Donatos Aphael - History: In recent years, the star of Captain Aphael has been very much on the rise. Master of the Watch and commander of the Blood Angels' 2nd Company, Aphael has won himself countless commendations for victories against seemingly impossible odds.An exceptional battlefield commander and exemplar to his battle-brothers, Aphael's perfect features hide a tormented soul. All Blood Angels wrestle with the Red Thirst, their skill in battle and tempered aggression rightly interwoven with the genetic flaw that slumbers in their flesh.Before his Blooding, Aphael was on a path often dictated by the Red Thirst. In almost every battle the blood rage robbed him of his senses, sending him howling into his foes.Each time the captain had been able to claw himself back from the edge of madness, but each time the recovery grew harder. Perhaps this was why Aphael was placed in command of the 2nd Company, as Lord Commander Dante recognised a great leader in Donatos and was loath to lose him to the ravages of the Red Thirst.Fortunately, the Chapter Master's faith was well-founded, and in time Donatos would rise to the occasion, with the responsibility of leadership and the sacrosanct traditions of the Blooded to guide him. However, it remains a fine line between control and madness, one Aphael must face whenever he leads his brothers to battle.Under his leadership, The Blooded have known many great victories over the enemies of the Emperor, and in recent years Dante has come to favour the 2nd Company for those war zones of greatest importance to the Chapter. It was Aphael and The Blooded that were despatched when the mineral-rich Grimmok Sector was invaded by the expansionist armies of the T'au Empire.On worlds of ash and sand, the Blood Angels 2nd Company fought a war of attack and counterattack, striking the xenos in swift and bloody ambushes and withdrawing before the T'au could muster their full might.The alien commanders came to believe Aphael's force was much larger than the hundred Space Marines present in actuality, the smoking fields of dead Fire Warriors and gutted Devilfish left in their wake seemingly the work of a massive army of the Imperium.For five long solar months The Blooded blunted the advance of the Tau armies into the Grimmok Sector, ripping apart the xenos piece by piece until their leaders acknowledged that their losses were unsustainable and their countermeasures ineffective, and ultimately retreated before the might of the Blood Angels.Despite his strong, youthful appearance, Captain Aphael is a veteran of countless bloody campaigns and bitter wars. When Aphael and the Blooded fought alongside the Astral Knights against the Necron World Engine, the captain gained a new hatred for the ancient aliens. Victory came only when the Astral Knights sacrificed themselves to destroy the xenos space station, and Aphael was among those that would call for the creation of a monument to the fallen Chapter and their sacrifice.The battle-brothers present that day recall the cold rage in their captain's eyes as the shattered remains of the Astral Knights' Battle Barge were driven into the ash wastes of Safehold as a towering tombstone to the vanquished Chapter.Aphael is possessed of boundless strength, energy and dynamism. He values the life of every single servant of the Emperor, be they Space Marine, Adeptus Mechanicus cyborg, or unaugmented Human soldier, and will fight with everything he has to preserve and defend them.Aphael is charismatic in the extreme, from his angelic features and noble humility to his exceptional skills as an orator -- his words lift even the most desperate and defeated of warriors, filling their hearts with new courage and a determination to do the Emperor's will.It is Aphael's sheer force of personality, his optimism and hope as much as the words he speaks, that rouse his followers to new heights of heroism. More than one seemingly doomed fight has been won at the last by the impassioned rhetoric and heroic deeds of Captain Aphael.Aphael's skills in combat are every bit as great as his words. Aphael is a skilled swordsman and an excellent shot, but if his century and a half of battlefield experience has taught him anything, it is that personal heroics -- while grand and often crucial to victory -- cannot match the might of an army of exceptionally trained and equipped warriors acting as one.Aphael has drilled his Battle Company to perfection. The captain watches over every aspect of his Battle-Brothers' lives, ensuring that not only are they exceptionally well drilled for combat, but that their spiritual focus is absolute and their command theoreticals are of the highest standard.Every Space Marine Battle Company is a highly trained and elite force, but the Blooded stand out as exceptional even by these standards. Aphael claims with confidence that, should he and his lieutenants fall in battle, any given warrior from amongst his ranks could rise to take command of the company at a moment's notice.It is, furthermore, an undeniable fact that the 2nd Company suffers the fewest instances of both the Red Thirst and the Black Rage of any Blood Angels Company save the 1st.