Imperial Justicars (Warmasters Justicars)

> "*The violators of the Emperor’s law must be punished, for without the Lex Imperialis, are we no different from animals? That punishment however must suit the crime, and not the criminal, no matter high or low born, our laws must be just, our judgment impartial and definitive. For most, this Great Crusade we are embarked upon will be built on reason, or honour, or glory, or a hundred other things. For us, it is built on but one tennant. Justice.The Just must rule the just, and all must be equal in the eyes of the law. None are above it, not me, not my brothers, not even the Emperor himself. We must be the sword that strikes at the unjust, the shield that guards those who would be torn asunder by those who speak to defile the law. We do not fight for pleasure or for the thrill of it. We fight so that the galaxy may be made just, so that all may live free from the shackles of those who would rule over them with no oversight of their own. We are not Guardians or Bears, not Crows or Lords, Watchers or Angels. We are Justicars. This is our calling, that is our role, and may it forever be so.*"
> ― Almire Leoric, Primarch of the XVIth Legion, addressing a batch of new recruits, unknown date, mid-Great Crusade
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## Imperial Justicars (Warmasters Justicars)

Symbol of the Imperial Justicars

Symbol of the Warmasters Justicars

### **Allegiance**

Arch Traitor
Traitoris Maximus Extremis

### **Observed Strategic Tendencies**

Shield Walls, Counter Attack Charges, Feigned Retreats, Breach Assaults, Re-education of Conquered Peoples

### **Legion Colours**

Blue and White (Imperial Justicars)
Purple and White (Warmasters Justicars)

The **Imperial Justicars**, later known as the **Warmasters Justicars**, are the XVIth *Legiones Astartes*, raised by the Emperor of Mankind on Terra at the dawn of the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium. The first of the nascent legions to find their Primarch, a man known to his people as Almire Leoric upon the world of Hasninë, the legion would earn thousands of battle honours during Great Crusade.

Few other Legions could match their achievements and of those that could few could rival the XVIth Legion for the brightness with which their victories shone. Spread across hundreds of Expeditionary Fleets and on countless battlefields, the Imperial Justicars broke the enemies of the Imperium and pushed the Great Crusade forwards, a legacy of counter attacks, shield walls, feigned retreats and most importantly, law abiding worlds, marking their passage.

The position of Almire as the Emperor's favoured son undoubtedly enhanced their triumphs. The Emperor fought alongside all of the Primarchs, and led all of the Legions at different times, but Almire and the Imperial Justicars stood beside him for many of his greatest victories, standing with him from the beginning of the Great Crusade until the Emperor's return to Terra following the triumph of the Ullanor Crusade and the elevation of Almire to the esteemed rank of Warmaster and commander-in-chief of all the Emperor's vast armies.

For a time, this was enough for the legion and the Primarch, the Imperial Justicars ever a force of balance and justice, never one to seek accolades for accolades sake. However, in the wake of the Silencing, this all changed. His authority, given by the Emperor, was no longer enough, Almire needing to own the title on his own merits, not by the word of the Emperor. In the wake of the campaign, the XVIth was reborn, Imperial Justicars no longer, now they stood as the "Warmasters Justicars", the mere mentioning of their name leaving none in doubt as to who stood atop the Great Crusade.

As time wore on, this new title and role seemed to wear at both the legion and the Warmaster himself, the needs of the Great Crusade and the constant preassure from the new civillian government on Terra growing with each passing decade. Finally however, a tipping point was reached, a discovery made that would tip the galaxy from order into anarchy, Chaos in all its fell glory revealed to the Warmaster and his legion, their damnation now assured.

For five and a half decades, the Imperium was plunged into Civil War at the hands of the Warmaster and his Justicars, Terra falling before them, brothers dying to his blade and to the blades of others. However, no King no Emperor, rules forever, and at the Second Siege of Terra, this was proven correct, Almire falling to the Emperor's own sword, even as his own spear mortally wounded his gene-father. The legion fell back from this defeat, a true withdrawal, though all who followed feared the famed counter-attack mentality of the XVIth, Amire's body spirited with them.

In those dark days, First Praetor Gobalt Asmodeus, former legion master and first captain of the Justicars, would claim control of his legion in its entirety, striking down any who opposed him to secure his new position. Elevated like his father before him by the grace of the Ruinous Pantheon, First Praetor Gobalt Asmodeus became Warmaster Asmodeus, vowing that he would continue the mission his father had begun, claiming that their defeat was merely the beginning of the Long War.

## Legion History

### The Great Crusade

The XVIth legion have ever been at the forefront of Mankind's bid to retake the galaxy from the ruination of old night, even before the Great Crusade, when Terra itself was a constant battleground and the first instances of the Astartes legions began to form. In these early days, volunteers from across Terra was taken by the Emperor’s forces and implanted with the genetic heritage of twenty super-human beings, those who would become known as the Primarch’s, and in this the XVIth was no different.

These first warriors came from the recently pacified nation-state of Franc, a fractious people who did not take kindly to invaders. Indeed, shortly after the Alpha batch of the XVIth Legion was deemed a success, Havuleq D'agross, the last king of Francia rose in open rebellion against Imperial rule, slaying the Emperor's appointed territorial governor. Beginning in the city of Avelroi, Havuleq’s forces rapidly spread across Franc until fifty thousand Franks answered his call. Most of these were unskilled militia, but some were the remnants of Franc’s old standing army, or worse, mercenaries from Albia, clanking proto-Dreadnoughts and armored Ironside Clan soldiers bolstering the rebellion. Whether or not Albia had sponsored the rebellion or whether it was simply aided by people of their land, none can say, though it seems unlikely that Albia would resort to such treachery after willingly accepting the Emperor’s unification.

For years, Franc burnt as Imperial Army soldiers fought to maintain control of the territory, no new reinforcements arriving, until finally, at the Battle of Gaduare, the rebellion was put to grass. Five thousand Astartes, bearing the XVI of the sixteenth legion marched against the might of the rebel army, the natural barriers of the regions high hills doing nothing to slow them, while the Guaduare bastion was reduced to ruin. Havuleq was captured at the climax of the battle, the legion master of the sixteenth, Dorsenne Soult, executing the rebel leader atop the ruined towers of Guaduare, proclaiming a death to Frankian rebellion, the territory brought back into compliance.

It was from here the sixteenth earnt their name, the Imperial Justicars, and their reputation would only grow, shields becoming as synonymous with their ranks as they were within the IVth Legions, their unflinching nature a testament to the inevitability of the Emperor’s new rule. Dozens more battle honours fell to the Justicars, both on Terra and in the Sol System, the pacification of Ceres being amongst the most famous, but the breaking of the Coriolis Enclaves and the Five Winter left scars in the collective consciousness of Terran society that persist even now.

It is said that the Astartes of the XVIth Legion were unleashed to begin and end wars their enemies did not even know they were fighting. They would come out of the night or in the dawn, carried in the holds of Stormbirds and Storm Eagles, flanked by squadrons of escorting Lightning Crows. Those who witnessed such attacks say that the XVIth Legion were fighting eye-to-eye with the enemy before the thunder of their first volley of missiles and shell-strikes had faded, something the legion would continue to exemplify even after they were reunited with their Primarch, close range shelling and bombardment often being utilised in ways that most other legions would have balked at.

The warriors who fought these battles were of a character wholly in keeping with their reputation. Proud, little given to humour or empathy, nor to mysticism or even the ritual of the military elite, they were a breed apart from the true human forces that had fought at their side. Their aggression was clear in their every action, but so was the strength of the control that held it in check, and the needs of that ancient age easily accommodated such a belligerent and cantankerous attitude.

#### The First Rangdan Xenocide

The First Rangdan Xenocides were a war fought in utter Chaos; the Great Crusade still in its infancy, the legions yet to truly grow and none yet reunited with their sires. So heavy was the toll on the nascent Imperium that few truly remember the events of those dark days, the records lost or sealed. Those few pieces that do exist are presented here in their unabridged form.

In M30.801, a mere three years after the first of the Emperor’s mighty legions had travelled beyond the light of Sol, the XVIth Legion, already known as the Imperial Justicars, were set upon by an unknown foe, though one the entire Imperium would soon come to recognise them as the feared and reviled ‘Rangdan’. Though they fought bravely, the unending waves of Rangdan cerabvores tore into the XVIth, and of the ten thousand who entered the conflict, barely a handful survived. For many legions, this would have been a death sentence, or at least represented a significant loss of manpower only to be reversed upon discovery of their Primarch. However, within the span of a few years, the Imperial Justicars numbers had recovered to the point where they could join the frontline once more, a feat which did not go unnoticed througout the Imperium, though its method was unknown to all.

As the Rangdan poured into the nascent Imperium, three legions were deployed to slow the tide, the Ist, as yet unnamed, the IInd, known as the Venom Stalkers from the wars of Terra, and the XIVth, only recently gaining the name of Silver Wings from a recent compliance action. The Ist took the brunt of the frontline fighting, this act soon leading to them too gaining a title of their own, in their role as line holders in the war they were named the Horned Sentinels. As the Sentinels held the frontline, the Venom Stalkers provided artillery and biological warfare support, while the Silver Wings acted as an outrider and interdiction force, exploiting or sealing gaps in either line. It was in this was that all three legions began to truly refine their standard operating tactics, those they had first started developing in the wars on Terra and in the Sol system, and yet it was still not enough, the Rangdan proving too strong for even that force to fight alone.

And then, as all seemed lost, the Emperor himself arrived, his burning sword held high as he took the fight to the Rangdan, and in his wake poured the might of the Imperium, undeniable even in those early days; the famed Custodes, millions of soldiers of the Imperial Army, the Mechanicum, and finally, five whole legions, each chosen for a specific reason.

The VIth, the Desert Marauders, became the armoured fist of the Imperium upon those battlefields, crushing Rangdan beneath their armoured treads with vengeful fury, while the IXth, the shunned Revenant Legion, were unleashed in all their fury, ctearing apart the enemy with no thought for mercy or their own survival. The Xth, the Sable Choir, brought forth their taciturn combat methods, relentlessly taking up positions behind other legions, providing deadly fire support when required, or even deploying their unique blank units to combat the Rangdan Psykers. The XVth, the helmed warriors of the Faceless Heralds, persecuted the war in silence, deployed alone often, seperated in battle as they were in peace. And  finally, the unnamed XXth legion was unleashed. Never before bloodied in combat, the only legion to not see action in the campaigns of Sol, the XXth now unleashed the full scope of their fury, Phospex and Exterminatus class weapons common in their armoury, while in others they were rare commodities.

With these five legions, the Imperum first broke the momentum of the Rangdan, before finally hurling them back. Everywhere the Xenos tried to strike, the Imperium was ready for them, nine battered legions finally breaking the swarm, the survivors fleeing back to their hidden territories beyond the borders of the Imperium, deep into uncharted space. None truly believed they had been defeated, the Imperium began preparing for a reckoning with the deadly species, though as it turned out, their preparations were woefully under-scaled.

The First Rangdan Xenocide is remembered as seeing the largest percentage of casualties amongst all Imperial forces; the others eclipsing it in terms of sheer numbers, but the threat of the First was still absolute. At a time where the Imperium was new, the Rangdan could have easily stopped the spread of Mankind's influence, halting the Great Crusade in its tracks. Only by the Grace of the Emperor and his staunch defenders was such crisis averted, though at great cost. Amongst the legions, of the close to 100,000 warriors deployed to the front, barely 25,000 remained as the war came to an end. Amongst the other forces, no accurate figure exists, though it is believed to have been near total for all, save the Legio Custodes themselves.

#### Almire Leoric

   Almire Leoric, Primarch of the XVIth Legion, The Last Scion of House Delphaan, Seneschal of House Leoric, The Great Unifier, The Lord Aucteller, The Warmaster of the ImperiumThe Primarch Almire Leoric, as with all his brothers, was cast from the Imperium to the world of Hasninë, a world a mere stones skip away from the cradle of mankind, and yet one that had been utterly cut off from the capital world by the warp storms of the universe. In such dark times, a feudal system sprang into effect, each Knightly Household maintaining their power through the judicious use of Knight Suits, mighty exoskeleton warframes with the power to destroy entire tank columns, let alone the mortal peasantry of the land.

Almire soon came to join one of these noble houses, trained as a Knight Scion, passing every test put to him both in the cockpit and without. Soon, he stood as the greatest warrior of the House of Delphaan, and yet, for all his privilege and wealth, Almire could never pilot one of the mighty Knights, none able to fit his rapidly growing frame, and could not help but weep. Delphaan may have been his house, but he felt no connection with them, nor with any of the knightly households.

Each of the Houses held their own laws, written in their own ancient languages, descended from code cyphers of old night and readable only by those privy to that individual houses ways, something that the peasantry was purposely kept unaware of. These laws were mercilessly enforced upon the populace from the cockpit of Knight Titans, those slain by their overlords never knowing what infraction they committed, and finally, Almire could bear it no longer.

In a single night, Almire struck at the House of Delphaan, slaying their pilots and ruling elite, even as he safeguarded many of the knight suits themselves. As Delphaan fell, Almire threw wide the gates of the fortress keep, striding forth and addressing the masses in their own tongue, common speak as opposed to the secret voices of Delphaan he had been tutored in. He knew they had little reason to trust him, to them he was simply a noble, part of the institution who had lorded over them for generations. Only deeds could cement his commitment to his people, and a deed he showed them, standing before them and vowing to sacrifice everything in their name, before plunging his fingers into his own eye, ripping his right orb from its socket and holding it aloft for all to see.

Blood poured from the wound, but Almire stood undaunted, his message now backed with deed. The cry was immense, hundreds flocking to his banner to fight for the one who would fight for them. In short order, the new House of Almire arose, the Primarich teaching his new people how to pilot the knights that he himself had been schooled in, but never rode upon, their frames too small for the likes of him.

House Leoric was not akin to the Knights of old Hasninë, no peerage or great family lines laying claim to his knights. All were equally worthy in his eyes, any who wished to step forward could, the Ritual of Becoming open to any who could pass through training. Soon, House Leoric scored its first victory, recovering the least damaged Knight Suits and pressing them into service, a seemingly never ending stream of pilots eager to fill them, standing in stark contrast with the other Houses, each of whom insisted on training but a few pilots at a time from their noble bloodlines.

With each battle, Almire's forces grew, the Primarch leading from the front lines with his knights at his back, his supernatural skill allowing him to keep pace with his mighty charges. With every victory, House Leoric grew, and within a few short years of bloody conflict, Hasninë was unified under Almire. No matter where he trod, his followers were close behind, spreading through the populace to spread the words of Almire, teaching a common language and a common code.

When the Emperor arrived at Hasninë, he found a world united not by love for its ruler or of worship, but by a common understanding, an assured belief in their own place within the society Almire had forged. Justice was fair upon Hasninë, and as Almire was raised to the Imperium, he made a vow before the Emperor that as it was on Hasninë, so too would it be across the galaxy. He would crusade forevermore, until the last world new unity, peace, and justice, his XVIth Legion raising their voice in support of this ideal as the new Imperial Justicars.

The Second Rangdan Xenocide

Seventy one years after the First Rangdan Xenocide had begun, the Primarch Gaius Augustus Caligula of the XIIIth Legion was found by the Imperium, this date recorded as M30.872. The full might of the XIIIth flooded to the side of their sire, mustering above a soon to be dead world. It was only this massive mustering that allowed any of the legion to survive, history repeating itself as an entire legion was ambushed by a resurgent Rangdan empire, taking heavy casualties in the process before they managed to break out.

The Ashen Crows, XIth Legiones Astartes, were soon able to separate themselves from their current engagements, their positions in the Great Crusade filled by the now named Palatine Wings of the XIVth, and with their positions secured, the XIth struck at the Rangdan, reinforcing their cousins in the XIIIth. The XIth had ever been specialists against the xenos threat, having studied the few records from the First Rangdan Xenocide to develop effective counters when the two forces met again. It was only these contingencies that allowed the legions to survive, for though their numbers were far greater than those of the Imperium during the first war, between the two legions almost matching the entire strength of Astartes from that first conflict, the Rangdan had likewise built their strength, attacking in numbers that boggled the mind, entire systems falling to their fury.

Soon, even the XIth had to admit they had underestimated their foe, retreating alongside the XIIIth, saving as many worlds as they could along the way, the Ashen Crows receiving heavy praise for this when the war finally ended. It seemed that no matter what the two legions or their Primarchs did however, the Rangdan would not be stopped. More forces were needed, and finally, the warp opened to deliver such a blessing, Camelous of the XIXth arriving at the head of an armada, his own sons, the Dragon Lords, spearheading a mighty counter attack.

That single battle was one of the most cataclysmic of the war, losses on both sides rising quickly. Deploying his forces in strength, Camelous personally led the charge, fighting with such fervor, skill and psychic mastery that none could hope to match the fearsome tally he reaped that day. When the battle finally came to a brutal end, the Rangdan had been repulsed, all momentum from their assault lost, but if the Imperium thought that would bring about the end of the war, they were sorely mistaken.

For three more years, the Imperium and Rangdan engaged each other, hoping to break the brutal stalemate both sides found themselves at. Galvarian of the XIth refined the plans of his own legion, using the first hand knowledge of the threat he now had to create greater and greater counter measures, unleashing the newest weapons the Mechanicum could provide.

Gaius, recently found and bloodied within the Imperium, continued to deploy the elite kill-teams his legion had been known for, refining their use just as Galvarian refined the plans they used. Nor were these simply XIIIth legion teams, members of the Dragon Lords often being placed within their ranks to provide potent psychic support, something the XIIIth otherwise lacked.

Then, just as the war looked to stretch on for yet another year, the warp yawned wide again, delivering Imperial Retribution. As in the first war, reinforcements finally arrived, but this time, they were led by the Emperors favoured son, the future warmaster himself, Almire Leoric, the Imperial Justicars following in his wake.

With his legion still remembering the pain of the first war, and with a force that made even the one Camelous had brought with him seem small, Almire led a quick strike against the heart of the Rangdan swarm. As with when Camelous had arrived, the battle was brutal, with staggering losses on all sides, but when the dust finally settled, the Imperium were the victor, the swarm truly broken. Though it took a further three months, the Rangdan were soon defeated finally thrown back one final time, the heart of their empire now in flames, never to again recover to threaten the Imperium to the same extent.

This war, just like the first, saw firm friendships and bonds formed between those present, between both legions and Primarch’s, and yet it also saw rifts develop. Gaius and Camelous forged a firm bond, the two having worked together to meld the formers legions kill-teams with the latter’s Psychic strength. In time, this arrangement would become permanent, Dragon Lord librarians permanently seconded to the Consuls Exemplar, providing the XIIIth with a powerful psychic cadre it had so far lacked.

Galvarian had likewise bonded with his newest found brother, seeing him as an extremely competent and charismatic leader, and one who the First Ember would one day lament had not been chosen as the Warmaster of the Imperium. It was Almire however that took the XIIIth Primarch under his wing, the XVIth and XIIIth crusading together for a time, strengthening their bonds as the XIIIth sought to rebuild their shattered strength, something that would last beyond the closing days of the Great crusade, seeing the XIIIth standing alongside the Warmaster as they plunged into a new and more terrible war.

For all the bonds of friendship forged however, there were those that drifted apart in the form of Camelous and Galvarian. Galvarian was ever mistrustful of psychic powers, understanding their worth and usefulness, and even using their kind amongst his legion, but he required ferociously strict fail safes in place, something he saw Camelous as ignoring as he unleashed his great power. For Camelous, he grew to despise the way Galvarian treated his own sons, the First Ember seeing most of them as little more than living weapons and  numbers, not names and sons. Even though Camelous insisted his own legion be the weapons of humanity, he never sought to rob them of their own emotions as fully as Galvarian did, the two rarely seeing eye to eye from that day on.

The Second Rangdan Xenocide saw the largest number of losses on both sides by far, the numbers of dead eclipsing that of the first and third war, its influences and consequences far reaching. However, in the most draconian of terms, the legions of the second war had far more warriors to lose than those of the first, and though the dead outnumbered the previous war, no legion suffered as heavily as their forebears.

All the legions and Primarch’s who participated were lauded by the Imperium and the Emperor himself, Gaius for his exemplary bravery in the face of such a terrible first foe, Galvarian for his insistence of protecting the civilian worlds caught in the way of the swarm as much as possible, and Almire for his masterful intervention to bring the war to an end. Of all of them however, it was Camelous who received the most accolades, hailed as the hero of the Second War for being the one to, according to Imperial Propaganda, single handedly halt the advance of the xenos menace. Though he did not agree with such a statement, Camelous never argued against the pedestal he had been placed upon, humbly accepting the title of Invictii from the Emperor himself, the word quickly becoming synonymous with the Dragon Lords Primarch for all time.

#### The 3rd Compliance of Nostramo

The Imperial Justicars are tasked to ensure the "complete and continued compliance" of Nostramo, which was once again embroiled in open rebellion. Under the direction of Almire, the civilian population is completely displaced, arrested, killed, or drafted into service or labour by the legion and their accompanying Auxilia forces. The planet's cities and infrastructure are repopulated with loyal Imperial colonists who swiftly transform the planet into a prime producer of adamantium for the Imperium. In the wake of this compliance, a permanent Black Sceptre, Dorsenne Soult, is established upon the world, alongside a full Battalion of XVIth Legion warriors, though this is later reduced to a Company after the world shows no sign of re-offending.

#### Triumph of Ullanor

Though the Imperial Justicars had won many victories in their years of ceaseless conflict, one would eclipse all others and see them reborn once again. The greatest of the nascent Imperium's victories during the high point of the Great Crusade came in the form of the defeat of the largest Ork empire ever encountered.

The Ullanor Crusade was a vast Imperial assault on the Ork empire of the Overlord Urrlak Urruk. The capital world of this Greenskin stellar empire, and the site of the final assault by the Space Marine Legions, lay in the central Ullanor System of the galaxy's Ullanor Sector. The Crusade included the deployment of 250,000 Space Marines, millions, possibly billions or Imperial Army or Mechanicum troops, and thousands of Imperial starships and their support personnel. The Ullanor Crusade marked the high point of the Great Crusade's vast effort to reunite the scattered colony worlds of humanity.

The Orks of Ullanor represented the largest concentration of Greenskins ever faced by the military forces of the Imperium of Man before the Third War for Armageddon began during the late 41st Millennium. Following the defeat of the Orks of Ullanor largely due to the tactics and leadership of Almire, the Emperor of Mankind returned to Terra to begin work on his vast project to open up the Aeldari Webway for Mankind's use. In his place to command the vast forces of the Great Crusade he left Almire.

In the aftermath of this Ullanor Crusade, Almire was granted the newly-created title of "Warmaster," the commander-in-chief of all the Emperor's armies who possessed command authority over all of the other Primarchs and every Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade. Before returning to Terra to oversee the next phase of the creation of his stellar empire, the Emperor suggested to Horus that he rename the XVIth Legion in honour of their Primarch and to show his preeminent place amongst the other Primarchs.

Almire initially declined this honour, not wishing to be set above his brothers, and so his Legion continued as the Imperial Justicars for a little while longer. In the wake of the Silencing however where his will was taken as the advisement of an equal rather than the commands of a superior, Almire finally relented, the Imperial Justicars instead standing anew as the Warmasters Justicars, a name that would go down in infamy as the events of the Almire Apostasy loomed large.

## Legion Organisation

### Great Crusade and Early Apostasy

The Imperial Justicars and the Warmasters Justicars that followed them maintained much of their Legion structure as it had existed since the wars for Terra and Solar Unity, which had adhered closely to the Terran pattern laid down by the Imperial Officio Militaris before the Space Marine Legions' unification with their Primarchs.

The building blocks of the legion were therefore the humble squad, commanded by a Squad Sergeant, numbering ten legionaries at a nominal strength, though some would fall below this due to battlefield casualties. Rarely however did the legion deploy in the larger squad sizes as some of their peers did, twenty  man squads no unheard of, though certainly rarer than their ten man cousins.

These squads varied in specialisation, from standard tactical marines to highly elite recon troops or veteran warriors from a hundred campaigns. These designations often further changed the squads size, with Breacher squads and other vanguard formations often suffering heavy casualties, while squads specialising in infiltration prized themselves in avoiding fights, and would therefore suffer far fewer battlefield losses. Destroyer Squads were equally few in number, though not due to heavier than normal casualties, rather due to the legions distaste for such warfare, Almire outright prohibiting the use of such warriors against human foes, only the most dire of xenos threats seeing Destroyers sanctioned for deployment.

Beyond this, for the most part the legion maintained the structure of the *Principia Belicosa*, ten squads would form a Company of one hundred astartes, commanded by Centurion, would in turn be part of a Battalion alongside nine other companies, one thousand Astartes commanded by a Centurion-at-Arms, before finally serving within a Chapter, ten Battalions serving the will of a Praetor, each of these warriors a paragon of skill and deadly purpose, some of the the greatest soldiers the galaxy had ever known.

However, as the Great Crusade wore on, two new sub-formations took root within the legion, both unique to the XVIth and their way of conducting the Great Crusade, that of the Shield Line, and that of the Court.

The Justicars were never as linked to their shields as the likes of the Star Guardians, but they still favoured their use, Breacher Squads forming an integral part of the legions battle plan in absorbing the enemies initial charge, allowing the rest of the legion to either fall back in a feigned retreat or counterattack a foe robbed of the momentum of their charge. This mentality directly led to the creation of the Shield Line, a formation found solely within Line formations within the legion, utterly absent from more specialised formations.

Comprising three squads and led by the most senior Sergeant, given the rank of Sergeant-at-Arms, three such Shield Lines forming a Line Company, alongside a Company Command Squad of a Centurion. Each Shield Line was organised in a specific way to maximise the efficiency of the legions fighting style, two of the three squad designations set in stone. The first squad, often formed of the Shield Lines most senior warriors, would deploy as a Breacher Squad, carrying heavy boarding shields and clad in bulky Mk3 or Mk5 armour. Behind them would be a Tactical Squad, almost always arrayed in the Despoiler fashion, bolters slung in favour of bolt pistol and chainsword, while the third and final squad was the wild card, not fixed in its designation, though often standing as a Tactical Support Squad, bringing specialised weapons to bear in support of the Shield Line.

In battle, these Shield Lines were the building blocks of the Imperial Justicars, the First Squad absorbing the brunt of the charge, before smoothly opening their ranks as the enemy withdrew, allowing the Second Squad to surge forward, cutting down the retreating foe with a speed the First never could have matched. If a feigned retreat was in order, then the second and third squads could turn and ‘flee’, the first entrusted with the task of withdrawing step by step, hurried enough to give the air of panic, but steady enough to remain as an impassive shieldwall. Only when given a single barked command by the Sergeant-at-Arms would the second and third squads turn once more, opening fire on the pursuing foes and cutting them down. The greatest Shield Lines practiced this tactic so religiously that the command was often utterly unneeded, each warrior instinctively knowing when to run, when to stand and when to charge, few enemies able to stand before such a force.

While the Shield Line was undoubtedly a potent force, it was simply a combination of squads, arranged for ease of battlefield utility, the formation known as a Court was entirely different, a complete non-battlefield formation, and one unique to the mentality of the XVIth Legion in the wake of compliances, not during them.

Obsessed with the fair and equal treatment of all those who stood beneath Imperial Law, Almire implemented the practice of leaving warriors of the legion behind on a compliant world, ensuring compliance remained and that the implementation of the Lex Imperialis went smoothly, serving as interim law enforcement before the Adeptus Arbites could arrive to form a more permanent garrison, often remaining on hand for a short time afterwards, placing themselves at the command of the new precincts. Such a deployment was known as a Court, command given to a single warrior known as a Black Sceptre, in honour of the symbolic black power maul each warrior carried with them. These courts varied wildly in size, some standing as a single Black Sceptre left alone on an easily compliant world, while the largest Court was formed in the wake of the 3rd and final compliance of Nostramo, an entire Battalion remaining behind on the world, the Black Sceptre in command well aware that his was a permanent position, the first of his kind to hold such a rank in perpetuity.

In the time before Ullanor, these Courts were temporary assignments, the Black Sceptre able to conclude his deployment and travel back to the legion, either by utilising a legion vessel remaining on station for just such an occurrence, or commandeering civilian vessels under the name of their Primarch. However, after his ascension to the rank of Warmaster and his full acceptance of such after the Silencing, Almire made a decree that would change these Courts forever. No longer would they be temporary, now they would stand as permanent stewards over their worlds, entrusted with his authority to police the planets and to raise mortal forces to enforce the Lex Imperialis. On some worlds, they worked in tandem with the Adeptus Arbites, two divergent law enforcement agencies working in tandem, whereas on other worlds, the role of Arbites was all but eliminated, the warriors of the Legion overseeing compliance with the Lex Imperialis personally.

Many decried such a tradition, citing that it placed too much power into the hands of a Primarch that should have otherwise rested in the hands of the civil government. Indeed, no other Primarch could have fought against such calls and succeeded, but Almire’s rank allowed the Courts to continue, even as a shadow war broke out between them and the Adeptus Arbites, fought not with weapons, but with words and politicking, each seeking to secure more power over the other.

In the end, those who had spoken out against the Courts and the Black Sceptres were proven right as Almires treachery was revealed, hundreds of Courts rising up and securing their worlds for the Warmasters cause, many times without bloodshed, but each world lost a blow to the Imperium some say they never recovered from, even after the traitor host was finally pushed back, the effects of the traitors reforms worked into the very psyke of a world's populace.

#### Specialist Ranks and Formations

Executioners

Clad in custom-wrought artificer armour, the Executioners were the pride of the XVIth Legion, the finest warriors amongst the ranks of the Justicars, tasked with not only forming the shield wall alongside standard breacher squads, but also in leading the counter attacks alongside Despoiler Squads, the slower Breachers only responsible for holding the shield line.

The best of the already elite 1st Chapter, the Executioner fought under the direct control of the XVIth Legions First Praetor and were favoured of Almire, often chosen to support him when he took to the field, their weapons coming to mirror his own, Coriolis Pattern Power Shields used in conjunction with perfectly weighted power axes, helmets equipped with a weaker but still potent variation of the Gaze of Justice. Any who looked upon them would not see mere Astartes, they would see the distillation of a Primarch into his sons, the perfect weapons of the XVIth Legion

However, what truly set these warriors apart from contemporaries in other legions was their vital importance to the legion off the battlefield. When the Imperial Justicars took a world, their commanders would always make a point to learn of the laws of pre-Imperial worlds, their superhuman minds able to unravel even the most labyrinthine  legal systems. The worlds were then judged, on their own merits and laws not those of the Imperium, the legion passing judgment under this guise. Across a hundred worlds, even the act of execution was unjust, the richest able to pay for quick deaths, while those of less affluent means would face drawn out sentences, suffering before their eventual demise. Almire would not let this stand, and so his chosen elite took on a new role off the battlefield, their axes finding the necks of the guilty, no matter their material wealth, ending the lives of the guilty with a single stroke, bringing an equality to the judged, even in death.

Scollistarii

While the Executioners were undoubtedly the most skilled warriors of the XVIth Legion, responsible for the key part in any Justicars battle, they were far from the only elite warriors of the legion. One of the most common of these other elite organisations were the Scollistarii, heavy weapons specialists with few equals amongst the ranks of the Legiones Astartes.

Amongst most of the Legiones Astartes, it was the principal role of Legion Heavy Support Squads to saturate an area or target enemy armour with heavy ordnance obliterating an enemy through sheer weight of fire, the Imperial Justicars no different. However, traditionally, Heavy Support Squads were slow to redeploy, their weapons heavy even in power armour, necessitating the use of Rhino Troop Transports to allow the squads to keep pace with the Justicars battleline, which could fluctuate wildly from feigned retreats and counter charges.

To combat this, the elite warriors of the Scollistarii were equipped not only with heavy weapons, but also with a gravitic suspensor web, lessening the load almost to the point of non-existent. So equipped, the Scollistarii are able to easily redeploy or fire on the move, supporting advances or giving fire as the battleline withdraws, enticing the enemy further and further into the killing trap. Even the normal weakness of a suspensor web, a reduced effective range, does little to diminish these warriors' killing potential, the Scollistarii members training near religiously to keep their weapons on target, utilising the shorter range to pour more fire upon the enemy.

Initially, the Scollistarii were a separate part of the First Chapter elite alongside the Executioners. However, such was the efficacy that they often found themselves loaded out to different legion companies, soon finding such placements permanent, each company now boasting multiple squads of Scollistarii, putting them to great use in supporting XVIth legion battlelines, their numbers seen in the heaviest fighting the legion engaged in.

Land Raider Leoric

The XVIth Legion was one of the largest proponents of the heavy Typhon Siege Tank and the far smaller Vindicator and Medusa, utilising all three of these vehicles as close range wall breaching units, their powerful guns able to collapse even the toughest walls in mere moments when brought to bear en-masse, allowing legion forces to rush in and secure the breach before the enemy had time to plug this new gap.

However, as the Great Crusade wore on, a pattern started to emerge against the toughest of foes; the Vindicator and Medusa, mounting only thin armour, would be destroyed by fast-traversing weaponry, their speed of little use when assaulting a stationary target that could not be outflanked, while the far larger Typhon could be slowly bracketed and whittled down with heavy artillery firepower. A vehicle was required that could match the speed of the former, while boasting the armour of the latter, all while carrying a large enough weapon to decimate any foe it came across. For such a vehicle, only the venerable Land Raider would suffice.

Utilising the tried and tested Proteus chassis, Mechanicum adepts soon created the first prototype of the newly named Assault Raider, the vehicle renamed shortly before its debut with the naming of Almire as the Warmaster, presented to the Warmaster as the Land Raider Leoric. Maintaining the heavy armour and mobility of the Proteus, the Leoric replaced the entire troop compartment with a devastating Medusa siege gun, the twin lascannon sponsons replaced with externally mounted cyclone missile launchers, eliminating the need for internal ammunition space or an additional reactor drain that typical sponson weaponry presented.

Unsurprisingly, the Leoric quickly became a potent weapon in the Warmasters arsenal, its fame growing as battles began to be won solely based on its killing prowess. Indeed, as time went on, more and more legion forces began to petition the Warmaster to make the design known to all, it's worth clear to any who looked upon it. However, by the time these calls became loud enough to matter, the Warmasters heart had already hardened to rebellion, and while reports do exist of some Leorics bearing the colours not of the XVIth Legion, these were few and far between, and always held by those legions who would later be revealed as standing with the Warmaster in all his treachery.

Black Sceptre

Those warriors assigned to command a Court deployment were granted the honorary title of Black Sceptre, supplanting any other role they had held previously and granting them ultimate authority of their Primarch upon the world tied to their appointment, empowered to enforce the Lex Imperialis until the Adeptus Arbites could arrive, whereupon their authority was placed as subservient to the judicial organisation. These warriors were all granted a power maul upon their appointment, cast from black metal and from which they took their name, but beyond this, there was little similarities between these warriors, some going to war with jump packs while others marched forth in Cataphractii Terminator Armour, or even from the cupola of a battle tank, their rods of office held high for all to see.

#### Equipment

As with most legions, the Imperial Justicars, and later on the Warmasters Justicars, maintained a vast armoury of equipment, from stores of power armour through to vehicles and voidcraft with which to make war upon the galaxy. Many of these were known to the other legions, though due to Almire position, much of their equipment was of the highest calibre, advanced weaponry such as volkite guns or Sicaran variants were found in far greater numbers within their ranks, Mars prioritising the XVIth above almost any other.

However, while the legion did attempt to maintain a wide armour, there are some parts of it that are near unique to the XVIth Legion, weapons that either suit their particular style of warfare, or else are permitted for use solely within their ranks by treaties with the Martian priesthood.

Chief amongst these was the Aucteller Storm Shield, named after the ancient rank of justice within House Delphaan on Almire’s homeworld, crafted by the Mechanicum in order to coin favour with the new Warmaster, utilising knowledge shared by Shaaa Hydrades himself. Similar in the broadest terms to the Watcher pattern Storm Shield of the Star Guardians, the Aucteller focused less on rugged and bulky designs, and more on ergonomic features, creating a shield far lighter than that of the IVth Legion, though at the cost of a less potent field generator, one designed to supplement other imperial force fields, rather than provide protection solely based on its own power.

This created a shield far easier to equip across the entire legion, Almire prioritising its construction in the years leading up to the Apostasy, knowing that they would be invaluable against the deadliest foes his Justicars had ever faced; other Space Marines.

Alongside this lighter storm shield, the legion was known to utilise power shield akin to those of the IXth Legion, most notably equipping their elite warriors, the Executioners, with these potent pieces of technology, their force fields robbing the energy of an incoming attack of its potency, an analogy for the legion itself in truth.

Beyond these, expertly crafted power spears, versatile weapons that could be switched from one handed to two handed in an instant, alongside a wide variety of combi-weapons, made the XVIth legion a vicious force at close range, perfect for a legion that preferred to keep their killing close, relishing the spear thrust through their opponents belly, rather than the impersonal long ranged engagements some of their fellows specialised in.

#### War Disposition

The XVIth Legion was always regarded as one of the largest of the Legiones Astartes, even in the times before Almire, their numbers swelled as if they had greater access to geneseed than any other, adding further fuel to the fires surrounding the shadowed past of Almire himself.

At the time of the outbreak of the Almire Apostasy, the Warmasters Justicars were estimated to have an active strength within the region of 150,000 to 200,000 Astartes, along with the expected fleet and armoury assets common to all legions, though these were often of the highest quality due to Almire’s rank as Warmaster, advanced tanks such as the Sicarran common within their arsenal.

These numbers placed the legion either at the lower end of their peers in terms of numbers, or at the higher end, and yet a more accurate assessment of their numbers was impossible to attain given the considerable portion of sub-deployments and garrisons that were maintained by the XVIth Legion scattered across the Imperium, mostly in the form of Courts, but also in the form of attachments to fellow legions, in hind sight revealed to be those legions who had already sided with the Warmaster.

## Hasninë

    Hasninë was a lush and vibrant world a mere galactic stones throw away from the seat of Imperial Power, Terra, as well as the officially stated homeworld of the XVIth Legion, the Imperial Justicars, the Emperor having met his first son, Almire Leoric upon the world's surface, or so the story goes.

Once a Knight World supply food to the Forge Worlds of Mars empire, the world was cut off from Terra by the warp storms that broke apart the ancient empire of mankind, leaving it to fend for itself and over the centuries of isolation, gave rise to numerous feudal houses, each one claiming ownership of large swathes of land, ruling with an iron fist from their mighty suits of mechanised armour, the peasants who continued to work the fields powerless to oppose them and deemed unworthy of representation in the courts of their betters.

This was not the world the Emperor found however, for when Almire laid eyes upon the world and saw its inequality, he saw only a blight upon the galaxy. The will of a Primarch would never be opposed, and in short order, Hasninë was brought under his unified rule, all treated as equals, the only advancement coming through hard work and skill, a true meritocracy, and a beacon of Imperial justice that shone across the galaxy throughout the Great Crusade.

Hasninë survived the early Almire Apostasy, its Knightly houses striking out at worlds designated by the Warmaster, the loyalists unwilling to waste their forces in pacifying the world, such a victory being deemed little more than a symbolic gesture. The world would not however survive the Frontier Wars that followed, Almire’s darker methods of ruling soon took root, Hasninë reverting back to its ancient ways, before becoming darker still, fear stalking the land as Astartes ruled without oversight.

The world would meet its final days in the year before Terra fell to the encroaching loyalist forces, though it would not be a loyalist that finally claimed the world as amongst their victories. Instead, First Praetor Asmodeus, Legion Master of the XVIth and now avowed enemy of the failure that he saw in Almire, brought his fleet to the world, raining down fire upon Hasninë, leaving the world as little more than a radioactive hellscape.

## Notable Justicars

**Almire Leoric** - Almire Leoric, Warmaster of the Imperium, the first found and favoured son of the Emperor of Mankind, beloved by all. It is no boast that sees Almire regarded as the finest of his brothers, only one ever truly standing his equal, perhaps a dark omen to foretell Almire’s own fall from grace, the two brightest candles falling the furthest. A tactician with few rivals, a fearless warrior with few his equal, a master of the human mind in ways that few could match, all of these are true, but it is Almire’s near unmatched determination and belief in a single simple aspect of the human psyche that truly sets him apart; Justice. Almire is driven in his entirety by that singular virtue, letting it guide his actions in all things. Upon every world, in the face of every human, Almire did not see rank or pedigree from birth, but purely from deed, the Imperium in his mind to be run along a meritocratic system, skill mattering, nothing else. It did not matter who you were, justice and the law was everything, and he ensured that no one was above the law, either their own pre-Imperial law, or the Lex Imperialis itself.

Almire followed this virtue across the Great crusade, reaping a tally of victories that was truly unmatched even by Shaaa Hydrades and Camelous, his reputation growing with each battle, and in the wake of Ullanor, none doubted that Almire was a worthy successor to the Emperor’s command, supporting the naming of the Warmaster. When the wheels of time turned and Almire’s true face was revealed, none were prepared for the betrayal, none who stood against him grasped the true might of the Warmaster until they were smashed asunder by a genius which knew only one equal; the Emperor of Mankind Himself.

**First Praetor Gobalt Asmodeus** - First Praetor Gobalt is, without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest warrior of the XVIth Legion, and in truth one of the greatest warriors within the Imperium itself. A Scion of a Noble house of Hasninë, Asmodeus willingly sided with Almire during the Primarch’s swift conquest of the world, casting off his old family to join the House of Almire, welcomed by the Primarch as any other would have been. Through grit and determination, Asmodeus was raised to the XVIth alongside his lord, soon distinguishing himself both in training and in battle to be named as the First Praetor, lord of the Imperial Justicars under Almire himself.

In battle, Asmodeus does not fight as his lord does, nor even as the Executioners he leads into battle, no shield held before him. Instead, Asmodeus fights with two paragon blades, each a mighty greatsword a lesser warrior would use in both hands, speaking to the testament of his strength, further augmented by additional servo-motors built into the First Praetor’s armour. When Almire fell to Chaos, Asmodeus walked in lockstep beside him, ever more loyal to his Primarch than he was to his Emperor.

**Praetor Jean Davoust** - Praetor Jean Davoust has had a storied past, even before his entry into the ranks of the XVIth Legion. His parents were born in Franc on Terra hundreds of years before the end of the Unification Wars, stolen by the Selenar gene-cults of Luna and eventually used to create what the cult believe to be the “perfect man”, a gene-forged child designed to be genetically perfect. That was Jean Davoust. Taken from Luna as the Imperium conquered Terra’s natural satellite, he swiftly found himself embroiled in combat on Ceres, his gene-forged perfection soon seeing him elevated to commander of the Selenar-in-exiles forces during the First Battle of Ceres, despite his young age. So impressive was his defence of the dwarf planet that the attacking commander, Dorsenne Soult of the unnamed XVIth Legion, broke his rule on leaving no survivors of an enemy military force, instead sending the child to Terra to be tested.

There, he proved a match for the geneseed of the XVIth legion, raised to their ranks and proving his worth, his genetic perfection allowing him to grasp even the most difficult concepts in a fraction of the time his contemporaries could. Rising through the ranks, Davoust soon stood as a Praetor of the 6th Chapter, a position he would hold until the outbreak of the Apostasy. Narrowly escaping his own execution, Davoust fled, badly wounded but alive, eventually being found by forces loyal to the throne and elevated to stand amongst Malcador’s chosen Knights Errant. His final fate is unknown.

**Black Sceptre Dorsenne Soult “The Old Guard”** - The role of the Black Sceptre was a common one within the Imperial Justicars, but it was never considered a permanent position, those who returned from such postings gaining a single black bar upon their chest as recognition. Not so for Dorsenne Soult, the so-called “Old Guard”, one of the last warriors of the Terran Legion and former master of the legion before Asmoedus. Soult is a warrior of steely determination, a hallmark of the old legion, never one to truly fit with Almire’s changes of justice and forgiveness of a surrendered foe. To Soult, an enemy was an enemy and would always stand as much, the idea of surrender alien to him, placing him at odds with his soon to be discovered Primarch, and seeing him replaced in the upper command of the legion. However, this all changed in the wake of the 3rd Compliance of Nostramo. Unwilling to see the world fall again, Almire assigned Soult and a full Battalion of his warriors to guard the world, the instatement, at least for Soult, a permanent one. This suited the unflinching warrior perfectly, overseeing the continued compliance of the world for over a century.

When the Apostasy erupted and his gene-father declared rebellion against the Imperium, Soult saw no reason not to continue to follow his lord, turning Nostramo into a fortress for his Primarch. When the Imperium Secundus arose and Nostramo found itself deep behind the enemies frontlines, the world changed once more, becoming a haven for the Dark Gods themselves, Soult inviting in hordes of daemons, ruining the world and its precious adamantium for the Imperials, and in so doing ascending to godhood as a newly elevated Daemon Prince.

In the years after the Apostasy, Soult would clash with Asmodeus over the command of the XVIth Legion, a rivalry that would last until finally, Soul was struck down, his essence bound within the First Praetor’s weapon, imprisoned for eternity for his crime against the new Warmaster of Chaos.

**Forge Master Fulque Sayre** - A native of Hasninë, Fulque grew up in the shadow of mighty Knight suits, his pedigree placing him on a path to pilot one of those mighty suits. However, such would never come to pass, Almire striking down the old order and bringing in a new era, the Emperor arriving shortly afterwards. Fulque was part of one of the first batches of recruits from the world, identified as technically minded and sent to Mars for training, his fascination with Knight suits turning from piloting into building, then into all facets of technology. Soon, Fulque found himself as a Forge Lord within the XVIth Legion, and by the time of the Apostasy, stood as the personal artificer of Almire himself, maintaining the Primarch’s Wargear, overseeing tasks the Warmaster placed extremely value on, and serving as a link between the legion and those loyal to the Warmaster on Mars.

## Legion Fleet

### Notable Vessels

* *Wrath of Judgement* - Gloriana-class Flagship

## Legion Appearance

### Legion Colours

The XVIth Legion took their colours early on in their life as a legion, many of their fellows maintaining a predominatly grey or black heraldry before they were united with their Primarch, but even before the coming of Almire, the already named Imperial Justicars crusaded wearing the deep blue they would come to be known for. Taking inspiration from the ancient myths of Franc that had birthed the legion, the blue spoke of the steadfast nature of the legion, a symbol to those who knew history of the character of the warriors arrayed before them. Throughout the Great Crusade, this steadfast attitude was proved time and time again, the legion more than willing to give ground when it suited them, or be utterly unmoving, holding their chosen lines until the last warrior fell to rise no more.

Of course, in the wake of the silencing, the Imperial Justicars transitioned into the Warmasters Justicars, and like their name, the blue was changed to a deep purple. The symbolism behind this was lost on few, purple most often associated with rulership and power, the act of changing to this colour in their entierty was not lost on anyone, a visible manifestation to go alongside the legions new name, leaving none in doubt that these warriors were chosen not simply to lead, but to rule over the other legions, each warrior empowered by the word of the Warmaster himself, a being second only to the Emperor of Mankind.