I am in the middle of re-writting a older piece of my fluff, currently I have only down two Legions and am working on the third later:
Legion I: The Dark Angels.
Caliban was a verdant world, one rife with the Chaotic natures of the Baleful Eye. The capsule of Lion El’Jonson was cast onto this world, the twisted messengers of Tzeentch weaving a path through the waning Warp and onto this world. For seven years he hunted alone, isolated from the small pockets of human life upon Caliban. The hostile beings of the forests kept El’Jonson constantly alerted, and it was only when he killed a group of fur clad hunters which he believed to be beasts, did the Calibanites realise that they needed to destroy them.
Led by the enigmatic Knight, Luther, a expedition pushed deep into the dwellings of the creatures. He killed untold amounts, slaughtering entire species during the space of three years. At the pinnacle of the third, while riding with two of his trusted companions, he came across a giant amongst the foliage. El’Jonson was said to have snapped the neck of one Knight in rage, and left the other battered and bloody but it was Luther that he could know harm. Nor could Luther lay harm upon the golden haired child before him.
They simply stared for hours, neither making the first move until the injured Knight stirred from his injured state. He had leapt at El’Jonson in a fit of madness, but Luther intervened and cut his friend down. This was the act which had him cast from The Order, and he was banished to travel the wilds of Caliban. Initially he had not intended the Primarch, albeit a unknown one, to follow him however he could not keep the youth away. The Order had become tyrannical in the times which Luther had been absent, and entire villages had been pillaged or simply destroyed.
The Calibanites became enraged but with no leader there was little they could do. That was until Luther and El’Jonson returned from a crusade against a Calibanite Lion den, deep in the cold north. The two assembled the men of some eighteen villages, over a thousand to be precise, and launched a siege against the fortress of The Order, known as the Rock. It lasted for several months as the barely armed peasantry clambered up and down the walls methodically, and it was not until the end of the eighth month that The Order made their move.
Eighty mounted Knights charged from the primary portcullis with banners fluttering. The walkway which they charged down sent peasants tumbling into the depths below, and only one being stood in their way with a axe in hand. Lion El’Jonson. With each swing he took he sent the Knights flying away, cleaved apart by mighty hacks. He held it alone as his forces fled under the watch of Luther, buying his fellows enough time too organize a counter attack. With the few mounted horsemen that Luther could muster, he led them back up the walkway and into the line of Knights.
El’Jonson ran side by side with powerful steeds that day, destroying Knights of The Order in a brutal dance. When the rebels breached the Rock, the battles within lasted a scarce nine hours. No Knights were gifted mercy, and instead El’Jonson ordered each one to be tortured and that they would take as long in hours as each of them had killed or raped from the villages. A month passed and the twin ruling of El’Jonson and Luther had led the lands surrounding their new fortress in great prosperity. It was then that a great tide fell upon the horizon.
Luther knew them well, recognizing their fur covered armoured forms almost instantly. The Knights of Lupus. Luther had some form of history with these, having served with them during a previous crusade and was overjoyed when he realised that they came under banners of peace. With the Knights of Lupus now joining El’Jonson and Luther it became apparent that none could stand against him. For a further year peace reigned on Caliban, and it was then that the God-Emperor of Mankind arrived.
With him he brought the First Legion, a mighty series of gene-enhanced humans who dwarfed all on Caliban bar El’Jonson himself. The Calibanites showed hostility towards the newcomers however, with the Grand Master of the Knights of Lupus, Sartana, withdrawing from the company of the aptly named Space Marines. El’Jonson gave up many children of Caliban to join his Legion, and for ten years the Dark Angels, as they had became known in memory of the fallen, grew greatly. Luther and several older members of El’Jonson’s followers could not withstand the Gene-Seed though and were “upgraded” by the Legion Apothecaries so that they could rival the Astartes.
The first years of the Dark Angels have long since been lost to the annals of time, but it is known that El’Jonson was a ruthless commander who’s tactical victories grew until they fell only behind Horus Lupercal and Rogal Dorn. After a particularly bad campaign which left the Legion mauled, El’Jonson returned to Caliban wanting to bolster his ranks. When he arrived, he found his world enthralled in Xeno of the Warp, Daemons. He bombarded his world into ash, destroying the Rock and various over monasteries in the process.
Angered and longing for the blood of those who had ruined his world, he led his mighty First Company onto the planet. What conspired during these times is unknown, but El’Jonson was corrupted beyond belief by the Chaos God Tzeentch. Luther and the loyal elements of the Legion could not see this, and slowly like a festering cancer the taint spread throughout the ranks. When news of Rogal Dorn’s treachery reached the ears of Luther, he immediately took it to his Primarch. When the Lion was unwilling to lend his aid against Dorn, Luther was horrified.
He took the matter to the Lodges of the Legion, primarily the Ravenwing of Belath. The Chapter Master accused Luther of tainting the ranks of the Dark Angels with incoherent babbling and had him locked away along with the majority of Terran Legionnaires, mainly the five hundred veterans under Master Astelan. For the fist time in the history of the Dark Angels, brother threatened brother. Astelan and Luther drew together a plan as the First Legion maneuvered towards the fortress world of Inwit, where the turncoats of Dorn were gathering their forces. It was during the transit between pitiful Caliban and mighty Inwit that the plan was sprung.
The Terran borne Astartes broke free of their holding pens aboard the Sword of the Emperor and mass hysteria spread across the fleet. Chief Librarian Israfael, one of the few Terran’s who had not been locked away, aided the escapees by preparing a Cruiser for their escape but before he himself could leave the raging El’Jonson flayed him with his newly gifted abilities. Astelan and Luther ordered their forces under Captain Remiel to escape, while they turned and pushed deep into the mighty vessel. They met their fallen Primarch in combat within his arched throne room.
Astelan killed the traitor Belath with greet glee and held back the Ravenwing while Luther pushed towards the Primarch himself. The ensuing duel was perhaps one of the greatest in history as the Primarch took to his sword, a last sense of honour not allowing him to simply destroy his adoptive father. Astelan was gunned down at the doorway by the members of the First Company, leaving Luther stranded alone upon the flagship. Before El’Jonson cleaved his head from his shoulders, Luther did manage to impale the primary heart of the Primarch. It proved to be a mortal wound, and El’Jonson’s enhanced form could not compensate for such a thing.
Tzeentch saw his opening and devoured the soul of his champion, enthralling him under the watch of his greatest Daemon. For the Terran’s who had managed to escape, they had a more painful fate. The shields of the Cruiser they had boarded failed and allowed the Daemons of the Warp inwards, and while Remiel desperately tried to get as much Marines as he could to safety, he was too struck down by the fell hand of Tzeentch. Barely eighty Marines managed to escape from the Warp in a Stormbird, where they were doomed to stasis pods.
The arrival at Inwit was one of no glory. No parades were held and the now cerulean armoured Dark Angels simply slipped into their moorings and practiced their foul Magik. The Legion went on to serve at Terra under Dorn and later attacked Prospero to grow in favour of Tzeentch. As for the few loyalists, it is unknown what became of them, bar a slight mention of a lone Stormbird floating between the stars, hunting the Fallen Angels of El’Jonson.
Legion III: Emperor’s Children/Black Templars.
Long acclaimed as some of the greatest talented Astartes which would ever come into the light of the Imperium, the Emperor’s Children are famed as the Protectors of Chemos. A refinery world which was forever cast in grey by the polluted skies, Chemos was a place of forced labour and hardship. Primarch Fulgrim landed in the city of Callax, a relatively rich and powerful place which oversaw the work of those beneath them. He was taken in by a powerful general and taught about the ways of the warrior, however he took a keening interest in art and music.
Fifteen years passed before the Emperor arrived and found Fulgrim at the head of the planets military. He had abolished the former government and ended the forced labour, thus halting the fuel being imported into a large proportion of the Imperial Navy. The Emperor was furious and brought with him a contingent of his Adeptus Custodes, expecting to find a rebellion in full swing. Instead he found a peaceful world, one of which had no violence permitted and no fortresses bar Callax herself. Instead he found opera houses and amphitheatres. A teleportation device allowed him to enter the cathedral halls of Callax, where he found his long lost son in deep prayer.
It was said that the Emperor was shocked by the beauty of his son, and immediately saw him as a true son of the Emperor. He spent many weeks with Fulgrim until his Third Legion could arrive, and he gifted them with the name of Emperor’s Children due to the staggering appearance Fulgrim and the Emperor shared. His Legion was not the most numerous, nor was it the strongest, but Fulgrim loved each of his newfound sons greatly. Chemos became a fortress world, something which Fulgrim did not want, but evidently could not halt.
Great swathes of the population were inducted as Astartes, and Fulgrim elected his own council. Eidolon, Vespasian, Cyrius and Lucius the Great are perhaps the most famed, but in all the Council of the Phoenix numbered some eighteen Marines of high rank within the Children. The Phoenix was adopted as the Legion’s icon, and it was emblazoned upon each piece of armour and weapon to show their allegiances was to Fulgrim and the Emperor alone. During the Great Crusade, the Children of Chemos played a relatively small role.
Mostly supporting larger Legions and defending Chemos from piratical raids, the Children would never come to any real knowledge. It was the Imperial Fists of Dorn which attacked Chemos. While the vast Chaos aligned fleet passed by they bombarded the world without mercy. The clouds of Chemos exploded, the fuel particles which they harbored not being able to take such fury, and a rain of flame fell upon the heads of those bellow. Fulgrim was said to have sat alone in the great gardens of Callax as they burned, staring into the heavens.
The Lord Commanders desperately tried to save the population of their stricken world as it fell apart around them but Fulgrim ordered the operation to be abandoned. In these moments he forced the few surviving remnants of his Legion onto the ships which had survived, telling them:
‘We have been dealt a great blow my sons. Our world dies around us, a mere glowing ember in the mighty sea of stars. I am destined to fall here, as are many others. You however are not. Flee with the winds and move on Terra, my Father needs your bolters and blades. Now go, my foolish sons. I will see you all again’
With tearful eyes the Children heeded their fathers words as he marched back into Callax, surrounded by his Phoenix Guard and First Company. The obsidian skinned Salamanders met them in combat as the last remnants of the Emperor’s Children fled too Terra, their world burning to a crisp behind them. At Terra the Emperor’s Children stood guard over the Eternal Gate, their armour painted black in remembrance for their dead brethren. Renamed the Black Templars by Eidolon, to show their never-ending Crusade for revenge and remembrance, they are famed as the stoic defenders of Terra. After the Chaotic forces had fled into the Baleful Eye, Eidolon and Vespasian, the twin rulers of the Children, divided their forces equally into Black Crusades and splintered across the galaxy. Chemos itself is a cursed world, one of which the Black Templars do not set eyes upon.
These are just general overviews, each of the Legions will get an Index Astartes like article done eventually and the characters will be fleshed out, all comments are welcome
