Curses of the Line of Sanguinius

There are three Curses that the Line of Sanguinius now suffers. These Curses are the Red Thirst, the Black Rage, and the Yellow Doom, and their effects have has grown over the millennia since they were first detected. All Chapters of the Line of Sanguinius must balance the demands of the three Curses in order to survive, barring those like the Lamenters, who have thrown themselves into the depths of one, and escaped another. The Blood Dragons feel the Red Thirst most strongly and the Yellow Doom the least.

## Red Thirst

The oldest of the Curses is the Red Thirst, also known as the Curse of the Present and the Curse of the Body. The Red Thirst gives its victims an urge to drink the blood of their foes and consume their flesh. As the curse gets stronger the temptation to consume all around them grows, with only their brothers being spared, unless the curse has reached its utter height. When a Blood Angel slakes the Red Thirst it boosts their speed, strength, and regenerative abilities for a while, at the cost of some of their higher functions. The vast majority of these effects will fade after a time, though a small portion remain.

The Red Thirst slowly gets stronger as a Marine ages, but can be kept in check by slaking it, or through sheer force of will. Every time the Thirst is slaked it will return just a bit stronger, until eventually the Marine devolves into a bestial monster consumed by the need for blood and flesh, sparing only their brothers, at least at first. By this point a Blood Dragon will have been inducted into the Red Company, where they will be kept in stasis coffins between battles, and will only be unleashed in the depths of enemy armies. It is rare for a member of the Red Company to survive a single battle, but those that do become terrifying monsters that eventually have to be put down as a threat to their own brothers.

The Chapters most afflicted by the Red Thirst are superhuman warriors even by the standards of their kin, but must constantly feed on the flesh and blood of other their foes, or the humans that they protect, in order to sate their Thirst.

## Black Rage

Next is the Black Rage, known as the Curse of the Past and the Curse of the Mind. The Black Rage is the echo of Sanguinius’ death and gives its victims the uncontrollable rage that their Gene-Father felt in his final battle. Furthermore, they often hallucinate that they are Sanguinius in his final hours, and that their foes are those that he met in the assault on the Vengeful Spirit. A Marine in the grip of the Black Rage fights with incredible power, and some echo of their lost Primarch's skill, making them a terror on the battlefield, although their uncontrollable rage and rampant hallucinations make them near incapable of tactical thought.

All Blood Angels can succumb to that Black Rage, though it strengthens as they age and can be held back for a time by willpower. When a Blood Angel falls to the Black Rage they will be inducted into the Death Company where they are kept in stasis between battles and unleashed on enemy strongpoints. A Cure for the Black Rage was created based on the Gene-Seed of the Lamenters Chapter, who avoided the curse. However this cure seemed to also trigger the third and final curse of the Line of Sanguinius, the Yellow Doom, so few chapters make full use of it, with most using it in moderation to try and avoid the worst of both curses. The Blood Dragons make little use of the Cure, being more willing to suffer the Black Rage than the Yellow Doom.

The Chapters who feel the Black Rage fight with an echo of the skill of their father, making them a near unstoppable force on the battlefield. However, the Black Rage cuts deeply into their numbers, and falls heaviest on veterans, making these chapters full of incredibly young marines, and far smaller than they should be.

## Yellow Doom

The final Curse, so far at least, is the Yellow Doom, known as the Curse of the Future, and the Curse of the Soul. The first sufferers of the Yellow Doom were the legendary Lamenters Chapter of the Cursed Founding, the only decedents of Sanguinius to be free of the Black Curse. It was from them that the Cure for the Black Rage was created, and from the Cure that the Curse was spread to the rest of the 9th​ Legion. The origins of the Yellow Doom are less clear than the other curses, but are believed to be an echo of Sanguinius’ heroic sacrifice.

As the Yellow Doom takes hold an Astartes will become more and more willing to give his life in the defence of others, often pushing themselves to impossible feats of heroism in the process. While by itself this would be far less severe than the other curses, it bears a heavy toll when combined with the way that fate seems to warp in order to put victims of the Yellow Doom in impossible situations, situations that only get worse when the number of afflicted gathered in one place grows. As the Yellow Doom gets stronger, its victims seem to lose any self-preservation instincts, and disaster follows them ever more. By this point they will have been inducted into the Yellow Company, a formation of Marines that is forbidden from deploying beside each other in all but the direst of circumstances.

Marines of the Yellow Company are far more independent then other Astartes, being deployed alongside units that are expected to face the greatest dangers or sent on suicidal solo missions, where their Doom cannot catch their brothers. It is a rare Astartes who survives long in the Yellow Company, though those that do are Paragons of Heroism, willing to face impossible odds to protect innocents and able to triumph despite it.

As a Chapter feels the Yellow Doom more they are forced to split their forces into ever smaller groups and keep on the move, in order to prevent their combined Doom from calling mighty foes, beyond even them, down on those they protect. Eventually this reaches the point of the Lamenters, who are split into an unknown number of groups, the largest of which are the size of a combat squad. When a larger force of Lamenters find themselves in one location it is a sign of a cataclysmic battle approaching, one that will invariably claim the lives of most, or even all of the Lamenters gathered.

These Chapters are known to suffer horrendous attrition as their Doom brings them to impossible battle after impossible battle, though those Astartes who survive to become veterans are warriors of terrifying skill and adaptability. Interestingly enough those chapters afflicted by the Yellow Doom seem to have an easier time initiating new brothers then other chapters, which is the only reason that many of them still exist.

## Divinity?

High Grandmaster Ridcully requested the assistance of the available Blood Angels descendants with the strongest manifestation of each of the three curses to act as focuses. This wa planned to be Captain Quintor and a pair of Blood Dragons but just before the ritual was to begin a Lamenters Librarian arrived with a pair of companions, one a Flesh Tearer Librarian who had mastered the Discipline of Rage, and finally a Librarian of the Knights of Blood who had mastered the Discipline of Blood. These three volunteered to act as focuses for the ritual to come, though it Will mean their end.

First Ridcully looked to see what happened to Sanguinus and felt the Flesh Tearer dive deeper into the Black Rage than any have before to draw him to the right time, the end of the Horus Heresy when the plots of the Emperor and Chaos wrapped the galaxy in threads of fate, and tore it apart.

Next Ridcully looked for Sanguinus and the Knight of Blood gave up his blood to tie Ridcully to his father who bears the same blood in his veins. He saw the Angel confront the Deamon, despite knowing what would come of it. He saw a Path complete, as the Martyr accepted its own.

Finally, Ridcully looked to see the result and the Lamenter gave up his Doom, and with it his self to show the way. He saw Sanguinus’ soul itself destroyed by the combined might of Chaos channelled through Horus, and with that death, the saw the archetype of the Martyr attempt to ascend its bearer only to fail. He saw the Blood Angels, who bore Sanguinus blood in a far more literal way than even children and were tied to his soul via their bonds with their Priamrhc, always the strongest out of any legion, be ascended in his place.

What.