Legio IX: The Lions Rampant

Numeration: IXth Legion

Primarch: Cromwald Walgrun (dubbed "The Lion of Sommesgard", "The Field Marshal")

Cognomen (prior): The Highland Raiders

Homeworld: Sommesgard

Notable specializations: Armored warfare, high-mobility maneuver warfare

Allegiance: Excommunicate traitoris

The IXth legion, dubbed the Lions Rampant, fought to perfect the science of victory through highly mobile, heavily armed forces working to a grand strategy. On the battlefield their deployments and strategies are nothing less than brilliant, drawing from a long tradition of mastery over terrain, logistics, and an almost uncanny presence of mind in predicting and countering enemy movements. Notably, the IXth incorporate an extensive diplomatic corps integrated within the legion's structure, playing into the carefully maintained veneer of gentlemanly behavior and nobility in appearance and deed. The Lions Rampant are arrogant yet benevolent, and possess a doctrine of converting worlds into recruitment centers that resembles their close allies in the XXVIth legion.
The fall to Chaos twisted the high standards of conduct the Lions held into something wholly debased. In the wake of their treason their souls were sold to Slaanesh and their lust for the thrill of war elevated to the point of insanity. Their actions, and the actions of many of their splintered warband demonstrate a perverse preference for the same breed of highly mobile warfare, and a wholly corrupt gift of silvered tongues in dealing with their foes. They are fickle and unpredictable, prone to almost civil behavior at one moment, and absolute barbarism and slaughter the next.

Founded in the waning years of the Terran Unification Wars, the IXth were drawn from the conquered peoples of Albyon and Franc, who made excellent stock for the nascent legions. They were drawn together and clad in livery of deep blue and slate grey. Dubbed the Highland Raiders, these marines formed a vanguard that saw conflict across the galaxy, beginning with the conquest of Merica and stretching far to the galactic south and west.
The Raiders prosecuted their wars with a solemn stoicism that bordered on self destructive. Their leadership consisted of skilled yet callous generals, under whose command the marines ground away the enemies of the Emperor. They marched to battle knowing well their lives were the currency of war, to be spent in the crusade to claim worlds for the growing Imperium. This outlook distanced them from many of their peers, who found the dour nature of the Raiders made for poor allies.
For the first half of the Great Crusade the IXth fought in this fashion, marking brutal victories over renegade regimes such as the charnal lords of Voughry VI, or the alien domain of the Skrrt-ka. Few of these campaigns were lauded, as each came at a steep toll in life. The Raiders simply fought and won, then moved on to the next hellish battlefield to crush under the treads of their tanks. For over a century this persisted, as the Raiders grew stigmatized for lacking a primarch or any glories to celebrate. Internally, the legion eventually succumbed to a morbid acceptance of their fate as the lost sons of the Crusade, and fought on all the same.

In the year 914.M30 the last of the primarchs was discovered on the world of Sommesgard. At this time the bulk of the Highland Raiders were engaged in the waning days of the reclamation of sub-sector Orridak from the technocratic league that held out against the Emperor's rule. They were not to be reunited with their primarch until five years later, after the fires of the brutal campaign had burned out. When the legion was gathered to join their genetic forbear, the meeting initial was joyless and cynical. Cromwald, the Lion of Sommesgard, had lost his arm in battle against the Mechanicum, and had joined the Emperor only after a brilliant but violent resistance against the explorators that had discovered his homeworld. To the Raiders the parallel was immediately drawn; it seemed fitting that a mangled legion would have an equally mutilated primarch.
This disappointment was short lived. Cromwald was a talented orator, and his voice rang clear upon the plains of Berau, where his legion stood assembled. He spoke to his men of struggle and triumph, and with a firebrand's tongue he banished their dismal outlook. With every rousing word he kindled in the hearts of his legion a fire, offering a renewal of purpose and a chance to claim their place of honor at the forefront of the Crusade. Only the most jaded of marines were unmoved by their primarch.
The reformation that followed was a six year plan that halted all activity in the crusade. The whole strength of the legion was brought to their new home at Sommesgard, where Cromwald toiled to remake his legion into Lions, fit to roar their name across the stars. Across mountains, deserts and plains the legionaries engaged in strategic exercises and wargames designed to incorporate new strategies and weapons into their order of battle. As the men drilled and trained in the arts of war, Cromwald chose carefully from their ranks and built a core of officers. Tapped for their cunning and organizational prowess, these marines endured a grueling course of training in the classroom, on the battlefield, and in the halls of government to mold them into masters of their craft. The final act was to inject new blood into the IXth, drawn from the rich military culture that had raised Cromwald from his youth. Officer cadets became astartes, and with them came a reinforcement of the new values and ideas Cromwald worked to instill in his marines. While he would never truly break the old Raiders of their roots to Terra, he was successful in distancing his legion from their bleak history. When they returned to the Crusade, it was clad in the crimson and purple armor of their new cognomen: the Lions Rampant.

The corruption of chaos infected the Lions. Like a disease, it began with a single victim and spread, becoming an epidemic that dragged the legion into darkness.
It began with the primarch, whose ailing body had already fallen victim to betrayal. In desperation he turned to his brother Aubrey; his only hope was for a peerless chirurgeon to banish the numbness that robbed him of all sense. Sorcerous rituals were woven by the first heretic, who used honeyed words to convince the Lion that it would heal his broken body. With that, Cromwald's soul was tarnished and his honor forsaken.
The rot spread swiftly to his closest advisers. Upon returning to the Indomitable Sovereign, Cromwald sought out the masters of the apothecarion. He gathered them in council and revealed to them a vile scheme. Each was sworn to complicity over the blood of those who refused. The sacrifice of those too pure to be swayed brought the favor of chaos to the beating heart of the legion. Inspired by the revelations shared, the apothecaries went to work crafting the primarch's legacy. Using forbidden practices that blended science and sorcery they corrupted the gene-stock of the legion. With each marine tended to by the corrupt physicians, the Lion's curse of numbness spread, bringing madness and despair to the indulgent Lions. As the epidemic spread, the bloodshed began. Chaos took root in those who were malleable and desperate, mirroring the fate of the primarch. These twisted souls found new life in the embrace of Slaanesh; the Prince of Excess delighted in granted new, abominable senses to replace those that had burnt out to the curse. All their master demanded was blood and loyal service.
In the wake of the epidemic of corruption came a silent pogrom. The first victims never knew they had been marked. They were singled out by their peers for their courage and resolve to undertake hazardous, often suicidal postings. Others fell prey to "accidents", and yet others were simply murdered in cold blood by those they trusted. At every level loyalists were being quietly dispatched; even the chief librarian fell victim when he saw his primarch for what he had become. Friends, brothers in arms and fellow astartes were offered to the ruinous powers over five years of carefully hidden violence. Few escaped the madness consuming the proud ninth.

The Highland Raiders are a product of their circumstance. Their recruits are drawn from the northeastern remains of what once was old Europe. These recruits are selected for hardiness in body and mind, and are subjected to a trial by pilgrimage to earn their place. Every recruit must journey from their homes to the remote orbital facility nestled in the frozen wasteland north of Albyon. The journey is grueling, as applicants face starvation, dehydration, frigid temperatures and hungry wildlife. Those who survive endure the implantation process and are given rudimentary training en route to the front lines of the crusade. There is little time given over to advanced training, as the casualty rate the Raiders experience demands swift replacements be fed into the line chapters at war.
As with recruiting, war itself is a test of endurance for marines of the IXth. Value on individual life is a luxury ill afforded by the Raiders, as they constantly face well entrenched and prepared foes. On the strategic level, battles are fought and won through a willingness sacrifice of lives to batter the foe into submission. On the tactical level, individual squads muster cunning and fortitude to survive the brutality of marching into the guns of the enemy. From this a Darwinian selection preserves the gifted, intelligent and lucky. Such marines who live to become veterans are jaded, morbid souls gifted with a devious cleverness. These men become sergeants, captains or more, and apply their hard earned experience in commanding their juniors into the teeth of the enemy.
This bloody manner in prosecuting war defined the structure of the legion. From their inception the Highland Raiders operated under a standard Terran organization of forces. As the crusade drove on, this organization was simplified to maintain accurate rosters of casualties and the needs of the many ad hoc units on the front lines. Complicated command structures seldom lasted, as they invariably could not operate efficiently in the wake of the high turnover of casualties and replacements.

Largely, the armories of the ninth legion resemble that of their Terran forebears. Much of their equipment is standard to the patterns seen across all legions and theaters of war. The specialization of the Lions Rampant lay not in esoteric armaments, but in doctrine and quantity of the arms they bear. While other legions maintain a balance of infantry, armor and supporting elements, the Lions field armor across every level of their organizational structure. Grand hosts of rhinos, predators, bikes and speeders fill the vaulted halls of the legion arsenal, providing an iron steed for the vast majority of the marines fielded in the crusade. Among the ranks of war machines lay the Lions' one signature engine of destruction: the vanquisher pattern predator. Armed with a long barreled cannon and equipped with sophisticated ammunition, it is unsurpassed in its ability to engage and destroy enemy armor at extreme range. These predators form the core of the lancer squadrons at the heart of the legion's armored doctrine.
To enable their manner of aggressive maneuver warfare, the ninth require vast resources dedicated to communications and logistics. They field an abnormally large number of command rhino tanks, equipped with powerful vox casters and advanced logis engines to maintain extensive communication networks. These manage the massive input of data from the Goshawk squads and their enhanced targeters, then relay it to the speeder and artillery squadrons for rapid support of the infantry and armor in the field.

The Lions Rampant are divided into five primary formations, dubbed divisions. These divisions are autonomous, commanded by a Field Marshal and are capable of prosecuting campaigns across vast sectors of space on their own initiative and logistics.
Each division is further broken into five brigades, commanded by a Brigadier and possessing roughly five thousand marines. The first brigade of each division is designated as an armored formation, whereas the remaining four are primarily infantry. These brigades break down further into battalions of one thousand marines under a Major, then further still into one hundred man companies under a Captain. Past this the organization breaks into sections and squads of roughly thirty and ten marines, respectively.
Outside of the divisional structure lay numerous assets attached to varying levels of command. These auxiliary units include specialist reconnaissance or engineering units, communication teams, logistical support, or liaisons to the auxilia forces fighting alongside the legion. These formations operate in an ad hoc fashion, which varies wildly between divisions and campaigns.

The Cramalthian Dragoons - The bold men of Cramal rose to prominence in service to the Lion. Borne to an industrialized world burdened with a swelling population and natural resources better suited to the foundries than the bellies of their children, these men adopted an autocratic regime to closely ration the wealth of their world while scientists raced to pioneer a road to their verdant world of Bounty. They were discovered at the turning point in their history, when the initial invasion landed to claim Bounty from her inhabitants in a tide of steel and flame.
The Lions' arrival ended the blooding of the Cramalthian army prematurely, yet in doing so made an offer far greater than the oligarchs could have imagined. Impressed by the armored might of the relatively backwater world, Geoffrey the Lionheart offered them the resources of the burgeoning Imperium to feed their people, and the technical expertise to produce ever greater engines of war. His terms demanded only the loyal service of the fighting men of Cramal on the long crusade to come. The oligarchs saw the opportunity to alleviate the strains of overpopulation, and agreed to the pact. Regiments were raised and equipped with new weapons and vehicles to take their banner to the stars.
At war, the Cramalthian Dragoons adhere to a doctrine of ironclad cavalry, using their tanks and personnel carriers in lieu of flesh and blood horses. They are a swift force reliant on overwhelming firepower to smash the enemy under their treads. This complements the more nimble Lions, who often outpace their allies with their rapid deployments and unparalleled mobility.
Legio Martyax, the Maneaters - In the wake of the battle for Berau, few among the Lions Rampant would have expected Cromwald to turn to the titans of the Mechanicum for aid. It was by their hand his arm had been lost on the fields of his homeworld. Despite the Emperor's reconciliation of both parties, the cynical veterans of the legion were bitter towards the priests of Mars. They were guilty of leaving them with a broken primarch, to match their broken and ignoble legion. In the wake of the reformation it then came as a shock when Cromwald approached the high princeps of the very legion responsible for his injury with terms of alliance. He knew well the power of the titans of Mars, and wished to join them to the strength of his astartes. It took time to negotiate the terms of authority, but the titans agreed to be the primarch's answer to the most stubborn and entrenched of foes.
Legio Martyax marches to war in livery of deep, bloody red edged in lustrous silver. Their titans are predatory things, equipped with laud hailers to allow the snarling roars of the vicious machine spirits to terrify the enemy. With each engine of war given a deaths' head visage, they are truly unsettling to face in battle; on longer campaigns foes would learn to fear the sign of the gaping blue maw, knowing it heralded monsters hungry for carnage.