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- "We are the sword of Jaghatai. Had you not created great sins, the Emperor would not have sent a punishment like us upon you."
- — Attributed to Oyuun Shah-Khan
The Storm Sons, known as the Khüü Arga (lit. "Sons of the Storm"), are a rare Successor Chapter of the venerable and noble White Scars, created during the 24th Founding in the late 39th Millennium - a dark age marred by insurrection, warp-spawned calamities, and the resurgent heresies of apostates who sought to sever their worlds from Imperial control. Forged during the fevered aftermath of the Plague of Unbelief, the Storm Sons were conceived as swift executioners - riders of lightning and wrath - tasked with purging the Imperium's outer fringes of sedition and corruption. Their origins lie entwined with a forbidden crusade, wherein a conclave of Stormseers, guided by ancient prophecy and cryptic Adeptus Mechanicus algorithms, declared the need for a new nomadic Chapter: one that would act as a sword of justice far from the High Lords' sight, unbound by the ossified structures of the Codex Astartes. These warriors are not mere soldiers - they are holy predators - cloaked in storm clouds and ancestral wrath.
Operating from the myth-shrouded world of Nakaris, a forbidden and storm-wracked planet hidden within the warp-riven veil of the Qhwarazheen System within the Ikh Khorig Asteroid Belt. Their fortress-monastery, known as the Sünsitai ("The Soulforge"), is carved into the obsidian cliffs of the highest mountains of the Sitai range, perpetually wreathed in lightning and storm-winds believed to be the breath of the sky-spirits worshipped by their warrior-mystics. From here, they launch swift, surgical strikes across Imperial space, often accompanying Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator Fleets, serving as silent vanguard and executioner in regions where Imperial control frays. Others operate as hunt-brothers in scattered kill-teams, assassinating planetary governors, witches, and cult-masters whose treacheries demand annihilation—not investigation. Each campaign is steeped in layered ritual, and every target marked for death is first named by the Stormseers, who divine fate through lightning scars, star-blood, and the echoes of ancestral war-cries.
Clad in weathered, ritual-etched relic bronze power armor, adorned with lightning charms, fanged trophies, and blackened storm-leathers, the Storm Sons strike terror before the blade is even drawn. Their warriors wield curved tulwars, chain-axes, and storm glaives - instruments of both ancestral honour and terror tactics. Where the Storm Sons tread, silence follows - the silence of obliteration, of judgment delivered with the wrath of the heavens. To face them is not to engage in a war - it is to be named in a storm-prophecy, and to meet the Emperor's justice face-first beneath the storm of the Khagan's heirs.
History
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+++CLEARANCE: Carmine
+++DATE: 8332921.M41
+++RED NN. 160784-1
+++BY: Scribe Arnault Thebes, First Class, Adeptus Anthropologii
+++SUBJECT: Adeptus Astartes - STORM SONS
ACCESS GRANTED, BROTHER
+++CONTENTS+++
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Honoured Lords of the hallowed Inquisition,
I have attached all current information on the Adeptus Astartes Chapter designation STORM SONS. There is more to be appended (cross reference ++BAA/433.22.Ca.++) but our cogitators have yet to translate sections of base Khorchin. The following summary is merely intended as an overview pending a further investigation.
You will note a number of deviations from Codex Astartes approved doctrine that make for disturbing reading.
Praise be to the Immortal God-Emperor!
I am ever your faithful servant,
Arnault Thebes,
Scribe, First Class, Adeptus Anthropologii
<ref number>, Logoff, Back, <RETURN>, or Help:
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Battle-Brother Gantulga of the Sagyar Mazan Assault Formation, Storm Sons Chapter
Born in the turmoil of apostasy, for over two thousand years the mystic warriors of the Storm Sons have exacted swift and relentless vengeance against the enemies of the Emperor over the entire breadth of the known galaxy.
From its fortress-monastery on the Forbidden World of Nakaris, the Chapter sends forth its kill-teams throughout the Imperium and beyond, serving as outriders for the Explorator fleets of the Adeptus Mechanicus on the edges of Imperial space, or crushing insurrection on worlds whose loyalty to the Golden Throne is found wanting.
The Storm Sons are a small but highly adaptable fighting force, clad in studded and spiked armour that evokes the noble savagery of antiquity, armed with tulwars and chain-axes to frighten the enemy before the fight has even begun. Led by battle hardened Khans and the mysterious Stormseers, the kill-teams of the Storm Sons conduct coordinated, precise attacks on strategic targets designed to annihilate and overwhelm their foes, supported by veteran hunter scouts who cut off lines of retreat, before unleashing the terrifying Sagyar Mazan shock troops to extinguish any form of coordinated resistance.
The Utrar Khanates
The Utrar Khanates are a cluster of half a dozen systems in the Ultima Segmentum settled during the Great Crusade, united by a shared common heritage and root language, base Khorchin. Its estimated 42 billion strong population are directly descended from Chogorian and Terran colonists installed by the V Legion, White Scars, during the Great Crusade to enforce Imperial compliance after the 40th Expeditionary Fleet's xenos eradication pogroms.
The Divine Purging (Unknown Date.M39)
Despite a prosperous beginning rooted in the dawn of human unity, the demands of the Great Crusade and the events of the Heresy eroded at the Terran authority installed by the V Legion. Imperial Governors through generations of nepotism and mismanagement were recast into self-styled emperors and dynasties, resulting in eight millennia of poor administration, petty squabbling and the inexorable technological and cultural decline that followed.
As the Khanates slowly fragmented into thousands of petty kingdoms, empires and vassal states competing for dominance, the lack of Imperial guidance eventually took a much darker turn: one by one, the outer systems slipped from the Imperial fold entirely when the Empress of the Qhwarazheen Dynasty, the largest Khanate empire of its time, fell sway to the Eternal Foe towards the end of M38 and overthrew the last of the pro-Imperial confederacies.
The Imperial response was absolute: a purge action led by the Ordo Hereticus with three regiments of out-system Astra Militarum, supported by an Ecclesiarchy militia. In the third year of hostilities as the conflict spread throughout the sector, an instrumental ally came from an unexpected quarter: an Adeptus Astartes strike force comprising of the White Scars and their successor chapter Storm Lords, a total of 48 Space Marines.
Within days, the combined White Scars force led the assault on the Qhwarazheen palace compound. Once the Empress had been deposed, no less than two planets within the sector were sanctioned extremis to contain the influence of the Chaos. The Qhwarazheen Dynasty and their vassal states were eventually annihilated, a moon utterly destroyed, and more than a third of the entire sector's sixty billion strong population perished in the conflict or executed thereafter by Imperial forces during the subsequent purging.
[NB: For a full account of the Qhwarazheen Dynasty's crimes against the Imperium and subsequent military action, reference file ++CF-W12332-5433++]
Noting the Astartes merciless punishment of their distant gene-cousins, the Inquisition's support for the formation of an Astartes presence to guard and enforce Imperial interests in the region was expediently ratified by the High Lords of Terra. Stable gene-seed derived from the Storm Lords was entrusted to Storm Lords commander Torgha Khan and formalised as a Chapter, drawn from the remnants of the combined Astartes strike force.
For two thousand years since its formation in a period named by Imperial scholars as Pax Chogoria, the Storm Sons have guarded the Utrar Khanates against corruption, re-moulding its culture into a model Imperial vassal sub sector, lest the populace faces the wrath of the Khagan once again. Under their jurisdiction, the Khanates have been moulded into a diverse and potent recruitment pool for the Astra Militarum, and to date have raised several decorated regiments such as the XXIInd Utrar Mhukals and the vaunted outriders of the Ordu Zolhotaya.
Doom Befalls Nekaris
The Storm Sons' homeworld was once a fertile ecosphere of continent-spanning grasslands, clear oceans and volcanic mountain ranges; an uncut gem of civilisation near the centre of the Ultima Segmentum. When the Great Rift split the galaxy in two, the denizens of the Warp followed, bringing the Chapter to its knees in an apocalyptic system-wide invasion.
Forty-four years after the birth of the Cicatrix Maledictum, the Enemy of All struck the Storm Sons' Chapter homeworld. The skies of Nakaris rained blood and other foul magicks as the foot soliders of Chaos descended on the hallowed soil of Sunistai and overran its defenders. Las-batteries and auto-cannon arrays streaked in wide arcs across the false dusk, felling tens of thousands of unnamed things in unnatural flight, whilst the remaining Astartes and their idnentured serfs sought ot stem the innumerable tide of horros infesting the corridors of the Chapter fortress.
Across the Utrar Khanates, the Warp invasion played out on a scale of even larger magnitude: the deperate dance of void war turned ancient ships to molten slag as the Nakarene fleets and the surviving Inquisition conclave drew together in a defensive cordon, concentrating on significant threats targeting Nakaris and the capital orlds of the Ultrar Khanates with precision lance strikes.
It was all for nought. The last few hundre guardians of the Chapter and their allies were nothing more than a few scattered fishing boats in the face of a tsunami. With painful reluctance, Tomukher-Khan, Chapter Master of the Storm Sons, ordered a final evacuation of Sunisitai, taking with them valued cultural artefacts and the closely guarded Primaris gene-repositories gifted to them by the returned Primarch Roboute Guilliman, loading the Storm Sons' precarious future onboard the Chapter's last remaining strike cruisers. To withdraw was to live and fight another day, as the ancient Chogorian idiom went.
The Inquisition, sanctioned by Chapter's Command, declared the Chapter's homeworld Exterminatus. With stony faces and heavy hearts, the survivors watched as cyclonic torpedoes containing the Life-Eater virus rendered the planet's once robust ecosystem into organic sludge, denying the enemy on the ground. Shah Tomukher-Khan personally launched the final incendiary obital lance strike. targeting the jagged peaks of the Chapter's once proud mountain fortress-monastery. Decompositional gases generated by the virus ignited, engulfing Nakaris in an unstoppable firestorm until all that remained was a lifeless husk.
Despite denying the enemy its greatest prize, the Utrar Khanates were lost. Billions were left to fend for themselves on the remaining worlds against an unstoppable tide of Chaos. Some fought to the last, deliberatley scupptering the Martian Priesthood's precious machinery, lest they be repurposed by the Eternal Foe. Other planets burned for months on end, its population slaughtered wholesale and left to rot in an orgy of violance. Yet others still were corrupted to serve uncaring gods in a new age of darkness.
Tomukher's Folly
Retreating into deep space, the ravaged remains of the Storm Sons took stock. Tomukher-Khan, having spent years gathering the entire Chapter's might - only to see it decimated in a single blow - abdicated stewartship of the Chapter in shame. The former Chapter Master commandeered a long system runner towards an unknown fate. Tomukher's Folly, as it became known, forced the Storm Sons into choosing a successor who would see its fortunes restored. As the days passed with vital repairs made to the shattered fleet, the surviving warriors and the Council of Seers debated the Chapter's future. New recruits could be forged in time with the rescued gene banks, but the crucial matter of choosing a new Chapter Master and a new base of operations, was left undecided.
The stalemate was broken by the insight of a battle-brother name Yesonir, stating that the Khuu Arga must swiftly adapt to an unprecedented age. To endure, he reasoned, the Chapter must split apart and gather its strength, before harrying the enemy's flanks. Adopting this strategy, the survival of the Chapter was assured, even if one part of the whole was annihilated. The simplicity of Yesonir's proposal impressed even the Chapter's longest serving veterans. Weeks stretched into months as fleet repairs continued in the void. During this protracted period of relative inaction, the Chapter convened kurultais arbitrated by the Council of Seers, making sweeping changes to its organisations, weaving aspects of the Codex Astartes and the Stormseers' divinations towards building a new, stronger foundation.
Embracing Yesonir's bold strategy, the Storm Sons would split into three roaming armadas, composed of three Battle Companies as well as a portion of the remaining Neophytes, the specialist cadres and Chapter serfs. Of the Chapter's forty surviving warriors, nine veterans were nominated to lead new Battle Companies by the Council of Seers. A divine mandate stipulated each battle-fleet would be responsible for its own recruitment and chosen theatre of operations. The decree also stated each armada would choose a Noyan-Khan, an old honourific used by the V Lion, to lead each fleet until the Storm Sons had regained its strength, and a new Shah-Khan was chosen by kurultai.
With the die of fate caste, the Khuu Arga scattered across the stars towards the swollen expanse of the Maelstrom, their hearts filled with vengeance and renewed purpose towards an uncertain future.
Chapter Homeworld: Nakaris and The Soulfourge
The Ikh Khorig
++CLASSIFIED+++ The only known pict image of Nakaris within the Ikh Khorig Asteroid Belt, Utrar Khanates. Departmento Cartographicae, ca. 992.M39
In subsequent decades following The Divine Purging, the Qhwarazheen home system, once the jewel of the the Khanates, was closed to all but the pre-industrial settlers re-populated by the chapter and the Storm Sons themselves. An asteroid belt created from the remnants of a moon destroyed during The Divine Purging formed a cordon known as the Ikh Khorig (the 'Great Taboo'), maintained and enforced by the Storm Sons from the rest of the Utrar Khanates. Based in the former Qhwarazheen dynasty's core, the planet was re-named Nakaris (lit. "Nest of Hell") and re-classified by the Administratum as a Forbidden World, all traces of the former dynasty systematically erased from Imperial history.
Once famed for its lush jungles and garden cities, Nakaris was a shadow of its former self following the destruction wreaked by Imperial forces during The Divine Purging. Subjected to frequent volcanic and seismic instability, Nakaris was a planet of unending plains of ash and bladed grass, supporting a fragile eco-system on which its nomadic warrior tribes eked out an existence.
Sünsitai: The Soulforge
The shamans of the tribes of the Sungha, Uirats and Dhawas amongst hundreds of others speak of the legendary Sūnsitai - the Soulforge - in the heartlands of Nakaris, guarded by the metal warriors of the Eternal Emperor. In the two thousand years since The Divine Purging, an extreme punishment awaits those who violate the sacred law of the Yassa: deemed too damned to be judged by men, the guilty must instead be adjudicated by the Eternal Emperor’s mystic warriors by sailing the Sea of Souls to the Nest of Hell. None who sail are ever seen again.
Such are the legends of humanity that contain a kernel of truth, for the Soulforge lies deep within the mass of the highest mountain ranges on the Death World of Nakaris. Every day cycle, the penal ships convey hundreds of potentially useful servants (and occasionally recruits) for the war forges of the Storm Sons. These unfortunates, along with thieves, the diseased and other outcasts of the pre-industrial nomadic clans who now inhabit Nakaris, are left to fend for themselves at base of the Sūnsitai, and often perish in the extreme weather and topography; or be savaged by the beasts that dwell within the mountain range.
Only death awaits those who fail the Trial of the Mountain, for it is the ultimate test of survival, initiative and will. The hundreds of millions that have perished have have their material possessions scavenged, their bones bleached against the black volcanic landscape. From above, a ring of bone hundreds of kilometres in circumference around Sūnsitai can be seen from low orbit, a macabre landmark that marks the chapter’s only visible presence on Nakaris.
The few who survive, locating one of the numerous entrances to Sünsitai and enter through its thresholds are fortunate indeed, taken into the Soulforge by the Storm Sons to await judgment by the Zadyin Argas. No one who has survived the Trial is wasted. If they are of age, male teenagers begin the aspirant trials for their eventual transformation into Adeptus Astartes, whereas females and adults of both sexes become useful additions to the Storm Sons as indentured chapter serfs. Particularly promising young females, especially those with nascent psychic talents, are tested for suitability for service in the Holy Ordos.
Thousands of miles of chambers, vaults and tombs snake through the mountains of the Sitai range and deep into the planet’s crust, where the magma generated by tectonic activity provide suitable heat for the war forges of the Storm Swords, with ore mined from Nakaris and its surrounding moons. The Soulforge acts as a base of operations for the Storm Swords' fleets, supplying the material for the chapter's deep space voyages, who often do not return to the Khanates for decades.
Chapter Beliefs
- "...what can be said about the sons of the Storm? I know many of my peers would think twice about accepting the aid of what they'd call unsophisticated savages. That is their loss and none of my concern. They could be described as taciturn in temperament, dour perhaps; but they show discipline like I have never seen with an unmatched sense of honour despite their strange customs."
- — General Lisbeth Berman, XXVIIIth Royal Parthans
The Yassa
The decree of the Yassa, the sacred law of the Utrar Khanates is founded on three central tenets: obedience to the Eternal Emperor of Mankind, the binding of kin, and the merciless punishment of wrong-doing. The Storm Sons have successfully enforced the Yassa since their formation, and on occasion have come into conflict in other parts of the Imperium where adherence to the Yassa is found wanting in the eyes of the Storm Sons, adding to their reputation for brutality. Beyond these three tenets however, Imperial observers have recorded little in what can be understood as a 'chapter culture' in their dealings with the Imperium at large. It has been suggested that by absorbing the most effective combat doctrines from the breadth of the Imperium, the culture - or rather lack of a culture to impose beyond the Yassa - is one of the Storm Sons' most abiding qualities as pragmatists.
Sulde: The Spirit Trap
The Nakarene are closely tied to the winds, a driving force that urges its warriors to total victory. The sulde, or spirit trap, is an important concept that has been enshrined in chapter tradition. The sulde itself is a bronze cylinder, twice the width of a large hand interwoven with psychically imbued hair from the largest aduu on Nakaris. The sulde is then attached to a battle brothers helm (forming a top knot) or a prized weapon, where it is believed the wind would carry the Emperor's divine energy through the sulde and into the battle brother.
When a son of the Storm passes through the veil, his essence would be bound to his spirit trap, and lives on through it. In effect, the sulde acts a psychic record of a warrior's experience and achievements, giving it a status akin to extracting a battle-brother's progenoid gland. Since the chapter leaves the physical bodies of its brothers to the elements, the sulde would be kept by the chapter as a relic to inspire future generations.
The colour of the sulde's hair holds great significance to the Storm Sons. Once aspirants are inducted to the chapter at the Feast of Names, they are each presented with their sulde, woven with the naturally black aduu hair. Length of service to the chapter is denoted by the bleaching of a warrior's sulde; Khans (veterans) are recognised by their bleached ivory coloured sulde. The Shah-Khan's own sulde is of pure white aduu hair, symbolising length of service to the chapter and the purity of the Vth Legion.
Chogorian Savagery
Some Storm Sons give into their baser instincts and lose mastery over their own savagery, driven by a desire for vengeance at the loss of their sworn kin. This is a source of great shame to all the sons of Jaghatai, as it is contrary to the teachings of the Khagan who emphasised the need for the mastery of the self in order to best carry out one's duties. Viewed as outcasts from the chapter, there is only one recourse for those who cross the line: entry into the Sagyar Mazan, a specialised jump-pack enabled assault formation; forming an often suicidal vanguard for Imperial offensives, easily recognised by their blood stained suldes.
Observers have noted the highly visible presence of the Sagyar Mazan gives the Storm Sons at best a reputation for barbarism and brutality, at worst a gene-seed instability. Despite this, the chapter reluctantly allows the Sagyar Mazan to exist so the lost can meet a dignified death in service to the Emperor, and on a more pragmatic note, utilise their sheer destructive power.
Chapter Organisation
The Storm Sons actively assimilate the diaspora of aspirants, cultures, weapons, tactics and philosophies of those they encounter in order to become a more adaptable and effective fighting force. They are best known for sending their specialist kill-teams to other Imperial forces and the Explorator fleets of Mars, and even in the ranks of Rogue Traders depending on where their skills are most needed, which is reflected in their unique chapter organisation.
The Ordu: The Seat of Power
The Storm Sons operate an unusual chapter organisation that directly serves the needs of the campaigns it fights throughout the entire breadth of the galaxy, eschewing the Codex convention of Battle Companies altogether.
The chapter is organised into battle formations known as Ordus, made up of anywhere between three to twenty five-man kill-teams based on the needs of a particular campaign, making the largest Ordus the equivalent of a Codex Battle Company. When an Ordu is raised, it is composed of a mix of new and experienced kill-teams of battle-brothers called a bond.
These combat squads are led by a cohort of chapter veterans known as Khans, whose wide experience and guidance allows every Ordu to fulfil all the requirements of any Codex adherent chapter. The Ordu is a unique composition based on the requirements of the undertaking, but its stock is not drawn from existing companies as in other chapters. Rather, the Ordu simultaneously fulfils the role of both Battle Company and Strike Force, and unlike Battle Companies whose losses are replaced, the Ordu naturally diminishes and fragments over time, in keeping with the Storm Sons martial tradition of fluid and adaptive warfare.
If a campaign is successful, intact kill-teams are inducted into another Ordu for a new campaign, allowing battle hardened warriors to pass on their skills to newer bonds with less combat experience. In less desirable circumstances the battle leader, the Uir-Khan, may decide how to allocate its remaining fighting capability, often sending whatever remaining kill-teams or lone operatives are left to bolster other Astra Militarum or Adeptus Mechanicus forces. In the rare instance where two Ordus are below effective fighting strength in the same campaign, a new Ordu may be raised, combining the remnants of the former forces together.
Chapter Command
Rule of the Storm Sons falls to the Chapter Master, known by his title of Shah-Khan and his war council. As the vast majority of its ordus operate across the galaxy and are governed independently by its Uir-Khan, Nakaris primarily concerns itself with training new recruits and raising ordus to continually serve the Imperium, seeking counsel through the collected wisdom of the Chapter in the Soulhearth.
Specialist Ranks
- Shah-Khan - A formal title given to the Chapter Master of the Storm Sons, equivalent to a Great Khan. To date there have been six Shah-Khans who have led the Chapter in its two thousand year history.
- Zadyin Arga - Like all of the White Scars and their successors, the Storm Sons employ the talents of the Stormseers, highly disciplined practitioners of the Gifts of Heaven. The Stormseers are seen as the spiritual guides of the Chapter, offering counsel to the Khans and brothers alike, before lending their devastating warp-born talents on the battlefield, serving the roles of both Chaplain and Librarian. On Nakaris, a cadre of Stormseers are responsible for maintaining the chapter's repository of suldes.
- Khan - A title given to any of the Chapter's veterans, their status marked by the appearance of a bleached blonde sulde. A Khan is responsible for training new aspirants and forming bonds, but may also choose to serve in a newly raised ordu. In this instance, the veteran cohort nominates one of their own to lead the ordu, and the remaining Khans oversee the bonds or serve in a Keshig, equivalent to a Sternguard Codex-formation.
- Uir-Khan - Equivalent to a Battle-Captain, the Uir-Khan is chosen by other veterans when a new ordu is formed and rules it along with his war council.
- Emchi - The Chapter's Apothecaries, responsible for the physical well-being of its warriors and maintenance of gene-seed.
- Sitai-Ezen - The forge lords represent the Chapter's Techmarine cadre, responsible for maintaining the Storm Sons' vehicles and other materiel. The forge lords enjoy a cordial relationship with the Adeptus Mechanicus, giving the Storm Sons a propensity to accompany its Explorator fleets at the edge of Imperial space and beyond; sharing technological findings in exchange for a well received Astartes presence.
Chāyā: Path of the Shadow
- "You'll have no companion other than your shadow."
- — Ancient Utrar idiom
In the natural course of service to the Emperor, bonds diminish as brothers meet death in battle, leaving just a single battle-brother to bring vengeance to the enemies of the Emperor. When this inevitability occurs, the lone warrior undertakes the chāyā - "the path of the shadow" - acting as a one man army. According to the esoteric philosophies of the Khüü Arga, the chāyā is designed to allow battle-brothers to reflect on the importance of kinship in the face of a prolonged solitary existence and forge new ties with the wider Imperium as part of a warrior's spiritual and combat development.
Often this lone operative serves in a scouting role for the ordu, or may find himself in special deployments such as the Deathwatch or other Imperial forces. Chapter tradition states that a chāyā should be no less than forty years Terran standard, a decade for each lost member of the bond, before returning to Nakaris to train aspirants, should they survive their trials and pass on their extensive battle-lore. When a battle-brother embarks upon the chāyā, his sulde is dyed blue to denote his solitary status.
Sagyar Mazan: Bringers of Vengeance
Across a thousand war zones, the Imperium conscripts billions to stem the tide of Chaos vomited from the Maelstrom. Dozens of systems around it are engulfed in warp storms following the catastrophe of the Cadian Gate, and the Imperium fights simply to salvage what is left. In the coreward systems, the Storm Sons of the Adeptus Astartes sends its Brotherhoods to contain the Entropic Chorus, and deny them valuable resources. Taciturn and deliberately opaque, it has been long rumoured by the Storm Sons’ allies that a cursed Brotherhood exists within their ranks; an order that fights with brutality without any concern for restraint or civility.
For their part, the Chapter has never formally confirmed the existence of any such force, but when rumours persist, there is often a kernel of truth concealed within. These outcasts are known to the Storm Sons as the Sagyar Mazan, and they are a much older organisation than most Imperial scholars would ever conjecture. This cursed Brotherhood have existed in the secret histories of the Khagan’s geneline since the Great Heresy, a dark stain on the Vth Legion's long roll of honour.
The criteria for conscription into the Sagyar Mazan varies a great deal; from a grievous infraction of the Chapter’s sacred laws, to self-imposed exile following some personal transgression, and each case is determined by the Stormseers. Those condemned to serve in the Sagyar Mazan are compelled by the tsusan garag, the Blood Rite, and cannot be revoked in life, their armour scoured of any markings and identifiers. Only death in battle will release the exiled from their curse and honour restored, expunging their transgression.
The kill-teams of the Sagyar Mazan are deployed where the fighting is at its thickest; where the odds are so heavily stacked against them that most commanders would never entertain the thought of sending their troops into what can be generously described as a suicide mission. It is in these insurmountable odds do the Sagyar Mazan operate, in order to turn the tide by achieving the impossible, or die trying.
Non-Astartes Personnel
The Iron Sages
Nakarene weapons-craft is a tradition long enshrined in the Chapter’s culture, honed to perfection over two millennia. So ingrained is the Way of War to the Khuu Arga, waging battle and the death that follows is considered one of the Noble Pursuits; a venerated form of worship to the Emperor and the Khagan. Therefore the manufacture, repair and consecration of weapons and armour by the Chapter's artisans is considered as important an undertaking as destroying enemies of the Imperium by the Astartes themselves.
To this end, entire dynasties of indentured armourer-artisans have spent untold generations in the pursuit of their material craft, perfecting the creation and maintenance of the Storm Sons’ extensive armoury; each artefact a living relic of annihilation. From this tradition of servitude, a strict social hierarchy has evolved to a point where these weapon smiths command a religious status within the byzantine structure of the Khuu Arga, revered for their specialised knowledge and immense skill in weapons-craft.
There are dozens of competing Forge Dynasties dispersed throughout the fleets, or placed on Imperial garrison worlds surrounding the outer Maelstrom, each reputed for their superlative skill in a particular weapon or component; perhaps enjoying patronage from one of the Brotherhoods, or even petitioned to supply arms for other Astartes Chapters. Some dynasties are so large they are feudal empires in their own right, with tens of thousands of skilled armourers whose sole task is to inscribe bolt casings with catechisms of destruction against the warp. Another dynasty may be represented by a lone armourer-artisan of exceptional skill, producing a rare tulwar worthy of a Khan just once a generation.
Every Forge Dynasty is led by a holy Timurszu, or Iron Sage, nominated by the Shah-Khan himself to administer the operational requirements of a never-ending war. The Iron Sages, therefore, hold a rank and reputation equivalent to the Chapter’s few remaining Techmarines. As befitting their status, Iron Sages are impressive figures. Their physical appearance varies greatly; from the imposing techno-barbarian dowager to a many-armed deity of old Terran myth, or even the deceptively simple visage of a holy man concealing a boggling array of subtle augmentation. To construct an aura of mystique requires the skillful cultivation of both operational necessity and individual flair. The Iron Sages also act as a conduit between the Khuu Arga and the Martian Priesthood, enforcing the stringent ritual protocols used in the manufacture, repair and consecration of the Storm Son's armoury.
In the rare instances when the Forge Dynasties go to war, the Iron Sages take up the mantle of the Chapter’s Techmarines if they themselves cannot be physically present, employing a small army of augmented human warriors and battle-servitors to do their bidding.
Chapter Assets
Chapter Strength
Due to the ever diminishing strength of the ordu and its vast operational area, it is impossible to conjecture the full strength of the chapter, though current estimates put the Storm Sons' strength at around 800 warriors. Records of a recent founding provided by the chapter shed a little light into the composition of an ordu, designated 'Ripclaw', roughly the size of a demi-company:
Chapter Recruitment
Like most Chapters, the process of recruitment is laborious as the inherent qualities that are required for a recruit to successfully ascend into their ranks are incredibly rare. Whilst the Utrar Khanates possesses a diverse recruitment pool, the real strength of the chapter in keeping with their pragmatic nature is to simply test potential recruits from the entire span of the Imperium. Whilst it isn't known exactly how or why the Storm Sons pick certain candidates, Imperial observers have noted cryo-stasis chambers on board every chapter ship – or mobile variants of – for transportation on other Imperial vessels. Based on these observations, one conclusion is that the Storm Sons operate in a similar way to the Inquisition's very own Black Ships, transporting promising candidates to Nakaris for further assessment.
Ward Names
Derived from the ancient traditions of the White Scars, the Feast of Names is an important ceremony where the aspirants are presented with their suldes and are formally recognised by the Chapter. The Stormseers have judged the hearts and minds of the aspirants and bestow upon them a ward name, so that the denizens of the warp may not learn of a warrior's truename and use it against them.
A ward name is not a deed name like the Wolves of Fenris or self-aggrandising epithets of other Chapters. Traditionally, the ward name chosen by the Stormseers is reflective of an aspirant's character or some other ability they possess, such as Gantulga ('Steel Hearth'), Khiinsitai ('Forgeborn') or Jelserekh ('Windwalker'). Just as an auspicious ward name is thought to bring the Emperor's attention upon its bearer, another curious naming convention exists for new aspirants in the form of an avoidance ward name, designed to further mislead and divert attention of its bearer from the warp. Examples of avoidance names include Nergüi ('No Name'), Enebish ('Not This One') or Terbish ('Not That One').
The ward names of the Storm Sons are only known to themselves, a crude rendering in Low Gothic serves when dealing with others outside the chapter, thus protecting the bearer’s truename through yet another level of abstraction.
Combat Doctrine
The Bond
The bond is the distillation of the Storm Sons’ combat doctrine, a reflection of the chapter’s operational preference to fight across the entire breadth of the galaxy in even smaller numbers than other chapters, so as to increase the combat effectiveness of every warrior the chapter can spare.
The kill teams of the Storm Sons are compact armies in their own right, emphasising stealth and unorthodox tactics in order to eliminate high priority strategic targets and sow discord as swiftly as possible. In other cases, bonds are also utilised to extinguish the last resistance of enemies defeated by Imperial forces. Unsurprisingly, warriors of the Khuu Arga can be found in service to the Deathwatch across all four Segmentums.
Though nominally led by one of their number as an autonomous unit, inexperienced bonds may be led by a Khan, denoted by the bleached bone colour of his topknot, to increase operational effectiveness by drawing on the veteran warrior’s experience.
A Khan can also serve in an Uir-Khan’s Keshig as a bodyguard, not unlike the Wolfguard of the Space Wolves, or find equally themselves in equally demanding service to one of the chapter’s Stormseers if attached to an Ordu.
Notable Storm Sons
- Tomukher Shah-Khan - Former Chapter Master of the Storm Sons Chapter, following the destruction of the Chapter's homeworld of Nakaris and most of the worlds of the Utrar Khanates after the formation of the Great Rift, in shame, the Tomukher abdicated his position as Chapter Master and departed the Storm Sons for parts unknown. The Storm Sons have yet to choose a new Shah-Khan to lead them.
- Oyuun Shah-Khan - Former Chapter Master of the Storm Sons. Preceded by Tomukher-Khan.
- Jelserekh, 'the Windmaker' - Jelserekh 'the Windmaker', Lord of the Tempest is the current Chief Soulseer (Chief Librarian) of the Eastern Horde of the Storm Sons Chapter.
- Odkhilt Khan, 'Starstrike' - Known to his brothers as 'Starstrike', Odkhilt Khan is the commander of the Brotherhood of the Morning Star, the so-called Vermillion Horde of the Storm Sons Chapter.
- Saraluzekh Khan, 'Greysight' - Known to the Imperium as 'Greysight', commander of the Brotherhood of the Serpent, the Azure Horde of the Storm Sons. His company specialises in infiltration and 'asymmetric warfare'. Saraluzekh Kahn is one of the few Firstborn Storm Sons to survive the destruction of Nakaris and undertake the Rubicon Primaris. Greysight is considered to be one of the Chapter's most experienced warriors. Amongst other distinctions, his name is celebrated in the halls of Watch-Station Azurea after serving in the ranks of the Deathwatch as a battle-brother. In the Era Indomitus, his elevation to Khan at the Grand Kurultai has cemented his reputation amongst his peers. A hunter of repute, Greysight takes to the field with his cadre of infiltrators, utilising the Bolt sniper rifle to eliminate high priority-targets.
Yesonir, the Ninesword, Storm Son of Nakaris
- Yesonir, 'the Nineblades' - As a neophyte, Yesonir watched his world die. Most chapters of the Adeptus Astartes recruited new warriors from a single world or system under their protectorate, but few chapters tested potential candidates from anywhere within the Imperium. Race, colour or creed mattered little to the Storm Sons, where you will find warriors of every culture that spans the Emperor's great domain in the Khuu Arga. Yesonir was considered lucky by his elders because he was a native of Nakaris, the former homeworld of the Storm Sons, born of the lineage of the Storm Lords, who are of the lineage of the White Scars of Chogoris. In the traditions of the V Legion before the Great Betrayal, the Warhawk, Jaghatai Khan accepted all into his ordu.
Yesonir was also considered lucky by his elders to be one of the First. Not a true First Son like Timurbôr of the Talskar, who fought in the time of Legend, but one of the first to receive the gifts of Shah-Guilliman and the Emissary Cawl. Although, he did not feel so lucky. In the forty-fifth year of what is called the Indomitus Crusade, the Enemy of All killed Nakaris. Already swollen to catastrophic size, the maw of the Maelstrom invaded the homeworld in its thirst for the miracles that created Yesonir and others like him.
Yesonir was but fifteen years standard when the sky blackened and the mountain-fortress of Sunsitai was put to the sword. Seven hundred versus millions. One could not imagine it. In the end, the Shah-Khan ordered evacuation and complete fleet dispersal. 'Tomukher's Folly', they called it. Against the Storm Sons own traditions, the Shah-Khan called kurultai and formed a Great Ordu, one that the Archenemy nearly wiped out in a single stroke. Yesonir saw things differently. He saved them all and the ordus endured, dispersed and scattered as they have always have in their two thousand year history. Yesonir was a battle-brother, a bondsman of the Storm Sons, sworn to contain and reave the Maelstrom, for the time of the outriders of the storm was now over. It was time to be its jailers.
Chapter Fleet
- Soulforged (Strike Cruiser)
- Fortress of the Winds (Strike Cruiser)
- The Bladed Sea (Hunter-class Destroyer)
- Swordsong (Hunter-class Destroyer)
- Spear of Nakaris (Hunter-class Destroyer)
Chapter Appearance
Armour & Weapons
To the casual observer, a Storm Sons Space Marine appears to be the embodiment of brutality; a wrathful daemon sent to punish wrongdoers who stray from the Emperor's light. Some Imperial commanders have even made aesthetic comparisons to the Traitor Legions, though never within earshot of any of its warriors. There is conjecture that perhaps the Storm Sons have crafted their savage appearance intentionally, as if to confirm the fears and stereotypes for psychological effect; a knight of the Great Crusade, studded, spiked, wielding savage tulwars and chain-axes to frighten the enemy before the fight has even begun.
Chapter Colours
The Storm Sons' power armour is bronze. Due to the chemical composition of the various alloys electro-plated to the ceramite, and the age of the armour as it is passed down through the chapter, there appears to be no uniformity in its colour. As such, the armour may range in hue from near black to a deep brown, or even a golden yellow.
There appears to be little in the way of conventional Codex-approved markings save the chapter's stylised lightning sigil on the left pauldron; Khans are commonly identified by their near-white topknot and blackened armour covered in verdigris.
Chapter Badge
The most congruent and recognisable item on a Storm Son is their chapter badge: a stylised thunderbolt sigil surrounded by a sixteen point corona - a representative map of Sünsitai.
Relations
Allies
| Black Axes |  |
Among the Storm Sons' most formidable and enigmatic allies are the Black Axes, a grim and stoic Second Founding Chapter of White Scars lineage whose martial traditions are steeped in judgment, ancestral vengeance, and the unsparing weight of oaths. Nomadic executioners from the storm-wracked Vulkorr Expanse, the Black Axes do not ride for glory or conquest - but to carry out the final decrees of the Emperor and the Khagan upon oathbreakers, heretics, and xenos warlords. To the Storm Sons, who revere ancestral foresight and divine justice, the Black Axes are not merely brothers-in-arms—they are divine enforcers whose arrival marks the culmination of a storm-seer's prophecy: the blade descending after judgment is passed. Their first formal alliance was forged in blood during the Fyr-Cephalix Extermination Campaign, where both Chapters were deployed to bring ruin upon a rising war-cult that had corrupted an Adeptus Mechanicus forge-clan and turned it against the Imperium. While Storm Sons kill-clades struck like lightning to eliminate psyker-nodes and warp-beacons, the Black Axes descended in coordinated waves, severing lines of retreat and executing enemy leaders in brutal ceremonial duels. Stormseers met under crimson sky, and war-rites were shared - forming a pact sealed with thunder, silence, and the cutting of oath-knots. From that war onward, both Chapters came to regard one another not just as comrades, but as reflections of a shared spiritual calling. To the Storm Sons, the Black Axes are storm-judges - ancient and merciless spirits of execution who ride at the edge of prophecy, answering the call when the enemies of the Emperor have been weighed, named, and condemned. And to the Black Axes, the Storm Sons represent the living will of ancestral vengeance given voice by the storm. Together, their unity is one of finality: the whisper of fate followed by the roar of retribution. Where these Chapters fight in concert, the enemies of mankind face both verdict and blade, with no trial but death and no appeal save silence. |
| Falcon's Claws |  |
Among the closest allies of the Storm Sons are the deadly silent warriors of the Falcon's Claws, a 3rd Founding Chapter with roots that dig deep into the legacy of the White Scars Legion. Descended from the famed Burgediin Sarhvu ("Falcon's Claws") auxiliary order of the Great Crusade, this Chapter has long excelled in the arts of battlefield stalking, long-range elimination, and the quiet decapitation of enemy command structures. It is said they walk through the smoke of war like spirits of vengeance—unseen, unfelt, until their blades strike. This same whispering lethality has earned them both admiration and unease among their kin, but for the Storm Sons, the Falcon's Claws are blood-kin and storm-brothers alike. The two Chapters often work in unison on the peripheries of Imperial law, where the conventional codes of the Codex Astartes fail to reach. In joint strike operations along the Dovarik Expanse, Storm Sons kill-teams were known to mark the targets identified through Falcon's Claws deep reconnaissance sweeps - striking precisely as the falcons loosed their bolts. Their unity is not merely tactical, but spiritual: both Chapters believe in the role of the warrior as executioner of fate, and both revere ancestral wind-spirits and the omens of the sky. In secret rites conducted aboard the Storm Sons' Sünsitai fortress-monastery, emissaries of the Falcon's Claws have been honored with storm-sashes woven with feathers and lightning-bone, gifts exchanged as signs of mutual vision. In the eyes of the Storm Sons, the Falcon's Claws are their silent shadows, and the left hand of the storm - striking without roar or thunder, but with the precision of the hawk's talon. When the Stormseers whisper the names of future targets, it is often to the Falcon's Claws that these omens are entrusted for silent reconnaissance, trusting them to read the battlefield as other men read the wind. Theirs is a brotherhood of smoke, steel, and prophecy. |
| Storm Riders |  |
If the Falcon's Claws are the silence before the strike, then the Storm Riders are the thunderclap that follows—a Chapter of unmatched ferocity and regal bearing, whose dual nature echoes the heart of the Storm Sons' own creed. A rare 4th Founding successor of the White Scars, the Storm Riders are warriors of immense presence: noble in bearing, yet terrible in wrath. They ride not merely with speed, but with righteous fury, descending upon the Emperor's foes like divine executioners cast from stormclouds. Though their record within Imperial archives is shrouded by mystery and loss, their legacy is clear in battle: wherever they go, injustice burns beneath their treads and the weak find shelter in their shadow. The Storm Sons hold deep respect for the Riders' austere nobility and their belief in strength tempered by mercy. Both Chapters revere not only the act of war, but the meaning behind it - judgment not for vengeance, but for justice. It was during the Ikh Khorig Uprising that the Storm Sons and Storm Riders first fought in tandem, a campaign that saw the Riders' assault elements punch through traitor lines in brutal frontal charges, while Storm Sons kill-clades unraveled the rear command structure through surgical lightning strikes. The results were decisive, and since then, the bond between the two Chapters has remained firm. Within Storm Sons culture, the Storm Riders are honoured as brother-khans of the eastern sky, warriors who ride not only with speed, but with principle. When the Stormseers speak of the day when Jaghatai Khan will return upon the roaring wind, they say the Storm Riders will be among the first to meet him in the howling dark, side by side with the Storm Sons. In a galaxy of shadows and betrayal, theirs is a brotherhood rooted in honour, swift fury, and the clarity of justice hurled from the heavens. |
Enemies
Notable Quotes
By the Storm Sons
- "To win a thousand victories in a thousand battles is not the pinnacle of skill. To defeat your enemies without drawing your sword is the pinnacle of skill."
- — Commander 'Greysight', 'The Hidden Blade'
About the Storm Sons
Trivia
This Chapter was created by Nineswords, of the Bolter and Chainsword forum. With his permission, he has allowed me to share his Chapter on this wiki.
| Twenty Fourth Founding Space Marine Chapters | |
|---|---|
| Dark Angels Successors | Knights of the Lion • |
| White Scars Successors | Crux Catharian • Storm Sons • |
| Space Wolves Successors | N/A |
| Imperial Fists Successors | Knights Adamant • Mordekaisers • |
| Blood Angels Successors | • |
| Iron Hands Successors | Star Crusaders • |
| Ultramarines Successors | Battencian Heralds • Knights of Cyon • |
| Salamanders Successors | Space Drakes • Starborn Giants |
| Raven Guard Successors | Death Bearers • Sable Daggers • Shadow Warriors • Void Hawks • |
| Unknown Lineage | Electric Wardens • |
| Renegades | • |
Gallery
