Changes

{{DarkAngelsPortal}}

[[Image:AstelanPortrait.jpg|thumb|220px|Merir Astelan]]

'''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|1}}, 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 the Dark Angels as a notorious traitor.{{Fn|2}}

==History==

===The Great Crusade===

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|1}}

[[Image:Astelan.jpg|right|thumb|200px|[[Chapter Master]] Astelan]]

===Caliban===

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===

Astelan at first could not believe what he was seeing; not only was the Tower of Angels now some sort of asteroid, not only were there [[Deathwing|white-armoured Dark Angels bedecked with heathen tokens]], the Chapter even employed [[Librarians|witches]], long outlawed by the Emperor himself. Despondent that the warnings given to him by Methelas and Anovel, that the modern-era Dark Angels were ruled by superstition, ignorance and secrecy, appeared to be true, he wished he had not surrendered. At first he thought the Dark Angels had attacked Tharsis out of a misplaced sense of revenge, but as his interrogation began, both Astelan and Boreas would learn much of the other and their given reasons for their actions.{{Fn|5a}}

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}}

Astelan was ultimately able to escape his captivity on The Rock, and soon meets up with former comrades [[Methelas]] and [[Anovel]]. Together they conspired with [[Typhus]] to unite the [[Tuchulcha]] engine with its brother devices and open up a time portal ten thousand years previous that would allow the original legions of Fallen to enter the [[41st Millennia]]. With captured gene-seed he planned to have the Fallen, Death Guard, and newly created Astartes all merge together into an unstoppable legion known as the Death Angels. However Astelan and Typhus are [[Battle of the Caliban System|ultimately foiled]] thanks to the efforts of [[Azrael]] and [[Cypher]], who managed to turn Anovel to their cause along the way.{{Fn|6}}

==Sources==

*{{Endn|1}}: ''[[Call of the Lion (Short Story)]]'' by [[Gav Thorpe]]

**{{Endn|3d}}: Chapter Eighteen

*{{Endn|4}}: [[Master of the First (Audio Drama)]] by Gav Thorpe

**{{Endn|5a}}: The Tale of Astelan, part one

**{{Endn|5b}}: The Tale of Astelan, part four

**{{Endn|5d}}: The Tale of Astelan, part three

**{{Endn|5x}}: {{Cite This}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Astelan, Merir}}

[[Category:Characters (Fallen Angels)]]