Salamanders

The Salamanders are a First Founding Space Marine Chapter descended from the XVIII Legion and primarch Vulkan. Reunited with Vulkan during the Great Crusade and raised in the thirtieth millennium, the Chapter remained loyal to the Emperor throughout the Horus Heresy and endures into the present era as one of the Imperium’s most steadfast Astartes formations, distinguished by an unusually close bond with the civilian population of its homeworld and by its mastery of flame weaponry and the forge.

The Chapter’s homeworld is Nocturne, a volcanically unstable world whose harsh conditions have shaped both its people and its Astartes. The fortress-monastery stands on Prometheus, one of Nocturne’s moons, though many Salamanders also maintain a presence within the planet’s seven great settlements, living among their kin rather than remaining apart from them. This continued closeness to Nocturnean society, reinforced by shared observance of the Promethean Cult, underlies the Chapter’s particular concern for the safety of Imperial citizens, an emphasis that sets it apart from the more detached traditions of many other Chapters. Salamanders companies are traditionally linked to the seven settlements from which they draw their recruits, and the Chapter is noted for smiths and artificers who forge their own weapons and armour to exacting standards.

The Legion’s early history under Vulkan is recorded as one of extensive but piecemeal deployment during the Great Crusade, its companies scattered across many warzones. When the Warmaster Horus turned to treachery, the Salamanders were among the loyalist forces committed to the first assault wave at the Isstvan V Dropsite Massacre, alongside the Iron Hands and the Raven Guard. The onslaught that followed devastated all three Legions, and the Salamanders were reduced to a fraction of their former strength. Vulkan himself disappeared during the Heresy and is not recorded as having died; his absence, and the search for his fate, has remained a defining preoccupation of the Chapter in the millennia since.

In the present era the Chapter is led by Tu’Shan, Regent of Prometheus, and numbers Vulkan He’stan among its senior figures. Nocturne itself has not been spared the wars of the wider galaxy, having come under assault by the Night Lords, a reminder that the Chapter’s defence of its people begins at home. Several successor Chapters are recorded as tracing their gene-seed to the Salamanders, though their current lineage and disposition vary in certainty.