Editing Alpha Legion (section)

==Recent History==
[[Image:Alpha_Legionnaire.jpg|thumb|240px|right|The denizens of this wiki failed to detect our infiltration forces. <s>[[Just as Planned]]</s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|''HERESY''!!! There are no Chaos forces infiltrating this site. Especially from the nonexistent Alpha Legion. Please stop reading this at once. There are more important, less heretical, things to be done. You should be saying your prayers to the Emperor, or eating your veggies}}]]
There are extremely persistent and consistent rumors that the most blessed Blood Ravens chapter of the holy Adeptus Astartes led by Chapter Master Gabriel Angelos and assisted by the Librarian Isador Akios, the PDF and Imperial Guard led by [[Mordecai Toth|Inquisitor Mordecai Toth]], and the [[Eldar]] of [[Craftworld]] [[Biel-tan]] led by [[Farseer]] [[Macha]], fought the mythical Alpha Legion led by Chaos Lord Bale and Chaos Sorcerer [[Sindri Myr]] and an Orkish Waaagh! led by the Warboss [[Orkamungus]] on the planet Tartarus (what a lovely name for a planet). Attempting to accuse the Blood Ravens of Heresy for spreading lies about fictional legions has universally ended in failure. The same applies to the Legion's alleged involvement in the events surrounding the [[Exterminatus]] of Typhon and [[Azariah Kyras]]' (almost) ascension to Daemonhood, suggested as the Chaos enemies allied with Kyras in Retribution's campaign list their team name as "Alpha Legion" and wear their colors, but were never explicitly named as such. We're not even going to mention the [[Metal Boxes]] incident in the [[Kaurava System]]...
Also any relation between the Alpha legion and [[Tzeentch]] dogma is purely coincidental...or is it. But everyone agrees they are space terrorists, and probably al-Qaeda with a grimdark-startrek-feel.

Here are some of the things that we know about them:
*Do not talk about the Alpha Legion
*Do NOT talk about the Alpha Legion.
*The Alpha Legion never existed.
*The Alpha Legion is the only real Warhammer 40,000 force, the rest are operatives dressed up.
*Alpharius was not killed. [[Roboute Guilliman|Rawbutt Jellyman]] was the one who died, and Alpharius disguised himself as him. Which means that he now leads the Imperium.
*'''+++Records Expunged+++'''

In all seriousness, we really, honestly DON'T have any clue what the fuck is up with the Alpha Legion because Games Workshop gives them so little fluff compared to the rest of the Traitor Legions (possibly on purpose given that part of their schtick is how mysterious they are), and even those few things we know might be misinformation.

With the release of Forge World's 3rd Horus Heresy book, Extermination, as well as several Black Library short stories and novellas, there are a few confirmed events that the Alpha Legion took part in, for a given definition of "confirmed". They consistently show that when the Alpha Legion is involved, even if they're ostensibly "allies", whether you're a loyalist, traitor, a secret society of aliens ostensibly trying to destroy Chaos ([[Derp|by arranging the destruction of the only being and species Chaos fears and can be destroyed by]]), or Alpharius himself, they're going to find a way to screw with you.

Finally, if we take [[Dawn of War]] to be canon (and Games Workshop certainly does) then we can infer that the Alpha Legion is probably just as splintered and broken up as the eight outright-traitor legions, with some of the sub-groups running off to [[Sindri|embrace Chaos outright]]. Honestly this is not all that surprising if you take into consideration [[Your dudes|GeeDub's stance on character motivation and adaptability]].

Hell, even when they have recently became their own class in the [[Black Crusade (RPG)|Black Crusade]] supplement ''Tome of Fate'', the information provided is still somewhat vague and just stuff we already know. What it ''did'' reveal though, was that groups of Alpha Legionnaires are seldom seen together. Many are independent operatives working on extended reconnaissance missions sent by some higher up, insurgents waging a one-man guerrilla war, or trying to achieve a personal objective known only to them. Some are even seen amongst "the Severed", a group of Chaos Marines forcibly exiled from their Legions.

Even when by themselves, many often gather a loyal cult of followers who try to help them in their goal. Alpha Legionnaires are more often than not the orchestrator behind Chaos cults and rebellions who fester within Imperial hives. They may not even pose as Marines, as ''Tome of Fate'' mentions that they have an unusual and legendary ability to disguise themselves as xenos, mutants, or even loyalists (maybe they are already loyalists, depending on who you ask). If one thinks about it, a terrifying possibility arises: they have somehow acquired the transformative technologies of the Callidus assassins. They frequently travel in and out of the Eye of Terror, setting up decoys, assassinations, and propaganda within Imperial space.

To put it simply there are about as many different categories of Alpha Legion motives as you can think of. Here are just a few (however, most would probably unify upon the return of a Primarch).
* Those who are actually still loyal and aid the Imperium as best it can in sneaky, inscrutable ways.
* Those who are nominally loyal and uncorrupted but still carrying out their Primarch's/Cabal's plan to make the Imperium lose.
* Those who have embraced Chaos to bring about the other version of the above plan.
* Those who have embraced Chaos in a misguided effort to bring about the original version of the above plan.
* Those who have embraced Chaos and no longer care about Alpharius/The Cabal's plan, either just doing their own thing and/or fighting for the cause of Chaos. Sindri Myr comes to mind.
* Those who are loyal only to the distant memory and legacy of their Primarch (either one) and Legion and act in whatever way they think best preserves that legacy.
* Those who are loyal to the Emperor but deeply oppose the current state of the Imperium.
* Those who are loyal to the Emperor and think that by destroying the weakest parts of the Imperium they strengthen the Imperium as a whole. Occam the Untrue specifically believes this in Sons of the Hydra.
* Those who care only about the survival of their warband and brothers, even if they venerate Chaos/The Emperor/The Primarchs/etc. Kassar from Shroud of Night falls in this category.
* Those who do their own thing, just in general.
* Those loyal to their own conception of the Alpha Legion. Whatever the hell that entails. Which is most of them.
* Those who are motivated by their hatred for something in specific, usually Guilliman. Quetzal Carthach from The Long Games at Carcharias and Sons of the Hydra just really fucking hates Ultramarines, allegedly because he was at Eskrador when Guilliman killed “Alpharius”.
* The infinite IQ members who decided to just bunker down and let this whole thing blow over, only caring to make sure their souls don't get raped for eternity. Nobody confirmed here, but someone probably figured this out.
* About a million other things.
* Fuck knows.
* [[Iron Snakes|Some]] [[Traitor Legion Loyalists]] chapters who straight up abandoned the Legion. Funnily enough, some Alpha Legionnaires posed as Iron Snakes in the book Harrowmaster specifically because they had similar heraldry.

As you can see, there is simply nothing concrete on the Alpha Legion as there is no longer any Alpha Legion. It is a schizophrenic hydra that has gone mad with each head only in control of itself (if even that, they do love using sleeper agents and brainwashing).

Somewhat supporting the above, the best look we get at the modern culture of the Alpha Legion is in the book Harrowmaster. In it we see a conclave of disparate Alpha Legion warbands meeting to discuss the appearance of the Primaris Marines. The warbands present are completely different in beliefs, dogma, and culture, though they all share a similar enough mindset common to their Legion. One warband, the Penitent Sons, are openly loyalist and put spikes on the inside of their helmets to punish themselves for their traitorous history. Another warband, the First Strike, are fully Khornate, skulls and all. Despite their Khornate leanings and wanting to rip and tear, they like being pointed at the best strategic point to rip and tear for the overall war effort. Strategic Khornates? Never thought I’d see the day. And yet somehow these two get along better with each other than they do with “the Faceless”. The Faceless are another warband who attended the conclave, and I shit you not they are literally the “I am Alpharius” meme. When the Faceless, who all wear identical power armor, take off their helmets in unison they reveal they all have the same face. Allegedly the face of their Primarch, whom they then immediately claim to be. In a room full of other Alpha Legionnaires. Needless to say everyone else was really sick of their shit. The Faceless are the stereotypical Alpha Legion who don’t engage in frontline battles and only do devious plots that take decades. Only in the Alpha Legion can you have a repentant loyalist, a Khornate berserker and a literal annoying meme sit in a meeting together and try to decide what to do together. And the scary part is they actually succeed. The combined forces present at the conclave all unite to achieve a singular goal. There is no other group in the Galaxy that can do that. Each head of the hydra may be completely independent chasing their own goals, but they’re still attached to the same body. And when all of those heads begin working in unison they are practically unstoppable.

''The End and the Death Vol. I'' muddles things further, as it is revealed that every Alpha Legionnaire had been hypno-programmed with six specific trigger words at the outset of the Heresy that would irrevocably influence their behavior with regards to the Imperium and Chaos. Once a trigger word was spoken, it didn't matter what loyalty the Alpha Legionnaire had held beforehand, as their behavior would now be dictated by the directives of said trigger word. The hypno-conditioning behind these triggers was so powerful and intricate that undoing it was nearly impossible. Case in point from the book: First Captain Ingo Pech (Grammaticus' old buddy) was prepared to side with the Imperial defenders on Terra and use the trigger word "Xenophon" to activate more XX Legion assets for the loyalist cause until Actae hijacked him by using her psychic powers to trigger "Orphaeus" instead, forcing him to act on the "Control Chaos to Fight Chaos" imperative.

This opens a WHOLE new can of worms, especially with regards to present-day Alpha Legionnaires.