Karmella Moros and the Dread Wardens
By author Cubismo
The Seventh Primarch: Karmella Moros
Name:
Karmella Moros, the Grand Inquisitor of the Wardens of Dread, the Illuminator of Caligo, the Emperor's Justiciar, the Midnight Angel, and She Who Slays Monsters.
Appearance:
As befitting a Primarch, the master of the VII Legion is a towering figure that naturally exudes a palpable aura of dread and awe in those who met her. Karmella's reputation as a terrifying force of justice and retribution is reinforced by her haunting, yet darkly angelic visage: an unearthly pallor that is softly luminous in the night and inscrutable black eyes that seem to pierce one's soul with but a glare. The dark lady of the VII Legion wears her silver-white hair freely or in a short crown braid, a style common to the women of Caligo but rich in sentimental value to the usually sepulchral Primarch. She is rarely without her armour but will don the simple robes and tabards of her homeworld when required. In battle, Karmella can be seen wearing and wielding such wargear as follows:
Judgement—This truly massive greatsword could only be wielded by a Primarch as it sear size would make it unwieldly and graceless in the hands of anyone lesser. Forged from an unknown black alloy whose base properties are moderately repellant to psychic effects, this Power Sword was modelled after Veracity, the greatsword used by the Knight-Commander of the Sisters of Silence and once by the Emperor himself.
The Scourge—Originally wielded by one of the blood lords of Caligo, this ancient neural whip has been used by the master of the VII Legion as her favored mid-range weapon since the Primarch slew its original master and took it for herself. An excoriatingly painful whip, the Scourge paralyzes its prey by overloading their nervous systems with ceaseless prongs of pain. Karmella typically uses it as a snare meant to bind her foes and bring them closer to her blade.
The Midnight Raiment—This master-crafted suit of jet-black artificer armour is encrusted with silver Caligite runes and forged by the legendary blacksmiths of Terra at the behest and direction of Karmella when she first came to the Imperial Throneworld. A resilient battleplate outfitted with powerful reflector shields and other hidden wards, the armour is specialty made to ensure that none of Karmella's preternatural agility and stealth is lost for the sake of defence. Notably the Primarch often wears the raiment with a sable black long coat, the traditional attire of the old inquisitors and witchfinders of Caligo.
The Purifying Flame—This powerful inferno pistol serves as Karmella's favored sidearm. Designed and smithed by the Primarch herself, the pistol is capable of not only incinerating foes from a far greater distance than a standard melta weapon, but also of unleashing waves of superheated thermal energy on those foolish enough to attempt to swarm the Seventh Primarch.
Talents and Personality:
"Is mankind forever doomed to succumb to its own voracious thirsts and gluttonies? Or can we not be tamed and redeemed by the ethereal virtues of law and order? This question plagues and gives purpose to our Imperium of Man, and its final answer divines its eminence or ruination."
—A passage from Karmella Moros's personal chronicle, The Confession.
Karmella is a huntress, through and through, blessed (or cursed) with an uncanny ability to detect, and more importantly track down, the guilty and corrupt. As with all of her siblings, she is a genius at both the logistical minutia of war as well as its grander stratagems whilst also being a powerful orator when it comes to expressing her moral convictions. However, it is Karmella's talent for the hunt, in whatever form it takes, which truly makes her stand out amongst her kin. Accordingly, the Seventh Primarch is an extraordinary investigator and tracker, being equally capable of singlehandedly finding and eliminating the rot of corruption in any organisation and doing much the same to foes and even armies that attempt to evade justice. A devoted philosopher of the nature and purpose of law whose writings have been used to reform and expand the Lex Imperialis, as well as a surprisingly avid appreciator and author of tragic poetry and parables, the Seventh knows the value of the humanities in shaping society and rigorously pursues the refinement and perfection of these arts with the same fervour as she does warfare and the hunt.
On the surface, Karmella is a stoic and unfeeling character, a women so dedicated to the Imperium and its brutal brand of justice that its upholding utterly defines her sense of self. This is, of course, a lie, one careful designed to obfuscate the true nature of the Primarch. In reality, Karmella is fully capable of great melancholies and horrific passions. The inflexible moral codes she enforces across the Imperium are, in her mind, necessary evils to rehabilitate a galaxy that went mad with power (be it technological or psychic) and fell to dark depravities that nearly doomed the species. Tellingly, the Seventh Primarch does not see herself as above this need for collective redemption. Indeed, her ruthless enforcement of the law and her steadfast allegiance to the Imperium and its law-abiding citizens is her way of atoning for her bestial past.
Karmella remembers every moment of her time as a bloodthirsty monster of the woods and feels immense shame and self-loathing for her past predations and deeds. But despite that, and her valiant attempts to completely suppress her hunger, she still instinctively pines for the fervid freedom of the hunt and the enticing taste of her quarry's blood on her lips even as she hates herself for it. Decades upon decades of keeping this flaw and others hidden from the Imperium have, unsurprisingly, made her secretive and not easily prone to trust or intimacy with those she considers unprincipled or corrupt… and she considers many in the Imperium to be both, though, whether that is legitimate accusation or a projection of her own sins, not even she is always entirely sure.
Homeworld:
Situated in the galactic north, Caligo is a shadowy world of dark wooded valleys and foreboding mountain ranges that cover much of the planet's surface. Originally a prosperous colony during the height of mankind's hallowed Golden Age of Technology, it like so many other worlds would succumb to ruination and folly in the subsequent Age of Strife when a planet-wide civil war ended in a nuclear exchange between the various belligerents. The end result of this nuclear holocaust was the population of Caligo, what was left of it, quickly devolving into a pre-industrial state, with much of the world's advanced technology being destroyed along with the knowledge to operate what little remained being swiftly lost to time.
This staggering regression of a once advanced civilisation into an agrarian society of isolated homesteads and villages would have been a tragic, if not uncommon, occurrence in Old Night, but Caligo managed to stand out by virtue of its human population not being the sole sapient species on its blasted surface in the aftermath. The nuclear fallout of the civil war not only blackened Caligo's skies but also corrupted those survivors who were not lucky to find a safe haven in the planet's valleys or die in the firestorms. These "survivors" were twisted by their exposure to the radiation and other esoteric forces that mutated them into an altogether new species, ones utterly devoid of humanity.
When the true survivors of the war finally dared to leave their caves and vaults, they immediately found themselves beset by monsters of the night. Pallid ghouls that drank the blood of the living, lupine berserkers that stalked the forests, goat-men that brayed at the stars, and a myriad of other such horrors became a common threat to human life on Caligo, and it would ultimately take a Primarch to liberate the Caligites from these mutants. In the wake of the Primarch's crusade against them, these beasts have been all but exterminated, with those few survivors by and large being kept in the Legion's headquarters in the Dread Vault to serve as training fodder for Dread Warden fledglings. Of course, some still remain free in the most desolate and rad-scarred regions of Caligo, and only the mad, foolish, or brave would dare go into such places without a Dread Warden by their side or the greatest of arms.
Though misinformed Imperial adepts designate Caligo as a "dark planet," eternally locked in an abnormal state of endless eventide, the truth is that Caligo does experience brief periods of daylight, though, it is at a highly irregular day-night cycle that favors the latter. The cause of this atmospherically anomaly is the two-fold impact of the Caligo system's dim red giant star and the planet's lingering nuclear winter. Consequently, Caligo's distinct blood-red skies during those brief periods of daylight can be attributed to the red giant's rays trying to puncture through the remaining soot in the planet's atmosphere, resulting in the distorted red color.
Caligo is unsurprisingly, and rightfully, classified as a Death World by the Imperium, though it does have some of the technological and cultural characteristics of a late-stage Feudal World. Karmella's rediscovery or outright invention of various technologies, along with the influence of Imperialisation, has also put the world on the fast track of becoming a Civilised World. Caligo's tithe grade is rated as Aptus Non given its status as a homeworld of a Legio Astartes.
If one discounts its few remaining abhuman inhabitants, Caligo has a scattered human population in the low tens of millions. It was only one orbiting moon, Selena, which has historically been worshiped by the native Caligites as a lunar deity associated with purity and protection. Notably, Caligo is near the massive Warp Storm that dominates much of the galactic northwest—that which the determinedly secular Imperium insists on calling the Abnormality, but others call the Eye of Terror. Many genetors within the Mechanicum speculate that the planet's proximity to the Warp Storm is the true cause for its abhuman and mutant population.
Psychic potential:
Though it shames her to admit it, the "taint" of psychic power is strong within Karmella. Due to her experiences with sorcery on Caligo, she suppresses these abilities, considering them a misguiding poison that can lead one to damnation and enslavement to the vile creatures of the Warp. Even still, she cannot fully deny her nature, and her psychic "gifts" bestow her with subtle supernatural abilities, such as uncontrollable bouts of precognition and being able to mesmerise the weak-willed with but a stare.
Background:
Caligo was a world haunted by monsters in the dark. Every man, woman, and child, in every hamlet, village, and walled city knew this to be an undeniable truth of their perilous existence. As far as anyone could remember their homes had always been beset by a horrific sundry of blood-hungry yet cunning beasts that stalked the dark forests and made their lairs atop the mountains of their world.
Of course, not all of Caligo's inhabitants passively hid behind wooden walls and prayed to their lunar goddess to save them from the beasts of the night. Every few generations brave men and women would rise to the challenge and dare to go into the dark places of their world to attempt and slay the nightstalkers that would so brazenly break into their villages and slaughter the ones they loved.
These brave heroes to a one inevitably fell. Either being slain and devoured by the very prey they sought to destroy or succumbing to the monsters' infectious curses and false promises of power. That was the way of Caligo and its foolhardy heroes. Each one ultimately a tragedy and a farce whose only lasting impact and legacy was as tales told by protective parents and elders to dangerously curious children who dared to ask why no one left the village at night. However, brave fools are forever a stubborn and plentiful breed, even on a world so awash with horror.
Perhaps as some form of cosmic irony one such fool, and a child at that, would ultimately be the one to end the dismal cycle of fools and tragedy forever. Hotblooded and far to brave, our heroine wished to leave the safety of her village and enter the dark wilderness around it in the forlorn hope of saving a friend who had vanished while hunting there.
Everyone else had abandoned him to his fate, including his own family. "This is the way of the world," they meekly told her. "It is madness to try and save a child that is already dead or worse."
But the girl refused to accept the loss, not after already losing her own family to the monsters only year before. And so, on a night when the moon and her courage when at their brightest, she gathered her crossbow and went about scaling the wooden walls that feebly protected her village from the dangers that lurked beyond them.
Though she had been incapable of convincing anyone to join in her foolhardy quest, she did not feel alone as she walked the woods. How could she, when every instinct in her body told her that she was, in fact, not alone at all. Someone, or something, had been stalking her since the moment she entered the forest. She could feel their eyes on her back and on her throat…
Her initial courage did not last long after wondering for so long in those dark woods, but stubbornness and hope is a form of courage all on their own, and she persisted. She looked to the skies above and prayed for Blessed Selena to guide her to her lost friend and ward her with divine moonlight. Regrettably, no such divine intervention came to her defence. Or at least not the kind of intervention she could have anticipated or even would have desired at that moment. She did though, after some time, manage to find tracks that could have only been left by her lost friend. Her hope renewed by the discovery she began to follow them the best she could, eventually finding herself at a small clearing in the forestry that led to the mouth of a cave.
And that is where she found her friend. What was left of her anyway. The other girl had tried to find sanctuary in the cave only to meet a grisly end at the hands of a night beast. He had been disemboweled from shoulder and hip, a cruel cut that left her decaying innards scattered about the cave mouth in a mess of stinking viscera. Tellingly, he had also been exsanguinated, which left the corpse itself nothing more than an empty husk of skin and bone. The once brave girl did not notice that, for she had collapsed to the ground at the sight of her dead dear friend. This would be another mistake in a series of ones she had already made that night.
The sound of weeping had attracted the girl's murderer, a loathsome yet cunning chiropteran creature known to the native Caligites as a strigoi: a blood drinker. By the time girl realised the strigoi was close it was too late. She knew would not be able to flee from the beast or even get a hold of her dropped crossbow before the monster killed her in the same gruesome fashion as it did her friend. All she could do was whisper a prayer and summon up the strength to defiantly glare at her killer as it readied its fangs to drain her dry and end her short life.
But the monster never reached her.
Somewhere, in between an eye blink, the girl saw death staring her in the face only for it to be flailing around and shrieking in frantic gasps of pain. It took a moment for her to realise what was happening, but when she did, she saw that the blood drinker was desperately crawling at its throat as a pale blur caught it in a death grip that made its shrieks strained as it tried and failed to breathe. No matter how hard the strogi struggled to smack or shake off the blur it would not let go of its grapple.
A maniac smile broke out on the girl's face. Selena Above had answered her prayers and sent one a righteous angel to slay the strigoi! She started to hysterically cheer the angel on as its struggle with the blood drinker reached its crescendo and inevitable endpoint.
It would be over soon, the girl thought, both terrified and exhilarated. Soon her angel would snap the monster's neck and fly her and her and her friend's body back to the village where she'd keep everyone safe from the other monsters that sought preyed up them. It was a beautiful dream. One quickly shattered in the girl's mind with the sight of blood.
In a flash, between another eyeblink, the girl's face was suddenly covered in the strigoi's blood. Quickly wiping it away, she saw her "angel" rip out strigoi what remained of the beast's throat with its teeth, spraying more black arterial blood throughout the clearing and the cave mouth.
Oh.
With its quarry dead, the other monster let its rival's lifeless body fall to the ground before immediately digging into the corpse. The girl watched the pale creature do the impossible and exsanguinate an exsanguinator right before her eyes. The noises that it made as it consumed its prey almost made the girl retch more than the smell of the black blood on her clothes.
I should run. The idea came to the girl like a hammer strike that made her heart, which had been so eerily calm before, start racing again. Fight was impossible. That much was obvious, but for some reason, the need for flight didn't seem to truly register. The girl just kept staring at her false angel, her legs dead and motionless, her eyes glued to the midnight feast. She stayed in locked attention even after the small, pale thing, finished draining the strigoi and started to slowly approach her at the cave mouth.
No longer in frantic motion with the strigoi, the girl saw the angel in all its glory. It was horrifying, a blood-smattered thing clothed in clashing pelts stitched together with hair and bone. Its flesh was deathly white to the point that it almost seemed to glow in the night while its eyes were two black pools of dark that contrasted against its ragged, long mane of silver hair.
It is going to kill me, the girl's mind screamed. It is another strigoi and it is going to drain me dry away.
She wanted to run. Everything sensible told her that she should. Her heart, her mind, the sage words of her elders. Everything. She should have fled for dear life the moment she saw the false angel clash with the strigoi. But even so, the girl did not make a dash into the forest. She couldn't. She was mesmerised by the pale demon, blood and all.
Even as it stood right in front of her, with its mouth stinking of blood and its fangs moving towards her exposed throat, the girl still did not move. Instead, she voiced an absurd notion that had bizarrely come into her head.
"You're not a monster," she blurted, not entirely sure why she had but strangely assured that it was true when all else said otherwise.
The false angel blinked its abyssal eyes in confusion. It had come to understand master the Caligite tongue just by drinking the memory rich blood of her countless human victims, but this was first time in its existence on this world that it had heard its prey configure their words to form such a statement directed at her. Most simply screamed, cried, or plead with gods that never saved them.
You're not a monster.
The Primarch's bloody hands retreated from the girl's throat and went to her sides. She didn't know what to do with them now.
"What?" the Primarch demanded, her voice rough, cracked, and halting from rarely speaking. She never had to bother until now. "Why? Why would you say that?"
The girl did not rightly know. So she said the only thing that made sense in the moment. "Because you're not like them. The strigoi, or any of the night beasts," she answered even as her eyes stared at the Primarch's blood covered face. She was strangely beautiful despite all the blood.
The girl stuck out her hand for the Primarch to take. "Please," she asked, "can you help me get home?"
The Primarch raised her hand and for a moment was not sure what she planned to do with it, her mind temporarily lost to the myriad of possibilities that lay before her. In the end, she firmly took a hold of the other girl's outreached hand and brought her back to her feet.
"Yes."
And that is the legend of how Karmella Moros—the name coming from a tragic Caligite folk heroine that the Primarch took as her own—came to join the rest of mankind on her homeworld of Caligo. It would be the beginning of the much larger tale of the young Primarch's reclamation of Caligo. First started by earning the trust of terrified villagers across the planet that took her pallid form, rapid growth and obvious superhuman nature as a sure sign of her monstrosity by protecting them from the true monsters of the night. Other events, such as slaying the Red Tyrant Orlock at Castle Drakenhof and the freeing his blood-thralls from his domination, sending a thousand daemon-worshiping witches to the pyre after uncovering their insidious presence in the Scholomance Conspiracy, and the ousting and replacing Caligo's corrupt Inquisition with her own faithful monster hunters—the Wardens of Dread—would all serve as chapters in the Primarch's story of rebuilding and reclaiming Caligo from the foul monsters that sought to make its people their morsels.
When the Master of Mankind set foot on Caligo's dark soil with his golden Custodes and saw a world uplifted from nightmarish consequences of Old Night he would congratulate his long lost daughter for her efforts in front of her assembled Wardens of Dread in a walled city that once been a brave girl's tiny village.
"You have done well here, daughter. But there are more worlds out there amongst the stars that are in need of such salvation as well. Will you come with me to save them as you did this one?"
Karmella bowed before the Emperor and looked directly into his golden eyes through her dark ones. "I saw this day when I was lost and wild in the dark, and I knew my answer then as I know it now.
"Yes."
The VII Legion: the Dread Wardens
"Who better to hunt monsters than monsters?"
—Attributed to Malcador the Sigillite in the aftermath of the VII Legion's triumph against the gene-tyrants of Ar-Gene during the Unification Wars.
Name:
The Dread Wardens, formerly known as the Emperor's Furies. Formally known as the Order of the Wardens of Dread and the Lahmian Sisterhood on Caligo. Less formally (and respectfully) referred as the Thought Police and the Emperor's Pet Psychopaths.
Insignia and Appearance:
Two eyes weeping blood. The Legion's colours, used in Space Marines' Power Armour, are black (primary), silver (secondary) and blood-red (tertiary).
Gene-seed Status:
Moderately unstable.
Hyperactive Omophagea—The rare Imperial observers allowed to see the Dread Wardens fight have noted their propensity for consuming the flesh and blood of their enemies to scry any useful tactical information from their memories. Though not necessarily unusual or immediately worrying phenomenon given the nature of the implant, its chronic use could be considered indicative of some kind of genetic malfunction with the implant.
Abnormal Occulobe—While a Dread Warden's Occulobe provides a higher degree of visibly in extreme darkness conditions than what is afforded to most other Space Marines, it is conversely highly reactive to sudden displays of extreme light, with Dread Wardens being at times susceptible to temporary blindness if they are not wearing some form of protective ocular equipment, such as photolenses. Notably, many Dread Wardens jet-black eyes that cover both the iris and sclera.
Partial Impaired Sus-an Membrane—Though an extremely rare occurrence amongst the ranks of the Dread Wardens, the life-sustaining suspended animation that the Sus-an Membrane provides Astartes has been known to instead trigger a state of seemingly unrecoverable coma when activated. The only known way to lift this state of torpor is via the consumption of, or immersion in, [REDACTED].
Faculty Melanochrome—The hormonal implant is largely inoperative, with Dread Warden epidermis not naturally adapting to extreme levels of ultraviolet light, though they are still resistant to various other forms of radiation. Consequently, either as a result of this non-functional organ or because of the Legion's predilection towards recruiting from populations that are sun-derived, almost all Dread Wardens have extremely pallid skin tones.
Legionary Assets:
The Dread Wardens have a reported total strength of around 130,000 Astartes. This number is a lie. The true strength of the VII Legion has been deliberately downplayed and obscured from the rest of the Imperium by its secretive Primarch. The actual number of Astartes in the Legion is known to only Karmella and her inner circle but given the relative instability of the VII's gene-seed and the Legion's severe training process it is unlikely to be above 200,000.
As to be expected, the VII Legion utilises the aid of bonded auxilia forces in many of its campaigns in the Great Crusade. This is despite the Legion's infamous propensity for secrecy and preference for operating away from the prying eyes of the other forces and institutions of the Imperium. Though originally the few auxilia forces it did possess were solely drawn from Caligo's mortal planetary defence forces—the Caligite Hunters, renowned witch hunters and reconnaissance scouts that acted as the Dread Wardens favored agents—Karmella deigned to remove this limitation after the lingering Terran elements of her Legion spoke well of the trustworthiness of several Imperial Army regiments that they served with during the early years of the Great Crusade. As such, a few cohorts of the elite Solar Auxilia now serve alongside the Legion, though doing so at arm's length. These auxilia primarily act as pacification troops used to suppress any lingering dissent within a populace after the Legion has already destroyed the bulk of organised resistance. The Legion is also infamous for its mass use of penal legionnaires conscripted from rebellious worlds they've brought back into the Imperial fold. The Dread Wardens see these bonded soldiers as the living embodiment of the Legion's considerations for rehabilitative justice and "mercy".
The VII Legion's fortress-monastery is the Dread Vault—an immense, sprawling atramentous fortress whose spires pierce the very skies of Caligo. It serves as the primary headquarters of the Legion. Laying at the epicentre of Caligo's capital sentinel-city, the Dread Vault lives up to its name in being a repository for uncovered artefacts, tomes and even individuals considered by the VII Legion to be dangerous to the security of the Imperium. Beyond that, the shadowy castle is home to several of the Legion's vital facilities, such as the expansive laboratories of its impressive Apothecarion, the munition halls and repair depos of its armoury, and its Librarius, known internally by the Legion as the Scholomance, which houses many of the Legion's aforementioned artefacts and lore. Below the chambers of the Scholomance is the Abyssal Crypt, a menagerie of Caligo's most nightmarish mutants and creatures. These monstrosities are kept alive in this massive prison-reserve for the sole purpose of serving as the final challenge for fledgling-recruits attempting to pass their last Tribulation into becoming a Dread Warden.
The Dread Vault also possesses a great number of other organisational functions for the VII Legion. Some are obvious or common to several other Legions, such as the Spire of Rebirth acting as Legion's central training hall for fledglings and the vast Spire of Liturgy serving as an auditorium and main gathering hall for the Legion's proclamations and esoteric rituals, but others are more unique to the VII. For instance, Dread Vault is not only the headquarters for the Legion but also for the government of Caligo, with the Dread Wardens directly ruling the planet as its mistresses and planetary governors. Though the mortal population of Caligo has the nominal freedom of electing candidates to some minor or local positions of power, it is the Dread Wardens that truly govern the world, micromanaging its administration from the looming (and ever watching) spires of the Dread Vault.
The flagship of the VII Legion is the Tenebrosity, a heavily modified Gloriana-class battleship that has served as the flagship and as mobile secondary headquarters of the VII Legion since its earliest participation in the Great Crusade. The ship's modifications were brought about by edict of the Primarch, who after taking command of the Legion ordered its flagship to be remade to model the notorious vessels of the League of Black Ships. As with those sable starships, the Tenebrosity's hull is pitch-black and made of an ebony alloy of adamantium that is resistant to psychic effects. The ship is also decked out in the esoteric wards of the Primarch's homeworld, though whether these sigils actually provided any true protection is unknown. Those precious few non-Dread Wardens or bonded ship personnel that been granted the privilege of entering the flagship speak of chambers, laboratories, and cells that they were pointedly restricted from seeing or even nearing. They also speak of horrific screams coming from them…
Legion Organisation:
On the surface, the Dread Wardens rely on the Principia Belicosa to organise the formations and chain of command for their Legion, with there being little difference from the "Terran Pattern" beyond the renaming of certain formations and other minor divergences:
—A cotery is of 13 Space Marines, led by a Warden-Sergeant.
—A Conclave is of 100 to 130 Space Marines, led by a Warden-Captain.
—A Commandery is of 1,000 to 1,300 Space Marines, led by a Warden-Commander.
—Thirteen Covenants are the largest subdivision, under the full Legion. Each Covenant has its own specialised role and suite of tactics though still fully capable of fulfilling others that fall outside them. These Covenants are directed by an Elder handpicked by Karmella herself, who in turn is the supreme commander of the Legion, advised by the members of her honour guard and inner circle, the Judiciary.
The above structural layout is a lie, a deceptive façade for the unobservant and ignorant. Beyond it, the Dread Wardens are a Legion that contains numerous hidden formations with varying degrees of secrecy. Taking cues from the Adeptus Arbites and the Sisters of Silence—both institutions the Dread Wardens have unusually close ties with—these secret formations are organised less like a battle companies and more like clandestine branches of an investigation or espionage bureau, being separate from the rest of the Legion's operational structure and chain of command. Known to the initiated within the Legion as the Inquisition, these secret orders are led by Inquisitors and serve a number of important roles and purposes within the Dread Wardens. They are personal selected and entrusted by Karmella herself to act as the Legion's spies, assassins, witch hunters, investigators, interrogators, and even its own internal secret police watching for signs of corruption. These Inquisitors are fitted with whatever weapons and resources are necessary for their tasks and are known to use mortal operatives as ciphers and sleeper agents.
Though these orders abide by a decentralised structure and are usually given the freedom to act alone and using their own judgement and tactics once given their mission, there are rare occasions of the highest urgency where will they amass their disparate forces to form a massive ad-hoc battle formation known as a Scouring. These Scourings will either be led by the Primarch herself or by a stand-in who is elected from among the ranks of the assembled Inquisitors. The operations undertaken by these Scourings are usually of an esoteric nature that cannot be allowed to be known to the wider Imperium of Man and are therefore treated as black operations that were never committed in the first place. The sites, worlds, and even systems where these Scourings take place are almost all uniformly destroyed via Exterminatus after the mission is completed. Any non-Dread Warden or sanctioned allies that bear witness to a Scouring are [REDACTED].
Oddly, the Dread Wardens have a usually high number of apothecaries in its ranks and a surprisingly number of resources is afforded to their Apothecarion on Caligo. Similarly, they possess a surprisingly small number of Librarians despite the Legion's above average number of psykers. This can be attributed the Legion's cultural stigmata towards psykers and "witchcraft". Interment within Dreadnaughts, while a highly respected honour, is rarely given to critically injured Astartes unless they have proven themselves extraordinarily self-controlled. The reason has to do with how even the most strong-willed of Dread Wardens can go insane from the "Hunger" quickly after being entombed in a Dreadnaught chassis.
Expertise and Combat Doctrine:
The observed strategic tendencies of the Dread Wardens are shock assault, decapitation strikes, policing and punitive actions, enforced pacification, counterinsurgency, pursuit operations, and Exterminatus and purgation campaigns. The Dread Wardens are also known to work in concert with the Sisters of Silence on anti-psyker and lore-culling operations.
The Dread Wardens are habitual adherents to the Caligate military philosophy of "tearing out the enemy's throat and bleeding them dry", which can be translated into the similar Terran proverb, "Strike the head to kill the body." In essence, the Dread Wardens prefer to swiftly and decisively isolate and destroy the command centre or structure of whatever foe they face to discombobulate their ability to coordinate an effective offence or defence. This is especially true when they are campaigning against a human enemy, which they usually are. Better to wipe out the leadership, they argue, than allow a world's innocents to suffer the horrors of a lengthy war when it's possible that the populace will capitulate once their leaders and chief belligerents are dead. Of course, the Legion is perfectly willing to wipe out the entire population of a rebellious planet if the natives refuse to accept Imperial Compliance, though, this is always a last resort. Usually…
To achieve their larger strategic goals, the Dread Wardens will almost always infiltrate a planet with its agents well before setting a single Astartes or auxilia soldier on the surface. These agents are trained to exploit the manifest weaknesses and of a world's culture, politics, or leadership and use that unrest to cause mass uprisings against its dominant authority. It is only when a significant amount of conflict has been stirred that the Legion will truly reveal itself to their foes and conduct conventional warfare of a now exhausted and divided enemy. Of course, even once widespread warfare has begin the Legion and its agents will still heavily utilise their powers of subterfuge and covert action to win the day. Guerrilla actions, sabotage missions, misinformation campaigns, brainwashing, and outright assassinations all are common tactics of the Dread Wardens.
The use of the incredible speed of their drop pods to make rapid planetary insertions and deep strikes into the central positions of the enemy is a common facet of their tactics when more direct methods are finally called for. Such assaults are usually followed up by the mass deployment of aerospacecraft once whatever shields or guns defending the enemy command position are destroyed in the initial drop pod force. Their job is two-fold: Delivering the main bulk of a Conclave's or Covenant's land forces to the battlefield and mopping up any fleeing enemies that can be detected from their cockpits. When the battle is truly joined in earnest, the Space Marines of the VII Legion favour forcing the enemy into close-quarter or mid-range engagements by using the extreme mobility of their jump-packs, attack bikes, and land speeders to rapidly close the distance between them and the foe and encircle them in isolated kill-zones kin to the group monster-hunting tactics employed on Caligo long ago. Once achieved a great "bloodletting" occurs wherein the Dread Warden attackers will methodically wade into the enemy with their power or chain weapons, cutting down all that stands before them until their adversaries are either dead or routed in such a way that they will not be able to recover.
Hunter and Manhunt Squads led by Warden-Vigilators specialised in relentless pursuit operations are often used in the aftermath of a bloodletting to track down any high-priority targets that manage to survive the initial massacre. These targets are preferably brought before the commanding Dread Warden officer to face a quick trial and public execution for crimes committed against the Imperium and its people, though, in a pinch, they can also be given the Emperor's Judgement in whatever hole their pursuers found them in.
The Dread Wardens are also well-known (and infamous) for their liberal use of Destroyer Squads when facing enemies they deem irredeemable and worthy of utter annihilation, such as mutants or xenos. While these Destroyers are not shy in the use of their weaponry, it is worth noting that the Legion rarely uses Rad Weapons in its Destroyer Squads, instead preferring "cleaner" weapons like volkite, phosphex and especially flamers during their purgation missions.
The strange and often unsettling dichotomy between the Dread Wardens being both surgical slayers of the corrupt and brutal purgers of entire worlds and populations is not lost on the Legion or its Primarch, though, to them it is a false one. The combat philosophy of the Dread Wardens stresses the need for the enemy to be utterly exterminated, or at the very least neutralised if not preferably re-educated, to ensure the safety of the innocent across the Imperium. If that means one must die or billions, the VII will see their duty and justice done whatever the cost.
While the above tactics of systematic and/or outright purgation is the Dread Wardens preferred methods of conducting of warfare, the Covenants of the Legion are perfectly capable of adapting to whatever style of military stratagem is necessary to win an engagement or operation. Of course, their application of that style of may not be as effective compared to those Legions that rigorously and habitually specialise in it, such as the Black Watch's mastery of siege warfare or the Trenchwalkers talent for underwater warfare.
Lastly, the Legion is known in the highest and most secretive circles of the Imperium to be one of if not the Legion best equipped to deal with the esoteric and ethereal forces of the [REDACTED]. Indeed, they are regularly bonded to the Sisters of Silence tasked with the elimination of civilisations that have found themselves enslaved by cabals of psykers whose unrestrained use of the Warp has seen them be corrupted by [REDACTED] to bring about [REDACTED]. To deal with threats from beyond the Legion ironically uses its psykers (known internally as Exorcists or Banishers) along with ancient Caligite ritual and rites to counter the madness of these creatures and weaken them enough so that they may be banished back whence they came through purifying flames or silver-edged swords.
Legion Weaknesses:
It cannot be denied. The Dread Wardens are not a Legion widely well-loved by the rest of the Imperium. Outside of the aforementioned strong connections they have with the Adeptus Arbites and Sisters of Silence, the Legion's relationship with other major institutions of the Imperium are either neutral or mistrusting. Secretive by nature and often deployed as means of eliminating dissent and rebellion by means of either quiet manipulation or fiery annihilation, the campaigns of the Dread Wardens are rarely glorious triumphs against hated xenos and are often internal cleansings of mankind itself, a reality that leaves many in the War Council concerned despite the fact that the worlds they bring back into the Imperial fold are forevermore perfectly compliant… to an almost eerie degree. The Dread Wardens tendency to act on their own and ignore the orders of the War Council is also a major concern that has building up over the decades, with some councillors believing the Legion should suffer censure for its enigmatic ways.
This enigmatic nature cuts both ways. While few know enough about the Dread Wardens to exploit their tactics and strategies it also means few in the Imperium understand their reasons for doing what they do. The Dread Wardens both despise psykers and yet use them constantly in their shadow campaigns. The Dread Wardens hate the mutant yet nobly defend some as if they were no different from baseline humans all the while exterminating others without shame. They practice strange religious rites yet have consigned entire civilisations to genocide for doing the same. Despite all these contradictions of character and their issues with the War Council, Malcador the Sigillite and the Emperor have steadfastly ruled in their favour against the War Council's calls for action, though whether that protection will last forever remains to be seen.
Outside of matters of Imperial politics, the Dread Wardens themselves can be understood as a Legion of specialised uses. While fully capable of tackling gruelling sieges, duels in the void of space, and using the power of artillery and heavy armour pulverise the enemy, the fact remains that those areas of warfare are not what the Dread Wardens were primarily made for or excel at. Their best fitting role, and the one that the Emperor of Mankind likely intended for them from the very being of their conception, is a force of internal policers meant to ensure that the Imperium and its laws and ideals would be protected from those who would seek to undermine from within. As such, much of their tactics, strategies, and capabilities resolve around counter-insurgency and sabotaging rebels and even philosophies that oppose the Imperium with other considerations taking less priority.
Lastly, there is also…
The Hunger—The Dread Wardens impaired Omophagea gene-seed implant can cause an uncontrollable hunger for the [REDACTED] of their enemies and the development of elongated canines that are capable of [REDACTED]. Though an extremely rare occurrence, there have been several incidents where a Dread Warden has succumbed to this hunger in the middle of a battle and turned upon their own in a grisly frenzy of [REDACTED]. Dread Wardens that have fallen to the Hunger are sent to their fortress-monasteries where apothecaries attempt to save the afflicted. So far all of the Apothecarion's efforts to treat this syndrome have ended in failure and the [REDACTED] of the afflicted.
Beliefs and Practices:
Despite their zealotry, the Dread Wardens are steadfast adherents to the atheist and rational ethos of the Imperial Truth, believing wholeheartedly that the Imperium's guiding philosophy is the only one capable of bringing mankind out of the madness and trauma of Old Night. Even their native worship of the Caligite moon goddess Selena is outlawed, though the Dread Wardens are not particularly harsh with its censorship and hypocritically still abide by some of its religious practices. The same cannot be said of the foreign faiths the Legion encounters in the Great Crusade. This is especially true of religious practices found to be associated with the reverence of [REDACTED].
Self-control forms the bedrock of the Legion, with every fledgling that attempts to join its ranks having to undergo tortuous tests of endurance and of physiological deprivation. Even past that preliminary stage it is understood by all the Astartes of the VII Legion that the need for restraint and temperament is a lifelong constant. Those that struggle on this path are given to specialised psy-apothecaries who provide mental guidance and re-education to those Wardens that feel the pull of their morbid thirsts. Those that fail, or are believed to likely to do so, are usually detected by senior officers or Inquisitors before the Hunger sets in and are sent to the Dread Vault where they will either tame their desires or devolve into [REDACTED] that are quickly [REDACTED] for the sake of the Legion.
The Dread Wardens quite literally see themselves as wardens against the horrors and mistakes of Old Night and it to be their sworn duty as Astartes to protect mankind from dangers without, within, and beyond. They are particularly devoted to exterminating the dangers from within, seeing it as their prerogative to investigate any and all signs of corruption within the Imperium regardless of whether anyone asks them too. While some of this uncompromising righteous can be attributed to the Legion's history as grim enforcers of the Emperor's laws, the introduction of the Karmella Moros' guiding ethos of protecting the innocent from the wicked has both reformed and heightened it in many ways.
To say that the Dread Wardens hates the psyker, the mutant, and the criminal would be an understatement. The Legion absolutely despises all three, with only the first receiving any kind of toleration. Mutants are seen as largely irredeemable parodies of mankind that must be purged for the good of the Imperium. Of course, the Legion's definition of what a mutant is mystery to those outside the VII. Dread Wardens have been known to work alongside abhumans like the Ogryns and Ratlings without compliant but adamantly refuse collaboration with Beastmen and other such creatures unless it is absolutely necessary to achieve victory. Navigators are another of the expectations to this antipathy given their importance to Warp travel and their connection to the Emperor's Astronomican. Criminals are perceived in an even worse light, with those found breaking any of the laws of the Lex Imperialis suffering horrific punishments at the hands of a Dread Warden aware of it. This is especially true of Imperial officials that are found guilty of corruption or treason against the interests of the Imperium.
Perhaps a surprising factoid to outsiders, Karmella herself encourages all her daughters to engage in various forms of high arts. Though Caligo itself lacked much in the way of high culture before the Primarch's arrival, it did have an ancient oral tradition of poetry, storytelling and folk songs that the Death Wardens still practise. Given that much of these oral traditions were created to serve as cautionary tales and parables, they tend to be rather foreboding and mournful, with its protagonists usually suffering gruesome deaths as a consequence of not paying attention to some hidden danger.
Recruitment and Discipline:
The selection and induction of a Dread Warden is an extremely perilous process that puts the fledgling recruit through an exhaustive series of mental, physical and moral trials. All mortal fledglings that wish to join the Legion must go to its fortress-monastery on Caligo and endure the Thirteen Tribulations. The specific details of these tribulations are a closely held Legion secret, with only a few trusted non-members knowing much about them. However, these tests are known to involve lengthy fasting and mediation, psyker-induced temptations of the soul, memorisation of the Lex Imperialis, and a final test that requires the fledgling to hunt down and singlehandedly slay one of the remaining monsters of Caligo.
Since the VII Legion's unification with its Primarch, Caligo has served as the Legion's primary source for recruits. However, it is not the only planet that the Dread Wardens takes recruits from. The Legion also possesses secondary tithe rights to some of the worlds it has brought into Imperial Compliance, with planets such as Arkham, Nostramo, Samedi's World, Mordia, and Gothika VI having a supplied a number of promising fledglings to the Legion's fortress-monastery.
The Dread Wardens see themselves as the Emperor's justice and his ever-watchful wardens of corruption and evil. Thus, it comes to no surprise, especially given their history as punitive decimators of faithless traitors, that the Legion has a propensity for black-and-white morality, and an unforgiving sense on retributive justice. In the eyes of many Dread Wardens there are only the pure and innocent, who must be protected and nurtured, and the evil and corrupt that must be exterminated for the sake of the former. Notions of shades of grey are seen as nothing more than self-deceptive rhetoric used by the guilty.
Though the Legion has positive relations with some Imperial institutions—with its frequent campaigns with the Silent Sisterhood being likely its strongest and most secretive—it also has its fair share of critics. Much of this can chalked up to the Legion's unbending sense of justice, which sometimes comes across as baseless paranoia and accusation. Dread Warden officers have been known to brazenly accuse high-ranking Imperial officials of criminality and to even act upon these accusations without any consideration for due process or official channels. Of course, given that these allegations are always proven to be right it does give them some leeway with the War Council of the Imperium. This lack of trust is not helped by the Dread Wardens' incredibly secretive and insular nature. Even Astartes from trusted Legions which the VII has positively campaigned with are not permitted in many of their facilities and bases. Add that to rumours of the Dread Wardens spying on those Legions that they believe to be "tainted" and it becomes easy to see why the Legion, despite its countless accolades and commitments to the Imperium, is looked upon with wariness and even outright ire.
Characters of Interest:
First Warden Laura Vânători—The Equerry to the Primarch and commander of her honour guard, the Justicary. Unsurprisingly, Laura takes her duty seriously to the point of obsession, ensuring that her follow honour guard Terminators always keep up with their Primarch on the battlefield and preventing more "political" threats from befalling Karmella and the Legion. Armed with a master-crafted Power Sword gifted to her by the Primarch and wielding a rare Infernus Crossbow as a sidearm, Vânători has used these weapons to steadfastly defend her charge, though, in most cases such protection is entirely unnecessary. Notably, Laura was the very first of Karmella's followers on Caligo, having been the one to guide her out of the wilderness to and teach her of her own humanity. She was also the first Caligite to undergo the transformation into a Space Marine. Affectionately referred to as "My dearest and first companion" by the Primarch, the two consider themselves sisters and so much more. As her must trusted advisor, Vânători knows her Primarch's darkest secrets and is aware of the dark temptations that gripe her very soul.
Elder Tisiphone Erinyes—The former Legion Master of the VII and the current Elder of the Covenant of Lamentable Ruination was one of the first Terran Astartes inducted into the VII Legion. Tisiphone has served the Legion for centuries and once led it alongside her blood sisters as the "Furies Triumvirate" in the days when they were known as the Emperor's Furies and had yet to unite with their lost Primarch. Though an infamously brutal commander during her tenure as Legion Master, Tisiphone has her doubts about the new direction the Legion was taken under the Karmella's wing. She dislikes the Legion's new culture of secrecy, seeing the influence of the Inquisition as corrosive to its sisterhood, and considers the Caligites' cultural superstitions be both provincial and hypocritical. Tisiphone has boldly made these concerns known to Karmella a number of times, and although the Primarch has made some reforms Tisiphone is still troubled.
Chief Librarian Alekto Erinyes—One of the few remaining Terran-born Astartes left in the Legion, Alekto holds the equivalent rank of Chief Librarian in the Dread Warden's Librarius and directs the secretive coven in its clandestine lore culling operations, which involves the gathering and containment of esoteric lore that runs counter to the principles of the Imperial Truth. Though psykers within the VII Legion are typically distrusted by their follow Wardens—this is true especially of Caligites who historically suffered at the hands of Warp-mad witches on their dark homeworld—and the Librarius is small and severely limited in what powers its Librarians are sanctioned to utilise, Alekto is still highly respected by the Primarch herself, and is even an honorary member of the Justicary. Unlike her sister, Tisiphone, Alekto is unquestionable devoted to Karmella and sees her vision of the Legion, and even her shackling of the Librarius, as necessary for the good of the Imperium and mankind.
Elder Marram Brijit—The newly promoted Elder of the Covenant of the Bleeding Heart earned her position after not only commanding the defence of the Agri-World Acadia from an Ork WAAAAGH!, but also for avenging the death of her predecessor by, ironically enough, using her Power Maul to smash in the skull of Warboss Zogghul Facesmasha. Since she has been given command of the Covenant, Brijit has reprioritised the force's specialty, dedicating it to forlorn hope actions and liberation campaigns. Notably, Brijit is neither Terran nor Caligite, having instead been scouted on Samedi's World and given the rare privilege of being sent to the Legion's fortress-monastery on Caligo. She was inspired to join the Legion after witnessing Karmella liberate her world and people from the sorcerous control of its pretender god, Samedi the Undying, whose divinity was definitively proven to be a lie when the Primarch decapitated the ancient necromancer with a single swing of her Power Sword. Though the Dread Wardens are taught the twin needs of succor and retribution when it comes to achieving justice, Elder Brijit is likely one of the highest ranked wardens that favors the former well over the latter.
Elder Barba Gor—Born on the once infamous night world of Nostramo, Barba Gor was one of the hundreds of Nostraman girls and young women taken back to Caligo to be inducted into the Dread Wardens after the Legion conquered her world by inspiring a popular revolt against its foul aristocracy of crime lords and villains. Indeed, she was one of the billions of Nostramans who took up arms against her world's elites having been a more than willing follower of the "dark knights" after an suspicious cruel scion of the House Skraivok brutally killed her father as part of some murderous joke. Having excelled in urban guerilla warfare during the uprising and shown herself to be an incredibly skilled investigator and data-sleuth during her training on Caligo, Gor quickly rose through the ranks of the Dread Wardens, eventually becoming the new Elder of the Covenant of Quiet Night after her predecessor Megaera Erinyes succumbed to [REDACTED]. As with Elder Brijit, a close friend and battle-sister of hers, Gor prefers to focus on protecting the innocent over punishing the guilty and is well-known and respected for her ability to organise and conduct low-collateral campaigns.
Warden-Sergeant Xanda—Known affectionately by to her friends as the "Nursemaid" by many of her superiors, Xanda was a relatively unremarkable (if uncommonly sanguine) neophyte of a tactical coterie before her Conclave's deployment against a force of Eldar that wished to reclaim a Maiden World from "mon-keigh infestation". Not soon after her Conclave was given its objectives it came under assault from a column of Warp Spiders that started to shred her squad with shuriken fire. Escaping the ambush as its sole survivor, Xanda made her way to her Conclave's command position in a nearby hive city only to discover that it too had been ambushed and destroyed by the Eldar. With no other recourse left to her, the neophyte went into the underlevels of the hive city to avoid the Eldar and wait for the Legion to reinforce the world. It was there that she encountered a dozen children made orphans by the Eldar who had likewise taken refuge in the underlevels. Taking these children under her wing, and providing for them as best she could, Xanda singlehandedly protected them from Eldar death squads for more than eight months, avoiding the enemy when she could and eliminating them outright using audacious ingenuity and unorthodox traps. When the world was finally reinforced, Xanda was commended for her bravery and endurance by Karmella herself and promoted to Warden-Sergeant.
Knight-Centura Alexiana Donn—The Sisters of Silence's liaison to the Dread Wardens has facilitated the clandestine joint operations of the two orders for decades since the end of the Silent Crusade, having been selected by Sister-Commander Jenetia Krole herself for the task. As benefitting a Sister of her rank, Alexiana still has several cadres of Null-Maidens under her command despite her new duties amongst the Dread Wardens. Though now tied to the VII, Alexiana and her cadres are not bonded in service to them, with her allegiance to the Sisters of Silence and the Imperial Household still being paramount despite her years of sorority to the Karmella and the Dread Wardens. As such, she has privately investigated the Legion's many secrets and learned quite a few of them, though, she has not found anything damning. Yet…
Remembrancer Renus Fiel—One of only a handful of Remembrancers allowed to observe the Dread Wardens, Renus has served as Karmella's personal scribe for several years. Though originally assigned to the Primarch so he could translate her various treatises on philosophy and law from her native tongue to Gothic and other languages for wider Imperial consumption and assessment, his days are now dominated by the unenviable task of transcribing Karmella's nightmarish visions of the Imperium's future. Years of isolation in the haunting confines of the Tenebrosity, as well as acting as Karmella's personal confessor in all but name has, unfortunately, driven the once hopeful and sanguine Remembrancer to the edges of insanity, and perhaps even off it.
Battle-cry:
"For the innocent and the pure, we shall ward off the night!"
"Justice and vigilance!"
Legionary History:
"Know this, mortal. The Imperium of Man will suffer no division. Mankind must be reunited in its entirety under the Emperor's justice. So, will you accept Compliance, or must I break your spine and make a wasteland of your worlds?"
—Words spoken by Legion Master Tisiphone Erinyes during a parley with the ambassadors of the Uillean League
Even before uniting with their infamously zealous Primarch, the VII Legion was a force dedicated to enforcing the laws of the nascent Imperium. Even going as far back as their earliest participation in the Unification Wars on Terra, the VII showed themselves to be a Legion whose talents lay firmly in the re-pacification of faithless warlord-states that would bow before the Emperor only to go back on their words and break whatever obligations He had demanded of them. When the aristocratic planto-lords of Old Gylea once again took up their foul trade despite the Imperium's sanction against the practice, the Emperor sent the VII to liberate their flesh pits and bind the slavers to their own collars. When the gene-tyrants of the Ar-Gene Enclaves went back on their promises to end their genocidal purges of their follow humans, the Emperor sent the VII to eradicate the fools once and for all. When the High Academician of Silica Vale restarted his experiments into Abominable Intelligence, the Emperor sent the VII to destroy his androids and drag him to the Imperial Palace in chains. These victories and others naturally led to the Legion becoming known as the "Emperor's Furies", vengeful and ruthless instruments of his will. The Legion would readily take up the cognomen as their official designation by the time the Unification Wars came to an end.
Given the origins of the Legion's original recruits—slaves and political prisoners banished to the subterranean prisons of Terra at the whim of corrupt aristocrats and dictators—it should come to no surprise that the Astartes of the VII would turn out to be so utterly obsessed about their notions of justice and injustice, and their absolute conviction that the latter had to be brutally punished to maintain the former. Indeed, even as the Emperor's Furies were a vaulted tool and weapon for the Imperium, it was also understood that they were a force meant only to be used upon the most despicable of rebels and oathbreakers and not against the common defiants who resisted Imperial Compliance during the early phrases of the Great Crusade. Very rarely was the VII used to subdue such worlds and systems, for fear of their habitual brutality likely heightening the conquered's feelings of resentment against the Imperium. Bringers of the law and order they may have been, but the Furies was not a Legion well-versed in restraint and subtlety when it came to the enforcement of either. Terror assaults and decimation were common tools in the Legion's campaigns and the force would not typically discriminate between belligerents and civilians when it came to warfare.
When Karmella was first introduced to her daughters at their great mustering on her homeworld, she swore to earn their allegiance and love by her deeds and not solely on account of her station as a Primarch. Plunging her sword into Caligo's dark soil and bowing to the assembled Astartes, Karmella promised to honor the Legion's established culture and methods. That promise was mostly held true, though, great changes would come to the Legion, nevertheless. For one, the Legion's practice of unrestricted brutality and decimation would be significantly reformed and redirected once Karmella took command of it. Though by no means adverse to exterminating the enemy when she deemed it necessary and just, the Primarch found her Legion's indifference towards civilian causalities to be unacceptable and quickly went about addressing this perceived fault soon after taking command of the force.
Decimation and ruination would remain, yes, but the Midnight Angel implemented new stratagems and were both familiar and innovative to the Legion. No longer would the VII simply leave a world and move on to the next once they had pacified it. Instead they would learn how to ensure that a world never spit upon its oaths Imperium and the Emperor again via methods that went beyond simple fear of reprisal. As with the Imperial Iterators, they were taught the power of propaganda, but also the utility of performative displays of justice and mercy along with more intricate and subtle forms of psy-ops that ensured that possible counterinsurgencies would be alienated from populaces reconditioned mentally, socially and culturally to revere the Imperium of Man and its laws and ethos.
The Legion's naming to the Dread Wardens was not the only cultural legacy of their Primarch's upbringing and homeworld. Numerous reclassifications and reorganisations were made as well to the make the Legion fall more in line with Caligite traditions and Karmella's preferred methods, though, the Primarch made sure to not to overstep and she allowed her Terran-born Astartes to ignore more superficial customs and rituals if they so choose. Under her direction, the Legion would no longer be only the law's defenders and enforcers but also its philosophers and even makers, with all fledgling recruits being made to not only read and memorise the Lex Imperialis, but also understand its juridical reasoning, philosophies and origins. The same was done in regard to Caligo's own native laws, the Code of Caligo, with its jurisprudence becoming the overall ideology of the entire Legion.
Notable campaigns and battles:
The Gothika VI Compliance—Though originally instructed by the War Council of the Imperium to assist the oligarchs of Gothika VI in suppressing a planet-wide uprising, Karmella instead decided to back the rebels after investigating the actual origins and causes of their rebellion. Believing Gothika's aristocrats to be unworthy of the Imperium and its lofty ideals, the Primarch ordered her Legion to turn their weapons against the oligarchy's forces even as their armies were about to invade the rebel-held underlevels of the Hive World. With the element of surprise and deception on their side, along with the support of the rebels, the Dread Wardens quickly overwhelmed the oligarchs with coordinated ambushes and shock assaults and take the sprawling Hive World within days. By the time War Council learned of this deception, the world's ruling class had already been executed by the vengeful rebels or re-educated by the soon to be infamous "redeemers" in the Covenant of Loving Embrace and made to publicly confess their sins to the populace. With the deed already done and the Emperor strategically silent on the merit of his daughter's actions, the Primarch and most of her Legion left the world without so much as a reprimand. Elements of the Covenant of Loving Embrace would linger to ensure that planet and its triumphant rebels were successfully ingratiated into the Imperium.
The Extermination of Species 19-83—The ethereal xenos breed only referred to in official Imperial records as Species 19-83 appeared in realspace after an unsanctioned Mechanicum experiment involving artificially created psykers went wrong and resulted in the creation of a tear in space-time that the xenos proceed to swarm out of in the millions. Though much of the world had already fallen to the creatures by the time the Dread Wardens arrived, Karmella refused to abandon its remaining human inhabitants and condemn the world to Exterminatus. Instead, on the advice of her Chief Librarian, she led a deep strike into the center of the xenos horde in an attempt to close the portal that linked the aliens home dimension and their "Mind Tyrant". While providing Alekto and her coven time to seal the gate, Karmella and the Terminators of First Covenant engaged the "Speaker of the Tyrant," one of the poor psyker children that had accidentally created the portal and had been possessed by the entity on the other side of it. When Karmella managed to strangle the Speaker to death after losing her Power Sword to one of its tendrils, the resulting psychic death scream weakened the dimensional rift just enough for the coven to finish their work and close the tear. Though the creatures were not suddenly eliminated, the loss of their connection to their overmind did devolve them into senseless feral beasts that were quickly swept away by the Dread Wardens's purgation teams and strategic Thunderhawk bombardments.
The Tribulation of Malore V—The prosperous Hive World of Malore V was abruptly attacked by a force of unrecognisable Astartes who, without so much as hailing the planet's authorities, bombard several of the world's hive spires. These spires were home to much of Malore's nobility, including the Planetary Governor and his heavily shielded residence. While this assault was occurring, the Hive World's Arbites began to simultaneously attack the command centres of Malore's PDF, issuing out the ultimatum that they could either surrender their bases or suffer the "Emperor's Justice". None of the commanders of the PDF wished to test the Arbites on their threat and promptly surrendered. With the Planetary's Governor's spire now defenceless, several squads of the unknown Astartes immediately teleported in and began to slaughter every aristocrat and courtier in their sight. It is said that when they finally came upon the weeping Planetary Governor, he asked them who they were, for which they answered with, "The Just." When representatives of the War Council of the Imperium demanded an answer for this coup, neither the unknown commander of the Astartes or the lead Arbites deigned to explain themselves in person. Instead, they transmitted a data stub which held undeniable proof of not only the Planetary Governor's illicit dealings with nefarious xenos but that of his entire court.
The Nostraman Conquest—The Imperial Compliance of Nostramo started when the ambassadors of the Imperial Corps of Iterators returned from their failed diplomatic mission to the planet and spoke of the shadow world as a debased hive of scum and villainy unworthy of the peaceful admittance to the Imperium. Thus, the Dread Wardens were tasked by the War Council to bring about its violent conquest. Instead of abiding by the recommendations of the War Council by conventionally bringing the world into the Imperial fold, Karmella and a team of thirteen Astartes and thrice as many mortal agents secretly made their way to Nostramo's surface. Within a month of their arrival there was a widespread talk of "dark knights" providing justice to the downtrodden and of vigilante groups being formed under their mentorship. In five months there are riots across Nostramo, all led by native Nostramans who claim to be "illuminated". Within eight months these riots have turned into an organised resistance that soon overwhelm criminal aristocrats of Nostramo. By the time the bulk of the Dread Warden fleet arrivals in the system, Karmella's followers have already conquered the world in both body and soul.
The Silent Crusade—Alongside Knight-Commander Jenetia Krole and several Vigils worth of Sisters of Silence, Karmella led her Legion's fleet in a five year campaign of extermination across the galaxy. The crusade saw them decimate or outright perform Exterminatus on a great many worlds seemingly at random and for no eligible benefit for the Imperium given that some of them were primitive backwaters of little material or strategic use to the Imperium. Those few Imperial commanders that caught wind of the secret campaign and complained about its "shameful waste of the Emperor's ordnances" to the War Council would either be stone-walled in their inquiries, mind-wiped of their knowledge of the crusade, or not soon after disappear under mysterious circumstances.
The Duel on Ila-Manesh—Acting on clandestine orders given by the Emperor himself, the Dread Wardens attacked the minor Craftworld of Ila-Manesh with no less than eight Covenants, much of their fleet, and the psi-Titans of the Ordo Sinister with the intent of securing the Craftworld and its alien technologies for the Imperium. While the initial invasion was a success, the battle radically shifted once the Bonesingers of the Craftworld were able to activate their Webway gate and call for aid from the other members of their species. Jain Zar, the Phoenix Lord of the Howling Banshees would be the one to answer with teeming waves of Howling Banshees at her back. Her counter-attack turned the tide as she singlehandedly slayed entire coteries of Dread Wardens with her inhumane grace and speed. When Karmella meet the Phoenix Lord after seeing the corpses of dozens of her chider dead at the Eldar's hands, an apocalyptic duel broke out between the stoic Storm of Silence and the now unusually bloodthirsty Midnight Angel as their followers battled in the ruins of a burning Craftworld. This duel would come to abrupt end when an Eldar Titan nearly came crashing down upon the pair and their honour guards after being critically it by the cannon of a Psi-Titan. Realising that the loss of their last Titan meant the inevitable loss of the Craftworld, Jain Zar ordered her warriors-maidens to make an organised retreat to the Webway. Consumed by bloodlust, Karmella nearly followed the Storm of Silence through the Webway Gate, heedless of the danger. If not for the calming words of her First Warden may well have followed. Pulled back from the throngs of the Hunger, Karmella was able to organise her Legion and turn their focus on annihilating what few dogged Eldar defenders remained on the decimated Craftworld, thus bringing conflict to an end. Though much of IIa-Manesh was destroyed in the battle, its Webway gate was still mostly intact and was thus sent to the secret confines of the Imperial Dungeon on Terra for study and analysis.