Blades of Sanguinius

[StrangeGuy]

Blades of Sanguinius

 

Origins

 

The Blades of Sanguinius are a chapter from the Fifth Founding of the Adeptus Astartes. They were created using the gene seed of Sanguinius. A training cadre from the Knights of Blood, led by Captain Arcturus of the Seventh company, was dispatched to oversee the creation and training process.

 

Initially a fleet based chapter, the Blades of Sanguinius traveled the Imperium engaging in skirmishes as their strength increased. Shortly after reaching full strength, the Blades descended upon the planet Avalon, an ocean world in the midst of a Chaos inspired rebellion.

 

The Blades fought valiantly, defeating the rebellion within a matter of weeks, and began the process of hunting down the Chaos Space Marine leaders of the insurrection. As total victory drew nearer, the Blades Chapter Master Arcturus confronted one of the warlords as the traitor attempted to hide in a small village. The Chapter Master engaged the traitor in single combat, felling him with his chainsword. As Arcturus turned his back thinking the enemy dead, the traitor marine slashed out with his weapon, but instead of killing the Space Marine the blow was taken by a mysterious peasant woman, who seemed to step from the ocean to strike the traitor with an ornate power sword before falling dead at Arcturus' feet. The Blades refer to her as "The Lady of the Water" and the blade she carried, the "Sword of Power" was carried thereafter by Arcturus as a badge of office and a reminder of the strength and courage of mankind. After the campaign is over, the Blades began to use Avalon as a recruiting world.

 

The Blades continued as a fleet based chapter for decades, until they translated out of the warp on the edges of the Camulod system, a system brought to compliance by Rogal Dorn and the Imperial Fists during the Great Crusade. Almost immediately, the chapter's Librarians began receiving strange messages from the surface of Camulod III. The Blades went down to the surface and there, deep within the bowels of the planet they found the "Maerlyn" a powerful and ancient piece of technology which greatly amplified the astropathic and precognitive abilities of any psyker interred within.

 

After the discovery, the Blades of Sanguinius began the construction of a Fortress Monastery above the cave which houses the Maerlyn, and chose Camulod III as their homeworld.

 

Later History

 

The Blades of Sanguinius have engaged in many campaigns in their long history, often arriving at systems prior to planetary invasion or rebellion. The Blades are notorious for their ability to arrive at crucial moments, often snatching victory from the jaws of defeat thanks to the Maerlyn.

 

Chapter records state that Arcturus ruled the Blades for nearly a thousand years, finally falling in a desperate battle against hordes of greenskins.First Captain Agrivaine, now an honoured Venerable Dreadnought, led the remaining blades to recover the body of Arcturus and his weapon,the sword of power. Arcturus' body was taken to Avalon and laid to rest inside an tomb of marble and gold. Since that day, Avalon has become a tomb world for the chapter, where the mightiest heroes are buried.

 

As the centuries passed, the Blades began to realize that the Maerlyn was beginning to affect the librarians chosen to control it. They reported strange visions, and some were even driven to the black rage by the contest of wills agains the machine. Some amongst the chapter supported abandoning the machine and Camulod III, while the new chapter master argued that the benefits of the Maerlyn outweighed the dangers. Despite the Master's confidence in the Maerlyn he recruited the fifty best warriors of the chapter and set them to guarding the Maerlyn's chamber, lest a librarian become posessed and pose a threat to the Fortress Monastery. These warriors are called The Castellans, and they leave the Chamber in only the most dire circumstances.

 

The Blades continued for thousands of years, a proud and valiant chapter fighting wars across the galaxy. They gained much renown, and managed to keep the Black Rage and Red Thirst relatively in check. Indeed, of all the Sons of Sanguinius, the Blades have the lowest number of reported instances of brothers falling to the black rage. Some within the Inquisition suspect that this may simply be due to the fact that the Blades leave no witnesses. Thre is another explanation however, the Camulod system was brought into the Imperium by the Primarch, Rogal Dorn and his Imperial Fists. They left behind them a stable, loyal world but also a tendency towards masochism amongst the population. The Pain Glove sees widespread use amongst the regular people and their Astartes masters. Some believe that regular use of the Pain Glove allows the Blades of Sanguinius to better withstand the flaws of their gene seed, however only the Emperor knows for sure.

 

Sometime in m37, tragedy struck the Blades of Sanguinius. Chapter Master Arthas the Bold was wounded by a treacherous minion of Chaos, and it is soon discovered that he has been infected with a warp based poison. Arthas is placed in stasis and returned to Camulod III. High Priest Kay, is unable to cure the chapter master and decrees that he is to be left in stasis until a cure can be found.

 

Soon afterwards, the Blades discover that Camulod III itself has fallen victim to the infection that has overtaken the Chapter Master. The once lushly forested world is reduced to wasteland over a matter of years, the Maerlyn offers insight that the condition of Camulod III is linked to the condition of Arthas. Soon the infection begins to affect the Blades recruitment efforts on Camulod III as fewer and fewer suitable candidates are found. Frustrated by his lack of success, High Priest Kay dispatches the whole of the First Company by squads in the fastest ships available to the chapter. He charges them with finding a cure for the sickness which was eating away at the foundations of the chapter's power.

 

A decade later, the Blades were at a turning point. Their combat strength was on the wane, unable to replace their losses quickly enough due to the withering sickness. Many of the chapter had given up hope, and resigned themselves to accepting the imminent death of their chapter. It was at this dire time that Veteran Sergeant Galaid the Pure returned to Camulod III. He arrived alone, the rest of his squad having fallen during the search for the cure. Galaid's arrival was met with great joy, he was the only member of the First Company to return from the search and he brought with him an ancient relic said to have belonged to Primarch Dorn.

 

Galaid's arrival halted the Withering, though it did not reverse it. Camulod III would forever be a wasteland. High Priest Kay brought the Sergeant into Arthas' presence, presented the chapter master with the relic and immediately Arthas began to improve, within weeks he had recovered to full strength and set the chapter's path upon the road of vengeance.

 

The Blades of Sanguinius engaged in a vicious campaign, striking time and time again at the worlds on which the traitors hid. Soon they forced a showdown and the Chaos Marines assaulted the fortress monastery on Camulod III, their numbers bolstered by reinforcements from the Eye of Terror and nearby rebel systems. In a bloody struggle which lasted for months, the Traitors laid siege to the Fortress Monastery. Eventually, the Blades overcame the traitors and drove them off, but not before Arthas was mortally wounded upon the walls of the Monastery. His dying wish was for Galaid to take him to Avalon, but Galaid had perished during the defense of the monastery, so it fell to Bedivere, Captain of the Fourth and Master of the Fleet to execute his Chapter Master's last command.

 

Once he was upon Avalon, Bedivere was overcome by the loss of Arthas, a warrior so courageous and proud and just, that he cast the sword of power into the ocean. As the sword hit the water, Bedivere would later say he thought he saw the arm of a woman reach out and grasp the blade of the weapon before it sank into the depths.

 

 

That's all I've got so far.... some of it I'm not super happy with, will probably go back and change it. Let me know what you think.

[fivepointedstar]

Here's my honest input. I'd drop the whole King Arthur bit, as soon as you mentioned the "lady of the lake, and "merlyn" my mind wanted to stop reading. To be blantantly honest if way over done. Heck i would love to re-do the knights of the round table 40k style but thats not going to happen. Remember Space Marine are elite cadre of super killing machine grown to do one task that thats war. To quote your title intro

Masochistic Vampire Space Knights

I found nothing in your IA that reminded me of space vampires, or them being masochistic. If your true to what your put down make them true knights but drop the arthur bit, as space vampire's and King Arthur do not mix well.

[TrashMan]

Agreed. influences, hints and refferences are good when they aren't so obvious.

 

Take a look at my Phoenix Knights chapter. Also inspired by Arturian legends, but it's more subtle.