Cold Blooded

The Cold Blooded are a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of the bloodline of Sanguinius, supposedly created during the mysterious 13th Founding, the so-called 'Dark Founding', which occurred sometime between M35 and M36. Like their predecessors, they stand aloof from the rest of the scions of Sanguinius and even from the Chapter from which they were spawned.

Chapter History
The Cold Blooded are a mysterious and aloof Successor Chapter spawned from the lineage of the vaunted and heroic Blood Angels Chapter. However, unlike their fellow Successor Chapters of The Blood, the Cold Blooded stand apart from their cousin Chapters as well as their genetic forbears. This is in part, due to their mysterious inception, which occurred during the 13th Founding, the so-called 'Dark Founding'. There is little official information in regards to this mysterious Founding, including how many Chapters were created and for what purposes.

Highly secretive, little is known of their customs and rituals by outsiders. They have their own cult of religious beliefs that are an amalgamation of the Imperial Creed and the animistic religions unique to their home world of Icenroum. Deeply superstitious and believing in the supernatural, they tattoo themselves with runic symbols designed to protect, strengthen, or provide good luck in battle. Vates, their Chaplain equivalents, paint runes on their armour the way other Chapters make use of purity seals. Like the head hunters of their home world, they commonly collect the heads of particularly strong enemies they have slain, carving runes into the skulls and carrying them into battle with the belief that the spirit held inside will enhance their own strength.

Icenroum produces an unusually high number of psykers among its population, accounting for the higher number of Librarians within the Chapter's ranks. Their librarians, known as Druids, are revered above all others. The Cold Blooded will not engage in battle without at least one Druid present, and they often field multiple. To lose the last Druid during a battle is a terrible omen. In such cases they have been known to withdraw from battle, even when in their favour.

The Cold Blooded have experience fighting many different enemy, but above all exceed in hunting Heretic Astartes. For centuries they have been embroiled in a war with the Chaos Warband known as the Bridgeburners. Among their most closely guarded secrets is that these renegade marines are in fact former Cold Blooded, driven from their system after a civil war which almost destroyed the Chapter. Erasing this stain on their history before it becomes known to others within the Imperium is their highest priority.

Recent Events
Currently the Cold Blooded are made up almost entirely of Primaris which arrived to reinforced the Chapter at a time when they were facing near extinction, with only two companies of the old Astartes remaining. Thousands of years with high attrition rates and civil war had ravaged their strength. But the greatest toll on their numbers came in the year 998.M41. Led by their newly chosen Chapter Master, Tiberion Frost, the Cold Blooded unexpectedly joined their fellow Successor Chapters at the Battle of Baal, where they fought on Baal Secundus with six companies. This made up close to eighty percent of the total Cold Blooded forces at the time. In the aftermath barely a single company’s worth of warriors survived.

Shortly after the Devastation of Baal, the Chapter's ranks were reinforced with an influx of newly revealed Primaris Space Marines. For the first time since their Founding, the Cold Blooded returned to full strength. Whilst Chapter Master Frost has accepted the new warriors as a necessity to counter the increasing threats to their home world, the majority of his officers are not in agreement. Tolerance toward the Primaris by the original Astartes is so low that they are kept in separate companies, rarely fighting alongside each other unless in desperate times, such as in the defence of their home world.

Chapter Homeworld
The Feral World of Icenorum.

Chapter Organisation
The Cold Blooded have never completely adhered to the Codex Astartes. In the first thousand years of their founding, the then Fleet-based Chapter closely resembled the organisation and structure of their founding Chapter, the Blood Angels, due in large part to the shared curses of the Red Thirst and Black Rage. Since establishing their home world on the Feral planet of Icenorum and exclusively drawing aspirants from its native population, their divergence from Codex Astartes Chapters, and even their fellow sons of Sanguinius, has greatly increased.

Cold Blooded companies are structured unusually. Instead of ten companies they only maintain six, each numbering approximately 200 Astartes at full strength, with the exceptions being that of the 1st and 6th companies.

The larger companies of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th, now made up entirely of Primaris Space Marines, are each divided into two parts: the Battline and the Vanguard. These companies stalk from planet to planet across the Eastern Fringe hunting Renegades and any xenos unfortunate enough to cross their path, each operating independently of the others with their own small fleet and armoured support vehicles.

The 1st Company is all that remains of the Chapter’s traditional Astartes with less than 100 marines and, along with the 6th Company made up of the Chapter’s Neophytes, have the honour of defending the Cold Blooded home world.

Combat Doctrine
Traditionally, the Cold Blooded favour close combat, striking hard and fast with the aim of overwhelming their foe. Determined, bloodthirsty, and utterly ruthless, they commonly carry axe or sword into battle, keen to claim the heads of the most worthy foes. While gun-lines may be utilised to dictate enemy movement or disrupt their ranks before a charge, ultimately the Cold Blooded end battles at close quarters.

Despite their desire for blood, the Cold Blooded are patient and meticulous hunters. They are experts at ambushes and guerrilla warfare, preferring to wait for the right moment to catch their enemy unawares if possible, rather than announcing their presence with shock and awe as other Chapters might.

Scouts and highly mobile vanguard squads will travel ahead of the main force for reconnaissance and to prepare ambushes, or deployed behind the enemy to distract, harass, divide, and ultimately weaken them. Plasma weapons, being among the few long ranged weapons highly regarded by the Cold Blooded for their power, instability, and risk to the user, are a staple in any Cold Blooded company. The wielders of such weapons are honoured for their bravery, and sacrifice, should they perish as a result of overheating. They are used to eliminate elite and armoured targets, and provide cover for the main force. That main force being largely comprised of assault troops and dreadnoughts.

Chapter Gene-Seed
The Cold Blooded are a successor of the Blood Angels Chapter and descended from the Primarch, Sanguinius.

Primarch's Curse
As a Blood Angels Successor Chapter, the Cold Blooded share the same genetic flaws passed down from their Primarch, Sanguinius, albeit manifesting in slightly different ways.

Thanks in part to the blood drinking rituals they perform regularly, they seldom suffer the effects of the Black Rage, and their Death Company is few in number. However, their hunger for blood has increased dramatically since the rituals began, and warriors have often been seen in the middle of battle gorging themselves on the blood of fallen enemies and even the odd comrade while fighting carries on around them.

When the Black Rage does occur, rather than flying into an insane fury, the affected Cold Blooded appear to enter a trance-like state where they will silently and methodically kill without mercy or restraint. When battle ends, some continue fighting the already dead enemies and have to be put down by a comrade. Most will become semi-catatonic, needing to be herded back onto transports by Druids, and not become active again until faced with a new enemy.

Chapter Colours
Cold Blooded wear white power armour. For the Battleline the left armorial is painted black, displaying the Chapter's badge in white, whilst the armorial of the Vanguard is inverted to be white with black badge. Their right armorial is a light blue, matching the woad paint adorned by the native warriors of their home world.

Chapter Badge
A blood droplet as commonly used by the scions of Sanguinius, flanked by antlers representing a guardian spirit worshipped by the native tribes of Icenorum that is depicted as a white hart.

Allies

 * House Comyn - A Questor Imperialis Knight House believed to be a cadet branch of House Hawkshroud.

Enemies

 * The Bridgeburners - A Chaos Warband founded by three former companies of the Cold Blooded Chapter.

Notable Quotes
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By the Cold Blooded
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