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So up until I read the Alpha Legion section in Extermination I assumed we had just had Alpharius and Omegon, but in Extermination the start of the Alpha Legion section has three skulls, one with Alpha, one with Omega and one with Epsilon. There is also several references to the Hydra having three heads, multiple discovery stories of the Primarch, etc. So, are the recon'ing it to triplets now or is it another Alpha Legion trick?

Picture reference for anyone who hasn't read the book but still wants in on the discussion:


For the record, that's Sigma, not Epsilon. I also doubt that "a third Primarch" is the actual case. That would be beyond silly and discredit a lot of what has been written about the Alpha Legion since Dan Abnett's Legion. The way I would interpret it is that the Omega represents Omegon, the Alpha represents Alpharius, and the Sigma represents the Legion as a whole. After all, in math, the symbol Sigma is used to represent the sum or total of numbers that make up a whole in an equation. The fact that the skull is placed on the same 'level' as the Primarch's skulls could be representative of the enormous respect the Primarch(s) have for their sons and the relatively non-hierarchical system of their infrastructure. The Alpha Legion exemplifies the idea of "a body of one", so having the entirety of the Legionnaires represented with a single skull makes a lot of sense; especially when the symbol on that skull is heavily associated with "the sum of many parts".

That's what I thought but they were bigging up the number three a lot in the Alpha Legion section. Your idea that its the normal Alpha Legion Marines makes a lot of sense, especially as normal Alpha Legion Marines have stood in for Alpharius at multiple times.

As Darth Bob said, sigma is the sum of parts, I came to the conclusion that the third skull was the operatives who commonly take the place of the Primarchs.
Also, First Heretic has a one line reference about the Primarch capsule XX having 8 limbs inside it, if that doesn't say 'twins', I don't know what does.

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:
As Darth Bob said, sigma is the sum of parts, I came to the conclusion that the third skull was the operatives who commonly take the place of the Primarchs.
Also, First Heretic has a one line reference about the Primarch capsule XX having 8 limbs inside it, if that doesn't say 'twins', I don't know what does.

Really? Not doubting you just can't remember that part.

Surely then the Emperor should have known about Omegon if he was in the tank, unless he thought Alpharius was an octopus

Chapter 18, Pg 312: "Whatever moved within the incubator had too many limbs to be a lone human child".

I am reading Extermination right now. Quite good, and lots of references to Alpharius and the missing Primarchs.

Anyway, the Hydra is depicted with three heads.

 da001 wrote:
Chapter 18, Pg 312: "Whatever moved within the incubator had too many limbs to be a lone human child".

I am reading Extermination right now. Quite good, and lots of references to Alpharius and the missing Primarchs.

Anyway, the Hydra is depicted with three heads.

Thanks, now I remember.

I wonder why the Emperor wasn't aware of Omegon, or maybe he was but this was part of his design.

Hmm, this also makes me question, is Lorgar aware of Omegon. I guess Argel Tal would have told Lorgar of what transpired, perhaps the two books that he gave to Alpharius are a nod that he knows.

Perhaps the Emperor never bothered to look in the actual tanks. I don't recall anyone seeing him the lab when Tal and Horus visit it.

 welshhoppo wrote:
Perhaps the Emperor never bothered to look in the actual tanks. I don't recall anyone seeing him the lab when Tal and Horus visit it.

Well, that would be a explanation. But if I were the Emperor I would want to know how my projects that I had invested so much in were coming along.

I can´t imagine a scientist such as the Emperor not caring to monitorize his experiments, to the point of missing the fact that instead of one entity, two or three were growing inside the tank.

And he was supposed to be helped by technicians, later killed off. Nobody noticed?

One of the discovery stories in Extermination suggests that one of the twins stayed with the Emp. and the other was lost at the same time of the rest of the primarchs; its marked as a lie (they all are in that section) but it sounds plausible to me. The section also talks about Alpha Legion working as the Emp. covert force before the official discovery of Alpharius.

Looky Likey wrote:
One of the discovery stories in Extermination suggests that one of the twins stayed with the Emp. and the other was lost at the same time of the rest of the primarchs; its marked as a lie (they all are in that section) but it sounds plausible to me. The section also talks about Alpha Legion working as the Emp. covert force before the official discovery of Alpharius.

I´d rather prefer another to be true: the one mentioning the Slaugth for the first time in 30k (that I know).

Why not both, with Omegon being the one who stayed with the Emp.?

Omegon staying with Emp might explain why he's opposed to Alpharius later on (IE, Omegon's loyal while Alpharius isn't). It would also make him the only primarch not tainted by Chaos upon birth (ALL the other primarchs, loyalists included, were sent to presumably where Chaos wanted them to go), which interestingly enough would fit in with that "Omegon became the first Grand Master of the Grey Knights" theory (I know it's mostly a joke theory yet there are enough coincidences that it could be true. Even more so with this latest potential revelation)

Damn your speculation! Also; damn what appears to be an odd publishing schedule.

In keeping with the "never advance the timeline" of 40k, imagine BL just diving deeper and deeper into minor granular details parsed with bolter porn, never reaching terra...

Omegon, Alpharius, Sigmar.

Mystery solved.

 Abadabadoobaddon wrote:
Omegon, Alpharius, Sigmar.

Mystery solved.

Don't, please don't. My brain can't handle this.

Wait a tic.

The Alpha Legion Primarch wasn't twins, they were Triplets!!!

Dun Dun Dun.

 Happyjew wrote:
Wait a tic.

The Alpha Legion Primarch wasn't twins, they were Triplets!!!

Dun Dun Dun.

Well it would make sense:

Good
Evil
Neutral

Three People. But two are primarchs, one is not. He represents the choices that have to be made. So it represents the sons of the alpha legion and their choice to either be with omegon or Alpharius.

 Abadabadoobaddon wrote:
Omegon, Alpharius, Sigmar.

Mystery solved.

I lol'd.

It all makes sense now. Sigmar was the third twin and the twin tail comet was his brothers trying to call him home. Then they could finally be a hydra once more.