White Scars



The White Scars are a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter and one of the First Founding Legions of the Adeptus Astartes. Known and feared throughout the Imperium of Man for their highly mobile way of war, the White Scars are considered the masters of the lightning strike and hit-and-run attack and are particularly adapted to the use of the Astartes Assault Bike as their mechanical steeds and their forces contain an unusually large number of Bike Squads compared to other Chapters. Bearing the ritual scars of bravery, these fierce warriors fight with all the tribal savagery that define the fierce steppe nomads of their homeworld Mundus Planus, bringing swift death to all of the enemies of the Imperium.

Chapter History
In the wake of the  Long Night of the  Age of Strife and the   Unification Wars on Terra in the late 30th Millennium, the Emperor of Mankind sought to unite all of humanity under one banner  and end inter-human conflict. The Emperor hoped to ensure human domination of the Milky Way Galaxy, a conquest He judged necessary if Mankind was to survive the never-ending threats to its existence embodied by Chaos , the myriad hostile  xenos races and its own fragile human nature. In time, when the Emperor's eye first began to fall beyond Terra, He began to raise new armies to fight his Great Crusade. He drew these new troops in part from the forces that had already unified Terra during the Unification Wars of the late 30th Millennium. To carry out the Great Crusade and reunite all the scattered colony worlds of Mankind beneath the single banner of the Imperium of Man, the Emperor created the genetically-enhanced superhuman warriors of the Space Marine Legions. These forces would serve as the speartip of his Great Crusade that began in ca. 800.M30, bringing the light of the Imperial Truth and enforcing Imperial Compliance with the new regime on every human world encountered.

Lords of War
The origins of the White Scars Legion can be found during the Unification Wars, though much of their early history is unrecorded or obscured by the passage of time. The base human stock for the majority of the first Space Marine Legions raised came from Terra, and in the case of the V Legion the main bulk of the gene-recruits used were drawn from all racial and geographic origins, but these would account for the minority of members by the time of the Ullanor Crusade on the cusp of the 31st Millennium. According to ancient White Scars records, the Terrans who made up the V Legion possessed diverse origins, with "some ha[ving] the flesh the colour of charred firewood, for others it was as pale as our armour." By the time of the Great Crusade, Terran Aspirants were brought to the training centres of Imamdo on Terra. Here they underwent the selection process, and if chosen, the physical conditioning necessary to determine whether or not they were fit to become Space Marine Legionaries. Each cadre was chosen by a prospective Space Marine Legion. If an Aspirant showed extreme promise they were often selected by the vaunted XVI Legion (the Luna Wolves), but more often than not they would be reassigned to a Space Marine Legion based on the individual Legion's needs because of the ongoing Great Crusade. Those Aspirants who were reassigned would be transported to a training facility on Luna, where they would continue their training and study for another decade, until they were deemed worthy of becoming a fully-fledged Battle-Brother of their newly assigned Legion. Once transported to their new Legion, they would continue undergoing gene-therapy, psycho-conditioning, and then, finally, the gene-seed implants that would make them them one with their new Legion.

In the days after the rediscovery of the White Scars Primarch Jaghatai Khan on the world of Chogoris (Mundus Planus in official Imperial records), Aspirants to service in the V Legion began their initial orientation in the Sol System. Then they would be moved out with the others to various off-world training facilities such as a decommissioned Imperial Battleship over Vhomarl, a Jetbike squadron billeted temporarily on the lead-hard plains of Yyem, specialist combat units deployed on the Ocean World of Kail IX or the gas giant Revelet Taredes. For those who performed well throughout, the Chogorian instructors were fulsome in their praise, unlike the grudging hard-men of the Luna Wolves who conducted their Space Marine Initiates' training back on Terra. The physical changes the Aspirants underwent were hard, and the surgeries often painful. For those selected to join the mystic savages of the V Legion the cultural ways of the barbarians of Chogoris were too different to be absorbed readily. These Aspirants had to learn Khorchin, the strange language of Chogoris. This alone tested many Aspirants -- despite their improved recall and mental agility, getting their tongue around such alien sounds remained a challenge. It was not just a matter of vocabulary and grammar; Khorchin had inflections and subtleties not shared by any Terran language. Their tutors had developed their own theory on the origin of the differences; the Chogorians were a poetic people. Their homeworld was an empty place. It loosened their imagination, so they filled their minds with words. They were prolix, and they did not learn Gothic well, hence all the fuss of learning their native language. The Aspirants eventually mastered the speech in the end, just like all the other Terrans who had been inducted into the Legion. The inductees studied together, poring over curved character-clusters and diacritics, rolling their eyes at the complexities and cementing friendships in the face of adversity.

Though initially most Legions took prospective Aspirants from the various geographic origins on Terra or other worlds, by the time the Great Crusade was in full swing, many of the Aspirants of the V Legion were taken from the Asiatic hive clusters on Terra. Those Aspirants of various other stocks disapproved of this practice. After the Unity was achieved on Terra, the Imperium was meant to have moved beyond racial and ethnic stereotyping, so the fact that the V Legion remained mired in the physiognomic traits of their backwater world was an irritant to the other Legions. Much else about them was an irritant: their archaic customs, their introversion, their exceptionalism. They placed enormous importance on speed -- on being the first into combat, on being the first out, on movement, on shams and counterfeits. This was counter-intuitive to the mantra drilled into their heads on Terra, "No backward step." The Chogorian instructors instead drilled into them "Withdraw, then return" over and over again. When at last Ascension arrived, and the Aspirants were deemed worthy to become fully-fledged Battle-Brothers of the V Legion, their old life was no more. They would give up their old names and choose a new one from Talskar mythology or from one of the many Korchin almanacs and lexicons.

Jaghatai Khan
Scattered across the galaxy through the Warp from the Emperor of Mankind's secret gene-laboratory beneath the Himalazian (Himalayan) Mountains of Terra along with the 20 other Primarchs by the machinations of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos, the gestation capsule of the special child later known as Jaghatai Khan was deposited on the vast steppe-lands of the fertile Feudal World of Mundus Planus. The inhabitants of Mundus Planus, who knew the world as Chogoris rather than by its official High Gothic name, had managed to struggle back from the terrible destruction of the Age of Strife to a pre-industrial level of technology. The dominant Planan culture was technologically analogous to that of the Renaissance period of the 2nd Millennium in ancient Terran history by the time of the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium, having just rediscovered how to incorporate gunpowder into the weapon systems of its armies. Most of Mundus Planus was under the rule of an organized feudal aristocracy, led by a monarch known as the Palatine.

Jaghatai was discovered just after his arrival on the world as an infant child by Ong Khan, the chieftain of a small Planan nomadic tribe called the Talskars, who adopted the extraordinarily beautiful infant into his family, foreseeing that he would one day become a great warrior unlike any other the steppe-lands had ever known. Jaghatai’s adoptive family was later killed by another of the tribes inhabiting the Planan steppes, the Kurayed. Already the greatest warrior in the Talskar tribe, despite his young age, Jaghatai led many Talskar warriors in vengeance against the Kurayed. He razed the enemy village to the ground, killed every inhabitant, and took the Kurayed chieftain’s head to mount above his own tent.

Following this victory, Jaghatai was elected as the Khan of the Talskars, in the process swearing to unite the tribes of the steppes and bring an end to the internecine tribal warfare that dominated their lives. Each tribe Jaghatai and his warriors defeated was integrated into the Talskar tribe. Jaghatai utilised his military talents and the sheer force of his superhumanly charismatic personality to win himself many followers. He made military service with his army mandatory among the Planan steppe tribes, and combined warriors of various tribes into mixed units, to break up previous associations and to create a common loyalty among them based in the foundation of their allegiance to him rather than their tribe.

Jaghatai's abilities enabled him to weld together a coalition of the steppe tribes to battle a Chaos Cult whose foul power was spreading throughout the main continent of Mundus Planus. In the final battle, he led 10,000 steppe warriors on horseback in a gallant charge against the cultists and their crude black powder cannons. Despite horrendous losses, the Planan tribes' charge smashed the enemy. The tribesmen pursued the cultists, butchering every one of them as they tried to flee. Jaghatai and his warriors went on to conquer most of the continent.

Ten standard years later, after having united the tribes of the steppe region known as the "Empty Quarter", Jaghatai was caught in an avalanche. He was discovered by the son of the Khagan, the ruling Emperor of the Planan nobility, a khan of khans (later known in Imperial historical archives as the Palatine), who like many Planan nobles had taken to the sport of capturing an Empty Quarter tribesman and hunting him through the mountains. The exact course of events is unknown, but it was said that a single man of the hunting party returned, bearing the head of the Khagan’s son along with a message for that ruler. "The people of the steppes are yours no longer."

The enraged Khagan gathered his army and marched west, to engage the wild horse tribes of the Empty Quarter in combat, but was soundly defeated in a battle that lasted a day and a night. Heavily armoured in mail and plate armour, and accustomed to engaging in decisive melee combat with other heavy cavalry and heavy infantry forces supported by light infantry arquebusiers, the Khagan’s pike-and-shot army was no match for the light cavalry and relentless bowfire of Jaghatai’s forces. The Khagan barely escaped capture, but was eventually killed as Jaghatai’s army flowed into the lands once held by the Planan aristocracy, either conquering or destroying everything in their path. Jaghatai’s power now encompassed the planet’s lone continent, a global empire forged across the breadth of Mundus Planus in less than twenty standard years.

Coming of the Emperor
Jaghatai's campaign ended less than six solar months before the Emperor of Mankind came to Mundus Planus as part of his Great Crusade. Recognising the Emperor as a man who embodied his own ideal of unity for all Mankind, though on a far broader stage than he had ever imagined, the Primarch swore fealty and bent the knee to his father. In return, he was given command of the V Space Marine Legion that had been created from his genome on Terra. The V Legion was quick to adopt the long honour scars of the Talskar tribesmen as a new Legion custom, and renamed themselves the White Scars after transferring their fortress-monastery to Mundus Planus. Many warriors of Jaghatai's nomadic army chose to follow their leader, becoming the first generation of White Scar Astartes recruited from their new Legion homeworld of Chogoris rather than Terra.

Relations with other Legions
Jaghatai's closest relationships with his brother Primarchs were with Horus Lupercal of the vaunted Luna Wolves Legion and Magnus the Red of the Thousand Sons. With Horus, the Khan shared a love of the rapid assault, as well as feeling understood and accepted by Horus. This understanding was also only truly shared by Magnus, who, like the Khan, was as much an outsider to the other Primarchs as Jaghatai. The close relationship of the White Scars Primarch to these two brothers was matched, somewhat, by the relationships between their respective Legions. Several White Scars Brotherhoods (or companies) would often be seconded to fight alongside their cousins from the Luna Wolves. These Brotherhoods would utilise a mix of both V and XVI Legion tactics, including the latter's more consolidatory approach to rapid warfare and the more standardised manner of the Luna Wolves' military hierarchy. However, for some Chogorians these tactics could be difficult to understand. Similarly, the Thousand Sons were also known to be close to the V Legion for many reasons. The love of knowledge of the sons of Prospero, their enjoyment in the subtleties of the universe and each Legion's detachment from the rest of the Imperium would render a fruitful relationship between these two forces of Astartes.

In stark contrast, the V Legion seemed to have a very poor relationship with many of the other Space Marine Legions, most of all with the Death Guard and their equally mysterious Primarch Mortarion. It was also known that the White Scars did not get along well with the Space Wolves Legion. All Legions had reputations, and some of these overlapped. The Space Wolves were known to boast of theirs as the Emperor's executioners. When the White Scars fought alongside other Imperial forces they were often unfairly judged, due to their use of ritual marks and scars. People automatically assumed that they were savages, and were no better than the barbarous warriors of Leman Russ that hailed from the Death World of Fenris. The White Scars did not wish to be seen as savages, for they constantly strove to achieve the most noble of human pursuits. In addition, the comparison added salt to the wound of the V Legion's entrenched estrangement from the Imperium, suggesting how little others took to understand the Chogorians. Though the White Scars were not "executioners" like the Space Wolves or "world eaters" like Angron's berserk XII Legion warriors or "the perfect" Astartes like Fulgrim's Emperor's Children, the White Scars were what they were. They never demanded respect from anyone, and if the other Legions knew nothing of them, then that was their loss, because the White Scars knew about them. The V Legion was faster -- they moved faster and they killed faster. Secretly, the White Scars resented the outsiders' disregard greatly, and yet they refused to change their ways or Legion culture.

Great Crusade
The lightning-fast style of mobile warfare that had served Jaghatai Khan so well on the steppes of his homeworld proved to be equally effective on the many different battlefields of the Great Crusade. The White Scars soon became involved in some of the bloodiest battles of the time after the rediscovery of their Primarch. The White Scars most famously took part in the historic Ullanor Crusade, the vast Imperial assault on the Ork empire of the Overlord Urrlak Urruk. The White Scars and Ultramarines Space Marine Legions, supported by the Imperial Army, the forces of the Mechanicum and the Collegia Titanica took part in the massive Imperial campaign against the largest concentration of Orks yet encountered by the burgeoning Imperium of Man. In the aftermath of this monumental victory, the Great Khan watched with approval as Horus Lupercal, greatest of the Primarchs and most favoured son of the Emperor, took up his new office as Warmaster of all the Imperium's military forces. The two of them, Horus and the Khan, liked one another. Of all his brothers, the Khan had only ever been close to two, and Horus was the first. Then they had parted. The grand gathering of Primarchs and commanders and Battleships and officials dispersed, setting course for a thousand destinations and making the Warp light up with the trails of their passage. The Great Crusade commenced again, though this time with a Warmaster at its apex, not an Emperor. The Khan was next sent to the worlds of the Chondax System. He was sent to hunt the remnants of the Ork empire destroyed on Ullanor, the last slivers of Urlakk's Greenskins. Perhaps some of the Primarchs would have balked at that -– it was not prestigious work –- but the Khan was happy enough. It was hunting, and in a way that he understood: cavalry charges across open spaces, going up against prey that had no concept of capitulation or self-pity. He had never complained. Nearly all of his Legion went with him, ranked in their various Brotherhoods, eager for the hunt. Scores of white starships cut the void, each crammed with warriors of the ordu, all desperate to get back in the chase.

Horus Heresy
The V Legion's legend was to grow with the events of the Horus Heresy, when the White Scars fought on hundreds of worlds for over 7 standard years against the Traitor Legions and the other Forces of Chaos. Unlike many of the other Primarchs, Jaghatai never even considered betraying the Emperor for the service of the Ruinous Powers. Such a course would have been dishonourable in the extreme since the Emperor had done no wrong to His sons and also because Jaghatai so deeply believed in the Emperor's goal of reunifying the entire human race under a single ruler so that it might claim final dominance over the Milky Way Galaxy. The White Scars Legion had already been engaged for several standard years in a punishing campaign against the Orks of the Chondax System where Jaghatai had recalled his entire Legion when the Heresy began. It was at Chondax that they first received the news of the Space Wolves Legion's actions during the Burning of Prospero. These reports said Russ had turned rebel, and driven by his hatred for Magnus, his Legion had utterly decimated the Thousand Sons Legion and their Primarch Magnus had died at the Wolf King's own hand. But due to the effects of the Ruinstorm, a monstrous Warp Storm unleashed by the Word Bearers during the Battle of Calth, astropathic communication was unreliable and vast tracts of the Imperium were made all but impassable. Furthermore, the White Scars' fleet Astropaths continued to interpret the astropathic messages they received in a contradictory manner.

Delay and Deception at Chondax
It had begun in the Chondax System, right towards the end of the campaign against the Greenskins -- the first inkling that all was not well. There had been no detail then, no authentication, just stray astropathic messages of dubious provenance. It should have been easy to dismiss, to put down to the warping power of the Empyrean. But it had worn on the Khan, unravelling his sleep. He felt that the Warmaster was standing upon a precipice. There were also conflicting reports received from the Imperial Fists Legion's Primarch Rogal Dorn that urged the White Scars to return to Terra to help defend the throneworld alongside Lord Dorn and Leman Russ, supposedly now a Traitor, as soon as possible. Everything had changed so quickly, garbled in a flurry of contradictory astropathy and secure comm-bursts: Russ of the Wolves had gone rogue; or the Warmaster had, taking several Legions with him; the White Scars were ordered to reinforce the Alpha Legion at Alaxxes; they were commanded to return to Terra; Ferrus Manus had killed the peacock Fulgrim; Mars was in open revolt. Some of the Warp-translated messages bore chrono-marks from many solar months previously; some had been sent, it seemed, only hours previously. Though the Warmaster had ordered the White Scars to bring judgement upon the Space Wolves, the Khan would not unleash his vengeance upon Russ and his get until he had more detailed information. The Khan had the strength of the V Legion arrayed before him, his ordu assembled and ready to strike, yet none could tell the Primarch who was the true enemy of the Imperium and all he held dear.

Jaghatai was next contacted by the Space Wolves' Leman Russ who had just returned from the Burning of Prospero and the assault against the Space Wolves' old rivals, the Thousand Sons Legion. The VI Legion's fleet had mustered at the Alaxxes Nebula to lick its wounds after the recent campaign, when it was beset by the forces of the Alpha Legion. Horus had deployed the XX Legion to launch a massive assault on Russ' battered and outnumbered Space Wolves. The Alpha Legion and its twin Primarchs, Alpharius Omegon, had long harboured deep grudges against the Space Wolves, and Russ in particular, for his criticism of their reliance upon trickery, manipulation and subterfuge to win battles rather than engaging in what the Space Wolves Primarch saw as honourable, open combat. The Alpha Legion relished the chance to prove their superiority against the arrogant Wolves of Fenris by delaying them long enough to keep them from contributing to the Imperial defence of Terra. Although the Khan sympathised with the Space Wolves' predicament, he refused to get involved until he was able to sort out the conflicting and often contradictory astropathic messages he had received. Until he knew, beyond a shadow of doubt, who was ally and who was an enemy, he refused to choose sides. Wishing his brother the best of luck, Jhagatai wished to seek his answers elsewhere.

As the White Scars fleet made preparations to depart the Chondax System, they encountered a massive Alpha Legion flotilla. The Alpha Legion were an unknown quantity to the White Scars. They did not respond to communication requests and had hung back on the edge of the system, quietly accumulating more warships across a wide sweep of local space. There was no response from the XX Legion's command despite all queries. All White Scars vessels were ordered not to escalate the situation and not to fire upon the interlopers unless fired upon. The warriors of the V Legion were to maintain perimeter integrity and not to permit Alpha Legion spacecraft to penetrate within range of the core White Scars fleet. As the Khagan decided on his Legion's next move, the Alpha Legion cordon remained intact, its smooth unity broken only by minor adjustments to the twin defensive lines. Every move that the White Scars made was reflected by Alpha Legion warships in what had become a bizarre game of mirrors. Though the Alpha Legion had presented no threat, these were not the actions of a friend. This could not be denied, but despite that, the Khan still resisted giving the order to attack. Mere houres earlier, the shape of the reported rebellion within the Imperium had been simple: Russ and his savages defying orders once more. Now it had become complex, far more complex.

Things were further complicated when the White Scars Astropathic Choir received official messages directly from Terra, from Rogal Dorn himself -- the White Scars were commanded to make the swiftest possible passage to the throneworld where further instructions and further explanations would be given. The meaning was clear, its origin unambiguous. The V Legion had been ordered to ignore all other claims to their fealty, in particular those of the Warmaster Horus, who had been declared Traitor along with any Legion answering his summons. The Khan was not moved by these demands. He felt the old stirrings of resentment again, the chill anger of the unregarded son. A price had to be paid for his inclination to freedom, for skirting along the edges of communication. The White Scars were always the last to know. He saw the larger strategic picture -- the Alpha Legion did not wish to fight the White Scars, nor did they want to join them. They wanted to cause doubt, keeping the White Scars in the Chondax System to tie them up in questions, because they knew the veil was slowly lifting and that messages were only now getting through the aether of the Warp. The Sons of Alpharius were manipulators -- they wanted the White Scars to hear from Dorn. They had purposely kept the V Legion's fleet at Chondax until they could be sure the White Scars had picked up Dorn's message. The Alpha Legion desired them to return to Terra. The Khan would not take direction from anyone, not even from a throneworld that only now that its Legions were tearing one another to pieces deigned to remember that it had his warriors at its service. His White Scars were nobody's slaves. They were the ordu of Jhagatai Khan and they took orders from no one. They would take no one's word, for they were on their own, just as they had always been, and if there was truth to be found in this, then they would find it themselves.

The Chisel
Jhagatai ordered his fleet to prepare for immediate departure. All across the vast battlefront, White Scars Escort craft moved as one, sweeping towards the encircling Alpha Legion forces in a unified screen. Inter-fleet communications were shut down and incoming bursts blocked -– the enemy had had their chance to make themselves understood. Anything that they said now would be disregarded. The White Scars coordinated to perform a standard zao (known in Low Gothic as "The Chisel") manoeuvre -- full-fleet, enacted on a single command from the V Legion's flagship Swordstorm. Every starship in the service of the Imperium was different. The secrets hidden within their reactor hearts were jealously guarded by the lords of the Red Planet and shared with no one outside the privileged circles of the elect. Every Primarch asserted various preferences during construction: Corax had worked obsessively to make his vessels as stealthy as possible, Vulkan to make them durable and Fulgrim to make them beautiful. Primarchs had ways of circumventing standard Imperial command structures –- they could bend rules, uncover hidden datacores and suborn Mechanicum magi. So it was, as the Great Crusade progressed, that each Legion fleet slowly took on the character of its master through an endless programme of refits, retrofits and base modifications. In the case of the White Scars, only one change was ever requested and only one metric was ever improved upon -- speed.

The V Legion's Techmarines spent decades boosting reactor power-feeds and finding ways to hone manoeuvrability far beyond the tolerances that each standard starship class had been designed for. The endless pursuit of velocity came with its costs: gunnery captains had been heard to complain of reduced Lance range, and it was well known that a White Scars warship would not carry as many troops or dropships as the equivalent vessel in a standard fleet, but such factors carried little weight in a Legion drenched in the wild-riding tradition of the Chogorian plains. Under standing orders from the Khagan, the Legion had never shown off its drives' modified capabilities outside of active warzones. Since so few of the other Legions had ever fought alongside the White Scars, this specialisation had not become widely known, except for a few speculative reports here and there of strangely elongated engine-housings, extravagant thruster formations and oversized fuel lines. It all made for a ferociously fast set of warships, from the largest behemoths to the most slender of system-runners.

As the White Scars' vessels began to move, the Alpha Legion reacted. They maintained the integrity of the cordon, warding the routes to the nearest suitable jump-points and keeping the White Scars corralled within the vicinity of Chondax. As they had done ever since arriving, each ship of the blockade matched the movements of its White Scars counterpart, maintaining a gigantic mirror-image across space. The gap between the fleets closed. The Alpha Legion formation reacted just as a blockade ought to react, maintaining a rigid web across the widest area of space, each node backed up by a second rank of warships held in reserve. Their movements remained cagey, as if they wished to do nothing more than hold the impasse for as long as possible. As the two vanguards closed to within Lance-range, for the first time the White Scars noticed incoming Vox-requests from the enemy on the sensorium array, and ignored them. The Alpha Legion had had their chance. It was then that the Alpha Legion opened fire on their former brothers. All along the front, White Scars ships probed the line and Alpha Legion ships resisted them. It was a classic containment pattern, designed to hem the V Legion formation in and prevent isolated warships from running the cordon. The standard breakout response was a full-scale assault on the containment net, aiming to drive it back through a massed volume of concentrated ship-to-ship fire. Such an order was not taken lightly –- the result would be ruinous for both sides, and only hotheads like Leman Russ or Angron enjoyed taking such risks. The Alpha Legion clearly judged that the Khan was not so cavalier. In this, of course, they were entirely correct.

The White Scars' vanguard began to drift spinwards, pulling clear of their jump-point trajectory and dragging the centre of the engagement back towards Chondax's gravity well. It looked almost careless, as if aimless commanders had launched a half-hearted breakout without the commitment to see it through. Soon the drift became more pronounced as the intensity of the las-fire picked up. For all that, the engagements were muted, probing, restrained. No torpedoes were launched, no gunship wings were unleashed. The two walls of minor warships grappled in a bizarre half-embrace of limited ferocity. All across the engagement zone, V Legion positions began to collapse, withering in the face of steady, professional pressure from the enemy. White Scars vessels dropped formation, protecting their own flanks and leaving holes in the offensive wall. As if fighting a strong headwind out on the Altak back on Chogoris, the vanguard's momentum faltered.

When the chrono reached 0, the White Scars vessels moved, every one of them, all at the same time, into full attack speed. Everything quickly changed as the V Legion's fleet formation morphed in an instant, suddenly switching from an aimless drift-pattern into an arrowhead shock assault of astonishing precision. The White Scars vessels were now in new trajectories and in perfect concert, suddenly leaping from semi-committed holding patterns into a single attack vector. The Alpha Legion most likely had never witnessed such ship mastery. The best Imperial naval officers could not have performed such a manoeuvre in less than five solar minutes, and it would have required hundreds of course-correction warnings and hours of preparation to bring off. The White Scars had done it, as one -– with no extraneous prompting –- in five seconds. The White Scars' deployment was now a single spearhead. Escorts shot out, pulling together into a single mass and punching a hole through the enemy cordon. Their sudden burst of speed and concentrated Lance-strikes wrong-footed the Alpha Legion vessels in their path, and three bronze-prowed destroyers were overwhelmed almost immediately, lost amidst a whirlwind of plasma and exploding torpedo trails. More White Scars destroyers screamed through the wreckage, corkscrewing and diving like plunging pods of cetaceans. Everything was aimed at a single point: the flanks were discarded, surrendered to the enemy as every V Legion asset in the battlesphere shot into close formation and boomed up to top velocity.

The encircling Alpha Legion cordon was now compromised and fractured, its constituents struggling to respond to the lone column of ships that burned its way through their heart. Their capital ships were even slower, unable to take advantage of modified engines or the White Scars' almost preternaturally skilled ship crews. The Swordstorm pulled up to the forefront of the Chisel formation, propelled by its monstrous, raging plasma engines and surrounded by a swarm of racing Escorts. Bulky vessels of the Alpha Legion's second rank tried to bar its path, sliding into a hurried defensive formation with what now looked like ponderous clumsiness. All around the flagship, other White Scars warships launched forward-facing barrages, vomiting las-beams and plasma bolts and torpedo salvoes in a vast, intense column of pure destruction. The Chisel had hammered its way through the cordon, breaking it open at its weakest point. The entire formation -- tight-knit, long and slender like a throwing javelin –- raced out into open space. The Alpha Legion struggled to regroup in its wake, pulling warships from the far-flung cordon formation like an octopus clutching its many limbs back to itself. They had not lost critical numbers of ships, but the sudden attack run had blown their formation wide open and destroyed the cohesion that they had so painstakingly built. The White Scars' run did not slow. If anything, free of the need to maintain a barrage of las-fire, it accelerated. As the orb of Chondax fell rapidly away aft, it was mediated by the glowing corpses of a dozen burned-out Alpha Legion warships.

Battle of Terra
It is known in Imperial records that much of the White Scars Legion, including its Primarch, was present to defend the siege of the Imperial Palace during the climatic Battle of Terra alongside the Blood Angels and Imperial Fists Legions. Such was the ferocity of the attack by the Forces of Chaos that the besiegers forced the Imperial defenders back to the walls of the Imperial Palace, where thousands died slowing the assault. When the beleaguered forces faced a breach and potential collapse of the Imperial defences, Jaghatai decided on a change of plan. Rather than assaulting the almost-invincible flanks of the Chaos army, he redirected his highly mobile ordu and the surviving Loyalist tank divisions of the Imperial Army to the Lion's Gate Spaceport. At dawn, Jaghatai's lightning raid caught the Traitor garrison at the spaceport completely by surprise, and reclaimed the spaceport for the Emperor. The Khan ordered his troops to reactivate the spaceport's defence lasers to prevent the Traitor fleet from bringing down any more troops and equipment and form a defensive perimeter to hold their newly reconquered territory. Khan's troops repelled several frenzied counterattacks from the Traitors, and began firing on Horus' unprotected dropships. The Khan's plan worked perfectly: the flow of the Traitors' men and machines to the Imperial Palace had been cut in half at a single stroke. Inspired by this success, the Loyalists also tried to seize the Eternity Wall Spaceport, but were driven back by the Chaos forces without difficulty, as they had reinforced their garrison following the loss of the Lion's Gate.

History recorded little else of the Great Khan's actions during the Battle of Terra, but it is known that his Legion ranged the once-proud thoroughfares of Terra during the campaign, engaging the Traitors in punishing hit-and-run strikes. When the end finally came, when Horus died at the hands of the Emperor aboard his Battle Barge Vengeful Spirit in orbit above Mankind's homeworld, the White Scars emerged from the fires of galactic civil war bloodied, but alive. It was said that Jaghatai and his warriors fought many of the Chaos Space Marines that tried to retreat to Terra's spaceports and flee. The White Scars launched several highly-successful hit-and-run assaults against the Traitor forces and together with remnants of the Imperial Army's 1st Terran Tank Division and several infantry regiments they successfully harassed the enemy supply lines as the Chaotic armies fled to the Lions Gate Spaceport to get off-world and escape Imperial vengeance. The White Scars Legion must surely have been at the forefront of the Legions that pursued the defeated Traitors to the Eye of Terror during the Great Scouring, for the White Scars rarely allow a defeated foe to slip away once their blood was up.

Disappearance of Jaghatai Khan
Though Jaghatai Khan survived the tumultuous battles of the Horus Heresy, like so many of his brother Primarchs he was cruelly taken from the service of Mankind in the years that followed. Seven standard years after the end of the Horus Heresy, during the period called the Reformation when the Imperium was largely guided by the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman, the White Scars adopted Guilliman's Codex Astartes and the V Legion allowed itself to be grudgingly divided into several different Successor Chapters. In order to contain the outlaws, Renegades and aliens that dwelled within the Maelstrom Warp rift and had taken advantage of the disruptions caused by the Heresy to run amok in the Ultima Segmentum, Roboute Guilliman ordered the surrounding star systems to be reinforced. The White Scars were tasked with the main responsibility for securing the area from their homeworld. Legends tell that while the Great Khan was engaged in the battles of the Emperor's Great Crusade, outcast Eldar had descended upon the tribes of Chogoris. Though the people fought as hard as they ever had during Jaghatai's wars of unification, their weapons were no match for those of the perfidious xenos. Thousands were cut down, and thousands more enslaved, carried off through the secret passages of the Webway to meet a fate no mortal man can imagine. It was only when the Great Khan and his companions returned to Chogoris after the Horus Heresy that he discovered what had befallen his people, and ordered what may have been the very first Hunt, the object of which was to recover the enslaved Chogorians or to avenge their deaths.

Only legends remain of the battles that followed, for all but a few that witnessed them first hand were lost at the same time as the Primarch himself. Jaghatai fought alongside his sons for another 70 standard years following the end of the Horus Heresy, eventually disappearing in 084.M31 when he traveled into a region of space known as the Maelstrom, a large Warp rift in the Ultima Segmentum that is a somewhat smaller counterpart of the Eye of Terror. Jaghatai is believed to have been in pursuit of the Dark Eldar who had savaged Mundus Planus following the Battle of Corusil V with his 1st Brotherhood when he went through a Warp Gate into the Dark Eldar portion of the Webway, ultimately vanishing forever. Jaghatai had been in pursuit of a mighty Dark Eldar lord, likely the Archon of the Kabal that had attacked Corusil V and perhaps even Mundus Planus itself. None can say what befell the Primarch -- if he was lost in the Warp or if he was slain or captured at the hands of an alien warlord -- but the White Scars believe he still hunts across the galaxy, and beyond, in pursuit of his greatest foes. The White Scars believe he is still alive somewhere within the Webway and will one day return to the Chapter and its Successors in a time of great need. Thus it is that the White Scars harbour a special hatred for the Dark Eldar, even their legendary discipline and judgement slipping occasionally when facing these vile foes in battle. None can say what befell the Primarch, or if he still hunts his prey through the labyrinthine tunnels of the Webway of the Eldar and the nightmare sub-realities in which their dark kin lurk. Perhaps, when his hunt is complete, Jaghatai Khan will return to his people, or maybe he is lost for all time. The White Scars thus continue to fight in Jaghatai's name, destroying the enemies of the Emperor in preparation for the day when the Great Khan completes his consummate hunt and returns to once again lead his chosen warriors and begin the next Great Crusade to unify the galaxy.

Ever since the Great Khan's hunt, it has passed into Chapter tradition that one Battle-Brother should be declared Master of the Hunt, and charged with tracking down those enemies of the Chapter who have somehow escaped its retribution. Every quarter century, the Chaplains preside over the Rites of Howling, where the names and deeds of each nemesis of the White Scars are recounted. The Chapter Master then announces which of these foes shall be punished next. The Master of the Hunt may be the captain of a Brotherhood, and in addition to his normal tasks he must make every effort to bring the object of the hunt to heel, to claim his head, and to return it to Chogoris. There, the skull is flensed and masked in silver. Accompanied by much feasting, the grim trophy is set upon a stake along the road that leads through the Khum Karta mountains towards the Palace of Quan Zhou, the mighty, marble-walled fortress-monastery of the proud and savage White Scars Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes.

Notable Campaigns

 * X173 Plural Xenocide (Unknown Date.M30) - This was an Imperial Compliance campaign of the Great Crusade that was carried out jointly between the White Scars Legion and the 40th Expeditionary Fleet's Imperial Army component made up of the genetically-enhanced soldiers of the G9K Division Kill upon the world designated X173 Plural. This campaign against unknown xenos was fought over a period of six months, in which the troops of the G9K came to admire the focus, dedication and mercilessness of the White Scars.
 * Tyrade System Compliance (Unknown Date.M31) - A White Scars detachment served alongside the Luna Wolves Legion during the Imperial Compliance action in the Tyrade System. This action occurred seven years before the Battle of Istvaan III and the start of the Horus Heresy.
 * Ullanor Crusade (000.M31) - The Ullanor Crusade marked the high point of the Great Crusade's vast effort to reunite the scattered colony worlds of humanity. This vast Imperial campaign concentrated took place within the Ork empire of the notorious Ork Overlord Urrlak Urruk during the Great Crusade in the first year of the 31st Millennium. Ullanor, the capital world of this empire, and the site of the final assault, lay in the Ullanor System of the galaxy's Ullanor Sector. Horus employed the use of the now famous "Speartip" tactic to destroy the Ork Empire by removing its head. The White Scars and Ultramarines Space Marine Legions, supported by the Imperial Army and other forces such as the Titans of the Mechanicum, attacked the outer planets of the Ullanor System. This offensive was a decoy, though it proved quite effective. Many of the Orks' starships rushed to prevent the attacks on the outer planets, leaving the central worldt dangerously vulnerable and exposed to the waiting main body of the Imperial forces, led by the Astartes of the Luna Wolves Legion. The Luna Wolves' Legion fleet headed straight for this central world and more specifically for Urlakk's fortress-palace. At the height of the campaign, Horus and his Terminator-armoured elite Justaerin successfully confronted the Overlord and his retinue of Nobz. With the death of its leader, the Ork forces collapsed into infighting as was their wont and the battle for Ullanor soon became a massacre. The remainder of the Ullanor Sector was subdued by the forces of the Crusade and returned to Imperial rule within the year, as the Ork empire had completely fragmented upon hearing of its master's death once the various Nobz declared themselves the new Warlords and fought each other for control. With Urg’s termination, the nascent Ork empire self-destructed, and the xenos that were not hounded into the mud of Ullanor’s vast battlegrounds would be hunted down across hundreds of star systems, all the way to Chondax, the Kayvas Belt and beyond. Following this monumental victory, the Triumph of Ullanor was held, a massive Imperial gathering that payed homage to the monumental victory achieved by its commander Horus Lupercal. Here the favoured son of the Emperor was invested with the newly created title of Imperial Warmaster, supreme commander of all the Imperium's military forces. The Emperor also announced that He would be stepping down as the Great Crusade's direct military commander and returning to Terra to undertake an important project. He passed on the mantle of leadership of His military forces to the newly invested Warmster. When the Great Crusade commenced again, it now had a Warmaster at its apex, not an Emperor.
 * Chondax Campaign (001-006.M31) - Jhagatai Khan and his V Legion were next sent to the worlds of the Chondax System. The Khan was ordered by the newly promoted Warmaster Horus to hunt the remnants of the empire destroyed on Ullanor, the last slivers of Urlakk's Greenskins. Perhaps some would have balked at such a campaign, for it was not prestigious work, but the Khan was happy enough. It was hunting, and in a way that he understood: cavalry charges across open spaces, going up against prey that had no concept of capitulation or self-pity. He had never complained. Nearly all of his Legion went with him, ranked in their various Brotherhoods, eager for the hunt. Scores of white ships cut the void, each crammed with warriors of the ordu, all desperate to get back in the chase. The brutal campaign lasted six long standard years as the White Scars hunted the remaining Greenskin forces to extinction. It was at Chondax that the White Scars would first learn of the Horus Heresy and the betrayal of Horus Lupercal. Delayed by the arrival of the fleet of the Alpha Legion, the White Scars would break-out from the Traitors' cordon and begin the long journey back to Terra in search of answers -- leaving multiple Alpha Legion warships as flaming wreckage in the bargain.
 * Battle of Terra (014.M31) - The White Scars were one of only three Loyalist Space Marine Legions present at the Battle of Terra during the defence of the Emperor’s Imperial Palace, alongside the Blood Angels and the Imperial Fists. Before the final defence of the Imperial Palace began, the White Scars launched a counterattack to break through the encircling siege of the Traitor Legions of Horus. As part of this counteroffensive, the White Scars undertook a daring lightning raid to seize the Lionsgate Spaceport from the enemy's hands. This enabled the Loyalists defending the Palace to receive fresh troops and supplies from orbit and boosted the morale of the Palace's defenders. A similar Loyalist assault on the second major starport near the Palace failed, largely due to the lack of the White Scars' expertise in mobile warfare. However, the White Scars did not participate in the Emperor of Mankind's final teleport assault upon Horus’ flagship, the Battle Barge Vengeful Spirit.
 * Disappearance of Jaghatai Khan (ca.084.M31) - The White Scars' Primarch Jaghatai Khan disappeared whilst fighting several Kabals of the Dark Eldar on the world of Corusil V, near the Warp Rift called the Maelstrom. Presumably, Jaghatai pursued a Dark Eldar Archon through an alien portal that led into a portion of the Eldar Webway occupied by the Dark Eldar, perhaps even reaching their Dark City of Commorragh itself. His fate is unknown.
 * Fires of Phaistos (533.M39) - This was a notable campaign in which the Salamanders defended the important Cardinal World of Phaistos Osiris, located in the northern Segmentum Ultima near the Warp vortex known as the Storm of the Emperor's Wrath, from the predations of the massive Ork WAAAGH! of the Snakebites klan's Warlord "Rukrippa." When Rukrippa's trio of gigantic Deff-Hulks battered their way into the Osiris System after despoiling a score of scattered outposts and colony worlds, they found the full strength of the Salamanders Chapter waiting for them at the head of an army of disciplined troops raised from the students of the Imperia Schola and hundreds of thousands of volunteer pilgrim-militia whipped into a frenzy by the exhortations of the Basilica's local clergy. Even so, the defenders of Osiris faced terrifying odds as Orks in their millions, backed by savage Squiggoth war-herds, descended in makeshift landing craft and "Krash Kapsuls" from the Deff-Hulks in orbit onto the planet's soil. Leading the resistance, the Salamanders Chapter devised a complex and subtle defence in depth which denied the planet's resources to the enemy. Through the valiant defence by the Salamanders, the defenders of Osiris utterly decimated WAAAGH! Rukrippa, and their exploits entered the annals of Imperial history.
 * The Damocles Crusade (742.M41) - The White Scars are assigned to service with the Damocles Gulf Crusade, leading the ground assault against the Tau on the world of Dal'yth, engaging their alien foes in a devastating series of lightning assaults.
 * Purge of the Moons of Ymgarl (754-756.M41) - The Ymgarl Genestealers are a variant of Tyranid Genestealers who were first encountered on the moons of Ymgarl circa 500.M41, about 200 standard years before the Milky Way Galaxy was invaded by the Tyranid Hive Fleet Behemoth. They were the first Genestealers encountered by the forces of the Imperium of Man and were initially thought to be a new species of previously unknown intelligent xenos. It was later discovered that they were just one variant of the standard Genestealers deployed as a servant bioform of the Tyranid Hive Fleets. By the edict of the High Lords of Terra, actions against suspected Genestealer infection were stepped up to the highest possible effort of the Imperial armed forces. As part of this xenocidal campaign, the Salamanders were given the onerous duty of purging the Genestealers for all time from the moons of Ymgarl. Over the next two years the Salamanders, with the aid of the Magos Biologis of the Adeptus Mechanicus, fought a grueling xenocidal campaign to permanently eradicate this menace to the galaxy. Through bloody and terrible struggle, the Magos Biologis eventually pronounced the ancient threat of Ymgarl ended, although its dark legacy would live on in the shadows of chill ship holds, dark hulks and doomed worlds uncounted.
 * Sabbat Worlds Crusades (35th Millennium) and (754-775.M41) - The White Scars fought in both Imperial Crusades unleashed in the Sabbat Worlds Sector, first at the side of Saint Sabbat who led the Crusade that brought the sector into the Imperium of Man in the 35th Millennium, and later with the forces of the Imperial Warmasters Slaydo and Macaroth to retake the Sabbat Worlds from control by the Forces of Chaos. The White Scars also fought alongside four fellow Astartes Chapters that included the: Iron Snakes, the Raven Guard, and the Silver Guard. The White Scars were present on many of the battlefields of both Sabbat Worlds Crusades. During the first Crusade when they fought alongside Saint Sabbat, an honour guard of 8 White Scars Space Marines were the ones who carried Saint Sabbat’s fallen body back to her homeworld and her final resting place. The Shrine of Saint Sabbat contains 8 ritual niches each filled with a life sized holographic projection of a White Scars Astartes in memory of the Chapter's service. Around the year 600.M41, the Sabbat Worlds Sector began to suffer once more from such large, sustained incursions of Chaotic forces that by the year 740.M41 the situation had become untenable,with the entire sector essentially having been lost to Imperial rule. The Imperium could not suffer the existence of such a large expanse of openly Chaotic space existing within its territory, acting as a staging ground from which to spread Chaotic corruption to the surrounding Imperial sectors. As such, the Administratum ordered the start of the second Sabbat Worlds Crusade to retake the sector for the Emperor. Overall operational command was given to Warmaster Slaydo who was charged with the liberation of the Sabbat Worlds. Slaydo developed an intense passion for the cause of Saint Sabbat, the original liberator of the Sabbat Worlds. He personally believed it to be a crime against the Imperium that her hard-won territories could be so callously discarded and left in the blasphemous hands of the servants of the Ruinous Powers.
 * Lycanthos Drift Campaign (780.M41) - In the aftermath of the long-running and infamous Fourth Quadrant Rebellion, the White Scars answered a general call to arms among the Astartes of the region and despatched a powerful force in 780.M41, to undertake the Lycanthos Drift Campaign against one of the last major stronghold systems of the revolt located to the galactic south of the Maelstrom Zone. Astral Claws Chapter Master Lufgt Huron was elected battle leader of a number of Astartes contingents by common consent, comprising companies from the Astral Claws, Fire Hawks, Celestial Guard and White Scars Chapters, backed by the Death Korps of Krieg and Cal-Sec Imperial Guard regiments and the Titans of Legio Venator. The Fire Hawks' Chapter Master Stibor Lazaerek was noticeably bitter that he was not given command of the campaign, and is known to have born a grudge against the Astral Claws from this time forward. Under Huron's inspired command, the taskforce ruthlessly purged the heavily fortified star system of Traitor and Chaos forces in under a year, cementing his reputation as a masterful strategist amongst Space Marine commanders.
 * Escape from Cano'var (813.M41) - At Nemesor Zahndrekh's instruction, the Necron armies of the Tomb World of Gidrim invade the Tau world of Cano'var, routing the planetary defenders after two standard weeks of campaigning. The Necron victory is short-lived however. A demi-company of White Scars, led by Kor'sarro Khan, arrive on Cano'var, pursuing a now-obsolete punitive mission against the previous Tau inhabitants. As overwhelming volley of Gauss fire destroys the White Scars' Thunderhawks moments after they land, leaving Khan and his Battle-Brothers to fight a bold, but doomed, series of hit-and-run battles. Almost all of the White Scars are slain on Uzme Plateau, but Zahndrekh commands that Kor'sarro Khan be spared and imprisoned. So does Khan begin a peculiar period of captivity beneath the surface of Cano'var. Zahndrekh treats him with honour, through few of the other Necron Lords even acknowledge his presence. At a bizarre feast, where food is placed before Zahndrekh and his court but goes uneaten, Khan learns he us but one of a dozen prisoners. With the desire for freedom outweighing any ranklement or rivalry, Khan and the other captives conspire to escape. The Necrons are slow to react and so the breakout goes well at first. Only when Vargard Obyron takes command do things go badly for the escapees. Several of the fugitives are slain by Obyron's Warscythe, leaving only Kor'sarro and an Eldar Ranger by the name of Illic Nightspear to fight on, and the latter swiftly receives a blow that sends him sprawling from the fight. Thus does the battle devolve into a duel atop bleeding bodies and broken machines. Khan's sword is quicker and guided by a desperate fury, but Obyron's undying machine body repairs any damage within only moments. Little by little, Khan tires, and the sweeping Warscythe comes closer to connecting with each swing. Finally, one of the Vargard's blows is too swift for Khan to evade -- the Warscythe slices through his armour and deep into his flesh. Before Obyron can finish his foe, there is an intervention from an unexpected source. Unknown to either combatants, Zahndrekh has been watching the fight from afar and, impressed by Khan's skill and bravery, orders Obyron to stand aside and let him leave. Dragging the crippled Nightspear behind, Khan finally escapes to surface, finds a still-functioning Tau spacecraft and leaves Cano'var far behind. Khan and Nightspear part ways shortly after, the Eldar to his Craftworld and the White Scar to Chogoris. Shortly after Khan's return to his Chapter planet, Nemesor Zahndrekh and Vargard Obyron are added to the Scrolls of Venegance, their names to be put forward as possible quarry for the next Great Hunt of the White Scars Chapter.
 * The Diata Purge (858.M41) - Great Khan (Chapter Master) Kyublai Khan leads the combined might of the White Scars and the Marauders Chapters against a fell host of Chaos Space Marine Renegades.
 * Assault on Zoran (859.M41) - The forces of the insidious Alpha Legion incited an uprising against the Imperium on the Ice World of Zoran. The Blood Angels' Captain Metraen lead elements from that Chapter's 3rd and 8th Companies to that frigid planet to eliminate the rebellion and drive the Traitor Legion from the world. Metraen's bold tactical choice at first seems to drive the enemy back but the assault stalls when the Alpha Legion's base of operations on the world was determined to be an ancient and long-lost Imperator-class Battle Titan left from the days of the Horus Heresy. Though still half-buried in the ice of Zoran, the monstrous war engine's Void Shield generators and weapons batteries prove to be operational with devastating consequences for the servants of the Emperor. Many Blood Angels Astartes fall in the first assault against the Titan and Captain Metraen fears that the only course open to him to end the threat is an outright Exterminatus order against Zoran and its people. Fortunately for the innocents of that Ice World, aid arrives in the form of Kor'sarro Khan and the 3rd Brotherhood of the White Scars Chapter. Sent to claim the head of the Alpha Legion's infamous Daemon Prince Voldorius, the Khan joins his forces to the remains of the Blood Angels Astartes on the planet. As the White Scars launch their own attack on the Alpha Legion's bastion from below, the Blood Angels use their Stormravens to initiate a series of drop assaults against the secondary plasma reactors that powered the Titan's weapons. Metraen's Astartes neutralise the Titan's defences and the White Scars swarm into the massive war machine's lower levels. Though Voldorius ultimately escapes once more, his followers are exterminated to the last Chaos Cultist and Alpha Legionary. Though Kor'sarro Khan is obliged to continue his hunt for the Daemon Prince, Zoran has been restored to the Emperor's light and the recovery of a battered but fully repairable Imperator Titan is no mean feat. Metraen eventually brings the Titan back to Baal, from which it is sent on to Mars, where Lord Commander Dante hopes that such a priceless gift might finally smooth over the conflicts between the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Blood Angels.
 * Hunt for Voldorius (855-865.M41) - The Hunt for Voldorius was the search by Kor'sarro Khan, Captain of the 3rd Brotherhood of the White Scars, for the Daemon Prince Kernax Voldorius, the warleader of a particularly insidious Alpha Legion Chaos Space Marines warband. In 865.M41 Kor'sarro Khan drove Voldorius from his foremost stronghold on the Hive World of Modanna. By 871.M41, Kor'sarro Khan tracked Kernax Voldorius to the planet Quintus. The White Scars discovered no mere warband, but a whole planet of Traitors and Renegades ready to stand against them, but Kor'sarro was not deterred. Upon making planetfall, Kor'sarro Khan found unexpected allies in the form of Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike and the Raven Guard 3rd Company. Despite the millennia-old rivalry that exists between their two Chapters, the White Scars and Raven Guard put aside their differences and joined forces to defeat Voldorius' armies; Shrike and Kor'sarro slew the Daemon Prince in the streets of the planetary-capital of Mankarra. With the defeat of the Chaos forces and Voldorius dead by his hands, Kor'sarro Khan announced his sixteenth Great Hunt to be at an end. Claiming Voldorius' head as a gloried prize, Kor'sarro Khan left Quintus and returned to a hero's welcome at the White Scars' fortress-monastery on Chogoris (a world officially known to the Administratum as Mundus Planus) where it was set on a pike on the road to the White Scars' fortress, so that all might know that no foe of the Chapter ever truly escapes the Emperor's justice.
 * Battle for Grase Mesa (869.M41) - The Eldar Windrider Host of Yme-Loc Craftworld is all but annihilated at Grase Mesa when White Scars Bike and Land Speeder squadrons encircle their xenos foe and launch a devastating enfilade on their flanks.
 * The Blackfist Scalping (882.M41) - The White Scars join forces with two of their Successor Chapters – the Storm Lords and Solar Hawks – to combat WAAAGH! Blackfist on the Agri-World of Lycelle. Competition between the three Chapters is fierce, with each trying to outdo the battlefield deeds of the others in the name of Jaghatai Khan.
 * Quan Zhou's Wrath (890.M41) - A Necron Cairn-class Tombship enters orbit over Chogoris and begins the focussed bombardment of an unpopulated area on the planet's surface. The Battle Barge Jaghatai's Pride pierces the ship's shields even as the White Scars' fortress-monastery fires its massive Defence Laser, the Khan's Fury, destroying the Tombship in a single Lance strike.
 * Battle for Fyre (898.M41) - Great Khan Kyublai joins forces with six other Space Marine Chapters to purge the Daemon World of Fyre of the daemonic legions of Mal'laf'mak the Bloodbringer. The daemon warlord is banished when Kyublai leads a bold Drop Pod assault against Gorespire and Mal'laf'mak is caught between Kyublai's Honour Guard and the Chapter's Sternguard Veterans in a merciless cross-fire. The White Scars take heavy casualties escaping Gorespire before it, and all within, are dragged back into the Warp.
 * The Badab War (906-913.M41) - As a result of a conflicting nexus of honour, treachery, politics and greed, several Space Marine Chapters of the Badab System under the command of the Lufgt Huron, Chapter Master of the Astral Claws Chapter, turned Renegade against the Imperium and bloodshed and outright civil war ensued -- a war which turned entire armies of the Imperium's most powerful warriors against each other and in doing so swept millions to their deaths in its turbulence. A major deployment of Space Marine forces was brought into the war at the Legate's request to enforce their authority. The Red Scorpions Chapter form the greatest part of the Loyalist Space Marine force, backed by battle companies drawn from the Salamanders' 2nd Company, under the command of Captain Pellas Mir'san, as well as the Raptors, Fire Angels and the surviving Fire Hawks and Marines Errant Chapters. The Salamanders force, although relatively few in number in comparison to some other Loyalist elements was heavily engaged throughout the conflict until its end, both in void battles and open warfare, playing key roles in several of the most important events of the Badab War, such as the Angstrom Incident, the invasion of Shaprias and the sundering of the Executioners Chapter from the Secessionist cause, following the events of the infamous "Red Hour," and the final siege of Badab Primaris itself.
 * Battle for Cardrim (926.M41) - Whilst combating the Ork WAAAGH! Skullkrumpa on the world of Cardrim, Joghaten Khan and the White Scars' 4th Brotherhood awaken the Necron forces of Overlord Tarekh. Isolated from reinforcements, the White Scars prosecute a gruelling hit-and-run campaign lasting several standard years. Their lightning raids hamstring much of the enemy's forces, and the last xenos are finally slain during the attack for Fellstorm Airfield.
 * The Bloodswarm Crusade (936.M41) - The Bloodswarm Crusade is brought to a successful conclusion by the White Scars and Iron Hawks Chapters.
 * A Lost Hero (943.M41) - The Kabal of the Bloodied Talon prey upon the people of Chogoris. Great Khan Kyublai Khan immediately sets off after the attackers, but mysteriously vanishes soon after and is presumed slain by the Dark Eldar. Jubal Khan is appointed as Great Khan of the White Scars following a lengthy ritual and immediately declares a Great Hunt to avenge his predecessor. In 945.M41, Kor'sarro Khan returns to Chogoris not only with the head of Archon Kirareq of the Kabal of the Bloodied Talon, but also those of one thousand of his Dark Eldar warriors.
 * The Bloodskar Hunt (964.M41) - The White Scars' 5th Brotherhood reinforces the Imperial Guard's Cadian Shock Troops  regiments in their ongoing struggle against the Ork WAAAGH! Bloodskar in the Lonnas System.
 * Third War for Armageddon (998.M41) - During the Third War for Armageddon against the largest Ork WAAAGH! seen since the Great Crusade, the White Scars deployed several Brotherhoods into the freezing wastes of the Hive World of Armageddon known as the Deadlands. Their highly mobile style of warfare proved perfect for lightning fast responses to attacks launched by the Ork Speed Kults in that region. The Battle of Dante's Canyon, an action fought in the opening days of the war, displayed to excellent effect the power and style of combat favoured by the White Scars. The White Lightning Speed Kult, having learnt from its previous debacle, attacked again, this time using "kustomised" Warbikes and Wartrakks on skis. However, the Astartes defenders were ready for the Greenskins. The White Scars Tulwar Brotherhood, led by Suboden Khan, launched a counterattack on the Orks. Lightly armoured Bike Squadrons and Attack Bikes surged from a local drilling station being used as a forward command post and met the Orks halfway. A swirling, mounted melee of speeding vehicles skidding around the ice raged for many hours into the night. The following morning Ork Stormboyz dropped from the cliffs above the drilling station, only to be met by the determined and disciplined fire of White Scar Tactical Squads. Charges laid on the ice during the night were detonated, plunging yet more Orks under the frigid surface. At the same time, Orks attempting to cut the cables securing the drilling station to the canyon walls were attacked in the rear by Assault Squads led by Suboden Khan. The leader of this group of Orks was beheaded by Suboden and his broken body thrown from the cliffs. The remaining Orks were driven over the cliffs and their bodies swept below the freezing waters of the Tempest Ocean.
 * 13th Black Crusade (999.M41) - During the 13th Black Crusade the first of the White Scars Brotherhoods to reach the Cadian Gate was the Brotherhood of Khajog Khan, a hero of Armageddon and many other campaigns. Khajog set about launching a series of devastatingly successful hit-and-run attacks across the bleak moors of Cadia. The attacks were so successful that the White Scars soon became a significant threat to Abaddon the Despoiler’s plans and the sieges of Kasr Myrak, Soliq and Rantik were lifted as the Chaotic forces of the Great Despoiler redeployed to hunt down the elusive White Scars. Khajog’s Brotherhood proved literally too effective, as their actions earned the direct attention of Abaddon, who ordered the Brotherhood immediately hunted down and exterminated by a full force deployment of the Chaos Space Marines under his command. Dispatching no less than the elite 1st Company of the Black Legion along with massive hordes of Chaos Cultists and slaves, Abaddon began the hunt through the bleak moors. Unknown to Khajog, Abaddon’s chief Chaos Sorcerer Zaraphiston located the White Scars through his divinations, and Khajog’s forces were ambushed as they attempted to assault a slave train west of Lake Terror. The first 4 White Scars Bike Squads that hit the slave train found themselves charging directly into the guns of Abaddon’s Chosen. Realising that they were beaten, the White Scars continued their charge nonetheless, selling their lives as dearly as possible to give their brethren in the rest of the White Scars force time to break away. Reluctantly, Khajog retreated with the rest of his Brotherhood to regroup, swearing to return and wreak vengeance on Abaddon’s forces. However, that was not to be. Khajog did not get an opportunity to return in the manner of his choosing, for every exit was blocked by the uncountable hordes of the Chaotic forces. Instead of trying to retreat further, Khajog determined to make his last stand at the base of a Cadian Pylon on the shores of the Caducades Sea. The White Scars crashed into the innumerable ranks of the Traitor forces, dragged from their Assault Bikes one by one until at last only Khajog remained. Khajog Khan was the last of the White Scars to fall that day, finally dragged down by the sheer weight of numbers arrayed against him. The Stormseers of the Chapter say that to this day, Khajog’s spirit still roams the bleak moors of Cadia, unwilling to return until vengeance is meted out to those who slew him.
 * The Maelstrom Threat (999.M41) - A vast Chaos Space Marine fleet under the command of Huron Blackheart emerges from the Maelstrom and besieges the Chogoris, Kaelas and Sessec Systems. Rumours report Huron's force is as large as the Space Marine Legions of old, and several Chapters are tasked with its destruction. The White Scars withdraw from their operations on Armageddon to meet this dire threat to their homeworld.

Chapter Organisation
The predominant unit of social organisation among the nomadic people of the steppes of Mundus Planus is the tribe, a fact reflected in the organisation of the White Scars Chapter. Once a young warrior is selected from the feuding tribes of the steppes, loyalty to his tribe is replaced by loyalty to the Chapter and the Emperor of Mankind. As their Primarch did during his campaign to unite the steppes, recruits from different tribes are mixed together in the White Scars' squads. Each squad of White Scars Astartes becomes part of a Brotherhood, a type of unit that is roughly equivalent to a standard, 100-Astartes Space Marines company. Each Brotherhood is led by an officer known as a Khan, who is essentially the White Scars' version of a standard Space Marine company captain The Chapter maintains a different order of battle than most Codex Astartes-compliant Chapters, due to the style of warfare favoured by the Chapter which deemphasizes the use of heavy armour in favour of light, fast-moving mechanised and airborne infantry formations.

At the time of the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium, the White Scars did not make use of standard Astartes rank designations, or ordered companies, and instead differentiated their companies as "Brotherhoods", such as the "Brotherhood of the Hawk" or "Brotherhood of the Spear." However, those White Scars Space Marines who were Terran-born often had a tendency to utilise the more common standard company designations. For example, the 64th Company (made up of Terran White Scars Legionaries) was also known by its Chogorian designation -- the Brotherhood of the Moon. It is not known whether the White Scars still utilise these Chogorian designations for their companies in the late 41st Millennium, though they always now refer to their companies as Brotherhoods.

The White Scars have a propensity to maintain a disproportionate number of Bike Squads and Land Speeder squadrons within their order of battle. This highly mobile lightning-attack fighting style means the White Scars do not make use of as many heavy weapons as other Chapters. For instance, the White Scars possess no Devastator Squads. Due to their reliance on fast-moving fire support, most of the tanks used by the Chapter have had their armour stripped down so that they are able to keep up with the majority of the fast-moving White Scars forces. Dreadnoughts are also not employed by the White Scars, as the cold, metal sarcophagi of these mighty cyborgs evokes a horror of eternal confinement and induces a feeling of extreme claustrophobia that is a result of the White Scars' cultural foundation as nomads who wander the open plains of Mundus Planus' steppelands.

Specialist Ranks

 * Khagan - In the Chogorian language known as Khorchin, Khagan literally means "Khan of Khans", a sacred title and rank solely reserved for and bestowed upon the White Scars Primarch, Jhagatai Khan.
 * Noyan Khan - A bygone rank within the White Scars Legion of old, these senior commanders were in charge of separate Ordu; divisional-size formations within the ancient White Scars Legion, sometimes comprised of up to twenty Brotherhoods (companies). The Noyan Khans had several Khans subordinate to his overall command, each of whom commanded the individual Brotherhoods,. Each Noyan Khan was charged with the command and control of these Ordu, and like their genetic forbear, were allowed certain freedoms and autonomy to conduct campaigns as they saw fit.
 * Great Khan - In the present day late 41st Millennium, the title of Great Khan is the formal title given to the Chapter Master of the White Scars. He is chosen from amongst the commanding Khans of the Chapter's Brotherhoods by a secret process of physical, mental and spiritual trials overseen by the Chapter's Storm Seers.
 * Khan - A Khan is the Space Marine officer who commands an entire White Scars Brotherhood (company), and is essentially the Chapter's version of a standard Space Marines company Captain. Like the Great Khan, the Chapter's Khans are chosen by its Stormseers, who oversee a series of physical, mental and spiritual trials when a vacancy opens to determine which of the White Scars' Battle-Brothers is worthy of being elevated to command the fellows of his Brotherhood.
 * Master of the Hunt - The Master of the Hunt is an honourific title unique to the White Scars Chapter. The current Master of the Hunt is Kor'sarro Khan, Captain of the White Scars' 3rd Brotherhood and the 51st individual to hold the title. The Master of the Hunt is charged with tracking down those rare enemies of the Chapter who have managed to evade destruction at the hands of the White Scars. No enemy is allowed to escape and live and so the Master of the Hunt is charged with hunting those foes and bringing their heads back to the White Scars lands on their homeworld of Chogoris. The High Chaplain then brands the eyes from the head and it is masked in silver and stuck on a spear along the road to the White Scars' fortress-monastery. The White Scars are patient and while some enemies may elude death for centuries they will all eventually be hunted down and their heads brought back to Chogoris. Kor'sarro Khan has already proven himself quite proficient and has tracked down such foes as the Daemon Prince Kernax Voldorius and the Eldar pirate lord Varaliel. The Master of the Hunt incorporates ancient but potent symbols of his office; Moondrakkan and Moonfang. Moondrakkan is a master-crafted Assault Bike originally commissioned by the 4th Master of the Hunt, and has been lovingly maintained down through the centuries. The other item granted to the Master of the Hunt by the Chapter is the ancient Power Sword called Moonfang. This relic of the White Scars Chapter is currently wielded by Kor'sarro Khan and has slayed the most terrible of foes no matter how mighty they may be.
 * Keshig - Primarch Jaghatai Khan's personal Honour Guard during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras was known as the Keshig, and was made up of the most veteran and skilled Astartes to be found in the V Legion who all served as Terminators. The Keshig was once described as "a whole phalanx of giants in bone-white Terminator plate."
 * Stormseers - The Zadyin Arga or "Stormseers" of the White Scars perform the same functions as other Chapters' cadre of Librarians, though the Stormseers emerge from the deeply-ingrained mystical traditions of the tribal shamans and holy men who rode the plains of Chogoris with their Primarch Jaghatai Khan before the coming of the Emperor to Mundus Planus. Since the time before their Chapter's inception, when they were the shamans who first named Jaghatai Khan the Great Khan of the nomadic tribes, the Storm Seers have been called upon to continue to induct Neophytes and newly elevated Khans of their Chapter. Every 10 summers, the Storm Seers venture down into the steppes to observe the tribes and their battles, picking only the best and bravest warriors and returning them to Quan Zhou to become Space Marines. When a Great Khan is lost on the field of battle, it is the Storm Seers who are called upon to decide who his successor will be to lead the Chapter. The Storm Seers will then retreat to the caves of the steep peaks of the Khum Katra Mountains of Mundus Planus. There, Brotherhood Khans present themselves to be tested and scrutinized by the Storm Seers. The process and trials used by the Storm Seers to test and approve who the next Great Khan will be is unknown. Few candidates survive the arduous process, and those that do to become the next Great Khan will never speak of the trials they endured. The other responsibilities of the Storm Seer include teaching Aspirants the core beliefs of their Chapter. They firmly believe it is the manifest duty of the White Scars to destroy the enemies of the Imperium, awaiting the day that that Emperor will rise again, signaling the return of their lost Primarch and the beginning of the next Great Crusade to unify all of humanity. The Storm Seers believe that their powers are connected to the animistic spirits of the land and the air, and that as long as these natural forces fight alongside them, the White Scars will always be victorious. These elemental, animistic beliefs and the highly stylized Force Staff used by Storm Seers tie these warrior-mystics to their shamanistic past on the steppes of Mundus Planus.
 * Emchi - The Emchi is the name given by the White Scars in the Chogorian dialect to their Chapter's Apoethecaries.

Initiations
The White Scars gene-seed is known to be relatively stable, and the V Legion sired a number of Successors when it was split into Chapters. Most sources agree that these Chapters are the Rampagers, Marauders, Destroyers and Storm Lords, all of whom share the qualities of the ancient V Legion and adhere to the teachings of the Great Khan. Some have observed the occasional tendency to exceed the wild ferocity of Chogorian heritage and to cross the line into outright bloodlust. The teachings of Jaghatai Khan state that each warrior must face this trial at some point in his service, and learn to master the savagery within. Only when he has done so can a warrior truly know himself, and do his duty. What has been observed by some as a precursor to genetic instability is regarded by others as a positive trait, and one vital to the White Scars' countless battle honours.

The Chapter utilises a variety of trials to select Neophytes, many of which are intrinsic to the way of life of the warrior nomads of the steppes of Chogoris. The constant warring between tribes ensures that the bloodline remains strong, and the leaders of the various Chogorian nomad communities know that every generation one of the mighty ones descends from the mountains to observe their battles. Although the White Scars remain apart from the tribes of Mundus Planus, they do not hide their presence when observing a battle, for it inspires the combatants to fight all the harder in the knowledge that the living legends of their world are looking on and judging their conduct. Upon the completion of a battle, one or sometimes several warriors are led away by silent, grim-faced White Scars, never to be seen again unless they too one day return to witness the fight and choose the next generation of Space Marines.

The Brotherhoods
The White Scars draw their recruits from throughout the tribes of Chogoris, many of whom are engaged in fierce internecine blood feuds that date back countless generations. While psycho-conditioning during the gene-seed implantation process could be used to wipe such feuds from the neophyte's mind, to do so would risk diluting much of what makes him a desirable candidate in the first place. In order to overcome the feuding, the White Scars ensure that Battle-Brothers from the same tribe serve in different squads, making each unit a product of many different tribes. Intermingled in such a manner, old feuds become largely irrelevant, and without squad mates from the same tribe to reinforce a grudge such matters are quickly forgotten. Nonetheless, the folk-memories of the tribes of Chogoris are long indeed, and occasionally some slight thought long ago set aside flares up and Battle-Brothers clash. While unruliness and brawling is unheard of amongst the White Scars, the Chapter's traditions make allowance for genuine instances of bad blood, and the aggrieved must submit their grievance to their company's Khan, or if sufficiently dire, to the Chapter Master himself. So strong is their discipline and loyalty to the Khan that his word of judgement is invariably final. The nature of that judgement depends on circumstances, and may result in a one or both brethren being punished in some way or, in the most extreme of cases, ordered to fight one another in ritual combat to settle the matter once and for all.

The White Scars often refer to their companies as "Brotherhoods," each of which is slightly smaller than the Codex Astartes dictates. Each company maintains a large stock of vehicles, in particular transports and bikes, and every Battle-Brother is cross-trained in the operation of them all. It is said that the nomads of Chogoris are born in the saddle, and the White Scars are certainly most at ease fighting on, in, or from a mount of some kind. In the time of the rimarch, the Brotherhoods strove for the honour of being declared "First" in the attack, competing in every manner to lead the assault. This practise largely disappeared when the Codex Astartes was applied to the Chapter's organisation and the Legion broken up into Chapters, but it does still resurface when several Brotherhoods fight together. In such instances, the Chapter Master declares which Brotherhood is called "First," as well as the order of attack of the rest of the force. The Brotherhoods keep tally of each battle in which they have been declared First, for the Battle-Brothers know that their deeds will be recounted for all time and their names never forgotten. To be First is such an honour that all tribal feuds are forgotten, the bonds of brotherhood far stronger than those of tribe.

White Scars Libararians
Like their fellow Astartes Chapters, the White Scars also maintain a Librarium of potent psykers who are highly talented and trained to master the power of the Warp at the highest levels. Each Chapter selects its Librarians in its own way, either from seed worlds, as it does with the bulk of its Initiates, or from the ranks of gifted psykers brought to the Scholastica Psykana. Most Chapters train and test chosen psykers following the ancient ways laid out in the Codex Astartes. Librarians of the White Scars are chosen from those potential initiates who display an aptitude for learning the Arts of Heaven. White Scars Stormseers have a number of unique psychic abilities only used by the psykers of their Chapter:
 * Heart of the Khan - The Stormseer reaches deep into the legacy of Jaghatai Khan, and brings forth the legendary swiftness and ferocity of the White Scars' Primarch.
 * Spirit of the Steppes - The Stormseer calls upon the spirits of the land, air, and the souls of long-dead warriors to bring some fragment of the harsh steppes of Chogoris to the battlefield he walks upon. It is said that so long as these forces of nature fight alongside them, the White Scars will always be victorious.
 * Stormlance - The Stormseer calls upon the lightning that embodies his Chapter's way of war, and brings it to bear against his enemies. When he summons this ability he hurls a bolt of lightning in a straight line out to its maximum range, striking everything in its path.
 * The Howling Wind - The Stormseer gathers the powerful winds of the Chogorian steppes, driving them forwards to cast aside the enemy.

Chapter Combat Doctrine
The combat doctrines of the White Scars Chapter have been honed through over ten millennia of battle and bloodshed, but they still reflect those of the original Chogorian nomadic warrior-tribes. Though wild and savage, the warrior-nomads of the Chogorian steppes are highly intelligent tacticians and masters of field craft. They draw on their savagery not as a mindless berserker, but as a finely balanced weapon delivered with focused precision. Though ferocious when on the attack, the White Scars are highly intelligent tacticians and masters of field-craft. Each Battle-Brother draws on their savagery not as a mindless berserker, but as a finely-crafted hunting spear delivered with the focussed precision of a master predator. They specialise in hitting their enemy with a peerless impact and frightening speed, but they are never reckless. Time spent on preparations are vital to their strategy, as they reconnoitre each target in depth and formulate detailed plans and contingencies, coordinating their strike to ensure that maximum damage is done. Such methods have seen the White Scars emerge victorious from many of the bloodiest battles in the Imperium's history, including the Siege of Terra itself. In their many millennia of service since, they have hunted the Emperor’s foes from one end of the galaxy to the other, meeting every threat with blades in their hands and battle cries on their lips, defeating rebellions and invasions unnumbered in the name of the Emperor and of the Great Khan.

The method of war taught to the steppe tribes of Chogoris by Jaghatai Khan has served the White Scars well in the millennia that followed. Their modus operandi consists of lightning-fast hit-and-run attacks conducted by highly mobile forces, destroying the enemy piece by piece and never allowing the enemy to force a decisive or static engagement. Evoking the mounted warriors of their heritage, each Brotherhood maintains a high proportion of Assault Bikes, Attack Bikes and Land Speeders, and their infantry squads are almost always borne to battle by fast moving vehicles or gunships. Indeed, it is often said that the White Scars are born in the saddle and are not at ease unless fighting on, in or from an armoured mount of some kind. They also make use of Jump Pack-equipped Assault Squads to harass the enemy, and then hit the foe with a full assault when they are at their weakest and most frazzled. The Chapter's combat doctrine is to deliver their forces to the battlefield in a single swift blow; thus, when Drop Pods are employed, the entire force of the Chapter committed to the assault deploys in them in order to avoid the possibility of parts of the force arriving in reserve.

Although preferring to keep the foe at arms-length, the White Scars are fully capable of engaging in bloody close assaults, and are rightly feared by the enemies of the Imperium. In contrast, few White Scars Space Marines have ever entered service as a Dreadnought, and only in the direst of circumstances. To the White Scars, the thought of spending an eternity sealed within the ceramite sarcophagus at the heart of a Dreadnought, of never again feeling the rush of the air whilst hurtling towards the foe with blade in hand, is a truly horrifying notion.

Also, the majority of heavy weapons normally used by Space Marine forces such as the Heavy Bolter, Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun or Heavy Flamer are frowned upon by the Chapter, and any main battle tank that cannot keep up with the rest of the army is avoided in the order of battle. For instance, the White Scars have no Devastator Squads, and their few Predator tanks may not carry sponson weapons. The White Scars also almost never field any Dreadnoughts, not only because of the slowness of those cyborgs, but also because every White Scars Astartes does not want to be crippled to the point that they must be entombed in a Dreadnought's cybernetic sarcophagus. Far better to die and allow their spirits to pass into the afterlife where they may roam free.

Overall, the White Scars are considered a powerful and effective Chapter when undertaking direct, rapid assaults or carrying out surgical strikes intended to achieve specific operational objectives. However, their lack of units with a great deal of staying power such as heavy weapons-equipped Tactical Marines, Devastator Marines, Dreadnoughts or the heavier Astartes main battle tanks means that their detachments are more fragile if not used at a tactically appropriate moment or if forced to face prolonged, static combat, particularly against well-defended enemy strongholds. The White Scars are not a Chapter that would fare well undertaking sieges, for example.

Chapter Homeworld
Mundus Planus, better known to its people as Chogoris, is a fertile Feudal World of the Imperium that still exists in a semi-feudal, pre-industrial state. When Jaghatai Khan departed on the Great Crusade, the unified empire he had carved from the nomadic peoples of his world dissolved back into the feuding tribes of horsemen that had existed before his arrival. This was believed by some in the White Scars Legion to be the intention of the Primarch, as the restoration of conflict between the tribes ensured that his Legion would have a supply of highly-skilled Neophytes to draw from the warring tribes in the future. The White Scars are every bit the product of the wild steppes of their Chogoris. As with many Space Marine home worlds, the people there remain in the state that made them such a perfect recruitment source, and the warring tribes have never been properly united since the time of the Great Khan.

The tribes live exactly as they have for countless generations, roaming the steppes following great herds of gargantuan grazers as dictated by the cycle of the seasons. Prior to the coming of Jhagatai Khan, the Chogorians were a divided people, the planet subject to the oppressive rule of the city-dwellers. Though these were conquered by the young Primarch, he saw that to establish his people in those same cities would ultimately lead to the end of all that made them what they were. Instead, only one city was left standing -- Quan Zhou -- a glittering palace of marble high atop the Khum Karta mountains. This city-sized fortress-monastery, the ancient palace of the Khagan himself, is the abode of the White Scars, and is said that within its towering walls is an entire forest teeming with game. The winding valley pass that leads to the fortress-monastery's great adamantium gates is lined with the severed heads of countless defeated foes, and the feasting halls within its marbled walls are heavily hung with a great wealth of trophies taken by the White Scars’ heroes from a thousand battlefields. Quan Zhou is the spiritual home of the White Scars Chapter, and it is truly a formidable and magnificent sight to behold.

Like all fortress monasteries, Quan Zhou is armoured and void-shielded to withstand any siege or bombardment that might befall it. Armed to repel attackers from land, air or space, its walls bristle with enough heavy ordnance to flatten a hive city. Every aerial approach to the fortress-monastery is overlooked by Icarus Pattern Lascannons, and a Macro-laser known to the White Scars as Khan's Fury stands like a spear of vengeance to lance space-borne enemies from the heavens. The fortress-monastery’s Librarius is a lightning-wracked spire where the Chapter's Librarians, often referred to as Stormseers, study their lore and chronicle the deeds of the Khans. They also preside over the Chapter's Astropaths as they relay psychic messages throughout the void, communing with the greater Imperium and those White Scars Brotherhoods hunting across the galaxy.

The White Scars live apart from their people, descending down to the steppes only once a decade to observe the wars between the tribes and to choose potential recruits. The constant warring ensures that the people remain strong, though the White Scars have to be vigilant that such feuds are not retained as aspirants become Neophytes and Neophytes Initiates. Another manner in which aspirants are chosen is by way of the tradition of youngsters entering the mountains to pay homage at the tomb of a fallen White Scar. Such pilgrimages are perilous in the extreme, and simply surviving one is a great deed in itself that may, if the pilgrim is deemed worthy, grant a place in the ranks of aspirants.

Because the tribes from which the White Scars recruit are so attuned to the land and the seasons, the Chapter's Battle-Brothers have an intrinsic empathy with their environment. Wherever they go, they are able to read the soil beneath their feet and the air in their lungs and gain an instant understanding of how best to fight in such places. Though Chogoris is a land of wide-open steppes punctuated by mighty forests and towering mountains, the enhanced physiology of the Adeptus Astartes multiplies the Chogorians' deep-seated understanding of the land and turns it into an all but preternatural awareness. As a result, the White Scars can use every element of any natural environment as an ally, whether speeding over a sparse desert expanse or tracking a foe through the vine-choked glades of an alien Death World. It has been observed that many White Scars are ill at ease amongst entirely manufactured environments such as Hive Cities and space stations, yearning to breathe natural air and feel earth beneath their feet, but as Space Marines, this is simply a matter of preference and no detriment to their fearsome battlefield capabilities.

Chapter Beliefs
The White Scars share the beliefs of their Primarch, venerating the Emperor as the Ultimate Uniter of Mankind, but not as a God and so they do not hold the Imperial Creed as their faith and have little regard for the Ecclesiarchy. It is the White Scars' belief that it is their duty to destroy the enemies of the Emperor in preparation for the day when he will rise from the Golden Throne to begin a new Great Crusade to unify the galaxy. On that day, Jaghatai Khan will return from the void to lead the Chapter once more.

To the White Scars, the lightning bolt that serves as their Chapter badge is a potent and important symbol, representing both their style of warfare and echoing the warrior Honour Scars that they bear on their faces. It also represents the powers of the Storm Seers. The Chapter believes that as long as the elemental, animistic powers of air and land heed the call of the Storm Seers the White Scars will never falter on the field of battle. All White Scars bear the long, ritual facial scar that is called an Honour Scar and is the mark they receive when they are fully accepted into the Chapter as Neophytes.

As noted above, the White Scars refuse to deploy Dreadnoughts within their ranks as the thought of being entombed within the mighty cybernetic construction is anathema to the White Scars' beliefs that when a warrior dies, his soul should be free to travel to the afterlife and not be confined where it cannot freely roam the plains of the netherworld.

Scarification Practises
"They are our brothers from the arch of heaven. We love them, and they fight for us, but they will never truly be Taliskar. Not like we are Taliskar. Observe the sear. It knows which flesh is of Chogoris."

- Zadyin Arga Radja Beijin

Facial markings are widespread among the nomadic tribes of Mundus Planus, less so amongst the settled populations (the Khilan, Huanjan, etc.). It is said by some that the facial scars that give the White Scars their name are self-inflicted on initiation into the Chapter, a rite carried over from the days when the Talskar roamed the seas of grass on Chogoris. The Talskar nation of nomads is given to extensive modifications, reflective of warrior prowess, achievement, and ritual events. The Talskar pattern of scarification is now endemic to many of the plains nomad tribes of Chogoris and have been much emulated by other nations (especially the Haelun, Szechjiak, and High-Zuar) since the conquests of Jaghatai. Typical scarification patterns include those reminiscent of hunting fauna, in particular the native apex raptors (berkul). Permanent resin-based dyes have been added to prominent figures, producing hybrid scars and tattoo forms. Vivid results have been noted, yet their chemical composition is not yet fully understood by Imperial savants.

A distinctive local variation of the left cheek zig-zag pattern has also been noted. This pattern of scars is made with ritual daggers under the supervision of the tribal zadyin arga (translated loosely in Low Gothic as "seer of storms"). Scars run from under the left eye socket to the chin. Ash is then used to raise tissue and whiten the residual ridge (hence the term "white scar"). Shortly after being reunited with their Primarch during the Great Crusade, the Terran-born members of the V Legion quickly adopted the customs of the Mundus Planus natives who joined the Legion, though their results proved less pronounced. This was because these scarification techniques were most efficacious on the young, prior to the implantation of the Space Marine Progenoid Glands and the development of the basic Astartes bias towards rapid dermatological regeneration.

Notable White Scars

 * Jaghatai Khan - Primarch of the White Scars. Jaghatai fought alongside his sons of the White Scars for another 70 standard years following the end of the Horus Heresy, eventually disappearing into a region of space known as the Maelstrom, a large Warp rift in the Ultima Segmentum that is a somewhat smaller counterpart of the Eye of Terror. Jaghatai is believed to have been in pursuit of the Dark Eldar who had savaged Mundus Planus following the Battle of Corusil V with his 1st Brotherhood when he went through a Warp Gate into the Dark Eldar portion of the Webway, ultimately vanishing forever. Jaghatai had been in pursuit of a mighty Dark Eldar lord, likely the Archon of the Kabal that had attacked Corusil V and perhaps even Mundus Planus itself. Jaghatai Khan has not been seen since, though the White Scars believe he is still alive somewhere within the Webway and will one day return to the Chapter in a time of great need. As a result of their Primarch's disappearance, the White Scars hold a particularly savage grudge against the Dark Eldar and will gladly seek out any opportunity to make war upon those savage and terrifying xenos.
 * Jubal (Great Khan) - Jubal Khan is the current Great Khan of the White Scars Chapter following the disappearance of Kyublai in 943.M41.
 * Kyublai (Great Khan) - Great Khan Kyublai, Jubal's predecessor, vanished while fighting against the Eldar xenos in 943.M41.
 * Drago Khan - Drago Khan is a captain of the White Scars, though his Brotherhood command is unknown.
 * Jurga Khan - Khan of the Brotherhood that participated in the liberation of the world of Tephra VII.
 * Khajog Khan - Khan of the Brotherhood dispatched to Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade. Khajog proved such a pesky and dangerous opponent that Abaddon the Despoiler was forced to dispatch a significant number of his best troops to deal with the White Scars and though Khajog and his men were eventually cornered and slaughtered, they undoubtedly bought the Cadians time and kept the forces of the Black Legion quite busy hunting them down before they were finally defeated. Nevertheless the Storm Seers say that Khajog's spirit still wanders the wastes of Cadia, unable to join the Emperor's side in the afterlife until his death is avenged.
 * Kor'sarro Khan - Khan of the 3rd Brotherhood and the current Master of the Hunt for the Chapter. Kor'sarro's first hunt was completed on the 3rd moon of the gas giant Mai IX. The Khan of the 3rd Brotherhood has faced many daunting foes and great challenges including facing an Alpha Level psyker on Delta Arbuthnot where the the entire planet's population of Ratling agri-serfs was mind-controlled and forced to raise arms against the Imperial landowners, using shovels against guards with autoguns. Another such battle was for the 3rd Moon of Woebetide where, as a Scout Marine many decades previously, Kor'sarro fought the Warp entities called Enslavers. Ten thousand mind-controlled Cadians were psychically forced to march across a minefield 100 kilometres wide under fire from the White Scars, Red Hunters and Celestial Lions Chapters. Kor'Sarro Khan was responsible for successfully bringing the Hunt for Voldorius to its conclusion.
 * Jamuka Khan - Jamuka Khan was the predecessor and mentor of Kor'sarro Khan as the Khan of the 3rd Brotherhood and the skull of a vicious tusk drake that currently adorns the marble throne of Kor'sarro Khan was slain by his mentor Jamuka.
 * Subodai Khan - Killed during the battle to retake Rynn's World from the Orks of WAAAGH! Snagrod.
 * Suboden Khan - The Khan of the Tulwar Brotherhood who fought to defend the water purification at St. Capilene and the Phaedra River.
 * Jubal Khan - Captain of the 1st Company of the 1st Chapter of the White Scars Legion during the Horus Heresy.
 * Shang Khan - Khan of the White Scars 7th Chapter during the latter days of the Great Crusade. Shang Khan transferred stewardship of Sarosh to the Dark Angels Legion shortly before the onset of the Horus Heresy.
 * Hibou Khan - Hibou Khan was a member of a White Scars Kill-team sent to kill high-ranking members of the Sons of Horus on the planet Dwell during the Horus Heresy.
 * Shiban Khan - A Chogoris-borne Khan (Captain) of the Brotherhood of the Storm company during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras.
 * Torghun Khan - A Terran-born Khan (Captain) of the Brotherhood of the Moon company during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras.
 * Qan'karro  - A Storm Seer and the senior psychic adept attached to Kor'sarro Khan's task force during the Hunt for Voldorius, Qan'karro is a renowned Veteran of the Chapter as well as a close adviser to the Master of the Hunt.
 * Targutai Yesugei - Chief of the White Scars Stormseers (Zadyin Arga) during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. Yesugei was a junior Stormseer of the White Scars Legion when he presented the Council of Nikaea a third option in regards to the use of psychic abilities and the maintenance or abolition of the established Legions' Libraria. He explained that there was nothing inherently evil about a Librarian. If such a gifted individual was properly trained in order to obtain the greatest results, like any weapon, he could be still be used, but with respect and not indiscriminately. Yesugei argued that human psykers should be trained rigorously to take advantage of their innate abilities in order to assist the Imperium in completing its galaxy-wide spanning conquest. With such an elite cadre of trained psychic specialists utterly loyal to the Emperor, the galaxy could be brought back into the Imperial fold with ease. Yesugei also argued that psychic sorcery should be strictly forbidden, since in dealing with the entities of the Warp, the ever-present risk of corruption was simply too great to be avoided. This position would later be vindicated in the wake of the Horus Heresy and would become the default policy of the Imperium towards psykers during the Age of the Imperium.
 * Xia'ghan  - Senior Chaplain attached to the 3rd Brotherhood during the Hunt for Voldorius.
 * Subedei - Chaplain Subedei fought in the Tempestora Warzone during the Third War for Armageddon.
 * Goju - Goju is a Techmarine attached to the Brotherhood of Jurga Khan.
 * Sarik - Sarik is a Veteran Sergeant and the Force Commander of the White Scars detachment that served in the Damocles Gulf Crusade and the second-in-command of that Crusade's Astartes forces.
 * Sar Af - White Scars Battle-Brother attached to the Imperial Guard regiment known as the Tanith First and Only during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, along with two other Astartes from the Iron Snakes and Silver Guard, during the Imperial raid on Salvation's Reach.
 * Balat - Balat is a venerable Scout Sergeant of the White Scars with over four centuries of service to the Chapter and the commander of a Scout Biker Squadron on Tephra VII.
 * Ultas Kholka - A highly skilled veteran warrior, Scout Sergeant Kholka was one of the Chapter's best. A veteran of the Celebrated "422" Patrol, Kholka even survived stalking the extremely deadly Tyranid Lictors over the cobalt reefs of Ayria-12-Tsunami and survived extended operations on the Death World of Canak. Brother Kholka sacrificed himself to give Kor'sarro Khan the opening to face and defeat the dreaded Daemon Prince Voldorius, using a Flamer to destroy the last of the Blood Tide nanytes, engulfing himself in the process.

Chapter Relics

 * Chieftain Trophy Rack - Like the great khans of Chogoris of old, the White Scars of the Achilus Crusade took to wearing trophy racks to display their triumphs and prowess in battle. Like the more common back banners used by Astartes commanders, a trophy rack identifies a Battle-Brother as a leader and Captain of the Chapter.
 * Dueling Tulwar - Reputed to have its origins from the mountain tribes of Chogoris, the Dueling Tulwar is a White Scars ritual weapon. Its short, curved blade makes it ideal for quick, short cuts, allowing the wielder greater speed in combat, switching between defensive and offensive stances with a flick of his wrist.
 * Guan Dao (Power Lance) - A signature weapon of the White Scars, the Guan Dao is a Chogorian glaive, a Power Lance. Considered blessed weapons, Guan Dao possess a two-metre long metal shaft with a single-edged, curved blade which is primarily used by White Scars Astartes to extend their reach or to increase angular momentum, and thus striking power, when the weapon is swung. This makes the Guan Do ideal for charging from the back of vehicles or striking at foes while beyond the reach of their weapons. When used in close combat on foot, its purpose is more to disarm an opponent and deflect their strikes.
 * Moondrakkan - The Assault Bike Moondrakkan was originally commissioned for the Chapter's 4th Master of the Hunt. This ancient Astartes bike is a relic of the White Scars Chapter and has served as a versatile mechanical steed for numerous Masters of the Hunt over many millennia. Fitted with powerful engines, bulletproof tires and a formidable armament, Moondrakkan has been lovingly maintained by the Chapter's Techmarines and has served the Masters of the Hunt well in their never-ending quests to chase down their quarry in the midst of a hunt.
 * Moonfang - This is an ancient Power Sword and revered relic of the White Scars Chapter. This formidable blade has spilled much blood and the ichor of numerous Apostates, Heretics and xenos since its forging. Currently, Kor'sarro Khan wields Moonfang.
 * Totem of Subetai - The Stormseers are the Librarians of the White Scars -- powerful figures within the Chapter who advise its commanders and keep its lore. Across the Jericho Reach, many Stormseers are held in veneration for their heroic acts and the vaults of Watch Fortress Erioch are filled with artefacts from countless Stormseers that have served the Deathwatch in aeons past. One such artefact is the Totem of Subetai -- a long staff adorned with a beast skull and a knot of course hair. No records still remain of Subetai or his accomplishments, but his staff has served other Stormseers through the millennia. The staff helps Stormseers in focusing their powers, channelling ancient spirits and casting their auguries for the great Khans.

Chapter Colours
The White Scars' Power Armour is predominantly white, with red trim. This has only varied slightly since the Pre-Heresy days of the V Legion. Apothecaries of the White Scars have their entire armour painted red save for the backpack, right shoulder and the helmet which are all white and have a red vertical stripe painted down the centre of the helmet. The red-coloured squad specialty symbol (Tactical, Assault, Devastator, or Veteran) is indicated on the right shoulder guard while the Chapter iconography is painted on the left shoulder guard. Squad markings are displayed on the left knee plate. Sergeants also bear the company markings upon their armour's right greave. White Scars Bikers' helmets usually display Chogorian tribal markings.

Chapter Badge
The White Scars' Chapter badge is a stylized red thunderbolt with a horizontal yellow bar behind it, exemplifying their style of combat and echoing the facial Honour Scars all members of this Chapter bear. Members of the White Scars' Scout Marines Brotherhood are permitted to wear the thunderbolt on their shoulder plates, but an obscure piece of Chapter law states they may not have the horizontal bar, an honour only given to full Initiates.

Chapter Fleet
The White Scars are known to have possessed the following vessels within their Legion fleet during the great Crusade and the Horus Heresy and as part of their Chapter fleet after the Second Founding:
 * Swordstorm (Gloriana-class Battleship) - Flagship of the White Scars during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy era.
 * Constantius (Battle Barge) - Flagship of the White Scars Chapter fleet.
 * Silent Horseman (Battle Barge) - Renamed from the Plainsmaster to honour the stealth running techniques developed by the Chapter during the Third War for Armageddon.
 * Jaghatai's Pride (Battle Barge) - In 890.M41, a Necron Cairn-class Tombship entered orbit over Chogoris and began the focussed bombardment of an unpopulated area on the planet's surface. The Battle Barge Jaghatai's Pride pierced the xenos ship's shields even as the White Scars' fortress-monastery fired its massive Defence Laser, the Khan's Fury, destroying the Tombship in a single Lance strike.
 * Lord of Heavens (Strike Cruiser) - Warship of Kor'sarro Khan's 3rd Brotherhood during the Hunt for Voldorius.
 * Swift Horseman (Strike Cruiser) - Originally part of the White Scars Legion's 4th Expeditionary Fleet during the Great Crusade, was later replaced by a Dark Angels fleet as the Swift Horseman was needed elsewhere.
 * Warrior of the Plains (Strike Cruiser) - Strike Cruiser of Jurga Khan's Brotherhood.
 * Nomad (Frigate) - A small ship but a crafty and daring one, Sergeant Sarik commanded the Nomad with great success during the Damocles Gulf Crusade.

Inspiration
The White Scars' tactics and history are inspired by the real-life military tactics used by the Mongols during the creation of their continent-spanning medieval empire in the 13th Century AD and by the organisation and order of battle used by the Mongol army. Jaghatai Khan is inspired by the actual historical character of Genghis Khan (Temüjin) and some Turkic-Hunnic legends. The name Jaghatai means "white one" and "energetic one" in Mongolian and Turkish, and this name is still popular in Turkic-speaking countries in Central Asia. Rather than the Western portrayal of the Mongol Great Khan as a bloodthirsty conqueror, Jaghatai is more in line with how Genghis is still seen in his homeland of Mongolia—a benevolent leader and masterful tactician.

Gallery
[[Category:W]]