Space Wolves - The Great Companies: Due to Leman Russ' defiance in the wake of the Horus Heresy, the structure of his Chapter owes more to his personality and Fenrisian culture than to the formal dictates of the Codex Astartes, which he essentially rejected, though never formally.The Space Wolves are divided into twelve Great Companies (a Great Company being closer in size to an entire normal Space Marine Chapter than the company of 100 Astartes that normally comprises a Chapter's constituent units), with a 13th Company named in honour of a large group of Space Wolves who disappeared during the Horus Heresy.This 13th Great Company came to represent all the Great Companies in the Space Wolves' history that had been destroyed, lost on campaign or had recanted their oath of loyalty to the Great Wolf. Each of these Great Companies are ruled over by a Wolf Lord (captain), a warrior-king who in turn is advised by a council of elders, just like the native tribes of Fenris.Each Great Company is a free-standing body of troops in almost all respects, occupying its own territory in the massive fortress-monastery of the Space Wolves that is built inside a huge mountain known as The Fang, possessing its own equipment, forges and spacecraft, and following its own customs, traditions, and heroes. Usually, a Great Company will make use of the tactics and strategies favoured by their respective Wolf Lord. No two Great Companies wage war in exactly the same way. While some tactics and methods are relatively universal amongst the sons of Russ, some are significantly different, such as the Great Companies of the Wolf Lords Engir Krakendoom and Erik Morkai, the Seawolves and the Sons of Morkai, respectively.Each Great Company also takes its name from its current Wolf Lord, and also adopts the mythological Fenrisian symbol the new Wolf Lord associates with. When a Wolf Lord dies, another is chosen to replace him from the slain leader's Wolf Guard, causing the Great Company to reinvent itself and change its name. Thus, unlike the companies in other Space Marine Chapters, the Great Companies of the Space Wolves do not have fixed heraldry, but change through the ages. During the dark days of the Horus Heresy, the Space Wolves Great Companies were known by their numeric designations in Fenrisian dialect -- "Onn" (One - First Company), "Twa" (Two - Second Company), "Tra" (Three- Third Company) and so forth -- but following the departure of the Wolf King the Chapter ceased with the use of numeric designations. Henceforth, a Great Company would take its name from its current Wolf Lord -- Bjorn Stormwolf's Great Company, for example, is also known as the Stormwolves. There is no fixed size for a Great Company, but each has its own headquarters, spacecraft, Armoury, forges and other facilities within the Chapter's massive citadel.In almost all respects, each Great Company is a separate, self-sufficient brotherhood of warriors, with its own ancient customs, traditions and renowned heroes. When a Wolf Lord is slain, a successor is elected by the old lord's retinue of Wolf Guard (honour guard), and the Great Company takes on his name and chosen mythological heraldry instead. When elevated to the rank of Wolf Lord, each new commander chooses a symbol from the ancient legends of Fenris as his emblem. This image is borne on the Great Company's banner and repeated on the armour of members of the company.It is not unheard of for a Wolf Lord to change his name to echo the symbol he has taken for his own; for instance, Egil Silverhand took the name Egil Iron Wolf when he chose the mythical beast that lies beneath the mountains as his totem. Though there have been thousands of Wolf Lords over the Space Wolves' long history, many have chosen to repeat sigils used by famous precursors. Amongst the most favoured emblems is that of Drekan the Thunderwolf, who in Fenrisian legend was defeated by Leman Russ. Currently, Bjorn Stormwolf's Great Company carries this device, though it will no doubt recur long after Bjorn has passed into legend.