Dreadwing
We have come. We are death
The Dreadwing was one of the six specialized formations called Wings of the Dark Angels Space Marine Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy.[1]
Contents
Overview
Perhaps the most feared of all the branches of the Hexagrammaton, garnering a reputation that far outweighed the Wing's influence within the Legion, the Dreadwing was composed of those whose role was the utter annihilation of the enemy, the salting of the earth, and breaking of worlds. When called out from the ranks, the initiates of the Dreadwing were experts in the brutal tactics of massacre, purge, and the deployment of Exterminatus class weaponry, though many also specialised in the use of terror as a weapon. It was an evolution of the Host of Bone, its brutal tactics refined and temperamental nature dulled by the influx of Calibanite recruits, though it retained many of the Skandic ceremonies and titles that had marked its origins. Its initiates were, however, far from dim brutes, for the Dreadwing saw to the duty of caretaking some of the most dangerous technologies that existed anywhere within the Imperium. Its leader was known as the Dreadbringer.[2a]
As of M41, the unit no longer exists.[1]
Ranks
- Voted Lieutenant - Leader of the Dreadwing, also known as the Dreadbringer.[1]
- Voted Successor
- Eskaton - A title used to denote a warrior that has overseen the final death of an entire race or world.[3]
- Lieutenant
- Praefectus - Squad leader.[5]
- Initiate
- Postulant - A legionary who hasn't been properly inducted into the Dreadwing and is not allowed to wear its symbols or sing its chants. [5]
Assets
Its ranks included not only the vast majority of the Legion's Destroyers, Interemptors and Moritat cohorts but also a large number of Techmarines, forge adepts and no few Apothecaries, those considered among the least orthodox of their kind and often of morbid disposition[4]
In the sealed vaults of the Dreadwing rested the least stable of the Dreadnoughts maintained by the Legion, those whose minds were trapped within the horrors of wars long since ended, as well as artificial warriors of a more fearsome nature. In the years after the initial outbreak of the Horus Heresy, as attrition and despair cut at the prohibitions of the Great Crusade, it would also play host to those warriors given dispensation by their Primarch to resume use of their psychic powers. For the Lion would not see his Legion plunged into the greatest war in recorded history barred the use of one of its most powerful weapons. To choose between victory or the sanctity of the dictats of Nikaea was no choice at all, for the Lion would always choose victory, no matter the cost to be paid in the aftermath.[4] The Dreadwing also operated Terminator units known as the Naufragia.[2b]
The Dreadwing also utilized mass armoured assaults of Land Raiders, Spartan Assault Carriers, Mastodons, Whirlwinds[2b], Vindicators[2b], Arquitor Bombards[3] and Fellglaives with advanced Warp weaponry. They employed weapons of mass destruction such as Phosphex, man-portable Atomics,[8b] Singularity Drivers[8b], Gene targeted Bio-weaponry,[8b] Psionic Phages[8b] and Vortex Weapons.[2b] The advanced weaponry of the Dreadwing was designed by the Emperor's own armourers.[2b] The Dreadwing also made use of Castellax Battle-Automata known as the Black-Watch.[7b] The Dreadwing were known to store their terrible arsenal within chambers such as The Dreadwing Sacristy.[8b]
The fleet of the Dreadwing consisted of anonymous black hulled dreadnoughts of ancient designs. These massive ships far overpowered the capital vessels possesed by other legions, and could engage foes at such great ranges that they could not be matched. These Dreadnoughts were armed with arcane weapons from the days of Old Night, such as Annihilator cannons, and neutron beams.[2b][7a]
Known Vessels
- Intolerant - Capital Ship.[2b]
Notable Members
- Constantine - Dreadbringer, Voted Lieutenant, Paladin, succeeded by Redloss.[2b]
- Farith Redloss - Dreadbringer, Voted Lieutenant[1]
- Annael - Lieutenant[5]
- Danaes - Lieutenant-Ascendant, Third Order[2b]
- Marduk Sedras - Eskaton[3]
- Halswain - Terminator Sergeant[2b]
- Fulk Rhodri - Saturnine Terminator[9]
- Zabriel - Former Initiate. Unwillingly became a Fallen Angel but now serves Lion El'Jonson as one of The Risen.[6]
Images
A squad of Dreadwing Interemptors[3]
Trivia
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- The 'skull-in-hourglass' heraldry of the Dreadwing matches that of the Star Phantoms, who are suspect of being a successor of the Dark Angels, although both chapter deny this.
See also
Sources
- 1: The Unremembered Empire (Novel), Chapter 10
- 2: Angels of Caliban (Novel):
- 3: Warhammer Community: The Road to Thramas – Part 1: Wings of the Dark Angels (Posted December 9 2019) (last accessed 12/9/2019)
- 4: The Horus Heresy Book Nine - Crusade, pgs. 104-105
- 5: Traitor's Faith (Short Story) — Cthonia's Reckoning (Anthology)
- 6: The Lion: Son of the Forest (Novel), Chapter 4
- 7: Campaigns of the Age of Darkness: The Siege of Cthonia
- 8: Lion El'Jonson: Lord of the First (Novel):
- 9: Journal Tactica: The Forges of Saturn, pg. 38
