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".

• Before the discovery of the lion luther had just recently lost both his young wife and daughter to as of yet unknown means. He wonders how things would have turned out if the Lion had been raised with both a mother and sister. (All you AU fanfic writers get on this now)
• In “Fallen Angels” Luther gives us a first-hand version of the discovery of the Lion. In it he describes how after a long and costly journey into the darkest and most dangerous parts of Caliban he and his fellow knights stopped near the banks of a river. As the other knights filled the water containers a young boy appeared in their midst. The boy showed no fear but simply stared at them coldly. Luther being the only one in a position to do anything raised his gun and aimed at the boy. As the other knights screamed at Luther to kill the child the boy simply looked at Luther silently; Luther met the boy's eyes and he found that he simply could not pull the trigger and simply let the gun drop to the ground.

• Given the new revelation that he had just lost his wife and daughter his inability to kill the young Lion makes a lot more sense.
• The Lion in his version is described as a young boy, which is odd as it appears that the Lion did not have the accelerated childhood that many of his other brothers seem to have experienced but aged in the same way as a normal human child would.

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.

• It turns out that Luther was indeed named Grand master of the order but when the Lion was nominated for the position he stepped aside. Luther claims that he felt no resentment towards the Lion but seeing as you needed to be both nominated and then voted into the position of Grand Master by your fellow knights that’s got to sting.

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.

Sometime after his exile on Caliban Luther was to respond to a call for aid from the primarch of the Luna Wolves, Horus Lupercal himself. Taking his men and ships he disobeyed the orders given to him by the Lion and fought alongside the likes of Abaddon and Typhus (Garviel Loken when he was being interrogated by Luther remembers when Luther and Abaddon competed against each other to see who could get to the objective first).

He would shock Typhus by revealing that he had Laughed in Abaddon’s face when he had suggested that the Luna Wolves had a greater military background to that of the Dark Angels and the Order.

Typhus would then introduce Luther to Erebus who suggested the introduction of the warrior lodges to the ranks of the Dark Angels much to Luther’s amusement.

During the victory celebration the Lion managed to do what no enemy had ever done before; catch Horus by surprise. As if summoned there by the will of some vengeful god the Lion marched into the hall. Luther rose to his feet and tried to explain himself but was silenced by the Lion; Horus spoke up in Luther’s defence but was told in no uncertain terms to shut up. The Lion told Horus that if he wanted victory so badly then it should not have been at the expense of his Dark Angels and that he should instead have used his own sons.

• This seems to be a common complaint against Horus (just ask Corax). He had a tendency for throwing the other legions at the enemy, preferring to sacrifice the sons of his brothers in order to weaken the enemy before sending in his own to claim victory.

Luther has his fleet taken from him as punishment so that he cannot do the same thing again.

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.

• After gaining access to the books the Lion had hidden away he started to dabble in the arcane arts; covering himself in runes and learning how to casts spells in the same manner as a chaos sorcerer. How advanced his studies where exactly is unknown but he was far along enough that he was able to resurrect Zahariel.

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.

With the help of that snake in the grass Astelan Luther is able to round up all the Dark Angels on Caliban that would have opposed him and imprisons them beneath Aldurukh.

• Did I mention that during the revolt Luther was able to kill a veteran Dark Angel with little more than a letter opener?

As they prepare to openly announce their opposition to the Imperium a fleet led by Belath appeared suddenly above Caliban. Belath has come to collect the newly trained Dark Angels and bring them back to the fleet in order to fight Horus. Luther persuades Belath to wait a bit as they want to have a grand feast to celebrate this grand occasion (anyone who has watched Game of Thrones probably has a good idea where this is going).

Luther hopes to turn Belath and his Dark Angels to his side and during the feast he gives an impassioned speech about the evils of the Imperium and how the Emperor and the Lion have abandoned them, all the while having Zahariel and his Librarians (now called the Mystai) reach into the minds of all those listening to make it easier for them to be manipulated.

The plan works almost too well for Zahariel who is now under the influence of the Ouroboros so he kills Belath claiming he was about to attack Luther. What happens next makes the “Red Wedding” look subtle and downplayed much too Luther’s dismay and anger.

With the disaster of the feast behind him Luther and Astelan claim ownership of the fleet and Astelan agrees to do Luther’s dirty work as Luther needs to be seen as beyond reproach. They plan to expand their power base by “Liberating” other systems from the oppression of the Imperium. As they put their plan into practice they stumble upon Typhus and what remains of his fleet as they retreat from the relentless pursuit of Corswain. Upon their reunion Luther welcomes Typhus with open arms.

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 especially for a man not blessed with being a full Space Marine. he is 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 an unwanted fruit cake on Christmas eve. Did I mention he is old?

Suffice to say that no Supreme Grand Master has succeeded in getting Luther to repent. Though during some of his interrogations, Luther has been on great help to his earstwhile kin, leading them to recover lost fragments of lore and technology hidden with-in the country sized bulk that is The Rock. Examples being the recovery of the STC for the Nephilim Jet Fighter. Luther's "help" can be fickle at best as most of what he utters are the lunitic ravings and riddles of a man off his ass on ether. He is convinced that the time is nigh when The Lion will return to forgive him his sins and is quite adamant about this to his jailers. A point which causes no small amount of consternation to his attending Supreme Grand Master.

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.