Blood Angels - Brothers In Blood: The Imperium was forever changed in the wake of Horus' defeat. No longer would the beneficent Emperor take a martial role in Mankind's defence, for His shattered body was now sustained only by the life-giving machineries of the Golden Throne. The reconstruction of His empire and the final rout of the traitor forces would now fall to the surviving Primarchs, men such as Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists and Roboute Guilliman of the Ultramarines. Indeed, it was Guilliman who would have the greatest lasting effect upon the now-leaderless Blood Angels.Through the Codex Astartes -- that great treatise on the restructuring and ordering of the Space Marines -- Guilliman's legacy would reshape the Blood Angels Legion into the Chapters that defend the Imperium to this day. Guilliman sought to ensure no one man could ever command the destructive power of a Space Marine Legion again. To do this, he insisted that the Legiones Astartes be divided into smaller 1,000-man autonomous units. Some of his surviving brothers railed against this dissolution as a perceived injustice and a sleight against the integrity of their Legions. At a time when emotions were running high and weary souls saw treachery and judgement in every remark, this edict threatened to cause a new Imperial civil war. In the end, though, Guilliman could not be denied, and one by one his surviving brothers and the leaderless Legions relented. The Legiones Astartes were no more: the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes were born.For the Blood Angels, this division was a cruel double blow. Their Primarch, Sanguinius, was dead, slain at Horus' own hands in the final moments of the Heresy and now, without time to grieve their father nor recoup the terrible casualties suffered in the Siege of Terra, this close-knit fraternity was to be sundered. The survivors lacked an obvious leader and, worse still, the first signs of their flaw were beginning to manifest within the ranks of the Legion. It is fair to say that the Blood Angels' encounters with the scions of Chaos had left the Legionaries scarred and the horror of their master's death was a visceral wound upon their souls. Since fighting against the Daemons of Khorne and Slaanesh at Signus Prime, a nascent thirst had awoken within the Legion, and the aftershock of Sanguinius' death at the hands of the Warmaster had cursed their souls with what would come to be known as the Black Rage. Though the Heresy was over, for the Blood Angels, their greatest trial was just beginning.From the midst of this sorrow and tragedy arose the Chapters of this new birth, referred to as the Second Founding. While each Legion worked out for itself how to divide (and some Legions experienced a more harrowing road than even the Blood Angels), the Sons of Sanguinius were at last united by the sole survivor of the Sanguinary Guard, Azkaellon. Accounts from this time differ greatly, but all concur that at Azkaellon's counsel the survivors of the Legion formed a small number of Chapters, commanded by the champions of the Blood Angels. Each took on the traditions and rites of their Legion as the basis for their new brotherhood and adopted a fitting name. Thus began a time of rebuilding for the Sons of Sanguinius, who separated to establish themselves as autonomous organisations. Notably, even in this time of disarray, the vengeful Chapter Master Nassir Amit, known by his peers as the "Flesh Tearer", led his eponymous Chapter on a blood-soaked crusade to seek out and annihilate any vestige of the Traitor Legions. Their actions, even in the early years of the Flesh Tearers' existence, laid the foundations upon which they would be known, and judged, ever after.In the thousands of Terran years that have followed, there have been several subsequent foundings of Space Marine Chapters, and through these the number of Chapters raised from the genestock of the Blood Angels has also risen. Each newly-forged Chapter helps to cement the legacy of their Primarch Sanguinius, ensuring it lives on as long as they fight. But as time has passed it is clear that, though all of these Chapters started their life from the same Legion, they have all diverged from their founding Legion to some greater or lesser degree. Some, such as the Angels Encarmine, have established a reputation beyond reproach and a legacy of heroism every bit as honourable as their founding Legion. Others, however, are barely recognisable. Indeed, the Carmine Blades are a Chapter who passed, perhaps accidentally, as descendants of the Ultramarines Legion for a considerable time, until a chance meeting with Astorath the Grim in the late 41st Millennium revealed the truth behind their origins. The Carmine Blades had at last an answer for the strange symptoms that they had worked so hard to conceal from those around them -- they now had a name for the Red Thirst and Black Rage that they had hitherto been unable to explain.