Sanguinius’ origins are relatively well known. This brutal, honourless existence would continue, with the Legion growing ever more isolated from their brothers, until Sanguinius was found – and then, the Legion would be reborn. It is no archival error that the Legion’s master before Sanguinius, Ishidur Ossuros, “died” seemingly four times during his career. It was utilised to the point where certain IX Legion commanders were functionally “immortal” as, when they fell in battle, their inferiors would eat their flesh and assume their mantle and memories. This practice ostracised them from their fellow Legions, who viewed it with distaste and revulsion. It was not uncommon for them to stalk the battlefield, feasting on corpses to gain knowledge of their enemies – or even of their own fallen brothers. The Blood Angels, as their previous cognomen Eaters of the Dead suggests, made great use of this ability.
This allows Astartes to absorb genetic material which they have consumed and extract information from it – crudely put, to eat the flesh of the dead and gain their memories and skills.
The IX Legion had in its genetic makeup a super-charged Omophagea, the Remembrancer organ. Their early days were not, it must be said, steeped in glory, which is perhaps unsurprising. While the Red Brothers were eventually slaughtered by the IX Legion themselves, they were indicative of a curiously bleak origin for this force, where the most unstable template imaginable was used to forge Angels. Worse still, aspiring candidates were preyed upon by the Red Brothers, a quasi-priesthood who oversaw the mob of diseased and suffering “faithful” who had come to try to join the Legion, acting as unsanctioned gatekeepers for the process. The IX Legion was based, fundamentally, on the gene-stock of mutated, irradiated rabble on Terra – the trash and refuse which other Legions would sooner scourge and purge than recruit into their ranks. This is, frankly, deeply ironic when the founding of the Legion is studied. The Blood Angels are often associated with classical iconography of angelic beauty – seraphic depictions of shining warriors wielding gleaming swords, sweeping away the foes of Him on Earth. By the time the fires of Horus’ treachery were extinguished, the Angel himself would be dead, and the Legion near-mad with grief. Their origins are grim and steeped in dark torment, and during the Horus Heresy they were pushed to the edge of the abyss – and some would say, given the Black Rage which haunts the modern Chapter, beyond it. While they thrive as a well-known and iconic Imperial force in the 41st Millennium, this survival was not always guaranteed. The Blood Angels, named in whispers as the Revenant Legion or Eaters of the Dead, were a crimson-clad Legion of the Adeptus Astartes. “Fate is a cruel master, for no matter how much his prey might twist or turn, no matter what triumphs they might rise to or what trials they overcome, he will still drag them down.” In our sixth article, we look at the beautiful, but tragically flawed, scions of The Brightest One: The IX Legion, The Blood Angels.
The Space Marine Legions of the First Founding make up the core factions and conflict of the Horus Heresy.
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