Blood Serpents

Blood Serpents

The Blood Serpents were founded as part of the 12th founding, during the 35th millennium, as a successor chapter to the Blood Angels. During the 36th millennium the Blood Serpents fought many tough battles for their home world. First, the minor Ork Waaagh Clawcrusha attacks the Blood Serpents home world of Astoran. Though the Orks were swiftly brought down by the might of the chapter, a large portion of the chapter fell to the black rage. Then High Chaplain Kruthu Zarlan corrupted by the chaos god Khorne took the death company and convinced them that the rest of the chapter had fallen to the chaos gods and were the traitors from the Horus Heresy. The following battle that ensued brought down approximately one third of the remaining chapter, bringing the chapter down to about half strength. Finally a warp storm above Astoran spat out a strange living ship that immediately started unleashing an army of living horrors on the planet. Though these creatures had not yet entered this galaxy they would eventually be called Tyranids. The following battle reduced the chapter down to three men, 8th company sergeant Asterog, 8th company marine Skyrog, and sanguinary priest Zancor. This time is known among the Blood Serpents as the Fall.

Then the inquisitors wanted to disband the chapter, however Asterog seeing himself as the new Chapter Master thought of it as his duty to revive the chapter. So he went out to the nearby planets and took every able-bodied man back to Astoran. He then used Insanguination taking Zancor’s blood as he was the only remaining Sanguinary Priest. Zancor died shortly after the Insanguination process. 5 days after all the new recruits had entered their sarcophagi the entire planet was sucked into the warp by a warp storm.

In the year 584.M41 there was a warp storm in the sector where Astoran used to be, and out popped Astoran, full of a complete chapter of Space Marines. The Astartes that emerged became known as The Reborn Serpents. Over the next 400 years the majority of The Reborn Serpents had fallen in battle, with only a few remaining, almost entirely as Captains or in the Arch Company.

Also, the Black Rage seemed to disappear for a while, then in the year 936.M41 the chapter was assigned to take out a segment of Hive Fleet Kraken (the first time the Blood Serpents had fought Tyranids since their rebirth), this triggered something in the brain that had been lying dormant in there for nearly 400 years. The entire 5th company was consumed by a new plague, the Green Rage, though the war ended swiftly it would shape the chapter forever.

The Green Rage appears to be a mutated form of the Black Rage that most Blood Angel successor chapters suffer from. It has altered effects to the Black Rage; the first is that instead of believing that they are Sanguineous in is dyeing moments, they believe that they are fighting Tyranids during the battle for Astoran. Then there are the other stranger affects of it, some members of the Blood Serpents that have fallen to the Green Rage seem to have actually gained some tactical knowledge resulting in them taking up the ranks of sergeants in the Blood Serpent chapters. However, the Green Rage takes sweeping blows across the Blood Serpents, claiming large numbers every time the Blood Serpents go into battle, which still sends a large number of them to death every time.

The Sanguinary Priests believe that the Green Rage mutated when Zancor’s gave his blood in the Insanguination process that created The Reborn Serpents, and has been passed down through the generations by the new Sanguinary Priests. They believe that the Tyranid poison that entered his system during the battle for Astoran corrupted the mutation that causes the Black Rage inside of him, and then was passed on throughout the Blood Serpents.

Despite the large number of Blood Serpents that die every time they go to battle their numbers remain fairly consistent, this is because of Lord Commander Asterog, the Chapter Master since they entered the warp, goes around the nearby systems to Astoran and collects massive swathes of young men to join the chapter whenever he is at Astoran.

Chapter Organization:

The Arch Company: while not technically a company the Arch Company it is comprised of the most elite of the chapter. Containing the Chapter Master, and highest ranked members of each of the auxiliaries, along with Honour Guard.

The 1st Company: The majority of the chapters veterans lie in this company and as such it is the most powerful company in the Chapter.

The 2nd Company: The Slitherers battle company prefers a slow advance on foot while they destroy the enemy with Plasma weaponry.

The 3rd Company: The tank riding brethren of the chapter, the 3rd company goes into every battle mounted inside their trusted vehicles.

The 4th Company: The Drop Pod company, they arrive on every planet in a devastating landing destroying a key enemy stronghold and then holding it while the rest of the army arrives.

The 5th Company: The War company, a company dedicated to rushing the foe and ripping them apart in brutal combat.

The 6th Company: The Tactical company goes to war with precision, they suffer the least casualties per battle as they steadily advance into their enemy eliminating targets with tactical precision.

The 7th Company: The Blood Scars train in the “Scar” a massive canyon on the surface of Astoran, only the best bikers in the Blood Serpents can make it through fast enough to become a Blood Scar.

The 8th Company: Skyrog’s Sky Serpents are the most reckless company in the chapter, and the most loyal to their Captain, going so far as to sacrifice themselves, or best friends to Skyrog’s axe if they believe they might have fallen to the Green Rage, and as such is the only company with no members having fallen to the Green Rage.

The 9th Company: The Destructors unlike the rest of the chapter mostly prefer to stay back and shoot at their foes with heavy weapons rather than rush forward into the combat.

The 10th Company: The trainees of the chapter are collected into the Scout company where they provide recon and sniper support to the other companies during a battle.

The X Company: Unlike most of the Blood Angel successor chapters the Death Company is a literal company, this is because the rate at which the Blood Serpents fall to the Green Rage would be unsustainable if they followed the typical style of killing off any survivors after the battle.

The Primarus Company: Also unlike the most Chapters the Blood Serpents have an entire company holding their Primarus Marines. This was an attempt of Asterog to tame Skyrog’s furry against the addition of a potential threat to the chapter.

The Codex Serpenta:

The Codex Serpenta was started by Asterog after becoming Chapter Master, but before Astoran was yanked into the 41st millennium. It was created as a response to Kuthru Zarlan’s treachery, Asterog took all of the auxiliaries of the chapter, and implemented them into the nine primary companies (1st through 9th). Additionally, he reworked the structure of the chapters companies entirely resulting in a spread of the Veterans throughout the other chapters. Finally, this rendition of the Codex Serpenta changed the succession so that the most senior Captain became Chapter Master in the event of an empty Chapter Master position rather than the 1st Captain. The 10 companies were restructured as follows: This version of the codex would soon be slightly changed as Skyrog refused to allow Chaplains into his company, and replaced them with his own creation a Demi-Captain, who would fill a similar role to the Chaplain as a Spiritual Leader, however reported directly to him.

This form of the chapter worked well enough until 936.M41 when the Green Rage emerged, it became apparent to Asterog that the current plan of just following the typical Blood Angel successor plan of using the Death Company for a few battles then executing them was both unsustainable, and not the optimal use, due to their increased knowledge. From this he created a new company, the X company which would be comprised entirely of Death Company and have the sergeants of all squads be replaced with members of the Death Company. Skyrog however vehemently fought against merely allowing the Death Company to survive, let alone allow them to lead any thing.

However, Asterog realised that the Death Company would be invaluable to the chapter, so he wrote the 1st Amendment to the Codex Serpenta, The Death Company Amendment, this created a new company comprised of Demi-Squads of death company marines which could be combined to form greater squads. The 1st Amendment also created a new position, the Arch Captain, whose roll is to assist the Chapter Master, and will take the roll of Chapter Master in the event of the Chapter Master’s death.

After the Battle for Baal, the Indominus Crusade, Guilliman’s reform of the Codex Astartes, and the introduction of the Primaris Marines Asterog realised that a 2nd Amendment was required to the Codex Serpenta, the Primaris Amendment. This Amendment was intended to implement the Primaris Marines into the Chapter much like the other Chapters. However, Skyrog not trusting Guilliman and his creations the Primaris Marines refused to allow yet more intruders into the companies of the Blood Serpents. In response to this, and not wanting to annoy the newly returned Primarch, Asterog created a new company the Primaris company to hold the Primaris contingent, additionally, the 2nd Amendment introduced the Lieutenants to every company to follow the lead of Guilliman’s Codex Astartes reforms.

Astoran:

Astoran, the Home world of the Blood Serpents is located in the Segmentum Obscurus fairly close to the Eye of Terror and suffers from the occasional severe Warp Storm.

Astoran is a Death World whose surface is completely unlivable to normal humans due to the immense radiation caused by the planet being so close to its sun with very little atmosphere. Space Marines in Power Armour can only last for about an hour on the surface before they die, and Terminator Armour only protects them for 3 hours. The only exception to this is The Scar, a 100Km long twisting rocky canyon which somehow managed to escape the radiation covering the rest of the planet.

Due to the complete un-survivability of Astoran the Blood Serpents live beneath the surface in a maze of tunnels designed to confuse anyone trying to invade the planet, while allowing the Blood Serpents to outflank the attacker. The origin of the tunnels is unknown however the Blood Serpents have since arriving massively expanded the tunnel network both near the surface and deeper into the planet.

Astoran is the only known source of an unusual compound known as Astoranium which has some sort of Synaptic disruption effect on the Tyranids. This compound also appears to have an ability to destroy Tyranid creatures with a strong connection to the Hive Mind, likely connected to the Synaptic disruption effect. Despite repeated attempts to recreate Astoranium the Imperium cannot recreate it. As a result Asterog has got a large number of human miners digging deep into the planet in search of Astoranium.

The Battle for Astoran:

The Green Rage:

The Battle for Baal:

As the Hive Fleet Leviathan launched an assault on Baal all of the Blood Angel successors went to Baal to defend the home of Sanguinius, the Blood Serpents were no exception. During the battle the entire chapter was stationed on the planet, not the moons, and largely fought in the battle for Arx Angelicum with two major exceptions.

The first exception was Captain Sendran, and the 9th companies last stand. The Destructors stood defiant at an external fortress, holding back a hoard of Tyranids on the walls of a series of bastions, with Drop Pods from multiple chapters used as additional blockage. Expecting to die within an hour, but they held out almost until Guilliman arrived with Captain Sendran falling as a Hive Tyrant crashed through the lines tearing the last of the Devastators to pieces before Sendran charged forwards ramming his Relic Blade into the heart of the Hive Tyrant, bringing down the beast, however as it went down the beast wrapped its monstrous lash whip around his neck choking Sendran out while he struggled in vain to break free. Captain Sendran’s story would not end there for though he was mortally by the beast and the Tyranid hoard rushed over him in an attempt to break Guilliman’s army Sendran survived long enough to be entombed into a dreadnought and keep leading the destructors into battle.

The other exception was Captain Skyrog and the 8th company. While the Sky Serpents started the battle defending the Arx Angelicum before Asterog seeing an opportunity to both weaken the Tyranids, and remove Skyrog. Asterog sent Skyrog deep into the Tyranid lines to the landing points of their spores. However, Skyrog proved that he would not be so easily beaten as despite him losing all of his company, and being assaulted by multiple monstrosities, including a hulking Hierophant Bio-Titan, Skyrog came out of the fight victorious, standing over a mountain of Tyranid corpses. Despite it looking as if Skyrog had multiple mortal wounds across his body, and his armour being almost completely destroyed upon the arrival of Guilliman, and the other reinforcements arrived at his position Skyrog was still fighting strong.