Index Astartes: Gloam Wardens

[Necca34]

Request Granted: Unforgiven Master/Commander Level Access

Chapter Overview, Gloam Wardens

 

Warcry: “Rage against!”, or simply, “Rage!”

Motto: “Furite contra mortem lucis” (“Rage against the dying of the light.”)

Founding: 13th (Official Records), -REDACTED- (Unforgiven Shared Database)

Successors of: Dark Angels

Primarch: Lion El'Jonson

Chapter Master: Lord Commander Zalmavet

Homeworld: None (Fleet Born and Based)

Fortress-Monastery: Shroud of Retribution (Invincible-Class Fast Battleship, heavily modified to accommodate the 1st and 2nd Companies of Adeptus Astartes, conduct planetary assault operations, and warp jump with a docked Dark Sovereign-Class cruiser)

Allegiance: Imperium of Man

Allies: Unforgiven Chapters, Ultramarines (41st Millennium), Ordo Xenos

Sigil: A downward-facing longsword bisecting an eclipsed golden sun, its rays unfurled into outspread wings. The field of the Sigil is burnt orange that fades to a deep, twilit blue.

Colors: Charcoal Armor, Gloam (twilit blue) Pauldrons and Knees, Sunset Orange Fabric Lining, Ink Black Carapace and wire casing, Steel Gray Trim. Weapons are generally dark steel, bronze, with touches of metallic red. Gloam Warden eye lenses are generally a burning blue. 

Combat Doctrine: The Gloam Wardens are partially Codex-compliant like other Unforgiven chapters. They excel in researched, calculated, synchronized warfare that combines shock-and-awe assaults with covert decapitation strikes to minimize loss. However, if initial strikes do not encourage an immediate surrender, brutal, total destruction of enemy forces will follow. Though fully capable of traditional battle-line combat, the Gloam Wardens prefer to avoid drawn-out, attrition-based warfare. This doctrine is also reflected in their fleet. The Gloam Warden flagship is a heavily modified Invincible-Class Fast Battleship, capable of matching speed with the swiftest strike cruiser.

Recruitment: Due to their history, the Gloam Wardens exclusively recruit Aspirants from among their crews of Chapter Serfs. Serfs of all genders are tithed from a myriad of Imperial shipyard worlds and seafaring feudal worlds at adolescence and set to work within the chapter’s fleet. To the Gloam Wardens, it is crucial for all aboard their vessels to have an understanding of how the massive starships function, to feel the successive reward of toil, sweat, and selflessness, and to respect the authority of experience. They are therefore as selective in their serfs as most chapters are of their true aspirants.

Beliefs: The Gloam Wardens hold tight to the ancient Imperial Truth of ages past, much like their progenitor chapter and several of their fellow Unforgiven. They do not believe the Emperor is a god, as their chapter records document when he walked among mortals.

 

 

Request Granted: Master/Commander Level Access

Chapter History, Gloam Wardens - 30M-36M

 

The Great Crusade:

 

The history of the Gloam Wardens is directly tied to the 57th Chapter of the Dark Angels Legion during the Great Crusade, though official Administratum and Inquisitorial records have found no corollary connecting the two lauded forces of Adeptus Astartes. 

 

Exalted for their auspicious victories, iron willpower, unshakable resolve, and seamless mastery of the subtleties of war, the 57th Chapter was often utilized as a first strike scalpel to remove the leadership, military infrastructure, and grotesque menagerie of horrors spewed forth by the enemies of Mankind. They were amongst the vanguard of the First Legion, composed of Terran soldiers from multitudinous zones of recruitment and Calibanite knights of noble bearing who had fought side by side with the Lion Himself before the Emperor's descent. All had seen the Emperor in his glory at the apex of his power.

 

The 57th Chapter was notoriously thorough in their preparations; formulated plans were reviewed so meticulously it was said the Chapter could foresee battlefield eventualities through calculus alone. Chapter Librarians and Scribellum would assemble in vast buttressed archives within baroque Legion battleships to compile troves of lore, testimony, scholarship, and fragmented information about the Xenos, hostile humans, monstrous entities, and traitorous organizations uncovered by their robust network of informants, intelligence, and covert surveillance. Though they used a wide array of strategies, tactics, and occasionally the sheer firepower of the Dreadwing Protocol, the 57th Chapter became synonymous with a combined approach to waging war with an emphasis on misdirection to achieve the fastest possible surrender or destruction of Mankind's enemies. Synchronized, merciless assaults on military industrial targets would distract an enemy as stealth operations surgically assassinated leadership and obliterated precise objectives of cultural or strategic significance. This would either incentivize surrender of the Emperor's foes or lead to their eternal annihilation upon the descent of additional Angels of Death.

 

Of particular note is the composition of warships assigned to the 57th Chapter. Theirs was not a fleet built for the cacophony of battle line engagements or prolonged planetary assaults. Nay, the 57th Chapter's vessels were constructed to outrun heavy capital ships, screen the rapid deployment of their legionaries, and survive until the emergence of a main battle fleet. This is best exemplified by their deployment on the planet -REDACTED-, when, after a thunderous opening salvo from the fast battleship Shroud of Retribution, the cruiser Dark Silence emerged from its -REDACTED- directly above the capital buildings of the enemy's governmental complex, inciting the surrender of the -REDACTED- and an uncontested imperial victory.

 

The 57th Chapter's story ends in the backlogged records of the Second Rangdan Xenocide, when their fleet was lost in orbit around the fourth planet of the -REDACTED- System to a -REDACTED-.

 

The Time Between:

 

It would be fully 6,000 years before the re-emergence of the 57th Chapter of the First Legion, though this is known only to the Inner Circle of the Unforgiven Chapters, the highest levels of Inquisitorial clearance, and an exclusive cadre of Archmagos Dominii of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

 

To all else, the Gloam Wardens were created during the 13th Founding of Space Marines using the gene seed of Lion El'Jonson.

 

Chapter Emergence:

 

980.M35 - At the height of the Hrud Rising campaign, the Dark Angels Chapter pulled their forces from prosecuting the Emperor's foes, abandoning their duties and their allies. The Ultramarines filed a formal complaint to the High Lords of Terra, which remained unanswered, but not unremembered, indefinitely.

 

To the Inner Circle of the Unforgiven chapters, the reason is thus: a small, damaged fleet of onyx warships bearing the bleached winged sword of the First Legion, appeared in the blighted churn of cosmic dust where once had spun the planet Caliban. A powerful surge broadcast a singular message across ancient coded vox channels used only by the Unforgiven: “We return, Brothers.”

 

Expecting the broadcast to be a mocking taunt by the Fallen, sent from the very source of their chapter's shame, the Dark Angels emerged from their warp jumps and immediately engaged in boarding actions against the antideluvian fleet. To their utmost surprise, they were not met by tainted chaos spawn, but by deferential battle brothers garbed in venerated patterns of ancient armor, and serfs prostrated with desperate gratitude. They spoke of a six-millennia sublight odyssey taken to reach Caliban, their home, filled with horror, bloodshed, dread, and desperate survival. When Dark Angels techmarines and Mechanicus tech priests interfaced with the data archives, calligraphi servitors, and historitors of the lead ship, the information gleaned corroborated with the stories told by those aboard. 

 

The fleet, it seemed, was a relic of the Great Crusade, having been lost during the Rangdan Xenocides but not destroyed as indicated by official records. Their warp engines were not functional, their navigators long dead, and the vast majority were wholly incapable of emanating a Gellar Field due to damaged machinery, corroded hardware, deceased psychers, or a combination of the three. Even their long-range communication could not function, their vox broadcasts limited to a few hundred kilometers. They could, however, receive scant communiques from First Legion-specific frequencies.

 

They were helpless to act and aid their loyal brethren during the galactic conflagration of the Horus Heresy.

 

They could do nothing but seethe in silent rage when half the legion turned upon their brothers, Caliban was obliterated, and -REDACTED-.

 

Generations passed, and the population of Astartes dwindled. Unable to tithe or recruit, they were forced to select new aspirants from the progeny of chapter serfs. Though much was lost through data purges and servitor refreshment to ensure the antiquated systems could still function, these lost legionaries maintained the ramshackle vessels had once crashed upon a harsh world of blistering heat and crumbling cold, where only the short hour of twilit gloom permitted living beings to traverse its surface.

 

On this unknown planet, bioluminescent flora and fauna had evolved to enact an entire life cycle in the span of one short eventide. The survivors would venture beyond the shelters of their fallen fleet for food and supplies in this time twixt light and darkness, desperately working toward the day their ships could rise once more. The gloaming was not without horrors, with long-corroded records telling of an existential threat: xenos that stalked from above to satiate an unquenchable hunger, devouring Astarte, serf, and servitor alike when caught foraging for survival.

 

After nearly a century of waiting, one vessel, the cruiser Dark Silence, was finally starworthy. Though her warp engine was irreparably damaged, she possessed a fully operational -REDACTED-, much like her sister ship Dark Sovereign. This allowed her to escape the planet's orbit undetected by the -DATA CORRUPTED-. A skeleton crew of Astartes, serfs, and tech priests soon departed, searching for aid or resources to return to the rest of the fleet, knowing their journey might take hundreds, if not thousands of years.

 

In her absence, those upon the surface of -REDACTED- continued their desperate fight for survival. Life was lost to the ravenous monstrosities above them far more quickly than the Chapter serfs were able to naturally procreate, and though the scant handful of Mechanicus personnel attempted to maintain the intricacies of the crashed fleet's operational systems, their inability to replace aging servitors slowly forced whole sections of vessels to become inoperable and uninhabitable.

 

It was not until M32 that Dark Silence was at last reunited with the rest of the 57th Chapter, its holds filled with resources mined from mineral moons and the shells of shattered starships adrift in the void. While many hoped she would return with Imperial reinforcements, her haggared crew brought grim tidings of decaying vessels manned by swollen corpses, cruisers of twisted, barbaric Astartes blighted and mutated beyond recognition, and once-living worlds turned to desolate husks choked of life. The galaxy, it seemed, was descending once more to darkness with alarming rapidity.

 

Though it took solar decades to successfully repair a fraction of the fleet that crashed upon -REDACTED-, ten vessels were eventually declared starworthy, though unable to warp jump. One cruiser, the Ratiocination, was retrofitted with additional engines to increase its acceleration and maximum sublight speed. Armed with a malfunctioning -REDACTED- Cannon, her interior was lined with gargantuan fuel tanks, remote-detonated explosives, and Dreadwing archeotech, bereft of life support save the secondary bridge. Within this small inhabitable cell, mind-wiped servitors, created from serfs who stole and hoarded rations, were surgically shackled with conductive cerebral ligatures to directly commune with the Ratiocination's sublight navigational systems. These near-mindless drones of flesh and metal would atone for their betrayals by steering the cruiser into the remaining -REDACTED- in orbit above the planet.

 

For the remaining Adeptus Astartes of the 57th Chapter, a primordial stirring, never experienced by most but familiar to all, steeled their minds for coordinated, simultaneous, collective action. Upon a short-range signal broadcast throughout the fleet, all vessels ignited their now-functional engines in concert and began their starborne exodus.

 

As the ten vessels flared through the atmosphere, the Ratiocination flew straight at the -DATA CORRUPTED-*

 

*OF NOTE: Significant data corruption exists regarding the 57th Chapter's escape, likely due to the billions of access requests received throughout four thousand years of sublight travel. After this corruption, the ensuing data tranches chronicle the events of the 57th Chapter's odyssey from -REDACTED- to the shattered remnants of Caliban. The most recent tranches are meticulously detailed, including ship manifests, daily logs, nutrient distribution, birth rates of chapter serfs, gene seed purity, maintenance logs, disciplinary actions, etc. Older data tranches have been regularly purged of irrelevant information, decreasing from solar daily documentation to weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually, bi-annually, decadally, and centennially.**

 

**These chronicles, regardless of detail level, required significant investment of time to thoroughly review. They are available upon request per specific entry, but may take time for clearance to be granted.

 

Interrogation and Assurance of Purity:

 

Supreme Grand Master Tatraziel was wholly aware of the existential complexity of the situation at hand. Though the Adeptus Astartes, serfs, mechanicus, and servitors aboard the 57th Chapter ships demonstrated no initial signs of corruption or mutation, all were summarily placed under uncompromising mental, physical, medical, psychic, and ideological interrogations by the Dark Angels’ Grand Masters themselves. The gene seed of the emergent space marines was painstakingly examined by contemporary Chapter Apthecaries while each serf underwent excruciating mental and spiritual dissection by the harshest Interrogator-Chaplains. After decades of rigorous testing, the results were shocking - the Chapter's gene seed remained pure and free of mutation, Astartes maintained the strength of the Lion's ideologies and held tightly to the Imperial Truth, and serfs, though malnourished from their journey, were of hearty stock and sound mind. The singular concern was the deep codependency exhibited between Astartes and serf, a wholly unique trait due to the serfs supplying all Chapter aspirants for nearly six millennia. Indeed, the 57th Chapter refused to even consider aspirants for induction lest they serve as crew for at least two solar years.

 

Also of interest were the Watchers in the Dark that accompanied the 57th Chapter, who immediately reassimilated with the Watchers of the 36th Millennium, the only distinction being their faded grey-black robes weaving amongst the browns and greens of their contemporaries.

 

Tatraziel and the Inner Circle members then reached a quorum: as their own forces had been depleted by the campaign against the Hrud, the remaining 57th Chapter would eventually be assimilated into the Dark Angels and other Unforgiven chapters. However, they needed to acclimate themselves to the 36th Millennium, and robust curricula were implemented to educate marine and serf. Moreover, though at fractured strength, the 57th Chapter members were reluctant to separate. Though none of the original legionaries still lived, their descendents held a shared identity that was difficult to deny.

 

It was during this time the Inner Circle received word the High Lords of Terra had ordered a Thirteenth Founding of Adeptus Astartes, alongside the expected orders for a cadre of progenitor officers. Lord Commander Sathariel of the 57th, in many ways a more venerable Angel of Death than the Supreme Grand Master, immediately volunteered himself, his Marines, his fleet, and their crews to lead this new chapter of Unforgiven, swearing mighty oaths of binding to Tatraziel, pledging this new chapter would rise from the darkness of the void to become a vanguard of righteous fury once more, all whilst prosecuting the enemies of Mankind and pursuing the Fallen Angels to the dark matter beyond the galactic rim and back to redeem the Unforgiven.

 

Tatraziel, moved by Sathariel's eloquence, agreed. Moreover, the Supreme Grand Master -REDACTED-, ensuring the excess Adeptus Astartes from the 13th Founding would replenish Dark Angel numbers in the 57th Chapter’s stead. -REDACTED- also ensured the new Chapter would be fleet-based, maintaining the nine vessels of their odyssey whilst receiving additional ships selected by the Adeptus Mechanicus as a bespoke fit for the nascent chapter. Sathariel and his Angels could continue living as they had for millennia, albeit far more capably and with the ability to Warp jump.

Edited 21 hours ago by Necca34

[kabaakaba]

Excellent work. I'm generally not a big fan of warp shenanigans, as they're a bit silly even for 40k. But not in the case of the Dark Angels. Because secrets within secrets within secrets.Well, you know. It just suits them. 

Great job again.

[Necca34]

@kabaakaba, yeah I don't generally enjoy them, either. It's part of why I *tried* to do the opposite here - the 57th Legion was unable to go to warp, so they doggedly pushed on at sublight speeds to reach the Caliban System - which took thousands of years...

 

Not sure if there's something I can do to make that clearer?

[kabaakaba]

No! It's absolutely clear, it's me who don't read what he writes. 

 

 

Warp shenanigan is bad.

Astartes Generation fleet is cool. 

Entire plot with pretend they are new chapter is a very dark angels vibe.

-_- 

[Necca34]

@kabaakaba no worries whatsoever, and thanks! Yeah I kind of love the secrets within secrets vibe but there's also something about 30k Dark Angels' aloofness that needed a different way of humbling.

 

Any weird lore discrepancies? Other info you'd want to know? Figuring I'll post the "notable campaigns" soon.