Tempest Reavers

*“We are different, you and I. You are Farsalan, rash and untested. I am Terran, patient and tempered. Though we are not the same, by our father's will we fight together. Our culture and styles of war are merged. We are the Tempest Reavers and nothing more and nothing less.”*

*- Fels Vili Alsan Lepiax to new Farsalan recruits.*

## Tempest Reavers

Tempest Reavers Legionary

Tempest Reavers armorial with Legion iconography

## Space Marine Legion

### Observed Strategic Tendencies

Shock Assaults, Ambush Warfare, Melee and Ranged Skirmishes, Long Range Infiltration, Defensive Guerrilla Operations and Mobile Warfare

### Colours

Light Blue and Dark Blue

The **Tempest Reavers**, formerly known as the Ranging Hawks, are the XIth Legiones Astartes, one of the famed Space Marine Legions forges by the Emperor for the undertaking of bringing the Galaxy to heel under the Imperium of Man during the grand campaign known as the Great Crusade. This Legion became renown for their contradicting cultural dynamics and unique style of warfare post reunification with their Primarch. Unlike many other legions, which had a seamless blend of cultures, the Tempest Reavers had two similar yet equally contrasting cultures in the Terrans and Farsalans. The Terrans, patient and calculating, skilled in the art of reconnaissance and marksmanship and the Farsalans, hot blooded and savage, specialists in ambushes and sudden overwhelming assaults.

Led by their Primarch, Ezharion Kulas, they spent the decades of the Great Crusade building a reputation for rapid compliances and resounding military victories. Yet, their loyalty was only assured by the Emperor, and with his disappearance, they are unchained and in question. As the Imperium hangs in the balance, the Tempest Reavers stand on a knife-edge, poised to decide the outcome and success of any side in the coming Ruins.

## **History**

**Origins**

The alpha induction of the Eleventh Legion drew most of its initial strength from a collection of nomadic tribes from the Mid-Afrik and Yndonisean Bloc. These tribes had survived the centuries through a combination of well-honed hit-and-run tactics against the larger neighboring powers and a relentless determination to maintain their way of life. Only to the Emperor, did they surrender their political independence and their sons. Likewise, the proto-Eleventh Legion displayed an excellence for reconnaissance and maneuver, along with a strong independent streak.

These tendencies would be displayed at the Purgation of Sedna, the first and last campaign that had the legion operate as a single unit before the discovery of Ezharion Kulas. In the campaign against Sedna, the Eleventh Legion would lead the vanguard, spilling the first blood with heavy reconnaissance and flanking elements. Although effective in their preferred combat role, the Legion failed to operate with much cohesion between its sub-units. The Eleventh's command cadre met after Sol was reunified. It was decided that the Eleventh would not enter the Great Crusade as a single expeditionary fleet, unlike their cousins.

Instead, the Eleventh would divide itself into smaller scout fleets and serve as the forward elements to others. For the most part, coordination functioned well between these different branches of the Astartes. Born of Terra, many of the later idiosyncrasies had little opportunity to cause conflict, even with the XIth's infamous independence in play. The Eleventh would rapidly prove their expertise and value across the Great Crusade as undisputed masters of reconnaissance and initial strike forces, winning over critics in the process. Most of the other Legions accepted Eleventh scout fleets with only a few exceptions. One such exception was the Fifth Legion. One such exception was the Fifth Legion. After a series of strange reports, the Fifth Legion reduced the role of auxiliary formations, going so far as to dismiss their Eleventh Legion contingent entirely.

As the Great Crusade expanded outward, the Eleventh Legion found their stars in ascendance as the Legiones Astartes was stretched thin across multiple fronts. When the Imperial Army formally moved from a support role to a leading formation side-by-side the Astartes, the XIth, with its strategic flexibility, became highly desired, especially by commanders who wanted transhuman strength and skill but did not want to haggle with the Legion overlords. It was while fighting besides the mortal warriors of the Great Crusade that the XIth was given its first nickname: the Ranging Hawks. So long as proper respect was given, the councils of the Ranging Hawks did not mind fighting alongside their lessers. This state of affairs would last, until the Hawks would be assembled in full strength by one of the two beings who could command them.

## **Legion Organisation & Hierarchy**

The XIth Legion from which Ezharion Kulas had inherited was an organisational and logistical nightmare, almost entirely devoid of the shared common organisation of the other Legions. The tenants of the Principia Belicosa, the grand military treatise of the Emperor himself that had formed the organisational core of the many Astartes Legions, were effectively ignored and discounted in the Legion’s early days of operation. It is still hypothesised what causes led to the effective disintegration of a centralised command structure so early on into a Legion’s operation, theories range from a lack of willingness to such a thing having been overlooked in the Legion’s founding by freak bureaucratic accident. Despite this, the XIth Legion managed to preserve. Primarily through its usage and deployment of Pioneer Companies - highly independent pathfinder units which varied in disposition and operational purpose. As the decades of the first century of the Great Crusade ground on, the Legion had adopted various informal power structures which acted to semi-coordinate the highly fractious  Legion,  several such policies included the 32nd Independent Pioneer Company being a dumping ground for the nascent Legion’s undesirables, appointment of various Chapter Masters to act as overall strategic commanders of various Pioneer Companies among others.

It was from this loose, shaky and admittedly tenuously structured Legion into which Ezharion Kulas was made master of the XIth and given the unenviable task of reining in such a Legion and reshaping it to what the Great Crusade demanded of it. What he accomplished was fuelled and built from his own experiences, those of his sons and historicae studies. In a similar vein to the Principia Belicosa, Ezharion Kulas penned his own treatise for the Legion to be remade by - the Ezhalikon Felak, The Savage Host of the Stars; written with the intent of fully reorganising the Legion as Kulas saw fit, the reforms were primarily aimed at command, rank, organisational units and specialist formations throughout the Legion. Command Structure was fully stratified, codified and slimmed down with the aim of redefining the highly flexible and decentralised Ranging Hawks into a more refined and disciplined force. Command Elements retained a degree of independence and decentralisation, with each corresponding organisational strata being responsible for either warzones, fronts and battles depending on the specific strata. The reconstituted command structure was designed to generate a macro environment wherein lower Officers were forced to take full control of their respective Units during any major campaign and be solely responsible for them, relieving command burdens upon Chapter Masters who would resume their previous role in the Ranging Hawks of overall combat zone commander for their allocated operational sector and to not have to manage about individual planetary fronts or battles.

The Tempest Reavers after this great reform now adhered to a derivative form of the standard organisational pattern laid out in the Principia Belicosa. The main strategic building block of the Legion was the Kela Felai analogous in size, purpose and overall structural position to the standard Company. Unlike their predecessor Pioneer units, the Kela Felai were stratified at a set number of 500 Legionaries of Line force configuration, excluding supportive armour, logistical and reconnaissance elements. Even accounting for the logical variances of the attrition of long term campaigns and heavy losses, the Tempest Reavers almost always reinforce these units to their notional strength and do not exceed it. This rigid standardisation of size was partly in response to the beleaguered bureaucrats and logisticians of the Divisio Militaris having filed such a volume of complaints to the Primarch regarding the Ranging Hawks’ prior Pioneer Companies sheer variance and fluctuation in disposition and notional strength that Kulas sought to see that such complaints were unheard of again. The Kela Felai, unlike many other Legions, did not permit for specialised Company units such as Armour Companies, instead such specialised formations existed on the next strategic level down on the organisational pattern. These units, often referred to in Gothic as Sub or Demi Companies, were the Kels Felain. Each of these was analogous in size to a regular Principia Belicosa Company, composed of 100 Legionaries in full battle array. The exact composition of such units, however, was not stratified to any degree beyond a requirement for 100 Astartes in such a formation. Yet, the most common and informal practice was that the numerically first Kels Felain to be wholly composed of the Kela Felai’s elite corps of Fel’sa Del’ka and De’sa Kalani and would serve as a tactical reserve component during pitched battles and ambushes. It was also at such a strategic level, that the Legion’s equivalents to specialist companies emerged. It is at this juncture that is must be noted that the term of Kela Felai is merely an overarching or logistical term used to refer to this specific organisational unit, and that in fact, each specialised formation often bore its own nomenclature: Armoured Sub-Companies were the Kels Fe’st’aril, Reconnaissance Sub-Companies were the Kels Fel’Del’ki and Assault Sub-Companies were the Kels Fes’kali. All of the Kels Felain, regardless of specific composition, are led by a Fels Felain, a rough equivalent to lower rank Centurions or Lieutenant Officers in other Legions. These aspiring officers are often chosen from the ranks of the Legion’s veteran corps, they hold tactical command over their formation during battle and their authority can only be superseded by a Consul Delegatus or a direct order from the Fela Felai, the Captain of the Company. The Fela Felai are the voted superior Officer of the Fels Felain, most often the most senior amongst their ranks who is entrusted with overall command of their Company and is charged with directing it’s semi-independent operations within their assigned warzone or areas of strategic import during any conflict, often the execution of their objectives is left to the Fela Felai in question, encouraging a degree of tactical and strategic flexible thought in their pursuit of operations.

The principal backbone of any Tempest Reavers crusade force was invariably the Falan Vili, the Chapter. Similarly to the lower strata of the Kela Felai and its composition of five Kela Felai, the Falan Vili is formed from five Kela Felai operating in tandem under a Fels Vili, a Warlord of comparatively high strategic independence compared to his peers in the other Legions. Within this role, he is charged with the duty of being the overall strategic commander for a campaign zone - rarely taking to the field but always directing his forces to their assigned combat sectors, whereupon the devolved nature of command and responsibility falls to the Captains and Lieutenants. This is primarily a measure by Kulas to generate and propagate an environment wherein only those with the greatest combination of initiative, competency and strategic mindset are able to ascend the ranks of the Legion’s Officer cadres and High Command. Each Falan Vili would often develop idysocrinatic tactical preferences and dispositions. Notable of examples of this are the 49th Falan Vili “Dreadwind”, who are renowned asymmetrical warfare, counter-insurgency and infiltration specialists within the Legion, and the 8th Falan Vili “Steel Hawks”, the Legion’s premier mechanised and armoured warfare specialists.

Yet, all of these formations are remiss without their Squads and individual Legionaries. Every Legionary within the Tempest Reavers is a formidably armed foe, possessed of a savage or calculating martial prowess dependent on which path they choose to tread in the Legion and equipped with the full and diverse might of the Legion’s armouries. Legionaries are often equipped with either Mark II power armour (typically configured with localised ‘Farsalan’ pattern armour pieces) or a hybridised set of Mark II and Mark IV power armour, typically dependent on the unit in question and its state of supply. The usage of hybridised armour in particular was unique to both the XIth and XVIIth Legions, and was often employed to equally spread out the rarer and more prized suits of armour throughout the Legion. Legionaries were rigorously trained in the upkeep and field repair of their armour, often leading to the high prevalence of pyramidal molecular bonds on power armour and the usage of ad-hoc applique armour  to act as temporary armour reinforcement in vital areas during high intensity assault actions.

Due to the nature of the Legion’s Tr’elk’no’a E’lha’on path system, a divide is present amongst Legion squads and their wargear preferences. Squads among the Far’salik path are equipped to serve adeptly as either highly mechanised shock troops, light infantry skirmishers or aggressive close ranged line infantry - with a noted preference towards compact and reliable, maintainable  yet efficacious weapon platforms such as Farsalan and Umbra pattern boltguns, autocannons and las-cannons over multi meltas, plasma cannons and volkite culverins. Farsalan and Umbra pattern bolt weapons are typically preferred over Tigrus and Phobos pattern bolt weapons due to their ease of manufacture, maintainability and cost-effectiveness. In the archetypical Far’salik path adherent Squad, each and every member is equipped with a form of close combat weapon (often a regular issue combat knife or chainblade) and are expected and often encouraged to close into combat at the first presented opportunity during an attack, with the aim being to sow as much confusion and bloodshed as possible before pressing through the weakened enemy line or pulling back as part of a skirmishing strategy - blurring the line between a Tactical and Despoiler unit. In contrast to the aggressive and savage Far’salika path units, Ter’ani path Squads are far more conservative and calculating with their wargear and deployment with a higher than average requisition rate of nuncio-vox equipment, ‘Exitus’ pattern modified wargear, lighter, high power and accurate wargear and stealth-modified armour or cloaks. These forces often serve not as the vanguard, but as the advanced reconnaissance units of any formation, several accounts suggest they also often serve as the principal backbone of Legion heavy support sections though these accounts are contradictory to others and primary Legion sources. In this role, the Squads are often the unrecorded and undescribed first wave deployment of the Legion to any terrestrial campaign, where the elite Fel’sa Del’ka, Terran veterans of great marksmanship, infiltration and combat prowess, lead their brethren in the intelligence gathering efforts. Among these Legionaries, close combat is avoided in favour of long-range combat, most often in the form of ambushes and sniper attacks on vulnerable and unsuspecting hostile forces.

In the Farsalan Lexicon used by the Legion, the archetypical Tactical Squad is referred to as Kela Fi and the Sergeant as a Feia Fi, however numerous other identifiers exist for additional Squad types in employ by the Legion. For example: Veteran Squads are the Ezhol Fi and the Sergeant as a Feiz Ezhon, Support Squads are the Fe’zhai Fi and the Sergeant as a Fe’zhain Fi, Assault Squads are De’zei Fi and the Sergeant as a De’zeil Fi to name but a few of these identifiers. Regardless of type, XIth Legion Squads were renowned for their adaptability and combat efficacy; the Legion’s focus on the tactical fluidity and shock assault is further enhanced by the capability of its Line formations to form a elastic battleline capable of supporting  a variety of manoeuvres under the necessary circumstances. Accounts often place particular emphasis on the XIth Legion’s tactical tradition of  employing feints and probing assaults to force overextensions by an enemy force or to test its mettle, in any case, these stratagems are often well fitting with the elastic battleline, with sections able to suddenly assault the fore or withdraw back under covering fire.

Another key aspect of Legion battle doctrine is the inclusion of specialist formations into the order of battle as decisive strike and combat elements to quickly shift the favour of battle or to ensure victory. These units are distinguishable from standardised veteran units not only by their specialisation of task and purpose, but also their wargear and place in the Legion’s doctrine. The principal specialist units in the Legion, and those with the greatest fame, are the De’sa Kalani and the Fel’sa Del’ka.

The De’sa Kalani formed the elite fast assault corps of the Legion, and as such were some of the most potently armed and skilled warriors in the Legion’s Line formations. De’sa Kalani itself is loosely translatable as ‘Ravagers’ - though may also be translatable as ‘Marauders’ or ‘Warriors of Kalan’ of which the latter is thought to refer to some pre-unification Farsalan tribal warlord of great respect. These warriors preferred the usage of jump pack units, power axes and combi bolters or Farsalan pattern wargear, all of which were geared towards the specialty of rapid redeployment, interdiction and infantry infiltration assault missions. Often they would deploy to reinforce a failing section of the battle or to viciously exploit a break in an enemy’s formation mid-combat, sowing chaos and slaughter from the rear of the enemy’s formation as they struggled to regroup and understand what was occurring in their midst. Although despite this reputation of elite ability, many of these warriors were not classifiable as veteran tactical units, as they often lack the sheer wealth of experience these units have, but instead they are drawn from the most promising, most effective and most courageous assault or despoiler units for this select honour.

The Fel’sa Del’ka on the other hand, are the epitome of the Ter’ani path of the Tempest Reavers, and these units are often composed exclusively of Terran veterans or their disciples. They are the Legion’s infiltration, reconnaissance and subterfuge specialists and act as the pathfinders for any campaign for the Legion - their advance often goes unnoticed and unmarked, save the few curious souls unfortunate enough to pry too much and be silenced by their daggers. In battle, they rarely make their presence known as openly as the Kalani, instead preferring to outflank and investigate the bounds of the engagement zone to find weaknesses in the enemy’s formation, gaps to find and traverse to better achieve their aims. Once in position, the Fel’sa Del’ka begin the killing. Sniper rifles rapidly felling enemy figures of command and any target of value that comes into their sights, inflicting psychological and morale damage to the enemy that often leaves them reeling in confusion and disunity before the oncoming onslaught of a Legion assault. These units also act as expert pioneers, sometimes equipped with specialist jetpacks for better traversability and manoeuvrability, the stabilisation thrusters additionally allow them to act as mobile snipers even in this configuration. Their presence is rarely known, even by fellow Legion units outside of ident tags in autosenses, this is primarily due to the nature of their deployments and equipment, namely the cameleoline cloaks and armour coating they employ for better camouflage in operations. Additionally, like a large quantity of Legion officers and command personnel, they favour the use of power daggers for close combat defence and assassination strikes, and as mentioned prior, they almost universally use sniper rifles or combi-weapons for ranged combat; favouring the former’s range and power as well as the latter’s flexibility and compactness.

There are also two other specialist formations of note, although not as prevalent as the two previously listed but are still major in the Legion, these are the Da’zhon Fel’val and the Ezhon La’ki, otherwise referred to as ‘Thunder Heralds’ and ‘Galetips’ in Gothic respectively.

   The Da’zhon Fel’val are the newest specialist formation amongst the Tempest Reavers, with the cognomen of ‘Thunder Heralds’ perhaps referring to their role amongst Legion assault forces, that of being the vanguard, and thus the herald of the thunder and lightning to follow. In battle, they are the Legion’s premier heavy shock assault troops, equipped with Terminator warplate and effective yet brutal weapons. Unlike other Legion Terminator formations, the arrival of the Da’zhon Fel’val is not marked by the blinding flash of teleportation, but by the roar of war cries over voxmitters and the opening of assault ramps. Their primary task is simple, to force a breach in an enemy line or position and keep the advance’s pace, and to do so in such a brutal and effective manner all the while destroying any and all targets of importance in their path. To this end, they employ neither finesse nor mastery of arms, but a savage and brutish application of force to overwhelm those in their path at the greatest pace possible. The effect of a successful Thunder Herald assault is catastrophic for any army unfortunate enough to be their target; the foremost forces are often dead or scattered to the winds, command chains damaged and any specialised weapons or forces of importance that are caught in their assault are reduced to corpses on the ashen ground. Equipped with specialised ‘Windstrider’ pattern Terminate plate, they are as swift as a regular legionary and possess some of the finest armaments in the Legion, most notably the Escaton Power Claw - a successful fusion of a power fist and a lightning claw, with the traits of both weapons.

Unlike the other specialist formations, which are all infantry units, the Ezhon La’ki are an exclusively mounted unit. Much like their cousins in the IIIrd Legion’s Gaistar Escadrilles, the Ezhon La’ki are skilled users of Jetbikes. In battle they serve as the outrider corps finest detachment, charging ahead of their brethren in mechanised formations and serving as marauding skirmish units - engaging and swiftly disengaging targets at their discretion in a hail of fire and a flash of silver. Their favoured targets are often convoys, isolated outposts or patrol groups, targets often isolated and unable to receive aid in time when the Ezhon La’ki strike. Often pushing their Scimitar pattern machine to the very limit of endurance and safety, the Galetips are a highly mobile and efficacious formation, capable of dogged pursuits and engagements wherever they are deployed. In combat, with their bardiches, they are a ferocious foe that relies on punishing passes to whittle down and deplete massed enemy formations, or a single devastating charge to tear apart a foe with a concentrated might.

Given the Legion’s predisposition towards fast paced manoeuvre warfare a higher than average stock of light attack and biker craft are maintained within the armouries of the XIth. These covered the full breadth of such assets available to the Legiones Astartes, from the Barrage Light Assault Vehicle to the Javelin Attack Speeder. Tactical emphasis was placed on the mobility of firepower, speed and utility of light vehicle squadrons, additional support for these formations often came in the frequent deployment of Hussar and Biker squadrons or Sky Hunter squadrons and Land Speeder squadrons. Many of these vehicles are materially disposable for the Legion, primarily due to their ease of replacement thanks to the close relationship between Gryphonne IV and the Legion, along with local manufactorium units in the Farsalan Sub-Sector. These formations often act as independent marauder forces when deployed to a campaign theatre, scouring the plains and wastes of any unfortunate foe to meet them in combat. As a result of these tactical biases and manufacturing simplicity, the Legion boasts one of the highest reserves of such vehicles in the entire Legiones Astartes, and their effective and successful adaptation into Legion doctrine has seen their merit proven time and time again in battle.

Unlike many Legions which maintained a wide variety of light, medium and super heavy armour units, the Tempest Reavers instead chose to integrate primarily light and medium armoured vehicles into their arsenal with heavier units being few and far between. This is primarily because of the Legion’s methods of waging war, such a fast and harrowing pace of conflict is ill suited to the massed deployment of heavy armour units. Due to the mid-Crusade discovery of Ezharion Kulas, such reforms to the Legion’s armoured combat doctrine coincided with the development of newer, lighter, faster tanks such as the Sabre. These light class vehicles are commonly employed by the Legion as pursuit and infantry support units, operating alongside Rhino transports and their dismounted infantry forces in a rapid assault, leveraging mobile heavy firepower where Heavy Support Squad units were unable to operate as effectively. A notable instance of the success of such tactics was the Dalimatron Incident, with numerous Legion forces cut off by treachery and deceit, the successful rallying and swift counterassault was spearheaded by Sabre strike vehicles - which tore through the Dalimatronian cyber-ursidae and infantry with a frenzied brutality attributed to their operators’ reaction at the betrayal. Along with this bias towards light classes of vehicles, the Legion also has a high and capable stock of medium grade vehicles. These include the common Predator, Sicaran and Scorpius vehicles, all of which function as the primary source of Company level anti armour support and suppression, with a rising stock of Sicarans beginning to replace Rhino chassis vehicles such as the Predator and Scorpius. This however, has not led to the removal of the Rhino transport itself, which fulfils the niche of a cheap and useful infantry transport that the Legion can deploy en masse.

Heavier armoured units are more uncommon, and those that are seen are more often specialised towards reinforcing the advance of the lighter weight units or the transportation of Legion Terminator units. This in turn has led to the few heavy armour units often being of the Spartan chassis and the venerable Kratos design, which has in recent years grown to supplement the Sicaran and replace Predator squadrons in the order of battle. The Spartan itself is prized for its cost effectiveness and large transport capacity, often carrying entire squads of Terminators into battle, and sometimes in the Hermetika configuration, as a command unit transport capable of acting as a mobile headquarters. The Kratos itself, though an old and venerable design, has seen significant refit and modernisation within the Legion - primarily focused on allowing the old workhorse to keep pace with Legion offensives and modern technological rediscoveries. However, these units are rarely concentrated in heavy armour brigades like in other Legions. Indeed, the XIth rarely if ever forms dedicated armour companies instead preferring to spread out such units to all companies to allow for such units to have this support readily available.

Within the XIth Legion, the massed usage of Terminator suits was never a favoured proposition. The demerits of many of the patterns were seen as too much of a sacrifice for such protection, the loss of mobility and responsiveness in exchange for such endurance drew many critics who argued that a simple armoured vehicle offered many of the same benefits with a cheaper cost and additional utility. Despite this criticism, it was inevitable that such suits would make their way into the Legion’s armouries, albeit most were never used save the Tartaros pattern. When the Tartaros project was announced, the XIth were one of its strongest proponents, and even received a supply of prototype designs for field testing (notably the first of such incidences, the most famous would be their part in MKVI armour development). Though still comparatively rare, even to other Legion Terminator squads, the Terminator units of the XIth are reserved for those often denied the honour of induction into the De’sa Kalani yet still retain the martial prowess and pride to serve as the vanguard of any heavy assault. In such a role, the Legion fields one of the proportionally highest stocks of Tartaros armour and the accompanying transports to carry such warriors into battle. A reluctance amongst many senior Officers to wear such armour has also led to a slightly higher prevalence of this wargear spread amongst squads in the Legion’s order of battle.

### **War Disposition**

Prior to the tumultuous events of the Vanishing, XIth Legion records indicate a wide and varied deployment of operations across Ultima Segmentum across some 14 Expeditionary Fleets and numerous sub-deployments such as the standing garrison order in the Farsalan Sub-Sector Region. Of all these total forces, the Legion was estimated to have stood at a nominal disposition of 150,000 Astartes in combat duties and full battle readiness. Ezharion Kulas himself was recorded as commanding 4 Fels Vili, or 10,000 Astartes, in the 478th Expeditionary Fleet onboard the Gloriana class Whisperwind in the aftermath of a regular Compliance operation by the start of the Warp Storms.

In the immediate aftermath of the Vanishing and the many brutal Suppression actions taken by the Legion, estimates placed the XIth Legion as sorely depleted. With some 125,000 Astartes estimated to remain, the Legion had suffered perhaps the most grievously out of any during the great tragedy of the Vanishing. By the end of 011.M31, the recovery efforts had begun to pick up pace, with some 5,000 new Astartes having been raised and with many more predicted to be well on the way.

XIth Legion wargear was notedly quite similar to the XVIIth Legion, in their preference for mixing different Marks of power armour, most often Mark II and Mark IV, most notably amongst Specialist Formations and their Officer corps with the newer Mark gradually trickling down into the more common Line units. In addition, a close relationship with Gryphonne IV and other Mechanicum Forges has led to the development and adoption of numerous pieces of exclusive wargear - most notably Microedge weaponry and Windstrider Terminator Armour along with a high prevalence of Legion ‘Farsalan’ Pattern wargear such as bolters, armour parts and equipment. The relationship with Gryphonne IV has also led to a far higher supply on average of newer Sicaran and Sabre tanks filling Legion armouries, with the latter vehicle receiving exceptional positivity and praise by the Legion.

The Tempest Reavers maintained a respectable, if modest, fleet for much of their service during the Great Crusade. Due to the demands of doctrine and circumstance, Ezharion Kulas had never cultivated a large Heavy Capital warship element of his fleet, with 50-60 such vessels being in the Legion’s possession at any point in time; heavy capital firepower was usually supplied by their allies in the Imperialis Armada, with whom the Tempest Reavers bestowed the task of acting as the Line of Battle during major fleet engagements where needed. In order to maintain flexibility, Legion warships were configured into multi-role armaments, with many ships expected to engage at long range as well as close range and boarding actions - where the Legiones Astartes were at their strongest during such clashes. Boarding defence tactics relied primarily upon delaying of enemy boarding parties by Armsmen, most of whom were professionally trained to the high standards of Imperial Army Void Pioneer units, and Astartes forces initiating localised counter-attacks, ambushes and disruption of enemy cohesion.

The true strength of the Tempest Reavers’ fleet lay in their Cruiser Divisions. Many Tempest Reavers fleets were centred around squadrons of Strike Cruisers and Grand Cruisers, with the latter often being converted into the former for Planetary and Fleet Anchorage Assault Operations. These core squadrons were then supported by screens of picket Escorts, medium or heavy-tonnage Cruisers, medium to heavy scale Lance Barges and heavy-weight torpedo boat Destroyers - all vessels of varied but specified classes for their role. It was with this combined operations fleet that the Tempest Reavers boasted one of the largest overall tonnage and firepower fleets out of the Legiones Astartes, with their direct superiors for these honours being the Fire Keepers Legion fleet or the Sky Reavers’ fleet.

### **Ranks**

* Primarch, *Ezharion Kulas*
* The *Fels Vili,* Chapter Masters
* The *Fela Felai,* Captains
* The *Fels Felain*, Lieutenants or Centurions
* The *Ezhel Fi, Ezhel Felain and Ezhel Felai.* Tech Marines, Forge Lords and Master of the Forge
* The *Feiz Ezhon*, Veteran Sergeants
* The *Ezhol Fi,* Veteran Brothers
* The *Feia Fi*, the Line Sergeants
* The *Kela Fi*, Battle-Brothers

### **Organisation Structure**

* *Falan Vili,* Chapter analogous units composed of 2500 Astartes with complementary armour, support staff and transportation. Commanded by a *Fels Vili*
	+ *Kela Felai* Company formations of the Legion, unlike the principles laid out in the Principia Bellicosa they are 500 Astartes strong. Commanded by a *Fela Felai*
		- *Kels Felain* Sub-Companies, 100 Marines strong and form the line units of the Tempest Reavers. Commanded by a *Fels Felain*
			* *Kela/Ezhol Fi* Line and Veteran Squads respectively, 10 Marines strong, various sub denominations exist for specialist units. Commanded by a *Feia/Ezhol Fi*

## **Legion Wargear**

### **Microedge Weaponry**

Farsalus had long been a world host to a plethora of holdovers from Humanity’s Dark Age of Technology, primarily in the realms of fauna and flora; the myriad of Terran derived environment and ecological systems hint perhaps towards Ecosphere Temperance during its colonisation, such claims are irrelevant to the matter at hand. But, secondarily, there were scant few technological archaeo-vaults to uncover - yet those that were, presented perhaps one of the greatest boons to the XIth Legion.

Nigh-immediately, Ezharion Kulas would have copies of the Standard Template Construct fragment created and hidden away in Legion Vaults, ostensibly determined for use by Tempest Reavers artificers in creation of personalised wargear utilising such technology, yet also to act as a secret technological reserve in case supply was ever cut from their new source, Gryphonne IV. Ezharion Kulas had sought to find allies and potential beneficiaries amongst the Martian Mechanicum, yet made little in the way of progress with the red-clad Priests of Mars or any of their close subsidiary forges such as Ryza or Voss, but his overtures were successful with the lords of Gryphonne IV. With the newly reorganised Tempest Reavers, far more organised and manageable than their Ranging Hawks predecessors, having built up a positive and friendly rapport with the Legio Gryphonicus throughout numerous campaigns and compliances, the Lords of Gryphonne IV had already begun to warm to the new Legion under Kulas and hesitation swiftly turned to warm and cordial acceptance of a mutual pact between the Legion and the Forge. Part of this pact involved the transfer of the newly discovered Standard Template Construct fragment to Gryphonne IV and a deal for nigh-exclusive supply of any related products of wargear to the Tempest Reavers.

Upon analysis and construction of the Construct’s designs, the initial prototype, an axe, was soon made and issued to Tempest Reavers’ Fela Felai for inspection and assessment of the design. The weapon itself was of light weight build and design, with a swarm of monomolecular, crystalline chain-teeth that were on average smaller and less dense than their counterparts in regular Chain Weapons. These teeth, although sharp and highly efficacious at their given task, were notably far more delicate and prone to breaking in extended use or stress without maintenance - an oft maligned trait often blamed upon the unique metallurgy demanded by the Construct’s design pattern. However, the other key design factor which sets it apart from its more common Chain Weapon cousins such as the Chain Axe favoured by the Red Eyes, was the inclusion of a Power Field. The successful interbreeding of Chain and Power Weaponry was oft deemed inefficient, as the Eviscerator Pattern Heavy Chainsword demonstrated that the Power Field often was far more rudimentary and crude compared to true Power Weapons, and the Chainfist developed in later years was relegated to the role of advanced breaching tool due to its cumbersome nature and lack of portability on non-Terminator Plate. In this case, the newly dubbed ‘Microedge’ Weapon was supremely successful at its intended design role. The near seamless blend of Power and Chain Weaponry on a lightweight, portable and durable chassis was met with extreme satisfaction and little if any complaints.

Such was the success of the Weapon design, that even the Primarch Ezharion Kulas would commission his own weapon from the master artisans of Gryphonne IV, namely the Lord-Artisan of the Gladii of Gryphonne IV. This weapon would come to be dubbed Kala’k Ha’in the Storm of Woes, which would swiftly become the Primarch’s favoured piece of wargear besides his myriad of daggers. The Microedge design is often produced as the famous Microedge Axe, often seen in the hands of the De’sa Kalani “Ravagers” of the Legion, but numerous other production variants and personal effects are known to exist. Some notable examples of these are the Microedge Bardiches favoured by the Ezhon La’ki, the Ceremonial Microedge Polearms favoured by the Ka’fi’l Del’a’zek bodyguard units of Legion Commanders, The Seven Fingered Death used by Fels Vili Eliom Se’kiln and the Microedge Great Axe assigned to Ezekel Wel’kiln and the Far’salika P’ok’atrey Terminator Stewards of Farsalus.

Such widespread adoption of the Weapon design is primarily due to its raw effectiveness on the battlefield and supreme ease of handling due to its construction. Not only is it able to rip flesh asunder, but due to its powerfield and chain-teeth, it is able to cut through even Astartes Warplate fully down to the flesh and bones of the user, some designs even able to pierce Terminator Warplate with nigh casual ease. The chain-teeth are known to cause grievous bodily injuries, and anything they cannot immediately cut through will be gradually worn down and torn apart by the constant lacerations inflicted by the teeth. Production was carefully limited, with only select units, officers and personnel able to requisition such weaponry. By the end of the Halcyon Age, it was estimated that over 12,000 such examples existed within the Legion, a figure which would only grow with the Tempest Reavers’ rapid expansion to compensate for their losses during the Vanishing and for other plans that were set into motion after the First Ruin.

### **Windstrider Pattern Terminator Armour**

The Tempest Reavers have always had a unique relationship with Terminator, or Tactical Dreadnought, Armour, typical Astartes Legion assault doctrines have always emphasised the place and prevalence of such heavily protected wargear as a necessity; Terminator Astartes were expected to be at the very tip of the assault and to be able to weather the heavy fusillades of fire poured down upon them in a measured advance whilst destroying all in their wake. Yet for the XIth Legion, such a slow, methodical and cautious way of war was not appealing to even the most staunchly rigid Terran son.

Cataphractii Armour was shunned in popular use throughout the Legion, with the only users of such wargear being Far’salika P’ok’atrey Terminator Stewards and Ezekel Wel’kiln - both of whom are relegated to strictly defensive purposes in the overall structure of the Legion. Tartaros Armour, on the other hand, received an extremely positive welcoming by the Legion. The advanced sensor suites, servo motors and with agility and dexterity no longer limited by the Armour itself, it was an extremely popular success during initial field trials and the eventual mass rollout. Yet, Tartaros Pattern Armour was, for all of its successes and praises, extremely costly to manufacture, maintain and produce in large quantities; qualities all attributable mainly due to the advanced components involved in the Armour’s manufacture.  The new Indomitus Armour’s received little fanfare or attention by the Legion, with the design featuring a compromise between the two other Patterns, being deemed as still lacking in the vital areas of speed and dexterity that the Legion’s Doctrinae demanded. Thus, was the Indomitus consigned to the Legion Reserve Armouries until making a resurgence that shall be noted later on.

With vital experience in hand from the experiences with these Patterns of Terminator Armour, the Tempest Reavers in late 980.M30 would commission their allies on the Forge World of Gryphonne IV, along with any other Forge Domain interested in the Project or a beneficial pact with the well-renown and vaunted XIth Legion, to create a new Pattern of Terminator Armour - one tooled as closely as possible to the requirements of the XIth and using the Tartaros Pattern as a base from which to create it from. In terms of the wider scope of Terminator Armour and its manufacture, this Project, often called the Windstrider Project, was a minor addition onto the largely successful history of the Armour that was far too limited in deployment to make as much of an impact as it could have. The first orders were placed in 997.M30 and testing began a year later as the Tempest Reavers began their initial evaluations of the Armour and underwent trials concurrently with the Escaton Power Claw, leading to successful attempts to integrate the two new wargear designs. Reception was by far extremely positive, although not as durable as Tartaros in certain areas and lacking the far more advanced shield emitter systems in favour of rudimentary ones, the Windstrider, as the Pattern was christened, was the perfect suit to meet the needs of the XIth Legion and was immediately slated for mass production during and after the Vanishing.

Although visually similar to the Tartaros, the new Pattern featured simplified joint actuators, fibre bundles and the enhanced servos present in Tartaros whilst also often omitting many advanced features present in Tartaros so long as the mobility and dexterity was not compromised by their omission, featuring comparatively cheaper costs of manufacture and maintenance and a revised armour layout and composition; many areas, such as the upper arms, thighs and rear of the chest, feature a segmented armour layout not too akin to that featured in Mark II Power Armour and Cataphractii, this is due to the recognition that these areas received far less fire and thus could be stripped of heavier armour plating to cut down on servo-stresses. In addition, in keeping with a seeming Legion tradition, the torso armour has received additional armour plates - albeit these are thin and often disposable ad-hoc armour - designed to fit into mounted hardpoints upon the torso, allowing for relative flexibility in the arrangement of the additional armour. Helmets, although variance is noted with startling frequency due to the nature of Farsalan Pattern Helms, often features an enhanced vox-grille/vox-mitter, intended for demoralising effect and rallying cries.

However, it must also be noted that, much like Mark V Enforcer Armour, there are two distinct variants of Windstrider Armour. A Production Type, and a Field-Repair Type. Field-Repair Windstrider is a term applied to any and all Terminator Armour units that feature field modifications, mixing of Patterns and artificer components for the latter purpose. The qualifier for these suits falling under the moniker is the use of a pre-existing Windstrider or Tartaros Pattern suit as the base model for modification. They are often seen using Indomitus Pattern parts as the replacements, the reasons being speculative in nature but the oft used explanation is one that the Indomitus Pattern is simply the most common source of spare parts the Tempest Reavers have on hand to use. More rarely are Cataphractii parts used, but these are often used to improve protection in anticipation of extremely heavy combat or environments in which the normal armour would simply not suffice and no complete suits of Cataphractii are available. Most armour changes are often to the torso or pauldron areas, with some also being used for limb parts. Another key feature of the ad-hoc collection of suits is that they also feature heavy use of Molecular Bonding Spikes and redesigned chest areas, often attempts to improve durability by forcing the Armour’s plates to be held together more effectively in the former case and the latter either for personal heraldry or improved protectiveness.

By the end of the Halcyon Age, the vast majority of Tempest Reavers Terminator formations were equipped with Windstrider Armour, with Tartaros being reserved for more prestigious and accomplished units. Perhaps the users most synonymous with Windstrider Armour are the Da’zhon Fel’val, the Thunder Heralds. The premier Terminator assault troops of the Legion and some of the most savage yet disciplined combatants in the Legion’s line formations. Whilst most, if not all, Tempest Reavers Terminator units will have at one point used the Field-Repair Type, it is famed for its use by the units of the Fel’sain Dal’ykus, and far more infamously and darkly by the Scouring Hawks. Owing to a combination of a lack of resupply and heavy and extensive combat operations, the circumstances which often lead to the appointment of a Fel’sain Dal’ykus are often the same circumstances which will lead to the creation of the Field-Repair Type.

## **Notable Characters**

* **Ezharion Kulas** - Primarch of the Tempest Reavers
* **Victorin Delax,** The Lord of Hawks -
* **Kilvek Feldas,** Herald of the Reaver -
* **Silan Velda,** Champion of the Wild Blade -
* **Alajakos Selan**, Lord of the Fallen - Alajakos Selan is a highly respected and influential figure within the Tempest Reavers, as the head of the Legion’s Apothecarion, not only does he carry one of the heaviest burdens of all of the Legion’s Command Staff, but he is also entrusted with the powers of one of the Ezhari’ln Tri’helk. As he is not only charged with the sustaining of Tempest Reavers genestock, geneseed recovery and implantation of new recruits as the Chief Apothecary, he also carries an exceptional degree of influence and power within the Legion; his orders potentially only able to be overridden by another of the Trifecta or Ezharion Kulas himself, though such cases are rare as he does not exert this authority much.
* **Salandrik Nel**, the Shunned, the Shedel'Nokt - Salandrik Nel is a feared and foreboding entity amongst the Tempest Reavers. It is unknown the point at which Nel would become a Moritat, but after the Ranging Hawks became the Tempest Reavers, Nel would rise to claim the morbid honour of leader of the Legion’s Destroyers and Moritats.

## **Gallery**

Legionary from the Ezhon La'kiRemembrancer Sketch of a Legionary from the Fel'sa Del'ka