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You can list only three loyalist and three traitor primarchs, because there's 9 of both, well 10 when you count in Omegon.

Loyalist:

1. Sanguinius

- Cool ass angel wings
- One of Imperium's finest warriors and commanders
- A very charismatic nature
- Cares a lot for his Legion.

2. Vulkan

- Cares about the humans he's fighting for.
- Built a legion that lives with humanity
- Generally nice to people.
- Works on avoiding collateral damage.


3. Rogal Dorn

- A great general and reminiscent of the Prussian style military leadership
- No non-sense, straight to the point, honest nature.
- Built the Phalanx.

Traitors:

1. Perturabo

- His powers of instantly learning new stuff and understanding how tech works is quite interesting.
- His obsession with firepower and the way it affects his fighting style.
- Cares little about Chaos Gods and their plans and doesn't care about the Imperium either instead making his own way as a Daemon Primarch.

2. Mortarion

- Incredibly tough
- Had a modest background
- I like the way before meeting the Emperor he sided with the Barbarus peasants and defended them from the warlords and lead them to kill a ton of the warlords.
- Doesn't like Chaos Gods at all and only had to submit to Nurgle to save his men from agony.

3. Aplharius Omegon

- The enigmatic Primarch whose goals and desires are not fully understood by anyone.
- I like the Identical Twin thing going on between the two
- The way they operate with subterfuge, infiltration, sabotage as tactics and strategy.
- I also like them for being reasonably sized, I.E. Astartes sized and not a huge 10 foot monstrosity who'd be unable to enter most modern day buildings.

Favorite loyalist- Vulkan, only Primarch who cared about us lowly humans.

Favorite traitor- Curze, bat crazy mo fo, a lot of good background info, great villain.

 Big Mac wrote:
Favorite loyalist- Vulkan, only Primarch who cared about us lowly humans.

Favorite traitor- Curze, bat crazy mo fo, a lot of good background info, great villain.

Sanguinius, Dorn, Guilliman, Ferrus Manus ,etc... don't care about normal humans?

Fulgrim.

Fin.

Favorites of both: Dorn, The Khan, Horus, Fulgrim

Least Favorites of both: Perturabo, Angron, Ferrus Manus, The Lion, Lorgar

Favorite Traitor: Magnus*

Favorite Loyalist: Rogal Dorn













*did nothing wrong!

Angron, morty and curze.

I'm a traitor guy but I like sanguinius and the Khan.

The Khan, Dorn and Russ.

Lorgar, Curze and Angron.

Guilliman, because he was well organized and pragmatic.

Curze because he and his legion were renegades before the Heresy even started, and they never gave a damn about the Imperium or the Chaos Gods.

Alpharius for being the ultimate covert and subversive operative. Dudes beyond black ops.

Least favorite: Mary Sue Hawkboy and his legion of fine young cannibals.

Loyalist; 1.Ferrus Manus, 2.Vulkan, 3.Russ

Three loyalist who gave a damn about their legions and people, while not being boring.

Traitors; 1. Konrad Curze, 2.Mortorian, 3.Angron

Space Batman, giant bullet shrugging biohazard freak, and a deranged space gladiator. Three great characters, and after the spoilers I read about the most recent Angron book, he could be one of the most tragic character out of all of them.

Vulkan, as he'd stated in "Mercy of the Dragon" that he was just a son of a blacksmith, that he didn't want to be a conquerer or general like his fellow Primarch brethren. He was immensely powerful, gifted with craftsmanship, compassionate beyond measure and last but not least, he is a perpetual, a trait only given to him by the Emperor, whether knowingly or unknowingly. As a person who holds all these traits, deserves to be considered the greatest of all the loyalist primarchs, or at the very least stand along Sanguinius.

Lorgar, as all he wanted was the primordial truth. He tried so hard to please his father and was scolded by him by having Monarchia being razed to the ground by the Ultramarines and then literally telekinetically forced him and his entire Legion to kneel before the Emperor. He was a scholar above all, something rare amongst his Primarch brethren. He needed a purpose and with the Emperor destroying that, he turned to the only thing that would accept his ideals, albeit not what he originally set out to worship.

Loyalist

Vulkan: Dope as hell; one of the only primarchs who isn't a terrible human being.
Leman Russ: Badass space Viking. What's not to love?
Corax: Where did he go? The only primarch to flat-out abandon his legion. Easily the most intriguing

Traitor
Angron: Quite possibly the smartest primarch, and definitely the one with the most tragic backstory, and greatest potential for depth.
Curze: Just, next level, out-and-out evil, and a great rationale to back it up. Such a 40k story.
Alpharius/Omegon: I love me a good mystery.

I tend to dislike Angron a bit. He was put through horros by his slave masters and acknowledges this. And then whines about it to Guilliman saying Guilliman has no right to judge him due to Guilliman having had probably the most privileged upbringing of the Primarchs. Guilliman outright destroys Angron for his hypocrisy; he knows the wrongs did to him by his slave lasters and horros he went through, and becomes even more brutal, evil and malicious than they ever were instead of using the wrongs done to him as a fuel to become better than his oppressors. I was all for Angron the first time I saw that quote, but seeing Guilliman's response outright destroyed my sympathies for Angron.

Interesting, never thought about Angron as being a hypocrite, and I tend to agree.

I also have to admit that I like the Alpha legion more than their Primarchs, but they are also one of the most interesting stories in 40k IMO.

Loyalist: Russ, the Primarch of my starting army and just cool.
Corax, actually a nice person and beat Lorgar up twice.
Lion, I like the secrecy angle, knight orders and honestly the name The Lion is neat.

Honourable mention goes to Ferrus who I'd like much more if the Iron Hands weren't such asses.

Traitor: Fulgrim, up until he went crazy I liked the desire for perfecting things and that he wanted to rebuild his planets culture.
Magnus, I like the searching for knowledge and a lot of his mistakes stem from the Big E imo. He still did a lot wrong and went full on donkey-cave after Prospero though.
Mortarion,Cool scythe, thought the Emperor sucked and didn't immediately drink the kool aid.

Loyalist: Dorn, Vulkan, Sanguinius

Traitor: Fulgrim, Batman, Magnus

Sorry, Curze, not Batman. I get the two mixed up.

Loyal: Jagathai. Has some if the funniest moments written. Tells off Fulgrim. Politely tells off Leman Russ. Laughs while killing.

Corax. Foil to Night Haunter, so I see his merits. Havent read his HH book yet.

Guilliman post Dark Imperium. The series actually made him likeable and tragic in a sense.

Traitor: Mortarion. Death Guard player. Flight of the Eisenstein was my first HH book, so reading about a PRIMARCH for the first time got me starstruck.

Night Haunter. My pet project CSM army forever. My Username. Lord of the Night was a classic.

Perturabo. For non-cult marines IW represent what Marines should be. Enjoyed his Primarchs story, and he is getting more interesting in Siege as the last Traitor Primarxh not completely bat gak crazy in the head (yet). Beats up Fulgrim, multiple times.

Favourite loyalists: Guilliman. Actually feels like a semi-reasonable character, and decently well-adjusted.

Runners up: Jaghatai, and Sanguinius. I have a soft spot for Dorn, but I struggle to properly like him.


Favourite traitors: I actually do like Magnus (he did wrong, but he's an interesting character).

Runners up: Perturabo, and Kurze/Angron (love to hate Kurze, but I love Angron's character in Betrayer too)

There's only one (and he is many) - let's hear it for Alpharius!
I guess he count's as loyal and traitor option, so I'm good.

In addition, I'm a big fan of Magnus (he did nothing wrong, really) and Sanguinius (bloody creep).

I've only ever really liked 2 - Russ and vulcan.

Sanguinius is second tier and I think everyone else is all about equal 3rd.

But this is before they thought they could take legends and mundanify them into novel protagonists.

They ruined Vulcan because they decided that Abbnett's perpetual idea was the coolest thing ever and needed to be expanded into primarchs.

They ruined Russ through their need to simultaneously try to make him super cool, while also trying to avoid having his actions contradict history, so he's challenged more primarchs to a fight than anyone else and accomplished nothing in the process.

Also abbnett's ridiculous concept that fenrisian wolves are people.

And Abbnett's invention of twin primarchs...

Basically a lot of the things I dislike about the primarchs is stuff abbnett invented trying to put his unique stamp on 40k

 Nightlord1987 wrote:


Guilliman post Dark Imperium. The series actually made him likeable and tragic in a sense.

agreed. Post Dark Imperium Gulliman is IMHO GW's answer to "why doesn't the Imperium just *insert idea that sounds reasonable and rational*" Gulliman is a rational sane thinking man trapped in the absolute insanity of the 41st Millinium, in a very real way... despite being a trans human demi-god. he is the character most like "us" in the 40k setting.

Loyalist: Sanguinius (for all the reasons you mentioned and also because he was easily the most noble and honourable of them all)

Traitor: Konrad Curze (great, tragic story and a dark, multi-faceted character)

So we can pick Alpharius/Omegon or no? Because the twins might be my favorites honestly. Followed closely by Sanguinius. Fulgrim takes the 3rd spot fittingly.

Then it gets fuzzy. Ferrus Manus, Horus, Magnus, Mortarion all vie for top spots. Konrad Curze is interesting but also terrifying and more than his fair share of insufferable. I don't know much about the Lion so hard to judge. But might deserve a top spot. Corax is an interesting one too. Another enigma wrapped in a mystery. Corax might climb in rank if there's some more character added to his back story as well as the going-forward parts.

Much to my chagrin, I've actually been closely following and invested in the new Guilliman. The whole character arc of his return is actually pretty dope. For papa-smurf himself that is.

Hellebore wrote:
I've only ever really liked 2 - Russ and vulcan.

Sanguinius is second tier and I think everyone else is all about equal 3rd.

But this is before they thought they could take legends and mundanify them into novel protagonists.

They ruined Vulcan because they decided that Abbnett's perpetual idea was the coolest thing ever and needed to be expanded into primarchs.

They ruined Russ through their need to simultaneously try to make him super cool, while also trying to avoid having his actions contradict history, so he's challenged more primarchs to a fight than anyone else and accomplished nothing in the process.

Also abbnett's ridiculous concept that fenrisian wolves are people.

And Abbnett's invention of twin primarchs...

Basically a lot of the things I dislike about the primarchs is stuff abbnett invented trying to put his unique stamp on 40k

We have very different definitions of people if you think Fenrisian Wolves are people in any version of the lore.

Always partial to Curze despite being a psycho, Perturabo (kinda felt sorry for him tbh) and Ferrus who seemed like a decent guy overall.

Did like Dorn, Lion and Sangy but I felt the BL HH series wrote them kinda poorly and I went off them.

pm713 wrote:

Hellebore wrote:
I've only ever really liked 2 - Russ and vulcan.

Sanguinius is second tier and I think everyone else is all about equal 3rd.

But this is before they thought they could take legends and mundanify them into novel protagonists.

They ruined Vulcan because they decided that Abbnett's perpetual idea was the coolest thing ever and needed to be expanded into primarchs.

They ruined Russ through their need to simultaneously try to make him super cool, while also trying to avoid having his actions contradict history, so he's challenged more primarchs to a fight than anyone else and accomplished nothing in the process.

Also abbnett's ridiculous concept that fenrisian wolves are people.

And Abbnett's invention of twin primarchs...

Basically a lot of the things I dislike about the primarchs is stuff abbnett invented trying to put his unique stamp on 40k

We have very different definitions of people if you think Fenrisian Wolves are people in any version of the lore.

The inference from the novel's is that the fenrisian wolves are the creation of dark age human genetic engineering, turning people into wolves the phrase 'there are no wolves on fenris' is the one most trotted out.

I ignore it, but it's still there

Hellebore wrote:

pm713 wrote:

Hellebore wrote:
I've only ever really liked 2 - Russ and vulcan.

Sanguinius is second tier and I think everyone else is all about equal 3rd.

But this is before they thought they could take legends and mundanify them into novel protagonists.

They ruined Vulcan because they decided that Abbnett's perpetual idea was the coolest thing ever and needed to be expanded into primarchs.

They ruined Russ through their need to simultaneously try to make him super cool, while also trying to avoid having his actions contradict history, so he's challenged more primarchs to a fight than anyone else and accomplished nothing in the process.

Also abbnett's ridiculous concept that fenrisian wolves are people.

And Abbnett's invention of twin primarchs...

Basically a lot of the things I dislike about the primarchs is stuff abbnett invented trying to put his unique stamp on 40k

We have very different definitions of people if you think Fenrisian Wolves are people in any version of the lore.

The inference from the novel's is that the fenrisian wolves are the creation of dark age human genetic engineering, turning people into wolves the phrase 'there are no wolves on fenris' is the one most trotted out.

I ignore it, but it's still there

Oh I know and personally I like that idea but assuming that's correct, they still aren't people.

Fav loyalists: Rogal Dorn for his commitment to the ideals of the Imperium and unshakeable loyalty. Followed closely by The Khan for his (quite literal) savageness, especially his burns to Fulgrim and Mortarion.

Fav traitors: Perturabo for basically hard carrying the traitor cause, his messiah complex could have been nipped in the bud had anyone properly persisted or given him a different role.