Celestial Lions

Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults,
whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse.
—The Bible, Proverbs 9:7 (New International Version)

Celestial Lions
Battle Cry	"We are the Emperor's pride. Hear us roar!"
Founding	Sometime in the 38th Millennium
Successors of	Imperial Fists
Chapter Master	Ekene Dubaku
Primarch	Rogal Dorn
Homeworld	Elysium IX
Strength	Less than 95, rebuilding
Specialty	Messing with the Inquisition, flanking tactics
Allegiance	Imperium
Colours	Gold, with blue helmet and pauldrons.

The Celestial Lions (calling them "Celestial Loins" would be a joke in poor taste, given their tremendous losses of late) are a chapter of Space Marines in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. They are an object lesson of what happens to people who try and mess with the Inquisition without serious backup (like being a First Founding chapter). It is unknown if the Inquisition is going to survive the return object lesson of what happens to those who fuck with the Space Marines. Especially Space Marines who are now best-buds with the Black Templars.

Chapter Culture

The Celestial Lions are a very brotherly, compassionate chapter with a prominent African spin on their culture. Given their dark skin and fraternal nature, one might be suspicious about their supposed descent from Dorn's line, but this chapter culture mainly comes from the fact that they only recruit from the warrior tribes of the world Elysium IX. As they all come from a culture that values community, legacy, and courage, all the Lions hold those values as paramount. More than most other chapters, their world's culture holds sway in their conduct. The Lions are very informal to those within their own ranks, with even basic battle brothers talking to their superiors as brothers and equals, though they are disciplined on the battlefield and they show great respect to the officers of other forces, particularly the other sons of Dorn. Another quirk of their chapter culture is the value they place on storytelling and the great respect they give to talented storytellers. Within their chapter it is common for a squad to gather and tell stories of their heroes and their own exploits before an engagement. If an outsider is present in one of their ships or bases the visitor is expected to pay for their "food and fire" by telling a story from their own people's legends or that individuals exploits and as such they love serving alongside guardsman for the stories they tell. Though they are very different from their typical grim cousin chapters, they are proud sons of Dorn through and through.

Clash with the Inquisition

The Celestial Lions came into conflict with the Inquisition during the pacification of the world Khattar. Khattar was a Shrine World with a large, faithful population. When the upper echelons of the priesthood fell into worship of the Ruinous Powers an Inquisitor Lord by the name of Apollyon called for an Imperial Navy blockade of the world in addition to Astartes support, a call that the Celestial Lions answered. After months of brutal fighting the Celestial Lions managed to cut the head of the local heretic priests and with that the world's population lost the will to fight and surrendered to the Astartes. As the Lions were withdrawing Inquisitor Appolyon decided that since the priesthood had been corrupt, the surrendering and repentant civilian population must also be corrupt, so he ordered Exterminatus on the planet. The Lions were not fucking amused. After Apollyon refused to be held accountable for the senseless massacre, saying it was necessary, the Lions sent a Strike Cruiser with a delegation of Deathspeakers and Warleaders (Chaplains and Captains, respectively) to Holy Terra with the intention of entreating the Highlords of Terra to call the Inquisition to task over what they'd done. The ship was never heard from again.

Third War for Armageddon

Fast-forward to the Third War for Armageddon. The entire chapter was deployed to a single hive, and thanks to spectacularly bad intelligence they ended up outnumbered, unsupported, and taking heavy losses at every battle. Matters came to a head when "Ork snipers" managed to take out most of the survivors (especially the Apothecaries), and their last Apothecary was found dead next to his Rhino (having been shot through the head with a lasgun), leaving them without any means to recover the gene-seed from their fallen. The remaining 95 Lions realized that they had been marked for death and decided that they would fight off all the Orks on Armageddon or die trying, and contacted Chaplain Grimaldus of the Black Templars to administer the last rites for them, but he insisted that the remainder of the Chapter could still restore its honor (and thus be allowed to leave) by slaying the warlord leading the Ork forces in the area. To support his weakened cousins Grimaldus used his influence as the 'Hero of Helsreach' to get support from several regiments of Imperial Guard. While much of the remaining forces of the Celestial Lions were wiped out in the attack, they were successful in redeeming themselves when Ekene Dubaku killed the Orkish Warlord with Grimaldus's help. Ekene, the Lion's only surviving Pride Leader (i.e. Squad Sergeant) was then named the new Chapter Master and given a couple of parting gifts by High Marshal Helbrecht himself: a suit of relic Imperial Fists power armor dating back to the Great Crusade along with a matching Relic Blade and the Strike Cruiser Blade of the Seventh Son.

Ultimate Fate

The Lions are now working to rebuild with the help of a temporary detachment of Black Templar specialists including some apothecaries and techmarines. Though it'll be hard considering there's less than ninety-five of them left, another Imperial Fists successor chapter recovered from near-extinction in less than a century after being reduced to 12 Marines in total. Plus, while the Inquisition may get away with bullying later-founded chapters, it would be tantamount to suicide for anyone to mess with the largest space marine legion chapter.

Trivia

"Ork Snipers" has since become slang for Vindicare assassins, or more generally for any implausible cover story for an Inquisition action.

Celestial Lions officers will paint intricate star charts on their armor, often times depicting a system or sector where he won his title or made some significant personal contribution to a campaign, and this right is also occasionally given to non-officers as an honor for courage or skill. The chapter master paints the blue parts of his armor with the star charts of his chapter's home sector. This intricate color scheme makes Celestial Lion's officers FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE TO PAINT I MEAN, EMPEROR DAMN IT difficult to paint. You'll need a steady hand for these guys.

Gallery

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  Black Templars Grimaldus and Pride Leader Ekene Dubaku kickin' Ork assess

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  Check out Ekene Dubaku's bolter... Totally awesome.

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  Artworks for these guys are about as few as what's left of them.

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  So True.

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  We present to you, the celestial lions!