Dragons Ardent
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The Dragons Ardent are a Blood Angels Successor Chapter.[1]
History
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This page contains spoilers for: | It Bleeds (Short Story) |
Initial Founding
Their Homeworld was the sparsely populated and harsh Ocean World Nautilos, which contained a few islands. Besides a small scattering of settlements, the islands also held the facilities of the Dragons Ardent which included their Fortress Monastery, the Praecipitium. They lived by a philosophy, inherited from the Blood Angels, known as the Angel's Graces, whose uppermost ethics were mercy, restraint and forgiveness. The Dragons Ardent also followed the calming mantras of the Solus Encarmine and upon leaving the Tenth Company, it was a tradition for them to carve a verse of the Moripatris across their foreheads. It would be deep enough to permanently scar the bone and the verse would reflect whatever wisdom they had learned in their time with the Tenth Company. The Chapter also had the traditions of eating the flesh of their dead and claiming the heads of their slain Battle Brothers. There were some within the Imperium that looked askance at such practices and whispered it spoke of the Chapter's Gene-seed degrading or worse. However the Dragons Ardent served faithfully and the skulls of their dead were taken as keepsakes and trophies by the living. These were then turned into objects of beauty by the Chapter's Battle Brothers, who etched, carved and engraved the skulls. However the verses of the Moripatris would still be visibly displayed, as the dead's final message to their Chapter. Once the skulls were deemed finished, they were adorned in the Praecipitium's grand hall for all to see. It was there, that the Dragons Ardent's Reclusiarch lead them in meditation on the humility they were to show in victory and the strength the Chapter drew on in defeat. This reflected in their personal lives as well, as the Dragons Ardent lived in cells within their Fortress Monastery, which contained prayer cabinets. The Chapter's Battle Brothers were allowed to keep objects of personal significance to them within these cabinets, as well as on their bedstands. These objects could include the skulls of Brothers they were close to on a personal level.[1]
However the Chapter was destroyed, when the World Eaters's Foresworn Warband invaded Nautilos sometime after the Great Rift's creation. Their Chapter Master had the Dragons Ardent defend the Praecipitium, as it was believed its walls and the Adamantium portcullis of the Fortress Monastery's sea-gate would keep the Warband at bay. The Chapter also relied on their Homeworld's deadly giant waves to aid in the defense and at least a Company's worth of the Foresworn were killed this way. However the Warband's Berzerkers numbered in the hundreds and they eventually breached the Praecipitium's walls. This allowed the Foresworn to swarm into the Fortress Monastery and they proceeded to butcher the Dragons Ardent. The Warband then departed and only Captain Kurrinon is known to have survived the invasion. He vowed revenge against the Foresworn for their destruction of the Dragons Ardent and also for the death of his close Battle Brother Tanikhor, who died defending the Praecipitium. Kurrinon then left Nautilos to seek out the Traitor Legion and killed any World Eaters he encountered. At some point, though, the Captain's rage caused him to become delusional and he forgot that his brother had died. This led Kurrinon to begin seeing and speaking to Tanikhor as if he was still alive and the Captain even accepted his counsel on matters. Kurrinon's need for vengeance later led him to fall to Heresy decades later, however, and he was declared a Heretic by the Imperium. He became desperate to save himself afterwards and Tanikhor advised him to join the Foresworn for his safety. Though Kurrinon was very reluctant to join the very Warband that had destroyed his Chapter, the imagined Tanikhor convinced him that it was the only way to save himself from the Imperium.[1]
Refounding
Sometime after Kurrinon had left, however, a Torchbearer Fleet had arrived at Nautilos. It had been charged with reinforcing the Chapter with Greyshields and the ability to create Primaris, but instead discovered that the Dragons Ardent had been destroyed. With no survivors to be found, the Torchbearer Fleet used its Greyshields to Refound the Chapter and repaired the damaged Praecipitium Fortress Monastery and other facilities as well. While the Chapter's unique Gene-seed was lost to them, the new Dragons Ardent would carry on the legacy and traditions of their forebears. Eventually, though, word reached them that two members of the original Dragons Ardent had survived the Foresworn's attack and in fact joined the very Warband that had destroyed their Chapter. After learning of this, the Refounded Dragons Ardent's Chapter Master ordered a group of the Chapter's forces to hunt down the Traitors and bring back their heads to him. They would learn of Kurrinon's name and it would be the Champion Su'ul Marhen who tracked the Traitor down, as the Foresworn were invading an Imperial world. After catching Kurrinon by himself, Marhen struck and disarmed the Traitor before knocking him down. The Champion then told the former Captain what had occurred after he left Nautilos and the subsequent rebirth of the Dragons Ardent. Afterwards, Marhen tried to convince Kurrinon to repent his Heresy by giving the name of the other traitorous Dragons Ardent member. Kurrion refused, however, and instead told the Champion he was an Eater of Worlds. This led an exasperated Marhen to execute the former Captain and then take his head before beginning to look for the other Traitor. Of course Marhen did not know that the other Traitor was the long dead Tanikhor, who in his delusions Kurrinon had believed was still alive.[1]
Known Members
- Kurrinon — Chaos Space Marine, who was originally a Captain in the Chapter's initial Founding[1]
- Su'ul Marhen - Champion in the Chapter's Ultima Founding.[1]
