Editing Dante (section)

===Scout to Chapter Master===
[[File:The_Red_Angel.jpg|thumb|400px|right|What he looked like before getting kitted in gold.]]
In the novels and the rest of the fluff, Lord Commander Dante is generally portrayed as a stern but kind fatherly figure to the Blood Angels, who's a good guy and [[Meme|doesn't afraid of anything]]. But before becoming a legend, he was simply Captain Dante, and before that Sergeant Dante, and of course, a battle-brother and a scout at the beginning.

;Scout
As a young Space Marine scout, Dante fought against the Orks in the Ash Wastes of the planet Rora, Eudyminous System (467.M40). It was Dante's 23rd engagement. Turns out that his sergeant, Gallileon, is assessing him for potential as a line officer, and so he gets put on the spot. Dante's tactical plan works, but then he was also at fault for leading the Orks onto his squad in the first place. So, good brain, but not an infallible warrior. The larger campaign is more difficult for the Blood Angels Company, and the Sanguinor himself has to bail them out.

A few years later in 470.M40, Dante fought under Sergeant Basileus on Ereus V, participating in the extermination of the Orreti. However, Dante [[heresy|sympathised with the fate of the pitiful Xenos race]]. Blood Angels indoctrination techniques are quite obviously a [[fail]], or perhaps Dante was too much for them, the [[noblebright|Mr. noblebright]] that he is.

On the other hand, Dante and the Blood Angels do end up going all vampire on the Orreti, mercy be damned. Yeah, who would miss these sorry-ass aliens? (<s>Ugluk</s> Basileus: looks like meat's back on the menu, boys!) 

Of course, this obviously has to be the first step on Dante's route to non-blood sucking enlightenment.

;Battle Brother
Dante has his first encounter (besides an aspirant who came back mad from inside the sarcophagus) with the Black Rage in the hive world of Tobias Halt (518.M40). Battling the Chaos marines of [[The Purge]], Dante's battle-brother Laziel falls to the Black Rage and thinks they are the old legion, relieving the siege of Terra. As for Dante, his fury at his inability to protect the factory workers of Holywell Hive leads to him temporarily going berserk due to the Red Thirst, killing six [[Chaos Space Marines]] single-handedly.

Unfortunately, this did nothing to actually sate the thirst, driving him to drain the civilians dry in a maddened frenzy before the [[Sanguinor]] appears to knock him out of it (quite literally - Sangy beats Dante unconscious with two punches, with the thirst having receded by the time he wakes). The last surviving civilian (who had initially greeted Dante) was [[Blam|executed]] [[grimdark|by the Blood Angels that found the two of them, to hide the secret of the Red Thirst from the Imperium]].

After that he swore off the partaking of blood save for sacramental rituals, disgusted and deeply guilted by his loss of control.

;Sergeant and Captain 
Dante rose to become the Captain of the Blood Angels 5th company in 753.M40. He replaced Captain Avernis, who fell during the assault on the Odrius <s>pirate lair</s> freeport in Mas the year before. At that point, Dante had been a sergeant, leading 'Squad Dante'. The Eldar corsair king Hellaineth attempted to engage Dante in [[heresy|some philosophical discussions]], but Dante wisely turned him down. While the port was destroyed, Hellaineth escaped, and not before leaving Dante with some niggling doubts anyway. Damn Space Elves. But no worry, the Sanguinor is there to ensure the emperor's finest remains eternally committed to the good fight.

;Rise to Chapter Master

In the WotDM info book, Dante became the Chapter Master in approximately 900-999.M40. Turns out that Dante was not chosen because he was the best of the Captains, but simply because he was the only surviving line officer after the debilitating Kallius Insurrection that left no more than 200 Blood Angels alive. Some might interpret this as lessening Dante's legend, and indeed the point is raised in the infobook from an in-universe POV. As a legend of M41, there is a retrospective rose-tinted perception of his every deed, and how Dante became a Chapter Master is apparently a matter the Blood Angels care not to discuss. [[Derp|This is stupid]]. It is actually saying something that Dante is the only line officer left after perhaps the most dangerous campaign the Blood Angels had fought in a long time. In WH40K survivors are the winners, and Dante was a survivor. Whoever wrote that bit of fluff did not think it through.

The WotDM is only one version of how Dante became Chapter Master. Another version of his ascent involves the Secoris Disaster, which is similar enough to the Kallius Insurrection, whilst maintaining some key differences. In this, Captain Dante and Captain Kadeus were the only line officers who survived the Secoris Tragedy (996.M40), a disastrous attempt by the entire chapter (under Chapter Master Sangallo) to cleanse the [[Space Hulk]] Sin of Damnation. Only fifty Blood Angels survive. Kadeus would go on to become Chapter Master, and together with Dante, rebuild the chapter. Ultimately, Kadeus would die in the Blood Angels fortress-monastery on Baal, naming Dante as his successor and handing him the Axe Mortalis.

Obviously the dates are off, for the latest fluff has Dante as Chapter Master for over 1000 years. However, due to the Imperium's [[administratum|shitty record keeping]] (acknowledged from a meta POV in WotDM), it is quite possible to <s>correct</s> hedge the dates. Alternatively, Dante has been Chapter Master for less than thousand years, and the whole over a thousand year shtick is Imperium propaganda (possibility acknowledged in WotDM). To be sure, the Secoris tragedy comes from the earlier fluff by James Swallow (see ''Dante: Lord of the Host'') and Gav Thorpe (''Space Hulk''), but not that old. Moreover, the Sin of Damnation (Secoris incident) is mentioned prominently in the Blood Angels 7th ed (2014), whereas the dates for Dante's rule of the chapter is not quite clear from it.

Finally, note that Blood Angels codex like the 5th and 6th ed state that that [[Darnath Lysander|Lysander]] does not recall a time when Dante was not the Chapter Master of the Blood Angels. Since Lysander was lost in the warp in late M40, and reappeared almost a thousand years later in 964.M41 (Codex: Space Marines 5th ed), Dante must have been Chapter Master before the former date. Thus, it is probably the Secoris tragedy that has been retconned, or at least, given less precedence by recent BL writers. It's probably down to shitty Imperial record keeping and GW being hopelessly inconsistent with dates. If Dante hasn't corrected it, it may be because it is too hard on him to think about how many brothers he lost.

Ultimately, whatever fluff you choose to follow, Dante was a badass. It was to him to lead the Blood Angels Chapter during the Dark Millennium that is M41.

That said, the 8th Edition Blood Angels Codex (most recent on the moment of writing) also reinforces previously mentioned info from 5th and 6th codexes, as [[Darnath Lysander|Captain Lysander]] still doesn't recall times when Blood Angels had the Chapter Master other than Dante, thus making his ascension after Kallius Insurrection more likely one, if not outright makes it canon.

It is 2021 here, and GW has chosen the only surviving line officer as canon (Darkness in the Blood). They made a good story and a good lesson out of it though; you can either stay strong to outlive your mistakes, or you can pick an easy way out, as the main supporting character in the book did. The book also says the chapter master before Dante was called Remael, actually, is this part of story taken directlly from WotDM?