Editing Astral Wardens (section)

=Legion Doctrine=
Well-chosen is the shield that makes the Astral Warden's sigil, for it embodies the legion's core tenet. Astartes of the V<sup>th</sup> legion are charged to put the lives of his allies, particularly his squadmates, before the pursuit of the enemy's demise. Indeed, a member of the Astral Wardens stands with the same squad of battle-brothers from the day he is initiated to the day he dies, with only very rare exceptions. These squads drill together, eat together and fight together until they know exactly how their brothers tick, down the to the last quirk and idiosynchronicity. This is crucial, because the core of the Legion's strategy- indeed, the key to survival on their home of Providence - is the shield-wall. Unless all members can be relied upon to hold the line and work in perfect harmony, the shield is as good as a leaden weight, but when  the squad fights as one they may as well be an adamantine bulwark.

To compliment their phalanx, the legion favors one-handed chain weapons and combat shotguns, enhancing their ability to clear the corridors of any structure, landbound or spaceborne. Individual squads may choose to modify these tactics, and other weapons are not unheard of, but no matter what, the shield remains, a symbol of the legion's unbending will against any foe.
Because of their small squad size, the Wardens deploy quickly, and are frequently employed to provide mobile cover to flagging allies or cover fleeing civilians in pitched battlefields. None arrive faster than the Terminator squads, teleporting with the precision only psychic prognostication can provide and forming a wall of steel exactly when and where it's needed.

Their psychic might was not something the Legion realized until some time after their Primarch arrived, and it manifests in some unexpected ways. The most visible is the halo of starlight that crowns a psychically awakened Warden, but the most tactically significant is born from the bonds of brotherhood amid the squads. When a Marine dies in battle, his spirit refuses to leave his squadmates with a broken line, and rises again as a psychic projection to carry his shield until the danger has passed. 
The most talented of the legion learn to exploit their powers in more overt ways, calling punishing rays of light from the heavens, casting forth twinkling star-motes that explode with furious energy, or rushing to meet the foe shield-first with a space-twisting burst of speed.

==Legion Culture & Personality==
Having not been very hypno-indoctrinated, the Astral Wardens are very protective of their home and their ways, and though many of their cousins in other legions find them a bit crass and inglorious for Astartes the V<sup>th</sup> have a sort of blue-collar spacer's pride in their work. They're tight-knit, loyal to their comrades to a fault – it's said among their enemies that the best way to kill a squad is to cripple one man, since his brothers will stand by him to the last. 

They're also more than a little superstitious, a trait they get from Providence's culture. The trinkets that cover their armor are easily mistaken for trophies, but in fact almost all of them will originate from the V<sup>th</sup>'s homeland, where there is a long-standing tradition of creating amulets, fetishes and general good-luck charms to be worn by Breachers on their difficult and dangerous jobs. Before the Emperor's coming these charms were usually bought, but since the Legion's arrival they're generally created by the populace of the space hulk and given as a show of appreciation to their superhuman protectors. The geometric patterns painted on the V<sup>th</sup>'s armor are similarly meant as a ward against the evil eye- on Providence , these were traditionally painted by oracles, or failing that simply by the luckiest guy handy, but there's no shortage of psykers in the Astral Wardens so each squad usually designates a specific marine to paint their wards. Marines who distinguish themselves may get the Primarch himself to do them up a special glyph-ward.

The V<sup>th</sup> have little disdain for mutants and xenos compared to most legions, given that they themselves are psykers and Providence  is home to a motley assortment of residents, but they have a great and burning hatred for genestealers and eventually their [[Tyranid]] masters.

Squads are expected to mess together, and at least one member of the squad is traditionally meant to prepare the meal. This means squads can vary even down to their staple rations, but it's a semi-sacred tradition within the Wardens, so it stays.
The V<sup>th</sup> may be seen by the more traditional legions as cowards for their ubiquitous use of  shields and their refusal to fight alone. Indeed, faced with a challenge to duel, any member of the V<sup>th</sup> would simply call his brothers, harry the challenger away from his support, and methodically cut him down. Glorious duels are typically viewed by the V<sup>th</sup> with incredulity and even scorn.

==Gene-seed flaws==

Tend to expel hypno-indoctrination, making them slow-learning compared to other legions. Their numbers stay small all throughout their existence and recover slowly from major disasters.

==Legion Organization==

The smallest unit of the conventional Wardens force is officially called a "Decade," as it is composed of ten men, but more typically it is simply referred to as a "Crew," and its members Crewmen, led by a Crew Captain. Decades coordinate internally through a psychic bond known as the Weave, as well as through more conventional methods and traditional Providence hand signs.

Ten Decades form a Century,  with the most senior Crew Captain appointed as Centurion, broadly overseeing joint operations and relaying orders from command. At the top of the chain of command is, of course, Primarch [[Calael Bishop]], officially given the title of "Lodestar," the Legion's guiding light.

Outside of the typical Legion structure are the Endlings, Astartes who have lost their comrades and become too mentally scarred to join a new squad or retire. These are the only men of the Vth to entirely eschew the Ward-Shield, and the only men who are deployed to act alone- selfless berserkers who seek to spend their lives pursuing only vengeance for their fallen brothers.

The Luminary Corps are mortal auxilia tasked with seeing to the Vth's vehicular needs and other support roles.  Luminary units are generally led by a Polestar, a Psyker unable to be initiated as a Warden, who will form a low-level Weave among their crew members.

==Special units==

'''The Hellbenders''': As Calael Bishop first came to grips with his new position as Primarch of the V<sup>th</sup> Legion, he was faced with the herculean task of re-educating thousands of men to fight in a fashion completely unfamiliar to them, without the help of hypno-indoctrination to speed the process along. His answer to this dilemma was the Hellbenders, his Breacher squad from Providence, and his closest comrades-in-arms. The fighting portion of the Hellbenders was conveniently all male and close enough to human, and so at Bishop's request were swiftly granted the gene-augmentation necessary to become Half-Astartes, the closest an adult man could be to one of the Emperor's Angels. Each of the nine fighting Hellbenders was granted a ninth of the Legion to train in the year Bishop was given to settle his affairs on Providence before joining the Crusade, with Bishop, the tenth, overseeing the affair.
In the years that followed, the Hellbenders became Calael's honor guard. Their numbers dwindled throughout the Crusade, and full Astartes filled their positions, one by one. Only Endeavor Jones survived into the 41st millennium, haggard and scarred but determined to keep the Primarch's vision for the V<sup>th</sup> alive even after Calael's demise.

'''Luminary Corps''': Due to the V<sup>th</sup> Legion's small numbers and heavy focus on ten-man squads, a robust mortal auxilia corps is required to fill in the roles the Astartes cannot afford to take. Human soldiers take on the majority of duties in vehicular support, and they draw upon much of the same philosophy as their Astartes comrades-in-arms.

Unique among the Luminary Corps is the position of "Polestar." Aspirants with psychic potential who fail to meet the qualifications to become Astartes often volunteer for this position, and each mortal crew will have one or more Polestars whose task it is to establish a Weave amongst the group, giving them a faint echo of the psychic rapport that makes the V<sup>th</sup> so deadly. This practice affords the Luminary Corps great precision, and the ultra-agile ''Odonata''-pattern Aerovoid Fighter was developed specifically to exploit this advantage, almost being more of a stunt craft than a weapon of war.

'''Endlings''':  The psychic bond of the Weave is a tremendous boon for the Wardens, but it is a double-edged blade. To be linked in mind to your brothers-in-arms, to feel what they feel and to communicate without a spoken word, comes with the unspoken knowledge-  should they die, that death will be felt as keenly as if it was your own.

The loss of a squad member is a traumatic event, mollified only by the final goodbye afforded by the psychic shadows a fallen Warden leaves behind- but for those unfortunate few fated to survive where ''all'' their brothers perish, the guilt is often too much to bear. Members of the V<sup>th</sup>'s mortal Luminary support corps, and even some Marines, are often left so broken by these experiences they are unable to integrate with a new squad, their minds instinctively rejecting any psychic touch as a beaten dog flinches from a raised hand.

These individuals are known as Endlings among the V<sup>th</sup>, and are usually given the option of a quiet retirement, an offer that most mortals accept. However, even with the lessened hypno-indoctrination, a Marine's mind grieves differently than a mortal's. Some Endling Astartes submit to have their Geneseed harvested and retire for their remaining years, but many instead follow another path, exemplified by the first recognized as one of their kind- the Legion Champion, Finnavius Taggart. These men cast aside their shields and repaint their armor in the simple colors of the Greenboots who came before the Primarch's discovery. They are counted among the dead, and seek to take as many foes as possible into that good night before they are reunited with their fallen brothers.

Endlings are deployed to the field primarily as linebreakers, one-man armies given great discretion with their choice of armament and prosecution of their objectives. These men do not fear death, having already tasted of it- they fight with abandon and welcome the void as an old friend.
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==Special equipment==

'''Ward-Shield:''' The signature item of the V<sup>th</sup> legion, the Ward-Shield resembles tower-style Storm Shields, but is forged of a psycho-reactive alloy, letting it serve as a potent focus for any Psyker to hold it. Marines decorate their shields with lucky trinkets and gewgaws, and paint geometric glyph-wards on the shield's face to confound the Void's gaze. Studies begun by Remembrancer Lainne show that when the shields of a crew are placed together in the order their phalanx uses in battle, the glyph-wards often appear contiguous from one shield to the next, forming a greater pattern in ten parts. Military historians of the Union see this as proof of the subtle power of the Weave.

'''Gravitic Anchor:''' Inspired by the belaying chains and grapnels used by Providence's Breachers for dangerous spacewalks, the Gravitic Anchor was designed as a way for the V<sup>th</sup> to achieve additional mobility, particularly in zero-G environments. A magnetically-accelerated chain fired from the Astartes' gauntlet affixes itself to any target via a small-if-powerful gravitic plate at the tip. This simple piece of gear gained popularity amongst the legion following a battle where the Primarch, denied his psychic power by a xenos null field and and depleted of shotgun shells, found himself and his personal guard bunched up in a corner, safe behind their shields but under constant fire. Knowing that it was just a matter or time before heavier firepower could be assembled that would pierce their shield-wall, Bishop quickly re-purposed a malfunctioning Thunder Hammer into what was functionally a grapnel-and-chain. Swiftly sketching out a set of tactics for his men to follow, he used his superhuman strength to throw the anchor towards an wall a distance away, and then to pull himself overtop of the enemy command, briefly flanking them. As the enemy now between him and his men reacted to this threat, his men charged out of their redoubt, forcing them enemy to again re-orient on a more pressing foe. Bishop's next action was to throw the anchor to a point above and midway between himself and the enemy champion, then swinging across, descended upon the now-hapless foe shield-first, crushing the enemy champion beneath his feet and decapitating three of the champion's bodyguards with a powerful edge-first swing of his shield. Since then, the Gravatic Anchor has been further refined by the legion's techmarines and many among the  V<sup>th</sup> test their skill in games of sport centered around creative use of this device and strive to find unusual ways to employ it on the battlefield. It has been rumored that even dreadnoughts have been equipped with a version of this device, and while it is unlikely that even an admantium chain will bear the weight of such a machine, the target would hypothetically be far more likely to be moved to the awaiting claws of the dreadnought than the reverse; the innovation and refinement of such a device would likely be questionable in the eyes of some Mechanicus, so if it does exist, those worthy near-dead so interred in dreadnoughts would probably be advised to not show-boat with it [[Scorpion|(especially shouting out commands to the enemy if used you yoink someone or something closer...)]]