vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Recongregator - The Riddle of the Logicians: The Logicians are a conspiracy of so called progressives inspired by a proscribed doctrine outlined in the pages of In Defence of the Future: A Logical Discourse. An agglomeration of merchants, hereteks, and Imperial Highborn nobles, the Logicians hold the heretical belief in the importance of progress. They pursue technology and forbidden knowledge in the hope of restoring mankind to the god-like state it once held in its lost "golden age," the Dark Age of Technology. The cult's activities in the Calixis Sector are centred on the hoarding of power and exploration of forbidden knowledge. The riddle of the Logicians is whether it is the Recongregator inspired creature it seems; even those of the Recongregator doctrine do not know whether the Logicians are one of their untamed monsters loosed on a wounded galaxy.The great mystery of the matter is whether or not the Logicians are a creation of a Recongregator's scheming. The spread of the tech-cult through the dissemination of an idea rather than through the action of demagogues and fanatics is a tactic favoured by Recongregators and seen in the corrupting proliferation of the text In Defence of the Future: A Logical Discourse. The overt doctrine of progress at any price and obtaining lost and forbidden technologies through dealing with hereteks, the most ambitious and mercenary of the Commercia, and the nobility all reek of Recongregator influence. The only problem with this view is that the evidence bears little chance of it being true, no matter how much some in the faction might wish it so. It is a riddle that grows all the more knotted when it is considered that even powerful Calixian Recongregator Inquisitors like Astrid Skane, Lucius Fulcio, and Lhor know of no influence their kind have exerted over the Logicians. The past actions of the heretical tech cult have proven to be both damaging to individual Recongregator plans, and served as an open case in point for rival factions of the perils of such revolutionary thinking. The solution to the riddle must therefore be either that the Logicians are the product of parallel evolution -- a cult whose doctrine is something akin to an extreme form of the faction's own -- or that it was once a Recongregator cat's-paw grown to a power and life of its own. Some feel that the Logicians are perhaps the product of some unseen and unknown Recongregator plan of unparalleled subtlety, although others in the faction condemn this theory as no more than dangerous hubris.
Recongregator - The Future Reborn: Inquisitors who cleave to the Recongregator vein of Radicalism have a different philosophy on what threatens the Imperium and must employ unique methods in pursuit of their ends. Their principle aim is to save the Imperium, not from what threatens today, but from the oblivion into which it is blindly stumbling as an interstellar society. To Recongregators, the threats that their fellow Inquisitors see as most dangerous are lesser when compared to the greater danger of being crippled by stagnation and choked by mouthed tradition. Because stagnation of the Imperium is the paramount threat to mankind, Recongregators must adopt methods that are vile heresies to their Puritan peers. If the Imperium will not heal itself of its wasting sickness, then those with vision, strength, and power must provide the medicine -- no matter how bitter it might be.
Recongregator - The Necessity of Change: The core belief that informs all Recongregator Inquisitors is that the Imperium, which they are bound to defend, has become corrupt and is decaying. The great pillars of authority and order which once supported the untold glories of mankind no longer serve any purpose other than to pull humanity into a future of slow death and wasting ruin. The domain of the God-Emperor persists in spite of the monolithic organisations and vacillating Imperial elite, who believe that they are serving and protecting that which they are in fact strangling. Time is running out, the hope of the future slipping away like the hand of a drowning man beneath the surging water. If the Imperium is allowed to continue as it is, it will stagnate to the point where it will fall apart -- and then circling predators will come to feast, and mankind will be nothing but burnt flesh and blackened bones.To Recongregator Inquisitors, there is only one choice: the Imperium must be changed. That change may not be accepted, understood, or desired, but it must happen lest all be lost. Those who rule mankind with the worn wisdom of the past must be replaced by those of vision and fresh ideals. The great dead structures of power and control, perpetuating only stagnation and decline, must be torn apart and made anew. The future can only be saved by the Radical and will only be destroyed by the conventions of the present. Ensuring that change will come is the scared duty of Recongregators, for the domain and subjects of the God-Emperor of Mankind must be saved.All that threatens Mankind pales in significance when compared to the stagnation that pervades the Imperium and the minds of its servants. This torpor makes loyal citizens, soldiers, and rulers vulnerable to the corrupting whispers of the Warp and the lies of the alien. This vulnerability will only deepen with time until mankind can no longer raise its wasted limbs to defend itself. To the Recongregators, the persecutions of all other threats are subservient to promoting and enabling change amongst the mind and body of the Imperium. This is not to say that Recongregators are unconcerned by the malign predations of daemons or the conspiracies of xenos, only that they have a higher calling and a different rod by which to measure menace. The concerns of Recongregators are focused inwards to the body of the Imperium, and unless an action in some way changes the status quo, it is a lesser concern. Such things can be left to the attention and energies of more mundane minds; Recongregators can have no time for anything that does not work to change the doomed direction of mankind. Hope is running through their fingers like sand, and the time to act is now.
Recongregator - The Methodology of Rebirth: The methods used by Recongregators to affect change in the body Imperial falls between a number of poles through which an Inquisitor and his agents steer according to their own beliefs and the requirements of their endeavours. The pace at which change is affected, where it is affected, and with what force determines the tactics employed by Acolytes who serve a Recongregator, as well as the nature of those Acolytes.
Recongregator - Change to a Whole Society or Replace Those Who Rule: Changing the politics, factionalism, bureaucracy, and immense edifices of the Imperium can be effected by changing those who govern and control those structures, or by removing the mechanisms that support and enable those structures to exist. The sluggish structures of the Imperium pervade every part of human society. The monoliths of stagnant tradition exist in a close symbiosis with the men and women who give them support. To some Recongregators, the most effective method of change is to focus on the leaders and Planetary Governors of the Imperium; by changing them, these Recongregatorscan change the hand that steers mankind into the future. Others prefer to effect wider change, which then makes the structures and ideas of the past untenable.Feudal Worlds within the Imperium are often subject to the attentions of Recongregator manipulation. A Feudal World governed by an established line of monarchs and noble vassals, ruling over peasants who work with primitive tools, can be destabilised by changing the ruler or by changing those he rules. A Recongregator who favours change from the top down would work to replace the established monarch of a Feudal World with a bold monarch who wants to pull the world up out of primitive tradition. An equally profound change could be made to the same Feudal World by introducing and spreading unconventional ideas amongst its population. Off-world technology that breaks the need to work by hand, weapons that remove the ability of the nobility to enforce their rule, or the idea that the nobility are not more worthy by birth can all cause the traditional rule of a Feudal World to become untenable and change to become a necessity.
Recongregator - Sudden or Gradual Change: Transformation can come gradually, with existing authority being slowly undermined, its key figures discredited and its pillars of support changed by degrees until they no longer resemble what they once were. At the other extreme is very rapid change effected by the abrupt removal of a ruling figure or body or the shock of discrediting of convention or custom. Gradual change has the advantage of being less likely to cause reaction to prevent it, as well as minimising any unfortunate side effects, such as destroying what they were trying to change. The faster the change, of course, the more likely it will necessitate violence and rebellion. Faced with a world that has an established method of governance lasting millennia, two Recongregators may approach the same end at very different paces.Those who favour slow change might slowly cripple the economic power of ruling elites through sabotaging production of tithed materials or sponsoring internecine strife and vendetta. They might isolate them politically by bribing or blackmailing their political allies, both on- and off-world. A campaign of whispers that paint the established rulers as laughable or indecisive might then open the door for a new set of rulers to be established and supported with the backing of all involved. Alternatively, those servants of the Recongregator doctrine who favour swift change might plant damning evidence of deep heretical practice amongst the ruling elite and let the iron hand of Imperial authority sweep away millennia of established rule with ruthless efficiency.
Recongregator - Blunt or Subtle Manipulation: In the end, almost all Recongregator endeavours usually necessitate violence to some degree, whether it is assassination, rebellion, sabotage, threat, or insurgency. The question is whether violence is used to force circumstances or to guide them. The blunt use of manipulation takes a stable situation and enforces change brutally: creating and arming rebellious factions, killing planetary commanders, and effecting coups d'état. Subtle manipulation takes the opportunities offered and enhances certain aspects to achieve the desired end: creating the circumstances for rebellion or dissent and provoking a tide of rebellion and change. Of course, the most effective operators amongst Recongregators use both blunt and subtle manipulation to create an unstoppable force of violent change.In planning the reconfiguration of power in a stable sub-sector, a Recongregator who favours subtle manipulation in the application of violence may introduce an exotic biotoxin to the sub-sector's primary Agri-world, causing food shortages in the hive cities fed by the Agri-world. When food riots begin, covert Acolytes infiltrate the riots and instigate an attack against a local planetary Enforcer stronghold, triggering a brutal response that fans the flames of insurgency higher -- all the while isolating the sub-sector governor and truncating his ability to supply his Imperial tithe and keep order. A minor noble, hailed as a hero, would then emerge to broker a deal with the rioters, and together with emerging allies in the mercantile elite across the sub-sector, he rises overnight to the seat of sub-sector governor. The corresponding blunt approach would be to fund and arm a rebellion against Imperial rule on the sub-sector's ruling world. The sub-sector governor is then horrifically assassinated and carefully placed elements in the military step in to restore order.
Recongregator - Recongregators Within The Holy Ordos: The Recongregator creed is popular with many Inquisitors who look to its doctrines as providing potential answers and even hope for the Imperium's future. As a result, the Recongregator creed is more widely and openly debated within the Inquisition than most. This fact serves in part to mask the secret activities of those who dedicate their careers and activities fully to the Recongregator creed, whose embrace of revolution and heresy in their fight for humanity's future would mark them as targets for zealous factions within the Inquisition. Given their concern with the internal workings of the Imperium, many Recongregators are part of the Ordo Hereticus. This is not only because it makes them ideally placed to discover individuals, organisations, and circumstances that might be open to their manipulation, but also because many who have spent their lives uncovering weakness and corruption have their perception changed to the point where they are in accordance with Recongregator philosophy.A significant portion of Recongregators owe no allegiance to any single Ordo, a fact that is unsurprising given the all-consuming nature of most Recongregator concerns and designs. Unfettered by being focused on one of the supposed great threats to mankind, these independent Inquisitors concentrate their effort on what they see as the true threat: stagnation and decline. Some within the Ordo Malleus follow Recongregator doctrines, and indeed some come to them after decades of seeing the so-called pillars of the Imperium eaten from within by daemonic influence and the temptations of Chaos. A daemonhunter who follows the Recongregator philosophy may find individuals of great potential amongst those who resist the influences of malefic cults or rise against the daemonically-influenced tyrant. Of all the three great Ordos, the Ordo Xenos is the one least populated by Recongregators -- though there are always a few drawn by the possibility of how the knowledge that xenos possess might be used to change the Imperium.
Recongregator - The Doctrine of Mind, Flesh, and Iron: The predominating doctrine amongst Recongregators within the Ordos Calixis holds that the roots of the Imperium's stagnation can found in three primary places: in the conformist minds of its rulers and citizens; in the stagnant blood and wasting bones of its people; and in the fear of its own advanced technology. The tri-fold Doctrine of Mind, Flesh, and Iron diagnoses "a disease of repetition and dwindling variation amongst all manifestations of man's endeavour." The ideas and understanding of even the greatest minds is weighed by tradition and convention. The blood and bodies of humans have become shackled by drudgery, and the blood of its elite has become poisonous through inbreeding. Once mankind created wondrous machines which subjugated the impossible to its will; now, all is consumed by fear of new knowledge and innovation.Though not all Recongregators accept the implications of the Doctrine of Mind, Flesh and Iron, it has inspired a number of undertakings by those who do, including the genetic manipulation of House Koba of Malfi, the protection of The Great Library of Knowing, and the supply of forgotten data fragments to the Cult of Sollex, the full consequences of which remain unclear.
Recongregator - The Rise of Drusus: Drusus -- warrior, visionary, saint, whose rise to greatness is the story of the birth of the Calixis Sector itself. The history wrote in seminaries across the sector tells of how Drusus came to the untamed stars and nebulae that would become the Calixis Sector as a general in the staff of Lord Militant Angevin in his crusade to carve a new domain out of the void of the Calyx Expanse for the Imperium of Mankind. The stories tell of how the enemies of the Emperor sent terrible assassins against him and dragged him down amongst the dead, but the Emperor, not accepting the death of His servant, destroyed his assailants and allowed Drusus to live again. His return from death remade Drusus, and from that day his story is one of triumphs, brilliance, and inspiration. In the decades that followed, Drusus threw the enemies of mankind back, took command of the Angevin Crusade in the wake of the great Lord Militant Angevin's death, and forged the Calixis Sector by his will.There is another story, a story that is known in part by few and in whole by none. It is a story bound with lies, so that even the great Lords of the Ordos Calixis do not know where truth begins and lies end. They know only that it is made of both, of truth and lies bound into a knot. It is a story of an old man of weakening health and a mundane mind given command of a mighty Crusade by virtue of old blood and the favour of dusty traditions. Under his failing will and weak strategies, millions died for little gain, and the forces of the Imperium were shamed. It is said that among the Inquisition were those unwilling to see such blood split to no end, who watched the pitiful scrabbling of a so-called Crusade amongst dead stars and hateful worlds and decided that it could not be allowed to continue. These watchers picked another to be the hand of destiny, one with the will and personal power to forge mankind's future amongst the unforgiving reaches of space. These Recongregators, it is said, made a deal with the darkest of powers in order to meet their ends. If this is to be believed, it was they who saved Drusus and began the whisperings of his favour in the sight of the Emperor, they who wielded the knife that removed the old and made space for the new. The story says that the Calixis Sector was born of their will and that Drusus was a saint not of the Emperor's making but at the hands of hidden powers who charged a heavy price for their aid. Other respond that if the future needs be bought by a lie, then it is a small price to pay.
Recongregator - The Manipulation of Malfi: The hands of Recongregator agents are filthy with the stinking blood of dire mistakes that have been made in trying to wield Malfi as a tool for sector-wide change, but the faction's manipulation of the bloodlines of the Malfian nobility remains its greatest work -- and its most dire shame. The nobility of Malfi has always been rotten, ancient, and wicked long before the coming of the Angevin Crusade. Since the rise of Scintilla as the dominant capital of the sector, Malfi's nobility has become increasingly bitter and resentful. In this darkly brooding feud, the Recongregators saw an opportunity to create a force for change in a sector becoming too comfortable in its newly acquired stability. The key, they felt, was in the old blood of Malfi, a lineage and stock with a vast history of scions great and terrible down the years. The Recongregators saw in these dynasties a tool they could use, and in doing so embraced a vile heresy long forbidden. With the aid of rogue elements within the Adeptus Mechanicus, a powerful Recongregator cell poisoned members of several noble families with gene-locked viral agents that would release their potential by augmenting their genetic makeup and sowing the seeds of the same in the next generation. The intent of the manipulation was to breed a great line of charismatic and powerful individuals who would wrest control of the sector away from a course doomed to stagnation. Matches between various infected bloodlines were engineered, and the resulting progeny were monitored over the years. Each generation was more changed than the last, but without warning, the experiment slipped from their grasp. Records were destroyed, Adepts were killed, and those Inquisitors closest to the project were found dead or missing. The culprit responsible remains unknown to this day.As the standard years progressed, it became patently apparent that the results were, sadly, not what was intended, and too late the Recongregators began to realise the grave error of their choices. They had unwittingly committed a sin from humanity's ancient past. The products of Malfi's manipulated noble bloodlines were monstrous. Though they bore no marks of mutation, these men and women were near-genius exemplars of cunning and viciousness and the guessed-at names of those Malfian noble lines most affected ring now with infamy across the sector: Sinderfel, Belasco, and Koba. None outside a few Inquisitors know of this secret atrocity. The Recongregators have taken great pains to cover up this sin over the years, and to combat the evil it has wrought, but even they cannot guess at how many have been born of the tainted blood of Malfi.
Recongregator - Current Conspiracies: The nature of the Recongregator philosophy spawns endless plots and endeavours, and the presence of a number of powerful Recongregators in the Calixis Sector means that it teems with manipulations and grand designs of change, many of which are inevitably stymied by inertia or thwarted by the machinations of other power groups. Chief amongst the concerns of Calixian Recongregators is the fate of the seat of Imperial power on Scintilla, and stalwart Recongregators seek to thwart the activities and dominance there of their arch-rivals of the Amalathian faction of the Inquisition.
Recongregator - The Lucid Concern: The chief focus of most Recongregators in the Calixis Sector is Scintilla, nexus of governance and focus of the power and traditions of the Imperial rule in the sector. By their nature, Recongregators tend towards working alone without coordination with like-minded peers, but the concentration of tradition and power draws the attention of Recongregators like insects to a naked flame. They devote special attention to the infiltration of the Lucid Court of Scintilla and the circles of influence around Sector Governor Marius Hax. As the embodiment of Imperial authority in the sector, Hax is a disastrous ruler from the perspective of Recongregators, being both highly conventional and obsessed with the maintenance of order and Imperial tradition.The fact that Hax's authoritarian streak and reasoned loathing of change has seemed to drift into paranoia and despotism is of critical concern. Desperate operations to destabilise Hax's power base amongst the Planetary Defence and Enforcer forces of Scintilla have so far proved fruitless, while the sphere of influence around the Lord Sector has proved impenetrable to infiltration. A number of Recongregators are becoming increasingly desperate to loose Hax's stagnating grip on the sector and have banded into a cell known to its hidden membership as the Lucid Concern. Though they have yet to determine a course of direct action, the Lucid Concern is united in the absolute belief that the longer Hax's rule is allowed to calcify into immobility, the more extreme the solutions that can and should be contemplated to end it. So far, the group has been held back by the fear of accidentally destabilising the entire sector in the process.
Recongregator - The War Within: The war fought against the stabilising influence of Amalathian Inquisitors has been waged in the Calixis Sector since the sector was founded. It has been a long and bitter struggle in which the Amalathians have the upper hand at present. The conventional and change-resistant rule of Sector Governor Hax and the relative stability of Imperial rule throughout the sector has smothered the potential for change. While many Recongregators focus on breaking Hax's power base, others have focused on areas distant from Scintilla's influence. A key secret battlefield between agents of Recongregator Inquisitors and servants of their Amalathian rivals is the Feudal World of Acreage. Lone agents and hidden Acolyte cells have thoroughly infiltrated the populace and slowly begun to spread new ideas. With the ground laid, they have begun to smuggle advanced technology and weapons into the hands of elements resistant to the rule of the High King. In return for these manipulations, enforcement cadres trained by Amalathian Acolytes root out sympathisers of the new ideals and drag away rebellious elements -- while the High King is watched over by bodyguards sent by Amalathians within the Ordos Calixis. Unknown to the Amalathians, though, is the fact that among their Acolytes in the king's court are a few who wait the command of their true Recongregator masters to remove the barriers to change and let the transformation of Acreage begin.
Recongregator - The Recongregators and Other Inquisitorial Factions: The philosophy and methodology of Recongregators aligns with and conflicts with those of many other factions within the Inquisition. Most obviously, the group's opposition to stagnation and the belief that the Imperium is being strangled by blind tradition conflicts in every point with the Puritan Amalathian faction. So deep is this rift that the two factions fight a constant invisible war of influence, a war that often breaks out into bloody vendetta and rivalry. The Inquisition's powers-that-be are often forced to intervene to keep the damage at a minimum.The Libricar, that secret Radical spawning of Amalathian obsession, views Recongregators and their agents as targets to be eliminated at all costs and counts themselves as the most implacable of the faction's enemies. The warmongering activities of Istvaanians, on the other hand, and their creed of strength through conflict, can align with the rebellious plots of a Recongregator. But beyond the use of anti-Imperial organisations, violence, and destabilisation to achieve their ends, the two factions have a fundamental difference: Recongregators want to change the current order and see it replaced by something new, while Istvaanians wish to unleash mayhem with little thought of what is to come -- as long as it is stronger than what came before. As a result, many Recongregators see the Istvaanians as dangerous loose cannons and are just as likely to confront them as to make common cause.The forbidden tools of the Xanthite may lure some Recongregators, but many Inquisitors of the Recongregator philosophy will view most individual Xanthites as vile Heretics. Malevelolent Xanthite splinter factions such as the Phaenonites consider the Recongregators' preoccupations petty and inconsequential compared to their own. Of course, fanatics who cleave to the Puritan Monodominant or Oblationist creeds see the Recongregators as unredeemable Heretics and Arch-traitors whose only fitting reward can be pain and death.
Recongregator - The Amalathians: Arch-rivals of the Recongregators: The Amalathians are a Puritan faction of Inquisitors whose concern is the protection of the stability and strength of the Imperium. These Inquisitors and their servants work to create unity amongst the branches of the body Imperial and to preserve the traditions and institutions that they believe protect mankind in the face of its enemies. The greatest enemy to mankind is the force of change which can open the Imperium to disaster. Such a dedication to maintaining the status quo and suppressing change puts Amalathians in diametric opposition to the revolutionary philosophy of the Recongregators. This fact has created a secret and ongoing war between the two factions for the future of the Imperium, and one that has often blindsided both to external threats and the rise of other, more arcane factions within the Inquisition.
Recongregator - Acolytes of the Recongregators: The Acolyte cadres that serve Recongregator Inquisitors are usually a collection of demagogues, assassins, manipulators, agitators, criminal fixers, tame insurgents, and infiltrators. Those drawn from the Adeptus Arbites, Imperial Guard, or Adeptus Mechanicus are often used to infiltrate other Imperial Adepta during an operation, allowing the Recongregators to play both sides against each other. The operations of these Acolytes are often complex and require them to be capable of making imaginative decisions without recourse to their master. Unsurprisingly, Recongregator Acolytes are usually highly independent operators encouraged to think and make decisions for themselves -- that, after all, is the Recongregator ideal. Recongregator operations are usually covert, to the extent that even a hint of Inquisitorial involvement would compromise their mission and undermine what they are trying to achieve. In this way, most Recongregator Acolyte teams are subject to denial by their masters if they are caught fomenting rebellion or planning an assassination. With none to vouch for them, these Acolytes will die as Heretics rather than as servants of the Golden Throne.
Recongregator - Recongregator Domains: Just as the Amalathians have agents spread throughout the Administratum, military, and planetary governments of the sector, so do the Recongregators. Of special interest to them, however, are the worlds of Scintilla and Sepheris Secundus. It is believed that only in the sector's seat of power can the true seeds of change be planted, and, as a result, Recongregator Inquisitors pay special attention to the hives of Scintilla. Equally, the mining powerhouse that is Sepheris Secundus has been identified as having a unique significance within the sector, and the faction suspects that there is something hidden on or about this world of great importance to the progression and reform of the Imperium.
Recongregator - Recongregator Operations: Much of the faction's time and resources are spent in opposing the Amalathians; where they try to halt a cascade of events that would bring about change, the Recongregators manoeuvre to ensure such events occur. At every turn, they seek to break the Amalathians' control, attempting to let events progress "naturally" or, when necessary, to give things a "little shove" to ensure matters come to a head. On the Feudal World of Acreage, this very dance has been played out for countless years. The Amalathians try to suppress progression and reform, maintain the line of the High King, and heavily restrict off-world contact. At the same time, the Recongregators seed new ideas, hopes, and practices with the locals or smuggle in off-world technology in the hopes of altering the world's destiny. All this, of course, is conducted during the execution of their Inquisitorial duties through discreet means, and it is unlikely that any, even within the Calixian Conclave, are aware of this silent conflict.
Recongregator - Recongregator Secrets: The greatest secret the Recongregators possess is not their own at all, but rather the secret that the Amalathians have uncovered about the Tyrant Star. Unlike the Amalathians, it is a truth that they have only glimpsed and one that they suspect would not be favourable to any of the Inquisition's factions should it become known. Thus, they are mostly concerned with further investigation across the sector, gathering what pieces of information they can. They are not merely trying to counter the Amalathians' ambitions, but are attempting to discover whether behind the secret there lurks a darker, sinister, hidden truth.
Red-Marked (Audio Drama) - Red-Marked (Audio Drama): Red-Marked is the thirty-forth audio drama for the The Horus Heresy series that was not originally released as part of an anthology or other release. Red-Marked was first released as an audio drama in January 2016. The title has since been released as part of the Eye of Terra main series anthology.
Red-Marked (Audio Drama) - Official Synopsis: Though the Word Bearers' attack on Calth and the subsequent Shadow Crusade into Ultramar are but a memory, the borders of Imperium Secundus are far from secure. Sergeant Aeonid Thiel, stranded on the garrison world of Oran on his way back to Macragge, frustrates his superiors once again by pointing out the holes in their defence -- Traitor warband activity is increasing, and a series of key listening posts have fallen silent. Leading a handful of rogue Veterans and wearing the red mark of censure like a badge of honour, can Thiel uncover the truth behind the mysterious "Nightfane?"
Red Angel - Red Angel: The Red Angel is a daemon of Chaos which was formed from the distilled rage of Brother-Captain Tagas, the former Captain of the Blood Angels Legion's 111th Company, who had been presumed killed in action on the world of One-Forty-Twenty, the planet called Murder.Through the dark sorceries of Chaos, the undiluted rage of the Blood Angels gained sentience, giving birth to the vile creature known as the Red Angel. During the opening years of the Horus Heresy, this daemon came to possess the body of Apothecary Meros of the Blood Angels during the Battle of Signus Prime.
Red Angel - Daemonic Ally: As for the daemonic entity known as the Red Angel, it presented itself to Horus aboard his flagship, the Battleship Vengeful Spirit. Erebus was infuriated that the Warmaster had interfered with his plans to turn the Blood Angels to the side of Chaos. When Horus asked the daemonic entity its true identity, the Red Angel revealed itself as the Fallen Son of Baal, the Cruor Angelus, the Willing Slave.The Red Angel was a weapon to be used at Horus and the Traitor Legions' disposal, a weapon intended to seize Terra and throw down the False Emperor. The daemon's statement was met with the Warmaster's approval.When the daemon named itself the "Red Angel," Horus' Equerry, Maloghurst, warned that the World Eaters' Primarch, Angron, who had already taken this epithet, would be gravely insulted. The Red Angel replied that if the Primarch of the World Eaters took offence, he could challenge the daemon, claiming he deserved it far more than Angron.Later on, during the Battle of Molech, the Red Angel was utilised by Horus as a guide after he entered the planet's hidden Warp Gate in his bid to obtain the powers he believed granted to the Emperor by the Chaos Gods when he had similarly used the gate.
Red Ark - Red Ark: The Red Ark was an Adeptus Mechanicus Ark Mechanicus (designation 20022563529) from the Forge World of Mars. Assigned to the Blood Angels Chapter's homeworld of Baal, the Red Ark discovered the asteroid that would become part of the space hulk later designated the Olethros while searching for an unknown Chaos artefact. It mined the asteroid and successfully recovered the artefact. At some point after this, a catastrophe befell the ship and its crew and it became trapped in the asteroid. The ship next became infested with Tyranid Genestealers soon after it was trapped.The Red Ark was eventually found by the crew of the Rogue Trader ship Tregrom. After tethering their own vessel to the Red Ark, the crew of the Tregrom began to salvage what they could from the ship, including its inventories of weapons, Adeptus Astartes power armour, and even STC fragments for technology normally restricted for use only by the Blood Angels by agreement with the Mechanicus. While transferring the skeleton of a massive Tyranid, the Tyranids nesting within the Red Ark attacked the crew of the Tregrom, slaughtering them.In the 41st Millennium, a Dark Angels Terminator Squad entered the Red Ark and killed the broodmother nesting there, afterwards killing several Genestealer Cult psykers, before dispersing a mutagenic virus that would target and kill the rest of the Tyranid nest within the vessel. The Red Ark was destroyed when the Dark Angels succeeded in destroying the larger bulk of the Olethros.
Red Butchers - Red Butchers: The Red Butchers were a specialised shock-assault unit of the World Eaters Legion during the Horus Heresy. These ferocious warriors were the precursor of the Khornate Berserkers of the later Age of the Imperium. The psycho-sugery inflicted upon the Red Butchers by the so-called Butcher's Nails cybernetic implants hammered into their skulls and the awakening taint within the World Eaters Legion combined to create a superhuman killing machine without reason or restraint. The Red Butchers were controlled only through the use of brutal shock implants and the prison of their specially constructed Terminator Armour into which they had been fused by the XIIth's Techmarines. In between battles the Red Butchers were hung in chains in the holds of the World Eaters' warships, foaming and screaming in impotent rage, until such time that they were released once again against the Loyalist forces of the Imperium or upon the innocent.
Red Butchers - History: In the opening days of the Horus Heresy, the Istvaan III Atrocity unleashed a madness that had long festered in the World Eaters Legion and its Primarch Angron, a blood-hungry rage that afflicted the very core of the Legion's being. This psychosis was amplified by the horrific hyper-aggression-inducing cranial surgery and the implantation of the implants known as the Butcher's Nails into the skulls of the Legion's Astartes that so many World Eaters willingly subjected themselves to. On the killing ground of Istvaan III, there were World Eaters on either side of the conflict who succumbed utterly, devolving into mindless frenzied savages who could not be controlled. Rather than "putting down" such individuals as had happened in the past (as such things had occurred from time-to-time long before the Horus Heresy), the XIIth Legion's Apothecaries had the mad Astartes subdued and chained for a far darker fate.The World Eaters' Techmarines made customised suits of Terminator Armour from recovered wargear for them, fashioning the suits as both armour and as confinement; mechanised prison cells that could be immobilised with a remote signal. Hung in chains in the holds of the World Eaters' warships, foaming and screaming in impotent rage, the Red Butchers were born. Unleashed first against the Loyalists during the Drop Site Massacre at Istvaan V, these damned souls, insane with murderous wrath, were loosed to careen blindly into the foe, hacking and slaughtering with savage abandon. Few survived, but the fragments of their Terminator suits, spattered with gore, were found and remade anew for fresh occupants to inhabit.
Red Butchers - Unit Composition: 1 Devoured (Sergeant)4 to 5 Red Butcher Terminators
Red Butchers - Wargear: Cataphractii Pattern Terminator ArmourPower AxeCombi-Bolter
Red Butchers - Optional Wargear: Additional Power AxePair of Lightning Claws
Red Butchers - Optional Wargear (Devoured Only): Power FistChainfistThunder HammerCombi-Weapon
Red Consuls - Red Consuls: The Red Consuls is a little known Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of an unknown Founding, descended from the lineage of the Ultramarines. This Chapter's most notable actions occurred in 926.M41 when it was a part of an Astartes strike force that defended the Vidar Sector from the Necron weapon known as the World Engine, a planet-sized spacecraft armed with Gauss Projectors capable of scorching entire planets of all life. Twelve times the Imperial task force attempted to overwhelm the unstoppable engine of destruction. Only through the heroic but ultimately suicidal actions of a fellow Space Marine Chapter, the Astral Knights, was the World Engine brought low.
Red Consuls - Notable Campaigns: Assault on the Necron World Engine (926.M41) - The massive mobile artificial Necron Tomb World of Borsis, known to the Imperium as the World Engine, was attacked in the Vidar Sector in 926.M41 by an Imperial task force comprised of 15 Space Marine Chapters, including the Red Consuls, plus elements from the Imperial Navy, but even the mightiest weapons the Imperial forces could bring to bear could not harm it. Drop Pods and torpedoes could not penetrate its shields and it was impossible to lock on to with teleport beams. The Imperial task force tried twelve times to overwhelm it through sheer valour and firepower and was rewarded with a string of destroyed and crippled starships and millions of casualties. The World Engine destroyed a third of an entire Imperial Navy battlefleet before the Chapter Master of the Astral Knights decided to ram the hideous vessel with his Battle Barge, the Tempestus. It was only when the enormous Space Marine starship collided with the Necron construct's shields that they finally failed, allowing the Imperial forces to approach their target. A force of over 700 Astral Knights deployed from Drop Pods onto the Necron vessel's surface. For over 100 hours the Astral Knights fought against tens of thousands of Necron warriors and destroyed every flux generator, weapon forge and command node they came upon. Only after the Chapter had been reduced in size to the Chapter Master, Artor Amhrad, and five Battle-Brothers did it succeed in its quest. Amhrad detonated Melta-charges that destroyed a vast Necron tomb complex that housed many of the World Engine's command arrays which brought down the vessel's impenetrable Void Shields and also silenced the machine's weaponry. This allowed the Imperial Navy's starships to destroy the World Engine with Cyclonic Torpedoes. After the battle, as the Adeptus Mechanicus picked over the remains of the destroyed World Engine, the Ultramarines retrieved the twisted wreckage of the Tempestus and placed it amid the ruins of Safehold, the planet that had been the last victim of the World Engine. An Imperial shrine was erected upon the world of Safehold in eternal memory of the Astral Knights Chapter. The shrine consists of seven hundred and seventy-two arbalstone statues, one for every Astral Knight Battle-Brother that died stopping the World Engine, that stands a silent vigil within the dead heart of the Tempestus.
Red Consuls - Chapter Colours: The Red Consuls' Chapter colours are not listed in current Imperial records.
Red Consuls - Chapter Badge: The Red Consuls' Chapter badge is not listed in current Imperial records.
Red Corsairs - Chapter History: After rebelling against the Imperium of Man's authority in an attempt to have the Badab Sector secede from Imperial control, and being defeated in the ensuing Badab War in 912.M41, the Astral Claws Chapter's 200 survivors fled the world, becoming the core of the Chaos pirate warband called the Red Corsairs.The Astral Claws Chapter Master and former Planetary Governor of Badab Primaris, Lufgt Huron, is now a Chaos Lord known as Huron Blackheart. In response to the Badab Sector's huge debt in tithes and to the Chapter's tardiness in submitting its usual 5% tithe of gene-seed, an Imperial Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator vessel, the Righteous Quest, had entered Badab's orbit in 901.M41. Huron's first overt act of rebellion was to order his world's planetary defences to fire upon the intruders, starting the civil conflict later named the Badab War. The Mechanicus vessel was destroyed.The Astral Claws found themselves outnumbered by the Loyalist Imperial forces raised against them by the Inquisition after this incident and so called for aid from other Space Marine Chapters. They were foolishly joined by the Executioners, the Lamenters and the Mantis Warriors who were unaware of the Astral Claws' corruption by Chaos.Eventually, the weight of the Imperium crushed the so-called "Secessionist" rebels and Badab fell. The Executioners, Lamenters, and the Mantis Warriors were granted the Emperor's forgiveness, however the Astral Claws were declared Excommunicate Traitoris and became one of the Renegade Space Marine Chapters.The surviving 200 Astral Claws broke through the Imperial blockade and fled to the Maelstrom where they became the Red Corsairs. They had taken the broken and battered body of Lufgt Huron with them, and he is said to lead them in raids against the Imperium, although he is now more machine than man.The intent of the Red Corsairs' raids are to build Huron's army with captives who turn Traitor and swear themselves to Chaos. The Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart is feared and despised by the Imperium as well as honoured by the other Traitor Legions for the thumb he poked so successfully into the eye of the False Emperor.Huron Blackheart's empire within the Maelstrom has become a great threat and a Chaos power that rivals the Traitor Legions within the Eye of Terror. One of the planets under their control is New Badab, where the tournament dedicated to the Blood God Khorne called the Skull Harvest is regularly held.
Red Corsairs - Chapter Organisation: The Red Corsairs are organised into a large pirate fleet, able to deploy small, elite warbands of Chaos Space Marines supported by larger groups of Human reavers who are essentially spaceborne Chaos Cultists.The Space Marines among the force are supremely proficient at the boarding actions favoured by the Chapter whose ship-to-ship fighting prowess was long infamous when they were the Astral Claws.Huron Blackheart maintains a substantial fleet consisting of vessels captured over numerous engagements, ranging from a single Adeptus Astartes battle barge, a number of strike cruisers, many and varied escorts and a huge number of interceptors and bombers.Rumours suggest that Huron's command ship, salvaged when it was drifting on the edge of the Maelstrom, was originally a Word Bearers Traitor Legion battle barge.
Red Corsairs - Hounds of Huron: The "Hounds of Huron" are Blackheart's harbingers of dark fury. The Hounds are composed of Chaos Space Marine Bike Squads ideally suited for hit-and-run raids and they use their speed to hunt down their prey. They lash out at their intended targets with roaring chainswords and slash with these scythed blades.The Hounds of Huron are often used to destroy isolated targets as well as tracking down and executing fleeing enemies. Imposing and powerful Chaos Lords within the ranks of the Red Corsairs known as "huntmasters" are able to temporarily gain the allegiance of large warbands of Chaos Space Marine Bikers from across the Maelstrom with the promise of delivering to these Renegades a great bounty. These imposing figures answer only to the Tyrant of Badab himself.The huntmasters are able to rally a sizeable pack of followers shortly before a major engagement is to occur. There are no more than 4 huntmasters within the Red Corsairs at any given time, for all of them are bitter rivals vying for glory in the eyes of their dark master.The rewards for obedience to the Tyrant are great but the punishment for treachery is fatal. Amongst the Hounds' tasks is to hunt down those Renegade Space Marines who were once members of the Red Corsairs and have since put their own agenda above that of the Tyrant's -- a common flaw amongst the servants of Chaos.
Red Corsairs - Chapter Combat Doctrine: The Red Corsairs fight primarily as an expression of their twisted faith in Chaos Undivided.In order to save what was left of his Chapter and his hideously wounded body, Lufgt Huron made a terrible pact with the Ruinous Powers, pledging eternal service in return for the blessings and patronage of Chaos. With limited numbers at their disposal, the Red Corsairs spend much of their time as space pirates, but also launch brutal raids on Imperial shipping and outposts.Though piratical in the extreme, the Renegade master leads the Red Corsairs on savage attacks on Imperial shipping and outposts not because they have any overriding need for plunder, but because the very act of looting the regions he and his Heretic Astartes were previously sworn to protect pleases Huron and his followers as much as it does their diabolic patrons.
Red Corsairs - Chapter Gene-Seed: After their embrace of Chaos and transformation into the Red Corsairs, the gene-seed of the Astral Claws has degraded due to exposure to the corrupting power of the Warp and is prone to mutation, as is true for all Heretic Astartes.Garreon, called the "Corpsemaster," the Astral Claws' former Chief Apothecary, is working at the Renegade Chapter's base on the Ramilies-class starfort they call Hell's Iris in the Maelstrom on their remaining gene-seed stock prior to implanting it in those aspirants who survive the punishing selection process. Yet the Corpsemaster voiced his concerns about the quality of the remaining gene-seed to Armenneus Valthex, the Chapter's Master of the Forge.Neither had ever heard of a rate of gene-seed implantation failure that was so high, and the number of obvious mutations within the ranks of the former Astral Claws who still lived was growing. Due to this difficulty in creating new Chaos Space Marines, the Chapter often steals gene-seed from other Loyalist Chapters, but their original genetic heritage as the Astral Claws is thus being winnowed away as more and more Red Corsairs are created from other genetic lineages.The process of stealing other Chapter's gene-seed had started earlier during the Badab War when Huron sought to expand his Chapter into a true, Space Marine Legion-sized force. Astral Claws Apothecaries had conducted heretical experiments on rapid gene-seed zygote cultivation, though these had ultimately proved unsuccessful. Yet the Astral Claws' numbers had grown during this time due to their refusal to submit their gene-seed to the Adeptus Mechanicus for inspection.