Star Dragons
| Star Dragons | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Battle Cry | "Fire and Fury!" | |
| Founding | Unknown | |
| Successors of | Unknown | |
| Successor Chapters | Unknown | |
| Chapter Master | Unknown | |
| Primarch | Ferrus Manus (speculated) | |
| Homeworld | Draconith | |
| Strength | Full | |
| Specialty | Air superiority | |
| Allegiance | Imperium | |
| Colours | Dark Blue with White backpack and White aquila with company color trim | |
Official Fluff[edit]
The Star Dragons are believed to descend from the line of Ferrus Manus, although if this is truly the case they display none of the relentless logic that the Iron Hands are famous for. Instead they are guided by their passions and are known for unleashing their wrath on the Emperor's enemies.
In terms of practices, they perform ritual scarring and inlay their cuts with electoo circuitry. This causes their bodies to glow like stars when not wearing their power armour and makes for a very cool image.
They are BFF's with the Blood Swords. This is due to their homeworlds being close to each other and to both chapters sharing similar traditions. Even though the Blood Swords are from Blood Angel stock, the Star Dragons's Primogenitor is officially only suspected.
Their most recent deployement has been an attempt to lift the siege on of Darkhold, home planet of the Dark Sons chapter.
Fan Fluff[edit]
The Dragons are too cool to be left without any details, so here is a very unofficial Index Astartes. (Note: This was written before the electoo scarification stuff was established and doesn't make much sense in conjunction with that. Still cool though.)
Origins[edit]
Where new chapters of space marines are founded varies wildly from founding to founding, but one aspect is constant: there is always need for more chapters surrounding the Eye of Terror. In the 13th (or "Dark") Founding, one such was the Star Dragons, placed to the galactic northwest of the Eye on the world of Draconith. Their provisional name at the time of founding was "Night Sentinels", but within a century they adopted the culture of their homeworld and took the name Star Dragons to reflect it.
Like other chapters of the 13th Founding, geneseed records are not available for the Star Dragons, so their progenitor is unknown. The Dragons themselves believe they descend from the Raven Guard. However, they lack the cosmetic mutations normal to the sons of Corax and they do not have the inclination toward stealth normal to their supposed brethren, so this is doubtful.
What is definitely known is that, early in their history, they developed a bond with the Blood Swords, a chapter of Blood Angels descendants whose homeworld of Jaggafall is very close to Draconith. This largely only extended to frequent collaboration and common oaths of brotherhood between individuals, until the Balanor Clearance. A mysterious space hulk known as the "Accursed Entity" emerged in the Balanor System, and the emperor's tarot indicated that this was both highly dangerous and of great significance. Accordingly, the Swords and Dragons, as the two nearest chapters not already engaged elsewhere, were deployed in numbers to the area. Both deployed full veteran companies in Terminator armor, and when the hulk began to belch out swarms of daemonic beasts and mutant Orks, the remainder of the two chapters engaged them in the void around it. The shared struggle and harsh losses the two chapters suffered made them consider each other honor-bound brothers, and since that point new chapter masters of either make a point of becoming blood brothers with their opposite number. (Chapter Master Daggan was, naturally, exempted from this tradition in his posthumous tenure.)
At the beginning of M42, while the bulk of the Blood Swords were defending Baal with the other Sons of Sanguinius, a warband from the Eye the Swords had defeated emerged by a secret path and took revenge on Jaggafall, slaughtering the populace and destroying the fortress-monastery of the Swords. To atone for this shame, the Swords embarked on a Penitent Crusade, pausing only to let their new chapter master reestablish the traditional bond with the Star Dragons. However, the Star Dragons would not hear of it; they insisted that they accompany the Swords on their crusade, making the penitent crusade a joint fleet known as Containment Fleet Kappa, patrolling the most dangerous inner cordons around the Eye of Terror. The Dragons remain entirely devoted to this crusade, though unlike their blood-brothers they do pause to recruit.
Homeworld[edit]
The Dragons are based on Draconith, a Feral World with a hot, humid climate and a great variety of native reptilian species, none sapient but many highly intelligent. The most notable of these are the Dracnis, six-legged lizards a meter tall and five meters long who spit toxic, flammable goo and can jump five meters vertically and twenty or more horizontally. The tribesmen of Draconith revere them as divine beasts, and when they make their warcamps, places where a Dracnis has recently departed are considered very propitious. Carrying on this tradition, the Dragons adopted the Dracnis as their name and heraldic symbol, and the centerpiece of their chapter culture. These "dragons" inspire much of the chapter's spiritual beliefs and ideals of how war should be waged.
Beliefs[edit]
The Star Dragons have a more religious chapter cult than most, though it's not a religion the Ecclesiarchy approves of. They practice a quasi-pantheist polytheism, with the Emperor and the primarch in the most prominent roles but several other figures given worship as well. The Emperor is worshipped as the Crowned Sun, Eagle of the Night, who lights the way between stars and planets and reigns over the emptiness of space. Corvus Corax is recognizable in the Feathered Dragon, Master of Secrets, who governs deception and storms and safeguards the common citizens. The most important others in their pantheon are the Mirrored Dragon, who governs (psykers) and the realms of the dead, and the Reborn Serpent, who continually eats himself ourobouros-fashion, who governs seasons, growth, and technology. In line with these animistic beliefs, the Star Dragons identify the Machine Spirit of a vehicle or large machine as that machine's 'dragon', and are more likely to refer to a bolter's "metal serpent" than its "machine spirit", though this makes little difference in how they care for their machines, or in how they regard the Techpriests of the Mechanicum; their name for the Reborn Serpent is different, but they understand the Serpent's ways well, so their guidance is taken to heart.
Combat Doctrine[edit]
The Star Dragons follow the Codex in most respects, but place more emphasis in two areas. First, close air support. The Dragons field an unusually high number of Stormtalons and Stormhawks, as well as other in-air flying craft. Most of their ranged specialists are aerial; the Star Dragons firmly believe that if you're going to attack from a distance, you should be attacking from above. Second, shock assaults, deploying rapidly into close combat. Like the Dracnis they emulate, the Star Dragons prefer to deploy by charging at speed with overwhelming force, moving fast enough that the enemy does not have time to respond. This lends itself most naturally to surprise attacks against unaware foes, and indeed the Codex Astartes suggests it in such situations, but they use it in other theaters as well whenever possible. When in pitched battle, one of their favored maneuvers is the "Dragon's Leap". In this, a third of the force deploys in thin, wide ranks, as if preparing for a standard open-field fight. The remainder deploys in transports and aircraft well behind the lines. These vehicles then charge at maximum speed, through the Dragons's lines and into the enemy's, at which point the transports unload their passengers into close combat and the aircraft rain fire and shells down onto the foe.
Organization[edit]
The Dragons are organized along Codex lines, with some minor structural deviations. Each battle company is deployed under nominal strength; only eight squads take the field instead of the standard ten. The remaining 20 marines are deployed in Stormtalons and Stormhawks as dedicated air support; absent special circumstances, these will be one squad of tactical marines and one of the two devastator squads. When the tactical reserve companies take the field, only one squad will be deployed in small aerial craft; there may be a second "air squad", but if so they will be piloting transport craft (Stormravens or Storm Eagles), carrying their brothers to battle and then using the aircraft's weaponry as close air support for the remainder. Less commonly, the reserve will deploy entirely via Thunderhawk, in which case the air squad will pilot the three 'hawks, again using them as mobile artillery for the remainder of the battle. The 9th company, which is ten devastator squads in standard organization, usually fields only five squads; the other fifty astartes pilot various air support, some in the beloved Stormtalons and Stormhawks and others in Xiphons or Fire Raptors. The 8th company of assault specialists rarely has an air squad, though jump packs see heavy use and they will frequently deploy on Caestus assault rams.
The chapter also maintains a smaller-than-standard complement of tanks and ground-based transports, but they see fairly little use and so "replacements" they receive from the Mechanicus are usually bartered to other chapters for more aircraft.
As in many other chapters, the names used for various specialties differ as well; while the Dragons use the standard terminology, especially when dealing with outsiders, they also have mythological names for each, used in parallel. The Librarius are "Mirror Brothers", after the god who governs psychic powers, and the Chief Librarian is "Master of the Black Mirror". Apothecaries are Feathered Brothers, and their Chief is "Feathered Master of Winds". Techmarines are Serpent Brothers and their Master is "Master of Metal Dragons". The Chapter Master is addressed by the title "Star Eagle"; the Captains have no special title, though as usual the additional duties and titles of the captains are varied and only partially equivalent to those in strict codex chapters. The Chaplaincy is the one set of ranks where the Star Dragons use their chapter's nomenclature exclusively; their spiritual support is provided by the Sun Brothers, the relics presided over by the "Sun Serpent", and all of these answerable to "Father Sun".
Gene-seed[edit]
The chapter's gene-seed is in good condition, with a malfunctioning Betcher's Gland and a high rate of partial color-blindness but other organs intact. Notably, this includes a functioning mucranoid, which the Raven Guard lacked by the time of the Second Founding; this adds another reason to doubt their assertion that Corax is their progenitor.