Alpha Legion: Mystery Upon Mystery

The Alpha Legion is one of the most enigmatic factions in the vast universe of Warhammer 40,000. As a Chaos Space Marine Legion, they nominally serve the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. But the Alpha Legion’s true motives and allegiances remain unknown.

Having fought for the Warmaster Horus during the galaxy-shattering civil war known as the Horus Heresy, the Alpha Legion has a reputation for duplicity and deception that stretches back over ten thousand years.

But are they truly the traitorous fanatics they appear to be? Or is there a deeper strategy at work beneath their unfathomable schemes? The answers remain elusive, for nothing about this shadowy Legion is ever clear-cut.

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Key Takeaways:

• Mysterious and secretive Chaos Space Marine Legion
• Known for infiltration, subterfuge, and complex schemes
• Primarch Alpharius and his twin Omegon led the Legion
• Motives and true allegiance remain shrouded in mystery
• Defining traits: adaptability, misdirection, independence

Alpha Legion: Origins of the Hydra

The Alpha Legion was the XX Legion of the original Space Marine Legions created by the Emperor of Mankind to conquer the galaxy in the Great Crusade. Mysteriously, they were the last Legion to be united with their primarch.

Uniquely among the primarchs, Alpharius was one of two twin brothers, though this was a closely guarded secret. Alpharius and his twin Omegon shared the role of primarch. “Alpharius” became a title as much as a name, and the brothers were essentially interchangeable.

This set the tone for how the Alpha Legion operates to this day, with misdirection and multiplicity at the heart of their doctrines and stratagems.

Every legionary was molded to resemble their primarch. Even in the Legion’s earliest days, all would claim their name was Alpharius, sowing confusion as to their true identity.

Where other Legions fought as armies of conquest, the Alpha Legion acted more as a mesh of covert operatives working independently towards inscrutable goals.

Certainly they brought worlds into Imperial Compliance as part of the Great Crusade, but always with an eye for the long game.

Extensive preparations were made before invading, including the placement of spies, saboteurs, and agents provocateur.

The Alpha Legion might spend years fomenting unrest and undermining a planetary government before striking. This set them apart from more conventional Legions who valued martial pride and open battle above all else.

Many of the other primarchs came to mistrust Alpharius and his “dishonourable” ways of waging war.

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Alpha Legion: Servants of Chaos?

When the Warmaster Horus rebelled against the Emperor, the Alpha Legion sided with the traitors, but the story may not be so simple. A cabal of xenos presented the primarch(s) with a prophecy that Chaos would eventually consume the galaxy utterly if the Emperor won the civil war.

Conversely, if Horus was victorious, he would be wracked with guilt and launch a galactic purge that would scour the Chaos gods from existence, albeit at the cost of humanity’s destruction.

Faced with this stark choice between two catastrophic outcomes, Alpharius and Omegon seemingly decided that the death of the species was preferable to an eternity of torment under the rule of Chaos.

And so, according to this account, the Alpha Legion “joined” Horus as a ploy to defeat Chaos by playing the long game and ensuring the Warmaster’s victory.

Of course, this could all be yet another deception. With the Alpha Legion, the truth is always up for debate, by design. They revel in misdirection and flourish in a fog of uncertainty.

The Legion’s warcry of “For the Emperor!” has thus become darkly ironic. Is it the mocking jest of traitors, or the earnest, anguished cry of a Legion that damned itself in a secret war against Chaos?

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Alpha Legion: Hydra Dominatus – All Heads of the Same Beast

In the millennia since the Horus Heresy, the Alpha Legion has fragmented into autonomous warbands while still maintaining its essential character. Extensive preparations and layered plots utilizing mortal agents and traitor guard still presage any overt military action.

Eschewing the warp-tainted frenzy of many Chaos Marines, the Alpha Legion prefers to use the scalpel of precision asymmetric warfare over the cudgel of massed battles.

Infiltration, surgical strikes, sowing sedition to provoke planetary uprisings, sabotaging supply lines, fomenting internecine strife among enemies – these are the hallmarks of their multifaceted stratagems.

On the battlefield, whether fighting under their azure serpent-scale banners or posing as their foes, the hydra-branded legionaries are masters of coordinated fire and maneuver, excelling at sudden flanking attacks that tear enemies apart both physically and psychologically.

But for all their deviousness, the Alpha Legion stays largely true to their origins.

They venerate their primarch(s) with fanatical devotion. Mighty Lords and wily Sorcerers lead elite squads of Chaos Terminators into battle alongside waves of cultists and traitor guardsmen, all fighting in eerie synchronicity towards obscure objectives.

The Alpha Legion’s reputation for deception is such that no one can ever be sure who among the enemy’s ranks (or even their own!) might secretly serve the Hydra.

This doubt and paranoia is a weapon unto itself, one the Alpha Legion wields with consummate skill to unravel their opponents from within.

Perhaps the Alpha Legion’s greatest “trick” is convincing the galaxy that Alpharius is dead, slain millennia ago by the primarch Rogal Dorn.

But who can say whether it was truly Alpharius that fell that day, or his twin Omegon, or merely some facsimile that died to advance the Legion’s impenetrable designs.

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Alpha Legion: An Endless War in the Shadows

In the grim darkness of the far future, the Long War between the Imperium of Man and the Ruinous Powers grinds on without end. The Alpha Legion continues to prosecute their opaque agenda, always claiming to serve the Emperor even as they plot against his Imperium.

Certainly they are no friends to the corpse-god’s realm, fomenting discord and anarchy wherever their tendrils slither. But do some elements of the Alpha Legion still believe they ultimately serve humanity through their unfathomable schemes? That remains an enigma.

Ultimately, the Alpha Legion’s modus operandi is one of control through a mask of chaos. They manipulate friends and foes alike, pitting all against each other in a shadow war of labyrinthine intrigues.

Victory is secured before the first bolter shot rings out, the enemy undone through a thousand cuts inflicted from within.

This is the way of the Hydra – duplicitous, elusive, and forever dangerous. Where other Chaos Marines see the carnage of battle and the favor of the dark gods as ends unto themselves, for the Alpha Legion they are merely means to achieve their cryptic and perhaps unknowable aims. Even if some shards of nobility and loyalty to the Emperor’s vision still flicker in the Legion’s collective psyche, ten thousand years of deception and fratricide have surely extinguished it.

Or have they? Like the Hydra of ancient myth, the truth behind the Alpha Legion has many heads, and none can say for certain which tells the true story.

Only one thing is sure – to underestimate the XX Legion is to invite disaster. For whatever secretive purposes they serve, the Alpha Legion plays for keeps, and the mysteries they guard may have cosmos-shaking implications for the plague-ridden future of the 41st millennium and beyond.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Are the Alpha Legion loyal to the Emperor or to Chaos?

The Alpha Legion’s true allegiance is unclear and may vary between warbands. Some believe they serve Chaos while others claim loyalty to the Emperor, but their actions suggest hostility to the Imperium.

2. Is Alpharius still alive?

Alpharius reportedly died in a duel with Rogal Dorn during the Horus Heresy, but his twin Omegon may have secretly assumed his identity afterwards, so Alpharius may still lead the Legion.

3. How does the Alpha Legion differ from other Chaos Space Marine Legions?

The Alpha Legion relies heavily on infiltration, subterfuge, misdirection, and sowing chaos and confusion among the enemy before striking decisively, in contrast with the more overt tactics of many Chaos Legions. They also appear to pursue more complex, long-term agendas.

4. What are the Alpha Legion’s tactics?

Extensive preparations including espionage and destabilizing targets precede any attack. Highly coordinated and adaptive, the Legion excels at exploiting enemy weaknesses and creating a “fog of war.” Cultists, traitor guardsmen, and other mortal operatives are used as force multipliers.

5. What is the meaning of the Alpha Legion’s battle cry “For the Emperor”?

It may be genuine, indicating some Alpha legionaries still believe they ultimately serve the Emperor’s interests. Or it may be used mockingly, to sow confusion. Like most things about the Alpha Legion, the true meaning remains unclear.

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