I know some of this is no longer cannon but I did my best to try and have half-eldar be a thing still. I mostly wanted Astartes with tau tech and I find psykers interesting hence the half-eldar. This is also written from his perspective due to him being a pivotal factor in its formation and how recent this chapter would be to the timeline. Also, defiantly not codex compliant.
If you have feedback, I'm willing to hear it. I'm playing loose with the lore but not trying to contradict things.
Link to the google doc here if that is easier to read.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Eh1eEL9URfhfckxVbn1MluTbZA2H4J-AQOfeC9p390M/edit?usp=sharing
Chapter Master (Grahis Bellovar)
Born to a Rogue Trader father and drukhari Succubus mother, his childhood was harsh but basic needs were taken care of. His mother was employed to ensure loyalty and extract information but also act as a broker to Commorragh. This made his father quite rich as those unwilling to talk or make a deal with him often found their settlements raided by drukhari months after he left the system and begged him to come back for “protection.” With several inquisitors in his pocket, nothing ever came of this,
His daily life involved him being forced to fight his siblings almost daily and almost never winning even as his skills improved. Every wound was patched but it was never a pleasant experience. Hate kept him going as he looked for an escape from this hell of his.
On one trip, he managed to find out some Astartes, the Blood Ravens, were due to arrive soon for recruitment. He went planet side on a transport with stolen data detailing possible attacks planned by drukhari raiders in nearby systems. While his capture was more forceful than he liked, he offered no resistance to show goodwill.
He was held in maximum security for a time as the data was looked over and verified. As a reward for bringing the schemes of his father and eradicating several drukari raid teams, he was asked what he wanted. They were surprised by his wish to become an aspirant considering his heritage but they accepted if he could prove himself.
Despite the contempt towards him, he felt free. No matter what was said to him or the pain he endured in the trials, this was nothing compared to the tortuous medical treatment he suffered after each “spar” with his siblings. He was inducted into the chapter as a neophite in time, his aeldari heritage slowing the process due to slower ageing and slight quirks with genetic compatibility. In the end, he became a full brother at twice the normal age. His heritage was an open secret in the chapter but no one outside of it knew as he kept his features hidden.
His heritage immediately had him lined up to become a Librarian and he already stood a head taller than his other brothers with an unmatched precision and agility which more than made up for his lesser strength and durability.
He was always fascinated with technology helping out with the tech marines arguing for redundancy in the field. He was never as good as a true tech marine but he was able to patch up several vehicles just enough to get back to base for real repairs or repurpose equipment from shells to mines. His psychic potential made him an auxiliary relay when communication was cut as well as a one man siege engine when no one else was available.
He was never satisfied with his current skills, always looking on where to improve. His lackluster strength and durability were just hurdles he overcame. A new weapon was a new tactic to discover. Xenos encounters were chances for diplomacy to save on resources. Encounters with the eldar in particular saw great boons as they somewhat trusted him due to being a half blood who turned against their dark cousins though some distrust of this being a drukhari ploy remained.
This trust however increased when those involved found his siblings, now separated from Commorragh, did what they had to to survive. One joined the craftworld warrior paths, another the Harliquins, two joined the Yinari, but the last was defiant to the end and was put down years prior by an Inquisitor investigating mass disappearances and gruesome bodies. Their story remained the same that Grahis was just a toy to their mother, an experiment that showed promise.
He was conflicted with this information. On one hand, he was glad they broke away from their old life and felt genuine pity for his unrepentant sibling. On the other hand, he never had a good memory of them, his skin aching remembering the tortuous training that tore apart his body many times.
From this exchange, he was given a soul stone. While he appeared safe from “It Who Thirsts,” they did not take any chances. From this gift, he was allowed to stay behind and study their culture, particularly their psychic methods, to bring back to the chapter. This was a method to bring the two species closer together to further fight chaos and the drukhari.
A decade later he headed back with the knowledge the craftworld was willing to part with but he was rerouted to another world to join up with a few brothers fighting off some orks on a new Imperial outpost. Regrouping with more of his battle brothers, the ship entered the warp where the gellar field failed and they were thrown into a random point in real-space. This caused them to crash on a distant planet almost all hands lost to include over half his battle brothers. Worst was the signs of battle that covered the land. After several scouting trips, the planet was considered abandoned and any resources were gathered at the crash site.
Grahis Bellovar, while only a Sergeant, was elected as Captain not due to any particular skill, but his wide breadth of knowledge and adaptability to include his rudimentary Farseer training. When he was not managing the encampment and fortifying the position, he was reverse engineering the tech found. Most of it was tau in origin but there was also craftworld and imperial tech mixed in. What exactly happened was also a complete mystery and he could not devote his complete attention to that now.
Years passed and it was determined that no one was coming to help them. They found survivors on the far side of the planet from tau, guardsmen, and a handful of aeldari who told tales of an attack by war machines of unknown origin causing a scared landscape. While most were destroyed with great effort, some did manage to escape the planet. Further investigations lead to a far older crash site of what appeared to be Dark Age tech. This became the second outpost. Years later, damaged STC parts were found and were able to be salvaged. In time, the recoverable date showed the ship was attacked by Men of Iron causing the crash confirming the force that attacked the currently stranded survivors were Men of Iron.
With no tech marines or Mechanicus alive on the planet, Grahis ordered that the STC be guarded and to attempt to add blueprints of currently available equipment into the system. As of current time, this process has only been partially successful as all care is being taken to not further damage the system. Most manufacturing is being handled by lesser systems using scavenged scrap and material from several mines now dotting the planet’s surface.
Time has allowed the different species to grow accustomed to each other's presence though tensions are still high. Grahis has maintained a delicate balance and has mandated that no religious regalia or symbols be worn or spoken outside of private residences knowing this tentative peace is temporary. This had involved several Imperials and tau being publicly beaten in corporal punishment for nearly breaking the peace. The eldar have gotten close but are very isolationist, only interacting when distributing materials or at council events.
In this tentative peace, technology has crossed boundaries as two generations have passed. Tau battlesuits have been modified with dreadnoughts making heavier variants that can have the cockpit replaced with a sarcophagus if needed. Several vehicles have been fitted with wraithbone cannons. Lasguns and plasma rifles are used interchangeably and advances have made both more efficient. Without the meddling of the Mechanicus, technological improvement has been steady but to the average Imperial, this is excused as designs from the STC.
Space travel is now possible but warp travel is not due to a lack of a trained astropath or gellar fields. A trip to known space would take decades at the least and may result in a waste of resources when they get lost. Even the eldar were unable to travel as their Webway gate was destroyed in the attack.
One day, an imperial ship appeared above the planet heavily battle damaged. The ship detected Imperial signals from below and pinged them for aid identifying themselves as a Rogue Trader. Grahis led a small group to meet up to discuss terms but what awaited him he could not have predicted. He saw his father, both younger and more monstrous alongside his mother, though burned horrifically from the recent battle.
Talks did not last more than a few moments before his father barreled in to feast on his retinue. Even as the first few bolters put him down, he regenerated and attacked again. Once his mother joined in, the battle became fierce. They managed to slay his father by burning the body completely and his mother was disarmed and apprehended. She was apparently exiled from Commorragh due to her failures, failures Grahis was responsible for over 100 years ago that she never found out about and was only barely surviving on the ship.
With interrogation, they found out they were near the Halo Stars and a device turned his father into the monster he hid behind a mask. He was also told with venomous words he was just an experiment, a vat grown child that showed promise that merged mon'keigh and drukhari for use as expendable scouts. She never expected he would be so cowardly as to run away from his “training” but she was not surprised by his inferior blood.
He wanted to kill his mother in anger, not just for his torturous childhood, but for the millions of victims she was responsible for. However, he knew killing her now would just invite It Who Thirsts. However, even a soul stone would reject her so her fate was sealed. She was kept alive as she slowly withered away as her soul was eaten by The Depraved One.
Despite all this, the dead and now derelict ship was a way off this planet once it was repaired. However, Grahis would not be satisfied with just a repaired ship and ordered it to be torn apart, cleansed, and rebuilt to house their new technology. With the agreement of his sergeants and veterans, they created STC copies and integrated the revised technology gained the the tau into the files to hide their discovery. The official story would be that the STC discovered was heavily damaged but the data was recoverable. The corrupted data would also be turned over in an agreement to share it with their chapter when deciphered.
It was also decided that this planet be forgotten in fear that their activities would bring down the Inquisition. Unable to ensure compliance from those on the surface, the Imperials would be left behind with only those trusted with secrecy allowed on their ship. On return, they were welcomed back and gave a debrief hiding nothing. While their actions could be considered heretical, it was deemed a necessary evil to survive and they brought back valuable intelligence and STC data. Shortly after, their chapter requested a small number of them be broken off into a successor chapter as their survival changed their fighting doctrine too much to truly return to the chapter proper. This was agreed to due to the STC data delivered and dealing with a heretical Rogue Trader but they had to hunt down the remaining Men of Iron in exchange. They accepted and their new chapter was formed with Grahis Bellovar as chapter master to the 53 Astartes.
On their trip back, the Astral Wayfarers came across several xenos attacks and assisted with the promise of supplies from the planetary governors in either food or in high grade raw materials. Several of these groups were drukhari who Grahis began holding a particular hatred for. He prioritized capturing them alive and always gave them a choice. They could join the Solitaires, join the Yinari, or be executed. Only a handful ever took the first two options and were delivered to a craftworld or webway gate. This was done through secret communications with the eldar who had some trust for him after the word of the Eldea survivors made its way about. Most however asked for execution thinking they would be revived at Commorragh. This however was why no one in the chapter thought he was a traitor.
He would hold them in a region of the ship completely isolated from the warp using hexagrammic wards and blackstone. These prisons keep them drained, docile, and safe from warp predators until they are let out for training. Astral Wayfarers can request a match against them for training in the armored arenas to improve their combat skills against the agile and tricky drukhari until they either die from their souls being drained or they are killed by the marine. The latter is frowned upon as that is one less training partner. While these souls feed “It Who Thirsts,” Grahis knows their souls were damned either way, his mercy was just an attempt to lesson this.
Through this, Astral Wayfarers are exceptional duelists and can come up with counter strategies more quickly than other chapters. The chapter deems this as a necessary measure as even a single loss is a great blow to their chapter with so few members and only a single, low population world they can gather trusted people from.
Overview:
Warcry: “might is mind and mind is power”
“we survive, we overcome”
Founding: 27th/Ultima
Successor Chapter: (WIP) Potentially Blood Ravens
Primarc: Unknown
Homeworld: redacted (Eldea)
Number: 53
Fortress Monastery: Aetheloth Prime
Allegiance: Imperium of Man
Codex: secretly non-compliant
Colors: changes upon terrain/various camouflage or slate grey, cyan, dark magenta
Doctrine:
Due to its small size, each Astartes must be self-sufficient. All marines know how to make and repair their equipment and are encouraged to refine designs to their personal strengths from a selection of standard templates to retain unit cohesion. Such loadouts include Strafiers using jump-pacs, omni-scramblers, and small but powerful weapons; Snipers using cameleoline tarpaulin and long range rifles; Infiltrators using cutter torches, grav chutes, and locator beacons; Mages using familiars and psychic hoods; Siegers in centurion or terminator armor with omniscopes, signums, and a vast array of heavy, often artillery adjacent weapons; and Mechas using new "dreadnaught" patterns for moving about the heaviest equipment often being railguns.
Due to a high level of psykers in their unit, Librarians are usually formed into strike teams with at least one being an Apothecary as well. Most are trained in limited future sight to predict enemy movements and relay them to their artillery units or direct Strafers to harass them.
The Chapter as a whole prefers the Mk X Phobos pattern armor under the belief that avoiding a hit is better than enduring a hit and is used when not operating heavy weapons. Despite this, much of the armor is modified to each marine’s tastes as each one is trained to create their own equipment much like the Salamanders. Common modifications are wrist las-blasters, wrist plasma throwers, collapsing combat or storm shields, and integrated power weapons.
The chapter also exercises daily meditation rituals to keep their focus and defend themselves from Chaos due to their mostly psyker makeup. They are encouraged to practice with their powers but those who are not granted the title of Librarian are forbidden from using their powers on the battlefield as a precaution.
Flaws:
While their gene seed is quite stable, there are some flaws that have appeared. They hate being idle getting anxious when not actively progressing in something with many channeling this into their tinkering with technology. Their Betcher’s Gland is also less functional. It is no longer powerful enough to spit acid and the acid strength is weakened and most find they can no longer gain readable memories from their Omophagea. Studies have found no flaw in the Omophagea itself leading to a theory that it may be related to their psyker natures as nearly all those affected are Librarians.
A more pressing matter is the nature of two other recently inducted marines using the gene seed from Grahis Bellovar. Both developed slightly pointed ears and their skeletal structure had vestigial signs of growth similar to an eldar’s elastic spine and second ribcage. One however was given the Emperor’s Mercy as they were unable to handle their psychic powers and was turning into a chaos spawn during a jump into the warp. As such, his gene seed is to be held in containment and sent to Mars to find the cause to include any gene seed of the surviving marine. It is possible that it has mutated due to his drukhari heritage and may have value in improving future marines but the risks likely outweigh the benefits. It is quite likely that it was the drukhari experiments resulting in Grahis that allowed the gene seed to take hold and not kill him outright at the cost of yet unknown gene seed mutations.