Fists Exemplar - Origins: Following the dark days of the Horus Heresy, Roboute Guilliman, primarch of the Ultramarines Legion and first lord commander of the Imperium and the new Imperial Regent, completed his magnum ops -- the Codex Astartes -- a great and sacred tome of military organisation, strategy and tactics for the reformed Adeptus Astartes. He also proposed that the existing organisation of the Legiones Astartes should be broken down into smaller, autonomous formations, known as Chapters based on the common unit of organisation of the same name among many of the Space Marine Legions. Never again would a single commander be trusted to wield the might of a full Space Marine Legion.While many of the other Loyalist primarchs welcomed the teachings of the Codex Astartes, Rogal Dorn initially refused to have his Legion sundered. Fortunately, the recalcitrant primarch received some sage advice from an unexpected quarter.Oriax Dantalion was a captain in the Imperial Fists Legion, a veteran of both the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, who took part in several notable campaigns, including the Siege of Terra. It was Captain Dantalion who wisely counseled Rogal Dorn on the need to accept such drastic measures. He was one of the few Astartes within the Imperial Fists Legion who agreed that the Legions should be broken down into the new Chapters. Dantalion's opposing viewpoint put him at odds with Dorn, who resisted any such notions.Unperturbed, Dantalion spoke at great length with his primarch over the necessity of Guilliman's decree. However, Dorn was not persuaded by his officer's arguments. The primarch was disappointed that one of his own gene-sons would even propose such an idea and became openly hostile to Dantalion for his views. But eventually, fearing the outbreak of another Imperial civil war, Rogal Dorn relented, and saw the wisdom of Guilliman's proposal. Thus, when the Second Founding began, Dorn remembered the early wisdom displayed by Dantalion. He rewarded the bold officer for his foresight by choosing him to become the first Chapter Master of the newly-created Fists Exemplar Chapter.This Chapter was initially composed of the more progressive Imperial Fists Astartes who had shared Dantalion's points of view. Dorn deemed the new Chapter Master and those that followed him as exemplars of a new order for the reforged Adeptus Astartes, and so the primarch named this new Chapter the Fists Exemplar.To aid the new Chapter Dorn gifted the Fists Exemplar with the mighty star fort Alcazar Astra, which had served the VII Legion well in the Volgotha Deeps during the dark days of the Horus Heresy. The Fists Exemplar were assigned to stand sentinel over the storm-wracked region of Wilderness Space afflicted by the rapidly appearing and disappearing Rubicante Flux, a Warp storm that plagued the Abra Sector near the borders of the Segmentum Solar and uncomfortably close to Terra.The Rubicante Flux was sporadic in its eruptions, visiting occasional space hulks, mutant incursions and Renegade Space Marine hosts on the surrounding star systems. The new fleet-based Chapter towed the star fort during their patrols of the sector for many standard years until disaster struck.When the intermittent Warp storm suddenly erupted once more, the Fists Exemplar were caught by surprise as they attempted to tow their star fort to a new location. Alcazar Astra was caught within the gravitational flux of a nearby star, which threatened to pull the star fort into its fiery embrace. Chapter Master Dantalion and his officers valiantly guided the massive, mobile star fort towards the nearby world of Eidolica, where they were forced to beach it upon the planet's surface. Grounded, the fort was forever without hope of feeling again the cold kiss of the void on its armour plating.Three of its four ancient engine-columns had been destroyed in the impact. The secrets of those Plasma Drives' construction had been lost to the weaponsmiths and Techmarines of the Chapter, and so the beached star fort became a planetary fortress-monastery. Tragically, Chapter Master Dantalion was killed in the crash. With their star fort eternally grounded, the Fists Exemplar adopted Eidolica as their Chapter homeworld.First Captain Alameda was chosen as Dantalion's successor and assumed the role as the new Chapter Master of the Fists Exemplar.The Chapter adapted well to its inhospitable new homeworld and continued to serve the Imperium well for a standard millennium, until the coming of the Ork warlord known as The Beast.