Blue Hand

The Blue Hand Chaos Space Marine Warband are a small force of Traitor Astartes born of the former Loyalist Chapter of the same name. Being few in number, the Blue Hand have sought to raise heretical cults on worlds across the Ultima Segmentum. Such cults are dedicated to the Chaos God Tzeentch, as are The Blue Hand, and incorporate the Warband’s eponymous sigil into their iconography.

The Blue Hand Space Marine Chapter was a respected loyalist force for millenia, before their fall to Chaos. Now, those few Imperials who know of their existence speak their name with the deepest scorn and the fiercest hatred.

The Blue Hand Before their Fall
Before they fell from the Emperor's light, The Blue Hand was a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of an unknown founding; although records of their exploits, since expunged, once stretched back to at least M34. Their gene-seed is of an unknown lineage, however this may have been due to how thoroughly knowledge of their existence was destroyed following their treason. In fact, so complete was this purge that the Inquisition does not even know the name of The Blue Hand's homeworld, only that it was subjected to exterminatus following their betrayal.

What is known is that Azulite Manibus, last Chapter Master of the Blue Hand Space Marine Chapter, deployed to Warzone Craw with a full strength Chapter, a Chapter Fleet, allies from the Imperial Navy and Astra Militarum and the blessing of the Council of Mandavi, as Warmaster in all but name.

The Throat and Craw
The Mandavi Sector is bordered to galactic north by the fierce and persistent Warp storm designated 4E696E65; but known to locals simply as “The Night”. The wave of Imperial colonization which settled the Mandavi Sector in M37 petered out upon finding the storm impassable; although further investigations did find a single circuitous route through the storm. At the center of this route, which would come to be known as the Throat, was a single Death World, seemingly unaffected by the shoals of empyreal energy. This world would come to be referred to as Craw.

Preliminary surveys of the systems beyond the Throat found nothing of immediate interest. Plans were drawn up for a full Explorator expedition, however these plans never had sufficient priority to be implemented. Instead, once every fifty years Battlefleet Mandavi would dispatch a single ship through the Throat to ensure that passage was still possible. The forty-fifth such expedition, in 822.M39, came racing back to Imperial space like an entire cabal of Dark Eldar were nipping at its heels. What they had to report instead was much worse.

What had previously been barren and uninhabited worlds were now teeming with unnumbered Orks. Clearly, the largest Waaagh in a century was coming to a boil on the far side of the Throat. The Levan Sub-Sector, closest to the passage, would be the first consumed by the green tide, but not the last. Imperial tacticians estimated that the Mandavi Sector would be wiped away, and that nearby Sectors would be badly mauled before the Xenos could be contained.

The Council of Mandavi
Toha Niheiticus, whose troops had affectionately called him "Ol' Killy" during his service in the Guard, was Imperial Sector Governor of the Madavi Sector. He called a grand council upon Mandavi Prime, summoning the lords of his Sector to discuss what, if anything, could be saved. After much debate, and many arguments from planetary Governors as to why their system should be protected at the expense of their neighbors, the Chapter Master of the Blue Hand Space Marines stepped forward.

Azulite Manibus said that any attempt to turn back the Waaagh once it entered Imperial space would be a failure, by definition. He declared that the there was only one place to halt the Orks, upon Craw itself. He pledged to bring his entire Chapter to that world and give the Xenos the war they desired.

Lord Inquisitor Bartholomew Geisel, representing the Holy Ordos, rose to reply. He commended the Astartes for his brave words, but said that not even an entire Chapter of the Emperor's Angels could defeat this Waaagh.

Manibus replied that in that case, he would bring the Imperial Guard, the Navy, he would even pick bare the Planetary Defense Forces of the Mandavi Sector’s worlds. Manibus reasoned that if those soldiers would be ultimately be unable to defend their worlds through the act of dying for the Emperor upon them, they might as well die for the Emperor on Craw where they might yet hold back the night. A single Planetary Governor objected, and at a gesture from Geisel, Inquisitor Bruce Von Kurtzberg struck the potentate down; like a common Guardsman shot for cowardice. The silence which followed was broken by applause, as all turned they saw that Sector Governor Niheiticus had turned to the Chapter Master and begun to clap. Quickly, the assembled grandees joined in and the proposal was agreed to by thunderous acclamation.

The First Battle of Craw
Every existing Regiment of the Astra Militarum in the Sector was brought to Craw. They dug hundreds of kilometers of trenches and built bunkers and fire bases. Millions of men from various PDFs were raised into the Imperial Guard and delivered to that world. The cruisers of Battlefleet Mandavi harried and destroyed the first Ork craft to breach the system, before falling back to provide fire support to forces on the world. They did not have to worry about preventing the greenskins from bypassing the world, no Ork ever born would pass up such a war. Above it all, the Space Marines of the Blue Hand watched and waited to deploy from orbit wherever the fighting was thickest.

For eight days, the Orks rained from the skys of Craw. On the ninth day, the WAAAGH! Ork Warboss, a lumbering abomination named Grimtooth Blakskull led an Assault upon the center of the Imperial lines. Azulite Manibus and the Blue Hand 9th Company sallied forth to meet him. While the order of the events that happened next are unclear, we know that they resulted in the Orks fleeing in terror, the Imperial leadership decimated, and the Blue Hand damned for all time.

The History of Craw
Xeno-Archaeological research was conducted upon Craw in the wake of the Blue Hand Heresy, under close supervision of the Ordo Hereticus and Ordo Xenos. This research determined that the world was once the capital of an unknown Xenos empire which fell to the worship of the Ruinous Powers during M14.

The Xenos became aware of the nature of Chaos as the manifestation of the universal principle of entropy. They sought to escape its power by seeking perfect precognitive ability. In so doing, the Chaos God Tzeentch, The Architect of Fate, ensnared them to his purposes. As their knowledge of the future grew, their free will shrank, until they could no longer see any path forward except to offer themselves to the very power they had sought to escape.

In a ritual, frightening in both its magnitude and it's effect, the entire species, spread across dozens of worlds, took their own lives as sacrifices to Tzeentch. Almost all of this chaotic power was focused into a single artifact upon the world of Craw; although some dissipated to create the near permanent warp storms surrounding the Throat. All of this, was exactly according to the dark God’s plan. As was it that Azulite Manibus would come into contact with this artifact during battle twenty-four thousand years later.

The Blue Hand Heresy
As Manibus dueled with the fiend Blakskull, he somehow came in contact with the Tzeentchian relic. It appears an artillery shell excavated the highest level of an ancient Xenos’ temple complex in no man's land. How the two warriors came to fight over this particular patch of rubble, and how the Chapter Master came to trigger an unknown alien artifact, shall never be known.

The psychic energy released by the relic was enough to corrupt even the hearts of Astartes. The millions of Guardsmen and Navel Ratings in Warzone Craw never stood a chance. It is known that some, like Inquisitor Von Kurtzberg and Admiral Silas Cave, commanding the the Naval forces, resisted corruption and were slain. However, virtually all of the forces deployed to Warzone Craw instantly became servants of Chaos.

What is more, in a turn of events many would call impossible, the Orks turned and fled. Imperial scholars have speculated that the burst of Chaos energy may simply have been so great as to overwhelm the Orks own gestalt psychic WAAAGH! Field. Some even suggest that the force may have been exactly calculated to cancel out the energy of this particular WAAAGH! However, whether or not even Tzeentch could so accurately predict the precise nature of a psychic phenomena so many millennia before hand is a matter whose contemplation is best left to heretical theologians to consider while they await the Emperor's judgement.

With the Orks gone and those still loyal to the Golden Throne dead, Azulite Manibus declared himself Warlord of Craw and Holder of the Blue Hand of Tzeentch. He slew the overall commander of the Guard forces upon the world and demanded the Regiments swear fealty to him and their souls to Tzeentch. This they gladly did. Under the guns of the Blue Hand Chapter fleet, the warships of Battlefleet Mandavi also swore themselves to the cause; and thus the Blue Hand Heresy was born.

The Invasion of the Levan Sub-Sector
It was imperative that the Blue Hand quickly grasp the Levan Sub-Sector. The world of Craw could be easily defended, but without inhabited worlds to draw from, the Blue Hand would run out of mortal thralls in mere decades. Once the Sub-Sector was occupied, the forces of Warlord Manibus could push into neighboring Sectors to seize resources and create defense in depth for the inevitable Imperial counter attack. Manibus also knew he needed to maintain a heavy reserve of his Space Marines as a to counter punch against any Loyalist Astartes who decided to intervene.

Therefore, the Warlord sent three Companies to assault the capital world of Levan Prime while splitting two additional Companies into detachments and dispatching them to seize the other worlds of Sub-Sector. He divided most of his traitor Guardsmen between the Sub-Sector’s single Forge World and accompanying his Marines to the lesser worlds; he also sent the bulk of his Imperial Navy ships to escort their transports. Meanwhile, he kept four Companies, his Battle Barges and two Strike Cruisers in reserve upon Claw; where he built his Fortress and polted his schemes.

Had all gone according to plan, the Levan Sub-Sector would have been subdued in 18 months and the Blue Hand would have moved on to the rest of the sector. However, one world would go from afterthought, to irritant, to obstacle till finally it resembled the Quagmire of ancient Terran legend. This world was Heb, and the Blue Hand would come to know that name all too well.

The War Upon Heb
Heb was a minor Civilized World just beyond the Erendani System; in which lay the key Forge World of Erendan. Azulite Manibus first sent Brother Sargent Carpus Pavo to claim the world. Pavo was a favorite of Manibus, having served as his Equerry; and it is thought that the Chapter Master intended the world as a plaything for his trusted friend. Pavo landed in the ancient capital city of Heb with two Regiments of traitor Guardsmen. He ordered his drop ship to crush the statue of Imperator Triumphant in the city square, thus earning him the epithet of Iconoclast from the Heb. From there, he personally assaulted the Palace of Justice, disemboweling the world’s Arbites Judge upon his own bar.

Meanwhile, the traitor Guardsmen spread through the city, dispatching the local PDF and driving the good and the great off into the hinterland. To all appearances, Pavo was well on his way to becoming Overlord of Heb; however, the people of Heb would prove surprisingly resilient. Shortly after the fall of their Capital city, the leadership of Heb underwent a drastic change as the cowardly and inefficient Aristocrats who occupied all major civil and military leadership rolls were swept aside in a coup. Lower ranking, but more experienced officers took over the PDF, while religious fanatics oversaw the maintenance of the state. Carpus Pavo's forces were taken on unfavorable terrain, and while he alone accounted for an entire company and two of the Heb’s few tanks, he was slain by overwhelming numbers.

When Manibus learned that his friend had been killed, a foul humor overtook him. He sent word to Indígo Articulus, Champion of the 3rd Company, to pull four Squads out of their battles upon Levan Prime and to teach these impudent mortals a lesson. Articulus rendezvoused with a force of traitor Guardsmen recalled from the siege of Erendan and made for Heb.

Upon the world, the loyalist forces had bolstered their defences, even having managed to acquire limited planetary shields before the Mechanicus upon Erendan were fully besieged. With the old Capitol in ruins, the Heb’s defences were concentrated around six cities on two continents. Champion Articulus landed his forces a safe distance outside the four cities on the larger continent, where they would be able to provide mutual support to each other. He then broke them into four columns and ordered them to advance on each of the cities, destroying everything in their path.

The Heb would call Indígo Articulus The Despoiler, and they would call the war that followed The Killing Time. Street by street, house by house, fanatical Heb soldiers died so that the traitors might die with them. It quickly became impractical for the forces to support each other between the four cities. None of the heretical assaults had men to spare, and the countryside beyond the cities crawled with loyalist ambushers. Articulus would focus all his efforts on destroying the shield pylons protecting Salubritas, the Heb city whose destruction he had chosen to personally oversee. Once the shields were gone he could level the city from orbit and redeploy the units under his direct command to assist the other forces.

However, when he finally cleared the sky above his head, he found that the Warships he was counting on had been recalled, and that his forces in the other cities where all but exhausted. Articulus ordered his forces to withdraw and rendezvous in the middle of the continent, where he hoped to defend a great mesa until he could be reinforced. However, the Heb had managed to preserve a hardened core of veterans around whom they built fresh Regiments. These forces pursued and cut down the traitors, killing Articulus within sight of the highland he had hoped to fortify.

Such a slight could not be ignored. Chapter Master Manibus ordered the entire 6th Company, and the rest of the 3rd, from which Atriculus had drawn his forces, to rid him of this turbulent world. However, the war had now stretched on far longer than had been intended. Forge Primus upon Erendan continued to resist the Blue Hand whose assault had been lessened by the diversion of Guardsmen to Heb. Meanwhile, little remained of the defenses of Levan Prime, but now two thirds of the forces Manibus had committed to the world had been diverted to Heb. Three years had past, and relief from the Imperium could not be far off. In fact, as 827.M39 dawned, relief had arrived.

Shortly after the 3rd and 6th Companies entered the Heb System, they were confronted by fresh Imperial forces, spearheaded by the loyalist remnants of Battlefleet Mandavi, now substantially reinforced by the Segmentum. This fleet would also include Strike Cruisers from two Loyalist Chapters which would pursue the Chaos Space Marines through the Warp.

The Liberation of the Levan Sub-Sector
The next three years would go poorly for the Traitors. The 3rd and the 6th Companies would be overtaken by the the White Panthers and Blood Angels while attempting to rejoin the 1st Company upon Levan Prime. The understrength 3rd would be forced to lure the loyalists into combat on the moon of Levan Secundus to allow the 6th to make planet fall on Levan Prime.

There they would be pursued, in time, by the Astra Militarum who would fight a brutal two year campaign against the two companies of Blue Hand Space Marines now upon the world. Meanwhile the Heb would send troops to relive the Forge Word of Erendan, slaughtering the traitor guardsmen who held the world besieged. Across 829.M39, Heb forces swept the Traitors from the remaining worlds of the Sub-Sector, killing dozens of additional Blue Hand Marines and cementing the particular hatred of them in the traitors' hearts.

However, Azulite Manibus did not sit idly by through this period. Some forces were withdrawn to Craw ahead of the onslaught of the Heb and their Mechanicus allies, and much was done to strengthen his Citadel upon that world. However, most significantly, hundreds of thousands of cultists mutants and psykers, along with tens of thousands of loyal Imperials from the lesser worlds of the Sub-Sector were crammed into the holds of traitor ships and carried off to Craw. The loyalists were then delivered into the hands of the dark Librarius of the Blue Hand, who were concocting something foul upon the world.

The stalemate upon Levan Prime would finally be broken by the arrival of more Loyalist Astartes. Captain Solomon Rex of the Blood Ravens 4th Company personally slew First Company Champion Caelum Unguiculi in single combat and his forces sealed the fate of the 1st and 6th Companies. With the arrival of another full Company of loyalists from the Crimson Consuls Chapter, the stage was set for the final act.

The Second Battle For Craw and the End of The Blue Hand Heresy
The forces which landed upon Craw to oppose the Blue Hand were formidable. The Blood Ravens 4th Company and the Crimson Consuls 7th Company were joined by squads of Blood Angels Assault Marines and White Panthers Attack Bike Squads. Alongside these were 16 full Regiments of Heb infantry: zellous, tested, armed and eager for vengeance. Lord Inquisitor Bartholomew Geisel led his personal retinue of witch hunters and stormtroopers bearing searing flame and burning las. Lord General Militant Garvaan brought the remains of his Army Group from Lavin, bristling with Guard Armor; tanks and guns manned by raw recruits corralled from the ruins of the Levanine Hives. Then there were the Skitarii of Erandan, backed by the holy fire of Electro-Priests and the guns of heavy servitors, and watched over, literally, by the Nomen Solitudinis. The ancient war machine made up one third of the Titans available to Fabricator-General Bedan, but it was the only one of the Warlord Class.

Against this, Chapter Master Manibus had over 600 Marines, his chapter's armory, eight remaining formal regiments of damned guardsmen, hundreds of thousands of lost cultists drawn from the Sub-Sector’s worlds, his dark Librarius, his own overweening ambition, and the blessings of the profanity he worshiped as a God.

The two great armies gathered before Manibus's Fortress. Over the course of nine years the Citadel had been raised ever higher and made ever more formidable: firstly by the functional architects of the Imperial Guard, then by the transhuman efforts of the Blue Hand Techmarines, and finally by the unholy will of the Changer of Ways, who obeys no geometry understandable to sane minds. Within its walls, Pollex Caeruleorum, who held the distinction of being both the last Chief Librarian of the Blue Hand Chapter and the first and last High Sorcerer of the Blue Hand Warband, had formed a great coven centered upon the Blue Hand Dark Librarius but aided by witches and psykers drawn from across the Levan Sub-Sector.

While Battlefleet Mandavi clashed overhead with their traitor kin and the Blue Hand’s own fleet, the ground of Craw was heavy with death. The Chapter Master used his cultists as living shields to defend his traitor guardsmen and his guardsmen as fodder to protect his Space Marines. Leman Russ and Predator tanks from both sides clashed, crushing mortals beneath their treads. The rebel Stormblade, Fire Eyes, played a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the Nomen Solitudinis, hoping to bring the Titan into the gaze of its plasma blasts before the walker could flatten it. The Lord Inquisitor watched from the sidelines, hoping for an opportunity to seek out the Warlord; while his acolytes sought out the Captains and Champions of the traitorous host. The loyalist Astartes swept forward in graceful maneuvers, the Heb advanced in open order, ever ready to bring their heavy weapons into play, the Skitarii Marched forward with unwavering mechanical precision, and the conscripts skulked behind, driven on only by the threats of their Commissars.

By late in the afternoon of Craw’s 60 hour day, the Imperial left flank had breached the Fortresses outer fortifications. The Heb 1st, with Holy Commander Gregory Samualson at their head, led the assault and arrived at the walls of the Blue Hand’s inner sanctum. By his side was the Erendani Magos Dominus named Druzekiel and his Kataphron Breachers. These living war machines delivered upon the promise of their names, rending the Fortress walls and opening a path for the Heb to advance.

What heroism and treachery occurred within the inner walls of the Blue Hand Citadel will never be recorded, for none survived to tell of it. Roughly 80 minutes after the Holy Commander and the Magos Dominus entered the Fortress, a great explosion tore forth, ripping stone and plascrete, and flinging turrets and weapons emplacements into the air. Blue ethereal warpfire mixed with red flames from exploding magazines as the inferno consumed the Fortress and instantly killed two thirds of the remaining Blue Hand Space Marines. Later investigation by the Ordo Hereticus would find the skeletons of the nine Dark Librarians still upright in their armor, with the twisted metal skeleton of the Magos Dominus nearby, and the Holy Commander’s power sword sheathed in the High Sorcerer’s back. It can only be inferred that Samualson and Druzekiel penetrated the chamber while the coven was seeking to work some act of tremendous warpcraft. Whether Samualson managed to slay Caeruleorum with his blow, or merely distracted him at a crucial moment is unclear, but either way, Azulite Manibus’s dream of his own empire died as a result.

The Flight from Craw and Thereafter
Warlord Manibus did not, in fact, die in the destruction of his Fortress. He had personally taken the field against the Imperial right flank, leading a charge from atop a Land Raider Crusader. While Lord Inquisitor Geisel sought to bring the fiend to single combat, it was not to be. In the glare of the great explosion, a stray round from the battle cannon of a Leman Russ tank took the Astartes just below his pauldron, severing his arm and ripping into his torso. His main heart burst, half his ribcage shattered, and his entire right side to the hip was left a bloody ruin. For all that Manibus worshiped the Changer of Ways, he had refused to accept mutation into his transhuman form, or to seek ascension to daemonhood. Like the avenging angels they were, two squads of Blood Angels Assault Marines jetted onto the Land Raider, and Azulite Manibus passed from the Galaxy, never to plague the Imperium again.

Official histories of the conflict, even those that acknowledge that the Blue Hand were Space Marines, claim that every surviving traitor upon Craw was hunted to eradication. Only the Inquisitors of the Ordo Hereticus, those loyalist Astartes who fought upon Craw, and the leaders of the Heb and Erendan know the truth: two ships which recovered Thunderhawks managed to escape the system by transitioning directly into the surrounding Warp storms.

It would be over 200 years before the next appearance of a Blue Hand cult would be discovered on the world of Deirdre Secundus in the Conditta Sub-Sector. However, in that time and all the time to follow, the Ordo Hereticus would never stop hunting for the survivors of the Blue Hand Warband, nor would the Heb and their allies.

Before the Second Battle for Craw
The Blue Hand were never a fully Codex-compliant Chapter; although they did limit themselves to a chapter strength of one thousand. According to the ancient traditions of their now forgotten homeworld, the Chapter was divided into nine Companies of one hundred eleven Marines each. The Chapter Master stood outside the numbered Companies, making the total strength of the Chapter nine hundred ninety-nine plus one. Each Company was divided into twelve squads of nine, eight Battle Brothers and a Sargent. Each Company would also have a Captain, Chaplin, and a Champion numbered outside the squads, or twelve nines plus three.

Each Company would have three squads of Devastators, three Assault squads, three Tactical squads, two squads of Scouts and a single squad of Veterans. While the Companies were numbered, each was meant to be identical and equally powerful. As a result, the Chapter Master was as likely to take the field alongside the ninth Company as alongside the first.

Hindsight being twice blessed by the God Emperor, the Inquisition would later realize that the recurrence of the number nine (and of three, nine’s square root) in the Chapter’s organization indicated the attention of the Daemonic Deity to whom that number is sacred. However, it is better now to burn the heretic than to curse the darkness.

After the Second Battle for Craw
Following their defeat upon Craw, the surviving Blue Hand Marines fled into the Warp storms surrounding The Throat. The Ordo Hereticus were able to account for the deaths of eight hundred thirty-eight Blue Hand Space Marines across the Levan Sub-Sector and both battles upon Craw. This included the Chapter Master and all nine of the Chapter's Librarians. It is believed that the remaining one hundred sixty-two Marines were aboard those ships which made it to the Warp.

Little is known about the Blue Hand Warband: it’s structure, its base of operations, whether it has been able to replenish its numbers through recruitment, all remain unknown. However, the Inquisition has gathered an extensive file on the Cult of The Blue Hand of Tzeentch which the traitor Astartes seek to spread.

One, three, or six Marines will arrive upon an Imperial World through unknown, but presumed to be sorcerous means. They will establish a base in an isolated area and begin to recruit from the poor and downtrodden. Particularly, anyone who shows mutation are proclaimed as the blessed of Tzeentch. As the Libraius of the Blue Hand Chapter was destroyed upon Craw, the Warband must recruit psykers from among their cultists. It is generally one such psyker who is proclaimed the Holder of the Blue Hand of Tzeentch and leader of the cult.

Once the cult reaches a critical mass, they will try to seize control of the world. The traitor Astartes will take part in large and symbolic attacks, as well as serving as the bodyguards to the cult leader. However, they will rarely endanger their own lives through acts of excessive courage. Likewise, should the world’s loyalist forces turn the tide against the cult, Chaos Space Marines are almost never found among the dead. It seems that whatever means is used to infiltrate such planets also allows the Blue Hand Marines to withdraw, if given time. It is only when an outside force arrives and strikes quickly that the Warband’s numbers are whittled down.

Warband Beliefs and Goals
The Cult of the Blue Hand of Tzeentch worships that dark divinity in his complete form, not via one of his Greater Daemon avatars. For that matter, the Blue Hand are uncommonly disinclined to summon daemons of any kind; preferring to rely on mortal thralls and psykers. Whether this represents some aspect of the cult’s belief structure, or an uncommon level of common sense for worshipers of Chaos, is unknown.

At the time of the second battle for Craw, the Warband had not embraced the mutations so typical of the followers of Tzeentch. Inquisitorial Chirurgeons determined in autopsy that the gene-seed of Blue Hand traitor Space Marines was remarkably uncorrupted for beings who had fallen to Chaos nearly a decade prior. Likewise, the bodies of the traitors bore no discernable “gifts” of Tzeentch, in the form of mutation. That said, mutation was rampant among the mortal followers of the Warband; both those of the traitor Guard Regiments and the Naval crews, and of their cultist thralls drawn from the Levan Sub-Sector.

While later instances of the Blue Hand Cult (formally, The Cult of the Blue Hand of Tzeentch) would seem to share the Warbands disinclination to summon Daemons, it is clear that the survivors of Craw abandoned any concerns for purity they once had. Those bodies of Blue Hand Marines recovered by the Inquisition in M40 and M41 have been fully mutated. While the outside of their armor appears pristine, this belies the deformed and protean flesh that now inhabits that shell.

Normal Humans and Abhumans who display mutation hold a special place within the cult. They are viewed as having been anointed by Tzeentch, and are raised to positions of authority over non-mutated cultists: the greater and more visible the mutation, the higher their standing. Psykers are viewed as being twice blessed, for "The Hand of Tzeentch is upon their mind." In a Blue Hand Cult, Psykers will serve as the overall leaders and priests, whereas the most deformed mutants will serve as leaders of the cult’s military forces.

It is believed that the ultimate goal of the Blue Hand Chaos Space Marine Warband and The Cult of the Blue Hand of Tzeentch is to seize one or more Imperial systems and to build the pocket empire Azulite Manibus dreamed of. As stated, they seem disinclined to summon Daemonic reinforcements, so what their endgame would be remains a mystery.

Following the 13th Black Crusade and emergence of the galaxy spanning Warp rift known as the Cicatrix Maledictum, the Blue Hand Warband mysteriously vanished. Rumors, however, abound and are buttressed by psychic visions the words of heretical prophets. These rumors tell of a dark Sector, lost to the Emperor’s light. A Sector prepared by centuries of infiltration, for which all other cult uprisings were but mere practice. A Sector whose ships were seized at anchor, and whose worlds were taken from within.

If these rumors are to be believed, then somewhere in the vastness of the Imperium, the Blue Hand Warband has finally grasped its empire.

Warband Colours
The Blue Hand Space Marine Chapter's traditional colors were cobalt blue and white. The right Gauntlet, Vambrace and Poleyns would be blue, as were the edges of the Pauldrons and parts of the Backpack unit. The Aquila the upon the Plastron was painted gold. The left Pauldron bore the Chapter’s eponymous sigil, a blue gauntleted hand reaching down.

Following their fall to Chaos, the Blue Hand changed their colors, while maintaining the overall pattern. They darkened their armor to a dull nickel gray, while lightening those parts which had been cobalt to a vibrant electric blue. The Aquila upon the chest has been removed and, presumably, defiled.

Alliances
Due to their small numbers and disinclination to launch conventional assaults, most Chaos Warbands ignore the Blue Hand. Even the Black Legion, which is seemingly open to all traitor Astartes, appears to have no interest in these few castaways.

However, there have been two documented instances of Blue Hand cults working alongside members of the secretive Alpha Legion. Both of these occurred in the fourth century of M40, possibly indicating a temporary alliance.

Additionally, there is one other recorded instance of the Blue Hand cooperating with other traitor Astartes: In 102.M41 on the world of Gatta Secundus, Space Marines of the Disciples of Caliban Chapter, fighting alongside a Heb Regiment of the Imperial Guard, killed four traitor Marines. According to reports submitted to the Ordo Hereticus by the Interrogator-Chaplain who led the assault, three were of the Blue Hand, and one was of an undetermined Warband. The Chaplain's report says that the fourth Astartes appeared to be a member of the III Legion, however the Inquisition was not able to independently verify this. In accordance with the traditions of their Chapter, the Disciples of Caliban performed the Rites of Detestation and fully destroyed the bodies and wargear of the traitor Marines.