What's in a Name? - A WIP Blood Angels Successor Chapter

[Fuegann]

After a long hiatus, I have returned to the dark future Games Workshop have lovingly honed for us.  My involvement in the hobby originally stems from MB’s HeroQuest, but my interest in the 40K universe, and the Blood Angels in particular, stems from Gremlin Interactive’s 1992 classic Space Crusade on the trusty old C64.  Yes, the board game came before it, and a decent game that was, but the computer game was able to be played solo (impartially, at least), and with a limited audience with which to play, this was at the time much easier.

 

So what are we doing here then?  Well, I’ve always loved the Blood Angels from the days of Space Crusade, and being the only commander that had a realistic chance of survival against the nefarious Soulsuckers (or Genestealers, for some reason Gremlin weren’t able/willing to use the original name.  Time and time again the commander would limp back to the docking claw, battered but ultimately successful (except mission 9, for those who knew of it, now that was a challenge for all you re-loaders in modern times!).  I got 2^nd edition 40K in 1993, and the focus, to my delight, seemed to be with the Blood Angels then as well.  To see Andy Chambers eke out a victory against the Orks and ultimately shape the story of Captain Erasmus Tycho in White Dwarf 166 was a joy, and I’ve been a firm fan of the Blood Angels over every other chapter since.  Even though some chapters have a cooler colour palette, and some have oh-so-interesting customisations (such as they were in the 1990s, when there were few modelling options, limited poses and “simple” decoration of marines), I always did prefer the background of Sanguinius and his men.

 

I got Codex: Angels of Death when it was released in 1996 (no idea why it took so long after the release of 2nd Edition to be released, but there you go), and the doctrines have stuck with me ever since.  That book, for me, defined the Blood Angels, and my original copy still sits on my bookcase.

 

It’s worth mentioning, as it becomes important later, that I’m pretty well stuck in the 1990s as far as this hobby goes.  Yes, the newer models are great, and I shall use them, but my knowledge never expanded, an having done some reading, some of the newer work I dislike.  For me, 2^nd Edition will always be the fallback position, as it was expanding on some (good) writings from the 1980s without rewriting anything.  To be fair, there wasn’t a lot to rewrite, and quite a lot of the background was still not filled in.  And that makes it more interesting, particularly for those who wish to plug in to that and make their own stamp on the universe.  I also don’t play.  I used to play, but the days of having a few hours to dedicate to this sort of thing are waiting for me in the far future.  I can dedicate hours to the hobby, but alone, in my own time in anti-social hours, or fragments of time cobbled together, not in one long section.

 

So where are we going here and what is this post all about?

 

Well, as much as I’ve always loved the Blood Angels, I have always wanted to create my own chapter. This dates back to a Nelson’s Column design-a-Space-Marine-chapter competition around about 1997, when I submitted the Celestial Crusaders (a chapter I still intend to return to one day).  If I’m going to create my own Space Marine chapter, I feel that the background of the Blood Angels and my history with them make them the perfect starting point.  I mean, it gives me the chance to make the Blood Angels my own, right?

 

Well, no, the Blood Angels are the Blood Angels, but this is at least an opportunity for me to explore the wider universe and the consequence of the Blood Angels without stepping on the toes of those who have spent a long time creating the universe we now explore.

 

So, I intend to work up a full Index Astartes for my chapter, and I will, if possible, be looking for some help, advice and perhaps moderation of the ideas I have.  Well, actually the IA is already fairly far advanced, and I have a lot of the ideas fairly well set, but this doesn’t need to be a quick process and move on.  This is, after all, a hobby, and one I can take my time to get an end product that is just so.

 

Firstly, the name.  Now, I’ve written all sorts of things over the years and quite often the name is one of the very last things to be finalised.  But I’ve often thought of the name of a Space Marine chapter to truly define it.  It acts as an inspiration, as an explanation, and I feel, in terms of a DIY chapter, the very crux of the chapter itself.  So what have I picked?

 

Well, it’s not as simple as that. I did some research back in 2012/13 and I landed on the name Exsanguinators.  Let’s break that down.  In typical Games Workshop fashion, names are often inspired by / “ripped off” from other sources.  “Sangre” is Spanish for blood.  Or so Google Translate tells me.  And you can see there is a link here with Sanguinius.  As a Blood Angel.  But “sanguine”, in English, can also refer to being optimistic or positive, especially in an apparently bad or difficult situation.  Which is somewhat a reflection of at least parts of the character Sanguinius.  If you look further, “sanguinare” in Italian, means to bleed (or bleed out), which is also apt.  “Exsanguinate” or “Exsanguination” refers to the full loss of blood from a body.  Now, isn’t that fitting for a bloodthirsty Space Marine chapter?  The Exsanguinators, they literally drain you of blood, whether that be in battle, or as part of the Flaw.  Fitting?

 

Well, imagine my disappointment when I Google that very term, and find there is a passing reference in 5^th edition to them already being in the canon.  Now, I do consider myself stuck in the early 1990s, as far as this hobby goes, but that sort of knowledge is going to bug me.  More than I would care to admit, I have to say.

 

So, let’s try and find another name, shall we?

 

I reread Codex: Angels of Death, and one word sprang out, relating as it does to the creations of Blood Angels.  That is “Insanguination”.  Now, let’s go back to my breaking down of the word “Exsanguinators”, and this is entirely the opposite.  You’re putting blood in.  The Blood Angels put blood in to the bodies of young boys to create glorious Blood Angels.  You put something in a body and it ingests it.  And the process of that, as far as the background goes, also involves giving these young boys, who become great Space Marines, a flaw.  A terrible flaw that affects the full psyche of a marine, and probably those around him. This I find interesting.  And so were born the Insanguinators.  And I intend to expand on this theme as I develop the chapter.

Edited June 17, 2017 by Fuegann

[Xenith]

Hello, and welcome to the forums!

 

You have settled on a cool name, and I hope it bears fruit - are you going to be making an army with these also, or keeping it to background?

 

The "Exsanguinator" was a 3rd ed piece of wargear, the Blood Angels version of the Codex marine 'Narthecium', and was indeed used for combat blood transfusions. It would transfer blood directly from the priest to the wounded model and could save them. 

 

The "Exsanguinator Chapter" are relatively new, and virtually unwritten about, so you could use them if you liked, however 'Insanguinators' gives you more control if a BL author ever decided to pick them up.

 

Ultimately, the universe is yours to decide. I collect Blood Angels, but they differ slightly from GW's BA, and their actions and commanders in M41 are slightly different to 'canon'.

[Fuegann]

Why thank you.  I believe I joined a good few years ago, and according to my profile I even posted, but I don't remember that.

 

Yes, I intend to make an army.  Or at least, a number of models of each unit type to adequately show how they are decorated/appear.  You probably couldn't play a balanced battle with them, but I do enjoy the modelling aspect of the hobby.  There are a lot more modelling options available now compared to when I first started.  Lots of little details that are easily built up, and not limited to those three poses of the original metal Death Company models.

 

As far as I can tell, the Exsanguinators, though definitely not developed, appeared in 5th Edition, which would be 2009?  Though relatively new in terms of my overall hobby experience, that does feel like enough time to have given others the thought of developing them, so I'll definitely be staying away from them, and yes, I would run the risk of a BL author picking them up one day and taking them in a different direction to that I would.  which could also happen to the Insanguinators to be honest, but hopefully there is a lot less chance of that!

[Fuegann]

I'm going to throw my ideas in in short essays, as that's how I tend to think these days.  In effect this thread will be like a more formally written diary than my little notebook of bullet points, but should contain the same basic information!

 

For me, the Blood Angels are well developed, with a rich mythos, sense of duty and honour and above all, interesting.  They don’t leave me any real room to develop however, which I believe is important since I don’t actually play.  So if I am to develop my own chapter based on the Blood Angels, I need a clear sense of what I like and like less about the Blood Angels.  I think I’ve listed a number of items I like about the Blood Angels already, so what do I like less about them?  Well, despite being a “codex” chapter, there are various parts of the colour scheme I’ve never been so keen on.  The different coloured helmets for different types of marines tends to be a bit of a clash.  I’m also not so keen on the hinted theme that the Blood Angels have accepted their flawed fate.  These guys fight impossible odds and are expected to win, yet they can’t save themselves?  I know the universe is deliberately written as dark, but that does seem slightly at odds with what I would expect Blood Angels, and their successors, to be like.

So I focussed on this kernel, and thought what if one of the successor chapters did not stand idly by.  Or were somewhat more proactive in their search for a cure to the Flaw at any rate.  Perhaps this particular successor chapter values their search for knowledge of the Flaw much more highly than their cousins.  Perhaps they have been too zealous in their search for answers, which puts distance between them and other descendents of Sanguinius.  And this can also help explain their absence from the canon: their methods have led them to drift away, into the fringes where they are more anonymous.  Perhaps some of the successor chapters don’t even know of them.  That gives me more scope to develop them in my image and with luck, away from potential developments within the canon as that is written (and no doubt rewritten).

 

Now, as I’ve explained, I’m stuck in the 1990s with my copy of Codex: Angels of Death as my bible.  Sure, I have a dubious copy of 5^th Edition Codex: Blood Angels, but I often find that I will pull the former for reference, should I need it.  The beauty of that is that it came with background for the Dark Angels too, another mysterious and interesting chapter I liked the look of.  And while idly reading looking for ideas, I was taken by the Dark Angels’ search for the Fallen, at any cost.  That seemed awfully interesting, and an idea I wanted to germinate within the Insanguinators.  However, there are no Fallen for the Insanguinators to chase, but perhaps they view knowledge of the Flaw, gene therapy, retroviral engineering etc. as a similar currency, and perhaps they can be set up with a similar bent.  Instead of black-clad bikers zooming after renegade marines however, they have apothecaries leading sections of the chapter off to investigate rumours, long-abandoned facilities and the like in their search for an answer to their Flaw.  So I’m combining elements of the Blood Angels with elements of the Dark Angels.

 

Does this search for knowledge also seem similar to the Blood Ravens?  Indeed it does.  The Blood Ravens, for all I dismissed them as a bit of a cheap gimmick with a decent paint job when I first played Dawn of War, they’re an very interesting chapter thanks in no small part to some decent writing, an unexplained background with suggestions rather than outright statement.  Now, I’m not planning on developing the Insanguinators in the same fashion as the Blood Ravens, but I do enjoy the idea of that mysterious, unexplained background.  I’m not saying I’ll be leaving a lot of the Insanguinators’ background open and vague, for it’s my background, but it does remind me that not everything need be explained to the last in order to develop a chapter.

 

So far then, I have a chapter that thirsts for knowledge of themselves and the Flaw that so defines them (and their cousins), so I will need an appropriate organisation to suit.  I intend to look at that a bit later, but I do believe the chapter will be heavy on apothecaries.  They may not be quite the same as apothercaries in other chapters, and perhaps might even be secretive within their own chapter to avoid compromising some of these knowledge hunts.  I’ll come to that.  I do however want to maintain the Insanguinators as being obviously descended from the Blood Angels, with similar combat doctrine, similar force make-up and similar ferocity.  That makes a number of things simple, as the background is well established for that.  There is, of course, the Death Company, for the Flaw that defines their cousins must also define the Insanguinators.  The Death Company is something that I particularly want to develop, even before the rest of the chapter organisation.

 

To me, the way the Death Company is written in the Blood Angels’ background is at odds with that of Space Marine chapters.  I understand that the psychic wounds of Sanguinius leave their scars, and the Flaw the chapter and their successors suffer from is indeed, a flaw.  The Death Company is an interesting and clever way of explaining this flaw.  What gets me however is that on the eve of every battle, the way the background is written, a number of marines suffer their breakdown, get taken away to form this special unit, and are sent on their merry way to slaughter the enemy.  They either die in battle, or they die afterwards from a complete and utter meltdown caused by their visions.  Well, Space Marines fight a lot of battles.  If a few marines succumb before every battle they partake in, the Blood Angels and ever successor will quickly die out.  Now that’s no fun, and the very fact that 10,000 years later they still survive (perilously, I believe) suggests that the Black Rage is not as endemic as perhaps t is written.  Most Space Marine chapters struggle with recruiting numbers, and rely (to an extent) on the fact that they don’t die very easily to maintain their numbers.  The Blood Angels and their successors must therefore be the same.  And so that handful of marines who fall to the Black Rage must fall victim almost never.  And if they do, perhaps it is in small batches? At any rate, I do not intend to have a large Death Company.

 

There are other reasons for this of course.  A chapter who actively searches for a cure to the Flaw will very likely see those who fall foul of it as a failure.  Perhaps some of the other successors do too, but a typical Death Company marine will likely be revered, with scrolls of his deeds written and hung from his armour.  He will be heavily decorated, beyond even the heavy adornment Blood Angels are famous for.  He will even be given weaponry to suit his own personal fighting style.  From a modelling perspective, that’s great, but why give the iconic armour, the best weapons and more importantly, time to those who have failed the chapter?  Well, the Insanguinators think differently because I think differently.  My Death Company shall be plain, monolithic and above all, uniform.  Besides, if marines are equipped with specific weaponry to fight in their normal squads (from tactical to assault), then how have they gained sufficient experience with bespoke weaponry to chose, say, a power fist and a plasma pistol as their “proficient” weapons.  Sure, they may have practiced in the armoury, but for me it just doesn’t stack up.

 

In planning out models for the Death Company though, it does occur to me that failure or not, there is likely to be some ritual where they are appointed as Death Company.  If I am to give them basic (unadorned) armour, basic (assault) weaponry, I feel that it’s likely they will be stripped of their regular armour, for that will have been adorned with something.  Perhaps then, the chaplain gives them a symbolic death mask as part of the armour?  They’re going to die anyway, so this is almost the preparation for that.  There are a number of death masks available in model form now, so it is less of a modelling challenge than the 1990s, when I would not have considered such a thing!  Finally, the colour scheme.  I am aware that almost all successor chapters use black for their Death Company, with the only (noted) exception being the Angels Encarmine, who wear white.  I like the while look, and in reference to my choosing of the name, it looks like the marine is exsanguinated, i.e. drained of all his blood.  The Insanguinators however, have a name that means the opposite.  The are literally full of blood.  Perhaps then, with the Black Rage swirling around their head, the Death Company are even more bloodthirsty and ferocious, and as part of their attach they spill the blood of their enemies.  A lot of blood.  It’s reasonable to assume that a lot of this will end up on their armour, slowly turning it red over the course of a battle.  They then become insanguinated.  So I shall call my Death Company The Insanguinated.

[Fuegann]

Having decided on a few basic ideas with the Insanguinators, I want to see what might differentiate them from other Blood Angels, and successors.  I’ve got a slightly different Death Company sure, but I really want to develop another area of the chapter, to explore the psyche of the Blood Angels themselves.  I’ve already determined that the Insanguinators should have a larger than standard Apothecarion, as they actively search for a cure to the Flaw.  This seems the obvious place to make the chapter my own.  It’s not that other successor chapters don’t search for a cure to the Flaw, but this is the driving factor for the Insanguinators, above all else.  In a similar vein to the Dark Angels’ Interrogator Chaplains, it would be something that makes the chapter unique.  No special rules need apply, after all, I imagine it would be quite unusual to see large swathes of the Apothecarion out on the battlefield (though they may very well be part of the follow up operation, sifting clues from the blood-soaked dead).

 

First though, I need a name.  The Sanguinary Priests of the Blood Angels are a great name, and really define the nature of who they are and what they do.  The Insanguinators probably know that, and if they are to have a unique organisation, I’ll need to think of something different.  A quick thesaurus check gives me a few options, but I quite like the word Ruby (this, in part, is based on my late teens/early 20s when I played Planetarion, using the planet Rubycon).  Ruby has a connection with blood (in colour), so after a few name experiments I settled on Ruby Priests, part of the Ruby Brotherhood.  The Ruby Brotherhood shall act, generally, as the Apothercarion of the chapter, and on the face of it they shall be typical of any other Space Marine chapter, albeit larger.  Taking inspiration again from the Dark Angels though, I shall form a mobile vanguard to accompany them when rumours of the Flaw are heard.  This vanguard shall deploy swiftly in a similar manner to the Ravenwing.

 

So what of this mobile vanguard?  Well, the Ravenwing is a dedicated organisation within the Dark Angels, their second company (in many ways the most illustrious of the battle companies), and they deploy solely on bikes, land speeders and other fast moving machinery.  I don’t anticipate the Insanguinators being quite the same.  After all, I suspect clues about the Flaw are even rarer than rumours of a Fallen Dark Angel.  No, this vanguard shall be a regular assault company that just happens to be kept in reserve to deploy at a moments notice.  A standard Space Marine chapter has the eighth company as this mobile reserve, but I prefer my deployments to be sequential.  If I’m going to hold back a whole company to deploy at a place of my choosing (rather than that of the High Lords of Terra), I would prefer to have it as the last number.  Which is commonly ten.  But because Scouts are not yet “proper” Space Marines, I’ll hold that for them.  So my reserve assault company is the ninth.  They shall have access to the bikes, the land speeder and the other fast moving machinery.

 

Returning to the Ruby Brotherhood, if they’re to be deployed at speed, I think a few of them will be deployed on bikes also.  They shall react quickly to rumours in much the same way as the ninth company will.  Modelling wise, I think this will be quite interesting, and ought to give a unique flavour to my marines.  Does that make the Ruby Brotherhood unique enough?  Probably not to be honest, they’re just a larger Apothecarion with a different name.

 

This brings me, not quite neatly but appropriately, to my honour guard.  The Blood Angels have the Sanguinary Guard, a very interesting organisation full of history, honour and interesting modelling opportunities.  Now, the Sanguinary Guard operate with millennia-old equipment, reserved for those who have reached the very highest echelons of the Blood Angels, both in battlefield experience and combat prowess.  The suits of armour are unique and irreplaceably ancient artefacts that are so highly prized it would be inconceivable for there to be even replicas.  I gather that some successor chapters have a few similar suits so that those chapters can operate a similar organisation.  I would like to think that applies only to the second founding chapters.  I can’t for one minute see the Blood Angels being happy to have the High Lords of Terra create a new chapter from their gene stock, then hand over some of their most prized relics.  No, any subsequent foundings, in my opinion, will have to forge their own history (and equipment).  The Insanguinators therefore will need a different honour guard.

 

How does this tie in with the Ruby Brotherhood?  Well, if I have a chapter that prizes knowledge and research of the Flaw above all else, and possess a large Apothecarion, it stands to reason that a number of those marines will hold a large influence over the running of the chapter, guiding the fleets to rumours of the Flaw.  They will also, no doubt, help shape recruitment, combat doctrine and general marine welfare to best understand the terrible curse they suffer from.  I therefore think that the honour guard of the Insanguinators is likely formed predominantly of Ruby Priests.  My honour guard will have a dual function: in addition to serving as a typical honour guard with all the skill-at-arms and heroism that goes with that, these marines will be sacred guardians of the knowledge the chapter has gained.  This, I think, will set the Ruby Brotherhood apart from other chapters, as the honour guard will be formed from their ranks.  That’s not to say that other marines cannot join the honour guard, but they will be expected to keep vigil on the knowledge of the Flaw, the Insanguinators’ efforts to combat it, all in addition to being a typical honour guard.

 

I tend to try and start with a name, but in this case it is coming fairly naturally as a product of the function of the honour guard.  Again, a quick thesaurus suggests Haemic as a good starting point, and if they literally “guard the blood”, the Haemic Guard seems perfect for my honour guard.

I have been purchasing modelling bits for years to begin the Insanguinators, and such a unique organisation as the Haemic Guard will demand excellent use of the modular nature of Games Workshop’s plastic kits (back in the 1990’s this would have been a tough ask, and the marines would have required a special paint job to truly set them apart, thank goodness for the multitude of modelling options available now, especially with certain online shops being able to provide more of certain components than typically come in a boxed set).  I plan on a mix of the Sanguinary Guard models, but with different heads, weapons and crucially, an Apothecary backpack.  The final look and armament of these will depend on how I feel the final look comes together, but I feel this will sufficiently guide my buying.

 

[Fuegann]

Having decided on some basic tenets for the Insanguinators, I now want to add some detail into their backgrounds so that I can work up my eventual goal of an Index Astartes article.  Now that I am happy with the bulk of the units and their function within the Chapter, I can further develop why and how the chapter currently works today.  The Insanguinators, as a successor chapter of the Blood Angels, need to be very similar in many aspects, although I do not wish to simply reuse the Blood Angels’ background wholesale as I’ve previously explored.

 

First things first, where do the Insanguinators come from?  I’m not keen on a fleet-based chapter, as I think there can be a danger that the diversity of the recruited marines could dilute the essence of the background I’m trying to create (or, more likely, I’ll spin so many webs trying to accommodate marines from so many different backgrounds that I’ll argue and counter argue against myself on why certain inherited conditions may or may not be relevant to my wider background).  I could argue that a fleet based chapter allows the speed and flexibility that the chapter requires to mobilise and chase down rumours pertaining to the Flaw.  On the other hand, a homeworld allows for a dedicated research base without conflicting strands of investigation, i.e. research will be collected from across thegalaxy and taken back to the homeworld, rather than multiple ships conducting independent research, than may double up.  No, the Insanguinators will have their own home world, and I shall enjoy the creation of this as much as the rest of the chapter.

 

As ever, I like to start with a name.  After a quick thesaurus search for the word “blood” (again) suggests a few alternatives, but one short, simple word catches my eye.  Another word for blood (or gore, coagulated blood) is “cruor”.  I like the Latin twist, and the fact that the word has generally fallen out of general use, and so the planet Cruor was born.

 

What is planet Cruor like then?  Well, I like the name to inspire the item, so I imagine the planet to be like a blood drop in a vacuum.  That would be how the exploratory who discovered the planet is likely to describe it, which in turn inspires the name within the game universe.  This bears a striking similarity to Mars, which I would like to be very careful about.  Mars is a place of many and varied geographical features, which makes for an interesting location.  Cruor on the other hand, I would like to be fairly barren and deserted.  To swell the idea of the planet appearing as a drop of blood, I intend to have the surface of the planet as fairly featureless, as a deep red desert of howling winds.  Why would humans inhabit this place then?  With no discernible surface features, there must be something under the surface.  Mars is a rusty colour, formed from various iron oxides, and I imagine Cruor will be similar, albeit skewed to the darker pigments.  If iron is common as part of the surface, I would theorise that Cruor is rich in heavy metals and industrial ores, and as such, it will be ripe for mining activity.  Therefore, if mining is the predominant reason for mankind to be on Cruor, I would postulate that there have been a number of deep chasms and quarries cut into the surface.

 

To flick back to inspiration, I enjoyed Doom 3 very much when it first came out, not necessarily as a pioneering piece of gaming history, but the eternal darkness as you thread your way across interconnecting sections of a large station on Mars has an appeal.  I have always liked the idea of cities being built into the side of canyons, cliffs and other seemingly impossible geographical features, and to my mind, the nature of the Imperium allows for an industrial scale far beyond what we can comprehend today.  The Adeptus Mechanicus would think nothing of cutting deep, impossibly large lines across a plant in search of (or following) veins of industrial materials, should a planet warrant it, and this scale should be sufficient for my idea of cities within chasms.  If a mining station follows a winding vein of ore through the surface of the planet, it is conceivable that a jagged, natural looking feature could be formed.  Cruor then will now have these man-made geographical features, which become inhabited as the mining vessels move on through the surface.

 

The nature of the chasms the Adeptus Mechanicus have cut through Cruor means plenty of shadow (given the presumed depth), and as such, the inhabitants of Cruor are likely to have had to adapt, meaning I should suggest, light-skinned or albino humans, wide-eyed with some other physical deformities.  It is also conceivable that living in these man-made chasms could be hazardous in terms of latent radiation or the results of other industrial refining processes.  That would further deform any inhabitants.  In this respect, I can create a link back to the Blood Angels and Baal, with the irradiated, less-than-perfect specimens the chapter recruits from.  The very nature of the creation of a Space Marine removes these deformities, and the Blood Angels are often viewed as beautiful, sculpted versions of humanity.  I like the idea that the Insanguinators can honour their cousins in this way.

 

Why are the Insanguinators at Cruor though?  I need to link the creation of the chapter to the expansion of the Imperium, and the Insanguinators can then be established as a force that partakes in this.  A quick flick through the galactic maps available online suggests to me that Segmentum Pacificus is the most logical location for Cruor, being in the galactic west, but it also contains the Halo Zone, and I like the idea of the very edges of Imperial space being an area that needs vigilant deployment by the Imperium’s elite.  Now, I’m aware that an argument could be put forward to suggest that if the Insanguinators are to chase rumours of the Flaw, a more centralised location would be more suitable for them.  It would certainly make their travel less of an issue, but a homeworld on the fringes of Imperial existence suggests a more secretive existence, away from the meddling eyes of those who disapprove of the research the Insanguinators undertake.  The Halo Zone itself also allows for other mysterious events that the Insanguinators can be involved in, given its general enigma.  I intend to explore this further through short stories within an Index Astartes article, but I now feel that the Insanguinators are suitable located, while going some way to explain their origins.