Death Consuls

The Death Consuls are a loyalist chapter made up from the remnants of the Night Lords. While Konrad Curze was being an edgy little shit, some of the Night Lords from Nostramo remembered the good old days when everything was fine and dandy in their little corner of the Imperium. After the heresy, due to their heroic conduct, they were given control of an icy hellhole that was also a penal colony because someone in the Administratum really REALLY hated Batman Night Lords.

Of course being straight edge bastards, they managed to turn this backward icy hellhole into frozen Australia with a healthy helping of East Germany IN SPACE, Also, they really hate the Dark Eldar, and try to out-edge them, making Konrad Kurze proud in the afterlife.

Death Consuls
Battle Cry	Death calls, and the hunt awaits!
Number	1,000 (Estimated)
Founding	Second Founding
Successors of	Night Lords
Chapter Master	Tigar Palme
Primarch	Konrad Curze
Homeworld	Siberis
Allegiance	Imperium of Man
Colours	Black and White

Combat Doctrine

The Death's Consuls are codex adherent - to a degree. They know that due to their dubious heritage, and practice of non-ecclesiastical worship, they are always under some form of surveillance from the Imperium. As a result, they follow the Codex Astartes - as long as it suits them.

Ever since their second chapter master, they have slowly but steadily incorporated the hunting tactics of the Great White Tigers that roam the planet's surface. As a result, scout training is far more rigorous than is generally proscribed by the codex. While the devastators and tactical teams follow the tactics and enshrined in the Codex Astartes, they are also taught to camouflage themselves and stalk their targets, like big cats are wont to do. They are generally kitted for close quarters combat, with a large number of flamers and melta weapons. Due to their long record - being a second founding chapter, they also have a larger number of power weapons than average.

Interestingly, the chapter has few dreadnoughts. Wounded Consuls are generally given the emperor's benediction, because a permanently crippled hunter is a pitiful creature.

Relations

The Imperium at Large

Living on Siberis for generations, hunting tactics used by the great cats have slowly but steadily become a part of the chapter's combat doctrine.

Even it's investigations of heresy on other planets have been noted by the Adeptus Arbites and several inquisitors to be unorthodox. Instead of arresting and making the cultists confess, the Death's Consuls have been known to let the cultists stew for years on end before swooping in and killing them in extreme manners. The corpses left behind to be cleaned up by local law enforcement or inquisitorial troops have been described as being hunted down and immolated.

Due to such a peculiar anti-heresy strategy, the world of Siberis has drawn the attention of the Ordo Hereticus. While inquisitorial investigations have taken place, there has been no evidence of chaos activity on the planet. However, more purist aspects of the Ecclesiarchy have raised concerns about the presence of strange shamanistic totems on the planets that penal worlders use to appease the god of the hunt. It remains to be seen if they worship the Emperor, or some ruinous power of chaos.

The Eldar and the Dark Eldar

The Death Consuls are known for the hatred of the Dark Eldar and are among the first chapters to respond to news of a kabalite raid. Their hunting tactics and their oaths have pit them against the Dark Eldar countless times. As a result the chapter and auxiliaries are generally capable of beating back anything but the most determined invasion of the Dark Eldar.

Independent imperial observers have remarked that the Death Consuls tend to 'go for the throat' as it were during these conflicts. Eschewing the more drawn out battles as would be suggested by the Codex Astartes or the Tactica Imperialis, the Death Consuls go for an extremely aggressive approach. Along with their propensity for melta and flamer weapons, this invariably results in gruesome casualties for the Dark Eldar.

Curiously enough, and to the consternation of more hardline elements of the Ecclisiarchy and the Inquisition, the chapter seems to leave Exodite worlds alone, and sometimes refuses to engage Eldar forces. While they are always sure to dispatch help if they hear that the xenos are enslaving humans, they are relatively benign when they hear about the occasional planetary nobility death as a result of the action of these xenos.

The chapter was nearly declared renegade after the incident at the Exodite world Namanthir. It was only afterwards that it was found out that the chapter was chasing down a particular Dark Eldar kabal and was engaged in its destruction wholesale. The tribunal was satisfied by the defence which proclaimed the Death Consuls had taken advantage of the xeno infighting to destroy a particular kabal. After being judged to be true, the chapter promptly refused to share the details of this split with inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos, claiming that the Inquisition already knew of the matter.

Important Figures

Jurgen of the Tigers The second Chapter Master of the Death Consuls and the first recruit for the chapter since the Horus Heresy

Jurgen was sent to the planet of Siberis along with his mother and baby sister when their father was caught poaching on some noble's hunting grounds. Jurgen was captured as he tried to escape and deported. His father was executed for trespassing.

Settling with his mother and sister on the far reaches of Siberis, Jurgen put his father's lessons to good use and became a hunter. He leaped into prominence when he was the first human to actually hunt down a Great White Tiger. It was thought that the tigers were a part of the world, and the local shamans thought that the great hunter had marked Jurgen. He is said to have walked into the proving grounds wearing the tiger's hide as a cloak and standing triumphant at the end of the day armed with nothing but his flaying knife. The flaying knife has since become a great heirloom of the house of Gotz-Hohle.

His rise among the Death Consuls was meteoric, and with the loss of Malus Nighthaunter and Markus Bloodbane during the devastating Dark Eldar raid of Siberis, he was elected to be chapter master. His first act was to make the chapter swear the vow of Bloodbane as their own, and his second was to make Bloodbane the captain of the 1st company until he was proved to be Killed in Action.

He was granted the Emperor's Benediction at the end of the first Black crusade, forgoing the chance to be entombed in a dreadnought because he believed that a crippled tiger was the most pitiful creature of them all.

'Markus Bloodbane and Malus Nighthaunter The two oldest members of the chapter, who were the captain of the 1st company, and first Chapter Master of the Death Consuls respectively.

A small time crook in Nostramo, Markus was put out of business under the regime of Konrad Kurze. He found employment with a idealistic young boy called Malus and watched as Nostramo became an ordered place under the jackboot of Konrad Kurze. It was an inspiration to both of them, and they joined up with the Night Haunter when the Emperor came to Nostramo.

Years later, the corruption in Nostramo filled Bloodbane's heart with fury. All that had been accomplished was for naught as without Kurze the world fell into ruin. While the Horus Heresy raged, around 2 companies led by the Malus and Markus survived and fought on the side of the loyalists, making sure that civilians were not unduly harmed. After the heresy, they were awarded with a penal world of Siberis, and it was expected that the chapter would die slowly. However, the world turned out to be an excellent recruiting ground due to harsh weather and the hunting practices of it's people.

As the chapter expanded again, it took on more characteristics of the world and began worshipping the emperor in the form of the huntmaster. Being pragmatists, the old guard welcomed the huntmaster as the Emperor watching over the chapter.

They were both lost when the first company was deployed against a Dark Eldar invasion of Siberis. When his oldest friend died killing the Xenos leader, Bloodbane swore an oath to make the Dark Eldar taste fear and despair as their slaves did before stepping into the webway pursuing the retreating Eldar. Since his body and armor were never recovered, Bloodbane continues to be the captain of the 1st company in absentia.