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The Star Serpents are a mysterious and aloof Chapter, their origins shrouded in the half-truths and silence of the ill-omened 21st Founding, the so-called "Cursed Founding." Supposedly descended from the venerable Salamanders, they bear their progenitors' resilience and physical fortitude, along with their obsidian skin and stoic temperament. Yet where the Salamanders are known for their humanity and compassion, the Star Serpents are cold-blooded predators—calculating, reclusive, and unnervingly silent. From their fortress-monastery hidden deep within the twilight jungles of Ouroboros Prime, they strike like phantoms, waging war with sudden, surgical violence. To Imperial commanders, they are an enigma; to their enemies, they are a nightmare of fangs, scales, and flame.
The culture of the Star Serpents is deeply rooted in the animistic rites and totemic traditions of Ouroboros Prime, a world of verdant jungles and skyborne monsters. Each battle-brother is both warrior and shaman, his warplate adorned with serpentine tattoos and ritual scars denoting tribal ancestry and battlefield deeds. Initiation into the Chapter is a trial of blood and cunning: the aspirant must survive the Coiling Path and slay a Skyscale Serpent - an apex predator with luminous wings and venom that can fell a dreadnought. In battle, the Star Serpents move with eerie grace, practicing the "Dance of the Fanged Strike," a fluid melee discipline honed to deliver swift, fatal blows. They do not speak in war - they hiss, strike, and vanish, leaving behind only corpses and the rustle of unseen coils in the dark.
Chapter History[]
Origins & Culture[]
The Star Serpents emerged from the turbulent 21st Founding, a so-called "Cursed Founding" that birthed some of the most aberrant Space Marine Chapters in Imperial history. Designed to thrive in the galaxy's most hostile environments, their gene-seed - primarily derived from the Salamanders' lineage - was extensively modified with exotic bio-alchemical enhancements. These modifications granted them unique serpentine adaptations, including slit-pupiled eyes, enhanced toxin resistance, and the ability to produce paralytic venoms. The Chapter was initially deployed to the death world Ouroboros Prime, a steaming jungle planet where massive serpentine predators called Skyscales (bio-luminescent, winged reptiles with venomous fangs) dominated the food chain and the native human tribes worshipped celestial dragon deities.
Upon their arrival, the Chapter's first warriors underwent the brutal "Trial of the Coiling Path," a rite of passage that saw them hunting and slaying the planet's deadly Skyscale serpents. The native tribes spoke of an ancient covenant - "To wear the serpent's skin, you must become the serpent" - which the Chapter gradually adopted as their own. Over centuries of isolation, the Star Serpents developed a unique hybrid culture, blending Imperial doctrine with primal animism. Their power armor became sacred ceremonial scales, their battle cries evolved into sibilant hissing litanies, and their fallen warriors were ritually fed to Skyscale serpents so their spirits might live on through the beasts. This cultural synthesis came at a price, as their gene-seed continued mutating - developing the cyclical "Shedding" comas, enhanced venom production, and other bestial traits that set them apart from their progenitor Chapter.
The Star Serpents developed a fearsome reputation for their unique combat doctrines emphasizing stealth, ambush tactics, and venom-based warfare. During the Cleansing of Vithis, they famously lured a Genestealer Cult into an artificial jungle environment before systematically exterminating them with neurotoxic bolter rounds. Their century-long Wars of the Broken Fang against the Alpha Legion became the stuff of legend, as they relentlessly hunted what they saw as "false serpents" after the traitor Legion defiled their sacred temples. The Blackened Stars Crusade against Necron forces saw the first recorded manifestations of their Librarians' warp-serpent familiars, psychic constructs that would become central to their esoteric combat practices.
These victories came with terrible costs and dark secrets. The Chapter's mutations grew more pronounced with each generation - their light-sensitive eyes requiring specialized lenses, their periodic "Shedding" comas leaving them vulnerable, and their obsessive vendettas against perceived serpent-foes sometimes overriding strategic objectives. Their fortress-monastery, Serpentis Eternal, became a nightmarish labyrinth of venomous traps and shifting corridors, built unknowingly atop an ancient Necron tomb. Some Inquisitors now whisper that the Chapter has become too feral, while others quietly admire their lethal efficiency. The Star Serpents themselves care little for such opinions, guided instead by their central tenet of the Great Ouroboros - the belief that all things must die, and from death be reborn. As they hiss in their battle litanies: "We are the fang in the dark. The coil around the throat of the unworthy. Strike silent. Strike first. Strike once."
The guttural hiss of the battle cry "Shed your fear. Carry only hate!" echoes through the steaming jungles of Ouroboros Prime, a venomous mantra that precedes the Star Serpents' deadliest strikes. More than mere words, it is a sacred invocation - a command to strip away human frailty as a serpent sheds its skin, leaving only the razor-edged fury of the Adeptus Astartes. When uttered through snarling vox-grilles or whispered before delivering a killing blow, the litany serves multiple deadly purposes. Its sibilant delivery alone functions as psychological warfare, mimicking the warning hiss of a striking viper that freezes prey in terror. The Chaplains of the Chapter chant these words during the sacred Ritual of the First Fang, anointing their warriors' blades with neurotoxins as they prepare for battle. It is particularly favored during the brutal Shedding Cycles, when battle-brothers awaken from their comatose states with renewed bloodlust, their bodies having literally shed weakness like old skin. The cry reaches its most vicious iterations during their eternal vendetta against the Alpha Legion - "Shed your fear. Carry only hate!" they roar when cornering these "false serpents" they despise above all foes. Even in their final moments, Star Serpents whisper this litany to dying enemies as paralysis takes hold, ensuring the last sound their victims hear is the promise of merciless hate. To outsiders, it may seem a simple battle cry, but to the Chapter, it encapsulates their entire philosophy: fear is the luxury of prey, while hate is the sacred weapon of the hunter.
Notable Campaigns[]
- The Cleansing of Vithis (743.M41): When the Genestealer Cult known as the Twisted Coil overran Hive Secundus on Vithis, consuming over sixty percent of its population, the Star Serpents eschewed conventional siege tactics in favor of their signature predatory warfare. Rather than mounting a costly frontal assault, they transformed the hive's sprawling underlevels into a lethal hunting ground, exploiting the district's ruined agri-domes and overgrown fungal vats—long-abandoned ecosystems that had regrown into feral jungles. The Chapter seeded these zones with bio-engineered flora from Ouroboros Prime: carnivorous vines that coiled around unwary cultists, pheromone-emitting mosses that masked the Astartes' scent, and hallucinogenic spores that sent hybrids into frenzied paranoia. Sonic emitters broadcast distorted Imperial distress calls, luring the xenos into carefully prepared killing zones where venomous serpent-strangle wires hung like unseen predators between the rusted girders. Over three lunar cycles, the Star Serpents tightened their coils, herding the cult into ever-shrinking pockets of the underhive. The decisive blow came during the Night of Shed Skins, when the Chapter's Librarians unleashed a sanctioned warp-venom mist—a psychic toxin that dissolved the weaker hybrids while leaving the Patriarch's mind exposed. As the cult's synapse network faltered, the 3rd Company's Void Stalkers descended from biomechanical tree-platforms, their neurotoxic daggers finding the throats of Broodlord lieutenants mid-psionic command. The final act played out in a ruined temple district, where the 1st Company's Venomborn stalked the blinded Patriarch through ruins deliberately altered to mirror Ouroboros Prime's sacred Temple of the First Fang. There, Captain Vosskarr delivered the killing stroke with his Eclipse Fang lightning claws, severing the creature's head in a single, ritual-perfect motion. In the aftermath, the upper hive was scoured with phosphex, but the Star Serpents preserved the transformed underlevels as a permanent training ground. Today, it serves as both a testing zone for new initiates—who hunt captured xenos amidst the toxin-adapted flora—and a grim reminder of the Chapter's methods. Where others see only urban decay, the Star Serpents see hunting grounds, and where the Imperium expects brute force, they deliver the serpent's silent strike.
- The Wars of the Broken Fang (591.M41–691.M41): The century-long blood feud between the Star Serpents and the Alpha Legion warband "The Ophidian Mask" began with a betrayal that would forever scar the Chapter. In 591.M41, the traitors infiltrated the sacred Temple of Xarxus on Ouroboros Prime, masquerading as returning battle-brothers using stolen battle-codes. Their desecration of the Chapter's gene-seed relics with warp-tainted venom sent eight Librarians into prophetic seizures, igniting an unrelenting vendetta that saw the Star Serpents abandon three Imperial campaigns to pursue their quarry across eleven sectors. The Chapter waged a brutal shadow war, poisoning Alpha Legion supply caches with Skyscale neurotoxins and setting "Ghost Scale" traps that buried entire squads alive in rubble for weeks. When the conflict reached its climax at Deadmoon Sigma in 691.M41, the Star Serpents employed not exterminatus but precision void warfare - crippling the traitors' fleet with calculated lance strikes before launching zero-gravity boarding actions through breached hulls. Using specialized mag-boots and venom-coated boarding harnesses, they hunted the remaining Alpha Legionnaires through the derelict ships, strangling the last survivors with their own chains in the frozen dark. Though the victory left the Chapter dangerously understrength, it forged their hatred into doctrine: to this day, they salt Alpha Legion corpses with sacred toxins, ensuring even in death their enemies remain poisoned by the serpent's bite. The conflict's legacy endures in the Chapter's rituals, with every new generation of battle-brothers taught that the only good serpent is one that coils in service to the Emperor.
Chapter Homeworld[]
Death World and Sacred Hunting Ground[]
Ouroboros Prime the homeworld of the Star Serpents chapter.
Ouroboros Prime is a planet shrouded in perpetual twilight, its surface dominated by vast, suffocating jungles where colossal Skyscale Serpents rule as apex predators. The atmosphere is thick with humidity and the scent of bioluminescent venom-moss, which clings to towering blackroot trees in pulsating patches of emerald and violet. Beneath the triple-canopy jungle, the land is a labyrinth of sinkholes filled with acidic water, quicksand bogs that swallow entire vehicles, and ruins of a long-dead civilization—whose serpent-headed statues suggest they, too, once worshipped the Skyscales. The planet’s tribal humans survive in fortified treetop villages, their lives dictated by the hunt, the monsoons, and the ever-present threat of the jungles’ venomous megafauna.
Despite their ascension to the stars, the Star Serpents maintain a symbiotic relationship with their ancestral tribes. The Chapter views the tribes as both a recruitment pool and sacred kin, protecting them from off-world threats while enforcing ancient traditions. Tribal hunters who prove themselves may be taken as aspirants, while those who remain are granted blessed relics—bolter-shell talismans, vials of Astartes venom for hunting, and armor fragments repurposed as ceremonial garb. In return, the tribes act as the Chapter’s eyes in the jungle, tracking xenos incursions or guiding lost battle-brothers during the Shedding Cycles. The Star Serpents even permit select tribal elders to witness the Feast of the First Fang, where fallen warriors are fed to Skyscales—a ritual believed to bind the Chapter’s spirit to the planet forever.
Fortress Monastery[]
Serpentis Eternal rises from the jungles of Ouroboros Prime like a slumbering leviathan—a sprawling fortress-monastery of coiled black basalt and fossilized serpent bones, its obsidian spires twisting skyward like striking vipers. Bioluminescent venom drips from fanged gargoyles, casting an eerie emerald glow across battlements etched with ouroboros reliefs that seem to writhe under the twin moons. Within its labyrinthine depths, the Altar of Molten Scales hisses with venom-forged weapons, while the Hall of Whispering Coils echoes with the psychic murmurs of suspended serpent skulls—each a Chapter Master’s first kill. The Chapter’s gene-seed slumbers in the Black Vault, guarded by silent warriors of the Hollowed, their mouths sewn shut in eternal vigil. Unbeknownst to the Star Serpents, their fortress is built upon an ancient Necron tomb, its living bridges and shifting corridors defying siege logic—some whisper the central Spine of Xarxus is the petrified corpse of a C’tan shard the Chapter unknowingly slew millennia ago. To assault Serpentis Eternal is to walk into the serpent’s jaws; its neurotoxic mists and acid-flooded sanctums ensure even the boldest invaders become just another offering to the Eternal Coil.
Chapter Organization[]
Officer Ranks[]
Fang Lord (Chapter Master) - The Fang Lord is the supreme leader of the Star Serpents, bearing the star-shaped scars of a sacred duel with one of Ouroboros Prime’s mighty Skyscales. Clad in the *Mantle of the First Hunt*—a cloak woven from the scales of the first Skyscale slain during the Chapter’s founding—he embodies the serpent’s lethal patience. His authority is absolute, and his word dictates the Chapter’s cyclical wars.
Speaker of the Old Scales (Chief Librarian) - This psyker communes with spectral warp-serpents, their whispers guiding the Chapter through battle. The Speaker’s staff, *The Coiling Wisdom*, contains the bound spirits of past Librarians, their knowledge preserved in venom-etched runes. Their visions are cryptic, often revealing truths only in hindsight.
Scale Carver (Reclusiarch)- A master of ritual scarification, the Scale Carver tattoos the Chapter’s battle-lore directly onto the flesh of warriors using needles dipped in sacred venom. His *Skyscale Skull Crozius* is both weapon and relic, its hollow eyesockets leaking a paralytic mist that stills the unworthy.
Star Fang (Captain) - To earn this rank, a warrior must survive the Trial of Ingestion—being swallowed whole by a Skyscale and carving their way free. Each Star Fang leads a "Coil" (Company) with the precision of a striking serpent, their tactics fluid and unpredictable.
Venom Speaker (Chaplain) - The Venom Speakers are the spiritual enforcers of the Star Serpents, their words as lethal as their fangs. Clad in scaled black warplate and crowned with the fanged skulls of sacred Skyscales, they preach the "Litany of the Coiling Path"—a doctrine that venerates death as the final shedding of weakness.
Specialist Ranks[]
Iron Scale (Master of the Forge)- The Iron Scale grafts living Skyscale hide onto warplate, creating armor that regenerates like a serpent’s shed skin. Their mechadendrites writhe with unnatural grace, and their forge-temples echo with the hiss of venom-quenched steel.
Ghost Scale (Chief Apothecary)- Gene-seed extraction is a sacred rite to the Ghost Scale, performed not with surgical tools but with fanged implants. They administer the *Last Fang*, a euthanasia needle filled with Skyscale venom, ensuring fallen brothers die without the dishonor of prolonged suffering.
Star Scale (Lieutenant) - Promotion to Star Scale is earned through single combat, with challengers dueling to the brink of death. These warriors lead "Fang Packs" with paired weapons, their strikes as coordinated as a serpent’s twin fangs.
Hooded Serpent (Librarian) - Cloaked in the shed skin of their psychic familiars, these psykers summon spectral snakes from the warp. Their powers coil around foes, constricting minds before the killing strike.
Scalebreaker (Ancient) - The Scalebreaker carries a banner crafted from the skull of an ancient Skyscale, its hollow bones leaking neurotoxic mist. Where this standard waves, enemies choke on visions of being devoured alive.
Scale Warden (Techmarine) - Armor is a living thing to the Scale Warden, its plates molting damaged sections like a reptile shedding skin. Their servo-harnesses hiss with venom reservoirs, used to anoint weapons before battle.
Line Ranks[]
Void Hunter (Vanguard Veteran) - Phobos-clad and silent, Void Hunters strike from jungle canopies or void-black shadows. They leave no footprints, only corpses with fang-punctured throats.
Hollowed One (Terminator Veteran) - These warriors endured the Trial of Ingestion as initiates, emerging from a Skyscale’s gullet forever changed. They wear the hollowed skulls of infant Skyscales as helms, their Terminator plate fused with serpent bone.
Venomborn (Sternguard Veteran) - Baptized in Skyscale venom, the Venomborn spit acid and fire toxic bolter rounds. Their blood is a weapon, clotting wounds instantly but dooming them to an early grave.
Fangblade (Battleline Veteran) - Seasoned warriors who have survived multiple "sheddings" (combat tours), their armor is inscribed with scale-shaped kill tallies. They fight with paired blades, each strike a mimicry of the serpent’s bite.
Nestling (Battleline Marine) - Full battle-brothers who have completed their first gene-seed maturation cycle. They are no longer initiates, but must still prove themselves worthy of greater trials.
Hatchling (Scout/Neophyte) - These initiates stalk Ouroboros Prime’s venom-jungles alone, armed only with a knife and their wits. To ascend, they must slay a Skyscale and present its fang to the Fang Lord.
Specialist Units & Formations[]
Venomborn - The Venomborn are the Chapter's toxin-shock troops, their bodies transformed through ritual immersion in Skyscale venom. These elite warriors wield neurotoxic bolters and spit streams of corrosive acid, their very blood weaponized to explode in lethal venom clouds upon death. Each is assigned a high-value target they must eliminate, following the doctrine of "One Fang, One Kill." Their augments ensure even their corpses remain deadly, dissolving into pools of flesh-eating enzymes.
Hollowed Ones - Clad in Terminator armor fused with the hollowed skulls of infant Skyscales, the Hollowed Ones are siege specialists who survived the Trial of Ingestion—being swallowed whole by a serpent and carving their way free. They advance in constricting spiral formations, herding enemies into kill zones before striking. Their teleport homers are laced with venom that dissolves foes in a corrosive blast upon arrival.
Void Stalkers - Masters of ambush, Void Stalkers wear Phobos armor layered with cameleoline scales that shift to match their surroundings. They leave false venom trails to bait enemies into minefields and collect the teeth of slain leaders as trophies. Their attacks are swift and silent, disappearing before retaliation, embodying the serpent's art of the unseen strike.
The Coiling Death - A kill team of one Scale Carver and five Venomborn, this formation shares a neurotoxin communion that renders them immune to gas attacks. Should all members perish, their combined venom ignites into a catastrophic blast, ensuring their deaths reap a bloody toll.
Fang Phalanx - This battleline formation of a Star Fang and three Fangblade units fights in interlocking scales, their overlapping armor fields deflecting enemy fire. They strike with coordinated precision, always attacking first if they didn't charge—hissing before the fang finds flesh.
Order of Battle[]
Chapter Command[]
Fang Lord (Chapter Master): Vythras "The Coiling Shadow"
Council of Fangs (Replaces Standard Command Squad)
- Scale Carver (High Chaplain): Khyrik "The Bone Shedder"
- Speaker of the Old Scales (Chief Librarian): Tzarek "The Whispering Fang"
- Iron Scale (Master of the Forge): Haxtes "The Iron Scale"
- Ghost Scale (Chief Apothecary): Malek "The Venom-Tongued"
Companies[]
1st Company "Celestial Coil"
- Role: Veteran Void Hunters (All Phobos/Vanguard)
- Star Fang: Vosskarr "Shadow Strike"
- Specialty: Decapitation strikes
- Wargear: Shorten Lighting Claws in the shape of daggers
2nd-5th Companies "The Constellations"
- Standard Battle Companies
- Each led by a "Fanglord"
- Organized into 6 "Fang Packs" (Squads) per Company
- Wargear: Standard codex complaint equipment
6th-9th Companies "The Shedding Ones"
- Reserve/Scout Companies
- Initiates undergo "Skin Trials" (See Training)
10th Company "The Ghost Scales"
- Pure Scout & Sabotage Force
- All recruits must survive solo jungle hunts before implantation
Combat Doctrine[]
- Ambush Predators: Specialize in stealth assaults, using the jungle’s lessons to strike from darkness. Deploy Phobos-armored squads as scouts and vanguard units.
- Toxins & Venoms: Their Techmarines modify weapons with paralytic venoms harvested from Ouroboros’ wildlife. Even their bolter rounds are tipped with neurotoxins.
- Psychic Serpents: Their Librarians, called "Speakers of the Old Scales," channel warp energy through serpentine familiars—psychic constructs that manifest as spectral snakes.
Chapter Beliefs[]
The Star Serpents consciously reject many Codex Astartes conventions, believing rigid structures contradict the fluid, adaptive nature of their serpentine patrons. Most strikingly, they refuse to use Dreadnoughts, instead practicing the "The Great Devouring" ritual where mortally wounded brothers are fed to sacred Skyscale serpents. They believe the warriors' spirits merge with these mighty predators, continuing to hunt alongside the Chapter in a new form. Their tactical organization emphasizes flexibility - squads reconfigure before each engagement through ritual combat trials called "Fang Duels," with leadership determined by venom-spitting contests and close-quarters challenges. Their armor markings tell stories in coiled serpent bands, each loop representing a campaign. Perhaps most controversially, they adhere to the Serpent's Oath - an unbreakable vow to never retreat unless every surviving member of the force agrees. This tradition, drawn from their tribal hunting roots, has led to both legendary last stands against impossible odds and tragic, unnecessary massacres when wiser withdrawal might have preserved the Chapter's strength. To outside observers, these practices may appear savage or heretical, but to the Star Serpents, they represent sacred truths - the only way to properly wage war as the Emperor's chosen predators.
The Star Serpents reject the use of Dreadnoughts, viewing them as unnatural prisons that deny warriors their rightful place in the eternal cycle of death and rebirth. They believe fallen battle-brothers should merge with the spirits of their sacred Skyscale serpents rather than be entombed in mechanical sarcophagi. This conviction stems from their tribal mysticism, which holds that true warriors must fully "shed their mortal skin" to ascend. Instead of Dreadnoughts, they employ ritualistically augmented warriors, bio-mechanical war-serpents, and stealth tanks that embody their predatory philosophy - weapons that strike lethally before vanishing like jungle vipers. The Chapter sees their replacements as spiritually purer alternatives, honoring their creed: "Flesh to fang, dust to scale, the serpent's coil remembers all."
To make up for the lack of dreadnaughts the chapter uses the Ouroboros-Pattern Predator. This predator tank is a masterwork of stealth and lethality, designed by the Star Serpents to fill the void left by their rejection of Dreadnoughts. Cloaked in a chameleoline hull that shifts like the scales of Ouroboros Prime's deadliest serpents, this predator is nearly invisible until the moment it strikes. Its main weapon—a massive Venom Cannon—fires a single, devastating shot capable of melting through even the thickest armor, before the barrel dissolves like a serpent shedding its skin, leaving no trace for the enemy to target. The tank's treads secrete a corrosive residue, scorching the earth behind it with toxic trails that punish pursuers. Crewed by a pair of cyber-augmented Serpent-Techs whose lungs are hardened against the poisonous fumes that fill the compartment, the Ouroboros-Pattern follows the "Three-Strike Rule": it engages only briefly, unleashing its lethal payload before vanishing back into the jungle or triggering a self-destruct sequence that floods the battlefield with neurotoxic mist.
Chapter Recruitment[]
The Star Serpents forge their warriors through a brutal three-stage initiation that blends the Chapter's Astartes traditions with the primal rites of Ouroboros Prime's jungle tribes. Each phase is designed to strip away weakness and reshape mortal boys into venomous predators worthy of the serpent's fang.
Phase 1: Tribal Selection begins in the steamy jungles of Ouroboros Prime, where tribal youths between 12-16 summers who have survived their first Great Hunt are marked for potential recruitment. These candidates must present a "scale-gift" - typically a Skyscale fang, venom gland, or other trophy proving their hunting prowess. Some are chosen after surviving direct attacks from the planet's massive serpents, their scars seen as divine favor. The selected aspirants are then struck with a black-feathered dart dipped in hallucinogenic venom; those who endure the resulting visions of being devoured by cosmic serpents awaken in the Chapter's sacred caves, branded with the Serpent's Eye tattoo on their foreheads.
Phase 2: Trial of the Coiling Path is where most aspirants meet their end. Cast naked into the Twilight Maw - the planet's most lethal jungle region - armed only with a ritual bone dagger, candidates must survive for 40 days against Skyscale ambushes, predatory flora, and the jungle's countless other dangers. They face three sacred challenges: slaying a Skyscale serpent alone, retrieving a fang from one of the jungle's guarded stone shrines, and enduring the "Dreaming Venom" that forces them to relive their deepest fears. The jungle claims most; those who flee are left to die in the wilds, while those who succeed emerge forever changed, their eyes already taking on a serpent's predatory gleam.
Phase 3: The First Shedding completes the transformation. Survivors are brought to the Temple of the Ouroboros where they drink a chalice of blended serpent venom and gene-seed precursor fluids. Those who are compatible undergo a horrific metamorphosis - their skin sloughing away as they spend seven days sealed in sacred cocoons, emerging with slitted pupils, enhanced reflexes, and an insatiable hunger for combat. Their final test comes in the Dance of the Fanged Strike, a ritual duel where they must land a single blow on a Battle-Brother using only a bone knife. Success earns them the right to drive a serpent fang through their own palm without flinching, after which they receive their first piece of armor - a pauldron crafted from Skyscale hide.
The initiation culminates with the Oath of the Ouroboros, sworn before the Chapter Master as the aspirants drink from the Chalice of the First Hunt. This deadly cocktail kills four out of five candidates, their bodies dissolving into the venom as an offering to the Chapter's ancestors. Those who survive emerge as Neophytes, their old identities shed like dead skin, their new names drawn from the combat visions that haunted their gene-seed dreams. From this moment forward, they belong to the eternal hunt, their light-sensitive eyes forever hidden behind tinted visors, their veins flowing with the serpent's venomous gifts.
No records are kept of those who fail - the jungle claims all evidence of weakness, leaving only the perfected killers who will become the Emperor's fangs in the dark.
Chapter Gene-Seed[]
The Star Serpents' genetic legacy represents one of the Cursed Founding's most successful - and disturbing - experiments in forced evolution. While maintaining the Salamanders' legendary resilience, their gene-seed has undergone radical alchemical reconstruction to adapt to Ouroboros Prime's lethal ecosystem. The most visible mutations manifest as serpentine slit-pupils granting superior night vision at the cost of photophobic sensitivity, requiring light-dampening visors even in normal illumination. Their Betcher's Gland has been completely reconfigured, producing not simple digestive acid but a complex neurotoxic venom that paralyzes prey within seconds - though this gift comes with the visible curse of blackened, forked tongues that mark them as aberrant.
Most crucially, their bodies undergo the Ecdysis Cycle - a mandatory 72-hour metabolic coma every five Terran years where battle-brothers shed their outer dermal layers like their namesake serpents. During these vulnerable periods, warriors lie in toxin-shrouded jungle shrines guarded by tamed Skyscale sentinels, their bodies undergoing radical cellular regeneration that leaves them physically renewed but temporarily reduces the Chapter's combat effectiveness.
The Chapter has learned to weaponize these flaws with ruthless efficiency. Their photosensitivity is concealed behind mirrored visors that flash ominously in low light, while their venom ducts are ritualistically enhanced through sacred bio-augmentations. The Shedding Cycles, though a tactical liability, are carefully staggered across companies and often used as bait - "defenseless" shrines become death traps lined with neurotoxic mist and Skyscale nests. Even their most visible mutations serve as psychological weapons, with battle-brothers amplifying their natural hissing through vox-modulated breathing apparatus.
Notable Members[]
Fang Lord Vythras (Chapter Master)[]
- "The serpent does not roar. It whispers death."
- —Vythras
Fang Lord Vythras "The Coiling Shadow" stands as the living embodiment of the Star Serpents' most deadly creed - silence, patience, and perfect lethality. His legend began when he emerged from the grueling "Trial of the Eclipse", a 40-day solo hunt through Ouroboros Prime's deadliest jungles, returning with seven Skyscale fangs still embedded in his flesh and the corpses of three rival aspirants draped across his shoulders. Now clad in the sacred Mantle of the First Hunt, a chameleonic cloak woven from the hide of the Chapter's first slain Skyscale, Vythras moves like a phantom even in full battleplate - his form blurring seamlessly between shadows as the living scales of his cloak shift to match any environment. His right fist bears the dreaded Ouroboros Gauntlet, a power fist whose venom-injector spikes flood victims' minds with hallucinations of being devoured alive by spectral serpents even as its crushing grip tightens with predatory instinct. The gauntlet's latest victim was Archon Khyrix the Flayer during the Raid of Blackened Stars (699.M41), when Vythras infiltrated a Drukhari flagship alone and strangled the sadistic xenos with his own chain-flail before feeding the corpse to a captive Skyscale - a grisly message that echoed through Commorragh's dark spires. Vythras commands not with booming proclamations but with subtle serpentine hand gestures understood only by his brothers, and his kills are marked by utter silence - the last thing his victims perceive being the faint hiss of venom venting from his armor's reservoirs. Currently, he leads the "Silent Coil Offensive" against an Alpha Legion warband that dared steal the sacred Fang of Xarxus, his every strategy embodying the philosophy he imprinted upon his Chapter: "Let them hear nothing. Let them see nothing. Let them die knowing only the serpent's shadow."
Wargear: Mantle of the First Hunt (Chameleonic scale-cloak), Ouroboros Gauntlet (Vision-inducing power fist)
Speaker of the Old Scales Tzarek (Chief Librarian)[]
- "The venom remembers what the fang forgets."
- —Tzarek
Chief Librarian Tzarek "The Whispering Fang" serves as the living memory and psychic scourge of the Star Serpents, a terrifying fusion of tribal shaman and Astartes Epistolary. His pale, permanently-venom scarred face remains hidden behind a ceremonial hood crafted from the mummified skin of Ouroboros Prime's first recorded Skyscale, its empty eye sockets now filled with writhing warp energy. In his gnarled hands rests the Staff of Xarxus, an ancient force weapon containing the screaming spirit of his predecessor - the staff's serpentine carvings occasionally twisting of their own accord as the trapped Librarian's consciousness battles against eternal imprisonment. Tzarek's most feared weapon manifests from his own mutated physiology - the Breath of the Void Dragon, a warpfire exhalation that burns with emerald flames capable of dissolving both matter and memory, leaving victims as hollowed-out husks filled only with hissing echoes of their final thoughts. His legendary victory against the Alpha Legion warband "The Ophidian Mask" saw him psychologically eviscerate their Sorcerer by flooding the traitor's mind with devouring warp serpents that consumed every memory before turning on the psyker's own soul - a fate now replicated in the Chapter's secret rituals against captured psykers. When not leading the Speakers of the Old Scales into battle, Tzarek maintains the Chamber of Coiling Visions, a psychic repository where every Star Serpent's dying experiences are preserved in venom-filled crystal orbs that constantly hiss with half-remembered battles. His ominous whisper, "The venom remembers what the fang forgets," serves as both promise and warning - for in Tzarek's keeping, no deed is ever truly lost, only waiting to strike again.
Wargear: Staff of Xarxus (Force Staff) - This Force staff that holds the spirit of former chief librarian Xarxus. Breath of the Void Dragon (Warpfire Mutation)
Star Fang Vosskarr (First Captain)[]
- "A hunter's patience is measured in heartbeats... and corpses."
- — Vosskarr"
First among captains, Star Fang Vosskarr is the silent executioner of the Star Serpents, a predator whose patience is as deadly as his blades. As master of the 1st Company "Celestial Coil", he leads the Chapter's elite Void Hunters - specialists in boarding actions and stealth kills who strike from the darkness like serpents from the jungle canopy. His Serpent-Scale Terminator Armor is a masterpiece of artifice, its segmented plates mimicking Skyscale hide to dampen sound and its helm fashioned into the snarling visage of Ouroboros Prime's most lethal predator. But it is his twin Eclipse Fang lightning claws that have become legendary - each monomolecular edge dripping with a neurotoxin so potent it can paralyze even an Ork Nob in three heartbeats. Vosskarr's most infamous feat occurred during the Purge of Gorka's Stand, where he infiltrated an Ork warboss' camp and systematically slaughtered the entire retinue of Nobs without raising an alarm - leaving their toxin-rigid corpses propped in their seats around the campfire until the warboss awoke to find himself alone amidst the dead. His warfare is one of perfect timing and absolute silence; he trains his hunters to measure engagement not in minutes, but in the interval between heartbeats, and to count success not in victories, but in corpses left unmarked by battle. Under his command, the Celestial Coil has become a precision instrument of death - their boarding torpedoes striking like fangs in the night, their kill-teams vanishing before alarms can sound. As Vosskarr himself declares: "A hunter's patience is measured in heartbeats... and corpses."* - a philosophy that has left a trail of perfectly-timed assassinations across a dozen sectors.
Wargear: The Eclipse Fang - Twin neurotoxic lightning claws, Serpent-Scale Terminator Armor
Scale Carver Khyrik (High Chaplain)[]
- "Shed your weakness or be shed from this world."
- — Khyrik"
Khyrik "The Bone Shedder" - High Chaplain and Guardian of Chapter Dogma, stands as the spiritual executioner of the Star Serpents, a terrifying fusion of Chaplain and tribal death-priest whose very presence makes even veteran battle-brothers avert their eyes. His Ritual Scar-Armor is a walking testament to suffering - every plate inscribed with the bone-carved names of fallen brothers and etched with the venomous ink of Ouroboros Prime's most poisonous serpents. The armor weeps a constant trickle of neurotoxins that would kill a mortal man, keeping Khyrik in permanent agony that fuels his battle-ecstasy. His Coiling Death Crozius takes the form of a writhing metal serpent whose head delivers crushing blows infused with psycho-toxins, forcing victims to relive their worst memories with each impact. But his most feared weapon is the Fang of Xarxus, a force dagger that drinks the memories of those it slays - their dying experiences forever preserved in the Chaplain's ritual recitations. Khyrik earned his epithet during the Rite of the Hollowed, when he allowed himself to be swallowed whole by the ancient Skyscale Xar'kothrax as part of a spiritual trial. For three days he endured digestion in the beast's venom-choked gullet before cutting his way free with the Fang. Now he oversees both the Chapter's initiation rites and its most brutal punishments, his sermons delivered in a ruined voicebox that produces supplements his voice with serpentine hisses. Those who fail the Star Serpents' trials meet Khyrik's blades - first the Crozius to purge weakness, then the Fang to consume their memories, ensuring even in death they serve the Chapter's eternal hunt.
Wargear: Fang of Xarxus (Memory-drinking force dagger), Ritual Scar-Armor (Bone-inscribed battleplate), Coiling Death Crozius (Power maul)
Ghost Scale Malek (Chief Apothecary)[]
- "The Emperor's gifts flow through poisoned veins."
- — Malek
Malek "Venom-Tongue" Master of the Apothecarion and gene-seed curator is the Star Serpents' paradoxical savior and executioner, a master of venomous medicine who walks the razor's edge between healing and euthanasia. His Scale-Weave Robes shimmer with overlapping plates of toxin-resistant serpent scales, their surface permanently slick with a cocktail of medicinal poisons that would drop a mortal in seconds. The Ophidian Narthecium mounted to his arm is a terrifying work of biomechanical art - its injector needles pulse with living venom sacs, while its bone saws drip with coagulant toxins that simultaneously cut and cauterize. At his hip rests the Last Fang, a ritual needle filled with venom so pure it grants instant, painless death - a mercy he has delivered to hundreds of failed aspirants and mortally wounded brothers. Malek earned his name during the Battle of Hive Mortis when he revived 17 clinically dead battle-brothers by flooding their veins with an experimental stimulant venom, though the survivors now bear permanent mutations - slitted eyes, forked tongues, and venom ducts where tear ducts should be. His infamous motto - "The Emperor's gifts flow through poisoned veins" - reflects his belief that their gene-seed mutations are divine blessings, not flaws. He stores harvested progenoids in living venom glands that float in neurotoxic preservatives, and has been known to revive brothers from near-death by inducing controlled seizures with serpent toxins. Yet for all his healing arts, it is Malek who stands ready at every initiation ritual with the Last Fang, his face an impassive mask as he administers the Emperor's Peace to those who fail the trials - his victims dying with smiles as the Skyscale venom stops their hearts mid-beat.
Wargear: Ophidian Narthecium (Venom-infused revival tools) Scale-Weave Robes (Toxin-resistant armor) Last Fang (Euthanasia needle with Skyscale venom)
Iron Scale Haxtes (Master of the Forge)[]
- "The Omnissiah’s will flows through fang and steel alike."
- — Master of the Forge Haxtes, "The Iron Scale"
Master of the Forge Haxtes "The Iron Scale" Forgefather of the Star Serpents and the Keeper of the Chapter's Sacred Wargear, stands as the living bridge between the Omnissiah's cold logic and Ouroboros Prime's primal venom-cults. His massive frame, more machine than flesh after centuries of service, moves with surprising grace as his Venomforged Servo-Harness hisses and twitches like a living serpent - its mechadendrites tipped with toxin injectors that can repair armor or paralyze foes with equal precision. In one servo-claw he wields the Fang of Hephaestus, an omnissian axe whose blade weeps acid that dissolves impurities from sacred relics, while his other arm terminates in the Ouroboros Pattern Plasma Cutter, a modified plasma gun that fires superheated venom capable of melting through adamantium. Haxtes achieved his greatest feat after the Battle of Blackened Stars, where he reforged the Serpent's Maw's shattered prow using forbidden archeotech - fusing salvaged Necron living metal with the fangs of a defeated C'tan Shard to create a prow effigy that now snarls when the ship enters battle. His forge-temples on Ouroboros Prime are nightmarish hybrids of mechanized foundries and sacrificial venom pits, where Tech-Adepts chant to the "Machine Serpent" as they quench red-hot steel in neurotoxic baths. To Haxtes, there is no contradiction between the Cult Mechanicus and the Chapter's serpent worship - as he often growls through vox-grilles caked with venom residue: "The Omnissiah's will flows through fang and steel alike."* Under his guidance, the Chapter's wargear has taken on disturbingly biological qualities - bolters that "hiss" when reloaded, power armor that secretes regenerative venom to seal cracks, and servo-skulls that strike like spitting cobras. Even the most radical Magi of Mars whisper that Haxtes has gone too far in his fusion of machine and serpent - though none dare say so within earshot of his acid-dripping axe.
Wargear: Venomforged Servo-Harness – Mechadendrites with integrated toxin injectors, Fang of Hephaestus – Omnissian axe that secretes acid from its blade, Ouroboros Pattern Plasma Cutter – Modified plasma gun that "bites" with superheated venom
Legendary Ancestor Xarxus (Deceased)[]
- "Even in death, I coil around our enemies."
- — Xarxus
Xarxus "The Hollow Fang" is the eternal specter haunting the Star Serpents' history, a Librarian whose will transcended death through an act of calculated heresy. As Chief Librarian during the brutal Wars of the Broken Fang, he perfected the art of manifesting warp-serpent familiars - psychic constructs that slithered through enemies' minds. His final act bound his soul to the Chapter's collective consciousness, fusing with the tribal myth of the Great Ouroboros. Now his presence lingers as a whisper in the vox-static between battles, a ripple in the venom pools of the Apothecarion, and the faint hiss behind every Librarian's war-chants. His famous last words - "Even in death, I coil around our enemies" - prove true in terrifyingly subtle ways. During the Skirmish at Vhal's Reach, Librarians channeled Xarxus' spirit to conjure a spectral serpent that infiltrated an Alpha Legion outpost; its venomous fangs delivered hallucinations that turned battle-brothers against each other in paranoia-fueled violence. The Hollow Fang's influence grows strongest during the Shedding Cycles, when comatose warriors dream of a judging serpent with Xarxus' piercing eyes. Though venerated as a saint by the chapter, some Inquisitors believe Xarxus has become something far more dangerous.
Chapter Fleet[]
"Our ships are serpents in the void—seen only when they strike."
— Star Fang Vosskarr, Master of the Serpent’s Maw
Capital Ships[]
Ouroboros (Battle Barge)- The Chapter’s ancient flagship, its hull scarred by acid and warpfire. Forged during the 21st Founding, it famously destroyed the Blackened Maw (a Chaos battle barge) in the Battle of Vithis by ramming its venom-coated prow through the enemy’s bridge. Tactics revolve around "constrictor boarding actions"—its corridors flood with neurotoxic mist before assault teams strike.
Serpent’s Maw (Strike Cruiser)- A stealth predator clad in cameleoline scales. It ambushed and annihilated the Ork hulk Gorkon’s Fist by firing "hiss-torpedoes" (swarming munitions that mimic Skyscale attack patterns). Deploys Void Stalkers via toxin-shrouded drop pods.
Eclipse Fang (Strike Cruiser) - Known for the "Silent Eclipse" at Velmire, where it killed an entire Dark Eldar raiding party by venting venom-plasma into their ship’s life support. Uses "coiling thrusters" to maneuver soundlessly behind foes.
Venom’s Kiss (Strike Cruiser) - The youngest capital ship, infamous for its "Last Shedding" protocol. During the Siege of Drexos, it self-destructed mid-battle to drench three Word Bearers vessels in soulfire venom, allowing the Chapter to escape.
Escorts[]
Shadowscale (Nyx-class Stealth Destroyer) - A lone assassin that slew the Alpha Legion cruiser Hydra’s Tooth by planting melta charges disguised as wreckage. Its "ghost fang" torpedoes leave no debris.
Black Adder (Nyx-class Stealth Destroyer) - Electronic warfare specialist. At the Battle of Nyxion, it mimicked Tyranid hive signals to lure a splinter fleet into an Imperial Navy kill zone.
Jaws of Nyx (Nyx-class Stealth Destroyer) - Deploys "constrictor mines"—acid-webs that ensnare ships. Crippled the Necron Shroud of Nyx by tangling its inertialess drive.
Strike Viper (Modified Nova Frigate) - A hit-and-run raider. Its "venom treads" (toxic engine wash) disabled the engines of the Genestealer cult vessel Twisted Brood.
Fang of Vithis (Modified Nova Frigate) - Master of deception. During the Cleansing of Vithis, it disguised itself as a derelict to ambush a heretic convoy.
Hollow Fang (Modified Nova Frigate) - False-flag expert. Infiltrated the Red Corsairs’ fleet by posing as a damaged ally, then unleashed neurotoxin boarding pods.
Maw of the Void (Nyx-class Stealth Destroyer) - Titan-killer. Its "star venom" lances dissolved the void shields of the Chaos Titan Dominus Venator.
The Molted (Nyx-class Stealth Destroyer) - Saboteur. Left "deathskin" decoys packed with acid charges during the retreat from Velmire, destroying two pursuing cruisers.
Support Vessels[]
Scale Forge (Modified Adeptus Mechanicus Ark) - A floating venom-forge. Produces the Chapter’s toxin weapons and refuses to dock with non-Chapter ships after the "Betrayal at Kaelix" (where its previous Ark was poisoned by Alpha Legion saboteurs).
Dreaming Python (Psi-Serpent Black Ship) - Transports Librarians. Its warp wake resembles a spectral serpent, confusing enemy navigators.
Oracle’s Coil (Psi-Serpent Black Ship) - Carries the Chapter’s astropathic choir. Its "fate venom" engines distort precognition around it.
The Shedding (Modified Carrack Tender) - A stealth supply ship. Preserves organs and gene-seed in venom-vats, and once smuggled a Venomborn squad into a besieged hive by disguising itself as a corpse-hauler.
Chapter Relics[]
- Ouroboros Gauntlet – A power fist that injects hallucinogenic venom, making victims believe they’re being devoured by cosmic serpents.
- Mantle of the First Hunt – A chameleonic cloak woven from the first Skyscale’s scales, rendering the wearer nearly invisible in shadows.
- Fang of Xarxus – A force dagger that summons spectral warp-serpents to strangle stabbed foes.
- The Eclipse Fang – Twin lightning claws laced with paralytic neurotoxins, silent as a striking viper.
- Coiling Death Crozius – A serpent-headed power maul that floods victims’ minds with terror-toxins.
- Staff of Xarxus – A force staff that spews corrosive warp-venom and whispers prophecies. The deceased Chief Librarian Xarxus's spirit is bound to the staff.
- Venomforged Servo-Harness – Mechadendrites with toxin injectors and acid-spitting mandibles for "healing" battle damage.
- The Last Fang – An Apothecary’s needle filled with Skyscale venom, delivering merciful death to the doomed.
- Chalice of the First Hunt – A ritual grail holding lethal venom; only the worthy survive drinking it.
Chapter Appearance[]
Chapter Colors[]
The armor is predominantly light powder blue, adorned with silver trim and elaborate serpent iconography on the shoulder pads, knees and gauntlets. The serpents are stylized, textured, and detailed with a coiling, almost heraldic design. The faceplate of their helmets are white with glowing red eye lenses.
The secondary color is black, which includes; backpack, both poleyns (knee guards), greaves, and sabatons. The Imperial Aquila (a two-headed eagle and symbol of the Imperium) or Imperialis (a winged skull) affixed to the plastron (chest guard) is also black in color as well as both shoulder pauldron insets. The left shoulder pauldron proudly displays the Chapter's badge - a infinity looped coiled golden serpent (representing the never-ending cycle of life and death), while the right pauldron bears the marines' role, company, and special designations.
Chapter Badge[]
The Star Serpents Chapter icon is a stylized Ouroboros serpent (snake eating its own tail) forming a figure 8 infinity circle.
Notable Quotes[]
By: Star Serpents[]
- "Strike silent, Strike first, Strike once."
- — Star Serpents litany
- "Blade, Bolter, Blood and Bone, We Fight."
- — Star Serpents litany
About: Star Serpents[]