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'''Merir Astelan''' is a notable member of the [[Fallen]], and as such is considered a renegade [[Dark Angel]] [[Space Marine]]. Once a [[Chapter Master]] of the Dark Angels [[Legion]]{{Fn|1a}}, his name appears at the top of the secret list kept by the [[Grand Master]] of [[Chaplains]] of the Dark Angels [[Chapter]], the list of the names of the one hundred and thirty-six [[Space Marines]] who first swore allegiance to [[Luther]] when he rebelled against the Dark Angels [[Primarch]], [[Lion El'Jonson]].{{Fn|5c}} As a result, he is currently hunted by their descendants the Dark Angels as a notorious traitor.{{Fn|2}}
==History==
===The Great Crusade===
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 Delveand Port Imperial===When Astelan emerged from the Warp, he found himself on a an Imperial 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 Falling in with the inhabitants, he was shocked to discover that 9,000 years had passed since he had last perceived the [[galaxy]]. After absorbing this information, and spending much time reading up on all the available Imperial historical and cultural records, he grew to pity the current state of living in the cramped confines Imperium. Determining to attempt to "light a signal fire" to respark the philosophies of the Great Crusade, he sought a way off-world, so he left ultimately leaving the planet on the ship of the [[Rogue Trader]] [[Rosen Trialartes]], the ''[[Saint Carthen]]''. {{Fn|5d}} However, Astelan soon discovered that Trialartes was secretly smuggling weapons to unsavory organizations, and that even if he had had the time or inclination to deliver Astelan to Caliban as the Space Marine wished, the Rogue Trader claimed that no such planet existed at the co-ordinates Astelan gave him. Astelan therefore reluctantly accompanied the smuggler to the mercenary port of [[Port Imperial]] in the hopes of finding a more tractable ship-captain. There he met , fates conspired to bring him into contact with two other [[Fallen|Fallen Angels]], [[Methelas]] and [[Anovel]], who had arrived there one hundred years earlier and ultimately set themselves up as the commanders of the [[space station]]. The Caliban-born Fallen, Astelan did not recognise them, but they knew him instantly, and placed themselves under his command. Dreaming of a new beginning of an age of greatness, the trio proceeded to systematically commandeer weapons systems and armour plating from the other ships in the docksin order to refit the ''Saint Carthen'' as a combat-capable vessel fitting to launch a new crusade with. Once this act was completed, before turning they turned their newly acquired weapons on the ships they were stolen from as well as Port Imperial itself. As the three Fallen began their crusade by hunting down and exterminating the pirates who used Port Imperial as a waystation, Astelan was further informed of the changes in the Dark Angels by the other two.{{Fn|5x5d}}
===Tharsis===
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. This wish was rebuffed by various Imperial authorities on the 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, Astelan, disgusted with their religious dogma and seeing it as a bastardisation of the [[Imperial Truth]], 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 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|5c}}
**{{Endn|5b}}: The Tale of Astelan, part four
**{{Endn|5c}}: The Tale of Astelan, part two
**{{Endn|5d}}: The Tale of Astelan, part three
{{DEFAULTSORT:Astelan, Merir}}
[[Category:Characters (Fallen Angels)]]
[[Category:Characters (Space Marine)]]
[[de:Merir Astelan]]
