Crimson Wardens

Crimson Wardens armorial with Chapter iconography.

A Crimson Wardens Fire Support Marine.

### **Specialty**

Shock Assault, Strategic Decapitation Strikes, Planetary Interdiction Campaigns, Close-Quarters Actions (Space Hulk Purgation, Boarding Operations, Line-Breaker Attacks, 'Forlorn Hope' Objective Assaults).

### Successor Chapter(s)

Unknown

The **Crimson Wardens** are a 7th Founding Successor Chapter of the vaunted Blood Angels. Inspired by their homeworld Anthas II, their culture is very knightly, and they value strength of will above all else. After being nearly wiped out by a Necron awakening, they were reinforced by the remains of a shattered Black Templars Successor Chapter, whose name is lost to the ages. This further influenced the Crimson Wardens' culture to change their values to that of the Black Templars, though they aren't as religious.

## Chapter History

The Crimson Wardens Chapter was created as a part of the 7th Founding in late M33 to protect the strategicaly valuable Anthas system. Their Connection to the Blood Angels isn't as close as that of some other Blood Angel successors but they still share a lot of the culture and heraldry of their primogenitor chapter.

### Founding of the Crimson Wardens

In 654.M33 the High Lord of Terra, Cesion Malratius, decided to order the creation of a brand new space marine chapter to guard the newly colonized Anthas System. Inspired by the system's red star and his good experiences with the Blood Angels Successor Chapter, the Charnel Guard, he decided to make them a Blood Angels successor chapter. Due to differences with the Adeptus Mechanicus the creation of this chapter took much longer than anticipated. The actual process of replicating the gene seed for the new chapter didn't start until 702.M33, wich is why it took until 764.M33 for the Crimson Wardens to be ready. Malratius found a great liking of the chapter he created and supplied them with all the equipment and manpower he could get.

### The Howling

When the disaster known as 'The Howling' shook the galaxy, the Crimson Wardens were still a relatively new chapter. The psychic shockwave of the Howling slew nearly all of the chapter's libarians. Because of that, the Wardens didn't have more than a handfull of libarians for the longest part of their existence. This has changed as of lately, especialy with the rise of the powerful libarian Celan Wraithblade. But, although the number of libarians has increased as of lately, many memebers of the Crimson Wardens still regard them with a great deal of suspicion.

### The War for Anthas II

In M39 the Crimson Wardens were ready for any outside threat but they didn't see a threat from their own homeworld coming. In 148.M39 an excavation party awakened the necrons of an ancient tomb complex. The war againts the necrons was long and devastating. Although the Necrons were completely eliminated, the Crimson Wardens also sustained huge losses. All of their fortresses exept for the Crimson's Spire itself were destroyed and over half of their marines were killed.

### Rebuilding of the Wardens

The Crimson Wardens always had a good standing with both the Adeptus Mechanicus and the High Lords of Terra, and especialy the latter would come helpfull in this time of need. The High Lords decided to reinforce the Wardens with the remains of a mostly destroyed Black Templars successor chapter, whose name is lost to imperial records. The Crimson Wardens also gifted the remains of the necrons to the Tech-Priests of Anthas IV and forged an alliance between the two worlds. With their new recruits and the assistance of the Tech Priests they started rebuilding their chapter. This process of rebirth lasted until around 400 M41. Since then the Crimson Wardens have been steadyly expanding beyond their original size. This expansion lasts until the present day and under the leadership of Lord Commander Gwydion the chapter has been not only growing but also developing its way of combat.

## Chapter Homeworld

The Anthas System is a star system of 11 planets in the Segmentum Obscurus. The system is defined by its star, which although of relatively small size, glows in a deep red color. The reason for this strange phenomenon is not truly understood yet but the tech priests of Anthas IV constantly research this question.

### Anthas II

The chapter's homeworld of Anthas II is a feudal world, protected by its thick atmosphere from the radiation of the red star. The knightly culture of this world seems to stem from a destroyed knight house that had colonized Anthas II during the Great Crusade. The world was ruled by a caste of Knights, which had some amount of old technology from the old knight houses. These knights are the main source of recruits for the Crimson Wardens. The world's thick atmosphere makes Anthas II very dark and there lives a great amount of dangerous alien creatures on this world. Because of the many dangers this enviroment houses, the knight houses and in extension the Crimson Wardens see themselves as the protectors of their people and go to great lengths to save them from danger.

### Warden's Spire

The Crimson Warden's main base of operations is their fortress-monastery,  Warden' Spire. The Spire is a massive fortress, watched over by a huge tower. The top of the tower houses an experimental solar energy collection system, harnessing the power of the red star to power an array of large orbital defense cannons. The Spire also has a large number of advanced sensor systems, supplied by the allied forgeworld of Anthas IV, which they use to watch out for threats in the whole system. They also sustain a number of smaller outposts all over the system.

### Recruitment

The main source of recruits for the Crimson Wardens are the knightly houses of Anthas II but they also draw recruits from the Hive World of Anthas VI and their fleet also picks up recruits from the world of Nezran Secundus, when they come by on their patrol through the neighbouring systems.

## Chapter Organisation

Although the Crimson Wardens don't adhere closely to the Codex Astartes, they still draw some inspiration from it and most  of the ranks suggested by the Codex can be found, albeit under a different name.

### Command Ranks

It should be noted that the Crimson Wardens consider their Reclusian, Sanguinary Priesthood , Techmarines and Librarius a part of their chapter command. Ranks that form a part of the Chapter High Command  typicaly include 'Lord' as a part of their Name.

* **Lord Commander** - The Crimson Warden's Lord Commander is the equivalent of a Chapter Master. When the current Lord Commander dies, the 1st Company Captain traditionaly becomes the new Lord Commander. In rare cases though, when they see the 1st Company Captain as unfit for this Position, the Chapters Librarius, Sanguinary Priesthood and Reclusian may choose another Captain to become Lord Commander.
* **Knight Captain** - Knight Captains are the equivalent of a Codex-compliant Chapter's Captains. They each command one of the Chapter's eight Companies.
* **Knight Lieutenant** - These serve as the right hand to their Company Knight Captain, typically commanding one of the Company's three sub-companies.

### Line Ranks

* **Knight Sergeant** - Knight Sergenants command squads within their Company.
* **Knight Marine** - Knight marines are the basic Battle Brothers of the chapter. They are also referred to a Knight brothers by other marines.
* **Squire** - Squires are the Crimson Warden's equivalent of neophytes. One part of their training is following an Officer of the chapter, assisting him with his equipment and other everyday issues he might have.
* **Aspirants** - Aspirants from the Crimson Wardens don't differ a lot from other chapters.

### Specialist Formations

Specialist formations within the Crimson Wardens are known as Orders. The Orders of Arcanists, Medicae and Clerics are considered a part of chapter command and play a large part in the chapter's decissionmaking process.

* **Order of Arcanists** - Libarius equivalent.
	+ **Lord Arcanist** - Chief Libarian equivalent.

* **Order of Medicae** - Sanguinary Priesthood equivalent.
	+ **Lord Medicus** - Master of the Apothecarion equivalent.
* **Order of Clerics** - Reclusian equivalent.
	+ **Lord Cleric** - Master of Sanctity equivalent.
* **Order of Steel** - The Order of Steel is made up of the chapter's Techmarines. As arcane and modified equipment plays a large role within the chapter's culture, the Order of Steel is the most influential of the Orders.
	+ **Lord of Steel** - Master of the Forge equivalent.
* **Order of Sentinels** - Sanguinary Guard equivalent
	+ **Lord of Sentinels** - Leader of the Order.
	+ **Exalted Knight Sentinel** - Sanguinary Ancient equivalent.
	+ **Knight Sentinel** - Sanguinary Guard equivalent.
* **Order of Revenants** - Death Company equivalent

## Relations

### Allies

* **Chapters of The Blood** - The Crimson Wardens are allied with several fellow Successor Chapters descended from the gene-line of Sanguinius.

## Notable Quotes

### About the Crimson Wardens

*Feel free to add your own*
"*If I was capable of emotional reactions, knowing that there is at least one chapter of Astartes that values our work in this system, would surely fill me with great joy.*"
—Unknown Tech-Priest from Anthas IV

[Source]

 White Scars Successors
 Space Wolves Successors
 Imperial Fists Successors
 Blood Angels Successors
 Iron Hands Successors
 Ultramarines Successors
 Salamanders Successors
 Raven Guard Successors
 Unknown Lineage
 Renegades

[Source]

## Gallery

A Crimson Warden of the 3rd Company Note: The honour marks of a Veteran Battleline Sergeant , including additional decorative details.