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Darnath Lysander is the First Captain of the Imperial Fists and a living legend. He survived captivity by the Iron Warriors and has pursued Perturabo's sons ever since with single-minded fury.
He wields the Fist of Dorn, a thunder hammer, and a storm shield. He survived years of torture by the Iron Warriors and escaped. Since then, he has fought against Perturabo's sons wherever he has found them. Darnath Lysander is Captain of the Imperial Fists' 1st Company and one of the Chapter's greatest heroes. He wields the Fist of Dorn. He was lost in the Warp, captured by the Iron Warriors and tortured on their fortress world of Malodrax for years before escaping. He later returned to lay Malodrax waste.
Origins
Unusually for a Space Marine of the 41st Millennium, he was recruited on Terra itself. He first earned honours as a sergeant of the 2nd Company and later rose to master of the 1st Company.
Lysander's path began in grief. After his family was enslaved and murdered, he made the long pilgrimage to Terra, and at the Pillar of Bone he was noticed by the Imperial Fists Chaplain Shadryss, who saw the iron will that would carry him through recruitment. Later, as a veteran, he was lost in the Warp aboard the Shield of Valour; the ship reappeared in 964.M41 near the daemon world Malodrax, where the Iron Warriors Warsmith Shon'tu took him captive.
Key events
- Served for two centuries as master of the 1st Company before tragedy struck.
- Was taken prisoner by the Iron Warriors and tortured on the daemon world Malodrax, but escaped.
- Launched a campaign of vengeance that destroyed many Iron Warriors holdings, often leaving the Chapter without its 1st Company.
- Fought the Iron Warriors invasion of Taladorn.
- Wields the thunder hammer Fist of Dorn in the Era Indomitus.
After Malodrax, Lysander's crusade against the Iron Warriors became so relentless that the Imperial Fists often went to war without their 1st Company, which was usually busy levelling some renegade fortress light years away. Chapter Master Vladimir Pugh allowed it. The Codex Supplement: Sentinels of Terra (6th edition) explains that he thought the ten-thousand-year feud deserved a share of the Chapter's strength, and that it would test whether Lysander was fit for higher rank. At the Blackstar Redoubt, Pugh went along as an observer. He ended up fighting beside Lysander in the final assault, cheered as the Fist of Dorn smashed the black gates and watched him kill the Daemon Prince who ruled the forges. Pugh decided then to step down and hand the Chapter to his First Captain.
Then the Iron Warriors under Warsmith Shon'tu seized the manufactorum world of Taladorn and began turning it into a new fortress world. Mecharoots overgrew the capital to form the Forgeheart citadel, while millions of enslaved citizens died in the mines. Given temporary command of the 3rd Company as well as his Terminators, Lysander launched an immediate planetstrike. He did not wait to clear the enemy fleet or coordinate with the Ultramarines and Blood Angels who had also arrived. Heldrakes and daemon engines mauled the 3rd Company. Lysander refused offers of help again and again, until Sergeant Garadon, his arm shattered, accepted Cato Sicarius' offer on his own authority. Thirty Ultramarines Terminators teleported onto his homer and the battle turned.
Battles & campaigns
- Iduno: He rooted out a heretical uprising backed by the Iron Warriors.
- Malodrax: He was a prisoner and torture victim of the Iron Warriors, and he later escaped.
- Revenge on Malodrax: He returned with the 1st Company to raze the world.
Personality
Unyielding and steadfast, he has an obsession with the Iron Warriors bordering on the personal.
He is stubborn and determined, refusing to give up even when faced with overwhelming odds. His hatred for the Iron Warriors is personal, born of his captivity. He is a stoic leader who inspires his warriors by example.
More than ninety Imperial Fists died at Taladorn, including Captain Vogen, and Shon'tu escaped. Lysander's report to Pugh was scrupulously honest, but it showed no remorse. Garadon went to the Chapter Master, and the surviving captains met in the Cloister of Remembrance to judge whether pride had replaced duty in their First Captain. The episode shows the flaw beneath the legend: the same certainty that carried him through Malodrax can spend his brothers' lives like ammunition.
Weapons & Vehicles
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Connections
Characters (3)
Helbrecht successor chapter · Black TemplarsThe Black Templars descend from the Imperial Fists, Lysander's Chapter.
Pedro Kantor successor chapter · Crimson FistsThe Crimson Fists descend from the Imperial Fists, Lysander's Chapter.
Rogal Dorn gene-father · Imperial FistsLysander wields the Fist of Dorn and leads Dorn's 1st Company.
Factions
- Imperial Fists primary faction
Some links are thematic parallels (marked "parallel") rather than recorded meetings. See the connections web.
Legacy
Lysander is the Imperial Fists' greatest hero, a survivor of captivity in an Iron Warriors dungeon who now leads the Chapter's 1st Company. His hatred for the Iron Warriors, and his unbreakable will, carry on Dorn's legacy. He is now perhaps the most senior living warrior of Dorn's line, a link between the Chapter's older traditions and the Primaris era. Lysander is the embodiment of the Imperial Fists' endurance and their enmity with the Iron Warriors.
Appearances & sources
- Codex: Space Marines (Imperial Fists background)
- Imperial Fists short fiction
- Era Indomitus campaign books