"Fire sputters...The shame of our deaths and our heresies is done. They are behind us, like wretched phantoms. This is a new age, a strong age, an age of Imperium. Despite our losses, despite the fallen sons, despite the eternal silence of the Emperor, now watching over us in spirit instead of in person, we will endure. There will be no more war on such a perilous scale. There will be an end to wanton destruction. Yes, foes will come and enemies will arise. Our security will be threatened, but we will be ready, our mighty fists raised. There will be no great war to challenge us now. We will not be brought to the brink like that again..."
- — Oriax Dantalion, First Chapter Master of the Fists Exemplar Chapter
The Fists Exemplar was a Second Founding successor of the Imperial Fists' genetic lineage.
This Chapter was initially composed of the more progressive Imperial Fists Legionaries, who agreed with the views of Roboute Guilliman, the primarch of the Ultramarines, that it was necessary for the Legiones Astartes to be broken down into smaller existing formations, known as Chapters, following the disastrous and costly Horus Heresy.
Rogal Dorn deemed the new Chapter Master -- the former Imperial Fists Captain Oriax Dantalion -- and those that followed him as exemplars of a new order for the Imperium and the Space Marines, and so the primarch named them the "Fists Exemplar."
Following the War of the Beast in the mid-32nd Millennium and the treachery of one of its captains, the Chapter's surviving battle-brothers were distributed throughout the Adeptus Astartes.
The Chapter itself was erased from Imperial history by the orders of the acting lord commander of the Imperium, Maximus Thane.
Chapter History[]
Origins[]
Following the dark days of the Horus Heresy, Roboute Guilliman, primarch of the Ultramarines Legion and first lord commander of the Imperium and the new Imperial Regent, completed his magnum ops -- the Codex Astartes -- a great and sacred tome of military organisation, strategy and tactics for the reformed Adeptus Astartes. He also proposed that the existing organisation of the Legiones Astartes should be broken down into smaller, autonomous formations, known as Chapters based on the common unit of organisation of the same name among many of the Space Marine Legions. Never again would a single commander be trusted to wield the might of a full Space Marine Legion.
While many of the other Loyalist primarchs welcomed the teachings of the Codex Astartes, Rogal Dorn initially refused to have his Legion sundered. Fortunately, the recalcitrant primarch received some sage advice from an unexpected quarter.
Oriax Dantalion was a captain in the Imperial Fists Legion, a veteran of both the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, who took part in several notable campaigns, including the Siege of Terra. It was Captain Dantalion who wisely counseled Rogal Dorn on the need to accept such drastic measures. He was one of the few Astartes within the Imperial Fists Legion who agreed that the Legions should be broken down into the new Chapters. Dantalion's opposing viewpoint put him at odds with Dorn, who resisted any such notions.
Unperturbed, Dantalion spoke at great length with his primarch over the necessity of Guilliman's decree. However, Dorn was not persuaded by his officer's arguments. The primarch was disappointed that one of his own gene-sons would even propose such an idea and became openly hostile to Dantalion for his views. But eventually, fearing the outbreak of another Imperial civil war, Rogal Dorn relented, and saw the wisdom of Guilliman's proposal. Thus, when the Second Founding began, Dorn remembered the early wisdom displayed by Dantalion. He rewarded the bold officer for his foresight by choosing him to become the first Chapter Master of the newly-created Fists Exemplar Chapter.
This Chapter was initially composed of the more progressive Imperial Fists Astartes who had shared Dantalion's points of view. Dorn deemed the new Chapter Master and those that followed him as exemplars of a new order for the reforged Adeptus Astartes, and so the primarch named this new Chapter the Fists Exemplar.
To aid the new Chapter Dorn gifted the Fists Exemplar with the mighty star fort Alcazar Astra, which had served the VII Legion well in the Volgotha Deeps during the dark days of the Horus Heresy. The Fists Exemplar were assigned to stand sentinel over the storm-wracked region of Wilderness Space afflicted by the rapidly appearing and disappearing Rubicante Flux, a Warp storm that plagued the Abra Sector near the borders of the Segmentum Solar and uncomfortably close to Terra.
The Rubicante Flux was sporadic in its eruptions, visiting occasional space hulks, mutant incursions and Renegade Space Marine hosts on the surrounding star systems. The new fleet-based Chapter towed the star fort during their patrols of the sector for many standard years until disaster struck.
When the intermittent Warp storm suddenly erupted once more, the Fists Exemplar were caught by surprise as they attempted to tow their star fort to a new location. Alcazar Astra was caught within the gravitational flux of a nearby star, which threatened to pull the star fort into its fiery embrace. Chapter Master Dantalion and his officers valiantly guided the massive, mobile star fort towards the nearby world of Eidolica, where they were forced to beach it upon the planet's surface. Grounded, the fort was forever without hope of feeling again the cold kiss of the void on its armour plating.
Three of its four ancient engine-columns had been destroyed in the impact. The secrets of those Plasma Drives' construction had been lost to the weaponsmiths and Techmarines of the Chapter, and so the beached star fort became a planetary fortress-monastery. Tragically, Chapter Master Dantalion was killed in the crash. With their star fort eternally grounded, the Fists Exemplar adopted Eidolica as their Chapter homeworld.
First Captain Alameda was chosen as Dantalion's successor and assumed the role as the new Chapter Master of the Fists Exemplar.
The Chapter adapted well to its inhospitable new homeworld and continued to serve the Imperium well for a standard millennium, until the coming of the Ork warlord known as The Beast.
War of the Beast[]
"Sometimes, you have to destroy something old to make something new. The Fists Exemplar know that better than any of Dorn's sons."
- — Marshal Bohemond of the Black Templars
The Beast had begun a massive invasion of the Imperium's worlds in the Ultima Segmentum and Eidolica was one of the earliest to feel the great Greenskin warlord's wrath. Without any warning one of the Beast's Attack Moons appeared in Eidolica's orbit and launched a massive planetary assault on the Space Marine homeworld that the surprised Fists Exemplar were unable to contain. Within the first solar hours of the invasion, Chapter Master Alameda was killed and command fell to First Captain Garthas until he too died at the Orks' hands.
As their homeworld fell further under the Orks' control, Second Captain Maximus Thane took command of what remained of the Chapter within the fortress-monastery of the Alcazar Astra and prepared to defend Eidolica to the last warrior, from within its armour-plated walls. As Thane was making preparations to defend the Alcazar Astra from another Ork attack, he was contacted by the Black Templars Marshal Bohemond, whose crusade fleet had arrived in Eidolica's orbit. The marshal brought ill tidings and said that besides the continued defence of the fortress-monastery, the rest of Eidolica had fallen to the Greenskins and there was no further point in fighting a battle that would only lead to the Fists Exemplar's destruction.
Bohemond declared he had come to evacuate what remained of the Chapter, so that they could fight to save other worlds of the Imperium from the ravages of The Beast's Ork forces. Though Maximus Thane resisted the marshal's entreaties at first, he eventually acquiesced to reality and agreed with Bohemond that Eidolica could not be saved. Thane gave the order for the surviving Astartes of the Fists Exemplar to evacuate to the Black Templar fleet in orbit.
Thane and the remaining Fists Exemplar later attended the meeting of the Imperial Fists Successor Chapters in the Phall System. The remnants of the Chapter took part in the failed assault on the Ork Attack Moon that had materialised over Terra, and Thane was subsequently dispatched by Koorland to find another of the Imperial Fists successors, the Soul Drinkers. Meanwhile, forces of the Chapter under the command of the Fists Exemplar's First Captain Zerberyn entered into a dark alliance with an Iron Warriors warband of Heretic Astartes under the command of the Warsmith Kalkator in hopes of being able to fend off a massive fleet of Orks by combining their forces.
The Fists Exemplar were next dispatched by Koorland, now the lord commander of the Imperium, to Mars to take the tech-priest Eldon Urquidex into custody. The standoff with the Adeptus Mechanicus quickly turned bloody despite the efforts of both sides to prevent violence, and the Fists Exemplar engaged in a short but bloody standoff with the Mechanicus' Skitarii armies before the tech-priests finally backed down and handed over Urquidex.
Later, the Fists Exemplar took part in the hunt for the primarch Vulkan on Caldera and the failed first invasion of Ullanor Prime alongside other Imperial Fists successor Last Wall forces.
By the start of the second invasion of Ullanor Prime to try and slay The Beast, the Fists Exemplar had been whittled down to a complement of only 73 battle-brothers from the remains of the three companies that had survived the fall of Eidolica.
In the aftermath of the War of the Beast and after the discovery of the treachery of Captain Zerberyn in allying with Traitor Marines and his role in slaying the Black templars Marshal Bohemond when the zealous Black Templars refused to allow Zerberyn's Traitor allies to leave Imperial space peacefully, Maximus Thane declared that the Fists Exemplar were to be erased from Imperial history. Its few surviving battle-brothers were sent to found new Chapters of Rogal Dorn's lineage and their very existence was classified by the Inquisition. A new Chapter inherited the world of Eidolica and the Alcazar Remembered as its fortress-monastery.
Notable Campaigns[]
- War of the Beast (544-546.M32) - See above.
Notable Fists Exemplar[]
- Chapter Master Oriax Dantalion (KIA) - The first Chapter Master of the Fists Exemplar who had counselled his primarch Rogal Dorn to accept the division of the Space Marine Legions as outlined in Roboute Guilliman's post-Horus Heresy Codex Astartes. He was killed in the crash of the Chapter's star fortress Alcazar Astra into the world of Eidolica.
- Chapter Master Alameda (KIA) - Alameda was the second Chapter Master of the Fists Exemplar. Though Alameda led his Chapter out in force to meet the first wave of the Orks' landing hulks during their initial invasion of Eidolica, disaster struck when a second wave of Ork ships landed right on top of the first. The impact of the ships' collision caused large desert rocks to fall upon the forces of both the Orks and the Fists Exemplar, which resulted in Alameda's death when one of the rocks completely crushed his Land Raider.
- Chapter Master Maximus Thane - Thane was the former captain of the 2nd Company, but he eventually rose to become the third Chapter Master of the Fists Exemplar and then the Chapter Master of the reborn Imperial Fists Chapter, as well as the lord commander of the Imperium after the War of the Beast.
- First Captain Garthas (KIA) - First Captain of the Fists Exemplar Chapter and commander of the Veteran 1st Company.
- First Captain Zerberyn - Formerly served as the honoriarius or commander of the Chapter's honour guard for its Chapter Master, and later as the first captain of the Fists Exemplar's Veteran 1st Company. Acting as first captain, he commanded the Battle Barge Dantalion during the War of the Beast. Sometime during this conflict he was forced to align himself with the scions of Rogal Dorn's mortal enemies -- the Iron Warriors. He fought alongside Warsmith Kalkator's Heretic Astartes forces against a massive Ork fleet that threatened the Loyalists and Traitors alike. When the combined Astartes forces later linked up with the Tempestus Scions, the Human troopers attempted to fire upon the Fists Exemplar's Iron Warriors allies. This forced Zerberyn's hand, who was forced to kill his Human allies and seemingly condemn himself to further damnation. Later, he was seen fighting alongside the Iron Warriors in the Immitis System against The Beast's Greenskin forces. During this time, First Captain Zerberyn had begun to lose his doubts over the supposed "heresy" of his actions, which had been necessary in order to survive. Next, Zerberyn and his forces appeared alongside their Iron Warriors allies in an attempt to acquire an astropathic station. After the Inquisition discovered the two forces were working side-by-side, a battle broke out between both sides. When Zerberyn learned that The Beast had finally been defeated, the first captain rendezvoused with a crusade fleet of the Black Templars, commanded by Marshal Bohemond, and attempted to explain his actions. He argued that the Iron Warriors had fought honourably in defence of objectives that served the Imperium's interests and should be allowed to leave in peace. But the zealous Black Templars would not hear of it. Many of Zerberyn's own Fists Exemplar then rebelled against the prospect of opposing the mighty Imperium. A subsequent battle ensued between the Black Templars and Zerberyn's forces and their Iron Warriors allies. Faced with killing either Marshal Bohemond or Warsmith Kalkator, the first captain chose the former. Now left with no option to serve an Imperium that would view him only as a Traitor, Zerberyn knelt before the warsmith and pledged himself to the service of Kalkator and his Iron Warriors.
- Captain Hoque - First a sergeant, later chosen as Captain of the 2nd Company.
- Captain Tyrian - Captain of the 5th Company.
- Captain Dentor - Captain of the 7th Company.
- Captain Xontague - Captain of the 8th Company.
- Captain Anatoq - First a sergeant, later chosen as Captain of the 9th Company.
- Captain Hieronimax (Deceased) - Captain of the 9th Company.
- Captain Kastril - Captain of the 10th Company.
- Master of the Forge Aloysian
- Honorarius Zerberyn - Honour Guard
- Apothecary Mendel Reoch
- Byzander (Deceased) - Chapter Standard Bearer
- Aquino - Standard Bearer, later chosen as Chapter Standard Bearer.
- Otho - A Dreadnought of the Fists Exemplar, he fought in many of the battles of the War of the Beast, including the second invasion of The Beast's homeworld of Ullanor.
- Antares - A battle-brother of the Fists Exemplar, he later became one of the founding members of the xenos-hunting Deathwatch during the War of the Beast in 544.M32.
- Gaspar - A battle-brother of the Fists Exemplar.
Chapter Appearance[]
Chapter Colours[]
Per Chapter tradition, the Fists Exemplar's power armour was left unpainted. It was both a Chapter tradition and a requirement. Cast in storm cloud grey, the Fists Exemplar's unadorned and unmarked ceramite was reminiscent of the original "Grey Legions" of the post-Unification Wars era Space Marine Legions of old, before they gained their own marks of distinction and character.
Chapter Badge[]
The Fists Exemplar had no Chapter badge, instead allowing their pauldrons to remain the slate-grey of unadorned ceramite.
Sources[]
- The Emperor Expects (Novel) by Gav Thorpe, Ch. 14
- Predator, Prey (Novel) by Rob Sanders, Chs. 5,15, 17, 19
- Throneworld (Novel) by Guy Haley, Ch. 21
- Echoes of the War (Novel) by David Guymer, Chs. 1, 21-22
- The Hunt for Vulkan (Novel) by David Annandale, Ch. 1
- The Last Son of Dorn (Novel) by David Guymer, Ch. 13
- The Beheading (Novel) by Guy Haley, Ch. 14