8th Founding

The 8^th Founding of Space Marine Chapters allegedly occurred during the mid-34^th Millennium, undertaken amid the dark times of the Nova Terra Interregnum, when the Imperium of Man had been split into twin interstellar empires. Denouncing the High Lords of Terra, the Ur-Council of Nova Terra claimed rule over the Segmentum Pacificus. This period of divided rule lasted for nine standard centuries. Few records remain surrounding this Founding, but one of the earliest extant records likely to pertain to one of the Chapters Founded during this period is the Mantis Warriors which can be found in the Libris Gloriana -- a seven hundred and seventy-seven volume treatise on the state of Imperial power commissioned for the ascension of High Lord Gogol after the Nova Terra Interregnum in 093.M36. It mentions in bombastic terms a Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes that is a "... warrior legion of the Mantis (or 'prophecy', the language is unclear)" of the 8^th Founding (which would place its origins in the mid-34^th Millennium) of "... the line of the great Khan, by his sons the Marauders." The text goes on to praise their successes in combating the Traitors of the Eye of Terror, as well as crushing alien threats, and speaks of them as operating far from home but fails to name their Chapter homeworld or state the star system in which it is to be found.

Another Chapter believed to have been Founded during this time is the now nearly-extinct Angels Revenant Chapter. Noble, if aloof by reputation even for the warriors of the Adeptus Astartes, this Chapter of the 8^th Founding, and of the proud lineage of the Ultramarines, had spent much of its long history on Crusade throughout the western Imperium. After its glorious role in the Orphean War of Faith, the Angels Revenant was given home at Libethra within the Orpheus Sector of the Segmentum Tempestus. As stern supporters of the Ecclesiarchy and the Imperial Creed, the bounty of the Orphean branch of the Adeptus Ministorum was given freely to the construction of the Chapter's Fortress-Monastery, while the hardy  inhabitants of the Feral World of Patara formed the basis of new generations of Neophytes for the Chapter. While completely autonomous of sector authority they served as protectors, guarding the pilgrimage routes of the Cold Veil, while their Chapter starships tirelessly plied the borders of the Hesod Nebula and the Barren Stars, hunting down and slaughtering xenos corsairs and marauders that had long made these trackless regions their lair.

Of the final fate of the Angels Revenant Space Marine Chapter, little can be said for sure. Such scattered and fragmentary evidence as has been uncovered about their final hour suggest unsurprisingly that they fought to the last against the overwhelming forces unleashed against them. The Libethra System was found littered with the radiation-ghosts of deadly void combat and spreading clouds of micro-wreckage. Furthermore, the ancient hull of at least one of the vast Necron Tomb Ships that were later sighted above the world of Amarah during the Orphean War held fresh scars consistent with the unique signature of Space Marine bombardment cannon strikes at extreme close range. Indeed it may be the case that such was the resistance the Angels Revenant put up that the Necron invaders resorted to breaking through Libethra's crust and unleashing the planet's molten core to seal their fate conclusively. When news of the Chapter's martyrdom reached the Synod Tempestus of the Ecclesiarchy, a Segmentum-wide day of requiem was decreed, the bells of a thousand worlds tolling to mark their passing. It is now thought that no more than a few hundred Angels Revenant, far from the Orpheus Sector on Crusade, perhaps survive.

Select 3^rd Founding Chapters

Chapter	Successors of	Primarch	Homeworld	Notes
Angels Revenant	Ultramarines	Roboute Guilliman	Libethra (Destroyed)	Noble if aloof by reputation even for the warriors of the Adeptus Astartes, this Chapter of the 8th Founding, and of the proud lineage of the Ultramarines, spent much of its long history on Crusade throughout the western Imperium, in the Segmentum Tempestus. After the successful prosecution of the Orphean War of Faith in 903-922.M39, the sector rebuilt under its surviving Imperial Commanders and, by special dispensation, many regiments of the Imperial Guard and the survivors of Saint Marduk's pilgrimage to the sector were allowed to settle its worlds, either laying down their arms or integrating fully into the local Planetary Defence Forces, greatly strengthening them. The minor colony world of Libethra, upon which Saint Marduk had shown his favour, was converted to a Shrine World of the Ecclesiarchy in honour of Marduk and became a cemetery for the war's millions of glorious and blessed dead. Overlordship of the Shrine World was given over to the Angels Revenant as their domain, which until that time had been a Fleet-based Chapter. The Angels Revenant also accepted the sacred charge of protecting Libethra's reliquaries and cerements, while the Space Marines' permanent residence on the world further strengthened the defences of the surrounding Orpheus Sector.
Mantis Warriors	White Scars	Jaghatai Khan	Various worlds in the Endymion Cluster; Tranquility III (primary training world before the Badab War); now Fleet Based Chapter	Long renowned across the Segmentum Ultima for their cunning, the Mantis Warriors Chapter are certainly one of the most unsung defenders of the Imperium of Man. To those few who have heard of them outside of the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy, the Mantis Warriors are renowned for their skill at guerrilla warfare, and the devastating ambushes and sudden, large-scale assaults they are capable of unleashing upon their foes. Like many Chapters who are tasked with standing as the sentinels over far-flung frontiers, or to carry out vigils in those darker backwaters of the galaxy where the darkest threats lie in wait, the Mantis Warriors long stood alone, their autonomy seldom challenged and no other allies to come to their aid. This persistent solitude was to change in the year 587.M41, when by an edict of the High Lords of Terra, the Mantis Warriors and their charges within the Endymion Cluster were incorporated within the newly formed alliance of Space Marine Chapters known as the Maelstrom Warders. With this change in status came, for the first time, an alliance of long-standing with two powerful and very different Chapters in culture and outlook, the Astral Claws and the Lamenters. Unfortunately this was an alliance that would ultimately prove to be the foundation of the Mantis Warriors’ undoing.

Sources

• Imperial Armour Volume Ten - The Badab War - Part Two, pg. 64
• Imperial Armour Volume Twelve - The Fall of Orpheus, pp. 17-18, 21-23, 32-33