[WIP] Index Astartes: The Cruciarchs

[AncientBelion]

I'm finally there where I'm able to share with you all my homebrew Loyalist Space Marine Chapter, the Cruciarchs. Been working on their lore and identity for a long time now, even before I joined this amazing community, but didn't find the time to clean up and organize all my writing about them. There is a lot I still need to work out, doing so as I'm writing a novel about the Cruciarchs, titled The Pyre of Redemption; even created a website to publish everything in a neat format, with my own images to boost. I'm happy to take any feedback on this.

 

As a little note before I torture you with this wall of text (working on finalizing the renders of all the illustrative images to come), I've also put together a musical album over the course of a year and a half; the companion to my novel but also a great conveyor of the theme I wish to express with this Chapter. Link's in the spoiler below. 

 

Now! Let's get to the good part. Enjoy.

 

Spoiler

 

 

THE CRUCIARCHS

“Failure is never without consequence. We decide how it is suffered.”

 

ORIGINS AND IDENTITY

The Cruciarchs are a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of unknown origin and Founding, though their genetic flaws places them amongst other cursed Chapters in the 21st Founding; a theory without concrete evidence. If there was any information about their origins, it was lost with the destruction of their home planet of Helix Mortis in the Threnos Cluster, relegated now only to memory; a faculty in which the Cruciarchs excel to their detriment. The Chapter’s culture therefore revolves around memory and remembrance.

 

Due to their genetic flaw, their capacity for memorization exceeds that of other Astartes, allowing the battle-brothers of the Chapter to recall even the most minute details of any point in their lives in an almost pict-recording-like fashion. Because of this, the Cruciarchs tend to fixate on their past experiences, to the point of obsessive introspection. The Chapter’s culture of remembrance thus acts as a double-edged sword: on one hand, it helps them channel their focus onto specific events, preventing the mind from becoming overwhelmed by memory; on the other, it gradually draws them deeper into madness, albeit more slowly than it otherwise would. The Ossuarii, the Chapter’s Chaplains, play a crucial role in this process, acting as anchors by which the battle-brothers of the Cruciarchs focus their fixation. Though all within the Chapter share the same eventual fate, those who avoid it do so only through sudden death before the condition can fully run its course. To be a Cruciarch is to know that this heightened capacity for memory will ultimately spiral the mind into Iteratio Mentis, an obsession where the present ceases to exist, and the world, along with the self, is perceived only through the lens of the past. The capacity to acquire new memory ends, and the afflicted battle-brother is relegated to the Ossuary Vault, there to act as the living archive of the Chapter’s past.

 

The Cruciarchs’ history is preserved verbally, foregoing the written word. When a battle-brother falls into Iteratio Mentis, thus becoming incapable of further combat service due to an inability to process the world around him, he is confined within the Ossuary Vault alongside others so afflicted. He is called upon only when a memory must be recalled, like an ancient tome dusted off a shelf. To ensure that no knowledge is ever lost, the Cruciarchs divide their fixation on memory across the Companies: some focus on past campaigns, others on the Chapter’s culture and rites, and still others on the names of every battle-brother who had ever served in the Chapter. When one of the afflicted perishes, another from his Company takes his place. The result of this practice is membership in a Company as a hereditary matter, and it is not uncommon for battle-brothers to refer to them as Houses. House Kor, for example, is the 1st Company, led by its Captain, Eradan Kor.

 

+++ Culture and Code +++

For a Chapter as diminished in number as the Curciarchs; with a sizable portion of their battle-brothers confined to archival roles in the Ossuary Vault, a striking number of cultures persists, both between its Companies and across the Chapter as a whole. With the control and delaying of Iteratio Mentis as the binding element for the myriad of ideologies. Of those, two stand out the most.

 

At the foundation of the Chapter lies the original doctrine of Morth Gideon, preserved in word if not in practice. In this vision, the Chapter stands as a guide, a sort of brotherhood that tempers failure through discipline. A doctrine based on the documented onset of Iteratio Mentis, which hastens in those battle-brothers faced with failure but without a methodology to process it. This teaching endures under the Chapter Master’s authority, though its influence has waned following the destruction of their home planet. In contrast, the prevailing culture within much of the Chapter has shifted toward a more insular and consuming interpretation. Here, failure itself occupies the center, elevated beyond instruction into identity. Reflection has hardened into fixation and the burden each warrior carries has grown from a tool of discipline into a defining end.

 

The 3rd Company endured the calamity in greater strength than any other formation. As wardens of the Chapter’s Ossuary Vault, they had long stood apart; tasked with the guardianship of the afflicted with Iteratio Mentis and the dead. Over time, this proximity shaped their understanding: failure was no longer a condition to be overcome, but a truth to be preserved, a foundation upon which identity itself was built. Under their influence, Gideon’s principles were reinterpreted. The delaying of Iteratio Mentis came to be drawn from the constant reaffirmation of one’s own shortcomings, each warrior defining himself through an unbroken chain of remembered faults.

 

In time, even the Chapter’s use of wargear reflected this shift. The Cruciarchs began making frequent recourse to the Chapter’s more terrible arsenals, tools once reserved for dire necessity now employed with deliberate regularity. Such weapons, with their lingering devastation and moral cost, were seen as fitting instruments for those who bore the weight of failure.

 

With the onset of the Indomitus Crusade and Primaris reinforcements, a new culture began to rise within the Chapter. Spearheaded by the newly appointed Mortifex Ossuarus, Melric Vahl, it focuses on curing the gene flaw of the Cruciarchs rather than simply delaying its onset. While noble in its goal, it has received significant criticism, being seen as a dismantling of the Chapter’s core values and identity, as well as an unrecoverable loss of the Cruciarchs’ history — for should the afflicted battle-brothers in the Ossuary Vault ever be returned to combat service, their entire archive would cease to exist.

 

 

 

GENETIC FLAWS

The often cited placement of the Cruciarchs origin being in the 21st Founding isn’t without merit. While no evidence exists to approve or disapprove of this theory, the many genetic flaws and deficiencies of their gene-seed, strongly backs up this reasoning. It is at once their biggest strength, and their greatest weakness; giving its battle-brothers a unique sort of fatalism — burning bright as the birth of a sun, in the short span of life afforded to them.

 

+++ Obsessive Mnemonic Fixation +++

The very faculty which differentiates the Cruciarchs from other Loyalist Space Marine Chapters, is also one which damns each battle-brother in due time. This genetic flaw is an obsessive mnemonic fixation, a heightened capacity for memorization, which slowly develops into a state of complete and utter ceasing of memory acquisition, known as Iteratio Mentis.

 

This flaw grants the Cruciarchs a depth of memory that surpasses even that of other Astartes. A battlefield seen for a single hour remains clear in his mind years later, down to the most minute detail. Orders, routes, enemy formations, the last words of the dying; all settle into memory with perfect clarity. Recall comes swift and certain, as if the moment still stands before him like looking at a pict recording. Very few battle-brothers can hold in check this fixation on memory, and even with rigorous discipline, years of service gather into a dense record that never settles, forcing the mind to tighten around its own history. The mind circles the same events, recalling the same details without pause. Each remembrance gains weight, drawing the thought back again. In time, the battle-brother can no longer distinguish the past from the present.

 

The fate of those unfortunate to live long enough for Iteratio Mentis to set lose themselves completely within their accumulated memories. Due to Astartes physiology, and what some believe to have been gene-seed tempering that brought about this flaw, the battle-brother doesn’t turn insane or ceases function. He exists entirely in the past, perceiving the world and those around him through memory alone. Because of this, the battle-brother is incapable of new experiences and is removed from combat service, relegated to become a living archive of his past experiences, confined in the Ossuary Vault aboard the Pyre of Redemption.

 

The afflicted are kept alive by the Ossuarii in a sort of suspended animation, not unlike a Dreadnought. Allowed to sleep until their memories are requested, at which time they’re awaken with the Rite of Remembrance. While incapable of combat service, their new roles makes them highly valuable assets to the Chapter, with the destruction of the Ossuary Vault seen as the complete erasure of the Cruiciarch’s history. Entrance into the Vault is therefore allowed to the Ossuarii alone, with even the Chapter Master barred from entrance.

 

The first Mortifex Ossuar, now entombed into the chassis of a Dreadnought, Ancient Belion, is the current guardian of the Ossuary Vault.

 

+++ The Ashen Crown +++

The mnemonic preservation engine, with it’s later version referred to as the Ashen Crown, is a helm-like interface made of smooth alloys and adaptive circuitry, a form of archeotech that dates to the Dark Age of Technology. It was designed for long-void colonists, which allowed them to re-experience memories as living reality, ensuring knowledge, culture, and identity would never degrade over generation.

 

Unfortunately, the archeotech device had not been designed for the biological complexity of an Astartes, coupled with the inherent genetic flaw of the Cruciarchs, the mnemonic preservation engine erodes the subject’s capacity for remembrance, while at the same time overloading the mind with the wearer’s accumulated memory. In a way, it frees one afflicted with Iteratio Mentis of acquiring new memories, therefore perceiving the world around him, yet at the same time inducing a sporadic-like artificial amnesia. The battle-brother lives in perfect immediacy with recurring surges of total recall which appear without warning and sequence; a complete resurgence of ones history as if experienced for the first time. Yet as suddenly as it appears it passes, the mind empty of what has just occurred. The surge leaves no lasting imprint in that moment, the pain and flurry of emotions fading away, lived through again when the next cycle begins.

 

The induced cycle of amnesia and total recall of the mnemonic preservation engine runs against the Cruciarchs core values, though it has its use within the chapter. The Ashen Crown is a variant of the engine, taking the likeness of a helm with cables driven into the back of the skull and along the neck, power feeding from the Space Marine’s Backpack Power Unit. It’s first use came as the most severe punishment for those battle-brothers condemned as oathbreakers — the discovery of the mnemonic preservation engine and its subsequent use on the afflicted under the guidance of Mortifex Ossuar Melric Vahl, resulted in rebellion, with many members actively fighting against it’s implementation. The wearer of the Ashen Crown is stripped of rank and name, his armor fused and sealed by an Ossaurius, condemned to suffer without memory, reminded of his punishment through cycles of extreme psychological pain. While not intended as such by Melric Vahl, it served him to remove his greatest rivals while also avoid further rebellion inside the Chapter, especially of other more senior Companies and members.

 

As such, the use of the Ashen Crown is gradually introduced among the battle-brothers of the Cruciarchs as punishment for increased failures; a rhetoric most favored and backed by the 3rd Company, while secretly applying it to a generally wider use inside the Chapter.

 

+++ Physical Appearance +++

Besides the heightened capacity for memorization, the deficient gene-seed of the Cruciarchs also gives them a striking appearance, often mistaken for those of the Raven Guard Chapter. With their true lineage obscured, many within the Imperium have drawn that conclusion, citing their pallid flesh and somber aspect as evidence. The Cruciarchs reject this claim in full.

 

While the onset of Iteratio Mentis takes years, with varying rates of success in delaying the affliction, the physical change sets in the first weeks upon gene-seed implantation. Starting with loss hair, then skin discoloration, and ending with the darkening of the sclera.

 

In the first week after gene-seed implantation, the neophyte loses all hair, leaving the scalp bare and smooth, with facial hair, eyebrows and lashes falling soon after. Through the second and third week, the skin turns a pale, ashen tone drained of warmth. Veins show clearly through the flesh, with dark lines tracing across the face, neck, and hands. In low light, these veins take on a faint blue hue. The complexion remains consistent across the Chapter, and no variation of tone appears among them; exposure to sun, flame, or void conditions does not alter it in lasting ways. This discoloration of the skin, and it’s inability to adapt to external factors, points to a malfunctioning Melanochrome implant; the lack of natural skin darkening at the onset of increased sunlight and electromagnetic radiation forces the battle-brothers of the Cruciarchs to compensate with a constant, and complete, wearing of their power armor — making them a Chapter devoid of individuals without a helmet in any combat or exploratory scenario, except aboard their battle-barge.

 

The last physical change sets in the third-to-fourth week. A slight fading of the iris followed by the darkening of the sclera, creating a hollowed appearance. Though the last change to be wrought upon a neophyte, prolonged service deepens this effect, and the sclera of veteran battle-brothers often turns pitch black. This in turn increases sensitivity to light, forcing the use of helmets to avoid eye damage. In some cases, especially of those more senior members of the Chapter, a constant use of helmets even aboard a battle-barge is required.

 

 

 

 

ORGANIZATION

The Cruciarchs follow the Codex Astartes in form but not in spirit. Each Company is smaller than a standard one, due to rates of slow recruitment and high affliction with Iteratio Mentis.

 

Following the catastrophic losses sustained during the destruction of their home planet, the Chapter’s original structure of ten companies was rendered unsustainable. Over two thirds of its fighting strength was destroyed in the conflict, a deficit from which the Cruciarchs have yet to fully recover. In the aftermath, the Chapter was reorganized into a reduced number per operational companies.

 

The 3rd Company stands as the sole remnant of the old order of battle, retaining its original complement. By virtue of this, the 3rd Company exerts a disproportionate cultural and doctrinal influence over the Chapter as a whole. In the absence of fully intact companies, the traditions and rites of the 3rd Company have increasingly been adopted across all remaining formations. This has resulted in a gradual homogenization of company cultures, with practices once unique to the 3rd now observed Chapter wide.

 

Yet a key distinction must be made beforehand. While the Cruciarchs field smaller compliments per Companies, their strength comes from a union of them as Houses. Three Houses constitute the actual fighting force of the Chapter, each deployed as a whole.

 

+++ House Kor +++

House Kor, lead by Captain Eradan Kor, of the Chapter’s 1st Company, stands as one of the oldest Houses and consists of the 1st and 8th Company.

 

While the smallest in Company numbers, its battle-brothers are hardened veterans of many campaigns, and the bearers of all memory regarding war. Besides the 1st and 8th Company, House Kor holds sway over the Armory of the Chapter, and incorporates members of the Librarius among its retinue. The dominant culture among its members is the original doctrine of the Chapter Master, Morth Gideon.

 

+++ House Hale +++

House Hale, lead by Captain Marros Hale, of the Chapter’s 3rd Company, stands as the second of the oldest Houses and consists of the 3rd, 4th and 9th Company.

 

Before the appointment of Melric Vahl as Mortifex Ossuar, House Hale carried that title, incorporating the battle-brothers of the Ossuary Vault, the Chapter’s Reclusiam, under its wing. While currently House Hale lost its power over the Ossuarii, theirs is still the duty of safekeeping of the Ossuary Vault, with Ancient Belian as its keeper. With their culture one of the dominant ones in the Chapter, House Hale retains its political might even in light of recent radical changes; through a combination of historical significance, access to the Chapter’s most devastating weapons, and as the sole bearer of the memory of Cruciarchs rites — cultural and technical.

 

+++ House Vahl +++

House Vahl, lead by Mortifex Ossuar Melric Vahl, stands as the youngest of the Houses and consists of the 2nd, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 10th Company.

 

While House Vahl incorporates the greatest number of Companies, its strength comes from the bearer of the title of Mortifex Ossuar; incorporating the Ossuarii under House Vahl, significantly lowering the might of House Hale, though not by much. The greatest distinction between House Vahl and the other Houses, lies in its deployment of Primaris Space Marines and its move away from deeply rooted dogma of the Chapter. The Ashen Crown is one such “innovation” brought by House Vahl and in use by House Hale; as is the fielding of Gladiator and Repulsor class tanks, generously given for deployment by House Kor.

 

 

 

 

COMBAT DOCTRINE

Due to their gene flaw, the Cruciarchs are expert tacticians, excelling in precision warfare. Before deploying their main forces, they send infiltration units; primarily from the domain of House Vahl, to gather intelligence and disable enemy defenses. Once the primary threats on a world have been neutralized and sufficient information has been gathered, the next phase of their attack begins.

 

Landing sites are cleared by an initial orbital bombardment, often coinciding with the planetary descent of battle-brothers and heavily armoured vehicles; a tactic frequently employed by House Hale to mask their approach. The second phase consists of the swift and methodical annihilation of enemy fortifications and personnel, complemented by precision drop pod deployments of House Kor members to cut off enemy escape routes and reinforcements.

 

Though the veterans of the Chapter are most often seen wielding swords and storm shields, the Cruciarchs make war with disciplined combined arms doctrine. In ranged engagements, they favor the use of bolter based weaponry, favoring reliability over the spectacle of plasma weaponry. Experimental arms and unorthodox tactics are the domain of House Hale, whose brutal specialization in total warfare sees them equipped with the Chapter’s most destructive and forbidden technologies.