I don't know how the Psychic Awakening events fit into the timeline as most of these are also post-Baal.” Affably Evil: Baelor and Seraphax are both extremely polite to their brothers, even as they try to kill them. Bevedan is the one to explain to Zabriel that on Caliban, the Fallen forces were the ones to open fire and initiate the battle that destroyed their homeworld. You got old.’ It’s a simple line, muttered with relish by a Chaos Space Marine to the Lion, but it’s a perfect encapsulation of where the Lion is both physically and mentally, and this element alone helps keep the return of a Primarch fresh, and not just a repeat of when Gulliman returned several years ago. I did enjoy the characters, and the Lion’s internal struggle to accept his own failings combined with an outward pragmatism that felt like genuine and sincere character development.

Yet another solid entry by Mike Brooks, this novel centered on the titular Lion, returned Primarch for the Dark Angels, is quite an enjoyable read which, while not answering every question posed or raised over the course of the novel, does enough with its characterization of the new older, wiser Lion, his relationship with his sons who he had condemned to die, and the new state of the galaxy at large was a treat to behold.The 10th edition trailer is clearly set post-Baal so maybe a few more years have passed. Mephiston crossing the Rubicon is a post-Baal event. At that point, we had no indication that Dante had yet crossed the Rubicon so maybe a bit more time there. Internal Reveal: There are aspects of the setting that the Warhammer 40K audience will be familiar with, but which are new to the characters. The Fallen the Lion meets, with one exception, were not high enough in the chain of command to know what exactly happened on Caliban; for them, the first sign of the battle were Lion's ships raining fire on them, which is why they have such hard time trusting him right now.

Older and Wiser: The Lion, when last seen in Horus Heresy books, was prideful, cold and uncompromising. The state of the galaxy in the forty-second millennium makes him acutely aware of his own failings, and he works to be more understanding and forgiving. The Lion has risen from his 10,000-year slumber, and he’s wasting no time putting traitors to the sword. The Primarch of the Dark Angels is a monstrously powerful duelist and indomitable battlefield leader, armed with the Emperor’s own shield and a massive power sword named Fealty. Your first chance to get him is in this celebratory launch set.* The Lion gave up after Ruinstorm. He went for a scorched earth strategy because he couldn't think of anything else to do. Unlike Guilliman, who kept pushing forwards even as the Astronomican was faint or extinguished, with Guilliman's usual methodical planning, the Lion stopped trying to get to Terra for a while. One-Winged Angel: Seraphax transforms into a giant demonic form when it becomes obvious he cannot win otherwise. Hard Work Hardly Works: Discussed and defied; as a Primarch, the Lion is a natural at almost anything he tries his hand at, but almost is the operative word here. He's unable to control his forestwalking until he puts time and effort into practice.At the dawn of the Imperium of Man, there was no force more deadly nor more loyal to the Emperor than the Dark Angels, the first Legion of Space Marines. Led by their implacable and unstoppable Primarch and genefather, Lion El’Johnson, better known as the Lion, nothing was able to stop the Dark Angels as they crusaded from planet to planet dispensing the Emperor’s will. However, following the events of the Horus Heresy and the Lion’s inability to save the Emperor, the Dark Angels imploded from within. Treachery and years of resentment saw the Legion engage in a brutal and sudden civil war, which resulted in the destruction of the Dark Angel’s home world of Caliban, the scattering of the traitor Dark Angels throughout time and space as the Fallen, and the disappearance and apparent death of the Lion right when the galaxy needed him most. The Lion and his Fallen are out of the loop on the state of the galaxy at large, with the Lion spending most of the book confident he is the last Primarch alive and concerned that the Emperor himself may be dead. It's not until the epilogue that he meets someone who can bring him up to speed. move on from the past. Zabriel, a Dark Angels ally, is from the first-person past, showing how he is still shaped by what happened in the splitting of the legion but has integrated it. And Baelor is from the third-person past, showing that like Zabriel he's shaped by the past, but unlike him he still dissociates from it. Bevedan was part of the group that opened fire on the Lion's forces on Caliban, starting the battle that saw the planet destroyed; he sacrifices himself to free the Lion from Seraphax's chains. From then on out, time passes as Lion works to establish a group of safe systems within Imperium Nihilus - his protectorate. The Risen are spread out among the various human groups to lend their expertise to the effort. In the meanwhile, Lion enters the Forest again. This time, he does not find the Emperor, but he does follow the path to that strange building he'd seen the first time he was here. There, he fights a shapeshifting entity that takes form of each of his brothers, trying to break his spirit and his body alike. He triumps, and gains possession of the Emperor's Shield, which seems to be somehow tied to the psyker aegis the Emperor had cast over the palace during the Siege of Terra.