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13th Black Crusade (Original) - Battle of Kasr Tyrok: The Dark Angels and the Space Wolves appeared to set aside their ancient vendetta long enough for Supreme Grand Master Azrael and the Great Wolf Logan Grimnar to come to a mutual, but temporary, understanding. The two Chapters took to the field together, intent upon proving to the Archenemy that the combined forces of the Space Wolves and the Dark Angels Chapters were far greater than the sum of their parts. The exact circumstances and details of this arrangement have been kept from all who were not members of either Chapter. Both Chapters took to the field together in the defence of Kasr Tyrok upon the world of Cadia against a substantial force of Chaos mutants. The combined force of Dark Angels and Space Wolves smashed into the rear of the mutant mob, cutting them down without mercy, and each Chapter's Astartes sought to outdo the other in their skill at arms. As the last few mutants were despatched, the Chapter's friendly banter soon turned less comradely, and insults filled the air. Victory had been achieved, but the Sons of the Lion and the Sons of Russ soon parted ways, their long-time rivalry rearing its ugly head once again.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Battle of Kasr Vasan: The lauded Imperial Fists Chapter arrived at the Cadian Gate as part of the massive Adeptus Astartes reinforcement of the region, five companies smashing into the forces of the Archenemy besieging Cadia as soon as contact was made. After an initial space engagement that saw the Chapter's Battle Barges and Strike Cruisers take a fearsome toll on the Chaos warfleet in the Cadian System, three of the companies carried out a combat drop on Cadia itself, while the other two dispersed to bolster the defences in surrounding sectors, including reinforcing the Iron Hands Chapter at their homeworld of Medusa.The 1st, 2nd and elements of the 3rd Companies were instrumental in the defence of key points on Cadia, manning the walls of a number of fortresses with the steadfast resolution for which they are famed throughout the Imperium. In these actions, the 2nd Company was noted for exceptional acts of gallantry, overcoming a horde of mutants from the notorious Stigmatus Covenant numbering almost 10,000 heretical fanatics. At the height of the Chaos assault on the walls of Kasr Vasan, the company commander, Captain Tialo, gave his life holding a breach in the fortifications, repelling a mob of mutants numbering several hundred before succumbing to the terrible wounds inflicted upon him. The Captain's body refused to die, however, and was held in stasis by the Chapter's Techmarines, who hoped to inter it within the mighty form of a Dreadnought so that the renowned warrior might continue to battle the forces of darkness beyond the death of his mortal body.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Battle of Kasr Gehr: The skies above warzones burned with the falling of orbital ordnance, and the chants of a billion lunatics resounded. The tread of mighty Battle Titans shook the earth, and Imperial Navy fighter craft screamed overhead. The last days of the conflict had come upon the Imperium of Man. The Imperial forces could only pray that no servant of the Emperor faltered in his duties to the Master of Mankind, for to do so was to surrender Humanity itself on the eternal pyre of damnation and ruin. The final stage of the 13th Black Crusade was fought across the Cadian, Agripinaa, Belis Corona, Scarus and Chinchare Sectors of the Segmentum Obscurus.On Cadia, the strongholds of the Emperor fell one by one. The Viklas and Cadus lines of battle buckled beneath the relentless hammering of uncounted enemy troops. The Imperial forces on Cadia had been engaged upon a mobile defence, with Lord Castellan Creed marshalling the Astra Militarum regiments under his command to meet each enemy and cut it off before an unstoppable assault developed. But such were the numbers of the Archenemy's forces that this strategy quickly proved to be increasingly untenable, forcing the Cadian defenders onto the defensive, as they began to fall back to Kasr Partox. An entire Traitor Titan Legion marched in line across the horizon, framed against the blazing sky as millions of tons of ordnance fell from orbit. Hordes of mutants swarmed under the Titan's feet, sacrificing themselves to the twisted God-machines. Living artillery stalked the battlefield, spewing shells the size of tanks. The chanting of a million madmen could be heard from the ramparts of Kasr Gehr.But the Cadian 8th Regiment stood arrayed in companies across Kasr Gehr's parade ground; proud, courageous and resolute, honour writ large upon the faces of each and every trooper. The Lord Castellan knew he was consigning many within his beloved regiment to their inevitable deaths. Furthermore, the troopers knew it, and were proud to know it. They cared not, for they would uphold the pride of the "Lord Castellan's Own", Cadia and their sacred duty to the God-Emperor. That evening, the enemy launched their assault upon the citadel. It was presaged by a terrible, chilling wailing that bit deep into each man's sanity, but none wavered. Then a thunderous artillery barrage rained death and destruction upon the walls, but still the 8th Cadian refused to falter. Then came the first waves, and the men and women of the 8th Cadian opened fire upon them. A blazing wall of lasfire sprang across the rapidly closing gap before the walls, and the enemy fell by the thousands. Many exhausted their Lasguns' charges in what seemed mere moments, and reached for a second charge when the regimental standard bearer, Jarran Kell, bellowed the Castellan's orders for every second company to stand down from the walls. The rearguard would assemble, and so the retreat of the Imperial forces towards Kasr Partox began.Some ten companies had held to the last to allow the remainder of the 8th Cadian time to fall back. These brave 3,000 troops were to abandon their positions at the last possible moment, but something went wrong. They were encircled, cut off and eventually overrun and captured. A solar day later, the Imperial forces learned of the fate of the men captured at Kasr Gehr. They were ritually disembowelled before the Imperial positions on the Viklas line. The effect upon Imperial morale was utterly devastating, and it was all the Commissars could do to contain the air of defeat that soon settled over many units. As the battle for Cadia reached towards its climax, the will of its defenders hung on a knife's edge.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Death of Macharia: It was a fool's dream to hope the Planet Killer could be found before it was brought to bear upon the Imperial forces. Without warning, it appeared in orbit over the world of Macharia in the Cadian System. Though many could scarcely believe it, the world was destroyed by the massive vessel. It was lost, and with it millions of the Emperor's loyal and faithful subjects, dead at the hands of Abaddon the Despoiler and his most fearsome and despicable weapon. Utter dread now descended upon the Cadian High Command. Despite the many successes won by Imperial forces, many Cadian officers had come to believe that the war might not be won in the short term. Where at first the Imperial forces had fought to repulse the assault of the Despoiler, to deny Abaddon footholds upon their worlds, they now fought to keep the Forces of Chaos from simply overwhelming them entirely. This was a grim paradigm, and one the Imperial forces were not ready to accept. They believed Abaddon dare not destroy Cadia using his Planet Killer or the Blackstone Fortresses, as the Fortress World's ancient xenos-built Pylons were reckoned intrinsic to the continued stability of the Cadian Gate's passage out of the Eye of Terror and deeper into Imperial space. So the Imperium's defenders decided that they would stand and hold at Cadia, no matter the cost.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Battle of Kasr Partox: The valiant Imperial defenders of Cadia made their final stand upon the ramparts of Kasr Partox against the Forces of Chaos arrayed against them. A massive force of the Archenemy stood to assault the valiant Imperial defenders. The fortress city was protected by a scant 23 regiments of the Cadian Shock Troops. Alongside the regiments of Cadia stood a host of units drawn from worlds near and far, such as the Knovians, Gundronites, Mordants, Thracians, Jourans and a thousand more. The Battle-Brothers of the Adeptus Astartes were also counted amongst the Imperial defenders, including the Chapters of the Dark Angels, Space Wolves, Ultramarines, Doom Eagles and many more that are not named in the Imperial records. There were also many other servants of the God-Emperor present, including the Battle-Sisters of the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas, the mighty Grey Knights, scores of Inquisitors, the siege dreadnoughts of the Ordo Reductor, the mighty God-machines of the Collegia Titanica and the Mechanicus' own cybernetic Skitarii warriors. And amongst them all, the Confessors of the Imperial Cult made their way, admonishing each and every man and woman to hold true to the Emperor.But the Imperial defenders' numbers paled in comparison to those arrayed against them. Even from atop the mighty walls of the Kasr's Castellum, it was observed that not a single square metre of ground was not held by the defenders or trodden upon by the enemy. It seemed as if every twisted denizen of the Eye of Terror had converged before the walls of Kastr Partox.In the ensuing slaughter, the Imperials were forced to abandon Kasr Partox and retreat towards the Caducades Sea, where they hoped to make their final stand at Kasr Gallan. With Kasr Partox fallen, the Imperial command and control structure was demolished. The Imperial retreat from Kasr Partox saw the most intense fighting of the 13th Black Crusade, with many thousands of lives given up so that the bulk of the Imperial forces might escape. The Imperial forces managed to make it to the Caducades Sea, leaving behind thousands of dead, their bodies defiled by the blasphemous Chaos horde. The Imperial ground forces fled aboard transport ships across the Caducades Sea, forced to abandon the bulk of their heavy equipment.One of the last groups to leave was the Ecclesiarchal delegation, whose thousands of preachers had attended to the spiritual well-being of the Imperial forces throughout the fighting withdrawal from Partox. Some of these remained in the port, determined to preach the word of the Emperor until the very end, and their sonorous chants at times were said to drown out even the thunderous explosions of enemy artillery. A company of Space Marines from the Subjugators, whose numbers had been so reduced during their participation in the defence of Cadia so as to threaten the very survival of their Chapter, chose to also make a final stand there, vowing to evacuate only when all else was lost. Imperial Guard engineers planted munitions at the heart of the port in order to ensure its destruction.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - The Battle of Cadia in Space and Stalemate: The Imperial fleet in orbit of Cadia above the valiant Imperial defenders on the ground was also gathered for its final stand, determined to gain time for the Eldar led by Farseer Eldrad Ulthran to board the Blackstone Fortress and disable it from within. If the xenos proved successful, the Imperial forces might live to fight another day. Should they fail, the world of Cadia and all who stood upon it would be scoured away by the power of the Warp unleashed upon its surface by the Blackstone Fortress moving into orbit above them. This had been Abaddon's plan all along in launching the 13th Black Crusade; everything had led to this particular moment.Soon the battle in orbit was underway. True to their word, the Eldar's potent fleet fought side-by-side with the vessels of the Imperial Navy. The toll taken upon these combined forces of Order was fearsome indeed, but this desperate endeavour was worthy of the greatest of sacrifices, for failure meant that the Cadian Gate would lie open for Abaddon to launch his campaign against Terra and succeed where his master Horus had once failed. The details of the battle in orbit that ultimately saw the Blackstone Fortress defeated are difficult to piece together in the wake of the chaos caused to the Cadian High Command by the Imperial retreat from Kasr Partox. Admiral Quarren, who commanded the Imperial fleet that defended Cadia, reported that the bulk of his fleet was destroyed, many vessels having paid the ultimate price to ensure the Farseer of Ulthwe the time necessary to complete his vital mission. It appeared that the Farseer's vessel, the Isha'ra, penetrated deep through the Chaos fleet's lines, many of its sister warships being destroyed in the action. Once close enough to do so, Ulthran boarded the Blackstone Fortress, and has not been seen or heard from since.At the height of this battle, it is reported that a fleet of Necron vessels appeared as if from nowhere and assaulted both the Blackstone Fortress and the Chaos warfleet. So confused and incomplete are the Imperial records of this engagement that the Cadian High Command may never piece together the true details of how victory was won in orbit. Regardless of their reasons for doing so, the Necron ships forced the Blackstone Fortress to disengage from its approach on Cadia, and contact with it was lost soon after as it fled the Cadian System. The last the Imperial forces knew of what had happened to the so-called "Talisman of Vaul" was reported by a psyker attached to the Cadian High Command's general staff, Lieutenant Fortuna, who was struck down with a vision of Farseer Ulthran trapped within a shimmering crystal, his soul-scream echoing throughout the Warp. No doubt Imperial seers and savants would be looking to unravel this mystery for many years to come.Yet the final outcome of the Battle of Cadia, no matter how it had been arrived at, was clear. The Forces of Chaos had seized a large portion of the surface of Cadia, but the Imperial and Eldar victory in orbit forced the Chaos warfleet to retreat back towards the Eye of Terror, giving the Imperium naval superiority in the Cadia System and the broader Cadian Gate. It provided the servants of the Emperor with the ability to keep the Forces of Chaos contained on the surface of Cadia, where ground operations slowly ground to a stalemate, with neither side able to make headway against the other. While the Imperium possessed air superiority, the Forces of Chaos' sheer numbers prevented them from being dislodged from their occupied territory. Should a second Chaos assault come and break the Imperial blockade, there was little chance that the Emperor's faithful would be able to hold the Fortress World without further reinforcements.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Darkness Descends - A Limited Chaos Victory: Darkness had fallen across a hundred worlds, and for the defenders of the Cadian Gate, the pure light of day now seems but a distant memory. Though the forces of Abaddon the Despoiler were denied the ultimate prize of the fall of Cadia after the first phase of the 13th Black Crusade, Abaddon’s hordes have gained a foothold upon the worlds of Mankind for the first time in over 10,000 standard years, and none can see them being repelled for many years to come. Abaddon and his Council of Three have outmanoeuvred and outfought the forces of the Imperium at almost every turn. Corpses litter the battlefields in their millions, yet millions more still stand beleaguered, against a foe that knows no mercy and whose only goal is the utter destruction of all who stand before them. The bleak moors of Cadia have been reduced to a barren, crater-pocked wasteland, blasted by orbital torpedoes, super-heavy artillery and the massive footfalls of Titans.The Vilklas and Andur defence lines have collapsed under the relentless pressure of a million frenzied Chaos Cultists, Traitors and mutants, and the Cadian Sector High Command has been forced to relocate to Kasr Gallan on the far side of the Caducades Sea. Though the Imperial Navy is in control of the inter-system space lanes of the Cadian Sector, the Forces of Chaos still maintain a powerful presence in the skies directly above Cadia that is capable of challenging the Imperial fleet since the Imperial orbital defences fell in the opening days of the 13th Black Crusade. The defenders of Cadia are now deployed around Kasr Gallan and throughout the Wastes, resolute that not a backward step shall be taken. The order has been given: "Stand at Cadia, or damn the Imperium of Mankind to the depredations of Chaos for all eternity."The long-held dominance of the Imperium in the Segmentum Obscurus has been decisively shattered. Chaos forces roam freely on the once proud worlds of Scarus, Agripinaa, and even within the Cadia System. Whole worlds have fallen to the tide of Disorder that has swept across the sectors of the segmentum. Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade appears to have been a modest success. Although he cannot claim complete dominion over the Cadian Pylons, the damage and chaos inflicted upon the Imperium will have severely weakened its activities within the segmentum long into the new millennium. Commanded by the shadowy Triad, the the council of Chaos Champions that controls the Planet Killer, and groups of dedicated tacticians, the servants of the Ruinous Powers have come away with a win. It is a slim win, but a win nonetheless. The desperate actions of a few heroes within the Imperial hierarchy have, however, held the Forces of Chaos at bay in several sectors and star systems, claiming outright victory in most of the outlying sectors, and preventing total catastrophe for the Imperial forces in the inner sectors of the segmentum.Though Abaddon's final goal of smashing through the Cadian Gate was ultimately unsuccessful, the advances made by his forces have gained him much more than was initially realised. His retinue of Chosen, led by Devram Korda, the Tyrant of Sarora, returned to his side in the closing days of the war, bringing with them two individuals who had journeyed to the centre of the Eye of Terror. Together with the Chaos Sorcerer, Ygethmor the Deceiver, they presented Abaddon with the Heart of Chaos, a powerful Chaos artefact that Zaraphiston, the Chaos Sorcerer who served as one of Abaddon's Chosen, had long claimed could not exist. It is known that Ygethmor now stands at Abaddon's right hand, while Zaraphiston's status remains a mystery.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Cadian Sector: The Fortress World of Cadia still stands, but she stands alone, a failing beacon of the Emperor's light flickering against the encroaching night. Total war has come to the Segmentum Obscurus, and all hopes of repelling the invaders have been dashed for the moment. The Imperium must now consolidate its grip upon those worlds of the segmentum it still holds, and prepare to fight a war that will not end within the lifetime of any of its combatants. While Cadia still stands, humanity has reason to hope, but Abaddon the Despoiler has finally achieved what he had failed to do on twelve previous occasions, over more than ten thousand standard years -- he has breached the Cadian Gate, and none can now hold back the eventual tide of Chaos he will seek to unleash upon the Imperium of Man.The Forces of Chaos won a small if significant victory over the Imperium and the Eldar, capturing a number of Imperial worlds in sectors beyond the Cadian Gate for the first time since the Horus Heresy. Cadia still stands, but only just, as most of the planet's surface belongs to Chaos. The battle for Cadia will last centuries without aid, but if Chaos gains headway in the space above Cadia, then the defenders will be doomed, especially with a Blackstone Fortress still lurking somewhere. Even without aid to the Imperial forces in orbit, there is a large chance that simple supplies such as food will be unable to reach the defenders, and that the defenders will eventually starve to death. No man, no Space Marine, fought harder to save Cadia than the Lord Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed. Although each Castellum levelled cut him deep, the faith of Ursarkar Creed proved unshakeable. His victories could not easily be counted, but the numbers of the Archenemy did not lessen whereas each defeat drained the strength of the Imperial forces. Creed was forced first to give ground to preserve his forces and then to abandon his favoured mobile defensive tactics in favour of defending fortified lines. His friend, Jarran Kell, was wounded defending him from yet another Chaos Champion eager to make a name, and Creed was fatigued to the point of collapse when finally the momentum of the Chaos forces ran out.The Inquisition Fortress World of Nemesis Tessera, its existence supposedly unknown to all but the highest members of the Inquisition, came under fierce attack during Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade. The systems surrounding the Inquisition Fortress World experienced hitherto unknown levels of civil insurrection that could not be explained without recourse to the malign influence of the Ruinous Powers. In one such incident, a previously peaceful sect of contemplative monks turned on the populace of the nearby planet Trionora, engaging in a series of bloody massacres across the planet's surface. Ordo Hereticus strike teams were dispatched to cull these killing sprees -- they discovered the barricaded monasteries to be full of corpses, the monks having chosen to end their lives in an orgy of self-mutilation. The monasteries were burned to the ground, the ruins sown with salt and reconsecrated.While the agents of the Inquisition policed the systems surrounding their fortress, many strange omens and portents were unearthed, all indicating great disaster. Many believed this simply to be the foretelling of the invasion of Abaddon, but other, more cautious Inquisitors believed it to be something more. These doomsayers were proved correct when the blind servers of Nemesis Tessera detected unauthorised psychic activity within the depths of the fortress itself. Inquisitor Van Hel, a Radical Inquisitor who delved too deeply into mysteries best left alone, had been seduced by the whispered promises of the Ruinous Powers and only the timely intervention of Inquisitor Cyarro prevented a Warp rift of cataclysmic proportions from developing. At almost the exact same time, a determined force of Chaos Space Marines launched an attack on the Inquisition fortress and laid siege to it for many months. Only the timely arrival of the Space Wolves saved the beleaguered Inquisitorial forces and the combined forces of the Inquisition and the Sons of Russ were finally able to repulse the attack. The reason why the Space Wolves abandoned their previous station to deploy throughout the Nemesis Tessera Sub-sector remains a mystery.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Scarus Sector: During Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade, the Warmaster of Chaos Undivided recruited massed warbands of Orks to act as mercenary auxilia to his Chaos Legions. Following up on terror raids and cunning feints by the Night Lords and Alpha Legion, many of the Orks banded together into ever-growing tribes that declared themselves to be a part of the "Green Kroosade." The unstoppable force of the Green Kroosade inundated the Scarus Sector (Skar-Uz to the Orks), battering down Imperial defences with sheer doggedness and not without a little help from the Chaos Space Marines, particularly those of the Night Lords and the Black Legion. Now the Orks rule both the worlds of Lethe XI and the Forge World of Mordax Prime, along with most of Imbrium and Ulant. Gudrun and Nysa Stromolo stand on the brink of anarchy and the weapon forges of Mordax Prime (rechristened "Moredakka" by the Orks) are infested with lootas of the Death Skulls klan, a truly terrifying prospect to the devotees of the Machine God, who know full well the depths of blasphemy against the Omnissiah to which these barbaric xenos will sink.Bartered survivors speak of hundreds of Gargants being built from the debris of war by enslaved Servitors and their brutal Greenskin overseers. The squat, menacing forms of more Gargant construction sites climb over the plains of Mordax dairy as Ork Mekboyz race to be the first to complete their war machines. Imperial stategists now regard the Green Kroosade as a full-scale Ork WAAAGH! Its commanding Warlords remain unknown, but it would appear that Ghazghkull and Nazdreg are not among them. Only Thracian Primaris holds firm against the "Green Kroosade," bolstered first by the intervention of a Black Templars Crusade, and later by the stalwart defence mounted by the Salamanders Chapter. The situation is grim in the Scarus Sector, and none can see an end to the infestation given the dire situation across the region.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Scelus: Scelus was the homeworld of the Renegade Space Marines of the Sons of Malice Chapter, and was declared Perdita at the time that Chapter turned upon the Imperium. A cold, desolate place, Scelus is home to the savage and barbaric tribes from which the Sons of Malice recruited their number. Though reports from the front line at Scelus are unclear on the subject, reliable sources state that the invading Forces of Chaos joined with the native tribes, establishing a potentially huge power base within a short space of time at a strategically vital location.The forces of the Imperium were in no position to oppose this state of affairs in the initial stages of the invasion, as every available Imperial Guard regiment was committed elsewhere and none could relocate swiftly enough to oppose Abaddon's plans for Scelus. However, Abaddon's plans were in fact opposed, and very soon the Imperium was in full control of Scelus, having slaughtered the invaders without mercy. The exact identity of the Imperial forces that liberated the system is unclear, though this is far from unusual in a region within which uncounted millions of soldiers are fighting, with more arriving every single day. That the liberators were Space Marines is known, though the exact Chapter is not. It was reported that several Chapters were located within a short Warp jump to Scelus in the days leading up to its liberation, including the Night Watch, the Subjugators and the Howling Griffons.Nothing has been heard from any Imperial forces in the area, and it is suspected by some that a Space Marine Chapter has claimed Scelus as its homeworld by right of conquest. In the current climate, none in the Segmentum Obscurus High Command would argue against such a move.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Belis Corona Sector: The Imperial forces have largely held at Belis Corona, the location of the greatest shipyard of the Imperium, which suffered the worst excesses of a Tyranid splinter Hive Fleet, and the horrific plagues bestowed upon its hive cities by the Death Guard Traitor Legion. At the height of the invasion, something truly unexpected occurred. Defenders in the outlying systems reported contact with Tyranid organisms -- at first individual vanguard-organisms such as Lictors, but soon entire broods of Genestealers and Hormagaunts. A splinter fleet of Hive Fleet Leviathan, a Tyranid fleet known to be attacking up through the galactic plane, was taking advantage of the mass destruction initialed by the Chaotic invasion to gain a foothold in strategically vital Imperial space. Faced with both the pestulant forces of the Death Guard, and the voracious hordes of Tyranids who were, unlike the human defenders, immune to the Plague God's blessings, the forces of the Imperium were hard-pressed to defend the vital worlds of the sector. It was the intervention of the forces of the Eldar of the Ulthwé Craftworld and then the orbital bombardment of Laurentix that allowed the forces of the Imperium to fight back, despite the disastrous ambush of forward elements of Battlefleet Solar at the Bairsten Prime Warp jump point. Subiaco Diablo saw the Convent of the Order of the Ermine Mantle hold out against overwhelming odds, though at terrible cost, before being relieved by a host of Adepta Sororitas units drawn from across the region, thanks to the leadership of the renowned Canoness Astra.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Agripinaa Sector: The industrial heartland of the Cadian Gate lies in ruin. Though the Imperial Navy controls its space, many worlds of the Agripinaa Sector are lost to anarchy and destruction. By the end of the war, the planets Albitern, Amistel, Lelithar, Malm's Reach, Ulthor and Yavor lay in ruins, and a number of other key star systems hung in the balance. Though Agripinaa itself still stands, without the Agri-Worlds of Yayor, Ulthor and Dentor, its populace may yet starve to death, and without the vital materials provided by the Hive Worlds of Albitern, Amistel and Tabor, its mighty forges may yet fall silent. The so-called "Herald of Nurgle," Typhus of the Death Guard Traitor Legion, has claimed the now blasted world of Ulthor as his own realm, and the nightmare visions of a thousand Astropaths tell of the birth of a new Daemon World within the realm of Mankind. Further, unconfirmed reports state that one of the Blackstone Fortresses was destroyed by Necron raiders off the shoulder of the Lustitia Belt. Senior members of the Ordo Xenos are en route to the area, and Deathwatch Strike Cruisers are already engaged in ensuring no vessels other than their own enter the region.Striding through the blackened ruins of the ravaged worlds of the Imperium, crushing the bones of the slain beneath his Chaos Terminator Armour and spreading the vilest afflictions of Nurgle, Typhus was the embodiment of terror, a cursed thing too terrible to name. His ship, the Terminus Est, and its supporting Plague Fleet were one of the largest Chaos battle groups remaining active throughout the war and allowed Typhus to terrorise warzone after warzone.It was on the world of Ulthor in the Agripinaa Sector, that Typhus unleashed his greatest sorceries, exhibiting the great favour in which he is held by Nurgle. The once verdant Agri-World was utterly twisted and corrupted. The taint of the Herald devolved whatever life it found, rendering it down into a formless sea of putrescence. Seeing his handiwork, Typhus took the nascent Daemon World for his own, a stronghold beyond the Cadian Gate from which he can bring terror to the other worlds of the Imperium at his leisure.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Sentinel Worlds: The barren Sentinel Worlds in the southwest quadrant of the Eye of Terror have always been thought to be a collection of mostly featureless rocks held together by specific gravitational anomalies. The Adeptus Mechanicus have done much to discourage development in this region due to their facility stationed on Hydra Cordatus, a relatively unremarkable planet holding a potent secret -- it was one of the few locations in the galaxy where the Adeptus Mechanicus stored its tithes of Space Marine gene-seed, in this case genetic material drawn from the Imperial Fists Chapter. The planet consisted of only a spaceport and a single large citadel and manufactorum complex known as the Tor Christo. The Tor Christo was a large star-shaped fortress connected to a smaller half-star fortress built into the side of a nearby mountain. The citadel had a large garrison of Imperial Guard troops and even a small Titan Legion contingent from the Legio Ignatum, to protect its precious contents. Remaining undisturbed for centuries, there were unconfirmed reports of a great Iron Warriors invasion into the system, preceding even the Hive Teriax disaster in the opening phases of the 13th Black Crusade.During the siege of the large Imperial citadel and manufactorum complex on Hydra Cordatus, a faint psychic beacon was transmitted from the surface of the planet. The Iron Warriors warband's flagship Stonebreaker was sent to the star system's Warp translation point in order to intercept any Imperial reinforcements. But this action allowed an Imperial Fists company to slip past the flagship and infiltrate the planet's surface and reinforce the besieged Mechanicus garrison. Inevitably, the Iron Warriors emerged triumphant. They defeated the Imperial forces defending Tor Christo as well as the Imperial Firsts company. Having greatly pleased the Chaos Gods through his monumental victory over the Imperium, the commanding Warsmith of the attack on Hydra Cordatus was ascended to become a Daemon Prince.During the opening stages of the 13th Black Crusade, the Sentinel Worlds had little in the way of full-scale engagements, although a node in the Webway stationed above these worlds saw a lot of conflict between the Eldar and their Chaotic enemies. The most notable development emerged from this unregarded backwater sector just as the war reached its peak, with hordes of silvered Necron warriors emerging from hidden tombs on the four planets surrounding Hydra Cordatus in a rough pyramidal pattern. The Imperial forces stationed nearby feared the worst, but were amazed when the Necrons fell upon the warriors of Chaos, turning the tide in favour of the Imperium. Since that time, increased Necron activity in the sector has prevented any Imperial forces from capitalising upon these victories, and remote orbital pict-captures have even revealed several structures almost identical to the Cadian Pylons sprouting across the landscapes of these four Sentinel Worlds.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Chinchare Sub-sector: Imperial forces largely ignored the mostly uninhabited Chinchare Sub-sector in the early stages of the war, though the forces garrisoned throughout the region were hard-pressed to contain the initial surge of Chaotic invaders. Reports of increased Chaos activity drew more forces there as the war went on and the Eldar forces of Ulthwé fought hard and spilt much blood in order to wrest control of the sub-sector from the Ruinous Powers. Ulthwé Strike Forces struck at key points within the systems surrounding Chinchare to deny the forces of Abaddon any cohesion to their armies. Striking behind the lines of the main Chaos thrust, precious resources were diverted from the Forces of Chaos' frontline to deal with the raiding Eldar in the rear. Those forces dispatched to deal with the Eldar were themselves ambushed and destroyed piecemeal. Such superiority brought with it an arrogant belief that the Eldar strike forces were invulnerable, but such was not to be the case as Ahriman, the Thousand Sons Chaos Sorcerer, wove powerful magicks to disrupt the path of the Webway, twisting it and ripping portions of it asunder.Much was the lamentation of Ulthwé as many of the Craftworld's strike forces were trapped forever in the Webway or lost in the haunted depths of the Warp. While Ulthwé reeled from these terrible losses, the Chaos forces pressed their attack and launched a devastating counter-attack against Imperial forces, particularly those based on Balzac. The Imperial troops were in danger of being overrun completely, before being suddenly and decisively aided by Eldar emerging from shimmering Webway portals. These mysterious benefactors asked nothing in return for their aid and vanished without a word of explanation. As more and more reports were collated, it appeared that these silent Eldar had appeared virtually simultaneously throughout the Sub-sector, effectively stymieing the Chaos attack. As the Chaos forces reeled, the vengeful Eldar, combined with the might of the Imperial forces, were able to rout the followers of the Dark Gods from the Chinchare Sub-sector completely.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - The Relictors: As a result of the actions of the recalcitrant Chapter known as the Relictors and their conflict with the Inquisition over the use of Chaotic artefacts, the Relictors were judged to be Extremis Diabolus, their lives forfeit. The decision was swift and unanimous and the Chapter was ultimately declared Excommunicate Traitoris by the Ordo Hereticus. The Relictors had turned from the Emperor's Light and were to be hunted down and destroyed; their gene-seed wiped from the galaxy and all record of their deeds expunged from Imperial history. The Relictors had lost a great many of their number during the 13th Black Crusade and their mobile fortress-monastery, a Ramilies-class Starfort, had been severely damaged during the recapture of the world of Finreht. It had taken all the skill of the Chapter's Master of the Fleet to secretly move them to anchor in the Taeloth System, where they attempted to recover their strength and make use of the knowledge they had gleaned from the dark treasure they had recovered within the Diamedes Archive. The Chapter was all but destroyed in a cunning ambush by the Ordo Malleus' Chamber Militant, the Grey Knights, under the command of Inquisitor Cyarro, whom the Relictors had left for dead on the Agri-World of Fremas. After assaulting their fortress-monastery, the assembled Inquisitorial fleet hammered the dying remains of the Relictors' Starfort with concentrated fire from their powerful gun batteries. A Ramilies Starfort is a massive edifice and took time to fully destroy, but the Inquisition left only when every trace of the Relictors was reduced to dust. Only a few hundred Relictors Astartes survived this assault, and it is suspected that these renegade Space Marines have fled to the relative safety of the Eye of Terror. It is currently unknown whether these survivors have thrown in their lot with the Forces of Chaos and become full-fledged Chaos Space Marines or whether they continue their struggle of trying to turn the dark powers of the Chaos Gods against them and their servants for the good of humanity, much like another well-known Renegade Space Marine Chapter, the Soul Drinkers.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Dark Angels: Caliban was the site of many bitter battles throughout the war, and the Dark Angels Chapter was forced to defend the ruins of their former homeworld against the blasphemous hordes of the Abaddon the Despoiler, who were intent upon desecrating the holy ground. But, despite the vindictive campaign of lies and profanity conducted by the heretic known to his followers as the "Voice of the Emperor," which were seemingly designed to draw the Dark Angels into pointless battles away from the main fronts, they did in fact prove invaluable in many conflicts across the region - despite the generally held view that the Dark Angels and their Successors (collectively known as the Unforgiven) fought exclusively and selfishly for the ruins of Caliban while Cadia burned.At the close of the war, Caliban was firmly in the hands of the Dark Angels, its secrets safe for the time being. The Dark Angels had not only held Caliban against continuous attack, but were able to counter the activities of a number of the Fallen Angels, better known as the Fallen -- the rogue brethren who the Chapter and its UnforgivenSuccessors have relentlessly hunted to the exclusion of all other considerations for ten millennia. The so-called "Voice of the Emperor" put much effort into sewing disunity amongst the defenders of the Cadian Gate, seeding doubt as to just what the Chapter was hiding amongst the frozen ruins of its homeworld. Rumours abound that the Dark Angels have since captured the "Voice of the Emperor" himself, only for this mysterious Heretic to escape his prison en route to the Tower of Angels. Other rumours suggests that Lord Castellan Ursarkar Creed now harbours a deep resentment towards the Chapter, whose presence, he feels, might have proved critical in the defence of Cadia in the most desperate phases of the war, were the Chapter not focusing its efforts upon Caliban. Having suffered the presence of the servants of the Ruinous Powers, the holy places of the Caliban System have now been reconsecrated by the most senior Interrogator-Chaplainsofthe Chapter, and it is clear that, whatever the result of the larger war, no devotee of Chaos shall ever again approach within a light year of the Caliban System again.The mysterious leader of the Fallen, Cypher has been hunted by the Dark Angels and their Successor Chapters for ten thousand years. Though it is not known whether Cypher was encountered directly during the war, unconfirmed reports suggest the Chapter's Interrogator-Chaplains captured as many as 8 Fallen during the battles around the Caliban System, more than have been captured in such a short period in many thousands of standard years. Further reports link Cypher to the mysterious "Voice of the Emperor" on the world of Lelithar, who, it is rumoured, was captured by the Dark Angels during the fighting, but whose cell was found empty upon the prison ship's return to the Tower of Angels aboard the Dark Angels vast, mobile Fortress-Monastery known as The Rock.Azrael, the Supreme Grand Master of the Dark Angels, was a notable absentee at the council of Chapter Masters that elected Logan Grimnar their head at the start of the 13th Black Crusade. Azrael led the Dark Angels, and the so-called Unforgiven Chapters, according to his own, inscrutable strategy. The only time he is known to have stood beside other Imperial forces was when he led a company of Dark Angels upon Xersia, where he joined with Lord Castellan Creed and his 8th Cadian Regiment to repel a force of Black Legionaries from the world's High Basilica, though Abaddon succeeded in his sacrilegious mission to desecrate the high altar as part of some dedication to the Ruinous Powers that would guarantee the success of the 13th Black Crusade. Azrael was instrumental in repelling the invaders, for a time at least.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - The Space Lanes: The Imperial Navy had fought with courage and vigour throughout the war, ruthlessly taking the battle to the Archenemy wherever it encountered them. Admiral Quarren had been hailed as a true hero of the Imperium for his masterful defence of the space lanes was all that stood between survival and utter defeat for the Imperium. Though Cadia was besieged, the Imperial Navy continued to command its space and the space of all the sectors surrounding the Eye of Terror, and was able to offer support to beleaguered forces on the ground. The only question is whether the rapid redeployment of almost the entirety of Battlefleet Gothic, along with a substantial proportion of Battlefleet Solar, will leave the Imperial Navy dangerously overstretched elsewhere and unable to maintain the level of operations required to hold the line at the Cadian Gate.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - The Tau Empire: The Tau made several major expansions to their empire over the course of the 13th Black Crusade. If any one race or faction can said to have gained from the wholesale destruction unleashed by Abaddon the Despoiler's campaign, it was the Tau. With Imperial attention was elsewhere, and the local Tyranid and Ork menace temporarily contained, Tau settlement colonies and pioneer teams reached far and wide into the outlying systems of the Eastern Fringe in the Damocles Gulf, the Perdus Rift and much further afield. Although the encroachment on Imperial space has been relatively minor, the Tau have established no fewer than five Third Sphere Expansion colony systems in a halo around their existing Sept Worlds. These areas of expansion are already being referred to as the Third Sphere Colonies by the diplomats of the Tau Water Caste, and are rumoured to include unprecedented numbers of human auxiliaries. That the Imperium's attention is focused elsewhere is no doubt of comfort to those humans who have pledged their support to the burgeoning Tau Empire. The Third Sphere Expansion was only finally halted in 999.M41 as a result of the Zeist Campaign waged against the Tau by an alliance of Space Marines, as described above.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - The Webway: The Chaos Sorcerer Ahriman himself ripped open the walls of the Webway with information torn from the mind of Inquisitor Bronislaw Czevak. His plan to breach the fastness of the Black Library came dangerously close to success, but the combined forces of the mysterious Harlequins and an Ulthwé Strike Force kept him from its gates. In a daring move, the Harlequins of the Red Masque freed Inquisitor Czevak from his captivity aboard Ahriman's flagship, the Impossible Fortress. Though what they have done with him since, is, at present, unknown: it is believed by Imperial Astropaths that he may be incarcerated by the Eldar within the Webway.The Eldar have re-sealed the Webway against all invaders, expelling the Traitor Space Marines of the Thousand Sons Legion, and rebuffed their own wayward kin, the Dark Eldar, back to their shadow-realm of Commorragh. For now, the hidden places of the Eldar, and the terrible secrets they hide, are safe from the predations of the "lesser races." Those warzones only accessible through the Webway are now held by the Eldar, including the ancient Crone World of Belial IV, a former jewel in the once-mighty galaxy-spanning Eldar empire.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Belial: Aeons ago, the Crone World of Belial IV was a capital world of the ancient Eldar empire. Deep in the heart of the Eldar homelands, this verdant paradise was all but obliterated when the cataclysmic Fall of the Eldar stripped away thousands of years of culture and beauty and replaced it with madness, desolation and evil. Belial IV became a dust-strewn wreck of daemon-infested ruins and crackling, baleful skies. Maugan Ra, a Phoenix Lord and therefore a veteran of Webway travel, braved the depths of the Eye of Terror on a pilgrimage to the shattered Crone Worlds, intending to find a faction of Eldar he believed trapped within the Eye of Terror since the Fall. Taking with him a few of his favoured disciples, Maugan Ra eventually reached the Hex System of Belial IV. What he found there he would not speak of and he was not seen again until he appeared upon Ulthwé to form the infamous Eldar Strike Forces, filled with renewed energy and determination to defeat the Forces of Chaos.Towards the end of the 13th Black Crusade, many of the Eldar departed from warzones in Imperial space and gathered upon Belial IV under Maugan Ra's command. They took the fight to the indigenous Chaos forces with such unremitting fury that vast areas were reclaimed by the Eldar. The battle also raged around Belial IV in the Labyrinthine Dimension of the Webway, but it seemed that without the guidance of their leaders the Ulthwé Strike Forces suffered heavy losses to both the Dark Eldar and the Thousand Sons. The otherworldly guardians of the Black Library, fearing for their shadowy rCraftworld's safety, revealed hitherto unknown capillaries of the Webway to the Ulthwé Eldar, enabling them not only to escape from the net drawing around them, but to stage a series of ambushes that broke the deadlock and turn the tide of the war in the Webway once and for all.The final, and most decisive, twist to this peculiar theatre of war came when a daemon horde led a counter-attack against the Eldar consolidating their hold on the Crone Worlds, as sudden as it was devastating. To the great shock of the Eldar below, the withered and broken Craftworld of Altansar, thought lost to the Warp for more than 10,000 Terran years, drifted into orbit above the Crone Worlds. Hundreds of pallid, ghost-like Eldar joined their brethren on the field of battle, throwing back the daemon tide with wave after wave of silent, grim warriors. Since that great victory, Belial IV has been reclaimed by the Eldar. What this, and the reappearance of the Lost of Altansar, bodes for the Eldar race remains to be seen.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Maugan Ra: The immortal Phoenix Lord Maugan Ra took a vital role in deciding the fate of the Eldar over the course of the 13th Black Crusade. Responsible for the creation of the Ulthwé Strike Forces, Maughan Ra and his elite Black Guardians fought across every sector by cunning use of the Webway. He ultimately led the Eldar to victory even in the heart of the Eye of Terror and, after repelling Dark Eldar raids on Xersia, fought alongside Lord Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed against Abaddon's forces at the Basilica Dufaux. It is believed by many Farseers that the reappearance of the shadowy Craftworld of Altansar and its ghost-like inhabitants was purely due to the iron determination of the Phoenix Lord to locate and redeem his once-lost brethren.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Eidolon: The mysterious world of Eidolon, deep in the heart of the Eye of Terror, is one of the most remote and peculiar of the Daemon Worlds fought upon during the 13th Black Crusade. Divided into several continents where a different Chaos Power reigns over each, the battlezones of Eidolon present a panoply of strange and excruciating ways to die. Its shifting landscapes defy all reason, and, although it was once a beautiful Maiden World of the Eldar, it has changed so irrevocably that no real trace of its former glory exists. Nonetheless, the victories won by the Eldar, notably the Eldar of the Biel-Tan Craftworld, have established several enclaves of sanity in the roiling seas of possibility that characterise Eidolon. The Eldar hope that one day these islands can grow and become stable, and that eventually the secrets of Eidolon can be reclaimed.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Fate of Eldrad Ulthran: For the Farseer Eldrad Ulthran, the most gifted and powerful of all the Eldar Seers, the onset of the 13th Black Crusade meant that the twisting forests of possibilities through which he normally walked at will were denied to him, blinding his exceptional scrying abilities. His one certainty was that darkness stood ready to engulf him and possibly even his home Craftworld of Ulthwé. After the formation of the Ulthwé Strike Forces, Eldrad divided many parts of his consciousness into shimmering Waystones. As for Eldrad Ulthran's fate, this bravest and most noble leader of the Eldar since before the birth of Slaanesh has perished. In a last-ditch effort to stop the Blackstone Fortress ("Talisman of Vaul") controlled by Abaddon from crushing the Imperial defenders of Cadia, he and a select few Warlocks teleported aboard. Within minutes, all the Warlocks were drained of life by the Fortress' bottomless thirst, and when Eldrad reached out to try to touch the Eldar spirit that he believed comprised the core of the Fortress' sentience, he found only an extension of the hideous mind of Slaanesh -- "She Who Thirsts," the Great Enemy of the Eldar. As Eldrad realised his folly, his soul was devoured by the Chaos God inhabiting the Blackstone Fortress, and the greatest Farseer of the Eldar was lost. However, a handful of Waystones that Eldrad had created still remained active, causing the Eldar to believe that Eldrad is still alive but trapped somewhere in the Warp, perhaps at the mercy of Slaanesh.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Canon Conflict: The 13th Black Crusade was the background to the original 2003 worldwide Eye of Terror Campaign whose result was basically a stalemate between the Imperium and the Forces of Chaos after Abaddon managed to gain a foothold on Cadia itself while failing to maintain space superiority in the Cadian System. For fourteen years, Games Workshop chose not to advance the timeline of the Warhammer 40,000 universe beyond this point in the fictional timeline. In January 2017, Games Workshop released the first in a new series of supplements designed to once more advance the Warhammer 40,000 timeline -- Gathering Storm - Part One - Fall of Cadia -- which retconned a great deal of the lore of the 13th Black Crusade and dramatically changed the outcome of Abaddon's assault on Cadia. In this timeline, Abaddon destroyed the world of Cadia, seized complete control of the Cadian Gate, and began the Forces of Chaos' long-awaited second drive on Terra. For more on this version of the campaign, please see 13th Black Crusade.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Senior Command: Ursarkar E. Creed - Lord Castellan of Cadia and overall Imperial Commander of the defence of Cadia.Logan Grimnar - Great Wolf (Chapter Master) of the Space Wolves Chapter and overall commander of the Adeptus Astartes forces in the Cadian System. A council of representatives from those Chapters of the Space Marines opposing Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade elected the irascible Great Wolf as their nominal head.Admiral Quarren - Commander of Battlefleet Cadia and overall commander of Imperial Navy forces, Admiral Quarren has been hailed a true hero of the Imperium, for his masterful defence of the space lanes was all that stood between survival, and utter defeat for the Imperium. Though Cadia is besieged, the Imperial Navy commands space, and is able to offer support to beleaguered forces on the ground. The only question is whether the rapid redeployment of almost the entirety of Battlefleet Gothic, along with a substantial proportion of Battlefleet Solar will leave the Navy dangerously overstretched elsewhere and unable to maintain the level of operations required to hold the line at the Cadian Gate.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes: Angels of Absolution - 10 CompaniesAngels of Vigilance - 5 CompaniesAngels Sanguine - 7 CompaniesBlood Angels - 4 CompaniesBrazen Claws - 10 CompaniesDark Angels - 10 CompaniesDeath Spectres - 6 CompaniesDoom Eagles - 5 CompaniesExcoriators - 8 CompaniesExorcists - 10 CompaniesHarbingers - 8 CompaniesHowling Griffons - 8 CompaniesImperial Fists - 5 CompaniesIron Hands - 10 ClansIron Knights - 1 CompanyIron Snakes - 5 CompaniesMarines Exemplar - 9 CompaniesNight Watch - 11 CompaniesNovamarines - 6 CompaniesRelictors - Declared Excommunicate Traitoris by the Inquisition during the 13th Black CrusadeRevilersSpace Wolves - 12 Great CompaniesStorm Warriors - 10 CompaniesSubjugators - 3 CompaniesUltramarines - 1 Honour CompanyWhite Consuls - 10 CompaniesWhite Scars - 10 Companies

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Companies: Space Wolves 13th Company

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Orders Majoris: Order of the Bloody Rose - 6 PreceptoriesOrder of the Ebon Chalice - 4 PreceptoriesOrder of Our Martyred Lady - 5 Preceptories

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Orders Minoris: Order of the Divine LamentationOrder of the Ermine Mantle - 3 MissionsOrder of the Maurdlin Countenance Order of the Silver LilyOrder of the Sublime AdorationOrder of the Wounded Heart - 1 Commandery

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Notable Regiments: Agripinaa Home GuardAvellorn Field RegimentsAvellornian Gunners - 32 SquadronsBar-El Penal Legions - 4 LegionsBlitzen Heavy ArmouredCadian Shock Troops - 612 RegimentsCadian Youth Army - 36 Regional CommandsCadian Kasrkin - 486 CompaniesCatachan Jungle FightersCthonian Armoured CavalryDeath Korps of KriegDrookian Fenguard -16 CompaniesFinreht Highlanders - 3 RegimentsGudrunite Rifles - 47 RegimentsJouran Dragoons - 7 RegimentsKellersburg Irregulars - 3 RegimentsKnovian Gharkas - 14 RegimentsMordian Iron GuardNecromundan 8th, "The Spiders" - 1 RegimentNarmenian Tank BrigadesNarsine Yeomanry - 32 Battle GroupsPraetorian GuardThracian Guard - 35 RegimentsValhallan Ice WarriorsVan De'Man's World, "Redbacks" - 5 RegimentsZenonian Free Companies - 9 Companies

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Individual Regiments: Abyssian IXAgrapinaa 67th Armoured Rifles17th Alasia Prime Mobile Infantry4th Alba Highland MilitiaAldarriss 1st RegimentAlderia Royal GuardsAlloran 5th101st Amalgamated RegimentAmaquan 1stAmbrosian 35thArborean PrimeArcturan 23rd Regiment2nd Ardelan RangersArkaddian XXIV IrregularsArmageddon Steel Legion 37thArmageddon Steel Legion 23rdArxan 4th RiflesAsarkin Mobile InfantryAttredan 5th Regiment5th AugustaXIII Aurech IrregularsAurellian XIVAzin 2nd Regiment9th Balakovo GuardsBakka Sector Task ForceBakkan Battlegroup HydraxBaraduun KeepBarbarossan 125th Infantry RegimentBattlegroup DeitweilerBattlegroup GaelBattlegroup ImperatisBattlegroup MaximaBattlegroup NemesisBattlegroup PrimusBattlegroup TempestBavarian 6th ArmyBethus 28th Light Expeditionary ForceBifrost 121st Regiment17th Bolshev GuardXLVII Boroeal Regiment79th Britan Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment122nd BushratsCadian 734thCadian 556thCadian 477thCadian 379thCadian 377thCadian 366thCadian 223rdCadian 204thCadian 173rdCadian 148thCadian 135thCadian 131stCadian 123rdCadian 122ndCadian 121stCadian 107thCadian 102ndCadian 107thCadian 95thCadian 75thCadian 69thCadian 52ndCadian 47thCadian 45thCadian 42ndCadian 39thCadian 33rdCadian 32ndCadian 27thCadian 23rdCadian 22ndCadian 20thCadian 14thCadian 13thCadian 12thCadian 10thCadian 9thCadian 8thCadian 7thCadian 4thCadian 3thCadian 120th Armoured Cadian 9th ArmouredCadian 4th Old GuardCalax Vlll RegimentCalexian 7thCalmonian 198thCambreadth 7thCamden 223rdCanteral VCaracan 132nd Armoured4th Carillian Armoured InfantryCarolon GuardsCarothian 313th RegimentCarthago 3rdCastellans 12thCatachan DI (501st)Catachan CCCXXIX (329th)Catachan CCCXXIII (323rd)Catachan CLXXXI (181st)Catachan CXII (112th)Catachan XXXVII (37th)CatachanXXXII (32nd)Catachan XXII (22nd)Catachan XVII (17th)Catachan XV (15th)Catachan XII (12th)Charon 492nd Mechanised39th ChelseanChudian 1st ArmouredCimmerian 6th RegimentCoban IIIComagran 1st Regiment1st Combine Replenishment BattlaionCorican 101stCorthasian Expeditionary ForceCorvus 23rdCrinan IVDalarian 3rd35th Daltigoth IrregularsDanko's 114thDarien 54th Volunteer InfantryDarilian XVIIDeath Korps of Krieg 88thDeath Korps of Krieg 27th Grenadier GuardDeath Korps of Krieg 23rdDernhelm 9th153rd Desert DevilsXII Diddiane DragoonsDogs of KaBahh9th DominicusDrepanan 212th122nd Drookian FenguardDterian 125th RegimentDurellian 4th97th Eisen Irregulars156th Elysian Drop Troops158th Elysian Drop Troops101st Elysian Drop Troops41st Elysian Drop Troops, "Angel Guard"16th Elysian Drop TroopsEpsilonian GuardErawan FreelancersErland 22nd MotorizedFalterravan Armoured584th FirestartersFists of ChonlhanXXI Flotte ColonialeForax 206th Binary Mobile IntantryFramlingham RiflesFrumunda 23rd Armoured Infantry13th Garlatan Drop LegionGarnthe 7th Armoured Cavalry RegimentGlavian Skirmishers 17th14th Gleastonian RiflesGolokov 3rd Armoured CavalryGracian 1st19th Grey Lancers4th Grey PhantomsGrinnuth 27thGuardia 4th43rd Gudrunite RiflesHadley's Hope XI Rifle Regiment137th Hadris Rift43rd/65th Heidrun425th Heliothrix Combine1st Heronian Battle GroupXII Holding RegimentHussaria 41st ArmouredHyperion Guard6th Hyrkan RegimentIberian 1stIionian 9th DragoonsIonis XXII12th Imbrium DragoonsIron Tower RegimentIrridian XIV IronlordsIshan 5thIstanian 3rd InfantryIvlordian 16th RegimentJanus 1st RegimentJanus Xll Garrison ForceJarhardy ShockJopall Indentured 114th RiflesJopall Indentured 17thJyhaddic 9thKalevala 15thKandorian 8192nd Light InfantryKaris 12th RegimentKatakurika FirstKaylen LancersKeldian Light InfantryKeltaxan 113th RegimentKhorporovka 3rd Crusade ArmyKhumium MilitiaKhymer 14th RegimentKiridian 5th RegimentKnovian Gharkas 14th CompanyKortothKreigars 3rdKruegers Reapers51st Kynskite DragoonsKyshakkian 21st Penal Legion32nd Lanthan Drop Troops14th Lieran Rifles282nd Light Colonial Guard93rd Lost Hope31st LucianLunari 23rd Orbital Strike GroupMacharian 24thMadeus 3rd14thMandalay1st Maninninan RangersMercutian 141st Armoured12thMethuselan Infantry (Mechanised)3rd Mirra NomadsMiskolc Prime City RatsMistian 213th Para-Troops1stMolovian Guard303rd Mordant Acid-Dogs667th Mordian113th Mordian23rd Mordian10th Mordian7th MordianMorloc 404thMortimer IVMulsarian VII Army13th Munisipice FusiliersMycenean 1st Off-World42ndMykran RiflesNebian 3rdNecromunda 8th InfantryNew Crobuzon MilitiaNew Phraxian 42ndNimbus 2ndNoctus 4thNomulan WolvesOctavis 3rdOrthos XII194 Parsus IIIPatrian 121st Light InfantryPatrol Group AquilaPeraxxian 101st "Dawn Breakers"Pheonix 49th13th Pinolus V Task ForceXVI Phobos Phrygian 32ndPhyrgian III23rd Phyruss RiflesPhyruss 81st RegimentPhyrussian 10thPolaron Delence ForcePolisian 43rd303rd Praetorian35th Praetorian13th Praetorian5thPraetorianPyotorgors 292nd Arctic RiflesRantaran 6th>Rardonian 104thRazacks RoughnecksReconnaissance Regiment73rdRescue Fleet1st Rigan Rifles (Mechanised)Rimini 54th12th RitzosRoyal Hernovan GrenadiersRoyal Volpone 50th "Bluebloods"Royal Volpone 23rdRygarian 8th ArmySaharrian XLVSeced 13th1st SempernoxSerennian IrregularsSidoneon 95thSilar VII Sentinel Company25th Skarran GuardSolus 13th21st Sonnen GuardSons of MjolnirSoran 8th RegimentSphynxium DiamondsStrike Force AntaresStrike Force CrimsonStrike Force Belarius13th Studka Rifles352nd Sturm PioneersSupremacy Force MarchonTalasan 1stTallarn Desert Raiders 506thTanner IV 26th RegimentTantris 1stTarentum XXVIITask Force PerdiusTask Force DamoclesTelluride 39th Armoured Battle Group1st Terratus Strike RegimentTeryaskian Red GuardThe Raiders of Ar Rustaq290th Thracian1st ThunderersTorlean Armoured GuardsTralian 4thTturas 18th "Orphans"122nd Tuigan MarksmenTurian 264th RegularsUlantii XIVUriah 501st1st UthmanUtican IV Desert Foxes48th Valdian Rifles451st Valhalla301st Valhalla7th Valhalla5th ValhallaVandeen Guard 9thVandorian 23rdVannheim 8thVanth Defence LegionVarseen 71st Enclave Heavy Drop-LegionVastadt 71stVastadtian 32ndVednikan 47th RiflesVictarian XXXI Tank RegimentVitrian 43rdVittorrian XVIIVittrian DragoonsVolcanica 1st187th Wahation GuardWeylond 71st Fusiliers181st Wolfpack5th Yamin RegimentYontisgrod VolunteersZantinian 3rd Infantry Regiment

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Ordo Malleus: Inquisitorial Task Forces - CLASSIFIEDGrey Knights - CLASSIFIEDInquisitorial Storm TroopersNemesis Tesera - estimated 38 CompaniesOcularis Terribus War Zone - CLASSIFIED

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Departmento Munitorum: Engineer Corps - 18Siege Auxilia Corps - 28 Counter-siege batteries

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Officio Assassinorum: Agents - CLASSIFIED

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Templars Psykologis: Disruption Squads - 37Augur Teams - 6

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Battlefleets: Battlefleet Cadia - 12 Battleships, 12 Cruiser Squadrons, 21 Escort SquadronsBattlefleet Corona - 7 Battleships, 13 Cruiser Squadrons, 17 Escort SquadronsBattlefleet GothicBattlefleet Scarus - 5 Battleships, 9 Cruiser Squadrons, 13 Escort SquadronsBattlefleet SolarBattlegroup NemesisBattle Group ImperatisBakka Sector Task Force

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Vessels of Note: Galathamor (Emperor-class Battleship) - Admiral Quarren's flagship.Honour & Duty (Emperor-class Battleship)Duke Lurstophan (Dauntless-class Light Cruiser)Abridal's Glory (Gothic-class Cruiser)

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Estimated Fleet Assets: Front Line Battle Groups - 21Rear Echelon Battle Groups - 36Independent Strike Groups - 4Space Marine Battle-Barges - estimated 21+Space Marine Strike Cruisers - estimated 150+Space Marine Escort Squadrons - estimated 200+

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Collegia Titanica: Legio Astorum - Entire LegionLegio Gryphonicus - Entire LegionLegio Ignatum - Entire LegionLegio Metalica - Demi-LegionOrdo Reductor - Demi-LegionDivisio Telepathica Psi-Titans - CLASSIFIED

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Knights: House Arokon - 4 Households of KnightsHouse Krast - 2 Households of KnightsHouse Lakar

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Other Mechanicus Assets: Centurio Ordinatus - 4 OrdinatusSkitarii - 87 Regiments

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Senior Command: Abaddon the Despoiler - Warmaster of Chaos and overall commander of the Forces of ChaosTyphus - Herald of Nurgle, and Plague Fleet commander.Kossolax the Foresworn - Chaos Lord of the Foresworn Renegade Chaos Space Marines warband and fleet commander.

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Chaos Space Marine Legions: Alpha Legion - 20+ unconfirmed sightings in all sectorsBlack Legion - Major presence in all sectorsDeath Guard - Major presence in Subiaco DiabloEmperor's Children - Unconfirmed actions against Eldar reportedIron Warriors - Suspected presence in the Cadian SystemNight Lords - Unconfirmed reports of presence in all sectorsThousand Sons - Active in the Caliban and Prospero SectorsWord Bearers - Active in rear echelon sectorsWorld Eaters - Significant involvement in all sectors

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Renegade Chaos Space Marine Warbands: Crimson SlaughterExtinction AngelsThe PyreSons of MaliceViolators - 3 confirmed actions in Cadia SectorWarp Ghosts - Unconfirmed sighting in Agripnaa System

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Major Traitor Guard Units: 5th Columnus Regiment - Presence confirmed - Belis Corona666th Regiment of Foot - Confirmed presence - CadiaDiscilan Apostates - UnconfirmedHaradni 13thJenen Ironclads - Major presence - Kromat SystemSentrek FreemenThe Traitor 4th - Significant presence - Kantrael SystemUbridius Light Infantry - Major presence - Cadian SectorVolscani Cataphracts - Active - Cadia

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Estimated Mutant Hordes: The Anointed of Aq'si - 6 attacks confirmed - Belisar SystemThe Shyis'slaa - Linked to cult uprisings - Albitern SystemThe Stigmatus Convenant - Significant presence - Mackan SystemThe Unsanctified - Unconfirmed involvement - Bar-el System

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Traitor Titan Legions: Death Stalkers - Unconfirmed involvement on CadiaFire Masters - Limited presence in Cadian SectorIron Skulls - Major force sighted on Vorga TorqLegio Mortis - Major presence confirmed on CadiaLegio Vulcanum I - 4 unconfirmed assaults on Belisar and KromatLegio Vulcanum II - Suspected presence on Subiaco Diablo

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Battlefleets: The Grand Fleet of Abaddon the Despoiler - 7 Battleships, 13 Heavy Cruisers, est. 23 Cruiser Squadrons, est. 30 Escort SquadronsThe Grand Fleet of Kossolax the Foresworn - 1 Battleship, 3 Cruiser Squadrons, 8 Escort SquadronsThe Plague Fleet of Typhus - Terminus Est, 2 Battleships, 3 Heavy Cruisers, 5 Cruiser Squadrons, est. 12 Escort Squadrons

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Notable Vessels: Plagueclaw (Unknown Class Capital Vessel)Darkblood (Styx-class Heavy Cruiser)Planet Killer (Undesignated Class Capital Vessel)Merciless Death (Despoiler-class Battleship)Fortress of Agony (Despoiler-class Battleship)

13th Black Crusade (Original) - Fleet Assets: Imperial Battlefleets - est. 38Blackstone Fortresses - 2"Wolf Pack" Squadrons - est. 19

13th Founding - 13th Founding: The 13th Founding, also known as the Dark Founding, occurred sometime between the 35th and 36th Millennium, and is one of the very rare Foundings of Space Marine Chapters that were not recorded in exact detail.Since the Horus Heresy, the Adeptus Terra has maintained a bank of original gene-seed tithed by every single Chapter ever created, with one notable exception: the 13th Founding. There are no reliable records that indicate how many Chapters were created during the Dark Founding or what became of them.Full disclosure of the exact details of this mysterious Founding may lie buried deep within the record office of the Adeptus Terra. One Chapter known to have been founded at this time is the mysterious Exorcists Chapter, though there are two suspected Chapters created during this unrecorded Founding -- the Death Spectres and the formerly-Loyalist Crimson Sabres.The exact nature of the Exorcists' creation and the gene-seed used in their Founding has remained classified by a special Bull Absolute of the Inquisitorial Representative to the Senatorum Imperialis issued at the time of their Founding. The Chapter has long-standing and strong links with the Inquisition and certain factions within the Ordo Malleus in particular, and it is most likely that it is the sponsorship and designs of that Ordo that has given them their unique character, and may well have specified their creation, either as a grand experiment or for some singular purpose.They are unusually resistant to both Daemonic possession and Chaos corruption. As part of their initiation into the Chapter, Exorcists Astartes are forced to serve as Daemonhosts for a short time before the possessing Daemon is expelled back to the Warp by the intervention of an Inquisitor.The Death Spectres are the second known Chapter to have been created during this unusual Founding. They are a Successor Chapter of the Raven Guard and share the same mutations as found in that Chapter's gene-seed. Like the Raven Guard, the battle-brothers of this Chapter possess a minor mutation that causes the Melanochromic Organ (which controls the amount of melanin in an Astartes' skin tone) to not function properly, leading to the development of albinism in Death Spectres Astartes. Additionally, due to further mutations, the Death Spectres lack a functional mucranoid and Betcher's Gland.Differing Melanochrome gene-seed from Chapter to Chapter leads to variations in skin and hair colour, and in some Chapters all of the Space Marines may have identical colouration, such as is found in the albino warriors of the Death Spectres Chapter.Finally, there is the Crimson Sabres Chapter. The Renegade Space Marine warband who call themselves the Crimson Slaughter were once the Crimson Sabres. Since their betrayal and excommunication, many have sought out the Chapter's origins, delving back into their past to find perhaps some reasoning behind their rapid decline into savage butchery.Thus far, the Inquisition has failed to reveal any conclusive evidence that links them to corrupt gene-seed or known mutagenic factors. It is surmised by many, from Inquisitors to curator-scribes, that the Crimson Sabres may have belonged to the 13th Founding, but nothing has ever been proven.

13th Founding - Select Chapters of the 13th Founding: Exorcists - The Exorcists, whose homeworld is the planet Banish, were founded as part of a highly-classified Imperial experiment to create Space Marines who were unusually resistant to daemonic possession and Chaos corruption. As part of their initiation into the Chapter each Exorcists Astartes had actually been forced to serve as a Daemonhost for a short time before having the foul creature expelled back to the Warp by the intervention of an Inquisitor.Death Spectres - A Successor Chapter of the Raven Guard located on the world of Occludus, the Death Spectres share many of the same mutations as found in that Chapter's gene-seed. Stationed beyond the frontiers of the Imperium, the Death Spectres maintain a constant vigil to ensure that the supernatural inhabitants of the Ghoul Stars never again threaten the galaxy.Crimson Sabres (Excommunicate Traitoris) - The reputation of the Crimson Sabres of the world of Rhoghon was built on ruthless efficiency and fastidious adherence to the Codex Astartes. Soon enough, signs that things were awry appeared in their Chapter history. These problems culminated with the genocidal war on Umidia. This world proved to be the fulcrum of change for the Crimson Sabres. The fighting there proved so intense that it changed the Chapter, as they found themselves cursed by the Chaos God Khorne, forever haunted by the fell voices of the slain even after the combat had ended. Fleeing into the Eye of Terror, they were eventually corrupted into full-fledged Chaos Space Marines. Renamed the Crimson Slaughter, the voices which plague them can no longer be silenced except by the most obscene levels of carnage.

13th Penal Legion (Last Chancers) - 13th Penal Legion (Last Chancers): The 13th Penal Legion of the Astra Militarum, also known as the "Last Chancers," is a special regiment composed of Imperial criminals and convicts. All the men and women of the Last Chancers are hand-picked by the fiercely uncompromising Colonel Schaeffer for the performance of suicide missions on behalf of the Imperium of Man throughout the galaxy.The convicts are given a "last chance" by Schaeffer to be forgiven of their crimes in the eyes of the Emperor of Mankind and this is achieved by receiving an Imperial pardon from the colonel. These pardons are awarded only to those members of the regiment who survive a number of military operations determined by Schaeffer. Colonel Schaeffer personally pardons all those who die during an operation posthumously.The 13th Penal Legion, unusual among the many Penal Legions that serve in the Astra Militarum, was in fact a testing ground. Schaeffer would hand-pick his regiment's troops from Imperial prisons' worst convicts because of some natural talent they displayed or because they possessed an uncanny instinct for survival so that they could serve as part of an elite ad hoc military team intended to achieve some difficult, usually borderline insane military objective of the Imperium.These dregs comprise the most vicious, ill-disciplined and unstable group of psychopaths, conspirators, thieves and traitors in the Astra Militarum who would otherwise be destined for the firing squad or the business end of a commissar's Bolt Pistol.Many of those offered the chance to fight with the "Last Chancers" choose death rather than follow Colonel Schaeffer, for such is the colonel's reputation for undertaking suicide missions throughout the Imperium.The 13th Penal Legion is particularly notable for achieving the destruction of the rebellious Genestealer-infested fortress city of Coritanorum on the world of Typhos Prime, the assassination of T'au Commander Brightsword and the assassination of the traitorous former planetary governor of Armageddon, the Overlord Herman von Strab.

13th Penal Legion (Last Chancers) - Regimental History: Most Astra Militarum Penal Legions are vast hordes of scum dredged from the bottom of the Imperium, turned loose from Imperial prisons, given the cheapest equipment, and used as cannon fodder ahead of more valuable and accomplished units. The condemned soldiers who populate these regiments fight knowing that death is their only escape, and fight savagely to seize their last chance at redemption.However, there are other regiments that have been similarly condemned but are too valuable to simply discard -- at least, not without making sure that their lives are sold at a heavy cost in the blood of the Imperium's foes. Some regiments also carry this practice out on a squad level, sending those who have disgraced themselves in the eyes of the Emperor on critical but nonetheless suicidal missions.Sometimes, multiple regiments sharing a field of operations even expunge all of their "undesirable" elements and form these condemned soldiers into a savage (if short-lived) battle group capable of wreaking terrible damage upon their foes.Perhaps the most famous of such groups of desperate "Last Chancers" are Colonel Schaeffer's 13th Penal Legion, who bear that very name and have proven extremely effective under the direction of their commander.Initially, Colonel Schaeffer recruited thousands of criminals at one time, gathering enough troops to form an entire regiment. These convicts would then be thrown into quite literally the worst battlefields he could find, using attrition as a mechanism to determine the most capable members of the unit until only the most hard core survivors remained.This was a process that usually reduced the original numbers of the unit down to under a dozen convicts. These remaining hardened killers would then be informed of the colonel's true objective, although rarely of its status as the driving force behind the regiment's existence. Those who survived this last suicidal mission would then be granted their pardon with the caveat that they could never commit another crime, and allowed either to return to civilian life or rejoin the Astra Militarum as regular Guardsmen.However, Schaeffer was known to track these few "lucky" Last Chancers, and keep close watch on them. Unhinged by their many near-death experiences, almost all of them would re-lapse into lives of criminal behaviour, and Schaeffer would be there to reabsorb them into the regiment, this time permanently.One trooper who followed this pattern was Lieutenant Kage (see below), who survived his first mission following the death of Lieutenant "Hero" Green during the Battle of Ichar IV and took command of his unit. He was later taken back into the 13th Penal Legion after murdering three senior officers as his personal demons caught up with him. Kage survived a second campaign before heroically sacrificing himself on the Hive World of Armageddon to ensure a third succeeded.Following this modus operandi of Colonel Shaeffer, there have ultimately been many different 13th Penal Legions in the Imperial Guard's history, one for each chosen objective, and although it is not known if all of these units were commanded by Schaeffer, his extreme age and status within the Inquisition suggest that the two have been linked for some time.Though they are often not liked or even respected by other regiments, these desperate fighters are known for their ability to get the job done -- and this includes "acquiring" the equipment and wargear they need.

13th Penal Legion (Last Chancers) - Regimental Organisation: An oddity among the numerous Penal Legions serving the Imperial Guard, the 13th Penal Legion, under the command of the iconoclastic Colonel Schaeffer, is as much an experiment in military science as it is a military regiment. The 13th Penal Legion is composed of a motley assortment of criminals, recidivists, malcontents, madmen, and assorted detritus from the most hardened military prisons kept by the Imperial Guard.Every one is hand–picked by Colonel Schaeffer himself and each has some outstanding skill or natural ability that sets them apart from their comrades. Following some internal plan of his own, Schaeffer picks these recruits seemingly at random and offers them a "last chance" to atone for their crimes and put their God–Emperor given talents to good use. What he offers is a full Imperial pardon and freedom from prison, what he asks is nothing short of their lives, something that most gladly give.Upon accepting Schaeffer's offer, each new recruit is whisked off to a private, secret penal colony administered by Schaeffer for the sole purpose of raising his 13th Penal Legion. Once there, the recruits spend solar months training for every kind of mission in every kind of environment imaginable. If the recruit survives with body and wits intact, he is assigned to one of the many small clandestine units organised under the 13th Penal Legion's aegis.These small units are deployed across the galaxy to fight a shadowy war rarely seen by the average Imperial Guardsman. Colonel Schaeffer has worked hard to hone the surviving Last Chancers into a deadly spear with which he can stab at the hearts of the enemies of Humanity unopposed, when and where they least expect it.Another thing that sets the "Last Chancers" and other, similar units apart from their common Penal Legion counterparts is the special training regimen they are put through to fulfil their clandestine missions. Some of these groups are subjected to a gruelling, months-long training regimens to enhance the natural skills and talents for which they were chosen.If their missions call for it, these recruits might also receive training in close combat techniques, sabotage, infiltration, different insertion and extraction methods such as Grav-Chutes and underwater infiltration, and survival in all manner of hostile environments.Those who survive the training (and safety is hardly a priority, given the condemned status of these dishonoured soldiers) gain the skills needed to be some of the most vicious and lethal warriors in the Astra Militarum.

13th Penal Legion (Last Chancers) - Regimental Operations: The missions that such condemned soldiers take part in are nothing less than sheer suicidal madness. They are tasked with missions so clandestine, so dangerous, and so cold-blooded that they would give any commander pause.Assassinations, mass killings, gathering intelligence, infiltration of heavily guarded and fortified enemy facilities, and the sabotage, theft, and destruction of untold thrones' worth of property and war materiel are all in a day's work for the 13th Penal Legion and other regiments of their uncouth ilk.

13th Penal Legion (Last Chancers) - Wargear: Unlike the majority of Penal Legions, men and women belonging to groups like Colonel Schaeffer's 13th Penal Legion and other, similar organisations are remarkably well-equipped for groups of incorrigible Imperial criminals. Given that such groups are frequently used by their commanders to carry out deadly covert strikes, assassinations, and other underhanded tactics that more conventional regiments would never even attempt, the weapons they carry often pack an incredible punch in a small package, and are well suited to their stealthy and clandestine assignments.Even their standard weapons, such as the run-of-the-mill lasguns they are issued, are heavily modified.For protection on certain kinds of missions that demand that they pay their debt to the Emperor before perishing in His name, they are even assigned light armour that still allows them the freedom of movement to execute their savage stealth raids upon enemy positions.The following is the standard issue kit for troopers of the 13th Penal Legion:Lascarbine - A Lascarbine is the carbine form of the standard Imperial Lasgun with a compact upgrade, which makes it easier to carry and to aim than its larger counterpart. It will often possess a folding stock. However, as a result of these modifications, a Lascarbine has a shorter range and will fire fewer shots before depleting its power pack when compared to a standard Lasgun.4 Charge Packs - Charge Packs are powerful capacitor batteries used almost exclusively by Imperial laser weapons. The Charge Pack's size and make varies depending on the class of the weapon. In all cases, it provides shots equal to the weapon's full clip value and can be recharged when emptied.2 Mono Knives - The Mono-Knife is a one-handed melee implement that is one variant of the ubiquitous back-up melee weapon for warriors all across the Imperium, be they lowly hive scum or the elite soldiers of a Planetary Governor. Some, such as the Catachan Fighting Knife, are designed for a specific purpose, whilst others are more generic in nature.3 Frag Grenades - Frag Grenades use a combustible charge and special fillers of shrapnel fragments which make them potent anti-personnel weapons. Imperial Frag Grenades are roughly the size of a clenched fist and covered with a heavily notched shell, both to increase the shrapnel produced and provide a more secure grip for throwing.3 Krak Grenades - Krak Grenades are crafted with powerful concentrated explosives designed to punch holes in armoured targets such as vehicles or bunkers. While stronger than Frag Grenades, Krak detonations do not produce a blast effect and their more focused explosion makes them less practical as anti-personnel weapons.1 Flak Vest & Flak Helmet - The most common type of armour in the galaxy is Flak Armour, as it is standard issue to the countless millions of Imperial Guardsmen. Many layers of ablative and impact absorbent material go into making each vest, enough to deflect or negate most low-level attacks such as small arms, shrapnel, and proximity blasts. Solid hits from high impact weapons can generally negate it, but given that it is relatively lightweight, cheap to produce, and dependable in most combat situations.Last Chancers Imperial Guard Prisoner Uniform1 Inhaler - A standard inhaler is used to administer mood-modifying substances into the body.4 Doses of Frenzon - Frenzon is the generic name for a variety of combat drugs most often used with Penal Legions. Once administered, the subject becomes fanatical and fearless.1 Gas Mask - A simple breathing mask that covers the nose and mouth or entire face, these offer much better protection than filtration plugs.Poor Weather GearRucksackBasic Tool KitMess Kit & Water Canteen1 Weeks' RationsBlanket & Sleep BagRechargeable Lamp-Pack - Sturdy and reliable, glow-globes illuminate many an Imperial paveway and cathedral. Most portable ones are roughly the size of a clenched fist and can shine strong, yellowish light a dozen or so metres in width, lasting roughly five hours before their power pack needs recharging or replacing.Micro-Bead - A micro-bead or comm-bead is a short-range radio wave communication device worn in the ear, good for communications out to about one kilometre (depending on weather conditions and the intervening terrain). Each fits discretely in the ear, with higher craftsmanship models nearly undetectable in casual inspection.Ident Tags ("Dog Tags")Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer - A standard-issue Imperial text that covers a vast variety of topics, this book is possessed by all members of the Imperial Guard as part of their standard-issue equipment. The Primer is a basic guide that details everything a Guardsman needs to know: principles and regulations of the Imperial Guard, issued arms, attire, apparatus, and equipment, basic battlefield policy and Imperial Guard organisation and structure, elementary battlefield medical instructions, and a detailed guide on the foes of the Imperium. No Guardsman should ever be found without possession of a copy of the Uplifting Primer for the punishment is severe.

13th Penal Legion (Last Chancers) - Notable Last Chancers: Lieutenant Kage (KIA) - Killed a sergeant after being threatened with false charges due to their mutual interest in a woman. Lieutenant Kage respected fellow officers of the 13th Penal Legion and was loyal to his oath as a member of the Astra Militarum. He met his end on Armageddon after the Third War for Armageddon during a daring covert operation by the 13th Penal Legion under the command of Colonel Schaeffer into Hive Acheron. Having been possessed by a Daemon during the mission, Kage led the 13th Penal Legion into a trap, allying himself with the traitorous former Imperial Planetary Governor Herman von Strab. However, shortly before the entire team was executed, Kage managed to overcome the Daemon's will and commit suicide, when he tackled von Strab and leaped clutching him over the edge of a balcony, both men falling to their deaths."Animal" - Animal is a schizophrenic psychopath, but reputed to be one of the best all-around warriors in the Imperial Guard. Much of his military record as well as his crimes are highly classified."Brains" - An expert on many forms of technology and an all-around "brain-box." "Ox" and he are good buddies. His crime was hacking into his former unit's regimental accounts system and changing his pay-code."Demolition Man" - Demolition Man is an expert with explosives, and is capable of picking any lock and disabling any security system. His crime was being caught while breaking into a colonel's personal drinks cabinet."Fingers" - Fingers is an expert forager and petty thief who can get a hold of just about anything for a price. His real name is known to be Vagin. His crime was black marketeering."Grease-Monkey" - Grease-Monkey is an expert mechanic reputed to be able to maintain, drive and repair any Imperial vehicle in the galaxy. His crime was stealing a Craftworld Aeldari grav-vehicle belonging to the ambassador of Craftworld Iyanden."Hero" - Hero was a formerly outstanding Imperial Guard officer; he was the top of his class and possessed a first-class service record. His real name is known to be Green. His crime was refusing a direct order to lead his men in a pointless and suicidal attack. Hero doesn't know when to give up, sustaining the most terrible of wounds, and by sheer force of will he manages to stay alive. Stripped of his rank as an officer, Hero was sent to the penal colony at Bassus Prime and was recruited into the Last Chancers by Colonel Schaeffer."Ox" - Ox is, well, a huge ox of a man, and about as bright. His crime was killing three off-duty officers with his bare hands in a drunken brawl."Rocket Girl" - Rocket Girl is a Master-at-Arms who is proficient with any and all of the heavy weapons employed by the Imperial Guard. Her real name is known to be Mikhaels. Her crime was murdering a fellow master sergeant for unknown reasons."Scope" - Scope is a trained sniper and expert marksman. His crime was going AWOL, for reasons unknown, but it is suspected to be related to the assassination of Chief Arbitrator Abraxtes."Shiv" - Shiv is a stealthy assassin who can sneak up and dispatch a sentry without being spotted. His crime was the serial murder of over twenty civilians on Lector Prime over a five year period."Warrior Woman" - Warrior Woman is one of the renowned warrior-women of Xenan 7, an expert tracker and huntswoman. Her crime was having membership in a banned religious organisation, an Artemis sub-cult.

13th Penal Legion (Last Chancers) - Inspiration: The Last Chancers 13th Penal Legion is based upon the World War II-era film The Dirty Dozen as well as the use of penal legions by both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany during that conflict.

13th Penal Legion (Last Chancers) - Sources: 13th Legion (Novel) by Gav Thorpe, Chs. 1, 6, 7, EpilogueKill Team (Novel) by Gav ThorpeAnnihilation Squad (Novel) by Gav ThorpeChapter Approved, The Second Book of the Astronomican, "Unlucky For Some" by Jervis Johnson, pp. 112-116Imperial Guard (3rd Edition, 2nd Codex), pg. 54Imperial Guard (3rd Edition, 1st Codex), pp. 26-27Imperial Guard (2nd Edition), pp. 88-89Only War: Hammer of the Emperor (RPG), pp. 22-23Words of Blood (Anthology), "Liberty" by Gav Thorpe

14th Alphic Dragons - 14th Alphic Dragons: The 14th Alphic Dragons are an elite Tempestus Scions regiment of the Militarum Tempestus. Little else is known about them in Imperial records.

14th Alphic Dragons - Regimental History: The Metallophagic Plague (981.M41) - Myosan, a vital Agri-world at the heart of the Diosis System, is saved from a planet-wide Necron incursion by the swift action of the Tempestus Scions of the 14th Alphic Dragons.

14th Alphic Dragons - Regimental Colours: The regimental colours of the 14th Alphic Dragons are not listed in current Imperial records.

14th Alphic Dragons - Regimental Badge: The regimental symbol of the 14th Alphic Dragons is not listed in current Imperial records.

196th Iotan Gryphonnes - 196th Iotan Gryphonnes: 196th Iotan GryphonnesTempestus ScionsOrdo TempestusT'auEarth CasteSept WorldBork'an

196th Iotan Gryphonnes - Regimental History: In 939.M41, the 196th Iotan Gryphonnes were deployed in their entirety by Lord Commissar Tilenus to the T'au Sept World of Bork'an to target the planet's academic facilities and wipe out every scientist, researcher and student. This would greatly affect the T'au Empire's ability to mass-produce prototype weapons and deadly Battlesuits. In the first few hours of the war, the Gryphonnes' Valkyrie-borne attacks were met with great success. However, the Tau's vicious counterattack, spearheaded by experimental Battlesuits and prototype weaponry, quickly overwhelmed the attacking Scions and virtually annihilated the 196th Iotan Gryphonnes. The Earth Caste scientist made good their escape during the battle, putting them out of reach of their would-be assassins. The few surviving Scions requested to be extracted; however, their repeated requests were denied, and soon they were systematically hunted down Bork'an's' vengeful Fire Warriors.

196th Iotan Gryphonnes - Regimental Colours: The regimental colours of the 196th Iotan Gryphonnes are not listed in current Imperial records.

196th Iotan Gryphonnes - Regimental Badge: The regimental symbol of the 196th Iotan Gryphonnes is not listed in current Imperial records.

196th Omicroid Hydras - 196th Omicroid Hydras: The 196th Omicroid Hydras are an elite Tempestus Scions regiment of the Militarum Tempestus. Little else is known about them in Imperial records. The 835th was responsible for the destruction of the Ork superkrooza Brawla.

196th Omicroid Hydras - Regimental History: Death on the Brawla (955.M41) - The Tempestus Scions of the 196th Omicroid Hydras are sent to intercept the titanic Ork superkrooza Brawla. Augur reports had shown that the giant scrap-craft was heading straight for the world of Macharia. If it continued on its projected course, it would not be able to slow down before breaching atmosphere, crashing into the sacred world's surface and causing an extinction-level cataclysm in the process. The sleek drop-craft Mercurian drifts the last few thousand miles in order to evade detection before locking down in the shadow of the Ork craft's towering finials. The Hydras drive out, their Taurox Primes forming up and gunning towards the stern of the enormous vessel. As the Brawla's engines come into view, the Scions disembark in tight formation, their mag-boots clamping to the underside of the spacefaring metal hulk with each exaggerated step. The troopers are less than a hundred Terran feet from the engine arrays when several blinding flashes of blue-green light illuminate the entire strike force. The Scions drop into battle stances and raise their Hot-shot Lasguns as thirty heavily-armoured Orks appear from nowhere and clomp forward, Exo-armour hissing steam. The Tempestor's plasma teams open fire, but to a man their weapons detonate in their hands, their ragged torsos bleeding spheres of blood into the void. Guttural Orkish laughter rumbles across the comms-net as the Tempestus Scions realise their boots are locked down tight -- according to their Slate Monitrons, the entire section of the Ork warship is now crackling with a crude electromagnetic field. The ensuing firefight is terrible in its intensity. The Ork's crude weaponry takes a horrible toll on the crouching Tempestus Scions, even with the Taurox Primes' supporting fire hammering into the Greenskins' midst. Only a desperate Vox signal from the regiment's Tempestor Prime saves them from total destruction, The drop-craft Mercurian stabs a series of pulsing, flickering lasers into the toroid copper structures on Brawla's midsection, and a moment later the electromagnetic field rippling across the hull fizzes, spurts and shorts out. As if lifted by invisible hands, the Orks drift off the hull into space, roaring their denial and hammering the last of their ammunition into the Scions as they go. Several hit their mark, the Carapace Armor-clad bodies of Tempestus Scions spinning off after those of their foes. Despite this last desperate attack, there remain enough Scions to set several strings of melta charges across Brawla's fuel silos. That night the people of Macharia witness a series of vast explosions as the Ork ship detonates.

196th Omicroid Hydras - Regimental Colours: The regimental colours of the 196th Omicroid Hydras are not listed in current Imperial records.

196th Omicroid Hydras - Regimental Badge: The regimental symbol of the 196th Omicroid Hydras is not listed in current Imperial records.

19th Founding - 19th Founding: The 19th Founding of Space Marine Chapters occurred during the mid-36th Millennium.During this Founding the Avenging Sons were created from the gene-seed of the Ultramarines.

1st Black Crusade - 1st Black Crusade: The 1st Black Crusade was the first of the great assaults led by Ezekyle Abaddon, soon to be known as "Abaddon the Despoiler," out of the Eye of Terror into Imperial space. It was the first major incursion by the forces of Chaos into Imperial space since the defeat of the Traitor Legions at the Siege of Terra almost eight standard centuries before and the campaigns of the Great Scouring that drove them into the Eye of Terror.Its purpose was to show both the Imperium of Man and the Chaos Gods themselves that Abaddon was the rightful and worthy successor to Horus. By his actions Abaddon earned the favour of the Ruinous Powers and a potent new Daemon Weapon that cemented his standing as the new mortal champion of Chaos Undivided.In 781.M31, Abaddon the Despoiler, Chaos Lord of the Black Legion and the chosen Warmaster of Chaos, made his first attempt to launch a new offensive against the Imperium of Man following the Horus Heresy. He initiated the campaign known as the 1st Black Crusade, which opened with the conflict remembered as the First Battle of Cadia.The 1st Black Crusade also marked the start of the Chaos Space Marines' ten-thousand-year-long attempt to throw down the Imperium that they named the "Long War."Abaddon had made many blood pacts with the Dark Gods in the wake of Horus' defeat during the Horus Heresy. Following this deadly incursion, the Ruinous Powers granted Abaddon the means to further increase his already formidable power.After the First Battle of Cadia was won, the forces of Chaos under Abaddon's command plunged the worlds of the Segmentum Obscurus into a terrible conflict that ravaged hundreds of worlds for several solar decades.At the end of that time, on the world of Uralan in the Eye of Terror, Abaddon recovered the Daemonsword Drach'nyen after battling his way through a haunted labyrinth to the great inner chamber where the blade had languished in stasis for millennia.The howling sword contained the bound essence of an ancient and dangerous Warp entity who had once been defeated by the Emperor Himself during the Horus Heresy and had the power to rend reality apart wherever the weapon struck.After the recovery of the malefic sword, Abaddon's power swelled to inhuman proportions much like his predecessor Horus, and he was recognised by the Chaos Gods as Horus Lupercal's true successor amongst the Traitor Legions, the new Warmaster of Chaos Undivided.

1st Black Crusade - History: Following the dire events of the Horus Heresy during the climactic Siege of Terra and the death of the Warmaster Horus aboard his flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, First Captain Ezekyle Abaddon and the surviving Sons of Horus broke orbit and fought their way free of the orbital battle and escaped into the void.A time of Imperial reprisal and retribution known as the Great Scouring followed for many solar decades, and countless worlds were put to death by the Loyalists for siding with Horus, their corpses left as a warning to others. Those Traitor Legions that remained in the Imperium were hunted mercilessly and hounded across the stars by pitiless Loyalists.Abaddon and the remaining Sons of Horus took refuge in the Eye of Terror, choosing to plunge into that maelstrom of madness rather than face extinction at the hands of the Emperor's vengeful warriors.The Sons of Horus managed to reach the Eye of Terror with the bloodied survivors of the Scouring, but the once-mighty XVIth Legion was reduced to a fraction of its former size. Led by only a few remaining captains, the Legion struggled with its loyalty to their fallen primarch and the cold reality of their defeat at the hands of the Emperor and His lackeys.Bereft of their glorious primarch, the XVIth Legion floundered, and in desperation sought the aid of each of the Chaos Gods in turn in their search for renewed power, inviting daemonic possession and the ever more costly blessings of the Warp.All the while, the Legion suffered the jealous attacks of their former allies. As the Traitor Legions turned upon one another, the Dark Gods subverted and manipulated their new playthings, reshaping the Traitor Legions for their own ends and the never-ending war between the gods in the Great Game.Abaddon abandoned the Legion; broken by the death of Horus and sick of war, he wandered alone into the Eye of Terror. Meanwhile the Sons of Horus carried the body of their primarch, preserved in stasis, further into the Eye, ignoring the wars that raged around them.On the Daemon World of Maeleum, a graveyard world of steel and rust, the Sons of Horus raised a fortress, fashioning a mighty citadel from the wrecks of decaying vessels lost to the Warp.The XVIth Legion interred Horus' body within a great tomb, where many fell into worship of their fallen demigod. With their primarch dead and their Legion on the verge of extinction, the Sons of Horus stagnated.Some captains suspected that it would be but a matter of time before they and their battle-brothers were drawn into the wars between the Traitor Legions, and so they pushed for the Sons of Horus to replace its losses by increasing the Legion's gene-seed stocks.These same captains knew that any fortress, no matter how grand, could not hope to hold back a determined Space Marine assault, and called for more warriors to be found.Unfortunately, the majority of surviving captains were convinced that the Warp would provide all the power they needed, if only they could master the methods of merging Daemon and Space Marine into the Possessed.

1st Black Crusade - Legion Wars: In the wake of the Great Scouring, the internecine wars between the other Traitor Legions who had sided with the Warmaster Horus during the Heresy, known as the Legion Wars or the Slave Wars, were initiated by the Emperor's Children Legion.The depraved Heretic Astartes who now served Slaanesh in body and soul sought to capture more mortal slaves from the other Traitor Legions to serve as their playthings.The conflict soon raged across the worlds within the Eye of Terror. Yet the Sons of Horus ignored the events happening around them, and continued to raise their fortress ever higher, worshipping the corpse of their primarch.The Sons of Horus had remained largely apart from these conflicts; however, jealous eyes now turned their way. Traitorous forces gathered against them and conspired to rob them of the remains of Horus to further vile and selfish ambitions.The Primarch Horus' body, with its potent genetic information and biological secrets, was a great prize indeed. In a sudden assault, the remnants of the debased Emperor's Children, having grown vastly in power after firmly cementing their terrible pacts with Slaanesh, easily smashed their way through the defences of Maeleum and into the central chambers of the Sons of Horus' stronghold.They stole the body of the slain primarch from the heart of its tomb and spirited it away, some say with the purpose of cloning it in order to create a new and still greater Warmaster of Chaos.

1st Black Crusade - Rise of Abaddon: Their fortress in ruins and their Legion decimated, the Sons of Horus stood on the brink of vanishing forever from the galaxy and fading into cursed memory.The XVIth Legion devolved into in-fighting amongst themselves, giving in to dark despair or uncontrolled rage. The divisions between the Legion's captains turned into bitter bloodshed and murder, as order completely collapsed.The salvation of the Sons of Horus came when one of its greatest captains, Ezekyle Abaddon, returned from his Dark Pilgrimage in time to watch the battle from afar. It was in that moment that he saw, with cold clarity, that it was Horus' failure that had led the Legion here, to them tearing each other apart in the blood-soaked ruins of Maeleum.Finally, sickened by how far the Legion had fallen, he stalked through the ruins hunting down his fellow captains, cooling his rage with their final screams. In the end, Abaddon alone remained of the Legion's original leaders, demanding obedience from his brothers.Some saw Abaddon as Horus' rightful successor and fell at his feet willingly, while others recognised his raw strength and bowed their heads to his might. A few turned their back on Abaddon, and were either cut down by their brothers or managed to escape into the Warp.With his Legion brought to heel, Abaddon turned his attention to the clones of Horus; he commanded his warriors to extinguish all trace of their former primarch and free themselves from his shadow.He then personally led an attack on the Emperor's Children that destroyed the body of the Primarch Horus and all its clones, and in so doing, ushered in a new age for the XVIth Legion.The Traitors changed their name once more, this time in reference to the fact that their armour was now adorned black in mourning for lost Horus, calling themselves the Black Legion.Through his actions, Abaddon re-invigorated the Legion, reviving the old notion that none could stand in their way and that they would one day inherit the galaxy itself.

1st Black Crusade - Abaddon Returns: In 781.M31, five standard centuries after his retreat from Terra, Abaddon returned to Imperial space at the head of a host of Traitors and Daemons.It was the Imperium's first encounter with the newly founded Black Legion and the return of a brutal and bitter enemy many had thought lost to the graveyard of history.Since the Great Scouring, Abaddon had remained within the Eye of Terror, rebuilding the Black Legion as a vengeful reflection of its former glory.At last, the Black Legion and the other Traitors returned to realspace, the first chapter in their Long War against the Emperor ready to be written in the blood of Imperial worlds. Through alliance, threats and promises, Abaddon was able to muster the largest force of Traitor Legions seen since the Horus Heresy and took the Imperium by surprise.Worlds close to the Eye of Terror fell into mayhem and chaos as Legions descended from the sky and Daemons tore their way into reality. Only Cadia, with its formidable defences, stood firm, its brave regiments fighting from the towering gates and bastions of their cities.To counter the invasion, the Imperium was forced to divert many of the newly-formed Space Marine Chapters of the Second Founding from war zones across the Segmentum Obscurus.The Traitor Legions basked in their return from the Eye of Terror, bathing in the blood of innocent worlds and filling the holds of their voidships with new slaves. On a dozen planets, the Black Legion proved worthy of their fallen primarch and the martial prowess of the ancient Luna Wolves.Abaddon had chosen his generals well, and each competed for glory as the Legion tore a bloody gouge across the stars. Zagthean the Broken led his Black Legion warband in an orgy of violence and excess on the Agri-world of Valesia.For his own dark pleasure, the warlord constructed a vast maze of thorns from the world's blood-rose orchards, blinding his prisoners and loosing them within its twisting tunnels, before hunting them down at his leisure.Countless inhabitants spent their final terrifying hours listening desperately for the sounds of pursuit, their flesh bleeding from dozens of thorn cuts and their lungs filled with the sickly sweet scent of the blood-rose.Not to be outdone, Eralak and his company of Raptors brought a bloody nightmare to the floating hive cities of Melphia. Killing millions in their rampage, Eralak's warband sent dozen of cities falling from the sky as he tore out their complex suspensor arrays and vented their plasma reactors onto the farms and fields below.Fashioning giant floating gallows from the remaining, ruined cities, the warlord hung millions of Imperial citizens, their swaying corpses forever doomed to drift across the skies of Melphia, a terrible reminder of the power of the Black Legion.The Black Legion's greatest achievement was not only its brutal victories, but also the unity it had managed to forge among the Traitors and their daemonic allies.Even though the Traitor Marines, Daemons and Heretics turned on each other once Imperial resistance had been crushed, in the presence of the Black Legion, they gave grudging respect.This was the Legion of fear and domination Abaddon had wrought, and it was to be an ominous sign of things to come for the Imperium.

1st Black Crusade - The Tower of Silence: As the bloodshed of the 1st Black Crusade reached its frenzied heights, cities burned and worlds were stripped of people to feed the dark desires of the Traitor Legions. Leaving his Black Legion to continue their brutal reprisals and raids against Imperial worlds, Abaddon pursued his own plans.Using the howling souls unleashed into the Warp by so much death and destruction, he made a secret daemonic bargain. In payment for the feast of despair, pain and anguish Abaddon had created with his Black Crusade, the Dark Gods gifted him with knowledge of the secret location of the Tower of Silence on the world of Uralan.Cloaked in the shadow of the Eye of Terror, Uralan was whispered of in daemonic lore as a place where the gods themselves locked away their secrets. Following strands of fate unravelled by his cabal of Chaos Sorcerers, Abaddon had discovered a concealed path through the Warp and across the shifting sea of worlds beyond to reach Uralan without needing to breach the Cadian Gate.With a cadre of the Black Legion's elite warriors, each one a brutal veteran of a thousand battles, Abaddon set foot on Uralan and entered the Tower of Silence. Almost at once, the tower's guardians set upon them, ancient constructs of dark energy that shifted and flickered, their claws tearing at the ragged edges of his warriors' souls.After the bitter battle, Abaddon climbed down into the mirrored heart of Uralan. There, Abaddon wandered the massive haunted labyrinth for what seemed an age, fighting off the spirits of the dead that threatened to add him to their ranks.Eventually, Abaddon made his way towards the centre of the labyrinth where a shard of shifting darkness hung suspended in the air. Reaching out into the void, Abaddon felt the cold hilt of a blade meet his palm and he pulled it into reality; the Daemonsword Drach'nyen took terrible shape before his eyes.After the recovery of the malefic sword, the new Warmaster of Chaos became nigh unstoppable. Whole cities were burned in sacrifice to the ever-hungry Daemons of Chaos, and entire armies were torn apart by gibbering Warp entities.Abaddon's power swelled to inhuman proportions as the gods of Chaos rewarded him lavishly and he undertook acts of fiendish bravery which horrified those who stood against him.In what would become a festering thorn in the side of the Imperium, the Traitor Legions, often led by the Black Legion or even Abaddon himself, would repeatedly spill out of the Eye of Terror to burn and pillage entire sectors in the years following this first major incursion into realspace.In the light of dying stars and flaming cities, the Black Legion would indulge their hatred of the Imperium, indiscriminately killing the servants of the False Emperor and tearing down anything they saw as a symbol of the Corpse-God.During these so-called "Black Crusades", whole star systems would be destroyed in conflicts that would drag on for standard decades or centuries until, as suddenly as they had appeared, the Black Legion would retreat into the Eye of Terror, their holds filled with slaves and plunder.The Segmentum Obscurus suffered terribly in these endless wars against the fallen Space Marine Legions, but in truth nowhere was safe from their treacherous reach.This was something the Black Legion proved time and again as it cemented its infamous reputation among the armies of the Imperium as a pitiless foe.

1st Claw (Night Lords) - 1st Claw (Night Lords): The 1st Claw is an elite squad of Chaos Space Marines of the Night Lords Traitor Legion's 10th Company.The first known squad leader was then-Sergeant Vandred Anrathi, who led the 1st Claw during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. He is known to have commanded the 1st Claw right up to the final days of that great conflict during the Siege of Terra, where the 1st Claw took part in the forces of Chaos' siege of the Imperial Palace. During this time Talos Valcoran, the legendary "Soul Hunter," was still an Apothecary who served with the 1st Claw. His life was saved by Sergeant Anrathi during the siege.After the end of the Horus Heresy, and before the Night Lords had fled alongside their traitorous brethren into the Eye of Terror, their primarch Konrad Curze was assassinated by a Callidus Assassin on the world of Tsagualsa. At some point following the death of the Night Haunter, Anrathi was promoted to the rank of captain and elevated to command the entirety of the Night Lords' 10th Company. Talos Valcoran eventually rose to the position of the 1st Claw's de facto sergeant not long after, though he was never formally promoted above his original station of Apothecary.The actions of the 1st Claw during the last ten standard millennia are not recorded, though Warp-travel aboard the 10th Company's warship, the Covenant of Blood, led to the passage of only a subjective Terran century for Talos and the other members of the 1st Claw between the end of the Horus Heresy and the present day in the 41st Millennium.During this time the Night Lords' 10th Company had changed into a disorganised warband of Chaos Space Marines under the command of the Possessed Chaos Space Marine known as "The Exalted," who was in fact the Daemonically-possessed former Captain Vandred Anrathi.

1st Claw (Night Lords) - Notable First Claw Members: With the exception of Variel the Flayer, the members of 1st Claw were all born on the Night Lords' homeworld of Nostramo, and served during the Great Crusade, the Horus Heresy and the Great Scouring.Talos Valcoran - Talos Valcoran was once an Apothecary of the Night Lords Legion before assuming command of 1st Claw as its de facto sergeant. Noted for his prophetic gifts, he was given the title "Soul Hunter" by his primarch, Konrad Curze. Following the demise of The Exalted, Vandred Anrathi, Talos became the new leader of his former master's warband. Talos was slain on Tsagualsa by the Craftworld Aeldari Phoenix Lord known as the Void Stalker.Adhemar - Adhemar was the former sergeant of 7th Claw. He joined 1st Claw following the near-annihilation of his squad on Crythe by the Warhound Titan Hunter in the Grey. He was slain by the Blood Angel Dreadnought Raguel the Sufferer when the Covenant of Blood was boarded over Crythe.Malcharion - Malcharion, called the "War Sage," was captain of the Night Lords Legion's 10th Company during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. At some point after the Siege of Terra, Malcharion was interred within a Dreadnought. During the Great Crusade Malcharion was a member of the Kyroptera, commanding the 10th Talon. During the Horus Heresy he went on to slay Xorumai Khan, swordmaster-captain of the White Scars 9th Company, Lethandrus the Templar, paladin of the Imperial Fists Legion, and Raguel the Sufferer, captain of the Blood Angels 7th Company, in a single day at the Siege of Terra. However after this feat, the famed commander and wise strategist of the Night Lords was interred into Dreadnought Armour. The Dreadnought sarcophagus depicted Malcharion holding two astartes helms with his foot resting on a third representing the three Astartes champions he had killed, the Dreadnought's right arm was a Reaper-pattern double-barrelled autocannon and the left arm a power fist and flamer. Malcharion never wanted to be revived as a Dreadnought and initially refused every attempt to awaken him until the battle at Crythe. Like many in the Night Lords, Malcharion is fiercely loyal to the original vision of their primarch, Konrad Curze, and has a disdain for the Ruinous Powers, as well as those Chaos Space Marines who serve them, most notably Abaddon the Despoiler. He is also loyal to Talos Valcoran, whom he believes shares many qualities with their slain primarch. In the late 41st Millennium, the Dreadnought holding Malcharion's remains was awoken by Talos during his power struggle with The Exalted, who attempted to prevent the ancient captain and his hated rival from threatening his power over 1st Claw, as this represented the first time Malcharion had ever been awakened since being placed within the Dreadnought chassis. Malcharion went on to lead the assault on Crythe with the Black Legion against the forces of the Imperium, including the Blood Angels. Just as 1st Claw were to be deployed to the surface, Talos had another vision showing that the Blood Angels were not several solar weeks out as had been predicted but instead were going to arrive imminently. The Exalted refused to take action with this information but when Malcharion was informed he immediately started withdrawing the Night Lords. As Talos predicted, the Blood Angels emerged from the Warp and deployed boarding pods onto the Covenant of Blood. Malcharion responded to Talos' request for reinforcements and once again faced Raguel the Sufferer, now also interred within a Dreadnought chassis. Both Dreadnoughts were mortally wounded in the struggle, leaving Raquel dead at the hands of the Night Lords once more. Talos chose not to let the Dark Mechanicum Tech-priest Deltrian attempt to recover Malcharion so that the Dreadnought could finally have the eternal sleep he desired. However, Talos was countermanded by Malek who ordered Deltrian to repair and sustain the life of Malcharion, the sarcophagus was returned to the Hall of Remembrance but hidden from view to prevent Talos from discovering that Malcharion had survived. Talos would eventually find that Malcharion had survived when Deltrian transferred the sarcophagus onto the Echo of Damnation at which point he ordered Malcharion to be awakened. Initially it appeared that the damage Malcharion had suffered at Crythe was too severe. His mind seemed to have been shattered as attempts to awaken him only resulted in a constant screaming across the vox link of his Dreadnought chassis. Deltrian and Variel both believed Malcharion was ruined beyond recovery and suggested that he could be controlled through pain injectors and focused excruciators making him still a formidable foe on the battlefield. Talos would not allow this as a fate for a hero of the VIII Legion and instead intended to end the perceived torture by killing Malcharion. In the end, however, he couldn't go through with it and instead he chose to destroy the consoles connected to Malcharion to abort the awakening sequence. Although it appeared Talos had succeeded in killing Malcharion, instead the Dreadnought finally awakened correctly and fully functional. Malcharion descended into the catacombs on Tsagualsa to aid Talos and his warband in their final stand against an assault by Ulthwé Asuryani although he chose to fight alone as the constant fawning regard for his status from the other Claws irritated him. The Dreadnought took extensive damage from the Asuryani but managed to return to the surface to summon a gunship for the crew member Marlonah. This was his final action before he was at last granted the permanent sleep he had long craved.Vandred Anrathi, "The Exalted" - Anrathi was a former sergeant of the Night Lords Legion, commanding the 1st Claw up until the siege of the Imperial Palace during the Siege of Terra in which he saved then-Apothecary Talos Valcoran's life. By the time of the 41st Millennium, Anrathi had allowed himself to be possessed by a Daemon and he had mutated into a Chaos Champion and Possessed of the Chaos God Tzeentch. The Daemon's influence twisted Anrathi's physical form until he only resembled a shadow of his former self. Following Captain Malcharion's entombment within a Chaos Dreadnought, Vandred succeeded him as the captain of the Night Lords' 10th Company; under his leadership, the company degenerated into a Chaos Space Marine warband that survived by piracy. Anrathi thus disregarded the vision of the Night Lords' Primarch Night Haunter, which proved to be a major point of contention with Talos. Allying himself with Abaddon the Despoiler of the Black Legion during the Crythe campaign, The Exalted eventually grew tired of Abbadon's behaviour and his use of the 10th Company as fodder for the Despoiler's schemes. After escaping from Crythe, Vandred allied with the piratical Red Corsairs during their campaign on Vilamus, then betrayed them when he retook the former Night Lords strike cruiser Echo of Damnation from that Renegade warband. During the ensuing battle, Andrathi regained control of his body from the Tzeentchian Daemon and sacrificed himself and the crippled Covenent of Blood to enable Talos Valcoran to escape with the Echo of Damnation.Cyrion - Cyrion possessed a psychic gift which allowed him to taste and feed upon fear; Cyrion secretly preyed upon Legion serfs and other mortals to satiate this thirst, which marked him out as a growing devotee of Slaanesh. Talos Valcoran considered him valuable, but Cyrion was hated by the rest of 1st Claw for his extensive Chaos corruption. Cyrion gained an augmetic arm following the Crythe campaign. He was also slain by the Phoenix Lord Void Stalker on Tsagualsa.Mercutian - Mercutian was a former member of the 7th Claw. He had been recruited into the Night Lords Legion from an aristocratic family and spoke with an upper-class accent. He was known for his staunch loyalty toward his squadmates and for favouring a Heavy Bolter in combat, which made him the 1st Claw's Devastator. Mercutian was slain by the Phoenix Lord Void Stalker on Tsagualsa.Ruven - Ruven was a former member of 1st Claw and a Night Lords' sorcerer but at some unspecified point in the past, he had willingly left the Night Lords and joined the Black Legion. He became a willing servant of the Black Legion's commanding Chaos Lord, Abaddon the Despoiler. However, Ruven was eventually cast out by his patron after failing Abaddon one too many times. He was later captured by Huron Blackheart, the lord of the Red Corsairs, though he eventually escaped and rejoined 1st Claw for a short period of time, before being slain by Talos Valcoran. After his death, Ruven sometimes appeared in Talos Valcoran's precognitive visions.Uzas - Uzas was a Khornate Berserker and the former sergeant of 4th Claw of the Night Lords' 10th Company. He was despised by his comrades in 1st Claw for his mindless slaughter of mortal crewmembers and undisciplined nature in combat. When Uzas confronted Cyrion on Tsagualsa about the latter's own penchant for preying upon mortal crewmembers of the Echo of Damnation, Cyrion attacked him and tricked Talos Valcoran into killing the blood-maddened Uzas.Variel the Flayer - Variel the Flayer was a former Red Corsairs Apothecary and had been the favoured apprentice of the Corpsemaster Garreon before abandoning his brethren to join the Night Lords. Variel was dubbed "the Flayer" due to his habit of skinning his victims' faces and wearing them upon his shoulder pauldrons. Variel was the sole survivor of 1st Claw following the events on Tsagualsa and the battle with the Phoenix Lord Void Stalker.Xarl - Xarl was a Tactical Marine and battle-brother of the Night Lords Legion. Xarl grew up with Talos Valcoran in the hive city of Nostramo Quintus on Nostramo. His skill with his double-handed chainsword made Xarl the deadliest warrior in the 10th Company, giving Talos and 1st Claw much of its clout within the warband. Unlike the rest of 1st Claw, which perished upon Tsagualsa's surface, Xarl died of wounds he had sustained following a victorious duel with a Champion of the Genesis Chapter on the Echo of Damnation.Sar Zell - Zell was the 1st Claw's Devastator Marine before Mercutian, and he preferred to wield a Lascannon in combat. He also served as the 1st Claw's pilot at the time of Tsagualsa's fall, when he was killed by the Ultramarines. Zell wielded a chainaxe when in melee combat, which came into Uzas' possession after Zell's death.

1st Claw (Night Lords) - Notable Servants of 1st Claw: 1st Claw maintained the ancient practice of the original Space Marine Legions of employing dedicated serfs to provide noncombat support for its Astartes, though these individuals would be more accurately described as slaves after the Legion fell to the service of Chaos.These serfs served Talos directly as the leader of the warband rather than the 1st Claw as a whole. The serfs were referred to by High Gothic nomenclature indicating numerical primacy of place rather than their given names. The following is a list of the known serfs of 1st Claw:Primus- Died in an unspecified battle in which Talos Valcoran was absent, allegedly in a boarding action on the Night Lords' warship Convent of Blood.Secundus – Slain by the former Night Lord Ruven.Tertius - Suffered from Warp corruption and was put down by Talos Valcoran as a result.Quintus – Slain by The Exalted during one of the latter's rages. He was a mute who communicated with Talos Valcoran via hand signals and/or text uplink from an auspex to Talos' helmet.Septimus - Born as Coreth on Lok III and served as a pilot on that world before his capture by Talos Valcoran. He served Talos for several standard years as his Artificer and Thunderhawk pilot. Septimus enjoyed a privileged position amongst the serfs that served The Exalted's warband and many freedoms as a result of his valuable services, though Talos nearly killed him upon learning that Septimus had impregnated Octavia (and thus compromised their Navigator's abilities). Septimus was finally released from Talos' service on Tsagualsa.Octavia - Octavia was originally known as Eurydice Mervallion, a Navigator who was captured following the destruction of her former master's ship over the ruins of Nostramo. She eventually entered into a relationship with her fellow serf Septimus and became pregnant with his child. Talos Valcoran released her from his service before he was killed on Tsagualsa by the Phoenix Lord Void Stalker.Nonus - Nonus had originally been known as Maruc. Nonus was taken prisoner by Talos during a raid on Ganges Station and trained by Septimus as an Artificer. He was later slain by a Warp-corrupted Red Corsair aboard the Echo of Damnation.

1st Claw (Night Lords) - 1st Claw Fleet: Covenant of Blood (Strike Cruiser) - The Covenant of Blood served as The Exalted's strike cruiser and the flagship of the Night Lords' 10th Company, and was active during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. The Covenant was destroyed in battle against the Red Corsairs in the 41st Millennium, though it took approximately half-a-dozen Red Corsairs vessels with it.Echo of Damnation (Strike Cruiser) - The 1st Claw possesses a single strike cruiser, the Echo of Damnation, that was liberated from the piratical band of Chaos Space Marines known as the Red Corsairs.

21st Founding - 21st Founding: The 21st Founding, known also as the "Cursed" Founding, was a Space Marine Founding that took place in 991.M35, on the cusp of the 36th Millennium, shortly before the start of the Age of Apostasy.The focus of the 21st Founding for the Adeptus Mechanicus was perfecting and removing the existing, identified deficiencies in flawed Adeptus Astartes gene-seed, and ultimately the production of new and improved primarch-like Space Marines as part of what was called "Project Homo Sapiens Novus."Unfortunately, the Adeptus Mechanicus' Genetors proved far less skilled in the genetic sciences than the Emperor of Mankind and the researchers of His Biotechnical Division, and their efforts resulted in the development of seriously flawed gene-seed that was used to craft the organ implants for the new Chapters.Matters pertaining to the exact nature of the 21st Founding have long since become shrouded in myth. The various dark ends that have befallen many of this Founding's Chapters have entered it into the lore of the Inquisition and the Space Marines alike as the so-called "Cursed Founding," and with good reason. Many now consider those Chapters created under its auspices as tainted from their very birth.Although some Chapters of this Founding were spared a devolution into something no longer Human, its mark is still upon them in the eyes of their fellow Space Marines, many of whom grew to shun these Chapters, regardless of their undoubted loyalty to the Imperium and noble defence of its people.Worse still, some Chapters of this Founding have developed unexpected genetic idiosyncrasies, mutations that strain the tolerance of the Inquisition and threaten the Chapter's survival.As a result, the Chapters of this Founding have gradually dwindled in size as their inability to raise and induct new recruits means that their battle casualties cannot be replaced. The most seriously afflicted Chapters exhibited spontaneous and extreme physical corruption, turning them into mutants, often with some connection to the Ruinous Powers.Most of the Space Marine Chapters founded during this time eventually turned Traitor and swore themselves to Chaos or met a gruesome end at the hands of other Space Marine Chapters and the Ordo Hereticus.

21st Founding - Discovery of Inculaba: In 998.M41, Explorator Magos Marco Pteronus led an archeological expedition to the Dead World of Inculaba, discovering a long-lost Adeptus Mechanicus geno-lab.During excavation of the site it was discovered that buried deep within the rock of this barren world were secrets that had lain undiscovered for 5,000 Terran years, secrets regarding a Founding of the Space Marines sometimes referred to as the Cursed Founding.The 21st Founding was the largest Founding of Space Marine Chapters since the Second Founding following the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium. It had taken place in the 36th Millennium shortly before the start of the Age of Apostasy.Upon further explorations of the site, it was discovered that the geno-lab was indeed the site of the secret project known as "Homo Sapiens Novus," where Mechanicus Genetors attempted to perfect and remove the existing, identified deficiencies in flawed Astartes gene-seed, and ultimately begin the production of new and improved primarch-like Space Marines.In many ways this was a similar attempt to the more successful effort to create the Primaris Space Marines which had begun after the end of the Heresy on the orders of Roboute Guilliman.But the project was doomed to failure as the Genetors proved far less skilled in the genetic sciences than the Emperor of Mankind or Belisarius Cawl, and their efforts resulted in the development of seriously flawed gene-seed that was used to craft the organ implants for the new Chapters.A secret vid-log kept by the former project manager revealed the full extent of their failure. The most seriously afflicted Chapters exhibited spontaneous and extreme physical corruption, turning them into a race no longer Human or sane.Most of the Space Marine Chapters founded during this time eventually turned Traitor and swore themselves to Chaos or met a gruesome end at the hands of other Space Marine Chapters and the Inquisition's Ordo Hereticus.Others developed genetic idiosyncrasies, mutations that strained the tolerance of the Inquisition and threatened the Chapter's survival. The Founding itself ended when one of its projects, already corrupted by Chaos, sent a signal through the Warp and alerted the vile Traitor Fabius Bile to its existence. Bile was the former Chief Apothecary of the Emperor's Children Traitor Legion who served Chaos Undivided by seeking out new recruits for the Traitor Legions.The Explorator team further discovered that there was a hidden laboratorium that contained three large incubation tanks with an enormous Human male floating in amniotic fluid within each one. The physiology of these giants were similar to Space Marines, but the subjects were far larger than normal Astartes.Two of these tubes were obviously damaged, the fluid within cloudy and stagnant, but the third still appeared to be functioning. Autopsies were performed on two of the bodies while the revivification process was begun on the third. An agent of the Inquisition that had been inserted within the Adeptus Mechanicus some years before reported the disturbing news of the discovery from the archaeological site on Inculaba.A Grey Knights team was dispatched to prevent the sacred technology of this site from falling into the wrong hands. But by the time they arrived, they found no trace of the Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator team and no sign of their vessel. The site was as bereft of life as a world stripped by the Tyranids. There were no bodies discovered and no evidence of any attackers.Astropaths detected a residual Warp trail, but were unable to discern its direction. The site was then bombed from orbit with Cyclonic Torpedoes and all record of it was expunged from the Imperial bureaucracy. The Inquisition fears that what was on this world is now gone, taken by the agents of Chaos like Fabius Bile, and that they will eventually rue the day that this cursed place was discovered anew.

21st Founding - Select Chapters of the 21st Founding: Black Dragons - The Black Dragons' Ossmodula causes excessive bony protuberances and growths to appear on the forearms and head. The Black Dragons were censured by the Inquisition due to the mutation of the Chapter's gene-seed, especially the Ossmodula, which causes certain Astartes of the Chapter to develop blade-like outgrowths of bone on the head and forearms and to grow long, poisonous fangs. The Black Dragons' obvious physical mutations make long-term cooperation with other (less tolerant) Imperial Adepta impossible. The Black Dragons are a Chapter who push the Inquisition to the limits of its tolerance.Blood Gorgons - Multiple Chaos mutations, aversion to authority and highly independent. The Imperium declared the Blood Gorgons Renegade and Excommunicate Traitoris a mere six solar decades after their founding. The Blood Gorgons, who value their freedom and independence above all else, refuse to swear allegiance to any patron Chaos God, preferring to serve Chaos in general in the form of Chaos Undivided.Fire Hawks - The Fire Hawks Chapter has often been held in higher regard among the High Lords of Terra and their agents than by many of their other wartime allies, particularly amongst other Astartes. This was because several other Space Marine Chapters considered the Fire Hawks darkly tainted, overly prideful and wanting in brotherhood. Some went so far as to suggest that the Fire Hawks had been corrupted by some flaw in the Chapter's collective psyche or gene-seed, though none would gainsay their effectiveness in battle. Eventually the Fire Hawks became lost in the Warp and contracted an unknown Warp contagion. As many as two hundred members of the Chapter may have survived and renamed themselves the Legion of the Damned.Flame Falcons - Declared Excommunicate Traitoris within a century of their inception. Almost entirely wiped out by the Inquisition's Grey Knights after they assaulted the Flame Falcons' homeworld of Lethe, following a great victory when their bodies spontaneously burst into flames that did not burn their own flesh. Though a small number of Flame Falcons escaped that day, nothing of their fate is known.Lamenters - The Lamenters seem to have been cursed by a dark shadow of ill-fortune that has long determined their fate. The Lamenters' gene-seed may have been tampered with during their creation process by the Adeptus Mechanicus in an effort to rid them of the genetic flaws found within the Blood Angels' gene-seed. The Lamenters sided with the Secessionist forces during the Badab War, were defeated, and subsequently required to undertake a 100-year-long Penitent Crusade. They were almost annihilated and absorbed by Hive Fleet Kraken. The Lamenters seemed to suffer from a constant string of ill fortune.Minotaurs - Entirely consumed by a xenophobic hatred that far surpasses the righteous fury of a normal Space Marine. The Minotaurs are also prone to berserk fury and ferocious assaults. Strongly Assault Squad-oriented Chapter. It is not known whether the Minotaurs' barely-controlled battle fury and desire to shun those they should call comrades is a result of some particular curse in their blood, but whether or not their affliction has mastered them or they have finally mastered it remains unknown. The Minotaurs have been known to show pleasure in testing their skills against worthy foes. Some speculate that perhaps the Minotaurs consider their fellow Astartes as particularly worthy, since they have a predilection for following the commands of the High Lords of Terra to castigate or annihilate a Renegade Chapter without fail or protest.Sons of Antaeus - During the inception of the Sons of Antaeus Chapter, its creators extensively modified the gene-seed in order to create Space Marines of exceptional durability, hardiness, size and strength. Whether their skeletal structure was enhanced with an artificial substance, or other more esoteric procedures were used to enhance their gene-seed is unknown. Less sympathetic observers point out that the Chapter appears every bit as resilient as the Death Guard Traitor Legion.

22nd Thetoid Gryphonnes - 22nd Thetoid Gryphonnes: 22nd Thetoid GryphonnesTempestus ScionsMilitarum TempestusTallixThey have garnered a well-earned reputation for their lightning-swift assaults on the battlefield.

22nd Thetoid Gryphonnes - Regimental History: Though all Militarum Tempestus warriors excel at fast strikes upon the battlefield, the 22nd Thetoid Gryphonnes are especially swift. Their Scions were all orphaned from Tallix, a world of higher gravity than is typical for the Rebandus Sub-sector.As a result their leg muscles are more powerful and they are able to race on foot across all terrain with an impressive pace no matter how much equipment they carry.In the spirit of this, even the gravitational systems on their Taurox Primes have been altered so their vehicles sacrifice a degree of stability and durability for greater speed.

22nd Thetoid Gryphonnes - Notable Campaigns: Strike on Walbek II (Unknown Date.M41) - This Scions regiment's reputation for swiftness was epecially notable when the 22nd Thetoid Gryphonnes made a blistering strike against a Kult of Speed that besieged the Desert World of Walbek II. The greenskins' buggies and bikes had been tearing across the plains, slaughtering the local PDF troops before they could muster a proper defence. The Gryphonnes set off in pursuit of Warboss Spanik, the driving force behind the brutal Ork assaults. Their Taurox Primes outran the Ork bikes until eventually they caught up with Spanik's Battlewagon. Precision strikes disabled the vehicle's engines, and Tempestor Prime Thetius leapt through clouds of sand onto the Warboss' transport. Thetius executed the Warboss with rapid blasts of his hotshot weapon, thus putting an end to the Kult of Speed's ambitions on Walbek II. While the Orks closing in on the crippled Battlewagon howled their rage, the 22nd Thetoid Gryphonnes remounted their transports and outpaced the approaching greenskins' bikes as they made their escape.

22nd Thetoid Gryphonnes - Regimental Colours: The Tempestus Scions of the 22nd Thetoid Gryphonnes primarily wear black fatigues with black and red Carapace Armour, knee guards, Slate Monitron, and Omnishield Helm.

22nd Thetoid Gryphonnes - Regimental Badge: The Gryphonnes' wing is the regimental symbol of the 22nd Thetoid Gryphonnes, and is intended to represent the speed with which they strike at their foes.Sharp-edged and striking, this symbol stands out proud against the smoke and filth of even the most horrific battlefields.

22nd Thetoid Gryphonnes - Sources: Codex: Militarum Tempestus (6th Edition), pg. 22

23rd Founding - 23rd Founding: The 23rd Founding of Space Marine Chapters, also known as the "Sentinel Founding," occurred during the latter part of the 37th and early 38th Millennia. Imperial scholars believe that the 23rd Founding was one of a series of linked Foundings that took place during this tumultuous period in Imperial history and that they were intended to repair the power and reach of the Adeptus Astartes that had suffered considerable losses in the preceding millennia.According to the Requiem Malesent of Saint Kybra, no fewer than 57 Space Marine Chapters had been destroyed, turned Renegade or declared lost in the Warp during this troubled period. The era had been marked by such calamities as the Age of Apostasy, the disastrous 21st "Cursed" Founding, the attacks of the Forces of Chaos and a rampage of Orks almost unchecked along the Imperium of Man's frontiers.Several of the Space Marine Chapters Founded at this time were conceived as Chapters that would pursue perpetual Crusades against the Emperor's foes. They were created from the most stable gene-seed stocks available to the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Marines Errant is one such Chapter created during this time. Further details of this Chapter's origins can be found in the Mythos Angelica Mortis, the great work concerning the Space Marines of this age, which lists five such new-Founded Crusade Chapters and their blood-progenitors.The Marines Errant are recorded as having the Eagle Warriors Chapter as their immediate forebears. The Eagle Warriors' gene-seed was drawn from the Ultramarines' lineage, although why the Eagle Warriors in particular were singled out for the honour of a "named" Founding being drawn from their ranks remains lost to posterity.The Star Phantoms were also created during this Founding to aid the Imperium's defences in numerous ill-starred and vulnerable areas of the galaxy. Their exact origins and progenitor Chapter remained mysterious even during their creation, as did the backgrounds of many of the Chapters of this Founding.Some Imperial sources have since hinted that the Star Phantoms were Founded utilising Dark Angels gene-seed, although this has been vehemently denied by the Dark Angels themselves, and the Star Phantoms consider such queries, even via official channels, as inherently presumptuous and cause for offence. Likely this speculation is simply based on some observed similarity in livery, iconography and trappings between the two Chapters, which has given birth to an assumption about the Star Phantoms' origins by certain scholars of the Adeptus Terra and Departmento Strategos.Another Chapter created during this time was the Imperial Harbingers, but like their fellow Astartes of this Founding their exact progenitor Chapter remains unknown.The Steel Cobras were a formerly Loyalist Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes that was created during the 23rd Founding. Unfortunately, their blasphemous worship of the Emperor of Mankind as an animal totem prompted a puritanical Crusade against them by the Ecclesiarchy, led by a particularly bombastic cardinal. Faced with such an assault by the Imperium, the Steel Cobras turned to the service of Chaos to gain the power needed to defend themselves.The full details of the Sentinel Founding are occluded from even deep-bore Imperial chronicling, but it is suspected by the few scholars with even transitory access to Imperial archives that the Celestial Lions were also born of this particular gene-line expansion in the 38th Millennium.

23rd Founding - Select 23rd Founding Chapters: ChapterSuccessors ofPrimarchHomeworldNotesImperial HarbingersUnknownUnknownBirminghamThe Imperial Harbingers were created to help replace the considerable losses suffered by the Adeptus Astartes in the preceding millennia. The Imperial Harbingers hail from the Feral World of Birmingham, "the Black Planet," so named because it receives very little visible light.Marines ErrantEagle WarriorsRoboute GuillimanVilamus (gene-seed repository)The Marines Errant were created to repair the gap left in Imperial military forces by the loss of other Chapters. The Chapter was well-named, for over the millennia since their Founding, the Chapter's battle-brothers have been active throughout the entirety of the Imperium and often far beyond its borders. The Chapter has shown a tremendous resilience and flexibility that have allowed it to participate in a broad range of Imperial Crusades even while its Battle-Brothers fervently venerate the dictates of the Codex Astartes.Star PhantomsDark Angels (Suspected; Unconfirmed)Lion El'Jonson (Suspected; Unconfirmed)JahgaCreated to replace heavy losses sustained by the Adeptus Astates, the Star Phantoms were one of several Chapters whose mission was to take and hold various xenos-contested regions on the very borders of the Emperor's domains.Steel CobrasUnknownUnknownTukaroe VIIThe Steel Cobras were a formerly Loyalist Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes whose blasphemous worship of the Emperor of Mankind as an animal totem prompted a puritanical Imperial Crusade against them by the Ecclesiarchy, led by a particularly bombastic Cardinal. Faced with such an assault by the Imperium, the Steel Cobras turned to the service of Chaos to gain the power needed to defend themselves.

25th Founding - 25th Founding: The 25th Founding of Space Marine Chapters, also known as the "Bastion Founding," occurred during the latter half of the 40th Millennium.There are only three Chapters that are known to have been founded at this time -- the Emperor's Spears, the Fire Angels and the ill-fated Star Scorpions.

25th Founding - Select 25th Founding Chapters: Emperor's Spears - The Emperor's Spears is a Loyalist successor Space Marine Chapter of the Ultramarines. The Chapter was created during the Bastion Founding and based on the world of Nemeton. It was one of three Chapters that once made up the Adeptus Vaelarii, better known as the Sentinels of the Veil, who once stood watch over the backwater region of the galaxy called Elara's Veil.Fire Angels - The Fire Angels are a recently founded Chapter, though not the first body to bear that title and Chapter panoply. They hail from the world of [Lorin Alpha]] and while they share the genetic heritage of the Ultramarines, the Fire Angels have no special links to the wider body of Ultramarines successors.Star Scorpions - The Star Scorpions of the world of Khamun-Sen had the dual misfortune of producing highly mutated gene-seed and being utterly devastated by Daemonic entities when the Chapter's fleet became trapped in the Warp. They are now considered extinct, a lost Chapter of Astartes.

26th Founding - 26th Founding: The 26th Founding of Space Marine Chapters occurred in 738.M41. There is only one known Chapter that was Founded at this time -- the Mentors.Little is known about the Mentors in Imperial records, though the Mentors are known to be a reclusive and suspicious Chapter of Astartes who no longer trust other Space Marine Chapters or the Imperial government, preferring to work alone and unobserved by all save the foes of Mankind and the Emperor Himself.They are the second Chapter of Astartes to be designated number 888 (the first being the now-lost Star Scorpions). This came about because the Star Scorpions, a Chapter created during the 25th Founding, suffered from both a high rate of mutation within its gene-seed and had the terrible misfortune of becoming lost in the Warp after coming under attack from powerful daemonic entities.While stocks of the Star Scorpions' gene-seed survived the loss of the Chapter, the high rate of mutation found within it made it useless when the Adeptus Mechanicus moved to try to reconstitute the Chapter and eventually the Magos Biologis and chem-architects were forced to concede defeat. For a time it seemed that the Chapter numbered 888 would never be raised again, but some years later, with a new Founding in the offing, the Mechanicus was persuaded to revisit the Chapter regalia.Thus, during the 26th Founding, the Mentors Chapter was born. They received the colours and number of the extinct Chapter but instead of the redundant gene-seed, they were given an entirely new generation of genetic material collected from the storage banks of Terra's gene-laboratories.

26th Founding - Select 26th Founding Chapters: ChapterSuccessors ofPrimarchHomeworldNotesMentorsUnknownUnknownClassifiedOften referred to as the Mentor Legion in Imperial records, the Mentors are a 26th Founding Chapter created in 738.M41 and are the second Chapter of Astartes to be designated number 888 (the first being the now-lost Star Scorpions).

29th Zetic Tygers - 29th Zetic Tygers: The 29th Zetic Typers are an elite Tempestus Scions regiment of the Ordo Tempestus that are known for their decapitation strikes and shock assault tactics.

29th Zetic Tygers - Regimental History: The 29th Zetic Tygers have proven their iron resolve on numerous occasions, but never more so than on the space station of Valiant Mountain above Phellur III. After the Death Korps of Krieg interrupted a strange ritual aboard Valiant Mountain, a Warp rift opened at the centre of the superstructure, emptying thousands of Tzeentch 's minions into the star system. The Death Korps had proven too few to cope with the onslaught, and the 29th Zetic Tygers were despatched to make a sequence of strikes around the space station. By the time the Scions arrived, the Astra Militarum force had been all but destroyed.Hordes of Daemons brought terror to the space station's hab-blocks and panic-filled corridors. The Scions drove their Taurox Primes along the outside of the structure, gunning down Pink Horrors and Flamers as they emerged from batches to face them. The Tygers' commanding officers had located a Lord of Change shimmering within the bowels of the space station, and the culmination of the battle on Valiant Mountain came when the Scions pierced the daemonic tide and confronted the Greater Daemon . It weaved a barrage of mutating magic and confusing visions to prevent the Scions from destroying it, but their iron will and exceptional tactics saw them purge the creature, closing the Warp rift.