Alpha Legion
 This page is in need of cleanup. Srsly. It's a fucking mess. |
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| Alpha Legion... we think. | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Battle Cry | "Hydra Dominatus" or "For the Emperor!"... probably. | |
| Number | XX, as far as we know... | |
| Original Homeworld | Ah... | |
| Current Homeworld | Well... | |
| Primarch | Alpharius Omegon ... probably | |
| Champion | Er... | |
| Strength | Hmm... | |
| Specialty | Covert ops, strikes from all sides, utilizing cultists...I think? | |
| Allegiance | You see... | |
| Colours | Blue...sometimes. Maybe green? Possibly both... unless neither. | |
The term is used by the heretical to refer to a mythical 20th Legion. It is nonsensical name, which proves it is a false story, since true priests of the Adeptus Ministorum would know 'alpha' is an ancient term meaning "first". But any such 20th Legion would have been the last to be discovered before the Horus Heresy. 'Alpha' is an old word meaning 'A' so the name Alpha Legion translates into 'A Legion' (heretic falsehoods are rarely original).
No such legion exists, nor has it ever existed. The remainder of this page is intentionally left blank. There is no need for you to read further, and if you feel any urges to read beyond this paragraph or if you have any suspicion that there is any text following, please consult your local Commissar for re-education.
Now that we've got that out of the way...
The Alpha Legion is the 20th and last Legion of the Adeptus Astartes from the Great Crusade, and were the last to find their Primarch, Alpharius. In part, this is because Horus was the first to find him, and kept him hidden from the Emperor and everyone else for some time. In retrospect, it probably should have been obvious that he was going to go full Chaos.
The Alpha Legion's BIG SECRET is, as you probably know, the fact that they have not one Primarch, but two - Alpharius and Omegon. Since the Emperor made all of the Primarchs, it's unclear how this would be a secret; surely he'd know that he made twenty-one Primarchs, not twenty. Right?
... Right?
As you are about to realize, we know absolutely nothing about the Alpha Legion or their members. Sure, there are a lot of information about them around, but none of this is solid and, as we know that the Alpha Legion are sneaky as fuck, and are properly getting their shit done without anyone noticing it.
Origins
As with most lore, the Alpha Legion's name comes from religion (again not very original (Dude, 40K and especially the Horus Heresy is one big analogue for Christianity. Look it up)), in this case Christianity. The two Primarchs, Alpharius and Omegon, represent the line "I am the alpha and omega, the first and the last" but as Omegon is meant to be a secret the legion is named after Alpharius. If Omegon was to be known then the legion could possibly have been called the Omega Legion. Or in other words the "last" legion which conforms to your "needing sense in a name" thing. Adherents to this story make addle-minded claims that prove their insincerity. Such as all marines in this legion were surgically altered to look identical to the Primarch, or that the Emperor himself gave this Primarch command over campaign forces above that of the Lord Commander of the Imperial Army, even power fantasies such the existence of more than one primarch in this Legion, and other tall tales that defy belief. Most heretical of all is the claims that these Primarchs betrayed his holiness the Emperor of Mankind willingly without being corrupted by Chaos, which conveniently excuses their absence from the Eye of Terror and thus any observable evidence of their betrayal with the other traitor legions.
It has also been suggested that the Legion, their Primarch and their symbol may be based on the star Alphard, in the constellation of Hydra. What's more, Alphard means "the solitary one", but it has a much less bright star "hidden" behind it. If this was intended, considering that "Alpha Legion", "Alpharius" and the hydra motif have been around for a lot longer than Omegon has, it means that Games Workshop has been playing a very, very long game. Meta.
The Documented "Truth"
Apparently, the naming of the Alpha Legion refers to the fact that it actually has no name. In Horus Heresy III: Extermination it goes to great lengths to explain the early history of the Alpha Legion and how it contrasts to other more well-known Legions.
All Legions after the First were put though a series of tests and trials by the Emperor before general release into the Great Crusade. Quite literally (and un-ironically) an "Alpha Test" where the Legion would only consist of 1000-2000 Astartes to see how they would perform their intended function, which was pre-determined by the Emperor before their creation.
The XXth Legion however was never publicly released or announced by the Imperium, though the initial tests proved positive, it never progressed past this initial stage and remained an "Alpha" Legion Leading some to question whether the XXth Legion were actually intended for a much darker purpose and were intentionally kept concealed by the Emperor.
For the first 40 years of the Great Crusade, the few warriors of the XXth were a "Ghost Legion" who would act in obscure warzones isolated from the other Legions yet would sometimes act under the heraldry of a different legion, or no legion at all. They performed dubious tasks such as assassination, kidnapping, artefact retrieval and other clandestine support roles. It may not be coincidental that these tasks were assigned to the Legion whose number could be represented as a double cross, which also figures prominently in their iconography. These roles would later be taken by the Custodians, Officio Assassinorum and Sororitas Inconcessus, causing the XXth to fall into myth.
It was only with the discovery of the Primarch Alpharius (which still might not even be his true name) which allowed the Ghost Legion to resurface nearly 160 years later and become a true Legion in its own right, seemingly springing up from nowhere with a full military and fleet. It seems that the Primarch either kept the name to be deliberately ironic, deeply meaningful in the sense that "Alpha" can also mean "Supreme" or the early title of "Alpha" just stuck.
History
There are extremely persistent and consistent rumors that the most blessed Blood Ravens chapter of the holy Adeptus Astartes lead by Chapter Master Gabriel Angelos and assisted by the Librarian Isador Akios, the PDF and Imperial Guard lead by Inquisitor Toth, and the Eldar of Craftworld Biel-tan lead by Farseer Macha, fought the mythical Alpha Legion lead by Chaos Lord Bale and Chaos Sorcerer Sindri Myr and an Orkish Waaagh! lead 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. 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. 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:
- The Alpha legion invented the tyranids.
- The Alpha legion invented TEH EMPRA.
- 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. Rawbutt Girlyman was the one who died, and Alpharius disguised himself as him.
- FUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
We wish their HMKids theme had had quotes from Sindri Myr, Lord Bale or Carron... Hey, maybe they could do a remake?
These stories are obvious and self-contradictory falsehoods, trash that pollutes the minds of the faithful. We apologize for any discomfort this wiki article may have caused you -- speak to your local Chaplain or Commissar if you require counseling. If you witness anyone spreading these harmful lies about a 20th Legion, immediately report the heretic to your local representative of the Inquisition or to your unit's commissar. If you happen to be the commissar and you witness yourself spreading these rumors, please report yourself to your bolt pistol.
(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, and even those few things we know might be a misinformation. And because that's part of their shtick)
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 trying to destroy Chaos, or Alpharius himself, they're going to find a way to screw with you.
Tactics
During the Great Crusade Ultramarines had a proverb: "Information is victory". What they meant to say is "If you know an opponent you can defeat it". Alpha Legion took this doctrine and turned it up to eleven. Why only focusing on the intel you have? Enemy that doesn't know you or better have fake intel about you is doomed. That's pretty much what their strategy revolves around: fucking with their opponent's mind. Since then no one knows anything for certain about them. If you think you know more, start worrying: this means Alpha Legion is messing with your mind right now.
Notable examples include:
- Making everyone believe their primarch was killed by Rowboat Gyrlyman, despite even Ultramarines have no records about it.
- Leaking their attack plans to the subsector governor, so he strips nearby planets of garrisons to reinforce his defense, and then attacking those weakened nearby planets.
- Hypno-indoctrinating natives of space marine recruiting world with trigger switch, and then turning unwittingly brainwashed marines on their brothers when Alpha Legion attacked their fortress-monastery.
- Conquering hundreds of planets during Horus Herersy with a single agent planting rumors of the Warmaster's advance, and causing civil wars and rebellions of people trying to plead their allegiance to Horus only to make sure he doesn't nuke their homes upon arriving. Did I mention all these were made by a single fucking person who wasn't even a full-fledged marine?
- Plotting and executing the Night of Thousand Rebellions, that effectively severed segmentum Pacificus off Imperium and left in on the mercy of Chaos. Yeah, you heard it right - entire segmentum, and while the smallest one it's still like 15% of the Imperium.
So to sum it up, they are in the top league of Warhammer 40 000 universe, fighting when and where they want to achieve great goals with very limited forces, much like Eldar and Thousand Sons except with less smug and arrogance.
The Alpha Legion is basically an army of James Bond clones, either that or the 40k equivalent of the CIA where not even the side they work for knows what they're actually up to or has the balls to call out their bullshit tactics. No, really, that is how they fought. They were known for popping out of freaking nowhere and curbstomping the shit out of the enemy at the best possible moment (or worst, depending on whose side you were on). The Alpha Legion was also known to have a training doctrine that actually matches the idea of a super-soldier. That is, they trained all their marines in how to use all their equipment and weapons instead of picking out individuals to be trained as specialists while not bothering to educate the others on the subject beyond the basics. Every Alpha Legionnaire was a fully capable Assault Marine, Devastator, Fast Attack (like speeders and bikes, etc.), leader (hence, the hydra, because you couldn't decapitate their command structure, someone equally competent would take the leaders' places), trained in the use of Terminator armor, masters of stealth and psychology, actually used their serfs for more than spit-shining their boots, and did all of this while keeping each of their marines fully capable of matching a specialist from another Legion. This meant that the Alpha Legion was capable of having as many, or as few, specialist marines and vehicles as they wished to best complete any given mission at any time, tailored to each mission. Of course, that could all have been a trick, too... Anyway, Omegon supposedly lead the Alpha Legion's black-ops division, no one really knows who is who, though, so just consider "Alpharius" and "Omegon" to basically be titles, your head will hurt less. Yes, even they have special forces.