Editing Lion El'Jonson (section)

==Great Crusade==
[[File:Lion bust.jpg|260px|thumb|right|Bust of the Lion from Space Hulk: Deathwing]]

{{Topquote|We have killed so many in these charnel-systems, that our hands may never be free of the stain of it.|The Lion commenting on the Rangdan Xenocides: Scions of the Emperor.}}

During the campaign known as the [[Rangdan Xenocides]], the Great Crusade was brought to a screeching halt by a species of such macabre power and technological might that it looked like the Imperium had met its doom. The Imperium's losses during the Xenocides would not be exceeded until the dark days of the Heresy; several Legions were devastated by the fighting, with the implication that some of them had been [REDACTED] altogether. The First Legion, led by the Emperor himself, would be burdened with the "Lion's" share of the fighting, with the legionnaires forced to live in their armour for months or years at a time.

It was during this dark time that the Lion was discovered upon Caliban. Upon his discovery, the Emperor stood down and installed the Lion as the overall leader of the war effort against the Rangda. Those Dark Angels that fought during this campaign swore the war would have been lost if not for the presence of the Lion, with many claiming that he was the Rangdan's 'destroyer'.

This also goes towards explaining why the Lion didn't travel under the tutelage of one of his other brothers: there simply wasn't enough time. The Lion went straight from leading tech-knights on a single world to taking the fight to the most dangerous foe the Great Crusade had ever faced across entire star systems and sectors. Talk about a baptism of fire.

The Lion wasn't around during the first war against the Rangdan, but was around for the second (the main event) and the third and final war (the cleanup).

During this time, a certain person using the name "Alpharius" would seek an audience with the Lion. Both the Lion and "Alpharius" understood that the Emperor would eventually have to leave the Crusade and return to Terra, naming one of his sons as Warmaster in his stead; "Alpharius" wanted it to be the Lion. There are two different versions of this encounter, however. The first version appears in Chris Wraight's short story ''First Legion'', wherein a single legionary calling himself "Alpharius" offered to lighten the Lion's burden by secretly taking over operations against the Rangdan so that the Lion and the First could withdraw and rebuild their strength. The Lion of course refused as it was his duty to see the war through to its conclusion. In the second version, from Mike Brooks' ''Alpharius: Head of the Hydra'' novel, the Alpha Legion arrives with a full fleet and is ready to make war under the Lion's command, an offer which the Lion accepts. In this version, the legionary is in fact Alpharius himself, who is still operating anonymously, as his true goal is finding his brother [[Omegon]] in one of the Rangdan warzones. The promise of support for the Warmaster position was a combination of an educated guess, practical concerns, and an attempt at massaging the Lion's ego. Even though the Lion accepts the assistance in this version, Alpharius wasn't entirely certain that his brother couldn't see through the deception and wondered if he was playing his own game.

Despite their inconsistencies, both stories should be taken in the context of each other. In ''First Legion'' the Lion never explicitly sends Alpharius or his forces away, only refusing to withdraw to rebuild in order to strengthen his claim to the position of Warmaster, since it would make no strategic sense to refuse an offer of fresh ships and troops. In the short story, while the Lion doesn't appear to recognise Alpharius as one of his brothers, the attending captain does note that some kind of unspoken conversation seemed to be going on behind the actual words being spoken. The short story does finish by touching on the fact that the Lion saw through the offer as a dangerous temptation and that he had received similar offers before, all of which had been refused. He had no desire for glory or position, and if he was going to be remembered at all, it would be as the "Slayer of Beasts". In ''Head of the Hydra'' Alpharius had a separate personal objective; Omegon had been rumored to have appeared somewhere within the First's area of operations, and even Alpharius couldn't operate a Legion-sized formation undetected in an active warzone, and never actually planned to supplant the First Legion anyway and had made the concept up on the spot, which kind of plays into the Lion's mistrust about any supposed "offer" as indicated in the other version of the story. In any case, as "untested" allies, the XX Legion were only deployed to peripheral warzones and presumably didn't have much of an impact, since the Dark Angels still sustained massive casualties and the Lion wasn't named Warmaster. Both versions still end up at the same destination.

::''"We made a promise, brother," he says.''
::''"You think the others will keep theirs?"''
::''"What does that matter to me?"''
::''"Because this world will one day have a single master. It must be you."''
::''He starts to walk again, his boots sinking up to the spurs in mud. Every movement is ponderous, freighted with ingrained fatigue.''
::''"Have a care for destiny!" the knight calls out after him. "An oath can be forgotten. Power cannot."''
::''He keeps walking.''
::''"Then what do you wish to be known for, my liege?" the knight asks, a final plea. "When the annals are written, what do you wish them to say of you?"''
::''He keeps walking. He never looks back.''
::''"That I was ever, and only, thus," he says, tasting the raw, frigid air of another Caliban dawn. "The hunter. The slayer of beasts"''
-The Lion, ''Scions of the Emperor''.

When the Rangdan threat was finally dealt with, there was a decade-long series of purges executed by the Dark Angels and Space Wolves that left entire human-populated sectors lifeless. This was done to ensure what would hopefully be a final victory over the savage xenos; these two legions were entrusted above all others to do what needed to be done. Other legions, such as the [[Luna Wolves]] and [[Ultramarines]], who had been otherwise occupied with the ongoing wars in the galactic west, were now firmly in ascendance. These Legions had retained their strength, having not suffered at the Rangda's hand, and now took centre stage in the Great Crusade. Compared to these new 'paragons', the Dark Angels and Space Wolves were now viewed with distrust by the wider Imperium. Dark accusations would continue to overshadow them for the rest of the Crusade, and for better or worse, the Lion didn't seem to be bothered by them.

The Imperium was saved by the actions of the Lion and his Dark Angels, but through their losses sustained during the conflict, they had lost their standing amongst the other legions. With the rise of those that had not taken part in the Xenocides, the Lion had evidently lost his chance at assuming the role of Warmaster. It's likely certain members of the Legion saw this loss of prestige as a failing on the Lion's part, leading some like Astelan to view him as an unworthy leader.

Throughout the Great Crusade, there were few records of the Dark Angels' victories kept, but it was widely known that the Lion won acclaim for his masterful tactics and the tenacity of his Legion, managing to accumulate a tally of military victories second only to Horus and the Luna Wolves. It infuriated the Lion's fraternal rival Leman Russ to have to admit that another Primarch could claim more triumphs than he, but the two would not meet each other until much later.

To give an idea as to the kind of things the First Legion were up to, we can look to the Ikaros Contingency, a directive issued only to the Lion. This gave the Lion authority to "remove" entire sections of the Mechanicum that were considered problematic; it is known that it was used at least 8 times before the beginnings of the Heresy, though the records are tightly sealed away.

===The Sarosh Campaign===
Sometime during the Crusade, the Dark Angels took over the campaign to bring the planet of Sarosh into “the light” of the Imperium from the White Scars. The Saroshi managed to fool both legions into believing that they were interested in becoming a part of the Imperium (though the Imperials suspected that something weird was going on). In reality, the Saroshi were secret worshipers of the Ruinous Powers.

The Lion invited their leader The Lord High <s>Executioner</s> Exacter to his flagship (for dinner) in order to finalize the compliance. The Saroshi took advantage of this by smuggling a nuclear device onboard the spacecraft. The High Lord Exacter then denounced the Imperium and its false Emperor, before [[Derp|personally insulting the Lion]] by claiming that he and his sons were abominations and nothing more than the product of rutting beasts. The Lion responded by splitting the bureaucrat in twain.

Meanwhile in the hangar bay, [[Luther]] had discovered the nuclear device and was pondering whether or not he should let it go off and kill his long-time rival, thus finally becoming the rightful head honcho of the Order. Luckily for everyone, [[Zahariel]] was once again in the right place at the right time, and successfully reasoned with Luther. Then they ejected the device into space where it detonated, causing only minimal damage to the ship. Meanwhile, the Saroshi executed the unsuspecting Imperial civilians and army personnel on the planet's surface.

After the situation in space stabilized, a meeting was called to decide what was to be done with the Saroshi. But before the meeting, Zahariel observed the Lion and Luther speaking in a huddled corner, their words unheard by anyone, though the intensity of their conversation was plain for all to see. The Lion then abruptly turned away from Luther, his face a mask of unreadable emotion, while Luther's expression was one of despair and anguish. Zahariel would later note that from this moment on, the seemingly unbreakable bonds of trust and brotherhood between the Lion and Luther were gone forever.
[[File:Lion and his Dark Angels.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The Lion and his Dark Angels, from the Will of Iron comics]]

Needless to say, the Lion wasn't too pleased by all this and so he decided to personally lead his forces to the surface. After dealing with the Saroshi and their daemonic allies, the Lion made a declaration, announcing that the [[Imperial Guard|flow]] of new recruits from Caliban was not proceeding as swiftly as was hoped. The Great Crusade was entering a new and vigorous stage and the Dark Angels needed fresh warriors to take the light of the Imperium onwards into the dark places of the galaxy. Therefore, a corps of experienced Astartes were to return to the homeworld with all speed to ensure that the recruitment of new warriors for the Legion was put back on track. [[Luther]] and [[Zahariel]] and around five hundred other Dark Angels, made up of those that had been injured during the fighting but also some that seemed to have been picked at random, were to return to Caliban. Though officially there was no stigma or disgrace placed upon those returning and despite the apparent honour in such a responsibility, many were shocked by the decision, especially at the apparent dismissal of Luther, as up to that point, he and the Lion had been inseparable. If the Legion needed warriors so badly, why were they being pulled from the front lines? Training recruits was a job for elders, men who were full of wisdom but past their physical prime.

In “Angels of Caliban”, we are given a brief look into the mind of the Lion, which shows that he is very much conflicted about sending Luther back to Caliban, meaning it to be both a punishment and a genuine desire to demonstrate to his father/brother that he still trusted him enough to put him in charge of the very future of his sons and his Legion (he really [[Rogal Dorn|isn’t very good at expressing himself]], is he?). He viewed himself as little more than a warlord whose place was on the battlefield and believed that he had left his homeworld in the hands of people that were far more suited to running and safeguarding it than he ever could be. On top of that, he had mixed feeling regarding Caliban itself, as it brought him to question exactly where he belonged. Despite wanting to return home, there was always something more important that took precedence; there was always another enemy, always another war to wage, and new frontiers to discover (duty before anything else).

This may seem like a convenient excuse, but the Legion really was low on numbers during this period. When the Lion first bought the Legion together, they numbered only around 100,000 Marines, a pitiful number for what had been the largest of all legions; the First had already suffered significant losses during the first war against the Rangdan and would go on to suffer more during the second war. Although the initial influx of new Marines from Caliban was around 20,000, it wasn't enough for the legion to regain its former might. The Lion's decision may seem harsh, but it proved to be an effective one, as by the time of the Heresy, the Dark Angels numbered roughly 200,000. Of course, this did come at the cost of Caliban becoming heavily industrialised and its population being redirected toward supporting and supplying the needs of the legion (some were not happy about this). Of course, the campaign occurred nearly a hundred years (give or take a few decades) before the Heresy occurred. The legion barely breaking the 100,000 mark (some records putting them closer to 50,000 due to the losses suffered against the Rangdan). The Legion needed to rebuild and the number of new Marines produced on Caliban rose to just over 2000 Marines every cycle thanks to the men that the Lion sent back; by the time of the Heresy, this number had risen to over 4000 per cycle.

===The Dulan Campaign===
Despite the fact that their Legions had operated together during the Rangdan Xenocides, [[Leman Russ]] and the Lion would only meet for the first time during the '''[[Faash|Dulan Campaign]]'''.

The leader of that world refused to give in to Imperial rule, going so far as calling Russ the Emperor´s lap[[Lulz|dog]]. Russ, never one to take criticism well, put his efforts into destroying every trace of the enemy while looking for their homeworld, vowing that he would personally kill the Faash leader to avenge this slight.

Unfortunately for Russ, the courts of Terra felt he was taking too long and sent the Lion to finish the campaign for him. When the two met they instantly took a dislike to one another, but agreed to cooperate in order to get the job done. When Russ got word that members of his [[Wulfen|13th Company]] were being held captive with their mutations being broadcast across Dulan as evidence of their corruption, Russ deviated from the agreed-upon plan to take the enemy capital and so the Lion moved in and killed the enemy ruler, denying Russ his vengeance. 

Russ felt that the kill was righteously his and had been stolen from him by the Lion. Russ, never one to let go of a stick easily, began a brawl with the Lion by walking up to his brother after the battle and punching him square in the jaw. While Russ was the stronger of the two, the Lion turned out to be the better swordsman and was the quicker. Their duel went on for a day and a night, ending when the Lion threw Russ through a table. The foolishness of their fight seemed at that point to dawn upon Russ, and he got back up and began to laugh, feeling his honour had been satisfied. Unfortunately, the Lion didn't have the same opinion, so he took Russ's laughter as his brother mocking him, and if there's one thing the Lion can´t stand, it's people mocking him. He threw a left hook sucker punch and knocked Russ out cold. When Russ woke up several days later, the Lion and his forces were gone. To say he was furious would be an understatement, but once he calmed down Russ realized that the Lion had actually done him a favour by quietly disposing of any damning evidence of the Wulfen.

10,000 years later both chapters still choose a champion from amongst their number in order to re-enact their Primarchs' duel whenever the two cross paths. There are two versions of the duel: Duellum Honestas, which is to first blood, and Duellum Dolor, which is to the death. It is customary for the Dark Angels to recite the ancient battle chant '''"- Two sucker punches were thrown that day. Only one Primarch walked away."'''

===Later===
Near the end of the Great Crusade, the Lion, along with [[Horus]], [[Fulgrim]], and [[Jaghatai]] accompanied the Emperor to the planet Molech. The four Primarchs would spend almost one hundred and eleven standard Terran days upon the surface of Molech, but whatever they did during this time was erased from their memories by the Emperor himself (the same thing he did to Zahariel in ''Descent of Angels''). When they departed, they left behind almost a hundred regiments of the Imperial Army, three Titanicus cohorts and a garrison detachment from two Legions to guard the Emperor's secrets.

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An interesting little detail is that Molech is apparently where the Emperor made his deal with the Ruinous Powers; the deal was apparently that in exchange for power and knowledge he would provide them with vessels powerful enough for them to enter the material universe. The fact that he returned there with exactly [[Chaos Gods|four]] primarchs is very telling...
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Was the Emperor planning to make good on his deal by offering up his sons as sacrificial vessels for the dark gods in order to save his own skin? Why would an almost all-powerful ("godlike" being) give up any of its power? They wouldn't, for that would leave them in a weaker position then you were before. Of course, this is trying to apply logic to Chaos, they may have agreed simply because they were bored, and this would make things more interesting (all primarchs are infused with Warp power after all). It could be that he simply tricked the Chaos Gods, as it is even explicitly said by Ingethel the Ascended in "The First Heretic" that the Chaos Gods considered the primarchs their property. So it could be possible that the Emperor simply bargained for some warp power to create "stable greater daemons" (i.e. the primarchs) for the Chaos Gods, without ever intending on delivering on the promise. Also, this was not the first, but actually the second visit of the Emperor on Molech. Therefore it is far more likely that the EMPRA wanted to fortify this world on his second visit rather than offer four of his sons up as sacrificial lambs. The planet contained a gateway to the Realm of the Chaos Gods and he possibly needed some of his sons for that (or he wanted to keep up appearances that the deal was still on and took them along as some kind of proof). Not to mention that the EMPRA even left an immortal female Perpetual behind to guard (and if necessary) close the gateway forever, should it ever become necessary. Unfortunately, she was killed by Horus before she could finish the incantation, or the whole epic duel on the Vengeful Spirit would have played out entirely different.

Later during the Heresy the Lion would encounter a two-headed [[Lord of Change]] (possibly [[Kairos Fateweaver]], the oracle of [[Tzeentch]]) who claimed to have met the Lion before but although he recognised the voice of the daemon the Lion could not remember from where. During the Lion's confrontation with the two-headed Lord of Change his mind stirred with vague recollections, of pleading and entreaty.

Did the Emperor, knowing what was going to happen, actively seek to placate the Dark Gods so as to avoid the disaster that would follow? Answer: No/Yes/Maybe, as they consider the EMPRA their greatest enemy, and furthermore refer to him as "the Anathema" for a reason ''(Anathema means a person or thing detested or loathed: The Chaos Gods hate the Emperor and may even fear what his actions might bring about)'' The origins of the Chaos Gods loathing for the Emperor may have been the result of his theft, he had wronged them, and now they want payback; you could argue that the Emperor's actions and presence are what have caused the Chaos Gods to turn their attention away from the Great Game towards the Materium (He took the greatest gamble in history, and now the galaxy is paying the price). Horus suspects that the Emprah came to Molech (on his first visit) and stole his psychic might from the Chaos Gods (saying that the Emperor came with a spaceship but left without it) and takes this as proof that the Empra was not always as powerful as he is now/was at the time of the Horus Heresy. However, it is equally likely that that the Emperor simply used a spacecraft on his first visit to Molech, as teleporting across half the galaxy would have represented a huge effort and use of psychic power - even for him - which he would have needed to recover from. This in turn would have made it impossible for him to enter the Chaos Realm and act from a position of power.

Even the word Molech is remarkably similar to the word Moloch which is a biblical name relating to a Canaanite god associated with child sacrifice. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/moloch) if you read the page there might be a couple of other interesting similarities that you might find in relation to the Emperor. But then again [[Asmodai| a guy named after the demon of lust]] is part of the zealous fun police in 40kverse. </div></div>

===Reaction To Horus becoming Warmaster===

{{Topquote|He counted all men of power to think as he did, yet while the Lion and the Wolf of Luna shared many traits, they were not the same. When news of Horus' new rank reached the Lion he did not pause in his campaigns, did not offer congratulations or lament his own fortune and this, more than the reaction of any of his other brothers, gave the Warmaster pause.|Horus' reaction to the Lion's reaction to Horus becoming Warmaster}}

Surprisingly, despite their differences, both Russ and the Lion shared a similar reaction to Horus becoming Warmaster. Whilst many of their brothers threw massive temper tantrums and acted like spoiled brats, both the Lion and Russ accepted the decision with cynical resolve, unsurprised that it was Horus that had been chosen. Neither had been pleased with the decision, but neither of them could doubt his fitness for the role, for none of the primarchs had ever matched Horus’s achievements, nor the intimacy of his bond with the Emperor. Well, except for [[Sanguinius]], that is.

Initially, after Horus’s appointment, there was a silent but very [[Slaanesh|awkward tension]] between Horus and the Lion. The relationship between the two primarchs had always been fractious (Horus believed that the Lion felt he should be the most revered primarch because his Legion was the first). It had never spilled over into open confrontation, but Horus knew that their new circumstances would put their already straned brotherly bonds under additional pressure. Surprisingly it was the Lion and not Horus who made the effort to extend the olive branch, an offer that Horus could not afford to ignore.

The position of Warmaster does not make you the next Emperor in waiting, but as shown in “Unremembered Empire”, was the highest military position in the Imperium. Horus as the <s>first found</s> (at least officially; according to new lore, that position actually belongs to [[Alpharius]], though we only have ''his'' word on that...) already had a long and proven record that had yet to be beaten, although the Lion seems to have been catching him up pretty quickly. Horus also had one thing that the Lion, despite his brilliance, did not: his natural charisma - the ability to get people to do what he wanted and to act as a mediator between his various brothers, who would normally be at each other’s throats. The Lion was both introverted as fuck and had a stubborn, independent streak which meant that although he would follow the orders he was given, he would do it “his way”, which might not gel well with what other people may have wanted.

In the short story '''The Board is Set''', the symbolic depiction of the piece used to represent the Lion is the ''"Double-Edged Sword"'', which indicates that the Emperor may have known that the Lion had the capacity to bring both favourable and unfavourable consequences and therefore kept him away from the position of Warmaster for that very reason (though ironically he did trust him and his legion with a [[Psyker|SUPER]] [[Men of Iron|SEKRIT]] MacGuffin arsenal of [[Dark Age of Technology|Dark Age]]-era artifacts that [[Adeptus Mechanicus|nobody else]] in the Imperium possessed). Additionally, [[Lorgar]] was given a vision apparently showing all the Primarchs that would side with Horus during the Heresy. One of the Primarchs shown fits the description of the young Lion arriving on Caliban. The [[Chaos Gods]] seem to have really wanted and fully expected the Lion to have joined their side during the Heresy. The fact that the Lion stayed loyal either shows that the Emperor made the right choice with the Lion, or that the sword hadn't swung both ways yet. However, it's more likely that the double-edged sword was the depiction of a loyal tool that can cut friend or foe without hesitation; a Lion that can kill his enemies but also a brother gone astray, as proven in his readiness to strike down [[Fallen Angels|fallen]] brothers if need to.