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In the aftermath Belath again urged open invasion, preferring a plan to attack all six world powers at once. Astelan however, upon detecting the existence of Committee of Nations, a diplomatic body made up of representatives from all the powers, decided to attempt negotiation once more. Making contact with the Committee, he arranged for himself and Belath to appear before them and parley. While initially going well under Astelan's direction, the negotiations were fatally disrupted when one of the world powers detected that the Dark Angels had positioned vessels in orbit above all the capital cities of the planet. This move, under Belath's order, precipitated a threat response in which the Byzanthians attempted to seize the two Legionnaires. Summoning his [[Terminator]] bodyguard, Belath ended the negotiation with the execution of the world's Committee of Nations. Angrily, Astelan had no choice but to follow through on this act and finally order a full-scale planetary invasion. Dismayed at the outbreak of violence, he remarked that he could not allow Belath's actions go unpunished. Unperturbed by the threat, Belath responded that ''he'' would not be the one to be punished; he had already sent [[astropathic]] messages concerning Astelan's 'cowardly' actions to [[Caliban]].{{Fn|1a}}
====On Caliban====
While it is not known for sure that Belath's actions in reporting the events of the Byzanthis campaign resulted in Astelan's reassignment, what is known is that, some fifteen years after the [[Sarosh|Saroshi campaign]] and the subsequent dismissal of [[Luther]] and a substantial portion of the Legion to Caliban to act as a training garrison, Astelan was himself reassigned there in mysterious circumstances. Reassignment to Caliban was considered a form of exile by those stationed there, and a single, veteran Terran Chapter Master being posted there from the Great Crusade was thought baffling, especially as Astelan was himself apparently at [[Sarosh]] and had avoided the initial reassignment cull. Luther however, quickly made a great show of support for Astelan and immediately assigned him command of one of the training Chapters. Astelan is noted to have been "won over" by Luther's personal charisma and the respect afforded to him. {{Fn|3a}}
Merir Astelan, as commander of Caliban's planetary defence forces, issued the order - codeword "Starfire" - to open fire upon the fleet of the Lion.{{Fn|2a}}
===Post-Heresy===
After the [[Horus Heresy]] and the fall of [[Caliban]], Astelan was sucked through the [[Warp]] and scattered throughout the galaxy like the rest of the Fallen. He would spend the next two hundred years at large from his (then unknown) hunters from the Dark Angels chapter, before ultimately coming to their attention.{{Fn|5a}}
===Scappe Delve===
Astelan found himself on a world called [[Scappe Delve]], whose inhabitants were forced to live in underground shelters due to the hazardous nature of the environment. He quickly became tired of living in the cramped confines of the world, so he left the planet on the ship of the [[Rogue Trader]] Trialartes, the ''Saint Carthen''. However, Astelan soon discovered that Trialartes was secretly smuggling weapons to unsavory organizations, and accompanied the smuggler to the mercenary port of Port Imperial. There he met two other [[Fallen|Fallen Angels]], [[Methelas]] and [[Anovel]]. The trio proceeded to systematically commandeer weapons systems and armour plating from the other ships in the docks, before turning their newly acquired weapons on the ships they were stolen from as well as Port Imperial itself.{{Fn|5x}}
===Tharsis===
Due to differences in their vision for a Greater [[Imperium]], Astelan left the other Fallen after this event for the small world of [[Tharsis]]. The planet was gripped in the middle of a civil war, and Astelan saw his chance to make a differenceand fight for the Emperor's ideals once more. He approached the [[Imperial Commander ]], [[Dax ]], and was immediately put in charge of the Imperial military presence on the planet. Tharsis had been primarily a farming world until Astelan's arrival, after which it was dominated by newly industrialised factory-cities (that quickly became crime-rife cities and sprawling factories for ridden), whose industry was devoted to making the weapons he used to win the war.{{Fn|1x5c}}
After a further eight years and much bloodshed, Astelan delivered what he had promised the Imperial Commander: victory. When he realized that Dax meant to institute leaders from the old noble houses again once now that the war was finished, Astelan's '[[sacred bands' ]] of elite warriors staged another revolution and killed the Imperial Commander, they and the general populace insisting that Astelan take his place. During This wish was rebuffed by various Imperial authorities on the final stages planet, particularly that of the [[Ecclesiarchy]], who were horrified by Astelan's assertion that the Emperor, while of course being the rightful leader of the Imperium whose wishes and philosophies must be obeyed...was not actually a god. Delivering to him an ultimatum that he acknowledge the Emperor as god or face a third revolt against , Astelan, disgusted with their religious dogma and seeing it as a bastardisation of the [[Imperial CommanderTruth]], violently removed them (and all members of the [[Adeptus Terra]] on the planet who felt the same) from power, setting himself up as the sole authority on the planet. Over the next seven decades he turned his thoughts to building up the armies of Tharsis into a crusading force, so that he could continue on with the Great Crusade. At some point towards the end of this period, one lone space pod piloted by an individual opposed to these aims got out of the system and placed sent a distress call. The call was picked up by a [[Dark Angels]] ship passing by the sector, who retrieved the survivor and learned the story.{{Fn|1x5c}}
The Dark Angels sent [[Interrogator-Chaplain]] [[Boreas (Dark Angel)|Boreas]] and a force of marines to investigate. When the Tharsian [[System Defence Fleet|system defence fleet]] attempted to hail the inbound Dark Angels [[Strike Cruiser]], it was fired upon and destroyed. The Dark Angels landed upon Tharsis, and met with armed resistance; Astelan ordered his men to defend the planet at all costs, believing that [[Fall of Caliban|history was repeating itself]], and that this time he would preserve his great works from the misguided.{{Fn|5a}} Ultimately however, Astelan's armies were largely defeated, and despite his subordinates counselling against it, Astelan decided to surrender. He gave the order to stand down and allowed the Interrogator-Chaplain and his [[Deathwing]] retinue into his command bunker, where he was placed under arrest and taken off-world for transport to the [[Tower of Angels]] for interrogation.{{Fn|5a}} Astelan had been upon Tharsis for eighty years.{{Fn|5c}}
===Imprisonment===
In the span of fifteen days{{Fn|5b}}, Boreas and his [[Librarian]] assistant [[Samiel]] pried at Astelan's mind with pain, torment, psychic abilities, and questions designed to undermine Astelan's view of the events that occurred, trying to get him to admit his sins and repent. Astelan struggled and survived, explaining much about the past of the Chapter and the old Legion before the Heresy. He explained that it was his order that set Caliban's guns ablaze against Lion El'Jonson's fleet when it returned, and he revealed that it was his voice that was lent to [[Luther]] when the [[Space Marines]] on Caliban were uncertain that they were being led in the right direction while watching over the planet.{{Fn|1x5}}
Astelan claimed that his actions upon Tharsis were a continuance of the Great Crusade; to unify and lead the people of the Imperium as the Emperor had wished his Space Marines to do. Boreas countered that the Astartes were created to serve, not to rule, and that Astelan's allowance of the Tharsians to fight against the Dark Angels proved his heresy. Astelan's retort was that he and his men all believed in the Emperor's ideals of human dominion and were loyal to the Imperium; they fought to defend their world, attacked because the Dark Angels valued the capture of one man - himself - over the sanctity of an entire planet, diverting resources enough to protect star systems to ravage it and capture him. Boreas dismissed these claims as the excuses of a despot unable to recognise how far he had fallen. {{Fn|5a}} He explained that it was his order that set Caliban's guns ablaze against Lion El'Jonson's fleet when it returned, and he revealed that it was his voice that was lent to [[Luther]] when the [[Space Marines]] on Caliban were uncertain that they were being led in the right direction while watching over the planet.{{Fn|5x}} After his interrogation, Astelan was taken from his interrogation chamber by [[Sapphon]], the Grand Master of [[Chaplains]], and placed in a cell in the deepest catacombs of [[the Rock]].{{Fn|1x5x}}
==Sources==
**{{Endn|3d}}: Chapter Eighteen
*{{Endn|4}}: [[Master of the First (Audio Drama)]] by Gav Thorpe
*{{Endn|5}}: [[Angels of Darkness (Novel)]] by Gav Thorpe**{{Endn|5a}}: The Tale of Astelan, part one**{{Endn|5b}}: The Tale of Astelan, part four**{{Endn|5c}}: The Tale of Astelan, part two
{{DEFAULTSORT:Astelan, Merir}}
[[Category:Characters (Fallen Angels)]]
[[Category:Characters (Space Marine)]]
[[de:Merir Astelan]]
