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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
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===The Great Crusade===
[[Image:Astelan.jpg|left|thumb|200px|[[Chapter Master]] Astelan]]
A [[Terran]] native from the plains of the '''Sibran region''', Astelan was a child when his land was conquered by the [[Emperor]]'s [[Thunder Warriors]], and he retained vivid memories of the massacres he saw for the rest of his life. {{Fn|4} Astelan claimed that his people were then among the first to fight alongside the Emperor during the [[Wars of Unification]] and that it was from them that the Emperor took the first recruits for the [[Legiones Astartes]]{{Fn|5b}}; Astelan was afterwards inducted into the [[First Legion]] - then the ''only'' legion - as one of the first ever 5,000 [[Space Marines]].{{Fn|4}} He next comes to prominence in Imperial record as a Dark Angels Legion Chapter Master, or '''Chapter Commander'''. Little is known of his previous career, though it is believed that his advancement from [[Sergeant]] to Chapter Commander took only fourteen years, and that he achieved his Chapter command before the Imperial discovery of his [[Primarch]], [[Lion El'Jonson]]. Indeed, he on occasion referred to being given his power and honours by the Emperor himself.{{Fn|1a}},{{Fn|4}} However, other information about Astelan states that, as a recognised veteran, he was in fact appointed Chapter Master by Lion El'Jonson in the years following Jonson's assumption of command of the First Legion.{{Fn|3a}}
His role in the prosecution of the [[Great Crusade]] came to end in the aftermath of the compliance action carried out on the world of [[Byzanthis]]. Previous to this, his [[Expeditionary Fleet]] (something less than eighteen vessels, led by Astelan's command ship, the ''Spear of Truth'') had spent five years on exploration duties in largely uncharted areas of space, going without refit or resupply from the Legion for four of those, and indeed not even finding any habitable planets worth absorbing into the [[Imperium]] for three. {{Fn|1a}}
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}}
====The Tale of Astelan====
Astelan's version of the Fall of Caliban began with the notion that Lion El'Jonson had abandoned the marines stationed there, especially the ones who originated from Terra. He claimed to have sent deputations to the Lion asking him to recall them to the Great Crusade, but the messengers returned having received no answer. He further claimed that Luther - a natural great warrior and leader of men - despondent at this supposed abandonment and believing that the Lion's jealousy had damned him to rot, would have retreated into useless ranting and shouting from his tower without his own guidance and vision into making the Dark Angels left on Caliban into something purposeful. For, while the newer Calibanite marines assigned to remain on the planet took him as their lord, the bulk of the forces stationed there - the Terran marines - felt abandoned by the Lion and considered therefore that their loyalty was to the Emperor alone; they listened to Luther only out of polite respect for his previous achievements. As a result, when Luther needed to sway the Terran marines to his cause, his oratory initially fell on less than receptive ears. Astelan claimed that it was he that made the difference; as a senior veteran of the old Legion, when he stood up next to Luther and offered him his support, the Terran marines followed.{{Fn|5b}}
When news - hearsay and rumour brought by scattered communications and infrequent messages - of the [[Horus Heresy]] reached Caliban, the Dark Angels stationed there were at first unsure of what to believe. But Luther, with Astelan's support, proposed that they disobey the standing orders of the Lion (whom they had not heard from and had no idea of his allegiance or status) and leave the planet to join the fight, if one was occurring, on the Emperor' side. However, it transpired that a section among the Calibanite marines listened neither to Astelan ''or'' Luther, but held sway to the Lion's command to remain on Caliban. According to Astelan, they opposed the leaving of the planet, militarily. The fleet elements under their command opened fire upon the first wave of transport craft heading to orbit, halting the embarkation completely. Astelan and Luther's marines counter-attacked in force, and drove them from orbit, some of the survivors fleeing in their ships, others going to ground in the wilderness of Caliban. Afraid to leave the planet while these supposed treacherous brothers were at large, a hunt for them was organised and thought successfully concluded. However, when the other Dark Angels again attempted to leave, the surviving Lionist marines attacked and took control of the ''[[Wrath of Terra]]'', Astelan's own [[battle barge]] and used it to destroy the entirety of the remaining fleet, marooning the Dark Angels upon Caliban completely. Then, they deliberately crashed the ''Wrath of Terra'' upon Caliban's surface, causing a planetary catastrophe that flooded the southern lowlands and ignited much of the remaining forests on the world. As the biosphere began to die, the remaining Lutherean/Imperial Astartes despaired and felt massive guilt at allowing Caliban to become so despoiled, and feared the Lion's wrath at their massive failure should he return.{{Fn|5b}}
And return he did. By the time he did so, Luther had locked himself up in the Tower of Angels, leaving planetary defence to Astellan. When an inbound fleet of Dark Angels was detected, Astellan at first thought it was the surviving Lionist rebels returning, but an intercepted communication revealed it to be the fleet of Lion El'Jonson himself. Astellan then claimed than Luther contacted him, afraid at what the Lion would do once he learned of all that had transpired on now-ruined Caliban, and asked for the Terran marine's advice. Astellan gave him no return signal.
Instead, he sent the order for the planetary defence systems to open fire upon Lion's fleet.{{Fn|5b}}
His reasons for doing so were thus: He suspected that the Lion had been primed by the escaped Lionist Calibanite marines with tales that would paint the Luther/Astelan contingent in the worst possible light, and that the inbound fleet was intending to wipe them all out. He also feared that the Lion - who had remained silent during the events of the Horus Heresy - was no longer loyal to the Emperor. The Dark Angels of Caliban had heard very little of the doings of their parent legion in the Heresy and still did not know whose side they had fought on, or the outcome. Finally, Astellan admitted that he simply wanted Lion El'Jonson to die, as he believed his oaths to the Emperor and the Emperor-sworn marines under his command were incompatible with those of the Lion, and that he was loyal to the Emperor first and by a wide margin; therefore the Lion had to be removed.{{Fn|5b}}
Aghast at this admittance of foul treachery - wanting your own Primarch to be killed - Boreas scorned Astelan's assertion that the ruination of the Great Crusade was all the fault of the Primarchs and that the Legions would have been better off remaining under the singular command of the Emperor. He accused Astelan of arrogance and jealously empowered by the rantings of the madman, Luther. Astelan insisted that he had never fallen to Chaos and remained true to the Emperor always, counter-claiming that the Dark Angels Chapter of the modern era were the creatures of shadow and darkness. Finally, he spoke of the Lion opening fire upon Caliban with planet-busting weapons, his descent to the Tower of Angels to duel with Luther personally, and the apparent warp storm that spirited him and others of what would become the Fallen away.{{Fn|5b}}
His last claims were the ones Boreas found the most appalling. For Astelan pointed out that the Lion was historically noted to be unusually slow in reaching Terra, in fact to the point where the Dark Angels under his command missed the entire [[Battle of Terra]]. Scorning Boreas' version in his turn (that the Lion was waylaid by much conflict and was simply late), Astelan revealed that the Lion - a peerless strategist never defeated in battle - wasn't late; ''he was stalling in order to see who would win''.{{Fn|5b}}
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|5x}}
