When GW announced the new Codex the other week we got a look at some of the new abilities in it. The Dark Angels, for their part are impatient and unforgiving with strangers who pry into their affairs. As one of the greatest of Adeptus Astartes Chapters, the Dark Angels have fought against every foe, and often bring huge reserves of experience and wisdom to the Deathwatch upon taking their Apocryphon Oath. These squads include the following: Without the aid of the Fire Support Squads, most Space Marine strike forces would swiftly grind to a halt. But in truth, the victories of these early Space Marines created a new problem within the Imperial fold, among their predecessors as the Emperor's genetically-enhanced troops, the Thunder Warriors. The Night Lords Primarch also killed every hunter-killer team sent by the Lion to hunt him down. The Cenobites of the Inner Circle could easily weather the storm of shrapnel and flame produced by the terrible weapons of the Great Crusade with limited risk. One of the most prominent knightly organisations was known simply as "The Order," and was made up of commoners and nobles alike, whereas the other knightly orders were drawn by tradition only from the Calibanite nobility. A Dark Angels Stormraven gunship unleashes its deadly payload. The battle between the two levelled The Order's fortress-monastery as the planet was coming apart around them, the orbital bombardment taking a heavy toll on the surface. The Dark Angels maintain a similar role within their Chapter known as the Master of the Rock, although there is an ominous difference. The reorganized Dark Angels under The Lion fought brilliantly, sweeping aside any memories of their earlier humbling on the world and saving their Ultramarines allies from being overwhelmed. As the solar decades since the Fall of Caliban turned to Terran centuries, the Inner Circle took shape. Cities were built to supply the sprawling industrial sites, growing upwards and outwards with each passing Terran year as the traditional villages and towns surrounding the fortress-monasteries were emptied and their citizens relocated to better serve the Imperium. These early hosts gained fame in battles of the Unification Wars such as the Third Siege of Antioch in 603.M30, in which nine Hosts spread across four Companies saw action, though they numbered less than 30 warriors each. This council's composition changes depending upon the wishes of each Supreme Grand Master. On the planet's surface, the Unforgiven found the world's vast cathedrals in ruins and its populace slaughtered.

The Dark Angels sought to lay down the new rigours that would govern them in the wake of the terrible events that had led to the Fall of Caliban. Most Space Marine Chapters have a Master of the Forge: the most senior Techmarine within the Chapter. The Terminators cleansed the world and rescued the enslaved populace, and in honour of those few Terminators, the armour of all Dark Angels Terminators was ever after painted white. With no homeworld save The Rock, recruitment planets were founded and new generations of Dark Angels were added to replace those lost in battle.

Upon their return to The Rock, the much-depleted Dark Angels found disturbing news. After the destruction of Caliban, the senior members of the Ist Legion assembled in secret conclave. But in the Legions' way stood multiple Traitor fleets intended to serve as blocking forces as Horus had foreseen that this route to Terra might open for the Loyalists. Yet this does not stop the sons of the Lion, from the most Veteran member of the Inner Circle, to the newest Scout Initiate, from searching each and every battlefield for the signs of sedition. On the right shoulder plates of the Calibanite Dark Angels, where normally a Space Marine's organisational and rank markings would be painted, they were authorized to wear the personal heraldry of their respective knightly orders. The Dark Angels eventually rebuilt their fortress-monastery on the asteroid that had borne the original fortress-monastery of The Order, known as Aldurukh, "the Rock of Eternity" in one of the old Calibanite dialects of Low Gothic.

To avoid the threat of the Space Marine Legions falling under the influence of the Archenemy, the remaining Legions were sub-divided into a number of smaller Chapters. As the Ist Legion, the Dark Angels were originally outfitted with a panoply of arms drawn not from the fruits of the Emperor's pact with Mars, but instead from the arsenal of the Unification Wars of Ancient Terra; relic weapons and technologies of great potency but often difficult to replicate and even treacherous, many of which would be later forbidden. "Repent! Ezekiel's vision ended with an image of the galaxy in turmoil, and another truth became apparent: a great doom was coming. The Lion learned to speak incredibly quickly and soon mastered all of the necessary aspects of Calibanite culture faster than anyone, including Luther, his mentor, foster father and best friend, believed possible. Inspections following the destruction of Caliban judged the Dark Angels fit to continue as a Loyalist Legion. Announced by the Primarch, the connotation was in fact first drawn by his mentor Luther, who quoted a section from the legend upon first seeing Astartes descending using jump packs: "And the angels of darkness descended upon pinions of fire and light...the great and terrible dark angels. Having incorporated the structure of the original Order on Caliban into the Legion, the remaining Dark Angels took that knightly brotherhood a step further, becoming even more monastic in manner. Each side dragged away their respective Primarchs from the scene of the combat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.". Russ eventually ceased and started laughing, realising how foolish their fight was and how he had allowed his pride and temper to get the better of him.

As a result the earliest Dark Angels were diverse culturally and recruited from across Terra, in contrast with most of the other Legions during their earliest days. Rumours, psychic signatures and the torture-wrought confessions of captured prisoners tell of a mustering of the Archenemy within the darkest recesses of the Warp-shrouded Imperium Nihilus. El'Jonson then led his forces to the surface and assaulted the Order's fortress-monastery, where he confronted Luther in single combat. These are the First Legion, the Dark Angels, and they know precisely one, very specific, fear. The Terminators, whose duty and honour required the extermination of the Genestealers, prepared themselves for battle. While the Inner Circle of the Chapter know of the existence of Luther's stasis cell beneath The Rock, there is another chamber at the very heart of the Rock that is unknown to all but the Watchers in the Dark and the Emperor Himself. The Deathwing are paragons of stoicism, unwilling to take even a single step away from the enemy when battle is joined, their prowess honed across countless battlefields so that they can weather any attack. He may have fought the Fallen unwittingly, believing his foe yet another vile Traitor worthy only of death. Brother Titus, honoured Dreadnought of the Dark Angels Legion during the campaign on Dulan. The Dark Angels make use of very different terminology when referring to the Chapter's officers as compared to that commonly used by other Space Marine Chapters. The Imperials brought with them all of the advanced technology that was hailed by the people of Caliban as miraculous. Any Calibanite knightly order that did not follow Jonson's lead, such as the Knights of Lupus of the northern forests which feared that the destruction of the Great Beasts would up-end Caliban's traditional social order, was destroyed to the last man. However, the Masters and elder warriors who led the instruction told the Neophytes nothing of the sins of their forefathers.

The Omniscramblers of Infiltrator Squads can severely disrupt enemy communications, allowing Ravenwing squadrons to strike without their quarry being warned. Deathwing Knight Master armed with a Storm Shield and a Flail of the Unforgiven. New specialized formations have been developed alongside ancient patterns such as the Hammer of Caliban and Scout Recon Stalker Strike. Aldurukh was originally the name of the mountain that The Order's founders had decided on the site to build their fortress-monastery, using the name of the mountain for the fortress. It was the mysterious Watchers in the Dark, their purposes always their own, who led the wounded Primarch to his rest deep within the heart of The Rock. If they can pass the Seven Rites of the Raven, they will be inducted into the Black Knights, the Inner Circle of the 2nd Company.

After Caliban's discovery during the Great Crusade, these formations were revived and expanded as they offered a form of rapid strike warfare the knights of Caliban both understood and had perfected over many generations, though now their steeds were ones of unyielding metal, rather than flesh. The Dark Angels took a significant part in these battles, which later came to be called the Great Scouring. He thought long on the matter. Most Deathwatch Kill-teams are made up of but a handful of Battle-Brothers, sent alone into the far reaches of the void to pursue objectives unknown to even the highest tiers of the Imperium's government.

Many changes happened within the Imperium during those dark days. Facing resistance from both Emperor Sanguinius and Guilliman, the Lion instead, opted to deploy his Legion's Dreadwing in order to flush out Curze and the rebels. The First Legion became the crucible in which all the cultures of Old Night combined with the Emperor's genetic prowess to create a new and formidable strain of warrior. It is his solemn duty to placate the most important Machine Spirits, directing the maintenance of the engines and Warp-Drive that allow the enormous asteroid to navigate the galaxy. Even as the isolation of the Noctis Aeterna passed, The Rock was invaded. In time they became known as the Angels of Death, a title that has since become synonymous to all Space Marines but was originally theirs alone.