Méduse d'Hiver and the Lost Legion
By author Perfidious Albion
The Thirteenth Primarch: Méduse d'Hiver
Name:
Méduse d'Hiver, also known as the Lady of Winter, nowadays known as the Lost Primarch.
Appearance:
Méduse was (or is) tall and exceptionally pale, yet with jet-black hair and striking violet eyes. The sight of her eyes was said to leave a person pinned in place, transfixed and trembling, until she turned away and released him or her. In battle she wielded a custom-made storm bolter of the sort that would normally be carried by a Land Raider tank. For melee, she also bore a double-bladed Power Axe Felwinter. Her armour seemed almost crystalline and was all in white.
Talents and Personality:
The Lady of Winter was (or is) talented with a blade, fierce in battle, yet secretive, reclusive. She was known to sing, always in her own tongue, Joyaublancaise. She had a lovely voice. Many Primarchs recall the heart-lifting songs of her homeworld.
Méduse was seemingly social and kind; yet there was a certain distance with her, a certain guardedness. She never told quite everything. Her Legion took after her example. The Ice Queens seemed friendly, personable, to the other Legions. But they did not tell everything, and they seldom fought alongside other Legions. It is as if they were hiding something—perhaps some terrible secret that would later lead to their downfall.
Homeworld:
Joyaublanc.
Little is known of Joyaublanc, these days. The Ice Queens have said it was beautiful. The only reason its name is still known to the remaining Space Marine Legions is that the XIII Legion was once a normal Legion (or at least seemed to be), interacting with the others. And even then, its name is only remembered by the Astartes and a few others in the elite of the Imperium. To the regular citizens of the Imperium, it is as if the Thirteenth Primarch and XIII Legion never existed at all.
By the time of today, the planet Joyaublanc has been declared uninhabitable (an indicator of either natural disaster, plague, or Exterminatus) and erased from all maps of the Imperium. Nobody knows where in the galaxy it was.
Psychic potential:
Unknown.
Background:
When all the Primarchs were stolen from their father by the will of the Ruinous Powers, the pod of the Thirteenth Primarch landed on Joyaublanc. There she
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The XIII Legion: the Lost Legion
Name:
The Lost Legion. Prior to their mysterious disappearance, they were called the Ice Queens. Earlier even than that, when their Primarch Méduse d'Hiver had not yet been rediscovered, they were called the Stormdaughters, and the XIII Legion was like any other loyal to the Emperor.
Insignia and Appearance:
The Power Armour of the Ice Queens was coloured white. It must have been made differently from the Power Armour of other Space Marine Legions, for its texture seemed crystalline, almost translucent. Some see in this the signs of vile xenos influence which led to the Ice Queens' downfall. Others dismiss this as nonsense and say it was simply a form of stealth tech. As with most things about the Lost Legion, the truth is lost and will likely never be known.
Gene-seed Status:
Extinct. (Or are they?)
Legionary Assets:
Legion Organisation:
Expertise and Combat Doctrine:
Legion Weaknesses:
Beliefs and Practices:
Recruitment and Discipline:
Characters of Interest:
Battle-cry:
Unknown.
Legionary History:
The Ice Queens were like any other Legion loyal to the Emperor of Mankind and the Imperium of Man… until they were not.
No-one knows what happened to them. Well, not quite no-one. The Emperor knows. The Primarchs also know, for they were told by the Emperor himself, but all those Primarchs who have been with the Imperium long enough to know the truth swore a binding oath to each other that they would not speak of it. Certainly, the Space Marine Legions do not know what happened to the Ice Queens. Most of the Imperium does not even know that they ever existed.
What is known is that the War Council of the Imperium of Man, under the sign and seal of Malcador the Sigillite, sent out an Edict of Damnatio Memoriae upon the XIII Legion. Nobody is to know of them. Nobody is to speak of them. Those who do not know should learn nothing more than they already know. Those who do know should not speak of it. The Ice Queens are never mentioned in Imperial propaganda and news services. All mentions of the XIII Legion have been deleted from history, with even their Compliances falsely assigned to other Legions. In time, as is good and righteous, the memory of the condemned should disappear forever.
The Astartes of the surviving Legions have of course respected the Edict. Some younger Astartes do not know the XIII Legion ever existed. But among themselves, the older Astartes—those who already know of the Lost Legion—debate in hushed voices what foul fate befell them.
The most popular belief (though not the only one) is that the XIII Legion betrayed the Imperium. They were caught planning their betrayal and the Emperor sent the dread Black Nineteenth to crush them. Joyaublanc, according to this theory, was in the Carina Nebula, and that is the truth of the Carina Nebula campaign: the mysterious war, deep inside the Imperium's borders, of which the XIX Legion refuse to speak. Each and every Ice Queen died at the hands of the Black Nineteenth, the Emperor's instrument of vengeance, and Nyx the Queen of the Night laid the Traitor Primarch's corpse at the feet of the Emperor.
As for why they were traitors, none know for sure. Some say the Lady of Winter was ambitious; she sought to replace the Emperor and rule the Imperium for herself. Others say that the Ice Queens were aberrantly friendly to xenos; that Méduse d'Hiver grew up on a homeworld whose population was as much xenos as human; that she never truly accepted the Imperium's beliefs, and turned traitor when her vile consorting with aliens was found out by the true loyal servants of mankind. Others say this is nonsense. It is widely agreed that the Ice Queens were one of the more xenos-friendly Legions, but many say that they were just relatively generous in granting defeated xenos species the mercy of protectorate status instead of extermination, and that was all; they always made sure mankind was on top and aliens were under its heel, like any loyal Legion. Some say the Ice Queens were a Legion of powerful psykers, and they indulged in some forbidden Warpcraft of vast scale—something so evil it was necessary for the Emperor to have them erased from history. That explanation for the XIII Legion's downfall is popular among the Legions that dislike psykers, such as the VI Legion, the Red Cossacks.
But all of that is only one belief, not the only one. Other Space Marines say that the Ice Queens were not traitors. They were victims. In the Carina Nebula, the Ice Queens encountered a foe they could not defeat. (The nature of this foe is undetermined. Some say they met a particularly rapacious and infectious xenos species, and the xenos-friendly Ice Queens were not careful enough about keeping it quarantined. Others say they awoke an ancient archaeotech nightmare, long lost and forgotten from the Golden Age of Technology.) To overcome this threat, the Emperor sent the so-called 'Black Legions': a collective name given to the XIX Legion, the Black Nineteenth, and the XX Legion, the Black Watch, because both of those Legions wear black Power Armour and have fought campaigns which are kept secret from the rest of the Imperium. The Emperor sent the Black Legions not to destroy the Ice Queens but to avenge them. In this theory, the Edict of Damnatio Memoriae was not punishment for traitors. It was to erase the shame of knowing that a Space Marine Legion had been defeated and destroyed by the Imperium's enemies, news which would be demoralising to the other Legions.
This theory's advocates back up their argument by pointing to the facts that, first of all, the Excoriator Companies of the Black Watch specialise in fighting ancient tech-horrors and the most virulent and vile of xenos species; and secondly, an uncommonly large number of Excoriator Companies were missing on duties unknown at the time the Black Nineteenth fought their Carina Nebula campaign. However, the activities of the Black Watch are little-known. It is entirely possible that the missing Excoriator Companies were fighting a completely different horror, nowhere near the Carina Nebula.
Other Astartes say that both of these are wrong; the Carina Nebula campaign had nothing to do with the Ice Queens. They say the believers in the previous two ideas are just conflating two secret, classified events, the Carina Nebula campaign and the disappearance of the Ice Queens, on the assumption that they must be the same thing. These sceptical Astartes might well be right. Certainly, there are plenty of secrets in the galaxy.
Others believe that the Ice Queens' fate had nothing to do with treachery, xenos, archaeotech monstrosities, or the Carina Nebula. They got embroiled in an abomination of Warpcraft which had to be purged by the loyal servants of the Imperium. These Astartes often claim that the XIV Legion, the Crowned Hunters, had something to do with the death of the Lost Legion. The Crowned Hunters deny this, just like the XIX and XX Legions deny their own involvement, but… well… they doubtless would deny it if it were true.
And it is not certain that the XIII Legion have been totally destroyed.
Among some in the Imperial Army, there is a whispered belief in a hidden Legion, a secret Legion loyal to the Emperor of Mankind. This 'Legion of Ghosts' is said to appear only in the darkest hour of an Imperial Army force and come to their aid, then disappear as soon as the battle is done. Many things are said of the Legion of Ghosts. It is said they are Space Marines armoured all in white. It is said all of them are women, beautiful, black of hair and pale of skin. It is said they speak in a strange, lilting language, not the same as Low or High Gothic. It is said they fight with great axes. It is said they howl at the stars like wolves to cry their grief at the loss of their homeworld. It is said that they have wings, great and feathered. It is even said that they fly down to fallen heroes of the Imperial Army and carry their souls to the Emperor on high, so that they might fight on, in his name.
Of course, soldiers and spacemen are notorious gossips. Spacemen—the modern equivalent of ancient Terra's sailors—are particularly infamous for it. The more 'out-there' statements are almost certainly false. It is quite possible that none of this is true at all. But if it is true—if there is a grain of truth, amid the soldiers' and spacemen's tall tales—then perhaps the XIII Legion did not entirely die. Maybe there really is a Legion of Ghosts, formed of either loyalists or survivors of that Legion, depending on whether one believes the Ice Queens were destroyed by the Imperium's enemies or by the Imperium itself. Maybe the Legion of Ghosts really does fight on for Imperium and Emperor.
Some even say that Méduse d'Hiver is not dead. An Imperial purge destroyed most of her Legion, but she survived, and led a band of thousands of Astartes fleeing to the far fringes of the galaxy. There she rests still to this day, gathering her strength and plotting revenge against the Imperium.
Is it true? Is any of it true? The Emperor of Mankind knows. Likely, so does Constantin Valdor, first of the Legio Custodes, for he is ever at his master's side. So, too, Malcador the Sigillite, almost certainly, for he is the Emperor's oldest and most trusted ally. About half of the Primarchs know too—those who were rediscovered by the Emperor longer ago—and are sworn to silence. Maybe one or two of the Legions know—the XIV or XIX or XX Legion—if the wild theories are true that they played a part. Everyone else is ignorant. Everyone else in the Imperium can only guess as to the fate of the Lost Legion.
What is certain is that the Ice Queens' fate still sends chills down the spines of the remaining Legiones Astartes, for it is testament that they are not immortal. Memento mori. Even a Legion does not last forever.
Even a Legion can die.