Lords of Cinder

A fire atop a stone altar

Grey, orange and bronze

### **Fortress-Monastery**

9 Fortress-monasteries across the 9 planets of the system, and a watch station on the edge of the system

### **Allies**

Iron Hands
 Molten Fists
 Black Templars
 Vigila Nihilus

### **Number of Marines**

Codex-compliant, 1,000 Astartes, possess an unusually high number of dreadnoughts.

### **Battle cry**

"In flesh, weakness! In flame, purification! In iron, perfection!"

### Successor Chapter(s)

None

"*Only when we stand in the ashes of our own weakness when we have shed the frailty of the flesh for the sanctity of iron and purity of hatred, will we be judged worthy to stand with our cousins once more by the side of Ferrus Manus. Every heretic I burn, every idol I cast down purifies me in flame and armours me in iron, and brings us closer to the God Emperor and to the Primarch.*"
— Chaplain Assuun Korian during a service to Vigil Company aboard their watch station.
The **Lords of Cinder** are a Successor Chapter of the Iron Hands who maintain a fairly close relationship with their Medusan cousins. They also suffer from a similar revulsion to flesh as the Iron Hands do, causing them to purify themselves in flame, replacing their flesh with iron as Ferrus Manus did in Medusan legend. Since their near-decimation at the hands of Hive Fleet Leviathan, the fires in their hearts have dimmed, and they have become yet more strict, cold and logical as a chapter, resembling the Iron Hands more closely now than ever before. They are obsessed with funerary rituals and flame, and their position as wardens of one of the few narrow passages through the Great Rift means they are almost constantly spread throughout the Imperium Nihilus defending Humanity - or crushing it under their uncaring boots.

## Chapter History

### Origins (876.M35)

The Lords of Cinder were founded in 876.M35 as a direct response to raiding actions perpetrated by the Drukhari in the midst of an Imperial shipping route. Their first Chapter Master, Argonis Telechon, was an Iron Lieutenant of Clan Dorrvok when, during a deployment against the Emperor's Children, the Iron Captain of Clan Dorrvok was slain and Telechon assumed temporary leadership, organising the shattered remnants of the Clan and reinforcing Clan Raukaan, who had deployed with them. At the end of the engagement, when the heretic forces had been routed at the cost of nearly two companies' worth of Iron Hands, the chapter received word of the request for a new chapter to be founded from their gene-seed. Therefore, rather than be promoted to Captain, Telechon was instead honoured with being the first formally-recognised member of the newly-founded chapter, and its first Chapter Master.

In their earliest actions, the Lords of Cinder possessed no homeworld, operating at only a company's strength directly from Medusa, and often fighting alongside the Iron Hands themselves. Their first engagement as a solo chapter force was against the Drukhari in 877.M35, as they calculated accurately the location of the next Drukhari raid on Imperial Space in that sector near Medusa, and conducted a thorough campaign of extermination against them, making heavy use of flamer and melta weapons for the first time, as the indiscriminately destructive weapons proved highly effective against the agile Dark Eldar. By this time the second through seventh companies of the Lords of Cinder had been constructed, and so rather than return to Medusa, the Lords of Cinder set out with the large part of their Chapter fleet across the galaxy to claim a homeworld of their own, with the head of their fleet being their capital ship, a gift from the Iron Hands named *"Throneburner"*.

### Telenoi Genocide (879.M35)

As they travelled across the galaxy in search of a homeworld, the Lords of Cinder received a distress signal from a nearby ship. Three squads of 2nd Company were assigned to investigate, alongside two Librarians and an Apothecary. They departed from the Chapter fleet and travelled to the derelict ship, where they encountered a species of Xenos known as the Telenoi. These Xenos had developed the ability to project psychic duplicates of themselves which were capable of interacting with the material world, thus allowing them to very quickly replenish their "forces" as well as making themselves formidable opponents in combat. Despite being Space Marines, the squads were outnumbered and outgunned in a confined space, and as such were slaughtered to a man. At last, however, one of the Librarians managed to communicate an astropathic message to the Chapter fleet, who promptly ceased their journey and returned.

Several squads of Terminator-armoured Lords of Cinder from their First Company, accompanied by Librarians and Chapter Master Telechon himself, teleported aboard the ship, and quickly exterminated every living thing aboard, including the few surviving crew members. The efficacy of flamer-based weaponry was beginning to forge its place at the heart of the Chapter's combat doctrine, as the twisting corridors of the ship were filled with intense flame. So hot was the firestorm they created, that the battle-brothers, who had as yet not been rebuilt in iron, suffered from intensely painful burns and blisters even through their ceramite Power Armour, as they marched relentlessly through the flames. Only now was the weakness of their flesh revealed to them so personally. They had been taught by the Iron Hands of their Primarch’s folly on Istvaan V, and of the weakness of humanity, of emotion, of the flesh, but now they felt that weakness and they hated themselves for it, and they were grateful to the flames for purifying them of it.

Once the ship had been cleansed of the taint of the xenos, the Chapter fell upon the Telenoi homeworld with a vicious hatred and began a campaign of complete annihilation. It was upon that world that the first dying battle-brother was interred within the sarcophagus of a mighty Dreadnought, becoming the first of many “Ashen Lords” within the Chapter’s history. Their pride quickly collapsed in upon itself as they realised the stupidity and the arrogance of their actions in orbit, and their hatred of self grew, and the rate at which they replaced their body parts with indomitable, unfeeling iron skyrocketed, as the curse of their gene-seed fully revealed itself. These reforged battle-brothers marched through the towering infernos of the Telenoi civilisation unscathed, unfeeling, uncaring, desiring only to reduce the entire race to ash and molten slag.

They succeeded.

Within a year the terrible vengeance of the Lords of Cinder was complete, and the surface of the planet had been scoured of every trace of the Telenoi civilisation. The Space Marines abandoned the world as quickly as they had arrived, and while they returned to orbit the funeral pyre of an entire species burned below them.

### The Molten Citadel (882.M35)

The Lords of Cinder left the Telenoi behind and progressed on their exodus across the galaxy, having now received the approximate coordinates of their new home system. However, en route, they were contacted by a battle group of the Astra Militarum, requesting aid in toppling the capital of a Chaos-corrupted planetary governor on the world of Eridion VI, who had dragged a regiment of the Imperial Guard into his madness. Additionally, the cultists were being reinforced by the shattered remnants of a Heretic Astartes warband descended from the Emperor's Children. Upon hearing this, Chapter Master Telechon dedicated the 3rd and 5th Companies to the battle, and they joined the Astra Militarum group as reinforcements. They spent the next three years making tactical, systematic strikes against the heretics, and although the Chaos worshippers were well-emplaced across the planet, the overwhelming force of the Imperial Guard was able to break apart their defences using the cracks made by the surgical strikes of the Space Marines. Most notably, in the midst of an artillery barrage, Stratogos, the 3rd Company Champion, duelled the last and most elusive of the Chaos Space Marines, and despite sustaining incredibly grievous injuries he defeated the debased Space Marine, and proceeded to lead the next assault against the gates, single-handedly breaking through the first line of defence atop the wall, before his companions could reinforce him.

With the way into the citadel broken open, the Lords of Cinder set about indiscriminately annihilating everything within the walls. This included their mortal comrades, whose only warning was lost in vox traffic. Only after a third of the remaining Guard soldiers were dead did the orders arrive to retreat and allow the Space Marines to destroy the citadel without reinforcements from the Militarum. When the ranking commander of the battle group attempted to question the 5th Company's captain about the indiscriminate friendly fire, the only reply he received was "The flesh is weak."

The Space Marines set about their extermination of the heretics with the mechanical methodology typical of their progenitors, slowly encroaching on the citadel itself, which was now covered with blood and sacrifices to the Dark Gods. They hunted the inhabitants of the city through buildings and tunnels, marching relentlessly onwards, crushing the blood and ashes of innocent and insane alike beneath their armoured boots. In a matter of hours, no living thing remained in the city outside of the central citadel. Surrounded by the unfeeling Space Marines and the firepower of the Imperial Guard, the cowardly governor and his staff surrendered instantly and were herded into a somewhat untouched square by the Imperial forces, where they were executed by the Space Marines without trial. Before they could be questioned by the Imperial Guard commander again, however, the Lords of Cinder simply left the planet for the mortal soldiers to deal with.

In orbit, the two companies received communications from the Chapter fleet containing coordinates to rendezvous with them closer to their new home system, and when they arrived they discovered the Chapter was under attack by an incidental Ork Waaagh!

### Space WAAAGH! Boggasnaz(883.M35)

The 3rd and 5th companies arrive at the coordinates sent by their Chapter to discover the rest of the Lords of Cinder engaged in a massive void war against the Orks, alongside part of a Black Templar Crusade. The two Space Marine forces were woven together, ships descended from the Iron Hands and the Black Templars mixed together and hurtling around each other as they smashed into the Ork fleet. Upon viewing this scene through the ship's auspex, Stratogos was struck by a vision.

He stood in a long, sparsely-decorated hall. He wore only a training tunic, black as his armour. He caught a glimpse of his muscled forearm where the cuff of his sleeve stopped just before the burnished metal of his left hand. Disgust settled involuntarily at the base of his brain, where he could still feel such things. He sensed a presence behind him and turned to behold a truly gargantuan man, standing in golden auramite armour and carrying a sword which smoked and sparked. He was flanked on his right side by another figure, the same height, wearing black and silver armour which Stratogos' mind immediately recognised as Terminator armour. The first figure's skin was olive-brown, tanned and lined with immense age, and yet surged with youthful vigour. His head was wreathed with a crown of leaves, and yet Stratogos knew that it was somehow immensely heavy. The second figure was paler but of a more determinable complexion. His face looked as if it had been carved from granite. The pair stared down at Stratogos unwaveringly, and instinctively the Astartes knelt. He knew he recognised the two figures of myth, but his superhuman memory managed to fail him. The large golden man moved faster than Stratogos could track; instantly the sword flashed across his shoulders, in an ancient ritual motion the Space Marine barely understood. A powerful voice boomed through the barren hall.
"Rise." Stratogos surged to his feet, looking up at them, and the black-armoured man stepped forward. He held out a massive sword towards Stratogos, hilt-first as if it was weightless. The blade was blacker than obsidian, and very slightly thrummed with power as Stratogos' hand reached out to grasp it. He took the sword from the giant's hands and instinctively tested the weight of it, determining how best to wield it without the aid of his Power Armour. He glanced at the eyes of the pair - the giant who handed him the sword appeared approving, if taciturn, but the eyes of the golden lord were much more difficult to read. They seemed to shimmer and change through a million expressions and none. Stratogos attempted to analyse his face and gained nothing. Anything he appeared to discern changed almost instantly. The man's character itself was an impenetrable fortress of personality. Finally, Stratogos blinked, and the pair disappeared. He stood alone in the hall.

While he was unconscious, his ship collided with an Ork approximation of a Space Marine Drop Pod, and the Astartes on board were engaged in repelling the greenskin threat. The 5th Company, meanwhile, charged ahead into the fray and attempted to take apart the Ork ships and prevent more Orks from boarding their allies. Their ship was heavily damaged in the attempt, however, and they were unable to do much more than ram one of the smaller Ork vessels into another.

After a moment's waiting, he could discern the sound of Power Armour behind him and turned around to behold a Space Marine before him, wearing armour the colour of ashes. His forearms and greaves were almost white, and his shoulder displayed the heraldry of Stratogos' own Chapter, although the colours were unfamiliar to him. He shifted his balance as he turned fully, inclining his head in greeting, before he realised that the warrior before him entirely mimicked his own movements. He readied the sword before him, and his duplicate matched his posture exactly, wielding an identical blade. The two leapt at each other, and suddenly Stratogos was stood amidst a raging battle, surrounded on almost all sides by Orks. He watched as his Chapter Master and Reclusiarch, Telechon and Clymenus, battled a truly massive Ork. The hulking green monster buried its massive claw in Telechon's chest and dragged him off the ground and up to its snarling maw. Clymenus attempted to charge him, but the Ork smashed Clymenus into the ground with his other hand, roaring, before hurling Telechon's body to the horde of howling Orks. Stratogos released a roar of his own and charged...

...and surged to his feet in the Apothecarion. As this was happening, the 8th and 10th Companies were evacuating their dying vessels and regrouping aboard *Throneburner* when the Ork Warboss' ship crashed into it, and Chapter Master Telechon was drawn into a duel with Boggasnaz alongside the Chapter's Reclusiarch, Clymenus. The rest of the Chapter's forces onboard *Throneburner* dedicated themselves to the defense of the Apothecarion and the Librarium, whilst the Chapter Master and Reclusiarch alone defended the Reclusiam.

Stratogos marched to the bridge of the ship and demanded to be transported to *Throneburner*. Captain Acharion, who at the time was forming defense plans with a Black Templar Chaplain, initially denied this request, as the Champion was too valuable to the defence of the ship. He began to chastise Stratogos for his lack of logic, when he was stopped by the Chaplain, Carim. Carim stared into Stratogos' eyes from within his own skull-faced helm, judging him wordlessly, and advised Acharion to allow him to pass. The Captain, however, failed to see the logic and continued to refuse. Stratogos began detailing events of the attack aboard the *Throneburner* which had not been communicated but for a data inload, Acharion was still processing as they spoke. Stunned, Acharion gave him permission to commandeer a Thunderhawk and fly across to the capital ship. As Stratogos turned to leave, Carim stopped him, and after a moment's vox communication between him and his retinue, one of his accompanying Black Templars brought forth a relic sword, which Stratogos drew from its sheath without thinking, recognising immediately the obsidian blade. Within it, he could almost glimpse the reflection of Ferrus Manus' approving look. Another Black Templar began to uncoil a chain, but Stratogos had already turned and began marching towards the hangar.

Stratogos arrived on board *Throneburner* just as the tide of battle was beginning to turn; the Ork forces were beginning to thin out on board the ships, and further reinforcements were struggling to gain a foothold or even make it to the ships, as the 5th and 6th Company's ships were now forming a barrier of gunfire between the Ork fleet and the remnants of the Chapter fleet. Stratogos carved a burning path through the green tide on board the ship, navigating flawlessly to the Reclusiam, where Telechon and Clymenus still battled the Ork Warboss and his entourage. He arrived in time to join the battle, but too late to save the Chapter Master from the fate he saw in his vision - as he entered the hallowed hall he saw Telechon impaled upon the claw of the Ork's giant suit of mechanised armour, and was seized by righteous fury. Stratogos charged, bellowing litanies to the God-Emperor, the first of his Chapter to acknowledge the Master of Mankind as such, and duelled the monster even as the blood of his Chapter Master dripped from its claws, the dying hero's body being cast against a wall as the Ork lumbered to meet its new foe. Clymenus would later attest that Stratogos was haloed in golden fire and that he sustained wounds which would have killed any of his battle-brothers, and yet he fought on with determination bordering on the miraculous.

Eventually, after a gruelling duel, Stratogos beheaded Boggasnaz and he immediately turned his fury on the remaining Orks. After much more grudging warfare on board their own ships, the green horde were repelled entirely, their ships' engines failing to fire as the Astartes' vessels brought their full suite weapons to bear on the Orks. In the Reclusiam, as Stratogos lead the defense effort and takes command of 'Throneburner' in the absence of any other ranking Astartes, the dying Telechon confided to Clymenus that he wishes Stratogos to succeed him as Chapter Master. When the Orks were dead and the Chapter regrouped, Clymenus made this desire known to the remaining leadership of the Chapter, and although the Captain of the 2nd Company vocally objected, Acharion argued logically in Stratogos' favour, citing both his heroic actions in the fight against the Orks and the exceptional skill and dedication he had shown on Eridion VI. With this, Stratogos was elected as the second Chapter Master of the Lords of Cinder.

### Cinerum (887.M35)

The battle-weathered Chapter, now helmed by Stratogos, continued their journey towards their new position in the galaxy. Eventually, they arrived at the Kaustikos system, exiting the Warp at the edge of the system, within the asteroid belt. All remaining ships managed to survive the tempestuous entrance, but not without sustaining major damage. At last, however, the Lords of Cinder had arrived at their new home. They progressed to the centre of the system, establishing themselves upon the uninhabited world of Cinerum, and beginning the task of repairing and replenishing their numbers and their equipment, in addition to gathering crucial information about their new surroundings.

Over the four years it took for the damaged vessels to reach the Kaustikos system, the Chapter began to display a religious bent similar to the famed Black Templars. Under the leadership of Stratogos, and the guidance of Clymenus, the worship of the God-Emperor of Mankind slowly spread throughout the Chapter, and traditions began to arise based on the myth and legend of both the Emperor and Ferrus Manus. It was in those years that the Chapter's obsession with fire was cemented as a core element of their beliefs, and this was only exacerbated on Cinerum. The Lords of Cinder began to establish their fortress-monasteries across the system, with each Company having a fortress-monastery on their Company World, with the 1st Company having the honour of being based on Cinerum itself, although their fortress-monastery was big enough to house the entire Chapter if the need arose.

When the Chapter arrived on Cinerum, Chapter Master Stratogos held an austere funeral service for all of the members of the Chapter who died in pursuit of their homeworld, and their cremated ashes were scattered on the planet's surface, forever marking Cinerum as a world most sacred to the Chapter, and one they would give their lives to defend. The Chapter continued to serve the Imperium from Cinerum for millennia, forming a character of their own, somewhat like their brethren, and yet rendered apart from them by faith and tradition, although what bonds were allowed to remain were strong indeed between the Lords of Cinder and their parent Chapter. It was also then that they took command of their fortress-monastery on Cinerum, the Blackspire.

One of the traditions borne directly from the Iron Hands was leadership by the council, and shortly after their arrival on Cinerum, Stratogos established the Council of Embers to vote on future decisions and uphold their own distinct Calculus. The council's members were called Ember Bearers and were only admitted to the council upon climbing to the highest peak on Cinerum, the volcano Uraanis, and retrieving stone from its active lava cauldron, which was then ritually chained to their thigh. Members included Captains (now Wardens), the Chapter Master (now referred to as the Lord Warden), some Dreadnoughts (now called Ashen Lords), high-ranking members of the command branches and select Veterans. As their first act, the council re-elected Stratogos as Lord Warden.

### Terran Crusade (early M36)

While the Lords of Cinder were too distant from Holy Terra to join the Terran Crusade against the malevolent Goge Vandire, they still voiced support for the ascension of Sebastian Thor and his reformist movement, whilst maintaining their own interpretation of the Imperial Faith. Lord Warden Stratogos was particularly vocal out of the many Chapter Masters who voiced their support for Thor, as his reforms aimed to bring the Ecclesiarchy more in line with the Lords of Cinders' views on self-sacrifice, although not to the same sacrificial extreme. The Lords of Cinder were one of the few Chapters who were attacked by a regiment of the Imperial Guard who were fiercely loyal to Vandire and dared attack the Space Marines. For their heresy, the soldiers were slaughtered to a man, with no mercy extended at any point. Furthermore, the world from which this regiment had been raised was razed to the ground by the Lords of Cinder as penance for their production of heretics.

### Death of Stratogos (491.M36)

The warband of the Emperor's Children Legion, known as the Aetheric Blades, erupted on a world in a nearby system to the Lords of Cinder, and Lord Warden Stratogos acknowledged the severity of the situation by marshalling fully half of the Chapter's forces to go to the aid of the beleaguered planet. Upon arrival, he discovered that the planet had been entirely reaved of all life, and artistic renditions of dead Lords of Cinder had been painted upon the walls of the capital city's buildings in blood. The Heretic Astartes were nowhere to be seen. By this point Stratogos was succumbing to the gene-curse of the sons of Ferrus Manus, and his temperament was much colder and more calculated. He simply ordered his Chapter to leave the planet and return to Cinerum, suppressing any anger that remained at the goading of the Chaos Space Marines, until they received a message from another nearby world calling for aid from any nearby Imperial forces, as they were under attack by Space Marines.

Stratogos' crusade continued, arriving on this world, Caecilian, to find the Aetheric Blades in the midst of massacring the planet in a debased display of sadistic pleasure. Stratogos ordered his Chapter forces to remain in orbit beyond the atmosphere, blockading the planet's surface, whilst the Aetheric Blades massacred the population. Soon, the distress calls began to die out, and only then did Stratogos permit his forces to make planetfall, as he himself went to seek out the warband's leader. With his Veteran bodyguard, he found the Blades' leader, a Chaos Lord named Vokris, drinking the blood of the citizens. As Stratogos's Veterans engaged Vokris' Chosen, the two warriors clashed together between the buildings and fought bitterly to the death. When the Veterans were reinforced by their battle-brothers and fought off the Chosen, they searched through the rubble and found a mortally wounded Stratogos, but no Vokris, and Stratogos could not recall where Vokris had gone.

Stratogos was stabilised somewhat by an Apothecary until he could be interred within the armoured body of a Dreadnought to fight for his Chapter another day. He was replaced by the Council of Embers by a high-ranking Chaplain known as Coranis Kulaan. It was also at this point in the Chapter's history that the Chapter's names began to change, based on the stages of the funeral of Stratogos, as a point of honour done unto him by his successor.

### Exterminatus Hyperion (574.M41)

Lord Warden Makirion led a mixed task force composed of elements from across the Chapter on the third world of the Kaustikos System, Hyperion, against the Genestealer uprising there within the Hive Cities. Whilst the remainder of the Chapter was scouting for the incoming Tyranid Hive Fleet or dealing with other threats, such as Drukhari piracy, Stratogos and his forces drew out the cultists from the depths of the hive cities, silently marching through the hallways with blazing flamers to burn them out from their hiding places. The Vigil Company scouts proved themselves invaluable, as they hunted the cultists through the tightest of corridors in their lighter and slimmer armour, and chased them into the firing lines of their fully-augmented battle-brothers. Eventually, down in the deepest pits of the hive-cities, they encountered the Purestrain Genestealer brood which had been directing the cult and, although their forces were depleted, calculations suggested that they had enough resources to end the Genestealer threat. As such, the Lords of Cinder continued their extermination campaign, enacting a scorched earth policy against the inhabitants of the planet and slaughtering anyone they came across as they descended into the depths of the hive.

The majority of on-planet forces were killed in the process of hunting and killing the Genestealer brood, but Makirion and twelve line squads of battle-brothers survived bearing a variety of weapons, as well as two squads apiece of Vanguard and Sternguard Veterans, two Apothecaries and a single Librarian. As the Astartes climbed to the planet's surface caked in gore and filth, the psyker collapsed to his knees, doubling over, before suddenly releasing an ear-splitting roar of "WAAAAAAAAGH!!" and flailing hard enough to break his own neck; this heralded the arrival of WAAAGH! Snobzog.

Waaaagh! Snobzog was of such an angle incident on the Kaustikos system that the Orks ran directly to Hyperion. They landed on the planet just as the Chapter reinforcements were able to recall back to the system, leaving just the forces on Hyperion to hold out for seven days until the remaining Lords of Cinder could reinforce and relieve them. Forces from the Sisters of Battle prepared to garrison the rest of the system should the Orks divert their attention, whilst the Lords of Cinder held bitterly against the Orks. With no capacity to leave the planet and the perfect distraction to prevent the Orks from redirecting towards a more valuable planet, Makirion and his remaining forces fortified and waited in one of the cavernous cities, broadcasting challenges to the Orks to lure them deeper into the hive.

This tactic was extremely successful, but after four days of constant guerilla warfare all of the remaining Astartes were depleted of all of their ammunition, their melee weapons clogged with gore and blunted against rockcrete and bone, and their armour cracked and broken and losing function. They resorted to beating the Orks apart with their bare hands and using Ork melee weapons for as long as they could whenever they could recover them. By now the surface of the planet was crawling with Orks, who continued to hunt after any cultists which escaped the eyes of the Space Marines as they waited to barrel down into the Hive city after the final few Astartes. WAAAGH!! Snobzog contained an unusually high volume of Weirdboyz, and with their only Librarian dead, the Space Marine forces on Hyperion were sorely pressed to combat the psychic warfare against them.

By the seventh day, only one squad, a single Vanguard Veteran and Makirion were alive. The Lords of Cinder fleet arrived and immediately began preparing more and more forces and vehicles for the battle, and were awakening Dreadnoughts to fight on the surface, when the order came from Makirion, deep within the Hive city, to decree Exterminatus on Hyperion, destroying the planet entirely. He knew that the chapter, having been bled dry from numerous other conflicts, did not have the manpower to throw off WAAAGH! Snobzog without excessive casualties. As such, he ordered them to kill the world and destroy the remaining Orks in orbit. The Lord Warden's vox abruptly went silent in the midst of confirming the order, but The Council of Embers quickly ratified it themselves, and Hyperion was shattered from orbit as the Lords of Cinder fleet turned on the Ork ships and began barraging them in the void.

### WAAAGH! Snozbog (576.M41)

The full might of the Lords of Cinder Chapter now crashed against Waaagh! Snobzog in orbit, in addition to fighting amongst the wreckage of what was once Hyperion. With their Lord Warden dead, in the moments between clashes with the Orks the Council of Embers began to debate who should succeed Makirion from their command thrones. However, the void war against the Orks ground on, and the fighting was incredibly bitter, and the rapidly depleting Astartes forces could not back out of this fight, as the Orks were progressing towards Cinerum. Ship after ship were mercilessly sacrificed to the advancing Ork horde to delay them, and in the process of doing so the Council was whittled down in number until there were more of its members within Dreadnoughts than without. Furthermore, no suitable living candidate had yet presented himself to the Council to take leadership of the Chapter and organise the defence effort.

The fighting was brought to the moons of Hykonia, amongst the shattered ruins of shrines and tombs located there. As the war dragged on, and the Lords of Cinder began to be able to hold back the Orks as they fought on preferred ground, the Council of Embers debated still over who should lead the Chapter. By now the leadership of the Chapter was severely depleted, and as a result, the various companies were losing coherency as errors of miscommunication and tactics tore at the discipline of the Chapter. The well-oiled war machine of the Astartes was breaking down under the intense pressure of the Ork assault. As there were no living brothers who could prove adept enough, logic dictated they must look to the dead. In 577.M41, the remaining Lords of Cinder leaders did something unprecedented. They voted unanimously to elect a Dreadnought as "Ashen Lord Warden". As they sought to determine whom to wake, the Techmarines of the Chapter discovered a sarcophagus in the most ancient crypts of the fortress-monastery on Cinerum, the still-living body of a hero revered by the Chapter for millennia, and immediately they began the rituals to return him to their most venerated chassis, a holy body of iron and hatred fit for only the greatest of legends, and given to the Chapter millennia past by the Black Templars themselves.

As the Orks overran the defences at Hykonia, the Lords of Cinder Companies who were still coherent enough to function regrouped on Cinerum. The Techmarines in the bowels of the fortress-monastery were struggling to awaken a Dreadnought so ancient, who had slumbered for so long, as the Astartes awaited the final defence of their homeworld. As the first greenskins set foot on the holy surface of Cinerum, the Dreadnought chassis finally rumbled to life, and immediately marched to war against the hated xenos, taking command of his Chapter once again.

Stratogos had returned.

The ancient Ashen Lord began taking stock of his forces and communicating plans for the defense of their homeworld even as he fought the Ork horde on the plains beyond the fortress-monastery, the blistering heat of the sun barely affecting his immortal body as he thundered into the midst of the Waaagh!. Under his ancient guidance and wisdom, the Lords of Cinder began to punish the Orks even as they first landed on their holy ground. They battered back the tide of green with merciless, relentless gunfire, sacrificing multiple squads of Astartes to ensure the Orks' destruction was absolute. Stratogos' giant body became a walking shrine of war and death as he constantly battled, all the while communicating with whoever was left to take charge of the rest of the defences, as well as the fleet commanders in whatever ships remained.

Finally, Snobzog himself made landfall on Cinerum and was met in battle by Stratogos and the current highest-ranking living officer of the Chapter, the Iron Lieutenant, Boras Nakhon. The lieutenant, flanked by Veteran Astartes, engaged Snobzog's followers while Stratogos fought against Snobzog himself. Stratogos' warlike body of iron and ceramite clashed against the junked-up steel armour and immense Ork musculature, and the two pummeled each other with weapons and gargantuan fists. Boras battled on with a relic chainsword, known as *Teeth of Flame*, and a power fist, monitoring the life signs of his coterie as he dissected the Orks which appeared before him when he noticed his link to Stratogos had been severed. As he looked over, he watched Snobzog punch his Power Klaw through the Ashen Lord Warden's chest and rip the holy sarcophagus from its housing.

Boras, watching on as the Dreadnought's body toppled to the ground, felt the final flames of hope within him gutter out and die, and a cold hatred settled in its place. He turned, stalking towards the gloating Ork, who rounded to face him and swung the same Power Klaw at him. It met the Iron Lieutenant's power fist and shattered, as Boras ducked under the Ork's other swinging arm and drove *Teeth of Flame* up into its bare chest. He drove the sword down, bogging its teeth down in gore and bone as he yanked it forward, pulling the Ork off-balance and thundering his power fist into Snobzog's armoured head, turning it to green paste, showering his grey armour.

The Orks shortly began to rout at the death of their leader, and the Iron Lieutenant rallied the remains of the Chapter together to purge the Orks from the system. With hatred cooling in their twin hearts the Space Marines undertook a gruelling war against the green horde, avenging their world and their Lord Warden, and broke the Ork Waaagh! mercilessly. No Ork ship escaped the system. It is still recorded as the Chapter's most effective campaign of extermination to date.

When the killing was finished, the remnants of the Chapter came together in the depths of the Blackspire, amidst the remains of their dead, and began the process of rebuilding their Chapter. Few of the Council of Embers remained, so as a unanimous decision the Chapter voted to create the Conclave of the Burned, the emergency council of only Ashen Lords, and charged them with electing the first few members of the Council of Embers and, most crucially, a new Lord Warden. After much deliberation, the Conclave elected Boras Nakhon as Lord Warden.

### The Damocles Crusade (746.M41)

The Lords of Cinder sent their Iron Company, under the command of the Forge Warden due to the Iron Warden's recent death to the Necrons, to the Damocles Crusade against the emergent T'au Empire, wherein they fought alongside the Iron Hands once again. They were severely outgunned by the T'au battlesuits and outmanoeuvred by the undiscovered numbers of the T'au, but their tactical acumen and grinding determination helped them to deal significant damage to the T'au Fire Warriors, until eventually, the Calculus deemed the conflict unsupportable and the Lords of Cinder pulled out. Fighting alongside the Iron Hands, however, re-established dwindling relations between the two Chapters, leading to some members of the Lords of Cinder being sent to train on Medusa.

### The Great Rift (999.M41)

With the fall of Cadia and the opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum, the Lords of Cinder were beset once again by Drukhari raiders across the Kaustikos system, and the Astartes rose to battle them despite continually dwindling populations on their planets and therefore reduced numbers of Astartes. A gene-blight had also struck their Apothecarion some ten years prior, further exacerbating this issue. They were dangerously lacking in Astartes reinforcements already, yet they managed to hold out the Drukhari raiders across the system.

The Great Rift across the galaxy passed dangerously close to the Kaustikos system, however, and legions of Daemons began to pour out of it and hurtle towards the Lords of Cinder's homeworld. Hordes of Neverborn began to pour over all of the worlds under the Space Marine's dominion, but despite their lacking numbers they could have dealt with the threat. Combined with the persistent needling of the Drukhari, however, even the grinding attrition warfare of the Astartes began to falter. Lord Warden Nakhon began to order increased formations of Sanctifier squads to purge the daemonic threat, but the daemonic horde was endless.

Furthermore, Chapter reinforcement ships were struggling to make it back from other systems due to interference with Warp travel and the lack of light from the Astronomican. This forced them to travel in short warp jumps, which slowed them down so drastically that by the time they made it home, their battle-brothers would all have been long dead.

The Lords of Cinder had been forced back from the edges of their system, and now half of the worlds they had sworn to protect were being reaved of all life by daemons. By now the Drukhari had lost interest in the system and had fled before the appearance of Daemonettes on the battlefield, and the Lords of Cinder could only buckle down to withstand the storm of Chaos as it raged against them. As the Daemonic fleet crossed the void towards Helleros, however, a single ship arrived out of the Warp and hurtled towards Cinerum.

Alarms blared throughout the fortress-monastery as the ship sped towards the planet, when the vox-channel to the ship opened, and a Custodian spoke to the Lord Warden. The Torchbearer fleet of Roboute Guilliman's Ultima Crusade had arrived.

In short order the Primaris Lords of Cinder began reinforcing their Firstborn brethren, quickly adopting the markings and heraldries of their new companies and loyalties, as well as the strange blend of faith and logic practiced by their brothers. Similarly, the Lords of Cinder began to adapt to make use of Cawl's new weapons and formations, and deep in the Apothecarion preparations began to be made to start converting Firstborn brothers to Primaris.

## Notable Campaigns

* **Medusan Bleeding (876.M35)** - The Lords of Cinder, as barely a single company, fight alongside the Iron Hands against a band of Drukhari pirates.
* **Telenoi Genocide (879.M35)** - The Lords of Cinder are deceived by xenos and commit their first campaign of extermination. The entire xenos species is made extinct within a year.
* **The Molten Citadel (882.M35)** - Rite and Black Companies stomp out a Chaos cult, inadvertently massacring their Astra Militarum allies in the process.
* **The Draining of Mortian (283.M36)** - The Lords of Cinder battle the a Chaos Space Marine warband, and Lord Warden Stratogos is interred within the shell of a Dreadnought, becoming an Ashen Lord.
* **Burning of Konor (411.M36)** - Ash Company reinforces Forge Company in crushing the Separatist movement in the Konor system. This marks the first occasion that Ashen Lords are deployed en masse, led by Stratogos himself, who is revered by every Lord of Cinder.
* **Sadism and Arson (904.M36)** - Iron Company reinforces the Molten Fists' 2nd Company, which suffers heavy losses when trying to repel a Drukhari raid on the Imperial world of Kirt.
* **Space Hulk Aprogor (959.M36)** - A Terminator complement from Tomb Company scavenges a Space Hulk, walking into a battle between Aeldari and Drukhari forces. The Aeldari attempt to enlist the aid of the Space Marines, but the Terminators heed not the heresy of the xenos, and fire upon both sides. No salvage can be completed, and most of the Terminators are killed, although their armour and wargear is mostly recovered.
* **Going Dark (308.M37)** - Four squads of Vigil Company are deployed against insurgents who have boarded the *Hand of the Throneworld*. By sneaking through the ventilation ducts to assassinate key leaders of the rebellion, the entire insurgency is crushed within six hours.
* **Breaking the Greentide (742.M37)** Ember Company, Iron Company and Black Company deploy alongside a Black Templar Crusade and members of the Order of the Valorous Heart to impede Waaagh! Grotsnitz at the barely-colonised Lilithan system. Despite severe doctrinal differences, the three forces are joined together by their faith, allowing them to work together efficiently enough to slaughter the Orks across the system, eliminating the threat to Holy Terra.
* **The Torch Flickers Out (119.M38)** As Rite Company wage a brutal war against the Death Guard far from home, their Torch Company reinforcement fleet suddenly goes missing. As a result, the entirety of Rite Company is exterminated by the servants of Nurgle. When their disappearance is investigated, Torch Company is found to have been slaughtered to a man, bearing the telltale signs of Asuryani weaponry.
* **The Purifying Torch (654.M38)** The Lord Warden receives a request from a nearby system to aid them in stamping out a Chaos cult. The Chief Librarian takes squads from Tomb, Black, Forge, Pyre and Vigil companies and sets off. On the journey, under the advice of the Reclusiarch accompanying the detachment, he creates the experimental "Sanctor" rank of Librarians and begins their specialised training progam. The Sanctors prove extremely effective against the taint of Chaos, and their rank is formalised upon the detachment's return to the Blackspire.

## Chapter Homeworld: Cinerum

The registered Chapter world of the Lords of Cinder chapter of Space Marines. It is held as sacred by them, and the ashes of dead battle-brothers are scattered on its surface. The planet is completely inhospitable outside the fortress-monastery due to the intense heat and thin atmosphere. Very few besides the Lords of Cinder have ever been allowed to set foot upon its surface, as the chapter often receives other chapters and visitors at one of their fortress-monasteries on the other worlds of the system, if at all. Despite not technically having ownership of the entire system, the chapter are often deferred to in all matters of governance, should they choose to act. They are often considered the system’s guardians and stewards, and few in the system dare to openly defy them. Cinerum has one moon, which is equally lifeless and acts as a store of the Chapter’s excess munitions, when they have them.

There are three structures of note on Cinerum:

## Chapter Organisation

### Officer Ranks

* **The Conclave of the Burned**
A specialist council of Dreadnoughts convened in times of emergency with ultimate authority over the Chapter.
* **The Council of Embers**
The leading Chapter Council, who elect a Chapter Master as the voice of the Chapter.
* **Ember Bearer**
Members of the Chapter Council. Any battle-brother may be elected to the Council, wherein they must travel on foot across Cinerum to recover a stone from the volcano which is exactly opposite to the Chapter's fortress-monastery. This stone is then ritually chained to the bearer's thigh.
* **Lord Warden**
The Chapter Master of the Lords of Cinder, and the only living battle-brother whose armour is painted entirely the same ash-white as the Ashen Lords.
* **Company Wardens**
The Warden, adjacent to the codex "Captain", of each company takes on the name of the company, i.e. the Warden of the 1st Company is called the Tomb Warden. Each captain also holds a specific role in the funeral process when funerals can be held for dead battle-brothers.
* **Company Lieutenants**
Each company's Lieutenants take the company's name like their Warden, and also possess roles in the funeral process.
* **Ashen Lord**
The chapter's name for their Dreadnoughts.

### Specialist Ranks

* **Master Celebrant**
A high rank in the order of Chaplains, twin in authority with the Reclusiarch, the Master Celebrant has the responsibility of organising the funerals of battle-brothers according to their station, as well as conducting the majority of funeral services for younger battle-brothers.
* **Sanctor**
A fourth rank within the Librarius, existing between Codicier and Epistolary. Sanctors' focus lies in warding and shielding the bodies and souls of the Chapter, living or dead. They work closely with the Chaplaincy, often choosing to spend time as Judiciars, forsaking even their psychic powers, in order to enhance their faith and therefore empower themselves before moving to the rank of Epistolary.

### Specialist Units & Formations

* **Living Entombed**
Squads of Centurions are called the "Living Entombed" by their brothers, and often fight alongside both veterans in Terminator armour and Dreadnoughts as part of heavily-armoured shock assault detachments.
* **Sanctifiers**
A name applied to a variety of formations, which can include any of the following elements: Gravis, Tacticus or Terminator armour, flamer or melta weaponry, and being led by either a Chaplain or a Sanctor-rank Librarian.

### Order of Battle

#### Headquarters

*Order of Battle circa 999.M41*
 Armoury
 **Artur Koran***Master of the Forge*TechmarinesTech-servitorsBattle TanksGunshipsCenturion WarsuitsLand SpeedersAssault BikesInvader ATVsTactical Warsuits

#### Companies

 1st Company
 ***"Tomb Company"*****Tomb Warden***Master of the Keep*Tomb LieutenantsSepulchran GuardSpace Marine VeteransAshen Lords
 Reserve Companies
 6th Company
 ***"Ash Company"*****Ashen Warden***Master of the Marches*Ashen LieutenantsCommand SquadBattleline SquadsAshen Lords

## Chapter Culture & Beliefs

### Chapter Culture

#### Medusan Myth

The origins of the Lords of Cinder's obsession with flame and purification lie in ancient Medusan myths surrounding the life of Ferrus Manus. Specifically, it pertains to the tale of how the stoic Primarch fought the silver wyrm and gained his metallic flesh on his hands and forearms.

The legend, as told in the Canticle of Travels, states that the wyrm Asirnoth was terrorising the clans of Medusa, and the noble Ferrus Manus determined to slay the beast. He hunted the creature through the ruins, stalking it across the world, until finally, the two came to blows. However, despite Manus' prodigious strength, his blows did not even dent the wyrm's unyielding hide, and the battle between the two took them across continents, land and sea, and up into the mountains. All the while, the Primarch refused to yield or even flinch at the beast's attacks and eventually sought to drown Asirnoth in a lake of magma. The wyrm thrashed, and Manus' hands burned awfully, yet the Primarch did not so much as grimace and simply waited for Asirnoth to die. Eventually, the creature did, and when Ferrus Manus removed his hands from the molten rock they were coated in the same unbreakable steel as the wyrm's hide, flexible and yet impervious to damage or injury.

From this tale the Lords of Cinder draw the concept of the purifying flame, and how it remade Ferrus Manus' hands of flesh in the immortal strength of Asirnoth's hide. This capacity of fire, to burn away weakness and imperfection, would become incredibly important to the Lords of Cinder when they began their process of converting to the Imperial Cult.

#### Inheritance from the Xth Legion

The Lords of Cinder retain a number of cultural aspects from their progenitor chapter, such as their particular devotion to the Machine God and His servants, as well as the Iron Hands' grim demeanour and way of thinking. They maintain a culture of tightly controlled and suppressed emotion, despite feeling intense grief at the death of their Primarch, which they would later come to express in all of their intensely ritualistic funeral processes. This level of repression thoroughly colours their aspect of faith, and they are notably puritanical about their religious places and ceremonies, exceptional in this regard even amongst the already austere Space Marines.

Also inherited from the Iron Hands is the concept of governance by council rather than by a singular Chapter Master - although the Council of Embers do still elect a Lord Warden in a similar manner to the Iron Council electing a Chapter Master. The Iron Hands also passed on a particular veneration of Dreadnoughts, upon which the Lords of Cinder have thoroughly expanded, creating a second emergency council of Ashen Lords called the Conclave of the Burned to lead the Chapter in times of excessive danger.

Finally, the Lords of Cinder perform a version of the Calculum Rationale, although significantly more superstition is now involved in the variables of the Calculum. Battle-Brothers spend an unusual quantity of simulator time reviewing sermons and services from Chaplains, as well as spiritually significant moments from their own lives and the lives of others. The most viewed moment is the vision recorded by Lord Warden Stratogos on Cinerum, which he witnessed during Space Waaagh! Boggasnaz.

#### Cult of Cinders

The Imperial Faith was passed to the Lords of Cinder early in their development, even before they reached their homeworld of Cinerum. Yet, it took a long time to propagate throughout the entire Chapter to the extent that it now does, as the Lords of Cinder originally possessed a mindset extremely similar to that of the Iron Hands. Over centuries of war, however, and generations upon generations of battle-brothers, the Imperial Cult slowly but surely spread through the Chapter, integrating itself with the Chapter's internal repressed grief and their obsession with purity and fire.

The Lords of Cinder suffer a similar curse as their progenitors, seeing their flesh as weak and abhorrent, despising themselves for it. As such, they burn or melt off parts of their anatomy and replace them with bionic parts, becoming ever more machine-like, and full of cold hatred. This forms an intense contrast between younger battle-brothers, whose hearts still burn with the flames of grief pain and hatred, on which they must clamp tight and force control, and the older chapter members whose emotions are colder, more calculated, settling like cooling iron in their minds and becoming unshakeable. The Lords of Cinder also practice self-flagellation via burning for their perceived weaknesses, with punishments being assigned by squad leaders or by Chaplains and taken without reaction or argument.

The sheer brutalism of the Chapter's faith contrasts strongly with the complex and precise ritual of their funeral processes, which are incredibly culturally important to the Chapter. A core tenet of their beliefs is in the ultimate purification of their souls in death, through the cremation of any remaining flesh. The immense grief shouldered by every Lord of Cinder grows yet heavier for every battle-brother who dies and is not cremated, seeing it as the greatest of punishments that their brothers should be tethered to the weakness of the flesh when brought before the God-Emperor in death. Culturally, this has evolved into the Lords of Cinder venerating the funeral process and the transition through it, from the vigil to the funeral pyre, to ashes and dust, and into a tomb.

#### Funerary Rites

When a battle-brother dies and his body is recovered, he is eventually returned to the Chapter fortress of his company, or to the Blackspire if he is from the command branches. His body is displayed, armed and armoured, in the Hall of Remembrance, for one standard Terran day per year he served the Chapter and the God-Emperor. When this period has elapsed, the body is taken to the Apothecarion, where in the presence of a member of the Chaplaincy or a Sanctor his armour and wargear are ritually and solemnly stripped from him, beginning with the removal of his weapons and ending with the removal of his helmet. The brother's gene-seed is then carefully extracted by Apothecaries if this was not already done on the battlefield. The armour and wargear are reverently returned to the Reclusiam and the armouries after being blessed by both a Chaplain and a Techmarine. At the same time, the bodies of the dead, shrouded in ash-grey cloth, are arranged in the fortress' largest sermon hall where a service is held in honour of the dead Space Marines. The sermon cools the burning hearts of the assembled brothers, teaching them to honour the death of their brothers and to hate them for their weakness. Once this service has been held the bodies are cremated, and the ashes are forged into a steel cylinder which is stored in the walls of the deep catacombs beneath each fortress or are stored in barrows across the asteroid field ringing the system in the case of Vigil Company.

#### Ashen Lords

If a battle-brother of particular note survives a near-mortal wound, he is interred in a Dreadnought sarcophagus in a ritual known as "The Dying of the Fire". What little remains of the hallowed flesh of the Astartes is cut away, and grafted over with machine parts, before the body is ritually blackened with a very intense flame, nearly killing the already near-dead hero. His remains are interred within the balm and confinement of a Dreadnought sarcophagus, to wait until he is called to war once again. To become an Ashen Lord, although painful beyond reckoning, is one of the most hallowed rituals of the Lords of Cinder, and the process is observed with an abject lack of emotion or reaction from any participants, including the Ashen Lord himself. So honoured are the Ashen Lords that living Wardens have been known to defer to orders given by Ashen Lords whom they outranked in life.

#### Ember Bearers

The Council of Embers admits new members by debate and vote, on recommendations from a sitting Ember Bearer. A battle-brother who has been deemed worthy by the Council of Embers is required to make a pilgrimage across the lifeless surface of Cinerum, passing through various monuments and places of religious significance to the Chapter, and climb the highest volcano on the world, Uraanis, in a symbolic gesture of climbing the ice spire of Karaashi on Medusa, where Ferrus Manus landed millennia prior. At the top of Uraanis, they must gather a cooled piece of molten rock, the planet's core, and ritually chain it to their thigh. Then they must return to the Blackspire, wherein they may join the Council properly.

### Joining the Chapter

The Lords of Cinder recruit from all of the populated worlds in the Kaustikos system: Roth, Hykonia and Kaustikos I and II. Because of their unofficial position as governors of the system, the Lords of Cinder maintain the right to arrive on a planet and test the youth for candidates at almost any time, and to take suitable aspirants to be trained without resistance. Any who try are quickly slaughtered for their heresy.

Here the training of the Aspirants begins. A single battle-brother, unarmoured, faces down all of the gathered aspirants from a recruiting group and orders them to fight him. Their only objective, he tells them, is to survive. Any who flee are shot by watching battle-brothers, while the Chaplain evaluates the ability and tactics of the aspirants. They are not expected to have any chance of winning. This encounter teaches the mentor Astartes about the calibre and nature of the recruits and also teaches the aspirants what they are expected, in fact, required, to become. Then, the aspirants are brought to Cinerum, to the Blackspire. They are given Carapace armour and ordered to march to but the first waypoint on the path to Uraanis. They are left alone in their task, supervised only by an unspeaking Chaplain who marches with them. Most aspirants die on this path, their corpses left to burn in the sun, their armour to be reclaimed by serfs. Some have their bodies fail them, their minds willing to continue on but their weak flesh unwilling - these are evaluated by the Chaplain, and if he deems them useful enough they are recovered by the Chapter to serve as serfs. Any aspirants with the strength and willpower to survive this brutal pilgrimage are inducted into Vigil Company as neophytes, and the process of their augmentation, indoctrination and training begins.

The lives of neophytes are similar to that of any other chapter, save for the increased focus on religious services and observances. They continue to act as part of the Scout squads as they grow and become enhanced, leaving their mortality behind and passing through the first of many crucibles in which a true Lord of Cinder is formed. When a neophyte is finally ready to join the Chapter as a fully-fledged battle-brother, his left hand is removed in a cauldron of lava and replaced with a bionic prosthetic, while the neophyte is watched intently by a Sanctor Librarian for any physical or spiritual admission of pain. Should he pass the test, the neophyte is inducted into the Lords of Cinder.

### Holy Days and Traditions

#### Holy Days

* **Resurrection** - Every ten standard Terran years, the Lords of Cinder gather to the Blackspire in solemn prayer and worship to recognise the day that Ashen Lord Warden Stratogos returned from death to lead his Chapter in war once again, and the deliverance from weakness that he brought them. This period of worship lasts two Terran Days, after which the Lords of Cinder enter a four-day mourning period, commemorating the loss of Stratogos not once, but twice. This event is always solemn and black of mood and casts a shadow over any of the Chapter's recent achievements in the eyes of the Astartes.
* **Pilgrimage** - Whenever the Lords of Cinder send battle-brothers of theirs to study and train with the Adepts of Mars or the Iron Hands, there is a solemn gathering of squads from which the pilgrims are pulled. No goodbyes are said, no words are exchanged, but the rest of the Chapter is expected to observe silent prayer to the God-Emperor on Pilgrimage days while continuing about their duties; even when at war.

#### Traditions

* **Emperor's Champion** - in a tradition borrowed from allied Chapters, namely the Black Templars and the Molten Fists, the Lords of Cinder occasionally produce an Emperor's Champion (also sometimes called "Arbiters" after their armour), although the occasion is rare indeed and is often cause for celebration - at least, as close as the Lords of Cinder can get. When, on the eve of battle, a Lord of Cinder is granted a vision not unlike that experienced by Stratogos many millennia ago, he is assessed personally by the Master of Sanctity and either the Master Celebrant or Reclusiarch, the Chief Apothecary and the Chief Librarian. With their assent that he is truthful and of sound mind, body and soul, the Champion is given the black *Armour of the Arbiter* and the relic blade *Covenant*, two of the most treasured relics of the Chapter, to carry with him to battle. Should the Emperor's Champion fall in battle, titanic effort will be made by the Chapter to recover his body, and his funeral will always be held in the Blackspire. Additionally, there is a separate chamber in the catacombs beneath the Blackspire for Emperor's Champions, called the "Hall of the Arbiters". A legend exists amongst the populations of the various planets in the Kaustikos system that, should Terra ever be in true danger, the Arbiters of the past will return as black ghosts wreathed in golden flame, and will fly to Terra to defend the God-Emperor who chose them. Should an Emperor's Champion be mortally wounded but not outright killed, he may be interred within an especially revered Dreadnought sarcophagus, wherein he becomes the only Ashen Lord not painted in white; instead he retains the black of his former armour, and his metallic parts are plated in bronze, making Emperor's Champions striking figures, living or dead.
* **Bionic Replacement** - Like their Medusan cousins, the Lords of Cinder practice replacing their organic parts with bionic augmentations, believing that doing so makes them stronger and more pure, devoid of the weaknesses of the flesh. This extends to the Iron Hands' "Forgechain" augmetic, and although the Lords of Cinder call it the "Mark of Cinders", the intent and construction process remains the same - a spinal augmetic with a link forged by and from each Company a battle-brother passes through.

## Chapter Gene-Seed

The Lords of Cinder's gene-seed was taken from the Iron Hands and used in the 17th Founding after rigorous testing from the Adeptus Mechanicus on the orders of the High Lords of Terra. The Lords of Cinder's strain of gene-seed is of similar purity to that of their progenitor, and it is theorised that this may have contributed to the two Chapters' shared temperament, especially seen in their older battle-brothers. They have no missing organs, although the gene-seed of the Lords of Cinder has an interesting side-effect when interacting with psykers - their irises change from whatever colour they were before, becoming an unnerving shining silver shot through with gold. This has not been explained by the Adeptus Mechanicus or the Lords of Cinder.

### Primarch's Curse: Steel over Flesh

When the Chapter's gene-curse manifests itself in an afflicted battle-brother, its symptoms come in three stages:

* **Stage 1 - A Disdain for Flesh:** The battle-brother perceives his own flesh as a hindrance. Scarring or burning the biological portions of his body is the only way to soothe his rage.
* **Stage 2 - Cold Fury:** The ruthlessness of the Lords of Cinder manifests more strongly in the battle-brother, making him prone to aggression. The Battle-Brother must summon forth all his considerable willpower when confronted by an enemy or by something he considers "weak;" failure means that the battle-brother's fury is released in some way, most likely causing a feud, confrontation, or escalating into open violence.
* **Stage 3 - Zero Tolerance:** All Lords of Cinder abhor weakness, but the battle-brother has taken this attitude to an extreme. The battle-brother will seek to remove any perceived source of weakness, to the point of refusing to fight alongside allied forces such as the Astra Militarum -- in extreme cases, even entering into open conflict with an allied but mortal force.

## Chapter Combat Doctrine

The Lords of Cinder go to war belching fumes from vehicles, war engines and burning promethium. They move along carefully-calculated lines factoring in the rate at which fires will spread amongst anything in their way as they march inexorably towards the foe. Buildings, fortifications and enemy hordes are all reduced to slag and cinders through the liberal use of flamers and meltaguns, with heavily armoured (and heavily augmented) shock troops marching through the flames as harbingers of doom.

When the Lords of Cinder go to war, their advance is slow and brutal, individual squads shifting and moving mechanically to express a precise battle plan bespokely calculated to annihilate whatever faces them. They make extensive use of transports and armour to apply excessive force at the enemy's weak points, as well as to secure the position of key assets on the battlefield. They are also well-known for their regular use of Dreadnoughts on the battlefield, who act both as bastions of firepower or destructive physical might and also an inspiring and symbolic sight for all Imperial forces who fight alongside them. This is yet another carefully-calculated move by the Lords of Cinder; placing the impetus of faith behind the already formidable force of the Imperial war machine.

## Deathwatch Service

The Lords of Cinder have long maintained strong links to the Deathwatch, considering it a true crucible of the warrior and a righteous act to dedicate one's life to the fight against the xenos. Lords of Cinder who join the Deathwatch are often notably effective kill-team members but struggle greatly in working with brothers from other chapters due to their cultural isolation and hatred of what they perceive as weakness, which is in fact only a difference in culture or tactical speciality. In the most extreme cases it can take over a century for a Lords of Cinder battle-brother to fully enmesh with his kill-team and begin to accept and compensate for the apparent "weaknesses" of their brothers.

When a Lord of Cinder is selected to join the Deathwatch, his armour is ritually painted black by serfs while his brothers gather around him in prayer. He is given a new bolter, specially forged for Deathwatch battle-brothers, and is sent on his way without a word. Every Lord of Cinder who is commended to the Deathwatch is also an Ember Bearer, having had to complete the pilgrimage as a test of their faith and determination beyond the usual hatred of the xenos. This ember remains chained to the battle-brother's thigh even throughout his time in the Deathwatch, and on more than one occasion a Deathwatch brother of a dead Lord of Cinder has taken up their brother's ember after their death, a tradition which, while not welcomed by the Lords of Cinder, is accepted.

## Chapter Relics

* ***Armour of the Arbiter*** - Special reverently decorated power armour used by the Emperor's Champion
* ***Covenant*** - The relic power sword used by the Emperor's Champion
* ***Teeth of Flame*** - Lord Warden Boras Nakhnon's relic chainsword
* ***Hand of Stratogos*** - The relic power fist that Boras Nakhon used to kill Snobzog when he was an Iron Lieutenant.

## Notable Quotes

### About the Lords of Cinder:

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

[Source]