Dahka Berus

Dahka Berus served as the High Warden (Reclusiarch) of the Blood Angels Legion as the senior spiritual advisor of the IX Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. His fate after the Horus Heresy remains unknown.

History
During the early days of the Great Crusade there was a great conclave called by the Emperor of Mankind known as the Council of Nikaea. This conclave was intended to determine whether or not the use of psychic sorcery represented a boon or a grave danger to Mankind and the newborn Imperium of Man. Ultimately the existence of Psykers in the Imperium was allowed but tightly restricted under centralised Imperial control, while the potent and unrestricted use of psychic abilities that was defined as sorcery was officially banned. This Decree Absolute was a command of the Emperor himself, a warning about the dark potential of the powers of the Warp. This was a command that the Primarch Sanguinius echoes, to forbid the use of preternatural powers within the IX Legion. A command the Blood Angels accepted without question.

The Emperor did not make his decision lightly, but the actions of Magnus the Red and his Thousand Sons, there was little choice. There were always those who looked unkindly upon the powers of the mind and saw only the hazards that they encompassed. The great psyker-Primarch Magnus had brought all that to a head with his reckless exploration into the deeper, darker places of the warp, drawing his father’s great displeasure and this draconian response. The acolytes of the Word Bearers had been sent to many expeditionary fleets, placed in several Legions in the months that unfolded after the passing of the Nikaea edict. The suspension of psychic warfare and the abolition of the Librarius contingent had been dealt with differently in each Legion that maintained one, each according to their individual traditions and methods. In a service offered by Lorgar to his brethren, the master of the XVII Word Bearers Legion had sent his most pious and vigilant apostles to help with the reintegration of those gifted with psyker powers back into the rank and file of the Space Marine cohorts. This gave rise to the newly established Chaplain corps. No help from the Word Bearers had been requested or required by the Blood Angels, however. The black-armoured Wardens, their roles already embedded in the Legion proper, took on the task of policing the reformation. The Blood Angels' Wardens were not the same as Lorgar's Chaplains.

The Wardens were the watchmen of the Blood Angels. In some ways they served as mentors for the younger legionaries, battlefield instructors and learned veterans who shared knowledge with the rest of their kindred; but they were also charged with sustaining coherence throughout the tens of thousands of warriors that filled the ranks of the IX Legion Astartes. That could mean anything from offering suggestions to a captain on a point of combat doctrine, to leading a ceremony of remembrance to the fallen. They were lore-keepers, counsellors, teachers. In the deep past, men who had served in similar roles in other militaries had been known as diaconus, zampol, chaplain or a dozen other names – some political, some religious, some secular. They existed outside the chain of command but still within its ranks, maintaining that most Imperial of ideals throughout the Legion; unity, and with that role came a sense of judgement. In those days, the post of ‘Warden’ was a relatively rare position amongst the Legion and the ranks of the men who held the office were open to interpretation.

High Warden Berus's and those of his ilk, primary responsibility was to ensure that to ensure that the Emperor's Decree Absolute was strictly enforced, monitoring those battle-brothers that were former members of the Librarius, that had been reintegrated back into the Legion's line companies. During his tenure with the Legion during the Great Crusade, High Warden Berus continued to provide spiritual counseling and guidance to his Primarch as well as his fellow Battle-Brothers. The Wardens always stood ready to renew a Battle-Brother's devotion when he faltered, and to remind him of his duty and his vows when hope seemed lost.