Vakrah Jal

The Vakrah Jal, the Chapter of Consecrated Iron, were Legionaries of the Word Bearers Legion that rose from the ashes of companies devastated on the killing fields of Istvaan V following the Drop Site Massacre. Argel Tal, known as the Crimson Lord, of the elite Possessed Chaos Space Marines called the Gal Vorbak, gathered hundreds of leaderless warriors and gave them unity from ruination. Forsaking his oaths to the annihilated Chapter of the Serrated Sun, Argel Tal gained permission to raise a new Chapter, the Vakrah Jal, in its stead.

History
When the Word Bearers were formally reprimanded by the Emperor of Mankind upon the world of Khur, their very faith had been shaken to the core. Khur had been a world dear to the Word Bearers, whom considered its capital, Monarchia, the "perfect city" because of the intense religious devotion of its citizens and the sheer number of cathedrals and monuments dedicated to the worship of the Emperor as a God. But the Emperor had ordered Roboute Guilliman and his Ultramarines Legion to raze it. Feeling betrayed by the Emperor, the Primarch Lorgar led his Word Bearers in search who not only accepted the zealous worship, but demanded it. Thus the seeds of the Horus Heresy were first sown amongst the Word Bearers. Intrigued, Lorgar demanded that the Legion find these gods, and so, the Word Bearers undertook a sacred journey to the Eye of Terror to make communion with these so-called 'gods'.

Pilgrimage of Lorgar
Argel Tal, commander of the 7th Grand Company of the Serrated Suns Chapter, was charged by his Primarch to enter the Eye of Terror in search of definitive proof that true divinities existed in the universe. While they were in the Eye of Terror, the members of the Serrated Sun Chapter were all killed by a daemon, only to awaken some time later alive once more. All of the normal humans on their starship were dead and their vessel had sustained critical damage. During the 7-month-long journey that followed out of the Eye of Terror, many members of the Serrated Sun Chapter killed one another and survived the ordeal by drinking their fallen comrades' blood. When they returned to realspace and their waiting Primarch Lorgar, they were told that they had only been gone for a few moments in subjective time. When they remnants of the Serrated Suns Chapter reemerged from their sojourn, they brought back the Primordial Truth of the existence of Chaos to their Primarch. This truth made Lorgar realise that the Emperor of Mankind's Imperial Truth was the true lie and ultimately converted him and his entire Legion to the worship of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. The survivors were honoured and the Serrated Sun Chapter was renamed the Gal Vorbak, "the Blessed Sons" in the dialect of the Word Bearers' homeworld of Colchis.

The Horus Heresy
Lorgar and the Word Bearers spent the remaining years of the Great Crusade attempting to enlighten humanity about the true spiritual nature of Creation, ultimately resorting to manipulation and deception to sway nine of the Primarchs to the cause of Chaos as their Gods demanded, the most notable being the Warmaster Horus. When it became clear that Mankind could not be enlightened by Chaos without first being forcibly weaned at a great price in blood from the Emperor's false Imperial Truth, Lorgar willingly helped orchestrate the terrible Istvaan III Atrocity and the Drop Site Massacre at Istvaan V as well as the larger Horus Heresy itself. When Horus openly declared his rebellion against the Emperor, the Word Bearers were once of the first Legions to support him and his cause. The worlds they had conquered since their conversion to Chaos also joined the side of the Traitors, having been secretly corrupted to the worship of the Ruinous Powers in the final days of the Great Crusade.

Drop Site Massacre
During the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V when the Traitor Legions betrayed their Loyalist brethren, the Gal Vorbak underwent their final metamorphosis, one of many that they had endured since the Pilgrimage to the Eye. At the height of the battle, when their Lord Aurelian attacked Corax, the Primarch of the Raven Guard Legion, all of the members of the Gal Vorbak became true daemons. Their flesh and Ceramite fused and warped into a new, bestial form, marking them out as amongst the first of the Possessed Chaos Space Marines. After the battle, the Gal Vorbak resumed the form of normal Astartes again, though the battle had proven costly. Only 5 of their number, which included Argel Tal, had survived taking on a Primarch in battle to continue to fight in the service of Chaos throughout the rest of the Horus Heresy. They were the last of the first Gal Vorbak: the warriors with daemons in their hearts because they had mutilated their souls on the first treacherous steps into Hell. Not like the thin-blooded daemon-hosts that Argel Tal bred for Lorgar in the years following Istvaan V. These later incarnations were Gal Vorbak in name and blood, but not in spirit. They'd not walked the Pilgrimage. They came to their power with no comprehension of what it cost to earn. Argel Tal's daemon-blooded brethren, were as much animals as men. Few of the so-called "Blessed Sons" restrained themselves to the degree shown by their former commander, as most became petty warlords over their own squads and hosts, ruling in their daemonic form more often than not, issuing commands not from the Legion, but from the Pantheon.

Cull of the Word Bearers
As the Horus Heresy unfolded, Lorgar ordered Erebus and Kor Phaeron to strike a vital blow against their most hated rivals, the Ultramarines Legion. Unknown to Erebus and Kor Phaeron, their Primarch had a secret objective in mind when he had sent his two most zealous sons to the Ultramarines' world of Calth. Lorgar's two most zealous servants were more than willing to gain the chance for vengeance upon their hated foes, pinning their forces down in Ultramar while the main forces of the Traitor Legions advanced on Terra under the command of Horus. After their humiliation at Khur, thousands of World Bearers within the Legion detested the Ultramarines. The Urizen ordered a great gathering of his Legion while their fleet was already en route to Calth. The Primarch called for Argel Tal, the leader of the Gal Vorbak, and one other Word Bearer officer. These two loyal sons would eventually become commanders and apostles amongst the elite of the Vakrah Jal. The Primarch wanted their counsel on what to do with those amongst their Legion he no longer trusted.

The Word Bearers had culled their ranks down through the decades, removing such unrepentantly Loyalist elements such as the Terran-born warriors of their Legion, but had carried out no purge like the Istvaan III Atrocity that the World Eaters' Primarch Angron was so proud of. Lorgar knew that the loyalty of his own Legion to both him and his vision of Mankind transformed through an embrace of Chaos was never in doubt, but competence was another matter entirely. Lorgar asked what should be done with those warriors of the XVII Legion he felt were no longer reliable. Those whose hatred burned brighter than their sense. For tens of thousands of them -- whole companies, whole Chapters -- their rage was no longer pure. It was decided that these suspect elements of the Legion would be gathered into a single host and ordered to undertake the "sacred" mission to Calth to assault the Ultramarines that they had so craved. They were led by Erebus and Kor Phaeron and were expected to martyr themselves in glory. The other Traitor Legions such as the Emperor's Children, Sons of Horus and the World Eaters might have purged their own ranks at Istvaan III, but the Word Bearers had proceeded to purge their own at Calth.

Though the XVII Legion had achieved a monumental victory of sorts, it was all a matter of perspective. Piercing the veil of the Warp, Lorgar had heard the whisperings of the Chaos Gods and had witnessed the truth for himself. Yes, Erebus had successfully conjured the Ruinstorm at Calth. But ultimately, Erebus and Kor Phaeron had failed to achieve their overall objectives: Roboute Guilliman was still alive, the Word Bearers had lost half the fleet at Calth to an Ultramarines counter-attack, and tens of thousands of Word Beaers, including the Gal Vorbak and mortal servants, had been abandoned to a useless subterranean war beneath Calth's irradiated surface while the two Word Bearers commanders had fled. This meant that the Word Bearers left behind were left to die, never to be reinforced. Never to be recovered. All those Gal Vorbak who had spent months of their lives fasting, praying, scarring their flesh in preparation for a chance to taste the Divine Blood, they had simply been lost for no real gain. Though Lorgar was somewhat displeased, Erebus had more or less achieved the base level of success required of him; the Ruinstorm had been conjured and the rogue elements of the Word Bearers had been culled.

Rising From The Ashes
Thousands of the Gal Vorbak were left to die, alone and unsupported, on the surface of the devastated world of Calth when First Chaplain Erebus fled the conflict that the Word Bearers had fought against the Ultramarines on that benighted world. These Word Bearers had been left to die -- never to be reinforced. Never to be recovered. All those Gal Vorbak who spent months of their lives fasting, praying, scarring their flesh in preparation for a chance to taste the Divine Blood, were lost. Argel Tal was the sole surviving original member of the Gal Vorbak, having been seconded to the World Eaters Legion for temporary duty before the Word Bearers' assault on Calth. Argel Tal forsook his oaths to the annihilated Serrated Suns Chapter and gained permission from his Primarch Lorgar to form a newly constituted formation, known as the Vakrah Jal, the "Chapter of Consecrated Iron," who rose from the ashes of Word Bearers companies devastated on the killing fields of Istvaan V. Argel Tal gathered hundreds of leaderless warriors and given them unity and new purpose.

Several hundred soldiers, were birthed aboard the World Eaters' flagship Conqueror, where they trained for months in the World Eaters' gladiator pits, honing their skills to deadly lethality. Each member of the Vakrah Jal were given newly forged blades in honour of their new status. They went to war behind faceplates of burnished silver, marking them out as the elite amongst the warriors of the XVII Legion. The Vakrah Jal were also blessed with priceless best of the Dark Mechanicus - built-in wrist-mounted Flamers that spat alchemical fire. The Vakrah Jal became known as the bearers of the jade fire, for the use of this telltale weapon. This elite formation would go on to serve Argel Tal with unflinching devotion as well as serving as their Primarch's Honour Guard when duty demanded it. Following the events of the Horus Heresy it is not known whether or not this elite specialty formation still exists within the ranks of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion in the present 41st Millennium.