Demetrius Katafalque

Demetrius Katafalque was the founder and first Chapter Master of the Excoriators Space Marine Chapter, a Second Founding Successor Chapter of the stoic Imperial Fists Legion.

History
A former Captain of the Imperial Fists Legion, Demetrius had once fought at Primarch Rogal Dorn's side during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy that followed. During the Battle of Terra, it was Katafalque who bled with his men before the walls of the Imperial Palace, under the horrific onslaught of the Warmaster's siege, putting his body between the enemy and his Emperor. He made them pay in blood for every treasonous step.

Rogal Dorn designated Demetrius to become the first Excoriator; the first Chapter Master of a Successor Chapter of the Imperial Fists. Demetrius also took part in the post-Heresy Crusades of penitence against the Traitor Legions during the Great Scouring. Following the end of the wars of the Scouring, the Imperium's military forces underwent a drastic reorganisation, which included the Space Marine Legions. After officially adopting the newly transcribed Codex Astartes, the Legiones Astartes were broken down into smaller existing formations, known as Chapters. These Chapters formed the basis of the Second Founding, which occurred in 021.M31.

Katafalque later scribed the sacred tome, The Architecture of Agony, a treatise dedicated to devotional suffering. Demetrius favoured their Primarch's practice for his brother Excoriators. On their Primarch's foster world of Inwit, the winters were cold and the lash was hot. Such instruction was adopted across Dorn's early empire and was favoured by the Primarch personally as a form of martial communion and as purification for the soul.