Sons Sanguine

The Sons Sanguine are a Codex-compliant Successor Chapter of the Angels Sanguine created during the ill-fated 21st 'Cursed' Founding. As inheritors of the lineage of the angelic Primarch Sanguinius, the Sons Sanguine have also inherited the twin genetic flaws which linger over their Chapter like a shadow. Though they possess a enviable history of heroism and valour, rumours and unease surround them. Like their genetic forbears, the Angels Sanguine, the Sons Sanguine also shield their faces from those they fight alongside. They also possess a higher number of Librarians than normal.

Founding
The Sons are one of the few 21st Founding Chapters that haven't turned traitor or been declared perditus by the Inquisition. They were established on Sanggraal to share with the Night Walkers the duty of supporting the Imperial Naval and Guard forces manning the Wall.

The Fifth Black Crusade (901.M36)
The new Chapter's major test came at the end of the 36th millenium. Aliris Sector was a major theater of that war, Abaddon meeting such fierce resistance on 'The Wall' that he eventually attempted to go around it only to be checked and his fleet destroyed in the Battle of the Void beyond the fringes of the Prodomos Reach.

The Cloud Campaigns (305.M39)
The Sons Sanguine were set the task of suppressing a rebel alliance of worlds deep in the cloud alongside the Storm Wardens and their progenitor Chapter the Angels Sanguine.

The Battle of Hubris (833.M41)
A space battle of the Vraks Campaign notable for its one sidedness in which a battle group of the Sons Sanguine ambushed and destroyed a schismatic fleet attempting to bring aid to the rebels in the Hubris system.

Chapter Homeworld
Sanggraal is the Chapter homeworld of the Sons Sanguine. The northern continent consists of arid plains ringed by mountains that catch most of the moisture coming inland creating a fringe of relatively paradisiacal coastal lands. The larger southern continent goes from desert to steaming jungle as you travel southward. Sanggraal is a feudal world for the most part with feral tribes wandering the depths of the southern jungles. The Imperial Creed is the dominant religion of the numerous, quarreling kingdoms and principalities and the cultus of St. Sanguinius. The warrior nobility who govern the planet are proud to give their sons to the Chapter.

Fortress-Monastery
he Filius Angelum is built on and into a spire of rock rising high above the city of Sanguinore, capital of Astrius, the largest of the Feudal Kingdoms. The Fortress is dominated by the Angel's Spire, a multi-leveled spiral tower containing the Brother's quarters and tipped by the Shrine of the Grail. Armouries and training halls are hollowed out the living rock. Farther down you find the dark Dungeon of the Cursed, where the members of the Death Company are restrained. Here too is a blood stained stone table to which victims of the Dark Rage are bound after their Fall in the hope they will regain control. A surprising number do.

The Reclusium of the Chapter is housed in a many spired and golden domed building separate from the main tower. Here is the Hall of Transforming, the chapels of the Chapter relics, and the Memoriam to Fallen Brothers. Adjoining it are the barracks of the aspirants and the Mechanicus laboratories where the gene-seed is nurtured.

Chapter Serfs and their families occupy a fairly large town outside the walls of the Fortress proper but above and entirely separate from the city below

Chapter Organisation
The Sons Sanguine follow the standard Blood Angels successor scheme of organization.

Command Ranks

 * Master of Angels - The Master of the Chapter is known as the Master of Angels or Angelic Master.
 * Angel of Blood - Also called the High Priest of the Grail, he is first among the Grail Priests.
 * Angel of Council - Also called Father Predicant, he is the Master of Faith for the Chapter.
 * Guardian Captain - The senior commander of the Guardian Angels.

Specialist Ranks

 * Grail Priests - Grail Priests are the Sons' equivalent of the Blood Angels' Sanguinary Priests.
 * Brother Predicants - These are the Sons' equivalent of a Chaplain.

Specialist Formations

 * Angelic Choir - Master of Angel's personal council is called the Angelic Choir which consists of the senior officers of the Chapter.
 * Guardian Angels - The Sons' equivalent of the Blood Angels' Sanguinary Guard.
 * Angels of Virtue - These are the ten company captains. Each captain and his company bear the title of one of the Imperial Virtues: Wisdom, Justice, Courage, Endurance, Temperance, Prudence, Loyalty, Magnanimity, Patience and Carefulness.
 * The Reborn - The Reborn is the Sons' specialist Honour Guard, so-called due to the fact they are comprised entirely of those Brethren who have successfully battled the Black Rage upon the Stone Table and emerged victorious.

Chapter Recruitment
Every twenty or so years the Master of Angels declares a jubilee year the main feature of which are the Sanguinary Games, gladiatorial contests by which aspirants to the Chapter are winnowed out of a field of several thousand candidates. Many of these youths are from noble and royal houses but there is no requirement of birth and boys of any class may compete.

Those who die in the arena, provided they die bravely, are believed to join the Army Spiritual of St. Sanguinius and are venerated as the guardian angels of Sangraal. Boys who survive but are not chosen by the Angelic Master to become Astartes are revered as Living Champions of Sanguinius and are appointed to commands in the Levies sent to fight on the Wall.

The chosen aspirants, usually between forty or fifty in number, ascend to the top of the Angel's Spire where they take part in their first Blood Communion with their brethren after which they are interred in their sarcophagi to undergo their transformation into Astartes.

The sarcophagi of the Sons Sanguine are each an individual work of art carved from fine white desert alabaster, shell thin and translucent, patterned with the protective wings of the four figures of St. Sanguinius embracing the four corners of the sarcophagus. The lid is decorated with yet another Icon of the Saint inlaid in wires of gold. The interior of this work of art is packed with the Holy Technology necessary to support the aspirant during his transformation.

As with other Blood Angels' successor chapters there are a few cases of aspirants becoming conscious before the Year of Transformation is complete. Unlike the unfortunates of the parent chapter Sons' neophytes awake not to darkness but to a sea of luminous white light dominated by the smiling figure of the Holy Primarch. Such Neophytes emerge enlightened not damaged and are noted for their spiritual strength and holiness. No such Astarte has ever fallen to the Black Rage.

Each sarcophagi is unique to the Astarte it is made for. After the Transformation it serves as his sleep place and finally as his coffin.

Combat Doctrine
Though planet-based, the Sons specialize in ship-bourne void operations. They are masters of an extensive fleet manned by dedicated chapter vassals recruited on Sanggraal. It is probable that this preference developed in part because of the Flaw in their gene-seed giving the Astartes of this Chapter certain advantages in vacuum operations.

Chapter Gene-Seed
"I may be the only person outside of the Chapter to see a Son Sanguine's bare face. I spent the next thirty minutes apologizing for laughing."

- St. Athaliah the Flame

The Sons Sanguine share the reclusive tendencies of their progenitor Chapter. Like the Angels Sanguine they conceal their faces from outsiders with their helmets and even from each other with deep monkish hoods. The Angels' reasons for doing so are unknown but the Sons have something to hide; an embarrassing though probably not dangerous mutation.

The genetors of the 21st Founding succeeded to a degree in 'improving' the Sons Sanguine's gene-seed. The Chapter have a significantly lower occurrence of the Black Rage and Red Thirst than that of other Blood Angel successors. The Sons seek to control the latter by regular Blood Communions, in which the mingled blood of the Battle-Brothers is ritually consumed in hopes of thus appeasing the demon within. Unfortunately thanks to a malfunction of the mucranoid gland the Sons are permanently sealed in a waxy shield that gives their pallid skin a disturbing sheen and glitter due to salts crystallised in the coating. It is unknown if their progenitor Chapter also suffers from this flaw or if the Angels Sanguine hide their faces from outsiders for completely different reasons. The Flaw, while embarrassing is not without its advantages. Sons Sanguine are almost completely immune to extremes of climate and capable of withstanding poisonous atmospheres or vacuum for long periods with no more than a rebreather unit.

Chapter Colours
The Sons Sanguine primarily wear blood red power armour with a gold coloured faceplate. The Aquila or Imperialis on the chest guard is also gold in colour. The shoulder pauldrons are painted black, edged with red.

Chapter Badge
The Sons Sanguine Chapter badge is a stylised bleeding heart that possesses a pair of angel wings.

Chapter Fleet

 * Orbital Void-Station/Shipyard
 * Four Battle Barges
 * Ten Strike Cruisers
 * Forty Escort Ships

Relations
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Allies
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Notable Quotes
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By the Sons Sanguine
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About the Sons Sanguine
"Let me put it this way; they have very good reasons for hiding their faces which are not in the least heretical."

- St. Athaliah the Flame to Inquisitor Jaq Shadoe

"I wonder, if I skin you and hang up your flayed hide as a trophy, will it preserve better? It's quite nice and sparkly. Maybe it would make good parchment."

- Valkyura Warpschild, pondering over and taunting a Sons Sanguine for their muchanoid mutation.

"You sleep in coffins?" "These are sarcophagi of transformation. They are places of rest and healing." "You sleep in coffins!""

- Conversation between St. Athaliah the Flame and a Sons Sanguine Grail Priest