Space Wolves - Test of Morkai (The Blooding): Although the length and nature of any further trials an aspirant must endure will differ, the final test is always the same. This is the Test of Morkai, and it will challenge even the hardiest aspirant to the very limit of his endurance. Some fail this final test and are claimed by Morkai and forgotten. The trial is long, for the warrior is taken a thousand kilometres into the barren wastes beyond the fortress of the Fang. The aspirant begins his trial by drinking a strange, heady mixture from the Chapter relic known as the Cup of Wulfen.An ancient legend of the Chapter tells how Leman Russ gave the Cup of Wulfen to his original followers, the first men from Fenris to join the VIth Legion, telling them to drink from the Cup. The first man who drank, named Wulfen, was secretly jealous of Russ, drank, and became the first canine mutant also known as the Wulfen, an angry amalgamation of the Wolf Spirit and the secret darkness that resided within the heart of the man.He leapt to attack Russ, who throttled him with one hand. Russ then declared that all those who were unworthy of becoming a Space Wolf would become a Wulfen after they drank from the Cup. Russ would allow any of those who had come to turn back from the path before drinking, but none did. Those who drank and survived became the first Space Wolves to be recruited from Fenris.In truth, when the aspirant drinks from this Chapter relic, his body absorbs the first and most deadly gene-seed of the Space Wolves -- the unique Canis Helix, the Spirit of the Wolf, which is actually a genetic cocktail drawn from the genome of Leman Russ and used as a catalyst to activate the viral machinery of the aspirants' gene-seed implants, much as the Blood Angels Chapter's aspirants drink a minute portion of the blood of their Primarch Sanguinius from the Red Grail to begin their transformation into Space Marines.The frightening potency of the Canis Helix is legendary, and has accounted for the lives of millions of aspirants as their bodies writhe and churn in anguish. Those it does not kill it transforms into slavering, wolf-like mutants. The Canis Helix is necessary, however, as without this essential part of Leman Russ' heritage the other gene-seed helices cannot be implanted at all. In reality, those aspirants who are likely to fall prey to the Wulfen mutation inherent within the gene-seed of Leman Russ do not do so after immediately imbibing the Canis Helix mixture, but usually over the solar weeks and months of training that follow afterwards.Whilst in the throes of transformation, the aspirant is cast out into the wilderness to make his own way back to the Fang. The introduction of the primarch's genome and viral machines work hideous changes on the warrior's mind and body; he reverts to a primal state where his bones split and buckle, thick hair sprouts from across his body and his only desire is to gorge on fresh meat and glut himself on blood.His body mass grows by up to eighty percent, many of his bones fuse, and fangs sprout from his gums. Whilst his body is wracked with pain, the warrior must overcome the shadow within him lest it possess him entirely. If he does not, he will become one of the giant, feral mutant creatures known as the Wulfen, those who failed to overcome the curse. To become one of the Wulfen is to fall from grace, and to roam the wilderness of Fenris forevermore as a creature of the darkest night, or be captured by his former brothers and held as a caged beast until the time is right for them to be set loose in battle.If the aspirant manages to find his way back to the Fang despite the ravages wrought upon him and the many perils that lie between him and his goal, he is implanted with the remainder of the Space Wolves' gene-seed, stabilising the genetic sequences of the Canis Helix and completing his apotheosis into a fully-fledged Sky Warrior. The newly-inducted warriors are gifted with the ancient power armour of a fallen Wolf-Brother and welcomed into the ranks of one of the 12 Great Companies as a full battle-brother.For the Space Wolves, no Astartes is considered a neophyte, instead each new warrior has been accepted into their ranks as a full initiate of the Chapter known as a Blood Claw. With time, it becomes clear that some of these warriors have not completely conquered the Canis Helix's original effects, and in times of great stress they will alter into the bestial state that haunts their soul like a ghastly shadow. This is the Curse of the Wulfen, and it is rightly feared.However, as Space Marines these successful aspirants will live for hundreds of standard years, if they do not die in battle, and they will voyage through the Sea of Stars to fight in the Emperor's name. They will battle monstrous Orks and hideous Daemons. They will encounter the horrors of the Tyranids and they will endure the indescribable perils of Warpspace. To a man born and raised amongst the barbarian warrior tribes of Fenris, this is indeed a life amongst the gods.