Absolvers - Recovery and Reforging: In the wake of the Gilead Crusade, it fell to the Absolvers' second Chapter Master to lay a lasting foundation for the Chapter. Anthon Emascus, now recalled by the epithet "the Reforger," set about this task with the uncompromising single-mindedness that would come to characterise his battle-brothers. Emascus had joined the Chapter as an aspirant during their voyage to the Gilead System, but so long was the crusade that, by its final years, he was an experienced warrior honoured by his comrades and rightly feared by Heretics. During the crusade, he had witnessed both the very best and very worst of what the Absolvers might be, and was known even in those early days as an ardent dialectician. Under his leadership, recruitment efforts redoubled, and the gene-seed recovered from those who fell during the crusade was put to good use.Some whisper that Emascus hoped to find a population of aspirants that would prove resistant to the curse of his gene-sire, but if so, the effort would be counted among his few failures. In this time, the first signs of the Red Thirst were observed -- another flaw inherent to the genetic lineage of Sanguinius. This powerful drive to consume the blood of foes afflicts many Blood Angels and their successors among the Sanguinary Brotherhood, but usually only after solar decades of service. It emerged far earlier in the careers of the Astartes of the Absolvers, afflicting Veterans and newly elevated aspirants alike. Where others might have despaired or, like his predecessor Tygranas Dalir, searched for redemption in a string of near-pyrrhic victories, Emascus sought to dissect this problem as he did all others. He began by treating the issues of his Chapter as one of discipline and structure. He had felt the call of the Black Rage in his own heart, but had resisted -- could that capacity not be fostered in his own brothers? Looking for a source of proven stability, he turned first to the Codex Astartes.Though the Absolvers had largely adhered to the tenets of the Codex, under Emascus, the Chapter committed itself to it as strictly as any of Roboute Guilliman's own gene-sons. Those found engaging in the bloodletting of Chapter serfs or allied mortal soldiery of the Astra Militarum were heavily censured, and the worst excesses of the Chapter during the Gilead Crusade were radically curtailed. A blood tithe was instituted in the hive cities of Gilead Primus, ostensibly to fuel the training and rituals needed to replenish the Absolvers' ranks, and the Chapter's provisions were universally infused with this blood to dull the Red Thirst.Perhaps in memory of the tragedy at Yellem, and all those that followed, Emascus renewed focus upon the vow of Tygranas Dalir to the people of the Gilead System to always come to their defence, establishing a tradition that all Chapter Masters since have abided by. Here, he found his second source of stability for the Absolvers, and the culture of swearing vows became a core tenant of the Chapter. For the Absolvers, vows became a tool by which they tempered their own warrior soul and restrained the worst of their impulses. Though the Red Thirst could never be fully denied, it did appear to be somewhat mitigated, and a culture of swearing solemn vows was forever established amongst the Absolvers.Anthon the Reforger's decrees reshaped the Absolvers, but his tenure as Chapter Master was relatively short. He fell in battle with an Ork warboss almost a standard century to the day after he rose to lead the Chapter, and the Terminator Armour he wore remains a carefully guarded relic of the Absolvers to this day.Alongside Anthon Emascus, the Absolvers were also reforged by the initiatives undertaken by Chaplain Deikan, a powerful orator and bulwark against the encroaching despair that afflicted the Chapter as it came to terms with the events at Yellem where the Red Thirst and Black Rage had overwhelmed the Absolvers and led to terrible civilian casualties and the adjustments made by Chapter Master Anthon Emascus' decrees in response.Following the tragedy at Yellem, whispers of Chaos taint and corruption spread among the Absolvers, accompanied by rumours that the eyes of the Inquisition had fallen upon the fledgling Chapter. At a time when the Absolvers needed it most, Deikan acted as both its most ardent and vocal defender and its most captious judge. With determined will and iron fist, Deikan crushed the rumours and galvanised the rank-and-file of the Chapter. The Chaplain was the first to understand the potential for prophecy in the haunting visions of those who fell to the Flaw of Sanguinius called the Black Rage. He vowed to oversee these young wards vigilantly, prepared to eliminate any who spoke of visions that jeopardised the Chapter's future. This duty was a heavy burden, but this resolute and watchful Chaplain guided each new generation of the Absolvers through their challenging early years.Deikan oversaw the construction of a great vault, the site of which was to be kept secret by blood-bonded vow among those of the Chapter Reclusiam alone. Here those among the Absolvers plagued by unrelenting visions as a result of the Flaw, and the remaining evidence of the Chapter's transgression, would remain hidden from the wider Gilead System. Under Deikan's influence, the Chapter found renewed strength and the will to bear what burdens the Emperor wills upon it while continuing to serve the Imperium. The legacy of Deikan's dedication to this duty has become a cornerstone of the Chapter's legacy to this day, and each Chaplain to succeed him in the long millennia that followed has borne the burden of this dark duty with honour.