Angels Defiant - Primaris Chapter

[Welcheren]

I have just discovered how hopeless I am at colouring the Primaris Space Marine Heraldry card. I have been trying to use GIMP, but to no avail. So until I can hone those skills, I will unfortunately have to cast myself upon the tender mercies of your imagination, with regards to the colour scheme. Imagine the marine below as one of Cawl's creations.

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/sm.php?b62c=@hdfu0_hIAEG.hgPVa@@@@@@@i7RGA@.@@_hcLAt@@@@___@___@@@@@@@@@@@@@@.hozqS@@@@@@@@@@@@@.hLL9J&

[skullheader#276741]The Angels Defiant[/skullheader]

Chapter name:___________ Angels Defiant

Founding:_______________ Ultima Founding

Chapter Master:__________ Hardanger

Chapter World___________ Vemork (Western rim of the Segmentum Pacificus)

Fortress Monastery_______ Souls' Home

Main colours_____________ Black and red

Primarch________________ Lion El'Jonson

Battle cry_______________ Honour the First!

Chapter Icon____________ A Dark Angels' sword, superimposed over a six-pointed star

[skullheader#276741]Inception[/skullheader]

“Not for naught is their star two points short of Chaos.”

Equerry to Lord Stalyn, tasked with carrying an accusation of murder to the Lord Commander’s staff.

The Indomitus Crusade heralded a note of hope for a beleaguered Imperium. In the sectors south of Agripinaa, formations of Astartes marshalled from mixed gene-lines did battle with Traitors Marines, cultists and daemons, under the aegis of the Lord Commander’s bid to liberate his Father’s realm. Scattered among these forces were the soldiers that would one day coalesce into the Angels of Defiant.

Roboute Guilliman, ever the superlative logistician, grasped the value of guarding his flanks, and had already taken thought for the systems situated west of Agripinaa. Hardly had the Crusade swung its spearheads to the east and south, when his forethought was vindicated. Disaster loomed from the Segmentum Pacificus, taking the form of a tremendous Ork incursion. A chapter comprised entirely of Primaris Astartes barred their rampage, bred from the stock of the First Legion.

The Angels Defiant scored their first battle honours during a decade’s worth of war that carried them from Agripinaa to the western edges of the Pacificum. For this, the Lord Commander dispatched an emissary, to reward them with a series of banners, commemorating their triumphs and losses. Some of these standards harkened back to victories won just prior to the Chapter’s founding, when they had still fought in blended companies. The latter was a strange plaudit, for the banners bore small heraldic tokens of the various chapters to which these other marines had been dispatched. Clearly, these awards represented the Lord Commander’s attempt to remind the Angels Defiant of the value of cross-gene collaboration. At the time, they thought little of what this token might portend.

[skullheader#276741]Early History[/skullheader]

The Angels successfully pushed the Orks beyond Segmentum bounds, by rallying the resources of three Imperial Guard armies, commanded by Lord Generals: Stalyn, Sigorsky, and Kronstadt. Initially, each of these proved invaluable in the campaign. One would become a liability.

But the Ork is a formidable foe and the Imperium’s woes were far from ended. Reconnaissance of the Halo Stars revealed more mustering Green-skin fleets. While the Angels settled their home world, to recoup from their losses and prepare for a new campaign, the liberated sectors behind them issued new distress calls.

Lord General Stalyn claimed that Sigorsky and Kronstadt had turned traitor, and the resultant anarchy had forced him to assert brutal command over three entire sectors, including a string of lynchpin forge worlds. Not a year passed without a rebellion on at least one system.

After collecting intelligence, the Angels Defiant discovered the Stalyn had not simply liquidated Kronstadt and Sigorsky, but nearly all senior officers, severely hamstringing the efficiency of his armies, as well as all leading members of the intelligentsia in the three sectors under his rule. Economic ineptitude had also instigated widespread poverty that would soon spiral into famine. Stalyn also lodged charges of heresy against neighbouring sector commands, claiming that we would soon have no option but to seize control.

The monastic and ascetically-minded discerned that Stalyn’s oppressive regime and its bitter exploitation was hardly conducive to stability. Since creature comforts are anathema to the life of an Astartes, they were perplexed by the lengths to which Stalyn’s corruption stretched, especially when the Imperium teetered on the brink of oblivion. During a meeting between Chapter Master Hardanger and Stalyn, the Lord General suffered a fatal accident of an uncertain nature.

Without sanction from Hydraphur, the Angels installed governmental councils, charged with preserving security and enforcing a singular standard of living across all three sectors. Whether these bodies will be officially ratified by Segmentum command once the crisis has abated, and whether they will successfully sustain stability has yet to be seen. For their part, the Angels Defiant have withdrawn to the border regions, to confront the Orks again.

Since that time Imperial delegations to the Angels Defiant have found an order unusually suspicious of high office, even by the standard of their Dark Angels heritage. Equally, this branch of the Lion’s line evince an affinity for the simple folk of the Imperium; a liking that has, paradoxically, been bolstered by the fact the Angels have no real contact with these people are not familiar with the flaws of this class. Regrettably, the relationship between affinity and practice often becomes tenuous when the needs of war press.

“Dem new Mareens? Yeah, I seen ‘em. I ‘spect they’ll do for us just as the ol’ ones did. Mixed bag as usual for the lower orders. Good time ter keep yur head down.”

Imperial citizen Sammuel Gamgin, prior to his interrogation and eventual execution by Lord General Stalyn’s officers.

[skullheader#276741]Home world and emerging chapter cult[/skullheader]

“May the Master of Mankind weigh the worth of my soul and mark in me a spirit malleable only to his will and the word of the Lion. For like the Lord of Caliban, when doubt dulls conviction I keep true. When the fainthearted falter, I keep true. I tread my vocation to its end.” Battle hymn, penned by the Master of Librarians, the Wielder of the Words.

Vemork is classed as a Feral World, pitched on the very fringes of the Western Pacificus. Its biodiversity would be reminiscent of ancient Terra, were its inhabitants aware the Throne World’s past. Nevertheless, its climates are deadly and barely supportive of human life.

Consequently, collaboration rather than conflict, is the prevailing state, since its peoples are unified by the pitiless exigencies of survival. War is virtually unknown, for the world’s populace can hardly afford it. In fact, some of its most primitive communities have never enjoyed contact with each other, save for those rare few who meet as brothers of the Angels.

Given their early experiences, these traits provoked a measure of respect from the Angels Defiant. As the Indomitus Crusade ground on through a century, select features of Vermork’s cultures slowly seeped into the Chapter’s ways.

The peoples of Vermork, even those unaware of each other’s existence, all developed a structure of government based on representative communes and elected councils. Such inclusive systems are unsuitable for an Astartes Chapter. But during times of great need, Vermork’s people will elect a single ruler to temporarily shoulder all executive power. The Angels Defiant ritually invoke such moments.

Even when their task forces are scattered across the vast stretches of space assigned to their protection, battle-brothers congregate to watch the command staff symbolically relinquish their autonomy to the Emperor, culminating in the Chapter Master (or Company Master) assuming executive supremacy.

In deference to Vemork’s cultures, battle companies are named after the much vaunted breeds of hunting dogs, prized by the planet’s mountain folk. Other rites and traditions might emerge over time, for the Brotherhood’s cult is still developing. To date, they remain steadfast adherents of the Imperial Truth.

The Chapter’s icons bear no relation to Vemork, since these had been selected prior to the planet’s full-scale settlement. Instead, the sword and six-pointed star, allude to the Angels’ heritage from the First Legion and the days when they had been organised around the secret structures of the hexagrammaton. Given their sparse contact with brothers of the same line, however, they know little of how the Wings functioned, beyond what little Roboute Guilliman related (information which they hold in suspicion). For this reason, among others, they hunger for contact with and lore from their brothers.

[skullheader#276741]Contact with the Unforgiven[/skullheader]

By the closing stages of the Indomitus Crusade, the Angels Defiant had remained isolated from fellow descendants of the First Legion. Long ago, during their service in mixed formations, they had listened to sons of Fenris and Baal banter about their aspirations to serve alongside their respective founding chapters. The Angels Defiant harboured similar dreams, and had passed these hopes to new inductees.

Over a century of conflict had never brought them into contact with the Guardians of the Covenant or with the Storm Angels, who also operated in the Pacificus. The scions of Mortikah VII and Karapasia and had their own calls to answer http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/334683-ia-storm-angels-previously-angels-profundum-wip/.

Finally, a delegation arrived. The Ivory Equites, a Tenth Founding successor of the Angels of Redemption, had dispatched a small cadre of Chaplains, Librarians and veterans. Although the Fortress Monastery of the Angels Defiant reflects their sombre and restrained aesthetics, a grand processions was prepared to meet the Equites.

Their guests moved quietly and without remark through the phalanx of battle honours, until they reached the banners awarded to them by Roboute Guilliman. Here, the Equites stopped and watched, gazing specifically at the small references to Ultramar, Fenris, Baal and other gene-sources. Not a single word was spoken.

The Ivory Equites brusquely demanded admittance to all strategic councils, but never interrupted proceedings. Even when prompted for input, their officers would simply nod accent to any proposal.

As suddenly and unannounced as they had arrived, the Equites withdrew after five years, with only a terse promise to return.

[skullheader#276741]Fortress Monastery[/skullheader]

Soul’s Home has been delved into Vemork’s greatest mountain range. It’s bulk is located underground, carved within the peaks and under the valleys.

Its Library is supremely well organised, for when the first Master of the Librarius was nearly killed by the neurotoxins of a mysterious xenos race, his ruined body was permanently bonded to the Library’s central console. From this position, the Grand Master of the Archives dictates the compilation and cataloguing of lore. His knowledge is a vast collation of the entire Library’s contents, and is regularly updated by fresh reports. A large following of lexicaniums and codiciers, take dictations from his eldritch voice, emanating from the broken body perched atop the console. They listen to and archive the elaborate connections he is able to draw between seemingly disparate events and pieces of information, until they too appreciate his deductive reason and intuitive insight.

As such, the Chapter’s history, battle reports, and other information from numerous sources around the Segmentum are well-recorded here.

Edited July 3, 2017 by Welcheren

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The backstory is acceptable thus far. Will the Angels Defiant come into conflict with Lord General Stalyn in the future?

[Welcheren]

He is dead, but they might have to deal with the consequences.

 

Any critiques?

Edited June 17, 2017 by Welcheren