40K Lore: The White Scars
Gather ’round Loremasters, for today we discuss the lore of the first founding Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes. Today: the swift riders of the White Scars.
The White Scars (known to themselves as the Horde of Jaghatai), originally known as the Star Hunters were the V Legion of the original twenty Space Marine Legions of the First Founding. Their Primarch is Jaghatai Khan. During the Horus Heresy the White Scars remained loyal to the Emperor, after which they reorganized and split into Chapters. Drawing on the tribal savagery of their homeworld, the White Scars practice a highly mobile method of warfare, tearing into their enemies with lightning-quick attacks and vanishing before a response can be made. Despite being characterized as barbarians, the White Scars are a highly cultured Chapter. Poetry is among their most respected and ancient traditions.
The White Scars were the V Legion of Space Marine Legions created by the Emperor. They first saw action during the Unification Wars on Terra, held apart from their brothers and rarely found in mass combined armies. Recruits were primarily drawn from the ice wastes of the Thulean Basin. They were nonetheless one of the first Legion’s to see action in the name of the Emperor, fighting alongside the older Thunder Warriors. The early Vth Legion was given the solitary duty of seeking out the hidden lairs of many demagogues and warlords that ruled Terra. Their superhuman physiology allowed them to survive in the most radiation-contaminated areas of the planet and operate deep in enemy territory to scout and harass. In these early days, the Legion numbered only a few hundred warriors and frequently weakened the enemy in preparation for the arrival of the Emperor’s main armies. However, the Star Hunters as they eventually become known as were known to be free-spirited and tended to ignore orders given to them by anyone other than the Emperor himself. They operated without glory, far from the center of the conflict. Their famous early battles such as the raid of the Albian fortress of Dubris or the 83 day battle in the catacombs of Kadiru against Ursh forces go largely unrecorded. Few within the Star Hunters showed any outrage at this slight, and they even took a quiet pride in their silent role. Nonetheless, they were further isolated from their peers and became known as Terra’s Forgotten Sons.
As the Unification Wars spiraled into the Great Crusade, the Star Hunters were among the first Astartes to depart the Sol System. They were split into a hundred companies and acted as pioneers, charting and seeking out domains for the Crusade’s Expeditionary Fleets. Once again, these expeditions received little attention or praise and found the Star Hunters as the outsiders and “other” of the Imperium’s armies. Nonetheless, one such pioneer Company discovered Cthonia, homeworld of Horus, and this cemented a bond with the Primarch for years to come. Their early experience in pioneering and scouting also saw the Star Hunters master the art of hit-and-run and maneuver warfare that would come to define them in the future. Soon enough the Star Hunters were known not only as pioneers but also as raiders who struck swiftly and without warning, drawing out a foe and testing it before broadcasting the data to allied Expeditionary Fleets. In these early days, the Star Hunters lived by a single cred: each new day is a victory as slowly but surely the Legion was sustaining heavy losses and eroding under the pressures of its duties. Rather than ask for aid, they chose to instead live and die in the manner and locations of their choice.
It was at this near-breaking point that their Primarch Jaghatai Khan was discovered after fifty long years of searching. Upon meeting the Emperor, Jaghatai recognized him as a man who embodied his ultimate ideal, someone who could unite all the stars of the sky. At his palace at Quan Zhou he swore allegiance to the Emperor and was given command of the 5th Legion. The Astartes adopted the facial ritual scars of the Talskar tribesmen while many of Khan’s loyal tribesmen were allowed to join the Legion. Jaghatai’s palace, located in the rugged, lonely mountain passes of the Khum Karta mountains, would become the Legion’s Fortress-monastery. However the Khan was unfamiliar with the advanced technologies and tactics of the Imperium, and took a longer and more difficult period to adjust from his life on primitive Chogoris than most Primarch’s. The Khan found himself as lord of a Legion of Vagabonds spread out across the Galaxy, but nonetheless effectively rebuilt the Star Hunters into a new force similar to the armies he had employed on Chogoris. In 875.M30, a full ten years after his discovery, the Khan finally mustered all of the remaining Pioneer companies on Chogoris and declared that they would be unified in a shared tradition and ritual. In an event known as the Blooding, 50,000 warriors took up knives and marked themselves with a scar and new Chogorian name. Among these new traditions was the study of “noble pursuits” such as calligraphy, hunting, and the reciting of oral tales. However this blend of primitive and enlightened put him at odds with some aspects of the Imperial Truth and brought him into conflict with Primarchs such as Guilliman and Lorgar.
During the Horus Heresy, the White Scars distinguished themselves in battle, fighting the Alpha Legion and the Death Guard until they had to eventually deal with an attempted coup led by Torghun Khan and Hasik-Noyan Khan to take command of the White Scars fleet while it was at Prospero, and join their forces with Horus. Cultural tensions between members of the Legion born on Terraand those from Chogoris had been fermenting for years, with many of those from Humanity’s birthplace favoring Horus while those from the Khan’s adopted world favored loyalty to his word. Thanks to the efforts of Shiban Khan, who led a boarding party onto the Swordstorm and battled the traitors until Jaghatai arrived, the plot failed. Mortarion and the Death Guard withdrew shortly after following a brief battle in space. Surviving traitors within the Scars were condemned to the Sagyar Mazan, suicide units that would atone through death against the enemy.
After the Horus Heresy, the White Scars adopted the Codex Astartes and the Legion was divided into several Chapters.
In order to contain the outlaws, renegades and aliens that dwell within the Maelstrom, Roboute Guilliman ordered the surrounding systems to be reinforced. The White Scars were tasked with the main responsibility of securing the area from their homeworld.
