Drakes of Deathfire

Drakes of Deathfire iconography/insignia

A Drake Sergeant of the 4th Drake Claw, 3rd Battleline Squad.

### **Specialty**

Close Quarters Combat, Drop Assault Actions, Protection & Rescue, Flame-Based Weaponry, Attritional Warfare

### **Battle cry**

"We are Nocturne's fury! We are Deathfire!"

### Successor Chapter(s)

None

"*It is the nature of war to inflict suffering..it is our duty to overcome and survive it as our primarch did,Nocturne..our distant home,burns with Vulkan's rage and fury,we are that fury. WE ARE DEATHFIRE!*"
— Reclusiarch Shul Ve'kall, Drakes of Deathfire
The **Drakes Of Deathfire** are an ancient and honourable Loyalist Successor Chapter of the Salamanders whose exact founding is unknown. However, the Chapter maintains they are one of the original Successor Chapters created in 021.M31, following the dissolution of the original Space Marine Legions, which were broken down into smaller formations known as Chapters, consisting of only 1,000 Astartes each. Despite the Drakes claims, Imperial savants have been unable to determine the veracity of such claims, though they have been mention in several extent accounts down the long millennia of the Imperium's historical archives. The Drakes of Deathfire are a crusading, non-*Codex* compliant chapter, meaning they do not follow the dictates of the *Codex Astartes*. The Drakes Of Deathfire believe heavily in the Promethean Cult and center themselves around bringing Nocturne's light and warmth to the imperiums citisens and those in it unable to defend themselves, and its, the God-Emperor's and Vulkan's rage, fury, and flame upon the alien, mutant and the heretic.

## Chapter History

### Founding

After the fall of their primarch on Isstavan V during the Dropsite Massacre, the Salamanders returned home to Nocturne, with them aboard a Salamanders battle barge was one Captain Pellas Mir'San aboard with what remained of the marines under him. Before the primarch's order to return to Nocturne, he had seen his brothers slaughtered at the hands of the Night Lords. He had fought of course, but within his Cataphractii battle-plate he felt guilt, as if he had failed his brothers.

Upon Vulkan's escape from captivity and torture by Konrad Curze, and his following death upon the Ultramarines homeworld of Macragge, Captain Pallas and a small force of Salamanders undertook a dangerous voyage to reach their homeworld of Nocturne. It was Pellas' belief that if they could bring their gene-sire back to their Legion homeworld, then it might be possible to resurrect him. After many trials and tribulations, the small forces of Salamanders finally arrived upon their fire and ash-choked world. Captain Pellas watched as his primarch's lifeless body was entombed within the master-crafted sarcophagus, the *Unbound Flame*, and lowered into Mount Deathfire, he sat and thought in sorrow and anger atop the huge voulcano for three weeks, it rumbled and quaked beneath him the planet itself seemingly in anger and pain at the primarchs death,it was not until the last day of the three weeks he sat there that he stood and went to his marines talking with and explaining to them what he had been doing.

During the early 31st Millennium, around the time of the Second Founding, Captain Pellas Mir'San along with his command staff and marines under his command declared their leave of the Salamanders, refusing to adhere to the dictates of the newly adopted *Codex Astartes*, and so, began their neverending crusade to bring Nocturne's light and warmth to those in need, and Deathfire's wrath and flame to the heretics, xenos, and traitors of the galaxy.

## Notable Campaigns

* **Strike of the Drakes (Early to late M31)** - It was not far after their departure from the Salamanders that they had re painted their armor and dawned their new insignia before they began their hunt for the enemies of the imperium, most of all the Night Lords and the Orks. The Drakes chased the heretics throughout the galaxy, purging the vile murderous heretics wherever they found them. At this time they still acted more like the Salamanders, but over time they created their new and unique doctrine in fact it was these early years that forged them into their current form, their numbers slowly growing as they traveled the galaxy.

* **Siege Of Gilos (Early M32)** - Following the disappearance and death of the Drake Vanguard Class Light Cruiser near the world Gilos in the Machina sector,one Captain Val'kel,a veteran marine of the 2nd Drake Claw (the equivalent of a company) took his marines to investigate, upon arrival to the world they were met with cities filled with the dead and crumbled buildings...a prelude to what was to come. Upon further investigation they came to the conclusion that the inhabitance of the world had been besieged by the iron warriors, upon locating the dead drakes and the remains of the worlds PDF in the capital they were informed that the iron warriors had come across the prosperous world and decided to begin a siege on it, hoping to use its plentiful resources to turn it into a bastion for their forces taking down the the drakes began an 9 month long siege, aiding the battered and crippled defenders of Gilos, the 1st and 3rd Drake Claws coming to aid them after losing many in the battles upon the world, but it was a victory in the end.

* **Zealous Fires of Faith (Early to mid-M36)** - The Drakes had gone on many missions, many crusades to purge the enemies of the imperium and to protect its citizens but this would prove to be one of the longest, the drakes had long upholded both their primarchs teachings and the chapters oath ever since their creation. So it was that upon the shrine world of Pyrofan during the ork warboss SPINE RIPPA's WAAGH on the Ryclos System they would purcge the world clean of the vial orks with flame and bolter cleansing the shrine world with the Deathfires light and fury but at a tragigc cost,duruing this campaign they would lose their chapter master Hezzon N'kelm who was replaced by his successor Da'zell Ekshor.

* **Drakes' Wrath (late M39)** - The 12th Drake Claw lead by Captain Aks'spen Ginnera aid the famed Death Korps of Krieg along with the Guilded hammers successor chapter of the imperial fists in the defense of the Mining world of Bandar II against a traitor forces of the Black Legion and Iron Warriors looking to seize the world for its supply of adimantium,this would be the first time the three fought together but would not be the last.

* **Defense Of Ivora (989.M41)** - During the defense of the forge world Ivora, on witch an Ork WAAAGH! intended on turning the world into a monument to their twisted gods,the then Captain Arcados Hera'Stann of the 1st Drake Claw "Vulkan's Blades" aided by the Utramarines and Guilded Hammers were tasked with crushing the vile xeno scum and burning them off the world suffered a chatastrophic loss at the final battle,The current chapter master at the time, Sho'Tan Essar fell at the hands of the warboss, enraged by this Arcados took up the fallen Drake masters blade and slew the beast, as the battle raged on around arcados and the warboss fell to the ground, Arcados went to the dying chapter master and swore to take up his mantle and lead the chapter to victory until his death,no one argued once they heard and soon after he was named Drake Master Arcados, hero of Ivora.

* **Defense & Siege of Scilos (999.m41)** - Recieving a destress call from scilos, one of their recruiting worlds, the drakes quickly mobilized and moved to defend the planet and its people as they had for so many other worlds yet this was differnt, this was a deliberate attack at their heart, upon arrival to find they were almost too late, the attack was made by a warband of Night Lords accompanied by a smaller group of marines and demons belonging to the Death Guard , the first of which they'd encountered before and served as one of their main threats, the Night Lords warband known to the drakes as the "Nostromian Butchers", the surface was ravaged and what defenses they had were under siege, in the coming months the drakes would eventually take back the world with the aid of the white scars 2nd company and the Dark Angles Ravenwing who'd also come answering the calls for help and welcome it was for with their help they hunted the traitors putting them on the defensive as they eventually were chased off, limping away from the world though the damages done to the plnet would leave lasting effects on the population and indeed change how the drakes operated on its surface.

## Chapter crusading fleet

While it is not unheard of to have a crusading space marine chapter the Drakes Of Deathfire are among one of the largest of them all. The Deathfire Fleet as some of the marines call it is made up of hundreads of ships, the largest part of which belongs to the 1st Drake Claw, the Drakes Of Deathfire tend to use older ships both big and small as they are able to keep them in battle functional conditions, though as the years went on and the Deathfire Fleet grew in numbers and strength they would integrate newer and better ships into their fleets. The largest of all ships and the oldest is their fortress monastery, a modified Gloriana Class Battleship the *Breath Of Deathfire*.

### Fortress-Monastery

"*The breath of deathfire..our glorious and ancient fortress monastery, a veteran ship of a hundread battles is both our most sacred relic and most valuable asset to the chapter.*"
—Chapter Master Arcados to the 2nd Captain of the Guilded Hammers on Ivora
The *Breath Of Deathfire* is an ancient battle barge once belonging to the Salamanders but taken with their first chapter master Pellas Mir'San when he left the salamanders during the time of the Second Founding, is a survivor of the Drop Site Massacre on Isstvan V and one of their most ancient and priceless relics, it is heavily armed and armored and somewhat modified to fit the crusading style of the Drakes Of Deathfire. Home to the chapters veteran command staff known as the '*Council Of Drakes*', their chapter master, and it acts as both the command center and flagship of the chapter. The *Breath Of Deathfire* has seen thousands of battle, been home to hundreads of heros, and holds within it the ancient lore and history of the chapter along with the drakes sacred deathfire forge, known for its ability to craft powerful and deadly armor and weapons each with a historical name and list of deeds by their wielder.

## Chapter Organisation

While the Drakes Of Deathfire are a codex deviant/non codex compliant chapter do have a form of companies called *Drake Claws*, within these Drake Claws are a large number of marines, known to be between 200-400 in the largest like the 1st Drake Claw otherwise known as *Vulkan's Blades* being the most veteran and battle hardened marines. Within these Drake Claws are many squads and units, some unique to the Drakes such as the Drake Guard, Hell Breathers, and Battle Smiths. Some Drake claws are comprised of mostly heavy armor, while others may resemble companies of normal chapters being made for specific purposes or tactics in battle. The Drakes pride themselves on using flame and heat based weapon, much like the Salamanders they also will protect the civilian populace however the Drakes larger numbers allow them to do this and fight the enemy at the same time, lowering the risk of looses while dealing with civilians and also being able to engage the enemy and protect and evacuate civilians.

The Drakes bare their own unique version of the Adeptus Astartes ranking system, these range from the recruits or "embers" as they are called all the way up until chapter master or "Drake Master", below is the full ranking system and their details.

### Standard Drake Ranks

#### Officer Ranks

* **Drake Master** - A Drake Master is the equivilant of a chapter master,and a marine who has mastered his craft and smithing skills.

* **Drake Captain** - Drake Captains are veteran and battle hardened leaders of the Drakes of Deathfire, and act as leaders to their Drake Claws.

* **Lieutenant** - These serve as the right hand to their Drake Captains, typically commanding one of the Drake claws sub divisions.

#### Specialist Ranks

* **Deathfire Smith** - A Deathfire Smith is a battle brother proficcent in smithing and crafting war gear for the chapter.

* **Drake Warden** - Executioners, interrogators, and judges of the chapter, deal with trators and interrogate prisoners of the chapter

* **Deathfire Priest** - The chaplains of the drakes.

* **Senior Deathfire Priest** - Seasoned and battle-hardened deathfire priests of the chapter.

* **Drake Healer** - Battlefield medical specialists charged with not only healing their comrades, but also collecting the Gene-Seed of fallen warriors.

* **Master Deathfire Priest** - The senior most Deathfire priest of the Chapter and commander of its Reclusium,keeper of the chapters relics and historian/lore master of the drakes.

* **Master Deathfire Smith** - A senior smith and artisan of the chapter, they oversee the repair and maitainence of the chapters weapons,armor,and vehicles of the chapter,overseeing the Drake Smiths and Tech Drakes beneath him.

* **Signal Bearer** - These marines are specialised in battlefield commuications.

* **Ash Born** - The rank of newly-inducted Librarians of the Drakes.

* **Junior Pyromancer** - Librarians of the Drakes.

* **Senior Pyromancer** - Veteran Librarians of the Drakes.

* **Chief Pyromancer** - The senior most Librarian of the Drakes and head of the Librarium.

* **Swift Drakes** - Covert-operation experts of the drakes.

* **Deathfire Champion** - Heros and honorable marines in the Drakes of Deathfire, very skilled warriors.

* **Tech Drakes** - Techmarines of the drakes of deathfire.

### Line Ranks

* **Veteran Drake** - Veteran Drakes are sergeants/officers of their Drake Claws who have been battle hardened and act as advisors to their lieutenants.

* **Sergeant** - Battle-hardened and seasoned marines, they act as mentors and leaders to their brothers in their squads.

* **Battle-Drake** - Standard Space Marine rank for a fully inducted warrior. May include honorific duties or ranks such as Drake guard, Deathfire Champion, or Standard Bearer. The most experienced Battle-Brothers serve in the Chapter's 1st Drake Claw.

* **Forge Brother**- Space Marines in-training who have not become fully accepted Battle-Brothers. They are utilized in a Chapter's Scout Squads as a part of their training.

* **Drake Ember** - Humans selected to be inducted into a Chapter and undergo genetic modification.

### Specialist Units

* **Drake Guards** - Drake Guard marines are those who have sworn an oath to the Drake Master and become part of his personal guard, usually veterans of the 1st Drake Claw.

* **Hell Breathers** - Hell Breathers are heavily armored marines who wield standard flamers and or heavy flamers and act as both building and fortification clearers and front line anti infantry units.

* **Battle Smiths** - Battle Smiths are Tech Drakes and Deathfire Smiths who specialise in the construction of fortifications during siege or defense operations.

* **Siege Breakers** - Siege Breakers are marines in modified suits of centurion armor made to withstand direct hits from tanks and anti armor weapons, though they are slower than normal centurions they conpincate for this in the firepower they carry.

* **Slayer Assault Squads** - These melee specialized marines are often equiped with jump packs and variations of chain weapons or power claws, they act as rapid assault units jumping directly into enemy lines and striking before flying off and later coming back then doing the same.

* **Swift Drakes** - These biker specialise in hit and run attacks on their modified assault bikes, but are often used to chase down fleeing enimies,and cut them down but wehre they truly shine is their ability to swarm large vehicles like chaos preditors and take them down with thrown explosives.

* **Heavy Drop Squads** - These marines are trained to be drop assault heavy troops, used to break enemy lines by being dropped in onto them causing chaos as they do.

* **Shield Drakes** - While the name seems quite self explanatory these marines do not wield shields, they are given this name in reference to the fact that during deployment they are the first in and last out as it is their job to protect and or evac civilians or guard units in need during campaigns

### Drake Claws

The Drakes of Deathfire are made up of 20 companies or "Drake Claws" as they are known by the chapter, while normally a marine chapter is made up of 10 companies the Drakes are made up of 20, each comprised of at least 3,000 marines each excepting the 1st Drake Claw "Vulkan's Blades" which is comprised of 4,000 marines, while this may sound heretical, and it is to some, at first it is necessary for the amount they fight during their crusades or campaigns and the amount of space they cover and can be called to action in throughout the galaxy as they are a non codex compliant crusading chapter. Each of these Drake Claws are comprised of ground vehicles, marines, and ships though the amount of which is inconsistent as some may have more of one then the other or prefer specific ways of combat.

### Command Hierarchy

The drakes of deathfire bear a somewhat uniqe command hierarchy,at the top was the "Drake Master", the equivilant of a chapter master the Drake Master leads the chapter both in combat and in its short times of peace,they are battle hardened and oath bound warriors, leading the chapter until death or entombment within a dreadnaught at which point their war gear will be passed down to the next chapter master and improved on by him. from there the hierarchy decends from Drake Captains, Lieutenants, Veteran Drakes, Sergeants, Battle Drakes, Forge-Brothers, at the bottom the Drake Embers, among them are specialist ranks and positions that fulfill rolls of psychers, medics, engineers, and communications officers.

### Formations And Tactics

While the Drakes make use of most of the standard battle tactics when deployed to confront the enemies of the imperium they will often mix or improvise these when need be as they pride themselves on being adaptive and deadly warriors of their chapter. However there are a few uncommon or uniqe tactic only they use such "scorched earth" in which they use Stormtallon Gunships, Fire Raptor Gunships, and sometimes Storm Eagle gunships to rain down incindiary ordinance on mass groups of enemies causing mass explosions and fires within them. Another of these tactics is known simply as "Vulkan's Hammer" this employs the aformentioned siege drakes, when in use they act as a wall, a brunt force to break the enemies advance, using their heavy Centurion warsuits to brake the enemy as they push against them holding the tide as other marines come to assault them. There are many others like *Deathfires Breath*, more are often added or adapted to situations that it is hard to list every singe one.

### Vehicles & Transports

The drakes tend to use a lot of heavier as well as older vehicles,though they do use things like bikes and land speeders they perefer things like the Land Raider Redeemers and Crusaders, Predators, and even Sicaran Battle Tanks though even those are in few numbers, the drakes do also use transports like the rhino and armed transports like the Razorbacks along with older vehicles like the Mastadon Heavy Assault Transport. Of course they also use things like the land speeder storm, land speeder tempest, land speeder Javelin, and of course the basic land speeder, they will also use The Drakes also have a vast ammount of assult bikes used by the swift drakes and scouts of the chapter.

## Combat Doctrine

While the Chapter does not follow most normal Imperial tactical and strategic dogma, as emphasised in the *Codex Astartes*, they do follow a sort of codex of their own called the "Vulkan's Anvil" and much like their brother in the Salamanders they have a preference for close-ranged fire fights and use many Melta and Flamer weapons to burn whole swathes of infantry troops and to smash armoured foes to little but flaming and smokin wrecks of scrap, they also like their brothers take pride in being artisans, craftsmen, and blacksmiths allowing them to maintain older and sometimes more powerful artifacts of the heresy ad sometimes older along with the chapter Deathfire smith's, the drakes of deathfire tech marines, to maintain and repair bigger things like tanks or ships, Self-reliance and craftsmanship are both highly prized traits within the Drakes Chapter as their Primarch Vulkan himself was a great Artificer, forging many wonders before his death/disapearence.

## Chapter Culture & Beliefs

The Drakes believe heavily in the promethian cult but believe Vulkan is dead unlike most Salamanders successors and the Salamanders themselves. While they bear little real culture due to them being a crusading chapter, they tend to bear a culture resembling that of the Salamanders. During the time of trials the drakes will return to Nocturne for a time to witness the planet's fiery transition and feast with their brothers in the Salamanders upon promethius often entering forging and crafting compititions between each other to test their skills and craftsmenship. The Drakes have many rituals, one of which includes the reading and meditation on Vulkan's writings as well as deeds, while they believe vulkan dead they do carry on his teachings.

## Chapter Recruitment

While the chapter does not recruit from a singular world as they do not have a home, they do recruit form worlds they pass by especially feral worlds though they do make trips to Nocturne to recruit from its tribes upon the fiery death world foir only the toughest can survive the trials, one of which is upon mount deathfire or rather within it as recruits are tasked with slaying a drake of Nocturne and withstanding the mountain's fiery heart.

## Chapter Gene-Seed

The drakes bear the Salamanders gene-seed which is highly unique and mysterious in its make up the gene-seed of Vulkan had unique aspects created for a specific purpose by the Emperor. They like the drakes bear the same gene traits of charcoal textured jet black skin, and red glowing eyes otherwise known as "Fire Sight".

## Notable Members

* **Chapter Master Arcados** - Current Chapter Master of the Drakes of Deathfire.
* **Sargent Bay'arth Hera'stan** - A 1st claw sargent of the Drakes Of Deathfire now serving in the deathwatch

## Chapter Fleet

The Drakes bear a vast and large fleet, being a cruasading chapter they must or else they cannot cover thye vast ammount of space that they do, each Drake Claw has a large amount of ships at its desposal not only to carry the marines wherever they are called to go but also to transport supplies and provide orbital and airial support to their marines along with the planets they are deployed to. The drakes make vast use of their fleet,using it in all manners of actions,from orbital bombardment to refugee/civilian transport off world it is a crutial part of the chapter,without it they would be nothing especially their fortress monistary.

## Chapter Relics

* ***Nocturne's Breath***: An ancient master crafted heavy flamer wielded by the first chapter master on istvann

* ***Drakes Bite***: A master crafted chainsword crafted and wielded by the first chapter master

* ***Drakes Bulwark***: Worn, impoved upon, and passed down from drake master Sho'Tan Essar to Drake Master Arcados Hera'Stan this ancient set of artificer armor upon his death,this armor could tell a thousand stories and is the most used of all artifacts they have.

* ***Deathbringer***: A powerfull master crafted blade wielded by arcados easily recognisable by its flaming super heated blade able to cut through armor like it was nothing.

* ***Oblivion***: A master-crafted thunder hammer origonally wielded by sho'tan Essar.

* ***Breath Of Deathfire***: The chapter's most venerable and storied ship along with being their fortress monistary it is an ancient battle barge of the chapter and a foe most deadly in combat.

## Chapter Appearance

While the physical appearance of the drakes resembles that of the salamanders,with jet black charcoal textured skin and red eyes they often bear more ritual scars and brands across their boddies and prefer to hide their appearence behind their power armor verry rarely even taking off their helmets around other chapters or on the battlefield. The drakes laen more towards older sets of power armor from the heresy but it is not it is not uncommon to see the newer sets of power armor among them but even those are finely crafted works of craftsmenship rivaling that of even the most prestegious forge worlds.

### Chapter Colours

The drakes bear a rather unique color scheme the primary being gold and second being black with certain parts being silver along with the unique flames and glowing cracks along their armor sets, the patterns on every set hoever will be different for each marine as they are allowed and encouraged to customise and improve their armor whenever possible.

### Chapter Badge

The drakes bear the head of a salamander as their emblem however unlike most theirs is made to look as if it were ablaze or had just been forged from a hot piece of metal, surrounded by glowing or flaming cracks.

## Relations

While they have a stable relationship with the Imperium their large numbers and *Codex* deviance has more than once brought the attention of the inquisition,along with this they boast a very strong relationship with the Salamanders and forge world Ivora from which they get most of their vehicles and supplies, Along with this they also have a strong kinship with the Guilded hammers often being seen aiding them whenever possible.

## Notable Quotes

"*The breath of deathfire..our glorious and ancient fortress monastery, a veteran ship of a hundread battles is both our most sacred relic and most valuable asset to the chapter.*"
—Chapter Master Arcados to the 2nd Captain of the Guilded Hammers on Ivora
"*It is the nature of war to inflict suffering..it is our duty to overcome and survive it as our primarch did,Nocturne..our distant home,burns with Vulkan's rage and fury,we are that fury. WE ARE DEATHFIRE!*"
— Reclusiarch Shul Ve'kall, Drakes of Deathfire

### About the Drakes of Deathfire

[Source]

[Source]

## Gallery

Drake Master Arcados Hera'Stann, Lord of the Drakes of Deathfire Chapter.Drakes of Deathfire Veteran Drake of the elite 1st Claw, arrayed in fearsome Indomitus pattern Terminator Armour.