Broken Angels: an analysis of Sanguinius and the Blood Angels How do you fix something that was fundamentally broken from the start? It seems like an odd question when dealing with a Primarch and a legion that has been revered for ten thousand years, but when you examine the sons of Baal you begin to understand some very disturbing truths. Sanguinius is unique among his brothers, and in a group that features individuals like Ferrus Manus and Magnus that is saying something. His presence on the battle field brought about awe and fear. He was the Emperors angel, which given the Imperiums original stance on religion is difficult to grasp. In many ways he represents the Emperors mastery over humanity; just imagine a secular empire where even an Angel, a symbol of hope and purity is under the command of the ruler. The question we must ask is if the wings were introduced into Sanguinius genome or if they were a mutation from his time in the warp. Consider this, when the Emperor found his son what was the reaction? Did he know that the wings were an aberration or did he simply see them as a tool which could be exploited, My personal belief is that with the winged Primarch we have a unique occurrence where the Emperor saw that he could potentially exploit a chaos mutation, while allowing his son to be seen as a symbol of hope. We now have to look at the problem within the genome of Sanguinius, for those of you who read Fear to tread, you know the sad truth the red thirst was a part of the legion from the very beginning. This is a terrifying thing to consider, the Emperor engineered all his sons yet even he could not have intentionally created such a horrific flaw. The problem is that this savagery was incredibly useful, that’s what makes it so interesting , if you consider this from a basic perspective there is very little difference between Angrons dogs and Sanguinius seraphs, the only difference in truth is the appearance and that the important truth. Why do we admire the blood angels so much, it’s because they were designed to be appealing. Angron is brutality personified, but Sanguinius is savagery in a hidden form, he doesn’t revel in slaughter he tries to hide the truth of what he is. There is also the matter of his psionic abilities, let us remember this was one of the three Primarchs who petitioned for the use of Librarians in the legion Astartes. Again he hid the nature of his abilities, essentially using his precognition to chart the best possible course in combat, in what way is this any different from the Corvidae cult of the Thousand sons? The simple truth it isn’t, but Sanguinius is given a pass to use his abilities because they are not out in the open. This is where we can examine the Blood Angels and their Primarch as a cultural construct, they are a representation of purity and even in an Imperium where religion is denounced as primitive and useless their image is one of perfection and beauty. They are forgiven because we trust the appearance of what they are versus the genetic truth of their existence. This brings us to Signus Prime; a system butchered by a Bloodthirster and a Keeper of Secrets, process that for a second, servants of Khorne and Slaanesh united in order to bring down and corrupt a legion specifically for their nature of savagery and perfection, they saw them for what they actually were, broken post-humans and if vlka fenryka pardon the pun wolves in angels clothing. The legion went berserk after the fall of their gene-father almost a proto black rage, and were only saved by the slimmest of coincidence. That is the true irony of the situation, they were freed from the psionic damage only to have it inflicted on them again a thousand times worse. Lastly we come to the Sanguinor, we still don’t have an exact idea of what this entity is however given the information we obtained from Fear to tread we can make a hypothesis. Meros sacrificed himself and became a host for the red angel, yet a small portion of him remained. Sanguinius faced Horus knowing he would die, yet upon the death blow his soul attempted to survive, it latched onto a familiar form in the willing slave, purifying the essence of the warp taint and rebuilding Sanguinius soul as a warp entity that would watch over his sons for the next ten thousand years. Logically speaking this argument makes the most sense and explains why an entity of the warp is actually interested in protecting mankind as opposed to feeding on it. The tragedy of all this goes far deeper than an ethereal warp specter, the division of the sons of Sanguinius is a tragedy in more respect than simply breaking up a legion. The gene-flaw makes the Blood Angels dangerous when unchecked, and becomes far worse when you consider that the actual chapter looked down on some of its successors, specifically hyper crazed assault troops such as the Flesh Tearers. In a legion environment Captain Amit was exactly what the Primarch required, the 5th company were beyond control, they were monsters disguised as angels. When you separate the company and force them out into the stars on a campaign of death and decimation it comes as no surprise that the gene-seed began to mutate resulting in substantially more instances of Black rage and red thirst. The Legion acted as a control mechanism for Sanguinius more feral sons, think of what we have now, the flesh eaters, flesh tearers, blood drinkers, knights of blood, all of these chapters have been censured and in one case declared traitors to the Imperium. The Image of the avenging angel, it has maintained its place within the Imperium for ten thousand years. The sacrifice of Sanguinius in the final battle against Horus left a legacy that his gene-sons still attempt to follow, even if they stumble along the way. We fight for Baal and Terra, we serve the Emperor and the Imperium, and there is nowhere we fear to tread.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 00:23:32 +0000
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