Void Angels

"And the guardians, who guards them?"

Void Angels
Battle Cry	"For the Imperium!"
Number	V
Founding	First Founding
Successors of	N/A
Successor Chapters	Scores, including the Angels Imperious, Angels Vigilant, Chastisers, Covenanters, Eyes of the Void
Chapter Master	Phan Van Ty
Primarch	Gaspard Lumey
Homeworld	Ciban IV
Strength	140,000 at the beginning of the Heresy, growing to a peak of over 200,000. 1,000 after the Reforms of the Codex Astartes
Specialty	Terror tactics
Allegiance	Imperium of Man
Colours	Pale blue and dark blue

This page details people, events, and organisations from The /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe.

The Void Angels are a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter, once led by the Primarch Gaspard Lumey. Their early history was clouded with controversy. In the time of the Great Crusade they were regularly accused of cowardice, rebellion, and especially cruelty. Yet the Void Angels emerged as the foremost defenders of the Imperium, credited with re-establishing its borders at the end of the Hektor Heresy. Their Primarch also had the wisdom to lay down his arms at the end of that great campaign, breaking up his Legion and establishing the modern form of the Space Marine Chapter.

History of the Void Angels

The Void Angels are the greatest of the Space Marine Chapters. Like all of the original Legions, they were founded by the Emperor himself to serve in the Great Crusade. Separated from their Primarch by the meddling of the Chaos Gods, the Fifth Legion - nicknamed "Winged Victory" - still bore his gene-seed.

Primarch Gaspard Lumey

While the lives of the Emperor's warlike sons are mostly lost in myth and legend, Lumey's lifelong habit of writing has preserved his thoughts for posterity. The great corpus of his works prohibits its mastery in a normal human lifespan, but the Iterators of the Adeptus Astartes strive to read every word of their inspirational founder.

Appearance

Like all the Primarchs, Gaspard Lumey had the stature of a giant. Spending much of his life outdoors and physically active gave him broad shoulders and olive skin. He had bushy eyebrows, a prominent nose, and expressive, thoughtful eyes. Lumey usually wore his curly black hair long, loosely tied back from his face.

He was a difficult man, but one with a great presence. While other Primarchs far exceeded Lumey's ability to inspire trust, loyalty and respect, he was the master of sowing suspicion and discontent. When speaking he often emphasised his points by gesture. He rolled his eyes and sneered so often that these expressions were almost habit.

Youth

Ciban IV, often known as Ciban Felix or just Ciban, is a Civilised World in the Segmentum Pacificus. At the time that the infant Primarch Gaspard Lumey appeared on its surface, Ciban had attained a level of culture and technology approximating that of Second Millenium Earth. The planet was dominated by large, sophisticated states ruled by hereditary aristocrats.

The Primarch of the Void Angels landed in Fennechia, a colonial region of the petty empire of Gallia. His capsule crash-landed close to a farming community named Nouvelle-Havre and was taken in by the Lumeys, a childless middle-aged couple. It was quickly apparent to the close-knit villagers that the child Gaspard was something more than human, but the elders of Nouvelle-Havre counselled tolerance and encouraged the youth to see his strength as a gift to be shared with all.

As Gaspard Lumey absorbed the morals of his adoptive community, he learned the martial skills of a frontiersman. Hunting trips honed his natural talent for the stealth, outdoor survival, and marksmanship. Lumey also became deadly with an axe, whether thrown or in close quarters. Contented with this simple life in Nouvelle-Havre, the young Primarch was surprised when his foster parents insisted that he take his great talents out into the world to seek equally great challenges.

Plain Truth

Dutiful to parental advice, Gaspard Lumey travelled to the townships and cities of the colonies. If his first jobs are lost to history, his first and defining career was as a journalist in the dissenting press of the day. He issued a steady stream of broadsides and pamphlets condemning first the excesses of the colonial government, then the degeneracy of the aristocracy. The effectiveness of Lumey's works is still evident in the full title of his most popular pamphlet, Plain Truth: An Honest and therefore Illegal account of Fennechia's Misgovernance.

Growing unrest resulted in the formation of quasi-legal Committees of the Common Good, a kind of shadow government that gained the trust of the public as colonial governors became increasingly unpopular. Lumey, as a wanted man, did not participate in the Committees at first, but when open war broke out with the motherland he quickly volunteered his services to the rebel army.

Fennechian patriots initially suffered severe defeats at the hands of their oppressors. Gaspard Lumey achieved some renown as a guerilla leader, but he quickly realised that the colonists lacked the strength to triumph in a purely national struggle. Undeterred, Lumey smuggled himself into Gallia and circulated pamphlets denouncing not just the oppression of Fennechia but the whole regime of privilege. His message struck a chord. Even before Lumey arrived, Gallians were reading copies of Plain Truth and similar pamphlets written by figures such as Margarette Poisarden and Didier Bonchance. Political criminals, including Bonchance, flooded the Donjon, the great prison at Gallia's capital of Saint Vercy, but a jail cannot hold a whole people. When the imperial government attempted to raise a new tax for the war effort, ordinary Gallians began to revolt in their homeland, declaring that they were just as oppressed as the Fennechians.

Events in Saint Vercy developed at lightning pace. The Donjon was stormed by dockworkers and its inhabitants liberated. Regiments deployed to stifled the revolt arrested their officers and joined the rebels. Gallia's monarchy and national government fled the capital. The Committee of the Common Good, headed by Poisarden became the de facto government. A tremendous debate broke out in the Committee. Bonchance advocated a policy of temperance and forgiveness towards the old regime. Initially, his fraction held the majority, until Gaspard Lumey entered the hall. His prestige as a fighter in the colonies and rebel journalist won him the right to speak, but the Primarch's towering stature and personal charisma commanded the Committee's attention. Lumey hammered away at his rivals in the debate, explaining in sharp terms what the consequences of their mercy would be - a bloodbath organised by the aristocracy. In order to head off disaster, Lumey proposed a policy of "Righteous Terror", beginning with the imprisonment of supporters of the old regime and going so far as summary execution of aristocrats. While Lumey carried the majority, the fierce debate provoked splits. Didier Bonchance and his closest followers stormed out. These dissidents would escape Saint Vercy to sign on with the Royalist faction of a brewing civil war.

Mixed news from the rest of Gallia flowed into the capital. Committees were leading uprisings in the other big cities, but there was also news of armies being raised in the provinces - and worse, armies of intervention being prepared by Gallia's rivals. The Saint Vercy Committee of the Common Good acted decisively. A Republic was declared and the other Committees across Gallia, Fennechia, and, rather optimistically, the whole of Ciban were invited to freely join as equal participants. Margrette Poisarden was elected Speaker of the Republic's Assembly and she delegated military affairs to Gaspard Lumey.

On Virtue

As a member of the Republic's Committee for Military Affairs, Lumey was one of the first citizens to learn of an approaching vessel. He insisted that the public had to be informed immediately and gave a great speech to the Senate in which he announced the coming of spacefarers.

The Emperor approached Lumey openly, explaining their relationship by way of introduction. This did not convince the Primarch, who began to question his father on his views of morality, testing the answers against what he had come to believe on Ciban. Their debate, which lasted three days, was collected in a series of texts entitled On Virtue.

During the debate, Lumey initially took the role of protagonist, outlining the moral sensibilities that he developed on Ciban. The Primarch particularly stressed the rule of law and the importance of government serving the needs of the people, and explained himself by examples from his homeworld's history. In reply, the Emperor began with an assertion of the destiny of mankind to rule the galaxy, then sought to prove how the Imperial Truth and its doctrines of atheism, reason, and science would serve that end. While On Virtue is a particularly fine explanation of these points, its centre is Lumey's attack on the Emperor's position. The Primarch particularly questioned how an autocracy forged through conquest could be the embodiment of a rational culture. In answer, the Emperor artfully drew from Ciban's recent history, noting that the means used by the rebellion and those used by the old order had differed but little. What set the two apart was that one pointed towards the future, the other to the past. Past this pivot in the argument, Lumey and the Emperor spend a great deal of time further clarifying points of ethics and civics, but the Primarch's questions are clearly those of a student, not a rival.

The Great Crusade

Unlike many of his brothers, Lumey did not rename his new Legion when he took command. Although they were not the largest or fiercest Legion, Winged Victory racked up a fearsome reputation for ruthlessness during the Great Crusade. They consistently met resistance with brutality, punishing those who dared to defy the Emperor as an object lesson for other peoples.

998.M30: Core Worlds Campaign

The Core Worlds confederation was one of the most developed human space realms encountered by the expanding Imperium. Conscious of their strength, the Core Lords expected the Imperium to make an accommodation. The Emperor's policy towards the Core Worlds confederation can be best understood by the two Primarchs dispatched to resolve the matter. Uriel Starikov, affable and charming, opened the negotiations. Gaspard Lumey stood back until the Core Lords' arrogance and greed ruined any hope of peace, then called an end to the talks with a sharp, bitter denunciation. "You have answered every concession with another demand. Your greed will be your end." Even as Starikov concluded the formalities, Winged Victory moved to attack.

Until the coming of the Imperial Legions, Karaza was said to rival Terra itself in its technology, industry and population. The greatest of the Core Worlds was dominated by immense underground cities and its citizens were confident that they had little to fear from a direct assault. They did not count on Lumey's resolve. The Primarch opened his attack with a horrifying fleet bombardment that fractured the crust of the planet and killed tens of billions. A petition to surrender brought not relief, but the descent of the Fifth Legion, the slaughter of the remaining defenders and the destruction of the planet's installations. Karaza never recovered and neither did the Core Worlds confederation. Collective defence evaporated as every Lord sought to defend their own realm; the meekest threw themselves at Starikov's feet in the hopes that the Children of Armok would show mercy, their proud cousins were slain by the Astartes.

003.M30 to 004.M30: Political conflicts

At the Council of Nikaea, Lumey took the podium to demand strict regulations of psykers. However his bitterness towards The Voidseer drove his case into extremism and a universal condemnation of "any and all traffic with the Irrational." Darius Cyaxares, speaking immediately after Lumey, declared for regulation as a compromise between the bickering Primarchs. If the immediate decision of the Emperor was to his liking, the outcome of the Council was costly for Lumey. His tirade turned many of the other Primarchs against him and the action at Kazara was put under investigation. Eventually, the War Council ruled that the Fifth had employed excessive force in subduing the Core Worlds and Winged Victory was dispatched to the Galactic fringe, where worlds were less populous.

On the long voyage out, Lumey circulated an essay among his men explaining his acceptance of Imperial censure. According to the Primarch, censure of the Fifth proved the good health of the Imperium's institutions. Had they escaped without investigation, trial, and appropriate punishment, it would be a sign that the dream of mankind was imperiled by its own armies. The irony of this statement has not been lost on later generations, but Lumey's message and especially his concluding phrase, "If we are to dwell in the Void, then let us be its Angels!" was eagerly taken up by the Fifth Legion: the Void Angels.

004.M31 to 009.M31: The Dispatches

My Dear Brother,

Thank you for the gift. It has been a source of considerable joy to the Legion, both as a reading and in performances organized by our Iterators. Naturally, I have no disagreement regarding the work's significance and shared your sense of loss on learning that there are thirty works of this remarkable Terran still unknown to us. However, I believe your analysis of the work is quite wrong. The most important theme is not Brutus' internal conflict between honour and personal loyalty, but the decline of Roman culture. Shakespare indicates that Brutus represented the ideals of the Republic in its heroic period. Yet by the time of the play, we see this virtuous figure isolated and not enjoying the confidence of the people. That is the essence of the work's historical tragedy.

(Except from the "Julius Caesar letter", as collected in Gaspard Lumey's Dispatches)

Fifth Legion faced great difficulties in their exile. Operating at such long distances from Ciban, let alone Terra, required careful husbanding of resources.

The best records of the Void Angels' sojourn in the galactic fringe are Gaspard Lumey's correspondence with Uriel Starikov. While Starikov's replies were not preserved, Lumey's letters were published and often republished in a collection known as The Dispatches. Military matters were recorded, but the discussion is far-reaching.

His best-known Dispatch, the so-called "Julius Caesar letter", begins with Lumey expressing his gratitude for a copy of Shakespeare's drama. The Primarch then gave his own thoughts on what constitutes the central part of the work, recounts campaign details including tactical experiments against the Orks and passes on a summary of ethnographical and archaeological findings with particular reference to architecture on newly-conquered Dellator. Lumey passed from his reflections with a self-deprecating joke about a senior officer's newborn child "escaping my name by being born female", then sought to make apology for ending his exile without orders, due to the breakdown in Imperial communication. The letter is dated three years after the infamous Drop Site Massacre.

The Heresy and Scouring

While the Void Angels' exile kept them out of the initial fighting, they still played a significant role in the struggle against the Traitor Legions.

Task Force Rubicon

"Gaspard Lumey never told me why he decided to believe Thomas Gaudin and the other Primarchs. There's a popular story that he heard the psychic voice of his father, but it never stacked up for me. After all, the story of Hektor's death suggests that the Emperor was exhausted by their duel. If I had to guess, I'd say that Darius had a hand in it. Gaspard always said that the Sandkeeper's Primarch was the only one he trusted."

(Excerpt from A Marshal in the Great Crusade, the memoirs of Jeanne d'Orleans.)

Forget the myths. I was there. This is why Gaspard Lumey chose to cast in with the Loyalists.

My Lord Alexandri of Rosskar went to speak with Lumey on the Void Angels' flagship. The two Primarchs had never liked each other. They argued at some length. In the end, Alexandri declared that he was with the Loyalists and would never have rebelled just to serve another man. That is how the fate of two Primarchs was decided.

(Excerpt from The Confessions, apocryphal.)

During the Fifth's journey back towards Sol they encountered a mysterious group of warriors who came to be known as the Void Wraiths. It was from the Void Wraiths that Lumey first learned of the Heresy in detail, although he remained sceptical about the particulars of their story. Nonetheless, the Void Angels determined to move on Sol to aid the Emperor and defeat his enemies, whoever they might be.

In preparation for this campaign, the Void Wraiths were incorporated into the Void Angels, forming the first Commando Squadrons. They also contributed a full combat Corps, the so-called Wraith Corps, under command of their own leader, "Fallen Angel". These warriors took on many of the most difficult combat assignments during this period. It is not clear whether they were deliberately used as cannon fodder or volunteered for these duties. Most point to Fallen Angel chasing the Traitors into the Eye of Terror itself as a sign that the Void Wraiths were seeking redemption or vengeance against the forces of Chaos.

Lumey also called up new classes of infantry from his homeworld, Ciban, replacing suspect Imperial Army formations with fresh troops whose loyalty was beyond question. In all, the Fifth's Task Force Rubicon numbered over 200,000 Astartes and over two million ordinary soldiers together with a powerful naval force.

This mighty force only arrived at Sol in time for Wraith Corps to engage in a brief clash with the Black Augurs in the Saturn theatre. But once the Fifth concentrated their full strength in the outer Solar system, difficulties arose. Neither the Emperor nor Malcador was available to vouch for the Loyalists on Terra, leading Lumey to question whether they were the Imperium's defenders or its would-be conquerors. A week of terse communiques went by, hampered by Lumey's refusal to attend his brother Primarchs at the Imperial Palace. Humanity held its breath - then the Void Angels departed the Solar system and dispersed their great fleet across the Empire.

The ruthless campaign Lumey led against every trace of Heresy and betrayal became known as the Great Scouring. No account of the casualties of the Void Angels' purge was never made, as the traitors had already made their lives forfeit, but there can be no doubt that hundreds of billions perished. Few protested Lumey's actions. In fact, during the years of the Scourging, the Void Angels and their Primarch became the popular face of the Astartes. Victories, especially the hard-fought battle against the Life Bringers at Rai, were a greater source of hope than the memories of Bohemond and Kleisthenes.

Leading the Great Scouring of Traitors and Renegades made the Void Angels seem indispensable to the Imperium. Lumey's decision to resign his command and, along with Arelex Orannis, supervise the dismantling of the great Legiones Astartes into Space Marine Chapters came as a shock, but would in later years be seen as the Primarch's greatest achievement. Who else had risen so high without falling to ambition?

Lives of the Primarchs

This era of good feelings was buoyed on by Gaspard Lumey's work in his new role as the First Iterator of the Adeptus Astartes. He wrote biographies of his loyalist brothers known as the Lives of the Primarchs. Arelex Orannis, whose Legion Lumey had once dismissed as "the scribes of war" assisted as editor of this series, up until his own untimely death. The Lives all followed a basic formula. While honest enough in his account, Lumey showed the Primarchs as fundamentally human and shaped by their environment. By doing so, Lumey hoped to make the trauma of the Heresy a comprehensible event and prevent the collapse of the Imperial Truth. However, in the anarchic conditions of the new Imperium, there were few worlds that received Lumey's message. Fewer still accepted it.

During the time in which he fought to defend the Imperium and its culture, the most important of Lumey's friendships was with Brennus, Primarch of the Thunder Kings. The two would exchange many letters in these decades, and as their siblings died or vanished, the two Primarchs grew to cherish one another's company. After Brennus disappeared during the First Black Crusade, Lumey went into seclusion. His last public act was writing a biography of fallen Brennus.

Culture

Uniquely sheltered from the fighting of the Hektor Heresy, the Void Angels never felt the need to drastically alter the beliefs and methods that they had cherished during the Great Crusade.

Lucky Ciban

Ciban IV
Segmentum	Segmentum Pacificus
Sector	Al-Sherar Sector
System	Ciban System
Population	10,000,000,000
Orbital radius	1.58AU ± 0.12AU
Gravity	1.08G
Temperature	Temperate

The Void Angels' homeworld of Ciban IV is a centre of the old Imperial Truth. Reason, scepticism, inquiry and atheism are the cherished values of a Ciban native. When the people of this world declare that "The Emperor protects!" they think of the Imperium's mighty armies, not a divine saviour.

This realism comes at a high cost. The people of Ciban believe themselves deeply isolated, even within the Imperium, and their culture has become increasingly paranoid and militarised. Great libraries, filled with priceless cultural treasures such as Plutarch's Lives, the works of Shakespeare, and Pai's Philosophy of the Space Age, are little patronised. Children spend their early years being groomed for military service, indoctrinated into the Imperial Truth but rarely given a broad education in its heritage. Most go on to spend five years or more in the brigades of the Ciban Chasseurs and Ciban Fusiliers. Even after their military service is over, citizens must work to support an immense burden of armaments.

A typical Ciban native is neither pessimistic nor optimistic about their place in the Galaxy. They are proud of their homeworld as a last sanctuary for humanity's authentic culture, but know that ushering in a new Golden Age of mankind is beyond Ciban's power.

Due to the manpower demands of the Void Angels, a majority of Ciban's senior administrators and politicians are women. This has led to popular portrayals of the Republic as mother and the Chapter as father.

Ciban IV and other realms

The Angels and the Republic

In the eyes of the Imperium, Ciban IV is a fief of the Void Angels and the Speaker of the Chapter is its absolute ruler. In the eyes of its citizens, the world and its dependencies are a ruled by an elected Assembly, with the Speaker of the Void Angels serving as a military leader and interlocutor to the Imperium. The truth lies somewhere between. Although some Void Angels are impressive scholars of civics, the Marines have little interest in administering a civilian government. However, debates over the expense of maintaining the Chapter are never more than formalities. The Republic always assents to the Void Angels's requests.

The closest the Chapter and the Republic have come to a breach was during the so-called Nova Terra debates in 812.M31. As the Imperium at large slumped into religion and dogma, Ciban IV was going through a cultural golden age highlighted by impressive artistic and engineering projects. This disparity led to the "Third Earth Party" being formed and gaining traction in Ciban. Third Earthers believed that Ciban IV was the logical successor to humanity's old centres of Terra and Mars. Following the general election of 811.M31, Third Earth controlled a substantial minority in the Assembly and forced a series of debates on the future of Ciban IV. Increasingly assertive positions were advanced, from the generally accepted view that the Republic had a special responsibility to protect its Sector and other parts of the Segmentum Pacificus to the dangerous view that the Republic ought to declare its independence and rally other worlds to the banner of a New Imperium.

Speaker Mai Dac Kien, then Speaker of the Void Angels, attended many of these debates but refused to speak. This poured fuel on the fire. If the Void Angels were prepared to consider the prospect of a New Imperium, then what did Ciban IV lack? A Declaration of Independence was tabled in the Assembly and although Mai Dac Kien was late to the session, various Third Earthers rose to speak in its favour. When the Speaker finally arrived, he was accompanied by a towering, hooded Space Marine. Visibly nervous, Mai demanded the right to address the Assembly. He gave a short, pointed speech, making clear not only that the Void Angels would not support the Republic in the event of a rebellion, but that even if they did the result would only be a further set-back for human culture. The Imperium might be traumatised and damaged, but it was still mighty: Ciban and the Void Angels would be crushed and a precious refuge of the Imperial Truth destroyed.

The proposal was voted down as Mai Dac Kien and his escort departed the Assembly. Third Earth collapsed, and Mai was never seen again.

Ciban IV and Nhà Máy

I've heard it many times in this debate that our world's youth are already committed to war and that only the old and grey remain on Ciban. Well, I am old and past grey, and the matter is clear enough to me. If my neighbour's house is burning, it does me no good to stay at home and be glad I am not him. The old book says, "the surest way to secure one's own safety is by protecting that of others," and by my reckoning that maxim has done me more good than ill up so far. Any peril from here on out can draw against that balance.

(Excerpt from Elaine Akh'Ultan's resignation speech to the Ciban Assembly, 016.M31)

The Forge World Nhà Máy was first settled late in M28. Due to a warp accident, the settler fleet was scattered and badly damaged, arriving at Nhà Máy without its Titan Legion. While the colonists managed to establish a substantial industrial base and retained much of their scientific knowledge, the world's population stood at just over six million when it was rediscovered in the Great Crusade. Nhà Máy's proximity to the Fifth Legion's new homeworld of Ciban IV prompted the Adeptus Mechanicus to build up the world's facilities. New machinery was dispatched from Mars, along with a small fleet of colonists, and Nhà Máy began to produce advanced weaponry to supply Winged Victory. However, the demands of the Great Crusade meant that the Forge World continued to lack for a Titan Legion for its own defence.

While Nhà Máy was untroubled by the Heresy, its fragile existence was brutally exposed in 016.M31 when a splinter of the Gorgers Chaos Legion, accompanied by Imperial Army Traitors, attacked. The Traitors appear to have landed with the intention of resupplying their fleet, fleeing from the resurgent Loyalist forces, but on seeing the weakness of the defenders they determined to sack the world thoroughly. A desperate cry for aid from Nhà Máy found none of the newly-formed Imperial Guard or Space Marine Chapters in a position to respond.

A heated debate broke out in the Republic of Ciban, resulting in an unhappy compromise. The Assembly judged that only volunteers could be dispatched, given the extent of Ciban IV's existing commitments to the Great Scouring. Inspired by the example of 84 year-old Elaine Akh'Ultan, who laid down her place in the Assembly to re-enlist, a substantial body of volunteers, many of them veterans of past campaigns, formed up into new brigades. They were joined by a small force of Void Angels Scouts, newly graduated from the Chapter's Collegium Majoris, and embarked for Nhà Máy.

Notable places

Outside of the Void Angels' facilities, the d'Orleans Academy is Ciban IV's premier institute of martial instruction. Its alumni include several Inquisitors, not to mention hundreds of Marshals and countless lower-ranking officers.

Fennec Shrines. Fennechia is home to a number of fine temples dating from the Age of Strife. While these fell into disrepair late in M29 as the grand faith of pre-Gallian conquest was suppressed, many of the best examples were brilliantly restored during Ciban's golden centuries of M31. The great domes, especially that of the magnificent Sanctuaire de Sagesse, and intricate non-representative artwork still draw visitors from throughout the Sector.

Gaspard Lumey Museum in Nouvelle-Havre. This memorial museum to the Primarch was set up in his home town during the period of the Great Crusade. Over the centuries it has been through several different buildings as it increased its collection and popularity. By the end of the 40th Millenium, the museum highlights include; replicas of Lumey's armour and weapons from different times of his life, an excellent collection of his writings, and a fine exhibition of Icons from the Sabbat Worlds showing "The Angel Gaspard" as he appeared to Saint Sabbat.

The Spiral Cenotaph near Saint Vercy, dating from late M32. This great park, fully 10km in diameter, is laid out as a replica of the Milky Way Galaxy. Stately columns, bearing the names of the fallen, mark out the site of each battle fought by the Army of Ciban or the Void Angels. Replicas of the colours of destroyed brigades are also displayed in the appropriate locations. A small army of guides is employed to show visitors around the park, allowing them to retrace the steps of expeditions from Ciban.

The Light of Reason

During the Core Worlds Campaign, the Fifth Legion captured two immense spacecraft, relics of the Dark Age of Technology. One was gifted to the Adeptus Mechanicus, and became known as The Light of the Omnissiah. The other, after a refit by the Techpriests of Mars, entered the Fifth's service as The Light of Reason. Yet it also became a devolved component of the Republic of Ciban, settled by a civilian population that would grow to over a million souls.

The Light of Reason's commissioning was timely. Barely out of its shakedown cruise, the great city-ship was called on to serve as the Legion's base of operations in their long sojourn in the Galactic fringe. While not able to produce weapons of war on the scale of a Forge World, the citizens of The Light of Reason toiled to keep the Void Angels stocked with ammunition, food, and other supplies.

The great vessel would go on to become the base of the Angels Vigilant Chapter.

Legion Organisation

In the time of Lumey, the head of the Void Angel Legion carried no grand title, being known simply as the Speaker of the Chapter. Beneath the Speaker were fifteen Senators at the head of a Marine Corps and extensive supporting forces. An additional five Senators are given command over the Legion's Armoury, Civilian Relations, Naval Reserve, Recruitment and Training, and Security. In matters of extreme gravity, these twenty officers, together with the Speaker, form the Void Angels' supreme consultative body.

Specialist Ranks

Chirurgeon These specialists perform the same role as Apothecaries do in other Chapters.

Clerks Recruits who wash out of training are not enserfed by the Void Angels. Instead, they are taken into the Chapter's administrative and logistical staff. Clerks are generally well-respected and have a similar rank structure to Marines. The Senators responsible for the Legion's Armoury and Civilian Relations are often Clerks.

Commandos The Fifth modified their tactics during the Heresy period, adopting specialized light infantry units of full Battle Brothers. These sections use similar equipment to Void Angels Scouts, but they are all experienced warriors and excellent marksmen.

Iterators Uninspired by the Imperial Cult, the Void Angels draw their strength from speakers of the Imperial Truth. Iterators are mighty warriors of great strength of will, trained in logic and rhetoric. The presence of such an exceptional individual on the battlefield fills his Battle-Brothers with a sense of their part in Mankind's destiny. Iterators also serve an important role in the life of the Legion, counselling their fellow Marines, acting as judges on matters of internal discipline, and often serving as envoys to other Chapters. The Prime Iterator is the Legion's chief justice and carries out certain ceremonial roles, while his counterpart, the Master of the Collegium is the chief of the Void Angels fortress-barracks on Ciban.

Wraith Corps A clandestine body reporting only to the Prime Iterator, the Wraith Corps is charged with actions against other Imperial forces. Strike Cruisers assigned to their use are never given proper names and are known only by their designation VASC (Void Angels Strike Cruiser) and a three-digit identification number. The Wraith Corps is particularly active against the Children of Armok.

Order of Battle

While the Fifth Legion began its life organised in the same manner as its fellows, Primarch Gaspard Lumey introduced several shifts in its structure. The most drastic changes followed the Core Worlds Campaign.

Operations in the sparsely populated reaches of the Galactic fringe had required delegating far more authority to his subordinates than previous campaigns. Accordingly, Corps Headquarters were invested with new planning responsibilities and further delegated strategic tasks to their subdivisions. This eased the assimilation of the Void Wraiths, whose tactical doctrine was quite different to the regular Fifth's.

Order of Battle 013.M31: Task Force Rubicon

"Arrogant", a Legatus-Class Battle Barge assigned to First Echelon, the main landing force of Task Force Rubicon. Arrogant had served with distinction during the Core Worlds Campaign, launching the decisive boarding action that led to the capture of The Light of Reason.

When Lumey assembled his great Task Force Rubicon for the decision at Sol, a typical Corps had three Marine Brigades of three Battalions apiece. The Battalion somewhat resembled a Codex Astartes Chapter, with a Veteran Squadron, Commando Squadron, Four Battle Squadrons and Four Reserve Squadrons. Squadron specialties were similar to those of Codex Companies. Veterans are grouped together in the First Squadron, although the Void Angels rarely deployed their Terminator armour. Commandos formed the Second Squadron. Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth were flexible Battle Squadrons, with Seventh and Eighth in Reserve. Ninth Squadron specialized in Assault while Tenth carried the Battalion's heavy weapons. Squadrons varied in their strength, each composed of four Sections with tenth to twenty Battle Brothers and one or two Sections of Scouts. Veteran Squadrons usually lacked a Scout Section.

Dubious of traitors within his ranks, Lumey detached the Imperial Army formations that had accompanied the Void Angels to the Galactic Fringe and stationed them as garrisons on less critical worlds. In their place, a great mass of brigades of ordinary soldiers, organised along similar lines to Marine Brigades, were raised from Ciban. Since the end of Waaagh! The Beast, deployment of Ciban's ordinary brigades has become far less common, especially outside of Segmentum Pacificus. However, the Speaker of the Legion still has the formal right to request that the Republic's regular forces are seconded to his command, and this amounts to full authority over their deployment.

Headquarters

• Task Force Commander: Primarch Gaspard Lumey (commanding from the Redoutable)
• Deputy Commander: Marshal Antoine Elkhabar (commanding from The Light of Reason)
• Naval Commander: Senator Kesh Kanak (commanding from the Resolve)

Forces under Gaspard Lumey's direct command:

• 1st and 2nd Void Angels Brigades (6,000 Astartes)
• 3rd Void Angels Marine Corps
  • 3 Marine Brigades (9,000 Astartes)
• 4th Void Angels Marine Corps
  • 3 Marine Brigades (9,000 Astartes)
• 8th Void Angels Marine Corps
  • 3 Marine Brigades (9,000 Astartes)
• Airmobile Reserve Corps
  • 4th Ciban Chassuers, 8th Ciban Chasseurs, 31st Ciban Chasseurs, 33rd Ciban Chasseurs (14,400 soldiers)
• Naval Task Groups
  • Task Group R1
    • Task Element R1.1 "Resolve" (Gloriana-Class), "Terrible" (Retribution-Class), and escorting vessels
    • Task Element R1.2 "Redoutable" (Emperor-Class), "Formidable" (Nemesis-Class), and escorting vessels
    • Task Element R1.3 "The Light of Reason" (Ciban-Class), "Glaive" (Ironclad-Class), "Halberd" (Ironclad-Class), and escorting vessels
  • R2 (reserve cruiser force)
• Security detail
  • Equivalent of five Brigades security detachments (30,000 soldiers)

Advance Forces

Commander: "Fallen Angel"

• Wraith Corps
  • 3 Reinforced Marine Brigades (12,000 Astartes)
• Naval Task Group R3
  • Task Element R3.1: VASC-022, VASC-039, VASC-104, VASC-106, VASC-118 (presumed to be Strike Cruisers)
  • Task Element R3.2: VASC-005, VASC-044, VASC-084, VASC-119, VASC-120 (presumed to be Strike Cruisers)
  • Task Element R3.3: VASC-048, VASC-051, VASC-080, VASC-088, VASC-098 (presumed to be Strike Cruisers)
  • Task Element R3.4: VABB-022, VABB-023, VABB-028 (presumed to be Battle Barges), and escorts
  • Task Element R3.5: VABB-015, VABB-018, VABB-025 (Presumed to be Battle Barges), and escorts
  • Task Element R3.6: VABC-008 (presumed to be a Battle Cruiser), VACA-058, VACA-77 (presumed to be heavy cruisers), and escorts
  • Task Element R3.7: Fast Transports and escorts
  • Task Element R3.8: Fast Transports and escorts

First Echelon

Commander: Senator Fabrice Diallo

• First Army (Commander: Gabriel Naudé)
  • Four Marine Corps (36,000 Astartes)
• Second Army (Commander: Tahar Djaout)
  • Four Marine Corps (36,000 Astartes)
• Third Army (Commander: Quế Đường)
  • Four Marine Corps (36,000 Astartes)
• Naval Task Group R4
  • Task Element R4.1 "Téméraire" (Retribution-Class), "Triumphant" (Retribution-Class), and escorting vessels.
  • Task Element R4.2 "Impossible" (Emperor-Class), "Imperious" (Avenger-Class), and escorting vessels
• Naval Task Group R5
  • Task Element R5.1 "Élan" (Basileus-Class) and escorting vessels
  • Task Element R5.2 "Esprit" (Basileus-Class) and escorting vessels
  • Task Element R5.3 "Arrogant" (Legatus-Class) and escorting vessels

Second Echelon

Commander: Senator Mai Dac Kien

• Fourth Army (Commander: Alexandre Awala)
  • Two Marine Corps (18,000 Astartes)
  • Two Army Corps (40,000 soldiers)
• Fifth Army (Commander: Richard Dogbeh)
  • Two Marine Corps (18,000 Astartes)
  • Two Army Corps (40,000 soldiers)
• Sixth Army (Commander: Augustin Caron)
  • Two Marine Corps (18,000 Astartes)
  • Two Army Corps (40,000 soldiers)
• Naval Task Group R6 (Cruisers)
• Naval Task Group R7 (Transport ships and escorts)

Third Echelon

Commander: Marshal Jeanne d'Orléans

• Reserve Army Group A
  • Four Armies (approximately 1,000,000 soldiers)
• Reserve Army Group B
  • Four Armies (approximately 1,000,000 soldiers)
• Naval Task Group R8 (Transport ships and escorts)
• Naval Task Group R9 (Transport ships and escorts)

Tactics and Equipment

All of the Astartes are instruments of the Emperor's wrath. The Void Angels go one step further, knowing it is not enough to destroy the enemy. They seek to prove the futility - and terrible cost - of opposing the Empire. The many atrocities carried out by the Void Angels have often attracted censure and complaint, but none can deny their effectiveness.

Rebels and living xenos are the Void Angels' primary targets. Infiltrators precede the main assault, killing targets of opportunity and leaving the bodies in the open so that the enemy may know what awaits them. During the Scourging, the Legion developed particularly fine marksmen and snipers. These specialists are despised and feared for their practice of inflicting mortal but slow-killing wounds. The Void Angels are well aware that a downed comrade screaming in agony is a detriment to morale.

The Void Angels arsenal is lacking in no respect, but prized equipment such as Terminator armour is generally held in reserve on Ciban and rarely deployed to expeditionary forces. While ancient technology is respected for its efficacy, the Void Angels make no fetish of it and attach little significance to the history of their weapons and armour.

Gene-seed and Successors

The Void Angels are the great sire of the Adeptus Astartes. Dozens of Chapters were founded from among their ranks during the Second Founding and their geneseed, prized for its stability, has been the most frequently used in later Foundings.

Angels Imperious

Second Founding, first led by Fabrice Diallo.

Eyes of the Void

(placeholder for the re-establishment of the Eyes of the Emperor in the Third Founding)