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Bloomshadow wrote:

 Veteran of The Long War wrote:
The Legion Number of 10,000 from A Thousand Sons has been retconed to 100,000. The reason there are so many Sorcerers still alive is because they are very hard to kill and can come back to life at the behest of there God or Primach or if there powerful enough, they can bring themselves back with magic. The Sons also don't fight as much as other legions and when they do it's usually a battle in their favor.

Source?

It seems absolutely ludicrous that the Legion which was always touted as the smallest due to geneseed instability is suddenly larger than the Raven Guard and the Salamanders

Every Legion number given before The First Heretic has been retconed to be multiplied by ten. And as of HH: Extermination the Raven Gaurd are the smallest legion. The reason they retain so many marines is because while they took terrible casualties at Prospero they did nothing for most of the Heresy and once the Rubric was cast the souls of every Thousand Son was bound to there armor meaning they cannot die. Additionally, the TSons have several ways of expanding there ranks such as taking the souls of there brothers who died in the heresy and sealing them into armor or performing the rubric on captured marines. Sorcerers of exceptional power of which there are many in the TSons can also re-manifest themselves as shown in the Ragnar Trilogy.

Also, a ship was headed for Prospero that contained Thousand Sons but when Magnus heard that the Space Wolves were coming, he turned the ship away so they wouldn't face the same fate.

There are a lot of theories about what happened to these loyalist Thousand Sons, including my favored which is that they became a chapter unto their own of the Blood Ravens but not everyone agrees.

 Veteran of The Long War wrote:

Bloomshadow wrote:

 Veteran of The Long War wrote:
The Legion Number of 10,000 from A Thousand Sons has been retconed to 100,000. The reason there are so many Sorcerers still alive is because they are very hard to kill and can come back to life at the behest of there God or Primach or if there powerful enough, they can bring themselves back with magic. The Sons also don't fight as much as other legions and when they do it's usually a battle in their favor.

Source?

It seems absolutely ludicrous that the Legion which was always touted as the smallest due to geneseed instability is suddenly larger than the Raven Guard and the Salamanders

Every Legion number given before The First Heretic has been retconed to be multiplied by ten. And as of HH: Extermination the Raven Gaurd are the smallest legion. The reason they retain so many marines is because while they took terrible casualties at Prospero they did nothing for most of the Heresy and once the Rubric was cast the souls of every Thousand Son was bound to there armor meaning they cannot die. Additionally, the TSons have several ways of expanding there ranks such as taking the souls of there brothers who died in the heresy and sealing them into armor or performing the rubric on captured marines. Sorcerers of exceptional power of which there are many in the TSons can also re-manifest themselves as shown in the Ragnar Trilogy.

That's reiterating and expanding on what you said, but not citation. Please, I'd like to see the source which definitively puts the Thousand Sons as having much more than 10,000 Astartes.

shade1313 wrote:

 Veteran of The Long War wrote:

Bloomshadow wrote:

 Veteran of The Long War wrote:
The Legion Number of 10,000 from A Thousand Sons has been retconed to 100,000. The reason there are so many Sorcerers still alive is because they are very hard to kill and can come back to life at the behest of there God or Primach or if there powerful enough, they can bring themselves back with magic. The Sons also don't fight as much as other legions and when they do it's usually a battle in their favor.

Source?

It seems absolutely ludicrous that the Legion which was always touted as the smallest due to geneseed instability is suddenly larger than the Raven Guard and the Salamanders

Every Legion number given before The First Heretic has been retconed to be multiplied by ten. And as of HH: Extermination the Raven Gaurd are the smallest legion. The reason they retain so many marines is because while they took terrible casualties at Prospero they did nothing for most of the Heresy and once the Rubric was cast the souls of every Thousand Son was bound to there armor meaning they cannot die. Additionally, the TSons have several ways of expanding there ranks such as taking the souls of there brothers who died in the heresy and sealing them into armor or performing the rubric on captured marines. Sorcerers of exceptional power of which there are many in the TSons can also re-manifest themselves as shown in the Ragnar Trilogy.

That's reiterating and expanding on what you said, but not citation. Please, I'd like to see the source which definitively puts the Thousand Sons as having much more than 10,000 Astartes.

In the novel A Thousand Sons the Thousand Sons are stated to have 10,000 men but on the B&C forum one of the authors(ADB) said that all the numbers involving space marines before The First Heretic have been retconed to x10 the previous number. I don't have a direct citation but I can look for the thread where he said it. Additionally, Horus Heresy: Extermination confirmed that The Raven Guard were the smallest legion at the time. Quote:
"Thus, around 1000 (Raven Guard) legionaries alongside the Imperial Army Therion Cohort departed for Deliverance leaving a little over 80,000 to confront Warmaster Horus on Isstvan V"
Quote:
"The events of the Battle of Gate 42 had left the Raven Guard as the smallest of the Legions"

 Veteran of The Long War wrote:

shade1313 wrote:

 Veteran of The Long War wrote:

Bloomshadow wrote:

 Veteran of The Long War wrote:
The Legion Number of 10,000 from A Thousand Sons has been retconed to 100,000. The reason there are so many Sorcerers still alive is because they are very hard to kill and can come back to life at the behest of there God or Primach or if there powerful enough, they can bring themselves back with magic. The Sons also don't fight as much as other legions and when they do it's usually a battle in their favor.

Source?

It seems absolutely ludicrous that the Legion which was always touted as the smallest due to geneseed instability is suddenly larger than the Raven Guard and the Salamanders

Every Legion number given before The First Heretic has been retconed to be multiplied by ten. And as of HH: Extermination the Raven Gaurd are the smallest legion. The reason they retain so many marines is because while they took terrible casualties at Prospero they did nothing for most of the Heresy and once the Rubric was cast the souls of every Thousand Son was bound to there armor meaning they cannot die. Additionally, the TSons have several ways of expanding there ranks such as taking the souls of there brothers who died in the heresy and sealing them into armor or performing the rubric on captured marines. Sorcerers of exceptional power of which there are many in the TSons can also re-manifest themselves as shown in the Ragnar Trilogy.

That's reiterating and expanding on what you said, but not citation. Please, I'd like to see the source which definitively puts the Thousand Sons as having much more than 10,000 Astartes.

In the novel A Thousand Sons the Thousand Sons are stated to have 10,000 men but on the B&C forum one of the authors(ADB) said that all the numbers involving space marines before The First Heretic have been retconed to x10 the previous number. I don't have a direct citation but I can look for the thread where he said it. Additionally, Horus Heresy: Extermination confirmed that The Raven Guard were the smallest legion at the time. Quote:
"Thus, around 1000 (Raven Guard) legionaries alongside the Imperial Army Therion Cohort departed for Deliverance leaving a little over 80,000 to confront Warmaster Horus on Isstvan V"
Quote:
"The events of the Battle of Gate 42 had left the Raven Guard as the smallest of the Legions"

Interesting, if that sticks. So I'm guessing that, under those numbers, the Thousand Sons would be retconned to have lost around 8,000 at Kamenka Troika, and would make each Fellowship around 10,000 strong by themselves, unless they really want to toss Thousand Sons legion organization right out the window.

That's quite a gain in personnel from the 1000 alive/unmutated when Magnus takes over the legion.

shade1313 wrote:
That's quite a gain in personnel from the 1000 alive/unmutated when Magnus takes over the legion.

Not really. The Emperor's Children were down to 200 when they found Fulgrim and they recovered to 110,000.