vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Space Marines - Artificer Armour: Artificer Armour is the name given to individualised and heavily modified suits of power armour provided only to Space Marines who have proven themselves worthy of the honour, such as company captains, members of the Chapter Master's Honour Guard, or particularly skilled Veterans of the 1st Company or the various company Command Squads.Painstakingly cared for and customised for each esteemed bearer, Artificer Armour is the rarest form of power armour, even more so than Terminator Armour. The technology and superdense materials used to construct these suits is unparalleled inside the Imperium.Each one is a masterwork of Artificer ingenuity and (outside of Techmarines labouring towards their own) is awarded only to true Chapter heroes.Artificer Armour is always Master-Crafted. In addition to the effects of standard Astartes power armour, the advanced helmet incorporates a Mind Impulse Unit (MIU) similar to those used by the members of the Collegia Titanica to control their massive Titan war engines.Some suits incorporate even more unusual features, such as automated fibre re-weaving, eliminating the need for repair cement to seal most breaches in the armour after combat.Only countless hours of labour at the blazing Space Marine forges by a Chapter's Artificers or Techmarines gives rise to a suit of Artificer Armour.It is said that Artificer Armour can almost provide the equivalent protection as Terminator Armour. Artificer Armour cannot, however, make use of weapons as powerful as those available to Terminators.
Space Sharks - Space Sharks: Note: This article discusses material that was once considered canon but whose canonicity is now questionable.The Space Sharks is a Loyalist Chapter of Space Marines of an unknown Founding and origin which is the current guardian of the Endymion Cluster of worlds in the Maelstrom Zone of the Segmentum Ultima. The Endymion Cluster is the region once governed by the Mantis Warriors Chapter which the Space Sharks were granted following the Badab War as compensation for their losses. Before that conflict, the Space Sharks were a fleet-based Chapter.It is not entirely clear whether the Space Sharks are a separate Chapter or are the same group of Astartes as the recently returned Carcharodons Chapter that also took part in the Badab War. The fact that the Carcharodons referred to themselves as "Carcharodons Astra" or "Space Sharks" in High Gothic increasingly points towards both Chapters being one and the same.
Space Sharks - Chapter History: There is speculation that the Space Sharks was a Successor Chapter of the Raven Guard, although this would seem unlikely due to the Raven Guard's depleted numbers during the Second Founding following their losses in the Drop Site Massacre on Isstvan V at the start of the Horus Heresy.It is also believed by some that the Space Sharks may be a Successor Chapter of the White Scars because part of the scouting company of that Space Marine Legion got separated from the rest of the Legion during the Horus Heresy and that upon returning after the end of the Heresy they formed their own Space Marine Chapter specialising in the use of Scout Marines.
Space Sharks - Notable Campaigns: The Badab War (901-912.M41) - The Space Sharks were involved in the Badab War for a short period of time, fighting against the Renegade Space Marine Chapters of the Mantis Warriors and the Lamenters, both of them part of the alliance known as the Maelstrom Warders that had been led in rebellion against the Imperium by the Astral Claws Chapter. After the defeat of the Renegade Chapters, the Space Sharks, formerly a fleet-based Chapter, were given the home region of the Mantis Warriors, the Endymion Cluster, as recompense for their losses. In the war, the Space Sharks used their longstanding tactic of Drop Pod assaults in their attacks on the hive cities of Badab. The large number of the Space Sharks' Dreadnoughts, and their full reserve of Terminator Armour, were used to assist the Star Phantoms' sieges of the Secessionist Chapters' homeworlds. The Space Sharks still to this day carry a long-standing grudge and distrust of the Mantis Warriors and the Lamenters, even though both Chapters returned to the Loyalist fold after receiving the Emperor's forgiveness and agreeing to undertake a penitential Crusade for 100 standard years, during which time they could not recruit new Neophytes to replace their losses.
Space Sharks - Chapter Combat Doctrine: The Space Sharks favour Drop Pod assaults when attacking their opponents. The Chapter possesses a large number of Dreadnoughts, and an unusually large number of suits of Terminator Armour that they use to good effect in battle. The Space Sharks also possess an unusually large number of Scout Marines which they use for reconnaissance and battlefield preparation missions before the Drop Pod assaults begin.
Space Sharks - Chapter Colours: The Space Sharks wear grey power armour with a red helm stripe. The Space Sharks also use a camouflage variant which is all yellow with black markings. The left shoulder plate is painted brown.
Space Sharks - Chapter Badge: The Space Sharks' Chapter badge is a black shark, viewed from the front, with its mouth gaping.
Space Sharks - Canon Conflict: In the original iteration of the Badab War which appeared in the Warhammer 40,000 Compendium, the Space Sharks Chapter took part in the Badab War fighting on the side of the Loyalists against the Secessionist Chapters. During this conflict, the Space Sharks used their longstanding tactic of Drop Pod assaults in their attacks on the hive cities of Badab Primaris. The Space Sharks' large number of Dreadnoughts and their full reserve of Terminator Armour were used to help the Star Phantoms' sieges of the rebellious Chapters. After the defeat of Lufgt Huron's rebellion, the Space Sharks were given the homeworld of the rebellious Mantis Warriors.In the Badab War's newest iteration released in Forge World's Imperial Armour Volumes Nine & Ten - The Badab War - Part One and Part Two, the name of the Space Sharks Chapter has been changed to the name Carcharodons or "Carcharodons Astra" in High Gothic. In the updated background information the Carcharodons is a suspected Successor Chapter of the Raven Guard. At the end of the conflict, it raids the Endymion Cluster, the home of the Mantis Warriors, and there, with the agreement of the Fire Hawks, they strikes at the Tranquility System, whose worlds were once the primary recruiting and training grounds for the Mantis Warriors. From these worlds the Carcharodons harvest an entire generation of recruits to renew their own losses, forcing those selected as Aspirants to fight to the death to prove their worth to join the ranks of the Carcharodons' Battle-Brothers. The Carcharodons' Chapter fleet then departs for the outer void once more.
Space Sharks - Sources: Warhammer 40,000: Compendium (1st Edition), "The Badab War" by Rick Priestley, pp. 33-35White Dwarf 101 (UK) "Index Astartes: The Badab Uprising" by Rick Priestley
Space Wolf (Novel) - Space Wolf (Novel): Space Wolf by William King is the first volume in the Space Wolf series of novels and is collected in The Space Wolf Omnibus.
Space Wolf (Novel) - Synopsis: In the grim future of Warhammer 40,000, the Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes are Humanity's last hope. On the planet Fenris, young Ragnar Blackmane is chosen to be inducted into the noble yet savage Space Wolves Chapter. But with his ancient primal instincts unleashed by the implanting of the sacred Canis Helix, Ragnar must learn to control the beast within and fight for the greater good of the wolf pack.
Space Wolves - Chapter History: Since the days of the VIth Legion's inception on Terra, the Space Wolves have remained a Space Marine Legion apart from its fellows, its origins shrouded as it garnered a fearsome reputation for its warriors' prowess as a shock-assault force as well as tireless pursuers and a peerless hunter-killer force. Unexpected violence was the Legion's calling card, its campaigns unsubtle, but brutally swift.Like their latter-day namesakes, the wolves of Old Earth, its warriors' assaults were calculated exercises in ferocity, aimed to tear and rend until the foe lay in ruins or was driven to its death. But it was with the restoration to the Legion of its primarch, Leman Russ, and its settling on the icy Death World of Fenris, one of the most perilous and strange of Mankind's ancient homes, that the VIth Legion's nature would find its apotheosis and the Space Wolves would truly be born.Under its master and gene-sire Leman Russ, the Space Wolves Legion would reave a bloody path across the stars of the Great Crusade, but never stray far in truth from the shadow of the Emperor. For, unlike their brother Legions, the Space Wolves were kept under the tight control of the Imperial Court and unleashed at the Emperor's command as often to chastise those who would renege on their oaths of service to the Imperium as to destroy those who resisted the offer of Imperial Compliance upon the dark frontier.This oft-served role as bloody-handed tool of punishment, coupled with the secret purposes to which the Legion had been used and the Space Wolves' rapidly increasing cultural idiosyncrasy, steadily drove a wedge between the VIth and the other Space Marine Legions as the solar decades of war ground on.So it was by the closing years of the Great Crusade and the ascension of the Warmaster Horus to his lofty rank that the Space Wolves in many ways stood a Legion isolated and apart. With some of their brethren they maintained ties of comradeship and respect, however distantly, but with others there simmered mutual acrimony and distrust, and others still considered them no more than leashed monsters, set loose only to kill when needed -- something less than Human and in truth perhaps even less than Astartes.Of such opinions or considerations the Space Wolves cared little; they knew well enough that they were not the builders of empire, nor were they the watchers on its walls, nor lock-step soldiers who cared for bright pageantry and meaningless contests for rank and perfection -- they were predators, thus they had been made, and woe betide any who fell into their jaws.
Space Wolves - The Primarchs: The Space Wolves are one of the greatest of the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, their name and honours known throughout the galaxy. As one of the original twenty Space Marine Legions, the Space Wolves were founded by the Emperor Himself over ten thousand standard years ago. The Legions were created to take part in the Great Crusade, the Emperor's reconquest of the galaxy that established the Imperium  of Man as it is today.Before the Great Crusade, Terra had endured thousands of years of isolation whilst impenetrable Warp Storms seethed and howled throughout the western part of the galaxy. This dark period of Human history was known as the Age of Strife. Even the Emperor was trapped upon Terra by the Warp's tumult, and could do little other than secure Humanity's birth planet and prepare His armies for the reconquest to come.Without the Emperor to guide them through this terrible age, the rest of the Human-settled worlds throughout the galaxy were left helpless against the predations of aliens and the dread creatures of the Warp. One by one, they fell into anarchy and despair. Humanity, it seemed, was doomed to eventual extinction.During Terra's isolation at the end of the 30th Millennium, the Emperor had striven to create twenty transhuman beings. These primarchs, as he called them, were genetically-engineered creatures, artificial humanoids with astounding abilities. Each was created differently and with his own unique skills, powers, and in some cases, incredible psychic potential. The primarchs were made to resemble Humanity, but many were far more mighty in appearance.Yet the Primarch Project never reached its intended conclusion. In a disastrous incident, the nascent creatures' incubation pods in the Emperor's gene-laboratories deep beneath the Himalazian (Himalayan) Mountains were swept up by terrible forces that dwelt within the Warp and scattered across the stars. Rather than trying to duplicate the long and arduous work through which he had created the primarchs, the Emperor instead used the raw material developed during the Primarch Project to create the Space Marines.After much toil, the Emperor and His team of highly-talented geneticists created a number of artificially-cultured organs, each re-engineered from the genomes of the primarchs. These organs were designed so that they could be implanted into the body of an ordinary adolescent Human male. Once implanted, the organs would take root and develop within the host's Human tissues, becoming an integrated part of his body.Many of these engineered organs were designed to interact with natural body tissues as they developed, enhancing muscle growth, stimulating mental processes, and transforming the recipient into a transhuman warrior. Compared to the primarchs whose incredible power they had partially inherited, the Space Marines were but pale shadows, but they still became the mightiest of men and the greatest of the Emperor's warriors.
Space Wolves - The Wolf-Child Comes to Fenris: The Primarch of the Space Wolves had landed upon the icy Death World of Fenris, his incubation pod plummeting down into the flank of a vast mountain. Given the harshness of the Fenrisian climate, it is safe to say that a lesser being would have died almost immediately upon his arrival. Emerging from his smoking capsule, the infant Primarch soon encountered a deadly mother Thunderwolf. He was doomed, yet fate, it seemed, had other ideas. Sensing in the feral youth a kindred spirit, the giant she-wolf did not kill the transhuman child, but instead raised him alongside her cubs as one of her own. The Imperium's records concerning the Space Wolves' heritage and Russ' origins owe much to the life's work of Gnauril the Elder, a contemporary of the ancient Fenrisian king Thengir. Gnauril's saga, The Ascension of the Wolf-King, tells of one fateful Helwinter, when the feral wolf-child was discovered by a hunting party of Fenrisian tribesmen. In a vicious confrontation, the wolf-mother was slain by their spears and arrows, along with many of her cubs. The Primarch fought with terrible fury, slaying a dozen warriors with naught but his bare hands to protect his two surviving packmates, Freki and Geri. It was then that fate intervened once more. One of the tribesmen at last recognised the Primarch for what he was -- human, not wolf -- and called for his fellow huntsmen to lower their weapons. The bloodied youth stood his ground, fangs bared, but understood their peaceful gesture and stayed his wrath. Unsure quite what to do, the tribesmen brought the young Primarch and his wolf-kin -- for he would not be parted from them -- before the court of King Thengir of the Russ tribe. The aging chieftain saw the undeniable potential in the young man and ordered that he be given a place within his household, there to be raised as a true Fenrisian -- as a warrior. Though many were left dumbfounded by the king's decision, time certainly proved Thengir wise.
Space Wolves - Learning To Be Human: Amongst his own kind for the first time, Leman quickly learned their skills, showing a natural aptitude for the way of the warrior. He learned to speak, and mastered their primitive weapons -- iron axes and swords. Though he was quick to roar with laughter or bellow tunelessly in song, the Primarch slowly realised that he was more human than wolf, but far superior to both. When Russ handed the Champion of the King's Guard his battle-axes during their third sparring session after disarming him, Thengir admitted to himself that the young man was destined for greatness. The Primarch soon spoke the Fenrisian dialect of Low Gothic with powerful eloquence, and one evening, King Thengir deemed him worthy to receive a true name. The King named the former wolf-child Leman of the Russ. As the Primarch grew to maturity, he became the greatest of their number by far, leading the tribe's warriors to a thousand victories and more. Upon King Thengir's death, Leman of the Russ took his place upon the throne of the Russ. So did the Wolf-King become a living legend across Fenris. It was only a matter of time before word of his fame reached the ears of one who desperately sought news of His lost sons.
Space Wolves - A Heroic Rise to Power: Much of what is known of Leman Russ' early years is born of hearsay and legend as his fame quickly spread throughout the tribes of Fenris. It was said that he was able to turn back whole armies of the King's enemies by himself without a scratch, to tear whole oak trees from the ground and snap them over his back in twain, and to wrestle Fenrisian Mammoths to the ground and roast one whole for his meal that evening. When King Thengir died, there was no question as to who should succeed him as the monarch of the Russ. Therefore, King Leman of the Russ took the throne. In time, his leadership was recognised by all the tribes of the frigid world, for all sought to benefit from his wisdom and extraordinary skill at arms on a world where the weak did not survive for very long.
Space Wolves - The Wolf King: Thus it came to pass that Russ was hailed as King of all Fenris, the Wolf-King, his judgment considered to be as strong as his sword-arm and his authority indisputable. No man nor beast could best the Wolf-King. No tribe could stand against his armies. Within Russ' kingdom a truce existed between man and wolf. His court was attended by the fiercest of warlords and the most beautiful of maidens. Tales of his mighty conquests spread like forest fires, and it was not long before the eyes of Terra turned upon his deeds. When the fleets of the Emperor's Great Crusade neared Fenris, they heard tales of Fenris' extraordinary Wolf-King. The legend of the Wolf-King was quickly identified as the work of a missing Primarch, and the Emperor descended to the planet. And so it was that the great, sky-spanning starships of the Emperor travelled to the center of the sea of stars, settling on the icy world of Fenris scant years after Russ' ascension to the throne he had forged by uniting all the fractious and feral tribes of his world.
Space Wolves - Of Jackals and Hounds: The VI Legion's reputation amongst the wider forces of the Great Crusade by its second Terran decade was by this point something of a mixed one. They had an unarguable track record of success and had won numerous battle honours, but accusations and stories of unneeded collateral damage and casualties among human civilian populations where they fought were widespread. It was said, long before the influence of Fenris and its culture on the Legion, that there was something of the bestial to the Legion's warriors, something readily apparent in the first foreshadowings of a mark of what was to become later known as the Canis Helix upon them, though insufficient time had yet passed for this to become so very pronounced. More than this, some had concerns that the VI were said to be an internally fractious Legion, ruled more by the strength of its officers than obedience to legitimate authority, and violence and factionalism within the ranks was said to be far too common. This was in an age where the Primarchs themselves, save Horus, had not yet been found to stamp their mark upon their Legion, but the likes of the VIII Legion was already gaining a reputation as the Emperor's agents of terror and fear, and the "unwonted savagery" of the VI was often spoken of alongside the future Night Lords in the symposia of the great and the good of the Great Crusade's hierarchy, with some even warning that the Legion should be closely monitored lest it become uncontrollable. But of all the accusations, perhaps the most cutting was that the VI Legion was never keener to the fight as when an enemy had already broke and fled before it -- when its victims were helpless.With this came an informal and insulting cognomen for the VI Legion of the "Rout"; a collective noun often used for carrion jackals and the mutated pariah dogs of Terra's dry seas that hounded and preyed upon refugee columns and wastelanders -- creatures brave only when their victims were half-dead or exhausted. Ironically enough, this insult may even have been meant to unfavourably compare the VI to the equally ferocious XII, already become known as the War Hounds, a Legion also renowned for the unbelievable violence of its mettle in battle, but which was at this time held up as an example of honourably controlled fury, its rage directed only at the direst foes and used to overcome the most overmatching odds. This comparison seems now as some macabre joke given the very different paths these Legions were to take and what future history had in store for them -- paths dictated in no small measure by the effect that the finding of their Primarch was to have upon them both. That change, and truly transformative it would prove to be, was not long in coming for the VI Legion.
Space Wolves - The Emperor and the Wolf King: Unlike the rediscovery of Horus -- the first Primarch returned to the Imperium -- in the case of Leman Russ, and indeed many of those Primarchs whose rediscovery came after, very few definite facts can be obtained, and with Russ, the matter is further shrouded by a fog of carefully and deliberately crafted allegory and myth. What can be said for certain is that Leman Russ was the second Primarch to make an appearance openly at the Emperor's side, doing so a handful of standard years before the rediscovery of Ferrus Manus on Medusa. Leman Russ had been found upon the Death World of Fenris, a planet itself shrouded in considerable mystery and legend, and like Medusa, known by name to some of the most ancient star charts of the Dark Age of Technology still extant. As the ancient Fenrisian sagas state, it was the Emperor Himself, disguised in a long, plain robe and cloaked in psychic runes of disguise and confusion who entered the long hall of Russ. Those few natives that were sharp-eyed and sober, as well as Russ' companion Fenrisian Wolves, shrunk from this new, powerful presence. Russ refused to pay him homage as the Master of Mankind. The Emperor had known well that proud Russ would never bow to His rule without being beaten in a contest. The Emperor was convinced of His own power, and knew that such a challenge would be as nothing to Him.
Space Wolves - The Three Challenges: The strange wanderer approached the gnarled wood of the Wolf Throne and its gargantuan occupant, and stood firm, staring hard at where Russ was presiding over the feast. It was then that the stranger offered His challenge. The nature of the contest was for the Wolf King to decide. If He won, the stranger asked for nothing but to be allowed to drink at the right hand of Russ during the feast. Russ demanded that should the wanderer fail, He would serve at the king's behest for a year. Grimly, the stranger accepted. Russ challenged the Emperor to a series of tests. The Wolf King did not wish to spoil a good feast; his first challenge was to an eating competition. The stranger ate well indeed, consuming many times more than the stoutest warriors present without pause. But when He looked up from His plate, Russ had already consumed three entire aurochs. The stranger had lost the first challenge. But the king was enjoying his sport. He realised that the brown-cloaked traveller had the spirit of a Fenrisian. And so he challenged the outlander to a drinking bout. But by the time the wanderer had reached His sixth barrel of strong Fenrisian mead, there was no more to drink. The Wolf King had drained the entire feast dry. Once again the Emperor had lost. The light of anger appeared in the wanderer's eye.Driven by disappointment in His offspring, the wanderer called Leman Russ a drunkard and a glutton, able to achieve nothing more in life than stuffing his face and bellowing hollow boasts. The Wolf King calmly laid down the consequences of his last challenge, and his court backed away as one. The court grew silent, daring not even to breathe as Russ drew his great sword from its scabbard and stepped onto the long banqueting table. For the third challenge Russ boasted he could defeat the Emperor in combat. The Emperor threw away His cloak, the hood falling from His face, His true form revealed. He stood far taller than any man present, swathed in light and clad in baroque golden Power Armour. This time, the Emperor defeated Russ, felling Him with a mighty blow from his Power Glove. When Leman came back to consciousness within the hour, he admitted defeat and with a bloodied smile and a broken fang, he swore fealty to his true father, the Emperor of Mankind.
Space Wolves - Great Crusade: Spiriting the great Wolf King away from Fenris, the Emperor began Russ' tutelage in the ways and technology of His star-spanning Imperium. The Primarch's teaching and training went swiftly; it was only a matter of solar weeks before the Emperor judged Russ worthy of leading His armies in the Great Crusade across the galaxy. Leman Russ was introduced to the warriors of the VI Legion of Space Marines who had been created through the implantation of gene-seed organs that had been grown from his own DNA. And so it came to be that Leman Russ became the father, progenitor and Lord of the newly named Space Wolves Legion of the Legiones Astartes and joined the glorious action of the Great Crusade. He was armed with a thrice-blessed suit of Power Armour and his greatsword was replaced with the legendary Frostblade Mjalnar, whose teeth were torn from the maw of the Great Kraken Gormenjarl and were then used in its forging. Reputably, the blade could cleave the ice mountains of Fenris in half.With Leman Russ went as many as several hundred Fenrisian warriors who had, despite their age, undergone and survived the implantation and gene-processing required to become Astartes, at least to the greater part. Many had died in the attempt, but far less than might have been expected, and this was for two reasons. The first was the stabilising effect of Leman Russ' own gene-helix pattern over the existing VI Legion gene-seed, which seems to have all but reversed the prior difficulties of candidate survival. The second was that the Fenrisians themselves proved of extraordinarily resilient stock, a factor attributed to long-term human survival on Fenris in general, and that world's own many mysteries. These men were to be Leman Russ' first "Varagyr," rendered sometimes as "Varangii" in Imperial records, or more literally "Wolf Guard." They were Russ' oath-bound warriors, sworn to him even if it meant denying the jaws of death to be at his side, and whose loyalty had seen them leave their world of ice and blood and ascend uncomprehendingly but undaunted to the stars in their lord's footsteps. These Varagyr were valued by their king for this loyalty over the might of the transhuman Astartes of the VI he was given to command, despite their vaunted strength and savage reputation, for they had not yet proven themselves as warriors or earned his respect. This lesson was the first Leman Russ was to teach the VI and an early sign that under the Wolf King's rule, his Legion would be very different to any other.
Space Wolves - The Wolves that Stalk the Stars: Records which remain about the transition of command in the VI Legion indicate that things went generally smoothly, at least at first. That their Primarch had been the second recovered was a matter both of rejoicing and some pride within the ranks of the Legion, and that their new lord was of barbaric mien was perhaps of less consternation to them given many of the individual Astartes' origins than it otherwise might have.Russ also was charismatic and readily inspired awe among those he had been given to command, and in a Legion which already respected strength over perhaps anything else, here was a warrior whose strength exceeded any of them by a degree as to seem almost absurd in comparison. Rathvin relinquished command to his Primarch perhaps grudgingly but without open challenge, and if the presence of the Varagyr, who Leman Russ had ordered dispersed partly through the ranks, was cause for some resentment, it was quickly made known that both Russ' rule was not to be questioned, and that the Varagyr were more than willing to offer themselves in single combat to decide any argument over the matter. Before any acrimony could fester, Leman Russ in his wisdom determined to take his Legion into battle so that he, his kinsmen and his gene-sons would spill blood and face death together and so be forged anew as one.
Space Wolves - Compliance of Molech: The Space Wolves also took part in the massive Imperial Compliance campaign on the newly discovered Knight World of Molech, which was led by the Emperor Himself, and included multiple Legiones Astartes, including the Luna Wolves, Dark Angels and the White Scars, as well as thousands of troops of the Imperialis Auxilia and assets from the Mechanicum and Legio Titanicus. After achieving victory, Cyprian Devine of House Devine was named Planetary Governor of Molech. In the presence of several of His Primarch sons, the Emperor led them to a Warp portal hidden underground, where He proceeded to enter into the Realm of Chaos to parley with the Ruinous Powers. When He finally returned, the Emperor appeared aged, but much more powerful. He then suppressed His sons' memories of Molech and stationed a large garrison force comprised of nearly 100 Imperialis Auxilia regiments, three Legio Titanicus cohorts, and detachments from two Space Marine Legions to protect the secrets of the Warp portal on Molech.
Space Wolves - The Wolf & The Lion: As the Space Marine Legions pushed back the frontiers of the Imperium, each Primarch strove to excel in the eyes of the Emperor and none more so than Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves. Only Horus Lupercal of the Luna Wolves and Lion El'Jonson of the Dark Angels could claim more victories than Russ and this was a constant frustration for him. It was on the world of Dulan where the Space Wolves were fighting alongside the Dark Angels that matters came to a head. During the pacification war to bring Dulan into Imperial Compliance, the Dark Angels Legion aided the Space Wolves, and the leader of this particular planet insulted Leman Russ' honour. As such, Russ wanted to defeat the leader personally for the insult. The Dark Angels and Space Wolves, both led by their respective Primarchs, assaulted the tower where the leader was located. Leman Russ burst into the throne room just in time to see the Dark Angels' Primarch, Lion El'Jonson, beheading the world's leader with his mighty blade. Angry that the honour was not his, Leman Russ marched up to the Lion and punched him in the jaw. This led to a battle that lasted for a day or more, until finally Russ saw how immature their squabble was and started laughing. Lion El'Jonson took this action to be a direct insult to him because he mistakenly believed that Russ was mocking him with laughter and so he punched Leman Russ once more and knocked his brother Primarch into unconsciousness before leaving the planet in a dark mood with his Legion. This fight led to a bitter feud between the Legions (and the subsequent Chapters), which lasts to this day. Although recent events may finally have led to an end to the rivalry, it is still customary for selected champions from both Chapters to engage in a (usually) non-lethal duel whenever they meet in remembrance of this ancient feud.
Space Wolves - Night of the Wolf: As the Great Crusade wore on there were the number of those in the Imperial military who whispered that Angron was mad and his World Eaters Legion had followed with him into madness were increasing. These whispers became openly voiced as widespread discontent and demands for censure when stories began to circulate that Angron had ordered his Apochecarion to conduct widespread psycho-surgery, and implantation of the so-called Butcher's Nails cranial implants, after the infamous Ghenna Massacre came to light. This action, undertaken at Angron's instigation, resulted in the entire planetary population that had rebelled against its installed Imperial Commander being wiped out in a single night of extraordinary bloodshed. After Ghenna, the Emperor quickly moved to act and called Angron before Him for reprimand. He sent Leman Russ and his Space Wolves to Ghenna, to submit before them, and be brought back (in chains if need be) to Terra for judgement and sensor. Russ warned Angron that the Emperor had ordered the end of such prohibited surgery in the Legion. Though the Wolf King tried to talk sense into his blood-maddened brother, Angron refused to listen to reason. Eventually, with tensions rising on both sides, an inevitable confrontation took place. No one is exactly sure who started the melee, but Russ wisely chose to order his Legion to withdraw, as both Legions faced mutual annihilation if they continued their course. The World Eaters were later issued with orders to depart to the northern fringes of known space, there to harry and reave against xenos far from the Imperium's core worlds. This lamentable confrontation came to be referred to as the "Night of the Wolf".
Space Wolves - Aghoru Compliance: The Aghoru Campaign was an Imperial Compliance action carried out by the then-loyal Thousand Sons and a small contingent of the Space Wolves Legion in the waning years of the Great Crusade. The Imperial Compliance of the world of Aghoru (officially codified in Imperial records as 28-16) was an action carried out by units of the Thousand Sons Legion that was achieved through diplomacy and was considered a success. Interestingly, the human population possessed ancient legends of a race of elder beings known as the "Elohim" (which might be analogous to the Eldar). According to their mythology, a perverted and corrupt daemonic force, known as the "Daiesthai", who had succumbed to the corruption of the Elohim's self-obsession, and hedonistic excesses, were imprisoned within the massive, artificially constructed peak, designated by the Thousand Sons as "The Mountain". The Thousand Sons Primarch Magnus was enthralled by the planet's mountain and the tomb of the dormant Daiesthai. Upon further investigation within the artificial mountain, Magnus discovered that it was some kind of gateway with a web-like network of conceptual conduits, containing billions of pathways between worlds. Unfortunately, Aghoru's link to the network had become corrupted by the warp and was ultimately sealed. Yet somehow, these daemonic forces were inadvertently released from their imprisonment and took over the massive Revenant Titan guardians that stood sentinel over "The Mountain", and began to attack Magnus and his Thousand Sons. These daemons were only defeated by the combined efforts of the Crimson King, his Thousand Sons and a contingent of the Space Wolves 5th Great Company, led by Jarl Amlodhi Skarssen Skarssensson, who had recently arrived to from the campaign in the Ark Reach Cluster. The Primarch had initially bristled at the Jarl's cursory and demanding manner that was typical of the VI Legion, and thus, had held off in giving the deputation a timely reply. After the conclusion of the battle, the Crimson King appreciated his cousin Legion's efforts, and deigned to give the Jarl his assent. Magnus then gathered his Legion and made all due haste towards the Ark Reach Cluster.
Space Wolves - The Wolves In Shadow: By the second century of the Great Crusade, the Space Wolves were truly a Legion apart from their brethren. Their Expeditionary Fleets and taskforces went where they willed, fought where they willed, and undertook such requests for aid as their master and his warlords saw fit, and most often they fought alone. The high commanders and Lords Solar of the Imperium knew better than to try to bring them to obey their orders, for it was widely known that the Legion heeded only one commander, Leman Russ, and Leman Russ only acknowledged one overlord: the Emperor Himself.In this loyalty the Legion was adamant and unshakable, and they cared little or nothing for the good opinion of any other, be they Primarch or provincial governor. Of their brother Legions, they maintained something of a particular comradery and rivalry in equal measure with the Dark Angels, with whom they had shared dark passages of history, but for the others they seemed to have held a distant respect at most, barely disguised indifference for others and at least in the case of the Thousand Sons, outright scorn.The Legion maintained no domains save Fenris, and needed none. It had long since been all but self-sufficient save in the production of the greater patterns of warships and the introduction of newly-minted war engines and weapons intended for the Legiones Astartes, which it acquired directly from Terra or from the forge-shipyards of Ryza or Lucius in infrequent batches.Approach to Fenris was forbidden without invitation, save for the emissaries of the Throne World, even to brother Astartes, and the Legion had become profoundly strange and inscrutable to outside observers. In short, many outsiders looked upon the Space Wolves and were afraid, but did not know that this very fear was deliberately crafted for them to feel.They saw barbarity, but did not understand that such barbarity was deliberately honed and tempered to a killing edge by keen minds. So it was that allies and enemies alike saw what the Space Wolves wished them to see, and many underestimated the VI Legion and the weapon it had become in the Emperor's hand.
Space Wolves - Silent History: The post-Rangdan pogroms had been far from the only "secret" war the Space Wolves had undertaken at the Emperor's command. In the solar decades in which they had made war in the Imperium's shadows as well as in the glare of the fires of the frontline of the Great Crusade, it is recorded of them on the black basalt memento-mori on Baal and nowhere else that side-by-side with the Blood Angels they had exterminated a fourth stage Enslaver outbreak on Poseidonis Secundus, marking one of only three occasions in the entire Great Crusade that an Enslaver outbreak of that intensity had been defeated without resort to Exterminatus.Known to few but the Wolf King and his Emperor, the VI Legion faced and bested many threats both nightmarish and arcane, from the godlike power of the psyker-kings of Vhallach to the insidious menace of the Lacremara infestation of Morox. These victories and unknown others, conflicts so terrible they are recorded only as battle honours on the Great Bell of Terra, remain occluded -- all data regarding them sealed or purged from human memory.It is the case that many of the Space Wolves' victories of the latter years of the Great Crusade -- even those that were not sealed under order of high authority -- were neither widely lauded nor eulogised by the Remembrancers and Iterators of the Imperium with which the Legion held little truck. Indeed, in scorn of such men they freely lied and mocked, and played the barbarian as expected.For where the Wolves stalked, they often stalked alone. For their true histories were theirs alone, preserved in webs of saga and myth where the facts and direct memories had been purged from the mind by psycho-memetic obliteration to preserve the sanity of the warrior from the things they had seen and done, and to remove from them knowledge they were not meant to have. The secrets the Space Wolves had been charged to keep by their Allfather and their Wolf King they would keep to their grave, and beyond if needs be.
Space Wolves - Horus Heresy: Just prior to the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the Space Wolves came into conflict with one of their brother Space Marine Legions once again. The Primarch of the Thousand Sons Space Marines, Magnus the Red, had ignored the Imperial proscription against the use of psychic sorcery that had been decided by the Emperor and the other Primarchs at the Council of Nikaea during the Great Crusade so that he could warn the Emperor in astral form that Horus had turned to Chaos. Magnus' psychic intrusion into the Imperial Palace on Terra had disrupted the Emperor's secret Imperial Webway Project and killed thousands of workers, Adepts and Servitors. To make matters worse, the Emperor refused to believe that his favoured son Horus had betrayed him and instead he believed that it was Magnus who had been corrupted by Chaos because of his continued use of sorcery. Leman Russ and the Space Wolves were then ordered by the Emperor to bring Magnus before him on Terra to account for his actions.
Space Wolves - Fall of Prospero: However, the treacherous Warmaster Horus had other plans in mind. Ignorant of the changes in his brother Primarch since his corruption by the Chaos Gods, Russ was convinced by Horus' silver tongue to launch an all-out planetary assault on the seditious Thousand Sons rather than attempt to negotiate with them or bring their Primarch Magnus the Red back to Terra peacefully.Horus claimed that the Emperor wanted to punish Magnus, who had already shown himself disloyal by using the psychic sorcery that Horus knew Leman Russ found dishonourable in the extreme and had been absolutely forbidden by the edicts of the Council of Nikaea.The surprise assault upon the Thousand Sons' homeworld of Prospero was ferocious and brutally successful; however, many of the Thousand Sons, including Magnus himself, eventually gave themselves over to the Chaos God Tzeentch in order to save themselves and their precious collected arcane knowledge about the Warp and psychic power on Prospero from being destroyed by the Imperium.After agreeing to give themselves over to the Changer of Ways, the Thousand Sons escaped through his assistance into the Warp rift called the Eye of Terror and found a new home on the Daemon World known as the Planet of the Sorcerers.As a result of the Fall of Prospero, the two Legions came to bear a deep, abiding and eternal grudge against one another. This grudge is still very deep between the Space Wolves and the surviving Astartes of the Thousand Sons, who are now the Chaos Space Marines Traitor Legion dedicated solely to the service of Tzeentch.
Space Wolves - Siege of Terra: During the final epic battle of the Heresy, the Space Wolves were still far away from the throneworld during the Siege of Terra. Knowledge of the imminent arrival of two Loyalist Legions, which included the Space Wolves, would inevitably tip the balance in favour of the Loyalists.This pushed Horus at the climax of the siege into lowering his flagship's Void Shields and allowing the Emperor to personally teleport aboard the Vengeful Spirit in orbit over Terra in a desperate gamble to bring the terrible civil war to a swift conclusion.The two Legions arrived just after the battle concluded, with the Warmaster and the Blood Angels' Primarch Sanguinius (killed at the hands of Horus), already dead. The Emperor Himself had been mortally wounded and was later interred within the arcane life support mechanisms of the Golden Throne by Rogal Dorn.
Space Wolves - Post-Heresy: The Emperor's body had breathed its last breath after the Sirge of Terra, and His spirit achieved apotheosis and ascended into the Warp as the new God of Mankind after being interred within the Golden Throne. Leman Russ was devastated by his inability to save the Emperor during the final battle of the Horus Heresy aboard the Warmaster Horus' flagship.Following the conclusion of the Horus Heresy, the Imperium set out to quell the Chaos uprisings against the Emperor's authority that still burned throughout the galaxy and restore order to itself. As word spread of the Warmaster's defeat throughout the Imperium, widespread fighting renewed. Revitalised by the news of the death of Horus and the routing of his Traitor Legions, the Loyalists fell upon the Traitors with a vengeance.The Great Scouring had begun, as Imperial forces bled the Traitors dry as they desperately turned on all within their reach in a final despairing orgy of destruction. The Space Wolves Legion spearheaded the Scouring, continuing to wage war on the Traitors for another seven standard years before the last rebel formations were destroyed or exiled to the isolated Warp rift known as the Eye of Terror.
Space Wolves - Echoes In Time: The great contest of souls between Chaos and Order has come to a crux point at the close of the 41st Millennium. Nowhere is it harder fought than in the Fenris System,  called home by the Thousand Sons' eternal enemies -- the Space Wolves, warrior scions of the Primarch Leman Russ. Closer and closer drew the hand of doom, moving ever nearer towards blackest midnight. In a galaxy already tearing itself apart with wars uncounted, a new disaster loomed. This latest string of calamities did not happen by chance, but by design. A series of complex machinations beyond the ken of mortal minds had begun with the return of the long-lost Space Wolves 13th Company. As Warp Storms spread ruination and corruption across the galaxy, the forces of the Imperium were beguiled. False evidence and heinous illusion eroded trust or inflamed ancient rivalries. Soon Space Marines pitted their might against their own brothers. So Tzeentch has ever fought, spreading lies and sowing doubt so that even steadfast allies might eye one another warily. Just as in the darkest days of the Imperium, the forces of Humanity were divided by their greatest foe. As the Warp Storms worsened, daemonic warhosts spilled forth into reality.
Space Wolves - Return of the Wulfen: This mass invasion could not have come at a worse time for the Sons of Russ. Accusations of deviancy had lately sprang up around the Space Wolves' exploits, and not without cause. The omens spoke true, and millennia-old legends had been proven sound. In a dozen war zones across the galaxy, the lost brothers known as the Wulfen had returned. The Great Companies took to the Sea of Stars once more, searching the galaxy for signs of their mutated kin. Many Packs were found, embattled against the daemonic hordes of the Chaos Gods, and many victories were won. Those Space Wolves touched by the outward signs of the Canis Helix had always been long of tooth and sharp of claw, but the Wulfen took this atavism to extreme levels. In appearance they were as much lupine beast as they were Space Marine. Still, they bore the heraldic markings of the Chapter, and some spoke in the tongue of Asaheim. Though many had misgivings -- Wolf Lord Harald Deathwolf amongst them -- the Wulfen were marshalled and brought to Fenris.In battle after battle the Wulfen fought alongside the Space Wolves against the daemonic incursion. They proved sound of mind in later parleys with the Wolf Lords, and when brought back to the fortress of The Fang, they were re-equipped and inducted into the Chapter's ranks. Ulrik the Slayer, trusted Wolf Priest and mentor of the High King Logan Grimnar, welcomed the Wulfen as heralds of their long-disappeared primogenitor, Leman Russ. The priest maintained that the Wolftime was upon them, and that the Primarch would soon return. Yet still there were those Wolf Lords who harboured suspicions about the Wulfen. Worse, there were those outside of the Chapter that had been manipulated into seeing the Wulfen as dangerous creatures of Chaos. The coming storm grew thunderous indeed.Deceived by Tzeentchian wiles and the damning evidence of mutation amongst the Space Wolves' ranks, it was the Dark Angels Chapter that watched their fellow Adeptus Astartes closest of all. The Dark Angels were no strangers to subterfuge, for they had long been haunted by their own dark past, but the rivalry between their Chapter and the Space Wolves was so ingrained over the millennia that none spoke in their defence. When the Dark Angels investigated a Space Wolves attack upon the world of Nurades, they intended to rendezvous with the garrison of Scouts they had left to watch over an artefact from their Chapter's history. The young warriors had been slain to a man. Further inspection appeared to betray the identity of the killers -- not the creatures of the Warp, but those same Wulfen the Space Wolves had taken into their own fold. The implications were disturbing indeed.Upon Tranquilitus, the Dark Angels and the Space Wolves fought against the daemon hordes. They did so not as brothers, but as rivals, for their Primarchs had clashed long ago, and the uneasy respect that had grown between the Chapters skirted the brink of scorn. They were Astartes first and foremost, however, and against Chaos the two brotherhoods stood united -- for now, at least.