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Before Angron could reply he was teleported to a nearby vessel of the XII Legion, the War Hounds.{{Fn|23}} Angron initially refused to have anything to do with his Legion, and when several [[Space Marine Captain|Captain]]s tried to talk to him, he brutally killed them, as they had been ordered by the Emperor to not raise a hand against Angron. The dead included the acting [[Legion Master|Legion commander]], [[Gheer]]. Eventually, Captain [[Khârn]] of the [[8th Company (World Eaters)|8th Assault Company]] managed to form a rapport with his gene-father, talking about the rituals of his gladiators and the traditions of the War Hounds. Now convinced of their worthiness, Angron took full control over his legion, which he renamed the World Eaters, saying they would form new traditions together.{{Fn|2}} However, in the early days of Angron's leadership, he still refused to acknowledge most of his sons, who could not survive the implantation of the Butcher's Nails. At one point Angron simply abandoned his Legion, hijacking a [[Frigate]] and disappearing. After two years of searching Kharn was able to track him down to a [[Feral World]], where Angron lived like a savage and revealed that he was simply seeking a foe that could put him out of his misery. Kharn eventually convinced Angron to rejoin the Legion by reminding him that his Nucerian comrades would hate to see him in this state, and with the promise that he would try to lead the World Eaters to shed their weakness.{{Fn|25g}}
Most infamously, Angron ordered that the World Eaters conquer their targeted worlds within 31 hours - a single Nucerian day and the time he had scored his greatest victory upon the planet. The World Eaters consistently failed to capture worlds within this time limit, and each time Angron ordered decimation as punishment, forcing 1 of every 10 World Eaters to be killed by his other 9 brothers. After several of these episodes, [[Centurion (Rank)|Centurion]] [[Mago]] finally refused to again enact decimation after the [[Ghenna Massacre|Ghenna Campaign]]. This caused Angron to be thrown into a raged frenzy, during which he murdered several nearby World Eaters until being subdued by his [[Librarian]]s.{{Fn|25b}} While Angron lay comatose and had his memories of Nuceria absorbed by the young [[Lexicanium]] [[Tethys (Librarian)|Tethys]], a crisis erupted across the Legion as Mago attempted to stop [[Gahlan Surlak]] from installing the perfected Butcher's Nails in all of the World Eaters. Mago's revolt came to its climax on [[Ghenna]], where Kharn slew the rebel Centurion while Angron slew Tethys.{{Fn|25h}} Now at the head of a Legion wielding the Nails, Angron reaped many victories during the [[Great Crusade]], although some criticized the extreme and bloodthirsty tactics he used to ensure the destruction of his opponents.{{Cite ThisCME}}
[[Image:Tales_of_heresy_clean.jpg|thumb|250px|right|The Red Angel and his Legion.{{Fn|29}}]]
At some point following the rediscovery of Angron, [[Arkhan Land]] was brought to a secret laboratory hidden in a dormant volcano in tundra location on Terra to aid in the Emperor's investigation of Angron's crude augmetics as the primarch lay unconscious. Land had previous experience with the device taking over Angron's body, having see it when investigating the Hexarchion Vaults before he ordered them sealed do to the threat the items within presented to the Machine Cult. He told the Emperor that it was called a ''cruciamen'', but the versions he saw were more crude. The Emperor explained that the implants were not his doing and that he believed they led to the Angron's instability. He also explained that they were recreated to remove the ability to enjoy anything but anger. When asked if the Emperor could remove it, he admitted he could, but the tendrils were deep in Angron's head and spine and he was missing his limbic lobe and insular cortex. The Butcher's Nails therefore replaced part of Angron's brain, allowing him to live.{{fn|19}}
===The Night of the Wolf===
The Emperor himself criticized Angron for the changes he made to his recruits. Like all other gladiators on his homeworld, Angron had received special nerve-implants known as the [[Butcher's Nails]] which tremendously heightened his aggression but also had the side effect of uncontrollable rages outside of battle. Angron ordered his [[Techmarine]]s and [[Apothecaries]] to duplicate the technology and that all recruits undergo the process that would turn them into aggressive and fearless warriors. Despite the obvious advantages, the [[Emperor]] was displeased, and ordered him to stop. Angron paid him no heed and continued the unsavory practice secretly.{{Cite ThisCME}}.
This led to the World Eaters being criticized for their general bloodlust and barbarity by their fellow Legionnaires. They were known for blood rituals when not in combat, and competed with each other for the number of enemy heads they could take in battle. Eventually the Emperor dispatched the [[Space Wolves]] and [[Leman Russ (Primarch)|Leman Russ]] to [[Malkoya]] to deal with Angron and demand an end to both the Butcher's Nail surgeries and massacres carried out by the World Eaters. A tense standoff between the Wolves and World Eaters resulted with all-out warfare, eventually breaking out in a brief but [[Night of the Wolf|bloody battle]]. Angron engaged Russ in single combat, defeating Russ but allowing himself to become encircled by Russ's bodyguards in the process. Angron failed to understand that his bloodlust and disregard for both his life and his legionnaires had allowed him to become encircled. Disappointed that his brother had not learned this lesson, Russ ordered a retreat. Angron saw this as a victory, for while he would have fallen had Russ gave the order to open fire, he had bested the Wolf and the World Eaters suffered fewer casualties than their enemies.{{Fn|11a}}
According to the custom of the gladiators he was raised among, Angron cut scars into his torso after each of his battles, in a continuing length known as the '''Triumph Rope'''. For every victory, the scar would be left to heal normally, while for every defeat the warrior would work some dirt into the wound and cause the scar to turn black. Angron was the only gladiator in his world's history without any black scars.{{Fn|2}}
[[Corax]] believed that no other [[Primarch]] could have bested Angron in single combat save for [[Horus]] and perhaps [[Sanguinius]].{{Fn|4}} [[Leman Russ (Primarch)|Leman Russ]] was often considered his equal;{{Cite ThisCME}}; [[Rogal Dorn]], on the other hand, believed that he could defeat Angron easily, and feared him much less as an adversary than he did Horus.{{Fn|14}}
Before possessing the [[Butcher's Nails]] Angron displayed an inherent psychic ability which allowed him to not only feel but also somehow absorb the pain and negative emotions of others. He used this to calm child slaves in the caves of [[Nuceria]].{{Fn|25e}}
*{{Endn|4}}: [[Raven's Flight (Audio Book)]]
*{{Endn|5}}: [[Rules of Engagement (Short Story)]]
*{{Endn|6}}: [[White Dwarf 150]]{{cite thisCME}}
*{{Endn|7}}: [[White Dwarf 279 (UK)]], pgs. 105–114
*{{Endn|8}}: [[Butcher's Nails (Audio Book)]]
**{{Endn|16a}}: pg. 86
**{{Endn|16b}}: pgs. 256-257
*{{Endn|17}}: [[Battle for the Abyss (Novel)]] {{Cite thisCME}}*{{Endn|18}}: [[Aurelian (Novella)]], {{Cite ThisCME}}
*{{Endn|19}}: [[Master of Mankind (Novel)]], Chapters 7, 13
*{{Endn|20}}: [[Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition Rulebook]], pg. 52
