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This article, Perditors, was written by NormandySR45b. Please do not edit or 'acquire' this fiction without the writer's permission. |
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- "Only when we stand in the ashes of our own weakness when we have shed the frailty of the flesh for the sanctity of iron and purity of hatred, will we be judged worthy to stand with our cousins once more by the side of Ferrus Manus. Every heretic I burn, every idol I cast down purifies me in flame and armours me in iron, and brings us closer to the God-Emperor and to the Primarch."
- — Chaplain Assuun Korian during a service to Vigil Company aboard their watch station.
The Perditors are a Successor Chapter of the Iron Hands created during the 17th Founding. They maintain a fairly close relationship with their Medusan cousins. They also suffer from a similar revulsion to flesh as the Iron Hands do, causing them to purify themselves in flame, replacing their flesh with iron as Ferrus Manus did in Medusan legend. Since their near-decimation at the hands of the forces of Chaos after the opening of the Great Rift, the fires in their hearts have dimmed, and they have become yet more strict, cold and logical as a chapter, resembling the Iron Hands more closely now than ever before. They are obsessed with funerary rituals and flame, and their position as wardens of one of the few narrow passages through the Great Rift means they are almost constantly spread throughout the Imperium Nihilus defending Humanity - or crushing it under their uncaring boots.
Chapter History[]
Origins (876.M35)[]
The Perditors were founded in 876.M35 as a direct response to raiding actions perpetrated by the Drukhari amid an Imperial shipping route. Their first Chapter Master, Argonis Telechon, was an Iron Lieutenant of Clan Dorrvok when, during a deployment against the Emperor's Children, the Iron Captain of Clan Dorrvok was slain and Telechon assumed temporary leadership, organising the shattered remnants of the Clan and reinforcing Clan Raukaan, who had deployed with them. At the end of the engagement, when the heretic forces had been routed at the cost of nearly two companies' worth of Iron Hands, the chapter received word of the request for a new chapter to be founded from their gene-seed. Therefore, rather than be promoted to Captain, Telechon was instead honoured with being the first formally-recognised member of the newly-founded chapter, and its first Chapter Master.
Due to the urgency with which the Chapter was founded, the first Perditors were made from Medusans alongside the Iron Hands, bearing Iron Hands armour and weapons, and effectively served as auxiliaries of that vaunted Chapter. They served with their fellow scions of Ferrus Manus even as only one company, whilst the Adeptus Mechanicus scrambled to fabricate their fortress-monastery halfway across the galaxy, as well as the Chapter fleet to convey them there. The Perditors spilt their first blood repelling Drukhari raiders in that sector, before ultimately taking possession of their Chapter's fleet once they had achieved nearly full strength. In a ceremony devoid of all ritual, Telechon was declared the first Chapter Master of the Perditors and gifted a battle barge constructed in concert by the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Iron Hands - Throneburner.
Telenoi Genocide (879.M35)[]
As they travelled across the galaxy towards their new home world, the Perditors received a distress signal from a nearby ship. Three squads of 2nd Company were assigned to investigate, alongside two Librarians and an Apothecary. They departed from the Chapter fleet and travelled to the derelict ship, where they encountered a species of Xenos known as the Telenoi. These Xenos had developed the ability to project psychic duplicates of themselves which were capable of interacting with the material world, thus allowing them to very quickly replenish their "forces" as well as making themselves formidable opponents in combat. Despite being Space Marines, the squads were outnumbered and outgunned in a confined space, and as such were slaughtered to a man. At last, however, one of the Librarians managed to communicate an astropathic message to the Chapter fleet, who promptly ceased their journey and returned.
Several squads of Terminator-armoured Perditors from their First Company, accompanied by Librarians and Chapter Master Telechon himself, teleported aboard the ship, and quickly exterminated every living thing aboard, including the few surviving crew members. The efficacy of flamer-based weaponry was beginning to forge its place at the heart of the Chapter's combat doctrine, as the twisting corridors of the ship were filled with intense flame. So hot was the firestorm they created, that the battle-brothers, who had as yet not been rebuilt in iron, suffered from intensely painful burns and blisters even through their ceramite Power Armour, as they marched relentlessly through the flames. Only now was the weakness of their flesh revealed to them so personally. They had been taught by the Iron Hands of their Primarch’s folly on Istvaan V. Of the weakness of humanity, emotion, and the flesh. Now they felt that weakness and hated themselves for it, and they were grateful to the flames for purifying them of it.
Once the ship had been cleansed of the taint of the xenos, the Chapter fell upon the Telenoi homeworld with a vicious hatred and began a campaign of complete annihilation. It was upon that world that the first dying battle-brother was interred within the sarcophagus of a mighty Dreadnought, becoming the first of many “Ashen Lords” within the Chapter’s history. Their pride quickly collapsed in upon itself as they realised the stupidity and the arrogance of their actions in orbit, and their hatred of self grew, and the rate at which they replaced their body parts with indomitable, unfeeling iron skyrocketed, as the curse of their gene-seed fully revealed itself. These reforged battle-brothers marched through the towering infernos of the Telenoi civilisation unscathed, unfeeling, uncaring, desiring only to reduce the entire race to ash and molten slag.
They succeeded.
Within six months the terrible vengeance of the Perditors was complete, and the surface of the planet had been scoured of every trace of the Telenoi civilisation. The Space Marines abandoned the world as quickly as they had arrived, and while they returned to orbit the funeral pyre of an entire species burned below them.
The Molten Citadel (882.M35)[]
The Perditors left the Telenoi behind and progressed on their exodus across the galaxy, towards the Kaustikos system. However, en route, they were contacted by a battle group of the Astra Militarum, requesting aid in toppling the capital of a Chaos-corrupted planetary governor on the world of Eridion VI, who had dragged a regiment of the Imperial Guard into his madness. Additionally, the cultists were being reinforced by the shattered remnants of a Heretic Astartes warband descended from the Emperor's Children. Upon hearing this, Chapter Master Telechon dedicated the 3rd and 5th Companies to the battle, and they joined the Astra Militarum group as reinforcements. They spent the next three years making tactical, systematic strikes against the heretics, and although the Chaos worshippers were well-emplaced across the planet, the overwhelming force of the Imperial Guard was able to break apart their defences using the cracks made by the surgical strikes of the Space Marines. Most notably, amid an artillery barrage, Stratogos, the 3rd Company Champion, duelled the last and most elusive of the Chaos Space Marines. Despite sustaining incredibly grievous injuries he defeated the debased Heretic Astartes, and then proceeded to lead the next assault against the gates, single-handedly breaking through the first line of defence atop the wall before his companions could reinforce him.
With the way into the citadel broken open, the Perditors set about indiscriminately annihilating everything within the walls. This included their mortal comrades, whose only warning was lost in vox traffic. Only after a third of the remaining Guard soldiers were dead did the orders arrive to retreat and allow the Space Marines to destroy the citadel without reinforcements from the Militarum. When the ranking commander of the battle group attempted to question the 5th Company's captain about the indiscriminate friendly fire, the only reply he received was "The flesh is weak."
The Space Marines set about their extermination of the heretics with the mechanical methodology typical of their progenitors, slowly encroaching on the citadel itself, which was now covered with blood and sacrifices to the Dark Gods. They hunted the inhabitants of the city through buildings and tunnels, marching relentlessly onwards, crushing the blood and ashes of innocent and insane alike beneath their armoured boots. In a matter of hours, no living thing remained in the city outside of the central citadel. Surrounded by the unfeeling Space Marines and the firepower of the Imperial Guard, the cowardly governor and his staff surrendered instantly and were herded into a somewhat untouched square by the Imperial forces, where they were executed by the Space Marines without trial. Before they could be questioned by the Imperial Guard commander again, however, the Perditors simply left the planet for the mortal soldiers to deal with.
In orbit, the two companies received communications from the Chapter fleet containing coordinates to rendezvous with them closer to their new home system, and when they arrived they discovered the Chapter was under attack by an incidental Ork WAAAGH!
Space WAAAGH! Boggasnaz(883.M35)[]
The 3rd and 5th companies arrive at the coordinates sent by their Chapter to discover the rest of the Perditors engaged in a massive void war against the Orks, alongside part of a Black Templar Crusade. The two Space Marine forces were woven together, ships descended from the Iron Hands and the Black Templars mixed and hurtling around each other as they smashed into the Ork fleet. Upon viewing this scene through the ship's auspex, Stratogos was struck by a vision.
He stood in a long, sparsely-decorated hall. He wore only a training tunic, black as his armour. He caught a glimpse of his muscled forearm where the cuff of his sleeve stopped just before the burnished metal of his left hand. Disgust settled involuntarily at the base of his brain, where he could still feel such things. He sensed a presence behind him and turned to behold a truly gargantuan man, standing in golden auramite armour and carrying a sword which smoked and sparked. He was flanked on his right side by another figure, the same height, wearing black and silver armour which Stratogos' mind immediately recognised as Terminator armour. The first figure's skin was olive-brown, tanned and lined with immense age, and yet surged with youthful vigour. His head was wreathed with a crown of leaves, and yet Stratogos knew that it was somehow immensely heavy. The second figure was paler but of a more determinable complexion. His face looked as if it had been carved from granite. The pair stared down at Stratogos unwaveringly, and instinctively the Astartes knelt. He knew he recognised the two figures of myth, but his superhuman memory managed to fail him. The large golden man moved faster than Stratogos could track; instantly the sword flashed across his shoulders, in an ancient ritual motion the Space Marine barely understood. A powerful voice boomed through the barren hall.
"Rise." Stratogos surged to his feet, looking up at them, and the black-armoured man stepped forward. He held out a massive sword towards Stratogos, hilt-first as if it was weightless. The blade was blacker than obsidian, and very slightly thrummed with power as Stratogos' hand reached out to grasp it. He took the sword from the giant's hands and instinctively tested the weight of it, determining how best to wield it without the aid of his Power Armour. He glanced at the eyes of the pair - the giant who handed him the sword appeared approving, if taciturn, but the eyes of the golden lord were much more difficult to read. They seemed to shimmer and change through a million expressions and none. Stratogos attempted to analyse his face and gained nothing. Anything he appeared to discern changed almost instantly. The man's character itself was an impenetrable fortress of personality. Finally, Stratogos blinked, and the pair disappeared. He stood alone in the hall.
While he was unconscious, his ship collided with an Ork approximation of a Space Marine Drop Pod, and the Astartes on board were engaged in repelling the greenskin threat. The 5th Company, meanwhile, charged ahead into the fray and attempted to take apart the Ork ships and prevent more Orks from boarding their allies. Their ship was heavily damaged in the attempt, however, and they were unable to do much more than ram one of the smaller Ork vessels into another.
After a moment's waiting, he could discern the sound of Power Armour behind him and turned around to behold a Space Marine before him, wearing armour the colour of ashes. His forearms and greaves were almost white, and his shoulder displayed the heraldry of Stratogos' own Chapter, although the colours were unfamiliar to him. He shifted his balance as he turned fully, inclining his head in greeting, before he realised that the warrior before him entirely mimicked his movements. He readied the sword before him, and his duplicate matched his posture exactly, wielding an identical blade. The two leapt at each other, and suddenly Stratogos was stood amidst a raging battle, surrounded on almost all sides by Orks. He watched as his Chapter Master and Reclusiarch, Telechon and Clymenus, battled a truly massive Ork. The hulking green monster buried its massive claw in Telechon's chest and dragged him off the ground and up to its snarling maw. Clymenus attempted to charge him, but the Ork smashed Clymenus into the ground with his other hand, roaring, before hurling Telechon's body to the horde of howling Orks. Stratogos released a roar of his own and charged...
...and surged to his feet in the Apothecarion. As this was happening, the 8th and 10th Companies were evacuating their dying vessels and regrouping aboard Throneburner when the Ork Warboss' ship crashed into it, and Chapter Master Telechon was drawn into a duel with Boggasnaz alongside the Chapter's Reclusiarch, Clymenus. The rest of the Chapter's forces onboard Throneburner dedicated themselves to the defense of the Apothecarion and the Librarium, whilst the Chapter Master and Reclusiarch alone defended the Reclusiam.
Stratogos marched to the bridge of the ship and demanded to be transported to Throneburner. Captain Acharion, who at the time was forming defense plans with a Black Templar Chaplain, initially denied this request, as the Champion was too valuable to the defence of the ship. He began to chastise Stratogos for his lack of logic, when he was stopped by the Chaplain, Carim. Carim stared into Stratogos' eyes from within his skull-faced helm, judging him wordlessly, and advised Acharion to allow him to pass. The Captain, however, failed to see the logic and continued to refuse. Stratogos began detailing events of the attack aboard the Throneburner which had not been communicated but for a data inload, Acharion was still processing as they spoke. Stunned, Acharion gave him permission to commandeer a Thunderhawk and fly across to the capital ship. As Stratogos turned to leave, Carim stopped him, and after a moment's vox communication between him and his retinue, one of his accompanying Black Templars brought forth a relic sword, which Stratogos drew from its sheath without thinking, recognising immediately the obsidian blade. Within it, he could almost glimpse the reflection of Ferrus Manus' approving look. Another Black Templar began to uncoil a chain, but Stratogos had already turned and began marching towards the hangar.
Stratogos arrived on board Throneburner just as the tide of battle was beginning to turn; the Ork forces were beginning to thin out on board the ships, and further reinforcements were struggling to gain a foothold or even make it to the ships, as the 5th and 6th Company's ships were now forming a barrier of gunfire between the Ork fleet and the remnants of the Chapter fleet. Stratogos carved a burning path through the green tide on board the ship, navigating flawlessly to the Reclusiam, where Telechon and Clymenus still battled the Ork Warboss and his entourage. He arrived in time to join the battle, but too late to save the Chapter Master from the fate he saw in his vision - as he entered the hallowed hall he saw Telechon impaled upon the claw of the Ork's giant suit of mechanised armour, and was seized by righteous fury. Stratogos charged, bellowing litanies to the God-Emperor, the first of his Chapter to acknowledge the Master of Mankind as such, and duelled the monster even as the blood of his Chapter Master dripped from its claws, the dying hero's body being cast against a wall as the Ork lumbered to meet its new foe. Clymenus would later attest that Stratogos was haloed in golden fire and that he sustained wounds which would have killed any of his battle-brothers, and yet he fought on with determination bordering on the miraculous.
Eventually, after a gruelling duel, Stratogos beheaded Boggasnaz and he immediately turned his fury on the remaining Orks. After much more grudging warfare on board their ships, the green horde were repelled entirely, their ships' engines failing to fire as the Astartes' vessels brought their full suite weapons to bear on the Orks. In the Reclusiam, as Stratogos lead the defense effort and takes command of 'Throneburner' in the absence of any other ranking Astartes, the dying Telechon confided to Clymenus that he wishes Stratogos to succeed him as Chapter Master. When the Orks were dead and the Chapter regrouped, Clymenus made this desire known to the remaining leadership of the Chapter, and although the Captain of the 2nd Company vocally objected, Acharion argued logically in Stratogos' favour, citing both his heroic actions in the fight against the Orks and the exceptional skill and dedication he had shown on Eridion VI. With this, Stratogos was elected as the second Chapter Master of the Perditors.
Galaron (887.M35)[]
The battle-weathered Chapter, now commanded by Stratogos, continued their journey towards their new position in the galaxy. Eventually, they arrived at the Kaustikos system, exiting the Warp at the edge of the system, within the asteroid belt. The few remaining ships barely managed to survive the tempestuous entrance but at last, the Perditors had arrived at their new home. They progressed to the centre of the system, taking stewardship of their fortress-monastery on Galaron, and began the task of repairing and replenishing their numbers and their equipment, in addition to gathering crucial information about their new surroundings.
Over the four years it took for the damaged vessels to reach the Kaustikos system, the Chapter began to display a religious bent similar to the famed Black Templars. Under the leadership of Stratogos, and the guidance of Clymenus, the worship of the God-Emperor of Mankind slowly spread throughout the Chapter, and traditions began to arise based on the myth and legend of both the Emperor and Ferrus Manus. It was in those years that the Chapter's obsession with fire was cemented as a core element of their beliefs, and this was only exacerbated in their scorched home world. The Perditors began to establish their watch-stations across the system, building orbital platforms and moon-bound fortresses from their armoured bastion on Fraxinus. From these orbital keeps can the Perditors more easily observe the goings-on of the system without interfering, as well as having firebases to repel invasions and incursions into the system beyond the system's core.
When the Chapter arrived on Galaron, Chapter Master Stratogos held an austere funeral service for all of the members of the Chapter who died in pursuit of their homeworld, and their cremated ashes were scattered on the planet's surface, forever marking Galaron as a world most sacred to the Chapter, and one they would give their lives to defend. The Chapter continued to serve the Imperium from Galaron for millennia, forming a character of their own, somewhat like their brethren, and yet rendered apart from them by faith and tradition, although what bonds were allowed to remain were strong indeed between the Perditors and their parent Chapter.
One of the traditions borne directly from the Iron Hands was leadership by the council, and shortly after their arrival on Galaron, Stratogos established the Council of Embers to vote on future decisions and uphold their distinct Calculus. The council's members were called Ember Bearers and were only admitted to the council upon climbing to the highest peak on Galaron, the volcano Uraanis, and retrieving stone from its active lava cauldron, which was then ritually chained to their thigh. Members included Captains (now Wardens), the Chapter Master (now referred to as the Lord Warden), some Dreadnoughts (now called Ashen Lords), high-ranking members of the command branches and select Veterans. As their first act, the council re-elected Stratogos as Lord Warden.
Terran Crusade (early M36)[]
While the Perditors were too distant from Holy Terra to join the Terran Crusade against the malevolent Goge Vandire, they still voiced support for the ascension of Sebastian Thor and his reformist movement, whilst maintaining their own interpretation of the Imperial Faith. Lord Warden Stratogos was particularly vocal out of the many Chapter Masters who voiced their support for Thor, as his reforms aimed to bring the Ecclesiarchy more in line with the Perditorss' views on self-sacrifice, although not to the same sacrificial extreme. The Perditors were one of the few Chapters who were attacked by a regiment of the Imperial Guard who were fiercely loyal to Vandire and dared attack the Space Marines. For their heresy, the soldiers were slaughtered to a man, with no mercy extended at any point. Furthermore, the world from which this regiment had been raised was razed to the ground by the Perditors as penance for their production of heretics.
Death of Stratogos (491.M36)[]
A warband of the Emperor's Children Legion, known as the Aetheric Blades, erupted on a world in a nearby system to the Perditors, and Lord Warden Stratogos acknowledged the severity of the situation by marshalling fully half of the Chapter's forces to go to the aid of the beleaguered planet. Upon arrival, he discovered that the planet had been entirely reaved of all life, and artistic renditions of dead Perditors had been painted upon the walls of the capital city's buildings in blood. The Heretic Astartes were nowhere to be seen. By this point, Stratogos was succumbing to the gene-curse of the sons of Ferrus Manus, and his temperament was much colder and more calculated. He simply ordered his Chapter to leave the planet and return to Galaron, suppressing any anger that remained at the goading of the Chaos Space Marines, until they received a message from another nearby world calling for aid from any nearby Imperial forces, as they were under attack by Space Marines.
Stratogos' crusade continued, arriving on this world, Caecilian, to find the Aetheric Blades in the midst of massacring the planet in a debased display of sadistic pleasure. Stratogos ordered his Chapter forces to remain in orbit beyond the atmosphere, blockading the planet's surface, whilst the Aetheric Blades massacred the population. Soon, the distress calls began to die out, and only then did Stratogos permit his forces to make planetfall, as he went to seek out the warband's leader. With his Veteran bodyguard, he found the Blades' leader, a Chaos Lord named Vokris, drinking the blood of the citizens. As Stratogos's Veterans engaged Vokris' Chosen, the two warriors clashed together between the buildings and fought bitterly to the death. When the Veterans were reinforced by their battle-brothers and fought off the Chosen, they searched through the rubble and found a mortally wounded Stratogos, but no Vokris and Stratogos could not recall where Vokris had gone.
Stratogos was stabilised somewhat by an Apothecary until he could be interred within the armoured body of a Dreadnought to fight for his Chapter another day. He was replaced by the Council of Embers by a high-ranking Chaplain known as Coranis Kulaan. It was also at this point in the Chapter's history that the companies' names began to change, based on the stages of the funeral of Stratogos, as a point of honour done unto him by his successor.
Extermination of Roth (574.M41)[]
Lord Warden Makirion led a mixed task force composed of elements from across the Chapter on the world Roth, against the Genestealer uprising there within the Hive Cities. Whilst the remainder of the Chapter was scouting for the incoming Tyranid Hive Fleet or dealing with other threats, such as Drukhari piracy, Makirion and his forces drew out the cultists from the depths of the hive cities, silently marching through the hallways with blazing flamers to burn them out from their hiding places. The Vigil Company scouts proved themselves invaluable, as they hunted the cultists through the tightest of corridors in their lighter and slimmer armour, and chased them into the firing lines of their fully-augmented battle-brothers. Eventually, down in the deepest pits of the hive-cities, they encountered the Purestrain Genestealer brood which had been directing the cult and, although their forces were depleted, calculations suggested that they had enough resources to end the Genestealer threat. As such, the Perditors continued their extermination campaign, enacting a scorched earth policy against the inhabitants of the planet and slaughtering anyone they came across as they descended into the depths of the hive.
The majority of on-planet forces were killed in the process of hunting and killing the Genestealer brood, but Makirion and twelve line squads of battle-brothers survived bearing a variety of weapons, as well as two squads apiece of Vanguard and Sternguard Veterans, two Apothecaries and a single Librarian. As the Astartes climbed to the planet's surface caked in gore and filth, the psyker collapsed to his knees, doubling over, before suddenly releasing an ear-splitting roar of "WAAAAAAAAGH!!" and flailing hard enough to break his own neck; this heralded the arrival of WAAAGH! Snobzog.
Waaaagh! Snobzog was of such an angle incident on the Kaustikos system that the Orks ran directly to Roth. They landed on the planet just as the Chapter reinforcements were able to recall back to the system, leaving just the forces on Roth to hold out for seven days until the remaining Perditors could reinforce and relieve them. With no capacity to leave the planet and the perfect distraction to prevent the Orks from redirecting towards a more valuable world, Makirion and his remaining forces fortified and waited in one of the cavernous cities, broadcasting challenges to the Orks to lure them deeper into the hive.
This tactic was extremely successful, but after four days of constant guerilla warfare all of the remaining Astartes were depleted of all of their ammunition, their melee weapons clogged with gore and blunted against rockcrete and bone, and their armour cracked and broken and losing function. They resorted to beating the Orks apart with their bare hands and using Ork melee weapons for as long as they could whenever they could recover them. By now the surface of the planet was crawling with Orks, who continued to hunt after any cultists which escaped the eyes of the Space Marines as they waited to barrel down into the Hive city after the final few Astartes. WAAAGH!! Snobzog contained an unusually high volume of Weirdboyz, and with their only Librarian dead, the Space Marine forces on Roth were sorely pressed to combat the psychic warfare against them.
By the seventh day, only one squad, a single Vanguard Veteran and Makirion were alive. The Perditors fleet arrived and immediately began preparing more and more forces and vehicles for the battle, and were awakening Dreadnoughts to fight on the surface, when the order came from Makirion, deep within the Hive city, to decree Exterminatus on Hyperion, scouring the planet clean of life. He knew that the chapter, having been bled dry from numerous other conflicts, did not have the manpower to throw off WAAAGH! Snobzog without excessive casualties. As such, he ordered them to kill the world and destroy the remaining Orks in orbit. The Lord Warden's vox abruptly went silent while confirming the order, but The Council of Embers quickly ratified it themselves, and Roth was virus-bombed as the Perditors fleet turned on the Ork ships and began barraging them in the void.
WAAAGH! Snozbog (576.M41)[]
The full might of the Perditors Chapter now crashed against Waaagh! Snobzog in orbit. With their Lord Warden dead, in the moments between clashes with the Orks the Council of Embers began to debate who should succeed Makirion from their command thrones. However, the void war against the Orks ground on, and the fighting was incredibly bitter, and the rapidly depleting Astartes forces could not back out of this fight, as the Orks were progressing towards Galaron. Ship after ship was mercilessly sacrificed to the advancing Ork horde to delay them, and in the process of doing so, the Council was whittled down in number until there were more of its members within Dreadnoughts than without. Furthermore, no suitable living candidate had yet presented himself to the Council to take leadership of the Chapter and organise the defence effort.
The fighting was brought to the moons of Kaustikos I, amongst the shattered ruins of shrines and tombs located there. As the war dragged on, and the Perditors began to be able to hold back the Orks as they fought on preferred ground, the Council of Embers debated still over who should lead the Chapter. By now the leadership of the Chapter was severely depleted, and as a result, the various companies were losing coherency as errors of miscommunication and tactics tore at the discipline of the Chapter. The well-oiled war machine of the Astartes was breaking down under the intense pressure of the Ork assault. As there were no living brothers who could prove adept enough, logic dictated they must look to the dead. In 577.M41, the remaining Perditors leaders did something unprecedented. They voted unanimously to elect a Dreadnought as "Ashen Lord Warden". As they sought to determine whom to wake, the Techmarines of the Chapter discovered a sarcophagus in the most ancient crypts of the fortress-monastery on Galaron, the still-living body of a hero revered by the Chapter for millennia, and immediately they began the rituals to return him to their most venerated chassis, a holy body of iron and hatred fit for only the greatest of legends, and given to the Chapter millennia past by the Black Templars themselves.
As the Orks overran the defences at Kaustikos I, the Perditors companies who were still coherent enough to function regrouped on Galaron. The Techmarines in the bowels of the fortress-monastery were struggling to awaken a Dreadnought so ancient, who had slumbered for so long, as the Astartes awaited the final defence of their homeworld. As the first greenskins set foot on the holy surface of Galaron, the Dreadnought chassis finally rumbled to life, and immediately marched to war against the hated xenos, taking command of his Chapter once again.
Stratogos had returned.
The ancient Ashen Lord began taking stock of his forces and communicating plans for the defense of their homeworld even as he fought the Ork horde on the plains beyond the fortress-monastery, the blistering heat of the sun barely affecting his immortal iron carapace as he thundered into the midst of the Waaagh!. Under his ancient guidance and wisdom, the Perditors began to punish the Orks even as they first landed on the sacred world. They battered back the tide of green with merciless, relentless gunfire, sacrificing multiple squads of Astartes to ensure the Orks' destruction was absolute. Stratogos' giant body became a walking shrine of war and death as he constantly battled, all the while communicating with whoever was left to take charge of the rest of the defences, as well as the fleet commanders in whatever ships remained.
Finally, Snobzog himself made landfall on Galaron and was met in battle by Stratogos and the current highest-ranking living officer of the Chapter, the Iron Lieutenant, Boras Nakhon. The lieutenant, flanked by Veteran Astartes, engaged Snobzog's followers while Stratogos fought against Snobzog himself. Stratogos' warlike body of iron and ceramite clashed against the junked-up steel armour and immense Ork musculature, and the two pummeled each other with weapons and gargantuan fists. Lieutenant Nakhon battled on with a master-crafted chainsword, called Teeth of Flame, and a power fist, monitoring the life signs of his coterie as he dissected the Orks which appeared before him when he noticed his link to Stratogos had been severed. As he looked over, he watched Snobzog punch his Power Klaw through the Ashen Lord Warden's chest and rip the holy sarcophagus from its housing.
Nakhon, watching on as the Dreadnought's body toppled to the ground, felt the final flames of hope within him gutter out and die, and a cold hatred settled in its place. He turned, stalking towards the gloating Ork, who rounded to face him and swung the same Power Klaw at him. It met the Iron Lieutenant's power fist and shattered, as Boras ducked under the Ork's other swinging arm and drove Teeth of Flame up into its bare chest. He drove the sword down, bogging its teeth down in gore and bone as he yanked it forward, pulling the Ork off-balance and thundering his power fist into Snobzog's armoured head, turning it to green paste, showering his grey armour.
The Orks shortly began to rout at the death of their leader, and the Iron Lieutenant rallied the remains of the Chapter together to purge the Orks from the system. With hatred cooling in their twin hearts the Space Marines undertook a gruelling war against the green horde, avenging their world and their Lord Warden, and broke the Ork Waaagh! mercilessly. No Ork ship escaped the system. It is still recorded as the Chapter's most effective campaign of extermination to date.
When the killing was finished, the remnants of the Chapter came together in the depths of the Blackspire, amidst the remains of their dead, and began the process of rebuilding their Chapter. Few of the Council of Embers remained, so as a unanimous decision the Chapter voted to create the Conclave of the Burned, the emergency council of only Ashen Lords, and charged them with electing the first few members of the Council of Embers and, most crucially, a new Lord Warden. After much deliberation, the Conclave elected Boras Nakhon as Lord Warden.
The Damocles Crusade (746.M41)[]
The Perditors sent their Iron Company, under the command of the Chief Librarian due to the Iron Warden's recent death to the Necrons, to the Damocles Crusade against the emergent T'au Empire, wherein they fought alongside the Iron Hands once again. They were severely outgunned by the T'au battlesuits and outmanoeuvred by the undiscovered numbers of the T'au, but their tactical acumen and grinding determination helped them to deal significant damage to the T'au Fire Warriors, until eventually, the Calculus deemed the conflict unsupportable and the Perditors pulled out. Fighting alongside the Iron Hands, however, re-established dwindling relations between the two Chapters, leading to some members of the Perditors being sent to train on Medusa.
The Great Rift (999.M41)[]
With the fall of Cadia and the opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum, the Perditors were beset once again by Drukhari raiders across the Kaustikos System, and the Astartes rose to battle them despite continually dwindling populations on their planets and therefore reduced numbers of Astartes. A gene-blight had also struck their Apothecarion some ten years prior, further exacerbating this issue. They were dangerously lacking in Astartes reinforcements already, yet they managed to hold out the Drukhari raiders across the system.
The Great Rift across the galaxy passed dangerously close to the Kaustikos system, however, and legions of Daemons began to pour out of it and hurtle towards the Perditors's homeworld. Hordes of Neverborn began to pour over all of the worlds under the Space Marine's dominion, but despite their lacking numbers they could have dealt with the threat. Combined with the persistent needling of the Drukhari, however, even the grinding attrition warfare of the Astartes began to falter. Lord Warden Nakhon began to order increased formations of Sanctifier squads to purge the daemonic threat, but the daemonic horde was endless.
Furthermore, Chapter reinforcement ships were struggling to make it back from other systems due to interference with Warp travel and the lack of light from the Astronomican. This forced them to travel in short warp jumps, which slowed them down so drastically that by the time they made it home, their battle-brothers would all have been long dead.
The Perditors had been forced back from the edges of their system, and now half of the worlds they had sworn to protect were being reaved of all life by daemons. By now the Drukhari had lost interest in the system and had fled before the appearance of Daemonettes on the battlefield, and the Perditors could only buckle down to withstand the storm of Chaos as it raged against them. As the Daemonic fleet crossed the void towards Kaustikos II, however, a single ship arrived out of the Warp and hurtled towards Galaron.
Alarms blared throughout the fortress-monastery as the ship sped towards the planet, when the vox-channel to the ship opened, and a Custodian spoke to the Lord Warden. The Torchbearer fleet of Roboute Guilliman's Ultima Crusade had arrived.
In short order the Primaris Perditors began reinforcing their Firstborn brethren, quickly adopting the markings and heraldries of their new companies and loyalties, as well as the strange blend of faith and logic practiced by their brothers. Similarly, the Perditors began to adapt to make use of Cawl's new weapons and formations, and deep in the Apothecarion preparations began to be made to start converting Firstborn brothers to Primaris.
Notable Campaigns[]
- Medusan Bleeding (876.M35) - The Perditors, as barely a single company, fight alongside the Iron Hands against a band of Drukhari pirates.
- Telenoi Genocide (879.M35) - The Perditors are deceived by xenos and commit their first campaign of extermination. The entire xenos species is made extinct within a year.
- The Molten Citadel (882.M35) - Rite and Black Companies stomp out a Chaos cult, inadvertently massacring their Astra Militarum allies in the process.
- The Draining of Mortian (283.M36) - The Perditors battle the a Chaos Space Marine warband, and Lord Warden Stratogos is interred within the shell of a Dreadnought, becoming an Ashen Lord.
- Burning of Konor (411.M36) - Ash Company reinforces Forge Company in crushing the Separatist movement in the Konor system. This marks the first occasion that Ashen Lords are deployed en masse, led by Stratogos himself, who is revered by every Perditor.
- Sadism and Arson (904.M36) - Iron Company reinforces the Molten Fists' 2nd Company, which suffers heavy losses when trying to repel a Drukhari raid on the Imperial world of Kirt.
- Space Hulk Aprogor (959.M36) - A Terminator complement from Tomb Company scavenges a Space Hulk, walking into a battle between Aeldari and Drukhari forces. The Aeldari attempt to enlist the aid of the Space Marines, but the Terminators heed not the heresy of the xenos, and fire upon both sides. No salvage can be completed, and most of the Terminators are killed, although their armour and wargear is mostly recovered.
- Going Dark (308.M37) - Four squads of Vigil Company are deployed against insurgents who have boarded the Hand of the Throneworld. By sneaking through the ventilation ducts to assassinate key leaders of the rebellion, the entire insurgency is crushed within six hours.
- Breaking the Greentide (742.M37) Ember Company, Iron Company and Black Company deploy alongside a Black Templar Crusade and members of the Order of the Valorous Heart to impede Waaagh! Grotsnitz at the barely-colonised Lilithan system. Despite severe doctrinal differences, the three forces are joined together by their faith, allowing them to work together efficiently enough to slaughter the Orks across the system, eliminating the threat to Holy Terra.
- The Torch Flickers Out (119.M38) As Rite Company wage a brutal war against the Death Guard far from home, their Torch Company reinforcement fleet suddenly goes missing. As a result, the entirety of Rite Company is exterminated by the servants of Nurgle. When their disappearance is investigated, Torch Company is found to have been slaughtered to a man, bearing the telltale signs of Asuryani weaponry.
- The Purifying Torch (654.M38) The Lord Warden receives a request from a nearby system to aid them in stamping out a Chaos cult. The Chief Librarian takes squads from Tomb, Black, Forge, Pyre and Vigil companies and sets off. On the journey, under the advice of the Reclusiarch accompanying the detachment, he creates the experimental "Sanctor" rank of Librarians and begins their specialised training progam. The Sanctors prove extremely effective against the taint of Chaos, and their rank is formalised upon the detachment's return to the Blackspire.
Chapter Homeworld[]
The Perditors possess a fortress-monastery on Galaron, known as the Blackspire, and it dominates the otherwise empty landscape of the world. Galaron is mortifyingly hot and dusty, with what little atmosphere the small, dense planet has being only occasionally whipped into a pathetic breeze. The air on Galaron is scorching hot and the ground is baked hard beneath the layers of dust. The Perditors exist here alone, them and their serfs the only living things on this scorched, lifeless planet. Yet, Galaron is the headquarters of the Chapter for a reason; its orbital period is very short, and its proximity to the system's star prevents all but the mightiest of fleets from translating close to the planet. Furthermore, the Perditors possess a desire for separation and aloofness, their Chapter culture strongly rooted in their own traditions and those of the Ecclesiarchy, and so all recruits to the Chapter are stripped of their cultural identities when the Space Marines claim them.
Galaron has two large moons, Fraxinus and Sonos, which drift slowly around the planet. Fraxinus is very heavily fortified and acts as a staging ground for the Chapter's crusades out of the system. It possesses shipyards to maintain the Chapter's fleet as well as a gargantuan ammunition store, second in scale only to that beneath the Blackspire itself. If ever the Perditors receive guests, they are likely to be received on Fraxinus. This is because the Perditors consider Galaron to be sacred ground, and only themselves and their closest allies are permitted to walk upon its surface. It is upon Sonos that the Perditors have constructed their great complex, the Forge of Perdition, where each battle-brother labours upon his own armaments whenever he is able.
Fortress-Monastery[]
The Perditors are exceptional builders when they wish to be, and the Blackspire is no exception. The fortress-monastery takes the form of a gigantic armour-plated and reinforced gothic cathedral, replete with airlocks for transitioning between the cool and pressurised interior, and the sun-blasted near-airless exterior. Its size and bulk, however, are not the most imposing feature of the Blackspire - that would the the flat, dark colour which lends its name to the name of the fortress itself. The Blackspire appears to be composed entirely of polished, jet-black stone or obsidian, edged with dark metals, and it looms over the blasted, sandy-brown surface of Galaron. Not only does it tower over Galaron's surface, however, but it extends deep into its crust as well. The underside of the Blackspire is a well-ordered warren of quarters, ritual chambers and workspaces. It houses the Apothecarion, the Librarium and the Reclusiam, as well as the sepulchre where Dreadnoughts are kept. Also contained within the Blackspire are great halls to summon the entire Chapter (and to display the bodies of the dead when they can be recovered), vaults of data and technology recovered by the Chapter, and the catacombs where the Perditors' dead lie at rest.
On Fraxinus, the Perditors maintain a second fortress, although significantly less monastic in character, where their Techmarines maintain their armoury and where the Chapter's shipyards and major weapons depots are. Fraxinus is given over entirely to the pragmatic, utilitarian side of the Chapter, where their war engines are spurred to life and their crusades and campaigns are staged. It is on Fraxinus that visitors to the Chapter are received; even members of the Inquisition experience difficulty convincing the Perditors to allow them to set foot on Galaron. Anything or anyone not of the Chapter or otherwise extremely closely allied and well-trusted is entirely forbidden from Galaron, and the Perditors are incredibly protective of their sacred homeworld.
On Sonos, the Perditors have built the Forge of Perdition, a cavernous forge-complex which has spread across its surface and below it, festooned with artifice and decoration. This is because each battle-brother of the Chapter is allotted a forge-space on Sonos with which to labour over his equipment, or to attempt to advance the Chapter's technological advantage. The Forge of Perdition is ever under construction, as the forges of dead Perditors are cleared and repurposed for new battle-brothers or as storage spaces, or even as serf's quarters.
Chapter Organisation[]
Officer Ranks[]
- The Tomb Conclave
A specialist council of Dreadnoughts convened in times of emergency with ultimate authority over the Chapter. - The Council of Embers
The leading Chapter Council, who elect a Chapter Master as the voice of the Chapter. - Ember Bearer
Members of the Chapter Council. Any battle-brother may be elected to the Council, wherein they must travel on foot across Galaron to recover a stone from the volcano which is exactly opposite to the Chapter's fortress-monastery. This stone is then ritually chained to the bearer's thigh. - Lord Warden
The Chapter Master of the Perditors, and the only living battle-brother whose armour is painted entirely the same ash-white as the Ashen Lords. - Company Wardens
The Warden, adjacent to the codex "Captain", of each company takes on the name of the company, i.e. the Warden of the 1st Company is called the Tomb Warden. Each captain also holds a specific role in the funeral process when funerals can be held for dead battle-brothers. - Company Lieutenants
Each company's Lieutenants take the company's name like their Warden, and also possess roles in the funeral process. - Ashen Lord
The chapter's name for their Dreadnoughts.
Specialist Ranks[]
- Master Celebrant
A high rank in the order of chaplains, twin in authority with the Reclusiarch, the Master Celebrant has the responsibility of organising the funerals of battle-brothers according to their station, as well as conducting the majority of funeral services for younger battle-brothers. - Sanctor
A fourth rank within the Librarius, existing between Codicier and Epistolary. Sanctors have equivalent power and control to epistolaries, and they are permitted access to the chapter's armouries accordingly. The greatest difference between a sanctor and an epistolary of the Perditors is their focus; while epistolaries are communications officers and battle-psykers capable of levelling terrible destruction upon the foe, sanctors are specialists in warding, shielding and cleansing. It is the task of the sanctors to purge corruption, to gird the souls of their battle-brothers in psychic armour against the Daemon, and to oppose the heresy of alien witches and heretic sorcerers at all times. To this end they are closely aligned with the Chaplaincy, often studying under or alongside the chaplains of the Perditors. On rare occasions, a sanctor chooses to temporarily forsake his psychic gifts and become a judiciar, to learn to truly embody the chapter's faith in the God-Emperor and His righteous wrath, for the sanctors must be examples to their psychic battle-brothers as the chaplains are to the entire chapter.
Specialist Units & Formations[]
- Living Entombed
Squads of Centurions are called the "Living Entombed" by their brothers, and often fight alongside both veterans in Terminator armour and Dreadnoughts as part of heavily-armoured shock assault detachments. - Sanctifiers
A name applied to a variety of formations, which can include any of the following elements: Gravis, Tacticus or Terminator armour, flamer or melta weaponry, and being led by either a Chaplain or a Sanctor-rank Librarian.
Order of Battle[]
Headquarters[]
| Chapter Command | ||||
| Lord Warden Boras Nakhon Chapter Master of the Perditors Council of Embers Ember Bearers Conclave of the Burned Ashen Lords Chapter Ancients Chapter Serfs and Servitors | ||||
| Armoury | Reclusiam | Apothecarion | Librarius | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Artur Koran Master of the Forge Techmarines Tech-servitors Battle Tanks Gunships Centurion Warsuits Land Speeders Assault Bikes Invader ATVs Tactical Warsuits |
Glorius Astalan Master of Sanctity Reclusiarch | Master Celebrant Chaplains Judiciars |
Hyperion Ilastis Chief Apothecary Apothecaries |
Eridian Solis Chief Librarian Epistolaries Sanctors Codiciers Lexicaniums Acolytum | |
Companies[]
| Perditors Funeral Companies | ||||
| Veteran Company | Battle Companies | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Company "Tomb Company" |
2nd Company "Rite Company" |
3rd Company "Black Company" |
4th Company "Iron Company" |
5th Company "Forge Company" |
| Tomb Warden Master of the Keep Tomb Lieutenants Sepulchran Guard Space Marine Veterans Ashen Lords |
Rite Warden Master of the Rites Rite Lieutenants Command Squad Battleline Squads Close Support Squads Fire Support Squads Ashen Lords |
Black Warden Master of the Watch Black Lieutenants Command Squad Battleline Squads Close Support Squads Fire Support Squads Ashen Lords |
Iron Warden Master of the Fleet Iron Lieutenants Command Squad Battleline Squads Close Support Squads Fire Support Squads Ashen Lords |
Forge Warden Master of the Arsenal Forge Lieutenants Command Squad Battleline Squads Close Support Squads Fire Support Squads Ashen Lords |
| Reserve Companies | Scout Company | |||
| 6th Company "Ash Company" |
7th Company "Ember Company" |
8th Company "Pyre Company" |
9th Company "Torch Company" |
10th Company "Vigil Company" |
| Ashen Warden Master of the Marches Ashen Lieutenants Command Squad Battleline Squads Ashen Lords |
Ember Warden Chief Victualler Ember Lieutenants Command Squad Battleline Squads Ashen Lords |
Pyre Warden Lord Executioner Pyre Lieutenants Command Squad Close Support Squads Ashen Lords |
Torch Warden Master of Relics Torch Lieutenants Command Squad Fire Support Ashen Lords |
Vigil Warden Master of Recruits and Master of Reconnaissance Vigil Lieutenants Scouts Vanguard Squads |
Chapter Culture & Beliefs[]
Chapter Culture[]
Medusan Myth[]
The origins of the Perditors's obsession with flame and purification lie in ancient Medusan myths surrounding the life of Ferrus Manus. Specifically, it pertains to the tale of how the stoic Primarch fought the silver wyrm and gained his metallic flesh on his hands and forearms.
The legend, as told in the Canticle of Travels, states that the wyrm Asirnoth was terrorising the clans of Medusa, and the noble Ferrus Manus determined to slay the beast. He hunted the creature through the ruins, stalking it across the world, until finally, the two came to blows. However, despite Manus' prodigious strength, his blows did not even dent the wyrm's unyielding hide, and the battle between the two took them across continents, land and sea, and up into the mountains. All the while, the Primarch refused to yield or even flinch at the beast's attacks and eventually sought to drown Asirnoth in a lake of magma. The wyrm thrashed, and Manus' hands burned awfully, yet the Primarch did not so much as grimace and simply waited for Asirnoth to die. Eventually, the creature did, and when Ferrus Manus removed his hands from the molten rock they were coated in the same unbreakable steel as the wyrm's hide, flexible and yet impervious to damage or injury.
From this tale the Perditors draw the concept of the purifying flame, and how it remade Ferrus Manus' hands of flesh in the immortal strength of Asirnoth's hide. This capacity of fire, to burn away weakness and imperfection, would become incredibly important to the Perditors when they began their process of converting to the Imperial Cult.
Inheritance from the Xth Legion[]
The Perditors retain a number of cultural aspects from their progenitor chapter, such as their particular devotion to the Machine God and His servants, as well as the Iron Hands' grim demeanour and way of thinking. They maintain a culture of tightly controlled and suppressed emotion, despite feeling intense grief at the death of their Primarch, which they would later come to express in all of their intensely ritualistic funeral processes. This level of repression thoroughly colours their aspect of faith, and they are notably puritanical about their religious places and ceremonies, exceptional in this regard even amongst the already austere Space Marines.
Like their Medusan cousins, the Perditors practice replacing their organic parts with bionic augmentations, believing that doing so makes them stronger and more pure, devoid of the weaknesses of the flesh. The Chapter possesses unusual skill in the creation of these augmetic components, as they have been proven through centuries of warfare to be exceptionally resilient to heat without compromising the integrity or durability of the replacement body parts. The reason for this has never been revealed to Imperial or Mechanicum scholars by the Chapter, and no analysis of their construction or chemistry has yet revealed an answer.
Also inherited from the Iron Hands is the concept of governance by council rather than by a singular Chapter Master - although the Council of Embers do still elect a Lord Warden in a similar manner to the Iron Council electing a Chapter Master. The Iron Hands also passed on a particular veneration of Dreadnoughts, upon which the Perditors have thoroughly expanded, creating a second emergency council of Ashen Lords called the Conclave of the Burned to lead the Chapter in times of excessive danger.
Finally, the Perditors perform a version of the Calculum Rationale, although significantly more superstition is now involved in the variables of the Calculum. Battle-Brothers spend an unusual quantity of simulator time reviewing sermons and services from Chaplains, as well as spiritually significant moments from their own lives and the lives of others. The most viewed moment is the vision recorded by Lord Warden Stratogos on Galaron, which he witnessed during Space Waaagh! Boggasnaz.
Cult of Cinders[]
The Imperial Faith was passed to the Perditors early in their development, even before they reached their homeworld of Galaron. Yet, it took a long time to propagate throughout the entire Chapter to the extent that it now does, as the Perditors originally possessed a mindset extremely similar to that of the Iron Hands. Over centuries of war, however, and generations upon generations of battle-brothers, the Imperial Cult slowly but surely spread through the Chapter, integrating itself with the Chapter's internal repressed grief and their obsession with purity and fire.
The Perditors suffer a similar curse as their progenitors, seeing their flesh as weak and abhorrent, despising themselves for it. As such, they burn or melt off parts of their anatomy and replace them with bionic parts, becoming ever more machine-like, and full of cold hatred. This forms an intense contrast between younger battle-brothers, whose hearts still burn with the flames of grief pain and hatred, on which they must clamp tight and force control, and the older chapter members whose emotions are colder, more calculated, settling like cooling iron in their minds and becoming unshakeable. The Perditors also practice self-flagellation via burning for their perceived weaknesses, with punishments being assigned by squad leaders or by Chaplains and taken without reaction or argument.
The sheer brutalism of the Chapter's faith contrasts strongly with the complex and precise ritual of their funeral processes, which are incredibly culturally important to the Chapter. A core tenet of their beliefs is in the ultimate purification of their souls in death, through the cremation of any remaining flesh. The immense grief shouldered by every Perditor grows yet heavier for every battle-brother who dies and is not cremated, seeing it as the greatest of punishments that their brothers should be tethered to the weakness of the flesh when brought before the God-Emperor in death. Culturally, this has evolved into the Perditors venerating the funeral process and the transition through it, from the vigil to the funeral pyre, to ashes and dust, and into a tomb.
The Imperial Creed and the Cult Mechanicus[]
Similarly to the Iron Hands, the Perditors worship the Machine God. With tentative instruction from the priesthood of Mars, they venerate the Omnissiah and appease the Machine-spirits of their wargear. Yet, in seeming stark contrast to this faith, they also worship the Emperor of Mankind as a true deity. Their logic states that, given that the Emperor exhibits all of the characteristics and powers of a god, he must be one and therefore deserves to be worshipped. In addition to being a point of contention with the Adeptus Mechanicus and their progenitors, this double-faith is a split within the chapter itself. Echoing debates which have whispered through Forge Worlds for centuries, a core issue often in debate within the Council of Embers is the issue of whether the Omnissiah and the Emperor are in fact the same being. Unlike within the Iron Council, where no-one outside of the chapter is permitted to voice an opinion, on some occasions the Council of Embers invites Tech-priests or Ecclesiarchal ministers to their secondary auditorium on Sonos, that they might be given opportunities to speak as to their creed.
Serfs and Servitors[]
Unlike their progenitors, the Perditors tolerate the presence of mortals within their halls, and can be surprisingly kind to them. Often the serfs of the Perditors are mistaken for servitors, such is the depth and breadth of their augmentations, yet these are laid upon the servants of the Chapter as gifts and commendations, and they remain independent thinking creatures. Of course servitors are plentiful, and often the serfs of the Chapter slave servitors to their will to execute the more complex tasks demanded of them.
One of the most curious aspects of the relationship between Chapter serfs and the Space Marines is how the serfs operate the fortress-monastery. The Perditors maintain much larger volumes of serfs than many other Chapters due to the extent of the facilities which the Chapter operates, and the numerous duties which that requires. Entire cadres of servants are employed simply to make ships available at all times to ferry Astartes between the three bodies of their homeworld, as well as to ensure the Forge of Perdition runs at all times. Each Space Marine has his own personal serf, whose task it is to minister to the Perditor's every need. Often within the halls of the Forge there are forge-spaces repurposed as servant quarters or servitor bays, whose sole purpose is to house the serfs and servants of nearby Astartes while they work.
Masters of the Forge[]
The Perditors also took from the Iron Hands their affinity for technology and craftsmanship. Hence, on their home world's second moon, Sonos, the Perditors have bulit a gargantuan forge complex that mirrors the Gorgon's Forge of the Iron Hands or the Forge Worlds of the Adeptus Mechanicus. It is called the Forge of Perdition, and within its cavernous, twisting halls each battle-brother of the Chapter maintains his own workplace. The care of his weapons and armour, traditionally given to Chapter serfs among most Chapters, is instead given into the charge of each battle-brother.
Funerary Rites[]
When a battle-brother dies and his body is recovered, he is eventually returned to the Blackspire. His body is displayed, armed and armoured, in the Hall of Remembrance, for one standard Terran day per year he served the Chapter and the God-Emperor. When this period has elapsed, the body is taken to the Apothecarion, where in the presence of a member of the Chaplaincy or a Sanctor his armour and wargear are ritually and solemnly stripped from him, beginning with the removal of his weapons and ending with the removal of his helmet. The brother's gene-seed is then carefully extracted by Apothecaries if this was not already done on the battlefield. The armour and wargear are reverently returned to the Reclusiam and the armouries after being blessed by both a Chaplain and a Techmarine. At the same time, the bodies of the dead, shrouded in ash-grey cloth, are arranged in the fortress' largest sermon hall where a service is held in honour of the dead Space Marines. The sermon cools the burning hearts of the assembled brothers, teaching them to honour the death of their brothers and to hate them for their weakness. Once this service has been held the bodies are cremated, and the ashes are forged into a steel cylinder which is stored in the walls of the deep catacombs beneath each fortress or are stored in barrows across the asteroid field ringing the system in the case of Vigil Company.
Ashen Lords[]
If a battle-brother of particular note survives a near-mortal wound, he is interred in a Dreadnought sarcophagus in a ritual known as "The Dying of the Fire". What little remains of the hallowed flesh of the Astartes is cut away, and grafted over with machine parts, before the body is ritually blackened with a very intense flame, nearly killing the already near-dead hero. His remains are interred within the balm and confinement of a Dreadnought sarcophagus, to wait until he is called to war once again. To become an Ashen Lord, although painful beyond reckoning, is one of the most hallowed rituals of the Perditors, and the process is observed with an abject lack of emotion or reaction from any participants, including the Ashen Lord himself. So honoured are the Ashen Lords that living Wardens have been known to defer to orders given by Ashen Lords whom they outranked in life.
Ember Bearers[]
The Council of Embers admits new members by debate and vote, on recommendations from a sitting Ember Bearer. A battle-brother who has been deemed worthy by the Council of Embers is required to make a pilgrimage across the lifeless surface of Galaron, passing through various monuments and places of religious significance to the Chapter, and climb the highest volcano on the world, Uraanis, in a symbolic gesture of climbing the ice spire of Karaashi on Medusa, where Ferrus Manus landed millennia prior. At the top of Uraanis, they must gather a cooled piece of molten rock, the planet's core, and ritually chain it to their thigh. Then they must return to the Blackspire, wherein they may join the Council properly.
Joining the Chapter[]
The Perditors recruit from all of the worlds in the Kaustikos system. Because of their unofficial position as governors of the system, the Perditors maintain the right to arrive on a planet and test the youth for candidates at almost any time, and to take suitable aspirants to be trained without resistance. Any who try are quickly slaughtered for their heresy.
Aboard the Chapter's keep above each world, the training of the recruited aspirants begins. A single battle-brother, unarmoured, faces down all of the gathered aspirants from a recruiting group and orders them to fight him. Their only objective, he tells them, is to survive. Any who flee are shot by watching battle-brothers, while the Chaplain evaluates the ability and tactics of the aspirants. They are not expected to have any chance of winning. This encounter teaches the mentor Astartes about the calibre and nature of the recruits and also teaches the aspirants what they are expected, in fact, required, to become. Then, the aspirants are brought to Galaron, to the Blackspire. They are given Carapace armour and ordered to march to but the first waypoint on the path to Uraanis. They are left alone in their task, supervised only by an unspeaking Chaplain who marches with them. Most aspirants die on this path, their corpses left to burn in the sun, their armour to be reclaimed by serfs. Some have their bodies fail them, their minds willing to continue on but their weak flesh unwilling - these are evaluated by the Chaplain, and if he deems them useful enough they are recovered by the Chapter to serve as serfs. Any aspirants with the strength and willpower to survive this brutal pilgrimage are inducted into Vigil Company as neophytes, and the process of their augmentation, indoctrination and training begins.
The lives of neophytes are similar to that of any other chapter, save for the increased focus on religious services and observances. They continue to act as part of the Scout squads as they grow and become enhanced, leaving their mortality behind and passing through the first of many crucibles in which a true Perditor is formed. When a neophyte is finally ready to join the Chapter as a fully-fledged battle-brother, his left hand is removed in a cauldron of lava and replaced with a bionic prosthetic, while the neophyte is watched intently by a Sanctor Librarian for any physical or spiritual admission of pain. Should he pass the test, the neophyte is inducted into the Perditors.
Holy Days and Traditions[]
Holy Days[]
Resurrection[]
Every ten standard Terran years, the Perditors gather to the Blackspire in solemn prayer and worship to recognise the day that Ashen Lord Warden Stratogos returned from death to lead his Chapter in war once again, and the deliverance from weakness that he brought them. This period of worship lasts two Terran Days, after which the Perditors enter a four-day mourning period, commemorating the loss of Stratogos not once, but twice. This event is always solemn and black of mood and casts a shadow over any of the Chapter's recent achievements in the eyes of the Astartes.
Pilgrimage[]
Whenever the Perditors send battle-brothers of theirs to study and train with the Adepts of Mars or the Iron Hands, there is a solemn gathering of squads from which the pilgrims are pulled. No goodbyes are said, no words are exchanged, but the rest of the Chapter is expected to observe silent prayer to the God-Emperor on Pilgrimage days while continuing about their duties; even when at war.
Traditions[]
Emperor's Champion[]
The tradition of the Emperor’s Champion is indisputably an ancient one. Imperial scholars debate if the role existed before its most famous holder, but all bar few have reached the consensus that the greatest and most revered Emperor’s Champion was Sigismund, First Captain of the Imperial Fists during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, and then the first High Marshal of the Black Templars after the Legions of old were split by decree of Roboute Guilliman’s Codex Astartes. Whilst the Emperor’s Champion is most associated with Sigismund’s inheritors, the Black Templars, other Chapters both faithful and agnostic have produced such legendary warriors within their ranks, and the Perditors are no exception. Since the Chapter’s first Champion was found in Stratogos while fighting alongside the Black Templars themselves, the Perditors have produced several more over their several thousand years of their existence.
On the eve of battle, the Perditors sit unarmoured in the Chapter’s Reclusiam, Chaplains intoning mechanical hymns and binharic prayers, as they patrol the ranks of Space Marines, swinging censers before them to disperse incense and holy oil fumes over the assembled warriors. The battle-brothers of the Chapter sit amid the dense smoke and chant themselves, trying to ignore the itch of their reviled flesh as they silently swear oaths for battle. With their souls girded and their hatred stoked, the Perditors rise and go to war. However, on very rare occasions, the ritual will proceed differently. A Perditor will be rocked by powerful visons, his bionics and internal senses straining to keep him on his feet as he experiences a series of vivid sequences not too dissimilar to those experienced by Stratogos on that first occasion. During this long night of intense prayer and fasting, the battle-brother will observe a ghostly dream of two knights, one pale and blazing and one of unyielding iron, holding back a tide of enemies.
While the specifics of the vision vary from Champion to Champion, using the Chapter’s simulation equipment visions can be analysed and their inherent symbology determined. A mighty hero facing down impossible foes, enemies crushed before mighty walls, a funeral pyre guttering out, and many other symbols are amongst those contained within the complex visions granted by the Emperor. Having awoken from his vision, the battle-brother will seek out the Master of Sanctity and proclaim the Emperor’s visitation upon him. He will be examined with great scrutiny by the Chaplains, and his vision will be reviewed by them and compared with other recordings and approved symbols, for the Chaplains are ever watchful for daemonic deceit and false interpretation. No battle-brother has ever proven false, and so the process of arming the Emperor’s Champion begins.
He is led to the Hall of the Arbiter, where the previous suits of Power Armour of the Emperors Champions (or Arbiters) of times past are held in stasis fields alongside their ashes. He meditates here while Chapter serfs, supervised by Chaplains, bring him his armour from its display in the Reclusiam. Kneeling in prayer, he invokes several blessings of the Emperor inscribed on the walls of the shrine, and his bionics are upgraded to a higher quality of blessed steel by a senior Chaplain and Techmarine. He is then armoured, and once his suit is sealed he will not remove it, including his helmet, until either his crusade or his life comes to an end. At last, he retrieves a thrice-blessed heavy bolt pistol and the relic Black Blade Covenant from its shrine at the heart of the Hall, and marches from the room to war. If he dies, his armour will be returned there alongside his ashes. If he lives, he will ritually be stripped of his armour and it will be held in the Hall until he claims it again, and his ashes will be interred alongside it when he dies.
Amongst the mortal population of the Kaustikos system, a legend is held that when the God-Emperor is in mortal danger, the spirits of the Arbiters of the past will return to their armour once more, wreathed in black flame, and march across the stars to Terra to aid the Master of Mankind in His hour of need. Regardless, the Arbiter of the Perditors is every bit the legend he is made out to be while still alive. More than just a slayer of warlords, he is a terrifyingly effective frontline general with the ability to galvanise through sheer faith even the fatalistic Space Marines of his Chapter, turning the tides of battle with his mere presence and bellowing orders even the Lord Warden would not dare countermand. When an Arbiter takes to the field, the Perditors take heed.
Doom's Chain[]
Upon his induction to the Chapter, each Perditor will forge a censer with which to burn incense over their own forge on Sonos. This censer will hang from the ceiling of their forge, swinging back and forth on a chain forged with a link for each Company through which the Perditor has passed. Neophytes to the Chapter learn their craft under censers forged by their master, a true Astartes, with only one link in their chains. As they graduate into other companies, they will forge links in the chain in a material and design unique to each company, reaching back through their lives to the moment they were doomed to die in the service of the Emperor. Should a brother of the Chapter eventually receive the honour of becoming an Ember Bearer, it is this chain with which the Space Marine will bind the coal to his armour should he survive the ordeal, and a new chain is forged upon his return to the Blackspire. For those battle-brothers that do not enter into the standard companies of the Chapter, namely the Librarians, Apothecaries, Chaplains and Techmarines of the Perditors, the process of forging Doom's Chain is slightly different - instead of elevation through each company, the conditions for forging each link in the chain are at the purview of the current masters of those orders, and are often based on degrees of mastery of one's craft or the number of times something has been achieved. Regardless, all battle-brothers of the Perditors, in whatever role, heed the tradition of Doom's Chain.
Chapter Gene-Seed[]
The Perditors's gene-seed was taken from the Iron Hands and used in the 17th Founding after rigorous testing from the Adeptus Mechanicus on the orders of the High Lords of Terra. The Perditors's strain of gene-seed is of similar purity to that of their progenitor, and it is theorised that this may have contributed to the two Chapters' shared temperament, especially seen in their older battle-brothers. They have no missing organs, although the gene-seed of the Perditors has an interesting side-effect when interacting with psykers - their irises change from whatever colour they were before, becoming an unnerving shining silver shot through with gold. This has not been explained by the Adeptus Mechanicus or the Perditors.
Primarch's Curse: Steel over Flesh[]
When the Chapter's gene-curse manifests itself in an afflicted battle-brother, its symptoms come in three stages:
- Stage 1 - A Disdain for Flesh: The battle-brother perceives his own flesh as a hindrance. Scarring or burning the biological portions of his body is the only way to soothe his rage.
- Stage 2 - Cold Fury: The ruthlessness of the Perditors manifests more strongly in the battle-brother, making him prone to aggression. The Battle-Brother must summon forth all his considerable willpower when confronted by an enemy or by something he considers "weak;" failure means that the battle-brother's fury is released in some way, most likely causing a feud, confrontation, or escalating into open violence.
- Stage 3 - Zero Tolerance: All Perditors abhor weakness, but the battle-brother has taken this attitude to an extreme. The battle-brother will seek to remove any perceived source of weakness, to the point of refusing to fight alongside allied forces such as the Astra Militarum -- in extreme cases, even entering into open conflict with an allied but mortal force.
Chapter Combat Doctrine[]
The Perditors go to war belching fumes from vehicles, war engines and burning promethium. They move along carefully-calculated lines factoring in the rate at which fires will spread amongst anything in their way as they march inexorably towards the foe. Buildings, fortifications and enemy hordes are all reduced to slag and cinders through the liberal use of flamers and meltaguns, with heavily armoured (and heavily augmented) shock troops marching through the flames as harbingers of doom.
When the Perditors go to war, their advance is slow and brutal, individual squads shifting and moving mechanically to express a precise battle plan bespokely calculated to annihilate whatever faces them. They make extensive use of transports and armour to apply excessive force at the enemy's weak points, as well as to secure the position of key assets on the battlefield. They are also well-known for their regular use of Dreadnoughts on the battlefield, who act both as bastions of firepower or destructive physical might and also an inspiring and symbolic sight for all Imperial forces who fight alongside them. This is yet another carefully-calculated move by the Perditors; placing the impetus of faith behind the already formidable force of the Imperial war machine.
To fuel this doctrine, the Chapter possesses a large amount of wargear tailored to this method of war: Centurion warsuits tailored for Primaris brothers, suits of Gravis and Terminator armour, as well as a large number of tanks
Deathwatch Service[]
The Perditors have long maintained strong links to the Deathwatch, considering it a true crucible of the warrior and a righteous act to dedicate one's life to the fight against the xenos. Perditors who join the Deathwatch are often notably effective kill-team members but struggle greatly in working with brothers from other chapters due to their cultural isolation and hatred of what they perceive as weakness, which is in fact only a difference in culture or tactical speciality. In the most extreme cases it can take over a century for a Perditors battle-brother to fully enmesh with his kill-team and begin to accept and compensate for the apparent "weaknesses" of their brothers.
When a Perditor is selected to join the Deathwatch, his armour is ritually painted black by serfs while his brothers gather around him in prayer. He is given a new bolter, specially forged for Deathwatch battle-brothers, and is sent on his way without a word. Every Perditor who is commended to the Deathwatch is also an Ember Bearer, having had to complete the pilgrimage as a test of their faith and determination beyond the usual hatred of the xenos. This ember remains chained to the battle-brother's thigh even throughout his time in the Deathwatch, and on more than one occasion a Deathwatch brother of a dead Perditor has taken up their brother's ember after their death, a tradition which, while not welcomed by the Perditors, is accepted.
Notable Perditors[]
Chapter Fleet[]
- Throneburner (Battle Barge) - This mighty vessel created by joint effort of the Iron Hands and the Mechanicum for the Perditors, which has served as the flagship of the Perditors ever since their founding.
- Death Mendicant (Battle Barge) - This vessel recently acquired from the Mechanicum as payment for the Perditors's assistance in destroying a small corrupted house of Chaos Knights who were guarding the entrance to what the Mechanicus believed was an ancient Dark Age vault.
- Oncoming Tomb (Strike Cruiser) - This vessel belonged to
Chapter Relics[]
- Armour of the Arbiter - Special reverently decorated power armour used by the Emperor's Champion
- Covenant - The relic power sword used by the Emperor's Champion
- Teeth of Flame - Lord Warden Boras Nakhnon's relic chainsword
- Hand of Stratogos - The relic power fist that Boras Nakhon used to kill Snobzog when he was an Iron Lieutenant.
Chapter Appearance[]
Chapter Colours[]
The Perditors' armour is painted black and grey, with orange shoulder panel trim and chest aquila. Lieutenants are denoted by possessing a grey stripe on their helmets, while the wardens wear entirely grey helmets. Veteran battle-brothers also wear grey helmets, with a black stripe. A battle-brother's tactical role (battleline, fire support, close support, command or veteran) is denoted by a design on his left knee, overlaid with his squad number. A design on the battle-brother's right pauldron denotes his company, while the chapters' insignia is worn on their left pauldron.
Chapter Badge[]
Relations[]
Allies[]
| Fists Revenant |  |
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| Blades of Resurgence |   |
Enemies[]
Notable Quotes[]
By the Perditors:[]
About the Perditors:[]
| Seventeenth Founding Space Marine Chapters | |
|---|---|
| Dark Angels Successors | • |
| White Scars Successors | • |
| Space Wolves Successors | N/A |
| Imperial Fists Successors | Blades of Resurgence • |
| Blood Angels Successors | Scarlet Shields • |
| Iron Hands Successors | Perditors • |
| Ultramarines Successors | Keelhaulers • |
| Salamanders Successors | • |
| Raven Guard Successors | Sable Claws • |
| Unknown Lineage | • |
Gallery[]