Sons of Fire

Sons of Fire
Number	IV
Founding	First Founding
Successors of	N/A
Primarch	Inferox
Homeworld	Crematoria
Allegiance	Chaos

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

Summary of Legion IV

Numeration: The IVth Legion

Primogenator: Infernox (also known as "Burned King")

Cognomen (Prior): The Hammers of Terra

Observed Strategic Tendencies: Area Denial Tactics, Purgation, Exterminatus and Planet-Killing Actions.

Noteworthy Domains: The Crematoria System (Primary), Tithe Rights to Achaemenid Cities on Terra.

Alliegence: Traitoris Perdita

"Some call us monsters, butchers, animals. I disagree. We only leave pure ash behind in our wake."

Legionary Equerry Dilshad, M.30

None were more feared in the time of both the Great Crusade and the Hektor Heresy than the Sons of Fire. Specializing in cleansing and purification procedures, the Sons of Fire were often tasked with taking worlds which could not be salvaged or retaken. Xenos infested planets, mutant hordes roaming about old human worlds, religious aristocracies which would never accept the Imperial Truth. All were put to the torch, none could withstand the flames of Legion IV.

Legion Tactics

Area Denial was the main forte of the Sons of Fire, which made them lethal in urban warfare and in Zone Mortalis operations. As time went on this specialization was joined by a growing hunger for fire, a need to inflict pain by fire, to burn, not merely disintegrate. This led to the use of special types of flamer fuel, that which instead of disintegrating the target outright would scorch and burn them, leaving them broken and bleeding and waiting for the kiss of the Sons of Fire’s flaming axes. These bloody practises went unnoticed initially, but as the crusade dragged on more and more noticed the pyromaniac tendencies and hunger for both blood and fire that would doom the Legion.

While the Sons of Fire did utilise field armour, support vehicles and transports, these were not given any primacy in the Legion's tactical doctrine. The only exception was flame-weapons tanks such as the Malcador and Predator Infernus, and the Land Raider Redeemer invented by the Sons of Fire as an assault transport that would later be adopted by other Legions.

Legion Equipment

At its creation, the IV Legion, like almost all the Space Marine Legions of the time, followed the standard "Terran Pattern" of organisation as laid out for all the newly created Legions, but even in this earliest period the Legion's procurement and outfitting showed a considerable bias towards direct assault and operations within the close and deadly confines of the kinds of battlefields designated as "Zone Mortalis”, with a speciality on using area denial weapons such as flamers which were most effective in this type of warfare. Once Inferox took command this trend continued, and the Legion's organisational structures were kept largely intact and further streamlined, with its echelons being modified into specialized line infantry formations known as Conflagrations. A Conflagration was a Battalion-level hybrid of tactical/close assault troops for the main part, supported by dedicated heavy assault units such as Terminators and specialised units such as Land Speeder squadrons. This organisation lent itself well to a highly aggressive strategic posture and belligerent tactics involving area denial, burning the enemy out of their fortifications and positions.

Weaponry and tactics were streamlined to be simple and direct. Bolter, Melta and Flamer became their principle weapons, keeping supply needs to a minimum. Noteworthy is that the Sons of Fire quickly became associated with the use of alchem and radiation weaponry to a greater extent than any other Legion, especially the use of burning Phosphex which the legion soon specialized in. Though the Great Crusade was launched to conquer worlds and not destroy them, unless there was no alternative, in such warzones where there was no hope for human life or where the only option was complete purgation, the usual caveats and protocols restricting the use of contaminate weapons by the Emperor's command did not often apply and these warzones were often entrusted to the Sons of Fire who took great joy in burning them to the crust.

Legion Doctrine

The Burned King was always a twisted soul. Twisted like a flame. The Sons of Fire are no different, obsessed with burning. Everything. They set entire systems ablaze for the Emperor, but they found a new master in Khorne. Before the Heresy, they tried to mask their all consuming desires for fire with a cold, calm and ruthless exterior, which broke down when Khorne claimed their souls. They were present on Terra and the Burned King is now a daemon prince. On Istvaan they collected all of the dead loyalists, and burned their bodies and armour to slag and ash, before piling their scorched skulls in a pyramid inside of a captured ship, and firing it into the Warp.

In the aftermath of the betrayal at Istvaan III, the Sons of Fire became ever more insular and uncontrollable on the battlefield as their desire for Fire and Blood took them over, turning them into double-edged sword even to their allies as they burned whole swathes of the battlefield, uncaring who was incinerated. All-out infantry assaults supported by fast moving armour, with the aim of immediately closing into bloody short range and melee and always with the intent to burn the foe from the battlefield became their only goal; inferno for its own sake beyond any strategic objective to the contrary.

Notable members of the Sons of Fire

First Captain Emiya, the King of Blades

Emiya, also known as the King of Blades is a Chaos Space Marine of the Sons of Fire Legion. Once the First Cpatain and Primarch’s Equerry of his Legion, Emiya is now the greatest of all the mortal Champions of Khorne, embodying that god's indiscriminate rage and bloodlust. A Terran from the Nihion Islands, Emiya was part of the early intakes for the Legion during the first decades of the Great Crusade, eventually rising to become Captain of the First Company by the time of the Heresy. In battle Emiya is always where the fighting is at its thickest, wielding his twin blades, the Fang-blade of Ignarak and the Red Sword, these fell weapons continually rise and fall as they sever heads and claim skulls. Since the end of the Heresy, Emiya has become the unstoppable and bloody avatar of Khorne. He hunts through the Eye of Terror and across the galaxy, slaughtering any worthy enough to be killed in Khorne's name.

Inferox, "The Burned King", Primarch of the Sons of Fire

Appearance

Inferox, "The Burned King"

Towering, Dark Skinned, Near-African features. His skin is mostly burned.

Youth

The planet of Crematoria had become blackened and broken by years of fighting even before Infernox arrived. Ever since the Age of Strife, the simple agriculture-based world had been engulfed in warfare. Although they lacked gunpowder they understood the ability to produce highly volatile chemical potion which burned upon contact with the air. It would not stop until it had consumed itself. Attempts to use water or air to kill it only fed this powerful alchemical flame. Warfare largely consisted of lobbing bottles of the substance at one another with brief clashes of melee combat with knives or spears.

The last of the human settlements had aligned themselves into three factions; The Priesthood of Narlex, the Disciples of the Tome, and the Lords of the Mountain. The Primarch came to be inducted by the Disciples of the Tome who adopted him happily. Techno-barbarian wars raged all during Infernox's childhood, forcing him to constantly stay on the move in a nomadic style of life. He came to learn the origins of the Disciples, those scientists and scholars on the world when it first fell to savagery writing all they knew into a single book. All those who became Disciples had to learn this volume front to back, then copy it down from sheer memory.

All throughout his life Infernox feared fire. It represented death and destruction to him. His own Tome, nearly close to being finished, was destroyed in a lightning fast raid done by the Lords to acquire new slaves. His family were all killed or captured in the attack, causing him be deeply traumatized towards fire for the next few years. This crippling phobia made him unable to properly function when the day came that the last of the Disciples were captured, including himself. They had been rounded up by the Priest to serve as a sacrifice to their war god Narlex. Unable to escape Infernox had endure being burned at the stake along with the last remnants of his tribe. Surprisingly he survived this, bringing the Priests under his banner as they swore to serve him. This is when he was given the title of 'Burned King'.

The next fifty years Infernox mastered his aversion to flame, coming to bring the Priesthood away from the worship of Narlex and instead worship flame itself. He burned the Lords who had tormented him all his life but upon killing the last Lord, Infernox turned on his Priesthood. Infernox had alone killed all life on Crematoria, gladly accepting the embrace of hunger and the eventual death that would come with it. He had tried several times to burn himself to a cinder to no avail. However the galaxy had other plans for the Burned King.