It is the 30th millennium. Five-thousand years ago, mankind fell into the darkness. The Warp Storms that arose as the first birth-pangs of the Chaos God Slaanesh broke apart interstellar travel and human galactic civilisation was torn apart. What ensued was the Age of Strife, millennia of barbarism and misery. But that dark age is ending. On Terra, the Throneworld of mankind, a mysterious, ancient scientist and psyker has declared himself Emperor of Mankind. He has united Terra and allied with the cultists of the Mechanicum of Mars, who believe him to be the Omnissiah, avatar of their Machine God. The Sol system stands together under the Emperor's sight. The Legions of the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors, are ready to carry the banners of the newborn Imperium of Man into the stars. And ahead of them, on many worlds near and far, the Primarchs—the Emperor's children, scattered by his enemies in a treacherous stroke—await.

Mankind's dominion over the galaxy is not certain. Slaanesh's birth, the opening of the Eye of Terror, has destroyed the Eldar Empire. Many species seek to fill the power vacuum left behind. Numerous xenos threats rival mankind. Greatest of all, the rising Beast-Orks of Ullanor and the abominable Rangdan Empire also desire rule over the galaxy. The Imperium of Man must defeat both of them if mankind is to survive. And beyond the veil between Materium and Immaterium, in a dominion of eldritch madness, the Ruinous Powers of the Warp plot their own schemes to throw the Emperor's dream into ruin and bring about a grim dark future where there is only war.

And yet the triumph of those terrible enemies is not inevitable. The Imperium is strong, the Emperor walks the realms of men and his servants are yet formidable. Believe in the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, but it may yet be relearned. Believe in the promise of progress and understanding, for in the shining present, the Imperial Truth offers it to all mankind.

It is the moment of crux. The fate of the galaxy will be decided: carnage and slaughter amidst the laughter of thirsting gods, the triumph of alien enemies, or the Emperor's dream of a golden future.

Welcome!

This is the story of an alternate Horus Heresy period in Warhammer 40,000, with completely new Primarchs and Legions. We've invented those Legions and we're telling the story of how they fare, as the Imperium faces down the Beast-Orks of Ullanor and the abominable Rangdan Empire. This is a collaborative story. I started the project and am sort-of running it, but I'm certainly not the only author. It is the work of many hands.

Prior to now, it has been located exclusively on a discussion website where it isn't universally accessible. Now I'm posting it here, so that you can see it too. I hope you have fun and enjoy the story!

—Perfidious Albion.

Ozymandias Solarian and the Thunder Warriors

By author Redcoat777

The First Primarch: Ozymandias Solarian

Name:
Ozymandias Solarian. Also known as the Firstborn, the Sword of the Emperor, the Lightning Bearer, Castellan of Ararat, Warden of Luna, Protector of Mars, Suzerain of Venus, Marshal of Jupiter, Praetor of Saturn, Master of Pluto, and Lord Commander Solar.

Appearance:
How does Ozymandias appear to you?

A warrior.

To look upon the visage of Ozymandias is to see a warrior. Weather-beaten skin tanned under the suns of a thousand worlds. A cragged, bald skull pockmarked with scars and burns, deep set stormy grey eyes holding a tired calculating weight within them. A cruelly carved nose, more a beak than a nose, with lips pressed close, that holds a rumbling voice, bellowing in war, murmuring in peace.

His left hand from the elbow down is bionic, a price paid from the Battle of Ararat where, bloodied and near broken, he raised the lightning banner and proclaimed the unity of Terra. His skeletal fist can still be witnessed there, in the Mausoleum of Ararat, a nigh-holy relic of the days of Unification and hallowed space into which the honoured dead of the Thunder Warriors are recorded.

He wears no robes, never, only armour, even in the comfort of his own chambers. From his earliest days, the Emperor commanded him to be armed and armoured. He obeyed that first command as he has obeyed all commands given to him. His war-gear consists of a hand-and-a-half sword forged by the hand of the Emperor himself named Lightning, a longsword that thrums with innate crackling power brought to the surface by Ozymandias's innate psychic power that glows white-hot when wielded and set with a single blood red ruby in its pommel, a single drop of the Emperor's blood ensconced within. His armour is called Aegis. It is bronzed auramite armour etched with lightning patterns, burnished and ragged with the marks of a million battles. The Firstborn has no time for finery, no courtesy for the court dresses of Terra or any other world. He is a warrior-born, a warrior-made. War is his purpose, and so does his appearance reflect this one truth.

Ozymandias is short for a Primarch, one of the shortest Primarchs, just a head and a half over the size of most Astartes. Considering the influence of the Emperor in Ozymandias's creation and raising, it is speculatively reasonable that the Emperor had a hand in deciding this feature, perhaps so as to fit in with the average heights of the Thunder Warriors whom Ozymandias fought alongside in the Unification Wars, and thus not to be marked out as a target.

Talents and Personality:
War.

There is no place where Ozymandias feels at home except there. The Emperor has raised him solely to pursue that cause single-mindedly, and thusly instructed, thusly does Ozymandias act. His quarters are a constant stream of equerries, of combat-reports, war councils, mission briefings and debriefings. Outside of battle and the command chamber, he is more often than not found duelling, constantly drilling and perfecting his skills.

And yet he is outshone by his fellow cogenitors in most areas. Ozymandias is no unmatchable warrior, no ground-breaking strategist, he simply is. The only Primarch to hand the Emperor could use in the Unification Wars, the only possibility of regaining time lost in the earlier days of the unification, Ozymandias is a jack of all trades and master of none.

Beyond war, Ozymandias is regularly called upon to practise his political skills. The many courts of Terra have called numerous times for a more delicate touch. Such interactions for Ozymandias are usually a continuation of war through less violent means, or more often than not the establishment of a post-conquest political settlement, dividing enemies amongst themselves and then setting up one as a loyal vassal. Strong enough to maintain control, but weak enough to be utterly dependent on the Imperium and unable to rebel.

For Ozymandias personally, he allows himself three pursuits which he considers, and which the Emperor allowed during his upbringing, worthy leisure activities for the martially inclined: duelling, reading and regicide. His quarters are Spartan: a single chamber in which he is attended when he requires a more withdrawn space, a single table, a folding regicide set thereon and walls lined with creaking tomes and scrolls and with flags of battle honours past hanging dustily from the rafters.

Forged in unceasing war, Ozymandias has known no other life than duty, no childhood of laughter with loving families, or stood on his own as ruler beloved as liberator. Raised to know the Emperor as the Emperor, as his sovereign and superior and never as father or friend. To have commanded the fate of billions from his birth, and outlived hundreds of comrades, enemies and more. All of this has formed Ozymandias into the personality he is today.

A weighted tiredness, a presence that has been ground down by the pressures of duty, of sacrifice and betrayal, the need to put others before himself and more. He laughs and weeps, but it is a rare occasion that he does and even then, only briefly. He has never loved as others have, never held something that was truly his own, such notions were forced out during his childhood, everything he has and is he owes to the Emperor and such a fact is simply an unchangeable facet of Ozymandias.

When with the Emperor, or siblings, Ozymandias is almost always formal. The Emperor never calls Ozymandias son, nor is he called father in return. Ozymandias allows others to call him brother, but studiously avoids such familial terminology himself. Usually he refers to them as cogenitor, or by their title, or just by name. All of this is the result of his upbringing, a need by the Emperor to have a Primarch who is totally loyal to him, and can act as his executioner if needs be.

Homeworld:
Terra. Home of mankind, of the Emperor and of Ozymandias.

What could Ozymandias tell you of Terra that is not already known? His childhood in the Imperial Palace? His lonely existence given only to constant tutoring and unceasing training? He knows Terra beyond the palace, he has stridden across it as conqueror and liberator both. An unending source of recruits, of supplies and of auxiliaries, a world that equally adores and despises Ozymandias to a level beyond all other Primarchs.

Psychic potential:
A passive psyker, Ozymandias's skills are mostly subconscious and ingrained into his being as deigned by the Emperor both during and after his spawning. All of his skills are related to combat in some shape or form, such is the vision of the Emperor for Ozymandias.

Ozymandias was created not to be a great sorcerer, but a soldier, to fill a hole in the line and stand against whatever was flung against him, to break the unbreakable and suchlike. As such, his abilities are not active, more given to resistance against the Warp than engagement with it.

As such, on close examination Ozymandias seems to gain unerring strength and speed in combat when he needs it, or can subconsciously direct a teleportation to a position of greater strength, or even predict the immediate moves of his opponents. Other times, Ozymandias can bat aside the Warp-fires of witches with his bare hands without being burned, break the spells of compulsion over an enslaved populace simply by speaking to them and subtly sense the sly hand of sorcery at work and pinpoint its centre. Were a telepath to reach out against his mind, or a telekinetic attempt to bind him in their grasp for instance, they would find the expression of grasping the rose by its thorns to be an apt metaphor—a rose with thorns that can twist on its will and shred the hand of any attacker foolish enough to assail the mind of a Primarch.

All in all, Ozymandias is a Primarch with subconscious skill in psykery, but he is no sorcerer.

Background:
"Arm and armour him. His purpose is war."—The Emperor, the Imperial Palace.

On that fateful eve, when the sky burned above the Imperial Palace and the forces of Chaos moved against the Emperor's plans, one pod failed to be gripped within their ravening grasp. For Ozymandias, the firstborn, had been awoken a week before, the first Primarch to be gestated, a decision of caution and testing by the Emperor. For as delays had befallen the Emperor's design, so had he revised his plans for his Primarchs, his creations of arcane science: one Primarch as a baseline, the least remarkable of them, with each subsequent Primarch being assigned a particular role or genetic purpose.

Nonetheless, where the Emperor had intended for many Primarchs, and now he only had one to hand. He needed to make up for lost time, and so the Emperor considered what was required. A general for his armies, a warrior to fight for him and alongside him, a hero for the people of the Imperium, and a loyal subject to obey him unquestioningly.

With these requirements in mind, thus was Ozymandias raised accordingly. His tutors were four: the Emperor, Malcador, Constantin Valdor and Arik Taranis. War and politics were the only subjects taught, anything else but feeding into those two great subjects. Those four great figures taught Ozymandias all they could, balancing the theory in the classrooms with practice on the battlefields and in the Imperial court. A year from his spawning, having matured, some rumour his growth was even accelerated by the Emperor during this time, Ozymandias was armed and armoured, given command and sent out from the Imperial Palace to finish the unification wars once and for all.

Uilleam the Red, the Ur-Queen, Dalmoth Kyn, the Ethnarch of the Caucasus Wastes and Narthan Dume were but a few of the treasured gifts that Ozymandias would soon come to lay at the feet of the Emperor. The Unification Wars have become Ozymandias's most famed conflict, and at the finale of this brutal strife, his most famed hour took place, the Battle of Mount Ararat. With the horrors of the Golden Age of Technology threatening to strangle the Imperium in its crib, the task of leading the vanguard against those horrors fell to Ozymandias, who, with the Lightning Banner in one hand and sword in the other, stormed the postern gate.

And at the climax of the slaughter, bloodied, bruised and behanded, so did Ozymandias raise the Lightning Banner, gaining the epithet of Lightning Bearer. To this day the Lightning Banner remains on Terra, at the summit of Mount Ararat in the Mausoleum of Unity. A shrine to those fallen in the Unification Wars, a museum of the Terra that was, and a shining beacon marking of the beginning of the Imperium. It was following this that the I Legion was formally named, proclaimed as the Thunder Warriors by the Emperor himself, to honour their fallen allies who died so that the Imperium might be born and in doing so, give way to the Great Crusade.

Ozymandias would fight beside the Emperor to secure Luna, and witness the signing of the Martian Compact. Following the signature of the compact however, the Emperor ensconced himself on secretive business upon and between Mars and the Imperial Palace. And as such by unspoken decree of the Emperor, it fell to Ozymandias to take direct military command alongside Malcador acting as the diplomatic pen to Ozymandias's sword. The Thunder Warriors led the charge, able to more easily replenish their losses owing to the presence of Ozymandias and the stability of their gene-seed.

The first true world of Sol to fall was Venus and its War-Witches. Ozymandias bombarded the cities of the "Pearl of Sol" with a ruthless determination when they refused to surrender at his approach. And when they refused to surrender once more, Ozymandias ordered a landing, a massacre ensuing, the Thunder Warriors unleashed in all their horrifying power. Having witnessed this from afar, when Ozymandias offered lenient terms of Surrender, Mercury chose to accept, the majority purging dissenting opinions of the Mercurian Synod in a further display of loyalty, all the better to avoid being annihilated. And thus, with the inner planets of Sol secured, did Ozymandias move against the King of the Solar Worlds.

Jupiter, oppressed under the despotic rule of scurrilous xenos, was the first test of the Imperium as Liberator rather than Conqueror. Here Ozymandias was careful, working to ensure rebellion amongst the enslaved human populace against the xenos, and at the end of a delicate campaign, was greeted as Liberator and acclaimed by the Jovian populace as such to the present day. Saturn, by strenuous work on the part of Malcador, welcomed the arrival of the Imperium and joined by a treaty personally signed by the Emperor on one of his few emergences from the depths of Mars and the Imperial Palace in this early time.

Uranus and Neptune were next, the former choosing to attempt to audaciously blackmail the Imperium into surrender terms owing to its ownership of the Elysian Gate. The First Primarch would personally lead the strike mission that teleported directly into the Uranian Conclave and slaughtered the leaders of that world for the temerity of their megalomaniacal presumptions. For Neptune, a world afflicted by mutants, the task was simpler and a direct military campaign and purgation was declared against the world outright.

Lastly, but not least, came Pluto and its Khthonic Gate which fell by diplomacy, its inhabitants eager to join the Imperium and thusly be protected from the depravations of void-faring pirates that constantly harassed it.

With Sol secured, the Thunder Warriors were aggressively expanded as the Warp Storms grew calmer and calmer. By the time the storms had sufficiently calmed, the Thunder Warriors outnumbered the other Legions in weight of numbers alone by nearly five to one. And thus, when the Great Crusade proper began, the Thunder Warriors once again would lead the charge.

Those times were heady days for Ozymandias, and in his slumber often he revisits these campaigns in his dreams when melancholic for remembrance of an earlier, simpler and better time. The charge forth from the Throneworld, into Sol, into the wider galaxy, thousands of battles, millions of worlds. The Thunder Warriors were at the forefront of it, their numbers and early prominence making them perhaps the most famed of the Legions then, synonymous even with the Imperium's view of what an Astartes was. A warrior clad in bronze and red, soldiers without compare, angels to their allies and demons to their enemies. Even as the other Legions grew, even as other Primarchs were found, Ozymandias and the Thunder Warriors waged war on a scale unlike any other Legion. The Marshals of the I Legion were akin to the Legion Masters, commanding Legion-sized formations by themselves.

The other Legions even found themselves commanded directly by Ozymandias in some campaigns as an auxiliary component of the main effort led by the I Legion. This would be a point of contention later between Ozymandias and a number of the more independently minded Primarchs. Some simply for the example and attitudes that Ozymandias and the Thunder Warriors instilled in and expected of the other Legions, of slavish devotion to the Imperial creed, to the annihilation of the witch, mutant and xenos without quarter. Others for the way in which Ozymandias had commanded their Legion, as an accessory to his own Legion or directing their Legion in a method of warfare they viewed as brutally obtuse. Others yet, simply by the fact that Ozymandias had commanded what they viewed as their own personal fiefdoms at all.

Regardless of these later familial disagreements, it could not last. The other Legions swelled in size, and though the largest, the Thunder Warriors were now outnumbered. The First Primarch was now but one among many. But still, Ozymandias was honoured as Lord Commander Solar for his achievements, and a greater honour still seemed imminent as the Great Crusade seemed on the cusp of its apex, of a time when the personal attention of the Emperor would no longer be required for its progress.

[LINE BREAK]

The I Legion: the Thunder Warriors

Name:
The Thunder Warriors.

Insignia and Appearance:
A bronze Raptor Imperialis on a background of crimson.

The Thunder Warriors' colouration has remained unchanged since their founding, bronzed armour with scarlet plumes in homage to the original Thunder Warriors they were formed from, trained alongside, fought with and succeeded, along with crimson cloaks when on formal parade duties. An unadorned Thunder Warrior devoid of plume and cloak is either an Initiate yet to be "Mantled" or a Thunder Warrior who has been stripped of his mantle as punishment.

It is a peculiar habit of the Thunder Warriors officers to adorn their helmets with "Masques", ornate hand-crafted facial representations that each have a hidden meaning to them. Other officers simply choose to wear a helmet crest rather than the simple plume of the rank and file Space Marine. Other officers will choose both. Marshals are gifted a baton by the Primarch and the crimson fur cloak of a Martian Jaguar.

For standard bearers, these figures are typically adorned in the furs and hides of a creature according to their status:

The Aquilifer—Achaemenian Lion Furs. Bearer of the Imperial Aquila. A member of the Aurelia, the Aquilifer is selected upon either the death or abdication of the last Aquilifer through a series of Twelve Heraklian Labours to prove their worthiness of the honour of bearing the First Aquila, the standard of the Legion personally handed to the Thunder Warriors by the Emperor himself after Ararat.

Evocati—Calthian Sand Fox Furs. Standard bears for the Legion Marshals and their respective march. The Evocati are among the finest warriors of the Thunder Warriors, matched only in martial skill by the Aurelia.

Vexillari—Cthellean Cudbear furs. Brigade level standard bearers.

Draconari—Nocturnean Firedrake Scales. Chapter level standard bearers.

Lupercarli—Fenrisian Thunderwolf Furs. Company level standard bearers.

Outside of combat—if not in Power Armour, which is the default uniform for all Thunder Warriors—all Astartes of the I Legion wear scarlet arming suits bearing rank insignia in pips upon their collars, along with a pouched belt and arming boots. It is Ozymandias's directive that all Astartes wear this and bear a melee weapon, typically a gladius, by their sides at all times outside of Power Armour in the event of sudden combat operations, so that the Legion is always semi-ready for battle.

Gene-seed Status:
Overwhelmingly stable and pure of any flaws. As the first Space Marine Legion, the Thunder Warriors form the baseline from which all the other Legions were measured against in terms of gene-seed stability. However, as the first Legion, whilst stable and pure, the gene-seed of the Thunder Warriors is noted to lack some of the more refined intricacies of other Legions. Biologis and Apothecaries across the Legions feel this affirms the role of their own Legions as evolutions on the Thunder Warriors' designs, whilst conversely, the I Legion feel this affirms their own status as semi-progenitors and primus inter pares amongst the other Legions.

Legionary Assets:
The Thunder Warrior have no strongholds, but they do source high levels of recruits and auxiliaries from the Sol system. A few other worlds have been associated with the Legion, Phaeton, Cthonia and Necromunda to name a few, though all associated worlds listed and unlisted are located within the Orion Spur—the streak of stars that is home to a yellow star named Sol. Indeed, in order to ease recruiting logistics, Ozymandias has decreed that all Thunder Warriors shall be sourced primarily from the Orion Spur. That edict has won him great popularity within the core regions of the Imperium who perceive it, half-rightly, as favouritism on Ozymandias's part for the region.

The Thunder Warrior fleet is led by its flagship, a Gloriana-class battleship named the Scion of Sol.

The size of the I Legion is as follows:

Unification Wars—50,000

Solar War—250,000

The high Great Crusade—300,000

Legion Organisation:
—A squad is of 10 Space Marines, led by a Brother-Sergeant.

—A company is of 100 Space Marines, led by a Brother-Captain.

—A chapter is of 1,000 Space Marines, led by a Brother-Commander.

—A brigade is of 5,000 Space Marines, led by a Brother-Brigadier.

—A march is of 50,000 Space Marines, led by a Brother-Marshal. This is the largest subdivision, under the full Legion.

This set of ranks was widely used in nearly all the Legiones Astartes before their Primarchs were rediscovered. It—and more generally the Thunder Warriors' style of Astartes warfare—became known as the Principia Belicosa: the template set out by the Emperor's I Legion for how Space Marines wage war.

Special units:

The Aurelia—The Aurelia is the personal bodyguard unit of the Primarch. All of the Aurelia bear Iron Halos and Imperial Laurels, the qualification for ascension to the Aurelia being this qualification, along with the achievement of a minimum of thirteen virtuics. The Aurelia is mostly Astartes, but was originally composed solely of the surviving cohort of true Thunder Warriors left over from the Unification wars. Their names are, and remain, legend to the rest of the Imperium. However over the course of the Great Crusade, these few old soldiers have passed on mostly, with the few remaining true Thunder Warriors now typically dispatched across the Great Crusade commanding sizeable units on personal missions for the Lord Solar, or else working as Preceptors and Envoys for the First Primarch, their legendary status serving only to enhance the I Legion's gains during delicate negotiations.

Expertise and Combat Doctrine:
The Thunder Warriors are the shock troops of the Imperium, formed to break through the walls surrounding mankind at all costs, thundering across the Great Crusade as an unstoppable storm, sweeping away any and all foes with lightning speed and howling strength.

Pushed to the fore during the Unification Wars, the I Legion was trained by, fought alongside and eventually replaced the Thunder Warriors, and later led the conquest of the Sol system. It was during this formative period, the Emperor himself would sum up the combat doctrine he expected the Thunder Warriors to practice in a single word.

"Blitzkrieg."

The application of overwhelming force at the enemy's weakest point. To keep the enemy off balance and destroy them utterly. To incapacitate the enemy's psychological state through shock-and-awe, to dictate the fight on terms wholly favourable to the Thunder Warriors. On a strategic level, this typically means breaking through an enemy's weakest point, encircling them and defeating their military elements in-depth with a battle of annihilation.

On a tactical level, this is applied through surprise attacks coupled with combined arms, overwhelming air superiority with close air support, mechanised and armoured elements for speed and firepower, with the Thunder Warriors themselves closing in as fast as possible to negate any enemy firepower through vicious close quarters combat. The Primarch Ozymandias has summed up this tactical doctrine as "Closing the gap and tearing out the enemy's jugular before they realise what has occurred."

All of this means a highly aggressive mentality, focused on seizing the initiative and ensuring that the Legion takes the offensive. It is a mentality devoted to the ideals of the Great Crusade, of constant movement forwards, and little thought given to holding the line beyond as distraction or as part of a counteroffensive action.

Legion Weaknesses:
"Once more unto the breach! Or else close it with firstborn dead!"—Brigadier Odoacer Venn, Siege of Chelsea 342.

Dogmatic. Unimaginative. Inflexible. Stubborn. Bloody-minded.

To be a Thunder Warrior is to hold to the Lex Imperialis and the Codex de Fulminata with every fibre of their being. To wage war as a Thunder Warrior can be attritional and grindingly slow, or lightning war, but it could never be described as unconventional. The Thunder Warriors have always waged war conventionally, often with frontal assaults, typically seeking to strike where the enemy is weakest, and if not, to strike with belief in their strength of arms to carry the day.

The Legion has never practiced truly radical war, never sought to decentralise, it has always remained much the same as it has ever been. They are the old guard of the Imperium, doctrinal to a fault, and whilst encouraged to improvise with mission type tactics and theoretical exercises, the Legion seemingly cannot translate this into true creativity. And when faced with loss, they would prefer glorious death than the shame of retreat, to take as many of the enemy with them as they can certainly, but never to cut their losses and run.

"There is only war. There has only ever been war."—Ozymandias to his brethren about the future of the Imperium, War Council Meeting #67593.

Outside of battle, the Thunder Warriors have no purpose beyond preparing for the next conflict. Even when deployed to rebuild infrastructure for disaster relief, their attitude to planning and enacting a response to such events is more akin to a war than aid.

As a result the Legion is often deficient in certain realms which, whilst perhaps not necessary for an Astartes, leave them hollow souls when interacting with others on matters beyond war. They have no appreciation of fine arts, diplomacy they leave to iterators and liable to misinterpreting nuanced debates. A candlelit protest which might be dispersed with carefully placed voices amongst a crowd and by a calm Iterator's voice, often devolves into a police action with a Thunder Warrior. A Thunder Warrior is trained to fight and die, not to rule, to paint or to debate. As such, whilst not incapable of learning such things as all transhuman minds are, a Thunder Warrior is a martial mind above all else, for better and for worse.

"Alas that we are what we are. Trained for all battles, masters of none."—Unknown Thunder Warrior, the Colchisian Excoriation.

For all their training, for all their storied history, the Thunder Warriors find themselves the rank and file among the Legiones Astartes. They are superlative soldiers, first among the Legions and perhaps all of their faults can be tied to this fact. First. First to be made, steady and strong, without experimentation, without deviance in form and spirit true, but also without ingrained talent. They are the I Legion, raised to see if it could be done, and once proven so, sent out as they were onto the battlefields of the Unification Wars.

Beliefs and Practices:
The beliefs and practices of the Thunder Warriors can be exemplified in a single tome.

De Codex Fulminata.

The codex is series of writings an exhortation of an ideal martial society that the Thunder Warriors are meant to abide by in all matters. Never be unarmed or unarmoured, obey authority without question, it speaks of the innate superiority of the warrior over all other castes. The codex writes of "Martial Virtues" from warrior societies of Old Terra. It explains the need for a military society, and how such a society should compose itself, of military punishments and more.

Little thought—it is believed and practised among the I Legion—should be given to any practices outside of war. Astartes are not rulers, nor artists, they are solely warriors. Each waking second outside of combat should be given to a constant striding to perfect one's combat abilities. Wargaming, duelling, military-focused lectures and more, to be among the I is to see a society devoted fully to the practice of war.

Three practices are allowed that are not entirely devoted towards war.

The first is, as mentioned before, the practice of creating "Masques", in which an officer may if they so choose, forge a face-plate for their armour. These creations are the most visible form of artistic expression to outsiders.

The second is that of the Funerary Catechism. Following a battle, a fallen battle-brother's remains are gathered, the gene-seed is salvaged, the skin stripped, the bones set aside and the rest is burned at the Remembrance Service. From the skin and bones, a battle-brother will use these remains to compose a record of the fallen brother's service in the form of scrolls, only honourable deeds are recorded. Once finished, the remaining skin and bones are weighed against the scrolls. The lighter the leftover remains, the greater the battle-brother, and accordingly a more reverential place is given to the record in the Thunder Warriors' mausoleum on Terra.

The third derives from the oath of moment, and are termed Virtuics. Usually taken immediately prior to the beginning of a battle, is the oath of the moment, the declaration by a Space Marine to uphold some specific virtue in the coming fight, written and affixed by parchment and wax to the armour. Following the battle, the oath holder will approach the witness, and submit themselves for judgement on whether they have kept the oath. If they have, the oath-keeper is then allowed to inscribe the pattern signifying the virtue upheld onto their armour.

Unsuccessful oath-takers are encouraged to call for a trial of the moment based on the virtue sworn, and if passed, acclaimed and allowed to inscribe the virtue-pattern on their armour. Failure to pass the trial of moment is viewed as an honourable attempt, and the oath-taker is encouraged instead to re-take the oath at the next available opportunity. With three-hundred virtues to be oathed, each with seven grades to them, the process of a full achievement is viewed as a titanic effort, with any Thunder Warrior realising such a task being granted a Legionary triumph and a number of other honours, and the venerable title of Oathkeeper. Only three Astartes of the I Legion have ever managed this.

Recruitment and Discipline:
The Thunder Warriors operate a mixed strategy as regards recruitment. The bulk of recruits are typically voluntary, a recruitment drive on most worlds usually in the form of a mass propaganda campaign. In these campaigns, entire star systems and their denizens are encouraged to put their youth forwards for testing and recruitment at the nearest Preceptory (the term for the recruitment bases of the I Legion).

Whether through offer of a reward for a successful recruit in overcrowded slum areas, or for the glory of the Imperium, these drives are usually successful in meeting recruitment quotas. In the Sol system, it is noted that owing to the level of popular approval the Thunder Warriors hold therein, that roughly 98% of all recruits from the Sol system are voluntary for no cash reward.

Other methods include the conscription of suitable orphans across entire sectors and the seizure and brainwashing of the youth elements of defeated human societies.

Having secured recruits, the training process has been refined and standardised to weed out the weak from the strong, with unsuccessful recruits being side-lined into the Legion's auxilia, whether crewing armoured vehicles or in the fleet. Successful recruits of the trials then become known as Initiates and undergo further training, receiving their augmentations and reaching the rank of Battle-Brother upon completion of the training programme.

For disciplinary matters, minor infractions are marked with public censure, miscreants are brought forwards at parade and forced to declare their failings, and be condemned vocally, by their fellows. Further transgressions can result in flogging, with the worst transgressions resulting in summary execution. For unit discipline, this is scaled up, with Legion-wide bulletins marking out individual units for censure, mass floggings and if a unit is particularly troubled, the unit is offered the choice of either enacting decimation against itself or being a forlorn hope. No unit has ever chosen decimation.

In any and all instances for singular issues, the accused may call for a redemptive challenge, the more serious the accusation, the greater the challenge. Units may expunge past transgressions by requesting redemption missions.

For matters of great disgrace, such as failure to succeed in a redemptive challenge, ritual suicide is encouraged, typically along the lines of Bushido, with a Space Marine kneeling, disembowelling himself with a gladius, declaring himself worthy, and subsequently being beheaded by an honourable witness. In this way, the Legion views itself as having purged itself of the weak, by having the weak prove themselves strong in death where they were weak in life.

In private matters, honour duels are encouraged to settle matters, specifically a form of duel known as Mensur. Participants call for their seconds and an arbitrator to arrange a duel, the duellists are given swords and protective goggles, locked in place, made to salute, and duel until first blood from the face is drawn. Scars earned are viewed as badges of honour for the defeated, having had the courage and gallantry to accept and lose a duel in good faith.

Characters of Interest:
First Marshal Iskander Sturnn—Unification Wars veteran.

Second Marshal Herodotus Maximillian—Solar War veteran.

Third Marshal Clovian Thatchersson—Solar War veteran.

Fourth Marshal Marcus Arzsimul—Early Great Crusade veteran, Plutonian.

Sergeant Vandalus Herythin—Unification Wars veteran, Aquilifer.

Battle-cry:
"Fulminata!"

The most common war cry, "Fulminata!" was a cry gifted to the Legion by the Emperor, a recall to a legion of old Terra. For the I Legion, it means to strike like the storm.

"We March!"

A cry heard when new orders are given to prepare for a battle in a new location.

Legionary History:
The history of the I Legion and their Primarch are entwined, a means to an end from the outset. With the other Legions bereft of their progenitors, short on gene-seed stock, they had to be conserved and readied for the Great Crusade. But for the I, they had their Primarch, they were stable in gene-seed and thus, they became the Emperor's tool by which he would finish the unification of Terra. From an initial crop of a thousand, the I Legion swelled to thirty-thousand Space Marines within a year of their founding, being deployed alongside the Thunder Warriors in the final bloody battles of the Unification Wars.

It was following the battle of Mount Ararat, with the I Legion having grown to over a hundred thousand Space Marines that they were finally granted their name. The Thunder Warriors, an honour intended to show an unbroken chain from the first warriors of the Imperium to its newest. With the old remaining Thunder Warriors folded into the I Legion, to inspire and lead their younger brethren. Though few would survive the Solar War and the many battles of the Great Crusade.

The Thunder Warriors were quickly deployed en masse, recruitment processes were streamlined as the Emperor sought to ensure the Sol system was secured ready in time to launch the Great Crusade within his original timeframe. The delays early in the days of the unification were being erased through heavy application of the I Legion and their Primarch. And it showed, the I Legion adopted a hyper-aggressive mentality, erupting out of the Sol system with two-hundred-thousand Space Marines, split into four fronts with the other Legions securing their flanks.

The number of conquests attributed to the I Legion in those days dwarfed those of any other Legion. The sheer size of the Legion in contrast to its siblings meant that the I Legion took the leading role in securing the Orion Spur. And as the Great Crusade expanded, in order to keep up the momentum and replace losses in a Legion that had a notably high rate of turnover in contrast to the other Legions, the I Legion established Preceptories across the newly compliant worlds they had taken the leading role in liberating across the Orion Spur, easing recruiting burdens on Terra who could now ensure more recruits for the other Legions, whilst securing a larger recruitment base for their own Legion and shortening supply lines, reinforcements could now be marshalled on preceptories closer to the frontlines, rather than being funnelled back to Terra and then to the frontlines.

The Thunder Warriors consider these years their golden age, when the Legion stood tall over the other Legions. A force favoured by the Emperor, led by the sole Primarch and the largest by far, taking up the bulk of Astartes focused crusade actions. This state of affairs would not last, the rapid progress of the Great Crusade has brought the other Primarchs back into the fold, and as they return, the Thunder Warriors note the distance between their Primarch and the Emperor. The relationship they hold is not as close as the Emperor has with a number of the other Primarchs.

Still, such things do not matter, they muse. The glorious victories they have achieved and are achieving outweigh any other Legion by far. Thus contented, the Thunder Warriors continue their marches, growing their ranks, adding glory after glory to the name of their Legion. Even when the Emperor began to call Ozymandias aside less and less, favouring others over their own Primarch, the Thunder Warriors remind themselves that they have built the foundations of the Imperium more than any other Legion, that their Primarch has fought for the Emperor and the Imperium before any other and is leading them still.