Legio Atarus - Origins: Before the dark treacheries of the Warmaster Horus plunged the entire galaxy into bloodshed, the Firebrands were considered by some to be a particularly fractious and ill-disposed Titan Legion.Distrusted and looked down upon by their fellow Titan Legions, the Legio Atarus would go on to prove their loyalty and unswerving dedication to the Emperor.The seeds of the Firebrands' ill-repute during the Great Crusade can be traced to the highly unusual circumstances of their inception. In the early years of the Great Crusade, one of the first tasks of Imperial expansion from Terra was to link up with a number of key domains within the Segmentum Solar identified as vital to the Great Crusade's success.Critical among these were several Forge Worlds with whom the ancient Mechanicum of Mars had maintained some relationship throughout the tribulations of the later Age of Strife.In many cases, these inclusions went without difficulty, such as with the world of Voss whose masters had bent the knee to Mars without qualm, but on others such as Phaeton, inclusion was the matter of some negotiation and difficulty, and the final acquiescence bought with considerably more autonomy than the fabricator-general of Mars would perhaps have preferred from a vassal-domain.What began as a coldly cordial relationship quickly grew into one of veiled and open rivalry, with Phaeton's position being further strengthened by it quickly becoming perhaps the second most productive Forge World of the Great Crusade until the later discovery of mighty Anvilus.Although never faltering in its commitment to the Great Crusade, machinations by the authorities of Mars brought matters close to outright conflict over religious doctrine and subtle accusations that Phaeton was building its military assets to threatening levels, and this began to have a corrosive effect on the Forge World's reputation -- to the point where the storm clouds of hostile censure and perhaps even armed retribution gathered.At last, the revered-comptroller of Phaeton Prime, realising that his domain could not stand before such power, brokered a compromise, offering publicly to give up a full third of his world's god-engines, armed forces and chattels in the interests of equanimity with Mars.This was quickly agreed, but as the fabricator-general, no doubt with some lust for the task, despatched an assayance taskforce to Phaeton, he discovered that he had been outmanoeuvred.Rather than give up its lore and dominion to Mars, Phaeton had created a fleet of vast Explorator Arks, and into these were divided an equal third part of its priesthood, chattels and machineries, and even as the Martian emissaries looked on, despatched them into the void.Conflict was averted, Phaeton diminished and its subservience to Mars was assured, but it and its allies gained a long-burning enmity towards the Red Planet and its masters.After a long and perilous journey through the Warp, the Phaetonite Covenant alighted in the vicinity of the white super-giant star Atarath, on what was then the edge of known space.Here they founded the fledgling Forge World of Atar-Median in its shadow, on one of the many rogue planets caught in the colossal star's gravitational pull.With frightening swiftness the transplanted magi rose up from their domain of steel and fire, and using as its core ancient god-engines taken from Phaeton in the anarchy of Old Night, it founded the Legio Atarus as its shield and sword.Counted then as one of the younger Titan Legions, the Legio Atarus were looked down upon by many among the more ancient Titan Orders, and distrusted for their origins by some with close ties to the fabricator-general's faction on Mars, where a bitter humour over Atar-Median's founding still lingered. The Legio Atarus therefore was always a force who had much to prove.They responded to this status both by the eagerness and devotion which they displayed for the Great Crusade and its cause (over and above the fealty they owed to the Martian Mechanicum), and by displaying defiance and swift anger when they felt themselves slighted by any other Legio.Their zealous impetuousness in battle and the open belligerence and pride in arms they displayed, combined with the symbol of the burning blade they had adopted as their heraldic device, quickly set the cognomen by which the common soldiery of the Imperium would know them -- the "Firebrands."