Stone Dragon NEW

Why Was The Chapter Founded -	Counter an ork threat
When Was The Chapter Founded -	13th 'Black' founding
Who was the Chapter's Progenitor -	Unknown but believed to be Ultramarines
Fortress-Monastery -	Voyagers Keep on Caelestis 4
Colours -	Gray and yellow
Gene-seed purity -	Pure
Chapter Demeanour -	No mercy, no respite
Gene-seed mutation -	None
Chapter's Flaw -	Minor flaws, including vocal alterations and skin and eye discolouration
Chapter homeworld -	Caelestis system
Chapter organisation -	Unique small crusading forces
Combat doctrine -	Shock and awe
Special equipment -	Beastial companions and combat knife
Chapters' beliefs -	Purity of man
Chapter strength -	Understrength
Chapter friendly -	Black templars, Ultramarines,
Chapter's enemies -	orks and dark elder, inquisition
Battle Cry -	Let none live

The Stone Dragons are a rather unique chapter of space marines, due to the fact that the chapter is split up into crusading forces, some as small as a couple of squads of marines, while some are up to several hundred marines, although these larger forces are usually short lived with lots of smaller bands joining together for a specific campaign before disbanding again. With this setup, the crusade commander will organise his forces as he sees fit, usually depending upon their own ideology, beliefs or position.

Generic Stone Dragon. Most marines have modified armour and carry the heraldry of the crusade commander.

The Stone Dragons are spread all over the galaxy, where ever their individual quests take them, although they do maintain a home world of Caelestis 4, and the fortress monastery of Voyagers End, within the segmentum obscurus. The chapter itself is understrength, with around 400 marines active. This is mostly due to the crusading nature of the force and that the chapter has been slow to recover from losses. Although the chapter is understrength, the recruitment process is increasing in pace in an effort to replenish the numbers but the chapter is not one to throw caution to the wind where such matters are concerned and thus reduce the quality of the initiates. The chapter recruit and train the numerous initiates taken from the tribes that live on Caelestis 3 or 4, although the chapter will happily recruit from any of the surrounding inhabited planets as well. Once a recruit has received their basic training they are attached to a crusading force that has returned to the world, from this point on they will receive all their training from the veterans within that crusading force, returning only when the crusade is done or when the forces numbers are too depleted to continue. As a result of this structure, the more elite squads within the crusading force are normal comprised of members from within the crusading force and are promoted by the Crusade Commander and not the Chapter Master.  This composition reflects both the isolated nature of the crusades. While the crusade commander hold absolute power within a crusading force and can arrange his troops as he wills, the Dragons generally follow the same  tactical doctrine, preferring long range fire power over close combat and as a result, the chapters assault squad spends much of its time deployed on the company's Bikes, Attack Bikes or Land Speeders. In addition, the Crusade Commander maintains a personal Honour Guard of his most trusted and loyal men. In addition to the Bikes and Landspeeders, each company also maintain a small force of Rhinos, Razorbacks and Predators, with a few forces containing valuable Dreadnoughts. 

As many of the veterans are contained within the individual companies, the 1st company is relatively small, containing only the Chapter Master and his personal Honour Guard, as well as the Apothecarium, the Chaplaincy and the Librarius, as well as the chapter's Techmarines. However, many of these also spend their time with the various crusading forces, usually only returning to the 1st Company at the request of the Chapter Master, an occurrence that rarely happens. The 2nd company, unlike many chapters, contains the chapters recruits, before they are attached to a crusading company.

The chapters origins are relatively unknown. The chapter was founded during the 13^th ‘black’ founding as a small fleet-based chapter and they believe they are of Ultramarines gene stock, due to the purity of their genetic code. What is known is that the chapter was formed to guard against an ork warband, Zobgitz' Raidin Pirate mob, and a dark eldar pirate band, the kabal of the bloody night. These threats had been causing problems within a large area of the outer reaches of the segmentum obscurus for over a century, however, both of these threats were eliminated by a concerted effort by numerous other marine forces before the chapter had been fully established, leaving the chapter with no clear mission. 

While the chapter is a descendent of the Ultramarines, it does not follow the tenants of the Codex Astarties at all, this is due to the fact that the first chapter master decreed that the chapter would still fight the forces of Ork and Dark Eldar Pirates, wherever they may be found. As such the chapter was organised and into crusading forces to hunt down dark eldar and ork pirates all across the galaxy, hunting and chasing them wherever they may run.

As the Stone Dragons prefer the use of long range firepower over close quarters fighting, spending large amounts of time perfecting their marksmanship. This is mostly due to their heritage, that of the Ultramarines, and due to their small numbers, where every casualty is significant. Another reason for this is due to the fact that the chapters main quarry, Dark Eldar and Orks are strongly focused to close combat. By destroying the enemy at range, before he has a chance to retaliate ensures a minimum of casualties. The chapter also maintain a large number of vehicles, mostly Rhinos and Razorbacks, both to offer protection for the marines but also to enable the chapter to deploy rapidly, to take advantage of terrain to bring down maximum firepower. This also shows in the fact that they are specialists in small scale surgical strikes and ambushes in support of larger Imperial forces. 

Like many of the 13th founding chapters, the Stone Dragons have suffered a number of tragedies, with the loss of three whole crusading companies to the warp and an additional 3 more crusading forces lost to chaos, either partly or wholly turning on the Imperium. Two of these forces have been purged to the man, as is only right for a traitor to the Emperor, one by the Disciples themselves and the other by unknown forces, although the Grey Knights are suspected of having involvement.

The chapter is fiercely loyal to the Emperor and believes in the complete destruction of the enemies of man, and that it is only this result that matter, not the means and so are willing to use any and all options at their disposal. As such the chapter is more than happy to experiment with xenos weaponry and technology or even delve in the powers of chaos for any advantage. Although the chapter is willing to use chaos artefacts and even the power of chaos itself to defeat the enemies of man, it is careful not to repeat the mistakes of the Relictors or Soul Drinker and other similar chapters. As a result, once an artefact has been studied for all that it may reveal, it is destroyed to ensure that it is of no use to anyone, Chaos or otherwise.

This may have resulted in the turning of the tainted companies and has resulted in the chapter being threatened with Excommunicate Traitoris many times, but it is a risk considered to be worthwhile in the fight for man's survival. This has however, lead to a number of run-ins with the Inquisition and other marine chapters and while the disciples aim to avoid any conflict with other forces of the Imperium, it cannot always be avoided due to the closed mindedness of many weaker servants. There has however been some who share the views of the Dragons, mainly those of the Xanthism Radical faction of the Inquisition. This has led to a close working relationship between the Stone Dragons and several members of the Inquisition who operate within the Segmentum Pacificus. This has meant that the chapter has had some protection from those who would see the chapter excommunicated.

Gnarlok’s Hunters

Gnarlok's hunt is a small force of Stone Dragons that have been following a Dark Eldar pirate fleet for several decades, following them across dozens of systems. The force one of the newest crusading forces of the Stone Dragon and is commanded by Company Master Gnarlok, an ancient warrior of the chapter, who has fought alongside the Chapter Master as part of his Honour Guard for many decades. The force is based upon the Emperor's Claw, one of the few Vanguard Class Cruiser the chapter possesses and was established less than 50 years ago. It originally consisted of several squads of tactical marines supported by devastators and assault marines but over the years the force has dwindled to just a couple of devastator and marine squads. Whilst Gnarlok, who is both a priest and a psyker, is in charge of the crusade, two others, the veterans Havloc and Bannic, being both older and vastly more experienced warriors, are venerated by their battle brothers. Neither would challenge Gnarlok for leadership, as neither want such a position, but Gnarlok is still sensible enough to listen and take notice of their opinion. The other marines are also careful not to upset these two lone warriors.

Due to the forces recent creation, it has not fought in many battles, the largest and most important campaign to date was the battle of Hjaltland. The force is in the Hamnavoe system after hearing about the uprising and rumours of chaos artifacts being present within the system. Whilst the rumors are vague and nondescript, they were considered strong enough to divert from their current course to investigate. The presence of inquisitor Tullas also lent some credence to the rumours.

Voyagers end

When the Chapter was founded they were a fleet based chapter, claiming no home world. This was due to there intended role of fighting roming bands of Ork and Dark Eldar Pirates. The Chapter were granted a home world some time in the 38^th centurary. The home world granted to the chapter was the planet of Caelestis 4. The planet is located within the triple star system of Trigeminus Agilis in the outer fringes of the segmentum Obscurus, near the Halo Stars region and is a low technology world. Within the system there are 4 inhabited planets and the three suns. Of the four planets, Caelestis 1 and 3 are barren lands inhabited by neolithic era nomadic people, who generally produce poor recruits and high rejection rates from the implants, possibly due to the high levels of radiation suffered by the planets due to their proximity to the suns and it's resultant affect on the inhabitants DNA. Caelestis 2 is a more densely populated planet, of iron age dwellers and produces good recruits, but it is the medieval planet of Caelestis 4 that produces the most and best recruits, forming approximately half the chapters recruits at any one time. It is within Caelestis 4 that that chapter has its Fortress Monastery, known amongst the chapter as Voyagers End.

The planet itself is formed of several large continents that cover about two thirds of the planet's surface and are located around the equator of the planet. The continents are mostly formed of flat plains broken sporadically with large forests and small mountain ranges. The general population live in a stone or bronze age existence, depending  upon the continent, with the stone dragons acting as guardians and defenders. The dragons rule as distant lords, but they are not so distant that the population do not know of them, on the contrary the chapters Druidians (rune priest) often walk the planet, without their armour, to minister to the population, and the chapters Medicade   (wolf priest) can often be seen administering to the sick if any plagues or epidemics sweep the planet. In addition the chapter lairds, made up of the chapters company commanders and senior officers, hold courts and arbitrations across the planet, decreeing and enforcing laws. In addition to these roles, the chapter is also responsible for controlling the Uncia and Onca that roam the mountains and plains of the planet. These animals are huge feline creatures as big as a man and capable of devouring one whole in a matter of minutes. While they generally cause few problems, occasionally a creature will become problematic. Sometimes of these animals will even find it's way into the service of a laird, becoming a prized possession and pet.