Emperor's Children

Emperor's Children armorial with Legion iconography

Emperor's Children Legionary Dalian Vessatar of the 16th Grand Company.

### Observed Strategic Tendencies

Combined Arms Warfare, the use of Complex Manoeuvre and Discursive Tactical Planning, Asymmetrical Assault.

### Warcry

"Children of the Emperor! Death to His foes!" or "For the Emperor!"

### Colours

Purple & Gold

The **Emperor's Children** are the proud Loyalist First Founding Space Marine Legion known for its drive to attain perfection in all its deeds. They have always striven to be exemplars above all others in the arts of war; paragons of martial virtue and excellence, scorning those who did not meet their own, perhaps unattainable, standards. This led them to seek perfection in war as a fluid, lightning-quick force whose battles were preordained victories bought about by a combination of acute strategic planning and flawless execution. Their attitudes and manner led some to name them as arrogant and vainglorious long before the Horus Heresy, but the Legion's warriors were always ready to answer any such slight with blood.

It was in recognition of this drive that the Emperor granted the warriors of the IIIrd Legion the right to bear the the Palatine Aquila, the Emperor's own standard, upon their plastrons, a unique honour at that time. Given innumerable plaudits and accolades, few doubted that the IIIrd Legion were the embodiment of what the Emperor intended the Legiones Astartes to be: noble in action and aspect, excelling in all matters, strong, civilised, firm of purpose and loyal to the core.

In recognition that the Emperor was the very pinnacle of the perfection Fulgrim aspired to, the IIIrd Legion was named the Emperor's Children. Before the Heresy, Fulgrim proclaimed that his legion had achieved a state of perfection, and for their pains were targeted for destruction at Istvaan by the Ruinous Powers. Through their peerless abilities they survived and ever since have fought tirelessly against the entropy and decline that has afflicted even the Legionnes Astartes. With their meticulously maintained marks of ancient equipment and weaponry, they are the epitome of a small, but elite, mobile strike-force.

## Legion History

### Martial Brotherhood

The IIIrd Legion was created alongside its brother Space Marine Legions during the latter phases of the Unification Wars on Terra, with many of its finest warriors drawn from the courts and blood vassal populations of Europa. The nobles of Europa selected the finest of their youth and offered them up to the Emperor of Mankind as tribute and penance for their previous defiance after their systematic humiliation in battle at the hands of the Imperial Thunder Regiments. Among them were sons drawn from each noble family, a fact apocryphally said by some Imperial savants of the time to have given the Legion its lasting name, reaffirmed in later years by its Primarch after his rediscovery by the Expeditionary Fleets of the Great Crusade. Of this tithe some Europan noble familes gave in grudging tribute, and thought of these young men as little more than hostages, while others cooperated with the zeal of true converts to the Imperial cause. House Loculus of Komarg is said, for example, to have sent all of its sons to be transformed into Astartes at the time of their capitulation to Imperial rule, and to have given the firstborn son of each generation thereafter to the IIIrd Legion willingly. In later decades, other Terran dynasties followed the example of Europa, filling the ranks of the IIIrd Legion with the flower of Terran youth who seemed well-matched with the aristocratic blood of its Initiates, forming a martial brotherhood whose ancestry in war stretched back into the lost ages of human history.

It was after the Proximan Betrayal early in the Great Crusade that the IIIrd Legion was granted the exclusive right to bear the Palatine Aquila, the Emperor's personal standard, in its own heraldry, the only Space Marine Legion allowed to display the Aquila on its arms and armour until after the Dornian Heresy, when the practice spread to all the Legions that had remained loyal to the Imperium.

### Gene-Seed Crisis

One great disaster made the greatest mark upon the early decades of the IIIrd Legion's existence. This was the catastrophic loss of nearly the entire gene-seed stock of the Emperor's Children. Coming within a solar year of their great moment of triumph fighting at the Emperor's side at Proxima, it was to prove a turning point that was to forever alter the IIIrd Legion's future. As the Emperor's Wars of Unity broke the bounds of Terra, the pacification of the Selenar gene-cults of Luna and the Martian Compact allowed the Imperium to produce and equip new Space Marines at an unprecedented rate, and the Legions began to expand to meet the demands of the vast new war across the stars. As the gene-forges of Luna began to implant recruits for all the Space Marine Legions, a portion of the IIIrd Legion's gene-seed reserve was dispatched to Luna for establishment there. What happened next is not clear. Some claim that elements of the Selenite cults still resistant to the rule of the Imperium and the Imperial Truth hijacked a defence laser and destroyed the ship carrying the IIIrd Legion's gene-seed, while conflicting accounts recount that the ship lost control and crashed as it was attempting to dock, whilst others claim that it simply vanished. The loss of the IIIrd Legion's gene-seed reserve was a severe blow to the Legion's development, but it would not have endangered the Legion's survival if a second calamity had not occurred in quick succession.

Like all of the Legiones Astartes, the IIIrd Legion recovered the Progenoid Glands from those of its warriors who fell in battle. From these organs a fresh set of gene-seed implant organs could be grown and a new Astartes created to replace the fallen. This system was, however, far from perfect. The nature of battle, and the manner in which Legionaries died, did not always allow for such recovery. To ensure that there were always organs ready to implant into new Aspirants, a reserve of gene-seed for every Legion was kept safe on Terra. From this emergency reserve it should have been possible to keep the IIIrd Legion supplied with new warriors, and even with the loss of the gene-seed reserve sent to Luna the Legion would have endured and in time grown; its survival should have been certain. But in a single night that hope was obliterated.

It was discovered that a fast acting viral blight had suddenly infected several of the gene-seed vaults on Terra, its cause and origin unknown. The Bio-Magi of the Mechanicum tasked with overseeing the gene-stocks feverishly sought to hold it in check as its progress threatened to wipe out in a matter of hours what had taken a century to build, but the doubtlessly artificial, and many surmised xenos, infection defied treatment, and it was only the intervention of the Emperor's own peerless bioengineering genius that was to purge the taint. While many Legions suffered losses from this attack from an unknown quarter, the blight was found to have destroyed the remaining gene-seed stock of the IIIrd Legion in its entirety. From that moment the IIIrd Legion began to die.

While other Legions grew in size and glory as the Great Crusade gathered pace, the IIIrd Legion withered. The only way it could replace losses was from the Progenoid Glands of the dead. Without the Legion's Primarch, the Emperor and His gene-wrights could only rebuild the IIIrd Legion's gene-seed reserves with painful slowness. As the process of rebuilding crept forward, the IIIrd Legion's strength dwindled with every battle. It became clear that the IIIrd Legion would have fallen far below effective strength long before their gene-seed reserves were rebuilt. The doom of the Legion was inevitable -- and then the Primarch Fulgrim was re-discovered, and everything changed.

### The Phoenician

So concerned were the Ruinous Powers by the Emperor's plan to create the primarchs that they stole the infants away and scattered them throughout the galaxy. Not even this, though, could deflect Fulgrim from his fate. The planet of Chemos, like many before the Emperor's reunification, had been settled during mankind‟s first expansion into the cosmos, but having lost the gift of spaceflight, had become isolated over the ages. By the time Fulgrim fell to earth, the inhabitants of Chemos had slipped perilously close to extinction, clinging to survival by scavenging from deserted settlements and endlessly recycling their increasingly sparse stocks of food and water.

It was five decades later that the Emperor finally set foot on Chemos, and it is a testament to Fulgrim's exceptional abilities that in that time he had risen from a foundling to become the ruler of the entire planet. What is more, he had transformed it from a faltering society in terminal decline to a powerful, resurgent world reclaiming the lost settlements and rediscovering long-forgotten knowledge. No longer were they living day to day: Fulgrim had given the population of Chemos hope for the future.

On meeting his father and hearing the Emperor's story, Fulgrim was struck by the parallels between their lives. Both had risen to power purely through merit, and the Emperor's Great Crusade to reunite the lost human worlds into a galaxy-spanning Imperium echoed his own achievements, and reassured Fulgrim of the truth of his father's words. Back on Holy Terra, Fulgrim was introduced to his legion. Due to a catastrophe with their gene-seed the legion was only 200 strong, but the return of their primarch would change this. In front of the massed Terran dignitaries and even the Emperor Himself, Fulgrim addressed his warriors, saying: "*We are His children. Let all who look upon us know this. Only by imperfection can we fail him. We are the Emperor's Children, and we will not fail him.*"

The onlookers were shocked by the presumption of appropriating the Emperor's name for the legion, but the Master of Mankind simply laughed, and further indulged His son. The newly named Emperor's Children were allowed the signal honour of being the only legion to bear the Emperor's Aquila on their armoured breastplates, a distinction that endures to this day. Thus named and anointed, the arduous process of building the legion to fighting strength began. In his eagerness to prove himself, Fulgrim volunteered his legion for duty at the earliest opportunity. Unfortunately, they were so few in number that they had to accompany another force. Fulgrim chose that of the Emperor and His praetorians, the Imperial Fists.

The first meeting between the brothers, Dorn and Fulgrim, was cordial, but this state of affairs did not last. The source of the hostility stemmed from a clash of personalities, and Fulgrim's opinion, perhaps borne out by what followed, that he rather than Dorn should be the Emperor's Praetorian. Fulgrim was certainly forthright when it came to criticising the performance of the Imperial Fists, and was the first to boast of his warriors' achievements to the Emperor. Fulgrim clearly saw himself as the favoured son, and when the Emperor's Children finally reached full-strength, a lavish ceremony was held on the newly compliant world of Pelthan. Expectations among the legion were that at this coming of age, they would take their rightful mantle as the Emperor's new Praetorians. When they were instead merely granted their own expedition of the Great Crusade, a palpable sense of shock and outrage at the injustice spread through the hall. Dutiful son that he was, Fulgrim stood, silenced his troops, and contritely thanked his father for the honour.

The voyage from Pelthan was a lonely one for the Emperor's Children. There was a sense that their fate, and indeed the entire universe, had been upended. Worse was to come as the demoralised legion suffered a succession of gruelling, drawn-out campaigns of compliance, the last of which left Fulgrim critically wounded. Lord Commander Eidolon immediately suspended the expedition, and the fleet returned to Chemos, fully expecting to lay their primarch to rest on his home soil. Rather than succumb though, Fulgrim awoke reinvigorated, and demanded to address the legion. He spoke with eloquence and passion that they had collectively been blinded by doubt and fear, but on the brink of death he had been gifted an epiphany. Their path was to seek out and achieve perfection in the arts of war, and once they achieved it, they must hold to it unflinchingly.

Just as Fulgrim had done when he first came to Chemos, this second arrival brought hope to the population. Thus armed, the Emperor's Children, with Fulgrim at their head, returned to the Great Crusade with renewed purpose, knowing that they would not fail again. After innumerable stunningly successful campaigns that brought countless worlds into the growing Imperium of Man, Fulgrim redirected the fleet from their assigned course, and turned them instead towards a xenos world inhabited by a hostile and powerful race known as the Laer.

### Cleansing of Laeran

"*This war is the crucible in which we will be tested, my brothers. In their ignorance, the foul Laer offer us the chance to achieve perfection. Apotheosis is within our grasp!*"
— Fulgrim, Primarch of the Legiones Astartes Emperor's Children on the even of the Cleansing of Laeran

Such was the threat posed by the Laer that Imperial planners had projected any force attacking them would be wading through rivers of blood for decades. As the Laer were seemingly content in their isolation, they had been left until now. Fulgrim, however, saw them as his legion's greatest test. He would exterminate them, and furthermore achieve this task within a standard solar month. The Emperor's Children found that rather than a single race, the Laer had adapted and specialised their bodies to such a degree that they were barely recognisable as the same species. The only traits they held in common were a mastery of their own sphere of combat and the desperate tenacity of those facing total extinction.

The war wrought a terrible toll on both sides as weapons of incredible power were unleashed. The skills of the legion's apothecaries, long the guardians of genetic purity, shone as they performed miracles in keeping their brothers alive and fighting. From weightless conditions aboard orbital defence platforms to dog-fights among freezing clouds and lethal close-range meat-grinders aboard deep submersible habitats, the Emperor's Children scoured the Laer from existence. The very last Laer was cut down in one of their blasphemous temples, three days before the allotted month was out. Despite being regaled with tales of its haunting beauty, Fulgrim declined to tour the site, saying he had no wish to so dignify the xenos or their superstitions. He instead had the fane pounded to dust by orbital bombardment, along with every other remnant of Laeran culture.

Back in orbit around the dead world, Fulgrim addressed his entire legion. He said the campaign had proved that they had indeed achieved the Emperor's perfection. Driven to constantly change and adapt, the Laer had twisted their minds and bodies beyond all recognition, and yet the Emperor's Children had defeated them through their unsurpassed skill and devotion to purity. Similarly, the legion must be wary of diluting their Emperor-given state of perfection in the guise of "progress", as to corrupt the ideal in this way would be an unforgivable act of sacrilege. On that day, the Emperor's Children became a bastion of constancy in an ever-shifting galaxy.

### Apothecary Fabius

Despite Fulgrim's declaration that the Emperor's Children had reached perfection during the Laer campaign, a small faction within the legion defied their primarch's injunction. Most prominent amongst these conspirators were a group within the Apothecarion who covertly continued their experiments under the cloak of treating their wounded brethren. These perversions included re-wiring the pleasure centres of the brain and even using xenos biological material from the vanquished Laer in their blasphemous works. This unforgivable breach of discipline was swiftly rooted out on the voyage to Istvaan. The leader, a talented but misguided apothecary by the name of Fabius, took the coward's way out rather than having to answer to Fulgrim for his crimes. By the time they were able to break into the apothecarion, Fabius' body had been rotted to an organic stew inside his armour by powerful enzymes. If he had lived, Fabius' punishment would undoubtedly have been an order of magnitude worse.

### The Dornian Heresy

No sooner had the Emperor's Children reached their apotheosis than they received an urgent astropathic communiqué concerning the Ultramarines. Guilliman's legion had brought much of the far galactic east into Imperial compliance, but now by right of conquest had claimed the area as their own. Rather than showing dismay and disbelief that one of his brother primarchs could turn his back upon the Emperor, Fulgrim took the news with quiet satisfaction. It reinforced his feeling of superiority, and gave him the chance to put his legion to the test against the closest thing that remained to a challenge: other Astartes. The only thing to sour the moment was the news that the force sent to discipline the Ultramarines would be commanded by his adversary, Rogal Dorn.

The Emperor's Children set course for the Istvaan system. It was the site of Guilliman's latest addition to his "Ultramar Segmentum", and both the rebellious primarch and much of his massed legion were present on the fifth planet. Seven legions were called to Istvaan, with the Imperial Fists, Iron Hands, Salamanders and Dark Angels making planet-fall first to encircle, devastate and demoralise the defenders. The Emperor's Children, World Eaters and Raven Guard were given the task of falling upon what remained to administer the coup de grâce. On Dorn's command the three legions descended from orbit, only to find themselves caught in an ambush. Far from demoralised, they found the Ultramarines well dug-in, heavily armed and highly organised. Landing craft were torn apart by concentrated anti-aircraft fire and drop pods incinerated before their hatches were even blown. Under the peerless leadership of the Emperor‟s Children, the mauled remnants of the three legions broke out to link up with their supporting legions, only to uncover the true depths of the betrayal, as their erstwhile allies also opened fire upon them.

The comm-channels were awash with pleas for their brothers to cease fire, and it was Fulgrim who first guessed the terrible truth. This was no accident: Dorn had betrayed them. The Emperor's Children vented their frustration on the turncoats before them, and Fulgrim led what remained of his personal retinue against the Primarch of the Iron Hands. Fulgrim had considered Ferrus Manus to be a rare friend rather than a rival, and so the betrayal was all the deeper. Legion records tell that Fulgrim managed to mortally wound Manus, and even sever one of his fabled metal hands. Sadly, this account has been proved to be apocryphal, as Manus was later seen on Mars, and personally commanded his legion in the Gothic Sector as recently as early M41.

Through daring, skill and determination a tiny fraction of the three legions escaped back to orbit to spread word of Dorn's Great Betrayal to the wider Imperium. Despite their brutish demeanour, the World Eaters had impressed Fulgrim on the field of battle, and genuine bonds of friendship were forged that persist to this day. Corax and his Raven Guard left, as was their way, silently and swiftly for their home-world. Though it pained Fulgrim to do so, it was agreed that their numbers were so few that the only option was to return to their home-worlds and rebuild their legions for the inevitable counter-attack. The Emperor's Children had risen from the ashes once, they would do so again.

### After the Heresy

Despite their betrayal and near-extinction at Istvaan, Fulgrim's assertion that his legion had achieved the heights of perfection remained unshakeable. If anything, these events reinforced his view. They could not have been corrupted or defeated in a fair fight, so instead Dorn had tried – and failed - to obliterate them beneath overwhelming numbers. Dorn's Heresy was brought to a bloody end before they could properly reconstitute their losses. Chief among the casualties was the Emperor Himself, who was left as little more than a ghost in the Astronomican machine.

Although Fulgrim never spoke openly of it, he clearly grieved for his father, and perhaps even regretted his choice to rebuild the legion rather than trying to fight their way back to Terra. Dorn, the Arch-Betrayer, was dead, and yet other traitor legionaries still drew breath. The urge to track them down and mete out bloody retribution was powerful, yet Fulgrim never once compromised his principles to boost their numbers. Only the finest recruits were inducted into the Emperor‟s Children, which meant that while their high standards were maintained, the legion remained pitifully small.

For this reason they deigned to fight alongside other loyalist legions, first with the World Eaters, where they saved the planet of Skalathrax from the Salamanders, and eventually took their place in Abaddon's massed Crusades. To finally strike back was cathartic, but Fulgrim was horrified at the short-cuts the other legions had taken to replace their losses, in particular the new, inferior marks of war-gear being rushed into production. Though it significantly slowed the rate at which the Emperor's Children could reconstitute their ranks, Fulgrim was confident he had made the right choice. They would not compromise their principles and their purity.

Ever since the dark days of the Heresy, the Emperor's Children have been dedicated to the protection of the Imperium. However, while they do fight against xenos incursions and bring heretical regimes back into the Imperial fold, they rarely see such opponents as a worthy challenge. Their real passion is ignited by the chance to test themselves against the Traitor Legions, and especially those that betrayed them on Istvaan. It was Fulgrim who proposed a Crusade against Roboute Guilliman himself, that it was their duty to finally end the existence of the man who had triggered the Heresy. It was Fulgrim who led the nine loyal legions deep into the hostile territory of Ultramar Segmentum, and it was Fulgrim who met, and bested Guilliman on the blood-soaked world of Prandium.

Such a deed would have made Fulgrim the only person, bar the Emperor, to have killed one of the traitor primarchs, and yet he willingly forwent this singular honour in favour of a far more fitting punishment. Using their superior pre-Heresy technology, the Emperor's Children placed the dying Guilliman within a temporal stasis field and returned it to Holy Terra so that his eternal torment might be witnessed by the Emperor. The body is housed within the deepest vaults of the Purgatory Falls Sepulchre, and although it should be impossible, it is said that the agonies of his long final second have been felt by generations of telepaths down the millennia.

Of Fulgrim's own fate, nothing is known for certain. He disappeared without a word from the inner sanctum of his flagship, the *Pride of Chemos*. Much has been read into the physical evidence in the chamber, such as the etched adamantium wall-panels. Some speculate that it was caused by some unknown type of weaponry; others said that Fulgrim had ascended to another spiritual level, and that it was a physical manifestation of this transcendence. Few though, within the legion, truly believe that their primarch is dead. They only differ over how and when he will return.

## Legion Homeworld

Before the arrival of Lord Fulgrim, Chemos was isolated from the wider galaxy, its inhabitants clinging to existence on their desperately polluted world. Fulgrim reversed this decline, reclaiming previously abandoned settlements and giving the population hope for the future. With the arrival of the Emperor and an influx of Imperial technology, this development leapt forward dramatically. Chemos became the site of the legion's fortress-monastery, and extensive new mines and manufactories were built to arm the Emperor's Children for their wars in the Great Crusade.

This increased level of production darkened the skies with pollution, an image akin to the desperate days before the coming of the primarch. This, along with the desire for perfection and the call of his artist‟s soul prompted Fulgrim to decree that they would turn the planet itself into a place of beauty: a world fit for the Children of the Emperor. Using influence that only a primarch could wield, Fulgrim ordered that the planet be terraformed. Pollution was scrubbed from the air and water, and Chemos was transformed into a wild, verdant world of azure skies, shining lakes and deepest forests. So as not to spoil this idyll, Fulgrim also ordered the manufactories, mines and main population centres be relocated below the surface in vast, hermetically sealed caverns.

Such a mighty task took many centuries to fully complete, interrupted as it was by the Heresy, the near-destruction of the Emperor's Children at Istvaan, and the dark times that followed. Eventually, Fulgrim was rewarded for his labours with a world to rival even the lushest pleasure-planet in its beauty. Only the Emperor's Children themselves and civilians charged with the upkeep of the environment and for the production of fresh food for the legion are allowed access to the surface. The remaining population labours endlessly in the buried hive cities, producing the pre-Heresy patterns of equipment and weapons demanded by the Emperor‟s Children. The skill of these artisans in keeping alive knowledge of patterns and marks used during the Great Crusade is unparalleled even, so they boast, by the Adepts of Mars.

Sadly, despite their best efforts, the beauty of Chemos has faded over the millennia. In the absence of the Lord Fulgrim, entropy has taken a heavy toll upon the little-understood terraforming equipment, and catastrophic cave-ins have scarred the once-pristine world. In addition to the death-toll, these disasters have caused irretrievable losses of ancient technology. For instance, Persuai sub-hive was responsible for vital power generation systems used in Mark III 'Iron' pattern power armour. The catastrophic collapse that destroyed it in late M39 has meant that ever since these suits have incorporated non-authentic elements cobbled together from later marks. To this day, search-teams still excavate the ruins of Persuai, ever-hopeful that the lost knowledge might one day be reclaimed.

### The Chemos Curse

From orbit, Chemos was infamously compared with the face of "*..an aging courtesan, far past her prime but gamely applying rouge and powder to cover her pitted, pock-marked face.*" Admiral Markovich, received orders to patrol the Ghoul Stars shortly after uttering this unflattering witticism, a tour from which his grand cruiser and escort cadre never returned. This has led to an Imperial Navy superstition that to speak ill of Chemos is deathly bad luck, and that anyone doing so is roundly flogged, be they the lowliest ship's rating or the commanding officer.

## Legion Organisation

While other legions have increased in size and adapted their command structures over the millennia, the Emperor's Children have defiantly remained the same. They are composed of thirty Grand Companies, the same number that made up the legion during the ascension of the Laer campaign. Each Grand Company is led by a Lord Commander, an instrument of Fulgrim's will, who through his subordinate captains directs upwards of a thousand marines. Respect for their superior officers is ingrained into the psyche of the Emperor's Children, with each successive rank moving closer to Lord Fulgrim, and by extension, closer to an unquestionable ideal.

The excessive care taken over both gene-seed purity and the calibre of new recruits has meant that even in the aftermath of the Istvaan Betrayal, the Emperor's Children have never compromised their standards simply to fill out the ranks. Similarly, given the degree of time and effort required to produce their venerated wargear, it is unsurprising that they are by far the smallest of the Emperor's legions. What they lack in numbers, they say, is more than compensated for with their unparalleled skill. This is something which they are all-too eager to demonstrate to Astartes of other legions, be it in the duelling cages, or on the battlefield against the Emperor's enemies.

Among lord commanders there is a strictly defined hierarchy. In the absence of Lord Fulgrim, what would elsewhere be called the post of Legion Master resides with the Lord Commander of the First Grand Company. Even before the Heresy, each grand company had its own favoured style of combat. This was a reflection of their lord commander's personality, something encouraged by Fulgrim himself. This was reflected in unofficial, but enduring names for each grand company. For example, the Seventh Grand Company are informally known as the 'Hawk Lords' for their unmatched skill at aerial warfare with Raptor pack and jet-bike.

### Specialist Formations

Alongside the division of units commonly found within ocher Space Marine Legions, the emphasis and regard placed upon skill and excellence also notably led to the formation of a wide number of unique 'elite' or veteran units within the Emperor's Children:

* **Phoenix Guard** - The Phoenix Guard was the elite unit of Space Marines from the Emperor's Children Legion who served as the Primarch Fulgrim's Honour Guard during the Great Crusade and the Dornian Heresy. The members of the Phoenix Guard followed their beloved Phoenician wherever he went as part of their duties, even when he was travelling within the relative safety of the starships of the Imperial Army and the vessels of the other Space Marine Legions. In the modern era, the Phoenix Guard still perform their role as an elite bodyguard for the Legion Master of the IIIrd Legion.

* **Brotherhood of the Palatine Blades** - Perhaps the most famous example of the Emperor's Children specialist troops whose renown spread outside their own Legion were the Brotherhoods of the Palatine Blades. These units were not permanent formations, but were formed for particular battles against foes deemed worthy, and whose membership existed outside of the usual rigid rank structure that characterised the IIIrd Legion. When such an enemy was encountered the senior commanders would draw together the finest swordsmen from amongst the forces present, a selection made easier by the relentless sparring and duelling that took place between battles to hone the Legion's skills. Armed with duelling blades, sabres and trophy weapons, the Brotherhoods would then seek out the finest warriors amongst the enemy on the field of battle. The number and quality of such squads depended on how many of the Emperor's Children were present in a given warzone and the quality of their foe.
* **Sun-Killers** - Lascannon equipped support squads formed from the crème of the Legion's heavy weapon specialists.

## Legion Combat Doctrine

To the Emperor's Children, war is a matter of perfection incarnated in violence intent and action. The Legion takes great pride both in its excellence on any battlefield, and its ability to systematise and replicate any tactic or strategic deployment it needs, and executes them flawlessly on command. Of the innumerable such formations and tactics the Emperor's Children operate, one that found favour with the Legion's Praetors looking to achieve faultless victory - and thereby glory in the eyes of their peers and Primarch - was the Maru Skara.

Marines of the Emperor's Children are expected to be proficient, nay, to excel in each and every battlefield role. This means that a battle-brother would be expected to crew a vehicle as capably as they would fire a heavy weapon or fight in close combat. Although this is sought through endless training, as it is among the other loyal legions, the Emperor's Children add a different aspect to their regimes – the incorporation of artistic pursuits.

The most obvious benefit of this is their approach to close combat. Where the World Eaters are coldly clinical and methodical, with each member of the force meshing together seamlessly, the Emperor's Children have a fluid grace borne of the study of dance and poetry. They flow across the battlefield, darting aside from blows and bullets before sweeping past their foes to strike three more before the first corpse has hit the ground. Officers of the Emperor's Children are renowned for their powerful rhetorical style, honed through intense study of the form and function of literature, poetry and the oratorical arts.

Their steadfast rejection of technological developments has meant that many vehicles commonly used by the other legions are absent from the armouries of the Emperor's Children. For them the trusted, ancient marks of Predator, Rhino and Land Raider are more than sufficient. Modifications such as the Tilvius APC or the brutish Vindicator are looked upon as at best a corruption of the purity of the venerable Rhino chassis. Even smaller variants in weapon system such as the Predator Dominator and the Land Raider Incinerator are shunned.

Their laborious production of older weapons and wargear mean that the Emperor's Children are the only legion able to field appreciable numbers of jet-bikes, which they maintain, with some justification, are more than a match for the slow and ungainly Land Speeder. Another example of the superiority of the legion's venerable war-gear is the Raptor jump pack. The complexity of manufacture and maintenance of these devices became prohibitive even for the Legiones Astartes. When the STC for the simpler, but far less effective DH2 pattern jump pack was discovered, only the Emperor's Children opted to retain the older form in service. Such rigid adherence to Fulgrim's pre-Heresy vision of perfection, along with the luxury of limitless access to the manufacturing base of an entire planet, is a defining feature of the combat doctrine espoused by the Emperor's Children.

## Legion Beliefs

With all their hearts, the Emperor's Children believe in their own purity and innate superiority. They cling tight to Fulgrim's assertion that they achieved perfection just before the Heresy, and will do nothing to dilute this, be it with the new, inferior marks of weapons and equipment, or accepting anything less than the most pristine specimens of gene-seed. This obsessive attention to detail means that while the Emperor's Children will never be a large legion, each member is a paragon of what it means to be an Astartes. They believe that the only being to surpass them is the Emperor, and while they do not view him as a god, their respect and admiration for him is unbreakable.

Fighting alongside allies, such as the Imperial Army or even Astartes from other legions is often a source of friction. Their superiority can sometimes be mistaken for arrogance or high-handedness. Despite this, the Emperor's Children enjoy demonstrating their skills to others, but ultimately are most comfortable fighting alone, where they only have to rely upon their own trusted battle-brothers.

### Martial Traditions

The Emperor's Children always strove to be exemplars above all others in the arts of war; paragons of martial virtue and excellence, scorning those who did not meet their own, perhaps unattainable, standards. This led them to seek perfection in war as a fluid, lightning-quick force whose battles were preordained victories brought about by a combination of acute strategic planning and flawless execution. Their attitudes and manner led some to name them as arrogant and vainglorious, but the Legion's warriors were always ready to answer any such slight with blood. Duelling between Battle-Brothers is a part of many Space Marine Legions' martial traditions. For some these practices are a matter of training and honing the skills of battle. For others they take on significance beyond that of practical necessity; they became an end in themselves rather than a means to effectiveness in war. The fighting pits of the World Eaters Legion are but one example. To the Emperor's Children, however, duelling is a fundamental part not only of their training but also of their psychology. The duel is the ultimate expression of a warrior's skill and prowess, a mirror which reflects his essence.

The weapons they use to duel with are a key part of this culture, and speak to their aesthetic appreciation. Many of the Emperor's Children bear swords crafted by the blade-smiths of a thousand worlds. Among these, the Charnabal sabres of the Old Terran tradition are a particular mark of quality within the Legion; forged to ancient rituals and alchemical formulae each blade was a unique product of a master sword maker. The habit of taking particularly fine weapons from defeated enemies is a strong characteristic of the wider Legion. If a renowned swordsman encounters a weapon of surpassing quality in the hands of an enemy, he will take it as a trophy. The swordsman will then practise with the trophy weapon until he wields it with more skill than its original wielder, this act representing an almost kabbalistic ritual intended to absorb and defeat the enemy in spirit. So it is that the champions of the Emperor's Children wield Racathian glass glaives, friction axes from the Norvik Sinks, Aegisine "saintie", Tuonela mortuary swords, Terran gladii and Martian-forged power blades to name but a few. No prohibition exists against weapons taken from aliens or cultures that are otherwise worthy only for destruction; all that matters is the quality of the weapon itself.

## Legion Gene-Seed

Since the gene-seed disaster that nearly wiped out the legion in its infancy, the Emperor's Children have taken obsessive care in the screening of implants. This solemn duty falls to the legion's apothecaries. From the battlefield harvesting of progenoid glands from critically wounded brethren to the testing, culturing and implantation into new recruits, they are the guardians of Fulgrim's genetic legacy. As such, the gene-seed of the Emperor's Children is of unmatched purity, with all nineteen implants working as well today as when they were first gifted by the Emperor.

Despite the stability of the Fulgrim gene-seed, the stringency of the screening process still results in a relatively high proportion of rejections. Although this is in part compensated for by an implantation success rate unmatched by the other legions, it does mean that the Emperor's Children are slow to replace brothers lost in battle. The legion has been brought twice to the brink of destruction, and twice they have emerged triumphant. They see this as a testament to the strength of their gene-line, and a vindication of their zeal in guarding its integrity with terminal intensity.

By long tradition, the progenoid gland in the chest is surgically removed as soon as it matures, while the second is harvested only upon the marine's death. The early elective removal of one progenoid minimises the chances that it will be damaged or subjected to contamination. In the event that some catastrophe should destroy the legion's stocks of gene-seed, surviving battle-brothers carry within them the means to continue the Fulgrim line. As a legion that has faced extinction on more than one occasion, the Emperor's Children are acutely aware of the need to consider such things.

## Legion Fleet

* ***Pride of Chemos* (*Gloriana*-class Battleship)** - Flagship of Primarch Fulgrim and the IIIrd Legion.
* ***Firebird* (Assault Ship)** - Fulgrim's personal, custom-designed Assault Ship.
* ***The Agony and the Ecstasy* (Battle Barge)**
* ***Callidora* (Battle Barge)**
* ***Proudheart* (Battle Barge, modified *Dictatus*-class Battleship)** - Flagship of Lord Commander Eidolon.
* ***Erewhon* (*Emperor*-class Battleship)**
* ***Ravisher* (*Avenger*-class Grand Cruiser)** - During the Horus Heresy, the *Ravisher* was the flagship of the battle-group Jewel Shard, led by Legion Consul Praevian Azael Konenos.
* ***Andronius* (Strike Cruiser)** - The *Andronius* harboured Chief Apothecary Fabius' personal laboratory in which he first began his experiments to "improve" upon the *Astartes*' genetic template which would ultimately be rooted out and his work destroyed.
* ***Longinus* (Strike Cruiser)**
* ***Stealth* (Strike Cruiser)** - A vessel sometimes used by Fulgrim.
* ***Aquiline* (Cruiser, unknown Class)**
* ***Excessive* (Cruiser, unknown Class)**
* ***Infinite Variety* (Cruiser, unknown Class)**
* ***Mortal Splendour* (Cruiser, unknown Class)**
* ***Suzerain* (Cruiser, unknown class)**
* ***Fulgrim's Virtue* (Escort)**
* ***Golden Mean* (Escort)** - Escort of the *Callidora*.
* ***Infinite Sublime* (Escort)** - Escort of the *Callidora*.

Many of the Emperor's Children's vessels were known to launch smaller interceptor craft or fighters known as *Raptors* gunships.

## Legion Appearance

### Legion Colours

The armour that the first warriors of the Space Marine Legions went to war in was cast in storm cloud grey, and bore only the thunderbolt and lightning marks of Imperial Unity. Over time the different Legions gained their own marks of distinction and character, as well as iconic names. Since ancient times, the Space Marines of the IIIrd Legion symbolically colour their armour with lacquer of imperial purple and gold to mark their rank and mission as the Emperor's chosen, with the Emperor's own standard -- the Palatine Aquila -- the golden double-headed eagle, worn upon their chest plates, granted to them by His own hand for their ancient victory during the Proximan Betrayal.

Like their brother Legions early in the Great Crusade, soon the Emperor's Children began to decorate their personal armour with honours that reflected notable skills and deeds. Their armour displayed the typical aesthetics and complex heraldry that was a hallmark of the IIIrd Legion. For example, a helmet crest denoted status within the Legion's organisation. White enamel inlay on an individual warrior's armour was used to denote rank and heraldry and was an older Legion tradition dating back to before its unification with the Primarch Fulgrim. Seal papers carried "Oaths of Moment" commending the wearer to fulfill specified duties or ordinances at any cost. During the latter stage of the Great Crusade, the Emperor's Children's wargear and panoply included considerable personal adornment and customisation of their armour. A primary example of this would be an Eye of Terra emblem prominently displayed to denote service with the Warmaster.

### Legion Badge

The Emperor's Children Legion badge consists of a golden eagle's wing that ends in a talon. This is part of the symbol of the Palatine Aquila, the Emperor's personal heraldry, which the Emperor's Children were the only Legion authorised to wear at the time. The officers of the IIIrd Legion often wear a larger and more elaborate variant of the taloned eagle's wing that is crafted out of precious metals - usually a gold wing and talon - clutching a precious purple jewel.

## Trivia

This article was originally authored by Aurelius Rex over on the Bolter & Chainsword forums. All rights are reserved to him.

## Gallery

Emperor's Children Legate Fabian Bellistarus arrayed in relic Mark IV 'Maximus' power armour. Currently assigned to III Legion command.Emperor's Children Veteran Legionary Yorios Bericosian of the 95th Grand Company, arrayed in relic Cataphractii pattern Terminator Armour.Modern-era Terminator Veteran Julianis Quiridian of the elite 1st Grand Company, arrayed in Indomitus pattern Terminator ArmourA Great Crusade-era Emperor's Children Centurion Antinius Aquillan of the 7th Grand Company, arrayed in artificer Mk III 'Iron' pattern power armour. Note: Eye of Terra decoration on belt earned after having served in a campaign alongside the Luna Wolves.Emperor's Children Fire Support Legionary Xuvis Porillion of the IIIrd Legion's elite Sunkillers Fire Support Squads.Emperor's Children Assault Legionary Iollus Thorn.