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'SOVA NOCTIS' The Space Owls Chapter, or the ‘Sova Noctis’ as the warriors of the chapter often refer to themselves, are a non-codex compliant chapter of space marines. Inheriting the Gene-Seed of the Raven Guard’s Primarch, Corvus Corax, the Space Owls are supernaturally stealthy warriors who excel in stalking their prey, then unleashing sudden ambushes and devastating close quarter assaults. Links for PDF Download MEGA Bolter&Chainsword Name: ‘Space Owls’ or the ‘Sova Noctis’ Founding: Unknown - suspected Unstated Founding in M36, sometime after the climax of the Reign of Blood Primarch: Corvus Corax Primogenitor Chapter: Unknown - suspected Raptors Chapter successor Successors: None Chapter Master: Davor Venatus – presently elected ‘Warleader’ by the Chapter Conventa Fortress Monastery: Former Age Dark Orbital Prison-Labour Facility renamed the ‘Hollow’ Homeworld: Umbra Minor Designation: Feral World Gravity: Near Earth Standard Temperature/Climate: Temperate and Cold, Volcanic Equatorial Zone Population: Unknown – suspected high thousands Planetary Governor: Chapter Conventa - assembled council of Chapter Captains and Specialist Chamber Masters System: Stolas Sector: --REDACTED-- Segmentum: Tempestus Tithe Grade: None - Adeptus Astartes World

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.

Hi everyone, My first post on B&C, and I thought I'd put my own chapter (models to be painted) into the wild. After 20 years of being out of WH40K, it's been a whirlwind trying to keep up with the changes. This chapter has existed in one form or other since 1996, but it's only been since the revamp (i.e. 8E) that I've put more effort into it. Anyway, onto the chapter! Tim Basic Information & History The Dusk Falcons are a 13th Founding chapter based out of their fortress-monastery, Akhetahema, located on Perheka in the Ultima Segmentum. The Perhekan system is located galactically East of Prospero and north of Golgotha, making it ideally placed to respond to Chaos incursions from The Maelstrom as well as Ork warbands that roam the sector. Their founding chapter is unknown, though their stealthy fighting style suggests the Raven Guard. However, they do not display the Melanchromic mutation common to the Raven Guard, and have a full set of Astartes organs. Those that know of the chapter have speculated that they are one of Archmagos Belisarius Cawl's first successful experiments with the Sangprimus Portem, but the chapter does not know, nor do they care to ask the Mechanicus. Perheka itself is a Feudal Death World, upon which city-states battle each other and the wildife for control of the desert world's scarce resources. Soldiers tread lightly on the sands of the deserts, for they know that too much noise will draw the attention of the Sand Burrowers, Cuniculus Magnus Succo in High Gothic, and lead to their doom. However, they must guard the desert springs and the riverways from rivals, so they patrol on quiet feet and with no heavy animals. There are those that spend their lives in the desert, hunting animals and the city dwellers, who they see as thieves, trying to maintain the nomadic ways of their ancestors. These Sand Dwellers are regarded as uncouth savages by the city dwellers, but some of the best Astartes in the chapter come from such stock, including the current chapter master. Notable dates:310.M36 - Maatsa (The 8th Company) destroys a Traitor Navy unit, and the heretic transports they are escorting to Chiros, in the Aregulis system. 813.M37 - Sekhmetsa (the 6th Company) encounters Khoran Heural and his warband 'The Lidless Eye' for the first time on Kerythus Ostera, an agri-world. They manage to drive him off, though his sabotage destroys 80% of the world's crops and he coaxes nearly 60% of the population into slavery. 439.M38 - The start of a 3 year campaign by Kheprisa and Sobeksa (4th & 5th Companies, respectively) to eradicate an Ork warband from the minor Forgeworld of Hysperia IV. 620.M39 - Khonsusa (3rd Company) battles The Shining Spear Eldar corsair band on Agebon Prime. 320.M40 - Anpusa (2nd Company) drop onto Pharedon, the subsector's capital world, in response to an Inquistiorial request. There they find a Genestealer Cult, and spend the next 6 months hitting them in precise strike operations. The Loyalist PDF are impressed by their fighting style and reform into fast attack drop regiments to better prosecute the cleansing. 439.M41 - Nimatre Mentuhotep wounds Khoran Heural on Draken IV, after most of Apepsa (7th Company) is slaughtered in a brutal attack on the mining world. 513.M41 - Perasa (1st Company) board the Space Hulk 'Chains of Woe' when it drops out of the Warp in the Aephelia system. With the aid of the Adeptus Mechanicus they secure several important artefacts before it vanishes back into the Warp. 617.M41 - Niamtre Mentuhotep is promoted to Peraa (Chapter Master). 801.M41 - Maatsa is lost to the Warp when the Astronomicon flickers briefly. The chapter holds feats of remembrance and offers prayers to the Emperor for their safe return. 940.M41 - Tutamun Imontu is promoted to Hatyaa Anpusa (2nd Company Captain), when the previous captain is gravely wounded on Terrisina III fighting Necrons. 999.M41 - The 13th Black Crusade. Khoran lands on the Shrine World of Jeraphum IV, accompanied by foul Chaos beasts. He sacrifices enough priests to open a warp rift. The Falcons respond, and in the bloody slaughter evict the Chaos Lord, but it costs them 246 Ahautyu (battle brothers). 013.M42 - The Falcons encounter Khoran on Kheriban Prime, and attack his foul daemonkin pits. Khoran gains the upper hand, but the arrival of the Battle Barge Atet with Primaris reinforcements shifts the odds in the Loyalists' favour. Khoran escapes, but not before the world is burned to ash. Organisation The Dusk Falcons are not totally Codex Compliant, preferring to fight as demi-companies, and rarely as complete companies. Each Ahautyu (battle brother) is trained to be proficient in all of the chapter's weapons, although some will show better skill with a missile launcher than with a chainsword. As such, squad markings are eschewed and each squad is formed based upon the needs of the task by the Hatyaa (company captain), who will know the capabilities of each of the Ahautyu under his command. Over time, most Ahautyu will coalesce into informal squad formations, and utilise Perhekan hieroglyphs to mark themselves out to each other. The chapter is organised into 9 sa (companies), with each sa having a prefix depending upon the aspect of the Emperor that they are named after. For example, the 2nd Company are called the Anpusa, named after Anpu, the God of the Dead in Perhekan religion. Each sa is fully contained with their own scout formations, Apothecaries, Chaplains, vehicles and fleet ships. The 1st Company, the Perasa, are the Chapter Master's veteran bodyguards (the Kenytnesu) and the instructors for the Djamu (the initiates). The only other department that answers directly to the Pera are the Perdjehuty, the Librarium. The Nine Companies and their company symbols:Perasa - Falcon Anpusa - Jackal Khonsusa - was-sceptre Kheprisa - Scarab Sobeksa - Crocodile Sekhmetsa - Lioness Apepsa - Snake Maatsa - Ostrich Feather Hathorsa - Cow Each Hatyaa also has another title related to his other duties for the Chapter, as other Chapters are wont to do. For instance, Tutamun Imontu, Hatyaa Anpusa (Captain of 2nd Company), is also called Hery-Meket (Master of Relics). To take the Anpusa as an example of a Dusk Falcons company (A (P) next to the name indicates a Primaris marine): Company Captain (Hatyaa): Tutamun Imontu Lieutenants (Idnu): Zhanis Tezurian, Siamun Kosine (P) Librarians (Djehuty): Sokhar Ramses, Irubis Khejan (P) Apothecary(Senjw): Kelam Bydos (P) Chaplain (Hemnatar): Kothar Sept Standard Bearer (Tjai-seryt): Kephrim Suphan Techmarine (Hemut): Tulam Hebes Battleline Squads (Neyut): 40x Ahautyu (Tactical, Intercessor, Scout, Infiltrator) Close Support (Nakhtua): 35x Ahautyu (Assault, Inceptor, Bike, Landspeeder) Fire Support (Megau): 35x Ahautyu (Devastator, Eliminator, Suppressor, Hellblaster, Heavy Vehicles) Veterans (Minfyt): 10x Ahautyu (Company Veterans, Terminators) Elites (Nearin): 20x Ahautyu (Reiver, Aggressor) These figures do not include the auxiliaries and non-named HQ/Elites choices. (I'm not a player, so this list is purely from a fluff perspective.) Recruitment, Testing & The Cult of Amenra Prospective ahautyu are recruited from the many city-state dwellers that make the arduous journey across the deserts and fight amongst them. Life on Perheka is harsh, such that by the time a boy reaches 13 Terran years old he has already seen many battles and survived numerous encounters with the Sand Burrowers. On a world where the simple act of gathering food can result in death from arrow, blade or monstrous wildlife, many strive to become the heads of their city-state, either via gaining favour with the ruling Nome or by marrying into the family. It is from such a life that the Hemnatar plucks a boy, usually at the start of the brief rainy season. The Hemnatar will call at the boy's family house in the middle of the night and beckon the boy to come with him. The offer is never refused, as it is seen as a great honour for a family's son to be chosen. The novite, or djamu in Perhekan, will then endure the multi-year process to turn a callow youth into an ahautyu, with constant surgeries and tests. One of the final tests is called simply 'The Egg Trial'. In this test. the djamu must trek alone into the heart of the Great Western Desert and bring back a Perhekan Falcon egg. Whilst this trial sounds simple, the journey is fraught with dangers. Firstly, the djamu weighs more than he did as a boy, so must take great care, particularly when approaching the skyscraper-sized rocky pillars that the Falcon nests in, as the territory is also the home of the Sand Burrower Queens, whose senses are considerably more sensitive than their warriors. A mis-step can result in jaws as wide as an ahautyu is tall snapping up from the sand and swallowing him down into the darkness. Once at the pillars, the djamu must be careful not to be seen climbing up to the nest, as the Perhekan Falcon has a beak as sharp as any arrow, and can easily cut through the bone of any Astartes. Once successful, the djamu must meet at the rendezvous point with the egg intact. The egg is then inscribed with his name and placed in a sus-an sarcophagus, which is worn on his armour until his death. If his battle-brothers can retrieve it, the sarcophagus is carried until the surviving brother returns to Perheka. It is then hatched and released. Thus is the ahautyu's spirit reborn in the form of the Falcon. The Cult of Amenra is the cult of the Dusk Falcons, and is derived from the beliefs of the native Perhekans. In this cult, the God-Emperor is venerated as the Perhekan sun-god Amenra. It is His light that makes the crops grow, and the aspects of His personality are with the Ahautyu from their birth until their death. He controls and shapes their lives, and it is because of Him that they endure. As such, it is to Him that they owe their lives, and they strive to repay that debt. The cult is led by the Hemnatar Tipamun (head chaplain) of the chapter. When not involved in battle, training, or prayer, the ahautyu spend their time writing their deeds upon papyrus scrolls, which are then entered into the chapter's Librarium once they die. After all, all knowledge can be useful, and if an ahautyu's experiences in the past help the ahautyu of the present, then he has lived on in the service of his chapter. Further, each battle brother pores over the ancient scrolls of their predecessors in an effort to spot patterns from previous times and avoid any mistakes. Chapter Colours Below is an example of a Dusk Falcons Primaris Marine in Mk X Tacticus armour. N.B. The badge in the 'Alternate Shoulder Insignia' is the jackal head of the Anpusa. The sergeant helmet is for an assault sergeant, standard sergeants have a grey face plate. The hatyaa's helmet is not shown because he wears a helmet shaped in the form of the aspect that his sa takes its name from. For example, Tutamun Imontu wears a jackal-head helmet. Officers and veterans also wear the company badge as a relief on their right pauldron, not painted on. Specialists within the chapter wear armour in the chapter colours, with their pauldron trim in a colour that corresponds to their 'branch'. The exception to this is the Hemnatar, who wears black armour. Their right pauldron has the relief of the 'branch'. Specialists Specialist Name Symbol Colour Librarian Djehuty Ibis Royal Blue Apothecary Senjw Ankh White Techmarine Hemut Sceptre of Ptah Deep Red Chaplain Hemnatar Crook & Flail Bone Cream/white ++ I'll add some painted Marines when I finally getting around to getting all of the colours and painting some stuff up! ++ Meta/Design Egyptian ninjas IN SPAAACE!!!! The chapter was originally inspired by a Thousand Sons converted Chaos Terminator I saw on the old GW site many years ago, with a headpiece that was very evocative of the nemes worn by a pharaoh (this was before the Sons got their full Egyptian-themed range). I love ancient history, and we studied the Ancient Egyptians in school. I also love the idea of having a sneaky-beaky Special Forces style of Marines. However, it's generally frowned upon to use Traitor gene-seed, so they couldn't be Alpha Legion; hence the Raven Guard as a possible precursor. If, however, using Traitor geneseed becomes acceptable, then they'll be shifting to Alpha Legion faster than you can say "I'm Alpharius"! My chapter of choice back in the day (90s) was the Space Wolves, because they weren't as boringly Codex compliant as most of the other chapters, so it was natural that mine wouldn't be either (hence the Nine Blades to make the Nine Companies). UPDATE (26/09/2019): I've updated a few things to remove some confusion and such, based upon the feedback from everyone here. Hopefully it scans better now! Also, I've read through the Raven Guard supplement (I got myself a copy), and I'm definitely leaning towards having them confirmed as Raven Guard, although I'm still waiting to see if GW creates a similar CSM 2.0 & supplements for Chaos before committing.