Skyrar's Dark Wolves warband colour scheme
Skyrar's Dark Wolves, also called simply the Dark Wolves, is an infamous Chaos Space Marine warband. many of whose Heretic Astartes are members of a Renegade faction of Space Wolves who turned to the Dark Gods during the Horus Heresy. They were first sighted by Imperial forces operating in the Fenris Sector in the years after the Heresy.
History[]
Origins[]
The Dark Wolves are a Renegade Space Marine warband, their origins long shrouded in mystery. Some claim that the warband was once a Great Company of the Space Wolves Chapter, though none would dare cast such a dire dispersion within earshot of any of the fearsome sons of Fenris themselves.
According to one legend, before their fall the Dark Wolves had been tasked with an all but impossible mission in punishment for some unrecorded failing or crime. This mission took the Dark Wolves to the very edge of the Abyss, and some say they lingered there overlong, the taint of the beyond poisoning their souls for all time.
In truth, the Dark Wolves emerged during the Horus Heresy as an unusual warband of Blackshields alinged with the cause of the Warmaster Horus' Traitors. At the time, Cadre-captain Skyrar united the chapter of the Sons of Horus Legion he commanded with a contingent of Space Wolves of the 6th Great Company which had declared for Horus. Under Skyrar's leadership, the warband was tasked with ensuring the Dark Compliance of the westernmost fringes of the Imperium just after the galactic civil war's start.
However, after the warband proceeded to massacre the entire population of the world of Neo Cadiz as well as those of various other star systems, Skyrar's forces effectively went rogue, betrayed Horus, and became a murderous force of corsairs in pursuit of their own agenda. In the final years of the Horus Heresy, the Dark Wolves were ordered to rejoin the Warmaster's forces for the final assault on Terra, but the warband ignored all messages so that its Heretic Astartes might continue to enjoy their own campaign of wanton slaughter and reaving.
The existence of Skyrar's Blackshields was subsequently suppressed by the Imperial authorities, though rumours of the existence of Traitor Space Wolves persisted. It was even rumoured that the group represented an entire Great Company of the Space Wolves. Eventually, in the years after the end of the Heresy, the Dark Wolves returned from the galaxy's fringes and were sighted in the Fenris Sector. Their origins were largely a mystery by this point, resulting in the Imperium officially recording this as the "first sighting" of the warband.
41st Millennium[]
The Dark Wolves have participated in at least three major invasions of Imperial space since the Horus Heresy, allying with the Daemon Prince of Khorne Tallomin, the self-proclaimed "Prince of Princes," and leader of the 3rd Black Crusade in the late 38th Millennium. This invasion was eventually halted by the Space Wolves, furthering the unvoiced suspicions regarding the true origins of the Dark Wolves.
Warband Organisation[]
The Dark Wolves Fellblade super heavy tank Aegisvisir
The Dark Wolves are known to be in possession of a number of heavy tanks, which they field together as an armoured spearhead known as the "Company of Steel." It remains a matter of conjecture amongst Ordo Malleus war-savants whether the warband possessed these mighty and venerable war machines before its fall to Chaos, or if they were acquired afterwards.
The lead war machine of the Company of Steel is the Fellblade known as the Aegisvisir which the Inquisition's savants believe is the command vehicle of the company's war leader, whose identity has yet to be established. The Company of Steel has led numerous Dark Wolves assaults, falling upon unsuspecting Imperial worlds as a rockslide from a towering mountain that grinds all in its path to dust.
Notable Dark Wolves[]
- Skyrar - The Chaos Lord Skyrar was originally a cadre-captain of a chapter of the Sons of Horus Legion who during the early days of the Horus Heresy united his warriors with a contingent of Space Wolves drawn from the 6th Great Company of the VI Legion. These sons of Fenris had declared for the cause of the Warmaster Horus and betrayed their own primarch. Under Skyrar's leadership, the warband was tasked with ensuring the Dark Compliance of the westernmost fringes of the Imperium just after the galactic civil war's start, but eventually transformed into a band of piratical reavers who served no cause but their own, becoming feared Blackshields who were responsible for the slaughter of entire planetary populations.
Warband Appearance[]
A Chaos Champion of Skyrar's Dark Wolves in Chaos Terminator Armour.
Warband Colours[]
This warband wears dark grey power armour with light blue trim and addorned with red, blasphemous Chaos iconography. The Dark Wolves' vehicles are known to bear numerous fell sigils and debased primitive runes of the Dark Tongue.
The most potent of these blasphemies has been identified by Ordo Malleus Warp-seers as the Ottastufir, a powerful symbol used by fallen sorcerers as a compass, providing them with a path through the Realm of Chaos, and to provide protection from the denizens of the Abyss as the bearers pass through that heinous region.
Warband Badge[]
Skyrar's Dark Wolves are identified by the profile of a red, corrupted wolf's head, its maw agape, with a Daemonic tongue protruding from its mouth on a dark grey background. They adorn their armour with the usual heretical Chaos fetishes, totems and trophies of their slain enemies.
Sources[]
- Campaigns of the Age of Darkness: The Battle of Beta-Garmon (Specialist Game), pg. 80
- Codex: Chaos Space Marines (4th Edition), pg. 24
- Imperial Armour Volume Thirteen - War Machines of the Lost and the Damned (Special Edition), pp. 60-61, 63
- The Horus Heresy Book Four: Conquest (Forge World Series), pg. 19