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Brood Brothers - Brood Brothers: "Brood Brothers" is the name given by a Genestealer Cult's members to normal Humans (or any other species that can be afflicted) who have been infected with the xenos genetic material of a Genestealer Patriarch through its ovipositor or even a 4th generation Genestealer.This infection makes these people members of the cult's collective psychic Broodmind as well as the potential parents of a new generation of Genestealer hybrids.Brood Brothers appear completely Human despite their infection and so may be members of the local civil or military authorities, continuing to carry out their normal duties in their world's society.They remain hidden until their cult is ready to unleash its grand uprising against the Imperial authorities.Brood Brothers regard and often venerate the Genestealer Patriarch as a deity and are especially fanatical members of the cult, motivated by intense, instinctual bonds of affection to their Genestealer hybrid relatives produced by their psychic bond. |
Brood Brothers - Role: It is common for the Neophyte Hybrids of a gene-sect's later brood cycles to infiltrate their host world's garrison force, or even those Astra Militarum regiments founded from amongst its populace.There, they work alongside the infected Humans who sired the cult's hybrids -- yet appear completely normal -- to ensure the cult spreads ever further.Within an armed force that recruits such divergent strains of Humanity as Ratlings and Ogryns, mild variations of physical appearance are often overlooked -- especially when the cadets in question are so unusually efficient and obedient -- and as the generations pass, it is common for the infiltrating members of that world's Genestealer infestation to be grouped together into the same platoons.The Neophytes and Brood Brothers propagate slowly throughout the military ranks, taking over each corps from the inside until all of its soldiers pay obeisance to the cult's Genestealer Patriarch.These professional warriors carry Departmento Munitorum-issued Lasguns instead of Autoguns, and use Frag Grenades in place of repurposed mining explosives.Some even have access to heavier weaponry and may hijack the famously indomitable vehicles of the Astra Militarum to their cause.When the cult finally begins its uprising to claim the planet, the Brood Brothers will rebel along with their kindred, beginning a campaign of sabotage and guerrilla warfare to wreck planetary defences and tie down those troops who remain separate from the Broodmind. |
Brood Brothers - Unit Composition: 9-19 Brood BrothersBrood Brothers LeaderBrood Brothers Heavy Weapons Squad (6 Brood Brothers in 3 two-man teams) |
Brood Brothers - Brood Brother: LasgunFrag GrenadesFlamer (As replacement for Lasgun)Grenade Launcher (As replacement for Lasgun)Krak Grenades (For Grenade Launcher) |
Brood Brothers - Brood Brothers Leader: LaspistolChainswordFrag Grenades |
Brood Brothers - Heavy Weapons Squad: LasgunFrag GrenadesAutocannon (One for the two troops in each team)Heavy Bolter (One for the two troops in each team)Lascannon (One for the two troops in each team)Missile Launcher (One for the two troops in each team)Mortar (One for the two troops in each team) |
Broodmind - Broodmind: The Broodmind is the name given by a Genestealer Cult to the psychic gestalt collective consciousness shared by every member of the cult and directed by its Genestealer Patriarch.It is similar in function to the larger Tyranid species' collective Hive Mind and may be an offshoot of it, but unites all the Human and hybrid members of a given Genestealer Cult. |
Broodmind - Role: The Genestealer Patriarch unifies the will and purpose of its cult with a subtle alteration of the psyche through the implantation of Tyranid genetic material -- a subconscious link known as the Broodmind. It is this shared sentience that makes the Genestealer Cult so unusually tight-knit and loyal, that gives them uncanny strength and speed in battle, and makes them so utterly self-sacrificing. Such traits, in the Imperium's view, undermine the spiritual sanctity of Mankind.The Broodmind is initiated first in those members of the cult who receive the "Genestealer's Kiss," the introduction of Genestealer genetic material through infection by the Genestealer Patriarch's ovipositor. These people are fully Human, but now come under the Patriarch's psychic influence. They are often referred to as "Brood Brothers."The cult's hybrids, the offspring of those initially infected by the Patriarch who have been mutated from the Human baseline in the womb, are born into the Broodmind. They are a part of its collective consciousness from the time of their birth.The Broodmind is capable of altering the perceptions of those infected by it. For instance, the parents of each of the four generations of hybrids never see their children as monstrous, alien mutants. Even hybrid parents of the fourth generation since the initial infection, who can pass for fully Human themselves, see their fifth generation offspring, monstrous Purestrain Genestealers, as adorable Human infants.The Broodmind prevents them from seeing these creatures as the bestial, hissing changelings they really are. These parents will defend their alien children with the fierce passion all mothers and fathers reserve for their offspring.The Brood Mind also acts as a psychic beacon to draw a Tyranid hive fleet towards the planet where its cult is located. Once the summoned hive fleet comes within range of a few hundred light years of the infected world, a subliminal reaction is triggered in the Brood Mind to goad the Genestealers, their hybrids and Brood Brothers into a frenzy of killing.This unleashes a violent uprising, which weakens the defences of the targeted world and makes it easy prey for the arriving hive fleet of the Great Devourer.The psychic control of the Genestealer's Kiss can be resisted by infected Space Marines, as seen with members of the Scythes of the Emperor. However even they wear psychic dampening hoods to keep out the Broodmind's urgings. |
Brotherhood, The - Brotherhood, The: The Brotherhood was a clandestine, internal sect within the Word Bearers Traitor Legion that has been formed at three different periods of the Legion's history to maintain the Word Bearers' theological purity. |
Brotherhood, The - The Great Purge: Primarch Lorgar had ordered the initial formation of The Brotherhood during the days of The Great Purge; a time of blood and faith, where the holy wars waged between the factions of the Covenant, the ruling theocracy of Lorgar's feudal homeworld of Colchis, saw 1 in 3 men, women and children burned at the stake for heresy or lost to the slaughter of holy war. In their arrogance, there had been those amongst the Covenant who had sought to defame the new religious teachings that Lorgar brought after he arrived on their world, blinded as they were by their jealousy and desire to hold onto power. They led their devoted, ignorant flock against Lorgar, who wept as he was forced into conflict with those who should have been his brothers. With great reluctance he created The Brotherhood, warrior-monks handpicked from his faction of the Covenant and indoctrinated by Lorgar himself, to act as his foot soldiers in cleansing all remnants of the Old Faith from Colchis.Thus began the first great cleansing of the Covenant that would later form the core of the Word Bearers Legion. Over a billion Colchisian souls perished in that terrible religious conflict. This purge occurred before the coming of the Emperor of Mankind to Colchis and the reunification of Lorgar with the XVII Legion, but it would set the tone for all that was to come. |
Brotherhood, The - The Second Purge: The second iteration of The Brotherhood came a century later, after Lorgar had been reunited with the Space Marine Legion created from his genetic code. As the Great Crusade reached its height, the Emperor found himself increasingly frustrated with the slow pace with which the Word Bearers brought new worlds into Imperial Compliance and with his spread of the religious belief that the Emperor was a divine being worthy of worship, a direct violation of the atheistic doctrines of the Imperial Truth. The Emperor finally ordered the Word Bearers to cease their religious activities, as their mission was to reunify the galaxy under the banner of the Imperial Truth, not preach the word of the Emperor's personal divinity. The Emperor ordered a task force composed of the Ultramarines Legion a force of his elite personal bodyguards, the Legio Custodes and the Imperial Regent, Malcador the Sigillite, to raze the capital city of the planet Khur. This was a world dear to the Word Bearers, who considered its capital, Monarchia, the "Perfect City" because of the intense religious devotion of its citizens and the sheer number of cathedrals and monuments dedicated to the worship of the Emperor as a God. The Emperor psychically forced the entirety of the Word Bearers Legion, 100,000 Astartes in all, to kneel in shame in the ashes of the monument of their failure to understand his purpose. Though the Primarch railed against his father, the Emperor would not be swayed by his fierce oratory. In the ultimate act of shame, Lorgar was also forced to kneel to his father, the first time a Primarch had been so humiliated. The Legion was formally rebuked by the Emperor for their laxity and their failure in discharging their duties as Astartes.Shamed by his chastisement, Lorgar returned to his flagship, the Gloriana-class Battleship, Fidelitas Lex, to meditate on his place within the galaxy. When he finally emerged, he once again possessed the fires of zeal within his eyes. His Legion would undergo a sacred pilgrimage to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. If the Emperor did not want their worship, then they would seek out deities worthy of the Word Bearers' faith. This would come to be known as the Pilgrimage of Lorgar and its outcome would open the Primarch's eyes to the truth of Chaos' existence. Lorgar also came to understand that the Old Faith, the ancient religious beliefs of the people of Colchis that he had swept away during the Great Purge, were true. The Old Gods, not the flawed Emperor, were the only powers that Lorgar believed were worthy of Mankind's faith and worship.Lorgar once more formed The Brotherhood, again with great mourning and remorse. There were those amongst the XVII Legion that would not have understood these truths, brainwashed and conditioned as they had been in their formative years. With the second reformation of the Brotherhood, the ranks of the XVIIth Legion were purged of all Terran-born Loyalists, leaving only those Astartes of Colchisian blood -- and thus loyal solely to Lorgar -- behind. Though the Urizen lamented their loss, for they were warriors of his own gene-code, it was a necessary sacrifice. Raised in isolation from him upon Terra, they had been utterly subverted and corrupted by the lies of the golden-tongued "False Emperor," thus closing their souls off to the great truth. |
Brotherhood, The - The Third Purge: In the latter part of the 41st Millennium, the Word Bearers' First Captain and Black Cardinal Kor Phaeron ordered The Brotherhood's formation a third time in order to overthrow the Dark Apostle Erebus, whom the First Captain felt had come to wield too much power within the XVII Legion and was moulding the Word Bearers according to his will rather than the will of the Dark Gods. He also held too much sway with ruling body of the Legion, known as the Dark Council, who had also become subservient to his will. This third iteration of The Brotherhood was secretly led by the Grand Apostle Ekodas of the 7th Host, one of the senior ranking Dark Apostles that sat upon the Dark Council. But this third purge never occurred, as it was halted by Erebus and the Dark Apostle Marduk during their Dark Crusade to take the Boros Gate, a star system of great strategic value to the Imperium. Unknown to the Brotherhood, Erebus had already discovered the rot within the ranks of the Legion and Dark Apostle Marduk was able to identify those that were the leaders of this traitorous cabal. The Dark Council moved swiftly and annihilated those co-conspirators that were members of the Brotherhood, but Kor Phaeron could not be brought to account, as he had felt that discretion was the better part of valour, and so he had severed all ties with the Brotherhood when the cabal had been compromised. Though Kor Phaeron often engaged in power struggles with Erebus over the millennia they were common, and so Erebus treated these struggles as if they were nothing to him and he was unwilling to challenge Kor Phaeron further on the matter. The only likelihood was that at some point, The Brotherhood would rise again. |
Brotherhood, The - Notable Members of The Brotherhood: Ekodas - Grand Apostle of the 7th Host.Ankh-Heloth - Dark Apostle of the 11th Host.Ashkanez - First Acolyte of the 34th Host.Burias Drak'Shal - Possessed Daemonic Champion and Icon Bearer of the 34th Host. |
Brotherhood of a Thousand - Brotherhood of a Thousand: The Brotherhood of a Thousand is a Codex Astartes-compliant Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of unknown genetic origin and Founding. |
Brotherhood of a Thousand - Notable Astartes: Eadmund - Eadmund was a battle-brother of the Brotherhood of a Thousand who took part in liberating the Mostar System and is now serving in the Deathwatch as part of Watch Fortress Talasa Prime's Kill-team Zeal. He later took part in the successful destruction of the T'au Empire's M'Yan'Ral KV128 Stormsurge fabrication facility on the world of Proth. |
Brotherhood of a Thousand - Chapter Colours: The Brotherhood of a Thousand primarily wears grey power armour. The Aquila or Imperialis is golden. The white squad tactical specialty symbol on the right shoulder guard designates operational specialty -- battleline, close support, fire support, Veteran or command.A black High Gothic numeral is stenciled on the centre of the squad specialty symbol which indicates squad number.The colour of the shoulder plate trim indicates company number in accordance with the dictates of the Codex Astartes -- i.e. white (1st Company), yellow (2nd Company), red (3rd Company), green (4th Company), etc. |
Brotherhood of a Thousand - Chapter Badge: The Brotherhood of a Thousand's Chapter badge is a black letter "M" on a slightly undersized white roundlet, centred on a field of grey. The High Gothic numeral "M" represents the number 1,000. |
Brotherhood of a Thousand - Trivia: Originally the letter "M" was the Great Crusade-era Legion badge of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion, before being reunited with its primarch Magnus the Red. After Magnus took command of the Legion the badge was changed to a stylised sun of eight sharp, serpentine points, before eventually becoming the mystical icon known as the Ouroboros (a snake eating its own tail), after the events of the Horus Heresy. |
Brotherhood of Blood - Brotherhood of Blood: The Brotherhood of Blood is a Renegade warband of Chaos Space Marines of unknown origins and Founding. They are known to have laid claim to the contested world of Brigannion Four, which lies just outside the Eye of Terror, close to the stable warp route known as the Cadian Gate. They are thought to serve Chaos Undivided. |
Brotherhood of Blood - Warband History: The Brotherhood of Blood is most widely known for its claim of the contested world of Brigannion Four. This world is an unimaginably vast fortress of corrupt magic and machine, made all the more impregnable by its current ruler, Manneus Drath of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion.The Brotherhood of Blood constantly vies with some of the original Traitor Legions who have also laid claim to this contested world, including the Night Lords, Death Guard and the Black Legion, as well as another warband, the Sons of Hate. |
Brotherhood of Blood - Warband Colours: The Brotherhood of Blood's colours are not listed in current Imperial records. |
Brotherhood of Blood - Warband Badge: The Brotherhood of Blood's badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Brotherhood of Darkness - Brotherhood of Darkness: The Brotherhood of Darkness are a warband of Chaos Space Marines of unknown genetic origin and allegiance, though some scholars posit that they may be related to the Night Lords Traitor Legion, due to their similar iconography and their penchant for often working together as allies. |
Brotherhood of Darkness - Warband History: At an unknown point after the Horus Heresy the Brotherhood of Darkness assaulted an Imperial astropathic relay station near the Eye of Terror, alongside the Chaos Sorcerer Ahzek Ahriman during his exile from the Thousand Sons Legion. They burned the relay station's astropaths alive and massacred the civilians aboard. |
Brotherhood of Darkness - Notable Campaigns: War of Broken Wings (261.M33) - A unified armada of vessels drawn from the Night Lords Legion and its myriad allies assaulted the Angels Sanguine Chapter's battlefleet in high orbit above their homeworld of Anzyra. The Angels Sanguine, fighting for their homeworld and the very survival of their Chapter, were pressed into a defensive battle to prevent the mass bombardment of their fortress-monastery. To end the engagement, which records list as lasting for several solar days of protracted void warfare and ship-to-ship boarding actions, the Angels Sanguine forced a final resolution by offering the perfect bait: they allowed their flagship, the Cruor Domina, to be crippled and boarded by hundreds of enemy Heretic Astartes. While the Space Marines defended their battle barge to keep it from being taken as a prize by the raiding Night Lords, a full three hundred Death Company warriors were sent by Boarding Torpedoes to slaughter their way through the vulnerable crews of eight enemy capital ships, including the renowned Lies of Dawn, the Foresworn, and the Brotherhood of Darkness' warship Sightless Godling. The Angels Sanguine, as a member Chapter of the Sanguinary Brotherhood, had always suffered fiercely from the Flaw in Sanguinius' gene-seed, and such an assault represented a standard century's worth of prisoners within their fortress-monastery's Tower of the Lost suffering from the Black Rage being unleashed into battle one last time. Without Chaplains to lead them, the afflicted Astartes of these Death Companies were sacrificed in desperation, with no hope of recovery. Yet their crazed assault turned the tide. Suddenly, at risk of losing many of their own flagships, the Traitor warbands fought their way back to their own vessels, only to be cut down by the enraged defenders as they turned their backs and fled. Those Traitors that managed to return to their own ships were met with entire decks left as abattoirs by the rampaging Space Marines of the Death Companies, and were forced to contend with the blood-maddened boarding parties even as they ordered their ships back from the primary assault.Qabbalis Heresy (Unknown Date.M40) - The Brotherhood of Darkness are known to have taken part in the Qabbalis Heresy.Destruction of Convoy 36/129/b (003.998.M41) - A convoy of Imperial vessels including cargo carriers, transport spacecraft and civilian passenger liners was ambushed by warships belonging to the Brotherhood of Darkness Chaos Space Marines in the Pandraxx Sub-sector of the Acteron Sector in the Ultima Segmentum. All spacecraft in the convoy were destroyed and no survivors were found. |
Brotherhood of Darkness - Notable Warships: Sightless Godling (Unknown Class) - A warship of the Brotherhood of Darkness that came under assault by the Black Rage-afflicted Death Companies unleashed by the Angels Sanguine upon the Heretic Astartes forces led by the Night Lords that assaulted their Chapter planet of Anzyra during the War of Broken Wings in 261.M33. |
Brotherhood of Darkness - Warband Colours: The Brotherhood of Darkness wear jet-black power armour with red trim on the shoulder guards. The armour is covered in glowing, yellow blasphemous glyphs. |
Brotherhood of Darkness - Warband Badge: The badge of the Brotherhood of Darkness is a bone-coloured, horned skull with crimson bat-like wings on a black background, strikingly similar to that of the Night Lords Traitor Legion. |
Brotherhood of Dust - Brotherhood of Dust: The Brotherhood of Dust was a powerful Chaos Space Marine warband that consisted primarily of exiled Thousand Sons Chaos Sorcerers founded by Amon, the former captain of the 9th Fellowship of the Thousand Sons Legion, and the equerry of Primarch Magnus the Red.Amon eventually confronted his former friend and later bitter rival, Ahzek Ahriman, in an epic sorcerous duel, but was ultimately defeated and slain. Ahriman absorbed the fallen sorcerer's power and took Amon's battle-plate, and assumed the mantle of leadership over the Brotherhood of Dust as his own.It is not known if the Brotherhood of Dust survived into the 41st Millennium, or if they are one and the same with the Prodigal Sons, the warband of Chaos Space Marines that Ahriman currently leads. |
Brotherhood of Dust - Warband History: Amon once served as a mentor and tutor to the Primarch Magnus the Red in the arts of sorcery, before the arrival of the Thousand Sons Space Marine Legion on the world of Prospero during the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium. He eventually went on to become one of the XVth Legion's first Prosperine Astartes at the direct invitation of Magnus, though he was too old to become a true Space Marine and instead attained that status through a series of genetic and chemical enhancement techniques.Amon rose through the ranks to become the captain of the 9th Fellowship. As a potent psyker, he became the founder of the XVth Legion's Corvidae Cult and its first governing "magister templi." He also served as Equerry to Magnus, responsible for the primarch's security and for officiating certain sorcerous rituals, amongst other duties.Amon would not only survive the battles of the Great Crusade, but the Fall of Prospero after it was attacked by the Space Wolves Legion during the early years of the Horus Heresy as well. At the height of this conflict, the mortally wounded Magnus opened a gateway through the Warp into the Eye of Terror where the Daemon World Sortiarius, better known as the "Planet of the Sorcerers," had been prepared for Magnus and the remnants of his Legion by their new patron god, Tzeentch. Magnus was subsequently "rewarded" by Tzeentch by being transformed into a Daemon Prince.Following the Thousand Sons' exile into the Eye of Terror, First Captain Ahzek Ahriman became hateful and contemptible of their gene-sire. When the "flesh-change" once again ran rampant amongst the survivors of the Thousand Sons and Magnus seemed to accept it, Ahriman set out to find a cure for the rapid mutation himself.In his own hatred and hubris, and utterly unaware of the ludicrousness of attempting to use the very energy of change to stop change, Ahriman delved into the sorcerous knowledge held in the Book of Magnus. Distilling the colossal collections of formulae, incantations and rites, and infusing the results with his own hatred of Magnus and angst at the fate of his Legion, Ahriman devised the canvas of a mighty arcane spell that would ultimately undo all the woe that had befallen his battle-brothers and thus protect them from the flesh-change for all eternity.Preliminary testing of the spell he called the Rubric generated great promise, but he quickly discovered that he lacked the raw power required to achieve permanent results. He then set to work gathering those amongst the remaining officers of the Thousand Sons who, like him, were disgusted by what had befallen their Legion and their primarch. Gathering in a fell circle around Ahriman, this cabal of sorcerers lent their power to Ahriman, who then unleashed the full power of his desperate spell.Amon was amongst those who had joined Ahriman's breakaway cabal, those who had always been the most headstrong and possessed of the most psychic power in the XVth Legion. Those that had remained faithful to the primarch were the second-rate, the ones who had not dared to join the casting of the Rubric. The counter-sorcery affected them all, preserving less than a hundred of the Legion's Sorcerers and condemning the rest, the Rubricae, to dust as their physical bodies were transformed into spectral energy. In the aftermath of the cataclysm, it became clear that the Rubric had either succeeded beyond all possible expectations or failed abominably, depending on how one looked at it. Ahriman himself, along with most of his cabal, were horrified by the result. Their brethren were now as they had intended, protected from the "flesh-change," though they paid for this protection with the destruction of their physical bodies. Instead of being struck down for their temerity by their enraged Primarch, Ahriman and the rest of his cabal were instead banished from the Planet of the Sorcerers.As Ahriman was exiled, so too was his cabal, but Amon was determined to find all the secrets of the Rubric and perhaps restore some of his mindless, undead brothers back to life. Over the next one thousand standard years, as he continued to amass more power, Amon founded his own powerful warband known as the Brotherhood of Dust which consisted of many exiled Thousand Sons. He also gathIn his own hatred and hubris and utterly unaware of the ludicrousness of attempting to use the very energy of change to stop change, Ahriman delved into the sorcerous knowledge held in the Book of Magnus. Distilling the colossal collections of formulae, incantations and rites, and infusing the results with his own hatred of Magnus and angst at the fate of his Legion, Ahriman devised the canvas of a mighty arcane spell that would ultimately undo all the woe that had befallen his battle-brothers and thus protect them from the flesh-change for all eternity.Preliminary testing of the spell he called the Rubric generated great promise, but Ahriman quickly discovered that he lacked the raw power required to achieve permanent results. He then set to work gathering those amongst the remaining officers of the Thousand Sons who, like him, were disgusted by what had befallen their Legion and their primarch. Gathering in a fell circle around Ahriman, this cabal of sorcerers lent their power to Ahriman, who then unleashed the full power of his desperate spell.Amon was amongst those who had joined Ahriman's breakaway cabal, those who had always been the most headstrong and those with the most psychic power in the XVth Legion. Those that had remained faithful to the primarch were the second-rate, the ones who had not dared to join the casting of the Rubric.The Rubric worked, but like all the double-edged gifts of Chaos, it did not unfold as its casters expected. The spell affected every member of the Thousand Sons, preserving less than a hundred of the Legion's sorcerers and condemning the rest who lacked psychic abilities, the Rubricae, to dust.The majority of battle-brothers of the Legion who lacked the psychic gift could not deal with the cataclysmic amounts of sorcerous energy which poured into them. Their flesh burned on the spot, their bodies reduced to ash inside their power armour. And yet, the energies released sealed all the joints of their armour as it burned their bodies. When their souls attempted to depart their ruined bodies, they found themselves trapped inside their armour; dead, yet still alive, without a body but unchanging for all eternity.In the aftermath of this cataclysm, it became clear that the Rubric had either succeeded beyond all possible expectations or failed abominably, depending on how one looked at it. Ahriman himself, along with most of his cabal, were horrified by the result. Their brethren were now as they had intended, protected from the "flesh-change" for all time, though they paid for this protection with the destruction of their physical bodies.It was only later that Ahriman saw the awful truth of what he had wrought. Instead of purging the flesh of his brothers of ravening mutations, each of the Thousand Sons had been transformed into unliving automata.Magnus, angered beyond reason by what his former Chief Librarian had done to his gene-sons, assaulted the tower where Ahriman had gathered his coven. The other Chaos Sorcerers immediately knelt and abased themselves before Magnus' fury, but Ahriman remained standing, vindicated in his beliefs and utterly unrepentant.Before the Daemon Primarch could strike down his former Chief Librarian, the Architect of Fate, Tzeentch himself, intervened, staying Magnus' hand to save a warrior who would yet prove to be one of the greatest champions of the Changer of Ways. Instead, Ahriman and the rest of his cabal were banished from the Planet of the Sorcerers.Ahriman had been exiled from Sortiarius, but so too was his cabal of sorcerers. Yet in their absence, it was Amon who became determined to find all the secrets of the Rubric and perhaps restore some of his mindless, undead brothers back to life. Over the next one thousand standard years as he continued to amass more power, Amon founded his own powerful warband of Heretic Astartes known as the Brotherhood of Dust which consisted of many exiled Thousand Sons.It was Amon who also gathered voidships, other Chaos Space Marines, hundreds of Rubricae and a number of apprentices, who themselves soon became formidable Chaos Sorcerers in their own right. It was Amon's intent to see the suffering of his Legion ended, for he would undo the fell magic of the Rubric that had doomed his former battle-brothers to their unlife, so that he could release their tortured souls. Yet, despite all his grand schemes and designs, he still needed to find the wayward Ahriman, for only he possessed the necessary knowledge of the Rubric to see what he had done reversed.Amon sent out emissaries all over the galaxy chasing rumours, no matter how minor, of the possible whereabouts of the former Thousand Sons Chief Librarian. During his quest, Amon came across other former members of the Thousand Sons. He sent his emissaries to his former brothers in the hopes of enticing them to join his warband. If they accepted, they would become a part of the Brotherhood of Dust; however, those that refused faced the prospect of annihilation -- both themselves and those that followed them.In the meantime, Ahriman had been hiding amongst a Renegade warband of Chaos Space Marines dedicated to Khorne, known as The Harrowing. Somehow the Brotherhood of Dust managed to track the psychic spoor of Ahriman to the warband. Amon sent an emissary named Tolbek, a former Thousand Sons Legionary and member of Ahriman's cabal of sorcerers. An adept of the Pyrae Cult in the long-broken traditions of Prospero, Tolbek had been one of the first to join Ahriman's cabal. Tolbek had played his own part in the casting of the Rubric that destroyed their Legion and had shared in the casters' banishment.Tolbek, escorted by a pair of Rubric Marines, went over to The Harrowing warband's vessel, the Blood Crescent, to entreat with the warband's leader Gzrel. During the subsequent audience aboard The Harrowing's flagship, Tolbek devised the true identity of Ahriman, who had been masquerading as a lowly sorcerous initiate named Horkos -- a Heretic Astartes who was looked upon with contempt by his fellow Renegades as the lowest of the low and an oath-breaker.Recognising Tolbek, and realising his identity had been compromised, Ahriman unleashed his suppressed sorcerous abilities against both his allies and the Thousand Sons sorcerer. After killing the majority of The Harrowing's leaders, Ahriman was confronted by Tolbek. Ahriman telepathically invaded Tolbek's mind, attempting to determine why he had been sought out. But the cunning sorcerer immolated his own mind, attempting to pull Ahriman's psychically-linked mind into oblivion with him. Ahriman just barely managed to escape Tolbek's insidious trap and the other sorcerer died as his body erupted into flames, immolating itself into a pile of ash.Before the Chaos Space Marines aboard the warship Tolbek had arrived on realised that their master was now dead, Ahriman took command of the vessel for himself and fled into the Warp. During Ahriman's quest to determine who had sought him out, Amon sent numerous minions to do his bidding, including Warp creatures and a half-Daemon Prince, all of which failed to kill the potent exiled sorcerer. Despite Amon's best efforts, Ahriman managed to discover his former brother's location and infiltrate his fleet.Unfortunately, before Ahriman could launch a surprise assault upon Amon, he was betrayed by the mistress of the ship he had stolen, his location compromised. Ahriman managed to emerge victorious after battling against three of Amon's Chaos Sorcerers, but was badly wounded during the fighting. Amon eventually appeared in person and subdued the wounded Ahriman with powerful wards of binding and hexes, and brought him aboard his flagship, the Sycorax. While imprisoned, Amon convinced Ahriman to give him the invaluable information he desired so that he could undo the Rubric, and Ahriman finally agreed.Ahriman's allies came to rescue him and they managed to effect his escape, but the former Chief Librarian was soon confronted by the angry Amon, who unleashed a powerful psychic attack. During the ensuing duel, Ahriman revealed the final secret of the Rubric to his former brother -- it was a part of all Thousand Sons, bound into their very beings -- the Rubric ran through them all, linking them, sustaining them. And the deadly power to manipulate it remained in Ahriman's hands.Unable to pull his mind away from Ahriman, the Chaos Sorcerer caused Amon to spontaneously combust from within, unleashing the powerful psychic energy of the Rubric that had been bound into his own flesh with the casting of the arcane spell. Amon's armour came apart, each component pulling away from the other, spilling grey dust into the twisting wind.The vortex of power he had unleashed to kill his brother enveloped Ahriman and lifted him into the air, the separate pieces of Amon's armour aligning themselves over his unarmoured, splayed body. Then, one plate at a time, they slid into place over Ahriman's flesh. Finally Amon's horned helm slipped over Ahriman's skull. The minds of the still-living sorcerers of the Brotherhood of Dust teetered on the edge of indecision. The undead Rubricae simply waited.Raising his hands, Ahriman summoned magical flames from the floor which engulfed the red lacquer of the armour of every Rubricae and sorcerer of Amon's Brotherhood of Dust. Then the flames suddenly flickered blue, and the red-and-silver armour became instead a sheen of polished sapphire.Ahriman then looked across the ranks of newly transmuted blue power armour. Slowly, he knelt and bowed his head in recognition of his own sins against the Thousand Sons. He then assumed the mantle of leadership of the Brotherhood of Dust, including its massive fleet and army of followers, mortal and Heretic Astartes alike.It is not known if the former Brotherhood of Dust is the same warband, now known as the "Prodigal Sons," that Ahriman currently leads in the 41st Millennium. |
Brotherhood of Dust - Notable Brotherhood of Dust Members: Amon (KIA) - Chaos Sorcerer Lord and warband founder and leader.Tolbek (KIA) - Chaos Sorcerer and exiled member of Ahriman's cabal.Siamak (KIA) - Chaos Sorcerer and exiled member of Ahriman's cabal.Zabaia (KIA) - Chaos Sorcerer and exiled member of Ahriman's cabal.Helio Isidorus - Rubric Marine, former Thousand Sons Legionary.Mabius Ro - Rubric Marine, former Thousand Sons Legionary. |
Brotherhood of Dust - Warband Colours: The Brotherhood of Dust wore power armour in the pre-Horus Heresy Legion colours of the Thousand Sons, favouring lacquered red with silver trim as well as ornate crests on their helmets similar to the striped cloth crowns once worn by ancient Gyptian pharaohs of Terra.Following Ahriman's takeover of the Brotherhood of Dust, their colours were replaced with polished sapphire blue and gold trim, akin to the post-Heresy colours of the Thousand Sons. |
Brotherhood of Dust - Warband Badge: The Brotherhood of Dust, like the Thousand Sons of old, incorporates the XVth Legion's old iconography as their badge. |
Brotherhood of Lethe - Brotherhood of Lethe: The Brotherhood of Lethe are a warband of Chaos Space Marines that were once a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter known as the Crusaders of Dorn. Though their origin and Founding is unknown, their Chapter name suggests lineage from the Imperial Fists. The Crusaders of Dorn were corrupted after entering the Eye of Terror in 321.M37 as part of the Imperial Abyssal Crusade. It is unknown what they endured during their sojourn into the Eye, but by the time they made their way back into realspace, they had become the warband of Chaos Space Marines known as the Brotherhood of Lethe. |
Brotherhood of Lethe - Abyssal Crusade: Following the Ecclesiarchal Purges of 321.M37, a dozen star systems were engulfed by Warp Storm Dionys, its echoes rippling along the spiral arms of the galaxy as it raged through the Empyrean. Records of mutation and Chaos Cultist activity quadrupled overnight. Worse yet, it was not only the citizens who were affected by the sudden influx of Chaos. Many of the Space Marine Chapters with homeworlds affected by the Warp Storm found that the secret imperfections in their gene-seed were writ large upon their new recruits, giving rise to a wave of disturbing manifestations both physical and psychological. The Crusaders of Dorn were one such Loyalist Chapter of Astartes that had been affected by these Warp Storms.When the Ecclesiarchy heard of this sinister turn of events, Saint Basillius the Elder demanded that all those Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes whose homeworlds had been touched by the Warp Storm be rendered unto his judgement. Such was the elder's influence with the High Lords of Terra that within a standard year this had come to pass. After a series of stringent tests and prognostications, hundreds of Chapters were deemed unaffected by the Warp Storm. No less than thirty were found wanting. The Judged, as these fallen Chapters came to be known, volunteered for a redemptive Penitent Crusade. The most militant of their number demanded the right to purify their tainted flesh in the fires of battle, to make a noble end from tragic misfortune. To the surprise of his closest advisors, Saint Basillius agreed to this proposal. He saw it fitting to send the accused into the Eye of Terror, taking the fight for the Imperium's future to the Daemon Worlds inhabited by the Traitor Marines.A representative from each of the doomed Chapters held an emergency Council of Dismay to discuss the proposed Crusade. After scant hours of debate, they acquiesced to Basillius' demands, for they believed that martyrdom was preferable to an existence of suspicion and doubt. The last few days of 321.M37 saw a solemn procession of Strike Cruisers and Battle Barges pass through the Cadian Gate into the Eye of Terror, relay systems dormant and heraldic colours obscured by black mag-plates. One by one, the Chapters of The Judged disappeared into the iridescent dust nebulae that surrounded the Eye. As the massive Space Marine flotilla entered the Eye of Terror, they were set upon by a massive Chaos warfleet. The resultant battle was so fierce that the ships of The Judged were forced to retreat and were scattered to the furthest corners of the Eye.Chapter after Chapter fell to the perils of the Eye, for the Abyssal Crusade had entered a hell from which very few emerge unchanged. The true account of what occurred within the Eye to the Crusaders of Dorn is unknown, but most of the tales of the Chapters of The Judged ended in tragedy and sorrow. By the time they reemerged from the Eye many standard centuries later, the Crusaders of Dorn were no more, for they had become the Chaos Space Marine warband known as the Brotherhood of Lethe, wholly dedicated to the service of the Ruinous Powers. |
Brotherhood of Lethe - Warband Colours: The Brotherhood of Lethe warband's colours are not listed in current Imperial records. |
Brotherhood of Lethe - Warband Badge: The Brotherhood of Lethe warband's badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Brotherhood of the All Seeing Eye - Brotherhood of the All Seeing Eye: The Brotherhood of the All Seeing Eye was an order of archivists within the ancient Mechanicum during the time of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy that resided on the Machine Cult's homeworld of Mars.They witnessed the destruction of countless forms of priceless knowledge that had been maintained or recovered by the Mechanicum from Mankind's lost past at the hands of the Dark Mechanicum during the Martian civil war known as the Schism of Mars. |
Brotherhood of the Blue Hawk - Brotherhood of the Blue Hawk: The Brotherhood of the Blue Hawk was a division of the White Scars Legion that was detached from the Legion's main body to carry out a reconnaissance of frontier regions of the galaxy during the last years of the Great Crusade.It returned to Imperial space long after the end of the Horus Heresy and refused to follow the edicts of the Codex Astartes and the forced division of the V Legion during the Second Founding, preferring to seek its own destiny in a galaxy it no longer recognised. |
Brotherhood of the Blue Hawk - History: At some point during the Great Crusade, the Brotherhood of the Blue Hawk of the White Scars Legion was tasked with charting the southern rim of the galaxy for eventual Imperial Compliance by the Great Crusade, a task they undertook for solar decades with exacting diligence.In 087.M31 this Brotherhood returned to Imperial space, emerging from the Warp at the remote way-station of Theogranth in the southern reaches of an Imperium weakened by a terrible civil war they knew nothing about. The Brotherhood of the Blue Hawk numbered a mere 132 Astartes on its return. Yet here, at the moment of their triumph, they fell under attack by Renegade warbands of the scattered Alpha Legion who had come to Theogranth looking to pillage supplies.Shocked to find themselves at war with those they had always counted as brothers, the Brotherhood suffered badly in the battle, repulsing the Alpha Legion at the cost of much of their own strength. This was to be the last battle of the Legiones Astartes, the other Legions long since rendered down into separate Chapters by Lord Commander of the Imperium Roboute Guilliman's edict of the Second Founding. The last vicious stroke of the Horus Heresy, the final betrayal of brother against brother, for those that had survived the Age of Darkness no longer thought of the Traitor remnants as kin.Triumph was turned bitter by the spilt blood of their brethren, and victory was bought at a steep price. Only 28 of the White Scars would survive to reach Chogoris, there to learn of the full horror of the Horus Heresy, the crippling of the Imperium and the disappearance of their own Primarch Jaghatai Khan in the years of tumult and war that followed it. They had set out at the height of the Imperium and returned to find it crushed, to find that the Legion they once knew no longer existed, replaced by a bastard creation of necessity.When word of their return reached distant Terra, Roboute Guilliman sent for them, seeking to make a spectacle of this lost Brotherhood and to see them reinstated into the new order of the Imperium. Yet, all that would arrive at Terra was a short missive, penned by Yeke Negurin Khan, the commander of the unit, before he and the warriors of the Brotherhood of the Blue Hawk departed Chogoris, never to return. To this day no sign of their death has ever been found, and it is possible that they still make war in the Emperor's name far beyond the shrunken borders of the Imperium. |
Brotherhood of the Blue Hawk - Colours: Like the rest of the White Scars Legion, the Brotherhood wore white Power Armour with red trim and tribal lightning bolt marks, as well as elaborate black tactical markings. |
Brotherhood of the Blue Hawk - Badge: The insignia of the Brotherhood of the Blue Hawk was an azure and white hawk with spread wings. |
Brotherhood of the Blue Hawk - Notable members: Yeke Negurin Khan - Commander of the Brotherhood of the Blue Hawk. |
Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness - Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness: The Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness is a dangerous and highly organised malefic Chaos Cult whose origins and activities go back according to some sources to the founding of the Calixis Sector and quite possibly beyond. This cult has been repeatedly smashed time and again over the centuries only to appear again some standard years or solar decades later. Membership, size, form, and power may vary, but it is always recognisable in its core beliefs and the object of its worship -- the Daemon Balphomael, the Horned Darkness.The Brotherhood, known to some as the "Pact of Balphomael" or the "Black Society," is recognised by the Ordo Malleus as a near-archetypical Daemon-worshipping Chaos Cult, although often better resourced and more dangerous than most. Appealing to the Imperial nobility and the ruling elite who tend toward ambition and megalomania rather than jaded excess or forbidden pleasure, Balphomael's supplicants are often austere, driven, and dangerous individuals who obey their master's teachings and feed his hungry demand for sacrifice and suffering. In the past, multiple groups worshipping the Daemon have been in existence at the same time, either kept in ignorance of each other or set up as rivals to prove their worth, depending on their Daemonic master's whim.Historically, cults worshipping the Horned Darkness have been discovered as far afield as Landunder, Malfi, and Sepheris Secundus in the Calixis Sector. However, the cult's greatest stronghold in the past, and the place where it has reared its head time and again is mighty Scintilla itself.Here at the heart of the Calixis Sector, the heresy once became so powerful and widespread as to threaten to corrupt the seat of sector government. Some scholars of the forbidden believe that the Daemon has some particular connection to this world, which, if it could be somehow broken, may cast it out more permanently and end its malign influence on the sector once and for all. Unfortunately, the past has proven that the threat of the Horned Darkness is not so easily destroyed. |
Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness - Origins: The cult has threatened scores of worlds at various points in the Calixis Sector's history, and individual Brotherhoods have ranged greatly in power and dominion, from a dozen individuals in a single guild to grand malefic conspiracies encompassing a chain of worlds with thousands of cultists bound to Balphomael's service. Without doubt though, the most potent danger the cult ever posed was to the very heart of the sector itself some 440 Terran years ago, in the fourth century of the 41st Millennium.During those days, the Brotherhood had become embedded in the sector's infrastructure and even within the Lucid Court of Scintilla. Meanwhile, its figurehead organisation, the Tellurian Combine, rose to become the dominant economic force in the sector. Faced with the dire truth when uncovered, the Inquisition had a difficult choice to make. To denounce and attack the Combine directly would have tempted anarchy in the highest echelons of Imperial government and perhaps even risk open civil war within the sector.Instead, the entire resources and wiles of the Ordos Calixis -- Ordos Malleus,Hereticus, Xenos, and others -- were brought to bear in a true shadow war. Within a solar decade, the whole edifice of the Tellurian Combine was mercilessly brought down, its cabals isolated and destroyed by covert raids, Exorcist death squads, and contract assassinations. At the same time, the cult's workings and secret pawns were forced into the light and slaughtered in what is believed to have been the largest deployment of Officio Assassinorum agents in the history of the Calixis Sector.Much of what the Inquisition knows of the Brotherhood and its dark patron harkens back to this great and secret purge. It was the famed Daemonhunter Orpheus himself, at the head of an intercession force of Grey Knight Terminators, that finally vanquished the avatar of the Horned Darkness in a hidden temple in catacombs deep under the Tellurian Chancellery in Hive Sibellus.Although the power of the cult was broken and thousands of unclean Heretics and their duped lackeys were slain, the Brotherhood did not die. Time and again, signs of the Brotherhood stirring has come to light, although it has never managed to attain even a fraction of its former power and glory -- or so the Inquisition believes. Others, however, believe this relative silence simply means that it has become even more subtle and adept at hiding its tracks. They fear that unless the true root of the Daemon-incursion is found, it is only a matter of time before the Brotherhood rises once again to corrupt the Calixis Sector from within. |
Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness - Flavian Invicta: The Traitor Cardinal: Perhaps the greatest shock in the aftermath of the whole Tellurian Combine affair was the revelation of the identity of the Brotherhood's greatest diabolist, Flavian Invicta, Cardinal Palatine of the Ecclesiarchy. Invicta was a highly ranked but otherwise undistinguished clergyman attached as part of the Adeptus Ministorum's delegation to the Lucid Court of Scintilla. He appeared in public to be an affable, pious old man from an old and respected family in the twilight of his Ecclssiarchy career but was, in fact, a ruthless power-broker and diabolist who harboured ambitions to be the true power behind the throne of the whole sector.Invicta was thought to have sold his soul to Balphomael while still a young man, and close inspection of his personal history uncovered countless strange occurrences and the mysterious deaths of many rivals and competitors. The official record states that Invicta died suddenly of natural causes, but rumours within the Ordo Malleus persist that he remains alive still, cursed by the boon of longevity that his master granted, screaming endlessly in a pain amplifier buried deep beneath the Inquisitorial fortress called the Bastion Serpentis. |
Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness - The Daemon Balphomael: Balphomael, the Horned Darkness, is a Daemonic power that has seemed to lurk in the shadows of the Calixis Sector since it was founded, and is doubtless far older than this. Over the years the Inquisition has acquired considerable lore and anecdotal evidence about this being whose power is at least equivalent to that of a Daemon Prince, if not considerably greater. Seemingly owing no direct fealty or allegiance to any other of its kind, it has the characteristics and nature of a power broker. It is a being who demands worship and obeisance and sacrifice, who in return grants patronage and power.Legends and scraps of lore describe Balphomael as a towering figure of unholy fire and billowing darkness, a horned shadow that can be summoned from a bonfire piled high with burning hearts given in offering. The testimony of cult members brought to question by the Ordos Majoris of the Inquisition claims that the Daemon may also take the shape of a saturnine man or striking woman of imperious manner -- a dealmaker whose honeyed tongue might corrupt a saint, but whose eyes burn like embers and whose shadow is cast in the terrible flickering shape of its true nature.The Daemon is a powerful and dangerous Warp entity, and one that cannot be commanded or controlled, by even the most powerful mortal sorcerer. Some scholars within the Ordo Malleus speculate that its "appearances" in corporeal reality (including on one occasion when a powerful avatar of the beast was battled by the Ordos and the Grey Knights) are actually little more than Warp-projections, the meanest portion of a far greater whole that coils in the Empyrean beyond. |
Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness - Cult Organisation: The Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness takes the form of a secret conspiracy, a mystery cult that takes great pains to keep its existence hidden from the outside world. It makes extensive use of go-betweens, ignorant hirelings, secret tongues, ciphers, and a rigidly enforced code of silence to maintain its cover. Behind this curtain, the cult's structure is strongly delineated, with its "masters" holding complete authority of life and death over its lesser members. Commonly these masters form a ruling cabal that numbers a ritually significant eight members. These collectively are the "Servants," and each has a direct pact with his Daemonic master.They often grant themselves grand titles such as "High Magister," "Ipsisama," or "Mokartus," but ultimately the cult's true master remains Balphomael itself -- none dare disobey its dark pronouncements. In past incarnations of the cult, the secrecy and paranoia of its members have meant that none other than the high magister knew the identities of all the cabal members, while to others they are only known as masked figures wielding absolute power.Below this cabal are an indeterminate number of worshippers, would-be masters, aspirants, and favoured agents, each hoping that they too will be deemed worthy of receiving the Archdaemon's notice. Openings in the ranks only occur should one of the members show failure or weakness, succumb to madness, or suffer death. Assassination, as long as it does not expose the Brotherhood or undermine its goals, is viewed as a perfectly acceptable avenue of advancement within the cult.As such, the cult's membership is made up of ambitious and driven men and women, seekers of power and wealth, and various power-hungry nobles, criminal overlords, scheming adepts, and avaricious guilders. Corrupt Adeptus Ministorum priests and planetary Enforcers are rarer among the Brotherhood, but highly favoured as avenues for the cult's wider power and influence.Serving as the Brotherhood's foot soldiers are hired muscle (often of some quality, given their master's resources), and those deemed useful to the cult who have been deluded, duped, blackmailed, bribed, or simply cowed into service. Although the majority of these lesser agents are not true members of the Brotherhood, they are left by their masters with no illusions about the price of failure or betrayal. Those showing suitable ruthlessness and ambition may be elevated to the Brotherhood proper after proving themselves.The cult's principal goal is to further the power, wealth, and influence of its ruling cabal, and of course to appease its hidden patron. To this end, the gestalt capability of all those within the Brotherhood and those they can control or influence are brought into play. Plots are hatched, rivals destroyed, secret agreements reached, webs of deceit maintained, and power wielded in the shadows, and the cult slowly spreads and grows.Backing all of these more mundane power games is the baleful influence of the Daemon and the dark rites carried out in its name, all of which must be paid for in blood and souls. If the cult has a particular weakness, it is the Daemon at its heart. Sometimes the Daemon's demands outpace its cult's ability to covertly fulfill, and the paranoia and intrigues it can engender, even among its own, can be counterproductive. Ultimately, Balphomael has a tendency to break its "toys." |
Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness - Motivations: If one motivation lies behind everything that the cult does, it is overriding ambition. The cult's mortal masters, known as the "Servants" (a reference to their direct relation to the Brotherhood's Daemonic patron), are characterised by their lust for power and dominance over their fellows, principally manifested through quite mundane means -- wealth, influence, authority, status, and fear. They desire not to bring down the Imperium, but to rule it and wield ultimate power from behind the scenes -- to become in effect, the secret masters of all Human life.The Brotherhood's membership (which covers both genders despite its name) is drawn almost exclusively from the Imperium's rich, the powerful, and the ambitious, who, despite their wealth and station, desire even more. To them, the Brotherhood's purpose is to help them dominate others and obtain more privilege and power. The Daemon at the cult's heart also demands worship, which takes the form of obeisance, devotion, and propitiation for the main part, rather than fanatical faith or belief in its divinity.Balphomael's creed, such as it is, breeds disdain, selfishness, and arrogance, and the Brotherhood quantifies the masses of Humanity (and the whole Imperium for that matter) as so much chattel to be used and disposed of at a whim. The Brotherhood is wary of rivals and threats to its secret dominion, particularly so in the case of rival Chaos Cults and other influences who would undermine it or usurp its goals. Thus the cult is not above employing subtle means to destroy the competition (such as leading on the wrath of the Imperial authorities against a troublesome rival, etc.). The Holy Ordos, in particular, are seen as a threat and one which it should be vigilant against. However, direct conflict with the Ordos of the Inquisition should be avoided. |
Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness - Rule of the Brotherhood: To many who are attracted to the cult, involvement can seem a rational and even sensible choice, an alliance with a powerful force that can grant them their desires, protect them from their enemies, and see them triumph over their rivals. They may rationalise it as a simple act of commerce and fealty, no different in essence than swearing loyalty to a guild or siding with a Great House of the sector's nobility. For many, the fact that recognisable strictures such as binding contracts, strict hierarchy, and demanded obedience are all cornerstones of the Brotherhood's structure make the cult merely a continuation of what their lives in the Imperium already demand.The cult fosters this lie by taking on the trappings of a secret society dedicated to furthering its members' interests. Often it only reveals its true nature to aspirants once they have been fully tested, compromised, and tempted by the power and influence the cult offers. Such sane and civilised trappings are, of course, ultimately a deceit, and one willingly embraced by the cult's members to conceal the dark and festering truth at the cult's heart, the Daemon Balphomael. The Horned Darkness is a powerful entity able to grant great boons to those that swear it service. However, its price is likewise heavy, its only coins of exchange are sacrifice and death, and it is a jealous and unforgiving master.The Brotherhood also sees the value in blackmail, brutality, and the exploitation of the vices of others as effective tools to bring the weak to heel and ensure their obedience. It prefers to suborn, intimidate, and corrupt as an exercise of power. When the time for killing comes, however, the Brotherhood either employs calculated and overwhelming force so as to make a terrifying example to others, or masks its crimes as accidents or random acts of violence, whichever best suits its needs.It is this high degree of self-control that has made the cult so dangerous in the past. Its ability to operate clandestinely and sparingly, where other less-organised or more psychotic cults often expose themselves by succumbing to their own excesses or deluded beliefs, makes it an unusually subtle enemy for the Inquisition's Holy Ordos. |
Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness - Myth of Khorazin: On more than a dozen occasions through the years, the cult has been discovered spreading corruption at the heart of several commercial empires and noble houses on Scintilla. It has also spread its tendrils into the apparatus of state, the Administratum, and even the Ecclesiarchy. Only through the eternal vigilance of the Inquisition, and with much destruction and bloodletting, has the Brotherhood been excised. In the most perilous of these cases, the Brotherhood, through the front of the Tellurian Combine, almost managed to co-opt and corrupt the Lord Sector's government on Scintilla before it was found out and destroyed.This has led some within the Ordo Malleus to search for some focus for the Daemon on this world over and above its worth as the sector capital. Some believe there is some hidden Warp rift, tainted relic, or phenomenon on Hive Sibellus, which if it could be uncovered and destroyed, might provide a more permanent solution to the problem. The Daemonhunter Orpheus uncovered a potential name for this focus in the secret ciphers of the cult, that of "Khorazin." Just what this Khorazin is -- a place, artefact, allegory, or individual -- remains unproven, but evidence suggests that it is somewhere in Scintilla's barren wastelands. |
Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness - The Daemon's Domain: Behind the veneer of the cult's power-mongering and the secretive machinations of its controlling cabals, Balphomael demands its due. As a result, the cult maintains a string of hidden shrines to its Daemonic patron. These are temples of forbidden worship where ritual murder is carried out in Balphomael's name, and where the cabal members can commune with their dark master, call down malefic curses on their enemies, and summon other Daemons to do their bidding.Such shrines and temples are constructed in secret and hidden within noble estates or concealed in disused industrial facilities and other forlorn and abandoned locales where the cult's business can be conducted far from prying eyes. No matter how well-hidden, these structures (thanks to their ritual significance and Balphomael's own requirements) remain a vulnerability to the cult, as they must be left in place once constructed and consecrated and cannot be abandoned or easily moved. Indeed the Imperial authorities' stumbling on such a temple to the Horned Darkness has precipitated the cult's discovery and destruction in the past. |
Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness - The Daemon's Due: Balphomael's demands on his servants are unremitting and steep. He demands complete and unswerving allegiance to him above all other creeds and gods, and the pledge of his followers' immortal souls. He also demands far more tangible sacrifices in the form of the ritual murder of the Brotherhood's enemies in his name and the burnt offerings of the betrayed and the weak to appease his hunger and fuel his darkly-given rituals of power.For those with whom he enters into a Dark Pact, his boon comes with this price and more: he demands true sacrifice, the destruction of something of great personal value to the petitioner in Balphomael's name. Just what this sacrifice entails will vary, but commonly involves the betrayal and death of a close friend, loved one, or cherished dream. For some cold-hearted petitioners with no such humane foible, the Daemon has been known to take a hand, an eye, or a handsome visage whose loss the petitioner must suffer in payment. |
Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness - Membership: The Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness is a conspiracy of the powerful and the wealthy backed by their hirelings, lackeys, would-be aspirants, and, where needed, Daemons summoned to enact their wrath. Other than this, the cult's rank-and-file are usually the prototypical cult initiates found in archetypical Chaos Cults as well as of a more elitist make up such as dissolute nobles and merchant magnates.Also present, though in fewer numbers, are skilled and highly ranked specialists drawn into the cult's service (cult Chaos Sorcerers knowledgeble in Chaos psychic sorcery and ritual, recidivists with unique skill sets, scribes knowledgable in certain subjects, etc.), while the kind of highly-equipped foot soldiers the cult can employ can be comparable to the kill squad troopers used by Enforcers and Arbitrators. Daemons, when summoned, will be at the behest of the Brotherhood's cabal and are never employed lightly. Likewise, the base criminal scum, mutants, and underhive dregs utilised by some cults are almost entirely absent in the Brotherhood which finds them to be crude, weak, and inferior agents.The Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness also has the means to create Infil-Traitors, mind-wiped assassins who do not know they carry a set of instructions within them that can be triggered under specific circumstances to attack their targets. The Inquisition does not yet know how they are able to produce such unknowing double-agents. |
Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness - Notable Members: Master Zentos Cyran - To all that know him, Zentos Cyran is a wealthy and successful guild advocate who operates on behalf of numerous independent commodity traders and gelt-speculators in the commercial markets of Scintilla in the Calixis Sector. A lean and austere figure in his middle years with a shaven head and piercing grey eyes, he is well-respected and considered to be highly connected and skilled at his trade. He makes his home in the most exclusive mercantile district of Ambulon, where he conducts most of his business. Unbeknownst to the wider world, however, Cyran is a Servant of the Horned Darkness, and part of a ruling cabal that seeks to rebuild the cult on Scintilla to its former glory. With a mind as cold and vicious as a steel-sprung trap, Cyran's particular gift is for intelligence gathering, bribery, and blackmail. Additionally, he sidelines as both a connection with Ambulon's criminal underworld and as a trouble shooter for the cult, although he rarely dirties his own hands with murder. He is ably assisted (and watched) by a Daemonic Familiar he knows as Malessence, granted to him by Balphomael when he sold his soul.Malessence, Dark Familiar - The powerful Daemon Familiar Malessence is a servitor creature of Balphomael, conjured from the body of a young woman who loved Zentos Cyran and who was sacrificed by him to his dark lord. The Daemon is now bound to Cyran's soul and serves him as a bodyguard, spy, occasional assassin, and constant reminder of his obligations. A shape shifter, she can take several forms, but her preferred one is that of a pallid young woman. In this Human guise, she masquerades publicly as Cyran's aide. The resemblance of this last form to Cryran's secret imaginings of a daughter he and his murdered lover might have had together is a deliberate and subtle barb on the Daemon's part. |
Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness - Ordo Malleus Departmento Analyticus Threat Briefing: The Ordo Malleus regards the Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness as a clear and present danger to the Imperium of Man, and one that all members of the Holy Ordos within the Calixis Sector are aware of to some degree (although many believe it to be but a shadow of its former self). The threat the cult posses is considered to be two-fold. The first is the political and spiritual corruption created by its conspiracies and infiltrations -- a danger made worse as the largely elitist makeup of the Brotherhood allows it resources, finances, capabilities, and scope that many other cult groups and Daemon-worshippers could not hope to match.The second is the Daemon Balphomael, its works, and its Warp-spawned minions -- a threat rightly classified as Malleus Abominatus Extremis by the Holy Ordos. The Daemon is a powerful entity capable of generating high-magnitude Warp phenomena, casting malefic curses, and investing into those mortal servants who enter into pacts with it a fragment of its unclean might.Its powers are not, however, limitless, and their use seems to be inextricably linked to ritual murder and willing sacrifice by those in its service. The proven strategy for combating the Brotherhood then is three-fold: gather intelligence to uncover the degree of corruption, destroy its foul places of worship to limit its power, and identify those who have sold their souls to the Daemon and bring them the judgement of the Emperor's wrath.Although many members of the Inquisition consider the Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness a threat more historically dangerous than at present, there are some within the Ordo Malleus for whom the Brotherhood borders on an obsession. For these Daemonhunters they are "the one that got away," a cult and a Daemonic threat that the Holy Ordos has never been able to fully destroy, much to their shame and vexation.There are several Daemonhunters for whom hunting down any rumour of the Brotherhood is their greatest cause and a prize for which they would neglect other duties and even tempt Radical measures. Somewhat ungenerously, some of their fellows believe this is perhaps because were any one of them to finally and utterly purge the cult, that Inquisitor's elevation and status within the Ordos would be assured. |
Brotherhood of the Knife - Brotherhood of the Knife: The Brotherhood of the Knife is a Chaos Cult that was raised by and supported the Word Bearers Traitor Legion. It is still used to provide light infantry support for the Heretic Astartes' military operations in the Long War against the Imperium of Man.The brotherhood was called Ushmetar Kaul in the ancient tongue of the Word Bearers' homeworld of Colchis, which translated literally into Low Gothic as "sharp edge by which false reality may be slit and pulled away to reveal god."Its cultists wore long robes, as if in parody of ancient monastic orders. Many bore ceremonial blades and other melee weapons, and the more senior wielded ritual weapons since classified under the general term Athame, fashioned of jagged stone or strangely alloyed iron.Such weapons were by unknown means specifically attuned to the realm of the Warp, so that every death they inflicted was an offering to feed the empyreal entities with which the cult was in communion, and by the act of killing, they sought to breach the barriers which separated the material realm from the Immaterium.The brotherhoods fought in close coordination with their Word Bearers masters, either serving as an expendable first wave or to clear entrenched foes by weight of numbers, butcher the wounded and round up prisoners for sacrifice.The brotherhood's cultists were also fearsome and skilled fighters, and while individual cultists were no match for a Space Marine, they had the advantage of numbers and were driven by their twisted creed to perform deeds beyond the endurance of mortal soldiers. |
Brotherhood of the Knife - History: The Brotherhood of the Knife was first raised by the Word Bearers to provide cannon fodder support for their surprise assault upon the Ultramarines Legion in the Battle of Calth during the Horus Heresy.As with others of its kind, it was brought to the muster under the guise of second-line Excertus Imperialis Levy Auxilia, with an entry given to the muster as classification "Light Infantry/Terrestrial Sub-type/Feral-Feudal Regressive".The cult force was, it appears, organised into between 10-20 sub-sects, each at least 10,000 strong. The members of the Ushmetar Kaul had already gained something of a reputation as a most bloodthirsty and brutal fighting force alongside the Word Bearers during their later Imperial Compliance actions, and they were recorded as engaging in the most violent rites before, after and even during battle.It is believed that the Ushmetar Kaul proved itself a key component in the vast Chaos ritual to create the Ruinstorm of which the death of Calth was but the opening phase, its thousands-strong cohorts being deployed into the many cities and provinces across the surface of Calth, from Numinus to Talanko.With each death inflicted by the Ushmetar Kaul, the Primarch Lorgar's grand ritual on Calth was progressed an increment more, making the Brotherhood of the Knife as useful to the Word Bearers in an occult sense as it was in a military one.The brotherhood's cultists conducted several massed attacks on those Ultramarines defending strategic positions after the Word Bearers' initial attack, including the Ultramarines' 21st Company that was guarding the railway approach to Numinus City.Although its cultists were not well-disciplined, the brotherhood's numbers and suicidal tactics caused several grave casualties among the Ultramarines, weakening them in advance of the main assault launched by the World Bearers' Traitor Marines. During the fighting on Calth and elsewhere in Ultramar, the brotherhood was infamous for the sheer scale of the atrocities they committed against civilians.The excesses attributed to these forces -- particularly by the harrowing accounts of civilian survivors -- speak of the Brotherhood of the Knife fighting clad in rags soaked with the freshly-spilled blood of sacrificial victims, which were as likely to be drawn from their own ranks as from captured enemy combatants.Others had daubed arcane symbols on their skin with blood or had hair matted with clotted viscera; the by-products of mutilations and acts of furious cannibalism beyond the countenance of any sane mind.The Brotherhood of the Knife continued to exist in the years after the Heresy. Large numbers of brotherhood cultists were deployed by the Dark Cardinal Kor Phaeron to fight alongside the Word Bearers during the Talledus War in the Talledus System after the birth of the Great Rift. |
Brotherhood of the Moon (Short Story) - Brotherhood of the Moon (Short Story): Brotherhood of the Moon is the twenty-second short story published in the Horus Heresy Series that was not originally part of an anthology novel. Brotherhood of the Moon was the twenty-seventh item released as part of the Black Library's 2014 Advent Calender. It is also now included in the Eye of Terra anthology novel. |
Brotherhood of the Moon (Short Story) - Synopsis: In the aftermath of the rebellion within his Legion, Jaghatai Khan ordered the trials of his wayward sons to determine whether or not they would atone. The proud Terran White Scars Astartes Torghun Khan now stands before his accusers, and must account for the events that could have led him into outright heresy... |
Brotherhood of the Phoenix - Brotherhood of the Phoenix: The Brotherhood of the Phoenix was a warrior lodge that existed secretly within the Emperor's Children Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras.This confraternity of warriors was instituted after the IIIrd Legion had spent some time fighting alongside their brother Legion, the Luna Wolves, who were the first to adopt the custom of creating a warrior lodge secretly within their Legion organisation following their conquest of the world of Davin, sixty standard years before the start of the Horus Heresy.Given the Emperor's Children's love of formal hierarchy, the Brotherhood of the Phoenix was much more rigid in structure and behaviour than their brethren Legions' more egalitarian warrior lodges and was open for membership only to their Primarch Fulgrim, the Legion's eleven Lord Commanders, and its company captains so as to maintain the Legion's strict hierarchical structure.The Brotherhood of the Phoenix would eventually be used as the conduit by which Fulgrim and the other members of the Emperor's Children who were corrupted by Slaanesh would seize control of the IIIrd Legion and rid themselves of the Imperial Loyalist elements within the Legion during the Isstvan III Atrocity. |
Brotherhood of the Phoenix - History: In the early years of the Emperor's Great Crusade to reconquer the galaxy and reunite the disparate worlds of Humanity under one ruler, there was a great disaster that would leave a terrible mark upon the early decades of the IIIrd Legion's existence.This was the catastrophic loss of nearly the entire gene-seed stock of the Emperor's Children in an accident while transferring the gene-seed stocks and then a terrible pathogen known as "the Phage" that nearly wiped out what remained. At the same time, the disease killed many of the Legion's Astartes.Coming within a solar year of their great moment of triumph fighting at the Emperor's side at Proxima where they helped to put down an insurrection against Imperial rule and saved the Emperor's life, this disaster was to prove a turning point that was to forever alter the IIIrd Legion's future.When Fulgrim was finally rediscovered upon the Mining World of Chemos and reunited with the IIIrd Legion, the Space Marine Legion raised from his genetic inheritance, he found not a resplendent host like that of his brother primarchs', but a mere 200 battle-brothers.It was thus necessary for Fulgrim and his warriors to be integrated into the ranks of another Legion until such time as their numbers were sufficiently restored for them to take to battle on their own.The Legion to which Fulgrim and his warriors were assigned was the XVIth Legion, the Luna Wolves, the Legion of Horus, the most favoured son and preeminent warrior amongst all the primarchs.When the Emperor's Children had fought alongside the Luna Wolves early after the rediscovery of their Primarch Fulgrim, they had formed great bonds of friendship with the warriors of Horus, and in the times between the fighting, a few loose tongues amonst the warriors of the XVIth Legion had spoken to their brothers in the IIIrd Legion of the existence of their warrior lodge.The warrior lodges were a conceit that had been instituted in the Luna Wolves and other Legions following the pacification during the Great Crusade of the Feral World of Davin. Though that pre-industrial world had fallen easily to the Imperial Compliance campaign waged against it, Horus had been greatly impressed by the warrior spirit and honour of the Human tribes who called it home.At the recommendation of Lorgar, the primarch of the Word Bearers Legion, Horus had allowed a warrior lodge similar to the warrior lodges to which many Davinite warriors belonged to spring up within the Luna Wolves. Horus could not know that that Lorgar had already turned to the service of Chaos, and that Davin was home to a large contingent of Chaos Cultists.Lorgar hoped to use the establishment of warrior lodges in all of the Space Marine Legions as the primary vector by which those Legions might be corrupted to the service of the Ruinous Powers.The Luna Wolves' lodge was, in theory, open to any warrior who desired to be a member, an informal place of lively debate where rank held no sway and an Astartes could speak his mind freely without fear of reprisals. Eventually a few Astartes from the Emperor's Children were permitted to attend one such meeting, a pleasant evening of honourable camaraderie under the titular leadership of the Lodge Master Serghar Targost.Some enjoyed the meeting, despite the clandestine nature and theatrics of it, but some remained uncomfortable with the informality and mingling of the ranks. In the traditionally hierarchical Emperor's Children Legion, only warriors of officer rank could join the similar confraternity which was soon created within the IIIrd Legion.Eventually, over the course of several solar decades, the Emperor's Children's ranks were swelled by new Astartes who had been recruited from both Terra and Fulgrim's homeworld of Chemos, where the IIIrd Legion had established its fortress-monastery at the old factory-fortress of Callax.When the Emperor's Children were judged to have reached an appropriate size, Fulgrim was given command of the 28th Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade and set off on his own course of conquest, returning dozens of Human-settled worlds to the rule of the Emperor. Among them was the advanced Xenos World of Laeran, where Fulgrim's fate would be sealed. |
Brotherhood of the Phoenix - Fulgrim's Fall: The point at which Fulgrim and the Emperor's Children embraced darkness is not known. Some amongst those who serve the Emperor pointed to Fulgrim's cleansing of the dangerous xenos known as the Laer as the event that finally doomed him, as there are indications that the malign servants of Chaos used this event to ensnare Fulgrim and begin the rapid corruption of the Emperor's Children.It is believed that Fulgrim first fell from the Emperor's grace on the xenos planet called Laeran, officially designated by the Imperium as Twenty-Eight-Three, being the third world the 28th Expedition had brought to Imperial Compliance. Unbeknownst to the IIIrd Legion, the serpentine Laer species were corrupted xenos worshippers of the Chaos God of Pleasure, Slaanesh.Though the resource-rich Ocean World of Laeran would be of immeasurable value to the crusade of the Emperor, its alien inhabitants did not wish to share what blind fortune had blessed them with. They had refused to see the manifest destiny that guided Mankind through the stars and had made it abundantly clear that they held the Imperium in nothing but contempt. The IIIrd Legion's diplomatic advance had been rebuffed with violence, and honour demanded that they answer in kind.Fulgrim's 28th Expeditionary Fleet conquered Laeran for the Imperium, exterminating its hostile native reptilian species. Completely unaware of the real dangers he and his Astartes Legion faced on the Chaos-corrupted world, Fulgrim ordered the Emperor's Children and the other forces of the 28th Expeditionary Fleet to assault the planet and conquer it for the Imperium within a single Terran month, completely eradicating the Laer species in the process.During the final slaughter of that serpentine xenos race, Fulgrim and his Astartes discovered the great temple dedicated to Slaanesh that lay on the central floating coral island of Laeran. The Imperium, ignorant of the existence of the Chaos Gods at this time and holding to the extreme rationalism and atheism of the Imperial Truth, did not realise the significance of such a find or what they had really discovered.The expedition led by Fulgrim began to be unwittingly corrupted by the temple's potent and malign influence. After defeating the temple's fanatical Laer defenders, Fulgrim discovered what the Laer were so fiercely protecting -- at the centre of the chamber of the unholy temple was a circular block of veined black stone, and embedded within was a tall, single-edged silver sword with a gently-curved blade and a crude amethyst gem set in the pommel. This sword was not only a potent Slaaneshi artefact but also the physical vessel of a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh.Once Fulgrim had claimed the blade as his own, the Daemon within it began whispering in his mind and corrupting his soul towards the service of Slaanesh. Thinking the whispers in his mind was only his own subconscious speaking to him, Fulgrim began listening to what it offered. Eventually, he discovered these were actually the whispers of the Daemon that existed within the blade.After a lot of persuasion from his brother Horus, himself already corrupted by the Ruinous Powers after his mortal wounding on the plague moon of Davin, Fulgrim gave himself over to Chaos, and found his particular patron in the Prince of Pleasure, who offered the primarch a route to the ultimate perfection he so craved for himself and his Astartes, free of all morality and dependent upon the pursuit of ultimate self-obsession.Many of the IIIrd Legion's senior commanders that were with their primarch during the final assault on the Laer temple were similarly enraptured by the dazzling sights and strange discordant music as the cacophonous flood of sensations assaulted them with surges of light and noise.After their return to the Emperor's Children fleet in orbit, many of these affected Astartes continuously sought ways to stimulate their senses in an effort to recapture what they had felt in the Laer temple, both on and off the battlefield.As their primarch fell to the whispered temptations of the Daemon-possessed sword he had taken from the Laer temple, the Emperor's Children Legion continued its descent into a downward spiral of corruption marked by the affected Astartes' insatiable desires to satisfy their hedonistic wants. |
Brotherhood of the Phoenix - Isstvan III Atrocity: Before Horus openly launched his rebellion to overthrow the Emperor, an opportunity presented itself that would enable him to get rid of the Loyalist elements within the Astartes Legions under his command. The Imperial Planetary Governor of Isstvan III, Vardus Praal, had been corrupted by the Chaos God Slaanesh whose cultists had long been active on the world even before it had been conquered by the Imperium.Praal had declared his independence from the Imperium, and had begun to practice forbidden Slaaneshi sorcery, so the Council of Terra charged the Warmaster Horus with the retaking of that world. This order merely furthered Horus' plan to overthrow the Emperor.Although the four Legions under his direct command -- the Sons of Horus, World Eaters, Death Guard and the Emperor's Children -- had already turned Traitor and pledged themselves to Chaos, there were still some Loyalist elements within each of these Legions that comprised approximately one-third of their forces.The corrupted Fulgrim and his senior officers within the Brotherhood of the Phoenix secretly convened in order to mark those for death that were judged to be fractious or deemed disloyal to their Primarch and the Warmaster.Horus, under the guise of putting down the rebellion against Imperial Compliance on Isstvan III, amassed his troops in the Isstvan System. Horus had a plan by which he would destroy all of the remaining Loyalist elements of the Legions under his command. After a lengthy bombardment of Isstvan III, Horus dispatched all of the known Loyalist Astartes down to the planet, under the pretence of bringing it back into the Imperial fold.At the moment of victory with the capture of the Choral City, the planetary capital of Isstvan III, these Astartes were betrayed when a cascade of terrible Life-Eater virus-bombs fell on the world, launched by the Warmaster's orbiting fleet.Even before the first treacherous blow was struck, Horus' grand plan had, unknown to him, begun to unravel. Before the virus-bombs fell, the impending atrocity had been discovered by several Astartes among the orbiting fleet who remained loyal to their Emperor and their comrades and who resisted.The Loyalist Captain Saul Tarvitz of the Emperor's Children had discovered the far-reaching treachery of the Warmaster and stole a Thunderhawk gunship. He was able to reach the surface of Isstvan III despite pursuit, bringing a timely warning to those Loyalist Space Marines he could find of all four Legions of their impending doom.Those that heard or passed on Tarvitz's warning took shelter before the virus-bombs struck. The surviving Loyalists, under the command of Captains Tarvitz, Garviel Loken and Tarik Torgaddon, another Loyalist member of the Sons of Horus, fought bravely against their own traitorous brethren. The few remaining Loyalists of the Emperor's Children Legion fought bravely on Isstvan III, led by Captains Saul Tarvitz and Solomon Demeter.To prove his worth and loyalty to Lord Commander Eidolon of the Emperor's Children -- and thus to his primarch, Fulgrim -- Captain Lucius of the 13th Company of the Emperor's Children, the future Champion of Slaanesh known as Lucius the Eternal, turned against the Loyalists that he had fought beside because of his prior friendship with Saul Tarvitz. He wanted to punish Tarvitz for taking command of the defence, which had incited Lucius's fierce jealousy of his fellow captain.Lucius slew many of his former comrades personally, an act for which he was then accepted back into the IIIrd Legion on the side of the Traitors. In the end, the Loyalists retreated to their last bastion of defence, only a few hundred of their number remaining. Finally, tired of the conflict, Horus ordered his warriors to withdraw, and then had the remains of the Choral City bombarded into dust for a final time from orbit.Later, at the Drop Site Massacre on Isstvan V, Fulgrim would lead his Astartes in an assault upon the Iron Hands Legion, which was led by the Primarch Ferrus Manus. Ferrus had once been Fulgrim's greatest friend and brother amongst the primarchs, but had rejected Fulgrim's entreaty to join Horus in a betrayal of the Emperor.Fulgrim defeated his brother in battle and beheaded him using the Daemon-possessed Laer blade. But at the moment of Ferrus' death, Fulgrim came back to himself and realised with growing horror what he had done and what atrocities he had been a party to.In that moment of weakness, the Daemon within the blade pounced and convinced the primarch to relinquish control of his own mind. The Daemon then possessed the body of the primarch, holding Fulgrim as a prisoner within his own body. |
Brotherhood of the Phoenix - Fulgrim's Fate: Those that served in the IIIrd Legion had no idea that their beloved leader was clawing ineffectually at the bondage of his own mind in which his soul was held captive by the Daemon. Only the swordsman, Captain Lucius of the 13th Company, had appeared to realise that something was amiss with Fulgrim, but even he had said nothing.Lucius came to the conclusion that the entity that paraded around as their Legion's lord was an imposter. Determined to free his primarch by any means at his disposal, Lucius secretly convened the Brotherhood of the Phoenix. This had to be done with the utmost secrecy, for by this time the corrupted senior officers had become powerful, volatile and self-obssessed with the pursuit of their individual pleasures.Also, many of these senior officers carried a loathing for Lucius, whom they viewed as a despised upstart. Through his skilled oratory, the swordsman was able to persuade his mercurial brothers that their primarch was not himself.He further challenged their egos and stroked their vanity, tempting them into boldly capturing their primarch. Shortly after, the Brotherhood of the Phoenix ambushed Fulgrim, and despite taking several casualties, managed to subdue their lord by rendering him unconscious.During a torture session carried out under the direction of the IIIrd Legion's Chief Apothecary Fabius, Lucius suddenly realised that they had been misled. Misinterpreting the situation, they had been duped by their lord, who had, in fact, beaten the Daemon at its own game, regaining control over his own body and imprisoning the Warp entity once more within a portrait of Fulgrim that hung within the shuttered confines of the theatre called La Fenice aboard the Emperor's Children flagship, Pride of the Emperor.Lucius immediately bent his knee and prostrated himself before his primarch as Fulgrim easily tore himself free from his restraints. His fellow conspirators all bowed to their lord and master.Content that his favoured sons had learned from the experience, the primarch did not punish them for their transgressions, for he was not the Daemon-possessed shell of the Phoenix he had allowed his Astartes to believe, but Fulgrim himself.Following these events and those that would follow over the next seven standard years as the Horus Heresy played out to its inevitable conclusion, it is not known if the Brotherhood of the Phoenix still exists within the hierarchy of the corrupted Emperor's Children Traitor Legion some ten thousand Terran years later. |
Brotherhood of the Phoenix - Notable Members of the Brotherhood of the Phoenix: Fulgrim (Primarch)Eidolon (Lord Commander)Vespasian (Lord Commander)Abdemon (Lord Commander)Anteus (Lord Commander)Cyrius (Lord Commander)Iddinam (Lord Commander)Julius Kaesoron (First Captain)Solomon Demeter (Captain), 2nd CompanyMarius Vairosean (Captain), 3rd CompanyKrysander (Captain), 9th CompanySaul Tarvitz (Captain), 10th CompanyLucius (Captain), 13th CompanyKalimos (Captain), 17th CompanyFabius (Chief Apothecary)Charmosian (Reclusiarch), 18th CompanyRuen (Captain), 21st CompanyAbranxe (Captain)Daimon (Captain)Heliton (Captain)Lycaon (Equerry to First Captain Kaesoron)Ancient Rylanor, "Ancient of Rites" (Venerable Dreadnought) |
Brotherhood of the Plague - Brotherhood of the Plague: Brotherhood of the PlagueChaos Space MarineAstartesNurgle |
Brotherhood of the Plague - Warband History: The Brotherhood of the Plague took part in the notorious Bloodpox Campaign in 104.M35, fighting alongside the Death Guard Traitor Legion against the Loyalist Dark Angels Chapter. The twelfth Supreme Grand Master of the Dark Angels Chapter, the esteemed Armaros, contracted the loathsome pox known as Nurgle's Rot.This resulted in his rapid deformation, and so, Armaros passed on the leadership of the Chapter and voluntarily committed suicide by stepping into The Rock's reactor chamber so as to prevent the contamination from spreading. |
Brotherhood of the Plague - Chapter Colours: The Brotherhood of the Plague warband's colour scheme is not listed in current Imperial records, but as followers of the Plague God, their armour more than likely appears rusty and is marred by decay and putrescence. |
Brotherhood of the Plague - Chapter Badge: The Brotherhood of the Plague Warband's Chapter badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Brotherhood of the Storm (Novella) - Brotherhood of the Storm (Novella): Brotherhood of the Storm is a novella in the Horus Heresy Series of novels, released originally as an exclusive in hardback format. The novella has since been reprinted in non-limited hardback form, ebook form, and Unabridged Audiobook (MP3) form. The title was later re-released as part of the Legacies of Betrayal anthology. |
Brotherhood of the Storm (Novella) - Synopsis: As word of Horus' treachery spreads to fully half of the Legiones Astartes, Terra looks to the remaining loyalist Space Marines to defend the Imperium. One group, however, remains curiously silent in spite of apparent efforts from both sides to contact them –- the noble V Legion, Jaghatai Khan's fearsome White Scars. In the Ork-held territory of Chondax, a bitter war has been raging since the Triumph of Ullanor, and only now do the sons of Chogoris return their gaze to the heavens... |
Brotherhood of Unclean Mercy - Brotherhood of Unclean Mercy: The Brotherhood of Unclean Mercy are a Chaos Space Marine warband dedicated to the Plague God Nurgle. Free to act according to their own plans, the members of the Brotherhood of Unclean Mercy were able to seize upon an opportunity of random chance and infect the entire store of supplies in a passing Imperial merchant fleet. Thus enhanced, the cargo spread the Stenchgut Plague to an entire continent on the world of Xurunt. |
Brotherhood of Unclean Mercy - Warband Colours: The Brotherhood of the Unclean Mercy warband's colours are not listed in current Imperial records. |
Brotherhood of Unclean Mercy - Warband Badge: The Brotherhood of the Unclean Mercy warband's badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Brothers of Darkness - Brothers of Darkness: Brothers of DarknessSpace MarineChapterFoundingRenegade ChapterImperium |
Brothers of Darkness - Warband Colours: The Brothers of Darkness' colours are not listed in current Imperial records. |
Brothers of Darkness - Warband Badge: The Brothers of Darkness' warband badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Brothers of Darkness - Trivia: A Chaos Space Marine bearing a Brothers of Darkness banner appears in artistic sketches in the Second Edition Chaos Space Marines Codex, advising readers to "Invent unusual colour schemes" for their Traitor Marines. |
Brothers of Jarad - Brothers of Jarad: Brothers of JaradSpace MarineChapterBlood AngelsFoundingDevastation of BaalCreated as they were from the Blood Angels' gene-seed, the Brothers of Jarad carried the genetic Flaw inherited from Sanguinius, which made them susceptible to the afflictions known as the Black Rage and the Red Thirst.When a Battle-Brother fell to the throes of the Black Rage he was placed within the ranks of the Death Company. |
Brothers of Jarad - Notable Campaigns: Devastation of Baal (ca. 999.M41) - During the Devastation of Baal, the Brothers of Jarad was among the Successor Chapters that answered Dante's call for aid in the face of Hive Fleet Leviathan's assault on Baal. The entire Chapter answered the call of its progenitors, and was destroyed to the last Astartes during the fighting. |
Brothers of Jarad - Chapter Colours: The Brothers of Jarad's Chapter colours are not listed in current Imperial records. |
Brothers of Jarad - Chapter Badge: The Brothers of Jarad's Chapter badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Brothers of Livos - Brothers of Livos: The Brothers of Livos are a fanatical warband of Chaos Space Marines of unknown origin and Founding. Corrupted beyond recognition, these once-proud warriors are sworn to the service of the Dark Gods, and allow the daemons of the Warp to possess their superhuman Astartes bodies. As a result, this warband fields an unusually large number of Possessed Chaos Space Marine squads. The Brothers of Livos see the Possessed as superior to normal Chaos Space Marines and pledge themselves fully to the service of Chaos, becoming willing hosts to these immaterial creatures. |
Brothers of Livos - Warband Appearance: As a Warband made up mostly of Possessed Chaos Space Marines, many members of the Warband have an altered and mutated appearance, including the melding of armour and flesh and the sprouting of extra limbs, horns, and sensory organs. |
Brothers of Livos - Warband Colours: The Brothers of Livos warband's colours are not listed in current Imperial records. |
Brothers of Livos - Warband Badge: The Brothers of Livos warband's badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Brothers of Retaliation - Brothers of Retaliation: The Brothers of Retaliation is a Chaos Space Marine warband, led by Chaos Lord Laudren Thalarn, that was created after leaving the Planet of the Sorcerers a thousand standard years after the death of Horus.It was raised for the sole purpose of seeking revenge against the Imperium of Man for the cruel fate inflicted upon the Thousand Sons Legion and their homeworld of Prospero during the opening years of the galaxy-wide conflict known as the Horus Heresy. |
Brothers of Retaliation - History: During the time of the Great Crusade, Laudren Thalarn was a mighty Chaplain of the Thousand Sons Space Marine Legion. He was one of the few Astartes assigned to this new position, created by the edicts of the Council of Nikaea -- an Imperial conclave that was called on the world of Nikaea to determine whether the use of psychic powers represented a boon or a grave danger to Mankind and the newborn Imperium of Man. After the Emperor rendered His Decree Absolute in regards to the use of psykers, the Space Marine Legions were instructed to abolish their Librarius divisions. The Emperor had decreed that henceforth no Legion was to employ psykers in battle, nor were psykers in service to the Imperium to continue their studies into the mysteries of psychic talents. Laudren was hand-picked and assigned the responsibility of a Chaplain after Malcador the Sigillite issued the Order of Observance, more commonly known as the Chaplain Edict, to ensure the spiritual well-being of the Thousand Sons Legion and enforce the psyker ban.During the closing years of the Great Crusade, while meditating on the Thousand Sons' homeworld of Prospero, the Primarch Magnus the Red psychically foresaw that his brother, the Warmaster Horus, the Emperor's most trusted son, would be corrupted by the malign influence of the Ruinous Powers. His prescient vision showed him the future events of the Horus Heresy -- the betrayal of the Emperor by half the Space Marine Legions, and the sundering of the Imperium by a tumultuous and costly interstellar civil war. Gathering the Rehati, the XV Legion's inner coven of advisers that were comprised of the Crimson King's most trusted confidants, Laudren was one of the few who wanted to notify the Emperor about Magnus' suspicions of Horus. After an eloquent speech by Laudren to his Primarch and the highest ranking officers of the XV Legion, they decided to inform the Emperor by enacting a sorcerous ritual to convey the news of the impending civil war to the Emperor Himself on Terra, rather than using the far slower, but legal means of astrotelepathy. Using an astral projection spell, the spirit of Magnus the Red hurtled towards Terra through the Warp, bringing the dire news to his father. It was perhaps a little hard for Thalarn to understand the Emperor's response when he sent the Space Wolves Legion, who brought sword and flame, to destroy their homeworld.Reluctantly, Laudren fought against his former cousin Space Marine Legion in the defence of his home planet during the Fall of Prospero. The Imperial assault by the feral warriors of the VI Legion took the Thousand Sons completely by surprise. Though the Thousand Sons fought ferociously against the Space Wolves, they were no match for the sheer ferocity of the VI Legion's attack. With only a few thousand surviving Astartes left alive, the Thousand Sons were pushed back to the centre of their planet's capital of Tizca, the City of Light. Facing their inevitable destruction, the Crimson King finally joined the fight, and fought alongside his sons in a desperate, but ultimately futile last stand. This culminated in a confrontation between Magnus and his brother, Leman Russ, in a fight to the death. Mortally wounded, the Thousand Sons' Primarch pledged his soul to the service of the Chaos God of Change and Sorcery -- Tzeentch in return for his aid in saving the XV Legion. The response of Magnus' new patron was immediate. The City of Light was transported into the Eye of Terror to a Daemon World that had already been prepared for its new occupants. Following this confrontation with the Space Wolves, reluctantly, Laudren followed his Primarch into damnation, as Magnus eventually joined with the Warmaster Horus' cause, and the rest, as they say, is history.During his exile on Sortiarius, the so-called Planet of the Sorcerers, Laudren's bitterness grew immeasurably. His adored Primarch had changed into a foul mutation of Chaos. Many of his brothers were also hideously mutated by the energies of the Eye of Terror. Their once proud Legion had degenerated into a rabble of honourless scum who were forced to fight for their mere existence. Laudren would never forgive nor forget the betrayal and humiliation that had befallen the once noble Thousand Sons. About 1,000 standard years after Horus' death, Thalarn fled the Planet of the Sorcerers and hundreds of his loyal Battle-Brothers followed him. They conquered an ancient Crone World of the Eldar and built a huge fortress, the Black Cathedral. Laudren's followers began to recruit thousands of hopeful disciples and a few solar decades later a huge city had sprung up around the Black Cathedral. Laudren became a mighty Chaos Lord and renamed his followers the "Brothers of Retaliation." Throughout the millennia, Laudren has drawn many different forces to his banner. Two Daemon Princes are his confederates along with hundreds of Chaos Space Marines, thousands of Chaos Cultists, Renegades and daemons, all at his disposal as the Brotherhood of Retaliation's time of vengeance against the Corpse Emperor draws nigh. |
Brothers of Retaliation - Notable Members: Chaos Lord Laudren Thalarn - Leader of the Brotherhood of Retaliation.High Sorcerer Lord Baal - An Exalted Sorcerer who serves as Thalarn's lieutenant.Aedeb Ungoth - A Daemon Prince of Chaos that serves as one of Thalarn's Daemonic allies.Thorn - A Daemon Prince of Chaos that serves as one of Thalarn's Daemonic allies. |
Brothers of Retaliation - Warband Colours: The Brothers of Retaliation warband's colours is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Brothers of Retaliation - Warband Badge: The Brothers of Retaliation warband's badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Brothers of the Red - Brothers of the Red: The Brothers of the Red is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter and a Successor Chapter of the Blood Angels created during an unknown Founding.Created as they were from the Blood Angels' gene-seed, they carry the genetic flaws inherited from Sanguinius. |
Brothers of the Red - Chapter History: The Brothers of the Red were once thought to have been fatally undone by the Black Rage.Whether the Chapter unexpectedly survived the Flaw or was rebuilt in the wake of its destruction is unknown, but the Brothers of the Red were among the many Successor Chapters that sent their forces to defend Baal from an invasion by Hive Fleet Leviathan in 999.M41. |
Brothers of the Red - Notable Campaigns: Devastation of Baal (ca. 999.M41) - When the Blood Angels Chapter sent out a call for all of the Successors of Sanguinius to aid them in defending the Primarch's homeworld of Baal from a full assault by the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan, the Brothers of the Red were among the Successor Chapters that deployed forces. The extent of the Chapter's contributions and what befell them during the campaign are not recorded. |
Brothers of the Red - Notable Brothers of the Red: Captain Dammanes - Dammanes was the Captain of the Brothers of the Red's 7th Company, which was deployed to defend Baal.Librarian Laertamos - Laertamos was a Codicier of the Brothers of the Red who aided in the defence of Baal from the Leviathan. |
Brothers of the Red - Chapter Colours: The Brothers of the Red's Chapter colours are not listed in current Imperial records. |
Brothers of the Red - Chapter Badge: The Brothers of the Red's Chapter badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Brothers of the Snake (Novel) - Brothers of the Snake (Novel): Brothers of the Snake is the first volume in the Iron Snakes series of novels by Dan Abnett. |
Brothers of the Snake (Novel) - Synopsis: In the grim darkness of the 41st Millennium, the Space Marines are the supreme defenders of humanity, the Emperor's ultimate shock troopers. The Iron Snakes Chapter has sworn a pledge to protect the Reef Stars from ruin, whatever the cost.Brothers of the Snake follows Sergeant Priad and the Damocles Squad as they battle to preserve humanity against the myriad foes that threaten to destroy it, from the depraved Drukhari to a vast Ork WAAAGH!. |
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