Looking For Work

[forthosewecherish]

[Whoever this is, they have absolutely impeccable handwriting. It's legible! it's neat! it's .. bordering on calligraphy actually, without sacrificing being readable.]

Good afternoon. My name is Ulyssian, I'm amongst the newer arrivals here.

I don't know if introductions are typical, but I figured it would be a good idea. I wish to offer my services to any in need here; I am a trained apothecary, a medicae specialist in more common terms, and a counselor of a sort to my Chapter. If you become injured, or simply desire someone to speak to, I'm glad to assist in any way I can.

I know Astartes can be a bit intimidating for baseline humans, and my voice isn't terribly pleasant to listen to, but it is my honor to aid and defend you as needed, where needed. Please don't hesitate to call upon me.

[And there's even a little doodle! Which. Actually looks fairly like him, albeit a little bit caricaturized. Thumbs-up! That's how the mortals do it these days isn't it--]

Comments

[logosmaxima]

[This respondent writes in lovely Prosperan Coptic. That might be slightly suspect, should Ulyssian recognize that killed hand.]

Well met, Ulyssian. It is heartening to see another from our own galaxy here, and so ready to help! We had no trained medicae before now; you are a welcome addition, bringing with you the apex of the Imperium's learning.

What Legion do you hail from?

[If he must restart this relationship under anonymous pretenses to get anything useful out of his angry little nephew, so be it.]

[forthosewecherish]

[It's not in Imperial regular use these days. But it is used by certain cults. This is considered long and hard.]

My Chapter is the Lamenters. There have been no Legions for a very long time, they are expressly forbidden in accordance with the Codex Astartes.

[logosmaxima]

That is an innovation I haven't heard of. Would you tell me a little more of it?

[He already has the glum presentiment this would be going better if he'd used High Gothic.

Ah, well.]

[forthosewecherish]

Of course, as I am able to. Of our Chapters, or of the Codex?

[How many people in this library would be using cultist writing! ... Possibly a lot of them if this library belongs to Tzeench.]

[logosmaxima]

The Codex, if you please!

Though I would also like to know how you came by so dour a name as the Lamenters.

[Of course he can write in italic.]

[forthosewecherish]

The name suits us. I can say no more on it, I was not there when the Chapter was founded.

The Codex Astartes is a book of organization and discipline. It teaches how to fight with honor, guides our tactics in battle, and reminds us of our duty. Some pages are 'merely' the appropriate marks a battle-brother should wear to designate his rank and capabilities, but many are instruction on so much more. The Codex exists to protect the Imperium, as do we.

[logosmaxima]

And a part of protecting the Imperium was the disbanding of the Legions. Does the Codex go into its reasoning, or is it merely a book of law?

[forthosewecherish]

Many topics are reasoned out thoroughly! Unfortunately I don't have my copy with me, if I knew I'd be kidnapped by daemons and left here I would have been sure to have it on my person when we left for battle.

The honorable names of the nine original Legions remain as their founding Chapters. But to consolidate more than a thousand marines to any given chapter hands much power to too few, who may use it again for what was done long ago.

[logosmaxima]

[Nine original Legions. So their very legacies had been expunged from the Imperium as well -- every valiant deed, every Compliance, every bit of knowledge gained or saved, now credited to others or forgotten entirely.

There's still so much he has not learned of their -- awful, unimaginable -- future from Roboute, but this at least is unsurprising. The damnatio memoriae of the II and XI had been more thorough and, perhaps, kinder in its way.

Erasure, instead of twisting their bright beginnings to match the darkness they'd fallen to.]

The nine original Legions ... a propitious number.

That would be,

[He pauses a moment. He'd been about to give their numbers, to line them up and consider what symbolism there was in those who had remained loyal. Who had not been pushed past bearing.

But the gaps in those numbers implied the omitted eleven, and who knew what a fanatic would make of that.]

the Dark Angels, White Scars, Space Wolves, Imperial Fists, Blood Angels, Iron Hands, Ultramarines, Salamanders, and Raven Guard?

How long was long ago for you?

[forthosewecherish]

Indeed! Their service is as long and honorable as it is impeccable. To each, a founding Chapter remains that bears their original heraldry and name.

[He knew. He knew there was at least one other. That Horus had not always been an archfiend and thus his minions--]

The Legions were divided into their Successor Chapters over eleven thousand years ago. Since then there's been further proliferation. I have no exact number but I believe there's well over a thousand.

[logosmaxima]

I have no doubt they continue to uphold their fathers' legacies in honor. Eleven millennia! Such a vast span of time to stand against darkness and disorder.

[Further confirmation -- if he'd needed it -- of the veracity of what Konrad had seen, that he'd been able to name those still loyal by exclusion.

So, how to ask the next question delicately ... ]

Are there any who do not know their own heritage, after such a great span of time?

[forthosewecherish]

Rarely, but it happens. It's more common of late, with those of my own generation; a mixing of heritages was seen as beneficial, and now there's many companies who don't draw from simply one legacy, but many. There are likely tens of thousands of brothers who don't know which primarch, precisely, is their genesire.

It doesn't make them lesser for it!

[logosmaxima]

I should hope not!

But there are none who claim a heritage outside those founding nine? There are ... unwholesome rumors, even in my time.

[forthosewecherish]

Rumors only, to attempt to discredit and shame, and lead astray good Astartes. The Enemy's tricks are countless and relentless, and many times daemons have taken forms similar enough to deceive the unwary.

[logosmaxima]

Daemons. An old, loaded word we once eschewed, believing they were not real.

Or that their power might be stolen from them, by not naming them. Does the Imperial Truth not still shine, though the Astartes remain faithful?

Have you fought these daemons yourself?

[forthosewecherish]

Assign them not any undue glories, for they are an enemy that may die as any other. We have grown beyond fearing mere labels or thinking that a label might somehow invoke the named. We know our foe, and we erase it.

I have. Xenos, more often.

[logosmaxima]

[That's an interesting answer that also isn't one.]

Fear not; I partake of no such superstitions myself. Only marvel at how the regard for a name may change over such a gulf of time.

Any that are more than mindless predators?

And which xenos now rise to trouble the Imperium? Are the orks still a threat, even after all that time?

[forthosewecherish]

Almost all are more than mindless predators.

Eldar, tyranids, t'au, necrons, khrave, yes orks as well, and countless others.

I know only of one safely sanctioned alien species, deemed no threat to the Imperium, but it's my hope if there's one, then others too may one day be found.

[logosmaxima]

Tyranids and t'au -- these, I've never heard of. What is their nature?

A hope we share. It saddens me to know that the galaxy is still a place of ceaseless war, all against humanity, even so far in the future.

[forthosewecherish]

The former an insectoid collective hive mind that strips all biological life from anything it encounters and incorporates it into its own biomass. It is intelligent, and has no interest in anything but devouring all. The latter an expansionist young race quick to snatch up anything within reach in their efforts to grow their influence. They have attacked many Imperial worlds and holdings.

Ultramar itself lies in their path.

I doubt there's any hope of a peace in my time. The best we may hope for is a temporary unified front against that which threatens us all in the tyranid. Even the daemons of the warp are food for them.