Wolf Brothers - History: The Second Founding of the Space Marines occurred seven standard years after the end of the Horus Heresy, in the early 31st Millennium. This Founding involved the division of the existing 9 Loyalist Space Marine Legions into the far smaller, 1,000-man autonomous Chapters as decreed by the new Codex Astartes, written by the Ultramarines' Primarch, Roboute Guilliman. Instead of 9 Legions, there were now many hundreds of Chapters. There were no Primarchs to guide them and the Adeptus Astartes now fought in the image of their gene-fathers, making use of their capabilities in service to a dark future very different from the one the Emperor had envisaged when He had created the first Astartes.That was the way of things during the dawning of the Age of the Imperium. Chapters no longer marched in ranks of ten thousand Astartes or more. They created Successor Chapters, off-shoots governed by the same gene-seed, so that their Primarch's legacy was maintained across the stars. The more Successor Chapters drawn from the original Legion's gene-seed, the greater the legacy.The scions of Roboute Guilliman were the ancestors of hundreds of Chapters, as were the sons of Rogal Dorn, and so it was that the Imperium was ultimately modelled in their image. Without Successors, no Chapter lived to exert influence. Successor Chapters -- these were what the Vlka Fenryka (the Space Wolves) aspired to create, to ensure that warriors of their temper flourished and endured.The Space Wolves created from the genetic legacy of Leman Russ a Successor Chapter known as the Wolf Brothers, led by its first Chapter Master, Beor Arjac Grimmaesson. The Wolf Brothers were intended to be as numerous as their genetic forebears, and as powerful. They were gifted a homeworld, Kaeriol, a planet of ice and fire, just as Fenris is. They were given half of the Space Wolves' Legion fleet, half their armouries and half their Priests.They were to have been the first of many Successors, a whole line of descendant Fenrisian Chapters -- the "Sons of Russ," capable of carving out a star empire the size of Ultramar. That was the vision of the Space Wolves: to be powerful enough to encircle the Eye of Terror completely, to prevent the Traitors from daring to leave it ever again. It was hoped that the Wolf Brothers and other Space Wolves Successors would fulfill their destiny and find a new purpose in the Age of the Imperium.But something went terribly wrong and the Wolf Brothers were disbanded, scattered to the six points of the compass. They were disbanded for the same reason there could be no further Successors to the Space Wolves -- the existence of the Wolf Within. The genetic code of the Space Wolves Astartes known as the Canis Helix was far too dangerous to be copied. The heritage that made the Space Wolves powerful also made their genomes unstable and prone to rapid mutation.The Wolf Brothers, located far from Fenris, fell quickly into the state of beasts, manifesting in large numbers of Wulfen and other, more terrible, abominations within their ranks. So it would be with any attempt to splice new sets of gene-seed from the genetic legacy of Leman Russ. Shortly after their creation the Chapter was disbanded by the Ordo Astartes, the Ordo of the Inquisition tasked with watching the Adeptus Astartes, its stores of gene-seed destroyed and its surviving Battle-Brothers given the choice between a death in glorious battle or a shameful execution.However, before the Ordo Astartes' orders could be fully carried out much of the Chapter disappeared, the Wolf Brothers vanishing into the depths of space. Some within the Adeptus Terra accused Leman Russ of warning his Successor Chapter or even aiding their escape, though no proof was ever uncovered. To this day rumours persist of small bands of Wolf Brothers fighting with Renegade Chapters or living as pariahs in the shadow of the Eye of Terror.The Space Wolves shelved their plans to create any further Successor Chapters after the disastrous failure of their previous attempt, but in the 32nd Millennium, a Wolf Priest named Thrar "Wyrmblade" Hraldir believed he was close to a breakthrough. Hraldir had come closer than any other since the time of the Emperor Himself at understanding the genetic nature of the Canis Helix.Hraldir came close to figuring out how to reproduce the gene-seed of the Space Wolves without any of its inherent flaws. The Space Wolves' dream of emulating the Ultramarines, Imperial Fists and the other First Founding Chapters in the creation of a legion of Successors seemed close at hand. But unknown to the Space Wolves, their ambitions were also known to their ancient enemy, the Daemon Primarch Magnus the Red of the traitorous Thousand Sons Legion.