crusade; the Dark Angels are probably scrabbling HARD to make sure :{{Blam|+++Said traitors be captured+++}}.

Firstly, with the return of Magnus; the Dark Angels were duped by Tzeentch into leading their own crusade to bring the Space Wolves to account for their protection of the mutated Wulfen. While this was eventually resolved with the intervention of the Inquisition who said they would raise their own conclave to deal with the matter. Unfortunately for the Dark Angels :{{Blam|+++Said traitors escaped our watch +++}} the Inquisition had :{{Blam|+++Given Zero fucks +++}}

It would get worse for them later with Guilliman's return, as the reborn Primarch's return to Terra was assisted by :{{Blam|+++Ravenwing Dark Angels and a officer with a HUGE SWORD, obviously a TERRAN SWORD OF OLD+++}}. While Guilliman didn't have a clue what to make of them, they were allowed to be part of the celebratory parade to the Emperor's palace when he finally got there, so they would have been viewed by billions of bystanders. Though most people probably wouldn't have an idea what to make of black Dark Angels either, the Unforgiven were probably clinging to the TV sets while facepalming :{{Blam|+++Because their military parade walk wasnt the best+++}}. However, Guilliman did order :{{Blam|+++Said Marines+++}} arrested when they finally reached the doors to the throne room, the [[Adeptus Custodes]] now have a group of :{{Blam|+++Indiciplined Dark Angels Wearing non codex colors+++}} in their custody and it may be only a matter of time before they and Guilliman have some idea of what the Unforgiven have been up to, if they didn't know already. While Guilliman recognise the sword that :{{Blam|+++Said Oficcer+++}} carried and the sensation filled him with dread. Given that this may be the Lion's own sword, Guilliman may have some inkling as to what might happen if the sword ''(or whatever psychic imprint contained within)'' comes into contact with the Emperor, and as yet has not decided to reveal or act upon that information.
Bear in mind that having some knowledge directly from the mouths of :{{Blam|+++Space Marine Traitors+++}} does not automatically provide the whole story on the actual :{{Blam|+++Building of the rock+++}} (the Dark Angels were still trying to figure that out after 10,000 years)'' so can't immediately condemn them when [[White Scars|other Legions]] had similar internal conflicts during the Horus Heresy, though it would explain why the Unforgiven would be hunting them. Nor does it provide damning details of the activities of the Unforgiven during enactment of their Hunt; since that would be a huge catalogue of offenses spread over 10,000 years, such information would more likely come from an actual Dark Angel rather than a <s>Fallen Angel</s> HERETIC PSYKER THAT LIKES TO LIE.

Taking this further, even if Guilliman does find out or happens to know already, he may have to be very careful with that information because of his own prior association with the Lion and the Dark Angels during [[Imperium Secundus]] and his own attempts at burying it ''(see the formation of the [[Scythes of the Emperor]] and his sealing of the Library of Ptolemy)'' he might not be aware of how much the descendants of the First Legion know about this ''"off the record"'' version of history. Even if some Fallen Angels came out claiming that the ''"Lion was a closet traitor who waited to see who won"'' and sincerely believed it, Guilliman is one of the few people who actually knew what the Lion was doing for much of the Heresy, even if the Dark Angels don't know themselves. This is on top of having to contend with some unresolved "agenda" relating to the sword of the Lion ''(which Guilliman himself broke when condemning the Lion and casting him out for causing massive collateral damage while capturing Curze)'' and the unknown repercussions of what may come if it reaches the Emperor's throne room. Where the High Lords ''may'' have just declared the Unforgiven traitors and been done with them, Guilliman is armed with more knowledge and information than they would have been privy to, and is connected to his brother's Legion in a much more personal way, resulting in a decisive deadlock.

Sufficed to say, by the current state of the Imperium, after the [[Ultima Founding]] was declared; Guilliman traveled the Imperium leaving reinforcements as he went. At the same time, Supreme Commander [[Azrael]] ordered a summit of all Supreme Grand Masters to muster on the Rock to discuss the state of things, considering that there were reports of Fallen massing in numbers never seen before and the Rock itself was attacked by a Fallen Angel daemon-prince which appeared to be the cover for the release of [[Luther]]; coupled with a recent ambush by the Fallen that had left six chapters of the Unforgiven severely depleted in manpower, sufficed to say that things seemed to be changing for the worse. Coincidentally, the summit was gate-crashed by the arrival of Guilliman's fleet who demanded to board the Rock. The collected Chapter Masters were no doubt concerned by the arrival of an Imperial fleet when the Unforgiven had gathered together as a single Legion, and considered shooting them down. Luckily, it turned out that Guilliman was not there to censure the Unforgiven host and instead was there to reinforce them, granting them thousands of Primaris Marines. Guilliman also permitted them to retain their [[Deathwing|1st Company]] and [[Ravenwing|2nd Company]] organizations as an exception to his amendments to the Codex Astartes based on their "excellent service records", only stipulating that they continue to serve the Emperor well, suggesting he is willing to put up with their unorthodox methods for the sake of his brother.

Moreover as a "[[Creed|tactical genus]]" Guilliman isn't dumb enough to risk losing the unique capabilities that only the Dark Angels and their Successors are able to deploy at a moments notice. Obviously, due to the current state of the Imperium. Neither the Dark Angels nor Guilliman can spare a few moments for "Story time with Uncle Bobby and The Inner Circle." Good thing for Guilliman. The number of people who know about the Secundus besides him [[Emperor|can be]] [[Lion_El'Jonson|counted]] [[Cypher|on one hand.]] So, there is much hypocrisy abound.

It is also stated that the Inner Circle alone are aware of the ''[[Fallen Angels|very specific prey]]'' that they seek. Therefore while tit-bits of information may be held by others outside of the chapter, they may not understand the significance or know what to make of it. Either way they haven't acted upon that information, so the Hunt still continues as normal.

== The Legion with "Dark" in its name ==
[[File:DA-Scouts.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Their scouts are never to be underestimated. Also this is probably the best scout artwork so far. And it's not new.]]
After the Horus Heresy, the remaining Legions were forced to split into chapters of around 1000 men according to [[Roboute Guilliman]]'s brand new [[Codex Astartes]] and the Dark Angels followed suit mostly because they had no Primarch to disagree; not that it mattered by this point anyway.

Where [[Rogal Dorn]] [[RAGE|RAGED]] against the idea of splitting his legion, but eventually relented on the threat of civil war, the Dark Angels quietly split themselves up but maintained in [[Just As Planned|covert]] contact with each other. Keeping the same chain of command as before, and mostly the same traditions and expectations. Particularly with <s>co-operation in the hunt for the [[Fallen Angels]]</s> CHILLIN' OUT MAXIN' RELAXIN' ALL COOL, but they also refer to each other as "brothers" in arms. ''([[Kaldor Draigo]] noted that the correct terminology for different chapter is "[[Gene Seed#The Tithe and New Foundings|cousin]]" and resolved to have a word with [[Azrael]] over it)'' and the Supreme Grand Master of [[The Rock]] is deferred to as the [[Spiritual liege|highest authority]] on the secrets of the newly formed Inner Circle.

It transpires from Gav Thorpe's 2015 novel '''Unforgiven''' that the Inner Circle was in fact formed decades AFTER the [[Second Founding]] when [[Cypher]] revealed himself at [[The Rock]] and made it evident that survivors from Caliban would be dropping out of time and space who could reveal the truth of what happened. So the Grand Masters of the '''Twelve''' Second Founding chapters held a council and formed the Inner Circle to make sure their collective honour remained intact. Previous to that we must have assumed that the descendants of the First Legion were just relieved to have weathered the Horus Heresy and followed Guilliman's commands quietly.

Therefore the Dark Angels and their successors still function unofficially as a Legion, and this gets the [[Inquisition]] and the [[High Lords of Terra]] particularly worried, though they can't prove anything, since from the outside, each chapter has its own distinct chain of command and adheres to [[Codex Astartes|codex]] requirements.

It's not quite known how large the collective Unforgiven actually is; [[Deathwatch (RPG)|Statistics]] indicate that the Dark Angels successors make up around 15% of the total space marine chapters at large in the Imperium, and while this does not seem like a massive amount ''([[Ultramarines|Ultramarines]] make up around 50%-66%, depending on which author you ask)'' that would still be around 150 chapters. Though it is uncertain whether all of those chapters are actually aware of their history, given the Dark Angels would presumably prefer to have as few people with the damning knowledge as possible. Yet GW has never presented us with any Dark Angels successors who know of their heritage and yet who are ''not'' part of the Unforgiven ''(the [[Astral Claws]], [[Relictors]] and [[Star Phantoms]] are all "maybes")'' so we can only assume that once you're in the club, you're in balls deep or you get erased.

What is known is that the Unforgiven are not beyond drafting new chapters without official sanction ''(like the [[Consecrators]])'' or outright blackmailing the seal of approval out of the High Lords ''(as with the [[Disciples of Caliban]])''. These chapters are raised with specific purposes in mind, and fill either supporting roles to the collective or are tasked with special missions that the others aren't prepared for. The officers of the successors also hold unique ranks and titles in the Inner Circle relevant to their Chapter's function or position within the Unforgiven.

Each chapter shares formations equivalent to the [[Deathwing]] and [[Ravenwing]], though usually operating under different names, meaning that the collective Unforgiven have access to a whole bunch of surplus archeotech, or the means to manufacture Terminator suits and fighter planes at a remarkable rate. They also trade recruiting worlds between each other; although each Chapter routinely has more than one anyway, they regularly transfer ownership between them for the specific purpose of ensuring that the Administratum's records become unreliable and get lost.

So far ''(and for ten thousand years)'' these indiscretions have passed as little more than quiet rumours, since the Unforgiven go to [[Ophidium Gulf Crusade|extreme lengths]] to protect their honour, plus they mostly keep to themselves so no-one knows what they're actually up to.

=== LOYAL? Or Traitor? ===
:{{Blam|+++INNER CIRCLE ACCESS GRANTED+++}}

Due in no small part to Gav Thorpe's divisive novels, '''Angels of Darkness''' was intended to display that their quest for redemption had made them sinister and brutal, not proof of them being traitors as the wider audience and /tg/ often treats them as. This is because most people took '''Astelan''' and his accusations leveled at the modern-day Chapter and the Lion as truth, never taking into account his jealously of the Lion nor his skewed interpretation of events and logical fallacies (something that Gav himself has tried to remind people of), as he thought the Lion to be a traitor, and then opened fire on the fleet when they were in orbit of Caliban without any attempt at negotiation or communication - in defense, the fleet returned fire, so Astelan drew the [[FAIL|perfectly logical and sound]] conclusion that the Lion had betrayed them. It doesn't seem to matter as much as people think it does, however, as Gav himself said that it wasn't an objective view of what happened on Caliban, but a character study on a member of the Fallen.

Admittedly, though, some of Astelan's theories do make just a little too much sense to be easily dismissed, like his belief that the Dark Angels' paranoia and obsession with secrecy is just as much an gene-inheritance from the Lion as it is a post-heresy development, something that El'Jonson developed (or got tainted with) as an infant in the darkness of old Caliban. However, Astelan's mind and his recollections of things are unreliable - not only he is a Fallen Angel, he is trying to make others fall as well. We only have his word to take for it, not to mention he ended up consorting with [[Typhus]] against the loyalist Dark Angels over the course of The Unforgiven.

Another factor that hasn't helped the First Legion's tainted reputation was the implication that the Unforgiven would be destroyed in their entirety if their secret went out - skewing the Dark Angels from ultra-loyalists trying their damnedest to reach some sort of absolution for their wrongdoings and mistakes, into a bunch of cowardly extremists concerned only with self-preservation. This confusion is the result of an attempt to raise the stakes; coupled with the increasing plot emphasis on them abandoning their allies demonstrates prioritizing shock value at the expense of any actual depth the Chapter might have once had. They are supposedly a calculating, heavily coordinated group orchestrating a covert operation of monumental proportions, yet they clumsily attract the attention of the very people they are trying to keep their secrets from.

About the only positive thing that can be said about this is that it at least provokes discussion - as it stands, it's simply lazy writing. The writers at GW could do a lot with what the Unforgiven would be willing to do or what to sacrifice in the name of their hunt for the Fallen, but right now it's demonstrative of just how threadbare DA fluff has become in recent years. As fun as it is to hypothesize whether or not they're loyal or traitor, the truth probably lies more in the middle - at least the Dark Angels themselves are more like the [[Soul Drinkers]] rather than full on Chaos Marines, more devoted to Emps and humanity as a whole rather than the Imperium itself.

To add to what is said above or rather to clarify is that the First Legion ''(and later Chapter and all their successors)'' are indeed Loyal and not Traitors. With the Lion having been quoted "Loyalty is it's own reward." sort of kills the whole "they might be closet traitors". There is even an example where the Dark Angels encounter a Consecrators Marine that had fallen to Nurgle. When he was captured, the Loyalists explained that there would be no taking him back to the Rock to be interrogated. They did not consider him "Fallen" since he was not deceived by [[Luther]] who led astray the Angels on Caliban. This traitor was considered weak for allowing Chaos to get to him and was promptly executed and his body left in the dust.

In conclusion, the sons of the Lion are ostensibly Loyal, albeit with a massive guilty conscience that ''(unlike the [[White Scars]] who resolved their internal issues at the time and can look on it as something shameful, but has no bearing on the modern descendants of the Legion)'' the Unforgiven cannot let go of, because the sins of the past are '''not''' ancient history as long as these Fallen Angels keep falling out of space and time to remind them of it. So, what might have begun as something relatively innocuous, the Unforgiven continues to skirt the grey area; with each abandoned battlefield or trusted ally silenced, adding to the burden of their collective guilt while they enact the Hunt, to the point that the Hunt is now more shameful than the original crime. Therefore rather than the shame fading with the passage of time it only becomes more imperative for them to complete their task.

This is spelled out bluntly by [[Troll|Cypher himself]] in ''The Unforgiven''. While every legion took part in the [[Great Scouring]], the Dark Angels did so in secret, never admitting to having traitors and <s>Horus sympathizers</s> (Most Fallen were totally unaware of the Heresy, and as a result they either fell to Chaos all of their own accord or were deceived) in their ranks like the other eight legions did. Now in the 41st Millenium it's FAR too late to rectify this; the time for earning forgiveness is long passed. However, perhaps the Dark Angels' true redemption is near, despite their long-running record of questionable actions. The [[Iron Hands]] have been recovering from their fatalistic attitude and their repressed emotions in the wake of the Gaudinian Heresy, perhaps the Dark Angels can finally get past their shame, especially since the recent Horus Heresy books and other lore have explicitly made the Lion's loyalties very clear, and with ''Leman Russ - The Great Wolf'' by Christ Wraight showing that he knows about the Wulfen and never called his brother or his legion out on it, despite their mutual grievances may show some interesting revelations to come.

Despite the Unforgiven being prepared to do anything and everything that they need to do in order to keep their secrets hidden, Supreme Grand Master Azrael has stated that should the day ever arrive when the Imperium discovers their dark history and turns its fury upon the sons of the Lion then the Unforgiven will refuse to raise arms against the Imperium. Not one shot will be fired or blade drawn in their own defence for although they are prepared to do some very shady things in order to keep their secrets hidden they are still unprepared and unwilling to plunge the Imperium into what would be assuredly a very costly civil war that the Imperium really can’t afford to fight. '''They will not be responsible for a second Horus Heresy, or a Badab 2.0'''. The recent lore has really hammered home that, in spite of how suspicious and shady the Dark Angels are, they have never been ''delusional.'' They know what they are doing is wrong, but they have a ten-thousand-year promise to fulfill.
With the release of the new Codex Phil Kelly himself said on Twitch TV the full recount of the events on Caliban,short history Dark Angels Good, Fallen Bad, just kill the [[Troll|joke]], [[Luke|its not funny anymore]].

== Cool Shit ==
[[File:Dark-angels-4000x2500 come at me bro.jpg|600px|thumb|right|Come at me [[Fallen Angels|"Bro"]]]]
As the very literal "First" Legion, they were equipped with gear that predated the pacts with Mars, and were supposed to have inherited much of their equipment from the Old Night and the armouries of ancient Terra, and were permitted to retain exclusive access to these items by the Emperor's own command. Much of which was never seen in other Legions which were raised to a standard template that followed afterward.

These included:
*Fellglaives equipped with Warp Cannons instead of Volkite Carronade and Vindicators which fired warp/vortex shells.
*Land Raiders equipped with Anti-Grav engines instead of tank treads.
*Stasis Missiles & Grenades
*Molecular Acid Boltshells
*Short ranged Plasma Repeater carbines.
*Phosphex Incinerator cannons, [[Rape|used by Terminators]] according to Angels of Caliban.
*A unique pattern of aircraft called a Swordstrike Interceptor.
*A unique type of super-heavy tank which acted as a mobile Void Shield generator called a "Portcullis Mono-track"

Much of this gear would not see use in the 41st millennium ''(or the tabletop)'' and the chapter adheres to a slightly more "codex-equivalent" loadout, probably because GW re-uses the same Space Marine range for most chapters. Though it is strongly implied that the Rock still contains a hoard of archeotech within its dungeons from the old days.

So far, all they've got to show for themselves is bikes with plasma-guns and cool pick-axes, some sturdy but mediocre flyers, some minor Land Speeder variants and supposedly a disproportionate number of Terminator suits (taking potential casualties into account they have to have over 200 of the fucking things!).

Here's hoping that GW/FW remembers that the Emperor sent these guys out on Crusade before he sat down and actually made the other Legions, so they can get their act together and make Dark Angels distinct.

=== The Dark Angels Fleet ===
Both forgeworld and the black library books have hinted quite a bit at the Dark Angels Legion having had a very prominent void presence. They are noted to specialize in extended independent void operations and the 1st Legions artificers were known to create the distinctive 'Paravane' sub-type armour: ''"an idiosyncratic variant of the widely issued Mark II which was renowned for its enhanced void endurance and systems."'' Though this never really gets mentioned in later 40k, but there's no stopping you using the conversion kits to represent "Void Hardened" Armour in Zone Mortalis games, if you ever play those. This would also explain why they would have a crap ton of [[Terminator]] Armor.

Although they didn’t have the largest fleet nor have the largest number of capital ships, those honours belonged to other legions like the [[Imperial Fists]] and the [[Iron Warriors]] respectively. The First may still have owned arguably one of the most powerful fleets among the legions at that time, considering they used a whole bunch of weapon designs that were left over from the Dark Age of Technology, plus having a large number of void fortresses that nobody else knew about. During the Thramas campaign Sevatar’s reaction to seeing the full force of the First Legion's fleet bearing down upon the Night Lords legion can be summed up as “well we're fucked, time to run away” (place obligatory Monty Python joke here). Even when the Lion headed towards Macragge leaving the largest part of his fleet in the hands of Corswain the fleet assets he took with him were still described as being enough to casually wipe out the defences surrounding Guilliman's home and then split the world in two.
*Some of the fleet where armed with something similar to the Rift Cannons on the Dark Angels 40k Dark Talons but on a massive scale; such weapons would be devastating in a void combat environment.

It makes sense that the Dark Angels fleet was on the larger size given that the majority of their successor chapters are Fleet based ''(the fact that being fleet based means that they are harder to keep track of and monitor is of course completely accidental and in no ways intended after all what could they possibly have to hide right?)'' However, by the time of 40k and their diminished status as a "Chapter". Discounting of [[The Rock]] itself, their fleet capabilities are certainly above average when you compare raw numbers to other chapters ''(with 8 battle barges, 16 strike cruisers and 21 rapid strike vessels they are twice the size of the Ultramarines fleet and almost three times the size of the Blood Angels)'' but by no means overwhelming ''(the [[Space Wolves]] have a lot more)'' and there has been little to no mention of their continued use of archeotech warships and weapons even amongst their successors.

However, the Dark Angels do make almost exclusive use of the '''Hunter-Class Destroyer'''. Other chapters have access to the template, but the Dark Angels prefer it because they don't like getting their new fleet assets from the same sources as the Imperial Navy. So the Hunter is like a naval Cobra Destroyer; acting as a small torpedo boat, but is a bit more maneuverable and armoured.

Despite this, unless you believe that the Unforgiven are purposefully concealing the fact that they have a whole bunch of leftover cool shit, it seems like those glorious days of "Legion" are long passed.

*In most Chapters all their aircraft from the sleek [[Stormhawk]] Interceptors to the hulking [[Stormraven]] Gunships are piloted by the Techmarines of their Chapter's armoury. Most Chapters can have anything between 20 and 40 Techmarines at any one time with the Dark Angels only having around 22 Techmarines compared to the likes of the Blood Angels that have 35. The low numbers of Techmarines within the Dark Angels can be put down to their distrust of their [[Adeptus Mechanicus|dual loyalties]]. While this lack of specialists would normally be a problem for most Chapters, the Dark Angels are somewhat unusual amongst the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes in that their unique aircraft the [[Nephilim Jetfighter]] and the [[Dark Talon]] are not piloted by the Techmarines of their armoury. Instead, these agile hunting craft are flown into battle by the expert operatives of the Dark Angels 2nd Company, the [[Ravenwing]] - which gives them a whole (oversized) company that is capable of taking to the skies if they are needed. From “Death from the Skies” most chapters can field at least two “divisions” (24 to around 48 aircraft, but is dependent on the number of Techmarines the chapter can afford to deploy) where the Dark Angels have their 22 Techmarines and the Ravenwing which alone can field at least two “Companies” or six “divisions” (72 to around 144 aircraft dependent on the size of the Ravenwing at the time)

==Daily rituals==

04:00-Morning Prayer: The Dark Angels are roused from their cells to begin prayer at the leadership of the Interrogator-Chaplain. Prayer is extra long compared to most other Chapters due to DARK ANGELS BEING SO LOYAL THAT THEY WANT TO SHOW THEIR DEVOTION TO THE EMPEROR AND THE LION. 
06:00-Morning Firing Rites: The Dark Angels take to the ranges to begin firing practice. 
07:00-Battle Practice: The Dark Angels descend to the Battle Cages to practice in close-combat. Members of the Ravenwing will practice with their bikes and land speeders, while members of the Deathwing will practice <s>counter-Fallen scenarios</s> ENGAGEMENTS WITH THE ENEMIES OF THE EMPEROR, WHICH MOST CERTAINLY DO NOT INCLUDE ANY OF THE SONS OF LION EL'JONSON. 
9:00-[[Fallen Angels|Torturin]]-{{Blam}} CHOCOLATE MILK AND COOKIES BREAK . 
12:00-Midday Meal: A light meal is prepared by the Chapter Serfs. 
12:30-Tactical Indoctrination: The Dark Angels will engage in tactical briefings on opponents they will be facing in the future. Members of the Inner Circle will determine targets such as <s>traitors from the First Legion</s> THE NINE TRAITOR LEGIONS WHICH REBELLED AGAINST THE EMPEROR, BECAUSE THERE ARE ONLY '''NINE''' TRAITOR LEGIONS. At this point a battle-brother may visit the Apothecary, while Interrogator-Chaplains will interrogate <s>Fallen Angels they have been assigned to</s> HERETICS WHO ARE AIDING THE EMPEROR'S ENEMIES, ALL FROM DIFFERENT LEGIONS AND CHAPTERS. 
14:00-Afternoon nap with dimmed lights and soft instrumental music playing in the background.
 16:00-Evening Fire Rites: The Dark Angels take to the ranges to begin firing practice. They usually use black-colored targets to better hone their skills at shooting <s>Fallen Angels in the dark</s> FOUL TRAITORS WHO ARE NOT FROM THE FIRST LEGION WHO USE BLACK ARMOR AND THE COVER OF DARKNESS LIKE COWARDS. 
17:00-Evening Prayer: The Dark Angels assemble for prayer under the Interrogator-Chaplains, who have just finished <s>torturing Fallen Angels</s> SHOWING THEIR UNDENIABLE DEVOTION TO THE EMPEROR WHICH TAKES MANY FORMS. 
19:00-Evening Meal: A feast is prepared by the Chapter serfs. 
20:00-Maintenance Rituals: The Dark Angels will tend to the maintenance of their wargear, while also washing their robes. Members of the Ravenwing will perform maintenance of their attack bikes and land speeders. 
00:00-The Dark Angels will retire to their cells for '''CO-ED''' sleep <s>with their non-human retainers, because [[Heretical Love|that's what the Dark Angels do to ensure their silence about the Fallen]]</s> BECAUSE THEY ARE PLAYERS. 

<strike>Why is there a 3 hour break in the schedule? Would they be torturing the Fallen in that time?</strike> WHAT FALLEN? THERE IS NO 3 HOUR BREAK, THAT'S HOW NUMBERS WORK ON <strike>CALIBAN</strike> THE ROCK.

==Gallery==
<Gallery>
File:DA Codex Cover.png|Here's some badassery right there.
File:Lulz.jpg|Happens quite often.
File:Dark-Angels-warhammer-40000.jpeg|Funnily enough, the angrinator-pattern helmet utilized by the Angry Marines was actually pioneered by the Dark Angels.
File:Dark Angels awesomeness.jpg|Always recognizable with their beautiful artworks and <s>amazing aesthetics.</s> FUKKEN DUALWIELDING FLINTLOCKS.
File:Interrogator Chap.jpg|200px|thumb|left|welcome sir, lets start your [[FATAL|"interview"]]
File:Unforgiven.jpg|The Dark Angels and most of their confirmed successors
File:Beakie da fe ft.JPG|On the left: Dark Angel trooper in the glory days of the Legiones Astartes.
File:The_truth.jpeg|The true secret of the inner circle
File:Eternal-Crusade-Dark-Angel.jpg|Just a friendly reminder too all Dark Angels currently playing “Eternal Crusade” every time the phrase “YOU HAVE FALLEN” appears on your screen brother Asmodai will kill a puppy.
File:-spacehulk-parchemin.png
File:20171125 150941.jpg|November 25, 2017—a date which will live in infamy—
File:FB_IMG_15118378317321618.jpg|Chicks dig Dark Angels
File:Space-Marine-Veteran-Print.jpg|Robes allways a classic.
</Gallery>

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Dark_Angels(8E)|Tactics/Dark Angels]]
* [[Azrael]]
* [[Cypher]]
* [[Deathwing]]
* [[Ravenwing]]
* [[Dark Angel Shoulder Pad]]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwZISypgA9M Unofficial theme song for the Dark Angels]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ckom3gf57Yw Unofficial theme song for the Unforgiven]

{{Template:Marines-Official}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]]
[[Category:Dark Angels]]