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At Gramarye another Legion Council was held and this time The Lion dueled the ceremonial Council Champion [[Pyrhus Calagat]], master of the [[Host of Fire]]. In an hour long legendary duel the Primarch won the trial and accepted the titles of Grandmaster of the First Legion and the six [[Wing]]s of the Hexagrammaton: the [[Deathwing]], [[Ravenwing]], [[Dreadwing]], [[Firewing]], [[Ironwing]], and [[Stormwing]]. Before his Legion the Lion took a final oath before his sons, and they in turn swore oaths of their own to their Primarch. His oath sworn, the Lion placed new masters over each Wing and formalized the various informal Orders in the style of Caliban's Knightly Orders. By this time the new recruits from Caliban were ready and The Lion swiftly incorporated them into The Legion. The Lion's first act was to move on [[Karkasarn]], which had since rose in rebellion against its [[Ultramarines]] garrison. The reorganized Dark Angels under The Lion fought brilliantly, sweeping aside any memories of their earlier humbling on the world and saving their Ultramarines allies from being overwhelmed.{{Fn|50c}}
As though to answer The Lion's call the [[Rangda]] renewed their invasion of the Imperium. In the The [[Rangdan Xenocides]] waged on, this time with The Lion leading his Legion alongside his brother [[Leman Russ (Primarch)|Leman Russ]].{{Fn|50c}} As the first of the Astartes Legions, the Dark Angels were quite large during the early to mid Great Crusade. However , during the Rangdan Xenocides the First Legion lost 50,000 Battle-Brothers saving the northern Imperium, a steep cost they would never truly recover from. This contributed to the Dark Angels eventually losing their status as the most powerful Space Marine Legion, a title that would ultimately be claimed by the [[Ultramarines]].{{Fn|64}}
Caliban was made the [[Adeptus Astartes homeworld|homeworld]] of the Dark Angels and the whole of the Order moved to join the ranks of the [[Astartes]]. Those knights who were still young enough had the Legion's [[gene seed]] implanted within them. Those too old for this process underwent surgery to transform them into elite warriors of the [[Imperium]]. Although they were not full Space Marines, their enhancements granted them special abilities and a lifespan beyond those of normal men. The first to be brought into the Legion in this way was Luther, who became Jonson's second-in-command, just as he always had been within the Order. However, the Dark Angel's contributions to the Great Crusade had barely begun when the Lion sent Luther and a small contingent of Dark Angels back to Caliban, purportedly to garrison the world and increase the speed and quality of the training given to the Legion's recruits. Whatever the reason, the force sent back felt disgraced and rejected.{{Fn|12b}}
