Vostroyan Firstborn

"Quiet you dogs! Are you weak-willed agri-wolders, or are you first-born sons of Vostroya? If you receive an order, you act as if the Emperor Himself gave it!"

- Sergeant Teodor Arinkev, berating new recruits recently arrived from Vostroya

The Vostroyan Firstborn is the name given to the regiments of the Imperial Guard that originate from the industrial Hive World of Vostroya located near the Halo Stars in the Segmentum Obscurus. The Vostroyan regiments have served the Emperor for countless centuries, though in truth they fight to absolve themselves of a terrible shame incurred by their ancestors over ten millennia ago when, during the dark days of the Horus Heresy, Vostroya failed in its duty to the Emperor of Mankind. When the galaxy was consumed in war and anarchy, the Emperor commanded that worlds still loyal to the Imperium send forth fighting men to help defend it against the Warmaster Horus and his Traitor Legions. Vostroya refused, arguing that it could better serve the Imperium by continuing to devote all its efforts to the manufacture of weapons for the Emperor's armies, and that to give up so much of its populace to become warriors for the Imperial Army would render it incapable of producing those weapons in sufficient quantities. The Vostroyans' refusal to provide soldiers was met with uncommon mercy by the Imperium once the Heresy had ended, and the people of Vostroya have forever after sought to atone for their mistake, promising to provide the first-born son of every Vostroyan family to the service of the Imperial Guard.

Regimental History
"We shall wage this war with undaunted faith and courage. We shall not take one step back. This is the Emperor's world and we will not surrender it!"

- Lord Marshal Toshenko addressing the 16th Vostroyan at the Defence of Nimbosa

Vostroya has always been an important industrial centre for the human-settled galaxy, providing vital arms and munitions to the armed forces of the Imperium of Man. Vostroya's great shame has its roots in an age long past, when the Emperor of Mankind strode amongst the stars and when His empire was sundered by the Horus Heresy. As the legions of the Traitor Warmaster Horus carved a bloody trail to Terra, a petition from the Emperor requested that Vostroya raise regiments of soldiers for the Imperial Army to stand in Horus' path. Every worker that toiled in the great smelteries of Vostroya was already engaged in the immense war effort and the world's ruling Techtriarchs determined that such a sacrifice in manpower would render the production quotas unattainable. They reasoned that the people of Vostroya were better expended making guns than firing them. Reluctantly, the Techtriarchs refused the request.

Their actions might have gone unremarked, for in the violence of that terrible war many records were destroyed. Unfortunately for the people of Vostroya, such anonymity would be denied to them. When the Heresy ended and Exactor Tributii Advocates of the Administratum began to tally up the cost, Vostroya's refusal to raise arms came to light. The Techtriarchs were called to account -- a task that the Primarch of the Ultramarines, Roboute Guilliman, oversaw personally. Faced with the ire of the Ultramarines Legion's Primarch, the people of Vostroya entreated the Techtriarchs to negotiate a settlement that would allow them to make amends for their perceived disloyalty. Guilliman warned that Vostroya's penance might never end, but even when he stated the grievous terms of Vostroya's reprieve the Techtriarchs willingly accepted their chance for redemption in the Emperor's eyes. The proposal that Guilliman and the Techtriarchs agreed to was simple, but has shaped Vostroyan society ever since. To repay their dept to the Emperor, the Vostroyans have, for the last ten thousand standard years, given up the firstborn son of every family for service in the Imperial Guard. There is no exception to this penance, and even the greatest noble families must comply. Thus the regiments of the Vostroyan Firstborn were raised. Unlike other Imperial Guard regiments that are raised en masse by a single Imperial world, the already extant regiments of the Firstborn are regularly furnished with a steady influx of new recruits from their homeworld. To the Vostroyans it is a matter of pride that the regiments of the Firstborn have existed unbroken since their first creation in the 31t Millennium.

Vostroya continues to labour unceasingly to meet the production quotas of their Adeptus Mechanicus masters, but the repayment of their debt to the Emperor comes first. Attached to each of the thousands of manufactoria that blot the planet's surface is a sacred workshop, where the weapons and wargear of the Vostroyan Firstborn are produced. Every labourer on Vostroya is expected to give one hour in every ten to the upkeep of the Firstborn regiments. With stoic resolve, the Vostroyans steadfastly sacrifice their time. The weaponry they produce is of the finest quality, for the Firstborn are their sons and brothers and their only hope of redemption.

Regimental Homeworld
Vostroya was colonised long ago, during the Dark Age of Technology, when Mankind first reached the stars. The homeworld of the Vostroyan Firstborn is a frigid industrialised Hive World, covered in manufactories and towering arcology cityscapes, which has maintained strong ties with the Adeptus Mechanicus since the Age of Strife. Like most Hive Worlds, it is heavily populated. Smoking chimneys belch toxic clouds of pollutants into the sky and blast furnaces fend off the bitter chill as vast workforces toil unceasingly for their Imperial masters. These smoke-clogged edifices are the only places where heat can be found, choking oases of light and warmth amidst the perpetual icy gloom. Few folk stray from their manufactoria without good reason.

Vostroya is governed by the Techtriarchs, a curious committee of Adeptus Mechanicus Arch-Magi and traditional Imperial planetary nobles, whose primary duty is to ensure that the Imperial tithes and production quotas placed upon the Vostroyans are always met. Most of the world's population work in the manufactoria, subjected to poor conditions and long hours to ensure that weaponry and other goods are produced in the vast quantities demanded by the Imperium. For the poorest families, their first-born sons are provided with an opportunity to achieve something beyond the toil and frozen squalor of their homes, and for all on Vostroya, the offering of the first-born is regarded as both a duty and an honour -- their culture places enormous importance on the repayment of their ancestral debt to the Imperium of Man and the God-Emperor.

Regimental Organistation
Vostroyan Firstborn regiments are trained in the frozen, snow and ash-covered ruins of its ancient cityscapes, on portions of their homeworld no longer habitable or functional, before being shipped out, once each generation, to serve the Imperium, never to return. Unusually, the Firstborn reinforce their regiments, sending new soliders out to each one, no matter how far away it is or how difficult providing these reinforcements will prove to be. This ensures that the youngest members of the Firstborn have the experience of hardened veterans to draw upon during combat, and that every Vostroyan Firstborn regiment can trace its existence back to their original mustering, ten thousand Terran years before. With every Vostroyan family -- from the highest Techtriarchs to the lowliest menials -- required to send their first-born sons to serve the Emperor, familial ties within regiments are not uncommon, and many young Vostroyans have found themselves under the guardianship of distant uncles and older cousins, something that encourages a strong bond of brotherhood. Within each regiment, the officer corps is composed of those of noble birth, while the common soldiery are drawn from the Vostroyan worker families that make up the bulk of the world's population. Vostroyan regiments are most commonly line infantry, and are particularly at home in cold environments and urban areas, as these conditions best match those of their training back on Vostroya. However, the Vostroyan Firstborn's armoured regiments are not uncommon, turning the Vostroyans' traditional ties with the Adeptus Mechanicus into the highly-skilled operation of the Imperial Guard's powerful main battle tanks.

Regimental Beliefs
Vostroyans believe that the proper way of living are those tried and tested by the generations that have gone before. Horror, pain and death are the just rewards of curiosity, for those that look too deeply into the mysteries of the universe are all too likely to find malefic beings looking back at them. For them, ignorance is truly bliss.

Regimental Appearance
With both the industrial capacity of Vostroya and its unusual tradition of reinforcement for existing regiments, the Vostroyans are particularly well-equipped, clad in durable, Plasteel-alloy Carapace Armour breast plates and armed with finely-wrought Lasgun rifles. These are both often passed down through the generations, giving the Firstborn a baroque look, further embellished by their traditional use of red dyes and brass metalwork in their uniforms and wargear. It is tradition for Firstborn regimental officers to bear lasguns with integrated axe blades. Vostroyan regimental standard bearers bear ancient tribal sabers and daggers, along with ritual scars on their upper torsos.

Wargear
The following is a list of the equipment traditionally equipped by a standard Vostroyan Firstborn soldier:
 * M36 Kantrael Pattern Lasgun
 * Flak Armour
 * Carapace Armour Breastplate
 * Uniform
 * Respirator
 * Toolkit
 * Frag Grenades
 * Krak Grenades
 * Treatis Elatii - A Vostroyan sacred text written by Saint Nadalya, the Grey Lady, a saint of the Imperial Cult and the patron saint of the world of Vostroya and its planetary branch of the Adeptus Ministorum.
 * Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer

Infantry Regiments

 * 5th Vostroyan Firstborn Regiment - The 5th Vostroyan Regiment was commanded by none other than Lord Marshal Graf Harazahn, the supreme commander of the Imperial forces on Medusa V during the Fall of Medusa V campaign. The regiment defended Hive Euryales against the Forces of Chaos' assault tactics before the Warp Storm known as Van Grothe's Rapidity overwhelmed the planet.
 * 7th Vostroyan Firstborn Regiment - The 7th Vostroyan Regiment defended Hive Euryales on Medusa V alongside Lord Marshal Graf Harazahn and the 5th Vostroyan Regiment during the Fall of Medusa V campaign.
 * 9th Vostroyan Firstborn Regiment, "The Old Irascibles" - Earning their name the "Old Irascibles" through hundreds of battles, the vaunted 9th Vostroyan Regiment served for three and a half centuries during the late 41st Millennium. The 9th Vostroyan became one of the most veteran formations in the Segmentum Obscurus, before finally meeting their match on the world of Nimbosa. Around 790.M41, the 9th Vostroyan defended the Imperial world of Nimbosa against the Tau's effort to expand their burgeoning alien empire and annex the world. The Vostroyan regiment heroically sacrificed themselves to a man defending the factory city of Polia. Inspired by the Vostroyans' sacrifice, the populace refuse to submit to the Tau Empire. Reformed after their destruction on Nimbosa, the 9th Vostroyan once again met their ultimate fate during the Fall of Karak Prime in 998.M41. They held the hive city for 18 months against the brutal onslaught of a splinter fleet of Hive Fleet Moloch, valiantly facing a Tyranid swarm that stretched from the base of the city's walls to the distant horizon. With the onset of midwinter, and with the rapid depletion of ammunition and supplies, the 9th Vostroyan knew that they were doomed and vowed to sell their lives dearly. Only when the bulk of the Tyranid swarm had passed into the city did the regiment detonate its nucleonic stack, incinerating the hive, its defenders and an estimated 85% of the Tyranid swarm. With the coming of midwinter, the few surviving Tyranid organisms eventually starved to death and the splinter fleet was entirely defeated.
 * 11th Vostroyan Firstborn Regiment - The 11th Vostroyan Regiment served under Lord Marshal Graf Harazahn, supreme commander of the Imperial forces on Medusa V during the Fall of Medusa V campaign.
 * 16th Vostroyan Firstborn Regiment - The 16th Vostroyan Regiment helped defend the world of Nimbosa from another attemt by the Tau to conquer it before the Imperial Nimbosa Crusade liberated the world in 992.M41.
 * 22nd Vostroyan Firstborn Regiment - The 22nd Vostroyan Regiment was instrumental in the liberation of the world of Kurkaris. They are notable for being one of the very few Vostroyan Regiments to make use of Rough Riders mounted cavalry squadrons (called Hussars by the Vostroyans) in order to better engage the Orks in Kurkaris' thick forests.
 * 68th Vostroyan Firstborn Regiment - The 68th Vostroyan Regiment defended Danik's World from a massive Ork invasion and a planet-wide rebellion. Last known Imperial records of the regiment indicated that it had dropped to a strength of around 30 effective soldiers, all from the 5th Company. The bulk of the regiment was destroyed by the rebellious forces, both through sedition and ambush tactics. The 5th Company, which had previously been attached as a rearguard, suffered severely in their valiant attempt to make it back to Imperial lines. The commander of the 5th Company, Captain Gregorious Sebastev, was officially placed in command of the hardened survivors, shortly before the whole group was seconded to the Inquisition. The eventual fate of these survivors, and therefore the regiment itself, is currently unknown.
 * 241st Vostroyan Firstborn Regiment - Nicknamed the "Legia Zaimprowizowany" or "Improvised Regiment," the 241st Vostroyan Regiment is famous for its troops' ad-hoc organisation. They are well-known for adopting the fighting style of other regiments as the circumstances dictate. The commander of the regiment when it participated in the Fall of Medusa V campaign was Colonel Illyich Szradislav.

Armoured Regiments

 * 24th Vostroyan Heavy Armoured Regiment, "Iron Bloods" - The 24th Vostroyan Heavy Armoured Regiment consisted of less than 1,500 Guardsmen at its founding-strength.

Notable Vostroyan Firstborn

 * Lord Marshal Graf Harazahn - Harazahn is one of the most famous commanders of the Vostroyan Firstborn, and he was was granted overall command of all Imperial military forces during the Fall of Medusa V Campaign.
 * Lord Marshal Graf Toschenko - Lord Marshal Toschenko led the Vostrayan forces who served during the campaign against the Tau on Nimbosa.
 * Colonel Illyich Szradislav - Colonel Illyich Szradislav commanded the Vostroyan 241st Regiment during the Fall of Medusa V campaign. A taciturn and methodical individual, Szradislav is renowned for his practical and analytical approach to leadership, leaving the rousing speeches and battle-cries for others better suited to it. Szradislav is famous for adapting the Vostroyan 241st Regiment's tactics to suite the situation as well as for utilising the exact level of force necessary to achieve any given task. Szradislav adopted the use of Rough Riders mounted cavalry after an experience within the Segmentum Ultima during which several Armoured Fist regiments were seconded to an Rough Riders of Atilla Company. The Vostroyan 241st Regiment has maintained an attachment of Rough Riders (Hussars) ever since.
 * Colonel Maxim Kabanov - Colonel Kabanov served in the 68th Vostroyan Regiment, during the ill-fated campaign on Danik's World.
 * Captain Gregorious Sebastev - Captain Gregorious Sebastev served in the ill-fated 68th Vostroyan Regiment during the campaign on Danik's World. Captain Sebastev and nearly two dozen of his soldiers of the 5th Company were the sole survivors of the regiment after two crushing defeats by the Orks.