Hearthkeepers

**This article, Hearthkeepers, was written by Reallymiish‎‎ . It may be linked to any page without asking for the author's permission.**

## Hearthkeepers

Hearthkeepers armorial displaying their chapter symbol

An average Hearthkeeper Primaris Intercessor.

## Space Marine Chapter

### **Allegiance**

Imperium of Man
(*Fedelitas Totalis*)

### **Number of Marines**

Endangered, 320 combat-ready battle brothers. Continued campaigns have resulted in high casualties.

### **Specialty**

Devastator doctrine, high intensity defense/Siege-breaking, Champion Combatants

### **Colours**

Clay Yellow, silvered legs from the knee down, and black accentuated by tribal blue trim and green lenses.

### Successor Chapter(s)

None

The **Hearthkeepers** are a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes descendant from Leman Russ and were created during the Ultima Founding which saw the emergence of the Primaris Space Marines. This chapter is based deep in the space occupied by the Necrons to the solar southwest of Baal and bordering close to the Great Rift. The Hearthkeepers are known for their penchant for seeking the most tumultuous battlefields they can find and have been commended for their stubborn nature in such engagements; engagements ranging from a time when they acted as bait to lure a millions-strong Khornate cult to their total destruction, to the time when they purposefully built their Fortress-Monastery upon a world in the same system as a small Necron Tomb World to enable the chapter to launch persistent attacks against it until its destruction.

The Hearthkeepers have made themselves known as gregarious heavy weapon specialists and exemplar strategists who use full frontal obliteration of their enemies in their defensive maneuvers in order to ensure victory. A mentality leading them to ensure no battle is lost without their attempt at turning the tide regardless of the odds that are stacked against them. Because of this tendency to seek battlefield glory where it is most dire, the Hearthkeepers have a habit of landing themselves in campaigns against the Orks, Necrons, and Daemons to their own dismay. Their primary enemy since their founding has been the Xenos race called the Necrons ever since news reached Lord Commander Roboute Guilliman that the figure called the Silent King had emerged, thus the threat of a wider alliance among their race being made a possibility. Now tasked with disrupting a formation of such grand scale, the Hearthkeepers have vested themselves with the responsibility of seeking out Tomb Worlds which have awoken to subject them to exterminatus so this theoretical grand Necron alliance is stifled.

## Chapter History

**Founding** - The defining event of the chapters early history is their brave attempt to cross the Great Rift which they as Astartes of the Ultima Founding were formed in response to. In the ranks of these Unnumbered Sons, the Hearthkeepers quickly rallied alongside one another in battle under the command of the returned Roboute Guilliman. Employing great use of their ruthless and stubborn demeanor, Guilliman would make use of these sons of Russ as an elite strike force to extract mission critical personnel and guard key positions. The Hearthkeepers would slowly grow an uncharacteristically great respect for the tactical expertise he had taught them during their time among his Greyshields, and would go on to adopt many of his ideals found in the Codex Astartes unlike their kin within the Space Wolves and other successors from their geneline formed in the same founding.

## Notable Campaigns

**Crossing War** - At the end of their time underneath his command, the Noctis Aeterna, also known as the Days of Blinding filled the command of the Hearthkeepers and much of Imperial command with unease. Fearing the worst for the opposite side of the Great Rift, the Hearthkeepers took it upon themselves to be among the first to cross the immaterial ripple that tore the galaxy in twain, and report the state of operations found there. This event known now in the chapters history as the Crossing War was a hellish month-long journey through the warp which would cost them dearly as the surge of empyrean energies would cause many daemonic incursions and emergency retreats back into realspace where they would find themselves battered by the ceaseless pursuit of the slaves of the immaterium. At the end of this Crossing War and emergence to the galactic north of the rift, the remnants of the chapter were merely three companies strength remaining out of the eight which set out from the Realm of Ultramar.

## Chapter Homeworld

Taigat-11 is a Frontier World located in a system of the same name which contains the worlds of Taigat-1 through 12. Being the second most distant planetoid from the star, Taigat-11's habitable zones are cold, sparse, and rocky tundra containing regions of either very dry or extreme rainfall with a small but active ecosystem. This ecosystem persists of nocturnal creatures and large grazing herds of territorial pack beasts. It's human populace lives almost exclusively within the protection of the void shielded domes put in place by the Hearthkeepers chapter due to the dangers which arrive when the sun sets. The feral variant of the Necrons known as the Flayed Ones are known to be present on the planet, and they have a tendency to emerge during the night to be able to cross the wide open landscapes without being spotted by perimeter defense cannons and personnel of these settlements. These bubbles of nighttime safety have been given the designation of Hearth by the populace in honor of the Hearthkeeper astartes which bestowed them upon the populace.

## Chapter Beliefs and Culture

The fierce warrior culture within the Hearthkeepers has bred a strong and fiery temperament in their gene-line over the millennia. As a result of this, it is encouraged for those under the command of any other in the chapter to engage in a bout against one another after a battle has concluded to resolve disputes. To do this, a brother of rank beneath the one he disagrees strongly enough with the actions of may challenge his commander, no matter how many rungs up the ranking ladder, to a fight. Both remove their power armor and dispatch of their weapons and resolve their dispute with fists until one overcomes the other by knocking them out of a fifteen-foot ring drawn around them. If many disagree with their commander, or alternatively support their commander on the same action, they are to take all of each other on at once with an additional fifteen feet added to the rings radius per brother from either side. This practice was begun to encourage a commander to carefully consider every action he makes as any below him could shame his earned glory from the battle the dispute is from by being defeated in such a challenge, a grave insult to one of the Hearthkeepers let alone to one holding command over another.

The chapter records combat footage from its members as all chapters do for post-mission analysis, but the pict-captures from champions of the chapter and those who committed great feats in the preceding battle are valued the most. On board the ships of the Hearthkeepers, as part of each Guilds hall of gathering, a Theater exists where combat footage is viewed countless times both in celebration for ones feats, and for remembrance of the fallen of the chapter by all members from the respective Guild.

## Chapter Combat Doctrine

The fiery temperament and favoring of devastator doctrines among the Hearthkeepers has lead them to employ a much larger use than would be normally seen of those weapons typically employed by Devestator Squads as per the Codex Astartes. It is not unusual for a Sergeant of a squad to order one of his squad members to equip himself with such weaponry even for engagements where it would likely not be necessary, taking advantage of the terror it would bring to the enemy seeing such implements brought to bear against them, making use of the surplus they have created of these weapons in the chapters armory. Where these heavy weapons are not equipped, it is commonplace for a battle brother to be equipped with a bolter affixed with a bayonet or wielded in tandem with a great many different melee weapons to increase the battle brothers lethality and ferocity, as the sons of Russ are known for. One unique weapon they take joy in using is the long discontinued use of the chain wepaon called Chainglaives, a chain weapon with an elongated handle. Additionally, the Specialist ammunition Kraken Penetrator Rounds are employed as fast as they can be produced by their few manufactorums that can produce it, though most are now lost with the ships that carried them.

Aside from the middling collection of pre-existing patterns of armor and weapons they hold, the Hearthkeepers make use of all the available implements of Belisarius Cawl. The most notable of which is the widespread adoration of the Mk.II Cawl pattern Bolt Rifle in its Auto Bolt Rifle configuration, its expanded magazine benefiting the defensive maneuvers of the chapter greatly as a pause in their defensive fire to reload is risky against unending hordes of mindless foes such as Daemons.

## Notable Space Marines

* **Roric Ó Macdha** - Roric Ó Macdha is a storied champion of the Hearthkeepers and a veteran of the Deathwatch and the 1st Guild. While he does not hold captaincy in the 1st, he has been bestowed the role of Force Commander in times when the 1st Guild has combined its might with another or divided itself to hold more points of defense in a given battle or campaign. Among his many accolades, the chiefest and most celebrated of which is his expertly coordinated defense and counterattack against a Chaos-corrupted Knight house and its auxillaries during the end of the Crossing War which resulted in total destruction of the pursuing traitor forces and in him being bestowed with a holy Crux Terminatus. Roric wields his master-crafted Auto Bolt Rifle "Erupting Damnation" which he loads with blessed Kraken Bolt Shells to dispatch his foes in tandem with his power claymore.

* **Lorcan The Scribe** - Counted among the number of those from the chapters formation, Lorcan spent much of his time in the battle barges Forge laboring over every inch of the chapters arsenal. As his skill of artifice evolved he took to engraving the deeds of his brothers upon their battle plate and his own, learning all he could from the mouths of those responsible for these deeds. As a result, he would slowly became a reliable source of information to the chapters codiciers if the battle brother perished before his accolades could be recorded. After the Crossing War and the chapters settlement of Taigat-11 he would be among those unfortunate enough to fall in the initial contact with local Necron forces. Critically wounded in his half-disintegrated state, Lorcan would spend his time hooked up to a myriad of life preserving apparatus as he tirelessly spent his final days outside of a dreadnought sarcophagus etching the rest of the unwritten deeds of the chapter into their armor. Now serving as a dreadnought under the command of the second guild, Lorcan The Scribe stands as both a work of art and history, he is treated with both the respect and love of the most precious of chapter relics and his very presence on the battlefield has been a striking beacon of morale and pride, doubling the efforts of his kin by presence alone. It has since become tradition for all artificers of the chapter to enscribe their name upon his chassis upon completing their Techmarine training.

* **Aindrea Granndach** - Veteran Sergeant Aindrea Granndach is oft times a silent member of the Hearthkeepers chapter, his calm demeanor and steady advice often calm those initiates he is assigned to guide. He has been a part of the chapter since before its inception being a founding member of the few that remain. His services to the chapter have even extended to the deathwatch and their watchfortresses halls. He now helps plan the furthest campaigns and gives advice to any who seek him out.

## Chapter Appearance

### Chapter Badge

The Mark of the Unyielding is the symbol calling back to the founding chapter master when he died at the apex of the Crossing War. As part of his last battle, the command deck of his ship was breached he fought hard and long, so much so in fact that his power sword eventually shattered though he kept fighting on regardless. Security black box pict-recordings recovered afterward showed how stubbornly hard he fought on, leading them to take that on as the symbol of their defiance against any odds. His shattered power sword now undoubtedly the most prized chapter relic and a symbol of the stubbornness of the chapter.

### Honor Markings

* **Marksmans honor** - Spearhead pointed downward painted in blue over the eye.
* **Stripes of Triumph** - Small vertical stripes or bars of any amount painted along the gorget or alongside one another elsewhere on the power armor indicates the number of notable battles that could have been considered an inevitable loss that this marine has seen turned into a victory by their actions and that of their Guild. Blue marks signify Xenos, Black signifies heretics such as chaos space marines or renegades, and Red signifies Daemons. These marks are also tattooed on the astartes body. Often times the insides of the stripes are heavily stylized by his fellow squad mates to commemorate specific feats.
* **Guild Veteran** - Thick vertical stripe behind the chapters pauldron heraldry and a silvered helmet.
* **Guild Tartan** - This marine has proven themselves capable of multiple battlefield roles, this would be the equivalent of having completed all astartes trainings and becoming a Tactical marine.

## Gallery

 Renegades

[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

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