Mentors

Mentors armorial with legion iconography

### Noteworthy Domains

Raptora (Legion Homeworld), Avernar (Industrial World), Haldrod (Industrial World), Korus (Library World), Arros (Fortress World)

### Observed Strategic Tendencies

Information Warfare, Logistics, Innovation

### Allegiance

Imperium of Man
(*Fedelitas Totalis*)

### Unique Organisations

Elite Cadre, Scholars, Savant Terminators

### Warcry

"Knowledge is Power"

"*A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.*"
— Mentors saying.
The **Mentors** are the III Legion of the Legiones Astartes and are the knowledgeable and studious gene-sons of their Primarch Palas. Preferring to have a grasp on knowledge and wisdom as opposed to martial skill and swordsmanship, the Mentors are an unconventional legion of avid scholars, researchers, archivists and creators, preferring to use their wisdom to build and advance the Imperium instead of using it to cow and destroy others.

## Legion Organisation

The Mentors Legion is divided into two portions; the Scholars and the Warriors. Considering the Legion's Culture, the Scholars obviously make up a large part of the Legion, slightly outnumbering what would be considered the Line Brothers of other Legions.

On Campaign, Warriors of the Mentors Legion follow a very atypical structure. Rather than engage the foe as a singular unit, the Legion prefers to use its warriors as supporting detachments to supplement other units, attaching its forces to Imperial Army Regiments, other Legions and more as elite auxiliaries. Upon completion of a Campaign, information collected on both friend and foe, as well as that discovered along the way are cataloged and delivered to the Crystal Halls of Raptora for later use.

The Scholars of the Legion comprise of what most legions would consider support units, such as Esoterists, Chaplains, Apothecaries, Techmarines and more, as well as the majority of the Legions officers and elite troops. The Scholars rarely enter combat as conventional warriors, instead using their knowledge as advisers or commanders of other forces. It is the Scholars that best exemplify the Legions name, mentoring others, and spreading the knowledge of the Legion for the betterment of mankind.

The Mentors Legion is organized into Cadres, specialized formations of Ten Thousand Brothers. Each is specialized into one aspect of warfare, keeping their own collections of knowledge related to it. Each of these Cadres is further broken into Brotherhoods, each further specialized, each of which has its own sub-culture, unique organization and doctrine suited to their duties. The Nine Cadres that make up the Legion are:

* **The Elite Cadre**

The First Cadre of the Third Legion is made up of the best of the best of the Legion, given access to the best equipment and most advanced technology possible. It is commanded by Sidu Caius, the First Captain of the Legion.

* **The Black Order**

Not all knowledge is sacred to the Mentors, not all secrets are meant to be learned, and it is the duty of the Second Cadre to find such knowledge, and destroy it. The Black Order specializes in Destroyers, Assault Squads and Devastators, leaving nothing of the falsehoods in their path. It is no wonder the Cadre is famed as the *Breakers of Falsehoods.*

* **The White Order**

A Legion is a vast and complex organization, with Logistics and Standardization being extremely difficult to keep straight amongst such a vast and disconnected entity. In the Third Legion, the task of keeping the Legion fully equipped, and up to date on the newest technology falls to the Third Cadre. It is they who run the Legion Forges, garrison its Depots, and maintain its Armories, truly, the greatest minds of the Legion reside within its ranks.

* **The Golden Cadre:** The Golden Cadre is the only Cadre primarily composed of Warriors, and serves on the front lines the most consistently. On the rare occasions the Mentors deploy in large numbers, it is likely the Golden Cadre is the center of the force, a solid core of Infantry Specialists the other Cadres work to support.

* **The Iron Cadre:** When a fortress that is truly unbreakable by other forces, the elite Iron Cadre is called in to grind their foe to dust. Masters of the siege, they systematically dismantle enemy fortifications, destroy supply lines and slaughter the garrison in short brutal engagements. Outside of Siege Warfare, they prefer to deploy large numbers of Armored Vehicles in support of other units, bringing some of the most advanced vehicles available to the legion in the same numbers as others would bring Predators.

* **The Wordsmiths:** The Sixth Cadre is unusual as they consist entirely of Scholars, not a Warrior amongst them. The Sixth specializes in Diplomacy and Exploratory Expeditions, often at the forefront of the Great Crusade, exploring the stars, and bringing worlds into the Imperium without so much as firing as shot in anger.

* **The Seekers of Truth:** All that can be said of the Seventh Cadre, is that they are mysterious and secretive, and specialists in Information Warfare.

* **Wardens of Raptora:** The Eighth Cadre is assigned with defense of the Legion's dominion, keeping its many libraries safe from despoliation. Little can be said of the Wardens, for they rarely leave their domain, though they are known to specialize in Defense, Defensive Sieges and Construction.

* **Tutors:** The Ninth Cadre is the most respected within the Legion, for its ranks contain every single Dreadnought in the Legion, as well as the Elite Tutor Terminators. They take their place amongst the Ninth and not the First for a simple reason, for the youngest legionaries and neophytes are assigned to the Ninth before they are sent out to the other Cadres. It is the duty of the Honored Ancients to guide the youngest into maturity, to Mentor them into full brothers of the Legion.

## Legion Combat Doctrine

### Unique Units

* **Scholar Battle Squad**:

The Scholars of the Legion, though mostly devoted to non-combat pursuits are still Space Marines, and are to a man seasoned and experienced warriors. When called to War, the Scholars organize into their own squads in support of their Brothers. These Squads are rarely, if ever uniform like Warrior Squads, each Scholar bringing their own wargear and expertise to battle.

* **Elite Cadre**:

The Warriors of the First Cadre of the Legion are mostly made up of small and elite Squads, consisting of between 5 and 10 warriors at most. They are equipped with the finest and most advanced technology available to them, bringing it to battle alongside their Brothers, in Elite Cadre Expeditions, or in the efforts of other Cadres.

* **Savant Terminators**:

At the End of the Unification Wars, the newly founded Third Legion was given the Lions Share of Archeotech recovered from the ruins of Terra, and charged with its care and usage in extreme scenarios. This Archeotech is now stored in massive Omega Vaults on Raptora, alongside a constantly expanding collection of new Archeotech collected during the Great Crusade. Any Knowledge deemed too dangerous for use, but not inherently dangerous enough to mankind as a whole to be placed in the care of the Shadowkeepers is placed in their Hands, alongside vast archives of knowledge and weapons forbidden by use of the Legion by their Father. Later, by Order of the Emperor himself, the Legion would found a small force of Warriors tasked with guarding these Vaults, each of its hand-picked warriors doing away with the typical intellectual lifestyle of the Legion, in favor of discipline and endless training. The Legion as a whole, sees these warriors of the best of the best in their legion, but ones cursed with an eternal duty few would willingly take up. The Savants, as they are known are rarely seen outside of Raptora, usually seconded from their duties to act as Bodyguards to the Lord Raptor, or more commonly, to secure new items for the Vaults.

## Legion Gene-Seed

The Mentors Legion have a relatively stable gene seed, the only significant deviation is that once implanted, individuals will gain a sharper intellect and higher cranial capacity. Able to solve puzzles in an exceedingly fast pace, even for an Astartes, as well as having a near eidetic memory.

### Unique Wargear

* **Raptoran Hawk**:

For Millenia, the world of Raptora has had an immense respect for birds, most notably the Raptoran Falcon, a large and extremely intelligent bird, most even thought to outpace many humans. Long-Lived, and gravitating towards intellectuals, they are highly loyal beasts, forming decades long relationships with the brightest minds of Raptora, and are more than willing to die to keep their friends safe. The Greatest of these Hawks is Brightwing, the personal Falcon of Palas, and it is Brightwing Palas modelled his sigil on, so that the Birds Wisdom and Ever Watchful Gaze would keep his Sons safe from the Darkness that lay beyond the safety of his home.

In the Modern Day, many Mentors keep Raptoran Hawks as Pets, or Companions, finding more companionship in the Birds than in the common man. Many are modified by the Scholars of the Legion with electronics and augmetics, acting as flying scouts, or to drop light bombs on enemy personnel. The Death of a Hawk usually leads to a small ceremony, similar to that of a dead Brother, though on a smaller scale, with the corpse being returned to Raptora, and placed upon the mountain ranges where the species lives in the wild.

* **Raptor Pattern Bolt Round**:

Palas's minor obsession with firearms started the instant he asked one of his newfound sons how his weapon operated, fascination jumping in his eyes as the round obliterated a faraway stone. From that point onwards, Palas studied every weapon he could find, even ancient pictfeeds from a long lost firearm related religion and its enigmatic bearded leader, and began work on dozens of unique wonders. His finest creation, many would argue has been the Raptor-Pattern Bolt Round, a design that outdid every other standard issue bolt round in quite literally every positive aspect the archivists cared to measure by a wide margin. It hit targets the old round could never even attempt, pierced armor that would have laughed off its predecessors, all the while being much cheaper to produce, and much simpler to use. As with all things, the development of the Bolt Round followed Palas's teachings of iterative improvement, going through hundreds upon hundreds of minor changes in a few short years until near-perfection was reached, though work, as always continues under dozens of different teams, as Palas long ago left for other, more pressing projects.

However, the Bolt Round, despite its vast advantages over other rounds, has been kept out of the hands of other Legions, much to their chagrin, who have resorted to stealing rounds from Mentor stocks, for both study and field use. It is thought the reason for this is that First Captain Sido Caius, ever skeptical of the other legions convinced the Legion Leadership to keep the secrets of its manufacture from them. His actions would prove decisive in the following wars...

## Notable Members

* **Palas** - Primarch of the Mentors Legion
* **Sidu Caius** - First Captain, Cadre Master
* **Archimedes** - Forgemaster, and 'Father' of Palas. Of all the Children of Raptora, none beyond perhaps the Lord Raptor himself came close to the mind of the Mad Genius Archimedes. The personal Tutor, and father figure of Pallas himself, it was he who guided him to adulthood and to the man he would become, for better or worse. His creations even before the coming of the 3rd Legion were incredible in their complexity and abilities, outperforming Imperial Technology with only the methods of his time, and they pale in comparison to his modern wonders. As Forgemaster of the III Legion, Archimedes has access to incredible technological wonders, both of his own creation and of ages long past, but he most common enters the battlefield with his famed Heat Ray, 'Light of Creation', and his Hammer, 'The Fist of Wisdom'.

## Legion Appearance

### Legion Colours

The Mentors Legion take the colors of Light Green and White, colours characteristic with Intelligence and Wisdom on Raptor. The Helmet, Torso, Backpack, Codpiece and Pauldron Trim are colored in Light Green, the colour of Intelligence, while the Legs, Arms and Armorial Insets are coloured White, the colour of Wisdom. This balance symbolizes that Intelligence should always be Tempered by Wisdom. Scholars of the Legion wear White Robes, while Warriors wear Green Robes.

An unusual practice by the Mentors Legion is that they proudly bear the insignias of fellow Space Marine Legions they have served alongside on campaign. These insignia are stenciled on the right armorial inset.

### Legion Badge

The Mentors Legion badge takes the form of a Crimson, stylized version of the great and ancient Raptoran Hawk tamed by Palas known as 'Brightwing', said to be so that the Birds Wisdom and watchful gaze would keep his Sons safe. It is placed upon a field of white.