Editing Dante (section)

===Lord Commander===
[[File:Vampire Awesomeness Incarnate.png|thumb|400px|right|One of the best ever pieces depicting Dante.]]
There is some fluff in the novels about Dante's personality as a leader. Basically, it can be said that he functions as an executive authority of the Blood Angels, rather than a 'lord' (like a Jedi Master of the High Council rather than the pre-Ruusan Reformation Jedi Lords). However, the title of ''Lord Commander'' is often used in conjunction with ''High Lord'' in the Blood Angels series by James Swallow. Meanwhile, the 7th ed codex and WotDM infobook seems to have shortened the title to just ''Commander'', while including subsidiary titles like ''Master of the Blood Angels'' and ''Lord of the Angelic Hosts''. It is not clear what exactly is the precise wording of the title. Swallow enjoys appending 'Lord' or 'High Lord' to Commander, but it could be just be reflecting the in-universe reverence of the Blood Angels for Dante. In any case, Dante behaves anything but like a 'lord' or 'master'. He is first-among-equals amongst the Blood Angels (or likes to think himself as such). He addresses First Captain [[Karlaen]] as brother, and brooks no ceremony while interacting with [[Mephiston]] and others.

According to the WotDM infobook, Dante has led the Blood Angels to their "most glorious and triumphant millennium since the time of the [[Great Scouring|Scouring]]". Some of his notable personal exploits are mentioned here.

It seems he doesn't sweat the small talk per se, and venerates a warriors honor more than a title. He certainly has many titles, all of which signify that he is indeed a warrior to be venerated above all others, but Dante really places respect above all else. Dante respects even the lowliest guardsmen who lays it all on the line for the defense of humanity, he doesn't ask anything more.

; The Gates of Pandemonium (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante kicked [[Skarbrand]]'s ass at Pandemonium sometime during M41, casting the creature back into the warp. With Skarbrand’s banishment, the Daemonic armies were overwhelmed by the Blood Angels.

; Skylos (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante defeated a powerful Chaos chronomancer at Skylos, who had shrouded the whole planet with his dark sorcery. The chronomancer would attempt to use time as a weapon against Dante, even stealing several decades of his life. Unfortunately for the chronomancer, the loss of a few decades is irrelevant to one such as Dante, who [[awesome|hacked him down with the Axe Mortalis]] (detailed in the short story ''Dante: Lord of the Host'').

; Ruden III (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante's victory over Eldar corsairs on Ruden III is mentioned as one of his legendary deeds in ''Shield of Baal: Exterminatus''.

; Vetrim (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante's role in the liberation of Vetrim from its Tau overlords and human turncoats is one of the legendary deeds singled out in ''Shield of Baal: Exterminatus''.

; Orana (Undated; M40-41?)
Sometime during M41 Dante personally led the Blood Angels strike force that saved the planet of Orana from an invasion of Chaos Space Marines and Daemons. Orana's capital hive was transformed into a hideous Hellspire, with stone and metal transformed into bloody flesh and bone, and Chaos sorcerers summoning a powerful Daemon lord. When all seemed lost Dante launched himself at the Daemon lord, banishing him back into the warp. With the Daemon's banishment, the Chaos forces were overwhelmed and the planet saved for the Imperium.

; Alchonis Campaign (Undated; M40-M41?)
Not much details about this, but that badass "I have seen all the evil that the galaxy harbours...." quote of Dante was uttered at the start of this campaign, with Dante personally involved (Codex Blood Angels 3rd ed).

; Pyrus Reach (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante personally led a Blood Angels force during the Pyrus Reach campaign, which is featured in the ''Dark Millenium'' cardgame.
The conflict involved forces of Chaos led by [[Erebus]] and his [[Word Bearers]], and an Ork Waaagh! led by Warboss Garzulk the Faceless from the mighty Goffs clan. Space Elves from a Craftworld are also involved, and as usual, involved in some behind the scenes shenanigans that got the [[Dark Angels]] into the mess as well.

; Canau (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante led the Blood Angels to liberate the planet of Canau from the Orks. Singled out as one of his most legendary exploits, subject to much mythmaking where he slew so many Orks that even the [[Matt Ward|Dark Lord]] has trouble accepting the numbers cited.

; Ultima Macharia (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante performed some memorable deed here (Blood Angels 5th ed). No details are given, but possibly something to do with the [[Macharian Heresy]]. Most probably it is mentioned because it is the farthest planet on the western half of the galaxy, providing a nice mirror to Dante's involvement in Jonol (see below), the planet on the edge of the Eastern Fringes of the Segmentum Ultima.

; Jonol (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante is mentioned as being involved in some bloody victory on this planet. Jonol is the homeworld of the Honoured Sons Space Marine Chapter, on the Eastern Fringes of the Galaxy, and probably the rationale for its prominence in Dante's fluff is to show he has fought across the length and breadth of the Imperium.

; Terion (Early M41)
Dante led the Blood Angels to relieve the world of Terion at the dawn of the 41st Millennium, defeating an alliance of [[Night Lords]] and the Traitor warband known as the Brotherhood of Darkness. In an upbeat ending, the devastated Terion was rebuilt into a paradise, and all that remains of the war’s legacy is a colossal monument to Dante in the capital city. [[Grimdark]]? What grimdark?

; WAAAGH! Big Skorcha (798.M41) 
Dante led the Blood Angels in defense of Baal and its moons from WAAAGH! Big Skorcha, which included numerous Orks from three entire Space Hulks.

; Battle of Stonehaven (901.M41)
Dante led the drop assault that broke WAAAGH! Bludcrumpa's decade-long siege of the Forge World Ironhelm.

; Kalagazaar (911.M41)
When Grey Knight prognosticars predicted [[Ka'bandha]] return to the mortal world, the Grey Knights revealed themselves to the Blood Angels, bringing the news to Dante and proposing a joint strike. The Blood Angels and Grey Knights then attacked Ka'Bandha at his fortress on the Daemon world Kalagazar, banishing him and his Daemonic legions and then subjecting the planet to exterminatus. At the end of the mission the surviving Blood Angels have their memories wiped, with Dante having agreed to that at the mission's start. The fluff does not make it clear if Dante himself actually participated in the mission, but it seems much more probable that he did than not (7th ed rulebook).

; Second War for Armageddon (941.M41)
Dante's reputation led Chapter Masters [[Tu'Shan]] of the [[Salamanders]] and [[Marneus Calgar]] of the [[Ultramarines]] to acknowledge his overall command of imperial forces in [[Armageddon]].

At the walls of Tartarus Hive, Dante and Tu'Shan would famously fight side by side against [[Ghazghkull Thraka]] and his bodyguard, winning the day for the Imperium. A generation later, Dante's name is still spoken with reverence in Armageddon, and one of the Armageddon system's deep space monitoring installations was named in his honour.

; Malogrim (Undated; 941-999.M41?)
Sometime during M41 Dante personally led the Blood Angels as they defended the planet of Malogrim from a three-way invasion involving Orks, Dark Eldar, and Chaos Space Marines of the [[Emperor's Children]]. The Orks were led personally by [[Ghazghkull Thraka]], and the Dark Eldar spearheaded by [[Lelith Hesperax]] and her Wych Cult of Strife.

This conflict is undated, but the appearance of Ghazghkull gives a date shortly before 941.M40, or sometime afterwards. Of course, there is no hard and fast canon, and this is from a card game the ''Siege of Malogrim Hive''. Possibly there was never a date indicated, just like what developers claimed for [[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine]].

;The Gehenna Campaign (955.M41) 
Dante and the Blood Angels 3rd Company battled against the Necron Legions of the [[Silent King]] on Gehenna, his leadership allowing the company to fight the enemy to a stalemate for three standard weeks. When a Tyranid splinter fleet enters orbit, the Blood Angels and the Necrons ally to fight the common foe successfully.

However, it turns out that the Necrons were using the Blood Angels, letting them bore the brunt of the fighting (hmmm, perhaps Dante would have done well to internalise the lessons about Xenos perfidy). The Necrons fled before the Blood Angels recognised the treachery, but Blood Angels propaganda made it out that Dante let them leave in gratitude for their 'contributions' to the defence.

; The Blackfang Crusade (994.M41) 
Dante mobilised the whole Blood Angels chapter, leading them to drive the Orks from their empire (twelve worlds) in the Blackfang system, and also its two neighbouring systems. [[Awesome|All in a single standard year]].

; The Third Tyrannic War (997.M41-early.M42)
[[File:Dante-vs-Hive-Tyrant.png|300px|thumb|right|Dante taking on a hive tyrant]]
[[Hive Fleet Leviathan]], the largest [[Tyranid]] force ever to invade the Galaxy, is eventually defeated at Baal. Dante and the Blood Angels play an important role, contributing decisively in the Cryptus Campaign and the defence of Baal (and its moons) itself.

Responding to Dante's call-to-arms, every Blood Angels successor chapter (save the [[Lamenters]]) assembled at Baal. During the fighting, Baal Primus (Baalind) and Baal Secundus (Baalfora) were both pretty badly fucked up, but the arrival of a relief force led by Guilliman allowed the Blood Angels to claim victory on Baal.

'''Spoilers for [[Devastation of Baal]] ahead!'''

As the destruction of Baal came to a close, Dante and a mere 2000 marines from various chapters found themselves in a last-stand scenario. With the Arx Angelicum's defences destroyed, their Astropathic Choir dead or maddened, most of their Neophytes consumed by the horde and no hope for victory left, each and every marine present inducted themselves into the [[Death Company]] using ash, soot, and blood in place of paint to darken their armour. Dante gives one final inspirational speech to the assembled marines and orders the prisoners of the Tower of Amareo to be unleashed to accompany them as they began their suicidal charge into the Tyranid hordes.

In the process of pushing towards the Swarmlord as their final hope of victory, Dante begins to willingly succumb to the Red Thirst and very nearly falls to the Black Rage, barely keeping his bloodlust in check by swearing to himself that he'll see the Swarmlord dead before he gives in completely. As he and his forces pushed forward and were thinned out by the swarm, the [[Sanguinor]] and [[Legion of the Damned]] showed up and assisted Dante in reaching the Swarmlord.

In the ensuing duel, Dante found that for all his might and experience, it was nothing compared to the might of the Swarmlord (exacerbated by the way Dante was exhausted, hallucinating, and bordering on psychotic madness). Dante attempted to weave around the Swarmlord to get swings in with the Axe Mortalis or shots with the Perdition Pistol, but barely drew any blood. As his jump pack ran out of fuel, the Swarmlord took advantage and very nearly killed Dante then and there, but Dante abandoned his backpack all together. However, this had the unfortunate side effect of his armor no longer having a power source and it rapidly began shutting down.

Dante made one final charge, parrying and shattering one of the Swarmlord's bone swords; however, the momentum of the sword continued through the blow and impaled Dante through one of his hearts, leaving him gravely poisoned and bleeding to death. Before the Swarmlord could cleave Dante in two, his armor's sealing foam melded it to the bone sword, catching the Swarmlord unawares. Using this momentary hesitation, Dante fired the Perdition Pistol into the Swarmlord's face at point-blank range, melting it into hot Tyranid goop (though it still manages to sever its own arm and shoot Dante an epic death glare with one eye before finally dying).

Dante finally succumbs to his wounds, wondering who the golden warrior that Sanguinius saw dying before the Emperor was. He awoke to the sight of the Sanguinor, standing beside Sanguinius himself. Sanguinius called Dante the greatest of his sons and said that Dante had earned his right to rest beside him for all time. Dante begged for eternal rest, [[Grimdark|literally]] ''[[Grimdark|crying]]'' [[Grimdark|as he asked for his father to finally let him die]], but Sanguinius regretfully told him that he still had a duty to perform in the mortal world, and poured strength into Dante, reviving him. Dante himself nearly has a mental breakdown over the fact that his suffering would continue, but he swiftly gets over it as the below is revealed to him.