Blood Gorgons

The Blood Gorgons are a Renegade Space Marine Chapter that primarily raids the Baston Sector.

Chapter History
The Blood Gorgons were founded during the 21st Founding (The so-called Cursed Founding), the largest Founding of Space Marine Chapters since the Second Founding following the Horus Heresy. This Founding took place in the 36th Millennium shortly before the start of the Age of Apostasy. Known as "Project Homo Sapiens Novus", the Adeptus Mechanicus were attempting to remove identified deficiencies in flawed Adeptus Astartes gene-seed. Their goal; to ultimately perfect produce new and improved Space Marines. Unfortunately, the Adeptus Mechanicus' Genetors proved far less skilled in the genetic sciences than the Emperor of Mankind, and their efforts resulted in the development of seriously flawed gene-seed that was used to craft the organ implants for the new Chapters. Led by Lord Gammadin, since the Gorgons were first created, he had been their shepherd when the Imperium declared them renegade – Excommunicate Traitoris – mere centuries later, and it was he who parted the warp-sea to lead them into the Eye of Terror.

Chapter Organisation
Each Company is made up of six‐man squads, each formed by three blood‐bound pairs, each of the pairs are attended to by a train of retainers.

Specialised Units

 * The Impassives - The Khorsaad's personal retinue made up of an elite core of venerated seniors bonded in the ritual way of the Blood Gorgons.


 * Chirurgeon‐Witches - Nine in number, the small coven witches are not blood bonded like their brethren, and from this there grew a rift between the witches and the companies. It was a respectful rift but a rift nonetheless.

Combat Doctrine
Primarily, the Blood Gorgons are raiders as they must raid and scavenge for subsistence in order to survive as a functioning Chapter. Unique to this Renegade Chapter is that unlike other Renegade Chapters, the Blood Gorgons do not tend to use fear and intimidation to achieve their own goals. Instead they show a level of comprehension and focus that is rarely seen by other Traitor Legions.

Chapter Beliefs
The Blood Gorgons considered themselves renegades but they had not been lured into depths of arcane lore like the warbands of their more superstitious brethren. They considered themselves a warrior band first and foremost. Despite their worship of the Sects Undivided, they believe sorcery is a fickle and dangerous thing to be feared and respected from a distance.

Ritual Practices

 * Blood Bonding - When Gammadin had first begun to experiment in daemonology and the rituals that would form Blood Gorgons custom, Gammadin used a dark ritual to strengthen the bonds between the battle-brothers of his Chapter. Utilising the superhuman constitution of an Astartes, the Chapter's Chirurgeons had transfused blood and nurtured organs from excised tissue into prospective bonds. Using Gammadin’s knowledge of arcane lore, rituals of the forgotten text were followed, creating an almost supernatural connection between those who survived the procedure. A pair of Bond Brothers become so attuned in battle that it has been known that they show the innate ability to react intuitively, making tactical decisions without communication. When Gammidin's bond brother angered the Chaos gods and his form was corrupted into that of a Chaos spawn, Gammadin slew his own bond brother, an act that apparently caused him considerable physical pain.

Notable Marines

 * Lord Gammadin (Khorsaad & Ascendant Champion of Chaos) - The first Master of the Blood Gorgons, Gammadin led his Chapter into damnation. It was recorded in the Chapter's history that it was Gammadin whom had first begun to experiment in daemonology and the rituals that would form Blood Gorgons custom. Using Gammadin’s knowledge of arcane lore, the dark Rituals of Binding was used. Gammadin was blood bound to his most trusted lieutenant, Monomachus. This involved the exchange of excised organs and blood. This created an almost supernatural connection between those who survived the procedure. Together, Gammadin and Monomachus led the Blood Gorgons to raid and terrorise the shipping lines of the Segmentum Obscurus. So attuned were they, that in battle the pair could orchestrate intuitive tactical decisions without communication. For four centuries they fought as parallel twins until Monomachus angered the Chaos Gods and his form was corrupted into that of a spawn. It was said that Gammadin was greatly shamed by this and slew Monomachus himself, an act that would have caused him considerable physical pain. By that time, Gammadin was a warrior so great, with blood so rich and vibrant with the power of Chaos, that no mere aspirant could hope to be blooded to him. Following Monomachus, numerous unsuitable aspirants were killed by the rich blood of Gammadin. Rituals of Binding were dangerous, both through the traumatic shock of surgery and the whims of daemonic spirits. Although Gammadin’s experience was vast, he could not share it, for dozens of aspirants died or went mad in the rituals of transfusion and excise. It was not until Sabtah – an inductee from the legion plains of Symeon – that a bond showed promise. The aspirant endured months of torture on the operating slabs, his body sent into shock by the process of plasma binding, until he emerged as a young charge of the great Gammadin. For the next three thousand, six hundred and fifty‐one years, Sabtah the Older had become Gammadin’s brother, growing stronger and wiser through their synergy. Until Gammadin was betrayed and murdered by Anko Muhr, a Blood Gorgons Chaos Sorcerer, on their recruiting world of Belasia.


 * Anko Muhr (Chaos Sorcerer) - Muhr was the Blood Gorgon's senior Chirurgeon and high priest of the Chapter's witch coven. Lord Gammadin did not trust Muhr, sensing a jealous ambition in Muhr’s black heart. Gammadin was well aware of the sorcerers power lust, but his intuitive insight did prevent him and his personal retinue from falling into a trap set by the cunning witch. When Lord Gammadin and his warrior few embarked across the warp‐sea to claim a new slave world for harvest, Muhr played his card and set a trap for his hated rival. Working in concert with Dark Eldar raiders, the superior force of the vile xenos overwhelmed Gammadin's small force. Muhr then worked his sorcerous magic and killed the Blood Gorgon's Chapter Master.


 * Hammurabi (First Captain) (Deceased) - The Captain of of the Khorsaad's personal guard, the eight Impassives. Hammurabi possessed an excellent sword arm, and was loyal as far as a worshipper of Chaos could be termed so. He followed his duties as Gammadin’s first blade strictly. He executed his duties well, until he met his end when the Blood Gorgon's Sorcerer Muhr betrayed them on the world of Belasia and led them into a trap.


 * Hazareth the Cruel (First Captain) - Hazareth is Captain of the elite 1st Company, an embodiment of the Blood Gorgons Chapter. Wild and boisterous, he was a violent thing.  When he laughed, and he did so often, the humour behind it was black and bitter yet genuinely mirthful.  His face had been melted by fire and his cheek pockmarked with bullet scars.  Hazareth wore them like laurels of honour, for his men feared him and the gods favoured him well.  A tortoise‐like shell had solidified around his shoulders and power pack like a hunch‐backed mound of bone, a powerful sign of daemonic favour.  The shell ended in a short, muscular tail that sprouted from the base of Hazareth’s spine and ended in a knot of fibrous growth.  So monstrously thick‐framed that he resembled a Dreadnought, Hazareth had his club tail swept low to balance his ponderous steps.


 * Sabtah the Older (Chapter Veteran) - Following the death of Lord Gammin's Bond Brother Monomachus, the Chapter began looking for a suitable aspirant to blood bound to the Khorsaad. Dozens of unsuitable aspirants were killed by the rich blood of Gammadin or went mad in the rituals of transfusion and excision. It was not until Sabtah, inducted from the legion plains of Symeon, that an aspirant showed promise. Sabtah endured the months of torture on the operating slabs, until he emerged as a young charge of the great Gammadin. For over three-and-a-half millennia, Sabtah the Older grew more powerful through their symbiotic bond, until Gammadin was murdered by the betrayer Muhr.

Chapter Fleet

 * Cauldron Born (Chapter Ship) - The Cauldron Born is the fortress-ship and home to the renegade Blood Gorgon's Chapter of Chaos Space Marines. The Cauldron Born is an artefact of Blood Gorgons biological experimentation - pseudo-surgery and daemonology.  It was said that the floating fortress had been grafted with the flesh of a daemon prince and that organic matter had been cultivated to merge with the ship’s engines, spawning a spirit that inhabited the circuitry.

Chapter Colours
The Traitor Marine of this Renegade Chapter wear power armour the colour of burnt umber. Barnacles and fossilised organisms spread across the sweeping surface of each plate. There is an organic element to their regalia, accentuated by the mutant growth of dorsal fins, quills and hard, segmented shells.