Dante. Known as the Lord of Angels, Bringer of Sanguinius’ Light, Master of the Blood Angels, and Lord of the Angelic Host. He is the commander and Chapter Master of the Blood Angels and is almost certainly the oldest space marine who is not entombed in the walking battle sarcophagus that is a dreadnought. Dante has served as the Chapter Master of the Blood Angels for over 1,100 years and is likely somewhere around 1,500 years old. Dante wears ornate golden armor into battle including the Death Mask of Sanguinius modeled after the Primarch (magical clone baby) at the moment of his death. In the wake of the Fall of Cadia and the opening of the Great Rift that split the galaxy in two, it was Dante who was named to be lord regent of the Imperium Nihilus by Roboute Guilliman (the blue magical clone baby) himself. This effectively made Dante the ruler of the half of the Imperium that is cut off from holy Terra.
The title is a well earned one as Dante is one of the few Chapter Masters who even other Chapter Masters will willingly cede command to. During the Second War for Armageddon, Chapter Masters Calgar and Tu’Shan of the Ultramarines and Salamanders, both first founding chapters, gave overall command to Dante. So great is Dante’s reputation and respect that when he knelt before Guilliman upon the reborn Primarch’s arrival on the Blood Angel’s homeworld of Baal, Guilliman told him to rise and stand as his equal. He is considered the embodiment of every virtue of his chapter and is renowned as a paragon of the noble ideals of the Blood Angels. Dante’s personal record eclipses the honor rolls of some entire chapters. His legend is so great that Dante himself actually acknowledges that it has become overblown with myth but allows it to spread because he knows humanity needs heroes to cling to.
For his own part, Dante has grown weary after centuries of service. In the Scrolls of Sanguinius, the primarch’s visions of a great battle record a lone “Golden Warrior” that will stand between the Emperor of Mankind and his destruction. Many Imperial scholars believe this to be Sanguinius himself during his death at the hands of Horus. However, through some instinct, possibly even a lingering trace of Sanguinius’s far-seeing eye, Dante believes otherwise. Dante believes that the defense of the Emperor himself on Terra will one day rest in his hands. So he fights on. Believing that he must make it to his final duty.
The Imperium faces great adversity and darkness after the opening of the Great Rift. Yet Dante is said to have never stood taller. He has sworn to purge the Imperium Nihilus of Chaos and its taint. For in the darkest night, the golden angels shine the brightest.
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