@NUMBSKULLS Alright… listen I need to know this. I can’t focus on your videos without CONTEXT! WHO IS ALEX! Is this a thruple? A best friend? Don’t care which, love is love, I JUST NEED TO KNOW!
The no wolves on fenris bit: The humans didn't evolve into wolves - the first colonists used wolf DNA to help themselves adapt to the absolutely fucking terrible environment of the planet and it went horribly wrong. Fun fact: Emps pulled the same thing, Space Wolf geneseed literally contains wolf DNA.
Honestly, I kind of headcanon / theorize that the whole thing of Space Wolves becoming more wolf-like is because of Leman Russ being from Fenris and/or because his recruits are from there, that people from Fenris just have this latent set of genes that can turn them into wolves because of that whole deal that something about the process of becoming a space marine just risks bringing out.
This. I do not remember exactly which novel or sourcebook I read it in, but I DO remember reading the same thing in official print; that the first Fenrisians during (or shortly after) the Dark Age of Technology had modded themselves and their children to survive the planet's Man-Emperor-damned ecosystem by adding wolf genes into their own.
@@RichardX1 In the book Wolfbane, Leman meets a warp spirit who implies that Leman was destined to grow up on Fenris. It's one of the lore pieces that points towards the scattering being intended from the start
@@hauntorthegiraffebiscuit The last time they fought there was blood throughout the entire Palace and not a single drop of it was from either of their legions or themselves
The funniest thing about the spear of Russ is how it works - anyone who gets stabbed by it sees a vision of the "truth" of their nature (and usually has an existential crisis). Leman thought it was really weird until he figured out what it did, then he thought it was the coolest thing he'd ever seen and immediately stabbed himself with it
She referred to it as Odin's spear, and was dead on. It's true name is Gungnir It is part of my hope that when Russ returns he will come back as a one eye'd Odin figure to be the loyalist psyker primarch to mirror Magnus
@@Man_Emperor_of_Mankindif come back as someone odin-like i want his psyker power to be subtle and understated, like he will walk behind a corner and out from behind another one further down on the opposite the one he went inebut no flash, no bang just kinda folk magic
@@o98z That specific ability sounds a bit too close to the Lion's Forest Walking for my taste, but I could definitely get behind some shawmanistic abilities for him. It would fit well with the Wolf Priest's traditions Maybe abilities related to magic runes/sigils and warding? Could fit with his history of having a disruptive or weakening effect on psykers near him
Fenrisian wolves: *growling with murderous intent* Vulkan: *Jamaican accent* “I would like to pet this creature.” Also I love a an actual she-wolf is arguably a better parent then the Emperor,
@@TheHorsemanOfTheApocalypse Do you have the source for that? Because I absolutely love it but can't find anything. (Specifically vulkan having a wolf)
Big E: Perhaps we should rename them to space corgis to better represent their undying determination when all is stacked against them. Dorn: Corgis are funny. They have small legs.
“If feels threatened in a parking lot, the shirt’s coming off; but he will also buy a round of beers” I have never heard someone so effortlessly and precisely encapsulate Lemun Russ’s entire existence in a single sentence.
I see your Lion and Wolf shirtless carpark fistfight, and raise you Lion and Wolf wrestling match in Daisy duke's and in chocolate pudding for ladies night
Yes, and the Lion does not want to have this fight but Leman rushes him and he loses it. The lion goes from fuck off to ''Oh you wanna rumble!?'' And then they fight to the death with full-on weapons in the parking lot. Until Leman gets bored and starts laughing. After hours of fighting Leman is chill bro, nice fight bro, lol bro and the Lion breaks a bottle on Leaman's head and beats the shit out of him for being annoying. Lion leaves him unconscious in the parking lot, leaves and holds a grudge.
And it definitely shows in their leadership style. The Lion ruling by absolute control kicking out anyone no longer deemed useful to the pride (like Lionel did to Luther, sending him back to Caliban after his screw up with the nuke on the ship then Luther trying to challenge him) While wolfs are also fierce but a little more nurturing having each others backs and protecting their most vulnerable (like the way the original Fenris space wolves are the only Space Marines who welcomed their Primaris recruits once they proved themselves, and when they shielded those Armageddon refugees from the Grey Knights and Inquisition)
Bjorn's honestly the goat, he's just wolf grandpa and they wake him up from his nap to tell the kiddos stories or get them to stop starting shit. He's probably my favorite marine character I've ever encountered.
Inquisitor: By the god emperor, Bjorn is real Bjorn: STOPPPPP, calling him a god is how this whole mess started Inquisitor: What? Bjorn: (Dreadnought facepalm)
@@adamevaskevich5528 it might be the obvious choice but so far with what I’ve learned about Leman Russ I’d say WereGarurumon. The wolf-man look and fighting style fits perfectly, along with being loyal and reliable all line up. I also think the crest of friendship makes a lot of sense considering Russ’s commitment to his wolfy kin and the people of his planet. Part of me thought about saying AncientGarurumon, but I think he might come off as a bit too refined? I don’t know much about Leman after he leaves his planet and takes on his role as a primarch, and I suspect at that point AncientGarurumon might fit best, but as far as Leman before leaving Fenris I think WereGarurumon makes the most sense~
Here's the problem with the Space Wolves hypocrisy regarding magic and psykers: they wanted to ban *everyone else* from using it, even the legions that weren't abusing those powers. And they successfully got psykers banned from the legions too, but they *still* kept their Rune Priests. Yet when the Heresy broke out and the legions needed to fight demons, they needed their psykers back.
Yep. Like, if the Space Wolves just had issues with just the Thousand Suns and it came down to how both viewed the warp and how it is used and they didn't drag every other legion into their philosophical disagreement, I'd honestly wouldn't have that big of an issue but when nope he, like Mortarion who is also a big hypocrite given what happens to him (regardless of it being not entirely his fault for his fall to chaos), and decides that "No, all psykers across all legions should be banned" that was when Leman and the Space Wolves took it too far.
Wrong. White Scars and Wolves were the ones, who used psyking wisely. They didnt pursue teh knowledge for the sake of knowledge and were cautious about the perils of the warp.
Leman's argument wasn't specifically against psykers, it was against "sorcerer's". His issue was about how Magnus, the Thousand Son's, and by extension the Librarius where manipulating the warp without any restrictions or mediation. I may be wrong, but I don't know of any situation where Leman made a blanket statement that all psykers were bad. Even leading up to Nikaea, the Wolf Priests were some of the people leading the charge to point out how irresponsible Magnus and the Thousand Son's were being in their warp manipulation
@@Man_Emperor_of_Mankind Due to his actions, even the White Scars' psykers were sent back home and banned from using their powers in the crusade. The White Scars practices their Warp powers the same way the Space Wolves did (ritualism, caution, etc.), and they had a better understanding of the dangers of the Warp than most of the legions. The only loyalists who didn't stop using their powers were the Space Wolves. When the Heresy broke out, many Warp users went back into service to fight daemons and such, but damage done - they weren't around to help in the first engagements that ended up decimating legions of loyalists.
@@VyRe40True, but that was the emperor's decision, not what Leman or the Ruin Priests argued against. The emperor making too broad of a ruling is on the emperor, Russ wasn't wrong for arguing against Magnus and Magnus ultimately proved Leman right in his condemnation of Magnus and the Thousand Sons
I think the big horrific realization regarding the true nature of the "wolves" on Fenris: It means Russ and members of his legion (and probably the natives as well) are wearing human skins over their armor.
Regarding the "Wolves on Fenris" thing: in the lore, apparently Fenris was designed by humans from the DAoT to be like a grimdark amusement park aping Norse mythology. And the wolf transformation gene was introduced into the civilian population living on Fenris to make them randomly transform into wolves. After the old human civilization fell, these people were just left to live on a horrible death world that was artificially transformed to be this way. It's actually really messed up.
@H-to-O From Wolfsbane. 'Their highest art is the forging of steel,' admitted the Emperor. 'Their world has regressed to a pre-technological state, and if you saw it you would not be surprised why. It is a beautiful, savage place of ice, fire and monsters. A charming experiment in reconstructed mythologies.' 'What do you mean?' 'Fenris is a relic from the days before Old Night.'
@@williansnobre I'm pretty sure they'd be willing to put a lot of money down for research there as well. The whole "suspiciously wealthy" stereotype exists for a reason, after all.
Regarding the Wolf and the Lion: I like the thought someone was brought up, that the reason the Lion does not like Russ is that Russ is a noble man posing as a barbarian, but the Lion is a Monster hiding under the guise of a noble man and he knowns it.
Things that suck about living on Fenris: human intelligence grizzly sized wolves, lots of horrid wild life in land and the sea, eternal ice age, ground turns to lava regularly and when all that isn’t going down: sky rains fire.
My favourite thing was hearing about the fact that other space marines called the space wolves out on their BS of actively making sure that Fenris stays a death world.
"Man, it's really weird the primarchs landed on planets that really fit into what they are good at" Meanwhile Angeron had the ability of being an empath and was supposed to be the Emperors diplomat . . .
Russ might not have killed both of the lost primarchs. In the Dark Cells there’s a prisoner only named “Subject XI” which is largely believed to be the 11th primarch or a clone of them.
The greatest way I could describe the similarity and disparity between the Lion and Russ is this, Russ is a man playing at being a beast, the Lion is a beast playing at being a man.
"Fate/[series] is the Lost Primarchs of Anime." You have simultaneously described it perfectly and yet in such a way that I absolutely abhor that terminology. Thank you for that, Call me Trayzon because I'm stealing that for future use. Take my Like on this Video as repayment
@@valor555 dante is about 1600, but two of the most aged marines after him are both space wolves - ulrik is 1000 and Logan Grimnar 700+. Marneus Calgar by contrast isn’t even 400
I like the theory about why is everything is called wolf, they actually have a ton on different names in Fenrisian, but no direct translations in gothic/English so they just use wolf as the word
I am gonna be honest I think the first 2 contests were just Russ trying to continue his feast before fighting which was the real trial. Also I am a Dark Angels player so I can't wait until you guys get around to the Lion or the Dark Angels in General
“Now this is the Law of the Jungle - As old and true as the sky. The Wolf who keeps it will prosper But the Wolf who breaks it must die! As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, The law runneth forward and back - The strength of the Pack is the Wolf The strength of the Wolf is the Pack.”
My personal headcanon is that #2's pod landed on an Ork infested planet and was raised by the boys. He felt all his human Space marines were too weak so he secretly inducted his Ork brothers and his 2th Legion was just too powerful being composed of geneseeded up orks. Emps eventually had to send in Russ to axe him to stop
1:09:38 you forgot to mention when horus tried to speak about them when he got angry at malcador and malcador strangled horus before the names of the lost primarchs could leave his throat and (I think it was) sanguiniess had to beg malcador not to kill horus right there
My favorite scene with The Lion and Russ is when they are fist fighting, for like 3 days straight, russ stops fighting and laughs about the whole fight being ridiculous, wanting to settle things, as russ is laughing, The Lion sees an opening and rocks him in the face, knocking him out. Shows both of their personalities in a really funny way
To add to the lost primarch bits the memories of those primarchs have literally been removed. There’s a bit during the siege of terra where rogal dorn confronts malcador about the fact that he had removed dorns memories of the lost primarchs…… turns out dorn ASKED malcador to do it. Malcador removes the memory block temporarily and dorn basically said “oh god make me forget again”. Afterwards when dorn is walking away he thinks to himself that he doesn’t remember what they did but he knows that if those two primarchs had been there the imperium would have already fallen. When ROGAL DORN of all people thinks something is to horrible to be remembered you know it’s bad.
The Space Wolves don't wear helmets mostly because of their sense of smell. They don't ever need to worry anyone sneaking up on them, they can even sense the emotions of other people, I think it was in one of the Ragnar books.
Still funny to think about how I think during the Burning of Prospero, some Tsons were keeping a count of how many Space Wolves each of them head shotted without a helmet.
46:09 It's not just that they "evolved" over time, it's that all the Fenrisians have an innate mutation (that corresponds with the Space Wolf geneseed mutation) that can mutate them into werewolves/wolves (or give birth to mutants, etc.). It's an ongoing "issue", just like the Wulfen among the Space Wolves.
A little bit sad that certain details can’t be discussed more if we speak about Primarchs in specific order. In case of Leman: - His unserious beef against Lion - Him surprisingly getting along with Lorgar - His kind of symbolic conflict with Angron - His eternal conflict with Magnus and how it ended up for both SW and TS Not even telling about the gag “Leman Russ is an asshole” lol
if you're looking for an idea for how to make Ferrus more interesting, I think making comparisons between him and Perturabo works to highlight how he may be a stubborn ass, but he's not impossible to change. To my knowledge Ferrus never did the purging that Perturabo did in response to failure and while the iron warriors are "Iron within, Iron without", the iron in regards to Ferrus is quite literarily skin deep. Also gotta do the "They are not my Hands" speech its one of the most fire quotes in 40k imo.
Perturabo literally had it be where if a planet wasn't conquered fast enough he'd kill 10% of the legion. The only reason he kept up with numbers was that his gene seed wss REMARKABLY stable compared to other primarchs' gene seed
To touch on the lost primarchs having been removed but Horus not having been; it been implied that Horus & the other traitors would have been removed as well if the Emperor hadn't been put on the throne, Malcador turned to dust, & them unable to direct the effort to do so.
Regarding the lost primarchs: Some theorize that the removal from the records are also somewhat of a mercy, so they arent eternally shamed. It is also theorized that one of the legions got absorbed into the Ultramarines because their legion were just massive at some point. Out of lore, I believe one of the creators have debunked the idea of the lost legions to be for fan creations. He said that there are so many chapters and they are so easy to make, so that's what they are there for. They wanted the lost primarchs and legions as a kind of mystery in the background that no one could ever solve. (If this is to be trusted, of course)
There was almost a civil war between the Wolves and the Grey Knights! For a period of tenish years, the Wolves and the Guard were trapped on a planet fighting Deamons. Finally, the grey knights came and helped them. Following the war, the Grey Knoghts began genociding the guardsmen who fought with the wolves. Who took particular offense to that, and physically put their bodies between the Guardsmen and the Grey Knights. Even the Wolves and Leman Russ recognize the Imperial Guard as HIS TRUE FINEST! Have you considered making a kick ass video covering these bad bois?
It's really funny because right as I was thinking "man, itll be kinda fun to see talk of the lost legions" you started talking about the lost legions. Now I'm just waiting for the Salamander episode.
Avid Space Wolf fan here! It's theorized that the rune priests use Fenris and the runes kinda like a disani water filter for the warp, making it slightly safer
I forgot where I read it, too many damn books, sources, games. Anyways, I remember that Fenris had the same presence as Caliban being a wierd half wrap entity. Hence Rune priest being able to harness its power on the other side of the galaxy.
The "they adapted to their planets theory" Is more likely than the "they were tailor made for their planets and the Emperor planed It" theory, cause I don't remember all their powers off the top of my head but the power Anggron came pre-packaged with was antithetical to the planet he fell on and that power then contributed to a good majority of the bad things that happened In his life which then lead him to absolutely despising the Emperor, making him side with the heretics. Like sure that planet was shit from the start but Anggron's power actively made his stay there worse, had any other primarch fallen there other than him, sure they would still have had a bad time but they would've probably done much better than him and had Anggron switched planets with any of his brothers (except maybe Conrad's) he would've most definitely have thrived.
Hell, if Konrad and Angron switched places they'd have come up completely differently. Konrad's prophetic abilities would mean he'd be able to quickly liberate the slaves and topple the high riders, while Angron would be able to actually reform the world of Nostramo with his empathic abilities
The 2nd and 11th primarchs were almost certainly culled by Leman, there's a theory that their disgrace has something to do with the rangdan xenocides. Dorn and Guilliman had Malcador wipe their memories of the lost brothers to dull the pain of their betrayal/loss. It's the destruction of these two that causes any primarch with a geneseed flaw to hide it from the emperor, rather than seeking his help to fix it. Not that he could have done much about the flesh change, as that was almost certainly a creation of Tzeentch that said god was able to directly control. Notably the lost primarchs almost certainly didn't have large flaws in their geneseed, as it's heavily implied that their sons were not killed, but dispersed amongst the other legions. And no, the chapter master of the space sharks isn't one of them. Probably. He's still cool as shit, though.
So to add to their adaptation ability: there are cases where Primarch seem to have warp power of some kind and someone like Lion and Corvus seem to manifest them later in timeline. The fact that Russ managed to beat Magnus who was destroying planet by just unleashing his power makes people question if there's something he has.
You guys get some details wrong occasionally, but I'm really impressed that you got the psyker thing correct with Russ. There's this "the wolves are hypocrites" shtick that people tend to push without actually looking at the details. Russ's issue wasn't with psykers, it was with "sorcerers". With Russ's definition of sorcery being the unrestrained and unmediated use of the warp, which Leman viewed as recklessly irresponsible and dangerous for everyone. He was Iam Malcolm agruing " the Thoudand Sons are so focused on whether they can do something. They never stop to ask if they should do something"
It kinda sounds to me like the primarks getting yeeted was the original plan. Emps makes a deal with the chaos gods for help creating the primarks, in return the baby primarks will be scattered across space, specifically to places that will test them and allow them to become as strong as possible. Then they will begin a game where each god and emps try to find and claim each one. Emps backstabs them and puts up an anti-chaos shield around them. Erda realises being raised as weapons by emp would actually be worse so she turns off the field and chaos grabs them, scattering them as agreed. Rather than immediately going out to look for them, tzeench holds the others back, waiting for emps to find them all and daddy issues to manifest. Then when most vulnerable they start corrupting as many as possible. Also I've heard a theory that each primark's soul is actually a warp entity with it's own special demigod powers that they can unlock through self actualization. So i think it's likely that catching warp entities and putting them into the embryos was the chaos gods part in the plan.
One of the theories about the lost primarches that I like is that at least one of them got hit with some sort of infohazard such that knowing the story puts people at risk of getting killed by the hazard. The primarches and above are strong enough to survive the hazard with little issue.
It's nice to see some SW positivity. It's kinda hard to find on RU-vid because of knee jerk meme reactions. Russ and the wolves in general have a cool level of depth. Oh yeah in crusade rules for 9th edition you could equip the spear of russ, which was alright as a weapon, but it actively made all marines around it worse at fighting, which suggests to me that they hate it too
@@eg0zb they're not, not in the public consciousness. Auspex's player survey for example had them as the 2nd least popular faction after deathwatch, and comments on videos or posts about them are almost as bad as you see when people talk about tau
@@eg0zb popularity is one thing, public opinion and discourse is another. However popular Space Marines are, most discussion you find online isn’t fond of them.
I think it is another ultramarine situation. GW likes to highlight how super special they are, so people push back. Personally, I am negative about them because Prospero will never be forgotten. (But honestly: they are kinda cool. I wish the lore was developed to link the old wolves to the new wolves more. There is great potential of them learning from past mistakes through their oral history. It would also highlight how ridiculous Magnus is for obsessing over something that happened 10k years ago. Alternatively, the lore could embrace that they still have this dark side to them., regardless I will hate on them ironically for the meme)
So reading the Ragnar black mane books, the spear of Russ was left with a navigator house as a token of Goodwill. In the third book greyhunters it is stolen and the space wolves go to reclaim it
59:30 Ava is pretty close, the Primarches seemingly have the power to alter fate and destiny, both of which the Primarches are intrinsically tied to. At every turn when a Primarch is involved, destiny is changed, and fates are rewritten I do subscribe to the minor chaos gods theory, how'd you know?
33:10 Russ and the lion don’t get on because they are each secretly what the other one is pretending to be and so they can understand each other in a way they don’t like. The lion pretends to be a noble knight and a dignified ruler but in his heart He is a dangerous beast. Russ meanwhile is a lot more cunning and a lot more considered than he lets on he’s not the wild Wolf king that is something that he pretends to be to be able to rule his people.
"there are no reticulated pythons in Florida!" Really got me😂 also you should read animorphs they hold up surprisingly well and are being released as audiobooks
Fun fact about why so many of their units have wolf in the name, the language of Fenris doesn't translate to Gothic super well so sometimes the names get super basic and just use wolf. Example, they hate to be called Space Wolves and prefer to be called the Vlka Fenryka. To them Space Wolves sounds dumb and is just the closest translation of their name.
I would point out when you do the Gorillaman and Lion video you might want to do a distinction of heresy version versus the modern one , (maybe similar for traitor primarchs) , because modern Lion now is quite the different person compared to heresy version. Also a flip side of the Primarchs landing on the planets that fit their skills , if I remember right Angrons "Gift" was empathy and he landed on a planet that put him in the situation that he wound up in he was meant to be the Paladin and he became a Berseker. Also another sad thing about Emps and his kiddos , another part of the Palace was set aside for their retirement where he and all his sons had homes where they could live and spend time. So there was some thought put into a future where he got to raise his children , if he knew his kids were gonna get yeeted then I doubt he would have done all that. Also on the lost Primarchs he also deleted their memory from everyone as well , at one point one of the Primarchs confronts Malcador and he gets the memory returned and agrees he would rather not have the memories.
2:20 a small rotund nurgle plush with open arms and a colorful sweater that says "come to papa" A plush of khorn that has an apron that says something like "cooking some khorne"
I absolutely loved this video, though I'm pretty sad that you didn't go into more depth on the Space Wolves themselves. I really wanna learn more about them, especially if they actually howl like wolves. Otherwise, fantastic video! I love your videos. You guys are the second biggest source I have for Warhammer 40K lore, next to The Exploring Series. The video I'm most excited for has to be a video on The Imperial Guard because, like I said in a previous video, the Guardsmen represent the indomitable human spirit, and I absolutely adore them for that. I'm also incredibly excited for the videos on Angron & Lorgar, who, in my opinion, are the most tragic Primarchs in 40K, especially Angron. I have a strong feeling and hope that Kari will come to despise the Emperor after she learns about these two.
the Russ is a play on the the Rus which were vikings who settled in the black sea area eventually becoming what we know today as Russian.....the more you know :)
My first introduction to warhammer was orcs in a rts game. When i started actually understanding what warhammer was is when i found Baldermort and his Space Wolves tale. It was glorious. If i ever had the money to get into the hobby i’d run space wolves forever.
An interesting thing about the lost primarchs. Or at least one of them. In one of the Adeptus Custodes codex for what I believe to be 9th edition, they have an excerpt explaining the Dark Cells below the imperial palace and some things that are in the cells. One of the things they name is something or someone known as Subject 11. In my mind, there isn’t much else this subject 11 could be other than the 11th primarch, locked away in the dark cells for his crimes, guarded by the prestigious shadowkeepers. There is no other detail about this subject 11, but it is interesting to speculate the possibility of who it may be.
Magnus was smirking because he realised the Space Wolves suffers gene flaw mutations just like his Thousand Sons. The wolves on Fenris are not just humans, they are failed Space Marines. That's the irony, Leman thinks they are nothing like Thousand Sons yet they are similar on many levels.
@@knightsljx I'm pretty sure that passage is an author mixing up the Fenrisian Wolves and the Wolfen, as Leman's origin story requires wolves on Fenris prior to the emperor arriving to the planet
Yes, Magnus and Leman are the same, except one f'ed up Big Es grand plan thousands of years in the making dooming all of mankind to a slow death cause he could not leave things alone, the other is a arsehole for different reasons.
Always thought of Rune Priests vs Psykers in D&D terms; as the RPs view themselves as Wizards/Clerics following ancient rituals and traditions. Studying ancient runes and following them to the letter. While simultaneously viewing all other Psykers as Sorcerers/Warlocks who tap into innate powers without heed of tradition or make pacts with the otherworldly. Constantly pushing for more and deeper knowledge of this thing that they (the RPs) think should not be sought at all. #BlameErda
I will now be adding "THERE ARE NO RETICULATED PYTHONS IN FLORIDA" into my memory bank of random quotes i remember randomly and say with 0 context to other people
Slight correction. Big E didn’t lose there was nothing left for him to eat/drink because Russ had just eaten/drank the rest Also Dante 1st captain of the blood angels is the oldest space marine
They don't wear helmets because their senses are enhanced and especially their sense of smell is the most acute of any space marine. So they are actually better off as far as situational awareness than a typical marine with their helmet on. That's the logic anyway but I put helmets on most of my models anyway.
In the Rangnar series or a codex, I forgot. But blood claws would use that excuse, veteran SWs would tell them to shut up and put on their helmets, often times followed by a smack
