We’re approaching the end. Day 22 brings us... the Tome Keepers!
The Tome Keepers are an Ultramarines successor chapter stationed in the ‘western’ part of the galaxy, created in the Fourth Founding*. The world they were assigned as a fief has a long history of carefully preserving knowledge from generation to generation, which the Tome Keepers adopted enthusiastically. The chapter eagerly acquires pursues new knowledge, recording every detail of their combat encounters and devising new strategies between conflicts.
The chapter has a strong focus on reason, science, and facing reality, rather than leaning into propaganda or faith. This has earned them few friends in the Imperium, and the chapter was somewhat beat to shit during different wars. They’re particularly skilled at fighting Necrons, having spent two hundred years fighting against a Necron dynasty in their neighborhood. Fortunately for them, they recently got a load of fresh Primaris marines from Guilliman, and are active once again in various crusades.
Aesthetically, the Tome Keepers have parchment-white armor, which clearly didn’t translate well into the little chibi guy. Their names are drawn from the Library of Ashurbanipal, a large repository of clay tablets from 7th century BCE Assyria. They were created in 2020 by White Dwarf, Games Workshop’s in-house magazine, to act as a mascot chapter for the magazine. This goes a long way to explain their nerdy tendencies, as White Dwarf is the source of a lot of obscure Warhammer lore (alongside being an advertisement that you pay for).
I’d never heard of this chapter before today, but I have to say, I really like them. My own background is in history, and I have a particular interest in ancient Mesopotamia, so these guys are like catnip to me. Love a bunch of total nerds. I do wish their colors were better, though.
When a new round of successor chapters are created, it’s generally as a large batch called a ‘Founding’, where a bunch of chapters are made at once. The First Founding was the creation of the original Legiones Astartes, the Second Founding was the division of the legions into successor chapters. After that, most foundings sort of blend together. The most recent founding was the Ultima Founding, when a bunch of chapters were created made entirely of Primaris marines.
One founding does stand out, though, the 21st Founding, AKA the Cursed Founding. This one was huge, happening about 5,000 years after the Emperor beefed it. The Imperium had just gone through a period of gnarly civil war, and there was an attempt to shore up the Imperium through this new Founding... and in the process, fix some of the gene-seed problems that had cropped up in the various chapters. It was an ambitious plan, and things went very well until suddenly they didn’t.
See, most of the chapters that were created in this founding wound up having weird shit happen to them. The Lamenters**, a Blood Angels successor, temporarily suppressed the Red Thirst and Black Rage, in exchange for developing some of the worst luck in the galaxy. The Fire Hawks got screwed over as well, becoming weird warp-daemons that fight on the Imperium’s side. The Black Dragons developed wacky bone-spikes on their head and arms. The Blood Gorgons broke records for how fast they dove into Chaos. The Flame Falcons could set themselves on fire without getting hurt. It was weird.Â
A lot of these chapters were eliminated for their mutations, or almost got eliminated by happenstance. They’re an odd assortment, and a lot of chapters don’t like associating with them due to the Bad Vibes they give off. Naturally, I’m very fond of them, because I love a bunch of weirdos.
**The Lamenters are one of my favorite chapters, and I’ll be very cross if there aren’t any Lamenters in this box. If tomorrow doesn’t bring me a Lamenter, I’ll go off about them all on my own.
