vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Ultramar - Horus Heresy: Ultramar was a blade at the throat of the Warmaster Horus' rebellion against the Emperor. Left unopposed and given time to gather in strength, for the warriors of the XIIIth Legion and their oath-bound Imperial Army auxilia, Ultramar would form a bastion that could resist even the full might of Horus' dark hosts. Worse, with Ultramar intact and alerted to Horus' plans, any attempt by the Traitors to move against the core systems of the Imperium would see the forces of Roboute Guilliman sally forth to trap him between their defenders and their own vast numbers.Yet, if Horus could bring Ultramar to ruin and leave the warriors of the XIIIth Legion scattered or slain, there would have been no other Loyalist force capable of stopping the advance of his growing armies. That the Primarch Lorgar found the breaking of his brother's realm to his liking is undoubted; the XVIIth Legion had suffered a humiliating rebuke at the hands of the Ultramarines years before at Monarchia, an insult that had apparently festered within the Legion and driven them willingly into heresy. Indeed, it is commonly believed that the plan adopted by the Traitors for the destruction of Ultramar originated in the twisted mind of the Word Bearers primarch.
Ultramar - Sector-Wide Invasion: With almost half of the Ultramarines Legion killed or put out of action after the Battle of Calth, and interstellar communications and travel disrupted by Lorgar's conjured Ruinstorm, each Ultramarian planet was left to fend for itself. Some worlds were able to repel the invaders completely. On Astagar, a force led by Lucretius Corvo (later the founder of the Novamarines) managed to win the battle for the planet by destroying a Daemonically-possessed Warlord-class Titan belonging to the Word Bearers.On other worlds, the Ultramarines destroyed the planet rather than let the enemy possess them. This occurred on Percepton, where an outnumbered chapter of the Ultramarines Legion subjected the planet to phosphex orbital bombardment, burning away both defenders and invaders who were unlucky enough not to evacuate in time.
Ultramar - The Furious Abyss: The Word Bearers Dark Apostle Kor Phaeron would put his own plan in motion to strike at the heart of Ultramar and destroy its core worlds while Lorgar and the Primarch Angron's World Eaters Legion tore through its outer rim. His Abyss-class Battleship, the Furious Abyss, was unleashed to destroy Maccrage, the homeworld of the Ultramarines, while the bulk of the XIIIth Legion was stationed at Calth.This mighty vessel would then join a smaller fleet of Word Bearers vessels in laying waste to the remaining core worlds of Ultramar. Fortunately, a small strike force of Ultramarines and Space Wolves boarded the Furious Abyss and were able to destroy it from within at the cost of their own lives. Without the support of the Furious Abyss, the Word Bearers attack on Maccrage and the core worlds of Ultramar ultimately failed.
Ultramar - Battle of Nuceria: Lorgar and Angron's main force did manage to conquer or destroy over 100 planets, including the world of Armatura which had been the Ultramarines' training world during the Great Crusade. Accompanying this force were the two other Abyss-class Battleships in existence as well as the Word Bearers and World Eaters Gloriana-class flagships. This campaign came to its climax on the world of Nuceria, Angron's hated homeworld, which saw the final major battle of the so-called Shadow Crusade. Guilliman and his motley fleet of 40 escort and cruiser class warships, patched together with whatever he could muster after the Battle of Calth, threw itself at the combined spearhead of the Word Bearers and the World Eaters.Though the XIIIth Legion lost 12 of these vessels, they managed to destroy Lorgar's flagship, the Fidelitas Lex, by swarming it with their numerically superior fleet. The World Eater's flagship, by contrast, was subjected to an intense boarding action.On the surface of Nuceria, the Ultramarines were pushed back and forced to retreat under the unrelenting pressure of two Traitor Legions commanded by their primarchs. Although the XIIIth Legion ultimately withdrew from the battle, this marked the end of the Shadow Crusade. Lorgar considered the Ruinstorm to have been sufficiantly powered by the deaths of the Shadow Crusade and redirected his forces, along with those of the newborn Khornate Daemon Prince Angron, towards the ultimate invasion of Terra.
Ultramar - Auxiliary Invasions: Several of the other Traitor Legions invaded Ultramarian space during the Horus Heresy. The 25,000-Astartes-strong force of Night Lords that were one of the six splinter fleets escaping the Dark Angels following the Thramas Crusade attacked the world of Sotha. Due to the superb strategic defence put in place by the Loyalist Iron Warriors Warsmith Barabas Dantioch, the Imperial Fists Captain Alexis Polux, and the thousand-strong Ultramarines Aegida Company, this ended up being one of the most lopsided battles of the Horus Heresy.The invaders suffered near-total losses and were forced to retreat as they learned that Guilliman himself was leading a retribution fleet to Sotha. Though the victory was only made possible due to the tragic sacrifices of Warsmith Dantioch and the Aegida Company, its survivors would later go on to become the Scythes of the Emperor Chapter after the Heresy.In the outer reaches of Ultramar, the Death Guard would also launch probing attacks on the relatively undefended border worlds. Late in the conflict, the Salamanders strike cruiser Charybdis would find the corpse of another Abyss-class vessel in the extreme outer edges of Ultramarian space. It seemed to have been attacked by a large Ultramarines fleet and destroyed after it had been boarded and its Warp-Drive detonated by the intruders.
Ultramar - Aftermath: During the Horus Heresy, 120,000 Ultramarines died at the Battle of Calth. The losses for the mortal troops of the Ultramar Auxilia were even more devastating, with its units suffering 500,000 dead at Calth alone.
Ultramar - Reformation: The confusion and disorder following the Horus Heresy left the Imperium weak and vulnerable. Many worlds remained in the grip of Chaos. Into this breach stepped Roboute Guilliman and the Ultramarines. Always the largest of the Space Marine Legions, the Ultramarines found themselves divided and despatched all over the Imperium in a desperate effort to stem the tide of invasion and unrest that followed the Heresy. Guilliman and the Ultramarines successfully held the Imperium together during a time of great danger.Macragge was able to supply new recruits at such a rate that, before long, the Ultramarines alone accounted for more than half the total number of Space Marines in the galaxy, and few were the star systems where their heroism went unnoticed. Over the course of solar decades, order was eventually restored to the Imperium following the campaigns of the Great Scouring. Even as the Ultramarines restored order, a new theory of warfare was emerging. Under the guidance of the Ultramarines' primarch, the Codex Astartes, Guilliman's superbly written treatise on Astartes strategy, organisation and tactics, was taking shape. Its doctrines reshaped the future of the Space Marines and dictated the foundation for the Imperium's military strength and the ultimate survival of Mankind for the next 10,000 standard years.In the wake of the Heresy, believing that Space Marines should no longer rule directly over large swathes of Mankind, just as the Emperor had wanted, Guilliman during the early years of the Time of Rebirth allowed hundreds of worlds in the Realm of Ultramar to declare their autonomy, until only a small core of 11 planets remained officially a part of what had become an Imperial sub-sector.At some point during this time, the Tetrarchy of Ultramar was disbanded, and after Guilliman's mortal wounding by the Daemon Primarch Fulgrim during the Battle of Thessala in 121.M31 and interment in a stasis field within the Temple of Correction on Macragge, the Realm of Ultramar came under the rule of the current Chapter Master of the Ultramarines Chapter. Thus would things stand for the next 10,000 standard years until Guilliman's resurrection in ca. 999.M41 during the Ultramar Campaign after the Fall of Cadia in the 13th Black Crusade.
Ultramar - Plague Wars: After the birth of the Great Rift at the climax of the 13th Black Crusade fractured the Imperium of Man in half, Ultramar came under assault by the servants of the Plague God Nurgle, who had decided to add the whole of Ultramar to his Garden in the Realm of Chaos. Three star systems to the galactic north of Ultramar, the so-called Scourge Stars, were corrupted by the influence of Nurgle and its planets were transformed into staging grounds for the invasion of Guilliman's stellar empire.The worlds of Ultramar were attacked from within and without by Nurgle's forces, including an invasion led by the Daemon Primarch Mortarion and his Death Guard Traitor Legion and the Daemonic legions of Ku'gath, a Great Unclean One. These so-called "Plague Wars" lasted for over a solar decade, until following the official end of the first phase of the Indomitus Crusade at the Battle of Raukos in ca. 012.M42, Roboute Guilliman, now the ruling lord commander of the Imperium and Imperial Regent, finally arrived with reinforcements to aid his beleaguered home.
Ultramar - Invasion: Mortarion's already large invasion force, bolstered by mutants and Chaos Cultists from the Scourge Stars, was accompanied by Typhus and his Plague Fleet alongside a Great Unclean One named Ku'gath who led a host of 7 Greater Daemons of Nurgle called the "Plague Guard." Their strategy concentrated on taking and holding a few of Ultramar's major worlds such as Iax, Espandor and Konor. The Nurglites only launched smaller raids on the more minor worlds of the sub-sector, always withdrawing before any Ultramarines Astartes were deployed.The Espandor System was the first to come under siege. All the worlds in the system other than Espandor itself fell to the forces of Chaos; the Ultramarines bitterly contested Espandor Prime until they were later relieved. One of the Greater Daemons of the Plague Guard, Qaramas, led this attack, and his partial conquest of the Espandor System prepared the way for the rest of the Nurglish invasion fleet to surge into Ultramar.Iax was overrun by the Daemons of Nurgle led by Ku'gath as the bulk of the invasion force came to bear upon it. It had been converted into a so-called "Hospital World" earlier in the conflict to deal with the spread of Nurgle's pathogenic "gifts" across the sub-sector and was therefore susceptible to infiltration by the heralds of Nurgle despite its stringent quarantine measures. Iax would serve as the base of operations for the Nurglish conquest of Ultramar as Mortarion, the Death Guard and the rest of the Daemonic Plague Guard ultimately concentrated their forces there late in the conflict.Macragge suffered from bouts of Chaos-induced unrest as Mortarion led probing attacks on the Ultramarines homeworld. While this did not lead to any widespread destruction or damage to critical facilities, these incidents caused a drop in civilian morale and forced the Ultramarines Chapter Master Marneus Calgar to waste precious time and resources on peacekeeping missions and displays of force to shore up the morale and confidence of Maccrage's suffering civilians.The Death Guard Chaos Lord Typhus and his Plague Fleet overran and captured one of Ultramar's star forts. He was later directed by Mortarion to attack the Ultramarines' training world of Parmenio.Konor came under assault by the forces of the Death Guard, their objective to conquer the crucial star system and use it as a springboard for a final attack on Macragge itself.
Ultramar - Withdrawal: Roboute Guilliman next led a relief force to the benighted "Hospital World" of Iax. Having not discovered Mortarion leading his forces on either Parmenio or Espandor, the lord commander of the Imperium was determined to hunt down his traitorous brother once and for all.The climactic battle of the conflict took place on Iax, where Guilliman and Mortarion personally fought each other to a brutal stalemate amongst the ruins of the Hospital World. In the wake of this battle, as the Nurglish forces in Ultramar continued to lose ground on every front, Mortarion and the Death Guard were summoned back to the Scourge Stars, for Nurgle's outpost in realspace had come under assault from the forces of Khorne in what would become the War in the Rift, another campaign in the endless Great Game between the Ruinous Powers as they maneuvered for advantage against each other.The Death Guard withdrew from Iax under the cover of a Virus Bomb attack on the Imperial forces and Nurgle's remaining servants ultimately retreated from Ultramar, but the threat of a renewed attack from the Scourge Stars was now a persistent threat for the people of the Five Hundred Worlds.
Ultramar - Economy: After the Horus Heresy all 11 remaining inhabited worlds of Ultramar benefited from the Imperial reforms enacted by Roboute Guilliman during the Time of Rebirth and Ultramar's citizens remain disciplined, productive and loyal. As a result, Ultramar is a wealthy stellar empire within the larger Imperium that knows little unrest and no rebellion or heresy -- a somewhat unique distinction in the increasingly desperate days of the 41st Millennium. The population lives in sprawling cities, but these cities are surrounded by extensive farmlands and seas that teem with fish.Each of Ultramar's worlds are self-sufficient in raw materials and food. Trade between the planets is active, and each planet has its specialties and delicacies. Each world is balanced as a society and also as an ecosystem -- although composed of primarily Industrial Worlds, Ultramar has none of the nightmarish toxic wastelands that are common phenomena throughout the rest of theHuman-settled galaxy. It is therefore little wonder that many system governors and planetary lords across the Imperium regard Ultramar with an envious eye.
Ultramar - Defences: Even without the presence of the Ultramarines, Ultramar was one of the most heavily defended sectors in the Imperium of the 41st Millennium. Each world is protected by a nigh-impenetrable network of orbital defences and battle stations. The Ultramar Defence Fleet stands ever-vigilant against pirate raids and enemy invasion while every world raises its own regiments of mortal troops for its planetary defence force known as the Ultramar Auxilia, who are easily the equivalent of almost any Astra Militarum regiment in terms of the quality of their training and wargear. Meanwhile no fewer than six massive star fortresses -- with Galatan being the largest -- stand sentinel over shipping lanes and critical strategic positions, each a formidable bastion protected by Void Shields and possessed of enough firepower to destroy a moon.Due to repeated Chaos invasions that began in ca. 999.M41 such as the Invasion of Ultramar, the Ultramar Campaign of the 13th Black Crusade and the Plague Wars, as well as the ever-present threat of the Scourge Stars, Guilliman further bolstered the defences of his personal empire.Eight Primaris Space Marine Chapters created from the gene-seed of the Ultramarines' primarch during the Ultima Founding were permanently stationed in the region at the conclusion of the Plague Wars, a new Chapter homeworld provided for each of them. Along with the Scythes of the Emperor and the Ultramarines themselves, there is now a force of 10,000 sons of Guilliman ready to defend the Realm of Ultramar at all times.
Ultramar - Worlds of Ultramar: Ultramar is the feudal realm of the Ultramarines Chapter within the greater realm of Humanity that is the Imperium. Its worlds do not pay the Imperium's tithes. Instead they contribute directly towards the upkeep of the Ultramarines Chapter. The rulers of the individual worlds of Ultramar are feudal lords in service to the Chapter Master of the Ultramarines. This is why the Ultramarine leader is also the Lord of Ultramar as well as the Lord Macragge, with all the rights and responsibilities that such noble titles entail.Just like other worlds in the Imperium, each world of Ultramar raises planetary defence force regiments for its own defence, known as Ultramar Auxilia. Most worlds in the Imperium are obliged to provide regiments for the Astra Militarum when required, but Space Marine homeworlds are an exception. In the case of Ultramar, however, the Ultramarines rule so efficiently and are so prosperous that they maintain several hundred regiments ready and willing to join the Astra Militarum when the need arises. As a result, regiments from Ultramar have fought all over the galaxy, often in campaigns alongside the Ultramarines themselves. Each world of Ultramar also provides Space Marine recruits for the Ultramarines Chapter itself.Throughout Ultramar, proud citizens point to public statues of famous Ultramarines who were born to local families. Amongst the older aristocratic dynasties it is a matter of considerable esteem to send recruits to the Ultramarines. For a family to have provided a renowned hero, perhaps even an actual Master of the Chapter, is a great honour that brings considerable fame and status for many generations.
Ultramar - Stellar Geography: Ultramar is currently divided into five regions called Tetrarchs (north, south, east, west and center). Four of these regions are ruled by a Tetrarch appointed by Roboute Guilliman himself. Every region has a capital world where the Tetrarch resides, although each world considers itself under the rule of Maccrage. Each Tetrarch has been tasked with expanding Ultramar in the galactic direction that he governs.The northern region is based around the world of Konor. Its Tetrarch is Severus Agemman, first captain of the Ultramarines.The southern sector is based around the world of Andermung. Its Tetrarch is Captain Portan of the Genesis Chapter's 2nd Company.The western region is based around the world of Protos. Its Tetrarch is Captain Balthus of the Doom Eagles Chapter.The eastern region is based around the world of Vespator. It had been previously ruled by a political entity known as the Sotharan League, but since the world of Sotha was destroyed by Hive Fleet Kraken Guilliman re-constituted what was left of the league around Vespator. Its Tetrarch is Decimus Felix, a Primaris Ultramarine recently promoted to serve as the Eleventh Captain of the Ultramarines and the former Equerry to Roboute Guilliman.The central region falls under the direct rule of Macragge and its regent, the Ultramarines Chapter Master Marneus Calgar. It encompasses all of the star systems in the heart of Ultramar with the exception of Konor, Veridia and Espandor, which fall under the remit of the northern Tetrarch.
Ultramar Campaign - Invasion of Ultramar: In the closing years of the 41st Millennium, the stellar realm of Ultramar came under sustained attack from myriad foes. Menacing shapes stirred in the intergalactic void, the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan drifting inexorably towards Guilliman's realm. The Arch-Arsonist of Charadon, one of the greatest Ork Warlords in the galaxy, led a monstrous WAAAGH! from his anarchic domain with the intent of overrunning the Ultramarines' eastern defences. Yet the greatest threat of them all was that posed by the dark servants of Chaos.A vast horde of Traitors, Renegades, mutants and madmen fell upon Ultramar under the leadership of the foul Daemon Prince M'kar the Reborn. That invasion plunged dozens of worlds into bloody battle, war raging from the worlds of Espandor and Tarentus to oceanic Talassar. Yet eventually, after long solar months of sorrow, bloodshed and loss, the Ultramarines prevailed. M'kar was defeated and his armies driven off, pursued to the stellar void beyond the bounds of Ultramar.So began a period of rebuilding and consolidation across Ultramar, as Marneus Calgar and his Chapter led their peoples' efforts to shore up the battered defences of their realm. It was a period of repose and recovery that was to be all too swiftly ended.Acting upon the prophetic revelations of the Sorcerer Zaraphiston, Abaddon the Despoiler hurled a fresh coalition of Chaos Space Marine warbands against the defences of Ultramar. Though the Despoiler himself was engaged in the ongoing fighting of the 13th Black Crusade around the recently-shattered Cadian Gate, his influence as Arch-champion and Warmaster of the Dark Gods extended far. So it was that he was able to muster a sizeable force of warriors from the Black Legion, the Iron Warriors, the Night Lords and a number of other Traitor factions, and hurl them against the worlds of Ultramar. While some warbands struck at the outer star systems in an effort to tie up potential Loyalist reinforcements, the main Traitor horde rode the tempestuous currents of the Warp straight into the Macragge System itself. So began a desperate and bloody invasion...
Ultramar Campaign - Sources: Gathering Storm - Part Three - Rise of the Primarch (7th Edition), pp. 4-47
Ultramarines - Chapter History: At the outset of the cataclysmic civil war created by the treachery of Horus and the machinations of the dark powers of the Warp, the XIII Legion, the Ultramarines, stood as one of the single, most powerful military forces in the Imperium.With an active fighting strength somewhere in the region of a quarter of a million Legiones Astartes, a sector-spanning domain under their overlordship and an arguably unparalleled structure for the supply and training of initiates -- allowing it to withstand losses that would potentially cripple other Legions -- it was this very strength that would make it a prime target for the Traitors' conspiracy.It would be at Calth that this blow would fall. But while the legend of the lapis-blue hosts of Ultramar and the strategic genius of its Primarch Roboute Guilliman were already widely promulgated by the Iterators and Remembrancers of the Great Crusade, the path by which it arrived at this apotheosis of power was not so well known and in some cases, the facts actively kept secret.The complexities of the XIII Legion's past and the sometimes divisive and even antagonistic relationship the Ultramarines had with several of their fellow Legions was also concealed. It would be this hidden history that was to bear bitter fruit at the Battle of Calth and cast its shadow on all the wars that were to follow.
Ultramarines - Brotherhood of the Thirteenth: By the third solar decade of the Great Crusade, the XIII Legion had begun to develop a distinct character of their own. They were recorded as having a practical and forthright mien, with little time given to the esoteric arts of warfare or conjectural strategising, preferring a direct approach of swift engagement. In warfare, they relied upon the rapid attainment of quickly defined tactical objectives and strategies born of tried and tested battlefield experience and determined by the situation at hand.They also had their pride, and while they were accorded as being unwaveringly loyal to the Imperium's cause, they developed a tendency to guard their honour well and engaged in an open rivalry of achievement with the other Legions alongside which they served, particularly those few whose primarchs had already been recovered.The warrior brotherhood of the XIII Legion had also begun to display its achievement visually. But rather than take on a particular livery and iconography as a whole as the III Legion (Emperor's Children) or the XIV Legion (at that time still the Dusk Raiders) had, individual companies who had come to prominence in a particularly important Compliance operation or campaign took on additions to their core Legion livery -- which maintained the post-Unification storm grey and gunmetal they had worn since the Sedna Campaign -- to commemorate their greatest achievements.Those companies who had fought alongside the VIII Legion in the purgation of the Abhuman corsairs of the Cancerai Nebula afterwards bore black gauntlets, midnight blue helms and the ancient Terran weighing scales and death's head icon of judgement in heraldic opposition of their Legion numeral, and took the name of "Nemesis" as their own.Conversely, the principally armoured formations of the XIII Legion who had halted the Ork advance on the ash plains of Cypra Mundi, and in doing so had saved a city of millions from a savage death, afterwards commemorated the battle by mirroring on their right pauldron the emerald light of the blazing armour borealis that had riven the skies under which they had fought.Such honours were claimed as the Legion's strength made visible, but for them no formal name for the Legion as a whole was desired save for its number, as their first Lord Commander Gren Vosotho is recorded to have said, "...I am told that once the numeral thirteenth was taken as an ill omen by the weak-minded and those enslaved by the lies of superstition, but in the Emperor's service we shall make it a byword for redemption and glory."The sorest test of the XIII Legion's resolve and their arts of war was yet to come however.
Ultramarines - Unification of Body and Soul: The XIII Legion of Space Marines was assigned to Guilliman in short order, for the primarch needed little urging or aid in the assimilation of knowledge of the wider galaxy, the Great Crusade and the many technological wonders of the new-born Imperium of Man.It was a development greeted by the XIII Legion with great rejoicing and pride in the honour that Roboute Guilliman paid them in accepting their fealty. The oratory and vision with which their newfound primarch expounded to them his designs for the future and the righteousness of the Great Crusade filled the Legiones Astartes with a renewed vigour and dispelled any shadows of doubt in their minds, and made Guilliman's takeover of the Legion, according to official records, all but seamless.Roboute Guilliman did far more than merely take command of the XIII Legion, he set about transforming it. His vision was for a Legion that was more than simply one army among many, however exceptional, but a self-sustaining power for conquest, order and expansion; the strength of the body and blood of the Imperium made manifest by the will of the Emperor through His servant Roboute Guilliman.To Guilliman, a military force was more than the warriors who wielded arms -- it was their chain of supply, the starships which carried them between, the manufactoria which supplied their munitions and the worlds which bred their recruits; they were indivisible and equally vital. To Guilliman's mind, all of these things made a Space Marine Legion, and he meant to control them all so that his own would prosper and the Emperor's will be done.In accordance with his grand design, he planned to not merely take the world of his fosterage as his headquarters and recruiting ground as his peers had done and would continue to do, but from the start set it up as merely the fulcrum of a far larger network of provender and support. The basis of this network would be the worlds Macragge had long maintained links with, but they would merely be its first components, not its fullest extent.This would be the start of Roboute Guilliman's "Realm of Ultramar" and it would be a project of solar decades in the making, and continue to expand right up to the first treacherous blow of the Horus Heresy.
Ultramarines - Eagle of the East: As swiftly as he put his plans for the creation of the Realm of Ultramar into action, Roboute Guilliman embarked on the root and branch reorganisation of his Legion. Adopting an extraordinarily detailed plan which drew from both the military doctrines and political philosophies of his surrogate homeworld of Macragge, a detailed study of the history of the XIII Legion and each and every other Legion and armed force under the Emperor's banner in their then-current form, he remade the organisational structure and tactical doctrines of his Legion accordingly.The result was an elegantly structured but elaborate and highly meritocratic force. It unsurprisingly built on much that had already been evident in the character of the XIII Legion, as their primarch's gene-seed had already partly shaped them, however unconsciously, and through the application of analysis and reason sought to purge any weaknesses or deficiencies to achieve the optimal military outcome.This, as with so much of the Legion's affairs, was considered by the primarch an ongoing project, and it evolved quickly into a dual doctrine which embraced in parallel on one hand what were the ancient and deterministic values of the warrior: courage, discipline, skill and adaptability, defined as that which was practical, and on the other: planning, precedent, analysis and assessment, defined as that which was theoretical. Both were of equal weight and value, one complementing and informing the other, blending together as the metals which made a fine blade. This became the Legion's doctrine and creed.As with the society Roboute Guilliman had built on Macragge, the XIII Legion under his mastery would be as ruthlessly even-handed as it was efficient, with the needs of the individual sublimated to the greater whole, but the life of the individual never spent wantonly or without purpose; for Guilliman's doctrine stated that each Legionary lost weakened those who remained.Within the Legion, the valour and the achievement of the individual were rewarded with honour and greater responsibility, but the obedience to hierarchy and order it demanded of its members was to be unquestioning and unchallenged. The outward signs of this transformation were striking.The livery of the XIII Legion was altered to a deep blue, chased with gold, while the symbol of the ancient "Ultima" glyph found in the pre-isolation stellar charts of the Ultramar region was adopted as its icon and seal to tie them to the newfound realm which they embodied. And with the new cognomen "Ultramarines," perhaps as one work attributed to Remembrancer L. Amphidal suggested, "Roboute Guilliman and his Legion would vow to take the Great Crusade beyond the stars themselves if needed to see its completion."
Ultramarines - Triumph of Ullanor: In the final years of the 30th Millennium, forces of the Imperium undertook the Ullanor Crusade, a vast Imperial assault on the Ork empire of the Overlord Urrlak Urruk. The capital world of this Greenskin stellar empire, and the site of the final assault by the Space Marine Legions, lay in the central Ullanor System of the galaxy's Ullanor Sector. The crusade included the deployment of 100,000 Space Marines, 8,000,000 Imperial Army troops, and thousands of Imperial starships and their support personnel.The Ullanor Crusade marked the high point of the Great Crusade's vast effort to reunite the scattered colony worlds of Humanity. The Orks of Ullanor represented the largest concentration of Greenskins ever defeated by the military forces of the Imperium of Man before the Third War for Armageddon began during the 41st Millennium. Following the defeat of the Orks of Ullanor, the Emperor of Mankind was to return to Terra to begin work on His vast project to open up the Aeldari Webway for Mankind's use. In His place to command the vast forces of the Great Crusade He left Horus Lupercal, primarch of the Luna Wolves Legion.In the aftermath of the Ullanor Crusade, Horus was granted the newly-created title of "Warmaster," the commander-in-chief of all the Emperor's armies who possessed command authority over all of the other primarchs and every expeditionary fleet of the Great Crusade. When the Emperor proclaimed Horus Warmaster of the Imperium, Guilliman accepted the news of his brother's promotion without resentment, and Horus continued to seek his counsel. However, Horus believed that Guilliman felt that he had deserved the honour of being named Warmaster just as much, if not more.Before returning to Terra to oversee the next phase of the creation of His stellar empire, the Emperor suggested to Horus that he rename the XVI Legion the "Sons of Horus," in honour of their primarch and to show his preeminent place amongst the other primarchs. Horus initially declined this honour, not wishing to be set above his brothers, and so his Legion continued as the Luna Wolves for a little while longer. But Horus and the other primarchs never came to terms with the Emperor's absence.Their hurt feelings over His seeming abandonment of the Great Crusade to pursue a secret project whose purpose He chose not to reveal to His gene-sons laid seeds of jealousy and resentment that would ultimately blossom alongside other problems into the corruption that began the Horus Heresy.
Ultramarines - Martyrs of Calth: In the aftermath of the fighting on Calth, it was all but impossible to form an accurate picture of the losses incurred on the combatants. With the surface of the planet rendered all but uninhabitable by the actions of the Word Bearers' First Captain Kor Phaeron, it proved impractical to recover many of the fallen or verify the deaths of those who came to Calth with treachery in their hearts.The Ultramarines recorded their casualties at the moment when Guilliman and the remains of the XIII Legion fleet departed Calth at 119,422 Legiones Astartes fallen in combat, with a further 28,392 rendered combat-incapable by battle injuries and trauma.Few of the chapters of the Legion committed to Calth could muster even a quarter of their nominal strength in the wake of that betrayal, and some were so decimated that they faced being reorganised into other chapters and their old designations removed from the XIII Legion's order of battle. Most of the injured were evacuated to the surviving voidcraft of the Legion fleet and swiftly returned to combat duties in the crisis that was unfolding across Ultramar, a crisis that forced Guilliman to order the prioritisation of military assets over the stranded civilians in the brief evacuation effort.Almost 40,000 Ultramarines, both wounded and combat-ready, were forced to remain on Calth, some as volunteers, set to the protection of those Calthian civilians who could not be evacuated, and others due to the brutal dictates of circumstance. Of the forces of the Excertus Imperialis, details are more vague, but it seems likely that at least half a million troops-under-arms perished during the fighting, alongside the entire fighting complement of the Legio Praesagius.Of the Word Bearers who landed on the surface of Calth, almost none would ever leave. It is estimated that 50,000 or more of Lorgar's gene-sons and an uncounted mass of their allied Imperial Army Imperialis Auxilia troops were sacrificed in the battle, although only 20,000 are thought to have died in the initial fighting, with the remainder prosecuting the subterranean Underworld War on Calth for over a solar decade after the initial battle.Just as bitter to the Ultramarines Legion was the damage inflicted on its fleet assets. Never renowned for the numbers of heavy combat voidcraft in its service, the losses suffered at Calth were crippling and hamstrung any effort to prosecute a war beyond the bounds of Ultramar.Such was the Ultramarines' desperation, missions to salvage the dead hulks drifting in orbit above Calth were quickly authorised despite the death toll such missions exacted in the deadly radiation of the damaged Veridian star.
Ultramarines - The Unmarked: Of the entire XIII Legion, only five whole chapters of the Ultramarines and a handful of separate detachments from other chapters were spared the Mark of Calth. As with those Legiones Astartes of other Legions who had lived through the Isstvan massacres, an unspoken rift formed between the veterans of Calth and those who had not passed through the fires of that terrible betrayal.No official designation to mark the veterans of the Battle of Calth was ever promulgated amongst the XIII Legion, nor did Roboute Guilliman ever sanction any division between the warriors of his Legion, yet on those occasions where the Ultramarines gathered afterwards in numbers, the survivors of the Calth campaign ever formed a separate body.The bitter wound of base betrayal was one they carried through all their days, the lasting legacy of the Word Bearers' assault on the worlds of Ultramar; trust came to them only with difficulty and always there was a hint of paranoia in their preparations for war and the execution of their campaigns.Of the so-called "Unmarked" chapters, two had been assigned to distant Great Crusade forces at the time of the Calth Atrocity; the 7th Chapter was divided amongst the vast reaches of the Dominion of Storms and the 10th Chapter was battling through the xenos-infested Eastern Fringe. The remaining chapters, the 19th as well as those which bore the title "Evocati," the 24th and 25th, had been assigned garrison and training duties amongst the myriad worlds of Ultramar.Though none escaped the fires of Horus' rebellion, none were tested as were those few who had stood against the unthinkable at Calth, none ever stood at the brink of annihilation and the edge of madness as did their brothers. In the later years of the Great Scouring, the Unmarked would continuously see assignment to operations removed from the main body of their brethren; even Guilliman seemed averse to their company on campaign, perhaps seeing in them a reminder of days now lost.Eventually, the Unmarked would be among the first of the XIII Legion to be renamed and separated during the Second Founding, and remain perhaps the truest reflection of the Ultramarines of old, before the tragedy of the Horus Heresy reshaped the Imperium forever.
Ultramarines - Imperium Secundus: With the torrential Ruinstorm raging, blocking out the light of the Astronomican and causing Warp travel and astrotelepathic communication to be all but impossible, the Imperium was effectively cut in half during much of the Horus Heresy following the Battle of Calth. Unable to learn what was occurring beyond the limits of the great Warp storm, Guilliman came to fear that Terra had been lost and the Emperor was dead. He obsessed over a way to ensure that the Imperium would survive.He used the ancient xenos device known as the Pharos on the world of Sotha to create a psychic beacon in the Warp capable of guiding any Loyalist Space Marine Legions lost in the disruptions of the Ruinstorm to Ultramar. Miraculously, the Primarch Lion El'Jonson and his Dark Angels Legion managed to lock onto the beacon of the strange alien device which guided the I Legion's fleet safely through the Warp and to the Realm of Ultramar's capital world of Macragge.There, they were greeted by Roboute Guilliman and his brother primarch Sanguinius, whose Blood Angels Legion was also guided through the Ruinstorm to the Realm of Ultramar by the Pharos as they made their way towards Terra following the Signus Campaign. The three primarchs were instrumental in the foundation of the "Imperium Secundus" as a means of continuing the fight against the Traitors and securing the Emperor's great work of unifying Humanity. Guilliman proclaimed Sanguinius as the rightful heir to the Emperor and declared him the new ruler and Regent of Imperium Secundus. Lion El'Jonson was made the Lord Protector of this new empire of Humanity and supreme commander over all its military forces, a title that was similar to that of Warmaster which he had once so coveted.Unfortunately, the foundation of Imperium Secundus was marred when the captured Night Lords Primarch Konrad Curze escaped from the Dark Angels' flagship Invincible Reason and rampaged across Macragge, intent on spreading as much terror and chaos as he could. Eventually, both Guilliman and the Lion confronted the cornered Curze. Their attempts to kill him were unsuccessful as the Night Lords primarch had laid a cunning trap. He brought down an entire chapel upon the two primarchs through the use of planted explosives and fled the scene.Guilliman and the Lion were only saved through the direct intervention of the Loyalist Iron Warriors Warsmith Barabas Dantioch, who was communicating with Guilliman at the time of the attack through a portal that was opened by the Pharos. On instinct, the Warsmith reached through the portal and pulled the two primarchs to safety on Sotha.The Imperium Secundus next faced a major test in the Battle of Sotha, where the Ultramarines and their fellow Astartes allies that had gathered fought off a force of Night Lords intent on reclaiming their primarch.
Ultramarines - Second Battle of Davin: In the wake of these revelations, Imperium Secundus was abolished by the three primarchs as an unfortunate mistake. The three instead led their Space Marine Legions in an attempt to breach the Ruinstorm and reach Terra to defend the Emperor.Through an arduous journey, they eventually reached Davin, the nexus of the Ruinstorm, and engaged a vast Daemonic host that had emerged out of the Warp storm. After the Second Battle of Davin and the destruction of that foul planet, a way to Terra through the Ruinstorm was made clear as the great Warp storm began to slowly subside. But in the Legions' way stood multiple Traitor fleets intended to serve as blocking forces as Horus had foreseen that this route to Terra might open for the Loyalists.Sanguinius and the Blood Angels raced directly for Terra through the opening, as was their destiny in Sanguinius' precognitive visions, while Guilliman and Lion El'Jonson led the Ultramarines and Dark Angels Legions in diversionary attacks against the Traitor fleets that allowed the Blood Angels to slip through the cordon.As the Ruinstorm continued to fade, Guilliman gathered whatever forces he could and made haste for Terra. In his path lay a large defensive chain of hundreds of worlds manned by the Iron Warriors. In a series of bitter engagements, both sides took heavy losses but the Loyalists were able to maintain a steady, if slow, advance on the Throneworld.
Ultramarines - Siege of Terra: As the long and bloody years of the Horus Heresy passed, the Traitor Legions under the command of the Warmaster Horus Lupercal finally closed on the homeworld of Mankind and launched their great assault against the Imperial Palace while they believed a good portion of the Loyalist Space Marine Legions remained occupied in other regions of the galaxy.While the forces of Chaos came close to battering down the gates of the Imperial Palace, the Loyalists' stout defence managed to hold the line within the Inner Palace long enough for Loyalist reinforcements to drop from the Warp on the edges of the Sol System. Salvation was coming.In orbit of Terra, Horus' allies delivered the fateful news. The Ultramarines, Dark Angels and Space Wolves Legions were only solar hours away from reinforcing the Emperor and His Loyalist defenders in the Imperial Palace. Horus then knew that his great gamble to seize Terra had failed.What happened next is disputed; some believe Horus disabled his flagship's void shields as he experienced one last moment of regret, and some believe it was simply a personal challenge to the Emperor, to win the battle on his own terms when he could no longer gain victory using conventional means. For whatever reason, Horus lowered the shields of his flagship, the battle barge Vengeful Spirit, allowing the Emperor, the Blood Angels' Primarch Sanguinius, a company of Imperial Fists and a force of Legio Custodes to teleport aboard and ultimately slay him, ending the Horus Heresy.But Sanguinius was slain and the Emperor mortally wounded in the titanic fight with the Chaos Gods' chosen champion and interred in the Golden Throne immediately afterwards by the Primarch Rogal Dorn, leaving a dangerous void of power and authority within the shattered Imperium. Unfortunately, the Ultramarines fleet did not arrive at Terra until after Horus' defeat, and they found Terra and the Imperium itself in ruins.Roboute Guilliman steadfastly refused to allow the Imperium to fall, and began despatching elements of his Legion to all corners of the galaxy to stem the tide of invasion and unrest as the other Loyalist forces recovered and rearmed to force the Traitor Legions to surrender the territory they had seized during Horus' seven-standard-year-long advance towards Terra.After solar decades of further intense fighting, some measure of stability was finally restored to the Imperium.
Ultramarines - Iron Cage: Shortly after the end of the Horus Heresy, during the campaigns of the Great Scouring, the Imperial Fists Legion laid siege to the Iron Warriors' greatest construct, the "Eternal Fortress" on the world of Sebastus IV. The fortress consisted of over 20 square kilometres of bunkers, towers, minefields, trenches, razor wire, tank traps, redoubts and a system of complex underground tunnels in the shape of an eight pointed star.At the centre was a massive bunker intended to serve as a decoy and of no military value whatsoever. Guilliman advised Rogal Dorn against the siege, but Dorn was embittered at having lost the debate over the implementation of the Codex Astartes and resented the coming division of his Legion in the Second Founding. The Imperial Fists primarch wanted to vent his anger and frustration on his most hated rival, the Traitor Primarch Perturabo and his Iron Warriors.True to his brother's warning, before the battle ended the corpses of hundreds of Imperial Fists littered the grounds of the fortress before Guilliman and an Ultramarines relief force finally arrived, three solar weeks and six Terran days later. The Imperial Fists had fought without sleep and had long run out of ammunition before the Ultramarines found them.Perturabo, unable to hold the position against two full Space Marine Legions, unleashed his final ploy, and prevented the Imperial Fists from recovering over four hundred of their dead and their precious gene-seed. Following the campaign, Dorn believed the remaining warriors of his Legion were now ready to accept the division required by the Codex Astartes and he proceeded to divide the VII Legion into at least five Successor Chapters.Though Perturabo had not destroyed Dorn's Legion, his victory proved to be enough to earn him ascension as a Daemon Prince in the eyes of the Chaos Gods.
Ultramarines - Duel on Eskrador: Roboute Guilliman continued to serve with the Ultramarines Chapter and their allied successors after the Heresy, leading them for another Terran century after the Second Founding, through the remaining battles of the Great Scouring.It was said that during those years, Guilliman led several incursions alongside his brother primarchs against the Traitor Legions of the Chaos Space Marines.On Eskrador, Alpharius, the Alpha Legion primarch, was apparently taken by surprise when Guilliman departed from his own strictures and led a surprise assault by his elite units on the Alpha Legion headquarters.In the personal combat that followed between Alpharius and Guilliman, it is believed that Alpharius was killed. The Alpha Legion responded, not by breaking and fleeing as Guilliman expected, but by turning on the Ultramarine detachment and harrying them so mercilessly that by the time they had returned to the main body of the Ultramarine force their casualties were almost total.The Ultramarines were driven from the planet in the subsequent battle.
Ultramarines - Destruction of Colchis: It was not until many years after Calth's fall that the Ultramarines exacted their revenge for the Word Bearers' perfidy. Even when they did, during the Great Scouring, the gesture turned out to be tragically hollow.Elements of the Ultramarines Chapter at last reached Colchis, the homeworld upon which Lorgar had been raised by his mentor, Kor Phaeron. However, the Ultramarines found the world to have fallen into degenerate anarchy. Before Lorgar's brief period of rule, Colchis had been a fragmented and feudal world and, now that the master of the Word Bearers had retreated into the Warp to serve his new masters, it had fallen back into the most extreme expression of that state.Adjudged hopelessly corrupt and beyond redemption by agents of the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition, Colchis was marked for death. It was the Ultramarines who carried out the destruction, bombarding the planet with Cyclonic Torpedoes.The geological structure of Colchis was highly unstable and the resultant seismic activity caused by the torpedoes' detonations split the planet apart. Nothing now remains of Colchis and the location of where it once existed is still a closely guarded secret of the Inquisition. Calth had finally been avenged in kind, though it seemed the Traitor Legion against whom the blow was struck now cared little.