Adeptus Ridiculous - DANTE | Warhammer 40k Lore

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://shop.orchideight.com/collections/adeptus-ridiculousDante is the current Chapter Master of the Blood Angels. Commander Dante is one of the most experienced and able Space Marine commanders. In no small part, this is due to the longevity of the Blood Angels, which he has ruled for 1,100 years. Dante is the oldest living Space Marine in the Imperium (excluding Dreadnoughts) and is held in awe by leaders of other Chapters, who can remember him being a famous commander when they were in the Scout Company.Support the show

Welcome, everyone, to another episode of the Adeptus Ridiculous Podcast. My name is D.K. Diamante's, his name is Bricky, and stuff is happening. But before stuff happens, if you enjoy today's episode, and maybe you want to support the podcast, heading over to patreon.com slash adeptis ridiculous, where you can get access to the Discord, bloopers if they happen, $15 tier, get you access to all of our posters in crispy digital form. Also, Shai is doing a sort of series about little mini snippets about her feelings on orc stuff. It's great. On YouTube, you can check out a little compilation of some of the ones that were exclusive.

Patreon.com slash Adeptus Ridiculous. Bricky, welcome back to the world of the living. I have returned from the Anime Expo, Los Angeles, California, also known as the convention I dislike the most. Cocking. Man who hates Anime Expo. Incredible. Anime Expo has kind of, I think, arrived in a too big to fail type situation.

To the point where a lot of the places are just very much overpacked with people. That's like the big thing that keeps me from animex was it looks like it's a sardine can, man. It's just, it looks awful. The sardine can nature is the reason why I went in animics for the first day just for artist Alley for an hour. And I never went back in the entire time. that's that's that's that's a good strat man that's a great strat i think it's a pretty good strat but anything anywho i have returned i have returned and we are here for more more adeptist ridiculous uh today's episode i am going to preface by basically i'm going to set some ground

rules for our viewers our lovely audience uh if you've ever had a you forgot about glupp shito moment you're going to have one this episode we are we are we are are going to cover a major, major episode that we've said we were going to do for a while. And to the particular choice of ourselves and possum, we wanted to make sure that we do, as we normally do in Adep's Particulous, a nice top-down overview to wet your palate for the real stuff, which is the books and the various other media involving them. We will 100% have a why didn't X get mentioned, and it's just not the plan. We're a top-down overview, simple stuff.

I mean, I feel like this applies to all of our episodes. However, sometimes certain things are more important, and so that's why I mention it. Anyway, would you like your quote? I would love my quote. Excellent. Yeah, you know it's going to be good when a bricky frontloads excuse. but it's how sometimes sometimes you make the mention yeah yeah when I made when I when I when I start an episode like that it's like don't be a coward DK tell them to go F themselves and do your

shit gang let's go and it's that is so true I am being a bit of a hypocrite I think you just do it more than I do though and that's why that's true that's true I am I am a little more yeah I I do front load with excuses a lot that's fair that's fair For 1100 years, I have fought and I have seen the darkness in our galaxy. I have seen the vileness of the alien and the heresy of the mutant. I have witnessed the sim of possession. I have seen all the evil that the galaxy harbors, and I have slain all whose presence defiles the emperor. I have seen what you will see.

I have fought what you must fight, and I have slain what you must slay. Oh, so it's, I don't know how you could necessarily do a top-down episode of this, but once you said it's like, oh, I've been alive for 11,100 years fighting everything and blah, blah, immediately my mind went to Dante and him being alive too long, fighting everything and God. But I feel like if it was Dante, the quote would be like, yeah, I've been fighting for 1100 years. Why am I still alive? Please, somebody kill me. Kill me now. well i mean i you're i mean you're right it is dante but also like i think i think we're getting we're getting too far to the me marie stuff with that world but i think you're also correct oh did so so it is dante oh yeah yeah uh the other quote was featuring dante from the warhammer 40 000 franchise let's go let's go let's go yeah as soon as you were like yeah i've been

alive for 11 hundred years i was like dante eh huh dante dante Dante's been alive a long time, Dante. I mean, you know, there's also in the quote, it says mystery quote, in quotes, it's a layup. So I'm glad you got it. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess, yeah, sometimes my brain does activate for certain things, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, today's Dante. We said we're going to do Dante forever. Commander Dante, chapter master Dante.

like maybe the most famous space marine in all of like modern day Warhammer 40K obviously not not including primarks or anything like that but sure besides like Marnius Calgar I guess um yeah probably maybe you could argue like Titus because it's like popular now but sure because that's a video game yeah yeah yeah everybody knows about Dante's big old metal grippers too right everybody knows that one. I definitely thought you were going to go with the death mask, but that was substantially worse than I thought I would have ever heard.

Substantially worse. Well, the only reason I say that is because the poor Hammer game show, one of the question cards that came up was literally just zoomed in Dante's grippers. And I was like, is that a fist? Is that a, nope, it's his,

it's his big metal grippers. That is very awful. I'm glad I miss. I'm glad I'm, missed that for the anime Expo, I guess. Yep, yep, yep. But yes, today we are talking about, I'm assuming it's Lewis,

or not Luis or whatever, but Louis Dante, the current chapter master of the blood angels, the oldest living space marine, sometime rivaling certain dreadnots as well. It's Dante. I mean, he's a huge deal. It's why this script is

ironically a little shorter than most of our scripts because we took the choice to do so because there's too much on Dante because he's Dante right wow um yeah and you know thinking back to

I don't think I ever heard how Dante like started like what his like history was like I just know sort of the basic like memory surrounding him and sort of like I said in the quote the memes about him just being like oh my god I'm still alive this is awful please and me.

Other than that and him being a badass with the cool mask that's probably like magnetically sealed to his head in the service studs, I don't really know much about Dante. Yeah, I mean, Dante is an extremely popular character. I know that Brad from the Porr-Habber podcast is a massive Dante fan. A buddy of mine, well, you know, you know, Tesh. Yeah. He was 3D printed a single. Guineas Dante death mask for like a masquerade ball.

Wow. In L.A. And it was, it looked sick. I was going to say, that's a really cool idea, actually. Yeah. He's a die hard blood angels fan. Huge, like, you know, Dante is, is the man. He's the boy.

But, yeah, so today we're going to talk about the history of Dante, starting from the youth all the way to his existence as the Lord Regent of the Imperium, Nialis. So. So Dante's youth has a really good little quote here from one of the books. I believe it's coming from Dante's father. It says, Every boy that throws his life away for a dream of angelhood weakens the clam. You'd be an asset here, dead out there.

Not trying to be selfish, said Lewis, his own temper responding to his father's. The change from boy to man had begun as he was getting bigger, more stubborn, and swifter to fury. If I stay here, I can help Malina, maybe. If I become an angel, I can help everyone. His father's name, I believe is Arias. Set the knife down about his head. If, if, if, he said, you will die. He turned around and leaned against the tiny kitchen work surface.

What makes you so special? Why do you think you can do it? Lewis, you're small. You're not strong and you're young. But most of all, you're to kind. to be an angel to fight those wars. What kind of men do you think make such warriors? You have your mother's heart.

Always you put others before yourself. Your mercy will kill you. And Dante responded, kindness is no vice. I like it. He's a good boy. He's a bit of a boy scout, you know? Yeah, a bit of a boy scout. I also liked it, well, I don't know how realistic this is,

but every time there's like a soldier backstabre. story movie or book, it's always, there's always that moment with the parent where it's like, oh, if you, if you go into the service and you go out to battle, you're going to die. You should stay here, live a happy life. You can help your mother. You can be a good boy and run the family business. Like, no, I was born for greater. I can help the world, you know?

I kind of like that that's how good boy Dante sort of starts out, too. Yeah, I mean, it's also, I mean, just kindness is no vice. There's a hard line. Oh, yeah, that's super hard. So, you know, good old Louis Dante, he was born around 447.m40. And for timeline-wise, he was born about 14 years after Krieg ended up nuking itself, which means that he was about 486 when Krieg was then re-added back to the Imperium because they were fighting forever.

Dante was born on Ball Secundus, known to the locals as Balfora. I actually don't know that's a joke or not because I actually don't know I feel like he's trying to hit me with a ball four or these nuts but like I can't I can't tell As soon as you said it

I was like oh, Berkey's hitting me with a ball four these nuts right? Totally like come on there's no place called ball for right? I genuinely can't tell but it's fine which is so

Ball secundas is the second moon of the planet of Ball it's also the same moon that sanguinius landed on back when. And a reminder, ball and its moons are like bad. During the dark, a dark age, a nuclear incident occurred that made both moons and the planet itself have atmospheres that are insanely horrific. Some a bit more clear, but most people need big protective suits to even

function in like a basic sense. A combination of chemicals in the air, raiders on the ground, life is short and really difficult. So long story short, nobody wishes they were a baller. And the ballers that wish they were a baller got a little bit taller and they tried out for the blood angels. I was waiting for a rabbit and a hat. Yeah, I was a nice, nice, nice, nice. Well done. Well done.

Thank you. Thank you. Unfortunately, the nids ate your balls. Oh, no, not my balls. That comes later. That comes from the devastation of ball. But anyway. That's true.

I keep forgetting about the devastation of ball. Devastation of balls. Me when I'm Lance Armstrong. Oh. That's nice. Damn. You know, he, he doped. It's fine.

Yeah. Fuck that guy. Yeah. So, most of the population on Ball Secundus exist as scattered tribes with a few permanent settlements here and there. Dante was born into a nomadic tribe, and that made they're living kind of in the salt deserts that were used to be oceans. They would harvest the salt in the deserts and then bring them to the main settlements to sell. And obviously, this existence was very harsh and the expected lifespan of the salt miners were very, very low.

At the age of seven, Dante's mother died during childbirth and said that the child was also stillborn. and this did pretty irreparable damage to Dante's father, Arias. Oh, God, yeah. He became really paranoid, really withdrawn, very clingy to Dante. And had long, and since Dante had long expressed interest in becoming a blood angel, because they work in the salt deserts and the blood angels fortress monastery kind of looks down on them, like this big eye in the corner. he grew up generally in a life of horrible suffering in the salt flats or minds or whatever.

And then obviously we keep kind of looking up at that and be like, oh, this is, you know, this is the future. So whenever, like I mentioned in the quote, whatever Dante's father would, or whatever Dante would express interest in joining the blood angels, Dante's father would belittle him. You know, whenever he shot interest in this as a means generally to keep him nearby because he was terrified of losing the only family he had left. The rest of them died in childbirth. That, yeah, I get it. That makes sense. And he kept telling him, like, you could do the troughs when you're old. You can do when you're older.

You can do when you're older. But it didn't really stop Dante. And under the cover of night, one night, he stuck away from the camp and made his way towards Angels Fall, which is the cliffside where all the aspirants took place. And also happens to be where Sanguinias was found. To get to Angels Fall, Dante would have to cross the Great Salt Waste alone. and the conditions of the salt waste were overwhelming and crossing alone nearly killed him.

But fortunately, while he was dying of thirst, Dante had his first of many visions of the sanguador. You remember what the sanguador is? Oh, yeah, the sanguador is sort of like the Blood Angels version of, is it St. Catherine for the sisters, that like she just kind of shows up in Celestine. Yeah, like he shows up in like their, their hour of greatest need. He, he wears like armor that's all gold.

Kind of looks like sanguineas. He's got the wings and everything. And people are like, oh, maybe that's, maybe that's the rebirth of sanguineous. He's showing up to in his, in his chapters, time of greatest need, slays everything, says nothing leaves, right? That's pretty close. Yeah, no doubt. That's actually pretty darn close. I'm actually a little shocked.

You know these things. Yeah. that was very, very good. Good job, too. I remember thinking, I remember thinking Sanguanor was really cool and he always kind of just stuck in my brain a little bit. No, I mean, he's very cool. That's about right.

He had a vision of the sanguanor and it guided Dante. Now, he could have just been going crazy because he was dying of thirst, but it guided him. Yeah, but I mean, that's not abnormal in the 40K to have like real visions. That's true. That's a normal 40K thing to happen, yeah. Yeah. I mean, he, the vision of the sanguador guided Dante to the corpse of a long-decease traveler

that was carrying a bunch of unopened water flasks. And so he got the water supplies to save his life and he continued his journey. Now, Dante, as an aspirant, he was quite young and really nothing remarkable, like physique-wise. For any other aspirant, the trials would probably prove to be fatal. But Dante's just general grit and resolve kind of kept him going through it. He showed actually a very vocal disgust for the other aspirin's desire for bloodshed and violence. He felt it was very unbecoming of becoming a space marine, ironically. Yeah, but obviously he didn't know this.

He wouldn't, yeah. For example, one of the final trials had Dante against his closest friend during, like as a fight, as a friend named Florium. But the chaplain revealed to him that near the conclusion that this was in fact a fight to the death. demanded that Dante landed a killing blow on his friend, in which Dante then responded with this. I did not come here for glory or for power. I came here to serve, said Lewis Dante calmly. He felt cheated. After everything he had undergone, all he had suffered, all he had hoped, he was angriest, most of all at himself, for he had been a whisker away from spilling his friend's brains upon the floor for his own game.

He hid it all and faced his death with dignity. I will have no part of evil. The chaplain's posture changed. He rested his weapons head upon the floor and crossed his hands over its pommel. Then you have passed. I don't know why this makes me think of this. This is a real back and grab. But do you remember in the Naruto trials where you

like rank up or whatever. And you had that one dude who could control shadows and he purposely like didn't kill the lady and that he was the only one who passed. Oh. They had those like the, what is it, the tune in exams or something? Yeah, something like that. I do remember shadow puppet dude, like Shikamaru or something. Yeah.

He like, he like, like, I remember him like freezing his opponent through like a shadow in the floor or something, like a hole. and then like kind of he had a bunch of like Kunae or something and she didn't so he kind of held it up to her face and it was just like all right I give up and then he's like this is crazy that you're making

an anime reference that I don't get because I didn't make it very far in art I got to the I got to like a lot of the Arochi Maro stuff I don't know I listen man Tunami even though I don't like anime now Tsunami was like my shit

okay Tunami was banging back in the day, that's fair. So the chaplain revealed the test was specifically selected for Dante and was known as the test of Horace. A final test determined the measure of the aspirin's moral compass to see if they would always

point true to the ideals of sanguineus. And so Dante was offered a option to join the blood angels after passing and he accepted literally immediately, brought to the fortress monastery of Ball and faced the final trial, which is the winnowing of weariness.

Basically, it means they need to meditate for three days and three nights. They can't speak. They can't move and they can't sleep. For the first two days, Dante was chill. For the third day, things got a little rough. And, you know, Dante eventually fell asleep. He saw a bunch of visions of his angry father and also of his mother who told him to spread his wings and fly. But he was also visited by the sanguador who woke.

Dante right before the chaplain noticed he was asleep. And so he passed and things worked out. Damn, it's a good thing that sang when I woke him up because like, if it was like, oh, damn, you fell asleep. No Dante because you took a little nappy poo. Boy, how different would 40K and like just the history of the blood angels be if that was just like, oh no, Dante failed that and he never became a blood angel. And he was just, you know, he went back to the salt flats, lived with his dad.

Yeah, I mean, that's, yeah. Yeah, no, 100%. I mean, he's a big phony, but also, I mean, he may not, he's made out a big fat phony. He's,

uh, but the, the, the, the sanguador is, you know, helping him, so.

Yeah. So as Dante rose through the ranks, you went through all the usual blood angel rituals. The first one is the ritual of insanguination, which is the one where they, uh, drink the gene seed of sanguineas in the form of the synthesized blood, a sangria,

if you will. Nope Come on Nope I'm not doing it Nope I'm not doing it Oh fine

It's all right It was I'll give it I'll give it a zero Not a plus two Not a minus two It's just neutral It says you know what Not bad not great

Not the worst thing I've ever heard It's fine The sangria of sanguineas Oh fine fine fine Three point something Rottkin You know not great Not terrible Yeah

Yeah Okay, so he, screw you, man. That was funny. The, obviously also, you drink it from the sanguinary chalice and you fall a year-long slumber

in the ritualistic sarcophagus, right? You drink from the chalice, you experience the life and death of your primark for the duration of the year as the gene c merges with their body, mostly done in silence. However, Dante kind of got the night terrors. Yeah.

He had a bad time with, this one. So during the year, Dante never actually truly was asleep. Oh, no. He had a bit of longer than you think moment on that one. That's unfortunate for him. So he faded in and out of consciousness for the entire year, screaming the names of the long dead primarks, screaming names of long banished demons and the names of the dark gods. He quite literally clawed at the coffin and slammed into it for the duration of the entire year. The priests definitely took notice of this. And when he finally emerged,

I mean, yeah, they're kind of looking at this dude, like slamming into it. Yeah, and then they just hear, Rokon! Tunk! Don't, don't, don't, don't. Like, Jesus.

Wait, I have the perfect meme for this. Hold on. I have to get this one. I said Knox on just like oh excuse me people are trying to sleep out here if you can keep it down in your coffin that'd be great

yes I found the meme this is just him that is him oh sequitios yes perfect I'm sure

I'm sure I'm sure I'm sure shy will use the audio it'll work out hell yeah so obviously so eventually so eventually he emerged from the coffin and all of the irradiated flaws were gone and the ensanguination was a success.

It was remarked that him fighting through all the process was, may either mean he was a warrior, a faded promise, or he was totally destined for failure. Clearly we know where that went, but, you know, they didn't know at the time, yeah. So, you know, after a few, so skipping ahead a little bit, after a few years of conflict as a neophyte and a few more meanings with the sanguador, Dante became the fifth captain of the blood angels at the ripe old age of 306. This was a bit unexpected, as the presumed trajectory of Dante was very much believed to be quite minimal.

A rarely spoken truth known only to the blood angels and their closest successor chapters is that Dante was never destined to rise to the rank of commander. This warrior, who now stands astride the Imperium, in the burnished armor of a living legend was a line officer that ascended to the highest position during one of the Blood Angel's bleakest eras. So he was a good dude. You know, he rose to the ranks, the classic. Yeah, classic.

Classic striving up from nothing to become the greatest blood angel in history. Hell yeah, really. The Bleakest era in question was known as the Calleus Insurrection. It was an insurrection that took place in the Calleus section. and it seemed like a kind of a relatively minor issue with a somewhat problematic world. But it turned out the rebellion was insanely massive and involved a ton of chaos-based re-war bands, which is very rough. The Blood Angels dispatched three full companies into the war zone, and it went from several days to years,

and in the final days, it went for the form of a void-based warfare with like 200 Blood Angels only surviving. Like basically the entire chapter council was completely a round, eradicate him and Dante himself remained as the final captain of the blood angels literally left alive. And so due to the light of succession being obliterated and all of his bosses being dead, he became chaptermaster. He didn't even fail upwards. Everyone else died. He was just the only one left. There was no other option for chaptermaster.

It's just, it's just you. I guess by proxy. of you surviving, you kind of get the job. Yeah, I mean, yeah, you gain promotions by making sure everyone else dies. Yeah, convenient, Dante, convenient. Yeah, yeah, it was really bizarre when every single other space, uh, blood angel chaptermaster, conveniently committed suicide when the cameras weren't rolling. Yeah, funny thing.

No evidence. No evidence. Very, very strange. Um, now, Dante as chaptermaster. has seen an insane amount of battle. Due to his longevity, the stories of this battle have kind of become these various myths and legends. He won V1 scar brand at the gates of pain, ammonium and tore him in half. He cut down a bunch of numbers of the night worlds on the World of Tarium, which has been then rebuilt.

The Second War of Armageddon was one of his most well-known things. If you may remember, he fought with the defenders of Hive Archeon and Tartarus to stop the orc hordeaux in the jungles. And the most significant of his battles came in the form of his own legion and the successors. The Calius insurrection did not have a good time with him and his numbers and generally put a lot of his might into holding off civil wars with his own legion and kind of operating as the guy, the beacon of hope, the Dante, you know, kind of when everyone starts dying, there's a lot of people who want to fix shit.

And so, you know. Yeah, he's got to be the one that keeps it all on the up and up. Dante is also not just well regarded and loved in his own Legion, but he's very highly respected by other legions. He kind of has a similar but different playing field to people like Logan Grimnar and Marnius Calgar, all of them being, you know, the guy. Yeah. Yeah.

Even other chapters know he's the guy and you don't mess with him and he's like the one. Yeah, like Calgar, Logan Grimnar, Dante, those are are kind of the ones that space marines of other chapters talk of in legend. Yeah, they're just a little, I shouldn't say just a little, but they're one step below a prime mark in terms of like, whoa, living legends, almost God tier status, right? I mean, not just like entirely because of power. I mean, don't even wrong, they're strong, but more like what they've done, right?

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Now, the devastation of Ball is a big part they're coming up to. And this is when things get really rough. So the devastation of Ball took place during the third tyrannic war and was a main conflict with High Fleet Leviatham. So the fleet was storming towards Ball and there were tons of attempts to deter it from hitting the Blood Angels home. The worlds in the Krypton Shield were fortified to hold back any sort of advancement of the high fleet.

but of course these only really served as like speed bumps because this was a full force fleet heading towards ball. Yeah, you're going to stop a hive fleet. Like you just hope that you're not in its path. Yeah. I mean, over 50,000 bio ships were like unencumbered by the blockade around the planet. And the cut of ships and battle brothers from another were all like they were all cut off. The tyrannids were completely eradicating successor chapters of the bloody. angels, like completely.

I'm sure there, I don't know exactly which ones, but there's probably blood angel successor chapter, the blood in the balls, and they're like deceased. Like, they're just gone. The blood in the balls. I like it. I like it. Damn, we lost blood in the balls to the tyrannid, high fleet leviathan. What a shame.

And the tyrannids were beginning the consumption of the services of the planets, the moons, and ball itself. The intervention of the Sanghaonor itself proved to be genuinely ineffective, and the whole system was on its last legs. So on Ball Prime, sorry, on Ball Prime. For such children. Oh, my God. I know.

It's just, I can't. Divine intervention. Yeah, well, you know, it's, you know, Ball Secundus, Ball Fora, and Ball Prime. divine intervention actually came from a very unlikely source. A tear in reality ushered forth the arrival of demons led by the bloodthurster Cabanda. Do you remember Cabanda? God, I do remember Cabanda. I feel like I'm going to get him and Scarbrand mixed up.

I don't remember if Cabanda, is Scarbrand the one that got yated because he tried to step to corn, or was that Cabanda? Cabanda, no, the one who got Yida's Scarbrand. Cabonda is the one that Sanguinius fights on the gates. Oh, okay. So, okay. That's the one that he fights him and he gets kind of weakened, and that's why Horace can kill him kind of thing.

Gotcha. Well, I believe so. I mean, Sanguinius, sanguinius in most of the end bits of the siege of terror and stuff is like, wait a minute, I can see the future. I know when I die. and it ain't here, idiot, and he just, like, goes,

he just goes in seno mode. That's true. He doesn't use his future site the way Curz does, right? Yeah, no, Curz is looking for the guy that's going to kill him. He's like, let me find him.

And Sanguinius is like, oh, Horace is going to kill me. Of course I can one v.1, Gabonda. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I know what I'm going to die. It's not here.

So, like, you don't do it, bitch? Yeah, I mean, it's like grabs Gabonand and then, spirals him into a warp portal like a G. Let's go.

But anyway, so Cabanda has specifically stated him that no one, because he's the arch enemy of Senguinius, has the right to destroy the blood angels but him. He, if anyone's going to murder the last blood angels, it's his right. So he intercepted the tyrannids and opened the warp rip to prevent further tyrannid invasion, which, is like, cool. However, every single defender on Ball Prime was killed because also demons, Lamau? Well, that's such an interesting take, though, that Cabanda is still just like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. My prey. And he actively stops the tyrannets.

That's, that's kind of wild, actually. Yeah, as Shai says, he's married for, I do. I mean, it's a demon. True. The demons are so petty. True, you're right, you're right. What am I thinking? It's a, you know, fucking bloodthirster.

So with every single defender of Ball Prime killed, the forces had to fall back to the moons. And even that became difficult because the chapters really started to end up succumbing to the black rage and began to just hurl themselves, the tyrannids, and the demons of the warp. During all of this, Dante fought just tooth and nail against this whole stuff, so much so that he actually believed this would be the full end of Sanguinius's bloodline. Like, this is the moment the blood angels, the Legion dies. But, yeah, against those odds

and seeing everything that's happened, I, yeah, I don't blame him for thinking that this is just like it and this is just going to be the valiant last hand. The Battle of Ball had 30,000 space marines die. And eight full chapters were just like,

Blood in the balls, ball blood, there's blood angels stored in the balls, triple ball, you know. I don't know. I like the blood angels are stored in the balls. That one I'll give you a plus two on actually. Quad Crogan balls, you know, like all the,

all the balls. So many space marines to go out, though, and so many chapters that, like, that's, like, because there aren't that many space marines hanging around to lose 30,000 is crazy.

numbers. Yeah, I mean, each chapter is a thousand. And so clearly many other chapters were there and died, but eight of them were completely obliterated. Yeah, that's insane. That's an insane amount of loss for the Imperium. So in a final rally, though, here, Dante declared that the time was at an end and that they were death company now. And that their continuation was not theirs to determine. So what he felt was a final conversation, with his failing legium, Dante then removed his mask and showed his true age. Because that was one of the things we did not touch on much, but I think we mentioned in a prior episode where Dante is, I want to say embarrassed, but like shameful of his age because

he's such like a golden visage for everyone that looking old is bad. Yeah, he wants to remain as like the beacon of hope, not look like some sort of addled old guy that you can't trust, right? Yes. He removed his mask. There's only one image of maskless Dante that shy can find, which I mean, it's an old image. So like, I don't really know what to make of it. He's got a big ass forehead, I guess. Yeah, it's, it's good art. And it's just, yeah, he's just a dude. That's maybe kind of old looking, but yeah, he's just a dude. Yeah. Now, he said, after he removed his mask, he said he would go into the final battle, not as the masked analog of his gene father. but as commander Louis Dante, son of Ball. He led the final push with the Marines who had the blood of their Primark and cried, Let the Damned march with the damned. Editor's note, this is from Possum here,

for those who want to see one of the best written speeches in Warhammer 40,000, he highly recommends reading the full speech or the devastation of Ball. It is an S-plus tier, a motivational speech right up there with some of the cinematic greats. And I have also heard the same thing from Brad, that the, the final, like, speech from Dante is, like, one of the most inspiring, uh, scenes in a Warhammer book put to date. Damn. Yeah, we're going to have to put, we're going to have to read that. Absolutely. Uh, I mean, one of the, devastation of balls on the list, 100%.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, uh, after a battle with the swarm lord that saw Dante taking a really bad. hit. He believed that it was over for him. And at this point, the prospect of dying came as a relief because he was over a thousand years old. He felt like his duty had truly been served, right? He really did it. Oh, yeah, for sure. He really did the best he could. And so as he lay dying, he saw a vision of his primark alongside the sanguador. And Sanguineus assured him that he had won his rest a thousand times over, and he would love to free him for. from his mortal coil.

And Dante begged him to do this, but Sanguinius kind of had other plans. Oh. He says, I cannot. I regret that I can do none of these things. I need you, Dante. Your suffering is not done.

Sanguinius gripped Dante's face in both hands as strength flowed from the Primark, driving out death's comforts and replacing it with pain. The scene rippled. He heard the shouts of space to marine. felt the ghostly touch of living hands upon his armor, and Senguinius faded. Please know, Dante cried out. My lord, I have done enough. Please let me rest.

The light was dying, and Senguinius's smile carried with it the sorrows of 10,000 years. Darkness was returning, and the great angel disappeared into it, but his glorious voice lingered a moment. I am sorry, my son, that you cannot rest. Not yet. live, live my son. And then Dante basically woke up screaming like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, no. So that's, that's the, that's the, that's the big me moment of, oh, great, I get to die and no, you get to keep suffering, buddy. That's generally the mean, that's generally the me moment.

The, I've worked hard enough. I've been alive for a thousand years. I've done my duty. And even Singuinius is like, brings him, almost. back to life in a way and say, sorry, man, you ain't done. I still need you. Even San Guineas was just like, yeah, you right.

You have earned this. But, uh, I'm going to need you for a couple more minutes. And yeah, that's unfortunate. Sorry, his updated minnie is banging, though.

It's pretty cool. His new mini is incredible. I love his new mini. It looks great. I mean, I don't, I don't, I never much like it when minis are,

are held together by like the tiniest little step. Oh yeah, the connection thing on the base. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That always is a problem I have, but,

um, yeah, Dante is, uh, I mean, that's the thing, right? There's a,

it's the combination where memes and real are both kind of true. Like, yeah, Dante was wishing for death. He was tired. He was exhausted, et cetera. Uh,

but the whole thing is that Sanguinius was like, oh man. And, and obviously I only have the excerpts from this part, but I know, I remember poor Hammer Brad being like, this is one of the most, like expressly emotional moments in a book he has read.

Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, it is funny, Dante wants to die, but in reality, it is like genuinely heartbreaking.

Yeah, it's like, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's like, oh,

I finally get to be with dad. I get to rest. I've done everything I can. And it's like, well, you're so close, but I can't let you. So eventually, after all this, a massive fleet from the Indomitous crusade, headed by Gilemon, arrived and liberated Ball.

You know, it took enough time. That was the end of it. They obviously got there, got back. It's unclear as to what happened and why the counteroffensive was so successful, because by the time the Ultramarines arrived, the tyrannet threat was relatively under control. But one clue that was found on the utterly devastated world of Ball, prime were piles of tyranid skulls ritualistically created in the

eight-pillared symbol of corn and cabanda. Ah, okay, okay. So the Ultramins were kind of like the police that showed up just a little too late. It's like, oh yeah, the reinforcements of arrived, it's like, guys, we already have it under control. Come on. Yeah, I mean, the...

Corn demons literally were like, sorry, we're going to kill you later. Yeah. Keep living a little longer, buddy. I'll be back. Damn. So definitely a lot of that. Regardless, like I mentioned earlier,

12 chapter masters were killed. Eight chapters are completely eradicated, sorry, six more almost extinct. One sanguinary guards survived. And the arrival of the Domus Crusade also brought a call,

who then brought the Primaris project and you know showing the courage and valor that Dante showed at ball Gilliman declared him the new regent of the Imperium Nialis you may remember that there's like the two parts

of Imperial and the Imperium Nialis and Imperium I think Secundus I'm gonna I think they got split in two right but yeah I think Nialis is the bad one I think that's the worst one yeah we're everything they're like really, really cut off there in like this sort of upper portion with all the war bullshit and and Gilliman gets the sort of bottom portion that it's still not great, but it's way better

than the top portion. Yeah, I mean, the top portion is where ball is and the bottom portion is where Tara is. So it kind of makes sense in that world, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yep, yep. So yeah, Dante, uh, Dante gets to be in charge of hell. Have fun, man. Congratulations on your new post. Don't say, are we sure I can't die, guys? Are we 100% sure on the me living thing?

Because I don't like this. Yeah, it doesn't probably feel that good, Gilliamen arriving and being like, all right, buddy, get to work. Great. But Dante saw the almost total extinction of his chapters and his own life and is now witnessing them being rebuilt. Having the title of regent, it kind of actually revitalized Dante in a weird way.

I mean, he's in charge of hell. But it had this more of like, oh, this little bit of a fresh sense of hope for the future. So much like the rest of the chapter as in successors, Dante went through the insane treatment of becoming a primaris Marine. It was successful despite his age, which was quite shocking. And so Dante now never stood taller, both figuratively and literally. Literally, yeah. Because finally, he wishes he was a baller. So now not only was he a baller, but he did become a little bit taller.

White literally, let's go. Good for you, Dante. Finally some good things happening to you, buddy. He wishes he was a baller. He wishes he was a little bit taller. And the dude got it. Get on your grind set. Get on your fucking grind, everyone.

Look at Dante. Yeah, get on that Dante grind set is a baller, is a little taller. Just do it. Just do it. it. Don't let your dreams be dreams. Obviously, with everything going on and how much adversary they had to deal with, one other thing was pushing Dante forward. Recorded in the scrolls of Sanguineus are stories of the Primark and a great battle that overshadows all other battles that have been faced at this point. In this battle, one golden warrior will stand between the emperor

and total darkness. For generations, the blood angels believe that this was Sanguineus, predicting his own death and final moments, but Dante believes otherwise. Deep down, he believes that this is his fate. He will be the one who stands between obliteration and the emperor, or the emperor himself, and this revitalization in his life has further cemented this belief. And, of course, this brings us to the modern day of the Arks of Omen campaign and his chance encounter with Lionel Johnson. Dante was the first high-ranking official in the Imperium that the Lion encountered,

which you may remember at the end of the old son of the forest. Right, right, right, right. I'd almost forgotten about that, actually. Now, this meeting, of course, started off on the wrong foot because the lion seeing Dante wear the mask of his dead brother did not make him very happy. Why are you wearing my brother's things? But it also did not help when Dante said,

and I quote, If you will forgive me, Lord, you are older than I expected. Dante says, still on one knee, but to have so readily and unprompted recognize the face of our gene father says much. Besides, I have served the emperor for over a thousand years and I have yet to meet a being with the same bearing as a primark, save for another primark, which was the showing that Gilliman was still alive, obviously.

Mm-hmm. And that's where Dante is currently. Obviously, and I should make this so very clear. The book, Dante, and the devastation of Ball Books are considered must-reads. They are considered some of the best Space Marine novels out there in a world where there are a million space-marine novels and are basically the Nightlord Omnibus for Blood Angel fans. So it's these books that really like, once you read them, you are completely indoctrinated to Blood Angel because, oh, my God, look at what Dante did, devastation of Ballad Angel. Oh, that speech. Oh, man.

These are like the big one, huh? I will never, I have never met a blood angel player. Or if I were like, yeah, man, I just think Dante is kind of a bad character who they will not like fist fight me in a parking lot. They will beat the shit out of me. Has anyone ever said that Dante is a bad character, I wonder? Because it doesn't, like, he's not. The problem with the internet is that everyone can have an opinion when not everyone deserves to. And so like,

Has anyone ever said it not trying to rage bait though? That's the, I guess that's the better question. Anyone ever said it in earnest? Has anyone besides like a Russian bot said it? I don't know. Exactly. An evil bot trying to like make shit on Facebook. I don't know.

Maybe. Maybe. All I've heard is positive things about Dante and obviously the memes of, oh my God, please let me die already. Yeah. Those are the two main memes. but also the dude is he's kind of a baller. Oh, yeah.

Obviously, just to round this out, Dante's weapons and armor are pretty neat. He has a fancy artificer armor that's been around for a very long time because it looks nice because you're supposed to describe him as a golden angel on the battlefield. Of course. Of course, Dante's mask is the death mask of Sanguonius itself. It was molded from the body of the fallen primark and encapsulates his final moments of hatred, disgust, and pain. upon looking at what had become of Horace. The mask also is something called the Halo Mortales, which allows a, it's a psychic energy feel like waves of potent hatred

to either cause enemies to be paralyzed with terror or run away in a panic. Oh, nice. Basically, the energy flowing from the mask makes it almost as if it looks alive on the field of battle. And it looks like that the helmet is screaming cries of battle along with Dante itself. as well as the red tear drop, which is obviously become synonymous of the Blood Angel, which is actually suspended Stasis blood

from Sanguinius himself on that tear drop. Oh, that's, that's pretty dope. I thought it was just a cool logo. It actually sanguineous blood, huh? Sick. He also has the Axe Mortallus,

which is his main weapon. It was made by chief artificer Metriculus during following the Horace Heresy, which he forged out of anguish. The idea that Sanguinius died at the hands of the traitors made him very unsettled. So he wanted to create a weapon that could slay Heretic Astardis, quote, like the dogs they were. And then he's got a fancy little inferno pistol called the perdition, which is just like an old like dark age technology pistol. It's inferno pistols are like little melter pistols in a way.

but his is just, you know, souped up. That joy toy figure is nice. Actually, sheesh. He is the boy. He is. And then, like, for example, also like Dante for the tabletop, for example, he is, like his infernal pistol, the perdition is, you know, got some extra power. His axe, Mortallus has a ton of attacks and hits very hard. It's very much also tailor made to kill space marines at, um,

It's strength and damage. Oh, yeah, yeah, it should be. Yeah, like a lot of times you have a fancy character that will do like five attacks at seven strength, two AP, three damage or whatever. Him, it's a ton of attacks at eight three two. Two damage is normally how much health space marines have. The armor penetration is a little bit higher, which is good for space marine armor. And the strength is exactly two times space marine, which means he wounds them on two, it's not three. so it's like clearly made to kill space marines.

So if you're fighting another space marine chapter, or I guess chaos space marines and you're a Blood Angels player, you want Dante. You are fielding Dante. No question. I mean, currently Dante is not only a good model, but he is also like balanced well.

I'd say that I don't know if every list runs him, but like he is not a bad choice. Okay. He has a fun rule, which is at the start of the fight phase, every enemy within six inches takes like a battle shock test because that's the death mask.

Battle shock! We love Battleshock! We really don't love battle shock, but it's, you know. And obviously he has some other rules like, oh, plus one to advance and charge, shit like that. Hell yeah. You could run him with like sanguinary guard,

for example, to be all like fancy fancy. I just, I always love hearing when a mini is like accurate to like how they all. in lore, right? Like where he's got like, oh, the axe does more damage against space marines because that's what it's for. It's for Heretic space spraines and like the mask does like the battle shot because that's

what it's for. I like seeing that. That's cool. That it's like there's that transition into tabletop. But yeah, I mean, for the most part, like that's the general of the up and down of Dante. If we're being honest, the dude seems awesome. Everyone loves him.

He looks cool. His mini is cool. I feel like he's one of the few characters that just is universally positive across all avenues. And those who already love Dante will be here and be like, yep, that's my boy. And those who have not heard much about Dante, I mean, huge recommendations to read Devastation of Ball and Dante because, I mean, Possum, multiple times in this script was like, damn, people really got to read these books. all right well there you go if possum recommends it and possum possum's read like everything

like all of it yeah so if it's got that glowing recommendation from him I'm just like yep I'm sold I'm pretty sure one of the lore crimes guys either the Amber King or Remembranceer was saying the same thing they were like they're like hey we gotta like you got

you gotta read these and they've read every single book yeah but yeah that's the stuff I don't really have any other things additionally passed this besides more the bricks are stored in the ball stuff. Oh, I don't forget to read Flesh and Steel. I haven't even started it yet because until this moment, I forgot we were doing it. Flesh and steel.

Flesh and steel. My God. Flesh and steel, chicken jockey.