Penal Legion

"The Emperor loves me. Oh yes he does, otherwise why would he be so keen to keep me alive?"

- Sirius Tan, 2nd Calixian Penal Battalion deployed to the Tranch Soot Warrens

The Penal Legions are a filled with scum of the worst kind. These murderers, rogues, deserters, cowards, madmen, seditionists, and drunkards fight for the Emperor in the bloodiest warzones—whether willing or not. The penal units in which these villains serve are the product of the harsh discipline enforced in the Imperial Guard. With millions of men and women under arms, all armed and trained to kill for the God-Emperor, there can be no leniency if order and combat effectiveness are to be maintained. The breaking of any number of tenets of military law and the exhaustive wealth of Munitorium regulations up to and including murder are all punishable by death—or service in a penal battalion. The will of condemned criminals is not easily bound to the Emperor’s service, and so many methods may be applied to get these forlorn wretches into battle. These methods may include the generous application of lashes by electro scourges, or fitting the penal legionnaires with auto-injectors to flood their bloodstreams with frenzon, slaught, or other combat drugs and turn them into raving berserkers. Decimation of a Penal Legion that fails to advance is also a common motivational tool. In some cases legionnaires may be fitted with explosive collars which can be detonated remotely to reinforce an order or give instant punishment.

The Penal Legions are thrown into the most dangerous and suicidal of engagements where the chances of survival are minimal. Some go into battle filled with remorse for their crimes. Others walk like men already dead, their limbs trembling with fear. Some embrace the carnage and the prospect of their own death with madness born of fear. Most die in the first moments of such engagements and pay a quick price for their crimes—but a few may survive to be cast once again into the cauldron of blood and fire again and see if the Emperor is yet done with their service. These rare survivors are a savage breed who can walk into the mouth of hell and emerge screaming their defiance at death. In the end, however, death finds all, and even the most indomitable survivor will find the only release from their crimes that there can be. A very few of these rare and dangerous survivors may find themselves performing new and more lethal service for an Inquisitor who has use for resourceful and hardened killers.\

Notable Penal Legions

 * 13th Penal Legion (Last Chancers) - The 13th Penal Legion, unusual among the many Penal Legions that serve in the Imperial Guard, was in fact a testing ground. Schaeffer would hand-pick his regiment's troops from Imperial prisons' worst convicts because of some natural talent they displayed or because they possessed an uncanny instinct for survival so that they could serve as part of an elite ad hoc military team intended to achieve some difficult, usually borderline insane military mission objective of the Imperium. These dregs comprise the most vicious, ill-disciplined and unstable group of psychopaths, conspirators, thieves and traitors in the Imperial Guard who would otherwise be destined for the firing squad or the business end of a Commissar's Bolt Pistol. Many of those offered the chance to fight with the "Last Chancers" choose death rather than follow Colonel Schaeffer, for such is the colonel's reputation for undertaking suicide missions throughout the Imperium.
 * Merov Penal Legion - The Hive World of Merov is home to an infamous unit of the Imperial Guard culled from Magistratum prisons and Arbites Precinct wards across the Calixis Sector. This unit is commonly known as simply “The Merov Penal Legion,” although there are rumors that its official designation is much more complex and exists only in some forgotten Administratum data-vault. Nevertheless, the Legion has a long history of celebrated victories, and enormous kill-banners flutter from every spire in Tsares Hive upon the anniversary of the Penal Legion’s founding. The Merov Penal Legion is made up of desperate men, each a hardened criminal seeking redemption through service to the Emperor. The thirty Brother-Generals who command the Legion often engage in cruel games, pitting their units against each other in gladiatorial war-bouts described as “training missions” to the Munitorium. A rare few of the Brother-Generals act as more military commander than warden, training and disciplining their men like nearly any other unit of the Imperial Guard. However, for the majority of the Legionnaires, their existence is short, brutal, and unforgiving—each day merely another chance to die in bloody combat. One tradition of the Merov Penal Legion offers hope to the thousands of troopers amongst its ranks. It is said that if the Legion is deployed in battle against the Emperor’s Foes and only one man survives, that man is set free, absolved of all his crimes. Regardless of the truth, stories about this tradition regularly circulate amongst the Legionnaires, fostering both a determination to survive no matter the odds, and a bloodthirsty, ruthless streak of pure aggression. Such men often volunteer for extremely hazardous missions, such as planting death-gas canisters or joining the battle-drugged demolition teams. Naturally, both of these tactics are commonly used by the Brother-Generals.

Becoming a Penal Legionnaire
Becoming a Penal Legionnaire for a member of the Imperial Guard requires being condemned for a crime that is punishable by death and taking the choice to meet that death by surviving in a Penal Legion. It means a decision to meet the death at the hands of the enemies of mankind rather than at the hands of the firing squad or Commissar’s bolt pistol. It is therefore preferable that the penal legionnaire Alternative Rank be taken at the point of character creation to represent a rare individual plucked from the ranks of the condemned to serve the Inquisition.