Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Did the alpha legions combat doctrinr and background get retconned at some point? For instance, when was twin primarchs established?

Nope, they have just been fleshed out, not a lot was ever known about the alpha legion, in way back in the index astartes article it was mostly speculation.

This seems to be fluff since the Index Astartes 4 back in 2004. Though Lexicanum doesn’t have other citations that are earlier as far as I can tell.

What seems to be fluff since 2004? All of it?

 Niiai wrote:
What seems to be fluff since 2004? All of it?

For them being Twins. As for the rest most of Alpha Legion’s fluff is hidden. The only information that we know is true is what is in the Horus Heresy books. Even then we might not know any of the truth until the Alpharius Primarch novel comes out. (He is last btw)

basicly 99% of what we know about the Alpha Legion is speculation.

I seem to recall that there's a video interview (Black Library youtube channel perhaps?) with Dan Abnett where he mentions that the twin Primarch thing was something the studio had kicked around for a long long time but had never gotten round to exploring/committing to paper.

This ⬆️. ‘Legion’ was the first time I’d read of the twin Primarch concept for AL. Also the first of them being portrayed as sympathetic to the imperium. The best fluff BY FAR about the 20th is in HH Book 3, Extermination. The fluff is awesome and it never directly mentions the twin Primarch concept.

The Alpha Legion had almost nothing written about them. The closest thing to a retcon they got was they changed sides from ostensibly being prideful and wanting to test their mettle against the ultimate opponent - other Space Marines - to some nonsensical, harebrained Malal-scheme.

 Gashrog wrote:
I seem to recall that there's a video interview (Black Library youtube channel perhaps?) with Dan Abnett where he mentions that the twin Primarch thing was something the studio had kicked around for a long long time but had never gotten round to exploring/committing to paper.

That's correct.

More recently we’ve seen a shift in how the AL lore is written. For a long time it was, “rumors say X about the Alpha Legion. They are shrouded in secrecy and mysteriousness.” More and more frequently (especially in the HH books) we see something more like, “the Alpha Legion did X, with the possible motive of Y or another hidden motivation.” It isn’t retconning but we get more of the Alpha Legion’s deeds set in stone, and from there get better ideas about causes, motivations, and capabilities.

Much like the legion themselves there has been very little continuity in their published fluff to date.

Since HH came out it is becoming a little more uniform e.g. twin primarchs.

Praetorian of Dorn was quite a good read for AL.