13th Great Company
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The 13th Great Company was one of the original Great Companies of the Space Wolf Legion of the Adeptus Astartes. The Great Company disappeared during the Horus Heresy, only to re-emerge from the Eye of Terror during the Thirteenth Black Crusade.
Contents
Company Summary
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| Founding Chapter: | Space Wolves | ||
| Founding: | N/A | ||
| Chapter Master: | Leman Russ | ||
| Homeworld: | Fenris | ||
| Fortress-Monastery: | N/A | ||
| Colours: | Grey | ||
| Specialty: | Assault | ||
| Strength: | Unknown | ||
| Battle Cry | Legends tell of the howl of the Wulfen: mortal ears have now heard it for the first time in 10,000 years. Eyewitnesses report that the effect is devastating to enemy morale, and often equally unnerving for friendly troops. | ||
| "The Bear shall take up The mantle of Gatekeeper,
And the Lost Kin return To the Realms of the Man. Brother shall slay brother, As at the Dawn of Time, But the Were-kin stand aloof. Their task set in stone before them. The Son of the Traitor shall lay waste - First the Gate, then the Palace. The Children of Russ shall oppose him Or perish, their names reviled for all time. Now is the time, mighty Wolf. Your hunt is nearing its end. Your quarry is set before you. Your saga shall be sung for all time." -The Prophesy of Frode |
History
The origins of the 13th Great Company lie in the dawn of the Age of the Imperium, when the Primarchs were reunited with the Emperor and their legions.4 The 13th Great Company was formed from the followers of Leman Russ from his days on Fenris, before the coming of the Allfather (The Emperor). They were all old men by the standards of the Astartes, having been reavers and sword-brothers to Leman, King of the Rus. When the truth of Leman’s heritage was finally revealed, every warrior in the king’s mead-hall had drawn their iron blades and clamoured to fight at his side, as sword-brothers ought. But they were all too old, the Emperor had told them; not a man among them was younger than twenty years. The trials they would have to endure would very likely kill them, no matter how courageous and strong-willed they were. Yet the men of Leman’s mead-hall were mighty warriors, each man a hero in his own right, and they would not be dissuaded by thoughts of suffering or death. Leman, the king, was moved by their devotion, and could not find it in his heart to refuse them. And so his loyal thanes undertook the Trials of the Wolf, and true to the Emperor’s word, the vast majority of them died. Out of hundreds, almost two score survived, a number that amazed even the Emperor himself. In honour of their courage, Leman – no longer king now, but Primarch of the VI Legion – formed a new company around the survivors. Ever since, the other warriors of the Legion referred to the Thirteenth as the Greybeards. The members of the company, however, called themselves the Wolf Brothers. Immediately preceding the Heresy, the Company was led by the Wolf Lord Bulveye.3.
Being the genetic progeny of Russ the Space Wolves carry within them a unique gift: the Canis Helix, the Mark of the Wolf that sets the Space Wolves apart from the Space Marines of other Chapters. The Canis Helix invests the Space Wolves with the acute predatory senses of the wolves native to their homeworld of Fenris, but this gift comes at a price: the Curse of the Wulfen. Those brothers who succumb to the curse degenerate into savage, malformed parodies of their brethren, in most cases during their training, but in others many years later in the heat of battle. The Space Wolves' harsh induction regime generally ensures that these individuals perish at an early stage in the process. However, at the time of the Great Crusade, when the Emperor and his Legions were conquering vast swathes of the galaxy in the name of Mankind, those brothers touched by the curse were banded together into the 13th Great Company, where their feral ferocity could be brought to bear en masse, as well as contained for the safety of the whole legion.
The Great Crusade
That the 13th Company accompanied Russ on the Great Crusade is known, although the details of the campaigns in which they fought are lost to antiquity. Only the names of actions, long since forgotten appear in the archives, battles such as the First Siege of Methrix and the Battle of the Plains of Mo-Shan, the Fall of the Paramours of the Morpheus Rift, and the Crossing of Hangman's Void. The fate of the 13th Company is a subject of numerous myths, and the Space Wolves themselves are not forthcoming as to which is the true account. In truth there is probably an element of veracity existing within each tale, and that none are wholly inaccurate.4
Horus Heresy
- The Fall of Prospero
The saga known as The War of the Giants purports to be a record of the fall of Prospero. In the opening days of the Horus Heresy the Space Wolves were ordered to assault their brother legion, the Thousand Sons, and to call them to account for the sorcerous actions of their Primarch, Magnus the Red. The saga states that the 13th Company was at the head of the assault on the Thousand Sons' homeworld of Prospero, and that the sheer ferocity of their attack smashed a hole in the traitor lines through which the remainder of the Space Wolves could penetrate. At the height of the battle, it is told that Magnus opened a portal, a means of escaping the destruction wrought by the Space Wolves. Magnus and the remnants of his legion fled, but it is said that Russ ordered the 13th Company to give chase, and in so doing they left the realm of Man, never to return.4
It is said that the members of the 13th Company swore terrible-binding oaths; to hunt their implacable foes down until every last one of the cursed Traitor marines was slain, no matter how long it took, nor where fled. Wolf Lord Bulveye himself casts small doubt over the veracity of these legends with his guarded response to Ragnar Blackmane's historical recount of their mission during the events of Wolf's Honour.2
- The Siege of Terra
Fragments of other records suggest that the disappearance of the 13th Company did not occur until after the Siege of the Emperor's Palace, which saw the rebel Warmaster Horus finally defeated and the Traitor Legions routed to the Eye of Terror. In the wake of the galaxy-spanning civil war, which saw the Imperium brought to its knees by Horus's treachery. Some of the Loyalist legions sought to consolidate the forces of Mankind. But Leman Russ, ever headstrong and proud, demanded that the Traitors not be allowed to establish a foothold within the Eye of Terror, and that the Imperium should strike immediately. Though Primarchs Guilliman and Dorn overrode their erstwhile brother Primarch, it has been suggested that Russ may have dispatched the 13th Company with orders to hunt down Abaddon, the Warmaster's Lieutenant, and bring his head as a trophy to set before the Emperor. Other, more dubious theories suggest that the Wulfen gave chase of their own accord, some even whispering that the 13th Company was tainted by Chaos all along, and were seeking to join the ranks of the Traitors. This legend bears up well to the little evidence that exists to support it; the Wulfen did embark upon some form of pursuit, which has been given credence by the timing of their emergence from the Eye ten millennia later during 13th Black Crusade. The similarity between this and other legends suggests that a kernel of truth lies at the heart of the matter, though the exact details will likely never be known.4
An excerpt from Dionerius’ “Rise of Man”, authored sometime around the thirty-first millennium entitled, “The Wulfen” speaks of these legends even further:
The Wulfen …Among them were companies of savage creatures, their beastiality far outstripped even the barbarian Children of Russ. By the Space Wolves these were called Wulfen, at times spoken of as the Thirteenth Great Company. They were feral of eye and febrile in nature, strong of limb, and blanched by savage tattoos, able to tear a man asunder with their clawed hands and fangs. Eschewing weapons of distance they would stalk their foes as would beasts, slinking in the shadows and hunting by night ‘neath the light of the full moon. Variously, captains say the Wulfen were led by Hirkon Grail or Jorin Bloodfang, maybe when one was slain another took his place.
Fragment II Now in the aftermath of the Siege of Terra there was a great confusion among the followers of the Emperor, for they had lost their liege lord and were as knights without their king. [ [ Text lost ] ] Many voiced loud the thought in the hearts of all-give chase to the traitors and destroy them utterly for the woe they had wrought. The voice of Russ was the loudest of all, [ [ Text lost ] ] but Guilliman and Dorn gainsaid his counsel. To enter the Occularis Terribilis would bring disorder on the surviving Legions, they said, leaving Man vulnerable to both the xenite and apostate. It is said that Russ, as was often the way, took his own counsel and sent forth the Wulfen to hunt down Abaddon and his followers. Others say that the Thirteenth Great Company pursued the heretics of their own accord, as hounds at the chase who heed not the calls of their huntsman. Others still maintain that the Wulfen had been tainted by the Dark Gods and were summoned by their call to join the Traitor Legions in the netherworld.
Fragment III The Wulfen were never seen nor heard again, passing into the void and becoming lost to the eye and ear of Man. It is said that upon the Space Wolves homeworld of Fenris the loss of the Wulfen was known by the wolves of Asaheim. The great packs gathered before the gates of the Space Wolves monastery in their thousands until every wolf in the world was there. That great grey host howled of their loss for a hundred nights before returning to the hinterlands.5
The Lost Company
What is established fact is that the 13th Company eventually vanished from Imperial records. To this day, a place is reserved at the feasts held in the Hall of the Great Wolf for a Lord who has not attended his liege since the time Russ himself led his sons into battle. Their loss is honoured by a black stone set in the Grand Annulus (the record of the Space Wolves Great Companies).
Return of the Wulfen
Somehow, the hardy Sons of Russ survived their journey through the Eye and emerged, long after they should have perished, in pursuit of Abaddon The Despoiler.1 Given that they vanished before the Emperor was interred on the Golden Throne, they have been missing for approximately 10,000 years.
Their reappearance at the beginning of Abaddon the Despoiler’s Thirteenth Black Crusade has brought them back into the spotlight. They appear to still be in pursuit of the goal their Primarch Russ set out for them. It was believed that Leman Russ himself was their leader, although this was never proven.
Mark of the Wulfen
One other thing that sets the warriors of the 13th Company apart from the rest of their Space Wolves brethren is the large percentage of warriors who have succumbed to the animal nature that is part of the genetic legacy of their Primarch: the Mark of the Wulfen. This genetic mutation causes their canine nature to manifest itself more fully and, amongst other things, thick hair to grow over all the body and claws to sprout from the hands. These warriors gather together in packs, surrendering themselves to their animalistic nature, rushing headlong at their foes, eager to use their sharp claws and teeth in close combat. Whether the increased percentage of 13th Company Marines who have succumbed to the Mark of the Wulfen is a result of their exposure to Eye of Terror, or whether it existed before and their increased percentage in the Company is simply due to the fact that their increased stamina and strength has allowed more of them to survive than their brethren is unknown1.
Organization
The Thirteenth Company's organization departs heavily from Space Wolf norms, due to the lack of reinforcements and 'fresh blood' supplying the Company, the inability to train members in specialist roles, the lack of heavy equipment, and the effect of having to exist within the Eye of Terror for ten thousand years. The core of a 13th Company warband are the Grey Slayers. Similar to Grey Hunters, they fulfill the same role in battle.
Because of the impossibility of recruiting new brethren, there are no Blood Claws in the 13th Company. Each and every Blood Claw has long since advanced to a higher stage. The Company's assault specialists are the Storm Claws. They are equally experienced, but still more hot-headed and aggressive than their kinsman in the Grey Slayers.
The key to the 13th Company's movement through the Warp are the Rune Priests. Because the Eye of Terror has unlocked hidden psychic powers in many recruits, the Company has no shortage of these highly gifted individuals.
The Wulfen are the most drastic departure from a normal Space Wolf. The Space Marines who mutate into Wulfen bear resemblance to werewolves in the same way as Blood Angels suffering the Red Thirst resemble vampires. Any Space Wolf to suffer as a Wulfen becomes a half man, half wolf creature with a feral mind. The mutation normally manifests itself in the Neophyte stage and Space Wolves must spend time in their training in a scenario designed to out those who have become Wulfen.
Though normal Space Wolves sometimes use individual Wulfen in battle, the 13th Company uses entire packs. Each and every member of the 13th Company carries the Curse, and it manifests itself in the Space Wolves at different times. Thus even the Wulfen packs do not stay the same. It has manifested itself so strongly and so late because it reacts to the influence of Chaos; because of this side of their nature acting as a kind of spiritual defense mechanism, Space Wolves are exceptionally resistant to the malign influence of Chaos. It is believed that the 13th Company have only been able to survive living as Loyalist Marines in the Eye of Terror so long precisely because of this trait.
Colours
The 13th Company is also distinguished by maintaining the dark grey Pre-Heresy colour scheme of the Space Wolves Legion, on what little remains of their original equipment. Much of their armor and weaponry has been replaced with material scavenged from their fallen Chaos foes. Not surprisingly, their Company has almost no heavy equipment such as tanks, Terminators or Dreadnoughts. 1 2
Sources
- 1 Codex: Eye of Terror (3rd Edition)
- 2 Wolf's Honour by Lee Lightner
- 3 Wolf at the Door by Mike Lee in Tales of Heresy (Anthology)
- 4 WD282, (US), ""Children of the Night", pp.58-61
- 5 WD245, (UK), "Lone Wolves'" article, pp.38-39
