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"Failbaddon", "40k Night Lords aren't Chaos", "Lion el Johnson was a traitor".

How come these views are recycled so frequently? What causes them to be popular?

It might be someone's tactical genius!

don't forget to watch the next saturday morning cartoon featuring the ever-losing villains! (mostly known as batreps with CSM being pounded on)

Because they were entertaining/sounded good to people? It's like asking why references are made, remembered or shared.

Alpha Legion aren't chaos either.

I've never heard these so-called "myths". Please elaborate.

SJ

The High Lords of Terra have been replaced by Alpha Legion operatives, as is the Emperor himself.
Lion El'Johnson was secretly gay and also a traitor, as he was replaced by an Alpha Legion operative.
You have also been replaced by an Alpha Legion operative and are therefore a traitor. Prepare to be purged!!
Imperial propaganda is a lie. It is all written by Alpha Legion operatives.
This was not written by an Alpha Legion operative.

Chaos does not exist, nor do Chaos Space Marines. It is all just an excuse for the military regime of the Imperium to keep the people poor, ignorant and opressed.

Honestly? Abbadon is a pretty awful general. Not as a meme, and not in a way that makes him less scary, it's just not where his strengths lie.

In person, he's one of the most terrifyingly powerful individuals in the galaxy, and excells as a warrior.

He is very, very good at rallying troops to his banner. Getting a large number of Chaos Marine warbands to all do the same thing is not something many could pull off, and certainly not thirteen times.

It remains though, that in ten thousand years he's not accomplished a lot on a galactic scale. I'm not talking about failure to take Terra, I mean in the broader sense that most of the crusades are targeted against a handful of key worlds.

Also, an entire galactic crusade to get a sword? Really Ezekiel?

He does a lot to reinforce my impression the Chaos Gods have no intent of overrunning the Galaxy, to be honest. Stirring up the awful status quo gives them plenty to eat. The more Daemonic elements of the Chaos faction don't have a victory condition for the same reason the Orks don't: It's already as good as it gets for them.

So apparently games workshop wants to make Abbadon credible again...

We're all trying to explain the contradictions and retcons in 40k lore in a way that makes sense to us.

I personally theorized a schism within the Inquisition over the High Lords trying to assert more control over them and cutting them off from their Orders Militant that led to a number of renegade Inquisitorial forces (including GK, Sisters, and Deathwatch) to explain lore changes between the 3e Daemonhunters/Witch Hunters books and the 5e changes to GK and Inquisition lore. You find something that doesn't make sense to you, you come up with some theory that fits the facts that makes it make sense, and yet another one of these is born. Some of them make so much sense or are so funny they get popular on the Internet.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Iron_Captain wrote:
Lion El'Johnson was secretly gay and also a traitor, as he was replaced by an Alpha Legion operative.

Dude. He wasn't a traitor, but our Primarch's sexuality is kind of an open secret.

nareik wrote:
"Failbaddon", "40k Night Lords aren't Chaos", "Lion el Johnson was a traitor".

How come these views are recycled so frequently? What causes them to be popular?

They're memes.

Well, they all originated from silly "between the lines" reading of the stories and concperecis.

For example lion-half the DA turned chaos, but is it really the fallen? or are the fallen the loyalists and the regular secretly chaos? (cypher-lord of the fallen, often helps the imperium)

Night lords? one of the few "chaos legions" that do NOT work with deamons, at all. are they truly chaos? or just renegades and against the imperium, but not with chaos?

Lionel Johnson, the poet who wrote "Dark Angel", and for whom the Primarch and his Legion were named... was gay.

The Night Lords actually work with Daemons all the fething time. At least one of their members, possibly more, have attained the status of Daemon Prince.

Iron_Captain wrote:You have also been replaced by an Alpha Legion operative and are therefore a traitor.

Oh, gak, I'm an alpha legion operative? I don't think I am. I didn't even know-

... oh.

Sneaky...

Because they are one of the huge draws for the game itself. it's what makes it so much more than just pushing army men round on a table.
The rules are only a part of the 40k universe.

changemod wrote:

Also, an entire galactic crusade to get a sword? Really Ezekiel?

Maybe he won't be able to kill emps without this super-sword. Or won't be able to win the encounters on the way to killing emps. There might be some long-terms planning about this weapon. He's not THAT dumb to launch the whole crussade and than go like: "Oooh, a piece of candy sword!".

1. Like Drakov from Ravenloft, he's got a horrible track record, which cause many people to overlook his many strengths. Star Wars Storm Troopers get a similar bum rap based on a flawed understanding of their marksmanship.

2. Because one specific warband in the signature novel series for that Legion isn't dedicated to Chaos (although their actions serve Chaos anyway), some people mistakenly extrapolate that to the entire Legion.

3. Because it has been implied, if not outright stated, in a number of places.