Rylanor

Rylanor, known as Ancient Rylanor and Rylanor the Unyielding, was a Venerable Dreadnought and hero of the Emperor's Children Legion during the Great Crusade.

He had been the first to carry the Palatine Aquila standard into battle alongside his newfound primarch. Rylanor became the Emperor's Children's Ancient of Rites, presiding over the IIIrd Legion's Ceremonials of Induction aboard the IIIrd Legion's capital ship Andronicus. He served as the IIIrd Legion's "Ancient of Rites," and had been mortally wounded battling the Aeldari in the late 30th Millennium, solar decades before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy. Following his wounding, Rylanor was interred within the adamantium shell of a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought.

Rylanor was only part of the Primarch Fulgrim's Honour Guard by tradition, though he was increasingly troubled by the direction the IIIrd Legion moved in after the assault on the xenos world of Laeran.

At the last minute, he traded places for the combat drop onto Isstvan III with Captain Saul Tarvitz of the 10th Company, who was supposed to go instead as one of the Emperor's Children Loyalists marked for betrayal and death.

Betrayed unto his death by the duplicitous actions of the Warmaster Horus, Rylanor rallied the surviving Loyalist Emperor's Children and fought against the Traitors during the Battle of Isstvan III.

After the final orbital bombardment of the planetary capital of Isstvan III, the Choral City, the Venerable Dreadnought took himself off into the depths of the Precentor's Palace, never to be seen again.

Later, a group of Emperor's Children found Rylanor, and while they failed to destroy him, they crippled him and left him mortally wounded. Rylanor had managed to reshape the Sonic Weapon of his traitor brothers into a distress beacon of some kind, created to lure Daemon Primarch Fulgrim back to Isstvan III.

Later on, millenia after Isstvan III's death, traitor Astartes of the Thousand Sons legions went to Isstvan to investigate a distress signal repeating the same message over and over again: "The Ancient Awaits." They found Rylanor in a destroyed hangar, and soon after, Fulgrim arrived.

Rylanor was horrified and disgusted by his former gene-sire's appearance. The Daemon Primarch mocked the Ancient's damaged appearance. Fulgrim asked the Ancient of Rites why he had summoned him to this long-dead place. The Dreadnought managed to push his carapace upright into a sitting position, revealing the object that had lain beneath it for millennia: revealing a virus bomb and activating it.

One of the Thousand Sons utilized his Raptora cult powers and summoned forth a psychic kine shield to contain the explosion, though his ability to maintain such a barrier was tested to its limits. Enraged, Fulgrim attacked Rylanor, crushing the Dreadnought's Assault Cannon and effortlessly ripping the arm from the Dreadnought's body. Fulgrim used one of his alien blades and cut into the outer case of the Dreadnought's carapace. Reaching within, he breached Rylanor's sarcophagus and ripped out what was left of the Legionary's mortally-wounded form.

Fulgrim offered Rylanor the opportunity to return to the Emperor's Children Legion and accept the gifts of the Dark Prince and walk at his side, clad once again in flesh. He could be anything, as the Daemon Primarch had the power to sculpt him into any form he desired. Vistorio could sense Rylanor's horror at this last violation. An inescapable destiny where he would become that which he hated most.

The Dreadnought did not care whether he lived or died, only that Fulgrim went with him. Rylanor roared his defiance, "Never! All we have left between us is that we will die together! I am Rylanor of the Emperor's Children. Ancient of Rites, Venerable of the Palatine Host, and proud servant of the Emperor of Mankind, beloved by all. I reject you now and always!"

Vistorio, inspired by Rylanor's show of loyalty, raised his bolter and fired into the back of Brother Akhtar's skull. With Akhtar's death, the psychic force holding back the warhead's detonation ended. Once more, all life was burned away on Isstvan III, killing both the Astartes, Rylanor and Fulgrim.

Yet, not long afterward, Fulgrim returned, raised by the daemonic weapons of the Warp. The Phoenician's form was already weaving itself anew, but his soul was broken. Rylanor had dealt a wound to his pride that would never heal.

Personality: Loyal, determined, stubborn, cautious, brave, steadfast Appearance: Rylanor lies in a hangar, half-buried in the rock of the cavern floor, connected to a strange device. The virus bomb is concealed beneath him.