Dark Vultures

Dark Vultures armorial with corrupted Warband iconography.

A Traitor Astartes of the Dark Vultures Warband

The **Dark Vultures**, or '***Tenebris Vulturis***', are a formidable Chaos Warband of ill-repute. They were once Astartes of the Blood Vultures - a brutal and unforgiving Chapter created during the mysterious 13th Founding (the so-called 'Dark Founding') - from the lineage of the angelic Primarch Sanguinius. Relentless and savage, the Blood Vultures have garnered a reputation as a merciless and savage Chapter. But a hidden flaw in their gene-seed nearly saw the Blood Vultures undone, as they were prone to being easily corrupted by the insidious powers of Chaos.

During the height of festivities on their Chapter homeworld of Regark when they were celebrating the Chapter's Founding during their first millennial celebration, the seeds of Chaos had been unknowingly sown within the ranks of the Blood Vultures. Led by the Blood Commander (Captain) of the 3rd Company, the celebration quickly turned into a slaughter, as brother turned upon brother. Though half their number were killed, the remainder Traitor Astartes fled their former brethren's wrath, and made good their escape, fleeing into the Warp for parts unknown.

Since that bygone era, over the last four millennia this vicious and brutal Chaos Warband has struck out from their dark home world and launched numerous bloody attacks against neighbouring Imperial star systems. They especially take pleasure in raiding the worlds of the Akeldama System, the demesne of their erstwhile brethren, the Blood Vultures.

## Warband History

Once, these Astartes were fiercely loyal to the Imperium, but eventually they turned from the light of the Emperor and renounced their oaths to everything that they had once sworn to uphold. These Traitor Astartes were once a part of the ferocious Blood Vultures - an Adeptus Astartes Chapter of ill-repute - that has long bore a brutal reputation as being both bellicose and savage. It is believed by many Imperial savants and tech-lords of the Magos Bioligis, that the Blood Vultures were created during the mysterious 13th Founding, known in official records as the 'Dark Founding'. But records of this particularly ignominious Founding are fractured and unreliable at best.

Though unconfirmed, it is highly probable that the Blood Vultures were indeed one of the lost Chapters created during the 13th Founding. Along with the only two other known officially confirmed Chapters created during this time - the Exorcists and Death Spectres - the Blood Vultures also exhibited signs that their gene-seed had undergone extensive modifications. Like their Progenitors, the Blood Angels, the Blood Vultures also suffered the twin-curses of Sanguinius, known as the Black Rage and the Red Thirst, but suffer these ill-effects with far less frequency than their genetic forebears. The reasons for this are not quite clear. However, the most troubling aspect of their gene-seed is that it showed a susceptibility amongst some of the Chapter's battle-brothers to be seduced by the insidious influence of Chaos. The appearance of this flaw began to manifest itself only a few decades after their creation. Individual battle-brothers, or even whole squads were sometimes infected by this corrupting malady. Those who suffered from this infliction were either imprisoned deep within the bowels of their fortress-monastery on Regark, or sometimes had to be mercilessly put down. This troubling trait would not be revealed to outsiders for nearly the first one thousand years of their existence.

### Ruination Heresy

The Blood Vultures' secret shame nearly saw the destruction of the Chapter after only a millennium of existence during the early decades of the 37th Millennium. The Chapter had worked extremely diligently to conceal this flaw from prying eyes for fear of Inquisitorial sanction. Unfortunately, things would come to a climax during the height of the Blood Vultures' centennial celebration on their Chapter homeworld of Regark. During the height of the festivities a whole company of the Chapter, secretly corrupted by Chaos, publicly renounced their oaths of fealty to the Emperor of Mankind, and proceeded to attack their former brethren during the celebratory processional within Regark's capital city. They slaughtered innocent civilians, visiting Imperial dignitaries and military commanders as well as their former battle-brothers.

Led by the former Blood Commander (Captain) of the Chapter's 3rd Company, known as Teigon 'the Marauder', a brutal and vicious Astartes, the corrupted brethren wreaked as much havoc and bloodshed as they could before their loyalist brethren were finally able to counter-attack and drive their corrupted brethren away from the civilian population. In the ensuing internecine conflict, half of the planet's capital city was utterly destroyed during the fierce conflagration. Though the Blood Vultures managed to kill half of their corrupted brethren, Teigon and his remaining followers managed to effect their escape by utilising teleport homing devices to teleport aboard one of the Chapter's strike cruisers in orbit. Before they fled the wrath of their erstwhile brethren, the traitorous Astartes performed one last act of spite, and launched a devastating orbital bombardment, destroying the Planetary Governor's palace, and causing the deaths of thousands of innocents. They then made their way towards the nearest Mandeville point and fled into the Warp. Since that time, the Blood Vultures have sworn a blood-oath to see their corrupted brethren utterly destroyed, a debt which has yet to be paid.

## Notable Campaigns of Infamy

* **The Ruination Heresy (Unknown Date.M37)** - A millennium after their inception during the 13th Founding, the fate of the Blood Vultures' was irrevocably changed, their genetic flaw revealed to all. A hitherto unknown genetic deficiency within their gene-seed somehow inexplicably made some of their battle-brothers susceptible to the corrupting influence of Chaos, causing once stoutly loyal warriors to turn on their brethren. The appearance of this flaw began to manifest itself only a few decades after their creation. Individual battle-brothers, or even whole squads were sometimes infected by this corrupting malady. Those who suffered from this infliction were either imprisoned deep within the bowels of their fortress-monastery on Regark, or sometimes had to be mercilessly put down. The Blood Vultures had worked so hard to conceal this flaw from prying eyes for fear of Inquisitorial sanction. But the events that occurred sometime in the early 37th Millennium, brought their Chapter's genetic flaw to the forefront, revealing to all their secret shame. This Chaos corruption had not solely affected just the Blood Vultures, but had also been found amongst other Chapters supposedly created during their Founding, but for unknown reasons these specific Chapters remain unnamed in official Imperial records for unspecified reasons. At the height of their first millennial celebration of the Blood Vultures' inception, a whole company of the Chapter renounced their oaths of fealty to the Emperor of Mankind, and proceeded to attack their former brethren during a celebratory processional within Regark's capital city, slaughtering innocent civilians, visiting Imperial dignitaries and military commanders as well as their former battle-brothers. Led by the former Captain of the Chapter's 3rd Company, known as Teigon 'the Marauder', a brutal and vicious Astartes, the corrupted brethren wreaked as much havoc and bloodshed as they could before their loyalist brethren were finally able to counter-attack and drive their corrupted brethren away from the civilian population. In the ensuing internecine conflict, half of the planet's capital city was utterly destroyed during the fierce conflagration. Though the Blood Vultures managed to kill half of their corrupted brethren, Teigon and his remaining followers managed to effect their escape by utilising teleport homing devices to teleport aboard one of the Chapter's strike cruisers in orbit. Before they fled the wrath of their erstwhile brethren, the traitorous Astartes performed one last act of spite, and launched a devastating orbital bombardment, destroying the Planetary Governor's palace, and causing the deaths of thousands of innocents. They then made their way towards the nearest Mandeville point and fled into the Warp. Since that time, the Blood Vultures have sworn a blood-oath to see their corrupted brethren utterly destroyed, a debt which has yet to be paid.
* **The Vultures' Folly (829.M41)** - When the imperial worlds of the Jarlaxis system was set upon without warning by a reaving Heretic Astartes warband, they left a trail of slaughter unseen for millennia. World after world fell to these ravaging Astartes, as they slaughtered their way through planetary defence forces with ease, and then proceeded to execute the doomed world's population, leaving bloody abbatoirs in their wake. The few vid-captures obtained by agents of the Inquisition showed what appeared to be Astartes of some unrecognisable Space Marine Chapter. However, the grainy vid-logs revealed that many of these transhuman warriors were twisted and corrupted by the powers of Chaos. They wore sable and crimson armour that bore the symbol of a large bloodied carrion-eating vulture emblazoned upon their pauldrons - these Heretic Astartes were none other than the infamous Dark Vultures Chaos warband which had not been seen in centuries. When word reached Regark, the Blood Vultures Chapter deployed in full, intent on wiping out their mortal enemies once and for all. For several months the Chaos Warband continued their slaughter unabated, prowling Imperial shipping lanes or invading backwater worlds, it mattered not. Whenever the Dark Vultures appeared, they brought with them red ruin. Pursuing the Heretic Astartes relentlessly, the warband always managed to stay one step ahead of their enemies. Finally, the Blood Vultures Librarians discovered their foe's whereabouts upon the civilised world of Kardax. The Chapter fleet bludgeoned its way through the Chaos fleet located on the outskirts of the system on a direct course for their target world. Caring nothing for secondary tagets the Blood Vultures attacked the besieged world, immediately taking the fight to the planet's surface. As their battle barges unleashed a hurricane of supporting fire, Blood Master Haron Thas descended through the fire and ash to the surface in his assault barque *Vulturis Irae*. The barque smashed into the upper structures of the priamry hive-capital causing a massive hive quake. The Blood Vultures then proceeded to launch a massive wave of drop pods and gunships in the barque's wake, descending to the surface like a force of nature. Death had come to Kardax, with the Blood Master at the head of 1,000 crimson-clad Astartes in his wake. Slowly and methodically, the Blood Vultures proceeded to kill anyone that took up arms against them - both Heretic Astartes or Chaos Cultist - it mattered not. The Blood Vultures fought tooth and nail to save the Imperial planet from the foul renegades who befouled it with their presence. Street-by-street, building-by-building, the Blood Vultures fought their hated foes with righteous indignation - both sides receiving no quarter from the other. The resultant slaughter was on an unimaginable scale as tens of thousands civilians died in the crossfire between the two opposing sides. Sensing their inevitable defeat, the Dark Vultures' Chaos Lord, Teigon 'the Marauder', enacted one last act of spite. He ordered his warriors to sabotage the ancient geo-thermal reactors which powered the world's hive cities and fed its hungry planetary defence batteries with energy, resulting in a cascading effect that saw massive tectonic upheaval on a planetary scale. As the world's various hive cities began to quake and their towers began to topple over, the Dark Vultures withdrew in the wake of the resulting chaos. The Blood Vultures attempted to evacuate as many civilians as possible, however, it was all for naught as the Imperial world was doomed. Though the Blood Vultures had struck a mortal blow against their life-long enemies, their anger had blinded them to the larger picture, resulting in the death of millions of innocents. They swore a terrible oath that they would not rest until every last one of their erstwhile former dark kin were hunted to the ends of the galaxy, and slaughtered to a man.

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### About the Dark Vultures

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