Legio XII: Lion Guard

Legio XII: Lion Guard

Primarch’s Name: Rogr Hemri
Homeworld: Tuonela
Background: Ruler
Psychic Potential: Fair
Gene-seed: Exemplary
Talent: Inspirational
Legio XII: Lion Guard
Colors: Navy Blue with Obsidian Black Trim
Battle Cry: Lions of the Imperium! Advance!

History

The origins, upbringing and accomplishments of Rogr Hemri upon his homeworld are the stuff of a hundred legends retold in holo-dramas, novels, theater performances spread all across the Imperium. Each tells a slightly different story of Hemri's history, and as summarized by Nyxos of the Ninth, they are all lies.

The only certainty is that the child who would some day become Rogr Hemri was found on a pre-industrial world of Tuonela, and that, like most of his brothers, he rose to a position of global prominence. The rest of Hemri's story can only be put together after careful analysis of myths, contradictory and apocryphal records, classified memoirs of Imperial officials too highly placed or too well connected to be silenced, and utilization of secondary and tertiary sources that often hint at, but do not describe, the events of his life.

The fragmentary records suggest that Rogr Hemri arrived on a world on the edge of massive forward leap in technology and social structure, however, it is unclear if he was raised as one of the ruling class, as a farmer who led a revolution to displace the hereditary elites, or if his chosen career was military in nature. Whatever the truth might have been, the Twelfth Primarch had clearly built a larger-than-life image for himself, augmented, as some hushed voices suggested, with a full-blown cult of personality incorporated into every aspect of Tuonela's life.

When the Emperor's advancing forces discovered Tuonela, its incorporation into the Imperium appeared to include some sort of a struggle, though the official chronicles emphasize the peaceful reunion between the father and the son. It is not entirely clear if the records simply gloss over the inevitable conflict arising from an apex being encountering his creator, or if the Imperial forces were employed to forcefully alter certain aspects of the planet's culture or political structure. Post-reunion, Tuonela is often mentioned as a model Imperial world, sometimes curiously so considering that most Legion homeworlds have certain cultural peculiarities.

Even the Twelfth Legion's name, Lion Guard, appears to be a matter of some debate. Earliest records describing contact with Tuonela mention the reverence with which the colonists treated bears in their capacity as spiritually attuned predators who served as avatars of gods of the hunt; within mere years, the reference to the bears is replaced with reference to lions, the majestic creatures not previously known to be widely found to Tuonela despite being much more recognizable as an emblem of strength and royal dignity throughout the galaxy. Even the very word karhu, used to describe both the spiritual animal and the Twelfth Legion, seemed to have acquired a different meaning practically overnight.

The true history of Rogr Hemri is completely obscured by the myth and legend he has built for himself since the first day he was found by the Imperium. Even the details and nature that first contact is unclear, obscured by more propaganda spun by Hemri himself. Among all the 20 sons of the Emperor, none understands nor uses propaganda and the power of public opinion like Hemri. The gene-sire of the twelfth Legion pioneered the use of Remembrancers within his legion and expeditionary fleet, controlling the flow of information with a deft hand. Even the odd near-defeat or botched mission are twisted and reshaped to serve Hemri's needs.

To the people of the Imperium and the Imperial Army, Rogr Hemri is a hero and great leader of men filled with all that is good and right in humanity. Among his brothers, Hemri is rightly seen as a shrewd manipulator, a ruthless and ambitious politician and callous cynic. This has won him few friends and not a few rivals including the most powerful and successful of his brothers - Iskanderos, Corwin, Leto and Gideon as well as the latecomer, Stefan Ignatiyev. This is balanced by his working relationship with Nyxos of the Grim Angels as well as a complex history of cooperation with the volatile Ashur of the Midnight Riders.

Legion Organization

As the largest of the Imperial Legions, the Lion Guard are kept as a cohesive fighting force through a strict hierarchy with strictly delineated chains of command and rigidly enforced discipline. Though the Legiones Astartes are all capable of leading independent campaigns with few supporting Imperial Army and Navy assets, the Lion Guard particularly excel in independent operations due to their numbers, which allow the Legion to utilize mass assault tactics, or to successfully enter attrition warfare if necessary.

To this effect, the Twelfth Legion typically operates in Great Company-size formations, each roughly ten thousand Marines strong and supported with armored and specialist assets. On the surface, the Great Companies are organized similarly to those of other Legions with thousand-strong Chapters, hundred-strong Companies, and ten-strong squads which often include specialists. The key difference between the Lion Guard and their peers is the relative gulf in training, capabilities, and prestige between the Legion's officers and its rank-and-file troopers.

In addition to standard Company, Chapter, and Great Company designations, each of the Legion’s larger formations bears another numeric designation of rank from one to three. Officially, units designated with Rank One are given the honor due to long history of success, notable accomplishments, and proven aptitude for victory, while Rank Three units are considered to be the least distinguished in the Legion. In practice, Rank Three units are typically formed from raw recruits, converts from the worlds recently conquered by the Lion Guard, or few Tuonelans who failed the more onerous training regimen of Rank One and Two units. This led to many Rank One officers beginning to use derogatory terms such as myaso (“meat”) to describe their Rank Three brethren, who coincidentally suffer the highest number of casualties on campaigns where higher ranking units would not be committed until the enemy has been sufficiently worn down by Rank Three numbers.

While Tuonela is far from the only world used by the Lion Guard for recruitment, only recruits from Tuonela typically form Rank One units, and are usually selected for officer training to lead Rank Two and Rank Three units. In fact, units drawn from Tuonela typically show lower rates of attrition, and greater average time in service. While some offworlders did manage to ascend to higher ranks, it is almost unheard of for them to lead units of Tuonela-born, and the turnover of troopers certainly seems to be greater within such Companies. Other than Terran-born Legionaries who were already present in positions of authority at the time of Hemri's discovery, no offworlder has been able to advance further than the rank of Chapter Master.

Each Lion Guard Legionary is expected to obey his superiors without question. A single look at the Legion's officers would reveal an impressive amount of decoration – medals, trophies, laurels, or special order weaponry. A closer look would, however, reveal a number of irregularities that most observers tend to gloss over – the Legion tends to emphasize the accomplishments of its ranking officers, giving out decorations where other Legions might have been more conservative with praise, or otherwise ensuring that every officer presented an impressive sight to ordinary Legionaries and outsiders alike.

A number of officers, especially of Captain and higher tank (though many Sergeants were also known to partake in the practice) took to wearing lion pelts into battle as signs of distinction, though the sheer number of pelts present must have indicated a truly staggering number of lions slain to obtain them. Some of the Twelfth Legion's detractors even accused it of using synthetic creations to imitate the pelts, as there is no known lion population in the galaxy large enough to sustain such a lengthy hunting endeavor.

Whatever the truth, the officers of the Lion Guard are amongst the most impressive sights amongst the Legiones Astartes, and are often brought up when civilians are asked to describe what a Space Marine is supposed to look like.

Combat Doctrine

While most Space Marine forces rely on higher quality and training of their warriors to compensate for their relatively small numbers, the Lion Guard revel in their ability to match or exceed the forces present on most battlefields. As such, the Twelfth Legion is often unsubtle, able to engage in attrition warfare when other Legions would rather attempt a quick victory. When the Legion is supported by Imperial Army, the Army forces are used to soak up the damage or to bear the blunt of enemy retaliation; when the Army forces are insufficient for the task, the Lion Guard rely on their genhanced toughness and superior equipment to survive the battle while the Legion's elite units strike at the weaknesses in the enemy formations.

Rogr Hemri may not be known for his generalship, at least when compared to some of the more prominent Primarchs such as Corwin or Iskanderos, but he is fond of saying that quantity has quality all its own, and is not below using it to his advantage. The Legion's ability to quickly replenish its numbers with any even marginally suitable group of recruits ensures that there are always more warm bodies to throw at the enemy guns, and if they fail – they can be easily replaced.

Legion Beliefs and Practices

Though the Lion Guard are the largest of the Imperial Legions and are drawn from many worlds, the recruits are expected to abandon their names, identities, and customs in favor of Tuonelan ones. It is believed that just as Tuonela is a model Imperial world, so must its warrior sons be the very epitome of Adeptus Astartes. In reality, this requirement is somewhat relaxed for the Rank Three units, though the reasons for it are rather pragmatic – these warriors are not expected to represent the Legion before the civilian public, and typically tend to experience much higher turnover of personnel.

Starting with the Rank Two units, the cultural assimilation is strictly enforced, and any Legionaries who are not entirely subsumed into the Tuonelan way are subject to strict punishments up to and including demotion to Rank Three units or even servitorization for particularly egregious cases of disobedience. The true Tuonelans accept this policy with stoic, emotionless indifference, heedless of the divide between themselves and lesser Legion formations.

The Legionaries are taught that victory comes through fighting as a unit, and that individual heroics are a certain way to earn the displeasure of one’s commanding officers. The Legion Chaplains are fond to repeat that the Lion Guard operational lexicon has no word for hero, only for victor, for taking undue initiative may compromise well-executed battle plans. This creates a stoic culture that does not emphasize creativity or exuberance; instead, the Legionaries (and in particular those of Ranks Two and Three) are taught to fully trust in their officers, and to obey their orders without thinking or questioning.

Curiously, Rank One Legionaries are instead taught to be considerate of tactical advantages, to be able to adapt on the battlefield, and to understand proper strategies for leading and motivating others. This dichotomy is due to Rank One being considered as essentially the training grounds for Legion officers, specialists, and elite units, which produces a gulf of experience and attitude between Rank One and other units. Because of this divide, it is very uncommon for a Legionary to transfer between units of different rank, and most officers at Chapter Master and higher level are appointed from Rank One units, no matter who they might be commanding.

Recruitment and Gene-Seed

The Lion Guard recruit both from the Legion’s homeworld of Tuonela, its many fiefs, and the planets they might have conquered in their campaigns. Typically, the Legion considers Tuonelan recruits (and, to lesser extent, Space Marines with origins on the worlds of Rogr Hemri’s dominion) to be innately superior in quality to all others; as such, they form a disproportionate number of the specialists, officers, and Legion veterans.

Upon being selected for induction into the Legion, a recruit is typically given a numeric rank denoting his expected potential. Most Tuonelan inductees are typically graded as Rank Two or, for the recruits who exhibit the highest potential during the entrance trials, as Rank One. While the Legion continuously seeks more warriors to fill out its ranks, the ranking of such conscripts is often driven by the Legion’s current needs more so than by their potential as future Legionaries. As a result, most recruits from the recently conquered worlds would be designated as Rank Three and assigned to myaso units with relatively little specialized training simply to replace casualties. Only when the Legion is not actively campaigning, or when no suitable recruits of Tuonelan or related stock can be found, would the Lion Guard consider holding advanced trials where the newly converted men would have a realistic chance of being directly inducted in Rank Two units.

Naturally, any such inductees are promptly celebrated as the proof of the Legion’s meritocratic structure.

The Lion Guard gene-seed has a number of unique properties that, when taken together, produce extremely low rate of tissue rejection even in populations that deviated from the standard human genome. This amazing compatibility allows the Twelfth Legion to replenish its losses considerably faster than the other Astartes, and ensures that some of the genetic testing standards can be relaxed for myaso units, where having enough warm bodies is more important than ensuring that only the best recruits are inducted.

An additional benefit of the Lion Guard gene-seed is that it can be bonded to recruits well beyond the standard recruitment age for the Legions, allowing for young men as old as their early twenties to be routinely inducted. This has a side effect of the Lion Guard frequently using attached Imperial Army regiments to replenish their own ranks when on campaign, though the psychological effects of hypno-indoctrination at that age produce a number of unintended outcomes. As long as such recruits are confined to myaso units, however, the Lion Guard consider it to be an acceptable risk.

During Heresy

As the largest Legion allied to the Council, the Lion Guard fulfilled the role of rank-and-file warriors through much of the conflict, though their accomplishments were perhaps not as noticeable as those of the more specialized Legions. A force of no less than ten thousand Lion Guard was present during Operation Starfall, however, the records of disaster on Apella do not make any mention of their ultimate fate. It is most likely that they were slaughtered wholesale when the Gargoyles and the Iconoclasts turned away from the Imperium, as the only Lion Guard survivors who made contact with the Council authorities were present on their warships and never landed on Apella.

In the chaos following the destruction of the Council armada at Apella, the Lion Guard remained stationed relatively close to Terra, with only nominal forces spread out across Rogr Hemri’s personal dominion. During that time, the Twelfth Primarch ordered an active Legion expansion campaign; while previously, he would have been opposed by his brothers, the disaster of Starfall proved the need for rapid-response and somewhat disposable forces. From that point on, the Lion Guard were used largely as a peacekeeping force across Segmentum Solar, rarely gathered in Legion strength yet employed to deny the rebels the ability to easily raid the Council worlds. In this capacity, the Twelfth Legion did not win many laurels and were perhaps looked down upon by their cousins, however, the Lion Guard’s presence was instrumental in keeping the Council authority intact.

A sizeable detachment of elite Lion Guard accompanied Rogr Hemri to Vindictus, where they were supposed to resupply Marvus and his men, however, the actions of the Eighteenth Legion at that doomed planet forced Hemri and his men to retreat in realization that they were far too few to effectively stop the genocide. From that point on, the Lion Guard were confined to largely defensive operations, which became even more necessary upon Griven Kall’s defection from Terra’s cause. Where the Peacekeepers strove to protect the Council lines from the rebel assaults, the Lion Guard were the planetary garrisons, the extinguishers of thousands of minor rebellions and Chaos cults, keeping the Warp lanes open and ensuring that a semblance of normal commercial and transportation activity continued almost until the Fall of Terra. The Lion Guard’s role became even more crucial to the Council’s effort after Iskanderos’ takeover of the Dream Conclave, and the subsequent disruption of long-range communication and Warp travel, which had practically isolated Segmentum Solar from the rest of the galaxy.

Though some of the Council Primarchs, most notably Gideon and Echelon, blamed Hemri for the situation getting out of hand, the Twelfth Primarch refused to accept responsibility, hitting back at his detractors and claiming that the lack of unified support was to blame. Hemri argued that had the Council supported Marvus, Iskanderos would have long been finished, and that the Council politics prevented a more unified show of force at Apella, ensuring that the Legions present at Starfall were somewhat unreliable. The only response to that situation, Hemri argued, was to unite behind a single vision of an uncompromising, dedicated leader who would fight the war until the bitter end – his vision.

Not all of Hemri’s brothers were willing to accept his arguments, however, the sheer numbers of the Lion Guard ensured that most of Segmentum Solar’s strategic assets were protected by the Twelfth Legion, and that the very ability of the Council to enforce its authority was heavily dependent on the Lion Guard. The program to use comatose Mohktal’s genetic material to create rapid inflow of Space Marine reinforcements was almost certainly driven by the Council Primarchs who were afraid of Rogr Hemri’s ever-increasing influence, and who hoped to supplant the Lion Guard garrisons with the forces not inherently loyal to the Consul. Unfortunately for them, the program backfired; as the newly created Space Marines began to show signs of instability, the Lion Guard’s continued expansion further strengthened Hemri’s grip on overall leadership of Terra.

In preparation for the battle at Galen IV, where the Council hoped to trap and destroy Iskanderos, Rogr Hemri was able to spare a large number of his Rank One veterans, leaving the rest of the Legion dangerously bereft of experienced and elite leadership. Unfortunately, Iskanderos was aware of the plan, and assaulted the Lion Guard’s deep space mustering grounds, forcing Rogr Hemri and Nyxos to fight for their very survival while the Iconoclasts and the Iron Locusts assaulted the Steel Wardens on the doomed forge world. Though Iskanderos was unable to destroy the Lion Guard and the Grim Angels, he was able to unleash Warp sorceries upon the two loyalist Legions, keeping them occupied and unable to send help to Echelon until it was too late.

While some of the Council Primarchs might have blamed themselves for the disaster at Galen IV, Hemri was able to avoid most of the responsibility for the defeat, especially as his own forces finally managed a hard-fought victory at the mustering grounds against the daemonic incursion summoned by Iskanderos. Still, Hemri was unable to prevent the departure of Gideon from the war effort due to his refusal to censure Nyxos for the likely death of Echelon and the destruction of the Steel Wardens. Naturally, this had a side effect of strengthening Hemri’s position as the sole source of authority on Terra in the Emperor’s absence.

With the discovery of Malcador’s splinter regime at Puritania, Hemri had to consider the likelihood that Iskanderos might be too difficult for the Council of Terra to stop. If the man seen as the Emperor’s right hand before the dark age of rebellion was attempting to found a successor state, Hemri reasoned, it was clear that Malcador – and, by extension, the Emperor – did not have faith in the Council’s ability to protect Terra. Therefore, Rogr Hemri decided that his duty was to ensure the proper continuation of the Imperium… even if it meant taking over Puritania.

There are records, though almost certainly apocryphal, that Hemri attempted to seek the Emperor’s guidance in these dark days, yet it is unclear what, if any, guidance he received. As the Emperor’s apparent lack of activity during Iskanderos’ rebellion is one of the greatest mysteries of our time, there are some who claim that perhaps, the rebel accusations that the Council had usurped the Emperor were true, though to say these things in the Imperial Remnant territory would be a certain death sentence. The Imperial Remnant historians, of course, offer an alternate view, speculating that perhaps the Emperor’s absence was a part of some grand design that mere mortals did not understand… but loyal Primarchs might have been privy to. Whatever the truth, it is clear that the civil conflict against Iskanderos saw more and more responsibility placed upon Rogr Hemri’s shoulders, until by the end of the war he was acting as a de facto ruler of the Imperium.

While Nyxos campaigned behind the enemy lines, it fell to Hemri and Dyal Rulf to protect Terra, and to hold back the traitor assaults. Hemri decided against trying to give Iskanderos a decisive battle; he was loath to fall for another trick akin to Galen IV, and realized that Iskanderos only had one target – Terra. With his mind already focusing on the possibility of the war’s aftermath, Hemri felt it imprudent to withdraw his forces to Terra and to lose most of the worlds he fought so hard to control. No, he reasoned, it made far more sense to ensure that the Twelfth Legion – and any successor Imperial regime – would continue to have access to men, materials, and infrastructure necessary to build up any concerned attempt to take Terra back, rather than risk everything on Terra while losing the rest of the empire in the process.

When the word of Nyxos’ success reached Terra, Hemri began to covertly move some of the outlying Lion Guard garrisons to the worlds closer to Puritania, forming the corridor for possible escape. The other forces were repositioned at Dyal Rulf’s insistence; the surviving Council Primarchs knew that the rebels would attempt to assault Terra, and while Hemri worked to secure his contingency plan, he believed that the Council still possessed sufficient forces to give Iskanderos the decisive battle without losing everything in case of defeat.

Hemri, Nyxos, and Dyal Rulf worked together to prepare for the final rebel assault on the Throne World. Since Iskanderos had no doubt noticed the relocation of the Lion Guard and the absence of the Grim Angels from the recent engagements, the Council reasoned that they could attempt to maneuver the Arch-Traitor into committing the entirety of his strength at Terra in hopes that the Lion Guard and the Grim Angels had abandoned the lost cause. As the traitors were fully engaged, the Lion Guard, the Grim Angels, and any other loyal forces would return, catching Iskanderos unaware and destroying him once and for all.

Of course, Hemri reasoned, should that plan somehow fail, a sufficient proportion of the Lion Guard’s strength was already repositioned in the secret Imperium Secundus, more than enough to build up a power base with.

Unfortunately, Hemri’s plan had two crucial, yet difficult to foresee flaws.  

The first flaw was the matter of trust. Though Rogr Hemri was never a particularly trusting or naïve being, he was generally an excellent judge of character, and believed himself highly capable of influencing others by playing on their character flaws (as he often did with Ashur and Nyxos). Consequently, when the Liberators Legion, led by the Last Primarch, Andrieu Ulliann, arrived at Terra in support of the Council, Hemri relied on his earlier judgment of his brother as a passionate idealist whose trust and loyalty could be absolute if he was approached correctly. As a result, Hemri entrusted the effort of coordinating the communications between the remaining Council forces was entrusted to the Liberators, who swore loyalty to the Council’s ideals despite being generally uninvolved with the conflict until that point. The Liberators, however, were already under the sway of another, much more insidious power – Tzeentch, the Lord of Lies, the Chaos god of change, hope, and plots. Therefore, they actively worked to provide misinformation, to lure scouts into ambushes, and to inform Iskanderos of the Council movements.

The second flaw was the matter of knowledge and understanding. Even with Hemri’s first-hand experience fighting against the Warp-spawned abominations, he believed that the disruptions caused by the Dream Conclave were the extent of Iskanderos’ ability to disrupt Warp communications and travel. He did not expect the Arch-Traitor to be as well-versed in Warpcraft to effectively summon the storms to essentially isolate Terra, and to slow down the Council reinforcements for crucial weeks it took the traitorous Chaos Primarchs to break down the walls of the Throne World.

Though Rogr Hemri and Nyxos were poised to sail the void as soon as they got the reports of Iskanderos being fully committed, they were delayed by the Liberators’ misinformation, and, subsequently, by the Warp storms summoned by Iskanderos. The distances that should have been traversed in hours took months to cross; vessels great and small were lost to the turbulent tides of the Immaterium, sparing neither veterans nor Navigators. Only the light of the Astronomicon, still seen despite the frequent interruptions, continued to guide the Council forces on their mission to end the war once and for all. Then, the psychic signal of the Astronomicon had disappeared.

Without guidance, the Council fleet was forced to drop out of the Empyrean, finding itself less than a light week away from the Sol System yet too far to cross in time using the conventional drives. As the first refugee ships attempted to break the ecliptic, the full story of what happened at Terra became apparent.

For the first time in his long, storied life, Rogr Hemri realized that the weight of failure was his alone to bear. Had he not trusted the Liberators; had he opted to use the entirety of his Legion to defend Terra, he would have had a chance to stop Iskanderos for good. The heavy burden of guilt weighed down on him, so close to the Throne World yet too far away to change its fate. Distraught, Hemri was about to order the Council fleet to race to Terra and to give Iskanderos the kind of battle the rebel leader would never forget, when Nyxos intervened.

Alone amongst the Council leadership, the lord of the Grim Angels maintained a semblance of clarity in his thoughts. He spoke softly to his brother, persuading him that the risk of failure was too large to commit the entirety of the Council fleet at Terra. Without the benefit of Dyal Rulf’s Consecrators, the Lion Guard and the Grim Angels would be fighting a battle they may not be able to win – and even if they did win, they would inherit a ruined Segmentum, and a Throne World that would be difficult to supply or protect. They already had a functioning star realm, Nyxos said, and it was that realm, not Terra, that was the true successor state to the Emperor’s dream. Would they give up on a chance of reuniting the galaxy in due time, now that the final threat to mankind’s dominion has been revealed, or would they risk everything and give up on a chance to restore the Imperium on their own terms?

When the two Primarchs emerged from Hemri’s private sanctum several hours later, there was new light in the Twelfth Primarch’s eyes, a new sense of purpose. With a determined voice, Rogr Hemri ordered the fleet to gather up any survivors and to begin its long trek back home.

Post-Heresy

With the benefit of an existing personal dominion, Rogr Hemri was able to integrate Malcador’s would-be splinter realm into his own administrative domain with relatively little effort. Between the still numerous Lion Guard, the still combat-capable Grim Angels, and the newly arrived Midnight Riders, Hemri had little opposition to declaring himself the Regent of the Imperium Secundus, colloquially known as the Imperial Remnant or simply as the Remnant.

Though many of the Legion veterans were lost trying to protect Segmentum Solar in the waning days of the civil war, Hemri still commanded a large number of experienced warriors, supplemented by masses of power armor-clad recruits who, while not nearly as capable, were still Space Marines and considerably superior to mortal troops. Thus, the Lion Guard became the very unifying force holding the Remnant together. They were planetary garrisons, rapid reaction forces, or even reinforcements quickly shipped off into various war zones where wars of attrition were fought against splinter human kingdoms, Chaos renegades, or alien raiders.

With Nyxos taking over the duties of offensive warfare to expand the Remnant, Hemri instead focused on administrative matters, and on ensuring the internal security of his new state. Thus, the Imperial Remnant became a centralized, highly organized state with clearly delineated chains of command on planetary, system, sector, and quadrant level. The executive power was ultimately concentrated with Hemri himself, who used Tuonela and Puritania as two alternating capitals, ensuring that no single bureaucracy could become so powerful as to threaten the survivability of his state.

While certain amount of hereditary privilege still exists on planetary level, Rogr Hemri created a system where higher level officials were continuously reassigned in order to prevent them from building independent power bases, and threatening his rule. By strengthening the central government’s power as much as it was possible with unreliable long-distance communications and Warp travel, Hemri tried to minimize the risk of sedition or dissention while ensuring that no other being in the Imperial Remnant could gather the kind of power that the Primarch himself commanded. Over the centuries, these policies produced an empire that, though considerably smaller than pre-Heresy Imperium, was much more compact and responsive to the commands of its leadership.

To the Remnant citizenry, Rogr Hemri is a distant yet caring presence, a godlike leader who saved them from the dark times ensured by the Emperor’s failures and the betrayals of Iskanderos and his fellow conspirators. The few occasions where Hemri appears outside his dual capital worlds of Tuonela and Puritania are celebrated as holidays with nearly religious fervor, and citizens from the humblest agri-worker to planetary nobles with dynastic pedigrees stretching back to the earliest days of the Remnant try to outdo each other in their histrionics to catch the attention of their benevolent ruler. Though officially the Remnant is atheistic, there are multiple small shrines to Hemri tacitly encouraged (though rarely admitted to) by the Remnant administrators, and every historical record in the Remnant emphasizes Hemri’s heroic efforts to preserve the light of Imperial civilization in the dark galaxy.

At one point, the name of Nyxos was prominent in those records as well, however, given Nyxos’ failure to bring Topia to heel, his role was reexamined to reduce him to a considerably less important character, a mere comrade and underling who aided the foundation of the Remnant in its earlier days. As for Nyxos’ crusade against Topia, only a bare mention remains in the Remnant’s histories, just enough to suggest that the Ninth Primarch perished in a heroic sacrifice to save the Remnant from an unknown invader.

In order to keep the peace in the Imperial Remnant, the Lion Guard swelled to truly gargantuan numbers compared even to their Great Crusade heights, though it can be argued that only a fraction of these new recruits were up to the standards of old Rank One units. This necessitated a number of organizational changes to effectively manage such a large force, to ensure its loyalty, and to keep it combat-capable.

The Lion Guard themselves are given considerable amounts of independence, as Rogr Hemri’s administrative responsibilities make it difficult for the Primarch to take to the field outside of the most dire emergencies. The Rank One units are still expected to receive the best training and equipment possible, however, they are also rightly viewed as officer training grounds, and many Rank One commanders operate as sector or system governors in areas deemed to be of crucial importance to the Remnant. More often than not, Rank One units are kept small, and it is not unusual for such detachments to be completely made up of ranking officers with an occasional trainee selected for high potential. This allows Rank One officers to take command of less prestigious Legion companies, while still allowing for small formations of superlative warriors to be fielded where the situation demands it.

If anything, Rank One units became more elite after the formation of the Remnant, leaving the field duties to other ranks. Rank Two units form the majority of the Legion’s strategic reserve, and are the closest in form and function to the Great Crusade-era Lion Guard. These warriors, typically drawn from the loyal worlds with well-developed martial traditions, are highly competent, well-led, and are easily a match for most rank-and-file Space Marines across the galaxy. Moreover, while Rank One units are expected to provide most of the leadership cadre for the Lion Guard, the Legion is now increasingly more reliant on Rank Two officers in line commander roles, or as leaders for less distinguished Lion Guard companies.

While Rank Three warriors were once considered to be the lowest rung on the Legion’s hierarchy, the rapid expansion of the Lion Guard made them considerably more valuable to Rogr Hemri’s plans. As a result, while these Astartes are not as well trained or generally capable as their betters, as the fully functioning warriors bearing the gene-seed of Rogr Hemri they became a more integral part of the Lion Guard military machine. Where the Rank One units are elites and the Rank Two detachments form the hardened core of veteran professionals, the Rank Three Lion Guard are the line troopers trusted to hold the line, to deliver the killing blow against lesser enemies, or, when all else fails, to sacrifice themselves for the greater glory of the Remnant. While the personnel turnover in Rank Three units is still considerable, many of these Legionaries came to have lengthy and distinguished careers, and a number of the Legion’s most celebrated commanders had their origins in a Rank Three unit.

In the years following the establishment of the Imperial Remnant, Hemri ordered the establishment of another Rank for the Lion Guard – Rank Four, the troopers considered to be the lowest grade of power armored warriors, yet quick to produce and replace. Unsurprisingly, they soon became the largest classification within the Legion, though also the least capable one.

The Rank Four warriors are produced with the truncated version of gene-seed cultured for fastest growth and often subjected to procedures that would otherwise hamper its long-term viability. Where a higher-grade Lion Guard Astartes would see service over multiple centuries or even millennia, a Rank Four warrior typically has life expectancy not much greater than a particularly long-lived mortal, and is lacking many of the specialized organs and implants of a Space Marine. More often than not, these troopers are created from cloned bodies, captured criminals, war orphans, and other easily disposable recruits who would not be missed. In almost every case, the only requirements placed on the Lion Guard Apothecaries are that the Rank Four Astartes are capable of bonding with power armor, and that the recruits maintain a degree of battlefield toughness that would make them a credible threat to the enemy. Even minor mutations or tissue degradation are considered to be acceptable side effects, as long as the resultant warrior is combat-capable and loyal.

The chief advantage of these lower-grade Astartes is the speed with which they can be created. While even a Rank Three Lion Guard warrior may take over a year from the beginning of the implantation process to be combat-capable (if not fully trained), a Rank Four trooper can be ready in a matter of months. This result is achieved through the lessons learned from flawed Astartes creation from Mohktal’s gene-seed before the Fall of Terra, as well as through some rare archaeotech rescued from Terra during the Council’s retreat from the Throne World. Consequently, the Rank Four Lion Guard are almost never promoted beyond their own units, or entrusted with long-term leadership, as very few of them are able to survive gene-seed instability beyond their first century, while the number of Rank Four warriors who did not suffer catastrophic organ failure or tissue degradation after two centuries in service can be measured in single digits.

These traits make the modern-day Lion Guard a highly capable defensive force able to protect the Imperial Remnant, but perhaps less suited for offensive operations of the kind typically entrusted to Space Marine Legions. As a result, with the cessation of Nyxos’ crusades, most Remnant wars of expansion became slow, grinding affairs, where waves after waves of mortal and Rank Four troopers focus their heavy firepower on the enemy, wearing him down so that the Legion elites could finish the job with minimal casualties.

While these tactics do not lend themselves to fast victories, they do offer the Imperial Remnant a way to stand against many threats of the hostile, uncaring galaxy. To the Remnant citizens, they are the only legitimate successor of the Old Imperium, led by one of the Emperor’s own sons and maintaining the flame of civilization from the onslaught of barbarism. Though it may yet be thousands of years, they have no doubt that some day, the Remnant’s slow expansion will engulf the rest of the galaxy, finally restoring it to its rightful ruler, and bringing about the golden age of humanity.