Legio XX: Angel Kings

Legio XX: Angel Kings

Primarch's Name: Corwin Arrath
Homeworld: Lodoq Tir
Background: Ruler
Psychic Potential: Normal
Gene-seed: Stable
Talent: Die Hard, Extreme Discipline, Knight Support
Legio XX: Angel Kings
Colors: Purple, Checkered Trim
Battle Cry: For the Sovereign!

History

It has often been speculated that had Corwin, the Primarch of the Twentieth Legion, been found considerably earlier in the Great Crusade, he might have become a fitting leader of all of the Emperor’s armies. Blessed with the brilliant military mind and a talent for strategy matched only perhaps by Iskanderos, the Twentieth Primarch was ideally suited to lead wide-ranging campaigns of conquest, employing his armies to get the best use of their strengths and rarely finding a foe he could not easily best. Had he, not Kthuln, been the first Primarch discovered, it is almost certain that he would have fit well with the Emperor’s grand design for the Great Crusade, both as an excellent general and eventually as a capable, trustworthy lieutenant.

The savior pod carrying the Twentieth Primarch crashed on a feudal world of Lodoq Tir, where it was found by peasants tending to the hunting lodge belonging to the king of Arrath, a powerful monarchy competing for control of its continent with multiple smaller states. Though the Long Night was responsible for most of the planet’s technological base decaying to pre-gunpowder levels, the royal dynasties of Lodoq Tir maintained limited stables of primitive power armor often millennia old, as well as few rare and irreplaceable Knight-class war walkers that would be brought out to battle in the most dire of circumstances. As a result, the Arrathians quickly recognized the technological nature of the new arrival, and presented the savior pod and the child within to their king.

Recognizing that the child before him was clearly unusual and having no male heirs of his own, the king of Arrath adopted the boy into his household, naming him Corwin after several of the past kings who brought greatness to their nation. It did not take long for the child to outpace his peers in learning, size, and physical capability; by the time he was eight, Corwin stood as tall as a grown man, and had long surpassed his teachers in every subject from oratory to military tactics. These accomplishments had only swelled Corwin’s pride, leading him to believe that he was finally ready to fulfill the duties of an Arrathian prince on the battlefield and in the throne room.

Here, Corwin learned all about the society of his adopted homeworld. The dominant form of government for the most powerful states on Lodoq Tir was a feudal monarchy, where the king commanded the fealty of noble houses, who in turn lorded over the lesser aristocrats and the peasants. The scraps of old technology were both the status symbol, and the only means of maintaining the balance of power between the feudal lords, and as a result every piece of antique power armor and every irreplaceable war engine were continuously repaired and rebuilt by artisans who no longer understood the principles behind their construction, the loss of such devices spelling the end of dynasties and the doom of kingdoms.

Because of their reliance on the symbols of the past, the culture of Lodoq Tir was very traditional, and certain rules of conduct were scrupulously observed by the ruling families. Any negotiations had to be conducted accordingly to strict and elaborate etiquette; the interactions between the nobles of different lineage and social standing were heavily ritualistic to the point of determining the order of speaking, the proper forms of address, and the circumstances under which such interactions were even appropriate. Everything from rules of inheritance to conventions on marital alliances and trade between kingdoms was governed by long-standing traditions that were said to have passed on from the planet’s earliest settlers.

Eventually, the many territorial disputes of Arrath and its neighbors led to a war. A force from three smaller yet ambitious kingdoms united to invade Arrath from several angles, their power-armored knights making short work of Arrathian militias while the king of Arrath attempted to gather his strength to deal with the more numerous attackers. Though Corwin was easily an equal or a superior of any of his adopted father’s generals, and his inhuman Primarch biology ensured that he reached full maturity well before his sixteenth birthday, the prevailing tradition still considered him too young to command armies on his own, or to take any role in the war. In vain, Corwin pleaded to be given command of any military detachments, or at least for his tactical suggestions to be implemented when he was allowed near the war councils.

On the field of battle, defeats followed. Though Arrath was a powerful nation in its own right, its generals were hard pressed to defend against the coordinated assault from three of its ancient enemies. Gathering too much of their forces together would have allowed at least one or more of the invading armies to run rampant, while separating the Arrathian armies would have left them at a severe numerical disadvantage. Desperate, the Arrathians brought out their sole remaining Knight walker, attempting to sway the tide of war to their advantage.

Unfortunately for them, their enemies were prepared. Despite Corwin arguing against the use of the Knight at this point in the war, the army of Arrath attempted to detach a smaller force supported by the Knight to destroy one of the invading armies. The battle produced a disaster, revealing at last the reason the invaders felt so confident – they had uncovered a trove of pre-Long Night weaponry designed to bring down heavy armored vehicles and war walkers. With the loss of the Arrathian Knight, the kingdom’s monarch, and most of the higher-ranking generals, the defenders scattered.

Back at the capital, Corwin fumed. The kingdom – his kingdom – was falling apart at the seams, and he could do little about it. The long-standing traditions prevented him from gaining any real authority even in the face of the desperate situation, at least not until he was of the age considered proper for a ruler – less than two years from his current age.

As the news of the military disaster reached the capital, panic ensued. The Twentieth Primarch was able to convince a number of younger, less tradition-bound nobles to follow his lead, crowning himself as Corwin Arrath, the seventh of that name and the king of Arrath. Though traditionalist elements in the aristocracy were horrified at Corwin’s blatant disregard for tradition, the kingdom’s desperate situation was not lost on them; without its greatest war engine, Arrath was prey to its enemies. Corwin’s defiance of tradition provided them with a perfect excuse to blame the young leader for defying custom if he failed, or even a perfect excuse to switch sides if he did not produce a miracle.

As Corwin gathered the few forces that accepted his leadership, he understood that his situation was bleak. He was fully aware that most of the nobles could not be trusted; the ones who were, in his judgment, trustworthy, were in relative minority. Therefore, he designed his strategy to capitalize on the expected disloyalty of the traditionalists, and spread the word of a particularly elaborate battle plan relying on the traditionalist power-armored retinues to hold the line.

Just as Corwin had expected, the enemy forces converged on the Arrathian capital, besieging it from three directions. He positioned the troops of nobles he suspected to be disloyal at the key junctures of the city, knowing that if his suspicions proved to be correct, they would turn on him and open the way for the enemy while he would be helpless in the central keep.

Of course, Corwin had little desire to play into his enemies’ hands. As he had correctly surmised, the traitors among his forces rerouted the enemy onto predictable paths… where carefully placed explosives, sabotaged buildings, and mobile kill teams were able to reap a considerable toll on the enemy. Though the invaders’ numerical superiority allowed them to reach the keep, they were forced to bleed at every step. When they finally breached the doors of the keep, they were surprised to discover that Corwin was nowhere to be found.

In concert with the defense of the castle, Corwin led a small force behind the enemy lines. With a precisely coordinated series of strikes, he commandeered the Laser Destroyers used by his enemies as the anti-Knight weaponry, and destroyed one of the enemy Knights. Further, his forces included a junior noble in line to eventually command the war walker; with the young man’s aid, Corwin was able to seize control of one of the enemy Knights while destroying the final war walker by catching it in between his captured Knight and the Laser Destroyers.

Though the enemy still had considerable numerical superiority, they were now trapped inside the Arrath castle, while all of their most advanced weaponry and most of their leaders now lay dead outside its walls. Already demoralized from brutal street fighting and heavy casualties, the invaders quickly surrendered, delivering themselves into Corwin’s mercy.

The aftermath of the war left Corwin as the undisputed ruler of not only Arrath, but, eventually, the kingdoms that invaded his homeland. With the traitorous nobles extinguished, and their holdings distributed to lesser cousins who, incidentally, proved their loyalty to the king, Corwin turned his attention to the realms of his enemies. The kings of two realms had quickly accepted him as their suzerain, realizing that feudal demotion was an acceptable price to pay for survival. The third kingdom, however, proved to be somewhat more difficult.

It was they who had discovered the archaeotech which brought down the Arrathian Knight, and who had slain Corwin’s adoptive father on the field of battle. And, correspondingly, they had also suffered the heaviest of losses during the siege of Castle Arrath, losing not only their monarch, but also the majority of the royal family and direct heirs to the throne. Many of Corwin’s supporters called for the Primarch to annex the kingdom outright; as his victory was won in a break with tradition, they reasoned that he had little to lose by ignoring the customary lines of succession in his newly conquered domain.

Though the Twentieth Primarch did consider such course of action, he quickly realized that the majority of Lodoq Tir would not have tolerated such rapid change in the social order. While he managed to win against overwhelming enemy forces against all odds, he understood the logistical and the social aspects of constant warfare, and knew that even with his dominion greatly expanded, it would not survive another war so soon after a devastating conflict, especially with potential heirs of the dead king still at loose. Corwin considered hunting down any such members of the defeated royal family, however, he eventually decided that his ambitions were considerably greater than mere vengeance, and that he might as well make the social conventions of Lodoq Tir work for, rather than against, his ambitions.

The defeated kingdom was bereft of any direct male line heirs, however, the king did have a daughter. Though said daughter was already married and had several children, her husband, a prominent general in her father’s army, was slain at the battle of Castle Arrath. Therefore, Corwin realized that his path to annexing the kingdom while simultaneously placating the traditionalist elements under his rule laid through her.

Arriving into the capital of the defeated kingdom as quickly as he could, Corwin arranged for his marriage with the widowed princess, staking his claim to the throne in that matter. As per custom of Lodoq Tir, he formally adopted her children from the previous marriage, further cementing his claim and ensuring that no indirect heirs would threaten his rule. Further, the adoption legitimized Corwin’s place in the complicated world of Lodoq Tir politics, while letting any potential enemies know that he would be willing to respect millennia-old traditions should they find themselves at odds.

Over the next generation, Corwin led an aggressive campaign of military expansion, overtaking some kingdoms by force, others through diplomacy, and more than a few through marriage alliances once his adopted children were of age. By the time the Imperial forces had arrived at Lodoq Tir, the Twentieth Primarch ruled over a planet-spanning empire, with himself as an undisputed sovereign and feudal lord of all he had surveyed. Though at first, Corwin resisted the idea of compliance, he quickly recognized the military capabilities of the Imperium. He had neither the manpower nor the technology to resist the subjugation of Lodoq Tir, however, he could not afford the inevitable loss of authority and prestige that would have come from bloodless surrender, and that ran contrary to the behavior expected of the planet’s sovereign.

Therefore, Corwin concocted a plan. While his vassals and lesser progeny kept the Imperium at bay through prolonged negotiations, Corwin himself would covertly board the Imperial flagship at the head of his best power-armored warriors, attempting to take it over and to dictate the terms of negotiations from there on.

It is a testament both to Corwin’s fighting prowess and planning that by the time the Imperials realized that they were under attack, the Twentieth Primarch was already on the bridge of the Imperial flagship, calmly ordering the takeover of the great vessel as his men assumed the firing positions. Had the mission been led by a lesser being, he might have even succeeded, however, as the reinforced doors fell before the Primarch, he found himself face to face with a being of wholly different magnitude.

The Emperor greeted Corwin in person on the bridge of the flagship, flanked by an armed guard of Custodes and a demi-Company’s worth of Space Marines. Realizing that his troops would have fared poorly in the outright confrontation, Corwin invoked a desperate custom from the mostly forgotten parts of Lodoq Tir’s history, and challenged the Emperor to personal combat. As a feudal sovereign, Corwin presumed it to be his duty to take personal responsibility for the outcome of the war – if he were to succeed, he would fulfill his obligation to his people, while if he were to fail, the suffering of war would be his alone. As Corwin motioned a challenge, the Emperor ordered his guards to stand aside, and met his son blade to blade.

Though the Twentieth Primarch fought bravely, he was long used to being an apex being on his world, and was completely unprepared for the Emperor’s strength, speed, and experience. Before long, Corwin’s sword was flung out of his hand, and the Primarch accepted his fate, asking his conqueror only to spare the people of Lodoq Tir in exchange for Corwin’s own life.

Instead, the Emperor bode Corwin to rise. He told Corwin that he was impressed with the Primarch’s willingness to sacrifice for the sake of his ideals, and that he would find such qualities immensely useful. The Emperor revealed himself as Corwin’s father and creator, explaining the Great Crusade to reunite humanity, and the Primarch’s role in this noble endeavor. Finally, he told Corwin that by the right of conquest, he now claimed his son’s allegiance as one of the princes of human species, who would bring enlightenment and liberation to all.

Now that the proprieties of Lodoq Tir’s complex etiquette were fully satisfied, Corwin went down on one knee, swearing the oath to his father as his liege, and ordering his men to stand down. He promptly took command of the XXth Legion, renaming them the Angel Kings – for just as the natural order of things on Lodoq Tir was for the noble-born humans to wisely direct their lessers, so were the mythical angels akin to kings over earthly monarchs.

Legion Organization

The Twentieth Legion had already been a force to be reckoned with even before their reunion with their Primarch. Long considered one of the most organized, disciplined forces of the Great Crusade, they were at the forefront of many conflicts, earning accolades from many corners of the nascent Imperium. Their tenacity and professionalism were considered legendary, prompting many Imperial Commanders to ask for Twentieth Legion support wherever an opportunity presented itself, over some of the other, more esoteric or unruly Astartes formations. The reunion with the Primarch did little to change that.

While Corwin’s upbringing and the influx of recruits from Lodoq Tir produced a number of cosmetic changes to the Legion ranks, at their core the Angel Kings retained the organization originally pioneered amongst the Thunder Warrior formations during the Unification Wars on Terra. The concept of feudal fealty lent itself very well to this structure, with higher ranks equivalent to upper echelon nobles, while foot soldiers remained equivalents of aspiring knights serving in many a feudal lord’s army. To Corwin and the people of his homeworld, the Twentieth Legion represented simply the next rank of military aristocracy to aspire to, and as a result, the Legion’s recruitment efforts quickly bore fruit as noble families from all over the planet volunteered their sons for Legion trials.

The Legion is divided into Great Companies, led by Commanders – roughly equivalent to Chapter Masters of other Legions, who are typically in command of roughly a thousand Astartes along with any and all supporting mechanized assets. The Great Companies consist of hundred-strong Companies led by officers with the rank of Captain (though particularly heroic or distinguished amongst them are allowed to bear the title of a Knight-Captain, denoting their accomplishments in the service of the Legion). Within a Company, one may find a number of Sergeant-led squads that, depending on the casualties and the speed of recruitment, may number from as few as five to as many as twenty Marines.

Above the Commanders, the Angel Kings maintain the rank of a Lord Commander, however, the presence of this rank is somewhat misleading. Lord Commanders are not assigned to specific units; instead, they occupy a role similar to that of highest-ranking feudal aristocrats who answer only to the king. Any Commander-rank officer would be sworn to a Lord Commander, who may then assign him to direct the endeavors of different units, or in a number of other roles. In practice, such reassignments are uncommon, as the Legion rarely maintains more than six Lord Commanders at any given time, and many of them occupy administrative roles, however, as the Lord Commanders represent the most senior of the Angel Kings’ officers, their authority is almost never questioned.

Combat Doctrine

The Angel Kings favor a balanced doctrine in combat, forsaking specialization in any singular style of war in order to ensure that they can meet any challenge. That said, upon the reunion of the Legion with Corwin, a number of changes were introduced to their doctrines to better accommodate the unique strengths of Lodoq Tir way of war.

Though the Legion was already known for its discipline even amongst the Adeptus Astartes, Corwin’s teachings continued to emphasize that in order to accomplish victory, the Legion must work as a cohesive whole. To achieve that, all Legionaries must be willing and ready to follow orders without question, trusting in their superiors to have planned for all appropriate eventualities. If these orders resulted in a sacrifice, then such sacrifice would have been necessary for the ultimate victory. With the concepts of knightly honor and aristocratic values of Lodoq Tir further integrated within the Legion’s ethos, the warriors of the Angel Kings began to see the possibility of self-sacrifice and honorable battle as ennobling.

Just as the heavily armored knights were a precious resource upon the battlefield, Corwin declared the formation of Squire Corps, mortal auxiliary troops drawn from the worlds protected by the Twentieth Legion and sworn to the service of the Legion’s officers. These mortal soldiers were expected to be loyal to the death, and often supported the Legion in lieu of Imperial Army regiments; while they employed a variety of weapons and tactics, they were typically considered equivalent to the better trained and motivated mainline Imperial Army units. With the recruitment into the Legion proper reserved for the sons of planetary nobility, the Squire Corps afforded an opportunity for men and women of lower social classes to partake in the conquest, while potentially earning peerage or noble title that would eventually allow their children to be eligible for Legion recruitment.

Due to Lodoq Tir’s long history with Knight war walkers, it was only natural that Corwin decided to implement such machines into his strategies. Where they were a rare and irreplaceable resource on Lodoq Tir, the Knight walkers were considerably more plentiful in the wider galaxy, finally allowing Corwin to have a number of them permanently attached to his Legion. While such engines of war typically serve as spearpoint of assaults or as mobile artillery support, the sons of Corwin march to battle with full faith in their capabilities.

Legion Beliefs and Practices

The overriding central principle of the Angel Kings’ philosophy is the concept of noblesse oblige – namely, the obligation of aristocrats and nobles to protect their lessers. The specific interpretation of the concept tends to emphasize that the elites are usually more aware of the dangers of the universe, and therefore are allowed considerably wider latitude in the persecution of their duties; as a result, some Angel Kings may seem somewhat arrogant around the mortals, especially when such mortals are of lower social rank.

The Legionaries see themselves as knights of the Great Crusade, naturally elevated above the lesser commoners, and therefore carrying considerably higher expectations. It is virtually unheard of for the Angel Kings units to break or retreat without a direct order, and the warriors of the Legion would often prevail through sheer tenacity. In their minds, the Legionaries of the Twentieth are superior to all other beings in discipline, nobility, and moral character – but in order to maintain that superiority, it has to be continuously proven through the Legionary’s words and deeds. As a result, the Angel Kings hold themselves to extreme standard in every aspect of their existence, from the state of their armor and war gear to their conduct in battle.

It is common for many older and more experienced Legionaries to mentor more recent inductees. While virtually all Angel Kings belong to aristocratic lineages, it is not uncommon for many members of the same family to be inducted into the Legion, however, there is a perceived stigma against being mentored by one’s older relatives. The sons of Corwin consider the concept of advancement based on lineage rather than accomplishment to be extremely distasteful, and contrary to the knightly values and codes of conduct. The Angel Kings believe that advancement earned without direct aid by one’s relatives brings more honor and renown to that lineage, and, as a result, the halls of many aristocratic families on Lodoq Tir and her associated worlds bristle with the service records of the families’ scions inducted into the Legions, the statues and the holographic representations of such warriors’ deeds, and the long lists of warriors granted the ultimate honor of reconquering the galaxy in the Emperor’s name.

Recruitment and Gene-Seed

The Angel Kings recruit exclusively from the planetary nobility, believing that sons of feudal lords have the proper mindset, the martial upbringing, and the benefit of impeccable lineage to make exceptional Legionaries. During the first two decades after Corwin’s discovery, these recruitment efforts were limited to Lodoq Tir, however, as Corwin’s personal holdings grew and the Legion was required to accelerate the casualty replacement process, the recruitment was eventually expanded to include culturally suitable planets with proven loyalty to the Imperium.

All recruits into the Twentieth Legion are subjected to the most stringent of purity tests before undergoing grueling trials. Though Corwin’s gene-seed is considered pure and stable, the restrictive selection process makes it more difficult to quickly replace casualties, as the Primarch refuses to compromise his standards in the name of growing his Legion.

Of special note is the service of multiple members of Corwin’s own lineage. The Primarch’s adopted descendants consider it a matter of honor to provide suitable recruits to the Legion. Several of these descendants distinguished themselves in a variety of roles, though if anything, the Angel Kings’ ethos ensured that they were viewed with considerably higher scrutiny to ensure that their advancement was due to their own merit rather than due to accident of birth.

The Great Crusade

Corwin did not take long to make his mark upon the Great Crusade. With the new tactical options provided by the advanced Legiones Astartes technology, the Primarch was able to make quick work of the neighboring systems and independent principalities. On Aegon Primus, the Angel Kings ended the millennium-old tyranny of the mad Psycho-Prophets, while Corwin himself dealt the final blow to their cybernetically enhanced leader. On Vitria, the Twentieth Legion held the line against the xenos assaults while their Knight walkers got in position, then counterattacked to wipe out the alien menace for good. Wherever the Twentieth Legion went, they found worlds to conquer, and many human populations grateful for liberation from the horrors of the Old Night.

Though Corwin did not initially set out with the aim of expanding his personal holdings, over the next decade he found that in most cases, the complete reorganization of the planets proposed by the Imperial iterators produced a number of difficulties. More than once, the Primarch was forced to recall battle groups of his Legion to deal with rebellions, or to handle the civil unrest as the people of newly conquered worlds did not take kindly to new Imperial authorities. Drawing back to his experiences on Lodoq Tir, Corwin devised a solution that, though initially considered controversial, had proved its worth, and formed a template for the eventual actions of many of his brothers.

From now on, Corwin attempted to coopt or even forcibly convert the aristocracy and the elites of the newly compliant planets. To that effect, he allowed peerage of Lodoq Tir to the planetary leaders, incorporating the local nobles into the complex liege/vassal relationships centered on his persona as the sovereign, with only the Emperor himself his feudal superior. This allowed the citizens of the conquered planets to continue in their ways, while ensuring that they still answered to familiar rulers now bearing new ranks, and quickly assimilating into the culture of the victorious Primarch's homeworld. This approach was not without its failings due to both the inherent deficiencies within the feudal system of government, and the frequent resentment of culturally deviant elites by the people under their rule, however, the benefits far outweighed the risks by freeing up the bulk of the Legion for true conquest duties while their Squire Corps were sufficient for keeping peace.

While Corwin's creation of this Kingdom of Angels raised a few eyebrows in the Imperial Court, the next Primarch discovered, Iskanderos, was similarly an empire-builder, with a sizeable realm of his own upon discovery. With Leto and Rogr Hemri found in short succession after Iskanderos, the Primarchs' direct rule over multi-planet realms became a fair accompli, eventually prompting even some of the more martial Primarchs to consider adding to their personal holdings. As a result, over the next century at least half of the Primarchs had acquired sizeable private kingdoms, most of which persisted considerably past the Fall of Terra.

On the battlefields of the Great Crusade, the Angel Kings remained a potent force, frequently held to be one of the paragon Legions alongside the Imperial Redeemers and the Lion Guard. With their known devotion to personal and martial honor, the warriors of the Twentieth were one of the more popular forces for the many works of literature and art celebrating the Crusade, eventually allowing Corwin to muster considerable political power and prompting his elevation to the Council of Terra.

During the Heresy

As one of the founding members of the Council of Terra, Corwin was involved in the decision to assault Apella, and contributed several detachments of his Legion to Operation Starfall. While he had a reasonable working relationship with Iskanderos, accentuated by their successful cooperation at the Battle of Ullanor against the Orks, the Twentieth Primarch understood the necessity of action under the circumstances. He felt rather uneasily about the concentration of power in the hands of Rogr Hemri, which prompted him to depart Terra under the guise of being needed in his own territory. There, Corwin found his realm under attack from the rebels.

Iskanderos had correctly surmised that out of all the loyalist Primarchs, Corwin posed the greatest threat to him. A known military savant with a functioning star realm and a well-rounded, numerous Legion, Corwin had the means and the acumen to do severe damage to the rebel cause if left unchecked. As a result, the Arch-Traitor ordered the Iconoclasts under Nihlus and the Warblades commanded by Baelic to harry the Kingdom of Angels, seeking to stymie the communications between Lodoq Tir and Terra and attempting to force Corwin out of the conflict altogether.

At Hyrule Secundus, Corwin attempted to give the traitors a decisive battle, however, matters were complicated by the Warblades' attempted defection. The negotiations between Corwin and Baelic were cut to a halt with the psychically augmented attack by the Iconoclasts and the Iron Locust assassins, forcing Corwin to reevaluate his position and to order the evacuation of his Legion from Hyrule Secundus until the Sovereign could account for the strange abilities exhibited by his enemies, and address these new developments.

Though formally aligned to the Council of Terra, Corwin realized that he could not save Terra without sacrificing Lodoq Tir and her vassal worlds. With the Iconoclasts and the Chaos-aligned Abyssals rampaging through the outer planets of the Kingdom of Angels, Corwin was forced into a defensive campaign while trying to conserve his Legion's strength until he could finally go on the offensive against the traitors. He reasoned that with considerably more numerous Lion Guard and Peacekeepers protecting Terra, he could afford to bleed out the Iconoclasts – after all, while they were tying up his forces far from the Throne World, they were also not available to aid Iskanderos. As the Sovereign already had certain doubts both about Rogr Hemri's intentions, and the possibility that the lord of the Lion Guard might have been the one behind an attempt on Iskanderos' life during the first gathering of the Council, he chose to move carefully, making sure that he had his full strength available when the Angel Kings returned to Terra to save the day.

These plans were thrown into disarray by Iskanderos' discovery and implementation of the Dream Conclave of Nirvana. With Segmentum Solar completely cut off from galactic communication and Warp travel increasingly more perilous, Corwin had to trust that the defenders of Terra were up to the task required of them. As the traitor forces continued to raid across the Kingdom of Angels, Corwin adopted a patient approach; being on home territory and close to his own supply lines ensured that he could afford to fight a war of attrition, while his enemies had to increasingly resort to tricks, daemonic summoning, and underhanded tactics.

With this strategy, Corwin was able to outlast the attacks on his dominion, keeping most of it intact and maintaining the operational strength of his Legion at nearly seventy percent of its pre-civil war numbers. However, as the Angel Kings were about to set course for Segmentum Solar through the most intense Warp storms since the Age of Strife, the first snippets of news had finally arrived from Terra – the news of massacre at Galen IV, where Nyxos was directly implicated in the murder of a fellow loyalist Primarch.

Though Corwin had no particular affinity for Echelon, the lengths to which the Council went to achieve its ends did not sit well with him. He had a suspicion that the attack was too well timed to be an unintentional disaster; considering Echelon's previous political opposition to Rogr Hemri and Nyxos' well-known unscrupulous nature, Corwin had to account for the possibility that the Council was using the civil war to dispose of its opponents and to consolidate its power. With the Emperor nowhere to be found, Corwin had to assume that either his father was dead or, worse yet, he understood – and ultimately approved – the Council's actions.

Whatever the truth, Corwin recalled that he still had his obligations as a feudal liege. If the Emperor was truly dead, it was his duty to avenge his father, however, vengeance did not have to be swift. If the Emperor was alive but complicit in the Council's actions, then he did not deserve the Twentieth Legion's allegiance. Therefore, with heavy heart, the Sovereign declared to his officers that the Angel Kings would stay home to protect their realm until such time as they had clarity on who their friends – and foes – were.

Post-Heresy

In the chaos following the Fall of Terra and the death of Iskanderos, the Kingdom of Angels emerged as one of the stronger Imperial successor states. Due to Corwin's long-standing efforts at creating a functioning system of feudal obligations, his realm survived the loss of contact with Terra with little difficulty. Though some of the outlying worlds were compromised or threatened by the refugees and the marauding warbands splintering from the disintegrating Legions, Corwin's resolute leadership maintained a semblance of peace in the crucial formative years after the Fall of Terra.

As the galaxy around him darkened, Corwin took to strengthening his dominion. Refusing to relax the restrictive recruitment and training standards of his Legion, Corwin maintained that he would rather proceed about rebuilding his forces in a slow and cautious manner, ensuring that the fighting ability of the Angel Kings was not in any shape or form compromised. That said, the newfound independence forced him to make a number of changes to better accommodate the post-Imperial galaxy.

With the Legion already based on the concept of feudal allegiance, and the Angel Kings being exclusively the scions of planetary nobility and royalty, Corwin began to assign his Captains and Commanders as governors of planets ravaged by war, typically taking care to match such officers to the worlds where their mortal heritage might have given them a valid claim to rule. After the first few appointments proved to be successful, the Sovereign expanded the leadership program to eventually replace most planetary lords with Astartes warriors drawn from acceptable lineages, who would then be groomed both as military leaders and as administrators of the wide-ranging dominion.

After several thousand years in practice, this system had further evolved into the society where the Angel Kings took both military and administrative roles, with each governor typically held responsible for maintaining his assigned world at optimum readiness, keeping his military forces at full strength, and ensuring that its economic contributions to the wider Kingdom of Angels are efficiently managed. This led to the Legion's formerly strict hierarchy devolving to a relatively loose organization held more by bounds of formal feudal fealty than by military discipline, somewhat mirroring the society of Lodoq Tir prior to its reunion with the wider galaxy. Thus, the reformed Kingdom of Angels managed to survive a number of threats to its existence, overcoming external invasion, internal dissent, and even several of its commanders defying their oaths of allegiance and attempting to go renegade.

While these changes made for a stable society, Corwin was still uneasy. The more he learned about the fateful events leading to the Fall of Terra, the more he found himself haunted by doubt. Though at the time, keeping the Twentieth Legion at home seemed like the right decision, now it felt like folly. Could it be, he wondered, that perhaps his Legion's absence is what allowed Iskanderos to conquer Terra? What happened to the Emperor, and could it be that the Master of Mankind was still at large in the galaxy, looking for any who would keep faith with his master plan?

Unfortunately for Corwin's original plan of returning to Terra in strength, the crucial role played by the Angel Kings in their dominion meant that his ability to project power outside of his borders was severely limited, prompting him to look to other methods of fulfilling his oath to himself and, if He still lived, to the Emperor. Finally, believing the Kingdom of Angels as secure as it could ever be, Corwin assembled his top officers on Lodoq Tir.

He told his vassals that he had ruled over them for far too long, and that his continued presence, if unchecked, would lead to stagnation and eventual decay of their realm. With the traditions of Lodoq Tir ensuring that succession was a simple matter, Corwin laid down the crown of leadership at the hands of Lord Commander Baldwin Arrath, a distant descendant of Corwin's own adopted children and a hero of the Legion. Then, gathering only a small retinue of warriors sworn to his service, the Sovereign boarded a relic Legion warship, and left for parts unknown.

Since those days, stories still abound in the galaxy of a valiant, god-like warrior at the head of purple-armored knights righting the wrongs and slaying the agents of Chaos and tyranny. None know his name, for he would not reveal it, and his face is hidden under a brilliant halo strangely similar to the kind of personal void shields thought lost during the Dark Age of Technology. Wherever he goes, liberation seems to follow, yet he would never stay to enjoy the spoils of his victory, as if urged forward by some higher calling. What this calling might be, no one knows, but one thing is clear – the warrior's travels seem to be taking him closer and closer to the most peculiar of destinations, the one-time cradle of humanity – the Daemon World of Terra.

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