Heroes of the Flesh Tearers

For as much my reference as yours, I have compiled a list of all the notable characters. Of these, only Seth and Carnarvon are canonical. I have included some background stories so as to enlighten you all on how I view the chapter and how these characters embody the spirit and personality of the Flesh Tearers in my eyes. As this blog has always been full up of modelling projects, I thought it would be good to include some background material for some of my creations.... Enjoy!



Chapter Master, Gabriel Seth
See Codex: Blood Angels

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Carnarvon, High Chaplain of the Death Company, Watcher of the Lost (Counts as Astorath)
The High Chaplain of the Death Company, Carnarvon, bears a terrible responsibility, as it falls to him to watch over all 400 remaining Space Marines of the Flesh Tearers chapter for signs of the onset of the Black Rage. This is a position he has held for nearly 250 years and it is whispered by many that the strain of watching so many of his friends and comrades descend into the Rage, becoming raging lunatics hungry only for blood, has taken its toll on his sanity. At this time he has the final word as to who must be inducted into the Death Company and which of those Marines must be permanently incarcerated in the Tower of the Lost when they fall so far into madness that even he cannot control them. When not in combat, Carnarvon spends most of his time within the Tower, watching over his charges, ostensibly to find a path that will allow them to rejoin the Chapter. It is with grim acceptance that, when a Brother falls beyond all hope of salvation, when Carnarvon is no longer able to speak words that can touch the Brother's distant memories which have been overcome by the final visions of their progenitor, Astaroth is summoned to bring a final peace to their turmoil.

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Agur, Chief Librarian of the Flesh Tearers (Counts as Mephiston/Librarian)
It is the duty of the Librarians of the Flesh Tearers to travel widely, desperate to find the ancient and sacred texts which they believe must exist, in the hope of finding lasting salvation from their curse. Collected visions and prophecies of their Primarch reside within the Librarium on Cretacia gathered from the far corners of the galaxy, for it is not always lust for battle and uncontrolled rage which sees the Flesh Tearers Strikecruisers make planetfall. It falls to one figure the task of interpreting the words of their fallen Primarch in the hope that somewhere they will find the means to control the darkness in their genetic imprint as their Father once did. That is the Chief Librarian of the Flesh Tearers.

Agur has held this role for 3 centuries and in this time he has seen the doomed fate of the Chapter approaching ever nearer. Never has the task bestowed upon him been more important, nor more pressing. Untold hours are spent poring over texts, re-treading every word in the vain hope of finding something that has evaded his predecessors. Every tendril of the Flesh Tearers network of informants at work to find any rumour or legend of previously undiscovered lore from the preternatural mind of the Primarch, Agur has often personally led expedition forces to capture and reclaim these invaluable clues which may unlock the secrets to controlling the Flaw.

Having held at bay, for no Flesh Tearer can truly hope to overcome, the curse of the Black Rage within his superhuman body for over half a millennia in service of the Chapter, Chief Librarian Agur can be found on the battle field leading from the front, born aloft by great spectral wings as terrible energies play around his psychic hood like a mockery of a halo, for no visage as disfigured as his own could be described as angelic. On Proxis III Agur slew a monstrous Hive Tyrant with a single, earth-shattering blow from his Force Staff. However the creature's final act was to shower the Librarian with bile from its maw so caustic that it ate through his armour within seconds and reduced his once noble features to a burnt and grizzled mess. It has done little to dispel the mythos of the Flesh Tearers as inhuman monsters and demons when commanders are met face to face by the twisted visage of Brother Agur.

It is with equal measures of urgency and hope that Agur continues to spend every moment at his disposal trying to find salvation for the Flesh Tearers chapter before it is too late.

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Sanguinary High Priest of the Flesh Tearers, Keeper of the Sacred Chalice, Brother Amasai (Counts as Brother Corbulo/Sanguinary Priest/Sanguinary Novitiate)
When Amit and 1000 battle brothers headed into the stars following the slaughter of the battle on Terra to bring the fury and wrath of the newly formed Flesh Tearers upon the enemies of mankind, they took with them not only stocks of the precious gene seed but also a golden Blood Chalice presented to the Chapter's Sanguinary High Priest which contained drops of blood taken from the Red Grail which collected the life essence from the corpse of their beloved Primarch after his death at the hands of the Arch-Traitor Horus.

Whilst the Blood Angels' practise of transfusions of blood to new recruits to create new battle brothers was soon dropped by the fledgling chapter, the brotherhood of the Sanguinary Priests still continue the tradition of carrying the blood of their Primarch in their veins as a means of preserving his genetic legacy. This Sacred Chalice now resides in stasis on board the ancient Battlebarge Victus. It is in times of great darkness and dark forboding that current High Priest Amasai can be seen where the fighting is thickest and most desperate bearing aloft the brilliant Sacred Chalice as a nimbus of light emanates from the Chapter's holiest of relics. Amasai is the eldest living Flesh Tearer, having served under Seth's three previous predecessors. Eight centuries of service amongst the spires of the temple of the Sanguinary Priesthood have meant that Amasai has knowledge rivalling even the revered Ancients who are entombed within Dreadnought armour. Some say that the great foresight and perception of Amasai is not merely the result of experience, but that he is gifted with a prescience that is the result of the blood which has been flowing through his veins for nearly a millennium manifesting a fraction of the Primarch's own powers.

Either appearing like a comet from the skies born aloft by his jump pack dismembering foes with his ancient power-axe, or striding across the killing fields swinging his great chain-axe in crimson arcs of death, Amasai's very presence and that of the Sacred Chalice drive his Brothers to ignore near fatal wounds and fight with ferocity befitting their dreadful reputation as the living embodiment of wrath.

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Malach, Captain of the Sanguinary Guard(Counts as Dante/Sanguinary Guard)
When Azkaellon was entrusted the task of remaining on Terra while Sanguinius and his personal guard teleported onto Horus' battlebarge, it was so that the beacon that is the order of the Sanguinary Guard would continue in the event that tragedy should befall the Primarch. After the Battle of Terra and the reformation of the Legions when Guilliman laid down the Codex Astartes, the surviving Blood Angels became six individual Chapters. And so it fell to Azkaellon, the last surviving Guardian, to fulfil his sworn oath to his now fallen Primarch and ensure the tradition of the Sanguinary Guard was continued within the descendants of the Blood Angels, the sons of Sanguinius. The greatest human artisans of Mars crafted one hundred and twenty suits of new Mk 7 armour so beautiful each would have been fit for any Chapter Master to wear. Each finished in burnished gold bearing the heraldry of The Angel himself and paired with mighty jump packs of a design never again seen, 20 were gifted to each Chapter and bestowed upon the most noble, valourous and pure hearted of veterans. Men who on Terra single handedly held mighty gates from ravening hordes of daemonspawn, who slew traitor Marine champions of Chaos and their Chosen cohorts, who performed acts so valiant they will live on forever, their deeds inscribed on great plaques within the sanctum of the Golden Throne. These Brothers became the Sanguinary Guard of their newly formed Chapters. They became shining beacons of hope, living legends amongst their battle brothers who would bring light after these darkest of events.

It is 10,000 years since the Battle of Terra and the Flesh Tearers have endured much in their long history. Mighty heroes have come and passed. The Flaw has decimated their ranks leaving them on the precipice of destruction. Constant battle has left them bloodied, bruised and staring into the maw of oblivion. It is at this hour more than any other that the shining beacon of light and hope is needed more than ever. For whilst out of all of the descendants of Sanguinius the Flesh Tearers have been the most touched by the curse of the Black Rage, those who have ascended to the hallowed ranks of the Sanguinary Guard have displayed an incredible ability to withstand the Curse. Through strength of will, purity of purpose and divine guidance these golden brothers have harnessed the fury within themselves and focussed it into an unerring force on the battlefield. It is well known that to ascend to the Sanguinary Guard is as close as a Flesh Tearer will get to obtaining immortality. His name will live on forever amongst the greatest heroes of the chapter. Whilst the ranks of the Flesh Tearers are battle weary and in constant action performing only the most necessary of repairs to their battered and well-worn equipment, their Sanguinary Guard stand apart, their mirrored golden armour reflecting the rays of light like some form of divine aura. For these are living relics which have been worn by countless heroes who continue to perform deeds that could one day match those of the original 20 for whom these suits were made.

Of all the Sanguinary Guard currently in service of the Flesh Tearers today, it is Malach who's name is held in as much awe as that of those of millennia past. As Captain of the Guardians, he leads them into battle as the embodiment of divine wrath. It was six hundred years previously that as a member of the 1st company, Malach led his unit of Vanguard dropping directly into the heart of an Ork invasion of the Warlord Umbrag the Butcher on the industrial moon Targos. As the Imperial defence force was being overrun by thousands of the green horde, a Thunderhawk gunship of darkest arterial red and black was seen to drop out of orbit and strafe the Ork lines. Malach and his squad descended directly onto the Warlord's armoured column of Battlewagons and destroyed three immediately with Infernus pistol and Meltabomb. As the hulking figure of Umbrag in his Mega-armour stumbled from the wreckage along with his bodyguard of Mega-Nobz, Malach's squad charged immediately whilst the aliens were still disoriented from the blast. One swing from his Thunder Hammer and the Warlord was dead, as his squad members cut down the now fleeing bodyguard. Seeing this feat of arms, the Ork Waaaagh was broken and they died to the guns of the now re-invigorated Imperial forces. But, it was not after this that Malach was raised to the Sanguinary Guard. Nor was it after he killed the Word Bearer Dark Apostle Krune in single combat. Nor after he planted the Melta Bombs which disabled the Eldar Phantom Titan at the Battle of Werdum, for these are all feats that are expected of the men-become-gods of the Sanguinary Guard. Feats that are recounted for days during the rare high feasts as inspiration to both new aspirants and grizzled veterans alike. No, it is due to his unwavering control and unquestionable faith that Malach was inducted into the Sanguinary Guard and his name will live on, as well as the innumerable tales of bravery and heroics since as an inspiration to all Flesh Tearers who will come after him. And why his foes will know what it is to look upon death whenever the golden host descends upon the battlefield, for nothing else in the Imperium is at once so beautiful yet so utterly terrifying.

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Ancient Shavur, Furioso Librarian Dreadnought
Shavur served as Chief Librarian of the Flesh Tearers some 6 millennia ago and was responsible for personally retrieving several works of Sanguinius previously thought lost forever. It was on the ash-wastes of the moon Corinth in the Segmentum Tempestus that Brother Shavur suffered the wounds which even his super-human physiology could not recover from and was interred within the sarcophagus of a Furioso Dreadnought.

Since then Ancient Shavur has remained with the Flesh Tearers on Cretacia, spending most of his time in the dream state of stasis only to be awakened in the event his insight and knowledge is needed when a new sacred text is discovered. It is only in the darkest and most dreadful of circumstances that Shavur's new Ceramite and Adamantium body would set foot on the battlefield carrying his enormous Force Halberd. His powers amplified and channeled through the arcane circuitry surrounding the life support systems in his living tomb, Shavur can still unleash terrible energies or even bear himself aloft across the battlefield through sheer force of will.

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Brother Captain Lucius of the 2nd Company (Counts as Lemartes/Death Company)
Brother Captain Lucius led the 2nd company of the Flesh Tearers to reclaim the lost planet of Ammonai in the Baal system. The daemonic hordes of the returned Ka'Bandha had descended on the planet through warp rifts opened by darkest magicks and long forgotten pacts and overrun the population in one night of slaughter and bloodshed. 8 million were sacrificed the next day and great altars and temples were erected at the centre of the capital as the blood ran so thick it flowed down into the ocean some 5 miles away.

Answering the call of Dante, the full fighting force of the Flesh Tearers mobilised in what could be their very last stand. Coming out of warpspace outside the Baal system, the strike cruisers of the 2nd company mobilised Thunderhawks, Storm Raven and Drop Pods ready to make planetfall and face the daemons head on in a battle for Sanguinius' home system. It was at this point that terrible visions of the past and the future overcame every marine in the orbit of Ammonai. Reliving battles on Signus Prime, at the Eternity Gate and the final duel with Horus, as well as being plagued with visions of Baal aflame and copper skinned daemons bathing in rivers of blood all seventy three brothers of 2nd company including Captain Lucius were falling one by one to the Black Rage. Even the company's Sanguinary Priests and Librarians succumbed, with only the three Chaplains remaining unaffected. And so it fell to them to task the serfs and technicians to repaint all of the company's battlegear black, for that night every Brother was inducted into the Death Company.

Wielding his Power Axe, Lucius and his Honour Guard strapped on their jump packs and embarked onto their Storm Raven as the Chaplains recited the words of the Black Mass. The full might of the 2nd company descended into the capital clad in black battle plate. None expected to return.