dark angels - am i missing something?

[ProwlingWolf]

i was wondering if anyone could help me with a quiery about the dark angels past? i am aware of how the dark angels came to lose caliban and their primarch, however, and i'm not deliberately trying to pick a hole in the history of this chapter, but...

i'm assuming after the heresy, the remaining primarchs continued serving the emperor in their own ways and gradually over the following centuries, died or disappeared, depending on their individual histories. i believe the inquisition was set up shortly after the heresy and one of their tasks would have been monitoring the remaining chapters/legions, to ensure a repeat of the heresy could not re-occur. my question is - how did the dark angels chapter explain the disappearance of their primarch and the destruction of their home world to the newly founded high lords of terror, the remaining primarchs and the inquisition, without revealing their terrible secret? have i missed the bit of their history which explains how they accomplished this? surely the remaining primarchs still would stay in touch, so would possibly wonder why the Lion had soddenly stopped turning up to family reunions?

i'm presently writing a short piece which refers to the period shortly after the fall of caliban, which would involve the meeting of the inner conclave and their discussions on how to move on after this second heresy. was it at this point that the legion was broken up into 2nd founding chapters (as their names reflect the fall of caliban and the betrayal has occured) how did they choose a successor to the lion?

does anyone know where i could find this information, or does it not exsist yet (official or otherwise)

thanks

[IBBoard]

As far as I know then GW have generally been somewhat quiet on the detail. A few stories recently have started to give a bit more detail, but the "dark and secret history" tends to have been kept dark and secret, as far as I know.

As for the Inquisition, while they're technically able to lead armies involving Space Marines, I think the Marines also see themselves as very much above the inquisition. They are, after all, just a group of humans from the Imperial machine, and not battle-hardened super-humans. I've never seen it specifically stated, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Marines just ignored the Inquisition and no-one in the Inquisition had the power/stubbornness to force the point. Also, surely Roboute Guilliman's creation of the Codex structure and his general rebuilding of the Space Marines would have provided a bit of a "we're all in it for the Emperor/Imperium" protection.

The best places for Dark Angels background are probably the obvious ones - codexes (new and old, including Codex: Angels of Death from 2nd Edition), and any of the Horus Heresy novels (although they might cover the period just before you need). In general, though, the focus is on the HH itself or on the recent past of a chapter, rather than the big gap in-between.

[ProwlingWolf]

thanks for thereply, i am aware of the mystery surrounding the disappearance of most of the primarchs and value the fact that games workshop have intentially done this to allow us to create our own backgrounds, characters, histories etc and even the incredible/insane possibility that these primarchs may return at some point in the furure. i was just concerned that if i was going to write a background piece, i didn't want it to conflict with known history. it would also be great to name drop to give it credibility.