Sand Keepers

Sand Keepers
Battle Cry	None can escape their fate
Number	XVIII
Founding	First Founding
Successors of	N/A
Primarch	Darius Cyaxares
Homeworld	Kumul
Strength	115,000 at beginning of Heresy
Specialty	Bolter weapons
Allegiance	Imperium of Man
Colours	Burnished gold and Red

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the /tg/ Heresy Timeline and Galaxy pages for more information on the Alternate Universe.

The Eighteenth Legion, known as the Sand Keepers, were one of the mighty Space Marine Legions of the Great Crusade. In the terrible civil war of the Hektor Heresy, they were one of the three Legions entrusted with the defence of Terra. Their sacrifice for the Emperor on humanity's homeworld helped to ensure the final pyrrhic victory over Chaos.

History

Beginnings: Crimson Hawks

The nascent Eighteenth Legion drew their manpower from the sons of the Emperor's defeated enemies on Terra. It is this that gave them their first moniker, The Janissaries, but they would become better-known as the Crimson Hawks after their distinctive emblem. Their best recruits were assembled into the XVIII Squad of the Sacred Band and followed Hektor Cincinnatus into the battles of the Unification Wars. Led by Sasian Terca, the Eighteenth acquitted themselves with honour in the blooding of the Merican Hives, though three of their number would be slain before the end of the campaign. Their names, Aciprus Molfia, Hiapro Doquius and Niopus Cus form the beginning of the Sand Keepers' long Remembrance of the Fallen.

The Emperor was pleased with the performance of the Nineteenth Squad and ordered that they be released from the Sacred Band to take command of their gene-brothers. If the Crimson Hawks did not spring from Terra as one of the first and most glorious of the Legions, they were not without their successes. As they struck out to bring new worlds into the embrace of the Emperor, the Nineteenth felt certain that their own Primarch would soon rejoin them. Yet brave Sasian Terca, Executor of the Primarch's Will in the absence of their lost gene-father, would die in battle in 820.M30, just two years before Darius Cyaxares was discovered on Simurgh.

The Sand Keepers: None can escape their fate!

Darius Cyaxares, Primarch of the Sand Keepers

The brothers Moelia, Aurus and Diatus, succeeded as Executors and were honoured to hand over command of the Crimson Hawks to their genefather in 823.M30. Darius Cyaxares renamed the Legion the Sand Keepers for his own inscrutable reasons, but he retained the twins as his seconds. Ill-fated Diatus died in a tragic accident the next year, but his last words would be immortalised as the battlecry of the Legion. Aurus, saddened but resolute, remained as the sole Executor and second-in-command to the Primarch.

During the first years of Darius' leadership, the Eighteenth were relocated to the Death World Kumul, where their Neophytes could be tested against the ferocious native predators. The Primarch also instituted reforms of the Legion's military organisation. Darius carefully selected new recruiting worlds to supplement the warriors drawn from Simurgh, often leading expeditions of conquest specifically for this purpose. He also set the bolter above the other arms of the Legion, setting his Techmarines the task of developing new specialist munitions and simplifying their production.

Notable Campaigns

• 998.M30: Core Worlds Campaign. Although the Fifth Legion would be more famously associated with the sudden violence of the war against the Core Worlds, Darius Cyaxares' men played an important role. The Primarch himself was entrusted with the main responsibility in negotiations, but there was never any conception that he would be a bystander should the talks fail. Indeed, Gaspard Lumey's dispatches indicate that the decision for the ruthless blow against Karazak was based on Darius' intuition. The Sand Keeper's military contributions at Valaya Station were no less important, breaking open the gate to the innermost Core Worlds and compelling the final surrender of these rich planets.

Culture

They are fierce, and zealous, undying followers of the Emperor and His Will. This is due to their Primarch's close ties to prophecy and divination. The legion as a whole believes heavily in fate and destiny. To them the emperor is the shepherd that will guide humanity to its ultimate destiny. In their minds only the Emperor in all his glory and the ideals he represents are truly immortal, and that it is the ultimate fate of all else to eventually perish.

The Death World Kumul

Kumul
Segmentum	Ultima Segmentum
System	Kumul System
Population	no civilian population
Orbital radius	0.94AU ± 0.13AU
Gravity	1.03G
Temperature	Warm and arid

Much of their manpower was drawn from Darius' homeworld, Simurgh, but the Sand Keepers trained their neophytes on the Death World Kumul. If this inhospitable planet was barren of life, its arid heat would still make human life difficult. But it is plagued by horrific predators, including the feared olgoi-khorkhoi, a gigantic acid-spewing worm-like creature.

The raw struggle against Kumul's climate and ferocious beasts hardens recruits into some of the toughest warriors among the Legiones Astartes. Yet the Sand Keepers also teach their new charges humility. In part because Kumul is so deadly to unaugmented humans, Neophytes must undertake manual labour during their training, hauling water, pulling ploughs and tilling the earth.

Kumul is the answer to one of the great riddles of the Sand Keepers. Although they draw men from a wide variety of worlds and allow these warriors to retain something of their homelands' identities, all go through training together on Kumul and must learn to co-operate with their battle brothers, regardless of origin. Neophytes make this lesson a part of them or perish.

Notable places

The only man-made sights on Kumul are the works of the Sand Keepers. Their squat fortress, Inshushinak is perhaps the least externally impressive bases of the Legiones Astartes. However, the interior is a masterpiece of architecture. Great halls, carved from the living rock, are carefully lit to produce a daunting atmosphere.

Notable Members

Sasian Terca

Leader of the Eighteenth Squad of the Sacred Band, First Executor of the Primarch's Will

Born on Terra at roughly the time the Emperor began his conquest. Sasian Terca was the son of Obaius the Savage, a sadistic warlord who reigned over Sud'Nuk Hive. When the Emperor demanded Obaius' submission, the tyrant proposed talks and a banquet. In a monstrous ploy to shame the lord of mankind, Sasian's elder brother was slain, his flesh cooked and served before the Emperor. Obaius' cruel game was immediately seen through and repaid with swift and deadly justice. Barely knowing and never mourning his vile sire, Sasian grew up as a ward of the Emperor and was brought up alongside the orphaned children of the Emperor's fallen bodyguards. Excelling under the fine tuition afforded him in the Imperial Palace, Sasian Terca was an obvious choice for the Adeptus Astartes.

As a youth he was inducted into the Sacred Band of Hektor Cincinnatus and came to know and love the First of the Primarchs. During the fierce campaigns of the Pacification of the Merican Hives, Sasian led the Eighteenth Squad, showing a calm resolve in the face of the death. He had drilled his men extensively in the use of the crude firearms of the period and only the marksmen of the Nineteenth Squad were more accurate. The success of Sasian Terca's men proved that the Nineteenth Squad's genetics were not merely theoretically valid, but battleworthy. Sasian and his fellows took command of the new cohorts of the Eighteenth Legion.

Unlike the other men who led in trust for a lost Primarch, Sasian Terca refused to be acknowledged as lord of the Legion, instead styling himself as Executor of the Primarch's Will. The unshakeable belief that their genefather was out among the stars was widely held among the Nineteenth. Sasian's bravery and skill at arms would be demonstrated by victories in the Acrypso Compliance, the Pacification of Oltroth Beta and in many lesser battles. Yet his fate was to die in 820.M30, struck down by the Sorceress Queen of Hezuno. Sasian Terca's last words reported words were, "Our father awaits."

Aurus and Diatus Moelia

The Twins, Executors of the Primarch's Will

It is unusual to see birth brothers among the Adeptus Astartes, even more so for twins to be inducted. Yet Aurus and Diatus Moelia were far from ordinary. Like all of the Terran-born recruits to the Eighteenth Legion, the Moelia brothers had begun their lives as part of a tyrant's household. Their maternal uncle, Koac Moelia, was the chief bodyguard to the Lord Minister of Maniketra Hive. Koac was cruel and controlling of his family, keeping the boys' mother as his maidservant and forbidding her contact with the outside world. Their father remains unknown, for the twins were only a few weeks old when the Thunder Warriors overran Maniketra. Though their mother disappeared in the chaos of the conquest. Aurus and Diatus would be adopted as wards of the Emperor as a sign of his redeeming mercy. Their strength and intelligence, even at a young age, saw them recruited into the Space Marine programme and won them places in the Sacred Band as members of Sasian Terca's Squad XVIII.

Blooded in the Unification Wars, the Twins assumed command of new cohorts of the Eighteenth Legion, and would jointly succeed Sasian Terca when he fell in battle at Hezuno. Their leadership of the Crimson Hawks would last for just three years, but the long hoped for rediscovery of Darius Cyaxares took place in that blessed time. The brothers Moelia first met their genefather in 853.M30 on the occasion of transferring command of the Legion to him. Darius took them aside after the formalities to assure the Twins that they would continue to exercise operational commands and that he hoped to rely on them to carry the newly-dubbed Sand Keepers forward through the Great Crusade. He added, more solemnly, that he had foreseen that only one of the twins would live for much longer. The Primarch advised Aurus and Diatus not to struggle against fate but instead to cherish the time they had left together.

Duty would restrict the Twins' ability to follow Darius' advice, but they were glad to reunited in 854.M30, when Diatus visited the Legion's new base on Kumul. Here, his brother Aurus was supervising the construction of the Sand Keepers' facilities for training new recruits from Simurgh and the Legion's other tributary fiefs. Tragedy struck when Diatus mockingly jumped the perimeter wall and was fatally wounded by a defence turret. As he lay dying in his shocked brother's arms, Diatus whispered, "None can escape their fate!" - words that would go on to become the battlecry of the Sand Keepers.

Organisation

Under Darius, the Sand Keepers became known for their careful use of specialist arms. Each Chapter of the Legion was recruited from a particular world or region, and focused on the traditional methods of war practised by their homeland. While in another Legion this might have resulted in imbalance, Darius's commanders assembled their Expeditionary Fleets by drawing on a combination of warriors from among the different Chapters, recombining their strengths into an original sum, more than its independent parts.

Legion Equipment

Although their justifications varied from claims about the efficiency of standardised training and logistics to fervent statements of the weapon's status as a perfected instrument of mankind's destiny, the Sand Keepers made heavier use of bolter weapons than any other Legion. Rather than resort to different arms for different tactical situations, the Legion tended to deploy specialist munitions, such as the Kraken, Scorpion, and Tempest bolt shells. Their love affair with bolter weapons went all the way to fielding an unusually high number of Fire Raptor Gunships and pioneering the use of the Stormlord super-heavy tank.

Specialists

The Immortals

The prestigious 1st Chapter of the Sand Keepers. Alone among the Chapters of the Sand Keepers, the Immortals did not draw their recruits from a particular region. Instead, entry into their ranks was reserved for veteran warriors from the other Chapters. As the cream of the Legion, every member is equipped with terminator armour. Most fielded a power weapon and a combi-bolter. The Chapter's nickname refers to the Sand Keepers' determination to keep the formation at full strength, immediately drawing a suitable replacement for each of the fallen. The blending of the Legion's best warriors among the Immortals, and the aspiration of their battle brothers to join that elite fraternity, helped to maintain the unity of the sometimes disparate Sand Keepers.

Fleet

Notable Warships

Their flagship was a "Gloriana"-class Battleship known as the Argent Sphinx.

Notable Successors

Brazen Wings

Second Founding Sand Keepers successors, with only an average amount of psykers.

Chapter History

When the Sand Keepers legion was first beginning to split up into chapters, their command wanted to make sure that each successor had a powerful Librarius with which to face the horrors of the galaxy. However, not even the legion of seers had enough psychic brothers to achieve such a feat. Instead of compromising, however, they determined that one of the chapters would simply have to go without psykers entirely. It was Hadil Nictore who volunteered to lead this new force. When given the duty of naming it, he chose the Brazen Wings to represent ascendency over both their enemies and their “handicap.” The Wings eventually established themselves on the tech-barbarian world of Iscander. Despite being both well-organized and well-fortified, the various potentates of that planet were swept away one by one at the hand of Nictore, who over time became a revered figure in Iscandrine culture as well as the chapter at large. The last 10 millennia have seen the chapter slowly build its Librarius up to something approaching normal size, although it still cannot compare to those of the Sand Keepers’ successors. Currently, the chapter master, along with the 1st, 3rd, and 4th companies are engaged in a much larger campaign against the Eldar of Saim-Hann and Biel Tan.

Notable Members Hadil Nictore- First chapter master and creator of the Victor’s Mask. Born on Terra and became a Lord Commander in the XVIII legion (then known as the Golden Flames). When the legion was eventually reunited with its primarch, many of the Terran marines were skeptical; Darius resembled a priest or a prophet just as much as he did a warrior, and his preponderance towards psykers set many on edge. Hadil was probably the most outspoken of these detractors– It is even said that he actively tried to prevent his chapter’s troops from joining the Immortals.

Cyaxares responded, as was his way, with a cryptic proverb before sending the chapter off to take yet another system. Only after many years and many conquests did Hadil begin to understand the mind of his primarch; Darius did not trust or favor him any less because of his “normality,” for his strength came from loyalty, honor, and a clear head. In time, the two began to trust each other deeply, and Nictore became something of a rising star within the legion.

Andayyuna- Current chapter master and holder of the Victor’s Mask. Hides a manipulative streak behind a more enthusiastic, straightforward demeanor.

Mirroes Ellention- Chaplain seconded to the Deathwatch. If you were to write a BL novel on any of the 40k Brazen Wings, it would be this guy. Has a habit of walking away unharmed from missions that he shouldn’t.

Chapter Combat Doctrine

“If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperilled in a hundred battles” -Ancient Terran war axiom

The Brazen Wings are known amongst Imperial elements for suddenly arriving to battle deployed in bold lines and arrayed in great finery. But most fail to acknowledge the amounts of study and planning which go into every fight. This attitude comes from the fact that the very first Brazen Wings lacked much of the psychic foresight granted to the Sand Keepers and their other successors, but still had no wish to be caught flat-footed. As such, the Wings place considerable emphasis on both quick response units, who help set up the plan, and the main battle forces who carry it out. There aren’t many other Astartes chapters who can claim to favor both the drop pod and the Thunderfire cannon in battle.

Chapter Homeworld

Iscander (pronounced “Eye-sander”), located near the western edge of the Segmentum Tempestus

Chapter Appearance

Iscanderines are typically green-eyed and blond, auburn, or dark-haired, with a medium-dark skin tone. The marines’ armor is a fierce brass color, except for the face mask, aquila, pauldron insets, and left kneepad, which are all dark grey. The chapter icon is a yellow pegasus segreant on a field of grey.