Davian Thule

Davain Cool doing his thing in DoW2

Captain Davian Thule (Also known as Davian Cool) was a captain of the Blood Ravens 4th company. He appeared in Dawn of War Dark Crusade and throughout the entire Dawn of War II franchise, where he sorta lost his accented voice, sounding a bit gruff, and got interred into a Dreadnought afterwards (which is probably the best thing that could happen to him).

Dawn of War

Thule first appeared in DoW:DC as the Captain leading 3 companies of Blood Ravens to pacify the planet of Kronus and secure knowledge that pertains to their chapter's history. He was victorious in the end but had his eye poked out when he fought with the Necron Lord there, it is theorized that the cron lord also got his throat, explaining why he lost his sexy accent in DoWII. In his victory, he found certain relics and information about the Chapter's past and it changed how he looked at his chapter forever, which would indicate that the whole prospect of the Blood Ravens stemming from a Thousand Sons cult is true or he found Kyras' stash of /d/-themed porn there.

Ork rush? Fuck that.

Dawn of War II

Captain Thule then returned in DoWII, leading the forces on Calderis. He's so badass that all he does is mounts on top of a hill and starts shooting everything with his heavy bolter without flinching, just to show everyone that he's awesome that way. Much later during the Tyranid incursion, he was mortally wounded and poisoned by a Tyranid warrior and was put on stasis to prevent the poison from utterly killing him.

So let's make this perfectly clear; Davian Thule can apparently single-handedly take on the Necron Lord of Kronus and win, but when he's put up against a miserable Tyranid Warrior, he goes down like a sack of bricks. Let's also make it perfectly clear that Davian Cool was swinging a power sword when he fought the Necron Lord on Kronus, he was shooting a heavy bolter at the time when that Warrior jumped him so it's perfectly fair that he went down in melee combat against a dedicated melee unit when all he can do against the heavy armored OMNOM machine was giving it a thud. No, it doesn't. And that's because 'dedicated melee units' don't exist in the fluff. As a term anyway. As a Space Marine Captain and one that took down a Necron Lord, he should have been able to at least kill the Tyranid Warrior before falling to wounds. I don't care if all he had was a fucking Heavy Bolter. Mephiston is apparently capable of throttling a Daemon Prince barehanded. But Mephy's fluff was written by Matt Ward, doesn't that sort of disqualify him? Also, Tyranid Warriors are several times more badass in fluff than they are in the game. (In the game, the only problem with Warriors is their price. However, they're pretty much just giant, three-wound Space Marines who rock in CC. Given how the fluff shows Space Marines, a Warrior should be equally awesome. Also, the Warrior did die - all it did was manage to poison poor Captain Cool.)

There's a mission on Typhon that requires you to obtain a Tyranid bio-toxin sample as so Apothecary Gordian can create an antidote for Thule and for a certain poison to kill the local splinter fleet's synapse web/connection to the Hive Mind. After you get the bio-toxin sample, he deep strikes as a Dreadnought in the same mission to help you battle the Tyranid Hive Tyrant that appears there. After that' he's pretty much available for use in any mission you desire, and boy, will he mess up anyone's day. Give him the ability to self-repair, venerable status and optimize him to be either choppy or shooty (shooty is a bit better), and watch him plow through everything like an IG Baneblade against a lame Cultist rush. He's an invaluable asset for some of the hard-ass bosses like Warboss Bonesmasha and the Avatar of Khaine and is tied with Cyrus for being the most useful member of your team.

With an assault cannon and hellfire rounds and a mighty strike, he can very quickly obliterate large masses of enemies, sweeping away everything at a distance and sending anything that gets close to him flying and get stunned, and if he does take damage; just activate his absurdly fast self repair and watch him start up the rampage all over again, hell he can even charge and send everything in his path flying like bowling pins. And the upside to all of this? All of these abilities recharge very quickly.

If you go all in with Dread Claws, he's pretty much a walking rape machine in CQC. Aim his furious charge skill on a group of enemies and use mighty strike when he stops and viola! 80% of the units in that horde are dead or horribly messed up. He's also one of the damned best tankers this way if you didn't want a choppy Force Commander. The only downside to this is that he's slow, so bosses with the AoE/charge attacks can mess him up and you need one of your guys to carry the "Rites of Repair" item if you haven't gotten his self-repair ability yet, and with that you will still need that item to patch him back up right away in a fight if he gets incapacitated.

Captain Thule not having the best day of his career.

Chaos Rising

Thule returns later in Chaos Rising, still as a Dreadnought. He can't be corrupted like the other squad members but will permanently leave your squad if your hair-etical force commander starts being too heretical. He's basically the ace-in-the-hole for all your missions like in the last game, he can tank and/or screw up the hard bosses in levels like Araghast the Pillager, the second Eldar Avatar of Khaine, if you're pure until the end, Martellus' fucking Chaos Predator (FUUU!!!!), and motherfucking Ulkair (MOTHERFUUUUU!!!!). He can also make enemy armor shit brix from a distance now as multi-meltas are now available as an arm weapon.

If you do trade him for a couple of tainted wargear and powers, you just screwed everything up because he's way better than most of the Chaos powers because hot damn, as good as his hellfire assault cannon sweep was; it is no match for the sheer rapage that the Multi-melta sweep unleashes (the multi-melta sweep can eat up over a hundred thousand hit points in one go if you use it right) and the Multi-melta can still do a shit ton of damage in it's normal firing mode. And using it in combination with the mighty strike is just pure rape. You'll stun your targets allowing you to quickly work out the optimum range and begin the multi-melta sweep's pure unrestrained buttfuck of anyone unlucky enough to be on the wrong end of your weapon, combine this with venerable dreadnought hood and your team will pretty much always be buffed.

If only he were on the tabletop... (Though a good alternative would be Bjorn the Fell Handed) No Dreadnought could ever replace Davian Thule. NO-ONE!

Even in death, I'm still awesome.

Retribution

Thule also returns in Retribution and probably for the last time in the series, he is also no longer playable. He's the target for Eliphas' first mission for revenge and is sadly killed. Many who depended on his sheer power and fluff over the course of three games will miss him and shed Manly Tears upon his death, a number of tears only rivaled by those shed when you have to brutally slaughter Sergeant Merrick in the first Tyranid mission which is bullshit because Merrick is too badass to die.. We like to pretend that the Venerable dreadnought honor guard unit you can use in place of Martellus in the Space Marine Campaign is him. No we don't just pretend it's him, we know it's him...right? *sobs* Strangely enough, the Chaos Dreadnaught that you can take in Neroth's place outshines him (even though his whiny bitching about wanting to die is infinitely more annoying.) Which leads us to suspect it's not him... *sob*

And for a final note, Gabriel, in the final mission of the Space Marine campaign says "Cyrene's secrets live solely with me, and so they shall die with me." However, in the Dawn of War 2 campaign, Gabriel says to the Commander "You may tell Captain Thule that the secrets of Cyrene die with me" This may be a 'sob' clue that Davian is actually dead... 'sob' he actually says "...the secrets of KRONUS die...", praise the Emprah!

Thule is also notable for having an experimental Dreadnaught Assault-Cannon Claw when you fight him in the Chaos Campaign. It fires hellfire cannon rounds out of the under-slung flamethrower of the power claw. It is one of the most innovative weapons crafted by the Adeptus Mechanicus and was, of course, gifted to the Chapter by the Mechanicus for helping to save Forgeworld Graia, which took place shortly after the events of the original Dawn of War II.

Let's Look at This Logically

First, let us postulate that the Imperial Endings are the canon endings, as DoWIII would be rather hard to make if all the important heroes from DoW and DoWII kicked the bucket. This means that Eliphas was killed on Typhon by Diomedes. During Space Marine Mission 1, Diomedes mentions that the Blood Ravens had finally discovered Eliphas after a decade, which implies that there had not been previous skirmishes between Eliphas and the Blood Ravens on Typhon, which in turn implies that Thule and co. were not massacred. Therefore, Thule and the heroes of Aurelia are still alive and well. Frankly, it surprises me that 1d4Chan is willing to give a Word Bearer reject lackey of the Chaos Lord it has dubbed as "Failbaddon" the benefit of the doubt.Blood Marines ending for Dark Crusade is canon, and Imperial for Soulstorm. Everything is alright.

However, using the argument DOW III will be hard to make without Force Commander Hair-gel, Cyrus, Avitus and the rest is idiotic. As we don't yet know whether the old cast will be in III or if it would focus on a new chapter, or perhaps even on another race entirely. Secondly, the majority of the Aurelian Crusaders are already dead or indisposed. Avitus is dead, Thaddeus and Hair-Gel and the rest are likely executed or sentence to the Crusade of Absolution. Avitus was killed by Tarkus, and if the Space Marine ending isn't canon, Diomedes, Martellus, Cyrus, Tarkus, Gabe, and all the prominent characters of the Blood Ravens are outright killed off.

Thule was set up as 'the only sane man' during Chaos Rising, as it has become almost completely canon that Hair-Gel was turning to heresy, so it makes dramatic sense to kill Thule off to complete the tragedy. (Not so, as Vanilla Ice gets referenced in a piece of wargear known as the Hammer of the Nameless which specifically venerates his deeds during DOWII and Chaos Rising. This wouldn't happen if he had turned to heresy.) As it stands, this 'logical' theory demands that we take the Imperial Endings as canon, which depends on the idea that DoW III will indeed focus on the Blood Ravens. If so, why did Relic hold that poll asking "which Space Marine chapter would you like to see in the next game"?. (Because a lot of people are bitching about being tired of seeing the Blood Ravens and only the Blood Ravens. So far, the campaign has only directly shown one chapter: the Blood Ravens. The other races have represented many other factions, and people are pissed about this, so Relic is looking to please the fanbase.) Additionally, Eliphas' first mission is the only one wherein he does not kill his counterpart from another race, implying a greater degree of canon. After, Relic could have easily made him kill Diomedes. Placing Davian as the final boss of the first level might be hinting at a deeper meaning. After all, the Eliphas vs. Thule rematch was something a great deal of neckbeards wanted to see.

Hence, it is so that /tg/ must prepare itself for the possibility that Davian Thule might be dead. No one has to like it, of course. But hiding behind a fragile wall of weak reasoning will not make things better. *the original writer of this section goes off to quietly sob* HERESY! Davian Thule is not dead... I have personally seen him later on in the game (probably due to a glitch) as a venerable dreadnought of the bad moon clan.

PROBLEM, LOYALISTS?

Additionally, as a result of lab tests conducted by /tg/ -- we have found that in all three games where the two are present, Eliphas will beat Davian Thule roughly 80% of the time. Especially in Retribution, where Eliphas cannot drop below 90 points of health in the first mission and is thus functionally immortal while fighting Thule. Not to mention his having better damage than him.

Additionally, in the final mission, Gabriel says in his monologue: "...Now Cyrene's secrets lie solely with me....and so shall they die with me..", regardless of what faction you bring to the fight. Thule knew about the secrets of Cyrene as well, which Gabe mentioned in the original DoWII just before the suicide mission to poison the hive mind. Thus, Davian Thule is most likely dead in Retribution. That, or someone in Relic forgot their own canon and fucked up.

OR it could just be a thing the two of them had. "I saw some fucked up shit on Kronus." "Dude... Cyrene man..." "Let's never tell anyone about it." "Totally."

Memorable Quotes

• "Emperor protect... let none find us wanting..." *blows up*
• "Oh, Davian, He cannot hear you." - Eliphas, before *sob* killing him *sob*
• "I have grown practiced at killing you, Eliphas." - Clearly not practiced enough, given how that fight ended. *sob*
• "Commander... you must step back from madness... do not make yourself into my enemy..." - What Thule says after every third mission if you're turning evil. And you'd better do as he says.
• "I am Davian Thule. And I shall be your death, alien." - Before fucking over a Hive Tyrant.
• "We are NOT Brothers, Heretic!" - A fine thing to say to every Chaos Marine who tries acting like Eliphas.