Shattered Legions

"The measure of true glory is not to give battle in the bright noon of war, surrounded by brave comrades upon the field of victory, but to valiantly fight on alone in the darkness, with no hope of aid or even remembrance, and to spit defiance in midnight's eye."

- Lion El'Jonson, Primarch of the Dark Angels, Reflections in the Mirror of War, Vol. III

The Shattered Legions is a collective term used when referring to the survivors of the three Loyalist Space Marine Legions that were cruelly betrayed during the calamitous events of the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V in 006.M31, during the opening stages of the Horus Heresy. The scattered survivors of each were cast across the northern sectors of the Imperium, and in the solar weeks that followed, small groups of Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders coalesced in the darkness. Following the example and vision of Iron Lord Shadrak Meduson, the leader of Clan Sorrgol, Captain of the Iron Hands' 10th Clan-Company, the Istvaan survivors formed into mixed cells of no more than a thousand Legionaries each, each to commit to an all-out campaign of violence deep behind the Traitors' lines, prosecuting a bitter shadow war intended to divert enemy resources away from the advance on Terra and to bleed the Traitors dry in the process. Later, numerous other such forces would come into being on both sides of the Traitor-Loyalist divide, the fracture between either faction of the civil war far from a clean one.

History
Born on the blood-soaked sands of the Urgall Depression, the Shattered Legions were the consequence of betrayal and fratricide of the Istvaan V Drop Site Massacre, where three entire Space Marine Legions were rendered all but destroyed -- the Salamanders, Raven Guard and Iron Hands -- all cast down by the treachery of their supposed brothers when the Word Bearers, Night Lords, Iron Warriors and Alpha Legion forces that constituted the second wave of the Loyalist assault revealed their true allegiance to the Warmaster Horus. Of the hundreds of thousands of Legiones Astartes warriors committed to the initial drop, ten thousands more would be cut down in the brutal pursuit that followed and the titanic void battle that ensued between the Traitor and Loyalist fleets throughout the Istvaan System.

In the solar days and weeks following the Drop Site Massacre, elements of the Iron Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard were scattered far and wide across the northern Imperium, having been forced to make hastily plotted Warp jumps to escape the Traitors' ambush. While some scattered alone, it was also the case that vessels of all three Legions came together in small clusters in the darkness, wounded and distrustful of one another following the massacre, and violently shorn from their Legion's chain of command. Often, once damage was repaired and wounds bound, these clustered forces split apart again to seek their own path, often cast wide by the burgeoning Warp Storms that would slowly erupt into the great Ruinstorm, in order to find their way back to their homes or reliable commands, but in other instances, these ragged squadrons remained together, seeking better odds of survival in a galaxy at war in the company of allies who had borne the same savage trial they had, and so were the Shattered Legions born.

Meduson's Labour
"We must learn to pace ourselves. Tactical restraint. To hit and run, and not to be greedy and trust in overwhelming power as of old. We must learn the tactics and techniques of those thrown in with us and respect them. We must take our iron and alloy it with the mettle of the others who were shattered alongside us. We must mix our broken strength with other broken strengths to forge a new, unbroken edge."

- Captain Shadrak Meduson, 10th Clan-Company, Sorrgol Clan, Iron Hands Legion

Of the three Space Marine Legions betrayed at Istvaan V, the Iron Hands remained yet the most numerous, for most of their forces were held in orbital reserve when the massacre was unleashed. What remained of the Iron Hands' ruling cadre after the Drop Site Massacre -- a body called the Clan Council -- bereft of contact with Terra, convened in an effort to assume command of the fight against Horus, but at Oqueth Minor they fell prey to further ambush by the Warmaster's purge-fleets and with the destruction of the battlegroup's flagship Crown of Flame, the Council was no more. It fell to Shadrak Meduson, commander of the Iron Hands' Clan Sorrgol to take command of the bulk of the Iron Hands formations within contact and to re-mould it into a force capable of exacting vengeance for the betrayal at Istvaan V and to contest Horus' inexorable advance on Terra.

Meduson achieved his mission by allowing forces drawn from disparate elements of the three Legions into a new and unbreakable whole, its strengths far greater than the sum of its contingents. The process was far from simple, however, for each of the Legions was possessed of its own idiosyncrasies and foibles, and on numerous occasions bitter and grieving Legionaries came within a blade's breadth of shedding one another's blood. Meduson's visionary genius was to divide the survivors of Istvaan V, in total upwards to 20,000 Loyalist Astartes, into mixed, independent cells and distribute them across the territory that the Warmaster had won. His goal in doing so was two-fold -- most importantly, Meduson's forces would wage a guerrilla war behind the main lines and with every victory, no matter how seemingly insignificant, bleed the Traitor forces and slow Horus' march on Terra. Meduson's secondary goal was simply to exact raw, bloody vengeance from the Traitors for Istvaan V. For three solar years, Meduson oversaw a campaign so subtle in its strategy and execution that even the Warmaster himself did not realise that the thousands of raids, assassinations, sabotages and ambushes inflicted upon his hosts as they advanced across the Imperium were in fact the work of one man -- that the three Legions Horus believed he had left broken upon the black sands of the Urgall Depression lived yet, and had been reforged into a force of unseen potency and value to the Loyalist cause.

The Lost
"Death may come in many guises; the bolt shell in the back, the barrage from above, the searing parting of the flesh at the caress of a Power Blade or the cold touch of vacuum in the void. Least treacherous is the death delivered by the hand of the foe who wears his own colours proudly and who comes to the field of battle without honour. Welcome a death delivered by such a foe, for in it is to be found some revenant of honour in a universe where such a thing is all but forgotten."

- Legionary Ssaran Dhow, Legiones Astartes Salamanders

While the survivors of Istvaan V were the first of those who would be dubbed the "Shattered Legions," they were far from the only example of disparate Astartes elements coming together under such circumstances and fighting their own shadow wars from their respective masters. The anarchy and woe that Horus' treachery had unleashed across the galaxy cannot be understated nor fully assayed, and as the Ruinstorm expanded, numerous Legiones Astartes forces were stranded, isolated from their regular chains of command and left bereft of orders from their Primarch or any other authority they might recognise. Some Astartes forces, in particular those serving with fleets re-exploring the dark marches of the galaxy when the Horus Heresy erupted, had no notion which side of the galactic civil war their Primarch had declared for and where their own allegiance should thereby fall. When many outlying Legions' forces attempted to brave the rising tempest that was the Ruinstorm and rejoin their sires, many were to be lost for all time in the raging depths, many more were simply too isolated or two distant from their parent Legions when the Horus Heresy broke out to do so. Many Astartes leaders faced with this impossible decision choose to declare openly for neither side and instead pursued the last orders they had received from their Primarch, regardless of the outcome.

While the Shattered Legion forces operating under Shadrak Meduson were united in their ultimate mission, many other groups fought towards myriad divergent goals. Many had no greater ultimate goal in mind than vengeance, a cause that would sustain them throughout the Horus Heresy and in many cases long into the Great Scouring. Even these often unwittingly served the interests of one side of the civil war or the other, their attack drawing off resources and disrupting strategic plans with often far-reaching consequences.

Command Hierarchy
Regardless of the circumstances of its coming into being, it is unlikely that any heterogeneous Astartes body would have remained a cohesive force without the leadership of a strong-willed or charismatic commander. Separated from their Primarchs, such forces had much to overcome and few survived long without some other surrogate liege. Meduson was far from the only Legiones Astartes officer who was able to draw together elements from several different Legions into a single, effective force, and each had their own way of doing so. Some Shattered Legion commanders were warriors of singular vision or unique wisdom, able to meld their forces into a coherent whole with just a word alone. Others led by example, inspiring their forces to emulate their deeds. Some were tyrants, however, enforcing their right to lead with threats or with brutal punishment.

In their chains of command, the constituent elements of the Shattered Legion forces generally adhered to the inter-Legion codes put down at the outset of the Great Crusade. These codes defined an equivalency of rank between commanders of different Legions so that mixed forces could operate side by side in the wars to unify Mankind. These codes recognised such terms as Praetor, Centurion, Sergeant and many others, even though officers in question might be known by myriad titles drawn from the culture of their own Legion or the homeworld from which it recruited. Even in the aftermath of whatever great betrayal or disaster had brought them into being, the inter-Legion codes remained largely intact and so even in forces constituted from multiple Legions, a default chain of command already existed. Given the trauma to which many Astartes officers had been subjected, the transition was often far from smooth and the divergent command styles frequently sat ill, but in the main, a potent leader was able to command in a manner broadly in line with the long established Space Marine Legion standard.

Because Legion ranks were invariably kept intact, it was not uncommon for Shattered Legion forces to feature an uneven proportion of officers and Legionaries from different Legions. For example, a Praetor might be accompanied by but a single squad of his own Legion, but by dint of his rank have command over an entire company of warriors drawn from another Legion, themselves led by no officer with rank higher than Centurion. Other Shattered Legion groups were heavily dominated by a single faction, but had far smaller contingents from several other Legions in their ranks. As the Horus Heresy progressed, it became evident that the Traitors had their own Shattered Legion forces, though often brought into being under somewhat different circumstances. Many were simply forces cut off from their own Legions and pursuing existing orders for fear of censure or worse. Some Traitor forces appeared to have come into being as some manner of punishment, cast into exile and instructed not to return until some grave task was completed, often the execution of scattered Loyalist survivors. Thus Shattered Legion formations made of mixed Astartes forces were to be found on both sides of Mankind's galactic civil war, engaging in ceaseless, unseen and bitter shadow wars throughout the Horus Heresy and beyond.

Materiél Strength
Constituted as they were form the remnants of the betrayed, the orphaned and the defeated, most groups that could be counted as Shattered Legions were comparatively small compared to the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands-strong ranks of their parent Legions. Nevertheless, most numbered in excess of several hundred Astartes and some may have numbered as many as 2,000. Beyond the fact that each Shattered Legion represented a mix of several different Legions, three being the most common, there was little or no commonality in organisation. Some were able to field the iconic units for which their parent formations were well known, such as the Medusan Immortals of the Iron Hands or the Pyroclasts of the Salamanders, while fate and misfortune had stripped others of any trace of such heritage.

One feature common in many Astartes amongst the Shattered Legions was the ability to adapt to circumstance, for without such a capacity, most would not have survived the betrayal that had brought them into being. Shorn of Legion lines and communication and supply, they had at best limited access to specialised war machines and were forced to rely primarily on the post-human strengths and abilities bred into each and every Legionary by the genius of the Emperor and His gene-wrights. Standard Legion orders of battle were impossible to impose and so commanders used whatever mix of squads and vehicles they had to complete the mission at hand. This fact made guarding against Shattered Legion attacks a difficult task indeed, for it was largely impossible for their enemies to predict what forces might be brought to bear on potential targets. Over time, Astartes from often very different Legions learned not only to appreciate their cousins' unique ways of war, but to integrate them into their own tactical doctrines. Company-sized forces made up of squads from several different Legions would therefore deploy and fight so as to amplify the strengths of each Legion's traditions.

Notable Campaigns
The military actions undertaken by the survivors of the Shattered Legions against the Traitor Legion forces are too numerous to list, many of which have been forgotten or went unrecorded in official Imperial historical records. Due to the tenacity, sheer determination and uncommon valor of these disparate cells of Loyalist survivors, they were able to strike many significant blows against the Traitors -- upsetting supply lines, committing sabotage, conducting guerrilla warfare and hit-and-run attacks, as well as bolstering the beleaguered defences of multiple Loyalist worlds. Much to the Warmaster Horus' chagrin, he was unable to fully remove the surviving three Loyalist Legions' presence from the galactic regicide board, who went on to become a constant annoyance and proved to be a bitter foe who would continuously disrupt Horus' meticulous laid plans throughout the Heresy. Below are listed some of the more notable actions of the Shattered Legions:


 * The Deliverance Uprising (ca.006.M31) - Following the calamitous events of Istvaan V and the Raven Guard's flight to Terra to bring word of the disaster, the shattered XIX Legion returned to their homeworld of Deliverance. Unknown to them, the insidious Alpha Legion had inserted several of their own Legionaries into their ranks, surgically disguised as Raven Guard Astartes who had died on the black sands of Istvaan V. Gathering intelligence on Primarch Corax's efforts to reconstitute his Legion utilising a sample of pure Primarch DNA given to him by the Emperor Himself, the Alpha Legion operatives patiently waited until the Raven Guard had achieved a genetic breakthrough. In the meantime, they fomented rebellion amongst the old tech-guilds of Kiavahr, the Forge World that the moon of Deliverance circled, while assembling Alpha Legion forces nearby, for an unsuspecting surgical strike. The Alpha Legion successfully tainted the Primarch DNA, which resulted in the disastrous mutation of newly inducted Raven Guard Aspirants into hideously transformed creatures. At the same time, the Alpha Legion's plans reached their climax. The Kiavahr rebellion was well under way, supported by the newly-arrived Alpha Legion force, who were camouflaged as Raven Guard. The Loyalist Raven Guard successfully put down the rebellion and killed all the Alpha Legion operatives.
 * The Battle of Perditus (Unknown Date.M31) - The survivors of the Iron Hands 98th Clan-Company, led by Cassalir Lorramech, fought a traitorous Death Guard task force, led by First Captain Calas Typhon upon the world of Perditus, to prevent them from claiming a powerful alien sentient technology, which was later secretly secured by the Dark Angels Legion.
 * Theft of the Kryptos (Unknown Date.M31) - The Raven Guard survivor Nykona Sharrowkyn and Iron Father Sabik Wayland, two Istvaan survivors aboard the Iron Hands vessel Sisypheum, infiltrate a Dark Mechanicum fortress upon the Forge World of Cavor Sarta and obtain the enemy's most valued asset, a mysterious device known as a Unlingual Cipher Host -- one of the so-called "Kryptos" -- a hybrid abomination creature of the Dark Mechanicum that had previously made the Traitors' code network a cryptographic impossibility to break. With the Kryptos, Loyalist commanders were able to finally access the Traitors' coded communications. During one of these transmissions, the Sisypheum obtained valuable intelligence indicating that meeting of two Traitor Primarchs, Perturabo of the Iron Warriors and Fulgrim of the Emperor's Children, was to occur upon the world of Hydra Cordatus.
 * Attempted Assassination of Fulgrim (Unknown Date.M31) - Learning of a meeting between two Traitor Primarchs upon the Forge World of Hydra Cordatus, the Sisypheum inserted Nykona Sharrowkyn and Iron Father Sabik Wayland to assassinate both Perturabo and Fulgrim. Acting as a sniper and spotter, Sharrowkyne successfully shot Fulgrim in the head, and by all accounts, had fatally wounded him. The pair of Loyalist operatives managed to successfully evade the enraged force of two Traitor Legions, who scoured the surrounding area for the assassins, and rejoined their crew aboard the Sisypheum. The Loyalist cell decided to intercede in the Traitors' plan to acquire the unknown alien weapon known as the Angel Exterminatus. And so, the Sisypheum changed course and made their way to the Warp Rift known as the Eye of Terror.
 * Assault on Iydris (ca.006-007.M31) - In the wake of the terrible slaughter of Loyalists at the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, a small fleet of Astartes from the ravaged Raven Guard and Iron Hands Legions managed to flee off-world. Among these vessels was the Sisypheum, a Strike Cruiser commanded by the mortally wounded Iron Hands Captain Ulrach Branthan. Determined to continue to strike against the Traitor Legions wherever and whenever they could, the crew of the Sisypheum eventually manged to intercept the encoded communications of the Traitors and learned that the turncoat Primarchs Fulgrim and Perturabo were leading their Emperor's Children and Iron Warriors Traitor Legions, respectively, into the Warp Rift later named the Eye of Terror by Perturabo, in search of an unknown Eldar weapon known as the Angel Exterminatus. The crew of the Sisypheum temporarily interrupted Fulgrim's ascension to daemonhood, while the surviving Iron Hands Morlock Ignatius Numen slew the Emperor's Children's Chaos-corrupted Third Captain Marius Vairosean, and Raven Guard survivor, Nykona Sharrowkyn, fought and temporarily killed Lucius, the former Captain of the Emperor's Children's 13th Company.
 * Battle of Dwell (Unknown Date.M31) - In the aftermath of the events on Istvaan V, Iron Hands commander Shadrak Meduson led a series of Loyalist reprisal raids against the Sons of Horus in revenge for the Warmaster's treachery. Upon the world of Dwell, Shadrak successfully marshalled a substantial Loyalist force comprised of 58 Imperial Army battalions, some Mechanicum forces, as well as a small force of Salamanders survivors and a token force of White Scars Legionaries. Though the Sons of Horus easily brushed aside the Imperial defenders, they were shocked to discover hidden Loyalist Legionaries hidden throughout the Loyalists' battle lines. During the fighting, Captain Horus Aximand, "Little Horus," was gravely wounded in the face by White Scars Legionaries, and barely escaped with his life. Though the Sons of Horus eventually proved victorious, due to their superiority in numbers, the Loyalists had proven much more difficult to defeat than at first believed. Later, Horus met with both Primarchs Fulgrim and Mortarion in his command tent to discuss their next moves. The trio of Traitor Primarchs were nearly successfully assassinated when Meduson ordered a surgical strike of a trio of previously hidden Iron Hands Fire Raptor gunships, which wounded all three Primarchs and several Legionaries to some degree. This was perhaps the most successful assassination attempt against Horus of the conflict to date. Enraged, the Warmaster detached a substantial portion of his Legion's resources to launch a hunter-killer force to seek out and destroy Meduson and his Loyalist cell. This force was placed under the command of Captain Tybalt Marr, who wished to settle a personal score with the Iron Hands commander.
 * Raid on Cruciax (Unknown Date.ca. 006-007.M31) - The Raid on Cruciax, which harboured a listening post of the Word Bearers Legion, marked the Raven Guard's return to the battlefield after the crippling losses suffered during the Drop Site Massacre. Intended as a field test to further assess the capabilities and discipline of the new contingent of the XIX Legion called the Raptors, the raid was a full success, wiping-out the Word Bearers garrison and destroying the facility in less than twenty minutes. The first three hundred members of the Raptors, who were all genetically perfect, were declared battle-ready following this action and the Raven Guard quickly put its eye on a more important target -- the Siege of the Perfect Fortress on the world of Narsis.
 * Siege of the Perfect Fortress (Unknown Date. circa 007.M31) - Located on the world of Narsis, the so-called "Perfect Fortress" had been erected by the traitorous III Legion, the Emperor's Children. Taking the Perfect Fortress would be an arduous task, a task which in truth lay beyond the capabilities of the severely depleted Raven Guard to take alone. Following the Legion's catastrophic losses and the ill-fated attempt to quickly replace these losses, Corvus Corax decided that his Legion would assail the highly symbolic location. It was then fortunate that shortly after the Kiavahrian Uprising, the ranks of the XIX Legion were swelled by the reconstituted and vastly expanded Imperial Army regiments of the Therion Cohorts. The so-called "Perfect Fortress" fell within the day. This highly symbolic action not only marked a severe defeat for the notorious III Legion, but also the return of the XIX Legion to the front lines. It was purely an act of spite against Horus, and even though it nearly brought it to extinction, the Raven Guard would still oppose him and prove to be a thorn in the Traitor's side.
 * Liberation of Scarato (Unknown Date.M31) - Having fallen early on in the Horus Heresy, the former Imperial world of Scarato had been turned into a prison world by its new masters, the Sons of Horus under whose yoke the population suffered heavily. Despite the execution of much of its planetary nobility, resistance -- if discreet -- was progressively organising itself, building its strength for a full-scale rebellion against the Warmaster's troops. When the Raven Guard arrived at Scarato the uprising was nearing its final stage. With the help of the XIX Legion, Scarato liberated itself from the meagre occupation force left by the Traitors. With Scarato liberated, the Ravenlord ordered its astrophatic choir to be used to send out a rallying call to those scattered warriors that still fought in the Emperor's name. This allowed the Raven Guard to considerably bolster its forces, drawing more than three hundreds Astartes of various Legions to teach them the art of guerrilla warfare that made the Raven Guard such a thorn in the Traitors' sides. Most distinctively, this call allowed the Legion to welcome back one of its most esteemed sons, Gherith Arendi, the former commander of the Shadow Wardens -- Lord Corax's own bodyguard that had been disbanded on the sands of Istvaan V -- and who had been believed slain. During his time away from the Legion, Arendi had gathered information on another prison-world, Carandiru, which would soon come under attack from the Raven Guard.
 * Raid on Kapel-5642A (Unknown Date.M31) - With the XIX Legion severely reduced, the Raven Guard focussed its attention on sensitive and -- where possible -- less-heavily defended targets in an effort to disrupt the enemy's supply lines and reduce its manufacturing capabilities. The brief but hard-fought assault on the asteroid-base of Kapel-5642A emphasised the new strategy by which the Sons of Corax would now fight. Located in the Cretherach Reach, Kapel-5642A was a Dark Mechanicum-controlled asteroid-base that functioned as a shipyard, tasked with building new warships for the Traitors' fleets. When the Raven Guard struck, they utilised Stormbirds, Thunderhawks and other assault craft to deliver assault cadres of Legionaries which quickly disabled the bases' orbital defence grid, wreaking havoc amongst the defenders and distracting them from the Loyalists' true intent. This enabled the Raven Guard vessel, the Avenger, to launch a devastating torpedo strike, which destroyed the base's orbital docks and the voidships it contained. So swift was their assault that the Raven Guard had departed the asteroid-base well before their torpedoes hit their target. The entire offensive had lasted a scant few minutes.
 * The Liberation of Constanix II (Unknown Date.M31) - Atlas was one amongst several barge cities that roamed the skies above the acidic and toxic seas of the minor Mechanicum Forge World of Constanix II. Archmagos Delvere, master of the capital city of Iapetus, had allied himself with the Traitor Word Bearers Legion and begun the manufacture of presently unknown Daemon Engines. Stumbling upon the Kamiel -- the Strike Cruiser in charge of resupplying the Traitors of the XVII Legion -- more by luck than anything else, Corax himself led the assault to take the ship with his most senior officers in tow. Corax split his small flotilla in order to head to Constanix. The Raven Guard quickly assessed that Delvere's malign influence had expanded to each of the other city-barques, including some of the Titans of the Legio Nivalis charged with the protection of the planet's floating cities. Using diversions, the Raven Guard infiltrated and successfully seized control of the city-barque of Atlas with the help of Loyalist Mechanicum elements and the might of Castor Terminus, a towering Warlord-class Titan. With Atlas firmly under their control, Corax was swift to order an attack on Constanix II's capital, the city-barque of Iapetus, where the Word Bearers and the forces of the Dark Mechanicum awaited them. There the Primarch encountered a new model of hence-unknown Daemon Engines whose descriptions matched those of the dreaded war-engines known as Defilers. The Raven Guard were eventually able to claim yet another victory over the Forces of Chaos.
 * The Day of Vengeance (Unknown Date.M31) - The Day of Vengeance on the prison-world on Carandiru was to inaugurate a new method of warfare -- a new means to destabilise Traitor-held domains -- but instead became known as one of Corax's closest brushes with defeat. A lone Astartes named Commander Shoukonou infiltrated Carandiru's population and began to expand, form and contact existing resistance cells in order to sow the seed of rebellion against their common oppressors. At the chosen date -- designated "V-Day" or the "Day of Vengeance" -- the civilian uprisings broke out, mobilising the enemy forces and turning their attention away from essential facilities which were then targetted by the Raven Guard. Elite infiltration squads of Mor Deythan landed covertly in the capital, seizing plasma generators and overloading the city's power grid, thus disabling anti-air defences and shrouding the entire capital in darkness. The Raven Guard discovered that Carandiru had not only been a prison but also a diabolical laboratory where gruesome experiments had been conducted on captured Loyalist Astartes. Under the dark input of the Emperor's Children dire Chief Apothecary Fabius, these experiments had evolved into the creation of a superior type of Astartes sometimes referred to as "New Men" or so-called Legiones Superior. Equipped with experimental technologies of unknown and esoteric designs, these "New Men" successfully overcame Lord Corax himself, capturing him, until a taskforce of Raven Guard Legionaries under former Commander Gherith Arendi, disobeying the Primarch's orders, arrived in the nick of time to save their Primarch's life.

Iron Hands

 * Durn Atticus (Veritas Ferrum) - Captain of the 111th Clan-Company and commander of the Strike Cruiser Veritas Ferrum, he arrived with the second wave of Iron Hands vessels at Istvaan V, due to the damage sustained by the callous attack of the fleeing Emperor's Children at Callinedes, after Fulgrim unsuccessfully tried to woo his brother Primarch Ferrus Manus to the Warmaster Horus' cause. A substantial number of the Iron Hands vessels in the secondary wave were destroyed by the Traitors' surprise attack. After receiving word of their Primarch's death, the Veritas Ferrum made a desperate attempt to flee, but received a Vox-hail from two Thunderhawk gunships bearing survivors of the massacre. Sergeant Khi'dem of the Salamanders' 139th Company convinced Atticus of their identity, and so, Atticus ordered his ship to recover the survivors. But in the ensuing melee, the Iron Hands lost many more lives the number of survivors they had just rescued, before finally making an emergency jump into the Warp.
 * Achaicus (Veritas Ferrum)
 * Athanatos (Veritas Ferrum)
 * Atrax (Veritas Ferrum) - A surviving Dreadnought of the 111th Clan-Company.
 * Auulus (Veritas Ferrum) - Auulus was a Sergeant of the Iron Hands 111th Clan-Company. He survived the void ambush at Istvaan V, but would later be killed on the ship's bridge in orbit over the newly discovered Death World of Pythos.
 * Catigernus (Veritas Ferrum)
 * Crevther (Veritas Ferrum) - A Sergeant of the Iron Hands 111th Clan-Company, who served aboard the Veritas Ferrum.
 * Camnus (Veritas Ferrum) - A surviving Techmarine of the 111th Clan-Company, that served aboard the Veritas Ferrum.
 * Darras (Veritas Ferrum) - A surviving Sergeant of the 111th Clan-Company, that served aboard the Veritas Ferrum.
 * Ecdurus (Veritas Ferrum)
 * Ennuis (Veritas Ferrum)
 * Eutropius (Veritas Ferrum)
 * Lacertus (Veritas Ferrum) - A surviving Sergeant of the 111th Clan-Company, that served aboard the Veritas Ferrum.
 * Vektus (Veritas Ferrum) - A surviving Apothecary of the 111th Clan-Company, that served aboard the Veritas Ferrum.
 * Shadrak Meduson - Commander of the Iron Hands' 10th Clan-Company, the Sorrgol Clan, he would play an instrumental role in the organisation of the Shattered Legions into a coherent Loyalist strike force, consisting of separate cells, and go onto lead a successful retribution campaign against the Traitor Legions. Meduson's ultimate fate, following the events on Dwell, are unknown.
 * Bion Henricos - Sergeant of Shadrak Meduson's 10th Clan-Company, the Sorrgol Clan, he would survive the void ambush and go on to take part in the guerrilla war against the Traitor forces. He would later be killed during the Battle of Dwell by Horus Aximand.
 * Ulrach Branthan (Sisypheum) - A revered Captain of the Iron Hands' 65th Company, an iron-blooded son of the Nirankar Clan. He had survived the massacre of the killing grounds of the Urgall Depression on Istvaan V during the Drop Site Massacre, sustaining horrific wounds that left him in permanent agony. Kept in stasis, he led the Loyalist crew of the Sisypheum in a successful hit-and-run campaign throughout the remainder of the Horus Heresy. Captain Branthan's ultimate fate is unknown.
 * Cadmus Tyro (Sisypheum) - Cadmus Tyro served as Equerry to Captain Branthan, fighting alongside his fellow Istvaan survivors aboard the Iron Hands vessel the Sisypheum.
 * Frater Thamatica, "Ironwrought" (Sisypheum) - Frater Thamatica was an Iron Father of the Iron Hands Legion, a member of the Morlocks, and a survivor of the killing fields of the Urgall Depression on the world of Istvaan V. It was Thamatica who helped establish contact with the disparate groups of Loyalist forces whohad escaped the Drop Site Massacre, and he helped develop a stratagem for their survival. He would go onto to serve amongst the valiant Loyalist crew of the Sisypheum. Following Istvaan V, it is believed that he is the longest serving and senior-most surviving Iron Father within the X Legion.
 * Vermana Cybus (Sisypheum) - One of the few surviving Morlocks of the decimated Clan Avernii during the disastrous campaign on Istvaan V, he would go onto to serve amongst the valiant Loyalist crew of the Sisypheum. He stood apart, even in a brotherhood of remarkable warriors, for he had personally witnessed the death of Ferrus Manus at the hands of the treacherous Fulgrim.
 * Ignatius Numen (Sisypheum) - One of the few surviving Morlocks of the decimated Clan Avernii during the disastrous campaign on Istvaan V, he would go onto to serve amongst the valiant Loyalist crew of the Sisypheum. He stood apart, even in a brotherhood of remarkable warriors, for he had personally witnessed the death of Ferrus Manus at the hands of the treacherous Fulgrim. Sustaining serious injuries during the fighting on Istvaan V, Numen's features had the plasticised sheen of synth-skin after a close-range plasma detonation had seared the ceramite of his battle helm to his skull. His flash-burned eyes had been replaced by simple targeting optics, but his hearing was almost entirely gone. Numen's ultimate fate is unknown.
 * Septus Thoic (Sisypheum) - One of the few surviving Morlocks of the decimated Clan Avernii during the disastrous campaign on Istvaan V, he would go onto to serve amongst the valiant Loyalist crew of the Sisypheum. He stood apart, even in a brotherhood of remarkable warriors, for he had personally witnessed the death of Ferrus Manus at the hands of the treacherous Fulgrim. Thoic's face was bisected by a curling series of scars inflicted by a laughing swordsman of the Emperor's Children. Thoic's ultimate fate is unknown.
 * Sabik Wayland (Sisypheum) - An Iron Father of the Iron Hands Legion, he survived the disastrous events on Istvaan V, and went on to serve with other Loyalist survivors on the Iron Hands vessel Sisypheum.
 * "Karaashi" Bombastus (Sisypheum) - Known as the "Iron Thunder of Medusa," Bombastus was a fearsome Iron Hands Dreadnought who survived the horrific events of the Istvaan V, and went on to serve alongside other disparate Loyalist survivors aboard the Iron Hands vessel Sisypheum. He would later give his life during the events upon the dead Eldar Craftworld of Iydris, to stop the Iron Warriors and Emperor's Children from attaining a xenos weapons known as the Angel Exterminatus.
 * Autek Mor (Red Talon) - Autek Mor, known as "The Maimed" and the "Blood-Wrought," was both Iron Lord and Iron Father to the infamous Morragul Clan of the Iron Hands Legion. He was known for his fearsome mien and bitter anima, and ruled over his Clan Company with an iron fist. Though he and his Primarch Ferrus Manus did not see eye-to-eye, when the Loyalist Legions were callously betrayed during the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V, it was Autek Mor and his flagship, the Red Talon, that was one of the first Iron Hands vessels that arrived in the Istvaan System amid the titanic space battle that had erupted between the Loyalist and Traitor fleets. Mor ordered his vessel to attack in a desperate attempt to reach the planet's surface and was only driven off after sustaining massive damage, fleeing the system dogged by murderous pursuit. Even as the Imperium reeled, Autek Mor would begin his own war, one fought beyond the sight and the staying hand of the War Council on Terra. It cannot be said for certain when Autek Mor launched the first strike of his campaign, yet certainly the fate met by Gethsamaine Colonus in the Cyclops Cluster must rank as one of the very first such instances. The Iron Hands claimed key Traitor prisoners before destroying the world's major cities in all-consuming nuclear blasts that would render the entire world uninhabitable for generations to come.




 * Veneratii Oberas (Red Talon) - Once this Ancient was known as Centurion Calen Oberas, one of many officers whose flawed temperament earned him rebuke and transfer to Clan Morragul under Ferrus Manus' harsh regime. Centurion Oberas fell in battle defending the Red Talon from a World Eaters boarding party during the Traitors' ambush at lstvaan V. This pier was recovered from one of the ruined cities of Gethsamaine, by which time Oberas had been interred into a Dreadnought shell to continue his service to Clan Morragul. His frenzied rampage through the ill-trained Gethsamaine troops is a testament to the consuming fury that engulfed many of the Gorgon's children after his death at lstvaan V. Veneratii Oberas' ultimate fate is unknown.
 * Domadus (Fire Ark) - Domadus served as the Iron Hands Legion's unofficial quartermaster. Surviving the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, Battle-Brother Domadus would serve alongside fellow disparate survivors of the vessel Fire Ark and continue to wage a successful guerrilla campaign against the forces of the Traitor Legions.
 * Verud Pergellen (Fire Ark) - Survivor of the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, Battle-Brother Pergellen would serve alongside fellow disparate survivors of the vessel Fire Ark as a Legionary sniper, and continue to wage a successful guerrilla campaign against the forces of the Traitor Legions.
 * Casalir Lorramech - Captain of the 98th Clan-Company, who served as a part of the 406th Expeditionary Fleet, he would survive the events of the Drop Site Massacre. He would go onto lead his forces against the Traitor Legions, most notably against the Death Guard forces commanded by First Captain Calas Typhon during the Battle of Perditus.




 * Castrmen Orth - A Spearhead-Centurion of the Iron Hands Legion, he was one its most decorated tank commanders and the youngest to hold such an esteemed rank. During the campaign on Istvaan V, Orth and his "Subjugator" armoured battalions were chosen to fight alongside the elite 1st Clan-Company, the Avernii Clan. At the outset of the Traitors' treachery, he took charge of the Iron Hands' super-heavy tank spearhead and survived the destruction of his Fellblade Rashemion. He then took charge of a Sicaran Battle Tank, the Black Sun and continued to lead surviving Loyalist fast-attack armour elements against the Traitors' onslaught, successfully turning away a Traitor flanking manoeuvre. Orth's ultimate fate is unknown, but rumours persisted after the events of Istvaan V, that he had somehow survived the catastrophic events -- abandoning both his name and rank for his failure to protect his Primarch -- but not his burning desire for vengeance against the forces of the Warmaster Horus.
 * Crius (Crusader Host) - Crius was the Lord of Clan Kadoran and First Vexilla of the Iron Hands Legion during the Great Crusade. He would later go on to serve as a part of an Astartes Honour Guard, known as the Crusader Host, based on Terra in the days just before the start of the Horus Heresy. With the outbreak of hostilities during the Istvaan III Atrocity, the Crusader Host was rounded up on orders from Lord Rogal Dorn, and imprisoned within the prison of Khangba Marwu. However, he was later freed on secret orders by Lord Dorn, nearly 214 solar days after receiving word of Ferrus Manus' death on Istvaan V. He was charged by the Imperial Fists Primarch to undertake a special mission, to seek out and find any signs of his lost Iron Hands brethren, in the hope of bringing them back to Terra to aid in the defence of the Imperial Palace. While Crius and his companions did encounter some survivors of the X Legion on board of the Battlebarge Thetis, these Iron Hands vehemently refused to give up their quest for vengeance, Crius chose to abandon his mission and join the crew of the Thetis, leaving the Imperial Fists to bear these news back to Rogal Dorn : when Horus eventually reached the Throneworld, and if they still lived, the Thetis would answer the call. Crius' ultimate fate is unknown.
 * Eeron Kleve - A survivor of the Drop Site Massacre, he commanded an Iron Hands Battle Barge that was later rescued by a small force of White Scars, under Captain Timur Gantulga. Despite deferring his rank in mourning following the tragic death of his Primarch, Eeron would later help lead a ragtag group of Loyalists through the Ruinstorm and to the Ultramarines homeworld of Macragge, and eventually become a part of the Imperium Secundus. His ultimate fate is unknown.
 * Ares Voitek (Knight-Errant) - An Iron Father and Legionary of the Iron Hands, Voitek later joined the rapidly expanding force of Knights-Errant. He would later be critically wounded aboard the Sons of Horus' flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, during a clandestine mission to seek out and assassinate the Warmaster Horus, following the Battle of Molech. He was recovered by his fellow Knights-Errant and put into a medically induced Sus-an coma. His ultimate fate is unknown.

Raven Guard

 * Corvus Corax - Primarch of the Raven Guard, Corax was a taciturn and subtle warrior, but a true warrior nonetheless. During the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V, Corax assumed a terrible and vengeful aspect, his winged jump pack and razor claws reaping a heavy toll on the ranks of the vile Word Bearers. When their Primarch Lorgar dared confront his brother, Corax nearly killed him. The Primarch of the Word Bearers proved unable to face the killing frenzy of Corax even with the psychic might provided by the power of Chaos. Following the Traitors' betrayal, and the shattering of the Raven Guard, Salamanders and Iron Hands Legions, Corax led the surviving Raven Guard on a ninety-eight day flight, until they were miraculously rescued by the timely arrival of Commander Branne Nev, who successfully extracted the Raven Guard survivors from the Istvaan System. Corax then made for Terra, to inform the Emperor of the disaster at Istvaan V. After the near-annihilation of his Legion, Corax was desperate to rebuild it, at any cost. With the Emperor's permission, he delved deep beneath the Imperial Palace to recover the advanced genetics knowledge that the Emperor had used to create the Primarchs. Corax then made use of these techniques and a recovered original Primarch genetic template to accelerate the development of new Raven Guard Astartes. The repercussions of those actions came back to haunt him, leading Corax to eventually grant the Emperor's Peace to all the twisted, mutant spawn who emerged as the result of his experiments. Corax then vanished into the Eye of Terror in search of penance for his shame.
 * Gherith Arendi - Commander Gherith Arendi was commander of Corax's bodyguard, the Shadow Wardens. He was believed to have been slain during the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, but ultimately rejoined the Legion after the liberation of Scarato.
 * Soukhounou - Merely a simple Lieutenant at the time of the Drop Site Massacre, Soukhounou was a veteran of the XIX Legion, having been recruited on Terra in the early stages of the Great Crusade. His dark skin and ornate tattoos marked him as one of the apprentice praise-singers of the Sahelian League before being recruited into the Legiones Astartes. Soukhonou was one of the relatively select few to have known both the Legion under Shade Lord Arkhas Fal and its new master Corvus Corax. Having embraced the Primarch's new teaching and survived the desperate struggle for survival on Istvaan V, Soukhounou was selected to lead the "Hawks" -- the Raven Guard’s rapid strike units -- following the death of his predecessor, Commander Nuran Tesk. This made Soukhounou the sole non-Deliverance-born Astartes amongst the Raven Guard's command cadre. As part of the Raven Guard's new overall strategy, Commander Soukhounou was selected to infiltrate the prison-world of Carandiru alone and convince the population to rise up against its occupiers. He would thus become paramount to the events leading to the Day of Vengeance campaign.
 * Branne Nev - Branne was a Raven Guard Captain during the Horus Heresy era, and Captain Agapito's biological brother. He joined the other Raven Guard officers in drawing lots to see which amongst their number would take part in the campaign on Istvaan V against the Traitor Legions of Horus. Captain Branne lost and so was assigned as the commanding officer of the Raven Guard garrison that remained on Deliverance while the rest of the Legion deployed to Istvaan V. Eventually he led the mission that resulted in the successful combat extraction of Corax and the few Raven Guard Legionaries who survived the Drop Site Massacre. Commander Branne essentially saved his Legion from extinction at the hands of the Traitor Legions. As the XIX Legion began to rebuild itself following the massacre Branne was appointed by Corax to serve as the Legion's new Master of Recruits. Upon the induction of the first cadre of new Raven Guard Astartes, he was named the Commander of the Raptors, the name given to the new Raven Guard companies raised using the pure Primarch DNA and the accelerated growth protocols.
 * Agapito Nev - Agapito was a Raven Guard Captain and the Commander of the "Talon" Tactical Companies of the Horus Heresy-era Raven Guard Legion. Agapito was the biological brother of Commander Branne. Both of them were part of the original rebel group of Lycaeum prisoners that was lead by Corax to freedom before the arrival of the Emperor in the Kiavahr System. Agapito was suspicious of the unusual actions of some Raven Guard Legionaries who were actually Alpha Legion agents, and he confronted the infiltrators.
 * Nuran Tesk - Commander Tesk was appointed command of the "Talons," after the death of the infiltrator posing as Commander Solero An, who was slain in the Battle for Ravendelve. Commander Tesk, however, died himself a scant few solar months later during the Siege of the Perfect City, thus leaving the Talons leaderless until Lord Corax appointed Commander Soukhounou.
 * Aloni Tev - Aloni was a Raven Guard Captain and the Commander of the "Falcon" Assault Companies of the Horus Heresy-era Raven Guard Legion.
 * Navar Hef - Amongst the Raven Guard, few were so loyal to the ideals and teachings of Corvus Corax than Navar Hef. One of the early recruits of the Raptor-contingent, Navar Hef suffered severely from the genetic curse that plagued most of the Raptors. Being one of the earliest warriors to suffer from these deformations, Hef quickly rose to prominence amogst these mutated warriors -- colloquially called "roughs" in opposition to the genetically perfect "smooths". Far bulkier than his fellow warriors, Navar Hef was required to wear a bastardised suit of Power Armour forged from the remains of Mark II Crusade and Mark III Iron Pattern armours whereas most of the Raptors wore the far more advanced Mark VI Pattern. The Techmarines of the Legion even had to adapt a helmet from a suit of Terminator Armour to enable him to deploy to zero-gravity or low-oxygen environments. Hef's mutations, however, proved a powerful asset in the field, as his superior hearing and claws made him a lethal opponent. Quickly after the Battle for the Ravendelve, Navar Hef was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and given command of one of the newly-formed companies of Raptors. Becoming rapidly known for his aggressive nature, Hef quickly learned to temper his temperament with cold reason after one of his previous actions almost ended with the death of allied troops.
 * Alvarex Maun - Known as "Nightfall One", Strike Captain Alvarex Maun served as the Master of Descent during the Great Crusade and opening days of the Horus Heresy, commanding his Legion's planetstrike operations. Alvarex, however, performed his duties from the front lines, descending from orbit with the first wave of drop ships and leading the action to secure the dropzone in person. He was present during the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, leading from the front, until the perfidy of Horus was fully revealed. When Lord Corax ordered the Raven Guard to break out of the Urgall Depression, it was Strike Captain Alvarex who responded instantly, ordering his Thunderhawk to descend through the torrent of fire and to extract his Primarch. After extracting the Primarch, one wing of the gunship was shot away and the pilot was killed. Alvarex took the controls of the aircraft, determined to save the Primarch even at the cost of his own life. Bringing the severely damaged gunship down in a controlled crash landing, he saved the life of the Raven Lord even though five of the crew were slain and he himself was badly injured.
 * Balsar Khutturi - Librarian Khutturi was not amongst the most powerful from the Librarium department of the XIX Legion, but his continued survival made him of paramount importance to the Legion during the days of the Horus Heresy; especially after the Raven Guard discovered Alpha Legion-infiltrators within their ranks. Khutturi's main mission quickly became to ward the Legion against such infiltration-attempts, skrying every Legionary’s mind in order to confirm their identities and true intent for rallying the XIX Legion.
 * Stradon Binalt - Techmarine Stradon Binalt was a rare survivor of the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V and a member of Corax's Honour Guard. Stradon Binalt and his fellow Techmarines developed many of the jury-rigged parts, alterations and fixes to the Legion's badly damaged battle plate following the Drop Site Massacre that led to the creation of the Mark V Heresy Pattern Power Armor designation for all non-standard Power Armour marks. Techmarine Stradon was also able to unlock the secrets of the Traitors' prototype Vengeance Bolt rounds and developed a multi-layered ceramite plating to better protect the Loyalists from the Traitors' deadly ammunition. In the solar months following the retreat from Istvaan V, Stradon worked to rebuild Corax's destroyed Jump Pack and presented the finished device to the Legion's Primarch just before the assault on Narsis.
 * Napenna - Captured on Istvaan V during the infamous Dropsite Massacre, Techmarine Napenna was one of many captured loyalist Astartes shipped out to and imprisoned on Carandiru to be experimented on by the mad Chief Apothecary of the III Legion, Fabius. Held in a highly secured facility known as Nadrezes, Napenna was amongst those fortunate enough not to have been experimented upon. When the Raptors-Company under Commander Branne liberated the complex, Napenna gathered what survivors he could and staged a breakout during which he inadvertently killed two of the mutated Raven Guard, having mistaken them for some of Fabius' failed experiments.
 * Vicente Sixx - Following the crippling losses of the Drop Site Massacre the Raven Guard's Apothecarion lay in ruins. As the most experienced surviving Apothecary, Vicente Sixx was appointed as the new Chief Apothecary of the XIX Legion. With only fifteen standard years of experience as a member of the Apothecarion, Sixx's promotion was dictated by necessity, a fact he is noted to have strongly resented. Sixx sadly perished a scant few solar months after his nomination, slain by Alpha Legion infiltrators during the infamous Khiavarian Uprising. However, his contributions in the creation of the Raptor-Company were instrumental in securing his Legion's survival.
 * Chamell - Shade Sergeant Chamell was the sergeant of a reconstituted squad of the famous Mor Deythan -- the Ravens Guard's elite infiltrator units during the years of the Horus Heresy. Being all veterans and survivors of the notorious Dropsite Massacre, Chamell's squad was often called upon to prepare the Raven Guard's offensives on the ground, infiltrating enemy key positions to allow the Legion to deploy. This often required for the squad to venture deep into enemy territory, most times through Whispercutter-insertion, silently murdering their way to their objective be it in the heart of an enemy fortress or the highest spire of a hive's towers.
 * Ashel - A Sergeant of the Raven Guard Legion who survived the Dropsite Massacre and subsequent Raven's Flight.
 * Khalen - Sergeant Khalen served with Recon Company, 2nd Chapter. When he deployed to Istvaan V, he survived the treachery of the Traitor Legions as well as the ninety-eight solar days aftermath of the Drop Site Massacre. He wore pre-production, trial Mark VI Power Armour issued earlier to him during the Scalland Campaigns. This armour is known to have served him well, being extremely suitable for recon operations as well as the ability to easily replace parts that were severely damaged. Khalen's account of this armour contributed to several later improvements being included in the final Mark VI Corvus Pattern Armour battle plate.
 * Lancrato Nestil - Sergeant Nestil was a surviving veteran from the disaster on Istvaan V. He went on to serve as one of the Squad Leaders of the newly reconstituted "Talons" -- the surviving tactical companies under Commander Agapito's command.
 * Hadraig Dor - Sergeant Dor was a surviving veteran from the disaster on Istvaan V. He went on to serve and train fellow Legionaries in the newly reconstituted "Talons" Comapny in the arts of how to fight against other Space Marines.
 * Lukar Fereni - Legionary Fereni was one of the 4,000 remaining Raven Guard Legionaries following the disaster on Istvaan V. He served with the majority, who formed the "Talons" -- tactical companies under Commander Agapito's command.
 * Marko Diz - Legionary Diz was one of the 4,000 remaining Raven Guard Legionaries following the disaster on Istvaan V. He served with the majority, who formed the "Talons" -- tactical companies under Commander Agapito's command.
 * Kirhane - Legionary Kirhane was grievously wounded during the fighting on Istvaan V, losing his leg, and was taken to a Loyalist medicae camp for treatment. Surrounded by other severely wounded Loyalists, there was nothing he could do as the battle raged around him. His salvation came in the form of a Salamanders' Thunderhawk gunship, the Ohidoran, which braved the intense aerial bombardment in order to evacuate the wounded Legionaries, though it cost the pilot his life. The Thunderhawk was quickly filled beyond its capacity with the most seriously wounded, with Kirhane taking over for the slain pilot. He successfully participated in the seizing of the Night Lords vessel Warlock. Despite taking serious damage, the Warlock was one of the few Legion vessels that managed to evade the Traitor fleet and escape the Istvaan System, reaching an Imperial held outpost nine months later carrying thirty-eight wounded Salamanders, seventeen Raven Guard and three Iron Hands from the massacre. The arrival of the Warlock and its cargo of Astartes at Agathon, having evaded capture and destruction for nine solar months, was near miraculous. Kirhane would go on to serve as a part of Battlegroup "Revenant." This ad-hoc Loyalist Company of surviving Legiones Astartes was known to have conducted a series of pin-point orbital assaults on key Cyclothrathe Dark Mechanicum installations on Numinal, successfully disrupting the unity of the Dark Mechanicum forces. Legionary Kirhane's ultimate fate is unknown.
 * Sallahn - Legionary Sallahn served with Squad Numas, 31st Shadow Company during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. Legionary Sallahn's reconnaissance squad began the Istvaan V operation serving in the 31st Shadow Company -- a formation directly under the Legion Command instead of serving in the line. The 31st suffered such heavy losses at the height of the Drop Site Massacre that when the breakout order was issued, Squad Numas was one of only a handful of units capable of responding. Legionary Sallahn was instrumental in identifying viable extraction vectors and communicating these back to what remained of the Legion Command, covering the Legion's withdrawal throughout and saving the lives of hundreds of his brother Legionaries. Much later, Squad Numas would receive the praise of Corax himself for the pivotal role it played in the Legion's survival through that darkest hour.
 * Senderwat - Mor Deythan and Squad Chamell's designated pilot. Legionary Senderwat was a true master of his craft, piloting the squads Whispercutter mere centimeters away from walls that would have send the fragile craft crashing down below. On Carandiru, in preparation of the events that would become known as the Day of Vengeance, Senderwat guided his Whispercutter between rows of buildings through six kilometers of enemy-held territory without being detected.
 * Strang - Mor Deythan and member of Squad Chamell. Present at the Day of Vengeance.
 * Hriak (Fire Ark) - Former Codicier Hriak, survived the Dropsite Massacre on Istvaan V. He would go on to escape and serve alongside fellow disparate survivors aboard the vessel, Fire Ark as a Librarian, and continue to wage a successful guerrilla campaign against the forces of the Traitor Legions.
 * Arvus (Fire Ark) - Battle-Brother Arvus survived the Dropsite Massacre on Istvaan V. He would go on to escape and serve alongside fellow disparate survivors aboard the vessel, Fire Ark, and continue to wage a successful guerrilla campaign against the forces of the Traitor Legions.
 * Inachus Ptero (Veritas Ferrum) - A veteran Legionary and former Librarian, Brother Ptero was killed by the Daemon Madail on the world of Pythos after escaping the Drop Site Massacre of Isvtaan V, fighting alongside the Iron Hands Legion's surviving members of the 111th Clan-Company.
 * Nykona Sharrowkyn (Sisypheum) - Former member of the Raven Guard’s 66th Company, Nykona Sharrowkyn was one of the survivors of the infamous Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V in the early 31st Millennium. Seperated from his Legion and with no mean to rejoin them, Sharrowkyn joined an Iron Hands-led group of survivors to continue the fight against the Warmaster’s lackeys. As part of the crew of the almost legendary Sisypheum, whose deeds still echo down through the ages, Sharrowkyn was instrumental to most of the ship’s successful missions. Nykona Sharrowkyn was counted amongst the deadliest Astartes of the Horus Heresy-era, having been taught in hand-to-hand combat by Corvus Corax himself. To this day, Sharrowkyn is known for being one of the earliest persons to have defeated the reputated swordman Lucius the Eternal of the Emperor’s Children Legion. Although no member of the Mor Deythan, Sharrowkyn was also a skilled infiltrator whose skill and marksmanship with the Needle Sniper Rifle was legendary. His ultimate fate remains unknown.
 * Reve (Crusader Host) - Reve served as a part of an Astartes Honour Guard, known as the Crusader Host, based on Terra in the days just before the start of the Horus Heresy. With the outbreak of hostilities during the Istvaan III Atrocity, the Crusader Host was rounded up on orders from Lord Rogal Dorn, and imprisoned within the prison of Khangba Marwu. His ultimate fate is unknown.
 * Tallor (Crusader Host) - Tallor served as a part of an Astartes Honour Guard, known as the Crusader Host, based on Terra in the days just before the start of the Horus Heresy. With the outbreak of hostilities during the Istvaan III Atrocity, the Crusader Host was rounded up on orders from Lord Rogal Dorn, and imprisoned within the prison of Khangba Marwu. His ultimate fate is unknown.

Salamanders

 * Vulkan - Vulkan was the Primarch of the Salamanders Legion. He was an extraordinary craftsman and stout war leader. Vulkan was one of the few Loyalist Primarchs to survive the events of the Horus Heresy and the Great Scouring, though he would later disappear mysteriously.
 * Cassian Vaughn, "The Fallen Master" - Cassian Vaughn, known also as Cassian Dracos and "the Fallen Master", was the first Lord Commander of the XVIII Legion from the time it was Founded on Terra during the Unification Wars until the discovery of the Primarch Vulkan on the world of Nocturne during the Great Crusade. Cassian was mortally wounded in battle against the Orks, but such was the esteem in which Vulkan held this warrior that he undertook to fashion for him a unique Dreadnought sarcophagus known as the Dracos Revenant, or the Iron Dragon. On Istvaan V he fought with unmatched fury, until he was struck by an orbital Lance strike that glassed an entire battlefield. When Xiaphas Jurr and the crew of the Ebon Drake arrived at Istvaan V a standard year later, they were to uncover the battered shell of the Dragon Revenant, far from intact but not yet willing to surrender to his final inevitable death. Called "The Twice-Dead" and the "Avatar of the Sacred Flames" by his brothers, Cassian Dracos returned to the battlefields of the Imperium to enact his vengeance, but he would not be as once he was. His time beneath the black, blood-soaked sands of Istvaan V had left him changed, fey and of unpredictable temper and able to exert a disturbing control over the creations of the Machine God and those bound to them.
 * Artellus Numeon (Fire Ark & Charybdis) - Numeon was a Terran-born Salamanders officer who served as the First Captain of the Legion's elite 1st Company, known as the Firedrakes, during the last days of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. He also served as Equerry to the Primarch and commanded Vulkan's elite personal Honour Guard, the Pyre Guard. Numeon miraculously survived the Traitors' trap and eventually made his way off the scoured planet, to carry on the war against the Warmaster's Traitor Legions. Joining a group of Loyalist survivors led by one of Ferrus Manus' former bodyguards, Numeon was then recovered by the Salamanders' Strike Cruiser, Fire Ark. Fighting a guerrilla war against the forces of the Traitor Legions, the Loyalists around Artellus Numeon picked up the trail of a Dark Apostle of the Word Bearers and his quest for a terrible weapon, rumoured to be the Emperor's power made manifest, upon the world of Traoris. Numeon was unsuccessful in his attempt to retrieve this artefact, when he was betrayed by the Perpetual, known as John Grammaticus. Awakening in agony, he saw that both Grammaticus and the weapon were gone. Numeon managed to depart the planet and succeeded in re-joining the Fire Ark, only to be taken prisoner by another Word Bearers force embarked upon the Shadow Crusade. Fortunately for Numeon, the Word Bearer vessel was boarded by the Ultramarines of Sergeant Aeonid Thiel, and Numeon was liberated and escorted to Macragge, where he reuniting with the remnants of his shattered Legion and his fallen Primarch. Considered by many to be the rightful Legion Master of the XVIII Legion, Numeon -- secretly convinced that Vulkan was still alive or might be resurrected -- convinced Roboute Guilliman to let them depart upon the Charybdis, a Salamanders' vessel, in an attempt to break through the Ruinstorm and bring Vulkan's body back to Nocturne. After many trials and tribulations, the Numeon succeeded in his epic quest. Vulkan's body was taken to the sacred ground beneath Mount Deathfire. However, once the proper rites had been conducted, Vulkan didn't emerge from the fiery pit he was submerged in. Waiting for over a solar week, this turn of events sufficiently broke Numeon's spirit. As the next Time of Trials drew near, Numeon renounced his rank and position. Stripping off his Power Armour, he departed from his fellow Legionaries and stealthily wandered away into the burning ash wastes around Mount Deathfire, where he offered himself as a final sacrifice so that his father and Primarch could be restored.
 * Rahz Obek "Firebearer" (Chalice of Fire)- Captain Obek was a senior officer of the Salamanders Legion, a commander of one of the companies of Firedrakes, the XVIII Legion most dangerous and able warriors. Chosen to be left behind with a small garrison and a few ships on Nocturne's moon, Prometheus, whilst the bulk of the XVIII Legion travelled to Istvaan, Captain Obek struggled deeply with the task at hand. When the first rumours of Vulkan's death reached Nocturne, Obek and his men were overcome with grief and shame. The company became the Unscarred, erasing honour markings upon their armours, refusing to bear new honour scars and even abandonning their individual names as sign of their shame. Some Firedrakes chose to join the expediotion assembled on board the Ebon Drake, but many remained on Nocturne. When Artellus Numeon brought back Vulkan' coffin back to Nocturne and isolated himself in meditation, Obek was approached by Forgefather T'kell to join him in his endeavours to fulfill the Primarch's final wish: to hide and safeguard the powerful artefacts forged by Vulkan in a secret location designated as the Wrought. Obek took what was left of his veterans, a mere fifty-one warriors, on board the mighty forge-ship, the Chalice of Fire and departed, never to return to Nocturne. Their mission avorted by the enemy and the death of Forgefather T'kell, Captain Obek neverless accomplished his Primarch's wish, to safeguard the artefacts that had been saved by T'kell. Roughly ten thousand years after the events of the Horus Heresy, the drifting Chalice of Fire was recovered by the Salamanders Chapter, Captain Obek's maglocked armour still standing vigil over the heart of the Chalice of Fire, unbowed, unbroken and bearing the many wounds he had sustained in fulfilling Vulkan's last command.
 * Phaestus Var'kir (Charybdis) - Phaestus Var'kir was a member of the Igniax, the formation that preceded the Reclusiam inside the Salamanders Legion and one of the first pupils of the great Nomus Rhy'tan. Sole Chaplain amongst the warriors of the Pyre, Phaestus Var'kir would stand countless vigils over his Primarch's dead body on Macragge after the events of the Death of Vulkan. Embarking upon the Charbydis with his fellow Salamanders, Var'kir, lacking Artellus Numeon's conviction that their Primarch could be reborn, provided counsel but very little guidance, having lost his faith. Most notoriously, he tried to convince Numeon to abandon his fruitless quest of reviving the Primarch, claiming that the notions of rebirth of the Promethean Creed were only spiritual, and could not manifest as true. It would only be after facing the horrors of the Neverborn and seeing his brothers' nascent faith in their task that Var'kir would revise his judgement. Through his mastery of the art of divination, Var'kir would succeed with Epistolary Ushamann to guide the Charbydis and reach Nocturne. But fate being a fickle mistress, this was not to be, as Var'kir would never tread the soil of his home world again. As the Charbydis approached their final destination, they were attacked by both the Death Guard and the Word Bearers. The courageous Chaplain decided to remain aboard the doomed ship and defend the bridge, while Numeon and the surviving Battle-Brothers of the Pyre covertly brought Vulkan's casket planetside.
 * Ushamann (Charybdis) - Member of the Pyre, the fellowship of warriors on board the Charybdis on their dangerous voyage back to Nocturne during the dark days of the Horus Heresy. Epistolary Ushamann was a telepath of great skill which had served the XVIII Legion before the Edicts of Nikaea. Ushamann had been a student of the reputed Ra'stan whose training techniques focussed on abstention and denial of power. Reinstated into the Librarius after the Dropsite Massacre, Ushamann would struggle to re-use his power, but would however prove of paramount importance, not only in battle but also in plotting the Charybdis’ course. After the death of the Charybdis’ Navigator, Ushamann -- working in concert with Chaplain Var'kir -- would take the Charybdis to Nocturne, an act he would pay with his life, but a sacrifice he was all the more willing to make in order for his lord Vulkan to be restored.
 * Nomus Rhy'tan, "The Voice of Fire" - During the Great Crusade era, the direct promulgation of the doctrines of the Primarch Vulkan, influenced by the teachings and culture of his adopted world of Nocturne, were already being distributed by the "Voices of Fire" -- a body of chosen Legionaries of which Nomus Rhy'tan was one. Many of these Astartes went on to become the Legion's first generation of Chaplains, and Rhy'tan, already highly regarded as a confidante of his Primarch and a renowned orator and instructor, became senior among them by popular assent of his peers. Before departing for Istvaan V, the Primarch bade the Lord Chaplain to remain behind at Prometheus with the Legion's Neophytes and instructors as regent in his stead, and with a heavy heart Rhy'tan obeyed, and in doing so was destined to survive, the future of his Legion in his hands.
 * Xiaphas Jurr, "The Prophet of Fire" - Xiaphas Jurr was a member of the Igniax, the formation that preceded the Reclusiam inside the Salamanders Legion. He was trained as a Chaplain by the great Nomus Rhy'tan in the final years of the Horus Heresy, never seeing battle as part of the Emperor's Great Crusade. Reckoned amongst the most promising of the officer-recruits who remained on Nocturne in the wake of the muster in the Istvaan System. He was later chosen by Nomus Rhy'tan to lade the mission to investigate the Primarch's fate. It was Chaplain Jurr's fervour which drew the dispirited men under his command to him, in the wake of the rumours of the catastrophic events that played out at Istvaan V, and bound them to him in the dark odyssey that followed.
 * Umojen - Lord Umojen was the Salamanders' Chief Librarian during the later part of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. Umojen had to disband the Legion's Librarium in accordance with the Edicts of Nikaea. Umojen was not present on Istvaan to witness the Dropsite Massacre, but events situated him on Terra prior to the Siege of the Imperial Palace. His mission there as well as his ultimate fate remain unknown.
 * Atesh Tarsa (Sisypheum) - An Apothecary of the Salamanders Legion, 24th Company, who miraculously survived the Dropsite Massacre. Following this disaster, Tarsa led other Salamanders survivors to the Iron Hands vessel Sisypheum, and joined its disparate crew of fellow Loyalist survivors, to continue engaging the forces of the Traitor Legions in a guerrilla campaign.
 * Heka'tan - Heka'tan was a former Captain of the Salamanders Legion. He was present during the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, making a heroic last stand in the Urgall Depression, where the bloodiest of the fighting raged between the Loyalists and the Traitors. He somehow survived the nuclear fire of the Iron Warriors' fierce missile barrage that obliterated a good portion of his Legion. He was dragged away by a fellow battle-brother to an awaiting Stormbird, and miraculously escaped the surface of the ravaged planet. Heka'tan later joined another fellow Loyalist, Arcadese of the Ultramarines, a fellow 'forgotten son' who had been revived from a Sus-an-induced coma, far from the battlefields of the Heresy. The two continued their duty to the Imperium, despite the insanity that was occurring throughout the galaxy. Acting as the Imperium's ambassadors, the two Legionaries arrived on the world of Bastion, which had remained neutral thus far in the civil war, in order to instigate diplomatic negotiations in order to court their support for the Loyalist cause. But their mission didn't go as planned, as they uncovered a Traitor plot and foil an attempted assassination attempt on the Warmaster's own ambassador, Vorkellen, in order to implicate the Imperium in underhanded dealings. To ensure their forced compliance, a lone Iron Warriors Legionary conducts sabotage beneath the plaent's capital city, planting several powerful nuclear bombs to detonate beneath the planet's crust -- a consequence for going against the Warmaster's wishes and courting the Imperium. After the assassination if foiled, the bombs detonate, and began to tear apart the planet. Heka'tan and Arcadese hunt down and kill the Lacrymole assassin, then move to secure the surviving dignitaries to Vorkellen's ship. When the landing pad collapses, Heka'tan sacrifices himself to save the enemy ambassador. As the ship flies safely away, Arcades swears to avenge the fallen Salamander's death.
 * Khi'dem (Veritas Ferrum) - Khi'dem was a Sergeant in the Salamanders Legion's 139th Company, who miraculously escaped the Dropsite Massacre, leading fellow survivors of all three Loyalists Legions aboard the Thunderhawk gunships, Cindara and Hammerblow. Both vessels were picked up by the Iron Hands' vessel Veritas Ferrum in low orbit, after Khi'dem convinced Iron Hands Captain Durun Atticus of the 111th Clan-Company, of their identity. Khi'Dem would later take part in the boarding action on the Emperor's Children's Battle Barge Callidora. When the Veritas Ferrum landed upon the Death World of Pythos, he later came into conflict with Captain Atticus when civilians who landed upon the inhospitable world were being slaughtered by large saurian beasts. The Salamander refused to stand by and watch innocents being killed and began to fight off the beasts. During the final battle, Khi'dem was killed by a giant saurian while buying time for Atticus to escape.
 * Karo Nar'Shak - Legionary Nar'Shak was one of the few Loyalist Astartes known to have escaped the Drop Site Massacre aboard the Salamanders Thunderhawk Ohidoran, and participated in the seizing of the Night Lords vessel Warlock before that voidcraft left the Istvaan System under heavy fire. The arrival of the Warlock and its cargo of Legiones Astartes at Agathon, having evaded capture and destruction for nine solar months, was near miraculous. Nar'Shak served as a part of Battlegroup "Revenant." This ad-hoc Loyalist Company of surviving Legiones Astartes was known to have conducted a series of pin-point orbital assaults on key Cyclothrathe Dark Mechanicum installations on Numinal, successfully disrupting the unity of the Dark Mechanicum forces. Legionary Nar'Shak's ultimate fate following the Horus Heresy is unknown.Forgefather_T'kell.jpg T'kell battles the traitorous Sons of Horus]]
 * T'kell (Chalice of Fire) - Legendary Techmarine and Master of the Forge of the Salamanders, T'kell built the Vault beneath Mount Deathfire where the ashes of fallen Salamanders are immolated in lava upon the Pyre-slab, their essence returned to the heart of Nocturne. T'kell built the Vault under the watchful eyes of Vulkan himself. Prior to Vulkan's departure to Istvaan III, T'kell was given the honour of becoming the first Forgefather. Fearing what havoc the weapons he had forged would be able to cause if they fell in the wrong hands, the Primarch ordered T'kell to destroy all of the relics that were stored in the Primarch's Great Vault. T'kell pleaded his Primarch to leave some legacy behind, to which Vulkan had eventually agreed. Vulkan gave T'kell the privilege to choose seven of the relics that he would leave to his Legion, on for each of the ancestral realms of Nocturne. Yet with this gift came also a terrible burden : to see to the destruction of the remaining artefacts. Furthermore, Vulkan tasked T'kell with a seperate mission, to hide the remaining seven relics in a secret armoury of the XVIII Legion known as the Wrought, which Vulkan himself had secretly established in the Boron XIII-system somewhen during the Great Crusade. Seemingly without advising Lord Chaplain Nomus Rhy'tan of his intent, Forgefather T'kell left Prometheus at the head of the Prometheus garrison onboard the Chalice of Fire, the first relic he had chosen to safeguard. However, upon their arrival in the Boron XIII-system, the Salamanders discovered that the enemy had located the Wrought, preventing the Forgefather from accomplishing his mission. Worse yet, the detachment's military commander, Captain Obek, had been captured by the Sons of Horus while conducting a reconnaissance mission. As part of the same mission, T'kell himself narrowly escaped captured but had his mechanical parts infected by an unknown form of malignant scrap-code that hid deep within its augmetics. When the rescue mission mounted to free Captain Obek succeeded to open the Wrought, the scrap-code took control of T'kell, forcing him to open the gates to the Sons of Horus and their Dark Mechanicum allies. In a desperate attempt to save his brothers, T'kell took his own Plasma Pistol to his head and shot, burning out the augmented part of his brain and falling in a deep sus-an coma. The venerable Forgefather awakened several weeks later to a situation that was much changed. He was onboard the Obstinate, a vessel belonging to the Shattered Legions whose master had resolved to the forbidden knowledge of the Keys of Hel to transform his fallen warriors into undead automata. While the Salamanders and the Shattered Legions had allied themselves to track down the enemy commander -- the Mechanicum Adept known as Regulus --, upon learning of the true nature of the Chalice of Fire 's cargo, Kastigan Ulock of the Shattered Legions intended to seize the Chalice of Fire and the powerful artefacts it contained. Moved by the motives of one of Ulock's few remaining living Battlebrothers, T'kell sabotaged the dark machinery at the heart of the Obstinate before trying to escape. However, T'kell's escape was twarted by the undead minions of Ulock, which captured T'kell as he was going to board a gunship and leave the Obstinate. Refusing to help the deluded Iron Hand, T'kell ordered the Chalice of Fire to destroy the Obstinate while he was still on board.
 * Grenn - Once, Ancient Grenn was Consul-Centurion Shar'rac Grenn of the Realm of Epithemus, well respected in the Salamanders Legion for his devotion both to duty and the teachings of Vulkan. The honour markings on his kneepads and the embossed seal of Nocturne on his Dreadnought chestplate recalled the glories of his long career, which culminated in the brutal fighting on Istvaan V from which he barely escaped, alongside a handful of his brethren. It was on Dominica Minor that the tattered survivors, known as the Cadre Sulphaeon, heard rumours of Vulkan's death and the total destruction of their Legion, and when the dread fleet of Mortarion appeared in orbit of their refuge, they pledged to die in its defence rather than flee before their gene-father's murderers. Grenn's ultimate fate is unknown.