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1 / 4 · Click to enlargeLore & origins
The Deathwing is the Dark Angels' 1st Company. Its battle-brothers are the Chapter's most experienced veterans, and they almost always go to war in Tactical Dreadnought armour. The name goes back to the Great Crusade, when the Deathwing was the elite of the First Legion. The Chapter gives the name to its veterans today, and they are the Chapter's mailed fist: no target is thought too strong for them.
Joining the Deathwing is more than a promotion. It is the first step into the Inner Circle. When a Dark Angel joins the company, he learns part of the truth the Chapter hides from the Imperium: that half the Legion turned against the Lion under Luther at the end of the Heresy, and that the Chapter has hunted those Fallen ever since. Only some of the truth is revealed, and higher circles of the Chapter hold still more secrets.
The company's armour was once black, like the rest of the old Legion. Chapter legend explains the change. Long ago a band of Deathwing returned to their home world, Plain's World, and found its people enslaved by Genestealers. They destroyed the infestation, but the cost was terrible. Afterwards they repainted their armour bone white in mourning, and the colour has stayed ever since. The company is led by a Grand Master; in the late 41st Millennium that was Belial, who took command after his predecessor died aboard the space hulk Charnel Shrine.
The Deathwing is the Dark Angels' 1st Company. Its veterans wear Terminator armour and are inducted into the Inner Circle, which means they learn the truth about the Fallen, the Dark Angels who turned against the Lion at the end of the Heresy. Its bone-white livery sets it apart from the rest of the Chapter, and it is led by the Grand Master of the Deathwing, currently Belial. The name dates back to the Legion era, when the Deathwing was the Ist Legion's elite assault formation. Heresy-era figures such as Knight-Praetor Kordray Mordred and Knight-Sergeant Indravain Mors are tied to its history.
Appearance & wargear
Deathwing Terminators wear bone-white Terminator armour, often with deep red or black robes over it and the Chapter's winged-sword heraldry. Their sergeants and Knights carry ornate relic weapons. Many suits are hung with sacred banners, chains, and wax seals. Typical weapons are storm bolters, power fists, chainfists, assault cannons, heavy flamers and the Chapter's plasma cannons. Deathwing Knights carry maces of absolution and storm shields.
Deathwing Terminators wear bone-white Tactical Dreadnought armour with red Dark Angels symbols, robes and tabards. They carry storm bolters, power fists, thunder hammers, storm shields and assault cannons, cyclone missile launchers and plasma cannons. Deathwing Knights carry maces of absolution and storm shields. Watchers in the Dark sometimes accompany them.
Weapons & Vehicles
A twin-barrelled, double-chambered automatic bolter wielded one-handed by Space Marine Terminators, Grey Knights and battle tank pintle…
An oversized servo-assisted armoured gauntlet sheathed in a matter-shredding energy field, capable of tearing open tank hulls and crush…
A massive warhammer whose head releases a deafening concussive shockwave and disruption blast on impact, shattering Terminator plate an…
A master-crafted blade sheathed in a crackling molecular disruption field that parts ceramite, bone and steel with effortless lethality…
A volatile directed-energy rifle that hurls bolts of miniature sun-hot plasma capable of vaporising Terminator plate and tank armour—at…
The Dark Angels 2nd Company of bikers, speeders and gunships, the Chapter's hunting arm, whose elite Black Knights run down the Fallen.
The Space Marines' most revered battle tank and heavy transport, built from an ancient STC design and guided by a proud machine spirit.
Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Battlefield role & tactics
The Deathwing are teleported or deployed by Land Raider straight into the hardest part of a battle. They seize vital ground, break enemy strongpoints and assault space hulks. The Dark Angels also use them to capture the Fallen alive when they are found. Deathwing Knights form an even more resilient elite within the company, holding lines that nothing else can.
The Deathwing teleports into the heart of battle to seize objectives, break fortifications and kill priority targets. They are tough, hard-hitting and stubborn, but few in number. Their other purpose is hunting the Fallen.
Munitorum & Ordo Xenos Technical Dossier
Classified under Ordo and Departmento Munitorum threat-index protocols as a primary The Deathwing are teleported or deployed by Land Raider straight into the hardest part of a battle. They seize vital ground, break enemy strongpoints and assault space hulks. The Dark Angels also use them to capture the Fallen alive when they are found. Deathwing Knights form an even more resilient elite within the company, holding lines that nothing else can. asset of Dark Angels, Deathwing Terminators relies on a tightly coupled symbiosis between operator conditioning and primary armament. Field maintenance and biological recovery logs indicate that extended deployment without liturgical recalibration or bio-stasis rest degrades targeting and metabolic stability by less than 4% per solar week—far outperforming standard sector baselines—while post-engagement recovery teams prioritize the immediate extraction of their core wargear, neural/gene-seed components, or machine-spirit memory cores before enemy scavengers can exploit them.
Notable battles & users
- Plain's World: the legendary Genestealer purge that gave the company its bone-white armour.
- Piscina IV: Belial won a spectacular victory there during the Third War for Armageddon before becoming Grand Master.
- Space hulk assaults: the Deathwing is among the Chapter's main tools for boarding derelicts such as the Charnel Shrine.
- Belial: the current Grand Master of the Deathwing, who led it through many recent campaigns.
- Holguin: one of the few Terran-born members of the Ist Legion on the Hexagrammaton's Council of Masters.
Related
Characters (3)
Azrael · Supreme Grand Master of the Dark Angels
Lion El'Jonson · Primarch of the Dark Angels
Cypher · Lord of the Fallen
