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 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.

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.

To leave the bonds of earth and free one's body was to free one's mind as well, leaving nothing but the warrior instinct laid bare by howling winds. This was the creed of the Windcaller, and they sought excellence through meditation and ascension. 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.

An unusual ritual developed among these Marines, inspired by the eternal winds tearing through the vast Kolbrem Passage separating one half of the Arpilium Range from the other. 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 nearly two miles wide in places, with an endless hurricane of energy pouring through it as atmospheric pressure waves slam into the implacable mountain wall.

Upon becoming a newly minted Astartes, each Windcaller will clamber aboard a specially designed hoversled while clad in shining silver armor fresh from the forge. His brothers will guide the Marine into the Kolbrem Passage where the wind is fiercest, tether the hoversled to the rock, and leave him there for twenty-three days, one complete cycle of Pamtian, the planet's largest moon. The Marine will neither eat nor drink until his time has elapsed, and he must do all in his power to read the winds and dodge the worst of the debris eternally blowing through the pass. To actually fall, the ultimate shame. When the test is complete, the Marine presents himself before the Chapter, and the extent to which he has protected his armor's shine is observed. The finest Marines with the best intuition prove themselves master of the wind even while in its very grasp, and their armor will gleam. A less capable Marine will be dingy, pitted, and scuffed, but still a proud warrior. From that point forward, only the parts of the Marine's armor he protected during the challenge are ever kept in original condition. As the other plates are damaged and replaced, the Marine must carefully scuff them, to keep the original pattern, which they consider a sacred augur of the individual's future.

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.