Lion El'Jonson

A loyalist Primarch of the Legiones Astartes, he fought for the Emperor against Horus during the Horus Heresy.

Lion El'Jonson is one of the Emperor's 20 genetically engineered sons, the Primarchs, who leads a legion of genetically enhanced superhuman soldiers, the Legiones Astartes. He is a central figure in the Horus Heresy, a galaxy-spanning civil war in the 31st millennium. It is known that the Primarchs and their legions found themselves divided into loyalist and traitor factions during the conflict, and in established canon, Lion El'Jonson was a loyalist Primarch who fought for the Emperor against Horus.

Quick Facts

Affiliation: The Imperium of Man (Great Crusade & Horus Heresy)

Reader's Guide

It only confirms that he is one of the 18 Primarchs, the genetically engineered sons of the Emperor, who led the Legiones Astartes during the galactic civil war.

Historical Context and Narrative Scope

The Horus Heresy is a series of science fantasy novels set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, depicting a galaxy-spanning civil war in the 31st millennium. The conflict was caused by a Chaos plot to foil the Emperor of Mankind by fomenting rebellion among his 18 genetically engineered sons, the Primarchs, and their legions of superhuman soldiers, the Legiones Astartes. The war is described as a major contributing factor to the game's dystopian environment. The series consists of 65 published volumes, with the concluding story, The End and the Death, released in three volumes, the last of which was published in January 2024. A sequel series, The Scouring, began publication in December 2025. The narrative is not strictly sequential and is often presented in nonlinear fashion, with stories covering events that happen earlier or later than their position in the series would suggest.

Publication History and Commercial Success

The Horus Heresy series is published by the Black Library, a Games Workshop division, with the first title released in April 2006. The series consists of 65 published volumes, including full-length novels and novel-length compilations of novellas or short stories, written by a number of authors. The concluding story, The End and the Death, was released in three volumes, with the concluding volume, The End and the Death: Volume III, released in January 2024. The series has developed into a distinct and successful product line for the Black Library, with titles often appearing in bestseller lists and receiving critical approval despite reservations. It is an established, definitive component of Games Workshop's Horus Heresy sub-brand and authoritative source material for the entire Warhammer 40,000 shared universe. A sequel series, The Scouring, began publication in December 2025.

Expansion into Tabletop Gaming and Role-Playing

The popularity of the novel series contributed to the development of The Horus Heresy as a tabletop wargame spin-off of the Warhammer 40,000 miniature wargame, launched by Games Workshop's subsidiary Forge World in 2012. Initially a specialist game supported through campaign and army books and a dedicated range of resin miniatures, it later evolved into a standalone system with its own ruleset and product line, relaunched as Warhammer: The Horus Heresy in 2022. Furthermore, publisher Cubicle 7 announced The Horus Heresy Tabletop role-playing game to be released in 2026.