Liber Challenge VI: Psychopomps

[Kierdale]

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Warband Datafile: <<PSYCHOPOMPS>>

Former Chapter Name: STYGIAN GUARD

Geneseed Data

Geneseed Descent: VII Legion - Imperial Fists
Geneseed Mutation:
Like their genetic forefathers, the Stygian Guard lacked the Sus-an membrane, though thanks to the work of Biologis Magos Rho-Majoris, genearchivist alpha-class, Helixforge, Mars, the Betcher’s Gland could be restored. Over the years post-Cyprius III and the chapter’s fall to Chaos, the Neuroglottis implant began to show heightened activity and a general boosting of the central nervous system beyond homo-sapiens or Adeptus Astartes standards. Rho-Majoris, confiscating a batch of this damned geneseed, surmised that the Neuroglottis had been tampered with (presumably by chief apothecary Polus) including elements which could only be identified as daemonic matter. In actual fact the Psychopomps -for they were the Stygian Guard no longer- had been consuming both daemonic matter and the bodies of their Eldar captives, for the purpose of learning about both and in the latter case to experience the widened spectrum of emotion felt by the xenos and to sacrifice their souls to the Psychopomps’ new patron: Slaanesh.

Background

To repress one’s feelings only makes them stronger.
- Yu Shu Lien.
Founded upon the ideas of lord Vladimir Pugh of the Imperial Fists, the Stygian Guard sought to excel in asceticism. They felt naught but their sense of duty. No honour, no pride, no sorrow and of course no fear. Theirs was a cold, emotionless approach to warfare. Battles ended with neither victorious fanfare nor funeral dirge. It was commented - in hushed tones - by Imperial guardsmen whom they fought alongside against the Necrons on Alephusidae Prime that they were as cold as the enemy and arrived and departed as quickly. Often the chapter’s allies took umbrage at their attitude, such as during the Nantesi Insurrection when Guard librarians used the power of the warp to slay an Enslaver the Emperor’s champion had challenged. To the Stygian Guard it was naught but the most expeditious and efficient action to end the war but it created a grudge betwixt the cousin chapters which lingered.
Another aspect of note is that the chapter seconded its chaplains to other chapters (often along with a number of squads), with that chaplain reporting back to the master of sanctity upon their return. The chaplain was tasked with telling their superior what they had learned from fighting alongside that ally and they were to discern the weaknesses of their allies, in order that the chapter might adopt those beneficial strategies and remove common flaws. Over the millennia there was a growing conceitedness in the chaplains, seeing less and less to learn yet finding greater and greater faults.
The chapter continued its parent chapter’s practice of using the nerve glove - AKA the pain glove - both to discipline themselves and for meditative purposes. Within the glove and the agony it inflicted upon them they would strip themselves of ego, of joy and sorrow and all emotion, leaving only a sense of duty.
It was this extremism which proved their flaw.

Master Sophusar received a `request` from the Emperor’s Holy Orders, via inquisitor Tobias Fen of the Ordo Hereticus, for the chapter’s entire first company to accompany him to the planet Cyprius III. The chapter’s command was told that the planet had not paid Terra’s Due in decades and there were reports of vessels visiting the planet and never returning, amongst other fragments of outrageous hearsay.
Despite the brusque and demanding nature of the inquisitor’s message the Guard were of Dorn’s blood. As the Fists had faced their heretical brethren on the walls of the Imperial palace on Holy Terra some ten millennia before, the Stygian Guard would not turn from their duty because the emissary was ill mannered.
Thus first captain Viphic and chief librarian Diarthet had lead the veteran company to Cyprius III and their damnation.
Nothing was heard from them for three long Fulcrumese years.

Master Sophusar eventually recalled and lead the rest of the chapter in search of his most trusted lieutenant and their finest warriors. Hails to the planet surface went unanswered and they found no sign of the 1^st company from orbit until the broken corpse of Phlegyas, the first company’s battleship, was discovered atop a mountain range. Suppressing rage at the enemy’s effrontery and the insult to the chapter, Sophusar ordered a tactical bombardment of Cyprius III’s surface before opening vox channels once more and demanding the planet’s surrender.
Not the traitorous governor but rather captain Viphic had responded, first demanding and they beseeching Sophusar to cease the bombardment and join him upon the surface.
Madness. A madness had come over the veterans of the first company. Had possessed them. The austere armour of the Stygian Guard had been daubed in blood and adorned with gruesome trophies. It soon became apparent that the first company had spent the last years drawing out their war against the corrupt Cypriusians, if indeed conquest was still their aim at all. Mindless bloodshed and murder seemed more likely. Sophusar had been unable to bring his crazed lieutenant to heel and the first company - the Bloody First - had continued to run amok. It was later discovered that inquisitor Fen had been the first to fall to the temptation of Chaos, chief librarian Diarthet sensing his corruption and directing Viphic to execute him before the Bloody First had turned their weapons upon the traitor populace.
The chapter had begun to prosecute the battle against the heretics as was their way: cold. Calculating. Methodical.
And they had failed.
Wave upon wave of enemy cultists and traitor guardsmen. Bolters had ran dry, chainblades choked with flesh. Some then came to question the chapter’s methods. To realise that perhaps...just perhaps...the berserk First had a method to their mad butchery and terror tactics.
It had been master of sanctity Angra who had called for calm, and suggested infiltration: a move which had swung the war in the Stygians’ favour.
They began to gain the upper hand, and the decorations and trophy taking spread. Always held in check, monitored by squad commanders and above lest any fall to the worship of the Lord of Skulls as the First had, the chapter’s corruption took a different path as they became more and more like their foes and, in time, came to surpass them.
In the final years of the war on Cyprius III master Sophusar lead his chapter, deeply corrupted yet not yet truly aware of what they had tapped into, not quite yet servants of Slaanesh, in the assault upon the fortress-palace of the planetary governor. There he came once again to face captain Viphic, the two clashing over the corpse of the planet’s arch-traitor.
The Stygian Guard left the planet victorious, their every vagary taken out upon it’s populace, with those of the Bloody First they had been able to capture now in chains in the deepest of the ships’ holds, and a number of the planet’s cult magi taken for interrogation. And they set course for their homeworld of Fulcrum.

The path to damnation is paved with good intentions
- ancient Terran aphorism.
The Stygian Guard fleet decanted from the Warp to find their planetary defence force being toyed with by a fleet of xenos starships. Craftworld Eldar of Carth-Lar, to be precise.
Headed by autarch Quarasion, acting upon premonitions seen by her consort the farseer Emrana, she had lead her fleet to bring warning to the Stygian Guard.
The vagaries of warp travel or a cruel twist of fate, none would ever know the reason but the Eldar had arrived too late. Toying, dancing around the planetary defence force vessels, the aliens immediately broadcast their warning to avoid `the planet of cults` as soon as the Astartes arrived. Ignoring the alien hails as they approached closer and closer, the Astartes finally answered, autarch Qarasion and farseer Emrana at once realizing their mission was ill-fated when they saw the visage of the Astartes aboard the Charon. Their twisted features, the symbols adorning their armour.
A fearsome warrior yet ever the pragmatist, Qarasion - against Emrana’s urging to attack the renegades so soon after their corruption lest it grow worse - ordered the retreat, broadcasting one final message as her vessels fled the system.
A grin spread across chapter master Sophusar’s face as he received the translation of the alien tongue. His chapter had a new name.
“Master, they say we are doomed. Harvesters of souls. Psychopomps.”

The Psychopomps set about corrupting their homeworld after capturing as many of the fleeing Eldar as possible.
The Exalted Fecund, a sect of the Imperial Cult, was favoured by the chapter and elevated above its peers. Soon membership became common, fashionable, the majority and soon compulsory. Recusants were arrested, hunted, purged and driven underground.
The Stygian Guard had faced daemons of Slaanesh in combat on Cyprius III, and indeed there chief librarian Holusiax had been restored by a herald of the Dark Prince, on Fulcrum their patron decided to contact them more directly.
Soon they realized the true extent of what they had discovered, the power they had tapped into, and the Stygian Guard were no more. Their oaths to the Golden Throne and the Lords of Terra trod upon, they embraced the worship of Slaanesh.
While exploring their new, fell knowledge of excess and the daemonic arts, often at the willing expense of their thralls in the Exalted Fecund religion, the chapter continued to fight - overtly - for the Imperium. On these missions allies noted a change had come over the once stolid Guard, though the Psychopomps were careful not to expose their corruption: newly devised weapons were not deployed, those Astartes who had undergone mutations and other transformations were assigned to garrison duties on Fulcrum.
The over greed of one of the chapter’s captains saw him breach protocol on a mission while allied to their uneasy cousins the Black Templars: captain Dophesia sought to capture dark Eldar pirates for exploitation rather than to slaughter them. The Stygians and Templars clashed, blood was shed and the Templars’ feelings toward their now gaudily armoured kin went beyond a grudge. They were all too eager to be the hammer which brought the Imperium’s righteous vengeance upon Fulcrum when inquisitorial investigations discovered the corruption of the Exalted Fecund, it having spread rapidly and insidiously throughout the subsector. With Tempestus Scions paving the way and inquisitorial agents rallying what resistance there was on-planet, the Templars assaulted and, after a bitter fight, routed the Stygian Guard to their ships.

The Psychopomps, as they henceforth called themselves openly, became a nomadic warband though still referred to themselves as a chapter despite the gradual crumbling of the company structure, replaced by cults dedicated to various sensations and aspects.

Autarch Qarasion of craftworld Carth-Lar had not given up watching the corrupt chapter and watched from a distance as retribution came to the Astartes’ homeworld. But it was not the last she would see of them, for the renegades later discovered one of Carth-Lar’s maidenworlds: Mesusid. The small staff of gardeners and, as fortune had it, a couple of squads of aspect warriors, fought valiantly but were eventually beaten and the majority captured.

Over the following centuries the Psychopomps raided Imperial worlds and shipping as necessity dictated though they were ever eager to prey upon Eldar. Autarch Qarasion played this to her advantage, revealing the location of one of their other maidenworlds (enraging and appalling the seer council) in order to lead them into a trap.

A Dark Wager

It began as yet another game of the gods. A gamble, a wager betwixt two of the infernal powers: Khorne and his nemesis Slaanesh. The Prince of Pleasure challenged the Lord of Skulls to corrupt an entire chapter of the Master of Mankind’s finest warriors: the Adeptus Astartes. The Blood God accepted with two conditions: firstly that he himself could choose the chapter to be turned, and secondly that he could also choose where their debasement would be orchestrated. The Prince of Darkness accepted.
Khorne chose the Stygian Guard: an under-strength chapter of space marines descendant from the VII Legion Astartes. The Guard was a particularly ascetic and austere chapter. While their primogenitors engaged in scrimshaw and fellow Astartes had their artistic pursuits and battle-songs (and the wolves of Fenris their ale), the Guard had naught, lacking even a funeral dirge for the fallen. These solemn warriors clad in alabaster armour dedicated themselves to the unemotional carrying out of their duty. At the behest of the Lords of Terra, the Stygian Guard carried out executions varying from pinpoint strikes via drop pods, to full planetary invasions, mowing down their enemies untouched by fear - like their brethren of other chapters - but also not letting themselves fell anger nor sorrow. Within them Khorne saw the potential for their downfall, to turn them to his will.
And what of the arena for this gambit? The Blood God chose the planet Cyprius III, much to the chagrin of the Prince of Darkness, for Slaanesh had been corrupting the populace of Cyprius III over the centuries until all, from highborn noble to mendicant scum, danced to his tune. Artists, hedonists, lechers and libertines all. Myriad were the cults of Cyprius III.

Homeworld

The Stygian Guard were based on and recruited from the planet Fulcrum in the galactic west. Fulcrum was a hub for both trade and worship in the sub-sector. The Imperial Cult on Fulcrum was divided into many sects. Egisians, followers of The Emperor’s Egis, worshipped the Emperor as protector. The Imperator Afflatus sought his knowledge and divine inspiration, while those of the Exalted Fecund saw the production of offspring: the future of the human race, as the best way to glorify the Emperor.

The Infernal Engine

“According to the pain is the gain.”- Pirkei Avot 5:21.
An adaption of the nerve glove (AKA the pain glove) devised by master of the forge Zenalaius and chief apothecary Polus with which the Psychopomps tap into and experience the emotions of captives, in particular Eldar. They soon discovered that the xenos experience a spectrum of emotion and feeling far exceeding that of humanity. Tapping into that became an addiction, leading to attempts to elicit various emotions within the captives hooked up to it. In the early years it proved difficult to cause anything more than pain but with the aid of their allied daemons and as the knowledge of the librarius grew the infernal engine soon evolved beyond an instrument of punishment or meditation, driving the corrupt Astartes to hunt the Eldar with greater and greater zeal.

Warband Iconography:

From Auld Writhe’s Treatise On The Varied & Accursed Heraldry Of Fallen Astartes: that of the Stygian Guard to the Psychopomps
=][= Sanctioned
Chapter Approved
Stalwart descendants of Dorn, the Stygian Guard were clad in armour alabaster in hue and mostly devoid of ornamentation but for the Aquila upon their chests and the inset of their left pauldron, both in jet black. The chapter’s icon was a skull over a pair of back-to-back canted scythes (representing the chapter's willingness to combat the enemies of the Emperor both Xenos and heretic), all three elements white.

Archive pict of Stygian Guard chapter symbol
The Guard was, even amongst their austere peers, an ascetic chapter forswearing all forms of ceremony and ritual but for the cleansing, focusing agony of the nerve glove.
Some say it was, finding their usual methods of warfare failing against the cults of Cyprius III, chapter master Sophusar who experienced a vision while undergoing flagellation within the glove. A vision of the chapter transformed, clad in vivid hues and their tactics unbound by all constraints and logic.
Other reports indicate that it was master of sanctity Angra who proposed the chapter infiltrate the enemy cults to bring them down from within, and with this began their acts of trophy taking and the imitation of the enemy.
Perhaps both are true, perhaps both are but lies proliferated by their own cult: the Exalted Fecund.
What is known is that the once stolid Astartes, ferrymen of the souls of the foes of Mankind to the empyrean, became reapers of souls in mad service to the Dark Prince, their icon retaining the bleached skull yet transforming to resemble the symbol of their new patron.

Recent archive pict of `Psychopomp` warband iconography.
Individual units and indeed individual marines, are known to display various patterns upon their left pauldron under the chapter’s blasted icon, seemingly as mood and whim dictates, with some others such as the Black Stallions biker squad wearing a uniform emblem upon their right pauldrons. It is rumoured that the squad took this emblem and agnomen as a challenge, a slight of sorts, to renowned loyalist biker units such as the Raven Wing and the riders of Chogoris.

Notable Characters:

Lord Sophusar the Facinorous, Maestro, Conductor of the Spheres, The Lord of the Dance and The Great Harlequin. Former chapter master.
Emperor, your sword won’t help you out,
Scepter and crown are worthless here.
I’ve taken you by the hand
For you must come to my dance.
- Totentanz.
The former chapter master of the Stygian Guard, he lead his chapter with the counsel of the master of sanctity (Angra, in the latter years of their loyalty), the chief librarian (Diarthet) and his first captain (Viphic). Upholding the ideals the chapter had been founded upon, Sophusar was a cold, calculating warrior with little concern for anything beyond duty and the mission. When he was not at war or engaged in his duties as supreme commander of the chapter he was to be found meditating within the pain glove.
Thus it was to the glove he turned when his chapter faltered in their suppression of the fell cults of Cyprius III. Already his first company had been lost to madness and butchery and within the glove he experienced a vision of his chapter transformed and saved.
When master of sanctity Angra soon after suggested their tenth company infiltrate the enemy both to garner intelligence and bring down the enemy from within, Sophusar granted his permission and the first steps in the chapter’s transformation began.
Now head of a fallen chapter fleeing the unfinished retribution of the Imperium, he is a lord of Chaos and a true devotee of Slaanesh. His shaven scalp is pockmarked with trepanation scars and he wears a leather mask fronted by a bronze grill, wires and pipes snaking from it back into his ornate terminator armour, keeping him supplied with a pernicious cocktail of gases. His armour, often repainted as his whims dictate, is often lurid and decorated with daemonic imagery and, as is popular amongst other champions of the chapter, the visages of Eldar heroes hacked from wraithbone statuary. He has also been known, from time to time, to sport collections of ears threaded upon barbed wire. Another favoured adornment (and of note one of the only ornamentations he allowed himself while commander of the Stygian Guard) is an hourglass, which once represented the inevitable death of the enemies of Holy Terra, it now represents to him different things depending upon his mood (or, some whisper, his fractured psyche): a reminder to do all he can do, to experience all he can experience before the inevitable end...that Eldar souls are all destined for the maw of the Dark Prince...or countless other tales.

This scythe that mows down kings
Exempts no meaner mortal things.
- Francis Beaumont.
Sophusar wields the Falx Horrificus, a massive two-handed weapon somewhere between an axe and a scythe, the head of which resembles the icon of Slaanesh, with a large circular blade to the fore, flanked by two long, curved spikes, while a crescent extends to the rear. This daemonic weapon is, like its patron god, capricious. The weapon constantly thirsts for blood, despair and delight, anguish and elation, driving the Chaos lord’s hand to reap more and more souls for the Dark Prince...and it has been known to take a toll upon his own soul should he be found wanting or not acting upon Slaanesh’s whims with sufficient alacrity.
Sophusar the Facinorous is a consumer of Eldar souls and within each he finds an echo of the birth cry of Slaanesh. It is this echo which drives him. He burns with the desire to hear it in its totality and has adapted his armour with psycho-sonic amplifiers so the he may unleash a measure of this scream upon the battlefield, devastating all nearby; those of his warband standing too close perish in unbearable ecstasy, while foes drop to their knees, sanity blasted from their minds.

While many lords of Chaos go into battle accompanied by a retinue of their most trusted Astartes, Sophusar usually leads a massive troupe of Slaangor; the beastmen driven mad, entranced by the unearthly wailing ever emanating from the pipes atop his armour. So enraptured are they that they can do naught but roar as they are swept by conflicting emotions, ignoring all but the most horrific wounds dealt them, eager to bury their blades in the flesh of the enemy in order to add their foes' screams to their master's diapason.

Angra, Dark Apostle. Former Master of Sanctity.
The true way of extending and multiplying one’s desires is to attempt to impose checks upon them.
- Maquis Du Sade.
If lord Sophusar was the architect of the fall of the Stygian Guard, then master of sanctity Angra was his mason. Once the apprentice chaplain to master of sanctity Othanu who implemented the seconding of chaplains to other chapters, Angra continued this tradition upon his advancement to lead of the chapter’s reclusiam. Whilst a loyal servant of Terra he was one of master Sophusar’s two advisors: where first captain Viphic was the blade of the chapter, Angra was its will. He was also a discipline master: overseeing the tutoring and punishment alike of Stygian Guard in the pain glove.
It was on Cyprius III that he too fell to Chaos. The first step can be said to have taken place within the twisted, corrupted Temple of Astarte on that accursed planet.
His advising that the scout company infiltrate the enemy - in breach of Stygian modus operandi until that point - meshed with the visions Sophusar had experienced in his pain glove-induced epiphany and the chapter’s descent began.
The return of librarian Holusiax, transformed in body and mind, confirmed to Angra that the power they now had a taste of was true and eclipsed all they could hope to achieve with their former ascetic ways.
Throughout the Cyprius III conflict Angra drew a personal guard to himself and, upon victory, he assured that many of the Cypriusian magi who had been captured were transferred to the reclusiam rather than tortured to death, so that he might learn more of their dark arts. Whether master Sophusar saw in Angra dangerous ambition - the seeds of a coup - but upon their return to Fulcrum Angra was given charge of the corruption of the Exalted Fecund rather than liaising with their new daemonic allies (a duty given to Holusiax).
During the clash with the Black Templars on Fulcrum Angra fought his counterpart of his cousin chapter: chaplain Caedmon, who had fought alongside the slain Hastings on Berolar XII. Though Angra smashed the Templar’s crozius arcanum, Caedmon slew Angra with a brother’s power sword, splitting his head from crown to chin.
The dark apostle’s body was born away by a flood of cultists before it could be claimed by the enemy, and it was safely transferred to the apothecary aboard the chapter flagship.
It is unknown exactly what rituals were carried out nor what dark pacts were forged, but Angra was returned to life. When next he was seen on the battlefield the left side of his face was that of a daemonette and his left hand too resembled the oversized claw of one of the Children of Slaanesh.
He now wields a huge, warped crozius with a raven-haired daemonette skull at its center, resembling the chapter’s own transformed iconography.,He is rarely seen unaccompanied by a daemonette chained via a collar to his armour, believed to be his chosen bodyguard, and what may be a leather masked caryatid bearing scrolls and other accoutrements of Angra’s dark office.
Upon his left pauldron is the flensed face of an Astarte, rumoured to be that of chaplain Caedmon himself...

Holusiax, Sorcerer. Former Chief Librarian.
Epistolary to chief librarian Diarthet at the time of the mission to Cyprius III, Holusiax -after being admonished as a lexicanum for dabbling in mind control (ref. Nantesi Insurrection)- excelled in the use of the warp’s power for destructive purposes, as was the Stygian Guard way. In the early days of the chapter’s assault on the corrupted populace of Cyprius III epistolary Holusiax was hit by the blast of a battle cannon and was declared MIA, presumed slain. In actual fact he had merely been dismembered, losing both legs and much of his abdomen. His body shut down in order to save him and he awoke to find himself captured and held within a cultist den, his ability to harness the warp denied to him by unknown means. While by day he was tortured to little effect by his captors, he found he was visited in the darkness of the night by a female who as the nights passed, spoke to him asking him what he desired and eventually teaching him of ways to twist the minds of others, to control their very senses and bend them to his will. Thusly Holusiax was ensnared by a herald of Slaanesh.
He awoke to find his body in a manner of speaking restored: he now possessed a serpentine body from the waist down and a second pair of arms, lithe and lilac of skin, extended out from under his muscular Astartes limbs. The power of the Empyrean flowed through him once more and escape proved trivial.
Later reunited with his chapter and chief of sanctity Angra while trying to track down Diarthet, Holusiax - initially fearing his chapter would destroy him and his mutated form upon sight - found his brethren too were changed both in form and allegiance.
Holusiax became chief of the librarius and, as the first gifted by Slaanesh, a figurehead for the chapter.


Polus, Chief Apothecary.
A corpulent and foul bastard, his obese form barely contained by his powered armour, Polus is carried atop a palanquin (the throne of which he is chained and hooked into) by a dozen thralls of the Exalted Fecund, their very flesh having run and become one with the structure of the litter they bear. Now unable to move except when carried, his apothecarion staff carry out their master’s orders for them. Ever a student of toxins, poisons, diseases and maladies, Polus studied deeply the effects of pain upon the body and the psyche, devising with master of the forge Zenelaius the Infernal Engine: the adaption of the nerve glove with which the Psychopomps bring themselves that one step close to their patron power, and siphon the emotions of their captives.
Polus is also responsible for the `alterations` undergone by a great many of the chapter’s terminators to arm them with terrifying arsenals of weaponry built into their very flesh, which itself has become one with their armour.

Zenalaius. Dreadnought. Former Master of the Forge.
Once a master artificer and a great soother of restless machine spirits, he truly bloomed when the chapter secretly trod on their oaths to the Imperium and threw off the shackles of Mars: contraptions he had but dreamed of were no longer forbidden for him to create.
It was Zenalaius who, working with chief apothecary Polus, created the infernal engine adapted from the nerve glove with which the Psychopomps tap into and experience the emotions of captives.
In order to learn more of their daemonic allies, one was assigned to the forge though soon Zenelaius became corrupted by her in both spirit and mind. He became obsessed with her tales of the palace of Slaanesh and her promises to show it to him.
When the Black Templars invaded Fulcrum, bringing the Emperor’s wrath, the crusaders found Zenalaius entwined with his consort, within the pain glove while war raged about them, and put them both to flame.

Thenaros, Warpsmith. Former Techmarine.
Once a techmarine and second to master of the Forge Zenalaius, Thenaros was responsible for making the designs of his mentor into physical form: the sonic weapons of the Psychopomp’s finest warriors and the combi-weapons employed by the fallen chapter’s terminators. He bore both great respect and a heavy grudge against his master who fell to the temptations of one of their new daemonic allies and began to show more interest in what she could show him of Chaos, excess and promises of the palace of Slaanesh...rather than the beauty of the machine form.
When the Black Templars lead the Imperium’s assault upon the Stygian Guard homeworld of Fulcrum Thenaros refused to put a mortally wounded and mentally broken Zenalaius out of his misery and instead rescued him only to doom him to an eternity sealed within the sarcophagus of a dreadnought, employing the weapons Thenaros created.
Unlike many of the chapter who embrace (in some cases like Zenalaius, literally) the daemonic pawns of their patron god, Thenaros sees them as naught but tools and relishes binding their flesh into his infernal mechanical constructs.
It is worthy of note that, during the flight from Fulcrum, Thenaros oversaw the withdrawal of several armoured vehicles not usually seen in the arsenals of Chaos space marine warbands: land speeders and whirlwinds amongst others.

Captain Viphic, champion of Khorne, captive of the Psychopomps. Former captain of the 1^st company `The Bloody First`, master of Phlegyas, equerry to chapter master Sophusar.
Once the finest warrior of the chapter and one of master Sophusar’s two closest advisors, Viphic grew proud and took umbrage against the teachings of the chapter’s reclusiam. The final straw was he and his company being sent to accompany an Ordo Hereticus inquisitor on a punitive mission to Cyprius III. There they discovered the populace had fallen to the worship of Chaos, Slaanesh in particular. The inquisitor they accompanied wavered, tempted by the words of the planetary governor: the grand magi, and Viphic executed him at a signal from chief librarian Diarthet. The inquisitor’s retinue soon followed and Viphic unleashed the full might of the veteran first company upon the heretical populace.
They gave themselves over to the battle, excelling at it and soon enough, unknowingly at first, gave themselves over to the Lord of Skulls.
Viphic despised Sophusar when he brought the rest of the chapter to Cyprius III in search of him. The first captain saw his former master and brethren as blunt fools, blind to the true glory of combat. Unwilling to follow him upon the Bloody Path, Viphic returned to his men of the 1^st company and continued their hunt of the Cypriusians...and the Stygian Guard, seeing them as naught but more skulls to be harvested.
The first captain, the greatest warrior of the Stygian Guard, was finally beaten within the ruins of the governor’s palace by master Sophusar with the aid of Angra and Holusiax and, rather than being executed, was captured along with as many of his men as could be caught. The Astartes of the Bloody First was kept, first in the brig of the Charon and later in the catacombs of their fortress monastery on Fulcrum, to be unleashed as a last-resort. Over time Polus oversaw the implanting of devices both technological and daemonic in origin to, as best they could, control the Bloody First. Should these fail Viphic would seek out the skulls of Sophusar, Angra and Holusiax in an instant.

Captain Castor, Master of the Reapers. Former captain of the 2^nd company.
The disgrace of first captain Viphic in the Cyprius III mission and his fall to the worship of Khorne opened the way for second captain Castor to become the preeminent company officer. Castor leads the elite of the chapter, specialising in infiltration.
He bears the blessings of the Dark Prince: his power axe being complimented by a powerful daemonic claw replacing his left hand and, to compliment his close assault role, he carries a heavy flamer. In addition he is accompanied by a daemonic familiar with a foul yet teasing disposition which both assists its master in combat and protects him with its own psychic abilities.

Captain Dophesia, Master of the Furies. Former captain of the 8^th company.
A wilful officer who bent the rules of the chapter before its fall, distaining their ascetic ways, Dophesia nevertheless saw promotion to first sergeant of the assault company on his martial skills alone. On Cyprius III the captain of the 8^th was slain in combat with that planet’s cults and Dophesia received a field promotion to captaincy and he flourished once the chapter trod on its oaths to the Golden Throne.
Equipped with a jump pack and either a pair of lightning claws or a single power axe, as he deems appropriate, Dophesia was one of the chapter’s foremost warriors before its fall and has only grown more deadly in the years since.

Jinx, Chaos assassin. Believed to be an agent of the traitor XX Legion Astartes.
Bearing the mark of the Hydra upon her green-blue synthskin bodysuit, possessed of rudimentary psychic ability and wielding what is believed to be an athame, the agent known as Jinx was discovered by epistolary Holusiax in the ruins of Cyprius III during his own hunt for chief librarian Diarthet. She assisted him in the eventual slaying of his former master though she herself nearly perished only to be saved by Holusiax as a debt repaid. She now accompanies the Psychopomps for her own purposes, her scarred face hidden behind the jade mask once worn by the herald who transformed Holusiax.

Notable Units:

Black Stallions
A squad formed from various biker units of the Stygian Guard’s 5^th company which survived the withdrawal from their homeworld of Fulcrum. Both their bikes and personal armour are painted as vividly as those of the rest of the war band, often with colour schemes halved or quartered, seeming to be a matter of personal pride for riders to decorate their own motorcycles.
Leadership - the squad is led by the former captain of the 5^th company, Farus, who formed the Black Stallions after the flight from Fulcrum as lord Sophusar oversaw the reorganisation of the chapter.
Helmets - beautifully engraved and crested with blades, these are unique to the Black Stallions.
Whips - an iconic weapon, these are no mere woven lashes but rather are living weapons of daemonic flesh tipped with barbs and hooks of talon or tooth. Riders often employ these weapons to ensnare enemy as they ride past, dragging their targets along at high speed behind them.
Squad icon - all riders display the pearl-maned, ebony head of a stallion upon their right pauldrons, occasionally repeated upon the armour of their bikes.
Trophies - Like much of the chapter, they delight in the taking of trophies, be they enemy weapons, heads, helmets or even corpses chained up to be dragged along behind their bikes. While many Psychopomps display the faces of Eldar (hacked from statues or from skulls) as trophies, the Black Stallions sometimes chain entire statues, hewn from their plinths, to their bikes.


Death Knell
These marines wield weapons which focus the screams and torment of the Psychopomps’ victims in the Infernal Engine into destructive blasts of psycho-sonic energy.
Before firing, the blast masters emit what has been various described as a `scream of terror played backwards` or `a scream not exhaled but inhaled` before unleashing a concussive blast which tears through cover, shatters all but the very best armour and liquefies flesh and meat.
The marines of the Death Knell units are amongst the elite of the fallen chapter, addicted to the sensations of not only the Infernal Engine and the consumption of Eldar soulstones but war itself, for there are few other places where one can experience such strong, tangible, corporeal emotions or bring oneself so exhilaratingly close to the border betwixt life and death.
These crazed Astartes sport some of the gaudiest armour of the chapter.

Not all of the Death Knell units utilise blast master-like weaponry: some prefer to submerge themselves in the din of battle, to engage the enemy up close with bolter, pistol and roaring blade. Often these squads are headed by champions equipped with apparatus to amplify their warcries to soul-sundering levels.



Erinyes
Like the furies of ancient legend, these renegade Astartes assault marines drop from the skies to harry their foes with blade, bolt and flame. There is great rivalry betwixt the Furies and the chapter’s bikers such as the Black Stallions, each keen to capture the lion’s share of the enemy. Though there are such squads from the various companies of the former chapter, the majority are from captain Dophesia’s eighth company. The charismatic braggart attracted likeminded warriors from all companies after the flight from Fulcrum. While the majority are armed with the standard combination of bolt pistol and chainsword, with specialists equipped with flamer, melta or plasma guns, some are rewarded with weaponry such as whips of daemonic flesh, ritual daggers and mutations.

Reapers
While the Stygian Guard lost the majority of their veterans to the worship of Khorne on Cyprius III, the best of the remaining companies were drawn upon after the chapter’s fall. Many of these, those most devoted to excess, became noise marines of the Death Knell, those deemed less suitable for such duties but no less ruthless were given over to captain Castor, former captain of the 2^nd company. With these he formed the Reapers: elite squads of well-armed (better equipped than even the Death Knell) Astartes for more stealthy and specialist missions. Often equipped with combi-weapons, the Reapers have full access to the chapter’s armoury and can even outfit full squads with plasma, melta and flamer weapons should the need arise. Headed by captain Castor, they often infiltrate the battlefield ahead of their comrades, assassinating sentries and key enemy units before the true battle commences.
While the Death Knell feed upon the cacophony of battle, the Reapers revel in the chaos they can spread and the fear they instil.

Chaos Spawn
The Psychopomps make use of a great number of Chaos spawn, these horrific amalgamations of humans are often the deliberate creation of the warband’s sorcerers though some created soon after the chapter’s fall were the product of failed daemonic summonings (some of which appear to combine incomplete daemonic forms with those of humans). Many are created from volunteers of the Exalted Fecund cult, while others may make use of unwilling captives. Deployed in combat to sow panic amongst the enemy, they are also used for experimentation and other...entertainment...by renegade Astartes and their followers.


Slaangor
while the Psychopomps are attended by vast numbers of human cultists of the Exalted Fecund; their flesh pierced and ritually scarred in praise of the Dark Prince, there are also those who have been truly blessed by She Who Must Not Be Named: beastmen. Some underwent changes later in life due to exposure to the corruption of the Psychopomps and the warp itself, while the most blessed are those who were born as Slaangor. These individuals are favoured by the Psychopomps and it not unknown for the strongest of these half-men half-beasts to be elevated to the ranks of the Astartes, should their altered bodies be able to accept the geneseed.

Daemonettes
Q’tlahs’itsu’aksho, The Children of Slaanesh, Bringers of Joyous Degradation, Seekers of Decadence and Givers of Indescribable Delight amongst a great many other names, these most numerous of the Psychopomp’s daemonic allies assist the warband and its cult in covertly spreading the ways of Slaanesh as well as in open combat. Two distinct forms of Daemonette have been recognised fighting alongside the Psychopomps: the first have the tails and legs most common to Slaanesh’s Debauched Ones yet are hairless and their faces are hidden behind the devilish visages of jade masks. The second group fight with their faces exposed and luscious locks of brightly coloured hair trailing behind them. These appear to possess human-like legs and feet. The arms of both groups terminate in a humanoid hand on one side and the common oversized-claw on the other. Within their humanoid hands they wield weapons: vicious daggers in the case of the former group and whips in the case of the latter. Some claim that the whips of the second group are woven from the hair of the first, though this is impossible to confirm.



Ladies of the Labyrinth
Summoned from the gardens of the palace of Slaanesh, these daemons appear as if Q’tlahs’itsu’aksho from the head to the navel but where their sisters possess legs and tails, the bodies of these monstrosities terminate in the forms of oversized arachnids. With terrifying speed they can scuttled across battlefields (and indeed up walls and across ceilings) singing and cackling eerily as they do so. It is said that this psiren song is particularly tormenting for psykers. And from their bulbous abdomens they are capable of shooting forth thick strands of web with which they entangle their foes before finishing (or carrying) them off...

Notable Tactics:

The Phlegethon
A holdover tactic from when the Psychopomps were the loyalist Stygian Guard, the Phlegethon is the coordinated pouring of firepower onto isolated, often surrounded enemy until all are slain. As the centaurs of Dante’s Inferno patrolled the circle, firing arrows at those who tried to rise above, the bikers of the Psychopomps (the Black Stallions and other such units) are tasked with corralling the enemy and containing then via their plasma, melta and flame weapons.

The Obol (AKA Charon’s Obol)
While loyal to the Golden Throne this tactic put a single squad of marines into a position of great threat in order to draw out the enemy, at which time the rest of the Stygian Guard forces would strike. It was often a tactical squad as they would have their rhino to both advance and retreat in though in some circumstances the `Obol` unit was instead an assault squad.
After the chapter’s fall to Chaos and flight from its homeworld the Obol is rarely now valuable Astartes but rather a unit of cultists (the majority of the time volunteers though not always). On occasion Rhinos with enemy captives strapped to their hulls have also been utilized.

Upon the banks of the Styx
A tactic devised by master Sophusar since the chapter’s fall, the Astartes rather than advancing to engage the enemy as per standard, set up a near-impenetrable wall of fortifications which they man and meet the enemy assault. It is as the enemy near the walls - the bank of the river - that the renegade Astartes call upon their neverborn allies: a tidal wave of Daemonettes, Fiends and Seekers surging up behind the enemy to crush them against the Psychopomp defences.

The Scythe
The deployment of the warband’s heavy weapons at the center with dominating fire arcs and a commanding view of the battlefield: the Heel of the Scythe and all the fast elements upon one flank. These latter units form the Blade. While the Heel holds the center the Blade is swept across the battlefield at great speed, tearing into the enemy flank and trampling them beneath wheels, hooves and feet.

The Waters of Lethe
In the ancient language of the Greek `Lethe` referred to oblivion, forgetfulness or concealment and it was captain Castor of the Stygian Guard’s 2^nd company who devised the tactic which became known as `The Waters of Lethe`. Captain Castor would lead chosen members of his company in infiltrating enemy territory, sometimes even deep into enemy camps, eliminating the enemy as they prepared or even as they slept.
With the loss of the 1^st company to Khorne on Cyprius III, Castor advanced to become the preeminent captain of the Psychopomps and use of the Waters continued, though his chosen Astartes were equipped with a great variety of appropriated weaponry in order to fulfil their missions.

The Cocytus
The River of Wailing. Against heavily entrenched enemy the Psychopomps utilize their sonic weapons to tear into the enemy, spreading panic as the defenders realize the futility of hiding in their bunkers and bastions. Fortresses are torn down by waves of sonic energy, bodies are liquidized as the concussive blasts reverberate within the confines of bunker complexes turning the defences into tombs.

The Acheron
The opening act of a great many battles. To the ancients Acheron was the River of Woe and at this point, to the formed up enemy forces, the Psychopomps display those of the foe they have captured prior to battle. These tortured and defiled souls are presented to the enemy as a promise of what fate awaits all.

Notable Conflicts:

Nantesi Insurrection - A war which took place before the chapter’s fall, the Stygian Guard fought alongside their cousins the Black Templars on the planet Nantesi. Initial reports of corruption with suspected xenos influence caused their deployment and it was soon discovered that a nest of Enslavers had been controlling the planetary government for some years and had built up a cult of personality about the governor himself. To such extent did the populace worship their puppet leader that they unquestioningly fired upon the two chapters’ starships in orbit, believing them to be fallen angels.
Dividing up the planet’s cities between them, the Stygians and Templars cleansed with fire, bolt shell and roaring chainblade, finally uniting to assault the capital city of Nidius. All went well, the two chapter’s differing tactics complementing each other, until the prime Enslavers were drawn into the fight. The Emperor’s champion alone attacked the largest of the foul xenos, only for two of the Stygian Guard’s librarians to intervene: Holusiax casting a palsy upon it before Diarthet engulfed it in roiling warpfire.
The war was won but from that point on the Templars bore a deep grudge against the Stygians.

The Cleansing of Cyprius III - The planet being decades late in fulfilling Terra’s Due, Ordo Hereticus inquisitor Tobias Fen `requested` the veteran first company of the Stygian Guard accompany him to Cyprius III. There they found the entire populace under the sway, to varying degrees, of Slaanesh. The inquisitor himself faltered and first captain Viphic executed him at a signal from chief librarian Diarthet. What then occurred cannot be clearly ascertained though it is evident that, when chapter master Sophusar rallied the rest of the chapter and came seeking his first company, they found Viphic and his men had fallen to the worship of Khorne and had protracted the war into a blood-soaked hunt.
The mission always paramount, the chapter engaged the renegade populace only to discover their usual tactics and strategies were insufficient against the massed cults and their daemonic allies (the indiscriminate predations of the rogue Bloody First did little to help). Chapter master Sophusar and master of sanctity Angra decided upon a landmark change in tactics: the 10^th company was tasked with the infiltration of the Cypriusian cults. Here came success as dark masses were taken down from within and the chapter began to earn victories. Soon came trophy-taking and the adoption of garb and decorations reminiscent of the enemy, not only within the scout squads.
The return of librarian Holusiax, once MIA thought KIA yet instead transformed in body and mind, showed the chapter the righteousness of their new path, and their true descent began.
Soon there was little to differentiate betwixt the Stygian Guard and their foes.
When first captain Viphic and his butchers of the Bloody First, who had all the time ran rogue, attacking both the local cults and their former brethren Astartes, finally assaulted the governor’s palace, seeking the skull of the grand magi for the Lord of Skulls, Viphic came face to face once more with master Sophusar. To the first captain’s eyes Sophusar had become indistinguishable from the debauched cultists and the two clashed over the governor’s cooling corpse.
In the aftermath of the Cyprius III mission the survivors returned to Fulcrum, those of the first company (Viphic included, having been beaten by his former master with Angra and Holusiax’s aid) in chains.

Berolar XII, Gantel Sector - Acting under the guise of loyalty to Terra, captain Dophesia of the 8^th and select assault squads from his company and Devastators of the 4^th were dispatched to rendezvous with Black Templars and assist in an assault upon an Eldar raider base on the frozen world of Berolar XII. The Dark Eldar had been preying upon Imperial colonies and shipping in the sector and, the nomads’ base having been pinpointed at last, the Astartes struck.
The grudge held by the Templars after the Nantesi Insurrection in his mind, master Sophusar ordered Dophesia to defer to chaplain Caedmon of the crusade of high marshal Galarius. Thus the Stygian Devastators took out the xenos defences and paved the way for the Templar assault upon the base itself. Captain Dophesia had always been a willful warrior, first sergeant of the 8^th during the Cyprius III mission he had received a field promotion upon his predecessor’s expiring fighting against that world’s cults. Now unfettered by their oaths to Terra, Dophesia saw the assault as an opportunity to capture Eldar and, breaking with orders, gave the Templars incorrect reconnaissance intelligence so that they assaulted the most heavily armoured side of the raider base, and lead his jump-pack equipped squads in an attack upon the rear of the Eldar base: the hab floors. They began to withdraw their captives via teleporter, only to be interrupted as one of the Templar sword brethren (brother Hastings) investigated and had to be silenced.
The incorrect intel given them, the unexpected actions of captain Dophesia and the mysterious death of brother Hastings only served to deepen the Black Templars’ distrust of the Stygian Guard.

The Hammer Falls: Retribution Comes to Fulcrum - It was the spread of the Exalted Fecund cult which first brought the inquisition’s attention to Fulcrum. The pleasure cult had grown too large too quickly and too recklessly. Inquisitorial agents discovered the Stygian Guard’s elevation of the Fecund above the other sects of the Imperial Cult, their persecution of recusants, and the changes which had overcome the marines themselves. Infiltration of cult dens and their fortress monastery exposed their fall to Chaos.
The Black Templars were all too happy to be the main force to assault Fulcrum, high martial Galarius proclaiming master Sophusar `the Facinorous` upon learning the extent of his depravity.
Tempestus Scion squads took out key facilities (shield generators, anti-orbital artillery) while inquisitorial agents rallied the Imperial Cult underground into a fifth column before the Templar assault itself.
What followed was a hard-fought battle for both sides. The Templars were driven by righteous zeal and a deep thirst for revenge for the dishonours piled upon them at Nantesi and Berolar, but they came to face the masses of fanatical Exalted Fecund cultists, the Psychopomps (for they no longer went by their old moniker now) wielding their new arsenal unrestricted, their summoned daemonic allies and the berserkers of the Bloody First unleashed from the catacombs beneath the fortress monastery.
The forces of the Imperium won out and the Psychopomps were forced to retreat to their ships, millions of cultists sacrificing themselves to impede the loyalists. In the flight the Psychopomps lost a great deal of their heavier hardware, prompting the chapter to rethink their strategies and undertake greater raiding actions from that point onwards.

The Reaping of Mesusid - Years after autarch Qarasion had attempted to warn the Stygian Guard and avert their corruption, the Psychopomps discovered an Eldar maidenworld, as chance would have it one of those tended by Eldar of craftworld Carth-Lar. Despite the populace taking up arms as soon as the vessels of the Chaos space marines were sighted, and that there were two squads each of striking scorpions and swooping hawks, the latter lead by an exarch and the former late of Qarasion’s own command, the colonists and warriors were outnumbered and defeated, the majority captured to suffer a fate worse than death.
Against the wishes of many of her craftworld, Qarasion had Mesusid’s location deliberately yet subtly leaked to the Imperium. While the craftworld would do all it could to protect its other maidenworlds and to counter the actions of the fallen Astartes, she knew that to have the Imperium on the renegades’ tails too was a gamble she thought she could win.

The Alceforge Raid - supplies running low, the Psychopomps raided the eastern forges of the Mechanicus-dominated world of Alceforge. Alceforge greatly relied upon the nearby shrineworld of Kierdale’s World for protection and faithful of the Imperial Guard fought alongside the planet’s Skitarii against the corrupt raiders. Battle damage reports curiously indicated that several of the traitor Astartes slain in the running battles were found to have injuries from shuriken catapult-like weaponry. The possible involvement of xenos, unseen during the fighting, was quickly hushed up.
Nevertheless, the Psychopomps escaped with considerable stores of ammunition, fuel and several armoured vehicles.

Showdown on Viarphia - Aware that lord Sophusar was still thirsty for the souls of her kind, hunting for maidenworlds to defile, autarch Qarasion of Carth-Lar took a dangerous step in order to put an end to their cat-and-mouse games. She leaked the location of one of their prime maidenworlds: Viarphia, to one of her human pawns, and ensured that he was captured by the Psychopomps.
Learning of her perceived treachery, the seer council called for her imprisonment if not immediate execution, but no Exarch would move against her. The council forbade all non-aspect warriors from accompanying her on her heretical mission. They in fact forbade all of Carth-Lar from assisting her and had stripped her of her command, but the exarchs had laid their weapons before her. The exarchs of Carth-Lar were ruled by their autarch whether she still bore that title or not, rather than the seer council.
While the seers and others had shouted and protested the assembling of the craftworld’s warriors, Qarasion had somehow snuck her ace aboard her flagship, the Spear of Redemption.
The Psychopomps and their daemonic allies descended upon Viarphia, eager to reap Eldar souls and despoil the virgin world. They drove through the desperate defenders and breached the very temple at the center of the planet’s sole settlement wherein lord Sophusar dueled autarch Qarasion, she leading him deeper and deeper into the temple. Into the central chamber they fought, where a fire like that of Vaul’s own forge burned and Iuseri, Howling Banshee exarch and old comrade of Qarasion, sacrificed herself in order for the Avatar of Khaine (spirited away from their own craftworld by Quarasion) to rise and fight Sophusar.

Further Reading

Hidden Content

Inspiration Friday:
Exalted Fecund cult
Legacy weapon
Rank and file
Chaos Vehicle
Minor daemon
Nemesis of Chaoshttp://shrani.si/f/e/r4/KG83M5z/8/friday-award.png
Chaos Dreadnought
Interview with a Chaos lord
Interview with a Chaos sorcererhttp://shrani.si/f/e/r4/KG83M5z/8/friday-award.png
Thenaros-pattern combi-bolters
Chaos assassinhttp://shrani.si/f/e/r4/KG83M5z/8/friday-award.png
=][= Intel report on warbandhttp://shrani.si/f/e/r4/KG83M5z/8/friday-award.png
Betrayal
The Hydra's Fang
Chaos spawnhttp://shrani.si/f/e/r4/KG83M5z/8/friday-award.png
Chaos heraldry
Equerry
Cult leader
Ruination
The Battle at the Farm
Interview with a warpsmith
ETL model background: The laughter of the madhttp://shrani.si/f/e/r4/KG83M5z/8/friday-award.png
Signature tactics
Chaos Geneseed
Stolen Relic
Summoning
Profaned
Versus the Greater Good (`A Sermon`)
Of boy and beast - Replenishments
Interview with a Dark Apostle
Chaos Power Armour (`Price Paid`)
Tales of Hubris - A Jinxed mission
Chaos Titans
Captain Dophesia’s Icon of Excess
Chaos Objectives and Trinehorn Smutgrind
Memories of Terra: The edification of the dead
Possessed: Faith
Chaos Steed: Adversity’s Sweet Milk
Versus the Wolves: Blood on the Shoulder of Orion

[Teetengee]

So a couple minor grammar and style suggestions
you probably don't need to say nerve glove (aka pain glove) so often. Say it at the beginning and you should be fine through the rest
in describing the captain of the bloody first I believe it should be took umbrage rather than too umbrage.

 

 

also: THAT IS WHERE YOU END THE STORY!!!!???

[WarriorFish]

24 pages well spent I think, a great read :tu:

[Kierdale]

Thanks, and thanks for proofreading :)

 

I made some small additions (to the end of Sophusar's writeup) and it's done!

 

....until I inevitably add more sometime in the future.

[paulJam]

Wow

It's print it out and call it a codex done.

That was great.

[Kierdale]

 

also: THAT IS WHERE YOU END THE STORY!!!!???

:D

I do have an idea about how that battle might have ended and what happens next, but I don't want to reveal anything yet. Perhaps it'll come out in a future Inspriation Friday.

 

There are other things I'd like to add, such as my versions of the codex relics but that I'll do in the future.

[Teetengee]

Yeah, I had already noticed your version of Huron snuck in there.