IL XV- The Riven

[Lord_Ikka]

Legio Numeration: The XVth Legion

Cognomen: The Riven (Prior: None, Imperial Army records have mention of the "War Wolves", but there are no official known cognomens of the XVth Legion)

Primogenitor: Morrigar

Noteworthy Domains: Skiirad (Border zone of Segmentum Pacificus and Tempestus), Bellicus Sector (Bellicus Prime, Xecarra, Itzl IV recruitment worlds)

Fortress Monastery: The fortress-moon of Cyphus

Allegiance: Traitoris Maximus

Flagship: Revenant-class Battleship, Last Light

Colors: Dark Green with Bronze trim

Strength: approximately 90,000 at the beginning of the War on Ullanor

Original Recruitment Area: Terra, war-orphans of the Unification Wars

Motto: None

Symbol: A broken shield

Observed Strategic Tendencies: Urban Warfare, Punitive Suppressions/Purgation Operations, Insurrection Repression and Abhuman Decimation

Notable Battles: The Cowering of Ixthus IV, the Pysker-purge of the Ovar sector, Tadagan Crusade

Formations: TBD

Short Overview:

The Riven were the one of the Emperor's most brutal and ruthless Legions. Tasked with multiple punitive and insurgency repression campaigns, they became adept at finding and destroying rebel leadership cadres. In particular, the Riven were extremely capable of destroying cult leadership, abhuman/divergent human civilization, and then re-building the rebellious societies into bastions of Imperial norms. The Legion accomplishes their mission in two distinct phases; the first is the utter purging of all recessive elements and outposts, the second is the rebuilding/teaching/guiding phase in which the Legion's Librarians and Chaplains oversee those citizens that remain in the proper way of the Imperial Truth.

The constant, grinding nature of the XV's missions took a terrible toll on the Legion. They became insular and withdrawn, barely interacting with other Legions, instead focusing on their warcraft. The XVth Legion gained a reputation of "a Legion of Destroyers" that would use any weapon, no matter how devastating, to accomplish their goals. The discovery of their taciturn and mysterious Primarch Morrigar, did nothing to curb these rumors. Morrigar approved of his Legion's tactics and dubbed them the Riven to honor their dual nature.

The Riven distained psykers, viewing their Librarians as a necessary evil useful to change the minds of a populace. As time wore on, the amount of rebel psykers and xenos psyker-breeds had the Riven recruiting more and more psykers in their ranks to counter the enemy. After the Psyker-purge of the Ovar Sector in which thousands of legionnaires were lost due to insidious witch-cult magiks, Morrigar reluctantly began to train as many of his sons as possible in the psychic arts, expanding both his and their abilities greatly. A new order, combining the duties of Chaplain and Librarian was created by Morrigar, the Hierarchs. The Hierarch order took over the secondary phase of the Riven battle doctrine, turning their greater psychic and oratory skills towards making a citizenry compliant, while having their less skilled members dedicated to defending the rest of the legion during the purgation process. Darker whispers began to abound, of the Riven walking the battlefield as ghosts or fire-breathers, of worlds turned to to nothing but fawning puppets after a Riven compliance-crusade, of battlefield troops that moved and fought as if with one mind.

With the loss of the Emperor, Morrigar turned towards ever more arcane methods to insure his Legion's protection and effectiveness in battle. Every minute his Legion was not fighting was spent deep in the Warp, as both he and his sons searched for answers to the Emperor's disappearance.

Edited June 20, 2020 by Lord_Ikka

[Lord_Ikka]

Numeration: The XVth Legion

Cognomen: The Riven (Prior: None, Imperial Army records have mention of the "War Wolves", but there are no official known cognomens of the XVth Legion)

Primogenitor: Morrigar

Observed Strategic Tendencies: Urban Warfare, Punitive Suppressions/Purgation Operations, Insurrection Repression and Abhuman Decimation

Noteworthy Domains: Skiirad (Border zone between Segmentum Tempestus and Pacificus)

Allegiance: Traitoris Maximus

 

 

 

Brutal. Effective. Untrustworthy. Few legions were as disliked and disparaged as the Riven. Known for their brutal re-compliance and suppression campaigns more than their actual compliance actions, the Riven gained a reputation for utter devastation and total compliance from what pitiful civilian remnants remained after their purges. Given their taciturn nature, it was not long before rumors began to circle their exploratory fleets. This only increased the isolation and bitterness of the legion, already high due to the nature of their rebellion suppression campaigns, and their lack of any sort of recognition for "honorable" tasks.
 

Origins: "Those of Use"

During the Emperor's long struggle in the Unification Wars, massive casualties and dislocation of civilians occurred. Adjunct Jordani Le-Rau of the 201st Mercia Cohort famously stated during a victory party, "The Emperor should make use of those that could be of use, and forget about those that cannot". This view, while callous, was taken quite seriously by some of the military minds of the time. War-orphans from across various theatres were taken and tested, the strongest and brightest earning places of note in newly formed Imperial military academies and scholams. A fragment of those tested were found to have something that the Legionnes Astartes require- indominable strength of will and an unwillingness to fail. This group of orphans, the detritus of battle, became the core of the XVth legion.

The war-orphans were the perfect recruits for the Emperor's Astartes program- they had already survived in war, they had no familial ties to break, and there were a multitude of them to be used up if needed. Put through the harrowing process of becoming a Space Marine, these young legionnaires were trained mercilessly through pyscho-conditioning, battle simulations, and intra-legion combat. Thousands died as the legion grew, but the constant wars kept the steady flow of recruits into the training halls. The enemies of the Emperor began to fear the "child-takers", the soldier-scientists who searched the burned-out enemy cities and camps for the legion's recruits. These fears redoubled when the children were returned to the war as mighty Astartes, come to destroy the Emperor's foes.

As more legionnaires were created, the XVth Legion began to participate in combined assaults with other proto-legions, assisting where able during the final years of the Unification Wars. Having no ingrained cultural bias was a boon to the XVth legion. Lacking any preconceptions of battle or strategy, the young legion began to develop innovative tactics to certain, often previously difficult, combat deployments and issues. The confusing tangle of urban combat and insurgent repression proved to be the perfect battlefield for the XVth, allowing them to bring a storm of flame, bolt, and blade to the enemy.

[ The Cleansing of Yula Hive
The first act that the XVth took as a fully formed legion was the assault of Yula Hive. A stronghold of Magistre-General Xhul of the Pan-Pacific Empire, Yula Hive had been besieged for three years before the XVth were given the task of claiming it for the Emperor. Surrounding the hive city were battalions of the Emperor's armies, numbering trained soldiers in their hundreds of thousands, including a small detachment of Thunder Warriors. Xhul had held the hive walls strong for three years against this formidable force, using a combination of mind-wiped civilian cannon-fodder, augmented men, and vat-bred psyker cult warriors.

Legion Commander Tulvar Harradeen sent in his legionnaires in three waves. The first, scouts and saboteurs, were tasked with pinpointing enemy leadership cadres, communications hubs, and other targets of importance. These were attacked, bombed, and disabled as the second wave attacked. A massive drop-pod assault smashed into the hive, punching through the armored flanks of hive spires and bunkers. Emerging from the smoke-wreathed pods were the massive forms of Terminators, who poured fire into the Magistre-General's soldiers. Rapid response teams and floods of cult warriors were directed from the hive walls to assault these indominable warriors. As the enemy forces were distracted, leaderless, and reeling from sabotage and drop assaults, Harradeen unleashed the rest of the legion. Thousands of Rhino carriers, Stormbird gunships, and Land Raiders smashed through the hive wall defenses, as the Emperor's mortal armies launched a massive artillery attack that breached multiple sections.

For a week after the initial assault, no word was heard out of the hive city. Any attempt to approach by other forces was stopped and rebuffed by XVth Legion commanders. Gunfire, explosions, and giant columns of smoke wafted from over the walls of Yula. Eight days from the day of the assault, Commander Harradeen declared Yula Hive cleansed of the enemy, and requested that the Emperor's armies take control of the hive and prisoners. Shocked Army officers watched streams of humanity pour from the hive, watched over by the passionless gaze of XVth legionnaires. The survivors were burned and bloodied, mumbling about "giants in the fires".
 
A curious side note to this action, several army records mention groups of children being herded onto the legion's transports. No further reports were ever found that mention these children, nor were there any instances of protests by any of the former populace of Yula Hive concerning these occurrences. ]
 
The XVth Legion began the Great Crusade like many of their brother legions; great fanfare and parades before the masses of Terra. The legion was sent to further the nascent Imperium's eastern borders and had great success initially. Shortly, however, the XVth began to encounter Xenos threats of a singular nature- large swathes of systems with a human population enslaved psychically to Xenos. These sector-campaigns, known to the legion as the Brutan Morn, irrevocably changed the legion's basic identity. Where before the XVth had been biased against those members within its ranks who were gifted with psychic powers due to the final Unification Wars battles, the frequency of psyker-breeds of Xenos and the need to defend against them required an increasing focus on recruiting psychic initiates. Soon nearly a third of the members of the legion had some form of active or latent psyker trait.

The Brutan Morn also changed the legion in subtler ways. With so many of their compliance actions taken against worlds that had an enslaved human populace, the human iterators and psych-healers were overwhelmed. The XVth began to train its Librarians and certain medicae support personnel in psych-healing and psycho-conditioning. Taking lessons from the Halycon Warders, these trained personnel became more and more skilled in "de-bugging" and converting non-compliant populations into upstanding Imperial citizenry. The XVth separated its chapters into two specializations, battle-chapters and compliance-chapters. Battle-chapters provided the core of the XVth's power, its members skilled in warcraft and destruction, while the compliance-chapters supported the battle-chapters with psychic defense and civilian conversions. This split of the legion became one of their defining features, just like their ability in urban warfare and increasingly, psychic power.

 

"A Legion of Destroyers"

As the Great Crusade leap ever outward, the XVth's stratagems were noted and then used by the Emperor. Their expeditionary fleets were no longer sent purely to the expanding fronts of the Imperium. They were increasingly sent to systems that had already been deemed compliant, to suppress rebellious uprisings and insurrections. The constant, grinding nature of these campaigns began to take its toll on the legion, as they started to view any collateral damage as acceptable as long as the enemy had been destroyed. Compliance-chapters increased their use of controversial psyker-conversions and broadcasts loyalty-memes; no planet ever visited by the XVth legion during this time was ever known to have rebelled afterwards.

The legion continued to excel in the art of urban pacification and fused their expertise with some of the most devastating weapons the Imperium of Man had to punish recalcitrant planets. Chemical, nuclear, and even the dreaded phospex weaponry were unleashed to turn rebel cities into choking ashes and decimated defenders. Deemed "nothing more than a legion of Destroyers" by disapproving outsiders such as the Primarch Koschei of the VIIIth legion, the XVth legion brushed off all criticism and merely pointed out that if systems stayed compliant there would be no need for their talents to be turned on humanity.

The critics hounded the legion after every victory and battle, complaining of unnecessary violence and rampant destruction of resources. Protests that the XVth did more work in the rebuilding and re-construction phases of compliance than any other legion was met with silence and whispered rumor campaigns of "child-snatching" and abnormal psykers. Legion commanders and leaders grew to doubt and distrust those who were not of the legion, to withdraw and take heed of only internal advice. Insular by nature, the XVth turned bitter and scornful towards many brother-legions. A downward spiral of suspicion and accusation followed the legion and with no Primarch to defend them in the higher circles of Imperial command, the censure and rebukes were taking a toll on the legion's morale.

Remarkably, the XVth's relationship with other organs of the Imperium other than Crusade Command or its brother-legions was extremely cordial. Army units assigned to fight with the XVth defended their Astartes compainions with fervor and many a rumor was squashed by the quick tongues and quicker fists of veteran Army troops. Army units fighting alongside the legion noted that the legionnaires, were just as quick to come to the aid of the normal humans as they were with other legionnaires. One Army colonel said of the XVth, "They're grim bastards, its true, but there is no one I'd rather have at my side in a city fight than one of them". Along with the Imperial army, the Mechanicum and the XVth legion had a good working relationship. Techpriests were welcome in the camps and fleets of the XVth, and legionnaires tasked to learn what they could of machines did so with alacrity and dedication. The closest cooperation came from members of the biologus and genetists of the Mechanicum and the legion's Librarius, as both factions worked together to understand and enhance psyker abilities. Despite these friendly relations, the miasma of distrust, suspicion, and brutality clung to the XVth.

It is during this time of great unease and bitterness that Morrigar, primogenitor of the XVth, was found on the desolate world of Skiirad.
 

"Skiirad: The Lash of Fire"

Skiirad was a harsh world on what is now known as the border-zone of Segmentums Pacificus and Tempestus. Remaining records indicate that it was originally colonized early in the Dark Age of Technology, by an ancient form of mining conclave. The planet orbits close to its bright star, frequently enduring blasts of radiation and burning heat from the star's numerous solar flares.

Burnt mountain ranges, trackless glassite deserts, and vicious windstorms composed the surface of Skiirad. The ancient miners had created vast mine-hives, protected above the earth with massive metallic reflector-panels and diving for kilometers beneath the surface to house mining works, hydroponics bays, and housing. By the time of Morrigar's landing upon the world, the mine-hives had been broken into multiple factions that sent armies into the scorching fury of Skiirad to wage war.

A raiding force hailing from the mine-hive of Tandoor diverted from their target when they saw a column of smoke in a nearby glassite desert. Their commander, the Vispret Tirillian Tandoor, knew that nothing lived in the wastes and lead his men towards the anomaly, wary of an enemy trap. Fierce flare-storms burned the party even through their protective armor, and razorwinds off of the dunes harried them. Deep into the dunes they traveled, finally coming upon a fused crater in which sat a wrecked metal sphere. Looking inside, the warriors were amazed to see a young child, alive despite the flare-storms, heat, and winds. The young boy was covered in scars from head to toe, bright crimson brands that curled and rippled across his pale skin. Tirillian recognized the scars as flare-sign, the mark of one who was out in a flare-storm without protection, but the boy was not suffering the ill effects of the radiation sickness that always accompained such marks.

Taking his survival as a sign, Tirillian took the young child back to Tandoor. In the great mining hive, the child named Morrigar (the Scarred One), was thrust into intense, though secretive, training from his first day. Growing fast at an incredible rate, the young Primarch began to show skills in military tactics; these tendencies were encouraged and honed by his foster-father Tirillian. Morrigar lived in splendor, in the hive palace at the center of the city. At the age of ten, after completing several advanced courses in military theory and planning, Tirillian took the young man, now the size of a normal fifteen-year old, to the deepest, most rank habitats of Tandoor. There, in the aptly named Rack, Tirillian left Morrigar, stating that he must survive in the gang-infested hellhole for two years if he wanted to be accpted into the elite society of Tandoor.

Morrigar looked at the decaying sink-habitats, the vicious-looking gangers, the tired miners, and vowed to not only survive but thrive. He walked among the people of the lower hive, seeing neglected mining machinery and industrial waste heaped everywhere. He talked to miners, he joked with glamor-girls, he bartered with Rack merchants. Everything he saw pointed to one thing- abuse by those in power; Tandoor's rulers had let the ancient mining technology rot and replaced it with easily expendable human miners to reduce costs. The military lessons that he had been taught were not to use against aggressive competitor hive-cities, but to guard the rulers against their own citizens.

He soon began to cultivate contacts within different factions of the low-hive, mining clans, slope-gangers, and administrative heads. Morrigar soon realized that the "elite" of Tandoor were nothing but thugs with aristocratic trappings and repressive armies designed to keep the populace in line, not protect it from the other hive-cities. This revelation didn't upset him, as Morrigar believed in having a strong controlling government, but the casual brutality and inefficiencies within the Tandoor angered him greatly. He worked slowly, conquering various gangs by force and harsh, tempered violence, while allying himself to mining clans through force of will and persuasion. Morrigar trained the rowdy gangers and rough miners into a effective, hidden army; using the lessons of his foster-father to make a powerful force.

Two years to the day he was sent into the Rack, Morrigar led his army to seize control of Tandoor. Deeply planted cells rose up in mine control rooms, stopping all production. Squads of harshly trained, though weakly equipped, gangers pounced on raiding squads patrolling the mine-hive's surface, taking the fallen's weaponry and eagerly turning it on more soldiers. A massive army of converted miners stormed the hive center, rolling over the surprised and off-guard soldiers. Morrigar himself lead the main thrust, taking the palace and walking into the throne room where both the Pret and Vispret were seated.

Upon seeing Morrigar, Vispret Tirillian began to curse in rage, accusing the Primarch of breaking faith and being a traitor to Tandoor. Morrigar approached him, by this time towering over the normal man with his Emperor-bestowed physique, and cut him down. "You betrayed your people. Your rule has been nothing but mismanagement and corruption. Your reign is over."

The young Primarch took control of Tandoor, reshaping the mining-hive into an efficient, industrious city. Working with the remaining archeotechnicians, Morrigar revived many of the older mining craft and thus increased the safety of the miners. Meteoritic reforms were instituted as old, corrupt guilds and nobles were broken away from their power.  This was accomplished by the threat of instant retaliation promised by the new army of Tandoor- the former miners, gangers, and citizens whom Morrigar had trained into a lethal fighting force. No longer would inefficiency and lack of oversight be tolerated, all would work towards the good of the hive.

Setting his sights further than Tandoor, he began to plan the conquest of the rest of the mining-hives as he saw their ruling castes having no discernable differences than Tandoor's. Vicious battles rocked Skiirad, the army of Tandoor clashing with the forces of the opposing hives. The struggle was long and harsh; Skiirad's surface required every army to be equipped with heavy and encumbering environmental armor. Leading his army from the front, Morrigar's reputation for tactical insight grew and his latent psychic talents began to bloom- his eyes glowed with fearsome power as he walked unprotected in the fierce flare-storms, the enemies' fire missed him, and razorwinds curved from his path. The army of the Scarred One took mining-hive after mining-hive, using their experience to grow more deadly and competent as each enemy fell. 

When the last hive fell ten years later, Morrigar gathered his troop commanders to him. Eyes aflame with psychic energies, he laid out his plan for the world of Skiirad, and what he saw coming for the future. In XX years Skiirad was transformed in the wake of his conquest; guarded highways gleaming with protective steel armor linked each of the hives, no longer were the people of Skiirad split into competing factions. The lessons learned in Tandoor were applied to the whole of Skiirad with a new sense of purpose- vital industry backed up by the iron fist of control.

Morrigar felt the coming of the Emperor years before it was to be. When the great armada containing the Emperor's personal battleship burst from the warp, the planet of Skiirad was waiting for them. There were no eyewitnesses to the meeting between the Primarch and the Emperor, but what is known is that Morrigar acknowledged the Emperor as his liege-lord and gave his planet's full resources towards the Emperor's Crusade. The great mining-hives produced vast amounts of raw materials ready to be transformed into weapons for the Great Crusade and their people divided into supplying the miners, initiates for the Primarch's new Legion, and soldiers for the Imperial Army. The whole of Skiirad was devoted to the Crusade, to the betterment of Mankind through the Emperor's will.
 

"The Primarch"

For the legionnaires of the XVth, the discovery of their gene-sire was a somber, though welcome, event. Morrigar met with the legion commanders, observed the legion in both training and battle, and began to put his own experiences into the tactical doctrines of the legion. The Primarch dubbed the legion the Riven, for they were of the two sides of battle, destruction and repairment. The legion's focus on their twin primary tasks merged well with Morrigar's own talents, and he encouraged and codified the separate sections of the legion, the battle-companies and the compliance-companies.

Having been an insurgent himself, Morrigar knew the mindset and strategies of the rebel. He trained the Riven in counter-insurgency tactics, first using recon squads to follow and mark cell leadership and cadre commanders, then having the hammer of the battle-company smash all the enemy in a massive, all-out attack. These tactics worked well on many battlefields, with the Riven becoming increasingly adept at singling out and destroying enemy commanders. The Emperor approved of these changes and sent the Riven on their first assignment as a Primarch-led legion, the taking of the Ovar Sector.

The legion set out on a large conquest-crusade, taking roughly two-thirds of its strength to bring into compliance the psyker-tainted Ovar Sector. Several previous attempts at compliance had been thrown back, the might of the Xenos-led human cultures of Ovar being too great for the mere mortals of the Imperial army. Massive waves of enemy psykers pummeled the Riven with psi-blasts and mind flaying, overwhelming the psychic defenses of the compliance-companies' Librarians. Thousands of legionnaires were lost, mind-burned and shattered beyond repair. Morrigar's anger grew as his sons died; unshackling his talents more than ever before, he reached out and did to the enemy what they had done to the legion. Gathering his Librarians to him, Morrigar sent blow after psychic blow out, forcing countless imaginary horrors and thought-reavers into the rogue psykers. Though many of his sons died, the Xenos and human psykers were destroyed and the Riven battle-companies took their revenge- the Ovar civilizations were utterly decimated. 

The Riven recovered from the losses of the Ovar Sector, but where changed as a legion as a result of the campaign. Becoming ever more grim and stoic in demeanor, they embraced their designation as the "clean-up" legion, and turned from the outward aspects of the Great Crusade to pursue their suppression campaigns with, for them, excitement. It was during one of these campaigns that Primarch Morrigar felt the stunning loss of the Emperor and moved his entire legion to Terra with all speed.

During the Terran Conclave, Morrigar was firmly against the election of a replacement for the Emperor, seeing none of his brothers worthy of the mantle of leadership, but was unable to convince others to go against the election. His stance was one of caution, viewing the disappearance of his liege as a catalyst that would fuel the mortal populace of the Imperium towards rebellion. Morrigar supported the Mechanicum's demands for increased independence and research rights, believing that the tech-adepts were essential for designing new protections and weapons for the legions and armies of the Imperium. Unfortunately, his voice was one of many, and the lord of the XVth's anger grew as fully a third of his brothers voted one of their own in as regent. As he gritted his teeth at Alexandros' elevation to Imperial Regent and the later promotion of Koschei to Primarch Representative, Morrigar felt dismay at his inability to bring the other Primarchs to his way of thinking. He turned his feelings inward, devoting himself to furthering his understanding and mastery of the psychic arts. Deep into the Warp Morrigar travelled, pushing past vast Warp-spawned storms and predators, seeking ways to find either the Emperor or answers. An immeasurably ancient consciousness noted the disturbance that the Primarch made and was pleased, as a millennia-long plan began to come to fruition.
 

*Unit and Formation Structure Within the Legion*

Originally, the Riven were not much different from other legion's in regards to their tactical doctrines and strategies, though with a specialization in urban operations. As the years in the Crusade stretched onward however, the "Doctrine of Two Faces" gained prominence among the leaders of the legion. This strategy embraced both aspects of war that the XVth held dear, destruction and creation, and slowly the division of the legion into battle and compliance elements began. Compliance-chapters devoted themselves to defending and assisting their brethren in battle, and then converting the enemy to the Imperial Truth as the battle finished. Battle-chapters became exemplars of destruction, finding out how to destroy the most enemy forces as the same time, wrecking the foe's ability to further conduct warfare. These changes were firmly embraced by their Primarch, and further training made both factions of the legion masters of their respective crafts.

After the Psyker-Purge of Ovar, changes were needed in regard to the compliance-companies.  Morrigar reached out to the Primarch of the Halycon Warders, Alexandros; Alexandros' legion used a specialized branch of legionnaires called Chaplains, designed to keep the legion free of any taint or moral issues via watchfulness and oratory instruction. Together with Alexandros, Morrigar created a new order called Heirarchs, combining the psychic powers of Librarians and moral instruction of the Chaplain. Morrigar led the Heirarchs in their psychic training, increasing their abilities in the field of conversion and psychic defense. The order of Heirarchs soon rose to prominence, with their members being promoted to head almost all of the compliance-chapters.

This focus on psykers and psychic ability irrevocably changed the Legion's makeup. Battle-chapters and compliance-chapters were soon put together, with the standard deployment being two battle-chapters to one compliance-chapter. Combining the ferocious assault of the battle-chapters with the focused psychic might of compliance-chapters made the Riven a potent force on the battlefield. Battle-chapters trained constantly, using close range weaponry that burned, melted, and destroyed enemy emplacements before specialist melee squads ripped through breaches in the enemy lines. Throughout a battle-chapter's movements, compliance-chapter members kept up constant psychic barriers that protected their brothers from enemy fire and psychic assaults.

The Heirarch Order trained their members in all aspects of the psychic arts, but they were especially talented with mental manipulation and destruction. After suffering at the hands of the Ovar Sector psykers, the Heirarchs learned their enemy's abilities and turned them to the Emperor's use. With battle-chapters providing solid firepower and close combat attacks, compliance-chapters turned their talents onto the enemy as psychic storms would flow into the enemy; mental commands to attack comrades, meme-viruses that turned the enemy's mind into a prison of insanity, and brute force mind razors that boiled the Riven's foes brains within their own skulls.

Thus did the Riven bring battle to the hordes of Xenos abominations and rebellious humans, with a brutal application of firepower, blades, and mental destruction.
 

"Exemplary Battles"

Tadagan Crusade
The Tadagan Crusade was the last major campaign that the XVth Legion fought before their Primarch was found. The Cluster was a formation of three eldar craftworlds and multiple eldar fleets, traveling in concert for an unknown purpose. Legion Commander Harradeen studied the eldar craft for a week before dispatching his fleet to attack. Knowing that the eldar were a race of swift fighters, Harradeen was determined to bring them to battle in a manner that played to the Legion's strengths. The eldar defensive fleet was large, with layers of scouts, cruisers, and finally the massive craftworlds themselves all combining in an inter-linked defensive web.

The Imperial fleet crushed the eldar scouts, pushing quickly to engage the main defensive cruisers. Harradeen had his fleet in an unorthodox formation, with all his heavy ships to the fore, cruisers on the flanks, and light ships holding the center around six massive transport haulers. Legion battleships, grand cruisers, and battle-barges weathered the blows of the darting eldar ships, firing back salvos of macro-weapons and torpedoes. As the fleet burned toward the craftworlds, it split; the transport haulers slammed forward to ram the first craftworld, followed by all the Legion's boarding torpedoes and assault craft. Two haulers were destroyed by the craftworld's defensive fire and one was broken in half as an eldar cruiser sacrificed itself to protect its mothership, but Harradeen's plan worked- the craftworlds staggered as enormous explosions destroyed delicate wraithbone spines and crystaline psychic-circuitry. On the heels of the transports' deaths, waves of boarders slammed into the craftworld and deployed their cargo of legionnaires. It cost the legion two thousand marines, many lost during the first few hours of the main assault, as the eldar were at their peak and most deadly. The two remaining craftworlds and their accompanying ships stayed close to their wounded sister-ship, as Harradeen had counted on.

The expeditionary fleet circled the craftworlds, pouring fire into the remaining eldar cruisers and frigates. As the majority of the legion fought on the wounded craftworld, dedicated squads of Terminator-clad assault troops used teleportation strikes to jump onto the other two motherships. Using the knowledge of their brothers on the first craftworld, these Terminators swiftly deployed phosphex annihilation-bombs, melta charges, and void warheads in vital locations. Teleporting back, the strike squads watched as the weapons emplaced on the craftworlds exploded. One craftworld broke in half, its structure wracked with void-weapon detonations, and the other suddenly stopped moving. Green flames shot throughout the craftworld as phosphex burned and consumed all around it. It took three more days and another four thousand legionnaires dead to gut the last craftworld and then legion finished off any remaining eldar ships in the area.
 
Suppression of Althas
The worlds of Althas had been brought into compliance by the VIIth Legion, the Monastics Ascendant. The tech-savvy legion had broken the four worlds quickly and installed an Imperial governor from the Imperial Army, General Vadim Istly, before rushing off to another necessary battlefield. The people of Althas were technologically on par with the Imperium and had turned their worlds into a mass of hive cities and industrial workings. When they rebelled after the Emperor's disappearance, led by General Istly, it was given to the Riven by the Imperial Council to bring the worlds back into the fold. The Riven unleashed twelve battle-chapters and six compliance-chapters, with a massive backing force of Imperial Army, support from of Mechanicum Skitarii battalions and Legio Reavas Titan maniples.

Morrigar led the Riven, with First Captain Chovacs, Battle-Captain Harradeen, and Heirarch-Primus Karien each taking command of a planetary assault. Four coordinated droppod assaults screamed through a quartet of different atmospheres, each under covering fire from the lances of the 67th Expeditionary Fleet and each targeting the capital hive of a world. Follow up assaults by the Imperial Army landed outside secondary hives' defenses, initiating sieges and blockades to cut the hives' support of the capital off.

Within the hives where the Legion dropped, destruction reigned. Defenders watched in horror as squads of legionnaires ran through massed fire as if it was nothing, firing bolters steadily. Artillery and high explosives seemed to fail, to burst impotently in the air as Heirarchs glowing with power strode the battlefield in supporting trios. Rebels were overwhelmed in minutes, routed by the fast assault of legionnaires bolstered with psychic shielding. In mere hours three planetary capitals burned and were silenced.

Morrigar broadcast his assault on Althas Prime's capital via vox and vid-link to the four worlds. The people of Althas watched as the Primarch and his Cardinai Guard tore through the best troops the system had like paper. Where Morrigar looked men died, or went mad from the horrors of his mindstorm, while the Cardinai burned out the remainder. The traitor-general Istly launched a desperate last assault, charging with his thousand-strong honor guard of elite Veletaris stormtroopers. Morrigar and the Cardinai drew their spears and decimated the General and his stormtroopers in two minutes, cutting them down to the last man. Morrigar spoke to the worlds of Althas, his terrifying skull-mask covered in the general's blood. "You have one hour to surrender, or every single hive, city, and town on these planets will burn. Make your choice."

The worlds of Althas surrendered immediately, the words of the grim Primarch chilling many to their very soul. The compliance-chapters' Heirarchs spent two months combing the leadership castes of the worlds converting or executing rebel leaders. New capitals were designated, and Imperial Army garrisons watched over the entire system.

 

Edited April 13, 2020 by Lord_Ikka

[TrajantheGreat]

Morrigar, the Scarred One, is the Primarch of the XVth Legion, The Riven. Hailing from the hellish mining world of Skiirad, Morrigar leads his gene-sons in a bitter wave of psychic might. One of the mightiest psykers ever discovered, Morrigar is a master of mental manipulation, telepathic warfare, and psychic conversion. His scarred body, a legacy of Skiirad's harsh solar flares and razor-storm winds, belies the immense toughness that is part and parcel of the Scarred One's legend. As one of the Emperor's chosen sons, Morrigar wields great power and authority in the Imperium, though he is less concerned with the trappings of power than with the effects that his personal power can bring about. Morrigar's greatest dream is to further Mankind's abilities and furture, be that through psychic abilities, gene-crafting, or advanced cybernetics.

Edited July 27, 2020 by TrajantheGreat

[Darkcommander]

A Riven-specific variant of the Martian Ajax, the XVth Legion adapted the nimble baseline into a hardy urban warfare vehicle 

 

The Riven – Lawmaster SRV

 

Part of the Riven's strategic tendency towards rapid response, when offered the chance to adopt the Martian Ajax into their armouries, they jumped at the chance. Turning the lightly armoured and speed-focused basic chassis into a vehicle fully enclosed in armour with formidable weapons and sensors mounted in the rear. Though supposed to be a reconnaissance vehicle you wouldn't know it initially thanks to the design choice of the Riven Techmarines, who, at first glance, seen to have turned the nimble chassis into a armoured turtle instead. Despite this the Lawmaster has come to fit perfectly within the XVth Legion helping to provide intel and a lasting impression on those who have come face to face with it's hooks and flamers.

 

Design

The boxy up-armoured frame of the Lawmaster provides excellent protection for it's crew as well as other marines working alongside it on foot. With the Riven's own specific kind ideals of retribution the added ornamentation hooks have also proven to be vital in it's defence against those enemies of man with weaker resolves then their own. Touting a fear-inducing pair of flamers and chaff launchers it can easily zip into battle to support elements just as easily as it can sneak to an enemy's unprotected flank, reporting any weaknesses that can be exploited. To this end it has become a stable of outrider formations within the XVth Legion.

 

Armament

The main armament of the Lawmaker is it's only armament, partially due to it's size. Taking up the entire rear section of the vehicle is a large turret with two weapon mountings on either side. The machinery to facilitate it's control is rather bulky too and so adds to the overall reduction in internal space compared to it's open-air Martian originator. The standard armament chosen by the Riven is a pair of flamers, and thanks to the full 360° arc of fire and the size of the mounting, the ammunition for said weapons is held in a reinforced internal compartment. This extra step towards safety is one of a number of features specifically chosen to by the Riven Techmarine representative, along with more unorthodox methods. The turret is controlled by the second crew member of the vehicle, specifically assigned as the gunner instead of the command element or navigator as was initially designed. The only real problem with the turret itself is that while other weapons can be mounted, the internal ammunition storage needs to be converted to facilitate the change and can a significant amount of time.

 

Defence

The large armoured frame mounted over the original chassis seems slightly counterproductive in terms of the reduced speed for such heavy plating, but in the eyes of the Riven commanders it was a negligible trade-off. The armour is made up of a layer of ceramite, with a layer of armaplas in underneath. This heavier armour provides significant protection from small arms fire and even provides blast protection from mines with plating mounted on the underside. Able to shrug off small arms fire and mitigate anti-vehicle weapons to some degree thanks to the armaplas, the Lawmaster has a great degree of survivability, especially considering the urban environments the legion normally operates in.

Inset into the roof of the Lawmaster are a small batch of tubes set into 2 rows of 6, each made up of simple launcher mechanisms can fire out smoke or chaff decoys with the push of a button from the crew compartment. It should be noted that the munitions used in this system are slightly larger than those normally used on other legionary vehicles such as the rhino or predator. The extra space within has allowed for a new design entirely for each. The smoke variant has a set of sub-munitions around it's circumference that launch out for greater coverage, while the chaff variant being fitted with a small repulsor unit to keep it in the air and guide munitions far away from it's parent vehicle.

 

Miscellaneous

To fulfil the vehicles basic design role, a large visual augur array is mounted in between the flamers of the turret. Able to switch it's powerful vision between multiple spectrum and modes to detect a number of different emanations an enemy could make. This feeds directly to the gunners position where it can also be elevated on a telescopic mounting, letting it peer over cover and terrain to reconnoitre the area around it. This surveillance tool is used to great effect along with the still relatively fast speed of the vehicle to capture as much information as possible about locales and enemy formations to be passed on.

The final element of the Lawmaker technically counts as a method of armouring the vehicle but in a very unorthodox sense. Hooks are placed at semi-regular intervals around the sides and rear of the vehicle, normally, these hooks allow for plenty of things to be mounted to them like wargear or cargo netting, but their true purpose is rather sinister.

As Riven marines capture enemy combatants and bind them in full-body restraints, they are hung into the outside of the vehicle on the many hooks mounted around on it's sides or rear. Once several have been mounted they provide a layer of both physical and mental protection around the vehicle, as enemies second-guess firing at the vehicle for fear of injuring or killing their comrades in the process.

 

Technical Specifications

Type: Scout Reconnaissance Vehicle

Vehicle Name: Lawmaster

Forge World of Origin: Mars

Known Patterns: N/A

Crew: 1 Driver, 1 Gunner,

Powerplant: Vulcanor 16 Twin Coupled Multi-Burn

Weight: 7.8 tonnes

Length: 6.3m

Height: 4.2m

Width: 4.6m

Range: 600km

Max Speed:

On Road: 98km/h (60mph)

Off Road: 74km/h (45mph)

Main Armament: Twin-linked Flamers

Main Ammunition: Quad Promethium Tanks

Armour:

Hull: 80mm

Superstructure: 60mm

[Lord_Ikka]

The Korden-Vaal

THe Korden-Vaal, in ancient Skiirad cant- the Many Deaths. The Riven do not have Destroyer units like most of their fellow Legions, instead they have the Brotherhood of Korden-Vaal. The Korden-Vaal are spread out among the legionnaires of the Riven, between a score and two-score in every battle-company. Marked by a golden stripe bisecting their right helmet lens, the Korden-Vaal are gathered together when an enemy is too dangerous or alien to simply use the Riven's normal tactics of conquest and conversion. The Korden-Vaal will then be instructed to unleash the dread weapons of the Old Night upon the enemy; phosphex, rad, and gene-phage weapons are among the array of lethal arms that the Brotherhood controls. They are a weapon of last resort, the devastation that they cause will leave a planet a burnt, scarred wasteland unusable as a habitable space for thousands of years. One of few Brotherhoods among the Riven, the Korden-Vaal are secretive and selective- the only entrance into their ranks is through recommendation and many tests of personal resolve. The commanders of the Riven know that when they call upon the Brotherhood of Korden-Vaal, they will exterminate their target utterly. Currently the Lord of the Korden-Vaal is Syl Finnas, Battle-Captain of the 2nd Battle-chapter.