If you’re one of the few people who didn’t hear the internet exploding over the momentous return of Lion El’Jonson to the 41st Millennium, then congratulations! You get to gaze over this glorious model for the first time.
It’s enough to warm the hard heart of even the dourest Unforgiven. Despite a 10,000-year convalescence, the Lion is raring to get back to his favourite hobby – killing traitors. Any cobwebs he might have had from his slumber have been well and truly shaken off, if the stats on his datasheet are anything to go by.
While most of his characteristics mirror those of his brother Roboute Guilliman, the Lion’s sword arm is a good bit quicker with a staggering 10 attacks. That would already be enough to put his noble sibling onto the back foot, but his massive sword Fealty only enhances his capacity for mass butchery.
Whew – safety in numbers is clearly not a concept the Lion cares for.
While Guilliman’s forté lies in matters of command and administration – a task he accomplishes with aplomb – Lion El’Jonson was ever a warrior – hunter and killer, first and foremost. Now awakened into a galaxy of darkness and insanity, he strides between the stars on a mission of vengeance.
Long before his return reached the ears of the wider galaxy, the Lion’s legend had begun to spread from planet to planet – disconnected worlds united by a mysterious figure who stalked from mist-wreathed passageways to cut down fearsome monsters like chaff. Some knew him as the Cowled Giant or the Unforgiving Knight, or even as the Emperor Incarnate, and his arrival was always heralded by an apparition of ancient forests fading from the aether.
The true nature of this empyric travel is known only to the Primarch himself, but as he lay slumbering beneath the Rock his dreams often returned to the forests of his youth. Could he be borne by the ghosts of that same arboreal realm, slain in the destruction of Caliban? He’s certainly not telling, but the practical applications of this ability to appear as if from nowhere aren’t lost on him.
What marks him out as a warrior of truly singular provenance isn’t even his sword, but rather the Emperor’s Shield. This auramite aegis was once wielded by the Emperor himself, and aside from its indomitable protective powers it reflects the force of incoming attacks right back at his foe with a sonorous boom.*
One question that a lot of you have is how to get hold of this incredible model. The Warhammer Community Interrogator-Chaplains have been able to extract an answer to that: the Lion will be available for the first time alongside a retinue of three Bladeguard Veterans and two pieces of special edition artwork – one a duel with Angron and the other a heroic pose.
If you don’t manage to get him in this box, don’t worry. He’ll be out on his own soon enough – just like the foul xenos commanders of the Orks and T’au, when they break out of their Boarding Patrol boxes.
Many more questions still surround the returned Primarch. How was he discovered? How will the Dark Angels react? Are the Fallen somehow involved? Some of these might be answered when Arks of Omen: The Lion drops, and more might be uncovered in the upcoming novel The Lion: Son Of The Forest – coming soon from Black Library. And for the rest… well, you’ll just have to wait and see.
* As Angron is sure to discover when their showdown begins in Arks of Omen: The Lion.