"We do our duty, brothers. 

Every victory we make, every life we take. 

That is our duty, brothers. 

To be a son of Vulkan is to know hardship, to know pain. 

It is to know you will fight, bleed and die for a goal that may never be obtained. 

But that is the fight we choose. 

We do not choose the easy way out. We do not choose to go quietly into the night. 

I look into your eyes, brothers, and I see the fire that burns within them. 

Let that fire burn hot, brothers, to rival that of mount Deathfire itself!

Let your fury be as the heart of Nocturne, and the fire of Prometheus' forges!

Hold fast! Stand strong! 

Into the fires of battle!

- Chaplain Ur'Venn, attached to the Salamanders 4th Company, Defense of Virtum - 

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Greetings fratres et sorores!

It's been a fairly quiet 11th edition for the crusade so far. I've participated in a grow league, made good progress on the Great Rebasing, with just a few squads left to do (might have to restock on cork, we'll see). Now the next Codex: Space Marines is out, and at the moment... I'm not feeling it. For a kid fresh out of highschool and trying to get qualified for a good job in the trades, money can be a bit hard to come by, and we all know how good ol' James Workshop loves rakin' it in! So, I think it's time for a little break from the edition churn, and a great time to focus on the more creative aspects of the hobby. I was already starting to lean toward this, the Codex is simply the Emperor's call! 

So, what does that mean for this blog? 

I won't be posting much right here for a while. I'm quite happy with where my army is at the moment, Legends and all, so when I do eventually get the/an up-to-date codex it'll just be a matter of figuring out the new point values and playing around with what's changed. Pretty much everything I've got is fully built and painted, so there need not be much hobby work on the Salamanders either. 

So, for this blog, it's breaktime. 

Buuuuuut...

I've always wanted to put a story to my army. They've got the vague outlines of one, based on the mentions of a world called Zero mentioned in the Salamanders 8th ed. Codex Supplement & 10th ed Codex: Space Marines. The questing brotherhood of Vulkan He'stan, Forgefather of the Salamanders tasked with retrieving the nine Artefacts of Vulkan. Crusading off into Imperium Nihilus in search of an ember that hints at one of these lost relics. 

And recently I've been getting into kill team. Free basic rules for everything, fun to homebrew missions. Plus, it's easy, in a way, to make grand stories for your little squads, where every model has a role. 

So why not combine them? 

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Enter the Akhenaten alliance, an isolated group of planetary systems located to the galactic east of the Finial Sector, in the region known as the Halo Margin. This region of space, whose attachment to the rest of the Imperium was already tenuous at best due to the stagnant nature of local warp currents, was utterly cut off when the Great Rift tore open the galaxy and blocked the Astronomican's  light. Nearby worlds called out into the blackness, and finally, finally - contact was made. The forge world of Akhenaten leads the alliance, backed up by its neighboring worlds and two other small systems. Believing they may well be the last outpost of humanity in the galaxy, they struggle to exist, and perhaps one day to prosper, in the darkness they now call home. 

But they have no idea what's coming next...

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I'm hoping to improve my world building and writing with this project, while simultaneously creating a place for my armies (and maybe some others) to do battle and play out campaigns. Maybe work in a few kitbashes too. I'll be creating a blog for this soon, and will always be happy for C&C! 

So for now, K's Salamanders - Unbound Flame bids you cheers!

Emperor bless!