Editing Savage Hearts (section)

==Chapter History==



===Notable Campaigns===

During the Second Vetrovnak Incursion, Dov-Kelor was one of the planets close to the Vetrovnak's first spearheads, and the Savage Hearts found themselves fighting a desperate battle against terrible foes. The ever-hungry Vetrovnak looked upon Dov-Kelor's colossal Hive Cities and the billions of prey animals within, and deemed it a priority target for conquest. What they did not know was that some of the Emperor's most vicious children also called Dov-Kelor home, and they did not take kindly to the Vetrovnak's presence. Fortunate indeed were the people of Dov-Kelor as the Vetrovnak entered their system, for the majority of the Savage Hearts Chapter was on-planet, rearming after an extended campaign chasing a cabal of Black Augurs across half the Segmentum, a duel which required nearly the whole Chapter's might in order to pin down their elusive, Warp-blessed prey. Eight hundred and sixty-three Astartes looked to the sky as blasphemous vessels began to descend, and grimly readied themselves for war. 

Shaking off the coat of dirt and plant life which had grown atop the Chapter's slumbering voidships, the Savage Hearts raked the Vetrovnak with unrelenting firepower, knocking many of them from the sky before ever feeling soil. Yet still the Vetrovnak came, now maddened with rage as well as blood-hunger. Though the Dov-Kelor military forces and the Savage Hearts fought like men possessed, they could not halt the tide forever, and a great wailing arose from the Hive Cities as breach after breach let the harvesters enter, doing as they pleased. After three months of nonstop carnage, the remaining Savage Hearts came to a momentous conclusion; there was indeed something they hated even more than the forcees of Chaos, and it was even now glutting itself on their people. 

Quietly, quietly, the Savage Hearts withdrew from the field, and an eerie hush fell on Dov-Kelor. The Vetrovnak retrieved many an Astartes body, some even slain by Astartes weapons, and contentedly concluded that the Chapter was no more, that their will had left them and terror took them whole. Yet deep below every Hive Spire, shapes moved through the darkness, crawling through abyssal sewage pipes and drainage tanks with aid of neither sorcery or technology, squirming through collapsed passages and vile gatherings of filth with dire purpose and utmost secrecy. Their minds sealed and sparks dimmed to such an extent that even the best psyker would have had difficulties telling man from beast, the Savage Hearts made their move. And had the Vetrovnak looked a little more closely, or been a little more familiar with Astartes bodies, they might have seen that what they assumed to be friendly fire was instead mercy kills for the dying wounded, enacted with all proper ritual that the warrior might know victory even after death. A mighty ruse. 

At dawn on the ninety-seventh day of Vetrovnak incursion, fifteen Hive Spires burned in thermonuclear pyres as their fusion cores detonated from within. 

The Vetrovnak reeled in shock, watching from orbit as untold numbers of their own kind vanished into a death from which no nanomachine could save them. They had underestimated the Savage Hearts' commitment to victory at any cost, and paid a terrible price. Though Dov-Kelor and the Chapter were nigh-annhilated, reports from the surface were already arriving, telling the tale of human forces emerging from pits, trenches and tunnels criscrossing the boglands and shattered mountain spires, scything down any Vetrovnak who yet lived after the flame's passage. A retreat was called, one of the few such actions during the Second Incursion. It would be more than three millennia before Dov-Kelor stood proud and strong once more, yet victory was theirs despite the cost. 

However, it can be said that the Savage Hearts' vengeful defense of their homeworld may have even done more harm than good in the end. More than one Imperial Scholar has surmised that without this terrible lesson proving the Imperium to be a real threat when cornered, the Vetrovnak might have been less murderous, less destructive, and more willing to ultimately withdraw from Imperiual space than they in fact proved to be. Having come face to face with Humanity's champions, the Vetrovnak did not soon forget Dov-Kelor.

===Notable Members===

'''Chapter Master Anghav Tangorssen''', once a Thunder King himself, earned fame late in the Heresy when the time came to choose sides within his own Legion. Appalled that Equerry Ferdiad would raise arms against his Primarch, few Thunder Kings wreaked as terrible devastation among those they once called brothers as then-Sergeant Anghav. Though his actions were not enough to shift the tide, it is certain that Anghav's deeds helped pressure Ferdiad into challenging Brennus directly in their fateful duel, lest all be swept from beneath the Equerry's feet. For his efforts on Alessia and elsewhere during the Heresy, Anghav was greatly honored with his Primarch's blessing to forge a Successor Chapter in the Second Founding, a challenge the newly minted Chapter Master took to with ferocious zeal. Traitors lurked in every corner of the faltering Galaxy even after the Heresy's passage, and Anghav intended to see every last one rooted out and eviscerated, with bare hands if need be.  

Filled with this all-consuming need for retribution, Anghav stood before his former Legionary brothers one last time before leaving the Legion for good, wearing each of his many amulets, jewelry and other symbolic tokens in grand display, stripped to the waist so that his many tattoos of heroic deeds might be seen by all. Two Battle-Brothers being seconded to the new Chapter stood at either side, carrying multi-stranded whips of hair, woven from Alessian beasts. Striking Anghav over and over, the two Astartes did not relent until every tattoo was erased by wounds and blood, and every badge of honor lay shattered upon the floor. In a loud voice Anghav cried out to his Thunder King brothers, swearing eternal vengeance against those who had wronged them, and vowing never to ornament himself until the last Traitor should fall beneath his boots. Roaring with approval, the Thunder Kings heartily toasted their departing comrade, forging blood-oaths with the still-bleeding Anghav to meet with him in the Otherworld when all was said and done, to hear of his valiant deeds. 

Even to this day, a relic of that moment exists, for a quick-thinking ''Banndaor'' of an unknown Thunder King's retinue collected a vial of the blood shed by Anghav, carefully sponged from the floor on which he stood. It is a reminder of the eternal quest for vengeance shared by all the sons of Brennus to this day, and treated with great reverence among the Thunder Kings Chapter.

The Chapter Master's final fate is unknown, for he fell amidst the chaos of Dov-Kelor's defense against the Vetrovnak and his body was never recovered from the churning mire. Some Savage Hearts still believe that a man of such indomitable willpower could not have perished, and he must have pursued the vile Vetrovnak back to whatever hole they crawled forth from, an eternal one-man crusade of fire and fury who will someday return to them in honor. Most believe this merely to be a bit of ancient folklore, but it is known that a single Thunderhawk went missing during the battle and was never accounted for, dissappearing amongst the chaos of the Vetrovnak leaving planet. Perhaps it is a mere cogitator error, an unfortunate outcome of the radiation washing over the Chapter's ancient planetbound vessels and their cogitators. But... perhaps not. 


'''Battle-Brother Damien Gellevis''', one of the youngest members of the Chapter. Seeing his brothers fall around him as his homeworld slowly died, it was he who first proposed the dread decision to sacrifice the Hive-Spires in order to achieve final victory. It was he who braved radiation, mutants, plague and terror to crawl inside the capitol city of Balcorond and its titanic fusion array, and it was he who threw the switch that commanded all to burn in sympathetic detonation. The Chapter's few survivors made the unusual decision many years after the Second Incursion to give Battle-Brother Damien a rare honor indeed. Above the entryway to the ''Hound's Eye'' reactor core is engraved Damien's name, to remind the Chapter what it means to embrace the fire within, and what obeying their creed may cost. Damien forever stands as the Chapter's radiant heart, unafraid to throw away a long and glorious future of honor to do what must be done. For a Chapter so averse to ornamentation, this simple engraving carries great weight indeed. 


'''Master of the Fleet Eriq Isvenor''' had the terrible honor of returning the ''Hound's Eye'' to Dov-Kelor after the Second Incursion, its paltry complement of eighty-three remaining Astartes the only living remnants of his Chapter. Elected the second Chapter Master, it was the work of Eric's lifetime to reassemble the Savage Hearts from their ashes, slowly, painfully, but relentlessly. The new Chapter Master threw himself into rebuilding with every bit of the fervor that Chapter Master Anghav showed pursuing Chaos renegades, and spared no effort to strengthen ties with his Thunder Kings gene-brothers. Gifts of gene-seed and soldiers were obtained, and the Thunder Kings earned themselves a friendship loyal beyond death from the Savage Hearts. It is said that with but a word from the Thunder Kings' Chapter Master, the entire Savage Hearts Chapter will appear in the skies above the Soctis Cluster, a thousand soldiers ready to do or die.