Rampart Boars

The Rampart Boars, known as the 'Xargha'Khai-ne' in their own language, is a Loyalist Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes created during the 3rd Founding in the year 003.M32, a few short years after the start of the noted founding of the early 32nd Millenium. They were made as a restoration and formalisation of what remained of the Rampart-Boar Joint Auxiliary Company, a brotherhood of warriors with White Scars'-derived gene-seed. The goals of their creation originated with the military vision of their Chapter Master, High Marshal Qrown Ikrellius who sought a sovereign and unified order of White Scars-born Astartes warriors under his command. When Jaghatai Khan introduced the DNA of each of the White Scars' Khans into their Brotherhoods' respective gene-stocks, the Boar's captain, Ikrellius Qrown's genetic material was also introduced.
The Rampart Boars are considered by the Ordo Astartes to be a valuable asset in the destruction of xenos threats, particularly the prevention of and even removal of Orks from planets and the destruction of Genestealer Cult threats from Hive Fleet Orthrus. The battle-brothers of the chapter are known for being tall, with abnormally thick bones and a highly dynamic, fast twitch musculature. Their physical athleticism is paired with only a thin veneer of nobility over their savage and often unstable minds. The Chapter emphasises close quarters and melee combat using their enhanced size and strength variations from other Astartes to move with great agility; even doing so in the Tactical Dreadnought Armor they use extensively.
As a Codex-noncompliant Chapter, the Rampart Boars mostly do not adhere to any of the tenets of the Codex Astartes that do not refer directly to tactical doctrines. This includes matters such as organisation, structure, chapter deployment sizes etc. Most of the chapter’s traditions originate from various iterations of the Rampart Boars as a unit in the White Scars, or from the coalescing of cultures of the planets they conquered which were later consolidated into a vassal state entity of the Imperium known as the Realm Ikrell. Most of its Chapter organisation and unit arrangements originate from the crusade fleets of the Black Templars, the Iron Council of the Iron Hands, and the Watch-Fortresses and Keepers of the Deathwatch. Their rejection of the Codex would generally draw the ire of most chapters that are devout practitioners of the doctrines of Guilliman’s masterwork, but due to the very nature of the Rampart Boars’ territory being so far out near the Eastern Fringe combined with their tendencies of isolationism from other chapters means that they are involved in very few conflicts with other chapters or from the Ordo Astartes as the meagre number of Imperial factions who can reach them are their few allies.
Space Marines that hail from the chapter are seen by few, but to those select individuals who do have the opportunity to see them know them to be deeply reticent individuals, speaking only when the conflict requires clear and direct communication to outsiders in order to ensure they do not inhibit the chapter's own objectives. Even then, they speak astoundingly little even to those who are not of the Rampart Boars. The only exception to their introverted attitudes are the White Scars, as the Rampart Boars are still loyal to their forefathers, albeit in a more brotherly fashion but do not share this with their progeny which formed after the 3rd Founding. An undergirding instinct that was never removed from their intense psycho-indoctrination practices, compels them to the valuation of their ancestral traditions, and to protect and preserve elements of their rich history for the next generation at all costs. This is also coupled with underlying motives to manipulate the White Scars into preventing tribe-like civil conflicts between its successors and the Xargha'Khai-ne.
In their chosen fields of battle however, the normally reserved marines turn into vicious, highly physical sadists fuelled by their unyieldinging and exceptional genetic capacity for aggression, which rivals even a World Eater with the Butcher's Nails drumming in his skull. Duty is key to their way of life and the chapter has spiritualized and ideologized the idea of "The Charge" a concept that requires the constant progress of humanity through conquest as a means resisting attrition, social stagnation, and the physical entropy of the threats humanity faces from foes and the universe's physics. The Rampart Boars believe that they are the "Rampart" , the defensive element of moving forward which converts what is conquered into something secured and defended but are also the Charge of Boars, a mobile entity that pushes against threats and claims that as a means of preemptive defence. They embody the Old Earth adage that the "best defence is a good offence," and regularly make for honour-bound martyrs of the Imperium and the Realm Ikrell to maintain the fruits of this philosophy of ritual warfare.
Rarely spoken of, and spoken to rarer still, the Rampart Boars are gifted in the art of hand-to-hand bloodshed even among their transhuman peers, but the warriors of the chapter are prone to psychological drawbacks of aggression and intermittent explosiveness far beyond that of even fellow White Scars Successors. This is largely due to the nature of their origin in the Emperor's early works of transhumanism. The chapter refers to this rage as the 'Gene-Fury', and it is for this reason that they maintain a very large number of Chaplains trained in bike transport in order to reach and quickly stabilise their berserk, stricken brothers. For this reason there is a saying among the Apothecaries of the chapter that Space Marines are made for war, but Rampart Boars are made for battle.
Although they often avoid direct confrontations outside of their territory or nearby conquest attempts, the constrained, cold bloodlust held within all of the Rampart Boars, directs them to the very heart of the opposing army's line, leaving a visceral mess as they immolate and slash through anyone or anything that was too slow or to bodily weak to properly respond to their charge. At the end of a battle or campaign, even in defeat, the members of their charges are the last forces to leave as their warfare ethos demands of them the total elimination of all of their enemies and their anemoia-filled nature causes them to amass a great deal of a planet's data, infrastructure and archaeotech in order to claim elements from the planet's past as much as possible. The hunt for enemy survivors is also an excellent opportunity for them to gather the equipment off of Astartes from other chapters who fell in battle so that it can be added to the vast trove of ancient technology and relics whose rightful place is deemed by the chapter to be in the use of expanding what remains of the Emperor's Great Crusade. Their fixation on adding to their ancient order's history is as important to an individual brother of the chapter as the hoarding of the secretive knowledge of their order is to the chapter overall. In fact one of the few instances from which information can be drawn from the chapter by outsiders is when another chapter's chaplain is given emergency permissions to hear the last words and confessions of a Rampart Boar battle-brother they are serving alongside. This allows the outside chaplain to aid in any necessary funerary rites when a chaplain from the Rampart Boars themselves is unavailable, as the chapter's faith places great respect towards the dead and their sacrifice.
The First two Crusade Corps are credited with dealing with the events of the Blackened Star Interregnum; when the Elder Council of the planet, Stadphi-Gjell declared independence from the Imperium, causing a widespread period of civil unrest and the separation of the Segmentum Ultima from the rest of the Imperium. Like most of the crusade operations established during this period of civilstrife leading up to the First Mercayne War, the second Marshal-Hold cut their losses of life and left their less experienced battle brothers to grind their teeth during missions of "maintaining order" through merciless repression, and fighting against the massive rebellions of the Stadphi people, making the Chapter adopt tendencies of considerable violence, butchering a few horrifically to instill fear in the many. From this they are far more prone to immoderate degrees of mistreatment towards mortals compared to other successors of the White Scars. The Second Crusade Corps has retained far stronger attitudes of disgust with the presumed selfishness and undisciplined inclinations toward vice they believe are present in the peoples of the Eastern Fringe. Since the chapter like many others founded at the similar times in the Fringe seems to have a disturbing and outright callous lack of concern for the lives of civilians of the Imperium and even the Imperial guards who are not residents of the recruiting worlds of the Realm Ikrell. Often non-Ikrell Auxilia guardsmen are either simply ignored or used as bait to lure traitor Astartes or Drukhari into open close quarters combat. This method of dubious ethics towards fellow soldiers of Imperial warfare among some Crusade Corps of the Boars has often discredited their actions and authority in the eyes of other chapters in the region and amongst many of the members of the Imperial Inquistion along both sides of the Radical-Puritan divide. However some of their initiates in the Chapter across all Crusade Corps are more or less aware of the needs and challenges of life for humans at the edge of the galaxy and tolerate the guard regiments who fight alongside them in battle with a greater leniency. Generally the High Lords of Terra are either unaware or lack concern for the harsh actions of the Chapter leaving them to get their hands dirty, ensuring the safety of Imperial outposts and guarding the Imperium from the Chapter's enemy of choice, the Drukhari.
Since the beginning of the 42nd Millenium, the Rampart Boars are currently recovering from being cut off from a number of their supply-lines by the explosion of the Eye of Terror into the Cicatrix Maledictum, the Great Rift. However the opening of the Great Rift actually seemed to have greatly aided the Rampart Boars as its tear ended up creating a barrier between the Realm Ikrell and the minor Hive Fleet, Hive Fleet Orthrus which was slinking its way towards their sub-sector of realspace. Hive Fleet Orthrus ended up turning back in a different direction after colliding with Space Hulks, Chaos attackers and long periods without access to biomass or materials. The forces of the Ruinous Powers now having more immediate access to areas on their edge of the galaxy, but the Rampart Boars have new advantages in that they have finally reclaimed the War-Tusk, an ancient Space-Hulk formed from some of their ships, three battle-barges of a warband of Alpha Legion and Night Lord traitor forces, and the Rampart Boars large mobile space station built into the form of a ring-like structure mounted on the side of the dwarf planet Netekruna from before it was destroyed. This War-Tusk was recovered by the long lost, original First Crusade-Corps of the Rampart Boars chapter after some of their Stormseers were awoken from the stasis they entered via their Sus-An Membrane by the destabilisation of the Warp by the tearing open of the Great Rift. The chapter has faced some casualties in its Crusade Corps from being stuck between the edge of the Eye of Terror which has spilled out with their enemies from the Traitor Legions and some migrating Genestealer Cults attached to Hive Fleet Orthrus in order to make the areas around the Realm Ikrell more suitable for the return of Hive Fleet Orthrus.
The arrival of Guilliman's Primaris reinforcements from the Unnumbered Sons, have filled the gaps left by the sum of the deceased marines within the Rampart Boar's first and second Crusade-Corps, with the remaining forming a Sixth Crusade Corps. This next generation of elite transhuman warriors of the Imperium were initially met with a measure of reasonable distrust but the Chapter quickly became far more accepting of the Primaris marines upon learning that Belisarius Cawl had created their chapter's Primaris reinforcements specifically from the Rampart Boars own gene-tithes as it was tested and separated from the other White Scars' samples because it was deemed "aberrant". The chapter had also seen the reinforcements prove themselves on the field of battle via their exceptional strength and additional gene-seed organs during the conflicts of the Indomitus Crusade, otherwise known as the "Campaign of the Cadian Tear" by members of the chapter leadership. The Firstborn, after accepting that the Primaris did indeed share in a form of their archaic chapter's gene-seed saw them as worthy warrior charges, provided that they accepted the chapter's traditions and initiation rituals, including the use of Consecrate helmets. There was some concern at the beginning of their induction that the Primaris marines might be used by the Lord Commander to overthrow and annihilate the Firstborn, creating an era of Space Marines of all gene-lines that were far too similar in behaviour to the scions of Guilliman. However, an emissary from Mars teaching the chapter's Apothecarion the Rubicon Primaris procedure and an impassioned speech by the returned High Marshal Qrown Ikrellius known as the Third Rubicon Address have both smoothed over any tensions. Seeing these continued enhancements as their future, the entirety of the Rampart Boars chapter have taken it upon themselves to both educate their new brothers on the many unique beliefs and traditions of their Chapter, and to cross the Rubicon Primaris, becoming a fully homogeneous chapter composed entirely of Primaris Marines. In doing so they have made themselves a far more powerful threat to their Xenos foes and by extension have reinforced their ancient culture and history with the vitality of youth and progress.
==Chapter History==
===Official Records===
Little is known of the Rampart Boars chapter in the public records of the Imperium of Man, as most of what is known of their early background history or any individuals of note have been deleted from Imperial Records, or the files have corrupted due to age and changeover of technology. The earliest known record of the Rampart Boars occurs a few years after the Third Founding, and is a follow up report to an order issued to a chapter of the name. The order was to conquer territory near the Eastern Fringe for the Imperium in a campaign from the dwarf planet called "Netekruna."
===Classified Intelligence Report of the Comitia Scientia Astartes of the Inquisition to the Senatorum Imperialis===
REQUESTING Datalogs #32,105; #42,802; et #80,209... Input Security Clearance via DNA sample: Processing... Security Clearance: THUNDER_BORN. Processing....Adeptus Astartes DNA confirmed, scanning... Chapter Origin: Xargha'Khai-ne (Rampart Boars) Access: GRANTED
Welcome son of the Thunderous forefathers! As always, this information is FOR THE EYES OF THE XARGA'KHAI-NE ONLY and must never be seen by outsiders as such information could threaten the safety and integrity of the entire Chapter.
Incoming Data Stream: The History of the Rampart Boars
Primarch: Jaghatai Khan
Successors of: White Scars' Rampart Boar Warrior Lodge
=====Introduction=====
The Rampart Boars as an institution have existed in many forms under many masters in the Imperium. For this reason they are deeply proud of their ancient traditions even by the standards of a chapter as ancient as they are. It is often the case that the Boars value the fact that they are Rampart Boars over the fact that they are descendants of the V Legion or even over being Astartes entirely since the institution predates the Adeptus Astartes. The earliest recorded instance of any form of the name Rampart Boars in the context of what would become the Chapter was the name of the Rampart-Boar Auxiliary Great Company, also referred to as the Rampart-Boar Joint Auxiliary Company . This company was one of thousands in the Geno-Regiment, the Geno-52 Chiliad, noted for producing exceptionally athletic, and large soldiers. As the Emperor was recruiting for the first experiment in Transhuman Legionary soldiers of the Vth Legion he pulled from a number of Old Earth's regions, but also from sources of already Imperial military formations, the majority of one of the companies of the Vth were drawn from the Chiliad who were fighting the techno-barbarian tribes in the mountainous, dusty plains of what was once the Pontic-Caspian Steppe. Despite their innate savagery in matters of culture and social structure, these people still retained irreplaceable equipment from the technologically adept humans from before the Age of Strife, and as such the Geno-52 Chiliad was unable to combat these warrior peoples on their own. The bnly advantage came in that the techno-barbarian were constantly waging wars for the possession of the greatly depleted natural resources with one another as well as against the neighbouring and much larger faction known as the Ethnarchy. The Ethnarchy sought genetic supremacy and eugenic enhancement over other human groups with a relentless fury not seen in millennia. With the creation of more Thunder Warriors, these once powerful orders of warrior tribes and political factions were brought to heel, the tribes were forced to render a tribute of men and young sons to be enlisted as serf-soldiers in the Emperor's expanding army in preparation for the Great Crusade. According to Rampart Boar legend, the first High Marshal of the chapter was born in one of if not the last generations of the Chiliad before the creation of the Emperor's first augmented super soldiers of the front lines, the crude but mighty Thunder Warriors. Beyond these legends nothing can be truly known of whether Qrown Ikrellius' origins are in fact as ancient as is claimed because all records of his identity before the Thunder Warriors have been deleted. What is known is that Qrown and a company of men called the Rampart-Boar Great Company were seconded to the Emperor's biotechnical division. Thunder Warriors project which the Emperor of Mankind established used a variety of different methods of gene-therapy and artificial genetic samples used to enhance an adult human to transhuman levels. As with other Thunder Warrior experiments many died in the process. Drawing on the demeanour of the Geno-regimental recruits who first fought the far flung techno-savages of Terra from which they themselves had been recruited as introduced stock, these prototype warriors that would join the Vth Legion quickly demonstrated those famous skills of the Geno-52 for athleticism and discipline which aided them at reconnaissance of enemy artillery as well as being well versed in target identification and elimination via their infantry shock assaults. The influence of instilled training was a key factor in this and was derived from the work of the discipline and morale officers of the Chiliad, the Gene-Whips. This was also combined with psychic influence of the Uxores to imprint a calmer and somewhat more focused control over their abilities than other Thunder Warriors, but nowhere near the taciturn patience of the later Adeptus Astartes who would come to fill out the Emperor's Legions. They still often moved in emotional or expressive transition from an inscrutable and watchful focus to the aggressiveness of a rapid close quarters attack, their movements being fast enoough to follow up their blink of an eye shifts in conduct to suit their focus in close quarters, heavy infantry combat. While other Legions would gather intelligence on the enemy by infiltrating into their encampment or battle positions and studying their enemy from the inside out, It was these Legionaries of this "Rampart Boar company who waged war in a different fashion more befitting the Vth. They would patiently watch their foes from afar, never flaunting their achievements to others, only seeking glory in their own traditions. When the time was opportune they would go about striking from the least anticipated quarter with vicious and unexpected physical prowess. Their ability to do so when the time was right and their capabilities in slaying their foe's leaders in outright hand to hand combat carved them a legacy in the Legion for their specialty in bloody, brief infantry assaults. In a number of the more successful cases of Thunder Warriors they were implanted with prototype genetic materials created from a prototype transhuman source from before the fully fledged Astartes or the Primarchs. These genetic sources gave Qrown and these other subjects who survived the immense strength and size of the Legiones Cataegis, but interestingly other traits not included in the later Astartes. The Thunder Warriors, including the Rampart-Boar Great Company Thunder Warriors who survived the full process of the gene therapy, had significantly thicker bones than the Space Marines and stood roughly six to eight inches taller on average than even fairly tall Astartes. They were significantly more resistant to pain and physical injuries. Most importantly they were extremely resistant to physical corruption and psychological probing or manipulation by Chaos or psykers, at the cost of being unable to be or become psykers themselves. It is unknown how many of the Rampart-Boar company survived the process of becoming Thunder Warriors but it is estimated at being about one quarter of the total company as the process had been refined to some extent to be safer by the end of the Unification Wars. Next to nothing is known of the Rampart-Boar great Company's actual duties or engagements but they are noted by an insignia, the Raptor Imperialis worn on ancient pieces of equipment held in the chapter's Great Reliquary, that some of the men of this ancient company fought alongside the Emperor, and that they were stationed with the V Legion of Thunder Warriors. During the end of the Unification Wars the official story is that all Thunder Warriors perished in the fighting at Mt. Ararat, but the Adeptus Astartes know different, they know the truth. The majority of Thunder Warriors were slain but those few that survived were seen as entities which could not be effective in the Great Crusade or in peacetime and the great culling of the Thunder Warriors was initiated for the Emperor's new experiment, the Astartes to be tested on their abilities via the elimination of the remaining Thunder Warriors, be they loyalists or deserters. Some Thunder Warriors who survived even suspected that the Emperor placed the metabolic instabilities into them deliberately and ceased reinforcing their numbers in order to make the way for the Astartes. Qrown had long had faith in the Emperor and in his vision, believing that if the Unification Wars were to end, the Galaxy would be the next territory to be conquered. However, he knew that the Thunder Warriors would not be suited for the enormous length of time and the need for discipline and organization of military forces which would be needed in order to claim the stars. Qrown knew that in order to survive replacement after the Emperor achieved his dominance over all of Old Earth, which was later called Terra, he and his men would need to prove themselves more stable and more befitting of the needs of the new Imperium. The Emperor and his biotechnical division saw this discipline and general improivement and began to explain to Qrown the opportunity of becoming and Astartes. Underneath of the construction of the Imperial Palace in the Himalayzian mountains, he began to have his geneticists experiment on some of these cases, taking a small selection of these more stable Thunder Warriors fitting of the Great Crusade in order to have them implanted with geneseed in order to stabilise their metabolic degradation and their desynchronized organ cycling. Qrown Ikrellius and his men were one known attempt in the V th Legion to do this, and were planned on being transferred from the labs back into service in to become part of the Terran Star Hunters roughly two weeks before the battle at Mt. Ararat. The Emperor carried on with the planes he formed for the Terran Council and the governmental administration over the newly incepted Imperium of Man. The chapter has acquired even less records as to how many survived geneseed implantation, but based on the average of how many regular human aspirants usually survive the process it was likely no more than five to ten.The losses were then replaced with regular Star Hunters Legion Astartes made from Terran recruits that were implanted with geneseed. To these members of the Vth Legion would fall the requirement to be one of many of the Emperor's biological handicrafts which would be forced to keep their origins hidden from the broader Vth Legion, but this was not a challenge to the revenge filled Rampart-Boar company who wished not only to continue to serve as sentinels to the Emperor. Even among their fellow Star Hunters these Rampart-Boar men shunned many of the broader laurels of military service common to the Imperium and almost never attmpted to court adulation from the other members of the Vth or from Terra. It was because they were adamantly against recidivist splinter factions of the Thunder Warriors and partially augmented harrowers of the XXth Legion, who would sooner flee from Imperial control that could result in their replacement than bend the knee and die with honour before the newly declared master of Terra, that they kept their secret so tightly to their chests. Qrown went on to hunt down and slay the last of his Cataegian brothers, being one of the last remaining of not one but two bygone eras of the early Imperium's genetic augmentation experiments. According to Parvo Ikrellius, the biological brother of Qrown Ikrellius as well as the High Marshal who succeeded his brother, few of their enemies were ever foolish enough to stand and fight against these forces of the Master of Mankind, to deny his vision of Humanity's manifest destiny as the galaxy and Holy Terra's rightful rulers. The few who did quickly found themselves infiltrated by spies and shortly thereafter thrown into the fray of attcks by hulking assassins unseen due to their sheer explosive speed, but always heard in their cackling at the bloodshed of enemies of the Vth Legion. Rogue Thunder Warriors who emerged from the shadows to reveal themselves as traitors would soon find the bolters already raised to their temples when they thought that there was no means by which the fledgling Imperium could ever see their traitorous approaches. The Rampart-Boar Joint Auxiliary Company was cut down to a standard 100 battle-brother brotherhood of the Vth Legion. It served as a heavy infantry auxiliary unit of the main force of the legion's Pioneer Companies, a fact not surprising as highly independent auxiliary units and formations to standard battleline groups were very common in the Star Hunters. Qrown and his men continued to serve the Imperium, expanding out into the outskirts of the eastern portion of the Emperor, with the goal of reaching out into the Eastern Fringe.
=====The Discovery of the Khagan=====
After the Emperor and the Primarch Horus Lupercal discovered Jaghatai Khan upon the world of Mundus Planus, he was invested with the power of the Master of the V Legion. Upon receiving the call of the Khan of Khans to return to the rest of his Chogorian Legion core and swear loyalty.Upon their arrival and renewed oaths it was believed by many in the legion that Qrown Ikrellius was a form of localised term for saying "Khan Ikrellius and so when he swore loyalty to Jaghatai this name of Qrown was left untouched. Qrown marked his required white scar on his face he lined the outer edges of the Raptor Imperialis that was tattoed on the side of his head. Rather than taking on an entirely new name he took up the honorific name of "Warfather. As a ratified Auxiliary Brotherhood of the newly-dubbed White Scars, Qrown took his men to fight off an Ork threat in the far reaches of the Imperium.
=====The Founding of Zerrexal=====
After the conquest of the Netekrunan system the High Lords of Terra drafted continued plans for the pacification of nearby space. Their reason for doing this was that a large splinter cell of the Adeptus Mechanicus sought to establish a Forge world on a nearby planet with Dark Age foundries. In order for the Forge World to be founded on the planet, the Archmagos Dominus insisted that the Imperium must be able to sign a writ confirming that the Imperium could defend the planet and the Archmagos' biotech equipment. The Archmagos had a powerful bargaining chip in the form of a data drive full of STC fragments for designing and building parts of terminator armour. The selected planet of Zerrexal was a significant distance from the Eye of Terror, preventing problems with most Chaos threats, but not potential attacks from rogue psykers, pre-existing cults or from Xenos like Orks and the Eldar. The Rampart Boars were close enough in proximity to the planet and were highly skilled in hunting down Xenos. The Imperium had once again fallen into a similar problem that they had with the Netekruna system, the world's surrounding Zerrexal were simply too far out in the Eastern part of the Galaxy to be secured by Imperial forces, but a nearby Space Marine chapter would not require the same amount of men, travel time, or logistical footprint to defend the territory, especially one as brutal and crusade oriented as the Rampart Boars.
The High Lords of Terra drafted a formal document recognizing the Rampart Boars as the regents of the system adjacent to Zerrexal and allowing them to maintain an extension of their chapter keep on a nearby world called Mandaling.
REQUESTING Datalogs #62,175; #58,603; et #00,719... Input Security Clearance via DNA sample: Processing... Security Clearance: THUNDER_BORN. Processing....Adeptus Astartes DNA confirmed, scanning... Chapter Origin: Xargha'Khai-ne (Rampart Boars) Access: GRANTED
=====Gene-seed Intrigues=====
As the Great Crusade raged on, the Rampart-Boar Auxiliary Brotherhood began to notice that its newly recruited battle-brothers were manifesting strange characteristics. They were larger and unnaturally stronger with thick bones and an altered, almost swollen-looking set of musculature proportions. Most interestingly Ork and Aeldari threats from psychic probing and mental alterations were becoming ineffective. This also resulted in the brotherhood producing very few psykers or even through epistasis, causing psykers to lose or weaken their special connection to the Immaterium. After analysis by the brotherhood's apothecaries it was found that genetic material that matched that of Qrown's was present in the gene-seed stock. Around the same time the presumed pure and stable gene-seed of the White Scars was presenting Chogorian Savagery and enhanced aggression in regular and traceable patterns in other brotherhoods. The gene-seed has even been referred to as having Chogorian genetic incorporations. While the Adeptus Mechanicus is uncertain if these aggressive behaviours came psychologically from recruiting Chogorian tribal stock, from Jaghatai Khan's own genes, or from the splicing by Jaghatai of the Chogoorian Khans into their brotherhoods' gene-seed,it is likely that this was indeed genetic and was even spliced in deliberately by the Emchi (Apothecarion) of the Legion prior to the Horus Heresy. The reason for this belief is that the lack of these traits in Jaghatai himself, seeing as he is not Chogorian by blood means they likely did not come from him and were not inclusions in Terran Star Hunters. The fact that they are present in successor chapters on other worlds means that this is most likely genetic too. Jaghatai's splicing of each of the brotherhood's Khan's DNA into their brotherhoods' gene-seed balanced the autonomy and investment of the Khans beneath him with the unity of being a Legion. Qrown was known at the time to be an ancient Terran Astartes, an original member of the Star Hunters from the very beginning of the Great Crusade. The Emchi knew that he had not been made from a mould of the same gene-seed implantation process as other marines resulting in his massive frame and increased height over his brothers.
What few knew was that he had served long before that. As with other rare cases of some former Thunder Warriors such as Endryd Haar, Qrown was given gene-seed implantation to stabilize tumorous growths and metabolic instability from his Thunder Warrior augmentations. This gave Qrown the edge of a Thunder Warriors enhanced size and strength but with the biological stability of a more modern Space Marine. It appeared now that these traits were now appearing from his blood in his brotherhood’s stock.It is unlikely that the Apothecarion knew what was being spliced into the Rampart-Boar Brotherhood's genestock from their Khan, but in doing so they created a great opportunity for Ikrellius. Ikrellius was deeply in favour of these genetic inclusions and despite seeing a highly enhanced form of the Chogorian Savagery being seen in other brotherhoods, he understood that this variant originated in his own Thunder Warrior genetic material alongside the increases in size and strength that the brotherhood was seeing. The Rampart-Boar Brotherhood White Scars had a number of atavistic Thunder Warrior traits included from their leader and this became a great unifier of their members around their unique balance of untamed, experimental, genetics from the Thunder Warriors and the stability, gene-seed organs, and diversity of enhancements found in the Astartes. Qrown Ikrellius established an immensely stronger bond with his Astartes reinforcements due to the nature of this permutation because while other brotherhoods had simply wed Chogorian culture and genes to their gene-seed sharing in common blood which he had from Jaghatai, a part of his service in the Unification Wars and the old Vth Legion of Thunder Warriors would live on in an identity much closer to his own. For this reason Qrown pushed further out into the galaxy, defending the outskirts of Imperial space in order to prevent his men from being reassigned to other brotherhoods
=====Early Origins in the Horus Heresy=====
Over a long period of time, members of Qrown’s brotherhood began to be re-stationed to other parts of the V Legion or spread thin across the galaxy, being intermixed with some parts of the Legion that lacked these ancient Thunder Warrior genes. Qrown searched for a way to retain both unity and secrecy between his men and those born of his spliced DNA. It was at this time that the Legions began to develop Warrior-Lodges, of which the White Scars' lodges operated differently than others, having far less of a tie to those created by Erebus of the Word Bearers. This transition to establishing a warrior lodge that could build unity and shared values between those White Scars whose gene-seed originated with the Rampart-Boars Brotherhood. This also allowed Qrown to centrally control and isolate gene-seed stock that had his spliced genetic material even when such samples were from men not directly under his command. When the lodges turned the Legion against itself, Qrown and the Rampart-Boars lodge refused to betray the Imperium and sought to wait for Jaghatai's decision, resulting in the lodge being forced into a large scale gun fight with members of the other lodges that contacted them in order to attempt to turn them to the side of Horus. The casualties of this conflict were catastrophic for Qrown's lodge with most of their ships being destroyed and the company being reduced down to only Qrown's personal squad of elite soldiers and their sergeant, his brother Parvo. Only two squads of lodge members stationed in other brotherhoods remained, which both fled to their own brotherhoods. After the Khagan's return they attempted to keep a low profile, avoiding actual mention of being a lodge after Jaghatai sent the traitorous lodges on missions to die. What they did not realize at the time was that their progenitor, the Khagan had been presented with a report on their actions and had simply handwaved the proposed idea of sending them on suicide missions due to the fact that they had clearly remained loyal and had been nearly decimated because of it. The Khan had far greater concerns in the days ahead.
=====Qrown Ikrellius and the Siege of Terra=====
During the Siege of Terra, Ikrellius coalesced all that remained of his warrior-lodge after being stationed as an equerry to another brotherhood, where the remnants of the Rampart-Boar Lodge decided that it was best to avoid attempting to spread their authority or to reassemble the old Rampart Boars brotherhood. Instead it was decided that it was more practical to hunker down and focus on the primary objectives of the Legion as a whole, while storing and collecting all of the gene-seed with their distinct alterations that remained in one central location until they could be moved off-world. After timelocking the gene-seed in a vault made out of a section of crashed battle barge in an abandoned section an evacuated Terran city the remaining members fought not just for their lodge, nor for the White Scars, but for the fate of their species, using hit-and-run tactics and guerrilla warfare with their enhanced traits to carry the necessary heavy weapons to aid the Imperial Fists and Blood Angels in holding back the Traitors. They did so with an intensity and ferocity of a wounded animal acting in desperation, no one exhibited this more strongly than Ikrellius whose sole goal was to push back the forces of Chaos, even going as far as to pushing Sigismund, the future founding High Marshal of the Black Templars, out of the way of bolter fire and charging the Sons of Horus Legionnaire attempting to hold Sigismund back from fighting Abaddon. Qrown was noted as crumpling this Sons of Horus Legionnaire's helmet on his head until the insides of his skull spewed out of the grate pattern of the faceplate of his Mk. III helmet, doing so with a speed and brutality seen as strange even for a White Scar. One member of the Imperial Fists' Templar Brethren who fought alongside him went as far as to say that Qrown's mind was in a constant wrestling match between both the protectiveness of a Custodian and the brutality of a World Eater. Qrown would develop a deep respect of Sigismund's military philosophy and both the tactics and aesthetic of knightly honour of the Imperial Fists' Templar Brethren, a respect that would carry on even after the Second Founding. After the Emperor's victory over Horus aboard the Vengeful Spirit and the Emperor being interred on the Golden Throne, Ikrellius and the remnants of his Warrior-Lodge began the process of reevaluating what best to do for the Imperium in this time, a challenge which was especially difficult psychologically for Ikrellius to bear since he was the one among them who had fought by the side of the very Master of Mankind himself during the Unification Wars.
=====From Lodge to Chapter=====
The origins of the conversion of this ancient lodge organization into an independent Chapter are tied to a an unknown Chapter of a bygone era of the Second Founding period istarted shortly after the Heresy. Jaghatai Khan was adamant about the fact that in order for the nascent chapters descended from his Vth Legion to be successful and to achieve the goal of Guilliman's division of the legions overall, they must follow their own path and create their own distinct culture and final forms. During the division of the White Scars it was understood by the remaining members of the lodge that the Rampart-Boar Lodge had very little in terms of popular support within the White Scars Legion when the Second Founding Chapters were being created, and that they had insufficient numbers at the time to create a Chapter compliant with Guilliman's newly written Codex Astartes. A close colleague of Parvo Ikrellius was convinced to take in all of the Rampart Boar White Scars into his Second Founding Chapter in their entirety so that they could gather their strength and establish a new Chapter in a later founding. This Chapter has very little details in the annals of Imperial History but was one of many Chapters drawn directly from the division of the Legions of the Legiones Astartes. It cannot be known for certain as to how many battles were fought and won by the members of the Rampart Boar Lodge while they were tied in this shadowy manner to an incubative chapter, much of their history remains as deliberately unclear, but the plans for recruitment of a founding coterie of Astartes throughout the last years of their service was a grim echo of the dissent of the Thunder Warriors at the end of the Unification Wars. For so often at this time the direct sons of the Vth Legion kept their hand in events hidden even after the battle was won while they remained in search of information of their recently vanished. Only much later, after this black armoured Chapter claimed with certainty that it would not be reunited with its Primarch, would it grimly permit Qrown and his Rampart Boar lodge to course forth into the Eastern Fringe searching for a planet from which they could light the torches of his long dreamed crusades. A decision was made upon hearing of Guilliman's creation of the Codex Astartes that the best course of action was to eventually turn the Rampart Boar Warrior Lodge into an independent Chapter, as the creation of Chapters would likely continue. However, in order to determine the validity of this new institution, the best course of action was to observe from afar while preventing the rest of the Imperium from being compromised by Xenos threats while it attempts to get back off of its heels from the besiegement it faced from the forces of Chaos for the past seven years. However, Qrown and Parvo Ikrellius both were very sceptical of the Codex and believed that the primary goal of the Second Founding chapters was to break up the power of Legions more than it was to make the rulership of the Astartes more efficient in any way. However, they did not actively resist in order to prevent drawing attention or conflict to their doorstep and also because the breakup of the Legions itself made the other legions operate in a much closer fashion to how the White Scars had been operating since the discovery of the Khan. As the reconstruction of Terra began to take shape, the lodge acknowledged that it would soon become unsafe to keep the gene-seed under the eye of the fledgling Inquisition on the Crown World of the Imperium, lest either the Imperial government or a resurgence of Chaos forces uncover it. The members of the lodge took to surveying for a planet they could stash their timelocked gene-seed upon, doing so very carefully and over a long period of time in order to prevent the arousal of suspicion from the Inquisition or the High Lords of Terra. They spent an entire decade moving from one major area of the Eastern Fringe to another, sending out multiple scouting groups to chart the uncharted. Across most of the worlds they found the remnants of hive cities left in ashes and ravaged by the forces of myriad Space Marine legions, most of which had a few survivors from the natively pre-Imperial population, but also a variety of small cells of chaos cultists, who were dispatched by the Astartes with quick use of their weaponry. Eventually the chapter had found one such location planet in far less ruin, it was on the world of Netekruna, a technologically advanced dwarf planet in the eastern edge of the Milky Way which presented much promise, but also consequently that had been untouched by both Chaos and the Imperium during the Hprus Heresy. Unassailed by the ravages of the Imperium's civil war, Qrown saw this technologically advanced world as a second chance in life, a path to continue his efforts of the Great Crusade exactly where he and his legion left them during Horus' betrayal. However he knew that the people of Netekruna were predominantly against the Imperium's efforts and showed political resistance to the Imperium's values far more than they ever did a military counter assault. He believed an S.T.C may exist on the dwarf planet and thus contacted the Mechanicus and the Imperial Navy for aid. Upon landing their meager forces on Netekruna, the Rampart-Boar Lodge found that while the planet seemed to be largely unaffected by the Horus Heresy, it was still in a state of extreme political disarray, with much of the planet set aflame with protests and riots against the tentative Imperial Government put in place shortly before the Drop Site Massacre. The would-be chapter took surveying the planet carefully, moving from one major area to another, sending out multiple scouting groups. Across most of the world's vast cities the potential Imperial settlements or positions were relatively safe, but in the large urban capitols they found cities left in ashes, few survivors, and a small amount of chaos cultists, who could be dealt with fairly quickly. Eventually the scouting force had cleared the majority of the planet as being safe for re-colonization provided they had extra reinforcements on the ground from the Adeptus Mechanicus. When they reached the final unsurveyed point on the dwarf world the Rampart Boars encountered a small force of what they believed to have been previously unknown Chaos Space Marines carrying a large, but partially dissected, steely skeleton. The Rampart-Boars' sent a full force of Imperials, and they arrived at the battle location just as the Chaos Space Marines were making their exit, leaving a burned husk of the city in their wake, chaos born Warpflames burning still in many places.Taking these auxilliary forces to the world, he blockaded the planet and threatened an orbital virus bombing upon its residents while the Skitarii cleared the majority of the planet of its dissenting human life. Qrown was honored for his work which had helped greatly in reaffirming the Imperial conquest of the planet. Qrown would return efforts in the region to the expansion of a large scale terraforming operation, called the Netekrunan Imperialization Program. This had originally been led by two Brotherhoods in order establish a base there for the White Scars, before being transferred from that post at the Vth Legion's discovery of the Heresy. Qrown and his men submitted a request with his current chapter to be deployed on Netekruna until further notice in order to defend the base and oversee the dwarf planet's terra-forming. When the request was accepted, Parvo brought the entirety of their lodge's gene-seed stock to the world. It was during the year 997. M31 that these highly isolated former White Scars heard that Sigismund had been slain by Ezekyle Abaddon, the new Warmaster of Chaos, who declared the Long War against the Imperium. More importantly however, they were shown footage and Imperial briefings on his chapter, the Black Templars. Qrown saw in the Black Templars a hope for a new future, a future he could see himself and his men in, to re-establish the Rampart-Boar Warrior Lodge as an independent chapter of the Astartes from his time-locked trove of gene-seed. This chapter, which rejected the Codex in favour of a model of permanent multi-company formations derived from the structure of the Black Templars Crusade fleets, would be a continuation of the martial honours Ikrellius found to be lacking in the current systems. The decision to do so reinvigorated his philosophy of war, Qrown and his men would not be the ones who would fight off Chaos, but they would be the buttressing, the "Rampart" that would hold as much of the Xenos back. So too shall they be the "Charge of Boars" who would continue a smaller, consolidated form of the Emperor's Great Crusade, claiming territory for the Emperor on his Golden Throne. The Boars' predominant experience was in the annihilation of Xenos and so their mission would include preventing those from placing even more dangerous fronts on the Imperium while they resisted Chaos and strived to restore the Great Crusade. After six years of waiting on proceedings Netekruna received a transmission from a vizier of the High Lords of Terra, a Writ of Founding had been approved for the creation of a White Scars-born successor chapter, the Rampart Boars, from the gene-seed stock held on the station in the Netekruna system. From that moment onward the Rampart Boars were at long last recognized as a sovereign Crusading Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes in the year 003.M32. Though they were previously assumed to be unbefitting of Imperial occupation and potential recruitment into the Astartes, a parcel few youths of the various peoples were more accepting of hypnotherapy and other persuasions of the mind, including hallucinogenic injections to mould them into better candidates for the Chapter. Most would only retain fragmentary components of the various languages of their planet and so amongst themselves they were able to piece together a pidgin hybrid of the different languages of Netekruna, simply called Netekrunan, which began to proliferate itself across the Chapter. Qrown was asked if such actions should be halted, but he explained that these young recruits had been purged of the weaknesses of Netekruna as a pre-Imperial planet with multiple cultures and species and they had refined and blended the works of their world down to a singular, powerful whole, there was no reason to halt endeavors of unity and stability. These Xargha'khai-ne warriors, as they came to be called, meaning Rampart Boars but in their own unique tongue, proved well-suited to the High Marshal's vision seeing themselves as being the result unification and peace on their planet, even if that peace required war to attain. Though some in the legion observed their propensity for cruelty towards newcomers to the world of Netekruna from other worlds as distasteful. When asked as to why they did so they justified their acts by saying that they rightly hold a disdainful attitude towards those they considered weak and that these people had not been forged in sacrifice and war to vet only the best of their kind to remain on the planet. Qrown was convinced of their devotion to his cause in a way that was uniqque to the cultural expressions of their dwarf planet and so when he heard this, he ordered all Rampart Boars to homogenize their customs to this constructed, Netekrunan tradition and to proliferate the Netekrunan language so as not to have their newly formed order being attacked by those in the Imperium from the Imperium at large as well as from backwards Feudal worlds. The culture of these Xargha'khai-ne warriors descended from the Netekrunan people demanded that an enemy may only be considered a vanquished enemy when no further elements of their forces are alive and no amount of their resources is inaccessible to the conquest of others. It was well known in the factories of the fledgling Netekruna Station that they were being watched over with a coldhearted glare, an all-seeing eye of military intelligence which bolstered the Rampart Boar's rule. If there was any hint of moral discontent or political disillusionment, it would be crushed completely and utterly lest those who had been subjugated would rise up once again in strength against the past victory. The later recruits of the Rampart Boars Chapter had fully inherited this mindset, language, and set of customs and so when it was coupled with the heritage of the Legiones Astartes, specifically that of Jaghatai Khan who told them to seek their own path, it was this constructed Netekrunan culture which became one of the Chapter's most distinctive characteristics.
Qrown's biological brother and long time trusted ally and confidante, Parvo Ikrellius confided in his brother that the promise of immortality that gene-seed once gave them was likely now proven to be inaccurate. Sigismund showed signs of slowing with time, and after a certain point even with their unique genetics and prior alteration, they too would begin to age and deteriorate. Parvo insisted that the Horus Heresy proved that Astartes fall to treachery and inhuman powers when they lose sight of their identity and traditions in favor of new ambitions. He believed that they needed to expand the length of their own time in command of their Chapter in order to ensure that the Rampart Boars were put on the right path. Parvo asked that he be placed in a temporal stasis chamber, time-locked indefinitely until Qrown's death so that he would have the entirety of the rest of his lifetime to give to the chapter to continue their vision for the Rampart Boars Chapter. Initially Qrown refused this request, but after the completed conquest of the Netekrunan System, he agreed with the idea in principle, obliging his brother's request.
==Chapter Territory==
While the Chapter does not have an individual capitol planet or singular fortress-monastery in the Ultima Segmentum or Eastern Fringe, Mahndaling is their primary source of recruits, though by a small margin, being the original homeworld of many of the most famous members of the Rampart Boars.
===The Realm Ikrell===
The Realm Ikrell is a contiguous area of Rampart Boar's space that serves as a vassal or client kingdom in the feudal structure of the Imperium of Man. Like the planetary home of any Space Marine chapter, the Realm is independent but has sworn fealty to the wider Imperium, providing no guard regiments and instead devoting itself to the production of Rampart Boars Space Marines. The difference is that the Realm Ikrell has Chapter Keeps on more than one planet and they are part of a contiguous territory of realspace, operating more like a much smaller version of Guilliman's Realm of Ultramar than the Fortress-Monastery of a Codex-Compliant Chapter or the Chapter Keeps of the Black Templars' Crusade Fleets. Part of the reason for the Realm Ikrell's heightened autonomy is the sheer distance of it from Terra and after the opening of the Great Rift, from Baal, residing out in the Eastern Fringe. The Realm itself contains fifty worlds, all in various stages of being turned into large scale Hive Worlds with most having fully completed the process. These worlds yield the large populations necessary for the Chapter's survival.
While the Realm Ikrell has a large number of planets it is not a particularly vast domain in terms of the vast blackness of space, but one that is compact and tightly managed. It is surprisingly wealthy for a territory along the edge of the galaxy but it is a deeply unkind, near top down military state for the purpose of maintaining the war machine of the Chapter. The vast majority of people work in their extensive Hive Cities' many factories, and all resources are essentially used for the manufacture and repair of armour and weaponry. Plumbing is used to turn urine into explosive charges for artillery, what little leisure in childhood is found in contact sports in order to make good soldiers, and women often undergo the exceptionally cruel process of having their ovaries extracted and either being turned into a servitor, sent to do physical labour until death or tedious objectives in long hours of bookkeeping. This is done in order that the germline cells be better applied to creating more citizens through vat growth in order to maintain or grow the Rampart Boars Chapter's numbers.
====Recruiting Worlds of the Realm Ikrell====
Mahndaling: Classified as a Civilized World, Mahndaling is unlike other worlds of the Realm Ikrell is described as being a world of enlightened people. While most of the Realm Ikrell does not have a standing planetary government the guild of factory-cooperatives utilized a system of representative democracy in which a council of elected laborers and foremen from each factory meet to discuss organization and social management.
The cities of Mahndaling have been noted by outsiders from other Sectors as being exquisitely crafted with a wide variety of designs and equipment used in their construction. Most of the materials are sourced from the other worlds of the Realm Ikrell. The halls of its capitol city are lined great edifices of carved marble or ceramite, vast densely urban metropolis complexes where the world's industrial workers and wealthy Imperial nobles alike lived in a relative peace brought on by their generally equal representative standing in the law. The people were also largely treated fairly by one another and the rulers, both past and present were just and they also had a well established, loyal and disciplined planetary defense force which would eventually be folded into the Ikrell Auxilia. Apparently the world rarely saw war prior to the middle to latter part of the 33rd Millennium as such were always generally unprepared. With the advent of rule by the Rampart Boars the world has grown to become this powerful metropolis, but has only done so on the backs of an enormous amount of industrial labor and harsh conditions on the other worlds of the Realm Ikrell, with most being more reflexive of regular Imperial Hive Worlds, if not harsher. The Chapter and its fleet looms over the world and instills within its people security and dread in equal measure. The Boars often display Mahndaling to inspecting Inquisitors as a sign of the fruits of their rule and as such the Grand Council considers Mahndaling as a crown jewel among the Imperium, one of the rare worlds not to fall to overwhelming depravity, political corruption or social stagnation like the rest of the galaxy's Imperial planets, barring Guilliman's Realm of Ultramar. It was why the Rampart Boars fought hard to protect the planet during the end of the Third Mercayne Crusade, against a large force of Eclipse Jackals Renegade Space Marines, Renegade Guardsman of the Mercayne Auxilia, abhuman Mutants and other allies of the Mercayne Ascendancy. They paid a terrible price in terms of their equipment and manufacturing assets to keep the planet safe, but in doing so they succeeded in saving. Localized urban and even continental governance is carried out by the inhabitants of the world via elected representatives, but it is primarily world by the Rampart Boars Keep-Father who also oversees the upper levels of governance on the planet as is seen in the Chapter's over the rest of the Realm.
===Chapter Keeps===
Eschewing the concept of a singular Fortress-Monastery in favour of diversified infrastructure more fitting of their Crusade based organisation, the Rampart Boars establish a Chapter Keep on every world that they have gone one to conquer for the Realm Ikrell. These Chapter Keeps are defended by the Crusade Corps that maintains their territory and they recruit and train aspirants in each of these keeps. However, after the Aspirants become neophytes, they begin training within the Marshal Hold of the High Marshal so that no regional factionalism of their domain emerges. From there they make up its Scout ranks before being transferred to the Crusade Corps to serve as an initiate. They then proceed to serve as a fully fledged Initiate of the Crusade Corps, a position and institution that they will likely reside with for the remainder of their days.
====Architecture of a Chapter Keep====
=====Megaron=====
The Megaron , plural megara, is the great celebration and ceremony hall used in the castle complexes of the Chapter Keeps. Structurally, the Megaron of the Chapter Keep is a vast rectangular hall that is surrounded by four columns, At the Megaron's front is an open, two-columned entryway, the archway of which covered by a semi-circular piece of metal made from welding together trophy weapons from slain xenos and Traitor Marines. In the furthest end of this structure has a vast central, open hearth shaped like a large oval . This is used in ceremonial speeches, festivals, and some rituals of celebration. However, it also has a practical use in that it can produce different colors of smoke that can be vented in different shapes by altering the shape and size of the oculus in the roof by shifting its mechanical flaps. These can be used as smoke signals to communicate tactical information to incoming reinforcements in instances where the Keep's generator is damaged or if an EMP device was used to shut down communication.
The megaron also contained the seat of the Keep-Father, the head of the Chapter Keep and planetary ruler, whose throne was located in the main room on a small platform above the central hearth. The Megara of Chapter Keeps are sometimes also referred to as "long-rooms" "Great Rooms" or "Great Halls", as defined by their long rectangular shape and the position of their entrances, which are always along the shorter wall so that the depth of the space is larger than the width. There were often many rooms around the central megaron, these included archive rooms of the Hall of Records with its offices of bookkeeping servitors, workshop-armories for weapon and vehicle repair, ceremonial reliquaries passages filled with pottery and scrimshawed art, the holy Halidom shrines, corridors, and storerooms for such as nutrient pastes and medical supplies. Evidence from investigation by Inquisitors suggests that the megara of the Rampart Boars Chapter were often created using esoteric ritual construction techniques in order that the materials and techniques used in the building would not be considered profane and unsuitable for certain rites to the Noyon. This process is twofold. It first comprises a method of ramming soil and organic materials like fungal material into a mould and siphoning the air out of the structure to power pneumatic drives to push it down under high pressure. The materials are then made in large wall component batches which are pressed together with sticky, organic adhesives and laced between a weave of cellulose fibers and organo-metal wire similar to that which would later be used in sinew coils. This process is meant to be organic and sustainable, based on materials found in the planet itself. This is a far cry from the sprawling hive cities and factories of most planets of the Realm Ikrell. The Megaron is thought to have been used for sacrificial processions, as well as for rulership functions and meetings with other Keep-Fathers or a Crusade Corps Marshal. However, parts of this megaron are large enough that they could function as fully habitable spaces, and in the past have been utilized as barracks for initiates or aspirant quarters following the dissolution of the Castellan Tusks into their progenitor Chapter, the Rampart Boars.
=====Command Centre=====
The Command Centre is the section of the Chapter Keep which acts as the headquarters of the Chapter Keep's forces during planetary defense. This centre is outfitted with extensive communication technology, a small armory unit designed to equip guards of the Keep-Father in Power Armor quickly, and control panels of the missile batteries and defense platforms used to destroy air and spacecraft.
=====Hall of Records=====
Aboard the Chapter's time-honoured vessel, the Cataegian Conviction, lies the Great Hall of Records in the Great Reliquary of the Reclusiam, a vast archive where an even more vast coterie of scribes, servitors, and archivists toil to record the history and deeds of the Rampart Boars' widespread forces as well as the history of their domain. Within each Chapter Keep there is a lesser Hall of Records which keeps back-up transcripts, data logs and additional information of much of the Great Hall's trove of lore. These arduous duties of complex record-keeping would normally fall to a Chapter's Librarians, but the Rampart Boars Chapter hosts a parcel few psychic Space Marine Stormseers amongst their ranks in ratio to their size as a Chapter. In order to mitigate the effects of this paucity and the risks of a Stormseer's death, a considerable number of their Stormseers remain in temporal or Sus-An membranous stasis for long periods when not immediately on the field of battle. It is uncertain as to how, or when, the Rampart Boars adopted this practice and ceased to have their Librarius equivalent maintain their archives, for with their disappearance from this role, much of the insights on the College of Stormseers' history was also kept secret or lost to the uninitiated. Some outsiders such as a number of members of the Inquisition suggest that if the Chapter came to worship the Emperor as a god rather than Jaghatai as his emissary or some other cult, unlike most of their fellow members of the Adeptus Astartes, they took the Emperor's decree at the Council of Nikaea to disband the Space Marine Legions' Librarius corps as a holy law and the Rampart Boars College of Stormseers is a place of pre-Librarian shamanism. Others whisper that it is due to concerns over the potential furthering or degeneration of the Rampart Boars' in which the gene-seed's atavisms and their drawbacks have somehow amplified themselves and deteriorated the number of psyker aspirant successes. This idea, or its logical extent that one day the Rampart Boars will be unable to field any Stormseers has absolutely no direct evidence and is largely discredited by the fact that their number of Stormseers remains largely steady. The Chapter instead relies on this retinue of scribes and servitors to be led by the Keep-Father of the individual planet in order to maintain these vast and contingent record logs.
=====Hangar Bays=====
A series of Hangar Bays, generally six in number, help serve as an initial staging area for the Initiates to maintain and mobilize aircraft based assaults and jump-pack or drop pod operations. Many of these units include Intercessors and Inceptors. These Hangar Bays help the Chapter Keep to quickly deploy to various locations on the recruiting world and conduct defensive operations.
=====Tholos=====
The Tholos is a large, rounded cone shaped mausoleum in which the bones of slain Rampart Boars are stripped of their flesh, ritually stacked to be placed in honoured boxes. They are prepared in burial ceremonies where they are given final rest in the same chamber that new Aspirants take the last of the Five Great Oaths to become their successors. The Tholos holds the bones of Chapter members from every Crusade Corps listed with their deeds in order that the recruits from all areas of their realm be made to feel invested in the protection of their worlds as a greater whole.
=====Halidom=====
The Halidom is the inner religious sanctum of the Chapter Keep used for the religious services of the Cult of the Noyon. This is also the area in which the Keep-Fathers serve as acting Chaplains hearing the confessions and offering counsel to visiting Chapter Initiates from aboard the fleets of a Crusade Corps.
=====Catacombs=====
The Catacombs are an underground array of passages, vaults, bunkers and additional tombs used by the Chapter-Keep staff to withstand sieges and artillery assaults. They are also used to store supplies, move secretively during invasions, and hold the remains of slain initaites when there are too many to all be held in the Tholos.
==Standard Chapter Organisation==
Due to their rejection of the Codex Astartes on philosophical principle, the Rampart Boars instead take up a chapter organisation far more inclined towards an amalgam of elements of non-standard chapter organisation from chapters like the Black Templars and to a lesser extent, the Iron Council of the Iron Hands chapter. Their Chapter's size is unable to properly be determined by the Ordo Astartes, the rest of the Inquisition and High Lords of Terra generally do not keep tabs on their numbers because of how far away they are from Terra, and because they are exempt from the number strength restrictions of the Codex as they are a fleet-based, Crusading Chapter.
===Order of Battle===
====Crusade Corps====
The Crusade Corps are the mighty fleets of the Rampart Boars chapter that serve as intermediaries between the High Marshal's Grand Council and the individual Brotherhoods or Charges. A Crusade Corps is a permanent institution unlike the crusades of the Black Templars which are often divisible or seen as able to be modified. To the Rampart Boars a crusade is an action and the nature of what one is crusading against should be the basis for an institution designed for hunting that foe. Crusade Corps often specialise in a territory to fight in or specific xenos threat that it faces. A Crusade is led by a Marshal who commands all operations of the Corps within the territory it patrols or attempts to conquer and it is his craft that maintains the primary collection of his Crusade Corps' storage of precious gene-seed.
====Firstborn Order of Battle (003.M32-Era Indomitus)====
Order of the Chapter 	Order of the Chapter 	Order of the Chapter 	Order of the Chapter 	Order of the Chapter 	 	 	
High MarshalCherbiChapter Bannerlord, Chaplain, Apothecary,Techmarine, StormseerKeshigThe Un-Eyed 	High MarshalCherbiChapter Bannerlord, Chaplain, Apothecary,Techmarine, StormseerKeshigThe Un-Eyed 	High MarshalCherbiChapter Bannerlord, Chaplain, Apothecary,Techmarine, StormseerKeshigThe Un-Eyed 	High MarshalCherbiChapter Bannerlord, Chaplain, Apothecary,Techmarine, StormseerKeshigThe Un-Eyed 	High MarshalCherbiChapter Bannerlord, Chaplain, Apothecary,Techmarine, StormseerKeshigThe Un-Eyed 	 	 	
Chamber of the Keep-Fathers 	Chamber of the Keep-Fathers 	Chamber of the Marshals 	Chamber of the Masters of Title 	Chamber of the Masters of Title 	 	 	
First Seneschal, New First Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the New First Crusade CorpsSecond Seneschal, Second Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Second Crusade CorpsThird Seneschal, Third Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Third Crusade CorpsFourth Seneschal, Fourth Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Fourth Crusade Corps	First Seneschal, New First Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the New First Crusade CorpsSecond Seneschal, Second Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Second Crusade CorpsThird Seneschal, Third Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Third Crusade CorpsFourth Seneschal, Fourth Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Fourth Crusade Corps	Marshal of the New First Crusade CorpsMarshal of the Second Crusade CorpsMarshal of the Third Crusade CorpsMarshal of the Fourth Crusade Corps	Realm RegentWatchmasterNavarchThe Storm's VoiceChief ApothecaryChief StormseerMaster of the HuntForgemasterMaster of the ArsenalChief VictuallerMaster of CampaignsMaster of the RitesRelic-MasterChief BombardierCarnifexMaster of RecruitsMaster of ReconnaissanceSignalmasterMaster of BannersMaster of Arms	Realm RegentWatchmasterNavarchThe Storm's VoiceChief ApothecaryChief StormseerMaster of the HuntForgemasterMaster of the ArsenalChief VictuallerMaster of CampaignsMaster of the RitesRelic-MasterChief BombardierCarnifexMaster of RecruitsMaster of ReconnaissanceSignalmasterMaster of BannersMaster of Arms	 	 	
Other Specialist Orders 	Other Specialist Orders 	Other Specialist Orders 	Other Specialist Orders 	Other Specialist Orders 	 	 	
LibrariusChief Stormseer (also serves in the Third Chamber of the Grand Council)Stormseers First ClassStormseers Second ClassStormseers Third Class 	ArmouryForgemaster (also serves in the Third Chamber of the Grand Council)Techmarines 	ReclusiarchyThe Storm's Voice (also serves in the Third Chamber of the Grand Council)ReclusiarchChaplainsIudiciars 	ApothecarionChief Apothecary (also serves in the Third Chamber of the Grand Council)ApothecariesHelix Adepts 	Fleet CommandNavarch (also serves in the Third Chamber of the Grand Council)[[|thumb|center|90px]]="5" style="background:#FF7F27; color:1st Marshal Hold1st Brotherhood2nd Brotherhood3rd Brotherhood4th Brotherhood 	2nd Crusade Corps[[|thumb|center|90px]]Marshal of the 2nd Crusade Corps2nd Marshal Hold5th Brotherhood6th Brotherhood7th Brotherhood8th Brotherhood	3rd Crusade Corps[[|thumb|center|90px]]Marshal of the 3rd Crusade Corps3rd Marshal Hold9th Brotherhood10th Brotherhood11th Brotherhood12th Brotherhood	4th Crusade Corps[[|thumb|center|90px]]Marshal of the 4th Crusade Corps4th Marshal Hold13th Brotherhood14th Brotherhood15th Brotherhood16th Brotherhood
====Primaris Order of Battle (Era Indomitus Onwards)====
Order of the Chapter 	Order of the Chapter 	Order of the Chapter 	Order of the Chapter 	Order of the Chapter 	
High MarshalCherbiChapter Bannerlord, Chaplain, Apothecary, Techmarine, StormseerThe KeshigThe Un-EyedThe Sons of Ensadyon 	High MarshalCherbiChapter Bannerlord, Chaplain, Apothecary, Techmarine, StormseerThe KeshigThe Un-EyedThe Sons of Ensadyon 	High MarshalCherbiChapter Bannerlord, Chaplain, Apothecary, Techmarine, StormseerThe KeshigThe Un-EyedThe Sons of Ensadyon 	High MarshalCherbiChapter Bannerlord, Chaplain, Apothecary, Techmarine, StormseerThe KeshigThe Un-EyedThe Sons of Ensadyon 	High MarshalCherbiChapter Bannerlord, Chaplain, Apothecary, Techmarine, StormseerThe KeshigThe Un-EyedThe Sons of Ensadyon 	
Chamber of the Keep-Fathers 	Chamber of the Keep-Fathers 	Chamber of the Marshals 	Chamber of the Masters of Title 	Chamber of the Masters of Title 	
First Seneschal, Restored First Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Restored First Crusade CorpsSecond Seneschal, Second Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Second Crusade CorpsThird Seneschal, Third Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Third Crusade CorpsFourth Seneschal, Fourth Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Fourth Crusade CorpsFifth Seneschal, Fifth Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Fifth Crusade CorpsSixth Seneschal, Sixth Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Sixth Crusade Corps	First Seneschal, Restored First Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Restored First Crusade CorpsSecond Seneschal, Second Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Second Crusade CorpsThird Seneschal, Third Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Third Crusade CorpsFourth Seneschal, Fourth Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Fourth Crusade CorpsFifth Seneschal, Fifth Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Fifth Crusade CorpsSixth Seneschal, Sixth Crusade CorpsKeep-Fathers of the Sixth Crusade Corps	Marshal of the Restored First Crusade CorpsMarshal of the Second Crusade CorpsMarshal of the Third Crusade CorpsMarshal of the Fourth Crusade CorpsMarshal of the Fifth Crusade CorpsMarshal of the Sixth Crusade Corps	Realm RegentWatchmasterNavarchThe Storm's VoiceChief ApothecaryChief StormseerMaster of the HuntForgemasterMaster of the ArsenalChief VictuallerMaster of CampaignsMaster of the RitesRelic-MasterChief BombardierCarnifexMaster of RecruitsMaster of ReconnaissanceSignalmasterMaster of BannersMaster of Arms	Realm RegentWatchmasterNavarchThe Storm's VoiceChief ApothecaryChief StormseerMaster of the HuntForgemasterMaster of the ArsenalChief VictuallerMaster of CampaignsMaster of the RitesRelic-MasterChief BombardierCarnifexMaster of RecruitsMaster of ReconnaissanceSignalmasterMaster of BannersMaster of Arms	
Other Specialist Orders 	Other Specialist Orders 	Other Specialist Orders 	Other Specialist Orders 	Other Specialist Orders 	
LibrariusChief Stormseer (also serves in the Third Chamber of the Grand Council)Stormseers First ClassStormseers Second ClassStormseers Third Class 	ArmouryForgemaster (also serves in the Third Chamber of the Grand Council)Techmarines 	ReclusiarchyThe Storm's Voice (also serves in the Third Chamber of the Grand Council)ReclusiarchChaplainsIudiciars 	ApothecarionChief Apothecary (also serves in the Third Chamber of the Grand Council)ApothecariesHelix Adepts 	Fleet CommandNavarch (also serves in the Third Chamber of the Grand Council) 	
Crusade Corps 	Crusade Corps 	Crusade Corps 	Crusade Corps 	Crusade Corps 	
Restored 1st Crusade Corps[[|thumb|center|90px]]="5" style="background:#FF7F27; color:Marshal of the 1st Crusade Corps1st Marshal Hold1st Brotherhood2nd Brotherhood3rd Brotherhood4th Brotherhood 	2nd Crusade Corps[[|thumb|center|90px]]Marshal of the 2nd Crusade Corps2nd Marshal Hold5th Brotherhood6th Brotherhood7th Brotherhood8th Brotherhood 	3rd Crusade Corps[[|thumb|center|90px]]Marshal of the 3rd Crusade Corps3rd Marshal Hold9th Brotherhood10th Brotherhood11th Brotherhood 	4th Crusade Corps[[|thumb|center|90px]]Marshal of the 4th Crusade Corps4th Marshal Hold12th Brotherhood13th Brotherhood14th Brotherhood 	5th Crusade Corps[[|thumb|center|90px]]Marshal of the 5th Crusade Corps5th Marshal Hold15th Brotherhood16th Brotherhood17th Brotherhood18th Brotherhood 	6th Crusade Corps[[|thumb|center|90px]]Marshal of the 6th Crusade Corps6th Marshal Hold19th Brotherhood20th Brotherhood21st Brotherhood22nd Brotherhood
===Officer Ranks===
====High Marshal====
The High Marshal is the most senior ranking Astartes of the Rampart Boars, derived in structure almost exactly from their inspiration, the Black Templars Chapter, being equivalent to the Chapter Master in the Codex Astartes-compliant Chapters. The personal fighting skills of a High Marshal are unsurpassed with bolt and melee weapons alike, and they can even fight at the same level with their bare hands as some less experienced, but fully armed Astartes. As his rank speaks for itself the past of the High Marshal is a gory one. It is a past which follows a trail of planets littered with the devastated cities and the piles of corpses of the butchered enemies of a most terrifyingly alien or morally inhumane like. However, it is not enough for the High Marshal to be the Chapter's foremost warrior, any warrior could do so with sufficient practice. His office is first and foremost a statesman of a militaristic kingdom and he must therefore be a superb tactician and a strategist of both politics and warfare logistics. A High Marshal originates as a Regent to the Realm Ikrell on the Council of Marshals but his ascension to the rank is ratified by the Grand Council in order that they might prevent conflicts of interest or threats to their sacred line of chapter succession. As such anyone who goes on to become High Marshal categorically must be grounded in the teachings of those officers of all ranks who have gone before him and had his skills sharpened through the countless necessary decisions a superior must make with their subordinates during the intense heat of several of the chapter's wars. He also must be estutely-minded toward the voluminous histories and lore of his Rampart Boars, privy to all of the Chapter's most ancient and well guarded secrets. A High Marshal is the acting commander-in-chief, with authority over all of the Chapter's ongoing crusades carried out by the Crusade Corps, keeping attentive tabs on their overall progress and events as well as making latchkey tactical choices in regards to the deployment of his dear Chapter's forces. He also often bolsters his men's morale, blessing individual battles with his inspirational rhetoric and the commanding presence of his honoured relic armour. The High Marshal of the Rampart Boars, like the High Marshal of the Black Templars is one of the military commanders with some of the highest degrees of overall autonomy and a lack of Inquisition oversight in the entire Imperium, albeit for different reasons. He is capable of decreeing entirely by his own plans and he creates the battle order schemes that determine where, when, and how any of his warriors will fight for their Noyon. Due to the distance and the approval of the High Lords to hold the Realm Ikrell, there are shockingly little long term obligations to the far away dictates of the Senatorum Imperialis.
====The Grand Council====
The Grand Council is a large administrative body which leads the Chapter above the level of the Crusade Corps and their fleets. While the members of this Council are deeply revered their work still lies under the command of the High Marshal. It serves to create decrees capable of leading the systems and structures of the entire chapter from which the master of the chapter creates policies. During the aftermath of the Siege of Anabasine III in which the High Marshal Ikrellius sustained a number of life threatening injuries, there was a time of incredible intense debate and conflict within the Crusade Corps of the chapter, called the "Halting of the Charge" as to who should succeed him should he succumb to his wounds. Some believed that the eldest Marshal should succeed him whereas others believed that there should be an election from the Marshals as a whole. A third faction loathed the entire conflict claiming that the very utterance of this debate was dishonourable with one Keep-Father stating outright that "The Marshals seek to circle our leader's corpse and feast on his privileges before he has even drawn his last breath." The conflict nearly escalated to a full-scale civil war until the succession crisis was nearly instantly silenced by High Marshal Ikrellius storming the prow of the Cataegian Conviction and ending the tension by his word. From then on it was clear to Ikrellius that without a structure of coherent succession the chapter could not go on, and thus he made a number of additions and alterations to the Tome of Qrown and published it to the records of the chapter after pouring over its creation since the Third Founding. The Grand Council itself is a consultative body with a tricameral structure. The first chamber of the Council is the Keep-Fathers, who lead Chapter Keeps and the individual planet level of chapter governance. The second is the Marshals of each Crusade Corps who represent the interests of that Crusade Corps in the leadership of the chapter. The third is the Masters of Title, a set of H.Q. leadership positions which hold positions similar to the titles of the company captains outlined for captains in the Codex Astartes. The creation of the third chamber was controversial, but the decision by High Marshal Ikrellius to create it resolved the problem of succession before it could truly come to a head in a similar way to the "Halting of the Charge." In accordance with the Tome of Qrown, if the High Marshal were to die, the Realm Regent shall take up the mantle of High Marshal.
====Marshal====
The Marshals of the chapter are the leaders of an entire Crusade Corps, leading its fleet and initiates through their patrols of territory and the fight against the Xenos they view as a hindrance to humanity's conquest of the galaxy. An initiate elevated to the rank of Mashal is almost always aready a high-ranking officer and Veteran Space Marine who leads both their Crusade Corps' infantry and the primary movements of the individual Crusades of the Rampart Boars Chapter. They are loosely equivalent to a captain in a Codex Astartes-compliant Chapter, however it can be said that the Rampart Boars' Castellans fulfill the role of captain much closer than those of other chapters which incorporate the rank, most famously the Black Templars. The religious purity of their subordinates, the stability of the Crusade Corps as a unit, and the ultimate military success of a crusade are all entrusted into the hands of these venerable Marshals and this duty is a rare and sacred gift that is given only once the previous Marshal of a Crusade Corps has died in glorious combat while holding this rank of latchkey responsibilities. Only the most skillful and determined Rampart Boars warriors may rise to become a Marshal, often by proving themselves in inspirational feats of combat or speeches of the rousing of chapter morale. after they have proved their courage, intelligence in logistics and piety to the Noyon within the ranks of the Marshal Hold or as a Castellan leading one of the other fighting brotherhoods of one of the Chapter's Crusade Corps. These ferocious yet noble Sword Brethren possess superb tactical faculties, second in experience to only the High Marshal himself. The Marshals must be able to coordinate their fellow Astartes under their command and lead them and his Corps' crusade wars to ultimate victory, no matter the size or nature of their opposition. Within the Rampart Boars Chapter, who are non-Codex Astartes-compliant and hold a long developed, staunchly traditional chain of command the Marshals serve as the highest ranking officers beneath the High Marshal, essentially acting as unusually powerful Space Marine captains, who can command the other captain-adjacent ranks, the Castellans and Force Commanders. All Marshals are great warriors who often lead the individual crusades of the Chapter from the front or with their flagship first into the fray of a naval engagement. As with much of the rest of the Chapter, the Marshals see the religious purity of the Cult of the Noyon as the state cult of the Realm Ikrell as essential to the ultimate success of a crusade in converting a conquered world into a properly serving place of Imperial loyalty and subservience to their mighty chapter. The duty of this task is entrusted unto the Marshal and the Keep-Father of a planet conjointly so that the Marshal and his Castellans can make sure that such a duty as sacred and glorious a responsibility as entry into the Realm Ikrell is done in accordance with all parts of Rampart Boars traditional law, spiritual, military, and civilian. A Marshal is not only an exceptionally deadly warrior but a careful statesman. A candidate for appointment to Marshal rank must be one whose expertise includes concerns beyond the battlefield, for the leading of a Rampart Boars crusade is a massive and profoundly complicated undertaking indeed, that strains the transhuman mind even more than the transhuman body. Even so, when a situation turns deadly, he will rarely ever meet his match on the field of battle when equipped in his traditional armaments of Terminator armor, a Thunder Hammer, a Storm Bolter. As a result, only the most brilliant and well-worn warriors who have earned the respect of their brothers through blood, sweat, and tears may rise to become a Marshal, having long proved their courage and strength of mental fortitude within the Chapter's brutal close quarters operations. There are few heroes of the Imperium, or of the Chapter fighting throughout the galaxy who are able to better wage war than the Marshals of the Rampart Boars Chapter.
====Force Commander====
Since the Rampart-Boars as a company existed as an auxiliary formation built from combining two companies that were partially depleted, the extant Rampart Boars Chapter regularly uses 'Force Commanders' as a standing officer for bi-brotherhood pairings within their Crusade Corps rather than as a temporary title for an acting leader of a mixed company force.
====Castellan====
Castellans are the commanders of one of a Crusade Corps' one hundred-personnel Brotherhoods, equivalent to the Castellans of the Black Templars or the Company Captains of a Codex-compliant chapter.
====Hetman====
A Hetman is the Rampart Boars equivalent to lieutenants. Unlike the Codex-compliant chapters, the Hetman rank did not fall out of use prior to the Era Indomitus, continuing the role from the days of legions all the way to the time of the Plague Wars. However the demi-brotherhood was not an official, codified division until after the reforms of Guilliman's return in the Indomitus Crusade. A Hetman leads a demi-brotherhood of fifty Initiates, and is identified from the standard Initiates he commands by a white tilting shield with a red "Pale" or vertical stripe down the centre. Seeing as there are four brotherhoods and a Marshal Hold in each Crusade Corps so there are normally ten Hetman in a Crusade Corps when at maximum capacity, with two of which being the pair of Sword-Hetman found in the Marshal Hold.
====Sword Hetman====
A Sword Hetman is the lieutenant rank for Marshal Hold's veteran units. A Sword-Hetman is identified by a white tilting shield with a red "Bend" or diagonal stripe along the centre.
===Senior Specialist Ranks===
====Reclusiarch====
The Reclusiarch is one of the senior members of the Chaplaincy in the Rampart Boars, being the immediate subordinate of the Master of Sanctity. The Reclusiarch is charged with overseeing the Reclusiam aboard the Cataegian Conviction, the holiest place in the vessel which houses the Chapter's holiest relics. The Reclusiarch also oversees the rituals and maintenance pertaining to keeping the relics in proper condition. As with other Chapters the Reclusiarch oversees the training of new Chaplains and Iudiciars. The most important of his duties however is the approval of Consecrate helmets after their creation by techmarines and Keep-Fathers alongside the subordinate Chaplains.
====Keep-Fathers====
Keep-Fathers are a specialised rank distinct to the Rampart Boars chapter. These long-serving warriors of the chapter are those who have been given the chance to join their Crusade Corps' formation of Sword-Brethren, the Marshall Hold, and instead choose to serve their chapter through other means, taking up many of the duties that are often taken up by Chaplains and Techmarines in Codex-compliant chapters or by the Iron Fathers of the Iron Hands. Keep-Fathers are used by members of the Chapter to overcome a similar obstacle to that which the Keepers of the Deathwatch were made for. The chapter's use of the largest number of men divided down to the smallest size of deployments to operate in a territory left the majority of the Crusade Corps' Chaplains and Techmarines woefully understaffed and limited in communication with the battle-brothers they served. During asset-denial or assault-preparatory operations the charges of the Rampart Boars generally are not told the whereabouts of the other charges in order to ensure that they cannot compromise one another. Restricting access of these details to one individual who can perform equipment and vehicle repairs, gene-seed extraction, or attend to a battle-brother's spiritual needs such as preventing or responding to Gene-Fury, is a key part of maintaining operational effectiveness when manpower is spread thin. A Keep-Father is occupied first and foremost with the solemn duty of maintaining an individual planet's Chapter Keep, allowing a planet to be ruled over by the Realm Ikrell, hold Xenos prisoners for interrogation or study, and most importantly to recruit Aspirants for the chapter. The Keep-Father is trained in basic medical treatment of Astartes and in gene-seed extraction via the same training methods as the Helix Adepts of the Vanguard Marines. Each Brotherhood of a Crusade Corps has a Keep-Father, totaling to five per Crusade Corps. One of their most honoured duties is their service on the Grand Council, where they serve to represent both the needs of individual companies but also of planets, whereas the Marshalls represent their Crusade Corps as a whole. There has been some considerable tension over the nature of leadership in the Chapter as to whether a Crusade Corps' Apothecaries, Chaplains and Techmarines report to the higher ranks of their specialisation or to their Marshal first and foremost. The Chapter faced this conflict directly during the event known as the "Halting of the Charge". Ultimately it was decided that the Chaplains, Apothecaries and Techmarines do not report to their Marshal or Castellan but do report directly to the Keep-Father of their Brotherhood. The Keep-Fathers, like the Marshals, report to the High Marshal. The Keep-Fathers serve as the acting Chaplain and Techmarine for their planet and may carry out the duties of either if they are not available. Keep-Fathers outrank standard Chaplains and Techmarines within their Crusade Corps, in order to ensure that the needs and goals of their Crusade Corps' branch of the Armoury, Chaplaincy and Apothecarion but do not outrank any individuals of the Chapter level hierarchy of these branches, reporting directly to the High Marshall as inter-officium representatives.
=====Induction=====
In theory, any individual of the Rampart Boars Chapter may be elevated to the high honour of Keep-Father, however it is most often given to experienced Techmarines or Chaplains who have received some education by the Reclusiarch or Forgemaster respectively. They also receive Helix Adept Training from the Apothecarion during this time of preparation. If a psyker of the Librarius decides to undergo the necessary training and eventually achieves the rank of a Keep-Father, they are given the honorific of "Seneschal" and are the first among their Crusade Corps' Keep-Fathers, being stationed with their Crusade Corps' Marshal Hold. Generally there is only one Keep-Father with the honorific title of Seneschal in a Crusade Corps at a time, due to the rarity of psykers in the chapter.
After being sufficiently trained by the Reclusiarch or Forgemaster the battle-brother seeking the office is permitted to take up the ceremonial trials to become an official trainee referred to as a "supplicant". Because of the Rampart Boars' gene-seed and its inherent resistance to the mind reading and discernment capabilities of psykers, a potential supplicant is questioned intensely, almost to the point of interrogation on the minutiae of the Rampart Boars' lore, philosophy, tactics, technology, but also personally in order to ensure they are of a character and strength of will ideal for their role. The training battle-brother is given leave from his other duties and is devoted entirely to their continued education in the Chapter's necessary crafts.
Upon the approval of the Chaplains and their Marshal the battle brother becomes a supplicant and is then permitted to undergo a set of nine trials which each test the physical, mental and moral convictions of the supplicant as well as the skills they have developed. These trials are referred to as the Ninefold Charge. The supplicants are held within a special chamber of the Reclusiam in which all of the supplicant's equipment is removed save for his Consecrate Helmet and his nerve ports are embedded with C.N.S-data slugs that create visions in his mind via holograms, H.U.D modifications, and alterations to his vision. The process also includes hypnosis based programming and psychotropic agents.The trials are called the Ninefold Charge for two reasons, the first being that there are nine trials, and the second being that they are tasked in these semi-simulation rituals with commanding a pair of charges without Bashaws meaning that their are eight other Initiates placed in the simulation under their command to test their capabilities as a leader during a crisis.
======List of the Trials of the Ninefold Charge======
*The First Trial: The First Trial is likely the most straightforward being a test of strength and physical resilience as a virtue of the supplicant.
*The Second Trial: The Second Trial tests the respect that the supplicant has for the virtue of tradition and resistance of the vice of uprootedness.
*The Third Trial:
*The Fourth Trial: The Fourth Trial is assembled as a test in the virtue of courage with the supplicant being tasked with a near impossible situation while fulfilling the elements of their training by the chaplaincy support of morale and the techmarine repairs of equipment. He takes up the mission of leading men directly into a siege knowing that both he and his men will die and will do so painfully. What is so difficult about this trial is that the entirety of the Ninefold charge simulation kill team is given the opportunity to desert the operation and flee. In order to be successful in the trial the supplicant must inspire his men through rousing actions of chaplain's works, kill the pre-programmed deserting member and he has to go through with the operation in a manner best suited towards the Crusade Corps' end goal before being pulled from the simulation at the moment of their ultimate acceptance of death when the Melta-Bombs reign down on his head.
*The Fifth Trial: The Fifth Trial is one of the most extreme forms of the trials' test of personal virtue. This trial is intended to test the virtue of Fidelity in the supplicant. The hallucinogens and neural programming are set to a program which is used to create an extremely realistic recreation of the destruction of Netekruna Station.
*The Sixth Trial: During the the Sixth Trial, a test is made of the supplicant's measure of personal patience. The supplicant's neural slugs are turned to an alternate setting which would greatly bypass emotional inhibition while stimulants are pumped directly into the central nervous system as an attempt to induce the Gene-Fury. The point of this test is not to have the supplicant prevent himself from entering into the Gene-Fury state, although this too may qualify passing the trials, but to maintain control of himself while within its clutches. In doing so the C.N.S data-slug measures the nervous systems spikes of fear and aggression as it cycles through visions of different enemy types of the Imperium and forces the supplicant to fight the one he hates the most. The battle simulation is designed to force the supplicant to keep themselves collected, internalise their rage, and think tactically to lead their fellow eight Initiates of the trial in a moment where weaker Initiates would be unable to. Upon successfully managing to control themselves and win the battle in spite of the stimulants and environmental factors the supplicant is confirmed as passing the Sixth Trial and moves on to the Seventh Trial.
*The Seventh Trial:
*The Eighth Trial:
*The Ninth Trial: The Ninth Trial tests both the leadership abilities of the potential Keep-Father and their comprehension of their medicae training under the Helix Adept program of the chapter's Apothecarion. The supplicant is tasked with handling a battlefield situation in which another initiate is wounded severely and infected with a Nurgle-born Plague infection which contaminates the body causing horrific mutations. They are not told a singular objective and it is up to the skills of the supplicant to determine that both the battle cannot be won and that the Initiate will not survive even if the battle were able to be won. The goal that the judges of the trial wish to see the supplicant complete is for that supplicant to identify that they cannot succeed in the initial plan and that they must improvise. They must identify that the progenoids must be saved not the Initiate and then extract both progenoid glands of that young Initiate whether the Initiate dies from their wounds or not. They must also do so before the Nurgle plague spreads to the progenoids and causes mutations in the gene-seed. While this is going on they must manage the other eight Initiates and command them in a way that provides cover-fire, keeps all eight alive and allows the entire force to safely retreat with the progenoids. The lesson of the ninth and final trial of the ninefold charge is that while the Keep-Father must be a capable adherent to the teachings of all the specialist roles in at least a reasonable capacity, no amount of planning and skill can permanently and unilaterally prevent all forms of failure, only mitigate it. A good leader is not one who never fails but one who can resolve problems and protect both the charge and the force behind it so that the Chapter and her crusade missions may live on.
Upon the successful completion of all nine of these trials, the supplicant's data-slugs are removed and the hypnosis programs are deactivated. Once the psychotropic agents wear off and the supplicant regains the constitution to stand they walk into the arming chamber and don a set of ancient, ornately robed power armour passed down from the deceased Keep-Father to the rising supplicant. The supplicant takes up their new equipment and a new name as the latest Keep-Father of the Chapter.
====Cherbi====
The Cherbi is the highest ranking of the chapter's Keshig, an equivalent to an Honor Guard, he serves as the champion for the entire chapter. He is a master of close quarters combat who seeks out elite units as his foes in order to neutralise them personally before they become a threat to the High Marshal. The Cherbi is also an appointed role and thus he is the only member of the Keshig and moreover the entire chapter's laity to wear an honour guard-style helmet rather than a Consecrate model without suffering the dishonour so often entailed in such. This chapter-wide champion of the Rampart Boars is a chosen Keshig member charged with defending the life of his High Marshal due to being widely recognized as the greatest warrior in the Chapter. In taking up this dignity he is also tasked with upholding the honour of his entire Chapter with each draw of the blade. He represents his way of swordsmanship for his brotherhood, Chapter and the Emperor Himself. His is the honour and ultimate privilege to challenge any and all of the warlords and champions of the enemy army in single combat, leaving his High Marshal free to conduct the wider command of the battle, rather than engage in a series of personal combats which could result in his death. The Cherbi often serves as a trusted advisor and confidante to his commander, as fighting countless battles back-to-back against the most horrendous Xenos creatures in the entire Eastern Fringe of the galaxy often creates a very strong kinship through fraternity, respect and mutual trust between the High Marshal and his personal champion.
====Chapter Bannerlord====
The Chapter Bannerlord is a Sword Brother selected from prior service as a bannerlord of a Crusade-Corps or Brotherhood. This Initiate amongst the Chapter's Keshig may receive the distinction of carrying the banner of their Chapter itself into battle during the operations of the Keshig most of which are led personally by the High Marshal himself . This is an exceptionally honoured and sacred task, one that the Chapter Bannerlord takes with immense dignity and significance to the morale of his comrades. Whether he is best served at providing a rally point to the Initiates and Sword Brothers fighting around him, or racing across the battlefield to defiantly plant the banner upon a contested territory elevation to claim the field for his Chapter, the Chapter Bannerlord serves as both a dutiful warrior and an inspiration of all around him.
====Masters of Title====
The Rampart Boars Chapter makes distinctions betweens its Castellans and the "Master" titles for certain fields of administration and the company captains that hold them in other Chapters. They refer to these ranks as the “Masters of Title” and they serve as one chamber of the Chapter’s Grand Council. This is due to the fact that the primary unit a battle-brother will engage with is his squad or a ship of his Crusade Corps' fleet rather than his individual brotherhood as a formation deployed all at once.
The Storm's Voice 	Often referred to as the Master of Sanctity in other, more Codex-Compliant Chapters the Storm's Voice is the leader of all Chaplains of the Chapter and the public face, or rather, helmet, of their Reclusiarchy's Cult of the Noyon.
Master of the Hunt 	The Master of the Hunt is an ancient "Master" rank derived from both the White Scars Legion and its later form as a chapter. The Master of the Hunt is tasked with hunting down and slaying an elite enemy of the chapter who has eluded defeat and death in multiple battles.
Forgemaster 	The Forgemaster is the head of the chapter's armoury, and manages the creation and basic maintenance of all personal and artefact weapons, vehicles, and other equipment. All of the Chapter's techmarines, forge-servitors, and serf-mechanics serve under his purview. As with other techmarines, their ability to resolve matters of machine spirit distress from very limited glances makes them appear eccentric and distant from other members of the chapter, and concerns are often posed to the Forgemaster on the matter of cybernetics by the rank and file battle-brothers just as they are given to techmarines. The Forgemaster wields the Rampart Boar's Mortis Machina, a master-crafted, relic Omnissian power axe.
Chief Apothecary 	The Chief Apothecary is the head of the Chapter's Apothecarion, controlling both the education of Apothecaries and Helix Adepts in medical matters and the extraction of gene-seed.
Chief Stormseer 	The Chief Stormseer is the leader of all other Stormseers in the Chapter's Librarius. His psychic abilities are a rarity in the chapter and the sheer power of his capabilities to achieve such a position affords him great reverence among even non psyker battle-brothers. The Stormseers have accrued a number of ancient shamanic practices from Chogoris and integrated them into the Cult of the Noyon, one of which being augury which the Chief Stormseer regulates.
Realm Regent 	The Realm Regent is the second in command to the High Marshal in the Chapter. His duties include acting as helmsman of the chapter's flagship, the Cataegian Conviction, presiding over the Grand Council in the High Marshal's absence, managing the leadership staff of the Realm Ikrell as a vassal polity, and relaying orders to the other Masters of Title. In the event of the High Marshal's death the Realm Regent succeeded him as the next High Marshal.
Watchmaster 	The Watchmaster is the Rampart Boars equivalent to the "Master of the Watch" outlined in Guilliman's Codex Astartes. Its rank is equivalent to that of a Marshal and it serves as the position of the primary guardian of the chapter's flagship and later after the opening of the Great Rift, the War-Tusk. He holds active command over any defensive operations in an area of the Realm Ikrell in which he is present.
Navarch 	The Navarch is the Rampart Boars primary leader of naval engagements and administrator of the placements of the Crusade Corps across the fronts. The Navarch commands the fleet's down to the individual ships with their Uxores Navium.
Master of the Arsenal 	The Master of the Arsenal is charged by his High Marshal with overseeing his Chapter's arsenal of weapons and munitions. This special duty is traditionally given as a promotion to those officers who work alongside the Forgemaster in the chapter's primary Forge World which is generally protected by the Third Crusade Corps.
Chief Bombardier 	The Chief Bombardier creates the explosive ordinance engagements in void combat as well as plans vessel entry procedures. The Chief Bombardier is a vital aspect to fleet based combat as his tactics and methods are one of the many necessary steps to proper vehicle boarding, an absolute necessity for allowing the Rampart Boars to fight in space aboard ships using their large, "atavistic" physiques and the same tactics they would use in infantry combat on a planet. Prior to the opening of the Great Rift, the Chief Bombardier was a key figure alongside the Master of the Hunt in planning the War-Tusk Campaigns, when travelling into the Warp.
Master of Campaigns 	The Master of Campaigns is the chapter's equivalent to the Codex-Compliant Chapters Master of Marches. This Master of Title has the additional responsibility for overseeing the total deployment of the Rampart Boars Chapter's fighting strength. It is ultimately his knowledge of the exact position, type, and strength of the Chapter's unit dispositions that the High Marshal turns to when in need of counsel on the logistics of their manpower when readying for war. The Master of Campaigns is wholly devoted to this vital and often highly discretionary duty as he holds physical documents of a massive length of parchment or carved tablet in order to prevent interception of cogitator-held digital copies by outside forces, both Imperial and heretical. This scroll, often called a Tabula Ordo Xargha'khai-ne is sometimes held aloft nearby via a Cyber-cherub or Un-Eyed servitor, which generally contains critical supporting data. Among his wargear there is equipment on his back including an array of twin archaeotech Vox-casters which are utilised to project order sequences across noisy battlefields in forms that can be decrypted by the Chapter's sacred helms. The Master of the Campaign is profoundly devoted to these logistical duties and oversees immense amounts of tactical data.
Master of the Rites 	The Master of the Rites is an Astartes officer of the Rampart Boars who serves in the Third Chamber of the Grand Council a Codex Astartes-compliant Chapter charged by the High Marshal with recording and preserving the martial traditions of his chapter's brotherhoods. He also organises and leads a number of the chapter's rituals. A solemn, experienced and courageous warrior with absolute loyalty to meeting the spiritual needs and honoured acts of his Battle-Brothers. An individual granted this high honour must be one who exudes a sentiment of extreme pride in their chapter and an integrally religious-combative fervour to defend those around them. A large Servo-skull with a built-in-suite Vox-caster that amplifies his war chants is usually anchored near his feet or on the end of his sceptre by a weighty pair of censers or a large pair of weighted ceramite which hang down near his feet, and can be used to flail opponents who get too close. The Master of Rites roars with inspiring rhetoric during the heat of difficult, large=scale battles , reminding his Battle-Brothers to remember their duty, heritage, and the need to resist the Gene-Fury, even as they clash with difficult foes.
Chief Victualler 	The Chief Victualler is a logistics specialist who maintains food paste supply lines and M.R.Es for troop placements. He is also the head of all of the Chapter Keeps food production for auxiliary units.
Carnifex 	The Carnifex is a Space Marine officer who in a Codex Astartes-compliant Chapter is generally called the Lord Executioner. He serves as the overarching leader of all of the Chapter's Close Support Charges with the exception of Vanguard Units . As a Master of Title his edicts stand above the level of individual Marshals, Castellans or Keep-Fathers, usually dictating training, policy, and equipment loadouts as well as promotions, but generally does not issue outside of general orders and thus not encroaching on the immediate command of their Crusade Corps' superior officers. A Carnifex is by nature a brutal but blunt individual, not so much given to the self-validating heroic actions of other officers and or honour duels and challenges as much as short, mutilative, and effort-efficient close quarters combat methods. Wielding his favoured master-crafted power-sword in his hand, he lunges carefully and precisely into any battle he arrives at,the expression of a dour butcher written on his face as he heads towards his grim duty. His Artificer-grade armour is often impressively detailed with multiple Noyon Cult purity seals and hexagrammic wards unlike those seen in chapters outside the Cult of the Noyon's religious mysteries. Of all the Space Marine officers within the chapter, the Carnifex is one of, if not the, most menacing combatant to face on the battlefield, barring the High Marshal himself.
Relic-Master 	The Relic-Master is a Space Marine officer of the Rampart Boars, who is equivalent in Codex Astartes-compliant Chapters to the Master of Relics. is charged with the duty as the acting supervisor of the policies of all of the Chapter's fire support charges with the exclusion of Vanguard charges. Any Rampart Boars Sword Brother who seeks this position must be a thoroughly unmatched expert in the applications and strategy of long-ranged or heavy artillery warfare. He is the custodian of the Chapter's many technological and spiritual masterpieces as the keeper of the Great Reliquary aboard the Cataegian Conviction. He serves to archive important tomes and records, maintains archaeotech weaponry, and preserves ancient relics. The most volatile and dangerous of these relic weapons are brought before the foes on the battlefield in times where the chapter's deployment is greatly outnumbered or facing exceptional challenge. The Master of Relics is often clad in ancient artificer patterns of the Power Armour barring his Consecrate Helmet, and is armed with various parts of an extremely impressive set of master-crafted weapons from the Chapter Fleet's Armoury Division. In accordance with the moral and personal guidelines of the Tome of Qrown, a Relic-Master of the Rampart Boars must project an air of stoicism and patient watchfulness as he directs his withering gaze of anemoia upon the battlefield's horizon. On the back of his armour is a high-tech sensor backpack installed with a targeting array which matches the angle of his eye line via his H.UD. This is capable of gathering and sending complex telemetry information which can be fed to deployments of Fire Support Marines.
Master of Recruits 	The Master of Recruits is the head recruitment officer equivalent to the Space Marine Captain title of the same name which is outlined in the Codex Astartes. The Master of Recruits has been designated by the High Marshal with the responsibility for the training of all of the Chapter's Aspirants and the early stages of the training of Neophytes. He usually also serves as an attaché to the Force Commander of the High Marshal's Companies which had the most neophytes. Anyone given the opportunity to serve in this important capacity must be a skilled Veteran of countless numbers of battles and a careful, taciturn judge of character, easily able to determine what elements of training, discipline, and necessary counsel will bring out the best characteristics in the genetically-altered aspirant adolescents in order to make them the best possible soldiers of the Chapter. Those who survived their Aspirant Trials and transform them into true Astartes after they become Neophytes, know his requirements well.As the leader primary officer of recruitment the Master of Recruits will be an expert in the irregular forms of combat that define the missions of Space Marine Scouts such as infiltration and officer assassinations. However, counter-insurgencies, sabotage, asset-denial, and the command of Vanguard Marines is under the purview of the Master of Reconnaissance, who in the Rampart Boars is a separate officer rather than being a combined office of the captain of the 10th "Scout" Company.
Master of Reconnaissance	The Master of Reconnaissance is the Rampart Boars Chapter's head of all Vanguard units. This includes sabotage and espionage operators across all Crusade Corps. The holder of this rank is the leader of each of the Rampart Boars’ intelligence wings for their Astartes' tactical divisions and their placements of charges which work to provide extensive intelligence to the chapter. Without the Master of Reconnaissance and his expertise in commanding specialists in infiltration, exploration, and intelligence gathering, the Chapter's widespread distribution of their Crusade Corps' fleets would be incapable of accurately luring foes into open close quarters warfare. As with all Vanguard Marines of the Chapter, potential Astartes that could rise to the rank of Master of Reconnaissance are generally only taken from the recruits for the Vanguard who are referred by superior officers. This is done only after it has been confirmed that they were born or spent a considerable portion of their training in the central portion of the Realm Ikrell. This is because Vanguard groups of Astartes are known by their official numerical designations only nominally. When in the field, all Vox-Caster traffic uses the Netekrunan word for Vanguard as their charge's call sign. Each squad however, places stress on a different vowel and consonant in the word, derived from Realm Ikrell regional accents. Only a native Netekrunan speaker can distinguish between these, and generally only one who has resided near the Realm' core trading worlds. This method of tactical concealment of naming keeps these charges safe and results in a vast amount of confusion should any more than one of them be detected detected. This allows the Master of Reconnaissance to keep the widespread nature of his forces' operations a secret, and so he must be keenly familiar with the nature of Netekrunan language and its variations. Astartes of the Vanguard have few defining markings or communication with the individual Castellans or Marshals they are serving with, as such a connection could potentially mark out other charges if the Chapter was infiltrated, and would potentially contradict their broader mission.
Signalmaster 	The Signalmaster is the communications officer of the chapter, specialising in encryption keys, managing vox-channels and monitoring Astra Telepathica Communication between crusading fleets. In other cases the Signalmaster will commonly be attached to the most forward element of a Rampart Boars assault, making him one of the few Masters of Title to regularly take up a direct battlefield function on the front itself rather than performing his duties from a mobile command station aboard the fleet. Through this forward placement he is capable of providing communications support across the wider warzone of the planet, and is capable of calling down a pinpoint bombardment from either orbiting fleet assets or a set of static artillery positions from nearby allies, raining down flaming destruction upon the virulent Xenos foes of the domain of Mankind.
Master of Banners 	The Master of Banners is the keeper of all official banners of the chapter for each Crusade Corps as well as the personal banners of Marshal Holds. The Bannerlords of the chapter, each Crusade Corps, and individual Brotherhoods report to him in order to ensure that all of the chapter's standards are up to code.
Master of Arms 	The Master of Arms is a masterful close quarters combat specialist, who organizes and regulates the training of the Rampart Boars chapter's Aspirants and battle-brothers in the art of melee combat.
===Specialist Ranks===
====Stormseers====
A Stormseer is a specialist officer unique to the White Scars and its successor Chapters which has been inherited by the Rampart Boars Chapter to serve in a specialist role, they are equivalent to the psychic Librarians who serve in other Chapters.These psyker-warriors have both traditions and rituals of the Cult of the Noyon and its Litanies expanded to the psychic level and the deeply-ingrained mysticism traditions identical to those of the tribal shamans and holy men who rode the plains of the White Scars' homeworld of Chogoris alongside the Primarch Jaghatai Khan before the coming of the Emperor. Stormseers can be identified both by the large psychic hood integrated into their armor and Consecrate helmet as well as the light blue tilting shield worn on the left pauldron.
=====Vanguard Stormseers=====
College of Stormseer's Vanguard Division is the group of psychically gifted Astartes who exhibited a distinct expertise built around the elements of quick sabotage, attack and diversive surprise charges. Therefore it is not uncommon for Astartes dedicated to the College of Stormseers to study and prefer long ranged weaponry during their early training in order to receive clearance for higher level information. They also spend a considerable deal of time training with Keep-Fathers derived from the Chaplaincy in the use of Astartes Warbikes. Interestingly, the Vanguard Marines have always worked with a high degree of cooperation with the specialist divisions of the Chapter, but work the most closely with the College of Stormseers in matters of military operation. This is likely due to the similarities between the ceremonial functions of divination which are fundamental to College of Stormseer's purpose in the Chapter Cult before battles and the gathering of intelligence which is a key part of the Rampart Boars Vanguards. As with regular Stormseers, Astartes of the Vanguard Division can be identified by the same light blue tilting shield contrasting the red trim of their left shoulder pauldron.
====Apothecaries====
The Apothecaries of the Rampart Boars are a highly honoured part of the chapter, dedicated to the medical care of the Boars distinctive biology and the continuation of the chapter. They use a wide array of archaic and modern techniques while working constantly at the upkeep of gene-seed and implantation of gene-seed into Aspirants in order to maintain their Crusade Corps' numbers. Unlike the Apothecaries of most Codex-compliant chapters the Rampart Boars' Apothecaries paint only their breastplate white with the winged helix in red on a white tilting shield. The loss of an Apothecary is seen as even more catastrophic in the Rampart Boars than in other chapters due to the necessary extra training and years of practice required to work with their chapter's gene-seed and the skill with implanting that gene-seed at the youngest possible age for each organ. For this reason, all of the Rampart Boars' Apothecaries in the Era Indomitus wear Gravis Armor for the extra protection it can provide them. When forced to work alongside other chapters of Astartes, the Rampart Boars' Apothecaries will retrieve fallen Astartes' bodies under the cover of darkness in order to prevent the progenoid glands held within from being taken by suspicious chapters after battles. These corpses are then handed over to the Chaplains. subjected to secretive burial rituals involving cremative bone-stripping, seeking out hidden corruption for political agendas, especially evidence of genetic mutation.
====Helix Adepts====
As in other Chapters the Helix Adept is the title given to certain select marines who serve within the Vanguard Space Marines of each Crusade Corps. Generally the Rampart Boars' Helix Adepts are assigned to serve with Infiltrator Squads, who often require their own medicae specialists and Apothecary services while not being within access of Apothecaries for extended periods of time. These elite warriors receive additional training from the Apothecarion itself on the anatomy of their fellow Initiates and the arts of healing. After a far more extensive period of training to deal with their gene-seed's idiosyncrasies they can also stand fully prepared to ascend to the role of a fully fledged Apothecary armed in Gravis armour should the tragic loss of one of their superiors occur. In the meantime they practise their bio-craft in their Crusade Corps deployment of the Vanguard formations, utilising the Cataegis-pattern Helix Gauntlet -- a heavily modified version of the standard Helix Gauntlet. This tool is a scaled-down version of the Apothecary's Narthecium tool however it has multiple, higher rotation speed, high density oscillator blades for opening up the fused rib cage of the Rampart Boar's enhanced bone density, as well as an advanced array of syringes for medication administration and screening multiple chemical signal pathways simultaneously. They use this to carry out their various medical duties both standard and emergency. Most often it is the case that they will be required to provide first-aid to their fellow Initiates on the front. Among the younger Initiates introduced to the Vanguard formations the Helix-Adepts may also be required to very carefully collect their fellow Initiates progenoid glands for the Chapter if they mature or should the warrior fall in combat. This is especially important in the Rampart Boars Chapter as they have their Initiates have both of their progenoid glands once they are both matured despite the pain of the procedure. This is done in order to prevent degradation caused by Warp effects or chemicals that an Initiate may be exposed to, and provided during a screening Vanguard Marine's progenoid glands are both shown matured; the Helix Adept will likely be called upon to perform the extraction operation.
====Chaplains====
The Chapter maintain an unusually high number of Chaplains within their ranks, driven by their relentless pursuit of purity and vigilance against any potential corruption. This surplus of skilled masters of burial rituals ensures that fallen battle-brothers can be swiftly recovered, their gene-seed carefully preserved, and any signs of the ancient additions in their gene-seed can be kept hidden from others. This abundance of of performers of holy rites highlights the Rampart Boars Chapter's dedication to maintaining themselves as the Cult of the Noyon's finest warriors and preserving the legacies of their Primarch, Jaghatai Khan and their Warfather from any disgrace.
====Iudiciars====
====Techmarines====
A Techmarine (translated directly as Chapter Engineers when taken from the Old Netekrunan ) are Space Marine technicians and engineers as well as a full fledged Astartes initiates for the Rampart Boar's Chapter. They are fully initiated members of both the Cult Mechanicus and their Chapter's Cult of the Noyon, but the exact nature of the syncretism or relationship between these two faiths is often complicated and varies from techmarine to techmarine regarding how they balance honouring both the Omnissiah and the Noyon's Five Great Oaths. Prospective Rampart Boars techmarines are chosen from the ranks of the Space Marine Chapters early on in their induction for their affinity with technology and equipment maintenance. They learn how to divine the effects and functions of machine spirits in Imperial engineering and have had a long period of study on the liturgy of maintenance across both personal equipment and vehicles. This great body of lore must be thoroughly committed to memory and understood by the novice Techmarine from a set of ancient translated texts written in the language of Netekruna on their weaponry and consolidated monographs on various machines . The chapter's techmarines are initiated via the required mysteries of the machine cult, which in spite of their potential tensions with the Five Great Oaths. The religious element is necessary as they are taught how to sense the "pain" of a damaged machine or a malfunctioning program and heal it through mechanics and information technology. When they come back from their training under the Tech-Priests they serve the same role in their Chapter as Techmarines do in the other chapters of the Astartes. Without the passing on of such ancient lore, the Space Marines would eventually grind to a complete halt, unable to make war. Thus the Rampart Boars Chapter’s might hinges upon the esoteric mechanical savvy and occult knowledge of its Techmarines. Every Crusade Corps of the Rampart Boar's Chapter sends a number of its initiates who have demonstrated their affinity for the use and maintenance of technology to the Forge World of Zerexal where they are inducted into the Machine Cult by the Adeptus Mechanicus. Usually Astartes are inducted at Mars and Rampart Boars techmarines do have a right to train or be inducted there instead if they so choose, but concessions are granted to them based on their territory's distance and relative isolation which have made necessary changes to the ancient pacts agreed upon by the Ordo Astartes and the Tech-priests of Mars. Aspiring Techmarines of the chapter train from between one or two standard decades, steeping themselves in the traditions of the cult and the rites of machine activation, device maintenance and ceremonial processes of repair. Upon returning to their Chapter's Crusade Corps, they become caretakers of elements of the Chapter's Armoury vessels.
As with those of the Codex-compliant chapters, Techmarines are Astartes of relatively split loyalties, pledged by their flesh, genes and spirit to their Chapter, but bound in mind to the works of the Omnissiah's Temple on Zerexal. Despite this often contentious dichotomy, Techmarines are still held in fairly high esteem among their fellow initiates, albeit perhaps not at the same level as other chapters. A Crusade Corps of the Rampart Boars Chapter could not wage their various crusades and chapter wars without his technological tools and expertise. In spite of their arcane calling, Techmarines remain fierce warriors in physical combat as well. If a ship or relic weapon were to be lost on the field of battle, they will fight for its retrieval as stridently as their brethren would to recover any other fallen comrade or an apothecary would seek out the Chapter's gene-seed. The most senior Techmarine of the Rampart Boars Chapter commands the entire Armoury Division of the High Marshal's Fleet and is named to the Third Chamber of the Grand Council as the Rampart Boars' Forgemaster. His knowledge of the arcane sciences has been refined over centuries and rivals that of the Tech-priests of Mars. In addition to his responsibilities in the Chapter Armoury, the Forgemaster is tasked with conserving any and all of the Chapter's technologically advanced arcane relics. If the need is great enough, he may even be tasked to unleash the fury of these lost technologies upon his foes. The Era Indomitus has also introduced Primaris Marines into the mysteries of the Omnissiah as Techmarines both by Primaris reinforcements and the Rubicon Primaris. Primaris Techmarines engage in the chapter almost identically to the way that their Firstborn counterparts did, rushing through the battlefield through oncoming fire headlong without concern of injury to soothe the Machine Spirits of damaged war engines. Their equipment is capable of quickly and precisely peeling back damaged armour plating to repair burnt-out servos, replace shorn cabling, or even bending severely warped panels back into shape via his Servo-Arm and Mechadendrite. Usually a techmarine of the chapter wears the war gear and power armour that are standard of a techmarine in other chapters but do not wear red armour or a techmarine helmet. As with all other members of the chapter they wear the typical orange and burgundy armour with a Consecrate helmet and distinguish themselves by their Tech Priest Cloaks worn over their armour, be they the Martian or Zerrexalian variety.
====Crusade Corps Champion====
The Crusade Corps Champion is the most elite close quarters combat specialist of a Crusade Corps.
====Brotherhood Champion====
Crusade Corps Bannerlord As in the Crusade fleets of the Black Templars, the Rampart Boars have the Crusade Corps Bannerlord. This bannerlord serves as the carrier of the military standards for the entire Crusade Corps, a Bannerlord above those of the Brotherhoods but still beneath that of the Chapter level Bannerlord and the Master of Banners.
====Brotherhood Bannerlord====
A Brotherhood Bannerlord, also referred to much more rarely as a Standard Bearer, is a Sword Brother of the Rampart Boars Chapter who is hand-picked by Grand Council, chosen for the specific purpose to be the bearer the sacred battle standard of one of the Chapter's individual Brotherhoods which make up a Crusade Corps. A specialist of such honour is selected from being a part of Chapter's Keshig, the elite honour guard and personal companions of the High Marshal. These ceremonial battle standards are possibly the most revered of all of the Chapter's artefacts which are not a weapon or other armament. Each standard has proudly flown over thousands of battlefields on countless worlds, and every Neophyte, Initiate and Sword Brother will instinctively understand the finest nuances and reference that has been woven into each repair and mark. A Rampart Boar battle standard is shockingly minimalistic, almost to the point of brutalism. These banners are profoundly unlike that of most chapters of the Rampart Boars age which often include lavish designs and flourishes of fine materials. A Rampart Boars' Brotherhood Banner is simply an orange banner with the chapter's emblem numbered in the centre with the combination of the Crusade Corps' number hyphenated with the Brotherhood number in Roman numerals. The Rampart Boars' Bannerlords are all chosen from criteria based around evidence of their courage and steadfastness against overwhelming odds, as their position is one of both sacred duty of the preservation of a relic and a pragmatic duty of the bolstering of morale. Since they are still time-tested Sword Brethren, these Bannerlords are also more than a match for some of the most capable warriors of the chapter and the Imperium of Man. These are blademasters who are not to be discounted or underestimated by any measure should an enemy attempt to assess the Chapter's fighting capacity or order of battle. The Tome of Qrown opted to use the title of Bannerlord for its conciseness over the terms of Banner Bearer and Household Banner Bearer as the Rampart Boars Crusade Corps are far more permanent a formation than a Black Templar Crusade and their banners are far less personal or heraldic meaning there is far less difference between a Marshal Hold and a standard company outside the fact that the Marshal Hold is made up of Sword Brethren. This was also to avoid the use of the name "Ancient" which is an exclusive name reserved for the standard bearers found in the Codex Astartes-compliant Chapters; the office of the "Ancient" is considered to be one of the more prestigious and senior ranks within most of those Space Marine Chapters. A Brotherhood Bannerlord is sworn to carry the formation's standard forward, and to never dishonour it, intentionally damage it, or lose it, an oath that most Bannerlords take as seriously as the Five Great Oaths of the Chapter itself. He would have no qualms in the decision to die defending it if necessary. Among the formations of the Primaris Space Marines given to the Chapter, a Bannerlord for a Brotherhood was not given any form of alternative insignia, standard to carry, or title specifications as a Primaris Bannerlord outside those of a Firstborn one as the goal of the High Marshal was to have the Primaris transition as smoothly into the chapter as possible, with no divisions between them and their forebears, especially after the confirmation of the safety of the Rubicon Primaris procedure.
===Line Ranks===
====Sword Brother====
A Sword Brother is a veteran battle-brother of the Rampart Boars chapter, the same in name as the Sword Brethren of the Black Templars. However unlike the Black Templars chapter the Rampart Boars have their own rank equivalent to sergeant that leads their small squad-like units, the charges, rather than having them be led by veterans. This means that generally speaking, a Rampart Boars Sword Brother functions much closer to the veterans of other Codex-compliant chapters. The Sword Brethren also have the distinct honour of going beyond being mere soldiers, and are granted permission to serve as mentor-masters to neophytes of their own. In this way, the neophyte learns firsthand the methods of combat most perfectly suited to the destruction of the Chapter and the Emperor's most mysterious of alien enemies. Since the chapter does not allow for alternative markings or variations of colour in the Consecrate Helmets, a Sword Brother is instead identified by a white tilting shield placed on the front rim of their right pauldron.
====Bashaw====
A bashaw is the leader of an individual charge unit in the Rampart Boars, serving as the equivalent to the sergeants of Codex-compliant chapters. A bashaw leads four other battle brothers in his charge and can be identified by a red tilting shield on the front rim of their left pauldron.
====Sword Bashaw====
A Sword Bashaw is the bashaw or sergeant equivalent for a charge of the Rampart Boars' Sword Brethren. They can be identified by the fact that they wear both the typical Sword Brethren's white tilting shield and the Bashaw's red tilting shield on each respective shoulder.
====Neophyte====
Neophytes are those who are not fully-fledged initiates, but have received all gene-seed organs, barring the black carapace, and enough training or experience to be fielded. When the aspirant is fully implanted with all organs except for the black carapace in the same way as the scouts of other chapters, he serves alongside the High Marshal's own Marshal Hold before being transferred to his Sword-Brethren, who would finish teaching him the ways of personal combat. This was often done in the form of skill with the sacred bolter and chainsword.
====Initiate====
Once accepted into one of a Crusade Corps' fighting companies, an Initiate fights alongside his fellow Rampart Boars, forging a rapport for his skill within the Chapter battle by battle and perfecting his personal fighting abilities. If the Initiate lives long enough to become a Sword-Brother, he will eventually go on to apprentice a neophyte of his own. In this way, the skills, martial traditions and personal experience of each member of the Chapter are capable of being preserved and handed down in a deeply personal and spiritual connection which only apprenticeship can provide. Initiates form the majority of the Chapter's fighting brotherhoods and are split up into Crusade Squads of up to four Initiates and one Bashaw. Each charge can be an absolutely deadly force in their own right with a range of skill sets and abilities. Initiates are armed primarily with Bolters, though, given the Black Templars' preference for fighting face-to-face, many choose to carry weapons more suited to close combat. Some charge members may carry more specialised weaponry, such as a typical tactical or battleline charges' Gunnery Initiate who wields a bolt rifle with an auxiliary grenade launcher. Rampart Boar charges are often intended to be highly flexible and have the tactical adaptability to deal with many kinds of Xenos foes, with Sword-Brethren instructing their own neophytes by bloody example. On the battlefield, an Initiate often fights in a style which was not forged purely in his training as a young neophyte, but one blended with the methods of his mentor.
===Charges===
Charges are the Rampart Boars equivalent to the squads of many other chapters. They usually consist of four initiates and one bashaw to lead them. Generally there is at least one member of the charge with a flamer or melta weapon to destroy spore producing Xenos enemies or incinerate their corpses.
=====Battleline Charges=====
=====Close Support Charges=====
=====Fire Support Charges=====
===Specialized Infantry Unit Formations===
====The Keshig====
The Keshig are the ancient and venerated tradition of a Chapter Honor Guard which was inherited from the chapter's White Scars forebears. This Brotherhood of Astartes is double the size of standard size brotherhoods who act as the High Marshal's personal division of bodyguards and envoys, led by their Force Commander, the Cherbi. Upon induction into this elite and sacred unit of the Chapter, they renew their sworn oaths to never remove their Consecrate helmets in front of others, extending it into never removing their helmet ever again. They remain in an utter silence of communication with those outside of the Chapter, communicating exclusively with their brothers through a series of their built-in sound emitters made from the inner components of their Consecrate helmets. They are, for all intents and purposes within the chapter the most capable close quarters combat specialists, and are the most decorated veterans of all of the Chapter's Crusade Corps. There are no records outside of those held by the Grand Council on their duties and they are only under the command of the Cherbi and the High Marshal. In most files of the Grand Council's record they hold no name and instead are identified by their rank or unit designation number. The bashaws of the Keshig each wield one of twenty distinct artifact weapons, each of which is assigned to a specific Veteran Charge of the Keshig to protect. Like the Marshal Holds of the Crusade Corps equivalent in its tactical organization to Dark Angel’s own elite force, the Deathwing. They are entrusted with the most important asset claiming operations that must be accomplished by the Chapter regardless of the cost, and as such are the only brotherhood in the organization which has its baseline number at two hundred Astartes rather than a hundred. Those who join this sacred order of bodyguards usually have details of their previous battles actively struck from the databases of the Chapter Keeps and ships they have served at. Striking their name from the roster is not a symbolic measure, in fact quite the opposite. The Astartes of the Rampart Boar's Keshig are kept secretive specifically to avoid having exposed weaknesses to their primary Astartes enemies which include the Eclipse Jackals and the Alpha Legion, who would be able to use information on the past experiences of members of the Keshig against the honored bodyguards of the Grand Council and High Marshal. This was decided upon after an Alpha Legion warband assassinated the sixth High Marshal, and his administration's Forgemaster and Chief Stormseer.
====The Sons of Ensadyon====
The Sons of Ensadyon are a special formation of the Rampart Boars Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes that serve as the personal retinue of the Storm's Voice, the highest ranking Chaplain of the Rampart Boars' Reclusiarchy originally founded for a counter assault crusade led by the eighteenth Storm's Voice known only as Ensadyon. Originally they were formed in the wake of the Eleventh War of the War-Tusk in 990.M41. The highest ranking Chaplain of the Tampart Boars Chapter, Storm's Voice Ensadyon entered chapter legend during the Attack of the Twisting Night, one of the most gruelling campaigns against Chaos forces outside of that terrible conflict. For forty-seven of the planet's solar days (42 Terran days), he commanded the defenders of the Temple of the Noyon of Lightning on the planet against a massive horde of Tzaangor led by a Tzeentchian Sorcerer. Unfortunately, with the defenders cut off from reinforcements and outnumbered thousands of Tzaangor to one, the temple fell to the sorcerer. Yet perhaps by the intervention of the Noyon or some other twist of fate, Ensadyon sought counsel from the Chaplaincy of the Black Templars on how to respond and a close colleague of High Chaplain Grimaldus advised Ensadyon to take the remaining small group of the Rampart Boars that accompanied him and survived on crusade as his personal retinue as they had proved themselves. These few survivors swore to avenge their brave brother Astartes, who had fought and died beside them in the final hours of the attack to evacuate the Storm's Voice from the planet back to the main fleet. Soon other younger Rampart Boars of a more zealous character began flocking to these warrior's avenging banner, and from that day the special formation of the Chapter known as the Sons of Ensadyon have fended off the threats of Chaos, particularly of a Tzeentchian variety from one border of the Realm Ikrell to the other, and now pursue the sorcerer who destroyed their temple even after he became a Greater Possesed manipulating events out in the depths of space. They will not rest until he and the soldier-abominations under his command have all been slain. The formation is composed of a Rampart Boars Command Charge led by Ensadyon, a charge of Sword Brethren Terminators, a Charge of Sword Brethren Assault Terminators, two Sword Brethren Charges and ten Charges of five Rampart Boars battleline Initiates.
==Non-Astartes Personnel==
===Servitor Personnel===
====The Un-Eyed====
The Un-Eyed are a special class of servitors who have had their eyes replaced with a radar like array and thermal scanner which reprocesses the shape and distance of objects by signature. They are used by the Rampart Boars Chapter with the specific purpose of by-passing the rule that a battle-brother must not be seen without his Consecrate helmet. This applies because the Un-Eyed do not actively perceive, they are passively fed non-visual movement and thermal camera information and spatial renders through digital computing based response prompts.
====Ogryn-Servitors====
The Rampart Boars make great use of Ogryn derived servitors as their simple minds and massively muscular bodies allow for more efficient programming and more intensive physical labour. Another advantage is that due to their limited higher cognition in exchange for survival instinct the Imperium and the Adeptus Mechanus are both far more lenient in their restrictions about how much and what kind of brain tissue is required of a servitor Ogryn meaning that the Rampart Boars Ogryn Servitors are much closer in line with autonomous machines than their human servitors while still having organic brain mass. The Rampart Boars Techmarines and Apothecaries are also known to commonly stack the genetically engineered giant vat tissues of modified human strains used in Praetorian Servitors on top of Ogryn physiology to create Ogryn servitors which tower over even Custodes. Mass produced and immensely strong, the Chapter makes due with far less imported labour, Realm citizen labour or heavy machinery to perform its tasks.
===Human Personnel===
In spite of their qualms about using human labour, the application of mortal human personnel is an inevitable reality of the Chapter to perform functions which require the adaptability of an intact human mind.
====Uxores Navium====
The Uxores Navium are a human personnel based rank of the chapter exclusively staffed by women of age relatively equivalent to non-commission conscription in the Imperial Guard. These women are ceremonially married to their ships in both military general orders and a holy matrimony officiated by members of the Rampart Boars Chapter's Chaplaincy. These women will serve as the helmswomen of the ships, commanders for their designated craft for their entire lives or until they are physically and or mentally unfit to do so due to old age. They also serve as a sort of spiritual proxy mother to the members of the Chapter aboard their craft as the Uxores Navium represent both the Chaplaincy and humanity.
==Equipment Arsenal==
Within the Chapter's various armories aboard fleet command vessels and within the halls of Chapter Keeps there exists distinct variants and paterns of Imperial Weaponry that the Rampart Boars utilize as their primary tools of war. Most of these are provided from the Forge World Zerrexal as they have been the designated location from which the Rampart Boars train their techmarines. Often these weapons or vehicles were built and modified by the techmarines themselves during their training in order to serve both as submissions to trials of the Cult Mechanicus and as gifts to their parent chapter. The Forge World of Zerrexal has maintained a trade agreement with these scions of Jaghatai for much of both of their respective histories. Their first charter was drafted with the very creation of the Forge World in order to solidify an agreement to develop Qasireu Sub-pattern Terminator armour. A second charter was renewed between the Forge World and the Chapter and has remained ever since they rescued the Zerrexal Priesthood's homeworld from the predations of the Praetor of the Eclipse Jackals' Third Warhost. This agreement was essential to restoring the Rampart Boars back into the Imperial fold and in the creation of new weapons like the forearm mounted Zerrexal-Beta pattern Meltagun. The Chapter's weapons are typically an amalgamation of Netekrunan, early Imperial Terran and Chogorian technical doctrines and design philosophies along with a few eccentricities distinct to the Techmarines of the Chapter from their Zerrexali training. Qasireu Sub-pattern Terminator Armor
==Combat Doctrine==
The Rampart Boars, first and foremost, are an expansionist, anti-alien institution. They emphasise tactical protocols under the principle of the old Terran proverb that the best defence is a good offence. Although they are not Codex Compliant it is inaccurate to say that the Rampart Boars are not doctrinal as a chapter; in fact they are very much the opposite. The Boars take a deeply philosophical approach to warfare, in which war is a spiritual act of the destruction of what was alien through conquest of territory, and the replacement of it with Imperium suitable, human control. Like their White Scars progenitors the primary characteristics of the Rampart Boars method of combat is to use a great degree of fast moving close quarters combat. The nature of their gene-seed derived traits means that unlike their progenitors however, the Rampart Boars strongly prefer heavy armour, flamer weaponry; relying on their biology to curb the drawbacks of their choice in technology. Their enhanced strength and speed is one reason as to why they use vehicles in a somewhat limited way especially compared to their White Scars forebears.
The combat doctrine of the Rampart Boars is heavily individualistic, encouraging their squad like units called charges, to act on the initiative of their leaders as the situation permits. Thei improvisational streak has left their Crusade Corps considered both as a boon and bane to strategists and war councils from the Imperial Navy, Astra Militarum or even other Chapters of Astartes. Whilst they are incredibly fierce hand to hand combat fighters and nearly unparalleled as warriors in the art of duelling due to their overwhelming size, the independence of their culture and overall disinterest in the stratagems of outside war councils can often make them something to be planned around rather than planned with. As such the Rampart Boars are usually given orders directly from the acting Imperial war council as to what their objectives are and a general outline of how to meet them, and it is usually expected that the Boars are to complete their tasks with a blind eye often turned to the how. Their allies are usually the Skiitarii of Zerrexal or their Astartes allies among the Fratres in Augmentationem.
In accordance with their enhanced strength, speed and resilience, to physical pain the members of the Boars' mighty Brotherhoods generally will always prefer drawing the enemy into close combat engagements rather than withstanding assault from enemies out of reach such as in naval voidcraft warfare or artillery sieges.
High Marshal Qrown was very clear in his Tome of Qrown that the fundamental principle of the Astartes was to better suit human recruits to using tactics which were hindered in standard humans due to the expansion of mechanized warfare, sieges, and heavy artillery. The goal of the Space Marine in the Chapter's view, is to revive a warrior tradition, a knightly or ceremonial monk-soldier, who is intended to use the tactics of the past as his enhanced Astartes biology levels the playing field with technologically inclined but biologically weaker foes. The members of the Chapter are often seen working in isolation from other Imperial forces laughing in a strange cacophony of mechanical shrieks and whirs as they hack and slash their way through weaker, slower opponents until a worthy foe capable of sating their violent bloodlust arrives on the battlefield.
When a challenge to their typical drop strike to close range combat methods presents itself, the Chapter relies more on brutal hit-and-run tactics with their vehicles often using Land Raider Crusaders to traverse tense terrain during an artillery line push or often modifying their aerial strikes for stealthier missions by their Vanguards to use Grav-Chutes or jump packs. Often though, because of their love of close combat with weapons of a sheer blunt power, the Rampart Boars are assigned by higher orders to be deployed ahead of a larger force, to act as an element of psychological warfare. This is also to prevent their usual hammer-and anvil tactics working alongside the cavalry and vehicles of the Skitarii Legions of the Forge World Zerrexal from causing too many casualties among friendly forces.
There is a profound favour in the Rampart Boars for the time honoured tactical dreadnought, or "terminator armour." In each Crusade Corps there exists a Sword-Brotherhood in which veteran members of the Chapter don Tactical Dreadnought armour, rather than having a singular company for the entire chapter. In a similar fashion to the Dreadwing of the scions of the Lion, the Rampart Boars exclusively arm their veterans in Tactical Dreadnought Armor
Due to the desire of the chapter to maintain its own compartmentalised and reformed notion of the Emperor of Mankind's Great Crusade, the chapter is deeply concerned with the conquest of and maintenance of territory, and so they go as far as to not only establish a Chapter Keep on every world they conquer for their Realm Ikrell but also begin necessary terraforming and construction procedures designed to turn the conquered planet into a hive world which provides labour and aspirants for the Boars military industrial complex. The mobility and relatively thin spread seen in the way that White Scars fight with attack bikes has instead been translated by the Chapter into their naval patrols, in which a large number of small ships are in constant motion around the territories of the Realm Ikrell in order to place small charges of troops on a world to eliminate a threat. The chapter makes very limited use of aircraft or jetpacks and instead approaches aerial combat via Grav-Chute take-downs of aircraft, boarding them and turning a battle of the skies into one of very limited ground.
===Combative Applications of Psykers===
Generally speaking due to the sheer rarity of Librarians in the chapter the Rampart Boars tend not to field these valuable assets on the regular battlefield. However, in cases that the chapter knows of a psyker or Warp Sorcerer threat on the battlefield itself a member of the Librarius will be deployed to match the Immaterial nature of the combat, fighting warp fire with other warp fire. Vanguard units tasked with assassinations on psyker threats are rarely tasked with such missions alongside a member of the Librarius as the primary threat would be capture and interrogation, of which psychic probing would be largely ineffective.
===Formation and Deployment Tactics (Infantry Engagements)===
In most cases an attack from a Rampart Boars Crusade Corps will usually occur in two main waves; one is the immediate attack from one half of the charge. Their role is to drive the forces of the enemy back on to themselves by either raining heavy bolter fire down on them until they are forced to seek cover, or in the case of lighter battleline or close support units, close distance very quickly with a high impact charge of melee weapons to force the lines to either break or close in together to try and pinch the few battle-brothers. The other battle-brothers of the charge are then released in drop pods or via grav-chutes from the ship, with the reinforced drop pods landing directly on the huddled enemy forces, crushing many of them and allowing the Boars to rip their enemy formations apart from the inside and the outside simultaneously. This combined with the sheer visceral nature of an enemy as big, fast and ruthless as the Boars’ soldiers ripping one's comrades limb from limb is more than enough to shatter the morale or hold of almost any formation.
==Chapter Culture & Beliefs==
The membership of the Rampart Boars Chapter is comprised of adamantly zealous purists of their own gene-line, traditions and military eccentricities, and they have an unwavering faith in the sanctity of their Chapter Cult and its unique concept of divinity, the Noyon of Lightning. The initiates are thouroughly unmarred by skepticism or lack of conviction about their causes and crusades, or at the very least such bouts of are isolated enough. The few chapters that do interact with them on a semi-regular basis regard them as being infamous for their unwavering devotion to both the military of the Realm Ikrell and religious doctrines of their Chapter Cult. However, it is very clear even to outsiders their loyalty is not like that of other Astartes. It is insufficient to say that they are fiecely devoted to their Chapter alone. The Rampart Boars go a step further to actually hate or feel disgusted by that which opposes the Chapter's principles. Having a hatred of ones enemies is not uncommon among the chapters of Space Marines but to have this extend into isolating their culture from those of other Astartes, even other successors of the White Scars draws some concern over the 'Gene-Fury' inherent in their gene-seed. This is disdain is often seen as being motivated by an intense but surpressed anger, a rage that causes them to push the limitations of other armies' pragmatism and reason when they are required to work with other Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes or regiments of the Astra Militarum.
even when compared to other Chapters the Rampart Boars' placement on the fringes of the galaxy has them engaged in near perpetual conflict against the forces of various Xenos factions and will not accept peace with xenos species under any circumstances. Biological purity or enhancement of the the human form tather than its mutation is of great importance to the Rampart Boars. As such they maintain an extremely cautious approach towards interactions Humans deemed to bear mutations including Imperial-sanctioned Abhumans like Ratlings or Ogryns generally only allowing them into the Realm Ikrell if they are sterilized servitors made from these bengs rather than the fully functional lifeforms themselves. While they will on very rare occasions engage with such individuals outside of their realm if it aligns with the interests of higher Imperial powers such as the Inquisition, the Senatorum Imperialis, or the highest ranks of the Imperial Navy, they will primarily distance themselves from any abhuman regiments or units which bear them, and usually will refuse to fight alongside them.
They withhold acceptance into their vassal state or into the auxilliary forces of the military solely to a handful of individuals whom they view as the direct beneficiaries of the Noyon's divine powers. This includes certain mutations of benefit to the Chapter, those like Navigators, who are believed to be capable of performing auguries of the Warp Storms from which the Noyon of Lightning communicates with his cult, and psykers as the Chapter does know that the Emperor manifested psychic abilities. Nevertheless, even within this very limited form of tolerance, their boundaries remain clearly defined in legal regulations, and there are even more considerable boundaries on human reproduction and their acceptance of human genetic diversity that they are willing to maintain on or near their Recruiting Worlds. The Realm Ikrell has had some of the harshest purges of mutants in its population throughout its long history.
===Foundational Texts===
Instead of the Codex Astartes the chapter takes a holistic approach to spirituality, warfare and governing territory. The Chapter is a spiritually charged military-industrial complex, its Realm Ikrell is a microcosm of the Imperium of Mankind as a whole. Few among Astartes circles outside of White Scars successors know of the Rampart Boars Chapter's existence, and few White Scars successors respect the Rampart Boars' seeming lack of a Chogorian character to their culture. Yet within some Radical circles of the highest ranks of the Inquisition the Chapter is recognized for its unyielding fidelity to every history, tenet and proverb of their Foundational Texts, the sheer breadth of this literature and their nigh unprecedented stance to learn these works in detail is known to be a mark that in spite of their brutish proportions and the risk of the Gene-Fury, the Rampart Boars are not merely savages, and do have the capacity for philosophy, literature, and an embrace of the qualities of fine works of art, but only when focused into a means that supports the collective chapter rather than individual expression. There are three texts which define this blend of culture and combat, the Tome of Qrown, the Litanies of the Noyon, and the Proverbs of Thunder.
====The Tome of Qrown====
The Tome of Qrown is the first of the works necessary to the study of the Rampart Boars philosophy of war. It was penned by High Marshal Qrown starting from after the transition from auxiliary company to warrior lodge four years after the onset of the Horus Heresy until the Founding of the Chapter in M32.003. It outlines his personal philosophy of how to understand the Astartes' history. It also includes his doctrines of combat, initiation of soldiers and the best use and implantation of the gene-seed of his warriors. As well as these fine lessons for his chapter, comments on the history of the Rampart Boars as a unit exemplify his personal credibility through experience.
The Tome is the revered and sacred tome originally authored by the Chapter's first High Marshal, it was originally written as both a personal diary and commentary chronicle of the earliest days of the Rampart Boars' existence and his service to the Imperium. Its voluminous notes and authorial voice are often seen as being so strong that the Initiates who learn it have often claimed that it feels as though it is the High Marshal himself who speaks of the various trials and tribulations the Chapter first encountered prior to and following their inception. Over time those leading officers around him such as the Grand Council's Masters of Title have consolidated this tome, and to a limited level added their own information on experiences and battlefield events not discussed by Qrown directly. These modifications or inclusions serve as example lessons and wisdom which create a versatile but still adaptable strategic framework that affirms the fundamental strengths and capabilities of the Rampart Boars and the unique traits of their own personal biology. This was somewhat controversial during the time this occurred and some middle rank officers questioned the alleged "perversion" of the Warfather's vision by members of the Grand Council. After a meeting of the Council in the beginning of the year 021.M35 it was decided that a singular codified edition of the Tome, with only the edits and additions found in common to all of the proposed versions would be a permanent, complete form of the Tome. The Council agreed it would never again be added to or deliberately changed or re-translated into High Gothic if not by the Warfather himself.
Some changes would prove more dramatic than others, and at the time of proliferation the impact of each reform varied amongst the individual Crusade Corps' themselves. In some instances an entirely distinct paradigm of warrior culture, tradition and even ideology of organisation began overwriting what had come before in the remnants of the White Scars' traditions. Some of the external marks of these changes in the Chapter's units began to show a development of distinctly common character in the chapter which valued homogeneity to build unity between units that were often spread out very far. This entailed various changes in close-quarters combat tactics, as the Chapter used to place a much greater value on the martial traditions of one-on-one duelling culture compared to the present, and the well warranted additions to Rampart Boars Chapter's iconography and language. Cultural commonality built brotherhood and solidarity where fighting alongside one another in large battlefields generally was uncommon. This tome also contains the war chants and core beliefs of the Chapter which are held near sacred by all Astartes of the Rampart Boars, who go out of their way to follow the wisdom of the ancient text. However these war chants were intended by Qrown to be largely secular and thus do not hold any hymns or litanies of the Chapter Cult.
This work and its guides to organisation are fundamental to the nature of the Crusade Corps and later the Grand Council after the proliferation of Book II of the Tome. Many of the chapter's initiates have been noted to be as reverent to this text as a Codex-compliant battle-brother such as an Ultramarine or Hammers of Dorn Astartes would be to the Codex Astartes itself. This ancient tome however is primarily utilised by the Chapter as their work to access the ideas posed in the Codex, in a version specific to the Rampart Boars, while also supplementing it with expansions and structures designed specifically to guide permanently crusading Chapters. While they do not view themselves as Codex-compliant, the chapter does follow the company organisation, tactics, and battle order designs of the Codex. This has prevented conflict from other chapters or the more Puritanical members Inquisition as while they generally do not carry the Codex, since so little of their charge or brotherhood organisation is far removed from the original patterns of the Codex Astartes that the Chapter had adhered to at their inception. Much of what was added or changed from the Codex rather than expanded upon from the Codex were matters left ambiguous or optional by Guilliman being made permanent institutions with more absolute rulings. This includes ranks such as the Force Commander which is a temporary acting title in the Codex rather than the rank, which has in many cases even among adamantly Codex-compliant chapters become largely abandoned due to being unable to have enough officers to fulfil the role, or become so modified and diluted by the inactivity from not needing one as to be in some cases unrecognisable from the original iteration written by Guilliman. The main differences in the text are that as a crusading chapter the Rampart Boars are not bound to having a thousand standing battle brothers as a limit to their numbers, and so Qrown felt that the ideas of the Codex were incomplete as they did not account for chapters that followed Guilliman's caveat. Many of the ideas which are expansions of wartime philosophy and battle order which were designed around ranks that the Codex could not have included or stated due to the issue of numbers. These include such detachment information as Crusade Corps organisation, crusade philosophy, the organisation of the Grand Council and the like. These are very similar to the crusading fleets of the Black Templars but unlike their fleets, these are permanently standing organisations, with brotherhoods somewhat more in line with those of the Codex in terms of rank and file composition.
Throughout the millennia of the institution's existence this consolidated work has come to define the Rampart Boars themselves in their chapter's organisation, as the Chapter's character has remained profoundly proud of the onset of their genetic irregularities from the earlier White Scars which have in their view continued to define them as a Chapter. This book was not originally meant to be published by the High Marshal, with its first and third Books being made originally, serving as a compilation of personal notes on various tactics and doctrine used by the Chapter under his care as well as a high-margin of blood, sweat and tears-bought battle wisdom he brought from the ages past. Some alterations to the Tome of Qrown have been superficial or aesthetic. Others are made as contingencies or as alternative tactical options such as the use of Tuskmarking the practice of a common set of gestural sign language movements made using the hand across the mouth of one's Consecrate Helmet. This practice among others is used by the Rampart Boars to communicate descriptions and commands on the battlefield in instances where Vox-casting or text based signal transmissions are not usable. A great blessing to the Vanguard charges.
The Tome consists of four Books each with a set of five sections. It is believed by many in the chapter that this was designed deliberately by High Marshal Ikrellius to be equal in number to the Crusade Corps and Brotherhoods of the chapter. However this was likely not the original intention, but an addition made by later assemblies of the Grand Council. Each book also contains some elements of the moral philosophy of warfare, in the form of first person excerpt soliloquies and musings which all hold a different value or lesson of warrior culture that Qrown hoped to instil.
Book I- Book I of the Tome of Qrown is an overview of what the Astartes are and what it means for one to properly serve the needs of the broader Chapter and Imperium. In this part of the text is included the General Orders provided to all Rampart Boars' Astartes. In doing so it provides all of Qrown's commentaries on the history of the Space Marine Legions by Qrown in their Terran and Primarch-commanded form. It then describes the failings of their institutions and why the dividing of the Legions into Chapters was best suited to Astartes way of life and war. The first Book also includes one the Tome's strongest argument which is the elements of the chapter's military organization and order of battle which differ significantly from or expand into more specific detail on those of the Codex Astartes. In most cases these arguments from Qrown are based on premises on the specifics of the Rampart Boars Chapter Initiate's unique biology, but others are specifications in Codex-derived ideas which needed to be altered to fit more directly into a Crusade Chapter's hierarchy since a crusading chapter is far less restricted.
Book II- The second book of the Tome is focused strongly on creating the organizational doctrines and martial theory of the Rampart Boars Chapter and the best ways to design an order of battle around crusades while still maintaining stable, standing units. This includes the ranks and obligations of each position in the Chapter and the important elements of the command chain.
Book III
Book IV
====The Litanies of the Noyon====
The Litanies of the Noyon, also called the Letanyei'rua duhl Noiahn, is an assembly of ancient texts, hymns and poems on the Cult of the Noyon. It details the various rites and prayers of those initiated into the Chapter's cult. Due to the nature of the Cult and its secrecy, many in the Inquisition have attempted to pry into its teachings to determine definitively whether or not the Cult of the Noyon is heretical. Since psyker based probing and most interrogation methods are ineffective on the Chapter's members, little has been found without an actual copy of the text. Copies of the text itself are held in absolute secrecy. Copies of the Litanies of the Noyon are the text upon which the Initiates place their left hand when they swear their Five Great Oaths. These sacred oaths are derived from psalms and sayings found in the third of their sacred texts, the Proverbs of Thunder. The text is composed of eight individual litanies each designed for different elements of worship of the Noyon and corresponding elements of the Rampart Boars' and Noyon Cult's respective religious history. Each Litany is composed of a metric hymn which is sung to invoke the presence of the Noyon's favour, a set of stories of religious history, and the structures and formulas of specific rituals to fulfil a function, at the end is a closing prayer which surmises and further connects the these threads of their theology around a common purpose.
=====The First Litany (Letanyei'ru Mal)=====
The Letanyei'ru Mal, or First Litany, is the primary etiological text of the Litanies of the Noyon . It establishes the primary setting an origin of Netekrunan religious practices, the foundational beliefs about the nature of the Noyon of Lightning as a divinity and the elements of direct invocational and daily, morning prayers used by the members of the Chapter.
=====The Second Litany (Letanyei'ru Sem)=====
=====The Third Litany (Letanyei'ru Gona)=====
=====The Fourth Litany (Letanyei'ru Stea)=====
The Fourth Litany is focused profoundly on the extensive preventative measures that Astartes may take to resist the Ruinous Powers of the Dark Gods of Chaos. Most specifically it is concerned with Noyon Cult glyphs, talismans, sacred writings and unique hexagrammic wards which can bolster the natural resistance of the Astartes to the perversions of sorcery.
=====The Fifth Litany (Letanyei'ru Da)=====
=====The Sixth Litany (Letanyei'ru Ha-klom)=====
=====The Seventh Litany (Letanyei'ru Mur)=====
=====The Eighth Litany (Letanyei'ru O'hosle)=====
====The Proverbs of Thunder====
The Proverbs of Thunder is an immensely thorough collection of ancient personal sayings, religious psalms, aphorisms, proverbs, and comments on the philosophy of life. Where the Litanies of the Noyon is their primary text of ritual functions, theology, and religious history, the Proverbs of Thunder are the moral principles and personal measures of good living treated as gospel by the initiates for how they must live their lives. After fairly intensive study by the Chapter's Remembrancers, it was found that most of the phrases and mottos put in the proverbs were ones that proliferated themselves throughout the entire chapter and held relevance for a period of at least three hundred years, before they were written down in early, incomplete versions of the work. The Proverbs discusses the 'Nine Virtues of the Warrior' and their opposites in the form of the 'Nine Vices of the Killer'
The Nine Virtues of the Warrior include:
*Strength
*Tradition
*Patience
*Courage
*Fidelity
*Self-Control
*Perseverance
*Honour
*Wisdom
The Nine Vices of the Killer include:
*Ignorance
*Uprootedness
*Cowardice
*Treachery
*Wrath
*Sloth
*Dishonour
*Ignorance
===The Five Great Oaths===
Throughout the process of transformation into a Space Marine of the Rampart Boars Chapter, an aspirant will make five oaths which will undergird all of their training and duties. The fifth of these oaths occurs at the end of their initiation when they swear it as their Consecrate helmet is lowered to their head as an initiate of the Chapter. These vows are renewed personally often in an attempt to resist the Gene-Fury. When the aspirant swears each of these vows he places his left hand on a copy of the Litanies of the Noyon, and their right hand over the right side of their chest. This method of swearing their oaths is intended that they swear these oaths based on the words of their faith, and upon the second heart, the Maintainer, given to them by the Emperor via gene-seed implantation. The Five Great Oaths are as follows:
*'Serve the Chapter'- The Rampart Boars Chapter initiates are adamantly loyal to their chapter and sworn to be so even above their own lives. One major part of this is their belief that the Rampart Boars as an institution pre-dates even the existence of the Adeptus Astartes and has merely changed forms throughout its long history. As such, loyalty to, and the duty of being a member of, the Rampart Boars is even stronger than that of being an Astartes generally. The Oath is said as follows:
*'Destroy the Xenos' - The Initiates of the Rampart Boars chapter are called by sacred duty to continue the Emperor's Great Crusade in a modified microcosm unique to the chapter. While they will fight all enemies of humanity they especially hunt and exterminate aliens.
*'Protect the Domain of Humanity' - The Rampart Boars are fiercely loyal to the preservation of the Emperor's crusade. The Initiates swear to protect all human worlds of the Imperium, however like most of the Imperium the Chapter as a whole is fiercely numerical and utilitarian in their defence being willing to let a world be destroyed to save a more populated one.
*'Honor the Noyon of Lightning' All members of the chapter take a solemn vow to uphold the rites and functions of the Cult of the Noyon of Lightning.
*'Unto Death, Yield Not the Charge'- The fifth and final oath of the chapter is the most esoteric and arguably important to the Rampart Boars Chapter. The concept of the "Charge" is a concept of military and religous understanding which is understood that all military operations are offerings of stability through conquest. A Rampart Boar believes that entropy is a constant pushing human society backwards from where they are in terms of military successes, technology, and influence, and so the only way to offer stability is to "Charge" or move society forward to compensate. For this reason, the Rampart Boars do not retreat, they do not abandon planets, with some cases where Rampart Boars charges would rather go into stasis via their Sus-An Membranes than retreat or flee a planet, meaning that in return campaigns the chapter often finds their dormant brothers still holding the charge on the planet. The Charge also includes the homogeneity and stability of the Chapter's operations. The Rampart Boars seek to be one body and one movement, thus this oath is sworn upon induction into the chapter and the donning of a Consecrate Helmet. This means that taking off one's helmet on the battlefield and thereby separating themselves from the charge in identity, or performing acts that qualify as insubordination are seen as "yielding the Charge", a transgression against the Noyon of Lightning himself. The Fifth Great Oath is seen as the culmination of all four of the previous oaths, built upon their sacred foundation, and loyalty to this solemn vow is the most important aspect of life for a Rampart Boars' Chapter Initiate.
===Chapter Traditions===
====Burials====
Once an aspirant becomes a Space Marine, they face the solemn vows of the Five Great Oaths at their predecessors' final resting places. Generally the actual practices of the burial remain consistent throughout the Chapter, the fallen Initiate's Astartes organ implants are removed from the corpse and placed in canopic jars, their original mortal heart is placed alongside their Maintainer in a jar as a sign of their eternal devotion to the Chapter. Their bones are then ceremonially stripped of flesh and the soft materials are burned away. Rather than having their bones pulverized as is often the case in regular human cremations the bones are ceremonially stacked and placed in a large ceremonial box with the jars inside. They generally have their names and deeds engraved on the box itself or on the central spire of the Chapter Keep in order to remind the Rampart Boars of the future that they bear a great legacy and that they must not forget their history. Some of their ashes may be added to one of the various ceremonial, communal urns scattered across the inner circle of the Tholos tombs in a Chapter Keep. The initiates of the Chapter due have some agency in the nature of their burial when their duty has ended in the form of deciding which Chapter Keep their ashes and bones are placed in. Typically the more obvious remains of their bodies, their stacked skeletons are honored within the high walls of a mighty Chapter Keep where a close comrade is also laid to rest, whereas their ashes are sent to a different Chapter Keep or divided amonst multiple. These remnants serve as a spiritual unifier of all of the Crusade Corps' and Chapter Keeps, where all Rampart Boars join one another in death as eternal watchers over the Rampart Boars' domain alongside the Keep-Father and his retinue in the rest of the castle. The fallen's flesh is offered to the Chapter as a whole, as a means of empowering the next generation of Astartes and the revered elders who outlived them to continue their Chapter's cycle of life, death, and rebirth through the recruitment of new Astartes. The remains of the fallen Rampart Boars are a special reminder that in spite of their alleged immortality, the Astartes of the Chapter must be both wise and careful, resistant to the Gene-Fury and determined in their eternal crusade to end sentient, sapient Xenos life.
===Personal Effects===
====Consecrate Helmets====
The Rampart Boars are strongly opposed to individualism within the ranks of their chapter but are fiercely independent of outsiders as they believe that the benefits of an identity unique to them was given when their Chapter was created. Because of this the chapter maintains a strict tradition regarding uniformity of their weaponry and helmets, with all of the Rampart Boars Battle brothers wearing a modified pattern of helmet called a Consecrate Helmet, jointly created by the the Chapter's Reclusiarchy and Armoury via Keep-Fathers. These helmets are worn at effectively every time that the Astartes of the Chapter engage with one another or outsiders and are equipped with recreations of technology derived from a proto-type of Omni-Scramblers. This integrated equipment of the helmet changes the speech of the Chapter's marines into a set of whirs, mechanical howls and squeals making it impossible for both friend and foe to determine what the Rampart Boars say to one another. This ancient piece of voice scrambling technology is built in a similar shape to the sensor array of the beaked Mk. VI "Corvus" helmets, and are fitted to the front of the mouth in a very similar way. The rudimentary fragments or offshoots of their encryption keys are not programmed into the other emitters and interpreters found in communication devices of the Imperium or the forces of Chaos, making the Rampart Boars' limited large scale tactics very difficult to interpret by others. The Chapter often uses serfs with modified receivers interfacing with their brains in order to translate what the Rampart Boars say for communication with other Chapters or members of the Astra Militarum. All of these Consecrate helmets are painted in the same basic orange scheme adorned with a similar style burgundy top-knot giving the warriors of the chapter all one face. A Rampart Boar battle-brother treats his Consecrate Helmet as a fundamental part of his identity and does not remove it in the presence of anyone friend or foe, even to eat as they instead receive nutrient porridges pushed directly into their digestive tract by an integrated IV attached to the inside of their armour. While the chapter does use mottoes they do not use them as chants regularly since on the battlefield their enemies' would not understand them. This is not only because their primary foes are aliens but also because all of the chants are heard as not but an impassioned extension of their mechanical howls and whirs.
In order to still effectively use their Betcher's gland while their mouth is blocked by the helmet, some battle-brothers of the chapter prepare for battle by using a valve-tube that is placed through their right nostril and down from the back of their throat into the Betcher's gland to syphon off its corrosive secretions directly into a set of small hydraulic ports under the helmet's respirator tubes. The pressurised fluid is then sprayed by clenching the same tissues around the gland that any other Astartes would use to spit gobs of the substance at their foes. However, because no friend or foe is permitted to see a Rampart Boars battle-brother without his helmet on, the installation, removal and maintenance of this attachment to the helmet and gland must be done by the battle-brother himself, which can be as dangerous, uncomfortable and frustrating as it is time consuming. Most instead hold off on this process until they are at least at the rank of a Sword-Brother as they often find the process difficult without the aid of the "Un-Eyed."
All of the Rampart Boars Battle-Brothers wear these helmets with other armaments being the primary rank designator such as tilting shields or sculpted or forged tactical designation emblems on the battleplate of the leg. Specialist subdivisions such as the Apothecarion, Armoury, Chaplaincy, and the College of Stormseers serve as an exception to the uniformity and are permitted to have their breastplate painted in the Codex-corresponding colour of their sub-designation. This is especially important for Chaplains as the matters they deal with on the battlefield are specialised towards religion and tending to a distinct trait of the Rampart Boars Chapter's brothers, so they must be easily distinguished from others on the battlefield in order to perform their battlefield needs to be accessible to their brothers who become afflicted by the "Gene-Fury'. If a member of the Rampart Boars was given a Consecrate Helmet while swearing his Five Great Oaths and was to have it either forcibly taken from his head in battle by an enemy, or worse to commit the taboo act of willingly removing the helmet before an ally that can see their head, there would be grave consequences for the event. These consequences might include such grim fates as conversion into a servitor, expulsion from the Chapter, or execution, because the act is seen as both personal dishonour and disgraceful to the Chapter as it is seen as breaking a spiritual aspect of yielding the "Charge."
In order to reclaim his legacy in the chapter from the maw of dishonour, the disgraced Chapter brother is ostracised from the greater Chapter and stands before the Reclusiarch with the choice of his horrible fate or a solemn process called a Duty of Reclamation. A Duty of Reclamation is a final opportunity given to the disgraced initiate to restore his honour. The disgraced Astartes initiate is given a special task by the Chapter which they must perform on the order of the Reclusiarch who lays it forth on the request of the Grand Council. The disgraced Space Marine is subjected to an extensive and painful cybernetic surgery in which large portions of his tongue, skull and lower jaw and the outer tissues of the head are replaced with metal lattices and plates and an irreparably damaged, relatively nonfunctional helmet is bolted to the mechanical replacement parts of the head and integrated with their electronics. The task is meant to both complete a dangerous mission but also to serve as a burial ritual for the damaged Consecrate Helmet. By permanently affixing a mark of their commitment to redemption to their head, the dishonoured Rampart Boar carries its sanctity which has been physically profaned out of the physical world through death in combat and in line with their Chapter cult it is offered up and essentially traded for one's honour. A Rampart Boar who has taken up a Duty of Reclamation might be stationed with the Chapter Keshig, the Honor Guard and he would gladly leap in front of bolter fire, block a chainsword with his hands or throw himself on a Melta-Bomb for the sake of defending his High Marshal or those he mobilises the disgraced to protect. He might also be sent on a mission of sabotage or destruction with no extraction plan, or assigned to the Master of the Hunt to aid in taking down a major foe which has cheated death in battle by the chapter. In any case, the task given by the Reclusiarch universally ends in death and should the disgraced initiate return alive their Duty of Reclamation continues through more assignments until he is slain.
The Chapter is viewed as profoundly unusual among the few Adeptus Astartes privy to their existence, due to being left to their own devices deep in the outskirts of Imperial Space to stew in their traditions. For one matter they are not compliant with the Codex Astartes, a rarity among White Scars' successors since Jaghatai Khan was an adamant believer in the importance of the breaking up of the Legions. This is not because they discredit Guilliman's ancient text or believe it to be wrong about tactics, combat designations or the organisation of the Chapter, but more a problem with the Codex being claimed as the fundamental foundation for all Chapters without regard for Chapter culture or the need for other specialisations or formations. They are also against the belief that Chapters should only have one thousand standing, initiated Astartes unless they are a Crusade Chapter, as according to their beliefs the nature of all Xenos and Chaos threats essentially requires a constant push of offence to maintain actual resistance, so at some level all Astartes are on crusade. Instead they take more influence and inspiration from the crusade fleets of the Black Templars Chapter and the Geno-Regiments of the "Old Hundred" than the work of Imperial Regent Roboute Guilliman.
For another example of their eccentricity, they are one of the few Chapters that do not follow the Imperial Truth as it was originally intended, instead venerating an entity which they refer to as the Noyon of Lightning, an immaterial being or deity of storms, rain and thunder. Under secretive investigation by the Inquisition the some of the Lord Inquisitors of the Ordo Hereticus have proposed many potential answers as to what this entity is with some proposing that the Cult is simply a variation of the Imperial Cult based on the deific concepts of the Followers of the Storm, who worshipped the Emperor of Mankind under the name of a storm god. Others propose that because Noyon is ancient Eastern Terran term for a vassal king that this is in fact a worship of Jaghatai Khan acting as a manifestation of the will of the Emperor, in a very similar way to the Promethean Creed of the Salamanders, a concept which is not heretical. However some Inquisitors of a more Puritan persuasion fear that this is a cult of personality around their Chapter Master or a Warp entity other than the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. The Boars themselves, being a deeply isolationist institution, have never disclosed the true nature of their beliefs regarding this being, and the Inquisition do not doubt the fact that they despise the enemies of the Imperial Cult as much as they are committed to serving the Emperor. For this reason little has been acted upon regarding accusations of this nature as grounds for accusing the Chapter of heresy.
====Scrimshaw====
One very common practice among the chapter and one of the few items of personal property and expression available to the Rampart Boars Initiates is the ancient art form of scrimshaw, the practice of carving and scratch engraving teeth, bone, and ivory. These are sometimes worn as personal trinkets and pendants. Adornments to certain parts of armour like the breastplate, holy relics, or art pieces to be held in the barracks quarters of their charge or demi-brotherhood. In some cases these engravings of a more personal nature are buried alongside their scrimshander upon death. Some of the common patterns, motifs and images include scrollwork or meander patterns, images of griffons which are seen as being the "hounds"of the Noyon of Lightning, and depictions of battles of the Chapter's history inscribed in profile. They are often inked in a bluish ink-oil made from processing the parts of Xenos organs. Astartes bones, though very rare due to needing to be taken from the forces of Chaos or from amongst their own for Penitent's Tusks, are seen as a luxury material for the practice of scrimshaw as their high density and metallo-ceramite particles inclusions mean that they make for incredibly durable pieces of art which hold levels of detail unseen in the bones of other species or mortal humans.
=====Penitent's Tusks=====
When a Battle-Brother loses a limb in battle, and Apothecaries either cannot recover it or re-attach it with functionality they create a Penitent's Tusk, a small relic taken from the bone of the lost limb or an enemy if not recovered that has been carved into the shape of a flat slice of a boar's tusk and then scrimshawed by the amputee with prayers of penance, symbols of the Noyon of Lightning and most importantly, a central motif of the event in which they lost the limb. The object is a mark of penance and redemption for past failures when carried into battle. The scrimshawing process is done in a very similar way to the way that it was done by sailors on Old Earth, by placing black pigments or ink on the surface in order to make the carving visible on a smoothed surface of the bone and then scratching or relief carving the images, and then sanding the ink layer off. Ink is then placed once again on the surface to fill the gaps of the carvings and then sanded away a second time until it only remains in the recessed surfaces. There are other reasons in which a battle-brother of the Rampart Boars would have a Penitent's Tusk in his possession, with different variations such as a Black Penitent's Tusk. A Black Penitent's Tusk is made the same way as a standard Penitent's Tusk but without sanding the black pigments off so that the "tusk" is black bone with bold white markings. A Black Penitent's Tusk bears a Hexagrammic Thunder Ward and a name signifying the name of an initiate that was training under them who was killed in battle. It is a permanent mark of loss and of striving to never repeat their failure, which cost them not the bodily integrity of their own present, but the unit integrity of their chapter's future.
====Binding Folds====
Like the near permanent use of their Consecrate Helmets, the members of the Rampart Boars frequently bind their weapons to their hands with blessed pieces of cloth or xenos-leather which are emblazoned with their Five Great Oaths in order that the equipped battle-brother may not lose sight of his identity as a member of the Chapter nor the purpose of his weaponry. Some also use them as field repairs to their armour or as wrappings on the legs when working in combat environments which require sabotage and subterfuge. Vanguard Marines for instance often wear them on their legs or on the barrels of their rifles. Binding Folds made from a chequered patchwork of the flayed and tanned skins of an Eldar and a Tau are a luxury given only to those initiates of the rank of Castellan or greater.
===Cultural Attitudes===
====Attitudes Towards Psykers and Sorcery====
In spite of their very low frequency of psykers the Rampart Boars do maintain a small Librarius equivalent organisation, and do not overtly dislike psykers. However, the uninitiated outsiders will often mistakenly interpret the rarity of the Stormseers presence within the line ranks of the Rampart Boars Chapter and the fury with which the Chapter's Initiates slay Chaos Sorcerers, as an intolerance for all forms of psykers. This could not be further from the truth. In fact those members of the chapter who were initiated before a devastating loss at the hands of the Thousand Sons and a Tzeentchian Daemon Prince were far more accepting of psykers. The members of the Rampart Boars hold a special reverence for astropaths, seeing their ability to communicate across space as a mark of being a holy disciple who is a key part to the actual binding of the Realm Ikrell together. Navigators are similarly honoured, albeit to a much greater extent. This is done not only for their psychic blessing which allows them to see the psychic light of the Astronomican to guide the Rampart Boars through the Warp to deliver deeds of righteous retribution against the Chapter's enemies but also as being seen by the initiates as having communed with their most sacred deity the Noyon of Lightning through the augury of the locations of their god's Warpstorms.
Instead, the Rampart Boars' abhorrence is reserved for anti-Imperial and anti-Xargha'khai-ne deviants, alien psykers and the rogue psykers who embrace the blasphemies against the Noyon through serving the "Dark Gods" of Chaos in their quest for greater power. It is these individuals that threaten to drag the entirety of their territory's worlds away from the Chapter and its Cult's light and into damnation. As the Rampart Boars see it these individuals are conduits of psionic power through which unholy daemons can cross into the mortal realm through possession, destabilisation of the Warp and summoning. It is not the ability to use psychic power that disturbs the Chapter's ranks; they are keenly aware of the Emperor's own abilities, but they instead fear the Warp and its inhabitants. This is because their perception of the Warp is not as a realm of divine beings from another dimension, but as a layer of space which is as in physiology and physics to humanity and Xenos alike as the Xenos are to humans. It is instead that the Rampart Boars strengthen their spirits with the purity of their faith in the Cult of the Noyon when facing these rogue psykers, as they strive to end with a single sword-stroke or round of a bolter the potential of a full-scale daemonic assault. It is generally far more efficient of a method to end a threat that could otherwise plunge the Emperor's realm and their own into solar decades or centuries of unnecessary bloodshed and madness of the Ruinous Powers. As with all elements of Rampart Boars culture and combat, things are accepted if they are compatible with tradition and cultural customs laid down by the chapter forefathers. As such so long as the Initiate-psykers who train in the Librarius are in good standing, become Stormseers of the Chapter in its own disciplines, and do so with the Shamanic customs learned from the Chogorian Stormseers and developed in the Cult of the Noyon they are accepted as a natural and necessary part of the Chapter and Crusade Corps' order of battle. The chapter is deeply distrustful of outside sorcery practices, especially biomancy, mutative magics, and non-sanctioned psykers as the Empyrean can be incredibly dangerous to the chapter. However, the chapter has always seen the value in the application of psychic abilities and respected the creation of a Chapter Librarius as posed by their Primarch prior to and during the Horus Heresy. They are particularly fond of study in the Stormspeaking Discipline and they have great respect for the rare few whose powers can withstand an element of their gene-seed known as Empyric Down-Regulation.
====Attitudes Towards Prosthetics and Bionics====
The nature of their chapter's biology and the value they place on their genetic traits have a profound impact on the importance the Rampart Boars Chapter places on life, biology and the reproducibility of strength. This has a profound impact on the lack of consideration often given to machines and cybernetics. The Rampart Boars are strongly against the "mockery" or "imitation" of organs and structures of the body by machines, not due to a disdain for machines themselves nor for the belief in a purity of the human form as the chapter takes a similar perspective to Vogelist Genetors of the Mechanicus, that Mankind must be improved, albeit in the Boars case they add the claim that they are a great example of that improvement. Rather than the inferiority of robotics or the purity of unimproved humanity, it is because there is a lack of human identity and continued improvement or enhancement through augmentation or training in a mechanical body part compared to the living one. Usually, a prosthetic used by the chapter would only be done as a direct functionality analog made if it was necessary for the initiate to survive and serve in battle such as an artificial organ. Prosthetic arms are generally not actual hands but instead are a nerve interface at the joint connecting directly into a weapon like a chainsword blade, or a bolt weapon.
==Chapter Cult (The Cult of the Noyon of Lightning)==
The arts and culture of Netekrunan natives were matters which the Chapter took for granted while Netekruna station was still intact, and since the destruction of Netekruna there has been a rise in the deep embeddedness within the cultural fabric of the Rampart Boars Chapter of Netekrunan culture in the practices of the Cult of the Noyon. One of the most notable is a deep reverence for the art of a traditional Netekrunan activity known as "Boar-Leaping", an act similar to acrobatics or dance. The practice is performed against a genetically engineered, giant swine species endemic to the Realm Ikrell, and is done by grabing onto one of the boars' enlarged tusks and leaping with a spin or flip over the Boar's back. This technique of ceremonial acrobatics serves as a powerful expression of the Rampart Boars' collective identity as warriors capable of feats of explosive athleticism unbound by their bulky, somewhat mishapen musculature. The Rampart Boar performing the feat is clad in a mixture of short but ornate tunics and bands as well as components of their own power armor, including their Consecrate Helmet of course. Uxores Navium also have the ability to take up the practice if physically fit enough, often they paint their skin a bright white with ashes of slain enemies. All Boar-Leapers gracefully flip and whirl in movements synchronized with the resonating with the beats of ceremonial drums and the sound of the Noyon's priests' bone flutes plyed during the rituals. This tradition pays homage to the heroes of their chapter's history and also the events of the slaying of a biomechanical Boar which awarded the Chapter's second Master of Reconnaissance with the artifact, the Cowl of the Boar.
==Notable Campaigns and Battle Involvements==
===Notable Successes===
====The Assault of the Seven Worlds====
In the years following the chapter's founding, the Rampart Boars faced a very difficult problem with recruitment on their homeworld of Netekruna due to it being a dwarf planet and nearly uninhabitable in its volatility. The population had to be re-seeded from Imperial colonists during certain times in the Netekrunan year when they would be safe from freezing or solar flares, and the lower gravity meant that there was little atmosphere. Seeing as Netekruna was a dwarf planet the world had very little atmosphere and lower gravity. What few aspirants that could be found would be derived from subterranean hive cities and Bio-dome tribal societies. In order to alleviate this problem of the recruitment the chapter was given permission to take acting control of the entire Netekruna Alpha sub-system, which contained eleven worlds. One of the first war goals set upon the fledgling chapter by the Imperial authorities was to pacify this key part of their native system to bolster the carrying capacity of the Imperial territory from just their homeworld for this colonisation process.
This Netekrunan system had two stars slightly larger in size than that of the Sol system. The twenty-five total planets all moved in a circumbinary, Mobius Band-shaped orbit. Seven of the nearby planets were held by a Drukhari Kabal who had enslaved the native human populations. Qrown had no interest in converting the people of these worlds to the Imperial Truth or to liberate them from their slavery. An attempt had been made in a brief invasion prior to the onset of the Horus Heresy using Netekruna as a forward operating base. The people's arrogance to the Imperium wore High Marshal Qrown's patience thin. Instead a direct invasion with the goal of repopulating the planet with Netekrunan citizens of the Imperium would be the main course of action. High Marshal Ikrellius planned to have two invasions in Netekruna's system where he would lead the attack against the Kabal and the other half of the Chapter would claim the independent worlds. The High Marshal had one of his Castellan's did was have teams of undercover human operatives rapidly infiltrate the Kabal's slave pits and incite instability and violence against the Drukhari masters. This was not actually intended to cause long term bloodshed between the non-Imperial humans and their Drukhari rulers as the humans stood zero chance of fighting off the Dark Eldar, but instead it was planned to sow division between the Drukhari themselves over which among their own ranks was at fault for the uprisings. The question of weakness would invariably cause civil war between would-be traitors to the Archon, and the Rampart Boars would only invade once the Drukhari had already mobilised their forces against one another. This was done so that their resources like raiders could be sabotaged by the chapter's scouts and their slave labour force that could make repairs could be butchered by the tactical marines deployed to each planet.
The act went as planned with the Rampart Boars arriving on each of the planets undetected during the in-fighting before the Kabal could reassemble against the Boars' initial attack force with the traditional Drukhari attack pattern, the Flaying. The First and Third Waves of the Flaying manoeuvre were rendered divided and unable to mount into their vehicles, resulting in them being essentially useless at pinning the Rampart Boars in place where the second wave could attack. The chapter also did not bring any vehicles with them larger than drop pods and some attack bikes all of which they dismounted from at the start of the battle, making the Scourges of the Second Wave inefficient. All of this added up to the Drukhari being trapped in an infantry conflict where they could not get behind their foes or outflank them, as there was no singular set of rank and file to flank while the Boars broke off into personal duels with the Kabal's warriors. Even in spite of all of this effort each of the brotherhoods of the First Crusade Corps still had a very difficult time keeping up with the agile evasions and direction changes of the elite Drukhari succubi when in single combat and a reasonably high number of their charge members died in the fighting before the Kabal's numbers had dwindled enough that the next phase of the High Marshal's plan could be executed. The use of this seemingly backwards combat method which appeared to reject formation was not the main goal of the attack, it was to kill enough of their leadership all at once in infantry combat to force the rank and file to retreat back to cover, hulling up in their fortified buildings where they could use their Dark Lances to pick off their targets at a more comfortable distance without the feeling that they were running and backflipping for their lives. Qrown Ikrellius had planned for this, intentionally holding back one brotherhood of his men to run their fleet's ships that were capable of endo-atmospheric travel. Each Castellan on the ground had his men retreat back to their drop pods, looking as though they needed cover from the Dark Lance fire. In actuality, they needed to evacuate from the area while the members of the 3rd Brotherhood bombed each of the buildings. While the chapter suffered more intense casualties then other planetary conquests, the Rampart Boars took in just under two weeks what would have taken others in the Imperium years of fighting. The battle came to be known as the Assault of the Seven Worlds and set the stage for key events throughout the rest of the Rampart Boars Chapter's history, including the preludes to Halting of the Charge.
====The Stand at the Iron Cradle====
The Stand at the Iron Cradle is a pivotal battle in the history of the Rampart Boars Chapter, known for their steadfast defense and unyielding determination. Iron Cradle was a strategic fortress-world located on the outer Eastern fringes of the Imperium, serving as a critical waystation for repair of the trade ships necessary to supply food to the Ultima Segmentum, but also to provide repairs to naval reinforcements. However, the world had swiftly fallen into the bionic hands of the vile Melded Ones Traitors, a Chaos Warband led by the sinister Triferrarius Enarion Khazullen . These Melded Ones renegades, having long harbored ambitions to expand the dark dominion of their wicked lesser Chaos God Feirocarne, launched a massive assault on the system Iron Cradle, overwhelming its defenses and plunging it into the tyranny of the Cult of the Accursed Oneness. Their desperate calls for aid reached a nearby naval fleet who called for the aid of the Rampart Boars Chapter, known for their unbreakable resolve and unwavering loyalty to the destruction of threats to the Imperium. Another key factor was the notoriety they received in attacking the fortifications of the Kabal of the Twisting Bone in the Chapter's early days.
*Forces of the Rampart Boars Space Marine Chapter:
*#Marshal Hel-Rikhon the Steelhooved
*#Two Brotherhoods of Space Marines
*#A Marshal-Hold of Rampart Boars Terminators
*#Armored support including Predator tanks and Vindicator siege tanks
*#Devastator Squads
*#Techmarines and Land Raider Crusaders
*#Five regiments of conscripted human soldiers (would later become known as the first regiment of the Ikrell Auxilia) The Melded Ones
**Triferrarius Enarion Khaazullen
**Half of the Melded Ones Chaos Space Marine warband
**Daemon Engines and ten Hellbrutes
**Seven Traitor Guard regiments
**Technomancy sorcerers and Threefoldborne cultists Objectives:
**The Rampart Boars: Defend the Iron Cradle at all costs, preventing the Chaos forces from breaching its inner sanctums and capturing vital Mechanicus assets and the database of Imperial route patterns.
**The Melded Ones: Break through the Imperial defenses, capture Iron Cradle's strategic locations, and establish a spearpoint for future incursions of their Chaos Cult. Key Events:
*#The Rampart Boars Arrival: The Rampart Boars Chapter arrives in the midst of Iron Cradle's anarchy, launching a counteroffensive to retake key positions within the fortress-world. Chapter Master Hel-Rikhon The Steel Hooved lead the charge, rallying the defenders.
*#The Breach of the Bastion: Chaos forces, led by Triferrarius Enarion Khaazullen, break through the outer bastion walls, leading to a brutal siege within Iron Cradle's inner defense batteries as a number of Warpsmiths raced to the Mechanicus' inner sanctum. The Ikrellian mortal forces were able to disable many of the Chaos forces vehicles with entrenchment and artillery, allowing the Rampart Boars to engage in their specialty of fierce close-quarters combat, holding their ground against the relentless Chaos onslaught.
*#The Hammerfall Strike: The Rampart Boars launch a daring assault on the Melded Ones bike squads using hammer and anvil tactics, deploying Drop Pods filled with elite assault troops behind enemy lines. This unexpected assault disrupts the Chaos battle lines and allows the Space Marines to regain the initiative.
*#The Duel of Masters: Marshal Hel-Rikhon engages in a titanic duel with the Chaos Warlord , Enarion Khaazullen amidst the burning ruins of Iron Cradle's central defense battery platform. The clash of their mighty weapons sends shockwaves across the entire battlefield. A massive piece of broken, ceramite based fleshmetal embedds itself in Hel-Rikhon's boot, piercing right through his foot. Though most marines would be disabled from fighting in close quarters due to such an injury, Hel-Rikhon, by the grace of the resilience and breakneck agility in the Rampart Boars geneseed, kept the Charge and continued to fight, hobbling on the massive hunk of metal in a trot similar to the hooves a boar. This earned him the honorific from his superiors of the Steelhooved, and the promotion to Cherbi. As a reminder of this victory over human weakness of pain, Marshal Hel-Rikhon welded a blade with power-nodes to the lower shin and arch of his right foot. Not only to protect his weak point but also to use his honorific as a weapon. All Cherbi succeeding him have worn this same armament. In a climactic showdown, Marshal Hel-Rikhon emerged victorious in his duel with Enarion Khaazullen, dealing a severe blow to the Merged Ones' traitorous morale. The Chaos forces are eventually pushed back, retreating from the walls of the primary defensive battery. The siege ends in a hard-fought victory for the Rampart Boars,and the Iron Cradle still standing as an unbroken bastion of Imperial strength. From that day forward all of the remaining conscripted soldiers who survived the battle were promoted to officers in the newly formed Ikrell Auxilia. The Stand at the Iron Cradle has become a legendary battle in the annals of the Rampart Boars' history, a testament to their unwavering defense of the Imperium and their unyielding resolve in the face of danger, even in battle styles that the Chapter is not best suited to.
===Notable Defeats and Failures===
====The Siege of Anabasine III and the Halting of the Charge====
===Notable Supporting Roles===
====The Fall of Cadia====
==Chapter Recruitment==
The Rampart Boars Crusade Corps maintain communication with the Chapter Keeps on each of the planets in their territory, keeping tabs on them and looking for candidate aspirants. As with the Stormseers of their parent chapter, every ten rotations on the planet they are deployed upon, the Chaplains venture out into the main cities or living spaces to observe the people and their work, picking only the physically strongest and bravest of the manufacturing plants’ gang warriors and returning them to their Chapter-Keep to become aspirants of the Chapter. High Marshal Ikrellius insisted that the constant labour and intensely structured military state of their society be put in place in order to ensure that the people remain strong and understand only discipline, duty and grim living. This is not because Ikrellius was naive enough originally to have believed that this instils a work ethic or a lack of insubordination into the people, quite the opposite, he instead believed that the only way to ensure absolute loyalty in the mortals was to make them absolutely in terror of the Astartes and to grow them in a way that they cannot even fathom or understand the idea of not doing as they are told by a being that is fundamentally, biologically superior to them.
Though the Rampart Boars recruit from these dour street thugs, they have to be vigilant that any underlying feuds between these factions remain interpersonally during recruitment or at least that they are not retained from the transition from aspirants to neophytes and from neophytes into initiates. Another manner in which the aspirants are chosen is by way of the tradition of youngsters of the lower under-hives being given leave from the factories to go forth out into the gutted mountains to the surface. There they travel to the Chapter Keep to pay homage at the great Tholos tombs of fallen Rampart Boars from other worlds. These dome-like tombs are filled with the bodies of fallen Rampart Boars Initiates whose ceramic mineral laden bones are stripped of their flesh and organs to be placed in canopic jars, and stacked up efficiently in a stone box with the jars in spiralled patterns in the Tholos. These tombs are places of great pilgrimage for the young would-be warriors, and those that survive the perilous and gruelling journey through one of these dangerous cavern-complexes are considered especially courageous for their travel. Such pilgrimages are perilous in the extreme, and simply surviving one is a great deed in itself that may, if the pilgrim is deemed worthy, grant a place in the ranks of the Aspirants. After twenty years of service, ten of which must be open combat and ten in defensive fleet patrols, these "arisen" aspirants are permitted to visit their home Hive-City one more time as fully fledged Astartes, often to slay encroachers upon their households from when they ran away as a testament to their dedication and ascent to near immortality.
===Aspirant Screening Process===
The recruitment process of the Rampart Boars is one that can be a physically challenging ordeal, reflecting the unforgiving nature of their former homeworld's brutal industriousness, and their unfeeling interpretation of biological sciences. The recruitment process is seen as a vital part of the Chapter's radically traditional and integralist outlook on their culture and heritage. Its practices are deeply ritualized and serve as reminders to all Astartes of the Chapter of the strength and determination required for humanity to survive in a cold and unfeeling universe. Furthermore it is used to impart into Aspirants a desire to serve as a member of the Chapter, an entity above oneself. Potential recruits are selected from among the tallest and best proportioned of the members of the planets' populations, often from the people that still live on the harsh outskirts which lay just outside of the major settlements' pollution. The potential Aspirants are screened by the Apothecarion for genetic compatibility with the gene-seed, as the Chapter cannot have a higher rate of organ rejection due to needing to maintain much larger numbers. From this point those deemed to be sufficiently compatible with the Rampart Boars gene-seed the Aspirants proceed to take up a series of physical and mental tests.
There are multiple physical and mental endurance based trials or tests of the recruitment process which are designed to screen for resilience to pain and overall constitution of health. These tests they must undergo are designed on a principle of survival of the fittest. They are meant to simultaneously weed out all but the strongest and most disciplined candidates, but to also make themselves absolutely willing to set aside any sense of personal pride or desires for the needs of the group. Only those who pass all of the tests with the highest of both athletic success and moral calibre are deemed as being worthy of the honor of becoming a Space Marine of the Rampart Boars Chapter.
Aspirants are selected for implantation of each gene-seed organ they are subject to psychological review by the Chaplaincy. In order to carry on through each implantation they must continue to exhibit or even improve in an absolute willingness to obey orders and a desire for ascent. This philosophy surmised in a concept of spiritual excellence through physical excellence. In doing so they complete extensive trials and training as well as long bouts of meditation before being chosen by the Chaplaincy and Keep-Fathers for a special test. The aspirant's head is shaved barring a top knot that imitates that of the Rampart Boars Consecrate helmet and they are placed in a ritualised boxing match. Upon victory over the opponent, the Chaplain hands the victorious aspirant an ancient Condemnor-like pattern of Bolter component, This is used to fire its bronze arrow-like stake cast with raised sigils of the Cult of the Noyon into the neck of the defeated aspirant. If they refuse, both are killed by being buried alive to atone for their transgression. If the victorious aspirant does as ordered he continues on into the Rampart Boars Chapter.
===Neophytes===
Since they have no singular Chapter homeworld, instead equally dividing effort across their "realm", all of the Rampart Boars' recruiting is done via their Chapter Keeps. Chapter Keeps are built on almost all habitable worlds conquered by the Rampart Boars, and are used as primary holding grounds and mobilisation outposts for newcomer Crusade Corps reinforcements and recruitment posts for the Chapter's Keep-Father to manage the world's recruitment efforts. A Chapter keep generally only recruits a few individuals per Terran year after psychological and genetic evaluations via the Keep-Fathers skills from training with the Apothecarion. Only the most skilled and physically fit aspirants are selected for genetic compatibility screening, and few are permitted to join the Chapter Keep provided they pass the initial tests, they are then implanted with the gene-seed organs in accordance with the recommended protocols found in The Tome of Qrown. This process will eventually transform them into full Space Marines and neophytes of the Chapter. When an amount between fifteen to twenty-five neophytes are available at a Chapter Keep and have been approved by the Keep-Father, the Castellan whose brotherhood are on patrol of the planet, the chapter's Apothecaries and the stationed Chaplains, they are dispatched to the main body or flagship of a Crusade Corps' fleet for the next stage of their induction process.
Upon reaching a crusade fleet's primary Marshal-Hold vessel, the neophytes are put through a variety of gruelling tasks and trials by the Initiate rank members of the Rampart Boars. These trials test the neophytes to their limits mentally and physically, separating out the weaker or less qualified of the new recruits from the stronger Astartes. Unlike most other Space Marine Chapters with the exclusion of the Black Templars, the Rampart Boars have no single dedicated Scout Company in which its aspirants are trained. If a Neophyte is one of the fortunate, capable survivors of these physical and mental trials, he is placed as an auxiliary to the Keshig Sword Brethren of the High Marshal and familiarised with his craft and fleet. Should he impress one of the assembled guards, he can be transferred to a Sword Brother or the Keshig may take it upon himself to personally mentor the neophyte in the art of war. In some rare cases such as a large influx of qualified candidates, a limited number of Sword-Brethren who do not already have an apprentice, or a limited number of Sword Brethren not stationed on a dangerous solo operation, a typical initiate may take up the task instead. However, in order to be eligible to do so he must receive the approval of both his brotherhood's Castellan and the Marshal of his Crusade Corps. From that point on, the Keshig, Sword Brother, or Initiate takes the sole responsibility for his apprentice neophyte's martial training and moral conduct. He swears a solemn vow to prepare the neophyte for his fully fledged entry into the sovereign, honoured order that is their ancient Chapter and to teach him what is left to learn of its history, cultural traditions and to guide him through the personal performance of its holy rites of worship made in the Cult of the Noyon.
In exchange for this, the neophyte pledges direct obedience to his master in all matters that would not harm the Chapter and vows never to willingly bring dishonour to his mentor's service to their order. Neophytes also act as attendants to their mentors, keeping watches alongside them during nighttime engagements and at other times seeing to the day-to-day requirements of their resources, equipment, and aiding in smooth communication with both their superiors and subordinates via maintaining certain comm-channels. The Crusade Corps' Chaplains oversee this training and make sure the neophyte learns the history and important traditions of the Chapter, and watch for any signs of weakness in the neophyte's faith or commitment to the use of Consecrate Helmets.
The neophyte will also accompany his mentor into combat, and should his master fall, another member of the chapter will take up his training at the arrangement of their Castellan. The bond between the Initiate and his neophyte apprentice is most often paternal and incredibly strong. If a neophyte meets his end in combat, his mentor will be compelled by precedent and holy rite to make a black Penitent's Tusk, and swear a death oath upon it to the Noyon to avenge the loss of his apprentice's life, or die in the attempt. This item is also a reminder to never make such a mistake in the training of another. It is ultimately the mentor's prerogative to say when his apprentice's training is complete, and he is ready to swear his "Final Oath". Once he has proven his valour and skill, a Rampart Boars neophyte submits to the Chapter's Chaplaincy to undergo the final trials of spiritual purity and physical resilience before at long last, in a ceremony of the utmost reverence, he swears this Final Oath and dons the sacred Consecrate helmet worn by all chapter members. In doing so he is elevated into the ranks of a full battle-brother of Initiate status and honoured with a suit of Power Armour with its full functionality. He is now truly a Rampart Boar listed in number within the chapter's order of battle, possessed of immense strength and prestige, and sworn to use it in the Emperor and Imperium's service unto death.
The Rampart Boars' zealous disdain of both Xenos and mutants combined with their gene-seed's strange relationship to the psychological effects of the Warp prevents them from recruiting any young man who bears genetic impurities related to the nervous system or physical proportions, with the exception of some mutations that allows an individual to wield psychic abilities. Generally psychic abilities are weakened by their gene-seed's so-called "atavisms" if not remove these abilities altogether. This is why it is often the case that in the order of battle there is a Librarius for the chapter, but these psyker Astartes are rarely fielded unless the situation directly calls for it.
==Rampart Boars College of Stormseers==
Like their fellow Astartes Chapters, the Rampart Boars also maintain a Librarius of potent psykers called the College of Stormseers. It is these Stormseers who are the few highly gifted and long-trained in the discipline of Stormspeaking to master the power of the Immaterium at the highest levels far beyond that of mortal humans, though the Rampart Boars Chapter refers to these warriors as "Stormseers" according to the same ancient Chogorian shamanic tradition as their progenitors. Stormseers act as advisors to their Crusade Corps' Castellans as well as being powerful psykers. Stormseers are able to command the very natural elements of the wind and storm. All of these select psyker's foes are beaten into ruin by mighty howls of thunderous clouds or beset by writhing bursts of ethereal reddish lightning from the darkened. storm-ridden skies. The College of Stormseers selects its equivalent to Librarians in its own way, either from the Chapter Keep bearing recruiting worlds of the Realm Ikrell or the Chapter's patrols of other territories, as it does with the bulk of its Initiates. It is also the case that in rare instances recruits are found from the ranks of gifted psykers brought to the nearby regions for training by the Scholastica Psykana. The Stormseers of the Rampart Boars are chosen from those Initiates who manage to still display their psychic aptitudes and powers from their mutated genetics. They have an aptitude for learning a unique strain of rituals derived from the Arts of Heaven and from the Liturgies of Noyon. Rampart Boars’ Stormseers have a number of unique psychic abilities only used by the psykers of their Chapter:
*Heart of the Charge - The Stormseer reaches deep into the legacy of their blood, and brings forth the legendary swiftness and ferocity of their Primarch and fellow Rampart Boars' Initiates, allowing them to move with speed that is superhuman even by the standards of the Adeptus Astartes.
*Spirit of the Noyon's Creations - The Stormseer calls upon the spirits of the land, air, and the souls of long-dead warriors to bring some fragment of the primaeval climate of rain and lightning from the days before the Realm Ikrell's terra-forming to the battlefield he walks upon, forcing the foe to contend with more difficult environmental conditions. It is said that so long as these forces of nature fight alongside them, the Rampart Boars will always be victorious.
*Stormtusk - The Stormseer calls upon the lightning that embodies his Chapter's "Charge Spirit' ' an important aspect to their philosophy of war, and brings it to bear against his enemies in a slightly upturned tusk-like shape. When he summons this ability he hurls this odd bolt of lightning in a straight line out to its maximum range, striking everything in its path.
*The Boar Wind - The Stormseer gathers the powerful winds of the surrounding atmosphere, driving them forward in the shape of a charge of several boars in order to cast aside the enemy.
===Stormspeaking Discipline===
The Stormspeaking Discipline is an addition to the arsenal of the Rampart Boars' Stormseers inherited from the White Scars. Their methods as with those of their focuses upon unleashing the power of the surrounding environment or manipulating the environment by imbuing it with one's psychic energy against the foe. Among the abilities learned by Stormseers who are masters of this ancient discipline are the following abilities.
*Blasting Gale - The Stormseer calls up a screaming windstorm to assail the foe. It is all his victims can do to stand their ground without being torn from their feet, let alone press forwards into battle.
*Volt-Razored Call - Raising his arms to the roiling storm-clouds overhead, the Stormseer calls down lightning strikes upon his foes.
*Ride the Winds - Invoking the power of the winds with a gravelly-voiced chant, the Stormseer sends rushing currents of invisible energy to speed his comrades into battle.
*Storm-wreathed - At the Stormseer's behest the roiling clouds funnel into a furious vortex that swirls down to surround his advancing brothers. Lightning crackles around the nearby Rampart Boars initiates and leaps from their bodies to strike down the foe.
*Spirits of the Thundered Plains - Many and terrible are the spirits and ghouls inherited from Pre-Imperial Terran folklore, and it is Warp-wrought simulacra of these ancient terrors that the Stormseer now unleashes on the foe.
*Eye of the Storm - Summoning a hurricane, the Stormseer becomes the heart of a screaming cyclone which squeals in an enhanced form of the mechanical whirs of his Consecrate helmet. Wherever he strides, the enemy are plucked from their feet and dashed to ruin by its elemental fury.
==Deathwatch Service==
For much of the Rampart Boars' history, the service of initiates in the Deathwatch was not seen as a particularly high honour as for the most part Rampart Boar's veterans made very poor members of the Long Vigil. Due to the nature of their faith and the counsel of their High Marshal the chapter resists the Imperial Creed and service to the Inquisition strongly. However, the Chapter is still inclined to serve on the basis of contractual agreements with the High Lords of Terra and the Imperial Ecclesiarchy. The chapter has made interesting use of the Deathwatch as a way to banish dissenters, ineffective combatant battle-brothers, and those prone to falling into the Gene-Fury. In doing so they replace weakness in the chapter while also increasing the sheer number of battle-brothers in order to expand their interests. In cases where a Rampart Boar is seconded to the Deathwatch and is sent back they do not see such as the dishonour that another chapter might. Instead the returning battle brother is placed in another Crusade Corps and continues to serve as they did before their service to the Deathwatch. The Rampart Boars are deeply distrustful of others and often only respect other chapters who are as reserved in character and staunch in their traditions as they are. More importantly, the Boars value homogeneity including in their Consecrate Helmets and so a Chapter born from multiple gene-seed stocks was seen as inconsistent and inefficient. For this reason they often make for very poor members of the Deathwatch's kill-teams and often do not rise through the ranks despite being incredibly ruthless and brutally efficient killers of Xenos enemies. Specialists are often no different. One key problem is that though psychic attacks and abilities from psykers and warp entities can harm them, because of the nature of their gene-seed's "atavisms," psychic intrusion into the mind to read the thoughts of a Rampart Boar is thoroughly ineffective. This means that they cannot go through the necessary process of questioning and psychic probing by Librarians to become a Deathwatch Keeper, barring them from the honoured position. However, although the Rampart Boars as a Chapter have largely left the Jericho Reach untouched at least in terms of their large scale crusades, their battle-brothers still in rare circumstances do serve in the ranks of the Deathwatch, and those of a good quality do still volunteer to do so at the offer of the Chamber Militant of the Ordo Xenos. Many of the greatest heroes of the Chapter's involvement in the Third Mercayne War were noted to have served their Vigils from the Watch Fortress Lhiorey and were drawn from the Chapter's ranks following their defeat of an incursion from a previously unknown Xenos species, though their names and accomplishments may only be read or accessed in the histories of the Deathwatch, and these are sealed from access by all but the most privileged. The Rampart Boars have been known to make worthy members of a Kill-team, though their zealous disdain of Xenos and more importantly of any outside traditions can quite often put them at odds with other members of the Inquisition's Ordo Xenos. Rampart Boars will never back down from a challenge and they are reluctant to re-deploy from battle in the face of overwhelming odds due to the oath of keeping the charge. A mission that requires stealth and reconnaissance from a regular Rampart Boars initiate may find itself compromised should one of the Rampart Boars' battle-brothers take it upon himself to engage a foe that he should be watching from afar. For this reason, it is largely only the most self-disciplined and open-minded of The Rampart Boars who are seconded to the Long Vigil. There has always been strain on the minds of the Rampart Boars' elite officers1 to tolerate the myriad of different expressions of the countless philosophically divergent Chapter traditions and cults embodied by the traditions brought by newly inducted battle-brothers of the Long Watcwill be enormous. More importantly, they are forced to live and fight alongside psykers of other Chapters' Librarii, either from the other Chapter's detached Librarians at their watch fortress or drom other fortresses in larger operations. They also have to work with the Ordo Xenos' psychically-gifted Inquisitors, which will test the seconded Rampart Boar's faith in the Stormseer Discipline of the Cult of the Noyon and their overall tolerance to the utmost limits. A Rampart Boar does not have to suppress his fundamental nature or Chapter idiosyncrasies to operate within the confines of a Deathwatch Watch Fortress, as there are many accomodations made from the Watch Masters to preserve the initiates right to their Chapter cult. Indeed, on the field of battle, it is an initiate's faith in the Cult of the Noyon of Lightning which serves as his greatest weapon, for his righteous indignation at Xenos and the divine legitmacy of his convictions which allows him to rise above the cultural zealotry of the Rampart Boars' Grand Council and aid him in corroborating with comrades from other chapters to overcome the most terrifying alien enemies facing the Imperium.
In the rare instance when an Apothecary is seconded to the Long Vigil, they make excellent Xenobiologists despite their savage combat and brutish stature. Their long study of Xenos for optimised combat means that Rampart Boars Apothecaries have a great deal of prior experience with the anatomy of a wide range of alien species, and the best weapons to be used against them. This is an experience that comes in a way that only someone who has dealt with the Rampart Boars can provide as the close quarters nature of their warfare means that specimens often do not come to them filled with shrapnel or scorched with plasma, but well preserved in pre dissected sections, or in unlucky cases a bloody paste stuck to the power armour suits of the charge members who bring it.
Usually members of the Rampart Boars Chapter are sent to the Long Vigil following a ceremony known as the Ceremony of Seconding. The Ceremony of Seconding, originally serving as a religious ritual used in sending errant Astartes on quests, is a ceremony in which as much of the chosen Initiate's brotherhood is mustered and the Initiate is paraded through them, where they blow ceremonial horns and sing religious chants, reminding their sent brother that his allegiance to the Chapter and the Five Great Oaths does not end with being sent to the Deathwatch, while also saying their final goodbyes to him.
==Notable Rampart Boars Seconded to the Deathwatch==
==Chapter Gene-Seed==
Like their White Scars progenitors, the gene-seed of the Rampart Boars Chapter is in most respects very pure and stable, producing all gene-seed organs with full functionality. The gene-seed's traits unique from those of the White Scars appear to also make it very resistant to damage from the Warp and has a significantly lower rate of mutations from both exposure to the Immaterium and from mundane radiation.
===Implantation===
The Rampart Boars have very strict procedures on the methods and timing of implantation of a recruit's gene-seed. The Chapter has codified its implantation process for each of the organs in the High Marshal's personal text on the art of warfare, the Tome of Qrown. The making of a Rampart Boars Chapter Astartes is difficult because the nature of their gene-seed and its idiosyncrasies requires that a more adaptive and malleable candidate be implanted. Thus the Rampart Boars implant an aspirant with gene-seed organs at the youngest possible age that a phase can be performed, and in all instances that multiple phases can be implanted simultaneously, the chapter does so.
It requires that Phases I,II, and III, the Secondary Heart, Ossmodula, and Biscopea respectively are all implanted in the same procedure at the age of ten, the minimum age an aspirant must be in order to be implanted with such organs. In the Era Indomitus, Primaris Marines of the Chapter are implanted with their additional three organs, the Sinew Coils, Magnificat, and Belisarian Furnace simultaneously. Cawl and most other chapters refer to this as two phases, Primaris Alpha and Primaris Beta, but as with all of their other implants the Rampart Boars perform all of these together. With no precedent in nomenclature from the legions this is simply referred to as the Primaris phase by the initiates of the chapter
The same can be said of Phases IV and V in which the Astartes' Haemastamen and Larraman's Organ are introduced simultaneously at their minimum age of twelve years old.
Phase VI's Catalepsean node and the necessary hypno-therapies are provided to the candidate once they reach the age of fourteen. It is absolutely critical that psycho-indoctrination and hypnotherapy to mentally program the Rampart Boar’s battle brothers into absolutely obedient soldiers occurs at the youngest possible age that it can begin during the gene-seed implantation process due to the innate resistance of the Rampart Boars to the mind intrusion and communication methods of psykers and those adept in psychological manipulation.
As with most other chapters, Phases VII, VIII, and IX, the Preomnor, Omophagea, and Multi-lung, are all implanted in the same procedure, with the Rampart Boar's doing so at the age of fourteen after six Terran months of recovery from the start of hypnotherapy and the implantation of the Catalepsean node. After another Terran month the Occulobe and Lyman's Ear are implanted sequentially with a month between them while the Aspirant is still fourteen.
Once the Aspirant becomes fifteen years of age, he will receive the Sus-an Membrane and after four months of recovery and training, the Melanochrome. After another four months, Phases XIV and XV are initiated simultaneously and the Oolitic kidney and Neuroglottis are implanted.
Once the Rampart Boars aspirant reaches the age of sixteen, they receive Phases XVI, XVII, and XVIII within the same year, one month apart from one another. After all of their other organ implant surgeries are completed at the age of seventeen, the aspirant receives the organ of Phase XIX, the Black Carapace, upon receiving approval from his Sword Brother mentor .
===Gene-seed Advantages===
The traits of the Rampart Boars' gene-seed are essential to their identity and the way they organise their chapter. While they as a chapter often view themselves as genetically superior or as retaining beneficial traits not found in other Astartes, these traits do not make the Rampart Boars' "better" as much as they make them better suited to the specific tasks and types of combat which they choose to fight in.
The Rampart Boars value close quarters, heavy infantry combat and this is no surprise when looking at their physiology. The Boars stand roughly six inches taller on average than Astartes of other chapters and have a somewhat larger, albeit disproportionate-appearing musculature. Their bones are thick and dense. This means that Rampart Boar battle-brothers are immensely physically strong and durable, within the range of the Sons of Antaeus but these traits predate the Cursed Founding. They are at the same time very prone to unstable rages and generally do not use much in the way of long-range combat tactics beyond what is ordered of them, relying more on their brute strength to help them in close-quarters and their ability to carry heavier equipment than their enemy, to help them outclass difficult to reach foes. The Chapter is also noted as exhibiting another strange trait which is that their presence in the Warp seems to be as if not more misshapen or altered than their physical bodies, meaning that it is very difficult for psykers to read their thoughts or probe them with illusion. This does not mean that they are immune to the effects of psykers, Daemons, or the Warp. In fact, in many cases when ambushes by forces of Chaos in their territory that use a great deal of sorcery, like the Thousand Sons, they struggled tremendously in trying to reach their foe but also to harm them, with many being killed by psychic attacks that they struggled to understand or resist. This quality is both boon and bane to their capabilities because of this and due to its other side effect, Empyric Down-Regulation. This alongside the goals of the first High Marshal are key reasons as to why the Rampart Boars strongly avoid fighting Chaos despite their alleged resistance to the Warp.
===Gene-seed Flaws===
Among their fellow White Scars successor chapters, the Rampart Boars are claimed to have a highly stable gene-seed although it is not without the flaws common to the sons of the Vth Legion. Generally about 10% of brothers will end up developing severe forms of the gene-flaw referred to by outsiders as the "Chogorian Savagery" , however there is no evidence of this being due to a mutation in the gene-seed itself, but instead from the reaction of the gene-seed to the genome of the individual aspirant. The Chapter also does not refer to this
====Empyric Down-Regulation====
Empyric Down-Regulation is a little understood process that occurs as one of the flaws within the gene-seed of the Rampart Boars. When a psyker undergoes the implantation of gene-seed in most cases they either drastically weaken their psychic abilities or they lose them outright. After about two hundred fifty years of study by a team of Apothecaries, it was found that for every twenty psykers that survive gene-seed implantation, only one retains their abilities, and even then they usually are lowered in psychic potential and power by at least two grades. This most likely has to do with the strange alterations to the immaterial presence of Rampart Boars when they are viewed by psykers via witchsight, a process believed to be the same reason why Rampart Boars are generally very resistant to mind-reading. This means that the Rampart Boars struggle tremendously to maintain enough psykers that can be made into proper Stormseers, so their Librarius is often spread very thin or there are risks of not having replacements for lost Stormseers. It also means that their psykers are considerably weaker than those of other chapters.
====Personal Archive of Chief Stormseer Argosil the Dirgeplayer Designation: Empyric Down-Regulation====
The following is my analytical report to the Apothecarion regarding the nature of the epigenetic effects of the gene-seed of our honored Chapter which they have come to call "Empyric Downregulation." Across my time analyzing the recruits of our chapter that bear the gift of being psykers I have found no individual distinctions between the physical or genetic profiles of those who maintain their psychic connection to the Immaterium and those who lose it or have it weakened. Beyond this prior to the implantation of our geneseed organs their presence in the warp shows no difference from others of our species with the gifts of the Noyon. Our presence is different in the Warp than others of humanity, or even of the other Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes or the other scions of the Khagan. I tend to avoid inserting sensory imagery to the experiences of the psyker, but with a lack of a better analogy I present the following:
Imagine the Warp as a massive underground pool of water. It lay beneath the realities we engage with in everyday life but not dettached from it. Warp Rifts or Warp Storms may be interpreted in this same way as acting like rivers which erode the boundary between the two passively, but so too can this boundary be altered actively. Psykers are like mechanical siphons which draw the water of warp energy up from this well of power. A human psyker can only apply so much force in drawing up this energy before the pressure and force of this energy damages the psyker themselves. A Stormseer, or Librarian as others call them, are physically and mentally more durable and more coordinated between their mond and body, making them physically capable of drawing up power from the warp with a harder mental draw without suffering the same damaging effects. As I understand it, my fellow Xarga'khai-ne have this passage of warp energy to realspace bent or otherwise altered in its shape, requiring a stronger draw of power, more suction of warp energy up from the Warp to achieve the same effects. This makes our College of Stormseers less efficient in our connection to the Immaterium, but more resistant to the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. I see no evidence to suggest any other reasoning than the relatively crude effects of the additions of our gene-seed which many erroneously call atavisms. It is likely that the Adeptus Custodes have a far more refined, and far more potent manipulation by the Emperor's scientists which produces a similar effect. Our gene-seed is not as absolute in these traits and thus we retain our ability to maintain a College of Stormseers.
====Primarch's Curse: Savagery Within====
The genetic curse of Jaghatai's legacy of splicing khans' DNA into the legion's gene-seed is also felt by the Rampart Boars. An intermittently explosive and savage mindset is contained by chapter members through their reserved nature, ritual meditations on finding joy in combat rather than as an outlet to be filled with rage, and a constant vigilance by both their fellow charge-mates and the Chaplain members of the Rampart Boars' Reclusiarchy. The curse is necessary as it gives the Rampart Boars strength at times where others would have faltered. Those who cannot restrain themselves or drag themselves out of this cloud of wrath and death are interred into specialist squads with oaths cast upon each member for shaming the chapter through their lack of personal discipline. The curse usually manifests itself in two stages, but the introduction of the "atavisms" has resulted in an ancient and often gruesome third phase:
*Phase I ( Moments Unrestrained) - The Battle-Brother's discipline begins to slip and falter, allowing brief moments of untamed ferocity to emerge in the heat of battle. Often, the Battle-Brother will not even know that he is succumbing to this savagery, and it requires the presence of his Brothers to warn him of his failure.
*Phase II (Suppressed Rage) - Within the darkest reaches of the Battle-Brother's mind lurks the shadow of his rage and fury, seeking any opportunity to emerge, and causing the Battle-Brother to become belligerent and quick to anger.
*Phase III (The Gene-Fury) - One of the Rampart Boars most distinctive features is also the cause of one of their major weaknesses. The battle-brothers of the Chapter have an exceptional ability to unleash unnaturally explosive, short bursts of physical strength and agility tied to their enhanced aggression. Because of the origin of their gene introductions of their leader by their Primarch this capacity is far greater than even those of the other descendants of the V Legion. However, prolonged states of this aggression and explosive physical exertion can make the battle-brothers enter into a state of unstable rage. This "Gene-Fury" as it is called by the chapter, is similar at a superficial level to the Black Rage seen in the successors of the Blood Angels, however, the two are vastly different. The Gene-Fury is a biological occurrence almost solely, not one made from a psychic imprint of the Primarch or the warp. More importantly the Gene-Fury is not nearly as degenerative nor nearly as permanent as the Black Rage or the Red Thirst. The Gene-Fury can be snapped out of with the aid of Apothecaries and Chaplains and though seen as somewhat dishonourable, the flaw can be managed.When the Initiate enters a battle he is far more prone to rage and his intense fury at his enemies becomes too great to contain. This can cause his mind to become clouded outside of battle with thoughts on how to unleash it. When given an opportunity, he recklessly throws himself onto the enemy with complete disregard for ideas of discipline common to chapters and other Imperial armies that use less personal infantry duelling.
Originally those afflicted with this rage become extremely oriented towards releasing that rage against their foes to the point that some older Gene-Fury afflicted Marines with more severe cases are simply drugged out of consciousness when not in battle. As it began to pervade more and more of the minds of Rampart Boars the Chapter began to seek psychotherapeutic options and other pursuits to mitigate the affects.Over time the Chapter has learned more about the neurological nature of the Fury and methods of containing it, using the White Scars tradition of laughter to maintain joy in warfare rather than fury. More importantly the Chapter values meditative processes and creative pursuits which channel their destructive nature. Scrimshaw, the scratch-carving of bone has become an exceptionally common secular and religious practice for the Chapter with many Astartes claiming trophies of bone or carapace from fallen Xenos to carve with prayers, musings, or images of exquisite detail. In the Era Indomitus the crossing of the Rubicon Primaris has immensely tempered the Gene-Fury but it is still present in the gene-seed of the Rampart Boars with most initiates being far more aggressive than other Astartes, however the ascension to Primaris Marines has done little to limit "Empyric Downregulation."
==Notable Members==
High Marshal Qrown "Warfather" Ikrellius
High Marshal Parvo Ikrellius (KIA)
Chief Stormseer Argosil the Dirgeplayer
==Chapter Homeworld: Netekruna (Destroyed)==
Netekruna was a harsh, naturally arid Hive World, cast in an almost permanent dry spell due to the limited atmospheric pressure to hold down dust. It was a circumbinary dwarf planet with one of its stars being prone to solar flares and the other being more stable. This made the climate very fickle, moving from very cold to very hot in part due to its position within the orbiting patterns of the two suns and the distance that it was from its set of stars. Furthermore, extensive pseudo-volcanic eruptions caused rotational axis destabilisation and earthquakes resulted in catastrophic leakage of its molten metal core in the early years after the dwarf planet's formation. This also led to thick layers of volcanic contaminant metals and ash that it exuded plastering the layers laid down in the smoke, with little to be trapped in its limited atmosphere. The cold climate and particulates rendered the dwarf planet completely bereft of sunlight much-needed for growing the necessary crops to have a stable population prior to a consolidated Terra-forming and colonisation effort. On most of the surface, the Netekruna consisted of either vast and empty plains or the enormous, layered ranges of canyons that are nearly inhospitable and very difficult for even native fauna to traverse effectively. It is nothing short of miraculous that life somehow managed to survive on this brutal landscape. Any flora that did exist was typically in the form of underground, self burying slime-moulds with a deep reddish hue, highly resistant in its natural environment to the high quantities of nickel and iron in the silts of the land, as they were not nearly as dependant on sunlight. However during early Imperial colonisation of the territory by exploratory Pioneer-Fleets and rogue traders it was discovered that there were the fossilised remains of many of the elements of forest ecosystems that one might find on Terra, consisting of dead tree-litter, the remains of a great deal of earth fauna and the sea-corals embedded in the rock of the many canyon ranges of the world. Their sheer size and relative homogeneity is highly indicative that these were planted on Netekruna as a sort of conservational reserve by humans before the Age of Strife, replicating a massive version of a singular ecosystem of Old Earth. They certainly had existed prior to the core destabilisation catastrophe that rendered the dwarf planet into a wasteland not unlike Mars prior to its first colonisation, meaning that the catastrophe actually occurred in fairly recent millennia compared to initial theories. These forests were treated with respect and care by the human populace and were home to various fauna. Although, the fauna were surprisingly lacking in biodiversity on the planet even in non-Terran born species. These included quadrupeds with the body shape of a giraffe-like creature with two pairs of vents for its respiration that feed primarily on the slime-moulds and the enormous number of carapace covered"worm-crabs" that were used as both a means of measuring location safety or hunted as a food source during relative times of peace.
Living on Netekruna prior to its occupation by the Rampart Boars was to subject oneself to a life of profound struggle against the elements on the unforgiving dwarf planet. The average temperatures throughout a Netekrunan year, which was roughly 1,374 Terran days, could yield either third-degree frostbite or severe sun poisoning within minutes of exposure of the flesh to the elements, entirely dependent on where in its Mobius-band shaped orbit Netekruna was. Furthermore, the nearly constant drifting dust of the world has made its inhabitants significantly more sensitive to light and the steeper changes from higher to lower average elevation in the planet's canyon land masses forced the human body to adapt to low-oxygen levels and changes in pressure. Ancient records indicate that the comparatively sparse pre-Imperial human populace that called this planet home were distrustful of each other and extremely distrustful of outsiders, each one clinging onto a lot of land and would not part with it until death. On Netekruna, wealth was communal and owned entirely by the tribe. It was determined primarily by the size of the land that one owns, as very little of the planet could be deemed inhabitable for very long periods of time. Even then, most of the inhabitable areas of the planet could barely provide enough resources to form and sustain even small communities.
However, despite the often inhospitable circumstances of Netekruna, human life had survived and even formed relatively multicultural civilizations between standard humans who retained the advanced technology necessary to survive and the abhumans who adapted to the world at a biological level. A system not unlike a feudal world, albeit with more advanced technology and less hatred of abhumans formed during its years in solitude from the Imperium. This was due to the legacy of the first human colony that discovered this small world long before the Imperium was founded. Massive pillar-like ports with complex patterns of plasteel and ceramite overlays extruded out from the ground all the way to the hollowed core. They were prone to emitting intense releases of heat in a wide radius around themselves via an artificial form of geothermal energy from the planet's mantle. From these 'port-units' were where the first large-scale communities were founded and soon evolved into a singular and densely populated kingdom with populations in the millions. Agriculture, despite being previously underdeveloped due to the lack of stable, safe amounts of sunlight, flourished in the advanced vertical gardens constructed inside the passage ports to the core and the exploding population of humans had no need to fear starvation if they were not part of a landowning faction.
These port-pillar devices required very little maintenance seeing as they were of Dark Age origin and also had almost no need of external fuels as their heat, energy and transport resources were extracted directly from the Construct-Core. They had risen as powerful symbols of the pseudo-religious zeal the Rampart Boars had for their own interpretations of the Emperor's benevolent vision for a mankind who ruled the stars, and when missionary Apostles of the Word Bearers arrived to the dwarf planet during the early stages of the tensions that would become the Horus Heresy, they were met with a strong rejection of religious fervour towards the Emperor compared to his goals of expanding human power. Due to the acknowledgement that the destruction of this system or its core would result in catastrophic systems collapse for the Netekruna station there was a sort of economic and political reverence that surrounded these pillar-ports as well as a feeling of their invaluable benefits to maintaining them under Imperial control rather than directly by the natives of the planet.
To voluntarily damage or even destroy one of these irreplaceable pieces of would have resulted in the perpetrator(s) and their entire direct familial line being subjected to an agonising death by flaying their skin and replacing it with an array of artificial photo-receptive nerves that would fill the mind of the user with pain should the device absorb enough sunlight. These rare, vile outcasts were known as the Sun-Mind Flensed and were cast onto the barren plains and canyon sides to die in a pain unknown to anyone else on the entire planet. This process was banned during the early part of the Ru'am-Nex Age due to the development of a Sanguinary Cult of Khorne which used the Sun-Mind Flensed as psychotic shock troops. As such, the technological advancements of the Netekruna stations populace revolving around war were relatively stunted as there exists the constant fear of creating something that would have allowed the people to revolt or destroy the very structures that sustained the human workforce necessary to build maintain and support the Rampart Boars. Ambassadors of the Adeptus Mechanicus from the Forge-World of Lucius found great similarities between their own world's engineering marvels and those of Netekruna, and have claimed that this array system were pinnacles of pre-Imperial human ingenuity and manufacturing skill during times before the crisis. As a contingency plan, a rare few were granted permission to study them, in order to record ways of making repairs should the need arise but were warned to never reveal themselves to the industrial labourer populace or else their privileges would be revoked by the Chapter.
If one speaks of the so-called "Mythic Era" or "Age of Heroes" or people foundational to the origins of the Realm Ikrell one speaks of the Netekrunan people. These are not the people that inhabited Netekruna and the northern portions of the Netekruna system indiginously, as the Rampart Boars and Ikrell government have no information about the cultures of the people who reside dthier before the Chapter's occupation, but instead refers to the collectives of people seeded on the world by the efforts of the Imperium from Feral worlds and Hive Gangs in order to supplant the pre-Imperial population. These are the people that have the closest, almost brotherhood-like, bond between themselves, with an ironwilled homogeneity of their culture instilled by the Realm Ikrell's military state. During the first wars of conquest against the Kabal of the Twisting Bone, the early Rampart Boars made contact with the Imperium to have various planets send their excess people, and began teaching them the arts of modern technology and manufacturing over their crude smithing. Ten thousand years later, still remembering the tales of the great masters that dragged them out of the dark ages of various worlds into a distinct Empire within the broader Imperium, they revere the current Rampart Boars as the descendants or inheritors of the legacy of the ancient founders of the Realm, and thus as their Lords and Rulers. However, this is partly due to the theocratic nature of the Realm Ikrell's state combined with the sheer terror that they feel standing before the "Xargha'khai-ne". The people of Netekruna follow the Cult of the Noyon of Lightning similarly to the Rampart Boars, but regular humans are uninitiated to the cult's mysteries unless they are initiated into the priesthood. Most worlds of the Realm Ikrell and the Netekrunan people are described as valuing self-sacrifice and helping the weak above all. Besides being a strongly industrialized culture, the Netekrunan's are also a warlike culture that values empathy and or sympathy very little. Men and sometimes even sufficiently athletic women as well, are trained from a very young age to not only manufacture, but also use a variety of weapons. Barely any other regular P.D.F. units or human guardsmen understand the many weapons of the Eastern Fringe as well as the Ikrell Auxillia do, and even fewer have mastered the ways of combat as they have. While they are no longer stuck in the diminished technological ages , as they accepted the Imperium's technology with bowed heads, much of the artistry and designs placed on their weapons and armour have remained untouched for centuries or even millenia by the aesthetic influences of the wider Imperium or the stagnations of dogmatism from the Adeptus Mechanicus, as the people of the Realm Ikrell have reinforced which elements of the invented and lost Netekrunan culture they prefer and those which they do not. It is believed by their cult that when a man enters the field of a battle he should win by his skill and gear and if his gear was not made by his own domain, he should not wear it. So armour and weapons are still forged in mass foundries and presses in the archaeotech manufacturing plants across the Realm, done in the ways of the first foundry masters. While their cities are not made in this fashion this is likely due to the influence of the Rampart Boars themselves who are more than willing to use and replicate other equipment from outside the Realm that are seen as being of a higher quality than those that meet the standards the rest of the Imperium can offer. Of the many languages spoken across the planets from which the first planetary citizens of Netekruna and the Realm Ikrell were made from, the Rampart Boars adopted and learned their's from an amalgamation of inscriptions from the various pre-Imperial cultures of the planet, everyone from the lowliest serfs and hive workers to the High Marshal himself, speak this ancient and sacred tongue forged on their by-gone world.
==Chapter Fleet==
The Chapter takes a philosophy of naval warfare that emphasises mobility and large numbers of good quality light craft. A Crusade Corps' fleet will generally be composed of roughly twenty five percent Vanguard Light Cruisers and seventy five percent Strike Cruisers with a singular Nova Frigate as a flagship. Rather than using this flagship pattern, the High Marshal originally commanded the Cataegian Conviction, a Battle Barge originally called The Urizen's Jurisprudence stolen from the Word Bearers. However, since a time shortly after the opening of the Great Rift, the leader of the chapter instead helms the War-Tusk.
In order to work better in tandem with their boarding action based combat which uses infantry invasion of ships certain modifications to work in parallel with their straightforward and highly aggressive tactics on the ground. The Rampart Boars had their medium sized or smaller ships be painted with a dark navy blue substance and devoid of any markings on the outside of the hull. This was a protocol created in order to blend in with the darkness of the outer void of space. However, the large vessels like battle barges still retain the Rampart Boars Chapter's emblem on the botton of its prow and the intent of this decision was to induce instill fear on fortifications and outposts on planets which can see the emblem through scanners and telescopic technology before being bombarded. The smaller vessels are all mounted with a device called a Corvayne-Type Boarder. This device was a Raven Guard Prototype device from the time of the Horus Heresy recovered from the Traitor Legions by the Rampart Boars in the late 33rd Millenium. It uses a large beak-like protrusion made from a hardened nanocrystalline layers of metal. The device was in order to slam the spike into the hullof an enemy ship while having the razored oscillating saws in thetube to rip a hole into the ship that modified launch pods to be sent through the hole to drop off heavy infantry for void combat. In order to maintain their control of the Realm Ikrell, the Rampart Boars fleets fly in large groups of small ships held in broad formation so that a considerable count of the smaller vessels can surround and weave between the larger enemy ships to take down ranged weapons so that the infantry from the battle barges can board.
===Monasterial Ships===
The Initiates of the Rampart Boars will in most cases visit Chapter Keeps or planetary defences which can attend to their spiritual needs for brief periods of time. However they are often on crusade in fleets and therefore unable to access the chapter's worlds. Instead regular Chaplains are given designated shrines to the Noyon on their vessels which they use to carry out Chapter Rites and the training of neophytes. These vessels are called Monasterial Ships and serve as a mobile Chapter Keep or miniature analog to the holy Reclusiam for Initiates who are deployed on long campaigns.
The closest approximation to a singular Fortress-Monastery in terms of value and sanctity is the personal vessel of the High Marshal, Cataegian Conviction, This ancient Battle-Barge contains a vast trove of archeotech weapons, records of deeply archaic lore of the history of the Imperium and its vassal Realm Ikrell, but it also carries the Chapter's Reclusiam and its Great Reliquary. One of the more unusual aspects of the Rampart Boars' worship of the Noyon of Lightning is the Chapter's collection of Reliquary Halls. Some of these Reliquary Halls are kept aboard the Monasterial Ships of the Chapter, others are held in each of the Chapter Keeps in the planets of the Realm Ikrell. Being a as they are fleet-based Chapter which lacks a singular proper homeworld after the destruction of Netekruna, the High Marshal's Battle Barge, the Cataegian Conviction, has become the spiritual epicentre of the Chapter and these far-flung holds of ancient Rampart Boar spirituality. This mighty battle-barge has been refitted many times over the nearly eleven millennia that it has served the Imperium, and its massive expanse is filled with sacred relics of ages gone by, but also assortments of Initiate and mortal allocated temples, chapels and altars to the Cult of the Noyon. Each of these is filled with minor relics and devotional pieces. All Rampart Boars return are given leave after a certain period of time to return to this vessel after a crusade. It is here that they renew their most holy Five Great Oaths in ritual purification washes and add any new-found wonders or trophies to their flagship's already vast hoard.
Some of these pieces date back to the Great Crusade, but some former personal items of the elite members of the Chapter date even as far back as to the Unification wars. There are tassels and standard toppers taken from banners carried alongside the Emperor himself in the fight against the ancient techno-barbarian tribes in the Unification Wars, in its third hall of the Great Reliquary lies a piece of the aquila off of the Emperor's own armour from the day that he found Jaghatai Khan on the world of Chogoris, and a singed and blackened metal skull from a Necron Nemesor of the Xerxekh Dynasty that was reportedly struck down by one of the High Marshal's brutally scathing storm bolter volleys from the ancient relic weapon Telemakhos, There are likely thousands more both on the ship and studied by its retinue of remembrancers from off-site laboratories.
===The War-Tusk===
The War-Tusk is a massive space hulk turned mobile defence platform used as the command centre of the chapter. It is helmed by the High Marshal and used as an extensive artillery battery for engagements with enemies that require much heavier weapons than what is typically carried by the light cruisers of the chapter's Crusade Corps fleets. The replacement Warp-Drive array used by the War-Tusk is typically only suited for large battle barges and so the War Tusk generally skims the Immaterium in shallow bursts like the ships of the Leagues of Votann if they are not in immediate danger.
==Chapter Language: Netekrunan (Xargha'khai-ne)==
The Rampart Boars speak a distinct native tongue of their territory which they aided in constructing, alongside High Gothic. They refer to this language as Xargha'khai-ne, but it is identical to the language of the broader Realm Ikrell called Netekrunan.
==Chapter Relics==
Because as a Chapter the Rampart Boars devalue individuality and personalization of property when it comes to their equipment, the Boars issue their Chapter's Relics on a mission by mission basis and rotate them between the Keeps on each of their Chapter's conquered planets. However three relics stand out as being issued specifically for attaining a certain rank.
*Telemakhos- Telemakhos is an archaeotech-design chainfist with a retractable chainblade of unknown pattern. It was later modified with a storm bolter and thermogenic auxiliary grenade launcher built directly into mountings on its upper forearm. The artefact may only be wielded by the Chapter Master of the Rampart Boars, the High Marshal, and it will not activate for any other battle-brother. How the relic does this is unknown as after a close analysis and a number of inspections by the Mechanicus the gauntlet does not use any manner of Warp sorcery or analytical technology like an underlying machine spirit which would allow it to process the information. One theory is that it is tied to the armour of the High Marshal, another important relic of the chapter's leadership. Its name being a term from an ancient Terran language for "far-fighting" or "long ranged" is a bitter irony for those who are mutilated by its ruthless master, up close and personal.
*Eurysthene- Eurysthene is a master-crafted, single edged, curved power sword with a serrated spine. Much like the sword Moonfang of the White Scars Master of the Hunt, Kor'sarro Khan, Eurysthene's monomolecular edge and advanced disruption field leave warped after-images of the blade as it glides through air of the battlefield. This ancient weapon wielded by the Force Commander of the chapter's Keshig order was forged as a gift by the Master of the Forge of the Crucible Serpents Chapter, to test the properties of a piece of rare and unknown ore.
*Cowl of the Boar-The Cowl of the Boar is the razorback neck pelt stripped from the back of a massive and biomechanical Boar-like creature believed to have originated from the Dark Age of Technology. The animate appearing organo-metallic cowl converts its quill like hairs into long bio-metallic tendrils that permeate the back of Master of Reconnaissance and into the inside of the power armour. After a period of roughly an hour it fully grafts itself to the underlayers of this Space Marine officer's flesh. It is capable of withstanding serious blows from the powers of psykers and warp entities, and can regenerate itself, it also maintains its wielder in a symbiotic fashion, though many of the Chapter's Librarius feel that it is more parasitic than symbiotic as when the Astartes wielder underneath the cloak is wounded the quills shift and forcibly pin the bones and tendons back together in an excruciatingly painful fashion in order to keep its host fighting, as it cannot heal the Astartes underneath the way it repairs itself. The Rampart Boars' long standing Chief Stormseer Argosil the Dirgeplayer has admitted that the heirloom of the Master of the Chapter's Vanguard Marines appears to shift its bristles in a way that make it almost appear that it is still alive, and its resistance to the Warp in spite of this have caused him to fear that the object may be created by materials or methods of a Necron or necrodermis-related origin or one made from deeply unethical Dark Age experiments.
There are some forms of Rampart Boars relics which are not tied to specific ranks. These are similar to those which are found in other chapters and are used for combat purposes. Some were personal heirlooms held by ancient members of the Chapter or esteemed warriors of the V Legion.
One such relic set is the Greatstorm Armourial, a trio of ancient artificer quality Terminator armors of a unique sub-pattern held by the Chapter.
*Wanax Panoply- The first and most recognizably artisanal of the Chapter's armours is the Wanax Panoply, this ancient armour of High Marshal Ikrellius is a massive, up-armoured set of Tactical Dreadnought armour laden with fine markings and sacred archaeotech. This sacred armour was developed experimentally by the ancient Rampart-Boar Brotherhood prior to the Horus Heresy.
*Zealot's Rampart- The second of the ancient artificer Terminator armors created during the Heresy. It uses an experimental array of conversion field amplifier nodes layered over a fine set of runic and hexagrammic wards made by the Vth Legion's Stormseers similar to the Aegis system of the Grey Knights. Were in not for the fact that these nodes are made from self-repairing compounds provided
*The Armour of Dominion-
There are other relics which are generally moved between the Crusade Corps as they are needed which are of less immediate recognition or power. Many of these relics are of historical significance or those of morale more than their innate sorcerous powers or physical might.
*First-wrought Grimoire - The First-wrought Grimoire is an exceptionally honoured object in the Rampart Boars Chapter as it is the first written codex or physical book which includes all of the bound pages of the Litanies of the Noyon, the Tome of Qrown and the Proverbs of Thunder in joint form as a threefold object. It is of course considered priceless by the chapter for the spiritual, tactical, and morale needs of the charges in the vicinity of its current holder. This honoured, combined version of the three texts is presumed by the Chapter's stationed remembrancers to have been in use for well over five thousand years of the chapters history and possibly to have existed from the time at which all three of these texts had been entered into their the formal publication among the Crusade Corps' of the chapter. This incredibly holy, utterly irreplaceable piece of philosophic and political paraphernalia is deeply entrenched in the moral philosophy and history of the chapter and those few masters of the Cult of the Noyon and the arcane sciences of the Warp who have been permitted to wield this text value its insights greatly. Whether or not this ancient version of the texts has any immediately noticeable variations from the later editions of the three main works written forms remains to be seen, but the object which is easily distinguished by its finely wrought bindings of ancient gold and artificial flux grown rubies on Xenos-Leather bindings, makes it incredibly important to the morale of those charges who are ordered with following the Seneschal, Librarian, Keep-Father or Chaplain who has been permitted by the Chapter at large to wield this mighty artefact of the Rampart Boars' history and culture.
*Shroud of Mahndaling's First -
*Remnants of Dumnorian- The Remnants of Dumnorian are the forearms hands, and lower jawless, upper portion of the skull of Dumnorian, an ancient sage of the Cult of the Noyon of Lightning.
*The Helm of Conquest - Rumored to have been crafted from the very same rare and illustrious Auramite used by the Adeptus Custodes, the golden helmet of the Wanax Panoply emanates its own aura of glittering elegant light from a dispersal field. Its surface shape was meticulously polished and refined in shape to display not only a brilliant shine, but deep yet hollow chiseling of its features.
==Chapter Appearance==
===Chapter Colours and Armour Appearance===
The Rampart Boars wear power armour and use vehicles of a primarily bright orange colour with deep burgundy trim. Due to the nature of the Realm Ikrell, the battle-brothers of the chapter generally keep their grenades, additional magazines, sheathed knives or small relics built into holding compartments on their chest or they wear their chapter badge rather than the typical aquila or imperialis symbol on their chestplate. Netekrunan culture has permeated many other worlds via the the Chapter's top down control of the Realm Ikrell. After the dwarf planet's destruction, the spiritual traditions of war paint among Netekrunan gangs began to pervade the Chapter. Where the people of the worlds of the Realm Ikrell see the gleaming armour of orange and burgundy descend down from space they see the great ocean of warriors whose orange coloration symbolizes their connection to ancient sands and thus historical tradition and their burgundy trim signifying just war for mankind as they sail on in the Emperor's name. Rather than displaying their charge type or their brotherhood on their right pauldron and trim they instead display a duplicate of the Chapter badge with a Roman Numeral in the centre, designating the Crusade Corps they are a part of.
Some of the Initiates of the Rampart Boars, most often though not alway the Terminator armour wearing Sword Brethren, opt to wear a brindled, brown color back pelts or "razorfur" taken from the gene-smithed Ni'Suikhai as a sort of surcoat cloak worn around their waist. This is typically tied by the belt or a chain with their armour's pteruges in the front. This is a tradition they likely have inherited from their ancestral sport on the destroyed world of Netekruna, where warrior-athletes would hunt and capture a Ni'Suikhai to perform the ceremony of boar leaping. After the ceremony the victorius athlete was permitted to perform the sacrifice of the boar to the Noyon of Lightning and could wear the massive bristled fur pelt of the creature's spine as symbol of their atheltic strength and devotion to the Cult of the Noyon.
===Chapter Badge===
The badge of the Rampart Boars Chapter is two dark red conjoined boar heads on an orange field. Each boar face points in opposite directions (inspired by the elements of High Marshal Ikrellius' Tome of Qrown symbolizing philosophically how humanity extends itself out across the galaxy and that the Rampart Boars' Five Great Oaths compel them to both protect their Realm Ikrell from all threats through the integration of conflicting halves to assemble a greater whole from these dual opposites.) On the sides of this image are the four tusks with several differing ideas from figures of the Chapter as to what inspired this element of the emblem. The most common answer was that the four tusks represented the four primary Crusade Corps of the Chapter. However, after his resucitation from stasis, High Marshall Parvo Ikrellius, born brother of the Chapter's founder, claimed that there was no inherent meaning to the tusks. The design of pronounced visible tusks despite being drawn in profile was simply an element of aesthetics that Qrown liked as evidenced by the fact that he had been carving what would become the banner of the Rampart-Boar Auxilliary Brotherhood into the ground of battlefields Terra long before either of them underwent the augmentations to become Astartes. It is likely that this claim is the case both because of the sheer emotional closeness of Parvo to his brother, but also due to the fact that upon his return to command of the Rampart Boars after the opening of the Great Rift, he saw no issue with reorganizing the Chapter to have six Crusade Corps.
==Relationships with Imperial Institutions==
===Relationships with Other Astartes Chapters===
====Allies====
The Rampart Boars have few to none when it comes to true allies. They maintain some solidarity with the White Scars Chapter as they are the chapter with the most direct lineage to the old Vth Legion, but they do not send direct reinforcements, trade resources, or maintain alliance agreements with their parent chapter. Nevertheless, should the brothers of the Horde of Jaghatai find themselves to be on the same battleground as the Rampart Boars, their successor Chapter would live and die by them as though they are blood relatives. This is usually under the form of a standing Non-Aggression or neutrality pact and a very limited shared agreement to come to one another's aid. They also have a strong relationship, or as strong a relationship as one might have from the Rampart Boars, with the Black Templars, seeing them as a kindred spirit due to High Marshal Ikrellius' service alongside Sigismund during the Horus Heresy. This common ground also stems from the fact that the Rampart Boars organisation and much of their military philosophy is derived from that of their Crusade Fleets. The Black Templars themselves also strongly favour the Rampart Boars’ very limited use of psykers. However the two do appear to have a mutual understanding to avoid matters of religion in order to avoid tensions between the Black Templars zealotry for the Imperial Creed and the Rampart Boars secrecy over whether their splinter cult actually worships the Emperor.
The Rampart Boars have an uneasy mutual respect with a number of other Chapters who are often in tense relations with more notable Astartes. This includes chapters like the Carcharodons Astra and the Sons of Antaeus. The Carcharodons are respected for their duty in patrolling Imperial Space and their ruthlessness of combat, and the Sons of Antaeus are seen as sharing in a genetic legacy that puts them ahead of many other Astartes, in a similar way to the Rampart Boars themselves.
====Rivals====
Most Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, especially those of gene-lines with undesirable mutations, alterations, or inabilities in producing certain organs are not permitted by the Grand Council to fight alongside the Rampart Boars. This is in stark contrast to their own secrecy about the nature of their gene-seed and its so-called atavisms. They have a relentless aversion to many chapters due to their genelines such as their abrasive attitude towards the Raven Guard and its successors because of their gene-seed. This may also be fueled by other actions between these chapters against one another, which each harbor a unilateral and vehement animosity, or by extension from their parent Chapter, the White Scars. Nonetheless, the Rampart Boars have a deeply seeded animus against the Raven Guard and many of its successor Chapters. Many of the battles which have sown such hatred from the chapter have ironically occurred both long enough ago that the Raven Guard and White Scars have forgotten the details, or recently enough that they occurred after the Third Founding when the Rampart Boars became an independent chapter. At least from the time of the War of the Beast, the Rampart Boars have deemed the Raven Guard and its successors to be profoundly inferior genetically compared to their own battle brothers, and those of other scions of Jaghatai. This was not only due to the fact that the Raven Guard did not have the enhancing atavisms of the Rampart Boars' gene-seed, but also because of their mutated Melanochrome and nonfunctional Betcher's and Mucranoid glands.
Interestingly, this posturing of superiority against degeneration is not stated over the descendants of the Imperial Fists Legion who also suffer from two non-functional gene-seed organs, one of which also being the Betcher's gland. This is likely due to the fact that the chapter is inspired greatly in its organisation from the hierarchy and structures of the Black Templars and thereby demarcating the gene-seed of the Black Templars as inferior would reflect poorly on their own martial philosophy.
====Successors====
=====The Castellan Tusks (Defunct)=====
The Castellan Tusks were created during the 6th Founding by the Adeptus Mechanics from the Rampart Boars gene-tithes. The Mechanicus had recorded the mutations and genetic inclusions but did not understand their function as they had no communication with the chapter outside of receiving the tithes. It was made in order to test the gene-seed to identify the effects of their so-called "atavisms." The results were nearly identical physically to the Rampart Boars themselves, but behaviorally they were very unstable. The Castellan Tusks struggled to form well adjusted warriors and were prone to in-fighting and hatred between companies during periods in between battles. After the death of their Chapter Master and half of their company captains being killed in battle the Imperial authorities of the Inquisition, the Navy and the White Scars chapter intervene to stop the in-fighting that ensued. It was decided by the remaining Company Captains that the chapter and its values were non-functional and in order to continue serving as Astartes, they would be better off dissolving the chapter and being formally adopted into a chapter that could instil something of value in their culture. The Adeptus Mechanicus turned to the Rampart Boars' Grand Council for advice on what would be needed.
The Rampart Boars obliged this request, partly to replenish their numbers and to prevent the existence of separate chapters where their unique gene-seed traits appeared. The entirety of the remaining Castellan Tusks underwent the necessary post-augmentation rites of initiation, equipped with Consecrate helmets and taught the Rampart Boar's chapter customs, language, and battle tactics. The Castellan Tusks integrated into the chapter nicely, reaping the immediate benefits of the traditions the Rampart Boars had to learn through trial and error. They were also made more efficient as their fighting tactics were much more suitable to the former Castellan Tusks' physical athleticism. They rebuilt lost members of the first two Crusade-Corps and even formed the fourth.
=====The Daeodons (Suspected, Excommunicate Traitoris)=====
It is suspected that the Daeodons who were created during the Cursed Founding were in fact originally a successor chapter of the Rampart Boars, but if this were the case they were not connected in any way through mentorship to their progenitor. The Daeodons swiftly fell to the temptations of evil and became renegade before eventually splitting into two factions between those who remained purely renegade, the "True" Daeodons and those who turned to Chaos Undivided, being modified into Terata by Fabius Bile who refer to themselves as the "Ascendant Daeodons. The relationship between the two chapters has never been confirmed by the Imperial government but the Rampart Boars hunt the Daeodons with an unrelenting fervour to destroy their long standing enemy. 
====The Fratres in Augmentationem====
The Fratres in Augmentationem is the only standing treaty alliance and mutual aid pact which the Rampart Boars have held for any period of time more than four Terran months. The Fratres in Augmentationem are a secretive brotherhood of multiple Adeptus Astartes chapters who all hold a singular commonality. All of these chapters have genetic or biological enhancements which the alliance presumes makes them superior to other Astartes. The Rampart Boars are the oldest and the strongest of these chapters both in terms of their immense numbers and in the effect of their genetic qualities on how "enhanced" they are compared to other Astartes.
===Relationship with the Inquisition===
The Rampart Boars have a very complicated relationship with the Inquisition, one that has only tensed with time after the civil war between the Rampart Boars' Realm Ikrell and the broader Imperium during the years following the death of Goge Van Dire. Much of this tension has come from near tireless suspicions by inquisitors about whether th Rampart Boars have lied about which Primarch their gene-seed originates from. There have been numerous investigations by the Inquisition into the Chapter regarding this accusation. On many occasions it has been alleged that they are in fact the scions of the VIIth Legion and their Primarch Rogal Dorn, this has often been posed due to their fascination with the art of scrimshaw, their extensive use of heavy infantry and the common use of large bolt-firing weapons. However, these were all proven false both due to the traditions which originated in the White Scars such as referring to their Chapter Honor Guard as the "Keshig", and more importantly, the fact that the Rampart Boars produce the full array of Astartes geneseed organs, all of which are fully functional, including the Betcher's Gland and Sus-An Membrane, organs which are not found in the Astartes sired by Rogal Dorn. Similar allegations were made about the Chapter being derived from the Raven Guard, and they were dismissed just as swiftly. Roughly seven hundred fifty years later the Chapter was questioned regarding whether their gene-seed was derived from traitor stock, specifically of the Night Lords or of the World Eaters, due to suspicions that they were hiding their faces behind their Consecral helmets to conceal either pallid skin and black eyes or potentially the Butcher's Nails. After genetic testing it was confirmed that all such suspicions were false, and minor allegations proposed in a similar vein like the Rampart Boars being descended from the Salamanders or even tainted Chimeric stock were all dismissed.
==External Enemies==
===Thousand Sons===
The Thousand Sons are seen by the Rampart Boars as quite possibly the most heinous perversion of the Astartes that was ever created, believing that their Flesh Change Flaw deserved to have them purged as a Legion just as the Second and Eleventh Legions were. This became only worsened with their treachery, the Rubric, the use of perverse creatures like the Tzaangor, and the increase in mutations from Tzeentch among the cultists aligned with them. In spite of their focus on the slaughter of xenos, the Rampart Boars Chapter has waged full-scale war against several warbands of the Thousands Sons' Chaos Sorcerers for millennia.
===Alpha Legion===
===Hive Fleet Orthrus===
==Notable Quotes==
===By the chapter:===
===About the chapter:===
Category:Space Marine Chapters
Category:White Scars Successors
Category:Imperium of Man
Category:Space Marines