Editing Stone Prophets

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{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Stone Prophets
|Heraldry =[[File:Stone Prophets.png|200px|]]
|Battle Cry = ''"Enlightened in death!"''
|Number = 49
|Founding = Second Founding
|Successors of = [[Eyes of the Emperor]]
|Successor Chapters = 
|Chapter Master = [[Arcturon Harnevos]] (Founding)
|Primarch = [[Shakya Vardhana]]
|Homeworld = Urassa's Watergourd
|Specialty = Generalists
|Strength = 1,000 at establishment
|Allegiance = Imperium of Man
|Colours = Sand with bone/steel accents
}}
The '''Stone Prophets''' were an Institutorum Astartes-compliant [[Space Marine Chapters (Hektor Heresy)|Space Marine Chapter]] and a proud successor of the [[Eyes of the Emperor]] from the Second Founding.

==Chapter History==


===Notable Campaigns===

The Stone Prophets were famously reclusive and isolated amongst the Second Founding Chapters, and precious little is known of their deeds leading up to their final destruction. It is recorded that the Ork Warboss Firedrinka Red-Toof challenged the Chapter, only to be led across half the Ultima Segmentum before being annhilated in the Gnashfang asteroid belt around Narafam VII. As the Warboss' WAAGHH blundered from world to world in blind rage, dozens of minor xenos threats, two Traitor warbands, and a Forge World controlled by the Dark Mechanicus were ground under Firedrinka's iron-shod feet, and the Chapter would goad him further and further on. Finally, Chapter Master Arcturon himself challenged Firedrinka, duelling for over a day inside one of the Gnashfang asteroids. Here the Chapter Master fell, dying even as he sank his blade into Firedrinka's beating heart. The Chapter huddled round the two dying warriors, carefully recording every second of the final agonies. The bloodsplatter told of a great adversary on the horizon, a terrible shattering darkness beyond anything the Stone Prophets had ever known, revealed in these dying breaths. 

Regrettably, the prophecy was not slow in arriving, as thousands of Vetrovnak vessels broke warp around the Gnashfang cluster, preparing to rearm and refuel as they journeyed. In accordance with their nature, the remaining Orks charged their new enemy immediately, and for a brief time the Stone Prophets remained quietly at peace. With great deliberation they hid their Chapter relics within the asteroid, preserving their Chapter Master's body alongside his fallen foe. All that remained of the original equipment from their parent Legion the Prophets left behind, along with tome after tome of their philosophical discussions. Sealing the asteroid and sending a coded signal to the Eyes of the Emperor with its location, the Chapter rode to fight the Vetrovnak, dissappearing without trace. Guided to their doom by misguided beliefs, or by the Emperor's will to a grim but necessary end, none can say. 

The Eyes of the Emperor still wonder what final insights might have been revealed to the Stone Prophets in their final, most potent moment of destruction. If the Chapter Master's teachings were correct, such a death must have granted an augury of immense potency, yet despite all their searching no record has ever emerged, if indeed any there was. Madman or genius, Arcturon's final judgement will be known only to the cosmos he sought to comprehend.

===Notable Members===

'''Chapter Master Arcturon Harnevos''' was once a mere low-caste member of the Satria, the ordinary Legion rank-and-file warriors. He was competent, though not exceptional, a solid comrade but never truly a brother-in-arms with his fellow Legionnaries, and until the Heresy was not expected to rise among the ranks. Arcturon understood his place in the world and dutifully kept it, his one external concession to pride being the satisfaction of jobs well done. Though not a Warp-sensitive, though far from his gene-father when the Voidwatcher tore away a chunk of Shakya's soul, Arcturon felt the attack as if it had occurred before his eyes. Insensate for thirteen days and nights, when Satria Arcturon awoke, a different person dwelt behind his coal-dark eyes. With boundless energy and terrifying fervor he rallied those around him, gathering every Astartes remaining capable of bearing arms and making all possible speed to rejoin their lord as Warp Storms tore across the cosmos following the Voidwatcher's black commands. With eerily precise commands, Arcturon led the ever-growing makeshift flotilla through the chaos, skirting the calm fractures between clashing storms on a razor's edge yet falling to neither. The Navigators were astounded and offended that a mere human, even an Astartes might tell them how to do their jobs, but with death encroaching from every corner pragmatic necessity won out and they heeded Arcturon's words despite the seeming impossibility of it all. And finally, the flotilla broke Warp in Sol System itself, to join the Legion's fight for Mars itself. 

Satria Arcturon merely throw himself into the task at hand, uncaring even if any Marine followed him for support. Yet, many did. Again, Arcturon proved instrumental in finding gaps in the daemon-machines' programming engrams, finding victory after victory by counter-adapting to their every stratagem. While his Primarch plunged deeper into the Vaults of Moravec, Arcturon stood tall among those who held the doors for Shakya's eventural return, and for these and other heroic actions Arcturon would be elevated to Chapter Master. Too accomplished to ignore, yet too unorthodox to be readmitted to the Legion, this was seen as the best method to handle the strange Astartes and those others who were already beginning to adhere to Arcturon's developing creed.

==Chapter Combat Doctrine==

The original Marines seconded to the Stone Prophets never truly overcame the shell-shock left over from Hektor's betrayal, nor the hideous aftermath of the Scouring. Rocked to their very core, the Stone Prophets distrusted their natural tendencies as warriors and instead sought knowledge and guidance through more esoteric means. Because the signs and portents would often shift at a moment's notice, the Chapter quickly realized that to adhere to their new ways of life, they must focus on nothing, and so be ready for anything. Accordingly, though the Stone Prophets often fall short of more specialized Imperial forces, contemporary records evoke almost a sense of wonder at how freely these Marines could abandon entire swathes of tactical or strategic doctrine in favor of new techniques, almost at whim. As no man ever enters the same river twice, no opponent ever fought the same Stone Prophets more than once. 

A number of Imperial observers made comments over the centuries prior to the Stone Prophets' destruction that their hypno-conditioning was far more impactful and invasive than most other Chapters, frequently placing Marines in the psycho-chambers even when no pressing need seemed evident. Inquisitoral records of the era make the supposition that in fact the Stone Prophets may have artificially implanted multiple memory-engrams within themselves, even whole personalities layered one atop another with different training indoctrinations, which the warrior might call upon at need. No proof was ever obtained of this however, and the Chapter's destruction rendered the question moot. Had the Stone Prophets lived on however, they would certainly have come under close scrutiny.

==Chapter Beliefs==
The Imperium broke. It was supposed to be impossible, but it happened anyway. And those men who would become the Stone Prophets never forgot this fact. Rather than chase an unattainable, ephemeral sense of perfection then, they turned to ancient ways of thought, of philosophies more suited to a fragmented, fallen galaxy. The universe reveals itself only through destruction, and it is folly to resist this. To study the fundamental forces of reality, one must shatter cells, molecules, atoms, quarks, and all the strange and marvelous particles smaller still, until ultimate truths reveal themselves. Truths not bound to the fallible minds of men or xenos, but written indelibly into the impartial cosmos itself. 

The Stone Prophets ritually destroyed all manner of items to meditate upon the fragments produced and divine auguries of the universe's will hidden therein, but none resonated more with the Chapter than rock and stone. It is from this practice that the Chapter took its name, a philosophy founded by their first Chapter Master during his final years with the Eyes of the Emperor Legion. Every chip of stone and puff of dust held echoes of the future to those with eyes to see it, and the Chapter's Librarians in particular made excellent use of geological samples to peer beyond the mortal veil. Pebbles from historically significant worlds were worth more than an Astartes' weight in throne-gold, and ruined fragments of an Imperial hero's war panoply were worth any risk to obtain from some xenos-infested battleground. 

So too did the Chapter seek to break down its own soldiers, to crush their preconceptions, pulverize their hesitancy, and batter down the distinction between the Self and the Whole. Gone was the caste system and specialized formations of their parent Legion, something which shocked the Eyes of the Emperor to no end. Almost uniquely among the Second Founding Chapters, the Stone Prophets fearlessly separated from their predecessor's ways with an astounding finality, pursuing their new way of life deep into Ultima Segmentum, where they found an isolated world perfect for their needs to call home. Had they not strayed so far, perhaps a better fate would have awaited them, but for all their auguries and mental discipline, they yet remained blind to the Vetrovnak tidal wave that would ultimately claim them.

==Chapter Homeworld==
Urassa's Watergourd was once a water-rich jewel among the stars, a tropical paradise envied throughout human space as a vacation destination and hub of utter luxury during humanity's golden age. As the worlds of men fell during Old Night, Urassa's Watergourd was drained of its life-giving water supplies to feed the thirst of dying Hive Worlds, sold piece by piece as the starlanes slowly withered and died in agony. Now it is a blasted planet, barely clinging to habitability. The sand has consumed nearly everything, and everywhere ancient ruins of mankind jut from the ever-shifting dunes in silent memorial to what once was. Men yet eke out a living here, carefully husbanding what little groundwater they can inside any available shelter, growing meager crops year after year. 

The Stone Prophets worship their homeworld, seeing signs in every crumbling cliffside, every drifting eddy of wind-blown sand, and every scavenger's death-agonies. The people see the Stone Prophets as omens of death, for they only approach when a man is to die, or a boy is to be taken. At all other times, the populace catches but short glimpses of giant figures wading through the howling dust storms, purpose unknown and unknowable. And yet the Prophets are also unseen givers of life, doling out supplies to the people without being observed according to their inscrutable whims. In their own strange way, the Astartes do care deeply for the planet they call home, and its people. All are part of the unity, all reveal truth in dissolution.

==Chapter Appearance==
Sand, the final fate of rock. Bone, the final fate of man. In this combination, the Stone Prophets stand. 


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