Lions Rampant

Lions Rampant
Battle Cry	For valour, strike swift!
Number	IX
Founding	First Founding
Successors of	N/A
Primarch	Cromwald Walgrun
Homeworld	Sommesgard
Strength	130,000 at start of Heresy
Allegiance	Slaaneshi
Colours	Red, Purple and Gold

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the /tg/ Heresy Timeline and Galaxy pages for more information on the Alternate Universe.

The Lions Rampant, designated Legion IX by Terran records, strive to wage war at a frantic pace. Bold, daring maneuvers are the hallmark of a legion that races to battle by speeder, tank and bike to outflank, envelope and destroy their foes. At this they excelled and earned their place among the Emperor's finest during the Great Crusade. By the cruelty of fate their love for the bravado of the charge devolved into a lust for speed and the adrenaline soaked thrill of closing to violence with the enemy. The Heresy claimed the Lions Rampant for Chaos; they cast aside oaths of loyalty and pledged their souls to Slaanesh.

History of the Lions Rampant

The Highland Raiders

Founded in the waning years of the Terran Unification Wars, the IXth were drawn from the conquered peoples of Albyon and Franc, who made excellent stock for the nascent legions. They were drawn together and clad in livery of deep blue and slate grey. Dubbed the Highland Raiders, these marines formed the backbone of several expeditions into the galactic south and west. The Raiders prosecuted their wars with a solemn stoicism that bordered on self destructive. Their manner of war was to march into the enemy supported by heavy armor to grind the foe down in a relentless advance. Their masters, while brilliant strategists, were callous and casually spent the lives of their men in pursuit of victory. This manner of war was brutal and bloody, yielding results at the cost of lives and glory. For the first half of the Great Crusade the IXth fought in this fashion, marking brutal victories over renegade regimes such as the charnal lords of Voughry VI, or the alien domain of the Skrrt-ka. Other legions were granted great honors for their conquests, but the Raiders remained relatively unlauded for their dour suppression of the Emperor's foes. Their victories were neither decisive, nor glorious, and over the course of the crusade they became looked down upon by their brethren of other legions. With the primarch of the IXth absent after all others had been discovered, the Raiders sullenly accepted their fate as the lost children of the crusade.

Remaking the IXth

In the year 914.M30 the last of the primarchs was discovered on the world of Sommesgard. At this time the bulk of the Highland Raiders were engaged in the waning days of the reclamation of sub-sector Orridak from the technocratic league that held out against the Emperor's rule. They were not to be reunited with their primarch until five years later, after the fires of the brutal campaign had burned out. When the legion was gathered to join their genetic forbear, the meeting initial was joyless and cynical. Cromwald, the Lion of Sommesgard, was immediately seen as a parallel to the legion: a mutilated primarch for a mauled and discarded legion. The dismal outlook was not easily shaken. It took every ounce of Cromwald's skill as an orator to sway the jaded hearts of his marines. His firebrand speech before the assembled legion slowly stirred a faint hope for the future, and despite the council of the eldest, most jaded astartes among their number the newly christened Lions warmed to the reformations Cromwald proposed. The next five years saw Legion IX removed from the crusade as the core structure of the legion was remolded. Drills and wargames waged across the training world of Garripor, pitting legionnaires against one another, and against the harsh extremes of the Garriporic poles. The best and the brightest were marked by Cromwald for extensive training into the newly minted officer corps. Training under the primarch himself, they would become the masters of the legion's new order of battle, reshaped into a form reminiscent of the army structure of Sommesgard. As a final act of rebirth, Cromwald ordered a grand conscription of young boys, all children of the military forces on Sommesgard. They were an infusion of new blood into the legion and served as a final measure to distance the Lions from their ignoble past. With them came an influx of their homeworld's culture, which would change the character of the Lions at a fundamental level given time.

The Fall

The fall of the Lions Rampant is tied heavily to the downfall of their primarch. Cromwald's sickness claimed him, drove him to madness and brought him into the embrace of chaos. After the administrations of Aubrey the Grey, he returned to his legion changed and gathered the masters of the apothecarion to his flagship, the Indomitable Sovereign. The words exchanged in the meeting were never revealed outside the private chambers of the primarch; only four of the six chief apothecaries left the audience with their master alive after taking oaths of secrecy. Their work began as they reached their parent divisions. Quietly laboratories were turned to blasphemous new research into the fields of biology and genetic manipulation. Their ultimate objective became the gene-seed of the legion and its workings. They toiled in secret to unlock its mysteries, and began to tamper with the manifest soul of the legion. The primarch's sickness began to spread as the fruits of their research were spread first to new recruits, then later to the veterans of the legion. Every legionnaire that came to the medicae for healing was infected by the black numbness that crippled Cromwald. With the aid of the Zealot's best experts in medicine the plague spread across the whole legion like wildfire, matched only by the spread of the "cure" brought by the faithful. Corruption ate at the heart of the Lions as more and more desperate marines turned to chaos to heal their affliction.

The Culling

Not every marine succumbed to the rot that festered at the legion's heart. The second division was largely inoculated against the blight by the clash against the greenskin menace of the Orlak Drift. Master Apothecary Sippeman died facing the Ork tides, leaving the proliferation of his dark research to stagnate. His apprentices continued their work, but progress was slowed by the clash against the alien hordes. The 2nd would be the most conflicted of the divisions in the face of the coming heresy, though they were not alone. Throughout the legion veteran marines unknowingly resisted the lure of chaos by evading the ministrations of their physicians. As heirs to the old stubbornness of the pre-primarch raiders, the holdouts persisted up until the coming heresy. With time running out before the outbreak of war, Cromwald and his faithful could not wait for the sickness to claim the legion fully. To cleanse his ranks of the loyalists he orchestrated a silent campaign of assassination. Elements of his divisions he could not sway were given the most hazardous assignments to whittle away their strength. As the strength of the loyalists within his ranks diminished, the faithful began quietly murdering their brethren when they were vulnerable. In most cases these killings remained discreet, though across the 2nd and 4th divisions firefights broke out as secrecy gave way to hasty violence. The traitors were able to silence the loyalists and prevent word escaping to the Emperor, but the purges bled much of their strength for the initial stages of the heresy.

Eve of Damnation

On the eve of the Heresy, the IXth legion stood at almost 130,000 strong. Quietly they had been building their strength to lend to Hektor's ambitions. To his banner they brought several fleets of swift and brutal warships, large formations of highly skilled rapid assault troops, and a respectable array of auxiliary forces upon which the Lion could draw. Among these stood an army of the mechanized Cramalthian Dragoons, and the swift knights of House Borgias. These troops had fought alongside the Lions across several campaigns, and had long proven themselves skilled allies in the high-speed warfare Cromwald's children pursued. These forces and more rallied around the five great divisions of the IXth to await their orders. The betrayals at Istvaan and Ostium marked the beginning of the long march. Crom had already briefed the marshals commanding his forces; each was intimately familiar with their targets and forces. First came the Keldim sector, marked as the start of a long and bloody harvest of imperial space. Across it and other sectors rapid campaigns were waged to feed the warmaster's rebellion. Shipyards and armories offered a surplus of captured weapons, and subjugated populations were conscripted, pressed to labor, or sacrificed to the dark gods. The first months of the long march saw Hektor's forces gifted a rallying point. At Keldim his troops could resupply and prepare for future conquests. Cromwald could not linger to savor his victory. The warmaster's grand campaign required decisive action, lest the Emperor's defenders rally to match their foe force for force. Mustering his legion he plunged headlong into a protracted campaign to pave the road to Terra. At his side stood Merrill, the bloody primarch of the Iron Rangers. With their combined forces they plowed forward in a twin-pronged assault into the flat-footed loyalists. Those who did not surrender or convert were ruthlessly slaughtered. For the first year of the war it seemed as if they were to march unopposed.

The Warpath

It was not until the Silver Cataphracts rose to meet the aggression head on that the wave of steel and madness was checked. At Troupo III Alexandri's finest clashed with the Lions Rampant in what would be remembered as one of the largest armored battles of the heresy. The brilliant maneuvers of the Lions 5th division were matched by the stubborn tenacity of the Cataphracts as they battled for the fuel-rich sands of the scorched planet. In the end the world was reduced to a barren wasteland; Alexandri's strategy of denial robbed the Lions of the infrastructure needed to harvest the material wealth of the system. This became the template for a long and bitter clash of legions. The Cataphracts waged a calculated withdrawal to bleed and slow the traitor advance. They defended what could be evacuated to their massing of troops on Terra, and fought to demolish what could not. Meanwhile the Lions pushed to capture war assets for their allies, using Merrill's hunters to decapitate enemy resistance while the swift riders pushed to outpace the loyalist soldiers. The campaign would leave its scars on all legions involved; warbands drawn from the Lions' gene-seed would celebrate the destruction of a Silver Cataphract successor for millennia to come.

The Turning Tide

Flight

With so many fresh legionaries mustering at Terra, there could be no option but to escape the inevitable scouring of the galaxy. Most of his brethren fled north, to the Eye of Terror. Cromwald's pride would not allow him to be so easily trapped and caged by the loyalist march. He commanded his legion to flee east, into the far reaches of Ultima Segmentum. They would split, giving the loyalist hounds more rabbits to chase than they could catch. Much of his legion would be lost, but the Lions would not be exterminated or confined so long as the war could continue. Each division struck its path to the eastern fringe, trusting in their swift vessels to ferry them to safety. That which could not keep up was left behind to fight and stall the loyalists for as long as possible. Hundreds of thousands of auxilia troops found themselves abandoned by their masters and left to be slaughtered by the vengeful legionaries of the loyalist scouring. The titans that accompanied the IXth were similarly cast aside; there simply was no means of maintaining such powerful and complex machines during the flight. Many of the Legio Martyax (the Man-Eaters) were destroyed as they fled to the maelstrom for safety, leaving a grudge against the Lions that would last for thousands of years to come. Despite casting off the slower Mechanicum and auxilia battlegroups, the Lions did not escape unbloodied. In a bitter stand at Hundis the entirety of the 4th division was surrounded and isolated by a joint strike force of both Silver Cataphracts and Void Angels. The Lions fought tooth and nail, but could not stand against the combined might of their former brethren. Hundis was reduced to a cinder once the last of the Lions' fleet had been destroyed, leaving a barren rock surrounded by burnt out husks. Other battles were waged in smaller scale as battalions were hounded by the vengeful Imperials. Alexandri himself commanded the destruction of the infamous Lionhearts, and in doing so avenged the Cataphracts' defeat at the agri-world of Sepnoy Terius some fifteen years before. In all, the Lions lost roughly half of the legion. When they finally reached the relative safety of the galactic rim to regroup Cromwald held command over a single reinforced division, stripped of much of its supporting forces.

Frontier, Conquest

With the Scouring ended, the Lions begin to move. Acting as a twisted parody of their efforts in the Great Crusade, they begin to raid the fringe systems of the outermost sectors of Imperial space. Originally treated as a minor threat, it is not until they begin to conquer systems aggressively that their low priority begins to scale up. In the meantime, they subjugate worlds in the name of Slaanesh, and Cromwald ascends to daemonhood for the debasement of whole populations billions strong.

Downfall

A crusade is put together to push back the tide of darkness sweeping along the outer edge of Imperial space, backed by numerous chapters of Astartes and regiments of Imperial Guard. In the end the conquest was too ambitious; the Lions are defeated, scattered and their primarch banished to the warp. As a legion the Lions are no more; they scatter and break up into warbands, many finding refuge in the immaterium. It is a blow they never fully recover from, even on the great black crusades.

Organization of the IXth Legion

Order of Battle

At its inception the IXth legion operated under the standard Terran pattern of organization. Organization across all ranks reflected the battle doctrine that had evolved from the unification wars, and formed the practical basis for the numerous expeditions spearheaded by the dour Highland Raiders. Though unremarkable, this manner in maintaining the legion was successful in keeping tally of losses and incorporating chapters into the Emperor's long crusade.

The discovery of Cromwald brought change to this longstanding tradition within the ranks. Raised and trained in the arts of war as exercised on Sommesgard, the Lion saw it necessary to restructure the legion in the image of his homeworld. He combined elements of Terran military structure with force allocation learned in the unity wars, and from this emerged the quintet of primary divisions that would form the backbone of the legion's strength. More notable than the dynamic shift in the legion's militant assets was the wholesale embrace of civilian elements as part of the IXth's order of battle. The iterator and remembrancer corps held a presence among every legion, but the Lions did not merely tolerate or accept them. These capable historians, scholars and diplomats were wholly embraced by the Lions and regularly were inducted into the organizational structure of the legion at multiple levels of command. While never given battlefield control of astartes, their words and advice were given weight similar to that of astartes specialists by the officers in the field.

In the wake of Cromwald's reforms, the legion stood as five distinct, separate entities. These divisions stood at a nominal strength of twenty-five thousand marines, all commanded by a Field Marshal. Under this umbrella fall a quintet of brigades, over which stands a Brigadier. For each division the first brigade is a dedicated heavy armor formation, where the majority of the legion's heavy and superheavy assets are gathered. Remaining brigades are predominantly infantry, though the particular allocation of materiel differs between divisions. Comprising each brigade are multiple battalions of roughly one thousand marines, commanded by a Major. These battalions are formed from companies of one hundred under a collection of captains, which are then further broken into sections and then into individual squads of nine marines and a sergeant.

The clear organization developed in the wake of Cromwald's discovery affords a doctrine of gathered strength, and relies on each division being its own autonomous whole. To this end, each of the five possess fleet and logistical elements to engage in protracted crusades wholly removed from allied astartes support, and hold dedicated auxilia and retainer forces tied to the Field Marshal's command. These top generals are the highest authority among the legion bar one: the command battalion serving as the primarch's personal retainers. This organizational entity exists outside of the divisional structure of the legion, and cycles between the five primary divisions as the needs of the crusade mandate. As the primarch arrives command is ceded from the Field Marshal for the duration of time Cromwald deems necessary, during which he acts as supreme command for all forces under the Lions' control. Once the period if need has passed, the Field Marshal is restored to sovereignty over his division, and the primarch moves on.

A final segregation from the core divisional strength of the legion is the sixth recruitment division. While nominally commanded by a Field Marshal and held at similar strength to the main combat divisions, the reality is that the majority of the sixth's strength lay in recruits and trainees still undergoing implantation. The number of full blooded astartes on the rolls varies wildly as training companies are fully inducted into the legion and await reassignment, but the average tends towards a core of one thousand veterans, with another thousand legionaries either freshly graduated or recently rotated away from combat duty.

Specialist Units

• Goshawk Squads

The utility afforded by jump packs extends far beyond the common use in assault formations. As part of the Lion's arsenal, jump packs are afforded to specialist teams attached to the command structure with the important task of providing forward observation of the enemy and communication of their intentions. These Goshawk squads are daredevils, bold marines hand chosen for their insane courage and supreme skill in operating in isolation from friendly lines. They are outfitted with sophisticated auspex equipment and powerful extended range vox units. With this wargear they intrude into enemy territory and set up forward observation posts in defiance of the enemies guns, then relay coordinates for the legion's firepower to crush the foe.

• Warden Counter-Assault Squads

Lions' doctrine affords hand to hand combat as an essential skill of every marine, but advises against charging into the enemy's guns. Instead, a doctrine of marines equipped for and tasked with counter-assault was developed. These formations are equipped with combat shields and power blades in addition to their standard kit, and form a reserve that deploy where the enemy has gathered strength for a charge. Should the foe brave the storm of bolter fire laid down by the tactical squads, the Wardens surge forward to check the enemy's momentum and shatter their cohesion in close quarters.

• Predator "Lancer" Formations

Armored doctrine of the Lions was largely pioneered by the Lionhearts, who formed the first Lancer formation. Consisting of three tanks of varying patterns, the Lancer is a spearhead used to outpace and slay the largest enemy vehicles and beasts. Two vehicles, typically autocannon equipped predators or vindicator siege tanks form the jaws of the unit, while a third vanquisher pattern predator forms the spearhead. Upon identifying the target, the vanquisher engages at range, hobbling the enemy with precise fire to the treads or legs. With the enemy crippled, the jaws spring shut, pounding the crippled prey with merciless heavy ordnance.

Notable Allies/Auxilia

• The Cramalthian Dragoons (Imperial Army)

The bold men of Cramal rose to prominence in service to the Lion. Borne to an industrialized world burdened with a swelling population and natural resources better suited to the foundries than the bellies of their children, these men adopted an autocratic regime to closely ration the wealth of their world while scientists raced to pioneer a road to their verdant world of Bounty. They were discovered at the turning point in their history, when the initial invasion landed to claim Bounty from her inhabitants in a tide of steel and flame. The Lions' arrival ended the blooding of the Cramalthian army prematurely, yet in doing so made an offer far greater than the oligarchs could have imagined. Impressed by the armored might of the relatively backwater world, Geoffrey the Lionheart offered them the resources of the burgeoning Imperium to feed their people, and the technical expertise to produce ever greater engines of war. His terms demanded only the loyal service of the fighting men of Cramal on the long crusade to come. The oligarchs saw the opportunity to alleviate the strains of overpopulation, and agreed to the pact. Regiments were raised and equipped with new weapons and vehicles to take their banner to the stars. At war, the Cramalthian Dragoons adhere to a doctrine of ironclad cavalry, using their tanks and personnel carriers in lieu of flesh and blood horses. They are a swift force reliant on overwhelming firepower to smash the enemy under their treads. This complements the more nimble Lions, who often outpace their allies with their rapid deployments and unparalleled mobility.

• House Borgias (Imperial Knights)

Fast movers, almost uniformly outfitted to keep pace with their peers in the Lions

• Legio Martyax, the Man Eaters (Titan Legion)

In the wake of the battle for Berau, few among the Lions Rampant would have expected Cromwald to turn to the titans of the Mechanicum for aid. It was by their hand his arm had been lost on the fields of his homeworld. Despite the Emperor's reconciliation of both parties, the cynical veterans of the legion were bitter towards the priests of Mars. They were guilty of leaving them with a broken primarch, to match their broken and ignoble legion. In the wake of the reformation it then came as a shock when Cromwald approached the high princeps of the very legion responsible for his injury with terms of alliance. He knew well the power of the titans of Mars, and wished to join them to the strength of his astartes. It took time to negotiate the terms of authority, but the titans agreed to be the primarch's answer to the most stubborn and entrenched of foes. Legio Martyax marches to war in livery of deep, bloody red edged in lustrous silver. Their titans are predatory things, equipped with laud hailers to allow the snarling roars of the vicious machine spirits to terrify the enemy. With each engine of war given a deaths' head visage, they are truly unsettling to face in battle; on longer campaigns foes would learn to fear the sign of the gaping blue maw, knowing it heralded monsters hungry for carnage.

Elite Formations

• The Lionhearts

The first brigade, third division have borne the title of their first and greatest lord marshal in the wake of the victory over the hulking Tsulkik xenos. When faced with the terrifying alien juggernauts, the lord marshal gathered his armored assets to meet the lumbering enemy armor on the field of battle. It was here that the first "Lancer" formation of vanquisher equipped predator and vindicator tanks was fielded. With mobility on their side, they harried the xeno war machines at extreme range, driving the enemy forces into disarray. What followed was a bold assault to finish the disorganized xeno armor, with the marshal's land raider "Indomitable" forming a mailed fist that hammered through the enemy guns. Lauded for their victory, the armored might of the 3rd division have since proven time and again that their courage will not be broken. Since the initial christening, the Lionhearts have refined the armored doctrine further. The Lancer formation now forms the backbone of their strength, with other patterns of tank supporting the vanquishers when enemy armor is engaged. Always the Lionhearts pursue aggressive, direct tactics; their penchant for focused aggression and dauntless courage continues under the command of marshal Basil Heart, who leads in the wake of his mentor.

Culture of the IXth

Recruitment

In the early days of the crusade, the Highland Raiders were drawn from the conquered warriors of northern Albyon and stretches of Franc. The men chosen to become astartes were selected on account of their hardiness and indomitable spirit. As part of the recruitment rites, applicants were subjected to numerous tests of will and fortitude by their people. These culminated in a sojourn across the wintry wastes of the Albyon highlands to the transports responsible for claiming the tithe of men. Only those who could brave the bitter cold and savage fauna to reach their new masters would become the Emperor's warriors.

The newly augmented marines then faced the crucible of war with only a basic indoctrination period. Training and discipline were instilled rapidly over a scant handful of years before feeding the men into the furnace of battle. This made for a high rate of attrition to the Raider's forces, but also forged a core body of seasoned warriors from those who endured, and reinforced the culture of unbreakable will and grim resolve.

With the coming of Cromwald, this practice changed dramatically. During the restructuring of the legion he shifted recruitment from the wastes of Terra to the now flourishing world of Sommesgard, and instated new methods of drawing troops from their human stock. At first, a decree was issued that his marines would be recruited from the children the planetary defense corps officer ranks. This led to an influx of young men of pedigree, all of whom had been indoctrinated from early childhood to a military mindset. This worked for a time, but the needs of the crusade would mandate before the decade was out that a broader base of manpower was needed. To that end, an edict was passed that all young men of viable age born to the military arm of the Lions' homeworld would be registered for conscription. Academies were raised to train the youth of the world to meet the needs of the legion; they offered education in tactics, sciences, humanities and the arts. These schools became some of the most prestigious institutions across the face of the Sommesgard, and acceptance into one was a high honor. With such a reputation as these universities garnered many became exclusive due to high cost of entry and tuition, which ensured few without wealth and influence could join the illustrious roll as students. These children were groomed to one day become leaders among Lions, serving to guide their brothers drawn from lesser classes by means of draft lotteries and mass conscription.

On the day of conscription, every prospective recruit faces his first taste of life among the Emperor's vanguard. The young men are grouped together and subjected to a week of constant trial, pitting them against their peers. Each group must complete several objectives, scattered across a broad stretch of land cultivated to be difficult to navigate, all while knowing that those who fail lose their chance to become space marines. Dubbed the Crucible, it weeds out those who lack the spirit to become more than men, and is judged by a panel of captains in command of the recruiting companies. They choose candidates to fill out fresh platoons to replace those already graduated to one of the crusading fleets using not the success of the mission as their measure, but of the performance of the men as they face a task meant to be nearly impossible. Those who falter, despair or break in the face of insurmountable odds are seldom given a chance to be any more than a legion serf or servitor. Meanwhile, those who exhibit fortitude of will, cunning, and an indomitable spirit are taken to the vast training grounds surrounding the legion fortress to begin their implantation and training.

Gods Among Men: Notable Figures

• Basil Heart, Field Marshal and commander of the 3rd division

Heart stood apart from his peers of Terran stock as being singularly aggressive and proud, with a far less stoic demeanor. A champion tactician, Basil swiftly earned the watchful eye of his superiors for inspired battlefield command first on the tactical level, then after a time on the strategic level as well. His sharp mind and pioneering grasp of armored warfare saw him elevated to the rank of equerry to Geoffrey Calsth of the Sacred Band, whose command over much of the legion's armored might made him a kindred spirit and mentor to the young Raider. Calsth, dubbed the Lionheart, was a fearless tanker and lord of war; he took young Basil Heart and molded him into an equally fearsome master of arms. Long after the coming of the primarch and the restructuring of the legion into the five divisions, it was widely known that on Calsth's passing the 3rd would fall to his protege. With the fall of the legion Basil would become one of Cromwald's most capable champions. His was the first division to wholly embrace the lust for high speed warfare that formed from the primarch's sickness, and blended it with the love for the thunder of heavy tracked vehicles. His pride in such things became his downfall, as he took great pains to ensure that his Lionhearts were the greatest unit in the legion, and the most loyal to their primarch. When Cromwald bid him step into the darkness he leaped headlong into damnation to stand by his lord's side.

A Legion Fallen and Fragmented

The already divided organization of the Lions Rampant did little to prevent the splintering of the legion. Before his banishment to the warp, Cromwald maintained supreme control as the chosen of Slaanesh. Upon losing their leader, however, the Lions fragmented under lesser warlords. Their armies and warbands began to build their own infamy across the centuries.

The Lions Claws

Formed around an armored brigade that split from the legion, they are a horde of vehicle mounted marines that delight in the thunder of treads and the roar of big guns. Praising Slaanesh from their iron steeds, they raid for slaves and victims to satisfy their need for violence, flesh and souls. Their master reportedly feeds his Vanquisher pattern Predator tank the blood and souls of his victims to bring the daemon within to compliance. Where the tank rides, it is accompanied by the tortured screams and ecstatic howls of those condemned to the daemon's clutches.