Editing Blood Angels (section)

==Gene Seed==
The Blood Angels' themes and motifs are drawn from vampire and Faustian mythology as well as Catholic traditions & Italian renaissance style. They [[Beakie|commonly fly (with jump packs)]], [[Twilight|are eternally youthful]], [[Vampire|drink blood, and sleep in coffins]].

The Blood Angels are noted for naturally living longer on average than the Marines of any other chapter. Although, since there is no baseline standard for how long Astartes are supposed to live in the first place, and no Space Marine has ever been shown or described to have ever died of anything resembling old age (outside of those that have been affected by the Hrud), this claim kinda rings a little hollow (although any marine worth his salt will die of being slowed down by age before it's enough to finish him off). Even [[Dante]]'s age of over 1000 years isn't unique to his lineage, as there have been several other notable Astartes from other legion bloodlines that have managed a similar lifespan. By and large, Space Marines only die when they are killed, so, the only real ways Blood Angels can live considerably longer than "normal" space marines is if they either [[Reasonable Marines|don't put themselves at risk as much as normal marines]], or [[Rip and tear|they're so ded 'ard that they're just harder to kill than normal marines]].

Horus Heresy: Malevolence explains the longevity in a somewhat ironic fashion, given what we already know of Astartes physiology. The Ninth Legion were renowned for their long lifespans even during the early Great Crusade. What was less known was that the Legion had a habit of eating their dead captains after they fell in battle, with the Omophagea implant allowing the memories and battle experience to be retained for a future generation. Some recipients of these memories would take up the identity of the dead officer and give the outward appearance that they had never died at all. It was said that the Legion's master prior to Sanguinius' recovery had gone through several such reincarnations before his final death when the body was destroyed beyond recognition. Sufficed to say that after Sanguinius arrived, things changed and thereafter took being called the ''"Eaters of the Dead"'' as cause for grievous offense. Which is dumb because using the Omophagea like this is brilliant and means each Astartes would be far more competent than he normally would be. Many Marines would gain veteran levels of experience and skill without having to spend decades or centuries gaining it. What did Sanguinius think the Omophagea was for? Not eating people? Pfft.

When a Blood Angel does die, a [[Sanguinary Priest]] (what they call their [[Apothecaries]]) extracts his gene-seed using a device called an exsanguinator. When it comes time to implant it in an Initiate, the Initiate must receive it by drinking from a Blood Chalice ('insanguination'), which also contains the essence of Sanguinius. The story of [[Mephiston]], the Blood Angels' chief librarian, closely parallels the legend of Faust, a scholar who sells his soul to the devil in return for great knowledge and power (hell, he's named after the manifestation of the devil in the story, Mephistopheles or Mephisto). The names of their special characters and vehicles have an Italian flavor—Dante, the Furioso Dreadnought, Brother Corbulo. Corbulo, known as the chapter's High Sanguinary Priest, carries the Red Grail, which contains the blood of Sanguinius himself. Also, do we have to point out that the word 'sanguis' literally means 'blood' in Latin? Well, there you go.

The Blood Angels and their successor chapters have a genetic defect in their gene-seed known euphemistically as "The Flaw". It seems to have much more representation in the [[fluff]] than in the [[crunch]], but that's standard fare for a life-threatening, damnation-courting mutation that can pop up at any time. One chapter, Angels Penitent, managed to stave the defects off with art until they were fucked over by Chaos. Thinking about it, Charnel Guard's doctrine of downtime hibernation might help, maybe combine with [[Red Hunters]]' mindwipe.

===Red Thirst===

[[File:BA's.jpg|thumb|left|500px|[[Ultramarines|You'll never see a Blood Angel go]] "Oh nooooes, a fleet of nice squishy flesh-bugs coming to devour our system, we're doooomed...". Maybe because it's an excellent way to let loose for a bit.]]

The Red Thirst is what makes the Blood Angels space vampires,<s> or Team Edward </s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|PURGE THE UNCOMFORTABLE THEMATIC PARALLELS OF POPULAR CULTURE!}}

The [[Red Thirst]] has been a part of being a Blood Angel since the [[Great Crusade]]. Sanguinius went to great lengths to hide it from the Emperor for fear of being [[First Founding#Two Unknown Legions|expunged from the Imperium]], although odds are that the Emperor already knew. He even introduced [[Chaplain]]s to the Blood Angels legions before the Edict of Nikaea, not just to monitor psykers, but to look out for brothers who might be giving in to their bloodlust.

In the lore the general effect is that the Red Thirst makes a Blood Angel an [[Angry Marine]] with a literal thirst for actual goddamn blood. Thus most Blood Angel Chaplains require certification for anger management therapy before they get the job. Their duty is to ensure that the assorted Marines are not showing signs of bloodlust, and to throw them into a battle if they are [[Grimdark|so they can stave off total madness a bit longer]]. A Blood Angel can suppress his Red Thirst simply by fighting in battle. However, sometimes, a Blood Angel will see the memories of Sanguinius’ death upon the Vengeful Spirit. This will inevitably trigger the second, and more devastating, part of the Flaw- the Black Rage. After this, their lives will consist of utterly suicidal front-line charges to [[rip and tear]] the enemy as much as possible, before they eventually receive an honorable death in combat against the Emperor's foes. Those unlucky enough to survive to the end of the battle will either be given [[Blam|the Emperor's Peace]] by [[Astorath]], or [[Grimdark|imprisoned within the Tower of the Lost as a hopeless, dribbling maniac until they are required on the field of battle once more.]] This happened in Devastation of Baal, where the victims of the curse were seen as having mutated into hulking beasts who moved on all fours like gorillas. They were released to hold off the hordes of Daemons and Tyranids.

[[File:Blood-angel-dantewontdie.jpg|thumb|right|300px|I told you about the Red Thirst bro!]]Some chapters are more susceptible than others. The imaginatively named "[[Blood Drinkers]]" are notorious amongst their allies for allegedly leaving exsanguinated corpses wherever they show up. On the upside, Blood Drinkers are one of the few chapters who have [[Deathwatch (RPG)|tangible rules]] regarding how they handle the Red Thirst: if they have recently sated themselves, they gain a boost to WS, and suffer penalties to morale checks if they refrain from feeding.

On the tabletop, this has historically been changed in every single incarnation of the rules as GW continually changed their minds over how the Thirst should be represented; in 7th edition, they just give the flat bonus of Furious Charge to everything (including dreadnoughts); but if you get a bunch of Blood Angels together in the correct FOC or formation, then they also get +1 to Initiative when charging (''á la'' old-school Furious Charge), which is a very strong advantage. In 5th edition, Red Thirst had the odd consequence of occasionally making a unit Fearless and Furious Chargers if they give into the temptation, though independent characters had enough control over themselves that they were mostly immune, with a [[Erasmus Tycho|few]] exceptions. Going further back, into 3rd edition, the Red Thirst made a bit more sense and was something to actually be wary of, as your units had a potential to lose control at the thought of blood and move out of position towards the enemy. This really wasn't [[fun]], especially if your Devastator Squads didn't pull that critical round of shooting.

New in 8th it comes back with a vengeance. Allowing any infantry who charged, has been charged, or is performing a heroic intervention, to add +1 to the to wound roll. Meaning, when red thirst is in affect, [[awesome|you'll never be wounding on anything worse than 5+]].

===Black Rage===

[[File:Death company by fonteart-d6ay2k7.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Note the ancient, unfathomable Rage.]]

On the other hand, the [[Black Rage]] is the Red Thirst's angrier, more troublesome brother. You know, the one who dresses in black all the time, and who shows up at random times to complicate your life and embarrass your family. It's a terminal state in which the battle brother has not only succumbed to the Red Thirst, but has had a total psychotic breakdown. Or if you're feeling particularly poetic: it's the psychic scream of a dying demi-god that got stuck in his progeny.

Battle-brothers who succumb to the Black Rage are overcome with visions of Blood Angel battles during the [[Horus Heresy]], and a few even imagine themselves to be [[Pretend|Sanguinius battling Horus on his battle barge]]. This of course has the unfortunate side effect of making them completely lose touch with reality, fighting a battle that they can never ever win since the outcome of the hallucinations has already occurred. On the plus side though, their disconnection with what is going on around them turns them into immensely powerful warriors, since each and every one of them believe in some way that they are Sanguinius. You’re basically left with Sanguinius with an Astartes body and the Primarch’s incredible skill. [[Awesome|It’s as terrifying and awesome as it sounds.]]

Long story short, a Marine afflicted with the Black Rage will become even angrier than an [[Angry Marine]], and with even less self-control(which means they are effectively each Nightbringer crossed with Commissar Fuklaw. If you happen to be in the same star system of one of these, pray to the God-Emperor they don't sense you. If you don't happen to worship the God-Emperor, silently hope your gods are OK with suicide, because the alternative is too nightmarishly gruesome for even Games Workshop to describe in sufficient detail). If this happens in a war zone, they are quietly organized into small squads and their armor is painted black by a chaplain before the worst of the hallucinations take over. If they aren't killed in battle or get off the leash somehow, [[Astorath]] will come and execute them on the battlefield since no other Blood Angel has the stomach (or outright skill) to kill his own battle brothers.

[[File:True Blood Angels.jpg|150px|thumb|Blood Angel confronts his true form. And you thought the [[Wulfen]] looked weird]]
The [[Death Company]] is a group of Blood Angels on the battlefield who are afflicted by the [[Black Rage]]. Every force of Blood Angels and their successor chapters has one, though [[Flesh Tearers|some]] are more susceptible than [[Lamenters|others]], which makes those chapters' responses to the occurrence of Black Rage quite varied. The [[Flesh Tearers]] and the renegade [[Knights of Blood]] chapters both have an uncanny predilection for all-out, balls-to-the-wall assault—hoping to die in battle honorably before the rage takes them. In the Knights of Blood's case, they fought with the zeal of the [[Black Templars]], the fury of the [[World Eaters]], and the excess of the [[Marines Malevolent]] in such a perfect way that they got kicked out of the [[Imperium of Man|cool kids club]] and branded renegades for their excess collateral damage against allied forces. The Flesh Tearers very nearly joined that shit list, and were only forgiven by the Blood Angels when [[Plot armor|Astorath personally intervened on their behalf, citing that their brutality would be a necessity in the near future]].

Black Library novels indicate that the Black Rage may be suppressed by psychic blanks. However, the jury is still out on whether this would work as a permanent solution given that the example involved a renegade Blood Angel with amnesia who may or may not have been a warpspawned clone with other reasons for devolving into a bestial state. Either way, it would an interesting experiment for the Blood Angels to try attaching some sisters of silence to the Death Company.

On the tabletop, this essentially allows you to bring a squad of [[Khorne Berzerkers]] without the [[Khorne]], but with more customization options. You can also take several squads if Astorath has shown up, as he always seems to know where and when his brothers will succumb.

As with the Red Thirst, [[Games Workshop|GW]] keep changing the rules with these guys; nowadays you can purchase units of Death Company as Elite choices for your army at a not-insignificant cost, whilst in 6th they were Troops, but were so far down the path of being drooling lunatics that they couldn't hold objectives, and you could only have one squad unless [[Astorath]] was watching. In ancient times, it used to happen spontaneously for free, and you had to roll for squads at the start of battle, potentially losing members of squads you already paid for to bulk up your Death Company, which made fluff-sense. But at least you chose which model to take off, and sending a veteran sergeant to the Death Company was the only way of giving power weapon/fists (excluding the chaplain) to the squad. Losing a [[Terminator|Termie]] or tooled-up honour guard made you cry though...