Disciples of Dorn

The Disciples of Dorn are a codex-compliant Astartes Chapter from the Twenty-Sixth Founding that occured in 738.M41. As the name suggests, they are a successor chapter to the Imperial Fists, and they pay homage to this fact by their use of the fist iconography on their armour and vehicles. Their livery comprises white armour with gold trim & shoulder pads, elements of which are emblazoned with the fist icon in black. They are experts in siege tactics and shock warfare, and their tutelage by the Imperial Fists 3rd Company upon their creation has resulted in the Disciples adopting the disciplined bolter drill used so effectively by the Sentinels of Terra.

A World under Attack
The history of the Disciples goes back to the middle of M41 on the Shrine World of Paulos, located in the Pauldron Sub-Sector of Innsmouth Sector. Paulos was one of the many religious stop-over points for the countless pilgrims that make their way towards Terra, providing them with a place to worship, rest, and hopefully find some way to continue their life-long pilgrimage to the place of humanity's birth. Paulos was a Shrine World dedicated to heroic members of the Adeptus Astartes, and by tradition stood under the ceremonial protection of an Astartes squad from the Imperial Fists. In 552.M41, the planetary system was engulfed by a sudden and terrifying warp storm, cutting off all transport and communications to the rest of the Imperium. Almost two billion pilgrims were trapped upon the planet alongside the permanent population, and it was not long until panic and disorder gripped the surface of the world as people sought out rapidly dwindling food stocks.

The Imperial Fists contingent on the planet, at that time the 2nd Squad of the "Sentinels of Terra" 3rd Company, was called onto the streets by the planetary leaders to protect government food stores and re-establish order. The Sentinels immediately went about organising an auxiliary militia from the pilgrims, both providing the Astartes with greater manpower and also quelling some of the unrest by giving people a purpose to follow. Within three months, rationing had been established and order was being slowly re-imposed by the Sentinels and their human auxiliaries. It was estimated at the time that the planet had enough food to keep the population alive for a Terran year, and all efforts were thrown at finding a way to communicate or travel through the enclosing grip of the warp storm.

A World under Siege
The planet's ordeal was soon to get much worse than simply facing starvation. From the swirling skies of the warp storm, Chaos daemons and warbands descended upon Paulos with a thirst for slaughter and perversion. It was then that the religious leaders of the planet - experienced and respected members of the Ecclesiarchy who had managed planetary affairs for decades - revealed themselves to be the source of the warp storm, having fallen to the influences of Chaos and conducted the dark sorcery neccessary to isolate the world. The heretical authorities proclaimed the worship of the Dark Gods to be mandatory and denounced the Emperor as a false idol. Not willing to let this insult stand, the entire squad of the Sentinels deployed in a surprise attack on the fortress-cathedral of the planetary rulers and slew the corrupted priests to the last, before setting the structure alight as a testament to those who defy the Emperor's will.

A third of the population was slaughtered in the opening days of the Chaos attack before the Sentinels and their auxliaries managed to establish defensive lines. The survivors retreated into the shrines and cathedrals of the planet, now finding physical protection alongside the spiritual behind stone walls and hastily-erected barricades. The urban surface of Paulos now comprised virtually isolated pockets of loyalists, linked only by the occasional perilous journey through the labrynthine catacombs that connected underground to most places of worship. Outside of these pockets lay a nightmarish No-Man's land of roaming Chaos creatures, conducting dark rituals and constant sieges on the ramparts of the survivors.

With no civilian leadership to hand, the Sergeant of the Sentinel's 2nd Squad - an Astartes of long experience by the name of Leopold Grimm - declared himself interim Planetary Governor until contact with the Imperium could be re-established. He established the squad's base of operations in a cathedral dedicated to Dorn himself, quickly fortifying it to withstand Chaos attack. He ordered the brothers of his squad on hazardous journeys through the planet's catacombs to help reinforce the ramparts of the loyalist pockets, using the Imperial Fist's knowledge of siege defences to better the survival chances of those still living. Two battle-brothers died undertaking these missions, and Grimm ordered their names chiselled into the ancient walls of the cathedral alongside the long-dead martyrs of the Imperial Fists already there recorded.

A World Reborn
The defensive situation now bettered, Grimm faced the problem of a rapidly starving population. Seeing no other alternative to the problem, Grimm ordered the implementation of cannibalism amongst the survivors, declaring that wasting any flesh from the warp-untainted dead was an offence punishable by death. This was initially met with unease or disobedience by some of the survivor outposts, but after several months of near-starvation rations it did not take long for the population to come around to the logic of the situation.

To set an example to the population - and lengthen the dwindling stocks of high-energy combat rations available in the Astartes' stores - Grimm ordered his squad to also participate in the cannibalism decree. It was during one of these cannibalistic meals that the entire squad was struck with visions of the Dorn himself visiting their table. In the vision, Dorn assured them that he stood by their sides in the ongoing struggle, and that their salvation would come to pass. Dorn declared - much to the astonishment of the squad - that the Emperor was indeed the one true God of mankind, and that the key to their survival lay in accepting this belief as truth. Dorn ended his speech with the following phrase; "You must be my disciples in spreading this truth to your brothers through words, and in spreading this truth to the enemy through death." Then the apparition vanished, leaving the Astartes stunned into silence and inaction. After several uneasy hours of discussion and argument, the entire squad awoved their belief in the Emperor as a God and took upon themselves a new moniker - the Disciples of Dorn.

A World Saved
The siege of Paulos continued for another 136 years, with the pilgrim militias holding back the hordes of Chaos under the support and guidance of their Astartes leaders. Deliverance finally came to the loyalists when Leopold Grimm was alone struck by another vision of Dorn during prayer. Dorn's stated a simple series of numbers before the apparition faded away once more. Grimm interpreted these numbers are planetary coordinates, and ordered the Disciples on a hazardous march out into the urban wastelands of Chaos-occupied Paulos.

After several days of running combat and the loss of three more battle-brothers, the remainder of the squad found themselves standing on the lip of a mighty crater several miles deep and twice as wide. At the centre, surrounded by hundreds of daemons and cultists, was a huge monolith covered in symbols of the Dark Gods, its surface leaping with energy bolts that launched into the sky. The squad realised that this was the source of the ongoing warp storm, and charged with an allmighty roar into the crater.

The Disciples were vastly outnumbered, but something that day seemed to lend its power to their blades and bolter rounds. The enemy found themselves facing gods of war that seemed near-indestructible, and soon the Chaos forces were routed and the monolith was destroyed in a pyre of righteous gunfire. In a last-ditch action to ensure the destruction of the device, Grimm threw himself onto the device with an overloaded plasma pistol, protecting the weapon with his body whilst the overload charge built to critical levels. The explosion killed Grimm, but also obliterated the monolithic device.

In the blink of an eye, the warp storms surrounding Paulos disappeared. Those daemons and creatures of the warp still left standing were reduced to ectoplasmic soup as their stability outside of the Empyrean was destroyed by the lack of Chaos energies around them. The human cultists that had accompanied the daemons onto the planet - or had converted at the time of invasion - were the only enemies left standing on the soil of the devastated Shrine World.

Reinforcements were soon at hand. By this time since Paulos was first cut off from the rest of the galaxy, an Imperial Fists detachment had been assigned to hold anchor beyond the warp storms. There they waited, looking for any opportunity to break through and secure their pledge-bound vassal world. When the storms disappeared, a cautious Astartes force was deployed onto the surface to clean up the few remaining traitors. Gradually the final threat was eliminated, and within a few days it was possible for loyalist survivors to begin leaving their holy strongholds and step once again into the sunlight beyond the protective walls that had kept them safe for so long. The surviving members of the 2nd Tactical Squad/3rd Company, now calling themselves the "Disciples of Dorn", were tracked down and brought aboard the Imperial Fist's detachment flagship for interrogation and warp-taint investigation.

The Disciples are born
Tests aboard the Imperial Fist's detachment flagship found no trace of warp-taint amongst the surviving Astartes from Paulos. However, their fervent shift towards a religious devotion to the Emperor was met with some wariness and alarm from the Imperial Fists senior command. After some debate, it was decided that the change in the surviving Astartes was far too drastic to revert. Given the taint-free nature of the survivor's gene seed, the Imperial Fists petitioned the High Lords of Terra to authorise the formation of a new successor chapter that would use the survivors as a foundational nucleus.

The High Lords approved the petition, and the lengthy process of creating a brand new Astartes chapter was begun. The name "Disciples of Dorn" was approved as the official moniker of the new chapter, and the survivors were assigned a new armour paint scheme to reflect their manner in battle and mindset. Aided by the Imperial Fists 3rd Company to which they had originally belonged, these first Disciples oversaw the development of Paulos as a recruiting world for new Astartes. Initial recruits were taken from the children of the surviving loyalists that had managed to escape destruction during the chaotic warp storm incursions. As Paulos was rebuilt, it once again became a Shrine World through which pilgrims would funnel on their way to Terra. The Disciples began to take recruits from the children of these pilgrims, promising them the ability to serve the God-Emperor in ways that they had never imagined being capable of accomplishing.

In 738.M41, as part of the wider Twenty-Sixth Founding, the Disciples of Dorn were officially declared to be at strength and in service to the Imperium. They were then given duties of protection to the Innsmouth Sector, and at least two Line Companies have been stationed within the region ever since.