The Scarlet Swords

Identified by investigators as a former Veteran Sergeant of the Blood Ravens 2nd Company and an early (if not founding) member of the mercenary band, Az takes a squad leadership role in many of the Scarlet Swords' field operations and is a frequent point of contact for those acquiring the Swords' services.

Veteran Sergeant Erythrios' time with the Blood Ravens ended in the immediate aftermath of the infamous Second Aurelian Crusade, when a number of the Chapter's battle brothers embarked on a penitent crusade as punishment for their use of corrupted wargear and Codex-noncompliant tactics in their fight against the forces of the Black Legion. Erythrios refused to join the penitent crusade, calling it a betrayal of those who had saved the entire system from falling to the Archenemy and a crippling blow to the Chapter at a time when sub-sector Aurelia needed every Astartes it could muster. Chapter records cease to mention him beyond that point.

Among the many songs of the Space Wolves, only one sings for Siggi Ulfarson, the Mad Claw. A tragic, cautionary tale, it tells of a seasoned wolf whose pack was outnumbered and outgunned in the throes of the Badab War. As brother after brother fell and all hope seemed lost, Ulfarson suddenly rushed forward and broke through the enemy's lines, cutting down renegade after renegade in a ferocious frenzy. His pack cheered and ran to follow, only for Ulfarson to turn his blades on them, cutting down brother after brother with the same ease that he had cut down the renegades, his pack realizing too late that he had fallen to the curse of the Wulfen. The song's final verse describes the Mad Claw coming to his senses alone, atop a pile of corpses, and erupting into such wails of shame and agony that they shook the ruined cities of the entire planet for four days and four nights.

Along with Az and Forge, Gash has been one of the most consistently identified members of the Scarlet Swords since the very first reports of the group's activities, and as such he is believed to be a founding member. In battle, Gash calls upon the vicious strength of the curse that haunts him, every time risking that he will again lose control. Nevertheless, the other Swords seem to afford him their full trust, apparently confident for reasons unknown that the Mad Claw's blades will never strike their backs.

Formerly a codicier of the Gate Crushers, Zil's exact reasons for leaving the Chapter are unclear, although it is known that before her departure several Ecclesiarchal officials had filed requests to have the Chapter censure her for repeated incidents in which she publicly challenged tenets of the Imperial Creed before the officials' congregants.

Zil displays the abilities of a formidable psyker on the field, and appears to be the Swords' foremost expert on the Warp and psychic phenomena, often leveraging that knowledge to advise clients on prudent courses of action.

Curiously, several communications from her to her original Chapter's homeworld have been intercepted, all seemingly consisting of fairly mundane reports of her well-being and descriptions of places, people, and phenomena she has encountered that she has found interesting. So far, Inquisitorial agents have failed to decrypt any further information hidden within these communications, and the Gate Crushers insist they have no knowledge about the nature of these messages.

Shen V'estan was a distinguished battle-brother of the Salamanders for decades, until he found himself deployed in battle against his fellow Space Marines in the Badab War, a conflict born of political squabbles between various Imperial factions that resulted in the deaths of billions as Space Marines turned their bolters upon each other. Battle-brothers noted that the usually jovial man turned somber and bitter as the war drew on, fading into a shadow of the man they once knew, until the final days of the conflict when he disappeared completely.

Like Gash and Az, Forge is believed to be an early or founding member of the Scarlet Swords. While never having received training as a Techmarine during his service with his Chapter, it appears he has informally adopted the role of mechanical expert within the group, demonstrating significant familiarity with the inner workings of their equipment, repairing damaged wargear, and being responsible for incorporating scavenged technology into their arsenal, as well as advising clients on technical matters.

Those who have met Forge describe him in the present as relatively friendly and casual, far from what one would expect from a mercenary or a super-soldier, and much like Az he is a frequent point of contact for the group's clients. Like many sons of Vulkan, he displays extraordinary fondness and respect for the average human, to the point of putting himself in harm's way in order to protect civilians.

A recent recruit to the Swords, Maccabee is one of the few Primaris marines to have joined their ranks. Hailing from an Ultramarines successor Chapter called the Warriors of Ultramar, he was one of the earliest neophytes among their number to develop as a Primaris marine. Spending the early years of his deployment as a scout during the tail end of the Indomitus Crusade, he entered the Fourth Tyrannic War as a fully fledged battle-brother, only to immediately meet with tragedy when he and three companies worth of his battle-brothers were commandeered by an unknown inquisitor for a clandestine operation deep in a Tyranid-controlled system.

Maccabee returned to Imperial space a year later in a half-destroyed sloop, the rest of the crew dead and the other ships from the operation nowhere to be seen. He refused to describe what had happened to anyone other than the Warriors of Ultramar's chapter master himself, and after a solemn debriefing behind closed doors, Maccabee left the chapter's fortress-monastery, never to return.

Soft-spoken and taciturn, Maccabee displays the mission-minded approach of a professional, rarely discussing topics outside of how to accomplish the goal directly in front of him. Maccabee's training as a Primaris marine affords him skill with a wide variety of weaponry, but he generally prefers to leverage the enhanced strength provided to him by his Primaris physique to deftly operate heavy weaponry.

Bearing heraldry identifying him as a former Dark Angel, Shade's origins are unclear, possibly due to the secretive nature of his apparent origin Chapter. He first appears in Imperial records after an ancient space hulk suddenly materialized near a remote mining world and various nearby groups rushed to investigate it. When questioned later by Arbitrators, several locals described a conflict aboard the wreck involving him, several Scarlet Swords, and an unknown third party (interrogation subjects curiously refused to describe anytjing more about the third group, although physical evidence at the scene implied another group of Space Marines). All sightings of him after this incident involve him operating as an agent of the Scarlet Swords.

Mysterious, taciturn, and clad in an archaic suit of black armor, Shade is a close combat and infiltration specialist who uses precision knifework and a pair of expertly crafted blades to quickly strike opponents in vital areas and between armor plates, before fading into the shadows just as quickly. Despite Shade's intimidating appearance, the other Swords often speak of him casually, as one would an old friend, implying that off the battlefield he has a far more personable attitude.

Once a proud battle-brother of the Imperial Fists' 5th Company, Dravyn Kord's honorable service ended after he was deployed to Talis IV, a mining world with centuries-old ties to the Imperial Fists. The nobles of Talis IV had sent out a distress call to the Chapter, requesting that they quell a mass workers' uprising that seemed to have connections to a mysterious religious cult that spoke of absolution from the stars. Recognizing the obvious signs of a Genestealer infestation, several squads of Imperial Fists answered the call and struck a swift blow to the rebellion, crushing several rebel strongholds while searching for the cult's Patriarch. Only when the rebellion was all but crushed did they discover the truth: the cult was not embedded within the uprising at all, but rather operated mainly within one of the noble houses that had called for their aid in the first place. The other noble houses had falsified evidence of the cult among the workers in order to turn public sentiment against them. The Astartes purged every sign of Xenos taint from the house, the Patriarch included, and promptly took their leave, their mission complete and Imperial peace restored to Talis IV. Kord could not help but notice that in this case Imperial peace meant that the corrupt nobles who had deceived them were now stronger and more prosperous than ever, giddily dividing up the holdings of the fallen house as their enforcers cracked down on the disorganized, disarmed remnants of the planet's workforce. His pleas to his battle brothers for them to intervene falling on deaf ears, Kord vanished from his quarters one day, never to return. For decades after, rumors spoke of a mysterious giant who stalked the hives of Talis IV, protecting the weak and delivering swift justice to the corrupt with his mighty hammer, Chainbreaker.

As much a master of siegecraft as any other son of Dorn, Breacher often functions as a demolitions expert, strategist, and close combat specialist in theoperations.

One of the few Astartes of the Umbral Lament chapter who did not follow their chapter master into service to the Plague God, Dex left the Imperium's service in shame, bearing the guilt of having been unable to stop his brothers' fall. The weight of this failure has turned the marine into a dour, sardonic man with a generally pessimistic attitude, but nevertheless he fearlessly marches into battle alongside the other Swords, determined to never again falter in his duty to protect his newfound battle-brothers.

Before their fall, the Umbral Lament had been noteworthy for their cultural emphasis on biological research and medical knowledge, to the point that every marine had basic apothecary training and their veterans possessed a level of biomedical expertise rivaling that of a Magos Biologis. Coming from this background, it's unsurprising that Dex often functions as the Scarlet Swords' de facto chief apothecary and their primary expert on topics related to the biological sciences. As a medical practitioner, his manner is often gruff and to-the-point, but his understanding of both the human and xenos body make him an invaluable asset to the group, especially when the Swords are faced with one of the galaxy's many epidemiological horrors.