White Consuls

[apologist]

A warrior's faith in his commander is his best armour and his strongest weapon

Ecclesiarchal Litanies of the Conventum Militaris

 

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Marius Gage, First Chapter Master of the White Consuls

 

 

Beginnings

The White Consuls are rightly proud of their status as one of the Primogenitor Chapters – the smaller forces formed on the dissolution of the great Legions, at the close of the Scouring.

 

This so-called 'Second Founding' was an event of great import – a breaking of ties, a time of celebration and rebirth, and the forging of bonds of honour that are largely maintained to this day.

 

It was these things and more. Behind the celebration, the Second Founding was a stark demonstration of Astartes submission in the light of the Great Heresy. While the immediate threat of the Warmaster had been crushed, the idea of the Primarchs – and by extension, the Astartes – as infallible and implicitly loyal, was gone. The Imperium was tottering, and the citizens needed a united leadership. More than this, they needed reassurance that the Imperium could survive without the Emperor.

 

By shackling the strength of the Legions, Roboute Guilliman gave mankind back trust in the good of the post-human Astartes. The Astartes would, by and large, police themselves – and guarantee the nascent Imperium's safety and survival.

 

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A Light In Dark Places

Guilliman's method of operation in the Great Crusade had given birth to an organisation of approximately one thousand marines, known as a Chapter. A chapter was estimated to be the most efficient group possible during the Great Crusade – large enough to prosecute a campaign across an extended front, but small enough that the Legion's forces could operate across an immense front. Crucially, it was self-sustaining, carrying an apothecarian and with orders to create and maintain recruitment from the worlds the Expeditionary fleets brought to Compliance.

 

In breaking up the strength of the Legions, the Chapter was a natural formation to establish as a basis: able to quickly respond to – and best – any alien threat, but not strong enough independently to overtly threaten the immense Segementa Battlefleets and battalions of the newly-founded Imperial Guard.

 

The choosing of the Chapter Masters was a heavy task for the remaining Primarchs, for their teachings – mediated by the invaluable Codex: Astartes – would almost inevitably determine the character of the Chapter. No-one wanted another rebellion, and with some notable exceptions – Sigismund of the Black Templars, Turbon Haark of the Brazen Claws – the individuals selected were united largely by their conservative and obedient nature rather than their inspirational zeal.

 

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March of the Consuls

Each of the Legions marked their last days as a united force in different ways. The White Scars set out in a great procession, their successors splitting off at pre-marked points to join their fleets and seek new homes; while the Imperial Fists' scourging at the Iron Cage marked their bloody rebirth.

 

The Ultramarines' dissolution was sombre, marked by a thousand days of meditation and grieving for the fallen in the Great Temple of Hera. The selected Chapter Masters – and their number varies wildly in the differing accounts – gathered at the great Waterfall of Penance on Macragge, where they personally scoured the Legion symbol and colours from their armour, their hearts heavy with their imminent sundering from their beloved Legion.

 

Returning to Macragge City, each of the Chapter Masters presented himself to the stern enthroned Guilliman, where he received his new colours, and a banner was presented to each.

 

Already used to operating separately, the new Chapters set out to strategic points in the galaxy, to claim their new homeworlds and follow Guilliman's edict by their own interpretation. Of these glorious chapters, a number were granted official use of Honorifics earned during the Great Crusade: the Nemesis Chapter, the dread Mortifactors, the terrifying Doom Eagles.

 

Others, formed largely from newly-raised Initiates, and with little memory of the glory days of Crusade, claimed names that starkly set out their independence and spoke of new beginnings and future hope: the Genesis Chapter, the Novamarines, and the ill-starred Inceptors.

 

The third group took titles that were ancient when the Legion was formed, and who had formed enlarged and specialist veteran cadres during the Great Crusade. The Libators, a small group of four companies dedicated to internal discipline within the legion, were swollen to a thousand, and granted independence. Similarly, the Patriarchs – a group of marines that formed honour guard groups for the Chaplaincy, Librarium and other officers and officials – were expanded and gifted the world of Ulixis from which to recruit and operate.

 

The Praetors of Calth, devastated by the loss in the Scouring of the inspirational Captain Orar – and more pertinently, the near-destruction of the world they had been tasked to protect – were renamed the Praetors of Orpheus, taking their name from their temporary leader, the inspirational Orpheus Holion; and boarded their ships to their new world Beta Entebes II.

 

Finally, Guilliman brought two of his closest warriors to him. These incomparable warriors were the leaders of the Consuls – a two-thousand strong veteran cadre that had accompanied Guilliman himself for much of the Great Crusade, and who had been instrumental in holding the Eastern Imperium together during the Heresy and Scouring.

 

Guilliman decreed that the Consuls be split in two: the Black Consuls, who would forever represent the terror of the Astartes, and who must always guard against the threat from within; and the White Consuls, who would embody the dutiful nature of the Astartes, who would guard against the threat from without.

 

To lead the White Consuls, Guilliman selected Marius Gage, most loyal of all his lieutenants, and loved throughout the legion.

 

 

Blessed is a closed mind filled with faith

Attributed to Coadjutor Menalaus, Honour Captain of the Astartes Praeses, M.34.

 

Brother Cyrian

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Newly promoted to the ninth reserve company, Cyrian's first actions as a true, power-armoured member of the White Consul Brethren were on Gehenna, under the stern eye of Captain Mabaloso.

 

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This series of holo-picts shows Cyrian caught in the moment of reloading his boltgun. Note the boltgun weapon badge on the front of his right pauldron, and the devotional script painted on his chestpiece.

 

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The blue eagle Chapter symbol of the Consuls is clearly shown here, along with the rear of the boltgun. Note the screen on the upper rear part of the boltgun, which usually contains an ammo counter, micro-map and tactical data – it is blank here as the magazine has been detached.

 

The Godwyn-Daez pattern boltgun forms a temporary haptic link with authorised power armour, allowing an Astartes to use his helmet's auto-senses to use the targeter of the boltgun as a 'third eye', allowing him to see round corners or over areas by exploring with the front of the boltgun, or fire from the hip with as much accuracy as from the eye. It also serves to help unhelmeted brethren (either as tactical expediency or through damage) to immediately access vital tactical information.

 

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A rear view, showing the twin ammo pouches, each holding two magazines of boltgun ammunition – with limited supplies available to them, the Consuls were ordered to conserve their ammunition wherever possible in the early years of the campaign.

 

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The White Consuls teach that devotional study is important to the spiritual well-being of the Chapter, and initiates are encouraged to display their purity seals and pennants in battle, to inspire them and dismay the enemy. They are commonly made from robust parchment, which is then treated by immersing it in heat-retardant flexi-resin, ensuring a plastek coat that makes it durable and tough as leather.

 

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The twin-headed Eagle of the Imperium is prominently displayed on Cyrian's boltgun casing, and he bears a silver skull on his right forearm bracer, a typical devotional symbol to the God-Emperor.

 

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And behold, an Angel of Death walks among us.In Nomine Glorifidae, Sueton, Act IX

 

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Brother Eudox

Like all White Consuls, Mig Eudox is a staunch believer is the God-Emperor, and prosecutes His wars wherever he is so ordered. A member of the reserve ninth company, Eudox is newly-elevated to the Brotherhood, and eager to create his legend.

 

His hybrid Mark VII suit includes a Mk IV Martian-pattern helm and a rebanded Mk V shoulder pauldron, necessitating the movement of the Chapter symbol to the right plate. These historic pieces are believed to be of Pre-Heresy manufacture, and their serial numbers tally with those of the antebellum Brother Mercution of the Ultramarines.

 

Unfortunately, following the loss of the Alexandrian library during the Age of Apostasy, much of the White Consuls' history prior to M37 is unknown save to the temperamental Dreadnoughts...

 

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In Nostra Manus - Progenies Futuris

Motto of the White Consuls X Company

 

Post-Lap'Lan

Gehenna had seemed to portend a relatively simple campaign, and Co-Chapter Master Xydias had ordered that Ninth Company's fleet were best placed to intervene. Mabaloso, having completed a six-month anti-piracy campaign in the nearby Sentinel Worlds, thus led a demi-company alongside some forty newly-blooded scouts.

 

In the wake of the Lap'Lan assault, which left barely thirty marines of the Ninth Company battle-ready, the Strike Cruiser Harrier pulled away and led the small White Consuls fleet towards Gehenna.

 

Trusting in the God-Emperor (and the numerous Apothecaries accompanying the expedition) to bring his command back to nominally full strength during the warp-jump, Mabaloso made the decision to put his scout contingent forward into front-line duty, reasoning that the Emperor would protect.

 

A thin white line would thus presage the Imperial forces at Gehenna – with scouts marching proudly in step with full Brethren.

 

 

Novitiate Tarmon

White Consuls scouts are drilled closely in Codex manouevres and fieldskills, and are unusual only in that they are commonly deployed to strike hard and fast from either bikes, Land Speeder Storms or Thunderhawk deployment; and rarely use camo-cloaks – though they are thoroughly trained in their theory and practice, as stipulated in the Codex.

 

Part of this may be the belief that 'camouflage is the colour of cowardice', a common unspoken line of thought that is prevalent amongst certain Astartes' chapters owing to a particular interpretation of the Liber Terra, one of the earliest known copies of the Codex Astartes, and one held in veneration by the White Consuls.

 

The Liber abruptly changes voice in one of the extensive sections of camouflage and concealment, and the general musing tone of the section becomes unusually proscriptive; dictating that armour should remain 'unblemished by dirt, charcoal or the detritus of battle'. This has been interpreted variously as ensuring that a soldier's battlegear should be cleaned vigorously; that hygiene is extremely important; and most famously as 'the colour of the armour should never be obscured by camouflage'.

 

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This shot shows the consequences of following the rather convoluted copy of the Codex too literally – while Tarmon has left the armour plates unsullied, he wears arctic desert fatigues, following another proscription in a separate section of the Codex.

 

Such practise, along with myriad other points of contention, has led to accusations that the Codex encourages 'double-think', and has even led to the infamous 'War of Quills', where the Administratum of Segmentum Obscurus was decimated in a bitter civil war between the Codex as Intended and Codex as Written forces over the supposed heresy of such a suggestion.

 

Such seeming hypocrisy in dress, custom and tactics is a common occurrence in M41, as a result of following the (extremely complex) Codex Astartes to the letter. While other chapters ignore or attempt to explain such problems – indeed, the Azure Swords dedicate fifteen minutes a day to holy debate on such matters – the devout White Consuls have managed to square the circle by simply accepting any seeming contradictions as the Will of the God-Emperor.

 

Whether Guilliman intended the Codex to be a proscriptive battle manual to be followed to the letter – with any confusion to simply be accepted and overcome – or as meditations for intelligent and reasoning minds to interpret according to the practicality of a specific event, battle or campaign, is a secret that has been lost to the sands of time.

 

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The Gehenna Campaign saw Novitiates and Reservist Battle Brothers fighting side-by-side. Indeed, the anti-piracy campaign had seen a number of Novitiates receiving the Black Carapace and elevation to the Brotherhood, so the interaction between the scout forces and Initiates in Mabaloso's force was strikingly fluid – many had fought in the same squads only weeks before.

 

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This mocked-up pict-capture shows the White Consuls Chapter Symbol, the Azure Eagle, on the pauldrons of a scout and Battle-brother. Note that the Battle-brother's is reversed: the Eagle must always face forward, an ancient tradition that was established in M34 by Co-Chapter Master Duiras. With the loss of much of its history between M33 and the events of the Age of Apostasy, the Consuls hold hard to any scraps of knowledge they have.

 

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Very pleased with how the white has come out on these guys – I want to avoid a stark 'pure' white, as I want to evoke the brutal (if Paladin-like) nature of how I see the Consuls. Well, that and I find overly-clean models a bit antiseptic (though I do admire the painting skill – and patience – that such an approach requires!)

 

 

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[Aegnor]

The models look very good and I liked the material - I lol'd at the "Codex as Intended/Written" bit.

 

Is the Liber Terra and the "abrupt change in voice" an original idea, or is it something that has been referenced in GW fluff somewhere? I only ask because it is a great idea - hats off if it's yours!

[apologist]

The models look very good and I liked the material - I lol'd at the "Codex as Intended/Written" bit.

 

Is the Liber Terra and the "abrupt change in voice" an original idea, or is it something that has been referenced in GW fluff somewhere? I only ask because it is a great idea - hats off if it's yours!

Thanks very much! I tend to make stuff up as I go along, but try to make sure that it doesn't contradict anything laid down in canon.

 

I really like the idea of the Codex: Astartes being a collection of meditations, treatises, strategies, reports and so forth, collated and edited by Guilliman. It's mentioned as being a living, developing document; which isn't to say that every part of the Imperial armed forces will treat it as such. Some might use it proscriptively, some might use it creatively, and some might neglect its use entirely.

 

In many ways, war is like a religion to the White Consuls, and much like holy texts in our own world, many different interpretations can be laid on sections of the Codex: Astartes.

 

Glad you like the models, too :)