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The Fallen Lion - The El'Johnson Heresy.

22K views 9 replies 6 participants last post by  Jedarii 
#1 · (Edited)
This is going to be another one of these Alternate Heresies, I'm afraid. However, the full heresy is covered in rough details, from The Council of Nikaea to the Final battle between the forces of the Emperor and Chaos. I intend to create a full-blown history for each of the eighteen legions including what happened to them after the El'Johnson Heresy, so expect this to be a fully blown epic ala The Dornian Heresy. However, I digress. This is only a rough draft and will probably be improved on later on, but for now - here's the drawing of the sides.

Loyalists | Traitors Emperor's Children | Dark Angels Iron Warriors | White Scars Night Lords | Space Wolves World Eaters | Imperial Fists Ultramarines | Blood Angels Thousand Sons | Iron Hands Sons of Horus | Death Guard Word Bearers | Raven Guard Salamanders | Alpha Legion

Key:

Khorne
Slannesh
Tzeentch
Nurgle
Arch-Traitor

The Fallen Lion Rough Timeline

Author's Note: This will be of course expanded on and improved as I go, with pictures, quotes, and more details added as we go along.
The Crimson Fortress



A Squad from the Dark Angels Third Company fighting xenos during the Battle for the Crimson Fortress

Lion El’Johnson and Leman Russ met on the walls of the Crimson Fortress and fight over a dispute between themselves, which had been spawned when both sides tried to overcome the xenos guarding the Crimson Fortress. However, during the attack, the Dark Angels forces had unexpectedly broken away from the Space Wolves, and without warning, persued the aliens deeper into the fortress. As a result of this, not only did a lot of Space Wolves get killed in the alien counter attack, but also the Dark Angels managed to claim the Fortress first. The Lion wins, but leads his legion away in anger at Russ’ barbarianism. He slowly begins to hate the Primarch of the Space Wolves and when they come up on opposing sides at the Council of Nikea, he realises that something must be done to stop the barbaric Space Wolves who are anti-pskyers, which the Dark Angels have come to admire greatly after a psyker saved the Lion’s life as a young teenager on Caliban. The Lion plots to slowly gather his forces to oppose Leman Russ and the Space Wolves, calling upon Chaos to grant him powers to overcome the Vlka Fenryka. He slowly brings other legions into his sway.

The Council of Nikaea

During the Council of Nikaea, several legions shared different views regarding the powers of warpcraft. The Space Wolves sided against the use of librarians in the forces of the Space Marines, as did the Death Guard and the Iron Hands. Supporting the use of librarians as a necessary evil was Magnus the Red, Lion El’Johnson and Alpharius. The result of this Council divided many legions, and this was where the Lion was able to gain the support of Alpharius and convince him that the forces of Chaos could be used to further the tactics that Alpharius used on the battlefield, and the unholy forces that they could call forth to support their aid.

The Battle for Prospero

Leman Russ thought that the Council of Nikaea hadn’t produced a tough enough sentence for Magnus the Red and the Thousand Sons, and decided to set course for Prospero, to destroy the legion. However, Magnus the Red foresaw this incident, going against the Emperor’s decree, and contacted a close friend of his, Lorgar – who vowed to help his brother despite what the Emperor said. Lorgar and the Word Bearers arrived just in time to stop the Space Wolves from breaking the Thousand Sons. All three legions suffered depletion in forces, and the Space Wolves were forced to withdraw.



Thousand Sons forces prepare for the invasion of Prospero, lead by Magnus the Red himself.

The Ullanor Crusade

The Emperor and the Luna Wolves fought side by side on Ullanor to cleanse the world of the greenskin threat. Following the conclusion of the Ullanor Crusade, The Emperor announced that he would depart the Great Crusade, leaving Horus as his proxy – the Warmaster. The Luna Wolves were renamed the Sons of Horus. Several legions took different opinions on this matter, and the Dark Angels and the Space Wolves found themselves divided once again, Lion El’Johnson having become first by the Chaos gods by this point and therefore believing Horus to be the wrong choice. The Space Wolves also didn’t agree with Horus becoming the Warmaster, but only because they believed that the Emperor shouldn’t need to retire from the Great Crusade in the first place. The Emperor also recalled the Imperial Fists and the Night Lords to Terra to act as his guardians.

The Davin Incident, the Emperor’s Praetorian and the turning of the Death Guard

Alpha Legion emissaries were dispatched to The Sons of Horus, where against the Lion’s wishes, Alpharius believed that if they won the Warmaster to their cause, many other legions would soon follow, and he tried to corrupt Horus with a Daemonic sword – the stolen Anathame. However, Magnus the Red and Lorgar, fresh from the rescue of Prospero, managed to save Horus from turning and successfully cast out the Daemonic forces influencing the Warmaster, but not before the Warmaster was severely crippled. Taking over Horus’ role in his stead, Rogal Dorn – The Emperor’s Praetorian, declared the Alpha Legion to be renegade, and gave the order for the Death Guard to hunt them down, not knowing that the Alpha Legion had also despatched spies to the ranks of Mortarion as well, and were slowly turning the Death Guard towards the power of Nurgle, and disabled the Gellar fields of the Death Guard fleet in the warp en route to where Alpharius was last reported, allowing the Destroyer Hive to flood the spaceships and force the remaining loyalist elements to turn to the embrace of Nurgle or die. And so, by the time that the Death Guard arrived on the world of Armageddon where the Alpha Legion were last seen, Alpharius and his legion encountered no resistance whatsoever.


Betrayal at Isstvan III

Once Rogal Dorn had heard the news that the Death Guard had joined the Alpha Legion (The Dark Angels were still believed to be loyal at this time), spurred with his failure, he left Terra seeking blood, and enlisted three legions to help him, Ferrus Manus’ Iron Hands, and Angron’s World Eaters. The Imperial Crusade fleet met the traitorous forces on the planet of Isstvan III, and what followed was a complete and utter slaughter. The Imperial Fists had given into the temptations of Chaos shortly before their arrival, Rogal Dorn believing that in order to defeat the Alpha Legion and the Death Guard, he needed to recognise why they had turned against the Emperor, and in doing so, unwittingly allowed the Chaos Gods to corrupt his mind and thus the rest of the legion. The Iron Hands were easily turned with false promises of many new STCs discovered within what would become known as The Eye of Terror, and the World Eaters remained the only loyal legion left. The World Eaters legion were utterly crushed by the turncoat forces of four whole legions, and even with Angron’s heroic sacrifice, only escaped with under one hundred astartes, including Captains Khârn, Varren and Ehrlen, who managed to convey the warnings of the failure of the Imperial Fists to the now fully recovered Horus.

The Dropsite Massacre of Isstvan V

Shocked at not only the betrayal of Rogal Dorn, Mortarion, Alpharius and Ferrus Manus, but also the death of Angron, Horus finally acted, using his power to reinforce his position as Warmaster and ordered seven legions to hunt down the four turncoats. They included the Emperor’s Children, Iron Warriors, White Scars, Dark Angels, the Raven Guard and the remaining Word Bearers, who met the turncoats on the killing fields of Isstvan V, where what followed proved to be an even greater military disaster than the Massacre of Isstvan III, and what still remains to date, the Greatest in Imperial history. The Dark Angels revealed their betrayal, and had not only managed to turn the White Scars, but also the Raven Guard. What followed saw the Raven Guard, White Scars, Death Guard, Alpha Legion, Iron Hands, Imperial Fists and the Alpha Legion utterly crush the Iron Warriors, Emperor’s Children and the Word Bearers contingent. Another Primarch, Fulgrim – was slain by his old friend Ferrus Manus, and to make matters worse, Lorgar disappeared in the thick of the fighting, never to be heard from again. Sorely wounded loyalist legions limped back to their homeworlds, where they could regroup and rearm.



In one of the final fights for Isstvan V, Fulgrim duels the corrupted Ferrus Manus.

Horus, knowing now that the Dark Angels were in command of the traitors, headed to Terra with his Sons of Horus, bringing the Salamanders with him to reinforce the gap left by the Imperial Fists. By this point, the battlelines were slowly taking shape and it was quite clear that the El’Johnson Heresy was well underway.

The Battle for Ultramar

Determined to halt Roboute Guilliman and the Ultramarines, Lion El’Johnson dispatched the Alpha Legion and the Raven Guard to delay the largest legion of Imperials from reaching Terra in time for the attack which would soon come. What came next saw Roboute Guilliman capture and then loose Alpharius, although it was believed that Alpharius only allowed himself to be captured so he could gain information of the Imperial defences, which were later exploited by both the Alpha Legion and the Raven Guard. Surprising the Ultramarines on Calth, the two renegade legions managed to inflict heavy damage on the Ultramarines but eventually the Ultramarines managed to overcome the forces of Chaos, and win back the world of Ultramar.



Roboute Guilliman fights renegade Alpha Legion in orbit above Calth.

Signus Prime

Signus Prime saw the Blood Angels legion lured into a trap set by Lion El’Johnson which would ultimately turn them towards Chaos. Surrounded and cut off from the Imperium at Large by a Daemonic Host spearheaded by the Alpha Legion, the Blood Angels gave into the temptations of Slaneesh when Fabius Bile, an Emperor’s Children renegade who had escaped Isstvan V by siding with the traitors, promised vengeance for the Blood Angels who had been ‘abandoned’ by the Imperium at Signus Prime and vowed to make them more powerful than they already had been. And so unwittingly, Sanguinius and the Blood Angels fell to the embrace of Slaneesh, and only once the Primarch Sanguinius saw what he had done did he regret it. But by that time they had destroyed many Imperial systems near the Ultima Segmentum, including a crucial forge world, he realised that he was beyond the point of no return and so retreated to mourn in the Eye of Terror during the Heresy, leaving the rest of his legion to pillage and burn in his name. The Blood Angels painted their armour dark purple after their new god, and against the will of Sanguinius, changed their legion symbol to show their newfound devotion to Slaneesh.

The Siege of Terra

Partaking Legions:

Loyalists: Salamanders, Night Lords, Sons of Horus
Traitors: Dark Angels, Death Guard, White Scars, Iron Hands, Space Wolves
After a seven year period of constant warfare between the forces of the Lion and the forces of the Emperor, the turncoats decided that now would finally be the time to strike at the heart of the Imperial nest, Terra. By the time the Renegades entered the Sol System, they numbered five legions in total: The Dark Angels, Death Guard, White Scars, The Iron Hands and the remnants of the Space Wolves Legion who had failed to destroy Magnus the Red on Prospero, lead by the recently-turned Daemon Primarch of Khorne himself, Leman Russ, the Blood God’s Son, in command of a host of fanatic Bezerkers. The only legions that opposed them were the Salamanders, lead by Primarch Vulkan, the Night Lords lead by Konrad Cruze, and the newly arrived Sons of Horus, lead by the fully recovered form of Horus Lupercal. This was the battle that would decide mankind’s fate, for the better – or for the worse.

Already heavily well defended by the forces of the Imperium, built largely due to the defences made by Rogal Dorn, The Emperor’s Palace was well prepared to withstand an assault from several legions of Space Marines, especially with the fact that the three stationed on Terra were fighting for not only their survival, but the protection of their beloved Emperor. However, this did not stop the traitors from launching an unrelenting attack.

The White Scars were the first to arrive on Terra along with the Space Wolves, Jaghatai Khan and Leman Russ both now greatly enhanced by the Ruinous Powers, and thrust themselves at the walls of the Emperor’s Palace, not waiting for the other renegade legions to arrive. Both legions were met with heavy resistance, the flamers of the Salamanders wreaking havoc amongst the charging masses of the traitors, and the Night Lords used Assault Squads, christened Raptors, to strike behind enemy lines along with scouts from all three legions, to deal with key renegade targets. So far, the loyalists held their ground. But Horus, Vulkan and Konrad Curze all knew that this was only the calm before the storm, with three other legions battling their way through the Solar System.

After about two weeks of non-stop fighting on Terra, the remaining renegade forces arrived hoping to deliver a massive hammer blow for the forces of the Emperor. Lion El’Johnson commanded the forces from orbit on his flagship The Invincible Reason, supported by shield generators. The war would rage on, and there would be no respite for the Imperial forces stationed on Terra.

As well as the main legions, both forces had several non-astartes troops. Lion El’Johnson lead traitor troops from the Imperial Army, as well as Traitor Titan Legions against Horus’ 500,000 strong loyalist Imperial Army forces, three Titan legions and several Adeptus Custodes. It was the biggest engagement in the entire El’Johnson Heresy, and ultimately, the most important confrontation yet. And, the Iron Hands under command of Ferrus Manus were absent for all of it, which earned them much disrespect from the traitor legions who had fought on Terra in the years to come, having invaded Mars, searching for what later records would designate as the Dragon of Mars, which had supposedly been defeated in combat by the Emperor himself. However, whilst Ferrus Manus searched the entire planet, he was unable to recover the Dragon due to the determined efforts of the loyalists, and was forced to withdraw when the Siege of Terra ended.

One of the major incidents of the battle for Terra was the final defensive line around the Eternity Gate, which was assaulted not long after the renegades had broken the outer walls of the Emperor’s Palace. Guarding it was Konrad Curze, the Night Lords Primarch himself, alone – against a horde of the enemy, in a desperate attempt to buy the Emperor and his brother’s time to regroup inside the Throne Room. Fully expecting not to survive, Konrad Curze gave command of his legion to Zso Sahaal, known as the Talon Master and before his promotion, the First Captain. Zso Sahaal was the second of normal Adeptus Astartes to fulfil the role of the Primarchs, the latter being Khârn of the World Eaters, who oversaw the command of his legion following the noble sacrifice of Angron on Isstvan III.

The first renegade Primarch to meet Konrad Curze was none other than Jaghatai Khan himself, Primarch of the Night Lords Meeting head on in face to face combat. Both warriors duelled for a day and a night, exchanging and surviving blows that would have crippled a normal Astartes. It was said that even Daemons of Chaos stopped to watch both Primarchs duel each other, and even in the 41st Millennium, this is widely regarded as the most famous battle between two Primarchs in one place, ending with an outcome that left neither satisfied, and both dead. Whilst the reasoning to how both Primarchs died is unrecorded, historians can only speculate that whilst Curze dealt the killing blow to Jaghatai Khan, a renegade seized the chance to strike Curze, capitalising on his momentary exposure, and slay the Primarch of the Night Lords. As a result of this battle, the Night Lords and the White Scars have become bitter enemies, and both sides will often go out of their way to fight each other for the honour of their Primarchs, and often, even though they are on opposite sides, will dispatch two Champions from Each legions to fight in a duel which will normally decide the victor of whatever battle they are facing in.

The Invincible Reason

It was on the final day of the Siege of Terra did Lion El’Johnson make his only, and eventually fatal, mistake. Operating on board The Invincible Reason, the Lion actually lowered the shield generators of the Dark Angels flagship. Immediately noticing the Lion’s presence, the Emperor acted, taking both Vulkan and Horus with him, to meet the Lion in single combat. Arriving on The Invincible Reason, The few surviving loyalist Space Marines witnessed sights that would drive many mortals mad, for the once noble flagship of The Dark Angels was now tainted and corrupted, and upon seeing this horror, The Emperor knew that Lion El’Johnson had to be stopped for his crimes.

The first to arrive on the main deck of The Invincible Reason, The Emperor encountered none other than the Lion himself, so greatly empowered by Chaos that he was hardly recognisable as the loyal, noble Primarch that he once was. But before the Emperor could act however, the Fallen Primarch cast a dead one at his feet, and The Emperor looked on at the death of another one of his sons, the Salamanders Primarch Vulkan, whose teleported had sent him directly into the main deck of The Invincible Reason and where he had fallen to the fury of the Lion. Without wasting another thought, the Emperor engaged in battle with the Lion, and both fought, and after a long gruelling battle, the Emperor managed to deliver the killing blow, killing the Primarch of the First Legion there and then. It was said, that in his dying breaths, the Lion looked into the eyes of his father, and realised what he had done, what horrors he had caused, and understood the true consequences of his actions. Unable to forgive the Lion for what he had partaken in, the Emperor simply sighed at his son, looking on sadly as the Primarch of the Dark Angels died before him, too broken in his body to do anything more. It was in this state, that Horus Lupercal, the Warmaster, found the crippled body of the Emperor, and the fallen corpses of the Lion and Vulkan. Spitting in anger on the Lion’s fallen corpse, Horus ordered his body burnt by the flame-wielders of the Salamanders, much to the anger of the Dark Angels forces, who were forced to withdraw without their flagship, The Invincible Reason, which was crushed by the Vengeful Sprit, and destroyed before it could flee with the rest of the Dark Angels, who retreated under command of Luther, who had been ordered to leave Caliban to assist the rest of the Dark Angels in the Siege of Terra.

And thus did the Age of Scouring begin, where mankind would fight to win back the stars from the forces of Chaos, prominently lead by the forces of Horus Lupercal, Magnus the Red and Roboute Guilliman, who took over leadership of humanity in these dark times.
 
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#2 ·
Loyalists | Traitors Emperor's Children | Dark Angels Iron Warriors | White Scars Night Lords | Space Wolves World Eaters | Imperial Fists Ultramarines | Blood Angels Thousand Sons | Iron Hands Sons of Horus | Death Guard Word Bearers | Raven Guard Salamanders | Alpha Legion
Key:

Khorne
Slannesh
Tzeentch
Nurgle
Arch-Traitor
No followers of Tzeentch in this Heresy? Makes for an interesting story..
Really like the effort and detail put in so far, so have some rep :)

EDIT: dammit rep system -_-
 
#7 ·
Yes!! I love this XD. The Emperors Children and the Sons of Horus are the loyal ones this time lol. They were and pretty much are the best loyalists XD... wish they were in the main story too, or at least a good number of them. More so since they had Commanders like Saul XD.

Nice work man! Keep up the good work :D
 
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