Yearning Ruin

"Life is short, spend it in service, and pray you die before you cannot."

- Astartes 35-ZZA-131

The Yearning Ruin are a Non-Codex Compliant Chapter of Space Marines taken from the gene-stock of the Raven Guard Chapter. A dour and life dismissing Chapter whose Astartes are doomed to die in either glory or great nigh-eternal personal shame.

History
After the Age of Apostasy, many Space Marine Chapters were founded due to varying attempts to cure the many Gene-Seed deficiencies of the myriad Space Marine Chapters in the Imperium. However, those Chapters were almost invariably met with terrible luck or even completely deficient Gene-Seed stocks. The Yearning Ruin are no exception to this rule.

Unstable Beginnings
Most newly-established Chapters receive the permanent assignment from their Parent Chapter to serve as their first Chapter Master until death. This Veteran of the Raven Guard Chapter was named Mortan Khar. However, in their first battle against the enemies of the Imperium, Mortan Khar was mortally wounded and killed by a stray shot from a T'au Empire plasma rifle. The Chapter finished the grueling campaign against the T'au, pushing them back out of the Imperium, but this was only the beginning.

Life is Short
After returning to their homeworld, the apothecaries of the Yearning Ruin discovered that the Progenoid Glands of the Chapter were maturing in two-thirds the time as normal. They also discovered that the Astartes themselves were aging at an accelerated rate that varied between individuals.

Gene-Seed
Typically the Raven Guard and its successors suffer from lacking the Mucranoid and Betcher's Gland as well as their Melanchromic Organ which makes the skin of their Astartes Paler. The Yearning Ruin Chapter do not suffer from these mutations, and has fully functioning Mucranoid and Betcher's Glands. However, in exchange for this stability the Chapter has developed a horrible flaw called The Wasting.

The Wasting
The Astartes of the Yearning Ruin Chapter age at an accelerated rate. The rate of acceleration itself is variable between Astartes, but most age the equivalent of one-hundred years within the span of twenty-five. This means that the Chapter goes through many generations of Astartes within the span of one Millennium from replacing their aged Astartes alone, which is unsustainable for an Astartes Chapter limited to one planet.

Order of Battle
The Yearning Ruin forgo the tenets of the Codex Astartes entirely, each of its companies striking out into the Galaxy to bring death to the enemies of Mankind and themselves.

Chapter Ethos
Due to their swift aging, the Yearning Ruin have adopted a culture of dour warriorship, lamenting their doom to short lives and seeking greater feats to earn them. Death itself is not the end goal of the Astartes. To die still young is merely a preference for the elders to regret upon, that they must feel their bones and muscles strain to move what once were a perfect form.

Chapter Recruitment
When recruits are taken for the Yearning Ruin Chapter, they are sent to the Chapter's homeworld to undergo their trials. Part of these trials and training is the total and complete break-down of the aspirants identity, where they are then given a new name within the Chapter. To call it a name is to be too gentle, as it is determined and consists of numbers and represents a designation. The Astartes designation consists of the current Millennium, generation within the millennium, and then individual number within the generation. They are then conditioned to understand that nothing they have is truly theirs, but a gift of the Emperor.

Honored Ancients
The greatest among the Chapter are entombed in Dreadnoughts like other Chapters, but with the swift aging and lust for death, Captains are forced to continue their service in death as they had in life. It is not an honorless existence, for these venerable warriors still walk and transcend the aging that ails the Chapter, but watching generation after generation fight and die is a wound all its own. Only upon this mechanical ascension, an Astartes within the Chapter is granted a name that is their own.

Chapter Colors
To emulate their homeworld's perpetual sunset, Astartes of the Yearning Ruin paint their armor in a gradient from orange to a night sky blue. The younger Astartes specifically feature a gradient from orange to red from their feet to their head. Veteran Astartes feature a gradient from red to deep purple from their feet to their head, and the Leaders of the Chapter feature a gradient from deep purple to night sky blue from their feet to their head. In this way, age is easily determined for squad makeup.

About the Yearning Ruin
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