Merir Astelan - Compliance of Byzanthis: As a Chapter Commander, Merir Astelan led his own Expeditionary Fleet, comprising less than eighteen starships and led by the flagship Spear of Truth, which carried out numerous Imperial Compliance actions. It had spent five Terran years on exploration duties in largely uncharted areas of space, going without refit or resupply from the Legion for four of those years. For three years the fleet did not even find any inhabited or habitable planets worth absorbing into the Imperium.Yet, Astelan knew great success at this endeavour in its final years until the campaign carried out during the Compliance of Byzanthis. Chapter Commander Belath, a Calibanite-born Dark Angel appointed to his position by the Primarch himself, was sent to shadow the Terran-born Merir Astelan during the Compliance of the newly rediscovered world of Byzanthis.Chapter Commander Belath and his fleet rendezvoused with that of Astelan, and Belath informed the expedition leader that the Lion had ordered him to link up with Astelan and serve as reinforcement for his fleet. Astelan had never heard of Belath before, but was unperturbed by this due to the rapid influx of Calibanite Astartes into the I Legion. He was surprised, however, by the fact that his fleet, which had apparently been assigned to a relatively empty area of space, had received reinforcement at all.Not long after, a Vox signature was detected from the DX-619 System and Astelan diverted his fleet to investigate. Shortly thereafter, the world named Byzanthis by its inhabitants was discovered. Relatively technologically advanced, but not unified under a single planetary government, the Byzanthians seemed a likely candidate for a peaceful Compliance action, at least to Astelan. Chapter Commander Belath, however, believed that conquering them outright using overwhelming military force was the better option. Heated debate ensued, with Astelan espousing a philosophy that war is bloody and costly and to be avoided if possible, and that a world brought to heel by conquest would be resentful and slow to achieve the brotherhood with the Imperium that diplomatic Compliance actions could achieve. For his part, Belath stressed that the Legiones Astartes had been created to fight wars, not carry out diplomacy, and that the Lion -- who had appointed him to Chapter command personally -- had given him orders emphasising the annihilation and punishment of enemies. Eventually, the two commanders compromised and agreed on a reconnaissance mission to help them decide on a further course of action.Unfortunately, this reconnaissance mission, led by Astelan himself, discovered the urban area they had planned to investigate was actually a large military base, with the result that the I Legion's forces were detected and attacked before they could attempt peaceful contact. Denying Belath's planned retaliation with orbital bombardment, Astelan had his troops withdraw in fighting order.In the aftermath of the failed mission, Belath again urged an open invasion of the planet, preferring a plan to attack all six world powers at once. But upon the discovery that the world was governed by a Committee of Nations, a diplomatic body composed of representatives from all six of the planet's primary nation-states, Astelan sought a last-ditch effort to parley with the planet's ruling body. Appearing with Chapter Commander Belath at his side, the meeting went well at first, under Astelan's direction, but things quickly took a turn for the worst when the Byzanthian military forces of one of the nation-states detected the Dark Angels' vessels in orbit pre-positioning themselves for an inevitable attack above each Byzanthian nation's capital city.This move, under Belath's order, precipitated a threat response in which the Byzanthians attempted to seize the two Legionaries. Belath abruptly ended the negotiations with the Committee of Nations by summoning his Terminator-armoured elite, who proceeded to execute the upstart politicians. Enraged by his counterpart's actions, Astelan had no choice but to go along with the impetuous Belath, and finally ordered a full-scale planetary invasion. In the aftermath, Astelan was dismayed by the use of violence, and warned Belath that his disreputable actions would not go unpunished. Belath remained unperturbed by such empty threats, and responded that it would be Astelan who would be punished, for he had already sent an astropathic report back to Caliban, informing them of the Chapter Commander's "cowardly" actions on Byzanthis.Sure enough, while it is not known that Belath's report was the proximate cause, Chapter Commander Astelan and many of his Terra-born Astartes was soon ordered by the Lion to return to the Dark Angels' homeworld of Caliban and join its garrison forces, along with many of his fellow Terran-born Dark Angels. In Astelan's view, the Lion had abandoned both him and his fellow Terran Battle-Brothers there while the Caliban-born Astartes of the Legion went on to earn great glory in the Great Crusade. Astelan felt that the Primarch had turned from those who had come before him, who had welcomed him as a lost father and taken his homeworld as their own.Astelan believed this had been a grave mistake, but he and his Space Marines had sworn oaths of loyalty and would not break them. He hoped that his Primarch would see the error he had made. Astelan sent deputations to the Lion asking him to reconsider his decision, but they were all returned without a reply.