C r e s i m i r u s C r e s c e n t i u s
C r e s i m i r u s C r e s c e n t i u s
C r e s i m i r u s C r e s c e n t i u s
"We cannot realistically eliminate every Human want by providing for every Human need. But we can try."
A P P E A R A N C E  The Primarch Cresimirus depicted wearing the Crest of House Crescentius, as well as the simplified sword-and-circles emblem of the Xth Astartes Legion. The Primarch Cresimirus possesses highly exaggerated features of androgyny, additionally lacking genitalia or any secondary sexual characteristics. They have long, wavy black hair, grey eye coloration, and possess a lithe and tall build. Upon their homeworld of Convergentiarum, they were originally identified as a Mutant by a band of house-affiliated slave merchants who managed to passably present the nascent Primarch as female, only for them to then be regularly mistaken, and to pose as, both genders at differing points of their pre-discovery. Cresimirus possesses reflexive and rapid flesh-sculpting psyker capabilities that would be the envy of any biomancer, and thus although they maintain their original form by preference it is not the only one they have used. There are rumored tales from their reign on Convergentiarum indicating they have posed and adopted various Human personas, including menials, Sacristans, slavers, and even a Rogue Trader. Their capabilities also lend themselves ably to the sanative restoration of flesh; with many tales of the Primarch's miraculous healing capabilities including the rumored power to reverse aging, restore mortal wounds to wholeness, and even to return the dead to life - though these rumors are followed, in turned, by less charitable rumors of individuals turned to stone - or worse, Mutants and Monsters of uniquely grotesque nature. These flesh-sculpting capabilities are so prodigious that the Primarch has appeared to rely on them extensively, even to the detriment of their skill as a combatant. They are famed for fight unarmed with talent described - scandalously so for a Primarch - 'passable' martial proficiency. This is mired further by their regenerative capabilities being so potent that they cannot make use of bionics and augmetics, their flesh rejecting neural port connections and interfaces, and so for some time even post-discovery the Primarch infamously eschewed wearing any form of armor, preferring instead to rely on the resiliency of their flesh as a Primarch, occasionally augmented by transmuting their own skin into a material comparable to Auramite. This is thought to be the origin of their depiction as a golden-skinned, golem-like titan on the battlefield, though whether there is any truth to the claims is a matter of debate. D E T A I L S Legion Name: — Tellurian Warriors Homeworld: — Convergentiarum | C O N C E P T Primer: — A Primarch obsessed with Human life, Anthropospheres, and the living machinery of Imperial management. Logistically-minded and idealistic, but also contentious and prone to aggressive unilateral actions. Oft-praised for their Terraforming and ecology-centric methodology, as well as for their highly efficient bureaucratic reforms - and just as often scorned for their self-aggrandizing attitude, their militarily inept strategic priorities, and their frequent confrontation with lawful administrative bodies. Also known for the peculiar expression of their Legion's geneseed, it is rumored in the more privileged echelons of power that their geneline has remarkable - and perhaps insalubrious - similarities to that of the IX Legion. Background: — The Primarch Cresimirus landed on the Knight World of Convergentiarum a little over a decade after a succession crisis triggered by the suicide of the former, Mechanicum-aligned Princeps, succeeded by a new secular High King. Though the transition of power was largely peaceful, the influence of the Mechanicum was not so readily cast off, and the maneuvers of various factions in preparation for an inevitable war of legitimacy were already brewing. By twist of happenstance or fate - if not both - Cresimirus was taken from the lowland wastes of the Sterine mountain range by slavers, and through demonstration of their remarkable capabilities to heal and mend flesh, was sold to the noble Knight house of Crescentius and placed as the House Chiurgeon. Through a series of events amounting to conspiracy, Cresimirus plotted to court and wed a blooded member of the House Crescentius and thus take on their name and nobility for themself, having concealed their nature as a supposed Mutant for years while in the House's employ in spite of the unnatural methods behind their talents as a medicae. However, suspicion could not be waylaid indefinitely - either from within, or without House Crescentius. Questors of the High King unveiled Cresimirus' inhuman nature and climactically exposed them at the altar of their avowal, too late to stop the ceremony itself. In the ensuing violence, several hundred individuals died, and the spouse mysteriously turned to stone. Procedurally unable to annul the union, Cresiumirus was imprisoned in the highest spire of the Sterine Citadel where they languished for well over a decade. They were eventually freed from captivity during a breakout of hostilities between the Crescentius and Shadowgate nobility, during which time they demonstrated a remarkable mechanical aptitude not merely for Knight engines, but also for the esoteric, Dark-Age technology used by the Knight arcologies to maintain the environment of the high mountain ranges, preserving them from the inhospitable conditions of the rest of the planet dwelt in. The end of the conflict with the House Shadowgate spurred on the underlying conflict of legitimacy between the High King and the Mechanicum-backed faction of Knight Sacristans. Cresimirus enjoyed only a few short years as head of House Crescentius before the entire war was embroiled in a pitched war with the Mechanicum Forge World of Vanoxis. The widespread use of Phosphex weaponry and the use of an Ordinatus and multiple Deathstrike salvos on the surface of Convergentiarum led to a rapid deterioration of the world's already inhospitable surface conditions, which for thousands of years had only been held back and kept in delicate balance by the World-Engines of the mountain Knight Arcologies. Cresimirus, against incredibly long odds, managed to repulse the Mechanicum invasion of Convergentiarum and - in events that remains poorly understood and undisclosed as secrets of the Throne - somehow managing to completely reverse the collapse of the world's ecosystem, reverting all prior atmospheric degradation and transforming Convergentiarum into a Paradise World. Cresimirus then led a makeshift fleet in a counter-attack on the Forge World of Vanoxis, with the intent to enact Exterminatus upon it - leading to their discovery by the wider Imperium. >The history of the Xth Primarch is undergoing review by the Order Elucidatum to ensure the accuracy and credibility of all relevant elements. Direct all further inquiries as to the history of the Xth Primarch to the Officio Propagandum._ Capabilities: — Peerless Biomancy Cresimirus is capable of rapid flesh-sculpting, alteration, and transmutation. They are capable of freely shapeshifting and regeneration at staggering, physics-defying speed. They are infamous for their capability to transmute living beings they touch into stone, although they are also known for wielding 'miraculous' healing capabilities inclusive of age reversal, the mending of mortal wounds, the regrowth of lost limbs and organs, and it is even rumored resuscitation of the dead. They are likewise capable of altering the composition of their body, hardening their flesh into a substance comparable to Auramite, and rumored to also be capable of rapidly growing to titanic proportions in a matter of moments. Wilder, more conspiratorial whispers also claim their mastery over the biological allows them to transmute the most fundamental aspect of any organism they lay hand upon - allowing them to transform one species into another, amongst other unsubstantiated and outrageous claims. Holistic Anthroposphere Intuition Cresimirus possesses a profound, innate sense for the interactions, developments, and motions of massive ecological and logistical spheres of influence, even at interstellar and sector-wide scales. Most Primarchs possess innately superior awareness and internalization of logistical matters - what sets Cresimirus apart is their capacity to determine, or some would even say predetermine, with shocking accuracy how the natural systems of environments and living organisms will respond to particular developments. In unnerving particularity, their predictions seem to be accurate even in the absence of all relevant information, resulting in black-box conclusions concerning planetary events and statistical information entire astronomical distances away that should have been otherwise impossible to discern. This intuition - or clairvoyance, as some have dared to claim - does not have specificity to particular events, but is instead broad and generalized in scope. The Primarch envisions the patterns of energy, matter, and information across living systems of people and infrastructure but does not foresee conspiracy, deceit, schemes, or plots that might underlie them save for the occasional insight borne of inference. Unarmed Executions Although infamously martially inept compared to the other Primarchs and known historically for having been defeated or otherwise humbled in melee combat by mere mortals, post-discovery and several noteworthy conflicts the Primarch of the Xth Legion has since developed peerless mastery as a hand-to-hand combatant. Their preferred form is uniquely disparate, disfavoring grappling and Pankration - instead focused on singularly efficient and ergonomic killing gestures and deflection with an emphasis on repositioning, leaning into the Primarch's innate biomancy to ensure that their faintest touch is lethal and that their hardened body can turn aside and blunt the impact of weapons and blows that could demolish fortifications. Knight Saint of Geoengines The Primarch of the Xth Legion possess extensive, firsthand experience with the production, maintenance, and operation of Imperial and Mechanicum Knight Engines, as well as various forms of ecological and environmental infradtructure, inclusive of certain forms of Dark Age of Technology Terraforming Geoengines. They are known to personally have devised and constructed several Knight engines prototypes firsthand, as well as to have overseen the development of several innovative Geoengine designs that are - literally - worlds more efficient than anything devised by the Mechanicum or any of its offshoot Forge Worlds and Fanes. |
T e l l u r i a n W a r r i o r s
T e l l u r i a n W a r r i o r s
T e l l u r i a n W a r r i o r s
"In Terra's distant past, it was erroneously believed that Humanity was the literally physical as well as the moral center of the universe. History has since shown this hypothesis to be sadly incorrect - but as the stars and the vaults of Heaven are the rightful inheritance of mankind, it thus falls to us, the Astartes of the Tellurian Warriors, to reshape the universe until that old belief is made True at last."
D E S C R I P T I O N The Xth Astartes Legion is specialized in irregular tactics, chemical warfare, artillery, and tactical-strategic terrain and atmospheric modification - burning and sterilizing their enemies with aggressive biological weaponry and pogroms. Their fleets ferry specialized Geoengine vessels and structures meant to facilitate long-term habitation and Terraforming projects for both ideal and fringe candidate worlds with the aim of making even the most unlikely and remote of celestial bodies at least somewhat tolerable for permanent Human settlement. The Legion possesses specialized training regimes and support not merely for system-wide Terraforming ventures, but also possesses honed and prejudicial capabilities to weed out specific organisms embedded in diverse ecosystems - be it simple floral life to complex sapient organisms, including abhumans and xenos. The Tellurian Warriors are thus experts in carrying out non-invasive genocidal pogroms that exterminate specific organisms whilst leaving the surrounding environment unaffected, or in nonlethally subjugating and ferrying entire civilizations across systems and entire sectors if need-be. D E T A I L S Allegiance: — Collective Humanity Status: — Active, lower-recruitment threshold post Solar-Unification. An estimated five-thousand Astartes strong. Legion Presence: — The Xth Legion is famously headquartered on the dwarf planet of Ceres within Sol's inner-system asteroid belt. Although they are also known to establish Legion Fortresses around the various worlds they prepare for Terraforming, these are generally staffed by Chapter Serfs. The Legion is known largely for its exploratory and prospecting ventures in uncharted volumes of Imperial space where they enact Compliances and Purges as a secondary agenda. They are otherwise known for their intervention in conflicts posing imminent, catastrophic cascading-ramifications to multiple system ecologies (such as the destruction of Agri-worlds, Paradise Worlds, and Feudal Worlds). Legion Colors, Heraldry, Insignia: — The Tellurian Warriors bear subdued, brass-hued and Earthen armor coloration, well suited for their tactical doctrine of of ambushes aided by dense chemical fumes and fog. In a departure from established trends, coloration of the armor trim is deliberately incorporated into the characteristic identifiers of individual squads and companies and combined with the standard of Legion insignia displayed on the left pauldron, with chapter and squad designations on the right. The Legion completely eschews the use of tabards, cloaks, and other habiliments, and rejects the usage of regalia markings on the face of their armor. Instead, all personal honors and distinctions are inscribed onto the right pauldron alongside chapter and squad designations. These merits and awards are often relatively small and innocuous, being easily overlooked or mistaken as ordinary heraldry by outsiders. The formal symbol of the Xth legion is nothing less than a depiction of Terra itself, set atop the imperial inscription X, backed by a depiction of Sol and with a poised blade raised between the two. This full, formal depiction is often simplified to two stacked, overlapping circles with a line drawn through them and set atop the legion number. All constituent legion chapters use the simplified depiction as a base template for their variant emblems and designs. | C O N C E P T History & Background: — The Xth Astartes Legion was put into production late into the unification of Terra for unclear reasons not explicated upon in the known histories of the founding of the Legions. What little is known suggests their original membership was comprised of not-quite-entirely-deficient Astartes candidates rejected by most of the other legions but who were not otherwise relegated to service with the IX Legion. Recruitment was likewise complicated by mutations in the X geneseed line, leading to complete chemical neutralization of all primary and secondary sexual characteristics in the individual, including chemical castration and sterilization. This led, and leads, to a tendency for highly exaggerated androgyny amongst the Astartes of the Xth legion. These additional avenues of developmental complication during the siring process causes a higher than average rate of mortality during transition due to interference with the production of various hormones and the potential apoptotic death of various vital tissues. The formulation of the Xth Legion's now distinctive irregular tactics, chemical warfare, and preference for tactical mobile artillery are all thought to trace back to their very first instance of deployment in the siege against the remnant Ethnarchy Ecology of Potara, seated in the Nanotoxic Euxinus of what was once the Mediterranean Sea. >The history of the Xth Legion is undergoing review by the Order Elucidatum to ensure the accuracy and credibility of all relevant elements. Direct all further inquiries as to the history of the Xth Legion to the Officio Propagandum._ Goals & Objectives: — The complete reformation of the local galactic environs into a state universally and generally conducive to the enrichment and prosperity of Human life and existence. The Tellurian Warriors operate on a Human-centric credo - their foremost purpose is to buoy Human life, and to buoy that which buoys Human life by its existence, and that necessary to buoy the existence of those things. All things that are, must give way to or directly support and promote the existence of Human life. Everything that exists outside of this constrained ideological chain has no purpose in the galaxy - all that is neutral towards Humanity's existence is to be ignored and displaced where necessary. All that opposes Humanity's existence is to be scourged away into oblivion like errant weeds. The galaxy is Humanity's garden, and the Tellurian Warriors are its custodians, guardians, and botanists. In all of the universe, there is nothing more precious than Human life. Tactical Doctrine: — The Tellurian Warriors are a legion specialized in irregular tactics that turn the terrain and atmosphere of any environment to their advantage. Noted for their profuse and liberal chemical warfare tactics, their legions heavily integrates all categories of artillery and long-ranged missile ordinance to effectuate tactical 'theater adjustments' using exotic chemical munitions. It is not uncommon for the legion to defeat its enemies without ever actually confronting them, saturating the battlefield in dense and murky chemical fumes that choke out, poison, and burn their opponents. For harder targets who can withstand the legion's specialized chemical ordinance, the legionnaires themselves are trained and equipped to move through the dense atmospheric murk their weapons create - moving like vengeful ghosts that cut down the enemy unbidden and unseen. The Tellurian Warriors are also noted for their biological pogroms tailored to specific species of xenos. In extended campaigns, the legion is known to introduce invasive species of aggressive flora and fauna to the environment, which can slowly encircle and engulf entire continents and choke out native wildlife and crops that enemy forces may rely on, in addition to serving as potential infection vectors. The legion has even been known to permanently chemically alter the contents of a region's water table and even entire seas under certain circumstances. Because of these tactics, the Tellurian Warriors are trained for high-mobility operations and are not adverse to rapidly shifting lines of battle and lightning-fast maneuvers. However, by the same token, the legion is poorly situated to operate with fixed defensive lines or emplaced fortifications. They employ mobile, mechanized artillery to rapidly strike, reposition, harry, support, and retreat. Likewise, their marines are trained for stealth maneuvers, lightning strikes, and ambush tactics. While individuals can and often still excel in one-in-one combat, their performance at the squad and company level falls short of the organization and martial expertise exhibited by most other legions. If the Tellurian Warriors cannot completely exterminate the opposition in a single decisive strike from a position of tactical strength, their predictable follow-up is always to retreat, regroup, and assess the opposition for new avenues of assault. Geneseed Irregularities: — Astartes of the Xth legion possess mutated Omophagea, Neuroglottis, and Betcher's Glands, each of which exhibit discrete and irregular functionality. The X Omophagea is noted to possess far more intricate information absorption mechanisms, and will formulate nodular repositories of isolated genetic sequences inside of cyst-like growths that form in distinct, parallel columns alongside the spine. These gene-cysts contain complete sequencing of all genetic information for consumed biological material that manages to survive initial stages of digestion, necessarily only the most robust of organic material specimens are processed this way (various commensal organisms, bacteria, and rudimentary viral structures are extremely unlikely to survive up to this point). The Neuroglottis is altered to have even further heightened sensitivity to biochemical residuals for species individual Astartes have sequenced via their Omophagea, sacrificing broad-spectrum sensory enhancement for this purpose. Individual Astartes, through a lengthy period of adaptation that can last several hours, can develop uncanny sensory capability to identify, track, and even assess the vitals and biometric characteristics of associated specimens while otherwise lacking sensitivity for any non-adapted organisms. Due to the chemical complexity of the process, this altered Neruoglottis can only be adapted to a single specimen template at any given time. This complexity of this process is due in part to its metabolic synchronization with the Betcher's Glands, which instead of secreting acid will instead secrete either a biologically tailored molecular venom or else a viscous nutrient-rich healing serum capable of promoting accelerated regeneration. Production is dependent upon certain muscular actions taken during the adaptation process, and due to the variable particularity no two Astartes will produce identical secretions (or at least are extremely unlikely to), with each individual producing a unique formulation possessing effectiveness ranging from adequate to extraordinary. Notable Members / Associates: — >Records of Xth Legion Personnel is classified information available on review only be members of the Imperial Household. Please consult with the local order of the Estate Imperium for more information._ |
- 
