Grand Hellguard

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A Grand Hellguard officer wielding a ritual knife.

The **Grand Hellguard** is a Traitor Guard warband primarily devoted to the worship of Slaanesh. Originally the Ashimar 30th "Show Stoppers" Infantry Regiment, they fell to the sway of the Dark Prince while battling a cultist uprising on the hive world of Paradius. However, while many followers of Slaanesh are utterly lost to sadism and depravity, these fallen Ashimar maintained a semblance of discipline and self-control. They are driven by one goal: the conquest of their homeworld, Ashimar, and the destruction of their loyalist kin, the Ashimar Nova Guard.

## History

The Grand Hellguard can trace its origins to the Night of a Thousand Rebellions, a mass of simultaneous Chaos cult uprisings that plunged much of Segmentum Pacificus into anarchy. One such world was Paradius, hive world and capital of the Paradius Sector, which is also home to Ashimar. The Disciples of the Wishmaster, a Slaanesh cult long festering among the decadent upper class of the planet's hives, rose up, seizing control of the planet. The Ashimar Lady General Valentina Kepalin would be tasked with leading an army to reclaim the planet, and among her regiments was the Ashimar 30th "Show Stoppers" Infantry Regiment, which was specialized in crushing planetary rebellions.

The fighting quickly turned into a bloody stalemate as Imperial forces besieged the Paradian hive cities. Morale was low among the Ashimar 30th, as many of its Guardsmen, both enlisted and officers alike, due to the war dragging on with little progress and a feeling that Lady General Kepalin was not utilizing her forces to their full potential. Chief among these critics was the regiment's own commander, Colonel Kaspar Vektaris. Criticism would turn to open treason though, for as Lady General Kepalin mustered her army to invade the hive city of Atoka, Vektaris and two thirds of the Ashimar 30th revealed their true colors, joining forces with the Disciples to slaughter the Imperials. The Imperium would soon abandon its efforts to reclaim Paradius, and due too his role in ensuring their victory, Vektaris was able to maneuver himself into a high position of leadership within the cult. He gathered his fallen Ashimar troops, as well as local Paradians, into a new army, which he dubbed the "Grand Hellguard" and declared himself its "Grand Marshal." In the chaos following the creation of the Great Rift, Grand Marshal Vektaris was able to acquire the assistance of several Heretic Astartes warbands in launching an invasion of Ashimar.

## Notable Campaigns

* **Paradius Rebellion (999.M41) -** As Imperial control over Segementum Pacificus began to collapse during the Night of a Thousand Rebellions, a Chaos cult dedicated to Slaanesh rose up and seized control of the hive world of Paradius, capital of the Paradius Sector. Among the forces sent to retake the planet was an Ashimar Nova Guard army group under the command of Lady General Valentina Kepalin. One of the senior Ashimar officers, Colonel Kaspar Vektaris of the Ashimar 30th Infantry "Show Stoppers," was swayed to the worship of Slaanesh, and secretly threw in his lot with the cultist rebels. Working to subvert the Guardsmen under his command, he and those loyal to him showed their true colors during the **Massacre at Atoka Hive**, where the Traitor Guardsmen revealed themselves and turned their guns against their former comrades. Thousands of Guardsmen who refused to turn against the Emperor were slaughtered, including Lady General Kepalin and her entire general staff. A few hundred surviving loyal Ashimar Guardsmen were able to fight their way out and reach the positions of the Wind Runners 3rd Company as Imperial forces evacuated from the planet. With Paradius now firmly in heretic hands, Colonel Vektaris declared himself "Grand Marshal" of his new heretic army, the **Grand Hellguard**.
* **Siege of Ashimar (001-010.M42)** - At the head of a heretic coalition which included the warbands of the Iron Warriors, Emperor's Children, and Thousand Sons traitor legions, the Grand Hellguard spearheaded an invasion of Ashimar, facing the majority of the Ashimar Nova Guard as well as forces of the Order of the Eternal Flame, the Ordinators, and the Wind Runners.
* **Ashimar Shadow War (010.42-)** - Though the Siege of Ashimar was broken and the heretic armies which invaded it were driven off-world, the fighting has not ceased. Large numbers of Hellguard and other heretic forces were left behind in the retreat, and went to ground in order to continue the fight. The Ashimar Nova Guard, PDF, and their allies wage a grueling counter-insurgency campaign against the dug-in heretics in order to rid their world of Chaos once and for all.
* **Paradius Crusade (Early M42)** - The majority of the Grand Hellguard withdrew to their territories in the Paradius Sector following the retreat from Ashimar, increasing their stranglehold on the sector's worlds under the leadership of Grand Marshal Vai. An Imperial crusade spearheaded by the Ashimar Nova Guard fights to reclaim the sector from the Hellguard, with the hive world of Paradius as the epicenter of the fighting.

## Warband Organization

   As typical of Chaos warbands, the Grand Hellguard's organization is hardly consistent. Nonetheless, under Grand Marshal Vektaris and fellow fallen Ashimar officers, attempts were made to organize the Hellguard in a manner roughly aligned to Astra Militarum standards.

## Notable Warband Members

* **Grand Marshal Kaspar Vektaris -** Formerly the Colonel of the Ashimar 30th Infantry Regiment, Kaspar Vektaris was the original Grand Marshal of the Grand Hellguard. An exacting disciplinarian in his Loyalist years, after his fall to worship of Slaanesh Vektaris's obsession with discipline became increased, regularly flogging and torturing those who failed to meet his ever-increasing standards. He was killed in the final days of the Siege of Ashimar and succeeded by Vai.
* **Grand Marshal Vai -** A cunning, charismatic, and utterly ruthless woman, Vai first emerged as an advisor to Grand Marshal Vektaris in the years prior to the Siege of Ashimar. Following his death, she succeeded him as Grand Marshal, and is the chief architect of the Hellguard's reign of terror over the Paradius Sector.
* **Commander Le'arr "The Viper" Cartorus** - The eccentric Le'arr "The Viper" Cartorus is the commander of the Viper Brigade, one of the Hellguard's most infamous units. They specialize in electronic warfare, overwhelming enemy vox networks with broadcasts of The Viper's music, as he is a prolific musician (though not a very good one).
* **"The Ghost of Atoka"**

## Warband Appearance

Soldiers of the Grand Hellguard are of generally uniform appearance, with the standardized uniform and equipment used by much of its ranks resembling the Cadian-style gear used by the Ashimar Nova Guard. Their uniform consists of light, bright blue fatigues and grey flak armor with pink trim. Cultists in the service of the Hellguard are not held to as exacting standards, but typically wear some form of blue and pink as a show of their allegiance.

## Allies

### Chaos

* Fornax
* Iron Warriors (World Devastators)
* Emperor's Children (Perfect Storms)
* Thousand Sons (Tizcan Flame)

## Enemies

### Adeptus Astartes

* Wind Runners
* Ordinators

### Astra Militarum

* Ashimar Nova Guard
* Megali Regulators
* Arothi Storm Guard

## Notable Quotes

### About the Grand Hellguard

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

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