Grimdank

The Renegade Knight known only as  Nevermore is an imposing presence on a battlefield. The hulking, midnight-black behemoth often appears unbidden in the darkest hours of the night, surrounded by a swirling cloud of corvids. It is eerily silent until it begins to charge, at which point its laud-hailers begin to emit a deep, twisted mockery of a raven's cry, the mechanical cawing a twisted, unhinged laugh. The sound continues as it plows into the battle lines, cruel talons and whisper-quiet chainsaw tearing combatants on both sides asunder. The melee is accentuated by the echoing cries of its errant flock, the birds diving and swooping around the heads of the beleaguered infantry in a whirlwind of feathers, talons, and beaks. As quickly as it descends upon its prey, the shadowed monstrosity vanishes, leaving a trail of dead and dying, destroyed tanks, a few pitch-black feathers, and an echo of its cry. The origins of Nevermore are unclear, as are its loyalties. It serves no ...

In an alternate timeline, the Warmaster Horus did not succumb to the temptations of Chaos - rather, it was his brother Rogal Dorn who fell, leading to a tumultuous period where the distribution of power and loyalties were in disarray. This series of events culminated in the Dornian Heresy . It is from this timeline that the band calling themselves the Iron Bulwark arose. During a freak warp storm, the Iron Blood  and several accompanying battlecruisers were hurled through the fabric between dimensions and cast millenia forward in time, arriving through a hole in unreality in the closing years of the 41st millenium, in a galaxy where it was not Dorn who betrayed the Emperor of Mankind, but Horus. Initial contact with the forces of both Chaos and the Imperium highlighted to Perturabo that this was not the same universe that they were familiar with. Conflicts arose with both sides, and to protect themselves from persecution by the Ordo Hereticus or other branches of the Ecclesiarc...

The Alpha Legion is an open secret, and there are a multitude of claimants to the title of Alpharius. It is impossible to tell who, if anyone, is the real Alpharius, and groups have risen to prominence around dozens, if not hundreds of these alleged Primarchs. Amongst these groups are many ravening warbands of chaos space marines, renegades, and even some who claim to still be loyal to the Corpse Emperor. Whatever the true allegiance of the Sons of the Hydra once was, it has been lost to the aeons as splinter groups forge their own paths. One such group is known as the Obscurum Scalpus, or Hidden Knife. A renegade collection of agents from dozens of otherwise vanquished splinter groups, they serve their own hidden agenda, helping out citizens of the imperium, denizens of the eye of terror, and even the occasional xenos group. Whatever their motivations, the agents of the Hidden Knife have chosen not to share it. Although by the very nature of their legion roots they do not have a...