Fellblade - History: In the distant past of the Imperium, when the Legiones Astartes went to war in formations of many thousands, they did so accompanied by some of the mightiest engines ever wrought. One of the greatest of those legendary machines was the Fellblade, a super-heavy tank the equal of any foe up to and including the Titans of the Mechanicum. It shares certain similarities with the Baneblades of the Imperial Guard, but its armour, systems and weapons are substantially more advanced. It is possible that the two machines share a common STC ancestor, but if so, the Fellblade has been lavished with the rarest of systems in the machine canon, reserved exclusively for the legendary Adeptus Astartes. The Fellblade is believed to have entered service within the Legiones Astartes in the closing decades of the Great Crusade, and as such it saw action with both sides in the calamitous galactic civil war that drew a close to that portentous age.Surviving archival fragments describe the mighty battles of that war, providing tantalising glimpses of an age of glory long since passed into history. It was an age when the Legiones Astartes fought in numbers the likes of which have not been seen in many centuries, and were supported in battle by massed formations of super-heavy tanks. When a Chapter was but a fraction of a Legion, thousands of Battle-Brothers deployed as one and as such had need of engines of war as mighty as the Fellblade. The tanks was able to spearhead such mighty assaults and advances, its fearsome weapons able to engage even the most potent of foes. What xenos-wrought machineries of death the Fellblade must have laid low with its deadly Accelerator Cannon must remain a lost memory, as must the battles it surely fought against the Traitor Legions and their vile allies during the dark days of the Horus Heresy.Ten thousand standard years after the Great Crusade, the Fellblade is all but unknown in the arsenals of the Adeptus Astartes. It is thought that many were lost in the inter-Legionary wars of the Horus Heresy and the subsequent Great Scouring, having borne the brunt of the fury of those terrible confrontations. Possessed of such rare and potent technologies, it was perhaps inevitable that the Fellblade should fall from use as the knowledge and spirit that contributed so much to the Great Crusade receded, to be replaced with ignorance and superstition. Maintaining the Fellblade's advanced systems became ever harder as time went on and repairing battle damage all but impossible. In addition, with the mighty Legions of old divided into Chapters the need for such a heavy vehicle faded, the Space Marines refocusing on shock assault and rapid strike tactics. Later on, key Forge Worlds responsible for the production of specific systems used by the Fellblade were lost, knowledge and expertise becoming ever more fragmented, a reflection of the fate of the Imperium itself.As the 41st Millennium draws to a close, none can say how many Fellblades remain in existence. It is likely that most are sealed within the stasis-locked arsenals of the most venerable of Chapters. Some may not even have seen action since the Scouring, having been locked away against some future need no other war machines in the Chapter's reserve can meet. Others may have been placed in stasis having been damaged beyond repair, the Techmarines hoping that some future generation might be able to tend the wounded machine where they cannot. Still more may be retired from service and placed within a Chapter's reliquary, a much venerated reminder of a long lost age of glory.Nevertheless, the Fellblade does still see service on the battlefields of the late 41st Millennium. Weapons locked away generations ago are increasingly being unleashed upon the numerous foes of Mankind. Fellblades that have not seen action since the Primarchs led their Legions in person now fight once more. Even a single Fellblade can turn the tide of the largest of battles and few foes can stand against such a noble engine of war. The appearances of such war machines is a sure sign of the desperate times facing the Imperium, for few indeed are the Techmarines still able to repair damage to their venerated system.