Editing Lion El'Jonson (section)

=Personality=
{{Topquote|Of all the Primarchs, save perhaps [[Mortarion]], Lion El'Jonson stands apart. Partially this is due to his taciturn nature - a brooding silence hangs over him at all times. Yet there is something more... something buried beneath his noble exterior. Perhaps this is a result of his upbringing, growing to maturity alone in the monster-ridden forests of [[Caliban]]. Even at a council of war, the Lion moves like an apex predator. He is always watching, always planning, always hunting. He unnerves even his brothers.|Remembrances of Malcador the Sigillite}}

There is a marked difference between the Lion we see before Caliban’s unification with the Imperium and the one we see later during the closing days of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. The Lion on Caliban is portrayed as a rather optimistic if introverted character, looking towards the stars and dreaming of all the great deeds and adventures that waited for him and the people of Caliban if only they could be reached. Later on we see that his optimism and dreams have become bitter and cynical. It is a portrayal of a person who truly desired to bring about a brighter future for his people but when he finally reached the stars he discovered that those dreams quickly turned to ash; there was no peace waiting for them, only more battles. He was a dreamer that had come to the horrible realisation that there is [[Perturabo|no golden future waiting for humanity amongst the stars, only war without end.]] (IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE FAR FUTURE THERE IS ONLY WAR!)

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''“We are as the Emperor made us – weapons, created for this bloody time, and as weapons we can ask nothing more of Him than that.”''
Lion El’Jonson- From Lord of the First

The Lion, may have been one of the few Primarchs to genuinely understand their nature as warp infused creations built solely for the purpose of domination, and this would have affected him deeply, colouring his view of himself and his brothers and hence why he kept everyone at arms length.
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During his youth on Caliban he secretly suspected that he was just another [[Chaos Spawn|beast of the forest]] due to his singularly powerful nature; Like his brother [[Mortarion]], the Lion had witnessed first-hand the malign influences of the warp, but unlike Mortarion, the Lion had the benefit of learning about the nature of Chaos from the libraries of the the Knights of Lupus, allowing [[Cypher|one of their number]] to remain in the Order after he had brought his world to heel; then successfully exterminating all of the beasts and had leaving himself as the only "Beast" remaining on the planet.

Even after joining the Great Crusade and being made aware of his origins and learning of the existence of other Primarchs who were similar in power and stature to himself, yet each one being singularly unique in their own way; In other words, ''more'' "Beasts". It is little surprise that he kept to himself and did not share any camaraderie with them, he certainly did not seek any of them out and was rarely present during celebrated events, quite possibly not seeing any point in if they were truly '''"Savage Weapons, one and all"''' as his brother Curze later put it.

It is interesting that like [[Perturabo]] and [[Mortarion]], the Lion was also sidelined for much of the Great Crusade and left to fight dirty wars and extermination campaigns. Much of the history of the First Legion goes unrecorded because they operated on the fringes, leaving no survivors in the wake and seldom coming into contact with other Legions. Where the [[Iron Warriors]] fought in ignominious wars for ground no-one cared about, and the [[Death Guard]] were considered distasteful because of the carnage they wrought, the First Legion did both of those things but on such scale and efficiency that their successes were indisputable; if the Emperor needed weapons to conquer worlds, then the Lion simply busied himself with the business of dispassionately conquering world after world, to the point where his other brothers were certain that either he or Guilliman would eventually have the highest total by the end of the Crusade despite the Lion's late start, and made the Lion a serious contender for the position of Warmaster.

On the matter of Chaos: where Mortarion ''hated'' warpcraft wherever he found it and sought for its sanction and destruction, the Lion, whether because of his innate understanding or the knowledge imparted to him from the Knights of Lupus, also saw no hypocrisy in using the warp while simultaneously recognising its dangers. At the [[Council of Nikaea]], while he supposedly favoured the censure of [[Magnus]] and was openly in favour of neither side, his representative voted in favour of the continued use of Librarians. Since the Lion was noted as being very capable in the higher echelons of Imperial politics, he would likely not have countenanced his representative being allowed to voice a different opinion from his own, which speaks of an understanding the limits of power and necessity for control. While he did adhere to the edict, when daemons were first encountered during the Heresy, he immediately and [[Blam|firmly]] reinstated the Librarius, understanding full well the threat that was posed and the weapons necessary to defeat them.

Always the pragmatist the Lion would never throw away an advantage when it came his way, one of the lessons the Lion tried to teach the young knights on Caliban was that if they were ever lucky enough to come into possession of something that could give them an advantage over their opponent, then they would be fools not to use it. When planning an attack or defense the Lion always strove to find the most effective solution to any given situation; he was very much a champion of the idea that you don't always need large numbers to overcome your enemies. Sometimes all you need is the right people in the right place at the right time. A single well-placed bolter round can rip the heart out of your enemy’s formation or even topple an empire. After all, self-sacrifice is to be respected, but [[Perturabo|the careless expenditure of lives]] and material is an unforgivable sin.

Just to be clear the most effective solution is not always the “nice” option. Like the Dark Angels of 40k he is the flag bearer for the [[Stupid Good#The darker side of goodness|ends justifies the means mentality]]. If the most effective solution in stopping a large ork WAAAGH! is to sacrifice a city in order to lure out the enemy into the open where they can be wiped out in one go, then that is what will happen. The Lion will take no pleasure in the act but will not balk when it comes to making such a decision. He had annihilated armies then agreed peace terms with their rulers, like the Emperor before him the Lion could not afford to count the price only the prize. Trillions of lives depended on the survival of the Imperium and it was sheer vanity to think that such a goal could be achieved without cost.

Although we want to see them as the heroes of the setting each and every one of the primarchs without exception are capable of unspeakable acts of butchery beyond our comprehension; each has been responsible for the extinction of entire species throughout the galaxy, the only difference is whether they enjoyed it or not. Lion falls into the category that does not take pride or enjoyment from such acts but still recognises them as an unavoidable necessity.

So, basically he's Batman without the sneaking.

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The Lion was regarded as the most ruthlessly efficient commander during the crusade and was so obsessed with his personal responsibilities that he could become blind to other matters surrounding him, including going so far as to break rules and ignore edicts if they proved to be a barrier to victory; Perhaps the best example of this is his behaviour during the [[Thramas Crusade]]. The entire point of the conflict was to occupy the Lion and keep him as far away from Terra as possible. However, after a year of playing cat and mouse, for some unfathomable reason Curze decided to taunt the Lion by outright explaining his objective and what it was going to cost the Lion ''directly to his face''. Upon hearing this from Curze's own mouth, the Lion completely flipped his strategy: where before he had tried to protect the region, he then decided that the most expedient means to win was to '''BURN EVERYTHING''' and wrecking more worlds of the Imperium than he saved, as well as claiming/dealing with a [[Tuchulcha|warp device]] that would almost certainly have him be guilty of [[Heresy]]. Knowing this, he kept his ownership of the device a secret from his brothers Guilliman and Sanguinius, despite also knowing that Guilliman had tried to secure it too.

His obsession with hunting his brother Curze that had him chasing barest scraps of his brothers movements and thus ''incidentally'' winning sixteen separate engagements against the [[Word Bearers]] and [[World Eaters]] during the Imperium Secundus as he moved from lead to lead. He would also ignore Sanguinius's orders and practically demolished a city in order to finally capture Curze.

Only towards the end of the Horus Heresy did the Lion begin to understand how much his obsessions were costing him and had to mentally second-guess his decisions as the fleets were making their way through the Ruinstorm, though at that point the damage had been done, his reputation had already taken a dive with his brothers and his own legion.

He also had a distinct tendency to brood on things, rarely sharing his thoughts with anyone without encouragement and preferring to keep to himself unless specifically called upon. Even those that had known him for years and had grown accustomed to his thought processes could not really hope to follow his line of reasoning. Malcador compared the Lion to Mortarion and the similarities are notable. Both were among the most ruthless primarchs and had no problem unleashing exterminatus on planets (Keep in mind that even monsters like Curze, Perturabo and Angron hesitated to do this), neither had particularly good social skills and spent more time brooding than meeting people halfway, both were betrayed by their second-in-command, both relished in their intimidating and dreaded reputations.

The end result was that the Lion had outwardly poor social skills by Primarch standards, coming across as aloof but undoubtedly superior; there is a reason that the courts of Terra held him in such high regard. Much like his brother [[Perturabo]], the Lion is the sort of commander who would issue orders and expect them to be performed without question, but would not lower himself to your level to explain them. But unlike Perturabo, he is the sort of leader who could also inspire awe, where you would be unable to comprehend the magnitude of the differences between you. This is not to say he lacked empathy or compassion but by his very nature it meant that he would never be able to truly relate to those around him. His relationship with the rest of humanity can be summed up like this: if you were to take a big powerful predator like a lion from the wild and train it to protect an ant colony, no matter how well the lion does its job it’s never going to be able to relate to or understand the creatures under its protection, they are simply too alien to each other. No matter how well trained or domesticated you think the lion is, at the end of the day it’s still a bloody lion and still comes with all the same predatory instincts that it would have possessed in the wild.

However, many of the other Primarchs such as Vulkan, Fulgrim, Guilliman and Horus cared deeply for the idea of humanity; it’s not just a case of nature, but also of nurture- each of those named Primarch’s had a “family” to nurture and teach them, the Lion only had the monsters that hunted him- be weary and kill or be killed. As such, it is clear that simply possessing a Primarch nature is not enough to explain the Lion's views towards humans. It is far more likely that the Lion, who was often quite a distant and cold bastard even with his own brothers, was simply even more distant and cold towards the common people of the Imperium; the overriding lesson to learn is that the Lion saw the importance of the greater whole, which outweighed the importance of the individual pieces- the strange thing is that despite his very stand off nature, a large number of his most trusted inner circle is made up of mortals not marines; it’s more accurate to say that he kept anyone that had not proven themselves at arm’s length, but those that could prove themselves worthy, were treated almost like family (like part of his pride).

He is, in many ways the mirror opposite of his brother Leman Russ; where the Wolf King puts on a disarmingly savage facade on the outside, he is savvy and brilliant on the inside; by contrast the Lion appears noble and majestic on the outside, but holds his savage nature within. Russ originally thought of the Lion as a cold-hearted, arrogant bastard, but after recognising the Lions qualities, he later conceded that the Lion had every reason to be.

As to the whole "unable to read others" thing; the notion came from Brother-Redemptor Nemiel who was himself is a subjective source of opinion on the matter when one considers his dubious history regarding the Order of Caliban. Although Holguin, the Voted-Lieutenant of the [[Deathwing]] believed that the whole thing may have actually been orchestrated by the Lion on purpose as a sort of smokescreen. The Lion purposely acts in a way that makes people believe something and then maintains the falsehood, letting rumours and contradicting opinions spread without denying or affirming anything. The commonly held belief that he struggled with understanding people may well be just another falsehood, designed to mislead any potential opponent ''(which amounted to pretty much everyone)''. The cherry on top, throughout all the stories he is featured in, We are told that Stenius suffered a horrible accident in the past that left his entire face paralysed, without the ability to show any emotion. However upon the revelation that he was actually apart of the Lion's innermost circle, he "grinned coldly", meaning that even this was a falsehood, and that this act between Stenius and the Lion had been in place long before Nemiel had been asked for his opinion. This is similar to the tests that new potential knights would have to go through to become a fully fledged member of the Order; the Lion is continuing this tradition, always testing and probing his knights to see if they are worthy of progressing further. This would also go into explaining some of his odd mood shifts between different stories and interactions; within the Order the knights who would take part in the tests would take on a role of either the good cop, bad cop and neutral cop. The bad cop would be harsh and belittling (Luther was a bit to good at this, with the Lion telling him he had gone to far), the good cop would be supportive and encouraging, and the neutral cop would remain cold and detached; the knights would continually ask questions of the applicant in order to test if they were worthy; the Lion is essentially playing all the roles when needed; whenever the Lion is shown asking a question, take a moment to consider if this is actually a test of character; what will they do, will they remain strong in their convictions or crumble entirely.

Of course, if the Lion was simply putting on a facade, that facade likely caused him an awful lot of trouble that he could have otherwise avoided. Perhaps the most prominent example of this trouble is that his inability, or lack of interest, in getting along with people is almost certainly what cost him the position of Warmaster. Even the murderous lunatics like Konrad Curze and Angron had more than just one friend amongst their brothers, yet the Lion is only ever referenced as being buddies with the Khan. Though he was an impeccable tactician, the Emperor was probably well aware of the fact that the Lion would have issues getting more than a few of his brothers to obey him. The Lion would have certainly had problems with the more belligerent Primarchs like Angron (even ''Horus'' had trouble pre-Heresy Angron). During the Imperium Secundus affair, Guilliman actually said out loud "of all the Emperor's loyal sons, why did it have to be him?" when he learned that the Lion was en route to Macragge. So ultimately, there is a very good chance that the Lion's apparent lack of ability to read people may have simply been another facet of his arrogance. He could probably read most people just fine, but simply never saw a reason not to be an ass.

== Influences from Empy ==

''Some men demand such pomp. They cannot accept the end of one era and the commencement of another without an occasion by which to mark it and give it meaning. Laurels must be given, honours and fair titles invented so that they may be bestowed upon favoured generals. Some men need recognition.” The shadows around the Emperor’s throne deepened. But beneath the layers of obfuscation, deep within the myriad guises of that singularly unfathomable being, the Lion felt the Emperor behold His firstborn son. “Some men,” the Emperor continued, “do not.”''


The Lion shares a lot in common with the Emperor. Just like his dad, he's a charismatic and highly intelligent leader that had trouble relating to his subordinates and putting trust into them when it's really needed. Ultimately it's this secretiveness and lack of communication as well as deliberate withholding of some critical information from his sons that turned half of his legion against him, just like the Emperor kinda turned half of his Primarchs by not sharing with them the critical information about the project he left the Great Crusade for and the existence of Chaos gods. In a way it makes perfect sense - Lion being the first Primarch, he wasn't altered as much as others from the original genetic code taken from the Emperor himself.

According to Leman Russ' novel, when it comes to politics, the Lion "does so well on Terra" which implies that he is more than capable of holding his own among the Imperial court. He is further described as having a dark, sombre majesty perhaps more than any other Primarch with a calm presence of one born to rule and comfortable in the role. The story also seems to allude to the unique aspect of the Lion, as he is called the regent to the one who had created them all, possessing a kingly aspect not diminished by time, remaining one of suzerainty, domination and command. This kingly aspect is also demonstrated in ''Angels of Caliban''; when Typhon is in the presence of Horus he feels that maybe he should bow but when the Lion shows up, there is no maybe. He immediately drops to a knee along with everyone else present without a single thought needed. Typhon also mentions that being in the Lion's presence was like prey being discovered by a predator. Even Astartes found themselves flooded with dread. The dread was probably well-founded, as he was the primarch most comfortable with straight-up annihilating planets full of people, if they were enemies. Keep in mind that even madmen like Curze and Perturabo felt guilty about this. The fact that Mortarion admitted to admiring the Lion speaks volumes.

Beyond all other considerations, his loyalty to his father was absolute. The Lion seems to have truly believed that the Emperor was the only power truly worthy of sitting the throne of Terra, stating very clearly that his father was the one and only being to whom he would ever bend the knee; he would rather see he and his legion destroyed than allow another to usurp his father's throne. In fact he wanted very little for himself - a greater daemon of [[Tzeentch]] ''(possibly Fateweaver)'' found that it had nothing to offer the Lion besides an abstract notion of "freedom" and the prospect that the Lion would live his own life free of the burdens and responsibilities that chained him to his fate. The Lion rejected his offer. This is not to say that he would blindly follow any order given to him. The Emperor may have been his rightful liege lord, but as Dorn explained “The Lion has never been anything other than his own master".

== Relationship with other Primarchs ==
[[Image:Lion.port.jpg|thumb|400px|right|Reminder: His armor is BLACK not GREEN!]]
{{Topquote|He saw our imperfection, and he suffered it to remain, and that was the heart of his nobility. In the end, then, he truly was better than us. The archetype of Legions, First of us all. |High praise from Leman Russ}}

There are very few known instances of interaction between the Lion and his brothers during the Great Crusade. This was primarily because the Lion, like the Khan, tended to put in the most work out on the fringes of the Crusade. He was thrown straight into the Rangdan Xenocides and for the most part he busied himself and his Legion with the business of conquering worlds in the Emperor's name, and so was rarely seen at big events. He was not present at the investiture of [[Horus]] as Warmaster at Ullanor, nor was he a part of the [[Council of Nikaea]]. It seems that despite all of this and his lack of presence during family meetings, his reputation always seemed to precede him whenever Primarchs met.

For instance: [[Leman Russ]] first met the Lion at the end of the [[Faash]] campaign, and had only heard about him based on his rapidly increasing war record and the fact that he seemed to be doing well in the courts of Terra at a time when Russ was starting to be scrutinized as being unsuitable for his current task. Their first actual face-to-face meeting with each other involved Russ being forced to give an apology for an avoidable friendly-fire incident (the wolves ignored hails, and killed over a hundred Dark Angels by blowing up an enemy ship that they had boarded); Russ considered the Lion insufferably arrogant and promised to wreck him if he pulled similar shit (which is odd as it was the wolves that were the ones in the wrong- an apology is the very least they could do) again. The two did eventually garner a mutual respect for one another, but only after the Emperor had fallen and the bad blood between them had been resolved.

Similarly, [[Roboute Guilliman]] seemed to have first met the Lion face-to-face before the Heresy had already begun. He was making disparaging jokes about how good the Dark Angels look on parade, and had to be placated by his foster mother pointing out that the Emperor brought him into the Great Crusade before the Lion was discovered. To his credit however, Guilliman was entirely aware that his negative feelings towards the Lion were mostly due to his own ego, and outright told the Lion at one point that he was one of only two Primarchs that he actually looked up to or ever felt jealous of, the other being Horus. Moreover, Guilliman believed that it was really only a two-horse race between the Lion and Horus for the position for '''Warmaster'''. Even so, he didn't include the Lion amongst his "Dauntless Few" ''(Primarchs whose Legions could pair with his own Ultramarines to defeat any adversary, regardless of the forces laid against them - though admittedly, Guilliman had barely any knowledge of how the First Legion organized itself, or what its capabilities were thanks to the convoluted layers of the Hexagrammaton and the Hekatonystika)''. Guilliman also later clarified that the Lion's motives were too inscrutable and that he was just too insular to make the Regent for the new [[Imperium Secundus]]. This was almost entirely due to the Lion keeping too many secrets, and as such Guilliman simply didn't trust him. He had similar feelings regarding Jaghatai Khan; sincere admiration but little trust due to the closed off nature of the Khan. Though Guilliman himself didn't trust the Lion, he had absolutely no doubt as to the Lion's loyalty to the Emperor.

[[Rogal Dorn]] thought that Lion was too egocentric and full of himself to really care about anything but his own feelings and deeds, unable or ''unwilling'' to view the world from other people's perspective, and as such was unfit to lead. Though this could also just be a case of psychological projection, with Dorn projecting his own negative qualities upon another. After all, Dorn accusing anyone else of having a prideful, harsh or abrasive personality is a laughable case of the pot calling the kettle black. ''(Heck I don’t think he had a single nice thing to say about any of his brothers. Even Sigismund in “Templar” silently agreed with Alajos that Dorn could be ‘frustrating’ at times.)'' However, though Dorn's social skills had all the subtlety and nuance of a barbed-wire bat to the face, he was, as he tended to be, essentially correct about the Lion's personality. The vast majority of the people the Lion encountered, even if they admired him, believed him to be quite a self absorbed ass. His success in leading his Legion however, speaks for itself, as does the amount of trust the Emperor placed in him. Rather amusingly, the two once compared notes on prosecuting wars, with the Lion being quoted as saying ''"No plan survives contact with the enemy"'', to which Dorn responded ''"Then you aren't making enough plans"''. Despite this seeming antipathy, the Lion was one of only two Primarchs permitted entrance into the inner sanctum of the [[Phalanx]].

The Lion held both Guilliman's and Dorn's accomplishments in high regard, referring to them as "men of the head", but also noted that they could also be too rigid when it came to "sticking to the plan". The better the plan, the better the assault. Yet there are times when even the most well thought out strategies must be abandoned, and instead one must put their faith in their own power and ferocity. Knowing when to forsake the reasoned approach is the difference between victory and defeat. Basically, Lion knew when to use the disciplined and intellectual styles of Dorn and Guilliman and when to let his sons go super space murder-machine like the Space Wolves and World Eaters.

As for [[Horus]] himself, the only recorded meeting between the two was at Zaramund in 970.M30 when the Lion boarded the ''Vengeful Spirit'' without ceremony or any form of Honour Guard or retinue. He gatecrashed a war-council and caused everyone else in the room to drop to their knees instantly, especially after Calas Typhon had dithered about whether or not to do so for Horus. The Lion says two sentences to Horus before turning to berate [[Luther]] about disobeying orders and then stalks off again like a boss. Horus has gone on record as saying that he, unlike his brother, had been raised within the halls of his father, being groomed and raised by the Emperor himself to lead, while the Lion had been nothing but a primitive savage on some backwards nothingness of a world, and therefore was unfit to be Warmaster. The black book ''Crusade'' goes into this in a bit more detail: although the Lion was not beloved by his brothers, he was still highly respected, which led to very few of his brothers going out of their way to seek out the reclusive Lord of the First, with only Horus keeping a worried eye on his brother's activities. Horus had grown frustrated by his inability to gain a foothold within his brother's legion, unable to project his influence on the Dark Angels like he could with the others. Although the Lion and the Dark Angels had over the years effectively removed themselves from the spotlight - much of their actions being obscured and hidden away from the records of the Great Crusade - to the point that some had even begun to forget about their glories, Horus was increasingly annoyed by how close his brother and father seemed to be, especially the sheer trust the Emperor seemingly placed in the Lion. Horus and his Legion were the top dogs, their records during the Crusade unsurpassed, so why was the Lion given the keys to their father's vaults that were forbidden to all others? The Lion's reaction to Horus becoming Warmaster worried Horus the most. Although this was the proof that he, Horus, was the favoured son (if you think that sounds petty he also "forgot" to send the Lion an invitation, though to be fair the Lion is about the ''last'' person you'd ever want at a party), he had expected the Lion to at least put up a fuss. However the Lion simply accepted the decision without even pausing for a moment in his crusading, almost as though Horus' grand moment didn't matter to him. It should be noted however, that the Lion absolutely did think the job should have been his, and Horus knew it. The Lion just brooded about it rather than throwing a tantrum.

Although he has demonstrated no negative feelings towards Magnus, he still supported the sanctioning of his brother at Nikaea. Why this was the case was never expanded upon. Despite this, his representative was given the authority to stand in favour of the Librarius itself.

Amongst his other brothers; [[Sanguinius]] considered him practically beyond reproach, though did not give any reason why he felt that way, and refused to countenance any censure of the Lion for his actions in prosecuting the Shadow Crusade until the evidence against him was irrefutable. Upon his banishment from Imperium Secundus, the Lion held no animosity towards either of his brothers; this was not his place, and he would leave knowing that he and his legion had fought hard. The Dark Angels managed to reclaim much of the Five Hundred Worlds lost to the traitor forces. They could leave knowing that they had helped to secure a foundation upon which humanity could begin to build again. The Lion and his legion may no longer have a place in it, but he knew that as long as Sanguinius and Guilliman were in charge, Imperium Secundus would work out just fine. Still, the reason for the Lion's banishment was a questionable one. The fact that the man in question saves your empire and is probably very popular with the people only makes things more complicated.

His relationship with [[Konrad Curze]] has probably seen the most development, though this only occurred after the Heresy had already made them enemies of each other. Their interactions often shown them as reflections of one another; they were both self-raised in the wilds of their own planets and had the potential to have come to the same fates. The Lion admitted that he once considered Curze to have been one of his closest brothers, the two being somewhat kindred spirits (due to the nature of their childhoods, growing up alone in the dark), and Curze in turn referred to the Lion as his "blood brother" now turned "blood enemy".

Apparently, [[Alpharius]] found that the Lion was the only brother that he could not abide, ironically because he could ''"never tell what he is really thinking"''. Though someone called "Alpharius" appreciated his views on war and secrecy and wanted the Lion in the position of Warmaster, so offered to help him out during the Rangdan Xenocides and keep the First Legion intact. This may be a case of Alpharius being deliberately contrary with his words or may represent the view of an entirely different person, there were two twins after all. This is further covered in ''Head of the Hydra''; whichever one of the twins it was did actually believe the Lion should have been named Warmaster. Even after the Lion declined the offer to withdraw, in order to preserve and rebuild his legion, "Alpharius" still decided to hang around and help out the First Legion from the shadows. However, Alpharius later gave an alternate reason for wanting to help the Lion, and that was to gain access in Legion strength to the area of space where the Lion was operating, as he had received intelligence that Omegon had been located in the region. Alpharius himself was able to infiltrate the Dark Angels legion (although even he had a really hard time doing so), but highly suspects the Lion knew he was there, much to his annoyance. However during Alpharius's initial meeting with the Lion, he was accompanied by nine other Alpha Legionnaires and was confident that the Lion had not seen him for what he was; at least he was mostly sure, but he still had a sneaky suspicion that made him a bit uncertain- one telling of the meeting has the people observing the meeting being aware of an unspoken conversation happening between the two. He was mostly confident that, when he told the Lion that the Alpha Legion had not been reunited with their Primarch (as technically the Alpha Legion never really lost Alpharius), the Lion seemingly took him at his word. Alpharius in his own mind concluded that the Lion was quite self absorbed, but also peerless in a number of ways; although he could never be sure with the Lion, it infuriated him that what he thought was “true” might actually not be true, as he never really knew if the Lion was acting, nor the extent of what he actually knew- the troll got a taste of his own medicine and found it a bitter pill to swallow.

The only "friend" the Lion might have had amongst his brothers during the Great Crusade seems to be [[Vulkan]] and/or [[Perturabo]]. Though the theory about Vulkan is only based on the in-game mechanics from the allies chart, where their ''Legions'' are Sworn Brothers to each other (the Dark Angels' only sworn brothers in fact), though the Salamanders are buddies with a lot of Legions and there is no real indication of what the Lion or Vulkan actually felt for one another personally. After Vulkan's apparent demise, the Lion did seek out [[Artellus Numeon]], the former Pyre Guard commander and now current de facto leader of the Salamanders legion, who had sunk into a deep depression over the discovery of the fate of his Primarch. Mourning in one of Magna Macragge's former cemeteries the Lion (in his own blunt fashion) had a heart to heart with Numeon, in which both shared their loss of Vulkan; the Lion confessed his doubts regarding the fall of Terra and reminded Numeon of his duties as the new Legion Master of the Salamanders. Another thing that could say something about their relationship is that the Lion’s Helm which, as the name suggests, was supposedly once worn by the Lion is said to have also been crafted by one of his brother Primarchs. This could easily be referring to another brudda, however.

As for Perturabo, the Lion had enough trust in him to hand over a bunch of Ordinatus-class weapons just prior to the deployment at Isstvan V on a promise that Perturabo would support him as the new Warmaster in order to continue the Great Crusade. The Lion even pointed out that Perturabo's compliments actually meant something to him, though this may have simply been the Lion being (very uncharacteristically) polite; it's kind of sad that Perturabo, who craved recognition, may have screwed over one of the only brothers who actually recognised his worth. It would have been nice if some writefag were to make something in which Perturabo, touched by the Lion's words and trust, decides to fuck over the traitors with the Ordinatus goodies and remain loyal for the Lion's sake.

According to ''Crusade'', the Lion and [[Jaghatai Khan]] were actually pretty close. Despite their differences, they had grown to value each other's blunt and frank characters; both are bloody great at snarky comebacks and sarcastic, character destroying one liners. During ''Unremembered Empire'' the Lion did end up questioning where the Khan's allegiance would fall. The Lion's job according to ''Crusade'' was to be the watchman of his father's domain, to protect humanity's borders from the monsters in the dark (think the Night's Watch from Game of Thrones). Both the Khan and the Lion spent the majority of their time venturing out into the unknown, ahead of even the forces of the other legions; the Khan was the pathfinder, and the Lion cleared the path for those that followed. Both were perfectly happy to be out in the void doing their own thing, far away from what passes for "civilization"; in this way the two were kindred spirits. During the Sarosh Campaign the Lion did take over from the White Scars, freeing them from being stuck in one place, even when many legionnaires from both legions admitted to not understanding way the Lion would bother with such a minor world that held no chance for glory or significant noteworthiness. He probably would have gotten along with Mortarion like a house on fire, given his propensity for thankless solitude and his crappy upbringing. Sadly, the two seem not to have interacted much.

Primarchs like Guilliman and Sanguinius were built to be seen, and play central roles within the future of their father's realm. Not so the Lion. He was built to remain always at a distance, never truly leaving the shadows. He was built to be the distant watchman of his father's domain, who would do what needed to be done to keep it safe (and if needs be destroy it), regardless of how unpleasant the tasks he was duty bound to perform might be; it was something he understood and accepted, and clearly had a significant effect on how he both viewed and felt about his fellow Primarchs. (You could almost call him a "watcher in the dark", wink, wink, nudge, nudge... I'll see myself out).

==Capabilities==
Even amongst his brothers the Lion was renowned for his brilliant mind. Whether understanding tactics and logistics with the same effortless ease as Guilliman, or doing warp jump calculations in his head faster than the ship's computers, the Lion demonstrated a level of excellence that even the most gifted of his brothers struggled to match. To many he was the consummate general and was arguably the most imaginative tactician amongst the Primarchs, with only Corax, and perhaps Horus, having demonstrated similar levels of situational flexibility and quick thinking.

His tendencies in campaigns were essentially the opposite of Primarchs like Guilliman and Dorn. Where his two brothers liked to plan for everything the enemy could potentially do even before a battle got underway. As an example of this, when Guilliman was worried that the Lion was trying to usurp his position in Imperium Secundus, he asked his mother what could he do against an intellect that matched his own. They agreed that the Lion was a character of action; while he could plan well enough, it was actually his ''determination'' that was the root of his success. In contrast, Guilliman's strength was that when given a task, he would spend twice as much time planning rather than doing, and that if he was ever required to stop the Lion, he would start preparing his plans.

As a "character of action", the Lion tended to make a broad flexible plans and then if the situation changed, tended to "wing it" with insane skill. He was capable of a level of adaptability and improvisation which could leave his more bookish brothers looking flat-footed. Essentially, he preferred to ''feel'' situations out rather than creating codified plans to deal with every contingency. His battle record demonstrates that the Lion's reliance on his instincts, combined with how the structure and inner workings of the legion functioned, worked to such a degree that the Dark Angels had nearly as many military compliances under their belts as the Luna Wolves by the time Horus became Warmaster.

Because of their complimentary attributes; when the Lion and Guilliman are seen planning together, before turning to ask Sanguinius if he wanted to add his input. Sanguinius laughed at this and stated that there wasn’t anything he could possibly add, as the Lion and Guilliman would have already thought of anything he could possibly have come up with.

However, he did have his flaws as a commander. While the Lion was a virtually peerless tactician, able to seamlessly adapt to changing situations and improvise brilliantly. He had a hands-off approach to his Legion, and had no particular renown for either [[Perturabo|micromanagement]] or [[Roboute Guilliman|grand strategy]]; While he was Grand Master of both the '''Hexagrammaton''' and the many orders of the '''Hekatonystika''' and was privy to all of their ways and secrets, he largely stood back and allowed the system to work as intended rather than intervene directly. In fact when he first took command of his Legion, he split his forces into equally sized fleets and generally left them to sort things out by themselves. The Lion made command appointments and issued broad orders, but was otherwise not particularly visible to his Legion the same way that some other Primarchs were. The self reliance of those under his command would in turn alienate the Lion from his Legion, many of whom had no contact with him for decades at a time.

His primary problem was that while his capacity for noticing details seemed to go unmatched, his hyperfocus made him lose sight of other factors surrounding him, essentially losing sight of the forest for the sake of the trees. He was certainly obsessed with chasing Curze down until the end of the Imperium Secundus; the Lion had considered Curze’s escape a personal failing on his part, and was determined to bring him to justice for all he had done. As Lord Protector of Ultramar, while he continued to win successive engagements against the [[Word Bearers]] and [[World Eaters]], those were always secondary to his personal goal of capturing his brother, and the strategic value of those victories was minimal. Also, the distraction of the hunt also meant that when '''Sotha''' fell only one ships worth of Dark Angels was present to protect it; although those that took part, would be later honored for their bravery; they had willingly sacrificed themselves, and their ship to buy the defenders more time. Yet if Curze had not flagrantly mouthed off at Tsagualsa, the Lion might still have been stuck at Thramas for the duration of the war, so something has to be said for drawing his ire...

He was also a superlative swordsman as evidenced by the fact he could draw his blade and strike a blow faster than Konrad Curze could react, and could block and counter a blow that Guilliman had not even seen coming. When the Lion went to war, he fought with clinical movements; a ruthless economy of muscle and motion, each thrust and parry executed to perfection. He was however, sometimes caught off guard when he underestimated his opponent (he is described as sounding bored during his fight with Curze at the start), such as when Curze simply gave up trying to match the Lion with a blade and simply spear-tackled him in their first confrontation; which could have led to his defeat and potential death- a mistake he would not go on to repeat.

During his time among the Order the Lion had learned the lesson to command without doubt. Luther had impressed upon him the need to be unwavering in his convictions even in the face of impossible odds. Later during the Heresy he wondered if he'd learnt this lesson too well, and that what was once firm leadership had now become uncompromising tyranny.

===Possible Psyker===
It has been theorised that due to their nature all the Primarchs are inherently psychic to some extent. Each was imbued with warp energy at the time of his creation by the Emperor. The Lion is no exception, and has demonstrated abilities that could be psychic in origin.

*Prophetic Dreams: A long time before the arrival of the Emperor on Caliban, the Lion’s dreams had been haunted by visions of a golden light (the Emperor) descending upon Caliban from the heavens to change it forever, but every time he tried to reach out to the light (possibly his attempt to reach Terra or just his attempts to truly relate to others), it would vanish, leaving him alone in the dark (possibly foretelling the death of the Emperor or even the Lion's own eventual fate: alone, hidden in an unreachable chamber beneath the Rock for 10,000 years).
**[[Sanguinius|Fabulous Hawk-boy]] and [[Konrad Curze|Batman]] also had the power to divine the future through dream and possibly ecstatic state of the mind (and soul, considering Warp shenanigans), but [[Forge World]] [[Extra Heresy|didn't give them access to the Divination psychic discipline]], unlike Magnus and Lorgar. Too bad, [[Munchkin|precognition]] would suit both Sanguinius and the Lion, and they wouldn't need to run away from [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Daemons of the Ruinstorm (30k)|Arch-Dæmons]].
*Whilst descending into the labyrinthine mines under Sarosh, Zahariel realises that the smoke filling the tunnels was in fact etheric energies, visible only to Brother-Librarian Israfael and himself. Zahariel took note that the Lion seemed to be able to see these energies too, since his gaze seemed to follow the drifting trails of pain and anguish traced in the smoke. (He seems to be able to see and feel ethereal and warp based energies including warp taint.)
*When fighting daemons the Lion has demonstrated an ability very similar to a Librarian wielding a Force weapon; seemingly unconsciously channeling the rage and fury from deep within himself along his sword in the form of cleansing white flames causing his demonic opponents to explode. If all the Primarchs inherited some ability from the Emperor the Lion could very well have inherited his father’s ability to destroy souls entirely. Whether or not he knew this (or could have used it to defeat Horus and permanently kill Daemon princes is debatable). Daemons were known as [[Wat|nephilim on Caliban]] and the Lion remembers hunting these otherworldly beings within the deepest depths of the deep woods, [[Awesome|killing them with nothing but his bare hands.]]
*The Lion has used mental shields to hide his mind/presence from his demonic opponents (a trick he picked up when he was alone in the wilds of Caliban) and to keep others from reading his mind; he was apparently quite the discussion of interest among the legions' librarians before they were disbanded. Why the legion's librarians were trying to read their own Primarch's mind is unknown, but that kind of activity probably didn't make the Lion trust them any better.
*Dreadwing has the Lion pulling a Corax, appearing as if from thin air. A meeting of the representatives of the six wings, and a great number of the high ranking members of the fleet's mortal officers and support staff is called. They start by bowing to the Primarch's empty throne before engaging in a heated debate on how they should move forward. As the debate reaches the boiling point the Lion suddenly appears seated upon the throne, despite it being surrounded by observers. It's very likely that the Lion was seated in the throne the entire time.
*It is implied in "Angels of Caliban" that El'Jonson has some kind of passive psychic abilities that allows him to sense his surroundings and the people and creatures around him. This is apparently how he managed to survive the horrors of Caliban during his early years and allows him to “instinctively” react (jedi-like) to actions and situations far faster than even his demigod siblings would normally be able to (e.g. the Lion effortlessly blocking a blow that Guilliman couldn’t even see coming). "Dreadwing" implies that the Dark Angels may have inherited a watered down version of this power; their "instincts" for hidden perils far surpassing that of the other 'hunters' among the Space Wolves or White Scars. Along with a predisposition to the dark that could only be rivalled by the Raven Guard.

It shouldn’t come as to much of a surprise given his childhood but his abilities seem to be tailored towards hunting down and killing warp entities.

The idea that the Primarchs all had psychic potential has been pretty much confirmed in ''Inferno'', where it states that they were all transcendent beings, forged not just of physical matter but of psychic force, in some this quality was channeled into superhuman physicality (Vulkan, Mortarion), but others held power to manipulate the Warp either directly or subconsciously as prophetic foresight (Sanguinius, Curze), preternatural stealth (Corax) or an aura of majesty beyond the mortal (Lion).

Note that this is of course [[High Lords of Terra|Black Librarian]] [[Heresy]] since [[Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader|old Fluff]] gives a quite different version of the Primarchs: all of them being "as powerful as the Emperor and even more powerful in a way". This would be impossible if they were not Psykers. All of them. And the old Fluff also specifically states that they were meant to be healed from the taint of Chaos (i.e. immune to the Perils of the Warp which had cause the Shamans to combine in order to form the Imperial Soul), but that they were a disappointment in this regard because of their too early exposure to the Warp (implied to be responsible for various mutations, such as Magnus' horntits, Sanguinius' wings, and Lorgar's [[Blood Ravens Force Commander|hairetical]] baldness), which also explains why the Emperor forbade them to use psychic powers at Nikea. In 6th edition (and kind of in 7th too), it can also be pointed that Primarchs stats are similar to those of a normal human specializing in Biomancy. Which is totally unsurprising since their (and tellingly, the ''Astartes'') physical abilities even without their armor is far beyond any amount of bio or gene enhancement. In fact, the capabilities of the Iron Hands bionics go beyond what machines are capable of. If augmenting humans like that would have the same results as Astartes, that is what the Emperor would have done, implying a subconscious...techno-sorcery ''and'' biomancy perhaps for all Space Marines and Primarchs.

As of 10th edition and the Lion's return in Arks of Omen, Jonson very wields a new form of short range teleportation/warp travel, able to traverse across or even to different planets from orbit, through forest wreathed passages used by the Watchers in the Dark.