Silver Blades

Silver Blades
Battle Cry	"¡A Sangre Y Fuego!"
Number	IV
Founding	First Founding
Successor Chapters	Divine Crusaders, Sons of the Blade
Primarch	Linares the Lord of Ale
Homeworld	Kadir
Strength	130,000
Specialty	Swordfighting, massed drop pods assaults
Allegiance	Loyalist
Colours	Silver

This page is part of the Warmasters Triumvirate, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the Warmasters Triumvirate page for more information on the Alternate Universe.

The Silver Blades are one of the original Astartes Legions created for the Great Crusade by the Emperor of Mankind. Loud, reckless and masters of swordfighting, the Legion was always leading the charge, either for taking a position or to defend one. Loyal to the end, the Silver Blades engaged Traitors and Separatists alike during the Brotherwar, fighting with the bitterness of a Brother betrayed by his beloved siblings. After the Brotherwar, the severely crippled Legion could barely fill its own ranks, and started a slow and methodical process to recover the losses, further agravated by the battles fought in Kadir during the Brotherwar.

History

Pre-Primarch History & Reunion

The Silver Blades were known as the IVth Legion before Linares met them. They fought in the Great Crusade, and many worlds fell into compliance thanks to them. The Legion was stubborn, pretty much a Jack-of-all-trades one, but preferring melee combat to ranged one, although they fought at both with equal effectiveness. A well known battle of the period is the Compliance of Retuh.

At Retuh, 806.M30, the Legion fought against a numerically superior, but poorly trained, equiped and organized force of militias and fiends. The Legion had 105,000 boots on the ground, the whole Legion, supported by a number of Super-Heavy tanks and battle barges. The massed orbital assault crushed the defenses at first, but, while the tanks and the heavy materiel were being deployed, the militias attacked with overwhelming numbers, nearly 15:1, and payed their lives dearly. The Legion suffered heavy losses at that first assault, and it wasn’t the last one launched. When the war seemed won, the militias attacked with weapons scavenged from Mechanicum’s ships and destroyed a big part of the Legion’s vehicles. The fights were melee ones, as the militias didn’t had weapons capable of penetrating the Legionaries power armor. At the end of the Compliance, the Legion had lost most of its infantry and light armor, while the super-heavies were inmobilised, and the planet was under Imperial control. The Legion retreated to a planet nearby, and started the recovery.

After Linares was reunited with his Legion, he molded them like clay around his very ideals of warfare and the culture of his homeworld. As the Legion was already inclined towards melee fighting, it wasn't very difficult to make them accept it, but the most radical changes, like the complete removal of any vehicle heavier than a Land Raider from the arsenals of the Legion and the organization change were more difficult to the Legion in general. Still, the relations between the Legionnaires and their Primarch was pretty good, and it only improved with the Legion's rebuilding using Kadirian people.

The Great Crusade

During the Great Crusade, the Silver Blades fought in several fronts, always in the front, as the spearhead. They fought along the Loxodontii, Titan Marchers and Chosen of Hecate mainly, creating strong bonds between them and the two later Legions. Bonds that were only broken, in the case of the Chosen of Hecate, by the Brotherwar.

Brotherwar

What role do they play in the Brotherwar?

Post-Brotherwar

Overview of their journey towards 40k

Legion Doctrine

The Silver Blades are a very melee-oriented Legion. Each Legionnaire has been trained to excel at close combat with most of the melee weapons that the Imperium of Man can provide, although they are most proficent with swords and derivatives. It is said that rank-and-file Silver Blades cannot be beaten by their peers in other Legions in close combat by sheer skill alone. They usually charge towards the enemy as soon as they can, if the situation allows it. The extreme focus in melee fighting makes the Silver Blades mediocre shooters at best, surpased by every other Legion, but still better than the average Imperial soldier.

One of their favorite tactics is massed deployment by drop-pod right into the enemy lines. That means that everything that cannot be drop-podded into the battlefield sees little use in the initial phases of the engagement, and usually being relegated to a second or third wave. Their orbital assault method includes a variety of Deathstorm drop-pods, sent first in the "Wave 0", right into the enemy too. That causes a lot of surprise and fear in the enemy, as the pods that were supposed to disembark the Astartes soldiers suddenly open fire with assault cannons and missile launchers, wreaking havoc and disorganizing the lines before the bulk of the Legion deploys. Sometimes, drop-pods are used as artillery shells by modifying the landing cogitators, so that they try to land right on top of enemy soldiers, to then disembark their deadly payload of fiery Astartes.

The Legion lacks heavy support options. They won't field anything heavier than a Land Raider because the Legion would become sluggish otherwise. They have a below-average number of battle tanks, relying mostly on Dreadnoughts and Devastator squads to provide heavy support.

Legion Culture & Personality

(Loud, drunk spaniards with a thing for acting like normal people. WIP)

Legion Organization

In what sub-groups is the legion divided?

Special units

Special units only this legion has

Special equipment

Special equipment only this legion has

Gene-Seed

The Silver Blades' Gene-seed is pretty unstable, usually getting very fucked up if not replicated correctly. This was unknown to the Emperor, and raised the Legion using this faulty Gene-seed, resulting in a gene-seed so impure that hardly created functional organs. Malfunctioning Sus-An membrane. Ossmodula working at insane levels. Marines bigger than usual, same for Biscopea. Larraman's Organ could be no longer and won't matter at all. Catalepsean node doesn't work properly. Preomnor and Oolitic kidney letting go lesser venoms and toxins, as alcohol. Lyman's ear doesn't work. Betcher's gland missing. At first, recruits received this gene-seed, but with time, the Emperor forbid them of recruiting more until a solution was found. The lack of recruits, the casualties taken, and the lack of a solution, made the Emperor give an ultimatum to the Legion: Fix yourselves, or be terminated. Linares went full "Let’s deal with it!" and started working with the Apothecarion to find the needed solution. The following months were overwhelming for the Apothecarion. In their shoulders rested the lives of the full Legion. When the ultimatum was about to expire, Linares, along with his Apothecarii, presented the now working gene-seed and a new replicating process to avoid further mishaps.

Some organs were not fixed at all. Both the Ossmodula and the Biscopea were left nearly untouched, as being big even for an Astartes isn’t a flaw itself, and became a trait of the Legion. The venom/toxin-fighter organs were partly fixed, but modified to not instantly reject alcohol.

Still flawed, and lacking stability, but working fine, the Legion fought during the Heresy with that gene-seed, but the Apothecarii started working on improvements as soon as they returned to Kadir.

Naval Assets

Flagships etc

Notable Members

Named, noteworthy marines

Rules

If available, tabletop rules