Baal - Blood Angels Recruitment: Since the time of Sanguinius, the Blood Angels have recruited from among the greatest tribes of the Blood on Baal Secundus and Baal Prime, where a colony was established shortly after the time of the Horus Heresy.Youths from the Blood take part in great games and tournaments, facing many hazards as they race across the desert, to fight and do battle against one another. These contests are usually held only once per generation at Angel's Fall, where a mighty statue of Sanguinius now observes the proceedings.Traditionally, the Time of Challenge is announced by heralds who visit each tribe in great "flying chariots." Contestants must make their way to the settlement of Angel's Fall across the rad-deserts of Baal Secundus, a process that in and of itself weeds out the weakest, for the hazards of the Baalite desert are many, and it takes a youth of extraordinary skill and courage to even reach the Place of Challenge.Once there they must vie for the fifty or so places that are available. Those who succeed are taken up in "Sky Chariots" (i.e. Thunderhawks); those who fail are left behind either to guard the place of testing or to make their way back to their own tribes as they choose.Those youths who are accepted as aspirants are taken to the Blood Angels' fortress-monastery, the Arx Angelicum, on Baal itself. There they see great wonders and look for the first time on the unmasked faces of their future battle-brothers, and possibly note with some consternation their sharp eye-teeth and sleekly beautiful features.It has to be said that the recruits are far from handsome at this stage. Most of the aspirants bear the marks of their hard lives, for it is all but impossible for an ordinary man to dwell on the barren moons of Baal and not feel the terrible kiss of the ambient radiation. Many are marked by stigmata, most are short and stunted, their growth stifled by malnutrition and the constant hunger. Many more will be marked by rad-lesions and incipient carcinoma.All the aspirants are left to observe vigil in the great Chapel of the Chapter and then they will drink from the Red Grail brought to them by one of the Blood Angels' Sanguinary Priests. They are told that they partake of the blood of their primarch and they drink. Slumber soon overtakes them and the aspirants are borne by Chapter servitors to the Apothecarion where the gene-seed of Sanguinius will be implanted in their unconscious bodies.From the Apothecarion the aspirants will be taken to the Hall of Sarcophagi and each will be placed within a mighty golden sarcophagus. Life support nodes are attached to them and for the next Terran year they will be fed intravenously with a mixture of nutrients and the Blood of Sanguinius while the newly implanted gene-seed organs do their metabolic work, sculpting and reshaping the young men's metabolisms and anatomy.Many aspirants die at this stage, their bodies unable to cope with the strain of the cellular and hormonal changes that now overtake them. Those who live will grow swift and true, echoing the rapid physical growth of their primarch. They will put on muscle mass and acquire the extra internal organs that mark a true Space Marine.At this time too they will have many strange dreams, for the gene-seed of the Angel carries within it many of the memories of Sanguinius. Thus will the essence of their Primarch begin to permeate the souls of his chosen warriors. Ever afterwards, when sleeping, and sometimes when awake, these dreams will return to haunt the future Blood Angels.When the aspirants emerge from their sarcophagi they are forever changed. They will be tall, strong and superhumanly powerful. Their restructured bodies and features will have taken on a beauty that echoes that of their angelic forebear. Their senses will be keener, their muscles will be stronger than tempered steel. They will be ready to begin their training as Space Marine Neophytes and enter the Chapter's Scout Companies.