Blood Drinkers - Chapter History: The Blood Drinkers were founded in the time following the Horus Heresy. They were Successors of the Second Founding raised in the early 31st Millennium. This occurred before the grim truth concerning their progenitors' flawed gene-seed came to light. Like their fellow Successor Chapters, the Blood Drinkers are strongly bound to the Blood Angels, united by the blood of the Primarch Sanguinius that flows through their veins and ancient traditions that outsiders find difficult to understand.Being one of the Scions of Sanguinius their loyalty to the memory of their Primarch transcends all other duties and concerns. Being born of the Blood Angels' gene-seed, the Blood Drinkers too carry the terrible Flaw inherent in their gene-stock. But rather than denying their blood-lust, the Blood Drinkers have learned to embrace it, making it a central part of many of their rituals.By doing so, the Chapter seems to have achieved an unprecedented level of control over the Flaw. It remains to be seen whether or not this is but the first step on a long road to eventual damnation. Despite the unnatural craving for blood that echoes through their souls, the Blood Drinkers ever aspire to be better than their corrupted flesh, striving endlessly to be judged as equals with the other Chapters of legend.But a darker secret underpins this seeming control over the Flaw. In truth, by the 37th Millennium, the Blood Drinkers was a dying Chapter, brothers succumbing to the Black Rage as soon as they were fully initiated. The hero-saint Holos set out upon his journey, disobeying the will of the Chapter Council to fulfil his quest to find a cure. Holos experienced a dream, and after being secretly counseled by his Reclusiarch Shanadar, set out on a sacred journey to climb Mount Calicium, the mightiest volcanic peak on his Chapter's homeworld of San Guisiga.As the brave Battle-Brother climbed the nearly insurmountable peak, he battled Lo-tan, the lord of the astorgai -- vile xenos creatures that infested the mountain's crags. This foul creature was a great monster five times the size of his subjects. Four great heroes of the Chapter had set out to slay him, and all four had died, their wargear and lives lost in his lair.By the time Holos reached the summit his Power Armour had been broken by the violence visited upon him by the astorgai. So damaged was its Machine Spirit and actuator systems that it died and its weight soon became a burden. What armour Holos could free was thrown off. One of his arms hung uselessly at his side and his weapons were gone.But Holos' will remained. As the Astartes lay close to death upon Mount Calicium's peak, a winged, angelic figure appeared to him, reviving him at the point of death and giving him the secret that would enable the Blood Drinkers to keep the Thirst at bay, if they dared -- and Holos dared.Brother Holos returned solar weeks later to the fortress-monastery on San Guisiga, long after he had been given up for dead. Celebrations at the hero's return turned to uproar when he revealed what he had been told.What the winged figure proposed nearly tore the Chapter in two, but those were desperate days, a time when more and more Battle-Brothers were falling into the Black Rage with every passing standard year, and the Thirst tormented them endlessly. Every measure to alleviate it had been attempted, all without success.These two events are known in the Chapter's histories as "Holos' Return" and the "Blood Schism." Holos' solution, the rite and the way of being he brought back with him from the summit of the volcano, soon worked, putting an end to the demands of the Red Thirst and the madness of the Black Rage.The Blood Drinkers have since known an equilibrium that the other scions of Sanguinius could only pray for. The Rite of Holos is the Blood Drinkers' greatest secret and their greatest strength. Without it the Chapter would have descended into savagery and been lost. With it, the brothers remained stalwart defenders of the Imperium. There was, however, a terrible cost, which may yet damn the Chapter for all eternity.