IL VIII - The Godslayers

[Big Bad Squig]

Do you mean in terms of numbers or mentality?  In regards to personality, very few will be their old selves: there will be a relatively significant number possessed by powerful enough daemons to have a notable personality and be sentient/speech capable, but they won't be Godslayers, just vessels for the daemons.  Very few might be able to wrestle some control over the daemons, and so would show aspects of their old personalities, but that would be pretty rare.  Of course, the dreadnoughts are all completely unchanged, 

[bluntblade]

That is what I meant (sorry for the ages it took me to reply)

 

I reckon the Godslayers should name their lodges something drawn from Sodruzhestvo (fraternity), cos Liberty Equality Fraternity and all that.

[Talonair]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but if Alexander is a Pariah, wouldn't he be immune to corruption and daemonic influence?

[MikhalLeNoir]

he is a warp supressant meaning he negates psypowers directed at him with a special psypower. it is also the only power he has. it is discussed among the wise man of the imperium if this makkes him to a pariah or to a psyker^^

[Big Bad Squig]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but if Alexander is a Pariah, wouldn't he be immune to corruption and daemonic influence?

I'm guessing you mean Alexander's degree of protection from harm that nurgle grants him? If that's the case, it's more nurgle manipulating events around him than him being directly protected.

[Talonair]

I meant more in general, but yea that makes sense

[Big Bad Squig]

Alexander is one of the very few that actually is spared daemonic corruption/possession, but for the legion in general I've created a few loopholes that allow me to sidestep the pariah issue (the psychic suppressant thing, the way the godslayers are possessed, etc.)

[~Drakzilla~]

Forgot to upload this, as it's not really finished. But it'll suffice as a starting point. I present, the big man himself, Koschei:

 

http://i.imgur.com/udJTelO.jpg

Edited December 26, 2016 by drakzilla

[MikhalLeNoir]

Really cool. But...terminatorarmor?

[Big Bad Squig]

Oh wow that's really cool drak!

 

And yeah, Mikhal, he wears a suit of armour vaguely based on cataphractii.

[MikhalLeNoir]

Ahhh. I just had your model in mind^^. Then it makes sense (and funnily easens it for me ti create him.gnahaha.)

[Grifftofer]

Cool. I like the Imperial Knight style pauldrons.

[Chief Captain Redd]

I REALLY like it.

[simison]

An excellent start.

[Azorius]

Suggestion: How do you think about cleaning up Observed Strategic Tendencies like below? 

 

Diplomatic Compliance, Psychic Suppression, Armoured Assault, Siege and Attrition Warfare(after all, siege and attrition automatically including massed bombardment; see FW Extermination), Sledgehammer Tactics and Decapitation Strike(or Targeted Decimation, whatever you want to insert). 

Edited January 27, 2017 by Azorius

[bluntblade]

I'm going to add a paragraph at the begining, which will likely leave me some pruning to do, but here's the blurb for Koschei in the rules section:

 

After the Qarith Triumph, Koschei found it increasingly difficult to reconcile the utopia he wished to create with a father who vanished into His mysterious projects and raised yet more divisions among the already byzantine edifice of the Imperium. Most troubling of all was the rank of Warmaster, elevating one among the brotherhood of Primarchs. These fears were subtly played upon by Travier, laying the ground for when Icarion would begin to seek allies for his rebellion. Koschei, so subtly manipulated, was all too ready to believe Icarion’s accusations against their father. Once swayed, his devotion to his vision carried him into betrayal and the murder of Daer’dd.

 

As severe as the injuries Kharkovic sustained were, the act of fratricide left far deeper wounds. Kharkovic’s early doubts found dreadful substance, and yet he was irrevocably bound to the Insurrectionist cause. His actions put paid to any attempt at rapprochement with his Loyalist brothers, even if Alexandros could suppress their appetite for vengeance. Guilt gnawed at him through the years of war even as his Legion blooded themselves deeper, forcing the Stormlord’s rule on the people they had once protected.

 

When the opportunity came to abandon Icarion for the promise of something better Koschei seized it, yet in truth, he was long past any hope of redemption. Whatever he wished for himself, an entity of incalculable power of malice had decided to make a plaything of the Emperor’s son. After the cruel trick had played out, there was nothing left of the virtues that had made him the Dreamer.

[bluntblade]

The Godslayers – once a mighty legion, whose name and reputation shone through the bleak void of space. They embodied the Emperor’s compassion and were, it may be said, the future of humanity, their Primarch Koschei going as far as to earn the moniker the Light in the Darkness. Strength and virtue went hand in hand with them, and with astonishing resilience they bore the Imperial standard across the battlefields of the Great Crusade.

It was not to last. Icarion exploited the Godslayers’ nobility to shackle them to his uprising. The Light in the Darkness became the first kinslayer among the Primarchs, and the consequences of such a crime are inescapable. Though he fought to maintain his honour, Koschei would find no respite from his guilt, and the taint of his deed was impossible to scour away. Eventually, he found himself with nowhere left to run, and became the plaything of primordial powers of limitless malice. They would make him the same kind of monster he had stood against all his life, a mockery of all that had been good in him.

Born of Ice
The VIII^th Legion rose late in the Unification Wars, their inductees taken from the ice wastes and mountains in the extreme north of Merica. Here, a confederation of techno-barbarians known as the Kulatic League had held out for centuries against the onslaughts of Nordyc, Maulhand Sen and and Narthan Dume. They did not survive through evasion, as did their counterparts in the southern hemisphere, but endured through a hard-won resilience. Even when their strongholds were broken, the survivors would retreat into the wastes and rely on their harsh environment to ultimately defeat the foe. This became their creed: stone might be reduced, but a people’s collective spirit could endure any ordeal.

Finally, however, they met a foe who would not be resisted, and submitted at the point of I^st Legion guns. The League’s sons had long been earmarked for examination, as their military power suggested a potential pool of aspirants for the Legiones Astartes. This hypothesis proved correct, but induction would be delayed for decades as the Emperor’s agents worked to eradicate the primitive religion which was entrenched among the former subjects of the League. Their faith revolved around a conflict between a benevolent god and a vengeful would-be usurper, who they believed lurked somewhere in the corporeal world. It was believed that the men of the Kulatii were bound to fight this usurper, the “Greatest Beast” and finish what their god had begun. While the more overt facets were stripped away, it may be that some traces remained in the psyche of the VIII^th Legion.

The first three cadres, the ones who would steer the growth of the VIII^th, were drawn from across Merica and Atalantea, presumably to dilute any cult influence which might elude hypno-indoctrination. Nonetheless, a certain ruthlessness became evident early on, perhaps born of the Legion’s formative battles. The enemies they faced were the worst fanatics, who dug in and sold every life available to them in defiance of the Emperor. These few battles were followed by the murderous fight to conquer the Sol System, and it was here that the early VIII^th took its full form under the leadership of Prometear Thyris, choosing the name which would mark them forevermore.

Thyris was one of only a few dozen survivors of the Screaming in the Azurite orbital cities, an action fought by hundreds of Legionaries. Already known as a hard-headed, taciturn warrior, this seems to have calcified with the Screaming into something darker. His brothers accepted this, and if the Disnomia Purge on the fringes of the Sol System was anything to go by, their loyalty to him had a fervour to it that his predecessors had not inspired. Under his leadership they would cast down demons and gods alike. Mortals, we can extrapolate, were simply beneath the notice of the newly named Godslayers.
 

As the VIII^th earned their spurs, an unusual trait became apparent in them. The Legionaries exhibited an ability to suppress psychic energies; not the deadening aura of a pariah, but the apparently unique ability to manipulate small pockets of the æther. The exact cause perplexed the Emperor’s scientists, with the dominant theory being that the gene-seed kindled or created a degree of psychic power in those inducted. As the Imperium confronted psykers both human and alien, the Godslayers proved highly effective in combating them. They were less potent than pariahs, but their gene-seed proved far more stable - a factor of immense importance in the early Crusade, when the XV^th in particular struggled to field even a battalion. Moreover, the warriors of the VIII^th caused no discomfort to ordinary humans beyond what is to be expected for a mortal in the presence of a Space Marine.

 

​The Imperial Cudgel
Apart from this gift, the Godslayers were chiefly characterised by a merciless approach which stood out even in those shadowed days. Thyris despised the notion of taking prisoners, preferring to massacre those who failed to surrender at the outset. A particularly ill-famed display of this tendency came on Uligal, where the Godslayers destroyed a coven of rogue psykers alongside the Ordo Sinister, but unhesitatingly turned their guns upon the people whom the witches had enslaved. Instant opprobrium came from senior commanders outside the VIII^th, decrying the Legion Master as a fanatic whose bloodthirst came at the expense of potential good subjects and the Imperium’s future stability. In the early Crusade, however, the Segmentum Solar thronged with enemies who warranted nothing more than extermination, and few had the authority to gainsay Thyris or steer him away from more sensitive targets. 

 

Four decades into the Great Crusade, the Godslayers were split up into a number of sub-commands, as the Imperial advance met several worlds enthralled to psyker-cults. While combating such worlds was ostensibly the main reason, it seems that others were at play, and some saw a chance to curb the Legion's excesses. For Thyris and his core battalions were put under the banner of the IX^th Legion. Thus the Legion Master found himself subject to one of the handful of warlords in the Imperium who could overrule him. Exactly why this shift came is unknown, though some have linked it to the emergence of several Primarchs in the years leading up to the division. A tantalising hint emerges from partial records, which appear to draw a link with the Legion's dwindling use as a weapon of retaliation against rebellious polities, seemingly superseded by another in this regard.

 

At this stage, the VIII^th Legion constituted a mobile reserve of sorts, deployed to warzones where the most strenuous resistance, often linked to the Warp, was to be found. Kozja Darzalas was no different in putting them to this use, though it is noted that he did so with immense carefulness and subtlety. The leash on which Thyris and his men were kept was tight, but long, and Kozja gave them full autonomy in several system-scale operations, fighting in parallel to the Warbringers. Thyris was his adjunct more than a direct subordinate, and this arrangement appears to have worked.

 

Despite his courteous treatment of them, Kozja was privately critical of the Legion's conduct, seeing them as "stunted creatures and a mockery of the Legiones Astartes' true potential. Wrought of steel which might make a keen-edged sword, they are merely a cudgel." The Godslayers may have unwittingly fuelled Kozja's desire and ambition to remould the Legions, and others shared his disdain. Other Legions found the Godslayers effective in their given role, but difficult to work without an advantage of rank over an VIII^th Legion commander, deeming them belligerent and intractable. However, the time was approaching when the VIII^th would be made whole again and march under its own banner. A century after the Great Crusade broke the bounds of the Sol System, a Rogue Trader serving the Iron Bears arrived in orbit above the planet Zbruch and the story of the Godslayers took a profound new turn.

Edited July 5, 2019 by bluntblade

[bluntblade]

A Dreamer’s Beginnings
Zbruch was far from the cold, barren home that the original VIIIth had known. Fertile over much of its surface, it had retained an intact civilisation at the feudal level, though its technology had regressed to steam power, steel and black powder. A slowly shifting patchwork of kingdoms ruled over the peasantry and city-dwelling menials, vying for power by diplomacy and force. Advised and abetted by a caste of sorcerers, they brooked no challenge to their rule.

It might be expected that Koschei would have come straight to one of these lords, but in truth his incubation pod came to rest in a woodland far from any city, in the backwater province of Kolanska. Here Koschei was adopted by a freeholder, and for two years turned his strength and intellect to agriculture, forestry and the needs of his village, rather than the trade which the Emperor intended for his sons. What might have become of the Master of Mankind finding Koschei accustomed to this life however, we shall never know. For a Primarch was all but impossible to keep secret, and another ruler saw the potential in the young Primarch.

Iosif Kharjalov, styling himself the Archduke of Sibronsk, was one of the most powerful lords on Zbruch, and among the most brutal. The agents he had placed in Kolanska - not truly his domain, but sitting just beyond his borders - carefully collected information on this child who could pass for an adolescent at two years old, his prodigious strength and intelligence, and determined that this was a worthy prize for their master. Kharjalov devised a scheme to acquire the young Primarch, and sent two forces to Kolanska. One of these was a rabble of mercenaries, dressed in the livery of a rival lord, and knew nothing of the Archduke’s own men-at-arms who followed.

Koschei’s home town was ravaged, his family slain and the young Primarch wounded unto collapse before the second of Kharjalov’s forces arrived to “save” the handful of survivors, under the pretence that these were his people. It is no surprise that none survived their wounds. A number of his sorcerers were also present, and worked spells of illusion on the journey back to obscure their route from the wounded Koschei. Thus was Koschei deceived into the Archduke’s service with the promise of vengeance. A hunger awoke in him, and he devoured lore of all kinds, though overwhelmingly this was limited to military matters. The town where he had been raised was obliterated from the maps, the better to maintain the deception.

With his new general, Kharjalov swiftly conquered the neighbouring states, though the rate of expansion caused hardship to his people and the subjects he conquered. Samofrikiya, made scapegoats for the destruction of Koschei’s home, was the first to fall, and with the utmost care Koschei was kept unaware of the true extent to which the common people suffered. Unrest among the peasants was kept to a minimum by the fear that Kharjalov might turn his monstrous lieutenant on them. Yet as years became decades and Kharjalov’s rapacity went undiminished, dispossessed nobles began to offer themselves as figureheads, and an uprising broke out, centred in part on Kolanska.

Kharjalov might reasonably have assumed that there was no real risk in sending Koschei to his old home. Decades had passed, and while his general clearly possessed an astonishing memory, trauma was known to interfere with such things. Besides, his mages had been diligent in their deception. But the Archduke reckoned without the truly eidetic memory of a Primarch. Even after all this time, Koschei remembered the landscape he had called home. He knew when the province had been conquered, and with dreadful clarity the pieces aligned. Kharjalov’s soldiers had not been answering an attack on his own territory, but attacking Koschei’s people.

In an instant Koschei realised the truth of his “rescue”, his adoptive father revealed as the murderer of those who had first taken him in. A mind like Koschei’s could easily extrapolate from this and guess at the truth behind accounts of bitter enemies torching their villages to deny Kharjalov’s armies. There was no worth in the conquests he had bent his strength and wits to.

Simmering with anger and self-disgust, Koschei took counsel with his most trusted followers, ones who shared something of his virtues. With their support he took the field only to loudly renounce his allegiance to the Archduke. This done, he turned on his fellow commanders and fractured the army he was meant to lead. Then he pledged his service to the dumbfounded rebels, and the uprising took on a scale never before seen on Zbruch.

Perhaps most surprisingly, Koschei’s closest friend in this fight was his foster brother Alexander. The revelation of Kharjalov’s deeds was as terrible for Alexander as it was for Koschei, and joined him in fighting to depose their father, even though this meant giving up the inheritance he was born to. Having been trained to rule as much as command, he turned his political skills toward winning allies for the fight and building a council of trustworthy men to serve Koschei.

Kharjalov sent the mightiest of his available armies against Koschei, but his conquests had spread them thinly close to his seat of power. His sorcerers were unleashed with all their terrible power, but at this time the same gift Koschei’s sons possessed was unlocked in him. The mages found their attempts to read his mind failing, their black fire guttering in his presence. Within a year Koschei had taken Sibronsk entirely, slaying his abductor in the process. Now he cast aside the name of Kharjalov, and adopted that given to him by his followers - Kharkovic, “liberator”. Those virtuous Kharjalovs who had renounced their privileges for the greater good were likewise rewarded.

Koschei’s campaigns to spread his newfound ideology were initially slower than the conquests he had fought for Kharjalov, as governance now dominated his studies, and he refused to wage war at the expense of the civilians he protected. Sibronsk grew prosperous, and this itself fostered support for him in the lands he aspired to liberate. Conscript armies disintegrated as his enemies’ troops flocked to the banner of Kharkovic, and the most fanatical elites could not match the warriors trained by Koschei’s own hand. After a period of tumult, Zbruch entered a golden age.

Alas, Koschei’s laudable principles would bring the reunion with his father to near disaster. Koschei regarded this golden king with deep distrust, despite the kinship he felt with both him and Daer’dd, who had accompanied the Emperor. When they drew close, the sheer magnitude of the Emperor’s psychic presence overwhelmed Koschei, and he leapt to attack what he saw as a tyrant. Mercifully, Daer’dd succeeded in restraining Koschei, and the Emperor managed at length to placate His son. Over the following weeks, He and Daer'dd explained to Koschei the true scale of his intended destiny, and arranged for the now willing Primarch to assume control of his Legion.

Edited July 5, 2019 by bluntblade

[bluntblade]

Master of the VIII^th
Here, Koschei would first assert himself. Having read his Legion’s histories, he was appalled at the reputation they had garnered, and the baleful influence of Prometear Thyris. So as the first generation of the new VIII^th, both of Terra and Zbruch, began their Ascension, Koschei summoned the Godslayers to his world. In some ways he was generous, doing little to alter the Legion’s culture, but when it came to the echelons who ruled the Legion he was uncompromising. As soon as the first generation of Zbruchan Godslayers were ready, Thyris' most brutal lieutenants were cast back into the position of line officers. While the former Legion Master remained among the praetorate, it was not long before his influence was curtailed within his personal Chapter. This risked rousing the anger of much of the Legion. Yet having seen the strength of bonds between Astartes and their gene-sire, Koschei was willing to make this calculated gamble, and it proved a remarkable success.

There were also the Primarch's deeds and example at play here, following the example of Daer'dd. From the first, Koschei took the brunt of whatever battle the Godslayers fought, and this swiftly earned him the respect of the remaining holdouts. It was deemed a happy accident by some that Thyris fell in battle only a few years after the reunion; an honourable death, but one that reduced him to little more than a footnote in the Godslayers’ story. However, it was whispered in places that Alexander, inducted into the Legion after the reunion, orchestrated the fall of the old Legion Master, seeing him as a lasting threat to Koschei’s authority.

Whatever the truth of Thyris’ end, it ushered out the last traces of the old VIII^th and completed the Godslayers’ new lease of life. Along with a newfound feeling of purpose, they found acclaim from their cousins and the Imperium at large. Koschei made them liberators, and thus they were loved. Companies were placed within Brotherhoods, and in these Terrans mingled with Zbruchans as they did in the flourishing warrior lodges. After a decade, the Godslayers' name was almost the only recognisable thing about them.

Koschei had spent his formative campaigns at Daer’dd’s side, and the influence showed in the Godslayers’ use of their strength to shield their mortal allies. Indeed, they took it further, and while they used many of the units available to a Legion Astartes, they often skewed towards close-combat. Perhaps it was by Daer’dd’s example or a continuation of Koschei’s own policies, but in council all senior officers were given an equal voice in principle, be they of the Legion, Army or a Titan maniple.

That tendency was mirrored in the Legion's dealings with the lost worlds of Mankind. Soon, the Godslayers were known for their determination to negotiate with any human culture they found, to an extent only seen among the Halcyon Wardens before. This is unsurprising, for in Alexandros, Koschei found a kindred spirit who was quite willing to share his decades of experience. As with his brother, dozens of worlds were brought into the Imperial fold by Koschei's rhetoric and that of his sons. Nonetheless, the Godslayers rigidly upheld the Emperor’s line on xenos and mutants, and the VIII^th had ample battle honours to go with its diplomatic triumphs.

 

Due to Koschei's tractable nature, dozens of these were shared with other Legions, for he proved his willingness to share burdens and glory alike. This was rarely seen so clearly as in the Vremalkyr Incursions, when the Emperor called the Godslayers to His banner to confront the godlike power of those alien tyrants. Koschei fought alongside Icarion and his father, matching his strength against the Vremalkyr and killing several in person. Icarion was hardly alone in deeming this the Godslayers' finest hour.

Under Koschei their reputation in combat was for steadfast endurance and willing sacrifice, offering their lives to break sieges rather than starve the defenders into submission. To some of Koschei’s brothers this was cause for concern or scorn; an unwillingness to face the hard facts of galactic conquest and even a waste of the Emperor's resources. But in the grand scheme of the Great Crusade - as multifaceted a scheme as Mankind has ever known - these were but minor worries, apt to delay the VIII^th's growth but nothing more. Besides, the Godslayers’ high regard for the Army ensured that they did not want for mortal support in their campaigns. While never considered among the foremost of the Legions, there were few indeed that a common soldier would be more pleased to see arrive on the field.

 

The Troubled Ground
Yet beneath the surface, there was strain. The rate of attrition wore on Koschei as he watched his sons sacrifice themselves for the Emperor’s dream. At the same time, he was frustrated by the stratified society of the Imperium and the way that rulers were so often imposed on a conquered populace. Of course, he was often obliged to do exactly this to ensure a full compliance, and the charge of hypocrisy stung him even if none spoke it.

It is therefore unsurprising that Koschei reacted with dismay to the Emperor’s withdrawal to Terra. Observers remarked that after the announcement, the pomp of the distant Qarith Triumph seemed as nothing to the Primarch. He was troubled when the Emperor failed to emerge from his seclusion and give a reason for his actions, and appalled by the speed with which a new tier settled into place at the top of the Imperial hierarchy, one that had not bled for its rise as his sons and soldiers had. Almost imperceptibly, the Godslayers’ morale was eroded and the pace of their conquests slowed.

While he may have been close to the new Warmaster, Koschei seems to have been troubled by how Alexandros conducted himself in his new office. Their friendship had been strained before over the Halcyon Wardens’ readiness to use subterfuge and manipulate their enemies through psychic arts. Alexandros’ own writings indicate a fear that Koschei remained unable to reconcile himself to these methods, and the realpolitik that came with the leadership of the Crusade. A joint campaign against the Maelynos Empire only served to highlight this, and the problem was worsened by the Vizenko prosecution and the Chaplain Edict. Slowly, Koschei began to drift away from his brother.

With time, it may have been possible to heal the rift, but forces were working to deepen it almost as soon as Koschei took his leave of the conquered empire. Events at Siratius only added to his turmoil, and after that Socraes Travier was close at hand. Koschei had his worries subtly reinforced and Travier involved him in several strenuous campaigns, ranging from vile and tenacious xenoforms to hostile human cultures. All these took a cumulative toll on the Legion's morale, and the knowledge of their impending deployment to the Ghoul Stars only made things worse.

 

When Icarion too began to scheme against the Emperor, he knew just how to exploit Koschei’s naivete, and turn him from a stalwart defender of the Imperium into a tool for regicide. He played deftly on Koschei’s fears, emphasising that he would work to enlighten Alexandros and promising that the Warmaster would surely see the truth as well. The Godslayers' warrior lodges grew more secretive, and their members fulminated against the imposition of the Chaplain order when the Godslayers had only ever been loyal to the Imperium and its ideals.

 

Koschei needed no reminding of the last master to keep secrets from him, and sadly he and his sons were all too willing to heed Icarion’s words. If the Emperor had betrayed the ideals for which they fought, they concluded, the Godslayers’ loyalty must be to those ideals and not the one who held the throne. Thus from the noblest intentions, rot began to spread.

Edited July 5, 2019 by bluntblade

[simison]

I cleaned the few surviving errors and uploaded them to Grifft. I love how you've interwoven Daer'dd, Alexandros, and Alexander into the chapter, especially the changes I mentioned previously. 

 

Only two minor questions. One, should there be a section title for when the Godslayers begin to fall, around the paragraph you mention the hidden strain. Two, is 'brotherhood' a unique enough title to warrant permanent capitalization?

[bluntblade]

Exemplary Battles
If a common thread runs through the VIII^th Legion’s campaigns, it is the sheer tenacity with which they waged war upon the enemies of the Emperor. While the Godslayers were hardly averse to wielding the formidable technology available to them, they used it mostly to complement their own inherent might, and though they had their share of heroic champions and brilliant tacticians, sheer endurance became their defining trait. Consequently their annals are full of gruelling marches, grinding battles of attrition and hard-fought defences. Yet we can see these methods applied with a distinct difference of mindset before and after Koschei was found. The Godslayers under Thyris made that refusal to relent synonymous with an utter lack of mercy for their enemies. Koschei would turn it to a profoundly different end; the Godslayers would endure what their allies could not, and on their shoulders the Emperor’s mortal soldiers would be carried to heights they could never achieve on their own.

Edited July 5, 2019 by bluntblade

[bluntblade]

Unit and Formation Structure
A sprawling Legion, the Godslayers were united by the structures Koschei conceived for them. The most prominent of these were the Brotherhoods, which each comprised roughly 5,000 warriors. In each, Koschei endeavoured to achieve as near to equal a mix of Terran and Zbruchan Legionaries. The only initial exception was his bodyguard company; the Goliaths were overwhelmingly drawn from the strongest of his rebels soldiers to survive Ascension.

Membership of companies and brotherhoods was fluid, with some legionnaires having served in near half of the Legion’s Brotherhoods throughout their lifespan. These transfers between Brotherhoods was conceived with the intent to reduce division within the Legion, leading it to become a more cohesive and efficient force. Koschei frowned upon competition for glory within his Legion, even when it was the comparatively benign sort fostered by many of his brothers. In this he found surprising common ground with K’awil Pakal and Nomus Sardaukar.

As noted above, the Godslayers saw their rightful place on the battlefield as being where the fighting was thickest, using their might to carry the day. To this end breacher squads and Terminators were fielded in large numbers, and Koschei had devised the Legion’s two elites. The Goliath Terminators and Oblochka Breachers were deployed in straightforward fashion; they led their brothers into the most gruelling resistance and defended the Legion’s ships against the fiercest boarding actions. Membership to such an esteemed body did not come easily, and the elites were to a man composed of hardened veterans.

Entirely absent from the Legion was a Destroyer corps. Koschei refused to compromise on the subject of their baleful weapons, and declared Destroyers to be anathema to everything the VIIIth stood for. The Godslayers deployed flame and plasma weapons in their place. This meant that they had to expend more lives than their cousins against the most virulent xenos breeds, but the Godslayers took pride in their willingness to bleed rather than leave a world tainted by alchem-weapons.

Under Koschei, the Godslayers’ unique psychic gifts were channelled into specialised formations known as suppressor squads. These comprised warriors with unusually potent suppressant powers. Directed to slay the worst of the Warp-tainted enemies the VIII^th encountered, their skills in traditional combat were also tested sternly as their duties plunged them into the thickest fighting. Besides their powess, they were considered to be closer somehow to the Primarch’s essence, and it was certainly true that many of the Legion’s most renowned leaders spent a formative period in the suppressor squads.

Command Hierarchy
Similarly to the septumvirates that governed Brotherhoods, the Godslayers high command was unusually large. The Legion was ruled not solely by the Primarch himself, but by the Primarch’s Council, a grouping of senior officers. Within the Expeditionary fleets, these councils were extended to include the mortal commanders and those responsible for the Legion’s servants. Each of the ten most senior captains in was assigned three Brotherhoods to monitor (although they had no official authority over the Brotherhoods), from which the captains would relay requests and messages to the Primarch.

The officers who served on the Primarch’s Council were not hand-picked by Kharkovic as would be the case in many of the other legions, but instead were elected by the members of their Brotherhood. “Officers” is significant in this context, for the Brotherhoods did not choose their representatives based solely on rank. Senior sergeants, whose years of service often exceeded their captains’, were often considered the most suitable candidates due to their intimate knowledge of their companies. It has also been posited that election to this body was often connected to membership of the warrior lodges.

Positions on the Council and septumvirates were ostensibly indefinite, although a warrior could be stripped of his position according to a vote of no confidence. Such occurrences were rare but not unknown, and when they did transpire the unfortunate warrior was usually stripped of his rank as well, having committed some disgraceful error. More common were the instances where a Godslayer served beyond death, continuing to fulfil his role in a sarcophagus.

Zbruchan culture maintained that one’s ancestry must be honoured. As such, Dreadnoughts were a respected part of the Godslayers Legion. More numerous than those of many other Legions, Dreadnoughts of the Godslayers are granted the honour of garrisoning Zbruch when no longer in service aboard an Expeditionary Fleet. Kept in the massive system of catacombs and vaults underneath Hive Primus known as the Caves of the Dead, the Dreadnoughts’ slumber was watched over by the Chaplains and the Venerable Warden Lazarus, a Contemptor-bound warrior who predated the subjugation of the Sol System and saw service with the 67th Expedition long before the discovery of Zbruch. One of the first members of the Primarch’s Council, he saw little active service after suffering near-catastrophic damage the Hermeka Compliance.

After Zbruch the Godslayers held the arts of diplomacy in higher regard than any other Legion save for the Halcyon Wardens. Indeed, a flair for rhetoric and negotiation could see a Godslayer rise higher and faster than he might by simple military service, no matter the disdain it earned from some other Legions. Their Chaplain order provided the lion’s share of recruits, but line officers also contributed to the ranks of what they called the Zmeyazyka. The foremost members of the Zmeyazyka answered directly to the Primarch and his Council. Despite what the mockery of some Legions might allege, they were still warriors at their core, quite willing to back their words with steel.

War Disposition
The Godslayers’ devotion to the Zbruchan creed would ensure that few doubted Koschei when he proclaimed the need to follow Icarion into rebellion. The warrior lodges were used to discreetly win converts to his side long before he declared his intent, and those identified as holdouts were given the dignified end of death in combat, whether they guessed at the betrayal or not. The Godslayers’ wars were often costly affairs, and there was little discernable increase in casualties.

The Godslayers’ remarkable endurance and stable gene-seed allowed them to grow steadily through the Crusade. Koschei retained the old Terran tithe rights, and several worlds brought into compliance by the Zmeyazyka offered to provide aspirants. Consequently they numbered 180,000 on the Day of Revelation, placing them in the upper tier of Legions. This strength was complemented by an impressive number of Army regiments, Titan maniples and allied Knight Houses. However, Koschei held the Mechanicum at arm’s length, allowing them to produce and maintain wargear for his sons, but uneasy at the means by which the skitarii and automata were produced. As a result the taghmata served only rarely with the Godslayers.

The bulk of the Legion was to be found in Koschei’s 67th Expeditionary Fleet. The rest were deployed in much smaller numbers, supplementing fleets largely composed of Army and Solar Auxilia regiments. Such independence was only granted by Koschei to officers whom he held in high regard. They were strongly discouraged from striking out alone as outriders to the Crusade as the Crimson Lions often did. Astartes, Koschei decreed, were too valuable to risk in such a role when Rogue Traders and Explorators could serve ably.

At the very fringes of the Legion were the so-called Lost Brotherhoods, as close to forgotten as a Legion Astartes formation could be. No longer counted among the rolls of the Godslayers, in truth many did not refer to themselves as Brotherhoods at all. Often they were offshoots of the old Terran Legion, and as the Insurrection spread they would prove a lingering irritant to Icarion’s forces. Perhaps appropriately, the Galaxy would be reminded of the Legion which had first walked the battlefields where Mankind warred upon itself.

Edited July 5, 2019 by bluntblade

[simison]

I began my editing run, when I realized that there's no explanation of the septumvirates. And this isn't a slip on Blunt's part. I searched both Godslayers threads, the Book 1 thread, and the current copy of the full book. It's implied in the current text that they are captains, but why the special name? 

 

Also, the only error I've found so far that you need to keep an eye out for in the future, Blunt, is that you mispelled Nomus' last name.

[Big Bad Squig]

Ah, I haven't really explained that enough.  The septumvirates are just the name for the council of seven (because shameless Nurgle foreshadowing) officers that lead each Brotherhood.  I don't think I actually ever specified much about the officers that were members of the septumvirates and if I did have an idea about them it's completely left me now; I'd say now that they are elected in a very similar way to the Primarch's Council, in that the members don't necessarily have to be captains, just whoever is most fit for the role - the only difference here being that only Astartes would be members of a septumvirate, but beyond that anyone could attain a position had they enough experience.

[bluntblade]

So for clarity, they represent the equivalent of Chapters and not companies?