Luther

Luther, with Cypher Zahariel in the background

Luther

Luther was the best bro/father figure of the Primarch Lion El'Jonson before the shit hit the fan in the Horus Heresy.

Back Story

Luther was a Knight of The Order of Caliban, an organisation dedicated to protecting the people of that world from the Beasts that roamed its forests.

One day when riding through the glen with his merry band of men, he encountered Tarzan a naked wildman who had no business living alone in that environment. So they captured him and brought him back to civilisation, educated him and introduced him to their order, where they called him "Lion, Son of the Forest".

Together the two warriors rose up the ranks of the Order and became living legends, eventually coming up with a plan to rid the whole world of the beasts and make it safe for everyone. This took some time, and eventually the Lion got promoted to the top job of Grand Master and Luther became his assistant. This is where the cracks had started to show, as many had thought that Luther was on track to gain the position if the Lion had not been discovered, and that Luther was one of the greatest men of his time, only to have been overshadowed by an even greater man due to circumstance.

Shortly afterwards the Emperor arrived and brought the Imperium to Caliban and told the Lion of his heritage and his destiny to lead the First Legion on the Great Crusade.

The Lion took many of his Knights with him on this quest and although Luther was too old to become a Space Marine he was still augmented as much as was practical and was brought along as the second in command. Just like another geriatric chucklefuck who raised a Primarch

This didn't last long though. Luther inwardly admitted his envy of the Lion and his Astartes brethren, and during a mission to Sarosh contemplated allowing an enemy nuclear bomb to detonate aboard the Dark Angel's flagship so he could take his rightful place in history. However, he did not follow through with this thought and successfully rescued the flagship and exposed the Saroshi plot.

Because of (or despite) the Lion's knowledge (or lack of) about Luther's private doubts, he sent him and select others back to Caliban in order to fortify it and train new Dark Angels for the ongoing crusade.

This is the subject of considerable nerdrage, since it was either seen as an exile for some perceived dishonour or it was part of a greater plan to protect the Imperium (or Caliban) from something that the Lion knew was brewing back on his homeworld but decided not to tell his followers about, just like his own father did with his sons.

Exile on Caliban

Back on Caliban, Luther became heavily dependent upon the Librarian Zahariel and the Lord Cypher.

At this point, something had begun to twist inside Luther his behaviour became erratic.

Lion El'Jonson had allowed the Death World of Caliban to become a Terran-administrated industrial world, replacing the forest with factory arcologies. Knights and peasants were replaced with workers. With the forests gone and mine shafts digging deep into the planet, bad things were waking up. Luther suspected that the Lion knew about these forces, and that he was planning on destroying the planet with the Calibanite Dark Angels on it after the world fueled the imperial war machine all that it could.

Learning from Cypher's collection of dusty tomes about rituals and incantations, he uncovered a "plot" where Terran colonists were apparently attempting to summon a creature called the Ouroboros onto Caliban. With Zahariel's assistance he broke up this coven and attempted to gain power over the creature for himself.

Zahariel discovered that this plot was actually false, that the Terrans were in fact attempting to banish the Ouroboros instead of summoning it, and that Luther was looking to gain power in an attempt to free Caliban from the oppression of the Imperium. Needless to say, the Dark Ones were intrigued.

Later, Luther captured one of Malcador the Sigillite's Knights-Errant: Garviel Loken, who was on Caliban to discover where the exiled Dark Angels loyalties lay, since no contact had been made from them in some time.

This would prove to be a turning point, as Luther and his allies had no idea that the Horus Heresy was taking place around them and had been kept ignorant by the Watchers in the Dark and one of their Astartes allies (whose identity is not explicitly stated, but presumed to be Cypher)

The Knights-Errant killed a Dark Angel during their escape, which would upset the balance of ignorance that had been maintained and set the Dark Angels on the path for the Fall.

Newly revealed fluff indicates that Luther made some sort of bargain with Typhon of the Death Guard, the specifics of which remain undetermined. Although Typhus was involved in the hunt for a triumvirate of devices/entities that allowed travel through time, with Typhus having clashed with the Lion earlier in the Heresy over ownership of the Tuchulcha device. One of the others was the Ouroboros which Luther was trying to gain control over back on Caliban.

The Fall of Caliban

When the Lion return to Caliban after the Horus Heresy had finished, he found a world that despised him and the Imperium and a war took place which cracked the very core of the planet, leaving nothing but fragments.

According to the legend, Luther had been empowered by the Dark Gods and was now more than an equal for the Lion, and eventually defeated him, though in a final moment he realised his error and broke down in tears.

When the Dark Angels descended upon the site of the battle, they could not find the body of their Primarch, the only clue was given by the now-insane Luther, who had said that the Watchers in the Dark had taken the Lion away.

41st Millenium

Luther is still alive 10,000 years later, kept in a cell at the heart of The Rock known only to the Supreme Grand Master of the Dark Angels and his predecessors. The cell is only unlocked using the Sword of Secrets and it is the duty of the holder of that blade to coerce Luther to admit to his crimes against their primarch and the Imperium. Luther is old. Older than the fungus growing under your grand father's toenails. Older than the pill line at a nursing home. Older than the rancid bacon I found in the back of my refrigerator last night. A such when he is not being interrogated by the Dark Angels Supreme Grand Master he is kept in stasis to preserve what little life he has left. In the Legacy of Caliban novel series, Azazel comments as to the strict time limit he has to question the old coot for fear he'll give up the ghost before he can finish a sentence. He also remarks as to how difficult this is thanks to Ol'e Luther being nuttier than a fruit cake.

Suffice to say that no Supreme Grand Master has succeeded in getting Luther to repent, though during his interrogations, Luther is convinced that the time is nigh when the Lion will return and forgive him for his betrayal.

Trivia

"Luther" is probably named for the monk Martin Luther (Not Martin Luther King, who was himself named after him), who was one of the founders of the Protestant denomination. This is very significant to the Dark Angels' themes of Forgiveness and Repentance, as Martin Luther advocated that salvation was earned through faith alone and not through penitence or confession and decried the old church as corrupt.

When applied to 40k, many of the Fallen find justification for what they do and will not repent willingly, thus making it ever more difficult to make them see the error of their ways.