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The Dark Angels first known engagement - and indeed the first combat engagement of the Legiones Astartes - was combating the [[Palace Coup]] at the end of the [[Unification Wars]].{{Fn|46}} These earliest warriors quickly gained a reputation amongst the disparate armies of the Emperor as the [[Uncrowned Princes]]. Fighting at first as small groups within the Emperor's own hosts, these ''Crowns'' inspired both unity and a certain arrogance in the first Space Marines and spurred them to lead the way amongst the growing Astartes brotherhood. The Uncrowned Princes would become the first [[Hosts of the First Legion|Hosts]] of the '''First Legion''' and were later refined into the [[Hexagrammaton]] by [[Lion El'Jonson]]. These Hosts were not bound by Company or Commander and existed throughout the Legion, at any given battle at least some small number of a given Host would be present to advise and lead their comrades. As many as 18 Hosts were known to exist in the Legion's early years, though by the end of the [[Great Crusade]] only six existed. These early hosts gained fame in battles of the Unification Wars such as the [[Third Siege of Antioch]] in 603.[[M30]], in which nine Hosts spread across four Companies saw action, though they numbered less than 30 warriors each. In these actions the First Legion became the testbed for the various tactics and doctrines that would later become the [[Principia Bellicosa]] of the [[Legiones Astartes]]. As other Legions grew in size, some of the more specialized Hosts became obsolete and were disbanded while others were simply destroyed in combat due to their inadequacies. Far from harming the Legion, it left the First Legion a well-honed weapon forged by a bond between disparate warriors. This bond was based upon a sense of superiority and distinction instilled in them.{{Fn|50c}}
The First Legion was by far the largest Astartes force by the later of the Unification Wars, numbering 10,000 while the other Legions were often a few hundred each. At the Siege of [[Wikipedia: Samarkand|Samerkend]] in 668.[[M30]] the First Legion took to the field en masse publicly for the first time. With the Emperor himself at their head, the First Legion faced its first true combat test as all 10,000 Astartes backed by contingents from four other Legions took to the field against 200,000 gene-forged [[Udug Hul]] of the [[Great King of Akkad]]. It took only ten hours for the First Legion to emerge victorious and slay the Great King of Akkad, whose head was given to the first [[Legion Master]] [[Hector Thrane]]. This first victory was to set a pattern of the First Legion's battles during the Unification Wars and the [[Sol System]], pitting them against the most horrific of foes with orders to eradicate them completely. This process repeated itself at Fortress Thirty-One in the [[Thulean Wastes]] and the [[Battle of Karnakon]] amid the cryo-volcanic mountains of [[Sedna]]. To prosecute these horrific campaigns the Emperor granted the First Legion the most forbidden and ancient weaponry from his vaults. These included biological weaponry which assailed the enemy at the genetic level, [[Rad Weapon|radiation weapons]], nanite scourges, magna planet-breakers, and [[Vortex Weapon|vortrex vortex weaponry]].{{Fn|50d}}
Thus among the armies of Unification it was the First Legion which became synonymous with death and were feared and regarded with ominous superstition by their mortal allies. This reputation eventually found its way into the Legion itself, and they adopted the skeletal icon of death as their own. While other growing Legions were granted lesser honours of standing triumphant in mundane wars of conquest, the First realized that they were the left hand of the Emperor himself and took pride in their solitary self-imposed exile and dour demeanour. In time they became known as the '''Angels of Death''', a title that has since become synonymous to all Space Marines but was originally theirs alone.{{Fn|50c}}
