Sigismund
"He was, after all, the one guy who said "Sure, cool, this Chapter idea is brilliant. But mine will be six times the size of everyone else's, just because I say so. Later, Terrans."" - Aaron Dembski-Bowden
"In the far future, there will be only war." - Sigismund to Garviel Loken, not knowing how right he would be.
Sigismund (also known as Siggy-diggy, Sig of the Dump, the Great WIlson, and Swagismund) is an Imperial Fist from Warhammer 40,000's backstory. He served as First Captain and equerry to his primarch, Rogal Dorn.
We don't know much about what he did, but during the Great Crusade, he became known for his skill and hotheadedness- and his unparalleled asskickery. He is referred the best Astartes in a duel, though a few including Abaddon, Khârn, Sevatar, Corswain of the Dark Angels, Azkaellon and Amit (the original Flesh Tearer) of the Blood Angels, and Argel Tal of the Word Bearers (but he had daemon powers, so that's kinda cheating) could probably give him a run for his money. He not only bested Khârn in a duel many, many times,(Kharn was never serious in these fights, and preferred losing, a trait that he shared with Argel Tal) but also during the Great Crusade, the Fists and the World Eaters crusaded together, which allowed Siggy to regularly fought in the World Eaters arenas against all of their best fighters. He never lost. Not once. This went on for around *10 years*. He also avoided lethal duels, viewing it as a sin to kill a cousin: the first Astartes he offed was during the Heresy. In the novel Betrayer and the novella Templar, Khârn and Sigismund then ended up becoming good friends until Horus fucked everything up, and Sevatar mentioned dueling him for 20 hours before he got tired of no one winning and decided to cheat by headbutting Sigismund just to end the bout. And much like Ahmed Ibn Fadlan in the 13th Warrior, Sigismund lived among the World Eaters more than he did with his own legion and began to take on their ways, for example, chaining his weapons to his arms. Yep, the Black Templars got this tradition from a Traitor Legion.
However, when the Horus Heresy kicked off, he asked to accompany Dorn back to Terra rather than lead the Retribution Fleet to Isstvan. He then purged a monument full of Word Bearers, but an encounter with one of their Dark Apostles seems to have seriously shaken him. So he decided to explain his reasons to his father. His reason for doing was because the first Imperial "Saint" Euphrati Keeler [1] told him he would die unremembered at Phall, then Captain Yonnad did instead. Unfortunately, Rogal Dorn flipped his shit; he was still totally going along with the Edict of Nikaea at this stage, so he accused Sigismund of arrogance and superstition, forgetting what it meant to be an Imperial Fist. When Sigismund begged Dorn to execute him then and there, Dorn disowned him from the Legion. Only the two of them would ever know, as Dorn didn't want Sigismund's "weakness" tainting the Legion. Ironically, Sigismund's absence at Phall would lead Perturabo to make the wrong assumptions about how the battle would go and result in the Fists nearly winning, and a large chunk of the Retribution Fleet escaping.
Prior to the Siege of Terra but before this confession, he also led a mission to Mars to retrieve as many weapons and suits of armour as was possible since Mars was by that time, FUCKED. Despite really, really wanting to kill everything standing between him and the traitor Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal, Sigismund realized that the Imperial Fists couldn't retake the planet without reinforcements, ordering Imperial forces to retreat when the forges were surrounded by traitor Titans.
When Dorn joined the Emperor for the final attack of the Horus Heresy, he (or the Emperor, since father and son were potentially not on good terms) chose Sigismund to be the Emperor's Champion and lead the Imperial Fists ground forces in his place. During this time he challenged a single?? MORE THAN TWO DOZEN traitor champions to single combat and buttfucked them all without taking any smoking breaks. BOSS.
After the Heresy and the Iron Cage business, what remained of the Imperial Fists Legion was divided into five Chapters, in accordance with the Codex Astartes reforms. Dorn placed those now ex-Imperial Fists that were still burning with the need to tear traitors multiple new orifices, barehanded if necessary, under Sigismund's command. They became the Black Templars Chapter (The third and fourth Chapters, formed from the more conservative/level-headed Marines and those more accepting of the Codex Astartes, were the Crimson Fists and Fists Exemplar. Those Astartes who had fought on the walls of the Imperial Palace became the Excoriators). Considering that the Black Templars are a Chapter of Space Marines that wants nothing else than to purge traitors, aliens and heretics with religious fervor, they promptly set out on their eternal Crusade vowing to never stop hunting down the enemies of the Imperium. And they are true to their word, too. Ten-thousand years, and they're still going strong, kicking heretic and xeno ass left, right and center!
Sigismund would fight in the First Black Crusade, where by that point he was just shy of one thousand years old, having fought and killed everything the galaxy could throw at him (and given that it's 40k, that's a lot). Unlike most Imperials, he still believed the Traitor Legions would return, making the Black Templars the only Imperial force ready when the Black Legion invaded. Sigismund later faced Abaddon himself in battle during the First Black Crusade; the outcome is unconfirmed, but given that Sigismund is long dead and Abaddon very much alive by the 13th Black Crusade, well... It's safe to say that ol' Abby killed him. And considering that Sigismund never lost to anyone but a Primarch, that does mean Abby is pretty good probably cheated.
Actually, Sigismund did nearly kill Abaddon in the duel, but the new Warmaster won. However Abaddon conceded later that he only even stood a chance due to Sigismund's advanced age that greatly reduced his fighting abilities and brought him down to a more level playing field (he even went so far as to basically admit that had Sigismund been in his prime Abby probably wouldn't have stood a chance). Even with this handicap he still put up a momentous fight, almost killing him and this is with Abaddon having the Talon of Horus besides being stronger due to his Terminator Armour. Best of all, the Black Legion high command treated him with the utmost respect in death. Abaddon cleaned him up as much as possible (he was kinda torn in two), and his corpse was sent back to Terra with the message that the Black Legion has arrived and declared its Long War against the God-Emperor. They didn't even steal the Black Sword.
It should be pointed out that in the HH Book: Templar, he is described as having never lost a duel. Ever. This means either:
- He's never duelled any Primarchs.
- However, Primarchs are OP and therefore an unfair opponent for any Astartes and typically don't stoop so low as to demonstrate it. They occasionally say, in novels, maybe a dude could tangle with a primarch because they can't grasp just how OP those bastards are.
- Doesn't consider it a loss if his opponent cheats in the fight, as it did with Sevatar.
- Because he cheated, Jago is technically considered to have lost that sparring duel. Besides, if they had been trying to kill each other Sev would have been way dirtier way earlier, but Sig would have been expecting it as well. That duel was all around still a good indicator of their skill in regards to one another. Sev is regarded as one of the best Astartes close combatants and they basically tied. If the stats in the HH books are anything to go off of (admittedly not always, like the Primarchs being nerfed so they can still be balanced) then Sig, Sev and the Nemean are the overall best close "dueling" astartes period. 1-on-1 ruleswise: Sev has almost no chance due to lack of Eternal Warrior.
- It's worth noting that Khârn later tried copying the move. Sigismund dropped him face-down on the floor.
- Always ended in a draw. This option is possible, although the context didn't seem to suggest this at all.
- It doesn't mean anything at all, because a sparring bout (even amongst Astartes who are at real risk of being maimed) does not accurately represent the fighters' true potential.
- For example, Kharn actually disdained the fighting pits because it's not about killing your opponent, making it an entirely different situation. While Nathaniel Garro also beat a Custodian in a duel, but realised that he would not likely be able to take him in a real fight.
- He had some really, REALLY crappy Marines training him how to fight, seriously, surely he would have lost as an initiate.
Tabletop
He received stats in the 3rd Horus Heresy book; Extermination. Showing him to be a close-combat monster:
With Eternal Warrior, Fearless, Adamantium Will, a +2S AP2 weapon, instant death and rerolls ones to hit when in challenges, 4 attacks at WS7, and forcing successful invulns to be rerolled. He's the nastiest duelist character so far in virtually any incarnation of the rules, barring the primarchs, Constantin Valdor, motherfucking Anacharis Scoria and the Cheestodes Tribune, and one of the few that has a fighting chance against some of the weaker among said primarchs. Now that some legions, namely Sons of Horus, Salamanders, and Imperial Fists, have access to Eternal Warrior from relics that non-Primarchs can take, he's descended from being an "I win as soon as I wound" button to merely "75% likely to win."
This means, pretty much all legion characters barring Salamander Praetors and Eidolon are fucked as Sigismund is forced to challenge and most legions have nothing, bar their Primarchs, who could stand up to Sigismund and hope to win (excluding terrible rolls).
In fact, even against his own Primarch (or any T6, 4++ Primarch barring Lorgar and Russ), Sigismund makes a good stab at it and causes just under 1 wound per turn mathematically during a challenge (what with IWND and all), which hilariously, is almost as much as Dorn's own brother can cause against him. While Sigismund receives 1.25 wounds/turn in return. Which is actually pretty good for Astartes vs Primarch combat.
Forgeworld have released a mini for "death's champion"... Twice... Failing both times at the attempt.