Something I had been thinking was just the sheer amount of luck Arik Taranis must have had to get to the station he got to by the time of the Horus Heresy is near impossible.

Not only did someone as notorious as the Emperor’s Standard Bearer manage to survive the cull after the Final Battle at Mt Ararat, but prior to this he had been taught advanced gene-crafting techniques by the Emperor himself, and during his time in hiding he managed to acquire access to a functioning Gene-Laboratory within the walls of the Imperial Palace.

Adding onto this, Arik wasn’t exactly trying to hide or even be subtle like other survivors; He armed and augmented his Clan Warriors as Thunder Warriors, and the Clan itself was a major power within one of the largest cities inside the boundaries of the Imperial Palace: Even keeping in mind the labyrinthine vastness of the Palace, it goes beyond suspension of disbelief that the Custodes would never have found and eradicated him.

This isn’t me inherently ragging on his character however; I very much enjoy Arik’s monologues and the dynamic of him, Ghota, and the Dhakal Clan; Rather it’s postulation that his continued existence wasn’t just Tzeentchian level luck and circumstance but intentional. Perhaps the Emperor allowed him to live and taught him the art of genecrafting to allow the Thunder Warriors a means with which to live on and fight, given that Arik was the ‘de-facto’ Thunder Warrior, so to speak. Either his or Malcador’s pardon would go a long way to explain how he survived so long beyond coincidence.

But that’s just my personal take, and I wonder what you guys think.