Salamanders - Command Hierarchy: The Salamanders Legion under Vulkan adopted a series of extensive reforms to its structure, the widest and most reaching of which was the organisation of the XVIIIth Legion into seven realms each under the command of its lord protector, below which numerous Line Companies, each of around 120 Space Marines were formed.Aside from specialists, the Legion followed a simplified form of the Terran pattern for battlefield ranks, transiting in descending order of rank from captain to lieutenant to master sergeant, sergeant and Legionary.Seniority within these ranks were determined, when needed, by length of service. Noted equality of speech and demeanour was practiced within the Legion outside of the press of battle, with little value given to the formality of rigid military hierarchy practiced by Legions such as the Ultramarines or the Emperor's Children.Beyond this simple, but highly cohesive system, reinforced by the culture of self-reliance, self-discipline and loyalty promoted by the Promethean Cult (as the chthonic traditions, beliefs and practices of the Legion became known) a wider variety of titles of renown and spheres of influence also evolved. These developed as a record of deeds and achievements, accorded to an individual by their peers, and were likely as often for the accomplishments of a particular craft, as for a singular act of courage in battle.The value of these titles such as "forge master", "storm proven" or "wise shield", often recorded upon the bearer's armour in stylised Nocturnean glyph-forms and branded into their flesh, transcended rank and great store was set by them within the Legion and, while many such titles were in effect unique to their bearer, some like "firedrake" came to mark the Legion's core of elite warriors and carried direct military authority as well as ritual or honourary significance.The Firedrakes, named for the greatest of the salamander saurids said to originate beneath the stones of Mount Deathfire of Nocturne, were the finest and most experienced warriors of the XVIIIth Legion. To be awarded this exalted status, mere skill-at-arms was not enough alone, and the warrior would have to have been proven of faultless bravery and just as importantly, faultless self-control. Amongst these, the greatest formed the Pyre Guard; the primarch's own loyal retainers and Honour Guard.Each of the Legion's seven realms had its own core of Firedrakes to serve as leaders and exemplars for the Legion, and in this they received a special duty to instruct by both word and deed. To this end they received special tutelage in the Promethean Cult by their primarch and the Igniax.Firedrakes were particularly selected for their wisdom, learning and devotion to the spiritual aspects of the Promethean Cult; individuals who swiftly became the core of the Salamander's Chaplains once this concept was disseminated across the Space Marine Legions following the Council of Nikaea.At the outset of the Horus Heresy, the bulk of the Salamanders Legion had been rearming and re-equipping itself at Nocturne after a lengthy campaign of xenos eradication near the galactic core. As such it was able to answer the call to Isstvan V with the majority of its active strength.Although full records are impossible to verify in the aftermath of the Drop Site Massacre, it is believed a force of around 83,000 Salamanders Space Marines went with their primarch to Isstvan V, the losses of which during that deadly action were almost total, rated by some sources as high as 98%.However, the Legion did maintain other detachments that did not travel to the Isstvan System and so were spared the bloody cataclysm. Principal among these were the fully equipped and autonomous garrison maintained at Geryon Deep and the Castellan of Prometheus' forces at around 2,000 to 3,000 Astartes remaining, alongside the full intake of neophytes in training on Prometheus, combined with several Line Companies on detached deployment elsewhere.These figures would tally with commonly held estimates of total active strength for the Salamanders Legion at the end of the Great Crusade of approximately 89,000 Astartes, placing them as among the smallest overall of the Space Marine Legions in manpower.It remains a testimony to the undying resilience of the XVIIIth Legion and its spiritual and psychological strength that despite the losses at Isstvan V, losses thought fatal to the Legion at the time, it was able to maintain coherence and recover its strength, dragging itself back from the precipice of oblivion and remaining a bloody thorn in the side of the Traitors for the rest of the War of the Heresy and, of course, rising again from the ashes to become vital to the Imperium's defence in the face of the Traitors and Renegades in the dark times of the present 41st Millennium.