Vostroyan Firstborn - Regimental History: Vostroya has always been an important industrial centre for the Human-settled galaxy, providing vital arms and munitions to the armed forces of the Imperium of Man. Vostroya's great shame has its roots in an age long past, when the Emperor of Mankind strode amongst the stars and when His empire was sundered by the Horus Heresy.As the legions of the Traitor Warmaster Horus carved a bloody trail to Terra, a petition from the Emperor requested that Vostroya raise regiments of soldiers for the Imperial Army to stand in Horus' path. Every worker that toiled in the great smelteries of Vostroya was already engaged in the immense war effort and the world's ruling Techtriarchs determined that such a sacrifice in manpower would render the production quotas unattainable. They reasoned that the people of Vostroya were better expended making guns than firing them. Reluctantly, the Techtriarchs refused the request.Their actions might have gone unremarked, for in the violence of that terrible civil war many records were destroyed. Unfortunately for the people of Vostroya, such anonymity would be denied to them. When the Heresy ended and Exactor Tributii Advocates of the Administratum began to tally up the cost, Vostroya's refusal to raise arms came to light.The Techtriarchs were called to account -- a task that the primarch of the Ultramarines, Roboute Guilliman, now the lord commander of the Imperium and Imperial Regent, oversaw personally. Faced with the ire of the Ultramarines Legion's primarch, the people of Vostroya entreated the Techtriarchs to negotiate a settlement that would allow them to make amends for their perceived disloyalty.Guilliman warned that Vostroya's penance might never end, but even when he stated the grievous terms of Vostroya's reprieve the Techtriarchs willingly accepted their chance for redemption in the Emperor's eyes. The proposal that Guilliman and the Techtriarchs agreed to was simple, but has shaped Vostroyan society ever since. To repay their debt to the Emperor, the Vostroyans have, for the last ten thousand standard years, given up the firstborn child of every family for service in the Astra Militarum. There is no exception to this penance, and even the greatest noble families must comply. Thus the regiments of the Vostroyan Firstborn were raised.Unlike other Astra Militarum regiments that are raised en masse by a single Imperial world, the already extant regiments of the Firstborn are regularly furnished with a steady influx of new recruits from their homeworld. To the Vostroyans it is a matter of pride that the regiments of the Firstborn have existed unbroken since their first creation in the early 31st Millennium.Vostroya continues to labour unceasingly to meet the production quotas of their Adeptus Mechanicus masters, but the repayment of their debt to the Emperor comes first. Attached to each of the thousands of manufactoria that blot the planet's surface is a sacred workshop, where the weapons and wargear of the Vostroyan Firstborn are produced. Every labourer on Vostroya is expected to give one solar hour in every ten to the upkeep of the Firstborn regiments. With stoic resolve, the Vostroyans steadfastly sacrifice their time. The weaponry they produce is of the finest quality, for the Firstborn are their sons and daughters, their brothers and sisters, and their only hope of redemption in the God-Emperor's eyes.Thanks to the inhospitable climate of Vostroya, their regiments are trained in the most adverse of conditions. Within the skeletal remains of collapsed manufactoria, the Firstborn learn the skills of war.Vostroya's governing committee -- the Techtriarchy -- is composed of Adeptus Mechanicus officials as well as Imperial Commanders, and as a result Vostroyan uniforms tend to incorporate red, the colour of Mars, and cyber-augmentation among the ranks is commonplace. The weapons they carry to war and mount on their vehicles are not mass-produced, but exquisitely hand-crafted by military artisans.