The Angels Numinous is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter and a successor of the Blood Eagles, of the Blood Angels' lineage, created during an unknown Founding.
The Angels Numinous and Red Seraphs are both descended from the Blood Eagles.
Created as they were from the Blood Angels' gene-seed, the Angels Numinous carry the genetic flaws inherited from Sanguinius. Like many of their contemporary Successor Chapters founded in later centuries, the Angels Numinous were greatly affected by the genetic flaws of their Blood Angels heritage, the Black Rage and the Red Thirst.
When a battle-brother of the Angels Numinous falls to the throes of the Black Rage he is placed within the ranks of the Chapter's Death Company.
The Chapter believes that only the weak fall into the embrace of the Black Rage. As a result of this, the Angels Numinous refuse to honour the Astartes of their Death Company, as the Blood Angels do, and instead consider their lost brothers to be nothing but a shameful embarrassment to their Chapter.
Because of this belief, unlike their forebears, the Angels Numinous are known to take a much harsher, punitive attitude to their battle-lost brothers, hurling their Death Companies into battle with no concern for their afflicted battle-brothers' lives and using them as a blunt instrument to break enemy front lines no matter the cost.
The Angels Numinous' Chaplains have displayed such merciless disregard many times across the span of millennia.
Chapter History[]
The Angels Numinous are the successors of the Blood Eagles, a Blood Angels successor in turn that tore itself in half during an unknown conflict. The two halves of the Blood Eagles then formed their own Chapters, the Angels Numinous and the Red Seraphs.
Those two Chapters joined with another Blood Angels successor, the Charnel Guard, to form an alliance of Sanguinius' sons known as the "Triarchy." Though allied, the Angels Numinous and Red Seraphs Chapters were noted to agree on nothing.
They used the ritualistic phrase, "We are Three, drawn from Two, born of One," to define their traditional partnership and kinship to one another.
It was a tradition of representatives of those three Chapters to meet at the abandoned homeworld of the Blood Eagles to determine a course of action that would involve the entire Triarchy. The ritual words were always spoken by the Triarchy representatives before any conclave could begin.
At one such conclave held after the birth of the Great Rift during the Era Indomitus, Ynoch of the Red Seraphs, Jagudir of the Angels Numinous and Mordath of the Charnel Guard gathered to discuss how the Triarchy would deal with their growing isolation in the Imperium Nihilus, as the Chapters were unable to cross the Great Rift and were coming under increasing threat from xenos and the forces of Chaos.
They decided to reject their traditions, and rather than defend their shrinking domains they would seek out the foes of the Emperor in the Dark Imperium and fight aggressively even if it meant the death of their Chapters. And they promised that if they could find Roboute Guilliman's Indomitus Crusade, they would join it.
Notable Campaigns[]
- Kallius Insurrection (Unknown Date.M40) - The Kallius Insurrection began when the worlds of the Kallius Sub-sector rose up in rebellion against the Imperium. The Angels Numinous Chapter was despatched to put down the insurrection, but it was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the massive rebellion. Seeing that the Angels Numinous needed aid, the Blood Angels sent reinforcements to the aid of their successors. But in the resulting conflict the Blood Angels were nearly annihilated as a Chapter, losing nine out of every ten Space Marines, and almost the entire Chapter council. Three full companies -- including the young Brother-Captain Dante and his 8th Company -- had launched a devastating assault on Kallius' Landing and its dependency worlds, in support of their overwhelmed successor brethren. World after world rose up in rebellion, insurrections spreading across the region and blanketing the sub-sector. Entire populations and ragtag fleets were led into battle by chanting Traitor Marines, clad in a panoply of colours, drawn from countless warbands. The Blood Angels found themselves tied up in protracted conflicts and trench wars, caught in a cobweb of a much wider heresy. As the solar weeks became months and the months became standard years, more and more of the Chapter arrived to punish, cleanse, and reclaim the rebellious worlds. The Rolls of Honour run black with the ink of millions of enemies slain, but the Blood Angels suffered casualties beyond their ability to sustain a fighting front. With dozens of Astra Militarum regiments arriving alongside several relief Chapters, the Blood Angels withdrew from the conflict with their heads held high. Yet the bitterest blow was yet to be struck: it came as the remnants of their fleet mustered above Kallius' Landing itself, when a Traitor armada broke from the Warp, hungry for the chance to wipe the Blood Angels from the face of the Imperium. The battle that followed lasted for three solar days of void war and vicious boarding actions, during which Dante and his warriors were responsible for the taking and scuttling of seven capital-class vessels. When the Blood Angels at last stood victorious and took stock of their losses, fewer than two hundred Space Marines clad in red still drew breath. The last surviving Blood Angels Sanguinary Priests and Chaplains came together in communion, electing the last living captain as the next Chapter Master. Dante accepted the mantle of Lord of the Angelic Host, while still wearing his bloodstained, broken armour. It would be the last day he ever wore red, forever after to be clad in sacred gold. Not because he was the best or the brightest, but purely because he was the last man standing. Such an ascension should have heralded a grim rule, but fate would tell a far different tale.
- Devastation of Baal (ca. 999.M41) - The Angels Numinous were among the forces deployed by the Blood Angels Successor Chapters to defend their parent Chapter's homeworld of Baal from an assault by the Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan.
Chapter Traditions[]
The Angels Numinous refer to the Emperor of Mankind as the "Padizhah."
When a battle-brother dies, the Angels Numinous have meticulous incineration rites to free the spirit of the lost Astartes, that the shades of the dead might reach the Padizhah's throne of gold.
The Angels Numinous are a very tradition-bound Chapter, like all the members of the Triarchy.
Notable Angels Numinous[]
- Chapter Master Geron - Geron is the current Chapter Master of the Angels Numinous.
- Chapter Master Deren - Deren was the Chapter Master of the Angels Numinous during the Kallius Insurrection.
- Captain Toranis - Toranis was a captain of the Angels Numinous Chapter during the Kallius Insurrection.
- Jagudir - Jagudir was the representative of the Angels Numinous on the Blood Eagles' abandoned homeworld at the Triarchy conclave that made the decision to take the offensive against the enemies of the Emperor in the Imperium Nihilus during the Era Indomitus.
Chapter Fleet[]
The Chapter fleet of the Angels Numinous is known to include the following vessels:
- Crimson Tear (Battle Barge) - The Crimson Tear was part of the fleet that was sent by the Chapter to assist the Blood Angels during Hive Fleet Leviathan's Devastation of Baal.
- Staff of Light (Strike Cruiser) - The Staff of Light was part of the fleet that was sent by the Chapter to assist the Blood Angels during the Devastation of Baal. During the battle of Zozan Tertius it was damaged and was used as a decoy to lure the Tyranids away from its task force. It was saved by Captain Erwin of the Angels Excelsis Chapter, who escorted it back to Baal. It was stated that that the colours of the Staff of Light were pale grey with vermillion shields. It may or may not be correlated with the Chapter's colours.
- Aruval - A warship of unknown class that bore Jagudir to the Triarchy conclave on the Blood Eagles' abandoned homeworld.
Chapter Appearance[]
Chapter Colours[]
The Angels Numinous' power armour is dark bronze.
Chapter Badge[]
The Angels Numinous' Chapter badge is a skull with a spiked halo.
Canon Conflict[]
Throughout The Devastation of Baal by Guy Haley, the Angels Numinous strike cruiser is referred to by two different names. The ship is called both Staff of Light or Staff of Life.
Sources[]
- Index Astartes: Death Company (Digital Edition), pp. 6-7
- Warlords of the Dark Millennium - Dante (6th Edition) (Digital Edition), "A Son of Sanguinius," pg. 9
- Trial By Blood (Novel) by Andy Smillie
- The Devastation of Baal (Novel) by Guy Haley pp. 177, 136-191, 192-198, 263
- Darkness in the Blood (Novel) by Guy Haley, pp. 10, 14, 26
- Aaron Dembski-Bowden's notes
- White Dwarf 454 (May-June 2020), "Tradition's Last Breath" by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, pp. 42-43