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Steel Hart
The Steel Hart are a strictly Codex-compliant Astartes Chapter, officially of Ultramarines descent. In reality, they are actually descended from Iron Warriors stock. Originating from the 3rd Founding, the Steel Hart are deeply loyal to the God-Emperor of Mankind and the eradication of His enemies, and have amassed an exemplary record in this regard. However, the Steel Hart have at times shown a disturbing and callous disregard for their own lives as long as their mission objectives are achieved. This cavalier attitude has often carried over to their auxiliaries or allies, each burdening heavy casualties alongside the Astartes Chapter.

The Steel Hart, much like their parent Chapter, are equipped well and possess a fair number of relics, though they rarely carry them into battle. The Steel Hart have been involved in numerous successful campaigns, and were often instrumental in the destruction of the enemies of the Imperium. Tales of their dedication and fortitude are well known through the Imperium, often they refuse to take even a step back in their search for Redemption. During the Indomitus Crusade the Steel Hart welcomed their Primaris recruits with open arms, seeing in them a new beginning for their Chapter untainted by their past sins.

=History= In the aftermath of the Horus Heresy, the Ultramarines Legion was inundated with the Loyalist remnants of the Traitor Legions. One of those remnants was Line Company Cervus, formerly of the Iron Warriors, lead by Captain Tarrasch Vast. Escaping from the Istvaan V Dropsite Massacre, with other survivors from the Loyalist Legions, Vast and his brothers would spend the Heresy wracked with guilt, convinced they were equally guilty for the horrors that occurred that day. The few survivors would continue to serve the Imperium as Ultramarines until the 3rd Founding in 021.M31, when Vast and his brothers were chosen to lead a new Chapter, named the Steel Hart, intended to defend the Eastern Fringe of the Ultima Segmentum, they were based upon the Feudal World of Croi.

Though their true lineage has been redacted from most Imperial records, there are always those to whom no information can be withheld. Made from the gene-seed of the brutal and unforgiving Iron Warriors Legion, the Steel Hart are viewed with contempt by those who know the truth. Being offsprings of a Traitor Legion of the ancient Legiones Astartes, the Iron Warriors were considered to be lesser in the eyes of the Emperor, which was only accentuated by their disregard for their own lives, leaving them despised and mistrusted by most Chapters they came into contact with. This was, however, more in line with the Chapter's own beliefs than against them. The Steel Hart has always been mired with regret and despair, hating themselves for their actions during the Heresy, and the deaths they caused at the Dropsite Massacre, they have chosen to bear this burden, viewing it as a suitable punishment for their actions.

The Drop Site Massacre [566.006.M31]
Line Company Cervus, lead by Captain Vast, escapes the slaughter of Istvaan V with the survivors they could gather. Captain Vykar Teav of the Raven Guard VIIth Company, along with the survivors of his Company and 3rd Squad of Cervus, was separated from the main party and assumed dead, until Legionary Sohcrah Tyr, the only survivor of 3rd Squad, was seen leading the remnants of the party to the extraction zone.

=Homeworld= Croi is a Feudal World, also classified by the Administratum as a Civilised World, located in the Eastern Fringe of Ultima Segmentum. Croi is an extremely cold, forest covered planet where the temperature rarely rises above freezing. The harsh Ice World of Croi was originally a fertile World, though it's cold climate mede crops almost impossible to grow resulting in reliance on livestock. Many romanticised records survive of its colonisation by humanity, legends depicting a world ripe for conquest. Unfortunately, Croi was destined for catastrophe. Approximately twelve thousand standard years ago, just before the end of the Age of Strife, a damaged Ork warfleet descended on the world and proceeded to fight the Croi for every gram of the precious food they had stored. The Croi held out bravely for millennia in their vast hive cities beneath the canopies but were ultimately pushed back to the food vats. Eventually they destroyed the Orks by using ice boring machines to strategically strike at the heart of the mob, burning and melting most of the Orks and scattering the rest.

Even this Greenskin invasion proved unable to blunt the Croi's indomitable spirit. Their grim refusal to surrender, despite overwhelming opposition, had won them a historic, if bloody victory. After destroying the Ork invaders on their own world, Croi Planetary Defence Force regiments, in an act of vengeance, joined with the Steel Hart Chapter to cleanse their sector of the hated Greenskin menace.

After witnessing the danger an unguarded eastern front, the Steel Hart offered themselves to the Planetary Government, who gladly accepted. Even with their new protectors, the Croi continued to display the same stoic determination that they had shown in defence of the Hive Cities of their own homeworld. To this day, the courage and tenacity of the Croi in battle continue to earn them the respect and admiration of other Imperial Worlds from all over the galaxy.

Croi soldiers are expected to carry each and every item they will need to survive. Even with their thermal jumpsuits, they would not be expected to survive more than a week deep in the arctic forests of Croi while logging without them. The armoured battle tanks and artillery units of the planet are uniformly camouflaged in a manner suited to the frozen taiga of their world, and each vehicle proudly displays the name of their homeworld on its hull.

It is common for regiments of Croi to be assigned by the Imperial Guard to Arctic Worlds, due to their natural resilience to the cold. The Steel Hart are heavily involved with their people, the Planetary Governor consulting the Chapter Master on all matters of state, and Battle Brothers standing guard against the mega-fauna that prowl the planet.

Fortress-Monastery
The Heartforge is armoured and void-shielded to withstand any siege or bombardment that might befall it. Armed to repel attackers from land, air or space, its walls bristle with enough heavy ordnance to flatten a hive city. Every aerial approach to the fortress-monastery is overlooked by Icarus Pattern Lascannons, and a Macro-laser stands like a spear of vengeance to lance space-borne enemies from the heavens. The fortress-monastery's Librarius is a lightning-wracked spire where the Chapter's Librarians study their lore and chronicle the deeds of the Steel Hart. They also preside over the Chapter's Astropaths as they relay psychic messages throughout the void, communing with the greater Imperium and those Steel Hart across the galaxy.

The Heartforge is located in the Ais Croi mountain range, usually referred to as the Ais, the largest mountain range on the planet. The mighty Fortress Monastery is situated in the Valley of Fiáin alongside the Fionn's Fall. The Steel Hart's citadel is considered a wonder of engineering, containing graceful balconies, golden geodesic domes and slender glass walkways supported by silver-steel buttresses. The vast domed structures of the fortress are citadels in their own right. It contains such locations as Thetra, a rocky promontory overlooking a waterfall, accessible from the Fortress-Monastery. According to Croi legend, the Rock was where Cormac O'Airt, former High King of Croi, beheaded the rebellious Queen Sadhbh who had began a violent civil war lasting for several bloody decades. The Steel Hart themselves use the Rock as a place of execution, for members of the Chapter who have been condemned for serious crimes.

The Library of Oisín is the Librarium of the Steel Hart Chapter, located within the Heartforge, occupying an entire spur of the range of the Ais Mountains. It is named for its founder Oisín, the first Librarian born of Croi stock and considered to be the greatest poet and scholar ever seen by the planet, if not the Imperium. This Librarium is considered one of the greatest repositories of knowledge within the entirety of the Ultima Segmentum, and it has a reputation bested only by the Ultramarines' Library of Ptolemy. The Court of Attendance was one of the original landmarks that the Heartforge was built around, a wide courtyard set in the base of the Ais Mountains. The walls had advanced from the courtyard, leaving it some way from the edge where before it had stood at the brink of man-made cliffs.

The side nearest the Hive City of Tír, the capital of Croi, bears a monumental gateway, through which pilgrims from across the Sub-Sector come to offer praise for the Emperor and his Astartes. But the courtyard remains an important place where Croi's dignitaries and a contingent of an Astartes Honour Guard could greet an important guest with all the pomp and circumstance that they could muster.

The Spear Hall is a vast, expansive chamber that contains the precious Chapter relics that harken back to the earliest days of the Steel Hart. Suspended within a golden shaft of light, in the centre of the chamber, trapped in an anti-gravitic suspension field above the marble floor, is the legendary Fiacha, a spear crafted by the Master of Sanctity Fionn O'Cumhaill to combat the Splinter Fleet Fomoria.

=Gene-Seed= The Steel Hart bear the gene-seed of the Iron Warriors. Like the gene-seed of their parent Legion it is extremely resilient to mutations and is known to create Space Marines who are extremely intelligent and possessive of naturally well-developed problem-solving abilities. However, the acute paranoid of the Iron Warriors often shows through, with the worst instances requiring the Lord Executioner's hand to rectify.

Recruitment
"Be calm, little Brother, all is well. The brandings are not a punishment, quite the contrary. They are our sins, not hidden away to fester in the darkness, but cast into the light of the Emperor for His judgment. It is through Him that we find absolution, and so we must not hide our wrongs from Him. Here, bite down on this son. It helps, I know..."

- Chaplain Micheal Éibhear, upon the initiation of Padraig Donagh to the 10th Company

The Chapter utilises a variety of trials to select Neophytes, each designed to test an aspirants skills in the snowy taiga of Croi as closely as possible to that laid out by the Codex. As the Steel Hart have long been the rulers of Croi, its nobility considers having a son chosen to join the Chapter to be an honour without parallel. Adolescent Aspirants who wish to join the Steel Hart are generally expected to overcome two different types of Trials if they hope to be chosen to become Neophytes.

First, the Astartes expect their Aspirants to pass what is known as an Exposure Trial within one of the icy taiga that covers most of Croi. The untamed regions of the world feature environments that are inimical to life, such environments ranging from sub-zero ice wastes, Vast forests inhabited by almost primeval predators and prey both capable of easily ending a human life, to vast ice capped oceans. In an Exposure Trial, the Aspirant must go out into such an environment and simply survive for a set period of time. As a native of such a hellish place, the Aspirant will have some knowledge of how to survive, yet is shorn of all aid and divested of all but the most basic of survival equipment. The Exposure Trial tests the Aspirant's fortitude, the Aspirant travelling from one point to another, with countless hundreds of kilometres of trackless snow-blasted plains separating the two.

The second Trial for Aspirants is the Challenge Trial. The Challenge requires the Aspirant to fight a duel or compete in some other manner against a full Astartes. In truth, none expect the Aspirant to better a full Battle-Brother and his success is more often measured in the degree of his failure. Very occasionally, an Aspirant does manage to beat an Astartes and when this happens it is not uncommon for the individual to go on to become a legendary hero of the Chapter.

Many Challenge Trials involve a test of martial skill, with the Aspirant fighting an armed duel against a Battle-Brother. It is usual for the Aspirant to be armed and the Astartes to fight with his bare hands and probably without his Power Armour, yet still the Aspirant has virtually no hope of victory. Most Challenge Duels end in the death of the Aspirant, for even an unarmed, unarmoured Astartes is a giant compared to the young, adolescent challenger and well able to slay him with a single blow, intentionally or not. Other Challenge Trials involve contests of strength, stamina, speed, skill or mental strength.

The Trial might otherwise range from the lifting of impossibly heavy loads to the imbibing of toxic substances. As with a duel, this type of Challenge Trial can often prove deadly. In both cases, however, an Aspirant that has failed the Trial -- yet performed to the Chapter's satisfaction -- is rescued from the jaws of death by the Chapter's Apothecaries and judged worthy of progressing to the rank of Neophyte.

Ironically, after surviving in such inhospitable climates and partaking in such impossible tasks, one of the first things that a Neophyte will be told of is the burdens he must now bear. Every Battle-Brother stands guilty in the eyes of the Emperor and the only absolution possible is that forged by sacrifice and blood in service to the Imperium Mankind and one's fellow Astartes.

Chapter Beliefs
"Horus did not first come as a warlord bestriding the Galaxy, but as a whisper in the heart of the Loyal."

- Master of Sanctity Kain Redmond, at the initiation of a Brother Astartes

While being the inheritors of Perturabo's superb military genius and ferocity in battle, the Steel Hart have always chosen to fight in the manner prescribed by the holy pages of the Codex Astartes for ten millennia. They do not interpret the sacred words of the Primarch loosely, for to do so is considered a sin in their eyes. Such deviation is unthinkable to the Steel Hart. To the Chapter, the Codex is a divine work of wisdom, sanctified by the beneficent Emperor Himself. The Steel Hart see no reason to deviate from its wisdom. The life-long lessons of discipline and self-reliance are taught to the people of Croi from birth, giving them the strength of character to hold true to teachings over ten thousand years old. They hope that their loyalty now will one day earn them absolution for the past.

Combat Doctrine
The Steel Hart Chapter has come to rely on the holy dictates of the Codex Astartes to meet any given tactical situation. This tome contains the wisdom of the thousands of Imperial warriors who have contributed their expertise, and details everything from proper unit markings to how to launch full-scale planetary assaults within its pages. The Steel Hart does not specialise in any particular form of combat, instead proving to be the ultimate generalists, surprisingly proficient at every task required in warfare, but their heritage as Iron Warriors still shows in their exemplary siegecraft.

Notable Members
Chapter Master Tarrasch Vast - A former Captain in the Iron Warriors Legion, Tarrasch Vast was the one to lead Line Company Cervus across Istvaan V in the search of survivors

Deathwatch Service
"I hear them Brother, they are coming. Lean on me, I must get you out."

- Brother Abban Cormac of the Steel Hart to Brother Kolver Santo of the Iron Hands

The Steel Hart have been seconding Battle-Brothers to the service of the Deathwatch for millennia, and Watch Fortress Erioch has several of the Chapter's brethren occupying senior appointments, including the Deredeo Dreadnought Abban Cormac. As one of the oldest Adeptus Astartes Chapters, the Steel Hart have fought against a myriad foes, and often bring huge reserves of experience and wisdom to the Deathwatch upon taking their Apocryphon Oath.

In addition, the Steel Hart are known for their resolute devotion to duty, undertaking the most arduous of missions with solemn dedication. It is this reason that they are always welcomed by their Astartes brothers in the Deathwatch, they can always be counted upon to defend their brothers to the death.

Chapter Relics
Fiocha - The spear crafted by the Master of Sanctity Fionn O Chumhaill, considered by the Steel Hart to be one of the few of their number free from sin, which he carried into battle against the Splinter Fleet Fomoria. The sigils etched into the shaft, when blessed by the Chaplain, disrupted the Tyranids Synapse enough to reduce them to mindless beasts, which turned upon each other with fervor. Fionn was slain that day by a Fomorian Hive Tyrant, and no other Astartes has been able to wield the Fiacha since.

Cu-Chulainn - Crafted by the Salamanders for the then Captain of the 8th Company, Lugh Chulainn, as thanks for the 8th Company's aid in defeating the Djofret Dynasty in M33, and also to show the Salamanders had forgiven the Chapter's actions on Istvaan V, Cu-Chullain, the 'Hound of Chullain' in Low Gothic, is the name given to the suit of Artificer Armour and the serrated Power Axe wielded by the Lord Executioner of the Steel Hart Chapter.

The Iron Within - Those Pilgrims traversing the Heartforge will be confused to see a twisted spar of metal given pride of place in the Spear Hall, but to the Steel Hart there is no confusion. The Iron Within is the remains of Warsmith Kybolt Brask, a latent Psyker and mentor to Tarrasch Vast. After his death at the hands of Perturabo, his remains were teleported into the command deck of the Grithos, the ship in which Line Company Cervus and the Loyalist Legion survivors escaped Istvaan V, in the hopes of demoralising the Loyalist forces. However, it served only to push the Loyalists to greater dedication, holding Brask as an example of true sacrifice. His remains were transported to Croi where they have rested ever since.

The Xnocian Skull - The ancient traditions of fealty and honour amongst the White Scars are many and complex, woven as they are between many tribes once unified under the Great Khan. Amongst these many traditions is that of honour gifts, where the spoils of a glorious hunt or battle are given to a trusted comrade to make stronger the ties that unite them, a ritual that dates back to the Khan's days when tribes fought as one against their oppressors. The skull that is honoured with a place in the chapters reliquary is the one of the last of a Xenos species, one that a squad of Steel Hart and White Scars drove to extinction on the planet Xnocia, creating strong bonds of brotherhood during the hunt.

Iron Bastion - Brother Abban Cormac of the Deathwatch bore this shield into battle alongside Brother Kolver Santo on the Space Hulk Starflare, attempting to retrieve an STC fragment suspected to be lost upon it. The Hulk was overrun with Genestealers, and while retreating from the Hulk with the STC fragment Brother Cormac sealed the damaged doorway to the hanger their Corvus Blackstar was stationed in with his Storm Shield, holding the Genestealer Patriarch at bay and allowing the wounded Santo to escape. When Santo dragged the remains of Cormac to the Watch Station, the Watch Captain ordered him to be intered into a Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought. In honour of this act Santo crafted an Artificer Storm Shield which he presented to the Steel Hart.

Umbra Talons - During the escape from the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V, Line Company Cervus rescued many Loyalist Legionaries, including Raven Guard Captain Vykar Teav. During their retreat to Terra, Teav presented his Lighting Claw, master crafted with mono-claws in place of power blades, to Legionary Sohcrah Tyr as thanks for saving his Company. Tyr carried the Claw into battle until he was interred into a Contemptor Dreadnought, when it was augmented to to fit so he could continue to serve with it.

Gáe Bulg - Crafted by Bright De Dannan, Fabricator General of Keltia, for Chapter Master Brynn Harkor and his successors after their defence of the planet in ___.___.__M against an invading force of ___. Utilising ancient Archeotech, the Power Spear possesses a unique function among the Imperium, in that after it peirces the hide or armour of an enemy it is capable of flooding them with thousands of volts of electricity, downing even the largest of foes in seconds.

Relations
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Allies
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Notable Quotes
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By the Steel Hart
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About the Steel Hart
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