Legion V: Aesir

Numeration	V
Primogenitor	Vidarr
Cognomen	Aesir (Formal); Wolfkillers (Low Gothic); The Silent (Informal Nickname); Winter Sons (Terran Legion Designation)
Observed Strategic Tendencies	Annihilation
Noteworthy Domains	None
Allegiance	Fedelitas Constantus
Colours	Royal Blue. Silver Trim.
...

Then comes Sigfather's | mighty son, Vidarr, to fight | with the foaming wolf; In the giant's son | does he thrust his sword Full to the heart: | his father is avenged.

The Fifth Legion is an aberration, cursed with defective geneseed; ruled by an unknowable, monstrous Primarch. Seemingly divorced from the larger Imperium, uncaring for its laws and any authority, the Aesir only seem to obey a singular voice - the Emperor of Mankind.

They do not bring worlds to Compliance. They take no Domain. There is no pattern to their massacres. No warnings. No mercy. Where Vidarr & the Aesir walk, naught but destruction is left in their wake.

Legion Insignia, Primary authorised variant

History

Early Crusade

Now Garm howls loud | before Gnipahellir, The fetters will burst, | and the wolf run free; Much do I know, | and more can see Of the fate of the gods, | the mighty in fight

Before the Aesir, they were the Winter Sons, recruited from the stock of the techno-tribes of the Nordyc Confederacy. At the vanguard of the Imperium’s first great leap into the unknown, the Winter Sons became famous for their ferocity; their unbound loyalty to humanity; their long and winding sagas.

No Legion seemed to take more joy in the Emperor’s Crusade than the Sons. None made greater use of Remembrancers to record their deeds and have them broadcast across the Imperium & to the lost colonies of mankind. Their victories became the sagas of legend; their absurd heroics the subject of pic-cast. When a hero of the Winter Sons fell, The Imperium mourned; when they bought a world to Compliance, The Imperium was jubilant.

During this time, the Winter Sons served alongside the majority of the other Legions & the Imperial Army, acquitting themselves with grace & glory. For many of the Imperium’s military, to have fought with the Winter Sons was a badge of honour, a tale to bring home to family.

Then came Ichar IV.

The Silence

The sun turns black, | earth sinks in the sea, The hot stars down | from heaven are whirled; Fierce grows the steam | and the life-feeding flame, Till fire leaps high | about heaven itself.

A heavily industrialized Hive World which served as the ‘homeworld’ of a series of systems who maintained a form of ‘Federation’ with the support of local Xenos elements & technologies, Ichar IV should have been a straightforward Compliance, the Legion’s stock-in-trade.

With the planet’s territories split between trade families the bulk of the Legion was sent to demonstrate the power of the Imperium to a splinter group of ‘Trade-Magi’ who maintained strong links with local Xenos elements, holding the planet’s Hive Secundus & controlling off-world travel.

Deep within that Hive, the Legion, led by Master Torstein Sigvald, uncovered a Xenos construct. The hive’s super-structure was constructed around eldritch & inhuman technology that intertwined and interfaced with it’s human inhabitants in ways that were…un-Imperial. The Legion engaged and emerged victorious; the Xenos vanquished; the Hive eradicated from orbit – but at a terrible cost. These ancient Xenos had unleashed a plague upon the Fifth, that directly targeted their geneseed. Within a day, every element of the Legion that had been at Ichar IV had fallen into a coma, their gene-enhanced immune systems only able to keep them barely alive.

But the perfidiousness of these Xenos did not stop at Ichar IV. Somehow, they transmitted the details of their monstrous creation to other Xenos enclaves across the Galaxy & seeded them amongst the human populace. Seemingly transmittable by any of humanity, but only deadly to the transhumans of the Fifth Legion, the plague affected the Vth in sector after sector. After unpredictable and catastrophic losses, the uninfected remnants of the Legion were recalled and quarantined on the moon of Titanm along with their comatose brethren. Many, Primarchs among them, called for the Legion’s remnants to be euthanized, fearful that this terrible plague could mutate and spread to the other Legions. Others counseled patience, believing that the Imperial science would find a cure. Many simply waited, trusting that the Emperor would return victorious from the Vanguard of his Crusade and perfect a solution – surely He would not let such a terrible fate befall the Imperium’s heroes?

Vigrior I

Now do I see | the earth anew Rise all green | from the waves again; The cataracts fall, | and the eagle flies, And fish he catches | beneath the cliffs.

‘My ears filled with the roar of a thousand voices & I turned to port, almost involuntarily. I felt my sister brush against me as she did the same. Her hand reached out and took mine. There, in the void, between the blinking constellations of the material world, was a light, a mere candle to the Astronomican’s illuminating light, yet it was there; it was whole and it was wondrous. The roar dissipated and I was filled with a Silence, pure, illuminating. We turned to one another, to the Captain, to the Navigator. No one spoke, no command was given. Everybody just…knew. Our vessel rolled within the void; the crew set course, unbidden . To Vigrior.’ ~ – Astropath Verne Krennic; Hundred & Seventeenth Expeditionary Feet, as told to Remembrancer Marianne Holt

The Seventeenth Expeditionary Fleet found their way to the planet designated Delta Tau 11.431.1, colloquially known as Vigrior I. The systems near Vigrior were populated by the survivors of advanced pre-Imperial civilizations who despite the great darkness, had survived and prospered, albeit by forming stratified feudal societies around the cultures of pre-Imperial settlers. Kings, Queens, Lords & Knights piloted ancient war machines and sub-light spacecraft in defence of their realm, fending off Xenos threats and creating a pocket realm held together by tradition and treaty.

All except Vigrior I. Here, something had gone very, very wrong. Remembrancers would later pick through local historical records to uncover references to most nearby planets taking in noble refugees from Vigrior, who spoke of terrifying earthquakes and uncontrollable monsters. Cross-referencing with Martian records, it seems that Vigrior was subject to some kind of terraforming or biological disaster, although the exact cause & circumstances are lost to record.

What elements of the 117 found was a death planet, it’s surface teeming with vicious & deadly life. But, as humanity so often had during the, survivors of the pre-fall population had found a way to survive, in strongholds that borrowed deep underground, linked by a network of tunnels that spanned the planets surface.

Until recently, these strongholds, named ‘Meduseld’, had been at war, an endless cycle of underground raiding by bands of ‘Einherjar’, stronghold fighters who captured enemy settlement supplies and, occasionally, hunted beasts above ground for meat & to prove their mettle. But, in the years preceding Imperial contact, for the first time in the planets history, the Meduseld had been united under a single Jarl.

As the 117th made planetfall in surrounding systems, bringing these systems to a peaceful compliance, an unmistakable ship appeared in orbit around Vigrior - the Bucephelus. Seven days later, the Imperium sand in celebration, as another of it’s sons had returned home: Vidarr.

Vidarr

The gods in Ithavoll | meet together, Of the terrible girdler | of earth they talk, And the mighty past | they call to mind, And the ancient runes | of the Ruler of Gods.

The Primarch of the Fifth, and his Legion were not seen for over a year, until the massacre of Korellian VI. Unwilling to comply, and armed with comparable technology to the Imperium’s, the Korellian Confederacy had refused Imperial Army offers of compliance, turning their backs on diplomat and military commanders alike. As the Imperial Army prepared for what could be a costly war, the Vth’s warships appeared in orbit. Stormbird & Thunderhawk alike descended from the heavens, refusing any communication from Army or the Korellians, disgorging the Fifth in its entirety.

Within seven hours, the Legion had dismantled every military asset on the surface. The Legion then evacuated as swiftly as they had arrived.

Remembrancer interviews of the surviving Korellian civilian populace describe Astartes garbed in the brightest blue, trimmed with silver carving their way through soldier and war machine alike. They offered no warning, gave no quarter. Most unerring of all, they gave no battle cry, never cried out – there was none of the exuberance or energy that so characterized the Winter Sons.

At the forefront of the assault was a giant of a Marine, clad in ornate artificer armour with pauldrons shaped into the heads of a serpent and a wolf. He bore a glaive that crackled with lightning and rent the silence of the assault with ear-shattering thunder when he smote his enemies. The best of Korellia fell before him.

The Great Crusade

In wondrous beauty | once again Shall the golden tables | stand mid the grass, Which the gods had owned | in the days of old.

This pattern of assault would repeat itself many times over the coming years. Without warning, or seemingly, orders, the Vth’s ships would appear in orbit. The Legion would descend, sometimes led by their Primarch, but as the Crusade expanded, often by other heroes of the Legion, and bring a world to compliance. Sometimes there would be a peaceful handover, with pomp and ceremony. Other times it would be a slaughter, with no one left alive. However, compliance was reached, the Legion would be gone within a day.

This means of warfare would prove contentious. The Legion could make a months long Imperial build-up completely moot by their intervention. They would steal the thunder of other Legions, offering no explanation to their brothers. No care for logistics or what came before or after compliance. And, worst of all they never communicated with anyone. No one knew where or when they would next appear.

Yet, without any seeming planning, their precision attacks often turned the tide of larger conflicts. Sometimes they would save entire fronts with their interventions, or eliminate a larger threat before it could grow out of control. Years later, as the Crusade progressed, the worlds the Vth bought to heel proved pivotal in later campaigns, almost as if their actions were prescient.

Eventually Remembrancers sent to Vigrior I to chronicle the histories and deeds of the Legion returned with the truth of the Vth Legion & their ‘unique’ ways. The plague that had felled the Legion had been purged, thanks to the Emperor’s mastery of science and the return of their Primarch’s original geneseed, but the price was high – a mutation of the Betcher Gland that overtook their vocal chords, inherited from their Primarch, that rendered the Astartes of the Legion mute.

The Remembrancers also bought back the Legion’s true name – the Aesir - along with wild stories of a Legion that had wholly embraced the ways of their Primarch’s culture – and what a strange culture it was, built on poetic sagas; on runes & mysticism; of the great hunt.

Legion Organisation

The current disposition of the Legion is unknown.

Remembrancer accounts of recent encounters with the Aesir are incomplete, but have clearly identified the Officers of the Legion as the 'Thyle'.

They appear to have three ranks that operate as support roles: 'Laeknir'; 'Scops'; 'Skalds'. Imperial scholars have posited that these are equivalents to Apothecaries, Chaplains &...something else.

Unique Formations

Grand Thyle

When the Emperor called the Legions to Terra, Vidarr made his only public appearance. Accompanying him were sixteen of his Legion, clad in Justaerin Terminator Armour. Remembrancers accompanying the Vth reported that the sixteen were the Primarch's personal bodyguard, his 'Grand Thyle'.

Confusingly, the Grand Thyle appear to hold no command authority, despite sharing the same title as the Aesir officer ranks.

Combat Doctrine

The Aesir leave no survivors from their assaults.

There are those who have bent the knee; those who have acquiesced to the demands of the Legion without protest. They are handed to the regiments of the Imperial Army without violence. They see none of the Legion, they have no stories to tell. Remembrancers who record their stories after broadcast their relief & their fervent thanks for being allowed to join the Imperium.

Remembrancers also broadcast reports from the shell of the city that was Kellavan IV, who's Patriarchs would not submit to the Aesir - a city that, in a single hour, turned it's own guns against it's populace - until there were none living. The Remembrancers broadcast pictures from the annihilation of Cerberus III, where the Viceroys of the great trading families believed their Xenos technologies would protect them from the dropships of the Aesir. A whole continent; a hundred hives; reduced to empty hives; thousands of bodies left for rats to feast on.

A hundred other examples serve as warning. To stand against the Aesir is a folly. Heed their word. Surrender. Or die.

As to their doctrine - how they accomplish such annihilation. None have yet survived to bring word of it to the Greater Galaxy.

Legion Homeworld

Main Article Vigrior I

Primarch

Main Article: Vidarr

Culture and Beliefs

[[Image:|500px]]

Legion Attributes

PROVISIONAL

• Tactics = ???
• Espionage = ???
• Aggression = ???
• Mitigation = ???
• Diplomacy = ???
• Geneseed = ???

Homeworld Attributes

PROVISIONAL

• Population = ???
• Fabrication = ???
• Fortification = ???

Exemplary Battles

x

[[Image:|180px]]