+ The Tenets of the Ten Divine Princes +
It was more than mere armour detail, though. During the brief period the Ninth Strikeforce had operated alongside the Chapter Master's own Strikeforce, in patrols of the Shin-Xiao Expanse, Coriolanus had been seconded to Sho's own force – pointedly, it appeared to the Inquisitor; as though the Master was goading her. On his return, the space marine had a slightly different air. Not openly evasive, but his words seemed more considered. Kills wondered whether she was unconsciously reacting to him differently.
'The Tenets, mistress? We have spoken of this before.' His head, still shorn in the style of the Core, was unhelmed. Adaptive souls, these Primaris, Haim had mused, privately. Her acolyte was right. Every day the two groups of Gatebreakers seemed to become more alike. Under the auspices of Yeng and his fellow Gentles of the apothecary, more and more of the Astartes were undergoing the Rubicon process. As the resulting ruinous casualty rating climbed, the Primaris were integrated into Strikeforces, and then squads; rooting themselves more deeply in their adopted place.
Conversely, the Primaris were finding what the old Chapter had long-known – that resupply was rare and supply lines were thin. Practicality saw weapons swapped for more reliable and plentiful alternatives, and the techpriest-led forges were hard at work adapting to the new armoury.
'We have; and I ask again,' replied Kills to Coriolanus. 'You were a devotee of the Codex prior to your deployment. Why the change?' The space marine's face remained blank.
'It is no change, Inquisitor.' He replied, mildly. 'The Tenets are a form of the Codex; and can be read alongside them. More literary, perhaps, but the fundamentals of adaptat...'
'I see little evidence of cross-comparison, Coriolanus,' the Inquisitor interrupted. 'Your time seems hard-spent in transcribing the Tenets.'
The space marine looked pained. 'That is true, Inquisitor. There is, however, nothing to hide. I have long ago committed the Codex to memory, while the Tenets remain raw to me.'
'Agreed, mistress. The discipline of our Chapter is not competing with that of our training.' Septival put in, 'It complements and alloys with it.'
Kills was sceptical, but not suspicious. She had requested – and been granted – leave to study both her bodymen's nascent copies of the Tenets. They were filled merely with the aphorisms and bon mots of generations of Andocrine wisdom; long-dead sages and warrior-poets. It was hardly great literature, to the Inquisitrix's taste, but she could see its value in teaching interpretation to the indoctrinated.
Kills was no monodominant. She had long ago concluded that the practicalities of Imperium meant that faith and loyalty trumped almost any trespass in style; doubly so for an entity as independent as a space marine Chapter. Alongside her historilogician Haim, Kills had read through the Tenets, and found no sinister trace of heresy amongst the prose and verse. Although the conception of the Primarchs as Divine Princes – and ten of them – had initially unnerved her, she had been reassured by their occluded relationship to the orthodox teachings of the Ecclesiarchy.
In the Lay of Hayagriever, for example, the Gatebreaker's symbolist tale of a Divine Prince invariably – and gratingly repetitively – described as 'swift, secretive and powerful', Haim had teased out roots familiar to those told in the wider Imperium attributed to Corvus Corax or Jaghati Khan. The name of the first Divine Prince; Kali-Bahn, had similarly raised a smirk of satisfied recognition on the Inquisitor's face. Others were more troublesome. Chemos, the proud and quick to anger Fourth Prince, had raised concern, but Kills' concerns over the dubious associations had been somewhat allayed by the clear blending of tales of Ferrus Manus with his traitorous brother. She would not sanction a Chapter over veiled myths – indeed, she judged that raising an alarm would more likely highlight and spread the problem as resolve it.
As for the others... 'Well,' Kills had said to her acolyte, 'as much as is strange about the surface; the core has survived.'
'Mutatis mutandis, Barbari.' Haim had agreed. 'The Gatebreakers' ways are odd, but such might be explained by cultural drift typical of their isolation.'
The memory reassured Kills, but she was far from equianimous. It was not the form of the Tenets that bothered Barbari; but the change in Coriolanus since his return.
+++
+ Work in progress: Septival and Coriolanus +
+ Ideas sometimes stem from writing, and these two marines are a perfect example. Introduced to give Kills someone to interact with in her first story, these two have played on my mind. They're symbols of Chapter 333's integration with the Gatebreakers – or to put it another way, they're 'normal' Primaris space marines who serve to introduce us to the Gatebreakers culture. +
+ Being Primaris from the Core Imperium, I gave them both typical Latin-dervied High Gothic names. When I decided to build them, I wanted to blend the clean lines of the Primaris intake with some of the more rough-and-ready elements of the original Gatebreakers. +
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+ Member-Ordinary Coriolanus +
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+ To that end, Coriolanus is virtually stock Primaris, but with a substitute boltgun for his bolt rifle, and with additional charms on his belt. He has removed his helm – a reduction in battlefield discipline, but it reveals a clean, shaven head and stereotypical space marine colouring. +
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+ Member-Ordinary Septival +
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+ Septival is outwardly more integrated with the Gatebreakers, replacement shoulder and chest plates marking him as honoured. +
+ Both require detailing – markings, some more work on Coriolanus' boltgun, and basing – but they're nearly ready to join their brethren. I'll likely add some form of mark to indicate their status as Inquisitrix Barbari Kills' bodyguards. Perhaps an Inquisitorial I, or similar. +
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+ Thought for the day: 'Cherish those hearts that hate thee// Corruption wins not more than honesty.' +