Leman Russ
"I am the punishment of God...If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.”
-Genghis Khan.
"Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content."
- Conan the Barbarian
Leman Russ, not to be confused with the tank bearing his name, is the primarch of the Space Wolves legion. A superhuman nordic king with a warrior's crude humor and a stubborn streak a mile wide. He was such a hard headed son of a bitch, that he's survived extended fights with Angron, Magnus, The Lion, and even the Emperor himself. General all-around badass deserving of much respect, but superstitious and flawed, with a serious inability to see things from other's points of view. He's blonde underneath all the blood.
Origins
When the Primarchs were lost, Leman's capsule landed on Fenris, a harsh planet of insane violence that the Norse gods shit out after a three day meth fueled orgy with a tyranid hive fleet. The locals there enjoy a life of fishing, drinking, sailing, fucking, pillaging and conquering other tribes of people for the modest little islands they all have to live on. Granted, it's also usually a very short life, because they're sharing the world with trolls, yetis, wolves the size of horses, bears the size of a house, whales that kill for fun, and krakens, which are to a squid as a Hierophant is to a Hormagaunt.
So it was that little baby Russ left his capsule in the polar mountain region of Asaheim. There, some monstrous female wolf found him and said to herself "I WANT!". So Russ was raised by a dire wolf In Spess. A few years pass, Russ growing up big and strong and hairy, having a grand old time running around the mountains and killing the sheep and such of the humans there with his wolf brothers. Eventually a king named Thengir heard of the Wolf-man, and decreed he be captured and brought to his hall. The mist of ages (and retcons) have hidden the details of Thengir's first meeting with Russ. Some stories would say that Russ was bound and gagged and dragged into the hall of the King Thengir after his Wolf family was slain, others claim a hunting party stumbled across his cave and kicked off a bloody melee in which a dozen hunters were killed, along with Russ's mother, after which the hunters somehow convinced Russ to stand down and come with them, a conversation that may or may not have included copious amounts of alcohol and whores. Thengir took a wondrous interest in Russ and ordered he be educated. In a short time, Russ was trash-talking every short bastard who dared look at him the wrong way, and had become insanely good with weaponry. When Thengir finally died, all declared that Leman of the Russ become the new high King.
The Next Step
Russ conquered and took. He bartered and traded. He united the people of Asaheim under his rule. Somehow, the Emprah heard of it and realized it all had to be the work of a Primarch. So then he attended a royal banquet in the Hall of the Mountain Ki- I mean Leman Russ. The Emprah, taking a leaf out of Odin's book, disguised himself as some old geezer, then waited until the right moment to reveal his true identity. When he did Russ refused to bow down and challenged him to several contests, he ate so much the Emprah was forced to back down. Russ drank so much the Emprah was forced to back down. By now, the Emprah was fairly surprised at finally being out-done by someone else, Russ gazed upon the Emperor and challenged him in combat, and so did the Emprah raise his Power Glove into the air for all to see, and so did he then bring it down on Leman Russ's head, knocking him the fuck out in one solid hit.
Of course fluff changes and a 1-hit KO wasn't very fulfilling, so the new lore arrived: After the Emperor revealed himself Leman Russ skipped the eating and drinking contests and just challenged the Emperor to a fight. For hours they dueled, which ended when the Emperor punched Russ square in the face, presumably he was pissy the Leman was waving his cock in his face by just straight up fighting him, (debatable as to whether or not he was in his full armour and actually had his Power Fist at the time), and when Russ awoke, he laughed it off. Presumably he did a lot better this time by virtue of not being drunk. Afterwards he ended up in command of the one Space Marine legion that knows how to eat, drink, brawl and make war upon any asshole that mocks their Thunderwolf.
Rumour has it that the Emp was so pleased with Russ' prowess, that he thereforth tasked him and the Space Wolves to be his executioners and it seems Russ is the reason the 2nd and 11th Legions no longer exist. So he has experience fucking up a Primarch, which is pretty goddamn manly. (Not confirmed by any sources and is not more than passing conversation in one Black Library novel, other than that, yeah totally definitely didn't kill the other legions. Also if you take how he acted with Angron and Magnus, he totally hated his job of being the executioner...and apparently thought Lorgar was a pretty cool guy).
(The novel "Betrayer" contradicts almost all of this. It has Russ taking it upon himself to school the World Eaters without Emp's blessing as he was disgusted by their behavior, it has Angron defeat Russ in single combat because only he was fighting to kill while Russ was trying to teach, it then ends with the Space Wolves entirely outmaneuvering the Eaters and winning a tactical victory by surrounding Angron. The Eaters believe they won due to a higher kill count and the Wolves leave disappointed that their legion brothers were too retarded to see the lesson Russ was teaching. Even Lorgar tells Angron that he was a complete tool on that night and would have been killed)
Apart from that, Russ and his Space Wolves had a goddamn good time during the Great Crusade, although it hasn't been written about so this is all we can guess. When that fag-ass Horus started whining and crying, Leman Russ and his Legion were on their way to Prospero to bring Magnus the Red to Terra for questioning. Horus intercepted the message and re-worded it to order Russ to destroy Magnus and his Thousand Sons. Russ and the Space Wolves carried out a class-10 clusterfucking on Prospero, to the point where Leman Russ himself lifted Magnus the Red over his shoulders and broke the sorcerer's back over his knee. But even so, the red bastard managed to utter one single word of power and escaped through the fucking ground. Russ was so enraged that he ordered the 13th company of Space Wolves to pursue the fleeing Thousand Sons through their pansy-ass portals.
Despite his reputation, fighting Magnus took a serious toll on Russ. He probably knew that it was a "fair fight" only because Magnus was devastated and held back his power, with which he would have easily won, being at least the third most powerful psyker humanity, and possibly the galaxy, had ever known.
Rumour has it, that during the battle between those two demigods Magnus, by psychic means, laid his heart and mind bare to Russ, revealing that he knew not only every blow that was coming from his brother, but everything that he had come to know, accepting his failure and his fate, which was defeat. (Source?)
This shook the Wolf King deeply. But of course, he decided to carry on. An Inquisitor once called it an "emo phase" in front of a Rune Priest, and was fed balls-first to a Thunderwolf, especially when the news of the Drop Site Massacre reached the Wolves. In his own words, Russ felt he'd been "in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing". Just to make things worse, the Alpha Legion turned up to batter the Wolves, and the White Scars weren't going to help them after Prospero. Russ was forced to retreat and hide in deep space. The only real plus here was that Bjorn the Fell-Handed came to his attention, setting the young warrior on the path to ironclad badassness.
Oh and Empy totally gave him a spear with every single member of his original legion depicted fighting various gribbly xenos. Including Tyranids. Yup. Said spear was tossed into a certain Daemon Primarchs single eye, thereby preventing him from manifesting in reality AND resurrecting his legion. Russ totally hated this spear btw. At one point Russ tried to hit a moon orbiting some planet (he was drunk, don't judge) and the spear was lost for months.
Russ and his Brothers
In many ways Russ can be best understood by looking at his clashes with his brothers. Over the years Russ has butted heads with Angron, Magnus, and Lion El'Jonson, the three brothers he arguably had the most in common with. His fight with Angron was his attempt to teach his brother a lesson. Both of them were penultimate warriors, both relied on their amazing athleticism and berzerker rages to trimph in battle, both were known for losing their temper when challenged, but Russ saw weakness in his brother's lack of strategy. Leman tried to just talk to the World Eater's primarch, but Angron was so uncontrollably, incredibly, "calm down son," angry that he just attacked Russ. While Russ and Angron were dueling, their sons kicked off an open war, and in the battle that followed Angron defeated Russ, but was outmaneuvered and surrounded by the Space Wolves, thus proving Russ's lesson that warrior prowess isn't enough. That said, no one learned anything, because Angron thought himself the victor because he'd won the duel and his sons had inflicted greater casualties than the wolves, but Russ thought himself the victor because he'd proven his point and "educated" his brother. If Russ had paid more attention and thought things through rather than just rushing forward to do things his way, he'd have used subtler methods of persuasion to calm Angron, as Fulgrim and especially Lorgar had done in the past, and Russ may well have had an easier time of it, but he didn't, so Russ ultimately failed that day.
Russ really, really didn't get along with Magnus, even before the whole Prospero shindig.He hated that his brother used sorcery and warpcraft, despite the fact that Russ's legion ALSO USED SORCERY, but Russ insisted that they were just "channeling the spirits of Fenris." To add to that, other than Magnus and Lorgar, Russ was the most warp sensitive of all his brothers, to the point where Russ was a more capable warp navigator than the actual Navigators. No long explanation, Russ was just being a superstitious moron.
Perhaps most famous and most tragic of Russ's feuds was his strife with Lion El'Jonson. Both men had very similar origins, but slight differences in their upbringings drove a wedge between them. The Wolf and the Lion were both raised by the wild: both of their pods had crashed in areas with no humans, and they had to learn to survive with no lessons from other men. Both were eventually taken in when they were discovered by the men of their world, but that's where their stories differ. Where Russ was raised in the friendly, bawdy brotherhood of Thengir's men, the Lion was trained and educated in the somber fraternity of the knightly Order. While Russ had been brawling and singing with his friends, leading great hunts to destroy monsters and enemy tribes, the Lion was mastering discipline and embarking on solemn quests to destroy the Great Beasts of the forest. The battle between the two came on the world of Dulan, where the IV and I legion were fighting together to slay a tyrant who'd insulted Russ's honor. At the beginning of the conflict the two brothers had promised to work together, but as time went on the Lion grew tired of his brother's insistence on utterly smashing every pocket of resistance rather than taking a more efficient, direct method of ending the war. Eventually he just launched an assault on the tyrant's palace, and beheaded the man before Russ could reach them. Naturally, Russ was furious. Russ was an angry dickhead, the Lion was a snarky bastard, and before long blades were drawn and the two were trying to kill each other in a violent battle. After a long and bloody fight in which the two of them were beaten senseless and had fallen over the ramparts of the fortress to the ground below, Russ started laughing at the ridiculousness of what they were doing. The Lion asked if his brother would yield, a question that just confused Russ. The lion thought this was a duel? Russ had thought of the fight as a brawl between angry brothers, a quick spat that would end with both of them beaten bloody; something they'd laugh about over a drink years later. The Lion however was taking it deadly serious, and while Russ was laughing, he struck a final blow, shattering Russ's skull and ending the fight. Had Russ stopped to consider his brother's mentality, or listened more closely to the Lion's words, he would have realized that the Lion saw the conflict as something profoundly different from what Russ thought it was. Again, Russ's lack of consideration was his failing.
Post-Heresy
Although unable to return to aid the Imperium in the Battle for Terra, Russ and the Space Wolves threw themselves headfirst into the post-heresy war efforts. Aside from spanking the traitors into the Eye of Terror, he came up with the concept for the Adeptus Praeses. Though he'd told Guilliman where he could shove his Codex, Russ liked the idea of successor chapters for the Wolves. To him (or the little reformist movement within the Legion later, the fluff isn't totally clear), they were a way of maintaining the Wolves' influence alongside that of Girlyman, Dorn and the rest. Unfortunately the Wolves' gene-seed proved too unstable to set up any viable successor chapters, and as a result while the Ultramarines, Imperial Fists and Dark Angels have shedloads of descendants, the Wolves are the sole embodiment of Russ' strength and drive. This hasn't helped their situation with Imperial institutions such as the Inquisition.
One-hundred years to the day after the Emperor's internment on the Golden Throne, during a feast in the halls of the Space Wolves fortress, Russ climbed upon a table to give a speech. He was stricken with a vision, and after standing there speechless for a few minutes, he fell to one knee, issued hushed orders to his retinue, and left. He left his sons with their first Wolf Lord; Bjorn the Fell Handed, and a message.
"In the end, I will be there. For the final battle. For dinner time."
And then the winds of change blew over the fluff once again. In the audio play Parting of Ways we get a slightly different version of events. There was still an annual feast, though it wasn't just to celebrate the day the Emperor got the snot beaten out of him by Horus, but also to commemorate the space wolves that had died during the spring cleaning that followed the heresy, plus the completion of the Fang - the giant fortress of the Space wolves. Also instead of a hundred years, it was two hundred years since the siege of Terra, so unless Dorn was a really slow learner and not very bright and it took him over a hundred years to assemble the golden throne, that is a clear lore change. Then again, given how Perturabo thoroughly kicked Dorn's ass in the iron cage, forcing papa smurf and the Ultrasmurfs to come and save Dorn's sorry ass, it's a possibility that Dorn just wasn't very bright. It's also a possibility that the Emperor got the Golden Throne from an old IKEA warehouse, which would explain why even a primarch would have had trouble in figuring out how to put it together in less than a hundred years.
Also Russ wasn't about to hold a speech, instead he had at first partaken in the festivities but as the party grew sullen, Russ retreated, sensing, as Bjorn put it, "a fell wind from beyond the mountains, bleeding through the cracks of the fang". After clenching the table for a while, Russ clambered to his feet on the table, screaming “No More!” The shout silenced the Space Wolves in their brawling and made the flags of the smoke filled halls tremble, so Russ apparently also had a gift for speech, plus he had a gift for getting instantly sober as Bjorn described his face going from being ruddy flushed with mjod to looking like an ice specter. He then held a kickass speech “We come here to celebrate the allfather, we come here to remember his sacrifice and his ascension from the world of the senses and his victory over my brother the traitor.” “We remember the dead, who even now gather in the oververse, their blade sharp, their aim keen.” “They are better than we are for they perished in war to end all wars and their souls have been purified! And what of us those left behind, wallowing in the drinks the fallen gods have left us?” “We have grown fat, we have the beast within us, but is has never yet been mastered.” Then Russ grabbed his drinking horn and held it aloft and continued “So let us celebrate my father's ascension, let us remember what he was able to accomplish, let us remember what he built and what he foresaw and then what he lost and how he failed.” “Do not morn the fact that he no longer walks among us, for the galaxy was too small to accommodate such soul, he was of an age of gods! And we are slumped in an age of mortals.” “The lights of the stars will fade, this place will grow old and the ice will crack it.” “We will forget no matter how much the skalds tell the old tales, what battles are left for us like the ones before?” “My fallen brothers are gone, Malcador is gone, the leeches cluster around the golden throne and whisper of deeds done before they were born as if it where they who achieved them.” At this point Russ looked unsteady on his feet and his eyes went glassy “A doubt of all of this, one thing remains true we were not on Terra, we were not there when the palace fell and that shame will pursue us for eternity.” Then Russ dropped his drinking horn on the board and then started to speak not to his warriors, but to himself or to some presence that was unseen. “It remains unfinished… I have waited for too long, building this mountain squabbling with Gulliman, I will not grow old, feeble, limping around a crumbling inheritance, I have and Oath to keep there are beasts left to slay.” At this point Russ where fully immersed in his premonitions and he looked around the room a smile dancing on his fanged face, seeing thing from either long ago or yet to come. “Listen by closely my brothers, there shall come a time far from now, where the chapter itself is dying and our foes shall gather to destroy us.” “Then my sons I shall listen for your call, in whatever realm holds me and come I shall, no matter what the laws of life and death forbid.” “At the end I will be there for the final battle FOR THE WOLF TIME!”
Then Russ gave the mustering signal and he and his retinue left, though as Bjorn made to follow only to have Russ turn towards him saying a single sentence “Not you.” When Bjorn asked for an explanation all Russ did was repeat the words “Not you.” Then he left.
It is theorized that Russ like Magnus had the gift of premonition and knew that Bjorn would be needed in the years to come as the first Great Wolf, as it is heavily implied that if Bjorn hadn't been persuaded to take the mantle of great wolf, the chapter itself would have fallen apart in the absence of Russ.
More likely Russ just didn't want Bjorn's moodiness to poison what ever adventure he was on.
As to where Russ went and what happened to him there's a few theories given
The Russ sought the Lion out to make amends of their old feuding (if so they both forgot to tell both their chapters about it)
That he fought in eternal combat with the resurrected cadaver of Horus (no that would be Abaddon's task and he completely owned that clone of Horus)
That he searched for the tree of life to heal the Emperor's soul (if so it will be needed sorely needed, as Abaddon blasted a remnant of the Emperor's soul, watching it decay in front of him)
That he is trapped within a hollow star and tormented by his old adversary Magnus (Since Tzeentch was able to trap Sigmar in another dimension, trapping Russ in a hollow star and have his star pupil Magnus use him as a punching bag makes as much sense as anything)
That he had passed beyond the bounds of space and time and now roamed among the gods, ready to return when needed accompanied by the fallen of his legion sundered in a paradise of warriors (so basically he's in the Age of Sigmar at this point? somebody put him out of his misery, that's not a paradise that's hell on earth)
/tg/ theorizes that Leman Russ may return as Horo (Implying Horo isn't just one of Leman's many, many bastard children growing up on some shithole Feudal world).
Magnus actually know where is Russ now, but he don't tell it even to his trusted sorcerer lords.
The 13th company, and a figure bearing the likeness of Russ, was spotted during the 13th crusade and the siege of the capital of cadia.
On The Tabletop
| Pts | WS | BS | S | T | W | I | A | Ld | Sv | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leman Russ: | 455 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 2+/4++ |
An impressive stat-line, even by the insane standards of Primarchs is coupled to the unbelievably powerful wargear:
- Armour Elavagar starts as your bog-standard 2+/4++ which is increased to a 3++ against flamer (if there were any AP2 flamers in 30k), melta, and plasma weapons, but the truly awsome part is that it imposes -1 to hit to anyone in BtB with Russ which is increased to a -2 after the first round of combat - combined with his insane WS this means nothing save WS10 could hit him better than 5+ on the first turn (Fulgrim wishes his shiny armour was as reliable) and 6+ on the second. Anything that can't Hit'n'Run, it's gonna be stuck in CC with Russ with little to no chance of hurting him until he kills it.
- Axe of Helwinter is a +2 master-crafted axe with sunder and without unwieldy for your vehicle-wrecking needs.
- Sword of Balenight is a Shredding AP2 power sword, oh wait, it also has Sever Life, when a model suffer a wound roll 2d6, if this beats your opponent's toughness he suffers extra D3 wounds
- For ranged fights he has the Vulkan-wrought combi-bolter Scornspitter which is assault 3 AP3 rending, get this baby in half range and you have yourself a mini assault cannon with twin link!
Meanwhile, his Sire of the Space Wolves gives him Night Vision, Counter-Attack, Prenatural Senses and Hunter's Gait, all Wolves get +1Ld and Russ get's to Awoo once per game (letting everyone in his detachment reroll run and charge for said turn). Breaker of Shields, Bringer of Ruin gives weapon mastery (like Horus and Calgar). If he's Warlord, you can take Veteran Tacticals (who may run/shoot bolters then charge instead of regular Vet tactics) and Varagyr Terminators as troops.
Russ is like a very expensive torpedo that is only good at tying stuff in combat and killing it, and adds a bit to his army, what with the LD bonus his ability to howl and make his boys run faster. Pretty much like an Angron, but with less unit-annihilating power and more challenge-monster focus with a few army perks. Unlike Angron he's tough enough to withstand ranged firepower for a while, but not killy enough to wipe out tarpits Army/Cults or Thagmata can drown him in till the rest of the game for like 1/6 of his price.
Leman Russ VS other Primarchs:
Inferno is finaly released and you came here to see how your favorite/most hated superhuman demi-god fares against the other Primarchs, because you love delicious Mathammer trolling and cautious planning before battle.
Short answer : they die. All of them. Even psychic Lorgar. Even fucking Horus. Only Magnus with Precognition, Iron Arm, Warp Speed and Endurance can safely beat Leman.
If you have read the rules, it should not be a surprise. Remember when Lorgar had access to Invisibility? The Armour Elavagar roughly does the same, but instead of a frail whining bigot you got an Angron-grade killing machine. To be fair, it's pretty disgusting since it makes any challenge against Russ a hopeless fight, you have virtually no chance of winning. Sure, facing Fugrim or Perturabo with Forgebreaker is not a merry prospect either, but the odds are not that great.
Gallery
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Leman Russ being the biggest pimp this side of Segmentum Solar. -
RUNFORRESTLEMAN, RUN! -
He's running so fast because he saw someone throw a stick. -
Here's hoping forgeworld gives him good rules when HH book 7 drops, His model deserves them.
| The Primarchs of the Space Marine Legions |
|---|
 Loyalist Corvus Corax - Ferrus Manus - Jaghatai Khan Leman Russ - Lion El'Jonson - Roboute Guilliman Rogal Dorn - Sanguinius - Vulkan |
 Traitor Alpharius/Omegon - Angron - Fulgrim Horus - Konrad Curze/Night Haunter - Lorgar Magnus the Red - Mortarion - Perturabo |