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Things worth noting before you start:
I started writing this in the present tense, but decided that it looked silly. I therefore changed all of it to past tense, but I might have missed something. If you find anything, please tell me.

Wall of text, you have been warned:

The Templar Vanguard was formed in early M36 after Marshal Saegelis of the Black Templars turned to Chaos. During the assault on Vaesel IV, a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch corrupted the once noble Marshal. Saegelis ran rampant alongside his retinue of Terminators through the Imperial Guard forces present, slaughtering thousands. Master of Sanctity Oceanus, Saegelis's de-facto apprentice, vowed vengeance upon his master and, as a Battle-Barge belonging to the Grey Knights appeared, Oceanus demanded that he be allowed to join the Ordo Malleus’ hunt for the fallen Marshal. The Grey Knights refused, stating that it would be madness considering Oceanus’s close ties to Saegelis.

As the knights prepared to cleanse the entire Crusade and the unfortunate Imperial Guard forces, Oceanus and those still loyal to the Emperor were ambushed by their former battle-brothers, led by Saegelis. Fighting desperately, holed up in a captured Eldar building, Oceanus and his sixty brothers fought with the zeal and fury of the betrayed, but were heavily decimated. Standing defiantly on top of a mound of their slaughtered enemies, Oceanus and his retinue eventually stood triumphant, the only survivors.

Clapping his twisted hands, Saegelis entered the chamber where the fighting had taken place. His visage mutated and tainted, his hands already crackling with eldritch power, the former Marshal lumbered towards the desperate warriors. Gesturing toward the Company Champion, Kheiron Aifaistos, who carried the Crusade Banner, a bolt of pure warp-energy flew from the Marshal’s hands, piercing the torso of the Sword Brother. With contempt, Saegelis laughed as the remaining marines’ bolter shots bounced off his armour. With a roar, the mortally wounded Company Champion leapt toward the tainted marine and lifted his power fist, the power field humming. Only the Iron Halo of the Marshal, now horribly twisted and glowing in a reddish hue, saved the fallen knight from his doom. Before Saegelis could deliver a killing blow, however, Oceanus and the rest of the survivors fell upon him. Lashing out with Crozius, Lightning Claws and Power Weapons, they forced the Marshal back from their fallen brother. The Marshal, however, soon killed two of the brothers, leaving only Oceanus and Apothecary Anguis. The Apothecary fell when the fallen one knocked both the Chaplain and him back, sending Anguis flying through a window and falling to an untimely death. This same strike, however, gave the Chaplain time to brandish his Holy Orb of Antioch and throw it at the traitor. The fury of the God-Emperor harnessed into a single weapon was too much even for the mutated Marshal. With a blinding flash of brilliant light, the daemonic traitors skin blistered, his blood boiled. With a final, anguished cry he slumped to the floor, his life force finally giving up.

Fatigued, the Chaplain proceeded to drag the still living but quickly fading Aifaistos out of the building while calling out on his vox-link for aid. Aid came, in the shape of the six-hundred and sixty-sixth chapter’s warriors. As the Grey Knights descended upon the planet, Oceanus explained over his vox-link to them what had happened. The warriors of the Ordo Malleus agreed to let him return to the only strike cruiser not tainted by Chaos, “Illustrious”, with the body of the fallen banner bearer. Upon return to the cruiser, the remaining apothecaries were amazed to find that there still was a sliver of life left in the veteran and quickly interred him in Dreadnought Armour, securing his place among the heroes of the chapter. Once the Grey Knights were done obliterating the survivors of the betrayal, it was revealed that only 65 of the original 895 Black Templars of the Saegelis Crusade was still alive, the majority being the Techmarines and Apothecaries that had remained behind on the “Illustrious”. The second strike cruiser of the Crusade, the “Fist of the High Marshal”, was destroyed as the last few loyalists onboard overloaded the power cores, ripping the vessel apart. In a stroke of luck, however, due to a malfunctioning docking bay door, most of the Crusade’s heavy armour and transport vehicles were still onboard the “Illustrious”.

Two years later, a few months before the 14th founding, Oceanus petitioned High Marshal Gervhart of the Black Templars to be allowed to be the one to lead a new chapter, as the High Lords of Terra had already decided that they, for some reason, wanted a new chapter with the Templar geneseed. Gervhart allowed this, and the Templar Vanguard was officially made a successor chapter to the Black Templars, with Oceanus as the Chapter Master, or Lord Marshal. Given the world of Syntax E as their Chapter World, the chapter at this time only had the original 65 survivors of the disaster at and 25 initiates. Recruiting many new initiates, the chapter soon boasted a fighting force of 140 battle brothers, along with some 600 initiates. What the chapter lacked in manpower, it made up for with equipment. The chapter was awarded the “Illustrious”, along with everything onboard it, save for the dreadnoughts, Aifaistos being the only exception.

In one of their first battle actions, the Templar Vanguard deployed all of their 65 battle-brothers and 37 initiates against an Ork Waaagh! on the Hive World of Volgatov and managed to eliminate the Warboss, Bigbutcha’, with a surgical strike. When the Mega-Armour of the Warboss exploded and tore out a huge hole in a nearby bunker, it was revealed that a forgotten Black Templars weapons cache was located on the planet. The cache turned out to contain some 20 suits of Tactical Dreadnought Armour, along with several suits of Artificier Armour, some plasma guns and power weapons, as well as, incredibly enough, two drop pods. The Vanguards quickly established a perimeter defense around the vault and began extraction of the relics. As the Orks offensive ground to a halt amid infighting over the title of Warboss, the “Illustrious” initiated a fierce orbital bombardment of the Ork positions. While the “Illustrious” was merely a Strike Cruiser, the unprepared Orks were severely reduced in strength. The day was won. Being pragmatic, Oceanus decided that “What Gervhart doesn’t know exists he won’t miss”, and thus the Chapter took the relics for themselves.

When the Age of Apostasy broke out, the Templar Vanguard joined forces with their brothers, the Black Templars, in the assault on Holy Terra. As the Templars and the Vanguard both displayed similar heraldic crosses, combined with black armour, most preserved records of the time do not mention the Vanguard, believing them to be Templars. In fact, it was Venerable Kheiron Aifaistos that strode first, smiting the forces of the heretical High Lord Vandire with his mighty lascannon. Five years after the Crusade on Terra ended, the Chapter was awarded a newly constructed Battle-barge, “Chronos”, by the Adeptus Mechanicus as thanks for their assistance. The Battle-barge was originally intended for the “Huscarls of Terra” Chapter, but their Chapter World was obliterated by a freak comet impact, thus rendering their Chapter extinct.

The 37th millennium went by largely unnoticed in the Chapter. Brothers died and new were recruited, but the Chapter played no major part in any large battles. The chapter used this period of calm to reinforce their ranks, swelling to 1674 Battle Brothers and 478 Initiates, clearly violating the Codex Astartes, just like their Templar brethren. However, unlike their brethren in the Black Templars, the Templar Vanguard did not receive visions of the Emperor prior to battle. Instead, a battle-brother received the famous visions when the previous Champion died. As such, there is only one Emperor’s Champion in the entire chapter at one given time.

In the closing years of M37 however, the Chapter mobilized 800 battle brothers under the command of Marshal Aureus, second in command and the future Lord Marshal of the Chapter (although no one knew it at the time) to help combat the 8th Black Crusade of the Despoiler. By this time the Chapter Fleet had grown to include the Battle-barges “Ananake” and “Rhea”, as well as the strike cruisers “Zephyrus”,” Boreas”,” Noutus “ and “Eurus” and several smaller craft. The Crusade took “Chronus” and “Rhea”, as well as “Illustrious” and “Eurus” and departed for the battlegrounds. In a series of devastating battles, “Illustrious” was annihilated by a traitorous Emperor-class battleship, while Rhea was lost alongside 350 brothers when it was rammed by the Chaos Battle-barge “Sacrilege”, of the World Eaters Legion.

The entire campaign, however, was not a failure. Aureus lead the remaining Vanguards against the forces of Chaos and managed to successfully board and destroy the Despoiler-class battleship “Gift of Pestilence” alongside his Terminator retinue. The Vanguard forces were also responsible for annihilating the Chaos Warhound Titan “Vulpes Furoris” with their predator tanks. In the end, around half the participating brothers were dead, but the forces of Chaos were thwarted.

Returning home to Syntax E, Aureus soon realized that something was wrong. From orbit, the only thing visible on the surface was black, thick clouds. All attempts by the Aureus Crusade to contact the Chapter-Keep on the surface were met with silence. Deploying his entire Crusade via drop-pod insertion, Aureus soon arrived at the Keep, only to find it overrun by daemons. Leading the entire crusade of 378 battle-brothers and 139 neophytes in a charge through the main gates, Aureus fought like a madman. Lashing out left and right with his sword, a relic found on Volgatov, he cut his way through bloodletters, nurglings and all manners of foul beings to the point that his terminator retinue had to physically restrain him so that he did not charge too far ahead at three different occasions. It was, however, not only Aureus who fought like a possessed. Both Master of Sanctity Briareos and Gyges, Champion of the Emperor, cut their way through the hordes of Chaos, side by side, as if the Daemons were mere moths before an inferno. Unlike the Marshal, the two warriors were quickly out of reach for any brothers, but in their furor they kept going, slashing and hacking their way through the main entrance and out of sight of the main force.
Shortly thereafter, the doors of the Keep slammed shut and, despite the Crusade’s best efforts, wouldn’t open. Aureus then led the Crusade to another, hidden entrance. While the secret passage was closed, it wasn’t nearly as heavily guarded as the front gate had been, and the Crusade was able to open the passage for their use. Pouring through the empty secret passage, Aureus once again mildly restrained by his bodyguards, the force arrived in the grand hall of the Keep, where the initiation ceremonies were held when a Neophyte had earned his place amongst the battle-brothers. The hall stood eerily empty, and not a sound could be heard.

Calming down, Aureus split his forces into 25-man strong teams and sent them to different parts of the Keep to look for survivors. The Marshal and his 5 terminator guards, meanwhile, ascended up the great staircase leading from the great hall to the Lord Marshal’s chambers. Walking through the deserted corridors, the company saw battle-brothers lie slain in numerous ways; with increasing frequency the closer they got to the Lord Marshal’s chambers. As they drew closer to their destination, they began to hear the sound of battle, at first weak but growing ever stronger. Picking up their pace, the six warriors ran up a deserted hallway, up a flight of stairs and through a wall, before they came to a complete stop in the Lord Marshal’s audience chamber.

The scene before them was one of total mayhem. Traitor marines of all possible colours and daemons lay dead all over the room alongside the warriors of the Chapter. In the far end of the room, a small handful of warriors, among them Oceanus, were fending off a substantial amount of Chaos marines and daemons. Wasting no time, Aureus and his retinue charged the rear of the foul servants of Chaos. Despite the fury with which Aureus and his companions fought, the horde of darkness was numerous indeed, and when the last daemon died, the only survivors amongst the defenders were Oceanus and five terminators, along with 3 neophytes.

Suddenly, a sound like thunder could be heard. As one, all the Templars turned towards the entrance to the chamber. There stood Saegelis, or rather, what was once Saegelis. His bulk greatly increased, his sacred Tactical Dreadnought Armour ripped and torn, his face horribly disfigured by Oceanus Orb nearly two thousand years ago. On his back were two great blood-red wings, and in his hand was an axe, nearly 12 feet long. The Astartes charged him as one, seeking to annihilate the arch-enemy of the Chapter once and for all, but Saegelis was faster. With a backhand blow he knocked the warriors aside as were they but leaves in a tempest. Turning towards Oceanus, Saegelis simply bellowed “Blood for the Blood God, Skulls for the Skull Throne! Good bye, Oceanus!” before taking Oceanus’s head of with a single blow.

Stumbling to his feet, Aureus lashed out with his sword, but was knocked aside by yet another backhand blow from the Daemon Prince. As the other survivors got to their feet and charged, they were disposed of one after another. Saegelis even lopped of the heads of three brothers with a single strike of his mighty axe. Striding up to the dazed Marshal, Saegelis lifted him by the throat in one of his giant, clawed hands. “Weak. Pathetic. Just like your master.” Saegelis remarked. “Oh well, another Skull for His throne”. Before he got the chance to kill the Marshal off, however, a sword pierced the arm grasping the commander, causing Saegelis to drop him. The sword was black as the night sky.

“Fool, your life is forfeit now!” Saegelis bellowed, turning to face his new opponent. “The Lord of Skulls will feast on your soul!” “There is only the Emperor; he is our shield and protector!” Gyges replied, lashing out with the Black Sword of the Templar Vanguard. Parrying the blow, Saegelis tried to maul the Emperor’s Champion with his left hand, but the Champion ducked. The ensuing battle was short but intense. In the end, not even the fury of the Emperor’s Champion was enough to defeat a Daemon Prince of Khorne, and Gyges was sent flying into a wall, where he remained, unable to get to his feet. Lumbering towards the Champion, Saegelis laughed a dark, unnatural laugh. He lifted his axe above his head and moved in for the kill. Slashing downwards, the Daemon Prince put all of his terrible skill behind the cut, only to have his axe melted by a bolt of clear-blue plasma. Turning around on the spot, the last thing Saegelis saw before his face became smashed in was the head of Briareos, the Master of Sanctity. Bringing the Daemonhammer “Terminus Dies”, a gift from the Ordo Malleus to the Chapter, to bear, Briareos smashed the face of the traitor in with all his might. The Daemon Prince simply turned to dust, collapsing.

Having extracted the body of Oceanus and after saving the life of Gyges, Briareos and Aureus returned to the ships in orbit. The clouds had parted now, but all that remained of the once fertile landscape of Syntax E was a twisted, daemonic flora and fauna, dangerous to anyone who’s not a servant of the ruinous powers. After careful consideration, the newly proclaimed Lord Marshal Aureus decided that the only way to make sure that the taint didn’t spread was to destroy the entire planet. Fortunately, while this would lead to the destruction of the Chapter World, the vehicles and Dreadnoughts of the Chapter were kept on a platform in orbit, since the tropical climate on the surface was bad for the electronics. Since the Chapter did not have the resources to perform Exterminatus, the Ordo Malleus was contacted. After a brief warp-jump, the ship of Inquisitor Rathurst fired cyclonic torpedoes, thus obliterating the planet. Since that day, the Chapter has been a space-bound chapter, just like their primogenitors, the Black Templars.