|
This article, Crimson Seraphim, was written by Drake.Lanatta. Please do not edit or 'acquire' this fiction without the writer's permission. |
|
This article, Crimson Seraphim, is currently under active construction. The author, Drake.Lanatta, apologizes for the inconvenience. |
- "Carnage follows in our wake, blood flows everywhere we go; our wrath know no bounds." Orion smiled. "I have walked a road paved in the skulls of my enemies, every day praying to reach its end. Tonight, Brothers, rejoice! Whether we live or die, all our worries cease. Only in death does duty end."
- — Chapter Master Orion Varghast
The Crimson Seraphim is a loyalist Codex semi-compliant Space Marine Successor Chapter created from the lineage of the legendary and feared Blood Angels during the Second Founding in the wake of the Horus Heresy. They generally follow the Codex Astartes, though they are not as rigid as some chapters.
Chapter History
Before the Heresy, the Crimson Seraphim were simply known as company 21. They were never particularly infamous, just another of “The 100,” the original Blood Angels legion. They were talented, of course, but there was nothing in particular that pulled them from the pack. However, they were perfect in the eyes of Orion Varghast, their terran-born praetor. He strove above all to balance Sanguinius’s ten virtues, and his soldiers strove to emulate him in turn.
In Varghast, nothing changed during the heresy. He bore a divine nobility, but tore his enemies limb from limb with a vile fury to match it. His sons, however, so only his bloodlust, and it was from this lust that their Sanguinary Guard gained their moniker, “Bleeding Songs,” for even their gilded wings dripped with the blood of their enemies. Soon, the entire company adopted a new name, later that of the chapter, in honor and reverence of their prodigious fury.
Though their chapter master was initially against the dissolution of the legions, the 21st company was one of the first to develop their own identity as a newly formed chapter, rushing to the capital on Terra to receive their writ of succession.
In the decade following the Sundering, the chapter heard a distress cry from one of their sister planets. With the threat more diplomatic than bellicose, the chapter master and Master of Sanctity Tauron Atanas boarded a skiff along with some of the first company. While in transit, however, their Gellar Fields failed, and they were set upon by Khornate Daemons and thrown, unprotected, into the warp.
During the carnage, the Bloodthirster Sahmriet challenged the Chapter Master to a duel— knowing these were his last moments, he strode onto the deck of his ship, grasping the warp raw, and near immediately fell to the Black Rage. The battle was short-lived as Varghast tore into the greater daemon with all the fury of a dead man. The exposure to the raw warp unlocked latent psyker abilities, and with a great blast of energy, Varghast slammed both his and the Daemon’s weapons into its chest, tearing open a portal to realspace with his fury.
It was second captain Carius who first called out that their Chapter Master was gone, and it was under his banner that the Crimson Seraphim first set out on a crusade. The theory had been that Varghast was killed by traitor astartes, and in a blind rage the entirety of the chapter set out against Bokris, a world ruled by the Iron Warriors and the World Eaters.
The fighting lasted for months on end, neither side willing to bow an inch; by the end the world was completely razed. Bokris laid along the path that the doomed shipwould have sailed, and the chapter believed these Astartes responsible for their master’s death. Within three months from planetfall, the entire Caliges system, eight planets in total, had effectively undergone exterminatus. No astartes, cultist, civilian, even the native plant life was so thoroughly destroyed that all eight worlds were nothing but desert as far as the eye could see. Still, this brought the chapter no peace, and they set out to find the next chaos-infected system.
Carius had gone mad with power. Having ended billions of lives and utterly destroyed four full systems, the reputation of the Crimson Seraphim was that of berzerkers, and their numbers had fallen to the barest sustainable level. Carius continued to launch crusades, however, as what once was fury at the loss of his brother had become lust for carnage and bloodshed. What Carius believed to be an internal monologue was the voice of Khorne himself, filling the Chapter Master’s mind with violent fantasies and promises of endless power.
Upon the day that the eighth crusade would have begun, the legend of Ilioneus the Bold was born. Captain Ilioneus of the Bleeding Sons, champion of the seven crusades and known across the Imperium as one of the greatest Blood Angels to wield an axe, descended to the world of Rinices for preliminary reconnaissance. Before the fighting could commence, however, through waves of golden hair on the chapter master’s unhelmeted head, Ilioneus was able to discern a peculiar scar— the mark of Khorne.
Without hesitation, Ilioneus buried his axe within the flesh of Carius’s back, immediately following with a melta shot. Empowered by the dark powers, however, Carius did not fall. The duel was long, and Ilioneus nearly failed, but the remaining Bleeding Sons came to his aid in the end, and Carius was less than ash within a breath.
Ilioneus, however, was gravely injured in the duel, and in order to save the life of this most noble son of Sanguinius, his remains were interred within a contemptor dreadnought, armed with a chainfist, heavy flamer, and hypothetical weapon of Ilioneus’s own design- the quintumvirate volkite lance. The weapon consisted of a pentagram of volkite culverins surrounding a central conversion beam cannon; when fired, nothing known to man or beast can withstand the full force.
When Varghast awoke, the rage had subsided, but not left- he could feel it pressing just behind his senses. In his hands, he held the broken hilt of his force sword and blade of the Greater Daemon, now imbued with its own spirit and fury. The ship had crashed on Chaos World in the Reductus Sector of Segmentum Tempestus, and looking through the wreckage there was only one other survivor, Chaplain Atanas.
The ship was near-irreparable, yet the ingenuity of an astartes knows no bounds. In between waves of assaulting bloodletters and tzaangors, the two soldiers managed to repair and modify one of the remaining escape pods so that it could at the very least get them out of this world’s orbit. After two weeks or so of fear and back-breaking labor, Varghast and Atanas escaped the daemon world.
Desperately lost, they sailed clean past several imperial worlds before finally making landfall on Agrax. Their joy at salvation was short-lived however, as the time-dilating effects of the warp had bent and extended their journey. Though they set sail shortly after the end of the Heresy, they had landed in 077.M39. Varghast immediately set out to return to Draggal, panicked at the wonder of his legion. Ten thousand years of history lost in a matter of weeks. Still, the black rage pressed just behind his consciousness threatening his sanity with baited breath.
When he and Atanas arrived on Draggal, they were met with bolters aimed and swords drawn. The legend of their first chapter master and his disappearance was well known, but the odds of his return was doubted to say the least. Several days and an incredible number of tests later, Varghast, Atanas, the current chapter master, Lord Brutus, and then current High Chaplain, Lucius, met to discuss the roles they would play in the chapter’s government. Varghast suggested that he and Atanas would takes instructional roles, helping to educate members of the Librarius and Recluisarchy. Brutus, however, looking into the eyes of a man who survived the Horus Heresy, plead no contest and knelt before Varghast, admitting that he was nowhere near worthy to take the mantle of chapter master from one such as him. Lucius, ever faithful to his brother, did the same. Rather than accept supplication, Varghast elevated him to captain of the Bleeding Sons, that he might still maintain his honor and nobility.
Varghast knew that before he could take lead of his chapter, he needed to have the black rage under control. Thus, he ventured to Fenris, homeworld of the Space Wolves, that he might gain knowledge in the suppression of his rage.
He had heard, through his years, of the Wulfen Curse, and how the sons of Russ were taught to focus their rage rather than contain it so that it might be spent as opposed to festering and building to a point that resulted in their transformation from man to beast. He lived for months among the Wolves, learning their techniques and strategies. Once he learned of Logan Grimnar’s infamous “Axe Morkai,” however, an idea crossed his mind.
He travelled to the home of the rune priest who once forged that daemonic blade, and asked him to forge together his broken force sword, an Archangel’s shard, and the daemon blade formed from the bloodthirster Sahmriet. Through wordplay and jabs at the priest’s Fenrisian pride, Varghast convinced him to forge the blade, naming it the “Wrath of Sanguinius” in honor of his father.
Upon his return to Draggal, the ceremony was held to instate him as master of the Crimson Seraphim once more, and for the past two millenia he has lead his chapter on their crusade against the ruinous powers. Now, the Crimson Seraphim are known across the galaxy as a violent yet effective chapter, specializing in brutal frontal assaults and siege warfare. Varghast seems to have an immunity, or at least a resistance, to the effects of age, possibly from a combination of the red thirst and his heavy exposure to the forces of the warp. Ever a shining nobility, he leads his from the front lines, his unholy blade howling with fury as he launches into the fray alongside his brothers.
Notable Campaigns
- Great Scouring (014-021.M31) - In the wake of the Horus Heresy, the Imperium was left a dismal, shattered thing. Across the galaxy, forces still loyal to the Arch-Traitor continued to fight the war he had declared, razing planets and claiming dominion over vast tranches of human worlds. The forbidden knowledge shown to Horus that had been the catalyst for his fall from grace bore other more sinister fruit, and dwellers from beyond the veil of reality were now abroad in the material realm. The loyal Legions were diminished, their fighting strength a paltry fraction of its pinnacle, and their primarchs dead or at each other's throats in the power vacuum that followed the Emperor's internment in the Golden Throne. Primarchs bickered over how best to prevent a rebellion on the scale of Horus's from ever happening again, while the defeated traitors preyed upon worlds still loyal to the Golden Throne, as did newly emboldened xenos races. Yet for all this, the Imperium retained might enough to exact bloody revenge upon its foes. There could be no forgiveness for the crimes of the Traitor Legions. Those who now ruled in the Emperor's name had neither the ability nor the desire to prevent a war of reciprocity. Thus began the time known in the histories of the Imperium as the Great Scouring. Orion Varghast and his company acted as judge, jury, and executioner against those who still claimed loyalty to Horus or the Ruinous Powers. In his mind, any further division would spell the end of the Imperium, and thus those who preached anarchy were slain without mercy.
- The Sundering (021.M31) - Following the end of the Great Scouring, the Imperium reorganises its hierarchical and military structure. To ensure that no one individual ever wields the power of a Space Marine Legion ever again, the Legiones Astartes are broken up into smaller existing formations, known as Chapters. By writ of the hand of the acting Lord Commander of the Imperium, the newly formed Adeptus Astartes begrudgingly accepts the strictures of the newly revealed Codex Astartes, and the IX Legion is broken up into separate, newly formed Successor Chapters. This event comes to be known as the Second Founding. Stripped of honour, tithe, history and deed, all of the original First Founding Space Marine Legions were undone. One of the first chapters created was given to Captain Orion Varghast, who was recognised for his unwavering fealty, righteous fury, and glorious nobility during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. He would take the reigns of his new Chapter, maintaining the name "Crimson Seraphim" from their days as the seventeenth company, acting as a warning for those who would threaten his imperium.
- The Caliges Crusade(022.M31) - The Caliges Crusade was the first of eight crusades led by Chapter Master Carius, and marks the beginning of the darkest chapter in the history of the Crimson Seraphim. In a blind fury so bright that it attracted the direct attention of Khorne, the Bokris and the rest of the Caliges system was utterly razed into a series of planet-wide radiation deserts, all in a vain attempt to atone for the believed death of Orion Varghast.
- Assault of Reliados (022.M31) - The people of Reliados worshipped what Lord Carius believed to be a daemon lord; after the planet and its closest neighbor were both near-completely destroyed, it was revealed that the "daemon lord" in question was, in fact, the God Emperor of Mankind.
- Sideran Crusade (023.M31)) - Similar to the Caliges, the Sideraf Crusade was the siege of a planet held by the Black Legion. This was the first true victory of the Carian Era, as the Black Legion retreated from Sidera within a week once they learned whom they fought.
- Fohosus Extinction(023.M31) - The Fohosi were a planet of Xenos armed with a triad of STC's who tried for decades to join the Imperium as allies. In collaboration with Forgeworld Metalica, the Fohosi were entirely exterminated by order of Lord Carius.
- Night of a Single Star (024.M31) - Once, there was a planet known as "Gogora," inhabited by a Thousand Sons warband, "The Starborne." During a siege from the Crimson Seraphim, however, the overuse of warp sorcerery caused an incredible number of librarians to fall to the black rage, and the resulting blast split the planet into nine shards and various bits of debris. One tenth of the chapter was lost, with the rest narrowly escaping through a warp jump.
- Belodast War (024.M31) - The Belodast were a confederation of once-imperial worlds that declared themselves renegade. Cut off from Imperial supply lines and without any astartes to claim as their own, the world was brought into compliance in a week's time. Despite the overwhleming majority of Lord Carius's victories being pyrrhic, this crusade was a shining example of Crimson Seraphim strength; only four astartes lives were lost.
- Corwuth Incursion (024.M31) - The Corwuthites were a colony of Khornite cultists who summoned the Crimson Seraphim on a feigned distress call. The planet survived, as did a bare third of the population, only managed by the "aid"(intervention) of neighboring space marine chapter, the Sable Swords.
- The Failed Crusade (025.M31) - The Eighth and final crusade lead by Chapter Master Carius, narrowly prevented by Ilioneus the Bold.
- Veneron Advance - The first crusade following the death of Lord Carius, mainly because Chapter Master Decimus allowed the people of Veneron to surrender and return to the Imperium without punishment on the condition that they disband their guard regiment.
- First Black Crusade (781.M31) - When the Abaddon the Despoiler, the former First Captain of the Sons of Horus, makes his first attempt to launch a new offensive against the Imperium of Man following the end of the Horus Heresy several centuries earlier, unleashing the first of many of his so-called Black Crusades, the Crimson Seraphim surge for the front lines, desperate to defend their Imperium. Tragically, during the fighting, Rogal Dorn, the Praetorian of Terra, Primarch of the Imperial Fists, is tragically killed during a boarding engagement. However, his body is never found, and his ultimate fate remains unknown. Achieving whatever dark objective he set out to do, Abaddon and his forces retreat back into the Eye of Terror, as suddenly as they appeared, their ships' holds filled with slaves and plunder.
- Fall of Remorahz (052.M39) - This was the first campaign under Chapter master Brutus; the Crimson Seraphim toppled a corrupt monarchy attempting to secede from the Imperium. They were aided by local militia, and the campaign was widely regarded as their first "total success" in centuries.
- Eldar Joint-Defense(072.M39) - The Crimson Seraphim and Craftworld Biel-Tan joined under a temporary ceasefire to repel an Emperor's Children invasion of Imperial Space.
- Redeemer's War (078.M39-Present) -Once the chapter was fully acceptant of his return, Orion Varghast enacted a crusade against all Traitoris Astartes in an attempt to redeem his lost brothers. The war has continued for millennia, and shows no sign of stopping until all the fallen Astartes are redeemed in the eyes of the Chapter Master.
- Devastation of Baal (999.M41) - The Devastation of Baal was the assault by the single largest concentration of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan ever encountered by Humanity. The battle commenced upon Baal, the homeworld of the Blood Angels Chapter of Space Marines and was fought in ca. 999.M41 as part of the wider Third Tyrannic War. It marked a key battle of the Indomitus Crusade led by the resurrected Primarch Roboute Guilliman. Due to the temporal distortions unleashed at the time of the eruption of the Great Rift, the exact date of the battle is in question; the combat may have lasted for many standard years from the point of view of Terra but only solar weeks passed for the participants. The Sanguinary Brotherhood, the term referring to the Blood Angels Chapter and all successors, emerged victorious despite impossibly heavy losses, not least of which were the Crimson Seraphim. With members dating back to the days of the Horus Heresy and the period shortly after, the chapter's loyalty to the Imperium, the Blood Angels, and their slain Primarch is a record high, and the mere fact that Baal was even slightly endangered caused Varghast to muster the entire chapter against Hive Fleet Leviathan.
Chapter Home World
Draggal is a Death World in the Vigilus Sector. This icy, heavily urbanized planet has very little contact with its sun, leading to a permanent wintry overcast over the entire surface of the planet. The Imperium has very little interest in the planet, and the only reason that it stays as an Imperial world is stationing and its role as the homeworld of the Crimson Seraphim.
Fortress-Monastery
The Angel's Ire is the Fortress-Monastery of the Chapter and is located just outside their homeworld’s atmosphere, in a distant orbit.
Chapter Organisation
The Crimson Seraphim follow the strictures of the Codex Astartes in a fashion similar to their progenitors. The only marked differences are that their chapter master and their chief librarian are the same men, and their Master of Sanctity has chosen to remain in the garb of a Judiciar.
Officer Ranks
- Chapter Master/Chief Librarian
- First Captain
- Captain
- Lieutenant
Specialist Ranks
- Reclusiarch
- Chaplain
- Librarian
- Chief Sanguinary Priest
- Sanguinary Priest
- Master of the Forge
- Techmarine
- Chapter Champion
- Company Champion
- Ancient
Line Ranks
- Veteran Sergeant
- Veteran
- Sergeant
- Battle-Brother
- Scout Marine
- Neophyte
- Aspirant
Specialist Units & Formations
- Bleeding Sons - Within the Crimson Seraphim Chapter, their Sanguinary Guard formation is referred to as the "Bleeding Sons".
Headquarters
The planet Draggal functions as the headquarters for the Crimson Seraphim.
Combat Doctrine
Heavy influence on melee and siege warfare.
Chapter Recruitment
The Chapter pulls exclusively from the death world Draggal.
Chapter Culture & Beliefs
Like many other Chapters, the Crimson Seraphim maintain long-standing rituals and devotion to the ideals of their Primarch. The Chapter holds the belief that it is their duty to redeem their battle-brothers who have fallen to lies of the ruinous powers.
Personal glory matters little to the chapter; the only thing that matters an overall military success. The Seraphim do not view the lives of Astartes or any imperial citizen as expendable; all are redeemable, and all have worth. Every member of the chapter strives to be as selfless and noble as they can be, so that they may prove themselves worthy in the eyes of their Primarch.
One uniquity of the Crimson Seraphim is the Caeremonia Nominum(High Gothic, Ceremony of Naming). Upon ascension from Neophyte to Battle-Brother, the man loses his name in favor of new title in High Gothic. The only exceptions to this rule are Chapter Master Orion Varghast and High Chaplain Tauron Atanas, as they predate the existence of the ritual.
Chapter Gene-Seed
In terms of purity, the Crimson Seraphim have the same as their progenitor. They do, however, have hyperactive Biscopeae, Magnificat, and Larraman’s Organs, leading to generally increased size. This is mainly a good thing, but it does lead to a higher death rate among weaker Neophytes.
Gene-Flaws
Sadly, the Crimson Seraphim are particularly weak to the Red Thirst. They attempt to manage this by nearly never removing their helmets.
Deathwatch Service
In order to ascend from second company to first, the Crimson Seraphim require their Astartes to spend at least a decade in service of the Deathwatch.
Notable Members
- Chapter Master Orion Varghast - Varghast is an ancient astartes, hailing from the time of the Horus Heresy. He feels considerable, almost personal debt over the death of Sanguinius. He functions as the chief librarian of the Crimson Seraphim.
- Forgemaster Beatus - Beatus, born Viggo, gained his name through the consistent beauty that comes from his forge. He is an unwavering servant of his Chapter, eternally brimming with rage at those who harm the imperium.
- Lord Judiciar Tauron Atanas - The other of two survivors following the crash of the Angel’s Anvil, Atanas is the only marine Varghast truly trusts. Atanas, though a fully-fledged chaplain for thousands of years, continues to wield the weapons of a Judiciar; He believes that his actions, his valor, speaks louder than any litany, and by carrying a temperomortis and Executioner's blade into battle, he strikes more fear into his enemies than he would with a crozius.
- Chief Apothecary Veritus - Veritus gained his name through an unceasing honesty that seems to radiate from him. He is ever-present at the side of first captain Ulysses.
- Captain Ulysses - Named after an ancient mythic hero from old Terra, Ulysses is widely recognizable by his distinct frame- right eye and arm prosthetics from a plasma overcharging accident, and a gifted Venatari Jump Pack. Ulysses held the role of first captain when Orion Varghast returned from his warp-tainted sojourn, and strives to emulate him. Varghast, however, feels that Ulysses is too grounded, as he refuses to take pride in himself.
- Captain Brutus - Brutus held the role of Chapter Master when Orion Varghast returned from his warp-tainted sojourn, and willingly stepped down to first captain; staring into the eyes of a heresy-era psyker and survivor of untold years on a chaos world, he knew immediately that Varghast deserved command more than any of their number. Now, Brutus leads the Bleeding Sons, resplendent in Crimson Armor, headlong into battle..
- Death Company Captain Iratus - Once, Iratus was a loyal and steadfast captain surpassing the tactics of even Ulysses, but after his fall to the black rage he was reduced to a slavering berserker that would bring shock even to a World Eater
- Galen the Everlasting - Chief Librarian under Lord Carius, now interred in a Leviathan Dreadnaught.
- Captain Carius - The second chapter master of the Crimson Seraphim, taking the lead in the wake of the first company's dissaperance.
- Ilioneus the Bold - Former captain of the Tempest Lords’s Sanguinary Guard, now interred in a Contemptor Dreadnaught. Ilioneus is famed for his slaughter of the chaos-corrupted Lord Carius, and his strength with a power axe.
Chapter Relics
- The Scales - The relic power sword of Lord Judiciar Atanas, Redeemer of the Lost for the Crimson Seraphim Chapter. This ancient executioner’s warblade has taken as many lives as it has saved.
- Tears of the Angel - A special type of bolt round that is charged with the same energy disruption field as a power weapon.
- Wrath of Sanguinius - The massive Power Greatsword of the Chapter master, Orion Varghast. This sword was forged by a Fenrisian Rune Priest using equal shards from the a Greater Daemon Blade of Khorne and the Blade Encarmine itself.
- Memor Nihilis Secundus - This massive Eviscerator is intricately worked, with each tooth of the roaring chainblade inscribed to a level of detail few artisans could manage. This ornate work was done by the hand of a Sanguinary Priest, to commemorate the loss of the Chapter's warriors claimed by the Black Rage. Barely visible script details the history and heraldry of dozens of warriors along the length of the blade, ever reminding its wielder of the peril of losing control of himself. It was adopted after Captain Ulysses saw that of the Flesh tearers, and is almost identical to its sister blade.
- Shield of Draggal - A relic Storm Shield capable of storing and sending back kinetic, electric, and heat energy.
- Slayer's Wrath - For millennia the Crimson Seraphim have defended the Imperium and its worlds, earning great honour and gratitude from their allies before the Chapter's gradual decline. Slayer's Wrath is a relic of this time, gifted to the Chapter by the Inquisitor Hyboran of the Ordo Xenos, for aiding her in crushing the Xorln Infestation. Crafted by some unknown master artisan of the Imperium, this Bolter has minute inner technological workings of unknown design that create frozen rounds impregnated with a mix of rare and deadly poisons.
Chapter Appearance
Chapter Colours
The power armour of the Chapter is steel-gray, with one shoulder pad bearing the chapter’s badge and the other the number of their company. They frequently wear trophies taken from their fallen enemies, such as a gene-stealer insignia or the horn of a Khornate Daemon.
A large black gothic numeral stenciled on the right shoulder indicates company assignment. The left poleyn (kneepad) denotes battlefield role(Battleline, Close Support, Fire Support, Veteran, or Command) in black. The Battle-Brothers often inscribe their weapons with esoteric sigils and catechisms in High Gothic.
Chapter Badge
Trimmed in a gold, a single black wing sits on a vermillion field.
Relations
Allies
- Einherjar Imperati
- Angels of Avalon
(Author's note— these are two of my other homebrew chapters; I'll upload articles once I have more lore fleshed out.)
Enemies
- Heretic Astartes - The Crimson Seraphim focus mostly on fighting Chaos Space Marines.
Notable Quotes
By the Crimson Seraphim
About the Crimson Seraphim
