Blood Angels

The Blood Angels are amongst the longest-living of the Adeptus Astartes, with some of the Chapter's Space Marines having served the Emperor of Mankind for over a thousand standard years. Due to recent events, the Blood Angels' numbers were severely depleted. Under the threat of extinction, and in order to quickly replenish their numbers, the Blood Angels were forced to ask their kindred Successor Chapters from subsequent Astartes Foundings for a tithe of warriors from the related Chapters' pools of neophytes, their candidate Space Marines. With these tithes of new recruits, and the recent arrival of the Primaris Space Marines during the Indomitus Crusade, the Blood Angels were able to replenish their losses, though they still face a time of trial like none the Chapter has known since the days of the Horus Heresy. The Blood Angels are the noble descendants of that most puissant and angelic of the primarchs -- Sanguinius. They are perhaps one of the most celebrated Chapters in the entire Imperium, their countless heroic deeds and victories known to untold billions of the Emperor's subjects across the length and breadth of the galaxy. The beauteous, angelic visages of the Chapter's heroes adorn Gothic facades and stained glass windows in a million holy basilicas, and their portraits gaze serenely from endlessly copied and much cherished illuminated tomes. Yet, hidden from the multitudes, the Blood Angels harbour a terrible curse. When their beloved primarch was slain at the hands of the Arch-traitor Horus at the very height of the Horus Heresy, every Blood Angel was doomed to share a portion of the pain inflicted upon his flawless form. From that day forth, every Blood Angel has been tormented by visions of the last moment of Sanguinius. The older the Space Marine gets, the more frequent and debilitating such waking nightmares become. Should he not fall in battle, every Blood Angel will one day become so consumed by these soul-searing visions that he will descend into a madness in which he must witness the death of Sanguinius over and over again, ever unable to intervene as the Warmaster enacts his vile treachery. The very inevitability of their curse ennobles the battle-brothers of the Blood Angels, driving them ever onwards to a glorious death in the name of the Emperor and their primarch. Where lesser men might have surrendered to the dark urgings to shed the blood of the enemies of the Emperor, the Blood Angels have remained pure and noble for ten thousand standard years. Despite this, the Chapter is dying, for each year ever more of its brethren succumb to the so-called Red Thirst -- the desire to rend limb from limb those responsible for the death of Sanguinius, and by extension every enemy of the Emperor. The death of Sanguinius represents one of the most perfidious and tragic moments of the Horus Heresy, for he died at the hands of his brother-primarch, the Arch-traitor Horus. Although some say that the sacrifice weakened the Warmaster just enough to allow the Emperor to later defeat him at the climax of the Siege of Terra, the death of Sanguinius is mourned to this day, and felt keenly by the Blood Angels, in whose veins his blood still pumps. When war calls and blood is spilled, the Blood Angels are gripped by a fury born of the last moments of their primarch's life. For some, the thirst is too great and they are entirely overcome by what is called the Black Rage, cursed to end their days reliving their beloved primarch's death over and over again. The beatific Sons of Sanguinius are known and celebrated across the Imperium, representations of the greatest heroes of the Blood Angels carved in marble, painted in oils, and sewn in tapestries in a million cloisters and more. Their angel-winged primarch is an object of veneration on countless worlds, his perfect visage gazing down on the faithful with a mixture of benevolence and pity. The Blood Angels are the inheritors of Sanguinius, and they bring death from above to the enemies of the Emperor.