Godslayers

Godslayers armorial with Legion iconography

Sergeant Isidor of the 4th Company, 29th Brotherhood

### Noteworthy Domains

Zbruch and the surrounding Gladius system (despite few planets being inhabitable) operate as the legion’s home, with Zbruch's moon, Eden, functioning as a primary training ground and armoury. Hidden bunkers, strategically important items and prison complexes are located in the catacombs beneath Hive Primus and Hive Tertius on Zbruch, along with the 'Caves of the Dead', the VIIIth Legion's enormous dreadnaught vault.

### Observed Strategic Tendencies

Diplomatic Compliance, Psychic Suppression, Armoured Assault, Siege and Attrition Warfare, Sledgehammer Tactics and Strategic Decapitation Strikes.

### Allegiance

Insurrectionists
*Traitoris Perdita*

### Colours

Orange, Black and Bronze

Few legions have begun so brightly, only to fall to such disgusting depths. The **Godslayers** were once counted among the most faithful of legions, eager to embrace the lost colonies of Mankind in fellowship, while brutally destroying their enemies. Although they share many similar traits to their Pariah cousins, the true name of the Godslayers is that they are a particular breed of psykers, known as Warp Suppressants. Incapable of manifesting any power or spell, the Godslayers have a unique power to nullify the sorcery of warp-craft. Thus, the Godslayers have fought many such foul magicks threatening the common Man, commanded by their idealistic Primarch, Koschei Kharkovic. In the end, it would not prevent their damnation.

## **Origins and History**

The Godslayers – once a mighty legion, whose name and reputation shone through the bleak void of space. They embodied the Emperor’s compassion and were, it may be said, the future of humanity, their Primarch Koschei going as far as to earn the moniker the Light in the Darkness. Strength and virtue went hand in hand with them, and with astonishing resilience they bore the Imperial standard across the battlefields of the Great Crusade.

It was not to last. Icarion exploited the Godslayers’ nobility to shackle them to his uprising. The Light in the Darkness became the first kinslayer among the Primarchs, and the consequences of such a crime are inescapable. Though he fought to maintain his honour, Koschei would find no respite from his guilt, and the taint of his deed was impossible to scour away. Eventually, he found himself with nowhere left to run, and became the plaything of primordial powers of limitless malice. They would make him the same kind of monster he had stood against all his life, a mockery of all that had been good in him.

### **Born of Ice**

The VIIIth Legion rose late in the Unification Wars, their inductees taken from the ice wastes and mountains in the extreme north of Merica. Here, a confederation of techno-barbarians known as the Kulatic League had held out for centuries against the onslaughts of Nordyc, Maulhand Sen and and Narthan Dume. They did not survive through evasion, as did their counterparts in the southern hemisphere, but endured through a hard-won resilience. Even when their strongholds were broken, the survivors would retreat into the wastes and rely on their harsh environment to ultimately defeat the foe. This became their creed: stone might be reduced, but a people’s collective spirit could endure any ordeal.

Finally, however, they met a foe who would not be resisted, and submitted at the point of Ist Legion guns. The League’s sons had long been earmarked for examination, as their military power suggested a potential pool of aspirants for the Legiones Astartes. This hypothesis proved correct, but induction would be delayed for decades as the Emperor’s agents worked to eradicate the primitive religion which was entrenched among the former subjects of the League. Their faith revolved around a conflict between a benevolent god and a vengeful would-be usurper, who they believed lurked somewhere in the corporeal world. It was believed that the men of the Kulatii were bound to fight this usurper, the '*Greatest Beast*' and finish what their god had begun. While the more overt facets were stripped away, it may be that some traces remained in the psyche of the VIIIth Legion.

The first three cadres, the ones who would steer the growth of the VIIIth, were drawn from across Merica and Atalantea, presumably to dilute any cult influence which might elude hypno-indoctrination. Nonetheless, a certain ruthlessness became evident early on, perhaps born of the Legion’s formative battles. The enemies they faced were the worst fanatics, who dug in and sold every life available in defiance of the Emperor. These few battles were followed by the murderous fight to conquer the Sol System, and it was here that the early VIIIth took its full form under the leadership of Prometear Thyris, choosing the name which would mark them forevermore.

Thyris was one of only a few dozen survivors of the Screaming in the Azurite orbital cities, an action fought by hundreds of Legionaries. Already known as a hard-headed, taciturn warrior, this seems to have calcified with the Screaming into something darker. His brothers accepted this, and if the Disnomia Purge on the fringes of the Sol System was anything to go by, their loyalty to him had a fervour to it that his predecessors had not inspired. Under his leadership they would cast down demons and gods alike. Mortals, we can extrapolate, were simply beneath their notice.

As the VIIIth earned their spurs, an unusual trait became apparent in them. The Legionaries exhibited an ability to suppress psychic energies; not the deadening aura of a pariah, but the apparently unique ability to manipulate small pockets of the æther. The exact cause perplexed the Emperor's scientists, with the dominant theory being that the gene-seed kindled or created a degree of psychic power in those inducted. As the Imperium confronted psykers both human and alien, the Godslayers proved highly effective in combating them. They were less potent than pariahs, but their gene-seed proved far more stable - a factor of immense importance in the early Crusade, when the XVth in particular struggled to field even a battalion. Moreover, the warriors of the VIIIth caused no discomfort to ordinary humans beyond what is to be expected for a mortal in the presence of a Space Marine.

### **The Imperial Cudgel**

Apart from this gift, the Godslayers were chiefly characterised by a merciless approach which stood out even in those shadowed days. Thyris despised the notion of taking prisoners, preferring to massacre those who failed to surrender at the outset. A particularly ill-famed display of this tendency came on Uligal, where the Godslayers destroyed a coven of rogue psykers alongside the Ordo Sinister, but unhesitatingly turned their guns upon the people whom the witches had enslaved. Instant opprobrium came from senior commanders outside the VIIIth, decrying the Legion Master as a fanatic whose bloodthirstiness came at the expense of potential good subjects and the Imperium's future stability. In the early Crusade, however, the Segmentum Solar thronged with enemies who warranted nothing more than extermination, and few had the authority to gainsay Thyris or steer him away from more sensitive targets.

Four decades into the Great Crusade, the Godslayers were split up into a number of sub-commands, as the Imperial advance met several worlds enthralled to psyker-cults. While combating such worlds was ostensibly the main reason, it seems that others were at play, and some saw a chance to curb the Legion's excesses. For Thyris and his core battalions were put under the banner of the IXth Legion. Thus the Legion Master found himself subject to one of the handful of warlords in the Imperium who could overrule him. Exactly why this shift came is unknown, though some have linked it to the emergence of several Primarchs in the years leading up to the division. A tantalising hint emerges from partial records, which appear to draw a link with the Legion's dwindling use as a weapon of retaliation against rebellious polities, seemingly superseded by another in this regard.

At this stage, the VIIIth Legion constituted a mobile reserve of sorts, deployed to warzones where the most strenuous resistance, often linked to the Warp, was to be found. Kozja Darzalas was no different in putting them to this use, though it is noted that he did so with immense carefulness and subtlety. The leash on which Thyris and his men were kept was tight, but long, and Kozja gave them full autonomy in several system-scale operations, fighting in parallel to the Warbringers. Thyris was his adjunct more than a direct subordinate, and this arrangement appears to have worked.

Despite his courteous treatment of them, Kozja was privately critical of the Legion's conduct, seeing them as "stunted creatures and a mockery of the Legiones Astartes' true potential. Wrought of steel which might make a keen-edged sword, they are merely a cudgel." The Godslayers may have unwittingly fuelled Kozja's desire and ambition to remould the Legions, and others shared his disdain. Other Legions found the Godslayers effective in their given role, but difficult to work without an advantage of rank over an VIIIth Legion Commander, deeming them belligerent and intractable. However, the time was approaching when the VIIIth would be made whole again and march under its own banner. A century after the Great Crusade broke the bounds of the Sol System, a Rogue Trader serving the Iron Bears arrived in orbit above the planet Zbruch and the story of the Godslayers took a profound new turn.

### **A Dreamer's Beginning**

Zbruch was far from the cold, barren home that the original VIIIth had known. Fertile over much of its surface, it had retained an intact civilisation at the feudal level, though its technology had regressed to steam power, steel and black powder. A slowly shifting patchwork of kingdoms ruled over the peasantry and city-dwelling menials, vying for power by diplomacy and force. Advised and abetted by a caste of sorcerers, they brooked no challenge to their rule.

It might be expected that Koschei would have come straight to one of these lords, but in truth his incubation pod came to rest in a woodland far from any city, in the backwater province of Kolanska. Here Koschei was adopted by a freeholder, and for two years turned his strength and intellect to agriculture, forestry and the needs of his village, rather than the trade which the Emperor intended for his sons. What might have become of the Master of Mankind finding Koschei accustomed to this life however, we shall never know. For a Primarch was all but impossible to keep secret, and another ruler saw the potential in the young Primarch.

Iosif Kharjalov, styling himself the Archduke of Sibronsk, was one of the most powerful lords on Zbruch, and among the most brutal. The agents he had placed in Kolanska - not truly his domain, but sitting just beyond his borders - carefully collected information on this child who could pass for an adolescent at two years old, his prodigious strength and intelligence, and determined that this was a worthy prize for their master. Kharjalov devised a scheme to acquire the young Primarch, and sent two forces to Kolanska. One of these was a rabble of mercenaries, dressed in the livery of a rival lord, and knew nothing of the Archduke’s own men-at-arms who followed.

Koschei's home town was ravaged, his family slain and the young Primarch wounded unto collapse before the second of Kharjalov's forces arrived to "save" the handful of survivors, under the pretence that these were his people. It is no surprise that none survived their wounds. A number of his sorcerers were also present, and worked spells of illusion on the journey back to obscure their route from the wounded Koschei. Thus was Koschei deceived into the Archduke's service with the promise of vengeance. A hunger awoke in him, and he devoured lore of all kinds, though overwhelmingly this was limited to military matters. The town where he had been raised was obliterated from the maps, the better to maintain the deception.

With his new general, Kharjalov swiftly conquered the neighbouring states, though the rate of expansion caused hardship to his people and the subjects he conquered. Samofrikiya, made scapegoats for the destruction of Koschei's home, was the first to fall, and with the utmost care Koschei was kept unaware of the true extent to which the common people suffered. Unrest among the peasants was kept to a minimum by the fear that Kharjalov might turn his monstrous lieutenant on them. Yet as years became decades and Kharjalov’s rapacity went undiminished, dispossessed nobles began to offer themselves as figureheads, and an uprising broke out, centred in part on Kolanska.

Kharjalov might reasonably have assumed that there was no real risk in sending Koschei to his old home. Decades had passed, and while his general clearly possessed an astonishing memory, trauma was known to interfere with such things. Besides, his mages had been diligent in their deception. But the Archduke reckoned without the truly eidetic memory of a Primarch. Even after all this time, Koschei remembered the landscape he had called home. He knew when the province had been conquered, and with dreadful clarity the pieces aligned. Kharjalov's soldiers had not been answering an attack on his own territory, but attacking Koschei’s people.

In an instant Koschei realised the truth of his “rescue”, his adoptive father revealed as the murderer of those who had first taken him in. A mind like Koschei’s could easily extrapolate from this and guess at the truth behind accounts of bitter enemies torching their villages to deny Kharjalov's armies. There was no worth in the conquests he had bent his strength and wits to.

Simmering with anger and self-disgust, Koschei took counsel with his most trusted followers, ones who shared something of his virtues. With their support he took the field only to loudly renounce his allegiance to the Archduke. This done, he turned on his fellow commanders and fractured the army he was meant to lead. Then he pledged his service to the dumbfounded rebels, and the uprising took on a scale never before seen on Zbruch.

Perhaps most surprisingly, Koschei's closest friend in this fight was his foster brother Alexander. The revelation of Kharjalov's deeds was as terrible for Alexander as it was for Koschei, and joined him in fighting to depose their father, even though this meant giving up the inheritance he was born to. Having been trained to rule as much as command, he turned his political skills toward winning allies for the fight and building a council of trustworthy men to serve Koschei.

Kharjalov sent the mightiest of his available armies against Koschei, but his conquests had spread them thinly close to his seat of power. His sorcerers were unleashed with all their terrible power, but at this time the same gift Koschei's sons possessed was unlocked in him. The mages found their attempts to read his mind failing, their black fire guttering in his presence. Within a year Koschei had taken Sibronsk entirely, slaying his abductor in the process. Now he cast aside the name of Kharjalov, and adopted that given to him by his followers - Kharkovic, “liberator”. Those virtuous Kharjalovs who had renounced their privileges for the greater good were likewise rewarded.

Koschei's campaigns to spread his newfound ideology were initially slower than the conquests he had fought for Kharjalov, as governance now dominated his studies, and he refused to wage war at the expense of the civilians he protected. Sibronsk grew prosperous, and this itself fostered support for him in the lands he aspired to liberate. Conscript armies disintegrated as his enemies’ troops flocked to the banner of Kharkovic, and the most fanatical elites could not match the warriors trained by Koschei's own hand. After a period of tumult, Zbruch entered a golden age.

Alas, Koschei’s laudable principles would bring the reunion with his father to near disaster. Koschei regarded this golden king with deep distrust, despite the kinship he felt with both him and Daer'dd, who had accompanied the Emperor. When they drew close, the sheer magnitude of the Emperor’s psychic presence overwhelmed Koschei, and he leapt to attack what he saw as a tyrant. Mercifully, Daer'dd succeeded in restraining Koschei, and the Emperor managed to placate his son. Over the following weeks, he explained to Koschei the true scale of his intended destiny, and arranged for the now willing Primarch to assume control of his Legion.

### **Master of the VIIIth**

Here, Koschei would first assert himself. Having read his Legion’s histories, he was appalled at the reputation they had garnered, and the baleful influence of Prometear Thyris. So as the first generation of the new VIIIth, both of Terra and Zbruch, began their Ascension, Koschei summoned the Godslayers to his world. In some ways he was generous, doing little to alter the Legion’s culture, but when it came to the echelons who ruled the Legion he was uncompromising. Thyris and his most brutal lieutenants were cast back into the position of file officers, risking the anger of much of the Legion. Yet having seen the strength of bonds between Astartes and their gene-sires, Koschei was willing to make this calculated gamble, and it proved a remarkable success.

There were also the Primarch's deeds and example at play here, following the example of Daer'dd. From the first, he took the brunt of whatever battle the Godslayers fought, and this swiftly earned him the respect of the remaining holdouts. It may be deemed a happy accident that Thyris fell in battle only a few years after the reunion; an honourable death, but one that reduced him to little more than a footnote in the Godslayers' story. It is whispered in places that Alexander, inducted into the Legion after the reunion, orchestrated the fall of the old Legion Master, seeing him as a lasting threat to Koschei's authority.

Whatever the truth of Thyris' end, it ushered out the last remnants of the old VIIIth and completed the Godslayers' new lease of life. Along with a newfound feeling of purpose, they found acclaim from their cousins and the Imperium at large. Koschei made them liberators, and thus they were loved. Companies were placed within brotherhoods, and in these Terrans mingled with Zbruchans as they did in the flourishing warrior lodges.

Koschei spent his formative campaigns at Daer'dd's side, and the influence showed in the Godslayers’ use of their strength to shield their mortal allies. Indeed, they took it further, and while they used many of the units available to a Legion Astartes, they often skewed towards close-combat. Perhaps it was by Daer'dd's example or a continuation of Koschei's own policies, but in council all senior officers were given an equal voice in principle, be they of the Legion, Army or a Titan maniple.

This tendency was mirrored in the Legion's dealings with the lost worlds of Mankind. Soon, the Godslayers were known for their determination to negotiate with any human culture they found, to an extent only seen among the Halcyon Wardens before. In Alexandros, Koschei found a kindred spirit who was quite willing to share his decades of experience, and dozens of worlds were brought into the Imperial fold by his rhetoric and that of his sons. Nonetheless, the Godslayers rigidly upheld the Emperor’s line on xenos and mutants, and the VIIIth had ample battle honours to go with its diplomatic triumphs.

Under Koschei their reputation in combat was for steadfast endurance and willing sacrifice, offering their lives to break sieges rather than starve the defenders. To some of Koschei's brothers this was cause for concern or scorn; an unwillingness to face the hard facts of galactic conquest. But in the grand scheme of the Great Crusade - as multifaceted a scheme as Mankind has ever known - these were but minor worries, apt to delay the VIIIth's growth but nothing more. Besides, the Godslayers' high regard for the Army ensured that they did not want for mortal support in their campaigns.

### **The Troubled Ground**

Yet beneath the surface, there was strain. The rate of attrition wore on Koschei as he watched his sons sacrifice themselves for the Emperor’s dream. At the same time, he was frustrated by the stratified society of the Imperium and the way that rulers were so often imposed on a conquered populace. Of course, he was often obliged to do exactly this to ensure a full compliance, and the charge of hypocrisy stung even if none spoke it.

It is therefore unsurprising that Koschei reacted with dismay to the Emperor’s withdrawal to Terra. Observers remarked that after the announcement, the pomp of the Qarith Triumph seemed as nothing to the Primarch. He was troubled when the Emperor failed to emerge from his seclusion and give a reason for his actions, and appalled by the speed with which a new tier settled into place at the top of the Imperial hierarchy, one that had not bled for its rise as his sons and soldiers had. Almost imperceptibly, the Godslayers' morale was eroded and the pace of their conquests slowed.

While he may have been close to the new Warmaster, Koschei seems to have been troubled by how Alexandros conducted himself in his new office. Their friendship had been strained before over the Halcyon Wardens’ readiness to use subterfuge and manipulate their enemies through psychic arts. Alexandros' own writings indicate a fear that Koschei remained unable to reconcile himself to these methods, and the realpolitik that came with the leadership of the Crusade. A joint campaign against the Maelynos Empire only served to highlight this, and the problem was worsened by the Vizenko prosecution and the Chaplain Edict.

With time, it may have been possible to heal the rift, but forces were working to deepen it almost as soon as Koschei took his leave of the conquered empire. When Icarion began to scheme against the Emperor, he knew just how to exploit Koschei's naivete, and turn him from a stalwart defender of the Imperium into a tool for regicide. He played deftly on Koschei’s fears, emphasising that he would work to enlighten Alexandros and that the Warmaster too would surely see the truth as well. The warrior lodges grew more secretive, and their members fulminated against the imposition of the Chaplain order when the Godslayers had only ever been loyal to the Imperium and its ideals.

Koschei needed no reminding of the last master to keep secrets from him, and sadly he and his sons were all too willing to heed Icarion's words. If the Emperor had betrayed the ideals for which they fought, they concluded, the Godslayers' loyalty must be to those ideals and not the one who held the throne. Thus from the noblest intentions, rot began to spread.

## **Legion Organisation and Structure**

A sprawling Legion, the Godslayers were united by the structures Koschei conceived for them. The most prominent of these were the Brotherhoods, which each comprised roughly 5,000 warriors. In each, Koschei endeavoured to achieve as near to equal a mix of Terran and Zbruchan Legionaries. The only initial exception was his bodyguard company; the Goliaths were overwhelmingly drawn from the strongest of his rebels soldiers to survive Ascension.

Membership of companies and brotherhoods was fluid, with some legionnaires having served in near half of the Legion's Brotherhoods throughout their lifespan. These transfers between Brotherhoods was conceived with the intent to reduce division within the Legion, leading it to become a more cohesive and efficient force. Koschei frowned upon competition for glory within his Legion, even when it was the comparatively benign sort fostered by many of his brothers. In this he found surprising common ground with K'awil Pakal and Nomus Sardaukar.

As noted above, the Godslayers saw their rightful place on the battlefield as being where the fighting was thickest, using their might to carry the day. To this end breacher squads and Terminators were fielded in large numbers, and Koschei had devised the Legion’s two elites. The Goliath Terminators and Oblochka Breachers were deployed in straightforward fashion; they led their brothers into the most gruelling resistance and defended the Legion’s ships against the fiercest boarding actions. Membership to such an esteemed body did not come easily, and the elites were to a man composed of hardened veterans.

Entirely absent from the Legion was a Destroyer corps. Koschei refused to compromise on the subject of their baleful weapons, and declared Destroyers to be anathema to everything the VIIIth stood for. The Godslayers deployed flame and plasma weapons in their place. This meant that they had to expend more lives than their cousins against the most virulent xenos breeds, but the Godslayers took pride in their willingness to bleed rather than leave a world tainted by alchem-weapons.

Under Koschei, the Godslayers' unique psychic gifts were channelled into specialised formations known as suppressor squads. These comprised warriors with unusually potent suppressant powers. Directed to slay the worst of the Warp-tainted enemies the VIIIth encountered, their skills in traditional combat were also tested sternly as their duties plunged them into the thickest fighting. Besides their powess, they were considered to be closer somehow to the Primarch's essence, and it was certainly true that many of the Legion’s most renowned leaders spent a formative period in the suppressor squads.

### **Command Hierarchy**

Similarly to the septumvirates that governed Brotherhoods, the Godslayers high command was unusually large. The Legion was ruled not solely by the Primarch himself, but by the Primarch's Council, a grouping of senior officers. Within the Expeditionary fleets, these councils were extended to include the mortal commanders and those responsible for the Legion’s servants. Each of the ten most senior captains in was assigned three Brotherhoods to monitor (although they had no official authority over the Brotherhoods), from which the captains would relay requests and messages to the Primarch.

The officers who served on the Primarch's Council were not hand-picked by Kharkovic as would be the case in many of the other legions, but instead were elected by the members of their Brotherhood. “Officers” is significant in this context, for the Brotherhoods did not choose their representatives based solely on rank. Senior sergeants, whose years of service often exceeded their captains’, were often considered the most suitable candidates. It has also been posited that election to this body was often connected to membership of the warrior lodges.

Positions on the Council and septumvirates were ostensibly indefinite, although a warrior could be stripped of his position according to a vote of no confidence. Such occurrences were rare but not unknown, and when they did transpire the unfortunate warrior was usually stripped of his rank as well, having committed some disgraceful error. More common were the instances where a Godslayer served beyond death, continuing to fulfill his role in a sarcophagus.

Zbruchan culture maintained that one’s ancestry must be honoured. As such, Dreadnoughts were a respected part of the Godslayers Legion. More numerous than those of many other Legions, Dreadnoughts of the Godslayers are granted the honour of garrisoning Zbruch when no longer in service aboard an Expeditionary Fleet. Kept in the massive system of catacombs and vaults underneath Hive Primus known as the Caves of the Dead, the Dreadnoughts’ slumber was watched over by the Chaplains and the Venerable Warden Lazarus, a Contemptor-bound warrior who predated the subjugation of the Sol System and saw service with the 67th Expedition long before the discovery of Zbruch. One of the first members of the Primarch's Council, he saw little active service after suffering near-catastrophic damage the Hermeka Compliance.

After Zbruch the Godslayers held the arts of diplomacy in higher regard than any other Legion save for the Halcyon Wardens. Indeed, a flair for rhetoric and negotiation could see a Godslayer rise higher and faster than he might by simple military service, no matter the disdain it earned from some other Legions. Their Chaplain order provided the lion’s share of recruits, but line officers also contributed to the ranks of what they called the Zmeyazyka. The foremost members of the Zmeyazyka answered directly to the Primarch and his Council. Despite what the mockery of some Legions might allege, they were still warriors at their core, quite willing to back their words with steel.

### **Officer Ranks**

* ***Velitel' lorda* (Lord Commander)** - A temporary rank given to the overall *Veluteľ* of a particular campaign in which more than one *Kapitola* (Chapter) is involved.

* ***Velitel' Rytiera* (Knight Commander)** - A temporary rank given to the overall *Veluteľ* of a particular campaign in which more than one *Spoločnosť* (Company), is involved.

* ***Velitel* (Commander)** - The leader of a *Spoločnosť* (Company), or *Kapitola* (Chapter).

### **Specialist Ranks**

* ***Majster* (Champion)**

* ***Nosič Zariadenia* (Standard Bearer)**

* ***Lekárnik* (Apothecary)**

* ***Kaplán* (Chaplain)**

* ***Vodič* (Driver)** - The operator of any legion vehicle.

### **Line Ranks**

* ***Ťažký Podporný Seržant* (Heavy Support Sergeant)**

* ***Taktický Seržant* (Tactical Sergeant)**

* ***Útočný Seržant* (Assault Sergeant)**

* ***Brat Seržant* (Brother Sergeant)** - The leader of any grouping of Godslayers *Čata* or smaller. Can also be referred to by the type of unit they are leading.

* ***Bitka Brat* (Battle Brother)** - Standard Godslayer rank-and-file Legioanry. *Bitka Brats* are usually deployed in either full *Čatas* of twenty, or smaller *Bratstva* (Brotherhoods), which is any grouping of Godslayers smaller than a *Čata*.

* ***Začínajúci* (Neophyte)** - Godslayers in training, *Začínajúci* perform various menial tasks around the Godslayer Fortress. *Začínajúci* are also placed in combat recon squads known as a *Lovec Čata* (Hunter Squad) to gain valuable combat experience. *Lovec Čata* are usually led by a *Lovec Seržant* (Hunter Sergeant).

* ***Uchádzač* (Aspirant)** - Those seeking admission into the ranks of the *Začínajúci*.

### Specialist Units & Formations

* **Goliath Terminator Squads** - Goliath Terminators were first born from a need to combat larger xenoforms encountered on the fringes of the Segmentum Pacificus during the early years of the Great Crusade. Using enormous, two-handed power glaives called Rippers, Goliaths make up the majority of Karl Volkov's First Company and are the legion’s fighting elite. Although they excel in all forms of combat, Goliaths are trained foremost in the art of the beastslayer, being able to bring down even the largest of monsters with a well-placed jab or slice.

* **Suppressor Squads** - The Soul-Eater Curse exists within all Godslayers, from lowly initiates to captains and chaplains. Although it is latent in most, in those chosen it will blossom throughout the marine’s life. While, when fully matured, they may be promoted to high ranks, when younger these pariahs will be assigned to Suppressor Squads, to prove themselves. While one Suppressor Marine on his own would be no more than an irritation to a psyker, in large clusters, bolters raging and chainblades revving, these squads are able to project a veil of darkness across the battlefield that only the sharpest minds can penetrate.

### **War Disposition**

The Godslayers' devotion to the Zbruchan creed would ensure that few doubted Koschei when he proclaimed the need to follow Icarion into rebellion. The warrior lodges were used to discreetly win converts to his side long before he declared his intent, and those identified as holdouts were given the dignified end of death in combat, whether they guessed at the betrayal or not. The Godslayers' wars were often costly affairs, and there was little discernible increase in casualties.

The Godslayers’ remarkable endurance and stable gene-seed allowed them to grow steadily through the Crusade. Koschei retained the old Terran tithe rights, and several worlds brought into compliance by the Zmeyazyka offered to provide aspirants. Consequently they numbered 180,000 on the Day of Revelation, placing them in the upper tier of Legions. This strength was complemented by an impressive number of Army regiments, Titan maniples and allied Knight Houses. However, Koschei held the Mechanicum at arm’s length, allowing them to produce and maintain wargear for his sons, but uneasy at the means by which the skitarii and automata were produced. As a result the taghmata served only rarely with the Godslayers.

The bulk of the Legion was to be found in Koschei's 67th Expeditionary Fleet. The rest were deployed in much smaller numbers, supplementing fleets largely composed of Army and Solar Auxilia regiments. Such independence was only granted by Koschei to officers whom he held in high regard. They were strongly discouraged from striking out alone as outriders to the Crusade as the Crimson Lions often did. Astartes, Koschei decreed, were too valuable to risk in such a role when Rogue Traders and Explorators could serve ably.

At the very fringes of the Legion were the so-called Lost Brotherhoods, as close to forgotten as a Legion Astartes formation could be. No longer counted among the rolls of the Godslayers, in truth many did not refer to themselves as Brotherhoods at all. Often they were offshoots of the old Terran Legion, and as the Insurrection spread they would prove a lingering irritant to Icarion's forces. Perhaps appropriately, the Galaxy would be reminded of the Legion which ha pd first walked the battlefields where Mankind warred upon itself.

## **Notable Campaigns**

If a common thread runs through the VIIIth Legion's campaigns, it is the sheer tenacity with which they waged war upon the enemies of the Emperor. While the Godslayers were hardly averse to wielding the formidable technology available to them, they used it mostly to complement their own inherent might, and though they had their share of heroic champions and brilliant tacticians, sheer endurance became their defining trait. Consequently their annals are full of gruelling marches, grinding battles of attrition and hard-fought defences. Yet we can see these methods applied with a distinct difference of mindset before and after Koschei was found. The Godslayers under Thyris made that refusal to relent synonymous with an utter lack of mercy for their enemies. Koschei would turn it to a profoundly different end; the Godslayers would endure what their allies could not, and on their shoulders the Emperor’s mortal soldiers would be carried to heights they could never achieve on their own.

### **The First Battle of Eront Secundus**

Koschei's early campaigns are defined by the usual growing pains and push-pull of new and old which characterised a Legion in transition. The ongoing attrition that afflicts any army on Crusade played a part. While this effect is usually confined to the rank and file in mortal armies, among the Astartes it was heightened by the "from the front" ethos so many captains and commanders subscribed to. It is only in hindsight that a darker side emerges to the changing of the guard, and that is best seen in the Conquest of Eront Secundus.

The Godslayers drew close to this world cautiously, but with no small amount of optimism. Historical record and reconnaissance data indicated a human civilisation, albeit one not yet developed to spacefaring levels. As the Godslayers fleet drew near, their auspex registered strange phenomena in the atmosphere, making it difficult to tell how advanced the civilisation below might be. Its cities were sizeable but nowhere near true hive cities, and electromagnetic readings proved inconsistent in the extreme. Still Koschei's optimism was undented, and he took a small force, numbering only a few hundred, to the surface by Stormeagle. With Alexander Kharkovic at his side, Prometear Thyris and Griorsk Varangar, still known as Lords Commander at this time, were left in command of the fleet. Varangar was the one to hold command of the new Gloriana *Krylataya Pobeda*, while Thyris brooded on the former flagship *Winter's Night*.

Atmospheric interference foiled all efforts at vox-communication, and it was only through a handful of astropaths that Koschei and Alexander maintained contact with the fleet. Landing near the largest city, they were dismayed to find it deserted and ruined, but persisted in their search. This would not be the first world where humanity lived as a fragment of its former glory, dwelling in hovels and wary of the cities their ancestors had called home. Two hours later, Koschei’s party reported heat signatures in the northwest quadrant, which their Thunderhawks investigated despite the interference with their comms. By voxcaster they reported what they saw, and the advance party’s mingled hope and concern became outright horror. These were no humans at all; they were feral Orks, and within the tide of green flesh had swarmed into view.

Ork technology is unreliable at best, and the Orks of Eront lacked even that, so for several minutes the fighting was one-sided to an almost comical degree. But the greenskins still possessed astonishing numbers, masked only by their failure to fully subjugate the world’s architecture. Moreover, where crude war machines would normally be found in the Orkish line of battle, feral clans use Orkoid beasts in much the same capacity. Koschei's force was swamped by Squigs, followed by Warboar cavalry and Squiggoths thundering down the highways as the main Ork force drew near. As ever, the Orks cared nothing for the toll exacted on their fellows or the danger to themselves. The horde simply absorbed the onslaught of gunfire, with three more aliens to every one that fell.

Guns ran dry, and the Godslayers were forced to grapple with the enemy in melee combat. The Stormeagles made charred offal of the tightly packed xenos and brought buildings crashing down on their heads, but while there was no artillery to threaten them, the Orks had Weirdboys and hideous Squighawks with which to assail them. By the time drop-pods breached the atmosphere, only a dozen gunships remained airborne, and Koschei's force was beleaguered indeed. Only hastily scrambled bomber squadrons spared them from being enveloped completely.

Thyris, who had brought his ship to full readiness despite the Primarch’s optimism, led a drop-pod assault into the outskirts of the city, losing several squads to rushed dropsite designations which saw pods shattered against buildings. Even then this most rapid option had taken some twenty minutes, and the waves of Godslayers mobilising in orbit would take longer. All the while, Koschei and his force fended off a horde of Squiggoths, the Goliaths slashing at the beasts with their power blades. The defence cost Koschei hundreds of warriors, but they held long enough for the new arrivals to divert the enemy’s attention. More reinforcements followed, Stormbirds descending with fresh troops and tanks.

Now the Godslayers went on the offensive, their armour columns leading the way. Yet other Orks warbands were already drawing close, lured by sounds which they had never heard before but were unmistakable in their violence. Tens of thousands became hundreds of thousands, internecine strife cast aside now there were outsiders to kill. Thyris met them head-on, likely seeing a chance to prove himself to his Primarch at last as he drew within sight of the Warboss. Despite requests from Alexander to fall back and draw the Orks into the guns of the tank columns, he carried on into the mass of greenskins.

This exchange had been conducted over a broad vox-net, but now Alexander switched to a closed link, so the rest of the exchange went largely unheard. Less than two minutes later, the massed tanks were ordered to fire into the horde. Hundreds of Orks perished with their leader under the sustained bombardment, but so too did Thyris’ warriors. An unfortunate circumstance, brought on by the ugly necessities of battle, and a mere footnote in a battle which spanned a day and began a year-long war. Or so it was thought for many years, until a Godslayers data-core was captured and broken open during the Insurrection.

Now we know the truth of the old Legion Master’s death. Kept alive only by his Iron Halo, Thyris had furiously demanded an end to the bombardment over a closed vox-channel to Alexander, only to realise his comms systems were being impaired from afar. Alexander used him to lure the Warboss into his trap, and perhaps more pertinently, saw a chance to remove the biggest obstacle to Koschei’s control of the Legion. That this act of betrayal was improvised in the heat of battle speaks volumes of Alexander's resourcefulness, and the ruthlessness with which he would work towards his brother’s dream. Things that went unnoticed as the Orks were routed and the Godslayers began their campaign to cleanse Eront and free the human slaves they found later on, but which had we known of them might have served as a warning.

### **The Purge of the Velocitarii**

Though the Imperial war machine was mighty, the borders it established were not inviolable. The nature of the Warp ensured that, but equally there societies of raiders and pirates who had grown adept at evading larger and mightier forces. These would prove a persistent nuisance to the often cumbersome armies of the Great Crusade, and having endured the horror of the Screaming before even the Sol System was won, the Godslayers knew this better than most.

An especially cruel and cunning collection of vermin, calling themselves the Velocitarii, plagued a number of systems in the vicinity of the Julea Nexus. Their ships were capable of engaging and even overcoming a wide range of Army vessels in order to pillage their supplies and personnel. This was close to the 67th Expeditionary Fleet’s current location, and Koschei took it upon himself to root out and destroy these parasites before they could do further harm.

Knowing that to simply hunt would be wasteful, he resolved to set a trap for his prey, and willingly offered himself and his sons as the bait. So a small fleet of Godslayers descended upon the world of Verden to resupply. Koschei made the bait as enticing as possible, feigning a degree of complacency that no Primarch would be found guilty of without reason. Munitorum vessels met with the Godslayers above the world's third moon. Koschei moved his flag from the *Krylataya Pobeda* for this operation, knowing that the Gloriana’s size and evident power would put any raider on their guard.

From here, the Primarch and his retainers proceeded to a meeting with the planet’s governors, leaving most of his ships festooned with maintenance scaffolds. These would clearly hinder the ships in battle, making it difficult for them to even begin responding to a threat, let alone properly defend the Munitorum vessels. Naturally, this was an opportunity no self-respecting corsair would pass up - less than an hour after Koschei had landed on Verden, the void lit up with a Velocitarii fleet emerging from the Warp.

The Verden defence fleet suffered cruelly under the guns of the pirates, their formation splintered before the Godslayers fleet could respond properly. Ship were boarded, soldiers and “useless” civilians killed and valuable prisoners dragged back to the pirate vessels when they could not secure the ships entirely. Several of the smaller VIIIth Legion ships were likewise run down and boarded, a feasible course for the pirates as the Astartes were absent, with elite soldiers taking their place in VIIIth Legion livery. Koschei had known the cost of his ruse, and insisted on crewing the fleets only with volunteers from his fleet as well as the system's. Such was the Primarch's charisma and the depth of his ideals that he did not want for manpower in his charade, though it caused him anguish to see others fight and suffer in his place.

Koschei hastened back with a fresh wave of ships and as expected, the Velocitarii withdrew, taking their spoils with them and taunting the Imperials until they fled realspace once more. Now their scorn was turned upon their captives, and they promised that they would never see the Imperium again, except as unwilling accomplices in piracy. They had every reason to feel certain of this claim, but in truth it was a hollow boast, for Koschei had exploited a key gap in their knowledge.

The Velocitarii knew of psykers well enough, but they had never encountered astropaths, gifted with their talents by the Emperor’s tempering power and mastery. Claiming to be Navigator acolytes who had fallen into disgrace, their true nature thus went unsuspected until the pirates began their own process of resupply and rearmament above a hitherto uncharted world. We must not trivialise the ordeal these brave souls and their fellow prisoners underwent, nor the value of their actions. The planet, which they dubbed Sixty-Seven Twenty-Five among themselves, was the closest thing the Velocitarii had to a central base, with slave hives feeding vast industrial complexes. The astropaths sent out this information, and waited.

Twenty-seven Terran days later, their cries were answered. The Godslayers burst into realspace, not the small and unprepared flotilla the pirates had encountered over Verden but the 67th Expeditionary Fleet in all its vengeful glory. While the Velocitarii had more ships in this quadrant - for the fleet which Koschei pursued was only one of several - few of them could seriously rival the invaders. Koschei, once again ensconced on his Gloriana, had his quarry where he wanted it, and rapidly set about tipping the scales further against them.

Ploughing into orbit, the *Krylataya Pobeda* and its fellow battle-barges unleashed drop-pod attacks against 67-25, followed almost immediately by gunships and Titan-carriers. The Velocitarii ground-to-orbit batteries would have presented a brutal challenge, if not for the fact that Koschei had selected the city where his volunteers were held. Among their ranks were a handful of Callidus Assassins, killers of great patience and guile who could pass for the weakest of civilians. The rest were, to a man and woman, loyal and skilled in combat, and the astropaths harnessed their own gifts to subverting the prison overseers.

Guards, apropos of nothing, drew their weapons and killed their comrades. Power failed in several districts, cannon stuttered and fell silent. The Velocitarii watched with horror as their slaves seized the chance to revolt and they faced the prospect of a hostile force seizing a vital facility, even the planet. Yet they believed this could be reversed; the Godslayers beachhead was small and their second wave had not yet materialised. Thus the nearby pirate vessels immediately scrambled gunships, deploying tens of thousands of paratroopers directly onto the Godslayers’ positions.

Equipped with jump packs and carapace armour, the corsairs had sown misery on dozens of worlds. They functioned much the same as assault marines, and had a similar effect upon mortal soldiers, delighting in the torment they inflicted. Their dismay as they came down upon these enemies, therefore, must have been immensely satisfying to the Godslayers. Bolter fire ensured that many hit the ground in chunks, and as the survivors landed the orange sea closed over them. Small-arms fire was deflected by breacher shields, blades broke on their armour, and the Astartes were utterly beyond the strength and prowess of even these seasoned marauders. There would be no second chance to overwhelm the Astartes, as fighter and gunship wings flooded the skies and added tenfold to the numbers on the ground. The desperate pirates poured men and machines into the ground war, dooming themselves both in the void and on the surface. Their arsenal was formiddable, but it had no answer for the technological might wielded by the Space Marines.

The first hives were stormed in short order as the Velocitarii fleet fell apart. Several ships fled, while their more loyal compatriots fell victim to the superior cohesion of their attackers. The Velocitarii were, like so many of their ilk, a force bound together by little more than common interest. The Godslayers, in stark contrast, had the profound unity of a Legion Astartes fighting under its gene-sire. Koschei and his Goliaths led the Oblochka onto the vessel which had led the Verden incursion, exacting retribution for the suffering of their people. Across near space the pattern was repeated, the Godslayers mindful of the likely use of slave crews aboard the pirate vessels and thus unwilling to simply destroy them.

The pirates resisted with their most brutal weapons, unleashing feral beasts and venting the atmosphere from passages. The Godslayers came on regardless, dismantling defences and doing much the same to the defenders. They cared not for the losses they sustained in the fighting; this was their duty, and they owed it to the mortals who had already suffered in the course of bringing the Velocitarii to justice. The corsairs were dragged from their command thrones and sentenced to servitorhood, reduced to menials in the Imperium they had preyed upon.

Within three days, the world lay firmly in Imperial hands, the last pirate ships scattered to the tides of the Warp. Koschei distributed the captured vessels among those worlds victimised by the Velocitarii, and devoted several months to building a benevolent government on 67-25. As the hives developed into grand works of Imperial architecture, a plethora of statues emerged dedicated not to the Godslayers but to the mortals who had risked - and in several cases given - everything for the ideals Koschei upheld.

### **Altai II (920. M30)**

The Godslayers engaged and destroyed an Ork Waagh! on this world, abetted by the Dune Serpents and the Legio Fortissimus, liberating the world's populace in the process.

### **The Hermeka Compliance**

The conquest of Hermeka was for the Godslayers a stain on their proud martial record by association. It began as a joint expedition by the Berserkers of Uran and the Godslayers, which scoured several worlds of their xenos occupiers until it came across a human civilisation. At this point, the profoundly differing ethos of the two Legions surfaced.

The Hermeka System lay under the aegis of the Knight House Achaea, which had gradually come to govern the entire system after losing touch with the tech-priests of Mars. They agreed to hold talks on the system’s fourth planet, but balked at Raktra's blunt demands for submission. Koschei Kharkovic attempted to salvage the situation, but the situation degenerated too quickly and within minutes war was declared.

The Godslayers’ Primarch lamented this turn of events and prepared to return to orbit, but Raktra ordered him to wait. Seconds later, several squads of Milewalkers and Blood Boilers teleported into the courtrooms where negotiations had taken place. Raktra had made contingency plans for the failure of diplomacy in his inimitable way, knowing that the majority of the system's political and military leaders would be gathered in one place. Having been instructed beforehand, they slaughtered every man and woman present. Koschei was appalled, but the momentum and initiative clearly lay with Raktra and the Godslayers were dragged along in his wake as the Imperial forces seized the capital.

The fighting was brutal, as Achaea, led by the High King's son Aeneas, quickly rallied their forces in the city, but the Berserkers landed troops both within and outside the walls. Caught off guard and outnumbered, the defenders were massacred. Raktra led the battle against their Knight Walkers, personally destroying the Swift Arrow and killing Baron Aeneas. The Godslayers participated, recognising an irretrievable situation, but were largely sidelined amid the carnage.

Raktra's next move was to position ships above every other major city, damping communications in the capital. After leaving the populace to stew in their confusion and fear for a day, Godslayer and Berserker forces deployed to each settlement, demanding they surrender. Those that resisted were crushed underfoot by the invaders, the Godslayers reluctantly going along with Raktra's scheme while the Hermekan fleet was scattered by Army warships.

Koschei set off for the remaining worlds. Finding that their leaders would not negotiate with him, he broadcast images of the carnage to them. Some historians draw parallels with Pionus' actions on Punicia, but unlike his brother, Koschei was unable to set aside his emotions, pleading with the Hermekans to surrender and avoid adding to the carnage that had befallen their capital. To his relief, they did so, shaken by the distress of this mighty warrior. However, his elation was dashed when Raktra congratulated him for his “help.” Koschei realised that he had been manipulated every step of the way, Raktra using him to ensure clean compliances across the rest of the system. No record exists of Koschei's response, but rumours suggest that he actually struck Raktra in his fury.

Whatever the truth, the Berserkers departed soon after. The Godslayers did the best they could to ease the Hermekan people into the Imperium, but it was decades until the planet would know true compliance. Moreover, relations between the two Legions were in ruins, and it would take a very dark turn in the Godslayers’ path to set them beside the Berserkers again.

### **The Vremalkyr Incursions (931. M30)**

When the hideously powerful Vremalkyr threatened great swathes of the southern Imperium, the main strength of the Godslayers mustered at Zbruch before deploying as part of an enormous host under the command of the Emperor himself to end the depredations of these xenos monsters. Alongside the Lightning Bearers and Void Eagles they followed the Master of Mankind into a relief campaign which saved scores of worlds from destruction and ended the godlike power of the Vremalkyr.

Racing to save the realm of Yamatar from being overrun, Koschei matched his own strength against the awful might of the xenos, and is known to have slain at least two during the Salvation of Otachi. He then led his forces in the counter-offensive at the head of a mighty host and fought beside Icarion and the Emperor in the final battles of the campaign. Icarion was to remark in the aftermath that the VIIIth had proved their old moniker well-deserved, and it was deemed the Legion's finest hour by many.

### **The Doljen Conquest (c. 980. M30)**

The Godslayers participated in this massive campaign under the command of Kozja Darzalas.

### **The Humbling of the Maelynos (M31)**

Koschei led several Brotherhoods of his Legion under the overall command of Alexandros against the Maelynos Knight dynasty, who resisted Compliance with their many sacred armours and powerful Titan-analogues. The conflict also involved the Steel Legion and the Shepherds of Eden as well as elements of several Titan Legions and Knight Houses. Despite great success in the campaign, a divide began to open up between the two brothers as Koschei was discomfited by his brother's apparent ease with the office of Warmaster.

### **The Siratius Ambush**

The Exodite System formally designated Siratius was first encountered by the Godslayers Legion at the height of the Great Crusade. As the 67th Fleet moved to bypass what at first seemed an uninhabited system, navigators aboard began to sense a surge in psychic activity. This activity was traced to Siratius, a relatively small star system consisting of only three populated planets. Preliminary scans indicated hostile conditions on all three of the planets, but the Fleet’s commanding officers resolved to investigate nonetheless.

The 67th Expeditionary Fleet moved into orbit of the outlying world. Preparations were made to launch landing craft to the surface to search for clues on what or who could be causing this tremendous amount of psychic activity. Before these could be implemented, however, the *Krylataya Pobeda* itself received a transmission. This transmission detailed the inhabitants of the system as Eldar Exodites, and warned the Imperial ships against mounting an attack on the xenos. The Exodites were told, in return, that the Godslayers had no wish for violence between the two races. Negotiations were organised, to take place on the surface of the world below.

These bare facts were kept quiet for many years; some of our order suspect Alexander Kharkovic, warding his foster brother against the suspicion and accusations of his master’s fellow Primarchs. We are left to conjecture for the reasons behind Koschei’s actions. Perhaps pragmatism drove the decision, or maybe his idealism and naivete were stronger than any realised at the time, rivalling only that of Gwalchavad. It is suggested that, coming off a campaign against the Maelynos Knight Dynasty, Koschei felt fatigued by the moral cost of fighting fellow humans, and was keen to avoid conflict if possible.

Kharkovic himself led the diplomatic detachment to meet the Eldar, as had become customary; none could match his intellect, rhetorical flair and sheer presence. He did not wish to provoke the xenos who, although relatively primitive in relation to their Craftworld-dwelling cousins, boasted considerable numbers and psychic power, and so he brought with him only a small number of Legionaries, two companies alongside his bodyguard. He was greeted by a group of seers who called themselves simply the Parliament, and the bodyguard of Eldar that accompanied them.

Though initial discussions were peaceful, the mood soured as Koschei was introduced to the eldest member of The Parliament, an ancient creature by the name of Mhuratah. This Eldar, unlike the others, seemed unwilling and even afraid to be near the Primarch. He claimed that his humours had been unbalanced (as far as the words could be rendered in Gothic), and demanded that the meeting be adjourned for a time while he gathered himself.

The Godslayers were unsurprised; they were by now used to the effect their presence could have on those with psychic ability. Before the meeting could even begin again, the Eldar struck. As they rested on the edges of the settlement in which the gathering had taken place, the unsuspecting Godslayers were struck by blasts of psychic energy. As the astartes scrambled to prepare for battle, they found themselves flanked by first hundreds and then thousands of the Exodite warriors, cutting through the hastily formed outer line with unrelenting violence and the astonishing bladecraft of the Eldar race.

In orbit, auspex feeds had been suddenly jammed, to the alarm of the Godslayers officers. Immediate extraction was ordered, while the diplomatic detachment was forced to flee from the Eldar settlement with their Primarch in tow. Koschei himself was the prime target, the Eldar casting off all concern for their own safety in their urge to attack him.

The commanders of the VIIIth had learned well the lessons of Eront, and gunships and fighters were already fuelled, loaded and on the launch-rails. Yet they faced searing volleys from the Eldar ranks as they neared the surface, and though assault marines leapt from Stormbirds to come down among the xenos, the press of bodies impeded them in reaching their master. Kharkovic and his guards were cut off from the rest and surrounded. At the head of this assault came the Parliament themselves, calling out for Kharkovic, whom they called ‘Kinslayer’, to come forward and face his end.

Koschei grimly accepted, slaying them all, but he was gravely wounded, and now the Eldar unleashed another weapon against him. Reality split open to reveal the Eldar’s revenant warriors; Wraithguard and Wraithlords, advancing implacably through the melee. The Godslayers on the ground were without anything that could match the Wraithlords, and the Stormbirds’ attention was largely focused on clearing a path for Koschei to escape.

In the midst of the fighting Kyr Volev, the master of the Goliaths, realised what was necessary. Calling the assault companies to him, he led them into a doomed struggle against the Wraithlords, accompanied by half his fellow Terminators. Their sacrifice enabled Koschei to escape as the Stormbirds descended, unloading their heavy weapons in a vain effort to deter the xenos.

The Eldar fleet had no way to truly threaten the Godslayers’ ships, being fewer in number and lacking the monstrous battleships of the Astartes, but with the Primarch not yet aboard his flagship the Astartes were in a position of rare vulnerability. The xenos vessels made no effort to stave off destruction, hurling all their atmosphere-capable craft into the void to intercept him. The Godslayers responded in a near frenzy, turning every weapon they possessed upon the foe. Fighter craft wove through the debris fields, fighting to ensure the survival of that single Stormbird.

The hunt was carried across an entire continent, Koschei realising the danger of attack from above as frantic communications came in. Instead of simply attempting to break for orbit, the gunships had kept low, seeking mountainous terrain. They found it, but the Eldar were on their heels well before that, and only Koschei’s Stormbird and another reached the mountains. Here Koschei and his guards disembarked, the crews taking to the skies again to draw the enemy’s attention. This time, the gambit worked perfectly; by the time the Eldar suspected something was amiss, entire wings of Lightning fighters and other craft were upon them.

With the Eldar ships blasted apart in the void, the Godslayers fleet began operations to scour the planet for any surviving aliens. It could hardly be called a glorious victory, but a victory it was, snatched in a battle which was unexpected and fought against an enemy of superlative guile. Woe then, that we may not now celebrate the endurance and self-sacrifice that won the fight, and that we do not have to guess why the Eldar gave Koschei that epithet.

### **The Kataii Ambush**

The Godslayers joined with the Grave Stalkers to assault the Iron Bears on the Day of Revelation. They inflicted devastating harm upon the VI Legion, but at irreparable cost to their own psyche and, some would say, their very souls. Most infamous of their acts on this day was Koschei's killing of Daer'dd Niimkiikaa, damning him forevermore as the first kinslayer among the Primarchs.

### **The Subjugation of Zbruch**

Zbruch, far removed from Insurrectionist territory, was besieged and then conquered by the vengeful Scions Hospitalier. The Godslayers garrison resisted tenaciously, but were all put to the sword by their erstwhile kinsmen.

## **Notable Godslayers**

* **Koschei Kharkovic** - Primarch of the Godslayers Legion
* Alexander Kharkovic
* Prometear Thyris
* Griorsk Varangar
* **Igor Vronski (Deceased)** - Velitel of the Second Brotherhood, a ferocious fighter and close-assault specialist, Vronski preferred to fight amongst the ranks of his Legion's Breacher assault elements. Unfortunately, he met his ultimate fate when he fought against the Iron Bears during the Day of Revelation.
* Maksim Babichev
* Sergei Medvud
* Rebenochk Urshson
* Zergen Nakhitov - Velitel of the Sixth Brotherhood

## **Legion Fleet**

* ***Krylataya Pobeda* (Gloriana-class Battleship)**

* ***Wintertooth* (Battleship)** - The original flagship of the VIIIth Legion, this vessel remained in the hands of Prometear Thyris until his death, the ship itself sustaining immense damage from the *Dragon of Autumn*
* ***Absolute Brotherhood* (Battle Barge)** - boarded by the Iron Bears at Kataii
* ***New Dawn***
* ***Humanity Awakened***
* ***The Last Resort***
* ***Zbruchan Solidarity***
* ***Princebane***
* ***Opekun***

## **Gallery**

Godslayers Legion iconographyGodslayers Legion appearance