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hey guys, I love rogal dorn from the horus heresy books, I love how in horus rising, he pretty much tells loken that gaks gonna hit the fan, I love how he killed emo/bat-man man.
now, supposedly, he was killed by unextroudinary means, and all that was found of him was a fist.
what are some survival theories you guys might have?
im interested to hear them, cause Dorn > bacon

He was turned into a Slaaneshi Daemon Prince. Slaanesh removed that hand because Dorn frequently used it for various Khorne related activities.

or...

He was turned into a Khornate Daemon Prince. Khorne removed that hand because Dorn frequently used it for various Slaanesh related activities.

Probably just working as a "custodian" for failing his master, right?

His ENTIRE skeleton is said to be encased within a body of amber as far as I'm aware. His fist is separate from the rest of the body and is within a special stasis field. Each chapter master of the Imperial Fists will scribe their name upon the bones.

Before clicking the Submit button I actually looked on the Wiki, because I've heard your question before, and discovered to my surprise that the novel that claims Dorn's entire skeleton has been recovered is considered to be "apocryphal" (nice little word for the day right?) I suppose I should just stop reading books and stick to the wiki.

That being the case, I've heard plenty of fan boys argue about the integrity of some stories compared to others. Typically this arises because of varying opinions across numerous books, however it also seems to arise anytime a book douses the hopes and dreams of a particular reader. Personally I like the Imperial Fists and Dorn, however I believe he's very dead and we'll never see his return.

He's about as alive as Ferrus Manus is, then gain GW have retconned his stuff that many times that it'll probably turn out the the hand everyone writes their name on is just a scrubs hand.

My personal theory is that Perturabo has him chained to his throne like a slave

2 and a half primarchs from the Chaos Legions are confirmed dead (Horus, Curze, Omegon) so they evened that out by killing two and a half loyalist primarchs (Sanginius, Ferrus Manus, Rogal Dorn).

If you think Omegon was a clone and not the actual twin primarch dude leading the Alpha Legion, makes sense to think Dorn is also possibly alive somewhere, armless. To the best of my knowledge, his body was never recovered and no one witnessed his actual fall.

All the official stuff GW does when it comes to really big name characters, there's always witnesses. I'm of the opinion he's still out there somewhere with a cybernetic arm now, jumping around from Space Hulk to Space Hulk, squishing bugs and orks til such time all the Loyalist Primarchs decide they need to get their gak together and reform the imperium under proper leadership.

um... emo-batman man? Night Haunter was NOT killed by Dorn.

 Nightlord1987 wrote:
um... emo-batman man? Night Haunter was NOT killed by Dorn.

Quite the contrary, Curze nearly killed Dorn, to the point where it is hinted that Dorn might have some element of PTSD over the incident (don't ask me where I read this, I just remember a conversation between Dorn and Sigismund (?) in the Imperial Palace that left me with that impression)

I can't stand the name Rogal Dorn... Sounds like the name of a hairy old truck driver.

If Dorn was killed in a mundane and unbefitting way, he was probably cut to pieces by lasgun blasts from rogue Imperial Army elements.

The latest Codex retconned it from being his whole skeleton to being his hand, it's entirely possible that he's still alive. The primarchs that we know for certain are KIA are-

Konrad Curze, Horus, Ferrus Manus, and Sanguinius.

Although it's possible Sanguinius may have reincarnated as that weird Sanguinator guy that occasionally saves the asses of some Blood Angels.

Dorn however, as far as we know now, is MIA.

 azreal13 wrote:

 Nightlord1987 wrote:
um... emo-batman man? Night Haunter was NOT killed by Dorn.

Quite the contrary, Curze nearly killed Dorn, to the point where it is hinted that Dorn might have some element of PTSD over the incident (don't ask me where I read this, I just remember a conversation between Dorn and Sigismund (?) in the Imperial Palace that left me with that impression)

Malcador, in the audio book The Lightning Tower, which is very good.

Also, I recall from Prince of Crows that the first time Mad Curze McMad met some of the Primarchs, he could see their fates, Dorn being hacked up by a hundred maniacs, Ferrus Manus' head being carried off and a weird blank where Fulgrim was.

I think the best answer is: we don't know.
And since GW is allergic to story advancement we'll never know.

Personally, I think they should do a second game. 50K where the story has progressed, Army load outs are different and things are more desperate.
And still keep 40k as well. But that's me. I'd love to see a cyber-armed Dorn wreaking face against a horde of zerkers.

50k wouldn't work in my mind. Sure if you wanna advance the story, jump ahead 2 or 3 centuries. But the whole point of 40k is that it's kind of the end game, The imperium is crumbling from all sides, there is no way that it is feasible that it is around in another 10,000 years. Especially with the whole lack of advancement and rampant stagnation. I mean, 10,000 years of not changing your beliefs, technology or strategies is already a death sentence. It is evolution 101, if things don't change then it is only a matter of time before something else emerges that is more dynamic and better adapted that will beat them (Tau, Nids, possible future races). Like ok the Tau might not be a threat now, but they are constantly researching new tech, what happens when they reach Golden age era tech levels and mop the floor with the imperium? Basically in 50k, the Tau would be the new Imperium or the Nids would have swallowed the Galaxy. The Imperium would have collapsed, the Eldar would have been wiped out, the Chaos forces would have either been destroyed by the imperium or turned on themselves in victory. The non-psyker Tau would then dominate and the Chaos god's would lose a lot of their power. Crons and Orks would likely survivein some aspects, being difficult for the Hive fleets to consume, and the Orks being a persistent plague on the galaxy. In short, it would be an entirely different setting and the events of 40k would likely just be legend by this point.

 MWHistorian wrote:
I think the best answer is: we don't know.
And since GW is allergic to story advancement we'll never know.

Personally, I think they should do a second game. 50K where the story has progressed, Army load outs are different and things are more desperate.
And still keep 40k as well. But that's me. I'd love to see a cyber-armed Dorn wreaking face against a horde of zerkers.

If Dorn (or any of the loyalist Primarchs) came back they'd be fighting the Imperium, I suspect, both from the primarch standpoint of how corrupted the Imperium has become from its founding ideals (which were pretty insane in the first place) and from the standpoint of the powers that be wanting to cling to power rather than let the "truth" come out.

 Fotherington-Thomas wrote:

 azreal13 wrote:

 Nightlord1987 wrote:
um... emo-batman man? Night Haunter was NOT killed by Dorn.

Quite the contrary, Curze nearly killed Dorn, to the point where it is hinted that Dorn might have some element of PTSD over the incident (don't ask me where I read this, I just remember a conversation between Dorn and Sigismund (?) in the Imperial Palace that left me with that impression)

Malcador, in the audio book The Lightning Tower, which is very good.

Also, I recall from Prince of Crows that the first time Mad Curze McMad met some of the Primarchs, he could see their fates, Dorn being hacked up by a hundred maniacs, Ferrus Manus' head being carried off and a weird blank where Fulgrim was.

I think here is our answer for Dorn. Which I like better than the "mysteries for players to do with as they like."

 Fotherington-Thomas wrote:

 MWHistorian wrote:
I think the best answer is: we don't know.
And since GW is allergic to story advancement we'll never know.

Personally, I think they should do a second game. 50K where the story has progressed, Army load outs are different and things are more desperate.
And still keep 40k as well. But that's me. I'd love to see a cyber-armed Dorn wreaking face against a horde of zerkers.

If Dorn (or any of the loyalist Primarchs) came back they'd be fighting the Imperium, I suspect, both from the primarch standpoint of how corrupted the Imperium has become from its founding ideals (which were pretty insane in the first place) and from the standpoint of the powers that be wanting to cling to power rather than let the "truth" come out.

Dom was with the Imperium for like, nearly an entire friggin' thousand years AFTER the Heresy ended (well, 700 or so, but that's still a lot). If he didn't start a civil war then (if anything, he surrendered to Roboute's codex to prevent one), I doubt he'll start a civil war if he ever comes back. ...at least, he won't start one on purpose.

Yeah, the original story is that Dorn survived well after the end of the Heresy, and died in a boarding action against some Chaos battleship, the class of which didn't exist until M36 or M37 or there about. It is said that his body was completely recovered from that action, however, and so is confirmed KIA.

Though IA... 2, I think? states that Dorn died not long after Corax, which is a few hundred years after the Heresy, which presents an interesting conundrum. Either IA2 is flat-out wrong, or there were some time-changing Warp effects going on with the ship, or the provided class of the vessel is wrong.

 Psienesis wrote:
Yeah, the original story is that Dorn survived well after the end of the Heresy, and died in a boarding action against some Chaos battleship, the class of which didn't exist until M36 or M37 or there about. It is said that his body was completely recovered from that action, however, and so is confirmed KIA.

Though IA... 2, I think? states that Dorn died not long after Corax, which is a few hundred years after the Heresy, which presents an interesting conundrum. Either IA2 is flat-out wrong, or there were some time-changing Warp effects going on with the ship, or the provided class of the vessel is wrong.

You also have to remember the 6th Edition Space Marine Codex retconned his death, to only a hand being recovered and nothing else found.

He is as dead as gw wants him to be. The fluff is very fluid from what i've seen.

Corax is also MIA and not confirmed dead.

Corax is also much more of a badass than Dorn.

I like to think dorn is the massive space marine in baroque power armor collecting dust in Trazyn the infinate necron tomb world. Hes listed as being one of Trazyn's most priceless collectables.