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Renegade Space Marine Chapters & Chaos Warbands Articles

The Knights of Laeran are a Chaos Warband devoted to Slaanesh, derived primarily from the Emperor's Children.

Origins
Emperor's Children

Post-Heresy
Pleasure World hunters

Rediscovery of Laeren
The Airtha Crusade

Present
Chilling on Laeren

Airtha Crusade
The Knights of Laeren have been in a state of near-constant conflict with the Knights Celestial and House Blackstone for control of what the Imperium of Man calls the Shrine World of Airtha. Stricken from Imperial records in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy, this world was once known as Laeren, and was where Fulgrim first took up the infamous Laer Blade that would eventually lead to his corruption by the Chaos God Slaanesh. While the world has changed hands multiple times throughout the millennia, since the formation of the Cicatrix Maledictum, it has since been plunged into the Rift and become a Daemon World. Currently, Prince Gaius rules this world in Slaanesh's name, using his mastery over the world both to recreate a human version of the lost Laer society and to keep the planet safe from Imperial invaders... for the crusade isn't truly over, and the Knights Celestial and House Blackstone continue to look for ways to reclaim Airtha, despite the new seemingly insurmountable difficulties.

Gonara Breach Incident
Seeking to destroy a common foe, the Knights of Laeren disguised themselves as loyalists and heeded the call by Inquisitor Xandrian when Gonara system was attacked by the Skaven. Unfortunately, their involvement directly lead to the campaign's failure. When their true identities were discovered, the Drakken Harbingers and Dorn's Crusaders ignored the Skaven and attacked the Knights of Laeren, forcing the Knights Celestial and Sun Serpents to protect them. While the Imperial forces fought amongst themselves, the Knights of Laeren summoned the Children of Madness and the Blood Tamers to assist them, and together they at least managed to destroy the Skaven superweapon, the Screaming Fortress, before the Skaven's ultimate victory in the system.

The Skaventide
The Knights of Laeren once again entered an unholy alliance with the Imperium to fight back the massive Skaven invasion known as the Skaventide. (event still underway, details to come later)

Warband Organisation
On the surface, the Knights of Laeren appear to be fairly organized, with Prince Gaius delegating the responsibilities of managing his forces to a council known as the Six Masters, each with distinct specialties and responsibilities. Below that, however, the structure becomes much more flexible, with Gaius allowing his subordinates to conduct their duties as they see fit. While Gaius doesn't allow subordinates to claim the title of Master through backstabbing their superiors, whether or not other positions of power below that permit such practices varies entirely on the whim of the Master leading that particular branch of the Warband. The only structure Gaius demands of the Six Masters is that they have a squad of Noise Marine bodyguards protecting them, composed of Marines hand picked by him specifically.

Prince Gaius the Glorious
While the entire warband answers to Gaius, the Daemon Prince delegates most of the specifics to his trusted Six Masters. All Sorcerers within the Warband are outside of this structure, however, and answer only to Gaius himself. The Knights of Laeren have also taken in several of the Fallen, whose lack of Slaanesh corruption requires Gaius to keep them on a short leash. Unlike many Warband leaders, Gaius does not keep a personal guard, instead assigning that honor to the bodyguards of whichever of the Six Masters he is leaving on the sidelines in a given conflict. In this way, he ensures that those who protect the Six Masters are loyal to him above those Masters, should any of them get any ideas.

Exalted Champion Augustan, Master of the Exalted
Augustan is a consummate duelist, preferring to fight independently rather than as part of a coherent force, but unlike Lucius the Eternal he knows how to balance this with needs of the warband at large. This makes him perfectly suited to leading those among the Knights of Laeren whose Slaaneshi corruption manifests as egomania and a complete lack of impulse control--in other words, those Prince Gaius deems expendable, and has no qualms about sending into near-suicidal parts of the battlefield. This portion of the Warband is technically considered the "highest", though only to play to the vanity of those transferred to it and stifle their objections. In practice they have no more authority than anyone else, however. The composition of Augustan's force therefore fluctuates frequently, though more often than not is will be composed mostly of Cultists, as well as those Noise Marines that forgo most of their trademark sonic weaponry in favor of the cacophony of close combat.

Lord Marius, Master of Tactics
The most mentally stable of the Knights of Laeren, Marius highly prioritizes the success of the mission over personal aggrandizement. While this has caused some to question his devotion to Slaanesh, Marius's corruption simply manifests in a compulsive need to plan and coordinate the perfect strategy, much as Gaius's manifests as needing to create the perfect society. Those who let their ambitions ruin his carefully orchestrated strategies run the risk of being dismembered by him if he can reach them before they are transferred to Augustan's command. While every Master has at least some Noise Marines under their command as personal guards, Marius commands the vast majority of them, along with the Warband's Terminators, Chosen, Bikers, Raptors, Havocs, and other non-mechanized elements that are considered "typical" of both loyalist and heretic Astartes forces.

Dark Apostle Faustus, Master of Devotion
Faustus is the most skilled Diabolist of the Knights of Laeren. While he has his Noise Marine bodyguards like the rest of the Six Masters, Faustus rarely uses them as anything more than personal protection. Instead, he focuses on directly channeling the will of the Dark Prince by summoning, binding, and commanding the Neverborn, guiding the Possessed, and wrangling any unfortunate saps who devolve into Chaos Spawn. In particular, he keeps a collection of various Keepers of Secrets bound to him, who in turn have their own Daemon hordes they can summon at a moment's notice. Because of his mastery of daemonology, when a mission calls for infiltration, subtle corruption, or the surprise appearance of a Daemonic force, it will almost always be Faustus's responsibility.

Warpsmith Octavian, Master of Machines
On the surface Octavian appears to be the least sociable of all the Knights of Laeren, and one would be forgiven for forgetting that he is a Son of Fulgrim. However, only his lieutenant, a Hellwright who has replaced his name with a binary code, is more skilled in dealing with Chaos-tainted Machine Spirits. The only reason said Hellwright does not outrank Octavian is simply because he has no desire to deal with the politics of those who are so tightly bound to their flesh. Octavian, however, is a master of revealing as little of his desires as possible while ensuring the entire Warband utterly depends on his war machines, making him unofficially the most influential of the Six Masters, at least in practice. The armory of the Knights of Laeren may not be as extensive as those of an Iron Warriors warband, but what they do have is lovingly cared for with a degree of obsession only found among the servants of Slaanesh. In particular, the Knights of Laeren are known for fielding a large number of Sonic Dreadnaughts, piloted by the former Lords of any Slaaneshi Warbands the Knights of Laeren are forced to absorb through force rather than work with diplomatically. They also have a fair number of various Daemon Engines such as Heldrakes, Maulerfiends, and Defilers, and conventional vehicles like Rhinos, Predators, and Land Raiders. In addition to their armor pool, Octavian is also tasked with designing the extensive fortifications the Knights of Laeren put in place when conquering a new world, a skill he has mastered after centuries of studying under various sons of Perturabo before returning to his Emperor's Children brothers.

Prince Remus, Master of Renegades
The only one of the Six Masters not of the Emperor's Children, Remus was actually a son of Guilleman in his mortal life, Captain of the Angels of Calth 2nd Company. When his Company was deployed to destroy a Knights of Laeren cult world, however, most of the Company was captured and persuaded, though various means, to embrace Slaanesh and join the Knights of Laeren. Captain Remus was then tasked with converting any vulnerable Astartes to the worship of the Youngest God, and has been successful enough to ascend to Daemonhood himself--only to be promptly bound and shackled to Gaius's will by Master Faustus.

Lord Atius, Master of Mortals
Lord Atius is somewhat looked down upon by the rest of the Knights of Laeren, but quietly held in the greatest esteem by Prince Gaius himself, for Atius is tasked with managing the unaugmented humans and mutants that serve the Knights of Laeren. It is he that determines who should ascend to the ranks of the Heretic Astartes, who among the females show enough promise to mother the next generation of mortal servants and potential recruits, and whether or not someone has let their devotion to Slaanesh erode their competence and should be "promoted" to Augustan's Exalted. While he is technically in command of his branch of the Warband, Atius's talents lie in human psychology rather than battlefield tactics, so he typically delegates his strategic role among the Six Masters to his highest ranking officer, the Questor Hereticus Knight pilot known as Lady Ursula Blackstone.

Warband Gene-Seed
Roughly 80% of the Knights of Laeren trace their genetic origins to Fulgrim and the Emperor's Children. However, over time they have managed to corrupt individuals derived from virtually all of the Primarchs both loyal and traitor, with the exceptions of Angron, Magnus, and Mortarion. Given their homeworld's proximity to the Realm of Ultramar, this practice has lead to roughly 15% of their Marines descending from Roboute Guilleman and the Ultramarines, with the remaining 5% consisting of everything else except for the World Eaters, Thousand Sons, and Death Guard. Even among this 5%, however, sons of Sanguinius or Leman Russ are exceedingly rare.

Warband Leader
Gaius : Daemon Prince

The Six Masters
Augustan : Master of the Exalted

Marius : Master of Tactics

Faustus : Master of Devotion

Octavian : Master of Machines

Remus : Master of Renegades

Atius : Master of Mortals

Others
Ursula : Rightful Heir of House Blackstone

Veneficus : Former Fists of Gorgon Librarian

Flavius : Sorcerer

Theliel : Fallen Lord

Muunokhoi Khan : Former White Scars Captain

Relations
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Allies

 * Alpha Legion
 * Black Legion
 * Red Corsairs
 * Children of Madness
 * Nekosuccubi
 * Pentagonal Alliance

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Enemies

 * Knights Celesial
 * House Blackstone
 * Drakken Harbingers
 * Fists of the Gorgon

By the Knights of Laeren
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About the Knights of Laeren
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