# Cult of the Angels Apocalypse



## darkreever (Apr 3, 2008)

This is something I have been working on for some time now; started it around the end of the eye of terror campaign a few years ago. This is the third revision to my cult of the Angels Apocalypse, which looks at the secret of the Dark Angels and comes out with a different version of the truth, and what happens because of it. For anyone who takes the time to read, I hope you enjoy it in some way...



The legend of the Horus Heresy is shrouded in mystery and controversy; the average Imperial citizen does not even realize its magnitude, or that it even truly happened.


There are those that know more, however, those of the Inquisition know that Horus was corrupted by Chaos, and turned against the Emperor. He virus-bombed Istvann III, and crippled three loyal Space Marine legions on Istvann V. He managed to corrupt nine Space Marine legions, including his own Sons of Horus. He fought his way to Terra, and assaulted the Emperor’s palace in an attempt to usurp his power. He nearly succeeded, but the Emperor prevailed. The injuries suffered by Emperor at the hands of the great traitor forced him to be forever interred in the Golden Throne, and the Age of Imperium began. But Horus and the nine Chaos Legions were not the only Space Marines to spit on their vows of loyalty to the Emperor…


The Primarch Lion El’Jonson was stricken with grief at the Emperor’s costly victory. He decided to return, with the Dark Angels that followed him on his campaign, to his homeworld of Caliban to reunite with the rest of his legion, who had guarded Caliban from further Chaos incursions. Upon the Primarch’s return, however, a massive planet-based blast lashed out at his fleet. He discovered that his comrade, Luther, has grown jealous of the Lion’s victories, and corrupted the rest of the legion on Caliban. The Lion and the loyal Dark Angels fought against Luther and his Fallen Angels. The Lion eventually confronted Luther personally, and their struggle was great. As El’Jonson was on the brink of victory, he hesitated, not wanting to destroy his once-brother-in-arms. But Luther showed no such compassion, and unleashed a devastating psychic attack, mortally wounding the Lion. But as he stood over his brother, he realized all he had betrayed, all he had done, and repented, falling into a gibbering heap. The Chaos gods roared in rage at their second loss, and called forth a whirling storm that scattered the Fallen Dark Angels throughout space and time, and destroyed the rest of Caliban, having already been weakened by the loyalist bombardment. Luther and the Lion disappeared, and the Fallen escaped, and are now hunted by the Dark Angels. Their Chaplains force the Fallen they capture to confess, and then deliver the Emperor’s Mercy. In this way are their souls saved, and the Dark Angels approach redemption. Or so the Dark Angels believe.


The truth is much different; for when Lion El’Jonson heard of Horus’ betrayal, the legions he won to his side, and the Massacre on Istvann V, he did not rush to the Emperor’s side.
He sent word through his most powerful Astropaths to Caliban: they were not to enter battle on either side, but wait for word from him and at the same time he sent word to Horus that he would lend his legion in support of his brother. As the Dark Angel and Space Wolf fleets raced to return to terra, both were held up; for while the loyalty of the Dark Angels was with Horus the loyalty of the Space Wolves was still with the Emperor. As both legions became tied up in conflict with members of the other traitors, Horus called upon the Dark Angels on Caliban to come to his aid; but the Dark Angels never came. Horus was defeated by the Emperor, and the Emperor ascended to the Golden Throne. No one would ever know of the Dark Angels’ dual betrayal.


When the Dark Angels with El’Jonson returned to Caliban, his fleet was met by a fusillade from the Dark Angels who refused to aid Horus in his treachery, but stayed on Caliban to destroy the traitorous Lion. Jonson’s fleet answered with a thunderous barrage and devastating assault on Caliban, cracking the world's crust as a reflection of the primarchs anger towards those he once called brother.


He stormed the huge Tower of the Order, and confronted Luther, who had kept faith in the Emperor. The two fought, and it was Luther who defeated the Lion, his will in protecting the people of the Imperium from its worst traitors giving him the strength he needed to finally best the Lion.


Rather than deal the final blow, Luther hesitated during that fatal moment, in which El’Jonson called upon Chaos to aid him, and unleashed a devastating attack which crippled Luther. As the Lion came in for the final blow, Luther used the last of his strength to severely wound El’Jonson, whose injuries had been pushed to their limits by the power that had been shot through his body before. The Lion fled, aided by his Dark Angels and he called upon Chaos once again; this time to unleash their full wrath on the Caliban. In response, a warp storm appeared, which split the planet in two. El’Jonson’s barrage was brutal, and did not even specifically target the loyalist Dark Angels, but rather caused wholesale damage. Thus, Caliban broke apart, and only the Tower of Angels remained. The loyal Dark Angels were sucked into the storm, and dispersed throughout space and time.


Aboard the piece of Caliban that would later be known as “The Rock”, the Lion realized that his wound, dealt by Luther before the Lion killed him, was not healing. Before he disappeared, to go into stasis, he addressed his warriors. He told them to find all the “Fallen” Dark Angels and eradicate them, so that their treachery might never be known. Only then could they be “redeemed”, and no one would ever know of their betrayal.


The "Fallen" were now dispersed; many succumbed to the Ruinous Powers because of their despair, becoming bitter and cruel because of their failure to stop the Lion and having not come to the aid of the Emperor when they could have. What most do not realize is that hope remains; if the Lion sword could be brought to the Golden Throne, as a sign of the Lion’s betrayal, the Fallen Angels would be justified and the Dark Angels forever damned and destroyed.


Many believe that Cypher is the member of the Fallen who now carries this responsibility. It is thought that Cypher alone has the power to redeem or damn his kin, though which none know the answer. For the Fallen, Cypher is a beacon of hope that they flock to, a hero that escapes the Dark Angels time and again; they have all been deceived in this. For Cypher is no Fallen angel, no one man could escape an entire chapter so many times without their help.  


And so the truth of Cypher is that he is not one of the Fallen, one of the loyal Dark Angels. Instead Cypher is the title given to a Dark Angel who undertakes the mission of being a double agent, to trick the last of the loyal Dark Angels out of hiding so that they may be silenced once and for all.


However not all of the Fallen are so easily fooled, or captured for that matter. One particular Fallen Angel managed to escape the clutches of the Dark Angels and learned the horrible truth that is Cypher. From this truth came a responsibility, to warn off the last of the loyal Dark Angels before it is to late.


A lone astartes warning his lost brothers is impossible, and so the marine came to conclusion that he would need a group to accomplish his task of warning. From this, the Fallen angel began to gather around him a flock of followers in a fashion similar to 'Cypher' in hopes that his hidden brothers would seek him out in time, creating a group known as the Word of the Fallen. As the years went on, astartes came to him, though very few were the souls he had been searching for.


From here, Veren Sebastion, the leader of the Word of the Fallen decided that he would need to alter his tactics and seek out his brothers with multiple groups. These cells would be unified as the Cult of the Angels Apocalypse, whose job would be to spread the truth of the Dark Angels and grab their attention while the gathered astartes formed an elite group known as the Angels Apocalypse, whose job would be to use the confusion and distraction of the cults to continue with the mission Sebastion had started.


Unlike the Word of the Fallen, the cults of the Angels Apocalypse would have to become more militarized to combat the forces that they would be fighting against. So it is here that events reach the present, as the Word of the Fallen start to become the Cult of the Angels Apocalypse.





So this is what I have so far, originally I had intended to use the lost and the damned rules to represent this group but when the new chaos codex came out that ended things. Later I revised it to work with the Cult and Angels being two separate armies, one that could be fielded with codex IG and the other with codex SM. This third revision sort of combines the separate elements of the second revision by using the IG as a parent army with a deathwatch kill team to represent the marine element.


C&C welcome.


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

Veeeeerry interesting take on things, Reever. Sure to piss some DA players off


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## Imperial Dragon (Dec 22, 2007)

:shok: That was really good, I wonder how many people would of thought of the story like that, that was a good read, great job :victory:


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## Red Orc (Jun 14, 2007)

Gotta agree, that's a nice twist on what we've been told. Well done!

I had a similar thing to piss off BA players - sorry Gal! - (never wrote it up though) where the Emperor, not Horus, kills Sanguinius, because at the time of the attack on the Battle-Barge, Sanguinius realises that Horus was right all along - and _that's_ why the BA go barmy in the end.








(special fluffy cyclops in honour of uber-fluff!)


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## Rindaris (Mar 17, 2008)

Very enjoyable read. I really like the ideas its gives.


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## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

Nice take on the entire thing. More and more of these are begining to appear. The novel Lord Of The Night takes a semi-similer approach to the Night Lords chapter. Be interesting to see what a Dark Angels player would make of this.


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## darkreever (Apr 3, 2008)

Thanks everyone, though I gotta admit this isn't actually here to piss off any Dark Angel players (says me while keeping my inner Space Wolf from laughing at what I just said.:biggrin

I will say this though, the more comments and suggestions about this that I get the better. It definitely helps to know what people thought was good or bad, or what either seems weak and needs strengthening or complete revision.

Jacobite, it'd definitely be interesting to see what a Dark Angel player has to say... (When I posted the previous revision of this on a different forum over a year ago, I got a lot of negative flak from DA players. It would be nice to see if, on another forum and after so much time, things have or haven't changed when it comes to them.)


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## Unknown Primarch (Feb 25, 2008)

like that alot, probably a similar story as to what GW will bring in the future except that i think cypher will be working for the emperor not chaos after reading descent of angels. but liked the idea of cypher bringing the lions sword to the emperor to stitch the dark angels up  maybe how you said chaos went after the lion after horus failed could be to do with his time in caliban forest with chaos beasts and horus being the 1st one found but lion being the first made and chaos knew that the 1st primarch would turn if you get were im going with that. just a idea. but great story none the less


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## darkreever (Apr 3, 2008)

Unknown Primarch, I think I get what your saying but your post is hard to read; since most of it is one giant block of text.

Remember though, I did not write that the Lion had been corrupted by chaos as Horus had. What I wrote was that after seeing what Horus had done with the power of chaos at his control, he joined with his traitor brother to be on what he thought was the winning side. Then when Luther had beaten him on Caliban, he actually called for the aid of chaos, having see what Horus had been able to do with chaos on his side. I never actually had the Lion corrupted so much by chaos, but in the end it no doubt would have corrupted him just like it did some of the other primarchs.


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## plug (Feb 22, 2008)

This is good stuff, liked the different take on things.


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## Trevor Drake (Oct 25, 2008)

Damn good read Reever, I rather enjoyed it. I am not a dark angel player myself, but I think that this is a great view of things. So what you lost your primarch, you have a COMMON MAN (let us not forget Luther was never bred as a space marine, so he was just bad-ass) who stood up and greviously wounded a Primarch, granted he went mad in the process. But think about it. The Emperor was pretty much the Alpha-Primarch, the one they were all created from, and he died fighting his own son. This story in my eyes makes Luther a pretty mean SOB. 

Great work on this Reever, hope to randomly come across more stuff of yours.

-Trevor D.


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## Micklez (Nov 22, 2008)

That was a very good piece mate, enjoyed it alot.

I do have to question that the Chaos gods would answer to Lion if he wasnt following chaos but hey the heretic and damned ways of the Chaos gods is beyond my mere mortal understanding hehehehe


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## dark angel (Jun 11, 2008)

i play DA and well i liked it, its a good idea and id even consider taken them up as a army


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## Ferrus Manus (Apr 28, 2008)

great story , i like the twists to Lion and his legion, but im pretty sure this idea has already been published into the book "Angels of Darkness" ?


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## darkreever (Apr 3, 2008)

To some degree, yes Ferrus parts of it have been. However things like the truth behind Cypher, and the formation of the cult, and even the Lion explicitly calling for the aid of chaos to help him should not have been in the book.


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## Captain Galus (Jan 2, 2008)

Very interesting take on things! I always knew my Primarch didn't shoot from the hip but DAYUM! Good read...now if you could write something to piss off all those smug Imperial Fist players I'd give you rep on every post ever!


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## nightfish (Feb 16, 2009)

Some of this doesn't make sense. While I could believe the first half, I'm not sure about the second.

Cypher doesn't always work with Fallen, he does things on his own. If he was so hell bent on exposing these marines why expend energy on other things?

Why would the DA send so many after him even when the Fallen aren't there on a planet if he was part of the conspiracy?

As for getting away. If he can walk up to Abbadon, waste one of his terminator bodyguards (who incidentally have probably been around for a while so not exactly inexperienced) so quick than even he nearly didn't see it then I'm sure a few marines aren't going to be much of a challenge.


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## steelrudi (Mar 17, 2011)

I am a DA player, and enjoyed the read, but a few things don't add up to me. GW fluff tells us that the Lion is in stasis in the Rock under the care of the Watchers. The Watchers are extremly anti-chaos. the 1st DA novel points this out clearly. Now if they are so anti-chaos why would they care for a comatose Primarch wounded in a cataclysmic battle against his brother. To make sure he doesn't wake ever again? To guard him , and keep him hidden from chaos? Why not destroy him out right? "The Fallen" are the traitors, not the DA's of the Lion. I will post more later, as my granddaughter, (A true chaos being if there ever was one.) Wants Grandpa to play.


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## spanner94ezekiel (Jan 6, 2011)

Necrooooooooo....

On a side note, I enjoyed it too :biggrin:


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## darkreever (Apr 3, 2008)

steelrudi said:


> I am a DA player, and enjoyed the read, but a few things don't add up to me. GW fluff tells us that the Lion is in stasis in the Rock under the care of the Watchers. The Watchers are extremly anti-chaos. the 1st DA novel points this out clearly. Now if they are so anti-chaos why would they care for a comatose Primarch wounded in a cataclysmic battle against his brother.


Quite true, though do consider the date for which I posted this.

On Heresy, this was posted in 2008 almost verbatim from its previous incarnation on another forum. The origin of that version in 2006, several weeks prior to Descent came out. And of course, there is the original version, which I worked on around 2003-2004.

Its old, and worked at the time; but new stuff has since changed that.


Also spanner94ezekiel, there is nothing wrong with necro-posting when a member posts something relavent to the thread like steelrudi has.


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