Lone Wolves - First of the Lone Wolves: Few accurate records remain concerning the earliest years of the Space Wolves, and only one such tale exists regarding the first known case of a Lone Wolf's quest for vengeance. The subject of this tale is none other than the legendary hero of the Chapter, Bjorn the Fell-Handed.Some scholars believe this notion merely to be yet another improbable chapter in the saga of the ancient warrior, one fuelled by sentiment and lacking in credibility. Their cynicism may even be justified, for the tale does not take place until after the bitter wars of the Great Scouring in the early 31st Millennium, immediately following the end of the Horus Heresy. However, whether he was indeed the original Lone Wolf or not, it appears that Bjorn may well have been the first of his kind to earn redemption through his courageous actions.During the Horus Heresy, Bjorn was a young warrior of great potential. He had excelled during the Fall of Prospero, and his pack was often singled out to lead assaults where enemy resistance was expected to be at its heaviest. It was whilst undertaking one such attack on the acrid, volcanic world of Gryth that events were to take a tragic turn. Bjorn's pack had humbled tyrants, butchered xenos beyond counting, and even hewn down their brother Space Marines who had fallen from the Emperor's grace; yet against the Greater Daemon, Arvax the Arch-slaughterer, they knew only death.That Bjorn actually survived the massacre of his kinsmen was a testament to his exceptional skills as a warrior, for all others who faced the mighty Daemon of Khorne that fateful day joined Bjorn's packmates in death. Though the arrival of the mighty primarch Leman Russ saw the Space Wolves ultimately emerge victorious against the Daemonhost, it was Bjorn who finally drove the seemingly unstoppable Daemon general from the field.Despite his victory of sorts, Bjorn never forgave himself for the loss of his kinsmen, nor the fact that he alone yet lived having been denied a magnificent death. In the solar hours that followed the battle, Bjorn became increasingly melancholy, refusing to accept the hearty approval of those that had witnessed his heroic battle against the Daemon king. As he witnessed his packmates burn atop the victory pyres, he gave voice to a long, mournful howl. Kneeling before the bodies of his burning kinsmen, he swore a grave oath of vengeance against their slayer.To Bjorn's continued frustration, it was to be five long standard years before word of Arvax's location surfaced once more. Russ immediately led his Space Wolves to destroy the foul creature, determined to personally slay the Daemon king himself and avenge those who had died during their last encounter. Yet in this goal, the primarch was to be denied, for Bjorn too sought out his nemesis and, as fate would have it, was the first to face Arvax in battle.As the Wolf King tore through the Khornate horde towards his quarry, he witnessed Bjorn's duel first-hand. Russ could only look on in pride as Bjorn deftly rolled beneath a blow attempting to cut him in half, then clambered up the Daemon's towering frame to tear out the Arch-slaughterer's throat with his trusty Wolf Claw. In the aftermath of the battle, Russ came to Bjorn in person and exonerated him in front of the entire Chapter, holding his oath fulfilled.Setting a precedent that still exists to this day, the Wolf King promoted Bjorn to his personal Wolf Guard, naming him the "Fell-handed" in honour of his mighty deed. The skjalds of the Chapter hold that it was the sense of loss and tragedy that Bjorn had already experienced and learned to master that influenced Russ' decision to leave him behind when he set forth on his last, fateful journey into the Eye of Terror.Of all of the primarch's Wolf Guard, Bjorn alone had shown such strength of purpose and determination in his darkest hour; he alone would understand the lonely burden of command as the Space Wolves' first Chapter Master following Russ' disappearance.