Editing Angels Penitent (section)

=="We Rise On Burning Wings!"==
[[Image:AngelsResplendentOriginal.jpg‎|200px|thumb|left|The pre-reformation color scheme. There is no artwork for their faux-blue scheme]]Castaneda and his disciple pushed the entire chapter to embrace Sanguinius's idea that his sons ought to be just as good at art as they were at war. Many traditionalists resisted, but when the [[Chapter Master]] of the Resplendent succumbed to the [[Black Rage]], most of the chapter finally sided with Castaneda and the reformation truly began. It started with the repudiation of the [[Codex Astartes]], and was followed by Castaneda's elevation to the first [[Chapter Master|Chapter 'Magister']]. (Hmm... this [[Azariah Kyras|sounds familiar]], I wonder if it could bring devastating consequences to the chapter) Finally, the chapter changed its colors and heraldry too. In order to mark its spiritual rebirth, the Resplendent eschewed the orange colours of old and replaced them with the blue of the Librarium. Or rather, a prismatic blue with shifting hues that was totally not a sign of deviance.

The traditions and creed of the chapter were remade from the ground up. Where other chapters excelled in close combat, fast attack, long-range firepower, or armored assault, the Resplendent made themselves into warrior-artisans, believing that by creating art, they would become better warriors and defenders of mankind. The chapter also started collecting artists of all stripes--poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, authors--to record their deeds and create art for them. Their [[Fortress-Monastery]] was soon filled with magnificent paintings, tapestries, installations, and statuary created by the chapter's warriors and their artist collectives. The battle-brothers decorated their [[pauldrons]] with beautifully painted individual heraldry, meant to represent their soul. They also discarded the ''[[Codex Astartes]]'' and created their own organization based on a new book: the ''Arc Resplendent''. Companies were renamed "Rhapsodies", each one specializing in a different form of war, and a variety of new titles were created for the chapter's officers and specialists. As previously mentioned, the Chapter Master became the Chapter Magister, while the company captains became known as Knights Exemplar, sergeants were renamed Arc and Apex Sergeants, the Chaplains collectively became the Black Elegy, and Librarians and Techmarines were renamed Architects and Artificers. Each Rhapsody had a different color, name, and emblem, as well as a different task. The Rhapsody Celestial was the First Company, made up of the chapter's veterans, while the Rhapsody Vigilant was tasked with watching over their fortress-monastery of Kanvolis, and the Rhapsody Concordant was made up of the most level-headed Astartes in the chapter. There were three Questing Rhapsodies--the Empyrean, Astral, and Eternal--who wandered the galaxy like knights-errant while [[Tzeentch|collecting rare artifacts and esoteric knowledge]] and recruiting aspirants for the chapter, and three Crusading Rhapsodies--the Fulminant, Refulgent, and Conflagrant--who fulfilled the chapter's martial obligations to the Imperium.

In order to gauge their merit and creativity, the Librarius decreed that the final trial for Resplendent Aspirants would be to enter the snowy forest surrounding their [[Fortress-Monastery]] of Kanvolis, known as '''"The Reverie"'''. You know, [[fail|the one tainted with Chaos shit]]. Exactly what they had to do in there varied according to the aspirant; the woods were steeped in the [[warp]], so an aspirant could be gone for a few days or a few decades or not return at all, with no time passing on the outside. (Similar to [[The Dark Coil#Linking Threads|"The Coil" in Phaedra]]) What each one experienced varied wildly. Gradually, the Resplendent noticed that the effects of the Reverie were slowly getting worse. The chapter's [[Librarian]]s attempted to seal the rift in the woods but accidentally ended up making the problem worse, along with compounding it by not telling the rest of the chapter. In order to protect the woods and any future aspirants, a cadre of their Librarians were tasked with watching over the woods. Occasionally, gribbly things would escape the Reverie, causing big problems for the Resplendent.

All this made [[Tzeentch]] take an autistic interest in the chapter, since they were a successor of the Ninth Legion, born during the Ninth Founding on a poisoned world ninth from its star, which was also ninth by nature. He had begun quietly weaving a web of trickery and deception around the Resplendent, slowly corrupting some of its members from within. The Resplendent themselves allowed decadence and corruption to seep into their fortress-monastery by not paying attention to what their serfs and artists were up to; they even supplied the artists with hallucinogens and other drugs to stimulate their creativity. Unsurprisingly, their laxity allowed cults dedicated to Tzeentch and [[Slaanesh]] to spring up among the chapter's mortal servants. This eventually led to a takeover attempt by Tzeentchian forces, led by several unwittingly corrupted serfs and even a few corrupted Astartes. The chapter successfully purged the corruption and drove it back into the Reverie, but they were left more uncertain than ever about their position in the galaxy. Some of them wondered if their obsession with artistry would ultimately lead to their downfall.

At some point, a detachment of the Resplendent, led by then-Captain '''Varzival Czervantes''', took part in a crusade launched by a charismatic preacher named Father Deliverance to bring the worlds of the Providence System into the Imperium. The crusade quickly collapsed into a quagmire when the inhabitants of Providence [[heresy|rejected the word of the God-Emperor]] and the Imperial forces responded by [[Rip and Tear|scourging and purging]]. The Angels, who'd advocated for a diplomatic approach, got fed up and bailed out almost immediately.

Some of them eventually wound up on Vytarn, a remote [[Shrine World]] inhabited by a reclusive [[Sisters of Battle|Adepta Sororitas]] Order Minoris known as the Last Candle. Unfortunately, the Last Candle's entire shrine complex had been built over what was essentially a sewer drain for the [[Webway]], and as a result Chaotic corruption had slowly seeped into the place to the point where an entire spire had been lost and some of the Sisters were going squirrelly and doing things that strongly resembled Chaos worship. When all hell finally broke loose and the place started being torn apart by daemons of Tzeentch and Nurgle, the Angels fortified one spire of the Ring and held it against all comers, sheltering anyone who managed to escape the chaos and reach them. Among the refugees was a young psyker named '''Athanazius Calvino''', who would one day become the chapter's greatest Chief Librarian.