Lightning Wraiths

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The Lightning Wraiths are a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter founded on the 37th Millennium as a successor to the White Scars. As such, the Lightning Wraiths retained some of the White Scars' traditions and combat doctrine. They were created in response to an increase in Dark Eldar activity in Segmentum Obscurus. A chapter born from shame, hate, and vengeance, the Lightning Wraiths are a reclusive chapter with traditions that derive from various death and warrior cults of their home planet. Marines hailing from the chapter are taciturn individuals, speaking only when the situation requires clear and concise communication. Even then, they speak very little to those who are not of the Lightning Wraiths. The only exception to their introverted attitudes are the White Scars, as the Lightning Wraiths are fanatically loyal to their forefathers. However, in the fields of battle, the normally introverted marines turn into savages fuelled by their undying rage.

Chapter History
A non-Codex compliant Chapter, the Lightning Wraiths believe the Codex Astartes to be too rigid and too constraining. While they do not despise the Codex, seeing as Guilliman’s words have some wisdom to them, their utter disregard for the word of Guilliman gain the ire of devout practitioners of the Codex, such as the Hammers of Dorn. Their lack of compliance with the codex has resulted in disagreements between Lightning Wraith Captains, otherwise known as Viceroys, and other chapters in response to various threats to humanity.

Part of the reason why they do not comply with the Codex is due to their preferred style of warfare. The Lightning Wraiths combined the Raven Guard's reconnaissance tactics and the White Scars's hit-and-run tactics to great effect. They always sought the enemy's weaknesses and capitalized on it without mercy in a manner such that the enemy is left dazed at the speed and force of the assault. As their combat doctrine is a combination of speed and stealth, the Chapter has no need for Devastator Squads or armored vehicles. The lack of armoured vehicles such as the Predator and Land Raider would have substantially decreased the firepower that the Chapter could lay on the enemy. This was mitigated by their expansive airforce. A part of their armory also includes equipment taken from abandoned battlefields and repurposed for Astartes use. The possession of these controversial weapons was the Chapter's saving grace during their encounter with the Tyranid menace.

The Lightning Wraiths had resorted to using ancient weaponry from the chapter's armory to combat the devourers. Through the use of bio-alchemical and rad-weaponry dating back to the Great Crusade as well as modified Chem-cannons stolen from abandoned Bane Wolves, they managed to hold off the threat from devouring the Agri-World Laiko. The chapter’s usage of Destroyer weaponry, as well as modified weapons, proved to be their saving grace from total annihilation during a confrontation with a splinter force belonging to Hive Fleet Kraken during the Second Tyrannic War. There had been repercussions for their usage of terror weapons from various chapters, but the Lightning Wraiths paid no heed to them as they believe that as long as the threat is vanquished then the means to do so are irrelevant.

Many of their traditions are taken from the savage natives of their feudal homeworld, Morozhko. Although they recruit from many worlds, each Lightning Wraith is expected to spend time with the locals of Morozhko during their training to become an Astartes. From the aspirants to the Chapter Master, otherwise known as the Preceptor, every Lightning Wraith has spent years learning the ways of the savage natives of Morozhko. There are three main tribes that an aspirant must learn from. The death cult of the Vossmortin, the warrior tribe of Laeda-Krovus, and the nomadic hunters of Oxthonik. When an aspirant has an easier time integrating into one of the three tribes, then the heads of Chapter Command will take interest on the aspirant. It has been recorded that the most devout of Chaplains came from the Vossmortin, the greatest of Champions were of Laeda-Krovus and the stealthiest of scouts learned from Oxthonik.

Founding
The Lightning Wraiths' history is deeply rooted in vengeance and hate. The seeds of the chapter were sown during a White Scars campaign against a Dark Eldar invasion of an Imperial Colony on 672.37M, where a Harlequin Troupe ambushed one scout squad conducting surveillance. All but three members of the squad barely managed to survive due to the timely interference of White Scars Bike Squads. One of these survivors was future Lightning Wraiths founder and Preceptor Khugol Drakon.

Aedalur Massacre
At the wake of the 9th Black Crusade, an enormous Space Hulk exited the warp at the edge of the Aedalur System. Accompanying the massive machine was a small fleet of Khornate warships, with Yhar’gol, a Khornate Champion with an insatiable drive for daemon ascension, commanding the invasion party. The attackers consisted of the Chaos Warbands, the Hand of Khorne and the Blackblood Hounds, as well as auxiliary support in the form of daemon engines and an entire Traitor Guard regiment of Khornate Cultists hailing from the Bellowing Daemon Cult.

The first planet that was invaded was the feudal world of Salis. The entire population was either murdered or indoctrinated within a week by a company of Hand of Khorne Berzerkers. However, only the strike cruiser Song of Violence was provided for the attack of Salis. The rest of the fleet remained beside the space hulk as it made its way through space towards Forge World Nivera.

As the space hulk slowly drifted in space, psykers that were either planetside or serving in a nearby Imperial ship began to writhe in agony or jerk spastically as they experienced a seizure brought about by an immensely powerful psychic presence. The sight of astropaths and navigators foaming at the mouths, screaming in pain as they spasmed on the ground scared those who were unfortunate enough to witness the phenomenon. Merchant ships were not able to enter the warp in order to make a quick escape due to the phenomenon, rendering them effectively trapped in the warzone that encompassed the Aedalur system.

Amidst the agony she felt, one astropath had projected a powerful psychic message with the remaining vestiges of her energy. The sheer might required for her astropathic message to be sent coupled with the pain of feeling malicious psychic energies caused her to perish. Her final act was what would save Nivera from total destruction as the Lightning Wraiths received her message and warped into the system a few hours later.

Meanwhile,

Death of Laiko
With a heavy heart, Preceptor __ ordered the of the Harbingers and the infamous Desolation of Khan to lay waste on the Agriworld.

Chapter Home World
Morozhko is a hostile feudal world, cast in an almost permanent winter due to its distance to its star.

Fortress-Monastery
The Crypt of Brehus is a massive tunnel network hidden within the Jirae Mountains of Morozhko.

Chapter Organisation
Many of the Lighting Wraith's ranks were taken from the armies of the Morozhkan Monarchies. Specifically those of the nine monarchs that remained loyal to the Imperial Truth during the Morozhkan Uprising.

Officer Ranks

 * The Preceptor - The Lightning Wraith's equivalent of a Chapter Master, the Preceptor is chosen by a cabal of men consisted of well-respected members of the 'Farshan', the Armorium, the Librarius, and the Viceroys. He leads the First Company into battle.
 * Ensigns - The Lightning Wraith's equivalent of a Primaris Lieutenant.
 * Viceroy - The Lightning Wraith's equivalent of a Company Captain.
 * Vizier - The Lightning Wraith's equivalent of a Chief Librarian.
 * Magister - The Lightning Wraith's equivalent of a Librarian.
 * Koval - The Lightning Wraith's equivalent of a Forgemaster
 * Machinist - The Lightning Wraith's equivalent of a Techmarine
 * Bannerlord - The Lightning Wraith's equivalent of a Standard Bearer.

Specialist Ranks

 * Iakugo - Instead of having a champion in each company dedicated to hunting down enemy warlords, the Lightning Wraiths have one Champion to represent the entire chapter. The Iakugo, meaning "bewildering force" in Common Morozhkan, is the greatest warrior in the Chapter. His previous name would be forgotten, as it is a tradition for him to become one with the weapon that bears the same name as the position he is to hold. His duties consist of safeguarding the Preceptor, spearheading mass assaults, and hunting down Warlords. The Iakugo is the Preceptor's shadow, his guardian and his executioner. With an oath of silence and a mask of Jaghatai Khan welded onto his face, the Iakugo is seldom seen or heard as he lurks in the shadows but is never too far to intervene any attempts on the Preceptor.
 * Vicars - Vicars of the Chapter are the amalgamation of an Apothecary and a Chaplain of the Codex Astartes. Healers of both mind and body, the Vicars are held in high regard and are often the ones with a security detail accompanying them with the exception of the Chapter Master. Due to the combination of two roles, the Reclusium and the Apothecarion are also merged into the 'Farshan', a Laeda-Krovian word that roughly translates to 'House of Healing' in Low Gothic. There is also a larger than normal amount of Vicars, when compared to a Codex-Compliant Chapter's amount of Apothecaries or Chaplains, to compensate for the combination of two roles.
 * Oathtaker - The Oathtaker is the combination of a Reclusiarch and a Head Apothecary. Those who are given this position are responsible for inducting Neophytes into the Chapter, overseeing ascensions of Captains and Chapter Masters, and ensuring that the Chapter's relics are cared for. Oathtakers are also the ones who keep the Chapter's dark secrets under wraps. Only the high echelons of the Chapter know of the secrets that an Oathtaker guards.

Line Ranks

 * Gefreiter - The Lightning Wraith's equivalent of a Tactical Marine.
 * Dragoon - The Lightning Wraith's equivalent of an Assault Marine.
 * Hussar - The Lightning Wraith's equivalent of a Space Marine Biker.
 * Jäger - The Lightning Wraith's equivalent of a Scout.
 * Kapitulant - The Lightning Wraith's equivalent of a Sergeant.

Specialist Formations

 * Stalkers - Stalkers are a covert infiltration team of Astartes specializing in sabotage and decapitation strikes against the enemy while deep behind enemy lines. Stalkers typically consist of particularly gifted scouts that have finally earned their Black Carapace. This means that each member is a fully-fledged and armoured Battle-Brother. Armed with Stalker Bolters along with one support weapon and enough explosives to level 5 hab-blocks, their purpose is to cause as much havoc at the heart of the enemy. They are the precursors of an assault and if they were to fail, they are heavily armed enough to act as diversions as the assault takes place. The integration of Vanguard Primaris Marines to the Chapter meant that there would be more of these covert specialists within the Chapter.
 * Dark Prophets - Dark Prophets are squads of disgraced Astartes who have shamed the Chapter through their pride or lack of self-control. Like the Sagyar Mazan of their forefathers, these warriors are put under a death oath and would spearhead any engagement or act as the rearguard in order to restore their honor. Their insignia would be blotted out, indicating that their actions have made them unworthy of wearing the mark of a Lightning Wraith. Squads would be led by Veterans hand-picked by either the Preceptor or the Oathtaker and each Veteran would be given permission to execute any Dark Prophet who is beyond redemption.
 * Harbingers - Harbingers are marines who are tasked to render the very ground they stand on inhospitable and impossible to use. Harbingers are treated with a kind of sympathy within the chapter as they are given the difficult job of transforming Imperial ground into a wasteland to deny any enemy resources. Despite the similarities to the Destroyers of the past, Harbingers are different because they were not warriors with no qualms with rendering worlds unsuitable for life. Rather, the roles are given to those who have bleeding hearts as they understand the severity of their tasks and would take great care to ensure that there will not be a second occurrence at the same location. Furthermore, Harbingers would have an iron mask fashioned in the likeness of their faces prior to the assignment so that when they perish in battle, they will be buried with dignity as their heavily deteriorating face will be hidden beneath their former glory.

Combat Doctrine
The Lightning Wraiths prefer to either deal with their enemies in one fell swoop as fast as possible or to whittle them down with hit-and-run tactics accompanied with sabotage. As such, they do not have any Devastator Squads or armoured land vehicles in their arsenal. The heavy equipment would not only struggle to keep up with the insane speeds that the Lightning Wraiths conduct their attacks, but would also slow down the speed of an assault. To compensate for this loss of firepower, the Lightning Wraiths have an extensive and large air force at their disposal. Their ships contain enough Stormhawk Interceptors, Stormravens, Storm Eagles, Thunderhawks and Land Speeders to transport the entire Chapter en masse to a planet's surface. Aerial Superiority is a crucial component of any Lightning Wraith strategy because without their air force, they do not have enough firepower to deal with opponents that are too numerous or too sturdy.

Furthermore, they have two scout companies so that the acquisition of intelligence regarding the enemy's forces will be easier and so that more sabotage ops can be executed. The higher number of scouts is necessary as there are times that the enemy has total aerial superiority and an infiltration operation is a fulcrum in which the tide of a battle will turn to the Lightning Wraith's favour. Stalkers are an integral part of the Scout Companies and of the Chapter as a whole. It is because decapitation strikes are favoured by the Lightning Wraiths as battles fought through attrition are seen as too costly by the Chapter. Night Operations are also favoured as their mutations provide them with advantages from a tactical and a psychological standpoint.

Among Teachers and Students
One belief of the chapter is that their purpose is to teach and be taught. This is most noticeable in the position of Iakugo. Every Iakugo is both teacher and student as the martial skill required to wield the twinblade relic weapon is only known to the previous Iakugo and the serfs that he taught. The serfs under his tutelage are almost always aspirants that are gifted in combat, but were unable to receive the geneseed due to genetic mismatches.

When a new Iakugo is inducted, it is the duty of these serfs, whom are known as the Bladekeepers, to teach the Astartes. If the Astartes refuses to be taught by the Bladekeepers, he fails the first test of his induction. It was said that humility and patience are paramount virtues of the first Iakugo, as he was the one who began this tradition. Failure of his tests of induction would result in the Preceptor inducting the Iakugo aspirant to the Dark Prophets for his sins of pride.

Purity of Flesh
The Lightning Wraiths despise bionics and the thought of voluntarily replacing body parts with augmentics is anathema to them. It is their belief that when a warrior's limb is severed or an organ is destroyed, a part of the warrior's soul is lost. To replace a severed limb or an organ is to desecrate what remains of the warrior's soul. Only through a proper death will a warrior's soul be truly whole and at peace. Bionic limbs, eyes, and organs are only accepted out of pure necessity in order to serve the Imperium. Dreadnoughts are considered an insult to the warrior who is interred into one as the fallen must be rewarded with eternal peace once they have paid their tithes to the Imperium with their own lives.

If a Space Marine of great skill or experience has suffered wounds that would render them unfit for combat for the rest of their lives, they are given the option of either the Emperor's Peace or to be the mentors of future generations of Astartes.

Gene-Seed
As successors of the White Scars, the gene-seed of the Lightning Wraiths was initially found to be stable and free of aberrations. However, a century after the gene-seed was implanted into the first Lightning Wraith Neophyte, mutations began to surface.

The first mutation that was spotted is currently known as the "Bloody Roots". It is when the arteries of a marine become highly visible. A dissection of a fallen battle-brother by Chapter Vicars found that the arteries have expanded and the blood traveling from the heart contained abnormally high hemoglobin levels, even for Astartes. Further investigation by Vicars revealed that this mutation is a boost of sorts to an evolutionary trait from the inhabitants of Morozhko. The mortals of the world are accustomed to traversing the abundant mountain peaks without any specialized equipment, thus their blood has higher hemoglobin levels than an average human.

The second mutation appeared after 150 years since the implantation of gene-seed upon the first Generation of Lightning Wraiths. It is when a Battle-Brother's pupil and irises become milky white. Commonly known as the "Wraith's Sight", those who have been stricken by this mutation gain increased sensitivity to bright light. The afflicted also gain a form of heat vision when total darkness, where the temperature of objects can be estimated based on how brightly they glow through the eyes of those with the Wraith's Sight. Precursors to this mutation are uncontrollable tears of blood leaking from a marine's tear ducts.

The cause of these mutations is currently unknown. There are speculations that the genetic material of Morozhkan natives negatively react to that of the White Scars' genome. This theory is currently the most viable explanation for these defects because when the Founding members of the Chapter had their gene-seed implanted into Neophytes, the mutations also surfaced onto these marines despite the Founders being perfectly free of mutation.

Chapter Relics
Many of the Chapter's Relics were items looted from the Space Hulk __ during the War of __. Those who know of these relics' source outside of the Lightning Wraiths condemned the Chapter for either desecrating the dead with their looting or hoarding and tinkering archeotech.
 * The Crown of the Old Kings - A relic dating to the Chapter's founding, the Crown of the Old Kings is a Mark IV helmet with a wrought-iron crown welded onto it. It has been said that the iron crown was made from the remains of the crowns belonging 9 kings who swore their fealty to the chapter during the colonization of its homeworld. These 9 kings were the only ones who accepted the Imperial Truth with open arms and were the ones who stood alongside their new masters while the world fell to a mass rebellion against the 'demons from the stars'.
 * Desolation of Khan - When a planet's infestation of Xenos or heresy has become too deep or too numerous, the Lightning Wraiths are forced to take extraordinary measures to preserve the safety of the __ Sector. One such measure is to unleash an arsenal of weaponry that was considered so vile in the Great Crusades that those who used it had their honor tarnished forever. The Desolation of Khan is not one relic, but rather a set of five. More specifically, a set of Five Rad-Cannons and Jump Packs that belonged to a Legion Destroyer Squad. To unleash the Desolation of Khan is a last resort for the Chapter and only if Exterminatus is impossible to achieve.
 * Iakugo - A Morozhkan word meaning 'bewildering force', it is the weapon wielded by the Chapter Champion who would renounce their old name and replace it with the weapon's in order to become one with the relic as tradition demands it. The weapon is actually two Chogorian Warglaives with their handles cut short enough for a one-handed grip and pommels welded onto the bottoms that can interlock with each other. The relic twin-blade is a devastating weapon in the hands of the Iakugo as he becomes a whirlwind of ceramite and steel.

Chapter Colours
A battle brother hailing from the Lightning Wraiths is clad in dark bone-white armour with blood-red pauldron trims and a black backpack. Their right arm is painted in pure white from pauldron to finger in homage to their gene-sire.

Veterans of the First Company are set apart from their battle-brothers through a pitch-black helm and a black, tattered, hooded robe.

Since they are successors of the White Scars, the Lightning Wraiths have adopted the former Legion's designations for Company and Squad Numbers. Squad Specialties symbols have also been adopted from the White Scars, but not the markings of the White Scars Chapter. Rather, they adopted the squad specialty markings from that of the White Scars Legion.

The two Scout Companies do not have the honor of donning the Chapter badge as it represents the freedom the members of the company will have before they are thrust into a lifetime of servitude as a part of the Chapter's Reserve and Battle Companies. Those who wish to remain in the scout companies even after the implementation of the Black Carapace are given a pitch-black service stud above the right brow. The lack of Chapter Badge on a scout's armour is also because scouts are encouraged to paint their entire armour in camouflage patterns.

Chapter Badge
The chapter's insignia is that of a five-pronged crown made of black iron over a field of bone-white. It is in the image of the Crown of the Old Kings, the Chapter's oldest and most revered relic. Scout Companies do not have the badge displayed on their armor as it believed that as hunters, they belong to nobody but themselves. Furthermore, because scouts are encouraged to wear camouflage and tasked with infiltration ops, the lack of a chapter badge would stir confusion and paranoia amongst the enemy as they wouldn't know which chapter would be attacking. Dark Prophets also do not have the badge on their armour, but for an entirely different reason. These marines have shamed their chapter, and as such, do not have the honor of calling themselves as Lightning Wraiths. Besides an honorable death, it is only through great deeds of courage and selflessness does a Dark Prophet regain the right to call himself a Lightning Wraith.

White Scars
The Lightning Wraiths are fanatically loyal to their forefathers, to the point that they would send some of their best aspirants every 140 years to the White Scars as tribute.

By the Lightning Wraiths
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 * "We have the blood of Jaghatai Khan flowing through our veins. We are not the stalwart fortresses of Dorn's scions nor are we the wrathful flames of Sanguinius. We are the rivers of His will; flowing around any obstacle that crosses our path. When we are forced to a confrontation, the torrents of our blades and bolters will be as unending and focused as the rapids of a narrow stream."
 * — Vicar Tulemon Far'zhul

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 * "The enemy thinks that the storms we create are the worst things we could offer. Little do they know that while they weathered the storm, wraiths began to wander the streets."
 * —Stalker Yesugi Jallach prior to the assassination of a Traitor General

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