Chapter 6: Index Astarters: White Scars

Index Astarters: White Scars. Lords of wind and destruction

Greed and ego are two things that can end one's life if left unchecked, and this is reflected very well in the case of Jaghatai Khan. In his desire to create a better galaxy for humanity, the warhawk betrayed the Emperor thinking that he could create a better imperium than his father. In the end this proved false, and Jaghatai died in the quest. Leaving behind a legion that is now little more than a group of barbarians, a cruel fate for those who thought they would bring enlightenment to humanity.

-Origens:

The final years of the unification wars were complicated and eventful. As the days went by, the Emperor and his most loyal agents prepared to solidify the foundations on which the future empire of humanity would stand, while at the same time finishing off the Emperor's remaining opponents. It was with these ideas in mind that the Emperor created the Fifth Legion.

The Fifth Legion was instructed in the use of fast vehicles and how to survive on as few resources as possible, which allowed its legionnaires to explore enemy and unknown territory far from the imperial supply lines. The legionnaires of the farm wandered through hostile territories where unenhanced humans would die in seconds. They roamed these territories in search of enemy bases or information and artifacts that would be of help in the first stages of the great crusade.

The first legionnaires of the Fifth marked the spirit of the legion as a whole, they were free spirits who rarely followed orders that weren't given by the Emperor himself and tended to do things their own way.

Unlike the first and fourth legions, which had genetic seeds with a high level of acceptance, which allowed them to grow and mobilize quickly, the fifth legion had a slightly above average acceptance rate, and its numbers barely exceeded a thousand units when they were mobilized. This was due to the fact that the legion was mobilized in small groups of explorers, and rarely engaged in combat, and when it did, it was as an auxiliary force to the main army. This meant that the legion was among the least popular among the imperial population at the time, some of whom didn't even know it existed.

This situation continued throughout the rest of the unification wars and the battle for the solar system. The Fifth was little more than a detail in the background while its sister legions fought throughout the solar system and took part in battles that have gone down in imperial history.

But that changed at the beginning of the Great Crusade. The Fifth Legion had a huge influx of recruits, and the Emperor himself not only gave the Fifth the right to wear his old lightning bolt insignia, but also gave them the mission of being the explorers who would explore the stars before the expeditionary fleets arrived in order to inform them of what they would find. The legionnaires of the fifth accepted this new duty with honor, and renamed themselves Star Hunters in reference to it, so they set off in all directions to explore every corner of the galaxy.

It was a fleet of Stars Hunters that discovered the planet of Cthonia, where the first Horus Lupercal was to be found, and it was thanks to the farm's efforts that dozens of rival civilizations were crushed by the imperium without warning. And so the list of Star Hunters' achievements goes on, achievements of major magnitude, but which were barely noticed by the rest of the imperium.

The task of wandering the stars meant that the legion was divided into several hundred small expeditionary fleets throughout the galaxy. These fleets rarely brought worlds to the imperium, instead they simply registered worlds and passed on their information to other larger fleets. Only certain expeditionary fleets had enough astarters to be able to fight the galaxy's threats constantly, and so the Fifth Legion fought few battles during those times. The Fifth Legion's mission was noble and helped the imperium expand rapidly in the early years of the Great Crusade, but as the crusade progressed and the imperial high command gained more knowledge of the galaxy, the legion's mission became less and less relevant.

The legion's popularity barely increased during the great crusade, most imperial citizens were unaware of the legion's existence, and some of those who saw it in action thought it was a chapter of the Luna Wolfes, because both legions wore white armor.

On top of all this, these fleets had fewer resources allocated to them than the main fleets. At first this wasn't a problem, since the legionnaires on board were used to operating far from the supply line, but as time went by resources began to run low and the legion had to make the most of the few resources available. In the end, the honor of carrying the Emperor's thunderbolt was an empty one.

The legion was at a breaking point, one that the imperium didn't even know was happening. But it was then that the whole legion received the news that the fifth Primarch had been found.

-The Warhawk:

Like many other worlds, the world known as Mundus Planus by the imperium was long ago colonized by settlers from the Dark Age of technology. The world was mostly made up of huge emerald plains and ivory mountains, which were complemented by blue oceans reminiscent of those of ancient Earth. But unfortunately, like many other worlds, the cybernetic rebellion and the Age of Strife caused the planet to regress technologically to the time of black powder, losing any connection with the rest of the galaxy and the inhabitants forgetting their origins as the years went by.

In the thirtieth millennium, the world was known to its inhabitants as Chogoris, and it was enormously divided. Most of the planet was controlled by the emperor known as Palatine, a tyrant who lived the best life possible in his palace while ruling with an iron fist over a population that could only observe the exuberant life of the nobles. Using well-equipped troops and heavy cavalry, Palatine was able to bring most of the world to its knees, such was his strategic skill that it was said he had never lost a single battle.

But as powerful as Palatine claimed to be, there was a large plain on the west of the planet that was not under its control, known as the Empty Quarter. This plain got its name because it had a low population density and few to no relevant resources on it.

This plain was inhabited by hundreds of nomadic tribes who had perfected horseback warfare and adapted to living in such an inhospitable environment. These tribes were extremely divided and constantly fought against each other. Some tribes were extremely spiritual and performed shamanic rituals and tended to have a Stormseer, a psychic shaman, as an advisor to the Khan, the leader of the tribe. Other tribes were little more than barbarians who plundered and destroyed everything around them and saw psychics as dirty witches who were worth little more than garbage.

It was on these plains that the capsule of the fifth Primarch fell. The arrival of the Primarch was prophesied by several stormseers from the most different tribes, each of whom prophesied that the heavens would open by the will of the gods, and a child destined to unite all of Chogoris would emerge from said rift. This prophecy turned out to be true in the end.

When the gestation capsule of the fifth Primarch entered the atmosphere of Chogoris, the trail of fire it caused alerted several tribes, and several ran in the hope of reaching the child of the prophecy before their rivals. However, Ong Khan, a leader of a small tribe known as the Talaskars was able to get ahead of the rest thanks to the help of the Stormseer known as Odegai Ogu.

The Khan met the Primarch who had just come out of his pod, and seeing the greatness that the child emanated, he adopted him as his son and named him Jaghatai. Ong educated and raised the Primarch with all the love and affection he had, teaching him everything he knew about the art of war and how to lead a tribe. For almost a year, Ong watched his adopted son grow to surpass any other man in the tribe in size and intellect. Odegai even taught Jaghatai about the tribe's traditions and how to meditate to control his psychic powers, since Odegai could sense the enormous psychic potential that the Primarch had. It seemed that a bright future awaited both Jaghatai and Ong, but fate is treacherous, and one fateful day the Kurayed tribe attacked the Talaskars.

Even though he was a leader loved by his tribe, Ong was hated by many of the other more barbaric tribes because in Ong and the Talaskars they saw what they could never become. The Talaskars were fierce warriors but with a strong sense of honor, something that contrasted sharply with the more barbaric and destructive nature of other tribes. The news that Ong had apparently adopted the child that fell from the sky only made this hatred of Ong grow even stronger, and it was then that the Kurayed tribe launched a major attack on Ong's tribe.

Despite having skilled strategists in their ranks, the Talaskars were soon up against the ropes, as the Kurayeds had a numerical superiority of 5:1 over the Talaskars. While his soldiers killed everyone in sight, the Kurayed chief made his bloody way to Ong with the intention of killing him. The two khans faced each other in one-on-one combat, but unfortunately Ong never stood out for his skill as a warrior and was eventually killed by the enemy khan.

Jaghatai watched as his father was murdered without him being able to prevent his death. Fury and rage overtook the young Primarch and in a fit of rage he slaughtered all the Kurayed warriors in his path until he finally reached the chief of the tribe and beheaded him. The remaining Kurayed warriors fled in horror after seeing the primarch's fury. When the Kurayeds finally left the village, Talaskar's warriors found Jaghatai embracing his father's lifeless body.

After the battle Jaghatai was promoted to the new Khan of the tribe, and his first action as Khan was to launch a counter-attack on the Kurayed to avenge all those who had fallen in the previous attack. The Kurayed were weak and still weakened by the failure of their attack and the death of their Khan, so it wasn't difficult for the Talaskars with Jaghatai's tactical intellect to overcome their enemies. With the Kurayeds defeated, the Primarch and his allies began to search their camp, and found something that surprised them.

Jaghatai stared stoically at the two cages in front of him. With each passing second, his stoic face was gradually replaced by cold rage and fury.

Both cages were full of slaves in deplorable conditions. Several dozen children, old people and adults were in the cages, each of them malnourished and with various injuries, and they looked frightened at Jaghatai and his companions. The only difference between the two cages was that the one on the left was more reinforced, and that everyone inside had T-shaped marks branded into their skin.

Odegai stared at the left cage in silence before speaking. "Certain tribes use this symbol to represent 'witches', and from what I can sense everyone in there is psychic."

"Why? What did they do to deserve that?"

"They were born different, and for people who live in ignorance there's nothing scarier than that."

It was at that moment that Jaghatai's anger exploded. In a move too fast for the others present to see, Jaghatai drew his sword from its sheath and slashed the doors of both cages. Both the prisoners and Jaghatai's companions were perplexed at how the doors seemed to have been cut by the air itself.

The Primarch then put his sword back in its sheath and looked at the people inside the cages. "You are free to do as you wish. If you wish, you can leave these cages and mark your own path on the vast plains of Chogoris, I won't stop you. But, if you are willing to join me, and help build a better future for Chogoris, I will be eternally grateful." Jaghatai then turned to leave for the tent.

Jaghatai's entourage followed their leader's example and left the tent with him. Odegai hastened his pace and walked until he was beside Jaghatai.

"You know, what you promised isn't easy. Many have stood in your way." Jaghatai continued walking in silence for a few seconds before saying.

"Ong once told me that nothing worth fighting for is easy." If creating a better Chogoris for everyone is difficult, I'm willing to face that difficulty."

Odegai silently agreed and continued walking. After walking a few more meters, Odegai looked back and saw the slaves leaving the tent, most of them following Jaghatai's group.

After destroying the Kurayed and finding out how psychics were treated on the planet, Jaghatai was more determined than ever to unite Chogoris once and for all and get the population of Chogoris out of the situation they were in. So the Primarch began a great campaign of conquest throughout the Empty Quarter. The Primarch always gave the tribes he encountered two options, either to join him and help create a new era for Chogoris, or to refuse and watch as their villages burned to the ground. Most went for the first option, the fools who went for the latter soon regretted their choice.

During this period of conquest, Jaghatai began to manifest psychic powers more clearly, and with Odegai's help the Khan could control said powers and even help other psychics to control their own. Thus, with the strategic genius of a Primarch and psychic powers in their favor, Jaghatai's armies overthrew any opposition they encountered and within a decade most of the Empty Quarter was under the Primarch's control.

But the Khan's actions did not go unnoticed by the Palatine government. The nobles began to worry about Jaghatai's actions, and a large army was formed to hunt down the Khan and kill him. Led by the Palatine's youngest son, this army ventured into the Empty Quarter in order to put an end to Jaghatai's dreams.

Several weeks passed since this army left, until a single soldier returned to the Palatine kingdom. This soldier was the only survivor of the army, and he was carrying two things, the severed head of the Palatine's son and a message from Jaghatai himself declaring war on the Palatine.

The tyrant of Chogoris was furious at this affront to his reign, and began preparing his army to overthrow the barbarians of the Empty Quarter. Unfortunately for him, Jaghatai was quicker, and as soon as the tyrant received the message, Jaghatai's armies were already attacking the cities that bordered the Empty Quarter. These cities soon fell and gave the Khan's armies a free pass to enter the Palatine territories.

Palatine's armies were distinguished by extremely resistant armor and were armed with the best equipment in all of Chogoris. This combination ultimately proved fruitless against Jaghatai's high-speed armies and the battle psychics they carried. The generals of the Chogoris tyrant became desperate as they saw that they were unable to stop the advance of the Khan's armies, and in their desperation they used hundreds of slaves as cannon fodder against the barbarian armies. This had the opposite effect to that expected, as not only did it not stop Jaghatai's advance, but the slaves who survived tended to join the Khan's armies.

After two years of war, Jaghatai's armies finally reached the capital of the Palatine kingdom. With a great speech, Jaghatai announced the end of the Palatine tyranny and the beginning of a new era for Chogoris, an era of unity. So the Khan's armies tore down the city walls and invaded the capital. The Palatine soldiers put up a commendable last stand, but in the end they were unable to stop the invaders. Jaghatai advanced with his entourage to Palatine's palace, where they blazed a bloody trail to the tyrant, and Jaghatai himself beheaded him and put his head on a stake as a way of signaling the end of his tyranny.

With the death of Palatine, Jaghatai was appointed Great Khan by the elders and sages of the most distinguished tribes and officially became the undisputed leader of Chogoris. After rebuilding everything that the war had devastated, Jaghatai launched a major campaign to improve the lives of the planet's population. During this time, the quality of life and technology on the planet improved enormously.

Jaghatai ruled Chogoris splendidly. He ensured that the different tribes and cities on the planet still retained their characteristic autonomy, while at the same time not being afraid to challenge certain customs that prevented a better standard of living for the population.

Jaghatai Khan ruled Chogoris for four years, until one day the planet's sky lit up when hundreds of golden ships arrived in its orbit, from the largest of these ships descended the Emperor of humanity in all his majesty, the Emperor spoke to his son about the imperium and his dream of uniting all of humanity and ruling the galaxy. Jaghatai was delighted with his father's dream, and in front of all his generals, the great Khan knelt down and pledged his loyalty to the undisputed master of humanity. Thus, the fifth Primarch joined the great crusade.

-The Great Crusade:

"For a long time we were kept in the dark, my children. While the other legions fought across the galaxy, we remained in a corner forgotten by most of humanity. But that time ends today! It's time to spread our wings and fly out of the darkness! So that we can finally guide humanity to its ascension!"

~From Khan's speech announcing the return of his legion for the great crusade.

After being introduced to his legion and put in charge of it, Jaghatai called his entire legion to Chogoris, and began a long process of educating the veterans legionnaires in Chogoris culture. At the same time as this was happening, several of the soldiers who had fought in the war against the Palatine were going through the process of becoming legionnaires of the fifth legion. Several of these first Chogori legionnaires would go down in the legion's history, such as Qin Xa and Targutai Yesugei, the future master of the Keshig and the chief librarian respectively.

But not all of Jaghatai's companions could be transformed into Astarters, as some were simply too old for it.

This was the case with Odegai, who was almost ninety when the Emperor arrived in Chogoris. Odegai's mind was unaffected by age, still as sharp as it was when Jaghatai first met him, but in contrast, Odegai's body was weak and sickly, and he probably wouldn't make it to ninety if nothing was done. The Emperor offered to perform surgery to turn the Khan's tutor into a Pseudo-Astarter, so that Odegai's life would be extended and he could accompany Jaghatai on the great crusade. Both Jaghatai and Odegai agreed to this and the Emperor proceeded with the surgery. Unfortunately, Odegai's body was very sick and weak and ended up rejecting the implants. The Emperor did his best, but in the end the old Stormseer died on the operating table.

Jaghatai mourned the loss of Odegai. For the second time in his life, Jaghatai had lost someone important to him and nothing could be done about it. Some inquisitors believe that Odegai's death hurt Jaghatai's relationship with the Emperor, causing the Khan to harbor a silent resentment against the Emperor of mankind, but whether this is true or not is something that only the fifth Primarch knew.

After mourning the loss of his guardian, the great Khan turned his attention to rebuilding the legion in his own image. The veteran legionnaires learned about Chogori culture and how the Khan practiced warfare, and were also educated in the art of hunting and Chogori literature. The newly formed Chogorian legionnaires, meanwhile, were trained by their veterans so that they would be prepared for the threats the galaxy had to offer. The whole process took half a decade before Jaghatai finally announced the start of a new era for the legion. All the terran legionnaires, almost 50,000, knelt before the Khan, and proceeded with the Talaskars' ritual known as blooding, in which the legionnaires used knives to mark a scar on their body and then choose a new name in Chogorian. After that, the great crusade began again for the legion.

Jaghatai's efforts were visible from the start. Unlike other legions where there was a separation and in some cases a rivalry between the veterans and the Astarters from the Primarch's homeworld, for the Fifth Legion this separation was non-existent, they were all sons of the Khan and considered Chogoris their home.

It is known that the Star Hunters had a series of consecutive victories against the enemies of humanity after leaving Chogoris, but it is not known exactly how these battles took place, since few documents of them have survived to the present day. The only notable piece of information we have from this series of victories is that after defeating the xenos known as the Nephilim in Hoadh, the legion was renamed the White Scars. However, the reason for this change of name is unknown.

With its new name and the Primarch leading them, the Fifth Legion was fully determined to help the Great Crusade in its final stages. The legion was divided into a few expeditionary fleets, as Jaghatai didn't want to repeat the mistake of dividing the fifth legion too much. Because there were few expeditionary fleets, they compensated by having a large number of astarters in each one, making each fleet a force to be feared.

The legion's popularity gradually increased after the discovery of Jaghatai, but it was still among the least popular among the imperial population. The fact that the legion had many customs and decorations of tribal origin led many to mistakenly think that the Fifth Legion was just another bunch of barbarians like the Sixth and Twelfth Legions.

Jaghatai's personality also influenced the legion's popularity. Since Jaghatai was mostly a loner, he didn't forge many strong bonds with the other Primarchs and didn't go out of his way to try and restore friendships broken over the course of the Great Crusade.

Sanguinius and Magnus were among those few primarchs that Jaghatai was able to forge a strong bond with, as both of the three primarchs were looking for a way to efficiently integrate psykers into their legions, both because their legions had a large number of psyker legionnaires, and because all three primarchs were psykers. Between the three of them, they developed the Librarian project. The project was accepted by most of their brothers and several legions ended up developing their own librariums within them.

On the other hand, one of his brothers that Jaghatai could least stand was Fulgrim. As the only two legions with the right to bear one of the Emperor's ancient insignia, the Third and Fifth Legions always had a rivalry between them. This rivalry gradually turned into hatred on the part of the White Scars, since while the legion was barely remembered by the imperium, the Emperor's Children received all the limelight. The situation only got worse when Jaghatai was found. On the one hand, Fulgrim was someone who was totally loyal to his father and disliked the tribal culture of the White Scars, while Jaghatai was a free spirit who saw all the luxury that characterized the third legion as a way of feeding Fulgrim's own ego.

Such was the participation of the fifth legion in the great crusade, not unlike the time before the discovery of Jaghatai.

The Fifth Legion's most notable action during the Great Crusade would be in the Ullanor Crusade, in which at Horus' request, the White Scars would launch a series of hit-and-run attacks against the worlds on the fringes of Ullanor's Ork empire. Such attacks caused damage to the Orks' supply networks and drew the attention of several warbosses in the service of Urrlak Urg, who in response leapt towards the systems housing the fifth legion in search of a good fight.

With one half of the main Urrlak Urruk warbosses occupied with the White Scars, and the other half occupied with an attack from the Ultramarines and Blood angels coming from the opposite side, the Ullanor system was left dangerously unprotected, just as Horus had planned. With this opening, the Emperor and Horus launched a direct attack on the heart of the ork empire and killed the ork overlord. Causing Ullanor's entire empire to collapse.

After the victory at Ullanor, Jaghatai attended Ullanor's triumph alongside several of his brothers. Jaghatai was thrilled with the triumph, and he was even happier when the Emperor announced that he was withdrawing from the crusade and that Horus would be in charge of it. Jaghatai and Horus had always been very close, and Jaghatai was quick to congratulate his brother and promise his full support.

Horus' first order as Warmaster was to commission Jaghatai and his legion to cleanse the Ullanor sector of the Orks who called it home. Even with Ullanor's empire destroyed, there were still billions of Orks living in that sector of space, and the possibility that some Warboss could emerge and unify the Orks there was still real. So the Fifth Legion was tasked with neutralizing this threat.

Jaghatai swept through Ork territory like an indomitable storm. The Fifth Legion stood out for its fast hit-and-run attacks, and its librarians, whose skill was only surpassed by the librarians of the Fifteenth Legion. This combination proved highly effective against such brutes as the greenskins. One by one, Urrlak's top generals fell to the Warhawk's blade, and the threat of Ullanor's orks became a shadow of its former heights.

For almost two years, the Fifth Legion operated alone in the depths of the Ullanor sector. The only other remaining imperial military force in the sector were the Emperor's Children, who guarded the sector's borders to ensure that the orks didn't attack neighboring systems, but since the two legions didn't get along and both operated at opposite ends of the sector, the third and fifth legions rarely met. So Jaghatai continued his duty impassively, until one day he received a message from the Emperor himself for the Primarch to come to the world of Nikea to take part in the discussion that was to take place there.

The issue of psykers had always been a matter of debate since the beginning of the Great Crusade, whether or not psykers had a place in the military and whether they should only be used for communication and navigating the warp. In the end, the Emperor decided to discuss the matter and put an end to it.

Jaghatai left several trusted commanders in charge to carry out the task of continuing the Orkish purge and quickly moved towards Nikea. Jaghatai arrived a couple of days before the council and decided to talk to Magnus, who was already in Nikea, to discuss arguments for the council. But unfortunately, the fifteenth Primarch refused to meet his brother and secluded himself in his chambers to meditate.

The days passed until the council finally began. Throughout the council, Jaghatai maintained a calm and unchanged appearance on the outside, even though the psykers' detractors' speeches infuriated him, the primarch kept himself under control and didn't let this anger show inside. When it was his turn to speak, Jaghatai talked about how ignorance is the worst poison of all, and that ignorance is nothing more than a foolish way of trying to protect oneself from what one doesn't understand or control. For humanity to achieve enlightenment, it must leave ignorance behind and seek to understand and control the unknown.

After finishing his speech, Jaghatai returned to his seat and the council continued as normal. After Magnus' speech, the Emperor stood up and announced that the Librarian project would go ahead, but new restrictions would be imposed on it for security reasons.

Jaghatai was happy with his father's decision, but he thought the restrictions imposed were unnecessary. The Emperor had banned certain fields of study and the use of some psychic powers because they were too dangerous, but in Jaghatai's opinion this was a mistake on his father's part. Banning these fields and powers would mean putting an end to any chance of humanity being able to master them in the future. However, Jaghatai didn't voice these thoughts, preferring to limit himself to celebrating this victory for the psykers before returning to Ullanor's sector.

Targutai Yesugei and the other librarians began the process of tidying up the librarium on board the legion's flagship in Swordstorm. The new restrictions imposed by Nikea's edict obliged them to eliminate certain now forbidden items from their libraries, and even if he didn't like it, they were the Emperor's orders and the legion was obliged to follow them. Thus, Targutai had already begun the long job of cleaning out all the legion's libraries even before they left Nikea, starting with the library of the legion's gloriana.

The work of the chief librarian and his assistants was interrupted by the sound of the door opening. Targutai turned to face the newcomer, meeting one of the guards responsible for guarding the entrance to the Librarium.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Master of the Librarium, but an entourage from the Seventeenth Legion would like to speak to you."

"No need to apologize, let them in," replied Stormseer. With that, the guard stepped back to allow an entourage of eight legionnaires wearing the colors of the sons of Lorgar to enter the room. The entourage was led by a marine not wearing a helmet whom Targutai had met before.

"First Chaplain Erebus. What brings you here today?"

"Thank you for letting me meet with you today, Yesugei, I know this is sudden, but the matter I have to talk about is extremely important." Said the first chaplain as he greeted the head librarian.

Targutai signaled for him to continue as they both walked to a more secluded part of the Librarium.

"You see, my legion keeps a record of all the religions it has encountered, this record is so that in the event of finding a religion similar to one we encountered in the past, we can use the past records as a guide on how to approach said religion. The point is that one day when I was reading these records, I found that several religions from planets separated by light years were extremely similar."

"As far as I know, it's not uncommon to find certain 'clichés' in different religions." Targutai interrupted.

"You don't understand, they weren't clichés, the religions were the same. A pantheon of four gods, a god of war and blood, one of rot and disease, one of hedonism and extremes, and one of magic and destiny. But the planets that worship them are light years apart and too primitive to be able to communicate with each other, even on Colchis you can find entities with similar descriptions." With that the head librarian stopped and had a contemplative expression on his face.

"Those are the Yaksha kings." Stormseer said with a worried tone.

"Yes, I heard that Chogoris has a pantheon of demons that follow those descriptions. That's why I'm here. I want to ask for your help so that I can understand how this is possible, how so many planets can have the same deities. What or who is causing this?" With that, Erebus reached into his belt and pulled out a thick book that was attached to it. "If you're willing to help me, here are all the notes I could find on these entities, and if you let me, my companions would like to stay with you and follow the investigation."

Targutai looked at the book and could feel the energies flowing from it. His instincts screamed at him not to touch the book, but to ignore this situation would be to fail his father and the imperium itself. Targutai then grabbed the book and with a determined look on his face said.

"You can count on me."

After Nikea, the Fifth Legion returned to Ullanor to complete the extermination of the Orks in the sector, more specifically focusing on the outskirts of the Chondax system.

Against his will, Jaghatai forbade the use of the psychic abilities that the edict of Nikea forbade, but in secret he did not forbid their study. The Primarch kept these studies secret in the hope that in the future the legion's psychics would be able to control them, and that the Emperor would lift Nikea's edicts. The Primarch could only do this because he was far from the greater imperium and had little contact with it.

The years went by for the Fifth Legion. The secret study of forbidden arts and the machinations of Erebus gradually began to affect the legion, preparing it for what was to come.

In the middle of 005.M31, the White Scars fleet registered the arrival of the personal ship of the primarch of the ninth legion, the Red Tear, in the system. When the Gloriana met up with the Fifth Legion fleet, Sanguinius asked to meet his brother to discuss an urgent matter.

Both Primarchs met, and to the Khan's surprise, Sanguinius began to tell him about his plan to betray the Emperor. Sanguinius told his brother of prophetic dreams in which he saw how, after conquering the galaxy, the Emperor would eliminate his less loyal sons in the same way he had done with the second and eleventh.

At first, the angel didn't believe in these dreams, but as time went by, more signs supporting them appeared, and the dreams became stronger and more real every day. Then, at the beginning of that year, Curze contacted him, and not only did he admit that he had the same prophetic dreams, but he also showed several pieces of evidence indicating that the Emperor was creating something great on Terra.

Jaghatai was shaken by these revelations. From one moment to the next, his heart was torn between listening to his brother's words or remaining faithful to the imperium, but after seeing how Sanguinius begged for his help, Jaghatai finally decided to stand by his brother.

Jaghatai was never close to his father, he always saw him as a necessary evil, a tyrant who was capable of bringing enlightenment to mankind but who, at the end of the day, was still a tyrant. You could say that, in a way, the Khan considered himself loyal to humanity, not to the Emperor. So when Sanguinius appeared, it wasn't too difficult to get Jaghatai to side with him.

-Heresy: Warhawk's fly

"If humanity can master the wild winds of Chogoris, then it means that there is nothing it cannot master."

~Jaghatai Khan

After pledging his loyalty to Sanguinius, Jaghatai's first action was to take care of the legionaries in his legion who were more loyal to the Emperor than to his Primarch. These legalists were few in number in the Fifth Legion, but they could still be a problem in the future.

The purge of the legalists was swift and brutal, the legalists on each of the ships were hunted down and murdered. The ships with a legalist majority offered more resistance, but in the end they too fell. The only legalist ship that could be saved was a small frigate led by Torghun Khan, but the traitors were able to damage the ship's warp drives, thus ensuring that the legalists couldn't reach the imperium in time.

So, with the threat of the legalists neutralized, the Khagan focused his efforts on preparing his legion for the war against his father. Jaghatai sent several of his most trusted generals to neighboring systems in order to obtain resources and increase the number of his legion to what it was before they arrived in the Chondax system. The fifth primarch also lifted the restrictions of Nikea's edict so that his legion had free rein to study the warp. This continued for just over a year, until a Blood Angels frigate arrived in the Chondax system to inform the fifth legion that the rebellion could now begin.

The representatives of the Ninth Legion informed the Khagan of what had happened in the Istvaan system, and informed him of the plan that Sanguinius had devised to overcome this setback. So Jaghatai answered his father's call and joined the punishment fleet heading for the Istvaan system. In secret, the traitorous Primarchs joined forces halfway to Istvaan to coordinate their attacks. It was agreed that the Fifth Legion would ensure that the legalists were unable to leave the planet, something the Khan agreed to do.

After arriving at Istvaan V, the retribution fleet prepared to attack, and after several tense hours, the battle that would change the history of humanity, and the galaxy, began.

The Salamanders, World Eaters and Word Bearers advanced against their traitors with determination and fury. Seriously injuring them and leaving everything ready for the second wave of attack to finish the job. But it was then that the second wave revealed their true loyalties, and what was a sure victory for the legalists became a desperate flight for survival.

As the legalists approached the spaceport to escape, the fifth legion did everything it could to stop them, but nothing seemed to slow the legalists down. In a last-ditch attempt to slow them down, Jaghatai and Dorn stood in the way of the legalists, and confronted Angron and Lorgar.

As you would expect from any confrontation between demigods, the battle was hard and bloody, each of the Primarchs receiving blows that killed an Astarters a hundred times over. But Lorgar never stood out for being a skilled warrior, and little by little the traitors pushed the legalists back. That is until Lorgar suddenly unleashed a wave of golden psychic energy that caused serious damage to both traitors. The loyal Primarchs took advantage of this opening to run towards the spaceport and finally escape the planet.

The Khagan was angry that they had been unable to destroy the loyalists once and for all. But he quickly put this irritation aside, after all, the traitors were the undisputed victors on Istvaan V, and this would be the first of many victories that would bring down his father.

However, there was still something bothering Jaghatai, and that was Magnus' whereabouts. The khagan questioned Sanguinius about his brother's fate, but all he received from the angel was silence or vague answers. At the same time, Jaghatai heard several different and contradictory reports about an attack on Prospero by the Sixth Legion. Fearing that the worst had happened, Jaghatai set off for Magnus' home planet to finally find the truth.

After a complicated journey through the warp, the fifth legion finally reached the Prosperine system, where they encountered a desolate Prosperus emanating warp energy. Jaghatai descended to the planet's surface, and down there he met astarters from the fourth, sixth and upper fifth legions. These astarters were in a bad state, both physically and mentally, and were constantly fighting each other and groups of demons that were manifesting on the planet's surface.

After interrogating one of the few legionnaires who hadn't lost his mind, Jaghatai learned about the entire attack orchestrated by Perturabo and that both Magnus and Russ had been swallowed up by a warp rift. Seeing that Magnus' whereabouts were unknown, Jaghatai decided that the best thing he could do for his brother would be to rescue as much of his legacy as he could. So the legionnaires of the Fifth Legion set about rescuing all the valuables and scrolls that had survived the battle for Prospero.

While this was going on, Jaghatai headed for the pyramid of Tizca, where the largest concentration of warp energy on the planet was located, in the last hope of finding a clue to Magnus' location.

The fifth Primarch entered Tizca's pyramid with slow, careful steps. The pyramid emanated so much energy from the inmaterium that anyone unprepared at the best of times would go mad just approaching it. This was reflected in the pyramid's interior, which was so dark that Jaghatai couldn't see inside it properly, something that should be physically impossible for a Primarch.

The Primarch continued walking for longer than it should have taken him to cover the entire pyramid, until a blue mist appeared around him. At the same moment that the mist appeared, Jaghatai brought his hand up to the hilt of his sword and stood in position as he watched the mist concentrate and form a figure in the darkness. And then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the mist vanished and a figure appeared in its place.

The figure was a humanoid being taller than the Primarch, even though he was bent over. He was covered in a dark cobalt robe that concealed most of his body; the little that could be seen was his hands and face, which were an unholy mixture of human and bird with gray feathers all over them. In one hand, the creature carried a lamp-like relic with a blue fire inside, and in the other it had a staff made of what looked like some kind of wood. The creature looked at the primarch with deep blue eyes, and in a voice that conveyed the creature's antiquity, it said.

"+Welcome, Warhawk. I've been expecting you for a long time.+"Without taking his hand off the hilt of his sword, Jaghatai stared at the creature in front of him.

"Who are you, and what do you mean you've been expecting me?"

"+I am Attimerhe, the ancient one. And about the meaning of my words, I and my master, the architect of destiny, have been watching you for a long time, with the intention of offering you a proposal.+" The fifth Primarch continued to stare at the neverborn impassively. His instincts told him to get out of there, but it was unlikely that the creature would let him escape so easily from the pyramid, so the only option he had was to follow the creature's game.

"Very well, tell me your proposal." Said the Khan as he put himself in a more casual position, but without taking his hand off the hilt of his sword.

Attimerhe smiled at the Primarch and raised the lamp above his head, it immediately began to glow and blue smoke billowed out of it. The smoke then began to dance around the neverborn until it suddenly broke up and gave way to a crystalline mirror the same size as the primarch. The mirror seemed to be made up of several crystals with mirror-like characteristics; just by looking at it, he could feel the immense energies that the artifact was releasing.

"+See what the future holds, son of the anathema.+"

Jaghatai took a couple of steps until he was face to face with the mirror and stared into it. At first, it looked like an ordinary, run-of-the-mill mirror, but then, suddenly, the mirror shone and showed him infinite images of futures that could have happened but didn't.

In one vision he saw himself in a great arena at the heart of an infinite labyrinth as he fought horrors from nightmares, in another he saw himself as a beast of flesh and metal that only sought the sensation of extreme speed, and in another he saw himself being stabbed as he fell into an infinite abyss that led to oblivion.

It was then that all the visions stopped, and he appeared atop a counter made of crystal. From the balcony he could see a large hall that was a mixture of a library and a training ground, his sons were down there helping hundreds of mortals to control their own psychic powers. Jaghatai stared at this scene in confusion, so confused that he didn't even hear the door opening behind him.

"Beautiful, don't you think? The future you've always sought." Jaghatai recognized the voice and quickly turned to face the newcomer.

"How?" The Primarch asked as he stared at Odegai.

"The beings who live in the sea of souls are not limited by things like time and space, my son. They can accomplish things that by logic should be impossible." Odegai said as he approached the Primarch. Jaghatai looked perplexed at his late master.

"What is this world?" The Primarch asked.

"This is a possible future, my son, one that may or may not come true. It all depends on you, my son. If you pledge allegiance to the architect of destiny, this will become your future. However, if you refuse, that future will join the infinite others that could have been, but weren't." Jaghatai was silent for a couple of seconds as he thought about his master's words.

"All I have to do is pledge allegiance to this architect?"

"So it is my son, pledge allegiance to the lord of fate, and you will have the future you always dreamed of and me back." The old stormseer then held out his hand to Khagan. The Primarch looked at Odegai, and for a moment it seemed as if he was going to extend his hand too, but then he withdrew his hand and took a step back.

"No, that's a lie, it's all a lie."

"No Jaghatai! This is all possible as long as you're loyal to the great architect!"

"You talk about loyalty in exchange for a better future, but how do I not know that this architect isn't just like my father? Nothing worth fighting for is easy to achieve, and I know enough to know that you can't trust the creatures of the great ocean."

Jaghatai grabbed his sword, and with an impossibly swift blow, cut down the false Odegai. The moment it was cut, the false Odegai began to crystallize and in the next instant it shattered like glass. The entire false world that Jaghatai was in began to tremble, and following the example of Jaghatai's false tutor, it became crystal before shattering.

The moment the whole false world shattered, Jaghatai found himself back in the darkness of the tizca pyramid. In front of him, the mirror had a large gash in one half, and next to him Attimerhe had an expression of surprise and fury on his face. The demon then shouted.

"+No! How dare you!+"

"I won't fall for your beastly lies! And I'll make sure my children don't either!" Jaghatai then launched himself at full speed against the demon, who could barely lift his staff to defend himself.

An incredible duel developed between the two inside the pyramid. The daemon was powerful, but physical combat had never been its strong point, and after an intense struggle Jaghatai was able to stab the neverborn. The daemon screamed in pain as its physical form fell apart, and in a final cry of defiance, the daemon looked at the Primarch and shouted.

"+YOU'LL REGRET THIS WARHAWK!+" Then the daemon finally disappeared.

After his encounter with the demon of Tzeentch, Jaghatai left the pyramid and went on to leave prosperously after recovering everything of value that the planet had to offer.

The fifth primarch's next step was to decide what role his legion would take in the war against the imperium. After what Perturabo had done against Magnus, joining the fourth legion on the front line was out of the question, and Jaghatai and Dorn had never got along well enough for fighting alongside the seventh to be an option.

After much thought, Jaghatai decided that he and his legion would take care of the pockets of imperial resistance that could spell trouble for the traitors later on. So the fifth legion flew through the stars, devastating any world that opposed the angel's armies and conquering those in the arch-traitor's name.

To fulfill this objective, for the first time since his discovery, Jaghatai allowed his legion to split into a dozen fleets to cover as much space as possible. Thus, unlike most of the traitor legions which were limited to the solar segmentum and ultima, there were records of legionnaires from the fifth legion fighting in all five segmentums of the galaxy. Throughout imperial space, the legionaries of the fifth legion overthrew pro-emperor governments and in their place built kingdoms loyal to the angel and following the ideals of the fifth primarch.

During the early years of the heresy, we can also highlight the actions of the White Scars as an auxiliary force of the Ninth Legion. Even though the Khan was angry with Sanguinius for not punishing Perturabo for attacking Prospero, the angel remained one of Khagan's closest friends, and the latter never thought twice about supporting his brother when he needed it. But after the Ninth Primarch conquered the world of Molech in 013.M31, all contact between Sanguinius and Jaghatai was cut off, and all the Khan's attempts to communicate with his brother failed.

Irritated by this, Jaghatai took advantage of the increase in attacks by the world eaters against the flanks of the traitorous advance to focus on hunting down the twelfth legion, a way of escaping the reality around him. For years the two legions clashed on hundreds of battlefields trying to kill each other, but each time one of them escaped before the fatal blow could be struck. For years Jaghatai and Angron played this game of cat and mouse, both knowing that this game couldn't last forever, since the traitors were at the gates of the land, and one side would have to decide whether to join the battle in the cradle of humanity, or continue in the game with the hope of killing the other.

It was in this situation that Jaghatai was able to corner his brother on the planet of Conus II, and launched a major attack aimed at ending the Twelfth once and for all.

There on Conus II, one of the bloodiest battles in the whole heresy took place. The White Scars with fury and determination, and the World Eaters and their auxiliaries responded with their own dose of the same. No matter how much punishment they received, neither side was willing to give in, and the battle would probably have lasted until both sides were dead if it hadn't been for Jaghatai's actions. Seeing how destructive this fight was becoming, Jaghatai chased his brother around the battlefield until the two finally met, and determined to finish what had been left unfinished in Istvaan years ago, the two demigods faced each other.

The duel between the two Primarchs was intense. Angron was tougher and stronger than Jaghatai, but Jaghatai was faster and the use of his psychic powers allowed the fifth primarch to dodge several blows that could have caused serious damage. Both brothers pushed their bodies to the limit trying to outdo each other, Jaghatai often had to block Angron's Chain axe and power sword with his own blade, and the red angel often had to endure his brother's rain of blows if he wanted to strike him.

In the final moments of the fight, it looked as if Khan was going to overcome his brother and emerge victorious. But then a captain of the Twelfth Legion shot Khagan in the leg with his plasma pistol. The fifth primarch was so focused on his fight that he was unable to dodge the shot, and was taken completely by surprise when it impacted against his armor. This caused an opening in the primarch's defense, an opening that lasted a fraction of a heartbeat, but that was more than enough time for Angron, who raised his sword and stabbed his brother through both hearts. Jaghatai could only stare in horror at his brother, before he ripped the sword from his brother's chest and delivered a powerful kick that threw the fifth Primarch away.

Jaghatai tried to use his psychic powers to close the wound, but all the fatigue and wounds he had received over the course of the duel made him weak, and his vision gradually turned black. The Warhawk fought with everything he had against the darkness that embraced him, but in the end it was all in vain, and the darkness took over his eyes. And so, Jaghatai Khan died.

The eagle flew through the dark skies. He was aimless, lost in a realm he didn't know. How long he flew for is something he himself couldn't say. He didn't even remember who he was. He just flew in search of something that could answer his questions.

Then something caught his eye, a small pond several meters in front of him. The eagle flew to the pond and posed next to it, the bird looked into the pond and saw a reflection of several figures, his children. That's right, he had children! He was leading them against his brother's armies until he... until he died.

It was then that a blue fire enveloped the eagle and the pond and a prison made of fire formed around them. The eagle tried to fly out of the prison, but no matter how many times it tried, the fire wouldn't let it pass.

"+I told you you'd regret it.+" The eagle turned to face the voice, and saw a figure through the fire, it recognized this figure as Attimerhe.

"+No one insults me or my master without consequences, Warhawk.+" As he finished speaking, the daemon's face turned into an expression of pure malice and sadism. "+You said your children wouldn't fall. Well, we'll see about that.+" The Daemon raised his staff and suddenly the eagle's body became so heavy that it fell to the ground. The bird tried to get up but the weight was so great that it could barely lift itself off the ground. Jaghatai raised his head as high as he could, and the only thing he could see was the pond.

The death of their Primarch was a blow to the entire legion. All the legionnaires in the Conus system felt the psychic pulse released by the death of their genetic father, and panic gripped their ranks, something the World Eaters took advantage of to overcome the fifth legion and make it retreat from the star system.

At the end of the battle, both legions were devastated, but the twelfth was able to emerge victorious. The Fifth, on the other hand, had to retreat in defeat after the loss of its father, little knowing that the worst was yet to come.

The news of the fifth primarch's death soon spread throughout the galaxy and reached all the fleets of the fifth legion that were far from the main fleet.

After receiving this news, several legionnaires decided to simply abandon the war against the imperium. They had entered this war to overthrow the tyrannical Emperor and help humanity in its rise, but in the minds of these legionnaires only Jaghatai could help humanity in its rise, and now with his death the war had become meaningless. Thus, these Astarters entered a spiral of destruction and devastation on every planet they passed. The worlds conquered by the White Scars were ravaged and pillaged by the very warriors who had once protected them.

But the hardest hit were undoubtedly the Stormseers of the Fifth Legion.

Since the beginning of the heresy, the librarians of the White Scars had wandered into dangerous areas when it came to studying the inmaterium, the only thing keeping the whispers of demons and entities from the sea of souls in check was a strong sense of duty and discipline. But that was shattered with Jaghatai's death and the despair and anguish that came in its place.

The psykers on the farm began to listen to whispers they shouldn't have heard, and several of them got carried away by the daemons' promises and made pacts with said beings. The clearest example of this can be seen in the chief librarian of the Fifth Legion, Targutai Yesugei.

Targutai Yesugei

As one of the few legionnaires who fought alongside Jaghatai against the armies of the Palatine, for the last few years of the Great Crusade Targutai was one of the legion's main officers and one of the men closest to the Primarch. Targutai was known in the legion and beyond not only for his incredible psychic powers, but also for his kind and calm spirit towards those around him. An exemplary legionnaire.

But unfortunately, the machinations of Erebus and Jaghatai's betrayal of the Emperor began to corrupt the chief librarian, and every time he dreamed he could hear whispers and promises of power in said dreams. For a long time Targutai was able to keep the provocations of the beings of the inmaterium at bay, but that ended with Jaghatai's death.

Targutai despaired of his father's death and began to search incessantly for ways to bring back his genetic father. He read entire libraries in days in search of the knowledge needed to accomplish this feat, but he found nothing. It was then that the demon known as Attimerhe contacted Targutai, promising to help the librarian with his quest as long as he pledged allegiance to the god of change, Tzeentch. Such was the Stormseer's desperation that he accepted the deal.

From that day on, Targutai became one of Tzeentch's greatest followers. For the last ten thousand years, Targutai has continued his search for a way to revive his father in the hope of bringing back the legion's glory days.

In a matter of months, the Fifth Legion went from a coherent united force to a fragmented legion of barbarians. A parody of when Jaghatai led the legion.

Qin xa, ashamed of having been unable to protect his father and disgusted with the current state of the legion, gathered up most of the legion's still-sane legionnaires and set off away from Chogoris, never to be seen again.

While all this was going on, a few ships from the fifth legion decided to mobilize to the solar segmentum and join the other traitors in the attack on the sacred one. Most of these legionnaires cared little for the attack on the imperial palace, instead they attacked unprotected cities all over the planet for sheer fun.

The legionnaires of the Fifth Legion who did attack the palace decided to ally themselves with the First Legion, as they too shared a disgust for the warp-corrupted Astarters. So both groups fought side by side during the siege of the imperial palace. But when news of Sanguinius' death reached the traitors, these sons of Jaghatai suddenly found themselves abandoned by their allies in the first legion. In the end, these legionaries were exterminated by the fury of the legalists.

-Post-Heresy:

The defeat of the Angel and the failure to attack Terra mattered little to the Fifth Legion, by which point few legionnaires within the legion cared about the Siege of Terra. The sons of Jaghatai simply continued to ravage any planet they came across.

However, this situation began to change with the Scouring. Suddenly, the Fifth Legion found itself under attack from legalist fleets determined to take back the territory that was rightfully theirs. At first, most of the legion thought that these attacks were unrelated, but it soon became clear that this was not the case and that these attacks were part of a larger offensive.

The fifth legion found itself being pushed back by the legalists with nothing it could do about it but run. Part of the legion joined the other traitor legions in their escape from the eye of terror, but the majority of the legion moved into the Chogoris system. Due to its proximity to the warp storm known as the Maelstrom, the fifth primarch's home system found itself virtually inaccessible in the second half of the Heresy as the warp became increasingly unstable. This allowed the system to arrive in relatively good condition for scouring, something taken advantage of by making it the legion's refuge against the advances of the Emperor's armies.

Each of the imperial assaults against the system failed, and while nearby systems fell into imperial hands, the White Scars held firm. But both sides knew that this situation would not last forever. Unlike other traitorous strongholds, the White Scars didn't have the necessary infrastructure to withstand the constant imperial advances, and both sides knew that at some point the imperials would finally reach Chogoris. With this in mind, the legion's Stormseers began to organize a ritual that, from their point of view, would be the salvation of the legion as a whole.

On 023.M31, a large imperial retribution fleet attacked the Chogoris system. This fleet contained almost the entire chapter of the Thousand Sons, and several companies from other chapters and regiments of the Astra militarum. Magnus the Red himself was at the head of this fleet, since he had sensed the energies of the ritual the Stormseers were preparing and decided to stop them before the ritual could be completed. The sons of Jaghatai did everything they could to stop the legalists, the Stormseers began to make more and more deals with the warp demons so that they could gain the time they needed to complete the ritual, but nothing seemed to stop their advance and little by little they were getting closer to Chogoris.

When the Retribution fleet reached the planet, a great battle developed both in the void and on the planet's surface. Both sides fought with determination to overcome the other, the fifth legion tried everything to stop the legalists but the intellect of a Primarch was simply too much for them and little by little they were being overcome.

It was then that the Stormseers decided to put the ritual into practice, even though it was incomplete. This ritual began to cause all reality around the planet to break down and the energies of the warp to envelop the planet in the same way that a snake envelops its prey. Chogoris was finally enveloped by the warp, and a great light as bright as a supernova emanated from the planet. When the light faded, everyone present was stunned to see that the entire planet of Chogoris had disappeared.

The purpose of the stormseers' ritual was to teleport the entire Chogoris system to the Maelstrom, a great warp storm that was close to the star system. However, Magnus' intervention forced them to perform the incomplete ritual, and they were only able to teleport the planet of Chogoris and the ships very close to it.

Ever since they were teleported into the warp storm, the legion has been dedicated to making frequent incursions into imperial space in order to obtain the resources they need to survive. Throughout these ten thousand years, the imperium has tried several times to eliminate the fifth legion once and for all, but it has all been in vain, and the fifth legion remains a notable threat.

The stormseers within the legion talk of a "great hunt", a time when the legion will finally be able to throw off the chains that bind it and will be free once again to roam the galaxy causing destruction and death in its wake.

With each passing day in the 41st millennium, old and new enemies appear to threaten the integrity of the imperium, and many fear that humanity will reach breaking point and that the great hunt could become a reality.

-Organization:

The Fifth Legion is characterized by being enormously divided among itself, and therefore does not follow a fixed organization.

The leaders of the Fifth Legion warbands tend to be called "Khan", the title the Fifth Legion used to refer to its captains, which in itself is a reference to the Chogorian origins of the Fifth Primarch. The Khans structure their warbands in the way that suits them best, and are free to decide who they attack and which wars they fight.

There are only two figures within the legion who have the necessary influence to affect several warbands. These would be the great Khan and the master of the hunt.

The great Khan is the title given to the Khan who leads the Constantinius space station orbiting Chogoris. Normally, the Great Khan is the leader of the most powerful warband on Constantinius and a warrior and strategist to be feared. Being the leader of such a station, the Great Khan is in charge of protecting and controlling which ships enter and leave the planet. Being an enemy of the Great Khan is not only a declaration of war against one of the strongest warbands in the Fifth Legion, it is also a guarantee that you will never be able to approach Chogoris again.

The current great Khan is the legionnaire known as Jubal Khan. Having been in office for over three hundred years, and being the longest-serving astar, Jubal Khan is extremely astute and skilled at playing political games within the legion. He rarely leaves the legion's space station, but when he does, only death awaits his enemies.

The Master of the Hunt, on the other hand, is in charge of maintaining the legion's honor, hunting down enemies who have dared to challenge it in the past, and ensuring that the legion's name is feared throughout the galaxy. An Astarter becomes a Master of the Hunt after killing the previous one in a one-on-one duel, or by killing the person responsible for the death of the previous Master of the Hunt.

The title originated in the final years of the Scouring. After Jubal Khan, not to be confused with the current Jubal Khan, launched a large-scale attack on the World Eaters in revenge for killing Jaghatai, the Khan then named himself master of the hunt and created the rules that govern this title to this day.

The current master of the hunt is the infamous Astarter known as Kor'sarro Khan. Unlike the rest of his legion, Kor'sarro Khan doesn't care about Chogoris or the memory of Jaghatai, he's an anarchist who simply wants to see the galaxy burn. To achieve this, Kor'sarro launched several attacks on other warbands, including Jubal Khan's, and stole resources from them in order to better arm his own warband, the Rampagers. Jubal Khan was furious at this audacity and prepared a reprisal against the master of the hunt, but before the great Khan's forces could reach him, Kor'sarro abandoned Maelstorm and was able to break the imperial blockade surrounding the warp storm. Since then, the Rampagers have brought destruction and death wherever they go, always moving too fast for the imperial forces to reach them.

-Combat Doctrine:

Ever since Jaghatai was found, the legion has been characterized by its hit-and-run tactics and the use of battle psykers. These two characteristics remain strong to this day.

Legionnaires of Jaghatai's lineage use land speeders, Astarters Bikes and Jetbikes from the great age to implement their hit and run attacks. In some cases, these machines are modified to reach higher speeds.

At first glance it seems that the legionnaires of the fifth legion attack in a wild and random manner, but if you look closer you can see the strategy in each attack and the complexity of the maneuvers that the Astarters of the fifth legion execute. In the Great Crusade the White Scars mastered the use of fast vehicles and attacks at rapid speeds, and unfortunately this skill has not diminished one bit in the last ten thousand years. Their reputation is so great that there is no soldier stationed around the Maelstrom who has never heard of the "white lightnings of death".

The Fifth Legion uses powerful psykers known as Stormseers on the battlefield. These psykers tend to focus on using their powers to cause weather disasters, whether supernaturally aggressive electrical storms or winds so fast they can cut a grown man in half. However, Stormseers don't limit themselves solely to weather control, the truth is that Stormseers have knowledge of the most different psychic disciplines there are, ranging from Biomancy to increase their own speed to Daemonology which allows Stormseers to summon minor demons onto the battlefield. The Stormseers are a very heterogeneous group in terms of abilities, and because of this they are yet another reason why the Fifth Legion should be feared.

-Technology and weaponry:

Due to the nature of the legion being so divided, it is impossible to fit the legion's technology into a single picture. The warbands of the fifth legion can vary enormously in terms of weaponry from one to another, the ones closest to the Dark Mechanicum have several Daemons engines and sophisticated weaponry, while the warbands furthest from the Martian traitors tend to use technology in poor condition and often tend to make do with what they find on abandoned battlefields or in Space Hulks.

The fact is that the White Scars are natural survivors. They may not be the artisans that Vulkan's children are, but that doesn't stop them from improvising and surviving with what they have at their disposal, whether it's junk or not, they'll always find a way to survive and adapt.

-Recruitment, Homeworld and Gene-seed:

During the Great Crusade, the legion's homeworld, Chogoris, was a beautiful yet deadly world. It had beautiful emerald plains that contained hundreds of warring tribes, and beautiful marble mountains that only the strongest and most prepared could pass through without dying in the attempt. Nowadays, this is just a distant memory, as the world has changed a lot since your arrival in the Maelstrom.

Since arriving in the great storm of the warp, unlike any other world recorded by the imperium, Chogoris doesn't follow the orbit of a star, but the world is carried along by the shapeless currents of the storm. However, this does not prevent Chogoris from being affected by the gravitational forces of other astronomical objects, and as a result the world has been deformed over the millennia by passing too close to stars or other planets, and has also suffered solar storms and collisions with meteorites that have further damaged the planet.

The result of all this is a world that only remains standing because it is in a realm that physics deforms. Tectonic activity on the planet is so active that there are only two landscapes in the whole world: colossal mountains and volcanoes the size of small countries, and plains that form when these mountains turn to ash as a result of natural disasters. This constant and violent tectonic activity, in a cruel joke of fate, forces the few human populations who call the planet home to constantly be on the move, just as their Chogorian ancestors did millennia ago.

Because of the nature of their homeworld, the legion has no bases or a fortress monastery on Chogoris. Instead, the Fifth Legion watches over the planet from the space station known as Constantinius.

Constantinius

It's not known exactly when it happened, but the Inquisition has it that at some point in the 32nd millennium the Fifth Legion attacked and stole the space station known as Constantinius, which monitored activity around the Maelstrom.

Since then, the sons of Jaghatai have modified the station over the millennia according to their interests. Using the remains of ships or other space stations to create new sections or modify existing ones. As a result, Constantinius in the current millennium is a structure that resembles nothing of the original station. The station is a behemoth of continental scale that contains both human and xeno technology.

The station's main function is to monitor the planet and serve as a source of resources for pirates and warbands of the Fifth Legion.

Since Constantinius, the Great Khan monitors the planet below in search of aspirants to become legionnaires, or for rare metals, since it's not uncommon for the constant asteroids that fall on the planet to carry rare minerals inside them. The great khan tends to keep part of these aspirants and minerals, while the rest ends up on the station's internal market, where pirates or warbands can pay for said resources.

It's also not uncommon to meet pirates or marines who call the station home, since as long as you have something to offer, the Great Khan has no problem handing over station territories for an indefinite period of time. Obviously, the fact that the station contains several criminal groups tends to generate rivalries between these groups, which can end up leading to clashes between them inside the station. Such confrontations rarely affect the market or the stability of the station, since if such confrontations irritate the great Khan, those responsible for them can be sure that they will be the newest products on the ever-growing Constantinius market.

The legion recruitment relies heavily on the slave market and the population that the White Scars kidnap after each attack on imperial space. Even though the Chogoris have a native population, it is too small and unstable to be a reliable source of aspirants. Luckily for the White Scars, and to the misfortune of the rest of the galaxy, the genetic seed of Khan's bloodline has an average acceptance rate and a low mutation rate. Allowing the White Scars warbands to maintain their numbers even though they are forced to use aspirants from random worlds.

-Relations:

Unlike the other legions, the Fifth Legion doesn't have very stable relations with the other traitor legions. This is partly due to the fact that the majority of the fifth legion is in the Maelstrom, a place with little to no activity from the other traitor legions. But this lack of relations also stems from the legion spirit as a whole. The Fifth Legion is a free spirit that rarely tends to follow rules or leaders that aren't part of its own legion, and as a result it's rare to see another traitor legion allying itself with the Fifth Legion and for such an alliance to last long.

On the other hand, the sons of Jaghatai tend to have good relations with pirates and outlaws, be they human or xenos. This is because the legion constantly needs to negotiate with these individuals in order to obtain certain resources, and over the years the links with these underworld elements have solidified to the point where it is not uncommon to see White Scars legionnaires fighting alongside a group of traitorous Rogue Traders, for example.

On the imperium side, the Fifth Legion hates the imperium as a whole, seeing it as little more than a tyrannical dictatorship on a galactic scale. In themselves, the White Scars see most of the Emperor's armies in the same way, fools and slaves to the imperium who waste their lives to maintain a worthless empire.

But there are two legions that the Fifth Legion hates more than anything, and these would be the World Eaters and the Thousand Sons, in the case of the former they are hated for being responsible for Jaghatai's death, and in the case of the latter for being the main ones responsible for the Fifth Legion having lost the Chogoris star system and now finding itself in the Maelstrom.

One thing we can point out is that since the end of the year 800 of the 41st millennium, a strange and unknown group of Astarters has been launching attacks against the Fifth Legion. This mysterious group of Astarters wear armor dating from the time of the Great Crusade and heresy, painted black with white and red details. After investigating the corpses of said Astarters, it was discovered that they carry the genetic seed of the fifth primarch, and just to make things more confusing, the Death Spectres chapter reported that it had already faced these marines in the Ghouls stars throughout its history. Something that makes many inquisitors suspect that this group of astarters is a warband of the fifth legion that has long been separated from its original legion.

The only thing that is certain about this group is that they are 100% focused on fighting the Fifth Legion, since they have never launched direct attacks against the Imperium. They show up to fight the fifth legion, and when the fifth legion has been defeated, they leave the battlefield without saying a word. Why a warband of Astarters would cross half the galaxy from the Ghoul Stars to the Maelstrom just to face their original legion is a mystery that only the Emperor knows the answer to.

-Beliefs and warcry:

The customs and beliefs of the Fifth Legion vary from warband to warband. Warbands led by or with a large number of legionnaires who are veterans of the Great Crusade or the Heresy tend to use decorations and customs of Chogorian origin, while warbands without such veterans rarely care about the culture of their primarch's homeworld.

The most common war cry used by the Fifth Legion is "For the Khan!". In the case of Kor'sarro Khan's Rampagers, the most common war cry used by them is "Let the galaxy burn!".

"What do we do now, sir?". One of the astarters behind him asked. Qin continued to stare in silence at the Command Bridge window for a few seconds before turning around.

Behind them were just over twenty astarters of the most different ranks, most of them wearing the black armor of the Ebon Keshig, the few who weren't dressed in black would soon join the others. Surrounding the legionnaires were the main mortal officers of the fleet, most of them former Swordstorm officers who had abandoned the ship to join Qin Xa.

The former master of the Keshig observed his companions for a few seconds before speaking.

"We will survive, we will survive until the time is right to return and rebuild the Fifth Legion. My father's legacy cannot and will not die like this!" Qin Xa raised his fist at the end of his speech, and the others followed suit and made the same gesture.