Black Suns

The Black Suns
Battle Cry	And all shall be returned!
Homeworld	Scintilla
Specialty	Sorcery and unnatural powers of unknown origins
Allegiance	Renegade
Colours

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

"We are the protectors of Calixis. We are the servants of He Who Shall Return. We are the ones who hold up the Chalice for Him. We are the heralds of madness, and Komus shines upon us for all eternity! There shall be no difference between the man and the beast, for all shall be returned!"

– Words of a captured traitor, moments before termination.

Summary of Black Suns Warband

Primogenitor: Varied (Has members originating from several legions)

Observed Strategic Tendencies: Uncaring expenditure of troops

Noteworthy Domains: Calixis-sector, Chaos Marches

Alliegance: None

Homeworld

Scintilla was a prospering hive world at the time Cyrus Dumah and his few followers claimed it as their own. Billions of citizen worked and toiled to keep the industry moving, and the nobility were rich even among the standards of their kind.

With the resources of Scintilla, Cyrus built a mighty fortess, the Bastion Serpentis, on the moon of Lachesis to house the traitors to the Second Sons. He often made visits to the world below, to meet the nobles and people alike, to claim recruits and "Volunteers" for his psychic experiments. Soon, Cyrus had amassed knowledge and supplies in vast quantities to the fortress.

A few months passed, and Cyrus was retrieving more "volunteers" as the Tyrant Star manifested in the system. What exactly happened is still unknown, but Scintilla had become inhospitable world surrounded by a veil of darkness. The Bastion Serpentis survived, however, and is still the base of operations of the Black Suns.

Only a few set foot on Scintilla´s surface, as the world is widely believed to be cursed: Even the most desperate of pirates avoid the world like Nurgle´s Rot. Fewer still return, becoming members of the Black Suns´ Nightmare Companies.

Warband Tactics

The Black Suns show a peculiar lack of strategy beyond holding ground and charging, making their continued survival a miracle in itself. What they lack in organization, they compensate with ferocity and reality-bending powers of their sorcery, Nightmare Companies and their weapons.

Their most common strategy is to hold ground until they have prepared their most nightmarish tools and warriors, at which point they charge to cut down any foe in their path in close combat. Only a few among their ranks hold the willpower to stay their bloodlust and keep distance with foes at this point, and thus their few devastators tend to be among the most sane of the troops, or on their way to unlock sorcerous might through their sheer power of will.

Nearly all of their troops carry a close-combat weapon, and only their Devastators and vehicles hold heavy weaponry. They favour simple, easily supplied weapons and ammunition, making combat shotguns and bolters of simple design their most common ranged tools along with bolt pistols.

The Nightmare Companies

Truly unique units among the battlefields of Segmentum obscurus, the Nightmare companies are the elites of the secluded Black Suns warband.

11th Company

Known by several names, most commonly "Company of Wrath", the 11th company of the Black Suns is formed of the strongest among the ranks of the lesser companies. The chosen members go on a pilgrimage to Scintilla's hellish surface, where the remnants of their sanity is destroyed.

What returns is a husk that knows hatred, rage and a monstrous purpose, they are merciless, sadistic and cruel beyond comparison. Their newfound madness comes with some of the greatest powers the Black Suns wield: unnatural speed and strength fuelled by their rage, half-incorporeal forms that phase through space in what seems like teleportation, and an aura of fear so potent even many of those who know no fear recoil from in a mixture of confusion and uncertainty.

They wield the mightiest melee weapons of the Black Suns' arsenal, forgoing ranged weaponry they no longer need. Nearly any melee weapons known to man are available to the 11th company, but as elites of the Black Suns, most of them wield only the most potent and specialized of blades, mauls and gauntlets.

12th Company

While the 11th company embodies the wrath of the Black Suns, the 12th company embodies the mind: "Company of Sorcery" is their well-earned nickname. While the Black Suns have a large number of psykers and sorcerers, only the most intelligent and strong of will may join the Nightmare Companies.

While they share the pilgrimage on Scintilla with the 11th company's initiates, the 12th company's members return very different from their brutish brethren: While their sanity is destroyed, their powers are greatly enhanced as they learn the arts of runecrafting, profound understanding and control over minds and the power to reflect the maddening light of the Tyrant Star and twist shadows to do their bidding.

13th Company

A true nightmare, each of the few servants who reach age and power great enough to ascend to the 13th "Company of Madness" is barely recognizable as a human, or indeed a living being of Realspace. Each of them is a unique but unmistakably monstrous entity: While a few among the 13th´s members retain most of their human appearance, their faces are invariably nightmarish, twisting form of mouths, eyes and appendages. All bear a few similar traits when it comes to their minds: Broken, inhuman, a shadow of its former self, their personalities and thought processes shift toward that of a predator´s: Cunning and intelligent, yet always hungry and striving toward their next feast.

Recruited from among both marines and humans, the creation of these beings is one of the most guarded secrets of the Black Suns, along the true nature of these creatures´ existence.

They are powerful entities physically, and bear reality-shattering psychic might that rivals that of a Greater Daemon. Many fight constantly and physically, seeking foes to prey upon in the name of the dark realm they seek to create. Others fight with their psychic might, tearing apart the essence of reality and warp with equal glee. A few of them, however, seem content in plotting and deceiving, donning silver masks to hide their monstrous nature where possible. These men and women are the most dangerous ones of the 13th company´s numbers, for they bear the greatest powers among their kind yet act in an unnatural, calm behaviour that can easily hide their true potential.

Only 39 individuals have ever joined the Company of Madness. While such creatures could easily turn the tide of any battle, they are a limited resource, and far from immortal: 18 of them have been slain in battle, and eight more have been thrown into the depths of the warp even daemons dare not delve into. Only in a truly apocalyptic battle would one be deployed, and only in defence of the most unholy secrets of the Black Suns have two fought alongside each other for they are quite capable of accidentally killing each other in their frenzy.

Warband History

Cyrus Dumah was, in his early decades of being a Marine, idealistic and an optimistic person. He often came to disagreements with Saul, yet despite their differences, the Primarch and the Chief Librarian worked together through thick and thin. During this time, he forged ties of both friendship and rivalry with members of a few other Legions, and was seen as a kind and a curious man by most of them. As the crusade dragged on, all of that changed.

Slowly Cyrus adopted the same ruthlessness his Legion was known for, and became ever more distant to all around him. He was slowly withering, his psychic powers eating away at him and his quest for knowledge consuming ever more time of his waking hours. His ties with Saul strengthened as their disagreements turned into unified will and purpose, as Cyrus inched ever closer to Saul's grim view of the world.

He began to see nightmares every time he closed his eyes, and his sanity began to crumble toward the end of the Great Crusade. He began to see portents and signs of Chaos all around him. Seeking answers, he found things best left buried. His mind cracked, and for months, he was separated from reality and Warp alike as his mind was slowly repairing itself in a crude image, a mere shadow of his former self.

It was then, weeks before the Heresy, Cyrus waked from his living nightmare. He rushed to Saul, trying to stop the Legion from falling to Nurgle: he told Saul of his findings, of powers beyond that of the Gods, and that he knew the true path to ending the suffering of all. His pleads falling to deaf ears, he took all his brothers who were willing to abandon their primarch to aid Cyrus accomplish his goal along with the contents of the Librarium. Thus was created the seditionist Second Sons, who would later become the Black Suns.

The Black Suns' history is rife with conflict, having survived until 41st millenium nearly undeterred. Only when the Ash Bearers, assisted by the agents of the Dark Imperium, destroyed the holdings of the Black Suns, was their dark purpose and lore found and spread. The Black Suns survived, with the final stronghold of Bastion Serpentis successfully defended. However, the only member of the Black Suns to survive was Cyrus Dumah himself. Until recently, the renegade Warband became naught but a bad memory.

As the war between Dark Imperium and the Loyalists grew to its breaking point and the End of Times approach, the nightmarish Black Tide began: pouring from Scintilla, monstrous creatures with the faces of the Marines who once died under Cyrus' command began to recapture Calixis Sector and indiscriminately attack surrounding areas. Whatever their plan is, it has little effect on the great war raged far away, but many prophesise something much worse is about to come. Whether the End of All is to be of the Black Suns' design, something else or averted entirely remains to be seen.