A Marshal is a high-ranking officer and a Veteran Astartes who leads the individual Crusades of the Black Templars Space Marine Chapter. These ferocious Space Marines possess superb tactical abilities, second in experience to only the High Marshal himself. The purity and ultimate success of a Crusade is entrusted unto the Marshal and such a duty is a sacred and glorious responsibility. Only the most inspirational and determined warriors may rise to become a Marshal, after they have proved their courage and determination within the ranks of the Sword Brethren or as a Castellan (Captain) leading a Fighting Company of the Chapter. The Marshals are able to coordinate the Space Marines under their command and lead them and his Crusade to ultimate victory, whatever the opposition.

HistoryEdit

Within the chain of command of the non-standard Black Templars, Marshals serve as the highest-ranking officers beneath the High Marshal. They are great warriors who lead the individual Crusades. The purity and ultimate success of a Crusade is entrusted unto the Marshal and such a duty is a sacred and glorious responsibility. A Marshal is not only a warrior so deadly that he will rarely meet his match on the field of battle, but one whose expertise includes concerns beyond the battlefield, for the leading of a Crusade is a mighty task indeed. As a result, only the most inspirational and determined warriors may rise to become a Marshal, having long proved their courage and determination within the ranks of the Chapter. A Marshal is able to coordinate the warriors under his command and lead them and his Crusades to ultimate victory whatever the opposition. There are few heroes in the galaxy better able to wage war than the Marshals of the Black Templars.

Notable MarshalsEdit

• Marshal Brant - Brant was the commander of the Solemnus Crusade that participated in the Third War for Armageddon. Marshal Brant was just returning from the Liberation of Lugnasad in the Apollo Sub-sector when the Orks of the Blood Scar Tribe attacked and sacked the Solemnus Chapter Keep out of which the Crusade had been based. For 12 years, Brant led the Solemnus Crusade in a quest for vengeance until they finally discovered the Blood Scar Tribe fighting alongside WAAAGH! Ghazghkull on the Hive World of Armageddon. The Solemnus Crusade immediately joined the battle against the Ork invaders and deployed several Fighting Companies to the wastes of Armageddon.
• Marshal Emrik - Marshal Emrik was the founder of the Chapter Keep on Solemnus and commanded the Crusade that cleansed that world from a Genestealer taint. Emrik himself slew the Genestealer Patriarch and ended the xenos threat. His chapel-tomb resided within the Hall of Heroes of the Solemnus Keep.
• Marshal Gervhart - Gervhart led the Second Purging of Lastrati in 543.M36, as a part of the Athalor Crusade. The Hive World of Lastrati, located in the Ultima Segmentum, had become a place of pilgrimage, and for centuries, the faithful had come to bear witness to such spectacles as the Hill of Heretics and the Plain of Purity. Marshal Gervhart and the Black Templars of the Athalor Crusade had come to Lastrati to take heart from the planet's potent displays of faith from the past, but were horrified by what they found. The Quintarchs of Lastrati had turned to barbaric blood rituals and human sacrifices in search of genetic perfection. At first the Space Marines were welcomed as examples of genetic supremacy, but the more the Black Templars saw, the more they realised that the rituals of the people of Lastrati had too much in common with the heretical cult worship of the Ruinous Powers. Marshal Gervhart ordered the planet cleansed of its degenerate inhabitants before continuing the Crusade. After four standard years of fighting, the warriors of Marshal Gervhart forced the remaining forces of Lastrati back into the Plain of Purity where they made their last stand before the Black Templars at the Hill of Heretics. The army was destroyed, the Black Templars showing no mercy and accepting no surrender. Those deemed free from taint were allowed to live -- an act of mercy that was to have a terrible repercussion for Marshal Gervhart in later years. The infamous Gervhart Repeal of the 36th Millennium was the only time a High Marshal has repealed the promotion of a Marshal to that rank.
• Marshal Ulliquel - Commander of the Thunder Crusade who fought against the Dark Eldar and Alpha Legion during his recruitment mission to the Black Templars Chapter Keep on Cephia IV.
• Marshal Wernher - Wernher joined the Donian Crusade in 985.M39 to combat the swelling Ork population sweeping through the Donian Sector and the surrounding wilderness space in the southern Segmentum Pacificus. The original Crusade Marshal, Brother Austein, was tragically killed in battle on the planet Nickel V, and was succeeded by Marshal Wernher in 988.M39. The Donian Crusade lasted for roughly 17 standard years before the High Marshal declared it successful in c.002.M40. Wernher went on to later become the Marshal of the Thangdorn Crusade.

WargearEdit

• Power Armour
• Terminator Armour (Optional)
• Bolter
• Bolt Pistol (Optional
• Crusader Seals - Crusader Seals are waxen or metallic tokens with vows of piety and Chapter blessings inscribed on hanging strips of parchment that are bestowed upon Black Templars Astartes of proven zeal and courage.
• Storm Bolter (Optional for Marshals in Terminator Armour)
• Close Combat Weapon (Choice of Power Sword, Chainsword, Lightning Claws, Thunder Hammer, Power Fist; if chosen weapon is one-handed, a Storm Shield may also be used)
• Frag Grenades or Krak Grenades

SourcesEdit

• Codex: Black Templars (4th Edition), pp. 15, 44
• Deathwatch: Core Rulebook (RPG), pp. 38-39
• Index Astartes II, "Righteous Zeal - The Black Templars Space Marine Chapter," pp. 44-55
• Conquest of Armageddon (Novel) by Jonathan Green