Welcome to Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum! Log in and join the community.

Destruction of Caliban

From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
Jump to: navigation, search
Destruction of Caliban
Conflict Great Scouring
Date ~015.M31
Location Caliban
Outcome Fallen scattered, Caliban destroyed
Combatants
Dark Angels Fallen
Commanders
Lion El'Jonson (WIA) Luther(POW)
Astelan
Zahariel
Strength
Bulk of Dark Angels Legion ~30,000 Fallen Angels[3]
Casualties
Heavy, Lion El'Jonson grievously wounded Heavy

The Destruction of Caliban was a major event in Dark Angels history, occurring just after the Horus Heresy.[1]

Overview

Dark Angels Primarch Lion El'Jonson, wracked with grief over the fate of the Emperor following the Battle of Terra, returned to Caliban to reinforce his Dark Angels and recover in general. When the ships arrived in orbit, they were hit by a savage salvo of fire from the surface. The fleet pulled back and Jonson tried to find out what was happening. He learnt from a merchant ship that his trusted friend Luther had poisoned the minds of the Space Marine garrison on the world and taken control. It could only be seen by Jonson as the taint of Chaos. Jonson's fury was let loose and the planet suffered. He ordered a systematic bombardment of the planet, destroying everything they could to rid the world of Chaos for all time.[1]

The planet burned and the defences were whittled down to nothing. Jonson led his forces personally against the defenders who had taken refuge in the Order's Fortress Monastery. Jonson found Luther and saw him to be completely corrupted, nothing of his old friend had survived. Luther had been elevated to a strength equal to Jonson by the Chaos Gods and the two met in a duel the likes of which would never be seen again. They leveled the monastery around them, but the planet was still suffering. The bombardment began to crack the surface of the planet, the Dark Angels in orbit unable to see the damage they were doing.[1]

The battle between Luther and Jonson was titanic, but ended with a psychic attack that mortally wounded Jonson. Luther then realised what he had done, as if a veil had been lifted from in front of his eyes. He fell to the floor, unwilling to fight any more, but it was too late for Jonson. The gods of Chaos realised they had lost again, and sent a massive warp storm to wrack the surface of the planet. It then broke apart under the strain, destroyed all but for the monastery of The Order which had been protected by vast force-fields. When the Dark Angels descended to the, now, asteroid, they searched the ruins and found Luther mumbling that Jonson had been taken by the Watchers in the Dark and would return one day and forgive him for his sins. The Dark Angels could not find any trace of their Primarch. The rest of the Dark Angels who had been converted by Luther were sucked into the warp and scattered around the galaxy, now named The Fallen. Luther himself remained asleep in The Rock for the next ten thousand years, a secret known only to the Watchers in the Dark.[1]

Unknown to either side at the time, the Warp storm that scattered the Fallen was caused by the clash of Astelan, Typhus, Azrael, and Cypher ten thousand years in the future. The traitors wished to bring the Fallen to the present with the Tuchulcha, but were foiled when Azrael confronted them at the Battle of the Caliban System and used the Tuchulcha to scatter all present. However Azrael was not specific enough with the order, and Tuchulcha temporally scattered the Fallen ten thousand years earlier as well.[2]

Sources