Heralds of the Script

The **Heralds of the Script**, often shortened to the Script Heralds, are a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter sired from the Ultima Founding officially by the gene-seed of the Ultramarines and comprised entirely of Primaris Marines.

Tasked with aiding in the defense of Imperium Nihilus, the Script Heralds have gained renown and reputation among the citizens of Segmentum Obscurus for their dedication to defending holy sites and safeguarding citizen centers.

They are particularly noteworthy for their reverence and adherence to the Imperial Cult, often having members of the Adeptus Ministorum involved in their rituals and rites that praise the Emperor as the God of Humanity. This faithfulness quickly transitions into zealotry as the enemies of the Imperium of Man make themselves known, with the Script Heralds becoming bastions of death to all that oppose them and would seek to invade the worlds of the Imperium and the people that call them home.

## Chapter History

Created during the Ultima Founding and only distinguished by their white and red armor, the chapter that would come to be known as the Heralds of the Script would have little to no identity in their early service and simply went by their original designation which has now been lost in the records. They would be tasked to help defend Imperium Nihilus and would undertake this duty with a stalwart disposition.

Coming later than the Unnumbered Sons and as such having no ties to the first of the Primaris chapters, the Script Heralds would find their first battlefields in the Finial Sector and would prove themselves capable yet fairly unremarkable warriors. Eventually, they would come to the aid of a world called Chiotan, a Shrine World that had been besieged by a Chaos warband comprised of Traitor Astartes and a local cult that had sprung up within the poorer districts of the world.

It would take almost three years for the Heralds to exterminate the warband that had held Chiotan at a knife's edge, and the people of the world regarding the arrival of the Emperor's Angels as a reward for their defiance and piety. During this time the chapter would grow close to the world's population as many saw them as protectors sent from the Emperor of Mankind himself, with many members of the Adeptus Ministorum gaining ties with the chapter's commanders and using said ties to advance their own roles and positions in the world's government.

Chapter Master Fivan Delinus and most of the higher-ranking Astartes of the chapter would come to work closely with the world's leaders, all of which were members of the Adeptus Ministorum by this point, during the defense of Chiotan and would come under the sway of their teachings and the lessons of the Imperial Cult. Before long the garrisons of the Heralds would be visited by priests and other Ministorum members as well, with the chapter soon becoming enraptured by their teachings of the God Emperor.

Once the last heretic had been killed and their strongholds all toppled and cleansed of their foul taint, the administration of the world would beg the Heralds to stay and help them defend their world against future attacks. Their particular part of the Finial Sector had experienced much hardship and as such the Chapter Master of the Heralds would agree to establish a permanent presence on the world.

As such Chiotan was chosen as the homeworld of the Script Heralds, to the joy of both the populace and the chapter alike, due to the necessity for permanent garrison and the close relations with the world's leaders. As part of further integration with their new homeworld, the Battle Brothers of the chapter would go on pilgrimages and journeys across Chiotan to learn more about the world and the Imperial Cult in general. During these initial pilgrimages and quests for enlightenment, the recruitment rituals and defining aspects of the chapter would be crafted.

Marines would return to their brothers with holy texts and quotes from various monuments and shrines alike, sharing them and eagerly explaining their personal connections with their chosen verses and scriptures. These scriptures and their close relations with the Ecclesiarchy of the world would result in the Chapter Master listing their official name as the Heralds of the Script, although many would simply refer to them as the Script Heralds. These scriptures would become a keystone of the developing culture of the chapter as their belief in the Imperial Cult spread to every Battle Brother.

Chiotan itself would also develop as the Heralds made it their home, undertaking new duties and positions required of those that harbored a chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. Chief among these new developments would be the creation of a new institution meant to train potential Aspirants for the Heralds called the Blessed Brotherhood. Male orphans were sent to this institution almost by default but any family could offer up their sons to the Brotherhood if they desired, with many parents seeing their son's acceptance into the Brotherhood as a high honor and a holy sacrifice as they would usually never see their child again.

Of course, not every child in the Blessed Brotherhood would be compatible with the Heralds' gene-seed nor would they all complete the trials to join the chapter even if they were, as such, any that failed to meet the trials or simply weren't compatible would instead either be raised into members of the Planetary Defense Forces or brought into the chapter as serfs and various other such servants if they were found worthy.

## Notable Campaigns

* **Reconquest of Chiotan (Unknown Date)**

* **Siege of Finial (Unknown Date)**

## Chapter Homeworld

Chiotan, a Shrine World in the Finial Sector, serves as the chapter's homeworld. Studded with cathedrals, shrines, and pilgrimage sites all across the world, Chiotan is not all that different from any other Shrineworld aside from the presence of the Heralds of the Script. While still under total control of the Adeptus Ministorum, the Heralds have become integral to many of the planet's traditions and ceremonies despite their relatively recent arrival. Many positions in the planet's administration have also become occupied by Heralds, such as the chapter's Master of Sanctity also being the head of the planet's religious offices and positions. Some say that it is only a matter of time before the rule of the Heralds is absolute on the world but the chapter themselves have made no efforts to seize total control thus far. The chapter also has essentially taken up the role of the highest military authority on the planet, with the Chapter Master of the Heralds being the commander of the planetary defense forces.

The world itself is mostly urban with only a few spots of arable and fertile land set aside for agriculture in order to keep the population fed. While it does have some manufacturing centers and capabilities it s far from self-sufficient, nor is it a beacon of trade for anything aside from its own system. There are several great mines across the world that do give Chiotan a respectable raw material output however, with the dried-up mines swiftly become cities once the workers have finished their excavations.

Many ruined cityscapes and urban centers also exist across the world, usually either due to being battlefields during the planet's defense against their heretical invaders or due to those cities being the site of heretic cults that were exterminated by the Heralds of the Script. These fallen cities have had reconstruction and reclamation efforts started however, particularly around cathedrals and other places of worship, so it is only a matter of time until Chiotan is restored to its former glory once again.

## Chapter Organization

The Heralds of the Script largely adhere to the Codex Astartes with some slight deviations. For example, rather than sporting company colors on their trim the chapter instead uses their robes, skirts, and tabards to display company colors as simply columns on the existing black cloth. Additionally their veterans, due to the standard helmets of the Heralds being white, sport white helmets with a red streak in an inverse of the typical veteran sergeant helmet coloration.

Notably the organizational structure, while largely the same as the Codex Astartes demands, does boast a fair bit of overlap between the Reclusiam and Librarius in particular. Chaplains and Librarians may hold one another's positions and ranks simultaneously, so long as they can fit said role aptly of course, to the point that the line between the two institutions is hard to discern. The positions of Chief Librarian and the Master of Sanctity have been occupied by the same Battle Brother for almost the entirety of the chapter's history thus far, with few calls for the role to be separated at all. The only real reason that they are not considered the same entity is that the Reclusiam possesses non-psyker Chaplains that naturally cannot occupy any Librarian roles.

Additionally each squad regardless of company has a role second to the sergeant, an Inscribed. An Inscribed Battle Brother acts much like a Chaplain does, serving as the spiritual guidance of the squad and the leader of prayers and rituals when a Chaplain is not present. They are denoted by featuring inscriptions covering their armor and carry a tome with all the personal scriptures of their squad written inside it. The Chaplains of the Script Heralds are exclusively promoted from the Inscribed as well, although given that the role is more spiritual in nature than rank-related any Battle Brother could become an Inscribed so long as their squad does not already possess one.

## Chapter Beliefs

The Heralds of the Script are fervent believers of the Imperial Cult and many of their rites and ceremonies are clearly influenced by the Ecclesiarchy's own such practices. They believe that the Emperor of Mankind and his divine sons, the Primarchs, are the ultimate and rightful leaders and rulers of Humanity and that they, as Adeptus Astartes, have a duty to further the divine will of their God Emperor.

Their service to the Imperium of Man, especially in such a turbulent time, is seen as nothing less than a blessing and an honor placed upon them. They are the sworn protectors of the Imperium and believe that defending the citizens and worlds of Humanity to be a holy task, with places of worship and members of the Adeptus Ministorum often receiving extra protection in order to safeguard what they perceive as the vessels of the God Emperor's divine will.

By far the most defining belief of the chapter is that of the Scriptures, often simply referred to as the Scripts. The Scripts are not one document but rather a collection of passages, verses, quotes, and readings from various sources that are believed to express the will of the Emperor in some manner. During their recruitment and initiation, a Battle-Brother is tasked with finding their own scripture and often source their verses and quotes from a range of shrines, temples, texts, holy sites, monuments, and even the Codex Astartes. These passages stand out to the Battle-Brother and are believed to do so because of the God Emperor's efforts to guide his servants to victory in their tasks. Sermons and prayers are often conducted on these gathered scriptures alone and many Heralds go so far as to tattoo their chosen scripts onto their skin or inscribe them onto their armor.

Another deviation from the typical Imperial Cult is in regards to psykers. The Script Heralds believe psychic potential to simply be another blessing from the Emperor of Mankind, although one that can be twisted or corrupted as any other, and is treated much the same as great skill with a blade or bolter. There are some Battle Brothers however that believe psykers to hear whispers of the Emperor's will, able to act as his messengers and his chosen servants. However this belief isn't common nor is it outwardly expressed by the few that do subscribe to it.

As followers of the Imperial Cult, the Script Heralds hold a particular hostility for the traitors and heretics to the Imperium. Regardless of whether they be a simple cult or a Chaos warband, all who turn from the Emperor's light are to be met with total destruction and erasure for their sacrilege. Xenos are viewed in much the same way, as perversions of the God Emperor's plan that exist only to spite and battle against Humanity. All enemies of the Imperium are to be exterminated in the eyes of the Script Heralds.

## Chapter Gene-Seed

The gene-seed of the Script Heralds is nominally pure and untainted, as is standard of those descended from Ultramarine genetic stock. However, there is one notable difference that makes the Heralds slightly more unique than their other successors in that regard, an unusual number of the Script Heralds are psykers.

While far from being the majority of the chapter, it is noted that a fairly large fraction of the Script Heralds' marines do possess some latent psychic potential in varying degrees. This has not impacted the structure or composition of the chapter to any noteworthy degree, aside from the Reclusiam and the Librarius being closely intertwined, but it is more common to have a marine with some psychic capability in a leadership position than in most other Ultramarine successor chapters.

An additional quirk of the Script Heralds that could be attributed to their gene-seed is their apparent zealotry and devout belief in the Imperial Cult, although this could easily be a result of their recruitment practices as well.

## Chapter Appearance

Almost all of the Script Heralds sport some form of black robe or cloth on their person. For the lowest of Battle-Brothers, this usually comes in the form of a half skirt draping down the back of their legs from their belt. Robes, tabards, and hoods are also seen as standard adornments for Battle Brothers of the chapter as well as inscriptions written in various places across their armor.

### Chapter Colors

The primary color of the chapter is white, with the shoulder pads and other small details such as their optics being red. Black accents and trim complete the standard color scheme of a Script Herald marine.

### Chapter Badge

The icon of the Heralds of the Script consists of a rolled-up scroll with a black binding in the center, with two white wings sprouting off from the binding all over a red background.

## Relations

### Allies

* **Ecclesiarchy and Adepta Sororitas:** The Heralds of the Script are often the first to come to the aid of the Imperial Cult's most zealous and fanatical followers. Requests from the Sisters of Battle and the Adeptus Ministorum are seen as the highest priority and are usually answered with all haste. Despite the wariness and suspicion that the Adeptus Ministorum and their Sororitas regard most Space Marines with, they cannot deny that the Heralds are reliable and faithful warriors of the God Emperor.

## Notable Quotes

### About the Heralds of the Script

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 Blood Angels Successors
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 Ultramarines Successors
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