Lion El'Jonson, primarch of the Dark Angels, after his awakening in the Era Indomitus of the 41st Millennium. After ten thousand standard years, even a primarch begins to show signs of physical aging.
The Lion's Protectorate is the name of a group of star systems and inhabited Imperial worlds in the Imperium Nihilus region of the Ultima Segmentum that are under the protection of Primarch Lion El'Jonson, the former Fallen Angels he has redeemed called The Risen, and the Lion's Guard, a series of planetary militias raised from among the Human populations of the protectorate's member planets.
The Lion's Protectorate was formed in the Era Indomitus of the 41st Millennium after the Lion awoke from his ten-millennia-long sleep beneath The Rock and gained the ability to Forestwalk through the sub-realm of the Immaterium called Mirror-Caliban to reach distant regions of the galaxy where he instinctively felt he was needed.
History[]
After his awakening in the Era Indomitus beneath The Rock, the Dark Angels Primarch Lion El'Jonson discovered he had the ability to move through a sub-realm of the Immaterium to almost anywhere else in the galaxy. This sub-realm looked much like the deep forests of his lost homeworld Caliban that he named "Mirror-Caliban."
On his wanderings through Mirror-Caliban, an ability which could also bring others along with him and that the Lion came to call his "Forestwalk," he came to the worlds of the Imperium Nihilus. There El'Jonson soon discovered and forgave a number of the Fallen Angels who had been cast into the Warp from Caliban during his duel with the Arch-traitor Luther millennia before and had not been corrupted by Chaos.
With these Firstborn Space Marines, now called The Risen, serving as his companions, the Lion successfully freed a number of Human-settled worlds from the control of the Ten Thousand Eyes warhost of Chaos Space Marines commanded by the Fallen Sorcerer Lord Seraphax. In the course of these wanderings, the Lion learned of the birth of the Great Rift in the wake of the 13th Black Crusade and how Imperial space had effectively been cut in half by the birth of the Great Rift.
Once he realised the sheer scope of the destruction that was being visited upon the Imperium in the Era Indomitus by the forces of Chaos and enemy xenos, and how the worlds of the Imperium Nihilus in particular were now isolated from one another and the Imperium Sanctus by the loss of access to the psychic light of the Astronomican, the Lion became determined to protect as many people of the region from the galaxy's dangers as was possible. Just as he had once done for the people of Caliban, he would seek to slay all the beasts that now threatened Human life wherever his Forestwalk could take him and his allies.
To this end, El'Jonson created the interstellar alliance he named the "Lion's Protectorate" among those worlds and star systems of the Imperium Nihilus that he and The Risen visited through the use of his Forestwalk ability, announcing the creation of the pact through the use of the astropathic choir present on the world of Avalus, which soon became the Protectorate's central hub and de facto capital world. Only those worlds whose people voluntarily chose to join the compact under his leadership were required to participate, but those who did so raised up a planetary militia to aid in the Protectorate's defence that was trained by El'Jonson and The Risen and was known as the Lion's Guard.
However, news of the return of the primarch and the protection he offered slowly reached the other worlds of neighboring systems in the Imperium Nihilus and they too requested to join. It was not long before the Lion's Protectorate had rapidly expanded, and his forces, even with new intakes of mortals into the Lion's Guard, found themselves stretched thin.
Notable Member Worlds[]
- Avalus - Avalus is the central world of the Lion's Protectorate and acts as its de facto capital planet since it possesses an astropathic choir that can still telepathically transmit messages to the surrounding worlds.
- Camarth - Camarth is a Jungle World and Death World of the Imperium located in the Imperium Nihilus region of the Ultima Segmentum. It was long a heavily forested world whose flora and fauna made it inimical to its Human settlers. It was in many ways similar geographically and culturally to the Dark Angels Legion's ancient homeworld of Caliban. It was long protected by a garrison of Space Marines drawn from the Ruby Crescents Chapter, who were based at the fortress known as Redmoon Keep. Camarth was assaulted during the Era Indomitus by the Chaos Space Marines of the Ten Thousand Eyes warhost who overthrew the Ruby Crescents' garrison. However, the world was eventually freed by the actions of its people under the leadership of the awakened Primarch Lion El'Jonson and Zabriel, another Fallen who the Lion had redeemed and forgiven for his actions on lost Caliban and who became one of the first of The Risen. After its liberation, Camarth's people gladly joined the Lion's Protectorate.
- Sable - Sable is an Imperial world located in the Imperium Nihilus region of the Segmentum Ultima. Sable was recently liberated from occupation by the Ten Thousand Eyes warhost of Chaos Space Marines, which slaughtered much of its population in a deliberate attempt to draw the Dark Angels primarch to the planet by the warhost's Fallen leader, the Sorcerer Lord Seraphax. Lion El'Jonson and The Risen defeated Seraphax's insane plan to make an undead puppet of the primarch and use him to gain an audience with the Emperor so that the Master of Mankind might be assassinated. Seraphax believed that the Emperor's death would allow Him to ascend to become a true god in the Warp who could destroy the Chaos Gods and all of Humanity's other myriad xenos enemies. The surviving population of Sable joined the Lion's Protectorate after their liberation.
Sources[]
- The Lion: Son of the Forest (Novel) by Mike Brooks, Chs. 6, 14, 21, 24, 28-30, 33