Lion El'Jonson: Warhammer 40K Lore Guide

He was the first. Before any other Primarch was found, Lion El'Jonson already commanded the I Legion, and for much of the Great Crusade his warriors were the Imperium's sword in its darkest wars. He was a knight raised in a haunted forest, a cold and brilliant strategist, and a man so private that even his brothers never truly knew him. Then, at the end of the Horus Heresy, he vanished, and for ten thousand years his sons guarded both his memory and his greatest shame.

The Lion is the gene-father and Primarch of the Dark Angels and their Unforgiven successor Chapters. The Chapter guide explains the Deathwing, the Ravenwing, the Inner Circle and the hunt for the Fallen. This page follows the Lion himself: his youth on Caliban, his bond with Luther, his feuds with Leman Russ and Konrad Curze, his role during the Heresy, the destruction of his homeworld, and his return in 2023.

He is also, today, one of only a handful of loyal Primarchs active in the galaxy, which makes him one of the most important figures in the current setting.

Lion El'Jonson at a Glance

Origin: The Child in the Forest

The Lion's capsule fell into the deep forests of Caliban, a world of feudal fortress-monasteries surrounded by woods full of monstrous Great Beasts and stranger, corrupting things. The infant survived alone. By the time a party of knights from the Order found him, he was a wild young boy who had learned to hunt and kill in the forest. Among those knights was Luther, who became his mentor, his friend and, much later, his betrayer.

The Order raised him and named him Lion El'Jonson, the Lion, Son of the Forest. He quickly outgrew his teachers. He reformed the Order, opened it to commoners and led Caliban's knights in a crusade that exterminated the Great Beasts. By the time the Emperor arrived, the Lion and Luther were the most celebrated heroes of their world, and the Order's ideals of chivalry, secrecy and hierarchy would become the culture of his Legion.

The Great Crusade: The First Legion

The I Legion had already fought for decades before it was reunited with its Primarch. Under the Lion it became one of the most feared forces in the Crusade: disciplined, versatile and entrusted with ancient weapons too dangerous for most Legions. In Horus Heresy-era lore its warriors were organized into specialist Wings — among them the Deathwing and the Ravenwing, whose names survive in the modern Chapter.

The Lion's own style of war was cold and total. He was a planner who saw campaigns many moves ahead and did not explain himself. Victory mattered; glory did not. That made him effective and also hard to like. His brothers often found him aloof and secretive, and he trusted few of them.

It was during the Crusade that he took a fateful decision. He sent Luther and a portion of the Legion back to Caliban, ostensibly to oversee recruitment. Luther saw it as exile, and over the following decades that resentment would curdle into treachery.

The Lion and the Horus Heresy

When the Horus Heresy broke out, the Dark Angels were far from Terra. Their record in the war, as told in Black Library's novels, is one of the most ambiguous of any loyal Legion. The Lion fought a brutal campaign against the Night Lords of Konrad Curze in the Thramas sector, a war of attrition between two of the most ruthless Primarchs, which included a personal clash between the brothers in Aaron Dembski-Bowden's Savage Weapons.

Later, cut off by the Ruinstorm, the Lion joined Roboute Guilliman's Imperium Secundus on Macragge, where he became Lord Protector beside Sanguinius as its Emperor. He distrusted Guilliman's project from the start and was suspicious of his brother's ambitions. The Dark Angels did not reach Terra in time for the Siege, and the Lion's critics have long wondered why. The novels suggest a commander making hard choices under impossible conditions, but the question still hangs over him.

The Fall of Caliban

When the Lion finally led his Legion home after the war, Caliban's defenses opened fire on his fleet. Luther and the Dark Angels left on Caliban had turned against him, touched by Chaos and years of bitterness. The Lion's forces bombarded his own homeworld, and he faced Luther in a final duel.

What happened next is the Dark Angels' deepest secret. The battle unleashed forces that tore Caliban apart. The warriors who had sided with Luther, the Fallen, were scattered across time and space. Luther was found alive in the ruins, insisting that only he knew what had become of the Lion. And the Lion was gone: according to the Chapter's tradition, the mysterious Watchers in the Dark carried him into the depths of the surviving fragment of Caliban, the Rock, where his sons believed he slept. For ten thousand years the Dark Angels hunted the Fallen in secret, hoping to erase the stain before their Primarch woke.

Personality and Relationships

The Lion is the most knightly of the Primarchs and one of the most guarded. He is honorable, but his honor is private; he keeps his reasons to himself. He is capable of great ruthlessness when he believes it necessary, and he does not easily forgive.

• Leman Russ — the most famous rivalry among the loyal Primarchs. The tales of their clash during the Crusade differ; the best-known version has Russ laughing in the middle of the duel and the Lion knocking him unconscious. The grudge passed to their sons. See our Leman Russ guide.
• Konrad Curze — the Night Haunter, his enemy in the Thramas war and a brother he loathed.
• Roboute Guilliman — a brother he respected but distrusted during Imperium Secundus, and now the Regent of the Imperium he has returned to.
• Luther — not a Primarch, but the man whose betrayal defines the Lion's story more than any brother's.

For the full family and every Primarch's fate, see our guide to the Primarchs.

The Return of the Lion

In 2023, Games Workshop brought the Lion back. He awakens alone in a forest on a world of the Dark Imperium, injured and unsure how he came to be there, in a galaxy split by the Great Rift. Black Library's Lion: Son of the Forest by Mike Brooks follows his first steps in the 41st Millennium: he discovers that he can pass along strange forest paths between worlds, and begins defending the beleaguered planets of Imperium Nihilus, the half of the Imperium cut off from Terra's light.

The Lion's return is full of unresolved tension. His sons have spent ten millennia keeping secrets in his name, and he does not yet know everything they have done. Guilliman, the Regent, now has a brother who outranks him in seniority and does not share all his views. The Space Wolves remember the old feud, and the Fallen remain at large. In the 2026 setting, the Lion is active and fighting, but how these threads resolve is still being written.

Lion El'Jonson on the Tabletop

The Lion's return came with a large plastic model in 2023, showing him in green armor with a great sword and shield and a lion-headed pauldron. He leads Dark Angels armies in Warhammer 40,000, where he plays as a towering duelist and a near-unstoppable bodyguard to his army, wading into the enemy's best units and refusing to fall. He pairs naturally with the Chapter's Deathwing Knights and Inner Circle units, the closest modern echo of the knights of Caliban. Earlier, the Lion was also available for the Horus Heresy game in his Legion-era armor.

Lion El'Jonson FAQ

Is Lion El'Jonson back in Warhammer 40K?

Yes. He returned in 2023 and is active in the current setting, fighting in Imperium Nihilus. His reunion with the Dark Angels and their secrets is an ongoing storyline.

What happened to the Lion after the Horus Heresy?

He fought Luther as Caliban was destroyed, then disappeared. Dark Angels tradition says the Watchers in the Dark carried him into the Rock to sleep, though the truth is unclear even to them.

Who is Luther?

The knight who found the infant Lion on Caliban and became his closest friend. Left behind on Caliban during the Crusade, he turned against the Lion during the Heresy and led the Fallen.

Why do the Lion and Leman Russ hate each other?

They clashed during the Great Crusade, and the story has many versions. The rivalry continues between the Dark Angels and the Space Wolves to this day, though the two Chapters often fight side by side.

Is the Lion a traitor?

No. The Lion is loyal. Part of his Legion rebelled on Caliban, and some critics question the Dark Angels' conduct during the Heresy, but the Lion never sided with Horus.

Continue Exploring

• Dark Angels — the Lion's Chapter, the Deathwing, Ravenwing and the hunt for the Fallen.
• The Primarchs — all the sons of the Emperor and their fates.
• Leman Russ — the Wolf King and the Lion's oldest rival.
• Konrad Curze — the Night Haunter, his enemy in the Thramas war.
• Roboute Guilliman — the Regent of the Imperium the Lion has returned to.
• Warhammer 40K factions guide — every army, its lore and how it plays.

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