Greetings, Deathwatch fans!

One thing about creating a new game in a setting that you love: sometimes it is difficult to be patient! I am really looking forward to going more in-depth with details about the setting, the new mechanics, and all the other great stuff you will find inside the Deathwatch RPG. In the upcoming weeks I (and the other members of the “Project Iceberg” design team) will have a lot to say about such things as Renown, Power Armour Histories, Missions, Watch Fortress Erioch, the Omega Vault, and much, much more.

The Crusade in the Jericho Reach musters troops from across the galaxy, and no Crusade would be complete without Space Marines from the Black Templars Chapter. A successor Chapter to the Imperial Fists, the Black Templars have a long and glorious record of engaging the foes of Man in fierce assaults. These solemn and zealous Battle-Brothers bring faith and fury to the Deathwatch, and author Andy Hoare tells us more about who they are below:

The Black Templars

“To the darkness, I bring fire. To the ignorant, I bring faith. Those who welcome these gifts may live, but I will visit naught but death and eternal damnation on those who refuse them.”
–Chaplain Grimaldus

After the Great Heresy, Rogal Dorn, primarch of the Imperial Fists, resisted the breaking up of the Legions into smaller Chapters. It was only when the Imperial Fists were branded heretics that Dorn relented, allowing his beloved Legion to be subdivided into Chapters. One of the new Chapters born of this time was the Black Templars.

To prove his loyalty to the Emperor, the first Chapter Master of the Black Templars—the High Marshal Sigismund—assembled a massive war fleet and began the greatest Space Marine Crusade in the history of the Imperium. It has lasted for 10,000 years.

Eschewing the establishment of a home world, the Black Templars took to the stars in a mighty war fleet. Rather than constructing a single Chapter fortress-monastery as most Space Marine Chapters do, the Black Templars determined to establish a chapter keep upon each world they conquered, to keep watch for treachery, to stage future Crusades, and to recruit new Battle-Brothers.

The ten-millennia-long Crusade of the Black Templars has seen its warriors embroiled in some of the most momentous conflicts ever to engulf the Imperium. The High Marshals have followed the example of their founder and taken the fight to the realms of the alien, the heretic, and the witch. The Black Templars are crusaders, holy warriors battling to bring the truth and light of the Emperor to the unconquered worlds of the galaxy. With bolt shell and chainsword, the Black Templars convert the benighted to the light of the Master of Mankind and destroy those who refuse to welcome his truth. Each Crusade is directed by the will of the Marshal in command, and each is despatched by the decree of the High Marshal of the Black Templars to fulfil their prime mission to cleanse the stars.

When not engaged in battle, the brethren of the Black Templars are invariably to be found preparing for it. They pass their time in prayer and meditation, or engaged in exacting training rituals. Those Initiates entrusted with the training of a Neophyte spend long hours passing on their knowledge to their young pupil and supervising endless drills, practice sessions, and trials. The brethren frequently impose upon themselves many hardships, foregoing all but the bare necessities in order to purify themselves in the eyes of the Emperor and their primarch, and to emulate the example of their founder Sigismund.

When serving alongside the Battle-Brothers of other Space Marine Chapters, many Black Templars prepare themselves through long fasts and week-long vigils in order to tolerate the presence of Space Marine librarians. For those who serve in the Deathwatch, fighting alongside a brother Space Marine who wields psychic power is a particular hardship, a trial they must undergo in order to serve the Emperor more fully and to strike down the hated alien. For this reason, great care is undertaken when selecting a Black Templar for secondment to the Deathwatch, for only a brother able to contain his deep-seated intolerance will be able to fight to his full capacity. Despite this, even these individuals are likely to pass every hour not spent fighting in deep contemplation and prayer, often cloistering themselves away from their fellow Deathwatch Space Marines in a personal shrine to the Emperor, Dorn, and Sigismund.

Forward, Battle-Brothers!

Join me next week as we explore the fifth Space Marine Chapter for Deathwatch!

Deathwatch is a roleplaying game in which players take on the roles of the bio-engineered super-soldiers known as Space Marines. United with their battle-brothers, players will complete extraordinary missions involving some of the greatest heroes and deadliest opponents the Warhammer 40,000 universe has to offer.