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This article concerns the Space Marine Legion rank. For the Space Marine infantry unit, see Centurion.


Luna Wolves Centurion Mk II

A centurion of the Luna Wolves Legion during the Great Crusade.

A Centurion, also called a Consul or Legiones Consularis in High Gothic, was the generalised term given to the middle rank held by a senior Astartes line officer of the Space Marine Legions that was in use during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras of the late 30th and early 31st Millennia.

A centurion served as a middle-tier battle line officer, as well as taking on more specialised functions which helped give an Astartes Legion its unusual operational depth and strategic flexibility.

The actual name of the rank could vary from Legion to Legion, depending on its particular culture, traditions and the operational specialty of the officer in question.

History[]

The ancient Legiones Astartes were composed of tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of Space Marines. As such, each Legion required a substantial core of leaders, champions and line officers.

Whether one of these specialist officers, generically called "consuls," was actually a captain who commanded a company composed of a thousand or more Legionaries on campaign, or a "shield-lieutenant" given charge of a boarding party in a savage void battle, to have risen through the ranks of their Legion to the middle tiers of its hierarchy meant that they had already demonstrated their worth in the bloody fire of conflict.

Consuls[]

Legion Champ & Master of Sig

Pre-Heresy Emperor's Children Legion Champion and a Master of Signal.

The term "centurion" was often used to represent one of the specialist officers of the Space Marine Legions, who were collectively referred to as "consuls," or Legiones Consularis in High Gothic, although this covered many different ranks and specialties such as the Chaplains, fleet-captains, blood chieftains, vigilators, legates and even the psykers who became Librarians.

General Consul Types[]

The following are the most common examples of officers of what would be considered centurion rank found in the Space Marine forces of the Great Crusade, although many others existed in particular Legions.

  • Consul Chaplain - Legion Chaplains ensured the spiritual well-being of their Legion and enforced the psyker ban in accordance to the Emperor's Decree Absolute rendered during the Council of Nikaea. These officers were picked from those Space Marines who were the most steadfast in their duties, and who had demonstrated the strongest loyalty to their Primarch and to the Emperor.
  • Legion Champion Consul - A Legion Champion's sworn task was to hunt down and slay the commanders and heroes of an enemy force in single combat. Armed with the finest weapons available, these deadly transhuman warriors embodied the honour of their Legion.
  • Legion Delegatus - A Legion Delegatus was a mid-ranking Legion officer, such as a Centurion, tasked with a specific mission by Legion high command and formally deputised to act in all matters with the full weight of their commander's authority. As such, they could mobilise the Legion's resources to the full, deploy its assets and, if performing a mission of vital strategic worth, assemble a strike force of chosen warriors.
  • Consul Librarian - The Legion Librarians served as battle psykers and the keepers of the Legion's records, battle honours and chronicles. The Legion Librarius departments were disbanded after the Council of Nikaea on the order of the Emperor.
  • Master of Signal - A Master of Signal was commonly attached to the forward elements of a Space Marine assault, providing vox and cogitator-based communications support across the wider warzone, and was capable of calling down a pinpoint bombardment from either orbiting fleet assets or static artillery positions nearby, engulfing the foes of Mankind in flaming destruction.
  • Moritat - A Moritat was an unofficial designation given to certain Astartes of the ancient Legiones Astartes who displayed suicidal urges and a blatant disregard for overall combat doctrine. Operating independently on the battlefield, these individuals were often employed as efficient shock assault troops and assassins. From its earliest days, the Raven Guard Legion employed more Moritats than did many others. The individuals assigned to this duty were often those considered extreme in their methods even by the cold-blooded Xeric (the original Terran members of the XIXth Legion) and they were often used -- willingly -- to undertake missions from which they were not expected to return. This bygone rank no longer exists amongst the Adeptus Astartes of the 41st Millennium.
  • Legion Vigilator - Highly skilled as watchers and hunters among their brethren, Vigilators were the eyes of their Legion on the ground, their wisdom paramount in scouting out the foe's disposition and strength, and determining the best place to strike. Theirs also were the arts of sabotage and assassination, and while some Legions were more inclined to such subtleties than others, all saw their military value.
  • Forge Lord - The Forge Lord served as a senior officer among the Legion's Techmarines.
  • Primus Medicae - High officers of the Legion Apothecarion, the primus medicae of a Legion held the onerous duties of both ensuring the battle-readiness and physical well-being of their battle-brothers. This was an authority which none but a primarch or his chosen deputy could overrule, and such warriors were dedicated to preserving the gene-seed of the Legion from loss or contamination at any cost, even that of their lives. The primus medicae were skilled in all the fields of medicae relevant to the biomedical care of Astartes on and off the battlefield and the creation of new Space Marines for the Legion using the accelerated maturation techniques in use at the time of the Great Crusade.
  • Siege Breaker - The wreckers of cities, the bringers-down of fortress walls and the shatterers of strongholds, Siege Breakers were mid-ranking officers of the Legion whose tactical specialty was precisely-applied destruction against strategic targets. Placed often in command of armoured spearhead assaults and frontline artillery units, they preferred to closely observe their work, rather than sit back behind the lines, and so were deadly efficient in adapting their force's attack patterns from moment to moment.

Wargear[]

Optional Wargear (For Centurion Terminators)[]

Optional Wargear[]

Sources[]

  • The Horus Heresy - Book One: Betrayal (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 190-191
  • The Horus Heresy - Book Three: Extermination (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 134, 137, 153, 280-281
  • Horus Heresy Weekender Pamphlet (2015), pp. 19-20
  • Forge World - Legion Champion and Master of Signal
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