Blue Hand

Blue Hands armorial with Chaos iconography.

Blue Hands Heretic Astartes

The **Blue Hand** Chaos Space Marine Warband are a small force of Traitor Astartes born of the former Loyalist Chapter of the same name. Being few in number, the Blue Hand have sought to raise heretical cults on worlds across the Ultima Segmentum. Such cults are known as The Cult of the Blue Hand of Tzeentch. They are dedicated to the Chaos God of change, as are the Blue Hand Marines, and incorporate the Warband’s eponymous sigil into their iconography.

The Blue Hand Space Marine Chapter was a respected loyalist force for millenia, before their fall to Chaos. Now, those few Imperials who know of their existence speak their name with the deepest scorn and the fiercest hatred.

## History

### The Blue Hand Before their Fall

Before they fell from the Emperor's light, The Blue Hand was a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of an unknown founding; although records of their exploits, since expunged, once stretched back to at least M34. Their gene-seed is of an unknown lineage, however this may have been due to how thoroughly knowledge of their existence was destroyed following their treason. In fact, so complete was this purge that the Inquisition does not even know the name of The Blue Hand's homeworld, only that it was subjected to exterminatus following their betrayal.

What is known is that Azulite Manibus, last Chapter Master of the Blue Hand Space Marine Chapter, deployed to Warzone Craw with a full strength Chapter, a Chapter Fleet, allies from the Imperial Navy and Astra Militarum and the blessing of the Council of Mandavi, as Warmaster in all but name.

## Warband Organization

### Before the Second Battle for Craw

The Blue Hand were never a fully *Codex*-compliant Chapter; although they did limit themselves to a chapter strength of one thousand. According to the ancient traditions of their now forgotten homeworld, the Chapter was divided into nine Companies of one hundred eleven Marines each. The Chapter Master stood outside the numbered Companies, making the total strength of the Chapter nine hundred ninety-nine plus one. Each Company was divided into twelve squads of nine, eight Battle Brothers and a Sergeant. Each Company would also have a Captain, Librarian, and a Champion numbered outside the squads, or twelve nines plus three.

Each Company would have three squads of Devastators, three Assault squads, three Tactical squads, two squads of Scouts and a single squad of Veterans. While the Companies were numbered, each was meant to be identical and equally powerful. As a result, the Chapter Master was as likely to take the field alongside the ninth Company as alongside the first.

Hindsight being twice blessed by the God Emperor, the Inquisition would later realize that the recurrence of the number nine (and of three, nine’s square root) in the Chapter’s organization indicated the attention of the Daemonic Deity to whom that number is sacred. However, it is better now to burn the heretic than to curse the darkness.

### After the Second Battle for Craw

Following their defeat upon Craw, the surviving Blue Hand Marines fled into the Warp storms surrounding The Throat. The Ordo Hereticus were able to account for the deaths of eight hundred thirty-eight Blue Hand Space Marines across the Levan Sub-Sector and both battles upon Craw. This included the Chapter Master and all nine of the Chapter's Librarians. It is believed that the remaining one hundred sixty-two Marines were aboard those ships which made it to the Warp.

Little is known about the Blue Hand Warband: it’s structure, its base of operations, whether it has been able to replenish its numbers through recruitment, all remain unknown. However, the Inquisition has gathered an extensive file on the Cult of The Blue Hand of Tzeentch which the traitor Astartes seek to spread.

One, three, or six Marines will arrive upon an Imperial World through unknown, but presumed to be sorcerous means. They will establish a base in an isolated area and begin to recruit from the poor and downtrodden. Particularly, anyone who shows mutation are proclaimed as the blessed of Tzeentch. As the Libraius of the Blue Hand Chapter was destroyed upon Craw, the Warband must recruit psykers from among their cultists. It is generally one such psyker who is proclaimed the Holder of the Blue Hand of Tzeentch and leader of the cult.

Once the cult reaches a critical mass, they will try to seize control of the world. The traitor Astartes will take part in large and symbolic attacks, as well as serving as the bodyguards to the cult leader. However, they will rarely endanger their own lives through acts of excessive courage. Likewise, should the world’s loyalist forces turn the tide against the cult, Chaos Space Marines are almost never found among the dead. It seems that whatever means is used to infiltrate such planets also allows the Blue Hand Marines to withdraw, if given time. It is only when an outside force arrives and strikes quickly that the Warband’s numbers are whittled down.

## Warband Beliefs and Goals

The Cult of the Blue Hand of Tzeentch worships that dark divinity in his complete form, not via one of his Greater Daemon avatars. For that matter, the Blue Hand are uncommonly disinclined to summon daemons of any kind; preferring to rely on mortal thralls and psykers. Whether this represents some aspect of the cult’s belief structure, or an uncommon level of common sense for worshipers of Chaos, is unknown.

At the time of the second battle for Craw, the Warband had not embraced the mutations so typical of the followers of Tzeentch. Inquisitorial Chirurgeons determined in autopsy that the gene-seed of Blue Hand traitor Space Marines was remarkably uncorrupted for beings who had fallen to Chaos nearly a decade prior. Likewise, the bodies of the traitors bore no discernable “gifts” of Tzeentch, in the form of mutation. That said, mutation was rampant among the mortal followers of the Warband; both those of the traitor Guard Regiments and the Naval crews, and of their cultist thralls drawn from the Levan Sub-Sector.

While later instances of the Blue Hand Cult (formally, The Cult of the Blue Hand of Tzeentch) would seem to share the Warbands disinclination to summon Daemons, it is clear that the survivors of Craw abandoned any concerns for purity they once had. Those bodies of Blue Hand Marines recovered by the Inquisition in M40 and M41 have been fully mutated. While the outside of their armor appears pristine, this belies the deformed and protean flesh that now inhabits that shell.

Normal Humans and Abhumans who display mutation hold a special place within the cult. They are viewed as having been anointed by Tzeentch, and are raised to positions of authority over non-mutated cultists: the greater and more visible the mutation, the higher their standing. Psykers are viewed as being twice blessed, for "The Hand of Tzeentch is upon their mind." In a Blue Hand Cult, Psykers will serve as the overall leaders and priests, whereas the most deformed mutants will serve as leaders of the cult’s military forces.

It is believed that the ultimate goal of the Blue Hand Chaos Space Marine Warband and The Cult of the Blue Hand of Tzeentch is to seize one or more Imperial systems and to build the pocket empire Azulite Manibus dreamed of. As stated, they seem disinclined to summon Daemonic reinforcements, so what their endgame would be remains a mystery.

Following the 13th Black Crusade and emergence of the galaxy spanning Warp rift known as the Cicatrix Maledictum, the Blue Hand Warband mysteriously vanished. Rumors, however, abound and are buttressed by psychic visions and the words of heretical prophets. These rumors tell of a dark Sector, lost to the Emperor’s light. A Sector prepared by centuries of infiltration, for which all other cult uprisings were but mere practice. A Sector whose ships were seized at anchor, and whose worlds were taken from within.

If these rumors are to be believed, then somewhere in the vastness of the Imperium, the Blue Hand Warband has finally grasped its empire.

## Warband Appearance

### Warband Colours

The Blue Hand Space Marine Chapter's traditional colors were cobalt blue and white. The right Gauntlet, Vambrace and Poleyns would be blue, as were the edges of the Pauldrons and parts of the Backpack unit. The Aquila the upon the Plastron was painted gold. The left Pauldron bore the Chapter’s eponymous sigil, a blue gauntleted hand reaching down.

Following their fall to Chaos, the Blue Hand changed their colors, while maintaining the overall pattern. They darkened their armor to a dull nickel gray, while lightening those parts which had been cobalt to a vibrant electric blue. The Aquila upon the chest has been removed and, presumably, defiled.

## Relations

### Alliances

Due to their small numbers and disinclination to launch conventional assaults, most Chaos Warbands ignore the Blue Hand. Even the Black Legion, which is seemingly open to all traitor Astartes, appears to have no interest in these few castaways.

However, there have been two documented instances of Blue Hand cults working alongside members of the secretive Alpha Legion. Both of these occurred in the fourth century of M40, possibly indicating a temporary alliance.

### Enemies

#### Heb Zealous Light Foot Regiments

The Blue Hand Warband, and their associated cult, are forever hunted by the Heb Zealous Light Foot Regiments of the Imperial Guard under an Inquisitorial Writ issued by the Ordo Hereticus. In fulfillment of this Writ, Heb officers who detect the presence of the Cult in the course of their duties are to contact the Ordo Astropathicly. If no Inquisitor is available to address the situation, the Regiment is ordered to pursue and expunge the taint of heresy from whatever world they are upon. In obedience to this writ, Heb Colonels (and their Commissars) are authorized to disregard orders from their superiors in the Astra Militarum, and even to beseech the aid of loyalist Astartes or Sororitas forces in theater.

Across M40 and M41, Heb Regiments have crushed hundreds of Blue Hand Cults and killed nearly one in four of those traitor Marines who escaped from Craw. Should the Blue Hand truly have seized their Dark Sector, the Heb will stop at nothing until it has been found and purged, even if it takes the entirety of M42. Likewise, if the Dark Sector truly exists, there can be only one world at the top of the Blue Hand's list of enemies, and the might of their empire would surely be turned toward the destruction of Heb.

#### Bloodmoon Hunters

The Infiltration of Hive Sawa was an action carried out by the Bloodmoon Hunters Space Marine Chapter during the events of the Blue Hand Heresy in M39. Hive Sawa was, at the time, the Capital of the World of Levan Prime in the Levan System, Levan Sub-Sector of the Mandavi Sector of Segmentum Ultima. Since this campaign the infamous Master Scáth Hiachóir has sent repeated expeditions to hunt down the Blue Hand and end them once and for all. When the Bloodmoon Hunters arrived, the 1st, 3rd, and 6th Companies of the Blue Hand Chaos Warband were assaulting Hive Sawa, which was being defended by the world's PDF under the command of Planetary Governor Lord Giovanni Levan, last of the House of Levan, which had settled the planet millennia before. The Governor's forces were focused on the defense of Ajaccia Spire, as was the Blue Hand Assault. This meant that much of the Hive was uncontested, although nominally in Chaos's hands. The Infiltration of Hive Sawa can be said to have ended with the death of Blue Hand Captain Pacifi Calcanea and the arrival of the Astra Militarum Army Group under Lord General Militant Darrick Garvaan, although the Bloodmoon Hunters would go on to fight through the rest of the Blue Hand Heresy, until it's culmination during the Second Battle For Craw.

## Notable Quotes

### About:

 Tzeentch Warbands
 Nurgle Warbands
 Slaanesh Warbands
 Chaos Undivided Warbands
 Malice Warbands
 Minor Chaos God-Aligned Warbands

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