Silver Skulls

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The Silver Skulls are a Space Marine Chapter.

Chapter Summary

Silver Skulls x160px Founding Chapter: Ultramarines Founding: Second Founding Descendants: Unknown Chapter Master: Argentius Homeworld: Varsavia 1 Fortress-Monastery: Unknown Colours: Steel color armor, silver helmet, and black shoulder guards. Right shoulder markings are in red (may be company color). Symbol is a stylized silver skull. Specialty: Prognosticators Strength: Unknown Battle Cry Unknown

Background

A Silver Skulls Marine (Rogue Trader)

The Silver Skulls are a successor Chapter created during the Second Founding and are said to be among the most renowned and honoured chapters of the Second Founding's ranks.² They have earned a reputation for victory, no matter the odds.⁸ They claim lineage from the line of the Ultramarines although records are hazy on the matter. Given the number of successor chapters who take their genestock from this great line, however, there is no dispute. ¹².

The chapter takes its name from its tradition of claiming the heads of their opponents, coating them in silver and then displaying them as trophies of battle in their ships and vaults.¹⁰

The entire chapter is deeply superstitious and will never deploy itself into battle without consulting the augury of a chapter Prognosticator to read the fates, which they consider as the projected will of the Emperor. The Silver Skulls have even been known to refuse to go into battle if the auguries come out poor. Prognosticator is the tile of the chapter's Librarians. They are highly revered within the chapter and also function as spiritual guides similar to Chaplains. ¹⁰

The Silver Skulls tattoo the skin of their entire bodies in honour markings. The face is the last area to be marked and the right to do so must be earned in battle.¹⁰

Notable Campaigns

• In M35 the Silver Skulls along with the Howling Griffons aided the Salamanders in an invasion of Commorragh. However this invasion ultimately assisted Asdrubael Vect as he orchestrated it in order to topple Commorragh's noble houses and leave the city open for his rise to power.¹¹
• Charadon Campaign. In 698.M41 the Chapter was part of a combined Space Marine force led by Marneus Calgar, consisting of the Angels of Absolution, Lamenters, Marines Errant, and the Ultramarines. During a seven year crusade the force inflicted a series of major defeats on the Ork empire of Charadon which delayed the Waaagh Argluk invasion for thirty years.
• Third War for Armageddon.³ Records show them to have been deployed to Armageddon during the Third War. Here they deployed seven out of ten companies of Space Marines to fight the Orks.
• Beta-Garmon IV Expeditionary Force.⁵ The seventh company were deployed in support of the Expeditionary Force.
• The Zeist Campaign.⁷ The Silver Skulls heeded the call of Lord Macragge, and provided tactical squads to fight for the liberation of Augura (a staging point for the Tau forces).
• The Lazar Blockade - In 857.M41 the Silver Skulls blockaded the Lazar system to purge the Necrons from its planets in vengeance for the damage suffered by their 4th Company. The Silver Skulls overwhelmed and obliterated the main Tomb World. However secondary bases throughout the system suddenly came to life. Rather than withdraw, the Silver Skulls dug in for a grueling campaign. In 859.M41 Anrakyr the Traveller arrived and immediately joined his forces with the Necron defence. The tide of battle was turned at the Battle of Dreadpeak when Anrakyr's Pyrrhian Eternals spearheaded an assault on the Silver Skulls' downed battle barge the Argent Hammer. Anrakyr seized control of its still-functioning weapons and turns their full fury on its previous owners. The Silver Skulls suffered greatly - their Chapter Master slain and their forces scatted into disarray. They were forced to withdraw their blockade of the system, taking great care to make sure word of their defeat would not spread.¹³
• Imminent attack by the Soulmaw - In 954.M41 Silver Skulls' Librarians suspected an imminent attack by the Daemonic warband the Soulmaw on their homeworld. Most of the chapter was absent from Varsavia due to answering a distress call from the Silver Skull vassal world of Aragave which was being ravaged by an unidentified warband of Daemons. The Daemons quickly vanished as soon as Silver Skulls forces arrived, succesfully luring them away from Varsavia. This could have be in retribution for Librarian Lucius Clave reportedly destroying the Soulmaw champion years before in 892.M40 during the scouring of Ammas.⁹

Notable Silver Skulls

• Lord Commander Argentius - Silver Skulls' Chapter Master ¹⁰
• Vashiro - Chief Prognosticator ¹⁰
• Apothecary Malus - guided Inquisitor Thraxx around the Silver Skulls' Apothecarion during his visit to inspect the Silver Skulls' gene-seed^6-p2

Sources

• ¹: Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition Rulebook
• ²: Warhammer 40,000 3rd Edition Rulebook
• ³: Codex: Armageddon (3rd Edition)
• ⁴: Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader
• ⁵: Imperial Armour Volume Two - Space Marines and Forces of the Inquisition - Pg.80
• ⁶: Index Astartes I
• ⁷: Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition) p.48
• ⁸: GW Website -- Index Astartes: Other Chapters (site accessed 2009.01.09)
• ⁹: White Dwarf 368 (UK), p.25
• ¹⁰: Primary Instinct (Short Story)
• ¹¹: Codex: Dark Eldar (5th Edition), p.14
• ¹²: Cause & Effect (Short Story)
• ¹³: Codex: Necrons (5th Edition), p. 26

See also

• List of Space Marine Chapters