Blackshield

"*We were stars of the morning once. Now we are stars that fell and the whole world shall burn in the crater we create.*"
— Unknown Blackshield, formerly of the Morning Stars Legion

A **Blackshield** is a term that came to be used during the period of the galaxy-wide Heresy in the early 31st Millennium to cover a wide range of Space Marine outcast, renegades, marauders and those Legiones Astartes of uncertain allegiances or origin. For such ill-fated warriors, an aura of mystery and suspicion often attached themselves, regardless of their true loyalties or intentions. In contrast to the larger Insurgos, who often declared themselves the true inheritors of their parent Legion's legacy and retained a clear variant of their old colours, Blackshields did away with the marks that bound them to the past. While many replaced old livery with some false device or self-applied iconography of their own, the name of 'Blackshield' was often a literal description of their armour that had been over-masked or simply scorched black.

Each faction or band of these roving marauders never existed in the numbers of a Space Marine Legion proper, from which they no doubt sprang -- far from it -- for each varied greatly in size; from a dozen or so survivors of a deadly betrayal by their own kind who cast aside the past, to a cohort of initiates who had been hypo-indoctrinated rapidly and then thrust into the fires of war for a cause they barely understood, wearing bare, gunmetal grey power armour absent of livery, all fought for their own place in the larger tapestry of the galaxy-wide destruction that was the Insurrection.

## History

### Ancient Traditions

"*I carry the memories of countless brothers within me. I shall not do those brothers dishonour. I am a warrior of the XVIIIth and proud to serve my Emperor.*"
— The Scarred King, real name unknown, formerly of the Steel Legion
A so-called "Blackshield" is a loose term that refers not to a single military body or even a class of warriors as such, but to a phenomenon that came into being in the early to middle years of the Heresy and which very much had its roots in the most ancient of martial codes. In accordance to these codes, due to a myriad of reasons, a warrior might choose to be forced to cast off or conceal his allegiance or Legion of origin. In ancient times, a warrior would cover the icon of his house, master or nation upon his shield with a cloth or paint over it entirely - sometimes literally painting his shield black - deliberately making it impossible for strangers to know where his true allegiance - if any remained at all - might lie.

Due to the Unity and the Imperial Truth espoused by the Imperium of Man and brought to the scattered and benighted worlds of humanity by the Emperor, such practices had no place at all in the new empire of Mankind, despite the obvious utility amongst the warring clans and states of Ancient Terra or on any number of worlds cast down to barbarism throughout the dark millennia of the Old Night. The hosts of Mankind that swept outwards from Terra during the Great Crusade of the 30th Millennium were bonded by seemingly unbreakable chains of fealty, blood and honour, and so to break oath with a line officer was in effect to break oath with the Emperor and those He had saved from the Age of Strife. With the outbreak of the Icarion Insurrection, however, it was proven beyond doubt that the chain was only as strong as its weakest link.

It is not generally known when the first Blackshields began to appear upon the war-torn battlefields of the Icarion Insurrection, and in truth the definition is so broad that some may not have been noted as such, at that time. The earliest extant records indicate that a small force of Legionaries clad in black and bearing the Terran Aquila in the stead of any Legion iconography was sighted at the climax of the Battle of Iyacrax in 036.M31. As the veil of Dark Compliance fell across parts of the Imperium and beleaguered Loyalist armies fell back en masse before the Insurrectionists' inexorable advance towards distant Terra, Blackshields similarly clad were counted amongst the defenders who mustered during The Siege of Jiin, giving their lives for the Loyalist cause alongside the dutiful and stoic servants of the Emperor.

These incidents would be but the first of many that would be reported across the width and breadth of the Imperium as the Heresy progressed, although in most instances such reports would only be collated into a meaningful whole decades later, following the end of the Insurrection, long after the fate of most such warriors was either settled or irrelevant. Warbands of such Blackshields appeared in war zones all across the sundered Imperium, evidence not one of one overarching will or cause, but of the resurrection of that ancient code that called for a warrior to obfuscate his true colours upon the renunciation of his oaths of allegiance to his master.

### The Corpse Stolen

The Corpse Stolen was a collective term for a number of Chimeric Blackshield warbands encountered during the Insurrection. It is believed that their members are seized aspirants which have been implanted with gene-seed stolen from the corpses of Loyalist Legionaries, apparently the same source of their armour and weapons. As a result their characteristics, tactics and appearance vary wildly with gene-seed and armour being an amalgamation of parts of Loyalist origin. It would appear that they were also used as a testbed for attempts to genetically tamper with the purity of the Astartes frame, leading to unstable but deadly variants. Typically these were used as disposable shock troops or diversionary raiders. In addition, it is important to note that there is also no recorded instance of these warbands having an Apothecarion. It can be surmised that this was a measure devised to keep them under control and close at hand. Most of these groups have been identified as originating from the Eagle Warriors, with a smaller amount being created by the Drowned and a yet smaller amount, usually the most genetically stable ones, being the result of the Warbringers' experimentation. Once identified as such, the Corpse Stolen would typically have a brief lifespan as they were exterminated with fervour by Loyalist forces.

## Notable Blackshield Groups

During this tumultuous era, many groups of Blackshields would be identified, though no two were exactly the same in origin or constitution. While the term invariably describes a warrior of the Astartes, even this is not universal as the origins and nature of some Blackshields simply could not be ascertained, while others were accompanied by mortal auxiliaries in a manner similar to the Legion's employment of bonded auxiliary units. Likewise, the true allegiance of many Blackshields bands was often far from clear. Even when their deeds spoke clearly of their cause, they rarely fought alongside the conventional forces of either side in Mankind's great civil war or when they did, they refused to integrate themselves into established chains of command. Many Blackshield bands simply fought for their own cause - often that of simple survival in a galaxy consumed by insanity and chaos. Some, however, had clearly abandoned themselves to the very madness that had birthed them. Gripped by an insanity that knew no distinction between Traitor or Loyalist, they ravaged across the stars throughout the Horus Heresy and in many cases well into the current age.

The histories of the Heresy present far more mysteries and enigmas than reliable or complete accounts, and so entire armies of historator-scribes labour to piece together something of the truth from uncounted fragments of hearsay. In the examination, many such fragments reveal still more perplexing or troubling elements. Each of these battles served in their own way to influence the course of the war not just at the local level, but at the strategic one. Even though the specifics of cause and effect were hidden at the time and are only barely perceivable to us now, many Imperial scribes now believe that when considered as a whole, they amount to a significant contribution towards the ultimate ending of the war:

### The Vengeful Talons

The Vengeful Talons were a warband of Loyalist Eagle Warriors led by Takar.

### The Eaters of the Sacred Flesh

The Naagolshii Shaman are often looked down upon in the Shaman circles, for they do not command the might of storms to destroy cities or end battles, nor do they see into the future with crystal clarity and change the minds and will of other with ease. No, they change their flesh into something bestial, raw, brutal beasts of war. And in doing so they corrupt the most sacred gift from the Sky Father, the flesh of an Astartes.

The Wendiigo are selected from those that prove to be too violent, their lust for war goes well beyond art and into perversion. It is these low recruits, that the most debased act, the worst gift is used, they eat the flesh of our enemies to know their tactics. After time the Wendiigo either become a great asset or burden to the legion, master tacticians and skilled killers. Those whom become burdens, they fall for the flesh crave, they often sharpen their teeth to match our enhanced canines, or replace them all with brutal monomolecular edged adamantium fangs, having permanent claw augments replace fingers. For them their is only flesh, war, a devouring lust, and blood.

Upon the death of Daer'dd Niimkiikaa and the reveal of the Chaos Pantheon the Naagolshii and Wendiigo met in secret clamoring together whom they could, always looked down upon by the other Bears they sought kinship in each other, and truth from the Gods. In a small but violent action almost a thousand Naagloshii and three thousand Wendiigo took over a strike cruiser and seven frigates while the legion was scattered. These four thousand traitors found their way to the Eye of Terror where they disappeared for two Terran years, for them it had been much longer. The Naagloshii found truth with Tzeench and it's ways of change and magica. Whilst the Wendiigo found their way into the service of Khorne. Both gods granted them much, many gifts and ascensions given. Yet through all this glory they still shared a kinship with each other.

When they reemerged, their ships were crystalline and deep blue, edged with razor sharp copper, they were arcane war machines. The traitors were now clad in armour once the power armour of the Astartes now it was arcane and shaped by dark powers. They wore their armour in deep indigos and cobalts, their gauntlets and grieves still bore Hurionian copper but now drenched in the blood of a thousand wars.

At their front were three leaders: U'nas the God-Eater, a titanic Daemon Prince shaped in the unholy union of gorilla and bat, his flesh was grey and brown, he walked on fearsome clawed hands and feet and wears limited armour only covering what is vital. Then there is the Naagloshii, Ecko'chi Wildkin, whom posseses six wings to mock Aandeg and appears little more than a wraith draped in deep blue robes leaning on his tall pole blade, his feet not touching the ground, but this is just one shape - one of thousands for him. And finally, the third is an outsider - Nosliigae the Unbound - an Astartes thought to have died on his homeworld of Prospero. For now they are united as one warband, The Eaters of the Sacred Flesh.

### The Bloodlords

Deriving from the deep swamps of their homeworld of Mardum, these members of the XXth Legion never made the attempt to lay down their old habits and rituals of their ancestors. The tribes of the Mardumian swamps were known and feared for their dark belief. Rumours of them still practising blood rituals and other insidious traditions quickly spread among the rest of the Legion until their gene father Andezo Sambedi was forced to act. Censuring the whole Bloodlord tribe, he sends them on a penitent campaign under the watchful eye of one of his closest brothers, Ixiptatlan. It was him, who offered his help in dealing with the rebellious tribe.

Attached to the ranks of the Eagle Warriors, the Bloodlords shall learn discipline and to follow the Imperial Truth. Unknown by Andezo, it was not his beloved brother, who offered his help. It was a more sinister being.

Soon, the Bloodlords learned the ways of the Dark Gods and openly celebrated their ancient beliefs. Blood sacrifices, dark magic, mighty tokens and even cannibalism made their way back to the sons of Mardum. Through their bloody beliefs, they soon heard voices from beyond, ordering them to slay and murder. It did not take long until Chieftain Odanka and his man gave into the whispers, opening their souls to the entities of chaos. The Bloodlords were reborn into the service of Khorne, becoming a Daemonkin Warband. Odanka, now known as the Devourer, led his men at the side of Socraes Travier until they finally met their fate at the hands of the Ebonspear tribe - former brothers of the Predators Legion - during the Siege of Terra.

### The Stygian Host

The Stygian Host were an offshoot of the Warbringers who, contemptuous of Kozja's attempt to gain power for himself and seduced by the power of Chaos, kept their allegiance to the Arch-Traitor. Led by Seweryn Tępostrze, they remained a formidable presence within the Traitor host right through to the Siege of Terra. Their destruction was demanded by their parent Legion, the Warbringers, during the Great Scouring. However, it is known that the surviving members were absorbed into various Chaos Space Marine warbands (with large numbers now believed to have joined the nascent Black Legion).

### Brotherhood of the Black Hand

The counterpart of the Fellowship of the Shadow Hand, the Brotherhood of the Black Hand was a grouping of Warbringers who, seeing the corruption overtaking their former allies and what they deemed the hubris of their Primarch, resolved to find a way back to the Emperor's light. They proved their worth in battle against the Stygian Host, driving them off from an attack on a Tricendian border world in aid of the Shattered Legions. Pledging their blades to Aegar Vyrn, they weathered the rest of the Insurrection under his banner. Kozja would demand their extermination as part of the settlement between the Imperium and Suzerainty, only to be informed that they had been lost in the cataclysmic battles of the Second Solar War and Scouring. However, it is suspected that the Black Hand had survived, with factions of Imperial high command anticipating the threat and granting them a new identity as an Order of the Second Founding.

## Notable Blackshields

* **Aegar Vyrn** - With long decades of service as a champion of the VIIth Legion, Aegar Vyrn had ascended to its praetorate by the outbreak of the Heresy. He was a skilled, charismatic leader, but just as potent taking to the field with hammer in hand. In the wake of Aureus, it was Vyrn who gathered the largest remnants of the Shepherds and led them through the gruelling years of the First Solar War. Taking in other broken Loyalist forces, he forged a host of disparate parts but unified purpose. This he would use both to defend the domain of Abyssii and to strike at the Traitors, harrying their march on Terra.

## Notable Quotes

### By Blackshields

*Feel free to add your own*

"*I carry the memories of countless brothers within me. I shall not do those brothers dishonour. I am a warrior of the XVIIIth and proud to serve my Emperor.*"
— The Scarred King, real name unknown.
"*We did everything for the Emperor. We lost brothers for him. We razed our home for him, slaughtered our own people. I still remember their screams as we butchered them in the streets. When Leman's sons lost their minds, we executed them for him. Those who didn't we hid, made our own. Not once did we ask why, not once did we turn around and refuse, demand to know what he planned because we believed in him.
In my life, I have only ever loved two people: the Ruirech and the Emperor. Then I found out that the Emperor never truly trusted us. We weren't important enough to know his plans. We weren't his chosen warriors as we thought. We were dumb brutes, to be used and then discarded.
He broke my heart. Now, I fight for myself and for my brothers. The primarchs, the Emperor. They can all go to hell.
Each man must die someday. This I know. Every tale must have its end. When mine ends, it will be as a warrior for that is what I am, not a slave to be used as the Emperor wishes. And when the Valkyries ride to summon me home, I shall welcome them with open arms. I have fought, fought well and forged a fine tale to tell at the table of the gods.*"
— Unknown Blackshield, formerly of the Crimson Lions Legion
"*I'm here, doing what I do because I used to be one of you, believing in some great cause which I'd die for. Then one day I died and woke up to find no one could be bothered to kick me into a fresh hell. Had to make do with this one.
So I dragged myself up and all I saw was this mountain of rats and hyenas and vultures and they were gnawing, gouging, packing more corpses into the pile, fighting to stand at the top and every creature that reached the top saw every one before it die, become another corpse in the mountain and still they came on dying to reach the top or dying at the top and you couldn't see what the mountain had been before the vermin started, and then I blinked and they were men in armour. They didn't stop being vermin though.
So we learned that was us, and we did what vermin do if they have wits. We roamed and fed and didn't care where the meat came from. And if you pretend you're any different, you're a rat who's going to die on that mountain.*"
— Last words of the Gokeur Marauder before his execution by the Knights Errant. Origin unknown, suspected former Void Eagle
"*In the old stories, when the bells tolled for midnight you always knew that the dawn was just over the horizon. It's arrival was inevitable. You just needed to hold on. We have reached midnight and a storm threatens to consume us all. But I see no dawn. No reprieve with the coming of the light. Only an eternity of despair and darkness.*"
— Unknown legionary of the Midnight Angels Warband, former Legion unknown