Black Book - Insurrection (PUBLISHED)

[simison]

Numeration:  VIII^th Legion
 
Primogenitor:  Koschei Kharkovic

 

Allegiance:  Traitoris Perdita
 
Cognomen (Prior):  Godslayers.  This name was not changed by the Primarch upon his discovery, instead he adapted to fit within the established traditions of the legion.   
 
Observed Strategic Tendencies:  Diplomatic Missions, Psychic Suppression, Massed Orbital and Artillery Bombardments, Siege and Attrition warfare, Massed Armoured Assaults.
 
Noteworthy Domains: Zbruch and the surrounding Gladius system.

 

The Godslayers – once a mighty legion, whose name and reputation shone through the bleak void of space.  They exemplified the kindness and forgiveness of the Emperor, and were, it may be said, the future of humanity, their Primarch going as far as to earn the moniker the Light in the Darkness.

 

It was not to last. Manipulated and tricked, the Primarch Koschei Kharkovic looked into the eyes of death and saw nought but another ally.  This once proud legion was reborn, warped into monsters fighting under the banner of the Stormborn. Now their names and identities are twisted and misremembered in myths and nursery rhymes; mindless, traitorous villains acting out of spite and anger.

 

[Title page cleaned. How does it look, Squig?]

[Big Bad Squig]

Good, but is there a reason for the noteworthy domains section being so heavily cut?  Or would those details be better placed in a later section?

[simison]

I suppose you could put the info into a red section. The noteworthy domains is to give an idea of how many planets/systems under legion control/influence. If you read the canon entries, you'll never see a Hive city listed. Too minor, domains focus on the big picture.

[Doctor Perils]

I'd probably recommend cutting the observed strategies down a bit too:for the moment you do too many things for it not to be confused. If they are supposed to be very much all rounders, say so. If not, choose three or four elements maximum

 

Otherwise, looks good on the whole

[simison]

Statistics on Strategic Tendencies - 

 

Sons of Horus: 3

World Eaters: 3 (4 in parenthesis)

Emperor's Children: 3

Death Guard: 4

Iron Hands: 4

Night Lords: 5

Salamanders: 4

Word Bearers: 4

Imperial Fists: 4

Alpha Legion: 7

Iron Warriors: 5

Raven Guard: 5

 

Overall, 4 or 5 specialties should be the norm. And of the Night Lord specialties, 4 of them are essentially the same thing. Squig, the Godslayers are past the limit as it is, but since your legion was first to show up in this thread, I think it'd be fair to let them have 5 listed. Which ones do you want to shave off? 

[Big Bad Squig]

I think we can limit them to this:

 

Diplomatic Missions, Psychic Suppression, Massed Orbital and Artillery Bombardments, Siege and Attrition warfare, Massed Armoured Assaults.

 

Inkeeping with these themes, I'm making one of the characters a master of signal.

[Raktra]

Berserkers of Uran: Full-legion strength engagements, land-based warfare, close-quarter assault

[Hesh Kadesh]

For the Drowned; Combined Orbital and Subterranean Assault, Void, Submarine, Low Gravity and other Three Dimensional Environments, Extreme range Expeditionary Forces, Strategic and Tactical Suffocation.

[Skalpynock]

Mine have been edited in the little infoboxes at the beginning of both legions-specific thread.

[Athrawes]

The Lightning Bearers

 

Numeration: The Ist

Legion

 

Primogenitor: Icarion

Anasem, The Stormborn

 

Cognomen: (prior)

The First 

 

Observed Strategic

Tendencies:  Naval Engagements, Zone Mortalis and Boarding Actions,

Planetary Interdiction, Precognitive Warfare, [Purgation].

 

Noteworthy Domains:  The Realm of the Sphere (a semi-autonomous administrative region of the Maelstrom Zone, Ultima Segmentum, accorded full rights or governance and muster by decree of the Emperor.) Primary Legion headquarters centered on the world of Madrigal (strategic command and primary armory), secondary Legion  establishments at Akira (Forge, secondary armory, and fleet base), and Cronoa (Fortress world and Secondary Fleet anchorage).

 

Allegiance: Traitorous Maximus

 

The Lightning Bearers – The Legion of the sire of Insurrection, whose name now echoes through time and the shattered realms of mankind as a curse. Though an age of darkness would follow them in their wake, these heralds of the end times once trod a different path.  So great was their fall, that few now remember that they and their master were once raised above their brothers of the Legiones Astartes. The First Legion, once first in esteem and courage amongst their kind, were warriors cut in starlight, fierce and intelligent, gracefully bearing the Emperors own lightning over centuries of glorious conquest during the Great Crusade. To humanity, they were angels of light, a bright star in the firmament of the Emperors greatest designs. To the Legions, they were the first amongst equals, paragons of all it was to be of the Astartes and champions to the Great crusade. Once Loyal, and trusted above all others, the Lightning Bearers now stand as a mirror held up to the Imperium itself, a bright guiding light of hope, now corrupted and fallen to eternal darkness.

 

 

 

Origins: The First Among Equals

 

As the Emperor set his eyes to the stars beyond the unity of Terra, he raised new armies to fight his coming crusade. He drew these in part from the forces aiding him in Terras Unification, and in part from his subjugated enemies, and besides the Genebreeds, Warwights and battle emissaries were the first of the Legiones Astartes.

 

These Legiones were far from the vast armies in their hundreds of thousands which would later unify the galaxy, but inheritors, bearing the legacy of the Thunder Warriors that had come before them, which together represented a fighting force singular throughout history.

 

The Ist Legion stood sentinel over the creation of the monolithic organization the Legiones Astartes as the Emperors prototypes. Created in secret, bearing the first (and some would claim purest) gene-seed, the Ist legion was believed to have been hand crafted in their alpha stage, by the Emperor and his closest genesmiths. In stark contrast to the larger raisings of the later Legions, the First (as they had become known) were created in training batches of a dozen aspirants at a time. The remarkable children the Emperor choose for this earliest of experiments were drawn from across Terra from all walks of life, children of noted intelligence, genetic stability and, some would note in hushed circles, bearing a predisposition for unusual gifts. The road to becoming an Astartes is one fraught with peril and difficulty. It goes without saying that many of these earliest implantations would end in tragedy, but the aspirants who survived the prototype stage of genetic enhancement would prove themselves capable and cunning. The surviving proto-1^st-Legionaries trained relentlessly with the most vicious and skilled Thunder Warriors of Unity. It can be said that these early experiments in training regimen and instruction would form the bedrock of generations of Legionaries to come. These first warriors were baptized in the fires of unification, with squads of aspirants seconded to grizzled Thunder Warrior Regiments. The aspirants who survived these grueling trials and combat missions would find themselves elevated to the level of the first true Legionaires, bearing advanced and potent forms of Powered armor.

 

 These first veteran inductees of the Ist eventually formed coteries of experienced officers who would come to oversee the training of future Legionaires of the younger Legions. In this fashion, did the emperor impart a sense of shared brotherhood amongst the earliest Legions, for even decades into the Great Crusade, the younger Legions would find themselves seconded officers from The First to help guide them and advise them on the surest way to Uphold the emperors vision for humanity.

 

The final years of Terra’s Unification would see the I^st Legion achieve a series of faultless victories which would serve as examples and be lauded by their brother Legions until the dying light of the Great Crusades End.

 

As prototypes to the wider Legiones Astartes, the Ist Legion mastered all manner of warfare in the name of the Emperor, to hone themselves as the perfect instruments of combat. To this end they began conducting sieges, shock assaults, boarding actions and rescue operations, all the while learning and improving their warcraft, codifying their newly learned strategies for future dissemination. While they excelled in all styles of war, the Ist Legion applied themselves to each warzone in a truly singular manner, for the Ist Legion fought with Controlled aggression, every situation and stratagem carefully measured and weighed, to best affect desired outcomes. Perhaps through the influence of their genetic heritage or the use the Emperor put them to, the First become synonymous with intricate, but swift and faultlessly decisive pinpoint assaults, locating a point in the grand scheme of each combat, a fulcrum around which the tide of battle could be swayed by their effortless intercession.

 

In such a manner were some of the greatest victories of late unification won, wherever foes against the enlightenment of mankind could be found, the Ist Legion fought with honor and grace to illuminate mankind and fulfill the vision of the Emperor. If any event from this time speaks to the nature of the Ist Legion, it would be the raising of the crystal fortress, what came to be known as the ‘Silencing of the Eternal Dirge.’

 

 From the darkness of old night came the Cult of Rapture, a society of human blood mages and gene-grotesques who reveled in the ritualized slaughter of millions. Over centuries the Cult subjugated the southern Polar Region of Terra enslaving entire generations of that once prosperous region. The Cult was comprised of more than the petty tyrants all too common across Terra at that time. They were instead, an organized Religion, exulting the abhorrent mutations of the Psyker and worshiping dark and ancient false gods. Each day, thousands of innocents were sacrificed to feed the bottomless hunger of their warlocks, creating in the process a great psychic malignancy afflicting the region known as the eternal dirge, a reality bending affront to the natural order of the universe, both twisting the perception of those enslaved and guiding those who abased themselves to the abhorrent cult. Wherever the Cult’s grotesques were lead by the dirge, a grisly pogrom was enacted to cull thousands in order to strengthen their enclave and sustain the song which fueled them.

 

Until the coming of the Emperor.

 

As unity slowly began to encompass terra, the Emperor turned his attentions to the Crystal Fortress of the Cult, the diseased seat of the ritualized power. Every effort of the Emperor’s mortal soldiers and gene crafted thunder warriors to pacify the polar region had met with disaster. More often than not, entire armies were enthralled by the Dirge and turned back to cruelly assail their fellows.

 

The Emperor had foreseen the perils of warpcraft as a threat to his designs and turned to his 1^st Legion for the regions deliverance. While all Astartes had been crafted to serve as the Emperor’s greatest warriors, the Ist Legion had been created with a further specialization in mind. To combat the malignancy of rogue Psykers and the repugnancy of warpcraft, the Emperor had looked to create warriors in his own image, the wider Legiones Astartes were all meant to reflect aspects of the Emperor, to become embodiments of his might, the Ist Legion however, had been crafted at the genetic level to reflect a shard of the emperors psychic might.

 

While it is true that many legions contained warriors proficient in the use of psychic powers, indeed some legions where psychic power was relatively common place, no legion shared the innate and widespread psychic proficiency that became manifest within the First. This genetic propensity towards unlocking humanities psychic potential was further expanded by the Emperors focused efforts to recruit children with noteworthy and controlled psychic talents into the Ist Legion. 

 

[section summarizing the battle leading into a section about the Ghost Crusades, and the Emperor setting them on their earliest planetary purges.]

 

 

++++

 

I figured it was time I contribute something to my section of book one. This is my first draft on the beginning of my Legion section.

[simison]

Progress, awesome! 

 

First impressions of the 1st Legion:

 

1. There are a smattering of grammar errors throughout the passage.

 

2. The title page needs a quote.

 

3. I suggest that the Cult of Rapture, the Ghost Crusades, and the first purges comprise of the Exemplary Battles. And after the "As prototypes.." paragraph is where you introduce Icarion.

 

After I finish the Godslayer's Intro Part 1, I offer the same editing to your sections, Athrawes.

 

Squig, still need a quote for your title page and then we can send that onto Grifft.

[Athrawes]

Progress, awesome! 

 

First impressions of the 1st Legion:

 

1. There are a smattering of grammar errors throughout the passage.

 

2. The title page needs a quote.

 

3. I suggest that the Cult of Rapture, the Ghost Crusades, and the first purges comprise of the Exemplary Battles. And after the "As prototypes.." paragraph is where you introduce Icarion.

 

After I finish the Godslayer's Intro Part 1, I offer the same editing to your sections, Athrawes.

 

Squig, still need a quote for your title page and then we can send that onto Grifft.

 

Thanks, I'd appreciate the help editing. I'll think  about what might constitute suitable quote, although not all of the Horus Heresy Legions have a quote in their introductory page.

 

As for moving the Eternal dirge and Ghost Crusade, thanks for the suggestion but I'm going to keep them where they are. The legion starts the Ghost crusade before being reunited with icarion so It needs to be in play before I introduce him. Also, The Cult of rapture wasn't intended as an exemplary battle, merely a device to introduce the Lightning Bearers psychic talent and their purpose in the plans of the Emperor.

 

In my defense, I cite both the Sons of Horus and Ultramarines entry which have long sections after their origins detailing a few battles to build the character and dynamic of the Legion before introducing the primarch. Both also have separate Exemplary battles in addition to this.

[Chief Captain Redd]

Great job! You guys are killing it! I guess I'll tie myself to my computer today and get the Iron Bears entry done.

[simison]

Fair enough, then I retract my 'Exemplary Battle' suggestion.

 

As to the quotes, It's only in book 1, where a legion doesn't have a quote, even then it's only two legions. In books 2 & 3, every legion has a quote, so I assume going without a quote was an early design that was left behind. The caveat is that I don't have Book 5 and don't know if the Ultramarines come with a quote. Could someone confirm that for me?

 

Glad to hear it, Redd! 

[Praefectus Invictus]

Just checked now and there is a passage quoted from a book, but not from the primarch or any note worthy legionaries.

 

Apologies for not being as active lately, but I haven't really felt that there is much I could contribute to book 1, but I have been really impressed by what you guys are all churning out!

[simison]

So, it looks like quotes are definitely a legion feature. Although I did know how wide and variable the quote can be. It can be from a book, legionnaire, primarch, or anyone really, so long it's about the legion.

 

Glad you're pleased by what you're seeing Invictus. 

[simison]

Origins of the Godslayers

 

As the Unification Wars on Terra drew to a close, the Emperor’s attentions began to spread to beyond the confines of the grey sky.  To undertake his newfound expedition of conquest (aptly named the Great Crusade), he created the Legiones Astartes, armies of superhuman warriors created using the prototype Thunder Warriors as an initial base.

 

The recruits for these new armies were drawn from all across Terra’s scorched surface.  The Godslayers in particular hailed from conquered regions of the Nord Merican Ice Wastes, lands hostile to life with its lack of vegetation and chilling temperatures. The largest of these regions was inhabited by a tribe that called themselves the ‘Hunters of the Greatest Beast’.  This tribe held ancient beliefs hailing back to far before the Dark Age of Technology, beliefs that detailed a Time Before, when one god had ruled over the world in peace.  However, one of this god’s lieutenants had grown ambitious and attempted to seize power.  He was cast out, tumbling down from the god’s sky-realm and crashing into the depths of the earth.  Although he was presumed dead, the Hunters of the Greatest Beast believed that this fallen creature still lingered, and that it was their duty to find him and finish what their god had begun.

 

This tribe was chosen as the primary recruitment pool for the newly born Eighth Legion due to the admirable resistance they put up against the Emperor’s ranks of Thunder Warriors.  This tribe demonstrated incredible resolve, often fighting to the last man, even when outnumbered, simply to protect settlements or important areas from the Emperor’s wrath.  And so it was, when he needed men to form the early cores of his space marine legions, he looked to the lands of the Ice Wastes.  The recruits, on the whole, accepted the VIII^th’s geneseed at exceptional rates, growing the Godslayers into one of the largest legions at the onset of the Emperor’s Great Crusade.

 

Although many of the tribe's customs were kept, the tribal leaders were purged on the Emperor’s order; they, after all, were the religious leaders of the tribes, and in the Emperor’s vision of humanity, religion had no place.  Instead, the Emperor appointed one of his trusted advisors, a noble by the name Prometear Thyris, to command the legion. It was he who would establish the legion's heraldry of orange and grey. Thyris ruled the legion with utter discipline; a necessity as he was able eliminate the unwanted traditions that the tribesmen held on to.  However, this draconian style of command would lead to Thyris refusing to take prisoners, all would pay the price of death for their resistance.  Before the discovery of their Primarch, the Godslayers had hardened into merciless killers.

 

[There's my sweep of the first section. Squig, thoughts?]

[simison]

Also, any preferred titles for the primarch's origin section?

[simison]

Noteworthy Domains:  The Realm of the Sphere (Legion Homeworld) 

 

 Once loyal, and trusted above all others, the Lightning Bearers now stand as a mirror held up to the Imperium itself, a bright light of hope, now corrupted and fallen to eternal darkness.

 

[While I wait for Squig's responses, here's my tweaks on Athrawe's title page. It's the only two spots that needed correcting.]

[Athrawes]

Thanks Simison. Just so you know where I was coming from with the noteworthy domains section. I was basing it entirely off of the ultramarines entry in tempest. As they are the only Cannon legion with an established domain similar, although significantly larger than The Sphere.

 

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/i327/nickfayette1/4ec995a8-e813-494c-8213-5a4f8c6b4806.jpg

 

 

My entry was actually considerable cut down compared to the ultramarines, and while I agree brevity is a good thing, the Ultramarines have set a precedent for a more detailed domains section, where a Legions domains have been more thoroughly described, and I'd say mine has been thoroughly described, I even have a map haha.

 

Even compared to every other legion, the way you cut down the Domains section is well, pretty cut down. May I ask why?

[simison]

Because I don't have the Ultramarines entry. Before that one, most legion entries mention one or two systems, with a few exceptions. So, it's partially basing it on earlier FW work, and I don't try to assume there are other domains to record. For example, some legions have tertiary rights on Terra, but I didn't want to presume.

 

Either way, ignore my recommendation on the domain.

[Big Bad Squig]

Sorry for my lack of response; for the title just use something like The Dreamer's Beginnings

 

In other news, I've written up the first exemplary battle (I'm thinking of getting rid of the Hrud one, or at least tweaking it to be acceptable.)

 

 

 

Despite the tension of their initial meeting, the Emperor and Koschei grew to get along well, the latter eventually being brought into the fold by the Great Crusade being put forward as not an act of war, but an effort to liberate humanity from its xenos overlords.  Daer’dd earned Koschei’s respect, and the two of them became friends, often fighting together on campaigns.

Koschei was placed in command of the Godslayers legion (which bore his gene-seed and so were, like him, powerful warp suppressants).  While he did not desire to reshape his legion as heavily as had others like Raktra Akarro, the acting Legion Master Prometear Thyris earned his immediate disdain.  He saw him as arrogant, and disliked the style of leadership he had adopted over his sons.  However, he realised that to depose him completely would only sour his legion towards their newfound Primarch.  Some, after all, had grown accustomed to their legion’s ruthless operating procedure.

 

The Death of Prometear Thyris

Although it was unknown to many, the first notable engagement of the Godslayers legion was not quite what it seemed.  While travelling from Terra, Koschei’s newly acquired 66^th Expeditionary Fleet passed through an ordinary system, barely ten parsecs into their journey.  They encountered a seemingly occupied world, and the Primarch ordered the fleet to drop into orbit.  From there, Koschei’s flagship Krylataya Pobeda descended to the planet’s surface.  Preliminary scanners and probes indicated large settlements and the presence of human life – though whether as the dominant life form or not was unclear.

The Primarch, on his nephew’s advice, elected to make his presence known.  Ordering for transmissions to be broadcast announcing his arrival to what he hoped to be a friendly human population, he took with him the legion’s elite First Company, as well as Prometear Thyris and his nephew Alexander Kharkovic, who had recently been inducted into the Godslayers on Koschei’s request.  These select warriors were deployed by Thunderhawk into the largest settlement that scanners could detect.  However, no sign of the supposed human occupation could be seen.

Around two hours into the legion’s search, word arrived via vox that heat signatures had been detected half a mile south of their position.  The detatchment of space marines began to move in that direction, but almost immediately were told to hold their ground.  The heat signatures had increased drastically in number, and probes had spotted what appeared to be greenskin technology in the outer reaches of the city.  Within minutes, the xenos had made themselves visible, and began to surround the Primarch’s position.

The first wave of greenskin foot soldiers were cut down with ease by the combi-bolters of the Goliath Terminators.  Koschei himself made an effort to engage as many of the ork leaders as possible in a show of strength directed toward the Terran members of his legion.  His nephew, meanwhile, focused on supporting those units which found themselves struggling, but however many orks were killed, more always surged forwards to fill the gaps the fallen had left.

Soon after the ambush, there arrived a trio of squiggoths to bolster the enemy numbers.  While for a larger force these creatures would not have been a danger, Koschei had only brought with him a reconnaissance force lacking tanks or heavy artillery.  He radioed back to his flagship for reinforcements, while masses of Goliaths hacked at the beasts with their power glaives.

Despite losing many Terminators to their deadly charge, the squiggoths were eventually felled.  This loss damaged the enemy morale, and many greenskins fled the battlefield.  This, combined with occasional, cautious bombing runs executed by passing flyers allowed the Godslayers detatchment to force their attackers to break formation and establish a defensive line.  Now that the detatchment of marines was no longer surrounded, reinforcements were able to reach them using the primitive road systems.  Massed columns of vindicator tanks, rapier weapon batteries and a lone Fellblade crawled forwards, supporting their brothers with vicious suppressive fire.  Koschei’s fighters charged forward, turning the tide on the greenskins as they carved through the line, slaughtering the orks as they took shelter from the bombardment.  Thyris fought his way to the front of the attacking spear, seeking glory for himself.

The xenos were quick to respond, staging a counterattack led by a warboss who had recently arrived on the battlefield.  The legionnaires were ordered to fall back, leading the orks into the jaws of an ambush led by the vindicator siege tanks.  Thyris continued his attack, although whether he was actively disobeying orders or the communication had simply not reached him was unclear.  Some Terran Godslayers opted to fight with him, trying to lead him back to the main line.

Meanwhile, the majority of the fighters under Koschei had fallen back far enough to reach the reinforcements.  Alexander Kharkovic gave the order for the tanks under his command to open fire, despite some marines still being in danger.

Thyris’ group had engaged the first wave of the ork attack when the vindicator shells hit home.  Though they killed many greenskins, Thyris was wounded badly, and many others killed.  He attempted to retreat and radio back to the Primarch to halt the bombardment, but found that his vox was not functioning.  All his efforts to reboot it failed, and the shells continued to rain down on his position.

At that moment, he saw the warboss approaching him.  Despite all his wounds, Thyris stood and fought, being eventually overwhelmed as more and more orks piled into the fight.  With the legion master dead, the orks charged forward.  Into the trap.

Within minutes, the attack had been blunted by the sheer firepower of the Godslayers line.  Heavy bolters and graviton cannons slowed the charge, with sporadic counterattacks halting any groups that drew too close.  In an hour, the entire ork army had routed, fleeing the city to take shelter elsewhere.  In the coming weeks, the ork threat would be almost entirely purged from the planet, and the human population – who were being used as slave-labour by the xenos – were liberated.

It would later emerge that Thyris’ communication systems were sabotaged on the order of Alexander Kharkovic, and that, in fact, the entire battle was engineered as an attempt to stop him from posing what Alexander viewed as a threat to his uncle’s command.

[simison]

Origins: The First Among Equals

 

As the Emperor set his eyes to the stars beyond the unity of Terra, he raised new armies to fight his coming crusade. He drew these in part from the forces aiding him in Terra's Unification, and in part from his subjugated enemies, and besides the Genebreeds, Warwights and battle emissaries were the first of the Legiones Astartes.

 

These Legiones were far from the vast armies in their hundreds of thousands which would later unify the galaxy, but inheritors, bearing the legacy of the Thunder Warriors that had come before them, which together represented a fighting force singular throughout history.

 

The I^st Legion stood sentinel over the creation of the monolithic organization the Legiones Astartes as the Emperors prototypes. Created in secret, bearing the first (and some would claim purest) gene-seed, the Ist legion was believed to have been hand crafted in their alpha stage, by the Emperor and his closest genesmiths. In stark contrast to the larger musters of the later legions, the First (as they had become known) were created in training batches of a dozen aspirants at a time. The remarkable children the Emperor choose for this earliest of experiments were drawn from across Terra from all walks of life, children of noted intelligence, genetic stability and, some would note in hushed circles, bearing a predisposition for unusual gifts. The road to becoming an Astartes is one fraught with peril and difficulty. It goes without saying that many of these earliest implantations would end in tragedy, but the aspirants who survived the prototype stage of genetic enhancement would prove themselves capable and cunning. The surviving proto-I^st-Legionaries trained relentlessly with the most vicious and skilled Thunder Warriors of Unity. It can be said that these early experiments in training regimen and instruction would form the bedrock of generations of legionaries to come. These first warriors were baptized in the fires of unification, with squads of aspirants seconded to grizzled Thunder Warrior Regiments. The aspirants who survived these grueling trials and combat missions would find themselves elevated to the level of the first true legionnaires, bearing advanced and potent forms of powered armor.

 

These first veteran inductees of the I^st eventually formed coteries of experienced officers who would come to oversee the training of future legionnaires of the younger legions. In this fashion, did the Emperor impart a sense of shared brotherhood amongst the earliest Legions, for even decades into the Great Crusade, the younger legions would find themselves seconded officers from The First to help guide them and advise them on the surest way to uphold the emperors vision for humanity.

 

The final years of Terra’s Unification would see the I^st Legion achieve a series of faultless victories which would serve as examples and be lauded by their brother legions until the dying light of the Great Crusade's End.

 

As prototypes to the wider Legiones Astartes, the I^st Legion mastered all manner of warfare in the name of the Emperor, to hone themselves as the perfect instruments of combat. To this end, they began conducting sieges, shock assaults, boarding actions and rescue operations, all the while learning and improving their warcraft, codifying their newly learned strategies for future dissemination. While they excelled in all styles of war, the I^st Legion applied themselves to each warzone in a truly singular manner, for the I^st Legion fought with controlled aggression, every situation and stratagem carefully measured and weighed, to best affect desired outcomes. Perhaps through the influence of their genetic heritage or the use the Emperor put them to, the First become synonymous with intricate, but swift and faultlessly decisive pinpoint assaults, locating a point in the grand scheme of each combat, a fulcrum around which the tide of battle could be swayed by their effortless intercession.

 

In such a manner were some of the greatest victories of late unification won, wherever foes against the enlightenment of mankind could be found, the I^st Legion fought with honor and grace to illuminate mankind and fulfill the vision of the Emperor. If any event from this time speaks to the nature of the Ist Legion, it would be the raising of the crystal fortress, what came to be known as the ‘Silencing of the Eternal Dirge.’

 

 From the darkness of Old Night came the Cult of Rapture, a society of human blood mages and gene-grotesques who reveled in the ritualized slaughter of millions. Over centuries the Cult subjugated the southern Polar Region of Terra enslaving entire generations of that once prosperous region. The Cult was comprised of more than the petty tyrants all too common across Terra at that time. They were instead, an organized religion, exulting the abhorrent mutations of the psyker and worshiping dark and ancient false gods. Each day, thousands of innocents were sacrificed to feed the bottomless hunger of their warlocks, creating in the process a great psychic malignancy afflicting the region known as the Eternal Dirge, a reality-bending affront to the natural order of the universe, both twisting the perception of those enslaved and guiding those who abased themselves to the abhorrent cult. Wherever the Cult’s grotesques were lead by the Dirge, a grisly pogrom was enacted to cull thousands in order to strengthen their enclave and sustain the song which fueled them.

 

Until the coming of the Emperor.

 

As unity slowly began to encompass Terra, the Emperor turned his attentions to the Crystal Fortress of the Cult, the diseased seat of the ritualized power. Every effort of the Emperor’s mortal soldiers and gene crafted thunder warriors to pacify the polar region had met with disaster. More often than not, entire armies were enthralled by the Dirge and turned back to cruelly assail their fellows.

 

The Emperor had foreseen the perils of warpcraft as a threat to his designs and turned to his I^st Legion for the region's deliverance. While all Astartes had been crafted to serve as the Emperor’s greatest warriors, the I^st Legion had been created with a further specialization in mind. To combat the malignancy of rogue psykers and the repugnancy of warpcraft, the Emperor had looked to create warriors in his own image, the wider Legiones Astartes were all meant to reflect aspects of the Emperor, to become embodiments of his might, the I^st Legion however, had been crafted at the genetic level to reflect a shard of the Emperor's psychic might.

 

While it is true that many legions contained warriors proficient in the use of psychic powers, indeed some legions where psychic power was relatively common place, no legion shared the innate and widespread psychic proficiency that became manifest within the First. This genetic propensity towards unlocking humanities psychic potential was further expanded by the Emperor's focused efforts to recruit children with noteworthy and controlled psychic talents into the I^st Legion. 

 

[i've finished my editing run-through. Anything I missed?]

[simison]

The Dreamer's Beginnings

 

Distantly hidden among the stars, on the barren feudal world of Zbruch, a storm was brewing.  To a couple living in a tiny hut in a tiny town, a miracle was bestowed.  The baby to be named Koschei landed in his pod in the street, and was claimed by Iosif Kharkovic, a smallholder living under the tyranny of the High Lord of Zbruch, the world's preeminent sorcerer. Koschei was raised by his adopted family, his adopted parents and younger brother, and taught to follow in his father’s footsteps. As he matured, the young Primarch became the pride of his community with word of his strength and wisdom travelling far and wide across the cold lands. His fame was to be his downfall, for rumours of the man with strength enough to lift whole houses managed to reach the ears of the Zbruchan aristocracy.  The High Lord himself sought to discover for himself the truth about this mythical being; although the quiet hamlet in which Koschei had grown had been fairly unaffected by the Lord’s jurisdiction, a different reality played out elsewhere, a reality that invoked the fear of rebellion in the High Lord. While the disillusioned populace shared a common resentment toward their overlords, but lacked a leader who could harness their strength of will into a power rivaling the aristocracy. It was this possibility the High Lord foresaw Koschei embodying.

 

                And so it was that troops and parades began passing throughout the region. The locals noticed this increase in activity and feared the worst.  Slowly, the High Lord’s soldiers drew ever closer to the Kharkovics and their quiet life of farming, until, one day, Iosif heard a knock at the door. The High Lord himself and his officials greeted him, ordering the family to gather outside the house. Although he was merely a peasantl, Iosif showed great courage when he disobeyed the High Lord's order, determined to protect his family despite the power of the tyrant he faced. Alas, the High Lord would not broker any resistance and ordered Iosif executed without second thought. Before his adopted father's blood had touched the ground, Koschei charged the High Lord and his elite guards. Prepared for the worst, one hundred of the High Lord's finest warriors had accompanied him. In the span of minutes, half their number lay on the ground, their bodies broken by the Primarch's blows. Yet, Koschei had never mastered the arts of battle and was unarmed. Bleeding from a dozen wounds, Koschei collapsed. 

 

A more paranoid tyrant would've executed Koschei lest he had a chance to become a more lethal threat. However, the High Lord was cunning, seeing a powerful ally in Koschei. When Koschei next awoke, he found himself in the chambers of the High Lord of Zbruch. The Lord was satisfied; the potential revolutionary had been neutralised. Now, he sought to transform Koschei from a potential threat into his greatest soldier. The High Lord showered the young Primarch with gifts and luxuries. As Koschei's fury weakened, the High Lord gradually inducted Koschei into the ways of war. In short time, Koschei became the most dangerous man on Zbruch. Times heals all wounds, even the deaths of fathers. Koschei's memories of his simple life before faded away. 

 

It was not to be. 

 

{One day, Koschei wished for a momentary reprieve from his opulent life and walked outside the palace walls. What was to be a brief journey grew in weight as Koschei saw the misery and hardship the High Lord inflicted upon his people. Worse still were the reactions of the common folk to him. They cowered before the High Lord's pawn, pleading for their lives whenever Koschei attempted to merely talk with them. Horrified by their fear and their suffering, Koschei returned to the palace a changed man, his mind filled with raw, unvarnished truth. The legion of luxuries awaiting him back at the palace rang hollow to the Primarch. He began to shun them. Not long after, the High Lord learned of the changes to Koschei's behavior and of his unauthorized visit to the peasantry.}

 

 

Insert fluff here

 

[Here's another section proof-read. I thought there was a section on Koschei's rebellion, but it wasn't there. This is my attempted recreation of it within the {}. How is it?]

[Big Bad Squig]

I have written a section, but clearly have not copy-pasted it properly. I'll try and dig it up from within my computer...