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Vostroyan Firstborn

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Uniform Basic Data Miniature
Vostroyan6th.jpg
- Vostroyan Firstborn -
Homeworld: Vostroya[1]
Regiment Name: Vostroyan Firstborn
Specialities: Urban & Winter Warfare[1]
Vostroyan Officer.jpg


The Vostroyan Firstborn are Imperial Guard Regiments. Vostroya is a world in the Halo Zone beyond the Eye of Terror, which swore allegiance to Mars during the Age of Strife. It is now ruled by a committee of Techtriarchs, a mix of Mechanicus Magi and more traditional Imperial planetary government. During the Horus Heresy, Vostroya refused to provide regiments to the Emperor, preferring instead to reserve the population in the manufactoria blanketing the world. After the Heresy, the Vostroyans, out of guilt, agreed to supply every family's firstborn son to service with the Imperial Guard.[5a]

Overview

Vostroyan soldier[13]

According to Vostroya's Offering of the First Born, the eldest son of every family must enlist in the Regiments. This is to atone to their sin for failing to provide troops to the armies of the Emperor during the Horus Heresy. There are no exceptions to this law, which applies even to the Techtriarchs and the most noble families.[5a][12] For most Vostroyans, it is an honour to join the Firstborn, as great importance is attached to the payment of the debt owed to the Emperor millennia ago.[5a][11] For this reason, having no male firstborn is regarded as a major issue for noble Vostroyans, as many old noble houses put great importance in their family's military service.[11] Their devotion is such that when Vostroya was cut off from the rest of the Imperium by the Great Rift in M42, more Vostroyan Firstborn regiments were raised and sent into the void mostly blind, hoping to reach war zones as to assist other Imperials who were calling for help. Many of these expeditions were lost due to the Astronomican being dimmed in the Imperium Nihilus, yet the Vostroyans have vowed to never again wait when they are called to war, so they still send their forces into the void.[12]

Unlike other Imperial Guard regiments that are raised en-masse, the Firstborn get a steady flow of new recruits from their homeworld. As a result, the Firstborn regiments have existed unbroken since they were first created.[5a] This is not always easy to organize, but ensures that Vostroyan regiments maintain their highest potential, as well as ensuring there is a core of veteran warriors. One consequence of this method is that the Firstborn are considered a brotherhood of warriors and are proud to train the recruits according to their own exacting standards. Few Imperial Guard regiments have a stronger brotherly bond than the Vostroyans. The Firstborn are trained in very difficult conditions among the ruined industrial areas of their homeworld.[Needs Citation] On the other side, it is even rarer for Vostroyans to survive their service and return to their homeworld than for other regiments; in fact, ten thousand years passed between the foundation of the Vostroyan Firstborn and the first time a lowborn Vostroyan officer, namely Colonel Gregorious Sebastev, survived his service to see his birth planet again.[11]

Vostroyans are disdainful of Imperial Guard regiments which they consider to be less devoted than themselves. They are strictly disciplined and act as a warrior brotherhood when in the field. They specialize in urban and winter style combat.[Needs Citation] As a result of their elite status and strong sense of tradition, the Vostroyan Firstborn tend to be classist and exclusivist: The officers are almost exclusively recruited from the noble class, and lowborn Vostroyans are usually regarded by the nobles as being unfit for officer status. The Vostroyan Firstborn have also held a very unfavourable view of the recruitment of women into their ranks, and very few female Vostroyans were ever accepted for training, let alone deployed.[11]

Recently, however, this has been changed so that if a family's eldest child is female, she will be required to join the Firstborn as well. Now the sons and daughters of Vostroya, be they noble or impoverished, will forge a new family with their Regiment and be bound together through courage and stubborn tenacity.[14]

Appearance & Uniform

Being away from centralized control of the Imperium, Vostroyan soldiers and officers retain a very archaic appearance compared to the rest of the Imperial Guard. Their weapons are passed down from firstborn to firstborn and are usually worth more than the guardsmen who carry them.[5a] Firstborn use long and very ornate rifles. Officers bear lasguns integrated with axes. Standard bearers bear ancient tribal sabres and daggers, and ritual scars on their upper torsos.[1]

Weapons & Equipment

Vostroyan Pattern Lasgun[1]

The Vostroyan Firstborn prefer to use Plasma Guns and Heavy Bolters. Their pattern of Lasgun, produced on Vostroya, is known for its fine hand-crafted detail.[1]

Notable Campaigns

Known Regiments

Notable Vostroyan Firstborn Members

Images

Trivia

See also

Sources