Editing Nobledark Imperium Primarchs (section)

== Vulkan ==

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> '''''The Promethean:'''''

Vulkan — son of N'bel of the Afrique League, First Patriarch of the Prometheans, Defender of the People, Cleansing Flame of Earth and Primarch of the Imperium — was born in a mud and thatch hut in an arable farming village eight days' walk from Lanbarno, capital of that semi-prosperous realm.

The nation itself was little more than a shadow of what it once was. At its height, some 500 years previously, it had been a superpower — the rival of every other on the Earth at the time, with culture and technological knowledge beyond peer. But then Ursh came and taught them that this was not — has never been and will never be — a time of peace. But all that was history; the realm that Vulkan grew up in knew nothing of their legacies, save for meaningless glyphs inscribed in dusty old tomes of half-forgotten lore.

And so a peace — a hard fought peace — had been won against the Despots of Ursh and their vassal states. If mere survival can be considered winning.

Yet the suffering of the Afrique people would continue; of all the peoples on the Earth, it was they who had come to the attention of the twisted, foul xenos. Why they amongst all others? None can say. But there it was. The only thing that was certain during this era was that the Dark Eldar were discovering the depths of their needs and thirsts, and they had found the pickings in the Afrique League to their liking.

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The depredations of the Dark Eldar became a hated part of life. Shelters were dug by the prudent and the the foolish were left to die. It was an unhappy time. The only consolation was that perhaps the presence of the xenos raiders and their attentions had made the lands of the Afrique League less appealing to more Earthly invaders.

It was in Vulkan's fourteenth summer that he joined the Afrique military — against the wishes of his father and mother, but with their blessing nonetheless; Vulkan's parents had been adamant he not join the warriors, for they knew that his job would be to dissuade their tormentors from their raids, that they might find a softer village to attack. But it was customary for men of the Afrique League to serve and protect the communities they came from; for what was good for the people must surely be good for the nation as a whole, and Vulkan would strive to serve his people.

One such raid was the beginning of Vulkan. His life before this moment had been merely a prelude to the man.

A brutal assault befell Vulkan's home, the invaders seemingly determined to abduct the whole village. Their scant defences were as paper against blades; little more than the facade of a defense. The pitiful few warriors of the Afrique League were tormented in the manner of a cat toying with its prey — and inevitably snuffed out just as quickly. In short order, every defender of the village fell to the Dark Eldar's cruel games — all bar one. When the village's bio-petroleum tank detonated beside him, Vulkan was showered in flames and burning oils — and here lesser men would have died, writhing in agony at the burns that covered him so. But still he rose, clutching his blacksmith fathers hammer, a halo of flame above his head and an inferno blazing upon his broad shoulders like wings. The inflamed man rose as he stood before the Archon, the chief tormentor of his people. His heart beat like a blast furnace and his eyes were holes into the heart of the sun. With his father's hammer he brought down the fire of his people upon the Eldar. The Archon danced around him with inhuman grace, a nimble torturer before an enraged giant. In later legends it would be said that they they danced from sunrise to sunset, but in truth there was a death far sooner than that; though the Archon's blades had been doused in poisons most foul, the heat of the flames had cleansed them. Although Vulkan could barely land a single blow, he did manage to land one. And one was all he needed.

The simple smith's hammer struck hard and true. It was said to have been heated not only by the burning fuel that covered it, but by the furnace heat of hate also. The Archon lay crippled, in agony at Vulkan's feet. He raised that vile man high above his head and brought him down hard over his knee, breaking the depraved Eldar's back like a twig. The flaming warrior held the corpse of his foe aloft once more and, with a roar like the great dragons of old, dared all those who would bear witness to look upon what ruin had been done to his enemies and despair — before tearing out the Raider King's throat.

And no more did the creatures come back.

When the Warlord came to the Afrique League, it was Vulkan who met with him in the old and dying King Shatimuene's stead. With the xenos gone it would not be long before Ursh came back, and when that day came the Afrique League could not endure alone.

Now the chief military officer of his nation and a hero of the people, Vulkan was taken into the confidence of the Warlord. In the name of the Warlord he claimed back the old vassal states of Ursh for the Afrique League, and built that broken nation back up on freed slaves and a noble sense of retribution. When the last tyrant fell and it came time to bring the Unification to the rest of Sol, Vulkan — son of N'bel — was raised high and dubbed Primarch of the Imperium.

Vulkan was one of the first of the final design of Astartes, as all of the major flaws of the previous iterations had been resolved by that point. For which we can be grateful — the world did not need another Angron.

When the Great Crusade began, Vulkan showed that although the Imperium was strong and could be monstrous, it could also be noble and capable of true virtue — he was second only to Lorgar in the compassion he showed to the new Imperial worlds.

When the War of The Beast began, it was the the Salamanders that dedicated their lives most to the defense of the people above the defense of the Imperium; for what was good for the people must surely be good for the Imperium as a whole.

Vulkan did make it back to Old Earth before the Martyr Angel fell, and that he could not save his brother Primarch was an agony that would follow him to his dying days. But no blame was laid at his feet, for his Legion had worked so tirelessly and gave their lives so readily for the people. Always were his Salamanders in the thickest of the the fighting, and ever in the heart of the inferno was the Promethean — his hammer aloft to strike down his enemies with fire and fury.

In the years that followed the rebuilding of the Imperium, Vulkan's forces remained integrated most strongly with those of the Imperial Army, and Vulkan served the Imperium for longer than any other Primarch save for Ferrus Manus of the Mechanicum. Time and again the enemies of man would rise to threaten the Imperium, and the Promethean would rise in turn to face them. Vulkan fought against the Black Crusades of Chaos, the Orkish WAAAGHs of Armageddon, and uncountable other foes, surviving against odds in which any lesser man would perish. Vulkan became known as Vulkan the Undefeatable, the Emerald Knight, the greatest of the Imperium’s champions.

Nevertheless, despite his Mark III S geneseed, the years began to take their toll on Vulkan. Vulkan’s body may have been young but his spirit was old, and he could no longer serve his Imperium the way he once did. The Emperor granted his steadfast champion the right to retire, only stating that he hoped Vulkan could find place to retire fitting for one who had served the Imperium as long as he.

The Promethean picked the humble planet Nocturne as his place of retirement. During the Great Crusade, Nocturne had embraced the Promethean Creed completely and with great enthusiasm. Vulkan was head of the Promethean Creed, its greatest missionary and — given how long he had been influencing it — probably the greatest factor in shaping it. As a result, Nocturne had become an important world to the Salamander Legion, and was the world the Salamander chapter held onto after the splitting of the legions — though the Salamanders built their actual fortress on the nearby moon of Prometheus, to ensure the civilians of Nocturne would not be made direct targets of any would-be aggressor.

By the time that Vulkan started to feel old, nearly the entire population ascribed to the Creed in one form or another. It had become their holy land, eclipsing even the old lands of Africa. Although Vulkan had intended to settle down and live a quiet life in his old age, the people of Nocturne recognized the Unbound Flame of the Promethean Creed, and petitioned him to rule. And so Vulkan became the High Patriarch of Nocturne, ruling as a philosopher-king in peace and wisdom — though more than once the former Emerald Knight had to pick up his old hammer to defend his adopted home.

Of all the Primarchs — save perhaps that of Leman Russ of Skand — Vulkan's disappearance was the most odd. Shortly before Vulkan's disappearance there is a gap of approximately 200 years in the records of Nocturne, and after that point it is generally accepted that he was gone. Before this gap Vulkan is recorded as the High Patriarch of Nocturne, whereas after the gap a Triumvirate was ruling in Vulkan's place and apparently had been doing so long enough that such an arrangement was considered normal. The last known record of Vulkan is a statement by the Promethean that he had planned to take a trip around the farthest planets of the galaxy, but there is no indication of how long he expected to be gone and when he expected to be back. What happened during the Centuries of Silence, as the Prometheans call it, is a holy mystery. Some say he is dead, some say he will come back again in a great hour of need, and some say he never left.

All that is known is that his children — the Fire Lords and the Black Dragons and the Salamanders — fight like lions for humanity, legions of them have laid down their immortal lives for mortal men, and legions more have risen in turn to take up their duty.

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