The Dark Phaerons

Thoughts and brainstorming the Dark Phaerons chapter lore…

Encased in their own flesh. Hatred of it. Possession by the Dark rage.

The Exorcists and the Death Company.

A Possession rather than the black rage virus in their blood. Exorcists keep possessions under control or at least under supervision. Mark their armour in red so they're noticeable at all times. Is that on the shoulder pads? Or the whole armour? Keep the shoulder pads 'Dark Phaerons' colours? Red armour with dark silver shoulder pads would look awesome and keep the 'theme' running through the army. (Could also mass paint shoulder pads....airbrush!)

The possession is feared and is believed that once it has taken hold it can only be separated and exorcised from the soul through a violent death. Those infected are pushed to honour and protect their brothers and exorcise themselves if/when a battle presents itself. Is there a better name for the Death Company? The Dark Possessed? Dark Company?

The dripping sinuous hand, the chapter symbol, represents the hold the possession has over the chapter.

What is the inspiration for the possession? A dark evil entity; Chaos? Daemonic? Does it even exist – is it so deeply ingrained in the chapter that it's more a psychotic state of mind as warriors strive for it? So it feels like they're completing their journey or achieving their destiny? In that case the chapter master created the myth? Or WAS possessed and stories were elaborated and changed creating a myth that was so solidly believed within the chapter that the psychosis took hold.

Considering a more dark silver base colour scheme over the green and silver? Sanguinary/Exorcists wouldn't stand out as much in their silver, though. Definitely hooded for mystery. (learn to sculpt hoods)

Possession Daemonic. Chapter master made a pact during a fight with a xenos army in a sector on the edge of the galaxy. His men were losing the fight in the system and were getting over run. His mind was filled with an ethereal voice offering help. Needs to have a real reason to accept. Over the top loyalty to the mission he was given? Never ending desire not to lose? Losing his 'battle brothers'/someone important in the chapter? Has a long history with his chapter captain? Served for years with him and must now do anything to save him. Need lore for their history, he's saved his life on many occasions...? Accepting the pact to give his men an unholy strength and vigour to drag the system back in to line with the imperium and ultimately save the captain. It was THE CAPTAIN whose geneseed was possessed. That possession has run evermore within the Dark Phaerons' bloodline. Their was a secret hope that the extensive and painful Rubicon Primaris would release the possession from the geneseed and free the chapter from it. Slowly it was realised that this was not the case as the Dark Company took hold within Primaris ranks as the rage spread once more.

Cal’Vai: Dark Beginnings - Prologue

Prologue to the Dark Phaerons ‘story’ I have in my head.

The Dark Phaerons – First Contact

Cal'Vai, Chapter Master

Sanos Cuth First Captain

Kieleez Mael Chaplain

Cal'Vai's eyes squinted as the rain thundered down on his head, occasionally catching his bionics embedded in his skull. His powered glove tightened around the grip of his long sword as it crackled with energy, lightning coursing across it's silvered surface on to the muddied ground underfoot. His feet sank a little further in to the gloom, the mud clinging to the battered power armour.

He'd been on Torshvan IV for what felt like months, trying to repel relentless attacks from waves upon waves of Xenos. And they kept coming. The Tyranids had been devouring the planet and everything in the system. A system that was on the edge of an Imperium sector but one that Cal'Vai had been sectioned with to claw back from the hive fleet. He wished he knew what artefact it was that the Imperium needed defending so virulently, but they had sent nearly an entire chapter to reinforce the Company that had been sent out many months before.

Blinking another raindrop out of his eye, he scanned the battlefield. His veterans around him were getting out numbered by waves of the Xenos creatures. Bolt rounds and energy blades were being made to work hard to spray blood and gore across the ground, the speed and accuracy of the aliens was getting more and more challenging for the Astartes.

Turning, Cal'Vai flicked green ichor from the blades of his claw, pulled a sunken boot out of the muck and drove his long sword around and through a charging Tyranid. The bionic implant beeped as it made a record of the location of the mortal wound on this new breed of Hormagaunt.

'They're evolving so quickly' he thought as he dispatched another deftly with his claw, the lightning from the powered blades momentarily arching between them and the exoskeleton of the Xenos creature.

The new creature seemed to have evolved from one weeks before. A fast agile warrior with scythed limbs. But when the previous evolution would mostly bounce harmlessly off their ceramite power armour, this new breed were starting to make easy work of the inch thick plates covering his men. How were they evolving so rapidly? The Imperium knew of this alien race evolving as they devoured matter and organics but not at this rate! And it hadn't happened gradually. Cal'Vai remembered the night when the new breed hit, he lost four times as many warriors that night than he had in the weeks before.

“We've found it.”

A voice came over his comms. Sanos, his First Captain.

“What's your status?” Cal'Vai breathed back as yet more blood was spilt with his powered long sword.

“It's clear. But we have targets on the scanners. We're in deep. I'll relay our position and call fifth for support. These creatures are evolving, Cal!”

“Time to see what was so important about this system. Enter the crypt and report. I'm sending you all that data I've accumulated on their new anatomy. Hold them back!”

Sanos and Cal'Vai had come up through training together, run countless campaigns side by side and climbed the ranks of the eleventh Legion. Now Cal'Vai had sent him and his Second Company to the depths of Torshvan IV to find the Crypt while he held off the assault of the planets surface. The Xenos were growing in numbers by the hour and they had no intel about how. If their growth continued at this rate the Astartes would be overpowered in a matter of days. And Cal'Vai knew this. The numbers were starting to not add up.

He dropped to his knee as a creature hurled itself at him, catching it and tossing it over his shoulder before rising and stopping a second with his blade. To his right another of his veterans was being hounded by dozens of creatures in a whirlwind of scythed limbs and he stepped over to launch the bodies off his fellow Phaeron.

“We need to push back hard. Sanos needs us to hold the surface.”

Cal'Vai's comms crackled to the rest of the First Company, the veterens who had been pounding the alien bodies for days and kept going. Battered.

* * *

“There's more coming! Cal!...” the comms crackled out with a sharp shriek of interference that made him push harder to reach the Crypt.

Cal'Vai slashed furiously at the xenos limbs in front of him trying desperately to inch his way towards the entrance. A crack of a thunder hammer behind, as the veteran sergeant pulverised a cluster of hormagaunts around him with a clap of energy, the shock wave blasting a handful more back away from the melee. He charged his jump pack to vault over another frantic scrabbling of xenos bodies before landing, removing limbs and spraying ichor across more charging creatures. Across the ravine in front of him he could see more hormagaunts scaling the cliff. Hundreds rolling over the edge towards the surrounded Second Company. Nearly letting emotions get the better of him, he hurled his mass through the crowd, bodies and blades grazing his armour, as he hacked and drove his energy weapons through torso after torso. The power on his longsword turned way up, exploding anything it touched and his lightning claw slicing through the thick exoskeleton like butter. But still they came.

As he looked over the ravine to Sanos' company getting over run, he heard the voice again.

“I can save him... Let. Me. Save Him.”