Space Wolves : Executioners and Beasts
During the Great Crusade, the Vlka Fenryka were the agents of the Emperor's wrath, the executioners of the sentences decreed by the Master of Mankind. By their blades were the first traitors of this bygone age punished, their names and crimes forever banished to the shadows of forgotten history. But in facing the darkness before all others, the sons of Leman Russ were tainted by it, and now, they have become all that they ever fought against : traitors, heretics and renegades, fighting for nothing more than glory, bloodshed, and the desperate attempts to restore an epoch that can never return. Their tale is a warning to all true servants of the Imperium : be careful when you look into the Darkness Beyond, for it looks back at you ...
Origins
When the Emperor's sons were stolen from Him by the machinations of the Dark Gods, each one of them landed on a different world. All of them struggled to understand their nature, to learn and grow in environments more often hostile than not. In these early days, the sons of the Emperor would each learn different lessons, taught to them by their adoptive planets, lessons that would shape their existence for the remaining of their immortal lives. Most of these lessons were harsh ones, for the galaxy already was an unforgiving place in this time, and the worlds of the Primachs were, for their differences, all places of strife and challenge. But of all of them, Leman Russ's own homeworld was arguably the harshest on human life.
Fenris was a feudal world, whose people had long lost access to the technology they had brought with them during the first time Mankind scattered across the galaxy. It was also a death world, with winters harsh enough to freeze the oceans and summers whose heat scorched the ground and melted the great icebergs, causing devastating tides. The gravitational pressure inflicted upon the world shook it with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, forcing the tribes of Fenris to always be on the move, to seek new land each year as the one they had stayed was engulfed by the sea or the very earth. Beyond the dangers of the planet itself, the beasts of Fenris were also a terrible threat to human life. Great dragons and sea serpents, wolves the size of horses and other, unnameable horrors stalked its forests and mountains.
Why Fenris was ever settled by Humanity during the First Diaspora is unknown. Perhaps the colonists thought they could master the raging elements of the ice-world, using the wonders of the Age of Technology. If that was the case, they failed miserably. Much more probable is the hypothesis that Fenris' original inhabitants crashed on the planet, and were forced to settle on it, quickly losing their technological level – as was far too frequent in these days. Rumors claim that some of the first settlers, desperate for survival, used barely understood sciences to alter themselves in order to survive the hellish conditions of Fenris. Whether there is a core of truth to these tales, or whether they are simply one more way to slander the fallen Legion is unconfirmed.
'There are no wolves on Fenris.'
Attributed to Primarch Magnus
It was on the highest of these mountains that the child who would become Leman Russ arrived. His coming shattered the mountain's top, and shook the entire island upon which it had grown. The ground tore open and spat liquid rock, while the beasts screamed and raged as if their territory was being challenged. The locals cursed the dark star that had brought such calamity in their already difficult lives, but they were a hardy people, and kept on living despite the trials endlessly imposed on them.
The young Primarch was found by a pack of Fenrisian Wolves, and raised by them until he had reached adolescence – or as close as a Primarch could. It was then that he first met other humans, in the form of a hunting party, who came down on his 'brothers' with spears and blades. The wolf-boy fought to defend his packmates, killing more than a dozen men with his bare hands. The survivors, scared of the strange youth's power, retreated, and brought word of their encounter to their liege, High King Thengir of the Russ. Curious, the monarch decided to go and see for himself this wolf-boy that could make his hunters – men of great skill and courage all – turn back.
With the help of his trackers, Thengir found the lair of the Primarch and his wolf brethren. His men pressed for the attack, suggesting that fire be put to the lair while the pack was resting inside, but Thengir denied them. The High King could feel that there was somethingg more at work here, and that angering the being resting in the cave would be a grave mistake. So it was that he simply stood before the entrance, in full armor and carrying his weapons, and called for the wolf-boy to come and face him. To the surprise of all his retainers, the youth complied. Naked, covered in dirt and the blood of his last kill, and already taller than Thengir despite his features still belonging to an adolescent, he emerged and looked upon those who had come to his pack's lair. Behind him stood the surviving wolves of his pack, two beasts the size of horses who yet clearly defered to him as the alpha of the group.
Though the wolf-boy didn't speak any language known to man, Thengir managed to convince him to come with the High King. Some instinct must have told the Primarch that the mortal intended him no harm, and that his place was amongst humans, not beasts. Back at the monarch's fortress, the wolf-boy was taught the speech of men and the arts of the hunt and battle. He quickly mastered all of them, and became a warrior of unprecedented prowess. Less than three years after Thengir had found him, the wolf-boy had become an adult, and the High King decided to bestow upon him a true name to mark his passage into adulthood. So it was that the Primarch became known as Leman of the Russ.
Leman was fiercely loyal to Thengir, and fought on numerous occasions to help him defend his realm from enemy tribes. Soon, the legend of the giant who went to war at Thengir's side spread to all of Fenris, and the attempts at invasion stopped. Attempts at assassinations, however, increased. Russ feared no poison and no coward's blade, and so powerful was his wyrd that the shamans hired by his rivals refused to even consider casting a curse upon him, but Thengir enjoyed none of these benefits. Upon Russ' tenth year at his side, the monarch died in mysterious circumstances, the true responsible of which was never identified. At this point, there was no doubt as to whom was most fit to success him, and the High King's warriors bowed before Leman Russ. Great was the fury of the Primarch at his adoptive father's demise, but he kept it collared, for he knew not where to direct it yet.
For several years Russ ruled his kingdom, hunting down the great beasts that tormented his people and gathering mighty heroes around him. The land of Russ became the safest place on Fenris, and entire tribes joined him willingly – while others looked upon Russ' prosperity with jealous eyes, and sought to claim it for themselves. These rivals poisoned the mind of several of Russ' vassals, and when the Primarch left the fortress to go on a quest to slay a great sea dragon that had been harassing villages for weeks, they made their move and seized power, while assassins were sent to kill Russ.
The Primarch easily defeated the hired blades, and from them he obtained the names of those who wished him dead – the same who had ordered Thengir's execution. He returned to his fortress and easily defeated his would-be usurpers, killing them all in single combat after forcing their guards aside with the sheer strength of his glare. Now knowing who to blame for his father's demise, Russ called for his warriors to gather, and went on a great war to punish them. Half a dozens High Kings fell to Russ' vengeful blade, and by the time he was done, all of Fenris was under his control. With the tribe united under the newly crowned High King of Fenris, the world entered a new age of peace and prosperity. The conflicts between tribes were silenced by Russ' presence, for none would risk incurring his wrath to satisfy their petty feuds – even those who had lasted for tens of generations.
Years later, during one of Russ' celebratory banquets on the anniversary of Fenris' unification, a lone hermit arrived to the Wolf King's fortress. He challenged Russ to single combat, claiming that the loser would serve the winner. Russ had had much drink that evening, even for his Primarch's physiology, and he accepted the gamble with a laugh, sure that he could beat the strange man in a moment. But he was wrong : instead, the mysterious stranger fell him in a single blow of such power that it shattered the drinking cups of those closest to the fight, and cracks formed where Russ' skull hit the stone floor. Had a normal man been hit with such strength, he would have been dead before touching the ground, but Russ was no normal man, and it was no more than a handful of unconscious hours before his eyes opened again.
When Russ woke up, his thoughts had been cleared of the alcohol that had obscured them. He saw then the man not as the hermit he had appeared to be, but as a being of awesome power clad in golden armor, with the wisdom of the ages in his eyes and the might of the ancient gods in his grasp. It was then that Russ knew he was facing his father, the one who had given him life and strength. So it was that, laughing at his own foolishness, Leman Russ, Great Jarl of Fenris, the Wolf King, bowed before the Emperor of Mankind, and willingly submitted himself to his maker's design for him in the Great Crusade.
The Great Crusade
Russ was one of the first Primarchs to be found, and he was quickly reunited with the Legion that carried his gene-seed. As such, the records of the deeds of his Legion during the Great Crusade are both lengthy and honorable, with many acts of heroism only slightly tainted by reckless attitude and disregard for their unaugmented human allies. The Space Wolves were considered to be the best individual fighters of the Legions, but they lacked the discipline found in other gene-lines. The heritage of Fenris, quickly adopted even by the Terran members, made them took pride in being warriors more than soldiers. Over time, the influx of aspirants taken from Terra diminished, as more and more future Space Wolves – a name that is a terrible translation of the one Russ originally gave them, the Vlka Fenryka – were selected on Fenris itself. With its number swelling due to the unique compatibility of the death-world's denizens and the invention of the Canis Helix, the Sixth Legion went to the front lines of the Great Crusade, bringing world after world under the Imperium's aegis.
However, there is a darker side to even those blessed days of glory. On two occasions, the Sixth legion vanishes of all records for a time before reappearing, its strength much diminished. Who the Space Wolves fought on these occasions is unknown, and investigation is forbidden by the highest authority in the Inquisition. What is known is that it is after the second of these forgotten wars that the attitude of Russ changed, mirrored by that of his Legion. Whatever secret mission they had accomplished, it had laid a dark could upon their souls. The Space Wolves grew more and more brutal and ruthless, crushing all of their opponents without mercy nor concern for their allies. Soon, Imperial commanders refused the aid of the Vlka Fenryka, calling for the help of the other Legions' forces, even if they were further away by months of Warp travel.
Russ sat alone in his chambers, brooding thoughts of loss and betrayal. His two wolves, Freki and Geri, who had been with him ever since his first days on Fenris, were no longer at his side. They had fallen in the same battles that had scarred their master's soul. The solitude didn't suit the Wolf King, yet he could not bear to be in the presence of his sons at this moment.
There was no joy in the Primarch's eyes, no savage pleasure or boundless enthusiasm. The light that had shone from him, the charisma that had enabled him to make the proud jarls of Fenris bend knee were still there, but a darkness had fallen upon them. Where before he inspired loyalty, now none outside of his Legion could look upon him without fear.
He knew this, and clung to the thought that it was necessary. These wars, as hateful as they had been, had not been without purpose. Now Russ knew that he could no longer simply be a warrior. He had become an executioner, the axe of the Emperor's will. Forevermore, he and his sons would be the scourge of traitors and renegades, the punishment unleashed by the Master of Mankind upon His foes. Such was their wyrd, from now on until the stars went cold.
The Space Wolves also grew more distrustful of their own kin, refusing altogether to fight alongside the Thousand Sons on several occasions because of their perceived deviancy. Of all his brothers, Russ only ever get along with Horus, admiring Lupercal's tactical and martial prowess, and the Lion, though their first meeting was tense in the extreme. His relationship with Magnus, however, was one that threatened to bloom into open conflict for decades. Upon their very first meeting, the Cyclops and the Wolf King came to blows, and were only separated by Horus after their brawl had reduced a priceless aisle of the Imperial Palace to ruins.
When the Emperor called for the Council of Nikaea, Russ was determined to make his case to his father. The Wolf King pressed for the sanctioning of the Fifteenth Legion, presenting flimsy evidence gathered by his men during what few joint operations had occurred between the two. His Rune Priests called the Thousand Sons sorcerers and wielders of maleficarum, dark magic that tainted their souls with the corruption of the Warp. In later years, Mortarion, who had also had doubts about Magnus and his sons, would claim that Russ had actually helped the Cyclops when his shamans had called him a witch.
Despite the Wolf King's arguments, the Emperor decided to allow Magnus' Legion to continue their practice of the Art. Worse in the eyes of Russ, He encouraged the other Legions to do the same in their Legions, with the installation of the Librarium – an organization Russ looked upon with great distaste. Furious, Russ spoke one last time before the assembled dignitaries, claiming that the Emperor was making a terrible mistake, one that they would all regret, before storming out of the coliseum and leaving the planet. On his way out, he was met by Magnus, who tried to explain their father's decision to his brother. But so great was Russ' anger that he refused to listen, and when Magnus and the Thousand Sons tried to prevent him from leaving in such a fashion, he exploded and attacked him, gravely injuring one of Magnus' sons who put himself between them. Russ left Nikaea in shame and fury, before the Emperor could reach and punish him for his violent actions against his brother and his nephews.
'Listen to me, Russ,' Magnus said to his brother. 'You must understand our father's decision. It is the best choice, the only choice …'
'Be silent, brother,' snarled Russ, his features stirred in disgust. 'You lied to our father, I know it. You deceived him with you pretty words and your lies, but I will not let you infect me with them. I will prove our father that he was wrong about you, that he should have let me punish you for your foolish ways.'
'My foolish ways ? I have studied with our father himself, Russ, while your shamans listened to the winds of this ball of ice you call home for scraps of knowledge. I have sailed the Great Ocean at his side. I know more of its dangers than you ever will, and you call me foolish ? Who here is refusing knowledge, and embracing ignorance ? Who here is clinging to meaningless tradition, and who seeks enlightenment so that we may all be free of the Warp?'
'That knowledge you seek is poisonous. It has twisted your mind, just like it has twisted your flesh. It has corrupted you, Cyclops, and its mark is plain for all to see.'
Magnus didn't raise to the bait. Instead, when he replied, his voice was soft, as if he was talking to a child. Somehow this angered Russ even more.
'You call me corrupt, brother ? Yet my sons dream in peace. Isn't it your men who need to cover their armor in runes lest they scream their nightmares in the void ?'
Russ roared in anger, and drew his blade before his mind could realize just what he was doing. Magnus didn't move, didn't try to dodge or block the incoming blow : he simply stared at his brother with his one eye, unbelief writing clearly on his face. Time seemed to stretch out as the blade descended, and Russ thought that he could see the reflection of the volcanic light on the metal as it came down and …
… pierced through the flesh of the Thousand Son who had jumped between the two Primarchs, tearing through his armor like paper and spraying hot, red blood on the Wolf King's face.
'Amon !' Magnus shouted in horror. He knelt at his son's side, all thoughts of talking with Russ forgotten, while the other Legionaries drew their own weapons. With one last look at his brother, who even now was deploying his witchcraft to heal his Equerry, the Wolf King ran. His men followed, letting Magnus risk his warrior's soul by exposing him to the touch of the Warp.
The Errance
Once the Emperor's judgment had been declared, there could be no going back on it. Even as filled with rage as he was, Russ knew that it would take a momentous event to change his father's mind. Yet the Wolf King was persuaded that he was right, and that the taint of sorcery could not be allowed to spread amongst the Legiones Astartes. At the same time, the shame was too strong, and he refused to return to the Great Crusade. He called all of his forces back to him, and headed his fleet toward the regions of space that even the Imperium of this glorious era was reluctant to explore. Before he could begin what would come to be called the Errance, Russ was joined by a group of five Custodes, sent by Malcador himself on the Emperor's behalf. These mighty warriors were to ensure that the Wolf King would obey the decrees of Nikaea. Russ saw their presence as an slight, an insult on his honor, but he accepted them aboard his fleet.
Leading the way from his flagship Hrafnkel, Leman Russ threaded the darkest corners of the galaxy. From the cold reaches of the Halo Stars to the gravitational nightmare of the galactic core, the Wolf King's search continued. What he was looking for precisely is unknown, and it is uncertain that he ever had a clear goal in mind. Contact with Imperial forces during the Errance of the Sixth Legion was scarce, with only the rarest of communications between the Legion and the explorers it encountered, alongside increasingly infrequent astropathic messages to Terra, demanding that the Emperor reconsider His judgment. These messages were accompanied by reports from the Custodes' own astropath, reporting that Russ' quest was purging the Imperium's borders of creatures that may become a threat to it in the future. In insight, it is doubtful these reports were really those sent by the Custodes. For all his denunciation of the Thousand Sons' so-called sorcery, Russ' own Rune Priests were very capable psykers, more than capable of intercepting the Custodes' messages and replacing its contents with their own.
In the decades that followed the Heresy, however, a precise account of these years was found. Now sealed deep within Inquisitorial facilities, it is called The Wyrd of the Leman Russ, and was written by remembrancer Kasper Howser, whose ultimate fate remains unknown. In it, it is told that the Space Wolves explored the ruins of long-dead alien empires, seeking proof of the dangers of psychic powers that would justify their beliefs to the Imperium. During that time, the Vlka Fenryka faced many horrors left behind by those empires. The descriptions of those horrors found in the Wyrd are terrifying. Entities that existed both in the Warp and the Materium, soulless intelligences bound to constructs the size of cities, and all manner of gene-crafted beasts were encountered and fought by the Space Wolves. Thousands of warriors perished in battles that would never be written down in the Imperium's annals, all so that Leman Russ could be vindicated.
The Folly of the Wolf King
In the years that followed the bitter end of the Roboutian Heresy, the true scope of Russ' obsession was revealed. In their Errance, the Space Wolves had awakened many horrors that had slept for countless aeons. Seething with alien fury at the profanation of their graves, these horrors struck back at all of Mankind in their quest for revenge. Worlds recently reclaimed from the traitors were burned to the ground by ghost-ships, and infiltrators tore apart the Imperial order on many more planets. Billions died in horrible pain, their dying screams brewing in the Immaterium to form new Warp Storms.
It took many centuries for the Ordo Xenos to deal with all the facets of Leman Russ' foul legacy. The only silver lining of this long crusade was that, whenever the path of the xenos crossed those of a Sixth Legion warband, the aliens immediately dropped whatever scheme they were pursuing to attack the ones truly responsible for their wrath. Sometimes, the Inquisition was capable of dealing with the xenos ploys, but in a handful of cases, the Space Wolves careless exploration roused entire armies of dormant, self-aware machines – such as the infamous Metarchs of Tarec Prime. Entire regiments of the Imperial Guard and companies of Space Marines then had to be dispatched to protect the Imperial worlds and crush the xenos invaders. The entire campaign is called the Harrowing in the few archives of it that have survived the passing of the millenia.
Even to this day, the Space Wolves bear the mark of the Errance. Besides the forbidden knowledge and ancient technologies gained, the sons of Russ have had their mindset profoundly altered by what they saw. Like some Inquisitors who have spent too long fighting against the horrors of the galaxy, they have been known to make alliances with xenos breeds. Most of the time, these alliances consist of primitive aliens used as cannon fodder by the Astartes. But, sometimes, it is the Space Wolves who serve the designs of a xenos potentate, betraying Humanity yet one more time. Even amongst the other Traitor Legions, such behavior is blasphemy beyond compare, and a crime deserving only a painful death. The Deathwatch – the Ordo Xenos' group of elite alien hunters – has lost hundreds of members to these twice-damned traitors across the centuries. Rolls of honor list their name, and oaths to bring their murderers to justice are spoken daily.
The touch of the alien corrupts the body, and the knowledge of the alien taints the soul. Such is the lesson found in the Wyrd, the one taught by the Folly of the Wolf King.
In the end, after almost half a century, Russ found what he was looking for. On a dead Eldar world called Melia'Sertaria – the Song of Lost Dreams, in the xenos dialect – Russ learned the story of the Fall, of how the Eldars unwillingly created the Dark God Slaanesh with their excesses and abuse of their psychic might. Russ descended on the world with his personal guard, and brought Howser with him to act as the chronicler of what they would see. The group was also accompanied by the Custodes, who had vowed not to let the Wolf King go anywhere without them accompanying him – and perished on the world for their attempts to stop the Wolf King. According to Howser's tale, this was a world of wraiths, where the shades of the dead forever relived the last day of their lives.
… And I saw the shades of the Underverse, trapped into this world by the whims of the daemons that had claimed their souls. They were fair of form, yet alien of visage, and unspeakable agony shone from their eyes as they moved amongst the ghostly echoes of a city that must have been beautiful in the time before its fall. They ignored us – Russ, his guards, the Custodians, Bear, and me – all but for one, who turned from the path he followed endlessly and walked toward us. When it spoke, its voice was a whisper in the winds, almost impossible to hear in the faint shrieking of the damned that we had heard ever since reaching the planet's atmosphere.
I did not understand its words, though I later learned that it was the shade of one of the Eldar's seers, recognising Russ' spiritual strength and wishing to pass on a warning.
The golden warriors tried to stop the Wolf King, calling upon his oaths to the Golden Throne, warning him of the dangers of listening to the xenos spirits. I believe that for a moment, Russ hesitated. Perhaps I am wrong, perhaps it was only the regret of what he knew he had to do that made him pause. But I think that I felt the weight of destiny upon us all at that moment, the terrible knowledge that the fates rest in balance on a knife's edge.
Then he made his decision. It didn't take long before the blood of the Emperor's Custodians covered the ground of the Eldar's tomb-world. There was no shock in the eyes of the Vlka Fenryka, only cold fatality. I do not think they saw what they had done as treachery. They saw it as a sad but necessary duty, a sacrifice that had to be made on the road to salvation.
Extract from The Wyrd of the Leman Russ, by Kasper Howser
Russ believed that Magnus' attempts to elevate Mankind to a psychic race would cause the species to suffer the same fate as the Eldars. He returned to the Hrafnkel and brooded long on what action take to avoid the damnation he foresaw. For several weeks, the fleet of the Sixth Legion remained in orbit around Melia'Sertaria, its techno-adepts repairing the many damages it had taken during the Errance and its warriors healing their wounds. Then Russ reappeared before his men, declaring that their course of action had been chosen. Though what he demanded of them was harsh, and many would call them traitors for it, he told them that it was necessary : if they did not do it, Mankind would follow the Eldars into the grave. There was only one way to avoid this terrible fate :
Prospero had to burn.
The Razing of Prospero
According to the Wyrd, Russ intended the Razing of Prospero as both a warning to the Thousand Sons and a message to the Emperor Himself. The book claims that Russ sent an astropathic message to Terra on the tides of the carnage, telling Him of what he had found and of the reasons behind his criminal acts. That message, however, never reached Terra. Whether it was never sent at all, or intercepted by the Dark Gods, no one but the Emperor can know for certain. Though a precise chronology of the events of these times is all but impossible, it is believed that the Space Wolves' attack on the Thousand Sons' homeworld happened roughly at the same time as the Isstvan Massacre, when Guilliman butchered his own loyal sons alongside with his cohorts. These twin treacheries were the source of the Warp's turmoil during the Heresy that made galactic travel so unreliable – though Guilliman had perhaps not planned for Russ' actions, since the traitors are recorded to have suffered substantial losses to the Sea of Souls' madness as well.
The fall of Prospero was described in great detail by the survivors. After the Heresy, an entire aisle of the Imperial Palace was covered in scriptures, frescoes and sculptures of that bitter day – the magnificence of the City of Light represented both before and after the barbarians of the treacherous Sixth laid it low. There are many hidden meanings in these works of mournful art, and an Inquisitor seeking knowledge of the Space Wolves can find much of the Thousand Sons' lore in it, if he has but the intelligence and the patience needed to see past the obvious and into the symbolic.
Prospero was a well-defended world, with a garrison of Thousand Sons and its own regiment of the Imperial Army, the Spireguards. With most of the Legion's forces either back on Terra or dispersed across the Great Crusade, however, it was not as well protected in orbit. The Space Wolves boarded and destroyed the orbit defense array, and proceded to bombard the planet. Tizca, the City of Light, housing millions of priceless, unique scrolls and books, burned as the Sixth Legion ought to destroy the Fifteenth's experiment with psychic populations. Pyramids that had stood for thousands of years were reduced to rubble, along with stellar observatories that had failed to foresee that fate and universities were the mysteries of the universe had been studied by thousands of aspirants for the Thousand Sons. Thus was not only the past but also the future of Magnus' sons taken from them by the fury of the Space Wolves.
After the bombardment was over, Russ and his men descended on the planet to make sure that no survivors remained. To his surprise, he found out that not only there were survivors, but that they were ready to fight back against the murderers of their families. They unleashed the psychic predators of their homeworld against the invaders, and used all of their powers to inflict maximal casualties on the traitor Sixth Legion. Led by a Captain named Iskandar Khayon, the few Thousand Sons who had survived led the remnants of Tizca's population into the desert between cities, and managed to escape the madness of the Wolves by opening a Warp portal to the few ships who had been close enough to Prospero to hear its distress call. Russ did not order his fleet to pursue the vessels : their mission was accomplished, and the survivors were no threat to the future of Mankind. Let them carry word of what the Space Wolves had done, so that all would know that deviancy would not be tolerated in the Imperium of Man, not as long as the Rout was keeping watch.
The Heresy
After burning Prospero, Russ returned to Fenris, taking everything of value, before running to the Ultima Segmentum. There, Russ used some of the forbidden technology he had gained during his Errance to guide his fleet further into the void, deep within the Halo Stars and to one of the fortresses he had built in that time. There he remained for years, waiting for the Emperor's reaction to what he had done. But soon, his astropaths and Wolf Priests heard the Warp sing of another deed, one far greater and more terrible : the Isstvan Atrocity. With it came news of the Roboutian Heresy, but there were distorted by the Warp, and the details of it eluded Russ. The Wolf King found himself torn by indecision, not knowing which side was right, which one to support. On one hand, Guilliman had always appeared to be an arrogant lordling to Russ, but he was honorable – a king of kings, capable of leading an empire to greatness. On the other hand, the Emperor may have not followed Russ' advice at Nikaea, but surely what he had done at Prospero, and the knowledge he had unearthed and sent to him, would have changed His mind.
It was as Russ' mind balanced that Lion El'Jonson, perhaps the only one of his brothers that the Wolf King trusted, found the Sixth Legion. The Lion told Russ what had occurred in his absence. Surprisingly, it seems that the servant of the Great Deceiver told his brother the truth, at least as far as the wretched traitor knew it : that Guilliman had turned against the Emperor, and that seven other Primarchs stood with him in defiance of the Emperor's tyrannic and foolish ways.
Then, after having told his brother of the galaxy's events, the Lion began to weave his greatest deception. He told Russ that Guilliman was a worthier lord than the Emperor, that he knew and understood the sacrifices and hard decisions that had to be made if Mankind was to survive the darkness of the galaxy. The rhetoric of Lion El'Jonson persuaded Russ, yet there was still a doubt that prevented him from throwing his lot with Guilliman's rebellion. Russ remembered how his father had looked back on that fateful day, when He had beaten him and revealed His true form. Even after two hundred years and countless attempts at suppressing the image, Russ still sometimes woke covered in cold sweat at the memory of the power bound within the Emperor's mortal frame. How, he asked, could anyone defeat the Master of Mankind ?
The Lion told Russ that this was precisely why the rebellion needed the Wolf King on their side. There was a way, a power that could rival even that of Him on Earth, but to obtain it, the Primarch of the Dark Angels needed the help of his brother. For the power he sought laid in a place between Hell and reality, and was guarded by the immortal servants of a long-dead xenos species. Russ was used to fighting such creatures, and his help was needed if the Lion's expedition was to be successful.
Russ trusted his brother, and he accepted to help him. But the full strength of the First and Sixth Legions wasn't needed for that quest, while the rest of the rebellion would need all the Astartes it could get. So he called his Legion's commanders and proclaimed that the Vlka Fenryka be divided into thirteen Great Companies. His personnal guard would accompany him on the Lion's quest, while the others would scatter across the galaxy and do all they could to help Guilliman's rebellion. As he made that proclamation, a vision seemed to come over him, filling him with dread and exaltation in equal measure, and he promised his sons that, no matter what happened, he would be with them at the final battle, when the ultimate fate of Mankind would be decided – a moment he called the Wolftime.
And so it was that the Primarchs of the First and Sixth Legions went to war together. This is also how the Wyrd ends, for Kasper didn't write anything more after relating the Wolf King's proclamation to his men. What is known is that Russ and the Lion went into the Maelstrom, and only the Lion returned. Very few of the Wolves that had accompanied their father returned, and none of them with the Dark Angels. Instead, they emerged in distinct parts of the galaxy, having escaped the Maelstrom through the use of an ancient xenos artifact, claimed by the Legion during the Errance and those effects were barely understood by its Iron Priests.
On and on they came, in an unrelenting and numberless tide. The hosts of metallic dead had begun to move when Russ and the Lion had entered the temple. Skeleton-like, with eldritch lights burning in their eyes' sockets, the silent soldiers carried weapons the like of which he had never seen before. Fire from their strange guns could pierce even the armor of the Wolf Guard, and the claws of the creatures that skulked in the shadows could cut through an Astartes' reinforced bones.
Bjorn and his brothers held the line with the support of the Dark Angels, while in the room behind them their fathers fought the king of a dead empire. Bjorn had seen the creature, briefly, and it had made his blood run cold. Unbidden images of death and extinction had appeared in his mind as he had looked at the undying emperor, a creature as tall as a Primarch and carrying a scythe that sung the death of stars. It had been sitting on its throne, before the great device that the Lion had claimed they had to destroy in order to reach their prize. Of course, like every Space Wolf had known it would, the creature had risen the moment they had crossed the threshold. Now the Primarchs had to send its spirit back to the Underverse, while their sons held the silent legions at bay.
This wasn't made any easier by the fell power that surrounded the entire planet. The field cut Rune Priests off the Root of the World, just like it disabled the sorceries of the First Legion. But this wasn't the first time the Rout had waged war without the strength of Mother Fenris to aid them. They had encountered similar defenses during the Errance, though never on the scale of a whole planet, and the might of their fangs and claws had been enough to see them through each time. This would be no different.
Bjorn beheaded one of the restless dead with his chainsword, before emptying his bolter into a row of its advancing comrades. They fell, but the group that emerged from behind them, crushing their writhing carcasses as they advanced, appeared to be immune to the deluge of fire the Legionaries were directing at them. At once, Bjorn realized that these wights were different from those they had been fighting since the beginning of the battle. Where those who had come before had been foot soldiers and scavengers, these were palatine guards, elite warriors roused to defend their king. They bore blades and shields that shimmered with the same light shining in their eyes, and their black bodies were covered in golden plates that demarcated them from the other undead. Bjorn could see in how they moved that some piece of individuality remained in them, and knew that these would truly be formidable foes. Yet it was the one these lychguards escorted that gave him pause. It was a dark figure wielding a spear the same color as that of the overlord the Primarch were facing – a noble of the wight emperor's court.
Shouting a challenge, Bjorn hurled himself at the dead lord, rising his weapon high to strike. But before his blade could find its mark, his foe's intercepted him, and severed his right arm at the shoulder. Biting down the terrible pain, Bjorn threw himself at the xenos, and while his brothers engaged its bodyguards, he began to tear at its skull with his remaining hand, seeking to rip it free. It resisted, but Bjorn was nothing if not stubborn, and he finally tore off the head of the undead lord, lifting it high for all to see, bellowing to the obsidian ceiling, the pain in his arm still burning despite the gifts of his enhanced physiology. Somehow, Bjorn knew that the pain would be with him until the day he died.
News of the Primarch's disappearance spread slowly but surely amongst the Space Wolves. Some were driven to despair by the news, but most of them vowed to find him. Clinging to his last words before dividing the Legion, many believed that he would be at Terra, for the final battle of the Roboutian Heresy. These formed warbands and joined with Guilliman's advance toward the Throneworld, seeking to hasten the moment when the rebel and loyalist's leaders finally faced each other. They burned entire worlds and slaughtered armies with a brutality and a haste that made them suffer casualties that could have been avoided. Guilliman let them do as they pleased : the Arch-Traitor had little qualms about sacrificing his allies to speed up his own victory.
Finally, the traitors arrived at Terra. The Space Wolves hurled themselves at the walls of the Imperial Palace, desperate to bring them down, calling for their father to return to them as the birthworld of Mankind burned in the flames of the ultimate battle. But Russ did not return. The Vlka Fenryka died by the thousand at the blades and bolters of the loyalists, and still he did not return. They kept on fighting, their hearts filled with a black rage, taking the lives of many faithful servants of the Emperor. They kept on fighting when Sanguinius fell, and when the Night Lords and Emperor's Children returned. They kept on fighting when Guilliman breached the Imperial Gates, pouring after him and spreading across the Palace, engaging the Custodes and the other defenders while Guilliman faced the Master of Mankind in battle. And still, Russ did not return.
Bjorn watched as the witch who called himself Ahriman killed Ohthere Wyrdmake. One moment the Rune Priest was at his side, on the Imperial Palace's ramparts; the next he was gone, his shade's last scream still echoing in the ears of all those present. He shuddered. This was no way for a warrior to die. And still the Thousand Sons pretended not to use maleficarum !
He launched himself at the Fifteenth Legion's First Captain, his claw poised to claim his life. The sorcerer turned toward him and directed his fell powers upon Bjorn, but the mysterious blessing he had earned when slaying the undead lord protected him, and he smiled when he smelt Ahriman's stupor. This kill would be sweet indeed …
The claw was blocked before it could reach its target. A warrior clad in purple and gold stood between Bjorn and his foe. His face was a mess of scars, and in his eyes burned immortal faith and hatred. Bjorn knew this warrior, but it was impossible that he be there. The Space Wolf had seen him die at the claws of one of the Wulfen, when he had led the attack on a Death Guard position ! How could he still be fighting ? What manner of vile sorcery was keeping him into the realm of the livings ?
For the first time in many, many years, Bjorn felt fear. He knew he was no match for the scarred warrior. With a howl, he disengaged, and called for his men to retreat with him.
Behind them, Lucius of the Emperor's Children watched them flee, before starting to move again, heeding some call impossible to hear for others.
The Post-Heresy
When Guilliman fell, the Space Wolves were the last to run. They were ready to fight until their death, but when the last of their allies retreated, they finally understood that there was no way for them to win the battle – and the war. Almost none of those elements of the Sixth Legion who were present during the Siege managed to escape, though those who did would become some of the most infamous enemies of the Imperium during the Scourging that would follow.
Bjorn the Fell-Handed
Few individuals amongst the Traitor Legions are as ancient and widely known as Bjorn the Fell-Handed. In the days of the Roboutian Heresy, Bjorn was one of the Space Wolves closest to the Primarch, despite his then lack of rank. It is said that on Prospero, the two of them fought back to back against the psychic predators that the defenders, in their desperation, unleashed on their world's killers.
Bjorn was amongst the retinue Russ brought with him on the Lion's quest. He lost his right arm in battle then, and received a prosthesis arm in the form of a power claw. He fought with it on Terra, leading hundreds of his brothers against the Thousand Sons defenders of the Imperial Palace. His right arm was then observed to possess some strange, Warp-repelling proprieties that helped shielded him against the Sons of Magnus' powers.
After the failure of the Heresy, Bjorn became obsessed with finding his lost father. Over the millenia, he and those who follow him have scoured dozens of worlds in search of clues about Russ' whereabouts. Agents of the Inquisition have reported seeing him consorting with vile aliens in return for knowledge about the mysterious species involved in Russ' disappearance. Like his Primarch before him, Bjorn does not hesitate to disturb things best left alone, and the consequences of his actions are often far more destructive than his actions proper.
Several centuries after the Heresy, Bjorn was finally found by a group of Thousand Sons who had hunted him for all that time. Though he did manage to slay them all, the Fell-Handed was so terribly wounded that his men interred him into a Dreadnought. His new metallic body possesses the same Warp-repelling ability that his claw once did, making him a terrible threat to any psyker facing him. Since Bjorn does not spend long in the Eye of Terror and the other Warp anomalies where most Traitor Legionaries have taken refuge, he suffers the normal flow of time : were his life not sustained by his mechanical body, alien technologies and his shamans' magics, he would have died of old age long ago.
After the Heresy, several Great Companies returned to Fenris, intent on holding it against the Imperium until their Primarch's return. They built a great fortress, the Fang, and kept recruiting new warriors from the savage tribes. They spread traitor propaganda in the guise of legends and saga, and the cult of Chaos grew in influence amidst the savage people of Fenris. For more than a century, the Space Wolves held their homeworld against all attempts to dislodge them. Then, at last, retribution came. Magnus the Red himself led the Imperial forces, composed of almost all of his Legion and vast contingents of Sons of Horus, under the leadership of the Mournival Lord Abaddon himself.
The loyalists lay siege to the Fang while starship dueled in orbit. The battle lasted for several months, for unlike the rest of the Traitor Legions, the Space Wolves who had chosen to remain on Fenris were ready to fight for it unto death. It was only when Magnus broke the gates of the Fang and the Thousand Sons began to bring the fortress down that the ranks of the Sixth Legion began to falter. Hundreds of Legionaries died in the following hours, as Magnus and Abaddon fought back to back against the beasts that the Space Wolves unleashed against them. Then, when the loyalists' victory seemed all but certain, the Warp tore open and a new fleet of Sixth Legion ships entered the system. These were the ships of Bjorn the Fell-Handed, a legendary commander of the Space Wolves who had dedicated his life to finding his lost Primarch. Why he came to the aid of his brothers is unknown – perhaps there was still some shred of brotherhood and nobility left in him.
While his fleet engaged the Sons of Horus and Thousand Sons' vessels, Bjorn and his troops teleported directly into the heart of the Fang. The warlord faced the Primarch in single battle, while his men fought to protect his Rune Priests as they opened a portal back to his ships. The surviving defenders, at Bjorn's command, evacuated through it, taking with them many relics and prized slaves of the Legion. After more than an hour of dueling against Magnus – a feat that is still not understood by the Inquisition, even after ten thousand years of research – the Fell-Handed finally broke free and retreated as well. That day, the Thousand Sons vowed to find Bjorn and bring him to justice, no matter the cost.
Once Bjorn had returned to his flagship, he ordered his fleet to open fire on the Fang out of pure spite, hoping to bring it down on the heads of the loyalists. Magnus cast a powerful spell that saved him and his allies, but the Warp energies unleashed by both loyalists and traitors combined with the strength of the bombardment proved too much for the planet to bear. The delicate tectonic balance of Fenris was too badly upset, and the planet collapsed on itself. The death-cry of the world and its millions of inhabitants created a Warp Storm, preventing the forces of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Legions from pursuing Bjorn's fleet. Afterward, the Space Wolves split up once more, though it is believed that many warriors chose to remain with Bjorn, whether out of some sense of gratitude for saving their lives, because they believed it was his destiny to find Leman Russ once more, or because they blamed him for Fenris' destruction and awaited the opportunity to kill him.
The destruction of Fenris marked the end of the Sixth Legion as a united force. Every Great Company went its own way, raiding the Imperium and dividing even further. Hundreds of warbands bear the gene-seed of Leman Russ, and every single one of them is a thorn in the side of the Emperor. It is believed amongst the Inquisitors that know of the Traitor Legions' most secret lore that only Bjorn the Fell-Handed could have kept the Legion united, but he abandoned that duty when he began his mad quest to find his Primarch. Whether this is a blessing in disguise – for the might of a united Rout is truly something to fear – or a terrible threat whose amplitude has yet to be revealed is a matter of hot debate amongst these restrained circles.
Now, amongst the Nine Legions, the Space Wolves Legion is something of an outcast. While all Traitor Legions are locked in a perpetual state of conflict against each other, the Wolves are even more reluctant to form alliances with their comrades in damnation. Most of them hate the Dark Angels, blaming them for the loss of their Primarchs. Entire wars have been fought between the First and Sixth Legions to avenge Leman Russ, and while every Chaos Marine slain by his brethren is a boon to the Imperium, dozens of Imperial worlds have been caught in the crossfire of these feuds. The other Traitor Legions see the Space Wolves as fools who were deceived by the Emperor and the Lion alike, and still cling to the hope that their dead father will return. On the rare occasions warbands from the Space Wolves and another Legion fight together, the Wolf Lord and his opposite number spend a lot of time and effort preventing their warriors for creating new feuds between the two groups.
Organisation
The Space Wolves still follow the organisation their Primarch decreed before his disappearance. Almost all of them owe allegiance to one of the thirteen Great Companies, save for a handful of renegades and outcasts. Of those Great Companies, only twelve are known to remain in existence, the fate of the thirteenth uncertain. Each of the Great Company is led by a Wolf Prince, one of the heirs of Russ. Beneath the Wolf Princes are the Wolf Lords, each commanding a warband belonging to the Great Company. The size of these warbands vary greatly, and they are very fluid : some active warbands of Space Wolves are composed of warriors who have fought side to side since the Great Crusade, whilst others have only recently assembled around a rising star amongst the Legion. The troops under the command of the Wolf Lord are generally divided between the Blood Claws, those recently induced into the Legion and who have yet to earn their lord's recognition, and the 'true' Space Wolves, full-fledged members of the Vlka Fenryka. Wolf Priests and Rune Priests form separate brotherhoods within the Legion. The Wolf Priests work together to ensure that there is always at least one of them within any significant warband, while the Rune Priests brood over the bitter truths revealed to them when Fenris died and plot their revenge against the Thousand Sons.
The hierarchy within each Great Company has much in common with the packs of wolves from which the Legion takes its name. Warbands journey on their own or in groups depending on the alliances made by the Wolf Lords, and regularly return to the Great Company fortress to repair and share the tales of their infamous deeds, that they may be recorded by the Legion's skalds. The Wolf Prince directly commands the greatest number of Astartes, but it is his own personal strength that allows him to keep his position. If one of the Wolf Lords challenges him for it, the Wolf Prince must accept the challenge and face his would-be usurper in single combat. Such duels are taken very seriously, and the victor, should he win by trickery or cowardly means, will soon be torn apart by an enraged mob of demigods. Several of the Wolf Princes named by Russ at the head of the Great Companies are still in position today, having successfully defended their throne from hundreds of challengers over the millenia. Most of these individual, fortunately, remain on their daemon worlds most of the time, trying to impose a semblance of order upon their troops, lest the Legion dissolve entirely. If such a thing were to happen, they believe that upon his return, Russ will punish them for failing to preserve the Rout he entrusted to them.
The Thirteenth Great Company
When Russ divided his Legion, one of the groups thus created chose to follow a path none of their brethren dared to walk. Led by Jorin Bloodhowl, their Rune Priests sought to master the curse inside them through the power of the Warp. It was their conviction that only once the Vlka Fenryka had won the war within could they win the war without. To that end, even before the Heresy ended, they journeyed into the Eye of Terror. It was thought that they had been destroyed by the madness of Chaos, but in recent years, for the first time in ten thousand years, signs and portents seem to indicate this was not the case. Many Imperial seers are plagued by visions of great black wolves riding out of Hell, ahead of an infinite legion of the lost and the damned. Interrogation of imprisoned traitors has since revealed that the sons of Russ of the Eye have, like so many others, somehow survived their exile.
Their quest, however, appears to have most spectacularly failed. The Space Wolves of the Thirteenth Great Company have been turned into monsters of vague likeness to the creatures of which they bear the name. Now beholden only to the whims of Chaos, they hunt across the Eye of Terror, chasing those judged unworthy by the Ruinous Powers. Some of the most powerful warlords sometimes have them fighting alongside them, but such alliances never last, and the Wolves of Chaos quickly leave the warband once the particular quarry they had been hunting is brought down.
For now, they have kept their depredations to the Eye, but Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus fear what the day they leave it may portent. As the Eye grows ever more agitated and the Dark Millenium's end grows near, the Wolf Time may be closer than any one of us would believe ...
Homeworld
Fenris is long gone, and the Space Wolves have adapted to the loss of their Legion's birthworld. Their Legion is fleet-based, with only a handful of fortresses in the Eye of Terror and other, similar Emperor-forsaken realms. While these daemon worlds under the control of the Sixth Legion are rare, the sons of Russ defend them with a ferocity rarely seen amidst the treacherous scum of their blasphemous ilk. Information about these hellish domains is scarce, but it is known to the Inquisition that most Space Wolves warlords turn their daemonic kingdoms into twisted reflections of their dead home world, creating eternal storms and earthquakes amidst which a heavily mutated population of human slaves somehow manage to survive.
When the Space Wolves conquer a world, they usually try to drag it into the Sea of Souls, so that they can use it to create another infernal paradise for their kind. Their Rune Priests engrave symbols of heretic power the size of cities on the surface of the world, using thousands of slaves to do so, before sacrificing them to fuel the spell that will shatter the barriers between the Warp and reality. Since these operations are extremely vulnerable to attack and require the utmost precision to avoid breaking the planet apart altogether, the Space Wolves only perform this ritual once the world is firmly in their grasp.
The First War for Armageddon
During the fifth century of the forty-first millenium, the industrial world of Armageddon came under attack by a combined force of Imperial Fists and Space Wolves. While the commander of the Seventh Legion's remain unidentified to this day – it is even doubtful there was even one in the first place – the Space Wolves' elements were under the command of Logan Grimnar. While his allies tore the planet apart in an orgy of bloodshed, his Rune Priests channeled the Warp energy produced by the carnage to rip apart the veil between realities. By turning entire cities into sacrifices to Khorne, they were capable to summon the Daemon Primarch Rogal Dorn from the Eye of Terror. The traitor son of the Emperor almost plunged the entire planet into the Warp, and would have succeeded if the arrival of the World Eaters had not saved the last cities from his wrath. While the Twelfth Legion held the line against the horde of daemons and Imperial Fists Sword Brethren, four full Brotherhoods of Grey Knights struck at the Daemon Primarch himself. Only a handful of Grey Knights survived, but Rogal Dorn was banished back to the Sea of Souls. At the moment of the Daemon Primarch's fall, Grimnar ordered the retreat of his men, leaving his allies without his support. The World Eaters launched a devastating counter-attack, slaying thousands of traitor Astartes and putting an end to the last recorded time the Imperial Fists acted as a united Legion.
The planet was saved. The touch of the Chaotic corruption remained powerful, however, and the Inquisition demanded that the remaining population be put to the sword to avoid contagion. The Twelfth Legion strongly opposed that decision, and instead evacuated the civilians and soldiers who had fought at their side to one of the Legion's worlds.
Beliefs
'I will return. I promise you that. In the end, for the final battle, I will be with you. When the stars bleed and the galaxy burn, when the last battle of the last war begins on Terra, I will be with you. When my father's empire of lies crumble under the weight of its hypocrisy, when the children of Man know that their hour is at hand, I will return.
For the Wolftime !'
The Proclamation of Russ
The Space Wolves have not abandoned the superstitions and traditions of their homeworld. Their Wolf Priests still teach the legends of Fenris and the Legion to the new recruits : how Fenris was made from a rock thrown away by the gods at the beginning of time; how Russ bested the great wolf spirit Morkai, and bound it into his service. Most of all, though, they speak of the Wolftime : the prophecy of Russ, before leaving with the Lion to their ill-fated expedition. Many believe in the return of Russ : they think that he will return when the end of the Imperium is nigh, and the galaxy ablaze once more with the fires of heresy. These actively seek to bring down the Emperor's dominion, favoring destruction over their own plunder. Others believe their Primarch to be dead, and desire nothing more than to reap glory in battle or carve their own petty kingdoms and reign as warrior-kings.
Unlike many amongst the Traitor Legions, most Space Wolves know and admit that they are corrupted – that their actions have left an irredeemable taint upon their soul. But they blame it on the Emperor and Magnus, claiming that the Cyclops cursed the Sixth Legion with his maleficarum powers in vengeance for the razing of Prospero. To them, the Emperor deceived the Legion just as Magnus deceived Him, and forced the Nine Legions to rise against Him by His actions. They see themselves – and the other Legions, even though they certainly wouldn't accept such views – as martyrs, forced into damnation by a tyrant's ambition and their failure to prevent it completely. For the Space Wolves, they were always necessary monsters, but Mankind betrayed them and cast them out – and it must pay for that betrayal.
The Question of the Rune Priests
One of the reasons why Russ was denied at Nikaea is believed to be the presence of the so-called Rune Priests amongst his Legion. These individuals were psykers of great, if specialized talents, and the clear hypocrisy of Russ, who called the Thousand Sons witches while his own sons used the very same powers, turned many of his brothers against him. To understand such an apparent contradiction in the Wolf King's rhetoric, it is necessary to know of unholy Fenris' long-lost lore. The people of this world had arbitrarily separated the arts of warp-craft in two categories : the shamanic lore of their 'wise men', and the maleficarum, the dark arts of the daemonic. To them, the first was the calling upon Fenris' spirit to defend oneself against the creatures of the Warp, while the latter was dabbling with these same creatures, allowing them a foothold into reality and risking bringing back the horrors of the Old Night.
At Nikaea, it was of maleficarum that the Space Wolves accused the Thousand Sons. While the separation between the different schools of power is something the Imperium acknowledges to this day, the Space Wolves' ruin was that their own categorization was based not on proper observation and measure of the risks of each way of accessing the Warp's power, but on a blind opposition to anything that didn't follow the old ways of Fenris. That is why, when Russ called for Magnus to be punished, he genuinely believed that there was nothing in common between his Rune Priests and the Cyclops' sorcerers.
The loss of Fenris, however, has forced the Space Wolves' psykers to face the truth : their powers come from the Warp, not from some nonexistent blessing of their homeworld. This has driven many of them mad, deeply drinking of the Dark Gods' poisoned gifts in despair.
Combat doctrine
Ragnar Blackmane
One of the most recently risen leaders of the Sixth Legion, Ragnar is a descendant of the Fenrisians saved before the planet's destruction. Exceptionally young for his rank, his deeds have made his name a curse across more than a hundred systems. Inquisitorial observations indicate that he is a follower of the Blood God, and a champion of battle whose skill is almost unequaled amongst the Traitor Legions. He is a highly charismatic if somewhat reckless leader, and his thirst for blood borders on berzerker status, though he has so far avoided the fall into mindlessness that seems to consume most Legionaries succumbing to that particular brand of damnation.
Many warbands have already gathered under the one who is called the Young King of Fenris by his most devoted servants. Some amongst the Inquisition fear that he may unite the Sixth Legion once more, and bring it wholly under Khorne's sway. To prevent his terrifying eventuality, several assassins have been dispatched – but, like those employed by Ragnar's rivals, they have failed in their mission.
Operations led by the Space Wolves tend to fall into one of two categories. The first, and by far the most common, are the raids for plunder and slaves. Unlike other Traitor Legions, the Vlka Fenryka lack any skill at maintaining a viable infrastructure for long, and they depend on these raids for resupplying almost entirely. These raids are lightning fast, highly precise, and followed by a quick retreat once the traitors' objective has been captured or the defenders have rallied and the initial momentum lost. The second category is that of the war of conquest. Sometimes, a Wolf Lord or a Great Jarl is able to gather a great number of warriors behind him and seeks to build his own kingdom. With uncharacteristic patience, that individual will carefully tend to his alliances, sow the seeds of heresy on the worlds he wishes to conquer, and scheme to weaken military defenses.
Such preparations can last for years or even decades – the First War for Armageddon is said to have taken Logan Grimnar a century to plan. When the machinations of the war leader reach fruition, his warband and his allies will strike with all the power at their disposal, seeking to crush all opposition with overwhelming force. The Wulfen are set loose, the old, half-mad Dreadnoughts are unleashed, and the Rune Priests call forth the wraiths of the netherworld to do their bidding. Some warbands even have access to stolen xenos archeotech, taken as prize during the Errance. The effects of these devices is never the same, and using them is a huge gamble. But skilled Iron Priests have used them in the past to drown entire worlds in blood – while less skilled ones have destroyed themselves, and entire Chaos fleets, trying to master forces far beyond their control.
On the battlefield, the Space Wolves meet their enemy head-on, leading the way for the rest of their troops. Their champions seek out their opposing number amongst their foes, or, barring that, the worthiest opponents to slay. At their side run their great wolves, beasts bred from the stock taken from Fenris during the Heresy and less natural creatures, bound to the form of the beast by the Rune Priests' incantations. The sons of Russ show no mercy on the field, pursuing running foes until they or their prey collapse, all the while howling in hatred and hunger. For all their savagery, though, the Space Wolves can display surprising cunning. If the Wolf Lord can keep his troops under his control, even the most decorated Imperial tactician will be hard-pressed to match him.
Recruitment and Geneseed
Ever since the founding of the Sixth Legion, its sons have been plagued by a curse that has claimed the lives of thousands of aspirants and grown warriors alike. There is an instability in Leman Russ' gene-seed, a mutation that, in insight, was found out to be the mark of the corruption within. That instability caused great difficulties in recruitment before Russ was found, and for a time it was even considered to scrap the Sixth Legion entirely. But once the Wolf King was found, a way to bypass, if not solve the problem, was found. The potency of Leman Russ' gene-seed was such that a human body couldn't endure the changes it wrought upon the flesh, not all at once. So, the Canis Helix was designed, as a first step on the road of transformation to a Space Marine. This implant, first implanted in the flesh of the Neophytes, transform their body far more quickly than normal, and the consequences could be deadly even during the Great Crusade, before so much of the Emperor's gene-craft was lost to the ages. Now, away from the Emperor's light and deep into the corruptive touch of the Ruinous Powers, the Space Wolves are more than ever wary of the Curse of the Wulfen. Mutation is endemic amongst the sons of Russ, slowly twisting each of them into a reflection of their inner beast. Even those who resist the full transformation into Wulfen see their body mutate as they age, and only the strongest-willed can endure their ever-increasing bestial instincts.
The Wulfen
Those of the Vlka Fenryka who succumb to the beast inside them, or are consumed by the blood of Russ during their initiation, become terrible monsters known as the Wulfen. These are huge, wolf-like creatures, but without even the reason given to such animals. The Wulfen are consumed by their hunger and bloodlust, and only ever allow other sons of Russ to be near them without instantly attacking – and even then, occurrences of one turning on his brothers are hardly unknown. Despite the risk they represent, the Space Wolves refuse to kill them, and instead keep them in chains aboard their ships or let them roam freely on their daemon worlds. On the battlefield, they let them loose, allowing their fallen brethren to hunt, slay and feed.
The Space Wolves take aspirants from the tribes of feral humans living on their daemon worlds. These tribes live in a state of constant warfare against each other, and the Legion's Apothecaries, known to these degenerates as the Choosers of the Slain, take those young and strong enough. Others are taken from Imperial worlds, often on the whim of a member of the raiding warband. In both case, once compatibility has been confirmed, the aspirants are implanted with the Canis Helix. If the warband has access to a Legion planet, they are let loose in the wilderness and those who made it back receive the next step of their genetic enhancements. When this isn't possible, the potential Blood Claws are drugged and brought to the depths of the ship, where they must endure a similar trial. Despite the losses incurred in the process by the Canis Helix, the numbers of the Sixth Legion are estimated to have remained stable since the Heresy. The gene-seed of Leman Russ can take root in more human genotypes than that of many other Primarchs, even the untainted loyalist ones, perhaps because it rewrites so much of those it is implanted in.
The Wolf Brothers
There is a warband of Space Wolves that has, for ten millenia, been hunted by the Inquisition. Both the Ordo Xenos and the Ordo Hereticus have worked together to destroy it – a feat that spoke aplenty of the warband's threat – and failed. While there are fewer incidents attributed to them than to many other groups of sons of Russ, the nature of these incidents, and their terrifying implications, have led hundreds of Inquisitors to dedicate their lives to the destruction of those known as the Wolf Brothers.
The Wolf Brothers are an offshoot of the Twelfth Great Company, having left it soon after the end of the Roboutian Heresy at Terra. They were – and still are – led by a former Wolf Priest, the equivalent of an Apothecary in the other Legions. Named Thrar Hraldir, he has been a target of the Inquisition for thousands of years. Yet his genial and cunning mind has allowed him to always remain a step ahead of his would-be slayers, often manipulating them to fulfill his own ends.
When Hraldir left the rest of his Great Company, his goal was to find a way to free the Space Wolves from the Curse of the Wulfen. His exile was precipitated by the displeasure of his lord, who Vaer Greyloc, who saw such a wish as going against the Legion's spirit. Still, he allowed Hraldir to leave with those warriors who wished to follow him. For centuries, Hraldir sought to further his knowledge of Astartes genetics, even going as far as working alongside Fabius Bile at one point – though the two are now bitter enemies. But this wasn't enough, and like his Primarch before him, Hraldir sought knowledge in the darkest parts of the galaxy. He led his warband into the Halo Stars, and vanished there for centuries. He was long believed dead when he returned in M36 as the instigator of the Plague of Unbelief, and it took several decades to identify him.
The Plague of Unbelief was a major heresy that spread across several dozens worlds. Imperial authorities were either overthrown or subverted from within by cabals of xeno-worshippers, who offered their own lives to an entity they called 'the Great One', fanatically believing that it was their fate to be consumed to sate the creature's hunger. When the first reports reached the rest of the Imperium, it was believed that a new xenos threat had emerged from the depths of the galaxy. But the truth was far more ominous that even that, and the truth was revealed when the Thousand Sons faced the horror of the Wolf Brothers in the crusade to reclaim the fallen worlds.
In pursuit of his great work, the Tempering, Hraldir had unearthed artifacts from a previously unknown ancient xenos civilization. These artifacts, named the Halo Devices by the Inquisition, have granted him immortality – he was confirmed to have been killed six times, only to return each time even stronger – but they have also altered him. He no longer has anything in common with humanity, or even with his fellow traitors. Those who follow him have similarly changed, the fury of the beast within their heart expunged by Hraldir's bio-sorcery. These creatures are dispassionate, killing at the behest of their lord but taking no pleasure in the act – nor in anything else.
When the last of the afflicted worlds was finally reclaimed by the Death Guard, its entire population had to be put to the sword. The taint of Hraldir's experiments and his xenos heresy had driven billions mad, and the horrors he had committed upon them before being forced to flee were enough to shake even the composure of Mortarion's sons.
Warcry
Warcries amongst the Space Wolves vary greatly from warband to warband. A recurring theme is the calling of the name of the Wolf Lord ruling the Great Company to whom the group is beholden, but those of the Sixth Legion further on damnation's path will shout the name of their dark patrons in the hope that they take notice of their offerings. Champions of the Space Wolves also scream their own name, deeds and titles to their foes, or have heralds do it in their stead.
The warbands who have remained closest to their roots will often use 'For the Wolf King !' or 'In the name of Russ !' as warcries. Howls, whether from the Legionaries or the beasts that accompany them, are also a sign that a group of Chaos Marines has Sixth Legion sons in its ranks.
He was walking through tides of utter blackness, as he had since his arrival in this realm of shadows and monsters. His mortal senses were useless here, for this was not a plane of flesh and matter. So were his immortal perceptions blinded, for no inhabitant of this benighted hell had a soul for him to smell, or a destiny for him to read.
When they came, seeking to rend his presence to shreds and expel it from their oblivion, he fought back not with the blade in his hand, but with his very existence. He shielded himself from their claws of negation with plates of memories, and beat them back into the emptiness with clubs of raw, primal emotions. He was there. He was he. They couldn't destroy him. He would find a way out of this no-place.
There were others that followed him. The visions that had haunted his mind long before he had been cast into this place had come with him. Silent as always, the two shadows of his brothers walked behind him, watching him with accusing eyes. Even here, where his body was merely a concept with no real meaning, he could feel the pressure of that glare on his back. As familiar as it was, not a moment went by without it reminding him of what he had done in service of his father. But the pressure, and the guilt it represented, were things he was used to – things he no longer consciously considered.
His mind was so wholly focused on his goal and his survival that there was almost no place for him to think about anything else. Each idle thought took an aeon to form in his mind. Since his arrival, he had wondered how the Great War went. Surely it wasn't over : had he not foreseen, in that dreadful vision, that he would be there come the final battle ? Besides, the lights that guided his return still shone. Most of his timeless march was spent in the black, but there were periods when the blackness was pierced by flares of brightness. He knew, without knowing why or how, that these lights would guide him home, and that each one of them was a surge in the Sea of Souls, reflecting some cataclysmic event in the material realm. It was a sign that the war was still going on : who else but Guilliman had the will and the power to make the galaxy burn ?
Soon, the fires would reach beyond anything they had ever achieved before. Then he would be back, and fulfill his oath to his sons.
The Wolftime would come.