Freeblade
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"Though we stand tall within our Knights, we are not above the laws of men. Let every tyrant tremble in my sight should he think himself immune. As long as I draw breath the guilty will be punished, be they xenos invader, cursed traitor or highborn criminal."
—The Freeblade Dyros, "The Scorched Knight", speaking to the surviving kin of House Kamata during the invasion of Alaric Prime
Amaranthine Freeblade
The Freeblade Imperial Knight Amaranthine
A Freeblade is an Imperial Knight who has forsaken their House to wander alone amongst the stars. With blade or cannon, these Freeblade Knights travel the void on their own personal missions of honour, vengeance or penance. Forsaking the heraldry of their former House, giving up their names and breaking with their past, they become mysterious silent warriors to those they fight alongside.
Often they will appear suddenly, drawn by the fires of war, only to depart as abruptly once the fighting is done; their temporary allies never learning their name. Even so, they can earn glorious reputations through their deeds, and their aid, though often unexpected, is always welcomed.
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History
White Warden & Forgotten Knight Alaric Prime
Gerantius, The Forgotten Knight, and The White Warden, fighting alongside one another against the Red WAAAGH! on Alaric Prime
The ancient tradition of the Freeblade harkens back over ten millennia ago, during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. Known as Legendary Freeblades, these were Nobles who were drawn out from the ranks of their former Households, either willingly owing to the lure of adventure or the unquenchable lust for battle, or unwillingly as outcast, Renegade or last survivor. These Freeblades were Knights Mendicant, owing no alliance and no fealty. Of these, many were drawn to the Great Crusade, lured by the thirst for glory or the unceasing clamour of war on the frontier, joining the Questoris Crusade forces and fighting on countless worlds in support of the Emperor's great work. Since that bygone era, the tradition has continued to be upheld by the knightly houses of the Questoris Familia.
The Path of the Freeblade
Becoming a Freeblade is always a monumental choice for a Noble, as it forces them to give up everything they have ever known. The bonds of blood forged by birth into a knightly house are no small thing, even more so once a Noble undertakes the Becoming and communes with the spirits of his ancestors that dwell within the Throne Mechanicum. It usually takes a great event or personal tragedy for a Noble to choose the path of the Freeblade, deciding that he cannot fulfill his destiny as long as he serves under the lord of the household. These Freeblade Knights are tragic heroes, driven to leave their Houses to pursue a cause of their own, continuing to fight for Mankind, but call no man master. The reasons for a Noble to become a Freeblade are as varied as the Nobles themselves, and could spring from a burning need for vengeance or a lifetime of penance. Many of these reasons are tied to some kind of failure -- real or perceived -- by the Noble, something that he might take far more seriously than a common man. Should a lance-brother fall in battle through the negligence or misdeed of a Noble, it can be enough for him to feel he must devote his days to absolving himself for his lapse. Thus, the same sense of duty and obligation instilled in a Noble by the effects of the Throne Mechanicum can be transformed into an uncompromising drive to complete a personal quest, one that transcends the constraints of House and homeworld.
Not all Freeblades choose the life of the lone warrior because they feel they must hunt down a deserving villain or keep the memory of the fallen alive. Some are drawn to don the mantle of a Freeblade simply to answer the call of adventure and the glory of battle on far-off worlds. These Nobles develop a taste for war that goes beyond many of their kin, until it overshadows their sense of obligation to their House. For them, casting off the constraining rituals and ceremony of being part of a knightly household means they can devote their lives completely to battle, wandering from one warzone to the next and seldom leaving their Knight suit. Other Freeblade Knights have made a personal oath or pact to carry out a certain task that requires they travel across the galaxy in order to fulfil it.
Company of Heroes
Every Noble has the right to become a Freeblade; it is an ancient tradition on Knight Worlds that should a Noble choose this path his lord must honour his choice. The Noble's name is often stricken from all House records, or sealed away where only the lord of the House might see it. It is part of the rite that a Noble's past is forgotten when he becomes a Freeblade -- all he was is washed away to be replaced with the identity he has chosen for himself and the personal quest he now chooses to pursue. Though different Nobles embrace this right to anonymity to varying degrees, all must accept that to take the title of Freeblade means giving up who they once were.
When a Noble becomes a Freeblade he will often take a name for himself, usually to hide his true identity and former House but sometimes also as proclamation of his intent. For instance, the Freeblade Justice earned a formidable reputation hunting down Renegade Knights of House Darkon, his moniker leading many Nobles to believe Darkon must have wronged him in the past. Some names are not taken but are given, and more than one Freeblade is dedicated to concealing their identity to the point that they never communicate or leave their Knight suit. Amaranthine is an example of such a Knight, given his name by allies because of the colour of his armour. The taciturn Knight has never once communicated openly, preferring instead to let his deeds of battle do all his speaking for him.
Many Freeblades move through history unremembered and unheralded, their deeds eventually lost to the long march of years. However, some stand out even centuries after their passing, the legends of their exploits passing from one generation of Imperial citizens to the next, reborn in prayers and parables. Over time, a Freeblade might be reduced only to a name and a single remembered battle, like Pale Reckoning, the avenging warrior that slew the terrible Daemon Prince Kor'talor, or the Knights known as Wrath and Blade of Finality, who stood against the Red Corsairs on the edges of the Maelstrom, turning back their bloody raid on Glorthos Starfort. Vigilantus, the slayer of the Lord of Skulls, Gorehaunter, or the trio of Freeblades known as the Crimson Glaives who opposed the Eldar pirates on Tarvel III, stand as heroes of equal stature, and like the others their names are destined to live on in rumour and legend for centuries to come.
A Lonely Death
Whether he is remembered or not, the ultimate fate for many a Freeblade is to die alone, unsung and forgotten. Even in those rare instances where Freeblades work together, the carnage and tumult of such titanic wars means that before long only one will remain. This sole survivor of years of bitter struggle will fight on, mourning his comrades until he too falls. Tales tell of the remains of Knight suits discovered on remote worlds under cold, dying suns, their rusting frames abandoned for centuries and their livery worn away by the elements. The skeletal remains of the Noble will still be encased inside, hooked up to the Throne Mechanicum, staring out with empty sockets across an ancient battlefield. Those that come upon such a sight cannot help but see that this is the resting place of a mighty hero who died in the heat of battle. On Feral Worlds the remains of Knights are an ominous symbol of the sky people, and often worshipped as gods or given offerings to appease the vengeful stars, so they might avert their baleful gaze. Even alien scavengers are wary when they chance upon the remains of a Knight, the ancient wards and seals deadly to those who break them without the Sacristans' skill.
Some Freeblades manage to avoid an unmarked grave or resting place on a forgotten world, either falling close to the civilised planets of the Imperium and being recovered by the Adeptus Mechanicus, or becoming enshrined on the worlds on which they fall, Imperial chapels and churches built around the remains of the Knight to honour such a great warrior. Across the Imperium, there are worlds and outposts where the remains of a Knight have become a centre of worship for the Imperial Creed. Still sealed against the world, the remains of the Noble encased within, these Knight suits silently look down on the worshippers, the cold dead lenses of their faceplate reflecting the prostrate figures at their feet.
Freeblades that fulfil their penance may return to their House. The Noble lord of a knightly house is not obliged by ancient law to accept the return of a Freeblade: although a Noble always has the right to take up the path of the Freeblade, no such right exists to guarantee his return to his House. Thus it is always a risk for a Freeblade to return to his House, and he must be sure his deeds outweigh any ill will he has left in his wake. The lord of the House will carefully consider the reputation the Freeblade has earned, as well as his reasons for returning, before making his decision. Even so, it is rare for a returned Freeblade not to be welcomed back as a long-lost son, his glorious victories added to that of his House.
Rival Freeblades
During the long history of the Imperium there have been tales of rival knightly hosues that have fallen to skirmishing and even full-blown war. Just as the Houses of Knight Worlds can come to blows over differences of honour or creed, so too can the same fate befall the Freeblade. There are rumours among the Nobles and their kin of long-running feuds between certain Freeblades, often those that are forced to fight in the same warzone or find that their own personal quests come to cross purposes. Examples of these rivalries are scattered through the annals of the knightly houses and the Forge Worlds which keep histories of such things. One recording tells of the personal war between the Freeblades Emperor's Voice and Fires of Wrath. During the Xalan Apostasy the pious Freeblade Emperor's Voice became a bitter foe of another Freeblade, known as the Fires of Wrath. Wrath considered all those touched by the Apostasy to be enemies of the God-Emperor, while the Voice saw that some were worth saving. During the battle of the Illuminated, when the Saint's Own regiment sided with the Imperium, it was the Voice that accepted their defection while the Wrath still considered them Traitors for ever siding with the Apostate armies. Neither willing to back down, the two Freeblades squared off against each other. Though neither fell that day, hundreds were killed as they clashed, and their feud would become a reflection of the war and a warning to others of the unwavering principles a Freeblade can possess.
Another legend sheds light on the centuries after the Horus Heresy, a time of great suspicion between the Imperium and its allies, when some Knights stood on the brink of turning Traitor or were discredited and defamed by their rivals. The fates of the Freeblades Truth of Mars and Dauntless Valour illustrate the distrusts of these times. These Nobles had become rivals over a perceived slight during the Allax Crusade victory processional, as to which of them was to be given the honour of marching first through the Arches of Triumph on Petrum V. Though both were staunch Loyalists, and continually tried to outdo the other with their acts of devotion and piety, this incident would consume them both. In the years that followed they levelled accusations of treachery and heresy at the other, playing a cruel game of lies and defamation. Numerous times they even traded blows in battle, each citing the attacks as evidence of weak moral fibre and festering treachery in the other. Ironically, in the end the Freeblades were forced to fight and fall as one when their dire reputations drew the attention of the Inquisition and an attempt was made to bring them to justice.
The famous Freeblade Amaranthine was almost unwittingly drawn into a similar conflict in the closing years of the Tiberius Wars. The mysterious Freeblade was ever at the forefront of the Emperor's armies as they purged the Heretic hordes and pushed back the malign influence of the Tzeentchian daemon that wore the skin of Tiberius. Amaranthine's reputation for never speaking and for his brutal efficiency was a chink in his armour that the daemon would use to discredit him. Through a web of lies and deceit, the daemon spread rumours that Amaranthine was in fact an agent of the Dark Gods, a war machine possessed by a daemon and sent from the Warp to do the will of Chaos. When the Freeblade purged a city of heresy, or destroyed a powerful warlord of fortress, the daemon would spin the story that the Freeblade was killing innocents, sacrificing them to his daemon lords, or that he was actually allowing the true villains to escape each time -- after all, why else would another foe always arise in the wake of his victories? The daemon cited the Freeblade's silence as further proof of possession or compliance with the Ruinous Powers, saying that if Amaranthine were to speak, his true nature would be revealed in a second. So pervasive were these lies that several Inquisitors were drawn into the Tiberius Wars and onto the trail of the Freeblade to try to discern the Knight's true nature, though none risked outright conflict. In the end, Amaranthine's actions were to be the answer he would give to these vile lies. When he clashed in epic combat with his ever-changing foe, none of the Imperial Guardsmen, Space Marines or other Imperial warriors that fought at the Freeblade's side could doubt his conviction to the cause. When Amaranthine finally destroyed Tiberius's daemon-form, he put paid to any other dissenters, and the Tzeentchian lies were banished for good along with their author.
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