Sand Keepers

Summary of Legion XVI

"None can escape their fate!"

Close Combat Sepcialists, Hyper-Religious, Not!Persians

Legion Equipment

Almost every member of the legion carries a shotel, a traditionally noble weapon from their home world of Simurgh, as their close combat weapon, though some have been converted into power weapon variants and fewer still hold wonderous enchantments bestowed upon them by the priests of the All-Seer. The legion also has a high number of psykers that make use of divination in order to locate their enemy before attacking en masse while bombarding them with psychic sorcery from afar.

The Immortals

The prestiged 1st company of the Sand Keepers. This company was originally the one that the emperor gave to Darius to conquer his home world. As the 1st company, every member is equipped with terminator armor, power shotel and storm bolters though many favored trading in their bolters for storm shields instead. Sargents of the Immortals are always psykers trained in the arts of divination and pyromancy and given a Force shotel instead. In order to keep up the illusion that they are truly immortal, the 1st company was always kept at 100%. Upon death an Immortals armor will instantly teleport them back into space where a ship can retrieve their corpse and equipment. A suitable member from the legion is then elected to replace the fallen immortal, being listed as KIA and taking on the name of the previous immortal. It is indeed a great honor to be risen to an Immortal as marines inherit the deeds and glory that the name has accumulated up to that point.

Legion Doctrine

They are fierce, and zealous, undying followers of the Emperor and His Will. This is due to their Primarchs close ties to prophecies, divination and sorcery 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.

Darius Cyaxares, Primarch of the Sand Keepers

Appearance

Of average height in terms of primarchs, Darius had tanned skin and a athletic but well muscled body. He had long black hair pulled back into a thick pony tail looped with golden rings that fell just below his neck but with both sides of his head shaved in an undercut. Due to exposure to the warp as a babe, he is now blind, his eyes are pure silver like pools of liquid metal and his face has a timeless youth to it giving him a rather otherworldly appearance.

He usually wore long loosely fitted robes of either vivid or muted colors. His artificer armor was much better fitted; slender and streamlined and was colored more of a burnished gold color than the radiant gold of the Emperor and his custode. In battle he wielded an ancient force shotel named "Atropos" while leaving his other hand free to cast warp powers.

Darius is a philosophical yet judicious man. Due to his upbringings he has a very spiritual demeanor, though he has cast off religion in favor of the Imperial Truth. He enjoys visiting and counseling his brothers, as their father once counseled him. He often quotes various proverbs and challenges his brothers think outside the box when they are presented with difficult decisions which annoys more than a few of them (I'm assuming).

He embraces his brothers individuality On occasion he will provide them with cryptic prophecies, though he dares not look too far into the future after being traumatized with what he saw the first time he did so. While he tries to maintain a humble desposition, many are unsettled when they look into his warp tainted eyes, or feel he is looking down on them with his riddles

Youth

When Darius was stolen away by the chaos gods and sent tumbling through the warp his containment pod was damaged, causing the young babe to awaken. As he opened his eyes to cry the warp damaged his eyes. Moments later he landed upon the deserts of the Feudal world of Simurgh, where he was soon found by a caravan of traders. At first glance the merchants knew this boy was special, for his eyes now two pools of liquid silver, constantly shifting and swirling in different directions.

They immediately took the boy to the nearest temple and delivered him to the priests. The holymen of this feral world had long dabbled in ancient mysticism and sorcery and recognized his great potential. Undeterred by Darius's blindness, they trained him in the ways of magic and divination. Eventually Darius mastered all that his teachers had to show him, and people from all over the planet flocked to him to have their futures told. When the four kings of the planet heard of his power, they each tried to use his prophetic powers against each other, but Darius refused.

Instead he foretold that a golden light would come from the heavens to reveal their true destiny. Angered by this, each of the kings tried to take him by force, either through trickery, bribery, or use of their armies, yet with his divination and psychic ability the "All-seer" outsmarted them all, eventually defeating all of them.

The Coming of The Emperor

However, after defeating the four kings, Simurgh began to grow more and more unstable, as other power hungry warlords, would-be kings and conquerors continued to surface to take their place, all wanting the same thing the four kings wanted.Time and time again Darius defeated these opponents, but not matter how many he toppled or what he tried the resulting power vacuum led to an endless chain of war and intrigue. It was as if the greedy nature of man was some kind of Hydra, no matter how many heads he cut off, more simply grew.

Seeking an answer, Darius began a great fasting and dove deep into prophecy but what he saw horrified him. The stars burned as a malevolent darkness engulfed it all . A war, a war without end! Scarred by his visions, Darius had all but given up when suddenly a golden light descended from the heavens and out stepped a stranger unlike anyone Darius had ever seen.Intrigued by this stranger, Darius invited him to his temple to meet him. This stranger was none other than the Emperor himself. The two conversed by many days straight.

The emperor was disappointed in his son. As a priest, Darius had never wanted to rule content to his studies, meditations and religious teachings. It went against everything the emperor had bred him for. He explained to Darius the evils of religion and allowing the people to go astray of the Imperial Truth. Convincing Darius to take up the responsibility he was destined to, the Emperor granted him a single company from the 23rd legion and a month to set things right, as a final test that Darius had learned all that the emperor had taught him.

Taking command of personally trained them in the arts of sorcery and the planets most noble weapon, the Shotel. Taking up the blade of an ancient king, Darius led his men across the planet on a great crusade.

When the emperor returned, he was not disappointed. Darius had cast-off the religion that had bound him to inaction and taken control of the planet for himself. The emperors methods and his Imperial Truth had proven itself to Darius and brought peace to the war-torn planet. Eternally grateful to his father for the lesson, Darius bowed his head and proclaimed the planet now belonged to the emperor. With that the Emperor bid his son to rise, welcoming him to the Great Crusade and granting him command of the 23rd Legion in its entirety.

((TL:DR : Darius is trained to be magic prophet on planet by religion. People in power keep trying to use Darius for their own gains, forcing Darius to kill them. However because of his religious teaching Darius refused to take power himself, and feeling self entitled the people of the planet keep fucking everything up until the Emperor convinces Darius of the Imperial Truth and to step it up. Darius is grateful for the lesson and now loyal to the Emprah))