Ashen Kavaliers

A Plague Marine of the Ashen Kavaliers

The **Ashen Kavaliers** are the fallen IV legion of the Legiones Astartes. They and their Primarch are now beholden to Nurgle's will. Sweeping across the battlefield in swift, well-ordered ranks, they menace the Imperium and the Renegade Empires of Segmentum Ultima. The Legion were once one of the most dependable forces under the Emperor's banner, but those days have long past.

## Legion History

### Unification Wars

During the Unification Wars, the Fourth Legion gained a reputation for its prowess in close fighting. They partook in great mobile campaigns on the Caucasian Steppe, pushing North from the Imperium’s Achaemenid ally into the Russian Wastes. The Techno-Barbarians dug their heels into the frozen soil of their homes, but the Fourth danced around them, isolating them, encircling them, and letting them wither away. The young Imperium’s borders raced North towards the Urals, and as their Legion received more and more of the transports produced by the workshops of Terra, they took on a new name: The Coursers.

### The Great Crusade

With the Primarch at the head of the Legion, a decisive shift occurred in the Legion’s doctrine. The Coursers no longer lived up to their name. With their Primarch, and a new cohort of Machtiger Astartes leading the way, the Coursers took up a more direct assault war. Instead of harrying their enemies and withering them, the encirclement was followed by the assault. Leopold was principally concerned with the value of Astartes in the shock assault. In line with their reasoning, they took up the charge. Rather than employing his Legionnaires in precise, lighting strikes, the Coursers became linebreakers, smashing into close combat and pushing through the enemy’s rank.

However, it was always obvious to Leopold that a mounted charge could not win every battle. So, the Legion borrowed tactics from Leopold’s Helvaican vassals. They had proved insufficient when used against the young Primarch, but now when employed by him the Helvaican school of thought proved vital. Astartes of the Fourth legion were issued with more substantial close-combat weapons, as standard, than almost any other Legion. While they were, on average, less talented with a blade than some of their cousin Legions, they made up for that in their coordination. Melee weapons only came out at the last moment, as Coursers would lure their opponents into gunnery duels before suddenly charging them unaware when the distance closed. Under these tactics the Legion would be reformed, and with their shifting identity they took on a new name: The Ashen Kavaliers.

### The Fracturing

Leopold von Hildebrandt took The Fracturing as a golden opportunity. Suddenly the cluster of Imperial space around Machtig was ripe for the taking, finally allowing the Primarch to expand beyond his home planet and build the Empire he so desperately wanted. The Ashen Kavaliers spread forth and began a campaign of conquest, one that would become known in their circles as the Pesterrheim Crusade, for reasons that would become apparent. The rebellious Primarch led his banners forwards against his Father’s Imperium, striking into Segmentum Ultima and biting a chunk out of the Imperium’s holdings in the region. The chaos in the Warp slowed any organized response to the traitorous Fourth’s advance, but it seemed the Legion itself made good progress through the turbulence. The cause of this success became obvious when the Black Pestilence struck.

All at once, all over Machtig and on all of Leopold’s new holdings, the disease struck. It spread and killed at an exorbitant rate, defying any attempts to control it. Leopold viewed his people as his abject inferiors, but them dying en-masse did little good. As the Pestilence progressed, even Astartes began to fall ill for it. The progression of the disease to their transhuman biology was suspicious, as it was believed their Crusading fleets had spread it in the first place. Why, then, had the Pestilence seemed to wait before jumping to the Astartes? This Leopold and his Apothecaries urgently sought to figure out how, and before long they would have their answer.

Those few survivors who witnessed it claim the Primarch disappeared in a flash. When he returned to the mortal plane, Leopold von Hildebrandt had been shown the solution to his Legion’s ails. The Primarch came face to face with a being far beyond even him, far beyond the Emperor. Leopold von Hildebrandt spoke to his god, and everything made sense. The question of aging and dying which had long plagued Machtig’s nobility could be answered for in Nurgle’s philosophy. The maintenance of the old order, and of course the disease which now scythed through his ranks. Many had succumbed to the disease, but, on their sire’s new orders, the survivors within the Ashen Knights embraced the Black Pestilence. Those who refused were slain, and the Legion’s transformation, as well as their Primarch’s apotheosis, was at hand.

## Legion Homeworld

The Legion's homeworld, was once Machtig. Machtig was a thoroughly depressing feudal world, and things have not been helped by its transition into a Nurglite Daemon World. Now the world sits at the heart of the Pesterrheim, a sick, twisted version of the Empire Leopold von Hildebrandt so desperately wanted. It is totally flexible to the corrupted Primarch's will, its very continents and seas shaping and forming to best serve the Plague God's desires.

## Legion Organisation

During the Great Crusade, the Ashen Kavaliers were organized solidly on the principles of the Principia Bellicosa. The Legion’s squads, or *Lances*, were composed of 10 men and were organized in Company-sized units known as *Banners.*

### Post Fracture

After the disintegration of the technical Legion hierarchy during the Fracturing, the forces of the Fourth Legion became primarily organized into the Orders that had informally permeated its structure during the Crusade. These Orders kept their component Files and Companies generally, though this varies across the breadth of the Legion. Authority in these Orders is derived ultimately from Leopold, who still has marginal control over his entire Legion. Command authority in a contemporary Order falls into the hands of a prominent Astartes, usually a Burgrave or an Altgrave, who keeps his power by force of character and strength. That said, unless the Margraves under his command become dissatisfied, violent action to overthrow a Master is unlikely to be taken. The politics of the Orders of the Ashen Kavaliers is crucial to the running of the Pesterrheim.

### Command Ranks

*Altgrave-* Lord Commander Equivalent

*Burgrave-* Commander Equivalent

*Margrave-* Captain Equivalent

### Specialist Ranks

*Plague Doctors* Are the Ashen Kavalier's old Apothecarion. Instead of fighting disease, they have embraced it, drawing on the full breadth of Nurgle's gifts to aid the Legion in is battles.

### Line Ranks

*Lanser-* Battle Brother equivalent

*Ritter-* Sergeant equivalent

### Plague Knights

Every world in the Pesterrheim’s vicinity speaks in hushed terror of the Plague Knights of Nurgle. It is said that when they appear, the Primarch himself is never far. Their steeds, once noble jetbikes, have been corroded and corrupted so that they seem as much biological as machine. Their horrible, bloated bodies carry vile Blight Lances, Nurglite weapons which break upon impact, spreading their horrible host of diseases to whoever is unfortunate enough to be struck, and then the weapon regrews, organic matter hard as ceramite protruding from the hilt to strike once more.

### Blightwarden Terminators

The Primarch’s personal coterie of warriors are the Blightwardens. Foremost among the Legion’s infantry formations, the Blightwardens are Leopold’s hand. Ever at his side, they are prominently used in teleportarium attacks, appearing directly into close combat. Carrying Scourge Greatswords they cleave into their foes and bring Nurgle’s wasting diseases into their bodies. The swords can be thrust home through plate or swung about to cleave down men with wheat before a scythe. For long-range combat, they possess a Chem-thrower strapped to their left hand, pouring alchemical fury over those who come up against them before a charge.

## Legion Gene-Seed

The Geneseed of the Ashen Knights was never quite normal. The Ossmodula and Biscopea tend to become overactive, strengthening the Astartes’ bones and increasing muscle fibers beyond what is typical. This comes at a cost of increased strain on the body, leading to degenerative effects over the longer term of the Crusade which is considered to have increased the Legion’s susceptibility to the Black Pestilence and ultimately aided their fall to Nurgle

## Notable Orders of the Ashen Kavaliers

### The Order Pestilent

Bearing the name of the disease which laid the Legion and Primarch low, the Order Pestilent are Leopold von Hildebrandt’s personal companions. Ruling over the planet of Pesterrheim itself, once fair and noble Machtig, it is ever rarer that the Order Pestilent make their appearance on the battlefield, but when they do they bring the fallen Primarch’s wrath against those, Chaos and Human, who would dare array themselves against the Traitor King of Machtig. Their warriors are the most horrific the Legion, and perhaps the Galaxy, have to offer. Battle hardened veterans all, they are considered exemplars of what all Ashen Kavaliers should strive to be. They turn aside the enemy’s ranks, breaking through and taking all into Nurgle’s loving embrace.