Flesh Tearers
| Flesh Tearers | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Battle Cry | Shouting so hard you crap your pants. Also "For The Slaughtered Angel" Since that's all his sons focus on. | |
| Founding | Second Founding | |
| Successors of | Blood Angels | |
| Chapter Master | Gabriel Seth | |
| Primarch | Sanguinius | |
| Homeworld | Cretacia | |
| Strength | ~400 Marines, not including Primaris 1000 now | |
| Specialty | RIPPING SHIT APART | |
| Allegiance | Imperium | |
| Colours | Deep red with black shoulderpads, helmet and backpack (and aquila). | |
"Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future."
- – Paul Boese
Note: Imperial law requires playing one song from this playlist at all times while reading this page. You have been warned.
Angry Fuckin Vampires. They were originally a crusading chapter like the Black Templars, but decided to set up their fortress on Catachan 2: Electric Boogaloo, otherwise known as Cretacia. They came to this decision after their scout company was eaten by bugs. Interesting note about Cretacia, the people there are born with two hearts. How this changes the transformation of kids into Space Marines is unknown, but presumably the second heart is grown to space marine size instead of being replaced, thus saving a step of having to add in the second heart. Also, Cretacia comes from the word "Cretaceous", so yeah, fucking dinosaurs. More hardcore in general than the Blood Angels, since they've all got a bad case of Geneseed AIDS, probably from drinking a thousand gallons of blood from Slaanesh followers every week or trying too hard to be cool, that results in a higher number of marines getting the Black Rage than other chapters. Due to insanity and since rushing at everyone without rhinos (Or deepstriking an entire company of rhinos, predators, and assault marines onto a planet to run straight over/through a living wall of tyranids) is decidedly pants on head insane, they've only got around 400 Spess Mehreens to call on (thus they have only about four mixed companies they deploy mainly as demi-companies known as Vanguard Strike Forces) and most all of them are bugshit nuts. You might suppose that this situation would make them wax emo like the Blood Angels sometimes do, but they cope by rushing at heretics and drinking their blood after they're done chainfist fucking them.
Let's put it this way: in the Third War for Armageddon, the Orks of the Fire Wastes were so horrified by the savage brutality of the Flesh Tearers that they would retreat rather than fight these psycho-motherfuckers.
The only wangsty member is the Chapter Master Seth, who wants his chapter to be the good guys which is unfortunately difficult when the Black Rage drives them insane all the time and leaves them (Seth included) perpetually angry, but even he usually just shrugs and slaughters a few thousand civilians to make himself feel better, for the Emprah of course. This pissed off the Space Wolves and Salamanders quite a bit due to their fanatical devotion to defending the helpless of the Imperium. However Seth told Logan Grimnar and Tu'Shan to piss off when they confronted him about it. Their battle cry is described as an inarticulate scream that freezes the pansy enemies of the Emprah with fear, it probably sounds something like FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-. They may be more than a little gay for their Serrated blades.
In summary, NO FUCKING SPARKLES *BRBRBZZZZZZZZZZZZ*
Again, in summary; they're a fucking Khornate Cult except they call him "The Emperor" instead of Khorne. The fact they are still considered loyalists at all is mind-boggling. They've been outright called heretics on numerous occasions, but presumably every time people start asking questions they get an unexpected case of "missing limbs". Thanks to Seth's latest strategy of pointing them where the chances of collateral damage are minimal, they're slowly becoming more accepted by the Imperium at large, so at least they're trying? Perhaps a certain other Blood Angel successor chapter wasn't.
The Blood Angels and their successors took them to trial (before the Shield of Baal campaign but after most other events in the fluff where they ended up killing Imperial members) depicted in the novella, "Trial by Blood", where after going through almost every established fluff case where the Flesh Tearers ripped and teared beyond what's normally healthy or sane, actually voted to disband the Flesh Tearers and absorb them piecemeal into other Blood Angel chapters. Astorath, however, stepped in and convinced Dante to overturn the verdict because as bad as the Flesh Tearers were, they were still merely at the further end of the scale than all Blood Angel chapters, who all had the Black Rage, were. They were still no where near as bad as the sick fucks and abominations the sons of Sanguinius were at war with, and winnings wars required getting shit done, which the Flesh Tearers excelled at. This trial and the overturn are interesting details as they, along with several other examples, indicate the Legion is still internally organized. Though, seemingly more as a brotherhood organization (or a fraternity) than a Legion, there is the detail Dante could overturn the vote which in turn implies a lot more to their inter-Chapter relations than the Inquisition might be comfortable with. Or it could just be that Dante is that well respected, especially amongst the various sons of Sanguinius. The functional result is the same either way and there are several Blood Angels also immensely revered who could do the same, as could members of any Chapter’s Sanguinary Guard seeing as each is an utterly amazing hero. The Inquisition probably wouldn’t care about the distinction but probably is also too busy hero-worshipping Dante to call them out. And throwing accusations at Sanguinius’s legion probably is a good way to get one’s self torn apart by an angry mob what with his importance to the Imperial Cult.
Seth became total bros with Dante later on during the Blood Angels civil war when they came to an understanding about each other, and the Flesh Tearers fight at the front alongside the Blood Angels in the Baal campaign, even saving some Sisters of Battle (which might contrast with how some Sisters of Battle called for their excommunication when Flesh Tearers caught in the throes of the Black Rage slaughtered Imperial forces on Armageddon). Also, they have a book by Andy Stiller that's simply called "Flesh Tearers".
Chapter Tactics[edit]
The Flesh Tearers have a very different relationship to the Red Thirst than many other Blood Angels chapters. Compared to the regular Blood Angels who strive for honorable perfection and the ability to overcome the Black Rage and the Red Thirst, the Flesh Tearers decide to just go with it and be angry vampiric murdererhobos. This leads many of them (including their vehicles, from their Rhinos to their Battle Barge: Victus,) to want to charge straight into the enemy and chainsaw them into bits. This strategy seems to generally work, but is also probably why many of them end up dead. Attrition rates from combat and Black Rage are so high that as of M41 they are barely able to keep about 400 marines battle ready at a time. When Gabriel Seth came along he spent a lot of his time re-working how the chapter deployed and strategies for combat.
The Flesh Tearers mainly deploy as a very aggressive fast attack force, forgoing defense for all out offense or counter-attack strategies and close combat offensives. Although the Chapter does not have many vehicles compared to other chapters (mainly due to the same reasons they don't have many marines) they do make plenty of use of Rhinos, Stormravens, and Predators in their offensives for fast transport and heavy fire support, along with having a decent amount of dreadnoughts as well (they probably don't have trouble keeping a decent number of those things ready due to that whole "high casualty rate" thing). Vehicles being mostly crewed by the coldly logical Tech-Marines no doubt helps immensely to provide covering fire and destroy anything actually capable of threatening a Space Marine. The chapter does also manage to keep a small group of Chaplains, Librarians, and Sanguinary Priests as well who fill generally the same role as those in other Blood Angels successor chapters. They also have a very heavy preference towards chain weapons (notably chainaxes), power swords, and lightning claws, which should surprise absolutely no one.
With so few marines and so many xenos and traitors to kill, Seth was forced to forgo Astartes companies and instead created demi-companies known as 'Vanguard Strike Forces' which have a Vanguard Veteran squad lead three squads of tacticals, a squad of assault marines, and a Furioso into combat. This set up allows for the Flesh Tearers to deploy smaller groups of marines into more places while still having a command structure, as there are so few Flesh Tearer Captains to lead the chapter. With these strike forces as teeth combined with their rapid mobility, the entire Chapter resembles a chain blade.
On the tabletop, the 'Shield of Baal: Exterminatus' Rules give a Flesh Tearer supplement. The two main additions are the ability to deploy six units of fast attack (for assault spam) and that rolls of 10+ to charge makes your marines RAGE!
Following the Devastation of Baal the majority of the Chapter consists of Primaris Marines, as Guilliman would prefer the chapter still exist. These forces presumably fight in normal Primaris squads and formations.
Notable members[edit]
- Nassir Amit: Nicknamed 'The Flesh Tearer' by his peers. Originally Captain of the 5th company of the Blood Angels' Legion; when he got promoted to Chapter Master he just gave them his nickname. Amit originally got the nickname 'Flesh Tearer' from Khârn (of all people) when he saw how scary the dude was in the World Eaters' recreational gladiator pits, and just how generally bloodthirsty and angry he was even before the death of Sanguinius really made that a thing. A lot of his actions could be argued why the Flesh Tearers went down the spiral path to angst town. On the flip side, the guy REALLY hates a certain spiritual liege. To the point that he told Bobby that his Codex and breaking apart the remaining Legions was a stupid idea. Straight up to his face. While not being a Primarch himself. And that was after Guilliman already punched him in the gut for saying it a first time ten seconds before. In battle he wears Terminator armour with dual Chainfists with storm bolters mounted to the wrists. As a final note he is known to kill Serfs near him just because he had not killed something in the last five minutes... though on the other hand he is known to be brutally honest and hating to lie about things (like he was disgusted when he was forced to cover up the first time the genetic curses manifested in one of the Blood Angels Legion companies that resulted in butchered Space Wolves). The guy makes The Hulk look like a zen master. He's basically the canonical inspiration for Temperus Maximus, down to armaments.
- Gabriel Seth: "The Guardian of Rage" is the current Chapter Master with a XBOXHUGE S8 AP4 chainsword, with rending. Also, in 5th edition, if you rolled a 1 in close combat against him, he kicks you in the fucking balls. He is a lot more diplomatic than his previous Chapter Masters (especially compared to Amit) but in combat he is still just as much of a maniac as his brothers. His 7th edition rules give him Furious Charge, Rage, and Rampage as a Warlord Trait, along with getting an extra hit for every 6 he gets in close combat, showing that leading the Flesh Tearers does require you to be so angry that even Khorne tells you to chill.
Daily Rituals[edit]
- 06:00 - Morning Rising: The Flesh Tearers awaken from their hammocks to the sound of their Astartes pattern alarm clocks going off before being promptly smashed by their fists or thrown at a wall, at a nearby chapter serf, or through a nearby chapter serf.
- 06:15 - Revelry: In order to rouse the brothers, ancient classical Terran music is played to motivate and rally the Flesh Tearers for the day. Popular listening tunes include the M3 songs "Raining Blood" by Slayer, "Hammer Smashed Face" by Cannibal Corpse, and anything on this playlist by Mick Gordon.
- 07:00 - Grooming: The Flesh Tearers try to groom themselves for the morning ahead... using their chainswords as toothbrushes and power axes as razors to groom themselves in the most metal way imaginable.
- 8:00 - Morning Firing Rites: The Flesh Tearers will go out and gun down whatever flora and fauna that happens to think it's big and bad eneough to take on the toughest most rage-filled sons of Sanguinius this morning.
- 9:00 - Morning Combat Manoeuvres on Cretacia: Apparently the jungles didn't learn its lesson earlier. For the next hour, marines will dispense with ranged weaponry and use chainswords, chainaxes, chainglaives, bare-fisted badassery and the occasional club, to fight whatever plant, titan-sized dinosaur or giant bug that Cretacia has thrown at them today. The carcasses (or sticky red paste) will be gathered up by chapter serfs to be prepared.
- 10:00 - Morning Meal: Assuming they haven't been scooped up by giant alien pterodactyls or eaten by velociraptors, a meal will be prepared by the chapter serfs consisting of meats, grains, plants or eggs.
- 11:00 - Morning Prayer: The Flesh Tearers will gather to give thanks to the Emperor and the Primarch Sanguinius lead by the chaplains. Emphasis will be put on why the Primarch was such a badass and why they should emulate his example. To the uninitiated this will sound like a bunch of Tusken raiders passing a kidney stone.
- 12:00 - Midday Meal: A second meal will be prepared for the chapter. This time it is less formal: an entire grox is lowered down by a crane from above before being torn to pieces by hungry battle-brothers.
- 13:00 - Tactical Indoctrination: The Flesh Tearers will gather to learn where, when and how they will fuck shit up today and if they'll be serving with any Imperial meatbags. Emphasis will be put on maximum damage; any death companies that manage to land on orphanages or hospitals are referred to as "oopsie doodles". The use of the Codex Astartes is encouraged-- as a makeshift club to beat the enemies' brains in with!
- 14:00 - Company and Command Level Chewing Out: Due to the number of innocent casualties caused by the Flesh Tearers, company commanders often have to call in loose cannon battle-brothers, telling them how "They're damn good marines but the planetary governors have been riding my ass because you drove a spartan assault tank through his front window." Relegating them to desk duty or pairing them up with more level-headed marines usually goes about as well as you'd think for an army of rage-fueled space marines.
- 15:00 - Battle Practice: The battle-brothers gather to let off steam in the practice cages. Due to a shortage of combat servitors the Flesh Tearers make due with whatever local predators they captured earlier; typically this resembles an electrified steel cage match with meat-eating therapods. Many battle-brothers remember the day fondly when Chapter Master Seth piledrove a T-rex off the top of the practice cage and onto the desk of some chapter serfs.
- 16:00 - Mandatory Bond with a Primaris Hour: The Flesh Tearers, having reluctantly accepted new Primaris Marines into the Chapter, take this time in an attempt to bond with (much to Chapter Master Seth's continuing irritation) and be civil (by Flesh Tearer standards) to the new marines. Trying not to punch their new brothers' heads in or throw them out of a Thunderhawk for being arrogant dicks has proven... difficult, especially for Chapter Master Gabriel Seth. Typical bonding sessions usually start with tea and end with something that looks like a cross between the Battle of Thermopylae and a soccer riot. This usually lasts about an hour.
- 17:00 - Evening Prayer: The Flesh Tearers give thanks to the Emperor for having more dinosaurs to piledrive, beat, and stomp and also pray for more flesh to tear and that their power armored boot might find its way up some Khornate daemon ass. They also give thanks to how awesome they are and how good they looked using high explosive ammunition in that elementary Schola Progenium last week.
- 18:00 - Night-Time Hand-to-Hand Manoeuvres: The Flesh Tearers will ritually bathe in barbecue sauce or tangy sweet and sour sauce, before marching out into the long grass wearing nothing but chainfists to engage Cretacia's nighttime predators (they're usually about 6 feet tall, hunt in packs, can open doors and have blades on their feet for slicing), with the winner getting to eat the loser!
- 19:00 - Evening Meal: The chapter serfs will prepare a meal made of the loser (usually the dinosaurs) and extra emphasis is put on extra dipping sauces; failure to provide sufficient dipping sauces will see the chapter serfs used as the next meal. Occasionally dinosaurs will wander into the kitchen looking to eat chapter serfs; the standard protocol is to lock them in the freezer or tell a member of the chapter he can have seconds.
- 20:00 - Screaming/Shouting Contests: Anyone who wants to challenge Chapter Master Seth to a shouting/screaming contest can now attempt to do this. This usually sounds like a bunch of Klingons going into labor.
- 21:00 - Maintenance Rituals: The Flesh Tearers gather to fix their wargear and equipment. Special emphasis on chainfists and chainswords.
- 22:00 - Daily Apothecary Checkups: The Flesh Tearers will be checked up by the Apothecary for signs of the Black Rage or Red Thirst or other mutations. Anyone found with this will be sent to the death company; any battle brother who says "I've got dino DNA!" will find himself given a class 4 prostate exam by the chapter's one working combat servitor!
- 23:00 : Roundup: Any loose dinosaurs are rounded up and killed by the Flesh Tearers-- with their bare hands.
- 24:00 : Bedtime: The Flesh Tearers will retire to their hammocks for rest before starting the day anew. Replacement alarm clocks will have been issued.
Gallery[edit]
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Their color scheme back in Rogue Trader.
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Baal Predator of the Chapter.
