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"Of all the weapons wielded by the Emperor's Legions, it is not cannon or blades that are the most deadly. It is knowledge that has carried us to victories beyond count, and wisdom that has broken empires and kings. Yet still there are those who question why we keep such a potent weapon concealed from our foes within the folds of the Hexagrammaton."

— From the Lion Codex, the collected words and deeds of Lion El'Jonson.
HexagrammatonIcon

The icon of the Six Wings of the Hexagrammaton of the ancient Dark Angels Legion

The Hexagrammaton, colloquially known as the "Six Wings," were specialised formations that existed outside the regular chain-of-command and organisation of the Dark Angels Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras of the late 30th and early 31st Millennia.

These formations owed their existence to the old Space Marine Legion formations of Terra, the amalgamation of the Terran pre-Principia Belicosa approach, the organisation of the later proscribed formations of the early Legiones Astartes and the "brotherhoods" of The Order from lost Caliban's knightly fellowships.

The Hexagarammaton, a phrase in ancient Terran that loosely translates as the "The Six Divine Ways," is the title given to the Dark Angels' former great hosts during the early days of the Great Crusade. It came into use throughout the Legion at some point around 830.M30, when the Legion first reached a nominal strength of 100,000 warriors and had excised many of the early hosts by means of attrition in battle and the failure of their doctrines.

Those hosts that remained were regarded as the purest and most efficacious expression of the tactics and strategies forged by the Ist Legion over its long history, worthy of a permanent place within their order of battle. So successful were they that, when he took command of the Legion, Lion El'Jonson retained the Hexagrammaton virtually unchanged. The primarch took steps only to re-organise their hierarchies and to more closely echo the Calibanite knightly cohorts with which he had conquered the dark forests of his adopted homeworld, symbolically changing the title of those forces to "wings" to mark his ascension to the position of grandmaster of the Legion.

These six sub-strata of organisation within the Legion, the six wings of the Hexagrammaton, would remain unchanged until the end of the wars ushered in by the Horus Heresy; the widespread destruction wrought by that era would see the near-annihilation of four of these bodies. Only the Deathwing and the Ravenwing would survive the reorganisation of the Second Founding to continue to exist in the 41st Millennium.

History[]

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures."

—Attributed to the Emperor of Mankind, to the Six Hosts at embarkation upon the Expeditionary Fields at the outset of the Great Crusade in ca. 800.M30
DA Hexagrammaton Badge

Ancient heraldry of the Hexagrammaton

Before the creation of the Ist Legion, each of the Legiones Astartes were organised instead into a formation known as the "Six Hosts of the Angels of Death," with each of these hosts having its own specialisation and purpose. During the Terran Wars of Unification the Six Hosts had each been created by the Emperor for a specific task, or from a particular type of warrior. Their names, if they had ever had any, were unknown by the second century of the Great Crusade.

These hosts did not fight alone, being too specialised for general warfare on Terra and during the initial stages of the Great Crusade. Instead, elements of each host were combined into battle groups of different sizes and designations. As and when required, the hosts provided their troops to these armies depending upon the military need.

The warriors of each host could be called upon when a particular threat or situation presented itself. The leader of a host, elected by his sect-brothers rather than appointed by the Emperor in those times, would assume temporary command of a battle or campaign so that their expertise could be deployed fully.

It is not fully understood what happened to the Hexagrammaton in the other Legions and why its structure persisted only within the Ist Legion. For reasons only He knows, the Emperor chose not to continue with the Six Hosts and instead created the Principia Belicosa to structure the Legiones Astartes along the tactical lines which are now most familiar. The old ties of the brotherhoods continued in the Ist Legion, though, and so the Six Hosts persisted in name and function. Being created from scratch, the later Legions were never built upon this foundation.

DA Legion Standard Hexagrammaton

Ist Legion standard with Hexagrammaton symbol utilised in conjuction with the Dark Angels' Pre-Heresy winged sword emblem.

Following the Ist Legion's reunification with their Primarch Lion El'Jonson on Caliban, the Lion incorporated the traditions of the Six Hosts with those of his own native knightly brotherhood known as The Order. Thus, the Six Wings of the Ist Legion were created.

The "wings" of the Dark Angels existed beneath the hierarchical structure prescribed by the Principia Belicosa that shaped the other Legiones Astartes, a substrate of organisation and tradition that predated the adoption of the structure of The Order of Caliban and even the amalgamation of the Six Hosts of Angels -- the Hexagrammaton -- but was also a result of both.

The Ist Legion did follow the principles of the later Principia Belicosa, organising their Legion's strength into chapters, led by Masters, and orders, which in turn were led by Paladins. These formations were further broken down into companies, led by captains, and squads commanded by sergeants.

Membership in one of the Six Wings of the Hexagrammaton was a mark of skill and worth within the ranks of the Dark Angels. It was a rare sight to note one of their warlords without the insignia of one of these secretive organisations upon their battleplate.

Members of the Six Wings were distributed amongst squads and companies, where they acted as captains, sergeants, and line Legionaries, or in specialised formations when assembled on orders from their respective "voted-lieutenant" of a wing. These voted-lieutenants, also called masters, were special officers of the Ist Legion who acted as both commander of their wing and often served as a counsel to their primarch.

Voted-lieutenants were elected by their peers rather than being nominated for the rank by a superior officer, hence their name. They would then have their nominated successor chosen to command the wing in the event of their untimely death, so as not to interrupt the cohesiveness of a wing's command structure.

The voted-lieutenants who served as the chosen leaders of each wing often gathered together in a group known as the Council of Masters, first in the great fortress of the Ist Legion on Gramarye and later wherever the Legion was engaged after being reunited with their primarch.

On the field of battle, a commander responsible for an area of operations or campaign had to request the intervention of one of the Six Wings. When such a request was made and eventually accepted, the members of the requested wing were summoned from their regular duties, when possible, in order to assemble and conduct operations under the command of their voted-lieutenant's orders.

The Hexagrammaton formations that existed within the Dark Angels Legion at the time of the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy included the following:

The Deathwing and the Ravenwing are still used by the Dark Angels and their Unforgiven Successor Chapters to this day in their hunt for the Fallen. The other four wings of the Hexagrammaton have been lost to the mists of time and are no longer fielded by the Dark Angels. They have been unseen since the time of the Horus Heresy.

Deathwing Protocol[]

The Deathwing

Icon of the Deathwing

The Deathwing originated as the Veteran Cataphractii Terminators of the Dark Angels who often served as lifeguards to the Legion's officers, including its primarch.

The Deathwing is unique among the Space Marines Chapters in that the entire Dark Angels 1st Company fights exclusively in Terminator Armour. The Deathwing are notoriously stubborn and resistant, refusing to buckle under extreme pressure from enemy advances even when it would be more advantageous to retreat.

Yet the Deathwing is not solely a tactical formation. Promotion to the Deathwing also means that an individual is made privy to many of the Chapter's dark secrets. The most closely guarded of these secrets is that of the betrayal of Luther and the Fallen, and the subsequent loss of their primarch, Lion El'Jonson.

Ravenwing Protocol[]

I Legion Ravenwing Icon

Icon of the Ravenwing

The Ravenwing protocol, which focused on the use of anti-gravitic skimmer units and all-terrain bikes, had its origins in early Legiones Astartes tactics for rapid-moving search and destroy formations, some of which dated back to the nomadic war clans of pre-Unification Terra.

After Caliban's discovery during the Great Crusade, these formations were revived and expanded as they offered a form of rapid strike warfare the knights of Caliban both understood and had perfected over many generations, though now their steeds were ones of unyielding metal, rather than flesh.

Dreadwing Protocol[]

The Dreadwing

Icon of the Dreadwing

The speciality of the Dreadwing was total warfare using the most sinister of weapons. The elected voted-lieutenant of this wing, bearing the title of "Dreadbringer," commanded Destroyer Squads supported by other types of units to bring total annihilation of a foe on a specific battlefield.

The Dreadwing also utilised mass armoured assaults of Land Raiders, Spartan Assault Tanks, Mastodons, and Fellblades with advanced weaponry. Their hallmark was the use of dark, sinister, and shunned munitions such as Phosphex, Rad and Vortex Weapons.

Firewing Protocol[]

The Firewing

Icon of the Firewing

The Firewing was one of the six wings of the Hexagrammaton that existed during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. The smallest of the wings, the Firewing was dedicated to the hidden subtleties of warfare and within its ranks were found an eclectic mix of stalkers, champions and Moritat killers, all bound by their shared expertise in the arts of blade and knife, duellists and assassins without peer.

The Firewing sought the destruction of the enemy through the violent depletion of their command structure, whether in honourable duels at the heart of a battle or at the hands of subtle killers far from the battlefield. When given free reign upon the field of battle, the initiates of the Firewing choose to wage a war of wills against the enemy, seeking to break their resolve rather than slaughter their ranks.

The Firewing was disbanded in the wake of the Horus Heresy. There are, however, intriguing heraldic links between the Firewing and the sigil of the Consecrators, a Second Founding Successor Chapter of the Dark Angels.

Ironwing Protocol[]

I Legion Ironwing

Icon of the Ironwing

The Ironwing Protocol was developed before the Great Crusade was fully born, when the first Space Marines were used by the Emperor to exterminate threats to Mankind too dire to be allowed to endanger the glorious future.

He had designed later variants of this protocol, which sought to wed the superhuman power of the Legiones Astartes and amplify that killing strength with newly-designed, bespoke armoured units -- such as the Land Raider -- as well as mighty Dreadnoughts in close support, for the Ironwing's mission required the shock application of brute force.

Those were entered into the Principia Belicosa for use and development by the Legions that would follow, notably the Xth and IVth Legions, but the Dark Angels would continue to develop the tactical pattern to serve their own ends. The Ironwing comprised the majority of that Legion's armoured vehicles, heavy Dreadnoughts of all patterns and field artillery batteries, a force ill-equipped for operations reliant on stealth or subterfuge.

Stormwing Protocol[]

I Legion Stormwing Icon

Icon of the Stormwing

As the largest of all the wings of the Hexagrammaton, the Stormwing incorporated the majority of the Dark Angels' line infantry, training battalions and mobile ordnance batteries within its ranks. The members of this wing were drilled in the disciplined and stalwart arts of close order warfare and set-piece battles, unshakable on defence and resolute on attack. Its Veteran warriors were the core of the Legion's infantry companies, capable of executing complex manoeuvres and formations under the heaviest enemy fire.

The Stormwing was also the name of a tactical formation used in the Great Crusade by the Dark Angels, consisting exclusively of Breacher Squads and Assault Squads armed with Boarding Shields. This Stormwing specialised in spaceborne boarding operations.

Sources[]

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