Fluff Question - Great Wolves M36/M37?

[Frater Cornelius]

Do we know who the acting Great Wolf/Wolves was/were during the 36th and 37th Millennium?

[Dantay VI]

Nope, not unless there are any names mentioned in the codex, such as in the battle honours/ history section of the book.

 

Battle of the Fang wasn't around that time was it?

[Frater Cornelius]

That was in the M32 if I am not mistaken. M36 was the Age of Apostasy.

[Vash113]

The 2nd Battle for the Fang was in M36 which was also the Age of Apostasy.

 

We know a number of past Great Wolves but nothing quite that specific for that era that I can recall. These are all the Great Wolves that have been mentioned in the fluff:

 

Ancient Bjorn the Fell Handed

- The most renowned of the Chapters dreadnaughts is Bjorn the Fell Handed, the first Great Wolf of the chapter following Leman Russ’ disappearance, Bjorn fought during the Horus Heresy and the Great Crusade. Every one thousand years Bjorn awakes from his dreamless slumbers beneath the fang to test the Rune Priests of the chapter in their knowledge of the Old Sagas to make sure the Chapter History has been kept alive and accurate. Bjorn has also defended the fang in many a desperate hour, particularly against the ancient rivals of the Chapter, the Thousand Sons.

 

Great Wolf Harek Eireik Eireiksson Ironhelm

-Great Wolf of the Chapter leading up to the First Battle of the Fang in M32. Great Wolf Harek Ironhelm was possessed of a near obsession with hunting down Magnus the Red, the result of a long term psychic assault on the Great Wolf by the foul Thousand Sons. When the Thousand Sons were located in the Gangava system the Great Wolf immediately led eleven of the twelve Great Companies there. On Gangava the Space Wolves assaulted a reconstructed mockery of Tizca built by the Sons of Magnus. When the Wolves realized the trap and received word from Fenris the Great Wolf led his forces back to the Fang with all due haste. Rather than take the time to land in a gunship the Great Wolf took a Drop Pod straight onto the slopes of the Fang, engaging the manifested Daemon-Primarch alongside Bjorn the Fell-handed. Though the battle cost Harek Ironhelm his life the Daemon-Primarch Magnus was defeated, his corporeal form disintigrating under the punishment of Wolf Lord Greyloc, Bjorn and finally the weapons of the Great Wolf himself. The site of Harek's death on the slopes of the Fang became the site of a shrine dedicated to the unwavering devotion of the Great Wolf, and also a reminder of his blindness.

 

Great Wolf Arvek Hren Kjarlskar

-Wears a massive suit of terminator armor bedecked the pelt of a large Fenrisian wolf. Jarl of the 4th Great Company in M32, Kjarlskar was tasked with hunting down the vile traitor Primarch Magnus the Red. When the Thousand Sons were discovered and the Space Wolves brought war to them the 4th Great Company remained in the void as reserves, patrolling the system, as such it was the 4th that discovered the arrival and subsequent destruction of the Nauro and recovered the badly mauled body of Wolf Scout Haakon Blackwing. Receiving the news of the Thousand Sons invasion of Fenris the Gotthammar rushed back to Gangava and Kjarlskar made planet fall himself, fighting his way into the central pyramid to bring word to the Great Wolf Ironhelm himself. Without delay the wolves destroyed Gangava from orbit and rushed back to Fenris where Ironhelm confronted the wounded Daemon-Primarch Magnus himself and was slain in the effort. With the death of the Great Wolf the Wolf Lords chose Kjarlskar to succeed him and so the Wolf Lord of the 4th rose to the position of Great Wolf and took on the task of rebuilding the Chapter and the Fang.

 

Great Wolf Fenrik Grimheart

-Great Wolf Grimheart led the Space Wolves to Victory in the Battle of Balinor, one of the Chapter's most renowned battles of the 38th Millenium.

 

Great Wolf Gerrod Redbeard

-It was during a Great Feast of Gerrod Redbeard that Inquisitor Bastalek Grim used an eidetic memory coil to record the Sagas recounted during the feast and later publish them in the infamous work he called "the War of the Giants."

 

Great Wolf Anakron Silvermane

-Former commander of the Space Wolves chapter. Brother Anakron met his final stand took nearly four centuries ago on the world of Melkior where his command post came under a surprise assault by an Eldar Warhost. Logan Grimnar and Wolf Guard Pack Leader Hakon both participated in the battle.

 

Great Wolf Ulrik Grimfang

-Great Wolf of the Space Wolves during the Macharius Crusade. Ulrik Grimfang was approached through the chapter’s connections to the Navigator House Bellisarius to form an alliance with the Lord Solar Macharius and lend military and political support to his ongoing Crusade. Macharius potentially wanted to cement such an alliance by gifting an artifact he believed to be the Fist of Russ to the chapter. Ultimately the relic was not the Fist of Russ; even so elements of the Space Wolves chapter did participate in the following campaigns of the Crusade. Ultimately all the wolves of Fenris needed was the promise of worthy combat to join forces with Macharius, backroom bargains or mighty gifts were not necessary.

 

Great Wolf Sigvald Grimhammer

-The direct predecessor to Logan Grimnar the Great Wolf Sigvald Grimhammer met his end to the blades of a Dark Eldar Succubus on Xor.

 

Great Wolf Logan Grimnar

- The current Great Wolf of the Space Wolves, Logan Grimnar has commanded the Chapter for more than eight centuries and been at the forefront of many of the Imperiums greatest wars in recent history. An implacable and independent defender of mankind Grimnar is truly a legend of the Imperium. Logan Grimnar caries the potent Frost Blade the Axe of Morkai, a weapon he tore from the grip of a chaos champion and had re-forged into a mighty double headed axe.

[Frater Cornelius]

Hm, looks like nothing has been noted about the period in M36, shortly before the Age of Apostasy.

[Valerian]

Does this help?

 

 

 

The Battle of the Fang

 

It was during the 36th Millennium, at the time of upheaval known as the Age of Apostasy, that the forces of the Apostate Cardinal Bucharis invaded the Space Wolves' home planet of Fenris.  Whilst all around, the Imperium was falling into disarray and ruin, Cardinal Bucharis had carved himself a sizeable empire west of Terra.  For thousands of light years around the world of Gathalamor, the populations of dozens of worlds were enslaved under Bucharis' regime.  Called the Plague of Unbelief by Imperial historians, Bucharis' tyrannical reign stretched northwards towards the Eye of Terror until his armies ran into the forces of the Space Wolves.

 

It was the strike cruiser 'Claw of Russ' that first encountered the advance ships of Battlefleet Pacificus, which had been subverted to Bucharis' cause by corruption and disinformation.  The Claw of Russ destroyed a navy cruiser and a transport before escaping into the warp to carry this news to Harald Stormwolf, Great Wolf at the time.  Forewarned, the Space Wolves prepared to defend their realms against this grave menace.  If the Space Wolves were to fall, Bucharis' power would stretch ever further until he had the might of arms to invade Holy Terra and overthrow the Imperium.

 

As soon as Admiral Sehalla's fleet disengaged their warp engines to enter the Fenris system, the Space Wolves attacked.  They took a massive toll of men and ships with their ambush before disappearing into the swirling dust and asteroid clouds that littered the heart of the Fenris system.  From here, the Space Wolves fleet continued to launch countless hit and run attacks, forcing the traitor Admiral Sehalla to use almost two thirds of his fleet fighting these short-lived but draining space battles.  Despite the supreme efforts of the Space Wolves' strike cruisers and battle barges, Sehalla managed to force a landing on Fenris itself.

 

Many of the transports were blasted from orbit by the huge planetary defense cannons of the Fang, while others were torn to pieces by the gigantic electrical storms that rage in Fenris' atmosphere.  In spite of these losses, thousands of Bucharis' bloodthirsty warriors made planetfall and began the ground war.

 

Whole towns and villages of native Fenrisians were enslaved by Bucharis.  They were forced to lay makeshift roads across the treacherous glacial flats, cutting down the huge trees of Fenris' forests to provide fuel for fires and the versatile engines of the rebel Imperial Guard tanks.  However, the Fenrisians are a fierce breed and had to be guarded closely lest they tried to rise against Bucharis and strike at his army right at its heart.  Defiant communities were slaughtered and the settlements razed to the ground.  The few livestock of the scattered villages were captured for Bucharis and his officers to feed upon at lavish banquets while the Fenrisians starved to death.  The young women were imprisoned for the soldiers' pleasures, and the old and ifirm were slaughtered and left in the freezing snows for the giant carrion beasts that prowl the ice of Fenris.

 

Bucharis' onslaught continued swiftly, his huge divisions advanced inexorably towards the Fang until the ancient citadel was besieged.  More and more renegades were landed on Fenris, and although many carriers were destroyed by the Space Wolves fleet with hit and run attacks, the valleys and mountainsides around the fortress swarmed with the legions of the Apostate Cardinal.  Immense siege guns thundered all day and night, the overcast skies illuminated with a thousand flares and the coruscating energies of void shields shuddering under the barrage of ten thousand shells.  The mountains of Asaheim quaked with constant detonations, causing avalanches and rockslides, all ading to the spreading destruction.  Plasma bombs and mass drivers from orbiting ships gouged deep ravines into the precipitous slopes, and yet the armored walls of the Fang stood against all this punishment.  The Space Wolves smashed the traitors' seigeworks with surprise counter-attacks.  Continuous assaults by the Wolf Scouts disrupted the supply lines of Bucharis' army and for months on end the guns would fall silent for want of ammunition.

 

All of Asaheim is linked to the Fang by a labyrinth of underground chambers and tunnels, which the Space Wolves used to penetrate behind the enemy army.  Roaring oaths of vengeance, the Blood Claws would attack the soldiers of Bucharis in the darkness of Fenris' forests, ripping their foes apart with chainswords and sharp fangs.  The heavy weapons of the Long Fangs squads blew apart the mountainsides to crush the enemies of the Space Wolves beneath a storm of rocks and debris.  Grey Hunters formed execution squads, hunting through the thick forests to blow apart any invader they found with a hail of explosive bolts.  Dreadnoughts crushed and maimed everything in their way, ripping apart the marching columns, leaving a trail of utter destruction behind them.

 

Month after month, the Battle of the Fang continued.  Cardinal Bucharis ordered suicide squads to storm the armored portals of the Fang, promising massive promotions and rewards for the first berserk soldiers to break through.  The Space Wolves repelled each and every attack, inflicting crippling casualties on the Apostate's forces.  For three blood-stained years the siege carried on.  Assault after assault, shelling for weeks on end, fell against the Fang and yet the walls of the ancient citadel of the Space Wolves remained unbreached.  As the battle began its third year, it drew in more and more of Bucharis' soldiers, until almost three quarters of all his armies were on Fenris, many hundreds of thousands of men.

 

Even as Bucharis' second-in-command, Colonel Gasto of the Rigellian XXV, began preparations for what might have been the final, deciding assault, fate intervened.  On the edges of the Fenris star system a war fleet broke through from warpspace.  As Sehalla's fleet moved to attack, they were confronted by an armada of Space Wolves battlebarges and strike cruisers, returning to their home planet from a distant war.  The fury of Kyrl Grimblood's attack was unbounded, smashing over half of the renegade fleet in a single cataclysmic engagement.  As Grimblood's Great Company herded the traitors towards Fenris, the rest of the Space Wolves' starships attacked, catching Sehalla between two unstoppable forces.  Sehalla managed to escape with barely a quarter of his ships intact.  Wasting no time in pursuit, the newly arrived Space Wolves headed for Fenris.

 

The attack by Kyrl Grimblood's Great Company swept away tens of thousands of traitor Guardsmen in the first few days.  They were flung from the mountain passes around the Fang and those few that survived to reach Asaheim were set upon by giant wolf packs and the savage Wulfen.  Bucharis himself managed to avoid capture by escaping on a shuttle, meeting with Sehalla who dropped back out of the warp just long enough to pick up his master.  For those that remained on Fenris, death was a certainty.

[Frater Cornelius]

That is a good lead. Is it known how long he was the acting Lord or rather, how far into the AoA this was?

[Valerian]

We know that Harald Stormwolf was the Great Wolf and that Kyrl Grimblood was one of his Wolf Lords.  Grimblood was a special character that you could play in the 2e codex, so I'll take a peak and see if there is any more fluff on him in there.  I don't think anything mentions how long they served, but I'll let you know in a bit.

 

EDIT:  Yeah, nothing really significant to add to the fluff on these two from the 2e entry.

 

Vash, do you have these two in your database/compendium?

 

V

[Frater Cornelius]

I just checked Grimblood's entry in my copy of 2ed book. I did not find anything that pinpoints a certain date. However, I only have the German version. Maybe you'll have more luck.

[Vash113]

We know that Harald Stormwolf was the Great Wolf and that Kyrl Grimblood was one of his Wolf Lords.  Grimblood was a special character that you could play in the 2e codex, so I'll take a peak and see if there is any more fluff on him in there.  I don't think anything mentions how long they served, but I'll let you know in a bit.

 

EDIT:  Yeah, nothing really significant to add to the fluff on these two from the 2e entry.

 

Vash, do you have these two in your database/compendium?

 

V

 

Apparently not, I don't have a copy of the 2nd Edition Codex, I've had to rely on others providing information, so it looks like I'm missing some. I'll have to add that, if you could provide anymore info from the 2nd Edition Codex pls PM me a summary.

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

Going off the list that Vash posted, and accounting for some of the dates, maybe we can try to put them is some semblance of a chronological order based on participants in the battles, and known time frames. Then we could try to work backward from Logan Grimnar and find a possible answer.

 

Ancient Bjorn the Fell Handed - 211.M31 to 931.M31

 

Great Wolf Harek Ironhelm - 931.M31 to 742.M32

 

Great Wolf Arvek Hren Kjarlskar - ???.M32 to ???.M??

 

Harald Stormwolf - ???.M36 - ???M36

 

Great Wolf Fenrik Grimheart - ???.M38 to ???.M39

 

Great Wolf Gerrod Redbeard - ???.M39 to ???.M39

 

Great Wolf Ulrik Grimfang - ???.M?? to 399.M41?

 

Great Wolf Anakron Silvermane - ???.M?? to 440.M41

 

Great Wolf Sigvald Grimhammer - ???.M?? to 440.M41

 

Great Wolf Logan Grimnar - 440.M41 to present

 

There seems to be some conflicting information on exactly who Logan Grimnar's direct predecessor was, and there is a lot of overlap in rule. That suggests that their rule as wolf lord was very short since we know there can only be one great wolf at a time. This was the best I could do, to piece it together given the established lore. I got little on M36-M37, but since the Age of Apostasy was a period of upheaval, and humanity kinda sucks at recording history in the 40K universe (as well as sucking at pretty much anything requiring more than one brain cell, 40k makes us look like monkeys flinging poo, and even the monkeys are smarter than we are...) that records were lost or corrupted. Now it seems possible to me that the Great Kings may have ruled for an average of 1000 years, give or take a century or two. 

 

This is what I compiled from the discussion earlier in the thread, and my little bit of research writing this post. I hope this helps.

[Conn Eremon]

This list is awesome, but you have Sigvald and Anakron ending their reign on the same date. Going from the posts above, it sounds like Anakron was before Sigvald, but wasn't so far back that Logan would not have been around.

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

True, like I said there is some conflicting info. One source says it was Sigvald that preceded Logan, while others state Anakron. It's unclear which is correct, and who would have preceded whom, so I left it that way. One source states that logan has led the space wolves for 700 years, another states 800, while another source says he took the reigns in 440.M41, as the current year is 999.M41 that makes logan the great wolf for only 559 years. Unless I'm off the mark on the current year in universe. The lore is really vague, and I'm not convinced the writers at the black library know what the they're doing.

Say what you will , but one thing I loved about battletech, was even with all the frustrating gameplay mechanics, at least the lore was consistent, and didn't undergo constant revision. If they wanted to do something new, they just expanded on an unexplored area or *gasp* advanced the timeline. Also the historians in universe didn't give up on recording history because their crayon broke. And Comstar (think Adeptus Mechanicus, only without the Extreme Body Modification) was derided for offering prayers to solve a nail, when a hammer was clearly the answer.

Meanwhile, on Mars, "We can't record history any more, I must offer prayers to the machine god because my pen broke, and only the machine god can fix it..."

[Valerian]

Logan has been the Great Wolf for only about 500 years, so your 440.M41 to 999.M41 works pretty well for that.  He is roughly 700 years old, so that's where you're getting the 700 number from - it's his age, not how long he's been the Great Wolf.

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

Duly noted. I'm probably not the only one that all those numbers have confused then, since my sources are lexicanum and the WH40K wikia. I read in fits and starts, and have not read much lore outside of said sources and the Codecies. I'm learning it, slowly but surely.

[Frater Cornelius]

This is getting increasingly awesome :)

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

Agreed.

[Valerian]

Duly noted. I'm probably not the only one that all those numbers have confused then, since my sources are lexicanum and the WH40K wikia. 

 

Not a problem.  Luckily I can avoid those two sites and go straight to the primary sources (old codices and White Dwarf articles) from my collection of 25+ years.

 

V