Blood Angels

Blood Angels
Battle Cry	"For the Emperor and Sanguinius! Death! DEATH!"
Number	IX
Founding	First Founding
Original Name	Eaters of the Dead, Revenant Legion, the Charnel Feast
Successor Chapters	Angels Encarmine Angels Excelsis Angels Glorious Angels of Light Angels Penitent Angels Sanguine Angels Vermillion Atlantian Spears Blood Dragons Blood Drinkers Blood Legion Blood Scythes Blood Swords (claimed otherwise in Codex: Blood Angels 5th Edition by Matt Ward, so take that as you will) Blood Wings Brothers of Jarad Burning Blood Carmine Blades Charnel Guard Cruor Blades Dragons Ardent Exsanguinators Flesh Eaters Flesh Tearers Golden Sons Grail Guard Knights of Blood Knights of the Chalice Knights Sanguine Lamenters Red Wings Sable Brotherhood Sable Knights Sanguine Host The Remnants
Chapter Master	Dante
Primarch	Sanguinius
Homeworld	Baal
Strength	~1000 Marines
Specialty	Rapid assaults, close combat, being space vampires, having the Space Marine equivelent of the Red Rage, being fabulous
Allegiance	Imperium
Colours	Red with black detailing

This article is awesome. Do not fuck it up.

"Man is neither angel nor beast, and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel acts the beast."

– Blaise Pascal

"From his Blood are we born! From his essence are we made! From his passion comes our art! From his nobility comes beauty. From his might stems justice. From his thirst is born righteous rage!"

– The Final Charge of the Rohirrim--err, Blood angels.

"We are born of the blood, made men by the blood, undone by the blood; Fear the old blood."

– Provost Willem, Bloodborne

The Blood Angels were the 9th Space Marine Legion created by the Emperor. They are so named because of their tendency to use blood as a central symbol of their particular warrior-monk rituals, and because of their susceptibility to the Red Thirst, a wild bloodlust that arises in them during battle. If he fails to control his Red Thirst, a Blood Angel may succumb to the Black Rage (the Grimdarkest of Daddy Issues), after which he becomes a completely insane killing machine with no regard for his own safety who will try to destroy the Emperor's foes even if all he has left is a bloody stump of one leg. This has led to the Blood Angels being viewed as basically vampires IN SPEHSS, and unfortunately as the Team Edward to the Space Wolves Team Jacob. If you are not already completely indignant, see the second image at the bottom of the page for additional rage. We'll wait. …...Yeah, how much does that blow? Here's the good news, though: that's pretty much the only thing that sucks (PUN) about the Blood Angels. Everything else is awesome apart maybe from 'nipple' armour, but the rest is all cool, angelic and bloody and all.

The cause of the Black Rage basically amounts to the most epic case of an absent-daddy complex ever. Just with a high chance of being skullfuckingly angry/awesome at the same time. You see, during the Horus Heresy, the Blood Angels' Primarch, Sanguinius, was slain by Horus himself just before the Emperor destroyed Horus. This subsequently fucked up the mental stability of all future generations of Blood Angels, and when one of them is overtaken by the Black Rage, he literally believes he is Sanguinius and relives in vivid detail the final battle with Horus and his traitor legions at the Battle of Terra. So in short, you know when someone says that they will kick you so hard in the balls your grandchildren will feel it, Horus actually did that.

History

The IX Legion were not mentioned for many of the early actions of the Great Crusade. Their purpose was separate and unsightly. Their designed function was to utterly obliterate the enemy like an inferno, only growing in strength as the wars raged on and leaving nothing in their wake. So they were commonly deployed to radiation poisoned warzones, fighting against mutants and other undesirables that the Terrans would rather forget or ignore.

To this end, the IX Legion had a very peculiar gene-seed quirk: where other legions had to be fairly selective with the genetic purity of their recruits, the Ninth could recruit from practically anyone, not only the broken and downtrodden, but also deformed mutants that might not even be considered human anymore. The IX gene-seed allowed miraculous transformations that created uniformly elegant and fair Astartes from any source, meaning the legion could recruit from practically any world, no matter how poisoned. Gotta wonder why this wasn’t standard...

In the early days, their reputation for such transformations meant they were followed around by throngs of pilgrims, all baying and petitioning for the chance to become Astartes, eventually forming a "cult" called the Red Brothers who wove a tradition of mysticism around the Angels of the Ninth, collecting cast-off munitions and damaged armour plate; They even started attempting to sponsor good candidates for Astartes and weeding out the weaker ones. Sufficed to say, such a cult would not last when the Emperor proclaimed his Imperial Truth, and somewhat ironically, the Ninth would be the ones to destroy them.

Due to their apparent resilience and proclivity for eating the bodies of the dead, the Ninth Legion would become known as The Revenants, this was because both the legion itself and its members seemed to come back from the dead as well as their Omophagea-induced habits. The legion was repeatedly deployed into bloody and toxic warzones that should have wiped them out, only to emerge stronger at the end; and the legion's officers had what appeared to be a remarkably long lifespan. This latter detail was in fact an illusion covering up a far more grisly truth: when an officer of the Revenants died, his successor would eat the body and take on his name.

Coming of the Primarch

Welcome motherfuckers, have some blood. You'll be as pretty as us in no time.

The Blood Angels' Primarch was Sanguinius, who was best known for being a pretty Mutant, a charismatic guy with a bad temper that made him look like Satan, and he was apparently a total bro. Basically, to the Space Marine legions and the rest of the Primarchs, he was This Guy. They all loved him. Even Horus, after he fell to Chaos, lamented that Sanguinius in particular was no longer by his side. Sanguinius was so charismatic and batshit loyal that when he met the Emperor for the first time, he dropped to his knees and simply begged that the lives of those who worshiped him be spared, and the Emperor agreed and withheld the Imperial Truth from Baal. He also had a pair of huge, angel-like wings; no one is sure if this had something to do with the radiation on Baal or if he just came out of his birthing pod like that, but the citizens of Baal nearly killed him for it when he was found at the site now known as Angel's Fall. (Emprah have mercy on anyone who uses the m-word around the Blood Angels, though.) Many of the Blood Angels imitate the power and majesty of their beloved Primarch's wings by focusing on jump pack assaults, so the Blood Angels and their successor chapters doctrinally see a lot more Assault Squads than the typical Space Marine army. Their current Chapter Master is Dante, the oldest non-Dreadnought-interred loyalist Space Marine in history.

They had a brotherly rivalry with the World Eaters (if only the Imperial Fists/Iron Warriors and Ultramarines/Word Bearers could have managed that…) which got pretty messy when the Horus Heresy started. They were at the forefront during the Siege of Terra where Sanguinius died in the final hours and the Black Rage set in. In the Second Founding, the Chapter was divided like the other legions. First Captain Raldoron became the first Chapter Master of the Blood Angels Chapter, starting the illustrious legacy currently held by Dante, who took office as the last surviving line officer after Chapter Master Remael and most of the Chapter command were killed in action.

A Marine putting the 'blood' in 'Blood Angel'. Diligently reminding everyone they used to be called the "Charnel Feast".

In times of dire need, they are aided by the Sanguinor, a guy who seems to be a Blood Angel in a more literal sense. Maybe he's some psychic manifestation of the Chapter. Maybe he's a ghost of Sanguinius. Nobody knows. The important thing is that he enjoys piledriving Bloodthirsters from space, killing Eldar Avatars, and killing a bunch of Night Lords, saving Dante's life in the process as it was otherwise a textbook suicide mission, a redemptive one, to be specific.

Oh, and Hive Fleet Leviathan have been coming to devour their homeworld Baal for a few editions while it is also being attacked by a Khornate army led by their ancient enemy, the Bloodthirster Ka'bandha. 8th edition "progressed" the story with the attack and devastation of the Baal system where the Blood Angels and almost all their successor chapters were ready to receive them. Both moons were stripped of all life (yummy yummy radioactive wastes) and the main planet was wrecked with trillions of bugs, with the last survivors making one last charge--facing their fate like men in the ruins of the planet.

This is when the Great Rift opened up and cut Baal from the real space, yet the Tyranids on the ground forgot about the synapse shenanigans and continued to enjoy their first winning campaign since like forever. By the time the Warp was stable, all the bug-ships had vanished and Ka'Bandha had wiped out everything on one of Baal's moons--but in an odd show of his tsundere side for the Blood Angels, primarily summoned his lesser ilk to fight off the Tyranids, until the chapter master of the Knights of Blood chapter, Sentor Jool, engaged the Bloodthirster in single combat, which sounds stupid, but actually comes off completely fuckawesome and manly...while also being a pretty stupid thing to do.

Luckily for them the Cicatrix Maledictum had royally fucked up the hive fleet, completely disappearing some portions and annihilating the rest. The Blood Angels last stand culminated in Dante further fucking over the hive mind in a good bout of fisticuffs with the Swarmlord. The Legion of the Damned and the Sanguinor provided timely reinforcement, appearing to lead his Blood Angels brethren in a heroic last stand against Hive Fleet Leviathan, where the Chapter Master meltagunned The Swarmlord's face off after being impaled, allowing the rest of his squad to live. The Sanguinor took off after that, but not after he managed to renew the Astartes' faith in humanity. True salvation arrived when the warp storms abated and the arrival of the Indomitus Crusade. Though Roboute Guilliman confided later that all they really had to do was finish off the stragglers that had survived the fleet and the warp storms--which was a nice clean way to provide some dignity to the severely depleted Sons of Sanguinius for the fanboys who had already been rolling their eyes over their Spiritual Liege coming to save them.

Baal Primus is a blasted shithole now (well...more of one, anyway) and is now uninhabited. In an odd show of noblebright, Guilliman ordered the mechanicus to terraform Baal Secundus back into its paradisal state before the long night, apparently something they've long been able to do, they just kept it shitty to make for better (read:Tougher) recruits. Afterwards Big Bobby-G in a decidedly bro-tier move made Commander Dante the Warden of Imperium Nihilus--effectively ceding command of wholly HALF of the Imperium (the shitty half maybe...) and restored their ability to create new marines, provided fresh gene-seed and were granted the ability to produce new Primaris Space Marines along with all of the existing Primaris marines with Sanguinius' bloodline. They capped off the noblebright with allowing all the mortal boys who fought in defense of Baal to become Blood Angels, no questions asked, as they had already proven their worth defending their world. So a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions that day, to say the least.

Combat Doctrine

Helmets for the Blood Angels play a very important part in their chapter—easy color coding to identify squad type and an incentive to keep your sexy face covered to prevent easily avoidable death by helmetlessness.

The Blood Angels took the establishment of the Codex Astartes as official Space Marine doctrine with notably less bitching than other chapters due to the death of their Primarch and the onset of the Black Rage. They follow the strictures of the Codex as far as they see wisdom in it: the chapter is comprised of a thousand Blood Angels and divided into ten companies, each of which is headed by a captain. The First Company is comprised of veterans, and the Tenth Company is comprised of Scouts and Neophytes who have not yet become full Marines. Obviously though, none of the blood rituals and other weird shit is Codex-approved.

Like their brethren in the Raven Guard though, the Blood Angels have a natural predilection for using jump packs and their own free will (as opposed to blindly following the Codex). Due to their chapter's curse, they have had to tweak things a bit; once they complete their training as Scouts, Blood Angels immediately go into Assault Squads rather than Devastator Squads, as the Codex Astartes would have it, though not only because of these little scamps' brashness. The constant close combat also allows Blood Angel officers to identify the noobs who can control their Red Thirst as well as those who cannot, and thereafter keep tabs on the latter group. Devastator Squads in the Blood Angels Chapter are reserved for Marines who have better control of the Red Thirst than most, because heavy fire support isn't very useful when the people providing it have psychopathic ADD.

The few Blood Angels that decide they don't like jumping like maniacs into swarms of enemies, and instead prefer biking like maniacs into swarms of enemies, are regarded as some of the best biker Marines in the Imperium, following closely behind the White Scars and the Dark Angels' Ravenwing.

TL;DR Blood Angels hit shit until it dies. They also seem to use camouflage scheme.

Tools of the Trade

Sanguinius proclaimed, "War is an art form," and the Blood Angels said, "Well, that sounds absolutely fabulous. Get me some gold."

Blood Angels are known throughout the Imperium to be master artisans. Their long lifespans allow them time to perfect whatever trade they set their mind to, whether they are crafting the infamous, hand-sculpted artificer 'nipple' armour, bolters worth more than an Imperial hive city, or even if they're simply painting vehicles and power armour. The philosophy behind this practice is that you cannot hope to know the value of what you're fighting for if you cannot understand its beauty.

Blood Angels are also known for their prevalent use of flamers and melta weapons. While they don't employ them as plentifully as the Salamanders do, they are nearly as masterfully constructed. The Sons of Sanguinius have taken a liking to the hand flamer, which gives them the assault capability of a flamer, but leaves their sword arm free to use in close combat. Heavy flamers can also be found in many of their Tactical Squads as an assault deterrent as well as on the side sponsons of Baal Predators to complement the Flamestorm Cannon, which ruins any infantry unit's day.

They also reeeeeeally like the Inferno pistol. Many of them have one, including the Chapter Master.

The aforementioned Baal Predator is a unique tank manufactured by the Blood Angels. It is an anti-infantry assault tank equipped with twin-linked assault cannons and heavy flamers that was acquired in a pre-heresy campaign that nearly broke all their relationships with the Mechanicus. Even to this day, things are still a bit touchy. Luckily, the Techmarines of the chapter quickly reverse engineered the overcharged "Lucifer-class" engines onto nearly all their vehicles.

The Blood Angels' de facto relic weapons are called Glaive Encarmine—'glaive' apparently meaning 'sword' in this case rather than the halberd-type weapon it's associated with ("glaives" comes from the Latin "gladius", the common short sword of Roman era, so there you go). They're made out of a mono-filament metal called 'angel-steel' and are purportedly so perfectly crafted that they never bend or warp. The secrets to their manufacture are jealously guarded by their Artificers (hopefully well-protected against "forgetting" or "losing"). Instead of making armor out of it, of course. This is represented by their master-crafted universal special rule. They come in two flavors, a Carmine Sword or a Carmine Axe.

Recruitment

While Space Marine selection is naturally never soft, the Blood Angels' methods are especially Grimdark by first taking their aspirants from Baal and its moons and requiring them journey through canyons and a fucking large desert (which are radioactive and crawling with monsters... though the rest of Baal isn't much different in that regard.) to reach Angel's Fall, where Sanguinius was first found. After that, the surviving Aspirants kill each other in gladiatorial contests until fifty victors are chosen. Then they have to observe a vigil for 72 hours (any who fall asleep are taken away and never seen again), and finally after succeeding in that, the aspirants drink from a Blood Chalice provided by a Sanguinary Priest and fall into a coma (hopefully) for a year. They are then put into a life-support coffin for that year during which the gene-seed of Sanguinius implanted into them from the Blood Chalice changes them into Blood Angels. Many aspirants at this stage prove incompatible with the gene-seed and die during their confinement, others wake up too early from their coma and go insane from this solitary and claustrophobic imprisonment, and the rest are the newest additions to the Blood Angels chapter when they wake up after a year.

Seriously you probably have better odds living through a war than going through this shit.

Gene Seed

The Blood Angels' themes and motifs are drawn from vampire and Faustian mythology as well as Catholic traditions & Italian renaissance style. They commonly fly (with jump packs), are eternally youthful, drink blood, and sleep in coffins.

The Blood Angels are noted for naturally living longer on average than the Marines of any other chapter. Although, since there is no baseline standard for how long Astartes are supposed to live in the first place, and no Space Marine has ever been shown or described to have ever died of anything resembling old age (outside of those that have been affected by the Hrud), this claim kinda rings a little hollow (although any marine worth his salt will die of being slowed down by age before it's enough to finish him off). Even Dante's age of over 1000 years isn't unique to his lineage, as there have been several other notable Astartes from other legion bloodlines that have managed a similar lifespan. By and large, Space Marines only die when they are killed, so, the only real ways Blood Angels can live considerably longer than "normal" space marines is if they either don't put themselves at risk as much as normal marines, or they're so ded 'ard that they're just harder to kill than normal marines.

Horus Heresy: Malevolence explains the longevity in a somewhat ironic fashion, given what we already know of Astartes physiology. The Ninth Legion were renowned for their long lifespans even during the early Great Crusade. What was less known was that the Legion had a habit of eating their dead captains after they fell in battle, with the Omophagea implant allowing the memories and battle experience to be retained for a future generation. Some recipients of these memories would take up the identity of the dead officer and give the outward appearance that they had never died at all. It was said that the Legion's master prior to Sanguinius' recovery had gone through several such reincarnations before his final death when the body was destroyed beyond recognition. Sufficed to say that after Sanguinius arrived, things changed and thereafter took being called the "Eaters of the Dead" as cause for grievous offense. Which is dumb because using the Omophagea like this is brilliant and means each Astartes would be far more competent than he normally would be. Many Marines would gain veteran levels of experience and skill without having to spend decades or centuries gaining it. What did Sanguinius think the Omophagea was for? Not eating people? Pfft.

When a Blood Angel does die, a Sanguinary Priest (what they call their Apothecaries) extracts his gene-seed using a device called an exsanguinator. When it comes time to implant it in an Initiate, the Initiate must receive it by drinking from a Blood Chalice ('insanguination'), which also contains the essence of Sanguinius. The story of Mephiston, the Blood Angels' chief librarian, closely parallels the legend of Faust, a scholar who sells his soul to the devil in return for great knowledge and power (hell, he's named after the manifestation of the devil in the story, Mephistopheles or Mephisto). The names of their special characters and vehicles have an Italian flavor—Dante, the Furioso Dreadnought, Brother Corbulo. Corbulo, known as the chapter's High Sanguinary Priest, carries the Red Grail, which contains the blood of Sanguinius himself. Also, do we have to point out that the word 'sanguis' literally means 'blood' in Latin? Well, there you go.

The Blood Angels and their successor chapters have a genetic defect in their gene-seed known euphemistically as "The Flaw". It seems to have much more representation in the fluff than in the crunch, but that's standard fare for a life-threatening, damnation-courting mutation that can pop up at any time. One chapter, Angels Penitent, managed to stave the defects off with art until they were fucked over by Chaos. Thinking about it, Charnel Guard's doctrine of downtime hibernation might help, maybe combine with Red Hunters' mindwipe.

Red Thirst

You'll never see a Blood Angel go "Oh nooooes, a fleet of nice squishy flesh-bugs coming to devour our system, we're doooomed...". Maybe because it's an excellent way to let loose for a bit.

The Red Thirst is what makes the Blood Angels space vampires, or Team Edward *BLAM* PURGE THE UNCOMFORTABLE THEMATIC PARALLELS OF POPULAR CULTURE!

The Red Thirst has been a part of being a Blood Angel since the Great Crusade. Sanguinius went to great lengths to hide it from the Emperor for fear of being expunged from the Imperium, although odds are that the Emperor already knew. He even introduced Chaplains to the Blood Angels legions before the Edict of Nikaea, not just to monitor psykers, but to look out for brothers who might be giving in to their bloodlust.

In the lore the general effect is that the Red Thirst makes a Blood Angel an Angry Marine with a literal thirst for actual goddamn blood. Thus most Blood Angel Chaplains require certification for anger management therapy before they get the job. Their duty is to ensure that the assorted Marines are not showing signs of bloodlust, and to throw them into a battle if they are so they can stave off total madness a bit longer. A Blood Angel can suppress his Red Thirst simply by fighting in battle. However, sometimes, a Blood Angel will see the memories of Sanguinius’ death upon the Vengeful Spirit. This will inevitably trigger the second, and more devastating, part of the Flaw- the Black Rage. After this, their lives will consist of utterly suicidal front-line charges to rip and tear the enemy as much as possible, before they eventually receive an honorable death in combat against the Emperor's foes. Those unlucky enough to survive to the end of the battle will either be given the Emperor's Peace by Astorath, or imprisoned within the Tower of the Lost as a hopeless, dribbling maniac until they are required on the field of battle once more. This happened in Devastation of Baal, where the victims of the curse were seen as having mutated into hulking beasts who moved on all fours like gorillas. They were released to hold off the hordes of Daemons and Tyranids.

I told you about the Red Thirst bro!

Some chapters are more susceptible than others. The imaginatively named "Blood Drinkers" are notorious amongst their allies for allegedly leaving exsanguinated corpses wherever they show up. On the upside, Blood Drinkers are one of the few chapters who have tangible rules regarding how they handle the Red Thirst: if they have recently sated themselves, they gain a boost to WS, and suffer penalties to morale checks if they refrain from feeding.

On the tabletop, this has historically been changed in every single incarnation of the rules as GW continually changed their minds over how the Thirst should be represented; in 7th edition, they just give the flat bonus of Furious Charge to everything (including dreadnoughts); but if you get a bunch of Blood Angels together in the correct FOC or formation, then they also get +1 to Initiative when charging (á la old-school Furious Charge), which is a very strong advantage. In 5th edition, Red Thirst had the odd consequence of occasionally making a unit Fearless and Furious Chargers if they give into the temptation, though independent characters had enough control over themselves that they were mostly immune, with a few exceptions. Going further back, into 3rd edition, the Red Thirst made a bit more sense and was something to actually be wary of, as your units had a potential to lose control at the thought of blood and move out of position towards the enemy. This really wasn't fun, especially if your Devastator Squads didn't pull that critical round of shooting.

New in 8th it comes back with a vengeance. Allowing any infantry who charged, has been charged, or is performing a heroic intervention, to add +1 to the to wound roll. Meaning, when red thirst is in affect, you'll never be wounding on anything worse than 5+.

Black Rage

Note the ancient, unfathomable Rage.

On the other hand, the Black Rage is the Red Thirst's angrier, more troublesome brother. You know, the one who dresses in black all the time, and who shows up at random times to complicate your life and embarrass your family. It's a terminal state in which the battle brother has not only succumbed to the Red Thirst, but has had a total psychotic breakdown. Or if you're feeling particularly poetic: it's the psychic scream of a dying demi-god that got stuck in his progeny.

Battle-brothers who succumb to the Black Rage are overcome with visions of Blood Angel battles during the Horus Heresy, and a few even imagine themselves to be Sanguinius battling Horus on his battle barge. This of course has the unfortunate side effect of making them completely lose touch with reality, fighting a battle that they can never ever win since the outcome of the hallucinations has already occurred. On the plus side though, their disconnection with what is going on around them turns them into immensely powerful warriors, since each and every one of them believe in some way that they are Sanguinius. You’re basically left with Sanguinius with an Astartes body and the Primarch’s incredible skill. It’s as terrifying and awesome as it sounds.

Long story short, a Marine afflicted with the Black Rage will become even angrier than an Angry Marine, and with even less self-control(which means they are effectively each Nightbringer crossed with Commissar Fuklaw. If you happen to be in the same star system of one of these, pray to the God-Emperor they don't sense you. If you don't happen to worship the God-Emperor, silently hope your gods are OK with suicide, because the alternative is too nightmarishly gruesome for even Games Workshop to describe in sufficient detail). If this happens in a war zone, they are quietly organized into small squads and their armor is painted black by a chaplain before the worst of the hallucinations take over. If they aren't killed in battle or get off the leash somehow, Astorath will come and execute them on the battlefield since no other Blood Angel has the stomach (or outright skill) to kill his own battle brothers.

Blood Angel confronts his true form. And you thought the Wulfen looked weird

The Death Company is a group of Blood Angels on the battlefield who are afflicted by the Black Rage. Every force of Blood Angels and their successor chapters has one, though some are more susceptible than others, which makes those chapters' responses to the occurrence of Black Rage quite varied. The Flesh Tearers and the renegade Knights of Blood chapters both have an uncanny predilection for all-out, balls-to-the-wall assault—hoping to die in battle honorably before the rage takes them. In the Knights of Blood's case, they fought with the zeal of the Black Templars, the fury of the World Eaters, and the excess of the Marines Malevolent in such a perfect way that they got kicked out of the cool kids club and branded renegades for their excess collateral damage against allied forces. The Flesh Tearers very nearly joined that shit list, and were only forgiven by the Blood Angels when Astorath personally intervened on their behalf, citing that their brutality would be a necessity in the near future.

Black Library novels indicate that the Black Rage may be suppressed by psychic blanks. However, the jury is still out on whether this would work as a permanent solution given that the example involved a renegade Blood Angel with amnesia who may or may not have been a warpspawned clone with other reasons for devolving into a bestial state. Either way, it would an interesting experiment for the Blood Angels to try attaching some sisters of silence to the Death Company.

On the tabletop, this essentially allows you to bring a squad of Khorne Berzerkers without the Khorne, but with more customization options. You can also take several squads if Astorath has shown up, as he always seems to know where and when his brothers will succumb.

As with the Red Thirst, GW keep changing the rules with these guys; nowadays you can purchase units of Death Company as Elite choices for your army at a not-insignificant cost, whilst in 6th they were Troops, but were so far down the path of being drooling lunatics that they couldn't hold objectives, and you could only have one squad unless Astorath was watching. In ancient times, it used to happen spontaneously for free, and you had to roll for squads at the start of battle, potentially losing members of squads you already paid for to bulk up your Death Company, which made fluff-sense. But at least you chose which model to take off, and sending a veteran sergeant to the Death Company was the only way of giving power weapon/fists (excluding the chaplain) to the squad. Losing a Termie or tooled-up honour guard made you cry though...

In a nutshell

A redditor by the name of redsonatnight explained what the Blood angels are about thusly.

To paraphrase Pratchett, they're 'where the falling angel meets the rising ape.'

The Blood Angels, more than any other Legion, strive. They have the potential to be more bareserk than the Wolves, more savage than the World Eaters and more blood-drenched than the Night Lords, and for a while they were - look up their history as the Revenant Legion before Sanguinius took them in.

And now, despite essentially having the Doom Eternal soundtrack playing constantly in their ear, despite losing the father that made them find their better nature, they work harder than almost any other loyal Chapter to maintain a humanity they never really possessed. They paint, they sculpt, they help people, all while something in them screams to open children like Capri Suns and bathe in the overflow.

The Blood Angels work really hard to be good people. That's what makes them noble.'

Daily rituals of the Blood Angels

Dante pwns some noobs as Astorath and Mephiston look on.

04:00 - Reveille - The Blood Angels are roused from their coffins to start the day.
04:10 - Grooming - The Blood Angels take the time to comb their hair and brush their teeth. Special attention is given to their fangs. Even more special attention is given to their long, flowing, golden hair.
04:30 - Morning meal - A light meal is prepared by the chapter serfs for the Blood Angels. Consuming a chapter serf is explicitly prohibited.
05:00 - Morning prayer.
06:00 - Morning firing rituals - The Blood Angels assemble for target practice. Due to an ancient clerical error, the Blood Angels are in possession of an excessive amount of a heretical series of books from the pre-Imperial days of Terra called the Twilight Saga, which they use for target practice by the thousands.
07:00 - Battle practice - The Blood Angels begin practice in the battle cages. Frequently, the Blood Angels will forgo their bolters for melee weapons. The usage of fangs in combat practice is considered heresy. Using fangs to drink blood is extra Khornate heresy.
12:00 - Midday meal - The Blood Angels consume a light meal made for them by the chapter serfs. The chapter serfs are still explicitly off the menu.
13:00 - Deep strike training - The Blood Angels practice their deep strike maneuvers. Pretending to fly like a bat is heresy. Transforming into a bat or black mist to fly is extra Tzeentchian heresy.
16:00 - Evening firing rituals. During this time, several Blood Angels also practice the shooting style of a legendary Terran gunslinger known as Nosferatu Alucard, a proto-Blood Angel who was said to have slain thousands of daemons alone using only two blessed stub pistols.
16:55 - Milk and Cookies Break. Drinking blood instead of milk or dipping cookies in milk is strictly banned. Dipping cookies in blood is Khornate heresy.
17:00 - Staring contests - Dumbasses who want to challenge Chief Librarian Mephiston to a menacing staring contest do so now. Usually it's just the neophytes who don't know any better.
17:15 - Round up - Staring contests end, and those who went mad while staring into Mephiston's eyes must be tracked down in the fortress-monastery and culled.
17:30 - Evening prayer. Special attention is given to how fabulous Sanguinius was and why they can't wait to tear the heretical Chaos idiots multiple new assholes (hint, it involves blood).
19:00 - Evening meal - A feast is prepared by the chapter serfs, usually of animals who were killed during the deep strike training. The chapter serf is still forbidden to eat them. Using the Red Grail in drinking contests is explicitly prohibited by order of the Sanguinary Priests.
19:30- All loose Death Company personnel are rounded up, heavily sedated, and locked into their stasis cell for the night.
20:00 - Free time - The Blood Angels are allowed a few hours of free time to do as they please. Some reflect on their duty to the Emperor and the deeds of Sanguinius. Others play vidya games. Some just pose moodily and bare-chested in front of a mirror. Still others will engage in artistic activities. A GOOD vampire movie is often shown for the Blood Angels' entertainment.
00:00 - Rest - The Blood Angels retire to their coffins for the evening.

Notable Members of the Blood Angels

• Sanguinius - Primarch. Snaps Bloodthirster spines over his knee and decapitates Keepers of Secrets for the lulz. Sacrificed himself to aid in the ultimate defeat of Horus. May he rest in peace.
• Meros - Apothecary during the Horus Heresy. Sacrificed himself so that Sanguinius could righteously fuck up a Keeper of Secrets.
• Azkaellon - Captain of the Sanguinary Guard, Sanguinius' overprotective mother in short.
• Raldoron - First Captain of the Legion, later first Chapter Master of the chapter. Regarded highly alongside Sigismund, Kharne, Sevatar, etc. and noted to be a quality, good 'ol fashioned general.
• Nassir Amit - Yup, he eventually became the first Chapter Master of the Flesh Tearers, but he was one of the OG Blood Angels.
• Dominion Zephon - Crippled Blood Angel who represented the Legion on Terra before the Heresy. Took on Drach'nyen in the Webway with a chainsword despite only recently having the feeling restored in his limbs, living out the "drive me closer" meme. All around elegan/tg/entleman able to play the harp well enough to make mutants weep and able to fight just as well. Counteracts the insipid autism of Diocletion Coros during 'Master of Mankind' by being just a swell dude. Also, makes a Knight Baroness' panties reenact Genesis 7:17. According to ADB, he goes on to become the first chapter master of the Charnel Guard.
• Dante - Current Chapter Master. Resident badass sexy-grandpa. Seriously, dude's hella old and prefers not to mention anything about having a Necron's cell phone number.
• Mephiston - Chief Librarian and resident rape train. Scariest motherfucker this side of the Eye of Terror.
• Corbulo - High Sanguinary Priest. Sees far, just not far enough, into the future.
• Astorath - Keeper of Sanctity and the dude who kills Death Company nutjobs when they nutjob way too hard.
• Lemartes - Chaplain and the Guardian of the Lost, and the only Blood Angel to hold the Black Rage in check. Ranks #2 behind the Eversor Assassin as the most 40K and grimdark thing in 40K.
• Arenos Karlaen - 1st Company captain and total bro. Has a model thanks to 7E's Deathstorm Box.
• Donatos Aphael- 2nd company captain. Very supportive of blood drinking, with good results to back his actions.
• Erasmus Tycho - 3rd company captain. Proof that Your dudes has a reason to exist. Sadly could not quell the Black Rage, but still worth a fight no doubt. No longer among the living.
• Moriar the Chosen - Matt Ward's excuse for making generic Death Company Dreadnoughts a thing.
• Rafen - Longest living Blood Angel mook in any of the Blood Angels book series. Single handedly bested Arkio (possessed monster) and further aided Mephiston in staving off the Black Rage for a second time. Also wielded the Spear of Tolesto, though only briefly.
• Sanguinor - Started off being a random dude who was chosen to be Sanguinius' herald during Imperium Secundus, then later stood in his Primarch's place on Davin and got drawn into the warp while transforming into an angelic being. Nowadays he may be Sanguinius reborn... or Azkaellon... or a warp entity created by the longings of the Blood Angels... DAMMIT! IT'S COMPLICATED.
• Acrion - Random captain that thought he could stand up to Abaddon during the 7th Black Crusade. He couldn't.
• Thalastian Jorus - Fuckawesome Reclusiarch that succeeded in standing up to Abaddon--killed all his Honour Guard, thoroughly wrecked the Black Legion by utilizing guerrilla tactics with the Death Company of all things AND became one of like 3 people in the Imperium to go toe to toe with the Despoiler and come out on top, gravely wounding Abby before the Chaplain was killed by the Black Legion.
• Brother Slamguinius, the Slambane, 9th lord of slamfuckery - The newest hope to rise out of the Blood Angel's 8th edition codex, and by far the punchiest thing to ever come out of one of our codices from a basic Captain template in recent years.

See Also

• Blood Angels Tactics
• Bloodquest - A comic & audio drama centered around the redemption quest of a fallen Captain and his crew.

Gallery

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  Manly Vampires, IN SPESS!

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  You know it to be true.

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  Older Blood Angels art. Is that Christopher Lee in the lower left corner? Well, using Dracula as a model makes sense...

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  2nd Ed. box art. Note absence of nipples on armour.

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  Imperial /fit/izen encounters a Son of Sanguinius 020.M03