Imperial Fists - The Second Founding: While many Primarchs welcomed the adoption of the Codex Astartes, Rogal Dorn initially refused to have his Legion broken down into 1,000-warrior Chapters. Leman Russ and Vulkan agreed with Dorn, but Corvus Corax and Jaghatai Khan supported Guilliman.Fortunately, the recalcitrant Primarch received some sage advice from an unexpected quarter. Oriax Dantalion was a Captain in the Imperial Fists Legion and veteran of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. He took part in the epic final battle of the bloody conflict during the Siege of Terra.Surviving the brutal onslaught of the Traitor Legions and the subsequent dark years of the Great Scouring, he was one of the few proponents within the Imperial Fists who agreed with Roboute Guilliman's controversial proposal to sunder the Space Marine Legions and form them into Chapters.Dantalion knew that his opposing viewpoint put him at odds with Rogal Dorn, who resisted any notions of breaking apart his Legion. Unperturbed, Dantalion spoke at great length with his Primarch over the necessity of Guilliman's decree to prevent another rebellious officer from commanding the full power of a Space Marine Legion, but Dorn would not be persuaded by his officer's arguments.The Primarch was disappointed that one of his own sons would even propose such an idea and became openly hostile to Dantalion for his opposing views when it came to the fate of the Imperial Fists Legion.Tension rose as neither side backed down, and it seemed inevitable that civil war would once more engulf the Imperium. Only at the brink, when the newly founded Chapters and the old Legions were preparing for battle, did Dorn realise that his self-imposed quest for vengeance had blinded him to wisdom.He realised that the Ultramarines, the other Space Marine Chapters, the Imperial Navy and the newborn Astra Militarum would all initiate another civil war with the Imperial Fists rather than allow them to avoid accepting the dictates of the Codex and the need for a Second Founding.Despite his love for the Space Marines of his Legion, Rogal Dorn loved the Imperium the Emperor had created too much to subject it to another terrible conflict in the wake of the horrors of the Horus Heresy.With a heavy heart, he acquiesced to the reforms ordained by Guilliman. So it was that Dorn finally relented and agreed to the Founding of several new 1,000-Astartes-strong Chapters from his Legion -- the Black Templars, Crimson Fists, Excoriators, Iron Knights and the Fists Exemplar.Like all of the Imperial Fists Second Founding Chapters, their character came from the individuals making up their ranks. The VII Legion's crusaders and zealots gravitated to Sigismund, while to Alexis Polux went the younger, more impressionable Imperial Fists brothers.Many of the attrition fighters that would make up the Excoriators had held the Imperial Palace's walls during the Siege of Terra and had found brotherhood with Demetrius Katafalque, while the ranks of the newly created Soul Drinkers were later erroneously believed to have been formed from the fleet-based shock attack elements of the VII Legion.Dorn had also remembered the early wisdom displayed by Captain Dantalion. He awarded the bold officer for his foresight by choosing him to become the first Chapter Master of the newly created Fists Exemplar Chapter. This Chapter was composed of the more progressive Imperial Fists Legionaries who shared Dantalion's points of view.Rogal Dorn's willingness to swallow his pride and embrace the Codex Astartes did much to reassure the High Lords of Terra, and when the Imperial Fists emerged from the Second Founding, their adherence to the tenets of Guilliman's tome was matched only by the Ultramarines themselves.