Scarred Angels Lore

The Blood Angels army that I am building will be my own successor chapter.  Part of the hobby that I love is making up my own lore and color schemes.  I am not a huge fan of following the standard GW color schemes and lore.  I feel this type of fiction writing is just as much a part of creating an army as buying miniatures and painting them.

My chapter is called the Scarred Angels.  The chapter was founded in M35 in an unremembered Founding.  The moniker comes from the chapter's shame at the Flaw, and the manner in which they deal with the Red Thirst and try to curtail the Black Rage.  The chapter homeworld is Caranx IV, a primitive yet populated death world filled with many religious cults.  Many of these cults practice ritual scarification, and the initiates to the chapter taught these principles to the first Scarred Angels that landed On Caranx IV.  They taught their new battle brothers how their rituals were believed to purify the soul and bring men to a holy center.  Knowing that the Flaw surged through their veins, the new Chapter Masters began experimenting with personal torture and mutilation.  Over the next centuries, the chapter began to notice a reduction in the number of battle brothers that fell to the Black Rage.  They also found that they could control the Red Thirst and utilize it more efficiently in battle.

In M36, the masters of the chapter made ritual bleeding a mandatory part of the battle brothers daily routines.  As such, each battle brother is covered with numerous scars.  Even though the ritual cutting and bleeding has made the chapter one of the most successful at dealing with the Flaw, the Scarred Angels see the resulting scars as a reminder that they do suffer from the Flaw, and they attempt to cover these outward signs from everyone.  As such it is very rare to see a Scarred Angel without a helmet in battle.  The exception to this is the in the Death Company.  Some brothers of the Death Company will cast off their helmets, revealing their scars and their shame.  The brothers of the Death Company, unlike the other successor chapters, are not ravening madmen; instead, they have come to grips with the fact the Flaw has taken them, and they become raging warriors that are ready to feel the pain of Sanguinius and meet his fate on the field of battle.

The Scarred Angels color scheme and iconography are reminiscent of the Blood Angels with a focus on blood red and deep gold.  The armor is mostly gold with the red on the helmet, pauldrons, and backpack, a nod to the style of the Flesh Tearers.  Robes, tabards, and loincloths are a dark grey or black.  The chapter badge is the same as the Blood Angels, except with  a red blood drop, red wing caps, and black feathers.  The chapter does not follow standard Blood Angel heraldry, eschewing the color coded helmets for squad type.  Instead they do not differentiate the type of squad to which a battle brother belongs, as they believe any battle brother can fulfill any battlefield role.  Sergeants paint their helmets white.  The Sanguinary Guard wears artificer armor that is painted a deep blood red.  Librarians wear the standard blue, although it is a very dark blue.  Sanguinary Priests paint their power armor bone white and carry blood chalices into battle.  The Death Company maintains the standard black and red.  Weapon casings are painted in a metallic black.

Stay tuned for more Scarred Angels lore, including Chapter Master Virgil (counts as Dante).