Lamenters

The Lamenters are recurring protagonists in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise. They are a Successor Chapter of the Blood Angels Legion, the Space Marine Legion of angelic Primarch Sanguinius. Like the Salamanders, the Lamenters are one of the few Space Marine Chapters who are the beacon of hope and kindness in the cruel and unforgiving galaxy, but they have a history wrought with tragedy and seemingly endless misfortune, yet never succumbing to the corruption of Chaos.
==History==
===Foundation===
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. Transhuman Astartes, also known as Space Marines, served as the strongest protectors of the Imperium of Man, the last bulwark of humanity, organized into a thousand Chapters across the Milky Way created over several intervals. The Lamenters were one such Chapter, founded in the 36th Millennium and created from the gene-seed of Sanguinius, Primarch of the Blood Angels, as part of the 21st founding of new Space Marine Chapters. However, the 21st Founding was forever considered cursed, for it saw the Adeptus Mechanicus attempt to 'correct' flaws in the gene-seed used to create Astartes, which resulted in numerous failures and Chapters comprised of visibly mutated marines, many of whom were purged.
Regardless, the Lamenters emerged seemingly unscathed from this failed experiment- in fact, they appeared to have been cured of a major impurity in their gene-seed. The Blood Angels, one of the original 20 Space Marine Legions, while noble, suffered from the Black Rage and Red Thirst. The former emerged in the wake of the Horus Heresy, the cataclysmic civil war that resulted in the original Legions splitting into Chapters, and which saw the death of Sanguinius at the hands of his brother Horus- and the creation of a genetic memory of Sanguinius' rage in his final moments, an insanity that could overtake a Blood Angel in battle and make them turn on their allies, unable to see anything but the face of the Arch-Traitor. The Red Thirst, on the other hand, existed even before the Horus Heresy, a vampiric thirst for blood that could overtake even the most well-disciplined Blood Angel. These genetic flaws persisted in every Blood Angel after the Heresy, and to all their successor Chapters- except for the Lamenters, who were so incredibly resilient to the impurities that only the most extreme circumstances could unleash them.
Indeed, the Lamenters suffered none of the mutations or madness that overtook the other Chapters of their Founding, yet commonly found themselves shunned by other Astartes due to being associated with the Cursed Founding. Additionally, the Lamenters suffered from a strange sense of Chapter-wide melancholy, perhaps spurred by the events around them, or perhaps lingering grief over their Primarch's death, borne more keenly than other Blood Angels successors.
Since their founding, the troubled yet noble Lamenters came into many conflicts with fellow Chapters or Imperial authorities over their right to even exist, many of which became violent in spite of the Lamenters' undoubted loyalty to the Imperium. However, the Lamenters held true to their cause of protecting mankind, their character staying intact even while their sorrows grew, although in the 37th millennium, the Lamenters chose to quietly relocate themselves to the western fringes of the galaxy, as the Lamenters were a highly-mobile fleet-based Chapter.
=== 9th Black Crusade ===
The Lamenters then went on a self-imposed crusade against the various enemies of mankind for the next millennium and a half. In the 39th millennium, the High Lords of Terra ordered the Chapter to join the defense against the 9th Black Crusade, a campaign against the Imperium of Man by Abaddon the Despoiler, Warmaster of Chaos Undivided leading his Black Legion of Chaos Marines, the same traitors from the Horus Heresy. The Lamenters fought against the oncoming tides of Chaos, but found themselves still shunned by other Astartes due to their reputation as a Cursed Founding Chapter. The Lamenters were then sent to defend the Imperial Hive World of Corillia alongside the Mortifactors Chapter, only for the superstitious Mortifactors to abandon the Lamenters on the surface. However, the Lamenters were unwilling to leave the civilians to die, and thus fought the incoming Black Legion alone in defense of the populace. The Lamenters suffered horrendous losses over the course of six weeks, but did not give up their mission, keeping the people safe for as long as they could until reinforcements White Scars and Ultramarines broke through the Chaos fleets, providing much-needed relief to the Lamenters and surviving civilians. However, the Lamenters had been reduced to barely 200 Astartes.
In the wake of the successful but costly defense of Corillia, the surviving Lamenters soon returned to space, only for their fleet to abruptly vanish in a Warp-storm. As such, the entire Chapter was considered lost. However, the Lamenters actually survived in the Warp, battling through untold Daemonic horrors until they emerged a century later at the edge of the Segmentum Solar. Miraculously, they had not turned to Chaos. As such, the Lamenters began to rebuild their Chapter, taking on new recruits to replenish their numbers and returning to their crusade duties, although now around the galactic core. However, they were soon called by the High Lords of Terra for a new assignment, this time to be permanently stationed around the Maelstrom Zone as Maelstrom Warders, part of a collection of Space Marine Chapters tasked with safeguarding the zone around the Maelstrom Warp Rift.
===Corinth Crusade===
In the mid-41st millennium, the Ultramarines called on several Chapters for aid in battling the Charadon Ork empire, and the Lamenters joined the campaign, believing they owed the Ultramarines a debt for the rescue on Corillia. As such, the Lamenters deployed 300 of their number to the war effort, known as the Corinth Crusade, driving back the vile xenos in a series of battles across the Corinth sector, even allowing the Lamenters to finally build some honor bonds with other Chapters, like the Marines Errant. Soon, the Lamenters set out to liberate Slaughterhouse III, an Ork mining world filled with human slaves who fueled the Ork war effort. Moved by the plight of the humans, the Lamenters petitioned to lead the assault on Slaughterhouse III to free the slaves, but Marneus Calgar, Ultramarines Chapter Master and crusade leader, could not support them on their mission. Regardless, he authorized the operation, and the Lamenters thus fought their way onto the Ork world, destroying Ork orbital defenses and slaughtering Ork defenders without mercy. The human slaves, seeing the heroism of the Lamenters, rose up against their surviving captors, and in a few hours, the Lamenters had freed three million slaves. However, the Lamenters had no way to transport so many people, and more Ork forces were rapidly descending on the Lamenters as their Techmarines rushed to make some captured Ork ships flight-capable again for the slaves to escape on. However, the Lamenters resolved to fight and nobly die if they had to, and held the line against the Orks.
Wave after wave of the greenskin menace rained down on the Lamenters, now reduced to only 200 and only supported by a lone battle-barge, but the Lamenters fought with an almost savage fury, some even succumbing to the Black Rage in the heat of battle. Regardless, as more and more Orks poured in, and too few crafts were made operational, many of the surviving slaves saw no hope of escape. As such, over nine tenths of the slaves instead insisted that the Lamenters grant them a swift and merciful death, thus dying as free men and women than as slaves of xenos, and allowing the Lamenters to escape with at least some civilians. Unable to find any alternatives and still under Ork onslaught, the Lamenters remorsefully relented and detonated a series of seismic charges in the honeycombed caves around the slaves, collapsing the tunnels on them. However, the tenth of the slaves who survived were now able to board the operational Ork slave transports, which the Lamenters piloted out of the atmosphere alongside their battle-barge, and fewer than 100 Lamenters left standing.
While only able to save a small fraction of the people they had liberated, the cave detonation destroyed the Ork mining operations on Slaughterhouse III, setting the Ork war buildup back by years, and sparked civil wars between surviving Ork clans over the other resources left in the system. However, the Lamenters could not rejoice in victory, only feeling the bitter losses they had sustained, both Astartes and civilian. Marneus Calgar offered the Iron Halo to the Lamenters as an honor for their tactical success, but the Lamenters refused it, causing other Imperials to accuse them of insulting the Crusade, spawning dark rumors about the Chapter and further tarnishing the Lamenters' reputation.
===Badab War===
After once again rebuilding their forces, the Lamenters returned to their duties as Maelstrom Warders. While they faced discrimination and animosity almost everywhere they went, the Lamenters found an odd friendship with the Astral Claws Chapter, commanders of the Maelstrom Warders. The Astral Claws' Chapter Master, Lufgt Huron, even treated the Lamenters with far more respect than any other official, even providing material to help the Lamenters rebuild. The Lamenters, unaccustomed to such friendly acts, built a quick and strong bond with the Astral Claws and other Maelstrom Warders, such as the Mantis Warriors and Executioners. However, Lufgt Huron soon became a tyrant over the Badab Sector around the Maelstrom, conscripting locals, withholding tithe payments, running heretical gene-seed experiments, and creating his own pocket empire under the guise of greater security for the region. Eventually, after killing several tax collectors and Imperial investigators, Huron instigated the Badab War to secede from the Imperium.
The Lamenters, as allies of the Astral Claws, joined the secessionist movement with the Mantis Warriors and Executioners, although the Lamenters were unaware that Huron was attempting treason, as Huron kept up the ruse of still being loyal to the Imperium, seemingly just wanting more autonomy. Thus, the Lamenters believed that the other Imperial forces were unjustly encroaching on the traditional autonomy of the Adeptus Astartes, and as such, joined what they thought to be a defense of their sovereignty, still trusting the other Maelstrom Warders. The Lamenters used their nature as a fleet-based Chapter to provide security to the convoys shipped between secessionist forces as civil war erupted, pitting the Maelstrom Warders against other Space Marine Chapters sent to put down the rebellion. While the Lamenters took considerable losses in defense of the convoys, they were reluctant combatants, such as when sent to face the Marines Errant. Remembering the honor bonds they forged with the Marines Errant during the Corinth Crusade, the Lamenters were unwilling to fire upon them, instead using intimidation tactics through superior numbers and crafts to drive them off.
As the Lamenters remained the protectors of vital secessionist convoys, the Imperium deployed the Minotaurs Chapter to take out the Lamenters. The Minotaurs, also a Cursed Founding Chapter, yet considerably more violent than the Lamenters, tracked down the Lamenters' mobile fortress-monastery, the battle-barge Mater Lachrymarum. Finding the craft resupplying above a secessionist-controlled planet, the Minotaurs ambushed it and with incredible ferocity, drawing almost all Lamenters to its defense, especially when the Minotaurs disabled the ship's engines. The Lamenters desperately defended their fortress-monastery at all costs, for it held their precious gene-seed and their recovering wounded, sparking a 17-hour siege of the vessel. Ultimately, the Minotaurs' sheer firepower and overwhelming ferocity forced surviving Lamenters to surrender in a bid to save the Mater Lachrymarum, most of their fleet shattered. The Minotaurs thus allowed the Lamenters to keep their fortress-monastery, but promptly stole scrap and wargear from the Lamenters to replenish their own losses, and sent the surviving 311 Lamenters to be incarcerated at a prison station over Sagan II for the rest of the war. During the battle, Malakim Phoros, Chapter Master of the Lamenters, was presumed dead after being unaccounted for, his body apparently lost among the wrecked Lamenter ships that the Minotaurs left behind.
===Penitent Crusade===
The Badab War ended with an Imperial victory, Huron revealed to have been Chaos-corrupted and escaping with surviving Astral Claws to form the Red Corsairs warband of Chaos Marines. The Lamenters' fortress-monastery was left intact, and investigated by the Inquisition, but whatever they found within was kept secret. The Lamenters themselves were tried before a court of Inquisitors and other Astartes Chapters, who found the Lamenters and other Maelstrom Warders guilty of breaking the Codex Astartes and their sacred convenant with the Emperor. However, the Lamenters were found to not have been Chaos-corrupted, nor acting out of malice or a hunger for power, but pride and misguided trust in their supposed allies, thinking they had been fighting against injustice rather than realizing they were unwitting pawns in treason. The Lamenters were thus granted forgiveness by the High Lords of Terra, but on the condition that they must complete a century-long penitent crusade to atone for their sins, during which time they could not recruit neophytes to replenish their ranks, thus leaving the survival of their Chapter to the benevolence of the Emperor's will.
With what few ships they had left, the Lamenters had their tattered Chapter Banner restored by the Adepta Sororitas, who were said to weep as they repaired and repurified the banner. Now known as the Banner of Tears, the Lamenters carried it with them as they began their crusade for redemption, kept track of by the Red Hunters Chapter.
==== Second Tyrannic War ====
However, the Lamenters' streak of misfortune followed them into their penitent crusade, as they ended up flying right into Hive Fleet Kraken- a fleet of the monstrous Tyranids, a ravenous xeno species that threatened to consume all life in the galaxy. True to their crusade, the Lamenters fought against the alien menace, including sending a number of their Astartes to fight a heroic last stand on planet Malvolion, allowing masses of civilians to escape at the cost of the defending Lamenters. The Lamenters seemed lost once more against the tide of Tyranid bioforms, but by some miracle of the Emperor, the Lamenters escaped Hive Fleet Kraken with only three companies left.
While the Chapter survived the alien offensive, Chyron, a Lamenters Dreadnought, had been assigned to the Inquisition's Deathwatch sometime before the penitent crusade reached the Hive Fleet. As Chyron last heard of the Chapter losing contact in the war, he mistakenly believed that he had become the last of the Lamenters.
===Era Indomitus===
A few years after the Lamenters escaped Hive Fleet Kraken, planet Baal, the homeworld of the Blood Angels, was invade by Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan. The Blood Angels sent out a call for their successor Chapters to help in the defense of their homeworld, but the Lamenters declined the call, for they were far too depleted to help, not to mention not of right mind. Additionally, as the Lamenters were still within the 100-year penitent crusade period, they couldn't replenish their numbers yet.
Regardless, presumably coincident with the end of their penitent crusade, the recently-reborn Primarch Roboute Guilliman, now Lord Commander of the Imperium, supplied the Lamenters with much-needed reinforcements- a batch of newly made Primaris Marines, genetically updated Astartes that had been secretly worked on since the Horus Heresy. These Primaris Lamenters were deployed to the Aberrus System alongside Astartes of the Iron Lords, Knights of the Raven, and Scythes of the Emperor Chapters, fighting against an incoming tendril of Hive Fleet Kraken.
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