User:Algrim Whitefang/Sandbox9

< Algrim's Sandbox 8 &middot; Algrim's Sandbox 10 >

Legiones Astartes Articles ---

Soul Drinkers
"The Imperium is a fortress with two walls - the Emperor, our creator, stands fast on the inner wall that is the war of the paths beyond the Golden Throne. We stand on the outer wall that are the Imperium's borders, that spread far and away, near the vast reaches of the mysterious outer dark. If either wall falls, humanity falls. Our very existence is at stake, not honour or righteousness. If we fail in our sacred duty, even for an instant, all is lost."

- Attr. Archamus, "The Last of the First", Legion Master of the Soul Drinkers

The Soul Drinkers are a 2nd Founding Successor Legion created from the proud and stoic lineage of the Imperial Fists in 091.M32. Designated the III Legion of the Legiones Astartes, the Soul Drinkers were created to replace the traitorous Emperor's Children. The Soul Drinkers were created from the veteran companies of the Imperial Fists that were schooled and blooded in the brutal arts of void warfare. These veteran elements possessed a reputation for excellence in out-hull void warfare and starship assaults without peer - a tradition that was carried over into the newly created Soul Drinkers Legion. Since their inception, the Soul Drinkers have stood sentinel over the realm of the Imperium of Man. As masters of void combat, this Legion's extensive fleet of warships continuously patrols near the Halo Stars - the vast tracts of unexplored wilderness space along the Imperium's borders, protecting Imperial worlds from the predations of nascent alien empires and surviving monstrosities from Old Night, that have managed to survive for millennia.

Specialist Ranks

 * Master of Fleet - A master of a fleet holds complete authority over it for a fixed time or until a campaign is completed. Selected for their skill in void warfare in a Legion which excels in that theatre, the Fleet Masters represents many of the Soul Drinkers' finest strategists.

Notable Soul Drinkers

 * Legion Master Archamus - Never so volatile as First Captain Sigismund, Archamus was the master of Rogal Dorn's Honour Guard retinue known as the Huscarls during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. It was said that Captain Archamus was more in-tune with his gene-sire's emotions than that of First Captain Sigismund. Archamus was also regarded as a highly suspicious and careful individual, and often acted disdainful towards members of the Word Bearers Legion even before they had revealed the full extent of their treachery and allegiance to the Ruinous Powers. Born Kye, on the ice world of Inwit in the early 800's.M30, he was one of the original members of the influx of Inwit-borne recruits inducted into the ranks of the VII Legion, that would become a part of the honoured fraternity known as "The First". The members of The First were the first to make their oaths to Rogal Dorn, and their names were the first to be etched on the walls of the Temple of Oaths aboard the Phalanx. Archamus would eventually rise to become the trusted praetorian of Lord Dorn and the captain of his Huscarls Honour Guard. As the Great Crusade proceeded for the next two centuries, and with the outbreak of hostilities during the subsequent Horus Heresy, all the original members of The First had been killed, save Archamus, which led to him earning the moniker "Last of the First". He played an instrumental role during the Solar Wars, the campaign that took place during the latter years of the Horus Heresy against the encroaching Traitor Legions of Warmaster Horus, leading a portion of the Imperial Fists' defensive fleets to delay the Traitors' advance on the Throneworld. During these initial battles, Archamus saved his Primarch's life during the Battle of Pluto, when Rogal Dorn confronted his traitorous brother Alpharius in personal combat. When Alpharius managed to gain the upper hand during their epic duel-to-the-death, and was about the impale the fallen Primarch with his deadly Pale Spear, Archamus interposed himself between the two Primarchs. Using his powersword, he managed to deflect Alpharius' deadly blow, though he lost one of his arms in the process. This provided Dorn the respite he needed, as he surged to his feet, and utilising his massive chainsword Storm's Teeth, to slice off Alpharius' hands from his wrists, before slashing his former brother across the chest, and then stabbing him with his own spear. Finally, he executed Alpharius with a deadly chop of his mighty chainsword into the top of his skull. With the death of their Primarch, the Alpha Legion fleet withdrew. Though severely wounded, Archamus managed to survived, and was evacuated alongside the Primarch and withdrew to Terra, to face the final assault of the Traitors. Following the final epic battle of the Siege of Terra, the Imperium was left in shambles. In retaliation, the remaining Legiones Astartes launched a vengeful war of reciprocity, and drove the Traitor Legions in the hellish realm of the Eye of Terror. Rogal Dorn recognised that the accelerated gene-seed cultivation techniques utilised to keep the huge Space Marine Legions up to strength had left many Legiones Astartes susceptible to the corrupting influence of the Ruinous Powers. The Imperium's most brilliant gene-wrights and fleshcrafters began an audacious project to identify and remove these genetic weaknesses, creating an entirely new strand of pure gene-seed. Known as 'Project Homo Sapiens Novus', this new-and-improved purestrain gene-seed was given only those veteran Legionaries who had shown absolute loyalty to the Emperor and had gone above-and-beyond during the tragic events of the Horus Heresy. Archamus was selected by Rogal Dorn himself to undergo the transformation in one these superior Astartes, and given command as Legions Master over the portion of the Imperial Fists' void-combatant elite. They would go on to form the corps of one the newly raised Second Founding Space Marine Legions in the first century of the 32nd Millennium. Legion Master Archamus named his newly incepted Legion the 'Soul Drinkers', and launched his never-ending crusade to take back those territories that had been lost to the myriad of enemies of Mankind during the Horus Heresy.
 * First Captain Alexis Polux - Alexis Polux was the Captain of the 405th Company of the Imperial Fists Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. He was a warrior whose unique promise both elevated him to greatness and condemned him to bear great sorrow by the events of the Heresy. A tactical genius with a talent for void warfare, he was the protégée of the Legion's greatest fleet masters, although before the dark betrayal of the Warmaster Horus, he was yet to reach his full potential. Inwit-born, he was a physical giant even among his brothers of the Legion. At the outset of the Heresy, Polux still had many years of proving ahead of him before he attained high command, but cruel chance and the death of his mentors saw such command thrust upon him, and with it the fate of much of his Legion lay in his hands. Polux went on to win Dorn's respect countless times during the dark days of the Great Betrayal. Following the events of the Heresy, Polux was selected by Legion Master Archamus to serve as his First Captain in his newly incepted Soul Drinkers Legion. Commanding from his flagship, the Crimson Fist, Polux would go on to lead his Legion's most elite void formations, taking the fight to the Traitor Legions at every given opportunity, and earning a well-earned reputation as a feared commander by his foes.

By the Soul Drinkers
Feel free to add your own

About the Soul Drinkers
---

Black Widows
The Black Widows are a 1st Founding Legion created from the lineage of the mysterious and enigmatic Omegon, one of the twin-Primarchs of the secretive Alpha Legion. The formation and purpose of this 'Shadow Legion' was purposely shrouded in mystery and bellicose concealment from the rest of the Nova Terra Regency and though this Legion is not officially recognised as one of the Ur-Legions, they fulfill a vital and important role as stalwart defenders of the Segmentum Pacificus.

Legion History
The pall of mystery surrounding the so-called 'Black Widows' Legion can be traced back to their creation during the lamentable and devastating conflict known as the Horus Heresy. If a Legion's Primarch shaped his warriors with their will and intellect, so too did the tragedy of the devastating internecine conflict leave its indelible mark on the warriors that survived the black sands of Isstvan V. These scars came to shape this Legion's culture, values and methods of war in ways as subtle and deep as the mysteries woven into their flesh and souls. To understand how this Legion came to be as they are, one must first understand the conflict and the Primarch that shaped them. The Astartes of this Legion were originally members of the mysterious Alpha Legion, the gene-sons of the enigmatic twin-Primarchs - Alpharius and Omegon. The pall of mystery surrounding the XX Legion can be traced back to their creation during the latter years of the Terran Unification Wars. They were the last known of the First Founding Legiones Astartes, whose factors relating to their specific ends and purposes were kept beyond the usual secrecy and security the Emperor normally employed. It is believed by many Nova Terran scholars that the secrecy surrounding this mysterious 'outsider' Legion and its designed purpose served to conceal the dark transformation at its heart which was long in its gestation.

The Ghost Legion
Of the early decades of the XX Legion on Terra and during the re-conquest of the Sol System almost nothing can be said with any accuracy whatsoever, and even the cluster of myths and rumours that would later grow to surround the Legion's activities is absent. What remains instead are a few sparse but suggestive fragments, anomalous records of unknown Legiones Astartes units carrying out targeted strikes, abductions and assassinations, both on Terra and beyond, and reports of Space Marine units answering to no known masters or Legion allegiance passing through war zones on high priority missions and under the writ of unassailable clearance codes which broached no question.

The Alpha & Omega
When the XX Legion reunited with their Primarch Alpharius (who unknown to outsiders, at the time, was a twin-Primarch of his brother, Omegon) it was eager, zealous and completely committed to embracing the Primarchs' command and combat philosophy. Alpharius led his Legion, created in his images, to the outer reaches of the Imperium, eager to join battle and emulate the glories of the older Legions. Their capacity for combined arms warfare, speed and surety of attack, were matched only by a mastery of the darker arts of war - of sabotage and ambush, stealth tactics and assassination. Quickly, the Alpha Legion developed an unmatched reputation among the Legiones Astartes - save perhaps by the Raven Guard - for the use of espionage, infiltration and sabotage in its strategic planning. But where the Raven Guard sought to use such tactics to achieve victory without unnecessary attrition, or spare a human population it sought to liberate, the Alpha Legion had other, darker, purposes in mind. To them, such covert tactics seemed almost a deadly game of prelude.

The Hydra Strikes
The XX Legion's zealousness to prove themselves as part of the Great Crusade at any cost, and the often over-elaborate and needlessly complex and malign way in which the Alpha Legion chose to wage war, saw them quickly gain infamy more than fame. This, coupled with growing distrust due to their insular and deceptive nature, brought rivalry and acrimony between the Alpha Legion and much of the rest of the Legiones Astartes. As time passed, the relationship between the Alpha Legion and its peers soured further. The nature of the Alpha Legion's way of war and their lack of alliance to the commands of other Legions placed over them in the field brought Alpharius into conflict several of his Primarch brothers on multiple occasions. If the Alpha Legion could be said to have had an ally or friend among the Primarchs, it was Horus himself, and a potent ally he would prove. Horus saw the XX Legion as a unique weapon in the Imperium's arsenal, its ambition laudable and its tactics not so very far removed from those favoured by his own XVI Legion.

After his ascension to the rank of Imperial Warmaster, where he gained control over the outward campaigns of the Great Crusade, Horus increasingly gave free reign to the Alpha Legion to operate independently of other Legiones Astartes forces. Secret reports prepared for both the Warmaster and the Imperial Court on Terra during this period show a growing unease about the Alpha Legion, some implying that it was increasingly beyond the Imperium's ability to measure or to control. As the time of the Horus Heresy drew closer, the Alpha Legion, as if in response to the growing cloud of suspicion and distrust of them in some quarters, drew further into the outer darkness at the fringes of known space, or at least appeared to. Their deceptions multiplied, as too, it appears, did the names that the XX Legion and its agents were known under, particularly in the dark stars beyond the Imperium's borders, where many of those it came into contact with had no idea of their destroyer's true nature or allegiance until it was too late.

With multiple examples of the XX Legion's growing psychosis and excesses existing in the Imperial records, it is perhaps easy to see why the Alpha Legion sided with Horus when the Warmaster made his pact with Chaos and rebelled against the Emperor; their martial pride and Alpharius' avoidance of all his Primarch brothers apart from Horus seemingly the catalysts for their downfall. When Alpharius ultimately chose to follow Horus in his belief that the ultimate destruction of Chaos was the choice the Emperor Himself would have made, unbeknownst to the Primarch, his twin brother did not feel the same. Though they both had sworn their undying loyalty to the Warmaster's cause, Omegon's loyalties still remained with the Emperor, a decision he chose to keep to himself - a testament to his devotion that he endeavoured to stay true to the Emperor's cause for so long.

Horus Heresy
When the Horus Heresy erupted and the atrocity at Isstvan III occurred, a large Alpha Legion strike force, comprising some 50,000 Legionaries under the direct command of their Primarch were conveniently situated to respond to Rogal Dorn's order to attack the Traitors at Isstvan V. The Alpha Legion and their Primarch had then been supposedly all but out of contact with the rest of the Great Crusade for several standard years, and by this fact was Rogal Dorn, Praetorian of Terra, likely assured of their loyalty and lack of involvement with whatever treacherous madness had befallen Horus and his immediate coterie. This could not however have been further from the truth as their involvement in the Dropsite Massacre was to prove - and there have even been unsubstantiated claims since that Alpharius had a hand in the planning of the subsequent Traitor atrocity that would occur on the black sands of Isstvan V.

Dropsite Massacre
After the virus-bombing of Isstvan III which wiped out the Loyalist elements of the Traitor Legions under the Warmaster's command, the presumed Loyalist Alpha Legion was one of the Space Marine Legions sent by the Emperor to destroy Horus and the Traitor Legions at their base on Isstvan V. The Alpha Legion (alongside the Night Lords, Iron Warriors and Word Bearers) would be one of several so-called 'Loyalist' Legions of the second waves that would turn upon the Loyalist first wave comprised of the Iron Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard Legions.

Even before the Traitors' treacherous blow was stuck, Horus' grand plan had, unknown to him, begun to unravel before the second wave of secretly-aligned Traitor Legions turned upon the Loyalists. The impending massacre had been discovered by several Legionaries amongst those Legions under the Warmaster's command, that remained loyal to their Emperor and those that still followed Him. Chief among these were the Primarchs Omegon of the Alpha Legion, twin-brother of Primarch Alpharius, and Konrad Curze of the Night Lords. Sadly, the two Primarchs were unaware of each others' sympathies towards the doomed Loyalist Legions that had been sent to bring the Warmaster to heel. Omegon had long harboured deep suspicions about his Legion's growing secrecy and unorthodox actions, even for a Legion steeped in intrigue and subterfuge, and had uncovered the truth of the coming betrayal that was to be enacted against the Legions of the Loyalist first wave. Omegon acted swiftly, rallying Loyalists to him and working out the means to contact the Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders and warn them of the Warmaster's treachery on the planet's surface.

To help bring warning to his fellow Loyalists, Omegon decided to utilise his warriors of the Alpha Legion's elite Effrit Stealth Squads, the specialised infiltration unit that was formed from those Legionaries that were masters of infiltration, stealth, sabotage and assassination. Chosen for their adaptive thinking as well as their ability to improvise, these Alpha Legion infiltrators were known for their innate abilities to blend-in with any environment. To accomplish their mission objective, they acquired several sets of battle-plate from the three Loyalist Legions when they gathered during the initial planning stages of the Isstvan campaign. They then had their minds reprogrammed psychically by the Legion's Librarians still loyal to Omegon, shielding the infiltrators' minds from casual inspection by psychic or technological means. Once completed, they infiltrated one of the three Loyalist Legions assigned to the first wave.

By the Black Widows
Feel free to add your own