Cypher - Origins: Like nearly everything to do with Cypher, it is difficult to pinpoint his origins with any conviction. Deep within the dungeons of the Rock, behind many locked doors of adamantium, can be found the Enigma Chamber. There, the remains of The Order's ancient records are kept. On carefully preserved scrolls, faded writings can still be read. Each of the Dark Angels' Grand Master of Librarians has, in successive turns, tried to wring meaning out of those ancient parchments.Of certainty, the title of Lord Cypher before the Horus Heresy was a title of high office in The Order, the order of knights created on the feudal Death World of Caliban to fight the terrible Chaos-mutated beasts that roamed the planet's myriad deep forests. There, long before the coming of the Primarch Lion El'Jonson, the lordly designation was given to a single knight of the Order.The Order can trace its beginnings back to the period when Caliban was a Death World, as deadly an environment as any in the galaxy. Cut off from Terra during the Age of Strife, civilisation had regressed to a feudal state. Since the Warp Storms had ravaged it, Caliban was almost entirely covered in monster-haunted forests. To travel the paths between the disparate fortifications of Human society was to invite almost certain death.As the forests spread, so was Humanity confined into isolated communities, each based in an ancient keep. There, in the shadows of their stone fortresses, peasants could hack clear patches out of the encroaching woodlands and eke out a living through farming. The nobles, who fought in archaic powered armour, were the rulers of the land. It was their duty to guard the perimeters of their cleared zones from predatory beasts.Caliban bred a hardy people, and they honoured martial skill and bravery. It was a demanding and often cruelly short existence, a constant fight against packs of savage creatures and horrifically mutated beasts. In such times, many brotherhoods of knights were formed, the most famous of which was known simply as "The Order."The Order had won an excellent reputation amongst the noble houses and knightly organisations. It was known for the integrity and the martial skill of its members, and The Order was also famed for its recruitment methods. On Caliban heredity was everything for the noble houses, yet The Order selected its brothers by merit and skill at arms as opposed to inheritance. Contingents of brother-knights from the Order travelled from keep to keep, aiding each in the never-ending struggle to clear land of forest and monster alike.The Order was austere, their many rituals simple but exacting. To ensure their proud traditions were maintained, the ruling masters secretly selected a single member. The bearers bore a variety of arcane titles: Master of Mysteries, Keeper of the Truth, the Lord of the Keys, or else simply Lord Cypher. Upon taking the title, the Lord Cypher renounced his own name, enshrouding his very appearance beneath cloak and hood.It was forbidden by any others to recognise his old self either, for the Lord Cypher was to forsake his very personality, and from that day onwards was to instead embody the laws, customs and strict disciplines of The Order. To him was tasked the responsibility of ensuring the traditions of The Order never faltered, that the recruits and Masters alike were never allowed to degenerate from their lofty ideals.The Lord Cypher advised the masters on all matters of protocol and officiated at many important ceremonies. The Lord Cypher was a lofty position, one which The Order took extremely seriously, for it was known that it was the nature of the galaxy to recede and structures to collapse. The Cypher that appears as a herald of destruction embodies many of these ancient tenets, although there has never been any absolute connection.Although the records taken from Caliban and preserved in the Tower of Angels are incomplete, none are more so than those scribed during Luther's turning from the Emperor's light. Many Dark Angels Librarians and masters have studied them, seeking, but not finding answers. The title of Lord Cypher is mentioned, but who took the post, or when it might have changed are not documented. These ancient records seem to imply that this last Lord Cypher is the last bearer of the title, and that therefore Cypher is not his birth name.This knight was even more of an enigma than most, not least because of his youth and lack of seniority within the brotherhood. When Lion El'Jonson became Grand Master of The Order it had been expected that he would name Master Remiel to the position of Lord Cypher; instead, he raised up a little-known knight younger than Luther or many other high-ranking peers. It was said that the new Cypher had been trained at one of The Order's lesser fortresses, near the beast-haunted Northwilds, but even that was little more than rumour. No one could fathom Jonson's decision, but no one had found cause to complain about it, either.By all accounts, the new Cypher was more of a reclusive, scholarly figure than previous bearers of the title, spending long hours poring through the libraries and record vaults hidden within the main hold of The Order -- though the paired pistols at his belt hinted that he was as capable a fighter as anyone else in the brotherhood.Master Remiel and Sar Daviel, two esteemed members of The Order, claimed that Cypher was formerly a member of the rival monastic order known as the Knights of Lupus. He was allowed to join The Order under an assumed name after the Knights of Lupus were defeated and their order eradicated by Lion El'Jonson at the end of The Order's war against the Great Beasts of Caliban.The Lion's motives for leaving the Lord Cypher behind on Caliban remain a mystery, as was his purpose in what would happen within the mighty walls of Aldurukh, the former fortress of The Order that had become the fortress-monastery of the Dark Angels Legion.Patchy records do seem to indicate that a few of Luther's charges -– both veterans and new recruits alike –- rejected his newer teachings, remaining true to the Legion, Lion El'Jonson, and their Emperor. These individuals who did not join the betrayal are not named, but seem to have begun the fighting before the Dark Angels' fleet appeared in orbit. To show their rejection of Luther, some of the Loyalists seem to have repainted their armour.  This, perhaps, gives a hint as to the real reason why the I stLegion switched from black to green colours in the aftermath of the Fall of Caliban.There are a few sections within those ancient tomes that remain unread, for they have been written in some cryptic code. Some suggest that these are but nonsense -- likely the raving-mad scribblings of Luther himself. Thus far they remain indecipherable, and so nobody can truly know if indeed the Lord Cypher present at the destruction of Caliban was the same individual that had been ordained by the Lion.