Chapter Text
[[Confidential: Cyan—Helios]]
[[Access Granted]]
Created and penned by:
Lord Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines, Avenging Son of the God-Emperor
Summarized, rewritten, & curated by:
Lord Inquisitor Garrett Harlow, Ordo Astartes, Conclave Badab
Introduction
”We are His mouth, we are His ears, we are His studded gavel, we are His whisper behind locked doors. Speak doubt in His name and we will speak of silencing yours. We are the shear that clips the fallen angel’s wings.”
I | Warning — To those of my Ordo, and those investigating any of the Adeptus Astartes’ many chapters. Use this, to best defeat your enemies, you must know them. While not all of the thousand chapters follow Lord Guilliman’s words as strictly as others, if at all, nearly all use it at some basic level. It’s something easy to fall on, if all fails, look at the Codex. This will make weapons, armor, and tactics more easily identifiable when interacting with both loyal and potentially renegade space marines. Just as any citizen of the Imperium is susceptible to corruption from the Dark Powers, an Astartes is no different, and the Age of Darkness proved that all too well. They are our angels until proven otherwise, we are the agents that assure that they remain so until the end.
This is rewritten in my words, following Lord Guilliman’s own, his co-authors and advisors. Some things have been cut or redacted. Mostly for the sake of simplicity for the reader rather than heresy. However, if you wish to gaze upon the curated original, or even a 32nd Millennium copy of the Lord Regent’s codex, contact me or any of my agents within the Conclave Badab. However, we may refuse for any reason, spoken of or not. Not everyone sees as the Ordos Astartes does, so be vigilant on the reason anyone is asking and why.
“They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give themselves to me.”
— The Emperor of Mankind
II | Intro — In the Wars of Unification, the Emperor came and liberated Holy Terra from those who sought out its destruction, creating our mighty and shining Imperium from the ashen wastes with one goal in mind. To find and embrace our brethren from across the stars who became lost in the destructive fogs of Old Night. To fend off the horrid Xenos, who had enslaved and perverted many human realms; To slaughter the detestable mutant, who sabotage great works and corrupt pure souls; and to eradicate the misguided hearts of the heretic, who speak in unholy tongues and worship unseen gods.
In the fight against these enemies of humanity, the Emperor first made the Legiones Cataegis, the Thunder Warriors. Crude tools that served in their crude time. Brutal barbarian warriors who cut down all without thought or pity. That was until they met their great end at the Battle of Mount Ararat, fighting the final psychotic warlords of Terra. Do not pity their destruction or ultimate fate, honor them for they served the Emperor so well they were not recreated, but improved upon.
It was then that the Lord of Mankind graced us with His sons, half gilded, half flawed, and then with their sons, the Angels of Death. The Astartes, then in Legion, numbered in tens and hundreds of thousands individually. A number that served well at first, allowing the Imperium to conquer its million worlds. Yet treachery is a common fault, even amongst divinity’s scions.
Archtraitor Horus, curse upon his name, rebelled against his father, others among him, bringing a scale of battle space marines had never seen and will never see again. Upon the war’s end, the Imperium was rebuilt and scoured for traitors, but it needed to be born anew. Some things are simply too powerful, and with the Emperor busy and vigilant on his now permanent Golden Throne, the tactics and strategies of the new era needed to be written.
“Gone are the Legions that led us to failure, now divided into chapters. A preexisting unit, though now limited in size. This is the purpose that I [Guilliman] inscribed this work. To serve in advisory and as regulation to the Angels of Humanity. So that Heresy may not divide us again, and so that you will be ready against the enemies of order and law.”
Study it, learn it well. Without order, there is chaos. There is no greater heresy than that.