Sanguine Paladins

Summary
The Sanguine Paladins are one of many Chapters descended from the Blood Angels, founded in the Eighth Founding. Considering themselves knights of the Imperium, they have made it their mission to defend the weak members of the people of the Imperium, following as best they can in the footsteps of their Primarch Sanguinius.

Essential Information
Chapter Name: Sanguine Paladins

Chapter Master: Cruor Maximillian

Motto: "By our blood is Mankind guarded!"

Gene seed ancestry: Blood Angels

Homeworld: Cruerem

Faction: Imperial.

History
The Sanguine Paladins were founded in the Eighth Founding, and given the Feudal world of Cruerem to call their own. Already imbued with a strong sense of duty simply by virtue of being Space Marines, they were further inspired to have this selfsame sense of strong duty by the nature of the inhabitants of Cruerem, who had a chivalric code that greatly influenced every Marine who was recruited from that populous over the following centuries.

It is perhaps the philosophies of the people of Cruerem that have most influenced the Paladins' approach to their duty – it was decided by the brothers of the Chapter that their first duty, before anything else, would be the defence of the weak of the Imperium. Whenever possible they would attempt to aid the people of mankind against the heretic and the xeno, and should they be ordered to hurt the innocent, they would refuse.

In practice, this has turned the Chapter into intractable warriors, fierce enemies both to the enemies of mankind and, occasionally, the leaders of the Imperium’s armies, as well as their brother Marines, who (too often for the liking of the Paladins) seem willing to sacrifice millions of the common people of the Imperium for the sake of goals that serve no one but number crunchers.

Many deride them as being unable to see the bigger picture in war, clouded by an over-idealistic attachment to the idea of defending the weak, but to many of the common folk of the Imperium they are exemplars of Space Marines, truly the Angels of the Emperor. The truth of it perhaps lies somewhere in between, for it is not unknown for warriors of the Sanguine Paladins to sacrifice their lives all too readily for the sake of protecting the civilians of the Imperium, sometimes at the cost of the larger battle. Nonetheless, despite these defeats, they will not change their philosophy of battle, for the Paladins feel that if they fail the common people, they fail the legacy of Sanguinius himself, and that is something the Sanguine Paladins will never do.

Home World
Cruerem is a feudal world, on the far edges of Segmentum Solar. While it's people have little technology, they have learned to survive, for Cruerem is abundant in fertile land and other natural resources that ease the hard task of making a living there for the populous.

The various armies of Cruerem's numerous nation-states operate under a chivalric system. This system holds that a true knight first defends the weak. It is this system that permeates the attitude of the Sanguine Paladins, as they recruit from Cruerem’s populous.

Training
The Paladins recruit from Cruerem's population by means of a test of combat, in which hundreds of applicants will meet and battle each other until only a select handful remain. These handful become the scouts of the Sanguine Paladins.

In their training, neophytes will be assigned a trainer - a more experienced member of the Chapter who will teach them important skills that they will come to rely on during their time as a Sanguine Paladin. This practice harks back to the relationship between knights and squires that many of the scouts will remember from their time as young warriors before their selection trial, and is designed to be a method of teaching that is familiar to them.

Organisation
The Sanguine Paladins, unlike many of their brothers amongst the successors of the Blood Angels, retain a purely Codex organisation. It is unknown whether they, too, suffer from the Black Rage, though it is expected that they do. However, the more idiosyncratic forces wielded by their parent Chapter have not – at least, not openly – been implemented by the Paladins. Whether the scattered reports of the Chapter fielding Assault Squads that “fight with berserker rage” – a description fitting a Death Company – are true or not have never been confirmed by the Chapter, and it is the unwise man who seeks that knowledge from the Paladins. Otherwise, they fight without Honour Guards or the technological advantages of their parent Chapter.

The Sanguine Paladins believe first that they must defend the weak of the Imperium – they believe that by doing so they are fulfilling the purpose of Sanguinius and the Emperor. Like many other Chapters, they venerate the Emperor as only a man, but they hold him as the greatest man who has ever lived and constantly strive to be worthy of him and his gifts.

Allies

 * The Forge. The Forge are noble warriors from a similar world to the Paladins,and the two naturally respect each other.

Enemies

 * The Restorers: the two have never attempted to reconcile their differences, the Paladins finding the Restorers arrogant and self serving.

The Qorintian Diatribe
Perhaps one of the shabbiest affairs the Chapter has been involved in; at the request of the High Lords, the Sanguine Paladins – together with the Emperor’s Firebrands and the Restorers – were sent to deal with the nascent Qorintian Diatribe. The Diatribe were a species that held a handful of solar systems, and the High Lords had no desire for a second alien empire to build on their doorstep after the debacle of the Tau. And so the Paladins were sent, led by their Chapter Master, Cruor Maximillian.

As is recorded elsewhere, the Restorers had already been engaged against the Diatribe for some time when the Paladins and the Firebrands arrived. Tobias Dion, Captain of the Restorers Third Company and previously the leader of all Astartes deployments in the area, reacted badly to the arrival of a higher ranking marine of another Chapter, considering it a slight on his authority, Though Maximillian was willing to discuss the matter with him, Dion ignored all summons and led his men on a near-suicidal mission to try and destroy the Diatribe’s governing body. Only the aid of the Firebrands Captain Valus and his men - and the loss of over 150 Marines - saved Dion and his brothers from total destruction in the fighting that followed.

Following the debacle, the Paladins’ Chapter Master sought to speak with Dion about his actions. The only response he got to his requests for a meeting was insults and invective, and soon thereafter the Restorers left, refusing to apologise for their manner. And so it was that the Paladins and the Restorers held a grudge against one another that has yet to abate, and neither will serve with the other.

Notable Members
Cruor Maximillian – the current leader of the Chapter – is a wise, noble man, whose bearing suggests that he was recruited from nobility. He has led his brother Marines for nigh on three hundred years, and in that time has fought Aliens, heretics, and countless other foes.