The Warhounds of Anatelikós

XIIIth Legion Armorial

XIIIth legion legionary bearing bare-bones and unspecialized Mark V: Thunder Armor

## Imperial Marine Legion

### Noteworthy Domains

Anatelikós (Homeworld), Neo Reksium Ultima (Legion Territories)

### Observed Strategic Tendencies

Siege-breaking, Phalanx formations, Orbital Assaults, Boarding Actions, Close quarters combat, Berserker rushes

### Unique Organisations

Devourers, Destroyer Squads, The Gallus Forsaken, The Erymanthius Elite, Triarii

### Colors

Yellow, Red, and Dark-Gray

The **Warhounds of Anatelikós** are an Imperial Marine Legion known for their savage tactics and brutal efficiency which is counteracted by their restraint and iron-bound discipline.

Of all the Imperial legions, none exemplifies the virtues of martial honor and strict self-control more than the Warhounds. Just as Orestis would transcend the violence of his youth as a gladiatorial slave, he ensured that his legion would shrug off every setback and betrayal to become paragons of the warrior creed, and ardent supporters of the Emperor's intention to unify the galaxy.

## Origins and History

### The Lord of the Sacred Crimson

According to the *Specula Historialis*, the best and most complete record of Orestis' early years, the young Luminarch had been born and raised into bloodshed and death, but would never allow it to claim him. Like the rest of his Luminarchal brethren Orestis as an embryonic infant had been spirited away from the Emperors Gene-labs under the Imperial Palace of Terra. And like them he had been psionically inseminated into a Mortal mother, though his birth mothers identity has been lost to Imperial records.

The embryonic Orestis was born on the technologically poor feudal moon of Anatelikós; Phaistos Primary, within the Proxima Orientus of the galactic East. The early months of the young Luminarchs life are all but lost to the ages. But what is known of the Battle Paragons youth, is that as a child, upon the Anatelikan feudal moon of Phaistos Primary. Within one of the moons villages he was found bloodied and wounded, surrounded both by the mangled corpses of what were thought to be raiders that prowled undefended regions of the moon, as well as men and women suffering deadly piercing scorch wounds indicative of las weaponry fielded by the raiders.

The amnesic child, seemingly barely a few years old and only knowing his own name had been taken in by those who found him, was fed, clothed, and his wounds tended to, and according to their traditions promptly sold into slavery to repay their generosity. Given his obvious skill in the combat arts, he was sequestered to the moons orbiting world of Anatelikós, to be forced first into small-time pit-fighting, and inevitably was traded to the worlds Palace Praxica, the seat of the An'dreshna families power, and center of their planetary Empire of the An'dreshna Solice. It was here that he was sold to the clans second son, Lord Pavlos An'dreshna. The youth's obvious potential as a gladiator was soon made apparent and he was sent to fight in one of the worlds more popular arenas. There, the young Luminarch was armed and armored. And eventually, the child was forced to fight in his first match within the capital's gladiatorial arenas.

The Arena consisted of a single ziggurat surrounded by hundreds of other slave warriors. And before the young Luminarch could fortify his resolve, acid began to fill the pit, and to the cheers of the spectators Orestis was eventually forced to kill all around him to remain standing upon the ziggurat's uppermost platform and survive. Shedding an innocent tear for the last time, the child was proclaimed a promising newcomer to Anatelikós' arena combat.

The young Luminarch would quickly grow to a formidable size, as he was forced to take part in the ever present gladiatorial games of Anatelikós. And after only a few solar months, Orestis Neritos had become a proud warrior of fearsome skill and an even stronger sense of honor, known to the crowds as "The Fell Blade." He would break hundreds of the gladiators who he faced in martial combat, but those who fought well he always spared.

So as the Luminarch grew, so too did his brazen reputation, and his frustration. Ever-eager to boast the brutal reputation of his fighters, Lord Pavlos had given Orestis a nickname - the "Unbroken", the greatest gladiator the An'dreshna Empire had ever known - but the Emperor had made him to be more than a bloodthirsty taker of blood slick skulls. It was his name, but not what he was.

Reaping many victories, Orestis soon became a fan-favorite of An'dreshna, and even the wider Reksium Empire, soon coming to gain the moniker of "The Warhound." Although he feigned a mask that seemed to enjoy the life of a gladiator and the adulation of the An'dreshnean crowds, and those of the wider Reksium Empire who flocked to his Arenas, Orestis secretly resented his slavery, and was always plotting to escape. And as such, He proved to be a troublesome champion, prone to escape attempts whenever he saw an occasion, but such efforts always failed.

During this time, Orestis as a young man had been mentored by many elder gladiators during his earlier years as a slave. The most prominent being a woman named Alkestis, once an honor guard of the An'dreshna Family, she had been forced to participate in a failed alchemical experiments program, who's was to create superior warriors. Deemed a failure, she was later sold into gladiatorial slavery, and soon she formed a deep bond with the young ward upon their first meeting, quickly becoming somewhat of a mother-figure to the impressionable warrior. Together, the two inhuman warriors slew a deadly tally in Anatelikós' gladiatorial arenas, which culminated in an astounding victory against a pair of berserk Seluecian Plateí War Brutes that had been surgically equipped with the deadly cybernetic implants known as the '*Crimson Butcher's'*.

Their momentous victory, however, proved short-lived as their An'dreshnean masters demanded that the two gladiators fight one another in a duel to the death. The fiery Alkestis refused and openly insulted her Anatelikan masters. This slight against the pride of Lord Pavlos, would result in the taking of Alkestis in the dead of night and her having the *Crimson Butcher's* implanted as a form of punishment. These crude spinal-neuron implants had been hammered into the woman's skull, and spine and surgically grafted to her cerebral cortex and nervous system.

These ancient relic devices from the Golden Age of Technology, cortical-spinal implants used to artificially boost a warrior's adrenaline, resulting in greater strength and aggression in battle. However, they bleached a warrior's mind of all reason, all caution, all human instincts of mortality. This *'Red Mist'* that the Butchers rewarded after receiving the payment of bloody slaughter, gave the suffering Berserker spurts of electrochemical pleasures, tingling synapses and utterly killing the enjoyment of all else. No better machine for slaughter had ever been contrived by the minds of men.

The deep cells below the massive arenas of Anatelikós' capital had become a home to a number of several thousand gladiators, all implanted with the *Crimson Butcher's*, and Alkestis would soon take her place amongst them. Following the successful mental disfigurement, Alkestis and a group of Berserkers were loosed upon Orestis as he rested in his own cell. Alkestis, the strongest of the nine rabid warriors, clawed and dug into her friend and son in a blind, murderous berserk frenzy.

Orestis shocked out from his sleep and sent reeling from a wound struck against his eyes tore apart his would-be assassins in a defensive blur. Using the strength of his superhuman frame, and innate battle instincts, tore through the frenzied warriors, sundering the nine howling beasts into piles of ripped muscle and cracked bones. Once his enemies were naught but viscera and gore. He was able to calm and rest his mind as his preternatural healing aided him in regaining his sight.

Orestis, with eyes designed to perceive the most minute details no matter how dark, realized the sin he had committed upon seeing the blood strewn tears that flowed from his now dead mentor. The Luminarch ashamed by the horrible transgression he had committed against his mentor and mother, was driven to such depths of despair that it was said that he unleashed a horrible bestial howl that lasted for several solar days.

The death of Alkestis proved to be too much for Orestis to bear. His hatred of his masters had reached an overflowing fever pitch, and he swore that one day, he would make good his escape and make the An'dreshna Dynasty pay dearly.

### The Bronze Lord; Unbroken, and Unbowed

> "Upon the shadowed hill we saw.
>
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> A figure wreathed in crimson red.
>
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> With a hallowed mist upon him rising.
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> He somber sang to the newly dead.
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> "Do not give what cannot be taken,"
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> His mouth meekly, somber move.
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> "There is no country for us,
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> and no fruit within this grove."
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>
>
> - An Excerpt of the Poem; "Longing in Crimson," a poetic retelling of the Battle of the Ae'nonian Ridge upon the world of Nauplíos within the Heraclea System, written by the Freed Gladiator Manos Rodeas
>
>

The fact that he and his fellow gladiators were being forced to fight and kill for the pleasure of their masters, and that of the baying crowds who themselves had their very humanity wrung dry by the hands of the An'dreshna Dynasty. Their bodies and minds mutilated for their amusement, mutilations imposed upon them to provide for *better sport*. The replacement of arms with crude hooks or blades having become commonplace in the arenas of the An'dreshna Solice, but these augmentations had become notorious in the Arenas of Anatelikós. Orestis saw this practice all as an attempt to steal the only things the slaves still possessed; their dignity and sense of self.

And worst of all were the psycho-surgical procedures imposed upon the slaves known as the '*Cruciamen Extremus*', a collection of cybernetic cortical implants that dated back to the Golden Age of Technology, capable of direct implantation into the human brain, turning the subject into little better than a mindless drone, dictated by the specific Cruciamen Implants, with those of the Butchers barely controlled between each gladiatorial bout. Due to the uncouth and brutal nature of these Implants specifically, they were often referred to as the '*Crimson Butcher's*'. And finally after his adoptive mother suffered this same fate, Orestis focused all his will into escaping the clutches of his vile puppet masters.

Within a few standard years Orestis' fame had spread to every corner of the Reksium Empire. And under his training, the gladiators of the Anatelikan Arenas soon became the greatest the empire had ever seen and none could dare stand against them.

Yet Orestis also learned, following a final failed escape attempt, that he would never succeed alone. But as his unbending warrior's code and sheer combat skill had made him a well-respected leader amongst the Anatelikan gladiators, and when the largest death games ever held on Anatelikós were to be announced, Orestis planned his most daring escape attempt.

For these new games, Orestis was allowed to stage a vast combat bout that would involve every gladiator of his arena. As the crowd had been swelled to innumerable size as it had been swelled with billions of Reksium citizens, the crowds cheers drowned out the sounds of battle, Orestis' gladiators turned on their armed guards, butchering them and fighting their ways to freedom. The walls were made high and the guns of their guards were powerful, but using his natural talent as a warrior and leader of men, he found a way.

Orestis' meticulous and inspired planning saw to it that the Gladiator forces took control of the arena with a minimum of casualties, with civilian political dissenters and gladiatorial supporters who took control of the surrounding areas in the mayhem, but the bloodshed that followed shocked him to his core. With freedom in sight, many of his gladiator brothers and sisters who had been implanted by the Butchers Crowns had become uncontrollable in the wake of the growing level of battle stimuli, and with the remaining guards routed, continued to fight their cowed enslavers rather than make good on their escape. And in the height of their blinded furies, many of the berserkers turned on the fleeing crowds and even, in their madness, their gladiator brethren. But against the guards armed with destructive plasmor weaponry who now faced mindless, and tactless berserkers, the uprisings overall casualties were grievous, but nearly 130,000 slaves, and freemen would survive to escape into the streets of Anatelikós' Spire-City's, stealing what weapons, supplies, and commandeering what merchant and sol-jump capable vessels they could before fleeing into the stars under cover of the already flocking vessels of the mayhem, and passing the orbit of Phaistos, the Anatelikan moon of Orestis birth, and into open space.

Though the gladiator army escaped into the stars, without the greater strength and number of their berserker brethren, who remained to kill and be killed. The experience brought home to Orestis that without an iron-willed self-control that even the unaugmented gladiators would lose themselves to the call of the crimson mist. The look in the eyes of his blood-drunk brothers he had been forced to kill that day convinced Orestis that he himself along with his warriors must never suffer that fate.

While the gladiator flotilla fled into the wild-territories of the north-eastern Reksium Empire, the An'dreshna Dynasty, who were now shunned by the other High-Born Clans of the Reksium Empire for it was *their* slaves whose uprising on *their* world that had created a cascade of not just slave uprisings, but complete citizen revolts across the Reksium Empire. The An'dreshna Dynasty under *recommendation* from the other High-Born clans, had assembled and dispatched an armada of mercenary ships to chase down the gladiator flotilla.

But in their overconfidence, Orestis and his now freed brethren ambushed the ill-disciplined soldiery, stripped them of their weapons, provisions and ships, and left them stranded on wild worlds untouched by the Reksium Empire. Other mercenaries were sent back limping back to Anatelikós, with their soldiers bloodied and ships shattered as warning not to pursue them any further.

However, with word of Orestis' escape spreading further across the small Empire and the insult against the very authority of the High-Clans solidifying in the minds and hearts of millions. And with the growing unrest among the gladiators, and citizens on other worlds, this was not something the High-Clans were simply willingly able to ignore. Fearing for their grip on power, and no longer underestimating this 'simple gladiator', the High-Clans of the Petratide, and Martoen Dynasties sent a force of a hundred thousand strong each to aid the An'dreshna Dynasties own mercenary army. The 3 Armadas fully mobilized and were sent to scour the worlds of the north-eastern Reksium Empire.

But against such overwhelming force, Orestis' only option was to press further and further into the worlds of the north, until they reached Nauplíos; a mining world surrounded by thick orbiting asteroid cover, and within the farflung north-most Heraclea System. There, upon the Ae'nonian Ridge of Nauplíos, where the Dynasty Armies would be forced to disembark their warships and board smaller vessels and land onto the world. And with nowhere left to go, Orestis and his brothers prepared to make their final stand as they took their vessels and retrofitted them into a makeshift fortresses ready to defend against the military triad.

### Coming of The Emperor

In the time since the loss of the Luminarchs, the Emperor would not sit idle. The Throne ships of the Imperial Legions guided by an unparalleled psychic link would home in on their lost masters. And so it was as Orestis and his army prepared to engage in the hopeless battle to come, Imperial ships of the Great Crusade hastily entered the crowded orbit, spearheaded by the then unadorned *'Crimson Mercy'.* Unwilling to risk losing his son before they had even been reunited, the Emperor ordered that Orestis be teleported aboard, but Za'mana Mu-Damik; the Luminarch of the IIIrd Legion, who had been accompanying his father, urgently counselled against it. Za'mana's peerless insight into a warriors psychology recognized that to whisk a true leader to safety while his army was butchered against such an insurmountable force would be an intolerable grievance. He saw that such an act would irrevocably taint the relationship with bitterness and resentment from its very start.

Za'mana would successfully convince his Father that there was a better way, and when the sun rose on the mountain, the armies of the Dynasties were faced not only by Orestis' collected freemen army, but by the Master of Mankind and his Blazing 10,000, the Great Lion, and the Imperial Marines of both the Scarlet Lions and the still orphaned XIIIth Legion. Against such powerful adversaries, the slaver's forces were easily routed. And as they fled the field in disarray, Orestis approached his father through the smoke, and knelt in supplication, recognizing the bond between them, and respecting the true nobility of the Emperor and His cause. Accepting the inevitable, most of the Reksium Empires ruling elite quietly stepped down from power, and the Reksium Empire rapidly acceded into the Stellar Imperium.

Following the compliance of the Reksium Empire, Za'mana quickly took Orestis under his wing, educating him in every aspect of the Stellar Imperium. In doing so, he was able to assuage his brother's lingering doubts that he would simply be swapping one set of chains for another; that the Emperor was far from being just another slaver who wanted him to fight and die for his own amusement. Their first meeting upon Nauplíos had gone a long way towards this, and the presence of Za'mana and his Scarlet Lions and the XIIIth overcame Orestis' initial misgivings about the implants and psycho-conditioning that becoming a marine would entail. At first, the process seemed to be eerily similar to the aggression chips and cybernetic implants that the slavers had forced upon the gladiators, and which had made them less than human. However, after seeing the Angelus in action, Orestis knew that such things were merely tools to make them more efficient warriors, and with rigid self-control they were nothing to be feared. When the Thirteenth Legion finally was ready to formally meet their Luminarch, Orestis was ready for command.

But Orestis had not forgotten his old comrades, and the army of former slaves were the first sons of the Reksium Empire to join his legion. The Crimson Butcher's` were cast off as tools of the oppressor, and the legion was dedicated to the course of martial honor and iron-willed self-control. Berserker fury became a shadow of the past; a legacy of their enslavement that would never again be permitted. Committed to the glory of the Stellar Imperium and the Emperor, they would be masters of their own fates. Some aspects of his past - such as his own name - Orestis retained, and even embraced as reminders of what they must always fight against. Back in the arena, the slavers called Orestis and his fellow gladiators the 'An'dreshnan *Hounds of Battle*' to brag to the other Dynasties of how violent and frenzied they were. Thus, to the surprise of members new and old, he chose it to remind them of the darkness against which they must always guard. He renamed the XIIIth Legion the Warhounds of Anatelikós, warriors of the Unbroken and Defenders of the Unbowed.

### Neo Reksium Ultima - The Pride of The East

The true measure of this unity became apparent within a few short years, in which the Newly Fathered Legion became an imposing force of astonishing might and bronze-clad honor. Certainly, within the reach of there foster Stars there was no shortage of foes ready to test the Legions abilities. Treacherous Sects of the irascible High-Lords had powerful foes, and the ascension of an Anatelikan Slave to Lord of not just one system, but the entirety of the Reksium Empire, offended these other Lord-Houses who had ruled unmitigated for millennia. With whispers of this strange new army circulating, it took only a few months for icy politicking to turn into outright violence. Retributive attacks were made, aiming to deprive this newborn "*Neritide Dynasty*" of their power and standing, only to falter when Orestis' newly restructured Warhounds joined and unleashed their might against these foes. Once it became clear to the rival lords that the growing tales of an army clad in burnished Bronze capable of shaking worlds were true, the fighting took on a new intensity.

Orestis' growing genius for the forging of weapons was applied to the armies that served his people. Perhaps most importantly, he refined the power armored enhancements used by his Legion, and while it did not approach the warplate which later adorned the Emperor’s Legions during the Armageddon Wars, it gave his Legion a crucial edge. Meanwhile his understanding of true war only grew, and away from the battlefield, a dream began to take form in the warrior's mind.

Studying whatever history he could find on these worlds, he was enthralled by the image they painted of a prosperous, united society. Mere dominance did little to stir his blood; the vision he conceived, in contrast, was electrifying. He began to extol it, winning allies among the Heraclea Systems Dynasties. As these clans believed in his ideals as much as they venerated his growing strength that would have already drew them to his side.

Messengers were dispatched to Seluecia Pieria and the Olbia Twin Systems, carrying his message to any willing to hear it. Many scorned it, but some accepted eagerly. First, a scattering of idealistic warriors took leave of their families, risking or even embracing banishment from their Lord-Houses as the price of serving Orestis. Soon, as the last swathes of the Shattering Reksium Empire and its surrounding territories drew their lots and either fell under the sway of Orestis, or stood against him. As entire Lesser Houses and their Armies added their strength to his. Foremost among them were the Demarkos, Makrakis, and Burallis Dynasties of the Heraclea System, who had committed to his cause early on, as well as the Llaskin Clan of Seluecia Pieria.

Others resisted, however, cobbling together alliances in a vain effort to hold back the tide. Their hatred curdled into obsession, and drove them to deeds which frightened off many who might have stood with them. Some delved into sorceries prohibited among the psionic orders of their own worlds. Others took to the void of space and hunted for spoil among the wreckage of old battles. The most bitterly determined would slink away from the surrounding systems entirely, seeking even more extreme ways to oppose Orestis' advance. They alone would survive the unification of the Reksium star systems.

### Melded and Alloyed

"*You shall no longer be Berserkers my sons, but Hounds of tempered steel and cradled flame, fierce and hardy, ready to take the light of the Imperial Truth to all corners of the galaxy and feast until the final sunset of the universe!*"
— Orestis Neritos declaration upon taking command of the XIIIth Legion
Twelve years of war and diplomacy saw Orestis firmly in control of what he dubbed Neo Reksium Ultima, The Pride of The East or the "Orientis Superbia" to use its High Gothic name. By the time he was fully ready to embark on the Great Crusade, these names served for a Legion Ruled Protectorate of Five star systems, and 23 worlds, though raiding and skirmishes continued along their borders. Moreover, Orestis rejoiced to finally meet the rest of his Brethren introduced to him by Za'mana.

Orestis mandated that his sons would become protectors of his realm as well as crusaders but also invited them to join him in shaping the next generation of their Legion. The now Veteran Anatelikan-Born Warhounds traveled the length of Neo Reksium, watching the trials of aspirants as they themselves learned the ways of the cultures and ways of the armies he would have them fight beside.

The ease of this transition was fortunate, as politically Orestis' realm threatened to cause serious religious discord between Neo Reksium and the Jovian Mechanicus. Not only had Forge colonies been conquered, but now their doctrines were heavily diluted, their inhabitants bound by oaths they were unwilling to sever. Meaning that neither the Masite Phaestian Guilds, or the Scholars of the Oreus Forges were regarded warmly by both the Tech-Guilds of Terra, and the Vixite Technoclurgy of Jupiter. Now denied both the status of Forge Worlds and the Tech-Priesthood of their members despite their massive size, skill and output.

Orestis found himself master of a Legion which, although it had been one of the largest after the Unity of Terra, had long since found itself eclipsed by faster-growing Legions. That he integrated it so seamlessly into the fabric of the Reksium Empire was a testament to the extended implantation period. Upon the first intake of Reksium recruits achieving the status of full Angelus, Orestis fully renamed the XIIIth as the Warhounds. Extensive reforms to its structure would follow over the next ten years, but for now the Legion threw itself back into the Great Crusade, adding another three systems to Neo Reksium. In these wars Orestis found the last of those who had opposed his Legions earlier conquests, allied with xenos or corrupted by forbidden technologies and sorceries. Perhaps the most loathsome were the Labotas Dynasty of Olbia Major, who harnessed the sciences of genetic manipulation and cloning to create abhumans of monstrous strength and savagery, which they then fashioned into automata and servitors of a power to test even the Angelus. Across three systems Orestis led his forces against them, until the last fortress tumbled under the guns of the Legio Auris and the cloners were put to the sword.

With Tésserai completed, Orestis took his place in the wider Crusade, and finally the Warhounds began to grow into one of the mightiest Legions, fed by the pocket empire. As with so much of the early Stellar Imperium' campaigns, the historiography is often maddeningly limited; while some remembrancers established close bonds with their hosts, there was a limit to the things an Angelus will speak of. In several campaigns all we can tell is that Orestis was mentored by a brother, and the Warhounds gave an excellent account of themselves. Others are better documented, and we see the shared kinship of the Bulls Palatine and Scarlet Lions continued in their new incarnation, as well as Orestis' role as unlikely mentor to Sendolphen Alaric.

But even with their newfound strength, it took a further Six years until the Warhounds could campaign independently of any other Legion, and a further half-decade until Orestis could form multiple expeditionary fleets. Their auxiliary forces were to prove vital in enabling the Warhounds to fight effectively despite their limited numbers.

The rare quality of their wargear set both the Legion and their auxiliaries apart, and terrestrial war machines featured heavily in their line of battle. Conversely, the Warhounds took an incredible pleasure in close combat, and often used their armor to deploy and quickly engage their enemies. There was logic to this as well as a love for the melee; nowhere else did a Angelus, and later a Luminaires enhancements count for more, and Orestis led these attacks wherever possible. Frequent injuries were the price paid for this tendency, however, leading to a high rate of limb cloning and augmentation among the Legion. Nonetheless, the Warhounds proved extremely hard to kill, and this as much as anything enabled them to grow steadily as a Legion over the course of the Great Crusade.

In the eyes of the mortal soldier and citizen, the Warhounds became heroes to stand beside the Sons of The Morning and Scarlet Lions. Against human cultures, their ferocity was measured, tempered deployments meant to overwhelm the defenders and stave off the devastation of longer conflicts. Against xenos they were the bringers of oblivion, leveling empires across the breadth of the Galaxy. Orestis' ideals and conduct earned him close friendships with several of his brethren, though others had little regard for the XIIIth. This was perhaps one of the reasons why Orestis was not considered by many as a potential candidate for the post of High Chief. At the same time, he was not a political animal to the degree of Llucerian and Mikha'el; as he preferred to delegate such matters to trusted subordinates within his realm and Legion and dedicate himself to campaigning.

## Homeworld

**Anatelikós**, the brutal and unloving homeworld of the Warhounds' Luminarch; Orestis, and also the planet where he was discovered by the Emperor of Man during the early days of the Great Crusade.

Imperial Historians speak of Anatelikós as a technologically advanced world, surrounded by colony moons, and the heart of the extrasolar Reksium Empire made up of 5 star systems. The worlds of the Apamea System in which Anatelikós resided along with its surrounding worlds was ruled over by a wealthy elite clans of the An'dreshna Family, who had lived in decadent opulence whilst the greater populace of their worlds and moons lived in abject poverty within the slums that surrounded their walled palaces and villas.

To distract this dejected populace from their abject poverty, the oligarchic Apamean rulers held regular gladiatorial deathmatches in their massive arenas, namely the ones residing upon Anatelikós itself. These oligarchs used their cybernetically-enhanced gladiators who battled to satisfy the endless bloodlust of their oppressed people. These Anatelikan rulers used the grand spectacle of the gladiatorial arenas to slake their population's bloodlust, and to remind them of the penalty for thoughts of revolt.

## Legion Organization and Structure

Having no homeworld, the Warhound Legion is now fleet-based, and has spread itself out amongst the stars. Each grand company, numbering upwards of a thousand battle brothers and commanded by a Praetor and his lieutenants strive to perform their assigned duties to the utmost. Normally at least two-thirds of Warhound grand companies are to be found engaged in the Crusades proclaimed by the High Lords of Terra, a proportion unmatched by any other legion. These grand companies are at the vanguard of the battle against the Ruinous Powers and xenos threats and reclaiming areas of the galaxy long-lost to Imperial rule. Such a role is a dangerous one even for the Legiones Angelus, and the vehemence with which the Warhounds pursue this task is enviable.

Once the crusade has achieved its objective, they return to the Imperium proper to recruit, train and replenish their strength. Though this could be considered as reserve status, there are still many battles to be fought inside the Imperium. Rebellions against rightful Imperial rule are sadly all-too common, pirate fleets plague the space-lanes and even the Imperial crusades are unable to prevent wide-scale invasions by heretics and warlike alien races.

The diffuse nature of the Warhound Legion means that, in practice, each grand company retains a great degree of independence. The ultimate authority is the Council of Captains, headed by the legion master, which by necessity meets almost exclusively by astropathic means. It is essential in coordinating the actions of the Warhounds across the Imperium, as well as ruling on the commitment of forces to Imperial crusades, and on rare occasions sanctioning the creation of a new grand company.

At its creation, the XIIIth Legion, like almost all the Imperial Marine Legions of the time, followed the so-called "Terran Pattern" of organization as formulated by the Imperial Officio Militaris at the outset of the Great Crusade.

But even in this earliest period the Legion's procurement and outfitting showed a considerable bias towards direct assault and operations within the close and deadly confines of the kinds of battlefields designated as "Zone Mortalis" in Imperial strategic doctrine. During Orestis's transition of command, this would continue, and the Legion's organizational structures were kept largely intact but often further streamlined, with its echelons being biased in make-up towards line infantry formations.

These formations were a hybrid of tactical/close assault troops for the main part, supported by dedicated heavy assault units such as Terminators and specialised units such as Land Speeder squadrons. This organization lent itself well to a highly aggressive strategic posture and belligerent tactics, which while extremely costly in terms of casualties, were also highly effective.

The rank structure of the Warhounds under Orestis remained simple and direct, the Luminarch having little but scorn for the trappings of elites and pointless accolades and titles. It is said that Orestis refused even to be addressed as "Lord" by his Angelus, but he did see the virtue of a reliable and transparent chain-of-command in war.

The original War Hounds Legion was also known for its harsh enforcement of internal discipline and the hot-blooded temper of its Legionaries. Command within the Legion was gained through a mixture of martial prowess on the battlefield and displays of leadership on the front line, with specialists singled out by aptitude early on.

No rank or role within the Legion was exempt from the expectation that they would fight as hard as the rest, however, nor was the desire to grapple with the foe and cut them down by blade-stroke discouraged if the opportunity arose, be the Imperial Marine in question an Apothecary or Artillerist rather than a frontline fighter.

Compared to many of the other Angelus Legions, order and discipline did not come as naturally to those of this Inheritance-Helix heritage as might be expected. Tempers often seethed, slights perceived or real were met with anger and more often than not violence would result should a Warhound's sense of honor be impugned.

Any officer of the Legion knew they were expected to back up their authority by force if needed, and the punishment of infractors by an officer's own hands was the Legion's way. To disobey an officer's order in battle was a death sentence to be carried out without delay.

Trial by combat soon became the Legion's preferred route for settling disagreements within its ranks, and bloodletting by warriors in open discord was an honorable thing both in Orestis's eyes and that of his Legion. Here also could one of higher rank be challenged for the right of command, although such rare contests were always to the death.

In the aftermath of the betrayal at Istvaan III, the Warhounds Legion, under their savage Luminarch Orestis, became ever more insular as a Legion and uncontrollable on the battlefield, proving a double-edged sword even to their allies. The psycho-surgery rife within the Legion became even more widespread and extreme in its use, and the Neophytes inducted with ever-increasing pace into the Warhounds' ranks to replace the fallen were cerebrally mutilated with the *Butcher's Nails* implants as a matter of course.

All-out infantry assaults supported by fast moving armor, with the aim of immediately closing into bloody melee with the foe, had always been a hallmark of the Legion, and now became often their goal; carnage for its own sake beyond any strategic objective to the contrary.

At the time of the Istvaan III Atrocity, a precise estimate of the Warhounds' fighting strength and disposition was impossible to make. Best estimates of their observed strength were around 150,000 Imperial Marines, placing the Warhounds in the middle to high levels of comparative strength amongst its contemporary fellow Imperial Marine Legions.

The Warhounds were also well-supplied and supported by the *Legio Audax* (Ember Wolves) Titan Legion and a fleet of at least sixty capital class vessels. It is commonly estimated that of all the Traitor Legions that had fought at Istvaan III in the purge of the Loyalist faction within their ranks, it had been the Warhounds who had suffered the greatest casualties, with well over 35,000 Warhounds Legionaries believed to have met their deaths on both sides.

Aside from the many wounded, it is recorded that a number had succumbed entirely during the protracted fighting to an insane bloodlust and had to be forcibly restrained and removed back to the Warhounds fleet for containment.

### Specialist Formations

* **Devourers** - The Devourers are the premier cadre within the Warhounds Legion that serve as a dedicated bodyguard unit for their Luminarch Orestis (whether he needed one is another matter). In battle they fought encased in Terminator armor and carried the most savage weapons the XIIIth Legion possessed. This warrior band had only twelve members, and access to its ranks was only attained by defeating a Devourer in single combat to the death or, should one of its number fall in battle against an enemy, a successor was selected by a contest open to all Angelus in the XIIIth Legion, only one of which would survive.
* **Destroyer Squads** - Considered dishonorable by some Legions who made little use of them or eschewed them altogether, the Destroyers were equipped with and expert in the use of otherwise proscribed and forbidden weaponry. Alongside certain factions of the Mechanicus, only Destroyer cadres had the license to use these weapons in the forces of the Imperium by the Emperor's command. Rad-weapons, bio-alchem munitions and the crawl-burning horror of Phospex were among the Destroyer Squads' dark arsenal, weapons which irrevocably tainted the ground upon which they were used. Marked by their fire-blackened and chem-scalded armor, Destroyers were often shunned and deemed somehow tainted by their Battle-Brothers in many Legions and were considered at best a necessary evil, although the effectiveness of their relic-weapons in cracking especially difficult enemy defences could not be denied.
* **The Gallus Forsaken** - The dishonor of the XIIIth , the Gallus are warriors that have committed some form of crime and have been stripped of both name and rank in the Legion.
* **The** **Erymanthius Elite** -
* **Triarii** - The Triarii were 5 full companies of the XIIIth Legion's finest shipboard warriors who excelled in void warfare and boarding actions, commanded by Centurion Delvarus, the undisputed pit fighting champion of the Warhounds. These warriors were honor-bound to protect the Warhounds Legion's flagship, the *Conqueror*.

## Legion Beliefs

The Warhounds have inherited their Luminarch's intense sense of martial honor, discipline and iron-willed self-control. They are, if anything, a rival in organization and regimentation to their cousins of the Avenging Shields and their thousand worlds of Illuromar, although the Warhounds restrict themselves to military matters rather than fully extending it into the civilian side of things as other Legions often do. The Warhounds are some of the most stalwart in their belief in the idealistic concept of the Emperor's Imperium Dominus, a Universe of peace where humanity are the dominant force among the stars.

To these ends they are endlessly willing to contribute forces to crusade alongside other legions and the Imperial Army. Unlike some of the other legions though, the Warhounds are motivated by a deep-seated belief that it is the right thing to do, rather than as part of some political machination to serve their own agendas.

While the legion does maintain an Archo Librarium of psychically gifted Marines, they are few in number, and their remit specialized. This springs primarily from their innate distrust of the immaterial, instead preferring to rely on the heft of an honest chain-ax to the summoning of eldritch void fire. After the Wars of Armageddon revealed the horrifying scope of the threat posed by the Ruinous Powers, the legions began to realize the value of being able to fight on the ætheric plane as well as the physical. To this end, Warhound librarians are charged with the vital role of sensing the malefic, and warding the souls of their brethren from harm. These roles do not exempt librarians from their normal duties. They are Warhounds, and so are expected to prove themselves at the bloody edge of battle - a place in which their psychically attuned force weaponry comes in extremely useful.

### Legion Traditions

The arrival of the Luminarch Orestis brought a primitive, almost tribal unity to the newly renamed Anatelikan Warhounds, and Orestis quickly became the example of warriorhood to be aspired to by his Sons. A number of Anatelikan traditions were adopted by the Warhounds and has been kept alive down the centuries.

#### The Gladiatorial Pits

The gladiatorial pits of the XIIIth Legion were one of the traditions that carried over from their time as an orphan silver Legion, and the Warhounds that followed after them. The XIIIth Legion has long been a proud Legion founded upon brotherhood above all else. They teach it in the gladiatorial pits, bonding warriors from different worlds, chaining them together and forcing them to fight as pairs.

Brotherhood remains strong at the Legions heart, and is the test that truly mattered. For especially deserving Legionaries, the Hounds of War even open their pits to those born of other bloodlines. The Warhounds duel because in their hearts they know that nothing forges a stronger bond of brotherhood than fighting. There is no need for pageantry, and no reason to hold back. Rank is disregarded, and all that matters is the weapon in their hands, and who strikes first.

When the Warhounds fight in the pits, the combatants will first come to an accord as to how many wounds they will inflict upon each other to determine who is the victor. They will usually only fight to first blood, but sometimes bouts would go on to second and even third blood. But on very rare occasions, they would be fought to *Sanguis Extremis* - a bout to the death.

The Legionaries of the Warhounds have an intractable and ambitious nature. Often quick to anger, the Warhounds are taught to avenge slights to their honor with blood, even amongst their own. However, when there is a dispute between brothers, often they are settled in the pits. There is little that passes in the way of brawling or boisterous competition amongst the Warhounds in such matters, for all such battles are to the death of those involved. In the Warhounds' extreme world view, honor demands no less.

The violence each Warhound willingly subjects himself to within the pits often results in a warrior sustaining a web of scars across his body from the blows of their fellow warrior's chainaxes or blades. Another notable example of the costs of pit-fighting will be the Warhounds' use of metal prosthetic teeth to replace their own. Legionaries of other Legions often told tales of how they have never met a single Warhound Marine without at least one metal tooth surgically placed into his gums, and most sport whole sets from their time in the gladiatorial pits.

When losses are incurred during a campaign and entire squads are wiped out, they have to be collapsed and folded into one another, and decisions are needed to be made as to who will lead them. More often than not, the question of leadership is decided in the pits.

Normally, such means would be forbidden, especially if the Legion is still on an active war footing, but in light of dire events, a Praetor can relent, understanding all too well that his brothers need the grounded calm that dueling can bring, an outlet to exorcise their frustrations and rage. Warriors would need to forge new bonds and have trust in the prowess of their leaders, and bleeding together in the pits is a better way to accomplish this than most.

#### Wearing Chains

Since the rediscovery of their Luminarch the Warhounds have worn Bronze and Crimson colored power armor sparsely adorned in alabaster designs but otherwise is mostly unmarked, save for the chains often seen binding their weapon to their arms. The chains are a personal tradition of the XIIIth Legion that has spread even amongst the other Legions from the fighting pits of the Warhounds where the practice had originated. Warhounds will chain themselves together in the fighting pits and duel to the cheers of their brothers. They enter without armor, naked but for loincloths to show they fear no wound, and to prove every warrior will fight on equal ground. For especially deserving legionaries, the XIIIth even opens its pits to those born of cousin bloodlines.

Abaddon, the First Captain of the Sons of Horus Legion, had taken to the custom with his usual zeal, binding his weapons to his wrists on dense black chains. He would carry this tradition over to his own Legion - the Black Templars - upon its inception. This tradition is still observed by the Legionaries of the Black Templars in the modern era. Jago Sevatar, a Captain of the Night Lords Legion, known as the "Prince of Crows", was one of the most formidable combatants in the entirety of the Legiones Angelus. Within the Warhounds pits, his lethal skills were put on display for all to see, as he fought with the same savagery and brutality typical of those descended from the lineage of the Night Haunter.

#### Triumph Rope

Like their fellow Angelus Legions, the XIIIth Legion would often take an oath of moment, a final last act before embarking for combat. Each Legionary prepared their vows to their fellow brothers in the Legion. What they will do for their Emperor, their Legion and themselves. They witnessed one another's oaths. Some Legions wrote them and then decorated themselves with the written oaths on fluttering paper on their power armor. But with the coming of Orestis, the Luminarch introduced to his gene-sons the tradition of the "Triumph Rope."

This was something that was shown to Captain Khârn by his Luminarch. Orestis explained that before a battle one would carve a line in one's body, and after said battle you would either let it heal normally, to show that you were victorious, or you would rub some of the dirt from the battlefield into the wound, to show you were defeated. This would cause the scar to appear to be a "red twist" if victorious, or a "black twist" if defeated. Warriors could then keep track of their battle honors and gauge each others' prowess.

Orestis had the longest "Triumph Rope" within the Legion. A ridge of scar tissue began at the base of Orestis's spine. It traveled up his backbone, then veered to the left and around his body, riding over his hip and curving around to his front. The length of his continuous scar seemed to expand and thin again, ploughing and gouging the skin, in some places vanishing entirely where the Luminarch's healing powers had overcome it. The scar looped around and around Orestis's body, spiraling up over his belly, around his ribs, towards his chest. A little past the right of his sternum, it abruptly stopped. Orestis, it was said, had no black twists.

#### Warrior-Marks

Such few honors that the XIIIth Legion believed in were warrior-marks of brotherhood and the scars of battle, for these things transcended rank and spoke to the worth of the Imperial Marine beneath the armor. The sundered chains of one who had fought overwhelming odds and lived, an allusion that spoke to Orestis's own bleak history, and the bloody handprint over the face or heart bestowed by a battle leader for a warrior whose intrepidity and conspicuous gallantry had transcended that of his brothers, to the Warhounds these meant more than any mere bauble, title or trinket. Examples of such warrior-marks included:

* **Fanged Maw** - The use of several versions of the Legion badge of the fanged maw adorning an individual Imperial Marine's armor denotes long service.
* **Red Striations** - Red striations on the helm is a personal decoration that echoes the earliest Nucerian Warhounds who had undergone the psycho-surgical cortex implantation, and eventual removal. It is believed that these markings are utilized by the Warhounds to remind themselves of their bloody past and of the destruction wrought by those who were under their insidious influence, both to themselves and their fellow battle-brothers.
* **Red Tears** - Red "tears" (more likely blood drops) painted beneath the eye lenses on a helm were thought to denote an Angelus' ritual mourning for a fallen bonded battle-brother.
* **Crossed-Chain** - A 'crossed-chain' decoration on a vambrace accorded to an individual warrior's status as having overcome their inherent rage and having mastered their baser instincts. It is said that these crossed-chains also serves to remind the recipient of the bonds that bind the Legion together and the unbreakable strength they gain through unity and iron-willed discipline.

#### Caedere Weapons

Based upon the ritual weapons of the cyber-augmetic gladiators of the savage world on which their bloody-handed Luminarch was once cast, it was Orestis himself who revived the use of the Caedere among his Legion's ranks. Brutal and difficult to master, the weapons of the Caedere remain largely the preserve of the Rampagers -- the Terminator elite of the Warhounds and their Legion's champions. These weapons include the:

* **Meteor Hammer** - This ancient weapon consists at its most basic level of one heavy, spiked weight connected by a chain. It belongs to the broader classes of flail and chain weapons. The primary advantage for using a meteor hammer is its sheer speed. Using a meteor hammer involves swinging it around the body to build up considerable speed before releasing the meteor to strike at any angle. The large weighted head can be used offensively as well as defence, allowing its wielder to parry attacks or ensnaring an opponent's weapon to disarm them. When used by a skilled fighter, its speed, accuracy and unpredictability make it a difficult weapon to defend against. While being swung, a meteor may be wrapped around its user's arms, legs, torso, neck or waist, before being unwrapped by a powerful jerk of the body to deliver a devastating and swift blow. A master is fully capable of striking, ensnaring or strangling from a distance.
* **Excoriator Chainaxe** - Always a favoured weapon of the Warhounds, this variant chainaxe is an obscenely large double-handed chain weapon. Huge in size and weight, only the strongest warriors are able to brandish this weapon. The chassis houses a mounted chain assembly of ancient Nucerian design, making it a much more powerful pattern of chainaxe than the average pattern. In addition, the weapon draws upon the additional mechanical support provided by a Legionary's power armor to drive this massive chainaxe's bulk at greater speeds. Also, its longer haft is desgined to be swung in wide swathes. Such is the power of this fearsome weapon that little can stand against it, and enemies fall apart like kindling when struck. The Excoriator Chainaxe is fully capable of bisecting even an armored Heretic Legionary or tearing open the most blasphemously corrupted mutant in a single stroke of its gargantuan axe-head. It can also slice through walls and even damaged light armored vehicles.
* **Twin Falx Blades** - This deadly weapon takes the form of a medium-sized sword, whose curved blade is extremely sharp on the inside edge. A one-handed weapon, these blades are always wielded in pairs. The blades are sharpened only on the inside, making it devastatingly effective in close-quarters melee combat. The length of the falx allows it to be wielded with great force, the point piercing an enemy's helmet and the blade splitting shields. Wielded by a skilled warrior, it is said these formidable weapons are capable of splitting a shield in two at a single blow. Alternatively, these weapons are able to be used as a sort of hook, pulling away shields and cutting at vulnerable limbs, or striking the edge of a strong shield. The inward curving point is still able to pierce the armor or flesh of the target behind their shield, rendering even the most reinforced sheilds much less effective against a falx wielder. These blades are described as leaving large gaping wounds, incapacitating the majority of victims. The falx are most efficient when targetting the head, shoulders, legs and especially the right (sword) arm, which is generally exposed. The handguards of these swords work as a 'knuckle duster' and is reinforced to take the force of a full-power straight punch to an unyielding target at close-quarters, without collapsing the guard on the hand of the user. It also is usually studded or 'toothed' on the outside radius to enhance the effect of the blow.
* **Barb-Hook Lash** - This ancient Nucerian gladiatoral weapon is very similar to the meteor hammer, falling into the broader classes of flail or chain weapons. This weapon consists of a large surmounted spear-like head with a pair of deadly barb-hooks, that curves towards the wielder, attached to a long chain. Using a barb-hook lash involves swinging it around the body to build up considerable speed before releasing the barb-hook to strike at any angle. The large spear-like head with its pair of backwards curved barb-hooks, could easily catch an opponent's armor or weapon. With a powerful jerk of the body, the wielder could dislodge portions of their enemy's armor or completely disarm them, leaving them weaponless and at their mercy. Utilised by a skilled warrior, this weapon could also be utilised to decapitate limbs or even impaling an enemy, given sufficient speed and application of force.

#### Mortuus

Another ancient Legion tradition is known as a *mortuus* -- an official report made to the commanding officer of a Legion vessel, listing those Battle-Brothers who had fallen in battle, much as Apothecaries in the other Legions traditionally relayed them to their commanding officers. A *mortuus* was more than simply a casualty list, it was a remembrance -- a roll of honor, a relic for the Legion to treasure. This often took the form of names and ranks inked upon scrolls or names engraved in brass plaques, or chiseled into stone. These names would then be entered into the ship's Archive of the Fallen; other Legions used different names, such as the Thousand Sons' Dirge, or in the case of the Lunar Wolves, the Lamentation.

## Legion Combat Doctrine

Given their Luminarch's origins as a pit-fighter and gladiator, and Orestis's devotion to martial honor, it is unsurprising that the legion places such a particular emphasis upon close combat. This is reflected by the high number of Assault squads found in their orders of battle, but far from being bloodthirsty maniacs, its roots come from their own code of martial honor, and ironically, a desire to avoid indiscriminate slaughter. Where many legions routinely use orbital bombardment and saturation firepower against a rebellious world, the Warhounds take great pains to minimise civilian casualties, even when it means that they themselves suffer greater losses as the result. It is against an enemy's leaders and military forces that they take the fight, and test their mettle; there is no honor to be gained in butchering the old, infirm or infants, especially when done from orbit. In close combat the Warhounds know and suitably value each human life they take.

On many occasions, most notably the famous assault on the rebellious Partrum Junta and the boarding of the Battle Barge *Black Narcissus*, entire grand companies of Warhounds have taken to the field armed solely with bolt pistol and chain-axe. However, that is not to say that the Warhounds eschew ranged weaponry - particularly when facing xenos and warp-tainted opponents. The bolter is as holy an instrument of the Emperor's will to them as it is to any of the other loyal legions, and since their earliest days, Warhound Devastator squads have been referred with genuine honor as 'The Teeth of the Warhounds'. The legion is clinical in its assessment of the best method to eliminate the Imperium's foes, and on the battlefield Assault, Tactical and Devastator squads mesh seamlessly into an unstoppable white and azure engine of power armored death.

Hand-to-hand combat was the XIIIth Legion's preferred form of warfare, even before it took the Emperor-given name of the War Hounds for itself. This did not mean that the Warhounds lacked ability and competency in ranged engagements or armored warfare and supporting artillery attack.

Indeed, no lesser luminary in the arts of mechanised warfare than the Iron Hands' Luminarch Ferrus Manus praised the War Hounds' armored assault at Aldabaran Septus as the "epitome of iron-clad rage given form," but for the War Hounds such things were a tactical means to an end.

That end being successfully delivering the killing force of the Legion, its Imperial Marines, where they could inflict the most harm and come to grapple with their foe at close quarters. The War Hounds had a preponderance of close combat weaponry habitually carried by its rank-and-file.

In addition to the use of the ubiquitous Combat Knives or Gladius, even Legionaries attached to reconnaissance squads and vehicle crews commonly carried chainblades, flay-cutters and mono-serrated bayonets, back-up knives, hatchets and cleavers. In dedicated assault units this profusion of bloody killing tools was added to by a weapon that dated back to the techno-barbarian tribes of Terra, the broad-bladed Chainaxe.

With the coming of Orestis as their commander, the XIIIth Legion's predilections for hand-to-hand bloodletting reached even greater heights, as the master-gladiator taught his warriors new weapons and new ways to kill, and what can only be described as a cult of personal combat took hold of the Legion at a fundamental level.

The Chainaxe was further refined under Orestis's direction, and such was the reputation it gained, that its use spread to several other Legions. But in the abstract the weapon could be seen as a symbol of the Warhounds themselves -- brutal and savage, remorseless and unsubtle, a machine with but one purpose -- to kill.

When the XIIIth Legion launched a planetary assault, they did so in a most unusual matter. Upon reaching a planet's surface, the Warhounds would burst from drop pods and charge down the assault ramps of their gunships, rapidly established security perimeters at their respective landing zones. Recon squads ranged out and lines of communication were solidified between adjacent units as companies organised and cohered. Once fully assembled on the ground, the order was given to advance.

It has been widely recorded, both in the recounting of Remembrancers during the Great Crusade and within each Legion's own archival histories, how Imperial Marines made battle. When the Warhounds made war, they did not enter combat in silence like the Iron Hands, their minds devoid of any distraction and focused entirely on the cold, clinical violence they were poised to deliver. Nor did they deploy like the Space Wolves or the Great Khan's get, joining the fray in a blistering charge, laughing as they leveled bolter and blade.

Since the day of the War Hounds' founding, whether the foe before them was xenos, machine, or even the Emperor's own Thunder Warriors, the XIIIth commenced hostilities according to their own fashion. Theirs was the only method more terrifying to an enemy than the sight of a legionary sprinting towards the, light gleaming from their raised weapon, with a bellow tearing from their throat.

The War Hounds, and the Warhounds they became, reached the range of their blades walking. No robotic silence or hysterical shouts rang out from their ranks, but rather the calm, even tones of bonded brothers, spoken as though they were strolling to the training pits and not into the teeth of their foes. Rare were the times when an assaulting centurion sped his phalanx to meet the enemy at a trot, and almost never at a run.

They simply marched, imbued with an easy, natural aggression, and did not alter their stride as they struck, rolled through, cut and crushed any foe that dared stand against them, relentless and indomitable as the fall of shadow over the land at nightfall. By this tactic had the Legion defeated countless enemies before they had even engaged them, such was the fear sown by this inhuman calm.

It was only when the enemy broke, all morale and cohesion shattered as they turned to flee, that the XIIIth quickened their pace. In the final pursuit, running down and executing a routed enemy, the Legion was in every way the hounds of war to match their former title, and later, just as fittingly, those who devoured whole planets.

Following the implantation of the *Butcher's Nails*, the Warhounds no longer deployed in the organised and disciplined matter they once displayed. Gone was the phalanx, the measured march of the shield wall. Now, the Warhounds ran to get to grips with the foe as soon as they made planetfall, and they ran faster as they caught sight of their enemies and savored the coming slaughter that would inevitably follow.

When they finally clashed with the foe, the enemy could not slow or stand against any of the enraged Warhounds as the warriors hacked and tore their way through them. With their minds aflame with the *Butcher's Nails*, not one legionary would stop to admire their kills, sprinting forward and killing anything that came within reach.

They would run in loose packs at first, but this didn't last long. Each Warhound became his own army, going wherever the *Nails* led him as he surged down the avenues of a doomed city and butchered everything he saw. Their vox would come alive with an endless disjointed chorus of laughing and spitting and screaming, all set to the throaty roar of active chainblades.

Eventually, they would deplete their ammunition, each Warhound relishing the dry click as the chamber of their Bolter ran hollow. The *Nails* set a fire within their skulls, and they celebrated it as they threw their boltguns aside, forgotten, focusing solely upon killing by hand.

The slaughter would continue as the *Butcher's Nails* propelled the Warhounds to untold heights of brutality. Like heathen marauders of Old Earth, the legionaries tore down the entrance to their enemy's holdfasts, swarming within and laying waste to all they found, until nothing remained but a bloody abattoir to mark their passing.

## Legion Recruitment

The Warhounds recruit almost extensively from the former gladiator and pit-slave populations of their homeworld. This would prove to be a hardy and talented source for marines, although to their regret they found that not all were suitable. A proportion, be it through ill-treatment or by inclination, took such enjoyment and abandon in the spilling of blood that to become a Warhound was simply out of the question. Orestis had seen the damage that the blood-drunk could do, to both themselves and their erstwhile friends, and decreed that iron-hard self-control was vital to becoming one of his legionaries.

Part of this was the removal of the Crimson Butchers, and the ugly scar tissue that resulted from the procedure became a palpable reminder of their rejected past. In solidarity with their brethren the Terran legionaries that had never had the procedure took to tattooing the scalp above the left temple.

### Legion Inheritance-Helix

The Inheritance-Helix of the Orestis's line suffers an unusual degree of genetic drift. The general degradation in Inheritance-Helix quality is attributed to the use of higher than recommended doses of certain chemicals involved in marine hypnotherapy and indoctrination.

This hazardous treatment allows Warhound marines to control their responses, emotions and autonomic reactions beyond that of other legions, in line with their compulsion to enforce iron-willed self-restraint on the battlefield. While this genetic drift has not yet been observed to have materially affected the quality of morphogenic organ growth, there is serious concern that eventually the long term viability of the lines Inheritance-Helix as a whole could be in jeopardy.

The Imperium can ill-afford to lose the Warhounds, but despite this the legion under edict of Orestis has strenuously resisted pressure to modify its procedures.

## Notable Warhounds

* **Orestis Neritos** - Sometimes referred to as the Red Titan, Orestis is the Luminarch of the Warhounds Legion. The most bloody-handed and savage of the Luminarchs.
* **Anastasion** - 1st Captain Anastasion a Terran-borne Marine, a respected general and the Legion Master of the Warhounds who commanded the XIIIth Legion for nearly four standard decades until the discovery of their long lost Luminarch on the planet of Anatelikós. Quickly becoming one of the Luminarch's most trusted advisors and would carry many honors alongside his stewardship of the elite 1st Chapter, a responsiblity hard-won through his decades of war in the Emperor's name. Honored above all, Anastasion was made Orestis's first Equerry, serving in an advisory role to Neritos. A stalwart and dedicated warrior, Anastasion is also a brilliant tactician and astute observer of the ever-shifting ebb and flow of the battlefield.
* Vasso Laskidi
* Elektra Gara - Often
* Kostas Nicoliades
* Angelos Makrotis
* Theofilos Alanoglou

## Legion Fleet

* ***Calydon's Fear* (*Throne*-class Battleship)** - The *Conqueror* was the flagship of the Luminarch Orestis and the XIIIth Legion.
* ***Blood Shrike* (Strike Cruiser)**
* ***Dedicated Wrath* (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)**
* ***Gladiator* (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)**
* ***Silent Honor* (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)**
* ***Industrious* (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)**
* ***Justified Aggressor* (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)**
* ***Merciless* (Battleship)**
* ***Blood Slick Spear* (Strike Cruiser)**
* ***Cardoc* (Transport Ship)**

## Legion Appearance

### Legion Colors

The Warhounds, of the XIIIth Legion have clad themselves primarily in a burnished bronze battle-plate with deep crimson secondary on the backpack, pauldrons, Cuisses and Vambrace. A scarlet or ivory helm often denotes Veteran status.

### Legion Badge

As the Blue Maws Legion, the original badge for the XIIIth was that of a large snarling blue mastodon, rampant, and centered on a field of white. This symbol was reminiscent of the epithet given to them by the Emperor Himself, for the XIIIth Legion reminded Him of the albino mammoths the Yeshk warriors in the far north of Terra once used.

But upon their reunion with their Luminarch Orestis when they were redubbed the Warhounds, their Legion badge changed to that of a great and scarred bronze boar poised as it stalked ever vigilantly upon a field of dark red.