Crafting Cave Games

Origins

The Night Angels are thought to be a 4th Founding chapter, organized some time in the 33rd millennium.  Records show the Dark Angels high command to have petitioned the High Lords of Terra for leave to create the chapter, with the Inner Circle exerting influence to see the petition granted.  They were originally intended to be a strictly fleet-based crusading chapter, but discovered and took possession of Angel’s Keep within a millennium of their founding.
 
Chapter Home World: Angel’s Keep

Angel’s Keep is a continent-sized warp-capable fortress-monastery comparable to the Rock.  However, unlike the Rock, Angel’s Keep appears to have been entirely manufactured rather than being a planetary body retrofitted for space and warp travel.  Parent chapter records suggest Angel’s Keep was originally discovered in an incomplete state by the Primarch during the Great Crusade, and he ordered the structure salvaged and completed – to what end is not recorded, and even this information is kept within the Inner Circle.

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Also unlike the Rock, Angel’s Keep is home to a sizeable civilian populace.  Many of the great vessel’s structures appear to have been intended for habitation and the maintenance of a population.  The Night Angels were obliged to use these facilities to evacuate the population of planet, and the leadership of the population petitioned the Night Angels to be allowed to remain on Angel’s Keep rather than be resettled.  The human population provides extra security to Angel’s Keep, with every adult receiving combat training comparable to (and in many cases superior) to a planetary PDF, and the occasional Imperial Guard regiment is mustered from Angel’s Keep.
 
Present Activities

The Night Angels are committed to multiple war zones, most notably against Abaddon’s 13th Black Crusade, where Angel’s Keep provides its considerable power and acts as a logistical center for Imperial efforts in the sector.  The 3rd and 4th battle companies (as well as elements of the Ravenwing , Deathwing, and the reserve companies) operate out of Angel’s Keep.  The 5th battle company currently operates from the battle barge Sword of Stars against the Tau, and the 6th battle company is assigned to the battle barge Lion’s Hammer, whereabouts currently undisclosed.  In addition, ad hoc battle groups drawn from the reserve companies operate from the chapter’s  strike cruisers, although at least 2 of these are usually assigned to escort Angel’s Keep at any given time.
 
Battle Honors

Battle for Angel’s Keep: In the third century of the chapter’s existence, the full chapter and all its fleet assets fought the Battle for Angel’s Keep, a full-scale engagement against a Night Lords force led by a cabal of Fallen Angels.  The bulk of the Night Angels’ forces broke the back of the more numerous Chaos fleet in desperate boarding actions while Grand Master Absalom led the entirety of the First and Second Companies in a mass action against Chaos forces on Angel’s Keep itself.  The outnumbered Night Angels were assisted by the automated defenses aboard Angel’s Keep, which engaged the Chaos forces, but not their own.  Though successful, Grand Master Absalom fell in this engagement, and was the first member of the chapter’s Inner Circle to be interred into a Dreadnought.  Upon inspection of the massive vessel, Night Angels leadership discovered the Fallen Angels’ true purpose in assaulting the spaceborne edifice – not for it’s obvious strategic value, but to breach the stasis vault deep in the heart of the great vessel, where Master Librarian Rastus and Interrogator Chaplain Kagan discovered <Redacted by order of the Inner Circle>

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Battle of Lucente Prime: The Fifth Company and elements of the Seventh and Ninth Reserve Companies were stationed on the Sword of Stars at the onset of the Age of Apostasy.  Sword of Stars was in the Chonma Sector of the Segmentum Solar, gathering recruits from the hive worlds Necromunda and Hermetica when warp storm activity isolated the great ship from the rest of the Night Angels’ fleet.  These Night Angels were soon obliged to defend Imperial worlds from both external aggressors and the increasingly-insane edicts of Lord Vandire, culminating in the Battle of Darkest Night, in which the isolated Night Angels engaged a Frateris Templar army in the midst of a violent purge of the population of Lucente Prime.  Fought during a rare week-long double-eclipse of the binary system’s two suns, the Night Angels drew Ministorum force to overextend itself on multiple fronts, and annihilated them piecemeal over the course of several days. 

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Mycenaeus V Massacre: The Third Battle Company was in the Helica Sector at the beginning of M39 when Abaddon launched his 10th Black Crusade.  Chaos forces ran rampant through the sector whilst the traitor Warmaster led the Iron Warriors against the Iron Hands homeworld.  The 3rd Company was taking delivery of supplies from Mycenaeus V when the Night Lords descended en masse on the productive agri-world.  The 3rd Company and the planetary PDF struggled to protect the planet’s population, but were eventually forced to evacuate as many people as possible to the most defensible location on the planet, the capital city Danae’s Landing.  The city fell under unrelenting attack from hordes of mutants the Chaos Marines transported to the planet to overwhelm its defenders.  The commander of the 3rd Company, Master Bahadur, selected one Marine from each squad to go into the shelters under the city with those too young, old, or infirm to fight.  He then led the rest of his company and the remnants of the PDF in a bitter defense against the Chaos forces.  The Night Lords pressed the assault, and battle raged in the ruined streets of the once-beautiful city.   Except for the 10 Marines selected to defend the most helpless of the planet’s citizens, the 3rd Company was wiped out to a man, but their intractable defense bought time for relief forces to arrive and rout the traitor forces.

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Battle of Aventum III:  Pursuit of the Fallen Angel Olufemi the Obscene brought Galizur, previous master of the Night Angels Ravenwing, to the backwater world of Aventum III.  There, his strike force found the world in full rebellion, the planetary nobility having been corrupted by the Fallen’s dark counsel, with a small convent of Adeptus Sororitas of the Order of the Bloody Rose being the only force on the planet remaining loyal to the Emperor.  Employing the guile the Ravenwing is known for, Galizur deployed only Ravenwing and Scout units, striking at the traitor forces deployed against the Adeptus Sororitas, wreaking enough havoc to make the Fallen Angel think the Sororitas force was a great enough threat to require his personal intervention.  Once Olufemi committed himself to a massive attack against the Sororitas convent, Galizur unleashed his full force, sending the rebel forces into disarray with a drop pod assault on their vanguard, while Ravenwing squads swept through to the forward command post, trapping Olufemi long enough to call in the Deathwing.  Two full squads of the elite 1rst Company annihilated the Olufemi’s bodyguards, and Galizur himself ran down the Fallen.  With his quarry secure, Galizur then turned his attention to the rebel forces.  In combination with the Adeptus Sororitas, the Night Angels routed the traitors and destroyed the attacking force wholesale.

Chapter Organization

The Night Angels are largely adherent to the Codex Astartes, with 3 notable divergences.  The first is that, like other Unforgiven chapters, the Night Angels maintain the specialized Deathwing and Ravenwing organization of their 1rst and 2nd companies.  The second is the maintenance of the Codex-mandated 4 battle companies, and the third is in the maintenance of a company-strength force permanently stationed aboard Angel’s Keep.  This results in the chapter having a fighting strength greater than the dictated 1000-man organization.
 
Fleet Assets

Angel’s Keep: Chief among the Night Angels’ fleet assets, Angel’s Keep is a formidable strategic asset for any commander.  The fortress monastery provides a  base for fleet operations comparable to the Blackstone Fortresses lost during the Gothic War, with the additional advantages of being capable of space and warp travel.   Imperial Navy fleet commanders will often use Angel’s Keep as the linchpin of their theater defense.  Because of this, the Night Angels have rarely withdrawn the vast space-fortress from an ongoing conflict, being loathe to see an entire sector’s defense collapse.

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Sword of Stars: One of the chapter’s  capital ships, the battle barge is actually the third to bear the name.  The first Sword of Stars was destroyed in action in M34 against traitor forces sallying from the Eye of Terror.  Contact with the second Sword of Stars was lost in M36, and her fate was unknown until M37, when she was found drifting dead in space.  External and internal damage suggested she had engaged in both a pitched ship-to-ship battle and a bitter boarding action – against whom is a secret tightly guarded by the Inner Circle.  The chapter took what could be salvaged from the wreck, but she was so badly damaged she had to be destroyed rather than recovered.  The current Sword of Stars was built by the shipyard facilities on Angel’s Keep, the largest vessel to be produced by the fortress-monastery.

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Lion’s Hammer: the oldest of the Night Angels’ vessels, Lion’s Hammer was the flagship of fleet which the chapter originally called home.  Though heavily damaged in innumerable engagements, Lion’s Hammer has always found her way through the storm, bearing her crew and passengers to fight anew another day.  Over the millennia, the numerous repairs and retrofitting have left the ancient battle barge one of the most unique vessels in the Imperium, and thousands of years of uninterrupted activation have resulted in a machine spirit so intelligent it is almost prescient.  The ship seems to exhibit a distinct personality – something the chapter’s Techmarines vehemently deny, despite the fact they jockey with each other for assignments aboard the ancient dreadnought.
 
Recruitment

The Night Angels are unusual among Space Marine chapters, in that they do the vast majority of their recruiting from the populations of Imperial hive-cities.  Night Angels leadership found that hive gangs generate recruits scarcely less capable and aggressive than those mustered from feral or death worlds, and the teeming masses of hive cities provide a rich bounty of suitable candidates, far in excess of the chapter’s own needs.  The Night Angels routinely provide these surplus candidates to other Unforgiven chapters, and very occasionally to non-Unforgiven chapters who have suffered catastrophic losses.
 
Chapter Colors: Primarily dark blue and silver.  Veterans, sergeants, and above generally have silver faceplates on their helmets.

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Battle Honors/relics/decorations/awards:

Feather of Rising Angels: The Supreme Grand Master of the Night Angels and all his Company Masters bear a slivery-white feather commemorating the Battle for Angel’s Keep.

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Suns Eclipsed: The Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth Companies bear twin eclipsed suns on their company standards to commemorate the Battle of Lucente Prime.

Combat Doctrine

The Night Angels favor a highly mobile approach to warfare.  As such, most infantry units will have armored transport, and they freely mix Ravenwing and battle company units in combat formations.  Their Deathwing company rarely takes the field en masse, and instead is dispersed throughout the chapter’s active tasks forces  in order to provide each commander with a heavy shock unit when such is required.
 
Battle Cry

Nos contra timores nocturnos - Against the terrors of the night we stand
 
Local rituals

The Pilgrimage: Once per year, each Night Angel puts aside his arms and armor, and for 24 Terran hours walks among the civilian population of Angel’s Keep.  Ostensibly, the goal is for each Marine to pray at the Cathedral of the Lion, located deep in the heart of the great fortress’ city.  However, the deeper purpose is to allow each Marine to reconnect with his humanity by immersing himself, if only briefly, in the lives of those he fights to defend.  The yearly ritual tends to make the Night Angels somewhat less aloof than other Unforgiven chapters.
 
Beliefs

The Night Angels hold to the same beliefs as their parent chapter, revering the Emperor as an inspired man rather than as a living god, and holding the Lion in near-equal esteem.  Perhaps unsuprisingly, these beliefs have bled into the civilian population of Angel’s Keep, so that their practices are very similar to that of their Space Marine overlords – a matter of some concern to the Ministorum.

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A belief unique to the Night Angels is that descendants of the Primarchs can be found among the teeming throngs of humanity.  Each of the Primarchs lived among the people of his world, only being found and reclaimed by the Emperor in their full adulthood.  The Night Angels postulate that each had children who spread their genetic heritage into the citizenry of the Imperium, and that from time to time that legacy manifests, for good or for ill depending on the legacy of the Primarch in question.
 
Gene-Seed: Dark Angels
 
Champions of the Chapter

Ancient Absalom: The first Grand Master of the Night Angels, Ancient Absalom fell in the battle for Angel’s Keep, but chose to keep serving the chapter from the armored form of a Dreadnought. He is a source of inspiration for the chapter’s Battle Brothers, inspiring them to the highest acts of valor and determination whenever he takes the field.  He is also a valuable advisor to the Chapter’s Inner Circle, with many of his successors having benefited from his guidance.  As such, he is also privy to chapter’s secrets –even spending decades at a time in slumber, there is little about his chapter he is not aware of.

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Grand Master Raphael: The current Grand Master of the Night Angels’ Deathwing Company, Raphael is a somber figure, responsible for leading his men in the most brutal of the chapter’s engagements.   Preferring to lead by example, Raphael will teleport into battle with his elite Terminators, charging into the thick of combat without hesitation.  He favors going into battle armed with thunder hammer and storm shield, enabling him to stand toe-to-toe with and prevail against even the most formidable of foes.  Raphael is widely presumed to be next in line to be Grand Master of the chapter.

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Grand Master Raziel: twin brother to Raphael, Raziel is the current Grand Master of the Night Angels’  Ravenwing Company.  As dissimilar to his brother in temperament as he is similar in appearance, Raziel is a daring risk-taker who favors lightening maneuver to brutal assault.  As such, he is well suited to leading the Chapter’s most mobile formations.  He is also a humanist on whom weighs heavily the plight of Imperial citizens caught in the growing darkness of the end of the 41rst millenium.  He is often reluctant to withdraw his forces from a theater of war when the Hunt dictates.  Even so, he is responsible for running to ground more of the Fallen than any of his predecessors within the chapter.

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Supreme Grand Master Sandalphon: Responsibility for the success and survival of the Night Angels chapter falls upon the shoulders of Supreme Grand Master Sandalphon.  It is a burden and privilege he has born for just over three centuries.  Whereas most Unforgiven commanders are figures of silent menace, Sandalphon is a leader of stern charisma, inspiring his chapter and the forces fighting alongside them with both word and deed.