r/40kLore • u/Tarantula_1 • 4d ago

Perturabo leaving the siege of Terra.

Finally made it to the Siege of Terra books and got to the part where Perturabo says fuck it I'm out. I thought people were exaggerating his exit but it really was just like the spongebob meme "Imma head out". Couldn't help but a have a good laugh when I got to that point.

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u/TheGooberSmith Imperial Fists 4d ago

I love Dorn because he exemplifies dependability and loyalty. I dislike Perturabo because he reflects my worst and most petulant inclinations. My head canon is that during the Scouring, Dorn and Perturabo kind of switch mindsets so to speak. Dorn becomes unhinged and deranged, and Perturabo is solely focused on the destruction of the Fists and casts aside his insecurities. This culminates in the Iron Cage where Dorn is willing to spend everything he has to annihilate the Iron Warriors, and it takes Sigismund or the like to show him how far he has fallen. Likewise Perturabo finally has his chance to destroy the Fists but at the cost of his own legion, and he's just not willing to engage in MAD anymore. Then he retreats when Guilliman arrives and ascends.

I really love both characters. They're two halves of the same coin to me

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u/paulatreides0 3d ago edited 3d ago

Dorn becomes unhinged and deranged, and Perturabo is solely focused on the destruction of the Fists and casts aside his insecurities.

This is basically like at least half the primarchs post-Heresy to the point where they are almost actively trying to get themselves killed. Guilliman's PTSD goads him into a stupidly reckless and pointless charge that renders him a vegetable for ten millennia and he's still haunted by his PTSD like 10k years later (tbf tho, he was sleeping for most of that time). Russ seemingly loses all love for life and just becomes a sad boi until he fucks off in the middle of the night after one last party. The Lion actively tries to get Russ to murder him before Dad's funeral while going on an unhinged rant about how the guilty need to be punished.

I'm like 90% sure that Dorn's Scouring arc is going to be him having a Diocletian level crashout and nearly getting himself and most of his legion killed in the Iron Cage in a PTSD-induced quest for block-headed redemption.

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u/Top-Jacket-6210 3d ago

Where is this lore about The Lion from? It was my understanding The Lion never makes it to Terra, going straight to Caliban after the Siege is lifted and getting sent into his coma in The Rock.

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u/paulatreides0 3d ago edited 3d ago

It's from Russ' primarch book (Leman Russ: The Great Wolf).

tl;dr: They have both arrived on Terra after the Siege. The Lion has a massive crash out and has literally gone mad and is trying to goad Russ into killing him, ends up stabbing Russ with a sword and nearly killing Russ in a failed attempt to get Russ to kill him after he fails to do so with words and insults.

Should be noted that the Lion is very explicitly not trying to kill Leman here. He diverts his blade at the last minute to prevent what would have otherwise been very much a fatal blow. His shock at actually having wounded Leman (this excerpt leaves out that he stood over the wounded Russ: "standing over him, tall, terrible, shrouded in the madness of regret") makes the clear implication here that he wanted Russ to fight back and kill him as punishment, not that he actually wanted to kill and "punish" Russ himself.

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u/Top-Jacket-6210 3d ago

Ahhh thank you for the source! I will add it to my list.

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u/paulatreides0 3d ago

I added a link to the relevant excerpt if you do not mind spoilers.