Legio Tempestus - Legion Strength: The Legio Tempestus was originally recorded as being a Secundus-grade Titan Legion.The Principia Glorianus Episloidae records that the Legio Tempestus accompanying the 12th Expeditionary Fleet was possessed of around 170 god-engines at the height of the victory over the Orks of the Epsiloid Binary Cluster, with at least 30 Titans lost by the end of those wars.When the Legion divided, perhaps a score of Battle Titans, along with a dozen badly damaged god-engines injured past use or repair, are believed to have returned to Mars with the Stormlord to form the core of the Legio Tempestus there -- this force being perhaps doubled in strength by the outbreak of the Horus Heresy.Of these Titans, almost all were lost in the opening battles of the Schism of Mars and the destruction of Magma City, along with the bulk of the bonded Knight House Taranis that fought alongside them.Elsewhere, the demi-Legion under the Traitor Maximus Karania was able to field between 80-120 Titans of various classes over time, most of them of the Warlord, Reaver and Jackal Pattern Warhound classes, with the forges of Esteban III able to produce new Warlord-class Titans for Karania's forces in limited numbers.The Legio had once counted a number of Nightgaunt, Maines and Carnivore-class Titans amongst its god-engines during the Great Crusade, as well as at least one mighty Nemesis-class Titan, but most of these older patterns were believed destroyed on Mars.The latter god-engine is not known to have taken part in the battles of the age and may be ranked amongst those of the Order's forces still unaccounted for beyond the Imperium's ravaged borders.The body of the Legio Tempestus on Mars was able to call upon three Skitarii Auxilia Legions, one of which comprised entirely armoured cohorts, all in the Martian pattern panoply of war and counted among the most respected of their kind, while its expeditionary cadre relied on allied forces primarily for infantry support, enhanced on occasion by Taghmata forces from the world of Estaban III.In terms of allied Knight households, the Martian Loyalists of the Legio could count upon the resolute allegiance of the powerful House Taranis, whereas Karania's force replaced this with a host of itinerant, masterless Free blade Knights who fought alongside them, first on the dark frontiers of the Great Crusade, and then later under the banner of the Eye of Horus.As the Horus Heresy unfolded and the Legio Tempestus joined the massed hosts of the Traitors, still more elements were drawn to their banner. Freeblade Knights from a score of Houses and more swore service to the Tempestus, most obscuring their erstwhile colours in favour of darker heraldry.Later, an entire house of outcast Knights, fleeing the wrath of their staunchly Imperial liege, bent knee to the Traitor Stormlords. These demonstrated the extent of their allegiance by incorporating the heraldry of the Legion and submitting themselves to their new chain of command.This process is believed to have been begun in the aftermath of the assault on Hive Ilium at Manachea, where several of the Stormlords Titans were laid low by the Loyalists of House Vyronii, revealing a vulnerability to such war machines which they strived to counter by acquiring allied Knights of their own.Such Knights, whether bearing the personal heraldry of a Freeblade or the fractured blue and argent of the Legio Tempestus, would serve in future battles as a skirmish line when the Tempestus took to war, particularly where the war zones involved encapsulated shattered cityscapes where their God-engines proved vulnerable to ambush.In a desire to supplement his forces and hold proof of the Stormlords' ancient lineage, Karania commissioned the Tech-priests of Estaban III to complete several projects, giving them information previously denied to the Forge World in exchange. This flurry of activity saw the hurried creation of the Warmaster Iconoclast-class Titan Ceraunthanato or "The Deadly Storm" which was amongst the Traitor Legio Tempestus god-engines that lay siege to Terra.