Best esoteric/obscure bit of Salamanders lore

[apologist]

As the topic suggests, I’m looking for bits of lore that I might have missed or skipped over. Whether it’s to do with markings, successors or battle tactics, hit me with your esoterica!

[Dagoth Ur]

I was always a big fan of the Disciples of Flame - a collection of Salamanders sent forth from Nocturne to investigate the disappearence of Vulkan at Istvaan, but undergo a massive odyssey that leads them around the Maelstrom, past Anvilus and Baal and through several fierce void engagements. On Baal they pick up some battle-hardened Salamanders Veterans that had survived Istvaan V and are now put up as leaders for the fresh-faced recruits that had come with them from Nocturne. The interesting stuff starts when they actually arrive at Istvaan V.

 

Their search for Vulkan proves futile - seeing as he was held captive by Curze at the time - but their leader, a chaplain by the name of Xiaphas Jurr, had by then already turned to strange and occult practices of divination native to Nocturne, practices barely tolerated by the primarch himself, in hope of divining a possible clue as to Vulkan's whereabouts. After three days of marching across the corpse-littered wastes of Istvaan V, a half-mad Jurr and his entourage discover a strange mass of black glass that emits a faint beacon. They excavate it and reveal it to be no one else but Cassian Vaughn, the former legion master who had been interred in a dreadnought.

 

It'd take several paragraphs to delve into their exploits, but essentially these Salamanders come to form the personal entourage of Cassian - his Disciples of the Flame - and they begin prosecuting a campaign of retaliation against the traitors, led by his strange murmuring and Jurr's visions. It is even intimated that Cassian possesses some form of strange power over machines as he seems to able to subvert cybernetica and - perhaps - even a heavily cyberized Iron Warrior (In the latter's case it is not clear if it was Cassian's work, or a genuine change of heart on the IW's part). Their whole story is detailed in the sixth Blackbook of the Horus Heresy, I believe. Their story culminates in the siege of Mezoa, but the text makes sure to point out that all knowledge of the Disciples was erased from the Salamander's records by the end of the Great Scouring and their foundational text - the Prophecies of Flame - are declared a proscribed text by the inquisition.

 

I usually don't like using the wikia as a source, but the Lexicanum is pretty empty on the matter and the wikia article is one of those where the whole text has essentially been paraphrased: https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Disciples_of_the_Flames

[ruralguardhipcat]

I like the Badab War story between the Salamanders and Executioners chapter. In particular how the Executioners came to be well regarded by the Salamanders, despite fighting on opposite sides, with the Salamanders even vouching for the Executioners after the war. They became guardians of their resources while they went on their penitent crusade.

[Gamiel]

As the topic suggests, I’m looking for bits of lore that I might have missed or skipped over. Whether it’s to do with markings, successors or battle tactics, hit me with your esoterica!

what more do you already have? So not to repeat things you already know

[lansalt]

I remember one interesting tidbit from the 1st ed. Imperial Armour book about SM vehicles. The Salamanders have the single oldest Rhino in the Imperium, and it was used by Vulkan himself:

 

https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Nocturne%27s_Hammer

 

 

Nocturne's Hammer is the oldest known Rhino in existence, having seen 8000 years of action. It belongs to the Salamanders Chapter, and was supposedly used to transport Vulkan himself into battle on many occasions. Such is its holiness that Nocturne's Hammer has granted its own personal Techpriest, and always the most experienced crew available. Although accounts of its actions are rare, it is known to have taken part in the Siege of Devlin's Fastness. Due to it's immense importance to the chapter, Nocturne's Hammer now resides within the Salamander's reliquary on Prometheus. Each new century, the Master of the Forge strikes the rune of activation on Nocturne's Hammer. It is taken as a bad sign if the engine does not take off the first time it is activated.

Edited May 9, 2022 by lansalt

[Kurgan the Lurker]

This is from the Rogue Trader Era Space Marine Painting Guide:

Of particular note are the Salamanders’ banners, which always have the same color field. They are distinguished from each other by the patterns printed on them that are visible in the infra-red spectrum; these can be seen by Salamander Marines because they all have slight infra-vision.

[Gamiel]

Do you know about the mention of their rituals in Codex: Space Marines (3rd Edition) ? Or the alternative pauldron designs shown in Codex: Armageddon (3rd Edition) ?