Warhammer 40K: Emperor’s Children Flagships – Chariots of the Damned
My fellow grimdark Admirals, today learn of the dread vessels that lead the twisted Emperor’s Children fleet.
The Emperor’s Children are led by several key vessels, used for both Legion command and personal missions.
Pride of the Emperor
The Pride of the Emperor was a Gloriana Class Battleship and the Flagship of Fulgrim, Primarch.
Layout & Design
Richly decorated inside and out, with armor plates inlaid with gold being its most obvious extra-normal feature. Built-in the shipyards of Jupiter, it was a little over 160 years old at the beginning of the Horus Heresy. It was hand-crafted to exact specifications The vessels’s construction took twice as long as that of comparable vessels, and was overseen by the Fabricator-General of Mars himself. Such honour was paid to it for a simple reason. The Pride of the Emperor was intended to be the Flagship of III Legion from the moment it was laid down.
The main passageway of the vessel was the Triumphal Way. A wide processional, tiled in cool marble and supported with onyx columns. The columns were inlaid with gilt lettering that recounted the victories of the Legion, and statues of Legion heroes lined the walls. In between the statues were later added paintings created by the remembrancer contingent present with the 28th Expeditionary Fleet. Interspersed with the statues at fixed intervals were an honour guard of Emperor’s Children Space Marines, each armed with a throwing spear. The Triumphal Way terminated at the Phoenix Gate. The main entryway to the council chamber known as the Heliopolis.
Heliopolis
The Phoenix Gate was a large bronze gateway guarded by more Emperor’s Children. Upon the doors was engraved a mural showing the Emperor presenting Fulgrim with the symbol of the Imperial Eagle. Passing through it, one arrived in the Heliopolis, a large circular chamber designed as the main meeting room of the Legion officers. Also lined with pale marble walls, and black terrazzo flooring and supported by pillars and bronze statues, the Heliopolis also featured a heavily mosaiced ceiling that dripped purple and gold banners. The center of the domed roof featured a window port that allowed starlight to penetrate the room when the illuminators were doused. Oil-burning censers were spaced throughout the room. Rows of benches were arranged in a circular formation, in a banked series that provided seating for two thousand. A chair of black marble sat in the very center of the room. The seat of the Primarch. The closer one sat to the floor and the Primarch, the higher one’s perceived rank and status. Fulgrim typically gave his speeches here. On the days before a battle, a feast, as well as celebration, was held within the Heliopolis.
A century after the Heresy at the Battle of Thessala the Pride of the Emperor had been grotesquely transformed by the corruption of the Warp. The vessel was a sick intimidation of what it had once been in the Emperor’s service.
History
Serving as the flagship of the Emperor’s Children throughout the Great Crusade, the Pride of the Emperor saw numerous actions including the Cleansing of Laeran. Later in the early stages of the Horus Heresy when Fulgrim attempted to turn Ferrus Manus to side with Horus and the two sides came to blows, the Pride of the Emperor managed to badly damage the Iron Hands’ flagship Fist of Iron. The Pride of the Emperor then led Fulgrim and the Emperor’s Children into the Eye of Terror alongside Perturabo and the Iron Warriors to the Crone World of Iydris.
During the Great Scouring the Pride of the Emperor was at the forefront of the Emperor’s Children fleet led by Fulgrim against the Ultramarines. The vessel engaged in a vicious duel with the Ultramarines Battle Barge Gauntlet of Power. It was ultimately the site of the battle between Fulgrim and Roboute Guilliman that saw the loyalist Primarch mortally wounded. During the battle, loyalist forces crippled the Pride of the Emperor.
Andronius
Andronius, sometimes called Andronicus, was a Strike Cruiser of the Emperor’s Children during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. It was the Legion’s second flagship after the Pride of the Emperor. It was destroyed through ramming by the Iron Hands Strike Cruiser Sisypheum during the Heresy, whilst en route to the Crone World of Iydris.
Layout & Design
The Andronius was commanded by Lord Commander Eidolon during the early stages of the Heresy. It led the Emperor’s Children contingent in the Battle of Isstvan III.
In its original form, it held the Gallery of Swords which ran the length of the ship, with a transparent roof and lined with hundreds of statues to heroes of the Legion. Following the Legion’s change of allegiance, these statues were altered, some of them being crudely modified to resemble bull-headed monsters.
Following Fulgrim‘s order to pursue genetic experimentation on the Legion, Apothecary Fabius conducted his work from a research facility below the Gallery of Swords. This area was accessed through a hidden entrance contained within a huge mosaic in the Central Apothecarion depicting Fulgrim’s victory at Tarsus.
Wage of Sin
The Wage of Sin is a Battle Barge used by the Emperor’s Children. Dating back to the Great Crusade, the Wage of Sin is the current flagship of Eidolon who leads one of the largest and most organized Emperor’s Children warbands. The ship frequently performs raids to capture slaves to feed the appetites of the hedonisic Emperor’s Children. The vessel boasts a large retinue of Noise Marines. However it also maintains close ties with the Black Legion. It has been seen alongside the ships of Abaddon the Despoiler on multiple Black Crusades.
Vesalius
The Vesalius was a Gladius Class Frigate captured and renamed by Fabius Bile. Since coming into his possession it has undergone substantial modifications with captured xenotech and other heretical technologies. Its machine spirit nears a level of awareness bordering on Abominable Intelligence.
~ Report any activity of these Heretic vessels immediately to your nearest Battlefleet Sector HQs!
