Editing Angels of Light (Imperium Asunder) (section)

===Great Crusade===

Alexios was discovered early, for his homeworld Alexandria sat in the inner edge of Segmentum Pacificus. Given command of his XIIth legion, then called the Brightguard. The Emperor gave him an expeditionary fleet, the best imperial ships, skilled navigators and astropaths, and the might of the Imperial legions of war. Alexios opted to lead his fleet far out to the Imperial East, so that he might expand Imperial borders as deeply as possible. There he found the Varangir Stars, a cluster of blue and green stars with many ice giants and superjovians. Orbiting the gas giants of Varangir were many habitable moons, and on those moons lived the Varangirans.

The Varangiran empire was technobarbaric in nature. The Varangir cluster had been settled by humans long before the age of strife and the long night, and in their golden age they rode from moon to moon in vessels coated in nanogolden foil. These vessels turned out to be so well designed, and so independent of maintenance, that their use outlasted their understanding. The people of Varangir regressed to medievalist barbarian societies, living in stone castles and wooden forts. However, these regressed savages still maintained the interplanetary vessels of their ancient kin, keeping the system culturally unified. Varangiran warlords regularly conquered orbital territories across the cluster, naming themselves fylknir, the varangiran word for a king.

When Alexios came to the Varangir cluster, he first made contact with Halstrad, fylknir of the Jarneik clan. Halstrad believed the angelic primarch to be Odingr, chief god of his heathen pantheon. He submitted to Alexios and his Astartes immediately, pledging eternal fealty. Many other warlords were brought to heel, though some needed convincing, whether it be through diplomacy of violence. The Astartes warriors impressed the Varangirans deeply, for their armor resisted their primitive weapons.

Alexios reeducated the Varangiran people, teaching them to understand technologies long since forgotten. The Varangiran people proved to be excellent auxiliary soldiers for the Angels, as they proved quite effective at holding the ground the Astartes took. Bastions and fortifications held by Varangiran guardsmen could hold out with their lasrifles till doomsday, and against close up foes their power axes and combat knifes prove quite effective.