Chapter Name: Wardens Mortalis.
Founding Chapter: Unknown, rumoured to be Blood Angels.
Founding: Seventeenth founding.
Chapter Master: Dis Obidius.
Homeworld: Tartarus.
Fortress-Monastry: Asphodel.
Main colours: Black, with white or red details
Speciality: Aerial assaults
Battle cry: The Wardens Mortalis usually fight in a grim silence. Their only recorded Battle cry is “Nex est nostrum Era!”
Estimated Strength: ~850
The Wardens Mortalis were created in the latter years of M36 to guard the Galaxies Eastern Fringe against Alien incursions. The Founding chapter who gave their Geneseed to the Wardens is unknown, though rumour has it that it may have been the Blood Angels. This is certainly not a impossibility, giving the chapters preference for aerial assaults and unhealthy obsession with death.
Homeworld
The Wardens Mortalis’ homeworld of Tartarus is a land of nightmares-rivers of lava criss-cross the surface, enshrouding it in a nearly unbearable heat. Mountains dot the landscape, and volcanoes bellow out thick smog that blocks out most of the sunlight, wreathing the death world in a perpetual gloom.
The few human tribes that can survive upon the planet do so by living on the few and far between islands of hard rock that float in the channels of magma, whilst the Wardens’ Fortress monastry Asphodel is located deep under the ground, only reachable via either a complicated labyrinth of passages and tunnels, or by navigating the only lake of fresh water located on the planet. They grow up fierce, strong, and tough-perfect recruits for the Adeptus Astartes. Even those not selected to join that fabled warrior brotherhood are not spared a life of hard toil and violence, for Tartarus is much, much more than a Chapter planet. It is a prison.
Tartarus is home to some of the galaxies most dangerous criminals and prisoners of war, both human and otherwise. There is no escape from the planet and indeed for most if not all of the convicted it will be the last world they ever set foot upon. They are set many exhausting and utterly pointless tasks to do, such as pushing a large boulder up a hill only to watch it fall back down the other side every day. It is a place people are sent to die-perhaps fittingly, considering the demeanour of the lords of those who rule it.
Organization
The Wardens Mortalis specialize in aerial assaults, though not in the conventional sense. Rather than Deep striking massed squads of assault troops into the enemy, they will rather send down Tactical squads and Dreadnaughts mounted in drop pods, supported by vehicles airlifted into battle and elite terminator squads (referred to as “The hundred handed ones”, for reasons unknown). Despite this, the chapter does retain a large number of Assault Marines.
This approach, whilst effective, is also why the Wardens Mortalis are constantly under strength, the close range actions they excel in being typically bloody affairs. Due to, or perhaps the root cause of this, the chapter has become almost obsessed with death, Skull iconography decorating the armour of the battle brothers. They see little use for other medals or purity seals, and rather festoon themselves with the bones of dead comrades. They see this as a devotional ritual, avenging the spirits of the fallen.
Quirks
Amongst the chapter there are two distinct brotherhoods that stand out as being odd. The first is the Mortuary cult. A warrior who has passed into the realm of death, but been saved by the chapter apothecaries (who, incidentally, are not bound to a command squad but roam the battlefield looking for wounded to tend to) is eligible to join the cult, representing the chapter belied that death comes to all. They are armed with glaives believed to slay the corrupt soul with but a single blow, and wear jump packs with wings sprouting off it-a nod to an ancient Terran legend off the keeper of the underworld, the Angel of death.
The second oddity is far more sinister. Wherever the Wardens Mortalis have fought, tales abound of a band of fighters who are more eager than their brethren to fight the enemy. They say that these warriors howl and scream to the heavens all battle, breaking the foreboding hush that the chapter normally fights in. When asked about them, the Wardens merely reply that they have been touched by the Emperor, and will say no more. As of yet none have been able to study the afflicted more in depth, for none who have passed into Asphodel have ever emerged....
I will post up more soon, when I can be bothered to write. In the mean time, theres a bonus point and a cookie for the first person to find and explain every reference to ancient Mythology in this section
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