The /tg/ Heresy

One fine evening on /tg/, a bunch of creatively-minded anons got together to come up with their very own Primarch and Astartes Legion. This proved very popular, and it wasn't long before /tg/ decided to take everyone's fluff, put it together into their own self-contained alternate universe, and tell the age-old story of the Horus Heresy.

Hence, The /tg/ Heresy.

The GoogleDoc for this can be found at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TAl_Rh3q0UR3cqX6Pbn-4TnB87BS-GrFrax-ErtOL2E/edit

Okay guys, be excellent to one another and don’t fuck this up

Legion Overview

The Twenty Six Space Marine Legions of the Great Crusade
Number	Name	Primarch	Homeworld	Loyalty
I	Knights of Justice	Bohemond	homeworld	Loyal
II	War Scribes	Arelex Orannis	homeworld	Loyal
III	Silver Spears	Maranthos Egille	homeworld	Traitor
IV	Sons of Fire	Inferox "The Burned King"	Crematoria	Traitor
V	Void Privateers	???	homeworld	Loyal
VI	The Entombed	Golgothos	Sepulchra	Loyal
VII	Scions of Europa	Kleisthenes	Europa, Segmentum Obscorus	Loyal
VIII	Children of Armok	Uriel Starikov	homeworld	Traitor
IX	Machine Guard	Fjordous Machenis	homeworld	Loyal
X	The Crusaders	Thomas Gaudin	homeworld	Loyal
XI	Wolves of Dawn/Heralds of Hektor	Hektor Cincinnatus	homeworld	Traitor
XII	Life Bringers	Johannes	homeworld	Traitor
XIII	Lizard Fleet	???	homeworld	Loyal
XIV	Black Augurs	Visios the Voidwatcher	homeworld	Traitor
XV	Argent Legion	Malphas	Thiros	Traitor
XVI	Eternal Zealots	Aubrey The Grey	homeworld	Traitor
XVII	Bulwark	???	homeworld	Traitor
XVIII	Omegon Annihilators	???	homeworld	Loyal
XIX	Eyes of the Emperor	Octullus Tyran	homeworld	Loyal
XX	Iron Rangers	Merrill	homeworld	Traitor
XXI	Council of Iron	Thoren Grimm	homeworld	Traitor
XXII	Thunder Kings	Brennus	homeworld	Loyal
XXIII	Silver Cataphracts	???	homeworld	Loyal
XXIV	Mastodontii	???	homeworld	Traitor
XXV	Falcus Cobalt	???	homeworld	Loyal
XXV	Steel Marshalls	Roman Albrecht	homeworld	Loyal

The Primarchs

The Traitors

Silver Spears: Maranthos Egille, Charismatic leader, likes flashy weapons

Bulwark: Sebastian Rex, Cautious and cynical but otherwise average

Black Augurs: Visios the Voidwatcher, Fast reflexes, quick to make decisions. Far-signted, divination psyker.

Life Bringers: Johannes, extremely skilled apothecary, prefers to purge problems and build anew

Mastodontii: NONAME, Optimistic, weak psyker

Council of Iron: Thoren Grimm, Short temper, physically strong, absolutely no fear.

Argent Legion: Malphas, Irreverant.

Iron Rangers: Rogerius Merrill, Obsessively seeks knowledge regarding tech

Wolves of Dawn: Hektor, Horus analogue, Friendly, great leader.

Sons of Fire: The Burned King , Ruthless, willing to make utilitarian sacrifices. Loves fire. A cold soul who only seems to take pleasure in purging worlds to the crust.

Battle Rams: Kranios, straightforward warrior almost immune to physical trauma. Possessed by a large host of daemons who direct his actions post-Heresy.

Children of Armok: Uriel Starikov, Charismatic, political and espionage genius. Everyone likes him, but kind of distrusts him because of his spymaster reputation. You can guarantee that if there is a secret , no matter how buried it is, Starikov knows it. Is obsessed with getting into the Black Library.

The Loyalists

Knights of Justice: Bohemond, Charismatic, stubborn, zealous

Steel Marshalls: Roman Albrecht, Builder, Ruler, puts things together.

Machine Guard: Fjordous Machenis, driver and talented marksman, can pull the best out of a vehicle and machine spirits in general.

Silver Cataphracts: NONAME, Occasional shining moments of glory, loves dakka

Omegon Annihilators: NONAME, Master of words, can convince you of anything.

The Crusaders: Thomas Gaudin, Loyal to friends, ruthless to enemies

Void Privateers: Oskar Reinhardt, Excellent sailor

War Scribes: NONAME, Great at analyzing masses of data

Thunder Kings: Brennus, Extremely patient and meticulous

Eyes of the Emperor: Octullus Tyran, Paranoid, anxious, cowardly

Scions of Europa: Kleisthenes, Creative, disciplined, and brave

Lizard Feet: NONAME, Beastmaster, great at training dinosaurs

The Entombed: Golgothos, Extremely stubborn and has a personal Vendetta against Johannes. He is interred in a Dreadnought.

Children of Armok: Uriel Starikov, Charismatic, political and espionage genius. Everyone likes him, but mostly distrusts him because of his spymaster reputation. You can guarantee that if there is a secret , no matter how buried it is, Starikov knows it. Is obsessed with getting into the Black Library. (Is in loyalists because he is still thought to be loyal by the Loyalists)

The Legions

Silver Spears: Slaanesh, melee focused

slaanesh legion with imperial rome theme, notEmperors Children Oppulent, excessive, hedonistic. They favour any method, but are easily baited by their emotional nature. They are a tough legion to face due to their obsession with training and constant striving for supremacy. They were present on Istvaan and Terra.

Bulwark: Undivided, defense focused

technically traitors cos renegade - Heavily defensive notIronWarriors Sieged by the Silver Cataphracts and the Steel Marshalls in the 'CRUCIBLE' where they lured the two loyalist siege legions into an open challenge on a mega-fortified world. Serious and dour, they are pragmatic to the bone, despite not being a heretic, they refuse to bow to the Emperor.

Black Augurs: Undivided, ambush focused

notNightLords They use fast and brutal tactics, favouring ambushes and any way they can inflict morale damage on their foes. They didn't fall to chaos, but did choose to fight on Hektors side. Close ties with Eldar and Dark Eldar from Primarchs homeworld. (Secretly the emperor had always spliced in Eldar Traits. Hence the pointy ears of our marines). After and during the heresy they embrace a lot more arcane symbolism and mysticism from their homeworld. Things they think will increase their power as precogs and make them superior beings. Powerful oracles in the legion often stare off into the black void of space as if discerning the future directly from it. Hence the name of the Primarch and the legion. They were present at the Istvaan V scenario that nearly destroyed the strength of the Knights of Justice, the Entombed, War Scribes, and Lizard Feet.

Life Bringers: Nurgle, biological/chemical warfare focused

resident Nurgle Marines, but not quite death guard. Pragmatic and logical to the extreme, they would rather eradicate a world and rebuild it with terraforming, than have to fix it as it is. Highly protective of their battle brothers and allies. All officers cross-train as apothecaries and perform those tasks in addition to combat duties. Extensively used biowarfare before the heresy, were present both at Istvaan V, and at Terra. Became Nurgles chosen legion, incorporating his diseases etc into their weapons. Still believe they are healers freeing the galaxy from corruption, they continue to purge planets and reseed them with new life even after the Heresy in their warped view of a green paradise. This usually looks like a rotten mix between Catachan and Nurgle's garden where only their cultists, genetically adapted and mutated for that biome, can survive for long.

File:Life Bringer marine.jpg

Mastodontii: Undivided, rapid vehicle focused

vehicle based and rapid assaults. Kind of like ChaosWhiteScars or Dark Eldar The Mastodontii make extensive use of vehicles for rapid deployments and heavy support. They are optimistic by nature, and will keep trying until they persevere. They joined the traitors as they saw the Imperium as the rapidly stagnating form it was becoming.

Council of Iron: Tzeentch, psyker focused

resident notThousand sons Tzeentch The Council does not bend. They are ridiculously stoic and utterly unfazeable. They are more stubborn than dwarves when their will is opposed. They make extensive use of Psykers, and their Marines inevitable march towards their enemies, covered by heavy, *portable* firepower makes them a fearsome foe.

Eternal Zealots - notEmperorsChildren/Word Bearers not Slaanesh tho,

Proud, Zealous and self-righteous, the Zealots were the first chapter turned by the Children of Armok, and used to turn Hektor himself. They desired to be shining examples of what the Emperors Will could do. This close-minded zealotry lead to their downfall however. They favour close combat, and will take any opportunity to duel a loyalist marine, to prove their superiority - especially since gaining the favour of the gods.

Argent Legion: Malal, surgical strike focused

was a loyalist at the beginning of the Heresy, due to hatred of Sons of Fire and Black Augurs primarchs, they turned traitor for reasons currently unknown. They use surgical strikes and ambushes. They seize control of strategic strongpoints and disable the enemies ability to fight. They were innovative and competitive by nature, which drove them to extreme arrogance, but they were always friendly, if a bit over-bearing with their arrogant nature. How this has changed no-one knows.

Iron Rangers: Undivided, assasination focused

The Iron rangers are pragmatists. They don't need to use a direct and costly assault when a sneaky assassination would get the job done. They are taught to work alone or in small groups, and using guerrilla tactics, have outfought much larger well equipped foes. They turned traitor due to Hektors promise of the secrets on Mars. They never got there however, being confronted by the Scions of Europa en route to Terra.

Wolves of Dawn/Heralds of Hektor : Undivided, standard combat focused

Greek companion/fraternity feel. They prized brotherhood and fraternity above all else. Corrupted by the Eternal Zealots, and pushed down the path to beginning the Heresy. They were the most even-keeled of all the legions - able to enjoy themselves as well as be serious when required. Their fall was the greatest shock, as if the most well-rounded could fall, what does that mean for the other legions? Upon the death of Hektor, his council, the Heralds of Apollo, briefly fought to decide who would take his place. Agamemnon, leader of the Wolves of Dawns first company would rise triumphant, and after the heresy, would repeatedly try to out-achieve his Primarch. The Wolves were the largest legion before the Heresy, and now make up a large percentage of most of the Traitor legions attacks.

IVth Legion: The Sons of Fire

The Burned King was always a twisted soul. Twisted like a flame. The Sons of Fire are no different, obsessed with burning. Everything. They set entire systems ablaze for the Emperor, but they found a new master in Khorne. They are not angry, or even quick tempered, but are just cold, calm and ruthless. They were present on Terra and the Burned King is now a daemon prince. On Istvaan they collected all of the dead loyalists, and burned their bodies and armour to slag and ash, before piling their scorched skulls in a pyramid inside of a captured ship, and firing it into the Warp.

Their Primarch is Inferox, the Burned King, the Fire Rider.

Battle Rams: Undivided, focused on daemonic possession, highly resistant to physical trauma

Battle Rams suffer from a simple mindset. Leaders lead. Followers follow. Individual low ranked members are usually horrible at making tactical decisions, it is not until they reach higher ranks that they are expected to understand how each action contributes to a grand battle plan. Regardless, even the highest ranked Longhorn struggles to understand the influence of their actions on a galactic scale. Kranios was possessed by countless daemons of every Chaos God constantly commanding him to perform tasks for their patron deities within the warp. So much as being in his presence left those around him at an extreme risk of possession. The Battle Rams turned into a melancholy group, making their camps in the Formless Wastes of the Warp waiting for one of their leaders to become possessed and give them some purpose to follow.

Children of Armok: Undivided, manipulation focused (though with some Tzeentchian leanings)

AlphaLegion meets WordBearers with Cold War spy shit thrown in. Started the whole Heresy by corrupting the Eternal Zealots to be their legion-sized deniable asset. They did this to corrupt Hektor, who they saw as a route to greater power and knowledge, which is what the Children seek. Abnormal for a space marine legion, the Children make extensive use of espionage networks, and diplomacy/politics, preferring to force an enemy into a friend, or turn an enemy on itself. Both sides think the Children dragged their feet, but ultimately sided with them. They Children did this as it allowed their spynetworks to double in size, and become far more useful. They have started to gain more negative attention post heresy for their lack of following the Codex, from both the Scions for not following the Codex, and the more puritanical and skeptical factions of the Inquisition who are beginning to wonder how the Children get such accurate intelligence on the Traitors without being tainted themselves...

Knights of Justice: Close combat fast attack, no Not!Culture

They are fast and surgical. Hold a code of honour most highly, and are rather zealous and stubborn. Tricked by the Traitor legions in an Istvaan V style scenario, and has spent post heresy trying to recover their huge losses. Like to get up close and personal to bash/slice in skulls. For flavour, I imagine a KoJ war council happening something like this -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez6wfJWVCeI Substitute "God wills it!" for "The Emperor wills it!" or another suitable phrase.

Steel Marshalls: Close Combat siege specialists, possibly Not!Arabic

Even tempered, noble, and pragmatic. Their siege methods are archaic, using massed shielded infantry, slow but armoured transports, and massive Harbinger Siege Towers like the Terrans of Old. They succeed through their natural toughness, armour, and their exceptional skill at close combat.

They almost completely eschew firearms and traditional vehicles in favor of melee weaponry, and often use custom reinforced boarding shields. They will often challenge enemies to duels, and have more power swords than most legions, including a unique variant called the Austrich Pattern Power Blade. The blade is lighter and somewhat thinner, allowing for a serious of rapid strikes instead of a few overpowering attacks.

Silver Cataphracts: Siege specialists, Not!Russians

Dour and sombre to the point of fatalism, the Cataphracts can seem unmotivated at times. They do however get shit done. They are very effective siege warriors, preferring to breach fortifications then charge in with heavy weapons supporting the assault. Despite their fatalistic nature, they enjoy a good drink.

Omegon Annihilators: Close Combat specialists, hyper-religious

They are fierce, and zealous, undying followers of the Emperor and His Will. They eschew complex strategies for faith and cold steel. They favour close quarters combat and are like the Black Templars meets Word Bearers. flamers/meltas, Bolters, and close combat weaponry.

The Crusaders: Armored Warfare Specialists. Tactically Flexible. Peacekeeping Force

Zealous, but tempered. They make a point of being fair and honourable where they can. Were second most powerful legion after the Heresy. Offered a logical and well thought out alternative to the Codex offered by the Scions of Europa. The alternative is a change in the chain of command of the Chapter. This change included the new "Lieutenant" rank, who was given command over two squads which form a single "troop". Other changes included dissolving Devastators and Assault Marines into only Tactical Marine squads which are armed with specialist gear depending on individual skills, mission objectives and enemies faced. Despite this, the Crusaders still field a unit of flyer marines, which armed with plasma, melta, flame and krak weapons act as a shock/anti armor unit. Designed to drop in and either lock down or destroy large enemy units e.g. Carnifex, Heavy Tanks and Battle Suits. They can also be used to scatter groups of enemies with their flamers and destroy key structures. Once these objectives have been completed the Shock Marines then retreat behind friendly lines to rearm and refuel. Due to this tactical flexibility the Crusaders have taken the role of a peacekeeping force. Sending fleets out to patrol their section of the galaxy, they also keep a sizable force planet side to mobilize as a quick reaction force or to reinforce other Legions if needed.

Void Privateers: Close Combat specialists, brutish Not!Vikings

Roguish, affable and quite boisterous. They seem uncouth and undisciplined to the more codex legions, but no-one can argue the Void Privateers aren't good at what they do. They love a good close up fight.

War Scribes: Generalists, Not!BloodRavens

Cautious, methodical, and predictable. They are competent only for their sheer eye for analysis and detail. Where other legions favour boldness, the Scribes favour tried and proven methods, and do not deviate from them. They are the least fun marines. The War Scribes have extremely bad relations with the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Falcus Cobalt: Snipers, no Not!Culture

The Falcus are jovial yet stoic. They are however precise and scarily adept at using targeted attacks to remove or weaken an enemy threat. They make great use of snipers and devastators, and have more predators and devastators than most legions.

Thunder Kings: Generalists, Repentant, Not!Celts.

Even-tempered, proud, and noble. The Thunder Kings took the Heresy badly, with more than half of their legion fighting for Hektor and his Traitors. They are now repentant, trying to quietly clean up their mess. They are renown for taking a cautious, methodical approach to warfare, and favour combined armed tactics over any single focused doctrine.

It is rumored that the Thunder Kings claim descent from similar genetic stock as the Thunder Warriors of old, and are simultaneously the subject of interest and revile as a consequence. They are larger than the majority of other Astartes, yet exhibit no other outward signs that’d betray such lineage.

During the Heresy, seven of the twelve tribes abandoned the Emperor and Brennus, heading towards Terra to assist Hektor Cincinnatus. Four of the remaining tribes set out in the same direction, assisting loyalist forces in various skirmishes and battles in the vicinity of the Sol system. It would be almost a year before Brennus lifted himself from Alessia, burning the world behind him, and took his last remaining tribe--his personal one--with him to Terra.

In the modern era, the tribal structure has been disbanded, and the Chapter no longer recruits from a single world. The loyalist tribes were instead broken off into their own individual Chapters, and are known to maintain close ties to the original Thunder Kings--who are all of Brennus’ original tribe.

Eyes of the Emperor: Ranged specialists, craftsmen

Paranoid, wary, and skittish by nature, the Eyes of the Emperor favored engaging their enemies at range,mostly focusing on heavy artillery, mechanical warfare and Sniping ability. As such, they spent a lot time crafting and maintaining equipment - they have gotten rather good at it. When presented a foe, they will become some what obsessed with it, trying to learn, understand and predict their targets moves to the extreme, playing a intricate game of battlefield chess as they continually deploy, redeploy and maneuver the battlefield, trying to get as into their maximum range. They are ridiculed by some close combat oriented legions, but have a good relationship with the mechanicus, and were present in the defense of Mars. Many of their Astartes brethren distrust them and They are especially despised by Imperial Guard commanders, as they often, accidentally, treat the guard as a meat shield while they keep at a range.

Originally forced into helping the Traitors in return for not being destroyed, they regrettably participated in the drop site massacre. They eventually turned on the Traitors, when they saw what had become of some of the cult marines under the sway of the chaos gods. Fearing that the same would happen to them, and compelled by what some would say was the only courageous act in their existence, they broke off from the main traitor fleet and deployed on mars, to help with the defense effort. For many days the Eyes of the Emperor fought, even equipping them selves with jump packs to get some what closer to the enemy with their shot guns. Although valiant, they were heavily injured during the offense and many were killed. Of their original strength, only a few thousand remained.

Scions of Europa: Tactical Marines, Greco-Roman inspired ethos and culture

The Scions are defined primarily by their bravery and their combination of discipline and tactical flexibility, allowing them to work well both as a single Legion and in conjunction with others, coordinating the strengths of the Legions with each other in combined engagements. However, their bravery has proved to be a double-edged sword, as they refuse to retreat unless under the most dire of circumstances, so they suffer higher losses than normal. Their emphasis on tactical flexibility results in higher-than-normal Tactical Squads, and all marines in the Legion are trained in basic proficiency of all standard weapons. For some reason, they lack psykers among their ranks. Many of the Legion drew their initial recruits both from Holy Terra and the planet Europa, a Civilized World that emerged from the Dark Age of Technology and the Age of Strife with its high culture and traditions intact - passed down since the first colonists arrived from Terra with the planet named after that continent of old that gave birth to some of ancient Man’s greatest civilizations. Their bronze-painted armor, trimmed with gold and cloaked in red, is an homage to the old Terran warriors of Europa.

Machine Guard: Vehicle users. Ranged Preference.

Reluctant to pick sides in a fight between brothers, eventually siding - after some considerable pressure from the Omegon Annihalators - with the Emperor. They favour fast and unconventional tactics. Serious, wild, and sometimes reckless through bravado and heroics. The use of vehicles in this fashion wins them no points with the Ad Mech but it is proven to be effective. Their geneseed insofar has been stable but they lost a great many number on Istvaan V and were left powerless for the remainder of the Heresy Era. They have slowly been rebuilding their numbers and their stockpiles but still lack behind severely. Each marine is a trained pilot of any vehicle they could encounter in their service life and a trained marksman but they lack severely in close combat ability and the only ones considered of acceptable skill was the primarch himself and most of the honour guard assault marines.

File:MachineGuard.jpg

Lizard Fleet: Dinosaur mounted. Lizard themed

Wild yet calm and collected by nature, the Lizard Feet are a strange chapter, who only get away with their rampant use of the dinosaurs from their homeworld because of their legions strength and effectiveness. They excel in jungle warfare like no other.

The Entombed: Defensive specialists, death/tomb theme.

The Entombed suffer from a fault in their geneseed which makes it incredibly difficult to reclaim genetic stock from the fallen. To compensate for their difficulty in recouping losses, The Entombed have opted to wear much heavier armour. The legion consits almost entirely of Terminators, Centurions, and Dreadnoughts. Apothecaries have prominent leadership roles, and every squad of Terminators is lead by an Apothecary in terminator armour called an Undertaker.

During the Horus Heresy, they lost seven of their ten companies to a chemical attack by the Life Bringers, and have sworn bloody vengeance against the worshippers of Nurgle. The Entombed do not generally concern themselves with external conflicts, opting instead to sit on their barren, grey homeworld of Sepulchra, fighting an endless war against the Orks native to their system. Only two battle barges regularly patrol the galaxy, searching for signs of the Life Bringers. If even a hint of Life Bringer activity is discovered, The Entombed will attack in full force. The Entombed would glass ten thousand planets if it meant killing only ten Life Bringers.

The Entombed field a unique Ossuary Pattern Dreadnought, with thicker armour and armed with the Demolisher Cannons usually seen on Vindicators. The Primarch of The Entombed, Golgothos, is interred in one such Dreadnought. Many Entombed choose to decorate their armour with skull iconography, and Entombed Dreadnoughts have recesses on the front, where the skulls of fallen battle-brothers are interred.

Stone Men: larger than usual, brutish, and slow

The Stone Men are hulking behemoths of space marines. clad in a stony ore from their home planet, neolithus, and wielding powerfists and meltaguns, they are nearly indestructible, yet moderately small in number and almost completely unable to increase the size of their ranks. they are all rather simple, dealing in not black and white or many shades of grey, but rather one shade of grey: destroy things. They were last spotted in a brawl between chaos space marines and loyalist astartes during the great heresy, fighting both in a confused attempt to discern which side they were on. after giving up on deciding entirely, they retreated to the deepest object in space they could find. none have ever since found this mysterious object, but reports do come in every once in a while of massive marines clad in stony armor riding meteorites saving imperial forces from threats around the edge of the galaxy, leading most to believe they live on. their primarch is onyx the indestructible, who is by far the largest at 20 ft tall.

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Timeline

Istvaan III:

Events are being told for those unfamiliar with the battle. Pic semi-related.

Hektor responded to a distress signal from the already captured world of Istvaan III. He returns, stating that the price of falling from the path of enlightenment must be a public display of humiliation, electing to wipe out the local government by way of deploying 5 legions to the planet. Those elected were the Silver Spears, the Mastodontii, the Council of Iron, the Sons of Fire, the Eternal Zealots,The Eyes of the Emperor and the Wolves of Dawn. The fighting seemed unusually harsh, however the plan seemed solid, and was playing out very much as was thought. However, the handpicked ground troops got word that there was another plan in motion. Hektor had planned to have all loyalist troops on the ground, and condemn the planet to Exterminatus via Lifeeater Virus. They managed to seek cover, forcing Hektor to ground troops once the planet was clear, stretching the battle to over a month. The purpose of the plan was twofold: to cull the members still loyal to the Emperor, while simultaneously forcing those Legions to commit. Any objections/additions/alterations?

Istvaan V

The Istvaan V legions were the Entombed, the Machine Guard and the War Scribes (mainly cos 2 of those legions creators seemed to have left the thread)

Angered and blinded by their betrayal, Golgothos chose to deploy all 10 companies on Istvaan V, holding not a single marine in reserve. He cut off the Black Augur's air support and deployed his Legion at a strongpoint, a narrow causeway between two lakes he knew the Augurs would have to move through if they wished to rendezvous with the other traitor legions. The Augurs called to the Life Bringers for support, and they opted to bombard the site with artillery shells loaded with gas. The bombardment killed eight entire companies of Entombed, without offering a single target to return fire upon. The Entombed's geneseed flaw means that all geneseed recovery has an 80% failure rate. Suffering such massive losses, The Entombed were forced to return to their homeworld, and have never recovered.

Terra

The Zealots are the first openly traitor legion, playing the role the word bearers did, while the Children of Armok were the original traitors, and play the role Erebus does in the books and being the one to corrupt notLorgar.

The Zealots were acting unwittingly as agents for the Children of Armok, and through them Hektor And this shit starts from there.

Is there going to be a Calth/Shadow Crusade analogue? What Legion has its own stellar empire for the Sons of Fire to burn to the ground?

And our AU's alternative to the Iron Cage is the Crucible - a challenge by the more renegade than outright traitor Bulwark, vs the Steelmarshalls and the Silver Cataphracts

At the time of the Istvaan III Atrocity, a precise estimate of the Sons of Fire’s fighting strength and disposition was difficult to make. The Sons often fought as a small number of large scale deployments, with the bulk under the Burned King formed into the 13th Expeditionary fleet, and the Sigillite’s Agents were disliked and kept at arms length. Best estimates of their observed strength were around 150,000 Space Marines, placing the Sons of Fire in the middle to high levels of comparative strength amongst its contemporary fellow Space Marine Legions. They were also well-supplied and supported by the Legio Ignis (Fire Kings) Titan Legion and a fleet of at least sixty capital class vessels. It is commonly estimated that of all the Traitor Legions that had fought at Istvaan III in the purge of the Loyalist faction within their ranks, it had been the Sons who had suffered the greatest casualties, with well over 35,000 Legionaries believed to have met their deaths on both sides. Aside from the many wounded, it is recorded that a number had succumbed entirely during the protracted fighting to an insane pyromania and had to be forcibly restrained and removed back to the the fleet for containment, lest they burn even their allies to ash.

Kleisthenes (Scions primarch) fulfills Sanguinius’ role, Is crippled like the Ultrasmurf primarch is. (That’s not a bad idea, a nice mix of the two. Though, I hope the Scions don’t come across as too snowflakey cuz of that.) [You can’t be more snowflakey than the 100% Dreadnoughts and Terminators marines.] (…. that … that’s actually pretty true.) [:D ]

Well, a 100% Terminator Legion would be the smallest, maybe around the 10,000 mark like the actual TSons. So the Smallest Legion. The Entombed are only 3 companies. I was shooting for sort of a Flesh-Tearers “There’s like five of us” thing. before the dropsite massacre I mean. SO at the height of the crusade, 10,000 marines. Sounds reasonable.

Crusaders were also present on Terra, as were the Marshalls, Cataphracts, and parts of the War Scribes (I envision the Scribes as being spread out everywhere a lot, always recovering their information and recording knowledge) (Yeah, the Scribes are a Legion only in name, in practice they’d have been fairly spread out during the Crusade, with a central force of maybe 30-50k marines, and lots of squads all over the place.)

The Thunder Kings arrived both in support of and in opposition to Imperial forces, with Brennus arriving with several thousand less than his traitorous captain Selioax managed to muster. It’s possible he was aboard when the Emperor and co. confronted Hektor, though he need not necessarily take the place of Dorn or whatever Not!Dorn we choose for putting the Emperor into his throne. Selioax survived, but both Thunder Kings factions sustained enormous casualties throughout the Siege of Terra.

Writefaggotry

Burning Worlds

The world was on fire.

One could not tell if it was day or night from the eternal glow, or the ash that choked the sky. The battlefield was a picture of hell, the hell man had once believed in before the Imperial Truth had swept such superstition away. But here and now, that mythical hell was reborn upon Yaga Prime, sending countless souls to damnation.

Striding through the flames, the Sons of Fire burned everything before them. The human defenders of this world, who had refused to abandon their gods and beliefs, were now either ash or small bands of fleeing survivors, each being run down and burned one after the other.

The war had, been won in a single hour and twenty-seven minutes, though the battle still raged on three weeks later. One hour twenty-seven minutes. That had been how long it had taken for his ships to cripple the enemy fleet, and fire-bomb every single major city on the planet. Over half the enemy flotilla had been lost in the opening salvoes, the rest in the hours and days after. The wreckage now orbited the capital planet, the heart of this system. Following that, twenty-four Modalis-class atmospheric missiles had been launched from the Eternal Conflagration at the surface of Yaga Prime. Each targeted a key strategic location, major cities, strategic hubs, and within seconds billions had burned. Thus, the war for Yaga Prime was won in one hour twenty-seven minutes. In the months that followed, all that remained was to complete the cull.

First Captain Emiya could feel the blistering heat inside the confines of his Terminator Plate. That meant that outside the temperature must be blistering, near that of the Plasma Reactors his suit had once been designed for. He strode dispassionately through the carnage, through the fire, flanked by his standard bearer Kleast, the standard singed at the edges, and master of signal Amerauk. The first company was at the heart of the pursuit, passing the blazing hulks of tanks and troop carriers. The crackling sound of burning flesh was everywhere, and the smell, the smell of burned man. That smell was lodged in the nasal cavities of every last Son of Fire. Most loved that smell. Emiya disliked it. I am in the wrong Legion. I take no pleasure in what I have to do. Most of his brothers took glee in burning all before them, the sickness that it seemed consumed more and more of his Brothers. Even before their Primarch had joined them, the Legion had taken to the use of flame weapons more often than not. Emiya had been young then, and had hoped their Primarch would be a great leader, one who could stand shoulder to shoulder with his Brothers as the Crusade pushed ever onwards. Then they had found their liege lord, and all had changed. “Emiya,” A deep, booming voice suddenly crackled through the vox. He knew instantly who it was. His Primarch. The Burned King. The Fire Rider. Inferox. “You are needed. One of the Sigillite’s spawn has arrived to see our progress, and I need you here with me.” “And why is that sire?” “So you can restrain me if I get fed up of her twittering and want to see how well she burns.” He could see in his kind’s eye the Primarch’s mighty flame-claw gauntlets flexing. Inferox was hardly co-operative. He was pointed at a world, and told to burn it. To have a representative of the Regent of Terra come, had to mean something was up. “I’m on my way,” Emiya began, but the line was already dead.

“Kleast? Contact Captain Tamyo and tell him command’s passed to him. I have been summoned.” “The Primarch?” “Who else?” Kleast lowered the standard as he turned to Emiya. “Keep him calm. The last thing we need is another ‘accidental’ death. Emperor knows we’ve had enough of them in the past.”