The Silent Knight

[Ania Redfang]

Ok so I had a thread showing my Dark Angels/ Raven Guard, and people were generally suggesting coming up with a custom chapter and backstory. So here it is. Presenting "The Silent Knight" space marine chapter. Technically they're a Raven Guard successor, but I thought I'd put this here because they're DA in game terms, plus I put my army pictures here previously. I'm not a total master of the fluff for the Unforgiven, so if anything I've said here is a massive no-no (I don't mind minor "that probably wouldn't happen" stuff, the imperium is a big place after all).

 

It starts with a piece of fluff, then a short explanation of the chapter.

The chaos lord strode out onto the balcony, surveying what his warband had already accomplished. In just a few short days, the chaos marines and cultists under his command had managed to take this planet, all of it, with very few casualties, and almost no resistance. He smiles to himself and begins to record a vox log. Around him, Xandrio can see scores of cultists, reveling in their victory, daubing themselves with excrement, blood, and other offerings to the dark gods. It had been the demons that caused this… when Xandrio’s sorcerer had sacrificed himself to bring forth the denizens of the warp, a large number of his followers had simply lost their minds, devolving instantly into quivering messes, or the roaring, festive mass of those below. He smiles again, nodding slowly at the prospect of establishing a crusade from this planet.

 

Suddenly from behind, two thuds pierce the rapturous noise of the celebrations below. Instantly aware of the sounds of his guards dying, Xandrio draws a lethal hooked blade, its micro serrated edge able to cut through even power armour with ease. Moving with the cautiousness that betrayed his experience, Xandrio opened the door, expecting planetary defense troops, maybe even imperial guard that he could crush with his bare hands. Instead, he sees nothing. The bodies of the chaos marines guarding his chamber, once the home of the planetary governor, lie at his feet, their faces destroyed by shell fire. Looking closer, Xandrio sees that the wounds are bolter wounds, and confusion begins to spread across the veteran lord’s face. There’s no way that there were space marines here, and if there were, he would have known, the loyalist dogs not being known for their subtlety.

At the last second, Xandrio senses the blade that strikes out of the darkness. Parrying wildly, the warrior scrambles to his feet, as another strike almost knocks him straight to the ground, turned aside only by the enchantments and warp fields of his armour. Straightening up, Xandrio looks out into the blackness, and sees the unmistakable shape of astartes power armour. He wrenches the drapes on the window open, and reveals four space marines, clad in midnight black, each with a stalker pattern bolter trained at his head. Leading the group is a figure in ornate artificer plate, clearly a captain. It was this marine’s sword that had come so close to killing Xandrio just moments before. The gaze of the squad was unflinching, their aim steady, and Xandrio knew he didn’t have much chance of avoiding their shots if they opened fire. Instead of running, he decided to goad the squad into giving him an opportunity. Fortunately he didn’t need to do anything himself as the front figure began to speak.

 

“Don’t move, traitor, or your end will come sooner than planned.”

Xandrio just smiled, “My end? I think you’re being a little hasty there. What makes you think you can even touch me, Raven Guard?” The black clad marines seemed a little amused by this comment.

 

“My name is Captain Tygus of the 2^nd company, and the best swordsman in our chapter, the “Raven Guard” as you say.” With that he lunged at Xandrio, power sword glowing in a furious arch. It was a fast cut, and one which would have cut down most conventional warriors, but Xandrio was anything but conventional, he was a chaos lord and a veteran of almost 10000 years of war. Instead of dodging the strike, Xandrio launched himself at the point of the sword. Terminator plate, infused with the power of the warp met the strength of metal from the forge worlds of Deliverance. To Xandrio’s twisted delight, this strength was found lacking, as the sword cracked then shattered as it came into contact with the impenetrable armour plates. Tygus was so surprised by the move that he fell forwards, following through the swing of his now ruined sword. It was easy for Xandrio to slide his blade through the back of Tygus’ neck, killing him instantly.

 

Seeing their captain fall, the other marines immediately opened fire, but Xandrio didn’t give them a chance to get any good shots. Crossing the length of the hall in two strides the chaos lord put his blade through the eye socket of one marine, before raking another with a blast from his wrist mounted combi-bolter, spraying blood across the walls. He then turned to face the other two marines who, instead of continuing to fire, turned and ran, sprinting down the hallway, trying to put as much distance between the maniacal warrior and themselves. Xandrio laughed as he mowed them down, dispatching the last with a lethal toss of his dagger, which planted itself between the shoulder blades of the running marine.

 

“This scum might be quick and quiet, but they die just as easily as any other of the false sons of the emperor.” Xandrio muttered to himself, turning back to the balcony. He wondered if the party was still going on, or whether the sounds of fighting would have quelled the celebrations. As he approached the room, he felt uneasy. Something was off. It was quiet, all too quiet, for even in the depths of the night there were always cries and screams in a chaos encampment. Cautiously he moved into the room and across to the balcony. Looking out across the courtyard he saw nothing but bodies. Bodies of cultists, of chaos marines, even his fleet of rhinos and predators lay in smoking ruin. Of the assailants there was no sign. The only sound to be heard was the gentle crackle of burning as the wreckage smoldered.  Xandrio looked around in despair. Clearly the assassins had been sent to keep him occupied whilst his forces were butchered. No matter, he would amass a new army and strike out, seeking revenge against the Raven Guard. He turned away from the courtyard and moved back into the corridor, moving past the bodies of the dead loyalists.

 

“They didn’t die for nothing, did they?” a voice, but so quiet it must have been incredibly close, yet somehow all at once in Xandrio’s mind.

 

“what?” Xandrio said into the darkness, scanning the shadows and seeing nothing.

 

“My sons, the ones you killed. They didn’t die for nothing.”

 

“Clearly, they were a distraction whilst you killed my men.” Xandrio was becoming increasingly worried, the voice coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.

 

“What gave them away, how close did they get to you?” The voice seemed curious, like a teacher evaluating the results of his pupils.

 

Xandrio decided to humour him, having already figured out where the voice was coming from, a spot to his left. “It was when they killed my guards. I didn’t hear the shots, but the sound of a body falling is unmistakable to the trained ear. But it wasn’t the noise that killed your men, it was their arrogance. They thought they could beat me.” Xandrio bent down and pulled his knife from the back of the fallen marine he knelt next to. “They thought they were untouchable. But no one is invisible, no one is untouchable.” Like a lightning bolt Xandrio stood, turned, and threw the blade into the spot he knew the voice was coming from. The blade buried itself in the wall, hitting nothing.

 

“I don’t think you’ll find me as easy Xandrio.” The voice said, never once raising the volume above a whisper.

 

“Where are you?!” Xandrio snarled.

 

“I’m right here.” A figure turned the corner of the hallway, clad in terminator plate, the same midnight black as the other Raven Guard. Hooded and cloaked, the figure made no noise, despite the bulkiness of his armour.

 

“And you are?” Xandrio scoffed. “Another captain, the best swordman in the chapter?” Xandrio’s tone mocked that of Tygus’ earlier claim.

 

“Not a captain, Xandrio. My name is Edgarius, I am the chapter master.”

 

Xandrio felt his neck stiffen as he heard the words. He was facing a chapter master? This might not be as easy as he first thought. “Chapter master of which chapter? You aren’t the shadow master, yet these were Raven Guard.”

 

“Yes, and no.” Edgarius said. “I am chapter master of The Silent Knight. We are descended from the Raven Guard, and disguise ourselves as our brothers, for we have no badge or livery of our own, but we are definitely different. We exist in the shadows beyond the shadows, if you will.”

 

“Why are you telling me this? Why reveal yourselves?” Xandrio was beginning to feel fear, a feeling he hadn’t felt in a long time.

 

“Because you won’t be living to pass on the information, Xandrio. Your forces have been destroyed, though at the high cost of the majority of two of my companies. I only have, or had, five companies you see, that was how many we could save from the exterminatus. Terra doesn’t want new Raven Guard successor chapters, thanks to the work of the Alpha Legion, so we were ordered to be destroyed. In any case, now it seems I only have three companies. No matter, though the loss of my sons saddens me deeply, I can now make sure their deaths were not in vain. Yield, Xandrio, or I shall have to make you.”

 

Xandrio didn’t give the marine a chance to prepare, but swung his combi-bolter up in a blazing circle, filling the room with shells. Amazingly, when the dust settled, Edgarius was standing in the same place, seemingly not having moved, yet untouched by the withering hail of fire. Xandrio roared, and charged, drawing his long curved power sabre. The chapter master blocked the first strike with one of his lightning claws, and Xandrio’s armour turned aside the blow from the other. He broke away and pulled his shorter blade from the wall, turning it backwards for a better grip. The second clash was more damaging, as Edgarius’ claw ripped through the flesh of Xandrio’s face, leaving him bleeding, though his enhanced biology and warp fuelled rage quickly healed the wound. In return Xandrio’s swords dismantled the terminator armour of the chapter master, tearing the arm plates and knee guards away. The design was clearly a fairly recent one, and the manufacturing was of inferior quality.

“You should tell your dogs on Mars that they don’t make it how they used to” Xandrio scoffed, his own armour, an artificer crafted terminator suit from the days of the heresy, was still in perfect condition despite the rain of blows it had received from the vicious claws.

 

“No, you’re right, but at least I haven’t given my enemies thousands of years to get to know the flaws in mine” Edgarius smiled and punched a button on his chest, winking out of existence in a flash of blue light and the smell of burning. Xandrio froze, and waited. After several seconds he relaxed and chuckled. The fool had probably burned up in the warp. It was suicide to attempt a teleport jump like that without a beacon or ship close by. Xandrio wondered what the astartes had meant by his last comment, but quickly put it out of his mind. He had a planet to escape from. He waited for a couple more seconds for Edgarius to reappear, then muttered to himself “again, far too arrogant.”

 

“Wrong, Xandrio.” The voice, so quiet, so restrained, yet it caused in Xandrio a feeling of utter dread, the pain of which was matched only by the pain he suddenly felt in his legs as the blades of a lightning claw skewered him through the ribbed joints of his armour. Crying out, Xandrio dropped to his knees as a second claw deftly sliced through both his gauntlets, leaving stumps where his hands were. As he fell forwards, unable to stop himself, he saw Edgarius step into view.

 

“In any case, I wasn’t trying to kill you. I was trying to delay you long enough for them to get here.”

“Who? The Raven Guard?” Xandrio struggled for breath as his wounds seeped blood.

 

“No no, we’re not working with the Raven Guard at the moment, we’re with those who greatly desire to meet with you, to welcome you back. I think you’ll recognize them.” Edgarius pulled back the curtain in the hall and Xandrio looked up at the sky, a sky filled with strike cruisers in colours he knew too well, colours he had been running from for ten thousand years. He groaned, and the dark green of the Dark Angels fleet was the last thing he saw before falling unconscious. 

 

The Silent Knight are a chapter whose history, whilst short, is one of great sorrow and sacrifice, seeded with triumph. Conceived late in the 39^th Millennium, the chapter hails as its gene-sire the Raven Guard chapter. Since The gene-seed of the Raven Guard is flawed through the efforts of both Corax himself and the Alpha Legion during the Heresy, Raven Guard successor chapters are all but prohibited in the imperium. Still, The Lord of Shadow, Corvin Severax, sanctioned the apothecaries of the Raven Guard to create a new chapter in secret. Whether this was for tactical reasons, or because Severax wanted to emulate the actions of his primarch all those years previous is unknown, but what is known is that he was successful. Secrecy is the Raven Guard’s specialty, and fully half of the new chapter, known as The Silent Knight, was created before the inquisition found out. However, 500 space marines are not easy to hide even for the Raven Guard, and the operation was found out, and ordered to be shut down, the new marines exterminated, and the Raven Guard chastised. In order to protect his new creations, Severax disguised them as Raven Guard, gave them the weapons and armour of Deliverance, clad them in Raven Guard iconography and sent them into the void aboard the strike cruiser Cloak of Shadow.

 

Though newly formed, The Silent Knight were Raven Guard through and through, and were easily able to evade imperial detection.  Operating alone, the 500 marines acted as a deadly guerilla force in warzones across the galaxy. Very little is known about their operations, for it is nearly impossible to tell apart a Silent Knight attack and a Raven Guard one, just as Severax planned. There is however one event that is important in recent times, the capture of the Chaos Lord Xandrio, and the meeting of The Silent Knight with the Unforgiven.

 

The Silent Knight fell upon Xandrio’s world like a shadow over a hill. Quickly and efficiently they tried to take his fortresses. Though they were successful, the forces of chaos were well entrenched and almost 200 marines fell in the capture of the planet. Xandrio was finally subdued by Edgarius, the chapter master of The Silent Knight, and handed over to the Dark Angel fleet that arrived. This encounter proved the start of a relationship between the two chapters that goes beyond any outside of the group known as the Unforgiven. Grateful to Edgarius for capturing one of the “Fallen”, and acknowledging the sacrifices made by his sons, the Dark Angels instructed the remaining Silent Knight companies in the tactics and doctrines of the Deathwing and Ravenwing. Edgarius was quick to fashion his remaining companies into equivalents for these groups, drawing resources from the Raven Guard home world, he crafted companies known as The Dawn, The Dusk and The Twilight, the first two being Deathwing and Ravenwing equivalents, and the third being a “standard” battle company. Using this new formation, Edgarius was able to capitalize on the Natural Raven Guard tactics of “attack, withdraw, attack again” and combine them with the devastating mix of bikes and terminators, maximizing his chapter’s effectiveness, even when they were at such low numbers.

 

Though it is not spoken of, The Silent Knight do suffer from the flaws in the Raven Guard gene-seed. In this case it has manifested in the form of bright blue glowing eyes, which every member of The Silent Knight possesses. Both a blessing and a curse, these eyes allow Silent Knight marines to see in pitch black conditions, but they also are liable to compromise the position of their squads, unless shielded by a helmet. Edgarius and Severax keep a close eye on the chapter to make sure that this is the only manifestation of the tainted gene-seed, and thus far, it has been.

 

So The Silent Knight continue their assaults on the enemy of the imperium, all the while keeping in the shadows, away from official eyes. If they were discovered, the consequences would be severe, both for the chapter itself, and those found to have aided them, for the imperium is full of fear and superstition, a situation that can only play into the hands of the chaotic forces that seek to destroy it.

 

Thanks for looking, more to follow when I come up with it. See my army photos in my gallery.

[shabbadoo]

This seems a bit like talking about rugby, and showing pics of your rugby team, in a football forum. It may be better to be showing off models (and talking about your Codex Capter) in the Codex forum. If this were a DIY Chapter (not Raven Guard) using Dark Angels rules I would understand it staying here, as there would then only be a (tenuous) link to the Dark Angels. As it is, you may find people less interested here than in the forum where other Raven Guard players lurk in the shadows.

I guess that sort of comes off a bit as "You stay in your shadows, and we'll stay in ours."

I don't know what the mods are thinking, as there is (of all things) a Space Wolves thread using Dark Angels rules (but not models) that would be better appreciated in the Space Wolves forum (not because of the rules being used obviously, but because of the models being showcased). Yes, probably better to talk about rugby in the rugby forum, even if you want to talk about football rules while doing so. I like your terminators. They remind of a friend's models who also does Raven Guard.

[Skilgannan]

Great stuff. I really enjoyed reading the fluff of your army.

[Kasper_Hawser]

Awesome stuff, although I have to assume that the Silent Knights are still kept in the dark of the Fallen's nature. I can't quite accept that the Dark Angels would willingly allow the Silent Knights to know about the Fallen.

[shabbadoo]

Nope.  They would be killed outright.  But most marines know that there are traitor marines from most of the Loyalist Chapters- even from the Dark Angels.  No doubt there are traitor Dark Angels from after the Heresy, just as there will be in many other Chapters.  The Fallen are different from Dark Angels who turned traitor after the Horus Heresy, but outsiders are not going to understand the distinction, or what it means to the Dark Angels.  The Silent Night's purpose  could be just to hunt down traitors of whatever stripe, not knowing of the true importance of some the the Dark Angels traitors they happen upon.