Quote Originally Posted by Winterwind View Post
Question of my own. I recently started reading Fulgrim for another time, and while doing so noticed that, on the cover, there is a depiction of a Dreadnought. I also recall that there was at least one Dreadnought featured towards the end of Galaxy in Flames.

Now, this seriously irritates me, because I'd have thought Dreadnoughts were something that came up only after the Heresy. Every codex containing Dreadnoughts keeps emphasizing how Space Marines are pretty much only interred in Dreadnoughts under the most dire circumstances, so there appears to be a serious reluctance to subject warriors to this fate. It makes sense though - after all, ever since the Heresy, Space Marines are in rather short supply for all the chapters, so preserving them in this fashion may, at times, just be necessary. The Legions though, before the Heresy and the civil war it entailed? They didn't have such a massive shortage on men - why would they have to make use of such an option?

(Also, if Dreadnoughts were always used, how come none of the Dreadnoughts from before the Heresy have survived? Bjorn the Fell-Handed is explicitly stated to be the oldest one of them all, and he didn't become a Dreadnought until long after the Heresy - one would think that if Dreadnoughts were actually commonly used even back then, at least some would have survived by sheer coincidence.)
Hm... I could have sworn I'd encountered something saying that Dreadnoughts used to be exo-suit like things. Could be wrong (In fact, it might have been the result of a comment about how the Contemplator Dreadnought from forgeworld would have looked much better than the DreadKnight)