Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

==Battle of the Fang==

In late M32, the planet of Fenris came under attack from Skyrar and his Dark Wolves. After the disappearance of Leman Russ (who had forbidden messing with the Canis Helix and considered setting up the Fenrisian Colonies a “good enough” solution), the AdBio (who didn’t know the meaning of “leaving well enough alone”) and the apothecaries of the Vlka Fenryka had been continuing to tinker with the Canis Helix, in the hopes that they could expand the recruiting pool of the chapter beyond Fenris and its colonies. By late M32, they had a solution which in theory should work, which was enough to entice Skyrar to attack the planet.

Skyrar was particularly desperate to find a workaround to the typical problems of the Canis Helix. Given that the Canis Helix only works reliably on Fenrisians, Skyrar had had very few opportunities to recoup his losses since the War of the Beast and the Dark Wolves risked being wiped out through attrition unless something changed. Additionally, from Skyrar’s perspective it was perhaps the best time for him to attack Fenris. Russ had vanished over a thousand years before, and the second Chapter Master of the Space Wolves, Bjorn, another Canis Helix soldier from Old Earth who had known Skyrar personally, had since been interred in a dreadnaught. The current Chapter Master of the Space Wolves was either Harek Ironhelm or Vaer Greyloc, who was a native of Fenris and not a veteran of the War of the Beast.

Skyrar’s goals in attacking Fenris were to steal the modifications to the Canis Helix, and, as an afterthought, burn Fenris to the ground. Fenris represented one of Leman Russ’ proudest accomplishments over his life, and Skyrar wanted nothing more than to see it destroyed. The Space Wolves could have probably handled Skyrar and his conventional forces. It was the shitload of daemons Skyrar brought as backup that they couldn’t handle, especially given the low number of Rune Priests relative to the Vlka Fenryka as a whole. Skyrar’s forces had travelled to Fenris by clawing open a number of Warp rifts across the planet, which were spewing daemons all over the planet. Faced with the threat of a war on two fronts with the civilian population of Fenris caught in the middle, the Great Wolf of the Space Wolves invoked the nuclear option. He called in Magnus and the Grey Knights.

Relationships between the Space Wolves and Magnus, The Grey Knights, and the Thousand Sons weren’t the greatest in M32. Even though Russ and Magnus had mended their bridges before the latter’s disappearance, many in their respective legions had not. Additionally, even though the Grey Knights had been trained in a “Magnus tested, Russ approved” manner, many did not like how much attention Russ had given the Grey Knights over the Space Wolves in the last years of his life.

Magnus and the Grey Knights, having access to the “right the fuck now” option of the Webway, appeared within hours of the message for help being sent. Magnus and the Grey Knights teamed up with the Rune Priests to focus on sealing the warp rifts and slaying the daemons that came through, which freed up the Space Wolves to crush the conventional opposition. Even the Disciples of Kurnous may have shown up, if for no other reason than they weren’t going to let Bjorn and the Space Wolves have all the fun.

Skyrar's trump card in the invasion was this big, arrogant Slaaneshi daemon/daemon prince that the Space Wolves under Bjorn defeated in the past, who he bound to a mortal body to make a daemonhost and dragged its army along for the ride. Skyrar is kind of like Curze in despite being aligned against the Imperium and often joins in Black Crusades for the chance to pillage and burn, he doesn't actively try to win the favor of the Chaos Gods (though there is always ambient corruption which is why he increasingly looks like a werewolf in space). Luther does, because he's stuck in the Eye and after 10k years of living there his motivations have slipped and he has become resigned to his situation, but not Skyrar. Skyrar is, however, willing to use the denizens of the Empyrean to do his dirty work for him. Skyrar is also getting a little bit desperate because he can ill-afford to take losses as much as the Space Wolves can, so he's willing to push some boundaries. He summons the daemon and doesn’t so much beseech it as offer it a deal.

''“I want you to listen very closely. I am not going to bow down and kiss yer bloody daemon arse, beggin' fer yer help in exchange for praise and sacrifices. Instead, I am going to make you an offer. I know how you feel about the Vlka Fenryka. I know what Bjorn and the sons of Fenris did to you. I offer you the chance for revenge. And if you do not take up my offer, then to hell with ye.”''<br>
--Skyrar's offer

The daemon agrees and is bound within a young Dark Wolf of Skyrar’s choosing. When Magnus and the Grey Knights respond to the hail for assistance against Skyrar, Magnus squares off against Skyrar’s ace in the hole because the Grey Knights are focusing on killing daemons and closing warp rifts and the daemonhost is by far the biggest problem.

As they fight, the daemon goes on about how great it is. It claims its fury is like a volcanic eruption, its blows are like a hurricane, so on and so forth. Magnus points out all this bravado is ignoring one, major weakness, and then he phases his hand out of sync with reality and rips the host’s heart out. All that power and the ability to use it is dependent on its host being alive. No host, no daemon. A daemon can puppet a corpse, but sooner or later it has to abandon its vessel and returns to the Immaterium. Daemon Prince, currently bleeding out of his chest, says it just has to kill him before his host dies. Magnus says all he has to do is put a ward between them and wait for him to die. And he had been making wards since he was 15 years old.

The good news is that Magnus, the Rune Priests, and the Grey Knights managed to shut the Warp portals across Fenris, and Skyrar’s forces were driven off before they could destroy the planet. The battle also showed the very important distinction between being in a dreadnaught and dead, as despite being interred Bjorn was active in the battle and showed he had lost none of his edge. The bad news is that the Great Wolf of the Vlka Fenryka was killed in a duel with Skyrar, the Great Wolf was good but Skyrar had the edge in experience having been an active fighter since the Great Crusade. Worse, Skyrar managed to get away with the altered Canis Helix, though not before destroying all the research and killing anyone who might have been able to reconstitute it. Worse still is that the modified Canis Helix worked, so now the Dark Wolves aren’t as limited in their recruitment pools as the Space Wolves and their descendant chapters are. However, considering what [[Daemon_World|usually happens to]] [[Exterminatus|worlds invaded by Chaos]] the Space Wolves got off rather easy.

Thematically, it has a bit of poetic irony to it. In canon Magnus goes to Fenris to wreck the place, here Magnus is called in by the Wolves to help save it, given than he and Leman mended their bridges enough that Magnus respected him by the time he disappeared. It’s also a good look at Magnus during his days as the arch-psyker of the Imperium (along with people like Eldrad and the Steward, but you get the point) when he hung around with the Grey Knights as much as the Thousand Sons.

This would also have been not too long after Bjorn was interred in a dreadnaught. In canon Bjorn became the first Great Wolf around 211.M31 and served in that role for seven hundred years. If we go by the rough date we have floating around for the Battle of Terra (546.M31), Bjorn could have been interred potentially as late as early M32 unless we want to mess with the timeline. So the Chapter Master who died may have been the second or third. It would also show both in-universe and out that Bjorn hadn’t lost his edge.