The Blood Angels were the IX Legion of the original Space Marine Legions under their Primarch Sanguinius and their heroes are the stuff of legend.
Via our good friends at Lexicanum
They are particularly well known for their bloodthirsty nature in battle. They are also one of the most long-lived Chapters, and have a refined aesthetic sense. The Homeworld of the Blood Angels is the planet Baal and its two moons are, Baal Primus and Baal Secundus – from which the Blood Angels take their new recruits. The Blood Angels recruit their Aspirants from the chapter’s home planet of Baal and its moons. The contests are held every generation at Angel’s Fall (the place where Sangunius was found as an infant) Aspirants (all from the pureblood tribes) must reach the Place of Challenge by journeying through a vast, hostile desert, and a series of canyons, infested with Fire Scorpions and Thirstwater. These perils claim many youths; however, enough reach the place of Challenge to hold gladiatorial contests, which rival in scale the Ultramar’s. Once the fifty victors are chosen, they are taken in the Thunderhawks to the stronghold of the Blood Angels on the Baal itself.
However, they haven’t completed their trials yet, as they must observe a vigil for 72 hours without rest. Those that fail and fall asleep are taken away by the Blood-Servitors; no-one knows what happens to them. At the end of the vigil, the remaining aspirants are offered a chalice (rumored to contain a small portion of Sangunius’s own blood) by the Sanguinary Priests. After partaking it, they fall into a coma and are entombed by the Blood-Servitors inside the caskets of the Hall of the Sacrophagi. They remain there for a full year, in full care of the casket’s life-support systems, while they are injected with blood of the Sanguinius. Many die, incapable of bearing the vast changes wrought upon them by the gene-seed; others wake up too early and grow insane from their dark and claustrophobic existence. The ones who completely adapt, however, become the newest additions to the chapter.
Some famous Blood Angels include:
Lemartes: Lemartes is a particularly strong-willed Chaplain of the Blood Angels, the only Battle-brother to date who has managed to contain the Black Rage. He now serves as Guardian of the Lost, the Warden of the Angels’ Death Company. Lemartes succumbed to the Black Rage while the Blood Angels were preparing to deploy against orks on Hadriath XI. Like all members of a Death Company, his only options were to fall in battle, or, in the unlikely event he survived, to be executed by High Chaplain Astorath. Yet after the battle, when he was taken to the company’s field Apothecarion, Lemartes insisted that he was in control of himself. Astorath hesitated, because Lemartes was clearly in the grip of the Rage, yet he was still coherent and able to restrain himself from attacking his own brothers. Astorath made the incredible decision to send Lemartes in stasis back to Baal, to be thoroughly examined by the Sanguinary Priests. Every test the Sanguinary Priests ran showed the same startling conclusion: Lemartes had been struck by the Rage, yet his willpower was keeping it in check, a thing unheard of in the entire history of the chapter. They warned Astorath that it would be impossible for Lemartes to stay in control forever, so Astorath offered him his unique role as leader of the Death Company.
Under his guidance, those Blood Angels lost to the Rage fight like heroes of legend, winning some measure of redemption before they fall. Between engagements, Lemartes is returned to stasis to protect his battle-brothers from the Rage. Some whisper that Lemartes’s eventual fall to the Rage is inevitable, while to others he is a sign of hope that perhaps other Blood Angels can also master their curse. Like all Chaplains, Lemartes wears all-black power armour with a skull-visaged Death Mask and a Rosarius. He also uses a Jump Pack. His primary weapon is the Blood Crozius, an ancient Crozius Arcanum said to have been carried by the Blood Angels’ very first High Chaplain, and gifted to Lemartes by Astorath.
Mephiston: Mephiston is the Chief Librarian of the Blood Angels and the only Blood Angel ever to overcome the Red Thirst. Before taking the name of Mephiston and the title of Lord of Death, he was originally known as Brother Calistarius. While fighting as part of the relief force for Hades Hive during the Second War for Armageddon campaign, Calistarius became a victim of the Red Thirst. After being inducted into the Death Company, he took part in the assault on an Ecclesiarchy building and was one of many trapped inside when the building collapsed during battle. For seven days, Calistarius lay trapped in the rubble, teetering on the edge of death and madness. Somehow, rather than succumbing to the Red Thirst, he managed to conquer it. By sheer strength of will he was able to suppress and hold in check the feelings of rage and the desire for blood, and in doing so he became something more. On the seventh night he burst free of his rocky tomb, reborn as Mephiston, the Lord of Death.
Mephiston’s resurrection did not go unwitnessed. Weaponless, and with his armour shredded and mangled, Mephiston must have seemed easy prey, but nothing could have been further from the truth. His gene-seed, dormant these many long years, had awakened and wrought further changes, granting exceptional strength and vigor. Moving with a speed the Orks could not match, Mephiston unleashed a flurry of attacks, every blow pulverizing flesh and shattering bone. His ruined armour slick with the blood of his foes, Mephiston began the long walk to Imperial lines. Mephiston is armed with the Force sword Vitarus and a Plasma pistol. He wears Artificer armor, which incorporates his ornate Psychic hood. Overcoming the Red Thirst enabled Mephiston to release his full psychic potential and he is able to call on any number of psychic powers related to the Blood Angels.
Corbulo: is the Sanguinary High Priest of the Blood Angels. It is his duty to guard the Red Grail, the holy cup which was used to preserve the blood of Sanguinius after he was slain. It is from this cup that the assembled Sanguinary Priests drink as part of the ritual of initiating a new Sanguinary Priest. Corbulo resembles the Primarch of the Blood Angels, Sanguinius both physically and spiritually. He has become determined to cure the Blood Angels and their successors of the Red Thirst, a quest that has taken him across the galaxy in search of wonders from the Dark Age of Technology. In addition, he shares Sanginius’s foresight and has limited abilities in Divination. However while this gift is sometimes used to the Chapter’s advantage in battle, he is most focused on researching a cure to his chapter’s affliction. Nonetheless, his skills have been put to good use by the Chapter in other fields. The reason the Blood Angels arrived so quickly to counter the Second War for Armageddon by the Ork Ghazghkull was due to his divination. Similarly, without his guidance the Blood Angels fleet would not have known the location of M’kar the Reborn’s Daemonship as it entered the Baal system, perhaps saving the planet from destruction. However these successes have not come without cost, for Corbulo has become more withdrawn, with some suspecting that he has foreseen a grave future for the Blood Angels.
Armed with a standard issue Bolt pistol and a relic Chainsword named Heaven’s Teeth, Corbulo also carries an Exsanguinator and the Red Grail, which not only inspires other Blood Angels to greater acts of valour but also generates a powerful force field. The Red Grail is said to hold the blood of Sanguinius and is part of a Blood Angels ritual where one of their Space Marines must drink this blood, to, so they say, become closer to their dead Primarch. The Red Grail is often taken to the battlefield where it provides a source of great inspiration for the Blood Angels, it also incorporates a powerful force field generator to protect the bearer from attack.
