Events for the Lion come to a head in Unremembered Empire when the Primarch and thirty thousand of his Dark Angels arrive in the Five Hundred worlds, poised above the capital planet of Macragge. Unsure of Guilliman’s plans, the Lion prepares his warriors for assault should he think the Ultramarines are traitors. During his grand arrival, Night Haunter, carried to the Macragge in the darkest bowels of the Invincible Reason, manages to break the cordon and activates the drop cascades of the battleship to plummet to the world below – launching the whole assault in the process! Guilliman allows the drop to proceed at the last moment, but demands that the Lion is more forthcoming in his plans – a demand that the Lion blatantly ignores, feeding half-truth to his brother while the hunt for Curze continues. Macragge Civitas is the scene for an epic battle between the Primarchs, including the rather unexpected arrival of Vulkan of the Salamanders, but the Night Haunter eventually evades death or capture. As the dust settles, yet more arrivals come to Macragge – Sanguinius and his Blood Angels, fresh from their battles against a horde of daemons on Baal Secundus. Astelan also provides a perspective not often seen: a reaction to the power of the Space Marines. The Dark Angels and any other chapter may be justified in their battling ways but they do leave a lot of pain and suffering in their wake. It is surprising that is not brought up more often. And the Dreadwing is just the most badass of the Dark Angels' battle formations: deployed to bring total annihilation upon enemy employing advanced weaponry of mass destruction.

Caliban is the son of a luciferous woman (witch) resulting in his feral nature. Upon the magician's arrival to the island, Caliban teaches Prospero how to survive, while he is eventually civilised by the magician and Prospero's daughter Miranda who teach him religion and how to speak. Following Caliban's attempted rape of Miranda, he was compelled by Prospero to serve as the magician's slave. The Dark Angels were the first of the Emperor’s Legions, and one of the most powerful and independent Legions at the time of the Horus Heresy. Remorseless and ruthlessly efficient, they made no compromises in the pursuit of their assigned duty. The Lion stopped a few steps from Luther, his eyes fixed on Horus. Typhon found himself sneaking glances at the two of them, holding his head rigid as if to move might betray his presence. All around him the strategium was shrouded in stillness and silence and though he knew the main bridge beyond had to be continuing as normal it was as though a bubble encompassed them all. Typhon could feel the uncertainty of everyone else seething around him. Uncertainty and fear. The instincts of all were that of prey being discovered by predator. No mortal fear could mar the heart of a legionary, but in that moment several dozen warriors of the Legiones Astartes were frozen by a dread-like desire to be anywhere else but on that iron-wrought balcony.

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Warhammer Community: The Road to Thramas – Part 1: Wings of the Dark Angels (Posted December 9 2019) (last accessed 12/9/2019) Man, this was really frustrating. Something finally HAPPENS in the Caliban storyline, and I'm so disenchanted with it at this point, I barely cared. I couldn't keep a couple of the characters straight, and found myself really distanced from it. How horrible that the tipping point for this storyline has to share real estate with a different, ridiculously basic storyline. Why the hell wasn't this truncated & put in place of ALLLLLLLLLLL the padding from earlier books? Ugh. Cut off from Terra and the rest of Mankind's interstellar community by the Warp Storms that savaged the galaxy during the Age of Strife, Human civilisation on Caliban devolved into a semi-feudal state, with most of the population ruled over by a small warrior elite who were very similar in function and form to the medieval European knights of Old Earth's ancient past.

Guilliman, Sanguinius and Curze are all competently written - as was Horus during the prologue. In fact, that prologue was an excellent way to set the scene which filled in blanks and made new connections for the future, and set the Lion's and Luther's relationship front and center. It is full of foreboding, but also gave a glimpse of the Horus-that-was, beloved by all (but the Lion). There will be no new emperor.... Or is it still time to save my home?.. with this prophetic words 'Angels of Caliban' took the stage. If you’ve read my PHAROS review you’re aware that I’m a big fan of the Imperium Secundus subplot and ANGELS OF CALIBAN is (probably) the end of that specific era of the Horus Heresy. Unfortunately I feel as though the concept wasn’t explored nearly as fully as it deserved but it’s still a satisfying diversion from the main conflict of the galactic-spanning civil war and ANGELS OF CALIBAN is a powerful (likely) finale to the arc.The Lion burst onto the strategium with long strides and all around him warriors lowered to one knee like grass flattened by a strong wind. Typhon felt the need to obey flowing into him and he did not resist it, dropping one leg to the floor along with the others.