Jonmarines

The Jonmarines are a Loyalist semi-Codex compliant Successor Chapter of the noble and accursed Lamenters Chapter, which hails from the lineage of the angelic Primarch Sanguinius, and, whilst partially understood by the Jonmarines themselves, the Praetors of Orpheus Chapter. Created in 927.M41 during an unstated Founding, the Jonmarines were the former protectors of the Lawsunda Majoris system, until disaster befell them during the disastrous events known in Chapter annals as the Howling Dark. Forced to enact Exterminatus upon their own Chapter home world, the Jonmarines henceforth became a fleet-based Chapter, and now bring both bolter and blade to the enemies of Mankind on their own terms, wherever citizens of the Imperium cry out for aid.

Chapter History
The Jonmarines are considered to be a loyalist, mostly Codex-compliant Chapter of Space Marines save for a few minor differences due to the unique culture of their home system. They were founded in 927.M41 by whom the Jonmarines believe to be their first Chapter Master, Jonavaux Asteralix, the Founder, with the permission of Inquisitor Tuplov and the blessings from the Chapter Masters of the Lamenters, from whom the Jonmarines are descendants of the Blood Angles, and the Knights Celestial chapters.

Prior to the events that came to be known as the Howling Dark, the Jonmarines were claimed the protectors of the system of Lawsunda Majoris, an Imperial backwater system initially teetering on the edge of rebellion. It's situated to the galactic East of Firestorm, the chapter world of the Aurora Chapter, Southeast of the Tomb World of Hexos and the immediate galactic North-Northwest of Mandragora, the Crownworld of the brutal Sautek Dynasty, as their home system, focusing upon the central military, economic and population hub of Lawsunda, the system’s most populous world and its namesake.

Throughout the Jonmarines' early years, under the guidance of their Founder, their first chapter master’s term, however, the inhabited worlds of 'the Majoris' would experience something of a dramatic transformation, the Jonmarines' direct intervention in the system's governance swiftly reversing untold generations of corruption and infighting that had taken root since a civil war wrecked the system shortly after the Horus Heresy, and the subsequent War of the Beast, known as the Anarkhiya Period in Lawsunda's Old-Tongue.

The original settlers of the Lawsundan system, Lawsunda Majoris, came from Eastern Europa on Terra, and in many parts of the system their tradition and cultural similarities can be seen, especially through linguistic heritages. The genetic heritage linking so directly back to Terra was only found during the Fall of the Lokus sector when Chief Apothecary Julian Kalviathan noted that the genetic makeup of astartes from Lawsunda Majoris and those of Imperial Fists chapter recruited from Terra were almost identical, ignoring the alterations made by the different gene-seed of the chapters.

Now, however, nearly two hundred Lawsundan (183 Imperial years) later, Lawsunda Majoris is but a ruined shadow of even its pre-Jonmarine days, as it's population centres lie both empty and destroyed alongside the world they once towered upon, in the wake of the vicious assaults made by rising necron legions, and the invasion of one of Hive Fleet Kraken's long-thought destroyed splinter fleets, that heralded the beginning of the Howling Dark, alongside Jonavaux Lericberguson's fateful decision to enact Exterminatus upon Lawsunda, an act deemed necessary as an attempt to strike a crippling blow against the Necrons who claimed Lawsunda as their Crownworld, resulting in the Jonmarines quickly adapting itself to becoming a fleet-based chapter following their so-called Reconstruction.

Despite being, according to other pre-Ultima Founding chapters, relatively young, the Jonmarines believe themselves to have had a turbulent, violent even, if not rich, history - one that reflects their predecessors as much as the Founder's attempts to break from their unfortunate past. In more recent years, however, the Founder's subterfuge has dwindled as the truth is revealed, Jonavaux Lericberguson, the Saviour, has seen the embracing of this history; better an ugly, unfortunate truth than a beautiful lie. Yet, there still remain truths that the Jonmarines are, even now, unaware of.

According to the Jonmarines themselves, the Jonmarines were founded after Captain Jonavaux Asteralix, of the Lamenters' First Company, blackmailed Inquisitor Tuplov and the Knights Celestial with revealing the true origins of the Knights to the Imperium - that the Knights were, in fact, once Astartes of the Emperor's Children Legion. This revelation occurred following the end of the Victoria Phyrri, a war fought by the Lamenters, Mantis Warriors and the Drakken Harbingers at the Knights' side, against a combined force of Red Corsairs, Iron Warriors and Emperor's Children, alongside other, more malicious, heretics.

Jonavaux had initiated this blackmailing attempt following both his and Malakim Phoros' belief that the Lamenters, ravaged by the defence of Lokus, would be unable to complete their Penitent Crusade, proposing that the creation of a new Chapter would allow the Lamenters to eventually gain assistance in their Crusade, alongside allowing those Lamenters that shed their old colours to atone for their chapter's role in the Badab atrocity, permitting the selfless nature adopted by the Lamenters to live on as a key principle of this new chapter, in case the Lamenters were destroyed before they could receive aid.

While it is true that the Lokus Sector was beset by a heretical invasion, the Jonmarines are unaware of the true composition of the heretical invasion. While the Red Corsairs and the Emperor’s Children were present during the Victoria Phyrri, the Iron Warriors that fought within the Victoria would meet their ends at the hands of the Jonmarines themselves, and that these heretics were cooperating with what would later become one of the Jonmarines’ most hated foes.

Moreover, what the Jonmarines believe as the truth of their origins is still woefully far from accurate. The Jonmarines believe themselves to have had only three chapter masters, the truth of the fourth, the first, chapter master has went hidden even beyond the revelations of The Howling Dark; for all of the opulence, and emergence from the sins of the past that the Jonmarines were supposed to represent, the dark origins of the Jonmarines, however, did not end solely with the blackmail of Inquisitor Tuplov.

Upon the humiliated Inquisitor's agreement to found the chapter, unmodified and untouched samples of the Praetors of Orpheus' gene-seed gifted to the chapter would be kept and retained to be submitted for checks to the tech-priests of Mars on behalf of the so-called Praetors of Lawsunda, named for the system that would become their home, and an Astartes known as Ælianus was appointed Chapter Master.

Chapter master Ælianus had once been a prominent and well-respected member of the Ultramarines Successor Chapter Praetors of Orpheus, the Captain of the Fourth Company, before he volunteered to join the Deathwatch. According to Tuplov's own records, Ælianus quickly found his footing as a captain based on the Damocles watch station monitoring the Tau Empire with his own killteam. When Inquisitor Tuplov joined the Ordo Xenos, she required a Deathwatch kill-team to protect her as she began studying and researching the Tau Empire. Her militaristic nature and skill with her weapons of choice lead to her often joining or going along with the kill-team into many combat situations. Her time amongst her kill-team fostered a close bond between herself and the Astartes.

So strong was this bond that even when Tuplov shifted her focus to the Ordo Mechanium, after discovering a worrying amount of tau and Aeldari weapons and technology were discovered to have been shipped and illegally used and studied from by nearby forge worlds, the kill-team stayed by her side, justifying it as protecting an Inquisitor dealing with members of the mechanicus that have been corrupted by the Xenos. As such, when Inquisitor Tuplov sought an appropriate leader for the Praetors of Lawsunda, she initially looked to the kill-team that had grown close to her, ensuring the chapter's close loyalty to herself through her own close ally; Ælianus being the most appropriate person for this role.

The loyalty of the ex-Lamenters elements of the chapter, however, would be secured by granting these astartes, including those who had held significant roles within the Lamenters beforehand, integral roles in the chapter's leadership, contrary to Jonavaux Asteralix's wish to lead the chapter itself. Inquisitor Tuplov apparently believed this to be a form of leniency towards Asteralix, figuring that the ex-Lamenters could be kept in line by their own fear of a repeat of the actions that had crippled the Lamenters during the Badab Tragedy.

These ex-Lamenters would not be the only Blood Angel successors to be hidden within the Praetors of Lawsunda. At the request of the deposed Knight Resplendent, ex-chapter master of the Angels Resplendent, Varzival, who had already eschewed his chapter iconography to become a Blackshield within Ælianus' kill-team, those Angels Resplendent librarians who had survived the purge of Kanvolis, and the Resplendent's subsequent transformation into the Angels Penitent, were incorporated into the Praetors of Lawsunda.

When the Praetors of Lawsunda finally grew to appropriate strength within their realm, and once they had established themselves within Lawsunda Majoris, Chapter Master Aelianus disappeared, taking most of the original members of the chapter, the astartes pulled from the Praetors of Orpheus and Angels Resplendent, with him. With them, Ælianus took every record of the chapter's true origins with him, destroying the great library of Lawsunda's capital hive city, the Haedric Hive, in a devastating fire, leaving only a note and a burned vox tape explaining his departure within its ashes:

"I have completed my...and with my duties complete, I will---your curse,... -e reborn anew, you are the...these dark times, and I was merel... the way, casting a shadow in my... You arechapter worthy of both the titles of sons... a sons of Guilliman... You are Astartes, .... your founder...are Jonavaux's marines."

In the dark, suppressed, days that followed the soon to be named Fire of the Haedrican Library, as Ælianus' note had also detailed, the title of chapter master was given to Jonavaux, and the chapter attempted to rebuild its history and past, however little could be salvaged, in a cruel twist of betrayal almost all of the chapter's original librarius was taken away with Ælianus, and with them all prior knowledge of the chapter. Cast astray and without any true identity, the chapter was reforged by Jonavaux, and the Chapter unknowingly adopted Ælianus' last words to them as their name, the Jonmarines, the truth of who the Jonmarines were cunningly encrypted within passages of the Lamentation, save for the admittance that most of the Jonmarines, both before and after the Howling Dark, now hail from Lamenters gene-stock.

Asteralix's term (The Founder's Years)
Asteralix's Jonmarines won significant victories within their new home system, using the Fire of the Haedrican Library as grounds to enact a purge of the upper echelons of the Lawsundan elite, oppressive nobles that were proven to have connections with both a twisted Slaanesh-worshiping cult and a nihilistic cult known by its Lawsundan 'Old-Tongue' name of the Nochyani, enacting sweeping reforms of Lawsunda's stagnant economy, collapsing social order and crippled planetary defence forces. Within two generations of astartes, due to the great push to reform the Lawsunda Majoris system into one with a fairer system of leadership, alongside a successful, albeit brief, campaign against Red Corsairs believed to be on their way to 'the Majoris', which gave the chapter access to a great shipyard outside of 'the Majoris', almost all knowledge of the chapter's origins had been lost to legends; only Jonavaux would know the truth, and, upon his sudden assassination by a Dark Eldar assailant, the Founder would take this truth to the grave. Even with this in mind, however, Jonavaux instead chose to suppress the truth of what he knew of his chapter’s heritage, and reformed the Jonmarines along the traditions still employed by the chapter to the current day.

Romulus' Term (The Defender's Years)
Jonavaux Romulus, once the First Captain under the Founder, would be the Jonmarines’ second official chapter master, following protocols decreed by Asteralix himself. Whilst Romulus would not aim to eclipse his predecessor’s achievements, he would earn his moniker of Defender by saving Lawsunda itself twice, first from an outbreak and subsequent uprising of mutants in one of its hive cities, which, after a long and extensive process of screening those deemed not fully corrupted, led to the reconstruction of the Jonmarines' Librarius, it’s collection of Librarians, and second in leading operations to counter an Ork invasion that beset the world years later. This second, pyrrhic, victory would be Romulus’ last, as he was critically wounded in his attempt to slay the Ork warboss, Gitsmasha, resulting in his internment in a dreadnaught, becoming the first Jonmarine to have been so.

Lericberguson’s Term (The Saviour's Years)
While the Saviour, Jonavaux Lericberguson, was the Jonmarines’ youngest chapter master upon his elevation to the position, his reign has been the longest out of all three, on account of his current survival. It is true, however, that Jonavaux's age is but one of the curiosities of his character, as his title of 'Saviour' was given to him only after the chapter’s Reconstruction, while Asteralix gave himself the moniker of Founder supposedly before the founding of the Jonmarines was complete, and Romulus was known as Defender after his first defence of Lawsunda. Jonavaux Lericberguson's rule is, in the words of himself, "one of four quarters", the so-called "pre-Howling Dark", the "Howling Dark", the "Reconstruction", and the "Crusading Years" phases, the first of which saw a number of small-scale conflicts between the Jonmarines and an unidentified cult, initially mistaken to be a resurgent Nochyani, believed to have been formed by PDF deserters, on Lawsunda itself, thanks in part to an investigation into whether this previously unidentified cult were responsible for the earlier mutant uprising. Alongside this campaign, Jonavaux would experience an unprecedented decline in internal morale as a rift opened up between the third chapter master and the Jonmarines’ Chief Librarian, also known as High Librarius, Kaviaan Launaas. In time, however, Jonavaux and Kaviaan would learn to resolve their differences, but not before the campaign against the mysterious cult of traitors would end in relative disaster, as a Jonmarine librarian disappeared under mysterious circumstances, soon becoming presumed dead.

The Howling Dark
The phrase "Howling Dark", or, as it is often known by those astartes who still speak Lawsunda's near-dead 'Old-Tongue', the Krichasher Nochya, literally the 'Screaming Night', has become infamous amongst the Jonmarines, especially the chapter's older, surviving, members, who sport the title of "Survivor of the Howling Dark" for good reason. Such is true for the infamy of the cataclysm that befell the chapter and the system that it once claimed as its home.

Amongst all of the Jonmarines, including those who entered the chapter’s ranks after the Howling Dark, the cause of the now-immortalised disaster is unknown, but it’s details are intensely clear: Lawsunda Majoris was struck first by attacks launched by what appeared to be former Night Lords, devoted to the soul-hungry embrace of Slaanesh, who the assumed causal factor behind the condition known as 'Haarkarren's Undoing', through the large amount of sonic weaponry they deployed, which caused two entire companies, the Fifth and the Seventh, to turn on each other, decimating both. In what appeared to be a matter of days later, however, the Jonmarines found themselves fighting a desperate war of survival against a great myriad of foes; necrons, first referred to as "the Iron Men", or the Zelakzni Meydichanak in Lawsunda’s 'Old-Tongue', by those who survived the first, catastrophic battle, who claimed Lawsunda as their Crownworld, naming it 'Idroslvia', more traitors, their banners and warbands aligned with Tzeench, Nurgle and Khorne respectively, and, as most vividly remembered, or, perhaps reviled, the so-called Renegade God, Malice, or Malal, the warband of whom seemed to command the whole chaotic invasion in its entirety.

The greatest threat, however, would be the foe that were truly alien, hostile, to both the Jonmarines' other foes, and the Jonmarines themselves, the apparent last force to arrive: a splinter fleet of Tyranids, named 'the Black Clawed Ones', or the Czarnean Szponaina in Lawsunda's 'Old-Tongue', by the Jonmarines partly due to their lack of knowledge regarding them, and their unique, jet-black carapaces. Due to this lack of knowledge on what the tyranid menace was, this splinter fleet would only earn its name after the Howling Dark, and it’s apparent destruction, but the appropriate Cthullhulirus, a name referring to a being of apocalyptic power in ancient Lawsundan mythology, was chosen as its nomenclature. It is telling, thus, that the Jonmarines would name their darkest hour after the colours the foe that killed so many astartes, guardsmen, civilian militiamen, and, most despicably, unarmed civilians, especially given that the Jonmarines' First Company nearly went the way of their High Reclusius, or Master of Sancity, Haedvust Kalviathan, or what remained of the Fifth Company, one of the two companies who were crippled in the initial phases of the Howling Dark; both of which were crushed in battle against Cthullhulirus' hordes, Haedvust violently meeting his end in battle with a vicious creature, later identified as a Hive Tyrant, known to the Jonmarines as the Ripperdon, or the Rozaracharon, the 'Razor-Maw', to the Old-Tongue speaking witnesses of its devastation, thanks to its notoriety of tearing bastions, vehicles, astartes and humans alike apart with its large, elongated boneswords, pursuing targets aloft on large, imposing wings.

A Chapter Dislodged
In the face of such insurmountable invaders, Jonavaux decided that the only appropriate course of action that the Jonmarines, and, by extension, what could be salvaged of Lawsunda's Astra Militarum and Planetary Defence Force regiments, could take was one of evacuation. Of the Jonmarines' surviving battle and reserve companies, however, elements of only the First, Third, Sixth, Eighth and Tenth Companies in varying strengths escaped the hell that unfolded upon Lawsunda's surface, while the Second, Fourth, Seventh and Ninth met their ends on Lawsunda as the Necrons deployed a "Containment Lattice" which prevented the escape of any other Imperial forces. Notably, Jonavaux himself was not among those who escaped, as he chose to instead descend into the labyrinthine catacombs that the necrons had constructed below Lawsunda’s surface, in an attempt to slay the leader of the 'Idroslvian' necrons, their Phaeron, Irvotekh, known to the Jonmarines mistakenly as 'Irotek'.

Initially, the Jonmarines had been ordered to remain in orbit around Lawsunda in order to prepare a counterattack upon the tyranid, chaotic and necron invasions, but the deployment of the Containment Lattice thwarted this plan, as the strange construct seemed impenetrable even to weapons fire. Thus, instead, First Captain Praedus Hallic ordered the surviving Jonmarines to evacuate, each ship plunging into the warp towards a randomly selected destination as a means of giving the chapter at least an inkling of a hope of survival.

What follows this evacuation order is a series of events that are immortalised into later Jonmarine mythos, as poignant tales of the chapter’s glories, courageous leaders and defiant acts of heroism. These forge those astartes known as the Survivors of the Howling Dark into the individuals they are, and how some are remembered, today. Such displays of the Rites of Humility include the Third Company’s apparent intervention into the Crimson Fists’ battles against the ork invaders upon Rynn’s World, and, more significantly, the First and Sixth Companies’ involvement in ending ‘The Wyvern War’ or the 'War of Beasts', known in Lawsundan Old Tongue as either The Drakonovoyana or Voyna Zverereznia respectively between the Carnosaurs chapter and what had originally been believed to be a traitorous faction of the chapter that had plunged them into a civil war. The Jonmarines demonstrate their defiant nature too, as the Eighth and Tenth companies elect to fight a war of attrition against a force of heretics far greater than their own number after they become stranded upon a ruined forge world occupied by a warband of Iron Warriors corrupted by Tzeench and a contingent of their Khornate allies, even after one of their captains is slain when they arrive on the ruined forge world known as Hyvarticus.

However, this struggle out of The Howling Dark is not without its embarrassments and tragedies, some still worn as badges of shame by those affected by them. To the Sixth Company, the act of their captain ordering the brutal execution of surrendering Wyvern scouts remains a prominent reminder of the result of a fleeting sense of judgment. The Third Company that escaped from Lawsunda nearly a year beforehand would sacrifice itself upon the Jonmarines’ return to their occupied, ravaged world, ramming the necron Containment Lattice with their ship in a self-destructive attempt to breach the shield and rescue their chapter master.

The Drakonovoyana/Voyna Zverereznia
While conflict between the Carnosaurs and the Wretched Wyverns was ended by the intervention of Jonmarine forces, the cause of both the civil war within the Carnosaurs, and one of the more notorious causes of the Howling Dark, was discovered to be still at large. This terrible reality was discovered soon after the Jonmarines, Carnosaurs and Wretched Wyverns had left the ruins of the Majoris, after their combined forces encountered a remnant of the chaos invasion that had escaped the Necron imprisonment. Despite being crippled by the Howling Dark, the general consensus of the Jonmarines resulted in the First, Sixth and Tenth companies following the Carnosaurs and Wyverns back to their chapter planet, Pangea Ultima, where the presumed leader of such a detrimental foe was perceived to be headed, while Jonavaux and the Eighth company, alongside elements of the Deep Striders that had been found aiding Jonavaux on Lawsunda headed to their home system of Batavia to secure a source of aspirants necessary for rebuilding the chapter.

Of the two of these events, Jonavaux's envoy to the Batavia system would have the greater detriment towards the chapter identity. Aboard the flagship of the Deep Striders, Jonavaux would meet the ancient Lamenter dreadnaught known as Chyron, who, after his Deathwatch kill-team had discovered a data module hidden upon the wreckage of a orbital shipyard, revealed the damning truth of the Jonmarines’ origins: they, as revealed by their Founder, and Malakim Phoros' discussion, with Inquisitor Tuplov as recorded, originated from Blood Angels gene-stock through the chronically unfortunate Lamenters. In the wake of this great Truth becoming revealed, Jonavaux's mission to Batavia would also yield damning results for the Deep Striders, as a cell of Alpha Legion operatives was discovered operating on Frisia, the system's capital, before being presumably wiped out by both the Jonmarines and the Deep Striders working in concert.

The Battle for Pangea Ultima would yield similar results, meanwhile, but would become known as the Battle that ended the Howling Dark, or the Oschvenya in Lawsundan Old-Tounge. Chaos forces had seized the Carnosaurs' fortress monastery in the turbulence of the Drakonovoyana, allowing the Jonmarines, Carnosaurs and Wyverns' quarry to hide themselves within, but the three chapters’ combined efforts soon granted them access, as Praedus led a risky teleportation-based attack deep into the fortifications. Within, the Jonmarines, Carnosaurs and Wyverns discovered the sadistic nature of their foe, who had bound Carnosaurs and Wyverns alike to their heretical cause through corrupted necron technology seized during the battles on Lawsunda. Regretfully, after finding no way of freeing these thralls, they were put to the sword in the same manner as the heretics that controlled them, culminating in the eventual death of the presumed leader of this despicable foe. With this great battle concluded, and with a number of Jonmarine astartes and chapter artefacts recovered in its wake, the Howling Dark was declared to be over.

Reconstruction
The period known as the Reconstruction, or, more commonly, the Great Reconstruction, saw the healing of the grievous wounds that the chapter sustained during the Howling Dark. Yet, thanks to revelations made by both Chyron, and the great work known as the Lamentation, penned by the Founder himself, recovered after the Oschvenya, alongside the reality that Lawsunda was no longer a suitable home system, the Jonmarines would become a fleet-based chapter centred around the great mobile fortress monastery known as the Lawsundan Avengement, a ship designed in the spirit of the Black Templars’ iconic Eternal Crusader. This improved mobility would aid the scions of Asteralix in their search for their predecessors, the Lamenters, as decreed by Jonavaux, the newly dubbed Saviour of the chapter.

Reconstruction would also not only occur through Batavian aspirant stock, however, as the Carnosaurs also offered the Jonmarines a portion of the human population of their home system as thanks for their role in ending the Drakonovoyana, which the Jonmarines would exploit until their departure from Pangea Ultima. Yet, it is within this time that the most notable events during the search for the Lamenters, at least until the Lokan Crusade and the later Defence of Lokus XIII would occur.

The Pannotia Incident
During a routine patrol of Pannotia, the world officially controlled by the Carnosaurs, yet used as a trial world by the Jonmarines and the Wretched Wyverns alongside the latter's founding chapter, Captain Haarnvust would find the wreckage of the Lamenters' Falchion-class Destroyer known as the Redemption, the barely alive chaplain Pralomak Mihos the only survivor of the crash. Upon his rescue, the Chaplain offered, due to his similar role within the Lamenters as the Tenth Company's Chaplain, to fulfil the role in the Jonmarines' Tenth Company, as a result of the Tenth lacking such until Mihos' discovery, promising to help the Jonmarines look for their founders as best as he could. Suspicions were raised throughout the Jonmarines chapter, thanks in part to his 'acquisition' of wargear originally worn and used by Malakim Phoros, which had apparently been given to him by the Lord of Ruin himself as a method of keeping the Lamenters' relics out of the hands of the Minotaurs after the end of the Badab War. Chaplain Mihos, upon being granted temporary refuge within the Tenth company, would serve the Jonmarines, aiding in the so-called "hunt for Phoros" and other operations undertaken by the Tenth Company during the "Reconstruction Wars" against numerous minor xenos forces.

Following the end of the Reconstruction Wars above Mythradates XVI, and the revelation of who chaplain Mihos truly is, the Jonmarines would launch their “Lokan Crusade”, towards the Lokus Sector, in an attempt to discover the truth of their origins, instead ending up caught in the largest heretical invasion to ever strike the Sector as the Cicatrix Maeldictum's southern reaches opened with the Hadex Anomaly’s hyper-destabilisation. Following the end of the rather pyrrhic victory that the Defence of Lokus was, the Jonmarines would aid the Lamenters in their Baal Crusade, after learning of the dire state the home system of the Blood Angels was in, namely being threatened by Hive Fleet Leviathan.

Notable Campaigns
As a result of the Jonmarines' almost compartmented history, notable campaigns within the Jonmarines’ history can be detailed in relations to who bore the title of Jonavaux at the time, Jonavaux Asteralix, Jonavaux Romulus and Jonavaux Lericberguson respectively:

The Battle for Chiralarus
Companies Involved: Fourth and Eight, Captain Kodral Advlak as taskforce leader (Taskforce Advlak)

Hostile Forces: Red Corsairs, native Chiralarian "Death Cults" and Anarchist groups.

Allies: Grey Knights, Ordo Maellius Inquisitorial accompaniment, the "zheltyyiak, belyikoi i chernyyethian", ("the yellow, black and white ones" in Lawsundan Old Tongue, later confirmed to be Lamenter astartes led by Malakim Phoros himself) and the "Khodityia Pozhararik" ("those that walk whilst on fire" in Lawsundan Old Tongue)

Details: 

The Chiralarus Expedition, carried out by the Fourth and Eighth Companies, on order of Jonavaux Asteralix, the Founder, was the Jonmarines’ first significant expedition out of the Majoris.

Captain Kodral Advlak, at the head of a Taskforce comprised mainly of astartes of the Fourth Company, would set out on the Jonmarines' first expedition from both their homeworld, and their home system, in order to announce the creation of the Jonmarines through action, rather than Astropathic communications and messages. This would result in Advlak's involvement in the Battle for Chiralarus, and the first interaction between the Jonmarines and another element of the Imperium of Mankind, namely the Grey Knights. However, Advlak noted that the Knights' Captain Quirael Fyralis seemed to be unaware of the Jonmarines' status of being a successor of the Ultramarines chapter, but discarded this uncertainty as being result of the Jonmarines' unproven status. Moreover, Captain Advlak becomes the first Jonmarine save for Jonavaux Asteralix to add an enemy to the Liber Inimicus, the 'Book of Enemies', namely the Red Corsairs themselves.

Kodral also notes the presence of two groups he calls the “zheltyyiak, belyikoi i chernyyethian”, (“the yellow, black and white ones” in Lawsundan Old Tongue) and the “Khodityia Pozhararik” (“those that walk whilst on fire” in Lawsundan Old Tongue), as detailed above. Later, shortly before the Defence of Lokus, Kodral would discover that the Lamenters, under Malakim Phoros’ command, made up the entirety of this first group, while a force known as the “Legion of the Damned” made up the second. While relations between Jonmarines and Lamenters has continued far beyond the Defence of Lokus, Jonmarine- “Legion of the Damned” relations have been literally non-existent since that point.

The Battle for Chiralarus has, however, immediate implications. Amazed at the Jonmarines’ decisive intervention into the battle, the authorities of Chiralarus’ orbital dockyards known as Port Chiral decide to swear an oath of fealty to the Jonmarines, ensuring the Founder’s scions that if any of their ships need the services provided by Port Chiral, they will be welcomed as liberators and allies.

Romulan Campaigns
The First Defence of Lawsunda Majoris; "WAAAGH!-Breaking", or the "Blunting of Gitsmasha"

Companies involved: The entire chapter, led by Jonavaux Romulus and his Chapter Commandarius

Hostile Forces: WAAAGH! Gitsmasha, unknown numerical strength.

Allies: The entire sisterhood of the Order of the Martyrs' Rose Adepta Sorita order. All twenty four regiments of Lawsundan PDF, twelve regiments of Lawsundan Astra Millitarum, Lawsunda's numerous detachments of Arbites, thirty regiment-sized gatherings of "militsiya", militiamen forces formed of able bodied manufactorum workers, armed with whatever weapons, improvised or not, they can get their hands on.

Details: It is without a doubt that the arrival of the space hulk known as the Ashamed Desolation came as a surprise to all, even including Jonavaux Romulus himself. The Jonmarines, nor Lawsunda's Imperial Guard or PDF regiments, or the Martyrs' Rose Order needed to send recon missions to discover what inhabited the hulk, as the orks within immediately attempted planetfall on Lawsunda, the horde's mega-armour wielding Warboss announcing himself as Gitsmasha as soon as the Warboss had landed.

While a large portion of Gitsmasha's forces had been destroyed by Lawsunda's orbital defence weaponry, the Warboss made for the Haedric Hive, seemingly intent on rolling over the system's capital to get to the Asteralix Bastion. With this in mind, Jonavaux Romulus placed most of the chapter's forces both in the Haedric Hive and within the Asteralix Bastion, personally commanding the 'Haedric detachment', alongside  Haarvik Hallic, Kaavian Launaas, and Julian Kalviathan, while Haedvust would command the 'Asteralix detachment'. Eventually, as predicted, Gitsmasha attempted to assault the Hive, meeting half of the First company and the entire Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth companies alongside the 23rd, 38th and 39th Imperial Guard regiments.

The orks would be crushed by the defenders of the Haedric Hive, but at a dire cost to the chapter. As a result of an oath the Chapter Master had made thanks to him blaming himself for Asteralix's death, Romulus accepted the ork warboss’ challenge, only to be apparently killed instantly by a downward swipe of the beast’s massive power klaw.

With Gitsmasha’s eventual, if not forced, retreat, the Jonmarines were able to fight off the rest of the ork invaders, and, despite Romulus’ massive number of injuries, including his caved in skull, inter the Defender of Lawsunda Majoris into the chassis mounted sarcophagus of the Jonmarines’ first dreadnaught, decorated in the ornate designs fitting their second chapter master.

Lericbergusonite Campaigns
The investigation of the Nochyani

Companies Involved: The Third and Sixth Companies, Captain Amadeus Terric as taskforce leader (Taskforce Terric)

Hostile Forces: Nochyani terrorists, including deserting and mutineering Lawsundan pdf and Astra Millitarum troops. Hydrakoi involvement is suspected as well, but there is little evidence to prove this.

Details: A Taskforce comprised of elements of the Third and Sixth Companies, led by the 'gung-ho' Captain Amadeus Terric, would head deep into Lawsunda’s northlands, tracking the course of the El Cavarin river, of which had been the as-named Hive's source of water until its poisoning by warp-based corruption, using the powers of both companies' librarians, Aedrian Thulos and Alexeianik Citadach respectively to trace the source of the corruption, an ironic move considering Thulos and Citadach had both become psykers due to the so-called “Poisoning of El’Cavarin’s Hive”.

However, Taskforce Terric remained unsuccessful in finding the source of the El Cavarin River's corruption, until an ambush, originally presumed to have been initiated by the Nochyani, was sprung. Tactical squad Carvisson and Librarian Citadach are ambushed in the Helborsta Ravine by a warband of chaos space marines clad in black and white armour, referring to themselves as the Malalites Reborn. While tactical squad Carvisson fights the heretics off, Libarian Citadach disappears, becoming presumed dead by his brothers. The truth is, however, far more insidious than most understand...

The War against the Nochyani and these “Malalites Reborn” would continue in earnest three years later, when, the Sixth Company having procured another Librarian, Kaecelion Vryidissus, the Third and Sixth returned north. Thulos and Vryidissus work well in concert, many of the Nochyani hideouts were purged, alongside the scant few Malalites Reborn heretic astartes discovered amongst their number.

The 'end' of what became known briefly as the 'Reborn War’ by the Jonmarines was brought about swiftly by Librarians Thulos and Vryidissus' efforts in finding the hideouts of the heretics and their corrupt allies, which, in turn allowed Captains Terric and Scyllus to purge Lawsunda's Northlands of their presence, most significantly at the Battle of El Cavarin's Forest. With this act of valour, the Third and Sixth Companies parade through El’Cavarin’s Hive’s streets, declaring Lawsunda to be free of heretical taint.

The Howling Dark, including the Drakonovoyana, or the Voyna Zverereznia.

Companies Involved: Initially, the entire chapter, led by Jonavaux Lericberguson and his first Chapter Commandarius, before the evacuation of Lawsunda Majoris. Then, numerous taskforces; Taskforce Hallic (Ist Company), Taskforce Scyllus (VIth Company), later Taskforce Vyridissus, Taskforce Kvas (Xth and VIIIth Companies), later Taskforce Terasacariz, and Crusader Force Terric (IIIrd Company, alongside surviving pdf and/or Astra Millitarum forces aboard the Emperor’s Fury battleship). Taskforces Hallic, Vyridissus and Terasacariz unite under one banner above the world of Hyvarticus, becoming Relief Force Hallic, and then splits into Taskforce Lericberguson and Taskforce Hallic once Jonavaux is rescued from Lawsunda, and the decision is made to both petition the Deep Striders for aid in rebuilding the Jonmarines, and pursuing the Malalites Reborn forces on route to Pangea Ultima.

Hostile Forces: Initially, the Idroslvian Necron Dynasty, the Malalites Reborn, Kheverik's Bloodyhanded, the Skavain Rat-kin, the Machine Changers of Tzeench, the Lords of the Kingqueen's Night, all of these heretical warbands attributed together as the "Pentagonal Alliance of Chaos Undivided". Hive Fleet Cthullhulirus, alongside genestealer cults attributed to Cthullhulirus, are also present within the initial phases of the Howling Dark. Later hostiles include Ældari corsairs, forces of the Heretek of Hyvarticus, and the "Orkuppashun" forces of Rynn's World. With the destruction of the Bloodyhanded, the Machine Changers, Rat-kin and Lords of the Kingqueen's Night, the Malalites Reborn are the last warband to be "destroyed".

Allies: Initially, The entire sisterhood of the Order of the Martyrs' Rose Adepta Sorita order, Lawsunda's PDF, Astra Millitarum and "militsiya" regiments, before the evacuation of Lawsunda Majoris. Later allies include the Carnosaurs, Wretched Wyverns and Deep Striders chapters of astartes, and the "Hydrakoi", as reported by forces on Hyvarticus and later, within the Carnosaurs' fortress-monastery of Theropoda Ultima.

Details: As a result of the Howling Dark's significant effect on the Jonmarines' history, information pertaining to the overview of the Howling Dark can be found above.

There is little data, however, in regards to two anomalies within the Howling Dark. First is the details given by Malakim Phoros during the Defence of Lokus about the Crimson Fists chapter claiming that Astartes matching the Jonmarines' colour schemes, namely the those of Terric's Third Company, were present, and aided significantly, during the Fists' reclamation of their home planet of Rynn's World. In this regard, it has been decided to detail this endeavour here as an honorary mention, until Jonmarine forces can confirm the late Amadeus Terric's presence on Rynn's World, wherein full honours, including the traditional honourary Chapter Commandarius position for chapter master Pedro Kantor, will be bestowed onto the Crimson Fists.

The second, however, seems far more malicious in its implications. Interactions with "Alpha Legion" forces during and after the Defence of Lokus have confirmed that these traitors use the hydra as a prominent part of their heraldry. Could it be, then, that the hydra symbols found decorating strangely empty bunkers occupied by Jonmarine forces during the siege of Hyvarticus, and the Defence of Theropoda Ultima, are somehow linked to the same Alpha Legion that fought both the Jonmarines themselves and the forces of the Tenth Pentagonal Alliance during the later Defence of Lokus? Worse still, could these Legionaries have links to the hated Hydrakoi Scourge terrorist organisation that plagued Lawsunda before the world and its surrounding system burned in the fires of the Howling Dark?

The Reconstruction Wars

Companies Involved: Various. Taskforces include Terasacariz, Haarnvust, Vryidissus and Hallic.

Hostile Forces: Various minor xeno species. See Details section.

Allies: Various beleaguered Imperial colonial forces, Mechanicum explorator fleets. See details below.

Details: Reconstruction was not a peaceful time for the Jonmarines. Using guidance from Chaplain Mihos to better themselves at seeking out worlds needing their assistance, the Jonmarines would often send two companies out into the universe to respond to calls for aid. Thus, this period, known as the Reconstruction Wars, demonstrated the Jonmarines' return to standard operation, alongside their willingness to embrace their new, fleet-bound, existence.

Conflict with the Gras'Vak

A race of semi-sentient, bipedal organisms covered in a crystalline exoskeleton known to the Adeptus Mechanicus explorator taskforce dispatched to the world of Grastus as 'Vakirum', the Gras'Vak are one of the first xenos species that the Jonmarines fight during the 'Reconstruction Wars'. Taskforce Terasacariz, led by the Forgemaster himself, comprising of the Eighth Company supported by the Fourth, arrive to aid the explorator team, all the better to, in the Forgemaster's words, "strengthen ties to the Omnissiah". Grastus, a world covered in razor-sharp crystalline structures similar to that which the Gras'Vak are themselves covered in, proves a difficult world to fight upon, but a series of well-placed strikes allows the explorators to recover the ancient technology detected upon the world and evacuate safely. As for the Gras'Vak, the Forgemaster orders the recovery of a wide sample of the remains of slain xenos, alongside a large chunk of Vakirum, all the better to study this unique foe. Information regarding the chemical composition of 'Vakirum' is, however, restricted to all non-Chapter Commandarius persons, as per request of both the Forgemaster and High Librarius Launaas, pending ongoing investigation of it’s constitution.

Captain Advlak, meanwhile, comments on the operation with his usual dry humour, stating that he noticed Forgemaster Terasacariz's 'once-in-a-lifetime' sentimentality, given that the Eighth had assisted the "Black Fourth" all those years ago on Chiralarus, and that the operation on Grastus was a "decent way of returning the favour". The Forgemaster, his agreement belying something of a departure from his usually emotionless state, returns Kodral's humourous observation by stating that "it'd take another Hyvarticus to get another sentimental move like that out of me".

The Drycho Nautocracy

Beleaguered Imperial settlers on the world of Drychos were relieved to bear witness to the arrival of the Jonmarines’ Fifth and Tenth companies, Taskforce Haarnvust, in retaliation to their reports that many of the settlements established had been eradicated by partially amphibious, humanoid, fish-like beings known as the Drycho. Using both their superhuman physiology and reconnaissance submersibles built by the Imperial settlers, Captain Haarnvust, Chaplain Mihos and Librarian Civares, alongside a number of scout squads, are able to follow the Drycho back to their lairs, while Captain Al' Khephit and his Fifth move to protect the Imperial civilians from further attacks.

After a few months of stalking the Drycho, in which several thousand of the xenos are hunted down, Al’Khephit receives a message written in a crude approximation of High Gothic demanding a “summon to battle” from the Drycho’s “Nautocrat”, who claims that the Jonmarines’ defence of the Imperial settlers on Drychus was a further act of war against their species. The Jonmarines accept this orderly declaration of war, and soon assemble forces at the Gyrach Basin, a coral reef at the bottom of the shallow Lythman Sea, which comprises 75% of Drychus’ surface. Here, the Drycho show themselves as not only technologically advanced, but ordered and disciplined, honourable even, as the Nautocrat challenges Daviaan to single, honorary, combat in full display of both sides’ troops. With the Nautocrat’s death, however, the battle commences, and the Gyrach Basin soon becomes choked with Drycho blood and viscera, their weapons unable to breach the Jonmarines’ ceramite plate, while their light, loose-fitting, armour fails to protect against bolter fire, even that slowed in the subaqueous conflict. With a majority of the Drycho’s number eradicated, Drychus is declared safe for human habitation, but not before the Jonmarines teach the settlers how to deal with the Drycho threat, should the need arise once more.

The Sauracka

Following a chance discovery of a distress beacon by the Lawsundan Dynasty’s Astropathic choir, the Sixth Company, alongside the Second as part of Taskforce Vyridissus, are soon thrust into a war of manoeuvre with the Sauracka as they make planetfall on the agri-world of Oppian V. The Sauracka, a devious, venomous, six limbed reptilian race apparently skilled at salvaging, modifying and using technology of both imperial and xenos origins, in the same manner like Orks, deploy both armoured vehicles such as chimeras, tauroxes and weaponised agricultural vehicles, supported by wings of heavily modified Aeldari Wave Serpents amongst other variants of the same grav-tank, the Sixth Company’s fast-moving tactics are tested to their limits, both in an attempt to combat the Sauracka, and to allow the Second to discern what the fate of Oppian V’s growing population was. Disturbing, however, is the number of human allies the Sauracka have, but these are cut down with equal hatred by the Jonmarines after the quick discovery that the Sauracka had, in the shadows of Oppian V’s final days as a loyal agri-world, spread the seeds of rebellion and heresy among the disgruntled proletarian majority of the world, soon after they crash-landed a captured Aeldari Corsair vessel on the world. Thus, the Sauracka, or at least this specific group of Sauracka, are exterminated, the dead of Oppian V avenged.

The Syvarik Gestadt

Only a few months before the Mythradates XVI encounter with the Drakken Harbingers, Taskforce Hallic, comprising the Second and Ninth companies accompanied by elements of the First, led by First Captain Praedus Hallic, arrive on the airless, uninhabited world of Ctesophan XI following reports of anomalous readings detected by Ordo Xenos probes in the area. While Praedus expects necron activity, the Taskforce is met by an entirely different threat, namely the Syvarik Gestadt, an invertebrate species that resembles ancient Terra’s jellyfish, albeit on a massive size and in considerable numbers, some able to manifest psychic powers. A large portion of the Syvarik Gestadt are wiped out at the ‘Battle’ of the Cteson Wastes, where a large ‘Gestadt’ is wiped out by the Taskforce’s combined firepower, but Praedus orders a brief orbital barrage afterward to ensure some form of cull of the Syvarik.

Mythradates XVI: "The Battle of the Eleventh Hour"

Companies Involved: Initially, the Sixth and Tenth Companies, led by Librarian-Captain Kaecelion Vryidissus (Taskforce Vryidissus ). Later, the rest of the chapter arrives in orbit around Mythradates XVI, transferring command to Jonavaux Lericberguson and his Second Chapter Commandarius.

Hostile Forces: Malalites Reborn, Idroslvian Necron Dynasty

Allies: Astartes of the Drakken Harbingers chapter, and, as a result of later revelations, two astartes of the Lamenters chapter.

Details: In the wake of the soon to end Reconstruction Wars, contact with the Drakken Harbingers was achieved by the Sixth and Tenth companies above the world of Mythradates XVI, a world that the Sixth had previously visited during the Howling Dark. While initial relations between the Jonmarines and the Drakken Harbingers were initially tenacious, thanks primarily to the Drakken’s response to the tales surrounding why the Jonmarines were founded, the arrival of the rest of the chapter fleet would soon allow friendly relations to develop.

Yet, Mythradates would be the scene of the most dramatic revelation of the post-Howling Dark period, as a surprise attack by Irvotekh’s forces on Chaplain Mihos and a group of Drakken astartes reveals the true identity of the mysterious Chaplain: Malakim Phoros himself. After being confronted by the Chapter Commandarius, Malakim decided to aid the Jonmarines in discovering the entire truth of their origins, proposing that they head to the Lokus Sector. Here, the Lokan Crusade began, due to Malakim’s insistence, as the Reconstruction Wars are announced finished.

The Lokan Crusade & The Defence of Lokus Companies involved: the entire chapter, under the command of Jonavaux Lericberguson and his Second Chapter Commandarius.

Hostile forces: the Malalites Reborn, the Sons of Malice, Utorian’s Bloodyhanded, the Skavain Rat-kin, the Machine Changers of Tzeench, the Host of Sabathiel, the Knights of Laeran, an unnamed Emperor’s Children warband, the Red Corsairs, the Alpha Legion. Collectively, according to some sources, the Malalites Reborn and their allies know themselves as the “Tenth Pentagonal Alliance of Chaos Undivided”, contrary to the understanding that the Malalites Reborn and their allies defeated during the Howling Dark were the only “Pentagonal Alliance” of its kind.

Allies: the entire Knights Celestial chapter and their successors, the entire Lamenters chapter, a contingent of Mantis Warriors, Imperial Fists and Red Scorpions astartes, local Astra Millitarum and pdf regiments, Inquisitorial stormtroopers under Inquisitor Tuplov’s control, Imperial Knights of House Blackstone, the Idroslvian necron Dynasty and the Alpha Legion (apparently under the command of [REDACTED] himself.). Captain Kodral Advlak also leads a small contingent of “Terran Guard” astartes for a brief amount of time, before he is reinstated as Fourth Company Captain, and the Terran Guard are incorporated into the Jonmarines’ ranks.

Details: The Lokan Crusade and the ensuing defence of Fulcana and Airtha, two major worlds in the Lokus Sector, was, contrary to the Reconstruction, another tragic event in the history of the Jonmarines, with the goal of recovering more knowledge on truth of the chapter’s history, the Jonmarines fleet, as proposed by the suddenly discovered Malakim Phoros of the Lamenters chapter, went to the Lokus sector to confront Inquisitor Tuplov in her role within the creation of the chapter. However, their arrival into the system almost caused a conflict between the chapter and elements of the Imperial Fists and Red Scorpions against the Knights Celestial and the elements of the Mantis Warriors and Lamenters, hostilities almost became violent between the Knights Celestial and Jonmarines when the Knights’ 5th company captain Xinor Jan was, having been sent to assess what exactly had entered their system, assassinated onboard the Jonmarine flagship, the Lawsundan Avengement, by an alpha legionnaire agent that had stowed away aboard one of the Jonmarines’ ships during the Howling Dark, in an attempt to unsettle and plunge the system into an internal war before a splinter of the chaos fleet spearheaded by the Malalites Reborn and their so-called “Tenth Pentagonal Alliance” could launch their assault on the system.

The resulting conflict caused the destruction of the Knights’ home world of Fulcana and the vast majority of the Knights Celestial chapter, half the chapter reported as missing in action after being lead by their chapter master to the defence of Airtha, while the rest were killed in action or presumed killed in action on Fulcana, their homeworld. The forces of the Lamenters and Jonmarines managed to withdraw and evacuate a large amount of the populace before the dark intentions of the Tenth Pentagonal Alliance could be revealed in the form of the Cicatrix Maeldictum tearing through and engulfing the sector. The fleets of the Imperial Fists, Red Scorpions and the Mechanicum stationed within Lokus were able to withdraw after suffering heavy losses, and fell back to the galactic centre to return to Terra and Mars respectively. The Bell of Lost Souls on Terra only had to chime for death of one chapter due to the incredibly lucky timing of the Jonmarines’ arrival.

The Baal Crusade

Companies Involved: the entire chapter, under the command of Jonavaux Lericberguson and his Second Chapter Commandarius.

Hostile Forces: Numerous, including both xeno and heretical forces. Later, the Sons of Malice and the Malalites Reborn.

Allies: what remains of the Lamenters chapter, the Idroslvian necron Dynasty. Note that the relations between the Jonmarines and the Idroslvian Dynasty are still hostile, but the presence of a larger, more dangerous, foe has forced an uneasy peace between these bitter enemies.

Details: Following the reclamation of the Lamenters' Ramilies-class Star Fort, their mobile fortress-monastery known as the Mater Lacrimarum, alongside Alpha Legion forces, apparently led by [REDACTED] himself, during the Defence of Lokus, the Jonmarines and Lamenters discovered an Astropath aboard the fort. This Astropath, once recovering from the injuries sustained while the Malalites Reborn had occupied the Mater Lacrimarum, reported that Commander Dante, of the Blood Angels, had ordered a summoning of the Ninth Legion's forces to Baal, telling of Hive Fleet Leviathan's immanent assault on the holy realm of Sanguinius and his sons. With little time to waste, the fleets of both the Lamenters and Jonmarines set off, together, as to pool the greater numerical strength of the Jonmarines with the expertise of the Lamenters. Thus, the Baal Crusade was launched immediately after the Defence of Lokus, and saw plenty of significant events occur between its beginning and its intended destination. However, the journey is not a smooth one, one made all the more tumultuous as a result of the opening of the Cicatrix Maeldictum warp rift, one so great that the Eye of Terror, the Maelstrom and the Hadex Anomaly were made as one by it's power. Here, the most notable events and battles of the Baal Crusade shall be detailed.

Slaughterhouse III: A Reckoning

In an incredible, almost deliberately malicious, twist of fate, the Baal Crusade's first notable engagement would be both above and upon the world of Slaughterhouse III, a world painfully ingrained into the oldest Lamenters' memories due to its significance to their chapter's eventual siding with Huron in the Badab Tragedy. Here, many hundreds of years prior, Captain Jonavaux Asteralix, the Jonmarines' later Founder, led 300 of the Lamenters' astartes to conduct a massive raid upon the Orkish mining world, intending upon releasing the human slaves the Orks had incarcerated here. The plan succeeded, but too many slaves were freed; the Lamenters were unable to rescue all they had freed, especially after their Battle Barge the Daughter of Tempests was damaged in the battle above Slaughterhouse. Instead, those slaves who were unable to find room upon the Lamenters’ voidcrafts sacrificed themselves, opting to die free than to live under the cruel yoke of the barbaric xenos. Indeed, Asteralix’s contemporary observation that the Raid on Slaughterhouse III was not a victory but a defeat still rang true with the Lamenters, and did so with the Jonmarines upon the discovery of why Slaughterhouse was deemed so important to the Lamenters.

History would repeat itself here, albeit with far different odds. The Orks were apparently still reeling from the attack during the Charadon Crusade, and so were greatly unprepared for two chapters of Astartes suddenly arriving above their world. While not one ork lived to see the end of the battle, the truth of their continued existence as slave-drivers, while greatly diminished by the orks' own crippled state, even after Charadon was revealed shortly afterward. Yet, unlike Asteralix's first attempt to do so, now each and every one of the slaves the Lamenters and Jonmarines rescued were able to join the flotilla of civilian transports that had joined the Baal Crusade prior to the arrival over Slaughterhouse, with some proven to be considerable potential initiates for both chapters.

Despite this success, the response from the Lamenters is a somber one culminating in Malakim and his chapter's command staff petitioning the Jonmarines' Chapter Commandarius access to Asteralix's still-embalmed and armoured corpse, preserved since his death and rescued, like the rest of the Jonmarines' chapter relics, from the devastation wrought upon Lawsunda in the dying days of the Howling Dark, in its chapel deep within the Lawsundan Avengement. Without as much as a disagreeing glance, the Jonmarines permit such an action, observing the Lamenters' need to give their Founder the absolution that he had never received upon his death. This ritual of absolution came soon enough, as Jonmarine joined Lamenter in a melancholic celebration of simply one of Jonavaux Asteralix's most valorous acts.

Ambush above Ul'Darnath

Stopping above the Death World of Ul'Darnath to allow the Baal Crusade's voidships to cool their warp drives after the nail-biting transit through the Cicatrix Maeldictum's southern temporarily stable warp routes, the Lamenters and Jonmarines are afforded little in the way of a reprieve as their forces are ambushed by Drukhari raiders mistaking their fleets for softer, easier targets. It is noted that during the battle, Venerable Romulus seems to adopt a vengeful personality that burns with a greater passion than usual, presumably due to his seething hatred for what Dark Eldar managed to inflict upon the Founder he failed to protect. Despite their immobilised state, the Astartes emerge from the battle victorious, confirming that all fifteen of the Drukhari ships were destroyed during the conflict.

Riyter

A brief skirmish between the Baal Crusade's forces and those of two Chaos warbands, the Hellforged Onslaught and the Noxius Jubilation, breaks out soon after the Crusade arrives in the Phakarian system, above the world of Riyter, slowly making small warp jumps between neighbouring systems as the Astronomican fades. Upon learning of the large chaos presence on Phakarian Beta, the system's capital world, Malakim and Jonavaux swear that they will both see about the destruction of both warbands in their entirety, if they and their chapters survive the battle against Leviathan they expect on Baal Secundus.

Lawsunda Majoris; The "Skirmish over Syraphaust".

The Baal Crusade arrives at its rendezvous point of Lawsunda Majoris, the former home system of the Jonmarines, selected for its significance as such, just as the Astronomican fades from the sight of their ships’ astropaths. This becomes the least of the Crusade's worries, however, with the discovery of the Labyrinth, the space hulk used as the capital ship of the Malalites Reborn and the Sons of Malice, in close orbit around Syrphaust, presumably readying itself for a planetary assault upon the world below. Predictably, in revenge for the destruction of the Lokus Sector, the Lamenters would lead the charge towards the Labyrinth, but no catastrophic battle ensues as the massive collection of space debris, shipwrecks and asteroids considered holy by Reborn and Sons alike slips into the Warp before a shot can be fired, whatever insidious purpose they had on Syrphaust seemingly completed.

Post "Baal Incident" Conflicts: The Indomnitus Crusade 

Companies involved: the entire chapter, under the command of Jonavaux Lericberguson and his Second Chapter Commandarius.

Hostile forces: Numerous, including both xeno and heretical forces. The Black Legion, Word Bearers, Night Lords and Red Corsairs are amongst the more prominent chaos space marine warbands of these foes, while many ork warbands, tyranid splinters, Drukhari raiding parties, and even parts of the Tau Empire make up the xeno part. The Malalites Reborn are suspected to have a role in the Crusade as well, but this is only confirmed afterwards.

Allies: The Lamenters chapter, the Ultramarines chapter, the "Unnumbered Sons", the Imperial Fists chapter, numerous other chapters, both newer, Primaris Chapters and many other pre-existing Chapters. Numerous Astra Militarum, Imperial Navy, Adeptus Custodes Sisters of Silence, Adepta Soroitas and Questor Imperialis ("Imperial Knights") formations.

Details: In the wake of the integration of the Lamenters Primaris into both the chapter of the Phorosians, their non-Primaris Lamenter predecessors, and the Jonmarines, both Malakim and Jonavaux, with permission of the Chapter Commandarius, promised their chapters' strength to Lord Commander Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines, as thanks for saving Baal Secundus from the wrath of Hive Fleet Leviathan. Both chapters are, however, not joined by any other pre-Ultima Founding Blood Angels successors, as many of these chapters are so depleted that they are simply unable to join the crusade thanks to the fear that such move would destroy them.

Despite the history of sour relations between the Lamenters and the Ultramarines, and the Jonmarines' own concerns towards the sons of Guilliman, whom the Founder told his scions to be arrogant, self-centred and blindly reverent in their following of the Codex Astartes, relations between the scions of the Ultramar system, the Lamenters and the Jonmarines is cordial; camaraderie between liberators seemingly trumping the hatred of the past. Thus, with the disbanding of the Indomnitus Crusade above the world 108/Beta-Kalapus-9.2 following the destruction of Word Bearers, Iron Warriors and Black Legion at the Battle of Raukos, the Jonmarines and the Lamenters were sent off with as much praise and goodwill as that they gave in reciprocal.

Yet, the Indomnitus Crusade was not as glorious or bright as what is documented by the rest of the Imperium. As the Jonmarines and the Lamenters followed their fellow Crusade members' fleets, they passed through the ruined systems that once hosted what should have been the prosperous Imperial colony of Drychos, the same world the Jonmarines had aided during the Reconstruction. Even the chaos-held Riyter, the crystal-covered Grastus, the unoccupied Ul'Darnath, the abandoned Hyvarticus, the Idroslavian-held Veldvarsik and the sand-swept Mythradates XVI, all sites of famous Jonmarine activity, were scoured of both life and civilisation, seemingly even microbial life put to the sword and, thanks to intelligence revealed by Imperial Navy forces limping away from Chiralarus, both Port Chiral and maintenance platform H-71 Epsilon had met similar fates. Each world had been scarred in the same way: the numeral 'XI' burned into the face of each world in titanic, uncontrollable, infernos that threatened to both incinerate and freeze the very souls of those who looked at said numerals for too long. Meanwhile, Port Chiral and maintenance platform H-71 Epsilon, the dockyards promisd to the Jonmarines after victory in the Battle for Chiralarus and the site of the Jonmarines' inception on paper, were wrecked, their husks broken into eleven parts of equal or thereabouts masses.

To those Jonmarines and Lamenters that had survived the Defence of Fulcana, but, more specifically, those Jonmarines that survived the Howling Dark, the coincidences are far too obvious to deny. In an act of malicious revenge, clearly to spite the scions of Asteralix, the Malalites Reborn had set about their most nefarious post-Howling Dark acts yet; the destruction of what the Jonmarines themselves consider, save for the Rites of Humility and those the Rites demand be protected, the most dearest: their history.

This act, as unanimously agreed by the Saviour's Chapter Commandarius and the company commandari beneath them, demands more vengeful retaliation than even that that Irotek, Phaeron of Idroslvia, demanded from the Jonmarines and the Lamenters in exchange for the passage to Baal Secundus. Thus, the Jonmarines and their Lamenter allies and predecessors gathered their fleets in the system of Garax, another system ruined by the Malalites Reborn and their "Praetorian", as revealed by intelligence dispensed by what can only be called an Idroslvian "dead-drop", a necron warrior left drifting lifelessly in space clutching a data slate foretelling the Malalites' next target: the Batavian sub-sector.

Gene-Seed
The chapter’s composition is surprisingly diverse, the Lawsunda Majoris system, also known locally as ‘the Majoris’, was home to many different planets and cultures, often contrasting and conflicting with one another, alongside the diversity of populations chosen after the Howling Dark, this can be seen in the genetic variations in the astartes, as their physical appearances vary greatly. This contrasts with the Primaris reinforcements to the chapter as they were made in their gene-sires image, Sanguinius and all look visually similar. What unifies the chapter, is thus it’s organisation and unique attitudes towards the Codex Astartes and fellow chapters of Astartes.

More controversial than just the diverse nature of the Jonmarines’ heritage, however, is their admittance of so-called “False Astartes” into their ranks. As per the egalitarian ideals of the Rites of Humility, Jonavaux Asteralix is depicted as decreeing that admittance into the Jonmarines’ ranks should be only limited by an aspirant’s amount of faith, devotion to Terra and the Emperor, loyalty to one’s peers, superiors and oneself and tactical ability, not simply because of age differences, which often prevented individuals whose skills emerge later in life from providing these expertise in the chapter’s name in standard recruitment protocols. While this attitude was met with resistance within the chapter itself upon its conception, the Founder’s decree has proven itself over the years, thanks prominently to the one of the chapter’s most skilled swordsmen being a False Astartes.

Most Jonmarines are characterised by either their black, brown or, occasionally, blonde, hair, alongside rugged, yet almost beautiful facial features, reflecting their Primarch in a similar manner to all Blood Angel successors, yet, emphasising their genetic link to the Lamenters, these facial features dour as an astartes ages, a trait shared by their emotional mannerisms. Uniquely to the Jonmarines’ False Astartes members, however, due to their constitution as not true astartes, they age just like standard, unaugmented, humans, growing old and grey even as their fellow, proper astartes stay relatively the same over the years. Indeed, most of these False Astartes are only prevented from regressing physically and mentally by the biochemical enhancements given to them upon their recruitment. Considerably, moreover, many true astartes have noted that their false astartes “brethren” are also slightly weaker and slower than they themselves, an issue that Forgemaster Turzmak Stena, ever the proponent of the Rites of Humility, would dedicate a good portion of his time as Forgemaster to resolving, as detailed below.

Known to only Jonavaux Asteralix and Ælianus themselves, there were many issues with the newly forming chapter, as the geneseed stocks provided by the Praetors of Orpheus and the Lamenters proved to be cursed to fail, as most attempts to use the seeds resulted in death, horrific mutations or fully succumbed to the Black Rage, a curse supposedly removed from the Lamenter geneseed. It is rumoured that it was the intervention of the Chapter Master Varzival of the Angels Resplendent that saved the chapter in those dark times, offering the remains of his crusading force of first company and librarians to build the chapter. Ælianus and Jonavaux oversaw the Techpriests of the Lokus Sector in their attempts to fix the chapter's geneseed, altering the genetic coding of the Lamenters by splicing in sections of the Praetors and Angels Resplendent gene-seed within it. Eventually this lead to the creation of a stable and mostly unflawed geneseed, one originally perceived to be completely resilient to the Black Rage.

A notable feature of the new gene-seed would be the Jonmarines’ resistance to pain becoming increased tenfold compared to other Astartes through overactive Ossmodulae, Bisopae, Larroman’s organs, secondary hearts and black carapaces. However, the same gene seed mutation has supposedly, as originally believed upon it’s discovery, led to a condition known as the “Haakarren’s Undoing”, via Lyman’s Ear organs fluctuating in effectiveness, driving an astartes to savage, albeit limited, violent outbursts, a trait discovered to catastrophic extents during the opening phases of The Howling Dark. Only now, long after the Founder’s death, have the Jonmarines discovered that this “Undoing” is linked to their gene-seed, but not through their beneficial mutations, but the beginnings of a resurgent Black Rage, a worrying hypothesis that has yet to be proven. Significantly, due to their lack of gene-seed, all Jonmarine False Astartes are immune to this “Haakarren’s Undoing”.

Following the heavy fighting during the Defence of Lokus, the Jonmarines were reduced to just under 70% of chapter strength, a large bulk of these unusually healthy numbers, at least within the context of their true predecessors, being a product of the Reconstruction. Thanks to Lord Commander Roboute Guilliman’s Ultima Founding, however, the chapter is back at full strength, it’s numbers replenished by Primaris marines supplied to them after the Jonmarines, alongside the Lamenters as part of their Baal Crusade, arrived at the Blood Angels’ homeworld, however arriving too late to aid the successful attempt to halt Hive Fleet Leviathan carried out by Roboute Guilliman and his similarly intended Indomnitus Crusade.

Pre-Howling Dark
The Jonmarines, before the Howling Dark, were content to use the resources given to them within the Majoris to produce their Astartes. With a sizeable population on Lawsunda, and worlds such as Hegrannax's World suitably dangerous to be used as trial worlds for aspiring recruits, many of the Lawsundan-born Jonmarines became fully fledged Astartes with a good idea of where they were in relation to where they had been recruited from.

Post Howling Dark; the Reconstruction
As proven later by the composition of the Jonmarines after the Reconstruction, the chapter's friendliness has lead to benefits for the so-called 'scions of Asteralix', as the Jonmarines were granted permission to use the recruitment worlds of two chapters that they also aided during the Howling Dark. Most significantly, as the Jonmarines were integral to the resolution of the civil war that had broken out between the Carnosaurs and their Wretched Wyvern successor chapter, uncovering the cause of the conflict, later immortalised in Jonmarine history as 'The Wyvern War' or 'The War of the Beasts', as being linked to chaotic influences and subversion, the Carnosaurs' Reclusiarch, their only surviving leader, granted the Jonmarines the right to recruit aspirants from Kennor's World, a world used by the Carnosaurs and their newly accepted successor chapter, the Redemptive Wyverns, as a source of recruits. The world of Pannotia was also granted to the Jonmarines, which they made use of profusely before the chapter left, on good terms with both the Carnosaurs and the Redemptive Wyverns, to sail the stars, like their own predecessors.

Such is the same tale as the Deep Striders, as the Jonmarines' efforts to secure the right to recruit astartes aspirants from Java Prime, amongst other worlds controlled by the Deep Striders, have been met with success.

As for recruitment after the Reconstruction, the Jonmarines will rely primarily on recruiting from worlds that they have aided, often as a result of these worlds, their populations thinned and hardened by whatever attack they were suffering before the Jonmarines arrived, will submit their most suitable numbers to the Jonmarines willingly, as a show of thanks for their rescue. In some instances, however, the Jonmarines have been known to refuse these gifts, claiming that such strong individuals would be far more suitable in defending their own world, instead of being potentially lost to their world forever.

The Commandarius Doctrine
Known to the Jonmarines as the first, more practical part of the Asteralixian Decrees, the Commandarius Doctrine is the collective name for the doctrines that govern the Jonmarines and guide their actions, acting as a further set of instruction to the Codex Astartes, following on in areas where the Founder believed Roboute Guilliman to have not made clear, or where the current Lord Commander of the Imperium had allowed for Astartes to become aloof, dictatorial and completely alien to the non-ascended humanity that they were made to protect. Upon the revelation of who Asteralix once was before becoming the Founder, the Commandarius Doctrine and its limiting factors are rather straightforward, if not telling.

The Commandarius Doctrine is a doctrine enacted by the Founder with the purpose of developing sentiments held by the chapter’s officers into useful strategies for use against the enemies of the Jonmarines, based, however, not on Asteralix's own attitude, but upon the logic of differing personal experience; many different commanders may have different ways of solving a tactical issue, and some solutions may be better for other situations. The development of varied preferred enemies throughout the Jonmarines' companies is thus encouraged by the rigid Commandarius Doctrine employed upon the Jonmarines' officers and their organisation, as through the reduced fluidity of restricting librarians, captains and chaplains to their specific companies as decreed by the Founder.

These officers are able to focus on how their own company operates by itself, allowing for individual companies to adopt unique strategies, some more useful against certain foes than others. Once a new foe, and, subsequently, a means of combating it is discovered, both of these important elements are incorporated into the Liber Inimicus, the ' Book of Enemies ', allowing for this knowledge to be pooled with that already gathered by the chapter. Henceforth, the Jonmarines have collected a considerable amount of information on combating the enemies of mankind, focusing mainly on necron and tryanid foes, but also includes many references to the once obscure chaos warbands known as the Sons of Malice and Malalites Reborn.

It is notable, however, that the Liber Inimicus lacked any first-hand information regarding the Tau Empire, as the Jonmarines had not yet fought in any campaigns against the warriors of the young xenos empire, and thus lacked the experience of doing so. Instead, data from chapters who have faced the Tau has been adapted for use within the Liber as a temporary solution, until the Indomnitus Crusade, wherein the Jonmarines developed their own strategies against the minor xeno empire.

Curiously, the Commandarius Doctrine theoretically interacts with the Codex Astartes in a manner that almost seems contradictory; the Doctrine also permits a company to specialise in a specific type of warfare, such as lightning fast assaults made by Astartes taking to the field on the saddles of bikes, or gruelling defences incorporating the heavy use of static defensive positions, as has become of the Sixth and Eighth companies respectfully, even though the Codex Astartes recommends that such specialisation is to be avoided. To this extent, however, the apparent contradiction can be alleviated simply by selecting a specific company when and where their expertise is required; for example, if Eldar, or some other fast-moving foe is expected, the Sixth Company may be selected to counter the enemy's supposed advantage of speed. Conversely, using this same logic, when the Jonmarines believe themselves to be in need of siege specialists, the Eighth Company accompanies the forces sent to fight this hypothetical enemy, and, similarly, when subterfuge and infiltration is required, the Tenth Company is to be deployed.

The second, more emotional side of the Asteralixian Decrees, the Rites of Humility, however, were originally known to the Jonmarines as their arguments against the Codex Astartes, which lead, contradictorily, to a minor amount of internal suspicion in regards to whether the chapter was truly of Ultramarines stock, considering the great deal of negative opinions shared by the Founder upon the Sons of the Thirteenth Primarch and their own attitudes. The Rites of Humility, it is now understood, dictate the behavioural expectations of all Jonmarines, from chapter serf to chapter master. While the belief that the Rites were penned by the chapter's Founder himself as a safeguard against the perceived arrogance of the Ultramarines is true, the Lamentation, the tome that originally details Asteralix's intent for the Jonmarines, seems to suggest that the Jonmarines were founded with far more selfish intentions, especially given revelations made during The Howling Dark.

The Rites of Humility dictate as a priority that to the Jonmarines, the protection and equality of human life are their chapter's highest aims, as all those in the Emperor's light deserve his protection, regardless of their status. This has led to several occasions where the chapter has put itself, and to great costs, in between civilians and enemies of the Imperium, alongside the egalitarian, yet controversial nature of their recruitment traditions. Moreover, the Jonmarines have also been recorded as hailing the successes of humanity itself, regardless of augmentation, especially through the Jonmarines' close, friendly working relationships with the PDF forces stationed on Lawsunda prior to The Howling Dark.

Command Ranks
As per provisions dictated by the Commandarius Doctrine, a Jonmarines company is led by an organisation known as the "company commandarius", which consists of the company's Captain, Chaplain, Apothecary, Librarian, Techmarine, Company Champion, and, with the Ultima Founding Revision, penned by Jonavaux Lericberguson, the Company's Company Ancient and Company Lieutenants. These leaders are drawn from the "offices" of the different leadership roles, which are led by the chapter's First Captain, High Reclusius, Chief Calix Apothecarion, High Librarium Angelicus, Forgemaster, Chapter Champion, Ancient Kommandira Zharkoi ("Commander's banner-bearer" in Lawsundan Old Tongue) and Lieutenants Commandarius respectively, while the chapter master leads these in turn.

In the same way that each "office" has its own role to play within the management of the company, each member of the commandarius has a say in how the company is operated, through the use of Demokration, a voting system, often implemented via the simple raising of hands during a meeting of the commandarius. This allows no one single individual to overrule the wishes of another without popular consent, and makes sure that each of the diverse opinions within even companies are accounted for. In more complex matters, each commandarius member will be allowed to make a speech detailing their position on a matter, what they would like to see done about it, and "the why and how of it"; why does this issue need to be addressed, and how should it be. Debate is an integral part of this process, meaning that for a Jonmarine to be seen as worthy of promotion, he or she must be able to fight well, show adequate faith in the Emperor, the Primarch and the Founder, and be decisive in matters of these debates, as often entire companies will be able to decide upon issues if the commandarius deems it necessary, as was the case in permitting Chaplain Pralomak Mihos to stay within the Xth Company's ranks.

The act of combining commandarius sections, Hybridisation, was considered permissible by the Founder, but was meant only as a temporary measure. Later adjustments made by Jonavaux Lericberguson, following the exceptional performances (and agreements made between the Saviour and High Librarius Launaas before the Howling Dark) of Captain-Librarian Vryidissus and Forgemaster-Captain Terasacriz within the Howling Dark, resulted in Hybridisation becoming a more permanent measure; but mechanisms for relieving either were prepared through the requirement of three-quarters of their respective company agreeing that their captain was no longer fit to operate both sections, as decreed by a vote that involved the Chapter Commandarius, alongside those of the Sixth and the Eighth. Hybridisation has also been used with the Fourth company as well,  through  Michaél Aarvas, who was trained in the skills required for both the captain and the company champion of the Fourth, due to a belief that Kodral Advlak hadn't perished during the Howling Dark, ultimately stepping down from the Captaincy upon Kodral's return to active service. Moreover, the Championarium, the office led by Irvasaurak Phares, the Fangblade of the Saviour, has been the focal point of Hybridisation outside of the Captaincy, through links made with the Librarius through Servitus Civares, who was appointed company champion of the Tenth after he demonstrated skills he acquired with the Deathwatch were comparable to those employed by company champions. More notably, Civares admitted, he has used his psychic powers to bridge the performance gap between himself, a False Astartes, and his true kin, a move which, while Champion Phares called “cheating sorcery”, was understood by the Fangblade of the Saviour as being necessary to prevent Civares himself faltering in the line of duty.

The Chapter Commandarius works in the same way as the company commandari below them, even to the extent of appointing individuals to the rank of chapter master. Upon the death, or, in the case of Jonavaux Romulus, the incapacitation of the previous chapter master, the Chapter Commandarius, once any damage inflicted upon the Chapter Commandarius is repaired by the appointment of new members, if such is the case, will each nominate someone they believe to be appropriate for the role as chapter master, including themselves. Once these nominations are made, the nomination process will be opened to the rest of the Chapter, wherein each astartes will have an indirect role in choosing who their company supports. At the end of the process, the High Reclusius will announce the name of whomever gained the highest amount of votes, and will thus be implanted with Asteralix’s gene-seed, the only recoverable thing following his death at the point of a poisoned Drukhari blade, and will replace their old name with that of the Founder’s; they have become the new Jonavaux through their link to the Founder in flesh and name alike.

Veteran Ranks
Veterans of the Jonmarines Chapter can be easily identified by their finely decorated armour. In line with the emphasis on individual merit, and the value of human equality equally demanded by the Rites of Humility, Jonmarine commanders, alongside astartes recognised for extreme acts of valour in the field, can also be seen wielding wargear, or wearing armour, that they themselves have given personal touches to, most frequently displayed by casings of weapons correspondent to an astartes’ company, or greaves, wrist guards and even helmets sporting patterns applied by their owner’s own hand, as permitted by their status, rank and recognised achievements. Often, this tradition will result in decorated Jonmarine veterans becoming covered in symbols of both their chapter and their world of origin, homages to the Imperium itself, and, most recently, honours towards their true Primarch, Sanguinius. Examples of symbols used by Jonmarine veterans to decorate their armour can be found below.

Dreadnaughts, due to their classification as chapter veterans, are hypothetical permitted to follow the same protocols as their non-entombed brothers, but must rely on others, Techmarines and fellow brothers alike, to apply whatever decoration they see appropriate. Moreover, a change in a dreadnaught’s assigned company may result in their decorative patterns being added to by said assigned company, meaning that the chapter’s dreadnaughts are constantly acquiring new decoration with each assignment. The only dreadnaught that deviates from this rule, however, is Venerable Romulus, who insists on going to war alongside the First Company that he, before ascending to the rank of chapter master, was once Captain of. Alongside this, Romulus’ green armour indicates his former rank of chapter master, something that Romulus himself holds as a point of rare pride.

Line Formations
Unique squads and formations.

Proto-Carnosaurid Pack
Woe betide the foe who faces either the Second or Seventh Company, for they will will not only have to face the superhuman strength and speed of astartes, but the predatory viciousness of Pannotia’s fauna, weaponized. As permitted to do so by Reclusiarch Atrocious, the Jonmarines, if they wished to do so, could not only take recruits from Kennor’s World, but also some of the beasts found in Pannotia’s global jungles to use in the same way that the Carnosaurs themselves use the mega-fauna present on Pannotia. While offer was accepted by the entire chapter, but, no other company has taken it up to the same extent as the Second and Seventh Companies.

Each company, even the First Company, has access to a dozen “proto-Carnosaurids”, which are one of Pannotia’s smallest species of tyrannosaur, similar to beasts fabled to roam Terra, the holy seat of humanity’s lord, the God Emperor of Mankind, while the world was in its prehistoric infancy. While smaller than their simply massive cousins, used by the Carnosaurs, share their similar razor sharp claws, aggression, viciousness and predatory instincts. Of all of the Jonmarines’ companies, the Second and Seventh companies, both the most heavily influenced by Kennorian culture, have the greatest number of proto-Carnosaurids, and will thus be more likely to deploy them in battle, and, in the case of Second Captain Mayak Diravarsus, give the beats names rather than just referring to them by “pack number”. Like the Carnosaurs, and, albeit to a lesser extent, their successor chapter, the Redemptive Wyverns, the Jonmarines often heighten these predatory instincts with implanted cybernetics.

While proto-Carnosaurinds are smaller than their Carnosaurid cousins, some proto-Carnosaurids can be a full third larger than a Primaris astartes, and, thanks to their razor sharp claws, that make a mockery of ceramite, far more dangerous than even the scions of the Ultima Founding.

In true Jonmarine fashion, these proto-Carnosaurids are governed by Codex regulations, the same Codex Astartes regulations that the Carnosaurs, ironically, hate with a burning passion. Each pack, using traditionally made Kennorian face paints, made on the eve of battle, is marked out in accordance to the company that the pack belongs to. While it is the job of the chapter’s serfs to feed and tend to the beasts, the company Calix Apothecary and Techmarine will often aid in such actions, as the Calix Apothecary will add to his company’s assigned serfs’ medical knowledge with his own, while the company Techmarine is on hand to install any cybernetics or replace lost limbs or digits of both serf and proto-Carnosaurid.

Techmarines are also encouraged to share the technological enhancements that they make upon their company’s pack, including such processes as internal blood warmers, as originally developed for use by the Carnosaurs astartes themselves before the Battle for Hyvarticus, which were implemented by Techmarine Taradus Carvyk into the First Company’s proto-Carnosaurids.

In traditionally Carnosaur fashion, each pack is starved for about a week before a battle, so that each beast is suitably violent for the coming war. In times of peace, however, each beast has access to a wide variety of native Pannotian prey to sustain themselves, and many chapter serfs, Kennorian in upbringing, will, while it is looked down upon by the Jonmarines, offer themselves up as prey, in a form of ritual suicide, when they become too old to be of optimal use to the chapter.

Notable proto-Carnosaurids include Khishchnik, whose name means “Predator” in Lawsundan Old Tongue, and is something of a lap dog to Captain Diravarsus, or at least this is what the Captain himself claims. Others include Khoroshiy Okhotnik, “good hunter” and Ubiytsa, “killer”, which are both members of the Seventh’s “Great Pack”, the pack often deployed alongside the company commandarius.

Phalanx of the Fangblade
The "Phalanx of the Fangblade", once known as Phalanx of Champions, is a ten man squad formed by each of the chapter’s company champions, led by the Chapter Champion. This formation, while listed in chapter records, was designed by the Founder to act as a strategy only to be used in the direst of moments, especially if the chapter master himself chooses to take to the field to deal with the cause of these dire moments. This strategy was not used during such wars as the First Defence of Lawsunda Majoris and the Howling Dark due to the Jonmarines’ lack of preparedness for the foes that struck the Majoris during both of these conflicts, but the Jonmarines’ ability to choose their battles due to their current fleet based stance may permit the current Chapter Champion to be able to form this formation.

Veteran Tactical Squad Indomnitus
Unlike the First Companies of other chapters, the Jonmarines have a single tactical squad operating alongside the terminator, terminator assault, vanguard and sternguard squads that comprise the Company of the Archangels. This tactical squad, known as Indomnitus despite the actual surname of its sergeant, is a symbol of First Company’s link to the companies supposedly below it; even if they are the chapter’s veterans, they are still Jonmarines, equal under the Rites of Humility, regardless of company. Indomnitus are therefore often found on the front lines alongside the tactical squads of their fellow companies, acting as a ten-man morale boost to those astartes fighting alongside the veteran tactical squad.

Each of Indomnitus’ members survived the Howling Dark, but some are older than others; flamer operator Cassius Quarialum earned his place in the squad during the First Defence of Lawsunda Majoris, while Davian Pherikhoi, the bearer of Razrushiel, literally the “Destroyer” in Lawsundan Old Tongue, an ancient bolter with an older still underslung disintegration gun, was promoted to Indomnitus due to his actions during the Chiralarus Campaign, wherein he recovered the fearsome, ancient weapon he then used to slay a Materinskoye Sushchestvo, “Mother Creature” tyranid bioweapon, also known as a Tervigon,  during the Howling Dark’s pre-evacuation “Lawsundan phase”. Strangely, Davian has refused any and all calls to become a captain, a noble, fitting, commendation for his amazing glories, complaining that he would “have to give up his Razrushiel” to do so, something apparently unthinkable to the grizzled Indomnitus squad member.

Order of Battle
As a result of the chapter’s transformation into a fleet based chapter, and the sizeable escort of small manufactorium ships that followed as such during the Reconstruction, very few companies have found themselves without sufficient equipment or supplies. In the case of emergency, however, following suit with those who survived the Howling Dark by doing so, astartes are permitted to scavenge supplies whilst in the field if resupply has been rendered impossible. It should be noted that many of the Jonmarines’ Primaris contingents have slightly more equipment than they need, even taking spare parts and materiel needs into consideration; this is thanks to Forgemaster Terasacariz’ interest in studying and marvelling at what he sees as the divine intervention of the Omnissiah through Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl’s Innovation. The Howling Dark provided the Jonmarines with a surprising haul of ancient, deadly, wargear too; the Jonmarines have access to three Leviathan dreadnaughts, Brothers Delvassik, Helerak and Kniffas, and twelve contemptors alongside their three Castraferrum dreadnaughts, Venerable Romulus, Captain Brother Decimus, who commands the Seventh Company even though he is confined to his sarcophagus, and Brother Penitus. The Jonmarines lack, however, any Redemptor pattern dreadnaughts, but it goes without saying that the Jonmarines’ entombed warriors are a dangerous asset to any company they are assigned to.

Listed below is the organisational constitution of the Jonmarines chapter as per M.42 110 at the so-called Konfrontatsiya (trans.: “Final Confrontation”) Muster with the Lamenters in the system of Garax, shortly before the presumed Defence of the Batavian sub-sector. Such name has been given to this muster due to the belief that the immanent clash with the chaos lord known as the Praetorian will be the final confrontation with the leader of the Malalites Reborn; the Reborn that has caused so much devastation will be stopped in Batavian space. Note also that the Jonmarines lack a Death Company; this trait is shared with their predecessors the Lamenters, and the long extinct Angels Resplendent, a chapter that has been believed to have had an integral role in forging the chapter's cultural identity, even if the Resplendent themselves have been considered long extinct.

Chapter Commandarius (Headquarters)

Armoury details:
 * 60 Rhino armoured personnel carriers
 * 10 Predators, including the Zeusarius, the oldest Predator in the Jonmarine armoury, and seven "Hyvartican-borne" vehicles built during the Siege of the Forgehalst Complex.
 * 5 Baal Predators
 * 10 Vindicators; five are "Hyvartican-borne".
 * 10 Whirlwinds, including the famous Pegasus, the only Whirlwind to survive the Howling Dark, and five "Hyvartican-borne" vehicles.
 * 10 Razorbacks, including 5 Rikarius pattern Razorbacks and the Triceratops, a Razorback repaired and renamed by the Carnosaurs in the wake of the Oschvenya due to the crippling of it's previous iteration, the Laznazad. The Triceratops, however, has retained its original armament of a twin-linked lascannon which gave it its name of "laser-back" in Lawsundan Old-Tongue.
 * 20 Land Raiders, including one Titanicus Redeemer variant, which has extra armour than a standard Redeemer, named after the Land Raider that survived the Howling Dark.
 * 10 Repulsors, collectively known as the “Grav-wing”
 * 1 Astraeus Super-Heavy Tank, the Spear of Telesto.
 * 24 Centurion warsuits
 * 20 Land Speeders
 * Bikes and attack bikes
 * 60 Drop Pods

The Armarykos Techmarinus iya Logistikayal serves numerous roles within the Jonmarines chapter. As the name translates from Lawsundan Old Tongue, the office serves the dual purpose of Armoury and Logistics within the chapter, but also organises the chapter’s Techmarines and their duties within the chapter Fleet, where liaison with the Admyralita, Fleetmaster, occurs on a literal daily basis.

Meanwhile, the Savant Primaris Office is a umbrella office for both the Ancient Kommandira Zharkoi and the Lieutenants Primaris Chapter Commandarius offices. This has been established following the introduction of Primaris astartes into the chapter, and serves to help integrate Primaris astartes into the chapter. Many of the serfs that operate within the Savant Primaris office have been tasked with teaching Primaris Jonmarines Lawsundan Old Tongue to facilitate quicker integration. This has, by the advent of the Konfrontatsiya Muster, has been relatively successful, even if some serfs, and many Survivors of the Howling Dark, claim some astartes like Captain Honorvus Zaharielan, of the Ninth Company, could “definitely benefit from some improvement on their accents”.

Companies / Kompaniyam Angelikhoi

Battle Companies / Boyevhaya Kompaniyam Angelikhoi

Reserve Companies / Rhazarva Kompaniyam Angelikhoi

10th Company / Scout Company / Rekonanzaya iya Rekrutieren Kompaniyam Anglikiho

Chapter Command
Like the Jonmarines’ companies, the Jonmarines are ruled by their Chapter Commandarius, which is identical in formation save for the addition of the office of the Chapter Master. Honorary members of the Chapter Commandarius will be granted their title once they have been deemed by the Chapter Commandarius as appropriate members of such, using the title as a reward for aiding the forces of the Jonmarines. Honourary Chapter Commandari members, and the reasons behind their acceptance as such, penned by the Saviour himself, are detailed below.

Malakim Phoros, Watcher of the Deeps and Lord of Ruin, Chapter Master of the Lamenters chapter: “Due to the close relationship between Jonmarines and Lamenters, let it be known that the Watcher of the Deeps’ word shall have weight amongst his successors”.

Knight Resplendent Varzival: [Reason classified due to tenacious relations with the Angels Penitent]

Inquisitor Baroness Artemis Tuplov, Ordo Mechanicum, formerly Ordo Xenos: “Instrumental in the founding of the Jonmarines, the word of an Inquisitor cannot be ignored, especially those of the Inquisitor whom the Founder disgraced”.

Grand Wyvern Scylla Drago and Reclusiarch Atrocious, leaders of the Wretched / Redemptive Wyverns and the Carnosaurs chapters respectively: “''Noble beasts once turned upon each other, these two individuals were integral to the Jonmarines’ salvation as much as the Jonmarines were to their own. Their sacrifices, alongside those of their chapters, are to be recognised in kind, with kindnesses''”.

Commander Ceveran Dante, Chapter Master of the Blood Angels, Regent of the Imperium Nihilus: "''The Scions of the Founder may have not been able to lend their strength to the Defence of either the Arx Angelicum or Baal Secundus itself, but we shall honour Commander Dante's orders when and if they come". ''

Lord Commander Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines, Lord Commander of the Imperium, Lord of Ultramar, ...[list continues]: "The words of a Primarch are lesser only to those of the Emperor's, even if they are those of our cousins' primogenitor. Lord Commander Guilliman's are no different".

Companies
I

As the company responsible for the chapter’s veterans, governed by the majority of the Chapter Commandarius itself, it is rare, while not unheard of, for a member of the First Company to not have the title “Survivor of the Howling Dark”. Thirty Seven, if not counting company commandarius members, of the Company’s one hundred members, survived the Howling Dark, including such squads as assault terminator squad Quinterix, terminator squad Decurion, formerly known as Squad Hallic, vanguard veteran squads Lydrik, Avatabar, Edricon and veteran tactical squad Indomnitus, which all earned themselves fame amongst the Carnosaurs during such conflicts as the Veldvarsik Misunderstandings and the the Breaking of the Hyvartican Siege, after demonstrating their combat prowess to the Carnosaurs that initially mistook the Jonmarine veterans for Wretched Wyverns hiding on Veldvarsik.

All members of the First Company, save for Tartaros squad Moradux, Captains of those companies rebuilt from the ground up during the Reconstruction, and Champion Phares, are Lawsundan born, as their actions during the Howling Dark won them the right to be counted for as members of the First Company. These new additions include squads Chardax, Rasputius and Stalhadt, from the Sixth, and Xeranicus, D’Apradach, the seven-man strong squad Grigius and five man strong squad Eriochanic from the Eighth, Xeranicus a squad comprised of solely False Astartes.

The First Company acquired ten more suits of terminator armour from those recovered found within the wreck of the Lamenter strike cruiser the Redemption, as permitted by chaplain Mihos, an agreement that was retained upon the discovery of Mihos’ true identity, while the rest of the Lamenters’ wargear, having been repaired by the Techmarinus, was returned to them shortly after the start of the Baal Crusade. These ten compliment the Jonmarines’ surviving ten, and the six Tartaros suits acquired during the Defence of Lokus with the recruitment of Squad Moradux and the Tartaros armoured Dimas, who voluntarily left the Knights Celestial to join his “still pure kin” of the ex-Terran Guard.

Notable squads: I Chapter Commandarius,

Post Defence of Lokus status: 12% casualties, 88 remaining

Trim colours: Gold

II

Kennorian culture is king in the Second Company, as it is in the Seventh company. Like the Carnosaurs that primarily recruit from Kennor’s World, Captain Mayak Diravarsus and his company was the first permitted to take, rear and deploy a collection of Pannotian fauna as an extra set of weapons, albeit not to the same devastating level as the Carnosaurs. Instead, so-called “proto-Carnosaurids” have been selected for use due to their small size, but this smaller stature, about that of an astartes, does not mean they aren’t any less vicious combatants, able to tear through power armour unassisted. This tactic, however, is limited only to the Second and Seventh companies, due to the logistical issues with deploying the beasts, especially in active battlefield situations, but Tenth Company Captain Haarnvust claims these predatory beasts make excellent trackers, suggesting that the Second or Seventh could work well alongside the Tenth.

Librarian Kalvyn Fryriss, however, has managed to retain some of Lawsunda’s heritage within the Second. The Company is nicknamed “Gryphus’ Own” in remembrance of the Second Company’s original, “Asteralixian” Captain, Aaldman Gryphus, the only Jonmarine to read from the Lamentation save for Kalvyn himself during the Howling Dark, who was killed by Irotek himself, decapitated by the Scythe of Idroslvia, at what Kalvyn calls the Massacre of the Haedric Hive. Here, the Second Company, cut off from the rest of the chapter first by faulty vox equipment and next by the Containment Lattice that kept them and the Fourth Company trapped on Lawsunda, were wiped out to the last astartes by the necrons that had, until that point, failed to do so due to split attentions with the Siege of the Asteralix Bastion. Every human and astartes defender, Jonmarine, pdf trooper, Astra Millitarum guardsman, Hive ganger (thanks to anarchy emerging as Lawsunda’s other population centres collapsed and were overran), and civilian militiaman, save for Kalvyn himself, would end up slaughtered by the Idroslvian advance. Irotek’s waves of necron warriors quickly ate up the Haedric Hive’s defenders’ last scraps of spare ammunition, and for every warrior that fell to the defenders, as assured by the Phaeron of Idroslvia via intercepted vox transmissions, five would replace it.

Henceforth, in remembrance of Aaldman Gryphus, who was unceremoniously beheaded by Irotek, and those of the Second Company that was, Kalvyn pressured Captain Diravarsus to keep the Second Company’s original colour scheme, to use the nickname coined by Fryriss himself, and at least acknowledge Lawsundan Old Tongue as a language used within the Jonmarines. Mayak, apparently moved by tales of Aaldman’s dogged, yet ultimately doomed, resistance, decided to follow the war-weary librarian’s instructions further than what Kalvyn himself had predicted; attempts to learn the “Tongue of Lawsunda” were soon prominent amongst the Second Company, and a large painted marble statue of Aaldman Gryphus, albeit wearing power armour that bore Kennorian cultural insignias, soon found a place within the Second’s strike cruiser.

Notable squads: II company commandarius.

Post Defence of Lokus status: 30% casualties, 70% remaining.

Trim colours: Orange

III

While known as “Lericberguson’s Own” in reflection of the Saviour’s roots, Master Lericberguson has made sure that Amadeus Terric has maintained the remembrance he deserves by retaining the Third Company’s old, Pre-Howling Dark, colour scheme, and personally instructing its chapter commandarius of both Terric’s exploits and his reported actions. As a result of the large proportion of Frisian astartes, similarly to the Fifth Company, meanwhile, the Third Company is surrounded by the mythology of the Batavian sub-Sector, the so-called “Lüthvacravatian” mythos, which Captain ter Al’ Marazhan and Master Lericberguson alike have been able to incorporate, despite some difficulties, into what has been salvaged of the culture of Lawsunda Majoris.

Unfortunately, the Third was one of the Jonmarine companies to have been crippled during the Defence of Lokus, falling to 45% of its operational strength, and were thus first in line to receive both ascended astartes during the Baal Crusade, and, later, Primaris reinforcement. Indeed, Primaris reinforcement has, to an extent, changed how much both Batavian “Lüthvacravatian” and Lawsunda Majorisan cultural identities have been retained, but this is not to say both have been made completely extinct.

Notable squads: III company commandarius.

Post Defence of Lokus status: 25% casualties, 75 remaining

Trim colours: Yellow

IV

The “Black Fourth”, having earned its nickname from both its black shoulder pads and the actions committed by the company under the command of its zealous Chaplain, the infamous Konstantinos Hangmann, has a balance of Kennorian, Frisian and Lawsundan cultural identities, thanks primarily to the now High Reclusius Hangmann’s direct interaction with his beloved Fourth. This myriad of cultural heritages has been slightly off-balanced towards Lawsundan culture by the return of the legendary Kodral Advlak, who was reinstated as Fourth Captain by Forgemaster Terasacariz during the Skirmish aboard the Lawsundan Avengement against what Kodral, like most “Lawsunda-ers”, still refer to as the Hydrakoi Scourge, shortly before the Defence of Lokus began. Despite being quite alien to his new company commandarius, and seeing them as equally as alien, Captain Advlak has managed to forge and maintain a good working relationship with both the “Kennorites” and the “Batavians” that make up his company.

Kodral, after surviving the Battle of Syrphaust alongside thirty five Terran Guard astartes, would add all three tactical squads, squads Arahalus, Ghrov and Pharaxis to the strength of the Fourth, a set of reinforcements well accepted by the Fourth. As for their impact on the cultural identities of the Black Fourth, however, the often reclusive ex-Terran Guards state that as they originated from [REDACTED], home of the now traitor [REDACTED] legion, their so-called "[REDACTED]ian” culture would find the Fourth Company more trouble than they could anticipate, and that all thirty of the astartes would rather forget that chapter of their past entirely.

Notable squads: IV company commandarius, tactical squads Arahalus, Ghrov, Pharaxis.

Post Defence of Lokus status: 29% casualties, 71 remaining

Trim colours: Black

V

The “Silvered Shoulders”, the Fifth Company, like the Third, has been heavily influenced by Frisian culture, but, due to the role that the Fifth’s former captain,  Brother Penitus, has had in maintaining the Lawsundan element of the company, the Fifth is slightly more Lawsundan than the Third, even if the only Lawsundan element of the company is Penitus himself. The Company’s nickname is not its original, as Captain Al’ Khephit changed it from “Lawsundan Honour”, in response to Penitus claiming that the Jonmarines’ failure to end the Howling Dark on Lawsunda made them ineligible for such honour. Only, as Penitus claims, will the death of Irotek and the destruction of the Idroslvian Dynasty redeem the chapter of its shameful failure, but the dreadnaught bound ex-captain is confident that the Jonmarines will be able to make good on this task, even if it may take them a while to do so.

Captain Kvitanach Al’ Khephit’s descendants are fabled to have originated not within the Batavian sub-system, but on a world deep within the southern reaches of Segmentum Pacificus, as he told the Jonmarines upon being recruited as an initiate. As for how he and presumably his predecessors managed to end up deep within Segmentum Ultima, Kvitanach revealed a tale of his descendants, once slaves of the greenskin menace, fleeing from an ork WAAAGH!, helped in their escape the way by “the heroic intervention of astartes clad in yellow armour, not bearing Fists, but praising those they cherished in blood and bleeding hearts alike”, their craft arriving in the Batavian sub sector via a random warp jump. This description, as confirmed by chaplain Mihos, refers to the Founder’s heroic, if not pyrrhic, assault on Slaughterhouse III, and the subsequent rescue of those enslaved by the orks.

As joked by both himself and Captain Haarnvust, it is just as well the Founder rescued his descendants, as Captain Al’ Khephit has proven himself well in the eyes of the chapter and their allies. During the Defence of Lokus, Kvitanach was responsible for preparing defences that held back the traitorous tide on Fulcana, and, aiding a Captain of the Knights Celestial, was able to bring down Larana Utorian, the Second Bloodyhanded, during the Battle for Fulcana itself. The Fifth, however, suffered 50% casualties during the Defence of Lokus, meaning that they would receive a good proportion of those recruited during the Baal Crusade, and a decent number of the Jonmarines’ Primaris reinforcements.

Notable squads: V company commandarius, tactical squad Janewijkan

Post Defence of Lokus status: 50% casualties, 50 remaining.

Trim colours: Silver; shoulder pad trims of commandarius officers are plated in silver.

VI

Without any doubt, the Sixth Company, known as the Illuminators for easily argued reasons, are one of the Jonmarines’ most famous companies. They have fought well over the entire chapter’s history, being at the forefront of actions to cleanse El’Cavarin’s Hive of its mutant outbreak during its Poisoning, present for many of the major battles outside of the Haedric Hive during the First Defence of Lawsunda, the coming of WAAGH! Gitsmasha, the successful purge of the Nochyani and what appeared to be the entirety of their Malalite Reborn heretic astartes allies, and, as known presumably embarrassingly to Idroslvia, the Jonmarines’ successful defence and later evacuation of their Asteralix Bastion, in which the Sixth Company successfully recovered the Liber Inimicus before it could fall into Idroslvia’s hands. Alongside these victories, the Sixth had also reduced their Chief Apothecary, Julian Kalviathan, who deferred to the command of the Sixth Company commandarius.

In the words of Captain Antonio Scyllus, the so-called “White-tipped Hunter”, named as such by the people of El’Cavarin’s Hive due to his Company’s colours, if the Jonmarines had to be rebuilt by the Sixth, they would happily do so, even to the extent that Antonio had contingency plans including naming himself Jonavaux if such the need arose.

Yet, great hubris oft precedes great falls, as demonstrated throughout history on countless occasions, worlds, to ever the more countless peoples, individuals and civilisations, and even the White-tipped Hunter is not immune to this. Indeed, Antonio’s hubris forgets that during the Lawsundan phase of the Howling Dark, the Sixth Company was unable to come to the aid of the Martyrs’ Rose Convent, which burned as Steravarets, the Uncorrupted Corruption, wreaked infuriated havoc upon those who had once been her sisters, including, to Kalvyn Fryriss’ misery,  Kathyrin Fryriss, whom Librarian Kaecelion Vryridissus discovered in a puddle of her own blood, having perished in her futile attempt to defend her equally as dead Canoness D’Vass.

The Howling Dark would, ultimately, see about Antonio’s demise. After the so-called Mythradates Incident, wherein the Sixth, exploring the world of Mythradates XVI, came under fire from a group of hidden enemies, Antonio ordered his strike cruiser, the Lawsundan Dynasty, to make another random warp jump, arriving just outside of the Lokus Sector and near the abandoned H71-Epsilon maintenance platform.

Shortly after the Sixth saw about the apparent death of the Skavain Rat-kin warband that had made the rusting maintenance platform their hideout, so unknowingly, tantalisingly, close to the Lokus Sector and the truth hidden both their and aboard the platform, Librarian Vyridissus would be ambushed and captured by astartes wearing grey armour marked with images of Wyverns, shortly after their massive space hulk arrived beside the platform. Determined not to lose another librarian to the clutches of traitors and heretics, while sorely outclassed and outsized by the massive space hulk, Scyllus ordered the Dynasty to follow the hulk as it entered the Warp, using the gargantuan Gellar Field projected around the hulk to enter right behind it.

With this, the hulk, the Draco Rex, captained by Grand Wyvern Scylla Drago, arrived above Veldvarsik, immediately preparing to make war with the Carnosaurs and Jonmarines, namely Praedus Hallic’s First Company, who had only recently proven themselves as not being Wretched Wyverns, already there. During these preparations, seeming to gain an edge over the Jonmarines, Scylla chose to interrogate his captive librarian, but, having been duped by Vyridissus’ own powers, was temporarily incapacitated when the Librarian of the Sixth cracked the Liber Inimicus over the Grand Wyvern’s head. During his subsequent escape, Vyridissus discovered that the Wretched Wyverns were, contrary to how First Captain Hallic and Captain Scyllus both assumed, not traitors, but simply a faction of Carnosaurs that had been forced to make a pact with the one they called the “Renegade God” to prevent themselves from being swallowed by the same chaos that had consumed a full half of the Carnosaurs themselves. Save for this, they were loyalists through and through, and, as admitted by Scylla himself, had apparently heard astropathic messages made by the Knights Celestial calling for aid against the forces of the Tyrant of Badab”, but arrived far too late to be a part of any defensive actions.

It would be this fact alone that would damn Scyllus. After Kaecelion stole a Wyvern shuttle, with which he made his escape from the Draco Rex, the Jonmarines Sixth Company sent their own forces to recover their librarian, especially after reports of necron, Idroslvian, activity on Veldvarsik became apparent. The Wyverns, having sent their own forces, scouts,  to recover their prisoner, were outclassed by Antonio sending fully fledged astartes to recover Kaecelion. Those of the Wyvern scouts that were not killed were captured, brought aboard the Dynasty, and, having tapped into the Wyverns’ vox network, tortured as Grand Wyvern Drago could only watch.

Out of the ten Wyvern scouts that were captured, many in wounded states, only one would survive, his life being saved by Kaecelion himself, who announced, desperately in doing so, that the Wretched Wyverns were loyalists all along. Having been enraged beyond reasoning by this act of cruelty, and losing himself to the more bestial form all Carnosaurs harbour, Drago prepared his forces to make one last assault on the Carnosaurs, before Irotek phased numerous phalanxes of Lychguard aboard the Draco Rex. The Jonmarines acted fast, rescuing Drago, who had to be contained by the Carnosaur Contemptor dreadnaught known as Suchia, even as he set astartes alight with his fiery breath, and his fellow Wyverns from a cruel death at the hands of Idroslvia.

While First Captain Hallic would drag Drago and the Carnosaurs’ Reclusiarch Atrocious to the negotiation table, Chief Apothecary Kalviathan, alongside Scyllus’ own company commandarius, turned on him. How dare could he defy the Rites of Humility like he had done? Kaecelion’s evidence that the Wyverns were not traitors was undeniable, especially after the Jonmarines had intercepted the Wyverns’ vox transmitters after they had sent messages to the Lawsundan Dynasty announcing that they were loyalist, and that they wished to help recover Librarian Vryridissus, and the Wyvern scouts had screamed that they were loyal to the Imperium even as they died. How could he even be worthy of the name Jonmarine after displaying such an debased act of cruelty?

Realising what he had done, Scyllus decided to come quietly, and surrendered himself. The White-tipped Hunter, after even he himself deemed it to be a suitable punishment, lost both his title as Captain of the Sixth Company, and, with permission from both himself and what was once his company commandarius’ ruling, with Chief Apothecary Kalviathan and Techmarine Frydor Tervomussa’s help, his life, as he was turned into a servitor as the ultimate punishment for his action. In the wake of this brutal turn of events, the Sixth Company commandarius gathered for a vote on who would lead them. After not much deliberation, the Sixth found itself a new leader, librarian Vyridissus himself, in accordance to the role he had played in the Sixth’s actions during the Reborn War.

While the Sixth would win more glories under Vyridissus’ command, including the Relieving of Eighth and Tenth Companies by ending the Siege of the Forgehalst Complex, the death of the Machine Changers and Kheverik’s Bloodyhanded at the Battle of the Firemouth Forge, and the death of both WAAAAGH! Gitsmasha and the Lords of the Kingqueen’s Night aboard the Ashamed Desolation, the “Antonio Incident” remains a point of shame amongst the “Illuminators”, much like Vyridissus’ failure to save the Martyrs’ Rose Convent whom he himself saw as familial ties.

Kaecelion would find a modicum of absolution during the Battle that won the Sixth the title of Illuminators, for when he slew Steravarets, the Uncorrupted Corruption, Kaecelion reminisces, he heard Kalvyn’s younger sister thank him for avenging both herself and the Martyrs’ Rose.

It is this sense of absolution, alongside atonement for his predecessor’s breach of the Rites of Humility, that drives the Sixth Company and its commandarius to acts of great valour in the name of the Jonmarines themselves, alongside, of course, those of their Founder’s, their Primarch’s and of the Emperor, a driving force that has garnered incredible results during the Reconstruction Wars and beyond.

Notable squads: VI Company commandarius squad, Bike squadron Carvisson, tactical squad Kargraphus

Post Defence of Lokus status: 35% casualties, 65 remaining.

Trim colours: white

VII

Even in death, was Captain Xerxes Decimus, Captain of the Seventh Company, ever the pragmatist, as joked by both himself and the late Amadeus Terric. Like Brother Penitus, who was similarly incapacitated during the Howling Dark’s opening battle, the Battle of Haarkarren’s Field, where the Jonmarines of the Fifth and Seventh turned upon themselves to the horrendous cacophony of the sonic blasters of Vlaadus Derkrül and his Lords of the Kingqueen’s Night, gripped by Haarkarren’s Undoing, Decimus was soulbound to his Castraferrum sarcophagus, like Venerable Romulus himself.

To Penitus, this was the end of the road for his run as Captain, but, apparently, this would only be the beginning of Decimus’ tale of rebirth.

Having fought well alongside the First Company, as a result of the Seventh and the Fifth’s prompt destruction, during the Veldvarsik Misunderstandings, Decimus appeared curious towards the Carnosaurs’ attitudes to war. To the dreadnaught himself, there was a primal sense of honour about these bloodthirsty astartes; they, like the Jonmarines themselves, honour and respect human life, and are prepared to kill and maim those who wish to take lives. This rage, Decimus claimed, after the Howling Dark, to what was left of his fellow Jonmarines, if properly harnessed and utilised, could be integral to the Jonmarines learning how to better survive in such a war-torn universe.

Thus, intrigued by Decimus’ arguments, Jonavaux Lericberguson would speak with Reclusiarch Atrocious, who had only recently accepted his honorary role within the Jonmarines’ Chapter Commandarius, and discover the origins of the Carnosaurs’ honorable and barbaric identities; the people of their home system, Pangea Ultima, who lived primarily on the world of Kennor’s World. Thus, in thanks for his chapter’s role in ending the civil war that tore his chapter apart, Atrocious accepted the Jonmarines’ later proposal to use Kennor’s World as a recruitment world, advising them to use the neighbouring Pannotia as the world to raise and trial these initiates upon.

Thus, the beginning of the Reconstruction of the Jonmarines on Kennor’s World can indeed be traced back to Decimus’ reasoning, and, as thanks for his insight, the dreadnaught would be rewarded with his old title back, becoming captain of the Seventh once more.

As a result of Decimus’ pragmatism, a majority of the Seventh Company’s astartes are Kennorites, a trait that is evident in the Company’s similar tactics to not only how Kennorites themselves go to war, but, to an extent, how the Carnosaurs go to war too. Like the Second Company, proto-Carnosaurids are utilised as vicious auxiliary troops, both offensively, tearing into the foe through the use of predatory tactics combined with tech designed by the Carnosaurs to boost their senses of smell, sight and hearing, and defensively, to protect Devastator firebases from ambush by killing the ambushers in retaliatory ambushes.

Notable squads: VII company commandarius

Post Defence of Lokus status: 40% casualties, 60 remaining.

Trim colours: Brown

VIII

Of all of the Jonmarines’ companies, the Omnissiah has the closest relationship with that of the Eighth Company, thanks to Forgemaster Terasacariz’ once temporary captaincy of the Company that was once led by Captain Jameson Arcadeus, who was killed at the Battle of the Asteralix Bastion during the Howling Dark. It is thus without a doubt as to why, during the Reconstruction Wars, the Eighth Company was volunteered by Forgemaster Terasacariz himself to aid a Mechanicus Explorator ship that had been beset by issues on the world of Grastus.

To most, the concept of having an emotionally suppressed adherent to the Machine God as the leader of an entire company of astartes is somewhat worrisome, especially within a chapter such as the Jonmarines, which values the concepts as individuality and humanity as parts of their Rites of Humility.

The Forgemaster has proven these worries right, and, strangely, wrong. Rituals dedicated to the Omnissiah are as prominent within the Eighth Company as those dedicated to the Emperor, the Primarch and the Founder, but Hadvasiir, apparently able to measure how much praising each party recieves, manages to keep all reverence in balance.

Remembrance, while considered unnecessary and inefficient, has been established for such individuals as Forgemaster Turzmak Stena, who is still remembered for his actions in service of the Chapter’s False Astartes, and Forgemaster Terasacariz was willing to make the appropriate accommodations for such. While Hadvasiir himself is a cold, calculating recluse, his commandarius is willing to account for their Forgemaster-Captain when such are necessary, including, to an extent, interaction with other companies, and, whilst not exactly routinely, the Forgemaster will make good on the duties he swore to uphold as the Eighth Company’s captain, which Hadvasiir himself calls the “Arcadean Protocols”, in honour of the Captain he has replaced.

The Eighth Company is thus ruled by Forgemaster Terasacariz’ calculating mind, and no other theatre of war shows this more than any other than the gruelling art of defensive sieges, the same type of warfare that won Hadvasiir his title of Hero of Hyvarticus. As shown by the Defence of Lokus, more notably the Battle for Fulcana, the Knights Celestial had their ornate fortress monastery surrounded with miles of earthworks, gun emplacements, fortified strongpoints and auxiliary redoubts, with each inch calculated by the Forgemaster himself. Even though the Knights and their successors deemed them aesthetically unpleasant, they could not see fault in their ability to hold out the oncoming tides of traitors and heretics that broke upon “the Forgemaster’s Lines”.

Notable squads: VIII company commandarius, Centurion warsuit squadron Casavart, Vindicator formation IX.

Post Defence of Lokus status: 35% casualties, 65 remaining

Trim colours: Red

IX

The Ninth Company, the “Wings of Fire”, are the Company primarily responsible for the operation of the chapter’s aircraft, and have thusly earned their nickname as a result of this. With the ‘death’ of Captain Israln Forax’s entire Company commandarius, alongside the entire Company, save for Johnathonus Hvencia, the Ninth has become a melting pot of the cultural heritages of only Kennor’s World and the Batavian sub-sector, save for Hvencia’s limited impact. The “Quiet Ninth” has no infamous or famous acts to its name save for the air support it gave the entire chapter during the Defence of Lokus and the evacuation of Fulcana’s civilians during the aftermath of the announcement that the Hadex Anomaly was on its way to destroy the Lokus Sector, but it’s most respectful event would emerge after the death of its captain, Dolfanic Bhaoldan, who was killed during the Defence of Lokus by wreckage of the Phoenix Wrath, a Knight Celestial warship, crashing onto Fulcana itself.

While the company commandarius was able to operate relatively well without a Captain, given Champion Iurian Iorisach’s voluntary adoption of the title, the company would vote to accept reinforcements, and a replacement to their empty position, following the Baal Crusade’s end. Relieving Iorisach of his rank of captain would be a fine example of the new breed of astartes introduced into the Imperium through the Ultima Founding; Honorvus Zaharielan, the soon to be named “Primarisian”.

Thanks to the Ninth’s comfortable attitude to differing cultures within its ranks, Zaharielan’s command has been accepted quite well, even if he, like many of his Primaris brothers, are still integrating into the chapter both linguistically and culturally.

Indeed, it is a considerably impressive situation to witness, as the relative unimpressive nature of the Primaris integration into the Jonmarines suggests how efficiently the process went; if conflict and divisions emerged from this act, there would have been far more attention given over to those conflicts and those divisions, as is apparently the case within the Flesh Tearers chapter, or, ironically, the Lamenters. Thus, as in Zaharielan’s own words, “perhaps quiet is simply better”.

Notable squads: IX company commandarius

Post Defence of Lokus status: 45% casualties, 55 remaining.

Trim colours: None; IX on display on left shoulder pad.

X

As Captain of the Tenth Company, Davian Haarnvust is known as the Master of Recruits, and, as a result, he is at least partially responsible for the integration of the chapter’s newest initiates. This role is of course integral to the Jonmarines’ continued existence, especially due to the circumstances surrounding Chaplain Pralomak Mihos, the Lamenter chaplain who joined the chapter after Captain Haarnvust rescued him from Pannotia, who was in fact Malakim Phoros in disguise, leaving the Jonmarines after being reunited with his own chapter. The Tenth Company, however, does not only see about the deployment of scouts and reconnaissance operations. With the introduction of Primaris reinforcements, Davian and his company commandarius jumped on the chance to recruit a replacement for ‘Pralomak Mihos”, and, like many chapters, squads of Reiver Primaris units. These brutal close quarters fighters, as Davian recognised as much as anyone else, are an excellent compliment to veteran squad Lydrik, which is often seen in the company of the Tenth’s company commandarius, operating as an advisory detachment from the First Company, in the same way that it did during the Howling Dark, which allowed Davian to take the role of Tenth Captain after Kurtain Kvas’ unceremonious, if not overtly brutal, death.

Notable squads: X company commandarius, vanguard veteran squad Lydrik

Post Defence of Lokus status: 40% casualties

Trim colours: None; X on display on left shoulder pad.

Combat Doctrine
As a result of the Commandarius Doctrine, warfare appears, to the outside observer, to be a very rigid thing to the Jonmarines. Actions and campaigns appear to be only committed to when the appropriate company for the warzone is available and able to do so, to the point that some companies may only be useful in very specific circumstances. However, to counter this, the Jonmarines may deploy those companies that have not specialised themselves, such as the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh or Ninth Companies, as a taskforce alongside a company deemed appropriate to the combat zone, once the specifics of the system have been confirmed by the Tenth Company enacting a reconnaissance mission.

Where possible, the Jonmarines' company commandari will liaison with both themselves and friendly forces either in orbit or already on the ground, often through the initial deployment of a single tactical squad, or, in some cases, the command squad of the company that is not leading the Taskforce, reasoning that if such forces are overwhelmed, either that tactical squad was lost in a noble effort to carry out the chapter’s wishes, a worthy death if it leads ultimately to the Imperium's victory, or that the central command chain will not be broken, even if the auxiliary has been lost. Once joined to friendly forces, the Jonmarines will coordinate themselves and their allies to make appropriate use of either's strength, and to exploit their opponents' weaknesses, while denying the strengths of such and preventing the exploitation of their own weaknesses. If victory is not assured through this method, the call for reinforcements will be made to the rest of the chapter fleet, who will thusly deliver as such.

The Jonmarines have also been known to fight as one, the forces of the entire chapter descending upon the foe with an incandescent fury that is so often demonstrated within the scions of Sanguinius. There is little that can stand in the way of such force, and those that find the courage to do so find themselves crushed and incinerated many times over, especially if the Jonmarines have assistance from their predecessors or other local Imperial forces.

Deathwatch Service
The Jonmarines have only sent one of their number to serve within the Deathwatch, the Tenth Company’s Librarian, Servitus Civares, following a dispute between Jonavaux Romulus, the Defender, and Watchcaptain Adauriel, of the Blood Angels chapter, who claimed that the Jonmarines’ False Astartes were far weaker than their true counterparts. As such, Romulus sent Civares to serve in the Deathwatch to prove the worth of both himself and his fellow False Astartes in the field of battle, the Deathwatch habit of fielding squads of astartes from many other chapters allowing the Jonmarine librarian to demonstrate his value to many other chapters.

Of these many chapters and astartes, Civares would gain the attention of one notorious individual, the belligerent, often confrontational, dreadnaught known as Chyron, from the Lamenters chapter. Even though he was sceptical of the Jonmarine, Chyron admitted that he sensed a familiar aura about the Librarian, an inkling that was confirmed when the Killteam that Chyron and Civares were appointed to discovered a vox transcriber that documented the agreements made between Malakim Phoros, Lord of Ruin, Watcher of the Deeps and Master of the Lamenters, Jonavaux Asteralix, the Jonmarines’ Founder, Inquisitor Artemis Tuplov, and an “Ælianus” character on founding a chapter known as the “Praetors of Lawsunda”, using astartes and gene-seed from the heavily depleted Lamenters chapter. This, in turn, made the Jonmarines aware of their true heritage, namely that they are successors of the infamous Lamenters, when this information was presented to Jonavaux Lericberguson, the later Saviour, aboard the Inflagerus, above the world of Java Prime, home of the Deep Striders chapter, which Civares and Chyron’s Killteam had been investigating for xeno corruption when the Jonmarine ship arrived.

As a result of his vigil in the Deathwatch, Servitus was unaware of the atrocities that had been inflicted upon the Jonmarines and their home system, but upon learning of the Howling Dark that the Jonmarines were still fighting to rid themselves of, he asked to be returned to what remained of her chapter, a move that the Killteam’s leader, Sergeant Adauriel, of the Blood Angels chapter, permitted. Chyron also asked to be released from his vigil, claiming that the Jonmarines were his best hope at finding the rest of his chapter, of such remained. Adauriel, moved by Chyron’s plight, permitted him to do so.

Notable Members
Detailed below are the names and exploits of the Jonmarines’ most famous astartes, who have won their myriad of titles through acts of courage, valour, faithfulness and loyalty, bringing glory to both themselves and their chapter. Detailed also is a brief overview of how each commandarius office was affected overall during the Howling Dark.

Chapter Masters
Howling Dark impact: Survived, no fatalities.

Jonavaux Asteralix, the Founder.
It is without a doubt that even the untrained eye could detect the gravity of Asteralix's touch on the Jonmarines' traditions and heritage. It is through his words that the Rites of Humility were written and enacted, it is in his honour that the Jonmarines named their Fortress Monastery the Asteralix Bastion. However, as discovered in the dying embers of the Howling Dark, Asteralix hid an eternal shame, yet weighted himself with the Herculean task it demanded: he would save the Lamenters from extinction they were doomed to, thanks to the shame of the Penitant Crusade, albeit under a different banner.

While serving as the Captain of the Lamenters' First Company, Asteralix commanded the task force of 300 Astartes along with the Battle Barge Daughter of Tempests dispatched to liberate the world of Slaughterhouse III. However, as a result of the liberation mission's ultimately Phyrric nature, including the rescue of only a tenth of the three million slaves freed from the ork menace and less than 100 astartes, 'the mission'  would become a prickly subject with Asteralix, even long after the horrors of the  Badab War, eventually becoming one of the numerous reasons why Malakim rejected the Ultramarines' Chapter Master Marneus Calgar's gift of an Iron Halo.

Following the numerous campaigns throughout the Lamenters' term as one of the Maelstrom Warden chapters, Asteralix solidified his already strong friendship with Chapter Master Phoros, presumably due to Malakim's continued regret following Slaughterhouse, supported by the future Founder's impeccable tactical skill. However, Asteralix would be beside Malakim in watching the Astral Claws, led by the so-called 'Tyrant of Badab', descend further into rebellion.

During the Badab War, Asteralix proved himself a ferocious adversary, besting any who dared to challenge either him or Phoros, effectively acting as the Lord of Ruin's bodyguard. However, Asteralix would become instrumental preventing the Lamenters from following the Astral Claws' heresies, instead giving the order to 'fire only when fired upon', and to take and hold prisoners after each victory over enemy forces, including the anecdote often told by Malakim himself in which Asteralix allowed the Salamander crew of a wrecked Land Raider an honourable surrender, and assistance in recovering the vehicle, personally helping the survivors to escape the wreck. These kindnesses, amongst other examples, would allow the Lamenters to escape even harsher punishments than the Penitent Crusade the chapter was ordered to undertake following their defeat aboard the Mater Lacrimarum at the hands of the Minotaurs.

As a result of the terms of their Penitent Crusade, and the Lamenters’ later, disastrous, wars against Hive Fleet Kraken, and the Victoria Pyrrhi, the great battle that the Lamenters had intervened in, aiding the Knights Celestial local to the Lokus Sector they had found themselves in, and the Drakken Harbingers to fight off a large scale chaotic invasion, the Lamenters were crippled, reduced to barely four hundred operational astartes, far below the operational strength of a chapter of astartes, Asteralix, Malakim and the Lamenters’ command staff fortunate enough to be among the survivors, albeit heavily wounded. Thus, while the Battle Barge Opulence and the Falchion class Destroyer Redemption received repairs, it was agreed by Malakim and Jonavaux in secret that a new chapter was to be formed.

As according to the vox transcriber found later by Killteam Adrauriel,  Jonavaux volunteered, explaining how the arduous task would be undertaken. Both he and Phoros agreed that the act of forming this chapter would seem incredibly selfish, even to the most understanding of individuals, so a tome would be written to explain the tragic terms under which the chapter had been founded, alongside a collection of Lamenter artefacts to be both hidden from the Minotaurs still looking for Lamenter relics to loot, and to act as reminders of which chapter sacrificed so much to found the Jonmarines. This collection, of course, would become known to the Jonmarines themselves as "Asteralix's Lamentation", containing the Shield of the First, Asteralix's left shoulder pad, and the tome that provides the collection its namesake.

What, however, the Lamentation fails to include, in any great detail, save for a single line of text, is the role of Inquisitor Tuplov in Malakim and Jonavaux’s goal. Having fought alongside the Knights Celestial, against heretical astartes of a warband known as the Knights of Laeran, an apparent breakaway from the Emperor’s Children, the Lamenters immediately determined that the Knights Celestial are not, as they would prefer to say, successors of the Imperial Fists through the White Templars, but direct descendants of the Emperor’s Children, many rumoured to have served during the Horus Heresy, alongside such individuals as Saul Tarvitz. When Malakim and Jonavaux, as documented by the recovered vox transcriber, made their case for founding a new chapter, aboard the maintenance platform H71-Epsilon, a fair distance within so-called “deep space” around the northern reaches of the Lokus Sector, Jonavaux made mention of this to Tuplov, who immediately became more willing to accept their offers. Indeed, Jonavaux Asteralix is the only individual that the Jonmarines know of to have successfully blackmailed an Inquisitor, and lived to keep the tale hidden for as long as possible.

As the unknown history of the Jonmarines tells us, Jonavaux got only part of his wish. Indeed, following the Lamenters being commuted from their Penitent Crusade, a new chapter was formed, but not one led by Asteralix himself. Instead, Tuplov appointed one of her loyal Deathwatch Killteam members, Ælianus, to lead a chapter Tuplov herself named the “Praetors of Lawsunda”, learning of the apparent poor job that the Adepta Soroitas of the Order of the Martyrs’ Rose were doing in controlling rampant corruption throughout Lawsunda’s elite society, rampant unrest amongst its proletarian societies, and a threat known as the “Pletia Hydrakoi”, the “Hydrakoi Scourge” in Lawsundan Old Tongue.

Eventually, the Opulence and the Redemption parted ways, and the former, commanded by Asteralix, appointed as First Captain of the Praetors of Lawsunda, would set about the task charged to him, following Chapter Master Ælianus. After a few months of warp travel, the Praetors of Lawsunda would arrive in the Lawsunda Majoris system, finding the world that Tuplov had said was theirs, and deeming it, along with its neighbouring worlds, suitable for their chapter’s homeworld, as Tuplov had informed Ælianus of such.

Here, the crew of the Opulence would become Praetors of Lawsunda, and forget their Lamenter heritage via a voluntary mind-wipe, save for Asteralix himself, who kept his memories intact in order to remember his original mission. Of those Lamenters who had their memories wiped, a number would later become the Jonmarines’ First Chapter Commandarius: Kaviaan Launaas, High Librarius, Haedvust Kalviathan, High Reclusius, Julian Kalviathan, Chief Apothecary, Hazaras Romulus, First Captain, Kaedron Huraan, Forgemaster, Ciirilvus D'Haarst, "Blade of the Founder", Chapter Champion, while each of the ten tactical squads brought by Ælianus became the starting point for each Praetor of Lawsunda company. For now, however, these once-Lamenters were simply Ælianus’ chapter command staff. Everything changed with Ælianus’ disappearance. With him, Ælianus took all of the Praetors of Lawsunda’s Librarians, who themselves had once been Angels Resplendent, save for Kavian himself, burning the Haedrican Library as he disappeared. Jonavaux, despite finally getting his wish, as permitted by Ælianus’ sudden departure, was, unknown to any of the Jonmarines, melancholic; Ælianus seemed to understand Asteralix’s plight, he wanted to help the Lamenters save themselves, but now, with no idea where Ælianus had fled too, Jonavaux named himself the Founder, and attempted to rebuild what remained of the Praetors into the chapter that bore a contraction of his name: they were his marines, Jonavaux’s marines; Jonmarines.

With this act, the Jonmarines would first make a name for themselves following Asteralix's first order as the Founder, Captain of the First no more. Upon the first Chapter Commandarius vote to do so, Asteralix visited the Haedric Hive, the capital of Lawsunda, and Lawsunda Majoris as a result, with intent of both petitioning the nobles of the Hive for recruitment rights to their Hive's population, and inspecting the ruins of the Haedrican Library for any clues as to where Ælianus fled. Inside the Hive, Asteralix found the population barely containing a burning resentment towards the oligarchic families that controlled the upper spires, the musk of corruption rife in their reasonable woes. While the countryside around Haedria was perfect arable land, the nobles of the Hive refused to give equipment nor permission to till the soil, and selfishly hoarded any and all incoming foodstuffs for their own massive feasts, using the Hive Gangers of Haedria to forcefully acquire these imports as soon as they touched down in the Hive's spaceport.

Asteralix, after hearing the complaints of the citizenry of Haedria, and especially after hearing of the hundreds of deaths the Burning of the Haedrian Library had caused, decided that something needed to be done, especially given the Jonmarines' Rites of Humility pointing towards doing so. After completing his visit to the Haedric Hive and to Lawsunda's other equally-as corrupt Hives, and training these recruits to their greatest potentials, each company would set about toppling the corrupt leaders of each Hive. Jonavaux himself called this operation the “Culling of the Heretically Corrupt", a fitting name for what would come later.

Days before the operation's start date, however, Asteralix would receive a visitor aboard the Opulence. This visitor was none other than Elizabeth D'Vass, the Canoness of the Martyrs' Rose, who insisted that there was no form of corruption in any of Lawsunda Majoris' Hives, begging Asteralix to call off his perceived attack on the world. Asteralix, however, refused D'Vass' plea as respectfully as possible, instead querying whether or not the Canoness was actually aware of the goings-on of the Hives. Elizabeth realised, after a few hours of discussion between her and Asteralix, that the nobles of the Hives had, in fact, been feeding her false information, and there was plenty of evidence to suggest that these nobles were well on their way to inviting heresies onto Lawsunda, and further afield. The order of the Martyrs' Rose had sworn since their creation to defend Lawsunda Majoris, and thusly to deny the Jonmarines' plight to end a potential daemonic incursion before it even started would be little more than allowing the heretics to spread their corruption further.

Thus, D'Vass gave Jonavaux Asteralix her word, and, as a token of her consent to the purge, ordered her Order to assist the Jonmarines, the Canoness personally accompanying Asteralix into the Haedric Hive. Therefore, the Cleansing of Lawsunda Majoris would be carried out by both Jonmarine and Soroitas. Listed below are the Hives of Lawsunda Majoris, and the Jonmarine company that would carry out the mainstay of the Hive's purge:

Avissark Hive- Half of the Second and the Third Companies, led by Captain Aaldman Gryphus, and Frederich Caralus, respectively.

Haedric Hive- Chapter Commandarius, the First Company, and the other half of the Second Company, led by Jonavaux Asteralix and Elizabeth D'Vass, who would lead her Soroitas personally.

Takandrik Hive- The Fourth Company, led by Captain Kodral Advlak.

Adarvus Hive- The Fifth Company, led by Captain Orsus Penitus

El Cavarin's Hive- The Sixth Company, led by Captain Antonius Scyllus

The Haladirian Hive- The Seventh Company, led by Captain Xerxes Decimus

The Kaulstmann Hive- The Eighth Company, led by Captain Jameson Arcadeus

Ir Graatus Hive- The Ninth Company, led by Captain Israln Forax

Hegrannax's Hive, the only hive on Hegrannax’s World- The Tenth Company, led by Captain Kurtain Kvas)

However, upon the arrival of each Company to their respective target Hives, the Jonmarines were met not with armed uprisings nor the Adeptus Arbites, PDF or Imperial Guard of Lawsunda Majoris, as a result of D'Vass' forewarnings to each and every Arbites commander, and garrison Regiments' commanders, alongside the populace correctly welcoming the Jonmarines as liberators. Thus, the Jonmarines marched through each Hive as such welcomed liberators, even resulting in militias assembling themselves alongside the Jonmarines to help in their mission of restoring the Emperor's light into Lawsunda Majoris' Hives. However, the Jonmarines would come under attack as they marched into the upper reaches of each Hive, as each noble realised their incoming dethroning, and committing their private armies of Hive Gangers to oppose the forces rightfully inbound to do so. However, these poorly equipped, poorly trained savages were no match for the combined efforts of the Jonmarines and the Martyrs' Rose' Soroitas, and were forced out of the way with little more than a few deft blows of a gauntleted fist, into the hands of the Arbites. Thus, the Jonmarines would reach their targets without suffering a single casualty, other than sergeant Johnathonus Lericbergson, who accidentally fell as his squad marched through a large gathering of the Avissark Hive's population, tripping as a child attempted to pass in front of him. Fortunately, Johnathonus did not suffer any lasting injuries other than a small dent on his armour, as neither did the child.

Once the corrupt nobles were removed from power, each Hive was temporarily put under the control of each Jonmarine company, Martyrs' Rose battle sisterhood, Imperial Guard battalion and Arbites detachment that dethroned the Hive's previous 'owners', as preparations were made to form governments based on fairer terms, namely councils comprised of prominent citizens of each Hive. This system, known later as the Asteralix-D'Vass Doctrine, would be in place unopposed until the eventual Howling Dark, as a result of the fairness of the Doctrine.

However, the liberation of each Hive had a surprising effect: the Jonmarines became famous in each Hive, to such an extent that public order seemed to improve even if a thunderhawk painted in the colours of the chapter was sighted passing over said Hive. Therefore, instead of spreading their numbers across the Lawsunda Majoris system and further, the Jonmarines remained on Lawsunda and Hegrannax's World, venturing from their system for matters of utmost concern, most notably task force Advlak assisting an outnumbered force of Grey Knights ambushed by Red Corsairs during an expedition into the Chiralarus system, often to showers of admiration from the citizenry of both worlds' Hives.

Asteralix welcomed this admiration, as he knew that such would allow for the Jonmarines to maintain order on both worlds, but became unwilling to fully exploit it, given the sins of Lugft Huron were allowed to continue due to popular approval, which had led to the Badab Tragedy, which was still a fresh wound to both himself physically and mentally, and to his sense of honour. Thus, Asteralix would maintain a philosophy of limited interaction in domestic affairs, even after his doctrine made him famous to the population of Lawsunda Majoris, winning himself the title of 'Humble'. However, this reluctance did not completely bar the Jonmarines nor Asteralix himself from assisting the populace of Lawsunda Majoris entirely, as shown by Asteralix’s actions following the 'Culling of the Heretically Corrupt'.

Once the 'Culling of the Heretically Corrupt' was deemed successful, including a purge of over ninety percent of the initial population of the Nochyani terrorist cell, the Jonmarines turned to improving Lawsunda Majoris' population and its livelihood, as a result of Jonavaux Asteralix and Elizabeth D'Vass' agreement that heretical beliefs could emerge from the bottom of society as well as from its top, leading to Asteralix 'declaring war' upon what he called 'the seeds of Heresy': rampant unemployment, illiteracy, poverty and crime, the last two factors responsible for Lawsunda's large number of orphaned children. Worse still, Lawsunda Majoris' unemployment rate was adding to the declining food stores available to its population, and, as a result, threatening to descend below the system's tithe thresholds.

Thus, Asteralix knew that something drastic had to be done. In a move that surprised even D'Vass, Jonavaux ordered the chapter, save for Taskforce Advlak, who were sent out into the wider Imperium to prove the Jonmarines’ aptitude as a chapter of astartes, to take to Lawsunda's agricultural districts and facilities, and to assist the agricultural labourers already present there in improving the efficiency of their trades. Thus, one of the greatest non-combat related exploits of the Jonmarines was undertaken in Lawsunda's agricultural districts, resulting in scenes of techmarines either repairing or simply rebuilding machinery used by the labourers, and tactical squads, dressed only in the traditional tunics worn by the Jonmarines outside of combat, helping workers half their size to gather the harvest, and to plant the next year's crop.

Such were the Jonmarines' efforts successful in preventing either famine from taking hold nor the system falling below its Imperial tithe, that the following years' harvests were both earlier and larger than those beforehand, resulting in a demand for more workers to gather it, resulting in Lawsunda's unemployment issues becoming void in one fell swoop, and allowing the system to export the large surpluses gathered. Thus, with more profits in the coffers of the Hives, gradually, over a period of roughly fifteen years, the issue of illiteracy amongst the citizens of the Hives was eroded away. Amazed at Asteralix's devotion to helping the citizens of Lawsunda Majoris, the Hive Councils decreed that the Jonmarines would be welcome in using an old fortress, left abandoned by the fabled, equally feared and respected, Skrytaya smertikoi, the ‘Hidden death’, that had left Lawsunda hundreds of years prior, shortly before Lawsunda had collapsed into its Anarkhiya period which had produced the corruption that Asteralix and his Jonmarines had swept away in but a few years, their Fortress Monastery near the Haedric Hive, as well as allocating the title of 'Lawsunda's Finest' to Asteralix.

However, during this operation, tragedy would befall the chapter. While overseeing efforts to improve the quality of the Avissark Hive's agricultural output, Captain Frederich Caralus of the Third Company was killed as the ground he stood upon gave way underneath him, which revealed the entrance to a vast Horus-Heresy aged vault, it's heraldry dictating its loyalty to a force calling itself the “Terran Guard”, as discovered by Asteralix himself, upon his inspection of the vault. The Founder also noted that the facility fortunately lacked any form of corruption, and held a huge stock of Heresy-era weaponry. However, only one relic would be disturbed, namely the 'Blade of the Guard', which Asteralix deemed to be the greatest of the weapons within the cache, as well as, in secret, replacing the Paragon Blade with the tome known as Asteralix's Lamentation, for safe keeping.

In truth, as revealed by Asteralix’s own archaeological investigations, and confirmed later, by many of the rescued former “Terran Guard” astartes, the cache had been constructed by the Terran Guard, as a precaution against [REDACTED], including their Primarch, [REDACTED], storing the Blade of the Guard in the cache for the same reason, as well as the self imposed punishment Crysos Morturg, the leader of the Terran Guard, administered upon himself or failing to prevent [REDACTED]  from falling to “the Warmaster’s” heretical words.

Meanwhile, the Third Company would elect a new Captain, namely Johnathonus Lericbergson, Frederich's self-suggested successor, who would, as a tongue-in-cheek  reference to Captain Caralus' death, request the use of a jump pack as part of his equipment.

Following the successes of the War against the Seeds of Heresy, Asteralix set out to control the rest of the Lawsunda Majoris system. The Third Company, in order to test the mettle of the relatively young Captain, would be sent to Hegrannax's World, in order to control an outbreak of curiously aggressive wildlife, which was threatening to designate the world a Death World. The Third succeeded in their task with limited casualties, improving the standing of the Jonmarines on Hegrannax's World, and fostering a friendship between Asteralix and Lericbergson. However, after this success, Jonmarine communication facilities would begin receiving strange transmissions originating from the unexplored world of Sryphaust, containing alien words and phrases, triggering Asteralix's suspicions. D'Vass was unaware of xenos presences in Lawsunda Majoris, and thus supported Asteralix's plans to investigate the world. Unfortunately, this would become Asteralix's undoing, as, mere hours before the Founder was to enact the first phases of the Expedition of Sryphaust, Jonavaux was found dead by his First Captain, Hazaras Romulus, a deep, poisoned stab wound sunk into his exposed chest as he slept. According to Hazaras, the body showed little signs of struggle, suggesting that Asteralix's assailant was able to slip into the Founder's chambers in the Asteralix Bastion, and assassinate Asteralix, and slip away completely undetected. As a sign of respect for Asteralix, the Chapter Commandarius elected Hazaras Romulus as the new chapter master, who delayed Asteralix's Expedition 'indefinitely' as a further sign of mourning.

The legacy of the Founder’s death would have implications further in the Jonmarines’ history, wherein, above the homeworld of the Knights Celestial, Fulcana, a far older Inquisitor Tuplov would, in a mocking tone aimed at the Jonmarines themselves, imply that she had been responsible for allowing the Drukhari assassin to infiltrate the Asteralix Bastion, and slay the Founder, using either the act, if her words were true, or the effect that it was supposed to have on Asteralix’s scions, as petty revenge against the astartes who had either blackmailed her, or against the astartes that honoured her blackmailer as their Founder.

Jonavaux Romulus, the Defender.
As successor of Jonavaux Asteralix, the Founder, it could be assumed that Romulus would have great expectations as Chapter Master. However, this is incorrect, especially given the grief that the Chapter collectively experienced upon Asteralix's death. Romulus seemed to have taken Asteralix's death the worst within the chapter, almost, according to High Librarius Launaas and High Reclusius Kalviathan alike,  blaming himself for the death of the Founder. However, this assertion was, and, is, according to Romulus even after The Howling Dark,  the truth; yet, Romulus refuses to disclose what exactly happened that fateful night. Even now, well over two hundred years after the Founder’s death, Romulus still speaks of the severe emotional pain that his guilty conscience has wracked him with.

Following the methodology set out by the Rites of Humility for such a terrible possibility, Hazaras received Asteralix's gene-seed, which was extracted from the Founder's corpse before it's burial in the Reliquary of the Jonmarines' Fortress Monastery, the Asteralix Bastion, and took the name of Jonavaux to resemble his link to the Founder; he had received a part of Asteralix, thus making him connected to the Founder through name, flesh and blood alike. Immediately after he became Chapter Master, Jonavaux Romulus would call for ten months of mourning for Asteralix, resulting in the chapter temporarily painting their primary armour colour over with black, then permanently darkening their colour scheme, and maintaining a twenty-four hour vigil around Jonmarine defensive facilities on both Lawsunda and Hegrannax's World, alongside the 'indefinite' suspension of Asteralix's Expedition to Sryphaust, only appointing sergeant Haarvik Hallic to the role of First Captain after the ten-month mourning period. It is important to note that Romulus seemed to show symptoms of depression, also known as "survivors' guilt", mere days after Asteralix's death, and continued to do so even until his death, some seventy years later.

Yet, Romulus' term as Chapter Master would be beset by misfortune, making the soon to be named Defender’s depression grow worse.

Five months after the end of the period of mourning for Asteralix, as a result of the chapter's belief of the 'Declaration of Origins' written by the Founder, (known later by the Lamenter Dreadnaught Brother Chyron, almost spitefully, as 'Asteralix's Deception'), which defined the progenitor chapter of the Jonmarines as being that of the Ultramarines, the First Forgemaster, Kaedron Huraan, elected to travel to the Ultramar sector to ask for assistance from the Chapter's believed progenitors, aboard the Falchion class Destroyer the Spear of Asteralix. However, according to Astropathic relays from the Ultramar Sector, the Spear never arrived, resulting in Kaedron being assumed dead, the Spear assumed lost with all hands. In Huraan's place, Forgemaster Turzmak Stena, the first Techmarine to be recruited from within the Lawsunda Majoris system, originating from the Fourth Company, perceived by many as a reward for Chaplain Hangmann’s earlier Purge of the Underhive of Takandrik, would be chosen.

Worse, an event known as the "Poisoning of the El Cavarin's Hive" would emerge under Romulus' rule, in which an corruption, of unknown source managed to infiltrate the El Cavarin's Hive's water supplies, causing an outbreak of mutants amongst the populace, hampering public order, and even leading to the desertion of a battalion of Lawsunda's 13th, the 'Warriors of the Northlands', Imperial Guard regiment.

Significantly, a Sixth Company sergeant, Tactical Sergeant Alexeianik Citadach, who had become 'famous' due to his Lawsundan origins, and his ties to the religious elite  of the El’Cavarin’s Hive and with that of the Takandrik Hive, both having close relations with the Martyrs' Rose convent, as a minor, albeit popular, preacher, was 'touched' by the Warp-based corruption in El Cavarin's Hive's water supplies, becoming the first librarian of the Jonmarines.

While the emergence of a psyker is considered suspicious and troublesome by Imperial sources under normal circumstances, the emergence of an ex-preacher, a man of the Imperial Creed, becoming a psyker caused trouble between the Jonmarines and the Martyrs' Rose Order to emerge, as well as worsening public order within El Cavarin's Hive, given the Hive's populace harbouring a traditional fear of 'Warp magicks'. Worse still, in response to Citedach’s transformation, D'Vass decided to abandon her honorary position in the Chapter Commandarius, a post she'd held since the end of Asteralix's War on the Seeds of Heresy.

Citendach would be followed by Kalvyn Fryriss, the soon-to-be Second Company's Librarian and Johnathonus Hvencia, the Ninth Company's current librarian. Later, tactical marine Servitus Civares, a False Astartes deemed to be the paragon of what a Jonmarine False Astartes was supposed to be, was 'touched' by the corruption, similarly to Alexeianik, Kalvyn and Johnathonus, becoming the Tenth Company's librarian, worsening suspicions from the Martyrs’ Rose to levels of fanatical paranoia far beyond even levels considered dangerous.

However, after Alexeianik's 'touching', Jonavaux, in an act of defiance against who, or what had caused the outbreak, committed his chapter's energies to resolving the crisis, using the chapter's armoury to transport emergency water supplies to the El Cavarin's Hive, and using the recently 'warp-touched' to detect other mutants and potential Librarius candidates, in the case of Kaviaan, who, alongside Alexeianik, Johnathonus and Kalvyn discovered Quintus Redevus, Challonus Levial, Iulus Arvoklaas and Aedrian Thulos, who would be assigned to the 7th, 5th, 4th and 3rd Companies respectively. Eventually, order was restored to the El Cavarin's Hive, winning Jonavaux Romulus the title of 'the Defender', but the rift between the Jonmarines and the Martyrs' Rose would remain an open wound between the two for years to come, not fully healing even after the 'Vryidissus incident' under Jonavaux Lericbergson's pre-Howling Dark term, if not even worsening due to the same incident.

Upon a chance visit to Lawsunda Majoris by representatives of the Deathwatch, Servitus volunteered to serve as part of the Deathwatch's Killteam Adrauriel, perhaps moved by the fallout of  Jonavaux's embarrassment at the hands of Balthazar Adrauriel upon the Watch Captain's discovery of the Jonmarines' unique approach of recruiting False Astartes. According to both Haedvust Kalviathan and Haarvik Hallic, Jonavaux wept tears of rage after Servitus's departure, and Adrauriel's humiliating mocking of the chapter master, and the chapter itself, even to the point of Romulus ranting that if Adrauriel had stayed on Lawsunda for but another moment, he would’ve been killed by the Defender’s own bare hands.

There was, however a small glimmer of happiness felt by the Defender. Following Servitus’ embarrassing departure, Jonavaux would become close friends with Captain Johnathonus Lericbergson, who had previously been close friends with Asteralix. As much as Jonavaux vented his woes to High Reclusius Kalviathan, he also, in private, shared his woes with Johnathonus, the third Captain doing his best to help Kalviathan to ease Jonavaux's worries. In return, Jonavaux Romulus would order the a suit of artificer armour known as the Mantle of Romulus, and the relics known as Justice and the Ballista to be gifted to Johnathonus, who, in his humble manners, refused to wear the armour until Romulus' internment in his Venerable dreadnaught sarcophagus.

However, before Jonavaux Romulus could move to discover the cause of the poisoning of the El Cavarin's Hive, a space hulk known as the Ashamed Desolation arrived in the Lawsunda Majoris system. The Jonmarines, nor Lawsunda's Imperial Guard or PDF regiments, or the Martyrs' Rose Order needed to send recon missions to discover what inhabited the hulk, as the orks within immediately attempted planetfall on Lawsunda, the horde's mega-armour wielding Warboss announcing himself as Gitsmasha as soon as the Warboss had landed.

While a large portion of Gitsmasha's forces had been destroyed by Lawsunda's orbital defence weaponry, the Warboss made for the Haedric Hive, seemingly intent on rolling over the system's capital to get to the Asteralix Bastion. With this in mind, Jonavaux Romulus placed most of the chapter's forces both in the Haedric Hive and within the Asteralix Bastion, personally commanding the 'Haedric detachment', alongside  Haarvik Hallic, Kaavian Launaas, and Julian Kalviathan, while Haedvust would command the 'Asteralix detachment'. Eventually, as predicted, Gitsmasha attempted to assault the Hive, meeting half of the First company and the entire Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth companies alongside the 23rd, 38th and 39th Imperial Guard regiments.

The orks would be crushed by the defenders of the Haedric Hive, but at a dire cost to the chapter. As a result of an oath the Chapter Master had made thanks to him blaming himself for Asteralix's death, Gitsmasha's decision to challenge the Defender to single combat was answered with hostility comparable to that of the ork's own, despite Champion D’Haarst’s ignored insistence that Romulus let him fight the beast first. After a whirling duel between Jonavaux, and the Warboss, which towered above the Chapter Master, the foul ork caved Jonavaux's head in with a brutal downwards swipe of its power klaw, seemingly killing Jonavaux Romulus instantly, much to Ciirilvus’ horror. To Romulus himself, as he would later admit, this fatal blow was the closest he came to coming to terms with all of the suffering he had experienced since he discovered the Founder’s corpse.

Yet, the ork was driven off by the forces sent to extract the broken body of Jonavaux, namely those of First Captain Haarvik Hallic, veteran tactical squad Indomnitus, Terminator squad Quinterix, Terminator squad Hallic, led by Haarvik's younger brother Praedus, Vanguard Veteran squad Haarnvust, and assault squads Avabar and Edricon, accompanied by Captain Lericbergson. After sustaining a massive wound from the Destroyer, the ork fled, using a 'telyporta' contraption, leaving the Jonmarines to extract what was left of Jonavaux Romulus.

However, as if fate was rigged against Romulus, even in death, the chapter master was denied what he thought was atonement for, in secret, eternal, shame, watching, and letting, Asteralix die. While Romulus was crippled irreversibly by the ork’s crude weapon, Forgemaster Stena and Chief Apothecary Kalviathan were able to 'save' Romulus' life, interring the Chapter Master's crippled body into the sarcophagus of a dreadnaught, not before extracting Asteralix's Gene-Seed. Thus, Jonavaux Romulus had died, but, out of his ashes, Venerable Romulus arose.

As Venerable Romulus, the ex-chapter master would serve as an advisor to the new, incoming Master, as Romulus requested, believing the new master to be Jonavaux Hallic, formerly Haarvik. However, Romulus was surprised to discover that 'his' Commandarius had instead elected the first astartes to reach his broken body as chapter master: Jonavaux Lericbergson, Haarvik respectfully declining the role out of respect for Romulus. Thus, Romulus would serve as Jonavaux Lericbergson's advisor, given the relative young age and inexperience of the new Chapter Master.

However, Romulus' role of advisor would result in his initiation of the Lericbergson-Launaas Feud, as Romulus objected to Jonavaux Lericbergson's plans to end  Romulus' own 'indefinite' delay of Asteralix's Sryphaust Expedition to such a successful extent that Jonavaux decided against it. However, Kaviaan insisted that something needed to be done about Sryphaust, as according to the visions he had received from the Armour Indomnitus. After a heated argument just moments after Lericberguson ascended to chapter master, which included even threats, Kaviaan decided to take the Falchion-class Destroyer known as the Exodus, and travel the stars of the Imperium of Man, as, presumably, a method of calming tensions between himself and Jonavaux, only to return to the Lawsunda Majoris system upon news of Jonavaux Lericbergson's announcement that he had temporarily ended hostilities between the Chapter and the Martyrs' Rose Order.

Jonavaux Lericberguson had, amazingly managed to end Elizabeth D'Vass' hatred towards the Jonmarines, reversing all of the damage done during Romulus’ term,  by arranging routine meetings between the Canoness and representatives of the Jonmarines' Librarius, to prove directly to her that the Chapter's librarians were still loyal to Terra's rule. It would be during a meeting between the future Saviour and D’Vass, however, that one of the Jonmarines' most iconic commanders would be discovered: Kaecelion Vryidissus, the servant boy who announced the arrival of his latent psychic powers explosively by filling the room that Canoness D’Vass and Jonavaux Lericberguson were having tea in with incendiary gouts of psychic lightning. Kalvyn begged D'Vass to release him, and, after a stony opposition, D’Vass listened to reason, but at a price: Kaviaan, as D’Vass ordered Jonavaux, would be forced to train Kaecelion to use his newfound powers.

Kaviaan begrudgingly accepted, making his first uncomfortable, if not openly hostile, meeting with D'Vass thirteen years into the Jonmarines' youngest Chapter Master's rule. In a matter of seconds, to an observing Romulus, all hope of repaired relations were disintegrated, like Jonavaux’s moustache and eyebrows, worsening the depression that gripped the venerable dreadnaught.

The High Librarius, moreover, in an act of defiance against the chapter master he saw as ill suited for the post, would undermine Jonavaux's plans by returning to his travels once Kaecelion’s training was completed, only two years before the Howling Dark, taking Johnathonus Hvencia and Quintus Redevus with him aboard the Exodus.

Later, during the darkest depths of the Lawsundan phase of the Howling Dark, Romulus would support Jonavaux's most important decisions made during the Howling Dark. Believing Lawsunda's position to be untenable, and the war against heretic, necron,and tyranid forces to be impossible without the squandering of huge numbers of loyalists' lives, Jonavaux decided to abandon Lawsunda, ordering the evacuation of all Jonmarine, PDF and Imperial Guard forces still on Lawsunda, while he descended into the Catacombs of Idroslvia. Romulus promised Jonavaux that he would stay in the Asteralix Bastion in order to announce the destruction of the xenos and heretic invaders, and receive calls from returning Jonmarine forces, as well as accommodating the ex-Chapter Master's wish for 'an honourable death fighting the enemies of Man', which he still believed to be the only suitable atonement for failing to save Asteralix, believing that the necrons would try again to loot the Asteralix Bastion of its Reliquary.

However, yet again were Romulus' wishes for death denied; the necrons had chosen to ignore the Asteralix Bastion, continuing their 'harvest' of the tyranids and heretics on Lawsunda instead, a fact that was proven by the arrival of Deep Striders Fedyakin in the Asteralix Bastion. While Romulus decided against addressing the Fedyakin over the vox as they picked their way through the ruins of the Bastion, his link to the surviving vid-capture feeds suggested their friendly status, resulting in the Venerable dreadnaught willingly 'surrendering' to the Deep Striders upon his discovery.

Later, Venerable Romulus would assist Jonavaux in petitioning the Deep Striders' Chapter Master for assistance in rebuilding the Jonmarines, where, aboard the Deep Striders’ flagship, the ex-chapter master would reunite with Servitus, and Killteam Adrauriel. While Romulus was elated to meet Servitus, he was infuriated by Watch Captain Adrauriel, but quickly calmed upon Adrauriel apologising for his offensive behaviour. Moreover, Romulus would find himself close friends with Brother Chyron, as a result of their shared annoyances towards internment in dreadnaught armour.

Romulus’ secret would finally be revealed, at least to Jonavaux Lericberguson’s Second Chapter Commandarius, during the Battle of the Eleventh Hour on Mythradates XVI. As the newly revealed Malakim Phoros spoke of the things Irotek, correctly pronouncing the Phaeron’s name as Irvotekh, had shown him via a strange piece of technology known as the “Chronotronic Phasar”, he noted seeing an astartes equipped with terminator armour pinned down by Drukhari assassins, as their fellows killed the Founder. Romulus, barely able to contain his sorrow as the memories of that fateful night return to his mind, spills forth and admits to ‘letting’ Asteralix die in a sorrowful lament that echoes around the room the Chapter Commandarius and the “False Chaplain” to the point of disturbing those witness to it. It is without a doubt, thus, that this is why Venerable Romulus, High Reclusius Hangmann, Forgemaster Terasacariz and High Librarius Launaas are not present for later liaisons with the Jonmarines’ Drakken Harbinger allies.

Romulus would apparently find some form of peace between the conclusion of the Second Mythradates XVI incident and the Defence of Lokus, as the Venerable dreadnaught would do much towards coordinating strategic data between the Jonmarines and the Knights Celestial, efforts that have been claimed to have been integral in preventing the Malalites Reborn and the forces of their Tenth Pentagonal Alliance from overrunning the Lokus Sector. Later, Romulus would resign to his role as advisor to Jonavaux Lericberguson by resolving the so-called “Primaris Incidents” on Baal Secundus; Romulus would suggest the office of the Savant Primaris and its functions, as would Romulus be behind the decision to allow individual companies to vet their incoming Primaris reinforcements for those they deemed most suitable for their chapter.

Jonavaux Lericberguson, the Saviour, “Peacebringer”, Survivor of the Howling Dark, “Scourge of Idroslvia”.
The Jonmarines' youngest Chapter Master, Jonavaux Lericbergson can be credited as the Jonmarines' first and only Lawsundan Chapter Master, given his upbringing in the Ir Graatus Hive, as a result of the Chapter Master's fateful decision to condemn Lawsunda to Exterminatus during the so-called second evacuation of Lawsunda. However, while Jonavaux Lericbergson would oversee The Howling Dark, naming it "the Jonmarines' finest hour", given the tales of heroics undertaken by the Jonmarines' surviving companies, he would also oversee the Jonmarines realising their true origins, namely those from Lamenter origins, not Ultramarine, as well as rebuilding the Chapter after The Howling Dark. Jonavaux, however, would also become the Jonmarines' longest serving Chapter Master, still serving to this day, one hundred and twenty standard Terran years within M.42.

Unknown to all but those who served as part of Jonavaux’s Chapter Commandarius, the early days of the later Saviour’s reign as chapter master was blighted by misfortune. With relations with the Martyrs’ Rose Order worsening by the day, Lericberguson was forced to order the return of Kaviaan Launaas from his ‘extremely integral’ expedition out into the wider Imperium to prove to Canoness D’Vass that Kaviaan and his Librarians were to be trusted, sparking what is known as the “Lericbergson-Launaas feud” between Jonavaux and the Jonmarines’ then called High Librarius.

This feud would only worsen, as during the meeting between himself, Kalvyn Fryriss and Aedrian Thulos, the then servant boy Kaecelion Vryidissus would begin manifesting destructive bolts of warp lightning around the Canoness' chambers, her powers finally revealing themselves. Enraged, Elizabeth ordered her Sisters of Battle to execute Kaecelion, an order that was only cancelled by Kalvyn, and later, the rest of the Librarius, begging the Canoness to show mercy. Eventually, Elizabeth did show mercy, but ordered Jonavaux to in turn order Kaviaan to train Kaecelion in using his powers, resulting in the gap between Kavian and Jonavaux to only grow wider, and destroying Jonavaux's efforts to heal relations between himself and the Canoness, Elizabeth formally breaking relations off between her Order and the Jonmarines, never to improve, even if the standing of the Librarius improved within the chapter itself.

Eventually, Kaecelion would help to resolve the Lericbergson-Launaas feud through his actions in revealing the Malalites Reborn and their malicious intentions, eventually documenting his findings within the Liber Inimicus, resulting in Captain Amadeus Terric's successful first assault against the Malice-worshiping cultists that the Lawsundan Rifles 13th regiment's renegade battalion had devolved into in the first battle of El Cavarin's Forest. As thanks, Jonavaux awarded the young librarian four purity seals made with parchment from Asteralix's tomb, as well as a number of other, minor honours, as recommended to do so by both Venerable Romulus and High Reclusius Kalviathan, in order to forge close ties between the Captaincy and the Librarius, in turn resulting in improved relations between the Chapter Master and Kaviaan, even when Kaviaan left Lawsunda Majoris once again.

Jonavaux’s command during the opening phases of the Howling Dark has been called impeccable by all who survived the ordeal, but what is even more notable is what Jonavaux did after the First, Third, Sixth, Eighth and Tenth Companies successfully evacuated Lawsunda, and then, later, Lawsunda Majoris. Staying behind on Lawsunda itself to atone for the perceived crime of allowing his brothers to let Lawsunda burn through death fighting the leader of the Idroslvian Dynasty that had devastated Lawsunda and her Jonmarine defenders in equal measure, Jonavaux descended into Idroslvia’s catacombs, beginning what he later called the “Lericberguson War”.

Within the Catacombs of Idroslvia, Jonavaux would discover the true extent of Irotek's grasp on Lawsunda. Beneath the surface of the Jonmarines' homeworld, countless necron soldiers awaited reactivation, while astartes and guardsmen alike unlucky enough to be captured by the necrons alive were experimented upon by the Crypteks of Idroslvia. Yet, within the Crypteks' experiments, a seeming anomaly: an Ældari Striking Scorpion named Bodhaerys. Jonavaux would forge a temporary alliance with the xenos warrior, both pursuing the same aim, albeit for (no-so different) reasons: according to Jonavaux himself, the Eldar wanted revenge for its fallen comrades, who had been killed as they landed on Lawsunda as they moved to avenge the destruction of their Shrine World, while Jonavaux wanted the necron Phaeron dead in revenge for those slain by it's soldiers gauss fire, as well as stealing back the Shield of Lawsunda.

In Jonavaux's final aim, he was successful, but as a result of the Phaeron's living metal constitution, killing the necron outright would be impossible. Worse still, Jonavaux encountered Haarvik Hallic's corpse within the Catacombs of Idroslvia, and, lacking the extraction tools necessary to move it, was unable to secure the armour, possibly resulting in the armour's destruction upon Lawsunda's Exterminatus. However, after a few months underground, Jonavaux would reemerge from the Catacombs, Shield of Lawsunda in hand, to an entirely different Lawsunda, being the first to witness the huge pylons constructed by the necrons in their attempt to seal 'their' world from their enemies, and Lawsunda's lush temperate climate blasted into burning deserts as a result of the tyranids extracting most of the planet's ozone before being destroyed. Here, first contact with the Deep Striders chapter would occur, as Jonavaux was rescued by a member of the Deep Striders' Fedyakin 5th Squad, a terminator armoured brother named Temen, who would escort Jonavaux back to the Asteralix Bastion, discovering the fate of Captain Gryphus in the process, and discovering that Venerable Romulus' wishes for an honourable death in battle with the Enemies of Mankind had been denied once again.

Once at the Asteralix Bastion, and upon meeting with the rest of the Fedyakin's Fifth Squad, Jonavaux would discover the fate of the Eighth and Tenth Companies, led by the self-elected Forgemaster Hadvasiir Terasacariz and Captain Davian Haarnvust respectively, as a result of the Asteralix Bastion's communications arrays returning to online status. Over the vox, Jonavaux would witness the Battle for Hyvarticus'  Forgehalst complex, which, thanks to the quick assistance of the First's remainders and the Sxith Company, led by the similarly self-elected First Captain Praedus Hallic, and Brother Librarian Kaecelion Vryidissus respectively, alongside the Carnosaurs and Wretched Wyverns chapters. Eventually, after the destruction of the heretic forces that assailed them, Jonavaux would briefly speak with Reclusiarch Atrocious and Grand Wyvern Scyllus Drago, leaders of the Carnosaurs and their successors, the Wretched, later Redemptive, Wyverns respectively, before speaking with the leaders of each of the Jonmarines' surviving companies, ordering them to return to Lawsunda.

Jonavaux would make himself infamous towards Irotek, however, when the Jonmarines returned to Lawsunda Majoris, this time with Carnosaur and Wyvern support. In their retreat, successful in recovering all of the Jonmarines’ relics, their chapter master, and the Deep Striders Fedyakin, Jonavaux would regretfully order a massive barrage of Lawsunda, as a final, defiant act against Idroslvia’s carnage. Thus, Irotek knows Jonavaux by the title he gave the Saviour: the Scourge of Idroslvia, a title that Jonavaux has taken to heart.

Later, Jonavaux would secure the Batavian system as a recruitment ground for the Jonmarines, and the Deep Striders as a trusted ally, alongside learning of the Jonmarines’ true heritage from Brother Chyron, before announcing, having arrived in the Carnosaurs’ home system, that the Howling Dark was finally over, once news of the death of Steravarets, the Uncorrupted Corruption, the presumed leader of both the Malalites Reborn and the Pentagonal Alliance of Chaos Undivided, was dead. Lericberguson, therefore, would claim the title of “Peacebringer” for his announcement, and for placitating an issue that had slowly burnt its way into prominence in the chapter’s psyche before the Howling Dark: who were they, the Jonmarines? Were they truly successors of the Ultramarines that they had been told to be sceptical, wary even, of? Now, at least, the Jonmarines had closure. They were the successors of the Lamenters, and their purpose was to continue the heritage of that unfortunate chapter wherever they went.

This was to be the purpose of the Reconstruction. The Jonmarines would rebuild, and rebuild in a way that permitted them the greatest manoeuvrability possible. The search for the Lamenters, the hunt for Phoros, was a search for answers, truth, in regards to who they, the Jonmarines, truly were, and why. The Reconstruction Wars, meanwhile, were battles that had to be fought to uphold the Rites of Humility; each beleaguered world that the Jonmarines encountered needed them, even if they were still searching for their predecessors.

This search would end with Mythradates XVI, and the discoveries forced upon the Jonmarines by Irotek. Malakim was amongst them all along, and, with a bout of questioning, the Lord of Ruin revealed all: the Lamenters were still active, slowly rebuilding within the Lokus Sector ever since they helped the resident Knights Celestial, alongside the Drakken Harbingers, to fight off a massive heretical warband that had invaded Lokus. The Lokus Sector, therefore, was where the Jonmarines needed to go for answers, and, indeed, they found their answers, but they also found answers to questions they thought to be answered already: the truth of what the Pentagonal Alliance of Chaos Undivided that they had defeated was, not just a singular entity, but one of many that had come beforehand. The Malalites Reborn hadn’t been destroyed, they were still active, under their true leader, Mortatrom, the Praetorian of Malal. The Hydrakoi that the Founder believed extinct, moreover, were not, and, like the Malalites Reborn, were simply part of a larger entity: the Alpha Legion.

Worse still, the Jonmarines’ heritage also loaded new responsibilities onto the chapter. Following the recovery of the Lamenters’ Mater Lacrimarum through cooperation with the Alpha Legion, and its leader [REDACTED], the Jonmarines learned of an Astropathic message that had been sent from Baal Secundus, calling for all of the Blood Angels’ successors to gather above the homeworld of Sanguinius, the Great Angel, the Jonmarines’ true Primarch. Thus, the Baal Crusade was executed, and parts of the Lamenters’ own tragic tale was revealed to the Jonmarines, namely through the discovery of the Slaughterhouse III Incident.

When the Baal Crusade came to its end, albeit too late to take part in any actual fighting against Hive Fleet Leviathan, the tyranid scourge that threatened Baal Secundus, Jonavaux would find three considerable acts of misfortune beset upon him.

The first misfortune came quickly, shortly after the First Company arrived on Baal Secundus’ holy ground. Not expecting these unknown astartes, the defenders of the Arx Angelicum, the Blood Angels’ fortress monastery, opened fire on the Lamenters and Jonmarines arriving by drop pod and thunderhawk or stormraven gunship. Such is the case for Jonavaux, who found himself, his Second Chapter Commandarius, and the First Company, clashing with the vicious Flesh Tearers chapter, even to the extent that Jonavaux locked blades with Gabriel Seth, their chapter master. While the duel was broken up by Commander Danté, Chapter Master of the Blood Angels, Jonavaux was wounded heavily by the battle, even to the extent that many feared Seth was prepared to kill the Saviour. Jonavaux, however, once he has recovered from his wounds, argues that Gabriel’s actions were, arguably, justified ones, given that if he were ‘in the shoes’ of the Flesh Tearers’ chapter master, faced with incoming forces of astartes he didn’t know of or that they were on their way, he reasons he would respond in a similar if not identical manner. Thus, Jonavaux asks for very limited punitive action against Seth, especially given the crippled nature of the Flesh Tearers, to Gabriel’s apparently disgruntled agreement.

The second misfortune comes in the form of the intended fate of the Lamenters and their Primaris ‘replacement’, as this becomes a far more controversial issue, however. Seraphos Haemon, master of the “Lamenters Primaris”, who had developed a hostile attitude towards the Phorosian Lamenters and all that were related to them, supported by his chapter command staff and Kastor Haephust, Chalice-Warden (chapter master) of the newly formed Knights of the Chalice, a Blood Angels successor formed from solely Primaris Astartes like the Lamenters Primaris themselves, alongside Captain Ares of the Red Wings, one of only five Red Wings to survive the clash with Leviathan and Erden Cleeve, chapter master of the sorely devastated Golden Sons chapter, who had previously criticised the Lamenters in the wake of the Badab Tragedy, argues that the Lamenters Primaris should be permitted to operate as an independent chapter, the chapter master of the Lamenters Primaris claiming rather bluntly that his Primaris Marines and their hostile attitudes towards their predecessors, the Phorosians, are necessary to restore the shattered honour and integrity that the Phorosians destroyed during Badab. Supporting Malakim’s claim that the Lamenters Primaris should be incorporated into the Lamenters are Malphas, Sanguinal Exemplare (chapter master) of the crippled Exsanguinators, Techial, chapter master of the Disciples of Blood, and, predictably, Jonavaux and his Jonmarines’ Chapter Commandarius.

What is unpredicted, however, is, after hours of circular argument, Jonavaux’s offer of compromise. Claiming that the Jonmarines had been founded for identical aims as those the Lamenters Primaris saw themselves as, namely restoring the broken honour of the Lamenters, the Saviour offers to incorporate as many of the Lamenters Primaris as the Codex Astartes permits, stating that while the Lamenters were ‘dented’ during the Defence of Lokus, and ‘dented’ again during the Baal Crusade, the reconstruction that the Lamenters underwent during their time within the Lokus Sector made them unable to incorporate their Primaris reinforcements without breaching the Codex. Similarly, the Jonmarines endured losses during both the Defence of Lokus and the Baal Crusade, including the crippled Third, Fifth and Ninth Companies, alongside other companies operating under strength even during the Crusade, with no easy way of replacing these losses. Thus, Jonavaux’s offer of incorporation into both the Jonmarines and the Lamenters is both one of reinforcement and of continuing the cause that both the Jonmarines and the Lamenters Primaris saw themselves as being created for. As for any Primaris Marines unable to be taken in by the Lamenters or the Jonmarines, however, Jonavaux proposes that these are given to other chapters sorely in need of Primaris reconstruction, such as the Exsanguinators and the Red Wings, not as compromise, but as identification that “they need rebuilding far more than the Lamenters do”.

This level of political manoeuvre seems to impress Lord Commander Guilliman, who had chosen to spectate the proceedings alongside the Ultramarines’ chapter master, proving to those agnostic towards the Jonmarines as a credible chapter that they are as such. Even Malakim, who had privately denounced Jonavaux as something of a undisciplined maverick, seemed to be convinced of the Saviour’s acumen and selfless intent. Thus, following Jonavaux’s lead, Malakim would guarantee Seraphos a prominent role within the Lamenters if he accepted, namely the post previously held by Jonavaux Asteralix, the Jonmarines’ Founder, First Captain. Seeing a way out of the frustrating argument, if not feeling as if he was backed into a corner, Seraphos accepts this demand, declaring that the Lamenters Primaris are no more, and that his astartes would follow Jonavaux’ s proposal.

Criticism aimed towards Jonavaux, however, emerges from his chapter’s subordinate leadership. As freely admitted, if not anticipated, by the Chapter Commandarius, a considerable amount of outrage at the decision made emerges, epitomised by Venerable Romulus chastising Jonavaux after he announced the Chapter Commandarius’ decision to the rest of the Jonmarines. Indeed, this decision is called out as being made in a manner contrary to the Founder’s decree; decisions that have integral implications for the entire chapter should be made by the entire chapter. While other chapters claim this as a sign of animosity within the Jonmarines’ ranks, Jonavaux himself is quick to to inform these naysayers that his Commandarius’ decision was made in the best of intentions, and that disagreement within the Jonmarines’ ranks has been used to maintain their adherence to the terms laid out by their Founder at the time of their chapter’s conception. In order to appease the concerns from within the Jonmarines, Jonavaux decides that each individual company commandarius is allowed to select individual Primaris astartes by whatever means they see fit, especially following the announcement that two new offices are to be added to the roster of the commandarius: the Lieutenants Commandarius and the Ancients Angelica. Technically, therefore, each company has a role in the management of the Jonmarines’ Primaris reinforcement, even if it is not as democratic as the Founder’s protocols would have a chapter-altering decision like this managed.

The Jonmarines find themselves in more trouble later, however, despite its short lived nature, a third time. Shortly after the pacification of the ‘Primaris Disagreement’, the chapter finds itself accused by the Angels Penitent, a hostile, brutal, chapter of zealots ruled by their Council of Thorns, of harbouring “resplendent, ostentatious heretics”, claiming similarities between how the Jonmarines ‘carry themselves’ and the presumed extinct Angels Resplendent. This claim is denied to a great extent, save for an admittance from High Reclusius Konstantinos Hangmann, who claims that the Founder was merely inspired by the philosophies of the Angels Resplendent, a far cry from harbouring them. This claim, after the Founder’s Lamentation is briefly read by Lord Commander Guilliman, who had been presiding over the debates and negotiations unfolding amongst the Blood Angels and their successors, is supported by the Primarch of the Ultramarines, which quells the accusations made by the Angels Penitent.

First Captains / Captains
Howling Dark impact: First Captain killed by Irvotekh, replaced shortly before the evacuation of Lawsunda Majoris.

Hazras Romulus, later Jonavaux Romulus.

(See above)

Haarvik Hallic, First Captain, Hero of the Haedric Hive.
There is a simple reason why helmet usage is almost considered mandatory amongst the Jonmarines, first stated by the Founder upon the chapter’s inception, and, as many Survivors of the Howling Dark, including First Captain Praedus Hallic, will reveal, the death of Praedus’ predecessor, his own brother Haarvik, is but testament to this. However, as these same Survivors state, there is much more to Haarvik’s legacy than just his role as a cautionary tale in protective headgear usage.

The aftermath of WAAAGH! Gitsmasha had incredibly huge repercussions to the Haedric Hive, the planetary capital and administrative hub of Lawsunda, and, by extension, Lawsunda Majoris itself. The great works that the Founder and the First Forgemaster had ordered to be built within the Haedric Hive were now ruins, and orks now infested the Underhive. Thus, with Forgemaster Turzmak Stena’s decision to personally cull the orks, days after Jonavaux Lericberguson ascended to the rank of chapter master, while ordering his Techmarines to rebuild Haedria, Stena asked for assistance from Captain Hallic and the First Company. In this task, he would be accompanied by his brother Praedus, sergeant of a squad of his fellow five terminators, who proved their status of First Company veterans worthy of tactical dreadnaught armour by cleansing the Underhive with bolt, fist, sword and flame, all the while Stena assisted in doing so with his collection of servo-arm slung weaponry, which slaughtered the now feral orks from huge distances away. In recognition of this action, which saw the destruction of a immense proportion of the Underhive’s orks, all parties concerned, Forgemaster Stena, both Captain and Sergeant Hallic, and the First Company, including Sergeant Hallic’s squad, were soon awarded the title of Hero of the Haedric Hive by both the Hive’s government and the later Saviour Jonavaux Lericberguson.

Without a doubt, the early, “Lawsundan” phase of the Howling Dark crippled the defenders of Lawsunda Majoris heavily. Even more inexcusable were the indiscriminate killings enacted by all three invader forces; Idroslvia’s war against the living conducted with the same hostility with which one would deal with a pest infestation, Cthullhulirus’ ravenous appetite consuming even buildings themselves in an attempt to subsume the biomass hidden within, and the Pentagonal Alliance’s hunger for blood, skulls, and souls each prompted the Chapter Commandarius to devise a strategy to defeat each in a piecemeal fashion.

The first target of this piecemeal struggle would be Idroslvia. Using Irotek’s own claim that Lawsunda was the Dynasty’s “crownworld” against the soulless “Phaeron”, somehow crippling the forces on Lawsunda would surely stem the tide of metallic xenos, and, eventually, end it in its entirety. Thus, knowing the magnitude of this operation and its impact, if successful, First Captain Haarvik Hallic volunteered both himself and his brother’s terminator squad to this integral task. Their mission was simple: slay Irotek and somehow devise a way of ending the legions of constructs from reemerging from their catacombs.

Thus, the stage was set for one of The Howling Dark's greatest tragedies, one that would tarnish the reputation of the Captaincy until the chapter's reconstruction. Finding an entrance to the Idroslvian catacombs, Captain Hallic's raiding force would journey deep below the surface of their homeworld, arriving at a large bridge suspended hundreds of feet above a veritable sea of Necron soldiery, still waiting to be reactivated. The bridge led to a large structure seemingly built from a single gargantuan block of obsidian, of which Haarvik named the Citadel. As the seven terminators moved forward, toward the Citadel, a number of them were bested by a large number of necron troops suddenly phasing in front of, and behind, them, forcing some of Squad Hallic to plummet from the bridge to their deaths in the subsequent melee.

Eventually, as described by Praedus later, Haarvik himself was felled by the 'Phaeron' of Idroslvia, who reminded the doomed terminator squad of its name of Irotek. Here, will the “Survivor’ Tale”, as it is known by those astartes that arrived into the Jonmarines chapter during and after the Reconstruction, detail Haarvik’s death; as Irotek impaled the First Captain on his warscythe, batting the Shield of Lawsunda away as if it were merely an annoyance, before incinerating the Hero of the Haedric Hive’s exposed head with a weapon known as a “gauntlet of fire”, killing him not quickly, but in a slow, callous manner.

Only Praedus and Gustavus Decurion would escape with their lives, Praedus managing to grab the Hammer of the First before he escaped, unofficially taking his deceased brother's title of Captain of the First by doing so.

Soon, however, as if Irotek had decided to reciprocate their assault with one of his own, almost as if the necron was acting on information gleaned from Haarvik Hallic, Idroslvian forces led by one of Irotek’s lieutenants besieged the Asteralix Bastion, facing the combined forces of the Sixth and Eighth Companies. With this plan declared, fittingly, a failure, the Jonmarines would have to look to another means to save their system and its people.

Praedus Hallic, First Captain, Hero of the Haedric Hive, Survivor of the Howling Dark
Due to Praedus’ inability to recover the Armour of the First Captain, the once terminator squad sergeant still wears his old suit, which, as a sign of his ‘unofficial’ status as First Captain, is still painted as if he were a sergeant. Yet, Praedus would outshine his deceased brother, even if the memories of watching Haarvik die will continue to haunt him forevermore.

With the situation of Lawsunda looking grim, and the number of enemy forces escalating horrendously, making the task of purging xenos and heretic alike appear impossible, and the very fate of the chapter under threat, Jonavaux decided that the temporary evacuation of both Lawsunda and Hegrannax's World, to allow the necrons, tyranids and heretics to fight each other into destruction, would allow for the Jonmarines to organise themselves and prepare a counter attack; even if Lawsunda Majoris’ civilians were all dead, the Jonmarines presumed that they could see the Majoris rebuilt from the ashes, just as the Founder had returned Lawsunda Majoris to its former glory, so could his scions.

Thus, First Captain Hallic would, alongside the last 37 of the First Company, Captain Terric's Third, and Captain Advlak’s Fourth, fight their way to the Driscala Spaceport, where the strike cruisers Lawsundan Audax, Lawsundan Dynasty and Inflagerus were stored in massive, cavernous, underground silos, more relic structures from the days of the Skrytaya smertikoi, alongside the Battle Barge the Lawsundan Vengence. The Black Fourth, alongside Terric’s Third, managed to secure the spaceport, driving back the immense swarms of tyranids that were besieging the facility, allowing the Sixth and Eighth Companies to escape Lawsunda later, and, to the benefit of the Third Company, rescuing the bridge crew of the Emperor’s Fury, a battleship in Lawsunda’s orbit, who had been returning from shore leave as the Howling Dark broke out.

Soon, as the Fourth Company retrieved their own strike cruiser, what remained of the First Company, aboard the Lawsundan Vengence, the Third, aboard its Lawsundan Audax, the Sixth, aboard its Lawsundan Dynasty, and the Eighth, without Captain Arcadeus, who had sacrificed himself leading a distractory sally from the Asteralix Bastion, aboard the Inflagerus, met with the Tenth aboard its strike cruiser, the Lance of Lawsunda above Lawsunda, mere moments before the Idroslvian Containment Lattice surrounded the world in a matter of hours. What all, including Jonavaux himself, believed at the time to be the chapter master’s last order, came next:

''“Take to the stars, Praedus. Go! Let me finish what Haarvik started; Irotek must die, and I will happily perish bringing that death about!”''

As vox communications broke off shortly after Jonavaux gave this order, thanks to the Containment Lattice, Praedus could not contest what he saw as a self imposed death sentence. Thus, the Jonmarines would flee, leaving the Second and Fourth Companies to be massacred and captured by the necrons respectively, leaving their chapter master to fight his “Lericberguson War” in Idroslvia’s Catacombs by himself, and, most importantly, leaving their Majoris behind, as Jonavaux commanded.

Instead of pooling this meagre force together, Praedus ordered the Jonmarines to go their separate ways, all the better to assure that even if some perished, there would be other companies to carry on the banner of Asteralix’s scions, or, at least, honour them in death. Thus, cast adrift, a chapter dislodged, through random warp jumps,  each force went their separate ways, for better, or for worse.

At only thirty-one astartes and terminators, alongside two dreadnaughts and the Land Raider Titan, it is correct to assume that the plight of First Captain Hallic was a desperate one indeed. Yet, far from avoiding conflict, the veterans of the First Company would prove themselves worthy of their station time and time again, helping to defend the world of Ophea XXI against an assault by the Nekthyst dynasty, Captain Hallic slaying the Lord known as Aephralyri, a close ally of Irotek. Thus, through the defence of Ophea, alongside other campaigns against the Nekthyst dynasty, the First Company accustoms itself to action against necron foes. Yet, the First Company's travels are not without error. En route to Phoralirassa VII, a world reportedly threatened by none other than Imotekh, the Stormlord, the Vengeance suffers a catastrophic Warp drive failure, coupled with a partial Gellar Field shutdown, forcing the voidship out of the Warp.

In seconds, the First Company's Strike Cruiser crash lands on the Death World of Veldvarsik, not before being spotted by the 'Wyvern Hunters' led by none other than Reclusiarch Atrocious of the Carnosaurs Chapter, who mistakes the Jonmarines for their quarry, their traitorous kin the Wretched Wyverns. Thus, cornered in a ruined, overgrown,  Deathwatch facility, the Jonmarines are forced to make, with no other means of escape, their final stand, and cut down a large number of Carnosaurs as they in turn mistake the feral bestial forms of the Carnosaurs' initial assault teams for some form of mutant, accusing the Carnosaurs of being heretics in the process.

As a result of the Carnosaurs deploying Orlo Parasaur, a Librarian specialising in the Warp manipulation of sound waves, most of the First Company are Undone, but further slaughter is avoided by the Carnosaurs' quick realisation that the Jonmarines are, in fact, loyalists, and the arrival of necron forces, each warrior confirmed as one of Idroslvia’s, confirming Veldvarsik's status as a tomb world under Irotek’s control. Yet, even though this new enemy ends the Carnosaurs’ assault, one Jonmarine terminator lies dead, Brother Penitus is immobilised, and the Hammer of the First is broken. However, in an act of friendship, the Carnosaurs, after helping the Jonmarines to fight off Idroslvia’s legions, offer to repair the damage they caused, alongside burying the fallen Jonmarine, as an apology for their misguided attack.

Praedus would soon return Reclusiarch Atrocious’ favour in ways that many few expected. With the later arrival of the Wretched Wyverns and the Jonmarines’ Sixth Company, and the later still “Disgracement of the White-Tipped Hunter”, Praedus would have a wounded Scylla Drago, the Wretched Wyverns’ Grand Wyvern, dragged aboard the Lawsundan Dynasty, wherein Praedus himself, acting as the mediator in the incoming debate, would have the Grand Wyvern and the Reclusiarch resolve the Carnosaur-Wyvern War then and there. Thus, the Veldvarsik Misunderstandings, as this short-lived campaign would be known as, forced a peace between Carnosaur and Wyvern, and secured the Jonmarines two powerful allies with which they, at least Praedus hoped, could use to help fight their way out of the Howling Dark.

The battles on Hyvarticus, Lawsunda, the space hulk the Ashamed Desolation and, eventually, within the Carnosaurs’ own fortress monastery of Theropoda Ultima, would prove this assumption correct. Yet, alongside astartes of the Deep Striders chapter, Praedus would avenge not only Venerable Romulus, but the Fifth and Seventh Companies that had torn each other apart in the opening battle of the Howling Dark. The Battle of the Ashamed Desolation saw the deaths of the ork warboss, Gitsmasha, the same xeno that had been responsible for Romulus’ enterrement in his Castraferrum sarcophagus; the Hammer of the First crashing down upon Gitsmasha like he had delivered a similar blow to Romulus so long ago, and the leader of the notorious Lords  the Kingqueen’s Night, Vlaadus Derkrül, the so-called “Consort of Fulgrim”.

While Captain Librarian Kaecelion Vryridissus, alongside Grand Wyvern Scylla Drago, would be responsible for the death of Steravarets, the Uncorrupted Corruption, Praedus would see about the rescue of High Librarius Kaviaan Launaas and the two librarians that had been incarcerated by the Carnosaurs alongside him, following the instructions that Kaecelion had given him to navigate the Carnosaurs’ cavernous fortress monastery’s winding corridors, slaying any Malalites Reborn either he or his fellow First Company veterans came across.

While the Reconstruction Wars did not see any large impact on the “confirmed” First Captain, Praedus would be amongst one of the first to learn of Chaplain Pralomak Mihos’ true identity, and, afterwards, one of the few to learn of the truth of the Founder’s death and Romulus’ inability to prevent it during the Mythradates XVI Incident. Confrontation with Irotek would occur later too, shortly before the Defence of Lokus, the Phaeron apparently taking delight in the offence he caused by threatening “to repeat the Jonmarines’ Howling Dark” on Fulcana if the Knights Celestial refused to cooperate with Idroslvia’s military might.

Johnathonus Lericberguson, later Jonavaux Lericberguson.

(See above)

Amadeus Terric (KIA)
Of the five Companies to escape Lawsunda Majoris, alongside the largest vessel, the Emperor’s Fury, an Imperial Battleship, Captain Amadeus Terric, Johnathonus Lericbergson's successor upon his ascent to Jonavaux, knew he had the best chances of surviving The Howling Dark. Admittedly, the young Captain knew that by attempting to order around the Fury, an Imperial Navy Battleship, he could have ended up as being branded some form of pirate, or worse, so, at the first chance he was afforded, control of the Fury was handed back to its original captain, Admiral Konraad Byravalski, who had, curiously enough, given Amadeus authority amongst his crew almost immediately after the Third Company, evacuating aboard their strike cruiser the Lawsundan Audax, petitioned support from the Battleship at the conclusion of their fight to clear the Driscala Spaceport of its Tyranid attackers. Thus, after a brief discussion, Byravalski and Terric decided to share authority over both ships, both accepting that squabbles over command, including where to go, following the evacuation from the Majoris itself, could lead to later disasters becoming worse.

Yet, Terric was not the only non-Imperial Navy 'officer' permitted a say in regards to the course set by the two ships aboard either the Fury or the Lawsundan Audax. The Captain of the Third, as well as bringing what remained of his Company Commandarius with him, had managed to escort a fairly decent sized fraction of the Lawsundan 111th Imperial Guard regiment, alongside a smaller fraction of the 17th Lawsundan PDF regiment, aboard the Audax, before they were garrisoned aboard the Fury. While the former was commanded by the Lord Commissar Knavalk Cadaluss, who, according to a data cache 'absent-mindlessly' left by Amadeus on Rynn’s World, was still denying links to the corrupt nobles that had been removed by order of the Founder even though both thought Lawsunda to have been long lost, and had a large number of grizzled veterans amongst its ranks, the 17th PDF, commanded by Senior Tank Commander Alexios Mccraedy had a good supply of Leman Russ battle tanks, supported by the fearsome Volcano Cannon of the Shadowsword Imperator Rex. Thus, Amadeus, after gaining the consensus of both commanders, decided to mix both regiments together, the three of them naming the new battalion-sized 'regiment' the 'Lawsundan Last', heavily implying the very real assertion that the men and women of the regiment were all that was left of Lawsunda Majoris' population.

With the teething issues of sharing the Fury between Jonmarine, Guard personnel and Navy crewmen resolved, the small force’s random warp jump, ordered by First Captain Praedus Hallic as a means of preventing all of the Jonmarines’ surviving companies from being wiped out later in one fell swoop, would, according to reports made by the Crimson Fists themselves, lead to the blasted ruins of Rynn's World. Here, Captain Terric would speak with the legendary Pedro Kantor, the Crimson Fists' Chapter Master, who requested the aid of the Fury and its assorted garrisons in retaking the ruins of their Fortress Monastery, the Arx Tyrannus, a symbolic gesture of defiance against the orks of WAAAGH! Snagrod that had devastated the Chapter's homeworld and numbers. Even as Terric faced the extinction of his own chapter, the young captain still adhered to the Rites of Humility, and provided Kantor with the assistance he requested.

However, as Terric would recall, the battle of the Arx Tyrannus would become the Third Company's 'calling'. Terric realised that his Company's easily adaptable battle stances, complimented by the thunderous Leman Russ mounted weapons of the Lawsundan Last, combined with Terric’s own experiences during the First Defence of Lawsunda Majoris, was the perfect weapon against the Orks that had devastated Kantor's chapter. Thus, with an almost over-exaggerated eagerness, once Kantor had decided that the assistance of the Jonmarines had been sufficient enough, the gung-ho Captain concluded that the Third Company, alongside its Navy and Astra Millitarum allies, had itself a purpose: ork hunting. Thus, confident that the Crimson Fists could hold their Arx Tyrannus by themselves, Captain Terric set out to hunt down more orks, eventually leading to the Fury arriving at the centrepiece of all counter-ork Imperial campaigns in the galactic south; the Charadon Sector, where, aiding the Ultramarines that the Jonmarines were ever so sceptical of, Terric and his fellow Lawsundan refugees would take the fight to the forces of the  Arch-Arsonist, eventually culminating, as reported by the Ultramarines, who passed said information to Inquisitor Tuplov, in the destruction of the Stompa known as 'Little Mork' (or, possibly Gork), alongside the suppression of small, nethertheless dangerous, enclaves of orks both on their way to the Ultramar System, and on their way north, apparently suspecting them to be on their way to the Majoris.

After an unknown amount of time, most likely a few months, Amadeus’ Lawsundan refugees would be on the move once again, this time, back to Rynn's World, as a result of Amadeus' decision to help the Crimson Fists to rebuild further. However, upon arriving at Rynn's World, Admiral 'Bravado' Byravalski would receive word of an Imperial Navy taskforce en-route to Lawsunda Majoris, its mission one of investigation of the lack of data feeds emerging from the Astropathic relays of the system. The investigation team would comprise of a number of high-rate Navy voidships, alongside a section referred to only as 'Astartes assistance'. What has been assumed, however, is that Terric, worried by the presumed high concentration of tyranid forces in 'the Majoris', ordered an Astropathic message be sent to whomever commanded this taskforce, but, as a result of some fault to their Astropathic relays or other communications devices, they were unable to. To counteract this, conjecture suggests, either Amadeus or Konraad elected to deliver a warning of this infestation in person, namely to the taskforce's last known position: Chiralarus, the world that hosted the Jonmarines' first meeting with an unfamiliar Imperial force. However, to the annoyance of the Jonmarines and their allies, there is no sign of the 'Lawsunda Majoris investigation fleet', as reported by adepts on Port Chiral, mere days beforehand, as relayed by Malakim Phoros, following his report after the “Mythradates XVI Incident”. Thus, Terric and his allied forces would haste to Lawsunda Majoris, desperate to warn whomever commanded the endangered investigation force of their potential doom. Alas, as Jonavaux would discover, Amadeus' presumed efforts would be in vain, as the only survivors of the investigation force, a small squad of Deep Strider Fedyakin, the 'astartes assistance' mentioned, would explain the carnage of sustained by the ambushed investigation force to both the Chapter Master and Venerable Romulus.

Worse still, when ‘Relief Force Terric’ arrived in Lawsunda's orbit, simultaneously arriving at the same time as the Draco Rex, Lawsundan Dynasty and Inflagerus, the forces collectively known as 'Relief Force Hallic' discovered the necrons' Containment Lattice to be completely impenetrable to even the heaviest of voidship mounted weaponry available to the Jonmarine Strike Cruisers and the Carnosaur-Wyvern Space Hulk. Thus, with both the Fury and the Lawsundan Audax still moving at its fastest speed fresh from retranslation, Captain Terric ordered his strike cruiser to ram the Lattice, an order that the zealous Admiral Byravalski was ever eager to repeat it to his own ensigns. This would be immortalised as Terric's last, suicidal, command, as while the Lattice was sufficiently breached, the resulting surge of energies through the entirety of the both the Lawsundan Audax and Fury killed all aboard the two ships, astartes, guardsman, Navy officer alike, to the horror of Jonavaux, Romulus, Praedus, Kaecelion, Hadvasiir and Davian.

Yet, the loss of the what remained of entire Third Company, the last of Lawsunda's guardsmen, the Lawsundan Audax, and the Fury seemed to have a melancholic benefit. The wrecks of the strike cruiser, and the huge battleship, smashed into one of the huge obelisk-like structures that produced the Lattice, allowing for the remaining Jonmarines to access their homeworld, allowing them to extract Jonavaux, Venerable Romulus, the Chapter's holy relics, and the Deep Striders, saving them from a certain loss at the hands of Irotek. As such, Amadeus Terric’s name is still remembered by the Jonmarines to this day, even by those astartes that know of him by deed and name alone.

Moreover, Terric’s actions against the Arch Arsonist of Charadon would gain the chapter a level of audacity amongst the Ultramarines. While the Jonmarines would go unaware of this during the Howling Dark, the Reconstruction Wars and slightly beyond, this would significantly benefit relations between the Jonmarines and the Ultramarines when Asteralix’s scions met the Ultramarines, including their Primarch, on Baal Secundus.

Kodral Advlak, Hero of Chiralarus, “Corsair-Bane”, “Syrphaust-Walker”, Survivor of the Howling Dark

Kaecelion Vryidissus, Captain-Librarian of the Sixth Company, the Saviour of the Librarius, Wyvern-Tamer, Saviour of Theropoda Ultima, Survivor of the Howling Dark, the “Illuminator”.

Davian Haarnvust, Hero of Hyvarticus, Survivor of the Howling Dark

High Reclusiuses / Chaplains
Howling Dark impact: High Reclusius and 90% of the Reclusiam slain. Konstantinos Hangmann only survived due to Idroslvian capture.

Haedvust Kalviathan (KIA)

Konstantinos Hangmann, “Hydra-strangler”, Survivor of the Howling Dark
Considered a bitter, brooding individual even before Lawsunda Majoris burned during the Howling Dark, Konstantinos, even by those close to him, including Kodral Advlak, the Captain of the Fourth Company that used to have Konstantinos as its Chaplain, has garnered himself a reputation within the chapter. Konstantinos’ attitude is one of the reasons why, outside of its colour scheme, the Fourth company is known as the “Black Fourth”, the reputation of ‘the Hangman’ awarding it an aura of macabre respect from all. The truth of why Konstantinos embraces this bitterness, however, is from events from his childhood that still haunt him to this day, further reinforced by the horrific things he has experienced during the Howling Dark.

As noted by Kodral, Konstantinos has harboured an almost fanatical hatred for the Hydrakoi Scourge that plagued all of Lawsunda’s hives to varying extents. Of all of Lawsunda’s hives, however, Konstantinos’ home of the Takandrik Hive, the purposed religious heartland of Lawsunda due to its close proximity to the Martyrs’ Rose convent, was the apparent centre of the Hydrakoi’s terror attacks. As such, Konstantinos harbours the sad tale that he was robbed of his brother, parents, close relatives, and meagre livelihood by numerous Hydrakoi attacks, to such the extent that he was forced to run with Hive gangers smuggling illegal narcotics in and out of the Takandrik Hive, until he found safe refuge by surviving day to day on offerings of foodstuffs left in Takandrik’s religious centres. It would be this existence that, in time, ingrained zealotry into Konstantinos’ psyche, resulting in Julian Kalviathan, who found the boy, deeming him appropriate to become a chaplain, once he ascended, especially after Konstantinos immediately began learning the Rites of Humility to the extent that by the time he became a fully fledged astartes, he could recite the words of the Rites to the letter.

Once a chaplain, Konstantinos would repeatedly insist to Haedvust Kalviathan, the then High Reclusius, that something drastic needed to be done about the Hydrakoi Scourge. Incandescent in his fury, Konstantinos found his requests repeatedly denied by both Haedvust and the Founder, who both claimed the Hydrakoi were simply too devious, too cunning, for any offencive actions to be done against them. Even worse, the Fourth Company was sent by Asteralix as part of the expedition to Chiralarus, the first extra-Lawsundan campaign to be fought by the Jonmarines, as a means of demonstrating the Jonmarines’ efficacy as a chapter. While fuming with rage, Konstantinos decided that it would be far more constructive to, instead of bottling up his annoyance at High Reclusius Kalviathan and the Founder, he would express it against the Red Corsairs that he, alongside the Fourth and Eighth Companies, were fighting, as proposed by Kodral. Astounded at how well this strategy worked, Konstantinos soon found himself a good friend in the form of Kodral, who convinced him of the rationality of the Founder’s explanation, even if he also had his own disagreements about the apparent inaction that the Founder was taking. Upon arriving back in the Majoris, Konstantinos soon apologised to the Founder, who appeared to have had his own change of heart. If Konstantinos deemed it appropriate as such, the Founder said, he could lead forces of the Fourth Company through the Underhive of Takandrik, and purge it of its Hydrakoi infestation.

The subsequent Hydrakoi Purge, in which the Underhive of Takandrik burned, without cessation, for a fortnight, quickly earned Konstantinos both respect and infamy on Lawsunda, and, a unique title; “Hydra-strangler”, but Konstantinos’ hatred for everything non-Imperial, it would seem, would emerge fully during the term of Jonavaux Romulus, wherein Konstantinos would truly terrify the orks attempting to invade not only the Takandrik Hive, but its neighbouring Ir Graatus Hive as well, allowing Kodral and the rest of the Fourth company commandarius to set about plans to defend those Hives’ civilians as best as they could. When asked about whether he cared for the lives of Lawsunda’s civilians, Konstantinos replied to each question with a rather memorable triade:

''“I rage against those who dare to defile our Imperium. I rage against those who dare to bring harm to its citizens, to its worlds. My rage is righteous!”''

Both the Hangman’s rage, and the Hangman’s incandescent protectiveness over Lawsunda’s civilians, would show itself plenty of times during the opening phases of the Howling Dark. Scores of tyranids, necrons, traitor guardsmen, often those Reborn by Steravarets herself, and, in some cases, traitor astartes, fell to Konstantinos’ crozius, as his storm bolter, unironically named the Hangman’s Noose, barked a song of death at the foe, as Konstantinos bellowed litanies of hatred at those same hostiles, but it would be Konstantinos himself who persuaded Kodral to allow the refugee ship the Honour of Hyrax to flee ahead of it, using the Lawsundan Valour as cover from the Idroslvian anti-aircraft fire sent after both ships. As such, the Lawsundan Valour would not escape Lawsunda, instead being trapped beneath the Idroslvian Containment Lattice, where, later, the Valour was shot down by Steravarets, the Uncorrupted Corruption having taken control of the El’Cavarin’s Hive’s anti-aircraft batteries. While Forgemaster Turzmak Stena was killed during the subsequent Battle of the Lawsundan Valour, Konstantinos, like Kodral and Steravarets, would be captured by Irotek.

Unlike Kodral, who was recaptured following Steravarets releasing him from stasis, Konstantinos wouldn’t have that mercy. Instead, to bypass bio-locks on certain doors and bulkheads within the rebuilt Lawsundan Valour, Konstantinos was forcefully implanted with a corrupted mindshackle scarab stolen from Idroslvia. This, therefore, was how Steravarets managed to see about the escape of the Lawsundan Valour from its containment aboard the Idroslvian flagship the Eschatological Inevitability. Once the Valour had made a warp jump to the approximate position of the space hulk the Ashamed Desolation, Steravarets would appear to lose her grip over the mindshackle scarab implanted in Konstantinos’ head, allowing him to forcefully remove it, even if it tore a sizeable chunk of the Fourth Chaplain’s face off with it. With the scarab removed, Konstantinos managed to briefly confirm his active status to the Jonmarines via a sneakily sent vox transmission, and, by picking locks and crawling through air vents, two skills he had picked up as a child "back in Takandrik", managed to discern Steravarets’ plan to take over the Carnosaurs’ fortress monastery of Theropoda Ultima, transmitting this back to the Lawsundan Dynasty, which soon pursued.

To the Hangman’s ire, he would be unable to kill the Uncorrupted Corruption, as she discovered his uncontrolled status soon after the Valour crash landed on Pangea Ultima, the world host to Theropoda Ultima. Here, Steravarets would shoot Konstantinos with his own Noose, giving him a score of massive wounds as the bolt shells punched through his already battered armour. Enraged even further by this ironic way to go, Konstantinos claims to have dragged himself from the Valour’s crash site, through miles of swamps and jungles infested with giant “Megasaurians”, vicious creatures that the Carnosaurs use as one of the ways they test their initiates,  by ordering them to take the head of one or die trying to as their single trial, in pursuit of the Uncorrupted Corruption, her army of mindshackled Wretched Wyverns, and the contingent of Daemons that she had summoned to complement this force. As, however, there is no evidence to the contrary, Konstantinos’ account has been accepted as the truth of the matter, given that the running joke of Konstantinos being, at times, “too angry to die”, has even found its way into the mouth of Jonavaux Lericberguson, the Saviour. In response to this, Konstantinos has taken this claim to fame to heart; often he will over exaggerate the details of his survival to continue this running joke, especially considering that he himself considers this joke naught more than a compliment.

Following the end of the Howling Dark, and the start of the Reconstruction, as a result of Konstantinos being the only surviving chaplain, Jonavaux offered him the role of High Reclusius, and the honour of replacing his old, battered, armour with the restored suit once worn by Haedvust Kalviathan. Immediately accepting this great title once his face had been rebuilt with cybernetics, Konstantinos saw about the incorporation of his own attitudes towards the role of chaplain into the wider chapter, even if his role as High Reclusius forced him to become relatively calmer in his approach. However, this mantra would meet resistance following the Pannotia Incident. Once the Lamenter Chaplain Pralomak Mihos had been nursed back to health, and inducted into his temporary role as chaplain of the Tenth Company, he would begin offering “words of constructive criticism” to the High Reclusius, apparently stating that he had seen such incandescent zealotry numerous times beforehand. While annoyed at this backtalk, Konstantinos would thus become one of the first Jonmarines to become suspicious of Pralomak’s identity, even to the extent that he asked Kaviaan to analyse the Chaplain’s memories once more. Kaviaan, however, refused, stating that there was nothing else to find within Pralomak’s mind.

It can be speculated that if Irotek had not revealed Pralomak’s true identity during the Mythradates XVI incident, that Konstantinos may have, taking matters into his own hands,  spearheaded a self-destructive move to do it in the Phaeron’s place. Instead of reacting to this news violently, however, showing that his age as well as his duties as High Reclusius had mellowed the rage that made him infamous, Konstantinos chose to apologise to Malakim, who understood Konstantinos’ anger at a subordinate chaplain, from another chapter, talking down what was supposed to be his superior. Apparently, Konstantinos explained, the sorrow that he privately felt through his belief that Captain Advlak had perished at Irotek’s hands was threatening to unleash the rage Kodral had taught him to control and use so long ago, a view that Malakim apparently seemed to understand; he knew that futile rage against things that one couldn’t control from Perseus Aphes, the Blade of Sorrow, Chapter Champion of the Lamenters, especially after the Badab Tragedy.

Following the Lokan Crusade and the Defence of Lokus, Konstantinos would find a measure of peace when he was reunited with Kodral, who had been saved from death at the hands of Idroslvia by, coincidentally, Perseus Aphes. Yet, following this happiness, would be a return of Konstantinos’ repressed childhood fear, and the bitter, fiery, rage that followed from it. Almost immediately after the arrival of the Jonmarines’ Chapter Fleet into the Lokus Sector, above the world of Fulcana, the Alpha Legion forces that had hidden themselves away amongst the Jonmarines struck. Only the quick thinking of the scions of Asteralix, working in conjunction with their predecessors and the Knights Celestial, alongside the unexpected intervention of Irotek, prevented the Alpha Legion from starting a war between the Jonmarines and the Knights Celestial, alongside all of the other forces present in the Sector. Enraging Konstantinos even more, was the Alpha Legionary known as Carius, who had the audacity to reveal himself to Konstantinos personally, prompting him to mutilate the Legionary by shooting his left forearm off with Hangman’s Noose.

Later events during the Defence of Lokus would only serve to frustrate Konstantinos, even as he spilled his fury towards the Alpha Legion into the apparently true foe. Upon hearing of [REDACTED]’s role in helping the Sixth Company in its efforts to aid the Lamenters’ Seventh and Ninth Companies in retaking the Mater Lacrimarum, Konstantinos’ rage hit it’s boiling point once more, even if it was constricted by the understanding that the [REDACTED] had potentially risked their lives for those of the Jonmarines and the Lamenters.

After the battles on Fulcana and Airtha, in which Konstantinos displayed plenty of his fury, even to the extent of being barely able to contain, the High Reclusius appeared conflicted. While he was glad that no Jonmarines or Lamenters had to die in their attempt to retake the Mater, which he understood to be a holy relic to the Lamenters, to employ [REDACTED] and his Alpha Legion to do so was paramount to the treachery that the Alpha Legion excelled in, something that he never dreamed of seeing fellow Jonmarines stoop to. So conflicted that Konstantinos found himself that he resorted to, after communicating his woes to his fellow Chapter Commandarius members, and even to some company commandari members, he would speak even to members of Malakim’s chapter command staff, until the Saviour, alongside the Lord of Ruin, proposed the system known now as the Hydrakoi Protocol, which would give any Alpha Legionaries that chose to work alongside the Jonmarines one single chance to prove that they were allies of the chapter, and gave Konstantinos his chance to enact revenge onto the Hydra if they turned out to be hostiles.

The Protocol would get its first run during the Baal Crusade, whereupon the Alpha Legionary known as the “Labyrinth Walker” was interrogated by Konstantinos himself following his teleportation aboard the Lawsundan Avengement. Satisfied with this Protocol, Konstantinos allowed himself to mellow somewhat again, a trend that seems fit to continue, at least for the time being.

At the conclusion of the Baal Crusade, the High Reclusius agreed with Forgemaster Terasacariz in his opinion on the technological innovations made by Archmagos Dominus Cawl, but without the focus on the Machine Cult that Hadvasiir obsessed over. Instead, Konstantinos found himself attracted to the value that he saw in the vicious Primaris Reivers, seeing these assault troops as a terror weapon that could be devastating if used in conjunction with his unique blend of blinding hatred and rage. Apparently, this attitude of rage and fury found Konstantinos a friend in the fearsome Angels Penitent for, as Konstantinos joked, "about ten seconds", when they realised that Konstantinos’ own rage was something of a mellowed version of what it had once been.

=== Chief Calix Apothecarions / Calix Apothecarions === Howling Dark impact: 80% casually rate, Chief Calix Apothecarion Kalviathan and Apothecary Jerreson the only two survivors.

=== Julian Kalviathan, the Unassailable, ‘Saviour of the Grand Wyvern’, Survivor of the Howling Dark === As one of the four Apothecaries, and, as unknown to Julian once his mind had been wiped, the Lamenters’ acting Chief Calix, on account of Nathaniel Semnai’s continued absence from the chapter, brought to Lawsunda Majoris by the future Founder and the enigmatic Ælianus, Jonavaux would propose that Julian take up the role of the Praetors of Lawsunda’s Chief Apothecary, a role that Julian would presumably continue to hold when Ælianus disappeared, and the chapter was reforged as the Jonmarines. In hindsight, Julian himself noted, after the Howling Dark, it is likely the Founder made sure of Julian’s appointment due to his knowledge of the dual Flaws inherent within those astartes that had once been Lamenters.

Julian would be affected deeply by Asteralix's sudden and brutal death. As the second individual, following Ciirilvus D'Haarst, Blade of the Founder, to find Hazaras Romulus kneeling, weeping, at the side of Jonavaux's deceased form, the Founder's flesh an unearthly grey as the vile toxins of the blade still wracked his body and coursed through his veins. As Chief Apothecary, alongside the High Reclusius, his brother Haedvust, Julian would give the Founder his eulogy, before he then extracted and began purifying the Founder’s gene-seed, while his body was entombed within the Asteralix Bastion's reliquary, which, as a precaution the Founder had prepared soon after he named the Jonmarines’ fortress monastery the Asteralix Bastion, had been swiftly converted into a tomb due to the Founder's order to keep the Reliquary available for such a role in case of such a tragedy.

Julian’s role in the relief efforts sent by Jonavaux Romulus to halt the anarchy that the Poisoning of El’Cavarin’s Hive had caused can be easily established as Julian’s defining hour. Alongside Kaviaan, who sought to find those afflicted that could be inducted into the Jonmarines as a part of a rebuilt Librarius, Julian would assist by administering first aid to those injured during the chaos of the mutant outbreak, keeping them stable until they could be moved to safer areas and proper medical facilities, and administer the Emperor’s Peace, through an overdose of anesthestics, unto those who even the skill of the Chief Apothecary couldn’t save. Following the announced containment of the Poisoning, Julian would privately admit he felt a great deal of sorrow whenever he was called upon to administer the Emperor’s Peace, even if he knew that was the more merciful fate for those who perished to his narcatheium. Even with this melancholy, Julian’s actions, alongside those of his fellow Apothecaries, would win the Apothecarium the collective title of “El’Cavarin’s Cure”, a badge of honour Julian would wear through painting the Hive’s heraldry, a shield quartered into gold and green squares, upon his armour’s left knee.

There is little doubt that Julian’s most prominent feature is his permanence within the Jonmarines chapter, having lived through the aforementioned Poisoning of El’Cavarin’s Hive, the First Defence of Lawsunda Majoris, the Howling Dark, and all of the campaigns undertaken by the Jonmarines since that gruelling, bloodsoaked period’s conclusion. The usually quiet, relatively antisocial Chief Calix Apothecarion of the Jonmarines chapter owes his survival to the Sixth Company which he accompanied in their escape from Lawsunda Majoris. With the First Company’s horrendous casualty rate confirming to many within the Sixth that none of their chapter leadership had survived, many of the Sixth nicknamed their terminator armour clad Chief Calix Apothecarion, then known as simply the Chief Apothecary, “The Unassailable” in reflection of his miraculous survival, and the fact that up until that point, Julian had survived literally every period of war the chapter had experienced, and, as proven by his continued survival, has continued to do so. It should be noted, however, that Julian, outranking all of the other Jonmarine leadership aboard their now legendary strike cruiser the Lawsundan Dynasty, as the chapter’s Chief Apothecary, chose instead to defer to the authority of first captain Antonius Scyllus, and, after his disgraceful behaviour on Veldvarsik, his successor, Captain-Librarian Kaecelion Vryidissus.

As for his other unique title, one must look to the same  “Veldvarsik Misunderstandings” that ended Antonius Scyllus’ leadership to discern the meaning behind this title. Julian would, after begging the Carnosaurs and the Wyverns for aid in doing so, save the lives of both Grand Wyvern Drago, who had been horribly wounded by Suchia, a Carnosaur contemptor pattern dreadnaught, and his own beast-form's ability to spew massive gouts of venomous incendiaries, and that of one of his closest lieutenants, Dark Imoogi (the Wyvern equivalent of a Chief Librarian or High Librarius) Mei Long, the latter being crippled by one of Irotek's Lychgaurd severing his spine with a void blade, following the Idroslvian intervention into this spat between Carnosaur and Wyvern. While this would not be the first time Julian would save Drago's life, the Chief Apothecary would be hailed as a hero by both Jonmarine and Wyvern alike, earning him the nickname "Saviour of the Grand Wyvern" as evidence of this, facilitating friendly relations between the Jonmarines and the Wyverns, all the better to help the First and Sixth Companies rescue their Eighth and Tenth Company comrades from their stranding on Hyvarticus.

On Hyvarticus, Julian would discover that he was but one of two of the Jonmarines’ remaining Apothecaries, with the Tenth Company’s Pavlov Jerreson being his only other fellow. Thus, as he had seen his duty before, in the chapter’s infancy, Julian would be at the forefront of the Jonmarines’ reconstruction efforts once the Howling Dark was over. Having lost his brother Haedvust to the maw and boneswords of the Ripperdon back on Lawsunda, Julian would cooperate with the new High Reclusius, Konstantinos Hangmann, in the vetting of new initiates, making sure to refer any initiates that showed potential as Chaplains to Konstantinos, while the former Fourth Company chaplain returned this assurance in kind to Julian.

The Reconstruction Wars would not affect the Chief Calix Apothecarion significantly, while the Defence of Lokus would. Alongside demonstrating the chapter’s ideals of aiding their allies in any way they could, Julian would make sure to order his Apothecaries to collect the gene-seed of not only fallen Jonmarines, but that of the casualties sustained to their allies, the Lamenters, Red Scorpions, Mantis Warriors, Knights Celestial, and the Knights’ successors, if their allies were unable to recover such valuable resources. As such, if they could not, the Jonmarines would, and make sure that it eventually found its way back to their rightful chapters. Unfortunately, due to the hasty retreat by many of the defenders of Lokus, following the encroachment of the rampantly expanding Hadex Anomaly, much of the recovered gene-seed would go unreturned, save for that given over to the Lamenters, whom the Jonmarines would accompany in the Baal Crusade. Thus, to this day, a portion of the Lawsundan Avengement’s onboard gene-seed vault has been given over to the “Abandoned Lokan Gene-Seed”, which, at some point in the future, Julian hopes, will be returned to its rightful owners.

Julian would also learn a sizeable portion of his own history during the ill-fated Defence of Lokus, and the subsequent Baal Crusade. Speaking to Nathaniel Semnai, who had escaped his charge aboard the Erioch Watchstation observing the Hadex Anomaly but moments before the facility was swallowed by the warp rift, Julian discovered that Nathaniel once saw the astartes that Julian had once been as a worthy successor to himself as Chief Calix of the Lamenters, which explains, as Nathaniel explained, why he had selected the Calix known now as Julian as such when he left to serve his portion of the Eternal Vigil, shortly before the Badab Tragedy destroyed the already crumbling reputation of the Lamenters. At least, Nathaniel quipped, Jonavaux Asteralix had agreed with him on that point, evidenced by Julian’s role as Chief Calix Apothecarion of the Jonmarines.

Pavlov Jerreson, “Ruin-Saver”, Survivor of the Howling Dark
Following Captain Davian Haarnvust's discovery of the wreck of the Redemption, the Lamenter Chaplain known as Pralomak Mihos was saved from death by the quick operating skills of Apothecary Jerreson, who saved the life of the horrendously wounded Chaplain before Chief Calix Apothecarion Kalviathan could assist. Pavlov would note that Chaplain Mihos sported a large amount of cybernetics around his abdomen, which was explained by the Chaplain as being installed following his impalement by Asterion Moloc, Master of the Minotaurs, during the Badab War, in his desperate attempt to defend his Chapter Master from such an injury, an explanation that set of suspicions within the mind of the Apothecary. Such a move, however, ended up being fruitless, as, as demonstrated by the tattered quality of the suit of artificer armour originally worn by Malakim, the Lord of Ruin would be later subjected to the same fate, albeit surviving such wound in a similar manner.

High Librarium Angelicae / Librarium Angelicae
Howling Dark impact: 40% casualty rate; High Librarium Angelica Launaas and two of his brothers, alongside Servitus Civares, were not present within Lawsunda Majoris during the Howling Dark.

Kaviaan Launaas, “Wanderer-no-longer”, Bearer of the Armour Indomnitus Librarium, Survivor of the Howling Dark
Unlike the rest of the First Chapter Commandarius, Kaviaan would rediscover his pre-mind wipe identity through the Armour Indomnitus Librarium's machine spirit, which informed him that he was in fact known as Mithrael Vyralis, Chief Librarian of the Lamenters. However, this secret would remain hidden, even to this day, presumably due to Kaviaan's unwillingness to reveal his former identity, even claiming that “Mithrael is dead",  especially considering the shameful role he had played during the run up to the Badab War.

Once a charismatic, ambitious yet painfully nihilistic individual, Mithrael's personality seemed to be a synthesis of Malakim's and Jonavaux Asteralix’s, the librarian seemingly sharing the Captain of the First's ambition and the Lord of Ruin's constant battles with the melancholy that strangled all but Jonavaux. While the Chief Librarian of the Lamenters was not always close to his chapter master, the Lord of Ruin respected his opinions due to the wisdom that the librarian had on hand, a testament to his mutant brain and powers.

Mithrael Vyralis' role in the Badab War would be considered a great source of shame for Kaviaan due to the fact that he, as one of Malakim Phoros' key advisors alongside the then Captain Jonavaux Asteralix, had decided that the decision to assist the Astral Claws in their secession from the Imperium of Man was justified due to Lugft Huron's demands for a greater allocation of forces to the Maelstrom Warzone seemingly going ignored deliberately by the 'powers that be', and that Huron's decision to take the issue into his own hands was therefore justifiable; the great threat that the Maelstrom proposed could justify the Tyrant of Badab's massive build up of astartes and war materiel, alongside the adoption of aggressive tactics and the construction of great defensive works. Thus, by joining Huron in his actions, the Lamenters would, as a result of the 'foolishly inexperienced mind of my younger self', as Mithrael would refer to himself later, mere seconds before the mind-wipe, be raising a justified protest against the misallocation of forces desperately needed in and around worlds of the Maelstrom sector. However, the Lamenters would pay dearly for Mithrael's misplaced beliefs: the Badab War, its outcome and its impact on later events would result in the chapter being forced dangerously close to extinction, resulting in Malakim and Jonavaux agreeing on the set of plans that would later be known as 'Asteralix's Gamble'.

However, as argued by both Malakim and the librarian later known as Kaviaan Launaas, it would be by following Mithrael's ill-placed advice that Malakim's word would trigger one the greatest tragedies to beset the Lamenters: Mithrael proposed that the Lamenters were to join the young maverick-like chapter master of the Astral Claws into rebellion against the Imperium of Man, a move intended to help legitimise Lugft Huron's demands for more assistance in defending the Maelstrom zone. Initially, Malakim would have none of such a proposition; he knew that such actions could lead to trouble if carried out incorrectly, trouble that the master of the Lamenters did not want to waste astartes and resources on resolving. Eventually, however, increasingly concerned with Huron's requests for comradeship against this perceived injustice by the 'powers that be' on Terra, which arrived via the Astropathic choirs of the Mater Lacrimarum on an almost daily basis, Mithrael turned to exploiting Malakim's own private dislike of the Adeptus Terra's bureaucrats to add the melancholic voice of the chapter to Huron's protest.

Soon, Malakim found himself losing every debate on not helping the maverick Huron with Mithrael, his arguments crumbling as the Chief Librarian told him of the injustice and what threat that not requesting assistance in defending the Maelstrom would pose; say, Mithrael argued, the pirates, corsairs, mutants and worse were to join forces against the Maelstrom Warders. The Lamenters, alongside the Mantis Warriors, the Astral Claws and the Executioners would be swarmed, perhaps destroyed, and there would be no-one else left to defend the citizens of the worlds they defended if no aid was clamoured for. Leaving these faithful citizens of the Imperium to fend for themselves was clearly contrary to everything that the Lamenters stood for; hypocrisy given the lengths that the chapter went to liberate the world of Slaughterhouse III. Thus, with the mere words of the Warders ignored, now was the time for action, a stance that Malakim adopted with a nod. Days later, the Lamenters added their colours alongside those of the Mantis Warriors and the Executioners in their support of the Tyrants' rebellion, careening the chapter towards it's darkest hour.

Little is reported about Mithrael's role in the Badab War that is not extensively classified, but was is correct is that during the resulting Consistorial Court, the Chief Librarian, surrounded by a dozen Sisters of Silence to deny the mutant the use of his powers, was able to persuade the five chapter masters presiding on the court that his role in guiding Malakim into supporting Huron was a misjudged endeavour; he had jumped to too many conclusions surrounding the military power of the brigands that inhabited the fringes of the Maelstrom, he had, like Malakim in turn, let pride come before duty, and had dragged the Lamenters into a war that they wished to have no part in. Thus, even though Mithrael's words dragged the Lamenters into the Badab War, it would be his words that saved the chapter from immediate destruction, as the Consistorial Court sentenced the Lamenters to the kindness of the now-infamous Penitent Crusade, but, Kayvaan Shrike, Master of the Raven Guard, ordered a treatise entitled 'The Sins of Vyralis' to be documented, and ordered that the Chief Librarian would wear the treatise throughout the Penitent Crusade; upon his death, Malakim would, upon his, Jonavaux.

Yet, such terms would not come to fruition, despite Mithrael's significantly changed personality to one that seemed accepting of the inevitable death that the Penitent Crusade would bring. Again, save for the final assault of the Victoria Phyrri, Mithrael's actions would not be documented during the Crusade, perhaps as repentance for his role in dragging the Lamenters into the Badab War, until the Lamenters' shattered arrival into the swirling conflict within the Lokus system. Here, realising that the besieging Emperor's Children, Iron Warriors and Red Corsairs lacked any psykers save for the ones already killed by the Knights Celestial and the Drakken Harbingers, Mithrael and Erasmus, librarian of the second company,  moved to fully exploit the enemy's lack of psychic defences. Here, perhaps due to Mithrael's negligence, Erasmus would fall, further deepening the surviving librarian's depressed state, and feeding the already blazing grudge, which had already resulted in blows exchanged between himself and Perseus Aphes, the Blade of Sorrows, between himself and Perseus.

It is plausible, therefore, to see why Mithrael was so enthusiastic about Malakim's plan to save the Lamenters by sending Jonavaux forth to form another chapter, and thus volunteered to be one of the Lamenters that would shed their previous names and identities, becoming the first and only High Librarius of the newly formed Jonmarines.

Kaviaan would lend his naturally inquisitive nature, enhanced and widened by his mutant powers, to learning what he could about the Jonmarines' new homeworld and it's surrounding system, discovering the extent of the corruption that plagued Lawsunda's Hive Cities. Thus, through Kaviaan's guidance, Jonavaux's belief that the people of the Lawsunda Majoris system were in desperate need for rescue was confirmed in its entirety; a confirmation that would be soon acted upon, once the Jonmarines were in a suitable position to do so. Once the Jonmarines had seen about the removal of these corrupt nobles, Kaviaan would employ his powers in aiding the Founder in his “archeological endeavours”, discovering information about Lawsunda’s history before the Anarkhiya period of civil war and stagnation, and even before the Age of Strife, including battles between Lawsunda Majoris’ ancient inhabitants and an ancient empire known as “the Konfedariz Yunnion”.

However, Kaviaan's discoveries did not end there. The High Librarius would find himself in extremely high favour with the Founder following the start of the 'War on the Seeds of Heresy' through his discovery of a treatise found within the "Forgotten Cache" deep within the Underhive of the Ir Graatus Hive. Already stationed in Lawsunda's southernmost Hive was Captain Israln Forax's Ninth Company, which, since the Company overthrew the Hive's corrupt nobles, was in the process of dealing with it's most pressing concern. Within the dingy, often flooded Underhive of Ir Graatus, as discovered by tactical marine Servitus Civares, a beastly species known as the Skorpyron, resembling a Terran King Scorpion, albeit the size of Terran wolf, semi-sentient and aquatic, had become the dominant species other than the Underhive's human occupants.

These Skorpyrons had managed to enter the Underhive during a severe storm, a far cry from the usual amount of seawater that flooded into the Underhive on a weekly basis, and had managed to infest a valuable source of intelligence known as the "Forgotten Vault" to only those who lived in the Underhive, who also spread rumours about what lay inside the Vault: some believed the Vault to hold the real reason for the tyranny of the Ir Graatusian nobles, others believed the Vault to hold plans to some form of weapon.

However, Kaviaan and Captain Forax proved the Underhivers incorrect upon their decision to find the Vault themselves. Here, Kaviaan's powers came into their own: the psyker's use of telepathic powers persuaded the Skorpyrons to, at first, flee at the sight of the Jonmarines, and, if that failed to prove effective, attack each other with their venomous claws and fangs to such an extent that only a microscopic fraction of the Skorpyrons that had invaded the Underhive remained living by the end of the week-long expedition. Yet, the discovery of what resided within the Vault was, for lack of more appropriate terms, overestimated and further evidence of the callous disregard possessed by the Nobles of Ir Graatus and further afield. Within, save for a few boltguns bearing the sigil of the Martyrs Rose Convent, Kaviaan found the strongbox that would later go on to become the Tomekeeper, which contained documents pertaining to the importation of refugees from a distant war-zone to the Lawsunda Majoris system, obviously disregarded and forgotten about by those despotic tyrants deposed by the Jonmarines themselves.

Yet, Kaviaan's powers discovered the truth of the documents: the war-zone that these refugees had managed to escape was in fact the world of Slaughterhouse III, the world that, as First Captain of the Lamenters, Jonavaux had tried and 'failed' to liberate during the Corinth Crusade. Thus, as referenced to by only Jonavaux, the Jonmarines had been appointed to defend those who had been rescued by the Lamenters prior, and would recruit their distant successors to do so. To the Jonmarines, who, at this point were still unaware of their true heritage, they would be defending the honour of a noble chapter that, in the words of the Founder, had "died trying to right its wrongs, confident that it's dying breaths were free and just ones" through defending the offspring of those they had rescued from the xenos.

However, unlike the rest of the so-called 'First Commandarius', Kaviaan's ignorance of his dark past would end shortly after Asteralix's death, 'the Sins of Mithrael' came back to haunt him through the Armour Indomnitus Librarium. Kaviaan would decline attendance at the ceremonial funeral that followed Asteralix’s death, instead choosing to partly reflect on the Founder in his private chambers, and to discern what had killed the Founder. Here, Kaviaan would discover the Jonmarine relic that would have the greatest sway over the High Librarius: where Romulus had knelt, after his discovery of Asteralix’s corpse, a suit of armour suddenly appeared in a flash of white light, amplified greatly by its adamantium constitution, before Kaviaan. A few minutes later, the armour began to speak to the High Librarius in tongues that even he did not understand.

Therefore, assuming that the armour spoke in a language native to only machine spirits and Techmarines, Kaviaan would be forced to contact Kaedron Huraan, the First Forgemaster, to discern what it tried to convey to the High Librarius. The armour, referring to itself as the Armour Indomnitus Librarium, spoke four words other than its name: "Wear me, avoid disaster". Following Kaedron proving the armour to be devoid of any heretekal influences, Kaviaan exchanged his old power armour for the Armour Indomnitus Librarium. Since then, Kaviaan was reported to increase the number of cryptic prophesies that he shared with the Chapter Commandarius lead by Jonavaux Romulus, yet this did not stop him from maintaining his stoic composition, even when the revelation of the Emperor's Tarot revealed the disappearance of Forgemaster Huraan and the Poisoning of the El Cavarin's Hive in equal manner.

What was not known to the High Librarius, even to this day, is the truth of the origins of the Armour Indomnitus Librarium. According to all of the Terran Guard recovered on Syrphaust, Crysos Morturg was known to have harboured psychic powers, “witchcraft”, repressed violently by Mortarion, following the Edict of Nikea. However, following the establishment of the Terran Guard, Crysos had began to use his powers as instruments of war, deeming that the Terran Guard needed every weapon it could get its hands upon. This trend led even to the reconstruction of the suit of hardened power armour Crysos had worn during the Horus Heresy in adamantium, to reflect his rank as chapter master, and with an incorporated psychic hood to keep his powers contained. This suit was, however, eschewed soon afterwards, when Forge Tyrant Vahn successfully incorporated a similar psychic hood into a suit of Tartaros terminator armour. A wave of uncertainty hit the Terran Guard, apparently, however, when it was discovered that the adamantium plate, or the “Indomitable Armour”, one of the only pieces of “ostentatiousness” that Crysos permitted the Terran Guard to have, had been stolen, security vid tapes showing the armour vanishing in a flash of bright light.

Upon showing the Armour Indomnitus Librarium to ex-members of the Terran Guard, all have confirmed that Kaviaan’s armour matches the description of the Indomitable Armour commissioned by Morturg. This, at least privately, within the Jonmarines’ Chapter Commandarius, has led to fears that somehow, the two suits of armour are one in the same, and that the auditory hallucinations that Kaviaan sometimes experiences, have insidious origins.

Kaviaan would play an evenly crucial role within the Jonmarines' response to the disaster as well, as his powers were detrimental towards discerning which of the Hive's populace were harbouring some form of mental corruption thanks to the vicious powers of the rapidly spreading taint. Kaviaan would use this task to his advantage, as, from those who had survived their Warp-touching, and as permitted by Jonavaux Romulus, those who could be taught to control their powers could be recruited into the ranks of the Chapter to train as Librarians, which, apart from Kaviaan himself, the Chapter significantly lacked, a lack that showed itself clearly and painfully during the Chiralarus Conflict, as reported by Captain Advlak. Thus, Kaviaan used the disaster to recruit the members of his Librarius, using them to help detect other potential Librarians once their powers were comfortably 'reigned in'. These individuals would be found in the following order:

Johnathonus Hvencia, Librarian of the Ninth Company, as a result of Captain Forax being the first to receive 'Librarius support' due to his role in the recovery of the "Forgotten Vault" and it's sentimental discovery.

Quintus Redevus, Librarian of the Seventh Company,

Aedrian Thulos, Librarian of the Third Company,

Kalvyn Fryriss, Librarian of the Second Company,

Iulus Arvoklaas, Librarian of the Fourth Company,

Halazus D'Elas, Librarian of the Eighth Company,

Challonus Levial, Librarian of the Fifth Company,

Alexeianik Citadach, Librarian of the Sixth Company,

Servitus Civares, Librarian of the Tenth Company

With the catastrophic result of Jonavaux Romulus’ decision to charge headfirst into battle with Gitsmasha, during the final phases of both the Battle of the Haedrian Hive, and the First Defence of Lawsunda Majoris, Kaviaan was forced to take up Julian Kalviathan’s charge of saving the Defender’s life where the Chief Apothecary could not, due to both his own, and those of Turzmak Stena, the Jonmarines’ Forgemaster, fears that forcing cybernetics into Romulus’ crushed skull could kill him.

Using a Technomantic discipline that Kaviaan was forced to invent as he developed it, ever close to what could be considered heretekal, the High Librarius bound the noble soul of Jonavaux Romulus to the machine spirit of the dreadnaught frame, granting Romulus passage into salvation at the hands of the dreadnaught's life support mechanisms, fully sentient, and without fear that he would inevitably lose his personality to the dreadnaught, a fate that usually claims others interred in these suit of armour. As a result of this procedure successfully saving the Defender’s life, the Jonmarines would later go on to incorporate it into all of their subsequent dreadnaught pilots, ever were aware of the risk of being denounced as a heretek they ran by doing so.

Following the Salvation of Romulus, and the election of Third Captain Johnathonus Lericbergson as his successor, Kaviaan's visions and prophesies would become more frequent and detailed, bearing grim, ominous news of the future the Chapter faced, exemplified by Kaviaan's 'privy spectating of the Emperor's Tarot', a tradition followed once the elected, 'proved-pure' Master Aspirant was taken into the care of Julian Kalviathan for the implantation of the Founder's gene-seed, in which Kaviaan privately reported that he saw "two great, scaled beasts, one armoured in whites and greys, the other in obsidian and the blazing colour of fires uncontrollable, one bound against his will, fighting against his will, the other trying to save himself from the balefire of the other: One Uncorrupted, one Corrupted, war on Eleven fronts."

Worried rightfully by this vision, Kaviaan then experienced the Armour Indomnitus Librarium speak once more. The armour told him of what he needed to do to avoid the catastrophes prophesied by the visions, namely seek the two beasts and, in the words of the armour itself, disclosed by Kaviaan after the battle of Theropoda Ultima, the Carnosaurs' Fortress Monastery, "free the seized beast, slay its captor." Thus, compelled by the armour's reassurance of saving the chapter from a violent death, Kaviaan asked the new chapter master, Jonavaux Lericbergson, for permission, with two fellow librarians, Quintus Redevus and Johnathonus Hvencia aboard the Falchion class Destroyer known as the Exodus, to search for what he termed "the salvation of the Chapter". Jonavaux agreed reluctantly, posing that such a detrimental issue was merit a chapter-wide attention, but Kaviaan replied swiftly that the bulk of the Jonmarines would be better off defending Lawsunda Majoris and its citizens, as per the Rites of Humility, and discovering whatever evil was prophesied to be lying in wait on Syrphaust. Jonavaux agreed, making his first order as Chapter Master one of permitting Kaviaan to search for his desired "Salvation", an expedition that would last thirteen years until Jonavaux, realising that Kaviaan's expedition was threatening to do more harm than good, ordered the High Librarius' return.

However, on his travels, Kaviaan would discover a number of interesting developments. Traveling to the galactic South-south east of Lawsunda Majoris, nearing the Eastern Fringe, Kaviaan, Quintus and Johnathonus would involve themselves in actions on worlds and within systems throughout. First, after the Exodus discovered astropathic messages calling for aid emerging from the world of Iralkallasis IV, the Jonmarine librarians would inadvertently assist the Mantis Warriors already fighting a heavily entrenched force of Red Corsairs by defeating a Cyclopean Cabal of Sorcerors collectively known as 'the Blackheart's Malice' in the upper reaches of the world's cavern-like capitol Hive City of Iral. Unfortunately, the Mantis Warriors would not become aware of the Jonmarines' destruction of the 'Blackheart's Malice', even after the Corsairs were finally defeated.

Next, the Exodus and its crew sees action on Ikarus Quintana; on the tail of a Black Legion daemon prince known as 'The Obsidian Beast of Ikarus', Kaviaan Quintus and Johnathonus would be assisted by a small Deathwatch Killteam. This killteam, initially investigating the extinct necron tomb that the Obsidian Beast had made its lair in preparation for the conversion of the dead tomb world into a daemon world, led by a watch captain hailing from the Praetors of Orpheus, an Astartes named Ælianus, who, according to Kaviaan, seemed to recognise the Jonmarines far quicker than his allies. The daemon prince, despite the Killteam's specialisation in killing xenos, was brought down by the combined efforts of Kaviaan, Johnathonus and Quintus, alongside their new allies. Ironically, this is the closest that any of the Jonmarines will ever come to the truth of who their actual first chapter master is.

Finally, the Exodus arrives within the Lokus Sector, as proposed by Ælianus, the Exodus would arrive in the Lokus sector soon after the battle of Ikarus Quintana, coincidentally arriving as a warband of Red Corsairs, backed by a larger force of Emperor's Children assaulted the world. Making planetfall mere seconds before the vile Slaaneshi heretics followed, the three Jonmarine librarians found themselves running for their lives towards an unidentified defending force of astartes, eventually being rescued by the commander of the unknown astartes, a noble figure referring to himself as [REDACTED BY ORDER OF INQUISITOR TUPLOV], the master of the unknown astartes, who were revealed as being named the Knights Celestial chapter. Together, [REDACTED] and the Jonmarines repelled the heretics, Kaviaan helping [REDACTED] to cut down the infamous [REDACTED]. Once the Emperor's Children were repelled, [REDACTED], returning the favour of the Jonmarines aid to defending the world from their hated enemies, assisted in repairing the Exodus, allowing the Librarians to return to Lawsunda Majoris upon Jonavaux's order for Kaviaan's return.

Once back in the Majoris,  Kaviaan discovered that his absence had caused far more damage than the High Librarius had originally predicted would cause. As a result of his absence, the populations of mutants below the El Cavarin's Hive, while being culled quite effectively by the swift leadership of Kalvyn Fryriss in his absence, posed sufficient threat to worsen already poor relations between the Jonmarines and the Martyrs Rose convent. Thus, as argued by Jonavaux himself, Kaviaan needed to return to resolve this matter personally, as the leader of the Librarius. Yet, Kaviaan, as mentioned above, was desperate in his wish to prevent whatever was on its way to potentially threaten the Jonmarines, if not the Imperium itself, and needed to continue in this quest to discern what threat awaited.

When Jonavaux repeated his demand for Kaviaan's return, claiming this time that an important development demanded his personal attention, Kaviaan believed that Jonavaux was on the cusp of reversing Romulus' unpopular suspension of the Sryphaust Expedition, and was thusly annoyed to discover that Romulus had managed to persuade Jonavaux to abandon his own plans to reverse the suspension, and wished to resolve another issue instead, namely the so-called “resurgent” Nochyani, which Kaviaan deemed to be insignificant compared to the “Syrphaustan evil”.

However, as a result of Kaviaan's aloof nature, the High Librarius accused Jonavaux of being Romulus' puppet, allowing the Launaas-Lericbergson Feud to emerge, and worsen, until the successes of the Reborn War healed relations between the Chapter Master and the High Librarius. This was achieved in a number of gradual stages.

First, the disappearance of Librarian Alexeianik Citadach, albeit indirectly. During the opening phases of the Third and Sixth Companies' Expedition into Lawsunda's Northlands, the source of the now-corrupted Cavarin River, the source of water for the El Cavarin's Hive, Sixth Company Librarian Alexeianik Citadach was ambushed by a group of chaos space marines known as the 'Malalites Reborn', who overpowered the librarian and swiftly abducted him. Tragically, the Jonmarines assumed him dead following a complete lack of either psychic or vox links to the Librarian, and so, she was presumed dead, her name becoming one of the first ones added to the Tome of Martyrs under Jonavaux Lericberguson’s rule.

The revelation of Kaecelion Vryidissus as a psyker. During the a meeting between Jonavaux and Canoness D'Vass, Kaecelion, the servant boy who was serving the master of the Jonmarines and the Canoness of the Martyrs’ Rose suddenly began uncontrollably launching bolts of psychic lightning about the room, setting ancient tapestries, D’Vass’ hair, and Jonavaux’s moustache alike aflame. Enraged, D'Vass originally planned to have Kaecelion executed, but was persuaded against by the Librarian of the Second Company, Kalvyn Fryriss, who was also present at the meeting, and persuaded the rest of the Librarius to support him. Thus, D'Vass ordered Jonavaux to order Kaviaan to personally train Kaecelion in the ways of the Librarius, a task that would keep Kaviaan on Lawsunda for a few years as he personally oversaw Kaecelion’s training and development into a fully fledged Jonmarine Librarian.

The successes of the Sixth Company during the 'Reborn War'. Once sufficiently trained, Kaecelion would be appointed Librarian of the Sixth Company, replacing the presumed dead Alexeianik. In this post, Kaecelion would prove his worth as an astartes and a Librarian by using his powers to accurately determine the moves made by the Reborn and their Traitor guard, Nochyani, assets, resulting in the Jonmarines’ Third Company, led by Captain Amadeus Terric, achieving a swift victory during the battle of El Cavarin's Forest over a force twice the size of the taskforce elements deployed by Terric. As a result of his actions, Jonavaux awarded Kaecelion with four Purity Seals made from parchment gathered from Asteralix's Tomb, alongside a number of honours reserved only for the chapter’s captains, a pragmatic move that would hopefully tie the Librarius closer to the rest of the Chapter, allowing for issues to be resolved as more of a chapter effort than one member of the Commandarius pitted against another, which the Feud had spiralled into. Kaviaan, guilt for his foolishness already wracking his mind, agreed to this arrangement, hoping that it would be enough to allow him to return to searching for the Chapter's salvation, at least once internal chapter relations were healed, and confidence that the Nochyani and their “Malalites Reborn” allies were dead was established.

Following the end of the Reborn War, Kaviaan decided to take to traveling again, taking Quintus and Johnathonus with him again, resulting in the three not being present on Lawsunda as heretics, tyranids and necrons initiated their assaults. Given the necron and tyranid destruction of off-world communications had terminated communications between the three of them and Lawsunda, Kaviaan’s fate was unknown by the rest of the Librarius, and the chapter. However, as confessed by Kaviaan himself after the battle of Pangea Ultima, the High Librarius attempted to return to the Lokus System, intent on unraveling the mystery surrounding the stranger Ælianus' instant recognition of himself and his fellow librarians. Unfortunately, in this attempt, the Exodus would be unsuccessful, as the rolling tides of the Warp threw the destroyer far from its intended destination, instead arriving above the world of Pangea Ultima, as explained by the Lamenter Chaplain Pralomak Mihos, just as the Lamenter Falchion destroyer known as the Redemption completed retranslation, and accidentally rammed the Exodus, which would crash on the world below, while the Redemption similarly crashed on Pannotia, one of Pangea Ultima's numerous moons. Tragically, as according to Chaplain Mihos, all of the Lamenters aboard were killed in the crash, save for himself.

However, Chaplain Mihos would also attract the attention of Kaviaan, following the End of the Howling Dark. Strangely, Kaviaan and Pralomak, on their first meeting, seemed to recognise each other rather well, as noted by Kalvyn, but this minuscule detail was discarded by the Librarian of the Second as being a side effect of Kaviaan reading Chaplain Mihos' mind. Yet, Kaviaan's investigation into Chaplain Mihos' mind would lead to the High Librarius commenting that it was as if the Chaplain's personality and mind were "like a mask of sorts." However, this was assumed to be a side effect of the crash itself, alongside the long amount of time that Pralomak had went without proper medical attention or interaction with humanity, given the lack of operational communication devices as a result of the crash he had survived. Therefore, Chaplain Mihos would spend a few weeks in the Apothecarium of the Lawsundan Dynasty, speaking with his fellow Lamenter Brother Chyron and Jonavaux Lericbergson to ease his rehabilitation as close to the Rites of Humility as possible. Curiously, Pralomak would detail events that occurred during the Badab War to Jonavaux, commenting that "Captain Asteralix's sacrifices [to found the Jonmarines] weren't exactly the most willing of choices; he had agreed to the role out of necessity, not conviction”.

Kaviaan would not have a significant role within the Reconstruction Wars outside of analysing the Vakrium shard recovered from the world of Grastus, but he would not reveal any of the specific details about this large, astartes-sized crystal to anyone save for his fellow Chapter Commandarius members.

Following, however, the revelation of Pralomak Mihos’ true identity on Mythradates XVI, namely Malakim Phoros, the Lord of Ruin, Watcher of the Deeps and Master of the Lamenters, and the subsequent Lokan Crusade, Kaviaan’s own mask would be uncovered, namely as Perseus revealed the High Librarius’ original identity of Mithrael Vyralis to the Jonmarines themselves shortly before the Defence of Lokus, revealing the crimes that he had committed before the Badab Tragedy. Even though Perseus, alongside Ægericus Quintilius, the Lamenters’ Master of Sanctity, and Venerable Brother Librarian Dioheim, the same Dioheim that Mithrael had inadvertently crippled and interred into his dreadnaught sarcophagus via the wounds he sustained in the Victoria Phyrri, reminded the Jonmarines of these crimes once more, after the Defence of Lokus, Jonavaux came to Kaviaan’s defence, claiming that he would make sure any acts of penance that Mithrael, now known as Kaviaan, would be completed in full.

Kalvyn Fryriss, Survivor of the Howling Dark

Servitus Civares, “Watchman”, “Warp-Blade”, Survivor of the Howling Dark.

Forgemasters / Techmarines
Howling Dark impact: Forgemaster Stena killed after the Fourth Company’s failed attempt at escaping Lawsunda, Techmarine Terasacariz appoints himself Forgemaster during the Siege of Hyvarticus, a rank confirmed later. 60% casualty rate.

Kaedron Huraan, First Forgemaster
(Disappeared in a Warp Storm, alongside the Spear of Asteralix, presumed dead, until his rediscovery as Gabriel Rhaelus, Master of the Forge of the Lamenters Chapter, during the Defence of Lokus.)

First Forgemaster Kaedron Huraan would be the second Lamenter out of six to undergo the mind-wipe that established them as the First Chapter Commandarius of the Jonmarines, being beaten by only (the Astartes who would become) Hazaras Romulus, who volunteered to go first due to his close relationship with the Founder. However, of the six sections of the Commandarius, the Techmarinus would be the first to reach its full membership, as the First Forgemaster decided to recruit exclusively from the Ir Graatus Hive, the so-called "Workshop of Lawsunda", gaining permission to do so even as the Founder walked it's streets due to the strong Adeptus Mechanicus presence in Lawsunda's most industrial Hive, the perfect grounds for finding aspiring Techmarines for recruitment into the Chapter.

However, Kaedron did not keep quiet about how he had gained permission to do such an act following its completion: the Founder knew that his Chapter would need weapons, armour and equipment regardless of where the Chapter's Techmarnies were raised from, thus, out of the pragmatism that would define Kaedron, half of the Techmarinus had been recruited from the true dregs of Ir Graatian society; it's criminals, its Hive Gangers, its Underhive dwellers, all skilled in the art of repairing and constructing technological marvels, a true sign of potential Techmarines, yet, with attitudes that were far from the reasonable, understanding (at least, to those considered allies) and perhaps selfless mindset that Jonavaux wished for the Jonmarines to embrace. However, this issue would be solved with amazing swiftness. These Techmarines passed through the aspirant and scout phases of their training incredibly swiftly, due to their already Astartes-like strength and resilience built up by years of life in the treacherous Underhive of Ir Graatus, and, in the traditions that are almost universally accepted by the Techmarines of all Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, their memories of their past lives' sins were purged from their heads via a mind-wipe similar to the one undergone by the Chapter Commandarius, before they were inducted into the Cult of the Omnissiah by Kaedron himself.

Through this swift recruitment rate, it can be argued that Master Asteralix's relationship with Kaedron would truly flourish, as demonstrated by the Founder's request for the Forgemaster to personally construct most of the weapons that would go on to become the Chapter's most prized relics, including the eight 'Keys of the Hives', built in celebration of the Jonmarines' liberation of Lawsunda Majoris' Hives from their tyrannical Nobles. Moreover, with help from Kaviaan Launaas, Kaedron would construct a number of psychically attuned articles of wargear, Truth, the great Force Axe-Storm bolter combination weapon that would later go on to serve as rod of office of the Sixth Company's Librarian and Phoenix, a psychically attuned combat bike later used by the Sixth Company's Librarians as well, fostering a good relationship between himself and the often secretive High Librarius, despite Kaviaan's often condescending manners towards the First Forgemaster.

However, of the First Chapter Commandarius, surprising all, Kaedron would be the first to 'perish' after the death of the Founder, an event that would be all the more cruel to comprehend given how important Kaedron had become to the Chapter before his death. The First Forgemaster had, during the Founder's "War on the Seeds of Heresy", been at the forefront of all of Jonavaux's great contributions to improving the livelihoods of Lawsunda Majoris' citizens, helping to build both great defensive structures around each of the eight Hives, but also great public buildings and facilities that turned each Hive into a great testament to the Jonmarines' guardianship of their home system, upon the discovery of the Haarkarren Vault, Kaedron had been the first to catalog each and every tech-relic that resided below the surface of Lawsunda, Kaedron himself was responsible for the construction of the mighty Asteralix Bastion, as much a monument to the Chapter and its homeworld as it was a undeniably powerful statement of how willing the Jonmarines would be to defending the civilians under their charge. Upon the Founder's sudden death, Kaedron was responsible for, even with sorrow in his heart and etched across his face, rebuilding the Bastion's Reliquary into a tomb fit for the Chapter's deceased Founder; like the rest of the Chapter, Kaedron had a close friendship with the Founder of the Jonmarines, even if his patron deity was the Omnissiah and worship of the God-Emperor was secondary to the Forgemaster as a result, alongside assisting Kaviaan in discerning the Armour Indomnitus Librarium's demands to be worn following its surprise appearance in the Founder's bed-chambers.

Yet, in his desperation to help his chapter, following the great period of uncertainty five months after the period of mourning allocated to Jonavaux's death, Kaedron would, at least to the Jonmarines themselves, perish. Taking the Falchion destroyer known as Spear of Asteralix, the First Forgemaster announced that he would journey to the system that was controlled by the Jonmarines' Primogenitor Chapter, as decreed by the Founder in his 'Declaration of Origins', the Ultramar system, the home of the Ultramarines, in a bid for assistance in how to heal the great wound that had stricken the Chapter. However, in his efforts, the First Forgemaster would not arrive at his destination, the Spear presumably lost to the Warp with all hands. Thus, Kaedron's name would be the next to be added to the Tome of Martyrs alongside that of the Founder, worsening not just the depression of Jonavaux Romulus, but also that of the Chapter as well.

However, unbeknownst to the Jonmarines at the time, and revealed later, Kaedron still lives on. The Spear of Asteralix, while unable to complete its mission to the Ultramar system, would find its way, tossed on the rolling tides of the Warp, to the Lokus system, crash-landing on the world of Lokus IV, where, coincidentally, Lord Phoros had established a small outpost of his battle-brothers to assist his closest allies, the Knights Celestial, in defending the Lokus Sector from the frequent raids enacted by the Emperor's Children and the Red Corsairs, commanded by his trusted Chapter Champion known as Perseus Aphes, the Blade of Sorrow since the Lord of Ruin had left the Sector in his search for the rest of the Lamenters scattered across the Imperium, either still on their eternal vigil in the Deathwatch or otherwise.

Champion Perseus, rescuing Kaedron from the wreckage of the Spear personally, would recognise the Forgemaster as being known, in truth, as the Techmarine Gabriel Rhaelus, who had been assigned to the Lamenters' First Company, and as Master of the Forge, following the Chapter's reconstruction after the gruelling Corinth Crusade, in the running up to the infamous Badab War. In his attempt to break the mind wipe that had “killed” Gabriel, Perseus would order Venerable Brother Librarian Dioheim to scour Gabriel’s mind for any remnants of his memories. Dioheim’s procedure was not only a success, but Gabriel apparently still retained his memories as Kaedron too.

Champion Aphes would thus take it upon himself to re-recruit Gabriel into the Chapter, who, following the Jonmarine doctrine of how it's Techmarinus was to go to war, would take the Vindicator known as the Atonement for Badab as his command tank. Thus, to this day, while Kaedron is dead, Gabriel Rhaelus lives, assisting the Lamenters in defending the world of Lokus IV, assisting in the Lamenters' slow reconstruction. However, Gabriel has also informed Perseus of what emerged of Lord Phoros' agreements, posing a notion of hope for the historically unlucky Chapter once again, and earning himself the title of “Founder’s Heritage”, as a mark of respect from the Chapter Champion, even if he would never forgive Asteralix for what he had done.

Gabriel would become something of the centre of an argument between Perseus and the Jonmarines’ High Librarius, Kaviaan Launaas during the Jonmarines and the Lamenters’ liaison with Inquisitors Tuplov and Brunswicke aboard Tuplov’s flagship the Shadow of Light. Upon announcing his intended method of going into battle, namely atop the Atonement for Badab, the Jonmarines current Forgemaster, Hadvasiir Terasacariz, would note that Gabriel’s planned endeavour sounded strangely similar to protocols utilised by the Jonmarines themselves. Gabriel confirmed this, explaining to the Jonmarines Chapter Commandarius how he managed to survive, and what his fate was when the Blade of Sorrow recovered him. This, in turn, led to another argument between High Librarius Kaviaan Launaas and the Blade of Sorrow that had to be defused by both Jonavaux Lericberguson and Malakim Phoros themselves, causing a major embarrassment to both chapters, namely because Inquisitor Tuplov had been a ringside spectator for this clash between the Jonmarine and the Lamenter.

Turzmak Stena, “El’Cavarin’s Cure”, Forgemaster and Techmarine of the Fourth Company.
As Forgemaster, Stena would take it upon himself to resolve one of the Jonmarines' most unique issues, namely that one of the inferiority that the Chapter's False Astartes were troubled by due to their armour not accommodating for their slightly slower reaction times or strength, despite the biochemical enhancements made to them, or the accommodations made to their armour.

While this problem had been resolved conventionally by the simple act of ignoring it, assuming that a False Astartes’ skill could compensate for any disadvantage they may have, many False Astartes would voice their concerns to both Jonavaux Romulus and to Stena himself; how could they simply stand by as an injustice within the chapter threatened to drive a wedge between true and false astartes, something that the supposedly egalitarian Jonmarines would be hypocritical to ignore?

Thus, Turzmak, fearing as much as Jonavaux Romulus did that such a rift could cause a serious rift within the chapter if not addressed quickly, would initiate an investigation into how such a problem could be solved, but, his work would be delayed due to two of the Chapter's greatest incidents save for the Howling Dark: the Poisoning of the El Cavarin's Hive, and the assault of WAAAGH! Gitsmasha.

The Poisoning of the El Cavarin's Hive would delay Stena's research due to his requirement in providing the uncorrupted civilians of the El Cavarin's Hive with potable water, following the warp-stuff that polluted the river rendering it useless for human consumption; even astartes would not be safe from the corrupting power of the water, as demonstrated by tactical marine Servitus Civares, who, even though he was relatively far away from the El Cavarin's River when he did so, developed psychic powers after an overhead pipe containing the corrupted water burst explosively above his squad, and the majority of the subsequent deluge covered Servitus. Forgemaster Stena solved the problem of the lack of water thankfully quickly, as he and his fellow Techmarines, known collectively as the Techmarinus, simply awoke the Machine Spirits of the great desalination filters that comprised the lowest parts of the Ir Graatus Hive, as discovered by High Librarius Kaviaan Launaas following his expedition into the Underhive in order to find the fabled 'Forgotten Vault', producing a great amount of fresh, potable water that could be easily pumped to the El Cavarin's Hive, with plenty left over for other uses even upon the satisfaction of the El Cavarin's Hive's demand. Thus, like Chief Apothecary Julian Kalviathan and his Apothecaries, Forgemaster Stena would be hailed as 'El Cavarin's Cure' for the actions of not only himself, but those of Techmarinus as well.

However, the aftermath of the defeat of WAAAGH! Gitsmasha would truly test Stena's abilities as Forgemaster on both a large scale, and on a 'smaller' scale as well. Being one of the first to arrive at the face-down, broken body of Jonavaux Romulus, alongside a majority of the First Company, Chief Apothecary Kalviathan and Third Captain Johnathonus Lericbergson, Turzmak would discover that Romulus' head had been caved in completely by the ork Warboss' 'Da Ghaz-Klaw', preventing either the Forgemaster nor the Chief Apothecary from swiftly installing the great hero's body into the sarcophagus of a dreadnaught's hull. Thus, resigned to this fact, and unwilling to force Romulus into a dreadnaught due to the concern that such an act could result in the 'proper' death of 'the Defender', Turzmak prepared himself for the inevitable accusations that he and Julian had allowed Romulus to die, even going to the extent of planning to join the Deathwatch as atonement. Yet, a solution soon emerged from an unlikely place: High Librarius Kaviaan Launaas, believing himself to still be in debt to Kaedron for his help in interpreting the Armour Indomnitus Librarium's demands to be worn, alongside his own worries that without his help, Romulus was sure to die, volunteered his powers to saving Romulus from death by developing a branch of Technomancy that almost bordered on the Heretekal; the fusion of Jonavaux Romulus' soul with the Machine Spirit of the dreadnaught's armour, weapons and locomotive drives; the process known later, upon its successful implementation, as Soulbinding. While Turzmak seemed incredibly skeptical of such a manoeuvre, even he could not deny it's effectiveness: where Jonavaux Romulus had perished, Venerable Romulus now stood, remaining as sentient as he had been before he had been 'killed' by Gitsmasha's 'Ghaz-Klaw', yet, the second Master of the Jonmarines no-more.

The aftermath of WAAAGH! Gitsmasha would also have macro-repercussions as well. The great works that his successor had built within the Haedric Hive were now ruins, and orks now infested the Underhive. Thus, Stena chose to personally cull the orks, while ordering his Techmarinus to rebuild Haedria. In this task, he would be accompanied by none other than Sergeant Praedus Hallic, the younger brother of First Captain Haarvik, and his six-strong squad of terminators, who proved their status of First Company veterans worthy of tactical dreadnaught armour by cleansing the Underhive with bolt, fist, sword and flame, all the while Stena assisted in doing so with his large collection of servo-arm slung weaponry ranging from the ubiquitous boltgun, to the exotic Conversion Beamer, which slaughtered the feral orks from huge distances away. Thus, Turzmak and Praedus would win themselves the title of 'Hero of the Haedric Hive' as a reward for their role in purging the ork menace that plagued the Underhive of Haedria, alongside fostering a friendly attitude between himself and Haarvik.

Yet, contradictory, in the Chapter Commandarius' vote on whom would become Jonavaux Romulus' successor, Turzmak would vote for Haarvik's opponent: Third Captain Johnathonus Lericbergson. This can be explained simply through the Forgemaster's routine discussions with both High Reclusius Kalviathan and Venerable Romulus themselves, as Stena seemed to have been moved sufficiently by Romulus' almost defeated attitude, posing that he had inadvertently started a precedent of patronage, if not dynasty-setting, within the Chapter: instead of a vote deciding who would ascend to take the name Jonavaux, all that an Astartes needed to do to become Chapter Master would be to befriend the current Master, and wait (and, stay alive long enough) for them to perish; any malicious sort could end up Chapter Master thanks to this level of patronage-like behaviour. Thus, worried about such a trend being set, the Forgemaster would persuade Haedvust and Ciirilvus to vote for Johnathonus during the vote. Yet, surprisingly, Forgemaster Stena would also find the support of Johnathonus' opponent Haarvik as well, as First Captain Hallic had been similarly moved by such warning from Romulus, alongside his own guilty conscience due to his inability to defend Jonavaux Romulus during the battle of the Haedric Hive. However, even this was not enough to persuade the rest of the Chapter Commandarius, Kaviaan, Julian and Venerable Romulus himself, the latter utterly resigned to the belief that Haarvik was to win. Yet, to the contrary, Johnathonus won by a single vote, perhaps that of Haarvik's, resulting in his transformation into Jonavaux Lericbergson.

Thus, with a new Chapter Master at the head of the Jonmarines, Forgemaster Stena was free to continue his research into solving the problem of the inferiority of those Jonmarines that were in fact “False Astartes”, recruited not at the appropriate time for an initiate to ascend, but when their astartes-worthy skills emerged later in life, as was the case for Orthadüx Sybaris, the Sixth Company’s Company Champion. In time, aiding Stena considerably in finding a solution to this issue, alongside a number of the chapter’s techmarines, would be the Sixth Company’s librarian, Alexeianik Citadach, whom Stena admitted that if Citadach hadn’t been touched by the baleful power of the chaotic filth that had turned him into the psyker he was, he would have been a worthy addition to the Machine Cult’s presence within the Jonmarines.

Citadach’s aid would not last, however, after was called to take part in the Third and Sixth's expedition to Lawsunda's Northlands, in order to discern what exactly had caused the horrors of the Poisoning of El Cavarin's Hive. Yet, Librarian Citadach would not return from this expedition, being presumed dead due to his sudden disappearance at the hands of the so-called "Malalites Reborn". Shaken to his core by Alexeianik’s untimely death, Turzmak would continue his work in his honour, alongside, yet not before those of the Omnissiah, the Emperor and the Founder, respecting the fact that Citadach was the closest thing Turzmak himself considered a close friend. It would be another year before Stena's work would eventually bear fruit: a large stockpile of so-called “endoskeletons”, made by repurposing augmented suits worn by mine operators on Gravitatnizkaya, literally “low gravity” in Lawsundan Old Tongue, the Majoris’ third, albeit even more sparsely than Hegrannax’s World, populated world, once modified and fitted within a False Astartes’ power armour, could mimic the strength of a true astartes.

Upon the authorisation to do so by Jonavaux Lericbergson, who had watched the final phases of Turzmak's research with an air of curiosity, even to the extent of helping the Forgemaster in his work more than a dozen separate occasions, these Gravitatnizkae Endoskeletons were swiftly distributed amongst those members of the Chapter, the first being accepted by Orthadüx Sybaris, in Alexeianik Citadach’s honour.

However, this would become Forgemaster Stena's final, albeit impressive, technological achievement, as the next fourteen years would become exceptionally cruel to the Forgemaster, culminating in his death during the Howling Dark. Perhaps wracked by Alexeianik’s death, perhaps even to the extent of blaming himself for such, Turzmak would lose his usual optimism, instead growing cold and distant from even the rest of the Techmarinus, sometimes only showing himself when Venerable Romulus was due a maintenance ritual and recalibration. As one of the Techmarinus, alongside Techmarines Taradus Carvyk and Frydor Tervomussa to lack emotional inhibitors, the rest of the Techmarinus failed to fully comprehend how tragic the Librarian's supposed death was to their Forgemaster, onlookers from outside of the Techmarinus even commenting that they'd only seen this form of mourning from Jonavaux Romulus upon the death of the Founder.

Such was Turzmak's depressed state that Chaplain Hangmann would recall later that the Forgemaster seemed to almost accept his death at the battle of the Lawsundan Valour's wreck, following the Fourth Company's failure to escape Lawsunda, even to the extent of, tragically, recognising his soon to be assailant by what he presumed was her true name: Alexeianik Citadach himself. Stena, as Steravarets admitted, before she killed him, was only half right; she had consumed Alexeianik’s flesh, her Renegade God’s power granting her corrupted copies of the organs that, implanted in initiates to transform them into astartes, were based on Alexeianik’s own, scoured his memories, and, as an offence to the Omnissiah, defiled his power armour, the suit that she herself now wore.

Forgemaster Turzmak Stena, like so many of the others who died during the Howling Dark, would not go unremembered. In revenge for Stena’s death, upon this being reported by a freed Konstantinos Hangmann during the escaped Lawsundan Valour’s brief action in the Battle of the Ashamed Desolation, Alexeianik’s successor, Kaecelion Vryidissus, would vow to hunt down Steravarets, and to slay the monstrous witch once and for all. Kaecelion would achieve this aim soon enough, as, during the Battle of Theropoda Ultima, the fortress monastery of the Carnosaurs chapter, he cast Steravarets into a pool of roiling lava situated deep within the depths of the cavernous fortress, bored deep into the side of a giant volcano. Alexeianik’s gene-seed and armour may have been lost to the chapter, Kaecelion reasoned, but both were lost regardless given the corruption that the Uncorrupted Corruption had already wrought upon them.

Later, after the announcement of the end of the Howling Dark, and the beginning of the Reconstruction, in honour of his predecessor, Forgemaster Terasacariz would rename the Gravitatnizkae Endoskeletons used exclusively by those False Astartes that had survived the Howling Dark to the Stenanic Endoskeleton, even if the chapter has since become reluctant in recruiting those who are too old to undergo the traditional route of becoming an astartes.

Hadvasiir Terasacariz, Omnissiah’s Protector, Hero of Hyvarticus, Survivor of the Howling Dark. Forgemaster-Captain and Techmarine of the Eighth Company.
Unlike Turzmak Stena, Forgemaster Terasacariz’ predecessor, who fell during the Battle of the Lawsundan Valour, as confirmed both by Konstantinos Hangmann and Kodral Advlak, Forgemaster Terasacariz was not affirmed as the Jonmarines’ Forgemaster by any Chapter Commandarius. Instead, as Hadvasiir himself quips, the Jonmarines’ Third Forgemaster earned his office through the simple fact that he believed himself to be one of the last Jonmarine techmarines alive, an observation shared by himself and his counterpart Petyr Taarakus of the Tenth Company, who allowed Hadvasiir to claim the title of Forgemaster.

Hadvasiir proved himself to be a rather unique Forgemaster throughout the Howling Dark not only by his assumption of the role of Forgemaster, but as the first Techmarine to invoke the hybridisation protocol. As a result of Captain Jameson Arcadeus being atomised by a direct hit from an Idroslvian monolith at the Battle of the Asteralix Bastion, mere hours before the Eighth Company evacuated Lawsunda, and later Lawsunda Majoris itself, Captain Kurtain Kvas, of the Tenth Company, proposed the move to Hadvasiir as the Inflagerus followed the Lance of Lawsunda, the Tenth Company’s strike cruiser, from the system they called home. Initially, however, Hadvasiir refused, claiming that his role as Techmarine was more pressing; besides, Kvas appeared to be more apt at command than Hadvasiir himself, a Techmarine more focused on keeping the Eighth’s machines operating rather than the company operating.

This attitude changed almost immediately after the Eighth and Tenth arrived in the Hyvartan system, and made planetfall on its capital forge world of Hyvarticus.

Upon arriving in the Hyvartan system, both the Inflagerus and the Lance of Lawsunda were immediately attacked by a chaos vessel, a "dreadcruiser", named the Pacificant Tempest, obviously commanded by the Malalites Reborn. The battle was swift, but as a result, the Lance of Lawsunda was crippled, immobilised, while the Inflagerus suffered relatively lower damage than its fellow cruiser. Fearing that the Lance would suffer some form of catastrophic failure, Kurtain ordered his company to launch their drop pods onto the world of Hyvarticus below them; a forge world like Hyvarticus, Kurtain assumed, would be able to restock and replenish not only their armouries, but those of whatever was left of the chapter, and, even, repair the Lance. Thus, as the Tenth deployed their drop pods, so did the Eighth.

Kurtain’s assumption was proved catastrophically incorrect. Landing near what the Jonmarines would later discover to be known as the Forgehalst Complex, the Tenth Company would be ambushed by the forces of Kheverik’s Bloodyhanded, a warband of Khornate traitor astartes, and the Machine Changers of Warpsmith Phyras, a Tzeenchian warband, each force led by their respective leader. In an attempt to buy his fellow astartes time to warn their brothers, both Kurtain and his company champion Lavernius Gestal, both armoured only in power armour charged into a duel with Kheverik, a foolish, suicidal, move in any other circumstance, given the Khornate’s terminator plate. Even though Kheverik and Phyras were pushed back from the Forgehalst Complex, at great cost, including both companies’ Chaplains, there was little left of Kurtain or Lavernius for Apothecary Pavlov Jerreson to recover, and the Eighth’s librarian, Halazus D'Elas, had met his end on the point of the Psyleech, the ravenous, soul-eating blade carried by the Warpsmith Phyras.

As a result, seeing himself, Petyr Taarakus, Techmarine of the Tenth company, Champion Augustus Helerak, Blade of the Eighth, the Eighth’s Apothecary Iannus Delvassik and Pavlov Jerreson, Apothecary of the Tenth, the only remaining survivors, Hadvasiir finally came to his senses; at this rate, the Bloodyhanded and the Machine Changers, alongside the forces of the rumoured “Heretek of Hyvarticus” could, and most likely would, destroy both companies in a single assault without proper coordination between the Eighth and Tenth companies; the Jonmarines need their commandari to operate effectively. Thus, accepting the circumstances as dire, Hadvasiir announced his takeover of the Captaincy of the Eighth, and, with Petyr’s approval, the role of the Forgemaster.

The issue of the virtually leaderless Tenth Company would be resolved indeed rather quickly. As the ashes of Kurtain’s funeral pyre extinguished themselves on the morning after his death, the mantle of the Tenth Company’s Captain, alongside Kvas’ Claw, his signature lightning claw, had a new occupant: the former sergeant of vanguard veteran squad Haarnvust attaches to the Tenth as advisors to the initiates, Davian Haarnvust, who volunteered, fearing the same extinction that the Forgemaster, albeit emotionlessly, in Hadvasiir’s case, was all too aware of.

With at least the central figure of both companies’ commandari stabilised, Forgemaster-Captain Terasacariz and Captain Haarnvust set to work. The still intact machinery found within the Forgehalst Complex, presumably the target of whatever nefarious aims the Machine Changers had in mind, would be able to provide the Jonmarines with all the weapons and armour that they would need for the impending siege, alongside, as Hadvasiir himself would discover on accident, a sizeable number of civilians, calling themselves chapter serfs of the "Militares Redempti" chapter, still holed up inside the Forgehalst’s reliquary. While these could not be used to create new astartes, Hadvasiir decided to employ the designs made by the former, assumed dead, Forgemaster Turzmak Stena, and make these serfs, willing to die in the attempt to slay what had become of the apocalyptic conversion that the Militares Redempti had underwent at the hands of a so-called ‘Praetorian’, into False Astartes, using the blueprints for Stena’s Gravitatnizkae Endoskeletons to do so. Thus, the Eighth Company, and, to a greater extent, the Tenth Company, readied themselves for the incoming storm of Khornate madmen supported by the thunder of overwhelming Machine Changer artillery; thus began the Siege of the Forgehalst Complex that would immortalise both the Forgemaster-Captain and his fellow Jonmarines as the Heroes of Hyvarticus.

Strange events would also have effect on the Forgemaster’s resistance. After twenty weeks of constant siege, attrition, and improvements to the Jonmarines’ defences within the Forgehalst Complex, the Forgemaster would hear of reports made by Jonmarine scouts that the forces of the heretics, and of those of the Heretek, had supposedly ended their danger close stratagem, and were nowhere to be seen. Taking this as a chance to explore, the scouts had gained a visual of a green ‘J’, painted onto the side of a large shipping container, with what appeared to be a serpent, in the same colour, coiled around the letter in a protective stance. This could not be a coincidence; someone or something wanted the Jonmarines to see the contents of this container.

Ever the cautious individual, the Forgemaster decided to send tactical squad Kniffas, led by its sergeant Ærynus Kniffas, to investigate the container, recognising the serpent to be identical to the one used by the  Pletia Hydrakoi, the Hydrakoi Scourge, the infamous terrorist movement back on Lawsunda. Within, instead of finding, as Davian, rather crudely, suggested, “a frakk-ton of explosives and some guy with a detonator”, tactical squad Kniffas discovered three unoccupied Leviathan dreadnaughts, each painted in the Jonmarines’ blue and green colours, with a similar ‘J’ with its coiled serpent and named Alpha, Beta and Omega. It appeared as if the Hydrakoi Scourge had become, as Davian put it, “the Hydrakoi Salvation”, for, at least, the moment.

Soon afterwards, Petyr would make his own discovery as well, finding twelve Contemptor dreadnaughts within the deepest depths of the Forgehalst Complex, again displaying the Hydrakoi Salvation sigil, as the strange image had now become known as.

As a reward for finding such potent tech-relics, Champion Helerak, Apothecary Delvassik and Sergeant Kniffas would be given first choice in who they wished to pilot the armour. However, these three would volunteer themselves for integration into the Leviathans, becoming Brothers Helerak, Delvassik and Kniffas in the process. As thanks for helping to find such an important cache of tech-relics, and assisting in integrating the 'Leviathan Trio' into their armour, Terasacariz would offer a proposition to Techmarine Taarakus : he, if he wished to do so, could choose to pick twelve individuals for integration with the Contemptor armour. Similarly to the 'Leviathan Trio', Petyr would elect to integrate himself, and the tactical squad that escorted him, alongside tactical marine Johnathonus Stiral, the survivor of tactical squad Grallus. Thus, these twelve would become known as the Contemptor dozen, while Brother Taarakus retains his status as Techmarine of the Tenth to this day, allowing the Eighth and Tenth Companies to hold on until they were relieved by the timely arrival of the First and Sixth Companies, alongside their Carnosaur and Wyvern allies.

Curiously, the Forgemaster would discover, before the arrival of Relief Force Hallic, long range tracking devices built into all three Leviathans and all twelve Contemptors, each marked with the same Hydrakoi Salvation symbol. Hadvasiir assumed, as these machines were ancient, holy,  relics, that it was better that they did have these trackers, so elected to retain them, although he chose to remove their Hydrakoi symbols, as he had done so with those on the front panels of each dreadnaught.

Hadvasiir would have his position as captain of the Eighth Company not only confirmed by First Captain Hallic, but by Jonavaux Lericberguson as well, once the Saviour had been recovered from Lawsunda alongside the Jonmarines’ reliquary. However, upon arrival in the Deep Striders’ Batavian sub-sector, the Forgemaster would ask for assistance in repairing the Inflagerus that had been damaged during the warp jump first out of the Majoris, its second such jump, and again, in its jump to the Batavian sub-sector. Having been granted permission by the Deep Striders’ Bashar, the Forgemaster, accompanied by tactical squad Ferratus, which consists primarily of the False Astartes created on Hyvarticus, arrived on the world of Frysia to seek the aid of the planet’s local administratum to requisition the appropriate materials.

On Frysia, as Jonavaux learns of the truth of the Jonmarines’ origins, while also finding a sizeable proportion of the population that would make for excellent initiates to the chapter, Hadvasiir would hear of rumours of serpents living in caverns underneath civilian centres on the world, just like the Hydrakoi Scourge used to operate on Lawsunda. After an attempt to confirm these rumours didn’t amount to much, sergeant Ferratus would take a lethal plasma round to the chest as a hidden assailant attempted to take the Forgemaster’s life. In retrospect, Hadvasiir admits, it is likely that this encounter on Frysia explains why Alpha Legion forces were able to infiltrate the Jonmarines chapter itself and cause so much chaos during the pre-battle phases of the later Defence of Lokus. Following this assassination attempt, the Forgemaster would find, within his chambers on the Inflagerus, damning evidence that Steravarets, the infamous Uncorrupted Corruption, was not the ringleader of the Malalites Reborn; she, like Phyras, Kheverik, Derkrül, the leader of the Lords of the Kingqueen’s Night found on the Ashamed Desolation and destroyed as such, and Ratus Poxmaster, who had been killed earlier in the Howling Dark alongside his Skavain Rat-kin, alongside the anonymous 'Heretek of Hyvarticus', were mere generals of a far larger force, namely one that, under the command of a mysterious "Praetorian", were in the process of occupying the Lamenters' abandoned Chapter Barque known as the Mater Lacrimarum. Assuming these allegations to be false, and, at worst, propaganda sent to him by the Uncorrupted Corruption herself, Hadvasiir had the data slate that this information was found upon incinerated for its crime of displaying such disgusting ‘information’. Clearly, Hadvasiir reasoned, that data slate had had its poor, defenceless, machine spirit assaulted by some baleful sorcery, and casting it to the flames would be a merciful death for it.

However, during the run up to the [REDACTED]’s daring assault on the Mater Lacrimarum, [REDACTED], the author of the note and owner of the data slate, would send Hadvasiir a message, stating his disappointment in the Forgemaster for not heeding the truth of his words.

Only after the Defence of Lokus would Hadvasiir admit that this data slate had been proven right, as demonstrated by Irotek’s own revelation of the forces that were on route to Lokus’ primary worlds. Following the Defence of Lokus, and the subsequent evidence of [REDACTED] cooperation with the Jonmarines’ Sixth Company, and the Lamenters’ Seventh and Ninth Companies in recovering the Mater Lacrimarum, including assistance from [REDACTED] himself, Hadvasiir would become integral in the development of the so-called Hydrakoi Protocol established after the ill-fated Defence of Lokus, the same Defence wherein the Jonmarines would learn of the fate of their First Forgemaster, as detailed above.

As for the Forgemaster’s role in the Reconstruction Wars, Hadvasiir would insist on the Jonmarines providing aid to Mechanicum explorator forces investigating the world of Grastus, leading Taskforce Terasacariz at the head of the rebuilt Eighth Company, named the “Omnissiah’s Glory” in his honour, and alongside Kodral Advlak’s Fourth Company, as Captain Arcadeus had accompanied Kodral during the expedition to Chiralarus. After the Baal Crusade reaches its destination, Hadvasiir, an unexpected deviation from the usually emotionally inhibited Forgemaster, would take a personal interest in the machines, Primaris astartes and Primaris weapons developed by Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl, defending the Archmagos’ tech-heresy of Innovation as being quite the opposite: clearly, the Omnissiah was working through Cawl to produce such miraculous technologies; from old, venerated realities and concepts came the new, blessed by the Omnissiah regardless.

Frydor Tervomussa, Techmarine of the Sixth Company, Survivor of the Howling Dark.

Chapter Champions / Company Champions
Howling Dark impact: 80% casualty rate, Chapter Champion slain by the Ripperdon. Ivaanus Delvassik, Company Champion of the Eighth Company chose to pilot a Leviathan dreadnaught found on Hyvarticus, renouncing his title as Company Champion.

=== Ciirilvus D'Haarst, Blade of the Founder (KIA) === Ciirilvus D’Haarst was, and will always be remembered as, one of the most noble of the Jonmarines, even if his history is a troubled one. It was he who supported Asteralix’s command to recruit False Astartes, following the lead of Haedvust Kalviathan, he followed the Founder’s wishes for independent thinking amongst his Chapter Commandarius by speaking against the Expedition to Syrphaust, but it was also he who discovered the fate that had befallen their assassinated, poisoned, Founder, and the horrified Romulus weeping at his side. D’Haarst, having tried to save Jonavaux Romulus from his fate by offering to fight Gitsmasha, would be amongst the first to recover the Defender’s injured body. Indeed, the Blade of the Founder embodied his chapter’s ideals to an amazing degree, humbly not nominating himself when the call to elect a new chapter master was made by Haedvust, who had become close friends with the Chapter Champion. In truth, however, D’Haarst had chosen not to nominate himself out of a great sense of shame at his failure to defend Jonavaux Romulus; he should have fought Gitsmasha, not the Defender, even if that would have meant his death. If Ciirilvus has done so, and, as he hypothesised, he had fallen, it was likely that the wounds that the Blade of the Founder himself would inflict would’ve allowed Romulus to ‘finish off’ Gitsmasha. But no, instead, Gitsmasha came dangerously close to killing the Defender who insisted on fighting the massive orkoid beast.

The Blade of the Founder's life would be cut tragically short during the crippling of the First Company, within the inferno of The Howling Dark, specifically the Second Battle for the Helborst Wastes. In his attempt to recover the body of Haedvust Kalviathan, upon the High Reclusius' death at the boneswords of the tyranid known as the Ripperdon, Ciirilvus was cut down himself by the same monstrous beast, first being impaled on one set of boneswords, only to have the majority of his torso sliced from his body by another pair, in a crude scissor-like manoeuvre.

Irvasaurak Phares, Fangblade of the Saviour
As a result of Reclusiarch Atrocious' acceptance of Jonavaux's proposal of an honorary position within his rebuilt Commandarius, Champion Phares would become the first Kennorian to accept a non-honorary role within the Commandarius, and the first Kennorian Jonmarine as such, as a result of Kütra Sybaris refusing the role of Chapter Champion, citing her reluctance to leave the Sixth Company as the main reason for said reluctance. Moreover, Phares proved himself as the better candidate than Sybaris as a result of a friendly duel between himself and Jonavaux, in which the Saviour of the Chapter was defeated by the soon to be Chapter Champion wielding nothing but an uncharged power great-sword after Atrocious recommended Jonavaux to test Phares' ability at handling the blade.

Honouring his predecessor in only the most fitting manner, utilising the Kennorian tradition of the son taking up the blade of his father, Irvasaurak would take the Mecharion Osnovatelya, the "Sword of the Founder" in Lawsundan Old Tongue, and Ciirilvus’ Rapier, a boltgun wielded by the Blade of the Founder, both weapons recovered by Julian Kalviathan, and make them his own. The Mecharion Osnovatelya, while Irvasaurak retained the weapon’s name, would be rebuilt in Pangean Obsidian, a treatment that Ciirilvus’ Rapier would also receive.

Orthadüx Sybaris, “Blade of the Sixth”, Survivor of the Howling Dark.

Ancient Kommandira Zharkoi /Company Ancients
Howling Dark impact: Not applicable.

Rhamiel Gabrival, "Glory Bearer"
In an ultimately successful attempt to better integrate the Jonmarines' Primaris reinforcements into         the chapter, Jonavaux established the office of the Ancient Kommandira Zharkoi to govern the   newly created position of the Chapter and company Ancients, in an identical manner to the Jonmarines' already existing Captaincy. To this end, the Chapter Ancient of the Jonmarines has been renamed to the more appropriate Kommandira Zharkoi, "commander's banner" in Lawsundan Old-Tongue, in a direct reference to the role of the commander of the chapter's Ancients, the more formalised version of the chapter's banner bearers. Rhamiel, upon taking the role of Ancient Kommandira Zharkoi, decided to follow this philosophy by taking the title "Glory Bearer" as a representation of his new role as the bearer of the symbol of the chapter's glory; the chapter's banner.

Lieutenants Commandari / Company Lieutenants
Howling Dark impact: Not applicable.

Xeriaph Titanius, "Vigilator" & Tektus Barquiel, "Observus"
Like the Ancient Kommandira Zharkoi and the Company Ancients beneath him, the Lieutenants Commandari govern the chapter's Company Lieutenants, who act as auxiliaries that supplement both the command role of a captain and the bodyguard role of the company champion. While this role is no different to Lieutenants Commandari Xeriaph Titanius and Tektus Barquiel, the Lieutenants Commandari aid their Kommandira Zharkoi counterpart to aid the integration of Primaris astartes into the Jonmarines' cultural identity through the management of the Savant Primaris office. As for Xeriaph and Tektus' nicknames, both earned these during the Indomnitus Crusade by aiding Chapter Champion Aphes to thwart a number of Tau assassination attempts on both Jonavaux and Malakim Phoros during the Crusade's foray into the space taken by the xeno empire's most recent expansion "Sphere".

Chapter Colours
The Jonmarines’ chapter colours have, according to external commentators, resulted in them being mistaken for astartes of other chapters as the Crimson Fists, the Ultramarines, or, to the ire of High Reclusius Hangmann, Alpha Legion traitor astartes. These comparisons, the last crass, offensive, false and heretical, are easy to make, as the Jonmarines initially used a navy blue similar to the Ultramarines during the Founder’s years, but, as commanded to do so by Jonavaux Romulus, after Jonavaux Asteralix’s assassination, would change their scheme to a darker blue in respect for their fallen Founder. The only exception to this change, however, would be tactical squad Indomnitus, as Romulus deemed Indomnitus, the supposed face of the Jonmarines to Lawsunda’s citizens, too important as a symbol of the Jonmarines’, and of Lawsunda Majoris’, opulence to comply with this act of respect. All power armoured sergeants wear red helmets, still retaining the green stripe that all Jonmarines wear on their helmets, while terminator sergeants wear green helmets.

What has remained the same over the years, however, is the Jonmarines’ secondary colour, a olive green. This olive green, used often by veteran Jonmarines to paint decorative patterns onto their armour, is applied onto tactical armour of all astartes in a number of ways:
 * Onto the helmet as a green stripe from front to back, stopping above the eyes,
 * As lines across an Astartes’ limbs, leading from the torso to each limb’s extremity,
 * On squad, battlefield role and company markings,
 * On weapons; while weapon casings are painted in the colour of an Astartes’ company, astartes of all ranks are permitted to show their company on their weapon using High Gothic numerals in green.

Alongside these uses, olive green is also used by the chapter’s terminator armoured veterans, and members of varying commandarius offices. The Librarium uses a reversal of standard Jonmarine colours to identify themselves as the Jonmarines’ psykers, while the Jonmarines’ chapter masters have their armour painted in olive green that, save for the Founder’s Tartaros plate, which is a solid olive green, is “enpatterned” with the dark blue of the chapter, a tradition that Venerable Romulus continues even after his entombment in his dreadnaught sarcophagus. Captains, Lieutenants Commandari, Company lieutenants, the Ancient Kommandira Zharkoi, Company Ancients, and company champions are all permitted discretion in how much green is used on their armour, but most retain similar amounts to the chapter’s veterans, due to personal tastes, and, in the case of the newer Primaris members, an assumption that there was a designated, fixed, position for the green colouration used by the chapter. This view has apparently not been challenged by the chapter’s older members, who claim rightfully that their Primaris fellows need to earn the right to personalise their wargear just as they once did. Gold is a popular colour for the casings of weapons used by the Chapter Commandarius, as demonstrated by the Saviour’s master-crafted bolter the Ballista, up to Venerable Romulus’ gilded twin lascannon, the Kop'ya Sveta, the “Spears of Light” in Lawsundan Old Tongue.

Of the commandarius offices, however, the offices that use the least green in its colouration is of course both the Reclusiam and the Techmarinus, as the Jonmarines comply fully to the convention that Chaplains must wear black armour and bone-white helms made to look like a human skull. Meanwhile, the adherents of the Machine Cult add Martian red to their armour, as is tradition amongst those who revere the Omnissiah, but some, including Forgemaster Terasacariz and Techmarine Frydor Tervomussa, of the Sixth, have personalised their armour due to the belief that their battle plate’s machine spirits are more comfortable both painted in the Omnissiah’s Martian red and simultaneously complying with their fellow Jonmarines’ traditions; after all, Techmarine or not, they are all Jonmarines under the same banner.

Assault terminators and vanguard veteran squads alike employ green scars and bolts painted across their white helmets as a demoralising tactic, while the astartes known as the ex-Terran Guard, namely three squads of tactical astartes wearing a mix of the both ancient Mk.II (“Crusade”) and Mk.III (“Iron”)  patterns of power armour, incorporated into the Fourth Company, squads, and a squad of Tartaros terminators, squad Moradux, have relatively identical relations with the Jonmarines’ colour schemes to their younger, adoptive, brothers, but have all won the right to personalise their armour as if they were veterans. This is due to the fact that Captain Advlak insisted that these three tactical squads must have not only their act of saving his life recognised as an appropriate act of valour, but also that their actions during the Horus Heresy and afterwards must also be taken into consideration. All three tactical squads, alongside their Tartaros plate wearing brothers, however, have still refused to exercise this right as of M.42 110. Tartaros squad Moradux, however, has eschewed the tradition of wearing white helmets, as only their sergeant does so.

The individualistic ideals of the Rites of Humility, expressed by the freedom the Jonmarines’ veterans have over the decoration of their wargear has been curiously welcomed by the Techmarines of the chapter. Collectively known as the Techmarinus, they often demand that the casings of the heavy weapons of standard Devastator, Centurion Devastator, Leviathan, Contemptor and Castraferrum dreadnaughts, and tank squads alike are painted in the bright red of Mars, securing the Omnissiah’s support alongside that of the weapon’s Machine Spirit in firing the weapons in question without malfunction, a necessity when temperamental, plasma-based, weapons are deployed. This does not apply, however, to the heavy weapons used by tactical squads, as explained by Forgemaster Terasacariz, the weapon’s machine spirit apparently sees itself as a member of the tactical squad, and thusly needs treatment as such through the identification as such. Nor does this apply to Venerable Romulus, as his sarcophagus’ machine spirit, fused to Jonavaux Romulus’ soul by Kaviaan Launaas, needs no traditional appeasement; appealing to Romulus himself, however, keeps the dreadnaught’s machine spirit complacent.

Chapter Badge
Listed here is a number of symbols and icons used throughout the Jonmarines chapter, starting with their chapter badge.

The Founder's symbol
The most common badge used within the Jonmarines is their chapter icon, the ubiquitous green J, on a navy blue background. The green J on its background, like the Jonmarines’ armour, is to represent the lush greenery of Lawsunda Majoris and the healthy blue seas that surround the prosperous lands of the Jonmarines’ homeworld. Green Js can be found not only on an astartes’ shoulder pads, however, as some will paint the chapter symbol onto other parts of their armour.

Company Honour
It is customary for Jonmarines to identify which company they belong to by painting the number in gothic numerals, in the corner of their shoulder pad, or upon their knee armour. Amongst those who have won the right to do so, this is done often in the colour of their own company.

Yunnion's Crest
The Yunnion’'s Crest is an ancient symbol, harkening back a time in Lawsundan history, that, as described in the Founder's own Historia Lawsundam, was once the symbol of either an ancient empire based on Lawsunda itself, or an empire that attempted to claim Lawsunda as its own. The crest is square shaped, with a triangular point at the bottom, quartered in red and yellow, and emblazoned with a skull, and a horizontal sword, which pierces a cog set behind the skull. In honour of this discovery, later Jonmarines have emblazoned parts of their armour with this small heraldry, claiming that they bear their Founder’s history upon them with this act.

The Gilded Skull
Exclusive amongst those astartes that have seen the Founder with their own eyes, and have survived long enough to tell about it, the gilded skull is found only within the First Company’s ranks, and studded upon the helmet of Captain Kodral Advlak.

The Lamenting Heart
Some Jonmarines will, with express permission from Malakim Phoros himself, utilise the Lamenters' symbol in some manner as decoration, to symbolise their chapter’s integral, undeniable, link to the misfortune prone scions of the Cursed 21st Founding.

Malice-Breaker
A detailess approximation of the mark of Malal, with a lightning bolt splitting it in half, is a common sight on the armour of Jonmarines known as the Survivors of the Howling Dark, especially those who have lost squadmates to the Renegade God’s pawns, or slew a particularly nasty example of one of the Malalites Reborn’s heretical spawn.

The Undeath-Breaker
As a mocking gesture towards the Idroslvia Dynasty, an approximation of a shattered necron ‘skull’ serves to show that this specific Survivor of the Howling Dark has a penchant against Irotek and his undead legions, and wear this mark with prideful hatred towards the metallic xenos.

“Devourer Defiant”

Like the bearers of the Undeath Breaker or the Malice Breaker, this Survivor of the Howling Dark has, or, more fittingly, had, survived an encounter with forces of the now extinct Splinter Fleet Cthullhulirus, and, in the case and words of Davian Pherikhoi, ever the charismatic individual, “dropped a big one”, referring of course to the larger bioweapons the spawn of Kraken deployed onto the worlds of the Majoris, and the commendation that a Jonmarine may receive by slaying one of them.

Illuminator
A simplistic lantern pattern, painted in white, often on the helmet, below the left eye visor, may be worn in the same manner as the “Malice-breaker”, but this is exclusively found within the Sixth Company’s ranks.

The Cog Mechanicum and Icicle
Exclusive to only to survivors of the Howling Dark within the commandari of the Eighth and Tenth companies, an icicle above a cog is used to symbolise the Eighth and Tenth Companies’ Defence of the frozen forge world of Hyvarticus, and that they were as immovable in their defence as the snow was piled upon the ground.

Carnosaurid Skulls
Tribal markings found on those astartes from Kennor’s World are often reiterated upon their power armour, often showing scenes of giant lizard like creatures on the hunt, or fighting one another. Kennorian traditions tell these astartes that by painting such scenes upon their armour, like they have done so upon their bodies, they will embody the strength and other physical attributes of the beast they have depicted upon themselves. Taking advantage of this, some Chaplains will tell of the stories of Sanguinius, the Great Angel, and anoint Kennorian astartes with scenes of Sanguinius, demonstrating their adoption of the Great Angel’s grace and strength through this archaic tradition.

Kennorian and Batavian Scars
Like the White Scars, some tribal attitudes from both Kennorian and Batavian traditions, namely honour scars, are also incorporated into the schemes of astartes from both Kennor’s World, and the Batavian System and its main world of Java Prime. These can be long, gentle things that curve down from the ears and meet in the middle of the chin, or an ‘x’ shape centred either on the nose, or upon the forehead, but most Kennorian and Batavian astartes make sure to keep their scars Company compliant, some calling their company their ‘tribe’, even encouraging their Lawsundan and ‘technically’ Mars-born fellows to incorpo the same ‘scarring’ onto their own helmets.

Terran Guard's Vigil
Worn only by those astartes that accompanied Captain Advlak from captivity on Syrphaust, the symbol of the Terran Guard is, according to the Terran Guard, “the pre-Heresy symbol of the Death Guard, but with an approximation of Holy Terra within it’s centre”. Thus, the Terran Guard are the only astartes permitted to use their Vigil.

Primaris Glory
In an attempt to integrate better into the Jonmarines’ ranks, many of the Jonmarines’ Primaris Astartes bear a red blood drop centered over the Ultramarines' symbol painted in the same green that the Founder's Symbol is painted in on their armour. To their relief, the rest of the chapter are content to allow them to do so.

Chapter Fleet
As a result of the Howling Dark, the Jonmarines have been forced to become a fleet-based chapter, but have apparently been able to adapt to this dramatic change, presumably as a result of the Survivors of the Howling Dark being forced to become experienced in void bourne life to stave off destruction of both themselves and of the chapter in its entirety. Thus, below is detailed the modern Jonmarine fleet, in its full, post-Indomnitus Crusade, strength, alongside some information detailing the more ‘unique’ aspects of the chapter’s fleet.

The Lawsundan Avengement, mobile fortress monastery constructed in similar mannerisms to the Black Templars’ Eternal Crusader mobile fortress monastery.

Battle Barges

 * Lawsunda's Vengance II
 * Lawsunda's Honour
 * Lawsundan Valour II
 * Lawsundan Defender II
 * Glory of Sanguinius - Granted to the Jonmarines following the ‘Baal Incident’ and the resolvement of the issues between the Lamenters and the Lamenters Primaris.

Strike Cruisers

 * Glory of the Saviour
 * Hyperion
 * Fate Defiant
 * Mechprostranstvaikoi - "The Sword of Space" in Lawsundan Old-Tongue. Captain Kodral Advlak, Hero of Chiralarus, requested the name change from the Mechprostanstvaikoi ' s original name of "Sword of Midnight" because he deemed the name to name to be 'too vague and ignorant of the Chapter's Lawsundan heritage' following his rescue and reintegration into the chapter's Fourth Company following the Defence of Lokus.
 * Vulcanus
 * Lawsundan Dynasty - Alongside the Inflagerus, the Lawsundan Dynasty is one of the Jonmarines' most venerable ships, being in service to the chapter since its founding, and even beforehand. Aboard the Dynasty, as Kathyrin Fryriss herself rightly claims, legends have prepared for battle, and will most likely continue to do so.
 * Pride of Pangea - Brother-Captain Decimus, intrigued at the prominent warrior culture within the system of Pangea Ultima, was at the forefront of the efforts to incorporate Pangea Ultiman cultural attitudes into the Jonmarines' identity during the Reconstruction, citing this martial tradition as being integral to producing potentially excellent recruits. The Pride of Pangea reflects this in its name, a good proportion of its internal architecture, and the fact that each of the Strike Cruiser’s many guns have been named in the honour of either one of Pangea Ultima's ancient, pre-Imperial colonisation, deities, or one of Pangea Ultiman mythology’s heroes, with more appropriate, ‘Imperialised’ names.
 * Inflagerus - As to be expected from the Eighth Company and its Forgemaster leader, the Inflagerus has been decorated profusely with sigils pledging allegiance to the Mechanicum, on Forgemaster Terasacariz' order to placate the ship's "traumatised", and sometimes violent, machine spirits. The Forgemaster claims that the Inflagerus ' on-board machine spirits were forced into their current state by the events of the Howling Dark, and, as if they were unaugmented humans experiencing the atrocities performed during that hideous time, are suffering the "mechanopsychological" aftershocks of it, even to this day.)
 * Haalkarios
 * Lawsunda's Second Lance - Captain Haarnvust's sense of humour is apparent here; the Tenth Company’s pre-Howling Dark Strike Cruiser, which was rendered inoperable during the opening phases of the Siege of Hyvarticus, was called the Lance of Lawsunda, and the Second Lance bears the honour of bearing many of the Lance of Lawsunda's original weapons batteries.

Mantle of the Founder
A suit of Tartaros pattern terminator armour worn by Jonavaux Asteralix, the Founder, even to this day as he lies in the Reliquary of the Lawsundan Avengement. Since the Founder’s death, no other chapter master has chosen to wear the Mantle of the Founder as a show of respect to the man who created Jonmarines he led to such noble heights. The armour, painted in the same green that later chapter masters would replicate in tradition, has  gilded panoply depicting a twin forked lightning bolt on its right shoulder, and the traditional crux terminatus on its left shoulder, in the same manner as, as some would state, Gabriel Angelos, chapter master of the Blood Ravens. There is a small deviation to the entirely green armour, however, in the form of a small shield attached to the front of the left shoulder pad, which is a red heart on a yellow background, which, when the Founder was asked about its meaning, garnered no response from the usually transparent chapter master. With the discovery of the Jonmarines’ true origins, and the severity of the mission that Asteralix himself volunteered for, however, the meaning of this shield would come forth; it was a reminder of his duty to the chapter that some Lamenters said he’d abandoned.

Shield of Lawsunda
This cruciform storm shield, decorated with a large Imperial aquilla resting upon scrollwork above a gilded skull, was once part of the wargear of the First Captain, a symbol of the Jonmarines’ perceived role as defenders of Lawsunda Majoris. Upon the death of its bearer, First Captain Haarvik Hallic, Hero of the Haedrican Hive, at the hands, warscythe and sheer unadulterated cruelty of Irotek, Phaeron of Idroslvia, during the ill-fated “Raid on Idroslvia” that was intended to strike the head from the soulless machine-xenos, the Shield was deemed lost by the two survivors of the Raid, until Jonavaux Lericberguson would recover it during his War beneath Lawsunda’s surface. In response to the tragedy that was the Howling Dark, the carnage wrought on the Majoris, and the orbital bombardment that the Jonmarines subjected their own homeworld to, Lericberguson’s Second Chapter Commandarius agreed that none deserved to bear the Shield of Lawsunda, and, as a penative move, the Shield was retired from active use, instead, as it does to this day, decorating the shrine dedicated to the Founder’s preserved, still armoured,  corpse.

Mantle of Romulus
Artificer armour worn by Jonavaux Lericbergson, constructed by Forgemaster Turzmak Stena and Jonavaux Romulus, gifted to Lericbergson upon his assistance in at least making the series of disasters and embarrassments that was the Defender’s term as chapter master more tolerable. Only upon Romulus' enterrement in dreadnaught armour, and his ascent to chapter master, would Jonavaux Lericberguson wear the Mantle of Romulus, as a mark of respect for his predecessor. It should be noted that as a further act of respect, Jonavaux often chooses to compliment Romulus on the “excellent work he and Stena did” in designing and building the Mantle, presumably to remind the depressed ex-chapter master of his gratitude. This compliment is apparently well intended, as the Mantle would keep the Saviour alive during his period underground hunting for Irotek during the Lericberguson War.

The Mantle of Romulus is testament to the Jonmarines themselves; both shoulder pads, with gilded trims,  are decorated with a gold 'J', while the armour’s belt is decorated with symbols representing all of the offices of the Chapter Commandarius. Gilded, flat, interpretations of wings can be found on the outward sides of both kneecaps, and, like the Mantle of Asteralix, and the Armour of the First Captain before it, its primary colour is the same olive green. On the right of the aforementioned two wings, the Saviour has attached the decorated holster containing the Founder’s bolt pistol.

Upon ascending to chapter master, Jonavaux would incorporate the jump pack he used during his time, as Johnathonus, as Captain of the Third Company, adding a decorative panel behind his head and between the two jets of the jump pack, to hide the emitter of his Iron Halo field. Atop the jump pack is a banner, a simple white J on a green background margined by blue. After the Howling Dark, two Templar crosses, each centred with skulls, would join this banner, as a symbol of the weight of the Howling Dark that the Saviour himself sees needing bearing by himself, even if Forgemaster Terasacariz would redesign the jump pack’s engines to account for this extra weight.

In a way, however, the Mantle of Romulus also represents Romulus himself, as, upon its Mk.VIII “Errant” chestplate, is a shield set upon a pair of wings, a rather fitting symbol for the Defender, showing that the mantle of Romulus was designed to keep whatever was left of the Defender’s tattered honour upon his death at least remembered on his successor’s armour. The Saviour, has, however, made sure that no such thing will ever happen to his misfortunate predecessor and his legacy, by keeping most of the armour exactly the same as that designed by the Defender.

Armour Indomnitus Librarium
Similar to the suits known as the Armour Indomnitus found, inexplicably, by other chapters within their armouries before the coming of some detrimental campaign, the Armour Indomnitus Librarium is a mighty suit of power armour, its primary constitution not of ceramite like ‘lesser’ suits, but of adamantium, the same metal used in the construction of the Imperium’s monolithic voidcraft, amongst other uses. Where the Armour Indomnitus Librarium differs, however, is its force hood, allowing for it to be worn by a librarian, and its onboard storm bolter, mounted into the left wrist, the second of these two differences incorporated, with much effort, by Kaedron Huraan, the First Forgemaster.

The Jonmarines’ acquisition of the Armour Indomnitus Librarium is, however, the centre of much controversy, both at the time, and, relatively recently, as revealed by the astartes known as the ex-Terran Guard. The Armour was initially discovered by High Librarius Launaas as he investigated the scene of the Founder’s murder, attempting to find clues as to who, or what, was able to slay Asteralix, even as he slept, deep within the many defensive perimeters in place both around and within the Bastion that bared his name. In a flash of blinding white light, Kaviaan often recollects, the Armour appeared before him, and, in a language that was initially foreign to him, ordered the High Librarius to wear it, as to “avoid disaster”. Ever since, the Armour Indomnitus Librarium has been the source of prophesying auditory hallucinations, even becoming a major cause of the Lericberguson-Launaas Feud.

The suit of armour discovered within Asteralix’s chambers by Launaas, upon Asteralix's untimely death, however, has, according to the ex-Terran Guard, worrying similarities between the suit once worn by their “Section Leader”, Crysos Morturg, who many ex-Terran Guard claim to be very similar to the description given by the Labyrinth Walker when asked about the physical attributes of Mortatrom, Praetorian of Malal, the true leader of the Malalites Reborn.

Armour of the First Captain
Terminator armour worn by each First Captain, save for Praedus Hallic, due to the inability to recover the corpse of First Captain Haarvik Hallic, who perished whilst he was wearing the armour. As of M.42 110, the Armour of the First Captain has been considered destroyed ever since the deployment of exterminatus grade weaponry in the second evacuation of Lawsunda Majoris. The Armour, still coloured green from its days as the suit of armour worn by Jonavaux Romulus, had a gilded crux terminatus, a decorative laureled skull mounted on an arch to acting as housing for its inbuilt Iron Halo, and a small set of decorative ‘Üzzaar’ wings on its back, a nod to a cavalry unit apparently used by the ancient inhabitants of Lawsunda, once from Terra’s Eastern Europan regions, in their wars.

Armour of the High Reclusius
Terminator armour worn by Haedvust Kalviathan, First Reclusius, and Konstantinos Hangmann. As a result of Julian Kalviathan recovering what was left of the Armour of the High Reclusius, with what was left of his brother Haedvust still left inside it, this Jonmarine relic has been able to live on, even if a good 70% of the armour was rebuilt after the Howling Dark. Thus, its status is as follows: “Partly destroyed, recovered and repaired”.

Sarcophagus of Jonavaux Romulus- Venerable Dreadnaught armour holding the biological remains of Jonavaux Romulus, the Defender. Like the Armour of the First Captain, the Castraferrum chassis that keeps what is left of Romulus from perishing is olive green and bedecked with ornate decoration, including a set of Üssaar wings, and an Iron Halo similar to that upon the presumed destroyed Armour of the First Captain.

Paragon Blade of the Founder
Formerly known as the 'Blade of the Guard', this master-crafted, monomolecular blade was recovered from the Horus-Heresy aged weapons cache on Lawsunda known to the Jonmarines as the Haarkarren’s Vault,  belonging to, as revealed after the Defence of Lokus, the loyalist Blackshields formation and later chapter known as the Terran Guard. Incredibly, the weapon’s seems to lack any form of corruption; even the test of time has not dulled the blade’s sharp edge. This cache would be named the Haarkarren Vault, given its impressive defensive measures and storage capacity, by the Founder, while the 'Paragon Blade of the Guard' would be renamed the 'Paragon Blade of the Founder', the only weapon to be removed from the Vault’s cavernous bowels.

Asteralix's Bolt Pistol
The pistol, part of the Founder’s arsenal, and that of all of Asteralix’s successors, has been modified to admit a wide variety of tactical attachments, including a holographic addition to the pistol’s iron sight and a larger-than-normal magazine. Later, as a tradition, successive Chapter Masters would carry the  bolt pistol into battle, yet keep it holstered as both a literal symbol of their heritage as Chapter Master, and as due to pragmatic reasons; as a result of the cumbersome nature of wielding a pistol in terminator armour, like the Founder himself, or their primary weaponry taking precedence. The bolt pistol has, thus, only been fired once, by Jonavaux Romulus, who test-fired the weapon a few days after the Founder's death, but it is likely that Asteralix himself has fired the weapon plenty of times before he became the Jonmarines’ Founder.

Hammer of the First
As one of the symbols of the First Captain, this relic thunder hammer has caved the skulls of plenty of heretics and xenos alike over its years of service. With the Howling Dark, and the loss of the Armour of the First Captain and the retirement of the Shield of Lawsunda, it is the only actively used symbol of the First Captain.

Justice
Relic Power Claymore constructed by Jonavaux Asteralix, tuned and finished by Kaedron Huraan, First Forgemaster. While neither Asteralix or Huraan would wield Justice, Jonavaux Lericberguson would make the Relic Power Claymore his melee weapon of choice soon after assuming the title of master of the Jonmarines. Thus, Justice would be one of three weapons to keep the future Saviour alive, later, during his “Lericberguson War”.

Atonement
Relic Force Blade forged by Kaedron Huraan, First-Forgemaster, psychically attuned and wielded by Kaviaan Launaas, High Librarius.

Fidelis Imperator
Crozius wielded by Haedvust Kalviathan, High Reclusius. Unlike what was left of Haedvust after the Ripperdon slew the First High Reclusius, Julian Kalviathan was unable to recover the rod of office of the High Reclusius, as the Ripperdon had swallowed the weapon whole, along with Haedvust’s left arm and parts of his shoulder.

Fidelis Imperator Secundus
Fortunately for Konstantinos Hangmann, Haedvust’s eventual successor, Julian, alongside many other survivors of the Howling Dark, could remember details of the Crozius wielded by Haedvust Kalviathan, and, as such, Forgemaster Terasacariz was able to forge a copy of the Crozius once wielded by Haedvust. Fidelis Imperator Secundus, however, has been strengthened and further weaponised with Pangea Ultiman Obsidian both within and without the holy weapon; razor sharp Obsidian teeth on its edges cut flesh and bone easily, while roughly cut Obsidian studs gouge and mutilate and puncture.

Ballista
Once, this Master-Crafted Bolter constructed by Jonavaux Asteralix and Kaedron Huraan was originally meant to be used by Ciirilvus D'Haarst, Blade of the Founder, but, was instead gifted to Jonavaux Lericbergson upon his ascension to Chapter Master as a reward for both his service as captain of the Third, and his aid to the then Jonavaux Romulus. The weapon’s frame and machine spirit are both of strong conviction; it has carried its bearer out of the disaster that threatened the very existence of the Jonmarines themselves, and will gladly do it again, if such a need emerged.

Kop'ya Sveta
Kop'ya Sveta or the "Spears of Light" in Lawsundan Old Tongue. Venerable Romulus’ gilded twin lascannon, the Defender insisted in being constantly equipped with the Spears of Light as a precaution against the return of Gitsmasha, given his mega-armour and the mob of meganobz that appeared to be the warboss’ bodyguards.

The Keys of the Hives
These Eight Power broadswords were constructed by the techmarines of each company after Asteralix's efforts to improve both Lawsunda and Hegrannax's World's Hives, as ceremonial, yet functional, weapons. While Keys were made and named for all of Lawsunda Majoris’ hives, only the Keys of the Haladririan (7th), Kaulstman (8th) and Hegrannax's (10th) Hives, however, survived the Howling Dark.

Of these three, only two are used as a result of Forgemaster-Captain Terasacariz' frequent decision to take to the field aboard his Stormraven gunship, Lawsunda's Tempest. Both the Key of the Haladririan Hive and the Key of Hegrannax's World have been converted into Force blades by Librarians Quintus Redevus and Servitus Civares respectively. However, as Forgemaster Terasacariz states, the Key of the Kaulstman Hive is always ready to go, just in case either he chooses to take to the field on foot, or some foe gets a lucky, crippling, shot on Lawsunda’s Tempest. If that were to happen, as he proved himself on Frysia, by dispatching a number of Alpha Legion agents, the Forgemaster will resort to his Key to protect himself until help arrives.

Truth
A Storm Bolter/Force Axe combination constructed by Kaedron Huraan and Jonavaux Asteralix, psychically attuned by High Librarius Launaas. Like weapons utilised by the secretive Grey Knights of Titan, the storm bolter, attached to the flat of the force axe, is fired using the mind of the librarian wielding the weapon, who can also use their mutant brain to make the apparently clumsy looking two handed weapon a blindingly fast killing machine, as with any other weapon. It is, as the Founder, the High Librarius and the First Forgemaster intended, the rod of office of the Jonmarines' Librarium, but as a result of the commendations achieved by the two librarians that have called the Sixth Company home, both Truth and Phoenix, described below, have become symbols of the Sixth Company and its Captain-Librarian. As such, it’s current wielder is of course Kaecelion Vryidissus.

Kvas' Claw
A Lightning claw custom built for Captain Kurtain Kvas of the Jonmarine Tenth Company, by Techmarine Petyr Taarakus, and meant as a replacement for the Key of the Hegrannax’s Hive. As a result of Kvas’ death during the Howling Dark, his predecessor, Captain Davian Haarnvust, has taken the Claw as his own, but has retained the name of the weapon to honour its intended wielder.

Razrushiel
Rzrushiel, literally the "Destroyer" in Lawsundan Old Tongue. Destroyer is but a fitting name for this ancient, exotic, weapon. It’s underslung disintegration gun, the assumed reason behind this gun’s name, is able to tear through armour made of chitin, ceramite, metal, or otherwise alike with ease. The weapon’s machine spirit is constantly aware of this fact, and, according to the investigations made by successive Forgemasters, and First Company Techmarine Taradus Carvyk, boasts constantly of its most recent, “impressive”, kill. No signs of any warp taint have been found within the weapon, suggesting that Razrushiel simply enjoys slaying the foes of the Imperium, much to the relief of its Indomnitus squad member wielder, tactical marine Davian Pherikhoi, who has used Razrushiel to slay a myriad of xenos and heretical monstrosities both during and after the Howling Dark.

Saviour of the Cursed
Iron Halo mounted on the top of the Mantle of the Founder. As a clear, at least to those aware of the fate of the Lamenters, reference to the Lamenters' unfortunate status as a 21st Founding Chapter, the "Saviour of the Cursed" was originally an Iron Halo owned by the Lamenters themselves, like the suit of Tartaros armour it sits upon.

Phoenix
A Psychically attuned combat bike built by Kaedron Huraan and attuned by Kaviaan Launaas, this combat bike was constructed to permit the first librarian of the Sixth company Alexeianik Citadach ,who later disappeared during a Malalites Reborn ambush in the Helborst Wastes, the ability to keep up with the fast paced “combat reconnaissance” stance both Captains Terric and Scyllus adopted during the Investigation of the Poisoning of El’Cavarin’s Hive, and to an extent, the subsequent Reborn War. Commentators agree that for such a famous relic to emerge from such pragmatic roots is fitting for a relic of the Jonmarines, for this bike has been used by Alexeianik’s successor, Kaecelion Vyrdissus, to not only avenge his predecessor, his close friend Kalvyn Fryriss’ younger sister, by ending the Howling Dark, but end also the life of a resurgent Machine Changers and its lord during the Defence of Lokus. The bike’s machine spirit, as reported by Frydor Tervomussa, Techmarine of the Sixth Company, is aware of the thoughts of its rider, thanks to High Librarius Launaas’ attunements, even to the extent that it copied the last words that Kaecelion ever said to Steravarets, the Uncorrupted Corruption, before he killed her, “that’s for the death of the Martyrs’ Rose. That’s for Kathyrin.”, in reference to the Malalite sorceress’ debased act of not only killing Kathyrin Fryriss, Kalvyn Fryriss’ younger sister, a member of the Martyrs’ Rose Order, but also mutilating the slain Soroitas’ corpse.

Gravitatnizkae Endoskeletons/Stenanic Endoskeletons
The crowning achievement of Forgemaster Turzmak Stena’s research into how to address the issues faced by the chapter’s False Astartes, these miners’ exoskeletons, used to combat the gravitational issues on the world of mining world Gravitatnizkaya, repurposed to fit snugly beneath a False Astartes’ power armour and assist the augmetics already present in their function, have closed the so-called “strength gap” between False and true astartes, even if their reaction times are a little slower. While the chapter does not recruit as many False Astartes as it once did, Forgemaster Terasacariz has made sure to honour the endeavours made by his “emotional” successor, even if to the emotionally inhibited Forgemaster, such ostentatiousness is seen as a little unnecessary. Even so, Hadvasiir understands the need for remembrance, and as such, on the engineering deck of both the Lawsundan Avengement and the Inflagerus, a statue, depicting Forgemaster Stena, stands, flanked by two thankful False Astartes wearing the Endoskeletons that Stena, alongside brief periods of assistance from Jonavaux Lericberguson himself, designed and made.

The First Forgemaster’s Harness
This servo-harness was a four armed indicator of the Forgemaster’s discipline; only a careful mind, such as that possessed by First Forgemaster Kaedron Huraan, could operate all four, finely geared, servo-arms at once. With the presumed death of Kaedron, however, and the subsequent loss of this valuable equipment, the Harness would no longer be considered a holy tech relic by the majority of the chapter, until its recovery during the Defence of Lokus. Thus, now, Forgemaster Terasacariz wears the First Forgemaster’s Harness with the assurance that First Forgemaster Huraan himself permitted him to use this equipment. Through the assistance an extra two sets of arms can be, especially those made by a master craftsman like Huraan, repairs on and off the field are easy to make. Alternatively, fitted with weapon systems, the First Forgemaster’s Harness is a weapon of destructive personnel indeed; as the finely made, almost clockwork, servos hum as they gracefully identify yet another target, there is little that can hope to survive a one on one confrontation with the Forgemaster.

External Relations
As a result of the Rites of Humility, the Jonmarines have a doctrinal predisposition towards friendly relationships with those who consider themselves allies of the chapter. Heritage should not be forgotten either, as was the intent of the Founder in the creation of the Jonmarines themselves, so the Lamenters have found themselves close allies with the Jonmarines, even if the Lamenters' astartes, including, notably, Perseus Aphes, the Blade of Sorrow, the Chapter Champion of the Lamenters, have qualms with their successor chapter. The Rites, however, also deem anyone who has been known to have killed or harmed Imperial citizens, personnel or others, or in some way made themselves an affront to the Imperium, as enemies that are deserving only of hatred and contempt, and should be put to the sword, bolter, flamer, plasma cannon, thunder hammer, demolisher cannon or orbital bombardment, as soon as possible.

The Lamenters
Upon discovering the true nature of why Asteralix founded the Jonmarines, namely the noble cause of preserving the honourable, respectful and self-sacrificial attitudes harboured by the most unfortunate example of the atrocities of the 21st, ‘Cursed’, Founding, the untrained eye of the outside commentator may be persuaded to believe that Jonmarine-Lamenter relations were forged fast and strong, that the Lamenters would be grateful to discover that the scions of Jonavaux Asteralix, once their Captain of the First Company, was, despite the Founder’s death and the Howling Dark nearly ending their endeavours, were successful in keeping their chapter’s ideals alive.

Unfortunately, the untrained eye of the outside observer, is, as a sizeable population of untrained eyes and all outside, uninstructed, observers often are, incorrect; tensions between Lamenter and Jonmarine are as commonplace as camaraderie, a fact that has only made the dark melancholy that grips Malakim Phoros, Lord of Ruin and Watcher of the Deeps, master of the Lamenters, all the deeper.

In the mournful, private, yet ultimately futile, words of Phoros himself, the Lamenters’ antagonism towards the Jonmarines that swore to preserve their predecessors’ heritage has a number of different causes, and some have names, not only descriptions.

These names, of course, are those of Perseus Aphes, Blade of Sorrow, Chapter Champion of the Lamenters, once the leader of the Lamenters’ Sanguinary Guard until it’s disbanding after the Badab Tragedy. Indeed, as Malakim admits himself, Perseus has a lot to rage about; he believes that the cause of the Lamenters’ entry into Badab, on Huron’s side, Mithrael Vyralis, was not punished harshly enough, that not even death itself would be fitting for the crime he made the Lamenters commit.

Perseus, as Malakim further revealed to the Jonmarines, above Mythradates XVI, believed Jonavaux to have been a coward in “abandoning” the Lamenters; Jonavaux should have stood and died with the chapter that he was part of, if that was to be the Lamenters’ fate. At least, Perseus’ reasoning continues, he would not have the crime of cowardice to his name when he and the Lamenters, once extinct, were judged by the God Emperor, unlike Asteralix and the treasonous dogs that had fallen in line with him.

Thus, when Perseus, leading the Lamenters’ Third Company in a mission to recover a Knights Celestial ship that had failed to report what it had found within the Lawsunda Majoris system, discovered the Jonmarine Captain Kodral Advlak and the remainder of the Terran Guard helping the Knights Celestial on Syrphaust, the world they had crashed upon, to defend themselves against necron assaults, Perseus cautiously allowed Kodral to board the Lamenters’ ship. Upon discovering who these “Jonmarines” which Kodral hailed from were, Perseus considered either simply killing Kodral, or just leaving the Captain to his death on Syrphaust, and forgetting that the Jonmarines, wherever their “Howling Dark” had taken them, ever existed.

In his attempt to simply kill Kodral, by strangling him as he slept in the infirmary of the Voice of the Martyr, the strike cruiser that the Lamenters had used to follow the Knights in their expedition, however, Perseus soon found his assessment of Kodral as some form of weakling to have been made in error; the prone, wounded, captain had managed to somehow sneak his primary sidearm, the Vi Gravitatis, a grav-pistol, into the infirmary, and was pointing it at him as soon as the Chapter Champion was looming over his medical cot. To Perseus, this was a sign that perhaps some of these “Jonmarines” could be considered useful astartes, even if their chapter’s founder was naught but a coward.

Thus, before the Voice of the Martyr made a warp jump back to the Lokus Sector, Perseus permitted Kodral to tell whatever was left of his chapter to recover him from the Lokus Sector’s primary world, Fulcana, via an Astropathic message sent in the general direction of Mythradates XVI, a world whose system had stable warp routes to and from both Lawsunda Majoris and the Lokus Sector, and was therefore a very likely route any Jonmarine survivors may have used in their escape from the system they once called home.

Shortly before the Defence of Lokus, however, when the Jonmarines chapter fleet arrived in the Lokus Sector, above Fulcana, Perseus’ rage would return to him, as  Venerable Brother Librarian Dioheim revealed that the hated Mithrael was not just alive and well, but, now, he was the Chief Librarian of the chapter that Asteralix had ‘founded’, the epitome of all the things Aphes despised.

Here, the untrained observer’s assumption that the first meeting between the chapter staff that Perseus had put together in Malakim’s absence and the Chapter Commandarius of the Jonmarines, Kaviaan Launaas included, would be explosive, is correct, if not underestimated.

The Jonmarines would respond to Perseus’ hatred with, surprisingly, that of their own, aboard Inquisitor Tuplov’s flagship, the Shadow of Light, wherein many of the Jonmarines’ Chapter Commandarius who knew First Forgemaster Kaedron Huraan personally accused Perseus of ‘killing’ Huraan, by wiping his mind in an attempt to bury the truth of the Lamenters’ successor, a truth that Perseus admitted he found to be naught but “embarrassing”, especially in response to such allegations.

With information pertaining to the Malalites Reborn and their Tenth Pentagonal Alliance bringing the Mater Lacrimarum, their so-called “Temple of the Dividing Unifier” with them in their invasion of the Lokus Sector, and the insults that Perseus Aphes, alongside Ægericus Quintilius, the Lamenters’ Master of Sanctity, had launched towards the Jonmarines’ Sixth Company, the Company with the highest number of False Astartes, the Jonmarines Chapter Commandarius swore that Captain Librarian Vryridissus would either aid the Lamenters in reclaiming their fortress monastery, or, even reclaim it themselves, a promise that the Saviour followed through with, by ordering the Sixth to liaison with those Lamenters that were preparing to do such a thing by preparing an ambush where they knew the Mater would emerge from the Warp.

As the Defence of Lokus proved, neither Lamenter nor Jonmarine retook the Mater Lacrimarum, but many of the Lamenters who accompanied Vryridissus’ Sixth Company did express praise for the Captain-Librarian’s conduct during the operation. So too was praised the Captain-Librarian’s ability to somehow make the [REDACTED] obey them, and potentially risk their lives in reclaiming the Mater, a task that could have easily become a bloodbath for all three companies. This rescue mission, however, led to the discovery of a terrifying reality; Baal Secundus, home of both Sanguinius, the Great Angel, and his Blood Angels, was itself under threat by Hive Fleet Leviathan, and Commander Danté, the Blood Angels’ Chapter Master, had called forth a summoning of all of the Blood Angels’ successor chapters, something that the Jonmarines took as seriously as the Lamenters themselves, having been told of their responsibilities as Sons of the Great Angel through the Lamenters by Malakim, who had added to the information that the infamous vox transcriber, alongside Asteralix’s Lamentation, had divined.

This decision to “take their heritage seriously” amazed even Perseus and Ægericus, and installed something of a second thought into the mind of the Master of Sanctity. However, this détente was short lived, as soon, after the evacuation of Lokus had begun, evidence of the Jonmarines working alongside the Alpha Legion emerged, which soured relations significantly, even after Forgemaster Terasacariz assured the Lamenters that the Alpha Legion traitor astartes that had been captured would be kept in stasis whenever they were not needed for some form of Alpha Legion related operation.

After a considerable amount of debate, most of which taking place mid-warp transit as the Jonmarines and Lamenters, some of the unfortunate chapter’s astartes having to ask for passage on Jonmarine ships to do so, escaped the Lokus Sector, the Jonmarines and Lamenters concluded that the Alpha Legionaries kept as prisoners by the Jonmarines were indeed not a hazard, and that the Jonmarines themselves would aid their predecessors in what was soon called the Baal Crusade, whose details can be found above.

Over this Baal Crusade, Jonmarine-Lamenter relations would eventually become far more friendlier, even to the point that, by the Crusade’s end,  Perseus could speak to members of the Jonmarines’ Chapter Commandarius without being restrained by the mysterious Varzival, the Knight Resplendent, Chapter Master, of the once thought extinct Angels Resplendent, who had been found aboard the Lawsundan Avengement during the Skirmish over Syrphaust. Indeed, Jonmarine-Lamenter relations were improved greatly by the Baal Crusade, and both chapters have only seen positive improvement in these relations ever since.

The Lamenters Primaris
A short-lived chapter of Primaris astartes, the Lamenters Primaris saw themselves as the kin of sinners through the crimes of the Lamenters before them, as a result of the Badab Tragedy. These astartes were led by Chapter Master Seraphos Haemon, known as the Branded due to the brand, in the shape of the Minotaurs chapter’s iconic symbol, across his chest. Under Seraphos, the Lamenters Primaris eschewed many of what are considered ‘traditionally’ Blood Angel tactics, including close ranged firefights, as part of the so-called “Haemonic Decree”, a protocol that Haemon even implemented on himself, wielding a master-crafted bolt rifle as his primary armament. The aim of this “Haemonic Decree”, as Seraphos admitted, was to actively suppress the rash, impulsive, if not overactive, mindset typically found within Blood Angels, which was seen by the Lamenters Primaris as being the key to their Phorosian descendants’ downfall.

As a result of this belief in the failures of their predecessors, the Lamenters Primaris saw it their mission to not only redeem their cursed name as penance for what they called “the crimes of the Phorosians”, namely the Badab War, and actively suppress the factors that they saw as being at fault within them, but to also recover what they could of their Phorosian past, so that at least some of it may be used to redeem their presumed long dead wielders.

All of this changed with the Baal Crusade’s arrival, just moments after Leviathan was defeated. The Phorosian himself, Malakim Phoros, after nearly besting Seraphos himself in a duel, wished to see about the “reincorporation” of the Lamenters Primaris into the Lamenters, seeing them as part of his chapter, instead of an entirely new one, that was formed to undo the crimes that Phoros’ own chapter had committed. Seraphos, like many of his chapter, were simply offended by this proposal; why would they join the same chapter they saw as being nothing more than blasphemers and traitors?

Like with the Lamenters that the Lamenters Primaris were made to replace, Jonmarine-Lamenter Primaris relations were tenacious, but would prove to be the Lamenters Primaris’ downfall. Jonavaux, at the same meeting in which the Phorosian proposed the integration of the Lamenters Primaris, argued in favour of such integration; the Phorosians had indeed atoned for their sins by threatening themselves with extinction, they had fought, bled and died to protect the Imperium from the threats of Kraken and of the Pentagonal Alliances of Chaos Undivided. Many considered the Lamenters’ Penitent Crusade over, and many more, including the Jonmarines, their successor chapter, had witnessed the Lamenters’ willingness to fight and die as loyal subjects of the Imperium. In a powerful closing statement, Jonavaux claimed that the Lamenters had indeed learned their lesson; the Imperium’s bureaucracy may have been in the wrong in their mismanagement of the Maelstrom Warders, but some problems had solutions that appeared unthinkable, and in some cases, simply improbable. If the Lamenters had managed to hold on despite all odds, despite Kraken nearly destroying the chapter, despite the Victoria Phyrri crippling even those who had survived Kraken, and, citing his own chapter, of the Jonmarines had only saved themselves from the Howling Dark by doing what all astartes thought unthinkable: retreat, then the Lamenters Primaris could forgive their predecessors, Phorosians that had already been forgiven.

The battered Saviour, still recovering from his run in with Gabriel Seth in the opening phases of the Baal Crusade’s deployment on the holy home of the Great Angel, received not only an ovation from the chapter masters who were presiding over this debate, but also Primarch Roboute Guilliman, Lord Commander of the Imperium, who had been observing the debate with a great sense of curiosity.

Indeed, the Lamenters Primaris decided to fix the error of their ways, and submit to their Phorosian predecessors, but, with two caveats. The Lamenters Primaris wished to retain their Haemonic Decree and the philosophies that came with such, alongside taking up the highest positions within the Lamenters that were available, to make sure that their predecessors would not fall into the same erroneous, treasonous, ways that had damned them once before. These two caveats were accepted, and, as if in thanks, Malakim decreed that any Lamenters Primaris that could not be incorporated into the Lamenters without breaching the Codex Astartes would be immediately transferred over to the Jonmarines themselves.

Thus, in the space of a number of days, the Lamenters Primaris were no more, the Lamenters and the Jonmarines incorporating their numbers and vehicles into their own ranks.

The Knights Celestial
While Lord Phoros told the Jonmarines of how significant the Knights Celestial were in the Jonmarines’ founding, shortly after the more dramatic revelations of the Mythradates XVI incident, before that point, only High Librarius Launaas and the two librarians that assisted him during his wanderings on the Exodus knew of the Knights, and Kaviaan only knew of the Knights’ role, a considerably significant one at that, in the Victoria Phyrri from the memories restored to him by the Armour Indomnitus Librarium.

According to Malakim, and, as confirmed by the successful Lokan Crusade, the Knights Celestial were able to keep their realm of the Lokus Sector relatively peaceful over the years since the end of the Horus Heresy, the great disaster that the Knights emerged a fair amount of time afterwards. So successful were they in keeping the peace within the Lokus Sector, that the Knights, hailed as the demigod grandsons of the Emperor by the Sector’s peoples, had formed a number of successor chapters, which carved out their own domains within the Lokus Sector, like their parent chapter. These successors include the Knights of Saint Beaucard, the Knights of Airtha and the Order of the Palatine Knights, all three chapters embodying the same identities and attitudes of their parent.

Tales, however, that Malakim had heard, spoke of some great betrayal that the Knights had suffered in the “Lausadanus Majoris” System, namely on the world of “Syradus”, where the great Saint Beaucard, who would give his name to the Knights of Saint Beaucard, had apparently met his end, which had apparently then boiled over into some form of conflict above the world of “Mythradotus”. As for who this betrayal was indeed caused by, these tales gave little information, save for the story that claimed Beaucard’s killer bore a great spear that he plucked from the centre of a tomb on Syradus.

Kaviaan confirmed this from his own memories, and added that there were some whispers of the Knights planning their own investigation of Lawsunda Majoris, but Kaviaan states that nothing appeared to becoming of it when he left Lokus.

It would be then, in a odd coincidence, that the astropathic message that Kodral sent, from aboard the Voice of the Martyr, would reach the Lawsundan Avengement. With news of Kodral’s survival, and evidence of the Knights’ role in the Jonmarines’ inception yet to be proven, the Jonmarines launched, as announced by Jonavaux, their “Lokan Crusade” to recover one of the chapter’s greatest heroes, and to learn more of the truth surrounding their origins.

Unfortunately for both Jonmarine and Knight alike, the Lokan Crusade’s successful arrival would coincide with the aftermath of a contrition between the Knights and their predecessors, the Imperial Fists, who had requested to take a sample of the Knights relics and gene-seed. Perseus had intervened in this situation, resolving it, shortly before he announced that the Jonmarines were on their way, with most likely a few small ships, based on Kodral’s own assumptions.

These assumptions, thanks to the Jonmarines’ considerable Reconstruction, were far beyond simply incorrect. Initially, the Knights Celestial and the Lamenters alike, alongside Kodral himself, on hearing of what ships Venerable Brother Librarian Dioheim foresaw on their way, tipped off by the “Eternal Crusader”-esque ship Dioheim saw, assumed that the Jonmarines had found friends with the Black Templars, which immediately put the Knights Celestial on edge.

Thus, when the Jonmarines’ chapter fleet arrived, the Knights Celestial deployed an envoy force, transported by the strike cruiser the Phoenix Wrath, led by 5th Captain Xinor Jan, to meet what they assumed was the fleet’s flagship, correctly assuming that the fleet’s largest ship, the Lawsundan Avengement, was such. Jan, however, would not survive his mission. As soon as he stepped into the Avengement’s hangar, an Alpha Legionary hidden aboard the Avengement since the Reconstruction opened fire, and sprayed the inside of the Knights Celestial thunderhawk gunship with the rich crimson of Xinor’s transhuman blood. While this Legionary did this, Legionaries hidden on the Wrath, within the Knights’ fortress monastery, and within the Avengement’s communications centres, set the cruiser on a collision course with the Avengement, intercepted vox communications, and shut down the rest of the communications systems aboard the Jonmarines’ flagship.

Fearing the chaos that was to come next, Perseus volunteered Captain Advlak and the newly minted “ex-Terran Guard” to aid him in bringing the fight to the Alpha Legion, and board the Avengement. Here, Kodral, having been reinstated as Fourth Captain, would cross blades with Captain Librarian Kaecelion Vryridissus, who was leading forces in the Jonmarines’ own attempts to deal with the Alpha Legion, Kaecelion himself musing that this chance meeting, within a shrine to Sanguinius, was indeed a meeting of the Jonmarines’ greatest heroes.

Perseus would be reunited with Malakim too, but this reunion lasted but moments, when Kaviaan inadvertently showed himself. While confronting Mithrael was a very attractive prospect for Perseus at this time,  even he knew that more pressing matters needed addressing first; the Knights Celestial counter attack, in response for the Jonmarines apparently killing Xinor Jan, needed to be called off. The Alpha Legion were trying to start a war between the Knights and the Jonmarines, presumably as a way of collapsing Lokus into some form of civil war.

Meanwhile, to prevent the Wrath from striking the Avengement, the Jonmarines were forced to destroy the Knights Celestial ship, certain that the Knights Celestial were no longer in command of the strike cruiser. This, while a decision made in the heat of the moment, would have later repercussions both related to the ruler of the Lokus Sector, and the Defence to come.

With communications inoperable due to Alpha Legion sabotage, communication with the world below the Avengement, Fulcana, would be impossible, so the only form of communication would have to be face to face interactions. The Jonmarines needed, however, their central command structure, especially after all of the Chapter Commandarius had been wounded by the initial Alpha Legion attack.

Thus, while the Chapter Commandarius remained aboard the Lawsundan Avengement  to provide leadership to the rest of the chapter as they fought off the Alpha Legion, Captain Librarian Kaecelion Vryridissus, alongside veteran tactical squad Indomnitus, and a Tartaros terminator named Dimas, who had been a Knight Celestial just hours beforehand, escorted both Malakim and Perseus to Fulcana’s surface. Here, using his powers, Kaecelion was able to interrupt an Alpha Legion assault on the life of the Knight Celestial Chapter Master, but before battle between Jonmarine and Alpha Legionary could be joined, the Legionaries’ leader, whose hands and forearms were coated in a substance that made them look like those of Ferrus Manus, “the Betrayed Gorgon” to the Knights, as a presumed form of insult, was killed by a sudden beam of light that disintegrated his head.

While veteran tactical marine Davian Pherikhoi, the bearer of Razrushiel, was believed initially to have fired this shot, the true killer of this Alpha Legion sorcerer soon revealed itself: a Deathmark of the Idroslvian Dynasty. Soon, the Knights’ fortress monastery was cleared of its Alpha Legion attackers, as more Deathmarks emerged, alongside Lychguard, and, finally, Irotek himself. Irotek, after threatening Malakim, told the Lord of Ruin that instead of seeking war per say, Idroslvia wished to warn the Lokus Sector of the war to come; the Alpha Legion had merely been the first wave of a far greater force. No, according to Irotek, both on Fulcana, and, soon afterwards, aboard the Lawsundan Avengement later, the forces of the Tenth Pentagonal Alliance of Chaos Undivided, led not by Steravarets, the Uncorrupted Corruption, like the previous Pentagonal Alliance, but led by its true leader, the Malalites Reborn’s Praetorian.

To this, the Jonmarines Chapter Commandarius, which Irotek, alongside his court, had addressed aboard the Avengement, were incredulous: they had destroyed the Pentagonal Alliance of Chaos Undivided, and many of the warbands apparently on their way had been destroyed by their hands: the Malalites Reborn, the Bloodyhanded, the Skavain Rat-kin, the Machine Changers; all of those warbands were defined as destroyed in the Liber Inimicus. Irotek soon proved them wrong with the deployment of a holomap which showed that this “Praetorian” has apparently done some of his own “Reconstruction” while the Jonmarines reinvented themselves, and had also recruited extra forces to go with them, including, according to Irotek, “an old friend of Malakim’s”: Huron Blackheart, leading a considerable force of Red Corsairs. Irotek warned, even through the now uninterrupted vox networks on Fulcana below, however, that if the “living” did not heed his words, and prepare for the incoming war about to hit Lokus, specifically Fulcana and Airtha, he would reenact the Jonmarines’ Howling Dark on both worlds, a statement that was clearly designed to annoy the Jonmarines as much as it showed how desperate Idroslvia appeared for help.

Just when, as Kaviaan recollected, Malakim made the mental rhetorical question of “how could this get any worse?”, the Lokus Sector apparently answered in kind. Jumping out of the warp only a few thousand kilometres from the Jonmarine chapter fleet, came the flagship of Lokus’ ruler, the Shadow of Light, with Inquisitor Baroness Artemis Tuplov, and a large contingent of Inquisitorial storm troops as her escort.

While the Jonmarines were aware of this development, none were aware of the blinding speed with which Tuplov, leading the same Deathwatch squad that she had during her Ordo Xenos days, minus, of course, Ælianus, boarded the Avengement, ‘stormed’ the bridge, and confronted the Jonmarines, accusing them of improper naval protocol via their actions in destroying the Phoenix Wrath, numerous breaches of the Codex Astartes, all apparently based upon the Jonmarines’ relations with the Codex hating Carnosaurs, and, thanks to the presence of Irotek and his court, the crime of friendly relations with xenos. Irotek himself commuted the charge of friendly relations between Idroslvia and the Jonmarines; indeed, under normal circumstances, Irotek would be happy to kill any of the Jonmarines before him, a feeling that was shared by the Jonmarines towards the “Slayer of the First” himself. Idroslvia was still “at war” with the Jonmarines; this was simply a truce in the face of more greater foes, a truce that Tuplov was happy to extend to the rest of the “living” forces within the Lokus Sector.

In response to this apparent crime, of offending the Phaeron, that Tuplov herself had committed, Irotek soon showed the Inquisitor the truth of the relationship that she [REDACTED BY ORDER OF INQUISITOR TUPLOV] [REDACTED BY ORDER OF INQUISITOR TUPLOV], the leader of her [REDACTED BY ORDER OF INQUISITOR TUPLOV], which was now a part of the Tenth Pentagonal Alliance’s Slaanesh Fifth, alongside the Knights of Laeran, a splinter warband of the Emperor’s Children, whom the Inquisitor herself called the “traitorous brethren of the Knights Celestial”, referring of course, to the fact that the Founder, as Malakim had told the Jonmarines, had used to blackmail Tuplov herself, who, thanks to a sudden jolt of warp energy caused by discovering her heritage, suddenly found herself in communion with [REDACTED BY ORDER OF INQUISITOR TUPLOV- I don’t want ANYONE knowing of this, Jonavaux.- AT], and transported to the Avengement’s infirmary as a result of the psychic backwash.

When Kaviaan made the mistake of mentioning Asteralix’s blackmail, Perseus nearly tore Launaas’ head from its shoulders, only being restrained by a Blackshield astartes, who, detecting that Perseus was indeed losing himself to his gene-Flaw, enacted a strange ritual to help him control it. Meanwhile, confrontation between Idroslvia and the Jonmarine Chapter Commandarius only increased, as one of Inquisitor Tuplov’s Deathwatch Squad, a Minotaur, began mocking Irotek, referring to the xenophase sword he bore, claiming it came from tech recovered from Irotek’s own Dynasty. Taking this as an offence, Irotek, after correcting the Minotaur; clearly that necrodermis was Sautekhian, soon prepared to kill the “insolent worm” for his action, after the astartes dared to laugh at his self-proclaimed title of “Eternal Bastard”, the title he had claimed by killing the previous, Drukhari, bearer. Fearing that this act of retaliation would end up causing war between Tuplov and Irotek, Jonavaux personally stepped in and defused the confrontation. Tired of this back and forth, Irotek and his court soon phased away, but not before making sure the Lamenters were aware of the Mater Lacrimarum and its approach as part of the Tenth Pentagonal Alliance’s fleet.

What followed was a rush of activity. Once Tuplov had recovered, she ordered the Jonmarines Chapter Commandarius to come with her to the Shadow of Light, to discuss the Jonmarines’ apparent crimes. In turn, Malakim announced he would follow the Jonmarines and the Inquisitor to the Shadow of Light, once he had made the Knights Celestial aware of what exactly was about to hit Fulcana and Airtha. So too did he need to make his own chapter aware of what role they would play in the coming Second Defence of Lokus, an apparent follow up to the Victoria Phyrri itself. After this was resolved, the Lamenter command staff soon joined their Jonmarine counterpart on the Shadow of Light, where the Jonmarines had managed to successfully clear themselves of their charges, but had been ordered by Inquisitors Tuplov and Brunswicke to award Tuplov with an honorary place on the Chapter Commandarius, as “compensense for Asteralix’s blackmail” and to perhaps convince Tuplov to accept the Jonmarines’ claim that the Alpha Legion had destroyed the Phoenix Wrath. Thus, while the later Founder of the Jonmarines had blackmailed Tuplov just outside of the Lokus Sector, within it, the Jonmarines’ Saviour was blackmailed, ironically, as quipped Tuplov herself. The Lamenters would relay information about the plans the Knights Celestial and their successors had made to weather the incoming storm, and used these to aid Inquisitor Tuplov’s own strategies. As detailed above, relations between the Jonmarines and the Lamenters were stressed to breaking, but the task at hand soon ended this stress.

On the recently evacuated Fulcana, the home of the Knights Celestial and their fortress monastery, where the Jonmarines had elected to base most of their defences, the Knights soon witnessed the siegecraft skills that Forgemaster Terasacariz had perfected during the Siege of the Forgehalst Complex. To say that the ancient fortress was surrounded in layers of defencive earthworks, gun emplacements, strongpoints, fallback positions, counter offence redoubts and more would be an understatement and an underestimation of Hadvasiir’s siege engineering skills, for even the Knights themselves were impressed by not only the sheer extent of these defences, but the perfection that they had been planned and executed to. Strange to the Knights, however, was the fact that the Jonmarines themselves aided in the construction of these defences, clearly focused on the task at hand now that the Mantis Warriors, who had revealed themselves in their actions to help rid the Jonmarines of their “Legionary problem”, had volunteered to help evacuate Fulcana’s civilians.

The tale of the Defence of Lokus, known to some as the Defence of Fulcana, known to others as the Second Victoria Phyrri, however, is one that will live on in infamy. Indeed, the Jonmarines aided the Knights Celestial greatly in defending their world, and indeed, many of the Tenth Pentagonal Alliance’s warbands meet their end on Fulcana, and the Mater Lacrimarum was reclaimed and purified in the Lamenters’ name, but great victory was accompanied by great tragedy; Inquisitor Tuplov herself was wounded considerably by the same falling debris that crippled a number of Jonmarine, Lamenter and Knight Celestial Companies, alongside those of their other allies. Fulcana was a ruined shadow of the gleaming, peaceful world it once had been, and the Lokus Sector itself was similar in its state of collapse.

Worse still, despite crippling blows enacted upon his Tenth Pentagonal Alliance, in the end, the Praetorian of Malal took the Lokus Sector.

A massive ritual, enacted shortly before the Tenth Pentagonal Alliance began its final approach to the Lokus Sector, combined with the successes of the 13th Black Crusade far to the galactic north west, the Imperium’s defenders had scant time to flee the onrushing fragmenting of reality itself as the stability of the Hadex Anomaly, the warp rift to the Lokus Sector’s southeastern border, collapsed, and exploded outwards.

Little is known about the state the Knights Celestial currently find themselves. Did the Knights manage to escape Lokus at all? Were the rumours and hearsay of a full half of the chapter, alongside far greater proportions of their successors, meeting their end as the baleful warp stuff consumed the Knights true? The Jonmarines, finding the Knights and their successors to be paragons of nobility, honour and civility, despite the bad foot either chapter had began relations on, were dismayed to not find the Knights’ purple and white ships follow their chapter fleet through the warp away from Lokus alongside them.

This dismayal is only emphasised by the fact that the Jonmarines had, once they heeded the warnings made by a returned Nathaniel Semnai, a Lamenter killmarine who had once been their Chief Calix,  recovered a decent proportion of the gene-seed of slain Knights, alongside what wargear that could be salvaged. The entire Chapter Commandarius, assuming the Knights had made their escape with them, had wished to return the life-blood of any chapter of astartes, their gene-seed, alongside these prized relics, but were now unable to do so.

Thus, as detailed above, the Jonmarines’ Calix Apothecarium has now reserved a section of the Avengement’s gene-seed vault solely for the gene-seed of the Knights Celestial, alongside that of the other chapters that fought alongside the Jonmarines and the Lamenters, and, in a symbolic act, the Jonmarines now weekly send out an astropathic call into the void, calling for any Knights that can hear them to heed their call and recover what is rightfully theirs, recovered and preserved by the scions of Asteralix that tried so hard to save their home from the same Malalites Reborn that devastated theirs too.

The Carnosaurs
The history of the Carnosaurs is as mysterious, albeit as barbaric as their beliefs and culture. Using cleansed space hulks instead of conventional spacecraft for void transport and warfare, they despise the Codex Astartes, and display a considerable ferocity tempered by their unwavering loyalty to the Imperium. They treat humans as equals, like the Jonmarines themselves, but also conduct gruesome blood and dismemberment sacrifices to the Emperor in the form of executed traitors, and are known to devour their victims as often as they kill them. In regard to their origins, what is known is is that the chapter that would become the Carnosaurs was divided, with a company being trapped within fearsome warp storms to the galactic north east. With the end of these warp storms in M.41 600, they were re-discovered when the Warp storms that separated them from the Imperium finally ended several thousand years later.

The Carnosaurs share a genetic flaw that hints at them being Blood Angels descendants, in this case, the Black Rage and Red Thirst. The Flaw has become a far more horrific thing within the Carnosaurs, however, as the thirst and rage seemed to have taken on a life of their own in the form of a “secondary form”, much like how the Space Wolves transform into Wulfen if stressed to breaking point, as the Jonmarines discovered early into the accidental battle waged between the two chapters.

These mutations, called ‘The Beast’, known to the Jonmarines as the “zveriuzhasnyye”, monstrous beasts, are violent, wild creatures with an insatiable hunger for blood and fresh meat. With infrared vision, enhanced senses of scent and hearing, and plated skin that reflects some forms of weapon fire, coupled with a strength that rivals that of ork nobz or genestealers, the Carnosaurs’ bestial secondary form makes even unarmed astartes dangerous foes, even more so if the astartes in question is able to control the monster that emerges from within him.

Even with this disturbing trait, the Jonmarines and Carnosaurs bonded quickly, shortly after their encounter on Veldvarsik, due to their shared predicaments, and, as Captain Praedus Hallic admitted, he believed there was something of a “barbaric honour” about them; even if they were as likely to defend humanity from the enemy both without and within as they were to sacrifice and eat those same foes. While the Jonmarines were on the brink due to a massive, overwhelming invasion of their home system, the Carnosaurs were on the brink due to a civil war amongst themselves, most notably against a faction known as the Wretched Wyverns that had pledged themselves to Malal, like the Malalites Reborn that had devastated Lawsunda.

The Redemptive Wyverns
The Wretched Wyverns, known now as the Redemptive Wyverns to the Jonmarines, are a testament to the successful following of the Rites of Humility as much as they are part of the tale of the worst breach of those same Rites. While Sixth Captain Antonio Scyllus disgraced both himself and his Sixth Company with his actions on Veldvarsik, threatening to worsen the Carnosaur-Wyvern war irreparably, First Captain Hallic’s role in bringing both Carnosaur and Wyvern to peaceful negotiations were a driving force in ending the war; once both sides realised that the other was as loyal to Terra as they were, there was but no reason to continue the war.

Indeed, the Jonmarines aided the once Wretched Wyverns to fight against the Renegade God that they had been forced into an alliance with by the chaos that had consumed the Carnosaurs themselves, and, with this act, the now Redemptive Wyverns, as the Jonmarines refer to their ally, have rebuilt themselves as a worthy successor of the Carnosaurs. Like their Carnosaur predecessors, the Redemptive Wyverns utilise the fauna of their home system’s worlds, but the Wyverns focus primarily on the airborne predators of worlds like Pannotia, such as the Pannotian Wyvern that gives the Redemptive Wyverns their name.

Like the Carnosaurs, the Wyverns share the Flaw, but their Flaw turns an astartes into a beast that bears large, leathery wings on its arms and its fingers, like an ancient Terran bat or the more modern Pannotian Wyvern. Whether this is due to the effect that the Wyverns’ time as forced loyalists of the Renegade God is up for debate, but it appears as if the Redemptive Wyverns themselves wish not to speak with outsiders, even the Jonmarines themselves, about their Flaw, and the potentially dangerous, if not lethal, implications of the discoveries that may emerge as a result of this investigation.

As for what enemies both the Carnosaurs and the Wretched Wyverns fight against now, however, it is unknown; both chapters have not maintained regular contact with the scions of Asteralix, but the Jonmarines are confident that they still fight the good fight against the enemies of the Imperium in one way or another.

The Deep Striders
Due to translation errors, and suspected Alpha Legion sabotages, between the Jonmarines and the Deep Striders, a considerable amount of information the Jonmarines have in relation to the Deep Striders has been considered incorrect. According to some records, the Deep Striders, known as the “Sand Vultures”, are from the world of “Eversummer”, but this has since been corrected; the Deep Striders are from the Batavian sub-sector, where, on the world of Java prime, a large area of arid land, known as Eversummer, was rumoured by locals to be the hunting grounds of entities known as Sand Vultures. As such, efforts to correct these incorrect logs is currently underway, even if considerable, for understandable reasons, delays, are inevitable.

The Drakken Harbingers
The Drakken Harbingers are a chapter that the Jonmarines have only operated alongside once. While little is known of their heritage or their previous actions, the Second Mythradates XVI Incident revealed not only their combat traditions, but also parts of their role in the Victoria Phyrri, making the Drakken far more important to the Jonmarines, who hadn’t known of the Drakken beforehand, than what was previously assumed. Due to their chapter master, at the time, ordering his fleet to follow the heretical fleet that would soon land on Fulcana, the Drakken Harbingers were able to destroy much of the traitors as they landed, making the job of the Lamenters, Knights Celestial and the Knights’ successors of defending the world slightly easier than the struggle that it could have been.

The Idroslvian Dynasty
The Necron Dynasty of Idroslvia has, arguably, become one of the greatest foes of the Jonmarines chapter, second only to the forces of the Malalites Reborn and their violent Praetorian. Its leadership is callous, constantly shifting in and out of states of hostile insanity and brutally decisive lucidity, intelligent in both arcane sciences and tactical acumen, and cruel in its execution of the wishes of their Phaeron, Irvotekh, who the Jonmarines mistakenly know as “Irotek”. Yet, knowledge of their actions after their resurrection after the Great Sleep is but half of Idroslvia’s insidious tale.

Idroslvia rebuilt itself as a great domain within the final phases of the War in Heaven, when the Necrontyr had become the soulless Necrons. The worlds of Heraphax, known to the Imperium as Hexos, and Miphrakh, known as Mythradates XVI, alongside plenty more of Idroslvia’s worlds, were retaken from the Old Ones in but a fraction of the time it had taken to originally seize them, as new worlds fell under Idroslvia’s rule through opportune seizure of what had been Sautekh territory before the War in Heaven. However, upon arrival in Idroslvia’s system, a far different threat awaited. Without Idroslvia’s knowledge, the Realm of Souls had become turbulent and malicious as the Old Ones tried to fight the necrons with beings integrally linked to the warp, psykers. When these died, their essence stirred the Realm of Souls, and, as war consumed the Galaxy once more, suffering and spite were added as integral parts of the maelstrom that the Realm of Souls was becoming. Idroslvia had apparently become the epicentre of what happened next.

Irvotekh, aboard by the newly renamed Eschatological Inevitability, and his forces discovered the Old One forces, a mix of Krork, Aeldari and other races, already battling the outcome of the Realm of Souls’ destabilisation.

A rent in reality, about as tall as a monolith, had emerged on the site of where Pteronakh’s Palace of Liberation, a monument celebrating Idroslvia’s first victory over Sautekh, had once stood ages before, spewing beings known as the Enslavers into reality. Alongside these Enslavers, however, came other entities, that, in neatly ordered ranks of complete anarchy, worked alongside one another to tear both themselves and their foes apart, with claws as sharp as cut obsidian yet as soft as feathers. Pure, undivided chaos followed these beings of suffering, spite, violence and carnage, just as they themselves were made of it.

At their head, emerging once its daemonic host had fully materialised itself, was an Eleven-horned beast that diminutively towered above all else, bearing in one of its four, ever shifting, black and white, hands, a blazing sword that froze the air around it, before immediately, reluctantly, charging the Old Ones’ lines. Taking advantage of this assault, Irvotekh ordered his forces to both destroy the Old Ones’ ships still in orbit and commence assaults on their world below.

With Idroslvia’s entrance into the war for their crownworld, the Eleven horned beast identified itself and revealed its intentions. Its name was Tu’ kaaraak’ ut, the Dividing Unifier, Greater Daemon of the Primordial Anarchy, Thrall of the Renegade God, and this world would be the epicentre of Ruination’s emergence. As this aim was unthinkable to all, Irvotekh ordered his forces to thus rid Idroslvia of the invader and it’s host, even if that meant siding with the hated Old Ones, if only temporarily; their deaths would come soon enough.

While details of the battle are either unknown, lost to time or have been corrupted by later Malalites Reborn incursion, at the climax of the battle, a chain of events that would echo down the ages forever more began. Irvotekh took to the battlefield alongside his reiteration of Pteronakh’s Rebellion Phalanxes, twelve dozen Lychguard phalanxes, one representing Pteronakh’s original assembly of bodyguards and the other eleven for each of Pteronakh’s Nemesors, as the leader of the Old Ones’ troops, a crystalline being known as the Leader-Shard, of the Grosvarak species, another of the Old Ones’ creations, was slain by the Dividing Unifier, dropping what appeared to be a spear to the ground. The daemon appeared hesitant to approach the weapon, even as it gloated over the Leader-Shard’s broken rubble, convincing Irvotekh to claim the weapon as his own.

Here, Irvotekh would discover that the spear was not a weapon, but a prototype containment device. Activating the device caused a surge of power to emit from it, destabilising the Dividing Unifier and dragging it towards itself and the spear’s bearer. Instead of this leading to the Diving Unifier slaying Irvotekh, the greater daemon was sucked into the spear’s bladed head, even as it flailed its arms and waved its sword, in an attempt to escape. With the beast contained, the rift destabilised, shimmered, and then collapsed entirely, causing the Dividing Unifier’s own thralls, and presumably the Enslavers alongside them, to dissipate soon afterwards. The surviving Old Ones troops, now immediately aware of what was to follow, pitifully attempted to defend themselves against the necrons, leading to the Slaughter of Idroslvia, the only account made detailing such written by Irvotekh himself. With no means of escape, none but those whom Irvotekh permitted to live, would survive the campaign of extermination, and those unfortunate enough to have been selected as “the lucky ones” would find themselves imprisoned deep below Idroslvia’s surface as the subjects of the many esoteric weapons that Irvotekh wished to develop to better slay their fellows, just as he had developed during the first bout of Wars of Succession against his own kind.

Between now, and then, however, Idroslvia has been the subject of a number of horrific setbacks. Indeed, it is correct to claim that Irvotekh’s necessary action in containing the Dividing Unifier was the right option, but it was also the option that convinced astartes of the Terran Guard chapter, led by Crysos Morturg, to take what he knew as the “Key to our victory” from the catacombs on Syradus, today known as Syrphaust, a world within the Lawsunda Majoris, becoming possessed by the Greater Daemon within. As a result of this conversion, the Terran Guard were no more, becoming the Malalites Reborn instead. The Dividing Unifier, intent on freeing itself from the Containment Device, commanded Morturg, now known as the Praetorian, to harvest the souls of both the living and the dead, to strengthen it sufficiently enough to warrant its release.

Irvotekh reanimated following not a signal from Krugestaal, but a massive amount of seismic activity on Idroslvia’s surface. Events unbeknownst to the human forces that had claimed Idroslvia, and most of the crownsystem, as their own domain, were unfolding. Another group of humans, known to themselves as the Malalites Reborn, but the “Daemon-slaved” to Idroslvia, which, Kyratlaar already knew contained elements of the Terran Guard that had stolen Irvotekh’s Containment Device, were attempting to bore a tunnel into Idroslvia’s catacombs through the use of psykers and their baleful warp powers. While this effort was catastrophically unsuccessful, garnering many a callous laugh from the mentally deteriorating Phaeron-Regent, it alerted Idroslvia’s defences, which in turn initiated reactivation protocols.

So concerned with building a network of Containment Lattices, great shield generators that were supposed to protect Idroslvia from bombardment was Irvotekh, before the Great Sleep, however, that the artificial intelligence tasked with reanimating Idroslvia’s contingent of troops had to forcibly deactivate systems that had been given the singular task of erecting the massive pylons buried deep underground, which delayed Idroslvia’s proper reactivation to such an extent that the Idroslvian Dynasty’s Crownworld garrison did not only find itself at war with just the human forces of the Imperium on Idroslvia, but also those supporting baleful Warp-entities, including the patron of Irvotekh’s nemesis, Malal, and an extragalactic horror that Irvotekh named the “Consumer Beasts”.

With this, the Idroslvian Dynasty added itself to the forces that beset the Jonmarines during the Howling Dark, and such, became hated by Lawsunda’s defenders, as Irvotekh ordered his forces to slay all that were before them, including Jonmarines, wiping out the Fifth and Seventh companies, horrified Astra Millitarum, which had never fought such creatures as necrons before, and, most insidiously, civilians, unarmed, wounded, and often both alike. Those who weren’t killed, even worse, were dragged back into Idroslvia’s catacombs to be experimented upon by Idroslvia’s Crypteks.

While the atrocities that Idroslvia has committed against the Jonmarines and their mortal charges are horrific, the Jonmarines have prevailed against the undying necrons numerous times. The world of Veldvarsik, where the Jonmarines made their fateful, if not inadvertent, intervention into the Carnosaur-Wyvern War, is also the site where the tide was turned against Irvotekh. Once back on Lawsunda itself, the Jonmarines defied Irvotekh by rescuing Jonavaux Lericberguson from their homeworld‘s now devastated earth, but on Mythradates XVI, many years beyond the Howling Dark, Idroslvia won an important victory over the Jonmarines.

As a show of dominance, Irvotekh intercepts all communications channels between the ships of the Jonmarines and Drakken Harbingers, and announces the truth of who “Pralomak Mihos” truly is, before engaging the Lord of Ruin in single combat. While both the chapter masters of the Jonmarines and the Drakken Harbingers would come to Malakim’s aid, and smash Irvotekh into the ground, distrust between Jonmarine and Lamenter is created, while valuable intelligence as to where the Jonmarines are going next and why is revealed.

Thus begins a period of forced cooperation between the Jonmarines and Idroslvia. Having followed the Jonmarines to the Lokus Sector, Irvotekh demands that the Jonmarines aid him in defeating the Malalites Reborn, and reclaiming his artefact, lest the Dividing Unifier releases itself, apparently learning of the intended target of the Tenth Pentagonal Alliance through unknown means. The Jonmarines accept this not only once, but, later, after the Defence of Lokus, and during the subsequent Baal Crusade, a second time, as then the Jonmarines and Lamenters found themselves unable to venture into the warp due to their navigators and Astropaths losing sight of the Astronomicon, resulting in the Baal Crusade exchanging assurance of aid in the war against the Reborn for passage through the Webway via a Dolmen Gate.

The Malalites Reborn
Soulless pawns of Malal, Malice, the lord of Anarchy, the master of the domain of Ruination, the Renegade God, and led by their Praetorian, the Malalites Reborn are a chaos warband that has become a dangerous force indeed. Growing from strength to strength by any means necessary, including a number of unholy alliances with other, more ‘conventional’ warbands known as ‘Pentagonal Alliances of Chaos Undivided’, the Reborn are now far more dangerous than ever before, and have wrought havoc across the Imperium Nihilus as such. Their wanton, anarchical assaults are enacted with one, sole, purpose, however, namely that of releasing an avatar of their Renegade God, Tu’ kaaraak’ ut, the Dividing Unifier, Greater Daemon of the Primordial Anarchy, Thrall of the Renegade God, from its confinement within the “Key of the Dividing Unifier”, a weapon created by the Old Ones during the War in Heaven, and selfishly hoarded by the necron Idroslvian Dynasty. Currently, the Jonmarines have been responsible for the destruction of two of these Alliances, the Ninth and Tenth Pentagonal Alliances, thanks to their actions within the Howling Dark and the Defence of Lokus respectively.

The tactics employed by the Reborn make them increasingly dangerous as wars drag on against them. While the Praetorian is intelligent enough to undermine weaknesses within the Codex Astartes and whatever other doctrine employed by the foe, as more and more of the foe join the ranks of the Reborn, the enemy may begin to find its tactics employed directly upon itself. Tau, for example, may find their long-range artillery destroyed from afar, or, more nefariously, from stealth-suit wearing Malalettes and Reborn Tau, while, more notably, the Jonmarines found their own Commandarius Doctrine both employed and used against them.

The Malalites Reborn’s most notable feature is, however, the process of recruiting new forces, astartes and cultist alike. Like the scavenger that their Renegade God is, the Reborn will comb battlefields where available for weapons, armour and ammunition, similarly to orks, but unlike orks, the wounded and the dead are extracted as well. Once recovered, a commanding individual, often a sorcerer, or a Malalite Daemon, within the Reborn will subject the dead, dying and wounded alike to the ritual known as Rebirth, wherein the subject’s soul is violently torn from their body and fed to the Dividing Unifier. The Key of the Dividing Unifier is not impeded by physical distances between this ritual and the Key to accept the soul, as the Renegade God’s power ensures that any souls taken by Rebirth are consumed by his avatar regardless of size, whereabouts or other feature, but soulless beings, such as necrons, which long ago had their souls consumed by the C’tan, are impervious to this ritual.

Once completed, the Reborn subject loses their intellect and autonomy, becoming little more than mindless slaves to the whims of the Praetorian, similarly to the mindless drones necron warriors are, unless they have been deemed worthy by the Reborn leadership, wherein they will retain a modicum of their autonomy and intellect, usually attributed to whatever feature the Reborn deemed useful to the whims of the Praetorian and the Renegade God. Often, any tactical knowledge that the victim retained will be harvested, allowing for the Reborn to use this for future operations against the newly Reborn’s former comrades. Moreover, where deemed appropriate, the Renegade God may grant specific newly Reborn with curse-blessings that either aid or hinder their combat prowess, maintaining the adage that the Renegade God protect-abandons his own as much as the Renegade God abandon-protects.

Those Reborn deemed worthy of keeping part of their autonomy will also be given a new, palindromic, name created from parts of their old one, as a representation of their limited autonomy and to continue naming conventions started by the Dividing Unifier, other Malalitic Daemons, and the Praetorian, Mortatrom.

The side effect of Rebirth will coat the armour, skin and even the internal organs of the subject in an ash-like substance known as the Sand of Ruination, a harkening back to the first Rebirth on the world of Mythradates XVI, covering any signs of past allegiances and replacing them with sigils associated with the Reborn, usually focusing on the numeral XI, and, in some cases, a primitive recreation of Malal’s holy numeral through ‘II’. Thus, when the Malalites Reborn march to war as part of a Pentagonal Alliance, they often do so as a blotch of dark grey contrasted with the vibrant multichromatic, ever-mutagenic, colours of Tzeench, the harsh reds and bronze of Khorne, the sickly, gaudy colours of Slaanesh, the plague ridden greens and blue green rust of corrosion of Nurgle, and even in contrast with the quartered black and whites of the Sons of Malice, their closest allies.

The Hydrakoi Protocol: Jonmarine - Alpha Legion Relations
Following the assumption that the hydra symbols discovered during the Howling Dark were indeed linked to the same Alpha Legion that aided both the Jonmarines and the Lamenters in reclaiming the Mater Lacrimarum from the hands of the Malalites Reborn, the Jonmarines have been placed in a difficult position. The Alpha Legion appears willing to side with them in combating the threat of the Malalites Reborn and their allies, the Sons of Malice, and the devastating goal they are both striving towards, but to side with the traitors that the Alpha Legion are known to be is inconceivable, considering that many terrorist attacks on Imperial citizens have been traced back to the Alpha Legion, and cults working alongside the Alpha Legion, including those on Lawsunda itself.

To this end, Jonavaux and his Second Chapter Commandarius, alongside Malakim and his chapter command staff, have forged the so-called “Hydrakoi protocol” as a precaution. Any Alpha Legion astartes discovered operating within, or alongside, Jonmarine or Lamenter forces must be incapacitated, disarmed, and brought before either Malakim and Jonavaux themselves, or any leadership of both the Jonmarines or the Lamenters. Then, the Legionary is to be interrogated by both physical and by psychic means in an attempt to reveal the truth of what the Alpha Legion are “up to” in the war zone. If the Alpha Legionary reveals the Alpha Legion are intended on aiding the Jonmarines and Lamenters, cooperation may be permitted, but if any malicious intents towards either chapter, or the Imperium at large, is revealed, the Legionary will be put to death, before any information found is used against his allies; the Alpha Legion are devastating in their surprise attacks, and deserve no mercy as such.

Notable Quotes
Feel free to add your own

By the Jonmarines
"For the Emperor! For the Primarch! For the Founder!"

- Typical Jonmarine warcry

"Once more, brothers, sisters! Once more we shall smite the chittering tide of this Howling Dark!"

- High Reclusius Haedvust Kalviathan, Chaplain of the First Company, to not only his fellow veterans, but a disparate force of Adepta Soritas, Guardsmen and militsiya too, as they defended a spaceport used by evacuating Lawsundan citizens against Hive Fleet Cthullhulirus’ onslaught. Haedvust would be killed soon afterwards, however, by the Hive Tyrant known to history as the "Ripperdon", still bellowing words of encouragement to his brothers and sisters, and litanies of hatred towards their extra-galactic foe, even as the Ripperdon tore his terminator-armoured limbs from his body, before eviscerating the bleeding out High Reclusius. Haedvust is still remembered to this day, however, for he coined the term 'Howling Dark' that is still used to this day.

"The light that the Founder brought to this corner of the Emperor’s Imperium shall not go out, even if there is but one of us left!"

- Konstantinos Hangmann, Chaplain of the Fourth Company and later High Reclusius, at the battle of El’Cavarin’s Hive.

"We bring light to the Darkness! We are the Illuminators!"

- Warcry employed by the Sixth Company, especially when combatting Malalites Reborn Heretical Astartes, or Heretical Astartes linked to the Reborn, a telling reference to the Sixth's role in ending the Howling Dark.

"Take to the stars, Praedus. Go, let me finish what Haarvik started! Irotek must die, and I will happily perish bringing that death about!"

- Jonavaux Lericberguson, later known as the Saviour, to Praedus Hallic, newly appointed First Captain, shortly after Lericberguson ordered his chapter to flee Lawsunda. This order soon turned into a full evacuation from Lawsunda Majoris

"It's within our nature to survive, xeno. Even if I’m the last one left, the Jonmarines will, must, find a way to survive; our Founder commands us to do so."

- Jonavaux Lericberguson, later known as the Saviour, to an Ældari 'striking scorpion' warrior known as Bodhaerys he rescued during the ‘Lericberguson War’

"We thought our world to be free of them. The Malalites Reborn proved us wrong, and we paid for our oversight in lives, in blood, in carnage, in flames."

- Jonavaux Lericberguson, later known as the Saviour, to an unnamed Deep Striders astartes shortly after the ‘end’ of the ‘Lericberguson War’

Feel free to add your own

About the Jonmarines
"Asteralix's endeavour is our only hope of survival, even if it is survival via memory or remembrance, even if it is remembrance in a tiny passage in a dusty, forgotten, book."

- Malakim Phoros, Lord of Ruin and Watcher of the Deeps, Chapter Master of the Lamenters, to Perseus Aphes, the Blade of Sorrow, Chapter Champion of the Lamenters, on the founding of the Jonmarines

"They are pests, parasites. Parasites that I intend to destroy!"

- Irvotekh, Phaeron of Idroslvia, to Kyratlaar, Lord-Regent of Idroslvia.

"I promised the Jonmarines that our forces would not suffer a single casualty, that we would rescue the Lamenters, and kill everyone on this ship."

- [REDACTED], to an unknown Malalite Reborn astartes, before he initiated internal venting protocols aboard the Mater Lacrimarum, slaying every heretic aboard, and purging all daemonic taint from the Lamenters' fortress-monastery in the process, during the Defence of Lokus. Later after-action reports made by Captain Librarium Angelica Kaecelion Vryidissus, and Captains Marcus Haruc, Valerion Wereseus and Antonius Selus, all suggest that [REDACTED] is behind this attack, and, as a result, were aided in taking the Mater Lacrimarum by the Alpha Legion.

"...in Howling Darkness Kraken is clad, crashing upon Idroslvia and Corpse Anathema loyalist alike. The War of Deniers, their pest control, their Krichasher Nochya... Saviour demands the retreat that costs Ruination it's Alliance, Deniers break Wyvernchains, Deniers slay Poxmaster, Bloodyhanded, Machine Changer, Lord of Kingqueen’s Night, Sixth-no-more!"

- The Scrying of Revelation, a collection of texts found carved by the Malalites Reborn across and throughout the Mater Lacrimarum, the once abandoned fortress-monastery of the Lamenters chapter which had been occupied by the Reborn, found within a maintenance shaft directly below Malakim's personal chambers.

"You are the Deniers, Corpse-Anathema worshiper. The Renegade God cares profuse-little as to what you call yourself."

- The Praetorian of Malal, known apparently as ‘Mortatrom’, via intercepted vox traffic during the Defence of Lokus, and, later, the Skirmish above Syrphaust.

"The ‘Hydrakoi protocol?’ With all due respect, but Lericberguson and Phoros both sound paranoid. If myself, or [REDACTED], wanted you and your brothers killed, why, we’d have done it back in the Lokus Sector. No, cousin, [REDACTED] commands that we must fight together to slay the Praetorian."

- The "Labyrinth Walker", an Alpha Legionary armed with terminator armour decorated with Sons of Malice colours during the first implementation of the Hydrakoi protocol, to an enraged Konstantinos Hangmann, shortly after the son of the Hydra was teleported aboard the Lawsundan Avengement after the Skirmish over Syrphaust.