The First. He was always proud of that — first of the Legions, first of the Imperium, whatever the truth of the finding order. But when the knights of Caliban found him, he had no name at all.
The Forests of Caliban
Caliban was a world of eternal woods, and the woods were not empty. Great warp-touched beasts haunted them, and knightly orders rode out from monastery-fortresses to hunt them. In the deep forests of the Great Northwilds those knights found a boy living wild as an animal — handsome and beautiful beneath the mud and the matted hair, in the way a drawn blade is beautiful. The Order took him in. They named him Lion El’Jonson, and beside his dearest friend Luther he cleansed the forests of their monsters, long before any golden ship darkened Caliban’s sky.
The First Legion
When the Emperor came, the Lion received the First Legion, and its warriors took the black. I remember his plate: glossy sable, painstakingly engraved with the heraldry of his Legion’s secret hierarchies, gold scrollwork of Calibanite forests, a breastplate that showed a young lion wrestling a lion. He commanded with a sombre majesty — and he seethed, quietly, at the work he was given. Reclaiming worlds already inside the borders. Securing what others had conquered. Grinding work, he called it, fit for the Death Guard or the Iron Warriors. Pride was always the First’s inheritance.
What became of Caliban, and of Luther, is another chronicle — one I do not have the heart to write today.
Questions from the Archive
Where was Lion El’Jonson found?
On Caliban, a forested knight-world haunted by warp-touched beasts. He was found living wild in the Great Northwilds and raised by a knightly order, fighting beside Luther years before the Emperor arrived.
What legion did Lion El’Jonson command?
The First Legion, the Dark Angels, who wore glossy black plate in the Great Crusade era. He was fiercely proud of their status as the first of the Emperor’s Legions.
What was the Lion’s role in the Great Crusade?
He commanded with sombre majesty, though his early crusade was spent on thankless campaigns to secure and reclaim worlds already within Imperial borders — grinding work he privately resented.