An Essay on Angron from Warhammer 40K
Angron Thal’kyr, The Lord of the Red Sands, The Red Angel. A being born a demi-god, turned to a beast, then reforged as a monster of the warp. A man born to be the personification of the empathy of the Emperor of Man. This birthright was stolen from him, and in its stead was placed the butcher's nails. The creation of an emissary of apathy–and how poetic is that? A man made to hold the burdens of others, LITERALLY possessing the ability to take away the feeling of pain of all kinds, made to be an uncaring, cruel, and vindictive bastard–scourging the stars for blood and skulls in service of his enslaver.
When many think of the soft or gentle aspects of warhammer, many minds float to Vulkan, the primarch of the Salamanders as well as the legion themselves. They show compassion and love to the humans they save. Often depicted more as ‘super heros’ in the fandom rather than inhuman warmachines (of which is still acknowledged). But this stage was built for that of Angron, one meant to be a bastion of empathy and compassion (in the sense of the 41st millennium). This shines through his gene-seed impact on his sons, the XII legion–then War Hounds. While they embarked on some of the most brutal and messy battlefields, the War Hounds are quite different from the berzerkers of the modern World Eaters who live blissfully in their violence, and in agony when not.
The War Hounds were unlike other legions during the great crusade, they had no war cry, they were not melee frenzy fanatics, they were slow and measured warriors. Those who would dredge across the battlefields with organized shield formations, combing through the obstacles. It was said that the War Hounds would march across their battlefields in all but complete silence, focused on cutting through those marked for death. Often deployed to the most brutal objectives as shock troops, the War Hounds took to the field with a mission to pursue.
I will stand to argue that in the brutal darkness of the far future, the War Hounds showed the most empathy to those they felled before meeting Angron. They do not relish in the pain they inflict, but work in quiet efficiency to see the deeds done. Even in the World Eaters of today you can see a hint of this ‘empathy’. They will not maul you, torture you, or make you into a room of living and conscious flesh; in worship to their lord, they work to take skulls, cut heads. In comparison to those like the Night Lords, Emperor’s Children, or even Dhrukari–this is an extremely merciful fate. Nothing more than skulls for the skull god, a death usually by decapitation.
Before the primarch of the 12th became a ghost of a man at Desh’elika ridge–he lived to fight for the freedom of his brothers and sisters of the gladiatorial Nuscerian pits. He lived to stand beside and die with the slaves he was in bondage with. To bring peace and freedom to those enchained as he felt and lived the same paint as them. In his first ever conflict in the gladiatorial pits as a child, he chose to snap his adversaries' necks rather than simply throwing them into the acid rising beneath them. To spare them from the agony the fluids of pain would bring to his opponents, a gesture of empathy. It is almost ironic, that the primarch of empathy was never shown any himself. His own was violated and stripped from him–a rape of his own mind by the barbarus tech of Nusceria.
In its own twisted and macabre way, the enforcement of the butcher's nails unto his own legion was an overall display of forced empathy. Making his sons experience and understand a fraction of the pains he did (as the implemented nails were ‘cheap knockoffs’ when compared to the original Nuscerian technology). Until that moment, his legion was literally physically incapable of keeping up with their primarch on the battlefield. Angron’s lust for violence and slaughter forced him to hurl himself into the fray of melee without regard for himself–only the engagement of brutality. The delegated position of bodyguard to the primarch, the devourers, had become a job of redundancy, as not even them could keep up with their primarch to ensure his safety.
Angron’s apathy enforced by the nails can be seen by his slaughter. His complete lack of care as to who he was fighting, who he was hurting, all to sooth his own paints. Furthermore, while one could argue the implementation of the butcher's nails unto his legion IS an example of forced empathy, it is also apathy as to the promised harm it imprints into his sons. Angron did not care for his sons to see his perspective. He didn't care to be understood–he wanted to hurt others. To claim some form of measured control over the galaxy he resides in. When his legion could not complete a worldly conquest in 31 hours (1 Nuscerian day), he would force them to decimate themselves (purge 10% of their ranks). Over and over again Angron exhibits behaviors of callous regard for the impact of his choices on those around him. He wants to inflict pain on others because it is truly the only thing he can remember living through. In spite of life itself, he wants others to join in his misery.
Most of this apathy results from the butcher's nails, but its true enforcement comes from Angron’s depression and self destructive desires. Decimating his legion brings only pain to his future objectives, but he doesn't care. Angron hated his life under the emperor, he wanted nothing more than to have died with his siblings in the mountains of Nusceria. How he acts is without regard to himself. For two years even, Angron ran away from his legion. He went to a death world to find something that would be strong enough to kill him. A dramatic attempt at suicide. He only refused to see to it personally, as he deemed it a dishonorable end. For those two years he did nothing but fight other creatures, hoping that one would finally kill him. Unfortunately he was so successful at killing the beasts, he began to be worshiped as a god by the natives of the world.
A demi-god of empathy and compassion–given no chance to even live. His choice to show his father figure empathy in the gladiator pits, his choice to refuse to kill him because of their bond, sealed his fate. His display of self, stripped his very purpose from his soul. Marking him for ruination, ownership to yet be held by Khorne. Angron could have been a leader like that of Guilliman, but was damned from the start. A tale of Greek tragedy in true, someone who never had a chance to live, never given permission to die, only promised the perpetual continuation of pain. With his only escape being the apathetic violence enforced onto others. He was never allowed to truly be.
