Silver Spears

Silver Spears
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Battle Cry	The Hunt is On!
Number	IV
Successor Chapters	Unknown
Primarch	Kashaln
Homeworld	???
Specialty	Specialist infantry tactics, cavalry assaults, oration
Allegiance	Traitors
Colours	SILVER

This page is part of the Imperium Asunder, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the Imperium Asunder page for more information on the Alternate Universe.

History

Homeland

Cast to the Warp by the revenge of the Ruinous Powers, Kashaln crashed down upon the world of Divgharan during the festivities that marked the end of one of its long, dry summers. Divgharan was an arid, hilly planet with few exceptionally large bodies of water; human civilization clung to the edges of the great river valleys that cut across the planet's sweeping hills, mostly forming into disparate city-states with only a few sparse traces of cultural unity. His coming was heralded by what the primitive locals wrongly identified as a great, blue-feathered comet, thought to be a sign sent by the spirits of the closing season, and Kashaln's crash site was quickly discovered by a gaggle of horsemen under the command of a local warlord - a man named Aurangzeb. Considering the child to be a creature of the heavens, and therefore equipped with the righteous destiny to rule, Aurangzeb, fearing for his crown, had those who had discovered Kashaln killed, and took the boy in as his son, claiming that he had been born to one of his concubines on the hour of the comet, and would one day lead his armies across Divgharan.

As a Primarch, Kashaln quickly grew into a strong and swift young man, absorbing all that his 'father' taught him and soon surpassing any who might challenge him in the arts of war. By the age of ten, Kashaln was without equal in the court of Aurangzeb, and thirsted for leadership over the warlord's armies. Seeing his innate might, Aurangzeb allowed him to take to the fields of battle, and Kashaln spread his 'father's' domain to the edges of the known world, conquering and subjugating all that took up arms against him.

In the latter years of this great conquest, Aurangzeb had grown old and frail, retiring more often to his bedchambers, and soon it was upon him that he would surely die in the coming days. In his old age the warlord felt a pang of guilt for the way he had lied to his greatest servant, pangs that were enhanced by the question of what he would be afforded in the days of the afterlife, and as he felt the life slipping from him he called Kashaln to his chambers to reveal to the young man his true origins. He was shocked to find that Kashaln had known for some time - he had long ago guessed that he was not of Aurangzeb's flesh and blood, but he judged him a worthy lord to stand in service to. Moved by his son's incredible sense of duty and unerring instincts for right and wrong, Aurangzeb declared him a truer heir than any of his flesh and blood sons, and left his empire to him.

This decision was not without opposition, Aurangzeb's jealous wives making it known that Kashaln was no son of theirs, and the following years of Divgharan's story were remarkably bloody ones, an immense war of succession fought between Kashaln and the armies of Aurangzeb's true sons, who felt themselves cheated by this bastard star child.

Discovery

The battle between Kashaln and his brothers would be cut short by the arrival of a creature equal in every way to the star child.

Divgharan was situated in the path of the Paladins of Kor and its Primarch, who made planetfall in the deeps of midwinter, seeking to integrate the primitive world into the growing Imperium of Man. Anders was a god-king arrayed in plate of gold and flowing white, bringing with him the many wonders of a spacefaring civilization - advanced medicines, efficient farming techniques, and means of moisture collection that would soon make the relatively scarcity of water on Divgharan a thing of the past. Faced with such miracles of science and philosophy, there were few among the warlords of Divgharan that would not bend knee in his presence and pledge their realms to him.

One of those few was Kashaln, who commanded the greatest and widest of lands on Divgharan, and who had little taste for stepping down until proper order had been returned to all Aurangzeb's provinces and realms. Anders had no interest in simply crushing any of the old rulers of Divgharan, preferring to instead integrate them into the world's new order under Imperial rule, and so the two giants met to negotiate, and the Lion of Cydonia quickly realized that he was faced with one of his errant brothers. Kashaln, too, understood that he looked upon a being of his own like, for no other man of Divgharan had such stature of strength of spirit, and he finally came to learn the truth of his parentage - that he was a prince of heaven, charged not with the subjugation of petty mortal nations, but with the burning of worlds. The concept was a tantalizing one, but Kashaln refused to leave Divgharan until his 'father's' realms had been put in order and his 'brothers' had paid for their crimes against the rightful order. Anders promised that he was more than capable of bringing peace and security to the entire planet, and doing so without bloodshed, but this was not Kashaln's way - there had to be blood, for what was right had been challenged by Aurangzeb's wayward sons, and they owed him their deaths and the lamentations of their peoples.

Unwilling to see Divgharan torn asunder by Kashaln's war, Anders sent an astropathic message back to Terra - to his father.

Acting quickly upon the news of his son's discovery, the Emperor made haste to Divgharan, making planetfall amidst a retinue of golden stalwarts that made even the astartes of Anders' legion seem small and frail. Kashaln could say no to Anders, but, faced with the overwhelming majesty of the Master of Mankind, he could not object to his father's summons, and Divgharan was left in Anders' care. Kashaln returned to Terra with the Emperor, vowing to serve him with every morsel of strength in his body, to bring war to his foes and conquer in his name. The Emperor, for the most part, was pleased with this.

Tutelage and Return to Divgharan

Spirited away to Terra alongside a host of Custodes, Kashaln was quickly left to his studies by the Emperor, which were overseen by his brother and senior Legion Commander Alexios. For the most part, beyond the inevitable culture shock of entering a starfaring civilization, Kashaln took well to the Imperial Truth and his place in it. Recognizing his father as surely the greatest of warlords, a conqueror of celestial scale, Kashaln was comfortable with being a prince in his interstellar kingdom - it was what he had always known, and he desired little more, as of yet. It was not until much later that the true meaning of Imperial rule would occur to Kashaln and he would come to resent the idea that he and his legionnaires, a sublime warrior caste, were technically servants to the peaceful, lesser folk of the Imperium.

His tutelage finished with, and considered a success by Alexios, who found his pupil eager to serve the glory of the Emperor, Kashaln returned to Divgharan alongside his legion, set on expanding the number of Astartes under his command by drawing from the warlike population of his homeworld. What he found when he arrived horrified him - Anders and his Paladins of Kor had transformed almost half of Divgharan beyond recognition, sweeping aside ancient grudges and uniting a vast coalition from many of the city-states that ruled the planet's surface. Slowly but surely, Divgharan was becoming a world not ruled by warlords and warriors, as was the ancient way, but by senators and statesmen, whose will was subordinate to that of the uneducated and unblooded masses. To add insult to injury, many of those that formed this coalition were from among Aurangzeb's sons, those who Kashaln had sworn to hunt down and slay upon the battlefield, as was the correct way for one brother to strike down another. Now they were sickly men of peace, unsuited for such a death, and Kashaln could only feel robbed in the most profound sense imaginable.

Furious, Kashaln demanded that Kor and his Marines departed, leaving Divgharan to its rightful ruler, but the Lion of Cydonia was set in his ways and refused. Their bickering soon devolved into a proxy war, the remaining city states of Divgharan marshaled under the might of the Silver Spears and coaxed into a bloody war against the growing coalition of Anders' devising. As greater and greater weapons of destruction filtered down into the hands of Divgharan's relatively primitive people, the conflict grew bloodier and bloodier, until it was decreed by The Heir himself that Divgharan was to remain divided. Anders' republic was efficient and prosperous, contributing far more in terms of material wealth to the Imperium than the divided states of old Divgharan ever could, but it did not provide the men of mettle that Kashaln required. So, Divgharan was split in half, Kashaln and Anders both grudgingly relenting in the face of a greater authority, and remained locked in a perpetual state of cold war until the time of the Heresy.

Though the matter was considered resolved by the Imperium and the Emperor, Kashaln would never forget Anders' slight against him, and time would only deepen his hate for the White Lion.

Organization

Tactics

Infantry Specialization

Kashaln disagreed with his father on many subjects, and one of them was how the art of war was to be conducted. Prior to the Primarch's discovery, the Silver Spears Legion adhered to the standard structure of micro-versatility shared by all the Legiones Astartes - that is, it was primarily composed of units that, when acting individually, could counter any threat. The coming of Kashaln saw a swift and bloody shift toward a very different doctrine of macro-versatility, instituting a system of specialized infantry squads with their equipment and training dictated entirely by their battlefield role. Rather than each squad dividing its attention between several specialties, Silver Spears combat doctrine instead demands a careful unity between all fighting forces of the Legion, the whole functioning as greater than the sum of its parts. The Silver Spears prize the versatility and durability of the bolter, and standard tactical squads were quickly replaced among its ranks by units equipped solely with bolters and frag grenades, each Marine devoted to the mastery of its use. Eschewing all but bare minimum vehicles, the Silver Spears routinely compliment such units with squads of Devastators and Assault Marines.

Heavy Cavalry

The Silver Spears look to antiquity for inspiration in their wars, and few armies of the ancient world would be complete without a cavalry division.

Space Marine bikes see disproportionate usage within the Legion. In keeping with the Silver Spears' doctrine of specialization, these armoured cavalry divisions are often quite remarkably different in form and function from those of their fellow Legions. Bikes of all kinds are typically employed by Space Marine forces as harassers and outriders, achieving mobile superiority. Among the Silver Spears, however, the use of bike squads is preferred as a means of delivering fast, crushing blows against enemy formations, striking at the flanks of their foes and scattering them from their positions.

Appropriately, Silver Spears cavalry units are equipped almost solely for close quarters combat. Instead of the twin-linked bolters normally integrated into the frontal chassis of their vehicles, they instead have extra armour plating, and rush into battle equipped with power lances or chainspears, seeking to cleave a bloody trail deep into the hearts of enemy formations.