Stone Giants

Summary
The Stone Giants were a Chapter of the Emperor’s Space Marines, and part of the Eighth Founding alongside others such as the Sanguine Paladins. Although they had a long and illustrious history as warriors, eventually, in the 41st millennium, they were almost all turned from the Emperor’s light by their Chapter Master, Vortigern.

Essential Information
Chapter Name: The Stone Giants

Chapter Master: Vortigern

Homeworld: Adirio (destroyed).

Number of Marines: At time of their betrayal, 1000.

Gene seed ancestry: Raven Guard

War Cry: "Unyielding Stone!"

Status: Destroyed, survivors declared Excommunicate}}

Background
The Stone Giants were founded during the Eighth Founding along with the Sanguine Paladins and others. Formed using Raven Guard gene-seed, the Stone Giants were placed on a feral world named Adirio, somewhere in Segmentum Solar (the exact records were purged by the Inquisition upon the Stone Giant’s betrayal). The feral natives were extremely superstitious, and this trait passed on to the Space Marines themselves over time. The natives also placed strong emphasis on familial bonds, necessitating the recruits kidnapping once they had been identified. Despite hypnotherapy and psycho-induction, there was a tendency among the Marines for a great deal of introspection on their fates and the fates of their families. It was this that was to be their downfall, eventually.

The Stone Giants did not follow the ways of stealth as their Primarch did. Rather, they believed in strong, decisive front line action to shatter the resolve of their enemy. Due to the warrior codes of Adirio's population, they also believed that their duty was to stand and fight for honour's sake, and it was a rare fight indeed that they retreated from. One quirk of the Stone Giants was a preference for facing battle without the protection of a helmet, instead facing the enemy open skinned, face dyed with Imperial iconography using traditional Adirian Woad. This fearsome appearance caused many lesser goes to flee the battle before them.

Vortigern
Vortigern was the last Chapter Master of the Stone Giants. A son of a proud warrior king, whose mother died in childbirth, Vortigern was proclaimed by his father to be the future greatest warrior alive. From that point on, Vortigern’s father made it his life's mission to see that the boy Vortigern kept that promise, training the boy from the moment he could walk. The boy became one of the finest fighters of his age group, even slaying warriors twice his age and experience in battle. It was scant wonder that the Stone Giants came for him in the night, and though he fought the star-warriors, destiny was not to be denied.

Vortigern spent the next two centuries after his recruitment wondering what had happened to his family without him. He made good on his father's promise, becoming the single finest fighter in the entire Stone Giants Chapter and earning them untold glory in the Emperor's – but still, he wondered about his father, and the fate of his people. Eventually, he could bear the pain of not knowing no longer; one day, between campaigns, he decided to find out the fate of his family, and so, removing his power armour and walking among his former people under a robe, he sought answers.

As it turned out, his father had never recovered from his loss and had spent many years depressed about it, mourning the kidnapping of his only child for the rest of his days – which were unpleasantly short: his village had been conquered by a rival. Vortigern’s entire village - down to the last babe in arms - were slaughtered by the victorious conqueror. Upon learning of this, Vortigern flew into a rage. Despite the fact that two and a half centuries had passed, he still found the descendants of the warrior king who had murdered his family, spread across a mini empire of five towns. In one night, he slew them all, man, woman and child, filling the legends of the people with demons in the dark, making them lock their doors. It didn’t matter whether they were innocent of any crime to Vortigern. Blood paid for blood that night.

Returning to his fortress monastery, he contemplated the death of his father, and came to realise - in his own, twisted, grief stricken mindset - that it was the Imperium's fault that he had lost his family. They had stolen him as a child, stolen his chance for a normal life, his chance to win glory for his family - his chance to defend them or die trying. Vortigern's fury at this point knew no bounds, and he smashed his quarters, before going to speak with his brethren.

Corruption
Being a Chapter Master, Vortigern was a master of oratory; in a series of speeches, he denounced the Space Marines' creation itself, yelling about how they had been kidnapped and changed and that their families had been left with nothing. Although there was resistance from the Stone Giants at first, slowly what Vortigern was saying sank in and the Stone Giants began questioning themselves and their purpose. Was what they had gone through truly worth whatever they might have gained? Many of them followed Vortigern's lead in looking up their homes; some never found any record of them, but many discovered a grave or the remains of a burnt village. Slowly, more and more Marines converted to Vortigern's way of thinking.

Betrayal
Eventually, only a scant handful of Marines were left loyal to the Imperium, mostly Chaplains and a handful of Veterans. Vortigern knew he was unlikely to gain their support, but was unwilling to merely assassinate them (such an action being dishonourable), and so he ordered the entire loyalist contingent - 158 Marines all told - to take a ship, on the pretext of going for diplomatic purposes, and deliver a holo-vox message to Marius Tron, then Chapter Master of the Revenants, who, while not the closest allies the Stone Giants knew of, were nonetheless known to be reasonable.

When the loyalist Stone Giants arrived, they delivered the message to Tron, who was surprised and also a little suspicious at their presence (being as he was unused to having messages of friendship sent by other Chapters). After a welcoming ceremony, the message was delivered and played. The message was as follows;

"Hello, Chapter Master Tron. These Marines I have sent to you are all that is left of my Chapter that remains devoted to the Emperor and the Imperium. I trust you'll take care of them. As for the rest of us, we renounce your empire of baby-snatchers. From this day forth, I vow we will fight only to bring the Imperium down." -Vortigern's message.

Hush descended upon the gathering of Revenants and Stone Giants. Marius Tron, upon hearing the message, immediately ordered that the Inquisition be contacted. The loyalist Stone Giants, outraged at this betrayal by their own leader, requested the Revenants help in defeating their traitorous Brothers. Marius Tron, while knowing that attacking a Space Marine Chapter on its home turf was a risky venture, nonetheless agreed, seeing it as a matter of honour for his brothers. He decided to send Brother Captain Janus of the Second Company along with the Stone Giants remnants in the Battle Barge Emperor's Might, the finest of the three Barges the Revenants possessed.

The Battle of Adirio
Adirio was heavily defended but, having already informed the Inquisition, the Revenants and remaining loyalist Stone Giants were not surprised to see the planet under heavy attack by Grey Knights. The Revenants ship was contacted, and ordered to keep clear. Thus, the loyalist Stone Giants could only watch their home burn and mourn.

Vortigern had known what would happen, and had begun the evacuation of his men as soon as he could. However, only a scant handful of ships - under the command of Caedmon of the Fifth - managed to escape. Vortigern, over 500 other Marines, and the entire populous of Adirio, were wiped away by the attack of the Grey knights. The planet was utterly exterminated.

Aftermath.
The Stone Giants who escaped renounced their former name, claiming the title the entire Imperium would give them – Renegades. Of the 300 survivors, roughly 60 or 70 turned to Chaos, as renegade Marines are wont to do. 30 or so brothers dispersed, some - like the now infamous Bran - becoming gladiators in the seaside Hive arenas, or pirates like Mylor the Cunning.

The vast majority - 150 in total - however, seeing their world burnt, their families infinitely more hurt by their betrayal than by their transformation into Space Marines, hardened, and under Captain Caedmon, they now strike at various Imperial targets, killing and plundering and trying their hardest just to hurt the Imperium as much as they can. They reside in one of the two Strike Cruisers the survivors escaped with. The other resides with Camlin, Captain of the Eighth Company, who repented the Renegades betrayal of the Emperor, and took 50 brothers with him on a quest for redemption into the unknown reaches of space – they have become known as Camlin's Company.

As for the 158 loyal members of the Chapter, they were placed on trial and found innocent of heresy, and granted permission to try and rebuild their Chapter. Rather than try to rebuild the Stone Giants however, they have instead moved to a small planet named Paxus, five light years from the Revenants home world Peace, and have renamed themselves the Brotherhood of Peace in honour of those who aided them in their time of need.

Organisation
The Stone Giants were a Codex Chapter to the letter, with a warrior sub-culture involving tribal tattoos that often saw the warriors engage in duels - if that is the right word for what amounted to a wrestling match - over warriors honour. Their recruitment process consisted of identifying a candidate, taking him from his parents in the middle of the night, and then indoctrinating them. It was this element of their recruitment process that eventually led to their downfall, together with (upon closer Inquisition inspection) a laxness in their psycho-indoctrination process, which left the Marines mind more open to question the Imperium.