Helbrecht

"The galaxy is the Emperor's, and anyone or anything who challenges that claim is an enemy who must be destroyed."

- High Marshal Helbrecht at the Battle of Fire and Blood

Helbrecht is the current (Chapter Master) High Marshal of the Black Templars Space Marine Chapter. Helbrecht wields the Sword of the High Marshals, which was forged from the remnants of the sword of Primarch Rogal Dorn. According to legend, Dorn broke the sword across his knee after the Horus Heresy for failing to defend the Emperor of Mankind from Horus. In addition to being High Marshal of the Black Templars Chapter, Helbrecht is the greatest naval commander in the Adeptus Astartes, and assumed overall command of all Space Marine warships during the Third War for Armageddon in 999.M41. Together with Admiral Parol of the Imperial Navy, Helbrecht held and eventually repulsed the numerically superior Orki fleet. Helbrecht was last seen departing Armageddon with Commissar Yarrick, hunting down the Space Hulk thought to be commanded by the 'Beast of Armageddon' - the foul Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka.

History
High Marshal Helbrecth epitomises the qualities of stubborness and unswerving loyalty to the Emperor inherent in the Black Templars Chapter. Following the final subjugation of the Xenarchs of the Sigilare Nebula, Helbrecht was elected High Marshal in 989.M41. His rise through the Black Templars was both swift and brutal as his desire to slay the enemies of the Emperor impressed his peers with its sheer ferocity. Helbrecht was a part of the Vinculus Crusade that took place in 833.M41. This was one of the earliest campaigns in which the now famed High Marshal Helbrecht participated. Still a lowly Neophyte at the time, Helbrecht was merely a witness to the dramatic events of the campaign. Under the command of the legendary High Marshal Ludoldus, the Black Templars fought alongside Inquisitor Vinculus and the Adepta Sororitas Order of the Bloody Rose against the Chaotic assassin-cult warriors upon the blighted world of Peleregon IV. Helbrecht was inducted into the elite Sword Brethren before long, for slaying a Warp-spawned Vampire that had risen to power and taken control of the Hive World of Cephian IV. As part of Marshal Daidin's Crusade, Helbrecht fought with courage and furious zeal for decades, eventually rising to command it upon Daidin's death.

In 930.M41, the forces of the infamous Necron Lord Imotekh the Stormlord, Phaeron of the powerful Sautekh Dynasty, descended upon the frozen plainis of the Imperial Ice World of Schrödinger VII. The Necrons drove the local defenders to the shelter of the labyrinthine cryonite mines, but were unable to prevent the planet's Astropthic choir from dispatching a distress hymnal. A counterattack swiftly arrived in the form of a Black Templars strike force under the command of Marshal Helbrecht. Imotekh appeared not to be caught by surprise so easily, and had already shifted his armies into a formidable defensive configuration.

Helbrecht lead the assault, intended as a crippling alpha strike, but was instead blunted by a series of impeccably planned ambushes on the Drop Pod and Thunderhawk drop zones. As the frozen caverns echoes to the roar of explosions, scores of Black Templars and Necrons alike are hurled into rivers of molten cryonite. Eventually, Imotekh and Helbrecht meet in hand-to-hand combat atop a stalactite-heavy span of an ice bridge. In the battle the follows, Helbrecht deals Imotakeh a dozen ruinous blows, but each time the Phaeron is able to quickly recover in a matter of seconds to land a strike of his own.

Helbrecht finally collapses under the assault of the Necron Lord, blood flowing from a score of serious wounds. However, instead of finishing his opponent, Imotekh brings his scythe down to sever Helbrecht's right hand to remind the Marshal of his much-deserved defeat. Helbrecht roars in fury and pain as Imotekh pitches the Black Templar off the bridge to the cavern floor far below. The surviving Black Templars rally to their fallen Marshal's side and make a fighting retreat, leaving Schrödinger VII in the Stormlord's hands.

Many decades later in 990.M41, when High Marshal Kordhel was slain by a frenzied Chaos Champion of the Ruinous Powers, the Marshals of the Black Templars gathered to select a new leader. Helbrecht was unanimously elected as the new High Marshal and was ritually presented with the Sword of the High Marshals - the most sacred relic of the Black Templars. This mighty weapon is said to contain fragments of the weapon wielded by Primarch Rogal Dorn when he accompanied the Emperor onto Horus's Battle Barge the Vengeful Spirit. It was the decree of the Black Templars' founder Sigismund that the weapon carried by all High Marshals would forever remind them of their duty of atonement by incorporating pieces of Dorn's sword in its forging.

Helbrecht immediately declared a Crusade against the Cythor Fiends of the Ghoul Stars known as the Ghoul Stars Crusade, taking the fight into this desolate region of space. This was a dangerous decision as no Imperial expedition had ever returned from the desolate region of space. Within eight years, the xenos population of the outlying systems had been exterminated and the Crusade pushed onwards to the aliens' homeworld, but upon reaching the core systems, they were found to be eerily empty. No trace of the aliens could be found, but before a proper investigation could be launched, a desperate call for help came from the besieged Hive World of Armageddon. The dreaded Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka had returned, at the head of a massive Ork Waaagh! the likes which had never been seen in Imperial history. The Third War for Armageddon had begun.

Three Crusades of the Black Templars mustered at the Chapter kepp on Fergax and departed for the Segmentum Solar after observing the correct prayers and devotions to the Emperor. Upon arrival in the Armageddon System, Helbrecht was put in overall command of the assembled Adeptus Astartes ships, having the greatest amount of experience of commanding a great fleet. Meanwhile, Marshals Ricard and Amalrich took their Crusades to the surface of Armageddon. The war in orbit is bitterly fought, with Helbrecht leading many boarding actions aboard Ork hulks and, together with Imperial Navy Admiral Parol's fleet, effectively crippling the Ork invasion. As the Space Hulk believed to be Ghazghkull's flagship retreated from Armageddon, Helbrecht swore a mighty oath to pursue the Ork Warlord. Commissar Yarrick, the Hero of Armageddon, petitioned Helbrecht for the honour of accompanying the Black Templars in their quest. It is a measure of the respect in which the High Marshal held the venerable Commissar that his request was granted.

Wargear

 * Artificer Power Armour
 * Sword of the High Marshals
 * Combi-Meltagun
 * Iron Halo
 * '''Krak Grenades