Myrmidons

The **Myrmidons** are the XII Legion of the Legiones Astartes. There are one of the original 20 Space Marine Legions created by the Emperor of Mankind to take part in his galaxy-spanning conquest, known as the Great Crusade, to reunite all the disparate worlds of humanity and unite them into the Imperium of Mankind, thereby securing humanity's manifest destiny as the galaxy's rightful rulers. Highly disciplined and courageous, the Myrmidons Legion epitomises efficiency and self-sufficiency, as they often only deploy as a whole Legion in a single Compliance action, bringing a high number of legionaries to bear and sustaining fewer casualties. Though the legion has managed to secure a great tally of victories on behalf of the glory of the Emperor using this cautious and measured approach, their philosophy on self-thinking and unusual approach in conducting warfare often leaves them at odds with other, more bellicose legions.

## Legion History

### Founding

The Astartes of the XII legion are disciplined soldiers and usually are more open-minded than others of their kind, especially towards other human factions, preferring the diplomatic approach. They still hate xenos, but they are not afraid to question their purposes and whether exterminating them is right or wrong. The Myrmidons are philosophers at heart, as interested in knowing the secrets of the universe as they are in serving the Emperor. They were formally known as 'The Companions'. They were taken from the cream of the population in Europa. Due to their 'soft' way of thinking they are sometimes looked upon with scorn by the other legions.

### The Great Crusade

The Myrmidons were mainly used after the conquest of the Sol system however they were defeated at the world of Mesos rendering them mostly useless for most of the crusade seeing they had low numbers, until they discovered their primarch.

#### The Ten Thousand

During their early history, The Companions suffered one of the greatest defeats in Imperial history. On the world of Mesos, they encountered a human nation The Mesos Technocracy that had taken over the system. After negotiations failed they quickly won against the Technocracy's forces even after discovering proto power armor and a large amount of plasma weapons when they reached Mesos itself however the legion master at the time Phyrrus grew overconfident and accepted a false offer of surrender and descended into the world. The then-young legion, numbering approximately 50,000 Legionaries at the time, was ambushed as their leaders were slaughtered at a 'banquet' to celebrate the technocracy's defeat what remained of the legion began a grueling and hard escape through the planet. The XII Legion's fleet was forced to retreat due to an ensuing 'warps surge' (a smaller, but highly unpredictable manifestation of the dreaded warp storm), leaving the survivors stranded. They promptly marched from the planet's equator to the south pole, being constantly harassed along the way. Here they held their ground until the warp surge finally died out and they were finally evacuated. Only 10,000 legionaries survived the disastrous campaign. The XII Legion would take some time to reach their modern day numbers.

#### A treatise on Acarnia

The Planet of Acarnia is a lush green small hive world. It's many hives spread apart and were once organized into city states. Massive wars were fought within the planet but all the city states had agreed on never using WMDs. The planet was once heavily affected by chaos and during the Old night the daemons returned in what is referred as the great Chaos (chaos in Acarnic meaning nothingness as almost everything was destroyed). Eventually the power of the warp subsided and the remaining humans repopulated the ruins and the period of instability and then status quo in the planet began as over thousands of years the cities grew and continued constantly warring.

#### The Coming of the King

Xenophon of Atina, the philosopher king of Acarnia, the reaper of Troii and the Herculean landed outside of Atina one of the biggest and most prominent city states of Acarnia. He was adopted by the Tyrant Ephialeties.

#### Disposition

After his discovery, when Primarch Xenophon was reunited with his legion he immediately began to reform and remake then in the style of a Acarnian Army. Xenophon quickly reduced the number of psykers in the legion as he was inherently distrustful of them. His legion now boasted the unique '*Heralds*' who were selected from the Legion's wisest Astartes - hand-picked by the Primarch himself. They served as emissaries and morale boosters for their fellow battle-brothers, reminding the legionaries of their teachings and doctrines to maintain the legion’s steel cold discipline. The Emperor saw the changes wrought by his son, and was greatly pleased. He would later use the Myrmidons as a diplomatic force of reason so it would see action mainly against other human nations and factions. Upon conquering a world, the Myrmidons would reorganize it into an efficient and ordered government, administering to it to ensure a seamless transition as the newly acquired world was brought into Imperial Compliance. The planets brought into the Imperium by the Myrmidons benefited greatly from their presence - a process for which they came to be known for doing it seamlessly.

## Legion Organisation

The Myrmidons Legion would be organized into chapters or '*Syntagmata*', each holding 10,000 legionaries and having in total, 13 chapters. The 1st Chapter has 15,000 legionaries in total, instead of the usual 10,000 each, with 10 '*Tagmatas*' possessing 1,000 legionaries each.

### Syntagmata

* **Chapter I, "The Silver Shields"** - The 1st Chapter is Xenophon’s personal guard boasting 15,000 elite legionaries and having the largest number of terminator suits in the legion, as well as boasting large numbers of '*Hypaspists*', another unique class of legionary. The 1st Chapter is lead by Strategos Clearchus.

* **Chapter II, "The Companions"** - The 2nd Chapter holds the greatest number of Hypaspists. It usually also accompanies the Primarch into battle, hence its name, and is lead by Strategos Diogenes.

* **Chapter III, "The Phocian Raiders"** - The 3rd chapter has the largest number of vehicles in the legion. It is lead by Strategos Memnon.

* **Chapter IV, "The Achaeans"** - The 4th Chapter boasts the largest number of tactical squads. It is lead by Strategos Archon of Aegeira.

* **Chapter V, "The Sons of Acarnia"** - One would think that the sons of the former Myrmidons would have been integrated into the Companion's 1st and 2nd Syntagmatas, however, Xenophon decided that they would be part of the 5th. Therefore, the 5th contains all the Myrmidons that could be augmented enough to reach Astartes level and their offspring. More so, the 5th Syntagmata holds a special class of Astartes - the Pristinus Astartes. These elites fight in a ancient fashion, mainly in melee, echoing their old ways. They also mainly don themselves in Mark II 'Crusade' pattern power armor (these are not to be confused with Emeritii Myrmidons.) The 5th are lead by Strategos Proxenus the former second in command of the Primarch and a great warrior.

* **Chapter X, "The Enlightened"** - The 10th Syntagmata is where the veterans that aren't good enough to join the 1st and 2nd Chapters go to. It is home to large numbers of Heralds, so it isn't usually held together as a fighting force, being divided by companies across the legion. The strategos of the 10th is also the Chief Herald Ephialtes.

## Legion Combat Doctrine

The Myrmidons usually fight in tight formations, advancing slowly on their enemies. During battle, each company forms into a specific formation assigned to them beforehand as part of an intricate and detailed battle-plan. Usually the tactical squads are on the front followed by the devastators. If said company has any vehicles or dreadnoughts, they will be positioned on the flanks. Only when directly commanded, will the Myrmidons adopt a loose formation. The Myrmidons have a special formation to deal with close combat quarters, including urban and boarding actions, called the '*Aspida Prostasias*', in which the Hypaspists Astartes (if any are present) will form a shield wall with their Hoplon pattern boarding shields and Dory pattern power spears, and slowly advance on the enemy while tactical marine squads fire at the enemy from behind their lines. No Myrmidon retreats unless ordered as they will hold in their formation despite any number of casualties

One of the Myrmidons most valued artefacts, is the piece of work written by the hand of Xenophon himself. This tome is entitled, '*A treatise on command and combat doctrines*', or as it is commonly known as, '*The Liber Bellum*'. Within the pages of this massive tome, Xenophon writes down how to command and organize a disciplined Astartes army and how to maintain order within said army, delving into various tactics and hypothetical 'Astartes-on-Astartes' combat. This book is wielded by the Heralds to maintain order during battle, citing quotes from the book to remind their fellow astartes of their training.

## Legion Culture & Beliefs

#### The Dogmas of Belief

The '*Dogmas of Belief*' or the '*Word of Xenophon*' is a large tome written by the Primarch following his reunification with his legion. These tomes are the source of the Legion's open-mindedness towards everything. In the book it states that nothing is certain and the universe is always in flux. So, until a indisputable source of wisdom is found (some claim this to be the legendary Black Library of the aloof xenos known as the Aeldari) nothing is certain, and that the individual should decide what is right and wrong. This encourages free thinking amongst the XII Legion's battle-brothers, making the Myrmidons a very unique legion, as their members question the righteousness of the Imperium and even the Emperor Himself. They question whether the Emperor is truly divine or just a product of evolution. Xenophon however, wasn't ignorant to the fact, of how outsiders wouldn't understand his legion's philosophy or unique ways of independent thinking, and therefore, his legion was bound by a vow of silence - to never reveal their toughs outside of the legion - however, rumors have spread abroad. When two members of the legion disagree they will gather at the Forum, a special hall in every large ship in the Myrmidon's fleet, and debate each other, trying to earn the support of the crowd. Whoever rallies the most support "wins" meaning his beliefs and his word will carry more weight amongst his peers. The Myrmidons are also strong believers in discipline favoring it above all else, a myrmidon will not abandon formation and will stand and fight to death unless ordered otherwise and any acts of subordination are only allowed if they happen under the conditions of a debate, except of course if the primarch is involved although many have questions the primarch's "undefeatable" arguments as he is above any legionary. Any good myrmidon will despise unorganized and savage opponents and they strive to be perfect all their ships a master work of architecture and their fortress monastery one of the greatest most beautiful of all the legions.

## Trivia

This article is authored by Random Gopnik, and transcribed here, for your viewing pleasure, by Algrim Whitefang and Gladius Voss.