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My place for all things Space Marine! I have started to built a small force for the Horus Heresy, after having abandoned Space Marines for almost a decade now. The Nuncio Vox in the new MK6 kit looks too 40k in my eyes , so I have built my own version, for my two tactical squads.

Origins “Following him is a lesson in futility. His is a war fought on an entirely different level, too fast for the likes of us to participate. But that is fine. He leaves more than enough behind him for the rest of us.” –- attrib. Batukhan The known history of the Guardians begins sometime in the 33rd Millennium, when the Chapter was ordered to the Midas Cluster, far to the Galactic North. This is not, however, when the Chapter was Founded, though very few scraps of information remain from the period before their coming to the Midas Cluster. What little is known of this fuzzy period in the Guardians' past is that the Inquisition had a heightened awareness of the Chapter, with Inquisitorial agents and decrees a constant presence in the initial centuries of the Guardians' arrival. Many in the Chapter look toward their genetic flaw with progenoid gland production as the cause for their paranoid attentions. What little remains of the Guardians' existence prior to the 33rd Millennium are vague, providing little facts. Fragment writings attributed to what is believed to be one Batukhan, the Guardians' potential founding Chapter Master, detail his rise to command a Brotherhood of the White Scars Legion prior to the formation of Chapters, making the Guardians a potential 2nd or 3rd Founding. Whatever the history of the Chapter in that mythical age, the Midas Cluster proved a powerful influence, virtually recreating the Guardians in its image. The Midas Cluster had resisted the scouting forces of the Imperium at the tail end of the Great Crusade. With the horrific aftermath of the Heresy, the Imperium's attention turned inward. For millennia, the Midas Cluster had remained aloof, distant from the greater Imperium. Tasked by the Inquisition, the Guardians were sent wholesale into the Midas Cluster to take it for the Imperium. Though the fleet-based Chapter was a power unto themselves, capable of toppling whole worlds with the boom of their guns and the tread of their boots, the Midas Cluster resisted them at every turn. Wild xeno of breeds unknown, worlds and dangers missed or overlooked by ancient Imperial cartographers, and small bands of human colonies that wanted little to do with the Imperium. The Midas Cluster was rife with them and it proved a heady challenge the Guardians came close to failing. The battle that would have ended the Guardians' struggles was in the Archaegosian System, in orbit over its large, arid third world, whose derelict hives harbored a small but self-sustaining human population. The Eldar, whose presence in the Cluster had been a thorn in the Guardians' side, committed themselves to battle fully against the Chapter fleet. Their Craftworld, formidable in spite of its smaller size to some of the more well-known Craftworlds that have plagued the Imperium, entered the foray itself, turning a pitched battle into what nearly became an open rout. Though the Chapter lost a majority of its ships, it was their habit of taking considerable risks that ended up saving the Chapter. Rather than retreating, or burning alongside their own ships, the Guardians launched a full boarding assault against the Craftworld. Though the death toll was high for Marine and Eldar alike, the frantic battle concluded with the Craftworld's burning plummet onto Archaegos Tertiary. Though in considerably poor shape, the Guardians succeeded in breaking the backs of their greatest enemy within the Midas Cluster, allowing them time to recuperate their losses and consolidate their winnings within the Cluster. Some in the Chapter believe that the proliferation of their flaw began in this period, when the Chapter took chances with their recruitment programs to rebuild lost Companies. Though the continuing conquest of the Midas Cluster continued at a slower pace, it was declared secured in the Emperor's name four centuries after their arrival. However, the Midas Cluster has never been made truly compliant, and the Guardians, now the Guardians of Midas, have dedicated their efforts for millennia to holding the Cluster intact from xenos and traitors alike. Though they remain a fleet-based Chapter, the destruction of so many ships has forced them to utilize multiple Chapter Keeps scattered across the Cluster on the Six, human worlds the Chapter claims the majority of its recruits. Though many of the Guardians' Brotherhoods have ventured beyond the Cluster to take part in grander Imperial Crusades, the Guardians of Midas have largely dedicated their efforts to the immense Cluster and remained isolated. Home World “There! They are retreating through their portal. Get the damned ready; we won’t have much time before they close it behind them.” -- Ruin Lord Stanko Alfonz The Guardians do not maintain a fortress-monastery upon any one world. Mostly fleet-bound, the Guardians instead utilize Chapter Keeps as recruitment centers, the only land holdings the Chapter maintains. Scattered across six worlds, often referred to collectively as the Six, each Keep serves as the base of operations for a Brotherhood, providing that Brotherhood with an identity unique to the rest of the Chapter. Shalya, where humans locked in primitive tribal cultures hunt across immense salt flats to take down native megafauna and pray to the Eagle-father, the local stand-in for the Emperor. The watery world of Marrune, with its singular, almost ring-shaped continent, where roaming, ocean-floor hives mined the mineral-rich waters. The poisoned world of Geddonia, whose human population is forced to live underground following an apocalyptic attack by Orks. The war-torn world of Navaroik, a land of two kingdoms that are rarely at peace with each other. The moon of Loi, in orbit over Keiran, whose wildlife mirrors that of the planet below, but who have evolved in ways to classify it as a deathworld. The over-sized dry rock of Archaegos, whose landscape is littered with the bright emerald ruins of an ancient war. Each world, though unique to each other, is home to the golden Rocs. Birds of prey large enough to prey upon man, they are not native to these worlds, or to the Midas Cluster. They were brought into the Cluster by the Guardians themselves, and it is believed that they are native to the venerable home world of their Primarch, Choggoris. Legends kept by the Guardians depict Jaghatai Khan, while still young, catching a young Roc, who became a companion to the demi-god, giving the great Khan his nickname among his tribal people, the Warhawk. The Rocs are integral to the Chapter's recruitment trials, and many Guardians wear large red-gold feathers as fetishes upon their armor and weapons. Combat Doctrine “Let them move closer, we’ll strike from below like the manticore serpent, our fangs no less envenomed.“ -– Sergeant Yuto Jian, Brotherhood of the Moon The Guardians are at heart a White Scar Successor Chapter, their love for speed undiminished by time and isolation. Prevalent across the Chapter is a predilection towards tactics that bring combat to a quick close, often seeking to go against odds and take perhaps unnecessary risks. Their approach to the Eldar and the Webway being the perfect example of this demeanor. For most within the Chapter, this is the thrill of the hunt, the heavily competitive interaction between Brotherhoods. For others, this is deliberately intended to cull those who bear the sin of corruption within them. Each Brotherhood embodies their home world not just in culture but in tactics as well. The Brotherhood of the Sea is adept at limiting the destruction of their warrior ways, making of them a scalpel that cuts only where intended; a tactic made necessary by the hive gangs of Marrune, who can ill afford a stray shot penetrating the hull of their underwater vessels. The Brotherhood of the Blood are the most competitive of the Chapter, even within their own Brotherhood, as rivalries created upon Navaroik have resisted all attempts to remove by indoctrination. Organisation “Your competitive nature has served you well, Sea-Brother. It has seen you rise in the ranks of our Brotherhood, but it will not see you join the Brothers of the Hawk. Your rivalries would have no place there. Learn to let it go, or accept your place among us as permanent.” -- Chaplain Kia Iona, Brotherhood of the Sea Due to genetic mutations, the Guardians, in their own eyes, have never operated at full strength, having nearly two companies' worth of ostracized Marines at any one time. Within the proper Chapter, the Guardians are perhaps more Codex compliant than their White Scar forbearers. Veterans of the six Brotherhoods are collected within the First Brotherhood, the Brotherhood of the Hawk. Though each Brotherhood is responsible for the recruitment programs upon their chosen worlds, the recruits are gathered into a Scout Company, which has never been given a Brotherhood name for it is a temporary station. Once a recruit has become a full-fledged Marine, he is returned to the Brotherhood of his home world, where he will remain until death or advancement into the Brotherhood of the Hawk. Here Codex divergence returns, as each Brotherhood is a self-sustaining Battle-Company wokse make-up is theirs to decide. The Brotherhood of the Land prefers short-range, decisive firepower over long-range guns, fielding more flamers than other Brotherhoods, tactics that were most useful to in the packed quarters of the underground hives of Geddonia. The Brotherhood of the Moon, perhaps reminiscent of their short lives on Keiran Loi, are markedly self-sufficient, under perpetual desire to conserve energy and supplies for when needed most. The ostracized, who have committed the sin of impurity, are gathered into over-sized squads called the Hunters. They are not part of any Brotherhood, but are attached to them and serve as shock troops, the first in and last out. As quality gear is left to the Chapter proper, the Hunters are often ill-equipped and suffer horrendous attrition rates. Only when the Eldar are encountered, whether the space-faring xenos or their darker or more primitive kin, is the true intent of the Hunter squads revealed. They are tasked with entering the domains of the Eldar, of any type, whether it is a portal into the Webway, a Craftworld, an Exodite World or Commoragh itself. They are given only one order, come back with the Khan or not at all. Only then would their corruption be erased, their purity proven. With single-minded abandon, many Hunter squads have disappeared into such covens, never to return. Beliefs “In the air, we breathe thunder. In our chests, it rumbles loud. Salt is in our veins. The ground upon which it spills is nourished by it. Thunder is our father, the salt our mother. For both, we live. For both, we fight. For both, we die.” -- Skyseer Antinanco Who Was Born Whole The Guardians have great pride in their heritage, most especially linked to their Primarch, Jaghatai Khan. This pride is linked to the vast importance they place upon genetic purity, at odds with their own prevalent mutation, leading to the segregation of afflicted Marines. As the Khan is the focus of their beliefs, his absence is a sorely felt hole within them, aching to be filled once more by their gene-father's return. Early in the Guardians' history, during the wars to conquer the Midas Cluster for the Imperium, the Chapter found fleeting clues that their Primogenitor may have been present in ages past, as ever on the leading edge of the Imperium's advance. The possibility of finding the Khan is too great for the Guardians to ignore, and many of their plans and actions are dedicated to his retrieval. For the impure, only by such a discovery could see the stain of their existence purified. As ever, the home worlds of the Guardians have a profound impact on their attendant Brotherhoods. The Brotherhood of Ruin are most of all dedicated to their lord father's return, while the Brotherhood of the Sky share in the more esoteric beliefs of their home world, with an occult attraction to the number three. Gene-seed “This is all we have left of our father, our blood. It is what connects us to him, what elevates us beyond what we were. Our blood is everything. There is no price too high to pay to protect it and keep it pure.“ –- Ramapravin Ottama, Apothecary attached to the Brotherhood of the Blood The Guardians of Midas are of the White Scars genetic stock, with all that entails. Though the Chapter places great importance on genetic purity, with an active Apothecarion that keeps close tabs on their gene-seed banks, it is a permanent shame upon them that they have been plagued with a singular mutation. In the process of maturing, a Space Marine produces two sets of progenoid glands, effectively assuring the survival of the Chapter by allowing for the production of two Marines for every one. Among the Guardians of Midas, for every five recruits reaching this genetic maturity, only four produce the second set of progenoid glands. This leaves twenty percent only capable of producing the first set. Though this mutation has not kept them on the radar of the Inquisition or the Adeptus Mechanicus as tithes have been collected, nor has it impeded their ability to make war in the Emperor and the Warhawk's name, it is enough for the Guardians to look upon those so afflicted as imperfect and corrupted. Though their progenoid glands are removed, the Apothecaries keep careful track to ensure that they are never used for future implantations. They are kept aside for when the Imperium requests its often long overdue tithes. Though this practice is intended to restrict the mutation and prevent it from spreading to healthier gene-seed, it has wholly failed to eradicate it. The Chapter views the Brothers of the Eagle as paragons of virtuosity and purity. Their Terminator suits are kept fastidiously pristine in-between battles, their hammer blows elegant and sudden. Battle-cry "Death is in our eyes, fire in our blood!" -- Battle-cry of the Brotherhood of the Land http://i.imgur.com/KxVzoRz.jpg

It's Monday, so here is a brand new Glacial Geek Battle Report! https://youtu.be/qXfDlmDgvBo But not just ANY Glacial Geek Battle Report, it's my 150th Battle Report! ... But I didn't know it at the time I was filming it so no mention of that fact is made in video! This week my Dark Angels and Deathwatch team up to take on the White Scars. It seemed like any other mission done in the name of the Emperor. The Deathwatch had asked the Dark Angels for assistance in cleansing a planet of Xenos, which they were more than happy to do. All seemed to be going according to plan until their forces came under attack. The white ceramite of the White Scars' armor shone as they sprung their trap and began to assail the Dark Angels and Deathwatch Marines. Little was left but to respond in kind ... Will the Unforgiven and Shield Who Slay prove a potent enough allied force to counter the White Scar assault, or will the Khan lead his men successfully into battle? Watch and find out!

Going to be testing another 30k list with a mate in a few weeks time, he's a competitive chap so I've been thinking about this one for the past week. White Scars + Imperial Militia – 3501 Legion Astartes: Always regroup at normal Leadership regardless of casualties. Swift Action: After any 6” move (12” Bikes/Jet Bikes/Vehicles) gains re-roll to wounds of 1 and +1 Cover Save (Max of 3+). The Eye of the Storm: +1 to first turn/+1 Seize/+1 First Reserve roll of each turn. To Laugh in Death’s Face: Must take Fast Attack choices before Heavy Support Born in the Saddle: Skilled Rider Rite of War: Chogorian Brotherhood Ride like the Wind: Outriders and Sky Hunters as Troops and Scoring Units. Lightning Strike: Hit and Run and Outflank Army-Wide. ​ Praetor – Bike – Power Glaive – Cyber Hawk – Iron Halo – Melta Bombs – Warlord – 180 Damocles - 100 Force Commander –Abhuman Helots (+1 T/-1 I on all Provenance Models) – Melta Bombs - 90 6x Jet Bikes – Heavy Bolters – 2x Volkite Culverins – Melta Bombs –245 6x Jet Bikes – Heavy Bolters – 2x Volkite Culverins – Melta Bombs –245 30x Inducted Levy Squad - Auxiliary Pistols & Close Combat Weapons – Discipline Collar (Stubbon) – Force Commander - 70 30x Inducted Levy Squad - Auxiliary Pistols & Close Combat Weapons – Discipline Collar (Stubbon) – 70 8x Terminators – Combi Plasma – 4x Chainfists – Power Axes – Outflank – Hit and Run – 363 8x Terminators – Combi Plasma – 4x Chainfists – Power Axes – Outflank – Hit and Run - 363 8x Destroyer Squad – Jump Packs – Power Glaive – 1x Phosphex Bomb – Outflank/Hit and Run/Counter-Attack – ​Praetor - 310 4x Attack Bikes – Autocannons – Melta Bombs – 185 4x Attack Bikes – Autocannons – Melta Bombs – 185 Storm Eagle Assault Gunship – Twin-Linked Multi Melta – Hellstrike Missiles – Armoured Ceramite- 265 Auxilia Thunderbolt Heavy Fighter - 200 Sicaran Venator – Armoured Ceramite -210 Sicaran Venator – Armoured Ceramite -210 Fire Raptor Gunship – Reaper Autocannon Batteries – Ground Attack BS 5 – Independent Turret Fire-210

Getting this project going again I think. My Oblivion Hunters are going to rise from my memory onto the tabletop for LVO 2023! =========================================== Paint Scheme =========================================== Background =========================================== Finished/Wip Models/Units =========================================== Altan (WiP) =========================================== Lists & Ideas ===========================================

" No longer shackled to the crow and his murder " My XIXth legion in various completion stages, Im going for Terran nomad-predation survivors re-entering the Imperium after hearing of Corax's "death". I'l post more in the days to come, with some fluff as im going for a pacific islander meets Genghis motherducking Khan vibe.

My homegrown chapter. English is not my first language, and I'm trying to imitate the pedantic imperial style, so I apologies for every mistake, I did my best. Enjoy, if the text deserves it The Headsman Guard "No foes. Only prey". Staring at the abyss for thousands of years, the Headsman Guard forged itself in isolation, protecting the Imperium from the things that dwell in the Ghoul Stars, a region that challenges the sanity of men. Since the mythical days of the Harbinger, the Headsmen have lived in the margins of History, performing their duty to Emperor and Primarch as envoys of their lineage to the darkest deeps. Following the visions of the Silversmiths, they keep the ever shrinking hope that their efforts will not be in vain, when Jaghatai returns to bring vitality to a dying humanity. Founding chapter: Storm Lords (White Scars). Founding: 3rd founding (M32). Known descendants: None. Chapter Symbol: Axe and crossed lightning bolts. Colors: Grey, black and bone white. Homeworld: Germinal – Sundered Belt. Recruitment World: Khumran IV - Ultima Segmentum. Battle Cry: Several bellicose extracts from the Pact of Khumran. History: “The Void is ours. Its emptiness. Its madness. We own it. For Man, we deny it to the Beast. Flay the Beast! Cull the vermin! We are the Khan’s Headsmen, emissaries of our fathers’ wrath. There will be no reward for the worthy until he returns and Humanity is unleashed anew. For the Emperor! For the Khan! – Last lines from the Pact of Khumran. Following the Horus Heresy, the damage that was done to the Imperium was slowly repaired and its military forces reformed. Among the 3rd founding chapters created for that purpose, was the Headsman Guard. A fleet based chapter, destined to be at the forefront of imperial expeditions, its infrastructure following conquests as they were achieved. As a symbol of the reigning optimism and the value placed on their descendants, the Storm Lords offered one battle-brother to lead their successors and ensure continuity among the sons of Jaghatai. His name is recorded in the chapter’s chronicles as Pkharmat, Harbinger of the Storm. Details about their first actions have been lost among their chronicles’ metaphors. What they do tell is that Pkharmat led the chapter from the front, teaching his new brothers to bleed the galaxy when it refused to submit to them. The Harbinger was a commander and venerable father who build a chapter to his image, ingraining in them a dynamic, vital warfare, and the knowledge that the Primarch would soon return to lead his sons again. For almost 400 years, the Guard liberated and purged worlds in close alliance with the Imperial Guard. They hunted and killed and roared their praises to Jaghatai, without knowing this era will one day be remembered as the last bright light before decrepitude settled in the domain of man. Battling with the remnants of the Heresy ever deeper into the reaches of the galactic northeast, the expedition found the Khumran system, where two worlds teemed with unwelcomed life. Lost to Horus Lupercal during the Heresy, the system was still ruled by traitors, fanatically loyal to the memory of the Warmaster. Despite its best efforts and its Dark Mechanicum allies, the petty kingdom of Khumran was shattered in what became Pkharmat’s most vaunted victory. After the corrupt adepts were properly excruciated, the Mechanicum reclaimed Khumran III. Khumran IV was stripped clean of traitorous life and offered to veteran imperial regiments as a reward for decades of service. By 544.M32, the Headsmen were resupplying, preparing for the next objective in sight: the remote portion of galaxy known as the Ghoul Stars, a desolate region of space lit by the cold rays of dying suns. That next push would never come. In 544.M32, a mysterious ork warlord known as the Beast united much of the Ork race. His Waaagh!, the largest the Galaxy had ever seen, rampaged across entire sectors, even laying siege to Terra. The Imperium only halted his advance at great cost and desperate measures, devastating the Adeptus Astartes in the process and revealing weakness behind appearances of solidity. Although the Headsman Guard never found itself in the main campaign theaters, the Beast plunged the entire galaxy into turmoil, and minor ork invasions followed wherever they could. Expansion plans were ruined, as Pkharmat was forced to turn back on his tracks to defend previously conquered systems from the green tide. There is no full record of those days but by the time the Beast was killed, the Headsmen had been reduced to half their numbers and their resupplying lines were shattered. This will be only the first in a long string of calamities. In 546.M32, Drakan Vangorich, Grand Master of Assassins, launched a coup against the High Lords of Terra, slaying them to a man in an event known as The Beheading. Afterwards, the Imperium, wracked with a colossal butcher’s bill, collapsed authorities, and rebellions, descended into anarchy. And in the galactic northeast, the Ghoul Stars suddenly stirred. Creatures of primal nightmares extended their shadow into imperial territory, as if inhuman minds had suddenly awakened, reacting to the weakness perceived beyond their borders. Cut off from the Imperium at large and with a Chapter in need of rebuilding, Pkharmat made the decision that would define the Guard for ages to come. He led the chapter back to Khumran IV, site of their greatest victory, and named himself Protector of Khumran, vowing that the Chapter would be reborn, or die defending its highest mark. The local tech-adepts and imperial commanders were eager to accept the protection Pkharmat offered them in exchange for resources and recruits. So the Pact of Khumran was signed and the wars of reclamation began. Battling the Ghoul Stars creatures for years, the Guard slowly rebuild its numbers and battle after battle pushed the xenos back into the darkness. Chasing them, the Headsmen entered the Sundered Belt, a series of desolated planets and asteroids marking the Imperium’s borders. There, they would claim their homeworld and several outposts. One hundred years after the Beheading, Pkharmat led his last hunt into the Ghoul Stars. Species and planets vanished beneath cyclonic torpedoes, and the Hunter’s Moon’s trophy room was filled with hides and exoskeletons. It seemed for a while conquest would begin anew. Then, the Harbinger was captured under mysterious circumstances by the vicious creatures known as Cythor Fiends, who for years had evaded every confrontation. Adding injury to the shame, the xenos proceed to torture the Harbinger for a full year, in a futile attempt to break him into submission. His transhuman nature kept him alive, healing every night the damage done to him every day. By the time the Headsmen broke into the creature’s lair, laying waste to everything they saw, the Chapter Master, now a shell of himself had broken free and was carving his way through xenos with his bare hands. The expedition returned to the Sundered Belt. Unable to keep the Harbinger alive, the captains and silversmiths decided for the first and only time to ask a particular favor from their Mechanicum allies. They asked for a dreadnaught. Pkharmat became the Forever Khan, eternal Vicar of the Primarch. The string of catastrophes started by the Beast, and the prolonged period of isolation facing the supernatural threats that would periodically crawl from the Ghoul Stars, brought gradual changes to the chapter, changes that would solidify after Pkharmat’s death. The chapter began to lose its ruthless joy and the optimism regarding the future of mankind. Now the thrill of the hunt coexists with a somber fatalism, and a superstitious need to find meaning among the randomness of the Universe. Under the increased influence of the silversmiths, the Guard now worships the days of conquest of the Forever Khan. Pkharmat has become an icon, awakened a reckless amount of times in the following millennia to provide guidance. As the Headsmen rejoice in the vision of their first Chapter Master laying waste to their enemies, they do not know the constant awakenings are irremediably damaging his sanity. Homeworld: "Brothers, you have not reached this place by chance. You have come to face the unthinking madness crawling through the Void, your domain. You have come to break it, to regain the strength the Emperor demands of you. His people are in need of light. But I shall only return to them to bring back Fire!" – Pkharmat. When the Headsmen set their eyes for the first time on an unassuming planetoid sluggishly circling a cold sun in the Sundered Belt, they thought nothing will come from that particular expedition. The moment they set foot on it, the planetoid reacted to their presence with unnatural catastrophes and creatures that no probe or auspex had detected crawling from every crevasse. They called it Germinal, an ancient terran word to signify rebirth and resurgence; a term meant to convey optimism, but that since those days has become a dark joke layered with irony. Germinal is a rock riddled with hatred for those who interrupted its lonely existence, a rock with freezing conditions, erratic volcanoes spewing ice or boiling ash into orbit, and unpredictable seasons of storms and earthquakes. Its only living creatures are the ice sphinxes, although the fact they are alive has never been proven with any certainty. Not even the marines know how to classify the grotesque megafauna, what they are made of, if they reproduce, or if they are even sentient. Rarely seen on the surface, when the sphinxes rise from their lairs it is to fight those who trespass, including each other. Since nothing resembling an ice sphinx has been reported anywhere else, it is believed that Germinal is their birthworld and that perhaps they are nothing more than the planet’s antibodies. To the Headsmen, there is nothing to study or understand. It was a place that defied mankind’s presence and therefore a place to be broken into submission. For years, Pkharmat waged war on Germinal for the purpose of building a fortress-monastery; an endeavor the planetoid resisted every step of the way, killing thousands of the Mechanicum teams that violated its original form. On the surface, a small bastion has been erected, a proclamation of intent, a challenge spit at the planetoid itself. Protected by void shields and massive gun emplacements, the real fortress-monastery is a subterranean labyrinth carved beneath the bastion. Build vast enough to accommodate the entire chapter, traditionally a single company keeps watch over it. Most is populated by servitors and entire linages of serfs tending to halls left in darkness for years or decades. Recruits train in subterranean fields of battle against each other and the many lifeforms brought for that purpose. From time to time, veteran hunters lead them to the surface, where they learn to stay alive, then to kill the sphinxes under their elders’ gaze. Silversmiths and apothecaries monitor them constantly, looking for signs of the madness that plagues an unusually high number of recruits, another weapon they say, used by Germinal against the invaders. The Charnel is the place where the Headsmen first set foot on Germinal, located in a deep valley battered by galls and blinding blizzard. If a traveler should find his way to the center of the valley, he would eventually see an ominous silhouette, like an island lost in the storm. Then he would stand in front of Jaghatai himself, his gaze piercing through the newcomer. A statue of grey stone has been erected to consecrate the breaking of Germinal to the Khan. Since those days, no sphinx has ever attacked the statue; no earthquake has ever caused a chink to the stone. This is where newly ascended recruits travel to bow before their father and ascend to the stars, and the travel itself is dangerous enough to be considered their last test. It is the domain of the Silversmiths, where they seek to pierce the veil between realities and understand the will of their father. It is where enemies are dragged to be offered to the Khan, abandoned at the feet of the statue among older bones and mummified carcasses. If one would explore the caves and walls of the valley, one would find the skeletons of former battle brothers dressed in ragged funeral shrouds, their empty sockets staring at the center of the valley, where their father stands. Beliefs: “A hunter does not hate his quarry. Find clarity in that knowledge. As long as there is prey, we will thrive through its extermination”. – Silversmith Garsevan. Like most Space Marine Chapters, the Headsman Guard does not see the Emperor as a god but rather as the greatest human who ever lived. He is a distant figure to the point of abstraction, a symbol of humanity’s potential. The Guard do not pray to him; Silversmiths teach that no one has the right to ask anything to the Emperor, because he has already given. Battle-brothers are taught to show gratitude through bloodshed, every enemy dispatched a way of thanking him for his sacrifice. Jaghatai Khan on the other side is omnipresent in the chapter’s rites of war. Like other Vth legion successors, they claim their Primarch disappeared in the aftermaths of the Horus Heresy, and they wait for his return. The Guard waits for him still, but centuries of isolation and, some fear, the effects of their hunting grounds on their minds, have twisted their original vision. To the increasingly bleak Guard, the Vth Primarch is an ominous judge who watches humanity from afar. The idea that the Khan could be killed or delayed is inconceivable, the Khan hasn’t returned because he does not wish to, and according to the Silversmiths, he may never do. Since the Heresy, humans have constantly proven their willingness to follow into the steps of those who ruined the Emperor’s dream; their weakness an insult to the Primarch. There is a growing fear, rarely voiced among the Headsmen, that as the 41st millennium draws to a close and humanity suffers an onslaught like never before, the Khan may have already judged the Imperium to be unworthy of its founders’ sacrifice and therefore, unworthy of salvation. “No foes, only prey” is the central tenet of Pkharmat’s teachings: all enemies are beneath contempt, undeserving even of hatred. The Headsmen see themselves as cast in the role of the falconers of old Chogoris, charged with hunting dangerous game. To them, traitors, xenos and daemons are nothing but vermin to be culled when it encroaches on mankind’s domain. However, this cold outlook on their duty is constantly challenged by the natural ferocity shared by all scions of Jaghatai. All battle-brothers are expected to rein in their ferocity, but some take the lesson to its logical conclusion, striving to cast it away entirely. It can take a lifetime for a battle-brother to get rid of the hereditary savagery ingrained in his genes, but those who achieve it will make war with renewed focus and self-control. They will join the hunter assault squads, teams of like-minded brothers who will find joy in the thrill of the hunt, but none in the killing stroke. The Order of Silversmiths, those who harness the silver veins from heaven, is made of the spiritual guides of the chapter. Both chaplains and librarians, they join companies to provide a unifying vision to very independent captains. Among superstitious battle-brothers, the Silversmiths are universally honored, as they look for clues of their Khan’s will and for reasons to hope for his return. For all practical purpose, the Chapter has become a diarchy, with the Chief Silversmith sharing equal power and authority with the Chapter Master. Gene-seed: “Our genes make us feral. Our teachings demand temperance. Our hunting grounds fill us with bleakness. Many of your battle brothers will surrender to one of those and thrive. Not you. You will listen to each when necessary. That is the battle at the core of your duty, and it is eternal”. – Chapter Master Ashirvan, to captain Sandorf upon his ascension. Less than a tenth of all space marine chapters owe their origins to the White Scars, due to certain genetic instabilities that have prevented them from competing with more populous bloodlines. Like all sons of Jaghatai, the Headsmen have inherited a feral streak and a tendency for ferocious displays of violence. The teachings of Pkharmat were devised to harness this savagery through discipline. The more a battle-brother rejects this genetic heritage, the more likely he is to join the hunter squads. As centuries passed, certain kinds of degenerations became increasingly noticeable among new inductees. It is unknown if this defect was caused by the nature of the stock recruited on Khumran IV, or if it was already present at the time of their creation, but by space marine standards, the Headsmen look old and grey, as if the unending hunts had taken a toll on them before time. Starting after their first century of service, this accelerated physical change is considered with pride, like a second ascension into the chapter. Veterans and captains are known to forge open-faced helmets of archaic design in order to expose their grizzled features to the enemy. Combat doctrine & organization: “You are Hunters. If you still need my orders, your lives were wasted”. - Master Zaroff, to the Hunter Assault Squads. The Headsmen followed the tenets of the Codex Astartes until the days of isolation. Since then, they have slowly altered them as their circumstances changed. Every company is self-sufficient, each with its tactical, devastator, assault and scout squads, its tanks, speeders, and techmarines, and a personal strike cruiser, allowing them to hunt on their own for extended periods of time. The Guard’s preferred style of warfare is to overwhelm their enemies with massive ambushes, using their speed, aggression and firepower to break, isolate, and crush them at leisure before they can react. They have acquired a reputation for methodical patience, followed by brutally quick attacks intent to make short work of the enemy at the precise moment. In cases of prolonged warfare, they remain loyal to the Khan’s virtues of speed, outmaneuvering and seizing the initiative. Bikes, speeders, thunderhawks, and armored companies work in unison, with commanders leading from the top of tanks swarming with battle-brothers eager to get into striking distance. The most important exception is the role given to the Hunter Assault Squads. Equipped with modified armors and jump packs, the Hunters are the elite of each company, brothers who have cast their innate savagery away and make war with detached patience. They hunt down commanders and the most dangerous foes, harrying them to the place where the chapter will sprung the trap. The Master of the Hunt is the epitome of this mentality, and centuries can pass before choosing a new one. Once chosen, he will abandon his company and work outside the chapter’s hierarchy, chasing down the most elusive enemies with a few handpicked followers. When working alongside the chapter, he will lead all the hunters available and will be allowed to do as he pleases; a strategy that has prevented entire wars of attrition. As an embodiment of his chapter’s teachings, the Master of the Hunt looks at the Universe and everything in it with indifference, finding contentment only in the chase. Foes find their hubris sorely tested when they meet the eyes of the Master and see nothing but complete disinterest, for the hunt is now over. To these somber, impassive battle-brothers, they are nothing but meat, and some take that definition quite literally. Khumran IV: "We bring you light! Multiply and become a great tribe! Warm yourselves! Illuminate your homes and rejoice! For soon, you will march to war at our calling!” – From the Pact of Khumran. Located in a remote corner of Ultima Segmentum, the Khumran system is one of the last imperial outposts before the Ghoul Stars. Four planets orbit the star Khumran, of which two boast imperial presence, among them Khumran III, a forge world under the rule of the tech-priests of Mars. Khumran IV is a γ-class civilized world subclassed as a mining world, a place of mountains, ravines and gorges separated from each other by precious fertile valleys and inland seas, well protected by several moons heavily armed by the Mechanicum. Most khumrans work as miners and farmers for the amir commanders and magnates that form the planetary council. Their main purpose is to exploit the mines, fabrics and collective farms niched in the valleys, and periodically raise regiments from their most ruthless human and ogryn laborers to be sent to the Emperor’s wars. As one leaves the settlements, the land becomes increasingly cold, something not improved by the many predators and massive carrion birds large enough to pick up a human and drop it down a cliff to get access to his marrow. This does not mean the land is empty; mining expeditions constantly create pockets of civilization, looking for travel routes and resources to exploit. Well-armed expeditions, for the many “empty quarters” are the domain of mountain tribes. Descendants of criminals and workers fleeing service, they make a living by protecting expeditions in exchange for payment, and by attacking settlements when their neighbors are not forthcoming. Khumran IV lives in a state of endemic conflict, with tribes raiding enclaves and militias burning down their bastions in retaliation. No amir has ever attempted to put an end to this state of things, because it has been forbidden to them. Since the Days of Isolation, the Pact sealed by Khumran IV and the Headsman Guard included the right for those tribes to exist, to keep the future recruits strong, and so it has been ever since. Every time new imperial regiments are drafted, mountaineers walk into urban areas, carrying imperial icons proclaiming truce and common devotion, and enlist shoulder to shoulder with miners. And every time, the Guard picks its share of the youngest. Many lineages, tribes and settlements remember that at some point one of them was taken away by the Chapter, and entire regiments pray for a chance to fight side by side with the Headsmen, whom they see as their living ancestors. The Eyes and Ears are a select group of chapter serfs, singled out for their devotion, charged by the Silversmith with the duty of spreading the chapter’s creed. Silversmiths and their Eyes and Ears roam the planet, preaching the wisdom of the Primarch. Far from ending conflict, they ensure it will never stop, in an attempt to recreate what Chogoris was in the days of Jaghatai. The Khan is worshipped almost as much as the Emperor; and the khumrans have adopted Guard ceremonies like ritual sacrifice of quarry, prayer trough collective ecstatic song, and other idiosyncrasies. This position puts the Chapter at odds with the imperial clergy, who consider they infringe on their prerogatives, but usually they all turn a blind eye to each other as long as orthodoxy his not challenged.