I Raise the Banner to a Dark Future

[Skalpynock]

"The Great Crusade reached its apex with the fall of the Rangdan. All twenty Legions mobilised to save the northern reaches of this Imperium. Yet tha triumph was bittersweet. Two whole legions entirely wiped. We shall remember the Second and the Eleventh. And now, from that zenith our conquest can only wane. Our Primarchs, despite all the lies concerning their very existence, have perished, and only now do we see gene-psychic confirmations of that fact. To us, Fists of the Seventh, it manifests as a deep dread, as if Astartes could, for an instant, know fear. The Corpse Grinders and Angels of Death fall to a paranoid gloom, even coming to blows with their own brethren. The Rout and Hell-Riders turn into blood-thirsty monsters, herded toward the foe by their helpless brothers. The Ash-Blind Pale Nomads, and fearless Dragon Warriors of the XVIIIth fall to yet more primal ways. The War-Born and Emperor's Children attempt to cure the illness by studying themselves, ever-complexifying the structure of their legions. The Storm Walkers and Dusk Raiders find salvation in ravage, destruction of others to preserve themselves. At least the Second and the Eleventh will be spared these afflictions. For now, I raise the banner to a dark future."

-- Oath of Moment of Pheidias Kharcenas, Vexilliary of the Imperial Fists, mid-Great Crusade --