EMPEROR’S CHILDREN ARMY LIST
All the First Founding Chapters were created to take part in Imperial Crusades. It was, however, nearly sixty years before the Emperor’s Children
saw action. An accident during gene-seeding almost destroyed the Chapter as it was born. Once the Chapter had been re-established with rescued geneseed
it proved to be a loyal and efficient unit, distinguishing itself in several campaigns.
The Emperor’s Children were one of the units assigned to pacify Horus and his rebel Chapters, and were the first unit to defect to the Warmaster. During a parley, the Chapter Master and his highest officers were corrupted by the decadent pastimes that Horus and his Chaos-worshippers offered. Drugged, pleasured beyond endurance, and finally broken, they agreed to keep the Chapter neutral.
Neutrality was all that Horus needed. The rot quickly spread to the whole Chapter, and the Emperor’s Children willingly embraced Chaos in all its indolent depravity. The Imperial Cult of the Chapter was quickly supplanted by the more gratifying worship of Slaanesh.
As one of the Traitor Legions, the Emperor’s Children invaded Earth, but took little part in the fighting around the Imperial Palace. Simple pleasures had given way to complex debaucheries. While their allies fought and died the Emperor’s Children slaughtered more than a million people and rendered them down to create endless varieties of drugs and stimulants. Countless thousands more died to give the Legionnaires more direct, if cruder, enjoyment.
When the assault failed the Emperor's Children fled into the Eye of Terror with the rest of the Traitor Legions. They were the first to begin raiding Imperial worlds for captives and plunder. Their excesses soon knew no bounds and simple raiding could not supply enough raw Human material for their orgies of worship. At this point the Emperor’s Children turned on the slaves and servants of the other Traitor Legions, an action which began a series of wars within the Eye of Terror.
The struggles of the Emperor’s Children continued until the destruction of the cloned Horus by the Black legion (see p268). At that point all the Traitor Legions resumed raids on the Imperium. The Emperor’s Children have again proven spectacularly successful at this pursuit, and the worship of Slaanesh within the Eye of Terror has never been pursued with such fervour.
The Emperor’s Children have retained some of their former organization as Marines, but have altered it to suit their new loyalties. While corrupt beyond Human comprehension, the Legionnaires of the Emperor’s Children are a savage fighting force. Like many of Slaanesh’s followers, they seek and find a perverse enjoyment in battle. The danger of combat is a rediscovered thrill and aphrodisiac, allowing them to reach new extremes of debauchery.
Psykers are particularly highly regarded by the Emperor’s Children, both as enemies and within their own ranks. The broadcast terror of an enemy psyker can be enjoyed in its own right as a new sensation, while a Legionnaire psyker can kill his enemies with pleasure or pure sensation - the greatest act of worship for a servant of Slaanesh. Close combat, where the enemy can be touched and directlyl destroyed, is also much favoured by the Emperor's Children. Few of them enter battle without some form of close combat weapon.
Many Legionnaires aspire to die of pleasure while hosting a Daemon, and as a result the Legion has many Possessees and Summoned Daemons within its ranks and as allies. The Emperor’s Children take a delight in the changes that Chaos and the daemonic has wrought in them, seeing these mutations as means to new pleasures or marks of Slaanesh’s approval.
Only in one matter has Marine tradition been completely maintained. The Chapter name has been retained unchanged throughout the Legion’s exile. Successive Legion Commanders have taken pleasure (unsurprisingly) in reaffirming the Legion’s title. It has become a direct and grievous insult to the grandeur of the ‘false’ Emperor and his staid Imperium.
The Legion’s original Chapter colours of gold and purple were abandoned long ago, as was the Imperial double-headed eagle which was, at one time, forbidden to all other Marine Chapters. With the Horus Heresy and the defection of the Chapter, the right to use the double-headed eagle motif was passed to other, loyal, Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes.
A few of the original Traitor Marines have retained their original Chapter colours, although the Imperial badge has been replaced by Slaanesh’s male-female rune. For the most part the Emperor’s Children use Slaanesh’s pastel shades on their armour, reserving particular colours for different companies within the Legion. Officers and sergeants are, however, still marked out by gold or silver helmets and rank badges.
