Sanguinia

Category:Characters
Category:Female Characters
Category:Primarchs
Category:Royal Family
Category:Blood Angels
"Sanguinia. It should have been her. She has the vision and strength to carry us to victory, and the wisdom to rule once victory is won. For all her aloof coolness, she alone has the Emperor's soul in her blood. Each of us carries part of our father within us, whether it is his hunger for battle, his psychic talent or his determination to succeed. Sanguinia holds it all. It should have been her..." 
-Warmistress Hathor praises her sister Primarch Sanguinia.
Sanguinia, also known as the "Great Angel" and the "Brightest One", is the primarch of the Blood Angels Legion of Space Marines and the genetic ancestor of the Adeptus Astartes Chapters who comprise the Sanguinary Brotherhood in the 41st Millennium.
She is in many ways often considered the noblest and most respected of the primarchs, even by her other sisters. 
A Remembrancer sketch from Carpinius' Speculum Historiale of the Primarch Sanguinia during the Great Crusade.
==History==
===The Primarch project===
The Space Marine Legions were the greatest creations of the Emperor of Mankind. That immortal, god-like being crafted incredible transhuman warriors to help Him conquer the galaxy and reunite Mankind's lost colony worlds in the wake of the Age of Strife. Amongst these Legions were the Blood Angels, the IX Legion, who from their earliest days fought staunchly in the service of Emperor and their primarch both.
Like all the First Founding Legions, the Blood Angels were born from the dying flames of the Age of Strife. The risen Emperor had united the warring factions of Terra through the Unification Wars, yet His vision did not end with one mere planet, nor even with the solar system in which it lay. And for that He would need a mighty army, an army unlike the galaxy had ever seen before, an army whose warriors knew no other loyalty than to their Emperor, and whose bodies and minds were hardened to withstand unceasing war. 
The Emperor had long ago refined the techniques of genetic manipulation of the Human genome, and He set these skills to work once again, forging twenty extraordinary transhuman super-warriors, each an embodiment of an aspect of war as His generals and consuls in the coming campaign within His secret gene-laboratory hidden beneath the Himalayan Mountains.
Thus were born the primarchs. Incredible, superhuman beings whose martial powers were to be second only to the Emperor Himself. Yet, as with all great labours, the genesis of these superhuman warriors did not go according to design -- the Emperor's plan for His primarchs was to be undone even before it had properly begun. Without warning, the primarchs disappeared, scattered throught the galaxy by an unknown force.
All blame lies at the feet of the Chaos Gods, but the truth remains yet hidden.
===Sanguinia arrives on Baal and her early life===
Soon after their creation, the power of Chaos stole the Primarchs, but unable to destroy them it set them astray, scattering them in every corner of the galaxy.
The infant Sanguinia came to rest upon the death world of Baal, more precisely the radiation-soaked moon, Baal Secundus.
Here, she would be adopted by a nomadic tribe of humans known as the "People of the Pure Blood".
The old records state that on that day, a miracle was found. The ancestor of the tribe found a child, a being of perfection sprouting wings from it's back, the wings of an Angel. A gift from the God-Emperor or a spawn of the warp.
Naturally not all of the tribesman saw her purity. They advocated to killing the young child, to burn it before she grows into something terrible. Still divided, the people allowed her to live, growing under constant watch. 
She continued to grow and in a few weeks time she crushed a fire-scorpion with her bare hands. Within a year the child became a woman, spawning into adulthood, soon surpassing all her teachers . The miracles continued. She could travel through the radiation of Baal Secundus without the protection of a suit, no curse or sickness of the mortal flesh could harm her.
Besides her psychic powers and her mighty feats of strength and endurance, it was said that she had the ability to divine the future. The tribe soon accepted her as a prophet and Sanguinia lead them on a pilgrimage across the wasteland. She was now their leader and she loved her people.
When a wandering band of feral Baalite mutants surprised his tribe, resulting in the death of many of her tribesmen, Sanguinia slew them all. The Angel changed that day, for the brutal attack on their tribe, The Angel became rage. Over a hundred mutants were butchered by her hands.
The tribe praised the Angel, grateful for her protection. Soon an offensive was launched, eviscerating all mutants within the wasteland, purging all those that stood against the tribe. Although many details of Sanguinia's early life are lost to time and memory, the notable events of her life have been told and retold so many thousands of times by the Baalite tribes that they have become ingrained in cultural memory. 
She became the supreme ruler of Baal. Ruler of the blood. Worshipped as a Goddess.
===Coming of the Emperor===
Though the loss of the primarchs was a bitter blow to His plans, the Emperor was not dismayed for long. The primarchs themselves could not be recreated, but their genetic records and samples of their genetic material remained, and from these the Emperor created the mighty Space Marine Legions.
In time, word has spread and The Emperor, in the midst of His Great Crusade to reunite all the scattered worlds of Mankind, laid his eyes on Baal. He arrived on the planet and, disguising himself, infiltrated the conclave of blood, the mighty theatre carved into Mount Seraph. There, the Master of Mankind witnessed his lost daughter give an impassioned speech of pure beauty and power, giving hope and purpose to the people of Baal. As she reached the end of the speech, the Angel's wings spread wide, lifting into the air letting out a roar that could be felt through the very core of the planet and echoed by everyone gathered there.
It was said that others among the Primarchs have fought against the Emperor when they first met, but this was not the case with Sanguinia. When approached, Sanguinia recognised the Emperor immediately. Many believe that Sanguinia's reputed ability to foresee future events informed her of the Emperor's visit, explaining her reaction. 
Later records stated that Sanguinia would ask the Emperor a question that no other Primarch dared.
"What if I refuse?"
""You will not refuse. I know your soul. Here you save tens of thousands of lives. With me, you will save billions of lives on millions of worlds. You will save the life of every human yet to be born.""
"I want something from you. I want your word. Do you swear on whatever oaths hold value to you, that you will leave my people in peace, untouched by your designs unless they desire otherwise, free to exist as they already exist, believeing in whatever they choose to believe."
Though it was unknown what He contemplated while remaining silent, whether He was taken aback by his daughter's love for her people or He was merely calculating the removal of another obstacle to his great work, the Emperor gave his word.
Satisfied, Sanguinia pledged herself to the Emperor as she fell to her knees.
The best of Sanguinia's warriors were subsequently selected to become Astartes, implanted with the very core of Sanguinia's physical being; the pure and precious gene-seed that the Emperor had engineered from the Primarch's own genome. These warriors were raised up into the IX Legion of the Space Marines, better known as the Blood Angels, and then launched upon the Emperor's Great Crusade alongside those members of the Legion who had been raised from Terra.
Those who remained upon Baal Secundus were entrusted with the duty of defending Mankind's birthright upon the planet, and ensuring that future generations of warriors were taught the Imperial Truth and learned of the Primarch who had once walked amongst them and restored their hope. So it is that even now, with millennia passed since those fateful days, the Blood Angels take all their Aspirants from the moons of Baal.
===The Great Crusade===
Resplendent in glittering armour, shrouded in white wings, Sanguinia was the noblest of the Primarchs in physical aspect. Proud and resolute, the Angel radiated a confidence so vital that any shadows of doubt were banished beneath her light. The detail of the Primarch's intricately-worked Artificer Armour was rendered perfectly, the sculpted edges of the golden battle-plate visible along with the fine etching across the brassarts, shoulder guards and breastplate.
On her chest was a heavy ornamental roundel carved from huge Megladari rubies. The central jewel was cut into the shape of a heart and set on a mount of gold flames, and it signified the burning spirit of the Blood Angels as expressed through their primarch. Atop it were four more ruby discs, each dedicated to one of the worlds from which the IXth Legion had drawn its numbers -- Terra, in the first instance, then Baal and her two moons. Across one shoulder she wore a ceremonial war cloak, the black-dappled pelt of a Carnodon; similar in form to the extinct snow leopards of Old Earth but much, much larger, who was also her first kill. 
Sanguinia would not be reunited with her legion immediately, instead spending 3 years with Hathor and her Luna Wolves to learn the ways of the Imperium. During this time, she grew close to Abaddon and Tarik Torgaddon. She first met her then-savage Revenant Legion during the Pacification of Teghar Pentarus, but shocked all assembled by first learning the name of each and every one of her warriors. Giving a speech before her assembled sons, Sanguinia stated that she would swear an oath to her Legion instead of the vice-versa. Sanguinia stated she hoped she could live up to leading her sons, and that she would stand with them whatever may come be it glory or damnation. She declared the IXth Legion to be scattered and broken no longer, and that they alone would conduct the coming campaign without the aid of the Luna Wolves. Sanguinia's humility roused the assembled warriors, who immediately pledged themselves to their Primarch.
No mere warriors were the primarchs -- they were shrewd and canny leaders of men, under whose command the might of the Space Marine Legions increased a hundredfold. So it was that the Great Crusade surged onwards as never before. New battlefronts opened up under the Primarchs' direction and worlds were reclaimed by the thousand.
Driven by a fiery temperament, the IXth Legion swiftly earned a fearsome reputation as shock troops, which came to feed a rivalry between them and the assault-oriented World Eaters Legion. Yet, in truth, the Blood Angels were never as ferocious as the World Eaters, for the wise influence of Sanguinia tempered their bloodlust.
Though she was yet in the early days of her legend, Sanguinia was thought to be the noblest of the Primarchs and was ever deep in the Emperor's counsel.
Even Hathor, proud Warmistress of the Great Crusade and Primarch of the Luna Wolves, sensed a purity of spirit in Sanguinia that she could never match, a oneness with their genetic "father" that no other Primarch could ever hope to approach. Whilst many of her sisters fought the Great Crusade solely out of the joy of battle, Sanguinia fought to secure the golden era of peace and prosperity which would surely follow. Her vision was the Emperor's, a hope of Mankind united in peace and prosperity.
As the Great Crusade pushed outward, and more primarchs were discovered, the Emperor's time became divided, pulled in more and more directions by the demands of organising the growing Imperium. Hathor, the most favoured daughter of the Emperor, was often placed in overall strategic command of the Crusade, a position in which she proved her skill as a leader time and time again. She quickly won the approval and support of the other Space Marine Legions, along with that of their leaders.
After being introduced to all of her fellow Primarchs, over the long Terran decades of the Great Crusade, Sanguinia formed the closest bonds with her sisters Hathor, Freya Russ and Alakhai Khatun, along Kassandra Curze whom many would call an unexpected bond. The Blood Angels also forged close ties born in blood and battle with the Luna Wolves, Space Wolves, White Scars Legions and Night Lords, respectively.
===Fateful meeting===
It was also during the Great Crusade that the Angel would find love in a most unexpected place. Her meeting with the man known as Artorius happened on a small planet on the fringes of the galaxy. A planet called Lodel Minor. A tiny planet, almost barren, and almost lost to the invasion of the orks. They met while Artorius operated on the patients and though it was a rough meeting with the doctor almost hurling a curse at the Primarch, over the span of a couple of years, the pair grew closer.
Originally a field medic in the Solar Auxilia, an invitation has been extended to the young Artorius to join the IXth Legion. After joining the IXth Legion he wroked together with Sanguinia and the other space marines, gaining their respect, a feat few have achieved in their lifetime. He saved so many Astartes that, in time, he took up the role of Head Apothecary.
It was during this inauguration of his new post that the two, Primarch and mortal confessed to each other at the same time, sharing their first kiss of many to come. The pair also held a private wedding ceremony on Verturgard, Artorius' home planet. All was believed to be good, for a time.
Alas, it was not meant to be.
===The Horus Heresy===
====Ambush at Signus====