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This article, Ashen Angels (Wardens of Ash), was written by Purebreadspartan. Please do not edit or 'acquire' this fiction without the writer's permission. |
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This article, Ashen Angels (Wardens of Ash), is currently under active construction. The author, Purebreadspartan, apologizes for the inconvenience. |
- "Every oath is written in ash and blood."
- — Chaplain Astiel
The Ashen Angels, known also as the "Wardens of Ash," are a Blood Angels Successor Chapter of the 19th Founding. Forged in the fires of tragedy, they meld the nobility and brutality of their genefather Sanguinius. Still bearing the twin flaws of the Red Thirst and the Black Rage, their faith and ritual discipline temper the curse within, channeling their fury into precise and devastating shock assaults.
Once guardians of the shrine-world Serephus, the Ashen Angels were forced to enact orbital bombardment upon their own home to deny it to the Ork and Chaos hordes that sought its sanctity. This self-inflicted loss defined their Chapter’s creed — a vow of eternal vigilance, penance, and remembrance. From the ashes of that ruin, the Angels forged a new bastion upon Selune Primus, raising the Ashen Keep, a fortress-monastery of black stone and flame-lit sanctuaries that houses relics from their fallen world.
Today, the Ashen Angels wage an unending crusade across the Eastern Fringe. They are known for their close ties to the Deathwatch, forming elite kill-teams made up of Deathwatch veterans upon their return. Clad in ashen plate and bound by vow chains, the Wardens of Ash bring redemption through fire and blade, their war cry echoing through the void: “From the Ashes, Victory.”
Chapter History[]
Early History (The Fall of Serephus)[]
The Ashen Angels were founded somewhere around the 19th founding in retaliation to significant reports of xenos attacks in the Imperium's eastern fringes. The crusade fleets of Ash came upon the battered shrine world of Serephus, seeing the devastation done by local Orks the Ashen Angels liberated the world and swore to see it rebuilt. during the rebuilding it was decided that this would be the new home for the chapter and the center of its protectorate. For centuries the systems around Serephus were safeguarded and the reliquaries of the chapter were stocked. In early M.41 on the edge of the Serephus System an Ork WAAAGH!!! began and it barreled into the shrine world. The marines on world numbered less than 50 called for help. By the time the 3rd, 5th and 9th companies arrived the Orks had made planetfall. When the 1st 2nd and 7th companies arrived the planet was ablaze. Former Chapter Master Valerian Kael teleported to the surface and engaged the Ork warboss KrumpKilla' Da' Green in melee combat. Both fell but Kael survived being rushed to the apothecary and entombed in a dreadnaught sarcophagus. With the Chapter Master felled it was up to First Captain Solomon Thane to take command. Once all brothers were in orbit he initiated the rites of exterminatus on his own home.
- ""We burned Serephus.. I burned Serephus, my own home to rid it of the greenskins what do you think i would do to a backwater world like this." "
- —Chapter Master Thane during the Kelekan Rebellion.
Chapter Homeworld[]
Selune Primus[]
Homeworld: Selune Primus
Selune Primus is the principal world of a small, crescent shaped system on the Imperium’s eastern fringe in Imperium Nihilus. Named for the ancient Terran moon goddess Selune, the planet stands as a guiding light in the void, a promise that faith can flourish even at the edge of ruin.
Once a volcanic ashworld scarred by meteor impacts and shifting tundras, Selune Primus was chosen by the Ashen Angels during their crusades as the place to forge a new sanctuary after the fall of Serephus.
The Ashen Spire[]
Upon Selune Primus, the Ashen Angels raised the Ashen Keep, a monumental fortress-monastery carved into the heart of a black obsidian peak that rises over endless plains of silver grey ash. Its vaults house relics rescued from Serephus, alongside new reliquaries, sacred gardens, and towering chapels where both the Chapter and faithful pilgrims kneel in remembrance. Around the monastery a sprawling city has been built housing pilgrims and shrines.
Selune Primus has become a minor shrine world in its own right. Pilgrims brave the cold ash plains to walk the path that leads to the great city, a sacred trail lined with cenotaphs bearing the names of martyrs from Serephus and every crusade since. At its peak, the Order of the Ivory Feather maintains a grand convent that tends the reliquaries, ministers to the wounded, and blesses the gardens that bloom within the Spire’s massive biodomes.
The Selune System sits within a cluster of void lanes that lead to Ork empires, drifting Chaos warbands, and Corsair Pirates. Making it the perfect staging ground for the Ashen Angels crusade fleets.
Gift of the Moon[]
Some of the people born in the Selune System and especially Selune Primus are born with white hair and pale eyes being more accustomed to the night. These people are referred to have the "Gift of the Moon". The moons gift is so strong that even initiates withing the Ashen Angels come out of the blood sarcophaguses that transform then still with the white hair and pale eyes. Apothecarian and Biologis experts say that the gift has no affect on Space Marine anatomy.
The Anchor of Faith[]
The Anchor of Faith is the amalgamation of two Orbital Plates and an Ultrus-scale Imperial starport. Built out of Desperation in the defense of the Selunian Forges on Ferrum Solace and later moved to a more strategic position at the request of the Ashen Angels. After the splitting of the great rift, The Anchor of Faith is the hub for all voidships entering the system. So short on ships that the Mechanicus and Adeptus Munitorm agencies have agreed on out fitting merchant and colony ships with weapons to add the the defensive fleets in the system. The station houses at all times one full company of Ashen Angels along with the Astartes void ships being docked and ready for rapid deployment, ensuring that the failure of Serephus can never be redone.
Defenses[]
- Anchor of Faith: Massive Drydock and armament housing attached to a Orbital plate,
Selunian PDF
- Orbital Defenses: Massive orbital battery fortifications and Void mines.
- Standing Fleet: Picket fleet made up of Ashen Angels vessels, Imperial navy ships and merchant ships outfitted with weapons who happen upon The Selune System
- Planetary Defense Force (PDF): The Local PDF are very skilled being trained by the Selunian Guard
- Selunian Assault Regiments: (Formally the Cadian 187th of Kasr Tyrok) While returning the to the homeworld the Specialist Mechanized regiments transports and escort ships were caught in the warp wakes accompanying the great rift. They found safe harbor in the Selune System where the Ashen Angels Space Marine chapter had built up their home into a bastion for those lost in the warp. Deciding to stay instead of return to a destroyed home they made the Ashen Planet there new home and began recruiting from the locals. Teaching them in the art of mechanized assaults with special forces and combat engineers. The ash plains of Selune Primus make perfect training grounds for there vehicular combat.
Notable Campaigns[]
The Path of Purple: The path of purple is now understood as a common set of space lanes used by those under the influnce of a xenos-worshipping secret society, commonly called Genestealers Cults. After intense interagation of a rogue merchant captain sporting 3 arms and odd purple skin the Ashen Angels committed available chapter strength to burning the Path of Purple from existence. With records in Imperium Nihilus incomplete and missing data it is unknown the number of planets purged, but chapter leadership agrees that the number is above 15. The Path of Purple was the end of many great marines careers and was the catalyst in the chapters use of terminators, to only be in the most dire of situations. Loosing 8 terminator suits to Patriarch and subsequent pure strain honor guard in one engagement.
Battle helm granted to Captain Voren After the final Path of Purple world was purged.
The Battle of Gyre: Fighting a Tyranid Swarm over the planet of Gyre Secundus the 4th and 6th companies took sever losses. That was until Sergeant Morrigal Thanus went against the grain and took it upon himself to gather deathwatch veterans forming the first all deathwatch kill team. He then took a thunderhawk and began boarding Tyranid hive ships to plant deadly warheads and other explosives destroying them from the inside and ultimately turning the tide allowing for the Imperium's forces to re-consolidate.
Devastation of Baal: When the call came out from Lord Commander Dante the Ashen Angels wanted to answer, but there were complications. Out of the 10 battle companies only four received the call and only one of them was able to make it in time. The Third company was already depleted, leaving Selune Primus with 120 space marines and arriving at Baal with less than 60. Dante used them and there strengths adding them to the blockade and later space battle. Using boarding actions and quick strikes the Ashen Angels held there sector but the battle was on the downhill. Captain Lucaris Maor of the third made the desperate action of sending the thirds gene seed with its last remaining brother Veteran Sergeant Kayne back to Selune Primus.
- " Take the thirds legacy home son, tell the chapter what happened here."
- — Captain Maor's Final Vox comunication
Chapter Organisation[]
Officer Ranks[]
Specialist Ranks[]
Line Ranks[]
Specialist Ranks & Formations[]
Order of Battle[]
Headquarters[]
Companies[]
Chapter Gene-Seed[]
Genetic Flaws[]
The Ashen Angels, like all Blood Angels' Successors, share many traits with their progenitors, including the 'twin flaws' that afflicts so many of the line of Sanguinius. This curse is manifested in the same way as it does to their Progenitors: the Angels suffer from both of the genetic Flaws of the Red Thirst and the Black Rage. Those that fall to the Black Rage are similarly placed in the Death Company.
Primarch's Curse: Twin-Curses[]
The Angels carry within them the twin genetic curses of Sanguinius. Known as The Flaw, these genetic curses are known separately as the Red Thirst and the Black Rage. The Flaw of the Blood Angels has also been attributed to a combination of the genetic defects in the Legion's Omophagea gene-seed organ implant, and the psychic disturbance created during the final seconds of Sanguinius' life. During the battles of the Horus Heresy on Terra and Mars, the stored gene-seed imprint of the Blood Angels was lost, forcing the Legion to have to extract the gene-seed needed for their reconstruction after the Heresy from the fallen body of their Primarch himself. Every Space Marine created from the gene-seed drawn from Sanguinius after his death was doomed to fall to the Flaw.
The Red Thirst[]
Deep within the psyche of every Angel is a destructive yearning, a battle fury and blood-hunger that must be held in abeyance in every waking moment. Few Battle-Brothers can hold this Red Thirst in check unceasingly it is far from unknown for Blood Angels to temporarily succumb to its lure at the height of battle. The Red Thirst is the Blood Angels' darkest secret and greatest curse, but it is also their greatest salvation, for it brings with it a humility and understanding of their own failings which make them truly the most noble of the Space Marines.
The Black Rage[]
The Angels still suffer from the psychic imprint left by Sanguinius' death (or by the daemonic "wound" caused on Signus Prime). This can cause them to go insane prior to or during battle and feel the rage that Sanguinius himself felt during the Battle of Terra. Rather than let them face a slow, insane death, Blood Angels will form those who have newly succumbed to the Black Rage into a special unit known as the Death Company.
Death Company
The Ashen Angels Death company is small in comparison to brother chapters. When brothers do fall they cover their armor in black ash and use blood to put ritual "X" symbols across themselves.
Chapter Recruitment[]
The Ashen Angels take aspirants from their home world and other worlds they come across on campaign, after the aspirants are accepted they are put through training on Selune Secundus. Selune Secundus is the moon of Selune Primus, it is a hidden training ground for Ashen Angels initiates. It's dense jungles and lethal megafauna serve as the crucible for the Chapter’s final trials. Much like there parent chapter after they pass the test they must spend six months in an Ashen Sarcophagus, inside is a mix of ashes of the fallen, blood and incense. If they survive this test they are introduced into the scout company.
Combat Doctrine[]
Deathwatch Service[]
Deathwatch Sgt Morrigal
A Tradition of Voluntary Exile: Even before Serephus taking the black and serving in the Deathwatch was seen as a common rite of passage for brothers who didn't know what path to follow. After the Fall the Deathwatch is seen as extra penance but also as a way to kill and learn more secrets of Greenskins. Brothers who return commonly keep the silver left arm and any special wargear claimed on the vigil. Within the Deathwatch, the Ashen Angels are both respected and pitied. Whispering prayers to Sanguinius and the Emperor in the darkness between boarding actions.
Close ties with Watch fortresses: First Captain Caelum’s Crusade force often coordinates with Watch Fortresses to cleanse entire sectors, his Ashen Angels striking alongside kill teams as the Emperor’s unyielding spear.
Effect on the Chapter: Because so many sons of Serephus now Selune serve the Deathwatch, brothers who return are vessels of terrible knowledge forming kill teams of other veterans to share knowledge and better serve the chapter.
Doctrine & Role: These kill teams operate much like Deathwatch squads:
- Each kill team is made up entirely of Ashen Angels veterans who served the Long Vigil.
- They specialize in strike and decapitate missions: boarding actions, kill clocks, targeted assassinations, xenos nest purges, or crippling an enemy’s command structure before the main assault.
- Often deployed in boarding torpedoes or elite Drop Pods, they strike unseen, cleanse with ordos xenos relics, then vanish like ghosts.
Notable Members[]
Ashen Angels Sgt with customized helmet
Chapter Fleet[]
Heavens Sorrow(Battle Barge): Battle Barge of the 3rd Company and housing of the Astraeus super-heavy tank Cineris Rex(King of Ash). Its seen combat from destroying Ork Roks above Serephus to pursuing Alpha Legion Vessels in the Selune System. It is a mobile reliquary and rapid deployment center, refit to house more combat vehicles that normal for the Angels of Ash.
Battle Barge Heavens Sorrow
Chapter Relics[]
Cineris Rex(King of Ash): Astraeus super-heavy tank gifted to the Ashen Angels by the Primarch Roboute Guilliman and his Torchbearer fleet. A coveted relic in the armory and one used with precision, when its deployed on the battlefield death and destruction follow.
Chapter Appearance[]
Chapter Colours:[]
The Ashen Angels are clad in ash grey battle plate with deep red pauldrons and the right knee pad. The red knee pad is a symbol of two things. The first is the ancient tale of there genefather who kneeled in font of the original Blood Angels and the other is that all vows take on the knee are those of blood. Some Selunite battle brothers even carve runes into there plate and weapons. Black cross motifs and blood drops are also common for Ashen Angels.
Chapter Badge:[]
The Chapter Badge is a stylized black cross with a blood gem inset in the middle.
Relations[]
The Selunian 103rd Are permanently attached to the 5th company. Providing mechanized fire upport and specilist forces to better broaden the Ashen Angels Capabilities
Allies[]
Enemies[]
| Blood Angels |   |
The Ashen Angels are close to their parent chapter both on a galactic scale and in sworn oaths. In recent years the Ashen Angels have resworn their oaths to the Blood Angels for the failure of committing the entire chapter in the Devastation of Baal. |
| Charnel Guard |   |
The Ashen Angels are the spirtitual sucessors of the Charnel Guard. They were taught about the flaw and thirst by them and took on their morbid look on the curses. |
| Selunite Dragons |   |
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| Selunian Guard |   |
Selunian Assault Regiments: (Formally the Cadian 187th of Kasr Tyrok) While returning the to the homeworld the Specialist Mechanized regiments transports and escort ships were caught in the warp wakes accompanying the great rift. They found safe harbor in the Selune System where the Ashen Angels Space Marine chapter had built up their home into a bastion for those lost in the warp. Deciding to stay instead of return to a destroyed home they made the Ashen Planet there new home and began recruiting from the locals. Teaching them in the art of mechanized assaults with special forces and combat engineers. The ash plains of Selune Primus make perfect training grounds for there vehicular combat. |
| Alpha Legion |   |
The Alpha Legion Rank amongst the most sought after heretics in the Ashen Angels View, after a daring betrayal that cost the lives of over 100 Ashen Angels marines. | |
| Exiled Sons |   |
Finding and killing Kar Zahul is the highest priotrity for the Ashen Angels, there will be no quarter for him. |
Notable Quotes[]
By: Ashen Angels[]
About: Ashen Angels[]
| Nineteenth Founding Space Marine Chapters | |
|---|---|
| Dark Angels Successors | • |
| White Scars Successors | Voidborne • |
| Space Wolves Successors | N/A |
| Imperial Fists Successors | Knights of Sol • |
| Blood Angels Successors | Ashen Angels (Wardens of Ash) • Auricblood Knights • |
| Iron Hands Successors | • |
| Ultramarines Successors | Knights of the Silver Blade • |
| Salamanders Successors | Ashborne Drakes • |
| Raven Guard Successors | Ashen Crows • Horned Machetes • |
| Unknown Lineage | Sin Seekers • Storm Knights • |
| Renegades | War Lions • |
Gallery[]
