Angels Vermillion

Angels Vermillion
Battle Cry	"Hey kids, you want some candy?" “DONT TELL ON US!”
Founding	Second Founding
Successors of	Blood Angels
Chapter Master	Unknown
Primarch	Sanguinius
Homeworld	Corinal
Strength	1000 Marines
Specialty	Being kidnapping scumbags/civilian eating
Allegiance	Imperium
Colours	Vermillion (surprise) Red, including their Sanguinary Guard.

The Angels Vermillion is a second founding chapter of the Blood Angels and one of the oldest chapters in the Imperium alongside its brother chapters from the original legion.

Unlike its brother chapters who have maintained close ties with each other and their parent chapter, the Angel Vermillion are aloof snooty bastards who prefer to keep to themselves, whether it be from marines and non-marines. This is because every 50 years or so the chapter steals away mortals during the time called "The Sorrowing", where they render the kidnapped people unconscious, and place them in specially-prepared body bags in their Chapter monastery - "The Bloodspike". They would then exsanguinate the doomed mortals, draining them of blood completely and methodically, on specially prepared conveyor belts with special machines built to extract blood. At least the name implies these guys honestly feel bad about it and their victims were unconscious. More than can be said about nearly anyone else in this fucked up galaxy.

Now for the longer version!

'Eminence Sanguis' short story

This article contains spoilers! You have been warned.

Basically Astorath, a captain, two of his guys, and the at the time high chaplain Hereon (it's set in the 400's of M41 and Astorath isn't the High chaplain yet) go to investigate the disappearance of civilian ships and refugees of a world liberated by the Angels Vermillion. They only very reluctantly only allow Hereon down to the world, and it was very tense. The chapter master of the AV says he'll send the ships back, but the people are (in fact everyone in the fortress monastery) are missing. Hereon basically demands to know why, and so he shows him. They have all of the civilians and chapter serfs hooked up to Blood letting machines in a ritual that happens once every fifty years called "the Sorrowing". Hereon freaks out, kills two of the Sanguinary Guard (who are painted red, not gold, and take on a more daemonic aspect) and then gets stopped. The chapter master says he doesn't want to do it but they found right after the Heresy that they had the thirst. They originally thought it was just them, and that's what started their seclusion (it was and is out of shame). But they fall to the thirst and rage less than most of the others.

Hereon criticizes him, and the chapter master basically says they are all doomed anyways, and that they save more than they kill, and that the Blood Tithe is a small price to pay for their greater service. He then explains how much they honor those that give their blood and they even kill a Sanguinary Priest to add the Blood of Sanguinius to the big pool of blood as a huge honor. Hereon once again freaks out and says he and Dante will expose them, and the CM basically says, "do that and I'll tell the Inquisition all about our flaw, and they'll kill us (all the sons of Sanguinius)." He then lets him go and tells him to never return. He (the CM) continuously emphasizes that they ARE monsters, but that they aren't as bad, and they do it so that they can continue to save people and bring light to the shadow.

The Sorrowing is the chapter's solution for the Red Thirst, as they gather so much blood to drink that it lasts them until the next harvest. This is the reason for their secrecy. Only the Blood Angels know of the true modus operandi of Angels Vermillion.

So he just tells Dante.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for the Imperium), Hereon never realizes that the Inquisition either A) already knows about the flaws (because both are stupidly obvious, especially with the whole Death Company thing) and B) the Inquisition would only kill those who embrace their mutation in a way harmful to the Imperium. On the other hand, the Inquisition may well agree with the Angels Vermillion that the Blood Tithe truly is a small price to pay for Blood Angel descendants who are at a far less risk of ripping and tearing the wrong side of a battlefield.

Of course, the Angels Vermillion are too stupid to realize they don't have to take so much blood it kills anyone and could simply gather blood from volunteers or serfs over the course of that whole fifty years and then they'd probably have more blood than ex-sanguinating a bunch of people would give anyway.

TL;DR It's like the Blood Drinkers, except less severe and less frequent BUT sans the Daemonic influence so they don't have an excuse for it. At least when the truth was exposed to the Chapter Master Caedis of the Blood Drinkers, he didn't try to cover it up, he tried to kill the High Chaplain for the duplicity.

They're a bunch of whiny babies that can't cop to their misdeeds I.E.-- Telling Dante, "if you snitch on us I'll personally see to the destruction the entire legacy of Sanguinius!"

So naturally Dante is half an inch away from Exterminatusing them off the face of the Imperium

Like most second founding chapters, they have had almost no fluff on them, until recently, with the release of the book "Dante" by Guy Haley.