Brotherhood of Lions - DIY 27th Founding

[Mogsam]

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CHAPTER NAME: .............. Brotherhood of Lions.
FOUNDING: .................. Twenty Seventh.
CHAPTER WORLD: ............. Multalum.
FORTRESS MONASTERY: ........ The Monastery.
GENE-SEED (PREDECESSOR): ... Suspected Ultramarine Stock.
KNOWN DESCENDANTS: ......... None.

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he Brotherhood of Lions are a chapter from the 27th founding. (See the WIP forum for this project)

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he Brotherhood draw their recruits from the world of Multalun, a world in the Galactic West. Multalun was previously a world that had rebelled against the Imperium five years before the Brotherhoods arrival with the local governor having declared independence and renamed himself King, the local PDF acting as his enforcers. The Brotherhood of Lions were diverted to restore Imperial authority to the planet. The planet was quickly subdued by the chapter in a display of brutal repression in which the capital was leveled completely from orbit. With the flattening of the 'King' the chapter claimed the world as its own.

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fter claiming the planet each company was given a city and set to task to covert it into a loyal and productive center for the chapter. Completely taking over the settlements they imposed strict rules onto every facet of the peoples lives. Large centers were created and designed entirely around the concept of testing the children for induction into the ranks of the Astartes. Many thousands are rejected and those who show insufficient physical worth are instead inducted into serfdom.

The chapter built its monastery at the bottom of the crater that once was the capital. The unimpressive structure shows only a massive flat pad with the chapters symbol on a door, from the top it appears unimpressive. However within the structure it is a massive sprawling complex that can house many hundreds of marines at any time. The crater is also the location for the chapters recruiting rituals. Whilst the chapter has academies in every city they are just to prepare the potential recruits for the descent.

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art of the final test of a potential Astartes is to find a way to descend to the monastery. Each recruit spends years learning survival skills, physical strength, bravery and faith in their own abilities. Each of these talents is required to pass the final exam. Each candidate is required to make a pilgrimage to the monastery and find a way to the center of the crater. Whilst it is possible for the candidate to physically climb down to the goal it is incredibly demanding and most who attempt it alone fail. Instead the candidates are expected to use their ingenuity or teamwork to achieve their goal. Several of the texts they are taught as part of their studies tell of men mimicking angels and descending from the heavens. Those who absorb such ideas inevitably try to recreate the descent on wings they have designed.

Those who survive the descent are taken into the scout company.

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nusually for Astartes the Brotherhood of Lions believe fervently in the Emperor as a God.

The Brotherhood are feverant believers in the rule of law and organisation. Their entire entire culture is designed around maintaining an effective fighting force and efficient society. They have become obsessed with seeking perfection in themselves. The Brotherhood also train thousands of their serfs to wield weapons. These men are often deployed as auxiliary forces for the chapters wars.

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he chapter is very straight forward in its approaches. Nearly every battle they fight on their own terms involves drop podding directly into the midst of their enemies to disrupt and demoralize their enemies. As a result of this aggressive approach they maintain many more 'assault' companies than other chapters. Similarly the increased casualty rate of such aggressive tactics has resulted in a great emphasis being placed on the apothecary core. Indeed it has been known for an apothecary to rise through the ranks and even reach the position of captain.

Due to the chapters preference of direct assaults they keep few squads of devastators and relatively few tanks.

Every company is responsible for sending recruits to the monastery but they will not necessarily receive a brother from their city.

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he chapter are suspected descendants from the Ultramarines however if this is true they are known to be uninterested in maintaining a relationship after the Altarian Crisis.

A quirk of their homeworld has resulted in the entire chapter having copper like skin tones.

[Mogsam]

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he planet of Alteria once bore the brunt of a two year long Ork invasion. The mighty Waaagh of a Blood Axe Warlord known as 'Olgaf da Kunnin'' stumbled on a collision course with the planet and forced its way onto the surface. Olgaf da Kunnin' was certainly living up to his name and whilst the PDF forces were defending as best they could too many Ork forces were attacking, the Warlord having managed to get his forces into an unusual level of co-ordination and unity. After losing over half of the major cities the planet was facing a severe refugee crisis. Shanty towns erupted like boils around those cities still standing. It was at this point the Brotherhood of Lions arrived, a full four companies and two regiments of Multalum serfs - including the first company lead by the Chapter Master Helaku himself.

With the situation on the planet rapidly collapsing the Brotherhood quickly took stock of the situation. Olgaf appeared to be an unusual Ork in that he did not lead from the front. Instead the Warlord seemed to be playing his underlings off against one another and had each lead assaults to outshine the others. For nearly a year the three line companies led the defence of the remaining cities waiting for Oglaf to emerge but he never did. Before long they were forced to abandon the outer most due to overwhelming attrition.

Eventually only three major cities remained on the planet with each more resembling a slum than a city. Faced with more Ork attacks the PDF, Multalum regiments and the Brotherhood fought on with grim determination. It is at this time that reinforcements finally arrived. A company each of Novamarines, Ultramarines and Night Hawks and four entire regiments of Imperial Guard arrived in the system. With a great haste the new arrivals deployed on the front lines and gave the defenders a much needed rest. With the new allies arrival the commanders of all the forces gathered in the capital to discuss the future of the war. The newly arrived Novamarines, Night Hawks, Ultramarines and Guard captains immediately declared their preference for the commander of the Ultramarine forces to become the Commander of the campaign - The Captain of the seventh company. The Brotherhood forces took this to be an insult. For near a year their forces had held the line against the overwhelming Ork forces and now their Chapter Master himself was being ushered out and replaced unceremoniously. The discussion soon became heated and for the sake of unity Master Helaku chose to relinquish his claim and accept the Ultramarine in his place. To add perceived insult to the injury the Multalum soldiers were re-assigned to the main guard command.

For several more weeks the combined companies of Brotherhood of Lions and what little remained of the PDF fought over the walls of the city and held the Orks at bay. It was at this time that the combined Imperial forces finally managed to positively identify that Oglaf himself had entrenched himself deep behind the Ork front lines and was finally vulnerable. Chapter Master Helaku immediately sent requests through to the commander that an assault should be launched immediately on the Warlord, citing that with the leader dead the Waaagh would decapitate itself with the removal of Oglafs head. He was met with denied requests. For over a year the Ork had managed to maintain a war that had pushed Imperial forces to the edge and the chance to end his threat was being squandered. Withdrawing his men from the city walls he abandoned the city and prepared to launch at the head of the Ork forces.

A massive coordinated Brotherhood drop pod assault saw the Ork warlord slain and his hold over the army broken. The true threat of the Waaaagh was broken with his death however it was not the end of the story that day. With the abandonment of their post the city walls had been breached and Orks had rampaged through the slums that littered the location causing thousands of deaths. Whilst the Novamarine forces had managed to redeploy preventing a complete massacre than half of the city had been killed. When the Brotherhood finally returned to the city they found the Novamarine Captain waiting for them. A physical confrontation was narrowly avoided however the Brotherhood left the war soon after. Since then the relationship between the chapter and both the Ultramarines and the Novamarines has been strained to say the least.

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hen the forge world of Umaga erupted into full blown violence between rival factions of Mechanicus the Magister Yulov was forced to request urgent aid to stablise his regime. When the Brotherhood arrived they found the two factions fighting in the streets, each using machines and their peons to inflict damage on the other and weaken their strength. Despite the Magisters desperate pleas the forces of the third company did not seem inclined to suppress the rebellion with the haste at which they had been requested. At this point in the civil war the two sides were roughly equal, whilst the Magister Yulov had technical legal control over the planet he had no way of enforcing it and a long war suited his opposition more than himself. Whilst he had invited the Brotherhood of Lions to his world he now found himself in a bit of a predicament since they did not appear to act. Bemused he called his 'allies' to his palace to ascertain their lax attitude towards their duty.

The Brotherhood had recently found themselves in a unfortunate position. Due to their high risk strategies and assault orientated methods the rate at which their equipment began to degrade had been a considerable hindrance. Due to the civil war on Umaga the parts to replace damage armour had become short in supply in sufficient quantities for chapter wide maintenance. The civil war had given the marines the opportunity they needed. It was such that the Magister soon found himself being forced to 'persuade' his allies to his side. In return for a constant supply of armour and equipment his regime would be propped up as requested.

The war was short and bloody with the marines utterly crushing the rebellious Mechanicus faction in brutal raids. Within a few months the planet had been quelled and order restored. To ensure that no such problems could arise once more the Brotherhood declared their intention to assign a squad to the protection of the head Magister. In return the planet Umaga began to churn out new parts for the chapter that had so reluctantly helped support it. Unfortunately Umagas forges could only adequately supply suits of the older Mark IV armour rather than the modern Mark VII suits that most chapters wear. As a result the Brotherhood now primarily take to the field in the older suits.

[Mogsam]

Several of the concepts are from a previous IA article however have been heavily streamlined now rather than the incredibly wordy version from before. Similarly some concepts have been reused or dropped.