The Windcallers

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.

Windcallers
Battle Cry	"The storm cannot be tamed!"
Number	800
Founding	Second Founding
Successors of	Scale Bearers
Chapter Master	Kasimer Arnevas (Founding)
Primarch	Tiran Osoros
Homeworld	Unknown
Strength	1,000 at establishment
Specialty	Assault Tactics
Allegiance	Imperium of Man
Colours	Sandblasted Silver

The Windcallers were an Institutorum Astartes-compliant Space Marine Chapter and a proud successor of the Scale Bearers from the Second Founding.

Chapter History

The Windcallers' rise and fall was as meteoric as they themselves, proving the adage that a candle burning twice as brightly will last half as long. Racing across the Imperium from hotspot to hotspot without rest or remorse, their honorable combat record was studded with dozens of honorifics earned on the Imperium's behalf. Indeed, some onlookers compared them favorably to the First Founding Legions themselves, and regarded the Windcallers as some of Tiran Osoros' truest, noblest sons. Sadly, this readiness to take up arms on the Emperor's behalf led them inexorably to disaster during the Second Vetrovnak Incursion, where they bravely, gallantly, boldly, but ultimately foolishly chose to clash with forces well in excess of what their Chapter could handle. Not a one survived the Incursion, and they are listed among the first to fall in the annals of Terra.

Notable Campaigns

Few records now remain of the Windcallers' deeds, and only a small box of Imperial commendations now resides on their gene-sire's homeworld in silent testament to their existence, along with the Chapter Master's shattered power armor. The era is simply too distant, and the predations of time too gluttonous to permit anything more. It is known that the Windcallers were feared by all the Imperium's foes, and that will have to suffice.

During the Second Vetrovnak Incursion, they fought gallantly and well, and perhaps they did ultimately buy the Imperium a few days or weeks more time to prepare as the mutants began their assault, but the truth will never truly be known.

Notable Members

Chapter Master Kasimer Arnevas is the only true Windcallers Marine whose name is still known to the Imperium, so thoroughly was his Chapter annhilated. Critically wounded, he was picked up by Imperial scouts aboard the crippled foredeck of the Chapter's Battle Barge Blessed Pinions, shattered and drifting through space. Surviving just long enough to pass along a few fragments of information about the Vetrovnak who had destroyed his Chapter, and a handful of carefully protected gene-seed vials, he was ultimately given a hero's funeral on Solnhofen many years later.

Chief Apothecary Tarn Othanam, seconded from the Scale Bearers Legion, was widely known as a masterful Sor breeder, and it was he who created the first Sors large enough to bear a single Marine and their battle-kit aloft as beasts of war. Crippled in battle during Sorfall and suffering from extensive neural rejection of his prostheses, Apothecary Othanam wrote extensively about feeling truly free only on Sor-back, and he sent hundreds of genetic samples taken from his creations back to the Founding Chapter for their review. In later years, the Scale Bearers would faintly regret the Apothecary's dedication to his reptilian charges, for his writings contained little information beyond them that could be used to trace the fallen Chapter's traces.

Master of the Fleet Bellero "the Steel-Head" Retzer, seconded from the Scale Bearers Legion, commanded the Blessed Pinions Battle Barge, presumably until its destruction at Vetrovnak hands. One of the few Scale Bearers to remain aboard the fleet while the Legion's main body evacuated, Bellero reaped a terrible toll on the Iron Rangers before succumbing to neural shock, having hastily slaved himself to his vessel in order to keep it fighting despite lacking most of the crew. Thinking the warrior dead, the Iron Rangers passed his shattered ship by, hunting for greater prey, but Bellero yet lived and was retrieved by Onyx's forces as they entered the system. Believing himself shamed by his failure to turn the tide for his Legion, Bellero requested immediate transfer to a Second Founding Chapter as soon as their creation was announced, and he stayed with the Windcallers till their last moments. Presumably, it was the Fleet Master's actions which saved his Chapter Master long enough to escape to friendly lines. The Scale Bearers knew Bellero Retzer as a man of diamond-hard willpower, and with the adamantium plates replacing his shattered skull, the "Steel-Head" moniker was not slow in arriving.

Chapter Combat Doctrine

The Windcallers fought as the flying Sors they so carefully bred from Solnhofen-derived stock, swirling about the battlefield as fluidly as drifting gusts of wind. Their hearts called them ever onwards and upwards, and perhaps no other Chapter of their era had quite the same instinctive "feel" for where they should position themselves in combat. Though limited in their heavy equipment, for the devastation of the Heresy still loomed large at their Founding, the Windcallers learned to make the most of everything they had, always seeking even the slightest weaknesses in their foe's battle plans to exploit. This strategy served the Chapter well when fighting Orks, Traitors, and other Xenos, but fell apart in the face of the well-coordinated Vetrovnak and their unnatural powers.

Chapter Beliefs

Inquisitorial Note: This document was preserved by the Chapter Master within his armor, evidently one of the Windcaller's most sacred rituals, and so important he deemed it vital that it be saved in case the Chapter were ever to be reborn. Most of these fragments appear to be from old tomes, but several hasty marks bear the Chapter Master's shaky hand, evidently written from memory in his dying agonies.

"To leave the bonds of earth and free one's body is to free one's mind as well. Nothing remains but the warrior instinct, laid bare by howling winds." This is the creed of the Windcaller, we who seek excellence through meditation and ascension.

The eternal winds forever roar through the vast Kolbrem Passage, separating one half of the Arpilium Range from the other as sharply as the Materium and Immaterium. Long ago, a rift began to develop beneath these massive peaks, but lacked the energy to split the continent apart and form a true ocean. Now it is a vast cleft in the rock, more than a hundred miles long and two miles wide, with an endless hurricane of energy pouring through. Here, we find our true selves. Here we open our minds to the world, and divine secrets found nowhere else. The fearful fall. The empty rise.

When the Astartes still unblooded, in shining silver armor fresh from forge's fire, newly stands before the Chapter his brothers, none shall yet deem him Windcaller. With courage alone he will soar, gravsled his steed and wit his only shield. Three brothers he shall follow, three brothers shall stand his vigil, three brothers shall welcome him back, in life or death as the winds will. Into the Kolbrem Passage he shall go, where the wind is fiercest and beast and bough dare not shelter. Bind sled to rock with chains adamant and soar aloft, ere twenty-three days elapse and the mighty moon of Pamtian revisit the warrior once more. Never shall his brothers cease to watch, to the left, to the right, and behind. Neither eat nor drink shall pass the warrior's lips until his test be fulfilled, and never may he slumber until soil be ground underfoot once more. No mortal teacher this, only nature itself and the lessons it holds. As the mighty Sor knows the endless skies by instinct alone, so must a Windcaller read the firmament and evade the earthly debris eternally blowing through the pass. To actually fall, the ultimate shame. None remember such a man, though Astartes by blood he became, a Windcaller by spirit he never shall be.

When the test is complete and he returns to earth, the Marine shall present himself before the Chapter, and we hold silent judgement upon his armor's sheen. The finest Marines with the best intuition prove themselves master of the wind, their armor gleaming even in the tempest's grip. Those less capable will bear plate dingy, pitted, and scuffed, but still we honor their courage and endurance. From that point forward, only those parts of the Marine's armor he protected during the challenge are kept pristine. As the other plates are damaged and replaced, the Marine must carefully scuff them to keep the original pattern his honor forged. Sacred honor, sacred augur, sacred portent of our futures. Would that we had read our coming doom in the marks.

Some of the best Jump Packs ever created by the Imperium were devised by this Chapter's artificers, able to lift a Marine higher and farther than almost any other.

Chapter Homeworld

The Chapter's homeworld is no longer known to Imperial Scholars, only that it had at least one large moon and an impressive set of geological features. It is believed that the planet came under assault during the Second Incursion, and multiple investigations have been launched over the millennia to find the Windcallers' remains and salvage any Second Founding-era equipment left behind, but the treasure trove within their Fortress-Monastery, if indeed any there ever was, has yet to be uncovered.

Chapter Appearance

Purest silver, dark grey scoring, and dull grey ceramite are the Windcallers' heraldry, preserving their honored traditions and way of life.