Solomon Demeter

Solomon Demeter was captain of the Emperor’s Children’s Second Company, killed by Lucius on Isstvan III while holding the Precentor’s Palace. He held to the view that the honour of the Third Legion, as the Emperor’s Children are also designated, remained a binding standard of conduct.

Following the virus-bombing of Isstvan III, Fulgrim, the Legion’s primarch, and his court remained in orbit. Demeter occupied the Precentor’s Palace, acting as a captain would while the city was still regarded as the Legion’s to hold, and awaited the arrival of Lucius. The Legion brother who came had already adopted a different conception of perfection. Demeter died in the encounter, having found that the primarch Fulgrim’s sons no longer extended one another the conventions of fair combat.

Lucius claimed the kill and the account of it. Demeter’s rank and ability made him difficult for the Legion to dismiss as a token loyalist, but his adherence to the earlier code left him unable to survive the changed conduct of his fellows. No monument to him is recorded on Chemos. His death is one among many on Isstvan III of men who continued to observe the Legion’s former rules, and it is distinguished chiefly by the identity of the man who killed him.