In Memory of the Abyssal Crusade

[CYGNUS]

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Abyssal_Crusade

For those readers unfamiliar with the Tragedy of the Judged, The Abyssal Crusade was the penance taken upon themselves by Thirty whole Chapters of the Beloved Astartes when (in the wake of Warp Storm Dionys, during the fourth century M37) they were decreed irrevocably Tainted by the incumbent Ecclesiarch Saint Basillius the Elder - having been found wanting where hundreds of other Chapters had been deemed Pure even after the recent depredations of The Warp, having been condemned by an Imperial Saint and being Space Marines they decided that the only way to wipe clean the blot on their escutcheon was to charge into the Eye of Terror itself then die doing their best to wreck havoc amongst the Traitors dwelling there until the very Ruinous Powers went blind with Rage.

At thirty Chapters strong this was one of the largest single assemblies of Astartes Might between the Ending of the Beheading in M32 (where 50 Chapters were represented, albeit not necessarily fielded) and the suppression of the Macharian Heresy in M41 (said to have required ONE HUNDRED Chapters): it was also a Disaster on a scale seldom seen even in the Military History of a frequently-bloodied Imperium, with only six Chapters believed to have avoided unforgivable Corruption (of which only TWO are known to still serve the Imperium).

Put simply this is a Drama and a Tragedy of the highest order, yet we know almost NOTHING about the Protagonists who played their part in this Calamitous sequence of events - it is my dearest Hope to rectify that lack of knowledge and after almost a month of work I have high hopes that I have at least the basics of all thirty Chapters worked out to my satisfaction.

However, as any writer who retains the faintest spark of honesty knows, even if they are their own harshest critic self-criticism is seldom as helpful as a second (or a third or even a fourth!) opinion from a knowledgeable source: I therefore intend to ask the assembled community if they would care to take a look at what I have for those Chapters known as The Judged and offer suggestions on how I might improve them.

Within a day or two I shall start posting my take on the Luckless Thirty: I hope that even where that work is found wanting, it shall at least be deemed to have something worth reading.

[Grand Master Belial]

Looking forward to it.

 

As I said in the prior thread. I hope to start up a competition March 1st to write up Index Astartes articles. I have the prior years in my Signature (BotA 12, 14 & 15). My plan is to expand it to the other subforms and see if the participation grows.

[Erasus]

This is a big event in the 40k Imperium, I'm up for helping out

[Nomus Sardauk]

Interesting, I must admit I've always wanted to know more about the Abyssal Crusade and the unfortunate Chapters that constituted it.

 

Honestly I reckon it'd make an interesting Badab War-esque Imperial Armour, they could give greater insight into each Chapter's awful fate as well as their different histories before the Crusade, they could show what happens afterwards when the surviving Judged return to exact revenge upon St.Basillius, then what they've done since (I'm very curious to know what the Vorpals Swords have been up to).

[Erasus]

Didn't one of them have half turn traitor or something? I'm sure there's a Chapter that once they're back one of their own (but Nurglised) tries to persuade them to Chaos but they tell him to naff off, even hide him from the Inquisition

 

* thank you Olis for finding a more suitable alternative there, my apologies

[Erasus]

Doom Legion!

Got it

[CYGNUS]

One has to admit that I actually had my own take on the Doom Legion/Vectors of Pox all finalised BEFORE I learned that some portion of the Chapter had not actually participated in the Abyssal Crusade and remained part of the Adeptus Astartes to this day - the slightly scary thing is that the version I'd rolled out actually fitted quite neatly with what little is known about the Chapter on Wikipedia (to the point that they were even Ultramarines successors!), even down to the 'subtle' allusions to Doctor Doom! (although I fully intend to make some 'subtle' references to The Legion of Doom from DC comics for the sake of variety).;)

 

  By the way Erasus, thank you for your pledge of support - I shall do my best to repay your kindness with the Good Stuff, so far as ideas for Chapter Lore go - and I have to agree that one of the best things about being a 40K Fan is the fact that the length of the canon and the sheer SCALE of The Dark Millennium allows one a truly immense number of Historical Events, Persons and Factions only alluded to with a tantalising lack of detail then never developed upon.

 

This sort of thing truly is catnip to anyone who wants to be a writer, I find! (I have to admit to being fascinated by the Black Crusades of Abbadon the Despoiler - given how large they tend to be, given their Threat Level to EVERYONE, the little that we know can only be called the tip of a ship-ripping iceberg! - by the Mancharian Heresy and by the War of the False Primarch in particular, although quite a lot of other elements pique my Interest).^_^

 

Interesting, I must admit I've always wanted to know more about the Abyssal Crusade and the unfortunate Chapters that constituted it.

 

     

 So did I - then I discovered the Chapter Creation tables from Deathwatch, discovered how FUN they were, put these two elements together and then ... well, I have Thirty whole Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes burning a hole in my reservations where actually posting my work for the interested public to poke fun at is concerned!:blink:

 

Honestly I reckon it'd make an interesting Badab War-esque Imperial Armour, they could give greater insight into each Chapter's awful fate as well as their different histories before the Crusade, they could show what happens afterwards when the surviving Judged return to exact revenge upon St.Basillius, then what they've done since (I'm very curious to know what the Vorpals Swords have been up to).

 

  
Lord Sanguinus, I personally believe that one doesn't want to go into TOO much detail about the events of the Abyssal Crusade AS A WHOLE (since such a long roll of Tragedies, Terrors and Fruitless Victories would probably reduce the sternest reader to a horrible state of Depression), but I definitely agree that there's a good deal in this story to inspire an adaption - as a fan of the Imperial Armour series myself, I tend to think that the best way to represent Larger Conflicts through that medium would be to focus on Battles or Campaigns that encapsulate the key elements (Factions, Motivations, Fighting Conditions etc) rather than try to stuff the entire War into a single tome (so instead of trying to refight the entire Mancharian Heresy, I'd show a planetary system that was repeatedly fought over by the various factions tearing the Crusade apart - before those factions were all torn to species by a terrifying concentration of Astartes).

 

So instead of telling the tale of the entire Abyssal Crusade I'd probably follow the Vorpal Swords and their section of the Crusade throughout (one tends to assume that this element of the Crusade included the Chorus of Eltain and The Prophets of Mercury at the very least - both listed as Martyr Extremis); The other Judged Chapters would be alluded to (and hopefully fully-illustrated, pre- and post-Crusade, as a Gallery), but I tend to imagine that a series of Index Astartes articles would work even better than an Imperial Armour sourcebook as a way of developing on The Judged (and I would particularly like to let audiences know just enough to inspire their own ideas & speculation, rather than tell them so much they just adopt the articles verbatim ).

 

To be honest one of the elements I find most interesting about the whole business is the process by which the Judged persuaded the Inquisition (not the most trusting individuals) that Saint Basillius was corrupt and were then granted the right to mete out punitive Justice upon the Traitor Saint - I actually posted a very brief series of articles in the 'Fan Fiction' section giving a little of my initial take on events, but I've changed my mind concerning certain details since it was posted.

 

In general my version of events remain the same: representatives from The Ordo Malleus and the Ordo Hereticus deadlocked at the tribunal examining the Judged (the former supporting their old Ally Basillius the Elder, the latter having nursed severe suspicions for YEARS as the Witch-Hunters tend to where any unusually Charismatic figure is concerned) so the Ordo Xenos broke the deadlock by advocating that the matter be settled through Trial by Combat - put simply the remnants of the Abyssal Crusade would be required to defeat the Saint's Champions or themselves be proven corrupt.

 

As it turned out the residents of an entire Shrine World (amongst others) came forward to defend their Saint's Name; a highly-volcanic world roughly divided between incredibly verdant agricultural developments and a wasteland of ash & molten rock, populated by descendants of the 'Puritas Divisions' who had helped support the former Ecclesiarch during his Glory Days (presumably Scourging and Purging while he was diverted by Ecclesiastical politics and the odd church social), a heavily-armed world at the forefront of Crusades and other, less pacific Missionary Endeavours Ignatius Tertiary was a hard nut to crack ... and the Judged were very near the end of their strength.

 

Being Space Marines, they won the Trial by Combat in the end - not least because they penetrated the resting place of the Traitor Saint and discovered him to be sleeping in a bed, rather than in a crypt (everyone having assumed that Basillius the Elder having died long since, having retired from his Illustrious Position long since ... and having achieved a nigh-inhuman old age even then) - but it cost the Chorus and the Prophets everything they had left.

it would be a long time before the Vorpal Blades were able to return to the prosecution of the Emperor's Enemies (and far, far longer before they were willing to work with the Inquisition); I will note here that I actually HAVE worked out what the Vorpal Blades and the Doom Legion have been up to since M38, which you may well be either rather glad or slightly-disappointed to know.;)

 

Looking forward to it.

 

 

Grand Master, I hope that my humble efforts shall fully merit and properly-reward your anticipation!:)

[CYGNUS]

The following are my first efforts to post those ideas for the Luckless Thirty which I have conceived - some of them are based firmly on the results of rolling on the Chapter Creation Tables from DEATHWATCH, others on inspiration that occurred to me through word association based on the Chapter Names, others from less explicable sources; the format is experimental, but will I hope prove engaging enough to retain interest.

Wish me Luck!

[Midgard]

Looking forward to reading this!

[CYGNUS]

ALTAR BRETHREN (M33)

 A fleet-based Chapter centred around 9 key vessels (Chapter Serfs granted significant trust by their Astartes, in essence operating as Stewards of the Fleet while the Space Marines prepare for Campaign and actually Wage War): thought to have drawn recruits from a series of worlds along the Pilgrim Trail of Saint Pythia with which they became particularly associated (although they had recruited from worlds more widely-scattered before that).

 

 Chapter was of Ultramarines Stock and unsurprisingly noted for the Particular Honour in which they held the Codex Astartes (following it's teachings and practicing the disciplines it espouses quite meticulously), as well as arguably holding the name of Primarch Guilliman in greater reverence than the Emperor Himself. Spotless image only flawed by insinuations of a Chapter Cult more influenced by the Inhuman Ideals of Xenos than is seemly: an unending series of conflicts with the Ork-brutes for whom they appear to have nursed a particular antipathy appears to have instilled in some of the Altar Brethren a conviction that life was one long war-game and that their sole purpose in life was to win it as impressively as possible (a belief that may have fuelled their fondness for 'Shock and Awe' tactics & strategies).

 

To add a little amusing irony, I'd depict this Chapter Cult as confusing Warhammer 40, 000 with Chess, blissfully convinced that pure Intellect (in the form of Tactics and Strategy) was the key to victory and quite blind to the key role played by the rattle of dice in their Success or Failure.

 

       
M33:-
Founded to Crusade against an Eldar Craftworld that had meddled once too often in the affairs of the Imperium since First Contact (in M32), The Altar Brethren were to suffer severe frustration in their quest to bring this particular foe to bay; Not only were these Xenos elusive, they none-the-less displayed considerable abilities when it came to inflicting stinging defeats on the Chapter (striking with all the sudden lethality of a lightning bolt from a clear sky, electrified by the masterful fury and skill displayed by the Warrior Aspects that seemed drawn to this Craftworld in such numbers) even when not swamping their pursuers with the Ork Populations they appear to have somehow employed as attack dogs and stalking horse (frequently launching their precision strikes while the Brethren were busy with the massed assaults of the Greenskins).

 

The Great Hero of this Age was the Master of Sanctity, who became famous both for the toll in blood and bones he exacted from the Orks, as well as for the fiery pitch of fury directed against the Eldar (the True Enemy) which he maintained in the hearts of his Marines even as they were so often thwarted.  

 

Chapter Strength: Nominal.
Allies: Adeptus Arbites.
Enemies: Craftworld Eldar.

 

 

M34:-
After almost a thousand years of pursuit, The Altar Brethren at last pinned down and shattered the Craftworld that had eluded them for so long, anticipating their every action with astonishing precision through the efforts of the Farseer who appears to have been their Greatest Hero - and whose formidable Powers, along with the potency observed in even a Craftworld of the most modest scale (as this one was) very nearly transformed a Great Imperial Victory into a Disaster.

 

Had it not been for the particularly-heroic efforts of a Librarian seconded from the Viridian Consuls (whose powers had in fact revealed the Craftworld, but who had been unable to convince his Chapter to pursue this foe - given the recent loss in transit of much of their Chapter, as well as the major Waaagh! that was commanding the attention of both Chapters and threatening to divert their assets towards other war-zones at the time), it is not impossible that this Craftworld would have continued to attract soldiers of the Eldar seeking to be healed (or seeking the chance to don the armour of an Aspect Warrior, if only their bodies could be mended) and limped on despite the pitiful population levels this particular world-vessel maintained despite the attentions of a whole Chapter of Astartes and the Ork-Bands they had driven before them (or pulled after them) to exhaust the enemy.

 

By all accounts the duel between these two Psykers was truly spectacular - this brother of the Viridian Consuls in fact won such respect from The Altar Brethren (and roused such indignation in his own Chapter after his 'desertion' that he was Seconded to the Brethren, becoming their Chief Librarian and charged with replacing the losses sustained in psychic combat with the Eldar.       

 

Chapter Strength: Nominal.
Allies: Adeptus Astartes (Another Chapter).
Enemies: Orks.

 

 

M35:-
Continuing their Crusade even after the destruction of it's initial target, The Altar Brethren struggled against the attentions of Ork Waaaghs! even after the destruction of the Craftworld and the Farseer that had been thought the source of this sometime-inconvenient diversion; it would seem that the destruction of the Craftworld and their own successes against the Greenskins had been so spectacular that the Brutes had come to regard the Chapter as a particularly worthy target; nevertheless it was not the Ork-Waves that would be remembered in Chapter Legends of this time (no matter the persistent attrition the Chapter suffered even in Victory).

 

Summoned to assist the Imperial Guard in completing the Siege of a modest secessionist enclave armoured in the fabric of a mighty fortress even after General Grim (then-famed as a Feral World native who had mastered the engines of war, known as 'Daddy Gun' to his crews) turned a siege that might have lasted years into a matter of months (so that months might be turned into weeks or even less): in truth they were summoned as much because disquieting rumours that a Rebellion had been Warped into Heresy and that a Summoning of something more terrible even than the Astartes was being plotted in a desperate bid to turn an Imperial Victory into Triumph for the Ruinous Powers.

 

The Altar Brethren struck swift and sure, targeting Ritual Sites that had been laid out within the Fortress City, leaving only a few squads in reserve and the Imperial Guard to hold the perimeter so that there would be no risk of Daemonic contamination (nor the requisite purge): they were not too late, but they were utterly deceived - infiltrators had been smuggled or otherwise worked their way into the largest single Guard Field Hospital, had seized it and performed the Ritual perfectly at the Seventh site selected.

 

A Great Unclean One (that proclaimed itself 'Uncle Anthrax') entered the Material World and proceeded to wreck havoc amongst the rear echelon of Guard Forces (devouring General Grim, amongst others); The Altar Brethren still in Orbit launched a deep strike with the intent of delaying the beast until the bulk of Chapter forces could be mustered against this florid monstrosity, but despite inflicting some wounds upon the creature were utterly savaged in their turn - the last survivor was actually seen to turn and RUN, with the Great Unclean One electing to follow after him.

 

A record was left of the Beast's remarks upon beholding this unusual spectacle: "Running away AND screaming, little brother marine? We ARE learning something of the Humanities from old Uncle Anthrax aren't we? aren't they fascinating? I'll have you known I'm an EXPERT Humanitarian and let me - wait, I know terror and that isn't screaming ..."

 

<Looks Up from his chase.>

 

"Oh ... BLAST."- last words of the Great Unclean One 'Uncle Anthrax' before being subjected to bombardment by Imperial Earth-shakers (shells that had been carefully painted with the appropriate Runes on the orders of the superstitious General Grim Just In Case) re-targetted at the direct of the Brother who had very drawn the Daemon into their firing line: he was later found lacking a limb, but still conscious and carefully ensuring that the Nurglings that sprang up from the Great Beast were corralled for purging with Fire (although contrary to later legends he was employing his bolter as a mace, rather than his own limb - not wishing to see the Armour corroded by contact with a Daemon).         

 

Chapter Strength: Under Strength.
Allies: Imperial Guard.
Enemies: Orks.

 

M36:-

A Millennium during which the Chapter slowly rebuilt it's strength after the brutal attrition of small Ork-Wars and the brief, terrible eruption of 'Uncle Anthrax' that had cost them more Marines in the space of ten minutes than any other enemy encountered at any other time in the Thirty-Sixth Millennium; the pace of this process was much-improved by the assistance of the Adeptus Mechanicus either thanks to (or in the interests of securing) the assistance rendered to the Mechanicum by the Chapter when it drove off an attempt by Speed-Freaks to turn a mere drive-by into a full-blown WAAAGH! at the expense of a minor Forge World.

 

So successful were these efforts to rebuild the strength of the Altar Brethren that they were found to have exceeded the numbers allotted to any single Chapter by investigators from the Ordo Astartes; the outcome of this discovery was a deep split between the leadership of the Chapter - on one side those who agreed with the Chapter Master that this was a fine opportunity to create a Successor that might perpetuate the lineage of the Altar Brethren as they themselves perpetuated the honoured line of the Ultramarines; others, the much smaller number spoken for by the Master of Sanctity, disdained such council and demanded that this surplus strength be not only retained but added to - invoking the Black Templars in particular as justification for the acquisition of every ounce of fighting strength by a Crusading Chapter.

 

It was only the intervention of the Inquisitor in question (the peculiarly-named Inquisitor Scammer, presumably turning some nickname bestowed by blue-blooded peers into a codename for the duration of her Inquisitorial duties) that the Master of Sanctity was saved from the acute displeasure of a Chapter that quite literally venerated the Codex Astartes - despite his long service, the Chaplain was exiled for his own safety (taking service as a Black-shield with the Deathwatch) and an outsider, Chaplain Kor'chin - a diligent exponent of the Codex - seconded from the White Scars to serve as master of a Reclusium now regarded with some distrust by the Chapter (rumours that the good Chaplain had been a little TOO Codex for the peace of the more flexible White Scars followed him but did not hurt his chances of making a good start with the Altar Brethren).

It was under these unlikely - and somewhat troubling - circumstances that the Altar Brethren acquired the services of their most famous Hero of the 36th Millennium, an officer that would play a particularly notable role in the pursuit and suppression of the abominable Kabal of the Lidless Eye, a hunt that carried the Chapter the length and breadth of the Pilgrim Trail of Saint Pythia for what is noted to have been the last time in their History.  
                   

Whether or not the Altar Brethren in fact produced a Successor Chapter remains uncertain - it has been claimed that the Chapter simply lost these extra Battle-Brothers in a particularly brutal three-way battle with the Forces of Chaos and Ork Speed Freaks (some of the latter quite possibly survivors or spawn of the Raiders previously butchered by the Chapter for this battle is noted to have taken place on a Forge World, although whether Major or Minor is unknown) - but it is not impossible that a Chapter still in Imperial Service may trace it's descent to the Altar Brethren, yet deny that fact in public).

 

 

Hero of Legend: Seconded Master of Sanctity, Bane of Dark Eldar.
Chapter Strength: Over Strength.
Allies: Adeptus Mechanicus.
Enemies: Orks.

 

M37:-
The dawn of the 37th Millennium found the Altar Brethren busy as ever hounding and being hounded by the Greenskin Clans & Hordes whom they had slaughtered (and on occasion been butchered by) over the course of the Chapter's History; it was in fact this relentless grudge against the Green-Beasts that brought the Chapter within the reach of Warp Storm Dionys when that lamentable eruption of Warp-Perversion inflicted itself upon the unsuspecting border-spaces between the Segmentum Solar and the Segmentum Obscurus (coming to the aid of a Feudal World that had been reduced almost to a wasteland by the efforts of a Greenskin Incursion that had somehow divided against itself - possibly owing to overconfidence in their technological superiority over these "Primate-Hive 'Umies" - just in time for the Brethren to storm onto the scene and shatter these quarrelling hordes into even smaller pieces).

 

The Chapter reacted badly to the wave of mutations afflicting its membership; its numbers were smaller than they had been, but the swift and merciless purging of those that bore the Marks of Chaos left it smaller still - a tragic loss of aspirants and novices that pained the Chapter, but which proved insupportable when coupled with the shame of being Judged and found wanting by Saint Basillius; The Altar Brethren were not only amongst the strongest advocates of a Penitential Crusade, they had in fact sent the first scouts into the Eye of Terror to identify potential targets for such an endeavour.

 

It should surprise no-one that the Captain of the Altar Brethren's Tenth Company has been listed as the first casualty of the Abyssal Crusade - Lost to the Warp as he attempted to re-enter the Eye, followed by his Chapter as the spearhead of the Crusade; it was an incident that could not be mistaken for a coincidence by any observer with an idea of the humour smirking at the heart of the Ruinous Powers.          

 

Hero of Legend: Company Captain (10th Company) Lost to the Warp.
Chapter Strength: Under Strength.
Allies: PDF Force.
Enemies: Orks

 

ICONOCLASTS

While knowledge of the Traitor relict that lingers on in thrall to the Ruinous Powers after the demise of the Altar Brethren during the Abyssal Crusade is unsurprisingly more scarce and unreliable than that left in the Imperial Record, it IS known that this particular Warband remains at best mercenary in its devotion to their Dark Gods - though under the leadership of 'The Scourge of the Pythian Trail' (a Terminator who has spread suffering and death across far too many Imperial Worlds at the head of his war-band) the Iconoclasts have shattered uncounted icons of the Imperium, in truth they have more often been found in company with Xenos than with Daemons (most commonly the Dark Eldar).

 

 Interestingly the only Imperial Icons which they have spared to date in the course of their pernicious campaigns have been those associated with their own ancestral Battle-Brothers (and even the Ultramarines), which has encouraged some of the more Radical elements within the Inquisition to believe that the Iconoclasts have not so much left Humanity behind as they have abandoned the imperium - a happy illusion banished by the Marks of the Dark Gods these Traitor Marines bear upon their person (most notably the 'Breath of Disillusion' a potent weapon broadcast from the mouths of these Renegades when not engaged in slander against the Imperium) and the carnage they wreck upon those Populations that disdain to be added to The Lost and the Damned.

 

Amongst the most diligent and indefatigable opponents of the Iconoclasts, the Imperial Harbingers of the Adeptus Astartes must take pride of place - repeatedly found hard at the heels of the Traitors as they seek to bring an end to their sacrilegious Vandalism - an enemy so indomitable that the Iconoclasts appear to have made common cause with another Warband to bolster their numbers in the face of the losses taken during the course of such unrelenting pursuit.

 

The persistence of the Imperial Harbingers is all the more laudable given the nasty irony that the so-called Sentinel Founding (during the course of which this Chapter was created) had been intended to fill the gaps in the ranks of the Adeptus Astartes left by the loss of the Judged, with the example of those Penitent Martyrs held up as an ideal to which their Successors could only aspire when confronted with adversity - the Iconoclasts, you see, are not only being hunted by their replacements but by Battle-Brothers who were taught to regard them as amongst the most Heroic of Imperial Martyrs.

 

[CYGNUS]

Please forgive me, this is NOT the finished post, but Time has run away from me and I have errands yet to run - consider this a Work in Progress and a representative sample of the format I intend to adopt (Will finish this later in the day).

By the way, thank you very much for your interest Midgard.

[CYGNUS]

The full version of my first photo-article in now complete; consider it a taste of things to come, although I may adjust the format in the interests of readability (or just so that it takes slightly less time to put up an article!) - any thoughts, suggestions or constructive criticism would be welcome (I'm particularly interested in finding out whether this article is either 'Too Much' or 'Not Enough' so far as content goes).

[CYGNUS]

ARGENT HAMMERS

Named for the twin vessels at the heart of this Fleet-based Chapter (the HAMMER OF TREASON and THE HAMMER OF DISCORD), the Argent Hammers were only one of the many Brotherhoods of Astartes Founded to counter that green-skinned nemesis The Beast and make good the losses inflicted upon the Adeptus Astartes by its hordes (M32) - and like all too many of these freshly-minted Chapters, by the time their Founding was complete there was scarcely enough left of those hordes to blood the Chapter. In truth the first great Battle honours of this Chapter were won against their own species, suppressing the rebellions provoked by the massive war-levies, questionable leadership and great losses suffered during the War against The Beast; this role as Imperial Enforcer and the ugly reputation that came with it would prove difficult for the Argent Hammers to shake (although unlike their near-Contemporaries the Marines Malevolent, the Argent Hammers would at least continue to make the attempt).

 

 It was at this time that the Argent Hammers were denied their first chance to go to war alongside elements of the old First Legion, their progenitors the Dark Angels; it was a long-anticipated campaign cancelled at the last moment after the Firstborn Sons of the Lion abruptly re-tasked their forces, heading for the Eye of Terror without apology or explanation at the command of their Grand Master in order to wage some Forgotten Wars: while Chapter Master Elyas, the first Grand Master of the Argent Hammers (himself seconded from the Dark Angels) was able to smooth feathers ruffled by this abrupt volte-face and in fact achieved fame as a Hero of the Chapter the magnificent discharge of commitments passed on to the Hammers by the Progenitors (with some rare vehicles from the Armouries of the Imperium comprising part of their thanks), this was perceived by some at the time as a slight on the honour of the Argent Hammers and by later generations as the root of their misfortunes (a failure to secure some Blessing from their Progenitors at the earliest possible opportunity leaving a chink in their spiritual armour).

 

 

However the greatest honours of the Chapter were still to be won; most famously the laurels acquired during the suppression of the St Jowen's Mutiny in M33 (one of the largest in the history of the Imperial Navy), demonstrating the Ship-Handling expertise and mastery of Void Operations which would become the Chapters signature (some would say obsession) in the Millennia that was to come as they suppressed the Mobs of Naval Ratings that had massacred their taskmasters and come close to seizing absolute power over a major portion of Battlefleet Solar for the furtherance of plans unknown (though rendered moot only through a gritty resistance by the Battle-fleet's Armsmen and the fortunate arrival of the Argent Hammers, on the wings of a Warp-Storm).

 

 As the last living Hero of this operation, Brother-Sergeant Bethor (the most Ancient of the Chapter's Dreadnoughts) was forever glad to remind any who asked, "The Chapter lost brothers, but not a single ship to either those accursed Mutineers OR their stolen Guns" a not-inconsiderable achievement, especially with the aforementioned Warp Storm denying any other outcome than Victory or Death).

 

 

After such a display of prowess in Void Combat, even the mighty Ultramarines were not too proud to call on the expertise of the Argent Hammers - the beginning of the Chapter's finest hour, their Master of Sanctity Chaplain Ignis firing the hearts of those who had been held in thrall by the Ork Warlords who had swept across the Parhelion Sector like the spiked head of a morning star (crushing spirits and shattering resistance wheresoever they found them) before an Imperial counter-attack with the Ultramarines and the Argent Hammers at the spearhead (the latter trusted to marshal Fleet Operations of the Astartes for the duration of the campaign) cast them back into the void whence they came - the campaign was such a triumph that natives of the Parhelion Sector submitted themselves as Aspirants to the Argent Hammers in such numbers that the Chapter not only replaced losses inflicted by the Crusade but briefly exceeded the numbers allowed to a Chapter (although the widespread commitments of the Chapter appear to have concealed this fact).

 

So high did the Chapter's Stock stand at this time (M35) in the wake of the Parhelion Crusade (a triumph tarnished only by the fact that certain 'Warrior Brotherhoods' of Humans had so forsaken their species as to serve the Orks in battle as "something superior to a gretchin but far less than a man") that the Argent Hammers were trusted to mentor the newly-Founded Bronze Gorgons in the course of their First campaign (each Chapter distinguishing themselves against the Orks of the WAAAGH! Brekka, with Epistolary Typhon of the Argent Hammers and Captain Nikephoros Paullion of the Bronze Gorgons particularly distinguishing themselves during the campaign).

Yet it was all too soon after this peak of their glory (sometime in M36) that the Chapter began to suffer the first presentiments of some oncoming Doom, observed in the frighteningly-high loss rate amongst Aspirants both during and after the implantation of those special organs required to transform a mortal youth into a fully-mature Astartes, beginning a long and steady decline of the Chapter's strength despite the sustained efforts of it's Apothecaries, efforts lent an edge of desperation by the Prophecy that a Daemon in the Blood would be the Chapter's Doom: already noted for a preference for the discipline of ranged combat over the uncertainties of close-quarters actions (both on planetary surfaces and in fleet actions), the Chapter began to practice tactics and strategies as cautious as any fit to be employed by those that Know no Fear - culminating in the decision of the Argent Hammers to shatter a Hive rather than risk engaging a Bloodthirster of Khorne on that world's surface (a decision only forestalled by the gallant efforts of Calibos, future Master of the Forge and a Marine brave enough to bait a Bloodthirster and crafty enough to booby-trap the beast, holding it just long enough for the Ordo Malleus to take custody of this vile entity).

 

Hopes that defeating this Daemon Prince would be enough to break the Curse all too many of the Chapter's Brothers feared lay at the root of their problems with ensuring sufficient Aspirants survived to become Novices - it was not to be and instead the decline seemed to increase, as the Argent Hammers continued to bleed out it's strength cut-by-cut as it campaigned against the Enemies of the Imperium (most successfully against the Kabal of the Poison Whisper, a campaign during which Master of the Forge Calibos once again distinguished himself); it was in fact this history of strange infections sapping the strength of its brothers, as much as the Mutation visited upon the Chapter by Warp Storm Dionys which persuaded the Argent Hammers that only the rigours of a Penitent Crusade could cleanse their Chapter's soul of the Curse held to linger upon it. 
                              

TALONS OF ANTHRAX

The Chapter was not mistaken in it's belief that its tormentor might be found within the Eye of Terror, but mistaken in the belief that the 'Daemon in Blood' served Khorne; they were consequently ill-prepared to counter the manipulation of Nurgle that had been inflicted upon their Chapter and by the End those last Loyalists in the Chapter were slain, the Argent Hammers twisted into the Talons of Anthrax so that they might serve as the personal retainers of the Daemon Prince who had plotted this outcome all the while - and who was pleased to dub himself "Lion's Ruin" upon achieving this triumph, even as it crashed from the potential into the Actual.

 

Since this dreadful transition the brutal infections that cost the Hammers so many of their aspirants afflicted ALL the Warband that had been pieced together from the remains of a once-noble Chapter, reducing the majestic physique of the Astartes to rotting ruin, yet in truth the numbers of the Talons of Anthrax have only grown with time - apparently through the offer of asylum and a new identity for those lingering elements of the Black Legion that revered the memory of Horus more than they feared the fury of the Despoiler: as recorded by their diligent opponent Inquisitor Barbosa (Radical and source of much of the lore concerning those Warbands that are the Unquiet Shades of the Judged Chapters), the Talons of Anthrax actually exceed the number of a Codex Chapter in part through this support, partly by the recruitment of the Lost and the Damned to their banners and in part because they have preferred to practice the most brutal Scorched Earth policy to be imagine.

 

If a planet resists, then they will destroy it, all in the interests of ensuring that the Warband will lose Material rather than Manpower (and in the Hope of instilling such fear into the Imperium that future targets will submit rather than be extinguished in such a fashion - a possibility substantially increased by the Talons' habit of picking Soft Targets). 

 

That is they will destroy it unless some Imperial Force can drive them away before their preparations for such an execution can be interrupted.

[CYGNUS]

BLADES ETERNAL

Though the twists and turns and tragedies they passed through remains known only to themselves, the final fate of the Judged Chapters - whether Treachery or Martyrdom or Absolution - has entered the Imperial Record, that it may become known to those fit to be entrusted with such hard truths as the downfall of the Loyal through the unhallowed hand of the Ruinous Powers (or as others would prefer to believe, more through the failures of the Imperium than the triumphs of those that served the Dark Gods; I know not whether to think this Cynicism or Optimism, for truly it diminishes the influence of the Ruinous Powers over the course of events at the cost of showing the Judged Chapters in a less-than-flattering light).

 

The fate of the Blades Eternal is not nearly so transparent; in truth this was a Chapter that cultivated mystery so that it might sow the seeds of Terror amongst the Enemies of HIM on Earth, all the better to reap those foes, even before it passed through the very Eye of Terror itself to unknowable effect; its fleeting reappearances in the Material over the course of the many centuries since that bitter moment in 321.M37 have done nothing to make transparent their present demeanour, the purpose and least of all the Loyalties of this Chapter that could only ever be glimpsed as though for an instant through the all blackness of a Dark and Stormy Night in the sudden, blinding flash of a lightning bolt as it pierces the murk.

In truth the rumours and the terror that goes before the Blades Eternal is perhaps to be expected in a Chapter of the Blessed Astartes, who "known no fear for we are Fear Incarnate" and all the more so in one that was headquartered upon the Sepulchre-World of Attela Tertia (more often simply Atella Sepulcris), planted there to watch over the mortal remains and memorials of the martyrs and the mighty crusaders sent to their rest there - said by some to have been a particular focus for the blessed spectres many believe to have risen up to thwart encroaching minions of the Warp during the Year of Ghosts in M33 and therefore worthy beyond all question of the Fortress-Monastery planted there a Millennium later (M34).

 

 

Whatever the truth underpinning such folklore, the Blades Eternal (of uncertain Genetic Stock, but of unquestioned genetic Purity) looked to such legends as the foundation of all their practices - the quiet of the grave and the terror of the Dead that they would wield as a weapon alongside chainsword & bolter, the veneration of Heroes that had gone before them (in particular the Battle-brothers that were their own predecessors) that was written in the totems crafted from honoured bones and other relics of the departed that festooned their persons, that were held to have tempered their Loyalty to the Brothers that fought beside them in battle (of their own and any other Chapter above all) into a bond thought potent enough to overpower the grave itself.

 

In truth the orthodoxy of the Blades Eternal was ever in question (both by the Ecclesiarchy and the more temperamental exponents of the Codex Astartes), but their loyalty to the Adeptus Astartes and the Imperium was never put to the question - especially after their valiant efforts on the part of the Justiciars (a nascent Chapter to whom they owed no loyalty either through ancient Pact, bond of Battle or Genetic Ties, yet to whose aid they flew without question or delay) "for the Brotherhood between Astartes, for the Emperor and for our Ancestors" when the Justiciars found their Chapter Homeworld imperilled by Ork forces of unknown origin in M36 - not until the debut of Basillius the Elder, Traitor Saint.

 

 

Of the great campaigns of this Chapter little enough is known - for witnesses of their wars seldom cared to recall the sights they experienced - but of what remains to History the most famous by first must be the Resurrection of Styke (M35), where the Blades Eternal first clashed with the Kabal of the Twin Furies (a band of the most profane sort of Eldar corsairs that appear to have been exiled to Human space, then made themselves first comfortable upon and then masters of the World upon which they had been cast down): the Human Population, having been seduced by these False Idols who passed themselves off as Angels amongst the desperate, found themselves confronted by the spectacle of an entire army that "seemed not merely made in the image of Great Heroes, but as the very images themselves carved into grey stone and sprang to life that they might cut down the False Angels like a sword of stone."

 

Put simply the Blades Eternal made a killing amongst the Xenos, aided by those elements of the local population that had risen up to serve alongside the "True Angels of Death" - so impressed were the natives of Styke that they petitioned for the placement of a Chapter Keep on their planet, although the answer to the vexed question of whether the Chapter actually accepted this request remains unknown; unfortunately the accursed reavers, though bloodied, appear to have somehow turned a profit nevertheless as they exploited the knowledge of the Blades Eternal acquired during the struggle for this backwater world to launch an attack on the Chapter's Fortress Monastery (risking a speedy transit through the Webway while the Blades Eternal were obliged to struggle against the capricious whims of the Warp) a little later in M35 and much later in M37.

 

It was in fact shortly after their second great battle against the Kabal of the Twin Furies (fought alongside the newly-formed Adepta Sororitas) that Warp Storm Dionys erupted into Imperial Space; where other Chapters reacted with something as close to shock and terror as a Space Marine can come when confronted with the wave of mutations that manifested within the ranks of their Chapter following in the wake of the Warp Storm, the Chapter Master of the Blades Eternal began to speak of a Prophecy that was said to have played a key role in the Creation of his Chapter (recorded by the Chief Librarian who had served the Founding Generation) - a Prophecy of Angels arising out of darkness, lifted up on the shoulders of the Fallen, to serve the Emperor even when the Imperium passed Judgement upon them.

 

The fact that this Chapter Master's martyrdom followed hard on the heels of this arguably-Heretical outburst of prophecy escaped no-one and the Blades Eternal (possibly all the Judged) were denied their last chance to escape commitment to the Abyssal Crusade when their new Chapter Master proved less willing to put his faith in Ancient Prophecy than his predecessor; it is hard to escape the suspicion that whatever the purpose underpinning the long mystery of the Blades Eternal and their true loyalties, their motivation for avoiding all contact with Imperial Authorities can only be called transparent.                         
  

STATUS PENDING as of M41

[CYGNUS]

BRONZE GORGONS
At their Founding (M35) few could have imagined a more unusual combination than the chilling spirit of the Iron Hands matched with the fiery stock of Phorcys (a World of not-quite barren wasteland and surpassingly-lethal oceans), for although the cultures of that Planet - caught between rock and the devils of the deep blue oceans - bred a mighty warrior people, almost uniquely in the History of the Adeptus Astartes it was the warrior women of a World that had persuaded those that guide a Founding to recruit their newest Chapter of Space Marines from the youths that lived very much in the shadow of their Amazonian sisters: while this was in part a result of the limited options available that would allow the Founding Authorities to avoid offending either the Ur-Council of Nova Terra or the High Lords of Terra (each of whom had an interest in being seen to support the creation of new Chapters, but not in potentially handing their rival a Strategic Advantage) it was also a case of more liberal imaginations at last being granted the opportunity to prove their assertion that "It takes Real Women to breed Great Astartes" (hints and lingering rumours in the sources suggest that it had also been hoped that Phorcys would ALSO be the test-bed that FINALLY produced viable, Female-compatible geneseed, but if this be so then advocates of the 'Adepta Astartes' would once again be disappointed).

 

Those that merely sought to recruit first-class Space Marines from uncommon stock were delighted at the results of their recruitment drive; not only had the youths of Phorcys proven that subordination to the fairer sex had not quenched the fires that fuelled a successful aspirant (producing Space Marines of exemplary purity and rigour), their mothers and sisters had spurred them on to greater efforts), but many of the young women of Phorcys had in fact demanded the right to participate in the Trials to prove their Worth: it was the beginning of a close co-operation between the Bronze Gorgons and the women of their Homeworld (each seeking to produce Brothers worthy of their sisters, despite the limits of the Male sex), for though most women that passed the trials went home with Honour satisfied, not a few elected to follow their Brothers into the Chapter - becoming Chapter Serfs, for the sake of seeing "what lay between the Stars" and making absolutely CERTAIN that the Warrior-males born of their World did not disgrace them.

 

As one observer would later remark, watched over by HIM on Terra "the Bronze Gorgons would fight to the death for the Honour of their Chapter and Ferrus Manus, but under the eyes of their sisters they would fight on until they blinded the very Eye of Terror rather than lower themselves in the esteem of those that stood in place of their Foremothers" by accepting their Deaths so tamely.

 

 

Barring their curious obsession with serpents - their totem creature, apparently employed as a symbol of the Rebirth that awaited the Beloved Emperor and His Imperium upon completion of His time on the Golden Throne (or so they proclaimed with consistent confidence) - the Gorgons were typical sons of the Iron Tenth in many of their practices and philosophies on War; reserving a bitter hatred for their Enemies, disdaining to accept the idea that any weakness could not be reforged into new strength, raising the employment of every conceivable manner of Wargear from an Art into Blesssing on both themselves and the Wider Imperium. Coupled with their Homeworlds knack for the lightning strike, it made them formidable warriors and utterly unrelenting opponents.

Amongst the first demonstrations of that brazen audacity, tempered with an Iron Will was their deployment against the Traitor Fleet of Commodore Zetkin; an outstandingly arrogant career officer who had served too long and lost not only her zest for Service but all sanity, she had cultivated a circle of Heretics that had decided to seek a swift death rather than be redeployed against some now-forgotten Black Crusade of Nurgle - employing raw, armed force to remove her Loyalist superiors and subordinate officers, as well as tyrannise the work-gangs and those others crewing more than one Imperial Warship into serving under her as she sought Oblivion the Heretic (who now had the audacity to proclaim herself ADMIRAL Zetkin) proceeded to employ those ships of His Divine Majesty's Navy to HUNT Space Marines (some would say because she relished the challenge of the deadliest predators known to the Imperium at that time, others by virtue of old grudge against the Astartes that lingered even after she elected to pursue her own extirpation).

 

Whatever the case this predator swiftly discovered that Space Marines are Big Game that cannot easily be snapped up, much less swallowed; having outraged not only the youthful Bronze Gorgons but also the very Blood Angels themselves by attacking their shipping (and, if truth be told killing at least one vessel, as well as crippling others), she found both Chapters combining to hunt her down - determined to prove her professional prowess even as she courted death like a lover, the 'Admiral' proved a difficult quarry (brought down not through combat in the void, where she repeatedly outmanoeuvred and perhaps even outfought the opposing Master of the Fleet, but through a complicated series of boarding actions that allowed the heirs of the Ninth and Tenth Legions to recapture the majority of the flotilla the Traitor Zetkin had absconded with, allowing some of those she had forced into Treason to serve the Imperium once more), but was in the end brought to Justice on the blades of the Bronze Gorgons (though it was the Blood Angels who could take the credit for commanding the Combined Fleet to Victory).               

Yet it was against the Treacherous Third Legion, the Emperor's Children that had fallen from his highest favour to the lowest sink of treachery, that the Bronze Gorgons would truly make their name; in this as in much else they continued to prove themselves True Sons of the Gorgon. The first clash of this newest iteration of a rivalry as old as the Long War occurred when Lady Governor Orlean, the descendent of a line that had made their fortune through dubious means before embarking upon a career of distinguished service, requested the intervention of the Bronze Gorgons in the interests of saving her planetary fief from defilement & desecration by the the Archenemy - unable to pass up an opportunity to prosecute the most grotesquely misnamed Traitor Legion, the Bronze Gorgons responded with their customary celerity, but found themselves bogged down in a War of siege and attrition that might well have ground them down to nothingness had not the Inquisition not taken a hand.

 

It was discovered and revealed by Inquisitor Lionus that Lady Governor Orlean had taken advantage of the presence of a Traitor Warband to feed General Venris (one of her most vexing local rivals) into the meat-grinder, then petitioned the Bronze Gorgons to rid her planet of the Traitors (as her surviving Generals had proven quite unable to, after the loss of confidence in the troops upon the demise of their most charismatic figurehead), the Governor had in fact been got to by agents of the Emperor's Children - who had threatened to reveal her gambit to a planetary population that would have buried her alive, then dug up her bones to spit on them had the truth come out - who exploited this leverage to not only perpetuate their presence on Ruavis Magna (corrupting whole populations or quite literally devouring them, desecrating and defiling all the while) but to drag a Loyalist Chapter into a quagmire from which its own pride would not permit it to extricate itself short of the Full Victory that would be denied them: it goes without saying that the reaction by the Bronze Gorgons to such Treachery was ... spectacular.

 

Neither Lady Orlean nor many of the Emperor's Children (the latter entrapped, the former cunningly exploited by the Inquisitor to ensure that this was the case) would survive this Reaction; most prominent amongst the tally of the slain was the Ancient Dreadnaught said to contain the first Traitor Legionary to have entered into this state after the Horus Heresy (Alexus, 'the Sorrow of Hesiod' who had taken such a toll on the Salamanders at Istvaan but been scorched almost to the bone in return) - to say the least this magnificent victory for the Bronze Gorgons was not the end of their antipathy for the Emperor's Children; in truth it may well have been the first time that Chapter had actually earned the attention and Specific Antipathy of the Traitor Third.

 

A long time passed - long enough for one Alexis, who had been a sergeant when the Chapter last faced the Emperor's Disobedient Children, to rise to the rank of Master over the Bronze Gorgons - but in the end this renewed grudge was fought out once more on the Battlefield; the Warband that had been shattered on Ruavis Magna had safeguarded itself from elimination by rivals in the Warp by selling itself to a Daemon Prince (selling out it's former Lord in the process) who had agreed to lead them against the Bronze Gorgons whom they so Hated: not long after Warp Storm Dionys flashed across Imperial Space like the Fires of War (melting the flesh of all too many into insufferable mutations and the Armour of Faith into intolerable heresy in the hearts of others as a consequence), this Daemon Prince (The Defiler of Delight) went to war against Chapter Master Alexis and his Brothers.

 

After a brutal campaign that came all too close to ending the Bronze Gorgons (in the end outmanoeuvring the enemy through the aid of Charist Captains), Chapter Master Alexis struck down the Daemon Prince (though he sacrificed the chance to finish off its servants to do so, even as he brought an impending Daemonic incursion to an abrupt end): blood, brothers and precious Chapter assets had all been lost even in Victory, but the hardest blow was yet to fall - not only had a secondary force of the Emperor's Children struck at Phorcys while the planet's Proudest Sons warred elsewhere, but they had found some there who welcomed them as Saviours.

 

Novices of the Bronze Gorgons, having found their flesh irredeemably-corupted, fled into the waiting arms of their Chapter's most hated enemies so that they might prolong their miserable existence a little longer (bringing disgrace to their Chapter, shame to their Homeworld and worst of all New Strength to the Mortal Enemies of both): upon learning of these unholy occurrences and of the predictably-harsh judgement of Saint Basillius that followed hard upon it (though no harsher than the censure of the Chapter for its own failures from within its ranks), The Bronze Gorgons could hardly conceal their satisfaction at being offered the chance to hunt down their old enemies and their newfound Shame within the Eye of Terror.

 

Few other Chapters embarked upon the Abyssal Crusade with anything so close to delight.                      

 

         
CRYSTAL WYVERNS

Having emerged from the Eye of Terror twisted into a Traitor shadow of their former selves, the former Bronze Gorgons swiftly established that though they now proclaimed the Beloved Emperor 'False' and sought nothing less than the utter destruction of all his works, the Crystal Wyverns had not lost their ancestor's appetite for Technological Wonders that might be turned to the Craft of War - having plundered ancient relics from Warbands bested in the Eye of Terror and benefitted from presence of treacherous elements within the population of the Greater Forge World Ferrus Excelsior (briefly enslaved, but some suspect still connected with the Crystal Wyverns in some occult and underhanded manner even after its Liberation by the Iron Hands), these Renegades have acquired a truly unholy concentration of uncommon War Materials.

 

In truth these rarities may soon be thrown away in battle for the sake of greater bloodshed; in addition to reclaiming their corrupted novices from the Emperor's Children (finally obliterating their particular rivals in the process), having already banished a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh to prove their especial and undying hatred of that Ruinous Power, it would seem that the Crystal Wyverns (or at least elements within that Warband) have established themselves as a true Power within the Eye of Terror yet Damned themselves beyond all doubt by pledging themselves to the Unholy Lord of the Skull Throne - a pact sealed with the blood of Inquisitor Ragaana (who sought the salvation of Forge World Ferrus Excelsior but found herself unlucky enough to survive the defeat of the first Imperial Liberation Fleet for JUST long enough).

 

Yet the luck of the Crystal Wyverns is not all in their favour; the Iron Hands, having beheld a proud Chapter of their own kindred not only fall into the arms of the Ruinous Powers like a lover but proceed to defile and desecrate a World brought into compliance by their own Primarch, have resolved to hunt these - the most disgraceful of all their Successors - until the end of their Existence.

 

Given the reputation of the 'Iron Tenth' it need hardly be said that this End WILL come, no matter that it may require the most prolonged engagement to accomplish.

[CYGNUS]

BROTHERS OF THE ANVIL
Created in M35, the Brothers of the Anvil spent much of their existence dedicated to the extrication of the Orks for whom their chiefest hatred had been reserved since their Founding (in fact the Chapter appears to have been explicitly created to break the grip of these beats on certain quarters of the Imperium neglected since the beginning of the Nova Terra Interregnum, a diversion of Military Resources exacerbated by the Warp-Storms that precipitated the Age of Apostacy), but appear to have become more famous for the aloof distance these Space Marines appear to have maintained from other Imperial Forces - on the whole they appear to have respected the authority of the Imperium without truly subordinating them to it - a state of affairs exacerbated by their reluctance to "entrust their flank to other forces" as Captain Gannys of the Ultramarines once observed (based on his experience of one of those rare occasions when the Brothers of the Anvil were persuaded that a foe was too great for the Power of a single Chapter - a campaign against The Eldar in M35 that saw some success, although the Craftworld pursued appears to have endured despite the loss of a not-insignificant portion of their forces).

Of uncertain Gene-stock, the Brothers appear to have maintain the necessary Genetic Purity required to ensure their continued functionality as a Chapter, but some wonder if their reluctance to accept support in the field and the presumably-related predilection for the very stealthiest of tactics, the most shadowy of strategies might stem from some heritable weakness in the Chapter's make up; in truth it may simply reflect nothing more than the Brothers having come of age as a Chapter during a prolonged period of strife between the various constituent parts of the Imperium and a natural reluctance to be caught up in the Partizan Politics of the Age after suffering some most un-Diplomatic incident (along with a desire to remain in the field for as long as possible, in lieu of being obliged to recruit the Chapter back up to strength after Major Loss of personnel).

 

Although it should be noted that the Brothers of the Anvil do not appear to have extended their incipient distrust of those outside the Chapter to the natives of their Homeworld; the residents of that Death World appear to have enjoyed the Full trust of their Superhuman kinsmen to the point of Chapter and Homeworld actively co-operating in the governance of their Solar System (although most of the business of Government was conducted by the Mortals rather than the Space Marines) - a relationship as close and congenial as it was unexpected of such individualist Astartes.

 

  

Amongst the few Imperial Institutions with whom the Brothers of the Anvil appear to have enjoyed a sustained relationship was the Adeptus Mechanicus - the Brothers themselves (as their name suggests) were as capable of forging weapons as they were of wielding them, but even their noteworthy skills at Smith-craft were insufficient to stock their arsenals without recourse to the Mechanicum; while not so close as the relationship between the Tech-Priests and the Salamanders or the Iron Hands, the Brothers appear to have learned much at the feet of the Mechanicum and taught not a little of their own wisdom in return (in addition to launching campaigns calculated to achieve or secure some position of mutual advantage).

 

 Yet though fruitful this was a far from untroubled relationship; most prominent of these few, yet significant points of contention was the strange and consuming veneration in which the Brothers of the Anvil held the technology under the charge - for unlike the Mechanicum the Brothers appear worshipped weaponry, war-machines and other craft not for Love of the Machine-Spirits, but because they believed that every piece of Human craft held some portion of the souls of those that had crafted the item in question, still more that those who had went to war bearing or wearing this equipment (most of all those that died bearing it) left not only their mark on it but would leave behind their soul to buttress it and to give comfort to their descendants even to the most distant of their kinsmen.

 

Part and parcel of the veneration displayed towards their ancestors by all those born to the Anvil Brothers Homeworld perhaps, yet in the eyes of the Mechanicus a doctrine uncomfortably reminiscent of the accursed Eldar - an association made all the stronger by rumours that Incus Magna, Planet of the Anvil Brothers was host to ruins of the Ancient Civilisation from which the Craftworlds had apparently been scattered so long ago; while no formal accusation was ever made (The Chapter was fortunate that it's earliest battle honours had been won in combat against that Ancient, Supercilious and Treacherous species) the occasional insinuation was more than enough to fire their indignation, with the predictable effect that at points the working relationship between Tech-Priests and Space Marines became briefly unworkable.     
                

 

Yet if the Brothers of the Anvil were frequently choleric in temper, sometimes more primeval than soldierly and aloof from lesser warriors even beyond the accustomed habits of the Adeptus Astartes they were not entirely severed from the rest of Humankind; when Eldar corsairs of the darkest and most inhuman dye descended upon the Schola Progenium of Saint Boniface in late M36 (seeking the youths and children of that institution for purposes undefined, but unlikely to have been anything except the most atrocious slavery) the Blood Angels themselves could not have been more more ferocious in their interception of this reaving force or more inspiring in the salvation of these very young children - amongst whom were numbered no fewer than eight individuals who would attain the highest ranks of the Imperial Guard, the Adeptus Arbites and the Administratum (one of whom, the redoubtable Kadis, would in time rise to become Master of the Administratum and a High Lady of Terra): none would forget the debt they owed to the Brothers of the Anvil who had redeemed them from a most unholy captivity.

 

It was, in fact, one of these children that drew the Brothers of the Anvil into their penultimate campaign - one Flavion Narl, who in the thirty years since his short-lived abduction had risen high enough in the Adeptus Arbites on the planet Lera Quintiles IV to uncover the schemes and manipulations of those in thrall to a Daemon Prince seeking to insinuate themselves at every level of the Planets power structures; unable to know who he might trust, this young man desperately sought to contact the Mighty Warriors that had been his salvation once before (in fact giving his life to ensure that the petition for their assistance was sent out) in the hopes that they might also save the World to which he had pledged himself.

 

The Brothers did not disappoint; they came out of the shadows of Lera Quintiles like avenging shades (in the early years of M37), wrecking horrible carnage upon the Neverborn Conspiracy and even driving away the Thief of Council, a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch whose last recorded remark was to the effect that since it had been denied a planet it would simply have to settle for a Space Marine Chapter ... It was as much in defiance of this spiteful threat as it was in pursuit of a Triumph fit to outweigh the Shame brought upon them by mutation and lingering accusations of Heretek tendencies that the Brothers of the Anvil passed through the Eye of Terror as part of the Abyssal Crusade.

 

It was a defiance that many of their number would not live to regret.

 

            

DEATHMONGERS

 

 Of all the changes observed in the ruins of those that were once the Brothers of the Anvil, the hideous mutation to their eyes (like those of a bird drowned in fossil fuels given some hideous semblance of life) are only the most obvious; more obvious is their now-complete disdain for every being in creation not numbered amongst the ranks of the Astartes, whether Traitor or Loyal Adeptus - an attitude that seems to underpin their endemic feuds with the Dark Mechanicus, which have seen relations between these twin factions of traitors not so much flare up as go down in flames with mutual slaughter.

 

 Alas the cunning of their unholy new Patron is too strong in them for such internecine strife to eliminate these most abominable traitors - even as they serve their interests most selfishly at every turn, they remain fully capable of bolstering their modest manpower with dupes, pawns and other unfortunates, having apparently dedicated themselves not only to the Ruinous Powers (in particular the insufferable Tzeentch) but to the corruption of all those that would defy their Dark God.

 

 Though their rude temper and insular habits are a hinderance to these endeavours the Warband has succeeded in insinuating its provocateurs into far too many crews, enticing merchant and Pirate ships (as well as at least one of the Beloved Emperor's Warships) into the coils of their conspiracies, constructing a fleet of not-insignificant size which they lead in Pirate operations against the Imperium (though their grip upon the loyalties of that fleet remains a matter of circumstance - always strongest when each may gain advantage by their collaboration).

   

Let us hope that some Loyal Fleet may hunt down these Traitors and deliver them to the death some of them seem to be Court.

[CYGNUS]

THE CHORUS OF ELTAIN

A Chapter uplifted by the geneseed of Guilliman's Lineage in M35 (although it remains unclear whether they were first-generation heirs of the Ultramarines or the progeny of a Successor to the old XIIIth Legion), the Chorus of Eltain had been recruited from the robust gangers found in the wilder fringes of the Underworld beneath the Singing Cities of their homeworld (and also from the far smaller tribes clinging on to the jungles lingering at the edges of those strange Hives); renowned for their spectacular Offensives and made famous by the raw shock generated by their habit of singing out their War-Glory in the heart of the hottest battle, less well known was the Prognostication that had haunted the Chapter from its Founding - the Chorus had known from their inception that the end of their Chapter would come following the most tragic dishonour ... but that others would live on in Honour because they had died as Martyrs.

 

Of the three Chapters that escaped the Eye of Terror with their Loyalty intact, two were still doomed to perish as a result of the Abyssal Crusade which they had embraced in the throes of Desperation - though at least they died tearing Saint Basillius the Elder* from the calendar of Imperial Saints, thereby proving his Treachery and the Purity of their Chapters in the eyes of the Imperium, this was nonetheless a quixotic Fate of the sort that only madmen or poets might embrace with equanimity.           

 

The Chorus of Eltain were warrior-poets to a Man - or if you prefer to the last Astartes - and the last of them died to open the way for the Vorpal Swords.
              

*It should be noted that St Basillius the Younger, his great-great nephew and beneficiary of the most literal sort of nepotism, remains on the Imperial Calendar of Saints by virtue of rigorously judicious conduct, pious philanthropy with a dry ascetic tang and NOT being a Traitor Proved; he also remains fabulously obscure which may well explain the survival of his cult on the most Puritan fringes of the Segmentum Solar and the survival of his person at a remarkably-safe distance from Inquisitorial sanction of his Uncle.

 

 

In truth the Chorus of Eltain might think themselves fortunate to have seen out almost two Millennia in the service of HIM on Earth; with the Prognostication of a Noble Doom hanging over their heads, the Chapter might have been forgiven if they saw that Doom come for them in their first campaign (M35) - when a force of Eldar Corsairs descended upon the Imperium with an unholy arsenal outstripping the nightmares of brave men and a burning ambition to enslave every Psyker in the Imperium (perhaps the most modest of the Archon's ambitions, which extended to whipping the Warp itself into submission - or at least win golden reviews for a truly STUNNING display of the Performance Art of War); coming to the rescue of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, the initial successes of the Chorus were gradually reversed as the greater experience of the Eldar won out over the youthful vigour of the Space Marines.

In part because their own excessive caution had hobbled them in the face of a quicksilver enemy.

 

Nonetheless they had done just enough to mark the Kabal for its eventual, inglorious demise - which came as small consolation to the 99 brothers that remained to the Chapter, wondering if that prognostication of a noble, albeit inglorious sacrifice would come to pass within the first century of the Chapter's operations; the long, difficult process of rebuilding in the teeth of an increasingly-divided Imperium and the lack of connections or favours owed common to a newly-minted Chapter (yet crucial to rebuilding the arsenal and ranks of a worse-than-decimated Brotherhood) failed to crush the Chorus, but it certainly taught them lessons in endurance and sustaining Hope even in the face of a Hopeless situation (even beyond the hard lessons taught every native of the Dark Millennium from Birth).         

 

 

Having spent almost half of its life-span rebuilding from a truly luckless first campaign (although the last days of M35 saw them shatter the forces of an Aristocratic cabal that had sought to hand the Olympic Cloud back to the Iron Warriors that had first conquered it for the Imperium), the Chorus of Eltain would dedicate the remainder of their career to building a more glorious reputation - though their diligent adherence to the Codex Astartes averted blatantly suicidal gallantry, the Warrior Sons of Eltain charged into battle "with a song on their lips and a marvellous hunger for glory in their soul" seeking to sell their lives dearly in the name of the Imperium and for the sake of their Brothers of the Astartes: hammering the armoured columns of a Black Crusade preached across the Forge World of Petra Metallicus by the accursed Word Bearers into scrap, hunting Eldar corsairs like wolves for the salvation of the merchantmen upon which those Xenos preyed, butchering the most terrifying Ork Warlord to prey on the Infernal Stars since those days before the Ullanor Crusade and in general seeking out the most imposing enemies of the Imperium within their vicinity (some would say in hopes that they might achieve their martyrdom without the humiliation prophesied to precede it).

 

At the dawn of M37, the Chapter found itself fighting to liberate the Blackstone Sector from the grip of a Sorcerous Cabal constructed from Sanctioned Psykers, desperately seeking their Salvation from the Forces of Corruption unleashed in the wake of Warp Storm Dionys; unfortunately they believed their Salvation lay in transforming a Sector into their own little Empire and subjugating everyone who disagreed with them in the process - worse still the 'Kingdom of the Mind' seem to have benefitted from the aid of Otherworldly Allies of uncertain origin (some claim them to have been Eldar employing mere mortals to fight their battles or Daemons in disguise seeking to tighten their grip on power, others that something stranger was at work), to have decided that they themselves were clearly a superior order of being and correspondingly showed scant sympathy for their newly-acquired subjects.

 

The Chorus of Eltain continued to liberate populations and shatter the delusions of these witches all across the Blackstone Sector right up until they were Judged and found wanting; such a downfall following so hard upon the heels of a triumph worthy of their Chapter convinced many that the time had come to prepare for the Martyrdom they presumed to be forthcoming - these preparations were not wasted; bear witness that of those Martyred in the course of the Abyssal Crusade, few Loyalists other than the Chorus of Eltain perished ensuring the salvation of another Chapter, rather than precipitating the Damnation of their own.

    
MARTYR EXTREMIS (M38)

[CYGNUS]

CLERICS OF STEEL
It is not uncommon for prognostication to play a key role in convincing the High Lords of Terra that a Founding is warranted, but seldom can the fulfilment of a prophecy have followed so swiftly on the heels of it's pronouncement; within a standard century of the oath-taking at the very foot of the Golden Throne which marks the moment when a Chapter comes to the end of its Founding and the beginning of its Glory (a moment of great solemnity only heightened by the placement of a Custodian Guard behind each and every Chapter Master making his submission, in part as a mark of Honour but mostly so that should any of these men decide to betray their Oath immediately then they will not long survive such poor decision-making) the Clerics of Steel would be confronted with a Threat of rare degree - a Daemon of Nurgle somehow manifested itself in a trainee psyker in the very hold of a Black Ship (dark rumours surround this theoretically-impossible incident, most imputing the manipulations of Radical elements within the Inquisition); a psychic distress call was somehow transmitted and the Clerics of Steel summoned to stem this Pestilence before it could spread.

 

While unable to prevent this ambulant pustule from infiltrating the planetary system of a major Imperial trade hub (the creature cunning enough to exploit the Black Ships clearance to its advantage) The Chapter WAS able to force it down into the great desolation of the less habitable of the system's life-bearing worlds (roughly comparable to Ancient Mars at the very beginning of it's settlement), cornering the Daemon far from the populations amongst which it had hoped to breed and redouble its contagion - applying fire and the sword with burning piety to scourge out the sapient pox-rash that had stolen the skin of some pitiful youth (with at least some help from the sole survivor of the Black Ship's infection: while her nature and demeanour is lost to the Imperial Record, the Chapter preserved the name of Ophilia Pius in its prayers for her soul until the end of its own existence).

 

Since no Good Deed goes unpunished the Chapter was promptly set upon by residents of an Eldar Craftworld determined to perform a truly homicidal check-up (apparently seeking to put into action what had only been suggested and/or threatened by elements within the Imperium - the usual treatment of a Space Marine Chapter that has come too close to the Warp, fears of Corruption all the stronger for dread of the Plagues servants of Nurgle wield like a smothering pillow), who very nearly finished off what the Daemon had started - and therefore came within an ace of finishing off the Chapter.

 

 

Some claim that the Clerics of Steel first began to embrace closer relations with the Adeptus Mechanicus after this brush with a living avatar of infection persuaded many to amputate, rather than risk seeing limbs injured in the course of this battle become the gate through which the Archenemy might slip in to the Temple of Astartes physiology and thereby secure a victory through an infection which it had failed to win through Brute Force in action (other traditions suggest that extensive mechanisation was required to keep the savagely-injured survivors of TWO great threats functional). Certainly the Clerics of Steel came by their name honestly, displaying a truly remarkable range of bionics and a number of interesting additions to their arsenal seldom showcased by other Chapters (a significant factor underpinning the Chapter's noted mastery of Thunderhawk warfare), as well as a solid working relationship with the Tech-Priests.

 

Given this apparent predilection towards the ways of the Mechanicum and the Chapter's unashamed reverence for their Primarch (Corvus Corax, the Deliverer and the Lord of the XIX Legion Astartes), it seems ironic that the Chapter should have secured so strong an Alliance with the Ecclesiarchy during the troubled times of M36 - an alliance unfortunately not bred from their support for the Confederation of Light, as records of the time seem to indicate that to all appearances the Chapter understood the nigh-unprecedented Power of High Lord Vandire to be a strong proof of the Emperor's favour: the most noteworthy indication of this support was the Chapter's appearance as 'spear-bearers' at a conclave centred around an attempted reconciliation between representatives of the Confederation of Light sent out from Terra and the local, Vandire-approved Ecclesiarchy of the Infernal Stars.

 

While the Chapter notionally played a non-partizan part, it was noted that while the newly-minted Sisters of Battle cleaved to the Confederation's representatives when the accursed Eldar launched an attack on the event (there is no fixed agreement among those familiar with the species in question as to whether they intended to destroy all chances for this reconciliation by killing all in attendance or whether they intended to strengthen this coming-together or whether EITHER outcome was acceptable to those who launched this foray) the Clerics of Steel gave priority to shielding their old Allies.

 

It was a show of Loyalty that was not soon forgotten - even after the Chapter joined with the Sisters of Battle to launch a punitive campaign against the Craftworld thought (though not confirmed) to have sponsored this insult to the Ecclesiarchy and thereby called down a storm of Anathemas upon their heads fit to match the cleansing fires unleashed against them.

 

 

It should surprise no-one that many suspect the Clerics of Steel were Judged and found wanting in part because of their lingering loyalty to supporters of the late, unlamented High Lord Vandire; the Traitor Saint Basillius was many things (most of them quite unpleasant if one happened to disagree with his ideas) but his admiration for the blessed memory of Sebastian Thor and correspondent loathing of all traces of High Lord Vandire appear to have been Sincere ... if the word can be applied to one who might well have been the most highly-placed servant of the Ruinous Powers since the Horus Heresy with a straight face.

 

In all fairness the Clerics of Steel had begun to manifest horrific mutations (predominantly affecting their epidermis, which appear to have rendered them more metal than man yet manifestly neither and undeniably corrupt, although the first signs of mental degeneration were also beginning to afflict the Chapter) even as they assisted the Imperial Navy in a purge of the Ork-infested Space Hulks unleashed by Warp Storm Dionys - which unleashed a tide of Orks deeply interested in winning renown through the destruction of Chaos Spawned horrors, yet disinterested in limiting their depredations to those elements of Human populations afflicted by the Warp - their last known campaign before embarking upon the Abyssal Crusade.

 

It was an endeavour that would see the steely temper of these Clerics maintained, but the Chapter itself twisted utterly out of True.                   

 

INVOCATORS

Of all those Traitor war-bands formed from the embittered and accursed survivors of the Judged Chapters, it may well be the Invocators that have most spectacularly fulfilled the promise of whatever wicked impulse (presumably originated by the Ruinous Powers) it was that persuaded Saint Basillius to commit thirty full Chapters of the Astartes to a Penitent Crusade THROUGH THE EYE OF TERROR; Having long been convinced that the Mightiest Power is the most worthy of service, they rededicated themselves to the Daemon-Gods of Chaos after a long and bitter sojourn in the Eye impressed upon them the Absolute Power of the Dark Gods (although whether they would have been so impressed had they NOT met them in a time and place that could be moulded like clay at their whim is an interesting question), especially compared to the supposedly-passive Emperor.

 

​ Erupting from the Eye like foul matter from a poison sore, the Invocators have carried the Names of the 'Dark Gods' into the Material World - and exploited the True Names of every Daemon they can find into the bargain; while they venerate Slaanesh above all, they are audacious enough to speak any True Name they can uncover through low cunning or highly painful avenues of research (believing that the best possible way to bring Glory to the names of their foul masters is to summon their more deadly servants into the Material Plane if possible and if this is not immediately possible then they will scrape the boundaries between worlds thin as parchment - with all the devastating consequences to rational beings involved).

 

The process by which this 'scraping' is accomplished is most often PROSELYTISATION; while the Invocators lack the long history, the formal hierarchy and Daemonic Pacts of the Word Bearers, they compensate with a somewhat less casual attitude towards the lives of the Converted whom they attract with a truly spectacular mixture of intimidation, the lure of their own petrifying physical & mental powers, as well as something quite disturbingly close to ... Seduction (an unnervingly-atypical quality in any Space Marine).

 

Having begun with the corruption of a single Imperial World, their Black Crusade has carved an entire Sector out of the Imperium - and unlike most war-bands, the Invocators seem to have thrown themselves into the business of ruling (or at least managing) this 'Crusader State' (a behaviour atypical for Chaotic Warbands to say the least); most disturbingly of all they seem to have secured this massive boost to their Strength in Manpower and Material despite the occasional, alarming tendency of their Brothers to forget the long centuries since the Abyssal Crusade and behave as though they had only just learned of the tragic consequences of Warp Storm Dionys. 

 

It is truly frightening to see impassioned servants of the Ruinous Powers suddenly begin to act as if they were still Loyal, albeit Cursed Sons of the Emperor - it is even WORSE to see these Marines flip back to the behaviours common to any Slaaneshi Warband.

[CYGNUS]

CRUSADERS OF DORN
Created alongside their gene-kin the Executioners during the Third Founding, the Crusaders of Dorn can be said to have been amongst the first Chapters numbered amongst the Sons of Dorn to have been created after the death of their Father during the First Black Crusade; it should therefore come as no surprise that from the very beginning these Crusaders dedicated themselves to the pursuit and destruction of the Traitor Legions with particular fervour, The Chapter operating in the vicinity of the Eye of Terror, a region unquiet even during the Golden Age of the Imperium, until pulled back towards the Segmentum Solar by the threat posed to the Spiritual Heart of the Imperium by the unfathomable forces of The Beast (according to one source "Torn away from hunting the relicts of heretics long deceased with great show of reluctance to  pursue lesser Enemies"), winning it's first Major battle honours through a very neat manoeuvre that eliminated a gaggle of Orks even as they were engaged with a force of Eldar (eliminating both Xenos forces in a single perfectly-timed strike).

 

For all the vigour of their ongoing Crusade (which in fact restored a Sector ravaged by the Black Crusade to Compliance before they were retasked, earning the Chapter enemies amongst those who had hoped to maintain a state of mere anarchy at the least or better yet Utter Chaos in the region) the Crusaders of Dorn nonetheless proved themselves closer in spirit to the old Seventh Legion than to the Black Templars (whom they admittedly resembled, albeit only to a degree), favouring relentless rigour over fiery bravado and more inclined to the Codex Astartes than the more idiosyncratic Code of Sigismund; yet while they lacked the flourish and the maverick glamour of the Black Templars, they pursued their Crusade with "Fury hot enough to scorch a dreadnaught's flesh even through it's armour" when the occasion called for it (especially when the time for digging-in was at an end and the time for Assault had come).

 

It was a Fury that would test the Chapter to the very limits of its Wisdom when the Hour of Hard Choices came.           

 

It was the time of the Third Black Crusade, the Year that the first assembly of the Astartes Praeses proved their worth and power beyond all doubt (though it was the Wolves of Fenris who put down the Daemon Prince that had come so close to wresting the rank of Warmaster from the Despoiler), but much to their indignation the Crusaders of Dorn were denied their chance to wreck their vengeance upon the Traitor Legions once more (for even in the face of a Black Crusade some campaigns must be fought to completion) and to say the least Tempers ran high amongst these Heirs of Dorn in consequence - and into this atmosphere of constrained wrath flew two Dark Angels strike cruisers, the Knight of Shadows and the Blade Leonine, each bearing the signs of violence upon them.

 

Having arrived unexpectedly (for these two Chapters had yet to take the field together) these vessels were swiftly brought under the guns of Rock of Vengeance the mighty battle barge at the heart of that Fleet, but out of courtesy to the First Legion neither was subject to the indignity of being boarded and an exchange of signals followed - while Knight of Shadows signalled a brief, barely-comprehensible compliance before taking up station very close to her sister ship, Blade Leonine opened a dialogue with First Captain Baudoin proclaiming their willingness to comply with terse courtesy and requesting a certain patience of the Crusaders while their repair teams dealt with certain difficulties.

 

At that point all-out war erupted between the two Dark Angels Strike Cruisers even as the Sons of Dorn watched, astonished; at this point Chapter Master Antiochus took a hand, signalling that if either ship continued to attack the other then First Legion or no then he would finish the fight both had started - at which point a ceasefire descended and BOTH strike cruisers replied that any attack upon them would be not only an Act of War against the Dark Angels but an Act of Heresy (also that if the Crusaders attempted to land a force upon either Strike Cruiser then that ship would not fail to trigger it's own self-destruction).

 

To say the least the Crusaders of Dorn did not take this warning well - nonetheless Chapter Master Antiochus continued to restrain his battle-hungry and now insulted brethren with stony patience (commanding them to compose themselves in patience and dispatching some of the more hot-headed brothers to a session with the Pain Glove): a standoff ensued, with the promise of further fratricide and the threat of War between Loyalists to follow the first mis-step.  

 

At which point Chapter Master Antiochus proclaimed his willingness to meditate between the factions of this Chapter War and that he would be arriving on the Blade Leonine shortly, without escort but having picked out a very clear line of succession. The import of this was not lost upon any party in this complicated stand-off; despite the concerns of his Battle-Brothers the Chapter Master arrived unharmed and alone (although not unarmed) upon the Blade Leonine and was received with every degree of honour possible under the circumstances.

 

Upon being asked by the Captain that received him to understand that while his interest was appreciated, his assistance was unnecessary (even as battle continued to rage audibly all the while); at which point Chapter Master Antiochus politely enquired if there was any news of Apothecary Hector, with whom he had served his Vigil of the Long Watch (and whose Company shipped upon the Blade Leonine).

 

"That Apothecary serves still." ... at that point Chapter Master Antiochus went to War, shattering the Command Squad that had met him and fighting his way to the nearest concentration of Loyalists which, being True Dark Angels, elected to trust their saviour only after verifying that he was EXACTLY who he proclaimed himself to be (to the very best of their considerable ability to do so): having cleared the Blade Leonine the Dark Angels and the Crusaders of Dorn proceeded to secure the Knight of Shadows with considerable despatch (narrowly averting an attempt on the part of the Traitors to trigger their own self-destruction). Two Dark Angels strike cruisers were liberated, in repairable condition.

 

At which point the Alpha Legion showed up and much was explained (in brief, the Alpha Legion had taken advantage of the Dark Angels distraction during Planetfall to infiltrate and escape with a small portion of the fleet, intending to claim the infiltrated vessels despite the efforts of their crews ... as well as snap up any pursuers that happened to catch them through the arrival of their own reinforcements); the fleet battle that followed was a near-run thing, but the forces of the Imperium prevailed in the end. Asked how he had penetrated their deception, Chapter Master Antiochus would say later "In all my years of Vigil, I broke heads and broke bread with Sons of the Lion, but never once did I meet the Dark Angel that would, without verification, share knowledge of a Battle-Brother, even with Astartes of another Chapter, especially under the shadow of the Guns."

 

The Dark Angels, grateful for the return of their Strike Cruisers and noble in their gratitude, pledged a friendship with the Crusaders of Dorn that endured for as long as both Chapters remained Loyal - promptly pursuing the first of a number of co-belligerences shortly thereafter - this was a trust that never to be betrayed, but would ALWAYS be subject to proper Verification.
    

 

The Olympic Crusade of M34 (sometimes known to history as "The Popular Crusade"), preached in the wake of the 4th Black Crusade and marshalled by the High Lords for the sake of restoring full Imperial Control of the Olympic Cloud - a region of Space roughly halfway between Cadia and Holy Terra, formerly notorious as a bastion of the Iron Warriors (to the extent that some claim the Iron Cage was built and the Imperial Fists baited in one of these Sectors, quite plausibly), but presently infested with Xenos reavers of principally Ork and Eldar origin. The avowed purpose of The Crusade was to cleanse Systems once graced by the presence of Primarch Dorn and Primarch Guilliman of the Xenos infestations polluting them and thereby strengthen the sinews of war linking Cadia to Holy Terra (by crushing the parasites that had gnawed upon them while the long lull between the 3rd and the 4th Black Crusades had left Imperial Attention to drift elsewhere), thereby making it easier for the Imperium to speed reinforcements from the Segmentum Solar towards the Eye of Terror as they were required.

 

Even as the Olympic Crusade was being preached, some of the more cynical claimed that it was a campaign conducted so that the High Lords of Terra could offer a Victory to offset the downfall of the Citadel of the Kromarch (an event now consigned to gather dust in the distant pages of History, but at the time a most stunning loss - only the Conquest of Cadia itself would have shaken the Imperium more), with the most cynical of all claiming the reunification of the Olympic Diocese (a strategic region of Space thick with fortress worlds that had gone their own way for so long that many of those once-proud bastions now stood in ruins, with the Imperium a thing of rags and patches distant from the daily experience of the natives) was being conducted so that WHEN (not 'If') the Cadian Gate fell, the Imperium would have a second line of defence ready and waiting to keep the Traitors from simply strolling towards Holy Terra.

 

Whatever the case this Crusade was held to be so crucial that four whole Chapters of the recent 7th Founding (the Lectors of Ixus, the Lionguard, the Sanctors of Terra and the Spears of Olympus) were specifically created to spearhead the Imperium's efforts in that region, with a view to constructing their Fortress-Monasteries on those planetary fiefs marked out as best suited to their needs from Worlds they had secured for the Imperium in that Region; in addition the veteran Argent Hammers, Blades Eternal and Crusaders of Dorn would also be attached to the Crusade in order to ensure that the Space Marine element of Forces Engaged would not want for the wisdom of Veterans to temper the fiery zealousness of youth into a thing of steely discipline (not to mention compensate for the fact that a solid majority of mortal troops embarked for the Olympic Cloud were comprised of Frateris Militia, rather than more seasoned and better-equipped Imperial Guard).

 

The Crusade proved to be a brilliant, albeit bloody success - a bright spot for Imperial War Efforts between the humiliation of the 4th Black Crusade and the painful aftermath of the Catelexis Heresy (the latter an Imperial Victory that inflicted more damage than many military disasters); Xenos Pirates were purged from those stars, those elements of Humanity who had forgotten their duty to the Master of Mankind were scourged, the Rule of Imperial Law ascendant and connections between Holy Terra & the Cadian Gate never stronger.

 

It was during this Conflict that the Crusaders of Dorn, focussing their efforts in the so-called Phalanx Cluster (a series of worlds that had stood as a stalwart bastion of Imperial Control even during the worst of times, but which had been crumbling into wreck & ruin since the Imperial Fists had withdrawn their presence during the dark times following the Rise of the Beast), finally elected to take to themselves a Homeworld after not quite two millennia of criss-crossing the Stars as they pursued their various Crusades against Traitors and the Alien: discovering their ancestral connection to the worlds of the Phalanx Cluster and having made many friends in their operations there (not to mention being entirely convinced of the Strategic Importance of the region), they established their Fortress-Monastery on the wasteland world of Sigismund with the full consent of the High Lords and proceeded to assume those commitments that the old Seventh Legion had increasingly struggled to uphold across the Region (as their operations became still more far-flung across Imperial Space).

 

It was a decision they would never be given cause to regret.

 

The Crusaders of Dorn would serve the Imperium for a further three thousand years after it's adoption of Planet Sigismund as Chapter Homeworld; a world that had been laid to waste during those dreadful centuries when populations across the Olympic Cloud had paid the price of the Heretical compact struck between accursed Xenophiles and the Corsairs that had been suffered to operate within Imperial Space for the sake of the toll they had taken on the shared Archenemy (once the Traitors had been driven back towards the Eye of Terror, the Corsairs lingered and turned to prey upon the Imperium - all too often being sponsored by one World to prey upon the other, either through desperation or worse yet calculation on the part of the local Ruling Classes), yet one that hosted a Population which had refused to be cowed even by the reavers of the darkest hue (to the point where some claim their fortress-ruins swallowed at least one Archon) and been marked as a highly suitable source of recruits for the Chapter as a result.

 

While Feral World Sigismund produced an ample reserve of Novices for the Crusaders of Dorn, the Chapter would continue to serve the Imperium with Honour; amongst the most remarkable incidents during their tenure as Champions of the Phalanx Cluster was the final suppression of the so-called 'Cabal of the Sundered Eagle' (in truth a Heretical cult that had sought to challenge Eldar domination of the shipping routes - but more for the sake of Power and Pleasure for the decadent Imperial Nobles at its heart than in the truest interests of Humanity, evidenced by the hideous toll taken on those Merchantmen unlucky enough to endure the stranglehold enforced by their operations) and thereby finalising the reconquest of the Aegis Sub-Sector for the Imperium - the convoluted Hunt for 'da Big Red Rokkit' a ship captained by the most notorious 'Freeboota' in the History of the Olympic Cloud (a hunt brought to a victorious end when the Crusaders of Dorn shattered the Orks ship and it's crew, although it was Arbitrator Castella who finally cornered the slippery Brute after it escaped to her backwater world - having exhausted her ammunition, herself and her subordinates The Arbitrator actually deigned to ARREST the 'Kaptain' although History does not record whether or not it received any trial) - the honourable service of Librarian Vespillo of the Blades Eternal (who had been seconded to the Crusaders of Dorn as a Lexicanum but ended his career as a Chief Librarian after apparently 'Gone Native') most famously his discovery and eventual elimination of a strange species of Xenos now Forgotten save in the archives of the Crusaders of Dorn but at the time a most credible threat (a hairless, peculiarly hare-like species structured into tattooed clans that had been turned from prey into most vicious predators, but been driven wholly Mad in the process) - perhaps most famously the 'Storming of the Traitor Titan' during which the Crusaders of Dorn joined their expertise in the art of Siege Assaults with the Lionguard's mastery of Armoured Warfare to first isolate, then cripple and finally besiege the Unholy Engine 'Death of Legions' (cementing an alliance between these two Chapters in the aftermath of this remarkable feat).

 

All these triumphs and many another campaign besides (Victory and Defeat) make up a History as Honourable as one would expect of a Chapter not least amongst those formed by the Third Founding; yet neither past Victories nor proven Virtues nor even the miraculous return of an Imperial Hero was sufficient to shield the Crusaders of Dorn from the Judgement of Basillius in all his immovable rigour - the cruellest workings of Fate are not so easily defeated.

 

 

In that fateful year 321.M37 Warp Storm Dionys descended bringing little good with it; wherever it's unhallowed hand touched the Warp Storm tainted, twisted and corrupted - spread Mutation, Misery and Heresy - stirred up Heretics from mere deviance to violent disloyalty, unleashed all the ancient horrors of the Warp into the Material Universe and carried on it's roiling currents not merely mutation but forces of the Traitor Legions seeking to add to the woes of the Imperium with their operations, spreading further wreckage and terror amongst the Loyal Subjects of HIM on Earth. Not least amongst the terrors of the Warp set loose was the Unholy Alliance between Black Legion and Word Bearers known as the Covenant Refulgent, an assembly of Traitors that swam through Warp Storm Dionys (a power that had shattered the most unfortunate Imperial vessels, from the greatest to the very least) like a fish through its home reef and sliced into the Imperium wherever it was most vulnerable, winning the Glory in Battle this Covenant sought so zealously and chewing through whatever forces the Imperium could muster against them like a Shiver of Sharks.

 

Even the mighty Crusaders of Dorn could only barely check the Covenant; racing to meet this new threat, the Crusaders found Bastions undermined, Allies traumatised beyond function and entire planetary populations driven so deep into furious desperation by tidal waves of madness & mutation that they swallowed whole the hellish preaching of the Word Bearers and took up arms against the Imperium, putting those that might have been saved beyond Salvation and thereby denying the Chapter all hope of anything but a Phyrric Victory - a victory they would be denied by the cunning of the Black Legion, waves of the Lost and the Damned whipped up by the preaching of the Dark Apostles and most of all through the death of Baldwin, the First Captain who had led the Crusaders of Dorn in the place of Chapter Master Amalric for so long.

 

Chapter Master Amalric, a Hero of Blessed Memory, had been lost to his Chapter for over eight hundred years - yet having been cast adrift through the Warp in the wake of a mighty triumph for the Chapter's fleet, having soldiered through eight days and seven nights by the measure of his vessel's chronometers, having faced the very real fear that he and all those with him would be utterly corrupted beyond hope of Salvation   the noble Chapter Master was carried back into the Material Galaxy by a whimsy of Fate that might well have been nothing less than the Emperor's Hand wresting some small, sweet chance of Hope for those that had suffered Warp Storm Dionys and endured all the torments it unleashed: he was subjected to the most stringent tests by a most demanding Judge and not found wanting, marshalled his own Chapter to revenge their previous defeats upon the Black Legion and the Word Bearers who had come so close to shattering the defences of the Phalanx Cluster, became living proof that the Faithful could weather even the terrors of the Warp to the point where his arguments during the Trials of the Judged Chapters came close to carrying the day in their favour.

 

Only the fact that Basillius the Elder was the very Judge who had confirmed Chapter Master Amalric's purity stifled the rumours that might have been unleashed when Chapter Master Amalric was martyred by an unknown hand even as he prepared himself to act as advocate for The Judged - some have claimed that had his arguments been advanced by himself in person and coupled with his own proven Purity (as living proof that Astartes might be purified even after enduring the very coils of the Warp) then the Judgement of Basillius might have been very different. But it was not to be; his example was forgotten and in the end his Chapter failed the test their Master had endured, forgetting all their former Loyalties and suffering the condemnation of almost all memory of their Glories to oblivion.              

 

  
BROTHERHOOD OF LETHE

 

Of all those that were once the Judged, the Brotherhood of Lethe should perhaps be accounted the most dangerous - having been betrayed to their Doom by the Traitor Saint, the survivors of the Chapters found themselves not only enmeshed in the schemes of Tzeentch but hopelessly enamoured of the devious methods inherent to those who venerate that Ruinous Power; in truth this newfound passion for manipulation, conspiracy and the fomenting of Treachery can be seen as a logical extension of the former Chapter's mastery in the arts of Siege Warfare (for truly it can be said that in the course of History Treachery has bought down more strongholds than gunfire), yet even so the depths which the War-Band has plumbed still have the power to shock.

 

 Where the Crusaders of Dorn merely sought to rebuild the Imperium in all it's Glory (with the destruction of their Enemies a means to that Noble end - if that Enemy were not numbered amongst the Traitor Legions, against whom the Chapter nursed a Grudge formidable even by the standards of the Loyalist Astartes), the Brotherhood of Lethe seek not only to shatter their Foes but to transform their Enemies into their own brothers in Spirit. In truth the single, over-riding goal of this war-band is to inflict some form of their own Fate upon all Loyalist Chapters.

 

 While some Inquisitors have been known to evoke a connection with the shattered Homeworld of the Flame Falcons, in truth the Warband's name derives from the ancient Olympic Myth of a River from whose waters one may drink and forget all that has come before, leaving only a blank slate full of infinite potential ... and infinitely malleable.

 

 

 Yet though the Brotherhood of Lethe waxes mighty with hideous strength, culled not from those unlucky Space Marines who have been betrayed by the Imperium thanks (in part) to the countless manipulations of the Brotherhood and accepted the offer of a refuge in the ranks of Traitors thereafter* and though the Brotherhood has undermined, manipulation and blasted almost an entire Imperial Sector into the arms of Chaos (the Sector in question had been amongst those most ferociously prosecuted by Basillius the Elder - having lost all love of the Imperium in consequence, Faith in the Emperor perished when it was revealed that The Saint had been a Traitor all the while ... also when all lingering bastions of Loyalty were shattered by the siege-forces of the Brotherhood after lengthy toil + struggle), the Brotherhood remains far from invincible; put simply it's membership does not struggle with madness, but rather has embraced it as a kind of twisted beatitude.

 

 That it's coherence and efficiency in the field has suffered as a result should go without saying; "Madness makes for potent Magics but sloppy soldiering" as Iolus, Lord Militant Herculean once put it. The fact that they maintain their hatred of the original Traitor Legions to the point of refusing to co-operate with them except under direct orders from the Ruinous Powers is an additional disadvantage (and has seen them set at the forefront of the hottest battle so that they might be thrown to the Wolves during more than one Black Crusade), since individual Space Marines Renegades are common enough but Traitor Chapters are less numerous and less potent than the Traitor Legions (having generally had fewer Astartes to start with and rather less time to accumulate pacts, favours and patrons in the Warp).

 

 That a whole Craftworld has made it's mission in life (or at least staked a great deal of it's political capital and firepower) to eliminate this Warband does not profit the former Crusaders of Dorn either, yet such a level of interest from the Eldar prompts an uncomfortable question - do the Xenos pursue the Brotherhood of Lethe because they see fatal flaws in this Archenemy formation ... or is it because they MUST tackle these Chaos Space Marines NOW because the force that the Brotherhood can only grow stronger?        

 

*a particular triumph of this method was the subversion of almost an entire Chapter (The Phantoms Cinereal) through revelation of the terrible truth behind the Abyssal Crusade; the Treachery of Saint Basillius roused such indignation that the Phantoms could no longer serve the Imperium that had raised a Traitor to such Power and held him in such Veneration (it also left them possessed by a Paranoia of such severity that relations between the two largest components of the Brotherhood of Lethe remain fraught even to this day)

 

[Brother Clavero]

This is absolutely fantastic! Thank you for doing this!

[CYGNUS]

Thank You very kindly for the Compliment; I admit that this is a formidable task and am very glad of all the reassurance I can earn (also I'm quite sorry that I lack the Artistic Talent to provide illustrations of the appropriate Chapter Liveries, not least because I lack the fine touch and infinite patience required to make the BOLTER + CHAINSWORD Painter work for me!).

[Visitor13]

This is absolutely fantastic! Thank you for doing this!

Same here

[CYGNUS]

Thank You very much Visitor 13 for adding your kind remarks to this thread; hopefully I shall have finished the Crusaders of Dorn by tomorrow night and hopefully the future entries in this series will prove even better than the ones I have been able to post to Date!

[CYGNUS]

... I really am glad that not ALL the Judged date back to M32; hopefully future articles will be somewhat shorter and I can therefore post them more frequently.

Heaven knows how long it would take for me to write a FULL Chapter write-up for the Judged!

[TDF]

Haven't had a chance to read all your stuff yet but I look forward to doing so. If you're interested I wrote something up for the Fists of Olchis a few years ago. Don't know what thoughts you've had about that particularly chapter.