Leman Russ

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Not to be confused with the tank named after him.

Leman Russ (A.K.A The Great Wolf and Horo) is the primarch of the Space Wolves legion. He is a superhuman warrior of ungodly stubborn quality. He was such a pain in the ass that he was able to take a blow to the head from the Emperor's power fist. Granted he was knocked unconscious, but he still survived. General all-around badass deserving of so much respect, might have been slightly retarded given his belief that his Rune priests power came from Fenris, even though they admitted they knew this view was horseshit. The Imperial Guard named their mainstay battle tank after him, so they didn't have to shit their pants every time they saw the Space Wolves. (But they still do)

My hand is fire, my hair is rage, my pauldrons are justice and my cock is wolf. Prepare to die!

Where the hell did he come from?

When the Primarchs were lost taken away from the almighty Emperor, Leman Russ's capsule landed on Fenris, a planet of insanity. Locals there enjoy a hard brutal life of fishing, drinking, sailing, fucking, pillaging and conquering other tribes of people for the modest little islands they all have to live on.

So it was that little baby Russ left his capsule in the polar mountain region of Asaheim. There, some monstrous female wolf found him and said to herself "I WANT!". So Russ was raised by a Thunderwolf in Spess.

Now a few years later, Russ and his wolf family were having a grand old time running around the mountains and killing the sheep and such of the humans there. Finally the king Thengir heard about the Wolf-man, and decreed he be captured and brought to his hall. So after killing Russ' mom during one of their raids, Russ was bound and gagged and dragged into the hall of the King Thengir. Of course fluff changes, so as of 7th edition we have this new bit of how he was brought to Thengir: After landing on the planet and being taken in by wolves, a hunting party stumbled across his cave, killed his wolf-mother, and Russ proceded to kill a dozen men to protect his two wolf-siblings, Freki and Geri, AFTER killing a dozen men ONE of the hunting party members realized that the two legged tan skinned person standing before them wasn't a wolf (so presumably everyone was either blind or stupid before Russ turned them around, or Russ had so much fucking manly hair all around his body), and convinced his brethren to lower their weapons, Russ stood down, and they somehow convinced him to go with them before King Thengir.

Thengir took a wondrous interest in Russ and ordered he be educated. In a short time, Russ was trash-talking every short bastard who dared look at him the wrong way, and had become insanely good with weaponry. When Thengir finally died, all declared that Leman of the Russ become the new high King.

NOW WHAT?!

Russ conquered and took. He bartered and traded. He united the people of Asaheim under his rule. Somehow, the Emprah heard of it and realized it all had to be the work of a Primarch. So then he attended a royal banquet in the Hall of the Mountain Ki- I mean Leman Russ. The Emprah, taking a leaf out of Odin's book, disguised himself as some old geezer, then waited until the right moment to reveal his true identity. When he did Russ refused to bow down and challenged him to several contests, he ate so much the Emprah was forced to back down. Russ drank so much the Emprah was forced to back down. By now, the Emprah was fairly surprised at finally being out-done by someone else, Russ gazed upon the Emperor and challenged him combat, and so did the Emprah raise his Power Glove into the air for all to see, and so did he then bring it down on Leman Russ's head, knocking him the fuck out in one solid hit.

Of course fluff changes and a 1-hit KO wasn't very fulfilling, so the new lore arrived: After the Emperor revealed himself Leman Russ skipped the eating and drinking contests and just challenged the Emperor to a fight. For hours they dueled, which ended when the Emperor punched Russ square in the face (debatable as to whether or not he was in his full armour and actually had his Power Fist at the time), and when Russ awoke, he laughed it off. Presumably he did a lot better this time by virtue of not being drunk. Afterwards he ended up in command of the one Space Marine legion that knows how to eat, drink, brawl and make war upon any asshole that mocks their Thunderwolf.

Rumour has it that the Emp was so pleased with Russ' prowess, that he thereforth tasked him and the Space Wolves to be his executioners and it seems Russ is the reason the 2nd and 11th Legions no longer exist. So he has experience fucking up a Primarch, which is pretty goddamn manly. (Not confirmed by any sources and is not more than passing conversation in one Black Library novel, other than that, yeah totally definitely didn't kill the other legions).

Sometime after that, the Emp was very displeased by Angron and his Legion's uncontrollable rages in and outside of battle, so he tasked Russ to punish the World Eaters. But that didn't play out as expected, and would literally go down as the only time in history that Lemon Rust got his ass handed back to him (other than that run in with the Lion which ended with Russ being suplexed onto a table and him laughing it off as if the fight was pointless), as Angron defeated him in single combat. Russ was narrowly rescued by his Legion, and that day was the one time the Space Wolves pissed in their pants. (The novel "Betrayer" contradicts almost all of this. It has Russ taking it upon himself to school the World Eaters without Emp's blessing as he was disgusted by their behavior, it has Angron defeat Russ in single combat because only he was fighting to kill while Russ was trying to teach, it then ends with the Space Wolves entirely outmaneuvering the Eaters and winning a tactical victory by surrounding Angron. The Eaters believe they won due to a higher kill count and the Wolves leave disappointed that their legion brothers were too retarded to see the lesson Russ was teaching. Even Lorgar tells Angron that he was a complete tool on that night and would have been killed)

Apart from that, Russ and his Space Wolves had a goddamn good time during the Great Crusade, although it hasn't been written about so this is all we can guess. When that fag-ass Horus started whining and crying, Leman Russ and his Legion were on their way to Prospero to bring Magnus the Red to Terra for questioning. Horus intercepted the message and re-worded it to order Russ to destroy Magnus and his Thousand Sons. Russ and the Space Wolves carried out a class-10 clusterfucking on Prospero, to the point where Leman Russ himself lifted Magnus the Red over his shoulders and broke the sorcerer's back over his knee. But even so, the red bastard managed to utter one single word of power and escaped through the fucking ground. Russ was so enraged that he ordered the 13th company of Space Wolves to pursue the fleeing Thousand Sons through their pansy-ass portals.

Despite his reputation, fighting Magnus took a serious toll on Russ. He probably knew that it was a "fair fight" only because Magnus was devastated and held back his power, with which he would have easily won, being at least the third most powerful psyker humanity, and possibly the galaxy, had ever known.

Rumour has it, that during the battle between those two demigods Magnus, by psychic means, laid his heart and mind bare to Russ, revealing that he knew not only every blow that was coming from his brother, but everything that he had come to know, accepting his failure and his fate, which was defeat. (Source?)

This shook the Wolf King deeply. But of course, he decided to carry on. An Inquisitor once called it an "emo phase" in front of a Rune Priest, and was fed balls-first to a Thunderwolf, especially when the news of the Drop Site Massacre reached the Wolves. In his own words, Russ felt he'd been "in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing". Just to make things worse, the Alpha Legion turned up to batter the Wolves, and the White Scars weren't going to help them after Prospero. Russ was forced to retreat and hide in deep space. The only real plus here was that Bjorn the Fell-Handed came to his attention, setting the young warrior on the path to ironclad badassness.

Oh and Empy totally gave him a spear with every single member of his original legion depicted fighting various gribbly xenos. Including Tyranids. Yup. Said spear was tossed into a certain Daemon Primarchs single eye, thereby preventing him from manifesting in reality AND resurrecting his legion. Russ totally hated this spear btw.

Post-Heresy

Although unable to return to aid the Imperium in the Battle for Terra, Russ and the Space Wolves threw themselves headfirst into the post-heresy war efforts. Aside from spanking the traitors into the Eye of Terror, he came up with the concept for the Adeptus Praeses. Though he'd told Guilliman where he could shove his Codex, Russ liked the idea of successor chapters for the Wolves. To him (or the little reformist movement within the Legion later, the fluff isn't totally clear), they were a way of maintaining the Wolves influence alongside that of Girlyman, Dorn and the rest. Unfortunately the Wolves' gene-seed proved too unstable to set up any viable successor chapters, and as a result while the Ultramarines, Imperial Fists and Dark Angels have shedloads of descendants, the Wolves are the sole embodiment of Russ' strength and drive. This hasn't helped their situation with Imperial institutions such as the Inquisition.

One-hundred years to the day after the Emperor's internment on the Golden Throne, during a feast in the halls of the Space Wolves fortress, Russ climbed upon a table to give a speech. He was stricken with a vision, and after standing there speechless for a few minutes, he fell to one knee, issued hushed orders to his retinue, and left. He left his sons with their first Wolf Lord; Bjorn the Fell Handed, and a message.

"In the end, I will be there. For the final battle. For the Wolftime."

And then the winds of change blew over the fluff once again In the audio play Parting of Ways we get a slightly different version of events There was still a yearly fest though it wasn´t just to celebrate the day the Emperor got the snot beaten out of him by Horus, but also to commemorate the space wolves that had died during the spring cleaning that followed the heresy, plus the completion of the Fang the giant fortress of the Space wolves. Also instead of a hundred years it was two hundred years since the siege of terra, so unless Dorn was a really slow learner and not very bright and it took him over a hundred years to assemble the golden throne, that is a clear lore change. Then again given how Perturabo thoroughly kicked Dorn´s ass in the iron cage, forcing papa smurf and the Ultrasmurfs to come and save Dorns sorry ass, it´s a possibility that Dorn just wasn´t very bright. It´s also a possibility that the Emperor got the Golden Throne from an old IKEA warehouse, which would explain why even a primarch would have had trouble in figuring out how to put it together, in less than a hundred years.

Also Russ wasn´t about to hold a speech, instead he had at first partaken in the festivities but as the party grew sullen, Russ retreated sensing as Bjorn put it a fell wind from beyond the mountains bleeding through the cracks of the fang. After clenching the table for a while, Russ clambered to his feet on the table screaming “No More!” The shout silence the Space wolves in their brawling and made the flags of the smoke filled halls tremble, so Russ apparently also had a gift for speech, plus he had a gift for getting instantly sober as Bjorn described his face going from being ruddy flushed with mjod to looking like an ice specter. He then held a kickass speech “We come here to celebrate the allfather, we come here to remember his sacrifice and his ascension from the world of the senses and his victory over my brother the traitor.” “We remember the dead, who even now gather in the oververse, their blade shard their aim keen.” “They are better than we are for they perished in war to end all wars and their souls have been purified! And what of us those left behind wallowing in the drinks the fallen gods have left us?” “We have grown fat, we have the beast within us, but is has never yet been mastered.” Then Russ grabbed his drinking horn and held it aloft and continued “So let us celebrate my father´s ascension, let us remember what he was able to accomplish, let us remember what he built and what he foresaw and then what he lost and how he failed.” “Do not morn the fact that he no longer walks among us, for the galaxy was too small to accommodate such soul, he was of an age of gods! And we are slumped in an age of mortals.” “The lights of the stars will fade, this place will grow old and the ice will crack it.” “We will forget no matter how much the skalds tell the old tales, what battles are left for us like the ones before?” “My fallen brothers are gone, Malcador is gone, the leeches cluster around the golden throne and whisper of deeds done before they were born as if it where they who achieved them.” At this point Russ looked unsteady on his feet and his eyes went glassy “A doubt of all of this, one thing remains true we were not on Terra, we were not there when the palace fell and that shame will pursue us for eternity.” Then Russ dropped his drinking horn on the board and then started to speak not to his warriors, but to himself or to some presence that was unseen. “It remains unfinished… I have waited for too long, building this mountain squabbling with Gulliman, I will not grow old, feeble, limping around a crumbling inheritance, I have and Oath to keep there are beasts left to slay.” At this point Russ where fully immersed in his premonitions and he looked around the room a smile dancing on his fanged face, seeing thing from either long ago or yet to come. “Listen by closely my brothers, there shall come a time far from now, where the chapter itself is dying and our foes shall gather to destroy us.” “Then my sons I shall listen for your call, in whatever realm holds me and come I shall, no matter what the laws of life and death forbid.” “At the end I will be there for the final battle FOR THE WOLF TIME!”

Then Russ gave the mustering signal and he and his retinue left, though as Bjorn made to follow only to have Russ turn towards him saying a single sentence “Not you.” When Bjorn asked for an explanation all Russ did was repeat the words “Not you.” Then he left.

It is theorized that Russ like Magnus had the gift of premonition and knew that Bjorn would be needed in the years to come as the first Great Wolf, as it is heavily implied that if Bjorn hadn´t been persuaded to take the mantle of great wolf, the chapter itself would have fallen apart in the absence of Russ.

More likely Russ just didn´t want Bjorn´s moodiness to poison what ever adventure he was on.

As to where Russ went and what happened to him there´s a few theories given

The Russ sought the Lion out to make amends of their old feuding (if so they both forgot to tell both their chapters about it)

That he fought in eternal combat with the resurrected cadaver of Horus (no that would be Abaddon´s task and he completely owned that clone of Horus)

That he searched for the tree of life to heal the Emperor´s soul (if so it will be needed sorely needed, as Abaddon blasted a remnant of the Emperor´s soul, watching it decay in front of him)

That he is trapped within a hollow star and tormented by his old adversary Magnus (Since Tzeentch was able to trap Sigmar in another dimension, trapping Russ in a hollow star and have his star pupil Magnus use him as a punching bag makes as much sense as anything)

That he had passed beyond the bounds of space and time and now roamed among the gods, ready to return when needed accompanied by the fallen of his legion sundered in a paradise of warriors (so basically he´s in the Age of Sigmar at this point? somebody put him out of his misery, that´s not a paradise that´s hell on earth)

/tg/ theorizes that Leman Russ may return as Horo (Implying Horo isn't just one of Lemans' many, many bastard children growing up on some shithole Feudal world).

Magnus actually know where is Russ now, but he don't tell it even to his trusted sorcerer lords.

The 13th company, and a figure bearing the likeness of Russ, was spotted during the 13th crusade and the siege of the capital of cadia.

He has, in fact. A Rogue Trader picked him up and giving him a ride to Fenris, having many hilarious adventures on the way.*BLAM*

HERETICAL

Ulric is actually Leman Russ. And as a result, he is dead.

Gallery

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  Leman Russ being the biggest pimp this side of Segmentum Solar.

The Primarchs of the Space Marine Legions
Loyalist Corvus Corax - Ferrus Manus - Jaghatai Khan Leman Russ - Lion El'Jonson - Roboute Guilliman Rogal Dorn - Sanguinius - Vulkan
Traitor Alpharius/Omegon - Angron - Fulgrim Horus - Konrad Curze/Night Haunter - Lorgar Magnus the Red - Mortarion - Perturabo