The Entombed

The Entombed
Battle Cry	They fight in silence, with litanies playing on voxcasters.
Number	VI
Founding	First Founding
Successor Chapters	20 Cardinal Chapters
Primarch	Golgothos
Homeworld	Sepulchra
Strength	50,000 at the beginning of the Heresy, 10,000 at the end of it.
Specialty	Heavy armour shock troops
Allegiance	Imperium of Man
Colours	Grey, white and bone details.

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 Entombed serve as the shock troops of the Imperium. They have long suffered from a genetic flaw which makes their geneseed difficult to recover from fallen battle brothers. They compensate for this difficulty by fielding more terminators, and interring their wounded in dreadnoughts more often. Their inevitable doom eventually wipes them out, but not before crushing some xenos, swearing revenge on the Life Bringers, and helping to found the Imperial Cult.

Summary of Legion VI

Numeration: The VIth Legion

Primogenator: Golgothos (also known as "The Fervent")

Cognomen (Prior): The Spiritguard

Observed Strategic Tendencies: Heavy Infantry, Armored Walkers, Area Weaponry, Teleportation-based disruption.

Noteworthy Domains: Calixis, Scarus, Gothic, Agripanaa, and Cadian sectors of Segmentum Obscurus

Alliegence: Fidelitas Constantus

"If we fall, we shall burn all we see before us! From here to horizon will be naught but ash and bones!"

Captain Nevazar of the Sons of Fire 3rd Company, during the scouring of Crematoria

"Ashes to Ashes. Dust to Dust."

Letum the Dour, Cardinal of the Ashen chapter, in reply

Homeworld

Sepulchra is a twisted world of dust and stone. Its pockmarked and craggy surface supports no life, but it would be foolish to judge Sepulchra by its surface. Deep below lies a vast network of caverns, teeming with subterranean life. From bioluminesent fungus and cave moss, to the devastating tunnelworm, to brutal tribes of Orks, Sepulchra is anything but uninhabited. The Entombed's Fortress Monastery, called The Catacomb, is made from the derelict remains of an ancient human spacecraft. Its deep cargo holds now serve as barracks and mausolea, and its bridge serves as the command headquarters of the Legion. The only access to the Catacomb is either by three aerial access shafts, or by navigating the labyrinthine caverns. Because there are no humans on Sepulchra to recruit from, the Entombed draw their recruits from the many worlds local to the Sepulchra system. After the Hektor Heresy, this relationship was formalized into the Sepulchra Coalition, in which 20 systems in a ring around the Eye of Terror exchanged loyalty and recruitment rights to specific Cardinals in exchange for protection.

Legion Tactics

The Entombed favor heavy armour and overwhelming firepower. They are most effective in close-quarters, zone mortalis situations, such as in the streets of a city, winding underground caverns, or in boarding operations. They employ a shattering tactic: Dreadnoughts lay down heavy fire with their Ossuary cannons, while terminators deploy behind enemy lines to disrupt the enemy. Entombed tactics have proved instrumental in breaking Ork charges and invalidating Eldar mobility, as well as displacing fortified positions during the Heresy. Late in the Great Crusade they began to field what would one day come to be called Chaplains, officers in charge of boosting the morale of their brothers. The skull-shaped helms of modern chaplains are theorized by Imperial historians to have been adopted by other legions in homage to The Fallen Legion.

Legion Organization

The Entombed favored an autonomous command structure. While most Legions avoided a rank akin to Lieutenant, such a rank was the core of the Entombed command structure. Undertakers, Apothecaries in Terminator armour, were given command of two squads of ten marines, and given semi-autonomous command over their squads. Undertakers would be given specific goals, and were trusted to fulfill those goals however they saw fit. This fractured organization made it difficult to anticipate the Entombed on the battlefield, assisting them in their tactics of disruption and line-breaking. After the discovery of Golgothos, 20 chaplains were named Cardinal, each given command of a Tomb Warden who guards the Cardinal's Armory, and 5 Bishops, who in turn command 5 Undertakers each. Cardinals were given complete autonomy, save for the direct commands of Golgothos himself. Many xeno armies fell to the erratic and unpredictable nature of Entombed fleets, and Warmaster Hektor found it nearly impossible to account for the Entombed in his strategems during the Heresy.

Tomb Wardens

Tomb Wardens serve as the second-in-commands to the Cardinals of the Entombed. They watch over the Armory of the chapter, including the Dreadnoughts, the infantry's armour and weapons, the drop pods, and the ships of the fleet. In addition to these duties, the Tomb Wardens are tasked with the retrieval and laying to rest of the remains of dead marines. Tomb Wardens and their acolytes scour the battlefield after every engagement, recovering the dead and gathering them together. The Tomb Warden himself leads the Ritual of the Last Rite, in which the name and deeds of every dead soldier are recited and inscribed upon the soldier's bones. The Wardens maintain the great Catacomb, and oversee the great banks of Mausolea within its depths. Their role as guardians of the dead grant them great significance among the Entombed, and though the Cardinals are superior, the Tomb Wardens are holier by far. Tomb Wardens hold close ties to the Mechanicum and the Cult of Mars, leading other legions, chiefly the War Scribes, to question whether the Entombed serve Terra or Mars first.

Undertakers

Undertakers are skilled Apothecaries. They are not as skilled in battlefield medicine as the Apothecaries of the Eternal Zealots, nor as skilled at research as those of the Life Bringers. The Undertakers of the Entombed focus their training on the recovery and storage of geneseed. The Genestock of the Entombed is so fragile that even the slightest mistake can irreparably damage it. The dwindling genebanks of the Catacomb are watched over with immeasurable caution. Undertakers are also masters of cybernetic prosthetics, navigating the nebulous dangers of immunorejection with care and uncharacteristic subtlety. As battlefield commanders, the Undertakers are uncreative, and inflexible, following their orders without question or addition.

Bishops

Bishops serve the Cardinals directly, serving on their war council and leading the Undertakers. Bishops are trained in tactics and leadership, for that is their primary role. The Cardinals decide what should be done, and where, but it is the Bishops who ultimately determine how. Bishops lead many rituals, invoking litanies before (and during) battle, leading hymns of victory, and leading the rites on certain commemoration days, such as the anniversary of Golgothos' discovery. As a secondary duty, Bishops are charged with watching over the Librarians of their company. Each Bishop guards his Librarians personally, watching them for any signs of sorcery. If the Librarians falter, they are stripped of their humanity and turned into Servo-skulls, who serve the Bishops as a shameful reminder of their failures.

File:Bishop Sigil.png

Legion Equipment

To compensate for their difficulty in recouping losses, The Entombed have opted to wear much heavier armour. The VI Legion has a disproportionately large amount of Terminator Armour, and because the geneseed of the dead often cannot be recovered, mortally wounded marines are hastily interred in dreadnoughts or given cybernetic prosthetics. The Entombed field a unique Ossuary Pattern Dreadnought, with thicker armour and armed with the Demolisher Cannons usually seen on Vindicators. The wide, bulky frame of the Ossuary necessary to bear the recoil of the Demolisher cannon was a transitional form between the relatively lithe contemptor patterns of 30k and the bulkier, slower patterns of 40k. The dreadnought of Primarch Golgothos, designed by a collaboration of his brothers, served as the prototype for such designs.

Legion Doctrine

The Entombed believe mankind to be a race of gods, sent to the galaxy to purge it of unworthy xenos and blasphemous witches. They put a great emphasis on respecting the dead, and their Fortress Monastery also serves as a great catacomb, where the bones of fallen Entombed are interred. After a battle, every fallen brother receives a formal funeral ritual, in which his flesh is cured from his skeleton and his righteous deeds of battle are etched into his bones. These rituals can take days to complete, and this reverence for the dead often frustrates more pragmatic allies, who continue to fight while The Entombed perform their last rites.

Veterans of The Entombed are called Death Masks. In the tradition begun by their Sacred Band, they forswear their names and any sense of identity. It is believed that, because they are no longer men, they are utterly incorruptible, beyond reproach. It is said that a Death Mask marine could walk among the mightiest warp storm and not feel even the slightest pull of corruption. While this is an exaggeration, there is a kernel of truth to it, as by the time a marine becomes a veteran, he is likely so riddled with cybernetics that there is barely any man left inside the armour. Death Mask marines never, under any circumstances, leave their armour, having all of their biological needs fulfilled cybernetically.

Golgothos and the Entombed were strong proponents of the decree of Nikaea. After the decree, the Entombed took harsh measures to control the psykers within their legion. Librarians of the Lexicanum and Codicier ranks were forbidden to use their powers save for navigation in the warp. Each Librarian of these ranks was assigned directly to a Bishop as his overseer. The Bishop's charge was to oversee the psykers under his command, and watch them for sorcerous heresy. If a librarian's loyalty was even slightly in doubt, he would be turned into a servitor or servo-skull, denied both his mind and his powers. A servitor at the side of a bishop is seen as a permanent mark of failure and dishonor. Librarians who show great faith and loyalty are promoted to the rank of Epistolary, and forcibly interred within a Dreadnought. Only once he is interred may a Librarian use his powers in battle. Dreadnoughts, when not in battle, are usually left to slumber for years at a time. The Entombed believe that internment in a dreadnought allows them to deny their Librarians the time and freedom needed to pursue studies in the sorcerous arts. Entombed Librarian Dreadnoughts are a powerful force on the battlefield. When allowed to unleash their powers, they have proven to be masters of telekinesis, hurling their enemies about and ripping them apart. Some have even mastered the art of hurling themselves into the air like rocks from a catapult.

Legion History

The VIth squad of the Sacred Band

The 6th squad of the Sacred Band called themselves the Unnamed. They chose to abandon their humanity, and instead become weapons to be used solely for the Emperor's will. They favored the teleporters of their Terminator armour, appearing amidst the enemies ranks to cause chaos and disruption. The Unnamed unnerved other members of the Sacred Band, for outside of battle they were utterly silent, and inhumanly calm. When battle began, and they appeared amidst their enemies, they would unleash their fury. They would scream, yell, bellow with all their might, as they crushed the enemy with their hammers or charred them to ash with heavy flamers. Half of the squad were trained Techmarines of consummate skill, the others were Apothecaries of unrivaled talent. When off the battlefield they could be found silently tinkering with the Band's vehicles or applying cybernetics to the wounded.

Great Crusade

The Entombed were created from the genetic material of their Primarch Golgothos. As with all of the Primarchs, Golgothos was genetically engineered to be a supreme super-soldier but was cast into the warp during his infancy along with his brothers. The Entombed served with distinction during the Great Crusade, and did not once retreat from the field of battle. Soon after Golgothos' discovery, the Eldar craftworld Kaelor drifted near to Sepulchra. The fervent primarch would not bear this threat, and so he deployed his legions onto the twisted structure. Many other primarchs would have tried to destroy the craftworld from orbit, or sent a team of specialists with demolition charges. Golgothos, however, wanted to watch the vile xenos die with his own eyes, and engaged them man to man. The Infinity Circuit was demolished by Golgothos himself, and the craftworld now drifts as a skeletal moon around Sepulchra.

The Eldar were enraged by Golgothos' hubris, but with the Eye of Terror so close to Sepulchra, few craftworlders dared to strike back. Their dark brothers of Commoragh, however, had no such compunctions, and so the craftworlders bribed, cajoled, and otherwise convinced the Dark Eldar to strike at Sepulchra and avenge craftworld Kaelor. The Dark Eldars' strike craft swarmed Sepulchra, diving into its caverns and sweeping through the planet with lightning speed. The war that followed was bloody chaos. The Dark Eldar employed every vile tactic to draw the Entombed from their fortress, where they could be ambushed in the caverns. The Haemonculus Kyragrath created twisted beasts from the tunnelworms of Sepulchra, and concocted vile poisons from the cave flora. When Golgothos finally found Kyragrath, he tore him asunder, casting the two halves of the Haemonculus aside. Golgothos' victory was bittersweet, however, for the torso of Kyragrath managed to strike out with a final, vengeful, poisoned blade.

Kyragrath's poison racked Golgothos' genetics. Golgothos began to mutate uncontrollably, and became fatally ill. Hearing of the grave news, The Emperor made haste to Sepulchra, as well as many of the Primarchs. The Emperor found that even after he had purged the poison from his son, the genetic degradation remained. The Emperor had nearly given in to despair, when Johannes Vrach, Primarch of the Life Bringers, spoke up. Johannes proposed that he and his brothers would design and construct a new Dreadnought for their brother, capable of making micro-corrections to Golgothos' genetics, constantly counteracting the mutation. Johannes and Aubrey worked day and night designing the medical interface. Brennus, Primarch of the Thunder Kings, designed the chassis along with Onyx of the Stone Men. Darius of the Sand Kings inscribed wards to hold off sorcery, and Arelex of the War Scribes installed the most advanced technologies he had found in his campaigns. Kranios the Destroyer, of the Horns of Ruin, designed a massive cannon to be mounted on the Dreadnought's left arm. Hektor himself could not come to see his brother, but he sent his finest craftsmen, who used sonic readings to create a massive iron likeness of Golgothos' own skull, to be mounted as the head of the behemoth.

After the taking of craftworld Kaelor and the defeat of the Dark Eldar, The Entombed made it their duty to secure all worlds around the Eye of Terror for the Emperor. The flaming trails of drop pods soon filled the skies of Medusa, Cadia, and other worlds around the Eye. As each world fell, taking further worlds became easier, and the Entombed quickly had command of much of Segmentum Obscuris. The Entombed were not kind with the worlds they conquered, and the Bishops of the 6th Legion had violent inquisitions upon these worlds, torturing and executing any who would not give up their gods and pay fealty to the Emperor.

The Coalition of Sepulchra

The Entombed's circumstances faced them with a serious problem. Segmentum Obscurus lacked worlds with large populations because of the difficulty of warp travel around the Eye of Terror. Whereas other Legions had single homeworlds with massive populations from which they could draw recruits, the Entombed's homeworld of Sepulchra had no human population and thus no potential for recruitment. Golgothos himself also faced a problem: He was not a very good commander. Golgothos was a master of battle, a powerful warrior, but he had no mind for maneuver warfare, wide strategies, or arithmetics. Both problems were solved with the Coalition of Sepulchra. Golgothos selected 50 worlds in Segmentum Obscurus, among them Cadia, Medusa, Vostroya, and Lucius. He gave each world to a Cardinal in command of one thousand marines and a division of the Entombed's armory. The Cardinals were granted a great deal of autonomy on the battlefield, and were primarily tacticians and strategists. Coalition worlds claimed dominion over nearby systems, and Golgothos carefully selected a great deal of Forge Worlds to be under direct control of his Legion. The Coalition made recruitment easier, distributed Legionary command to skilled, independant tacticions, and brought a great deal of manufacturing power into the Legion's control.

The Hektor Heresy

After the Voidwatcher destroyed the Webway project, he retreated to his homeworld to avoid the Emperor's wrath. The Emperor chose the two legions best suited for the task, The Entombed and the Thunder Kings, to bring justice to the traitor and assault his homeworld of Ostium. Before battle, Brennus crafted a mighty warhammer for his brother, and inscribed his Dreadnought armor with protective runes. Thunder King drop pods rained down on the sundered planet, and Entombed marines popped into being using their teleporter arrays. These disruptive tactics proved devastating to the Black Augurs, though their divinations aided them greatly.

Constantly retreating, the Black Augurs petitioned Hektor for aid. Hektor knew that Johannes Vrach had been developing a bioweapon from Golgothos' genetic data, and so he chose the Life Bringers. For several weeks, however, the Life Bringers' advance was blocked by a War Scribes fleet, deployed to protect the flanks of the Ostium invasion. When Arelex, Primarch of the War Scribes, gave his infamous retreat order after Isstvan V, the Life Bringers advanced on Ostium.

During the final loyalist assault on the Augurs' fortress Monastery, Brennus ordered Golgothos to take his finest companies and destroy a strongpoint from which the enemy was summoning daemons. This order would prove to be the Entombed's salvation, for only these two companies survived Ostium. The Life Bringers arrived just in time to relieve the Augurs, and from their dropships they deployed a vile red gas. This gas washed over the battlefield, leaving Augurs and Kings unharmed. When it seeped into the armor of the Entombed, however, it melted their tissue and sublimated their bones. Of the 40,000 Entombed marines deployed on Ostium, only 10,000 survived.

The Fall of Obitus

Four Cardinals had been tasked with the defense of Terra. In command was Obitus, the Black Cardinal, who had earned great renown in turning back WAAAGH Murk from the bowels of Sepulchra. In fighting WAAAGH Murk, Obitus learned of the fungal nature of the Orks, and the means by which they return to fight again, even after total obliteration. This intrigued Obitus greatly, for he was greatly interested in Immortality. While Hektor and Uriel were gathering legions to their cause, Children of Astarot spies informed the archtraitors that Obitus could potentially be turned. Johannes Vrach, a recent convert, was chosen to go to Sepulchra and bring Obitus to Hektor's side. Johannes spoke to Obitus of the powers of Nurgle. He showed Obitus his plague marines, who could stave off death, and Obitus saw his chance at Immortality. With an army of the animate dead, Obitus could claim the galaxy for humanity. Obitus' charismatic nature made it easy to spread his corruption to the other Cardinals, and to their marines. The librarians on Sepulchra made quick work granting Nurgle's gift to the many dead marines interred within the Catacomb. Armies of dead terminators and dreadnoughts blocked off the passages into the fortress, and Obitus had the aerial access shafts demolished.

The Siege of Sepulchra

After Ostium, Golgothos made haste back to Sepulchra to regroup, recover from his losses, and strike back against the traitors. However, when he arrived he found the access shafts demolished and the vox channels unresponsive. He deployed his forces onto the planet, drop pods screaming through anti-air fire from the Interceptor cannons below. Once on the surface, Golgothos gathered his forces and made his way into the deep caverns. What he found there infuriated him beyond mortal understanding. After having his forces nearly wiped out by the forces of Nurgle, he had come home to find them infesting his fortress. Golgothos led a fierce war against his wayward Cardinal, assaulting through the caverns toward his fallen fortress. The Primarch knew the caverns well, for he had been hunted in them for 30 years, but the forces of the dead greatly outnumbered the living. Hordes of zombies in power armor pockmarked by mold filled the caverns, raised by sorcerors, both in power armour and dreadnoughts. The dead were supported by the fallen, vile plague marines and dark apothecaries provided ample fire support for the dead. It took the Entombed a full year to root out the dead, but eventually the great bulkheads of the Catacomb were breached.

When Golgothos entered the fortress, his fire hot rage had long since turned to cold fury. Fallen marines were slaughtered by the thousand, but he issued orders to capture as many alive as possible. Obitus was found in the command complex, protected by sorcerors and a horde of summoned daemons. Golgothos breached through this daemonhorde with a spearhead of Ossuary dreadnoughts, and managed to capture Obitus alive. Once all ten thousand fallen marines were accounted for, the furious Primarch gave the order to crucify them. Dead and captured alike were hung from iron crosses until they bled or starved to death. Obitus was the last to die, and until his dying moment he uttered vile blasphemies and spoke of the immortality Nurgle would grant him. When the last of the traitors were dead, Golgothos had all ten thousand marines cast in gold, and brought them to his flagship. They fill the halls of that ship even now, as it floats deep in Eyespace. Obitus himself stands over the command throne over the vessel, with the words "All men die" engraved into his chestplate. After the siege, Golgothos renamed his flagship "Nurgle's Grave."

The Vengeance Campaign

The losses and betrayals the Entombed had suffered infuriated Golgothos. Other commanders would have stayed on their homeworlds, recovered their numbers, and rejoined the fight when they were able. Waiting, however, waiting was not in Golgothos' nature. Golgothos and his Legion itched for vengeance in battle. They longed to kill the vile traitors who had turned against their own race. Golgothos gathered his surviving marines, and pulled in his fleet, leaving his territory wholly undefended but bringing as many conscripts from the abandoned worlds as possible. Some worlds were left wholly uninhabited. Whether this was mere carelessness or a strategem is a matter of historical debate, but the fact remains, Hektor saw undefended territory and hastened to seize it. It is considered one of the only true mistakes of Hektor's campaign that he considered the Entombed beaten.

Golgothos' Legion was vastly reduced in numbers, only 10,000 active marines remained. However, his Imperial Army and Conscript forces swelled to massive numbers. Hektor moved several warbands into northern Solar and southern Obscurus to capture and hold forgeworlds which could help his war effort. The Entombed came screaming out of Obscurus, moving as a single massive fleet. The entire fleet would come out of warpspace in the same system, as close as possible to any of Hektor's ships, and initiate boarding actions as quickly as possible. Entombed terminators used their teleportariums to deploy to key positions aboard enemy vessels while boarding torpedos landed parties of IA with dreadnought support. Hektor's forces, expecting no threats in this theater, were surprised, and the vessels were dispatched. With the forces in orbit defeated, Golgothos would deploy his forces over the planet and perform an Exterminatus, bombarding the planet from orbit until nothing remained. No survivors were allowed to flee and warn Hektor of the Entombed's presence, and comm relays were the primary targets of ship-to-ship weaponry. Once a system was cleared, the fleet would move on to the next.

Again, it is a matter of historical debate if this was a plot to draw out hektor or merely mindless rage. The tactics managed to draw Hektor's attention. Hektor had very little real intelligence to go on, only choppy distress transmitions, several missing warbands, and a vast swath of dead worlds. His enemies were ghosts, appearing out of nowhere, striking with overwhelming force, and vanishing back into the void. The Warmaster had already sent the Sons of Fire and the Eternal Zealots to put a stop to the War Scribes on his eastern flank, and so it fell to him and his own Legion to secure his western flank before pushing to Terra.

Hekter responded in force. Southern Obscurus would provide for him a staging ground from which he could fuel his war effort against Segmentum Solar. With only Golgothos' crippled Entombed and his Imperial Army regiments to defend it, Obscurus would be relatively easy to capture compared to the war-torm Ultuma and Pacificus segmenta. However, the surges of reinfocements from Terra meant that he could not deploy his entire Legion without losing the ground he had already gained. Hektor chose to deploy twenty Warbands, XXX to L, along with Army and Navy support, under the command of the Primus Alkibiades, to secure the region and finish off the Entombed. His marines outnumbered the Entombed twice over.

Golgothos had three advantages. First, Hektor could not have forseen the number of conscripts the Entombed were able to rally, and the loyalist human forces would have ever-increasing morale as the campaign went on, whereas Hektor's auxiliaries were largely the Gorgers' slaves, pressed into service against their will. Second, Golgothos had spent nearly his entire life on Sepulchra, facing orks which outnumbered him a million to one. Golgothos' experience in the caves of Sepulchra would serve him well in the battles to come. Third, Hektor wanted to claim this region, and hold it. Golgothos wanted no such thing. He wanted only to kill traitors, consequences be damned.

War raged across the entire segmentum. Because the Heralds wished to seize the region, battles were primarily fought planetside. Golgothos knew how to engage a larger force well: lurk out of sight, wait for your moment, and strike with overwhelming force. He let the enemy fight his conscript army, holding his marines in reserve. The Heralds, offered foes that gave them no glory, grew complacent. At precisely the moments when they began to believe victory was at hand, the Entombed would appear out of nowhere. Pockets of Terminators appeared amidst their battle-lines, shattering their advance, breaking morale, killing as many of the enemy as they could, and then vanishing before the commanders could rally their forces against the new foe. As the Entombed appeared, the Imperial Army forces would retreat, pulling back to fight another day.

The Entombed were spectres, vengeful spirits appearing from the void to deliver the Emperor's judgement for Hektor's sins. As the campaign raged on, Hektor's forces grew afraid of the Entombed. The effect on the enemy's morale was drastic, and the slaves began to break more and more easily. However, these tactics had a mighty toll in casualties. The Imperial Army forces of Golgothos lost many lives, and the Terminators who died amidst the enemy often had their progenoid glands left behind, lost forever. The tactics worked, however, and while the loyalist casualties were high, in the end the Herald's were higher.

Legion Equerry

Obitus, the Black Cardinal

Obitus was Black Cardinal of the Entombed during the Great Crusade. The Black Cardinal held the highest and most vital duty of all the Cardinals: the defense of Sepulchra itself. Obitus had a keen charismatic wit, rare among the otherwise laconic Entombed. His skills as an orator made him a mighty chaplain, pushing his men to feats of insane valor. Obitus was known as a man of great virtue and steel loyalty, but these could not be further from the truth. Obitus was, in truth, a master manipulator. His employed his devious tongue in the singular pursuit of power, and knew that the best way to gain power was to wear a mask of perfection. He cunningly arranged battlefield tactics so as to put the men most capable of opposing his Cardinal Seat in the greatest danger. He elevated sycophants, but presented them as loyal servants. Any man who questioned his virtue soon found himself leading a charge against a wall of Ork Nobs.

Obitus wanted one thing above all: Eternal life. What good was power if you would one day lose it? When he claimed to be studying tactics and strategems, he was in truth studying ancient tomes of the occult. Though Obitus had not the psychic spark, he slowly brought a cabal of librarians into his confidence. This Black Cabal would study dark sorcerers in the secret corners of the Catacomb, seeking the secrets to eternal life. When Johannes Vrach was sent to try to corrupt the Entombed, he found an easy target in Obitus. Nurgle, the Lord of Decay, could keep the rot of death at bay indefinitely. All Obitus had to do was serve Hektor, and so he did.

Erebus, Lord of the Grave

Erebus was Lord Undertaker during the final days of The Entombed. He was chief Apothecary, charged with maintenance and protection of gene stock, as well as the treatment of wounded marines. After Golgothos flew into the Eye of Terror, it was determined that the Lord Undertakers should be the supreme commanders of The Entombed, capable of unifying the Cardinals. Erebus was the 16th Lord Undertaker, and the last.

Erebus wears Tactical Dreadnought Armour like all Undertakers, and carries a custom-built Narthecium modified for war, capable of producing a powerful paralytic. He very rarely engaged in combat personally, and spent most of his time on Sepulchra, organizing the efforts of his cardinals from a distance. When The Entombed comitted to major conflicts, drawing him from Sepulchra, he would often lead battles from orbit or a forward observation post, rather than fighting himself.

Erebus was practical to a fault, avoiding risk whenever possible. If he decided the potential losses were too high, he would regretfully let whole worlds be lost. By the time of Erebus' command, the numbers of The Entombed had dwindled quite significantly. Erebus' life's work was in researching a cure for the geneseed flaw of The Entombed, but it was not completed before Mortis III.

Cardinal Merik, the Deathbringer

Known as 'The Deathbringer,' Cardinal Merik was 7th Cardinal, in command of 5 Bishops and 10 Undertakers. He wielded the standard equipment of a Cardinal: Terminator Armour, Crozius, Storm Bolter, and Rosarius. He often deployed into battle aboard a Land Raider. Merik was consumed utterly with his quest for vengeance. He fought alongside his primarch on Isstvan and Rai, and shared Golgothos' hatred for the Life Bringers. Marines of other legions sometimes whispered that his hatred was nothing short of madness. Merik defended no worlds, fights no xenos, and cared nothing for galactic conflict. He scoured the galaxy for the Life Bringers, and assaulted them at any cost. No other Cardinal in the entire Legion suffered losses on the scale of Merik, and he had been censured by Golgothos numerous times for his carelessness.

Merik was one of the few chaplains to survive the Decimatus, but was otherwise an unremarkable officer during the Heresy. He fought well, but did not distinguish himself. It was only after the Siege of Sepulchra, during the Scouring, that he began to make a name for himself. On the agriworld of Zeris II, he discovered an abandoned Life Bringers outpost. No trace of where the plague marines had gone could be found. Furious, and convinced that the populace was collaborating with the traitors, he put millions to torture. When he learned nothing, he slaughtered every man woman and child on the planet.

Cardinal Merik's death is shrouded in mystery. His battle barge was lost, and never seen again. Some claim he chose to steer into the Eye of Terror to join his Primarch's crusade. Others whisper that he fell to Khorne. None know for certain.

Warden Mors the Cryptlord

Tomb Warden of the XVIth Chapter of the Entombed, Mors the Cryptlord

Writefaggotry

The Skeleton in the Caves

As a babe, the Primarch whould come to be known as Golgothos crash landed on a desolate, grey planet known as Sepulchra. The surface of Sepulchra were inhospitable badlands, with gale force winds kicking up dust storms which could rip the flesh off a man. Fortunately, Golgothos' pod crashed with such force that it pierced through the surface into the caverns below, and it is in these caverns that Golgothos made his home.

As a child, Golgothos lived by foraging for caveworms and scraping moss off of walls. As he grew, he began to hunt larger and larger game. The beasts of Sepulchra fell to his bare hands, and Golgothos would consume everything, leaving only the bones behind.

However, Golgothos' life was not safe, for deep within the caverns lived a clan of Orks. Many times as he was feeding, Golgothos would be discovered by wandering Orks, and be forced to flee. For many years he was forced to live cautiously, fleeing before the echos of Ork grunts.

It was not until he was a man grown that Golgothos chose to face the Orks in battle. The Orks had driven all game from the caverns, and so Golgothos was starving. Delirious and exhausted, Golgothos wandered passageways he had never been to before. Stumbling around a bend, he happened upon three Orks, arguing over the roasting corpse of a cave drake. Golgothos attacked the Orks with a ferocity he did not know he had posessed, kicking, clawing, biting, with his screams of fury echoing across the planet. The Orks never stood a chance.

After that, armed with an Ork Choppa, Golgothos grew to enjoy hunting orks. The Orks came to call him "Da skellytun in da caves," and told eachother tales of the bony creature which ripped apart Orks with its bare hands. Eventually, Warboss Skullgub decided he had had enough, and rallied his Orks to hunt Golgothos.

For months, Skullgub harried Golgothos. While Golgothos was mighty, he could not face hordes of Orks at once, and so he was forced to make numerous tactical retreats. Fleeing before the echoing CLANKS of Skullgub's mega armour, Golgothos came upon a pair of massive metal blast doors. Golgothos had never seen anything man made before, and so he marveled at the doors. However, he was quickly ripped out of his confusion by the CLANK CLANK CLANK of skullgub's approach. Golgothos banged his fists against the control panel in desperation, and miraculously, the door opened.

Within, Golgothos found polished metal hallways, with deep recesses in the walls. In each recess he found the ancient, dusty remains of a man: Golgothos had happened upon a crashed Catacomb Ship from the dark age of technology. He went deeper into the ship, looking for some choke point or other tactical advantage, and found it: A door leading into a personal Tomb. He looked within, and found, laying on a Beir, a well dressed skeleton. The skeleton was decorated with gold jewelry and gems, as well as medals which marked him as a military officer. On the officer's hand, dull grey and coated with a layer of dust, was an ancient Power Fist. With his mighty new weapon, and an advantageous choke point, Golgothos was able to drive off Skullgub's Orks.

The Discovery had confused Golgothos, however. He had never seen another human being before, never even conceived of the possibility that there were others. And yet, here in this catacomb, he had found the skeletal remains of hundreds of men. Golgothos began to think that Men were gods, or perhaps demons, meant to torment the Orks. He spent the next few years guarding the catacombs, and tending to the remains of what he believed to be fallen gods.

Eventually, Skullgub managed to corner Golgothos away from home as he was hunting. Outnumbered, outmatched, and staring down the gob of a gigantic mega armoured warboss, Golgothos called out to the gods for aid. With a loud CRASH, the roof before him caved in, and before Golgothos' tear-filled eyes was a Drop Pod of the Imperium of Man. From this Drop Pod emerged the Emperor himself, along with some of his mighty Space Marines. The Emperor cleaved Skullgub in two with his mighty power sword, and the Marines made short work of the remaining Orks.

The Emperor offered Golgothos a mighty legion to lead, and Golgothos required no convincing. As far as Golgothos was concerned, before him stood the King of the Gods, and such a being should not be questioned. The Emperor did not approve of Golgothos' superstition, but at least it was superstition of human superiority. Golgothos was given the VI Legion, which he named The Entombed.

The Entombed maintain Golgothos' faith to this day, believing humans to be Gods, sent to punish impure and inferior xenos. They guard their fortress monastary, called the Catacomb, and pay much respect to the dead.

The Fall of The Entombed

It was in the year of 391.M35 that Erebus, Lord of the Grave, received a message from the Children of Astarot. The Children had discovered that the Life Bringers were destroying entire systems on the edge of the galaxy, converting them into twisted jungles for Nurgle's pleasure. What's more, Primarch Johannes himself had was rumored to be leading the operation. Upon hearing the news, Erebus chose to mobilize all 3,000 Entombed. He would have his vengeance.

Aboard the battle barge Catafalque, Erebus called out to the other Legions for aid, but only the Knights Draconian, a War Scribes successor chapter, responded. The Entombed and their ally set out for the Mortis system, a chain of agri-worlds used to feed the most distant backwaters of mankind. When they arrived, They found Mortis I and II already turned. Warp-spawned tentacles reached out from the surface all the way into space, tearing apart the support ships of the Imperial Guard.

Erebus steered his fleet to Mortis III, a hive world from which the Mortis sector was governed. In orbit, he convened a war council to make plans to defeat the Life Bringers once and for all. At this council, Knights Draconian Third Company Captain Eadwine Herschel came before Erebus on his knees, and begged Erebus to forgive his chapter for their failure at Isstvan V. The War Scribes Primarch had frozen when he learned of the traitor legions' treachery, and failed to warn The Entombed of the incoming artillery barrage which would doom their legion. In anger, The Entombed had declared the War Scribes to be Void, and from then on acted as if they did not exist. Erebus considered Herschel's apology for a long time before replying, "How can I forgive one who does not exist?" Many of the War Scribes were insulted, but Herschel was wise, and knew the response for what it was. The Entombed were stubborn, and in his Primarch's absence, Erebus had no choice but to abide by the Void Decree. Herschel knew that, for The Entombed, to even budge an inch was remarkable.

It was then that the Knights Draconian and The Entombed formed their plan: They would erect a special planetary shield, which would prevent the Life Bringers from deploying their gasses from orbit. If the Life Bringers wanted to turn this world, they would have to do so from the ground. Erebus deployed his forces on the ground, while Herschel held his forces in orbit as a mobile reaction force.

The Life Bringers arrived soon afterward, and engaged the Knights Draconian in space. While the Draconian ships were distracted, the Life Bringers snuck a smaller ship past their blockade. On this ship was a device called the Great Genesis, capable of spewing forth diseases and chemicals which would warp Mortis III into a nurgle-spawned death world. The Entombed marched toward the device, slowly but surely, while battle barges crashed and burned in the skies above.

When The Entombed arrived at the Great Genesis, they found that the Life Bringers had been busy turning civilians into plague zombies. A swarm of writhing corpses orbited the Great Genesis like an asteroid belt, with a core of Life Bringers waiting within. The Entombed showed no remores, no hesitation. They cut through the zombies like a scythe through wheat. As The Entombed marched ever onward, the Knights Draconian began to rain drop pods upon the enemy, breaking their lines and weakening their defense.

At that very moment, as the drop pods and demolisher shells were raining down on his men, Johannes Vrach himself emerged from the Great Genesis. The Daemon prince had been warped and twisted by nurgle, and from his mouth spewed forth vile gouts of bile, where they landed, Knights and Entombed alike died by the score. Erebus ordered his ossuaries to fire their mighty cannons against the hated foe, but Vratch retreated back into the Genesis.

The casualties were becoming too much, and so Herschel ordered his men to retreat. Erebus, however, stubbornly held his ground. The battle came to a standstill, the Entombed unable to advance, and the Life Bringers unable to push the enemy back. The stalemate raged for hours, with heavy losses on both sides. As dusk fell, however, the Great Genesis finally came online. Its mighty vents began to spew forth thick red clouds, and from its massive pipes flowed a sickening yellow sludge. The Ossuary dreadnoughts began to bombard the machine, but even their mighty cannons could not penetrate its thick hull. Herschel commanded his whirlwinds to strike the machine, but the heavy gales of toxins threw the missiles off course. Johannes Vratch emerged once more from the Great Geneses, surveying his victory with joy.

At that moment, when all seemed lost, a great eldritch light filled the battlefield. Looking up, Erebus saw with horror that a warp storm had appeared in the sky above Mortis III. His despair turned to exultation when he saw the primarch's own battle barge, Nurgle's Grave, emerge from the warp storm. Screaming through the skies came the Drop Pods of Golgothos and his Venerable Dreadnoughts, come to slay their ancient foe. With a CRASH, the dreadnoughts struck the ground, and the dreadnoughts came out shooting. They waded through the sludge without concern as it melted through their armoured plates, with not a thought toward self preservation. Golgothos barreled across the battlefield, shouting "VRAAAAAAAAATCH! VENGEANCE FOR THE FALLEN!"

The mighty Golgothos and the twisted Vratch crashed into eachother, blessed power fist meeting against mutated claws. As they dueled, they kicked up huge waves of sludge, crashing over their own men and causing fungal blooms to rip through their armour. The primarchs struck with the bitter hatred of five thousand years, each blow shaking the ground for miles. After hours of fighting, Vratch managed to gain the upper hand. He ripped off Golgothos' faceplate, exposing the ancient face within, and spat a torrent of bile into Golgothos' armour. Golgothos' flesh began to twist, and mushrooms tore through his flesh. As his body tore itself apart, Golgothos grabbed Vratch, shoved his demolisher cannon in his face, and fired.

Erebus cried out, with both joy and despair. He had simultaneously seen his beloved primarch and his hated foe die. He and The Entombed were normally silent in battle, but now they screamed. They charged forward through the sludge, guns blazing, and tore through the Life Bringers. The vile poison twisted their flesh and tore them apart, but not before Erebus and a few survivors made it to the heart of the Great Genesis, deactivating it for good, and saving Mortis III.

As he watched from his safe vantage, Eadwine Herschel wept. In all his years as captain of the Third Company, he had never seen such a divine display. The glory of the warring primarchs, the valiant stubbornness of The Entombed, their last glorious charge to save the planet, it was all too much for him to bear. Once the sludge had been cleared from the battlefield, Herschel had his men gather up the remains of the dead, and load them onto his battle barge. That day Heschel declared that The Entombed would forever be interred on Sepulchra, and that he would found a new chapter, The Watchers Of The Dead, to guard The Entombed for all time.

The Assault on Ostium

The Thunder Kings, though not present at Isstvan, fought alongside The Entombed during the taking of Ostium. The Emperor was enraged by the fracturing of the Terran Webway gate, but the thought of simply sending a force to execute his son was more than he could bear to think. The Voidwatcher would be brought back to Terra, so that his father could look him in the eye and hear the reasons for his treachery; of course, The Emperor knew it would be beneficial to remove the wicked sorcerer from the war at this early stage. For this purpose, the Emperor called in both Golgothos, whose heavily armed Entombed would be ideal for an operation on a collapsing planetoid like Ositum, and Brennus, whose legion was one of the largest still loyal to the Throne. The two rendezvoused at the Entombed's homeworld of Sepulchra, where Brennus offered to provide runic charms against sorcery for his brother. Golgothos and his sons readily accepted, and Brennus and his Runesmiths spent the transit to Ostium working these mystic sigils into The Entombed's armor. Brennus also presented his brother with a mighty hammer he had named “Warlock's Dread”. Brennus also entrusted his brother with 2 sets of mighty iron manacles, bound in the mightiest runes of warding Brennus could grave; the two vowed to drag the Voidwatcher back to Terra "fettered hand and hoof as a lamb for our father's table."

Brennus and Golgothos, while working together in the forges, created a plan for the taking of The Black Augurs homeworld. Brennus and the Thunder Kings would establish beachheads on the world, forcing the Black Augurs to retreat at least some distance, and then the Entombed would teleport in from space, hitting those areas where the Black Augurs were concentrated most heavily to keep them from overwhelming the Kings with summoned daemons, and to hopefully shatter their strongest positions while the Thunder Kings kept reinforcements from arriving. Brennus attempted to convince his brother to stay in the rear guard, and perhaps support his sons at range, but Golgothos would hear nothing of that; he ached to get close to the traitorous sorcerers and teach them their folly. Brennus relented, but instead sent a detachment of the Horned Gods to fight alongside his brother, along with Golgothos' elite guard, The Death Masks. At first, this plan worked quite well: the Thunder Kings were able to hold key fronts long enough for the Entombed to enter the fray. In one notable case, an Entombed Dreadnought pod crushed a sorcerer as he was preparing a spell to slaughter a whole squad of Thunder Kings who had been paralyzed by warp-lightning. Across the battlefield the arrival of The Entombed would spell disaster for the Black Augurs, the heavy hitting, heavily armored warriors pulverizing warlocks across the battlefield. Golgothos was on the front lines, exacting a fearsome toll on the traitors of Istvaan V. Unfortunately, the terms of battle would not favor the loyalists for long.

Unbeknownst to the Thunder Kings and The Entombed, events were spiralling out of control beyond their reach. Arelex Orannis, Primarch of the War Scribes, was devastated by the treachery of Istvaan. As his legion had suffered severe casualties, he began to withdraw his troops from across the galaxy, so as to concentrate the remaining loyalist forces and prevent any of his men from being wiped out piecemeal. This action unfortunately allowed a hidden base of Life Bringers the opportunity to sneak free of the Scribes with their deadly payload: a modified form of the Life-Eater virus, specially altered to work only on beings sharing the geneseed of The Entombed. The spies within the Thunder Kings, meant to sow discontent, quickly picked up on the objective of the joint mission. They funneled the information to their masters in the Children of Astarot, who supplied it to the Life Bringers. Armed with this information, the dark healers of Vrachs' legion would make for Ostium with all speed, eager to unleash their twisted science on what remained of Golgothos' army.

As the battle raged on, the Black Augur's daemon summoning would grow to be a problem for the loyalists; even the protective runes of the Thunder Kings could not prevent the horrors of the warp from taking lives for their masters. Brennus, who had remained behind the front lines to better direct the combined loyalist forces, sent Golgothos and a detachment of his finest warriors, along with several bands of the 5th grand company Terminators, to strike at a fortified position from where the majority of the daemons had been loosed. This act would unknowingly save The Entombed from total annihilation; shortly after Golgothos' force made their initial attack on the Augur's summoners, Thunder Kings outriders reported that a mysterious red fog was stealing in from the edges of the battlefield. At first, this was ignored; these furthest positions consisted of only Thunder Kings outriders and scouts, who assumed that it was simply an attempt by the Black Augurs to obscure the field of battle and adjusted accordingly. Oscara mac Damman, one of the Horned Gods and a legion company commander, was leading an assault in joint command with a member of the Death Masks, a nameless warrior known only as The Butcher of Kaelor. When the red fog began to creep up on them, Oscara watched it closely, knowing that there had to be something more than a simply obscuring effect; the Thunder Kings and Entombed were hardly unprepared to pour a storm of fire into the fog, if so needed. But when the fog finally reached the first of The Entombed, he understood its purpose with complete horror: the normally stolid and silent men began to shriek in pain, as flesh began to melt away from their bodies. Oscara reported this to Brennus immediately, as he tried to command his men to retreat and get The Entombed off the field as quickly as possible; sadly, he was struck down by plague rounds from the fog, as the Life Bringers fired upon the now vulnerable Thunder Kings.

Reports quickly spread throughout the loyalist assault group; Entombed were dying across the moon, their horrific screams choking the vox and disorienting their allies. The Thunder Kings fared no better, as without their heavy support they were quickly overwhelmed by the combined might of plague horrors, daemons, and the assault of two Chaos-tainted Legions. Brennus ordered his men to retreat at all speed, and to save as many of The Entombed if possible; few of either side survived however, only 20,000 of the Thunder Kings original 60,000 strong force making it out of the mist, and only a few hundred of the Entombed able to escape from the mist. Golgothos and the marines he had fought with made up the bulk of The Entombed survivors, about 10,000 as the position they were assaulting was isolated from Life Bringers support and thus the fog. Brennus pleaded with Golgothos to retreat, but the screams of his sons had driven Golgothos battle-mad, and he would countenance no action besides an immediate slaughter of the Life Bringers. Brennus raced to confront Golgothos, and attempt to convince him to withdraw and fight another day, but the Tomb Lord's powerful blows quickly shattered Brennus' shield and knocked him aside. Unwilling to allow another of his brothers to die, he withdrew a rune-crafted sling bullet, made to send a mighty pulse of electricity through its target, and cast it into the mighty dreadnought's motive control; the resulting shock paralyzed the mighty battle engine. Brennus instructed the remaining warriors to escort Golgothos off the planet, as he supervised the rest of the retreat; he would remark later that "the screams of The Entombed were all the more terrible for their customary silence, and will haunt me until the last of my days. But the screams of their father, his pain and loss, will echo for millennia."

Game Material

Legion Rules

Erebus, Lord of the Grave: 2+ poison weapon but very low WS. High T and many W. Improves the FNP of the entire army by 1.