The Badab War
The Tyrant was right!
The Badab War.
The Badab War, fought between 901.M41 and 913.M41 primarily in the Badab Sector and Endymion Cluster of the Segmentum Ultima, was one of the most insidious and dangerous internecine conflicts to wrack the Imperium of Man in recent history, made all the more lamentable because the unthinkable had occurred.
As a result of a conflicting nexus of honour, betrayal, politics and greed, several Space Marine Chapters turned Renegade against the Imperium and bloodshed, and outright civil war ensued -- a war that turned entire armies of the Imperium's most powerful warriors against each other and in doing so swept millions to their deaths in its turbulence.
Such was all the result of the betrayal and hubris of the former Chapter Master Lufgt Huron of the Astral Claws Chapter, the self-styled and infamous "Tyrant of Badab." The carnage wrought amongst the stars of the Maelstrom Zone during this conflict was such that it rocked the faith and order of untold Imperial worlds never touched directly by its violence and caused loyal subjects to look upon their Adeptus Astartes protectors with fear. The dire sins and hidden truths lay behind the war a pall of secrecy and lies descended about the conflict even as it was fought.
The rebellion was eventually put down by the forces of the Inquisition and those Astartes Chapters who remained steadfast in their duty to the Emperor of Mankind, but its instigators, the Astral Claws, wholly given over to Chaos in the course of the conflict, turned Renegade and its survivors become the infamous piratical band of Chaos Space Marines known as the Red Corsairs.
Astral Claws
The Astral Claws were founded during the mid-35th millennium as a Crusading Chapter to help stabilize the slowly crumbling Imperium during the Nova Terra Interregnum. Their founding Chapter is unknown, as most records of their existence have been destroyed in an Edict of Obliteration. However, speculation on their gene-seed stability and combat tactics points towards the Ultramarines or the Dark Angels.
Before their downfall, the Astral Claws possessed a roll of battle honours that would be the envy of many; after their performance in the Fifth Black Crusade, their Chapter Standard was placed in the halls of the Eternity Gate in the Imperial Palace on Terra.
According to the Apocrypha Kaali, the Astral Claws had "three sons" but only named one; the Tiger Claws. During the Badab War, Inquisitorial investigations found that the Astral Claws were hiding members of the long-thought-lost Tiger Claws chapter within their ranks and illegally expanding their numbers above Codex-approved norms.
After rebelling against the Imperium and being defeated in the ensuing Badab War, the Chapter's survivors fled into the Maelstrom, becoming the core of the Red Corsairs. As a chapter, they have been declared Excommunicate Traitoris and any Chapter records are marked to be destroyed.
Executioners
The Executioners is a 3rd Founding Successor Chapter of the Imperial Fists created according to Imperial records in the first year of the 32nd Millennium. The Executioners were one of four formerly Loyalist Chapters that rebelled against the Imperium of Man’s authority during the Badab War and joined the Secessionist cause led by the Renegade Astral Claws.
The Chapter, through a debt of honour found themselves on the wrong side of the conflict (I disagree Huron was right at first), but as the war drew on the Executioners realised the Astral Claws were falling from grace and had crossed a line. They changed sides and ultimately repented. They forfitted their terrority to the salamanders and went on a penance crusade set by the High Lords of Terra.
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Mantis Warriors
The Mantis Warriors (or Mantis Legion) are a Space Marine Chapter that sided with the rebel Astral Claws during the Badab War. They were granted the Emperor's forgiveness after the conflict. The Mantis Warriors were founded as part of the 598.M35 founding, created to help relieve the White Scars in monitoring and countering the many threats harboured by the Maelstrom.
During the Badab War, the Mantis Warriors sided with the rebel Astral Claws, the Executioners and the Lamenters. The first recorded involvement by Loyalist Marines came in 904.M41, when the Mantis Warriors attacked and captured the Fire Hawks ship Rapturous Fire. In 907.M41, as loyalists were besieging Badab, two chapters were drafted to investigate the worlds occupied by the Mantis Warriors and Executioners. For example, there were battles on the Gargathea III between joined forces of the Astral Claws and Mantis Warriors and the Loyalist Raptor Space Marines. After harsh encounters, Loyalists were victorious and drove the rebels from the planet.
In 912.M41, the rebellion was defeated, and the Astral Claws were nearly destroyed. The Mantis Warriors were granted the Emperor's forgiveness and sent on a one-hundred-year crusade. Their Chapter Master, Khoisan Neotera, was stripped of his honour and armour and imprisoned in Penitentiacon in isolation for the rest of his life.[3] As part of this penitent crusade, their homeworld, Ootheca, was forfeited to the Space Sharks Chapter, which had taken part as loyalists in the war. This meant that for the crusade, the Mantis Warriors would be forbidden to recruit new members, and as of the end of M41, they were critically short of personnel.
Lamenters
The Lamenters are a Space Marine Chapter of Blood Angels descent. Long dogged by misfortune, they sided with the rebel forces during the Badab War. Still, they were granted the Emperor's forgiveness after that conflict, subject to the undertaking of a penitent crusade. That crusade eventually brought the Lamenters directly into the path of Hive Fleet Kraken, bringing the chapter to the brink of extinction.
The Lamenters are a Successor Chapter of the Blood Angels, yet they have avoided the fate of others implanted with the gene seed of Sanguinius. While they managed to control the flaws of their gene stock, they still succumbed to it in extreme circumstances. Even so, at the close of the Dark Millennium, stories have circulated that the Black Rage has returned tenfold after their flawed attempts to cleanse it from their gene seed.
For much of their history, the Lamenters have a record of effective and well-intentioned service to the Imperium, yet they have been subject to extraordinary misfortune. Their ill luck has seen them fighting in more desperate defences and last stands than any other chapter of its age, and they accept it with symbols of grief and lamentation. The Emperor's Tarot predicts that their misfortune will only get worse.
Tyrant’s Legion
The Tyrant's Legion was the Planetary Defence Forces who served Lufgt Huron after he had crowned himself as the "Tyrant of Badab" during the buildup to the Badab War. These troops were drawn from the historically isolationist PDFs of worlds under the control of the Astral Claws around the Maelstrom. These forces were massively reorganized and retrained by the Astral Claws, becoming an effective fighting force under a unified command structure. Elements within the legion judged as "weak" were purged by Huron.
Initially battling Corsairs and pirates, the Tyrant's Legion became a significant auxiliary force in Huron's renegade forces during the Badab War.
Minotaurs
The Minotaurs are a relatively mysterious Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, as they are principally notable for the fact that, beyond the last thousand years, most records of them appear to have been locked away under seals so tight even members of the Inquisition find them difficult to open. In addition, other documents seem to have been lost or mislaid. The matter is made even more complex by conflicting historical records relating to Minotaurs Astartes’ chapter. These records have led to uncertainty on whether the "Minotaurs" who appeared in M32, M36, and M41 are the same chapter or multiple chapters that have shared the same name. Finally, the chapter is rumoured to possess some direct tie to the High Lords of Terra themselves that circumvents other forms of Imperial bureaucracy completely, a rumour that has given the Ordo Hereticus some cause for concern.
Howling Griffons
The Howling Griffons is a Loyalist Space Marines Chapter founded in the 33rd Millennium from the gene seed of the Ultramarines. This Chapter fought in the Badab War and saw extensive action in the 13th Black Crusade, fighting against Chaos Plague Marines in defence of the world of Amistel Majoris.
The Howling Griffons take exceptional pride in their oaths, seeing each as the promise of an unending effort until the deed sworn in the pledge is accomplished or the oath-taker slain in the trying. Before a battle, additional oaths are often added to the Howling Griffons' already long lists of promises, some sworn for the Chapter as a whole and others far more personal for each Astartes.
Once an oath is taken, a Howling Griffons Astartes goes to extreme lengths to complete it, and it is never forgotten, even if solar decades have passed. Completed or satisfied oaths are taken as a badge of honour, often inscribed on parchments or directly into the power armour of the oath-taker.
Because they are incredibly active within multiple war zones, the Howling Griffons are rigorous about promptly harvesting and securing the Progenoid Glands from their battle-brothers. Recoveries made in the field are secured upon the nearest Chapter vessel in short order and then returned to Mancora for storage at the earliest possible opportunity.
This sense of obligation is mainly because the Chapter has a very high rate of turnover among its members. These Space Marines prefer to engage in the thickest portion of any battle and are almost always at war. Consequently, the Chapter does suffer a higher than usual casualty rate, which can only be compensated by a proportionately high rate of recruitment and initiation.
Records indicate that the Chapter is sufficiently well supplied with gene seed to accommodate even its prodigious needs.
Raptors
The Raptors is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter and a Second Founding successor of the Raven Guard. It has been heavily involved in many of the most recent campaigns of the Imperium of Man, including the Badab War, the Third War for Armageddon and the Taros Campaign.
As a Chapter, the Raptors have been nearly rendered extinct multiple times but have learned to adapt to changing circumstances so well that they have flourished where other Chapters would simply have had their names added to the ranks of the fallen.
The Raptors' Chapter culture is very wary of martial glory or honour and prefers to emphasize pragmatism, adaptability and completion of the mission over all other concerns. Having been reduced to so few battle brothers so often in their history, the Raptors have no illusions about what war truly is.
They understand that war is suffering and death. They specialize in a brutal business, but they have no desire to wallow in its misery beyond what is required to carry out the Emperor's will.
The Raptors Chapter has constantly faced and overcome tragedies throughout its ten millennia of history. These begin with the disasters that afflicted the Raven Guard Legion before its Founding and extend to the destruction of its homeworld and repeated instances of near-destruction.
Carcharodons
The Chapter named Carcharodon Astra — translated into Low Gothic as the Space Sharks, but known more widely as the Carcharodons — is a Space Marine Chapter of unknown provenance that has relatively recently carved for itself a dark and brutal legend in the bloody wake of the Badab War. Much of the information surrounding its history is shrouded in myth or allegory. Still, fragmented pieces of data point to it already existed as early as late M32, during the Astropath Wars. The Chapter's ancient history speaks of a "Day of Exile," when the Wandering Ancestors had been banished from their home world and ordered beyond the Galaxy's edge. One thing is for sure, however: that the Chapter was given a sacred duty to travel the empty spaces beyond the Imperium's borders, seemingly forever, to seek out and destroy the enemies of Mankind.
Novamarines
The Novamarines is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter and the Second Founding successor of the Ultramarines Legion. An ancient and proud Chapter, the Novamarines are hard-line adherents of the Codex Astartes who consider the writ of this sacred text, penned by their blessed Primarch Roboute Guilliman, divinely ordained law. They have drawn blood against those who would stray too far from the Codex.
The Novamarines' virtue and honour are such that they have been held up as an example to other Chapters of what it means to be of the Adeptus Astartes, much like their parent Chapter.
They have no known Successor Chapters, at least not officially. Still, they are believed to have had the honour of their brethren being selected to provide a portion of the gene seed used in the Founding of several Ultramarines Successor Chapters in the past, notably the Dark Sons and the Angels of Fury.
Marine Errant
The Marines Errant is a Loyalist, fleet-based Space Marine Chapter credited in the Mythos Angelica Mortis as a successor of the Eagle Warriors Chapter, giving it Ultramarine lineage. It was created late during the 23rd Founding in the 37th Millennium to repair the gap in Imperial military forces by losing other Chapters.
The Chapter was well-named, for over the millennia since their Founding, its battle-brothers have been active throughout the entirety of the Imperium and often far beyond its borders.
The Chapter has shown tremendous resilience and flexibility, allowing it to participate in a broad range of Imperial Crusades even while its Battle-Brothers fervently venerate the dictates of the Codex Astartes.
Red Scorpions
The Red Scorpions Chapter of Space Marines is a fleet-based Chapter of unknown Founding and lineage known to be composed of conservative Imperial purists who believe in the Emperor's divinity without question. These Astartes are famed for their complete and utter devotion to Imperial military and religious doctrine, past the point where pragmatism or even reason would seem to require otherwise.
The Chapter is most renowned among other Astartes for its absolute adherence to every line of the Codex Astartes, which is unheard of in any other Chapter -- including the Ultramarines. Its recorded history extends across five Terran millennia, but there are numerous indications that it may extend further than that.
Due to their history of conflict with the forces of Chaos, the Red Scorpions refuse to deal with any xenos species or any Humans that they consider as tainted by mutation of any kind, even Imperially-sanctioned Abhumans like Ogryns or Ratlings. They will obviously not serve with Beastmen, but they also utterly refuse to serve with the few remaining Squats.
Fanatical in their pursuit of genetic and spiritual purity, the gene-seed's sanctity is essential to the Red Scorpions' core beliefs; as a result, they have more Apothecaries than most Chapters, and their Master of the Apothecarion is second in command of the whole Chapter.
Equally unique in nature is the frequency with which the Red Scorpions' Apothecaries are present in the Chapter's Battleline Squads as squad leaders in place of a sergeant.
Star Phantoms
The Star Phantoms is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of the 23rd Founding created in the early 38th Millennium from an unknown origin.
It took part in the final days of the Badab War and the final assault upon the Astral Claws' homeworld of Badab Primaris, helping bring the war to a successful conclusion.
Created during the so-called "Sentinel" Founding, the Star Phantoms was one of several Chapters whose mission was to take and hold various Xenos-contested regions on the borders of the Emperor's domains. Many of the Chapter's earliest campaigns were waged against now-extinct xenos horrors, and the Star Phantoms frequently operated independently and far from the support of other Imperial institutions.
This situation is often cited as the main reason for the Chapter's somewhat isolationist outlook. However, others have advanced the notion that the cause is rooted in the Star Phantoms' genetic heritage.
Salamanders
The Salamanders, originally known as the Dragon Warriors, were the XVIII Legion of the Space Marine Legion created by the Emperor of Mankind. Their Primarch was Vulkan. The legion remained loyal during the Horus Heresy but was severely mauled in the first excellent opening battle, limiting the role they could play in the remainder of the war. Their primarch is never recorded as perishing and is believed to be missing; the search for him and his presumed great purpose is a defining trait of the Salamanders. Other aspects of the legion of Vulkan are their excellent hardiness as warriors and their equally strong constitutions, willpower and devotion to humanity. In some ways, they can be considered the ideal of what it means to be a Space Marine.
Fire Angels
The Fire Angels were created from Ultramarines gene-seed. They fought on the loyalist side during the Badab War. In one incident during the war, the rebel Astral Claws launched a suicidal counter-attack, in which a squadron of Rhinos broke through an Imperial salient to the Fire Angels' lines and detonated a virus missile, causing more deaths in one day than the Fire Angels had suffered in the war so far.
The Fire Angels are a highly zealous chapter. Fervent believers in the Imperial creed do not revere their ancestral primarch as many branches do, believing this to be a form of idolatry. They tend to rely on "basic" Imperial technology and codex equipment, such as Rhinos and Predators, while their 1st Company mainly comprises Sternguard Veterans rather than Terminators.
Known as a conservative chapter, the Fire Angels are strict adherents to the Codex Astartes. Due to their belief that the Emperor is a god, they share many links with the Ecclesiarchy and regularly fight alongside the Sisters of Battle.
Sons of Medusa
Although born out of strife and discontent, the Sons of Medusa share much in common with their parent Chapter regarding organization and philosophy. They, too, abhor mortal weakness and place an unusual reliance on technology and equipment.
The Founding of the Sons of Medusa is highly unusual in that, technically, they were never actually founded at all. Their origins lie within an Imperial civil conflict known as the Moirae Schism, which itself occurred during the Nova Terra Interregnum. During this schism, which affected all branches of the Adeptus Mechanicus and those Imperial factions closely tied to it, the Iron Hands chapter stood on the brink of destroying itself in an internal chapter war. However, the ruling council of the Iron Hands, the Great Clan Council, was able to settle the matter by getting all concerned to agree to a simple solution; the Moirae dissidents were to be exiled from the chapter, with all parties swearing never to take up arms against each other. In the wake of this ruling, almost a full third of the chapter split away to become a fleet-based divergent branch of the Iron Hands. Over time, they increased their numbers (by accepting Moirae dissidents from other Iron Hands successor chapters as well as traditional recruiting) and by the time the Moirae Schism was over, the Moirae Iron Hands were reckoned to stand at chapter-strength.
Exorcists
The Exorcists are a Space Marine Chapter with a very dubious founding history. A highly secretive and silent chapter. Little is known about their early days. On the subject of their creation, a single communication remains, and was sent from a Genetor-Major of the Xenobiologis core, named Lauram Clelland.
The Exorcists were formed as a successor chapter of the Imperial Fists[14] at the end of M35, or early M36, in the Thirteenth Founding (The Dark Founding). Created from resilient Gene-Seed stock, in the yearly years of the chapter they proved adaptable to many strategic challenges. However the fate of the Chapter dramatically changed after the events on Totem IV. During the campaign to liberate the planet from Daemons under the control of the Lord of Change Keriath the Shrouded, the Exorcists were able to prove resilient against hordes of Tzeentchian Daemons. Taking heavy physical damage but able to overcome the mental assaults of the Warp, at the height of the battle Chapter Master Enoch Trismegistus was possessed by Keriath. However Trismegistus was able to use the possession to awaken his own psychic abilities, reaching into the mind of Chief Librarian Goetos and gaining his aid in driving the Daemon out. Keriath was subsequently banished back to the Warp.
The incident became known to the Plutonians, a Radical sect of the Ordo Malleus. The Plutonians relieved the Chapter Master of command and established a purpose-built facility on its homeworld of Banish. Here, Trismegistus was interrogated relentlessly, but eventually found to be pure. The Plutonians eventually revealed their theories of using the power of possession against the Warp, and Trismegistus found himself agreeing with the Radicals. Thereafter the Plutonians were allowed to remain on Banish permanently and aid the Chapter in its Daemonic Possession trials of Aspirants, hoping to recreate Trismegistus' experience to create an army of daemonically resilient warriors.
One member of the Ordo Malleus' delegation on Banish, Cardinal Rodrigo Nessun, went mad after witnessing the high rate of failure of the early initiation process, turning to Chaos worship and fleeing with most of the Space Marines that couldn't be successfully exorcised, forming the Swords of Epiphany Chaos Warband.
The Exorcists were involved in the Badab War against rebel Chapters. The Exorcists are also one of only four Space Marine Chapters to have both fought in the Third War for Armageddon and against the Thirteenth Black Crusade.
Later upon the formation of the Great Rift, a Torchbearers fleet bound for Banish met with intense Daemonic assault. The Rogue Traders with the fleet came to regard the mission as cursed, and all of its Greyshields fell in action. Even the Custodians of the fleet muttered that such attention from the Ruinious Powers was ominous indeed. However the fleet was eventually able to reach Banish and present the Chapter with the technology to create Primaris Space Marines, though no living specimens remained. This suited the Chapter fine, as they were able to use their own Initiates to raise Primaris warriors under their own taboo methods. Thus far, Primaris Marines of the Chapter have not shown signs of incompatibility with the rites of Daemonic possession. Nonetheless, the Chapter's initiation rites left their mark on the Primaris subjects also. On battlefields where they fought alongside other Chapters whose battle-brothers had endured no forced exposure to daemons, subtle differences between the Primaris elements were apparent. Those of the Exorcists seemed more stalwart in the face of Warp entities, but they were also more prone to unexplained decisions and mood swings.[
Fire Hawks
The Fire Hawks have long been a byword for devastation and wrath. In their history, they have seen great victories, bloody deeds and terrible reversals, being one of only a few chapters known to have survived the destruction of two separate home worlds and being brought back from the brink of extinction many times.
The Chapter itself claims antecedence from the renowned Ultramarines gene seed. However, certain defects and variations in the samples held in the archives of the Adeptus Terra speak against this, and the Lords of Macragge have never publicly acknowledged kinship.
The disappearance of the Fire Hawks
This chapter began when the Fire Hawks were called to the Crows World subsector in 963.M41, to deal with Dark Eldar Pirates. The entire chapter fleet and the Raptorus Rex attempted a warp jump from the Piraeus system, 120 light years from Crows World. The space fortress, five ships, over 800 brethren and 2,000 other personnel were expected to reach Crows World within no more than 12 hours. They never arrived.
In 983.M41, the chapter was declared lost in the warp and assumed destroyed. The Bell of Lost Souls tolled a thousand times, and it is said that the Emperor himself ordered a black candle to be lit in the Chapel of Fallen Heroes.
Rumours fed by a long line of coincidences have been said by conspiracy theorists to implicate the Officio Assassinorum in losing the Fire Hawks' fleet, though nothing has ever been substantiated.