The Horus Heresy Book 9 - Crusade

the first warrior to consolidate the leadership based only on merit and not due to origin or led his own fleet to answera call for aid
ofthe entire Legion under one banner.To the simple virtue oftime in service.A number received only recently by the newly-installed
the gathered warriors ofthe Dark Angels, astropathic choir at caliban. His destination
whose oaths had now been sworn in blood ofhis old companions found positions within was the distant world ofKarkasam, where
and sacrifice, the new Primarch swore an oath his inner circle, and despite the stringent trials the Ulttamarines garrison there had resisted
siege for over eight months after a sudden
ofhis own, an oath to seal the pact between the Lion insisted upon, some ofthe oldest uprising among the population living within
them. This oath is recorded in the books of veterans were less than pleased to yidd their the ruined halls ofthe shattered world-
authority to these comparative newcomers. The fortress. The desperate rebels had opened
the Council ofMasters: "We are the Angels of old grand chantry on Gramarye was tom down, hidden vaults deep beneath the surface ofthe
replaced with a more modest fortress to secure planet and set loose a biogenic phage that had
Darkn£ss, for us there is no peace, no end but war the industrial sprawl ofthat world, for though reshaped the broken people oftheir world
the Legion would maintain a great fortress on into twisted, blood-hungryghouls whose
and death. We shall notwalk in the golden halls of Caliban, its true heart and seat ofpower would minds were burned clean ofall thought except
be the sanctum ofthe Primarch aboard his the need to hunt and kill These monstrous
Mankind's future, but stand resolute in the shadows flagship, the ancient Glorianna class battleship, creations then fell upon the unsuspecting
beyond. While we yet draw breath, this Imperium Invincible Reason. For many, this reinvigoration warriors ofthe :XII.F Legion with a ferocity
ofthe Legion served to dispel the malaise that that gave pause to even the warriors ofthe
will notfal~ andwe will not know defea~ for I pledge had lain over the First, discarding the vainglory Legiones Astartes. With much ofthe Great
everywarrior, every drop ofblood in the Legion in the that had sapped the worth from victoryand Crusade's strength concentrated to the galactic
name ofvictory, no matterthe cost". embracing the purity ofthe Primarch's vision; east, there were few forces available to relieve
though for a silent minority ofveterans the the beleaguered Ultramarines and, given the
A Duty of Sacrifice and Shadows sudden and jarringdissolution ofold traditions history ofKarkasam, few expected the Dark
llis oath sworn, Lion El'Jonson saw the rise and the introduction ofnew Calibanite blood Angels to return. So, when the Invincible
ofhis Dark Angels, placing new Masters over le& a lingering sense ofdoubt. Reason broke through the immaterium and
each ofthe Wings he had created from the entered realspace, its drop bays already open
bones ofthe old Hosts and formalising the The Lion chose to confront any intransigence and primed for launch, Praetor Artaeon ofthe
various informal Orders in the style ofCaliban's with the stoic indifference that was his XIIIth, the commander ofthe all but overrun
knightly Orders. With the first influx ofnew hallmark, choosing to immerse the Legion in garrison, lost for a moment the famous stoic
recruits from Caliban now ready to join the war and trust that his example would dispel reserve ofthe Ultramarines and cried out for
Legion, comprising those older warriors that any doubt. Dispersed under the Masters and joy at the sight.
had optedto undergo the painful and unreliable knight-commanders ofthe Legion he set the
augmetic enhancement process that allowed Dark Angels to their task, while the Primarch
them to reach levels ofability comparable to
true Space Marines, Lion ElJonson swiftly
in~rporated them within this new structure,
taking care to assign posts and commands

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the reliefforce, cutting a path through battles was no accident, but a statement of other virtue. Rather, he went forth where the
the teeming hordes offlesh-ghola that his intent. His was not to play at politics, foE( was strongest, armoured by his pride and
threatened to overrun the Ultramarines. At not to build empires nor monuments, he confidence and drew others along with him
the head of1,000 ebon-armoured veterans was pledged to war and death - to kill the for the simple honour ofstanding by his side.
ofthe Dreadwing, the new lord ofthe First enemies ofthe Emperor and nothing else.
For near a decade the battles would rage, some
made swift work ofthe foe, a curtain of As though in answer to his call, war was to nine Legions taking part in the fighting,and
ravaging colonies across the northern sectors
superheated plasma scouring clean the walls descend on the Imperium. The Rangda, that ofthe Imperium. Ofthose Legions caught
and bunkers ofthe fortress. At his heels came terror long thought extinguished, fell upon up in the fighting many would suffer serious
the full force ofthe fleet, 10,000 warriors the northern reaches ofthe Imperium in losses, the Space Wolves marking the loss of
ofthe Dark Angels, and by their blades was numbers that defied belie£ For almost a decade some 51000 breaking the siege ofXana alone
the enemy put to rout and then annihilated the veterans ofthe First Legion, now the and the Dark Angels, gathered once again
as they cowered in their boltholes. When Dark Angels, fought to hold at bay an enemy in almost their full number, bore atoll of
the Ultramarines sallied forth from their that threatened to consume all the worlds of their own. The breaking ofthe great citadel
fortifications to meet them among the sea Mankind. The Lion wrought his own legend ofVorksag, the vast clash ofvoid ships over
ofcorpses and ash they did so with some in those dark times, a grim figure ofdeath Morcar and the seven-week battle ofMorro,
trepidation, perhaps expecting some measure and vengeance that descended upon the where three Companies ofthe Dark Angels
of retribution for the last meeting between held against more than a million Rangdan
their Legions at Karkasarn or a demand to Rangda in a cold fury: In the first dire years neuro-shackled servitors, victory was bought
cede the world to the First Legion in return at the cost oftheir lives, and with the blood
for their aid. Yet the Lion had no interest ofthe conflict, when the Imperium seemed ofthe old Legion, for when victory was at
in old grudges or the tawdry business of lost in a tide ofxenos fiends and their slaves, last proclaimed and the Rangdan menace
accolades and honours, and with the killing the Lion stood tall amid the carnage. He was vanquished, the Dark Angels were but a tenth
complete he left without fanfare, leaving no golden hero like his brother Sanguinius, oftheir old number. Some say the old Legion
behind only an empty banner to mark the nor a black-humoured figurehead like Horus fought to prove themselves worthy oftheir
Lupercal, but rather a silent rock, unyielding in new lord, others that they bled to make right
their failure to destroy the Rangda when first
they met, and a few whispered that the Lion
sent them into slaughter so he might replace
them with more tractable, Calibanite warriors.

Whether true or not, it was to Caliban that
the Lion turned to replenish the ranks ofhis
Legion. With the Rangdan plague driven
back, the first new influx oftrue Calibanite
Space Marines entered the ranks ofthe
Legion, where once they had been but the
few older companions ofthe Primarch, now
they were dispersed across all the Wings and
Orders ofthe Legion. They were a new breed
ofwarrior for the First Legion, guided more
by tradition and ritual than their forebears
and unburdened by the weight ofpride
that had been the lodestone ofthe Terran
veterans. In the wake ofthe second Rangdan
war, it was this changed Legion that went
forth to continue its works and to bring war
to the most fell offoes. From Caliban they
spread out across the stars, for unlike many
oftheir brethren they took few strongholds,
save for the lonely chantry-holds that held
the knowledge ofthe Legion. Each oftheir
fleets was bound to a different corner ofthe
Imperium, to patrol the dark places where
monsters were still to be found. The Lion
took command ofone such fleet, no larger or
more grand than any other for he expected
each to be an engine ofdeath capable of
defeating any foe, and set course for the world
known to Imperial cartographers as Sarosh.

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DARK ANGELS LEVIATHAN DREADNOUGHT

VENERABLE-PRAEFEcrus CoRioIANus, ARcHON OF STONE

Venerable Coriolanus once served as the Marshal ofthe Host of Stone, a warrior whose dedication to the cause ofthe Imperium

had stretched for more than two centuries. He would be declared lost on Nadress III, leading the defence ofthe outer bastions

when the Night Lords began their final assault on that world. Yet, his armour does not grace any Night Lords champion's trophy
rack, for in the final moments ofthe assault the venerable warrior used his grav-flux bombard to collapse the fortress around him,

entombing both himselfand the Night Lords vanguard in rubble.

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DARK ANGEL LEGIONARY

LEGIONARY ZEDIEL ARnARAL OF 1HE 42"" ORDER
Though a simple Legionary ofthe line, an ordinary warrior within the host, Legionary Ardaral also bears the rank ofProctor

within the Storm.wing, and that ofcenobite within the Order ofthe Crimson Field. Within his unit he held a higher rank
within the Stormwing than any other and was often called upon to advise the sergeant ofhis squad on appropriate tactics and
organisation, as well as setving outside his squad in a cenobium ofthe Crimson Field during two separate engagements. Overall,
he serves as an excellent example ofthe distributed command structure utilised by the Dark Angels, one designed to put skills and
experience before simple rank and too complex to be made easy use ofby those not well-versed in its intricacies. Ofparticular note
in this pkt-record is the Edict ofIncorporation attached to his left vambrace, the left hand being that associated with the Orders

Militant, and signifying a warrior honoured by selection to stand as part ofa cenobium in battle.

Legionary Ardaral would survive the Thramas Crusade to great honour, fighting in the vanguard ofthe assault on Sheol IX. There
he and his unit formed a vital part ofthe force that cut the Night Lords offfrom their ships, allowing the Lion and the secondary
waves ofthe attack to catch their elusive foe off-guard and vulnerable. By the end ofthe battle, his company had been rendered
almost combat ineffective, with casualties near halving their numbers, though the tally oftheir own kills more than proved their

valour and skill in the face ofsuch a fierce foe.

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The Keenest Blade By this creed the First Legion, the Dark So it was that when Horus was crowned '
Lion El'Jonson went in answer to a call for Angels, lived and died, continuing the work Warmaster the Lion was not present, a t.
aid from his brother, Jaghatai Khan. Ofall ofthe Emperor in the last days ofthe Great victory to the covetous mind ofthe new
the Primarchs, the Khan stood closest to Crusade. Wherever the tide ofconquest Warmaster. Yet this was one ofthe few
the Lion, for despite their differences each slowed they were to be found, bright swords miscalculations made by the shrewd intellect
appreciated the honest and forthright nature and grim resolve against the worst horrors ofthe Warmaster. He counted all men of
ofthe other, and so the Lion was ill-disposed ofthe galaxy. The Lion, now long parted power to think as he did, yet while the Lion
to ignore his call With the arrival ofthe from the forests ofCaliban and a staunch and the WolfofLuna shared many traits,
White Scars, Sarosh had chosen to join believer in the dream ofempire, fought they were not the same. When news of
the Imperium rather than fight it, but now Horus' new rank reached the Lion he did
belaboured at the shackles that were to be with every moment given to him. He spent not pause in his campaigns, did not offer
placed upon it. Once the Dark Angels took congratulations or lament his own fortune
charge and the implacable nature ofthe Lion no time on parades, fortress building or
and this, more than the reaction ofany ofhis
0 in petty squabbles with his kin, but went
other brothers, gave the Warmaster pause.
was brought to bear upon their intransigence, stoically from battle to battle. He and his When Horus' thoughts turned to rebellion
the Saroshi turned to treachery. By means of Legion began to shun the gatherings ofthe and treachery we cannot know, but it is likely
a hidden nucleonic charge they even sought Great Crusade and the fellowship oftheir that when they did it was the Lion he marked
to take the life of the Lion himself and, brothers, scorning those who would fret as among the greatest ofthreats to his plans.
though their schemes came to nothing, they over such frivolities while there remained The Dark Angels were both numerous and
served to bring the whispers ofdissension enemies ofpower and strength to test their skilled in all the arts ofwar, with access to the
within the Legion to the ear ofthe Lion. mettle against. As years and wars wore on, armouries ofTerra and psyarkana forbidden
They would deal a blow more deadly to the a distance grew between the Dark Angels to all others, and their Primarch was as
First Legion than they could know, though and the other Legions ofthe Imperium; few inflexible as iron, loyal beyond doubt and
it would fester for many years before its true ofthe Primarchs cared to take the time to resolute enough to rise up against any threat.
toll was known. seek out their reclusive brother as he and his
Legion continued to whet their blades to a As with all ofthe Primarchs, the Warmaster
The rebels on Sarosh would be crushed, keen edge. They began to forget the deeds he did not feel fear as did lesser men, but the
brought to heel swiftly by the might ofthe and his warriors had performed, for he rarely thought offacing Lion El'Jonson in open
Dark Angels and the Imperium's armies, spoke ofthem. All except one. battle gave him pause, and ifhe would not
but the victory would bear a bitter taste be turned then he must be removed. There
for many. In the aftermath ofthe fighting, Horus Lupercal, ever watchful, paid much were three Legions Horus sought to remove
some questioned die ease with which the heed to his brother and the actions ofhis from the path ofhis heresy before it began.
Sarosh had infiltrated the First Legion's Legion. Once he had tried to bind the First The White Scars he hoped to preserve for
defences, and though none would call what his own use, the Blood Angels he hoped to
had occurred treachery, there were those Legion to him, only to find the cipher oftheir destroy - but the Dark Angels he hoped to
whose devotion to the Legion's new path banish, to send far enough away that by the
was questioned. Luther and a number of ways a shield against his influence and their time they could return, his grim business
others among the veterans ofboth Terra and pride a foil to his manipulation. His lodges would be complete. This was not to be, the
Caliban were to find themselves returned to would find no purchase within their ranks, Lion would return to the Imperium as the
Caliban, not in exile, but neither in triumph. shunned by the preceptors ofthe Orders sun returns to the horizon each morning,
There they were to serve as garrison and Militant and the proctors ofthe Wings ofthe blinding and implacable, and he would reach
overseers ofthe Lion's sanctuary and leave Hexagrammaton as worthless and beneath for the heart ofhis fallen brother. Horus had
the Great Crusade behind, regardless ofthe them. They were not and never could be his loosed a beast the equal ofany that lurked in
legacy ofyears in service in either the forest to command. Their master was as his Legion, the dark between the stars, one that would
or the stars. This was the determination a rock in which Horus Lupercal could find tear apart the Imperium to grasp a victory of
ofthe Lion, that he would set aside those ashes and blood.
whom he held dearest in the name ofduty. no crack or chink in which to fix his barbs,
Some would name it arrogance and others, no leash by which he could lead him along
with the benefit ofhindsight, would call it
foolhardy, but it was ever the way ofthe Lion. paths ofhis own choosing. The Lion was
It was not the cold logic ofbattle favoured by not well~liked among the brotherhood of
some among the Primarchs, but the proud Primarchs, but he had the respect ofeach
imperative ofduty and excellence - that and every one ofhis brothers, and more
those who faltered be set aside, no matter than that he had the trust ofhis father, the
how justified or small the failing, and the Emperor, and the keys to the hidden arsenals
worthy grow stronger through the trials ofTerra. Were the Emperor to choose a single
they faced. one among his Primarchs to lead, to stand
at the head ofthe Great Crusade then Lion
El'Jonson was a choice easily understood,
and this troubled the master ofthe Luna
Wolves. So, when the conquest ofUllanor
loomed before Horus, he was sure to see the
Lion and the First diverted to far battlefields
and tendered him no invitation to the great
Triumph that followed.

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UNIT ORGANISATION AND This secret strata oforganisation was It is a testament to the fortitude ofthe minds
STRUCTURE WITHIN THE LEGION composed primarily oftwo distinct bodies: and the enduring loyalty ofthese warriors
The organisation and structure ofthe Dark the great Hosts and the Orders of Battle. that such a system not only functioned on
Angels predates the standard patterns laid Both ofthese bodies served to allow the the field ofbattle, but excelled in bringing
collection and codification ofknowledge by triumph to the First Legion.
out by the Principia Bellicosa, indeed many the warriors of the Legion and to see that this
ofthe doctrines and formations in common knowledge was available on the battlefield The great Hosts ofthe First Legion recruited
use throughout the Legiones Astartes find when it was needed most by the generals of openly and widely among the uninitiated
their origins in the early practises of the First the Great Crusade. warriors ofthe Legion. When new intakes
Legion. In fact, this would seem to have been ofrecruits reached front line Companies
one ofthe prime missions gifted to the First The great Hosts were the larger ofthe two, they would find themselves under constant
Legion by the Emperor - to discover, refine numbering at first in the dozens, with each scrutiny from the appointed procurators of
and perfect those strategies and patterns individual force claiming the loyalty of the Hosts, each seeking signs ofthe aspirant's
that would allow His new gene-crafted hundreds ofindividual warriors. The Hosts worthiness to join their Host in their
warriors to perform at peak efficiency. When were each dedicated to the perfection ofone conduct on the field ofbattle. Those selected
we speak ofthe 'standard' form ofa Space art ofwar, some specialised in siege warfare, by the procurators, having alteady faced their
Marine Legion we speak ofthe Dark Angels, others in the art ofskirmish and yet more trials upon the battlefield and in the subtle
for it is in the sacrifice of the First that in the brutal discipline of shock assault and tests conducted by their battle-brothers and
these structures were born. While Roboute many others besides. They did not fight commanders, would be swiftly inducted
Guilliman would later add to and adapt this as cohesive formations in most situations, into the most basic tenants of the Host and
structure, even that superlative general built being spread across the various Chapters and granted the right to bear its mark Those
upon the foundation that had been defined Companies ofthe Legion. Any given unit warriors initiated into a Host met freely
by the wars ofthe First Legion before the might comprise members from a variety of within the precincts of the Legion's holdings
return ofthe Lion. Even Lion El'Jonson, different Hosts all working together, lending and encampments to debate strategy and the
upon resuming command ofhis Legion, their experience and skills to their battle- proper use ofarms, with those ofthe higher
would bow before the wisdom ofthese brothers so that the whole had a value far ranks responsible for the training ofthose
founders ofthe First Legion, content to bind greater than any individual piece. No matter below them. These gatherings, though not
this structure to a single vision and authority, the challenge faced by even the least unit secret, were considered a private matter of
and it has remained largely unchanged in of the First Legion it would find at least one the Host, a forum where a warrior's standing
form since that day ifnot in function. expert in its ranks, a distinct advantage when within his Host stood greater than that
compared to many ofthe younger Legions, ofhis rank within the Legion. Members
In the earliest years ofits existence, the each ofwhich was dedicated to a single brand could speak on the business ofthe Host,
First Legion would experiment with every ofconquest and ill-equipped to fight outside the practise and protection oftheir unique
form ofwar, every style oforganisation and its preferred sphere. Only in the most dire rites ofbattle and tradition, without fear of
formation, with a host ofwarriors dedicated ofsituations did a Host assemble en masse, censure, for it was considered the duty ofthe
to almost any tactical or strategic ploy. This its acolytes called out from the ranks to Hosts to preserve the Legion through their
meant that the Legion contained specialists form a single body ofthose most skilled in unstinting pursuit ofexcellence.
suited to every opponent and battlefield, but their chosen art. Be it the siege-wrights of
it lacked a cohesive structure to organise the Host ofStone or the breaching clades The Orders of Battle, though more
those warriors. It was by its very nature ofthe Host ofVoid, such a body could be numerous, boasted far fewer adherents than
chaotic and fluid, ever changing as certain a potent force in its chosen element, more the Hosts. Ofthe hundreds ofindividual
tactics fell out offavour and new ones rose to than capable ofturning the tide of even the Orders, most could count no more than
prominence, and as such it lacked an easily direst battle. a few dozen initiates, a mere handful of
defined sense oforganisation. This chaos was warriors by comparison to the vast Hosts
a necessary tool for its purpose, and in time Each Host followed the same organisational and Chapters of the greater Legion. Such
it would resolve into order, into a system structure, each with its own master, marshals warrior-fraternities could not disseminate
ofsupporting formations that allowed the and initiates organised into cells scattered their knowledge across an entire Legion
Dark Angels to confront any foe on any across the Chapters ofthe Legion. These in the same manner as the Hosts, and
battlefield and overcome them. This system cells were embedded at the very heart of harboured a skill set ill-disposed towards
ofspecialised formations stood at the very the Legion's core, operating alongside the such a use. The Orders of Battle were
heart ofthe First Legion, the core around Companies and squads ofits open face. experts in a single bloody aspect ofwar, the
which it was built. Any given squad might very well include destruction of a singular foe or the mastery
members from several cells, each bound of some aberrant field of conflict. When a
OfHosts and Orders in service to different Hosts - they were at battlegroup ofthe First Legion encountered
The First Legion was composed ofChapters, once brothers, sealed by the oaths made to a foe worthy oftheir hatred or a field of
Companies and squads as was any other, Legion and sergeant, and made strangers by battle whose nature defied their contempt it
this was the shape ofits overt structure, the secret ties and mysteries oftheir Host. was to the Orders of Battle that they turned,
the uncloaked face it showed to its brother A warrior owed his obedience to both his forming a cenobium, a cadre ofthe warriors
Legions and the Imperium at large. Yet commander in the ranks ofopen battle and from an Order trained to negate the foe, to
each ofthe warriors ofthe Legion also his superior in the hidden society of his Host, lead the assault and to turn all their secret
held a position in a second, covert layer of with only the subtle context oftradition to knowledge into a weapon to smite the
organisation, one they kept hidden from tell when one held authority over the other. enemies ofMankind.
those not ofthe Legion.
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achievements and skill, and were subject

to much debate within the cell before any

decision was made. Once summoned by

the cell a warrior could expect to face a

series of gruelling physical and mental

trials, administered in the seclusion of the

Order's domain where these candidates

were granted limited rights of entry,

though often under binding oaths to hold

secret all that was witnessed. Such trials

varied widely between Orders, though

often presented the very real possibility of

serious injury or even death for those that

accepted the challenge. The exact nature

of these rituals was kept secret and even

those that failed were bound by the honour

of the Legion not to speak of that which

they had faced, such was the respect given

to the Orders by the rank and file warriors

of the Legion. Only once fully inducted

would they receive the freedom of the

Order's domains and the right to begin

study of the first tier of the hidden lore of

their new warrior-brotherhood and to bear

the mark of acolyte upon the ceramite of

their war plate. .

Each Order ofBattle maintains a strict in to which entry was only granted to To hold a position even in the outer
hierarchy, though no two are exactly the same, ordained members ofthe Order and where circles of one of the Orders Militant was
with each organised to best serve the aims and ritual training and study could be pursued considered a great honour, and of the
lore kept by that Order. For, unlike the Hosts, in seclusion. Some of the largest Orders entire Legion less than half could claim
which openly recruited and shared much of controlled space stations, most often based such an achievement. Though few outside
their knowledge when called to battle, the in and around warzones that supported or of the ranks of a given Order knew the
Orders were ofa more secretive nature. The required their unique skills. The Order of full import of the insignia borne by its
true position and nature ofthe ranks within Broken Spears operated an orbital stronghold adepts, all of the Legion's warriors granted
a given Order were only truly understood by capable of hosting all 138 known members, the bearer of such a sigil due respect
the inducted initiates ofthat Order, with a set in place above the broken mesas and and few even amongst the most senior
system ofciphers and cryptic signs unique to twisting canyons ofArgyel III, a death world of commanders would fail to heed their
each Order used to mark them out to those whose rock was laced with traces of heavy advice, no matter what rank they might
who had been inducted into their ranks. Each metals that countered most active sensor hold outside the Order. Though it is a
tier ofthe Order granted an initiate greater systems. Given that the Broken Spears were rare occurrence, some particularly skilled
understanding ofthe mysteries it had been masters in the art of ambush and the silent warriors within the Legion bear the
created to preserve and placed upon them a war ofwits that prevailed in such dense and insignia of more than one of the Orders
greater burden ofresponsibility to keep that confusing terrain, this served as the perfect Militant upon their armour. In some cases
knowledge ever ready to be called upon at location for the training of its initiates and such warriors have formally departed
need. The Order would meet to affirm their as a retreat for those veterans seeking to one Order to take up a position in a new
knowledge in the form of rituals and tradition contemplate the teachings of the Order brotherhood, sworn to keep the secrets
as well as to train in more practical ways - to without distraction. of their old association, while in the most
keep ready blade and bolt for the day when exceptional of cases they may hold rank
their knowledge would be required in the These sanctum, whether grand strongholds in two or more Orders at the same time.
name ofthe Legion and the lmperium. or spartan chambers aboard a ship of war, There are only a handful of examples of
also served a crucial role in the recruitment this, the most well-known being Lion
Most Orders maintained a sanctum chamber of new members. Such prospective El'Jonson himself, who holds the rank
aboard any void ship to which a cell of acolytes were identified by the senior of High Preceptor of every Order within
their members was posted, a private space members of a cell by the record of their the Legion, and Knight-captain Atreus
Deucalion, bearer of the sword Chrysaor.
Knight-captain Atreus, who was also a
Marshal of the Firewing, was counted one
of the finest swordsman in the Legion and
held station within three separate Orders,
blending the blade-techniques of each to
form a unique and deadly style of his own.

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•I

The Hekatonystika
The Hekatonystika is the hidden counterpart ofthe Dark Angels Legion's infamous Hexagrammaton. Transliterated roughly as 'The Hundred
Esoteric Arts' in the language ofthe broken lands ofMykene on Old Earth, the term used to refer to the body ofsecretive military Orders
embedded within the structure ofWings and Chapters. Each Order was an autonomous body ofwarriors dedicated to the protection ofone
portion of the Legion's hard-won secret lore, most often regarding the weakness of some specific foe or mastery of a certain terrain or weapon.
They were equal parts scholars and warriors, both researchers and practitioners, and as deadly on the field ofbattle as they were enigmatic in the
halls of the Legion. Though rarely gathered all in one place, small cells ofthese warriors were often assembled prior to battles that would benefit
&om their skills, forming a temporary unit known within the Dark Angels as a Cenobium to lead the charge and advise the officers in command.

In addition to the Orders Militant there also existed the Orders Civilis, organisations dedicated to non-battlefield tasks requiring specialist
knowledge and vital to the success ofthe Legion. These Orders rarely counted any full battle-brothers among their ranks, but instead were a means

ofhonouring those Legion serfs and failed aspirants who dedicated themselves to the support ofthe &ontline warriors. Among their number were
counted armourers, quartermasters, cargo pilots and maintenance crew, the unseen backbone ofthe Legion's operations. Yet, as these lesser Orders
were given no representation among the Conclave of Preceptors, there are few records oftheir structure and history available to outsiders.

Many hundreds ofOrders Militant have been recorded during the history ofthe First Legion - many ofwhich have long since been forgotten or

destroyed in battle. Ofthose that remained active at the outbreak ofthe Horus Heresy, the following presents a briefsample:

The Order of Shattered Crowns: One of the oldest Orders still active within the Legion, with its origins
to be found during the Unification Wars on Old Terra, the Shattered Crowns are unparalleled experts in the
identification and open execution of the enemy's leaders. Not assassins or silent killers, but proud champions
that seek out the heart of the foe's defiance and cut it &om the body of their army, they practise a number of
secret duelling arts, once commonplace in Terra's forgotten duelling cults, but now all but forgotten. Most
are also initiates in the Deathwing and Firewing, whose doctrines mesh well with the Order's teachings,
though the Preceptor of the Order is rumoured to stand in the Inner Circle of the Dreadwing.

The Order of Broken Wings: Almost entirely represented within the ranks of the Ironwing, the adepts
of the Order of Broken Wings are masters in the art of anti-aircraft work. Dedicated to both the arts of
deflection targeting and the craftsmanship ofsuperior weaponry, most often heavy calibre autocannon,
the Order are considered experts in the placement and operation of ordnance to defeat enemy airborne

incursions. Commanders will often summon their adepts &om the ranks to oversee such deployments or to

man particularly important defensive emplacements during battle.

The Order of Sant ales: An Order dedicated to the detection and destruction ofcertain dire clades of xenos,
specifically those that thrive by means of psychic or physical parasitism. Once spread widely throughout the
Legion, the Order of Santales had access to a large arsenal ofpsyarkana weaponry collected &om a hundred
fallen realms. The hidden battle-honours of the Order include such battlefields as Rangda, Nemodiae and
Muspel- fields ofblood and terror that rival even the legendary battles at Ullanor. In the aftermath of the
Council of Nikaea, the Order of Santales was much reduced in number and influence, as those of its number
that had once held positions within the now-defunct Librarius found themselves stripped of title by order of
the Emperor.

The Order of the Argent Spire: An Order whose doctrines are specialised in the mastery of battle upon
the frozen wastes ofwinter-worlds and other ice bound landscapes. Its adepts practise a number of rituals
based around enduring extremes of cold that would sap even the strength of the Legiones Astartes, and
several unique blade-kata intended to provide stability amid the shifting floes of ice and snow. Its adepts are
most commonly found among the ranks of the Stormwing, where small cells are often summoned &om the
ranks to take the lead in campaigns upon frozen death worlds, though the veterans ofthe Firewing have also
shown some admiration of the specialised sword-skill practised by the Order's Inner Circle knights.

The Order of Broken Claws: Formed in the wake of the Second Rangdan Xenocide, this small Order holds
the only full and complete accounting of that war and the xenos strain known as the Rangda. With access
to the detailed catalogue ofanatomical data compiled by Firewing operators and Dreadwing cheirophages,
the adepts ofthis Order are trained to stand against the worst Rangdan bio-forms in combat and emerge
victorious. During the bloody sieges ofthe Third Rangdan Xenocide they won much renowned for their
prowess, both in combat and in anticipating and countering the strategies of the Rangdan warmasters, but in
the wake ofthe Rangdan's apparent annihilation they have dwindled in number. By the time of the Horus
Heresy few members of the Order remain, with only a single chantry station still in service over the ruined
world ofAdvex-Mors where the relics ofthe dread Rangda are entombed.

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l.EGION COMMAND HIERARCHY Taken separately, each of these chains of of the Dark Angels it came down to,a simple
Given the multitude oflayers of structure command is actually quite traditional in matter ofbattlefield context and a deep-
to be found in the organisation ofthe Dark form, based upon the precepts ofthe Principia seated trust and respect for the abilities of
Angels, the Legion's command hierarchy Bellicosa which the First Legion helped the warriors that stood alongside them. In
can seem impossibly confused to outsiders. define, with authority invested in a single battle, authority was seeded to the warriors
The three strands of authority woven chain ofcommand, from the highest ranks ofthe highest rank in whichever branch
into the form of the Legion, that of Wing, down to each individual ofthe Companies, ofthe Legion was best suited to exploit, the
Chapter and Order, would seem to compete Orders and Wings that made up the Legion. situation around them. Where the specialised
to claim each warrior's allegiance and This allowed commanders to efficiently knowledge and skills of a given Wing or
attention upon the field of battle, as well as maintain control of large bodies oftroops Order officer would provide the Legion an
presenting complex schemes of heraldry by dividing the responsibility among a advantage, their authority superseded that
that defy easy identification by those multitude oflesser officers while staying true of the more traditional commanders, with
unfamiliar with their intricacies. However, to the vision and strategy of a single general. both the rank and file and the line officers
for the warriors of the First Legion it has implicitly trusting them to lead the fight.
proven to be not only effective but also What complicated this arrangement was When the veterans ofWing and Order
capable of quickly adapting to the flow of that to outsiders it seemed that the three moved to implement the overall strategies
battle and the ever changing vicissitudes different strands ofauthority within the of the Chapter commanders, the warriors
of war, allowing it to not only overcome Legion were not linked, and left no standing around them followed.
the challenges of the Great Crusade but to and fixed method by which one could tell
thrive as one of the most dangerous of all when the authority ofone commander Such a disregard for strict and unchanging
the Legiones Astartes. outstripped that of another. To the warriors lines ofcommand and control frustrated
some Legions and Primarchs, with Guilliman
in particular making many attempts to
convince the Lion to reform his Legion along
the lines of his own codex. Some attempts
by other Legions were made to emulate the
success ofthe Dark Angels pattern, with the
Raven Guard applying a similar structure
to separate certain strata of their Legion,
however, none ofthe other Legions retained
the solid core oflong standing veterans
required to fully implement the complex
organisational doctrines ofthe First Legion.
Just as it had been intended, they took from
the example ofthe First those elements of
their tactics that meshed with the direction
of their own Legion and adapted them to
their own purposes. It was only the superb
skills and long-term indoctrination and
familiarity ofthe warriors ofthe Dark Angels
that could fully utilise such a complex
arrangement to its fullest potential. It
allowed them to adapt and evolve from
moment to moment on the battlefield,
claiming victory without the grinding
attrition that marked the conquests of other,
more inflexible, Legions.

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HERALDRY OF THE FIRST LEGION

These banners show both
the original winged reaper
insignia ofthe old Terran
First Legion, and the later
banner ofthe Lion's Dark

Angels. Ofparticular
note is the emblem of
the Hexagrammaton in
conjunction with the winged
sword, while the facing
banner shows the original
symbol ofthe old Hosts of

the First.

The Reaper is an honour mark Bearing the ornate mark of This Mkll pauldron bears the The Golden Lion emblem
often associated with the the First Legion and ofthe mark ofa lesser initiate ofthe shown on this Mkll pauldron
Hexagrammaton, this MkII Firewing, and despite its low marks the command staffofthe
Legion's Terran veterans, those pauldron belongs to a warrior of station, it belongs to a Consul 48"' Order, all ofwhom were
who had served during the
conquest ofthe Sol System. the Great Crusade. Invigilator ofthe 9"' Order. drawn from Caliban.

The mark ofthe Stormwing The crossed swords ofthe By the time ofthe Thramas This icon is the personal
was a common sight on the Deathwing on a field ofbone- Crusade, this stark symbol had heraldry ofa praetor. The
panoply ofthe First Legion's white, marking a warrior that become the standard Legion display ofsuch personal arms
infantry, signifying their status has survived a mortal wound. icon in use by the First Legion. was a common feature ofthe

as infantry veterans. First Legion.

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OPERATIONAL DOCTRINE
By the last years ofthe Great Crusade,
shortly before the outbreak ofthe Horus
Heresy, the Dark Angels claimed a strength
ofapproximately 180,000 warriors. In
terms of sheer size this placed them in ,
the upper tier of the Legiones Astartes,
alongside such Legions as the Ultramarines
and Sons of Horus, and despite the rise of
the younger Legions to rival their glory,
they still remained one ofthe single most
powerful military forces in the Imperium.
Some records from the period have noted
a much lower field strength for the Dark
Angels, sometimes as low as 50,000. These
reports are likely due to the confusion that
the Dark Angels' organisational procedures
and heraldry caused for most unfamiliar
observers.

Outside ofthe battlefield authority of lively debate within the council halls as to The dense nature ofthe ciphers they used
individual Knight-praetors or Order ·which Wings should provide troops and and the secretive nature of many ofits
Preceptors, there were three bodies that c~mmanders to which deployments. As some sub-formations often led to some amount
exerted control over the strategic deployment ofthe most experienced and veteran warriors ofbewilderment for outsiders, especially
of the Legion. Foremost among these was the ofthe Legion, the Wing masters and their when combined with the fluid and shifting
marshals were ideally suited to such high nature ofauthority and command within
Primarch Lion El'Jonson, who held the ranks level planning and the Primarch granted the Legion, sometimes even to the degree
them the honour ofhis implicit trust, that it led to military setbacks when
ofLord ofthe First Legion, Grandmaster of freeing him to undertake a more active role working alongside other Imperium forces.
the Hexagrammaton and High Preceptor of in the Legion. The Conclave of Preceptors Surprisingly, the Dark Angels have made
the Hekatonystika. He held absolute and final rarely took on a similar role, for although little attempt to remedy this situation, indeed
authority over the entire Legion, and when it consisted ofwarriors ofequal skill and some oftheir commanders, especially the
he took the field, his orders superseded all experience, it was convened in full on only a older veterans ofthe Great Crusade, seem
others regardless ofposition or knowledge. few ceremonial occasions. The Preceptors of to take a quiet pride in the confusion it
Given the known tendency ofthe Lion to the Orders took on strategic leadership roles occasions among the least disciplined oftheir
engage in frontline control ofsmaller battle largely only when their specialist skills were allies. In particular, a common practise by
forces and leave the widely-flung elements demanded by the conflict at hand, but still some Dark Angels forces is to arrive without
served as a reserve oftalented officers should announcing to their allies who commands
ofhis Legion to complete their objectives · the Legion ever stand in need ofdirection. the First Legion contingent, leaving their
as they saw fit, much scope existed within counterparts to determine whom to greet as
This layered system ofleadership, from warlord by the heraldry they display. Those
the Legion for secondary forms ofcontrol to Primarch, to the Council ofMasters, to the few who make the correct choice, or who
handle the more mundane administration of Conclave ofPreceptors and then individual are wary enough to make no judgement,
the massed forces ofthe Legion. Fortunately, officers of the line, was flexible enough are treated with respect and those who
the Dark Angels were both more than to support the Legion's preference for a choose poorly watched carefully for further
capable ofoperating without direct oversight, multitude ofsimultaneous deployments lapses in judgement. Such tests ofworth are
having proved their mettle in centuries of rather than massing in a single warzone. It commonplace among the Dark Angels, both
independent operation, and already possessed played to the strengths oftheir Primarch, for their own initiates and for those that
additional bodies ofauthority well suited to who had little interest in the micro would fight alongside them, for the sons of
directing the arduous task of seeing the far- management ofhis Legion's strategies and the Lion judge the worth ofno warrior on
flung fleets ofthe Dark Angels supplied. excelled in direct battlefield command. That rumour and hearsay alone.
the Lion made few changes to this existing
The Council ofMasters, comprised ofthe structure speaks of his approval of it, and that
heads ofthe Wings ofthe Hexagrammaton he granted such autonomy to his warriors
or their appointed agents, had long overseen shows the trust he had for the veterans ofthe
the strategic operation ofthe Legion. The First Legion.
assembled masters were often integral in
the process ofassigning First Legion forces
to the various fleets and warzones of the
Great Crusade, and there was often much

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I

Such actions are most often encountered sometimes less specialised than the younger within a local theatre of war in order to meet
among the more veteran formations of Legion, could rarely be equalled among the the challenges ofa given engagement. It was
the Legion. Those forces whose tallies Legiones Astartes. a rare sight to see large numbers ofthe First
ofvictories and vanquished foes were so Legion gathered in any one place, and such
impressive that some among the newly- Given these material and organisational a sight was considered a portent ofthe worst
recruited regiments of the Imperium's preferences the Dark Angels tended to a kind,for the grim, black-armoured ranks of
armies thought them fabrications and sparse pattern ofdeployment, scattering the Dark Angels were only amassed to face
even those who had served in the Great their numbers widely in relatively small the most dire ofthreats. Indeed, many among
Crusade long enough to have heard of the detachments, relying more on the potency of the ranks ofthe Imperial Army considered it
valour ofthe First Legion rarely knew the their weaponry and the individual prowess a grave misfortune to be tasked with serving
full scope oftheir victories and sacrifices. oftheir warriors than on sheer numbers. as support to the Dark Angels, not due to any
Indeed, the Dark Angels remained one of Capitalising on the diverse narure ofthe mistreatment at the hands ofthe Legiones
the most experienced bodies ofwarriors warriors that made up each Chapter and Astartes, but rather because the battlefields
within the Legiones Astartes. Despite the Company, individual battle forces of the upon which they walked were inimical
many dire battles they had faced, they had Dark Angels were most often little more to the lives of merely mortal warriors and
always retained a core ofveterans to pass on than a handful ofChapters operating in only the most skilled or fortunate soldiers
the hard-won skills and knowledge of their close support, often a force as small as a few survived such a tour ofduty. Despite this
struggles, indeed much ofthe strucrure thousand warriors. Where other fleets relied long-held superstition, those few regiments
ofthe Wings and Orders was dedicated more on the numbers they could bring to that had served alongside the Dark Angels
to exactly this task. As such they had bear, the Dark Angels emphasised the fluid and survived held the battle honours granted
maintained a level ofskill and proficiency narure oftheir units which were able to them by the Lion with pride, despite the
in every sphere ofwarfare that, while quickly and efficiently reform as needed bloody price paid for their acquisition.

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1 In order to support this widely spread web need for extensive auxiliary forces. They With assets spread across the galaxy, the
First Legion placed little emphasis on
of independent Companies and Chapters also served to provide orbital fire support maintaining a large number ofholdings
and fortresses. Indeed, there are only two
the Dark Angels maintained perhaps the to Legiones Astartes forces engaged in large outposts held by the Dark Angels,
the ancient fomess of Gramarye which
greatest fleet of all the Legiones Astartes, battle and a base for Legion interface craft, played host to the halls of the Council of
Masters and the vast industrial facilities that
both in terms ofsheer number ofcapital class either to serve as an orbital supply line or to produced many of the Legion's more esoteric
weapons and had long been concealed from
vessels and in the impressive firepower of launch airstrikes or interdiction missions. the scrutiny of the Mechanicum, and the
more recently acquired fortress ofthe Order
those craft. Just as with the many disparate By contrast, the patrol fleets maintained on Caliban. These two worlds saw the largest
concentration of the Legion's infrastructure,
Companies of the Legion, the fleet was also a smaller contingent ofLegion warriors, and were both heavily fortified and defended.
Other holdings on Terra, where a significant
widely spread, most often operating either rarely more than Company strength, and
stillportion ofthe Legion's recruitment was
as a support flotilla attached to a Chapter fielded more deep range cruisers and sleek
conducted, and the scattered chantry houses
or as one ofthe rarer deep range patrol escort craft mounting scanning augurs and ofthe various Orders Militant, were less
well defended, but not intended as frontline
squadrons. Support flotilla were comprised other equipment unique to the Dark Angels. combat installations. The standard pattern
of operations within the Legion saw these
ofthe heaviest ships available, with the core These squadrons were tasked with seeking holdings used as bases for resupply for a
force that·was primarily based within the
of many being a Glorianna class battleship or out unknown nests ofxenos or isolationist mobile halls of the fleet. Only on the rarest
of occasions did any ofthe Chapters of the
other first-rate warship supported by one or and belligerent human enclaves, much in Dark Angels return to their halls for any
lengthy period ofrest, with garrison duty left
more squadrons ofcruisers. Support flotilla the same manner as the more specialised to the rawest recruits and those masters and
seneschals with Deathwing lifeguard cadres
were intended to provide transport for the White Scars fleets. Those Legiones Astartes that stood warden over those domains.

attached Chapters, allowing them to breach Companies accompanying the fleet were

heavily-defended systems without support used solely to assess the threat level of the

and assault a specified target without the enemies discovered, mounting spoiling

raids or briefhit and run campaigns before

withdrawing back to their orbital fomesses.

Those deemed dangerous by the veterans

of the First Legion were annihilated from

orbit and those marked as vulnerable left

for the Great Crusade that followed in the

fleet's wake.

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---- -.

I

WAA D1srosmoN and the Primarch Lion El'Jonson remained poisoned husks ofonce-populous worlds I·
far from the reach ofhis Legion with no
Horus chose the moment to raise his banner news of his progress or the fate ofthe troops were intended to bring a swift end to any
carefully, setting plans to have those Legions that accompanied him. The Dark Angels that
that threatened his revolt divided and distant remained were in essence blinded and by insurrection, but could not stem the ride
from the fighting that would decide the fate accepted military logic exhausted and as such ofrebellion that rose up in the wake of
of the Imperium. The Dark Angels, ever on Horus, his strategists and co-conspirators the dropsite massacre at Isstvan V and the
the move and split across the vast territory deemed such small forces to be ofnegligible momentum it granted to the rebel armies
ofthe Imperium, had been subtly divided threat to their plans, that isolated from any of the Warmaster. Despite this, the Dark
by the orders ofthe new Warmaster, set to central command they would be unable to Angels did not hesitate to destroy that
patrols and campaigns far from Terra and mount any real opposition to the rebellion. which they could not hold in the Emperor's
cleared away from the northern bounds name, preferring to leave Horus as the
of the Emperor's domains. A significant They were sorely mistaken. Among all the Warmaster of an empire of ashes than allow
portion ofthe Legion had gathered under Legions, the Dark Angels' complex system their temporary weakness to cede him
Lion El'Jonson and been dispatched beyond ofWings and Orders had long defied any territory, with only the most heavily-fortified
the bounds ofthe Imperium in the galactic foothold to Horus' treacherous warrior lodges, worlds proofagainst their onslaught. So
east, beyond news ofwhat was to come and denying that insidious seed ofcorruption that for the first handful ofyears ofthe Horus
far from those who might call upon them had stymied so many other Legions' ability Heresy the limited size ofthe Dark Angels
for aid. Both Caliban and Gramarye had to react swiftly to the news ofHorus' perfidy. companies resrricted them to small scale
seen a sudden drop in shipments ofcrucial Nor were the Dark Angels distracted by the raids, with many using the superior void
supplies and news from the far front ofthe confusion that afflicted the Imperium's control craft oftheir attached fleets to take on the
Great Crusade, all blamed on the vicissitudes channels in the immediate aftermath ofthe role ofcommerce raiders, cutting the throat
ofwar rather than the hidden orders ofthe lsstvan revolt,for they had long disdained ofthe Traitors' supply chain. Gramarye and
Warmaster, leaving them gradually more to subject themselves to the direct oversight Caliban, while never directly attacked, were
isolated and vulnerable. To any conventional ofthe Imperium's authorities. Where other kept isolated from the greater war, both by
assessment ofmilitary strength, the Dark Legions and fleets scrambled to react to the the actions ofWord Bearers esoterists and
Angels had been forced into a corner unified onslaught ofthe Traitor forces and the strange powers they now wielded, and
before even the first rebel cannon was fired struggled to combat the influence of the the disturbing silence from certain echelons
at lsstvan. Warmaster within their own ranks, the Dark ofthe Legion's leadership. The Dark Angels
Angels fleets each took initiative on their remained a potent force, but one divided
Oftheir full strength, most likely somewhere own and met this new challenge head-on. and bereft ofcohesive direction, at the rime
slightly less than-2.0opoo warriors, no more Purposefully kept to the outskirts ofthe initial seemingly little more than a painful thorn in
than a third had been dispatched alongside conflict by the Warmaster's machinations, the side ofthe juggernaut Horus had aimed
the Lion and placed beyond the reach of the Dark Angels Knight-praetors set their at Terra. Yet, with the advantage ofhindsight,
the Imperium.This left perhaps 120,000 Chapters upon those outlying worlds that it is clear that by the actions ofthe raiding
Dark Angels active along the borders ofthe dared to openly espouse loyalty to the fleets ofthe First Legion, Horus was denied
Imperium, mostly clustered to the galactic Warmaster, deprived ofthe chance to directly the early victory he craved, for the supplies
south and west in small battleforces ofno strike against Horus' new centres of power. they denied him and the chaos they sowed
more than 5,000 warriors. Most ofthese The Dark Angels turned their disadvantage amid sectors that might otherwise have
forces were either heavily engaged in to opportunity, each fleet an unpredictable fallen to him without a shot fired slowed his
prosecuting difficult campaigns or fresh from threat to the Traitors and their allies, and more advance just enough.
the fields ofvictory and still counting the than capable ofannihilating forces larger
toll upon their strength. Few had been given than their limited numbers might suggest. The stubborn refusal ofthe Dark Angels
the opportunity to make contact with either The destruction and chaos they wrought kept to consolidate and grant Horus' lackeys a
the upper echelons oftheir own Legion's many systems and industrial centres along final decisive battle, a defiant and suicidal
command or that ofthe Divisio Militaris that the southern and western galactic rims from assault to express their anger and frustration,
co-ordinated Great Crusade deployments, supplying the main rebel force as well as granted Dorn time to rally the remaining
threatening the Death Guard home world of Loyalist elements around the Imperium's
Barbarus and slowing the rate oftroops from core. It also kept them from the series of
that key world to the front. massacres and last stands that plagued the
Loyalists during the early years ofthe Horus
Even as the hastily-assembled Imperium Heresy, the carefully arranged decimation by
task force headed to Isstvan V, the Dark which Horus had removed those obstacles
Angels were fully engaged at a dozen worlds that stood in his way. This carefully chosen
far from Terra, utilising the terror weapons strategy left the Dark Angels perfectly
at their disposal to make examples ofthose placed for the return oftheir lord, poised
Imperium worlds most vocal in their at the borders of Horus' fragile empire and
support ofthe Warmaster. The burned and ready for the Lion to give the word, to let
loose the fetters ofImperial decree and give
them leave to unleash all the fell tools they
held ready for such a cataclysm. Horus' first
gambit had failed, Terra remained outside
his grasp and the First Legion stood ready to
show him the terrible cost ofhis ambitions.

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THE BATTLE FOR KENRAC

Among the initial objectives ofthe Dark Rather than waste manpower and munitions suddenly and with overwhelming force, with
in the direct annihilation ofthe slave the bulk of the Dark Angels battlegroup's
Angels as they pushed outwards from Triplex regiments that the Night Lords placed in the heavy assets landing with pinpoint precision
was the world ofKenrac, its modest industrial frontline, Knight-praetor Logaine made use amongst the Night Lords' own units, seeking
of the Firewing's doctrine ofprecise strikes to overwhelm them with the sheer speed of
output marking it as a target ofsome value and the careful accumulation ofintelligence. their assault. Without the screening force of
in the ongoing war for the Thramas sector. Initials attacks on the surface were limited slave-soldiers, the small Night Lords garrison
Before the arrival ofthe Dark Angels, the to small Firewing teams ofSeekers and found itself hopelessly outnumbered, with
reconnaissance Legionaries directed to plot even their command post within the fortified
Night Lords had seen to the extermination of enemy positions and secure the Night Lords hive spire swiftly falling to the onslaught of
overseers scattered amongst the bulk of a combined force ofheavy transport vehicles
Kenrac's planetary defence force and begun the slave regiments. With the information and Terminator assault squads.
gained from traditional scouting and the
a process offorced conscription in order to interrogation ofthe captured Night Lords, the
location ofthe main Night Lords host itself
I form new slave regiments to feed the war was quickly ascertained, these forces would
effort, and it would be these forces and a be the main target ofany assault, leaving the
small core of Night Lords warriors that would ill-motivated conscripts out ofthe real battle
for the planet. The final assault would come
oppose the Dark Angels' landings. The Lion

assigned elements ofthe 19th and f1'" Orders to

the assault, placing Logaine, Knight-praetor of

I the 17'1'" Order and Marshal ofthe Firewing, at
the head ofthe battlegroup, his orders clear:

eliminate all occupying forces and secure the
planet for the First Legion.

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=-JZ;:;;

DARK ANGELS SrcARAN-0MEGA

BRAND OFTRum

Operated under the aegis ofthe Firewing, and incorporated into the 19•h Order at the time ofthe Thramas Crusade, the tank hunter Brand of Truth
was one ofthe few Dmega pattern Sicaran tank hunters within the ranks ofthe First Legion. During the assault upon the Night Lords defence
force, it would be the Brand ofTruth and other swift tank-hunters that would be assigned the task ofdestroying the hidden Night Lords armoured
vehicles, isolaring each position using the intelligence gathered by the first wave and then obliterating it with overwhelming firepower.
The Brand ofTruth would garner four kills, including a Cerberus super-heavy tank caught in the middle ofthe complex procedure required to
service its internal atomantic reactor.

DARK ANGELS SPARTAN ASSAULT TANK .I ~

GRIM VISAGE .I.~.

Though technically an asset ofthe Ironwing, the Grim Visage is shown here during the fighring I"·!'~; '
on Kenrac bearing the emblem ofthe Deathwing. This was common practise for vehicles i
carrying infantry assets from other Wings, with the transport compartment ofthe Spartan
showing not only the symbol ofthe Deathwing, but also the personal heraldry ofits cargo's .t
commander. For the battle to retake Kenrac, the Legion Terminator squad commanded by
Knight-captain Dariel made use ofthe Grim Visage as their assigned transport, taking part in
the final assault upon the hive spires of Kenrac. The Grim Visage would endure a blizzard of
anti-armour fire in order to bring its cargo to the optimal insertion point, conrinuing to advance
even after a salvo of Kraken penetrator missiles had shattered its glads plaring and injured the
vehicle's driver, unwilling to force the Terminators to suffer under the hail ofenemy fire in
order to reach their objective.

In the wake ofthe battle, Knight-captain Dariel and his warriors, whose swift insertion into
the heart ofthe enemy's fortifications allowed them to put a quick and bloody end to the Night
Lords' commander, gave up the honours they had earned for the victory. These would instead
go to the crew ofthe Grim Visage, adorning the rebuilt glacis armour for the remainder ofthe
tank's service.

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SWITI WRATH AND SURE BLADES

As with all the Wings ofthe Dark Angels, singular whole, often deployed to blunt the ahead ofthe main host to harry the Night
advance ofmore traditional Legion hosts Lords as they drew up their lines for battle
the Ravenwing was intended to gather and or to deny ground to a larger enemy army and to discourage enemy forces from
focus the Legion's expertise within a singular without attempting to directly contest them, attempting flanking assaults oftheir own.
banlefield art. In this case it was that of and resorting to spoiling attacks and swift It was a tactical convention that would
raids to keep a superior force at bay. survive the Thramas Crusade and continue
skirmish warfare, ofthe swift advance and throughout the Horus Heresy, and given
During the Thramas Crusade, this gambit the Ravenwing's doctrine oflimited war and
sudden withdrawal, to engage the foe and would be employed on a number of occasions hit-and-run strikes, it would see them survive
frustrate its strategies rather than simply with great success, with a number ofworlds Horus' rebellion with one of the largest
along the fringes ofthe Dark Angels' advance and most cohesive forces still combat ready
grind down its will to fight in a simple being denied to the Night Lords by the within the First Legion. What had begun
presence of small Ravenwing task forces. as a quirk ofthe Horus Heresy's dire needs
war ofattrition. As such, the Ravenwing It became only natural that in the larger would become tradition during the Scouring
tended to focus on battlefield assets that engagements ofthe crusade, at Sheol and that followed,seeing the Ravenwing become
complemented this style ofwarfare, with Yaelis amongst others, that the Ravenwing a force unto themselves in the new age ofthe
their ranks comprising the largest numbers continued to act as a unified force, ranging Imperium that followed.
ofLand Speeders, aircraft and strike tanks
in the First Legion, all scattered across the
various Orders and Companies that formed
the vast host ofthe Dark Angels. During the
long years ofthe Great Crusade, the wartiors
ofthe Ravenwing served as experts in the
field of swift war, called upon to advise the
knight-praetors when their expertise was
needed and to lead those units that best
served their skills - only rarely would they
be gathered together as a singular host. Yet,
with the outbreak ofthe Horus Heresy, it
would be ever more common for the warriors
ofthis Wing to be called upon to fight as a

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DARK ANGELS SABRE STRIKE TANK

ONYX-03
The third vehicle of a squadron assigned to the conflict on Mortain, a world on the far flank of the main Dark Angels assault into the
Thramas sector. Sabres were amongst the armoured vehicles most often assigned to Ravenwing veterans, for the design ofthese swift
hunter-killers complemented the tactics and temperament of the Ravenwing well.

DARK ANGELS SoKAR SroRMBIRD

LExrcoN OF GLORY

The Lexicon ofGlory is one of the oldest Sokar pattern Stormbirds in Legiones Astartes service, being one of the original prototypes that entered
testing with the old Host of the Void. It is a testament to both the durability ofits design and the skills of its Dark Angels pilots that after
a century and a half of the most brutal wars in humanity's long history, the Lexicon ofGlory still operates at peak efficiency. As a mark of respect for
its glorious record of success in battle, it is a tradition within the Legion to allow the Lexicon of Glory to be the first craft to make planetfall during
an assault at which it is present, a tradition which has never failed to bring victory.

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THE SEALING OF TiiE BLACK GA1E

The Black Gate was a legend among chartist
captains and Rogue Traders, a safe path into
the region ofspace later known as the Eye
ofTerror and the riches ofthe fallen Eldar
race's ancient empire. It drew hundreds of
fools and treasure hunters to their deaths as
Mankind returned to the stars, their ships
tom apart by the fierce storms that raged in
that region or captured by the degenerate
dregs ofthe Eldar race that still haunted
those ruined worlds. The legend killed every
soul that went in search ofit, until the Great
Crusade way-station at Zenith IX received
a garbled transmission in dated astropathic
cipher; a message that once transliterated
read only, 'The gate is opened.. .'

An Imperial cruiser Lionheart was dispatched
to investigate, carrying a full division ofwar-
hardened Solar Auxilia onboard and under
orders to use any means necessary to secure
the far borders ofthe growing Imperium.
It returned less than a month later, its hull
ravaged and tom, its veteran captain driven
mad by the sights he had seen and ofthe
25,000 Solar Auxilia onboard, there remained
only a few hundred broken and wounded
survivors. Frantic reports were dispatched to
Terra which received a reply unexpected in
both its speed and form: a flotilla ofjet-black
warships bearing the symbol ofthe cloaked
reaper, the First Legion in all its fearsome
glory, a pair ofheavy Promethean class
cruisers flanking a mighty Glorianna class
battleship, and waiting in their cavernous
holds three Chapters ofthe First Legion. A
force capable ofending worlds and shattering
armies sailed serenely past Zenith station
and into the darkness of the void, undaunted
by the reports ofan unknown terror lurking
at the Black Gate and indifferent to the
Imperial commander's pleas that they remain
to reinforce or evacuate his meagre garrison.

Within the maelstrom ofancient storms
that lurked within that benighted region at
the end ofthe perilous course charted by
those doomed explorers that had gone before
them, the warriors ofthe First Legion were
confronted by a vast rift in the fabric ofspace,
a monstrous wound in reality from which was
disgorged a mass ofwrithing pseudopod. The
sole nearby planet, a barren orb ofblack basalt
studded with structures ofancient provenance,
had been ensnared by the amorphous mass, an
anchor by which it sought to drag the whole of
its foulness into this realm ofexistence. Sworn
to ward the borders ofthe Imperium, the First
Legion ships did not hesitate to engage the foe,
loosing salvo after salvo ofmagna-torpedoes
that blasted chunks ofgelatinous flesh from

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the vast creature with little appreciable effect. As they advanced upon the towering bombardment from orbit, seeing little hope in I~
The ebon-hulled cruisers powered forwards pseudopod - now immense towers of a renewed ground assault. Yet, the ships above
to point blank range, there to unleash the bristle-studded flesh and cartilage that had made little impact on the vast creature.
full power of their macro-cannon and plasma rose into the sky and beyond - the psychic Worse, the Revenant, one ofthe cruisers, had
batteries, and to launch a swarm of attack craft barrage only intensified and the warriors become entangled in the flailing tentacles in an
to the ragged surface of the broken planetoid of the First Legion were soon reduced to a attempt to support the ground assault with fire
that was its anchor. crawl, wading forwards as though through from its gun batteries. With little hope offered
a bitter and hateful storm. Crippled by by more conventional tactics, Idrik Kybalos,
Led by Grandmaster1hrane, the First Legion the behemoth's psychic assault, the First Master of the Host of Pentacles, proposed a
prepared to assault the towering spiked Legion was beset by yet another foe as daring plan - an assault not on the vast mass of
pseudopod that had been thrust into the hordes of twisted, gangrel creatures were the creature's body, but on its monstrous will
planet's mantle - the furthest extension ofthat disgorged from the vast tentacles, tearing
loathsome creature that sought to breach reality themselves free of its flesh and throwing Reformed into a single wedge of men and
- but, even as the gunships began their landing themselves at the Space Marines. Through vehicles, the warriors of the First Legion burst
approach, they fell under renewed assault. the miasma of hate that shrouded their from their refuge 2,000 strong and determined
Smaller creatures swarmed up from around the minds, the warriors ofthe First Legion to avenge their losses. Despite this, the warriors
vast tentacles, sickly coloured abominations of fought back, and even beset by the foe of the First Legion fought as a unified force,
undulating flesh, like the toothed and spiked each column wrought a bloody ruin on each knowing his role despite the sudden shift
manta rays ofOld Earth, and stooped upon his ranks. At their fore stood Thrane, his in formation and tactics. At the fore, the brutal
the Sokar and Anhur pattern Stormbirds of great axe reaping a toll of enemies as they warriors of the Host ofBone matched the
the assault force, battering the craft as they pressed forwards, but the sheer number cruelty ofthe foe with their own savage assault,
attempted to navigate the writhing mass of of the enemy and the numbing waves of while on the flanks the initiates ofthe Host of
tentacles that surrounded the drop zone and hatred began to exact a price on the assault. Fire struck into the mass ofthe enemy horde
spraying them with iridescent flames that melted Despite mounting casualties, the first of to disrupt its movement and annihilate its
even hardened ceramite armour. Worse yet was the columns reached its target and began champions. Spread all along its lines were the
the sudden and debilitating wave ofhatred that to shell the huge pseudopod before it as the warriors ofthe Host of Pentacles, struggling to
screamed in the thoughts ofevery one ofthe infantry struggled to hold back the horde of hold back the psychic storm that threatened to
Legiones Astartes, an assault not on their bodies misshapen thralls that seethed about it. Yet stall this assault as it had done the first. Step by
but on their minds. Mere mortal soldiers would even the sheer firepower of Fellblade and step the combined Host moved forwards over
have broken before such an onslaught, but the Falchion tanks failed to dislodge the massive the corpses ofits foes, shifting and reforming
warriors ofthe First Legion were more resilient tentacle, its flesh roiling and knitting whole to meet each threat as it appeared and to
and, rather than descending into madness, they in the wake of each attack. With casualties counter each new mutation of the enemy.
struggled on through the haze ofloathing that mounting, the assault began to flounder. The
threatened to stop their hearts with its fervour. westernmost column lost its heavy armour As they advanced the mind-storm only grew in
as a huge pseudopod smashed it apart and intensity, and the Pentacles pushed themselves
Ofthe hundred dropships in the first wave a those warriors to the east found themselves to the limits oftheir minds and bodies in order
quarter did not make it to the surface intact, mired in a war of attrition they could ill- to shield their brothers. The most powerful
either swatted from the sky by vast, clawed afford and, had these been lesser warriors, endured but, in those days before the Librarius
pseudopod, swarmed by the endless throng would have disintegrated into a bloody rout. and its training, the weakest were ill-prepared
ofimpossible sky-horrors, or spiralling out of to face such a trial. Those who could not match
control as their pilots' minds fractured under What saved them was both the unflagging the malice ofthe foe were broken by it. Some
the psychic onslaught. The 4,000 survivors courage of Grandmaster Thrane and the simply collapsed as their minds shattered, but
rallied on the surface under the leadership of presence ofa number ofinitiates of one of others lost control and became a grave danger
Grandmaster 1hrane and the direction ofthe the least renowned Hosts ofthe First Legion. to those they had sought to protect, imploding
warriors of the Hosts ofIron and Bone, whose Gathered within the ranks ofthe central in fierce bursts of aetheric energy or sending
expertise in such warfare granted them the column were several dozen ofthe Host of wild torrents ofpower arcing through the
authority to lead their brothers. Reforming Pentacles, whose training included the esoteric ranks oftheir own brothers. The adepts ofthe
their ranks in mere moments, the First Legion arts ofthe psyker in those years before the Order of Bloody Shrouds, the dour disciplinary
formed three columns, each headed by a advent ofthe Librarius program and, as the corps ofthe First Legion, moved to silence
detachment ofthe Host ofIron and one or enemy threatened to overwhelm the First those that lost control with the mercy oftheir
more super-heavy war engines dropped by the Legion, it was their presence that stemmed blades, and the force pressed on as best it could.
surviving Anhur pattern transports, and each set the tide. As the warriors ofthe Pentacles
against one ofthe key pseudopod that held the staved offthe psychic storm, Hector Thrane After four hours ofceaseless fighting, constantly
unnamed planet in the beast's grasp. Such afeat led the gathered Space Marines through pressed by the unending tide ofhorrors, battered
oftactical adaptability was the forte ofthe First the encircling horde, using the impressive by the writhing pseudopod that sought to bar
Legion, made possible by the flexible system of firepower ofthe surviving heavy tanks to blast their passage and the malign storm that tore at
Hosts it employed and the veteran nature ofits a path clear and link up with the embattled their sanity, the ragged survivors reached their
warriors. Yet even such skilled warriors were eastern column. Together the survivors found target. There, directly under the vast tear in the
not fully prepared for what was to come. shelter in the ancient ruins, seizing a brief fabric ofspace, Hector Thrane and his warriors
pause in the fighting to hold a hurried council made their stand, forming a wall ofblades
ofwar. The war leaders of the landing force around the surviving Pentacles even as huge,
counselled a tactical retreat and a concentrated new monstrosities pressed towards them in an

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attempt to bring an end to their assault. There, THE BATI1E OF AnVEX-MORS outpost it was later found to be. Vast legions of
bloodied and beaten, Kybalos, Master ofthe Host captured humans and other more exotic breeds
of Pentacles set his gambit into motion. He and Ofall the campaigns waged by the First Legion, ofslave awaited the attackers, slave-soldiers
the most powerful ofhis followers abandoned it is their battles against the Rangda that have bound to their Rangdan masters by cruel neural
their attempts to shield their brothers and most inrrigued historians and scholars, for the collars that enforced absolute loyalty and
turned the full might oftheir will into an assault veil ofsecrecy cast over these engagements has reduced them to little more than savage drones
upon the vast beast that hung in the skies above. served only to make the myths that have taken to the xenos that commanded them. The Rangda
Every iota oftheir determination was focused the place oftruth all the more grand. There is themselves possessed many horrific weapons,
into the attack, but it could not slay the beast. little information to be found outside ofthe the product ofavile technology created solely
However, that was not its intent. With a psychic most carefully-guarded sections ofthe Imperial for destruction and subjugation, the ultimate
roar that shook the minds ofall present, the vast Archives and the records ofthe Dark Angels expression ofwhich was the vast war-moon that
entity that lurked behind the tear in space finally themselves, a Legion well known for rigorously sat in orbit ofAdvex-mors Primus. This immense
drew its heart into real-space, spurred into action maintaining its many secrets. However,for the engine ofwar could match the firepower ofa
by the painful thorn ofKybalos' assault. As first ofthe great wars against the Rangda there is full fleet ofstarships and bore armour capable
the bulbous mass ofits core, studded with vast another source ofinformation available to us - ofshrugging offstrikes from capital scale
eyes and fanged maws, thrust into reality, the the data cores ofthe rebel Forge World ofXana. weaponry. It would prove the greatest obstacle to
Revenant, still enmeshed in the writhing tendrils Raided and burned by Loyalist forces during the invasion and the most terrible symbol ofthe
ofthe beast, detonated its reactor core. the Scouring, before its dark magos fled into Rangda's power and malevolent ingenuity.
exile, much information was recovered from
The resulting explosion tore the beast apart, the Forge World that the First Legion could not The First Legion, led by their new
its shattered remains crashing down upon the seal away. It is from these meticulously-gathered Grandmaster, Urian Vendraig, welcomed
planet below and its spawn collapsing with the scraps ofknowledge that a true picture ofthe the challenge presented them. Indeed, to
death oftheir creator. The surviving warriors of first battle berween the Dark Angels and the succeed in the face ofoverwhelming odds
the First Legion numbered little more than 800, Rangda can be formed. and prove the valour ofhis Legion was one
surrounded by a sea ofcorpses, having exacted a ofthe core goals Grandmaster Vendraig had
high price for each oftheir own fallen. Kybalos The First Legion gathered a mighty armada assigned the campaign, a return to glory for
and the few remaining Pentacles sealed the for the assault on Advex-mors, some 50,000 the First Legion. In honour ofthis goal, the
breach in reality, straining their tormented minds warriors ofthe First Legion and another 100,000 fighting began in grand style as the assembled
in an effort that cost yet more lives among their support troops drawn from both Imperial fleet tore an opening in the fabric of space to
ranks. The fighting had both proven the worth Army regiments and Mechanicum Taghmata translate into Advex-mors as a single wedge
ofbattle-psykers and also shown their potential forces from nearby Xana, as well as near a ofsteel and guns. This feat of navigation,
danger. Though victorious, the Pentacles would full hundred capital class starships and many impressive in its own right, was overshadowed
be disbanded in the months that followed. times that ofsmaller escort craft. At that time by the sheer might ofthe fleet assembled,
Grandmaster Thrane declared the unnamed this was a fearsome force ofarms, but one still with the leading squadron comprising no less
system and the space around it forbidden, both reckoned lacking by many for the task they than three Glorianna battleships: the Invincible
so as to preserve the safety ofthe Imperium had set themselves. The initial reports from the Reason, Paradigm ofHate and Truth's Razor.
and as a solemn memorial to honour the fallen. Those few scattered squadrons of Rangdan
Beacons placed in the surrounding systems vm Legion fleet that had made the first charts warp-barques able to oppose the sudden
declared it contaminated by a gene-phage of appearance ofthe Imperium's fleet were
surpassing potency, enough to ward offeven the ofAdvex-mors painted a grim picrure for the quickly swept aside by the sheer strength of
most greedy explorers; a claim supported by the assault force, for the six worlds ofAdvex-mors the First Legion's gathered ships. Even the
wreckage of Zenith station, whose ruins bear the were heavily fortified and garrisoned, so much so foul weaponry of the Rangdan void craft and
taint ofsuch a plague - though the cause ofits that the Stratego ofthe Divisio Militaris would
destruction can be found in no record. initially believe this to be the seat ofthe Rangda's
power in our galaxy rather than the isolated

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apathetic bravery ofthe neural thralls that Within the space of a few short months The ancient battleship, its void shields Ii'
crewed them could not slow the Imperium's the Imperium's fleet had crushed the four flaring as it strove to absorb the sheer
advance, though the complex electro- outermost planets ofthe system and stood weight of fire thrown at it, ploughed into ij~
magnetic weapons employed by those ships upon the threshold ofAdvex-mors Primus. the enemy's formation and scattered the ''
- often called shadow blasters by the naval Here would begin the true battle, for as the lesser ships of the Rangda. Infested by
crews for the ominous shadows left behind by First Legion had spent its time subjugating Rangdan stalker drones and badly wounded
their atomised victims - left many crewmen the outer worlds, the Rangda had gathered by the exotic energy weapons of the xenos
crippled by radiation sickness. all their strength amongst the huge shielded craft, the Paradigm of Hate slammed into the
fortresses of Primus, and in its skies hung vast hull of the war-moon, gouging a deep
The invasion ofAdvex-mors Extremis followed the vast war-moon, a sentinel ofhuge and wound in its metal hide. The survivors of
these initial successes in orbit, with the terrifying power. Here there would be no its crew and the contingent of First Legion
Grandmaster himselfdeploying at the head simple triumph, and the First Legion turned warriors aboard the battleship took up
ofthe First Legion's gth Chapter to spearhead to a far more daring plan to secure victory. defensive positions within the shattered
the assault. Extremis possessed only limited Knowing that any effort to destroy the war- wreck of their vessel and set the plasma
strategic worth, playing host to a small facility moon by means of a sustained orbital assault reactor to reach catastrophic overload even
that refined fuel from the vast seas ofliquid would result in massive casualties and allow as the Rangda hosts aboard the vast war-
hydrogen trapped beneath the thick icy crust, the planet beneath even more time to fortify moon moved to overwhelm them. A brief
and was defended by only a small garrison of and prepare, Grandmaster Vendraig planned and bloody action was fought in the cold
slave soldiers and a single Rangdan overseer. to strike both targets at once using the might void on the war-moon's surface, with full
Yet despite this, its value to the morale ofthe ofhis Legiones Astartes warriors. A single detachments of towering Rangdan warriors
invasion force and as a statement of the First Chapter would attack the war-moon under committed to battle for the first time.
Legion's power was immense. One thousand cover of a diversionary attack by the fleet and Brutally strong and armed with weapons
warriors of the First Legion took to the field disable it from within, while the majority of terrible power, the Rangda proved a
against 10,000 ofthe foe, a frenzied wave of ofthe Legion would conduct a massive match for the Legiones Astartes, both sides
flesh-puppets sent by their xenos overlord into planetary landing and crush the world's inflicting serious casualties upon their foe
capital in a single, focused assault. but could not overrun the First Legion's
a mindless fury, to spend their lives recklessly defences in time to prevent the Paradigm
The phalanx of heavy Imperium battleships of Hate's vengeance. The warriors that had
that the foe might be crushed. The dark wave advanced on Advex-mors Primus but, unlike once rode the proud ship into war sacrificed
ofmind-slaved warriors washed over the First previous engagements, the lumpen xenos themselves that she might strike one last
Legion's lines and was shattered and broken by defence barges did not rush headlong blow against the foe, her reactors exploding
the Legiones Astartes in a battle that lasted but to meet them and be torn apart by the like a miniature sun, crippling the vast
three short hours, ind at a cost to them ofless heavy guns ofthe First Legion. Instead, war-moon and spreading a deadly storm of
than 200 casualties. Urian Vendraig himself the Rangdan craft formed a defensive debris across high orbit.
descended into the boreal hell ofthe ice mines constellation about the war-moon, denying
and slew the Rangdan overlord in personal the Imperium fleet any easy opening by With its death, the battleship had bought the
combat, emerging to hoist its head before the which to deploy landing craft or make a rest of the fleet a brief respite, a chance to
assembled warriors ofhis Legion. So would go concerted assault, and displaying a level of press the foe, and the orbital battle quickly
the fighting on the four outer worlds, each small tactical awareness hitherto unexpected by fell into a chaotic melee of intermixed ships
garrison isolated by the vast Imperium fleet and the Emperor's forces, who were now forced and squadrons, each locked in a desperate
destroyed in detail by different detachments of to attack into the concentrated guns ofthe struggle for survival in a mass of duels
the First Legion, each testing and probing the foe. The space around Rangda erupted in between individuals and squadrons. The
foe for weaknesses. The Rangda spent the lives light as the two fleets clashed above the remaining battleships, Invincible Reason and
oftheir slaves profligately to bleed the Legion, immense face ofthe war-moon and hundreds Truth's Razor, blasted a path into low orbit,
sending tens ofthousands to their deaths to ofthousands of guns let fly, punctuating the weathering enemy attack craft and strikes
slow their advance and cull the numbers ofthe void with both the yellow flash oflmperium from ground-based weapons platforms to
invaders, losing but a handful oftrue Rangda as macro-cannon and the malefic green flare begin landing ground forces, abandoning any
the First Legion celebrated their victories. of Rangdan shadow blasters. Within the attempt to capture the shattered and silent
first few moments both fleets had lost war-moon. As the sky filled with the light of
entire squadrons ofcraft, with concentrated a thousand tiny battles fought in the void,
weapons fire from the innumerable guns of the massed forces of the First Legion made
the war-moon ripping apart even the most planetfall, a rain ofdrop pods falling on the
heavily shielded ofImperium void craft wastelands away from the chain of fortresses
and spreading storms of debris across the that girded the equator, while several smaller
battle zone. This was a war of attrition the forces dispersed in squadrons ofgunships
Imperium's forces had wanted to avoid and and Stormbird transports. It would be these
could ill-afford to prolong, but one they smaller forces that saw action first, mounting
could not easily abandon without ceding raids on the nearest fortresses and those
control of Primus to the enemy. It would columns of slave soldiers sent to investigate
only be the sacrifice ofthe battleship, the landing zone, buying time with the blood
Paradigm of Hate that would finally turn the of the enemy for their brothers to array
tide of the engagement. themselves for battle.

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For the first day these raiding columns, Made complacent by centuries of conquest With the greatest strength of the foe
mostly led by the warriors of the Order and success, the Rangdan elite watched and shattered in open combat by the warriors
of Crows and the marshals of the Hosts waited, fully assured that they would claim of the Emperor and their warmaster a
of Wind and Fire, bore the brunt of the victory once committed to the fighting cooling corpse in the dust, those Rangda
fighting. At first they only had to contend against an exhausted and drained foe. that remained fled and took refuge in the
with lesser forces of slave soldiers, driven fortresses left to them. However, with the
into their path by the Rangda to weaken Rather than wait for the hammer blow to Imperium's ships consolidating control
them and easily bested by the battle- fall and sunder his formation, Grandmaster of orbit now that the war-moon had
hardened Legiones Astartes. But they Vendraig moved first, leading a charge that been broken and the Grandmaster's host
would also be the first to face the true burst through the slave soldier battalions having scattered the greatest strength of
Rangda in combat. Little is known of the and bore down upon their waiting their defences, the Rangda were a broken
enemy those warriors faced; that they were Rangdan overlords. Too proud to retreat force. The next few months became a
towering creatures of fell strength, inhuman in the face of such a challenge, the Rangda series of gruelling sieges as the First
cunning and bearing the products ofa cruel met the warriors of the First Legion Legion surrounded and reduced each of
technology that equalled or even exceeded blade-to-blade in a savage melee that the fortresses by storm, leaving no stone
that of Mankind is common to all the tales tested the mettle of both forces, the stoic upon stone and utterly erasing all trace
that would later be told. The warriors that brutality and measured swordsmanship of the enemy on the world they had once
fought these initial battles suffered terribly, of the First Legion matched against the claimed, while in orbit specially equipped
many of the columns reduced to less than savage might and cruel technology of cadres of Breachers and Destroyers
half their original strength as they fended the Rangda. Legiones Astartes warriors swept the vast ruins of the war-moon
off the Rangda and several were annihilated were cut asunder by Rangdan warriors slaughtering the thousands ofRangda
entirely, but the information they procured enveloped in layers of energy shielding still trapped in its labyrinthine warrens.
was priceless indeed. The tactics, weaponry that burned the very air about them as they Yet t,!ie cost of this victory was staggering,
and character of the Rangda were laid bare fought, while the lithe, vulpine xenos fell with some ro,ooo of the First Legion slain
to Grandmaster Vendraig, though at the cost before the Terranic greatswords of the First and 50 ships of the line utterly destroyed,
of several hundred of his finest warriors, Legion Terminators. It was a slaughter that including the irreplaceable Paradigm of
and with this he planned his next steps. would have ended in mutual annihilation, Hate, the wreckage of which could not be
both sides equally matched in skill and salvaged from the fused remains of the
Arrayed and ordered to take full advantage power, until Vendraig met the Rangdan war-moon. This was the legacy they wished
of their foe's weakness, the host of the First warmaster in single combat. Vendraig was to leave, a symbol of their Legion in the
Legion advanced in force to meet their a superlative swordsman, strong of arm and barren waste they made of Advex-mors
enemy: a host of near 30,000 of the Legiones swift in battle, yet his foe was a towering and a message to those who might seek to
Astartes in full panoply of glory and with monster cloaked in burning energy oppose them. Those that would seek war
all the brutal weapons of their trade, the fields and wielding a huge crystalline with the First Legion would be met by a
full muster of those still combat capable blade that bled a neurotoxin of hideous foe that would not balk when faced with
and not bound to serve in orbit aboard the potency. For an hour the duel raged and, the highest cost to claim victory, a host that
ships of the fleet. Such a force was a threat as their warriors died around them, the would bring an enemy not only to defeat,
that could not be ignored and the Rangda, two generals fought with savage ferocity, but to utter annihilation.
proud and still certain of their superiority, neither giving an inch. In the end, though
quickly moved to oppose the creatures that wracked by the pain of the toxin raging
dared to invade their home. The two armies in his blood and his armour rent and
met across 100 kilometres of Advex-mors' sundered, Urian Vendraig slew his foe and
broken outlands. The initial stages of the held high the severed head of the Rangdan
battle were fought against the slave legions warmaster, the battle decided and the pride
of the Rangda by the screening elements of that foul xenos breed broken.
of the Host of Blades and the heavy tanks
ofthe Host of Iron, warriors ready to
counter this by-now familiar Rangdan
tactic. Knowing that the true Rangda would
expend their slaves with abandon in order
to pinpoint a weakness in the Legiones
Astartes' lines before attacking - pitting
their strength against the weakest point of
their opponent - Grandmaster Vendraig
had massed his finest warriors, veterans
of the Hosts of Crowns and Bone, to act
as a mobile reserve. Meanwhile, mobile
elements of Companies led by warriors of
the Host of Wind, mounted on swift jetbikes
and speeders, isolated and harried the main
body of the Rangdan force and relayed
precise information on their movements.

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•!

THE BARBARIAN AND THE KNIGHT
The Battle of Dulan and the infamous feud between the Dark Angels and the Space Wolves is a tale told many times and with no need for
a detailed repetition in this record. In essence it is a simple tale, yet one that has seen a number of tellings each ofwhich has had its own
agenda, and rarely has that agenda been the simple truth. The details of the battle are well known, Leman Russ and the Lion were both
assigned to the conquest of Dulan and, while the Space Wolves waited and lay siege, the Dark Angels staged a sudden assault that allowed
them to claim the honour of the final victory. On hearing of this it is most often claimed that Leman Russ flew into a rage and assaulted his
brother, leading to the legendary duel between them that their Legions are rumoured to reenact whenever they meet. This has led to the

popular assumption of a bitter grudge between the Space Wolves and the Dark Angels, a sense of lasting ill will brought about by this single
isolated incident that has been accepted by history as fact. Yet, those two Legions have fought together on a number of occasions, both before
and after the Battle of Dulan, without rancour and in many cases with a noted sense of shared camaraderie. Indeed, it has often been noted
that the two Primarchs, Lion El'Jonson and Leman Russ, were ofmuch the same character, though they oft expressed it differently. Both
were practical to their core, with little time for frivolity or the excesses ofcivilisation. Both valued plain speaking over political necessity and
judged men by the actions they took rather than the words they spoke. But above all, the two Primarchs placed the utmost value on loyalty,
holding their oaths as iron bonds and reserving the deepest hate for those who would forsake a vow.

This being true, it throws the events on Dulan, and the grudge they are to have given birth to, into a strange light. That the two fought
is not in doubt, for too many sources agree on it; that either came to hold a grudge is implausible. Ifanything, the record of the two
Primarchs suggests a deep bond of trust and mutual respect. Together they had seen the end of the Rangdan empire, had conquered a
thousand worlds and vanquished some of the most terrible foes to stand against the Imperium. Dulan would seem to have represented
one of many tests; a test that allowed the two to take a measure of each other and a test oft repeated when they or their warriors met -
but one repeated without the rancour often attributed to it. There exists no greater symbol of the loyalty held between the two Legions,
the Wolves of Fenris and the Knights of Caliban, than in the final days of the rebellion against the Emperor, when the great Horus
himself trembled as the two Legions re-united as brothers-in-arms, ready to test themselves against the forces that lay siege to Terra.

THE SIEGE OF MYKANA their crude axes and to fight on even after sallied forth from their newly-impregnable
During the final years of the Great receiving a mortal wound, the Emperor's fortress. All attempts to counter what
Crusade, the Dark Angels found Children swept down upon the feeble Paitux and his warriors had swiftly come
themselves engaged more often alongside stone fortifications of Mykana's outer to call the 'Burning Veil' had failed, and
their brother Legions rather than fighting walls. There they intended to breach the cost the lives of those few reserves left
alone, forging new respect among the gates and secure a swift victory worthy of to the IIIrd Legion. They were now in
Legions that had once seen them as distant the perfection craved by their Legion, yet desperate need of reinforcements, having
and aloof The battle for the city of Laconis as the ornately armoured warriors of the weathered constant attack from the
serves as a prominent example of such an IIIrd Legion reached the edge of the city, Mykanan berserkers, who fought regardless
action. There the 281h Millennial of the the Mykanan techno-shaman activated of the casualties inflicted by the slowly-
Emperor's Children, led by Commander the ancient reactor entombed at the heart diminishing Company of the Emperor's
Paitux, lay siege to the last city upon that of the city and a field of energy erupted Children and seemingly spurred to suicidal
non-Compliant world, Mykana. Having to envelop Laconis, incinerating any who fury by the technological manifestation of
prosecuted a highly successful campaign attempted to penetrate its boundary and their shaman's power. Only by the bravery
to date there was little to suggest to the stopping the Emperor's Children's advance of Commander Paitux did the warriors of
Emperor's Children that the conquest of in its tracks. the Emperor survive as a coherent fighting
Mykana would pose any great difficulty, force, with Paitux leading nightly counter-
and the techno-feudal city was assaulted Forced onto the defensive by the arcane assaults and spoiling attacks to hold back
by a combined force of jump-pack infantry technology unexpectedly deployed by the Mykanan horde as his beleaguered
and mounted outriders. Carving a path the Mykanan savages and the casualties Millennial desperately fought to hold clear
through the berserk warriors of Mykana, sustained in the abortive attack on the city, a landing zone for their reinforcements.
whose drug-induced fury granted them the the Emperor's Children found themselves Weeks passed before their calls for aid were
strength to sunder Space Marine plate with hard-pressed as the Mykanan warriors answered, with the 28th Millennial reduced
to less than half their original number and
their munitions all but exhausted. The fleet
that responded to their dire summons was
not composed of the sleek warships of the
IIIrd Legion though, but the grim vessels of
the First, the Dark Angels.

,.

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DARK ANGELS DEATHWING VETERAN

KNIGHT-SERGEANT IDRAVAIN MoRS, SENESCHAL OF lHE DEATIIWING, 23'" ORDER 'THE SHAmREo MANTLE'

Knight-sergeant Mors was inducted into the inner circles ofthe Deathwing after the battle on Mykana, where he took a Mykanan
phase-lock musket shot meant for his commander, leaving him on the brink ofdeath once victory was secured. His armour bears a
number ofelements ofthe unique heraldry used by the Dark Angels, and often considered indecipherable by their brethren in the
other Legions. Ofparticular note are the white plating segments ofhis modified MkIV battle plate, which signify a warrior ofthe
Deathwing that has taken a mortal wound meant for another and survived, the votive ceramite plug on the left section ofhis chest
plate marks the breach in his armour as a badge ofhonour with few equals among the pragmatic Dark Angels. Also ofnote are the
crossed keys on his left greave and the Deathwing initiation icons on his right pauldron, both ofwhich are intended to mark him
as a warrior who is master in the arts ofthe Deathwing, as a champion and linebreaker, on the field ofbattle should he be needed.

Knight-sergeant Mors would fall again on the fields ofSheol IX, once again shielding the Knight-praetor ofthe Shattered Mantle,
though this time from the vengeful talons ofthe Night Haunter himself His shattered body was recovered from the field ofbattle

and interred in a Dreadnought sarcophagus in honour ofhis sacrifice.

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Led by the Lion himself, a full Chapter of Ofthe brave warriors that had won victory in reply before departing with those ofhis
the Dark Angels fell upon the force that had with the destruction ofthe shield spire, there men that still lived: "I sented the Lion for many
surrounded Commander Paitux and the years before I earned his trust enough to be given
survivors ofhis Millennial Caught in the had been no word since the fall ofthe spire. charge ofthe battlefield in his absence, and here
open by Dreadwing Fire Raptors and aforce he has offered you that trust after a single battle.
ofassault troops with the Primarch at their Such was the chaos in the streets ofMykana From him that is high praise indud."
head, the Mykanans were pushed back in a where the warriors ofthat now fallen state,
short, vicious battle that left the ground outside having been issued a fatal overdose of the With nothing further to be said, the Lion
their last city strewn with corpses. However, combat drugs that empowered them, fought and his sons departed Laconis, allowing
the Burning Veil barred any pursuit by the a bitter and suicidal battle street by street to what remained ofthe 28ih Millennial ofthe
Imperialforces, dropping briefly only to allow deny the advance ofthe Dark Angels, that Emperor's Children Legion to officially
the retreating Mykanan warriors to flee. It none ofthe Lion's warriors could be spared bring the world to Compliance. As the planet
quickly proved impossible to destroy the source to search for them. Those survivors ofthe was rebuilt, the remains ofthe device that
ofMykana's shielding from outside the city, assault on the city, Lieutenant Mordwen and created the Burning Veil were never found,
with even sustained orbital barrages failing to a few dozen ofhis brethren,were trapped and some accused the Emperor's Children
force a full collapse ofits defensive perimeter behind enemy lines and faced with such ofembellishing their records to make their
or dull the lethal energies that seethed at its a horde ofenemies that it became simply failure more palatable to the Warmaster.
boundary. It was to be the ingenuity and hard- a matter ofhow high a price in lives they Yet, there still remain theories that the
won knowledge ofthe Ironwingthat provided would demand for their death. For the Dark Angels somehow retrieved the shield
an answer, with an Ironwing Lieutenant, Iksal Dark Angels this was the cost ofvictory, the generator and that it now rests somewhere
Mordwen, demonstrating that a dense enough bloody toll of duty, and one that any member within their hidden vaults, awaiting use in
energy beam could disrupt a small section of ofthe Legion would unquestionably pay, the service ofthe Imperium.
the force field long enough to allow a small but not one that would be exacted that day.
raiding party to penetrate the outer defences Having commandeered a squadron ofStorm THE PRIDE OF CONQUERORS
ofthe city. A force ofvolunteers, primarily Eagles, Commander Paitux and the warriors Most histories ofthe Horus Heresy place
warriors mounted on swiftjetbikes and of the Emperor's Children conducted an the first intervention ofthe Dark Angels
speeders spearheaded by the initiates ofthe airborne assault on the city's central plaza, at the Thramas Crusade, a campaign
Ravenwing and led by Lieutenant Mordwen, honour bound to avenge their fallen and which begins several years after Horus,
was assembled and the Lion prepared his repay the Dark Angels. Together the warriors Warmaster ofthe Imperium, raises the flag
warriors for the final assault on Mykana,leaving ofthe First and the Third held a position ofrebellion. Unknown to most, there are
the shattered Emperor's Children Millennial as among the rubble ofthe fallen spire for a number ofmuch earlier recorded battles
a rearguard. another three hours offrantic battle as the in which significant elements ofthe Dark
Mykanan hordes threw themselves against Angels Legion take to the field against the
Deploying an ancient graviton cannon from the thin line of defenders. By the time the Warmaster in open war. Ofthese, the earliest
the armouries ofthe Invincible Reason, the main force ofthe Dark Angels assault arrived known occurs in 006.M31, but a few short
Dark Angels were able to hold open the to relieve them, they had exhausted all their months after the opening salvos ofthe war in
shield on its southern border long enough munitions and the survivors had resorted to the northernmost reaches ofthe Imperium
for the Ravenwing to pass through the combat blades and bayonets to hold the line. at the isolated outpost operated by the Dark
breach, only the last handful ofwarriors Angels in the system known as Rangda.
falling prey to the lethal energies ofthe Satisfied that Mykana was purged and no
shield as it snapped shut on the assault's threat remained to the Imperium's claim Since the end ofthe Rangdan Xenocide,
heels. Outside the barrier, the Dark Angels upon Laconis, the Lion ordered the Dark the system that still bore the name ofthat
ofthe Shattered Mantle assembled in force, Angels to return to their ships, leaving the fearsome xenos breed had lain mostly empty,
the Lion at the fore, and waited for their Emperor's Children amongst the ashes save for the chantry station ofthe Order
brethren to bring down the Burning Veil. ofthe world's primitive people to await ofthe Broken Claw and a small garrison
Outnumbered a thousand to one, the small the return oftheir own fleet and establish ofthe 51" Chapter ofthe Dark Angels, the
band ofwarriors now trapped within the Imperial authority upon it. No mention Sable Griffons. In total, the First Legion
city cut apath towards the central spire, was made ofthe plight ofthe III"' Legion force numbered around 1 1500 warriors, their
paying a high price in blood and lives for that had brought the Dark Angels to standing orders being to act as watchmen
each step they took as the berserk warriors Laconis, of the dishonour offailure or the over the remains ofthe Rangdan home world
ofMykana swarmed down upon them. Yet, lives spent by the Dark Angels to finish a and to stand sentinel over the far reaches
despite the casualties they suffered, the conquest that history would attribute to ofthe Emperor's domain. When Horus'
central spire ofthe city came crashing down the warriors of Fulgrim's proud Legion. fleet opened fire on Isstvan Ill, marking
barely more than an hour after the dispatch Facing neither reprimand nor apparent the beginning ofthe Horus Heresy, much
ofthe assault force, and with a great cry praise from the grim Primarch ofthe First ofthe garrison's strength was out-system
the warriors ofthe Dark Angels waiting at Legion, Commander Paitux sought answers conducting a routine patrol ofthe outer rim
the barrier's edge pressed forwards as the from Lieutenant Mordwen in the wake of ofthe galaxy and when the Sons ofHorus
dust settled over Mykana, and the many the battle. A question to which the Dark heavy cruiser, Conqueror'sPride, translated
thousands ofsurviving berserkers struggled Angels officer offered but a few short words into realspace at the edge ofthe system, no
in vain to defend their home from the cause for alarm was recognised.
Lion's onslaught.

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......_......

Signalling that it needed to resupply and Trapped within and cut offfrom their Despite the delay their humiliation by the
providing all the required ident and security support, the Justaerin finally came face to Lion's warriors had caused them, the Sons of
code-ciphers, the Conqueror's Pride passed face with the defenders. As a house of record Horus had achieved their objective and now
unharmed through the halo of kill-sats and and contemplation, there was no standing sought to escape. In orbit, the Conqueror's
weapons platforms arrayed about the world garrison, merely I 2 members of the Order of Pride, having destroyed the few small
ofRangda. Once in orbit, several squadrons the Broken Claw now pitted against almost system defence crafts, began a systematic
of Storm Eagles and larger Stormbirds 50 Justaerin that had made it inside. Within bombardment of the surface, seeking to
departed its flight bays headed for the the pitch-black, labyrinthine corridors and eradicate any trace of the attack. One ofthe
surface. Queries from the Dark Angels chambers ofthe chapter house the Cenobites grounded Stormbirds was captured and
requesting their destination and intent were of the Broken Claw met the elite of Horus' the relics it bore lost to a daring assault by
ignored, and when Knight-praetor Kordray Legion, measured them against the foes they Knight-praetor Mordred and his Deathwing
Mordred demanded to speak with the Sons had faced in the dark years ofthe Rangdan lifeguard, while another was shot down and
of Horus commander, his only answer was a Xenocides and found them wanting. Though destroyed by Ravenwing warriors piloting
sudden and indiscriminate barrage launched it cost them dearly, the Dark Angels broke Xiphon Interceptors,though the survivors
by the cruiser in orbit. Macro-cannon blasts the pride of the Warmaster and, when the ofthe Sable Griffons could not halt the
and the searing beams of orbital lances bulk of the raiding force finally breached exodus ofthe Sons of Horus. The remnants
mercilessly battered the Dark Angels' the entrance with melta charges, they found ofthe assault force reached orbit leaving
positions on the surface, leaving little of only a slew of corpses wearing the colours the Dark Angels trapped below, but they
their fortifications intact, yet inflicting only of Horus' own sons within, mixed with but a could spare no time to exact any revenge, for
light damage on the chantry house of the few fallen in the stark black of the First. The the Promethean class cruiser Invidious had
Broken Claw. Its outer defences crippled, the three surviving Cenobites had withdrawn returned,called back from patrol by Knight-
Sons of Horus gunships set down in perfect to the lower vaults where the relics of the praetor Mordred, and the Conqueror'sPride
assault formation and disgorged nearly a Rangdan wars were held in stasis, there to was no match for the ancient Terran warship
full Chapter, including a Company ofthe hold out as long as they still drew breath. in open battle.
renowned Justaerin Terminators. With the
main First Legion positions thoroughly Their honour besmirched, the Sons of Bloodied in body and pride, the Sons of
obliterated, and any survivors likely Horus refused to resort to the simple Horus fled the Rangda system. They had
scrambling to secure more traditional targets, solutions ofpromethium or phosphex to come seeking both weapons for Horus'
such as the planetary arsenal or command remove the stubborn warriors of the First desperate rebellion and to break the will of
headquarters, the Sons of Horus made their Legion, instead selecting from among one of the unquestionably loyal Legions but
assault on the Chapter house with a brazen their number the most skilled and vicious could claim little more than the most pyrrhic
contempt for their foe, detailing only a token to restore their pride. The first group, all ofvictories. Striking with complete surprise
force to seize the astropathic nexus. storied warriors and veterans, survived for and superior numbers, they had managed to
ten minutes and, though they inflicted cruel lose several hundred of their own warriors,
The outer gates and the decorative statues wounds, only felled a single defender. Three several irreplaceable Stormbird transports
that fronted the Chapter house, simple further bands ofvolunteers descended and and a number of the relics while only
bronzes and embossed with scenes still a single defiant Dark Angel stood guard exacting a handful of casualties upon their
commemorating the Dark Angels' victories over the vault. Word then arrived from the foe. Worse still, the Dark Angels were now
over the Rangda, posed little barrier to rearguard at the astropathic nexus that the not simply set against them by loyalty, by the
the heavy weaponry of the Sons of Horus. other Dark Angels survivors had driven cold logic of duty and honour, but also by the
The Justaerin Consul himselftore the gate them from the core and had control of off- raw demand of anger and retribution.
from its hinges and cast it aside, daring the world communications, and finally the Sons
defenders within to come out against him, to of Horus sent in the Destroyers. Seeing the
challenge the might of Horus' own Legion approach ofthe grim-faced executioners,
- for the Sons ofHorus had long resented the final Cenobite gave a last salute and
the superior attitude of the so-called First charged, only to be engulfed in an explosion
Legion. When none dared to come forth, ofphosphex that ate through his armour
the Justaerin marshalled their strength and dissolved his flesh in moments. Finally
and set foot within the great antechamber granted access to the vaults, the Sons of
ofthe Chapter house. At that moment, a Horus Techmarines and forge-wrights
great detonation rocked the entranceway, scoured the ancient relics ofthe Rangda,
the statues exploded first in a carefully set taking possession of a carefully chosen
sequence intended to cause as much damage selection ofvile Rangdan weapons and
as possible, their cores packed with high other fell devices before returning to their
explosive that turned their bronze skins into waiting dropships.
deadly shrapnel. Then a series ofcharges
built into the arch ofthe entranceway sealed
the broken gate with tonnes ofrubble, the
ornate architecture little more than a trap
long-prepared for whoever might eventually
lay siege to the Chapter house.

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DARK ANGELS CoNTEMPTOR DREADNOUGHT t

VENERABLE-l'RAEFECTUS ORAMAS, AR.CHON OF FLAME i

Weapons such as the conversion beam cannon borne into battle by Venerable Ora.mas are rare weapons, even among the Legiones
Astartes, for the technology required to keep such potent weapons operating is both all but lost to modern scholars and dangerous
to employ. It is only in the ranks ofthe First Legion that such technology is found in great numbers, often employed en-masse in

order to overwhelm the terrible foes against which the Dark Angels are often pitted. Indeed, the panoply ofVenerable Oramas,
who in his former life was a simple initiate ofthe Firewing and no towering hero ofthe Great Crusade, includes a number of
weapons noted for their rarity. The Kheres pattern assault cannon, whose temperamental nature limited its use amongst many of
the younger Legions, combined with the volatile conversion beam cannon, represents a significant deployment offirepower, but

one that was commonplace among the ranks ofthe Dark Angels.

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Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!

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A LEGION ACCURSED wound that no chirurgeon could mend. but rather an indiscriminate scourge that
Thus, by the time of the Thramas Crusade sought to sate its thirst on any that crossed
The Night Lords were a Legion set upon he had come to embrace his doom, to revel its path. Left to its own devices and the
a course that would lead them inevitably in the futility of his existence and the bleak ever-darkening wishes ofits master, the
to their destruction, a course whose origin truth he thought he had discovered. Night Lords would surely have proved a
could be found on distant Terra and the thorn in Horus' careful preparations, and so
inscrutable plans of the Emperor, but The Outriders ofRebellion the Warmaster granted them a new task, one
that would see its bitter end among the Outwardly, the Night Lords began the Horus that would see their unique talents put to
dim stars of the Eastern Fringe. As was Heresy as a strong force in the host of the good use. As they had in the north so would
fitting for a Legion of such ill-repute and Warmaster, a Legion tempered by war and set they serve in the east, as the harbingers of
terrible mien, it would not go meekly to in its own grudge against the Loyalist cause. the dark empire and the will of Horus. They
meet this ordained fate nor accept without The imprisonment of Curze prior to the would bring new territories and new sources
bloodshed an end to the path they had destruction ofNostramo and the subsequent ofpower and resources into the fold ofthe
chosen to walk. Amid the turmoil and incident with Rogal Dorn were seen by Traitors, strengthening the growing armada
destruction of the Horus Heresy the first many among the Traitors to grant the Night that Horus intended to unleash upon Terra.
signs of that which awaited them would Haunter their trust. Knowing this, Horus
appear, heralded by the Night Haunter sought to put the Night Lords to use in the An Empire Built on Fear
himself, and the Legion would turn upon vanguard ofhis plans and in the wake of the Upon the dim stars of the Nostramo sector,
itself in an orgy of violence in an effort to destruction of the Dropsite Massacre, Horus Horus would first unleash the Night Lords.
sever itself from the curse of its Primarch. had set them to the tasks he had woven for Those worlds that had once bent the knee
This was not the end that they stumbled the Emperor's demise. For the Night Lords, to the Night Haunter, before his sudden
ever closer too, that the Night Haunter the Warmaster set the task ofrunning at the departure from Imperium space in the
had seen in a thousand cursed dreams, forefront ofhis host, inciting fear and unrest years after Cheraut and the destruction
but merely a foretaste of the horror that among those worlds yet undecided in their ofNostramo, would once again face the
was to come. For despite the grim fervour loyalties. By the point of the Night Lords' judgement ofthe Night Haunter. Consisting
with which they struggled, the Night skinhing knives Horus would show these ofnearly a hundred inhabited systems, many
Lords sought the wrong foes for their rage, worlds the cost ofhis animosity, and to those including long-established and heavily
choosing to blame a corruption they saw who chose to bend the knee before him, he populated hive worlds, the Nostramo
within their own ranks as though it had would grant his protection and a relieffrom sector remained a valuable recruiting and
been brought to them from the outside. the predations ofhis servants. manufacturing hub for the Traitor forces,
Instead, the curse they sought to end had even after the destruction of its capital
ever lived at the heart of the Legion, a As the harbingers of the Traitors and the world. Here could be found in abundance
blight that had festered in the place that emissaries of Horus' Dark Compliance, desperate and bitter souls to take up arms in
it had been set by the Emperor's own the Night Lords would usher dozens the name of the Warmaster and prosecute
hand, in aid of plans incomprehensible of systems into the growing empire of his wars against a distant Terra that had long
to the minds of mere mortals - the Night Horus, each cowed by the knowledge of dictated their trials and misfortunes, and
Haunter himself. the horrors that had befallen those who whose labour could be swiftly turned to the
refused. Within the space of a few short service of Horus' growing hosts. In form it
Afflicted by the curse of seeing but a months most of the northern reaches was perfectly suited to the rebels and ripe
fragment of the foresight that guided was under the Traitors' control, a stable for the taking, owing as it did little fealty or
his gene-father, Konrad Curze had seen base from which Horus could prepare his allegiance to any Loyalist faction or warlord,
the grim possibility that waited for him assault on the Imperium's heart and one the Night Haunter, seen from without, the
and his sons on the far side of the Horus that could not function with a blight like perfect tool for its conquest. This would be
Heresy. Once he had sought to fight that the Night Lords running rampant within a rare error in judgement by Horus, for the
possibility, to struggle against the future its borders. For in every minor drop in Night Haunter would prove ill suited to the
hoping that his dark dreams would clear, production and each misfortune that befell task he was assigned.
that the blood he shed and the lives he the newly-conquered worlds, the Night
had claimed would be enough to shift the Haunter saw the most dire of treacheries Long had the worlds that surrounded
path of the future ever so slightly. That and meted out the only punishment he now-dead Nostramo suffered under the
the dreams that had haunted his mind, the knew: death in its most terrible form. Such rule of the Night Haunter. His stringent
visions of a dark and terrible future would a scourge soon proved more damaging to and unforgiving code oflaw had enforced
clear and be replaced, that he might find the amassing of munitions and arms than a dreary life of suffering and toil upon
a place in the empire his father sought to it was beneficial to the enforced loyalty of those who served him, with any infraction,
build among the stars. Yet even after Horus the conquered. no matter how insignificant, punished by
shattered the course of the Emperor's plans maiming or death. While it had maintained
and remade the future ofthe Imperium That which had begun on Terra as a force a brutal form of order, it had done so by
itself, his vision remained constant and that shaped cruelty into a tool had become in means of a fear so ingrained that it had
unchanging, a curse that he came to some cases little more than an undisciplined begun to eat away at the souls of those who
believe was inevitable and immovable. That mob that saw cruelty as the goal and not the dwelt under its burden, the suppressed sins
all the struggle and death had been in vain, means. It was no longer the precise weapon of its people a threat overlooked by their
that it had meant nothing worked on the that the Legions had been envisioned to be, old masters. With the Night Haunter's
mind ofthe Primarch in a manner more
catastrophic than the cut of any blade, a

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z:c:: ..JE.. _.,..._

absence during the final years of the Great The syndicates that rose up to take the Blood Moon syndicate gathered on the
Crusade this threat would come to the control would have proved just as capable isolated world of Kehdure IV to pledge their
fore, with many of the worlds of that far offulfilling Horus' needs as any more loyalty to Konrad Curze, expecting only to
sector overthrowing the tyrannical regimes legitimate government, but to the Night cede some measure oftheir wealth to his
forced upon them by the Night Lords and Haunter they were an affront to all he stood new rebellion, confident he would not wish
reverting to the anarchic ways oftheir past. for, a blight upon the realm he had killed their territories plunged into chaos when
Corrupt syndicates and brutal gangs took so many to establish. Where others among they could offer a ready bounty of men and
control of cities and worlds, indulging in the Traitors' ranks might have accepted munitions. Instead, they would find the
all that Konrad Curze had forbidden and the allegiance of the new overlords ofthe Night Haunter descending upon them with
bringing a more chaotic terror to the weak sector, co-opting their strength to serve the the sole intent of ending their lives, without
that dwelt on those benighted worlds. Warmaster, the Night Haunter sought a regard as to what tribute he might otherwise
path of his own. As the Night Lords' main reap by accepting their pledge, and leaving
fleet arrived in the sector, the Syndarchs of Kehdure IV a broken and bloodied world,
its few inhabitants little more than collateral
damage to the slaughter.

This would set the pattern for Konrad
Curze's return to his adopted home, with
even those worlds that had remained largely
true to his draconian laws suffering a blight
ofgruesome punishments to ensure their
loyalty. While the other Traitor Legions
busied themselves with the initial assaults
on the warp channels leading to distant
Terra, and Paramar and Karadoc now vast
battlefields for the warlords fighting over the
Imperium's corpse, the Night Lords set about
a private war. For the return ofthe Night
Haunter was far more than the prosecution
ofthe Warmaster's conquest, but also a piece
ofa vision that the Night Haunter had long
dreaded, the next step on a path that had
begun when Horus raised his banner at
Isstvan. In the descent ofNostramo and its
neighbours into madness and debauchery,
and the setting ofbrother against brother,
he saw the beginnings of his own demise
and the eternal damnation of his Legion. It
was a fate he still fought to deny, though his
methods were ever more led by desperation
before cunning, and he loosed the warriors
of his Legion to eradicate all signs ofthat
possibility, to wipe clean the stain ofperfidy
with blood and perhaps turn the course of
fate itself.

The Price ofInfamy
Had perhaps his tools been more finely
forged, his own will more honed and less
brittle then such desperate measures might
have succeeded, but the Night Lords were
no longer that which they had once been.
The decay ofthe Nostramo sector had run
far deeper and for far longer than many
had guessed, its tendrils spread not only
among the worlds that were pledged to
the Night Lords, but into the very Legion
itself Long had it been the custom ofthe
Night Lords to take their recruits from
but a small swathe of worlds, mostly those
being in close proximity to Nostramo, and
as those worlds had turned rotten so too had

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'I

NIGHT LORDS REAVER LEGIONARY

LEGIONARY YERIAC GNAR .6
THRAMAS CRUSADE
44lH REAVER BATIAllON, 431D CHAl'I'ER
Legionary Gnar was attached to the forces that
ravaged the Thramas sector in the early stages of
the Thramas Crusade, one among the thousands
given orders to reap a toll ofblood and carnage
upon those worlds that had fallen into the
possession ofthe Vlllth Legion. This was no
careful campaign offear, enacted to force those
stubborn Loyalist strongholds that remained to
bow the knee before the Night Haunter, but one
whose sole aim was slaughter and the building
ofpetty kingdoms among the ruins ofthe failing
Imperium. Marked by the Cross of Bone, as seen
on Gnar's left vambrace, these reaver battalions
followed the lead ofNight Lords warlords such as
Nakrid Thole and Cel Herec in taking what they
deemed their deserved share ofthe Imperium's
wealth and eschewed the aims and wishes of
Primarch and Warmaster.

These powerful warlords, whose influence had
grown within the Legion as the Night Haunter's
madness had swelled, gathered to themselves
the pick ofthose resources available to the Night
Lords. A prime example is the advanced MkVI
battle plate worn by Legionary Gnar, ofwhich
the Legiones Astartes had received but a few
scattered shipments before the Horus Heresy
had put an end to the supply lines that had once
served them. Of all the Legions, the Night Lords
had received relatively few such shipments, and
armour ofthis mark was largely limited to the 9th,
14th, 27th, and 43rd Chapters - all ofwhich bore the
mark ofthe Cross of Bone.

. - •'

... •·

The standard Legion emblem in use by the Night Lords Molecular bonding studs were a common armouring technique
at the beginning ofthe Thramas Crusade. used to strengthen Space Marine battle plate in the face ofthe ever
more deadly battlefields which were endured by the warriors ofthe

Legiones Astartes.

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the youths sent to meet the Legion's tithe. plied their blades. It would be the lowest Those of the Night Lords that remembered
Though they made able killers, they had not dregs of this society that went to fill the ranks the old ways fought on with the skill and
the discipline and commitment to the cause of the Night Lords, those for whom strength pragmatic valour that had carried them
of the Great Crusade that had marked the and power were measured in the fear of those through the Great Crusade, but found their
early Legions, with many companies now around them. efforts to re-establish the fiefdom that they
filled entirely with such warriors, often to had once ruled stymied by the Legion's more
the chagrin ofveteran Terran companies. Loosed by their master, the nature of the zealous recruits. Both those ofTerran birth
These would be the tools by which Konrad Night Lords was made clear by their actions, and the elder Nostraman recruits found
Curze attempted to cut away the infection for given leave by the Night Haunter to hunt themselves further and further from the
that had gripped his small empire. as they willed, they took to the worlds of the counsel of the Night Haunter, whose visions
Nostramo sector not as a disciplined whole, spurred him to greater efforts ofbloody
These new Night Lords had been forged but as a throng of scattered warbands and retribution and gave the more vicious of
in the corrupt regimes that had gripped raiding hosts. They bore little resemblance his new sons greater influence over him.
Nostramo and its neighbours, much to the ordered ranks of the old VIII'h Legion, That the efforts of the veterans, measured
different from the grim hardship that had nor even to the savage but focused bands of but still bloody, brought the Legion more
moulded the Night Haunter and the gangs the Raven Guard or White Scars who fought reward than the frenzied bloodletting of
of Old Nostramo. These warriors paid in their own style, but rather as a gleeful mob their juniors seemed unimportant to the
little heed to the codes that had guided of killers. They did not lack in skill at arms, Primarch, whose dreams grew darker as
those brutal fighters, given instead to the and where they met resistance it crumbled Horus' rebellion itselfgained in power and
wanton application ofbloody violence - the before their prowess with blade and gun, but worlds all across the Imperium plunged into
supremacy ofthe strong over the weak in in restraint they were sorely wanting. Few war and darkness. He began to listen less and
all things. Where once the Night Haunter worlds escaped the scourge of their brutal less to the old veterans ofthe Great Crusade,
had taught his people that all actions must proclivities, with the greater part of them those warriors whose efforts had so far failed
have their consequences, that blood must more concerned with the red spectacle of to avert the disaster he foresaw, and instead
be repaid in blood, that creed had been their raids than the order they were intended began to heed the counsel of his newer
corrupted so that those with the strength to to enforce. Fear was the weapon they had officers. Both groups saw in the other a threat
seize power could do as they pleased. This been schooled in by their master, and it was to that which to them made the Legion
was true of the rich and poor alike, with one they wielded with abandon, one they strong and, as the fleet marshalled for the
some showing their strength in the riches by plied until it cloaked the worlds about the assault on the Thramas sector, they set plans
which they bought and sold those beneath corpse ofNostramo like a shroud. Yet, such for a different campaign.
them and others by the skill with which they was the terror they engendered that though
none that felt their lash dared to transgress
the laws ofCurze, few remained able to fulfil
the new tithes Horus demanded of him.

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c'''" -- e _> cc cc c .

•I

A Cross of Bone, A Hand of Blood They sought to carve out a kingdom of their Foremost among these veterans stood the ..I.~''t
Though seen by history as the battlefield own in Horus' new dominion, a realm where warrior Sevatar, though he himselfdisdained
that would pit the Night Lords against the they could rule as befitted the warriors of such politics, he served as the icon ofthose that ~·j··s~~ .
Dark Angels,Thramas would also be the field the Night Lords and cared little for the fuught to empower their Priman:h. In honour
upon which another battle would be fought, often obscure goals ofthe Night Haunter. ofhis devotion to Curze the symbol ofthe red .t
a battle for the soul of Konrad Curze himself Nakrid Thole stood as a prominent member gauntlet which he bore, a death-mark in the
Lost among the grand battles and terrible ofthis faction, recruited from the hive cities old Nostraman code, became the symbol of
slaughters that formed the backdrop ofthe ofNostramo in its final years and schooled those pledged to the Primarch's side. It was an
assault on the Thramas Sector, the Night in war by the gang strife ofhis youth and irony not lost on the Nostraman warriors of
Lords underwent their own quiet rebellion. the brutal purges of the Great Crusade's both factions that it was a mark ofdishonour
The two faces of the Legion fought a sullen later campaigns. To him and those like him, that stood for what some might interpret as
fratricidal struggle for control oftheir Curze was a distant figure, one enamoured of the Loyalist faction within the Legion. Sevatar
Legion and its Primarch. There were those strange oracles and premonitions who kept himselfworked tirelessly throughout the
that yearned for the glory days·when the them on a short leash. Were he to be kept campaigns in both Nostramo and Thramas to
Night Lords stood among the legends ofthe away from the battlefield, left to obsess over support the goals ofhis Primarch in war and to
Imperium, a military force to be reckoned his dreams and regrets then the warriors strengthen the resolve ofthe Night Haunter
with, and those who sought only the bloody of the Night Lords could slip the leash and himsel£ He would commit more than his share
mandate to pillage and kill in the wild stars run wild across the stars. Thole and his ofslaughters, but each for a purpose other
at the edge of Imperium space. Horus had allies saw a galaxy ripe for the plucking, one than his own bloodlust, each for the glory of
offered them freedom in his rebellion and where those joined to the cause of Horus his Legion and the needs ofhis Priman:h. Yet,
therein lay the heart oftheir tragedy, for in could take what had been denied them in Sevatar cared not for the machinations ofothers
freedom they had found only despair, both the Great Crusade. No longer would it be within the Legion, and fought his own battles
in the decline oftheir Primarch and in the the Ultramarines and Imperial Fists, the without heed for those who would be his allies.
decline oftheir Legion. favourites ofthe Emperor, who would reap Others acted as leaders for the faction. Anrek
the rewards of the long war for the galaxy, but
Those among the Night Lords that sought to those who had once been forced to skulk in Barbatos ofthe Priman:h's guard was one, for
fully grasp this new freedom Horus offered the shadows of the Emperor's great plan.
them were mostly those recruits taken in his dedication to the Night Haunter was legend
from the corrupted worlds about Nostramo, In opposition to them were the veterans ofthe within the Legion, and others too among the
though they presented the least unified old VIIIrh Legion, both Terran and Nostraman, captains and praetors, these warriors would
front. A collectionofdisparate warlords and as well as those newer recruits who saw in their coordinate the secret war fought between the
warbands, they were united by a desire to kill Primarch something more than an omen- Night Lords.
and reave as they chose, without regard for
the Great Crusade or the desires ofdistant watcher and madman. They were still pledged This hidden war was not to be fought directly.
generals. They sought to return to their There would be no pitting Night Lord
origins, to re-imagine the Legion in the form to the rebellion Horus had begun, determined against Night Lord in open battle, no grand
ofNostramo's ancient syndicates and street to see the overthrow ofthe Emperor, but confrontation that would settle the issue.
gangs, but with the power to control worlds they retained the spark ofhonour that had Instead it was fought with sharp knives and
instead of hive-blocks. They took the symbol once been at the heart ofboth the Legion and bitter words, warriors brought low in honour
ofa cross ofbone, its form varying between the ancient gangs ofNostramo. A harsh and duels and battlefield incidents or disgraced
individual warbands, a mark derived from the unforgiving code that guided their actions, they in council and isolated from the Priman:h.
traditions ofworlds across that dark sector killed in a manner that the other Legions found Even as they fought to control the worlds of
that had long stood for a conflict whose end brutal and distasteful, but it served a purpose, the Tithe Road at the outskirts ofthe Thramas
could only be found in death. It was a signal it was not random slaughter but a necessary system they fought with each other, with
ofboth their intent and their goal, to those duty. In the Primarch these warriors saw the commanders struck down over the right to
who opposed them it promised a grisly end pinnacle ofthis tradition, a warrior willing lead invasions and others castigated for their
and to the Legion at large it offered a path to sacrifice the appearance ofhonour for the failures in battle and exiled from the Primarch's
that would allow them to fully exploit the fulfilment ofduty, the one who had carved the side. As they pushed further into the Thramas
gifts they had been given. code they followed into the very soul ofthose sector the battles would only intensify, both
that lived among the worlds ofthe Nostramo on and offthe battlefield, with Thole able to
sector. They sought to stand amongst the other further leverage the death-tolls ofboth his
Legions with pride, no longer the Emperor's own and his subordinates to claim ever more
butchers or hidden knives, but at the forefront influence over the Priman:h. Brash words and
ofa new regime for all to see. They needed bloody triumphs served to grant those that
a strong Primarch, one that could guide the fought under the Cross ofBone the influence
Legion and see them to their rightful position they required to drown out their opponents,
in Horus' new empire. whose champions could do little to stem the
tide offervour that took hold ofthe rank and
file ofthe Night Lords. It seemed that what
little remained ofthe VIIJ!h Legion that had left
Terra nearly two centuries before had been all
but completely suppressed

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A Decline Long Foreseen he had hoped that in sharing his visions he fleet assembled to depart the Eastern Fringe
Even as his Legion fought for his attention, might find answers,perhaps he sought to and rerurn to the heart ofthe war in the
struggled to save or to damn him, Konrad warn his brother ofthe horrors yet to come, Segmenrum Solar. The Night Lords would
Curze rumed his face from his sons and lapsed perhaps he even hoped that the Lion would be free ofthe Nostramo sector, the burden
into afugue that only exacerbated the conflict. kill him, that he might escape the fate that ofguilt for their home world's destruction
Long had he battled against the dire future he haunted him in that simple fashion. Whatever and the enforcement ofthe Night Haunter's
had foreseen with that cursed fragment ofhis the intentions ofthe Night Haunter, he would failed regime. They would fight once more as
father's gift that had passed to him. In his youth leave the battlefield bloodied and no more sane a true Legion, wild conquerors and not bored
he had imposed order with the blood ofthe than when he had gone forth. It was a pattern wardens, and the fury ofopen battle would
wicked, under the guidance ofthe Emperor and that would be repeated at Sheol, where once cleanse them ofthe taint that had taken hold
his brothers. He had tried to tame his gift and again Konrad Curze would throw himselfat ofthe Legion. This was Sevatar's final plan and
see past the terrors it showed him, and as he his brother and force the most loyal ofhis sons the resolve ofthose that had aligned themselves
fought for Horus he tried to drown the visions to sacrifice themselves so that his broken but with him, to free both Legion and Prim.arch
in death. None had worked, whatever methods still-breathing form could be recovered. Even from the slow degeneration that plagued them.
the Night Haunter employed,his nighnnares as little more than acomatose and insensate
remained unchanged and inescapable. Its first burden, the Primarch remained at the centre Yet it was not to be. Even as the surviving ships
signs had already come to pass: corruption had ofhis Legion's struggle.Those that had fought ofthe Night Lords gathered,their commanders
taken root in his cities despite all the blood to free the Legion blamed him for their dire convinced by the power ofSevatar's arguments
shed to chain them in fear, and as he had once siruation, while those that sought to rerum both or by the blades ofhis allies to join their
tried to warn his brothers, the Imperium had the Legion and Primarch to glory struggled to warriors to this new plan, the two nemeses that
fallen into civil war. To the narrow glimpse preserve him in the face ofhis failure. had plagued them since their arrival in Thramas
ofthe future that the Night Haunter could intervened once more. The Dark Angels were
perceive,what was to follow seemed inevitable, The Butcher's Bill the first, an incarnation ofthe Emperor's wrath
10,000 years ofblood and death that would Despite the apparent failure ofthe Night given terrible form and power that could not be
continue long after his own doom. Haunter's plans, it would be his actions that matched in open battle. The black ships oftheir
finally tipped the balance ofpower within fleet poured forth from the Warp, the blasts of
With the failure ofhis attempts in Nostramo the Legion to those ofhis sons that sought to their weapons a penance for the hubris ofthe
and the initial stages ofthe Thramas Campaign free him from his visions. For in giving the Night Lords and the sins they had committed,
to counter the fate he foresaw,Konrad Curze more headstrong portions ofhis Legion their cutting a path through the remnants ofthe
withdrew from the fighting and secluded freedom he had allowed them to overextend Night Haunter's fleet. This alone could not
himselfin the half.finished fortress on their forces and commit themselves to a series have ended the Night Lords' hopes ofsalvation,
Tsagualsa. There he would spend much ofthe ofbattles that were now beyond their means the Lion and his sons could wound them,
war imprisoned in a cage ofhis own despair, to finish - they were caught in the trap of wound them gravely, but not kill them before
giving vent to his frustration in a series ofever their own hubris. In the final months ofthe they could escape and begin the path back to
more deranged and violent displays, enough Thramas Campaign,many ofthose that bore glory. It would be the second nemesis, by far
even to disquiet the Night Lords.The Primarch the Cross ofBone were cut down, Nakrid the most deadly ofthe two, that would seal their
wallowed for a time in despondency,raged at Thole falling at Thramas,Vaeduc the Maimed fate,a threat that they could never truly be free
the futility ofhis struggle and etched his pain at Sheol and Malithos and Cel Herec at the 0£ Even as the ships ofthe Night Lords fleet
onto the hides ofthose unfortunate prisoners hands ofSevatar and his Atramentar. With closed on the pre-set warp translation point
dragged to his lair. In his absence,Thole and his their deaths, the more loyal sons ofCurze that would take them to Horus' side, the Night
disciples threw the Night Lords into combat finally took control ofthe Legion, with Sevatar Haunter stirred from his torpor.
across the sector, the count ofdead foes deemed assembling a new inner council, the Kyroptera
ofmore import than the strategic worth oftheir ofthe Night Lords,filled with warriors he Unable to ignore the orders oftheir gene-father
gains. For as the Primarch shied further away counted as loyal to his cause and the Legion's and unwilling to abandon him to the mercies
from his duties as overlord ofthe Night Lords, survival This new council would lead while ofthe Loyalists,many among the Legion
the more power he ceded to Nakrid Thole the Prim.arch languished at the edge ofdeath, joined a last suicidal assault into the teeth of
and those like him. Sevatar and those others setting a more pragmatic course than those the Dark Angels. Perhaps a last attempt by the
ofthe Primarch's inner circle were tied to his that had taken the reins for the majority ofthe Night Haunter to find death at the hands ofhis
side, unable to take to the vanguard ofthe war Thramas Campaign. brother and avoid the dire fate he foresaw, or
while he languished in his fugue, waiting for nothing more than a last spiteful dart thrown
new orders and pleading for the Night Haunter True to its desire to rerurn the Legion to its at his enemies, the attack had no chance of
to abandon his doldrums and take once again former glory,the new Kyroptera commanded stopping or delaying the Dark Angels. Instead,
to battle. its warriors to take the shattered remains of it sundered what little ofthe Night Lords that
the Legion to Horus' side, that they might had survived. Those that managed to fight
Their efforts to stir the Primarch would bear fight in the manner oftrue warriors and cease free ofthe battle disappeared into the Warp
bitter fruit,raising him to action for the brief skulking in the shadows ofthe grand rebellion almost at random,scattered across the galaxy
confrontation with the Lion on Tsagualsa. No that had overtaken the Imperium. Thrunas and unable to reform the Legion as it once
living creature now knows what Curze hoped and the strange madness it had inflicted upon was,while those who rumed back to fight at
to gain from that battle,for in single combat the Primarch were abandoned, his attempts the bidding oftheir cursed master were all but
there were few among the Primarchs that could to thwart fate set aside as he lay wounded, annihilated.
match Lion ElJonson blade to blade. Perhaps and the ragged remnants ofthe Night Lords

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All ofthe death that had been wrought to Konrad Cun.e's nightmares given form at last, Dark Angels flagship was the knowledge that
restore the Night Lords, all ofthe hardships but one step away from the oblivion ofeternal it was he himselfthat had brought the curse
that had been endured by its warriors, had damnation that awaited them, but one step to fruition. Here would be the end of Konrad
been in vain,thwarted by the actions ofthe away from the Night Haunter's death at the Cune, the last remnants ofthe Emperor's
Night Haunter.They had become a poison order ofhis father in a future he had hoped troubled son subsumed by the darkness that
spread across the Imperium, sowing chaos never to see.The last bitter sting ofthe lash, had come to control him. All that would remain
and death wherever the scattered warbands the last howl ofdespair that haunted Konrad was the Night Haunter and death.
had been deposited. It was the next stage of Cune as he went into exile trapped aboard the

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Another Custodes Libris share. Buy the stuff if you like it!

Once, the Legio Victorum was counted the arrival of the Great Crusade, for such of the Great Crusade and maintain I,
amongst the largest and most powerful of was the vast size and power of the armada its position as chief among the Forge
the many Titan Legions to be found within that came to the Eastern Fringe that, for the Worlds of the Imperium, working in the
the Imperium. It consisted not of a single first time, the Legio Victorum was humbled. Imperial Court to keep the majority of
body, but of three linked Legios set within It was but one among many legions of the Legio Victorum absent from the vast
the Triplex system where three separate Titans bound to hundreds of Forge Worlds, war that was being fought to establish
Forge Worlds provided for its arms and no longer unchallenged in its power or a new galactic empire. The Foe Slayers
support. Each of these three shards ofthe limitless in its reach. Not only that, but with would spend the latter years of the Great
Legio Victorum forged a legacy of its own, access to the wider Imperium also came the Crusade as a purely defensive force,
first as a brotherhood at the birth of the subtle division of the three Forge Worlds fighting to suppress the sporadic raids
Imperium and then as rivals in the final ofTriplex, with Galatia no longer the only of xenos swarms and futile rebellions
days of the Great Crusade. That rivalry arbiter of their future. among those worlds that resented the
would be their undoing and, in the Age Imperium's control. Ironically, the Foe
of Darkness that sat at the Horus Heresy's The Legio Victorum II would bind its fate Slayers would become expert at operating
heart, the Legio Victorum would tear itself to that of the Warmaster and the Imperium in urban environments without causing
apart, to survive only as a single broken as part of the Great Crusade, taking its ruinous collateral damage, mastering a
fragment of a once-proud Titan Legion. strength to the distant stars in the name restraint that had been alien to it in its
of the Emperor. There it would perfect early years when it had run rampant across
The Legio's origins lie in th~ long dark the skills of planetary assault and the the stars. Its hallmark was the employment
years ofthe Age of Strife - the first Legio deployment of overwhelming firepower, of headhunting tactics, identifying and
Victorum built for its parent forge a a tactic it favoured above all others and destroying the leaders of any foe that
petty empire by the strength of its guns, one for which it was well-suited. Outfitted the remainder might quit the field and
subjugating those isolated pockets of by the wealth ofTriplex and the spoils of leave the battlefield intact. As such its
humanity it came across and annihilating the Great Crusade, the Foe Hammers was moderati were among the foremost experts
the xenos marauders that infested that far composed almost entirely of Battle Titans, in target tracking and identification,
region of space. It earned the epithet 'Foe with the Nemesis-Warbringer being held and fearsome marksmen with volcano
Slayers' by the count of the dead left in its in particular favour by its princeps for its cannon and photon lances. Yet, with the
wake, for Galatia and its new-born domain ability as a siege Titan. When it took to the sporadic nature of its engagements, much
lay at the very edge of the galaxy where field it was a phalanx of steel and cannon, unlike the constant warfare endured by
the enemies of Mankind were beyond with little pretence at any subtlety or the Foe Hammers at Horus' side, the Foe
count and each passing day of its existence finesse in its assault but only a rolling wall Slayers lacked in the tight discipline of
was bought in the blood of the victors · of explosions and death. The Warmaster its cousins. It was common amongst the
and the foe's dead. In those grim years the called upon it only when a foe was to be Titan Legion for its princeps to feud and
first Legio Victorum became a master of utterly destroyed, their cities reduced to intrigue amongst themselves, most often
defensive engagements, the unbroken wall ashes and armies scattered, and for a time seeking the most beneficial postings and
that protected the empire of Galatia and it held a rivalry with the Legio Mortis, who most prestigious Titans to command, and
kept the flow of resources to the forges were also a tool he favoured for such brutal in addition to their skills at war, many
steady. Years passed and Galatia grew rich work. Yet, the Legio Victorum, though it were accomplished duellists with pistol
and bloated, one forge became two and then relished the glory ofbattle, could not match and sabre. Despite this slow descent into
three as Phall and Thule were founded, the vicious spite with which the princeps decadence, the Titan Legion and the Forge
and the Legio Victorum, its ranks swelled of the Legio Mortis made war. For where World that maintained it held a reputation
with new war engines, split as well. The the Death's Heads fought for the simple joy as stalwart supporters of the Imperium, a
Legio Victorum II stood sentinel over Phall, ofslaughter, counting victory only in the front they worked hard to promulgate as
formed of the most veteran of the old Titan corpses crushed beneath its armoured feet, Galatia schemed for its return to glory.
Legion's princeps and built around the the Foe Hammers saw battle as a means to
Apocalypse class Titan Apex Maxis, while the gain renown and accolades, a dirty task to The oft-forgotten Legio Victorum III
Legio Victorum III warded Thule, its ranks be resolved with haste and a finality that languished in obscurity for much of these
filled by the most orthodox and militant of brooked no caution in its prosecution. Each last years of optimism and conquest. It
the tech-adepts ofTriplex. battle was another means for it to erase the was barred from the ranks of the Great
memory of those years when it had been Crusade by the schemes of both Mars,
Galatia stood unchallenged as the prime little more than servants of Galatia and the which considered it a lackey of Galatia,
power ofthe Triplex system, and the Legio Legio Victorum I, a weakness that Horus and Galatia itself which feared the rise
Victorum I the greatest military force in the used to bind it closely to his service. By of another rival like Phall. Lacking the
Eastern Fringe. Those nearby worlds that means of victory parades and lavish praise numbers of its cousin Legio and the
holdings and wealth of the other two
could still be reached through the turbulent he bound the Foe Hammers to him, the Apex Forge Worlds, the Foe Breakers saw action
as dedicated raiders and recon-in-force
aetheric seas of the Eastern Fringe were Maxis a common sight among his vanguard. experts, spearheading the attempts of
unable to rival its influence, for Gulgorahd's Thule to hinder the operations of its many
Titans lacked the numbers of the Legio By contrast Legio Victorum I, the Foe rivals and to claim new territory in the
Victorum and Thramas had not the Slayers, who had once carved an empire wild space beyond the Imperium's borders.
firepower to contend with such omnipotent from the wild space about Triplex, In the dark void the Legio Victorum III
~ar machines as the mighty engines of the remained in the Eastern Fringe. Distant
Mechanicum. This dominance lasted until Mars was keen to keep it from the riches

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operated alone and without support, for Legio Victorum II that had surrendered to The Legio Victorum III would be destroyed
it was no official Expeditionary fleet of the Dark Angels and took a savage delight prior to the start of the Thramas Crusade,
the Great Crusade, and the princeps of in ordering them into the harshest of set upon by the massed forces ofthe Legio
its light scout Titans learned by necessity battles. By order of the Lion, the great Apex Victorum II which had returned from
the brutal tactics ofinfantry suppression, Maxis was given over to the Foe Breakers, the Great Crusade with Horus' blessing
while the few Reavers and Warlords in who renamed it the Somnus Perpetua and to prepare Triplex for the coming war.
its ranks were forced to operate against incorporated the salvaged neural core of the Overmatched and outnumbered, the Foe
enemy Titan-class war engines without fallen Reaver into its chassis. Breakers were all but annihilated in a battle
the advantage of numbers. Common of such bitter fury that the victors captured
practise amongst the Foe Breakers was Material Strength none ofthe defending war engines intact,
for the larger Reavers to lure enemy war Taken collectively, the Legio Victorum each ofthe Foe Breakers' princeps fighting
engines into disadvantageous ground would be recorded as one of the largest on so long as one oftheir weapons still drew

where packs of Warhound-class machines Titan Legions in the Imperium by the power. In at least one occurrence recorded
could ambush and harry them. From these waning years of the Great Crusade, with by the augur logs of a Foe Slayers Titan, a Foe
arduous conflicts a few princeps earned almost 200 engines ofvarying classes in Breakers Warhound, reduced to little more
a reputation for the grim determination its order of battle. However, the Legio was than a shambling ruin by volcano cannon
they displayed in combat, the Reaver-class far from a unified whole, and individually 'fire, continued to fight by ramming enemy
Somnus Etema proving the most enduring its various branches varied widely in their Titans to hold them in place for artillery
of these legends after standing its ground capabilities and arsenals. By far the most bombardments to topple them. Only three
against three Eldar Titan-class engines powerful was the Legio Victorum II, the Foe maniples ofthe Foe Breakers are known
for 19 long minutes before the arrival Hammers, whose long service during the to have survived, these being stationed on
of reinforcements. By the time seven Great Crusade had brought with it the spoils isolated posts across the sector, including a
Warhounds of the Legio struck the rear of of a galaxy and the favour of the Warmaster single group on the distant world ofThramas.

the enemy formation, the Somnus Etema himself. In total, the Legio Victorum II

had been reduced to a shambling ruin could field perhaps a little more than a The Legio Victorum II would suffer a

with a single operable weapon arm, but hundred Titans, most of the Warlord class similar fate not long after when the Dark

it continued to fight until the last enemy and a few of the far rarer Apocalypse class Angels assaulted Triplex. As a fighting force

machine was pulled down. Titans, and their princeps held by far the it would largely cease to exist, with a few

most battle honours and kill-markers. engines taken as spoils by the First Legion

It was a legend that would see a tragic repeat and scattered maniples stranded in garrison

only a few years later. For, after its return By contrast, the Legio Victorum I had posts across the Triplex Sector. These last

from the Great Crusade at the command control of only a slightly lesser count of war few outcast princeps would either die at

of Horus Lupercal, the Legio Victorum II machines, mostly Warlord and Warbringer their posts in doomed last stands or join

would bring a new strife to Thule, landing class engines, but its warriors could not one of the other renegade Legios operating

nearly its full strength to pacify that fiercely match the veterans of the Foe Hammers within the Eastern Fringe, and in time would
Loyalist outpost and prove its loyalty to the in experience. Confined to the marches of
be absorbed into those hosts. The Legio

approaching Night Lords. Once again the the Triplex Sector, the Foe Slayers had been Victorum I suffered a less total loss, losing

Somnus Etema met an enemy superior in limited to defensive operations in protection perhaps a third in combat with the Dark

numbers, holding the primary gate of the of Galatia's numerous fiefdoms and outposts, Angels and surrendering the bulk of the

Thulian forge-fanes alone against a maniple and though far from inexperienced, it had survivors to the Loyalists after the destruction

of the Foe Hammers' finest. After 19 not witnessed the crucible of the Great of Galatia. While several demi-Legio forces

minutes it had once again been reduced to a Crusade as had the Legio Victorum II. stationed outside ofTriplex remained at large

shattered hulk, but this time no allies were and fought for the Traitors for the rest of the

to come to its aid for it had bought precious The Legio Victorum III lacked the numbers campaign, the bulk ofthe Foe Hammers was

time for the fleet Warhounds to disperse of either of the larger Titan Legions, attached to the Dark Angels fleet and made

across the world ofThule where they would mustering less than half the total war war at the Lion's orders, their pledge given in

continue a bitter and prolonged resistance engines of either of its two siblings, and exchange for Phall's safety.

for several weeks more. Brought to the end these were mostly lighter, faster machines of

of its endurance, the Somnus Etema caught the Reaver and Warhound classes. However, In the wake ofThramas, the Foe Breakers

the Foe Hammer Warlord-class Titan Glory the Foe Breakers had long been experts at would stay with the Dark Angels, fighting at

of Phall in a final embrace before detonating sudden raids and hit and run warfare, their the forefront ofthe First Legion's later battles

its atomantic core and destroying both few princeps skilled at making the most of to atone for the sins oftheir home world. In

Titans. It was upon the wreck of the Somnus the capabilities of their war machines. In the last years ofthe Great Crusade, the few

Etema that the last ragged survivors of the terms of transport craft and the vast drop- Titans of the extant Legio Victorum fighting

Legio Victorum III would pledge their vaults required to deploy war machines for the Loyalist cause would be consolidated

loyalty to the Lion when the Dark Angels of the sheer size ofa Titan into battle, the into a single Legio, bearing the heraldry

liberated the system of Triplex, though Legio Victorum II maintained a large and ofthe now defunct Legio Victorum I, but

fewer than nine Titans of the lightest well-equipped fleet as befitted its role in the the epithet ofthe Legio Victorum II. These

classes had managed to shelter in the harsh Great Crusade, while the lesser Titan Legion reborn Foe Slayers would take to their new

wilderness ofThule to see their salvation. ofVictorum III held claim to only a small loyalty with a vicious determination, hunting

These veterans would act as the Lion's number of such craft and as such was far less down and slaughtering those of their Legio

proxies in control of those elements of the strategically mobile. that had fallen into chaos and madness.

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'I

LEGIO VICTORUM I WARBRINGER NEMESIS TITAN

SAGAX!.ANIO

The Sagax Lanio was one ofa number of the Legio Victorum I's Battle Titans that was not present in Triplex during the Dark

Angels' onslaught, instead seconded to the Night Lords' elements engaged in the Siege ofThramas. It remained as part of the

Traitors' order ofbattle for the remainder of the Thramas Crusade, fighting with bitter fury against those ofits own Legio that had

turned their colours to fight at the behest of the Lion, and eventually followed the Night Lords into exile at the end ofthe crusade.

The last known sighting ofthe Sagax Lanio would be at the walls ofthe Imperial Palace on Terra, though it appeared to have

undergone some malign transformation during its exile, little resembling the clean lines and proud heraldry ofits former glory

days when it fought under the banner of the Emperor.

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CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW THETHRAMASCAMPAIGN THEARMrns

The campaign presented over the following the crusade. Generally, you should aim for an In each Campaign Tum, players will play
section allows players to recreate the battles
ofthe Thramas Crusade through a series equal number ofplayers on each side as it will games ofThe Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness
ofgames ofThe Horus Heresy: Age of be easier to arrange games, but ifthis cannot using armies drawn from the most recent
Darkness, with one side representing those versions ofThe Horus Heresy: Age of
who were dispatched to secure the Eastern be achieved, it simply means that some players Darkness army lists. Ideally, these should
Fringe for the Wannaster, and the other may have to play more games during the reflect the forces present in Thramas during
side representing those who srill swear their course ofthe campaign. It is worth noting that the crusade, such as the Night Lords, Dark
loyalty to the Emperor of Mankind. While Angels, Solar Auxilia, Mechanicum, etc.
not intended to exhaustively chart the exact campaigns involving more players will require However, it is not required that the players
course ofthe historical Thramas Crusade
and the many hundreds ofbattles that it a greater amount ofterrain, gaming space and follow the historical path so closely, ifthe
player dedication to bring the campaign to a
was composed of, this campaign will allow satisfactory conclusion. players wish then forces ofany faction may
be used on either side ofthe campaign,
players to embody its essence in a more Regardless ofthe number ofplayers and while this will differ from the events
compact form. involved, it is best ifone person act as depicted elsewhere in this book,it will
referee and organiser as well than as a not lessen the enjoyment ofthe campaign.
The campaign is won by gathering Spoils player, to impartially record results between Indeed, ifit is wished then armies used in
in the name ofeither the Emperor or the sessions. Though, ifthe number ofplayers individual games can be limited as desired by
Wannaster, with the side that gathers the is very large, it may be best ifthe referee the players, though it is recommended that
most by its end being the winner. Spoils foregoes the chance to play in order to at the start ofthe campaign a single points
are won by winning individual games of make sure that the larger number ofgames limit is decided that will be used for all games
The Horus Heresy: Age ofDarkness, but progress smoothly. played during the campaign.

these games will also generate Ruin and

Fealty points. Fealty charts the attitude of
the people ofthe Eastern Fringe to the two
factions and grants the side with the higher
total an advantage during play. Ruin notes
how much destruction has been wrought
upon the Eastern Fringe - once the total
Ruin accrued by all players has reached a
level set at the beginning ofthe campaign

then the campaign will end, the Eastern

Fringe being reduced to literal ruin, and the

faction with the greatest total ofSpoils will

be the winner. The campaign itselfis broken
into Campaign Turns in order to allow the
scores ofeach faction to be updated and
for players to attempt to sway the course
ofthe war by means ofGrand Stratagems
and individual battles by means ofTactical
Advantages, each represented by a selection
ofoptional rules.

To play this campaign, you need at least two
players with armies taken from the various
The Horus Heresy: Age ofDarkness army

lists, but there is no upward limit as to how

many players can take part in this campaign.
The campaign presented in this section can
easily be adapted for multiple players, and is
intentionally presented in a format to suit a
widespread campaign involving a large number
ofplayers which can be played over the course

ofa weekend or,ifplayers so wish, can be

extended to run over a period oftheir choosing.
The players taking part in the campaign
should be organised into two separate sides:

one Loyalist and one Traitor, though these

sides need not match the historical forces of

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--- "" - '- - c cc .

-

By default it is assumed that this points the Traitors. However, this should not stop sides during the campaign should only
limit is 3,000 points, meaning that when you playing otherwise ifyou so wish. Before be undertaken as required to balance
called upon to play a game, both players will the campaign begins, you should decide sides or to account for other unforeseen
assemble an army to that points limit. Should which side each player will represent for circumstances, and should be done with the
the players wish to use a different points total the rest ofthe campaign. Players switching agreement ofall involved.
then this will not affect the overall campaign,
but should be agreed by all involved Unique Characters in theThramas Campaign
beforehand and communicated to every The events ofthis campaign take place over the duration ofthe Thramas Crusade, a series
player before the beginning ofthe campaign. ofconfrontations in which a number ofnotable warriors took part, each more than capable
Players are not required to use the same army ofturning the tide ofbattle alone. However, even these estimable fighters could not be
for every game played, but in the name of everywhere at once, with the choice ofwhere they fought often being the deciding factor
good sportsmanship should provide their in the course ofthe campaign. To represent this factor, it is recommended that in any
opponent with the chance to see the army list given Campaign Turn any Unique character models be allowed to participate in only a
they will be using once the game has begun.
A number ofoptional rules are presented single game. This will require some amount ofco-ordination in larger campaigns, but will
later in this section that allow for escalating
or varied points limits, players seeking a provide a greater sense ofrealism during the course ofthe campaign. In campaigns that are
more complicated or advanced challenge not following the historical order ofbattle, especially those with Legions or other fuctions
may choose to use these rules in addition to present on both sides ofthe campaign or in unorthodox allegiances, it may be beneficial to
the basic structure presented here. decide at the start ofthe campaign which Unique characters may be used by which side so as
to avoid confusion.
The missions in the campaign will refer
· to one ·side as the Loyalists, and the other Players may also wish to consult the rules for Injuries and Unique characters presented
as part ofthe optional rules section so to further augment their campaigns. While
the Traitors. In h istorical terms, the forces this adds a small amount ofadditional book-keeping, the extra sense ofrisk to the
ofthe Dark Angels would be the Loyalists, deployment ofnoted characters brings a sense ofdrama that is well worth the effort.
~th the Night Lords and their allied forces

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CAMPAIGN DURATION Once a Ruin Limit is determined, the Short Campaigns
The campaign's duration is fixed by the campaign is played in a series of Campaign 30 Ruin Limit, allowing for between 3-4
Ruin Limit which when reached ends the Turns. During each Campaign Turn every Campaign Turns
campaign, and is set at the beginning of the player should play a single game, though Add +20 Ruin points for each additional
campaign. This is intended to represent the pair ofplayers
destruction wrought upon the Eastern Fringe ifthe sides are uneven then one or more
by the armies that make war in an effort to Medium Campaigns
secure it for their patrons, a limit to the death players may need to play a second game 50 Ruin Limit, allowing for between 5-6
that can be sustained by Thramas and its in order to provide enough opponents for Campaign Turns
neighbours before it becomes exhausted and every player. If this is required then it is Add +35 Ruin points for each additional
worthless. While this can make the number recommended that the duty of serving as pair ofplayers
ofgames played somewhat unpredictable, it the additional opponent is rotated between
does help to reproduce the air ofuncertainty players and overseen by the referee. Long Campaigns
and dread that consumed the worlds of the Bo Ruin Limit, allowing for between 8-10
Eastern Fringe as the Legiones Astartes tore Once each player has had a chance to play Campaign Turns
them apart in the search for victory. The at least one game then the Campaign Turn Add +40 Ruin points for each additional
players can determine a general length for concludes and Spoils, Fealty and Ruin totals pair ofplayers
their campaign by selecting an appropriate are updated. If the current Ruin total is less
Ruin Limit level based on the length of than or equal to the preset Ruin Limit then
campaign desired and the number ofplayers
involved. In order to aid in this decision, a another Campaign Turn is played, ifthe Ruin
table ofrecommended values is presented
as follows: total is greater than the preset Ruin Limit
then the campaign is over and the faction
with the highest Spoils total is the victor. If
Spoils totals are tied then the highest Fealty
total decides the victor.

Designer's Note
This campaign is based on events described in this volume ofThe Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness books as well as those in Black Library's
The Horus Heresy series of novels. Despite the Thramas Crusade being a crucial event in the Horus Heresy narrative, it does not determine
who is victorious, who is defeated and who dies in the battles you fight. The outcome ofyour campaign could also easily serve as inspiration
for further campaigns. The Horus Heresy Book Four - Conquest provides some excellent ways for taking your campaign further, as the rules for
Unique Characters and Warwnes would be ideal for building upon the fallout from your campaign.

Players who wish to adapt this campaign to play over a given period of time should set their own maximum Ruin and number of games to
play per Campaign Turn. A good maximum duration to set for your campaign is roughly equal to the time that you think it will take to play
through a phase which you believe you can comfortably manage. In this case, each Campaign Turn may last until an agreed number ofgames
has been played or an agreed amount oftime has passed. Once either of these conditions has been met, the Campaign Turn ends, Spoils,
Ruin and Fealty points are totalled up and the results are determined. The following Campaign Turn then begins. Depending on your group's
preferences, you may set the Campaign Turn duration to be as long or as short as you like. Having a time limit keeps the campaign moving
forwards, which can help keep players motivated and interested.

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CAMPAIGN Ruw The final step is to nominate one player Games are arranged and played as nonnal
from each faction to act as referee for that with armies selected from any army list '
What follows is a breakdown of the rules faction. These referees will be responsible ofthe player's choice up to the previously
required to organise and run your own for keeping track ofSpoils, Ruin and Fealty agreed Points Limit. Missions can either
Thramas Campaign, and is intended for points for their faction, as well as recording be selected at random from the Age of
easy reference both before and during such games won and lost. Note that ifany optional Darkness Mission table (see page i40 of the
an event. rules are in use then additional book-keeping The Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness rulebook) or
may be required. While it is possible to decided by the agreement ofboth players.
Setting up the Campaign have these tasks undertaken communally Once each game is concluded, the result of
Before beginning play, complete all ofthe by all players, or even by a single referee for the game, which player won or lost and the
following tasks: both sides, in any but the very smallest of Victory points scored by each player, should
campaigns it is far easier to split the work in be reported to the referees.
First a Ruin Limit must be set for the the name ofefficiency.
campaign. This will decide the overall length Once all ofthe games are completed, each
ofthe campaign and should be agreeable to Once these steps are all complete, the ofthe participating players having played at
all ofthe participating players. Advice on campaign can begin. Note that at the start least one game, the referees should amend
appropriate Ruin Limits can be found in the ofthe campaign both sides will have zero the resources scores, Spoils, Fealty and the
campaign overview. Spoils, zero Fealty and the combined Ruin combined Ruin total as noted below:
total will be zero.
Next, a Points Limit should be set for the Spoils - The total ofall Victory points scored
campaign. This will determine how many Campaign Set-up Checklist by players ofa faction are added to its Spoils
points each player has to assemble armies • Set a Ruin Limit to determine total regardless ofwhether the game was won
when called upon to play a game ofThe or lost.
Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness as part ofthe campaign length
campaign.Again, this limit should be agreed • Set a Points Limit to determine the Fealty- Ifthe game was won by a player of
by all players participating in the campaign that faction then their Victory points score is
before it is finalised. size ofarmies to be used in all games added to the faction's Fealty total
• Divide players into two factions:
Players may also wish to decide whether any Ruin - The total Victory points scored that
ofthe optional rules presented later in this Loyalist and Traitor Campaign Turn by every participating player
section will be utilised during the campaign, • Nominate referees is added to the single Ruin total
and ifso in what forin. Ifany optional
rules are to be used then all of the players Playing the Campaign CampaignTurn Checklist
participating should be made aware ofexactly The Thramas Campaign is divided into a • Each player should play one
which rules will be included and how they number ofCampaign Turns, conducted
will be used before the campaign begins. in sequence until the campaign ends. game against a member ofthe
During each Campaign Turn, each ofthe opposing faction
Once both Ruin and Points Limits are set participating players should play at least • Report the game result and Victory
and any optional rules are decided upon, all one game ofThe Horus Heresy: Age of points scored to the referees
the participating players should be organised Darkness against any player from the • Adjust resource totals
into two separate factions. These are Loyalists opposing faction. Ifthe two factions are
and Traitors, and they will only play games not composed ofequal numbers then one Endingthe Campaign
against players from the other faction over or more players on the smaller faction will The campaign will end once the Ruin Liinit
the course ofthe campaign. The players need to play more than one game - the is reached. At the end ofeach campaign
players undertaking additional games turn, once all games have been resolved
may be divided based upon their preferred should be determined on a volunteer basis and the various resource totals have been
or be nominated by the faction's referee amended based on·the results ofthose
Legions or by simple preference, however, as needed. games, compare the current Ruin total to
the two factions should be equal in number the Ruin Limit. If the total is equal to or
or as close to equal as is possible. lower than the Ruin Limit, begin a new
Campaign Turn. Ifthe Ruin total is higher
than the Ruin Limit then the campaign
ends immediately.

Once the campaign has ended, the winning
faction is the one whose Spoils total is
highest. Ifthe Spoils totals are tied then
the Fealty total is used as a tie-breaker. If
both sides have the same Spoils and Fealty
totals then a single game should be played to
determine the result ofthe campaign.

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OPTIONAL RULES Tip ofthe Spear
lhe following is a selection ofoptional rules that can be used to add extra A single well-timed strike can break the back of the greatest armies, and a
complexity and additional options to the basic campaign structure. lhe single breakthrough in well-established defensive lines can see the fall of entire
Grand Stratagems,Tactical Advantage and Devastation Missions rules are sectors if properly followed up.
highly recommended for any but the most briefofcampaigns, as they add
significantly to the flavour ofthe campaign.lhe other options should be Goal: When this Grand Stratagem is selected, pick a single player that
considered appropriate for longer or more considered campaigns. is part of the faction that selected the Grand Stratagem. That player
must not lose the game they play in that Campaign Turn. This Grand
All ofthe rules presented here are independent ofeach other, though Stratagem is only available in campaigns with more than one player in
they complement each other in use, and players are free to decide exactly each faction.
which should be used in their campaigns. Be aware that adding any of
Reward : For every Spoils point invested at the start of the Campaign
these rules will likely increase the amount oftime required to resolve
Turn, gain 2 points back (e.g., so, if 5 points were invested get IO back).
Campaign Turns and the amount ofwork required ofcampaign referees.

GRAND STRATAGEMS TAcnCAL ADVANTAGES
This optional rule is available for groups that want to add an element This optional rule allows players to attempt to influence the use of
ofstrategic uncertainty to their games and don't mind some additional the three resource pools to outmanoeuvre their opponent and either
take advantage of their superiority or stage a dramatic comeback from
book-keeping. It will allow groups to replicate the grand plans that near defeat.

the warlords ofthe Horus Heresy put into motion and the precarious When this optional rule is in use, players may choose to expend points
nature ofthose plans in the face of enemy action. from their Fealty total in order to apply one ofthe following effects
to that game. To use a Tactical Advantage, declare to your opponent
When this optional rule is in use, any side may choose to enact one which Tactical Advantage you wish to use before the mission is decided.
ofthe following Grand Stratagems at the start ofany Campaign Turn. Reduce the Fealty total by the number ofpoints stated on the chosen
They should keep this decision secret from enemy players, but inform Tactical Advantage, though this may not reduce the Fealty total to less
the referees of their choices. Each of the Grand Stratagems offers the than 1, and play the remainder ofthe game as normal.
chance to gamble some of a side's accrued Spoils points in order to win
a larger amount by achieving a set objective over the course ofa single Only a single Advantage may be applied to any one game by any player,
Campaign Turn. but a faction may apply an Advantage to as many games per Campaign

In order to use a Grand Stratagem, inform the referee for your faction ofthe Turn as they wish and can afford to. Ifboth sides wish to use a Tactical

number ofSpoils points that are to be expended- this can be any number Advantage such as Good Ground, which cannot be used by both players,
then both factions may purchase it but must roll offto see which of
ofpoints from the faction's Spoils total, but may not leave the faction's them gains the effects.

current Spoils total at less than 1. Ifthe chosen Grand Stratagem's objective Reserve Corps (Cost: 2 Fealty Points)
Your allies dispatch troops to advance in the wake of your assault, secure
is achieved then that faction receives twice the number ofSpoils points it captured ground and minimise collateral damage.

expended at the start ofthe Campaign Turn. Ifthe objective is failed then all

the points expended at the start ofthe Campaign Turn are lost.

lhe available Grand Stratagems are as follows:

The Serpent's Head When this Tactical Advantage is applied to a game, the player that has
Afocus on the elimination ofthe enemy's command structure can be key to used it does not add their Victory points to the amount of Ruin caused
the overall victory of the campaign. For as their ability to lead is eroded, their by the game.
armies fall into panic and disorder, allowing the easy seizure of key territory
and resources as they struggle to regroup. Scorch ed Earth (Cost: 2 Fealty Points)
Your troops are instructed to burn and pillage everythingthey can find, without
Goal: In every game played this Campaign Turn, destroy the enemy regard for the hann this does to those worlds allied to your cause.
Warlord before the end ofthe game.
When this Tactical Advantage is applied to a game, the player that has
Reward: For every Spoils point invested at the start of the Campaign used it adds twice their Victory points to the Ruin caused by the game.

Turn, gain 2 points back (e.g., so, if 5 points were invested get IO back). Endless Zeal (Cost: 5 Fealty Points)
Properly motivated troops, whether the lash be fear or pride, will never accept
H old the Line the dominance ofthe foe on any field of battle.
Sometimes the key to victory is the preservation of your key forces, retaining
the manpower to properly hold claimed territory. For aquick victory with When this Tactical Advantage is applied to a game, the player that used
crippling losses gains you nothing at a strategic level. it succeeds at any Seize the Initiative checks made on a 2+.

Goal: In every game played this Campaign Turn have at least one
friendly Compulsory Troops choice still in play (not in Reserve) at the
end of the game.

Reward: For every Spoils point invested at the start of the Campaign

Turn, gain 2 points back (e.g., so, if 5 points were invested get IO back).

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