Devastation of Baal Inquiry (Spoilers)

[Majkhel]

By the wiki's count, Angels Excelsis, Golden Sons, Burning Blood, Brothers of Jarad, Angels Glorious, and 3 other unnamed Chapters destroyed (8 Chapters), 6 more Chapters reduced to non-combat status, and all remaining Chapters reduced to less than half of their number, with the Blood Angels numbering less than 300.

This list is in fact based on a fragment where loses in space are listed which is a solid 60 pages before the end of the book. Angels Excelsis, Burning Blood, Brothers of Jarad and Angels Glorious are indeed named as having been destroyed (in space) by that point. However Golden Sons were: "reduced to a handful of scattered survivors". So there were survivors. At least for the time being.

Lets also remember that many (all?) librarians were with Mephiston at that time trying to prevent Ka'Bandha's return. One Golden Sons' Librarian is mentioned as killed there. Many others probably also died in the cave-in. But not all.

 

And as Dante said: "Guilliman brings enough new warriors to rebuild all the Chapters of the Blood". 

[Aothaine]

 

Plus it's one of the best 40K books anyway. At least in my opinion. Definitely one of the best non-ADB written books. 

 

Yeah I've found BL books to be hit or miss.. but I've not read a single book by ADB that I have not thoroughly enjoyed.

[Ayatollah_of_Rock_n_Rolla]

But does the number 300 cover those on Diamor?

So many had died. Castigon, Raxietal, Zedrenael, and Sendroth had all fallen in the defence. Behelmor and Asante slain as the Blade of Vengeance came down. As yet firm casualty numbers were unavailable, but Dante did not expect the total survivors of the Blood Angels to exceed three hundred.
Others of the Blood had fared far worse. Eight Chapters had been entirely wiped out, half a dozen nearly
so, to the point where they would never recover. Most of the others could boast no more than a company
or two of warriors, and none remained at above half strength.

If BA fared best from all present, shouldn't they be about half strength, i.e. 300 on Baal + ca 200 from Diamor? And how many Sanguinary Guard there are, since DoB lists only one surving at all, although 15 were on Diamor (what Haley acknowledges earlier) and in Angel's Blade they are still alive during the final battle? And can we cling to this data at all, since many chapters arrived on Ball with less than half of their strength (at one point 27 chapters are said to have delivered 15 000 marines together), what makes "none remained at above half strength" a rhetorical exaggeration?

[Panzer]

I agree that there are always survivors, GW will use every trick that suits the narrative. The book says that some successor chapters arrived at full strength for the battle and indeed some were completely wiped out.

By the wiki's count, Angels Excelsis, Golden Sons, Burning Blood, Brothers of Jarad, Angels Glorious, and 3 other unnamed Chapters destroyed (8 Chapters), 6 more Chapters reduced to non-combat status, and all remaining Chapters reduced to less than half of their number, with the Blood Angels numbering less than 300.

 

Also based on the wording it's to be believed that the Knights of Blood have been there with their whole remaining chapter and won't get rebuild after sacrificing themselves. However thanks to the Deathwatch there's always the possibility of some still being around in the galaxy and I used that possibility for a rebuild of not-Knights of Blood as my homegrown chapter. ;)

[dread05]

Would the Deathwatch pull marines from a chapter that's marked as excommunicate traitoris from the inquisition?

[Panzer]

Yeah as Blackshields. We know for a fact that there are some Knights of Blood serving in the Deathwatch. ^^