Legio V: Midnight Riders

Legio V: Midnight Riders

Primarch’s Name: Ashur
Homeworld: Nineveh
Background: Fighter
Psychic Potential: Fair
Gene-seed: Stable
Talent: Heightened Reflexes
Legio V: Midnight Riders
Colors: Charcoal Grey/Ash Grey
Battle Cry: Ride them down!

Primarch History

Nineveh, the planet upon which the fifth Primarch’s pod landed, was a world of contrasts at the time of his arrival. Once a prosperous and advanced if politically divided society, Nineveh was thoroughly scourged by decades of warfare, culminating with the extensive use of nuclear, biological, chemical and mutagenic weaponry, leaving ruins of its once proud civilization. Whatever remains of organized society survived tended to hunker down in the makeshift fortresses protecting the meager resources, while the roving gangs of bike-riding marauders prowled the irradiated wastes, forever searching for food, plunder and slaves.

It was one of these gangs known as the Midnight that found the savior pod, attracted by a possibility of finding something valuable overlooked by past survivors. Instead of wealth they hoped for, they found a single child surrounded by corpses of vicious rad-wolves. Intrigued, the gang leader took the child in, naming him Ashur after a mythical warrior king of Nineveh’s history and training him in the ways of the wasteland.

Ashur took to his learning in stride, and very soon became the gang’s most prominent fighter, defeating many champions of other gangs and successfully raiding the settlements attempting to rebuild from the horrors of post-apocalyptic world. With his prodigious strength, lightning-fast reflexes and keen, questing intelligence, the young Primarch was able to easily seize control of the gang upon his adoptive father’s death from radiation poisoning. From there on, Ashur began a lengthy campaign to spread his influence amongst the other bike gangs, culminating in a series of swift, decisive wars fought across the wasteland and resulting in the Midnight’s power eclipsing all who would consider challenging it.

These events did not escape the attention of disparate city-states scattered across the rad-wastes, who banded together in a loose alliance for the purpose of stopping the marauding Midnight warriors’ depredations. While most such communities barely managed to survive, clinging on to last sources of unpolluted water and fuel, some city-states have maintained a measure of pre-war technology, with a few commanding fully mechanized, well-equipped and trained armies. It was said that when Ashur heard of this alliance, he flew into rage, killing several slaves until only the intervention of his lieutenants managed to calm down the Primarch enough for him to declare that he would not rest until he rules all of Nineveh.

For the next ten years, the Midnight and their allied gangs have waged a brutal war against the forces of the city-states. At first, Ashur’s warriors found it difficult to face the advanced, mechanized infantry and armor, the biker discipline usually breaking long before they could do enough damage in a straightforward battle. Therefore, Ashur looked at other solutions, utilizing his bikes maneuverability for outflanking maneuvers, while taking interest in the use of drugs many of his warriors already dabbled in as the means to get his frenzied, fearless killers to survive long enough to get into close combat. Soon, stories of drug-addled, insane commando warriors of the Midnight spread through Nineveh’s sole habitable continent, and many cities willingly opened their gates to the Primarch’s forces rather than face his elites.

Wherever Ashur’s forces took control, the Primarch was surprisingly efficient in rule, coordinating the use of old technologies to make survival possible in the blasted lands. While life on Nineveh was often short and brutal, Ashur’s rule provided a sense of law and order to the disparate communities, even as the roving Midnight gangs finally made rad-deserts safe enough for the trade caravans and explorers. The new order had little to do with the civilization of old as Ashur’s lieutenants were granted the right to rule as sovereigns over their domains, answering to the Primarch as their feudal lord, but at least it was a single order, with some cities retaining a measure of their previous organizations if they surrendered voluntarily. The new, feudal order has drastically improved the discipline amongst Ashur’s warriors, which the Primarch was quick to recognize.

When the Emperor arrived, Ashur was at first incensed that another being would challenge his rule over Nineveh, and challenged his father to a contest. The two travelled into the irradiated ruins of Nineveh’s largest pre-war city, where ancient technological nightmares shared space with horribly deformed mutants and whole civilizations of cannibal troglodytes. Histories do not record what exactly took place, but it is known that after three days and nights, father and son have emerged from the blighted wasteland, all differences seemingly reconciled. Promptly, Ashur took command of the Fifth Legion of Adeptus Astartes, renaming it Midnight Riders in recognition of his own companions, many of whom were inducted into the Legion on the spot.

Legion Organization

The Fifth Legion is organized on the principle of feudal fealty, with each level of officer considered a feudal liege of those beneath him. Ashur himself commands unquestioning loyalty of the entire Legion, with six Dukes (roughly equivalent to Lord Commanders of other Legions) serving as his inner circle. Each Duke commands the fealty of several Barons (roughly equivalent to Chapter Masters in other Legions), who in turn have Captains as vassals, each commanding a single company. Each Captain is the liege lord of multiple Sergeants, who in turn are the masters of ordinary battle-brothers.

It is of note that the only static sized formation in the Legion is the squad, usually numbering up to ten battle-brothers. As an officer’s prestige grows, he might be able to commission additional squads to be raised with their own sergeants, as long as the officer’s own liege allows. Once an oath of loyalty is given, it is irrevocable, and can only be considered fulfilled with death of either the oath giver or one’s liege. As such, it is common to see squads and even Companies move into different formations with death of a higher-ranking officer. The only exception to this rule is through promotions, or explicit permission of one’s liege. Even then, such permissions are rarely given outside of a battle-brother’s promotion to a sergeant, as allowing an officer to leave one’s command is considered a sign of weakness on behalf of his liege.

The Legion’s armored and other assets owe their fealty to specific officers rather than offices or companies. As such, some formations of the Midnight Riders own massive armories of tanks, dreadnaughts and other, more specialized vehicles and equipment, while others have little beyond the bare minimums. Competition between the Legion’s officers is encouraged as long as it continues to drive them to excel in their deeds, winning more prestige and the right to increase the numbers of their vassals.

Apart from the rest of the Legion is the elite combat formation known as the Eclipse. These warriors owe their fealty directly to the Primarch, and as such are considered to be outside of the normal command structure. The Eclipse is made up from the best of the Legion’s fighters, usually recruited after a particularly heroic feat was witnessed by Ashur or one of his higher-ranking officers. Within the Eclipse, the warriors’ prior ranks have no meaning; as such, the rest of the Legion tends to treat them with deference bordering on reverence. Alone amongst the Legion, the Eclipse are not bound by the feudal conventions, and are therefore often dispatched as advisors or training cadre, force commanders of disparate expeditions, or, when all else fails, as terminator-armored heavy elite to break through the otherwise difficult strongholds. Additionally, the warriors of the Eclipse are considered to be the only suitable mentors for the Legion’s new recruits, and therefore the auxilia formed of the Legion’s neophytes is invariably led by Eclipse veterans, ready to impart their experience and wisdom upon the next generation of the Midnight Riders.

Combat Doctrine

Ashur’s past as a bike-riding techno-barbarian has shaped the Legion’s combat doctrine, which is now reliant on fast, maneuverable motorized assets. The bike-mounted Midnight Riders strike fast and hard, seeking to disorient their enemies while the Legion’s heavy assets move in to finish the job. The Riders’ close-combat formations make extensive use of combat drugs in order to boost the Marines’ performance to nearly inhuman levels, although there are numerous downsides associated with this approach. The Fifth Legion rarely makes use of mortal troops in its operations, preferring to operate on its own wherever possible, as the Imperial Army is rarely capable of matching the speed and violence of the Riders’ attacks.

Legion Beliefs and Practices

As a throwback to Ashur’s conquest of Nineveh’s wasteland, the Legion’s warriors are taught to accept that personal prestige and power are everything, and that the only way to win both is through personal valor and trophies. Because of this, the Rider officers tend to be eager to fight from the front, a trait shared by their men.

The feudal power structure of Nineveh also found its way into the Legion’s beliefs, although, unlike many medieval worlds, the Riders’ idea of organization has less to do with the concept of honor and more to do with the recognition of one’s accomplishments through awarding titles and command. As such, the Legion possesses strict hierarchy in which the lower ranks are afforded far fewer rights, and must only speak to higher-ranking officers when spoken to, outside of a combat situation where such concerns might be too quaint and antiquated. The only exception to this is a practice the Riders call the Bruising Feast, a celebration of victory in which all notions of rank are set aside, copious amounts of food and drugs are consumed, and many Marines test their strength against their brethren in unarmed combat. It is thought that many Riders actively seek such fights as a way to distinguish themselves in the eyes of their liege lords and increase their own prestige by defeating a higher-ranking warrior, if possible. If an officer is defeated in combat during the Bruising Feast by a lower-ranked Marine, the officer’s prestige is bound to suffer, making it more difficult for him to replace losses and potentially even prompting requests from his vassals to transfer to another command.

The Midnight Riders make widespread use of combat drugs and stimms, both in battle and outside of it. As such, the Legion’s Apothecarion has become quite proficient in devising methods to cleanse the battle-brothers’ bodies of those substances, both to maintain combat efficiency, to minimize the ill effects of addiction, and to maintain the efficiency of drugs in battle. It has been noted by outsiders that the Legion’s Marines tend to be rather moody and irritable before the battle, as if in nervous anticipation of combat high and copious drug injections necessary to maintain the ferocity the Riders are known for.

Recruitment and Gene-Seed

The Midnight Riders recruit exclusively from Nineveh, believing that only their homeworld provides recruits of sufficient toughness and right mindset for the type of warfare the Legion perpetuates. The new recruits are put through a brutal training process and formed into separate auxilia units, usually led by the Eclipse veterans. As the neophytes are considered ready for induction into one of the Legion squads, they are subject to the bidding process from the interested sergeants, to be arbitrated by the Eclipse veteran present. The sergeant who can present the best verbal argument and, often, who has the best personal prestige will usually have his pick of available neophytes before any other.

Ashur’s gene-seed is noted as being pure, although his Legion is known for certain impulsiveness. Furthermore, an inordinate proportion of the Fifth Legion’s Marines exhibit signs of what could be considered addictive personalities, finding undue enjoyment in the most violent of battles and seeking every opportunity to be legitimately injected with combat stimms.

During Heresy

The Midnight Riders remained firmly allied to the Council of Terra due in no small part to Ashur’s friendship with Rogr Hemri. Their first direct involvement in the Heresy was in support of Marvus and Doom Reavers during their campaign against Iskanderos, however, the Midnight Riders’ independent streak and unpredictability made them tenuous allies at best. Before long, Marvus stopped including the Fifth Legion in his planning, accounting for them as a force of nature rather than as a reliable ally.

Though the Midnight Riders were a terrifying force when the Legion was assembled as one, their very nature made them difficult to control, and hard to account for. As a result, the Council of Terra typically deployed the Fifth Legion independently rather than as a part of any large-scale operations. More often than not, Ashur was allowed considerable freedom to conduct war as he saw fit, with his only guidance being the name of his opponent.

The Fifth Legion’s tactics were ill-suited to defensive warfare, however, they were perfect for prolonged operations behind the enemy lines. As a result, after the disaster at Galen IV, the Council had dispatched Ashur and his Legion to wreak havoc in the dominions of the traitor Primarchs, hoping that the Fifth Legion could disrupt the flow of supplies and reinforcements to Iskanderos, or perhaps even to force the Arch-Traitor to redeploy to his and his allies’ homeworlds.

This decision proved to be a strategic mistake. While Ashur burned the worlds in his wake, torching both the systems that sided with the rebels and any world suspected of harboring rebel sympathies, his actions served to further blur the line between heroes and villains, prompting some of the previously Council-friendly or neutral Legions to become actively hostile to the Council’s forces. Without Ashur’s Legion, the Council defensive lines could no longer stop the rebel onslaught, and while the Midnight Riders attempted to return to Terra to take part in final defeat of Iskanderos’ forces, they were too late, and only fortuitous intercept of the Fifth Legion’s fleet by a Lion Guard messenger prevented further disaster.

Post-Heresy

In the wake of Fall of Terra, Ashur continued his long-standing association with Rogr Hemri. That said, it would be a mistake to consider the Midnight Riders a part of the Imperial Remnant’s chain of command. Instead, they are essentially an independent allied force given wide breadth by most of the Remnant’s government, and typically asked rather than ordered to conquer on the Remnant’s behalf.

When the Midnight Riders go to war, the expected outcome is nothing less than sheer annihilation of the enemy. The Remnant considers them to be extremely useful, because while the Fifth Legion is easily as brutal and uncompromising as some of their cousins, they tend to leave enough in their wake to allow for a form of rebuilding, or resettlement with populations loyal to the Remnant’s rule. As such, during many of Nyxos’ wars of conquest, the Midnight Riders were sent out in front of the Remnant forces, allowing the Grim Angels and the Lion Guard to overtake the few strongholds still standing with minimal effort.

While Nyxos was severely tempted to incorporate the sons of Ashur into his own command structure against Gideon, it was Rogr Hemri who uncharacteristically intervened, reminding his brother that the volatile nature of the Fifth Legion made them as dangerous to friends as they were to foes. As a result, only token forces from Midnight Riders took part in the assault on Topia, distinguishing themselves as ill-disciplined, cruel lot who were just as likely to seek wanton destruction and plunder as they were to participate in carefully laid out battle plans. For this reason, the warriors in the colors of the Fifth had the only dubious distinction of not even being offered a chance to surrender due to their particularly onerous crimes once the Peacekeepers finally repelled the invasion.

Even after Nyxos’ defeat and death at Topia, the Midnight Riders continued to operate as they always had. Over the course of their campaigns, many Legion Captains carved out personal domains on the fringes of the Imperial Remnant, drifting further away from whatever command structure still remained in the Fifth. For a time, only Ashur’s personal authority was sufficient to keep the Captains in line, however, with Ashur’s disappearance following a campaign against the Eldar Wild Riders of Samm-Hain, even those ties began to fracture. A number of former Eclipse veterans and Legion captains went as far as to claim that Ashur’s disappearance was not entirely of his own doing, claiming that a number of ships of human design yet not answering any hails or sending any identification codes were last seen in the vicinity, speeding away for parts unknown…

As a result, the Midnight Riders are as much a headache for Rogr Hemri’s forces as they are a boon. Some of the less disciplined warlords turned to raiding and outright piracy in order to strengthen their kingdoms, which prompted more than one punitive action by the forces of the Lion Guard and forced the majority of Midnight Riders to remain at least nominally loyal to the Remnant. As it stands, the Fifth Legion is a disorganized mass of Company and Grand Company-strength units, spread across dozens if not hundreds of planets, and typically only held in line with the threats of force from the considerably more numerous Lion Guard.

Of Ashur, there had been little word over the centuries, though rumors persist that he is still alive somewhere out in the galaxy, chasing his latest prey on a wild hunt through the stars. Most Midnight Riders consider these rumors to be fanciful thinking at best; they venture that if the Fifth Primarch was still alive and free, he would long have returned to lead his sons, however, the tales refuse to die. If these rumors are true, then perhaps there is more to the story of the Midnight Riders than was yet written, and they may yet become a major force in the galaxy.