Cardinal Knights

Cardinal knights
A gauntleted fist grasping a bleeding heart
Battle Cry	"One Heart of the Pure! One Heart of the Taint! We Carry both in our Chests!"
Founding	39th Millenium
Successors of	Ultramarines
Successor Chapters	None
Chapter Master	Puro Corazon
Primarch	Roboute Guilliman
Homeworld	Ashardalon
Strength	Half strength(About 500 Marines)
Specialty	Close quarters Combat/Terror tactics
Allegiance	Imperium
Colours	Blue and Red

Possibly one of the most metal Chapters fa/tg/uys have made with the creation tables, being an Ultrasmurfs succesor chapter that basically says 'Fuck the Codex' and LITERALLY takes out the hearts of their enemies, augments them, and then shove them into their own chest cavities. Yea... they are kinda crazy.

The Cardinal Knights

Founded in early M39, as Ultramarine succesors the Cardinal Knights are largely unique in their organization as well as there... rituals. Upon their creation a unique flaw was found in their Gene seed, in spite of being founded from the stable gene seed of the Ultrasmurfs, and the Secondary heart was not usable... it was filled with benign tumours and essentially useless as an Organ. Upon discoverin this, the chapter began to evolve a rather interesting set of rituals, mainly revolving around replacing the second heart. Believing in the inherent weakness of their own heart the chapter sought out the hearts of worthy foes, heavily augmenting them with cybernetics, and using them to replace their own useless secondary hearts. In addition, a Neophyte must eat his own useless secondary heart before becoming a full scout, and it is not uncommon or a brother to have only one heart for long periods of time until he can find a suitable enemy. Largely using Ork hearts due to their relative strength, the chapter will sometimes use the hearts of renegades as well since they already fit rather nicely... after extensive augmentation and purification of course.

Currently the Chapter is lead by their Master of Sanctity and Chapter Master Puro Corazon, who has been encased within a drednought sarcophagus after slaying the last chapter master who was possesed and became a Daemon Prince of Khorne. He slew him by cutting open his chest, ripping out his heart and shoving it into his own chest cavity to make certain the Daemon could not return to the Warp. Suffice to say, they are pretty blood thirsty and big into the 'Rip and Tear' of other, similarly berserker loyalist chapter(see:Flesh Tearers), and are known for fielding every marine with a power fist and chainsword in addition to their Bolter and/or Bolt pistol. Their talent for CQB and their fearful rituals as well as the common tribal iconography of their armour they are quite talented with Terror tactics, using their screaming berserker nature to their advantage.

Also unlike their Progenitor, the Knights have a unique command structure. The Reclusiam, Librarium and Chapter command are all one, and every captain is both a Cpatain and a Chaplain or a Captain and Librarian. They also field no Devastators, believing their heavy ranged weapons to often destroy worthy hearts.

Specific Events/Campaigns

Traitors from within

The Siege of Tellarix

Scouring of Goulfbadd

Headline text

Threld Grislom, "The War Hearts" 4th Company Chaplain Captain

Threld Grislom, Chaplain Captain of the Cardinal Knights 4th company "The War Hearts". In these difficult times of being without an active Master of Sanctity many of the companies have began to devolve into berserker tactics in order to satisfy their bloodlust and take more hearts from worthy enemies, while some have found success with this other companies have began to suffer more casualties than usual in their pursuit of powerful hearts. The original Captain of the 4th company, Librarian Captain Solomar Caldius, led the company through many pursuits of powerful Ork hearts. During one of his crusades against an Ork colony the company was ambushed and flanked from the south by a squad of Ork meks. Rather than attempting to destroy the meks Captain Solomar saw opportunity to conquer yet another powerful Ork hearts. He rallied many of the marines near him and sent them with him on a zealous charge on the largest mek in the Ork squad. Threld, serving as his company's Champion at the time. Was left to defend him and his marine brothers against the flank to the north.

It was a savage fight , suffering many casualties as they were outnumbered by the Ork shootas . Threld and the surviving marines regrouped and looked to the south to see that Captain Solomar and the men he led in the charge had either been killed or broken ranks. The Ork Mekz now had no other target than Threld and his men. As they approached it was clear that the Orkz hadn’t come out of the battle undamaged, many of their squads lacked men and their meks showed signs of damage. As the largest Ork Mek approached Threld could see Solomar’s body hanging from a piece of metal on the Mek. Faced with this threat Threld acted quickly, leaving no time for his marine brothers to panic he began ordering them into positions and to prepare to defend to the last man. The Ork horde approached and he shouted to his brothers “Hold! Remember! Their flesh is weak! They merely shell themselves with metal, but our hearts beat with it! They may have warmachines, but remember brothers we have the purity of the machine WITHIN US! TRUST IN YOUR MECHANICAL BEATING AND IT WILL NEVER FALTER!” The ensuing fight was carnage, the Ork infantry never seemed to thin as the Cardinal Knights fired at them with their bolter pistols. Eventually Time had run out and the Orkz were in charging range. Threld stood in the middle of his men as they met the Ork stampede, their powerfists and chainswords plunging into green flesh. Threld stood amongst his men and covered the front lines with Bolter Rifle fire. The battle required many tactical fallbacks and regrouping but by the end only a handful of Ork stragglers remained. Most of the company had been defeated in the fight but the most hardened of the men still stood. Threld looked around the dead Marines, and then to the dead Captain’s body. He walked over to it and with his powerfist extracted Solomar Caldius’ original heart. In that moment Threld despised the man for destroying the company, but he knew that Solomar was regardless a great warrior and had taken many hearts in the field. Threld was made Chaplain Captain since he was the highest ranked survivor and put Solomar’s heart in his chest, as a way to honor the Company's past.

Once he was officially the leader of company he learned just how widespread the devolution of the Chapter was. Many Companies daily losses were in the hundreds or thousands. Threld decided he would be apart of the reformation to save the chapter from wiping itself out with ineffective and overzealous tactics. He was one of the first Captains to begin asserting himself to his company as their true commanding officer, in order to build morale and a better company attitude. Quickly he took the 4th company from zealous suicidal berserkers to well disciplined disciples of the machine. He appointed much of his command squad from the survivors of Solomar’s defeat and titled the “The Black Hearts” each of his command squad is trained to hold ranks among the mean and act as sub captains during battle.

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