Supernal Seraphs

The Supernal Seraphs, sometimes refered to as the Celestial Host, are one part of the XIXth Legiones Astartes, one of twenty such forces to stride the galaxy, attempting to bring the entire galaxy under the control of the Imperium of Mankind during the mighty undertaking known as the Great Crusade. As characterises both halves of the Celestial Host, the Supernal Seraphs are diametrically opposed to their hated counterpart, the Angelis Noctem, being as different from them as the day is from the night, in truth having nothing in common beyond their twinned Primarch's.

While the Angelis Noctem had their origins in the XIXth Legion that had left Terra at the onset of the great Crusade, the Supernal Seraphs knew no such heritage, considering themselves utterly unique rather than a continuation on an established lineage. While many saw this as arrogance, there was a significant amount of truth behind this belief, Solaris providing the geneseed for his warriors while Nocterra provided the geneseed for hers, as well as being the original genetic template used for the XIXth Legion. Solaris's geneseed had never before been known by the Imperium, and thus, those warriors who grew from it were no more linked to the original XIXth than they were to the Sons of Godwyn or Keepers of the Flame.

In all matters, both on the battlefield and away from it, the Supernal Seraph's had but one overarching belief; Psychic might was all that mattered within the universe. No other force could truly compare to the Supernal Seraphs in matters of aetheric manipulation, even the Angelis Noctem not having such a wide knowledge of the Great Ocean. For the Supernal Seraphs, to was their constant companion, their reason for being, and they took to it immediatly. To face the Supernal Seraphs on the battlefield was to face the conjured stories of wizards of old. Lightning wracked the battlefield as they fought, shields of energy and blades of pure fire were simply willed into existence, the equal of any mundane material weaponry.

Few could match the legion, arrogance backed by evidence springing up around the legion. Under Solaris, the Supernal Seraph's looked poised to become the greatest of the legions, rising from nothing seemingly to eclipse all others. It was a thing that would never come to pass, for in joining the Imperium, Solaris gained access to the one thing he had never known he had needed; context.

Solaris was different from all other beings within the Imperium, even the Emperor himself and certainly his brothers. Once it had merely been chalked up to Nocterra being his inferior, now Solaris saw all the Primarchs were beneath him, realising he was no more one of them than an Astartes was an ant. His search for answers took him across the galaxy, his loyal legion following in his wake, and soon, he found them, terrible to behild yet undeniable in their veracity.

Solaris was no Primarch, but a vessel of a far greater power, a being created by the might of the Gods themseves, lords of the Warp and all creation.

Knowledge of this revalation had an immediate effect upon the Primarch and the Supernal Seraphs, all notions of loyalty to the Imperium gone in an instant. Worlds burnt beneath their tread, none able to stand against them, only by the might of the Angelis Noctem and the betrayal of the warp entity known as Tuchulcha did the legion falter, and for such a towering legion, such a falter proved deadly, toppling the warriors into the warp, their souls consumed by their beloved Primarch, destroying them utterly. barely a handful survived, all believed dead, the legion now entering a new phase of its existence, one characterise by a single, simple reality;

Chaos.

The Great Crusade
According to all records held by the Imperium, the Supernal Seraphs were formed, as the Angelis Noctem were, from the old Legion, holding the same numerology and obstensivly, a twinned Primarch. However, such was not the case, for Solaris was no normal Primarch, his very being similar in aspect but different in executions from the rest of the pantheon. This was exemplafied in a totally different geneseed makeup than the old legion or the Angelis Noctem, that stock coming from Nocterra, possessing the same deficiencies that it always had done.

It was this that set the Superna Seraphs apart instantly from the Angelis Noctem, formed as they were entirely from warriors bearing Solaris's geneseed. No malady's affected the warriors of the Supernal Seraph's, no discoloured skin or eyes, no sign of the Ossification. When pressed on the matter, Solaris simply laughed, stating that it was no issue with the geneseed tht caused the Angelis Noctem to look as they did, simply a case of weakness, held within the very soul of the legion. Few believed this, but every geneseed tithe sent from the Supernal Seraphs fleet back to Luna and Terra for inspection and cataloguing came back with the same conclusion. The geneseed was identical, right down to the genetic markers, none able to explain the clear differences on show.

The Black Star Rift
Since the earliest days either of them could remember, the two Primarch’s of the Legion had stood apart, in word, deed and, while neither of them knew it, metaphysical composition, a subtle sense of wrongness rolling out from both Primarch’s to the other, only sensible due to their prestigious psychic powers. It is of little surprise then that the pair never formed any bond but one of enmity and hatred, even as they walked the near pitch black surface of Noxim together for decades, keeping their own company and remaining away from the humans who scurried in the darkness.

This all changed when Solaris, or at least the being who would come to wear that name in time, first discovered the Mantle of Deliverance, a ball of perfectly sculpted crystal hanging in orbit around the world of Noxim, forged in an age long past with the express purpose of amplifying psychic abilities. Were a mortal psyker to stand upon its surface, their powers would be increased drastically, but for a primarch, the effect was extraordinary. Solaris’s powers were magnified to unthinkable levels, allowing the Primarch to change the Mantle of Deliverance into a facsimile of a star, giving light and warmth to the world below.

While the Primarch who would soon be named Nocterra by her followers focused her attention on what had awoken as light covered the world anew, Solaris instead set about examining the Mantle of Deliverance, seeking to unlock its power while his subjects below fell to worshipping him like the god on high he truly was. Such an artefact as the Mantle of Deliverance had infinite secrets, one could spend a lifetime there and only scratch the surface, but there was one that Solaris found that would change everything, not an inanimate object, but an entity of the Sea of Souls; Tuchulcha.

Tuchulcha was a fickle being, never one to give its power simply to anyone, but while it did not trust Solaris, it did see into the skeins of the future with ease, parting the potential and the certain to arrive at a single conclusion; Solaris would take it where it wished to go. Solaris was unaware of Tuchulcha’s duplicity, the warp entity clever and subtle enough to give the Solar Deity no reason to doubt it, and so, Tuchulcha became the trusted confidant of Solaris, feeding the Primarch a censored version of the truth, never enough to provide all answers, but always enough to build trust and force the Primarch to return time and time again, wishing to hear more of what Tuchulcha had to offer.

None within Solaris’s court, nor his legion after the arrival of the Imperium, knew of Tuchulcha’s existence, a special chamber constructed on the Sol Invictus by servitor drones, Solaris erasing their minds from existence the instant upon its construction, their bodies burnt away to nothing soon after. For decades, Tuchulcha would remain a secret, Solaris believing himself its master. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

As the Great Crusade wore on, Solaris’s questions began to take on a different feel, no longer about what he would do, but of what he was, a question Tuchulcha had waited to answer since the first day the pair had met. Solaris asked what he truly was, knowing he was not like his brothers or sister, and in his own way, Tuchulcha answered truthfully, never telling a lie, but never telling a full truth. Worlds were selected by the warp entity, worlds that it said would hold answers for Solaris, and without hesitation, Solaris followed the path laid before him, the Supernal Seraph’s criss-crossing the galaxy seemingly at random, keeping to no military path and subjugating worlds seemingly at random. At times they would assist Imperial Forces, like they did upon the world of Carnaum with the Imperial Wardens Army Group, while at others they would land to subjugate entire worlds without support, often worlds assigned to other legions that they simply had not yet reached, such as the world of Brakanal IV, where Umbral Blades operatives had been preparing the world for a seamless and bloodless takeover, the Supernal Seraph’s arriving and invading far in advance of the IIIrd legions own planned compliance of the world. This earnt them no small amount of enmity amongst the other legions, who saw the legion as flaunting common strategy and Imperial High Commanders orders, but Solaris cared little for this, continuous requests for reports and updates on his actions going unanswered, the Supernal Son seemingly already a master unto himself, a cold reflection of what was to come.

Each of these worlds held nothing for the solar Primarch, and yet each world unlocked a door just the same, steering him further along the path Tuchulcha desired. A choice word here, a subtle stroking of the ego there. For all his pomp and grandeur, his correct viewpoint that he was indeed a god, Solaris was not omnipotent, putty in the ancient warp entity’s hands. Eventually, after nearly a decade of random jumps, Imperial High Command teetering on the verge of declaring the entire legion renegade and calling them to account by force if required, the Supernal Seraph’s fleet arrived above the world of an ancient people; Xenobia, of the Interexine Star Empire.

The Interex were a noble people, one whose ambitions for unity rivalled the Emperor’s own, but where the Emperor used conquest, the Interex used diplomacy, bringing others into their fold peacefully, even xenos breeds such as the kinebrach within their ranks. Where one of the more moderate Primarch’s of the Imperium to have encountered the star empire; Ayenwathaa of the Storm Riders, Eshmun Kadluk of the Keepers of the Flame or Alexios Justarion of the Paragon Order, peace might have been a true and viable option. Instead, Solaris made war upon these people without hesitation or parlay, Tuchulcha spilling the great purpose of the Interex Empire; to fight the force of Kaos.

Kaos, or to give it the true names that Tuchulcha ascribed to the force, the Primordial Truth or simple Chaos, was a word already known to Solaris, Tuchulcha having used it many times to further goad the Primarch into action. Tuchulcha knew its true purpose however, but Solaris remained blissfully unaware of such things, believing Chaos to simply be a force within the galaxy such as gravity, both the Supernal Seraph’s and the despised Angelis Noctem understanding that the warp was far more than simply an other realm, knowing that it was inhabited by creatures of pure thought and emotion. What neither grasped however was that the Warp was sentient, Chaos no more a force of nature than the Orks were. It was an entity more than capable of malevolent thought, and it had been Solris’s true creator, splitting the Primarch from Nocterra at the moment of their scattering.

The Interex were powerful, their ornamental arms and armour easily able to cut through Astartes Power Armour and resist bolt shells, though the warriors within were mere humans and often died from the concussive qualities of the legions weapons, even as their armour remained intact. They were no match for a legion at war however, and in short order, their empire was put to grass, Solaris careful not to damage their history and knowledge, finally coming to understand the truth of Kaos.

This was the final spark that lit the fire within Solaris, his mind opening to the galactic truth of the Primordial Creator. Like a dam being broken, one piece of knowledge spiralled into two others, and from there each piece into two more. For close to a year, Solaris and the Supernal Seraph’s remained within the Interexine Empire, delving deep into all the vaults of the now dead empire, bringing their wealth of knowledge to Solaris. Imperial high Command would not stand for this, finally sending an Investigation Fleet to bring orders to Solaris and the Supernal Seraph’s to report to the nearby staging ground of Kalo III, there to answer for their actions and to accept a new assignment. The Investigation Fleet would never return, Solaris and his sons slaughtering the Imperial forces without hesitation or remorse. Imperial high Command was shocked by this, the act of a legion publicly murdering loyal Imperial soldiers utterly unprecedented.

If they believed that would be the worst of Solaris’s transgressions however, they were sorely mistaken. In possession of all the knowledge he required, Solaris and his sons struck at Imperial Worlds, close to a dozen burning, most of their populations slaughtered, those with Psychic Prowess or potential dragged back to the legions fleet in chains. The Legion was quickly declared Traitoris Maximus, but aided by Tuchulcha, none could bring them to battle, the fleet performing impossible warp jumps from inside systems, easily escaping the warriors of the Imperium. At the height of his insanity, Solaris and his sons struck at one of the nigh on mythical Black Fleets, those vessels crewed by the Silent Sisterhood that stalked the void lanes of the Imperium, gathering psykers as tithes from Imperial Worlds. The Silent Sisters were amongst the greatest warriors against Psykers, and yet even they could not stand before a massed legion, their ships seized, their precious cargo secured.

With this final conquest, the Supernal Seraph’s return to their homeworld of Noxim, Solaris transferring Tuchulcha to the surface of the Mantle of Deliverance alongside the thousands of psykers he had taken captive. Arranged upon the Psy-moon in geo-centric patterns, these slaves were tortured, their souls flensed away as their flesh brunt, their powers siphoned from their bodies and prepared to inhabit a new host; Solaris.

This ritual would have allowed Solaris to ascend to the realm of the gods, a prince of Chaos itself, but such would not come to pass. Nocterra and the Angelis Noctem struck at their twins, arranged in a single mailed fist that struck with characteristic speed and brutality. They held nothing back in their assault, determined that either they would end Solaris’s insanity, or they would be ended by it, either way absolving themselves of their links with the traitor.

The fighting was brutal even before the Angelis Noctem reached the surface, Nocterra managing to guide much of her fleet into the system in secret, bypassing the larger Supernal Seraph fleet and achieving high orbit around the Mantle of Deliverance, battle joined by hundreds of warships, chief amongst them Solaris’s own flagship, the Sol Invictus. Nothing could stand before the Gloriana vessel, even as Angelis Noctem ships launched boarding torpedoes filled with tens of thousands of drug crazy servitors or Ogryn Charonites, expendable fodder that could not be ignored, allowing Nocterra’s own flagship, the Blade of Salvation to close the gap with her counterpart.

In a straight fight, the far larger Sol Invictus would likely have triumphed in the clash of titans, but commanded by Nocterra herself, the result was different. Psychic runes along its surface were empowered beyond the norm by Nocterra herself, using her undeniable might to make the enemy ship all but invulnerable to any incoming fire, but more importantly, to anything seeking to leave the vessel as well. With a thought, the psy-fuel that powered the ships plasma weaponry, making up nearly all of the warships weapons, detonated, consuming the entire flagship in a fireball that should have destroyed every ship for hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Only the shield Nocterra still held in place prevented this, only dropped when the Sol Invictus was no more than atoms floating in the void.

The blow to the Supernal Seraph’s morale was immense, the Angelis Noctem capitalising on this to effect a landing upon the Mantle of Deliverance itself, fully thirty thousand Astartes deploying from the full range of the Angelis Noctem’s armoury. Nothing was held in reserve, the fleet withdrawing to ensure they themselves were not boarded now they had no Astartes left to repel such a threat. None of the Angelis Noctem believed they would return alive, Nocterra herself proclaiming this would be their final action. They had a single goal; the death of Solaris himself, those Supernal Seraph’s who followed him could be hunted down by other legions at a later date. The Angelis Noctem would strike the head from the serpent, clean their own house, even if it cost them their lives.

Cost them it did, hundreds perishing in the first instant of the landing, the number only continuing to rise, and yet like a speartip the smaller force punched into the Supernal Seraph’s, led by the Lunar Guard and the newly created Nullifactors. Finally, a gap was opened, the terminator armoured units of the legion turning to hold it as Nocterra streaked through, cutting her way through the elite of her brothers forces, before finally coming face to face with Solaris once more in the heart of the great crystalline moon, a vast empty cavern continuing naught but Nocterra, Solaris, and Tuchulcha itself, the cold but whole corpse of a child standing before it, having apparently been speaking to Solaris only moments before.

No words were spoken between the two Primarch’s, even as a flurry of psychic communication leapt between the pair. To an outsider, it would have seemed like Nocterra required no preamble, charging her brother with blades drawn, furthering her reputation as cold and merciless, willing to kill even her twin without an utterance. This view was not true, but it was something Nocterra never disputed ether, using it to her own advantage to spread more misinformation about herself.

The pair clashed with a thunderclap that cracked the walls, centuries of enmity finally finding a vent on the other as sickle shaped Divining Blades were met with pure psychic manifestations, Solaris proving once more why he was regarded as the greatest psycker of the primarch’s, not Nocterra, his power manifesting outwardly with consummate ease. As skilled as she was, Solaris countered every move she made, launching hundreds of psionic bolts at her and forcing her to dodge and weave, not able to continue her uninterrupted flurry of attacks as was her way.

While Solaris was powerful however, his sister was near his equal, also empowered by the Mantle of Deliverance and further pushed onwards by rage and righteous fury. Solaris required more strength, more than the human slaves he was still draining of their essence, and luckily for him, he had a far greater reserve at his disposal. It may cost him ground in the battle outside, but this fight was all that mattered. The Supernal Seraph’s had always been an oddity of a legion, spawned by what was now clearly chaos-tainted geneseed, they had suffered from none of the abnormalities of the Angelis Noctem that had so hampered the other part of the Celestial Host. They were made strong by their geneseed, but that power was not theirs, the legion simply borrowing it from their lord, repayment now coming due.

Across the battle sphere, thousands of Supernal Seraph’s screamed in pure agony and terror as their souls were ripped from their bodies, leaving naught but lifeless, shriveled husks behind, Solaris swelling with this reclaimed power. For all Nocterra’s skill, she was unable to match her brother now, thrown to the floor, her blades skittering away from her, Solaris laughing as he sauntered forward, arrogant as always and utterly sure of his own supremacy.

Finally, Tuchulcha spoke, its voice ringing out not to Solaris, but to Nocterra. This had always been its end goal, a way for the warp entity to make contact with one it would truly serve, and with a whispered word that only she could hear, Tuchulcha spoke of the path to victory, Nocterra having no option other than to attempt what it suggested.

Though he had been the first to discover it and harness its powers centuries ago, and though he hated to admit it, Solaris knew that the Mantle of Deliverance had always resisted his touch, far more than it had Nocterra’s. Perhaps it was his way of demanding power rather than working to unlock it as an equal, Solaris’s cocksure attitude of utter supremacy working against him in his endeavours. Perhaps it was Nocterra’s more focused attitude towards her psychic ability, Solaris preferring to expand his mind in all direction while Nocterra delved deeper in fewer subjects. Perhaps it was simply the metaphysical nature of Solaris claiming to be a Sun God, while Nocterra was the Goddess of the Night, the Mantle of Deliverance a Psy-moon, not a Psy-Sun.

Whatever the reason, Nocterra used this to her advantage now, plunging her hands deep into the well of psychic energy she could call upon and unleashing it in a searing beam, any looking upon it save the two Primarch’s finding their eyes burnt from their sockets, their very comprehension of sight itself vanishing in that instant. The power was unimaginable, the white crystal of the Mantle of Deliverance darkening at her touch, becoming pitch black, and yet Nocterra did not take it into herself, instead focusing and directing it straight at her hated brother.

Solaris let out a roar of agony as the power overwhelmed him, his body expanding and cracking, mutating under the baleful energies Nocterra forced him to absorb. He could not control the power she directed at him, and with a final scream of impotent rage, he exploded, the power tearing him apart, a tear in the fabric of reality opening from his passing.

All across the galaxy, no matter their distance from the Mantle of Deliverance, Supernal Seraph’s let out a scream of their own, even the now imprisoned warrior of the Crusader Host on distant Terra not spared. Souls were ripped free and dragged into the warp, until all that was left of the once mighty Supernal Seraph’s were withered and shriveled husks, night but once full shells. It was believed that none survived the event, Nocterra and her Angelis Noctem still not grasping the truth behind Chaos, seeing it simply as a new name for the Immaterium, failing to see the true sentience that lay beneath.

Recruitment
Unlike the Angelis Noctem, who struggled with not only a complex geneseed but also a brutal testing process which saw only minimal growth after the reintroduction of Nocterra to their ranks, the Supernal Seraph’s have faced no such issue. Using geneseed produced by Solaris himself, something never before seen within the XIXth, the geneseed acceptance rate was near total, few failing due to incompatible genetics.

Nor did the Seraph’s institute a grueling or intensive training program, Solaris decreeing that it was enough for a child to give themselves fully to the legion, their acceptance guaranteed by completing this one act. After their acceptance, training would begin in earnest, each recruit taught that they, and they alone, carried the torch and light for a universe still shrouded in darkness. Arrogance was bred in these days, for if they were the only ones to bear the torch, what need was there for others, and yet it also bred warriors who cared deeply for the citizens of the Imperium, the mortals of the Imperial Army, and even the warriors of the other legions, even if it was a condescending care, not one given to equals. The Supernal Seraph’s saw it as their task to lead the way for the lessers through the darkness, taking every available opportunity to showcase their ability to bring forth the light, just like their lord did.

All of this combined resulted in a legion who’s growth rate was exponentially large, growing from nothing to 70,000 strong in 56 years, a near unprecedented growth rate that Solaris boasted would one day see his legion eclipse all others in size as well as skill, a statement that riled Godric Grey of the Crimson Vigil to no end.

However, despite all his bluster, Solaris’s geneseed and the recruitment into the Supernal Seraph’s was a farce, a bubble growing and growing, but one that must pop sooner or later. For the Seraph’s, this came in M30.895, the year of the Solar Rebellion. As battles raged and Solaris sought to increase his power, the Supernal Seraph’s began to find themselves weakening, their prestigious psychic powers draining from them as Solaris himself grew in power, eventually leading to naught but a withered husk being left in the warriors place, his lifeforce and very soul drained utterly to feed his ravenous master.

It soon became clear that though they wore the skin and trappings of Astartes, the Supernal Seraph’s had never stood as such, mere facsimiles of the glory of a true Space Marine. Like Solaris himself, they were beings of chaos, their power coming from the fickle warp itself, power that could be taken back at any time. By the time Solaris and Nocterra clashed, the Supernal Seraph’s primarch had gorged himself on the strength of tens of thousands, swelling in barely contained power that would be his downfall. When he was banished, all but 13 of his remaining sons perished, their souls ripped from their body wholesale to give final nurishment to their master.

And so ended the Supernal Seraph’s, a legacy spanning 56 years, a legion who could have been great, and yet was cursed from their very inception by the foul and insidious touch of chaos.

The Wards of Solaris
Though all of the XIXth were powerful psykers by the standards of other legions, the Supernal Seraphs taking this to the extreme, their stood a cadre of warriors who made even their fellows look like pitiful children, their powers eclipsing almost all others, save those few psychic Primarch’s, Malchador and of course, the Emperor himself. One could not simply join their ranks however, such was not possible, for only those who had been gifted as babes to Solaris in the days before the legion could ever hope to join their ranks. They were the sun god's children, the adopted offspring of the lightbringer, the Wards of Solaris.

On Noxim, millions flocked to Solaris when he revealed himself, seeking the new light and clamouring to get a look at the ‘god’ who had brought them this undreamt of phenomena, and amongst those were parents, moths and father who dragged their children to this new place of worship. Thousands of these children soon found themselves pressed into Solaris’s hands, the parents begging him to take their children, to give them a greater life than they had endured, and to protect them from the ravages of the world in his benevolent light.

Like a true and just god, Solaris accepted these children, naming them all his wards, even as he began to train them, pouring a fraction of his power into each of them, as well ad bidding them to drink of his blood. The process should have killed normal mortals, but something, perhaps the metaphysical act of gifting the children without reservation or desire for repayment resonating within the warp, or maybe the ministrations of the chaos gods themselves, watching their future champion and guiding him towards his inevitable fall. Whatever the reason, it seemed to protect them, and soon, each of them stode forth as a powerful practitioner of the psychic arts, the Wards of Solaris, his titans and inner circle, the closest the Primarch would ever come to calling anyone ‘friend;

When the Emperor arrived, these Wards of Solaris became the first of the Supernal Seraph’s, forming the core of the legions branch, others joining but never matching their power. They would forever be Solaris’s elite, his most trusted warriors, whom the ravages of war seemed useless against. Few reports of their deaths ever saw the light of day, their dead suppressed heavily by Solaris, leading many to believe these beings were as immortal as the Primarch they followed, striding to war in terminator plate, force and plasma weapons being common across their ranks.

It was only when Solaris turned against the Imperium to the true powers of the universe and the Angelis Noctem came to face them down that the Wards mortality was proved in full. Faced by vengeful warriors of their own legion, and finding their powers drained by Solaris, the Wards began to fall, a Helioc of 10,000 shrinking to barely three dozen, and when Solaris was banished, only a third of that number were pulled with him into the warp, the rest of their number too weak to survive such a transference due to their injuries, even with the blood and power of Solaris himself. Those that did survive found themselves elevated in time, the dozen Wards standing as daemonic princes, an honour guard for their new daemonic lord, all that remained of a once proud and mighty legion, some 70,0000 strong.

The Araios Psy-Engine
The Araios-pattern Psy Engine, more commonly known as the Araios, is a common sight in the battleline of the Supernal Seraphs, those of the Celestial Host that follow the twin Solaris. Based on both the Mechanicum Krios tank and the Arquitor Bombard, the Araios is a specialised self-propelled artillery gun, in truth bearing more in common with a Battle-Automata rather than a tank however, controlled by a series of logic stacks and bio-electrical fabrications, rather than the servitor brains of other Mechanicum vehicles.

The initial STC for the Araios Siege-Engine was discovered by the XIXth Legion during the Great Crusade, shortly after their Primarch’s discovery. Handed over to the Mechanicum as was the correct procedure, the XIXth were granted its exclusive use amongst the legions, Solaris procuring all specimens for his sons, Nocterra ignoring the vehicle in her assault focused branch of the legion. For a while, the Araios was used as is, but in time, this was no longer enough for Solaris, and he set his tech marines to work crafting a new variant of the mighty vehicle, one many of the Mehcnaicum would have declared heretek without hesitation, the new design kept from all outside the legion.

Removing the Cybernetica Cortex that sat at the heart of the vehicle, the Supernal Seraphs instead placed a crystalline Psi-control matrix within the Araios, mimicking the changes done to almost all other robots under Solaris’s command, and allowing his sons to reach out and manipulate the vehicle with but a thought, as a puppet master would control a puppet. Alongside this modification came a pair of new main weapons arrays, both used in near equal numbers. One, a large bore psy-cannon, fired giant explosie payloads laced with the power of the warp, able to shell targets at ranges rarely seen outside of the largest Imperial Army artillery pieces, while the other, a far shorter ranged affair, utilised a Thanatar’s plasma mortar, the Supernal Seraph’s mastery of such weapons enhancing the fuel within, scouring the souls of those it struck as well as their bodies.

So modified, the Araios Psy-Engine was unleashed upon the galaxy, used in swarms alongside other psy-robots of the Mechanicum to compensate for the small size of the Supernal Seraphs, the Araios freeing up the warriors of the XIXth for other tasks, more suited to a demi-god of the Imperium, the merciless robotic artillery piece shelling any target it was told to until new orders were received.

Many of these were captured by the Angelis Noctem in the wake of the Solar Rebellion, Nocterra reportedly ordering the machines destruction alongside all other heretek robot automata of her treasonous brother. When Mechanicum came to pick through what remained, all traces of the Psi-technology had been spirited away, its fate unknown.

The Sicarai
The Sicarai, the word roughly equating to “The Destroyers of Worlds” or “Angelic Destroyers”, are amongst the most feared warriors of the Supernal Seraphs, one of their Psychic Hosts, though unlike all others, they were not known by a number, only their designation; The Final Host.

The Sicarai stalk the battlefield with some of the most devastating weapons the Supernal Seraphs could bring to bear; near forbidden alchemical weapons, the crawling horror of Phosphex, lethal Cullgene gas and flesh-eating Vasgotex, not dissimilar from that found within the chemicals used by the Bane Wolf’s chem Cannon. These weapons were not what made the Sicarai deadly however, indeed, such weapons were almost an afterthought, after remaining mag-clamped to their bearers hips as they went about their far more specialised craft.

Clad in specially modified Cataphractii terminator armour known as Sicarai armour, the Sicarai are able to channel their powers far more completely than they would otherwise, runic inscriptions and purpose designed vents allowing their powers to run rampant around them, even as they themselves remained all but untouched by it, lacking the usual cellular degeneration, abnormally pale skin or yellowed-jaundiced eyes that were common across the ranks of destroyers in other legions.

The psychic powers of the Sicarai were no less unique than the armour they wore, no mere pyrokinetics or biomancers hurling simple flames. Instead, the Sicarai used a blend of all of these powers with far more visceral and primal warp powers, known as Fulmination. With such powers at their fingertips, warriors of the Sicarai could call forth lightning to lash at their foes, cause the enemies hearts to explode by literally boiling the blood within their veins or force the raw matter of the immaterium into the material realm in the form of bolts of crackling energy. When this power was unleashed, it not only billowed forth from hands, but was amplified by their armour, coursing through the plate and into the ground the Sicarai trod upon, irrevocably tainting it not with radiation or other alchemical horrors, but the pure, unbridled power of the immaterium itself.

Legion Tactical Organisation
The Supernal Seraph’s, unlike the Angelis Noctem, have an extremely well defined and rigid ranking structure, each individuals knowing precisely where they stand within the legion, who is above them and who is below them.

At the smallest level is the Flare, squads of ten legionaries, commanded by a warrior holding the rank of Prime, entrusted with leading the most basic of Supernal Seraph units. If required, two Flare’s can be confined to form a twenty strong unit, the senior Prime taking command, with the junior taking on the rank of Secundus.

Beyond these flares lie the Theoc’s, comprised of fifty legionaries and commanded by a Proctor. It is a Proctor’s decision as to when his flares join forces to form twentyman squads, the Proctor and Theoc akin to the hand, each flare a single finger.

Next is the Aurora, two Theoc’s forming a hundred man unit, commanded by a single Bellator. At this level, officers begin to be required to show psychic aptitude alone, not merely as part of a coven, and though it is not required, few attain this rank without mastering the psychic arts.

At the next step, the thousand strong Luminary, psychic commanders are not merely common but they are ubiquitous, Solaris requiring the Executors of the Luminary to be potent battle Psykers.

Beyond the Luminary is the Phoebus, five Luminary’s commanded by a Pellaeon, and beyond that, a Helioc, commanded by a Warlock, each Helioc boasting a nominal strength of two Phoebus, ten thousand Astartes. Only the Arch Warlock and the Molochan stand higher than these warriors, most never entering the hallowed ranks of the Primarch’s inner council.

Unlike in many legions, where company and chapter identity is everything, the Supernal Seraph’s have very little connection with their current posting beyond it being their battlefield designation. Higher numbered organisation levels hold with them a far higher prestige, and an Executor of a 5th Luminary carries far less prestige than that of the 1st Luminary.

Consequently, advancement through the legion is done utterly sequentially. New warriors will be placed into a low number Flare, the starting point for many being the 5th Flare of the 2nd Theoc and so on. Warriors who prove themselves will be placed as the Prime of their Flare, but from here, advancement is only possible upon the death of a superior.

If a the Warlock of the 3rd Helioc were to perish in combat, it would not be a warrior from the 3rd who rose from the ranks to replace his commanding officer, but rather the Warlock of the 4th who advanced, taking command of the 3rd and in so doing raise his own prestige in the legion. The 4th Helioc would be commanded by the Warlock of the 5th Helioc and so on. Once there were no more Warlock’s to promote, the next rank would be promoted, the Pellaeon of the 1st Phoebus, 1st Helioc would be promoted, causing a cascade of promotions.

Such a process could take many weeks or even months to take effect, especially for a force on crusade, and temporary officers were common, commanding until they returned to the bulk of the legion. Such positions were looked upon favourably by the officers who filled the position more permanently, often taking on the temporary warrior as an advisor and a ward.

However, promotion was not something they could force through; death the only way upwards in the Supernal Seraph’s, and while open duels were common, these were forbidden from being to the death, backstabbing becoming far more commonplace, officers having to watch all around them, knowing that their death would send ripples through the legion. This was exactly as Solaris wished it, his warriors vying for power and notice before him, their lives seemingly serving but one purpose; his own amusement. That such aligned with the Emperor’s Great Crusade was seemingly a coincidence, Solaris in truth having little care for anyone, beyond himself.

Equipment
The Supernal Seraphs were known as psykers first and foremost, their mastery over the warp held as their greatest asset, and so it is of little surprise that their armoury reflected that. Mundane technology used in other legions was augmented with psychic runes or else constructed out of materials that made manipulation through the aether more efficient and less taxing on the user. These ranged from small scale modifications crafted on allied forgeworlds, such as bolter casings made in such a way as to make psychic disassembly and cleaning a simpler affair, all the way through to the largest of Supernal Seraphs projects.

While there were a significant amount of these projects, two stand out above all others as either the most common, or the most damning in the eyes of those who may look upon them, these being the use of “Psy-Plasma” and the Heretek innovation, the Psi-Control Matrix.

Psy-Plasma was a commonplace augmentation to Supernal Seraph weapons, or rather their ammunition supply, seeing use from the smallest plasma pistol right through to the gargantuan plasma macro-batteries on the Sol Invictus, flagship of the legion. Crafted using arcane lore, the power of the Supernal Seraphs was poured into the plasma containers of the weapon, augmenting the fuel so that it shone bright enough to blind any who looked upon it, even as it burnt the flesh from their bodies, and some whispered, scorched their victims very soul. Whatever the truth, the plasma was no doubt effective, nearly every plasma weapon within the legion so augmented by the time of the black Star Rift.

While the Psy-Plasma was a relatively well known augmentation outside of the ranks of the Supernal Seraph’s, there was one piece of technology that was guarded above all else, for if it was discovered, the legion would answer not only to Imperial High Command, but the vengeful lords of the Red Planet itself. This being the Psi-Control Matrix.

Developed by the technological genius, Executor-Praevian Basiliscus Xaphan, the Psi-Control Matrix was akin to the standard Cybernetica Cortex used by the Legio Cybernetica. Designed to be psychically responsive with a certain degree of self-will, the Psi-Control matrix could be retrofitted into any automata in use within the Imperium,  eliminating the necessity for cortex controller-equipped superiors, allowing any psychically active warrior of the legion to manipulate them like puppets in a fashion far more seamlessly than standard Legio Cybernetica technology. By the time of the Black Star Rift, this technology was near ubiquitous across the legions attached Automata forces, being the only non-Supernal Seraph forces to follow the legion into damnation, the mindless robots unaware of their own treason.

The Armoured Fist of Light
Unlike their twin in the Angelis Noctem, the Supernal Seraph’s do place a lot of stock in armoured support, using it to support their long range methods of warfare to pound an enemy into dust before they can ever reach the Seraph’s lines. From simple Rhino’s to carry squads into position all the way through to the super heavy Fellblade or Broadsword.

Each of the Supernal Seraph Helioc’s maintained its own stocks of armoured vehicles, allowing individual formations to deploy as befitted tactical and environmental conditions.

All held large numbers of Rhino armoured carriers, used for the rapid conveyance of massed squads across open terrain, while many maintained sufficient numbers of Land Raiders to prosecute armoured spearhead assaults directly into the teeth of enemy positions.

These transport vehicles were bolstered by armoured support echelons of Predator and Sicaran battle tanks, with long range bombardment being supplied by batteries of Whirlwind missile tanks and other patterns of mobile Legion artillery.

However, while this armoured force may have been a potent one, it did lack in some of the older patterns of vehicles used by other, more venerable legions; a holdover from the Supernal Seraph’s being an entirely new creation with the founding of Solaris. This meant that older pattern Malchadors, Mauler Heavy Battle Tanks, Hercules Super-Heavy Battle Tank and numerous other vehicles were entirely absent from their armouries. While some would argue that this was little loss to the legion, the vehicles all being outdated and no longer commonplace for a reason, almost as many argued that while they may have been older, they would always find a valued place in the order of battle, seeing their absence as a gaping hole in the Supernal Seraph’s methods of war.

War Disposition
While they were never the largest legion, the Supernal Seraph’s were still a potent force by the time of the Black Star Rift, standing at a stated strength of seven Helioc’s at near full strength, equating to an estimated 70,000 warriors. This in and of itself was of little note, the Palatine Lions, the next legion in terms of size, boasting a full 20,000 further warriors.

However, looking at the legions strength in a vacuum denied the truth of the matter. The Supernal Seraph’s were a new force, created from scratch when Solaris was first found, meaning the legion built from nothing to their final strength in a mere forty six years, an exponential growth to rival any other legion, and showing no signs of slowing.

Indeed, many believe that had the Supernal Seraph’s not fallen from grace as they did, their numbers would have continued to rise until they finally ranked amongst the largest of the legions, likely only hampered by the logistical nightmare of maintaining such a mighty force of Astartes warriors.

No matter what the future held however, such would never come to pass, the Black Star Rift ripping the heart from the Supernal Seraph’s, a mere thirteen warriors surviving the massacre, the dream of the mighty legion smashed asunder.

Noxim
A world on the very edge of known space, the world of Noxim lies in the south eastern fringes of the galaxy, beyond the traditional light of the Astronomicon. The planet was clearly once a bounteous one, its surface littered with ancient cities and works of art, as well as numerous examples of relics of the Dark Age of Technology, but all of these mean nothing to the citizens of the world, who live their lives in eternal near darkness, the day and night cycle none existent. The star that had once provided the world with its power has long since burnt away, nothing but a crumpled and twisted metal structure designed to harness its energy left to mark its passing, the world only surviving due to a few remaining instances of functional archeotech, heating the world enough to stave off freezing, but doing little for the comfort of the world's inhabitants. As such, the people of the world were dour and sullen, this being a hard trait to shake even as the world changed. All of this added up to make Noxim one of the most miserable worlds to live on, its well-earned moniker speaking true, naming the planet as the “World of Eternal Night”.

All this however would change with the coming of the Celestial Pair.

The Celestial Pair, those eventually known as the Primarch’s Solaris and Nocterra were for a time unknown to the world, travelling its almost pitch black surface unheard of. That was until the elder of the pair, the one who would be Solaris, learnt of the great Archeotech device held in the worlds orbit, known only as the Mantle of Deliverance. The Mantle was a massive psy-array, large enough to channel the power of the immaterium through to weave magics of greater portent than would have been possible without such aid. Using the Mantle did the elder twin cast a great ritual, pouring his power through the psy-circuitry, bolstering it to levels unheard of, creating light which had not existed on Noxim for untold generations, close to five thousand years by some estimations. Many went blind in those first days, forced to shield themselves and develop hasty protection to better look upon the new god who had brought back the sun. Solaris was born that day, the undisputed ruler of Noxim without a single shot fired.

This however caused further, unforeseen problems, and though the world now knew light and life, not merely survival, for the first time in generations, it also now played host to terrors from the darkness, awakened by the new star in the sky. Only one stood against them, standing vigil as the creatures who hated the light stole in during the night, seeking to find the source of their new pain and kill it, returning the world to the darkness. This guardian was the younger twin, who had cautioned Solaris from upsetting the natural order so radically. In time, she too was given a name by those few who began to worship her; Nocterra, the Dark Lady. Eventually, the Emperor of all Mankind arrived on the world, drawn there by psychic communions from his two final lost creations, and with that, Noxim became one with the Imperium, the furthest reaches of mankind’s empire.

Now as part of the Imperium, Noxim stands as a shining example of what the Imperium is capable of, cadre’s of psykers powering the Mantle of Deliverance where once only Solaris had such power, even as the Mechanicum work tirelessly to replicate the heat and light the orb gives out, so the world may be truly free from the crutch of psychic nurishment.

The Mantle of Deliverance
Of all the archeotech on the world of Noxim, of which there is no shortage, none come close to the supreme importance of the Mantle of Deliverance, even the gargantuan heating complexes that sustained the world during the long darkness of Old Night could not match its import, for it was with this device that Solaris finally gave birth to new light once more, doing away with the shadows that had taken root upon the planet.

The Mantle of Deliverance is huge in scale, easily the size of the largest moons of the Sol System, but entirely artificial in its composition. Crafted from a strange crystal of unknown providence that defies all attempts to study it, the Mantle is inscribed with great circuit like patterns and psy-boosting runes, carved exactly a kilometer into the otherwise smooth surface, all created to a precision impossible by even the greatest of Martian Machinery, leading many to believe that the Mantle was created not by machines, but by the mind itself.

The initial purpose of the Mantle of Deliverance is unknown, though some have speculated it was created in an attempt to pre-empt the failure of the system’s dying star, something that was clearly not completed in time, or else lacked some component that left it dormant for millenia. When it was finally rediscovered however, used by the Primarch Solaris, the Mantle of Deliverance proved its design was more than capable of living up to the current needs of the world, giving light to Noxim once more. Now, in the Age of Imperium, the Mantle of Deliverance is staffed not by a Primarch, but by a cadre of over a thousand Psykers, arrayed together in a great choir, their task to keep the Mantle of Deliverance spinning onwards, providing life to the world below.

Legion Combat Doctrine
Unlike their shadowy counterparts in the Angelis Noctem, the Supernal Seraph’s combat style is well documented and totally lacking in subtlety, not unlike their Primarch, Solaris. Affecting mass landings miles from the enemy frontlines, the legion will dig in, creating elaborate, sometimes needlessly so, defencive positions, siting their great artillery pieces on the horizon. These guns will remain silent for what seems like an age, a brazen salute daring the foe to approach them, before with a barked order, they all fire as one, psy-laced projectiles arcing through the sky and slamming into the foe. This artillery is soon joined by other weapons, sniper shots, psy-blasts, all aimed to show the clear superiority of the Supernal Seraph’s. This bombardment will continue until the foe is no more, or they are forced to abandon their positions to retreat or attack, whereupon the Supernal Seraph’s will gun them down, before advancing at a leisurely pace. It is a rare foe who can wade through this deluge of firepower to engage the Supernal Seraph’s at close range, but if they think they are safe there, they are sadly mistaken, for while the Seraph’s place little stock in bladework, they are still Astartes and psykers to boot, force weapons severing the life essence of any would be melee combatants in short order.

In this way, the Supernal Seraph’s rarely change their tactics. Sieges, zone mortalis warfare, open plains, all are treated the same; dig in, annihilate the enemy at extreme ranges and force them to either move forward and die, or move back and abandon their positions. It may lack subtlety, or the strategic flare demonstrated by legions such as the Crimson Vigil, but it is effective, and goes a long way to showcase the utter prowess of the Supernal Seraph’s psychic might, unrivalled by any, even those of the Angelis Noctem.

The sole these tactics are changed however is when a world is not to be brought into glorious compliance, actions that would usually see Destroyer Companies deployed to lay waste to the world before them. The Supernal Seraph’s maintain standard destroyer formations, but when total and utter destruction is required, the legion deploys the Daybreakers of the Final Host; the Sicarai. Supernal Seraph’s unleash their full and unfiltered power upon the world, scouring it with the unfettered power of the warp. What is left after this is an utterly dead world, forever tainted by the power of the immaterium, something not even the Mechanicum can find use for. Accordingly, this tactic is rarely deployed, its last recorded attempt happening on Noxim during the Black Star Rift, the Supernal Seraph’s beginning to purge their own homeworld of all life, the planet only saved by the intervention of the Angelis Noctem, a stay of execution that lasted barely longer than a decade.

Psychic Disciplines of the Supernal Seraphs
While the Pre-Primarch XIXth may have experimented with their powers throughout the Great Crusade, it was Solaris and his new Supernal Seraph’s who threw wide these doors, diving deeper than any before them had ever dared, their immortal deity of a Primarch leading the way, heedless and seemingly untouched by the dangers others would have suffered for diving so deep with such reckless abandon.

Dybbuk familiars saw use in their ranks as they did in the XIXth Legion before Solaris’s rival, though they never truly grasped what these creatures could bring to a warrior with the power to master them. The Supernal Seraphs knew these beings as shards of the ‘Primordial Creator’, known as the Warp by most, given form and will by the individuals to whom they were bound. It was believed by all that these beings had no will of their own, the Primordial Creator simply being seen as a force of nature, and not as the sentient and malevolent Chaos that it would one day be known as.

Without knowledge of this danger, Dybbuk usage expanded out across the ranks of the psychically powerful warriors, every commander of the legion, from the humblest of Procter at the head of his fifty strong Theoc, right up to the Arch Warlock himself, Apollyon laying claim to a Dybbuk known as Odri, a potent beast that had served Apollyon long before the Imperium had ever reached Noxim. Only Solaris himself was unaccompanied by a Dybbuk, for what could a fragment of the Primordial Creator teach one who had stared into its depths and mastered its every nuance?

The Supernal Seraph’s did not maintain the XIXth Legions position in the fledgling Librarius project, Solaris publically rejecting the notion of a centralised training program being one of the two nails that nearly saw the death of the project. Solaris found the idea of limitations on psychic powers, or anything for that matter, to be an affront to his very nature, laughing at the small and close minded Anbaqil and Alexios Justarion as they attempted to convince him otherwise. The Supernal Seraph’s would learn from Solaris, and Solaris alone.

In this manner, all psychic disciplines became known and mastered in turn by the Supernal Seraph’s, even some that seemed to mirror the ancient eldar, warriors understanding the use of psychically charged runes even if they missed the importance behind them, protecting the user from the gaze of malevolent powers.

There were however two notable exceptions to this mastery; that of Daemonology, both the Malefic summoning of entities from beyond the veil, and the Sanctic banishing of such creatures. The former, Malefic, was known in part, unwittingly being used in the summoning of the Dybbuk of the legion, though none ever managed to pierce the veil and delve deeper. The latter, Sanctic Daemonology, was wholly unknown to the Seraph’s, any who attempted to harness such powers finding it slipping from them, their Dybbuk wailing in agony all the while. Solaris’s geneseed, the lifeblood of the Supernal Seraph’s, allowed for many things, but it would appear that Sanctic Daemonology was not one of them.

While no warrior of the legion would ever dream to limit himself to but a single discipline, in practice many did specialise, focusing on one above all others, leaving their other powers as cantrips, used more to showcase their power than be power in and of themselves, and it was this specialisation that soon led to the creation of the Hosts.

Each Host was not a combat formation, the legion still divided into their respective and rigidly codified formations, but instead represented orders within the legion, ones that the Supernal Seraph’s warriors would gravitate to as strongly as their own battlefield deployments, spending much of their time within the Bastions of their Host in between combat. These Bastions were great fortresses on the surface of Noxim, each containing a small fragment of the Mantle of Deliverance, empowered in perpetuity by Solaris himself, and each serving as

both a repository of the arcane knowledge that they had collected about their chosen psychic disciplines from across the galaxy as well as training facilities specifically geared towards enhancing psykers who displayed strength in one of the seven Supernal Seraph’s recognised psychic disciplines. Each Host was led by a warrior known as a Nephalem, an informal title that held no meaning beyond the legion, their bearers all either Warlocks or members of the Molochan itself.

The First Host
The First Host is the greatest of its kind, led as it is by Nephalem Apollyon Mastemah, the Arch Warlock of the Supernal Seraph’s and the most powerful psychic warrior in the legions, only the High Sentinel of the Angelis Noctem his equal. The First Host is the closest to their lord in terms of their powers, practicing Lumokinesis, the control of light itself. With such power, warriors of the First Host can manipulate the photons in the air around the blind their enemies, create illusions and even, at the highest levels of the Host, solidify and control the light with the aid of focusing crystals, allowing the light to be wielded as another may create a sword, or disintegrating their foes with blasts of pure luminescent warp energy.

Known members


 * Nephalem/Arch Warlock Apollyon Mastemah
 * Arch Luminarei Qemuel Sorath
 * Sumiel Andromalius - Rumoured

The Second Host
The Second Host members were practiced masters of the discipline of telepathy, and were able to transmit their thoughts and read the thoughts of others with contemptuous ease. Due to this, they often acted as the Legion's communications officers since their communications were secure from all but other psykers and they assisted, often working alongside the Fifth Host in conducting intelligence operations based on psychically-gleaned knowledge. While the Fifth Host could provide an overall strategic direction based on their reading of the likely probabilities of future events occurring, the Second Host could use their ability to read the minds of the enemy to shape the Legion's battlefield tactics more directly, through weapon choice, the types of troops to be deployed and where, and the choice of the most advantageous terrain. For all their power however, the Second Host lived with the knowledge that while they may be masters of such mental powers within their own ranks, or when compared to those outside of the XIXth itself, they have yet to rise to claim the title of its ultimate masters, the Angelis Noctem standing above them, forever beyond the Seraph’s reach.

Known members


 * Nephalem/Arch Liaisiok Belethor Sytry
 * Auriga Rhaum Lahash

The Third Host
The Third Host were pyrokinetics, meaning that they had developed the ability to both generate and control fire, the power for which was drawn from the Warp. The Third Host could both generate lethal bursts of fire from their bodies that they could shape into a number of different forms, including projectiles fired from their hands as well as fire shields that could hold back foes and melt away incoming weapons fire. The Third Host could also manipulate existing or standing sources of fire and with their connection to the Warp could lower the temperature of flames striking their own bodies or the bodies of others, effectively making them immune to the effects of fire or great heat.

Known members


 * Nephalem/Arch Vanguard Lix Tetrax

The Fourth Host
The Forth Host were gifted practitioners of the psychic discipline called telekinesis, and were known as telekines. In battle, a Fourth Host member could psychically fling physical objects at their enemies or rip their enemies bodies' apart through the application of immense telekinetic power drawn from the Immaterium. When used defensively, telekines could generate barriers of invisible kinetic force known as "Kine-Shields" to block physical attacks on themselves or others. The Fourth Host were also those who were said to have the greatest connections to their Dybbuk, many warriors of the Host who could manifest such beings barely using their physical weaponry, instead simply willing their Dybbuk into their enemies’ hiding places, burning them out with invisible waves of force or crushing them with psychic hammer blows.

Known members


 * Nephalem/Arch Wayfarer Kokabian Imamiah

The Fifth Host
The Fifth Host was the smallest of the Hosts, looked down on by those outside the legion, the Hunters Eternal in particular calling for the Host’s dissolution. This was due to their practice of developing their powers not from merely their own experience, but from mimicking many xenos races that stalked the galaxy, most notably the ancient Eldar. Utilising great runes carved on psycho-reactive stone, the Firth Host call forth their powers a step removed from the Warp itself, using such powers to augment their mastery of the more standard Divination discipline. In battle, the warriors of the Fifth Host use their refined precognitive abilities to shift their perceptions into the near future, seeing traps before they are sprung or reading the presence of minds alive with anticipation of ambush before mortals could even hope to sense them. It is off the battlefield however that these warriors truly excel, for it is they who have mastered the arts of manipulating astral energy, allowing them to project their astral form on both the physical plane and to the immaterium itself, able to interact with the formless predators within if they so wish, exploring the great ocean that they alone understand is but a reflection of the mortal universe.

Known members


 * Nephalem/Arch Vexilus Barrattimon Jeduthel

The Sixth Host
The Sixth Host were the masters of Biomancy within the Supernal Seraph’s, though much like the warriors of the Second, were continually under the shadow of the Angelis Noctem in their discipline, the Lunar branch of the XIXth having a far greater affinity with the psychic discipline than their Solar brethren. Nevertheless, the Sixth Host still played a vital role within the Supernal Seraph’s, their powers able to bolster their own strength, though most often used to aid others, being the designated healers of the Supernal Seraph’s, led as they were by Nephalem Andrastican Zagan, as they were capable of accelerating cellular growth and protein synthesis, which made them extraordinary medics who saved the lives of countless Astartes when even the Apothecaries could not.

Known members


 * Nephalem/Arch Medicae Andrastican Zagan

The Seventh Host
The Seventh Host is the second smallest of the Hosts, focussing as they do on the subtle art of techno-manipulation, Technomancy as it is often known. The Host is led by Nephalem Basiliscus Xaphan, the lowest ranking warrior to hold such a position, and allowed to maintain it at Solaris’s express command. The Seventh Host is where the Supernal Seraph’s techmarines and Praevian’s are drawn from, sent to Mars to learn the machine physically, before the Seventh Host teaches them how to manipulate it through the aether. With such powers, and the psi-matrices developed by the Host, the Seventh could reach out and take control of the battalions of robot maniples under their command, able to direct their mindless charges with complete precision, instead of relying on the doctrina wafers provided by the Legio Cybernetica.

Known members


 * Nephalem/Executor-Praevian Basiliscus Xaphan
 * Arch Devastator Obyzouth Belicanna
 * Arch Mortificator Purah Worood

The Final Host - The Sicarai
While the other Hosts of the Supernal Seraph’s rarely if ever deploy without members of other Hosts being present, the Final Host rarely deploys alongside any other, for they are the Sicarai, the Final Message, the Destroyers of the Supernal Seraph’s. The warriors of the Final Host weave their powers in a way entirely unique to their ranks, seamlessly blending a lesser used form of biomancy, known as Fulmination, with the powers of Pyromancy and the manipulation of the warp at its most primal and visceral stages. With such powers at their fingertips, warriors of the Sicarai could call forth lightning to lash at their foes, cause the enemies hearts to explode by literally boiling the blood within their veins or force the raw matter of the immaterium into the material realm in the form of bolts of crackling energy. Unsurprisingly, the Final Host had a reputation for venality and spite which bordered on the sickening, utilising the raw matter of the warp to spill forth from their bodies, tainting the very ground around them with the stuff of the immaterium itself, their powers keeping them safe while all others whither and die if they are lucky, or burst under the stress of bubbling mutations the Sicarai bring forth.

Known members


 * Nephalem/Arch Sicarai Asmodeon Iblic

Legion Geneseed
The geneseed of the Supernal Seraphs, spawned from their charismatic lord, Solaris, could not be more different than that of the Angelis Noctem. While the Angelis Noctem struggle to find any who accept Nocterra’s genetic heritage, Solaris’s geneseed can be taken by a far larger portion of the population, seeming to burn away impurities with ease, all accepting the blessing of a Solar God. Indeed. Indeed, were it not for the pride of Solaris, insisting that all new recruits must be vetted by himself and his inner circle, the legion would likely swell to eclipse all others, but instead the warriors remain at a small number, each perfect examples of beauty that all Astartes should aspire to, at least in their own minds.

However, the genetic purity, just like Solaris himself, is in truth, a lie. Solaris, himself a being of pure warp energy and permanently linked to the ruinous powers, does not produce geneseed as a normal Primarch would. What he produces is a facsimile, filled with the powers of chaos, unwittingly corrupting the entire branch from within, and it is this that causes it to be accepted so widely by the Supernal Seraphs. When Solaris finally fell to the tempting powers, this power was recalled, warriors of the Seraphs finding themselves briefly empowered, able to match even the greatest warriors of the Imperium, before suddenly being drained of their very being, dropping dead as their essence was used to fuel Solaris’s new powers. Those few who survived alongside their lord were forever changed, in truth, barely Astartes any longer, more daemon than man.

Notable Supernal Seraphs
Solaris

Arch Warlock Apollyon Mastemah

Apollyon Mastemah is the lord of the Supernal Seraph’s after Solaris himself, and the most powerful Astartes Psyker to ever live, as well as commanding the Molochan; the Primarch’s personal council. It is whispered that he is far older than a mere human, having been the first child ever offered to Solaris by his worshippers on Noxim, Solaris’s own power poured into him to allow Apollyon to survive the Astartes process and bolstering his already potent psionic powers beyond measure.

As the leader of the Wards of Solaris, Apollyon marches to war in glorious terminator plate, it’s pattern utterly unique, initially to be made for Solaris himself, the Supernal Son altering the armour to fit his son, rather than him. In one hand, Apollyon carries a plasma blaster, inscribed with runes of his own making to enhance the plasma that flows through it, while in the other he carries a spear hilt, a psychic focus to allow for a blade of pure psionic energy to spring forward.

However, all of this was merely filler for the Arch Warlock, for just like his Primarch, Apollyon’s focus was his immense psychic power. Able to utilise his abilities to apply immense telekinetic powers to lift heavy objects, psychically fling physical objects at his enemies or rip their bodies apart through the application of immense telekinetic power drawn from the Immaterium. He could also subtly manipulate his abilities to perform such mundane tasks as telekinetically disassembling, cleaning and reassembling his weaponry, or to pluck bullets from the air, in a manner similar to a kine-Shield.

Accompanied at all times by a Psychic Dybbuk, the warp being so often used by the Pre-Primarch XIXth and later banned by Nocterra being common across all Supernal Seraph commanders. These Dybbuk augmented their masters abilities, engorging them with raw psychic might, beyond their innate powers. It was thanks to this that Apollyon could perform his greatest feat and displays of power, namely that of true flight. Upon his back rested a pair of metal armatures, inscribed with runes of power as with all of his armour. Through these armatures, Apollyon projected his psychic powers outwardly into ‘wings’, the runes ensuring their use did not tire him instantly. With these, and clad in terminator plate, Apollyon actively looked down on his lessers, especially those amongst the Angelis Noctem, seeing himself as superior to all others, save Solaris and the Emperor himself.

Arch Sicarai Asmodeon Iblic

Other than Apollyon, none within the Supernal Seraph’s can match Asmodeon’s raw psychic power, and indeed few in the other legions either. However, while his power may not be the greatest, Asmodeon’s sadistic streak was unmatched, the warrior revelling in the suffering of his foes, something that would see him lead the psychic destroyer corps of the Supernal Seraph’s, the Sicarai, claiming the title of Arch Sicarai. Asmodeon believed himself Apollyon’s equal, but in truth, he was no greater than any of the other members of the Molochan, Apollyon never giving his underling the satisfaction of even acknowledging him.

As befitted the Arch Sicarai, Asmodeon is the most powerful pyrokinetic within the Supernal Seraph’s, the Sicarai already the premier users of Pyrokinesis, able to hurl aesthetic projectiles from his hands with ease, boil his enemies blood in their veins, or manifesting a mighty fiery shield that could hold back foes and melt incoming weapons fire with ease. Asmodeon was also known to enhance his Lightning talons with his innate bioelectricity powers, greatly enhancing his strikes when he fought his enemies in hand to hand combat, his Tartaros terminator armour barely slowing him as he tore through his foes.

Even in this, Asmodeon was near unique within the Supernal Seraph’s, the Solar branch of the XIXth preferring ranged firepower, while Asmodeon relished visceral melee combat. With his claws in hand and his powers bleeding out from his body to corrupt the very ground around him, Asmodeon has more than earned his title, fee outside the XXth having as large a tally of exterminated foes in the short time he was part of the Imperium.

Sumiel Andromalius

Though the Supernal Seraph’s never placed much stock in the subtle arts of stealth, preferring for all to know they approached and bask in their glory, there was one who did prefer such an approach.

Known as Sumiel Andromalius, though none know if this was his true name or even if the name itself was a title or rank, Sumiel was the infiltrator of the Supernal Seraph’s, operating under Solaris’s direct orders at all times, even the Arch Warlock not made privy to his brothers movements.

The idea was not purely Solaris’s of course, the shadowed figure of Ast'vindathu whispered within the ranks of the Umbral Blades, a myth more than a man. Solaris had learnt of the legend of the warrior from his first compliance alongside the IIIrd, the Psychic Primarch reading the thoughts of the warriors around him with ease, but has since gleaned little else, for he can only read what his target already knows, and Ast'vindathu is a myth to all, save the Primarch’s of the IIIrd Legion, such an intrusion requiring far more thought, and having far greater consequences.

Nevertheless, the idea was sound, Sumiel Andromalius being conjured into being. Rarely however was Sumiel sent against enemies of mankind however, instead being an internal agent of Solaris’s might within the Supernal Seraph’s. Solaris was universally loved by his legion, dissent not an issue, but hubris was an ever present threat. Upstart warriors who believed they knew better than all, those who over valued their own worth, or simply those who failed to meet Solaris’s expectations. These were Sumiel’s primary target, and he, or they, were hellishly proficient in the art of eliminating such threats.

No matter if they were one or many, Sumiel was a master at Biomancy, one of the few within the Seraph’s who used such a power. With it, he could change his face, blend in with any target in plain sight, before executing his quarry with merciless precision.

Arch Liaisiok Belethor Sytry

Belethor Sytry was a warrior rarely tasked with frontline fighting, his skills often seeing him walking through the mortals' camps that fought alongside the Seraph’s, overseeing their deployments, encouraging them or threatening where required.

He does this not through any innate charisma, for Belethor has little to speak of, being a petulant and vile individual in both looks and personality. However, his ability to alter the perception and minds of lesser beings is legendary even Astartes of other legions struggling to escape his powers, only the strongest willed seeing through it.

With such powers, Belethor is able to implant subtle suggestions alongside power ladened words, until the poor individual he has set his sights upon would willingly throw themselves in harms way to protect the Supernal Seraph’s, or turn upon their allies if such was commanded of them. This almost fanatical devotion he bred in warriors drew him towards the fanatical legion of the Apostles of Lazari, Belethor spending time with the XIIth to further hone his own craft, even as the fanatical faith of the XIIth rendered them less susceptible to his mental manipulation.

Arch Medicae Andrastican Zagan

Andrastican Zagan is the head Apothecary of the Supernal Seraph’s, and a form friend of his equal in the Immaculate Sons, the two having fought together during the Great Crusade, Andrastican honing his craft alongside the expert geneticist, taking what he learnt and mixing it with his own psychic powers.

Despite being adept at all manner of biological manipulation, Andrastican himself seems small and malformed, seemingly able to fix in others what he cannot rectify in himself. While this is partially true, it is not due to any birth defect, battle wounds or geneseed issues. Instead, Andrastican  willingly traded pieces of his physical self to his Dybbuk, a being known as Pharzuph’lial, the warp creature enhancing his power tenfold, allowing his eyes and mind to see far more than he ever could when he was whole in body. Of course, unbeknownst to Andrastican at the time, Pharzuph’lial did not merely take what was offered, something that would become painfully obvious to Andrastican in the years that came after the Solar Rebellion.

Clad in sleek artificer plate, Andrastican would descend upon the wounded, dying and dead, his psychic powers manifesting into multi-limbed arms in a manner similar to a servo harness, able to minister to multiple charges at once with ease, his powers more proficient than any equipment he could utilise in their place. By his will, his allies' wounds seem to stick themselves together without even a scar to mark their existence, while enemy forces find even the smallest wounds bleeding profusely, even the most minor of cuts soon seeing them bleed out as their blood is pulled from the wound.

However, for all this, Andrastican could never match those he had learnt from within the Immaculate Sons, the warriors of the XIIIth seeming to have a predisposition towards the biological arts, a fact that caused Andrastican no shortage of anger when such became clear to him.

Arch Wayfarer Kokabian Imamiah

Kokabian Imamiah is the leader of the Wayfarer detachments of the Supernal Seraph’s, the small recon companies used by Solaris’s Sons. Less interested in gathering information on the enemy, Kokabian has drilled his charges relentlessly in the art of finding the perfect positions for firing lines, while maintaining a perfect spot for all to see those who stand upon it, basking in the Supernal Seraph’s Glory.

When battle is joined, Kokabian reveals himself from psychic shrouded invisibility, a plasma rifle hissing in his hands as he lets fly with but a single shot. As soon as the bolt is fired, Kokabian reaches out, enshrouding the bolt within a psychic cocoon, guiding it and keeping it stable, striking his enemies with it again and again, leaving naught but smoking corpses in its wake.

It is this practice that has caused many, at least within the Supernal Seraph’s and attendant Imperial Army units, to hail Kokabian as the greatest marksman to ever live, able to kill hundreds with only a single round. This boast, while technically true if one only looks at the raw data, lacks any real substance or context, and yet Kokabian always makes a point of mentioning such feats, especially in the presence of the Palatine Lions or Crimson Vigil.

Auriga Rhaum Lahash

Auriga Rhaum Lahash is an oddity amongst the Molochan, not commanding any specific part of the legion or having an overarching role that takes him across the legion. Instead, Rhaum is forever at Solaris’s side, never parted from it, something even Apollyon is not expected to uphold.

This is due to Rhaum’s role in the legion and the Molochan, that of the ‘naysayer’. Far from the worshipful reverence the Supernal Seraph’s seem to have for Solaris, Rhaum instead is tasked with maintaining an air of questioning scepticism, questioning plans to ensure they have no overlooked issues before they are sent out to the rest of the legion.

Of course, this is the theory behind Rhaum’s role, but in practice, Rhaum had the finest line to walk of any of the Molochan. Solaris is intelligent in the extreme as with all Primarch’s, his mind unknowable and able to think of every possibility in an instant, and yet he is also narcissistic, vain, and utterly sure of his own supremacy. As such, Rhaum has quickly learnt when he is meant to question his lord as per his rank, and yet also when to remain silent, else he earns his lord's ire and is struck from the world in a blaze of light.

Arch Vanguard Lix Tetrax

Though the Supernal Seraph’s do not place much emphasis on the role of assault squads, such ‘uncouth’ methods better suited for the lesser warriors of the Angelis Noctem, Solaris was not fool enough to completely disregard such combat, and it was here that Lix Tetrax found his role, named as the Arch Vanguard of the Supernal Seraph’s.

Few can match Lix Tetrax in terms of raw speed, whether that be on the battlefield when enhanced with his near perfect grasp on biomancy, in his quick but never ill-considered replies, or the speed he will respond to any slight against him in brutal and final fashion.

Clad in artificer Mk4 armour, Lix goes to battle upon tongues of fire, his jump pack roaring as he slams into the ground, a two handed fiery sword held aloft, cast in the image of the Emperor’s own blade, though infinitely lesser in every way, empowered by Lix’s own psychic powers to be a bane upon any it comes into contact with, the slightest touch causing near uncontrollable mutation as reality comes into contact with the unreality of the warp.

Arch Devastator Obyzouth Belicanna

The Supernal Seraph’s are not a subtle legion, such is obvious by the blinding light they bring with them or the pageantry of their psychic demonstrations, but Obyzouth Belicanna takes this a step further, known as the Arch Devastator, and ultimate commander of the heaviest weapons the Supernal Seraph’s can bring to bear, including not only the man portable weapons of the Heavy Support Squads, but also the tanks, weapons platforms, void fleet and, most notable of all, Canis Vertex, a Warlord Battle Titan formerly of Legio Astorum.

Canis Vertex had fought alongside the Supernal Seraph’s at the Kamenka Troika Campaign alongside many other engines of the Legio Astorum, the Warp Runners of Lucius, and it had been in that battle that Canis Vertex had fallen, and yet she would rise again, Solaris and the Supernal Seraph’s honouring the Warp Runners by recovering and restoring the Titan. Whether it was due to Solaris’s reputation, the chance to gain such a favour from a legion, Solaris’s psychic persuasion or a mixture of all three, but the Supernal Seraph’s remaining in control of the mighty battle engine, Obyzouth regarding it as his greatest weapon.

In times of great battle, aided by his Dybbuk, Obyzouth is able to reach out, leaving his body of flesh and blood in exchange for one of Iron and Wrath, the duel Fists of the Titan wreathes in flame, able to hurl tank-sized fireballs at will to devastate the enemy.

Such combat was rare however, the strain on Obyzouth after mere minutes almost too much for the warrior, requiring hours of recovery before any action could be taken, and so when not in command of his personal mount, he strides to battle in mighty Saturnine Terminator Armour, a Plasma cannon mounted upon his back and a plasma blaster in each hand, melting entire sections of the battlefield in psychically enhanced star matter.

Arch Mortificator Purah Worood

The dreadnoughts of the Supernal Seraph’s are a delicate affair, far more so than in any other legion, save perhaps the undisputed masters of the living dead, the Omnimarines. Where the XVIth utilises sophisticated shells and custom tombs for their Barons and Dukes however, the Supernal Seraph’s make use of standard dreadnoughts, but fit them with a device known as the Inna, a crown of psychometric barrier lattice encasing the occupant's living brain. The Inna device was was difficult to construct and was barely understood by even the most learned psi-arcanists, and of those, Purah Worood was amongst the foremost, in his opinion, only Solaris or begrudgingly Nocterra above him, though the truth was not so clear cut.

Regardless of his proficiency with the Inna technology, Purah served the Supernal Seraph’s as their Arch Mortificator, aiding in bringing new dreadnoughts to terms with their new lives, schooling them in the intricate use of the Inna device, as well as often leading a talon into battle, keeping them mobile with both his technical knowledge, and his perfect grasp of the Technomancy discipline, metal mending at his thoughts in the way flesh mended before Andrastican’s.

Arch Vexilus Barrattimon Jeduthel

Barrattimon is the youngest of the Molochan, being barely a babe when he was given to Solaris, unable to join the legion at first due to being too young to undergo the process. However, as soon as he was able, Barrattimon joined the ranks of the XIXth, elevated beyond a mere Ward of Solaris, j instead standing as the Arch Vexilus, bearer of Solaris’s personal banner, and a member of the legions inner council, barely more than a teenage in mortal years, and still a babe in the life span of an Astartes.

Regardless of his youth, Barrattimon is ferociously powerful, both in combat and in psychic ability, none able to deny his appointment even if Solaris had not mandated it himself. Fearless in battle, Barrattimon carries the mighty Banner of the Sun aloft into battle, said to contain a fragment not only of the Mantle of Deliverance, but also a small piece of the land where Solaris’s light first touched Noxim soil, all held within the remains of the pod that had borne the Primarch to the world at the apex of the Primarch project.

When Barrattimon steps onto the battlefield, it is almost always with Solaris, the banner’s majesty lost when compared to the Primarch himself, but on the rare occasions that Barrattimon is sent away from his Primarch’s side, often to serve as his emissary empowered with Solaris’s complete authority, the effect of the banner was immense, none, mortal or trans human alike from any legion, willing to take a step back in the face of such power, Barrattimon subtly pouring his own psychic power into the shard of the Mantle to ensure the effect reached even the stubbornest of minds.

Arch Luminarei Qemuel Sorath

While Apollyon may command the Supernal Seraph’s and the Wards of Solaris, First Company of the Solar XIXth, there is one unit he has far less command over, despite their place within the First Company, those warriors being Solaris’s personal bodyguard, known as the Luminarei, and commanded by the final member of the Molochan; Arch Luminarei Qemuel Sorath.

His powers have grown exponentially since joining the legion and show no signs of slowing, many believing that he would someday usurp Apollyon himself as both the leader of the Supernal Seraph’s, and as Solaris’s favoured son, such a belief not lost on Apollyon, the two warriors having a fierce rivalry that saw each warrior continually push themselves to the very peak of their abilities, Solaris allowing such a rivalry to continue due to its increase on both of their combat efficacies.

An adept at almost all known forms of psychic discipline but specialising in none, something he has impressed upon the other Luminarei in order to better react to any threats to their lord, Qemuel is nonetheless more powerful than many heroes of the other legions in the psychic arts, as well as in combat, marking to war in Tartaros warplate, a cyclone missile launcher upon his back loaded with plasma warheads enhanced by his prestigious power, while in his hands he wields a great blazing spear, cast in the image of his lords own prefered weapon, and one that has claimed the lives of human demagogues and xenos warlords alike.

Executor-Praevian Basiliscus Xaphan

Despite his obvious skill and power, both of which exceed almost all within the Supernal Seraph’s, including some within the Molochan itself, Basiliscus Xaphan has never, and would never rise above the rank of Executor that he was assigned, even the higher ranking Pellaeon forever denied him by the machinations of Apollyon, for while the Arch Warlock rivalled Arch Luminarei Qemuel, he despised Basiliscus with every fibre of his being.

Orphaned in the days of night before Solaris brought forth his sun, Basiliscus lived in the gutters of society on Noxim for years, falling through the cracks even with the new light above him. It was here that Basiliscus learnt to fight, a brawler who held nothing back, for he had nothing to lose, and it was in this state he was found by the first generation of Supernal Seraph’s. Refusing to back down even here, Basiliscus launched himself at the marine, smashing his own hands to bloody ruins against the warriors armour. Had the warrior been of the Supernal Seraph’s, he likely would have been killed for his hubris, but as it was, the warrior was of Nocterra’s descent, an Angelis Noctem.

Basiliscus had shown valour, but he had not been granted the vision of Nocterra that all Angelis Noctem must go through, and so instead he was handed to the Supernal Seraph’s, raised to their ranks and quickly demonstrating an extreme technological aptitude, as well as a stubborn streak to rival any other in the XIXth. Sent to Mars for retraining, this streak only grew, as Basiliscus became enamoured with the robotic forces the Mehcanicum could bring to bear, and his own thoughts on how to improve them with his own psychic abilities. Of course, such a thing was anathema to the tradition bound Mechanicum, but upon his return to the legion, Basiliscus began to experiment, Solaris granting him his blessing without hesitation.

Soon, Basiliscus’s efforts bore fruit, creating the first crystalline ‘brain’ that would later become known as the Inna, used amongst the Dreadnought forces of the legion, something Arch Mortificator would later claim as his own invention, his rank allowing him to commit such blatant thievery. Enraged but not willing to be upstaged even by the Molochan,  Basiliscus’s renewed work soon gave birth to another invention; the psi-matrix.

Kept an utter secret from all outsiders, even those of the Angelis Noctem, Basiliscus soon began to oversee the retrofitting of the entire legions autonomous fighting force, fitting Psi-matrices in place of clunky cybernetica cortexes, deepening their connection with the legion, and leading to the famed Araios becoming even more beloved by the XIXth Legion, few knowing the depths of tech heresy Basiliscus had plunged to.

Notable Vessels

 * The Sol Invictus - Gloriana-class Battleship

Legion Relics

 * Conversion Dissonator - This entirely novel, some tech-savants would say esoteric, device interferes with a wide spectrum of field effects, including those generated by the little known alien creatures said to dwell within the dimension of raw energy that is the warp, the Supernal Seraph’s using them to contain any Dybbuk familiars that attempt to break free of their masters control, though soon found it had numerous battlefield roles as well.

Legion Colours
Having no ties to the old XIXth, the Supernal Seraphs maintain none of the old colours of the pre-primarch legion. Instead, the legion took on the glorious colours of light, the gorious yellow of the sun becoming their armour, while the blinding white of light itself stood resplendent on their shoulders, gold trim leaving few in doubt that these warriors considered themselves not simply kings amongst men, but gods, something that was utterly true in the legions eyes.

heraldry was painstakingly applied across the armour, helmets, shoulders, knees and forearms all weaving an intricate and strictly regimented pattern, speaking of the warriors precise place within the legion, any who understood the daunting rank structure of the Seraph's able to know everything required to address the warrior at but a glance.

Legion Badge
Officially, the Supernal Seraphs shared the same heraldry as the Angelis Noctem; that of the combined Celetial Host. However, when battle standards were raised, it was never this combined symbol that was showcased, instead showing the solar side of the symbol, the glory of the sun, rising over the eclipse of the combined host. Such a message was clear; the Supernal Seraphs seeing themselves as superior to all, especially the hated Angelis Noctem, who languised on the bottom of the iconography.

In the wake of the Black Star Rift, all pretenses of the Supernal Seraphs being an army were shattered, thirteen warriors and a Primarch having little need for an identifying symbol. Soon, each individual member of the Molochan had their own symbol, often based upon that of the Seraphs of old, but each one unique to the daemonic warrior who now bore it, each one as terrible to behold in the eyes of mortals as the last.