Kingworks: 40K Blood Angels

The Lost Chapter ~ a brief history
As recorded by Brother Codicier (now Captain) Bellerophon of the Blood Angels

M.29 - The Primarchs, 20 in number, are created by the Emperor, bearing genetically superior minds and bodies.

M.30 - The First Founding: Grabya's Theorem demonstrates how Primarch genetic data can be used to stabilize development of new genetically enhanced warriors. Twenty Legions of these warriors - dubbed Space Marines - are formed, each one led by a Primarch. Ninth among them, the Blood Angels, led by the Primarch Sanguinius.

M.31 - The Horus Heresy: First among the Primarchs, Warmaster Horus is tempted and consumed
by the lure of Chaos, nearly half the Legiones Astartes following him. Horus assaults the Imperial Palace on Terra. Sanguinius, foreseeing both the trechery of Horus and his own death, confronts the Warmaster aboard his orbital fortress. Sanguinius is cut down, but not before holding Horus at bay long enough for the Emperor to confront and slay him, being mortally wounded himself
in the process. It is said the Emperor bested Horus by exploiting a chink in his armor, opened by Sanguinius.

Once Horus falls, the traitor forces are broken and flee across the galaxy to the Eye of Terror. One company of Blood Angels, nearly 1000 strong and mad with rage at the death of their Primarch, follow in close pursuit. Upon nearing the Eye, their fleet is overtaken by a temporal anomally and they are assumed lost to the Warp, ripped apart by the malestrom of the Eye, or given over to the dark powers of Chaos.

Back on Terra, the Emperor's remains were entombed in the Golden Throne where, it is said, he exists as a conciousness divorced from the material world. The High Lords of Terra come to rule the Imperium in the Emperor's name, founding the Adeptus Terra to interpret and enforce the Emperor's will. Also, the Ministorum, or Ecclesiarchy, comes to power as the Emperor and his sacrifice become the subject of mass praise and veneration.

M.32 - The Primarchs die or disappear over the following millennia. Subsequent Foundings increase the number of Space Marine Chapters.

M.33 - The Second Founding: Loyal Space Marine Chapters are broken down into smaller Chapters of 1000 troops. One Chapter retains the original name and heraldry of the Chapter, while the others are re-named and given new icons.

ca.500, M.41 - Nearly 10,000 years after disappearing in their quest for vengence, the lost company of Blood Angels emerge from the temporal anomaly which had traveled to the outermost regions of Imperial space. Upon learning of the changes that have occured within the Empire after the Heresy, the Company is distrustful of High Lords of Terra and the Administrorum, but moreso of the Ecclesiarchy, which began as as a loose confederation of cults and grew to power by promoting worship of the Emperor.

This brings accusations of heresy and chaotic subversion upon the company, as well as hostile encounters with the other Legiones Astartes. Alllies become enemies, and the Company is forced to flee back into the Imperial rim, where they are ambushed and nearly wiped out by a race heretofore unknown to them - the Dark Eldar. After driving the piratical raiders off, the company founds a settlement on an uncolonized jungle planet, and begins the long process of rebuilding.

As a sign of mourning for both Sanguinius and the Emperor- who died, as far as the Company is concerned, to stop the traitor Horus- the company of Blood Angels began painting the trim on their armour and vehicles black. This look bears resemblance to the Angels Encarmine of the Second Founding and allows them to reintegrate, to a degree, back into the Empire.

These Blood Angels, who once strode the field of battle beside their Primarch and served the Emperor directly, now secretly refer to themselves as the Lost Company. They do not bow to the Lords of Terra, nor to the Ministorum, but they retain their pledge to defend the Empire of Man from her enemies, wherever they might be found.