Workshop Wednesday — The Horus Heresy: Taking Wing With Flying Coffins And Space Vampires

Welcome to the table,

There is this thing where genres get all crisscrossed in the grim dark future that I adore. Welcome to Workshop Wednesday, where your old pal Anton dives into the lore and more of various Games Workshop offerings.

Today, we are going to take a look at the loyalist legion known as the Blood Angels during the Horus Heresy. To bring those new to the table up to speed, a loyalist legion is a legion of Space Marines who remained loyal to the Emperor of Mankind, a god king superbeing who oversaw the rise of mankind and shepherded them as they reached the stars and beyond.

The Horsus Heresy is a blood-awful time during the lore of Warhammer where some of the Space Marines made deals with the forces of Chaos Demons. They turned on the Emperor of Mankind and their brothers to try and topple the Imperium of Man for all sorts of reasons that objectively were not all bad, but would have ultimately meant the downfall of humanity and more than likely the rest of reality as we know it.

The reason I spoke of genre crisscrosses is that the Blood Angels and their iconic leader, Sanguinius, are essentially space vampires. The thought of heavily armored Space Marines and their winged golden leader being hangry when they don’t get their blood absolutely feels like one of those mashups that you can only find in tabletop gaming. Sanguinius, Primarch of the Blood Angels, is often considered the most noble and respected of the primarchs. As a baby, Sanguinius was stolen by the ruinous forces of Chaos and cast through space, crash landing, much like Superman in a space-baby-pod, on a moon known as Baal Secundus.

A traveling group of humans known as “the blood” found baby Sanguinius. Upon seeing his small vestigial wings, a mutation due to space magic or some other such fun science fantasy nonsense, they wanted to kill the tiny infant. The baby Sanguinius was so adorable, though, they just could not kill him, so they took him in and raised him as their own.

Sanguinius’ history for a while is totally lost to the sands of time. What is known is that he grew to maturity very quickly, and his once small wings grew to a size so large and impressive that they could easily be used by Sanguinius to fly like the great predatory birds of ancient Earth.

There are many folk legends about Sanguinius, including that he slew a massive scorpion entity with his bare hands when he was only three months old. Another bit of lore says that Sanguinius could travel through toxic wastelands with no protection. The most important of these folklore stories is the larger legacy of Sanguinius, which tells of a youthful Sanguinius finding himself and his people surprised by a band of feral mutants.

In this story, Sanguinius easily destroyed all of the mutants, whose numbers were greater than a hundred in some tellings. His people watched on in horror as their beautiful angelic foundling ripped entities limb from limb with his bare hands in a bloody and terrible rage.

The fury of Sanguinius would eventually find its way into the blood of his Space Marines, manifesting as something known as The Red Thirst. This affliction would present as a craving for blood that not only gnawed at their physical forms but also their minds. Those who lived with The Red Thirst for long enough start to show physical mutations, including fang-like teeth, pale skin, crimson eyes, and a bloodlust that took a great deal of spiritual strength to keep under control.

Sanguinius’ battle fury and blood lust in folk stories seemed to be an omen of what would be in store for those who became part of his chapter and shared his genetic strengths and harrowing weaknesses.

Eventually, the Emperor of Mankind would show up on the moon of Baal to find Sanguinius leading the people who had raised him as a benevolent protector. The Emperor of Mankdin hid his identity and watched Sanguinius inspire his people, and it made the “god king” proud.

Sanguinius, however, being a very perceptive creature, saw through his creator’s disguise and the two spoke passionately. The result of that conversation was the Emperor swearing to leave the people of Baal untouched by the forces of the Imperium of Mankind. Sanguinius agreed to join his father’s forces as, deep within his soul, he yearned to aid mankind as they spread out across the stars.

Sanguinius would make good on his word and fight in a multitude of battles, protecting and serving mankind. Eventually, he would fall in battle against arguably his most trusted brother, Horus, at the end of the bloody war known as the Horus Heresy.  It is said Sanguinius’ death was not in vain, though, as he was able to damage Horus’s armor just enough that the Emperor of Mankind, upon his arrival, was able to deliver the killing blow to Horus and defeat, for a time at least, the dark forces of Chaos.

Sanguinius, while noble and good in almost every way imaginable, was not the only Blood Angel who served mankind during the Horus Heresy. Dominion Zephon is one of those characters I’m a fan of for his absolutely stunning disability representation in the grim dark future. In addition to being a wildly skilled warrior, Dominion was a harp player and artist, and after a battle with an alien foe, he lost both his arms and a good deal of his legs.

The apothecaries did their best to replace his missing limbs and systems, but his body fought against augmentation. He was retired from the theater of war and sent to Terra, where he was posted as part of an honor guard, a station that was mostly ceremonial.

However, as is the nature of a person known as “The Bringer of Sorrow,” Dominion rejoined the fight to save mankind when Horus brought the ruinous forces of Chaos to the world of man.

The Dominion mini was released as part of the Black Library Celebration back in 2022. He is armed with his greatsword, The Spiritum Sanguis, and twin volkite pistols, named Lament and Grief.  The guy sticks to a theme that falls somewhere between god-like space warrior and slam poet on break from the coffee house he works at to pay his way through college. Both are powerful, passionate entities that work well in this context.

Before we break for the day, as I could go on and on about the Blood Angels for hours and did not even jump into the imprisonment of our boy Dominion, I also want to call out the Contemptor-Incaendius Dreadnought.

This thing amuses me because a Dreadnought is essentially a giant toddling death robot piloted by the remains of a Space Marine. I mean remains. Sometimes it’s like an eye, half a brain, and a toe. All of the remains are kept inside a cybernetic coffin that is built into the chest of this incredibly well-armed war machine, which can be unleashed on the battlefield to cause titanic amounts of damage.

The Contemptor-Incaendius Dreadnought takes all that and straps an external booster pack to it so it can be dropped onto a planet from low orbit and also do these wild leaps that can’t normally be achieved by a multi-ton death machine powered by the mostly dead.

Until next time, in the grim dark future of mankind, the idea of a flying coffin that kills with claws is so absurd that it makes me smile. This is the kind of thing that makes this hobby so much fun for me.