Cardinal Guard

Mark III Pauldron displaying XIXth Legion Icon, Retrieved 982.M30

Victaro Lemantales, Heliosto Squad (Close Support), 43rd Grand Company, pict captured 979.M30.

## Space Marine Legion

### Cognomen (prior)

Scarlet Few, Sons of the Black Mountain, Charred Legion (Derogatory)

### Noteworthy Domains

Cathea (Primary)
Terra (Tertiary)
Calth

### Observed Strategic Tendencies

Purgation Operations, Assymmetric Warfare, Sanctioned Radiological Weapons Deployment, Xenos Eradication

### Allegiance

Imperium of Man
(*Fidelitas Adoratis*)

### Warcry

"Tua Venit Tempus! Mors!" ("Your Time Has Come! Death!")

"*If an injury has to be done to a man, it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.*"
— From the text *Prince*, Macavelli, M2
"*I hope they cannot see the limitless potential living inside of me. I am the great destroyer.*"
— The Terran Atomancer Opheiner, M2
A flash of lightning, the boom of thunderous engines - the breaking storm heralds the arrival of the **Cardinal Guard**, humanity's zealous vanguard, the XIXth *Legiones Astartes*. Hailing from icy Cathea, the marines of the Cardinal Guard are paragons of the offensive, riding forth on blackened wings to deliver death in a flurry of blinding Volkite, withering Rad, and innumerous blades. Through strength and faith in the undying Emperor of Mankind, the foes of the Imperium will see their end.

## Legion History

### Early History

In astonishingly detailed fashion, much of the XIXth’s early history is plainly provided in Imperial texts and recordings, cited as an archetypal example of the birth of any of the Legions. Founded while its brother-Legions cleansed the surface of Terra in the Unification Wars which preceded the Great Crusade, the XIXth Legion was raised, unlike its contemporaries, nearly whole-cloth from a single recruitment sourced, a fact that has been cited as confidence in the Emperor’s ability to discern with scientific precision the durability and strength of a relatively homogenous genetic source.

This first muster ground, fought and bled for by a combined force of Legiones Astartes and Custodes, was the indomitable Fortress-Isle of Sessaly, the city island home of ragged survivors and hardy defenders who had clung onto life all through the Age of Strife and darkness of Old Night. The resolute citadel at Cahtan, held steadfast after nearly seven nights of Imperial bombardment, broke and opened its gates, where a repentant throng surrendered their bloodline’s futures to the voracious Imperium’s gene-crafters and laboracists.

The youth of Sessaly were a welcome gift, and passed into the ranks of the XIXth Legion at great number, having proven to be of resilient body and receptive mind. Trained in earnest by brother Legion Masters and the Custodes alike, the XIXth Legion’s own command structure ratified itself over the course of dozens of honor duels and challenges, cementing an authority of the strong and daring. As the Emperor made for His Legiones Astartes to take to the stars, the XIXth stood trained to a razor’s edge and at full ranks, among the most numerous and promising of the second generation of the Legions.

Graced with such potential, the XIXth was quickly sent to war in the opening campaigns of Solar Compliance. Sent sunward, the XIXth Legion triumphed over the monstrosities of Mercury and the Near-Solar platforms, earning accolade at Flare Station Kilo, the Apollite Plateau, and the Hermean Archipelago. But of all the battles of that blighted campaign, the most lauded of which came during the Legion’s darkest hour.

The final and most influential battle of the Sunward campaigns came during the Mercutian Compliance, when the XIXth Legion set out the claim the inner world’s vast subterranean Tech-Troves from the Scourge-Mind Cohorts. In weeks of brutal tunnel fighting and close-quarters skirmish, the Legion saw its strength reduced below 60%, lost and mutilated by the wicked maze of otherworldly horror and cranial-treachery which guarded the vast stores of Dark Age relics. The XIXth, undaunted but bowed, requested sanction from Terra to unleash inhumane weapons of their own, who granted the nascent 2nd Assault Company use of Rad and Phosphex arsenals on a shocking and widespread scale. Newly armed in weapons of unparalleled rapture, the XIXth Legion cleansed the labyrinth and decapitated its mutated masters in a storm of withering radiation and inextinguishable fire.

The Mechanicum, closely observant and anxious to claim the Tech-Troves, celebrated the XIXth’s victory, and declared the Legion blessed by the Omnissiah, awarding unique honor and favor to the sundered Legion. The XIXth Legion was adorned with the ‘Mark of Tharsis’; their armor and armory colored in the rusted vermillion hues of the Mechanicum’s own. So appointed, the XIXth Legion began the tedious process of muster and rearming, while its brother Legions reclaimed the lost domains of Sol.

The massacre of Mercury’s final battle was quickly learned in the Legion, which adopted more cautious approaches to warfare, relying on coordinated long-range firepower and armor, rather than the massed infantry assaults so familiar among the Legiones Astartes. This steady temperament and calculated approach, while not bowing some of the more noble traditions of the XIXth Legion, would prove a dominant rote, and shape the manner that the newly dubbed 'Scarlet Few' fought the Great Crusade, utilizing the vast stores of Volkite weaponry seconded to to them by the Martian Mechanicum.

**REQUESTING DATA ACCESS...**

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**Account of the Ushlar Xenocides**
**Derived from XIXth Legion Tactical Records**
**092.982.M30**: A distress call, sent by the 1102nd Expeditionary Fleet, composed primarily of Mechanicum and Imperial Army elements, at their last recorded location within a nebular formation within the Grendl Stars known as the Astelor Ridge, is received by 48th Expeditionary Fleet’s sensor augury arrays. The transmission, scrambled and warped after nearly a year of travel through the void, detailed an overwhelming attack on Imperial forces by an undiscovered xenos threat. The XIXth Legion, already in the midst of muster and resupply in the Obsidia system, responds quickly and makes for the Grendl Stars, at nearly full strength.

**273.982.M30, Balgadan Translation Skirmish**: The 48th Expeditionary Fleet translates into the Balgadan system, and immediately detects multiple fleet-sized contacts closing into engagement range. In the ensuing rush to transition from Empyrean navigation to combat readiness, three capital ships, and their escorts, are lost to the void: the Avradite, Spear of Sanctity, and Respite’s Resolve.

Scans immediately return that the vessels are of xenos origin, and the Imperial fleet commences combat. Multiple splinters of the 48th Expeditionary Fleet’s sizable contingent break off, forming splinter formations, each engaging in separate and contained void wars. Victory is won against the enemy at a position of overwhelming firepower and numerical superiority, and multiple enemy ships are seen retreating at faster-than-light speeds. During the battle, four XIXth Legion vessels, and their crews, are considered lost to the void: the Brightheart, Piety of Ribero, Corlione, and Pale Steed.

**274.982.M30, Purge of Balgad**: The 48th Expeditionary Fleet regroups and cruises at combat speed towards the system’s only habitable world, dubbed '48-23'. Met with considerable planetary defenses, the fleet suffers two capital ship losses transitioning into deployment positions, and the Missile of Meran and Bloodspite are scuttled in orbit. Ground forces deploy, and are immediately met by considerable military force. The xenos breed which would later be coined '*Ushlar*' are revealed in their full monstrosity, and the invasion contingent suffer punishing casualties at the hands of the multi-limbed and blisteringly fast alien defenders. Captains Arishem and Pelnar are recorded in honor rolls as utilizing their forces in tandem to defend Site 92-Sigma from overwhelming xenos attack for 6 days before succumbing to battle.

As the invaders press on, eventually purging the entire world of xenos life in a months-long campaign, the 48th Expeditionary Fleet's void contingent is met again with a moderately-sized retaliation force translating in-system via faster-than-light travel. Battle is met, and the capital ships Calibite, Lectora, and Oubliette are lost to the void. Scans during the battle detect ship designs not seen during the initial engagement, suggesting that the breed is inter-planetary in nature.

**001.983.M30, Octotertian Void Ambush**: In an act of characteristic aggression, the Primarch Haedran orders the Cardinal Guard and 48th Expeditionary Fleet deeper into the Astelor Ridge. Upon the Fleet’s cruise to the Balgad System's Mandeville Point, yet another faster-than-light xenos fleet movement is detected, and another Ushlar retaliation force engages the XIXth Legion’s fleet. The 48th Expeditionary Fleet pushes through the deluge of enemy fire into the Warp, losing the Lornean, Infallible, and Nazrean before successful translation. Three enemy vessels are observed pursuing the fleet into the Warp, where they are seen succumbing to the tides of the Empyrean.

**094.983.M30, Invasion of Kefite**: The 48th Expeditionary Fleet is guided to another system populated by the Ushlar breed, and again are drawn into combat by a large, but more defensive enemy fleet. Breaking through alien blockade, the capital ships Miramar, Truth and Grace, Rewards of Faith, Eye of Gold and Bennatar are lost to xenos guns. Eradicated the enemy's void force completely, the Cardinal Guard makes landfall along with the Legio Ferrax and Falkan Brigadiers of the Collegia Titanicus and Imperial Army, respectively.

Planetary defenses on '48-24' are seen to be markedly stronger than of 48-23, and combined casualty numbers ranged just below 24,000. Spearhead-Ordinate Marius Paternaro, called '*Armordeath*' is recorded as having led a 200-strong siege force into the planetary capital, breaking the walls and defenses in less than 4 hours. Total eradication of inhabited xenos is recorded.

Prisoners are, for the first time, successfully captured by allied Mechanicum forces for vivisection and interrogation. By these means, locations of xenos strongholds, breed terminology and language, and some battle-tactics are derived. Ushlar specimen are recorded as surviving vivisection long after suspected expiration.

**101.984.M30, Defense of ++DATA RESTRICTED++**

**++TACTICAL FEED SUSPENDED - FURTHER AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED++**

### The Prodigal Son Returns

The Legion’s fighting strength was greatly augmented after their discovery of Haedran, largely by the replenishment of compatible recruits from the death-world of Cathea. This new breed of warrior, some already hardened by the wars that heralded Cathea’s Golden Age, brought to the older Terran Legion a refreshed sense of zeal and fighting spirit. Haedran Durendal, who dubbed the XIXth his “Cardinal Guard” at their presentation to him, carried over the Cathean war tactics and strategies that won him that blighted world, most importantly his favorable disposition towards the use of weapons deemed overly destructive or dishonorable. The growth of the 2nd Assault Company of the newly named Cardinal Guard swelled in number in the wake of the Primarch’s favor, ultimately transforming itself into a new body altogether, pledged to wage war in unrepentant totality.

The death-world’s populous, in a dark mirror to the Legion’s first wave of recruitment, surrendered their youth in zealous adoration to the Emperor’s servants, this time boosting Legion numbers beyond any count ever before – an act that elevated the XIXth to a more prominent status among its contemporaries. As the Legion’s ranks grew, the Cardinal Guard, and their new master, continued their stewardship as it did previously during the Crusade – under the wing of the Primarch Kozja and his Ist Legion, the Warbringers. Haedran and his brother formed an easy pair, the latter learning much, not only of war, but of the Imperium at large, from the former.

The Legion’s adopted Cathean might came with another, more mystical quality. Haedran’s creed of reverence and emulation towards a father that was both man and divine, spilled into the ranks of the Cardinal Guard – taking root in even the Terran Legionaries. The Cardinal Guard’s fervent way of war was powered by a faith that motivated such convictions. Armed with such zeal, the Legion would eventually strike out unto their own crusades, bolsterws by allies of faith in the Mechanicum and Imperial Army alike, though the true extent of the XIXth Legion's belief in the Emperor's divinity would never truly become a public truth - through the will of the Primarch Haedran, the Imperial Mystery would be kept as a quiet and proud creed.

In the months before the inter-legion wars of the Age of Darkness, the Cardinal Guard had carried the Emperor’s banner throughout the galaxy with pride and zeal, claiming a high tally of compliances. The XIXth, which had suffered greatly during the Ushlar Xenocides, operated at a portion of its Crusade strength during the Age of Darkness, having lost nearly a fifth of its fighting strength in those brutal wars.

### Conclave at Calth

In the years before the Great Crusade’s abrupt end, before darkness and strife overtook the Imperium of Man, the XIXth Legion sent away all but the closest allied forces and mustered as a whole in the Verdia System, making mass landing on the planet Calth. As records of the time indicated, the Legion had suffered a 52% reduction in fighting strength, from its numerical peak on 934.M30, and was as such greatly diminished, though the main crusading body was resupplied, emerging newly armed and armored, from a recent muster at the nearby Iax System on 002.M31. As the events that took place on the world of Calth are unclear to Imperial historians of the time, and no accessible records exist to categorical knowledge, the order of events that transpired there can only be approximated.

It is well known that the Primarch Haedran, called the Clearch, had entered seclusion at the completion of the Iax Muster, and that the Cardinal Legion's main crusading body recorded no new compliances during the interim years. In addition, records indicate that XIXth Legion forces attached to other Legion or allied fleets began an exodus to the galactic east, presumably towards the Veridia System. Eventually, the entirety of the Legion would have been accounted for in high orbit above Calth, where the historians presume the Primarch resided during his symposium.

Of Calth, the world was declared a domain of the XIXth Legion and restricted entirely, an action that conflicted with the Primarch’s earlier sentiments relating to Legiones Astartes controlled territory. Orbital picts, taken in the long years after the XIXth's gathering there, reveal the construction of a metropolitan complex bearing close resemblance to the cities and temple-mount of Cathea, the Primarch’s home-world. Sectors of the city, each constructed in similar yet numerically distinct fashions, enunciated a clear purpose - housing the massed XIXth Legion's multiplicity of Ordinals, Cohorts, and Grand Companies. In the center of the mandala-formed city stood a parade ground, a location many have speculated to have served as a gathering place for Clearch's announcements and edicts to his assembled Legion.

The Legion itself emerged from Calth with no discernible changes, aside from a new strategic tendency to travel as a monstrously large and singular body. Witnessed by both friend and foe alike in following years, the Legion fought with the same zeal and fury as before their mysterious conclave at Calth, unburdened by doubt or uncertainty of their own superiority of cause.

A number of theories exist purporting the events that took place during the Legion's muster, all of which hold equal merit in the realms of possibility and conjecture: the Clearch’s answering of the Imperial Mystery; a purgation of un-believers within Legion ranks; the discovery of some quasi-cosmic truth which gave the Legion new purpose; or some other theory yet to be speculated.

## Notable Campaigns

### Timeline

786.M30 - Unification of Sessaly - A combined Custodes and Legiones Astartes strike force breaks the walls of Sessaly, forcing the inhabitants' surrender.

791.M30 - Mercurian Compliance - The final Scourge-Mind is slain by Captain Amadeon Faltro of the 2nd Assault Company, rendering Mercury and the Near-Solar platforms compliant.

801.M30 - Belt Wars

804.M30 - Years of Endeavor - A tertiary XIXth Legion detachment, attached the to 32nd Expeditionary Force, reappears after three years of time-dilated warp travel. Personnel aboard claim transit lasted thirty years. Mortal crew display concurrent signs of aging.

807.M30 - Voss Muster - The Legion is joined by Legio Ferrax and Imperial Army forces at Voss. Imperial Army personnel develop the derogatory name "Charred Legion" for the XIXth, due to the residue left by Volkite discharge marking Astartes armor.

821.M30 - Lethiads Campaign

828.M30 - Atridon Sector Compliance

833.M30 - Bray Sector Campaign

842.M30 - Invasion of Coln's World - After three concurrent psychic outbreaks, First Captain Attico Diomedes constitutes a Librarius in secret. Affected Legionaries are seconded to heavy cruiser *Culpa Gravis* to study and scrutiny.

847.M30 - Peltan Expedition - The 14th and 15th Companies, along with nearly 30,000 Imperial Army personnel, are ambushed and wiped out by Waaagh! Gargunz. 2nd Assault Company is authorized to enact retribution, destroying nine worlds in the Peltan Cluster.

851.M30 - Zhoros Compliance

855.M30 - Cathean Compliance/Discovery of Haedran

874.M30 - Compliance of Bellephon

876.M30 - Spirestorm Wars

883.M30 - Death of Telennar

888.M30 - Passing of Ways

902.M30 - Perseids Campaign

914.M30 - Victory at Bell's World

926.M30 - Forst's Inferno Expedition

957.M30 - War for the Red Scar

970.M30 - Dread Clouds Invasion

981.M30 - Obsidia Sector Compliance

982.M30 - Ushlar Xenocides

985.M30 - Erelis System Invasion

989.M30 - Thandros Raids

994.M30 - Hadex Anomaly Expedition

999.M30 - Heart of Darkness Campaign - Primary elements from the Cardinal Guard and Thunder Talons Legions encounter rival human factions within the Heart of Darkness sector.

000.M31 - Iax Muster

001.M31 - Accordance at Calth

003.M31 - Death of Kaelor

005.M31 - Orphus Sector Compliance

006.M31 - Expedition to Repentance

## Legion Organization & Structure

### Legion Command Philosophy

Following the discovery of the Primarch Haedran, the XIXth Legion would be reformed into the potent and efficient fighting force that would persist long after the Great Crusade. Using an understanding of the *Principia Belicosa* and experience earned fighting brutal holy wars on Cathea, the Primarch molded the Cardinal Guard into an amalgamation of both organizational doctrines.

The Legion was divided at the highest level into Ordinals of 2,000 Legionaries; containing within two Cohorts of 1,000 Legionaries, which in turn each divided into five Grand Companies of 200 Legionaries. Grand Companies, being smaller and more mutable, were often assigned specific doctrinal roles, and were so designated. Within Grand Companies, squad and column organization varied between differently assigned units. So, a single Legionary’s role and position within the Legion could be communicated simply by studying the chain of command. For example, Legionary Velion was assigned to Locastus Squad (Tactical Support) of the 17th Grand Company (Tactical), which belonged to the 4th Cohort, assigned to the 2nd Ordinal.

In nearly all cases, a single Cohort of 1,000 Legionaries was a sufficient force to affect compliance on all but the most intractable of worlds - though Legion history would show time after time the XIXth preferred to travel as a single crusading force - highly concentrated, numerically superior, and effectively lethal.

A number of units and offices specific to the Cardinal Guard were recorded during the Great Crusade, which further characterized the Legion, though never straying far from the organizational doctrines of the *Principia Belicosa*. Though not limited to the following, the most prominent of these unique organizations included the Jeracite Host, the Arditor Designates, the Velocitari, and the Envinsors.

### Legion Command Hierarchy

The Cardinal Guard's chain of command, among the more rigid of the Legiones Astartes, allowed for fluid communication and dissemination of orders throughout a force of any size - an over-reliance on authority that could easily result in tactical disarray when challenged. Nonetheless, the Cardinal Guard's command cadre time and time again proved to experienced and excellent leaders, tacticians, and warriors, especially when applied to their respectively specialties.

The bottom of the chain of command, the Legionary, was guided in the field by a Sergeant, often the leader of a squad sized element. Sergeants, in turn, would fall under the supervision of a Captain, in command of Grand Companies, often containing. In turn, every Captain was led by a Lieutenant Commander, or Legate, who held authority over a Cohort. Lastly, every two Lieutenant Commanders reported to their Commander, or Ordinate, who led the Ordinal, reporting directly to the Primarch.

 Commander/Ordinate
 Lieutenant Commander/Legate
 Captain
 Sergeant

### Special Formations

#### First Cohort, *Haedran's Own*

The First Cohort of the First Ordinal of the Legiones Astartes Cardinal Guard, dubbed Haedran's Own, was a unique formation with the XIXth Legion, a nexus of Cardinal Guard specialists and consuls, rather than a summary fighting force. As such, the First Cohort was rarely assembled as a full fighting force, instead was instead often dispersed throughout the greater legion. Composed of the First through the Fifth Grand Companies, the organization was under the direct command of the Primarch, who acted to lead it's fighting elements, as well as direct the integration of its specialized organizations into the ranks of the Legion.

The First Grand Company, called the Praetorians, was a bodyguard and vanguard formation formed of Chosen Veterans of the XIXth Legion, typically renowned duelists or weapon-masters, hand-selected by First Captain Attico Diomedes. The First Grand Company maintained large numbers of Terran marines, the core of the force hailing from the Black Mountain of Sessaly, many of the Legion's initial recruits. Attico Diomedes, the Stormsword, both led and typified the First Grand Company, representing the older rotes and methods of the Legion, and carrying with him a stern temperance that dominated both strategy room and battlefield.

The Second Grand Company, the Jeracite Host, was the evolution of typical Legiones Astartes Destroyer formations after the Compliance of Cathea, a unit dedicated to the Cardinal Guard's specific brand of righteous wrath. The company was led by the Commandant Ascendant, who acted as chieftain of three Sub-Hosts, named for ancient angels of Cathean myth: Micahel, Gabrahel, and Raphahel.. Greatly swelled by Cathean recruits, the formation was most notoriously led by Second Captain Gaius Calignes, who, in addition to his duties as Primarch's Equerry, served as a paragon of the Jeracite Host's divine anger in battle.

The Third Grand Company, the Arditor Designates, was an altogether unique formation, on which prided itself on the accurate and efficient use of ballistic weapons upon the battlefield, a warrior brotherhood tracing back to the days after Solar Compliance, when the sundered XIXth Legion relied more upon the keen eyes and big guns for the survival of their number, a cautious mode of warfare borne of massacre under the surface of Mercury. The Arditor Designates operated as an exclusive band of marksmen elite, the Designates Ordinary seen most often in battle wielding Rapier Batteries, working in pairs to provide a lethal wave of advancing fire. Leadership of the Grand Company lied with the Designate Superior, Tydeo Calcedeon, who preferred a more widespread approach to his subordinates deployment throughout the XIXth Legion.

The Fourth Grand Company, the Legion Spearhead, was a unit crafted wholesale by its longstanding commander, Fourth Captain Marius "Armordeath" Patrenaro, a brilliant, if not eccentric, strategist and warrior in the multi-faceted and complicated art of armored warfare. Setting the template for an entirely unprecedented and reformed organization of armored assets with the XIXth Legion, the Sesselan-borne commander shaped the company into a formation of six armored columns, a venerable pool of mostly Sicaran chassis vehicles, valued for their speed and modular design by the cavalry of the Cardinal Guard. The pride of the Company, the veritable 6th Column, boasted several Super-Heavy assets, including several of the greatly favored Legion Glaive.

The Fifth Grand Company, and most diffuse of Haedran's Own, was the revered Velocitari Order, the Cardinal Guard's feared fraternity of Chaplains, enforcers of the XIXth Legion's rigorous standards of behavior in battle, responsible for maintaining the tempo and pace of a force on the attack, each a potent example and icon of the quasi-divine wrath to be delivered upon the enemy. Chaplains of the Velocitari, directed by the High Chaplain Reynard Altheron, were spread wide across the Cardinal Guard, tasked with delivering their message of speed and righteous aggression unto the foe, as well as more clandestine beliefs which circulated with the Legion.

#### 13th Grand Company, 3rd Cohort, 2nd Ordinal

At its face, the 13th Grand Company of the XIXth Legion was an unremarkable formation - a headquarters, rear-echelon force with the combat record expected of a unit more invested in logistical victories than those of the battlefield. To all but the most privileged of the Cardinal Guard, this facsimile was the mundane beginning and end of the 13th Grand Company. Those who witnessed the Grand Company's works were privy to a less fortunate truth.

The XIXth Legion gene-seed, derived from the healthy and ever-green constitution of the Primarch Haedran, manifested the psyker gene in rare instances, numbering roughly 1 in every 10,000, a mutation of an otherwise pure and untainted line. Detected early in the Great Crusade, Attico Diomedes, then acting as Legion Master, cordoned and controlled, to the best of the young commander's ability, the budding psychic aberrations that occurred in those few unfortunate of his brothers hosting the "unlocked" gene strain.

During Haedran's reforms of the Legion, the Primarch recognized the necessity of those individuals to be trained to control, hone, and even celebrate their metaphysical abilities, albeit in the shadows of the Legion proper. Those displaying psychic potential would be seconded to the 13th Grand Company, the "Ghost Librarius" of the Cardinal Guard, where such powers would be sharpened into a weapon capable of deployment against the terror.

Of the Cardinal Guard's unique manifestation of psychic ability, often cited to be of the Ancient Terran Schola of Abjure, Librarians within the XIXth legion were practiced in the arts of warding and shielding against attacks both physical and metaphysical, and - by great power of will - the ability to smite foes in blazes of white light. Such forms of psychic warfare were deployed by the battle-psykers of the 13th Company as a last resort against those enemies of the Imperium wielding the arcane weapons of the warp.

#### Legion Envinsor Consuls

The Cardinal Guard, by dint of their quasi-religious nature, attracted a large following of close-knit allies during the Great Crusade - namely kindred souls within the Imperial Army and fellows in adoration from the Cults of Mars. Matched with the draconian and punitive nature of the Legion towards its own strict military standards, penal forces attached to the Cardinal Guard’s crusading fleets swelled with those judged unworthy or unfit of proper service. The malefactors saw themselves pressed into another, more brutal, form of service: induction into the Thallax Cohorts.

The XIXth Legion developed their own measure to effectively utilize and control their ranks of penal augmentees, marrying several existing neural technologies to create a new form of mental “enslavement”, allowing for one individual to control the actions of several Thallax inductees in union. In short order, the Envinsor Consul was born.

Unlike the bonds generated by Knight or Titan linkages, the Envinsor’s neural network was brutal and dominating to the enslaved inductees; a one-way exertion of Astartes willpower over the patchwork consciousnesses reconstructed from broken minds. The attached Thallax acted as an extension of the Envinsor’s own body, and in combat reflected the tactical versatility and supremacy of the controlling Legionary’s gene-perfected mind.

The most obvious shortcomings in the Envinsor Consul’s technological capability were the range and strength of signal allowing for direct control, which necessitated usage limited to personal accompaniment of the enslaved in the battlefield, and only in numerically light units. Envinsors were recorded fighting in near-metronomic unison with their Thallax charges, conducting war as a single lethal entity.

#### The Jeracite Host

After the discovery of Haedran, Cathea's own culture took root in the newly ordained Cardinal Guard. Cathean strategies and tactics of total war quickly influenced the XIXth, swelling the ranks of those Legion organizations that utilized the most destructive or potent weapons of the Great Crusade. The lone Destroyer Company, an underused asset of the old Legion, was soon formed into a sharp and brutal fighting force. Rising to prominence in the Legion's chain of command, the company-sized element morphed into an entirely new unit: the Jeracite Host.

Common belief followed that the Jeracite Host was a remnant of Cathean mythos, some forgotten gathering of angels or holy men capable of erasing their foes from past, present, and future; bearers of non-existence. Like the pre-Imperial folklore of Cathea, the Jeracite Host of the Cardinal Guard too bore weapons of immense strength: the lethal triad of Volkite, Rad, and Phosphex.

Deploying almost exclusively equipped with Jump-Packs, the Jeracite Host carried suspensor-web modified Volkite Calivers as their primary weapons, allowing them to assail the foe under a hail of ranged fire before breaking enemy lines in a blaze of searing light, withering radiation, and unquenchable flames. So indiscriminate was the destruction waged by the Host, and intemperate in their fire, that the Cardinal Guard reserved their deployment only for those worlds they chose to transform into lifeless and charred husks.
The esoteric and ritualistic organization of the Jeracite Host strayed from XIXth Legion practice, as well. Unlike other company-sized units within the Legion, the Host was beholden to three ‘Subhosts’, each led by their own commanders, who in turn reported to the ultimate master of the Jeracite Host, the Commandant Ascendant.

#### Falkan Grenadiers, Imperial Army

Hailing from the craggy and mountainous world of Falkis, the Falkan Grenadiers represent the embodiment of the pursuit of resilience and hardiness, striving to meet and exceed the standard of mortal durability. As an ally to the XIXth Legiones Astartes, Cardinal Guard, the Falkan Grenadiers provide an unshifting and steady line of battle, the immutable basis of the Cardinal Guard's flexible asymmetric tactics.

Forming a tight bond of fraternity during the hellish battle for Bell's World, the Falkan Grenadiers and Cardinal Guard would serve together for nearly 100 years during the Great Crusade, with both fighting forces teaching the other new tactics and providing a new perspective on combat and the wider Imperium. For the Cardinal Guard, who had maintained their distance from the Imperial Army since the Voss Muster in the early 800's M30, the Falkan Grenadiers offered a fresh break from the cold, emotionless Mechanicum, who had fought alongside the XIXth Legion since the Unification of Sol.

For the men and women of Falkis, the Cardinal Guard offered their creed, the Imperial Mystery, which the regiment and world were welcome to absorb. Within a decade, the mountain peaks of Falkis were dotted with shrines to the Emperor, and the Falkan Grenadiers were bonded in newfound faith with the XIXth Legion, only bolstering their relationship and symbiotic fighting power.

A single Falkan Grenadier represented the edge of the spear in Imperial light infantry combat doctrine. Dressed in overcoat, flak armor, and Falkis-Ardan style helm, he is ready for all weather, including winter, fighting conditions. Armed with frag grenades and his trusty lasgun, he recognizes that he is part of a larger mechanism - a strategy designed to hold a fighting line against mutants and xenos forces - one that relies on his endurance and ability to resist death or defeat. He is not overconfident, for these strategies do not hinge on his fighting ability, but he is sure of his aim and trusts his kit to prove as robust as he. Overall, he trusts and believes in the provenance of the God-Emperor's stewardship over his soul. The Falkan Grenadier knows that the Master of Mankind will protect him, in this world and the next.

## Legion Wargear

* ***Penetrator Munitions***: An old and reliable upgrade for the common bolt shell, albeit one that requires the improved firing velocity of heavier firing platforms to be used properly. The Penetrator bolt carries a solid adamantium slug tip capable of boring through light armor and infantry alike – at the cost of decreased range.
* ***Ordinal Blades***: Crafted in small batches for Ordinal Commanders and Honor Guards in the form of the culturally ubiquitous gladius, these shortswords synergize well with the rapid confrontation speeds at which Cardinal Guard warriors operate, useful as both brawling or dueling weapons.

## Notable Cardinal Guard

* **Haedran Durendal** - Primarch of the Cardinal Guard.

**First of the Two Hundred**

Attico Diomedes carries the distinction of kneeling before his Primarch at the union of the XIXth Legion and their gene-sire and also ordered first to rise reborn as a new member of the Cardinal Guards. As the Commander of the First Grand Company, Attico bears the unique honour of leading the legion's vanguard, often fighting in battle alongside his gene-sire. As expected as a warrior of this station, Attico Diomedes is a prolific combatant, having proved his worth in combat hundreds of times over, to the point of notoriety among the Legiones Astartes.

* **First Captain Attico Diomedes** - As the Captain of the First Grand Company, the "Stormsword", Attico was Terran born on the Fortress-Isle of Sessaly, the Legion's ancestral and first recruiting grounds, to a pair of penniless paupers, who offered him wholly to conquering Legionaries in an act of selfless compliance to the Emperor of Mankind in the waning hours of the Unification Wars. Like so many others offered or taken as the reward of shattering the fortified peaks of Sessaly, Attico was gene-altered and trained into the first ranks of the fledgling XIXth Legion. Among this first batch of Sessalan recruits, Diomedes quickly proved himself among the strongest, climbing in primacy in duels and combat trials, defeating one-by-one each and every surrendered son of Sessaly's nobility, and wrestling the ancestral sword Etnus from the once-heir and prince of the Isle. Through displays of strength and blood sport, Attico rose to de facto leadership, then formal command of the Legion in its fundamental iteration. It was First Captain Diomedes, master of the basal XIXth Legion, that stood before the Emperor to present the transformed sons of Sessaly's Black Mountain for commitment into His Crusade. Whetted in the Mercurial and Near-Solar Platform campaigns, the XIXth Legion under Captain Diomedes became renown among Imperial forces as quietly valorous and cynically efficient, Attico himself earning a reputation among the Legiones Astartes as a swordsman and duelist to match any among the older Legions, earning a host of titles and cognomen from allies and rivals among the Great Crusade. Attico was first to bend the knee to his gene-sire and Primarch, and first to rise as a newly ordained Captain of the Cardinal Guard, cementing a bond with Haedran that would serve long into the darkness and skirmish of the Imperium's future. In battle, the two were often seen together, forming a fighting pair that brooked no counter-attack, and operated at the peak of the Legion's famed momentum and tempo in combat.
* **Ancient Faltro** - Risen from the conquered nobility of darkened Sessaly, Amadeo Faltro was of the first generation of the nascent Cardinal Guard, honored by the Raptor Imperialis and the Mercurial Band. It was Faltro's 2nd Assault Company that was first equipped with the blazing phosphex and withering rad weapons pivotal in cleansing the horrific subterranean Tech-Troves of Mercury that so sundered the XIXth Legion, and kindled his great admiration of such tools of destruction. In the bloodshed of that wicked campaign, Faltro would ascend to early leadership of the 2nd, slowly transforming the company to a host of Destroyer formations and purgation units. When the XIXth Legion, clad in the crimson of the Red Planet, knelt before their long-lost gene-sire, Faltro's 2nd Grand Company presented their terrible weapons to the Primarch Haedran, who embraced them as his "Angels of Great Unmaking". The 2nd Grand Company would see its ranks swell with eager Cathean recruits, among the brightest and most aggressive youth of that world. It was at the very dusk of the Ushlar Xenocides, when the remnant foe cried their last screams into the cold void at wretched Erelis, that Faltro would fall, his Captain's rank falling to a budding scion of the Jeracite Host, and his body interred in a uniquely armed Dreadnought chassis, designed purposefully for his method of war.

## Legion Fleet

### Ships of the Line

* ***Dies Raptura***
* ***Edict of Fire***
* ***Irresistable Will***
* ***Paladin Of Calthea***
* ***Culpa Gravis***
* ***His Grace***
* ***Glorious Purpose***
* ***War-Cleric***
* ***Haedran's Judgment***
* ***Path Of The Righteous***
* ***Truth And Reconciliation***
* ***Sacrosanct Bonds***
* ***Penitent Oath***
* ***Shadow Of Intent***
* ***Conviction Of Man***
* ***Sublime Martyr***
* ***Impetuous Zeal***
* ***Vehement Blade***
* ***Song Of Retribution***
* ***Annihilation's Breath***
* ***Rapture Of Absolution***
* ***Avradite***
* ***Spear of Sanctity***
* ***Respite's Resolve***
* ***Brightheart***
* ***Piety of Ribero***
* ***Corlione***
* ***Pale Steed***
* ***Missile of Meran***
* ***Bloodspite***
* ***Calibite***
* ***Lectora***
* ***Oubliette***
* ***Lornean***
* ***Infallible***
* ***Nazrean***
* ***Mirarnar***
* ***Truth and Grace***
* ***Rewards of Faith***
* ***Eye of Gold***
* ***Bennatar***

### High-Aleph Drives

Installed on most, if not all ships in the service of the Cardinal Guard, Salusar-Pattern High-Aleph Drives are a marvel of engineering, the brainchild of Tech-Magi Hieronymus Galth's sacred experimentations in null-gravity maneuverability. Rather than simply boost the speed of a void-faring vessel, these variable-vector engines allow for maneuveres and void combat movements previously thought impossible due to frame strain or other limiting factors. Utilized by the aggressive and velocity-minded Cardinal Guard, High-Aleph Drives allow the XIXth Legion fleet to outmaneuver and reposition their vessels in the midst of battle, attacking their foes from new and unexpected vectors.

## Legion Relics

* The ***Lorica Spathis*** - The panoply of the Primarch Haedran, borne into war on countless battlefields on a thousand worlds, was an advanced plate of interlocking armored segments mirroring the angular forms of Cathean battle-gear worn in that world's many internecine wars, constructed by the neighboring Forge-World of Salusar as a gift to the Primarch. The armor itself, a complex interface of defensive and offensive systems, maintained a baroque and regal appearance, despite its byzantine technological features.
* ***Illuminator*** - The first of the Primarch's arms, a master-crafted carbine of proscribed Volkite and Rad technologies, capable of being used as a primary weapon or in conjunction with others as bellicose moods overtook the Lord of The XIXth Legion.
* ***Demosthen*** - Fashioned in the shape of Cathean claymore, *Demosthen* was forged by Daer'dd Niimkiikaa of the VIth Legion as a fraternal gift to Haedran. The blade itself, as all creations of the Primarch of the Iron Bears, proved itself repeatedly to be of near-flawless quality, a reliable weapon to match any seen during the Great Crusade.
* The ***Blood Helm of the Pale Reapers*** - An archaeotech relic ripped from the decapitated head of one of the Viriarchs of Lethos, the Blood Helm is a biomechanically constructed mantle capable of increasing its wearer's speed and reaction time far past the levels of post-human augmentation. Seemingly fueled by blood, the helm was capable of drawing and storing its user's very life force, making utilization dangerous, and limiting the amount of time any wearer could keep the relic donned.

## Notes

The Broken Throne project has a lot of unique and outstanding Legions to show; psykers, nulls, gene-crafters and mutants. The Cardinal Guard Legion represents a more traditional approach to what a Legion is. They’re an homage to the Horus Heresy’s Ultramarines, Dark Angels, and Emperor’s Children - with their own unique identity.

Visually, red and white are evocative colors. Traditionally, red is a military color, which is fitting for a galactic army, but it also holds religious significance: the vestments of Catholic Cardinals are so colored. White is a color of purity, and foreshadows the Legion’s idealistic intentions. Grey and hints of blue are reminders of Cathea, the Legion’s amniotic homeworld; it stains the white with a chemical tinge.

The Legion’s heraldry is unapologetically Roman. This is a personal conceit, I’m a huge fan of Classical Roman design, and the jagged thunderbolt is a favorite motif of mine. The Legion’s badge has two elements: the stag and the gladius. The latter is a brusquely military design; this is a Legion, and they literally wield the weapon (the similarity to the Dark Angels' design is intentional). The stag’s head is a design feature that is telling of Cathean culture, and the Primarch’s upbringing - the stag is noble and dangerous, but not an outright predator.

The Cardinal Guard’s defining trait is their faith in the Emperor - a unique characteristic among the Broken Throne Legions. At the core of their faith is the Imperial Mystery: the question of the Emperor’s mortality or divinity - which allows for ideological divides within the Legion; tension and drama. All members of the Legion agree on the quasi-religious ascension to equity with the Emperor: The Way.

In warfare, the Cardinal Guard are fast and hard-hitting. The use of Jump-Packs, mobile fire platforms like Rapier Batteries, and Sicaran tanks abound within the Legion. Favored weapons included gladius blades, light anti-armor shells, and the Venator Tank Hunter. The Legion has a dedicated Destroyer corps, the Volkite-wielding Jeracite Hosts, a dedicated Rapier Battery corps, the Arditor Designates, and heavy use of enslaved Thallax Cohorts through Envinsor Consuls. Utter annihilation is often the modus operandi for the Legion.