015.M31 · Epilogue — The Great Scouring · date disputed
Destruction of Caliban
Place: Caliban · Segmentum Obscurus
Pyrrhic loyalist victory Caliban is shattered to dust; Luther is broken, but the Fallen are born.
Grief-stricken at the fate of the Emperor, mortally wounded and interred on the Golden Throne, Lion El’Jonson returned to Caliban — and his ships were met by a salvo of planetary guns: his old friend Luther had suborned the garrison and seized the world. In fury the Lion rained a bombardment on the planet and met Luther in single combat; he wounded his friend but could not kill him, and Luther’s sorcerous blow felled the primarch. The will of the Dark Gods and an unprecedented warp storm tore Caliban apart into asteroids — only the monastery-fortress of Aldurukh survived, becoming “the Rock”.
Sides
- Type
- Battle
- Scale
- 3 of 5
- Casualties
- Thousands of Dark Angels and millions of Caliban’s inhabitants killed; the Lion gravely maimed; >30,000 of the Fallen scattered.
Significance
Closes the I Legion’s arc: the birth of the Fallen and the root of the whole mythology of the Dark Angels in the M41.
Disputed in the canon
- The Lexicanum infobox places it in the Great Scouring, c. 015.M31; the event is often placed immediately after the Heresy or during the Scouring — the exact year is disputed. The early (M2/40k) version: Luther’s sorcerous blow and an unprecedented warp storm split the planet; the detailed Black Library canon is the Lion’s orbital bombardment and the duel.
Sources
- Lexicanum: Destruction of Caliban
- Fallen Angels (M. Lee)
- Angels of Caliban (G. Thorpe)
- WH40k Fandom: Luther
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