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Ashen Claws - Chapter Fleet: When the Ashen Claws were despatched on-Crusade in 002.M31 they possessed an original complement of thirteen capital voidcraft and a score of smaller starships, most of their exact classes unknown.Wicked Claw (Infernus-class Battleship) - The Wicked Claw is an ancient Great Crusade-era capital ship that served as the primary command vessel of the Raven Guard's 18th Chapter, and later the exiled Ashen Claws. It is a monster of a vessel and a weapon of terrible destructive presence, easily outclassing many warships utilised by the Imperial Navy in the 41st Millennium. The Infernus-class Battleship had been been out of commission since the days of the Heresy, one of a number of vessels considered too powerful to be left in the hands of any single commander after the betrayals of the Heresy. The Ashen Claws had clearly preserved theirs since their exile over ten millennia earlier. This massive vessel is covered with weapons towers, crenellations and Macrocannon-studded flanks, the arching crest of its bridge block and, most fearsome of all, the vast, spinal-mounted exo-laser battery that runs down its length. |
Ashen Claws - Chapter Colours: The Ashen Claws Chapter was observed to wear battle-plate of dark grey, almost black, with the power pack, both pauldrons and vambraces a dull red. Their helms were also daubed in this colour. Many of the Chapter's Legionaries were observed wearing baroque variations of older patterns of Power Armour once common during the Great Crusade. Many of the segmented plates also had symbols inscribed on them, not in a regimented pattern that would indicate marks of rank or status, but almost at random and in the form of primitive tribal runes or gang symbols like those once worn by the Sons of Horus. Many also bore the raptor and lightning bolt symbol of the Emperor, an honour usually reserved only for those Terran recruits of the Great Crusade who fought by His side on the battlefields of Ancient Terra and other worlds of the Sol System, and often considered a sign of Loyalist allegiance. Trophies from fallen enemies, in the form of fragments of weapons, and skulls and claws of xenos beasts adorned the warriors, many in forms never witnessed before, and small charms on carved green stone, similar perhaps to Terran jade. |
Ashen Claws - Chapter Badge: The Ashen Claws icon is a strange sigil that would normally boast the symbol of one of the ancient Space Marine Legions. Instead, it is a circle ringed by jagged claws, ash-white on a field of red that matches the colour of dried blood, an ominous and sinister emblem. Its exact meaning is unclear. |
Ashen Claws - Sources: The Horus Heresy - Book Three: Extermination (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 150-151The Horus Heresy - Book Six: Retribution (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 132-147Carcharodons: Outer Dark (Novel) by Robbie Macniven, Ch. 3 |
Askellon Sector - Askellon Sector: The Askellon Sector is a region of Imperial star systems located in the benighted depths of space in the Segmentum Obscurus, between the infernal Eye of Terror and the cold, xenos-haunted Halo Stars. Situated towards the end of a ragged stellar cluster that includes the Calixis, Ixaniad, and Scarus Sectors of the Imperium of Man, it is long past its glorious apex and few but the mad, the desperate, or the outcast dare travel there.The reasons for this isolation are many, and made all the worse by a curse that has its origins in a time before even the Emperor of Mankind rose to power and reunited the scattered remnants of Humanity. As the 41st Millennium draws to a close, Askellon exists as a guttering flame burning alone in the darkness of the void. Once, it was mighty. Its worlds were prosperous and its armies strong, its fleets were far-ranging and ever victorious. From the ranks of its ruling classes rose all manner of heroes, from saints to scholars, mighty lords all. Yet, these great men and women invariably fell too early, or at the moment of their triumph veered away from the path of the righteous. Some fell to madness, others to hubris, sometimes damning entire worlds to share their sins in the process. Others were lost to ignominy and failure, their names struck from the annals of the Imperium's great histories for all time.As if to compound its woes, the sector is afflicted with a seemingly unending Warp storm -- known as the Pandaemonium -- that waxes and wanes across the millennia, but is growing ever more intense and dangerous with each passing generation. Such discharges from the Immaterium touch every region of the galaxy, but most abate in time, and Askellon itself has seen its share of minor Warp storms throughout its history. The Pandaemonium's multifaceted eruptions, however, seem to exist independently of other storms, more akin to a living creature seeking to devour the entire sector. Already, several of the major Navigator clans have withdrawn their holdings from the region, allowing lesser houses to grow in dominance. Many Chartist Captains plying the lonely Warp routes in this area of the galaxy prefer to avoid Askellon when possible, and some have marked the area as anathema or refuse to even admit its existence in times when the Pandaemonium waxes in virulent intensity.Yet, Askellon has stood since before the Age of the Imperium, and its foundations are sunk far deeper than even its most senior rulers are aware. The oldest worlds in the sector are steeped in power, their cities and infrastructure built layer upon layer over generations beyond counting. The ruling classes have held sway since long before the rise of the Adeptus Terra or even the ascension of the Emperor to the Golden Throne, and they wear their authority like a mantle of invulnerability.From gilded throne rooms atop towering spires, the nobles of Askellon look down upon their realms, certain in the knowledge that they have stood for so long that nothing can possibly cast them down. They nibble upon delicate morsels while pronouncing declarations that needlessly crush millions of lives with futile wars or vainglorious constructions. The situation grows ever more desperate as the raw stuff of the Warp itself boils the void away. While the masses yet adore the Emperor, the preachers grow ever more strident in their declarations that He has abandoned Askellon, turning His beatific face away from them, so unbearable are they to look upon.There are many who would agree with this assessment. The astropathic choir-masters of the sector's lynchpin worlds report that the screaming insanity of the rising Pandaemonium often drowns out the mind-songs from other sectors. Navigator clans are dismayed that the light of the Astronomican gutters as the foul storm dilates. Many Rogue Traders still journey through the sector to pillage the untamed reaches surrounding it, or explore the still-hidden mysteries within its own borders, but even the bravest shudder when facing even a tendril of the baleful energies.Ancient legends, long suppressed and burned, hint of terrible events that awakened the Infernal Storm and its role in the damnation of Askellon, but none dare even contemplate such unbearable myths as truth. Perhaps the preachers are correct and the Emperor has abandoned Askellon to its ruinous destiny after all, unless heroes once again come forth to stay this most terrible of fates. |
Askellon Sector - History: Like the origins of the Imperium itself, historical truths surrounding the beginnings of the Askellon Sector have long since devolved over the millennia into myths and legends. Even these tales have become splintered, with many worlds and denominations holding their own unique beliefs. Most of the legends, though, hold certain areas in common, to an extent that most across the sector believe them as uncontested truths.These cherished beliefs on the origins of Askellon help bind the sector together in its continual and unstinting service to the Emperor. Taught on almost every world herein, they show a history older than the Imperium, that only became more grand once it united with the Emperor's divine purpose. It is one of uninterrupted loyalty, faithfulness, and devotion to the Emperor and His subjects, and none would dare whisper otherwise. |
Askellon Sector - The Founding: Though the founding of the sector is shrouded with the ashes of history, most of the endlessly copied records indicate it occurred during the ages before the Imperium rose, when Humanity seeded itself across the stars in the Age of Technology. The epic saga, the Lay of Askellios, contains this commonly held recital, though many hold it to be allegory and not a factual accounting. Its most famous copy, a gilded tome many metres tall enshrined in a massive stasis chamber on Juno, relates of a huge fleet arriving after a long, perilous journey to a region of space unmarred by Warp storms. Finding the area peaceful and unsullied, they decided to build a grand civilisation and await other starships to eventually arrive. Stable Warp routes connected a handful of worlds, and the fleet split to settle them.For reasons that many of the tales refuse to codify, one ship refused this scheme and the others turned on it, refusing to allow it to hinder this grand vision. Myths state it was filled with sinners and Heretics, and though heavily damaged it managed to get away, never seen again. The settled worlds grew and prospered, though, mastering the space around them into a stable union that managed to weather the terrible Age of Strife. For generations it remained isolated, until the blessed day when the one of the nascent Imperium's expeditionary fleets arrived as part of the Great Crusade.Imperial Compliance brought the region, now named Askellon, into the Imperium. Some of the legends of this time consist of nothing but tales of the grand ceremonies that many believe lasted several standard years and included the unnamed Space Marine Legions accompanying the Imperial fleet. They also relate tales of scattered worlds attempting to resist the Emperor's will, but that they were swiftly crushed. Of them, no more is spoken and none know of their names, though several still-charred planets present in the sector perhaps give some evidence of their fate. No world living now would ever admit to such unthinkable betrayal in its past, and all are content knowing that none from those planets still live. |
Askellon Sector - Rise of the Pandaemonium: The time of peace was brief, as soon civil war on a scale undreamt of erupted. Many tales speak of how the sector's people fought valiantly during the dark times when the Imperiumwas nearly split asunder during the Horus Heresy. Though much of the region faced horrific damage and many of its main worlds were reduced to ruin, Askellon, like the Imperium, survived. Almost unnoticed amongst these early days of unification and rebellion were the first recordings of terrible Warp storms raging across the once-peaceful region.Twisted legends began that the storms were growing in appetite, and only abated after they had devoured sufficient starships or worlds to sate themselves temporarily. It was not until millennia later that Argo Kappellax, then archmagos of Cerix-Magnus, established they were not legion but instead a singular storm, rising and falling, though no aerythmatical formulae could fully predict its actions. The name the Navis Nobilite's Houses of Askellon cursed it with ages ago, "the Pandaemonium," soon became commonplace amongst those who ply the Warp routes across the sector and beyond.The Infernal Storm continues to ravage the sector to this day, with periods of relative calm only to be followed with times so tumultuous that interstellar travel and communication become nigh impossible. With each generation it appears to grow stronger, though most assume this is more a reflection of Askellon's earlier, more golden ages than any true measurements. Some scholars believe that the Pandaemonium is once again growing in fury, this time to such a level that reality itself might not withstand the storm surge. |
Askellon Sector - Vaxi Atrocity: Though it looms large in the ebb and low of cause and effect that has shaped -- and continues to shape -- the Askellon Sector, very few are aware of the truth of the Vaxi Atrocity, either within or without the region. Despite its portentous title, the Atrocity was committed not by any lord, or servant of a lord, of Askellon, but by the members of the Inquisition's Ordo Hereticus.The Vaxi Atrocity had as its roots an attempt by a number of Inquisitors, aligned to the veteran Witch Hunter Inquisitor Lord Spiron Hark, to investigate, and if needs be, purge, the Askellian nobility to get at the hidden secrets of the sector. Many had studied the remains of Dyrulli's researches, and even used his name and death as a rallying cry. Lord Hark was a notorious bombast and a Puritan through and through, and as such had garnered more than his fair share of rivals and enemies within the ranks of the Inquisition over the many solar decades of his service. These opposed his plans, apparently simply to frustrate Hark's rise in power and influence rather than because they objected to the course of action itself.Lord Hark called a conclave at Gnshal Oblitia, a world on the very edge of the sector. Towering in his black and gold power armour and crimson cloak, and reciting baleful stanzas from his Book of Ashes, he demanded action. A bitter exchange erupted in the hallowed vaults of the Oblitia Cathedra, soon followed by recriminations and accusations so severe they could not be withdrawn without substantial loss of face.Centuries of accumulated ill-will, anger, and virulent mistrust amongst the Inquisitors operating in the Askellon Sector seemed to quickly boil over to impossible levels. Hark finally gathered his household and his allied peers to leave the conclave for the inner Askellian worlds. Gesturing emphatically with his signature two-handed Power Sword, he declared to the assembled Inquisitors that he would have the truth, one way or the other, and with or without the blessings of those opposed to his direction.Inquisitor Hark's opponents, despite appearances, were not opposed to him merely because he was a Puritan and they were considered the opposite, however. Rather, it was because two solar decades before, they had instigated their own infiltration of the sector for their own ends, and feared Hark's interference would ruin their work. Exactly what that work amounted to or was aimed towards appears to be a secret these Radicals took to their graves, for ever is it said that history is written by the victorious.In this matter, Hark and his allies were the seeming victors, but only after a war and a calamity so pernicious it was dubbed the "Vaxi Atrocity" by those allowed to know of its true existence. Upon the disbandment of the assembly at Gnshal Oblitia, both factions set out for the sector's core, sweeping up what allies they could along the way and utilising their powers as Inquisitors to requisition what assets they encountered. Squadrons of battleships indentured from the Imperial Navy clashed in the void, for the will and power of the Inquisitors overrode all other Imperial agencies and commanders. As the rival groups penetrated deeper into the Rubicon Sub-sector, they called upon ever-greater forces, and entire regiments of the Astra Militarum mustered at their order from a swathe of worlds along a route many parsecs in length. By the time they crashed headlong into Rubicon, all pretence at due process was shed.The warring forces made planetfall on a number of systems across the sub-sector, unleashing the full potency of the armies they had requisitioned upon not just one another, but any others caught in the middle. Entire worlds were burning before the Lords of Askellon had any notion what was occurring. Sector-wide defence protocols were set in motion, but while the defenders had experience fighting uprisings, prosecuting mutant culls, and even stalling xenos invasions, none had ever faced an enemy as powerful as this in many centuries.Within solar weeks, all but a handful of inhabited star systems in the Rubicon Sub-sector were consumed in war, and those Astra Militarum regiments raised from Askellon's main worlds were in disarray. The Terminus Prime system defence fleet was reduced to a cloud of burning hulks, its squadrons paid for by the great Askellian merchant houses and entirely unsuited to the total war that descended without warning. At length, the sector praefect, at that time Lord Vhinjet Romonav VII, declared war upon the unknown invaders. Using the full extent of his own powers, he mustered as many regiments as could be raised on the world of Vaxi along the rimward border of Rubicon, determined to bring them to battle and stall the invasion of his realm.Lord Romonav's declaration was a strident statement, which began as a warning, but soon meandered into what amounted to an admission of heresy. Entire generations of scholars have debated whether Romonav intended to broadcast the message he did, or if he was overcome by hubris, misunderstood, caught in the grips of insanity, or even possessed by some Daemonic entity. Regardless of the truth, by the end of the message, which was transmitted using every astropathic choir on Juno and spread across Askellian space, the praefect had, with deliberate intent or otherwise, announced his sector's secession from the Imperium of Man.Confronted with treachery on such a massive scale and mindful of those shreds of the sector's history they had access to, the opposing Inquisitorial factions ceased their internecine battle. Immediately, they fell upon Vaxi and the millions of Askellian troops mustered there with power and potency surely not seen since the Macharian Crusade. The combined forces massacred the defenders in an Imperial Crusade so bloody none were spared. Every single warrior on Vaxi was punished for the crimes of Lord Romonav VII, either slain in battle or burned in massed pyres as tall as Warlord-class Titans .As the fires settled over Vaxi, Inquisitor Lord Hark called for a parley. Within the solar hour, a dozen of the most powerful and influential Inquisitors in the segmentum were facing one another across a plain of ash and scattered bone, the horizon alight in all directions with flames. The words that passed between them were either unrecorded, or else deliberately struck from any record, but their essence can be determined easily enough. The events leading up to the Vaxi Atrocity must not be repeated again, they agreed. Whatever gains were to be made from Inquisitors operating in the sector in their current manner could not possibly be worth visiting such destruction upon it that the bulk of an entire sub-sector lay in ruins, and Askellon stripped of its ability to defend itself should invasion come from an unexpected quarter.So far as Lord Romonav's treachery went, however, that could not be forgotten or forgiven. Shortly after his ill-judged declaration of secession, Romonav was found dead upon his throne at the annual state opening of court at the Pellucid Tower. Five thousand petitioners looked upon his face and blanched at the expression they saw on what remained of his features, before hurrying silently away lest such an awful fate be visited upon them too.There remain many who secretly believe that the events as related represent but the tip of an unfathomably-deep iceberg, and that some or all of the main figures involved were being horribly manipulated. Some whisper that Hark was but a puppet for some other secretive personages operating in the sector, others that Romonav's part was entirely staged, or did not originate from him at all. Even Dyrulli's name was brought into the affair, either to sully it further or show his works were truthful.To what ends the Vaxi Atrocity served these agencies is still speculated, for none dare speak openly given the power that was wielded. While an uneasy peace keeps the various factions from outright war, if one were to become too powerful in relation to the others, open war might again erupt between them. Those at the fringes of the numerous factions and philosophies in which the Inquisition is steeped appear ever ready to challenge this status quo, and none can predict when all-out internecine wars might come again. Few, however, doubt that they must, and worry who might be behind these new conflicts when they erupt, and for what benefit. |
Askellon Sector - The Vaxian Sundering: For almost all of the Inquisitors in the Askellon Sector, the Vaxi Atrocity was a horrible error. For those of the Ordo Malleus who secretly investigated the sector's ruling families, though, it holds a special significance. For them, the great tragedy is that a renewed wave of blasphemy and abomination swept through the sector's populations. By design, the bulk of their resources in the sector were committed to re-establishing their hidden networks and to infiltrating the Askellian aristocracy. With their resources thus devoted to what they considered their most important -- yet distant -- goal, however, their enemies established themselves as major powers in the sector.Thus, many of the Ordo Malleus Inquisitors in the Askellon Sector were visited by a tragedy known only to themselves, one dubbed by those that bore witness to it as the "Vaxian Sundering." It was an age when much that they had achieved was undone, for while the undercover networks were built, the worship of Warp entities and the seeking after forbidden knowledge went all but unchallenged. Even more threatening, schisms within the Ordo Malleus itself emerged, and factions that would have once been eradicated immediately festered and grew. |
Askellon Sector - The Chialistica: It was a mere standard year after the Vaxi Atrocity that a new and highly divisive faction formed amongst Ordo Malleus Inquisitors active in the sector. Exactly what triggered the appearance of this group is not yet certain; some Inquisitors claim it represents nothing more than the rantings of broken men and women whose minds and souls were pushed beyond the limits of sanity by the terrible scope of the horrors they witnessed. Others, however, claim that the Chialistica, as it has come to be known, has existed in some manner since the very dawn of the sector's formal establishment as part of the Imperium, and possibly even since the first Human settlers arrived in Askellian space during the Age of Technology. The Chialistica appears similar to other strands of mysticism found across the Imperium, obsessed with the notion that Mankind is drawing towards a Time of Ending. Such creeds are known to wax and wane throughout the domains of Humanity, in particular at the closing of centuries and especially at the turning of millennia.This instance is even more powerful, however, for the Chialistica's adherents look forward to the closing of the ten-thousand-standard-year period since the Emperor ascended the Golden Throne. These Askellian Inquisitors hold that the Emperor's period of rule is drawing to a close, and after it there shall come an eternity of Chaos. None have ever openly declared membership in this most apocalyptic of sects, yet a plethora of evidence suggests that some cleave to its nihilistic philosophies. Many in the sector have spoken out against the faction, claiming that any Inquisitor who shares its beliefs is a traitor to their calling, for regardless of how they do so, it is an Inquisitor's most sacred task to stand sentinel over the future of Mankind.In secret, however, the Chialistica hold that the Emperor has fulfilled a prophecy spoken millennia ago, and must soon either descend from His throne or transcend it, and thereby usher in a new, final, age. In their beliefs, the Chialistica veer dangerously close to several existing philosophical factions known to hold sway within the Inquisition, leading some to conclude that they are a still more extreme offshoot of another Radical philosophy, one that has gone beyond even the sins of the Istvaanians and abandoned all pretence of rebirth of the Imperium in favour of a final, galaxy-wide apocalypse. |
Askellon Sector - Catacalixian Heresy: The Catacalixian Heresy appeared in the Askellon Sector soon after the Chialistica, though the two are not believed to be linked in any way beyond the fact that the Vaxi Atrocity paved a way for their emergence in the sector. This heresy takes the form of a series of coded warnings relating to the imminent collapse of the Imperium's power across the entire Segmentum Obscurus, warning that such a fate has already befallen several unnamed nearby sectors and shall soon come down upon Askellon.This aberrant philosophy appears to be spreading along the worlds of the region by way of trans-sector shipping, suggesting that travellers coming into the sector from neighbouring Imperial regions are preaching their warning to others they encounter along the way.Of particular concern is the fact that the Catacalixian Heresy appears not to have taken hold of the greater masses, as so many doomsday sects do, but instead has swept through the upper echelons of the region's Imperial adepta. It has found a home of sorts in the hearts of those whose existence or station grants them a perspective denied to most Humans, such as starfaring Chartist Captains and Rogue Traders, senior adepts of the Adeptus Ministorum and the Adeptus Administratum, and, most disturbingly, some Inquisitors. There are plenty who hold that when such highly-ranked servants of Terra believe that doom is descending upon the Imperium, then surely the end is at last nigh. |
Askellon Sector - The Abyssian Witnesses: The Abyssian Witnesses are a small and highly secretive conclave of Warp-scholars and hell-seers devoted to the study of the Pandaemonium. They first came together when one of their number -- a one-time disciple of Lord-Savant Dyrulli by the name of Lorn Kecimii -- noted a disturbance in the ebb of the Warp storms during the Inquisitorial attack on Vaxi. Some say that Kecimii studied the Pandaemonium longer than prudent and, as he peered into its depths, so something peered back at him.Certainly, Kecimii appeared to have gleaned some level of understanding of the shifting Warp-energies no savant before him had ever attained. A number of Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus soon joined him to study his arcane teachings concerning the Great Storm and its links to other occurrences in Askellon's history -- especially to the secretive origins of the sector's rulers.Ordinarily, the activities of the Abyssian Witnesses would undoubtedly have been discovered and denounced by an Inquisitor of a Puritan bent. In the aftermath of the Vaxi Atrocity, however, the conclave went about its studies all but undetected, for the majority of the Askellian Ordo Malleus Inquisitors were engaged in setting up their network of infiltrators across the sector. With attentions focused elsewhere, the Abyssian Witnesses swelled in number from a handful of Warp-blasted seers to a large confraternity of many dozens devoted to the study of the Pandaemonium and the recordings of their founder Lorn Kecimii.These texts became part of an ever-expanding library maintained by Kecimii's inner circle, an archive ensconced within the cored heart of a rogue dwarf planet drifting through the stellar void spinward of the Thaur System, on the very verges of an encroaching front of the Great Storm.From its precarious vantage point, the order's hell-seers are said to stare in rapture into the void, as if able to see beyond the umbral black of space and into the roiling vortex of the Warp that lies beyond the overstretched veil of reality. At times, the veil peels back and light-years-long tendrils of empyreal unreality slither forth to coil about the planetoid, and each time it does so the order bears witness to some new morsel of terrible knowledge.It is said that Kecimii and the most senior of the order watch the Great Storm through a vast mechanism at the summit of the so-called Tower of Heeding, utilising an orrery-like arrangement of rune-etched lenses to peer directly into the Immaterium while a cadre of attendants transcribe their every word.From these transcriptions and the annotations provided by Kecimii himself, the order has built up its staggering archive of knowledge relating to the Pandaemonium and to the Warp in general. In all likelihood, this body of work, allowed to amass unseen by the rest of the Inquisitors within the Askellon Sector, represents one of the most dangerous archives of forbidden knowledge not just in the sector, but in the entire galactic region -- perhaps rivalled only by the twelve sanctums of the Gethsemane Reclusium in the sheer weight of abominable texts held within.To what end the Abyssian Witnesses are amassing their heretical library has yet to be understood, but it is known that extracts of their writings have turned up in the hands of Heretics and madmen throughout the sector. Portions are being utilised as elemental formulae in dark rituals and blasphemous masses by those who would commune with, or even summon, the inhabitants of the Warp, turning foolish dilettantes and Warp-dabbles into genuinely dangerous threats.The danger posed from the Abyssian Witnesses is only beginning to be appreciated by leading voices within the Ordo Malleus, who have yet to gain firm evidence despite several missions to locate the conclave's hidden sanctuary. Most of what those Inquisitors opposing the sect know of their target are the scraps of Warp-lore left in the wake of attempted Daemonic summonings or found in the possession of those with only tangential connections to its members and activities.Almost all of these pages describe the nature of the Pandaemonium and purport to be a translation of the Warp storm's origins, cause, and how it is inextricably linked to the fate of the entire sector. These words, if true, represent horrors beyond those threats that even the most suspicious of the Inquisitors investigating the origins of the Askellon Sector and its rulers can imagine. |
Askellon Sector - Vaxian Aftermath Wars: In the annals of the Inquisition, the Vaxi Atrocity stands as a cautionary tale of the doom that can befall a region when the most highly-ranked servants of the Emperor set aside their mutual duties and allow hubris to dictate their actions. The Atrocity itself has been debated endlessly in such Askellian circles, its causes analysed over and over so they might never occur again. Some scholars have even gone so far as to suggest the entire calamity might have been engineered by hidden xenos intellects, seeing the far-reaching influence of the Aeldari in the still-unfolding events of the Atrocity.Most such theories are dismissed as fanciful musing at best, or the death-rants of fallen Traitors at worst, yet still they refuse to fade away. Certainly, Inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos have known for generations that the Craftworld Aeldari in particular are capable of engineering events far into the future for their own sakes, their Farseers able to unravel the twisted threads of an unfolding future and to re-knit them according to their own unknowable schemes.Might the Atrocity have been intended to weaken the sector in order to turn the attentions of some hungering void-born horror away from the Craftworld Aeldari and towards Mankind? Arguments rage endlessly over these and other myriad forces -- perhaps even from within the Inquisition itself -- that might have had a hidden hand in launching the terrible event, or guided it to results that few can fully understand. In truth, no sane mortal can say, though many still make such claims. Many savants have dedicated themselves to studying the ebb and flow of cause and effect in the wake of the Vaxi Atrocity, for it was to affect the region for many standard years to come.The most notable of the events that followed the terrible event are known in the circles of the Askellian Inquisition as the "Aftermath Wars." As a great many of these conflicts were fought against various xenos strains and factions, they are of particular note to those Inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos operating in the Askellon Sector, many of whom stand guard for more such ramifications, even many Terran years after the event. |
Askellon Sector - The Portal Raids: In 731.M41, soon after the Vaxi Atrocity, an Imperial Navy long-range patrol squadron engaged in a three-standard-year sweep of the outermost star systems of the Asphodel Depths Sub-sector came upon a string of ruined settlements across a dozen of the settled moons of the Phobetor System. No bodies were found, and by the nature of the damage suffered to the hab structures it was evident that the Aeldari were responsible for the attack. The commodore in command of the patrol -- Abin Kybras -- cared not which strand of the alien culture had carried out the attacks, though his suspicions were that it was the "Dark Eldar," for this particular Aeldari sub-faction was known for launching raids upon Human worlds for no apparent end than to take prisoners and to spirit them away to their home dimension of the Webway for no reason any sane man could fathom.The patrol's report was logged via long range astropathic communion, and the squadron continued its lonely mission. As it penetrated the very edge of the trans-sector Wilderness Space, however, it found ever more evidence of Dark Eldar activity and, following these, determined a pattern. It was clear that the attacks were following the sub-aetheric Warp conduit leading to the Aventine System, a route known as Celaeno's Descent. By this point, it was estimated that the aliens must have carried away tens of thousands of the Emperor's subjects, and it became increasingly obvious that each attack represented an escalation in scale and daring.Worlds that should have been capable of defending themselves were falling, for their Planetary Defence Forces had been stripped in the solar months preceding the Vaxi Atrocity and left the worlds defenceless. With those defence forces reduced to bones now bleaching upon the irradiated murder-plains of Vaxi, entire sub-sectors were laid bare to the attentions of the Dark Eldar.It was then that a dire realisation hit home, and Kybras ordered his fleet to abandon its mission and make for Aventine. The drives were worked far beyond tolerances despite the protestations of the Enginseers, and three solar months later the patrol set in at Aventine. There they discovered the system's outer worlds, none of them highly populated, but each one a productive sub-domain, colony, or mining operation stripped as bare as the first worlds they had found.Aventine itself was under attack, not by any space-borne Dark Eldar force, but one which travelled from world to world by way of its own trans-dimensional means through the Webway. Aventine's capital was under attack, and there was nothing the squadron could do to stop the vile aliens dragging its population through their swirling portals.The commodore knew his duty, and though his office required him to remain stoic, he knew he was showing mercy in issuing his next order. The squadron might have had insufficient crew to launch a defence of the city below, but it could certainly intervene, as well as granting a quick death to those who would otherwise not receive any such fate.Solar minutes later, the skies of Aventine were split by the black entry containers of a hundred orbital plasma warheads. Each detonated with the power of a star, burning to ashes every last alien within a hundred kilometres as well as the captives they were attempting to drag through their dimensional portals. That day, Commodore Kybras demonstrated that Mankind could be every bit as cold-hearted as the cruellest of Dark Eldar, if the Emperor so willed it. That it might have poisoned Aventine's populace against the authority of the Imperium and lead to the rise of even greater threats would be a menace for another day. |
Askellon Sector - Cyclopia Bush Wars: Less than a standard year after the tragedy at Aventine, Imperial commanders across the Cyclopia Sub-Sector reported a heavy upsurge in Ork activity, each on a world that had come under attack by these barbarous aliens within the last standard century or so. In each of these original instances, the Ork attacks had been repulsed, but only at a high cost in lives to the Imperium and only after very heavy fighting indeed. With the vast bulk of planetary defence units redeployed to Vaxi (and now destroyed), only second line defence forces remained, and these were woefully understrength and outnumbered by the Ork invaders. Over the course of the next solar month, a vicious bush war developed across a dozen worlds in the sub-sector.The threat was rarely so great as to threaten the complete collapse of any single warzone, but ever grave enough that Imperial forces were constantly on the defensive and never allowed to muster a credible counter-attack. The enemy was of a type referred to by Astra Militarum tacticae adepts as "Feral Orks" -- Greenskins that for whatever reason were not possessed of the usual range of ramshackle yet highly destructive weapons, vehicles, and other strange equipment often encountered in their hands. Instead, these Orks wielded primitive, pre-industrial weaponry, along with what items they could scavenge from the battlefields of previous generations or from defeated enemies. Where these invaders came from or how they had reached the worlds in question, none of the commanders on the ground knew, a critical weakness that ultimately led to their doom.Had the Askellon Sector's military command been in any fit state, formalised procedures would have been set in motion to eradicate the Ork presence rising across the sector. Experienced commanders with sufficient clearance would have known or been able to ascertain that the Orks were the result of the bizarre manner in which their species spreads across the galaxy. Each time the Orks fight, their bodies shed microscopic spores which lodge upon the ground and much later develop into subsequent Orkoid generations.In areas where the Greenskins have won dominance, these creatures are integrated into the pre-existing Ork "kultur." Where they appear upon ground where the Orks have been defeated, they carry on the war, ignorant of the earlier defeats of their forebears but still driven by a deep-rooted biological imperative to avenge them. The only way to avert such an infestation in the aftermath of an Ork invasion is to set the ground to fire with constant eradication sweeps, a duty innocently neglected by the second-line defenders left on to hold their worlds.Inevitably, the defenders were overwhelmed. Across each of the affected worlds the beastly Orks rose up as one, having reached a critical mass of numbers and raw, savage bloodthirst. The worlds fell in an orgy of death, a million and more defence force troops slaughtered by the primitive savages. It would be over a solar decade before the sector was able to mount an effective campaign of reconquest after having restored something of its previous strength, but by then those worlds had very little worth reclaiming, and the effort of scouring the soil of the Greenskins' spores meant that any such campaign was judged highly unlikely to succeed. |
Askellon Sector - Askellian Incursion: Later in the 41st Millennium, at a time when the armies of Askellon were still reeling from the losses of the Vaxi genocides, not one but dozens of space hulks appeared within its borders. This event coincided with a massive increase in Warp storm activity nearby, leading some Warp-seers to claim that the Pandaemonium was gorging itself on the souls of those slain during the genocides, though most dismissed such claims as the ravings of madmen.Regardless, the sector's resources were so depleted that even a single space hulk would have been a challenge to deal with in the prescribed manner. As it became apparent that multiple star systems were reporting their appearance, deep dread settled over the sector's high commanders. Worse still, it was evident that the appearance did not follow some random pattern born of the ebbs and flows of the tides of the Sea of Souls. Rather, each of the reported space hulks had appeared along a Warp route that, if projected along known empyreal conduits, would see them converge in the sector's core region. Clearly, some dark intellect or intent was at work. Across Askellon, every possible force that could be mustered was deployed in response.At the Ferrom System, an entire army group was raised from the massive worker population, issued las carbines drawn from emergency stocks many standard centuries old, and ferried in the cargo holds of bulk haulers to the space hulk that had appeared out-system. Entire companies of these worker-soldiers were crammed into shuttles rated to hold a tenth of the number of passengers and fired across the void to board the vast hulk. For ten solar days, shuttle after shuttle deployed company after company until at length a hundred thousand and more soldiers were scouring the dark tunnels with orders to engage any enemy they encountered and to report any unusual finds as soon as they were made.No such reports were ever made, for as one, the vox-feeds and tacticae relays fell silent. Those remaining attempted frantically to raise the boarders, and while the links were determined to be functional, no data was being passed along them. Increasingly fearful, the overseers of the mission debated a dozen and more responses to the situation, but a solar hour later, the decision was made for them. With a burst of light of no hue known to sane minds, the space hulk was dragged back into the Empyrean. At the moment of translation, every soul on board cried out in such anguish that every psyker within several light years felt their pain, many suffering seizures, some even perishing. Of that hundred-thousand-strong army, not a trace was ever discovered.At the Myros Kappa System, a space hulk dove out of the Immaterium perilously close to one planet, destabilising its moons and setting off punishing tectonic upheavals. Stricken by tidal waves, earthquakes, and constant storms, the world's primary settlements were subsequently abandoned, and tens of thousands of Departmento Munitorum serfs perished along with vital Astra Militarum war materiel. Eight solar days later, it vanished uninvestigated, all nearby resources diverted to desperately evacuate any survivors.Far worse occurred at Menoetius-Delta. The space hulk that emerged in that star system did so not at its outer edges, but far in-system. Menoetius-Delta was host to a subsistence-level Human society that had never truly taken its place in the sector and, thanks to the space hulk, never would. Three solar days after it was detected, the gigantic conglomeration of metal and rock smashed into Menoetius-Delta, triggering an extinction-level kinetic event that rendered the surface nigh uninhabitable to Mankind.It was later estimated that approximately fifty million souls went to the Emperor's side when the space hulk collided with Menoetius-Delta, and the same number perished in the standard years that followed as its ecology collapsed. No mission was ever launched to evacuate survivors, and it is likely their descendants live there still, eking out a miserable and short life beneath the churning black clouds, the light of the star of Menoetius merely a myth passed down through the generations.Of all the space hulks that appeared within Askellon's borders that year, only a single one was met with anything approaching a successful response. At the Hulee System's outer fringes, a space hulk was codified Assassin of Pride and it was investigated not by some ad hoc local force, but by a rapidly deployed Kill-team of the elite Deathwatch. Who or what called these Adeptus Astartes to deploy here remains unknown, and the alien hunters made no account of their mission to any of the Ordo Xenos Inquisitors operating in the Askellon Sector at that time.All that is known is that the Kill-team must have been successful in its operation, and that when the black-clad Space Marines departed they were carrying a cargo of obviously high import, which they took with them when they left in their strike cruiser. Furthermore, in the immediate aftermath of the Assassin of Pride boarding operation and removal of the mysterious cargo, every single space hulk still within Askellian space abruptly fell back into the Immaterium.Following this burst of activity, the Pandaemonium began an unprecedented period of relative quiescence, and the Immaterium in the region strangely becalmed for several standard years, during which Aeldari activity peaked markedly. It was not to last, and soon after the Pandaemonium began the turbulent cycle in which it is now engaged, a cycle so all-consuming that some say it may never end.When word of this mass space hulk incursion reached the ears of certain savants, they simply nodded sagely to themselves. To such as they, who have been declared mad by their peers for seeing the hidden hand of the Aeldari or some other xenos strain in the Vaxi Atrocity, every woe that befalls Mankind is a potential doom wrought by the hand of the alien. One day, no doubt, they shall be proved correct. |
Askellon Sector - Time of Ending Approaches: In the ten standard millennia that have passed since the founding of Askellon, the sector's fortunes have waxed and waned many times. It has risen to the heights of power and prestige, only to be hurled into the depths of the abyss by the secret hubris of its leaders. Juno, the sector's pre-eminent world and the seat of its ruling sector praefect, has been overrun by alien invasion, torn apart by bloodthirsty rebels, and crushed by wars with neighbouring powers. Askellon's peoples have been enslaved, butchered, and bombarded from orbit. Each time the sector has rebuilt itself atop the ruins, though never so high nor so proud as before. In current eras, many look back at past ages as golden periods and can only see darker times ahead.Xenos threats are certainly on the rise, from raiders attacking vessels across the sector to entire armies seeking to conquer Imperial worlds. The sector contains the remains of many long-dead alien civilisations, and even their ossified artefacts can cause irreparable harm in the wrong hands. There are tales of cults that dare worship the inhuman, befouling Human souls with the taint of the alien. Worse still, there are rumours of the resurrection of species thought dead and forgotten, though only the gullible or fanatical give these credence.The Pandaemonium has only added to the sense of doom. For several millennia, Navigators and Chartist Captains have considered the region, ever traitorous and poorly-charted, as ill-aspected and in some manner cursed. Instances of vessels cast violently off-course, barely surviving passage or vanishing entirely, are growing. Already, numerous charts state simply "Access Denied," where before they listed the details of the cursed sector, a warning that some who enter it might never return.Though the Warp storm is currently in a period of seeming calm, it grows in rage and hunger, but for what none dare say. Its power is limited not only to Warp travel; entire planets have been engulfed or lost behind its storm front, becoming isolated for generations. Doomsayers cry that the storm is drawn towards those worlds with the greatest populations of psykers, or worse might be itself causing the increasing number of these and other mutants.Heretical texts claim it is a manifestation of ancient sins revisited on the living, or the spirit of betrayed souls screaming for vengeance, and is so deeply entrenched within the stones of the sector's fortresses and the souls of its people that it may never be excised. Though none would openly countenance such beliefs, few Askellians disagree that it holds the sector in a vice that is ever-closing.The pervasive sense of coming doom has led many to turn away from their Emperor to other gods, and heresies grow across the sector. Wherever there is darkness they fester, from within the shadows of tall, gleaming spires or the foetid black of buried ruins, though many operate openly behind façades of the respectable or sanctioned. No world or star system is safe from the touch of Chaos, and no soul proof against its many temptations. Only through faith in the Emperor, and the actions of His servants, can the sector survive these apocalyptic times. |
Askellon Sector - Domains of the Askellon Sector: Numerous stable Warp routes cross the Askellon Sector, the most important of which is the "Grand Processional." It is easily the most widely-used and reliable route, and in many ways it is the lifeblood that sustains the sector. Lesser routes branch away from its way, diverting into ever-fragmenting paths that line Askellon like some mad tattoo.The settled worlds of the sector are connected via these routes, with the stability of a route often determining its influence. The handful of star systems where the Grand Processional visits are known as the "Grand Worlds," though not all are the most powerful of Askellon. The "Tributary Worlds" are greater in number, and though only linked via lesser routes, they are perhaps the sector's mainstay star systems and ruled through a complex web of aristocracy bound together with chains of fealty, marriage, and other, less obvious, ties. Only tenuous and hazardous routes reach the sector's so-called "Low Worlds," though they are still very much part of the sector's rule. The "Lost Worlds" of Askellon, however, exist only in rumour and legend; lacking charted routes (or at least routes not kept as jealously guarded secrets), they are hidden and abandoned -- sometimes by design.There are seven Grand Worlds of Askellon along the Grand Processional: the sector capital Juno; Desoleum, perhaps the oldest of Askellon's many Hive Worlds; the dark, Feral World of Enkidu; Kalto, the bountiful Agri-world; the foetid swamp-world of Orinoca; Pellenne, the enormous Mining World; and Vouxis Prime, home of continent-spanning cities.The Grand Processional is not itself an eternal pathway, and decaying parchments from millennia ago show other worlds along its trail than those currently listed. Legend has it that Juno and Desoleum have, as best can be told, always been Grand Worlds, and such is their power that none gainsay this. Should the Grand Processional change its path, there could be new Grand Worlds, something many Tributary Worlds eagerly pray for. |
Askellon Sector - Askellian Sub-Sectors: Like most sectors in the Imperium, Askellon is divided into a number of administrative regions called sub-sectors. Each of these smaller regions has its own ruler often called a sub-praefect Askelline, an adept of the Priesthood of Terra charged with coordinating interactions between the worlds under their purview and the central sector government.The sub-praefect has no direct power over the planetary governors of those worlds, except in areas pertaining to the payment of tithes and the culling of psyker populations. The sub-sectors of Askellon are the Stygies Cluster, Cyclopia, the Asphodel Deeps, Thule, and Rubicon, all regions mapped out according to the flow of shipping along the major Warp routes of the sector. Currently, Thule Sub-sector is without a sub-praefect, the prior incumbent having been assassinated by a previously unknown psyker cult calling itself the Brothers of Celestial Enlightenment. |
Askellon Sector - The Black Ships: The Black Ships of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica ply the space lanes of the Imperium in an endless circuit, laying over at its worlds to collect those psykers swept up in the regular culls every planetary governor is required by most solemn obligation to enact. None can say how many Black Ships exist, and none can predict when one will next arrive in any given volume of space. At times when a world's psyker population grows so unmanageable the authorities are threatened with being overwhelmed, a governor may order a pogrom. This is a risky gamble indeed, for should the Black Ships arrive and find no psykers rendered up, the governor might forfeit his life as punishment.This has not stopped many of Askellon's worlds from lethally culling suspected psykers, for in recent times their numbers have grown to dangerous numbers and overflowed the cells customarily used in Askellon for imprisonment. Some worlds have not been visited for several generations, cut off as Warp routes in Askellon dry up or change paths; unchecked psyker populations can only cause the Immaterium to grow ever more turbulent and give the Ruinous Powers easier access to reality. |
Askellon Sector - Xenos Threat: Orks are an ubiquitous threat to the domains of the Emperor, as the barbarous Greenskins are encountered everywhere Mankind has voyaged. The Askellon Sector is far from immune to their predations, and has been assailed by their periodic invasions countless times in its history. In each case, the Imperium has reacted by raising additional regiments to confront the threat and, while countless millions have martyred themselves in the process, each invasion has eventually been halted.Nonetheless, once Orks have set foot upon the surface of a world, they are all but impossible to repulse entirely, even when they appear to have been wiped out. Intermittent Feral Ork infestations plague several of Askellon's frontier star systems, the bestial aliens appearing as if from nowhere to lay waste to Mankind's holdings. To date, these infestations have been kept largely in check by the increasingly ragged forces of Port Lokhart and, in recent years, the Surena Dynasty's daring but costly interventions. It remains to be seen how the sector's forces might react to a renewed period of full-scale invasion, beleaguered as they are by so many other pressures.The Craftworld Aeldari represent a less obvious danger. This ancient xenos race cares little for Humanity, a species it often considers barely intelligent at best. Some say the galaxy bent to the Aeldari's whims before Humanity's ancestors even descended from the trees of ancient Terra, and that star systems lived and died at their command. The Aeldari of the 41st Millennium, however, are a doomed race, reduced to a relative handful scattered thinly across the stars.Their piratical raiders harass and pillage across the sector, and no vessel seems safe from their attentions. There does not seem to be any rationale for their attacks, as a small freighter might be destroyed while a promethium-laden bulk hauler is ignored. This unpredictability adds to the fear their Corsairs wield throughout Askellian space. There are rumours that the Aeldari have also conducted slave raids and planetary attacks, but no clear evidence has been recovered from the devastated remains found on many remote planets. Worse yet are rumours that these inscrutable aliens are also conducting targeted assassinations and thefts, and that any who unknowingly have gained their notice are doomed.The remains of other intelligent alien races litter the sector like scorched bones on a battlefield. Some were thought destroyed during the early days of Askellon's founding, but many appear to have ended long before Mankind left Terra. Each of these dead species is unique, as near as the Tech-priests of the Xenos Biologis can determine, common only in their silence. They are long-dead, forgotten, and, thankfully for Askellon's future, could never return. |
Askellon Sector - Worlds of the Grand Processional: While most of the systems along the Grand Processional are in some way important to the sector, whether from a military, economic, or governmental perspective, they are only bound through their proximity to the great Warp route that ties the sector together. As such, though, they are important beyond measure as stopping points for interstellar travel, and have been forced sometimes into becoming greater worlds than they would have been if their system had been more remotely located. They are Askellon's way stations, and few who cross its space have not stepped onto the soil of these Grand Worlds at some point:Juno - Juno is an Imperial Hive World that is the political seat and sector capital of the Askellon Sector. Despite its opulence, the notable hive city Vesuna Regis hides a dark secret, for beneath it lies a horrid undercity where powerful rival gangs of mutants and Underhive scum thrive in the lawless depths, constantly waging brutal and ceaseless warfare upon one another.Desoleum - A notorious Hive World, Desoleum's massive hive cities are home to deadly Flesh-cutter gangs. In a hive city where oaths are sacrosanct, the harshest penalties in Desoleum are for those who abandon their debts and flee their obligations or worse, attempt to alter their oath-cogs to lessen their service time. First, the Oathless must be found, and specialist Bondhounds within the local planetary Enforcer corps, called the Sanctionaries, track them down.Enkidu - Enkidu is a Feral World of impossibly dense, dark forests and endless swamps. An incredible array of fearsome beasts, most of them defying all categorisation and no two ever seeming to conform to even the broadest genus, roam its surface. So mindlessly hostile are the things of tooth, claw, and tentacle that dominate the benighted lands that the feral Human populace must live high in the enormous, twisting, and distorted trees. Warriors daubed in bright paints defend villages made of wood and the metal debris from earlier efforts to subdue the world. Huts of crudely-joined armour plating cling precariously to the sides of oversized trees, linked together with rope bridges upon which warrior-sentinels maintain ceaseless vigil against the ravening abominations below.Kalto - Located along the Grand Processional, the most stable Warp route in the Askellon Sector, Kalto is a large Agri-world whose bountiful production has made it the breadbasket for the untold billions who dwell within the neighbouring sub-sectors. This high productivity is believed to be due in part to Kalto's negligible axial tilt which, when combined with the planet's stable orbit relative to its brilliant K-class orange star, creates a near-perpetual growing season ideally suited for agriculture. Kalto is particularly known for its production of padonus rice, a genetically-modified crop developed by the Magi Biologis of Core Theta, as well as large quantities of local emdur grain.Snope's World - Atop the main hab-city on the Civilised World of Snope's World lies the glittering Platinal Palace. Formed of fractalised sheets of iridescent metals, it shines like a beacon above the solemn clouds and polluted swamps that cover much of the rest of the planet. It is said that the palace's surface holds a million million angles, each one unique across its conical form. Within are the hive city's ruling families, each as superficially gleaming and beautiful as their dwelling. Here they plot endlessly against each other. |
Askellon Sector - Tributary Worlds: Other worlds beyond those linked through the Grand Processional wield great power on Askellon's fate. Systems such as these can have unparalleled influence across the sector, and some even outside of it. Some of these planets claim to date back to Askellon's founding in the Age of Technology, others are only several standard millennia in age, but all are puissant and between them control most of the commerce, industry, and manpower of Askellon.Aventine - A Civilised World.Cel - An Agri-world.Cerix Magnus - Cerix Magnus is perhaps the greatest of the many Adeptus Mechanicus Forge Worlds within the sector, and is strict in following only the most sanctified of technology patterns. The Tech-priests of the Regimen Affirmator work there to ensure no forge strays from the correct dictates of the Omnissiah, and that all proper obsequiences are made.Terminus Prime - Terminus is often the first developed star system a vessel travelling to Askellon encounters, and its primary world is a prosperous centre of trade.Thaur - The Shrine World/Cemetery World of Thaur is the resting place of billions, overflowing with the remains of the powerful and the saintly. Millions more of the humble and poor strive that their remains also find a place on this holy world, arranging in life that their dead forms be shipped there. It is at the Blessed Charnaven that their untold tonnes of flesh arrive for final rest. The Osseiates of the Charnaven inscribe into each bone a unique prayer before it is used to fortify a basilica or pave one of the kilometre-wide walkways that encircle the world. No bone is unused, and each becomes an eternal, sacred offering to the God-Emperor.Laran 9k - A Departmento Munitorum Armoury World where tens of thousands of the Astra Militarum's troops, tanks, and support vehicles are regularly prepared for embankment and outfitting.Port Aquila - Port Aquila is located in a dense region of asteroids and it is primarily controlled by the Greater Askellon Trade Combine which continually works a stranglehold over commerce across the belt. The Combine's chief rival, the Pale League, operates across the belt as one of the premier smuggling operations in the region. Made up of failed merchants and sometimes even Rogue Traders who saw their fortunes fall from catastrophic expeditions or piratical raids, Port Aquila is a relatively recent formation, but it is growing in power in the sector.Port Lokhart - The Imperial Navy maintains several facilities in the sector, collectively referred to as the Askellon Station Command. The most important of these is Port Lokhart, strategically located to provide its vessels with ready access to a number of Warp routes leading towards the nearby Scarus Sector, as well as away into the unknown reaches beyond the sector's trailing borders.Vanth - On the Death World of Vanth, the primary danger comes from the toxic and carnivorous plant life that makes up its trackless jungles and swamps. |
Askellon Sector - Low Worlds: Beyond the Grand Worlds and the Tributary Worlds are those planets of the Askellon Sector categorised as the Low Worlds, those with only fragmented or hazardous Warp routes connecting them to other systems. Many are industrious contributors to the sector, lacking only better routes to allow them to become Tributary Worlds.Some are Frontier Worlds whose populations have never heard of the Imperium, or planets that have never known the tread of Human feet. They are all nonetheless claimed by the rulers of Askellon, even if they exist as little more than an entry on a faded star chart:Angel KZ-8 - Very little is known of the Angel KZ-8 System. The only solid descriptions are those logged by the Auriga Navigator Clan, which fled the Askellon Sector five standard centuries ago, and though scouts from the Surena Rogue Trader Dynasty briefly examined this system for exploitation, the notes were sparse and interspersed with madness. Most hold the existing information to be unreliable at best, and the product of broken minds and shattered ambitions at worst. What reports appear to agree on is that somewhere about the system's star there circles a black armoured fortress bristling with weaponry, its clifflike slabs encrusted with statues, surmounted by ebon gargoyles and etched with kilometre after kilometre of spidery text. The fortress appears studded with augur pylons covered with sensors and probes, all trained intently upon the seemingly empty voids trailing the sector. What those silent sentinels might be keeping watch for remains a mystery, as do the identity of the fortresses' builders and what might trigger their eventual return. Accounts claim that the fortress is empty, though the Machine Spirits guiding its countless weapons turrets remain vigilant. Silent vacuum gates await the arrival, or perhaps return, of its masters.Far Draconis - Far Draconis is a world that exists at the very edge of the sector, and one occupying a precarious Warp route. It is an Ocean World orbited by a satellite so dense that it inflicts an incredible tidal effect upon the seas below. As the satellite passes through the sky, the highly toxic seas are drawn towards it. As the acidic waters rise hundreds of metres, so the seabed on the other side of the world is exposed, a process that takes around forty solar hours. What continues to draw curious individuals to Far Draconis is the fact that, when exposed by its satellite's tidal pull, the ocean floor is revealed to host many kilometres of sunken ruins. None can tell if they are of Human or xenos origin, but the ruins are certainly ancient. All are of a uniform white marble, covered in tonnes of seaweed and barnacle-like life. Amongst the massive structures can be found oddly-shaped metallic objects known to command high prices amongst those Imperial aristocrats with a taste for the forbidden. The true function of these small artefacts is unknown, but many become the basis for fine jewellery or unusual sculptures. Recovering them is a dangerous task, even once a dry area is found. Lurking predators, evolved to the tidal shifts, emerge to attack without warning. Salvagers must fight them off and locate treasures quickly, for the highly toxic seas soon return -- and there is no way of halting the lethal waters.Gamma Euclid 13 - The Euclid 13 System exists at the extent of the Askellon's trailing border. The system is rarely accessible, having been cut off by the Pandaemonium many times in history. All of the eight worlds in the system appear to be clones of one another, exhibiting nigh-identical mass, dimensions and other gross characteristics. The only variation to be found is in the surface conditions, but most Adeptus Mechanicus researchers believe these merely a reflection of each planet's vicinity to the central star. So far as the archives relate, only a single world in the Euclid 13 System has been visited. The third planet out from its star, Gamma Euclid 13 is reportedly a world dominated by distorted terrain formations that appear twisted out of shape as if by the whim of some mad god. Enormous spirals, arches, and limbs of rock tower far into the sky, seemingly unaffected by all normal laws of nature. It is not these strange formations that have earned the world a dire reputation, but that every expedition has fallen victim to some manner of guardian, only a handful of survivors returning to relate their terrible warnings of terrors emerging from the dark.Kul - The world of Kul lies beyond Port Aquila and is counted amongst those worlds having fallen afoul to heresy and madness brought on by the proximity of the Pandaemonium. For much of its history, Kul was a Frontier World, undeveloped and of little interest to the great houses of Askellon. Its people were regarded as tainted and regressed, and few outsiders had any reason to visit the world. When Kul was engulfed by the Warp in the mid-38th Millennium, most thought it lost for all time, and none shed a tear for its populace. A standard century later, however, the Warp apparently spat the system out once more, and an Imperial Navy squadron was despatched from Port Lokhart to ascertain what, if anything, remained of its people. What the mission discovered was a cause for concern amongst savants of the Pandaemonium. The surface of the world was blasted beyond all recognition and its settlements reduced to ruins. Blanched bones littered the land, but were not of the natives -- they were from an Astra Militarum regiment thought lost in transit many centuries ago, judging from their tattered uniforms. Their vehicles also dotted the now-hellish rock. Subsequent investigations failed to turn up any clues as to the population's fate, but most did meet with unexpected calamity and disaster. Currently the world is under quarantine, though this has not stopped agents of the black market Faceless Trade from plucking especially interesting items from its surface to sell across the sector.Nurn Delta - A world on the rimward edge of the Stygies Sub-sector and far from any useful routes, Nurn Delta has never truly been counted amongst its worlds. So far as the great houses of Askellon are concerned, it is a world of wind-blasted plains populated by savages, barely able to speak and concerned only with braining one another with large rocks. This combination of isolation, apparent lack of natural resources, and the utterly regressed state of the native Human population means that few Askellian voidships ever visit it. Vessels from elsewhere entirely visit it, however, drawn there for unique reasons of their own. Once per generation, a warship bearing livery of brightest sky and purest cloud arrives by way of Warp routes not known to any of Askellon's Navigator clans. Small parties of huge warriors suddenly appear on the surface at a time and place foretold at the height of the previous visitation. Their arrival heralds a period of trials, wherein the chosen sons of the numerous tribes set aside their rivalries and compete against one another for the favour of the sky warriors. These contests are waged until only one warrior from each tribe remains. From these, the visitors select those they judge worthy to begin the process of training and transformation that will, in a small fraction of instances, lead to the initiation of a new brother Astartes in their ranks. It is a matter of great anticipation amongst the tribes when the foretold time is almost upon them. Many hold that the wait is itself a test of faith, and the tribes must prove themselves worthy by engaging one another in renewed hostilities. As the time of trials approaches, the tension nears a fever pitch that will only be relieved when at last the sky warriors return to Nurn Delta. |
Askellon Sector - Other Sector Worlds: Hulee V - A notable Hive World, the hive city on Hulee V known as Hive Krakex is a huge edifice that pierces the polluted skies of this Industrial World. Hive Krakex appears more mountain than building. Generations continually build new outer layers that roll off the surface layers like lava dripping down a volcano. Each new layer stretches its bulk across the surrounding wastelands and devours kilometres away from the ragged millions teeming outside its circumference. Billions more exist inside, transforming bulk-imported raw ores into the sheet plasteel that protects many of the main battle tanks and fortresses across the sector.Ossuar - Ossuar is a Shrine World located in the Pollom System. A gargantuan mausoleum covers much of its main continent, where several of the blessed Imperial Saints who helped establish the sector are laid to rest in archeotech stasis chambers. Flocks of attendants work constantly to maintain the chronically entombed state, the idea of the saints becoming exposed to time too horrible to contemplate.Core Theta - An extreme Forge World, the Magos Biologis of this world continuously work on the edge of tech-heresy; in many cases, concerning the limits of the organic and not the technological. Their primary focus is constant experimentation upon the rigours of the flesh and the limits of organic life.Rhodin IV - Another notable Forge World, the Cult of the Machine God has occupied this world for several thousand standard years, ever since it was awarded to the Adeptus Mechanicus for its aid in repelling a nearby Ork uprising. Rich in promethium and other useful ores, this once verdant world has since become layered with plasteel and pollutants. Manufactoria many kilometres tall churn out a wide variety of armaments and munitions. Deep mines that weave through the planet's crust, so invasive that networks of cyclopean support beams are needed to buttress the immense weight of the manufactoria that cover the surface.Selvanus Binary - The trailing side of the Askellian Cyclopian Sub-sector is a vast expanse of open space. On its inner edge sits the Forge World of Selvanus Binary, known throughout Askellon for the high quality of its products. One of the smallest of four planets in a binary star system, it is the only one capable of supporting life. Even so, the forges have irrevocably altered the planet to suit their needs, by covering the surface in all manner of refineries and manufacturing centres. It is now a strongly polluted planet, toxic to any Human without protective gear or heavy cybernetic augmentations, and very inhospitable -- all as per the Omnissiah's wishes.Gregorn - A Feral World, Gregorn is a world of violence, where the primitive Human natives fight each other while struggling to survive against tectonic upheavals and predatory megafauna.Rund - Another notable Feral World of the sector, Rund has only recently been visited by the Missionaria Galaxia, who have begun spreading the Imperial Creed of the Emperor's holy words in a concentrated effort to rekindle the belief of those Humans long separated from the True Faith.Novabella - A relatively unsophisticated Agri-world, Novabella is an isolated but loyal provider for a significant portion of the local sub-sector's foodstuffs. This world has become an Adeptus Ministorum bastion devoted to tending crops and faith alike. From its start, it had been designated to support the Imperial war machine through the provision of food, not troops, given the relatively low population.Echonis Augury - This ancient void station originally served as a major Adeptus Mechanicus research site. Echonis Augury drifts along the sector's rim and away from regular void traffic. Hundreds of Tech-priests and servitors worked here to info-scour the surrounding parsecs in a secretive quest. Several standard centuries ago, a supply vessel arrived to find the station empty and barren. Since then it has become a popular trading post for Rogue Traders and common Imperial merchants alike. Hundreds live on it, with extended generations working to maintain and expand the site, all with occasional concerns over the fate of the previous occupants. |
Asmodai - Asmodai: Asmodai is the Master Interrogator-Chaplain of the Dark Angels Chapter of Space Marines and the leader of that grim order of Heretic-hunters. Also serving as the Chapter's "Master of Repentance," a title unique to the Dark Angels and the Unforgiven, Asmodai is at present the oldest and most successful Interrogator-Chaplain within the ranks of the Dark Angels.He is single-minded in his determination to force any of the Fallen Angels that come into his hands to repent. During his long career, he has only been able to make two Fallen repent of their sins. But those that fall into his capable hands cannot resist his finely honed and wicked craft, for it is said that his enemies would rather die than fall into his clutches.Brutal, uncompromising and to the point, Asmodai does not suffer fools, nor does he tolerate idleness of mind or spirit. In his obsession, which has grown with his age, Asmodai has become a living embodiment of duty, openly disdaining all that does not pertain to battle, the Chapter's goals, and ultimately, to the secret hunt that drives him. Whether on the battlefield, at council with the Inner Circle, or in the dungeons of The Rock administering to one of the heretical Fallen -- or anyone who might have information about them -- Asmodai is a merciless bringer of death, a true Dark Angel.Asmodai is rumoured to be able to horrifically torture a victim for solar weeks, keeping him or her alive to suffer the unspeakable torments of his brutal ministrations. Asmodai's relentless nature and single-minded pursuit of the Fallen balances on the border of what is morally defensible. Though Brother Asmodai's determination to force the Fallen that fall into his clutches to speak their secrets has aided the Chapter's most crucial and secret mission immeasurably, more than once Supreme Grand Master Azrael has been forced to censure Asmodai's demands, counteract his orders or cover up some of the Master Interrogator-Chaplain's more flagrant excesses.At some point during the Era Indomitus, Asmodai underwent the agonising surgery required to cross the Rubicon Primaris and he now serves the Emperor as a Primaris Space Marine.No other Dark Angel exemplifies the maxim "the end justifies the means" more than Asmodai, for in his unquenchable obsession, he is willing to sacrifice anything or anyone to capture another of the Fallen, and there is no boundary he will not cross to add another black pearl to his Rosarius. |
Asmodai - Origins: Fighting in Tactical Squad Ishmael of the 8th Company, Brother Asmodai was a well-regarded but unremarkable warrior. In late 405.M41, the Macharian Heresy was in full flow, with dozens of Imperial star systems in revolt. Asmodai was numbered amongst the seventy Dark Angels tasked with the suppression of a rebellious hive-moon orbiting the world of Ceti Albus.The task force landed upon Hive-Moon Sigma without confrontation, but upon entering the upper reaches of the mine-cities delved into the moon's rock they encountered swift and stern resistance. The populace, estimated to be several million in number, had been roused by some unknown demagogue to throw off the rule of the planet below. Many of them armed with little more than las-picks and rock claws, the labourers of Hive-Moon Sigma were nevertheless fervent and fearless in their attacks against the Dark Angels.Veteran Sergeant Elijah, commanding the punitive force, quickly realised that, while seventy Space Marines might eventually inflict enough casualties to break the will of the mutineers, it would take far too long; dozens of worlds in neighbouring systems were breaking from the Imperium following the collapse of Macharius' crusade. The Dark Angels needed to swiftly locate and eliminate the ringleaders if the rebellion was to be halted in time to confer a strategic advantage.Taking prisoners from amongst the worker gangs that assailed their position, the Dark Angels elicited such information as the rebels could reveal. Brother Asmodai proved on this occasion to have a talent for exerting pain and influence in equal measure, and it was from his questioning of a cell leader that the Dark Angels learned of the existence of the headquarters of the rebellion in the lower hive. They also had a name to attach to the firebrand rebel commander: Malvine Rhemell.The expedition into the hive depths was costly. The moon's hive city extended five kilometres beneath the surface and every level was contested bloodily by miners and their families who had been led to believe the Dark Angels had arrived to destroy their world. During two solar days of non-stop fighting, the Dark Angels slaughtered a path to within reach of the headquarters but had lost nearly a third of their number.Breaching the rebel stronghold, Asmodai and the rest of the force were met by the most fanatical of Rhemell's followers. These were the most able and devoted, hundreds-strong. Some of these die-hard Renegades drove ore grinders armoured with metal plates and armed with powerful Lascutters, plunging directly into the Dark Angels without relent or fear. Others fought within hydraulically-powered lifting suits stronger even than a Space Marine, fitted with plasma-burners, whirling chainblades and energy hammers capable of cracking open power armour. It was too late for the task force to withdraw, and with tens of thousands of hive workers close on their heels, Elijah ordered his Dark Angels to press on, though only thirty of them now remained. Asmodai was one of the first to break into Rhemell's inner sanctum. What he found there shaped the rest of his life.He was astounded to discover that Malvine Rhemell was another Space Marine. Worse still, he had been a Dark Angel long ago, but now he was one of the Fallen. The ancient warrior cut down Sergeant Elijah with three strikes from his Power Sword and crippled Asmodai with a lancing blow through the Space Marine's thigh. As more Dark Angels poured through the breach, Rhemell retreated under the cover of a prepared Melta Bomb explosion, collapsing part of the ceiling upon his pursuers.The surviving Dark Angels had no chance to follow as they came under repeated attack from Rhemell's followers. Solar minutes later, they received a transmission from their warship in orbit. The crew had registered a huge energy spike in the reactor-chain powering the Hive-Moon. Rhemell had set the plasma generatoria to overload to cover his escape.There was no option but to withdraw. Limping badly, Asmodai fought his way up through the hive city levels with the other survivors, racing against time to elude the Hive-Moon's destruction. Incensed by the treachery of Malvine Rhemell, Asmodai fought with a rage he had never felt before. Even wounded, he gunned down and hacked his way through the press of rebels that came upon him. One by one, the other Dark Angels fell, yet Asmodai was so possessed by his ire that he alone made it back to the surface.Returning to the ship, the battle-brother learned that a voidcraft had been detected leaving Hive-Moon Sigma, but the Rapid Strike Vessel had lost its power signature amongst the many orbital platforms and colonies. As the Dark Angels warship powered away from orbit, Hive-Moon Sigma destroyed itself, killing millions instantly and dooming millions more as debris showered down onto Ceti Albus.When Asmodai's superiors learned of his exploits, there was no option but to induct him into the higher echelons of the Chapter. He declined invitation to join the Ravenwing and Deathwing companies, and instead demanded that he be initiated as a Chaplain. When his induction was finally complete, as he finished his oaths of dedication to the Hunt for the Fallen, Asmodai added his own vow. He would find Malvine Rhemell and make him repent, or he would die in the attempt. It is an undertaking that he has yet to fulfil. |
Asmodai - First Response: Asmodai was soon elevated to the position of Interrogator-Chaplain, having shown more desire to bring the Fallen to justice than lead the warriors of the Chapter. With a determination that shamed others much his senior, Asmodai accompanied the Deathwing on any expedition that might bring rumour of his quarry. It was this dedication that saw Asmodai capture his first Fallen Angel in 411.M41.His name was Cephesus, and though Asmodai turned his considerable skills of excruciation and coercion upon him, he died without repenting his treachery. Frustrated, Asmodai became even more active and devoted, going to extraordinary lengths and risking himself and his warriors in extreme situations to capture his prey. He took captive three more Fallen over the next twenty-five standard years. Still, none would renounce their past heresies and Asmodai's superiors feared for the Chaplain, whose fervour was verging on the self-destructive.In an attempt to appease Asmodai's desperation, they granted him access to Sorl Mebbon, a Fallen who had been captured before Asmodai's rise to his rank who had stubbornly refused to die or confess. For eighteen solar days without rest, the Interogator-Chaplain interrogated Sorl Mebbon, inflicting hurt without measure, haranguing him constantly. Where others had failed, Asmodai finally succeeded, breaking Mebbon's spirit after one hundred and twenty-nine solar hours of unrelenting torment when thirty standard years of efforts by others had failed.Mebbon pleaded for forgiveness and repented every act he had committed against Lion El'Jonson and the Emperor. It is said that these words elicited a satisfied smile from the Interrogator-Chaplain; an expression that has been repeated only once -- when Asmodai drew forth the repentance of another Fallen, Ganiel. |
Asmodai - Unforgiving Zeal: In his quest to bring every Fallen to answer for their heresies, Asmodai has frequently stretched the patience of others in the Dark Angels' Inner Circle. The Supreme Grand Master Azrael has censured him often for his zealotry and has been forced on numerous occasions to move swiftly to protect the Chapter's reputation or cover up the Master Interrogator-Chaplain's actions, lest they lead others in the Imperium to learn of the Dark Angels' secret hunt.It was Asmodai that gave the order for the battle barge Spear of Truth to open fire on the city of Hostengard, driving the Fallen Angel Sark Andour out of hiding and into the wilds where he was located by the Ravenwing and taken prisoner during a Deathwing teleport assault. When challenged on the fifty thousand deaths the bombardment had caused, Asmodai told Azrael, "Better fifty thousand innocents die than one Traitor escapes justice."Azrael did not take kindly to this and, in rebuke, withdrew the Master Interrogator-Chaplain's command status for three standard years, sentencing him to serve under the Master of Recruits in the 10th Company so that he might learn some humility. The punishment lasted only six solar months, ending when the master of the 10th Company revealed that Asmodai had demanded the execution of every Scout drawn from the world of Narcium, accusing a whole generation of being gene-tainted due to their tardiness in answering his questions during instruction.It was also Asmodai who, upon hearing the frivolity of laughter in the halls of The Rock, placed the Penance of Silence upon the 7th Company for an entire Terran year. The company was unable to utter a sound save for hymnals and in-battle communications. However, such ardent discipline has its uses. Like any Adeptus Astartes Chaplain, Asmodai chants the Liturgies of Battle, preaching the purity of hate of the heretic, the mutant, the witch and the xenos to help each Dark Angel focus his rage and become a killing machine.In combat, Asmodai further exemplifies his zeal, inciting the fighting spirits of his battle-brothers to a fever pitch. It was Asmodai who led the forlorn hope to break into the Traitor of Rhun's palace and who inspired the impressive stand when his forces were isolated on the Daemon World of Amity.This, and similar episodes, have not softened Asmodai's approach in the slightest. He has made enemies of countless Imperial servants of all ranks, attracted the unwelcome attention of the Inquisition and even brought the Dark Angels to the brink of war with several other Space Marine Chapters. Most perilous of these latter events followed a foray into the Narthex Nebula that saw the Dark Angels fighting alongside companies from the Silver Eagles Chapter to cleanse several Imperial worlds from Ork enslavement.The campaign began well, with four planets liberated in the first standard year of the conflict. During the joint attack on the fifth system, Calva Senioris, Asmodai heard word of a remarkable warrior leading the resistance against the Ork oppressors. Asmodai took command of the Dark Angels force, usurping Master Charon with threats of censure when the company captain protested.Abandoning the offensive against the Ork-held capital, Asmodai led the Dark Angels against the resistance encampment, killing everybody they found. The "remarkable warrior" was not one of the Fallen, and turned out instead to be an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos who had been on Calva Senioris to warn of Ork aggression when the Greenskins had attacked. Meanwhile, the Silver Eagles had been surrounded, their flank left unprotected by the Dark Angels' absence, and half of them had been slain. Master Charon reasserted his command and led the force on a desperate counter-attack to relieve the Dark Angels' beleaguered fellow Space Marines, arriving in time to assist the last one-hundred-and-ninety warriors.The matter might have ended there had not the Inquisitor returned to the Silver Eagles' homeworld with the devastated companies, informing their Chapter Master of what had happened and requesting the Silver Eagles assist him in chastising the Dark Angels for their behaviour. Understandably reluctant to declare war on the descendants of the I Legion of ancient fame, Chapter Master Periphas first sent emissaries to The Rock to ask for an explanation and recompense.Azrael himself was forced to attend to Periphas' demands, a mission which took him away from the Tower of Angels for a considerable time. Meanwhile, during Azrael's absence, Asmodai was restricted to his chambers and the chapel. On his return, the Supreme Grand Master asked if Asmodai had any regrets over what had happened, to which the Interrogator-Chaplain only replied that he regretted not killing the Inquisitor when he had the opportunity. |
Asmodai - Relentless Endeavour: For all the ill caused to the Dark Angels by Asmodai's uncompromising manner, his zeal also brings success, and it is for this success that he is tolerated. Whether by example or exhortation, the Master Interrogator-Chaplain has turned defeat into victory on numerous occasions. His utter contempt for anything other than total dedication ensures that commanders fighting alongside him apply themselves with nothing less than absolute fidelity. Space Marines may know no fear caused by the enemy, but the Dark Angels perhaps fear rebuke from Asmodai, dreading his wrath far more than death in battle.At Scarn's Bluff, when the Dark Angels' 5th Company found themselves with their backs to mile-high cliffs following a counterattack by a warband of World Eaters, it was Asmodai that led the breakout; he concluded the battle by chopping the head from the warband's Chaos Champion with the Traitor's own chainaxe.Asmodai single-handedly stormed the barbican of Helican's Citadel when the Meta-heretics of Alicantus Nocturnis unleashed the power of their moon-singers. He took the towers and opened the gates to allow the Ravenwing to pierce the heart of the enemy fortress, slaying the despicable sorcerers.Again and again, Asmodai has proven to be the unstoppable force needed to break the enemy. He insisted that the Dark Angels respond to the encroachment of Hive Fleet Leviathan, leading several companies against the Tyranids. He met briefly with Chaplain Ortan Cassius of the Ultramarines during this expedition and said of his contemporary, "He knows a lot about killing aliens, which is no bad thing" -- one of the few compliments Asmodai has ever paid to anybody.The Interrogator-Chaplain led the boarding attack against the Desecrator-class Battleship Sorrow's Embrace, storming the engine decks to place Melta charges on the plasma reactors before withdrawing.He also held the line at Carpathia Sound, with only two dozen fellow Dark Angels. They fought on for three solar days against a screaming tide of Asteorian scentfangs, rasptongues, slitterwings and daggerclaws whilst the soldiers of the Astra Militarum's Cadian 64th were rallied for a counter-attack.Whether on the offensive or defensive, Asmodai's unyielding righteousness continues to inspire the Dark Angels to victory after seemingly impossible victory. Across countless battlefields, his reputation alone has struck fear into the hearts of the most hardened foes. With his matchless determination and will of iron, Asmodai ensures the Deathwing's mission is always completed. |
Asmodai - Arks of Omen Campaign: During the siege of the Rock in the Arks of Omen Campaign of the Era Indomitus, Asmodai took part in the defence of the Dark Angels' mobile fortress-monastery against the forces of Chaos led by the Greater Daemon of Chaos Undivided Vashtorr.After the battle, Asmodai oversaw the interrogation of those Heretic Astartes captured during the siege to learn what he could about Vashtorr's plans. Shortly thereafter Vashtorr was identified as dwelling within the Idolatros System of the Somnium Stars in realspace, and Asmodai led three-quarters of the forces of the Unforgiven Chapters there where they engaged Vashtorr's forces in the Battle of Idolatros. |
Asmodai - Wargear: Artificer Armour (Sized for Primaris Space Marine)Crozius Arcanum - The Crozius Arcanum is the sacred rod of office carried by all Space Marine Chaplains. Within the Crozius Arcanum is a generator that produces a powerful energy field capable of disrupting matter in the same manner as a Power Weapon. Chaplains are powerful warriors, and the blows struck with a Crozius Arcanum can overwhelm nearly any defence.Rosarius - A Rosarius is a gorget or amulet worn by Space Marine Chaplains which traditionally bears the symbol of the Imperial Aquila or Crux Terminatus and is the Chaplain's "soul armour" bestowed upon him by the Ecclesiarchy of Terra. Asmodai's Rosarius also contains a Conversion Field generator that adds to his protection from the blows and weapons fire of his foes.Skull Helm - One of the most iconic elements of any Chaplain's wargear is his macabre skull helm, a stern visage that depicts the face of the Emperor mordant upon the Golden Throne, evoking the Master of Mankind's wrath. These helms may take many different forms and have been crafted by numerous Space Marine artificers across the galaxy. Universally, however, they are all fearsome in aspect.Sacred Standards - Interrogator-Chaplains like Asmodai are the custodians of the Dark Angels' holy relics, including such sacred standards as the Standard of Fortitude, the Standard of Devastation, and the Standard of Retribution.Bolt Pistol or Plasma PistolMaster-crafted Power SwordFrag GrenadesKrak GrenadesBlades of Reason - This is an ancient and horrific bladed device, full of arcane cruelty and the sorrow of Mankind. Its many sharply honed and well-polished blades are etched with scriptures of repentance in the tongue of Old Caliban, and criss-crossing the weapon's head are cables and fine neural-wires, mystic science that amplifies pain to agonies beyond endurance. With this archaic weapon of torture, Asmodai attempts to extract confessions from captured Fallen during interrogations in an attempt to save the doomed prisoner's soul through his expert and painful ministrations.Augmetic hand - Asmodai lost the fingers of his right hand while defending his prisoner, the Fallen Cypher, from an assault by the Deathwing's Grand Master Belial. The Chapter's Techmarines later removed the rest of his hand, as it was easier to fit a full augmetic prosthesis rather than just replace the fingers. |
Asmodai - Trivia: Asmodai is named for Asmodeus, also called Asmodai, who is a king of both the tutelary spirits called daemons and the malevolent entities called demons and the primary antagonist of the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit from the Old Testament of the Bible, as well as featuring in several other ancient Hebrew and Christian texts. He is one of the Seven Princes of Hell and the embodiment of the deadly sin of lust. This demon is also mentioned in some Talmudic legends; for instance, in the story of the construction of the Temple of Solomon. In Islam, he is identified with the "puppet" mentioned in the Quran. |
Asmodai - Sources: Arks of Omen: Vashtorr (9th Edition), pg. 31Arks of Omen: The Lion (9th Edition), pg. 14Codex Adeptus Astartes - Dark Angels (8th Edition), pp. 31, 80Codex: Angels of Death (2nd Edition), pp. 15, 26, 35, 41, 72, 82Codex: Dark Angels (3rd Edition), pp. 7, 20Codex: Dark Angels (4th Edition), pp. 37, 80Codex: Dark Angels (6th Edition), pg. 55Index Astartes II, "For the Emperor - Space Marne Chaplains", pg. 59Warlords of the Dark Millennium: Asmodai, pp. 3-4, 6-10, 12-17, 23-27White Dwarf 208 (US), "Faith and Vengeance: Space Marine Chaplain Background and Tactics - Interrogator-Chaplains: Dark Angels", pp. 78-86White Dwarf 227 (US), "Chapter Approved - Space Marines: Dark Angels, Asmodai, Interrogator-Chaplain", pp. 73-80White Dwarf 266 (UK), "Angels of Death"Pandorax (Novel) by C.Z. DunnUnforgiven (Novel) by Gav Thorpe, Part I, Ch. 13Asmodai Large Art, Former Games Workshop Site (Dead Site)Warhammer Community - World Championships Preview – Asmodai Demands to Know Which Codexes are Coming Next |
Aspect Shrine - Aspect Shrine: An Aspect Shrine is a cult of Aeldari Aspect Warriors of a specific specialty that practice the mastery of their chosen Warrior Path. Each Aspect upon an Asuryani Craftworld keeps at least one shrine.The Path of the Warrior teaches the arts of death and destruction. Such is the dark nature of the Aeldari psyche that the Warrior Path draws most of them onto it at some point in their long lives. In aeons past, the ancient Phoenix Lords taught the arts of war to both males and females, and as a result Aeldari warriors are as likely to come from either sex.As with many of the more complex Paths, the Warrior Path is divided into multiple separate branches. Each of these is known as a Warrior Aspect, representing a different facet of the war god Khaine, and bringing with it unique fighting techniques, weapons and abilities.When the Aeldari go to war, the Warrior Aspects fight in a predetermined role associated with their shrine. They have their own warrior garb, a form of ritual battle suit, and distinctive weaponry. |
Aspect Shrine - History: The Aeldari are a race beset on all sides. Would that it were not this way, for Aeldari generations are few and far between. Every life lost in battle will only have been sacrificed because there was no other choice, and at great cost to the enemy. Young Aeldari often believe they can rebuild the glory of their lost empire with fire and passion, but in fact their shattered civilisation is locked in a deadly struggle for survival. Because of this unavoidable truth, more and more Aeldari walk the Warrior Path with every passing Terran year, setting aside their peacetime crafts to learn the arts of Khaine.Many are the ways in which the Bloody-Handed God waged war upon his foes. For each aspect of Khaine, the Craftworld Aeldari, the Asuryani, have created a shrine to the art of killing. When they go to war, the Warrior Aspects fight in a predetermined role associated with their shrine. They have their own warrior garb, a ritual battle suit, and distinctive weaponry.Their minds and bodies are honed with endless exercise until they become suffused with the Aspect of Khaine their shrine represents. In battle, each squad plays its own part with the artistry of a virtuoso, combining its talents with those of the other squads of its shrine. When war's call resounds loudest, the shrines go to battle in three-pronged Aspect Hosts that combine their abilities in a symphony of destruction.For all their puissant skill, when they put aside their ritual masks and wargear, the Aspect Warriors walk at peace through their Craftworld. Only the keepers of each shrine, the Exarchs, live always within them. Aeldari Exarchs are the war aspects of Khaine embodied. They are the high priests of the Bloody-Handed God and the teachers of his creed.Only those Aeldari who are completely lost upon the Path of the Warrior become Exarchs. This process only rarely occurs, but once it has taken place it can never be reversed. It happens as a result of the repeated exhilaration of battle -- a feeling so strong it can leave an indelible imprint upon the psyche.In theory, Aspect Warriors learn how to control and compartmentalise their warrior-selves, putting on and casting aside their blood-hungry persona just as they don or put down their ritual wargear, a process known as "putting on the war mask." When an Aspect Warrior loses this ability to dissociate himself from the killer-self, he becomes an Exarch, held in both fear and awe by those he once called kin.Exarchs do not leave their shrines except in times of war or high conclave. Even the smallest of these shrines are extensive structures or hidden otherworlds dedicated to training, instruction, and ceremony. Each has its own armoury and its own inner sanctum where the Exarchs administer the rites of war before the altar of Khaine.It is here that the Exarchs recite battle songs of old, marking their warriors' bodies with runes of blood before they don their armour and take up their weapons. In this way, Exarchs guide their fellow Aeldari along the Path of the Warrior.An Exarch wears an elaborate and often ancient version of the ritual Aspect Warrior armour. He boosts his already superhuman abilities with arcane wargear, and wears upon his suit the Spirit Stones that contain the departed spirits of all the suit's previous Exarchs. Each Exarch assumes the sacred name associated with this suit, and his spirit mingles with those Aeldari who have borne it since the shrine's inception.It is the presence of this spirit-pool of raw psychic energy that gives the suit and warrior -- for the two are indistinguishable -- their special warrior powers. Thus, an Aspect Warrior who becomes an Exarch is reborn as a living legend, the heroic ideal of that Aspect forged in new flesh.The weapons of the Exarchs are extremely potent; an extension of their Aspect's particular niche taken to a deadly extreme. When the Exarchs of the Aeldari take the field en masse there is no force they cannot overcome, and no enemy they cannot kill.The fathers of the Aspect Shrines, the Phoenix Lords, take this strange immortality to the extreme. Upon their death their suits lie empty, gathering the dust of ages, until worthy Exarchs find them. In donning the hallowed suit, the Exarch becomes a part of the suit's gestalt soul, and the Phoenix Lord rises once more to lead the armies of the Aeldari race. |
Aspect Shrine - Sources: Codex: Eldar Craftworlds (7th Edition), pp. 18, 21-22, 31, 84, 96, 221, 332Codex: Eldar (6th Edition), pp. 21, 69, 82, 86, 99, 108, 115, 120, 185, 189, 193, 197, 201, 274, 276, 288, 302, 312, 322, 338, 350 |
Aspect Warriors - Aspect Warriors: Aspect Warriors are those Craftworld Aeldari or Asuryani who specialise in certain aspects of combat during their time on the Path of the Warrior. The Asuryani are known to pursue any task they set out to do with an intensity that makes Human efforts pale in comparison.When an Asuryani feels called to the Path of the Warrior, he or she will join an Aspect Shrine, a cult of warriors who train themselves to embody some aspect of the Aeldari War God Khaine or ancient Aeldari myths and legends.All Asuryani craftworlds maintain at least some Aspect Shrines, although some, notably the Biel-Tan craftworld, have more than others and place a greater emphasis on the Path of the Warrior in their society.The following table lists all known Asuryani Warrior Aspects and their roles in the Aeldari order of battle:Aspect NamePhoenix LordBattlefield RoleDire AvengersAsurmen, the Hand of AsuryanGeneral CombatHowling BansheesJain Zar, the Storm of SilenceMelee CombatStriking ScorpionsKarandras, the Shadow HunterMelee Combat, StealthDark ReapersMaugan Ra, the Harvester of SoulsLong-Ranged Fire SupportFire DragonsFuegan, the Burning LanceAnti-Armour, Anti-Structure roleSwooping HawksBaharroth, the Cry of the WindAirborne InfantryWarp SpidersUnknownHit-and-Run AttacksShining SpearsDrastanta, the Tempest of StarlightHit-and-Run AttacksCrimson HuntersUnknownAir Superiority, Combat PilotsEagle PilotAmon HarakhtAsuryani Fighter PilotsCrystal DragonsUnknownUnknownSlicing Orbs of ZandrosUnknownUnknownShadow SpectresIrillyth, the Shade of TwilightAnti-ArmourEbon TalonsUnknownUnknown |
Aspect Warriors - Exarchs: Each Aspect Shrine is led by an Exarch, an Aeldari fallen to the curse of inability to leave the Path of the Warrior. These Exarchs are powerful warriors, doomed to either die on the battlefield, or to eventually be chosen to become the Avatar of Khaine. The first member or founder of an Aspect Shrine is called a Phoenix Lord.When an Aspect Warrior becomes an Exarch, they will don one of the ancient suits of Exarch armour that belong to that shrine, and this suit will bond to their flesh permanently.This means that the new warrior's soul merges with those of the previous wearers of the suit, which is essentially a compact and mobile version of the craftworld's Infinity Circuit. |
Aspect Warriors - Leaving the Warrior's Path: Once an Aeldari warrior finishes their time as an Aspect Warrior, he or she moves on to other occupations, as called for by the conventions of the Asuryani Path. Since the population of the surviving Aeldari race is so low, all Aeldari are expected to serve if called to fight.Thus, if a craftworld subsequently goes to war, these former Aspects will frequently be called upon to serve as Guardians, a type of citizen-soldier serving as part of a militia to defend the craftworld. |
Aspect Warriors - Dire Avengers: The Dire Avengers are the oldest and most numerous Aspect Warriors. They are armed with Shuriken Catapults, an effective if short-ranged weapon, and perform as elite troops. The Exarch can be equipped to improve the squads' close combat abilities.The Phoenix Lord of the Dire Avengers is Asurmen, the Hand of Asur. He was the first of the Phoenix Lords and the greatest, who instructed all the other founding Phoenix Lords in the skills of combat. |
Aspect Warriors - Dark Reapers: The Dark Reapers represent the Aeldari War God Khaine in his aspect as a destroyer, and specialize in long-range firepower. Their standard weapon is a Reaper Launcher which is a powerful, long ranged weapon that fires several small missiles at the target.Their Exarch can be equipped with more powerful weapons, such as a Missile Launcher or Shuriken Cannon. The Phoenix Lord of the Dark Reapers is Maugan Ra, the Harvester of Souls. |
Aspect Warriors - Eagle Pilots: An Eagle Pilot is an Aeldari Aspect Warrior who follows the Warrior Path of the Phoenix Lord Amon Harakht, of whom almost nothing is known. Like their fellow airborne Aspect Warriors, the Swooping Hawks, the Eagle Pilots take exultant pleasure in the arts of aerial combat.These Aeldari are superb pilots of any type of Aeldari aircraft or spacecraft, but especially excel in the aerial arts of war. Their skill and artistry in flight is nearly unmatched by the combat pilots of any other species, as they take to the skies in their Nightwing interceptors or Phoenix strike aircraft. |
Aspect Warriors - Fire Dragons: The Fire Dragons specialize in short-range firepower and anti-tank warfare. They carry a Fusion Gun and Melta Bombs, both excellent weapons for dealing with vehicles, and have Grenade Launchers built into their armour. The Fusion Gun is also very effective against heavy infantry such as Space Marine Terminators, but is limited by its short range.The Exarch can be given a Fire Pike, a stronger Fusion Gun with better range, and skills to make him an excellent tank-killer, as well as a highly dangerous melee combatant. The Phoenix Lord of the Fire Dragons is Fuegan, the Burning Lance. |
Aspect Warriors - Howling Banshees: The Howling Banshees are a close combat Aspect made up primarily of female Aeldari. The Howling Banshees are equipped with a Shuriken Pistol and a melee Power Weapon, usually an Aeldari blade. As the Power Weapon can easily slice through armour, the Banshees are very effective against well-armoured opponents like Space Marines in close combat.They also wear a Banshee Mask, which alters their already naturally-piercing war cries into sonic screams that can burst eardrums and incapacitate foes, leaving them open to attack. This scream, when focused at a single target, can also be deadly on its own.Howling Banshees can deliver a devastating first strike, but if they get mired in long-duration combat, attrition will work against them. The Exarch can be armed with an Executioner which boosts her strength. The Phoenix Lord of the Howling Banshees is Jain Zar, the Storm of Silence. |
Aspect Warriors - Shadow Spectres: Once a disciple of Asurmen, the first of the Aeldari Phoenix Lords, the Shadow Spectres' Phoenix Lord Irillyth, the Shade of Twilight, founded the Shrine of the Shadow Spectres on the Craftworld of Mymeara. Drawn to the small Craftworld in response to a vision of doom and horror, Irillyth gifted the skills of stealth, swiftness and all-consuming firepower to the warriors of Mymeara.After many Terran years, the Phoenix Lord led a great war host to the legend-shrouded world of Bethalmae to destroy an alien race that would, many thousands of Terran years later, arise to threaten Craftworld Mymeara.Neither he nor any of his warhost ever returned to the Craftworld, and with the loss of their Phoenix Lord, the Shadow Spectre Aspect fell into decline until just recently. The Shadow Spectres specialise in the deployment of highly-mobile, infantry-based anti-armour firepower and are experts at striking at enemy vehicles from concealment and extreme long-range.Armed with Prism Rifles, each a potent anti-tank weapon, and equipped with Jetpacks, their mobility allows them to hunt down their chosen targets with the implacable patience of the dead, materialising seemingly from the very air to unleash their overwhelming firepower. The Shadow Spectres represent the Aeldari God of War Kaela Mensha Khaine in his aspect as the bringer of unexpected death on the battlefield. |
Aspect Warriors - Shining Spears: The Shining Spears are a fast-attack Aspect. They ride Aeldari jetbikes and are armed with a Laser Lance, giving them high mobility and a strong charge attack. They are limited by their small squad sizes.The Exarch can be armed with a Bright Lance, providing an accurate but very expensive anti-tank unit. The Phoenix Lord of the Shining Spears is Drastanta, the Tempest of Starlight. |
Aspect Warriors - Striking Scorpions: The Striking Scorpions are another close-combat Aspect. They are armed with Aeldari Chainswords, Shuriken Pistols and Mandiblasters. They have better armour than the other Aspects, and are generally physically stronger than most Aeldari. These characteristics allow them to work very well against a large number of weaker opponents.The Striking Scorpions are also effective against stronger opponents, but their relative physical fragility works against them in that situation. The Striking Scorpions Exarch can be armed with a Biting Blade which is effective against a few enemies, and a Scorpion's Claw, which combines a Powerfist and a Shuriken Catapult. The Phoenix Lord of the Striking Scorpions is Karandras, the Shadow Hunter. |
Aspect Warriors - Swooping Hawks: The Swooping Hawks are a highly mobile Aspect who serve as the Aeldari equivalent of airborne infantry. Equipped with an anti-gravity Jump Pack crafted with stylised wings, they can move rapidly across the battlefield, dropping grenades upon the enemy before swooping in for the kill.Their weapons are not that powerful, and they are best employed as a flanking unit. The Exarch can be enhanced with certain melee weapons and powerful, close ranged weapons to become devastating in close combat. The Phoenix Lord of the Swooping Hawks is Baharroth, the Cry of the Wind. |
Aspect Warriors - Warp Spiders: The Warp Spiders are another highly mobile Aspect, equipped with a Warp Spider Jump Generator which allows them to jump into and out of the Warp, avoiding any obstacles in their way in realspace. This Warp-jumping is considered extremely dangerous, as it might attract the attention of daemons.Since they do not have to run all over the battlefield, the Warp Spiders make use of stronger armour than most other Aspects. Their armour makes use of built-in Warp shielding similar to the Imperial Gellar Fields that protect them during their Warp-jumps and, as an added bonus, makes them highly resistant to psyker attacks since they use Warp energy.Warp Spiders are armed with Death Spinners, which fire a net of monomolecular threads which slice into the flesh of the foe even as it entangles them. The Warp Spider Exarch can be given the ability to withdraw from combat, enhancing the Warp Spiders' survivability. The Warp Spiders have no known Phoenix Lord. |
Aspiring Champion - Aspiring Champion: Aspiring Champions of Chaos are veteran warriors of Chaos, usually but not always corrupted Astartes, who lead a squad of Chaos Space Marines or other Chaos warriors into battle but remain under the command of a true Champion of Chaos or an even more powerful Chaos Lord.Space Marines are superhuman in almost every way, and this holds true for their treasonous brethren as well. Amongst the Traitor Legions, however, there are those who stand apart.These Traitor Legionaries show the traits of true leadership, honed keen by the constant struggle to maintain control over warbands of Heretic Astartes. |
Aspiring Champion - The Road to Power: Chaos is attractive for the simple reason that it offers enormous power to those willing to turn away from the light of the Emperor and dedicate themselves in body and soul to the Ruinous Powers. For many who walk its dark path, it offers the only hope of betterment in a galaxy ruled by an often oppressive human Imperium where opportunities for true happiness and advancement are the prerogatives of only a tiny, privileged minority, and where the only escape from literal starvation or persecution by a tyrannical and uncaring bureaucracy lies in the egalitarian favours of Chaos.For unlike the Imperium of Man and so many of the other servants of Order in the galaxy, Chaos judges its servants on merit and skill alone and rewards them for their successes or failures harshly, but accordingly. In fact, many of those who serve the Dark Gods would claim that only Chaos offers true justice to the peoples bound into the corrupt and dying realm ruled over by the "Corpse Emperor."The road to power begins when a person offers themselves up body and soul to Chaos: either to an individual Chaos God or to Chaos Undivided as a whole. Not all who choose to dedicate themselves to Chaos are accepted. Often it takes a spectacular deed of courage to attract the attention of the Dark Gods.If the candidate is accepted he receives a Mark of Chaos from the Chaos God who serves as his patron or from Chaos Undivided if he serves the basic agenda of all the Chaos Gods. This is the patron's own Mark, and each Mark confers some ability, mutational "gift" or special characteristic to its recipient.Once an Aspiring Champion receives the Mark he begins to attract followers from among the lesser servants of Chaos. The Chaos Powers use their Champions to further their aims in the material universe. The Aspiring Champion's life becomes an endless series of battles, raids and quests.As the Champion serves Chaos he becomes increasingly altered physically through the mutations or so-called "gifts" granted by his patron. The road to power ends eventually either in the Champion being reduced to a mindless and formless mutant Chaos Spawn if he fails to achieve his patron's objectives or raised to daemonhood as an immortal and powerful Daemon Prince, a living extension of the will of the Dark Gods.These Aspiring Champions are leaders in the making, adorning their armour with trophies from the slain and wielding ancient and potent weapons that may date back to the Heresy itself. They burn with ambition, aspiring to become more powerful champions amongst their fellows. However, only the most brutal and skilled can survive to become Chaos Lords.The most powerful and ruthless Aspiring Champions strive to win a coveted suit of Tactical Dreadnought Armour. Such armour makes them virtually immune to all but the most powerful weapons and allows them to easily wield weapons even a Traitor Legionary in Power Armour could not carry.However, such suits are extremely rare and the most common way for an Aspiring Champion to win one is to challenge and slay an existing Terminator in combat. Amongst a band of Chaos Terminators, one usually emerges as the leader. This Terminator Champion is typically an egotistical, brutish man, and someone whom the other Terminators aspire to become.The most powerful Champions are the Chaos Lords -- men with vision and strength to bind both the wills of their brethren and the forces of Chaos to their will. They are strong, charismatic leaders with indomitable will and keen martial prowess, and are often found leading massive warbands, pirate fleets, worlds, or even massive Black Crusades against the Imperium. These are some, though not all, of the Champions one may encounter amongst the ranks of the Traitor Legions.All Chaos Champions are mortal and can be killed, although this is always a dangerous undertaking as they are powerful foes. A Chaos Champion's followers are known as a Chaos warband.Warbands are deadly rivals to each other, fighting amongst themselves to gain the attention of their Chaos patrons. Even followers of the same Chaos God are usually deadly rivals in an endless war of all-against-all, which is the way of Chaos. Sometimes shaky alliances are formed by extremely powerful Champions. The truly successful are rewarded with immortality and are elevated to the rank of an immortal Daemon Prince. |
Assault Bike - Assault Bike: The Assault Bike, also known as the Space Marine Bike, is a light vehicle that is used throughout the Imperium by most Adeptus Astartes Chapters, and even by Renegade and Chaos Space Marines.The Assault Bike is an extremely powerful machine, and is capable of propelling a fully armoured Space Marine at dizzying speeds while remaining responsive enough to perform a full-range of death-defying combat maneuvers. There are tales of experienced Space Marine Bikers who have driven their bikes through solid rockcrete walls at full speed without harm.Assault Bikes usually operate in Bike Squads of up to eight and are used for fast-moving assault missions, intelligence gathering, infiltration, and general reconnaissance.When Assault Bikes are used for assault missions they will attack the enemy at incredible speeds, using both surprise and unstoppable momentum to rip through enemy formations.Before the enemy can regroup and go on the defensive, the Astartes Bikers will turn around and attack once again from an unexpected direction.Bike Squad tactical strikes are often likened to thunderbolts, as by the time the enemy hears their approach, the damage has already been done.In order for Space Marine Bikers to use their mechanical steeds at maximum efficiency they must function flawlessly as one, and to this end the Codex Astartes dictates that all Assault Marines, Scouts, and the entire 6th Company of a Chapter must master the art of mounted warfare as part of their training regimen.There are several Chapters that take this further, with every Space Marine in the Chapter being required to maintain his mounted training, even if the Space Marine has long since passed into the ranks of the Chapter's 1st Company.There is no Astartes Chapter that better exemplifies this philosophy better than the White Scars, who proudly employ Assault Bike Squads as the main body of their strike forces.There are many other Chapters who are less enamored of an Assault Bike's tactical value, and prefer to send their assault forces into combat in Rhinos and Razorbacks instead. |
Assault Bike - History: The Assault Bike, along with its Attack Bike variant, have been used by the Adeptus Astartes since the dawn of the Imperium. The Space Marine Legions that fought during the Great Crusade maintained entire companies of Assault Bikes as part of their Legion Outrider Squads for lightning fast attacks on their enemies. These vehicles were deployed during the Horus Heresy by both Loyalist and Traitor Legions alike.During the Heresy many Legion Outrider Squads deploying Assault Bikes were used by the Traitor Legions to hunt down Loyalist survivors of the virus-bombing of Istvaan III, and the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V.During the Siege of Terra, the White Scars Legion and their expert use of Assault and Attack Bikes helped keep the Traitor Legions away from the walls of the Imperial Palace, and after the walls were breached they were successful in capturing the Lion's Gate Starport and denied the Traitors many of their reinforcements.Following the death of the Arch-traitor Horus, the Traitor Legions made a hasty retreat from Terra into the Eye of Terror, all the while being harried from world to world by White Scars Bike Squads. |
Assault Bike - Armament: The standard Assault Bike used by both the Adeptus Astartes and the Chaos Space Marines is armed with twin-linked Bolters that are attached to the Bike's forward armour cowling, fixed to fire in the direction of travel.The sheer amount of Bolter shells that can be brought to bear at whatever target that might stand in the way is often enough to make the enemy break and run before a Bike has even reached them.While the Assault Bike itself is only lightly armed by most Adeptus Astartes vehicle standards, the vehicle's real firepower comes from its rider, who is always equipped with Frag Grenades, and can also employ Krak Grenades.The rider is usually also equipped with a Bolt Pistol and a Chainsword, and can optionally make use of Flamers, Grav-Guns, Meltaguns, and Plasma Guns.Bike Squad Sergeants, and sometimes regular Battle-Brothers from very well-equipped Chapters may also possess Hand Flamers, Infernus Pistols, Plasma Pistols, Grav-Pistols, Power Swords, Powerfists, Lightning Claws, Combi-Weapons, and Melta Bombs.There are several less common Assault Bike armaments, such as Bikes adapted to be used by Chaplains, or to accept non-standard upgrades such as Smoke Launchers.Assault Bikes used by Chaos Space Marines are usually equipped with the same Bike-mounted and rider-carried weaponry as their Loyalist counterparts, but there are some Chaos Space Marine Bikers that add various items and weapons to their vehicles, such as Doom Sirens, Chaos Icons, and spikes and hooks for cutting and impaling anyone who gets too close.Chaos Bikers also make use of weapons that have long since vanished from most Space Marine armouries, such as Power Scythes and Chain Axes.During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras of the late 30th and early 31st Millennia, Assault Bikes could be equipped with weapons that are no longer commonly used by the Adeptus Astartes in the late 41st Millennium, such as twin-linked Flamers, twin-linked Meltaguns, and twin-linked Plasma Guns used in place of the standard twin-linked Bolters. |
Assault Bike - Unit Composition: 2-7 Space Marine Bikers on Assault Bikes with 1 Space Marine Biker Sergeant or 1 Veteran Space Marine Biker Sergeant on an Assault Bike and 2 Space Marine Bikers on a single Attack Bike |
Assault Bike - Wargear: Each Biker and Sergeant in a Space Marine Bike Squad is armed and equipped with:Bolt PistolFrag GrenadesKrak GrenadesTwin-linked Bolters (Assault Bike)Twin-linked Bolters and a sidecar-mounted Heavy Bolter (Attack Bike)A Space Marine Sergeant or Veteran Sergeant may replace his Bolt Pistol with one the following weapons:ChainswordLightning ClawPower AxePower SwordPower FistPower MaulThunder HammerBolterStorm BolterCombi-WeaponGrav PistolPlasma PistolAny Space Marine Biker may replace his Bolt Pistol with the following:ChainswordUp to two Space Marine Bikers may replace their Bolt Pistols with the following:FlamerGrav-GunMeltagunPlasma GunAn included Attack Bike may replace its side car-mounted Heavy Bolter with the following:Multi-Melta |
Assault Bike - Formations: The following is a list of all known Adeptus Astartes battle formations that include Assault Bikes:Venator Kill Team - A Venator Kill Team is a formation used by the Deathwatch, the Chamber Militant of the Inquisition's Ordo Xenos. A Venator Kill Team consists of a squad of Deathwatch Veterans, a squadron of Deathwatch Bikers on Assault Bikes, and any number and combination of Deathwatch Librarians, Deathwatch Terminators and Vanguard Veterans. A Venator team is assembled when the Deathwatch must face a foe too agile or manoeuvrable for a more conventional strike force to contain it. Where such a xenos army could run rings around an armoured division or Gladius demi-company, the Venator team turns the enemy assault on its head, its bike-mounted warriors hurtling in wide sweeps to encircle the foe in their turn. When their designated quarry is located, the Bikers share the data of their previous forays with the rest of their team. It is then that cold vigilance turns to fiery, red-hot fury. As the bikers finally open fire, the weapon systems borne by the rest of the team's Veterans send salvos blasting in on the coordinates set by their bike-mounted brethren -- no matter how fast their prey, the pinpoint vengeance of these volleys strikes home with killing force.Ravenwing Attack Squadron - The Ravenwing Attack Squadron consists of one Ravenwing Assault Bike Squadron or one Ravenwing Attack Bike Squadron and one Ravenwing Land Speeder Squadron or a single Land Speeder Vengeance. Dust clouds billow behind the Ravenwing Attack Squadron as it hurtles into battle. Striking swiftly, the 2nd Company huntsmen drive hard into the midst of the enemy, many foes falling before they even realise their danger. With massed firepower, the Attack Squadron mow their victims down in huge numbers. They plough a bloody furrow through the heart of battle, bursting from the foe's rear ranks before wheeling about and diving back into the fray once more. It is these high-speed attacks for which the Ravenwing are rightly feared, yet this is not the only trick they have to play. Should some vital quarry be sighted, or a mighty enemy strongpoint need to be purged, the hunters activate their Teleport Homers and -- amid a crackling storm of light -- summon the merciless warriors of the Deathwing to join the fight. |
Assault Bike - Assault Bike Variants: The Assault Bike, like many other Imperial vehicles, has over the years had numerous variant patterns created by the Adeptus Mechanicus or various Space Marine Chapter Armouries with a wide array of different weapon and feature combinations. Out of these many variants those officially recognised by the Adeptus Mechanicus and most commonly employed by Astartes Chapters are featured below:Attack Bike - The Attack Bike is the most common variant of the Assault Bike and has been is use by the Adeptus Astartes since the Great Crusade. The Attack Bike adds a sidecar to the bike that is equipped with a heavy weapon and a passenger seat. The heavy weapon is operated by the vehicle's passenger and when an Attack Bike is attached to an Assault Bike squad it is used to add heavy firepower in the form of either a Heavy Bolter or a Multi-Melta. There are several Chapters that field Attack Bikes as part of their own, separate squads instead of attaching them to Assault Bike Squads.Scout Bike - During the final stages of a Space Marine Scout's training he is attached to a Scout Bike squadron. Scout Bike Squads are usually deployed as fast-moving reconnaissance and disruption units. These squads will operate outside of the chain-of-command and will only answer to their commanding Sergeant. Scout Bike squadrons are commonly used behind enemy lines to lay cluster-mine traps, call down orbital bombardments, and teleport homers to allow squads to deep-strike behind enemy lines. Space Marine Scout Bikes are nearly the same in all ways to the standard pattern of Assault Bike, except they are outfitted with lighter armour and quieter, baffled engines. Scout Bikes can also be armed with an Astartes Grenade Launcher instead of the standard twin-linked Bolters.Mark IV Raven Pattern Assault Bike - The Mark IV Raven Pattern Assault Bike is used exclusively by the Space Marines of the Dark Angels Chapter's Ravenwing (2nd) Company. Ravenwing Black Knights ride to battle atop Mark IV Raven Pattern Space Marine Assault Bikes, powerful machines outfitted with deadly Plasma Talons. To signify their exalted status, Black Knights carry Corvus Hammers, which are patterned after an ancient Calibanite weapon used to hunt the Great Beasts of that lost world. The Black Knights' riding skills are supreme, and they can drive at top speed through almost any impediments to close on their foes. During this approach, their Plasma Talons tear gaping holes in the enemy lines before they literally ride over their prey, cracking armour and sundering flesh with their Corvus Hammers as they go. Against more formidable opponents, those Black Knights trained in the use of the Ravenwing Grenade Launcher fire a salvo of specialised rad and stasis shells, which can make even the most potent of enemies more vulnerable to a sustained assault. A Ravenwing Black Knight is a vengeful killer who will not rest until he has run his prey to ground. If his Plasma Talons do not kill the foe, the razor-sharp bill of his Corvus Hammer surely will.Legion Mark IV Outrider Assault Bike - The Legion Mark IV Outrider was an older variant of the Assault Bike that was used by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. These Assault Bikes were used by Legion Outrider Squadrons to perform scouting missions and conduct guerrilla attacks behind enemy lines. What makes these Assault Bike variants different from the standard Assault Bikes used in the late 41st Millennium, other than their appearance, is not recorded in Imperial records. The Legion Mark IV Outrider, much like all other known Assault Bike variants, is armed with a set of twin-linked Bolters mounted on the lower front sides of the vehicle. They can be replaced with either a set of twin-linked Flamers, Meltaguns, or Plasma Guns for added firepower. |
Assault Bike - Chaos Assault Bikes: The Assault Bike is also used by the Traitor Legions and Renegade Space Marine Chapters. The Assault Bikes used by Chaos Space Marines are similar to the ones used by their Loyalist counterparts, although Chaos Bikes are usually covered in various spikes and spurs that are used to cut enemies apart as they pass by. Chaos Assault Bikes are used as fast-moving reconnaissance vehicles to scout out enemy positions and eradicate those units which are too slow to pose a threat.Chaos Space Marine Bikers are recognised, even among other Chaos Space Marines, as ruthless and cruel individuals and will often pursue a foe for miles, due to both their determination to achieve the kill, and as a perverse method of torturing their victim.Originally, Assault Bikes were simply seen as another piece of hardware to its Chaos Space Marine operator, but over thousands of Terran years of exposure to the Warp, man and machine have become almost a single entity, much like the crew and pilots of other Chaos Vehicles.Chaos Space Marine Bikers usually operate in squads of up to ten, which can include a Biker Champion. Chaos Assault Bikes are armed with similar weaponry to that of the standard Imperial Assault Bike, which includes a set of twin-linked Bolters located on the bike's handlebars. Chaos Assault Bikes can also be armed with sets of twin-linked Flamers, Meltaguns, and even Plasma Guns in place of their standard Bolters.Assault Bikes that are aligned to the Chaos God Slaanesh can also be armed with Doom Sirens. The Chaos Space Marine who operates the Assault Bike may be armed with a Bolt Pistol or a close combat weapon such as a Chainsword, along with a Frag Grenade and a Krak Grenade.Biker Chaos Champions can be armed with Plasma Pistols and Power Swords or Powerfists, and can also be equipped with a Melta Bomb. These Champions can also be mutated by their exposure to the Warp and as a result of the "gifts" bestowed upon them by the Gods of Chaos. The Assault Bike itself offers little protection to its operator, and as such all Chaos Space Marine Bikers wear their Power Armour at all times. A member of a Chaos Assault Bike Squad may also take into battle an Icon of Chaos, and may also carry Marks of Chaos. |
Assault Bike - Notable Chaos Bikers: Doomrider - Doomrider is a Daemon Prince and one of the strangest servants of the Chaos God Slaanesh. His true identity has been lost to time and all that is known of his past is that he was once a Space Marine Biker of the Emperor's Children Legion. Having been granted Daemonhood by Slaanesh, Doomrider rode through both the Materium and Immaterium, always in search of new sensations. His love of speed would put an Ork Speed Freek to shame, and it is only equalled by his love of bringing agonising death to the denizens of the Materium. Servants of Slaanesh often attempt to summon him forth from the Warp to assist them in battle, but even when they succeed in attracting the Daemon Prince's attention, the vain and fickle Doomrider usually disappears back into the Warp soon after his arrival regardless of the outcome of the combat in search of the next happenstance that has caught his attention. |
Assault Bike - Notable Users of the Assault Bike: The Assault Bike has been in use by the Adeptus Astartes since the Great Crusade, and the Traitor Legions took theirs with them after the Horus Heresy. In the 41st Millennium most, if not all, Space Marine Chapters make use of the Assault Bike in some fashion or another. Below are some of the more notable users of the Assault Bike: |
Assault Bike - Space Marine Chapters: White Scars - The White Scars Space Marine Chapter make the most widespread use of Space Marine Bikes of all variants. The White Scars' homeworld of Chogoris is comprised of large, wind-swept steppes and grasslands. The Astartes of the Chapter who are recruited from Chogoris are taken from the savage horse riders of the steppes, and thus the entire Chapter is already adept at mounted warfare. The White Scars deploy Assault Bikes during nearly all of their campaigns.Dark Angels - The Dark Angels Space Marine Chapter make heavy use of Assault Bikes in their 2nd Company, the Ravenwing. The Ravenwing is a highly specialised unit that is intended to make use of mobility and speed to defeat the enemy rather than heavy firepower. The Ravenwing is made up of Assault and Attack Bikes, along with Land Speeders.Space Wolves - The Space Wolves Space Marine Chapter gives the use of Bikes over to their Blood Claws Neophytes. These Blood Claws, known as Swift Claws, make use of Assault Bikes in lightning fast hit-and-run attacks. Since Blood Claws are considered very headstrong, the use of an Assault Bike allows them to give vent to their need for wild, head-on assaults at breakneck speed.Ultramarines - The Ultramarines Space Marine Chapter makes use of Assault and Attack Bikes for the purposes and in the manner dictated by the Codex Astartes.SalamandersRaven Guard |
Assault Bike - Traitor Legions: Death GuardEmperor's ChildrenWord BearersWorld Eaters |
Assault Bike - Adeptus Mechanicus Technical Specifications: Technical specifications for this vehicle have not been released by the Adeptus Mechanicus. |
Assault Bike - Sources: Codex: Black Templars (4th Edition), pp. 40, 59Codex: Blood Angels (5th Edition), pp. 30, 76, 93Codex: Blood Angels (3rd Edition), pg. 9Codex: Chaos Space Marines (3rd Edition, 1st Codex), pp. 15, 24Codex: Chaos Space Marines (3rd Edition, 2st Codex), pp. 16, 33Codex: Chaos Space Marines (4th Edition), pp. 27, 99Codex: Chaos Space Marines (6th Edition), pp. 37, 100Codex Adeptus Astartes - Dark Angels (8th Edition), pp. 43-45, 110, 113Codex Adeptus Astartes - Dark Angels (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), "The Hunt for the Fallen", The Ravenwing", "Ravenwing Bike Squads", "Ravenwing Black Knights", "Ravenwing", "Ravenwing Command Squad (Datasheet), "Ravenwing Bike Squad (Datasheet), "Ravenwing Black Knights (Datasheet)", "Ravenwing Attack Squadron (Formation)"Codex: Dark Angels (6th Edition), pp. 4-5, 46, 82-83, 101Codex: Dark Angels (4th Edition), pp. 17, 26-27, 66-67, 85Codex: Dark Angels (3rd Edition), pp. 8, 10Codex Adeptus Astartes - Deathwatch (7th Edition), pp. 39, 49, 83, 93-96Codex: Space Wolves (5th Edition), pp. 33, 60, 90Codex: Space Wolves (3rd Edition), pg. 11Codex Adeptus Astartes - Space Marines (8th Edition), pp. 32, 74, 168Codex Adeptus Astartes - Space Marines (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), "Space Marine Bikes", "Bike Squad"Codex: Space Marines (6th Edition), pp. 84, 174Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition), pp. 68, 117, 140Codex: Space Marines (4th Edition), pg. 37Codex: Space Marines (3rd Edition), pp. 12-13, 19, 28-29Codex: Ultramarines (2nd Edition), pg. 70Deathwatch: First Founding (RPG), pp. 48-49Deathwatch: Rites of Battle (RPG), pg. 176Warhammer 40,000: Apocalypse (6th Edition) (Digital Edition), pp. 169, 173The Art of Warhammer 40,000 (Art Book), pp. 13, 145The Horus Heresy: Collected Visions (Background Book), pp. 75, 77, 155, 162, 228, 253, 277, 353, 357Imperial Armour Volume Eleven - The Doom of Mymeara, pg. 48The Horus Heresy - Book One: Betrayal by Alan Bligh, pp. 211, 237Warhammer 40,000 Compendium (2nd Edition), pp. 87-88Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (6th Edition), pg. 45Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (5th Edition), pg. 53Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (4th Edition), pg. 53Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (3rd Edition), pp. 40, 94White Dwarf 331 (UK) "Blood Angels Official Codex: Part II", p. 22Forge World: Legion MK IV Outrider Squadron |
Assault Bolter - Assault Bolter: An Assault Bolter is a recent addition to the armoury of the Adeptus Astartes. Many standard centuries of tinkering improvements by Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl has resulted in the creation of the Assault Bolter -- essentially a hand-held pistol version of the conventional Heavy Bolter outfitted with a large box magazine and high-speed autoloader. Although short-ranged, its rate of fire and damage are considerable, with the recoil contained by a mag-shield. These deadly weapons are primarily utilised by Primaris Space Marines Inceptor Squads for deep strikes into enemy lines. |
Assault Cannon - Assault Cannon: The Assault Cannon is a ballistic six-barreled, self-loading rotary Autocannon, effective against infantry targets and light vehicles at close to medium range. It is a medium calibre rotary Autocannon, with its 6 barrels cycled by an electric motor past a single chamber.The Assault Cannon was developed after the end of the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium as a replacement for the Autocannon. Introduced during the Mark IIIA phase of Indomitus Pattern Terminator Armour development, this weapon is the standard alternative to the Heavy Flamer as a Terminator Squad's special ranged weapon. Its design has changed little in 10 Terran millennia, retaining the distinctively long, cylindrical, rotating barrels.Although it lacks the range of the Autocannon and many other Imperial heavy weapons, the Assault Cannon is a fearsome weapon when used at the close range role from which it was intended to be fired. The weapon is prone to overheating and jams due to its high rate of fire -- the number of rounds fired per second are counted in the hundreds. The barrels and other firing components are made of a heat-dispersing ceramic/metallic alloy, helping the weapon to withstand the intense heat generated by its high rate of fire. Despite this, the barrels still reach temperatures of over 300°F.Due to the high rate of wear on the barrels, they are usually replaced after every mission by most Space Marine Chapters and Astra Militarum regiments that use the weapon. Motor and barrel failure are common problems with the Assault Cannon, making the weapon prone to jamming during sustained bursts. The weight and complexity of its mechanism, and the heavy recoil generated by its fire means that the Assault Cannon requires a stable firing platform to be unleashed effectively. |
Assault Cannon - Vehicle Usage: The weapon's large size and tremendous fire rate require a special means to sustain, so the Assault Cannon is normally mounted on Imperial vehicles or combat walkers such as Sentinels and Dreadnoughts, or specially damped and fitted to Space Marine Terminator Armour. It is also commonly used by the Blood Angels Space Marines as their close-assault Baal Predator main battle tanks sport a twin-linked Assault Cannon in the turret.The anti-infantry Land Raider Crusader has a similar dual Assault Cannon mount (whilst the standard Land Raider has a dual Heavy Bolter). The Razorback has the option to use a twin-linked Assault Cannon. Although the Assault Cannon lacks the range of other rapid-fire ballistic weapons such as the Heavy Bolter and the Autocannon, its enormous rate of fire enables it to literally shred its way through most targets, punishing them with a hundred rounds per second.Assault Cannons are extremely potent at medium-to-close range, against armoured infantry and moderately armoured vehicles, while Heavy Bolters are only effective against lightly armoured targets. However, Autocannons have a slower firing rate than a Heavy Bolter. The Assault Cannon epitomises the deadliness of elite Terminator Squads who teleport behind the enemy's front line and open up with fully-automatic fire, spreading carnage and terror. Assault Cannons are used by Planetary Defence Forces on rare occasions as a stand-mounted defensive weapon, and are also found on the Destroyer variant of the Marauder bomber. |
Assault Cannon - Terminator Usage: While the Assault Cannon is not normally considered man-portable, the powerful servos, recoil compensators and stabilisers built into Terminator Armour allows elite Astartes Terminator Squads to carry the weapon into battle. The Assault Cannon is well-suited to the battlefield role of Terminator Squads, providing a massive rate of fire which often compensates for the enemies' vast superiority in numbers.In confined environments providing long corridors of fire, such as Space Hulks and the hive cities of Hive Worlds, the Assault Cannon is invaluable. The high rate of fire makes the Assault Cannon unsuitable for extended engagements when used by Terminators, as the ammunition carried is quickly exhausted. This drawback is negated in vehicle and Dreadnought mountings, where ammunition storage capacity is far greater.The standard ammunition fired by an Assault Cannon is a cased round, comprising a dense metallic core covered in a non-metallic composite sheath with a diamantine tip. This provides excellent penetration capabilities against light and personal armour.It has long been reported by the Astartes that the Assault Cannon's high rate of fire can allow it to chew through armour that would normally be impenetrable to a weapon of its calibre. Extensive testing by the Adeptus Mechanicus supported this observation, and Adeptus Astartes targeting doctrines have been officially amended to recognise this attribute. In general, the logistic shortcomings of the Assault Cannon are far outweighed by its destructiveness in combat and its effect on enemy morale. |
Assault Cannon - Mark II Absinia Pattern Assault Cannon: This pattern of Assault Cannon is known to be used by the Red Brethren Terminators of the Carcharodons Chapter. |
Assault Cannon - Mark VIII Absolo Pattern Assault Cannon: This pattern of Assault Cannon is the one most often deployed by Space Marine Terminators and other Space Marine forces like Dreadnoughts and Land Speeders. |
Assault Cannon - Iliastus Pattern Assault Cannon: This prototype weapon system was designed as a more compact and portable variant of the highly successful Kheres pattern. It was, as can be divined by its pattern designation, first developed on the Iliastus Satellite in the Sol System by the Dyzanique techno-esoteric cult. This was a secretive organisation whose fealty to the Emperor predated His alliance with Mars. Under field testing with the VII (Imperial Fists) and IX (Blood Angels) Legions before the outbreak of the war of the Horus Heresy, the Iliastus Pattern evidenced formidable firepower, but was prone to catastrophic failure under the rare conditions of heavy use. |
Assault Cannon - Kheres Pattern Assault Cannon: The Kheres Pattern Assault Cannon is an ancient pattern of the weapon that was commonly deployed on Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. It maintains a higher rate of fire than the standard pattern Assault Cannons used in the late 41st Millennium. |
Assault Cannon - Nomus Pattern Rotor Cannon: The Nomus Pattern Rotor Cannon is the ancient predecessor of the modern Assault Canon. It was commonly used amongst the newly-established Terminator-armoured elite veterans of the various Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras during the 30th and early 31st Millennia. |
Assault Cannon - Punisher Assault Cannon: The Punisher Assault Cannon is a pattern of Assault Cannon specifically developed for deployment on Praetorian Pattern Sentinels as their primary armament. The Praetorian Pattern Sentinel is quite a different beast compared to its brethren. The main differences include the removal of almost the entire canopy and a simpler walking mechanism.The legs of the Praetorian Pattern have one less knee joint compared to other Sentinel patterns and are covered in thick armour plate. This is in accordance with Praetorian Guard combat doctrine, which is heavily focused around lines of infantry, in countless ranks, firing in massed volleys, supported by heavy weapons teams. The Praetorian Pattern Sentinel complements this strategy by acting as a mobile heavy weapon team, rather than a fast attack or reconnaissance vehicle. |
Assault Cannon - Sources: Codex: Blood Angels (5th Edition), pp. 56, 59Codex: Space Wolves (5th Edition), pg. 59Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook (6th Edition), pg. 54The Horus Heresy - Book One: Betrayal (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pg. 239The Horus Heresy - Book Two: Massacre (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pg. 104The Horus Heresy - Book Three: Extermination (Imperial Armour), pg. 267Warhammer 40,000: Compendium (2nd Edition), "Terminator - Space Marine Tactical Dreadnought Armour in Warhammer 40,000", by Rick Priestley & Andy Warwick, pp. 12, 15Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (3rd Edition), pg. 61Warhammer 40,000: Wargear (2nd Edition)White Dwarf 112 (US), "Terminator: Space Marine Tactical Dreadnought Armour in Warhammer 40,000", by Rick Priestley & Andy Warwick, pp. 12, 15Carcharodons: Red Tithe (Novel) by Robbie MacNivenTales of Heresy (Anthology) edited by Nick Kyme and Lindsey Priestley, "Scions of the Storm" by Anthony Reynolds, pg. 207 |
Assault Drill - Assault Drill: An Assault Drill, also known as a Siege Drill, is a weapon used by Space Marine Siege Dreadnoughts and Centurions to breach fortifications during siege operations.The smaller version of the weapon is known as a Siege Drill when employed by Centurions. An Assault Drill bores through natural rock as easily as it does reinforced ferrocrete, which is the substance of which most Imperial fortifications and other human structures are composed.Once the drill has penetrated the obstruction, a Heavy Flamer built into the device unleashes an inferno inside the bunker, killing everything within. The Assault Drill consists of three spherical drill heads which rotate rapidly to grind away any obstruction. |
Assault Intercessor - Assault Intercessor: An Assault Intercessor, who is usually part of an Assault Intercessor Squad, are Primaris Space Marines who are among the most widespread close support units in a Space Marine Chapter's arsenal. Firing their Heavy Bolt Pistols as they close upon the foe, they charge into the fray, where they make short work of their enemies with brutal swings of their chainswords. |
Assault Intercessor - Unit Composition: 4-9 Assault Intercessors1 Assault Intercessor Sergeant |
Assault Intercessor - Wargear: Mark X Tacticus Power ArmourHeavy Bolt PistolAstartes ChainswordFrag GrenadesKrak GrenadesHand Flamer (As replacement for Assault Intercessor Sergeant's Heavy Bolt Pistol)Plasma Pistol (As replacement for Assault Intercessor Sergeant's Heavy Bolt Pistol)Power Fist (As replacement for Assault Intercessor Sergeant's Astartes Chainsword)Power Sword (As replacement for Assault Intercessor Sergeant's Astartes Chainsword)Thunder Hammer (As replacement for Assault Intercessor Sergeant's Astartes Chainsword) |
Assault Marine - Assault Marine: An Assault Marine is a close support Firstborn Space Marine who is equipped with weapons that are specialised towards melee combat at close quarters and serves as part of an Assault Squad. The term Assault Marine refers to Imperial Space Marines equipped in such a manner; Chaos Space Marines have similar units called Chaos Raptors.Assault Marines are powerful melee fighters able to best almost any opponent in the bloody close-quarters melee fighting that is such a common feature of warfare in the late 41st Millennium. Each Assault Squad consists of up to 10 battle-brothers of whom one will be the unit leader with the rank of sergeant.All of the Astartes in the squad excel at close quarters combat, have received additional specialist training and have become highly experienced in melee combat after countless encounters with the Emperor's enemies.Assault Squads excel at close-quarters fighting. Equipped with Jump Packs, they blaze across the battlefield, charging into the foe with little heed for personal danger. With turbo-engine impetus, Assault Squads slam into the enemy, sending foes sprawling from the skull-crunching force of their impact.The Codex Astartes dictates that Assault Squads should be unleashed in the first wave of an attack, to strike hard and fast at weak points in the foe's formation. Opposing infantry are shredded with Chainsword and Bolt Pistol, enemy tanks with Krak Grenades.Such is the way of the Space Marines -- to crush the enemy without mercy before moving on to the next target. Such tactics are far from subtle, but effective nonetheless -- though a foe who perceives this to be the extent of an Assault Squad's capability is woefully mistaken.The Jump Pack is easily as dangerous as any weapon the Assault Marine carries, propelling its bearer into the heart of combat with the force of a hurtling meteorite. More importantly though, with a Jump Pack comes mobility, allowing the Assault Squad to redeploy quickly in a series of hard-hitting attacks, or even perform controlled low-altitude descents from Thunderhawk gunships.Assault Squads draw some of the most brutal of all battle assignments. Often operating ahead of the rest of the Astartes army, Assault Marines are ever in danger of being outflanked, cut off, or simply overwhelmed by the enemy every time they deploy. Even if an Assault Squad is knee-deep in corpses and fighting for their lives, its Sergeant must be aware not only of his current situation, but also any imminent or potential developments that will leave his battle-brothers stranded in a sea of bloodthirsty foes.Should this occur, only raw might and iron resolve will allow the Assault Marines to hack their way clear of the foe and claim victory. Likewise, should an enemy break and flee, it is the Assault Squad that is often tasked with following up and ensuring that none escape the Emperor's Judgement. |
Assault Marine - History: Modern Assault Marines can trace their origins to over ten thousand standard years ago during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia. Legion Assault Squads were the rapid attack formations of the ancient Space Marine Legions. These Jump Pack-equipped Legion Assault Squads were rapid attack forces whose wargear was optimised towards close-quarters fighting and hit-and-run tactics.The use of Jump Packs allowed Legion Assault Squads to move with greater speed across the battlefield and impact the enemy line with savage force, leaping past intervening terrain and open defences to engage their adversaries in bloody melee. The needs of even such limited flight systems, however, precluded the use of heavy weaponry or extensive munitions supplies.Jump Pack-equipped Assault Squads were not embraced to the same extent by all of the Legions for reasons of combat doctrine, temperament or simple resource difficulties. The Legion Assault Squad was the precursor of the modern Assault Squads of the Adeptus Astartes still utilised in the late 41st Millennium. |
Assault Marine - Assault Marines Organisation: The Lord Executioner serves as the officer who is the master of a Chapter's Assault Company. He is a brutal and direct individual, not so much given to glittering heroics and flamboyant challenges as short, bloody and efficient close combats.Clutching his favoured master-crafted melee weapon in his hands, he strides purposely forward in battle, the expression of a stone cold killer writ on his face as he heads towards his grim duty. His Artificer Armour is often impressively detailed with embossed skulls, scrollwork and multiple Purity Seals. Of all the Space Marine Captains within a Chapter, the Lord Executioner is the most menacing.The Sergeant of an Assault Squad is an Astartes who has undergone additional special training in leadership and small unit tactics. He may have fought in enough battles for his Chapter to qualify as a Veteran. Such warriors are often promoted to special command duties or transferred to the elite 1st Company of the Chapter in Codex Astartes-compliant Chapters.Veteran Sergeants are highly-valued by their company captain as they improve the capabilities of the squads under their command. The Assault Sergeant's badge of rank is a red skull displayed on the left shoulder plate of his armour and he is further distinguished by his red helmet. Veteran-status Sergeants don a red helmet with a white stripe in its centre.All the members of the Assault Squad fight with a weapon in each hand. Usually this is a pistol and sword combination but it is not uncommon for them to use mauls, axes, Power Fists and other, more exotic close combat melee weapons. Individual Chapters favour particular weapons for their Assault Squads but the majority stick to the classic pairing of Bolt Pistol and Chainsword. The whole squad will also carry Frag Grenades or Krak Grenades. Other grenade types are occasionally used on special missions but are generally restricted to officers and squad leaders.Some of the Astartes in the squad may have fought in enough battles for their Chapter to earn Veteran status. They may continue to serve with the Assault Squad for a short time but eventually they will be promoted to special duties in a Command Squad or advanced to the 1st Company which is comprised of only Veteran Space Marines. In this way the ranks of the Chapter's most elite company are replenished. In the Ultramarines Chapter, Veterans are distinguished by their white helmets.The Assault Squad's role in combat is to strike hard and fast at vulnerable points in the enemy's formation and overwhelm their opponents in the ensuing melee. Jump Packs give the squad's Astartes incredible speed and maneuverability and the Assault Marines are experts in using them. However, the Assault Squads can also fight as Assault Bike or Land Speeder squadrons or indeed be deployed from just about any of the standard Space Marines transport or armoured vehicles like a a Rhino or a Razorback. This all-around combat proficiency provides an Astartes Force Commander great flexibility in deciding how, when and where to use the awesome fighting power of his Assault Squads. |
Assault Marine - Unit Composition: 1 Space Marine Sergeant or Veteran Sergeant4-9 Space Marines |
Assault Marine - Dedicated Transport: If an Assault Squad does not take Jump Packs, it may select one of the following as a dedicated transport:1 Drop Pod1 Rhino Armoured Personnel Carrier1 Razorback |
Assault Marine - Wargear: Assault Marines can be equipped with a variety of wargear. Some may carry the weapons with which they most excel, while others carry specialised wargear unique to the mission at hand. Most carry a pistol, either a Bolt Pistol, Plasma Pistol or Grav Pistol, and complement it with a melee weapon such as a Chainsword or Power Sword. |
Assault Marine - Assault Squad Wargear: Power ArmourBolt PistolChainswordFrag GrenadesKrak Grenades |
Assault Marine - Optional Wargear: Jump Pack2 Space Marines may replace Bolt Pistol with Flamer or Plasma Pistol2 Space Marines may replace Chainsword with an Eviscerator |
Assault Marine - Optional Wargear, Sergeant Only: 1 item from Melee Weapons (Including: (Includes: Chainfist, Chainsword, Force Weapon, Lightning Claws, Power Fist, Power Weapon, Relic Blade and Thunder Hammer)Grav-pistolPlasma PistolCombat Shield and/or Melta Bombs |
Assault Marine - Sources: Codex Adeptus Astartes - Space Marines (8th Edition), pp. 70, 72, 169Codex: Space Marines (8th Edition), pp. 72, 143Codex: Space Marines (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), pp. 5, 51-53, 69, 84-86, 91, 113, 159, 180, 201, 338-340Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition), pg. 60Insignium Astartes, pg. 20The Horus Heresy - Book One: Betrayal by Alan Bligh, "Legion Assault Squad," pp. 91, 203White Dwarf July 2013 (US), "Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse," pg. 50 |
Assault of the Tempest Galleries - Assault of the Tempest Galleries: The Assault of the Tempest Galleries is the rare battle of the ancient Unification Wars that united Ancient Terra under the control of the Emperor of Mankind in the late 30th Millennium that is still recorded in Imperial archives.The Caucasus Wastes was a techno-barbarian state located in the Caucasus Peninsula of the ancient European continent on Old Earth. Its despotic ruler, known as the Ethnarch of the Caucasus Wastes, was defeated by the forces of the Emperor and imprisoned in the maximum security Imperial prison in the Himalazian (Himalayan) Mountains known as Khangba Marwu or The Vault.The primary Imperial force responsible for this outcome was the early XVIII Legion of Space Marines, later known to history as the Salamanders. |
Assault of the Tempest Galleries - History: Although it is entirely likely that the transhuman warriors of the XVIIIth Legion saw action before their assault on the Caucasus Wastes, the records of these engagements being either deliberately lost, deleted or sealed at the highest level, the first open battle honour recorded for the then-as yet unmatched XVIIIth Legion was the assault on the Tempest Galleries during the overthrow of the Ethnarch of the Caucasus Wastes on Terra. It would also prove to be one of the most famous early campaigns for the Legion. Even though it occurred long before the XVIIIth Legion's reunification with their Primarch Vulkan on Nocturne, this conflict set its seal upon the nature of the Legion and had a profound influence that remains to this day.The conquest of the Caucasus Wastes was one of the last great battles of the Unification Wars that would see at last the Emperor as the undisputed master of Terra, but victory did not prove easy. The mutated eugenicist-oligarchs who ruled the Caucasus Wastes presented the Emperor's forces with one of the most difficult challenges they faced in open warfare. While few in number compared to the zealots of the Yndonesic Bloc or the savage warbands of Ursh, the Caucasus Ethnarchy's power was based on scores of relic-technologies and the terrible weapons in their possession which dated back to before the Age of Strife, while its military forces ranged from the armoured, gene-augmented "Ur-Khasis" troops, roughly analogous to the Emperor's Thunder Warriors, to narcotically-enslaved covens of psykers. The Ethnarchy's strongholds were concealed kilometres deep beneath the hollowed-out mountains of the Wastes and shielded from attack from above by near-impregnable power-filed webs. An attempt by the Imperial forces to take the Ethnarchy's mountain-strongholds by storm earlier in the Unification Wars had met with bloody defeat, with the loss of almost 10,000 Thunder Warriors and more than a million other casualties, but had seen the Caucasus Wastes contained and isolated thereafter. So it was that when the hour of the Emperor's vengeance came around, nothing was to be left to chance.The forces of six entire proto-Legions of the Legiones Astartes were mustered for the final assault on the Caucasus Wastes, along with the massed forces of the Legio Custodes, with the Emperor Himself to lead them, and countless other tributary armies, mechanised battalions and warrior bands beneath the raptor-and-lightning banner of Unification. But, of all of these, the first thrust upon which all else would depend the Emperor entrusted to the nascent XVIIIth Legion. Although the decision to utilise what they considered to be a largely unknown and untested unit in so vital a role was questioned by many within the Imperial command, the Emperor's will was obeyed. The XVIIIth would carry the assault, utilising scores of freshly created gigantic "Termite" subterranean boring machines fitted with recently acquired technology from Mars.The full force of the proto-Legion, some 20,000 Astartes strong at this juncture, was committed to what was widely believed to be a suicide mission to destroy the vast geo-thermal furnaces which provided power for the Ethnarchy's impregnable defences. These were housed far below even the subterranean strongholds, and known of only through ancient legend, in a hundred-kilometre-long string of vast, artificially-created caverns known as the Tempest Galleries for the incessant storms of flame and electromagnetic force which bled from the ancient and little-understood relic machineries. The XVIIIth Legion's Power Armour had been specially-modified for the extreme conditions they were to face, and had been camouflaged in striated patterns of sulphur yellow and sable black. Once they were ready, the XVIIIth saluted their Emperor and calmly mounted the untested Martian war engines of the Mechanicum and pierced the dark earth and rock at the edge of the Wastes, disappearing into a deadly and unknown world.Soon all signals were lost, and not even the power of the Imperial psykers could penetrate the turbulent depths to maintain contact with the Space Marine assault forces. Hours stretched into days and days became weeks, and nothing was heard from the assault force while the vast army of the Emperor waited in immediate readiness for the grand attack, and no sign or signal came. Pressed by His commanders, it is said the Emperor silenced them and replied; "They shall not fail me, they will return from the fire, thus it shall ever be."Reports claim that moments after the Emperor spoke, great tremors shook the region, their turbulence felt as far away as Gorodak and the Jade Citadel of Hangol. In their wake, the power-webs that had for so long shielded the Caucasus Wastes failed and the full force of the Emperor's wrath fell upon them to their utter destruction. The last Ethnarch of the Caucasus was dragged in chains to the Imperial prison of Khangba Marwu and the buried secrets that had been his strength were taken by the new, now uncontested master of Terra. Of the fate of the XVIIIth Legion nothing was known until the closing days of the campaign when, far from the Wastes, a long-dormant volcano near Klostzatz shattered and one of the Termite machines hauled itself from the rubble carrying just over a thousand survivors from the XVIIIth Legion. The taskforce's after-action reports were immediately analysed by the Imperial command structure, and had they not been accompanied by supporting evidence and hololithic records, it is likely that they would have been greeted with disbelief.Almost four-fifths of the XVIIIth Legion's taskforce had survived the journey to their objective, the rest being destroyed by the plethora of environmental hazards, crushed like eggshells between the grinding tectonic plates or incinerated by seas of magma when their shielding failed. Those who breached the carborundum-lined caverns of the Caucasus Tempest Galleries found a strange, imprisoned world as alien as anything the expeditions of the Great Crusade would find among the stars. Vast kilometre-high spindle-machines turned over caged seas of molten metal drawn from the planet's core, spewing forth coronas of blinding lightning while suspended on silicate webs across which unfathomable and inhuman machines scuttled like spiders. In this airless furnace beyond mortal endurance, the Legionaries of the XVIIIth found no warrior of the Ethnarch to contest them, for nothing human had set foot in this hell for millennia, but rather the defenders of these sleepless engines, that had turned since before the start of the Age of Strife, were fire-blackened service-automata reacting to the outsiders' threat as antibodies would against an invading infection in a living body.Incredibly strong and built to withstand the ravages of the firestorm that surrounded them, each would have overmatched even the battle-automata of the Mechanicum's Legio Cybernetica in size and power, being products as they were of Mankind's ancient and technologically advanced past. There were thousands of these tempest-automata, and all turned on the Astartes of the XVIIIth Legion in an implacable and unceasing attack. Neither Plasma nor Melta Weapons could breach their armour, while Bolter shells rippled across them like rain. Only massive kinetic force applied at close range against their articulated joints was able to disable them; a lesson that cost the XVIIIth hundreds of lives to learn as they were forced into a running battle of attrition with the relentless machines, and cut off when many of their Termite carriers were targeted and crushed by the colossal articulated toothed metal spheres used by the ancient workings to tunnel and expand the galleries. The XVIIIth Legion held out with a mixture of stoic resilience and suicidal fury, maintaining discipline and order despite the onslaught, while individual Legionaries hurled themselves willingly to their deaths to grapple with the killing machines so that they might be destroyed and their brothers' lives saved.Fighting now for survival from gallery to gallery, they collapsed tunnels and severed the silicate webs behind them to impede their pursuers and buy themselves time, but their casualties were huge, with thousands having perished within the first dozen hours of the conflict, but the precious time they had purchased with blood, however, would be spent well by the survivors, for it would be neither the Legion's immense resilience nor its willing sacrifice that would see them victorious, but their intelligence. Showing the aptitude for technology and craft for which they would become justly famed in later centuries, they began to first use the wreckage of the attacking machinery that surrounded them as salvage to repair and augment their own expended wargear, and soon escalated to tearing from the automatons their central control systems and repairing them sufficiently to be sent crashing back into their own ranks as mindless berserkers. This proved only the start; power conduits were re-directed and machine death-traps created, cyclopean lightning-rods conducting the power of the howling electromagnetic corona above were fashioned into improvised harpoon weapons to burn out the hearts of the largest machine-beasts, rivers of molten metal redirected into service tunnels, atomantic chambers compromised to detonate like miniature suns, shattering engines that had endured for tens of thousands of Terran years.Soon something like a stalemate had been achieved, but at a terrible cost; for less than a third of the XVIIIth Legion's original number remained, and yet the body of the vast system had been badly wounded, but a mortal blow was not yet struck. In the inaccessible deeps, the ancient implacable Machine Spirit (Artificial Intelligence) that bound the Tempest Galleries together was manufacturing fresh robotic soldiers for its cause, and that was something the Legionaries of the XVIIIth Legion could not match. Realising this strategic reality, the Legion hatched a plan to commit its forces to a single, coherent attack and destroy the Tempest Galleries or die trying. The plan was to attack and cripple the central power transmission node in the largest of the gallery chambers yet discovered, the reasoning being that, even if the vast generator-spindles were not put out of action, it would successfully interrupt the flow of energy to the Ethnarch's defences far above. A two-pronged assault strategy was devised. The first division would mount a series of diversionary attacks at other locations to confuse the enemy. Once this was under way, the second, larger division would assault the power node. It was assumed that while survival was in any way unlikely for the Space Marines of the XVIIIth Legion, death for the central assault force would be certain. For this reason, the XVIIIth Legion's surviving commanders acquiesced to the wishes of the Legion's rank-and-file and assigned Legionaries to it by lottery -- not because they had no volunteers for the main assault force, quite the contrary, but because it was the fervent wish of all to take part.When the assault came, the Legionaries thundered from their holdouts and defensive redoubts, many armed with improvised Power Fists and Thunder Hammers, Shock Cannons and cutting saws fashioned from the shattered remains of fallen tempest-automata. With them came their full reserves of munitions and manpower, for nothing was or could be held back. Attacked suddenly from many fronts, the inhuman intelligence which oversaw the Tempest Galleries responded with cold machine logic, efficiently dividing and dispatching its forces to deal with the threats. The fighting was savage but the plan was working, and the concentrated force of the main assault group managed to smash its way into the Great Gallery, its few remaining Dreadnoughts and rapier batteries leading the way. Like a hive of ants crudely kicked open, the tempest-automata responded in a tide of scorched-black metal and snapping servo-claws, slamming into the XVIIIth Legion head-on across the silicate bridges suspended between the sea of fire below and the hurricane of corposant lightning far above. Bodies by the hundred, machine and Legionary alike, fell broken into the burning abyss, severed power cables sparked furiously, mechanical bodies exploded in sheets of fire and shrapnel, while spilled blood vaporised to steam in the superheated air.Slowly, tortuously, the Legion fought its way to the towering power node at the centre of the gallery, buying each metre of ground taken with dozens of lives. It was then the kraken rose from the depths. A vast articulated beast-machine appeared, the greatest of the robotic engines that maintained the Tempest Galleries, sheathed in armoured scales of synthetic black diamond, molten metal running off it like water. Its coils could have crushed a Battle Titan and were more than sufficient to enwrap and shatter the silicate bridge on which the Legion fought. Their weapons utterly useless against the new foe, the survivors were forced to attempt a fighting retreat they knew was futile as, one by one, the silicate strands were severed and hundreds more fell to their doom. What occurred next can only be guessed at, but the last garbled transmission from the Great Gallery was of one of the huge grav-propelled tunnelling-spheres used by the tempest-automata crashing through the gallery wall and plunging past the kraken-engine and directly at the node-nexus. It is believed that the only possible explanation for this is that one part of the diversionary attack groups had used the confusion of the battle to gain control of one of the colossal serrated tunnelling-spheres and set upon using it as a last ditch weapon.Regardless of the cause, whether Legion-action or the calamity of one of their own automata gone haywire, the node structure exploded, collapsing the gallery around it and blowing out numerous surrounding caverns and tunnels, and creating the earthquakes and tremors felt across the region. The explosion also appears to have murdered the governing Machine Spirit of the galleries, for in the aftermath, the automata simply shut off, the machinery stilled, the vast spindle generators sinking slowly and silently into the fires below, never to turn again.Little more than 1,000 Legionaries of the 20,000-strong XVIIIth Legion survived, and those who did were scattered across the Tempest Galleries, many conducting diversionary attacks at its fringes and once again displaying formidable fortitude and perseverance in regrouping and intelligence in rebuilding one of the damaged Termite transporters for the arduous journey back to the surface. Upon their return, the Emperor Himself gathered the survivors together and awarded them the Laurel of Victory for the campaign against the Ethnarch (to the dissatisfaction of some commanders) to be forever theirs, and their first battle honour, inscribed with the motto: "In Fire and Darkness Tested." This was to prove prophetic, and the action at the Tempest Galleries a high bar indeed for the Legion's prowess, and a standard of sacrifice and victory against the odds that would prove a punitive taskmaster for the Legion in the early years of the Great Crusade. It is an interesting addendum to the record of this battle that the XVIIIth Legion's survivors brought with them from the Tempest Galleries metallurgy and machine craft predating the Age of Strife, the secrets of which, in addition to being given over to the Imperial Command, were retained by the XVIIIth Legion itself. |
Assault on Cephian IV - Assault on Cephian IV: The Assault on Cephian IV was an Imperial military action that took place in the 41st Millennium on the Feral World of Cephian IV, where the Black Templars Space Marine Chapter had maintained a Chapter keep in its northern chain of mountains for over four thousand standard years, following the liberation of this world from the warriors of the Alpha Legion in the early 37th Millennium. This attack was the culmination of a dastardly alliance between the deluded followers of the Ruinous Powers and the depraved xenos known as the Dark Eldar, intent on murder and torture. |
Assault on Cephian IV - History: A hot, arid world, Cephian IV had little to recommend it save moderate mineral deposits and a fierce warrior culture that demanded total ruthlessness amongst its soldiers. A seditious Chaos sect fostered by the Alpha Legion had taken root amongst its warrior cults and rebellion was soon engulfing the world, a rebellion mercilessly crushed by the zealous Space Marines of the Black Templars in 343.M37. With the treachery over, the Chapter's Marine-Artificers and an army of Servitors constructed a grim and imposing fortress that served to remind the planet's inhabitants of the dominance of the Emperor of Mankind and as a staging post for the Crusades into the Ghoul Stars and beyond. The Chapter keep was also used as a recruiting base, for the people of Cephian IV came from a fierce martial culture and provided many Neophytes for the Black Templars. And, far from resenting the Black Templars' continued presence, the warriors of Cephian IV respected their strength and harshness. Though over four thousand standard years has passed since the fortress was raised, it has always been occupied by at least one Crusader squad and legends tell that should the keep ever be abandoned or fall, it would spell the last days of the Chapter.But, over time, such respect turned to hate and cults once again flourished within the ranks of the warriors of Cephian IV and, though outwardly the planet remained loyal, worship of the Dark Gods took hold -- once again promulgated by agents of the Black Templars' old enemies, the Alpha Legion, who had designs and reasons of their own to foment revolt on the world. In addition, diabolical pacts sealed with the Dark Eldar helped to distract their ancient enemies from mustering to intervene in their grand designs.The current Castellan of Cephian IV is Chaplain Develain, a warrior of great skill and wisdom who has served the Chapter for over 200 standard years. His experience in battle is passed to those Initiates and Neophytes who muster at Cephian IV and none can doubt his loyalty or devotion to the Emperor and the Chapter. When the warriors of Marshal Ulliquel's Thunder Crusade entered orbit over Cephian IV, they demanded fresh Neophytes to join them in crushing a spate of Chaos Cultist uprisings in the Dominion of Storms. The Neophytes deemed ready to join the Crusade by Chaplain Develain, the current Castellan of Cephian IV, were pushed harder than ever before to prove themselves worthy of such an honour in a last trial by fire.Unbeknownst to the Black Templars, Chaos Space Marines of the Alpha Legion had formed an unholy alliance with the Dark Eldar from the Kabal of the Sundered Blade in order to delay or prevent the Thunder Crusade from reaching its ultimate destination -- the Alpha Legion for reasons too impenetrable to discern, the Dark Eldar for the simple pleasure of inflicting pain and misery on any fresh meat they might capture.After successfully completing their last trial by fire deep in the Harake Mountains, the surviving Neophytes were being escorted back to their transports by Initiates of the Chapter keep. While en route to their Rhinos, a force of Dark Eldar launched an attack on the Black Templars in order to capture the new recruits as slaves and slay the master of the Chapter keep. The Black Templars fought a desperate battle to protect their Neophytes. Chaplain Develain and his warriors escaped the ambush, but while en route to the Chapter keep aboard a flyer, a missile streaked up from the mountainside and exploded beneath the aircraft's engine compartment. The pilot had time for only a brief distress call before crashing in the foothills of the Harake Mountains, only a few miles from the Chapter keep.A rescue mission was immediately despatched to rescue any survivors and recover the warriors' relics and gene-seed, but even as the Black Templars closed in on the crash site, it was clear that they were not alone, as a shambling host of mutants, Heretics and Traitors attacked the survivors. The enemy had revealed its hand too early with the attack on the downed flyer and the Black Templars readied themselves for a full assault. Soon enough, a vast host of enemy warriors, Heretics and mutants advanced on the Chapter keep led by Chaos Space Marines from the Alpha Legion and a dangerous rogue psyker of terrifying power. For days, the Forces of Chaos battled the Black Templars, dying in their thousands as the guns of the Chapter keep scythed their enemies down. Chaplain Develain knew that he had to end the battle quickly, and resolved to lead a strike force into the heart of the enemy to slay their leader.During the ensuing battle the Castellan slew the rogue psyker while Emperor's Champion Marquand single-handedly took on a Chaos Defiler. The valiant warrior danced past the claws of the clumsy Defiler and rammed his Black Sword upwards, into its belly, utterly destroying the daemonic spirit within. Howling in pain, the Defiler crashed to the black-ichor soaked ground, a shattered wreck, utterly destroyed. The Black Templars displayed their typical fortitude and tenacity in the defence of their Chapter keep, driving the Forces of Chaos into retreat. Thanks to the unreliability of their firearms, the mutants had eliminated a great many of their own number themselves, forcing the remaining wretches to flee before the might of the Space Marines. The Black Templars showed no mercy to those that had somehow survived their final counter-attack, slaying any and all survivors. |
Astaramis - Astaramis: Astaramis is an Imperial Hive World that is the third planet of the Konor System in the Realm of Ultramar and the most populated planet in the system. The world came under sustained attack by the Forces of Chaos in service to Nurgle during the Plague Wars of the early 42nd Millennium, but the Imperial forces valiantly rallied to reclaim Astaramis for the Emperor. |
Astaramis - The Plague Wars: Astaramis is a well-ordered and heavily defended Hive World, the largest centre of population in the Konor System and a potent symbol of Imperial dominance. Having gathered significant momentum with their early victories on the outskirts of the Konor System during the Plague Wars, the armies of Chaos spread out across the region like poison seeping into the blood stream of the Imperium.When the Plague Wars began, Ultramar burned. The putrid warbands of the Death Guard, led by the Daemon Primarch Mortarion, launched a furious assault upon the Ultramarines' stellar empire. This eruption of all-out war threatened to drown the stars themselves in bloodshed and terror. Legions of Heretic Astartes and Chaos-spawned monstrosities have already rampaged across world after world, spreading the malignant corruption of the Dark Gods in their wake. Yet all hope is not lost. The return of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman to the region with the end of the Indomitus Crusade has stalled the seemingly unstoppable momentum of the Chaos advance. In a series of bloody battles, the armies of the Imperium -- reinforced with mighty Primaris Space Marines -- have reclaimed many worlds thought lost, forcing their hated foes to retreat and regroup.The worshippers of Chaos sought to regain their advantage by smashing a path through the Imperial battle line to Macragge, homeworld of the Ultramarines. Had they succeeded, the greatest Imperial stronghold in the sector would have been gravely threatened, and Guilliman's forces cut-off and surrounded. To achieve this end, the Forces of Chaos had to conquer the well-located Konor System. Powered by the industrial might of the Forge World of Konor, this centre of produce and production feeds the Imperial war machine with vital shipments of munitions and machinery. Populous and prosperous, with a large and well-equipped defence force, the Konor System embodies the glorious dream that is Ultramar. Crucially, it also guarded one of the few stable Warp transit routes to the Macragge System. If the Chaos advance was not halted, Konor would have fallen, and a path to the heartland of Ultramar would be laid bare to the forces of the Ruinous Powers.Yet the warriors of the Adeptus Astartes had no intention of ceding their rightful domain without a fight. The Ultramarines stood against the Chaos onslaught with nobility and courage, smiting the foe with Bolter and blade. And they are not alone. The military sledgehammer of the Astra Militarum rumbled into action, an armoured fist of devastating tank columns and endless regiments of soldiers that ground all before it into ashes and dust. Scattered Space Marine Chapters rushed fresh reinforcements to the war zone, seeking to aid their embattled kin. Enigmatic Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus sent forth their legions of steel, and mighty Imperial Knights bestrode the slaughter like ancient gods of war.Every single warrior -- every Bolter round and bomb -- was vital, for the Chaos host sweeping across the Konor System was vast beyond imagining. Warriors of the Death Guard marched implacably forward, enemy fire spattering harmlessly from their rusted, ancient Power Armour and pallid, twisted flesh. In return, they unleashed bombardments of noxious toxins and flesh-melting plagues. Daemonic legions surge alongside the Chaos advance, exulting in the chance to wreak torment across the material realm. Warbands of Heretic Astartes, millions upon millions of depraved mortal Chaos Cultists, and a thousand other horrors converged upon Konor, drawn to its aura of agony and death like sharks to blood.Circling this firestorm of destruction were predatory xenos races, ever seeking to further their own mysterious ends. Orks surged into the war in their millions, delighting in the spreading carnage. Craftworld Aeldari and Drukhari circled from afar, offering their services as mercenaries to both sides or launching raids to fulfill some unknowable agenda. Tyranid and T'au forces spilled in from the Eastern Fringe, capitalising on or drawn by the escalating conflict, while even the Necrons sent undying invasion forces to exploit the infighting of the younger races and expand their ancient empires.No part of the Konor System was left unscarred by the war. If the Heretic Astartes' plans came to fruition, the system's own worlds would have been weaponised and turned against Ultramar. The Forces of Chaos intended to force open a route to Macragge, and that shining light of the Imperium would face obliteration. |
Astaramis - The Astaramis Campaign: A vast segment of the Chaos armada descended upon Astaramis, the most populous planet in the system. With its teeming cities arranged in vast concentric rings, the well-governed and prosperous Hive World exemplified the grand dream that is Ultramar. However, even Astaramis' formidable orbital defence platforms and veteran garrison were not enough to hold back the oncoming tide. The Chaos armada launched waves of Magmatic Torpedoes, and Macrocannons obliterated planetary fortifications and engulfed entire regiments of defenders in searing firestorms. Heretic Astartes and their allies slammed to earth in blistering Drop Pod assaults, blasting apart anything that moved even as they marched implacably onwards towards targets of strategic value.During the Great Crusade, the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman made landfall upon Astaramis. In the long standard centuries since, the population of Astaramis has come to regard him as a saint, raising vast statues and temples in his name. Hearts emboldened by the revelation that Guilliman had risen from his millennia-long slumber to defend Humanity once more following the Ultramar Campaign of 999.M41, they fought on bravely in the face of an unceasing onslaught. From the shrines of Saviour's Landing to the vast and imposing Quintus Gate, the streets echoed with the unceasing chatter of las-fire and the dull thud of Bolters and high-explosive rounds.Yet for all the tenaciousness and devotion shown by the people of Astaramis, they could not stand alone. With every passing solar hour, the invaders pushed further inward, taking hab-block after hab-block. Xenos forces were also spotted planetside, exploiting the confusion of battle in order to kill, loot or pursue their unknowable ends. Imperial forces were forced back as far as the hive's innermost spires, and the outer districts were little more than a rubble-strewn wasteland. Without reinforcements, Chaos would have gutted the Imperium's greatest source of manpower in the Konor System, and destroyed a potent symbol of Imperial faith.Yet, in the end, Astraramis stood against all that was thrown against it. The Forces of Chaos brought terror and death to this gleaming Hive World, but the Imperial Aquila yet flies from its tallest spires.The Forces of Chaos fell upon Astaramis like slavering wolves, bringing ruin and horror to this once proud monument of Ultramar's glory. Yet, as the smoke cleared and the echo of gunfire ceased, the Hive World remained standing, battered but unbroken. Despite suffering horrific casualties during the early stages of the Chaos onslaught, the armies of the Imperium dug in with rugged determination, hurling back each fresh assault with blistering cascades of las and Bolter fire, turning to knives, makeshift weapons and fists when the slaughter boiled over into hand-to-hand combat.Try as they might, the Chaos invaders could not break the defenders' spirits, nor scour them from their fortifications. Their rage and frustration was only exacerbated by a series of lightning attacks by the Aeldari of the Craftworlds, who emerged from the hidden Labyrinth Dimension of the Webway to slice into the rear of the Chaos formations. There was no formal alliance between the Imperium and these deadly raiders, but the Aeldari ever follow their own mysterious whims. Fusillades of shuriken fire and pinpoint lances of searing energy tore through the unsuspecting ranks of the invaders, and even as they regrouped and reformed, the xenos disappeared from whence they came, leaving nothing but the smoking bodies of their victims behind.This flanking assault badly stalled the Chaos advance, buying precious time for Primaris Space Marine reinforcements to arrive on Astaramis. Unable to force a breakthrough at the vital Praxima Skyport, the massed heretical legions could only watch with furious hatred as fresh regiments of grim-faced warriors and columns of heavy armour made planetfall, rushing to shore up gaps in the Imperial line wherever they emerged. Inch by bloody inch, the Chaos invasion force was pushed back to the outer hab-zones of the hive cities, and the flag of Ultramar was raised proudly upon the highest spire of Saviour's Landing -- a symbol of defiance and Imperial might that girded the heart of every Loyalist warrior.In the wake of this vital victory, Imperial High Command immediately ramped up the production of munitions on Astaramis, and issued a decree requiring every man and woman of fighting age to take up arms in the defence of Ultramar. Such a vast resource of manpower was vital in the battles to come, for the war in the Konor System was far from over. |
Astaramis - Geography: The world of Astaramis possessed several areas of ultimate strategic import for any force seeking to maintain or seize control over the planet during the Plague Wars. These included:Praxima Skyport - When the Chaos forces first launched their assault upon Astaramis, they destroyed all but one of the planet's major transit hubs in a series of orbital strikes. Only the enormous Praxima Skyport still stands, protected by a bristling array of Icarus Lascannons and a formidable Void Shield. Under intense bombardment by Traitor artillery, this vital strategic location was defended with desperate bravery by an outnumbered force of Ultramarines and planetary auxilia. The walls of the rugged octagonal redoubt have been breached many times, and torrents of blood have been spilled within its cavernous docking halls and cramped utility tunnels. If Praxima had fallen, Chaos would have denied the Imperial forces a vital staging post, and severely hampered their ability to land fresh reinforcements on the planet.The Quintus Gate - This towering fortified gateway leads to the inner towers of Hive Hallentia, the largest hive city on Astaramis and the only haven to remain unbreached by Chaos forces during the Plague Wars. Ahead of the gate runs the central thoroughfare, the arterial route into the city. This broad avenue is choked by the rusted carcasses of wrecked main battle tanks and war engines, smouldering alongside the blasted ruins of civilian convoys that were overrun before they could reach the safety of the Quintus Gate. Within this maze of shattered, smoking metal and charred corpses, vicious and prolonged fighting rages. If the gate had fallen, Chaos forces would have spilled into Hallentia unopposed, and the streets run red with the blood of loyal Imperial citizens.Saviour's Landing - This sprawling temple district was built upon the hallowed soil where the blessed Roboute Guilliman first made landfall on Astaramis during the Great Crusade over 10,000 standard years ago. Saviour's Landing was once a maze of white marble walkways, golden shrines and pristine galleries of wondrous statuary depicting the sainted Primarch's many legendary triumphs. During the Plague Wars it became almost unrecognisable, ravaged by the fires of war. Contesting armies fought a multi-level running battle amidst the wreckage of its former grandeur, battling hall by hall, stairway by soaring stairway for the right to control or despoil this potent symbol of Imperial faith. |
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