Helbrant Alderic
Helbrant Alderic was a member of the Black Templars, who became the Imperial Fists' 8th Captain, after the destroyed Chapter was rebuilt during the War of the Beast.[1]
He shaped the 8th Company in his image, as its tactics reflected the hot-blooded nature of the Black Templars and focused on headlong assaults. The Company readily embraced this, as it contained many of Alderic's Battle Brothers from his former Chapter. The Imperial Fists' newly elected Chapter Master, Maximus Thane, would have rectified this, though, had the restored Chapter not been scattered to confront the Imperial rebellions that began after Drakan Vangorich's death. However it was during these conflicts that the 8th Company was truly reborn to war. Under Alderic's command, the Company fought across the Segmentum Obscurus and was given numerous battle honours for their efforts. Many of these were earned in campaigns under the notional command of Wolf Lord Harald Firetooth, whose Fenrisian bravado only encouraged Alderic's aggressive approach to battle.[1]
By the time the 8th Company returned to the Phalanx, though, they were all but unrecognizable as Imperial Fists to their other Battle Brothers. This led the Company to be censured by Chapter Master Thane, who then split the 8th apart to other Companies and demoted Alderic from the rank of Captain. However, Thane later noticed that the 8th's former members did not carry Alderic's impetuous ardor with them, and instead displayed discipline that put even the most stoic Imperial Fist to shame. It seemed as if, by allowing their aggression to run unfettered during their battles in Segmentum Obscurus, the former members of the 8th had purged that part of themselves, and emerged all the stronger for it. This led Thane to restore Alderic's Captaincy and keep the battle tactics he had implemented within the 8th Company. The Chapter Master also changed the Imperial Fists' logistics, so that members of the 10th Company would always ascend to the 8th, in order to excise their youthful wildness.[1]
For the impact he and Harald Firetooth both had on the Company, they have been immortalized on many of the 8th's Company Banners with a golden figure bearing Alderic's original cruciform-hilted sword, portrayed alongside the Wolf Lord's personal sigil.[1]
Sources
- 1: Codex Supplement: Imperial Fists (8th Edition), pg. 19 - The 8th Company
