Life Youth Jonson's capsule landed in a remote area of Caliban, far from any human habitati on.

There are no records of how he survived or what he encountered in the jungle during his early years and any normal man would have died within minutes of bei ng exposed to the planet. He lived for a decade in the jungle, alone and with no one to aid him. At the end of this decade he encountered his first humans[Needs Citation]. Jonson was found by a group of warrior knights of The Order during one of their quests across the planet. While the knights prepared to kill Jonson, one of thei r number, a man named Luther, sensed something not immediately apparent about th is seemingly wild man and prevented his fellow knights from attacking. Luther an d the band brought Jonson back to their Fortress Monastery and named him 'Lion E l'Jonson' which means The Lion, the Son of the Forest after the location and cir cumstances they found him in[Needs Citation]. Jonson quickly grew up and adapted to the customs of the planet's inhabitants, l earning to speak at an extremely rapid speed, though he never would speak of his first ten years of life. Luther and Jonson formed a strong friendship which com plimented each other's abilities and skills. It was now that Jonson's primary sk ills were discovered. He was a brilliant strategist and unstoppable once he deci ded on a course of action. Together, the two warriors rose through the ranks of the Order and spread the name of the Order through the quests they undertook tog ether[Needs Citation]. Crusade against the Great Beasts When the Order's ranks had swelled with new recruits, Jonson and Luther petition ed for a crusade against the terrible Beasts which lived within the forest. Luth er used his oratory skills to convince many of the Grand Masters of other monast eries to join the Order in this quest and within a single decade the planet was free from the Great Beasts, the armies having been led by Jonson. In recognition of his achievements, Jonson was given the title Supreme Grand Master of the Ord er, which created jealousy within Luther[Needs Citation]. Arrival of the Emperor Eventually a unit of the Emperor's forward scouts arrived at Caliban. Jonson was immediately given command of the First Legion when the Emperor realised he had found a lost son. Luther and the other members of the Order who passed the Astar tes' trials were formed into First Legion soldiers, either as fully fledged Asta rtes if they were young enough, or through genetic manipulation to increase thei r abilities if they were too old for the process. After the new Astartes were re ady, Jonson publicly re-named the First Legion the Dark Angels after an old Cali ban myth. Luther, too old to be a Space Marine, was the first to be genetically modified and became Jonson's second in command, as he had been during the crusad e. Jonson then left with the Emperor and the newly re-named Dark Angels[Needs Ci tation]. Great Crusade Shortly after their entry into the Great Crusade, and following the Sarosh Campa ign, the Lion sent Luther and several hundred Dark Angels, mainly Calibanites, b ack to their homeworld. This was ostensibly to accelerate the recruitment of new Legionnaires, but Luther felt they had been exiled.[Needs Citation] When Horus was appointed Warmaster by the Emperor, the reaction among the other Primarchs was mixed. Some supported the appointment out of affection for Horus, and others opposed it. The Lion and Leman Russ were, ironically, alike in their attitude, cynically accepting the appointment as the final sign of Horus' status as their father's favorite son.[8a]

Fifty years later, and following great success in recruiting, training, and equi pping new Dark Angels, Luther and his lieutenants were faced by a widespread reb ellion on Caliban. Following investigations on the part of the Librarian Zaharie l, it was revealed that Caliban was plagued by a resurgence of monsters; and tha t the insurgency raised against them included former Knights of the Order who fe lt that the Lion had betrayed them[Needs Citation]. At the center of the entire affair was a mysterious cabal of Terran sorcerers so mehow linked to the emergence of warp-monsters and twisted undead corpses. Havin g learned of Horus' rebellion against the Emperor, Luther declared the independe nce of Caliban and his opposition to Terra and the Lion alike[Needs Citation]. The Lion and the Wolf Few tales have been recorded regarding the Lion and the conduct of his Legion du ring the Great Crusade. One of them is that which is now known as the saga of "T he Lion and the Wolf". Sometime during The Great Crusade, the Dark Angels and the Space Wolves assaulte d a planet whose ruler had disrespected the Emperor by sacrificing thousands of priests to his patron Daemon. In addition to disrespecting the Emperor, the lead er of the rebels had also insulted Leman Russ personally by naming him "The Empe ror's Lapdog". In response, Leman Russ swore that he would cut the rebel leader' s head from his shoulders and demanded that he be allowed to make an immediate a ttack on the rebel's headquarters. This impatient request was refused because Th e Lion had spent days gathering intelligence on the headquarters' defenses and h ad planned a detailed assault of his own. The Dark Angel attack went forward wit h few casualties and Russ could only watch from the grounds as Lion El'Jonson ki lled the rebel leader high on the walls of the fortress. After the battle, Russ stormed into the halls of the headquarters to find El'Jonson and vent his frustr ations. During the confrontation Leman Russ struck Lion El'Jonson a blow to his head and the two proceeded to wrestle for a day and night without victory for ei ther combatant. When the two finally broke apart, Russ began to laugh - humored by the circumstances the two were fighting over. The Lion was not amused. Seeing the first blow of this quarrel as treacherous, El'Jonson struck Russ unconsciou s as he was laughing. The Space Wolves' Primarch was carried from the chamber by his men, and when he had regained consciousness the Dark Angels had already left the planet to embark on another campaign. Russ swore he would avenge the slight to his honor, and to this day the two chapters fight honor duels in remembrance of this event.[7a] S ome say these duels have brought mutual respect and a closer bond between the ch apters.[Needs Citation] On other occasions, however, the rivalry between the two chapters has boiled into open hostility, fueled by mistrust and suspicion[9a]. Horus Heresy Jonson was campaigning in the Shield Worlds against the Gordian League[4a] when he received news of Horus's betrayal. The Lion knew that if Horus was to triumph in his rebellion he would eventually have to confront the Emperor at Terra, for as long as the Emperor remained safe in the confines of the Imperial Palace, Ho rus could never truly triumph and become the new master of mankind. The Lion dec ided to act in order to prevent Horus from being able to successfully assault th e Imperial Palace. He led a small force to the forge world Diamat in order to se cure several highly powerful siege weapons that Horus would need in order to ass ault Terra. Faced with superior odds, the Lion nonetheless succeeded in securing the siege weapons, and thus "performed a master stroke": rather than confrontin g Horus directly, he had seemingly defeated the Warmaster with only a handful of troops.[4b] Following his victory, the Lion met with Perturabo, who, along with other Legion

s, was on his way to join Ferrus Manus in confronting Horus at Isstvan V. Jonson , seeing the opportunity to become the new Warmaster following Horus' seemingly inevitable defeat, traded the siege weapons to Perturabo in exchange for his sup port in his bid to become the new Warmaster. Tragically, Perturabo was in fact a n ally of Horus, as revealed by his actions at Isstvan V.[4b] Immediately follow ing the siege of Diamat and Perturabo acquiring the siege engines from Jonson, t he Primarch of the Dark Angels returned to the Shield Worlds where the majority of his legion were operating with the intention of heading to Terra immediately (prior to the massacre at Isstvan V). As part of Horus' campaign to divert many of the remaining loyalist legions from Terra, the Night Lords were dispatched to the Eastern Fringes, where in the Thr amas Crusade they rampaged across many loyalist worlds. The Lion responded to th e genocide, managing to skilfully coordinate an ambush that badly mauled the Nig ht Lords fleet and sent the traitors reeling. At the height of the battle, the L ion met Konrad Curze in combat and severely injured the traitor Primarch. During the clash with his brother, Curze (who possessed prophetic foresight) hinted to the Lion of Luther's eventual betrayal.[12] After dealing with the Night Lords, the Lion made course for Terra but arrived too late to influence the battle or prevent the Emperor from becoming interred on the Golden Throne.[10][11] Return to Caliban Jonson, wracked with grief, returned to Caliban to reinforce his Dark Angels and recover in general. When the ships arrived in orbit, they were hit by a savage salvo of fire from the surface. The fleet pulled back and Jonson tried to find o ut what was happening. He learnt from a merchant ship that Luther had poisoned t he minds of the Space Marine garrison on the world and taken control. It could o nly be seen by Jonson as the taint of Chaos. Jonson's fury was let loose and the planet suffered. He ordered a systematic bombardment of the planet, destroying everything they could to rid the world of Chaos for all time[Needs Citation]. The planet burned and the defences were whittled down to nothing. Jonson led his forces personally against the defenders who had taken refuge in the Order's For tress Monastery. Jonson found Luther and saw him to be completely corrupted, not hing of his old friend had survived. Luther had been elevated to a strength equa l to Jonson by the Chaos Gods and the two met in a combat the likes of which wou ld not be seen again. They levelled the monastery around them but the planet was also taking a heavy toll. The bombardment began to crack the surface of the pla net, the Dark Angels in orbit unable to see the damage they were doing[Needs Cit ation]. The Final Battle The battle between Luther and Jonson was titanic, but ended with a psychic attac k that mortally wounded Jonson. Luther then realised what he had done, as if a v eil had been lifted from in front of his eyes. He fell to the floor, unwilling t o fight any more, but it was too late for Jonson. The gods of Chaos realised the y had lost again, and sent a massive warp storm to wrack the surface of the plan et. It then broke apart under the strain, destroyed all but for the monastery of the Order which had been protected by vast force-fields. When the Dark Angels d escended to the, now, asteroid, they searched the ruins and found Luther mumblin g that Jonson had been taken by the Watchers in the Dark and would return one da y and forgive him for his sins. The Dark Angels could not find any trace of thei r Primarch. The rest of the Dark Angels who had been converted by Luther were su cked into the warp and scattered around the galaxy, now named The Fallen[Needs C itation]. The Fate of Jonson The final secret known only to a very select few is that, buried even deeper wit hin the Rock than Luther, Jonson lies sleeping, waiting with the Watchers in the Dark for the time when he will be needed again, to lead the Dark Angels in a ne

w and greater crusade. Save the Watchers in the Dark, only the Emperor knows of this secret[1a][13] Etymology Lion El'Jonson's name is inspired by the English poet Lionel Johnson, the author of "The Dark Angel". Originally the name was spelt "Lyyn Elgonsen"[2a]. In a 19 87 White Dwarf article[3] he is also referred to as "Lynol Jacobsen or Jonsen", the point being that very little knowledge of Dark Angels' early history has sur vived.