Ashen Claws
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| Founding Chapter: | Raven Guard[1] | ||
| Founding: | Renegade Chapter of First Founding Legion[1] | ||
| Chapter Master: | Nehat Nev[3a] | ||
| Homeworld: | Atargatis Prime[3a] | ||
| Fortress-Monastery: | Lost Eyrie[3a] | ||
| Colours: | Black, red, and bronze[1] | ||
| Specialty: | Orbital Interface Assault[1] | ||
The Ashen Claws are a piratical warband of renegade Space Marines based in the Ghoul Stars.[1][3a]
History
Origin as the Raven Guard's 18th Chapter
The 18th Chapter of the Raven Guard Legion were known as the Ashen Claws, taking their names from the Xeric tribes that supplied their first recruits. Before the Legion was reunited with their Primarch, Corvus Corax, they spent time under the tutelage of Horus, who developed a stratagem he called the "Ashen Claw" whereby a sacrificial unit would draw the enemy out to allow the rest of Horus' force to strike their flank.[1]
Notably, Shade Captain Nerat Kirine of the 18th Chapter developed the strategy employed by the XIXth Legion, accompanied by the Luna Wolves, in the Battle of Hell's Anvil. Initiating a concussive bombardment on the subterranean fortifications, the Legions allowed the Imperial Army to suffer the worst of the casualties whilst the 18th Chapter launched hit and run attacks on the Overseers. The battle established the reputation of assignment alongside the XIXth as a death sentence to the Imperial Army[2b] and, combined with their heritage as slaver-warlords, contributed to the ill-will that Corax bore towards the Terran veterans when he took command of the Legion.[1]
Exile
In 002.M31, a large proportion of the Terran Legionaries remaining in the Raven Guard were killed in the Battle of Gate Forty-Two. In the aftermath of the battle, Corax gathered the majority of the surviving veterans of the old XIXth Legion and those prisoners freed from Deliverance who did not fit his vision of the Legion into Crusade fleets, dispatching them to the Ghoul Stars. One such fleet, placed under the Deliverance-born Praetor Calvus, consisted of some four thousand survivors of the 18th Chapter "Ashen Claws", including Shade Captain Kirine. Their fleet consisted of thirteen capital vessels and a score of frigates.[1]
Many of the Ashen Claws were angered by the disregard Corax showed for their lives and history of service, embittered that their reward was exile rather than the honours bestowed on the warriors of other Legions who fought in the battle.[1] As a result, the 18th Chapter went renegade during its exile, discarding its loyalty to Corax and the wider Imperium, taking the name "Ashen Claws" as its official title.[1][3b]
Horus Heresy
Like the other nomad-predation fleets, Corax never made any attempt to recall the 18th Chapter of the Legion even after the outbreak of the Horus Heresy.[2a] Nevertheless, the Ashen Claws returned of their own will, raiding targets across the Nostramo Sector and stripping them of munitions, STC templates, and construction matrices whilst making no effort to hold their conquests in the name of either Emperor or Warmaster.[1]
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In one notable campaign, the "Scouring of the Nostramo Sector", the Ashen Claws decimated large Night Lords contingents:[1] The Ashen Claws sacked Tenebor, the fortress-moon of the Night Lords' destroyed homeworld Nostramo, and sealed the population of Cairn beneath the collapsed spires of their hive-cities after destroying the Night Lords stationed there. Combined with the increased activity of alien species such as the Khrave, this served to destabilise the Nostramo sector until it finally collapsed into anarchy after the Ashen Claws brought down the Shroud of Eventide in the Battle of Kalleth, depriving the Night Lords of their leader Kheron Ophion.[1]
At the Battle of Desperation, Kirine responded to hails from Chapter Master Arceas Odinathus of the Ultramarines by disavowing allegiance to either the Emperor or the traitorous Warmaster, apparently believing Corax dead.[1] In the following years, the Ashen Claws raided across the region of the galaxy east of the Beta-Garmon Star Cluster, attacking both Loyalists as well as Traitors, including on Dellar IX.[4b]
Though the Ashen Claws' exact disposition and operations remained unclear to the wider Imperium during the Horus Heresy,[1][4b] an Imperial map suggests that they ruled a substantial empire in the Ghoul Stars by the late Horus Heresy.[4a]
Second Crusade and later history
By the time of the Great Scouring in 017.M31, the Blood Angels 9th Chapter, the Angels Vermillion, arrived to find only scattered remnants of the Night Lords in the region around Nostramo, rather than the determined resistance of up to thirty thousand Legionaries as expected. It was speculated that the Ashen Claws were responsible for the destruction of Traitor forces based in the Nostramo Sector.[1]
Astropathic fragments intercepted during a deep range patrol of the Ghoul Stars indicate that as late as 062.M31 the Ashen Claws were still expanding their realm, bringing worlds into compliance according to edicts of their 'Second Crusade' from a base on Atargatis.[1] Over the next millenia, the Ashen Claws continued their wars of conquest and even occasionally raided Imperial space, though they also continued to maintain working relationships to some Loyalist groups such as the Carcharodons Space Marines. The renegades also honoured their old ways in many ways, despising the forces of Chaos even more than the Imperium.[3b]
By M41, the power of the Ashen Claws had diminished: Even though they still controlled a pocket empire, their numbers had decreased and they maintained a greater degree of isolation, fearing that the Imperium would one day try to destroy them. Furthermore, their culture had been substantially altered by the millenia outside Imperial control, with the Ashen Claws becoming integrated into the society of their capital world of Atargatis Prime and no longer viewing regular humans as lesser beings.[3b] In the 800s.M41, the Ashen Claws agreed to aid the Carcharodons in anti-Tyranid operations, partially to secure their own empire from Xenos attacks.[3b][3d]
Timeline
- M30: Unification Wars
- M30: Battle of Hell's Anvil
- 002.M31: Battle of Gate Forty-Two — 18th Chapter suffers significant casualties and is exiled to the Ghoul Stars[1]
- 007.M31: Tenebor — Killed the defending Night Lords, looted the fortress, and stole the proginoid glands from the slain Night Lords.[1]
- 033011.M31: Battle of Kalleth — although defeated, the Nostramo Sector is destabilised by the loss of Captain Kheron Ophion of the Night Lords.[1]
- 997011.M31: Battle of Desperation — acquire large amount of munitions before retreating.[1]
- ???.M31: Battle against White Scars on Dellar IX[4b]
- 062.M31: Compliance of Orcades[1]
- ~800s.M41: Aiding the Carcharodons against Genestealer Cultists on Piety V.[3b][3d]
Culture
"[...] We are not traitors. I have only ever had one loyalty, to the brothers you see before you, the ones who stormed your bridge and will momentarily relieve you of the supplies you carry. Maybe it does look like treachery to you. Maybe you actually believe warriors like me – the pinnacle of gene-bred evolution in the galaxy – truly exist only to protect your pitiful life. Maybe you do not know of the others. There are far darker beings out there than those you see before you, captain. Ones as ancient as us, but enslaved to powers beyond your reckoning. We are not them. We will not tear out your soul and feed it to daemons, or bind you to nightmares made flesh. We'll just kill you. [...]"
The Ashen Claws often decorate their armour with fragments of enemy weapons, including the skulls or teeth of alien beasts, taken as trophies, as well as carved stone charms similar to Terran jade. Although they no longer serve the Emperor, many still bear the Raptor Imperialis that indicates they were veterans of the Unification Wars.[1][3b]
Initially, the Ashen Claws were deeply influenced by their traditional association with slaver-warlords as well as the Sons of Horus. As a result, they treated regular humans poorly and as expandable, a trait which contributed to their exile by Corax.[1] Ironically, their exile forced the Ashen Claws to rely to a much greater degree on the regular humans of the Ghoul Stars both as recruits and for support roles, as the Ghoul Stars' low population count meant that human lives were rather valuable. Thus, the Ashen Claws gradually adapted and changed their culture: By M41, they were still vicious raiders and willing to engage in slavery, but they treated the human population of Atargatis Prime as equals, with a human woman even co-ruling the world alongside Chapter Master Nehat Nev.[3b] Furthermore, the tribes of Atargatis outright aligned themselves with various factions within the Ashen Claws, thereby being able to directly influence the Space Marines' politics and operations.[3c]
To replenish their gene-seed stocks, ammunition, weaponry, and other technologies, the Ashen Claws traded with the Carcharodons over millenia. Despite this, many Ashen Claws disdained the Carcharodons due to their alleged "mongrel" origin, unquestioning submission to the Imperium, and the latter's extremely cruel and inhuman culture.[3b] The Ashen Claws also deeply despise Chaos Space Marine, viewing them as slaves and monsters.[3b][3e]
Known worlds
By M31, the Ashen Claws ruled the following planets:
Tactics
Once known for the hit and run tactics typical of the Raven Guard, and carried out with brutal efficiency by Shade Captain Kirine, the Ashen Claws became specialists in orbital interface raids focussed on acquiring the materiel required to maintain a force that had been operating without support for several years. A wide variety of orbital interface fighters, bombers, and assault craft typically begin by targeting anti-air emplacements before Dreadclaw and Kharybdis drop pods deploy fast moving infantry squadrons to suppress the enemy. The intention is to circumvent the enemy's main strength, allowing a force with limited numbers to defeat a numerically superior foe piecemeal with the ultimate objective usually the seizure of munitions and materiel.[1]
Noted Elements
When they were exiled, the Ashen Claws numbered about 4,000 Space Marines.[1] By the 800s.M41, their numbers had diminished, but they still numbered thousands.[3b]
Fleet
- Wicked Claw — An Infernus Class Battleship dating back to the Great Crusade. Originally used by the Chapter when first exiled to the ghoul stars. The Wicked Claw served as the flagship of the Ashen Claws ever since, used through the millennia up to M41, when it was used to reinforce a Carcharadons fleet under assault from Tyranid forces.[3a][3d]
Notable Vehicles
- Bloodhawk — Primaris Lightning. Destroyed 4 Ultramarines Xiphon Interceptors in the Battle of Desperation[1]
- Liminal Plunderer — Rhino[5]
Known Units
- Vasrak Squad - Assault Squad[5]
Notable Members
Heresy-Era
- Calvus — Praetor assigned command of the Crusade Fleet in 002.M31, presumed deceased.[1]
- Nerat Kirine — Shade Captain (011.M31).[1]
- Artal Heloc — Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought. KIA on Dellar IX.[4b]
- The Murmur — Legion Vigilator[5]
- Kasz — Legionary[5]
Post-Heresy
- Nehat Nev — Chapter Master (885.M41).[3a]
- Arathar — Librarian[3a]
- Rama Sixx — Captain of the First Company[3b]
- Tanthius — Battle-Brother[3b]
Images
Trivia
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- The Ashen Claws were sent into the Ghoul Stars in 002.M31[1], 19 years prior to the 2nd Founding and the adoption of the Codex Astartes in 021.M31.[6] There is no indication that the Ashen Claws ever adopted or had reason to become compliant with the Codex Astartes. It is feasible that, even 10,000 years later as of M41[3b], the Ashen Claws still operates closer to their original Great Crusade Legion chapter structure, rather than Adeptus Astartes chapter structure.
Sources
- 1: The Horus Heresy Book Six - Retribution, pgs. 128–146
- 2: The Horus Heresy Book Three - Extermination:
- 3: Carcharodons: Outer Dark (Novel),
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- 4: Campaigns of the Age of Darkness: The Battle of Beta-Garmon:
- 5: The Horus Heresy: Legions - Tempest Expansion: Blackshields Card Description - for details see Kasz (Ashen Claws)/Sources, The Murmur/Sources, Liminal Plunderer/Sources and Vasrak/Sources
- 6: Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition) pg. 8
