A study of lore: the Dark Angels

[Wargamer]

Since nobody else seems to want to produce something thought provoking, I feel obliged to do it for you. In the first of what I intend as a series of threads dedicated to the deeper study and evolution of 40K lore, we will look at the Dark Angels; a Chapter whose background has long been glossed over and trivialised, but has some considerable potential for depth.

First, let us consider what we know: the Dark Angels are one of the original Legions, and widely accepted as the First Legion. The core of their background focuses on the Fallen, a group of Dark Angels who sided with Chaos during the Heresy and brought about the destruction of Caliban. Since then, the Dark Angels have devoted themselves to concealing this dark chapter of their history. For ten thousand years the Chapter has sought out the Fallen in the hope of purging them of their sins and granting them the Emperor's Benediction. Only when all of the Fallen have been absolved of their sins can they ever find redemption.

This is the version most people become aware of. However, there is a greater depth to the Dark Angels, especially regarding these so-called "Chaos" traitors. Various novels, as well as more obscure sections of lore, portray a rather different take on the motives of the Fallen. It is implied by these sources that the Fallen were, in fact, Loyalists; men driven to act against their Primarch and his faithful because they had learned, or at least suspected, that Lion El'Johnson intended to side with the Traitors. This version of Dark Angel lore suggests that the Primarch was loitering on the side of the conflict with the intent of siding with whichever side appeared to be winning.

I would like to offer you all a third alternative, one that was born from a little light reading into the inspiration for the Chapter; the poet Lionel Johnson. For those who would like to know more about him, Google is your friend. I shall give a short version here:
Lionel Johnson was a man who was tormented by inner demons. As a catholic man in Victorian England, he struggled with vices such as alcoholism and homosexuality; vices that clearly influenced his works, such as "The Dark Angel". This conflict is reflected within the nature of the Dark Angels and the Unforgiven collectively. These Chapters are engaged in a war of shadows that reflects the turmoil of Lionel. Outwardly, the Unforgiven are puritanical and righteous, yet in secret they fear and loathe their history, and remain eternally fearful that those dark days might resurface. This could be taken as an analogy of repressed sexuality, where the expected norm is presented almost to excess in order to compensate for the inner, personal shame.
These analogies can likewise be patterned to the Primarch himself. Now I am not suggesting Lion'El Johnson was 'the gay Primarch', but I am suggesting that Chaos tempted him, and perhaps even took sway over him.

Now, at last, we get to the fun part - my personal 'revision' of the Dark Angels Primarch.
Lion'El Johnson is, in many ways, what Lorgar utterly fails to be; a believable take on a Primarch who does not want the live he is thrust into. Born on a world where honour and duty is placed above all else, Lion'El long understood that his personal desires must be set aside in the name of obligation. Perhaps, when his duties were little more than watching over his home and family, the Primarch could remain content with that. Then came the Emperor, and suddenly the Primarch found himself plunged into a crusade of galactic conquest. Whilst he no doubt appreciated the importance of the Great Crusade, it was perhaps difficult to see how it benefited Caliban directly.
As time went on, the Primarch began to resent his station. His desires were focused entirely upon his home world and its people, yet duty kept him apart from them. With every passing year he became more estranged from the world he knew, for he was an immortal God waging war across the galaxy, and they were mere mortals who knew him only through myth and hearsay.
When Horus falls and Chaos begins to take hold within the Legions, the Dark Angels are not left untouched by the Taint. The Dark Gods offer Johnson all that he could desire. He could rule Caliban as a glorious king, a living God free of the constraints of duty and the edicts of the Emperor and his Imperium.

This brings us to the Heresy, and the stand-off on Terra. Johnson has at his command a great force of Dark Angels, enough to surge forth and turn the tide of battle in favour of the Emperor... or to seal his doom, should the Primarch desire.
Yet he hesitates. This lack of commitment comes not from some sinister ploy, but from an internal dissonance on a scale that he simply cannot process. For all his greatness, Lion'El Johnson is Human. His upbringing, his warrior life and even his genetic programming compels him to serve the Emperor, to race to Terra and bring righteous fury upon Horus and his men. Then there is the inner part of him; the darker core that despises this selfless, joyless existence he has been constrained with since the cradle.
His mind, a thing of honour and pride, cannot stand the idea of being branded a Traitor. His heart pounds in his chest, like a bird who has spotted the cage door is open and can see the open skies beyond. He cannot have both, and so he has neither - this internal conflict paralyses him into inactivity.  No-one, not even his most trusted lieutenants can guess what fury rages in his soul.

The seeds of this terrible climax, sown through lesser conflicts of heart and mind over the years, lead to the battle of Caliban. The Lutherin Dark Angels believe their Primarch has lost his way, and that their duty to the Emperor demands they rise up to oppose him. In turn, the Primarch's forces see this action as proof Luther has fallen and corrupted his brothers, and they cannot suffer such Chaos taint on Caliban. As on Prospero, one of the saddest chapters in Imperial History plays out as Loyalist slays Loyalist and madness takes hold.
The final, bitter sting is delivered with the death of the planet itself. All that Lion'El has ever wanted is lost in the fires of Armageddon. All that is left is a Legion gripped by fear and paranoia, with neither side understanding the motives of the other, nor the sad folly of their own actions.
Perhaps this tale's climax is an even more bitter pill to swallow than many may believe. The truth of the Heresy is impossible to know, and one must consider the tale of the Primarch being 'taken by the Watchers'. Perhaps the truth is far more pathetic, yet so sadly believable; having lost all he loved, and believing that he would be branded an enemy of whichever side won the Heresy, Johnson chose to join his people in oblivion, and took his own life.

These are the Dark Angels as I see them; a force of righteous fury and puritanical devotion that borders on zealotry. Yet their forbidding visage harbours a grim secret; that theirs is a tale of sad misunderstandings, blown out of proportion for fear of what other men might think, and taken to such an extreme that even those original sins are now forgotten, eclipsed entirely by imagined sins that have been made real through the belief that they happened at all.

[Deraj]

This depends on how you take the stories from black library. There is an awful lot of lore on Lion El' Johnson in the dark angel's story from the primarchs book which shows him wanting to create a 'second empire' to rival guilliaman's, dorn/the emperor's, sanguinius', and horus'. Another bit of information that I thought spoke volumes is that he is one of the few primarchs to refer to his marines as 'brothers' instead of 'sons.'

Furthermore in 'Grey Angel' there is information on Cypher and Luthor, which with a resounding finality paints Cypher as an enemy of chaos, and luthor as a servant of chaos. I wouldn't call either a traitor or a loyalist, but.... they do have a standing which cannot be denied, even in the old fluff. Luthor was charismatic as hell, and had tons of reasons to be angry, and yes, you could say his descent started with seeing the Lion as a traitor, but he definitely was the traitor in the end.

However we can draw from these that the Lion, like Perturabo is an outsider among his brothers, and finds himself looking to his own 'sons' for fellowship, putting him closer to humanity and therefore fighting 'for the people' instead of 'for the emperor,' which is their real treachery. The distance from their sons that they just can't bridge makes it hard for them to connect and explain their motives, leading to the infighting and feelings of inadequacy among the marines, IE Luthor. i'm just not sure that the problem was indecision, so much as choosing and trusting neither side.

[Arguleon-veq]

I wouldnt say their fluff has been glossed over.

I think one problem for the DA at the minute is their Horus Heresy novels, these books have given many legions a massive boost in popularity and have really fleshed out their fluff. The DA Horus Heresy novels dont do this for them in my opinion. The first has very little to do with the actual chapter or what they become. It doesnt show you how they fight, or how they think when they become marines. Whilst I liked it, it just didnt do anything to advance them. The same for the second book about them but it doesnt even fill out their origins.

There are some great short stories out there about the fallen but none of them that I have read show them as anything other than fully fallen marines.

The rest of the heresy series may give us more but they have already had a lot of attention.

I dont really get the change in the DA though. They go from quite noble in their origins. Knights protecting poor villagers from chaos monsters and eventually become quite disdainful of the people they are protecting when they become marines. Perhaps its because they arent the people of caliban but they didnt seem too bothered about that when they blast the whole world apart.

I dont really read much into the Lion calling his marines brothers rather than sons. I think thats just mostly to do with his training and upbringing. 

[Deraj]

One of the big things is that they do still have the whole 'protecting villagers' thing going. And the change.... it's kind of touched on in ADB's grey knight book (I know, heresy, but it was actually pretty damned good.) The marines just started losing touch with their humanity, especially as those who aren't 'proto-marines' like Luthor never had the chance to grow up past a teenager. Marines are still children in some regards.