Huscarls

The Huscarls were an elite formation within the Imperial Fists Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras of the late 30th and early 31st Millenniums. They served as the Honour Guard and body guard of the Primarch Rogal Dorn.

The Huscarls were first led by Captain Archamus, who bore the honour of being the "Last of the First," those Imperial Fists first created after Rogal Dorn was reunited with the Emperor and given command of the VII Legion. They were also the first to make their oaths to Rogal Dorn, and their names were the first to be etched on the walls of the Temple of Oaths aboard their mobile star-fortress Phalanx.

After Archamus' death at the Battle of Pluto where he saved Dorn's life from a mortal assault by the Primarch Alpharius, command of the Huscarls fell to Archamus' second-in-command, Sergeant Kestros, who also took the name Archamus in honour of his commander's valour and sense of duty.

By the time of the latter years of the Horus Heresy, Archamus was the last of this honoured brotherhood. A contingent of the Huscarls escorted their Primarch aboard the Warmaster Horus' flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, during the climax of the Horus Heresy at the Battle of Terra. It is not known whether or not any of these valiant heroes survived this boarding action. it is unknown if this formation still exists in some form in the Imperial Fists Chapter of the late 41st Millennium.

Notable Huscarls

 * Archamus - Archamus was a Captain of the Imperial Fists who served as the commander of the Huscarls. Archamus was less emotional and more in tune with the emotions of his gene-father than the VII Legion's First Captain Sigismund. Archamus was a highly suspicious and careful individual, who had shown great disdain for the Word Bearers even before they revealed their treachery, almost as if he had sensed it upon them. Archamus was born with the name Kye on Inwit in the early ninth century of the 30th Millennium. After Rogal Dorn swore his oath to serve the Emperor, Kye was one of the first natives of Inwit to be inducted into the Legion under his command, an honored fraternity that later became known in the Legion as "The First." During his training as an Aspirant, Kys bonded closely with his squadmates Archamus and Yonnad. As part of the brutal training, the trio were forced to fight Combat Servitors together. During one such action Archamus died saving Kye's life. When Kye was subsequently inducted into the Imperial Fists and said his vows before Rogal Dorn, he took the oath name Archamus in honour of his lost friend. Archamus would eventually rise to become Dorn's trusted praetorian and captain of his Huscarls honour guard. Throughout the Great Crusade and then the Horus Heresy, all of the members of The First save Archamus were slain, leading to his new appellation of "the Last of the First." During the Solar War, Archamus was charged with investigating Alpha Legion activity across the Sol System. Working with his trusted second Sergeant Kestros and the Luna Gene-Cult Psyker Andromeda-17, Archamus was eventually able to deduce that the Alpha Legion intended to assault Pluto. During the subsequent battle, Archamus was impaled by Alpharius himself as Rogal Dorn arrived. As Dorn and Alpharius clashed, the wounded Huscarl saw that Alpharius was prepared to deliver a killing stroke and tries to intervene, but reeled harmlessly off of the Alpha Legion Primarch's Pale Spear. Archamus was unaware that Dorn had actually seen the deaths troke coming, and the Imperial Fists Primarch had chosen to deliberately step into the blow in an attempt to pin Alpharius in place by loding his weapon in Dorn's own flesh. Dorn succeeded in slaying the treacherous Primarch with his own massive Chainsword, Storm's Teeth. In a rare moment of deep emotion, Dorn admitted to his gene-son that he had failed him. But as Archamus died, he rejected this, for he was not the Primarch's son but his praetorian, and he had done his duty. In the aftermath of Archamus' death, his second-in-command Kestros became commander of the Huscarls. Kestros also took up the name of Archamus in memory of his commander.
 * Kestros - Kestros was a Sergeant of the Imperial Fists and the second-in-command of the Huscarls for much of the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. When Captain Archamus was killed by Alpharius during the Battle of Pluto, Kestros became the new commander of the Huscarls. He thereafter took on the name of Archamus in memory of his commander's honour and extraordinary sense of duty. Kestros, now called Archamus, would be the first to greet and question Vulkan when the Salamanders Primarch emerged from the Webway on Terra.