The Athanasians
The Athanasians are a multi-Chapter group of Astartes de facto (and in some cases de jure) exiled from the Imperium who serve Inquisitior Danforth Laertes as part of his Strikeforce. They are united by theology; a belief in the orthodox Imperial creed which holds the God-Emperor to be divine (rather than powerful, but not-divine, man, as the Astartes generally hold).
History
The Athanasians are named after their spiritual founder, a simple Ministorum Priest called Athanasius. There was nothing to mark him out – while orthodox and faithful to the Imperial Creed and capable of an uplifting homily, rousing speech or comforting spiritual encouragement, he was not a legendary preacher in the mold of Sebastian Thor or other heroes of the Ecclesiarchy. He was a humble, kind man, a gentle soul always ready to speak of the Emperor's benevolence and the duties of Humanity toward him. Athanasius was assigned to an Astra Militarum regiment deployed as part of the Third War for Armageddon in 998.M41. Perhaps the largest deployment up to that point in the 41st millennium, men and materiel for all divisions of the Imperium's mighty war machine took part. While a majority of the forces engaged in conventional warfare, selected elements were detached to prosecute the campaign using less-orthodox tactics. Stormtroopers and scouts from Athanasius' regiment fought alongside selected Astartes from various Chapters as an ad hoc special forces unit. The senior Blood Angel assigned to this group was Librarian Vance Alexander, a psyker with powerful precognitive ability who was often assailed by dreams and visions. It was one such vision that challenged a central tenet of the Astartes Creed – the belief the Emperor is not divine, but merely a great man. The Imperial Creed teaches the God-Emperor is just that – a divine god – while the Space Marines hold a different view. His faith shaken and challenged, Alexander needed spiritual guidance, but there was no Blood Angel Chaplain for him to speak with. Instead, he spoke with the senior Dark Angel assigned to the unit, Interrogator-Chaplain Arius. Arius was scandalized by what he perceived as Alexander's lack of faith and feared he teetered on the brink of heresy, risking falling into a primitive belief unworthy of an Astartes and more suited to the dull citizens of the Imperium. But Arius' arguments – perhaps high-handed and scornful – did not persuade Alexander, who continued to patiently ask innocent questions of the increasingly-furious Arius. Alexander left Arius unsatisfied and spoke privately with Athanasius. The preacher gave simple, perhaps childish, answers to Alexander's questions – but these did much to satisfy him. He returned time and again, sometimes bringing within him other Blood Angels. Athanasius was intimidated by the hulking Marines, but answered their questions as best he could. He saw that, despite their strength and power, they were unschooled in the truth of the Emperor and hungry to learn more. He treated them with the same kind simplicity he would an naive catechumen. Gradually, this simple faith convinced Alexander and a number of the Blood Angels of the Emperor's divinity. But one of them, an Astartes named Ephialtes, was not converted. He went to Arius and denounced his fellow Blood Angels. Arius was incensed and – convinced of his theology's truth – angrily demanded a debate between him and “the sniveling fool” Athanasius on the true nature of the Emperor. Athanasius was terrified. He had not evangelized the Blood Angels – they had come to him with questions he had answered. Throughout, he had done nothing more than preach the Imperial Creed and the Blood Angels had come to believe. The ancient, simmering, long-burred tension between the Astartes and Ecclesiarchy threatened to rear its head … with him in the middle! Not knowing what else to do, Athanasius went to the Inquisition. Danforth Laertes of the Ordo Hereticus accompanied the Imperial forces on Armageddon. The Inquisitor recognized the potential for this to rapidly spiral out of control and invoked the Inquisitorial Mandate, convening a Council-Trial. Arius fumed – he had wanted to handle the matter internally, rebuking the Sanguinians and sending them back in disgrace to Baal. Now, the Inquisition was involved and Laertes – a man with close-ties to the Ecclessiarchy – would make the ultimate judgment. He arrogantly refused to debate with “one less than an Astartes” and assigned his subordinate, Chaplain-Novice Abdiel, to formally represent “the heresy of Athanasius” on the debate floor. He hoped Abdiel being forced to present a position he did not hold would result in a weak argument, leading to a quick defeat. But he did not put all his trust in the Council-Trial. He saw this as a matter internal to the Astartes and had Ephialtes send word to the Blood Angels' Fortress-Monastery on Baal, reporting on their Librarian's deviation from the Astartes Creed and the Cult of the Sanguine Angel. Arius hoped Supreme-Commander Dante and High Chaplain Astorath would declare Alexander and his men Excommunicate Traitoris, exiled from the Chapter and the Marines. The Council-Trial began, with Alexander and his Angels sitting in the dock and others Astartes, including Captain Nicholas of the Salamanders, observing. Laertes sat in judgment as the debate raged back and forth – Arius was bombastic and arrogant, interrupting and shouting down Abdiel who – unfamiliar with the details of the Imperial Creed – read quietly from basic catechisms and repeated simple doxologies Athanasius had told him. When called to answer the charges, Alexander – handsome and charismatic as only a Blood Angel can be, his face a mask of terrible beauty – spoke eloquently and persuasively of his new-found faith. He and his men understood very well the danger they were in, setting themselves against Astartes orthodoxy. But their religious fervor was too great and they would not quail. “Though all the Chapters be against me," said Alexander, "here I stand.” The debate continued over many days, with the calm presentation of the simple faith of the Imperial Creed contrasting with Arius's violent denunciations. Arius became more and more frustrated as he not only failed to bring Alexander and his men back to the light of truth, but also saw other Marines – including Abdiel – start to believe Athanasius' foolish heresy. Although it was clear Alexander and his men defied the teaching of the Adeptus Astartes, they were, in truth, holding perfectly to the Imperial Creed. It was obvious Inquisitor Laertes could not help but find in favor of Alexander, even if this might lead to tension between the Ecclesiarchy and Astartes. Laertes was due to deliver his verdict the same day word came from Baal; Astorath had declared Alexander and his men Excommunicate Traitoris, elevating Ephialtes to the position of commander of the Blood Angels force and empowering him to strip the heretics of their armor, execute them and burn their geneseed. Arius was gleeful and marched into the chamber at the head of a force of Blood and Dark Angels, ready to carry out the sentence. But Laertes stopped them – he ruled he could find no fault in their theology. While he permitted the Astartes latitude in matters of internal discipline, he would allow them to do no more than exile Alexander and his men. “No-one,” he reminded them, “neither Astartes nor man, may kill one in whom a Council-Trial of the Inquisition has found no stain of crime or heresy.” Arius was incensed. He rejected Laertes' judgment, defying the authority of the Inquisition and the Ecclesiarchy, launching into a long sermon on the faults of the Imperial Creed and the failings of the Imperium itself, accusing those who worshiped the Emperor as a god of perverting his teachings and ruining his vision for humanity. Outwardly calm, but realizing the danger of Arius' position, Laertes repeated his judgment and demanded Arius stand down. Arius did not heed him and continued his tirade. Abdiel urged his master to reconsider, but Arius shouted his subordinate down once again, screaming in his face and accusing him of the same heresy as had infected Alexander. Abdiel stood silently, letting his master finish, and then turned to Athanasius, seeing if the preacher had some simple, gentle response as he usually did. This was too much for Arius – shoving his subordinate aside, he charged towards Athanasius. There were no weapons permitted in the Council-Trial, of course, but Arius was wearing his Power Armor. Even if he had not been, a blow from a Space Marine's naked fist would have been fatal to the frail preacher. He fell to the floor without a sound. Laertes jumped to his feet – violence at a Council-Trial was not tolerated, and the murder of an innocent priest was a crime. But before he could rebuke the Chaplain, Captain Nicholas gave an anguished cry and leaped from the gallery to strike Arius, knocking him to the ground. The two giants wrestled on the floor of the Council-Trial, powerful blows battering their armor and shattering chips from the marble tiles. Nicholas was a follower of the Promethian Cult, a variation of the Astartes Creed which taught protection of the innocent citizens of the Imperium. Throughout the trial, Nicholas had been scornful of with Arius' bombastic arrogance and had been more and more impressed by the serene simplicity of Athanasius' faith. Laertes called – in vain – for calm, but the Astartes would not heed him. The Dark Angels ran to their Chaplain's assistance. Alexander and his men leaped from the dock to fight the sons of the Lion. Other Marines were drawn in – soon, the whole chamber was a heaving sea of brawling Astartes. Nicholas, Alexander, Abdiel and their supporters were outnumbered and swiftly overpowered, held down and stripped of their armor. Thundering litanies of the Astartes Creed, Arius ordered Ephialtes to tear out the Librarian's progenitor glands with his bare hands. Ephialtes fell with a full clip of bolt rounds in him – Laertes had not been idle and had summoned his troops; a company of Adepta Sororitas stood on the balcony, weapons trained on the Marines below. Very deliberately, Palatine Alicia Laertes, Danforth's sister and Throne Agent, reloaded her bolter. “The Inquisition has spoken – the case is closed,” she said quietly, but with ceramite in her tone. Unarmed, covered from an elevated position, Arius knew his position was untenable. Vowing vengeance against those he derisively called “Athanasians”, Laertes, the Inquisition, the Ecclesiarchy and perhaps the whole Imperium, Arius and those loyal to him left the chamber. Stripped of their armor and exiled from their Chapters, Alexander, Nicholas, Abdiel and their followers were cast adrift. Laertes, realizing their value and knowing they required formal protection against the might of the Astartes and even the Imperium in general, brought them under his aegis as members of his household. There were nine Marines – Alexander and four other Blood Angels, Nicholas and his most-loyal adjutant, Abdiel and a Excruciator-Apothecary formerly attached to the Chaplaincy who had come to believe as the young Chaplain-Novice did. Taking Arius' dismissive slur as their new name and a badge of honor, they called themselves the Athanasians and pledged themselves to service of the God-Emperor, taking their orders from Laertes and the Ecclesiarchy as the mouthpieces of Him-On-Earth. Abdiel, acting as their spiritual head, reverently enclosed Athanasius' bones in a reliquary so the Marines could venerate the fallen preacher as their first martyr. Stripped of their arms and armor, the Athanasians would have fought naked and with their bare hands if need be, but Verity - eager, perhaps, to strengthen the allies of her favorite adopted son - opened the Crystal Vault and released ancient suits of armor, once worn by the Custodians who had died fighting the Seraph during the Pacification of Ophelia. Elegant and equipped with hyper-sophisticated neural linkage, these suits were of a different design to Space Marine power armor and in many ways superior. Adorned with the ancient lightning bolt symbol – the personal badge of the Emperor during the Unification Wars on Terra before the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy - they were seen as a gift from the Emperor and a sign of his favor. A hundred centuries buried beneath the mountains had tarnished even the auramite battleplate, but the corrosion was not cleaned off - instead being kept to honor the Custodians who had worn the suits before. But beautiful and sacred as the suits were they were not designed to work with the Astartes organism; jury-rigging allowed limited interface with the black carapace so they would move with the Marines, but to provide complete integration with their superhuman senses as well as the sophisticated health-monitoring, drug-dispensing and blood-scrubbing technologies of Astartes power-armor, spare parts would be needed. Scavenging from battlefields, trading on the black market and even stooping so low as to raid other Chapters, the Athanasians gradually obtained backpacks, helmets and weaponry, enabling them to fully utilize the distinctive armor. During these years, they gradually added to their number – drawn by rumor of their beliefs and perhaps visions and dreams, individual Marines from other Chapters unsatisfied with the Astartes Creed and who had come to believe the Emperor was divine joined them. The Athanasians now number a little less than two dozen, organized into four squads and led by their commanders Nicholas, Alexander and Abdiel. Each Marine wears the ancient golden armor found in the Vault, but with helmets, backpacks, weapons and select plates of their armor painted in their previous Chapter colors – the Athanasians do not reject the traditions or honor of their former homes, but rather recognize they have moved beyond the Astartes Creed and must follow the Emperor authentically. To this end, each Marine applies himself to deep spiritual devotions to the God-Emperor and adorns him armor with many relics, purity seals and other outward signs of his faith.
Founding Date
998.M41
Type
Military, Paramilitary/Militia
Training Level
Elite
Veterancy Level
Veteran
Demonym
Athanasian
Leader
Parent Organization
Deities
Notable Members
