Lion was genetically selected and given special teachers to forge a tool to serve House Benetek. House Benetek was one of the first houses to explore a way through the Calixes Sector into the Koronus Expanse. House Benetek has a proud history streching back to the foundations of the Imperium. In expectation of the role that Lion would serve the House, he was given the name of three Primarchs to better ensure the God-Emperor's favour. Lion was for this reason named Lion Rogel Guilliman Benetek.
Growing up as a future Scion, Lion was carefully tested and watched for signs of mutation or corruption. When he was determined to be fit enough to serve the House as a potential Scion in the upper reaches of the Imperium, he was sent to the most prestigous of Accademics to ensure a proper introduction to society. During this time, he was given a compulsory assignment with the Military as a Flag Lieutenant. It was expected that Lion would serve several years with the Battlefleet before accepting a proper post with the Administratium for a Sector.
Completing the required initial studies, Lion was sent for further education to an Imperial World. He was like many learning the trappings of pilgrimage rather than the burning faith of the true Missionary. He again worked hard under the direction of his household forging the links that would be important in later service to his household. He was also again inspected to make sure that his genetic health was pure of any mutation other than the Navigator's Third Eye. Lion would never receive the church's seal of purity but he was considered fit and pure to serve his household and the Imperium.
It was during this period on an Imperial World that tragedy struck the Benetek family and it's fortunes. The heavy investment and connections the family had forged with the Tellurium Combine had exposed it to the Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness. It was fortunate that Inquisition did not declare the whole house of Benetek Ex-Communicated. Many of the senior members of the Navigators and their charts were seized by the church leaving only a few of the house in disarray to reforge the foundations of the family.
Lion spent much of his early career in fear of the Inquisition deciding that after the initial sweep of people from the Benetek family that it would grab the others or send someone from the Officio Assassinorum to remove any more potential problems. The Imperium needs Navigators and a trusted line of Navigators is often far better then the Navigators now being bred in the outer reaches of the Imperium with unchecked mutations. Lion was also well vouched for his connections to the Ecclesiarchy and Imperial Navy.
Lion chose that for the near future to be safe that he would travel far from the Inquistion and Officio Assassinorum into the far reaches of the Imperium. He followed in the path of his Great Uncle that had found the passage into the Koronus Expanse.
Lion took service with a Merchant House that had dealt with his house and been part of the initial expansion and survey of the Koronus Expanse. It was a house of long history and Lion hoped to find a comfortable berth while learning the skills of Commerce and Barter that he would need to take the head of the Benetek fortunes and return the house to glory.
The Merchant House fearing the association that Lion would bring from his families recent losses to the Inquisition were only too happy to attach him to a Rogue Trader as part of a bargain to provide provisions and support for a delivery to a world besieged.
