History of the Dark Angels
Lion El'Jonson The incubator pod containing the infant Primarch Jonson landed on the Death World of Caliban, a planet of immense forests inhabited by beasts mutated by the touch of Chaos. He managed to survive in the forests alone, living as a wild man far from civilization.
Caliban was home to several knightly orders created to defend the people from the great beasts. One such organization was known simply as "the Order", made up of commoners and nobles alike (whereas the other knightly orders were assembled purely from the nobility). A group from the Order found the feral Primarch in the forests. While the knights seemed inclined to kill him, one man, a knight named Luther, stayed their hands and decided to take the Primarch in. He named him Lion El'Jonson, which means "the Lion, Son of the Forest".
Jonson was taken to the Order's fortress monastery and taught human ways, learning to speak relatively quickly and becoming a fierce warrior in the Order's ranks - though of his time living alone in Caliban's forests, he said nothing. With Luther at his side, Jonson called for a campaign to exterminate the great beasts of Caliban, a time-consuming process that took nearly a decade. The word of their successes brought an influx of new recruits into the Order as the campaign progressed. Any knightly order that did not follow Jonson's lead was destroyed down to the last man. After the last of the beasts fell, Jonson was named Supreme Grand Master of the Order and ruler of all Caliban, and the world entered a golden age of peace and prosperity.
Shortly after the success of the campaign, the Emperor and his scouts arrived on Caliban. Jonson automatically saw the connection between him and the Master of Mankind, and swore his fealty. The Emperor granted Jonson command of the First Space Marine Legion, known as the Dark Angels.
Twenty legions of Space Marines were created by the Emperor during the Great Crusade to join and lead the Emperor's quest to unite all of humanity under the aegis of the Imperium of Man. The Dark Angels Legion was the very first of those original "First Founding" legions to be created at the beginning of the Great Crusade, and so were originally under the command of the Emperor himself.
Once the Emperor discovered Lion El'Jonson on Caliban, the Primarch took command of the legion created from his genetic stock, the Dark Angels Legion, and was granted command of the Fourth Expeditionary Fleet in orbit around the planet Sarosh, formerly commanded by a White Scar. The Saroshi - ruled by a bureaucracy - had recently expressed their interest in becoming part of the Imperium, and the Imperials were eager to allow them in, believing that these people seemed to have the same secular beliefs as they did. But the Saroshi (without mentioning it to the Imperial expedition) secretly worshipped entities in the warp they called the Melachim, and saw the anti-religious stance of the Imperium as evil. The lord high exacter, the leader of the Saroshi bureaucracy, denounced Jonson and the Emperor to his face, and Jonson responded by ramming his sword through him. The Saroshi had also brought a nuclear device aboard their shuttle, intending to assassinate the fleet's entire command structure, including Jonson; however, Luther and another Dark Angel named Zahariel managed to eject the shuttle into space, causing only minor damage to the flagship. After this incident, Luther and several others were sent back to Caliban to oversee the recruitment of new Space Marines into the Legion.
Another incident occurred during the pacification of Dulan that began the millennia-long rivalry with the Space Wolves .
The planetary governor, Durath, had denounced Space Wolf Primarch Leman Russ as "the Emperor's lap-dog" and swore to feed his heart to his pet Grox. Russ, enraged, swore to kill Durath himself and demanded the satisfaction of leading the assault. Jonson, however, had meticulously planned the attack and was not about to let his brother's hot-headedness foil his plans. Jonson led the assault, leaving Russ to watch helplessly as the Lion killed Durath. After the battle, Russ stormed into the fortress and struck Jonson across the room. A brawl ensued that lasted a full day and night, the two combatants being said to be equally matched: while Russ was slightly stronger, the Lion was slightly quicker. Russ gaining the upper hand eventually ceased and started laughing, realizing how foolish their fight was. Jonson, however, still angry at what he considered the treachery of Russ's first punch, knocked the laughing Space Wolf out cold with one final blow. By the time Russ regained consciousness, the Dark Angels had departed for new fields of battle in the Crusade. It has since been customary for selected champions from both chapters to engage in a non-lethal duel whenever they meet so that honour may be satisfied. Ragnar Blackmane was the winner of the most recent challenge.
The Dark Angels had been posted to the Eastern Fringe when word reached them of Horus's treachery. It is known that Horus ordered the Night Lords legion to intercept them, but without success. As the Dark Angels were in transit to Terra alongside the Space Wolves legion, so too were the Ultramarines legion, who had also thwarted Horus's efforts to keep them from Terra. They arrived too late; Horus had been defeated and the Emperor grievously wounded. Grief-stricken, Jonson returned to Caliban. Upon their arrival in orbit, they were fired upon from the surface. Pulling back the fleet, Jonson tried to find out what had happened, and discovered that Luther - who had become embittered by what he perceived as Jonson taking all the glory - had poisoned the minds of the Space Marine garrison and the new recruits. Believing Luther to be tainted by Chaos, an infuriated Jonson ordered the planet be bombarded from orbit, destroying the planet's defenses.
Jonson led his forces to the surface and assaulted the Order's fortress-monastery, where he confronted Luther in single combat. Luther, given strength by the power of the Chaos Gods, was evenly matched with the enraged Primarch. The battle between the two leveled the monastery as the planet was coming apart around them, the bombardment taking a heavy toll on the surface. Jonson managed to wound Luther, but could not bring himself to kill the man who had been his brother and mentor. Luther lashed out with a powerful psychic attack that mortally wounded the Primarch. As he saw what he had done, Luther felt a veil lift from his eyes, and the Chaos Gods - seeing that once again their chosen champion had failed - lashed out with the powers of the warp. The Fallen Dark Angels were scattered throughout space and time, and Caliban tore itself apart. The only portion of the planet remaining intact was the rock on which stood the monastery in which Luther and the Lion had duelled. The Dark Angels entered the shattered monastery and captured the broken Luther; of Jonson himself, however, there was no sign.
In the novel Angels of Darkness by Gav Thorpe, a Fallen Angel named Astelan tells a different version of these events. According to Astelan, Lion el'Jonson was late in arriving to the defence of Terra not due to being too far away, but because he was waiting to see whether Horus or the Emperor won. Astelan, believing that those who were with Jonson would not forgive them for turning on their brothers ordered the defensive batteries to fire. This is perhaps forshadowed at the end of the novel Descent of Angels, from the Horus Heresy series. The difference between the Dark Angels' view of the fall of Caliban and that of the Fallen Angel Astelan is considered to be due to Astelan's warped, literally, perception of the events, but the novel suggests that some aspects might be true after all.
After the Horus Heresy With their Primarch missing and their brothers having betrayed them, the Dark Angels swore to redeem themselves in the eyes of the Emperor and force the Fallen to repent. To this day, the Dark Angels and their Successor Chapters call themselves the Unforgiven, and wage a war of repentance to wipe this secret stain from the honour of the Chapter.
Angels of Redemption
A Second Founding chapter of the Dark Angels. The Chapter's power armour is halved bone-white and dark green, and the Chapter's symbol is a winged skull. They participated in the Third War for Armageddon.
Reference: Wikipeda ( Dark Angels)
