Editing Feast of Blades

The '''Feast of Blades''' is a duelist competition that the [[Imperial Fists]] and their successor [[Space Marine Chapter|Chapters]] engage in.

Following the [[Perturabo#Iron_Cage_Trolling|Iron Cage]] campaign, [[Rogal Dorn]] was ready to break up the VII Legion into Chapters to comply with the [[Second Founding]]. However, he wanted the Fists successors to remember that they were still his gene-sons, and to maintain good relations with the Chapters. To achieve this, Dorn decreed that every century, the Chapters bearing Dorn's [[gene-seed]] would come together in the Feast of Blades, a tournament where champions from each Chapter engage in sword duels. At the end of the tournament, the winning (sometimes surviving) swordsman is awarded the Sword of Sebastus, or Dornsblade, the [[power sword]] Rogal Dorn used after shattering his original [[chainsword]] for failing to save the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor]] during the [[Siege of Terra]]. Any relics once wielded by a [[Primarch]] is usually worth more than a solar system to the [[Imperium]], so as you can understand, turnout is high.

The novel ''Legion of the Damned'' gives a look at what the Feast of Blades is like. Competitors wear carapace armour (for some the first time they worn such since they were [[Scout]]s), and given envenomed blades which will slow down a [[Space Marine]] when cut. The arena the duelists fight in is constantly shifting, to represent the chaotic environment of the Iron Cage.

The current holders of the blade are the [[Excoriators]] who, notably, did not win by being the fastest, strongest, or best with a blade but by being prepared to take the most damage and outlast their opponents.

[[Category:Space Marines]]
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]