Lucien Wilder
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This article is about the Imperial Guard colonel; for the Blood Angels Dreadnought, see Lucien. |
Lucien Wilder was an Imperial Guard colonel who served with the Belladon 81st Regiment and later the 81st/1st Recon — a regiment formed from the remnants of his previous regiment and the Tanith 1st.[Needs Citation]
History
Lucien Wilder had been the colonel of the Belladon 81st Regiment since Balhaut, and earned a reputation as a genial man and a "soldier's soldier". His regiment had been founded two years prior to the Crusade and had fought throughout, including at Balhaut and the campaign in the Cabal Salient. On Khan III, Wilder led the regiment to victory against Magister Shebol Red-Hand, killing several of his lieutenants and forcing the Magister himself to flee; Shebol was destroyed shortly thereafter at Partopol. But the victory was at great cost, for the 81st had been nearly wiped out. Fortunately, its command structure remained intact. Similarly, the Tanith 1st, also made up of light infantry and recon troops, had been largely deprived of its leadership with Corbec's death on Herodor and the presumed loss of Ibram Gaunt, Elim Rawne and Oan Mkoll on Gereon. As a result, the two regiments were merged, forming the 81st/1st Recon, with Wilder as its colonel. Despite his being an outsider, Wilder's genial nature eventually earned him the respect of the Tanith and Verghastite Ghosts, and the regiment integrated with relatively few issues.[Needs Citation]
This integration was challenged with the revelation of Gaunt's survival, Rawne's return during the battle for Ancreon Sextus, and his clandestine communications with Gaunt, now a regular commissar assigned to one of the marshals in the field. Nonetheless, Wilder deferred to Rawne's experience when he discovered (with Gaunt's aid) that the "step cities" on Ancreon, particularly Sparshad Mons where the 81st/1st was assigned, were in fact warp gates used by the Blood Pact. When the army's high command ordered a general withdrawal to bombard the step cities from orbit, Wilder elected to remain with a company of his men in a rearguard action, sacrificing himself to give the remainder of the regiment time to escape. After Wilder's death, his second-in-command Major Baskevyl became the senior officer of the Belladon contingent when the regiment was redesignated the Tanith 1st, again under Gaunt's command.[Needs Citation]
In Traitor General, Tona Criid mentions a dream about Colonel Wilder to Gaunt, describing him as a good-looking man with dark hair. At first, it was dismissed as just another untrustworthy vision created by Gereon's Chaos taint. Upon learning of Wilder and his assuming command of the Ghosts on Ancreon Sextus in His Last Command, Gaunt's comment was, "Feth me. How truth seeps into dreams."[Needs Citation]
