Urgrond and the Trenchwalkers
By author SIngemeister
The Eighth Primarch: Urgrond
Name:
Urgrond, known as the Imperial Servant, the Bureaucrat, the Form-Lord, the Half-Drowned, the Abyssal, and "Of the Lightless Eyes".
Appearance:
Urgrond is not what anyone would call a handsome man—in fact, he is probably the ugliest of his siblings. His eyes are bulging, glassy, and seemingly almost black. His skin is leathery and rough, and is dark grey in colour, almost corpse like—the oddest features are the strange patches that almost appear to light up in the dark. He has teeth that are disturbingly pointed teeth, and bears no hair on his body. He is just above average height for a Primarch, and his body is thick and muscular.
His clothing is simple fare, resembling high quality garments usually associated with the administrative classes on Kalanguld, which might be referred to on another worlds as a heavily pocketed boiler suit, albeit with some light filigree to distinguish his rank. Despite appearances, all his clothing is designed for maximum functionality, including layers of defensive weaves, numerous pockets, and integrated technology.
In battle, he wears the Hadal Plate, artificer Power Armour designed to maximise his close-quarters combat ability, deep blue in colour with white lenses. It can be perfectly hermetically sealed to survive most any biological or chemical attack, and bears an extremely powerful signal light on the front that can be used to indicate to his soldiers, or to blind enemies. His main arms are the Abyssal Aegis, a mighty power shield forged in the depths of the lava rifts in Kalanguld; the Deepfang, a Power Sword designed after the teeth of the predators of his homeworld; and Ire-from-Tranquility, a specially designed heavy storm bolter able to switch between various shell types instantly, without running out.
Talents and Personality:
Urgrond is the greatest organisational and logistical genius in the galaxy. None can match his ability to direct and bolster supply chains, troop movements, equipment distribution, and other such matters. His ability borders on supernatural, able to cut through mountains of red tape with rapid action, and understand the best course with only minimal information. In turn, this leads to the worlds conquered by his Legion being rapidly rebuilt and brought into the Imperial fold.
While he remains at the standard level of military genius for a Primarch, his special skillset means his Legion operates at full strength almost constantly, never entering a lull in action, always moving ever onward.
Urgrond is not by nature a sociable, or indeed particularly pleasant, person, though he does possess a forceful charisma that makes it difficult for even his more wayward siblings to ignore his words. He is blunt, honest, and logical, and constantly gives recommendations to any and all—when he is not sorting them out himself. Raising his anger is nearly impossible, though making him irritated with consistent inefficiency is considerably easier. His greatest flaw would be his controlling tendencies, though that is mitigated by the fact that those things he controls run extremely smoothly and productively.
Homeworld:
Kalanguld is a world entirely covered by ocean. The deepest trenches stretch far beyond the reach of sunlight, and the only land is made from ever-growing coral atolls, stony outcroppings habituated by squabbling avians, and volcanic ash-islands that rise to the surface for a few days before sinking below the waves once more. Monstrous fish, cyclopean cephalopods, sea serpents, tempestuous rorquals and many more leviathans call this world home, ever a threat to the inhabitants.
It is only in the depths of the world-ocean that humans exist. Oh, perhaps some of the creatures that live in the open ocean or dwell within the coral-continents are of distant human descent, altered by bizarre evolutionary necessity or twisted transhuman desires; but the only pure, true people dwelled within great habitats on the ocean floor. Their lives were cramped and dangerous, scavenging and recycling as much as they can, reliant on hunting parties and algal vats for food. Vast and bitter feuds over the most inconsequential thing existed within and between these disparate colonies, and there were perhaps more ruined, deserted constructs littering the benthic zone than inhabited ones—a legacy of those feuds.
Since the arrival of Urgrond, life considerably improved for the Kalangulders. Great habitats stretch across the bottom of the world-ocean, climbing up the coral islands, reaching into the stars. Busy space-docks and orbital stations have been set up, bringing men and materiel to and from the home of the Trenchwalkers. It remains one of their greatest recruiting grounds, as it is here that the Urgrondine bureaucratic apparatus and evaluating bodies are at their most developed and most entrenched, managing half-a-hundred worlds and several expeditionary fleets.
Psychic potential:
Urgrond does not have any acknowledged psychic capabilities—though questions have been raised over his ability to discern information and plans from missing data, as well as a certain ability to see through complete and even Warp-spawned darkness.
Background:
The pod of the Eighth Primarch landed in the deepest trench of the planet. Had it not done so during a particularly paranoid era for the administration of the nearby Tzeelaub Hunterwaul, that might have been the end of the Eighth Primarch. Fortunately for the whole Imperium, a retrieval team was sent out to investigate this blip on their sonar, and came back bearing the half-drowned Primarch Urgrond, the Abyssal.
After running a few tests upon him, Urgrond was given to and raised by an infertile couple in the management corps. As he grew, he took an interest in their work, and soon outstripped them all in the field of organisational skill. Mountains of paperwork and great walls of red tape crumbled alike as he turned his eye on them. He cut expenses, work hours and resource wastage whilst increasing morale and base efficiency tenfold. With more time on their hands, the inhabitants were turned to forgotten or dismissed projects that had been deemed impossible due to a lack of resources. Urgrond worked with the engineering corps to improve even the most minute design flaws in the structure of the base, of the exosuits that allowed them to move outside in the ocean depths, of the various submersibles and other vehicles, and the myriad electronic and mechanical devices that populated the base.
As Tzeelaub Hunterwaul became more efficient, it began to grow. New accommodation habitats were built and attached to the sides like limpets. Rooms were expanded; maintenance bays were extended to hold the growing number of vehicles. Most importantly, for the first time in Kalanguld's history, ancient and forgotten habitats were recovered. Urgrond led many of the expeditions to bring these decrepit colonies back to working condition. People deemed superfluous to Tzeelaub, but potentially useful in these new colonies were deported to return them to working order.
Under his careful hand, Tzeelaub became something of an empire, a first for Kalanguld.
Of course, success breeds jealousy and fear. A confederation of habitat-states and mariner-lords declared a truce to their mutual cold war, and turned their attentions towards the expanding Tzeelaub. With submarines, benthic troopers and aquanauts, they launched a fearsome series of raids against Tzeelaub bases, believing that, for all his bureaucratic skill, this office manager-king would be no match for their larger force.
They were, rather obviously in hindsight, utterly wrong. For Urgrond was no mere desk jockey, but a Primarch, a son of the Emperor of Mankind, and a natural general and warrior without compare upon this world. Wherever the raiders struck, they found their moves predicted and soldiers in force sufficient to drive them off lying in wait. Urgrond himself led brutal, precise assaults upon his enemy's strongholds, never needing more than a single attack to break in and silence that habitat or bring it into his burgeoning empire. With him came his Trenchwalkers, fearsome storm troopers armed with shotgun and shield, designed to fill the narrow hallways with hails of flesh-shredding pellets. Those who fought him died, those who surrendered were taken prisoner in their own homes.
It was a cold and calculated war, efficient to the core. The habitat-states were incorporated into the Tzeelaub Empire one by one, either captured by Urgrond's forces or surrendering after being cut off from their allies by his manoeuvres. They soon reaped the benefits of his organisational skills, for even as they found themselves reassigned to new quarters, professions and habitats, the efficiency of every base increased.
Over the next decade or so, Kalanguld fell under Tzeelaub rule—and by extension Urgrond's, for it was his invisible hand that guided the process—as messengers came from the empire to other habitats bearing detailed documents outwardly concerning the many benefits of joining the empire, and with some more subtle passages hinting at the results of not willingly joining up.
With all possible external threats turned into allies, Urgrond focused his efforts inward. As his policies spread across Kalanguld, habitats flourished, expanding exponentially across the sea floor. Manufacturing wings and mining drones were produced in truly massive numbers as industry spread across the face of the deep.
It was probably a surprise to the birds on their rocky outcrops, long ignorant of the happenings far below, when a rocket tore out of the equatorial seas and flew towards the skies. The starship Gashagr bore a payload of outwardly focused observation satellites, designed for the next stage of Urgrond's plan. With a newly established ring of telescopes circling his planet, he and his astronomers looked out to find more civilisations he could 'enlighten' into efficient society, or even settle—with the self-sufficient deep-sea habitats being perfect templates for sleeper ships and founding colonies, the wide variety of undersea transport being surprisingly simple to convert into interstellar movement and the small number of psykers upon the planet being trained in facilitating long-distance communication making this an easier proposition than it first seemed. In all probability, he would have gone on to form a small empire, reliant upon sleeper ships and Astropathic communication.
It was then that the astronomers operating his satellites and telescopes found signs of a massive interstellar fleet moving through nearby systems. Sensing an opportunity, Urgrond changed priorities, focused his radio operations to attempt to signal this fleet, and readied a welcoming platform and attendant party. When the Emperor came to Kalanguld, he found his son ready and waiting.
The VIII Legion: the Trenchwalkers
Name:
The Trenchwalkers. Formerly the Salt Warriors before the Emperor rediscovered Urgrond.
Insignia and Appearance:
Their symbol is a black trident, with Squad, Chapter, Company, Great Company, and Legion numbers interspersed between the prongs. Rank symbols are displayed on the opposing pauldron, underneath the transferable role designation symbol.
The Legion's colours are dark blue and dark purple, practically indistinguishable. Their lenses however, are bright white. Captains and higher ranks are also identified by simple geometric shapes in gold on the crown of their power packs.
Gene-seed Status:
The gene-seed of the VIII Legion is robust and bonds readily to the genetic material of new recruits. The only known flaw is that it tends to shift the features of the Astartes towards their progenitor, with the same glassy eyes, grey skin, and pointed teeth.
Progenoid glands are removed from the Legionary as soon as they have matured, so that they can be quickly put back into service.
Legionary Assets:
The Kalanguld Expanse is probably the greatest of the Legion's achievements, a collection of the worlds they have conquered, integrated, and redesigned according to Urgrond's development structures. Asides from aforementioned planets, there are also two Mechanicum worlds of note: Chandaglise and Fornos-7, as well as the shipyards of Obriegel, Willinley, and Matisha. The planets of the Expanse are highly compliant and remarkably productive in terms of men and materiel, though many argue that the worlds have lost a not-insignificant portion of their individuality in their reconstruction and new planning. Much of the necessary intra-Expanse administration takes place on Kalanguld itself, with other significant nexus points being Nonyorik, Tschaba, and Poralia.
The Trenchwalkers mostly use standard Space Marine equipment, the only exception being the Orbahk-pattern Bolter, identical to the standard pattern asides from the addition of an underslung Harpoon Launcher and cable-reel. These are used sparingly, but can be a considerable asset on the battlefield.
The Legion's flagship is the Gloriana-class battleship Eosphorean, a heavily modified vessel with a truly impressive amount of storage and personnel space. The Legion's fleet is large, with a massive transport component, and proportionally more escort-craft dedicated to protecting supply lines.
Legion Organisation:
The VIII Legion is mostly organised along the lines of the Principia Belicosa laid out by the Thunder Warriors, but altered to be even more absolutely regular and decimal.
—A squad is of 10 Space Marines, led by a Sergeant.
—A company is of 100 Space Marines, led by a Captain.
—A chapter is of 1,000 Space Marines, led by a Chapter Master.
—A Great Company is of 10,000 Space Marines, led by a Praetor.
—A Hadal is of 100,000 Space Marines, led by a Hadalist. This is the largest subdivision, under the full Legion.
Each commander also has a Logistician, responsible for correct supply consignment within the administrative unit. Most commanders at Captain-level or above have a Librarian assigned to them, the others being assigned to details where they would be most useful.
In most cases, each Hadal operates as a separate front in the overall Legion strategic plan, acting in co-ordination with the others, though significant threats may require the combined action of two, or even three Hadals. Urgrond normally leads the First Hadal, but will move between the various Hadals as required.
Materiel is split evenly between each Hadal, with sufficient surplus behind the front line to be assigned as conditions require. Indeed, the logistical surety of the Legion informs their general grand strategy—a slow yet constant and never-ending push. Each Hadal will hold a significant amount of materiel of its own, with each subdivision being assigned a quantity deemed necessary for effective operations, often backed with Urgrond's "8% Extra" ruling.
Expertise and Combat Doctrine:
In accordance with the ideal of efficiency, the Astartes of the Trenchwalkers are expected to be equally competent in close-quarters combat, ranged warfare, stealth actions, shock assaults, both sides of siege warfare and the usage of both jump packs, combat shields and heavy weaponry. As such, they are generally less competent in certain areas than Legions that specialise in such, but their more generalist tendencies make them more flexible. If more assault teams are called for, then they can be formed relatively quickly from any other squadron in a superfluous role; likewise if more armour is required, the surplus can be deployed and manned rapidly. In fact, Trenchwalker operations often tend to be heavy on armour presence, as field repair stations are a common site in secured areas.
Perhaps their only real speciality is in the field of underwater combat, where their training regimens on oceanic worlds such as Kalanguld, Creigre and Thalassia gives them an innate advantage.
Trenchwalker strategy emphasises patience and caution over aggression and boldness. Whilst this is a factor towards their relatively slow pace of expansions, it also means they take fewer losses, and infrastructure is less damaged. While they may take time to begin an attack, when they do it is callous and ruthless. Their operation strategy involves putting constant, insistent pressure on the enemy, utilising weight of numbers and materiel to break through.
Special units:
If there is any organisation that makes the Trenchwalkers differ from being the average Legion, it would be the Maelstrom—a title given to a group of the most experienced Astartes in any given unit, trusted with the most dangerous details, normally protecting the commander or with leading close-quarters assaults. They are traditionally armed with storm shields and assault shotguns, and typically are equipped with blind grenades—though they are also the Legion's Terminator troops. As the lone specialist troops, they are found at the forefront of battle, and often act as Urgrond's bodyguard.
Legion Weaknesses:
The greatest flaws of the Legion are its caution and its predictability. Though the combat stratagems preferred by the Trenchwalkers are highly effective, they are often slow to implement and subject to decision paralysis and commanders and logisticians attempt to redirect the vast war machine of the VIII Legion, allowing for a sufficiently creative enemy to outfox them. Though Companies can often react and respecialise quickly, these changes do not take place across a whole battlefront, and due to Trenchwalker combat doctrine prescribing the simplest solutions to emergent problems, often mean that an enemy that has adapted to one such respecialisation is already prepared for such a process to repeat itself across the whole battlefront. On a personal level, the logical and thoughtful mindset encouraged in Astartes does not lend itself well to the rigours of melee combat, and Trenchwalkers have a bad habit of overthinking instead of reacting whilst in close-quarters.
The Legion's limited ability with public relations, and their fondness for attrition warfare and infrastructure preservation mean they often have lower success rates against guerrilla warfare strategies than their fellow Legions—though of course, any opponent trying such a strategy would do well to remember that the VIII have all things in abundance, including orbit-to-surface torpedo shells, and that all things can be rebuilt in time.
Beliefs and Practices:
Astartes of the VIII Legion are allowed to decorate and personalise their own arms and armour to a highly limited degree—enough that it can give them some individuality, but not so far as to hinder them in battle or affect unit cohesion. As such, it is ordinary for most of the Trenchwalkers to bear small personal trophies or insignia upon their equipment. In general, however, the Legion is not one given to grandiose declarations on matters such as honour, pride, or legacy—nor anger when they might feel such has been besmirched. Whether they are practical and humble or callous and dull is a matter of opinion, but it should be noted that on more than one occasion when the Legion's achievements have been called into question, that a Trenchwalker present will pull out a galactic map and indicate the Kalanguld Expanse as their pride and legacy.
The VIII is somewhat loyal to the ideals of the Imperial Truth, though a variety of superstitions still appear amongst the non-Terran recruits. The 'light' referred to in their motto is not that of any god, but instead is the light of civilisation, and the Trenchwalkers are devoted to spreading civilisation wherever they go. As such, they have a strong humanist streak despite their cold nature, and it is not uncommon for Space Marines of the Legion to advise fledgling governments or help civilians on recently conquered or integrated worlds, another factor towards their slow conquest rate.
Recruitment and Discipline:
The Trenchwalkers recruit primarily from Kalanguld and the first two worlds they conquered—the Feral World Thalassia and the Hive World Creigre, all of which have specialised academies designed to select the best possible recruits from the young population. Other worlds within the Kalanguld Expanse have similar academies, though provide a lesser volume of recruits. This wide array of recruiting worlds, combined with the typical brutal Urgrondine logistical efficiency, the relatively cautious war-making style of the Legion, and the readily-bonding nature of Urgrond's gene-seed leads to the Legion boasting a full strength of 300,000 Space Marines at any given time.
Discipline is dealt with on a squad level, and normally handled quietly. All Astartes of the Legion go through regular training exercises to maintain their flexibility, and an obvious lacking in one skill or another will result in repetition of training exercises.
Characters of Interest:
Rishnakh—The Primarch's Equerry and eternal counterpoint. Rishnakh is always trusted by Urgrond to spot flaws in his plans, and to provide counter-argument when necessary. He also leads the Maelstrom under Urgrond's command into battle.
Hadalist Auddadh—Commander of the First Hadal, Auddadh is the oldest living Space Marine in the Trenchwalkers, and a veteran of the Unification Wars. None in the Legion are more knowledgeable of the capabilities of an Astartes than he.
Hadalist Kauzrash—Commander of the Second Hadal, Kauzrash entered the Legion as a Terran recruit at a similar time that they were reunited with Urgrond. Showing considerable talent, if not perhaps an unseemly level of strategic aggression for one of the Trenchwalkers, he rose quickly through the ranks to his position.
Hadalist Khargol—Commander of the Third Hadal, Khargol is the highest ranking Kalangulder in the Trenchwalkers. He is sometimes referred to as the Lesser Urgrond, due to his extreme resemblance in both appearance and personality to his Primarch.
Fleetmaster Komarod—Komarod is the overall commander of the Legion's Fleet, and is the primary pilot of the Eosphorean, though he can sometimes be persuaded to leave his post.
Lanemaster Yegoth—Yegoth is the commander of the various supply fleets and escort craft under the auspices of the Trenchwalkers, and has a knowledge of the art of logistics second only to Urgrond himself.
Master of the Librarius Xagok—A Thalassian raised in their shamanic traditions, Xagok is part of Urgrond's inner circle, who finds the Librarian's powers of divination extremely useful for his procedural planning. Xagok will often go into battle alongside Urgrond and his Maelstrom, casting enemies aside with empyrean storms and waves.
Theyan Opir—A mathematical genius and Remembrancer attached to the Trenchwalkers.
Battle-cry:
"We walk in darkness!"
"For we bring the light!"
The Legion motto, used as a call-and-response war cry. The reading of ammunition counts is considered a secondary, informal war chant.
Legionary History:
—The Unification Wars: The Legion, as the Salt Warriors, saw limited action during the Unification Wars, predominantly due to not being officially inculcated yet. As such, they acted as supporting forces to other Legions, guarding supply lines and the like. The majority of their recruits came from the Atlan and Pacific basins, and saw action in subduing the Yndonesic Bloc.
The first major battles of the developing Legion were against the rebellious factions of the Ringers and cruel xenos around Saturn, where the Salt Warriors were instrumental in securing the various orbiting habitats and moons, and thus the Saturnine fleet.
—The Drusavangi Extermination: The Legion encounters a xenos empire of a foul myriapodic species. In eradicating the creatures, the Salt Warriors find that the xenos undergo frequent metamorphosis into different combat forms. The tactical flexibility and training of the Legion even before finding their Primarch allowed them to rapidly adapt to the changing face of this war, leading to a relatively simple victory.
—Reuniting at Kalanguld: With Kalanguld and Urgrond rediscovered, the Legion saw a new lease in life. For what would become the last time in a long while, the newly renamed Trenchwalkers ceased their advance as they aided the Primarch in his appraisal of the Imperium's logistical and administrative state. This culminated in a series of visits to Terra and his discovered siblings during which he gave extremely frank and honest advice, not all of which went down well.
—Destruction of Craftworld Bradach: The Craftworld of Bradach, known for its Corsair activities, was considered a potential threat to the future shipping lanes of the Trenchwalkers' area of expansion. Urgrond engaged to either destroy the Eldar, or to force them to flee elsewhere. The Corsairs fought well, but the Craftworld was destroyed, its Soul Stones and Infinity Circuit taken as plunder, and fleeing pirates hunted down. The Soul Stones and Infinity Circuit were later used to blackmail/bribe other Eldar forces into leaving given spaces.
—Unlit War: The Eighth Chapter of the First Hadal engages in a routine cleansing of an oceanic world. Upon finding strange metallic caverns in the depths of the world, they request reinforcements. This rapidly devolves into a brutal war of attrition against the synthetic Servitors that patrol the caverns.
—Devastation of 47-16-99: A viewing probe breaks through static over a discovered planet to find it populated by gigantic insectoid monstrosities. The planet is bombarded from orbit until the xenos are dead, and prepared for repopulation. Plant samples taken for potential usage.