Deathwing

The Deathwing is the elite First Company of the Dark Angels Space Marines Chapter and the entirety of those Space Marine Chapters who are Successors of the original Dark Angels Space Marine Legion and are collectively known as the Unforgiven. The Deathwing is composed entirely of Veteran Space Marines who serve as the Chapter's Terminators. Like the Second Company of the Dark Angels and other Chapters of the Unforgiven, which is known as the Ravenwing and concentrates on mobile warfare using Bike Squads and Land Speeders, the Deathwing does not comply with the organisation of standard Space Marine Chapters as outlined by the Codex Astartes, though all of the other companies in Unforgiven Chapters generally do so.

The Deathwing Company's Astartes always paint their Terminator Armour in a bone-white colour scheme to remember the lone squad of Dark Angel Terminators who defended a Dark Angels recruitment world from a Tyranid Genestealer invasion. These Terminators painted their armour white, the colour of death, as they believed that they would never survive the confrontation. Surprisingly, these Terminators proved successful in reclaiming the world and in doing so saved a crucial part of the Dark Angels' cultural heritage and the genetic diversity of the Chapter. Among the Unforgiven Chapters, only the Dark Angels' Deathwing Company Terminators actually continue this tradition. The Deathwing are both the most stubborn and most resilient of the Dark Angels and other Unforgiven Space Marines, and will often refuse to leave a battlefield even in the face of overwhelming odds, citing the tradition of the Terminators who saved the Dark Angels' recruitment world.

When a Dark Angel or other Unforgiven Space Marine receives the coveted promotion to the Deathwing Company, he learns the secret truth of the Chapter. The Dark Angels Primarch Lion El'Jonson was betrayed at the end of the Horus Heresy by his second-in-command Luther, who slew the Lion in single combat on the Dark Angels' lost homeworld of Caliban before he and those other Dark Angels who had been corrupted by Chaos were transported into the Warp by the will of the Ruinous Powers. These Traitor Marines are known today as the Fallen Angels, and the Dark Angels and all of their Unforgiven kin are sworn to bring every one of the Fallen to repentance or death before they can receive the Emperor's forgiveness.

Space Hulk Expansion
Deathwing is also the name of the first expansion produced for the Games Workshop PC game Space Hulk. The expansion is named after the Dark Angels' Deathwing Company. It features rules for solo play of Space Hulk.