Seekers of Penitence

The Seekers of Penitence are a Loyalist Successor Chapter hailing from the prestigious genome of Primarch Lion El'Jonson, created during an Unknown Founding, even if the first records of the green and grey Astartes date as far back as the middle of late M34 or the early M35. Ever since that bygone era, the Seekers have earned, in equal measure, great renown and mistrust from most of the Imperium, for their aide often comes unbidden and they'll give up on a war to follow unknown motives without a shred of hesitation.

Chapter Homeworld
Gaste is an ancient world, left long-forgotten and sleepy in the Segmentum Solar. The temperate if rainy world, covered in vast and deep forests, putrid swamps, mighty mountains and almost barren plains lies merely forty light-years away from Holy Terra Herself, and yet it was discovered by mre happenstance at the very end of the Great Crusade.

The inhabitants are suspected to be the descendants of one of the earliest attempt to colonize worlds away from the Sol System. Whether by pure lack of luck, sabotage or willful decision from the colonists, the knowledge to operate most of the technology brought from the Throne World was quickly forgotten, the population returning to a feudal political system and the according technological level.

Ten of thousands of years went by and Gaste didn't change. No great event in the Imperial History and more largely Mankind's, has affected the inhabitants of this backwater world. They huddle, as they always have, in pathetic hamlets, surrounding the castles and dungeons of small nobles, who have sworn to protect them from the monstrous creatures roaming the wild lands.

For beyond the walled limits of the villages lies fields patrolled daily by militia-men; archers, spear-men and even light cavalry. And beyond even them is the domain of great beasts, able to savage even the best armor crafted on Gaste. Only the knightly orders gathering the noble, open to men and women -for arms and valor are so needed that no distinction can be allowed between the two genders- insure that human life will prevail.

Even those needs don't preclude petty wars however, be it between the various kingdoms, principalities and Marches, or even Orders who had sworn political neutrality but hate each other, such as the Order of the Snow Roc, whose knights clad in silver and alabaster armor, their banners depicting the apex predator of their native Mountains of Affliction, war almost constantly with the bronze and vert-de-gris warriors of the Order of the Spitting Toad, inhabiting the marshes directly to their South.

And far beyond the deadliest swamps, surrounded by a forest so dark and dense that the few natives who ever saw it turned away, afraid of the primordial night still lurking there, stand the solitary peak of Carléon, where the mightiest of Knights are said to reside, the towering strangers clad in grey and green, their faces ever unseen - the Seekers of Penitence.

The Inner Circle
Like all members of the Unforgiven, the Seekers of Penitence posses an Inner Circle, a secret cabal inside the Chapter's organization, its existence hidden in plain sight through parables, legends and mysteries preserved unwittingly by even the lowliest of serfs. Those are the men who orchestrate the true campaigns of the Seekers, the Hunt for the Fallen, preserving the blissful ignorance of their Battle-Brothers, their lips sealed under oath of utmost secrecy and dedication to the absolution of all scions of El'Jonson.

The Inner Circle of the Seekers of Penitence is a particularly complex affair. All leading officiers and members of the first two Orders are part of it, but the degree of knowledge they have vary greatly, depending of their rank and how trusted they are by those shrouded deeper into those foreboding secrets. For knowledge is a dangerous weapon, as prone to destroy one's foe than to consum the learner, his soul unable to endure the weigh of such ancient crimes as those committed by the Fallen Angels.

The lowest ranked of those members are the Mist-Knights. Their is the sole knowledge that ancient Traitors have marred the honor of their Chapter, and must be hunted down to the last if there is any hope of salvaging a future for the Seekers. Their Constables then learn that the Fallen Angels aren't just former members of their Chapter, but also from their fellow Unforgiven Chapters. It is also the level of knowledge that those warriors deemed able to become Masters of the Third and lower Orders posses, for they have been judged not yet ready for more of the truth.

Those Battle-Brothers entering the Death-Knights ranks learn more, the wool being slightly more pulled from their eyes. Their is the knowledge that the Fallen are a taint on all Sons of the Lion, former members of the Legion of old, who turned their back on the Emperor during the Horus Heresy. Such revelation is often terrible, even for warriors prepared for centuries to discover it, and more than one prospective Death-Knight had to be put down by the Master of this Order, his mind broken by this glimpse of the truth.

Above even the jet-black knights, the grim Interrogator-Chaplains, the Master of the Archive (Master Archivist) alongside the Masters of the first two Orders, learn the daunting crimes of the Fallen Angels, how they destroyed Caliban after the Heresy, how they consorted with demons and are still spreading their taint in the whole Galaxy. Theirs is the complete truth - or as close as the leader of the Chapter's Inner Circle deem necessary for them to do their duty.

For the Grand Master of the Seekers of Penitence is the lone soul upon which rest the full history of the Dark Angel's corruption, how Luther, the closest friend of El'Jonson turned on him and, with his forces, was sent away through time and space by his new masters. His is also the darkest, deepest, secret of the Seekers; that not all of the Fallen have been ferried to the Rock, that one of those was kept, his secrets and talents preserved by the very first Grand Master of the Seekers of Penitence, to better hunt down his peers. Only by reading the secret books of the Grand Master does a new one learn of this truth. His is the duty to decide if the Traitor deserve to die, alone and forgotten, or is still of use for the Chapter's hunt.

For millennia, none has dared risks the future of the Seekers by finally slaying the Fallen.

Specialist Formations

 * The Death-Knights Order - Those warriors armored in jet-black Terminator Armor are the rough equivalent of a first Company in a Codex Chapter. However, those Astartes, who have become true members of the Inner Circle, knowing far more than even the Masters of other Orders. Their duty is to come down, their weapons roaring and the power-fields of their armors cracking under the heavy fire of the Fallen Angels and their deluded servants and nothing else. To be inducted into their ranks, one as had to prove himself over centuries, first as simple soldier, then to the Mist-Knights, and finally be deemed worthy. Few are the other members of the Imperium who have seen them, for they never partake in normal campaign, instead being unleashed only when the presence of those who betrayed the Lion in ancient times is suspected.


 * The Mist-Knights Order - The warriors of the Second Order are the equivalent of the Dark Angel's renowned Ravenwing. Their task is to track and sniff out all traces of the Fallen Angels. Therefore, all the Knights in this order wage war on land-speeders and bikes. Their mounted assaults are lightning fast and extremely brutal, offering no respite and mercy. Even compared to the rest of their Brothers, the Mist-Knights are particularly grim, only surpassed by the Death-Knights. Members of this Order never show their faces for those outside their brotherhood, even to their Brothers, wearing hooded robes and scarfs to hide them. To become a member of this Order, one has to demonstrate incredible prowess with the blade, and absolute dedication to the Chapter and they swear an oath to never stop hunting the Fallen.


 * Interrogator-Chaplains -

Chapter Livery
For an unenlightened foreigner, the Seekers of Penitence may at first appears as forces from three different Chapters waging war shoulder to shoulder with each other. For the natives of Gaste, however, the differences in their liveries speak louder than words of the Astartes' individual valor and skill.

Most of the Chapter forces, from Squire to simple Knights wear the Dark Green and Dull Grey livery denoting their low rank inside of the Seekers' internal hierarchy. The Constables leading the Squads are allowed the right to wear a grey tabard over their armor to denote their rank and nothing else - not even seals of purity, for it runs contrary to the Chapter's belief and traditions. Each Master of those Orders, from the Third to the Tenth, share a similar livery than their men, albeit with more decorations on their helmets -such as carved skulls or swords- and a grey cape.

Above the rank and file are those warriors who have proven their dedication to their Chapter time and time again. Those brave souls are entered into the Mist-Knights forego the green for the black of the ancient Dark Angel Legion. However, they retain the use of the grey, switching its placing on their livery compared to the members of the lower Orders. Their Constables and Master share the same clothing rights as those of other Orders, albeit with a dark green color on their tabards and cape.

The Battle-Brothers whose secrecy, devotion and ardent hatred of the Imperium's foes are the greatest finally earn the right to join the Death-Knights, members of the most sacred Order, second only to the members of the Inner Circle. All clad in jet black Terminator Armor, the only touch of color the dark green of their decorations and soft armors, those warriors stand high above even their comrades from the Mist-Knights. Their ranks are fully adorned with green robes, and their Master's only distinction from his soldiers is a golden laurel on his helm.

Finally, the Grand Master is the only Astartes allowed to wear a green cape and robe in the Chapter, over his jet black armor, be it a simple -if finely crafted- Power Armor, or a Terminator's. On his helm, he wears green laurels and a stripe of the same green adorning the common Battle-Brothers of his Chapter.

Chapter Badge
The Winged Sword emerging from a lake is the Seekers of Penitence's Chapter Badge, perhaps their most sacred symbol, one they will never allow to be desecrated. The significance of this sigil may seem painfully obvious to outsiders, who will link it with ease to the badge used by the Dark Angels themselves, but it has a deeper meaning. While the sword represent the knightly origins of the First Legion, the wings are considered symbols of it's absolution, while the fact that it emerge from a lake (which is represented by a series of concentric rings, emanating from where the blade emerges from the lake) is seen as the foretold redemption of all the Unforgiven. Each and every Seeker thus wear on his shoulder the hope of Lion El'Jonson's whole lineage.

Specific Relations
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Notable Quotes
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By the Seekers of Penitence
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