Warhammer 40K: The Sanguinary Priest – Bearers of Blood
The Sanguinary Priests of the Blood Angels are more than the Apothecaries of the Blood Angels. They also watch for signs of the Red Thirst.
All Space Marine Chapters have Apothecaries. It’s a much needed job when you’re in the business of war like the Adeptus Astartes. Most of the time these chosen Marines are patching up their battle brothers. When things get bad, they are also there to recover the gene-seed from the fallen Marines. But the Sanguinary Priests of the Blood Angels have another role in the chapter. They bear the burden of knowing the secrets of the chapter. The watch for signs of the Red Thirst and warn of the Black Rage.
The Bearers of Blood
Like all Space Marine Apothecaries, Sanguinary Priests are battlefield medics, trained to heal Battle Brothers‘ wounds, and retrieve the geneseed of those who are killed or too grievously wounded to survive.
They also share a role with the Blood Angels’ Chaplains in the spiritual guidance of their Battle Brothers. Where Chaplains are there to save Blood Angels from falling to the Black Rage, Sanguinary Priests watch for signs of the Red Thirst, doing their best to curb its effects, or – when the battle turns against them – harness it as a weapon against the enemy.
Sanguinary Priests also oversee the induction of new recruits into the chapter, by a process known as Insanguination. During the Insanguination, geneseed is implanted into successful Neophytes by drinking from the Blood Chalice held by a Sanguinary Priest.
Heavy Is The Burden
Because of this role, the Sanguinary Priests are responsible for the care of the Red Grail, the chalice holding the blood of Sanguinius himself. This blood is regularly circulated through the veins of the Sanguinary Priests, who are injected with a sample from the Grail, then later cut themselves to bleed it back in. In this way, the blood is continuously kept fresh, and every single draught from the Grail contains a small percentage of the original blood of the Primarch.
Sanguinary High Priest Corbulo
As the chapter‘s leading specialists in the Blood Angels’ genecode, many Sanguinary Priests are engaged in an intensive – some would say futile – search for a cure for the Red Thirst and the Black Rage.
Because of their dual role with the Chaplains of watching over their battle-brothers’ spiritual health, it has become traditional, since M35, for the Sanguinary High Priest and the High Chaplain to assume joint command of the chapter in the event the Chapter Master is killed or incapacitated. For this reason, the Sanguinary Priesthood is considered to be on an equal footing with the Chapter command in the Blood Angels’ hierarchy.
Their equipment includes a Narthecium and a Blood Chalice, sacred relics presented to the first Sanguinary Priests by Sanguinius.
