Magnar Tiber and the Helestine Guard
By author Poach
The Twenty-Sixth Primarch: Magnar Tiber
Name:
Magnar Tiber.
Appearance:
Magnar is the archetype of handsome, being tall and broad-shouldered, sporting chiselled features and an easy smile, with dirty blonde hair and purple eyes.
Talents and Personality:
Magnar is a natural leader and organiser, at ease in command and naturally talented at getting the best out of those he commands. His strengths lie in logistics and economics, making him a highly capable administrator and general. As with all Primarchs he is naturally gifted in all things martial, being adept at strategising and in all manner of waging war. People find themselves drawn to him by his natural charisma, and those that serve him find themselves pushed to develop themselves and excel in their roles. Magnar is ambitious, with grand designs and visions.
Homeworld:
Helestine, a verdant garden world and former centre of the Helestine Imperium.
Psychic potential:
Magnar is a moderately capable psyker. While far outshone by those Primarchs whose primary abilities lie within the psychic arts, Magnar is nonetheless capable of a small degree of psykery, being able to sense emotions and intent from those around him, and possessing some degree of psychically enhanced reflexes and judgement.
Background:
Early Years
Magnar's lifepod was thrust from the Warp into the orbit of Helestine, a well-developed garden world belonging to a network of a few hundred worlds that had retained contact after mankind's fall. Life on the world was fairly pleasant: the atmosphere was not poisoned, the people were not starving, technology had been preserved to the extent that society was industrialised and space-faring, and the world was united under a single government, meaning warfare was limited to resistance movements or terrorist organisations rather than large-scale conventional warfare.
Magnar was raised by a family of moderate wealth and standing, his adoptive parents holding senior roles in the planetary government's administration. This afforded him a good upbringing: elite schools were within his family's budget, access to renowned scholars in education and professional circles was possible through his parents' social connections, and doors were opened into higher politics by the combination of these things. As a Primarch, Magnar was a natural genius and quickly outstripped any ordinary human in whatever he endeavoured to do, and was thus able to rapidly rise through the ranks of society until he became one of the foremost politicians on Helestine, holding enormous influence over policy.
WAAAAGH! Brakrall
Magnar's rise as emperor started when an Orkish WAAAAGH!—minor by the accounting of later Imperium records but colossal by the experiences of Helestine at the time—entered the realm of known worlds around Helestine. A Grand Coalition of these worlds, hundreds strong, banded together to fight the Orks. Magnar was quickly appointed Grand Commander due to his genius and insights, and fought a decade-long war of attrition against the WAAAAGH!. During this war Magnar pioneered what would become the core of the Helestine Imperium's military might: mechanised war-suits with inbuilt AI that turned a baseline human into a force to be reckoned with, AI-enhanced targeting and reflexes, mechanically-augmented strength, and environmental protection made the "Augmented Corps" the tip of the war effort's spear.
As the frontlines waxed and waned, what started as a coalition of independent worlds slowly became subsumed into a single polity, with Magnar taking every opportunity to extend his influence and control. This was done with deliberate emphasis on peaceful expansion and friendship: few on the worlds that ended up ruled from Helestine regarded it as conquest, as Magnar maximised every crisis to frame himself as the hero.
By the time WAAAAGH! Brakrall was broken for good upon the ruined world of Sommar, when Magnar himself lead the Augmented Corps in a daring orbital decapitation strike against Warboss Brakrall, all the worlds of the coalition were united under the Helestine Imperium, with Magnar having successfully turned emergency wartime powers into a benevolent dictatorship.
The (Helestine) Imperium of Man
The peoples of the Helestine Imperium knew now that space was a dangerous place, populated by ravenous monsters. Magnar knew it was a matter of time before something larger than Brakrall's WAAAAGH! fell upon his worlds, and resolved to undertake the greatest challenge known to any man: to build a galactic empire of mankind, strong enough to turn back any and all threats.
That the galaxy was full of humans was well-known on Helestine, as fragmentary records still existed from before the collapse, including some pointing to Terra as the homeworld, though the location of Terra was long ago lost to the records of Helestine. The few hundred worlds of known space were simply those that could be easily reached and had standing relations with Helestine: the borderlands of Magnar's new Imperium knew of more planets further afield, who in turn would know of more, and so on. These must all be united under a single rule, so that by their combined might no WAAAAGH!, or any other horror from the stars, could imperil them.
Thus began the Noble Crusade, a great fanning out from Helestine, spearheaded by the soldiers of the Augmented Corps, to unite the disparate worlds of mankind. Worlds were added peacefully, conquered by force, or rescued from oppression by the hundreds, then by the thousands, as more and more fleets were added to the growing Crusade in a self-sustaining loop: more worlds, more resources, more fleets, repeat.
The War of the Two Imperiums
On the world of Laran, mid-way down the southern Perseus Arm, the Helestine Imperium and the Terran Imperium first met, in the year 846.M30. Laran itself was an otherwise unremarkable world: mountainous, dominated by a few large city-states that occasionally warred with each other, possessing of limited spacefaring technologies. Both human Imperiums would have had little trouble integrating it, but as fate would have it, Exploratory Fleet 7732 of the Helestine Imperium arrived in-system just as Expeditionary Fleet 9924 of the Terran Imperium was decelerating towards Laran itself. Both fleets were evenly matched, in terms of starship strength, technology, and capability. Both commanders contacted the other, introduced themselves as belonging to the Imperium of Man, and started confused negotiations. When each learnt that the Throneworld the other belonged to differed from their own, things got tense, and a stand-off ensued. History does not record who started hostilities or why, but the two fleets came to blows, likely over control of Laran. Neither gained the upper hand and both withdrew to the outer edge of the system, summoning reinforcements and sending urgent intelligence updates to their respective higher commands.
Both sides sent additional forces to the system, and soon a major campaign was underway by both sides as they fought for control over the system, which formed a nexus of sorts in the Warp, controlling multiple major stable Warp routes. As such it was an important strategic position, control of which would enable the victor to launch campaigns deeper into enemy space with ease.
The war did not, however, remain limited to the Laran system. It soon grew, as the two Imperiums met each other across much of the galactic southwest. Soon dozens, then hundreds, of inhabited star-systems were active warzones, and the Helestine Imperium as a whole mobilised for a major conventional war. The deployment of the Augmented Corps in force created initial advances, but this only resulted in the deployment of the Legiones Astartes.
In a match-up between the Astartes and the Augmented, an Astartes was pound-for-pound a far superior fighter: faster, stronger, better endurance, harder to kill. The single weakness in this match-up was numbers. An Astartes is hard to make; an Augmented is a baseline human in a mech-suit. It was never one on one, it was always dozens of Augmented against every Astartes, making the fight somewhat more even. Both sides were entirely capable of scoring tactical and operational victories against the other, and in the early years of the war the Helestine Imperium, fully mobilised, held the upper hand, and pushed the Terran Imperium back.
This would not stand, and what had originally been viewed as a difficult Compliance on Terra was soon recognised as a serious war. Two Legions, the XVIII and XIX, were ordered to combine their full might under the Primarch Nyx, and to bring a swift end to the war. This turned the tide in Terra's favour, though not decisively: Helestine's advances were first blunted, then halted, then grindingly reversed, as ever more Astartes were met with ever more Augmented, turning the war into a grinding attritional advance. The Helestine Imperium could not stop the Legiones Astartes from advancing, but it could make those advances a bloody affair.
The Emperor himself became interested in the war after the disastrous counter-offensive to retake Laran. Laran fell to the Legiones Astartes, but in a strategic master-stroke the Helestine Imperium leveraged their advantage in numbers to launch several counter-offensives of their own elsewhere on the front, reclaiming large tracts of space from the Imperial Army, trusted to hold newly won gains while the Astartes were used as a hammer to propel offensives onwards. Though precious few Primarchs remained to be discovered, this Helestine Imperium now looked to hold all the hallmarks of a Primarch's work: many planets under stable rule, an exceptionally efficient war effort, and clear evidence of peerless strategic insight. The Emperor took to the field personally.
The Battle of Two Emperors
Just in time for what would be the decisive battle of the war: the Battle of Two Emperors. For Magnar had also taken to the field personally, leading the single greatest assemblage of naval might in Helestine history. He planned to strike Laran while the iron was hot, before Imperial forces could regroup and resupply, to either retake the system or throw their offensive into such chaos that it would progress no further, buying time for star-systems behind Laran to prepare their defences.
The two fleets met over Laran in 862.M30. On the Terran side, the Emperor himself, the Primarch Nyx, the bulk of two Legiones Astartes, and countless Imperial Army vessels and troops. On the Helestine side, Emperor Magnar, millions of Augmented Corps troops, and countless Helestine Imperial Army vessels and troops. It was cataclysmic in proportions, becoming by far the largest set-piece battle of the Great Crusade prior to the Rangdan War.
Commanded by the Emperor himself, the result was never truly in question. Though the Helestine forces scored several victories both on Laran and in the wider system, the strategic picture steadily tilted in the Terran Imperium's favour. After weeks of gruelling warfare, the Emperor played his trump card. At the head of his Custodes, he led a teleport assault onto Magnar's flagship, tearing apart all resistance and confronting his wayward son in person.
It is not the custom to record, for public access, the initial contacts between the Emperor and his children, but it is known that it resulted in combat in this instance. The Duel of Two Emperors was short, for the Emperor is peerless even amongst the peerless, and Magnar was taken in chains back to Terra. His Imperium, bereft of the unifying figure and genius commander that was Magnar, quickly suffered irreversible strategic defeats at the hand of Nyx, and Compliance was enacted. The Helestine Imperium was broken up into Imperial sectors, as thousands of worlds could not be kept under a single administration inside the Terran Imperium. The Mechanicum, reviewing the technologies of the defeated Helestine Imperium, deemed much of the AI-reliant technology to be forbidden, resulting in much upheaval, as many parts of the Helestine Imperium's economy were reliant on now-outlawed technologies. The War of the Two Imperiums is known in the Imperium today as the Helestine War, as Imperial propagandists made sure to emphasise. Even the fact that Magnar Tiber used the same title as the Emperor has been forgotten outside the Helestine worlds and is never, ever mentioned in Imperial news and information sources. The concept of there being more than one Imperium of Man was efficiently, systematically erased from history.
Nyx thus left the war with two major accolades: the first Primarch to hold command over more than one Legion, and the glory of enacting the single largest Compliance in Imperial history. It was not without cost, but such glory never is.
The Shackled Son
Magnar was held on Terra for a full decade after his capture. His Legion had been alerted, and eagerly awaited their Father, but his arrival was slow in coming. It is said the Emperor spent a great deal of time with his wayward son, as they at first argued bitterly, then debated broader philosophy, then, slowly, turned to civil discussion on mankind's future. The two did, after all, share the same (if mutually exclusive) goal: the human species united under their personal rule. But there could be only one emperor of mankind.
Slowly was Magnar worn down, slowly did he come to understand that while he was indeed peerless within Helestine, he was one of twenty-six and the Emperor himself was the truly peerless one. With every months-long argument lost, with every year-long debate on philosophy decided in the Emperor's favour, with the passing of time and the slow, but painful, realisation that the Emperor was the superior man, did Magnar come to see he was, indeed, outdone.
The Magnar that was released to his Legion in 872.M30 was outwardly loyal to his father. He would in public commend his father's works, recognise his greatness, and fight in his Great Crusade. In private, however, doubts yet lingered: Magnar met his brothers and sisters and was disgusted by the barbarism of many, yet his father tolerated this; Magnar met the Mechanicum, and held them to be superstitious and ignorant; Magnar saw many Imperial worlds left to mismanagement and tyranny as the price of an easy Compliance, and saw only future ruin.
His father may have bested him on the field of battle, but he was not fit to rule. Things must change, or there must be an emperor willing to make those things change. Magnar never truly relinquished his desire to rule mankind, and as decades and centuries passed from his imprisonment on Terra, his resentment—resentment he did not wish to think of and held deep in the back of his mind—grew like a cancer.
The XXVI Legion: the Helestine Guard
Name:
The Helestine Guard, named in honour of the Primarch's homeworld.
Insignia and Appearance:
The Helestine Guard appear in navy blue armour, with white pauldron trims, knee-guards, and belts. Helms possess a coloured stripe according to rank. The Legion's insignia is a sword within a wreath, all in gold, representing both their martial prowess and their bringing of culture.
Gene-seed Status:
Largely stable. The most common mutation is of the Biscopia, resulting in excessive muscle growth, to the point that some Astartes cannot fit into standard Power Armour. These men are instead emplaced into Juggernaut Warsuits, an innovation unique to the XXVI Legion.
Legionary Assets:
The Gloriana-class battleship Ambition serves as the Legion's flagship, a mighty vessel kitted out for void combat, creating a warship unmatched except by those few other Gloriana-class vessels also customised as pure battleships.
The Legion stands at 270,000 Astartes, thanks to the stability of the gene-seed.
The Legion is unique in utilising the Juggernaut Warsuit, a much-enlarged version of Terminator armour, crafted by the Legion's artificers to suit those afflicted with over-active Biscopia organs. A walking tank, these suits carry an array of heavy weaponry and are used in an infantry-support role, capable of bringing devastating levels of firepower into an infantry engagement. Siege Suits are a sub-class, carrying massive slabs of solid adamantite (a ceramite form rich in the superheavy element adamantium), used to advance against defended positions or in ship boarding actions.
The Legion recruits primarily from the Helestine Sector, the rump state of the former Helestine Imperium, comprising a few dozen of the former imperial core worlds, centred on Helestine as an administrative centre. The Legion's main base is on the world, where it conducts the initiation and training of new Astartes and the administration of the Legion as a whole.
Legion Organisation:
—A squad is of 10 Space Marines, led by a sergeant. A squad is subdivided into two groups of five, one controlled by the First Sergeant (red striped helm) and the other by a Second Sergeant (orange-striped helm). Squads come in many forms: Line Squads conduct infantry work, Armoured Squads usually consist of between 3 and 5 tanks (depending on crew numbers), Assault Squads deploy with jump packs, Juggernaut Squads deploy in Juggernaut Warsuits, Terminator Squads deploy in Terminator armour, and so on.
—A company is of 100 Space Marines, led by a captain (white-striped helm). Companies can vary wildly in composition, with squads assigned in depending on the company's mission. The default company consists of eight Line Squads and two Armoured Squads, to create a small combined-arms unit, but this is not fixed and can change as required.
—A Battlegroup is of 520-550 Space Marines, led by a Master (silver-striped helm). Five companies will form a Battlegroup. It is at this level that companies are customised, with the Master moving his squads about into companies built to suit his objectives. Some Masters retain a default configuration to have five flexible battle companies, some shift all their tanks into dedicated Armoured Companies, some will weigh some companies differently to others. Many combinations exist. A Battlegroup may also have independently assigned squads outside the company structure, which is why most Battlegroups are more like 520-550 in strength rather than a round 500. Specialist squads like Librarians, Juggernauts, or Terminators are often retained directly under a Master and are deployed to maximum effect, rather than devolved to a specific company's command.
—A Division is of anywhere from 1,000 to 7,000 Space Marines, led by a marshal (gold-striped helm). This is the largest subdivision, under the full Legion. Anywhere between two to ten Battlegroups will form a Division. Divisions are not fixed structures, and will frequently have Battlegroups added or removed as needs justify. Divisions are formed to conduct specific campaigns or to staff specific Expeditionary Fleets, meaning that their compositions can vary wildly: Expeditionary Fleets waging a hostile Compliance action may find themselves reinforced by a Division of ten full Battlegroups, accompanied by supporting heavy artillery, starships, and specialist troops directly commanded by the marshal, numbering as high as 6,000 or 7,000 Astartes in total. Smaller actions or less intensive fronts may see small Divisions numbering only two or three Battlegroups and little extra in the way of heavy or specialist support, numbering under 2,000 Astartes in total. Void assets are held at Divisional level: every Division has at least one Battle Barge, plus accompanying Strike Cruisers and escorting destroyers and frigates. Larger Divisions can thus command a fairly powerful naval armada of multiple Battle Barges, dozens of smaller warships, and accompanying logistics and support vessels.
Special units:
The Silver Praetorians—These men, numbering one company, form the Primarch's personal guard. They wear armour of silver, rather than navy blue, replacing the white trimmings with black ones. Wearing master-crafted Terminator suits and every man being a veteran of countless battles, it is a force to be reckoned with and accompanies the Primarch into battle. It is unique in that the squads are comprised of all First Sergeants and commanded by a captain, with the overall commander being a marshal. These eleven men are the Primarch's closest advisors, with the Praetorian Marshal being the Legion's formal second-in-command. A Praetorian always outranks a conventional Space Marine of otherwise equal rank. A Praetorian First Sergeant outranks a First Sergeant, for example, but would not outrank a captain.
The Praetorian Captains—These are the ten senior-most captains in the Legion, forming the officers of the Primarch's bodyguard. Each is a veteran of many battles, all are of Helestine birth and some fought alongside the Primarch against the Imperium, though others were not even yet born in those days. Nonetheless, each one is valued by the Primarch for their insight and judgement, a key requirement in being selected as an officer of the Silver Praetorians.
Legion Command—This body consists of some 1,000 Astartes in total, and is the nerve centre of the Legion. These are senior officers, veterans, and the most academically gifted of the Primarch's sons, pulled from the line and taught the secrets of managing industrialised war. This gives the Legion a dedicated planning staff more capable than most other Legions, allowing it to coordinate both the Legion and allied forces to maximum effect.
Expertise and Combat Doctrine:
The Helestine Guard are experts in flexibility, and the Legion is in constant reconfiguration to meet the demands of campaigns. Every foe encountered is analysed for weakness and a Division, or multiple Divisions, are configured to maximise the XXVI Legion's capabilities against that weakness.
The Legion fights as a combined-arms force: infantry are the centrepiece of any XXVI Legion offensive, but always come supported by armour, artillery, air power, and void assets. A typical Legion advance will begin with long range firepower deployed against the enemy to both degrade their power and to cover the advance of the infantry and tanks, who will close in and destroy the enemy the moment the artillery barrage lifts. Assault Marines may strike directly into enemy positions or may be used to cut off enemy withdrawal routes. Scouts may be deployed in a traditional information-gathering role or as harassment forces, concealed within or behind enemy lines to strike at the moment of maximum advantage.
Legion Weaknesses:
The Legion is unspecialised. Any other Legion, facing the XXVI on their chosen ground, would hold the advantage. Though it is a flexible Legion, it cannot be everywhere instantly: the lack of ready-made specialist formations means the Legion needs time to draw together a tailored force to wage war most effectively. This works fine when the Legion is on the offensive, as it can choose when to strike, but works against it in defensive battles where it is the enemy who gets to choose what the XXVI will face on the field of battle.
Beliefs and Practices:
The Legion is a noble one: it does not unnecessarily harm or destroy worlds it brings to Compliance, attempting to do so peacefully or with minimal damage. It respects human life, though the Primarch regards himself and Astartes to be a superior model that will form the future ruling class of the Imperium. Compliances by the Legion leave behind stable and well-governed worlds on the Helestine model, as the Legion will not tolerate deals of convenience: bad rulers willing to submit peacefully are not a better deal than a short war to depose them and build a better society. As such, the Legion has more hostile Compliances than peaceful ones, as it is often the Legion itself that chooses violence, but always for (in their mind) a greater good.
It cares little for xenos, and will subjugate them if convenient and exterminate them if not. Xenos client states are thus not uncommon in areas of the galaxy that the XXVI have conquered. Those xenos that are actively hostile to human life, or have a known record of brutalising or oppressing neighbouring human worlds, are usually exterminated.
The mutant issue is usually decided on civilisation and compatibility: if the mutant world is civilised and has not devolved too far from the human genome, it is brought to Compliance. If it is not civilised, the best it can hope for is being treated like xenos and made into a client state of second-class citizens, for the only other alternative is extermination.
The Legion follows the Imperial Truth, for it knows little of the true nature of the Warp. What few denizens of the Warp the Legion encounters are often simply recorded as esoteric xenos species that are little understood. Suspicions within the Legion's Librarius are growing regarding the truth of the Warp, though these are but hushed whispers amongst the most radical of Librarians.
Recruitment and Discipline:
The Legion has little need of forced recruitment: it has become something of an honour to be accepted for the Legion Trials on Helestine and the surrounding worlds, ensuring a steady supply of willing Aspirants. The trials are not, as in some Legions, purposely made deadly or depraved: they focus on feats of strength, endurance, and cunning, rather than on brutality, selfishness, and murderous intent. As such most failed Aspirants leave with their lives intact, and many are inducted into the Legion's axulia forces. The Legion strongly believes this does nothing to diminish the quality of their stock, and indeed creates a Legion of culture and civilisation, rather than rabid bands of murderers and psychopaths as found in many other Legions. The XXVI's officers are men of high culture, extensive education, and perfect manners, easily fitting into elite circles in society.
The XXVI Legion's discipline is strict, as its Astartes are expected to be composed at all times. Rare instances of insubordination or brawling do occur, and Space Marines are censured for it, which in practical terms carries varying penalties: minor infractions may simply result in additional unpopular duties, more serious ones may cause reductions in rank, removal of privileges, or imprisonment. No Space Marine of the XXVI Legion has yet been so troublesome as to be confined indefinitely, or to warrant more drastic solutions being considered.
Characters of Interest:
Praetorian Marshal Edim Gallan—The Legion's second-in-command and Magnar's closest advisor. A veteran of the War of Two Imperiums, he fought as a commander in the Augmented Corps and was present for the Duel of Two Emperors, fighting a heroic but futile battle against the Custodes as they carved a path for the Emperor to confront Magnar.
Battle-cry:
"Helestine!"
"For Magnar!"
Legionary History:
The Legion was the second-last to be reunited with its gene-sire, and as a result has a fairly extensive history under Legion Masters rather than a Primarch. The XXVI Legion was a capable and dedicated Legion, activated at the end of the Unification Wars and seeing little action as a united Legion prior to the formal commencement of the Great Crusade itself in 670.M30. Fanning out from Terra as part of the Expeditionary Fleets, it won glory and accolades in many campaigns among the stars, and was a veteran Legion in 862.M30 at the time of the Primarch's rediscovery.
Initial excitement turned to concern: the Primarch was discovered, but had yet to join the Legion. It was not uncommon for newly rediscovered Primarchs to spend some months, even a year or two, with the Emperor before joining their Legions. A year went by, then two, then five, then ten, and still the Primarch was not with his sons.
It was not until that tenth year that he arrived at the front, to much relief and jubilation. Reforms happened immediately, which the Legion was well prepared for: almost every other Legion had undergone substantial change upon their Primarch's arrival; the XXVI would be no different. The changes, though, were not nearly as drastic as in many of the brother and sister Legions. The order of battle changed slightly, but not enormously so, and the Primarch turned out to be a man of culture and refinement. Those who worried that the Legion would turn into a ravenous swarm of locusts, or a collection of pirates and criminals, or any other dark fate as had befallen some Legions, were set at ease. If anything, the Legion became an altogether more pleasant and cordial place.
Under the Primarch the Legion reached new heights. More Compliances were achieved, leaving behind worlds well-governed and productive. Major xenos empires were smashed before them. The Primarch's military genius and talent with logistics meant that the Legion took fewer casualties and was better equipped than it had ever been. Relations with kindred Legions likewise improved. No longer were the XXVI among those orphan children still awaiting (or bereft of) their gene-mother or father.
A major Orkish WAAAAGH!, threatening the southeastern galactic core, saw the Legion's full might deployed to the field under the Primarch, and won the Legion much glory. It served as the flame that forged the Legion anew: the first truly enormous campaign with the new Primarch, doing things his way. In the Infernus Sector the Greenskins were routed at every turn, with the Legion's flexible structure expertly weaponised by Magnar to create a fluid and capable army that reconfigured on the move seamlessly, rotating units across the stars to where they were of maximum use.
The XXVI Legion entered the Infernus Campaign, but it was the Helestine Guard, newly christened, that emerged from it—just in time to face the first of the fledgling Imperium's terrible wars for survival.