Primal confusion - spoilers

[Ibi]

To complicate matters, Thordan and the Twelve Knights wear Primal forms of themselves, so essentially tempering themselves to an idealized image of themselves, mostly leaving them mentally the same, but overall leaving them even more devoted to the Archbishop, their Godking.

Thordan VII and the Heaven's Ward take the form of Thordan I and his Twelve Knights (the ones with the statues lining the main thoroughfare in The Pillars) when they go into Primal form.

As far as we know, it's the same kind of transformation that Ysayle undergoes when she becomes Shiva; there seems to be some element of the summoner's will (though we don't know how much) directing how the resulting entity acts.