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Space Marine Chapter Articles

Blood Bearers
"We shall strike them first! We shall strike them hard! We shall show no mercy to the herotic, apostate, or the alien! This day shall be their last!"

- Lord Commander Azrael Kane The Blood Bearers are a loyalist Space Marine Successor Chapter of the bloodline of Sanguinius, created during the dawning of the 32nd Millennium during the 3rd Founding. An extremely reclusive chapter, the Blood Bearers are stoutly bound to the Blood Angels, united by the blood of their Primarch Sanguinius that flows through their veins and ancient traditions that outsiders find difficult to understand. Their loyalty to the memory of their Primarch transcends all other duties and concerns. Being born from the Blood Angels' gene-seed, the Blood Bearers also carry the Flaw inherent in their gene-stock. The Blood Bearers do not deny their blood-lust, and in turn have learned to embrace it, making it a central part of their rituals. The Chapter thereby seems to have achieved an unparalleled level of restraint over their Flaw.

Chapter History
The Blood Bears were created in 021.M31 as a 3rd Founding Successor Chapter of the bloodline of Sanguinius. This Founding occurred in the wake of the Great Scouring, the seven-year long campaign of reciprocity against the Traitor Legions following the conclusion of the galaxy-wide conflict known as the Horus Heresy. Since their inception, the Blood Bearers have remained stoutly bound to the Chapters of the Blood. As proud Scions of Sanguinius they are united by the blood of their Primarch that flows through their veins and the ancient traditions that outsiders find difficult to understand. Their loyalty to the memory of their Primarch transcends all other duties and concerns. Being born from the bloodline of Sanguinius' gene-seed, the Blood Bearers too, carries the Flaw inherent in their gene-stock. The Blood Bearers does not deny their blood-lust, and in turn have learned to embrace it, making it a central part of their rituals. The Chapter thereby seems to have achieved an unparalleled level of restraint over the Red Thirst and the Black Rage.

The Blood Bearers are a ferocious and uncompromising Chapter, caring little for frivolities such as politics or bureaucracy, being only concerned with meeting whatever foe threatens the domains of the God-Emperor and striking them down without mercy before continuing on to the next battle. The Blood Bearers believed even a moment's respite from battle or from the preparation for battle to be unacceptable.

Chapter Home World
Scattered records of the Blood Bearers imply that the Chapter has no set home world, instead functioning as a fleet-based Chapter. The follow a much rarer operational strategy for its warfleet known as the 'Nomad-Predation' pattern. This allows the Blood Bearers to be an entirely sovereign force that can sustain itself with any support whatsoever. As a Nomad-Predation fleet, the Blood Bearers voyage indefinitely, tarrying only to identify and engage the foes of man. After engaging and destroying potential threats, the fleet acquires resources from their vanquished foes.

Gene-Seed
"The blood of Sanguinius runs in our veins and ours is the honour of the Angels."

- Brother Captain Catelios of the Blood Bearers

The gene-seed of the Blood Bearers bears all the hallmarks of the Successor Chapters of the Blood Angels. But despite their state, they are worthy inheritors of the Red Angel, and are an honour to the pride and glory of their ancestors. The Blood Bearers share many traits with their Progenitors, including the tragic flaw, known as the Red Thirst that afflicts the line of Sanguinius. This curse manifests in the form of a fiery, zealous temperament that drives the Chapter to ever-greater heights of valour. It has been said of these Scions of Sanguinius have many battle honours they have earned over the millenniums, but it is also true that these have come at a terrible price.

Where other Chapters might retire after a hard fought campaign to rebuild and reconstitute their numbers, the Blood Bearers plunge headlong into the next battle. Rarely is any time given over to recuperation, meaning that the Chapter is seldom operating at anything like full strength. It has been surmised that the Blood Bearers fight in this manner as a means of staving off the worst effects of the Flaw, but some well-placed observers have posited an alternative possibility. Perhaps, they whisper, the Blood Bearers fight the way they do to purge their ranks of those in the grip of the Red Thirst.

The Blood Bearers, like their antecedents the Blood Angels, adhere as closely to the praxis of their Primogenitors as the Flaw allows – they discern the Blood Angel’s trammels as a form of discipline that can be used to restrain the Red Thirst. For the most part the Blood Bearers mimic their Primogenitors in most regards. No one knows exactly how the Blood Bearers has managed to keep the Flaw at bay or their low numbers when it comes to their Death Company. Those who think well of the Chapter, a number which includes the Blood Angels, believe that it is because of their devotion to the Emperor and Sanguinius as well as a display of iron will that is remarkable.

Chapter Organisation
The Blood Bearers Chapter is divided into Companies of varying sizes and specialisation, each led by an officer with the rank of Captain. Due their propensity for engaging in neverending conflict, the Blood Bearers have often been forced to merge remnants of their depleted forces into viable battle groups. When a Company sustains too many losses, negating their ability to operate alone, they will often merge with another full-strength Company. New Companies are also regularly created by combining a body of newly inducted Scout Marines with a handful of veterans from other Companies, who then take up the designation of one of the Dominions Companies. Regardless of size, a Company is divided in squads of various specialites - Tactical, Destroyer, Assault, and Veteran. In the larger Companies, there is an informal hierarchy to allow the Captain to focus on the overall tactical picture. Squad leaders who have displayed a talent for leadership might then be granted the title of Centurion, and act as their Captain's second-in-command. These Centurions are earmarked for possible senior command in the future, and are often considered Captains-in-training.

Specialist Ranks
The Blood Bearers' order of battle contains several specialist formations and officer positions not present in other Space Marine Legions:
 * Centurion - A Centurion is a rank held by a senior Astartes that serves as a middle-tier battle line officer, as well as taking on more specialised functions which help give its unusual operational depth and strategic flexibility. Centurions are earmarked for possible senior command in the future, and are often considered Captains-in-training.
 * Death Company Chaplains - A Death Company Chaplain is a specialist officer rank unique to the Blood Bearers. Charged with leading a Death Company into battle, he soars into combat on crimson wings, the Death Company Chaplain leading his fallen brothers afflicted by the genetic Flaw known as the Black Rage. The Death Company Chaplain booms a constant litany of hatred and vengeance, exhorting his brothers to give meaning to their sacrifice before their tragic and inevitable end. This deeply spiritual warrior acts as the light of the Angel himself, a guiding illumination that those brothers lost to the Black Rage can follow into glory and death. He is a beacon of sanity, the eye of a bloody storm, and the last sight that many of his luckless foes will set eyes upon before their savage demise.
 * Exsanguinator Priests - The Blood Bearers' Exsanguinator Priests are the custodians of the blood of Sanguinius himself. They serve in the role of the Chapter's Apothecaries, as well as partially fulfilling the role of spiritual leaders within the Chapter who lead their fellow battle-brothers in their rituals and blood rites. Whilst the sermons and ceremonies of the Chapter's Chaplains exhort their battle-brothers to reject the anger within, those performed by the Exsanguinator Priests call upon the Blood Bearers to embrace the Red Thirst and wrest it to their control; unleashing its strength to buttress theirs when the day is darkest and the battle goes ill. As with the Apothecaries of other Chapters, the foremost concern of the Exsanguinator Priests is to conserve the Chapter's gene-seed.
 * Chaplains - The role of Chaplains also differs within the Blood Angels Chapter, for their responsibilities are solely geared towards guarding against the Black Rage and psychologically ministering to those who fall both to it and the equally terrible curse of the Red Thirst. The traditional spiritual role played by most Astartes Chaplains is instead played in the Blood Bearers by the officers known as the Exsanguinator Priests.
 * Sanguinary Guard - A major deviance from other Chapters by the Angels is the existence of the elite Honour Guard known as the Sanguinary Guard, which includes 30 of the Chapter's best and most Veteran Astartes. They use modified Jump Packs with mechanical wings to give them a taste of their Primarch's ability for flight, so that they are transformed into true angels of death. They are clad in ancient suits of golden Artificer Armour, wielding an ancient Power Weapon in the shape of a polearm known as a Glaive Encarmine, each one of which is a Chapter relic dating back many millennia. Each member of the Sanguinary Guard is easily the equal of a full squad of their brethren and the deeds of each are carefully recorded by the Chapter's Librarians, as they are warriors second in prowess only to the company captains and their Legion Master.

Chapter Beliefs
"Ahh, to walk upon the bloodstained ground. My Brothers, remember what I have taught you. None can match our combined might. We fight as one! These curs were given a choice and they have responded with treachery against the Imperium. These mere attacks are as weak as their faith! Answer them, shot for shot and to the last -- kill them all!"

- Centurion Gideon Raf

Deathwatch Service
The Blood Bearers have a long history of service with the Deathwatch. When serving as Deathwatch Battle-Brothers, Blood Bearers hold themselves and all around them to high standards of conduct and skill. The sons of Sanguinius are experts in the use of masterpiece weapons and the launching of army-shattering assaults. Their Vanguard Veterans are an inspiring sight in the ranks of the Deathwatch.

When Blood Bearers have been selected as a Kill-team leader or ascended to the rank of Watch Captain or Commander, they can be hard task masters, yet completely competent in everything that they do. Behind the mask, the exemplar of perfection is wracked by effects of the Flaw of the Chapter. None save his fellow Sons of Sanguinius will ever know of these afflictions, and even amongst themselves, such Battle-Brothers rarely acknowledge it openly, preferring instead to suffer in dignity, until their Apocryphon Oath is discharged and they can return to their Chapter.

Notable Blood Bearers

 * Lord Commander Azrael Kane -


 * Centurion Gideon Raf - Raf is a Centurion of the Blood Bearers 9th Company. Known as a taciturn and cool-headed veteran, Raf obeys his orders without question. A trusted veteran, Gideon is often consulted by his commander, Captain Raldoron Ven. On occasion he has taken temporary command of the 9th Company in Captain Vens' abscence.

Chapter Fleet
The Blood Bearers exist as a fleet-based Chapter designed to operate solely as a warfleet on a perpetual Crusade. However, The Blood Bearers do not follow the standard Crusade pattern of operation when it comes to a Fleet based Chapter. The Chapter functions exclusively on a much rarer operational strategy for its warfleet known as the 'Nomad-Predation' pattern.This pattern utilised by the Blood Bears has matured over the millennia when operating beyond the Imperium's boundaries for prolonged ages of time. The Nomad-Predation pattern has allowed the Blood Bearers to be an entirely sovereign force that could sustain itself without any support whatsoever.The Scions of Sanguinius are ever vigilant, and are always ready for battle which is why they have chosen to remain a highly mobile, fleet-based Chapter.

The Blood Bearers fleet of the is known to contain the following starships:


 * Crimson Death (Unknown Class Battleship) - It is the personal flagship of the Blood Bearers and serves essentially as the Chapter's mobile Fortress-Monastery.


 * Red Shroud (Relic Battleship - Unknown Class) - The Red Shroud was a Relic Battleship that pre-dated the founding of the Imperium -- a veteran of centuries of nightmarish war amid the dark stars and aged in scars and honours.


 * Spear of Retribution (Battle Barge) - The Spear of Retribution is a vessel known to be present in the Blood Bearers Chapter fleet.


 * Swift Vengeance (Strike Cruisder) - Strike Cruiser assigned to the 1st Expeditionary Fleet.


 * Radiant Dawn (Strike Cruiser) - Strike Cruiser assigned to the 1st Expeditionary Fleet.


 * Fortitude (Strike Cruiser) - Strike Cruiser assigned to the 1st Expeditionary Fleet.


 * Terrible Angel (Strike Cruiser) - Strike Cruiser assigned to the 1st Expeditionary Fleet.


 * Halberd of Vengeance (Strike Cruiser) - Strike Cruiser that carried Task Force Onslaught to the Vernalis System. The Halberd earned much renown for its participation in the Gothic War.


 * Berus (Frigate) - Frigate assigned to the 1st Expeditionary Fleet.


 * Dauntless One (Frigate) - Frigate assigned to the 1st Expeditionary Fleet.


 * Inferno (Destroyer) - Destroyer assigned to the 1st Expeditionary Fleet.


 * Unbowed (Destroyer) - Destroyer assigned to the 1st Expeditionary Fleet.


 * Oath of Blood (Destroyer) - Destroyer assigned to the 1st Expeditionary Fleet.


 * Angel's Talon (Troopship) - Troopship assigned to the 1st Expeditionary Fleet.


 * Archangel's Edge (Troopship) - Troopship assigned to the 1st Expeditionary Fleet.

Chapter Colours
The Blood Bearers paint their Power Armour black, with a white Chapter badge and squad markings.The shoulders of the Power Armour are painted a dark red and the trim is gold in color. The Imperial Aquila on the chest plate is usually gold, white or black.

Heraldry of the Host
The heraldic system the Blood Bearers adhere to allows them to recognise at a glance what company and squad any given battle-brother belongs to. This swift recognition in the amidst of battle are obvious. The Blood Bearers revere their heraldry, and bear their markings as badges of pride.

Helmet Designations
Instead of using the standard Codex-compliant symbols to show a unit's role or helm colour to denote rank, the Blood Bearers' helms reflect the squad type to which they belong:
 * Assault Marine: Bone - Battle-Brother assigned to an Assault Squad
 * Tactical Marine: Black - Battle-Brother of the standard Battle Companies
 * Devastator Marine: Dark Red - Battle-Brother assigned to a Heavy Support Squad
 * Veteran Marine: Gold - 1st Company Veteran Battle-Brothers

Unlike other Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, the Blood Bearers wear the same squad markings of their Progenitors, which comprise a single symbol worn on the right knee plate of their Power Armour:


 * 1st Squad: A white skull on a black background
 * 2nd Squad: A white skull on a gold background
 * 3rd Squad: A black blood drop on a gold background
 * 4th Squad: A gold blood drop on a black background
 * 5th Squad: A gold X on a black background
 * 6th Squad: A black X on a gold background
 * 7th Squad: A gold lightning bolt on a black background
 * 8th Squad: A black lightning bolt on a gold background
 * 9th Squad: A gold angelic wing on a black background
 * 10th Squad: A black angelic wing on a gold background

Notable Quotes
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By the Blood Bearers
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