Eternal Guard

## Eternal Guard(Aeterna Praesidio)

Eternal Guard armorial with Chapter iconography.

An Eternal Guard Battle-Brother of the 4th Company, 7th Battleline Squad.

Originally understrength, reinforced with Primaris Space Marines up to full strength.

### **Specialty**

Heavy Weaponry, Attrition Warfare, Psychic proficiency

### **Battle cry**

"victorus! etiam in mortis!" (victory, even in death)

### **Colours**

Red with gold trim (pre-heresy Thousand sons)

The **Eternal Guard** also known as ***Aeterna Praesidio*** in High Gothic, is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter from the  4th Founding with their lineage classified by the Adeptus Administratum for reasons unknown to the chapter. They were founded to fortify the various imperial strategic worlds in the ultima segmentum against any enemies of the imperium, Orks and later on the duties included included the possible defense against Tau expansions as well as restore civil order in the fringes of the galaxy under imperial control. Because of their red luminescent eyes they believe themselves to have a connection to Salamanders, though it has been hotly contested within the chapter's Apothecarion.

## Chapter History

**Devastation over Talbarak** is a particular disgrace in the chapters history, originally the chapter only sent fourth company to the planet in the hopes to locate a suspected minor necron tomb that has been rumoured to be on the planet and possibly destroy the tomb before it could awaken. The initial force that arrived found instead found the supposed sleeping tomb was infact already on its way to awaken. In a moment the easy and quick plan turned into an engagement and a distress call was sent to the chapter homeworld for reinforcements. Chapter master The'ese feared that the tomb could perhaps signal other tomb worlds and bring further threat to the nearby worlds in the vicinity if left unchecked, so by his orders 5th company which was currently stationed on the chapter homeworld were rallied and joined him on the ship Hammer of Absolution while a communique was sent to Solaq of the 2nd company to Rendezvous with them over Talbarak. Solaq's ship Spear of Altevfor exited warp later instead to find the heavily damaged husk of Hammer of Absolution in orbit and no one alive on the surfcae, neither space marine nor necrons. When Solaq sent small groups over to investigate they found out the ship swarming with daemons, the crews onboard ship logs said that Galler device malfunctioned in transit and daemons overran the ship in an instant which left no survivors. On the surface the fourth company had successfully destroyed the tomb at the cost of the companies life.

## Notable Campaigns

**Thebes**, an imperial campaign to retake multiple worlds previously lost to imperial control and also developing of a new fortress world on one of those planets to stave of future assaults to the sector. Sadly the campaign was thwarted in its infancy by eldar shifting a nearby waagh away from their craftworld. As a consequence it went towards the planets the imperium were planning to retake from and forcing to imperium to fight both orks and tau at the same time. As a result a distress call was sent out and the campaign abandoned in the hopes that the orks would fight it out with the Tau that currently inhabit the planets and perhaps revisit the idea of taking the planets back after the two sides had finished warring it out and attack the survivor before they had replenished their forces.

## Chapter Home World

Astrea was designated at the creation to be Eternal Guard's home world. Astrea is a moon that orbits the forgeworld Altevfor and was originally used as the forgeworld's a mining colony, but after mining out the biggest veins of minerals and metals they were realised it was too barren for the requirements needed and of what was left was in too little and too far in between that it was deemed too inefficient and was abandoned centuries before it was given to the chapter. It is comprised of mainly rock, a few various metals left in the deeper layers and a thin layer of dirt. Life on the planet didn't occur naturally but was terraformed by the forgeworld and as such has no natural life besides the tree that were planted to sustain as breathable atmosphere. Because of the solid core and the odd spin of the moon one side is covered in perpetual snow. not much is on the surface besides a lot of craters from practice drills and a few shafts into the ground where the forgeworld accessed the mines.

### Fortress-Monastery

    **Telarin,** Near the fortress there are multiple gun emplacements capable of shooting plasma warhead torpedoes at incoming star ships and artillery turrets to fight of potential invaders on the ground. The fortress itself was originally built by the ancient people of the Altevfor forgeworld as a headquarters and research lab for their mining colony, it was fixed up and reconstructed to be the training facilities and communications hub for the chapter. In the middle of the fortress a large elevator was also constructed and goes all the way down into the core of the moon, down there lies the many armouries and covert headquarters that were built to withstand bombardment in the event the planet and moon would be under siege.

## Chapter Organisation

### Eternal Librarius Branch

Chapter Librarians are first brought into the chapter as young humans whom hold psychic potential. As to not cause any accidents or loss of recruits they are first taught in how to mentally ward against chaos taint, later on they slowly gain their gene-seed implantations as well as getting trained in basic command in preparation for their trial. Upon successful implantation of the necessary gene-seed these fresh-faced marines are formed into a new tactical squad with four long-serving scouts, lead by an aspiring librarius as sergeant. When the squad has reached a level of experience the aspiring librarius is accepted and moved into the librarius branch while the rest of the squad is placed into other squads throughout the chapter. As full-fledged librarians the finally have access into the secrets of the chapter and are taught by the chief librarian in how to utilize their mental abilities to maximize destruction and carnage on their enemies and warp resistance on mastery level.

while the Librarius Branch has many librarians that are unaffected by the chapter as a whole and work pseudo-independently towards their own goal of research, twenty of the strongest librarians are assigned into groups of two librarians per company that report directly to company captain and are deployed in any combat situation the company goes into. They also have responsibilities and authority similar to what other chapters would have lieutenants do.

### Specialist Units

**Aspiring Librarius** - With the unusually high amount of psykers in the chapter. Each psyker start out in the chapter learning how to protect their mind while also having leadership skills intensely drilled into them. Those that have completed the gene-seed implantation are then placed into a squad of marines in the sergeant roles. This way the psyker is able to learn how each of its battle brother move and instinctively be able to predict where their squad members move, enabling them to use their psychic power to peak efficiency without risking injury to their brethren.

**Chapter Master Aethon Vol'dus**
**Chapter Champion**
**Honour Guard**
**Chapter Equerries**
**Serfs & Servitors**
**Sigurd Barros,**
***Forgemaster***
⠀
**Techmarines**
**Servitors**
**Armoured Vehicles**
**<name here>,**
***Master of Faith***
⠀
**Chaplains**
**<name here>,**
***Master Apothecarion***
⠀
**Apothecaries**
**Acolytum**
**Tynus Kyphan,**
***Master of the Librarius***
⠀
**Librarians**
**Lexicaniums**
**Epistolaries**
**Codiciers**
**Acolytum**
**Chapter Serfs** | **<name here>,**
***Master of the Fleet***
⠀
**Chapter Fleet**
**Battle-Barges**
**Strike Cruisers**
**Escorts**
**Stormraven Gunship**
**Stormtalon gunship**

**Ma'rak Artyn**
**Lib. Corr Septyn**
**Lib. Tylesar Arkos**
⠀
**Honour Guard**
**Terminators**
**Vet. Vanguards**
**Dreadnoughts**
**Land Raiders**
**Stormravens**
**Stormtalons** | **Lib. Captain,**
**Solaq Vulgis**
**2 Librarians**
⠀
**Tacticals**
**Intercessors**
**Assault Marines**
**Dreadnoughts**
**Stormhawks**
**Stormraven**
**Stormtalons**
**Rhinos**
 **<name here>**
**2 Librarians**
⠀
**Tacticals**
**Intercessors**
**Assault Marines**
**Centurions**
**Devastators**
**Dreadnoughts**
**Predators**
**Drop Pods** | **Captain,**
**<name here>**
**2 Librarians**
⠀
**Tacticals**
**Intercessors**
**Assault Marines**
**Centurions**
**Devastators**
**Dreadnoughts**
**Land Raider**
**Rhinos** | **Captain,**
**<name here>**
**2 Librarians**
⠀
**Tacticals**
**Intercessors**
**Assault Marines**
**Devastators**
**Thunderfires**
**Hunters**
**Stalkers**

**<name here>**
**2 Librarians**
⠀
**Battleline Squads**
**Impulsors**
**Repulsors**
**Overlords** | **Captain,**
**<name here>**
**2 Librarians**
⠀
**Tacticals**
**Dreadnoughts**
**Whirlwinds**
**Predators**
**Thunderfire** | **Captain,**
**<name here>**
**2 Librarians**
⠀
**Mobile Support Units**
**Impulsors**
**Gladiators**
**Repulsors**
**Executioners** | **Captain,**
**<name here>**
**2 Librarians**
⠀
**Heavy Support Squads**
**Repulsors**
**Executioners** | **Captain,**
**<name here>**
**2 Librarians**
⠀
**Scout Squads**
**Rhinos**
**Razorbacks**

## Chapter Recruitment

The recruitment world and acquisition of viable recruits is something the inquisition has no insight into. at the beginning they used the Prassium world exclusively and recruited from the various human soldiers growing up on the world. After a couple hundred years Eternal Guard started recruiting less and less from Prassium and gathering recruits from unknown sources. In reality they secretly have a small section of their chapter stationed at an outpost on an unknown planet that had a lot of humans born with psychic potential. No one knows why they shifted into recruiting mainly psykers but its believed that they have an undying curiosity for the unknowing warp and only with enough psykers can they investigate and research the unknown.

## Chapter Gene-Seed

Originally the gene-seed was very stable and have near to no signs of mutation, but it has been speculated that the large quantities of psykers in their chapter throughout the years has slowly corrupted the gene-seed. In 2.132.456.M40. it was recorded to have mutations in multiple organs leading to reduced success rate for astartes implants. Later on in 2.986.547.M41 it was recorded to be declining in the numbers of active astartes in the chapter.

Most notable mutations of the eternal guard is that their Sus-an Membrane has degraded into complete disrepair and their Larraman's Organ is slightly larger than usual which gives them a unusually potent healing ability but it has also have been shown to be unreliable and not working at certain times. Apothecary research into understanding this mystery has sadly yielded no results for far.

It is suspected that they are of salamander lineage mainly for the reason that it's astartes possess bright amber eyes.

However if their lineage originally is from salamander then that is a indication how badly the Eternal Guard gene-seed has been corrupted, either by their unusual connection to the warp or tampered with by Imperium at their inception of creation.

## Combat Doctrine

The Eternal Guard do not adhere to the codex astartes, they instead prefer their own specialised way of warfare. The chapter excels at constructing a defensive barrier on with bunkers and heavy weaponry and holding the line until the enemy gets boxed in.

At their inception it was declared that the chapter would be given access to nearby armoury worlds and forge worlds in return for protecting the key worlds in the vicinity. With this access to the more rare astartes equipment it has led to them adopting a more heavily armoured type of deployment, using a high amount of Dreadnoughts and Tactical Dreadnought Armour rather than the more common predators and land raiders.

As of the Indomitus crusade and the awakening of the primaris, they were given a large supplement of primaris to replenish the steadily reduced amount of neophytes produced. Since the new marines gifted by Cawl did not possess nearly as much of the gene-seed corruptions they are much more stable and easily reproduced but they also lack the innate ability to connect to the warp, it has led to an adjustment within the chapters way of organising and process.

## Notable Members

* **Aethon Vol'dus** - Vol'dus was merely a scout when he showed adept skills in learning and anticipating the enemy. Later on when he was promoted to tactical sergeant he managed to outwit countless eldar and Tau and would crush their forces with barely any loss of life. After a long and distinct place as a sergeant Deathwatch asked him to join and serve, which he did for a century with valour. As he returned he was promoted to 2nd company captain since Ba'var has just as because Ba'var's position was not filled yet. Many decades later when chapter master The'ese died the captains gathered for a meeting to select the next master and it was mutually agreed that because of Aethon's skill in planning and innate ability to predict enemy movements was already legendary and on par with a few of the previous chapter masters of old he should be chosen to lead the next . As such he graciously took up the role and now serves as the current Chapter Master.
* **Ba'var** - former 2nd Company captain known for his adept sharpshooter mastery. He was known among the chapter as the "Shadow Bullet" as many said that you would never hear or see the weapons fire but you would merely see the enemies of the imperium fall down from precision hits to their head or heart. During a campaign he was overrun and nearly killed. After serving with distinction he was offered the option to be interred and now resides within one of the chapter Contemptors and when called upon will cleanse any xenos with great precision.
* **Chief Librarius Tynus Kyphan** - Senior Librarian and leader of the librarius branch. While not being the most powerful he is the most skilled psyker within the Chapter. He's a intense and preoccupied Librarian, Tynus takes his responsibilities to keep the chapter safe from psychic or daemonic enemies very seriously. On the rare occasions a non-psyker marine is in contact with Chaos, Tynus takes it upon himself to help them regain their mental stability or ensure they do not bring chaos' taint with them.
* **Chaplain T'kell** - In his life he served as the pillar of the chapter, guiding every new astartes whenever they join the official ranks on how to best serve the Eternal Guard as well as ministering to the spiritual needs of his Battle-Brothers. He was known on the battlefield for being headfast and watching over his fellow brothers. In his final moments he was shot dozens of times in the chest by multiple orks during a campaign as he was moving wounded to safety. Unable to be completely tended to by the apothecaries he was chosen to be reborn and live on in a sarcophagus and follow the chapter's creed as one of the dreadnoughts. T'Kell has been known to have a particularly extreme hatred against orks. To the point that he goes above and beyond when slaughtering greenskins to the point of risking his own safety.
* **Ma'rak Artyn** - Captain of 1st company.
* **The'ese Aldov** - former chapter master of Eternal Guard and served as the leader for two centuries before being slain in combat during the Devastation over Talbarak.
* **Librarius Captain Solaq Vulgis** - current 2nd company captain. He serves as Aethon's right hand and trusted advisor
* **Librarius Corr Septyn** - jumpy boi <epic text here>
* **Librarius Tylesar Arkos** - jumpy boi <epic text here>
* **Librarius Korvin Shu'Tir** - pewpew plasma guy <epic text here>

## Chapter Fleet

**Spear of Altevfor** - flagship for the current chapter and manned by the first company, created by Altevfor by scavenging the remains of multiple ships during a nearby ship battle.

Hammer of Absolution - Previous ship of the 5th company of the chapter. it was severely damaged in orbit around Talbarak and the husk of the former ship still rotates the planet to this day.

## Chapter Relic

* **Tartaros Terminator Armour** - At the beginning of their founding Eternal Guard were given access to an armoury that had a dozen tartaros terminator armours by the Imperium. Each one of them are treasured, repaired and serviced regularly by the chapter tech-marines.
* **Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts** - The nearby forgeworld gifted Eternal Guard three heresy era dreadnoughts that it had in storage. Only two of the Contemptors are still operational and are personally serviced by the Forgemaster. The chapter goes to great lengths to recover lost terminator armours in case the armour equipped battle brother perishes in battle. They have gone so far as to send nearly a full company into their death just to reclaim a single Contemptor dreadnought from falling to the enemy.
* **Claw of the Aves** - At the behest of a previous chapter master the tech-marines used an imperial artefact they had previously located and outfitted it onto his personal power gauntlet as well as modifying the fist to become a power talon variant of lightning claw. In close combat the *Claw of Aves* is an all but unmatched weapon, as the artefact provides the lightning claw with a powerful phase-frequency disruption field that envelops the claws and make it able to slice through solid matter at a sub-molecular level, parting ceramite and adamantine effortlessly.
* **Fist of the Aves** - While the claw was a power fist that was modified and outfitted with an artefact to turn it onto a power talon, the fist was instead left untouched. where the claw would have its purpose to kill any foe that dares to come within reach, the fist would complement it with unstoppable power to take down any structure or vehicle that dare stand in between the wielder and its target.

* **Phoenix's Breath** - Made in the early days of the chapters history, it was said the Forgemaster and his most loyal tech-marines locked themselves in a room for a full solar rotation and worked tirelessly until it was created. the weapon is a uniquely modified combi-flamer that requires a potent librarian to fully wield it's destructive powers. A psyker connects themselves to the weapon's promethium canister and infuse it with high concentrations of psychic energy. The weapon can then shoot out bolter bullets or small amount of promethium fire that will be spurred on by the warp energy to closely resemble the ever-burning flames within the warp. It is one of the most treasured relics of the chapter and has been passed down to every chief librarian since its creation.
* **Tome of Azmarael** - A book passed from chief librarian to the next, each master librarian has added and perfected the sacred tome to encompass what it is now. Written in the book are the hard-won secrets of the Eternal Guard librarians on how to bend reality and the warp, and many various ways to abuse and wield control of the Immaterium to ones own gain. Within a sacred few of these closely guarded secrets are techniques that allow the user to enhance his own psychic might by funnelling warp through the book allowing the user psychic powers beyond their normal capabilities but with less strain on the mind than usual.
* **Stormraven Gunship** - <adding more>
* **Modified Tartaros Terminator Armour** - One of the rarest of relics in the chapter armoury is a piece of modified tartaros armour that was found in a hidden armoury on a planet that was lost to heretics during Horus Heresy. The relic armour has a powerful iron halo embedded into the top of the protective layers in the reactor on the back, the armour also offers improved plating on the front section of the body. It was purified and cleansed by the chaplains and repaired by the tech-marines before it was put into use by the chapter. It currently is issued to the 1stcompany captain and is one of his armaments for when the times require heavier armour than their standard power armour.

## Chapter Appearance

### Chapter Colours

The Eternal Guard primarily wears red coloured power armour with gold coloured vents on the backpack, gorget (neck band) and shoulder pauldron trim. A gold coloured Aquila or Imperialis is prominently displayed on their plastron (chest guard). The left armorial proudly displays their Chapter iconography, while the right armorial displays a large white coloured squad specialty symbol, indicating a battle-brother's assigned battlefield role (Close Support, Fire Support, Battleline, Veteran or Command). A small white coloured roman numeral stenciled on the right armorial inset, indicates squad assignment. A larger white coloured roman numeral stenciled on the left poleyn (knee guard) indicates a battle-brother's assigned company.

### Chapter Badge

The Eternal Guard's Chapter iconography consists of a flaming phoenix, it's wings elevated and rising. This ancient mythological creature for the chapter represents the unwillingness to let death stop them. For Eternal Guard the act of being encased in a dreadnought is the act of rebirth and for the astartes they pride themselves on accepting death as a mortal when it comes to be reborn as the fury of the chapter and the fist of the emperor.

## Notable Quotes

### By the Eternal Guard

"*To fall into heresy is a defeat worse than any the battlefield offers. Hear this from one who has seen both.*"
—T'Kell
"*No vengeance can compare to the vengeance of the dead.*"
—Ba'var