Emperor's Children: Homeworld: Chemos (destroyed)
Battlecry: "Children of the Emperor! Death to his foes!
Colours: Pink & Black
Primarch: Fulgrim
The Emperor's Children were the 3rd Legion of the First Founding, and were almost destroyed before they saw combat due to a catastrophic accident during the gene-seeding process which left only 200 survivors. It took sixty years for the re-discovered Fulgrim to recover gene-seed from the existing marines and rebuild the shattered Legion.
This also meant that the Legion was delayed in making its entrance to the Great Crusade, and due to it's small size, was placed under the command of Warmaster Horus and his Luna Wolves. Fulgrim and the Warmaster developed a firm friendship during their campaigns on the Eastern Fringe, before fresh recruits from Chemos and Terra provided Fulgrim with sufficient numbers to mount his own campaigns.
It is said that, when Fulgrim was reunited with the original 200 survivors of the Legion, he made a speech to them which so inspired the Emperor, that he named the Legion the Emperor's Children, and granted them the right to bear the double-headed eagle on their armour. The Aquila was the personal symbol of the Emperor, and no other Legion had granted its use. Indeed, so assured of their loyalty was the Emperor that Fulgrim was the first loyalist sent to confront the Warmaster at Istvaan. During a parley with the Warmaster, Fulgrim was infected with a demon of Slaanesh, and he and his officers exposed to decadent and debased pleasures until they broke and gave themselves over to Chaos.
As part of the Warmaster's army which laid siege to Terra, the Emperor's Children were predominantly responsible for laying waste to the general populace - slaughtering and raping countless thousands and rendering the bodies into forbidden stimulants in their continuous quest for new and exciting sensations. When the Warmaster was slain, the Legion left a wake of empty planets as they fled to the Eye of Terror; gathering slaves and sustenance as they moved. Once within the Eye, their supplies steadily dwindled, leading them to raid the other Legions; which ultimately led to the virtual disbanding of the Emperor's Children. The culmination of their conflicts with the other Traitor Legions saw the Emperor's Children steal the clone body of Horus from the fortress of the Black Legion.
From the original 30 companies, the Emperor's Children have dwindled to hedonistic, indolent warbands. Many of the Legion have fallen to the pleasures of Slaanesh to such an extent that they have become Noise Marines, a uniquely Slaaneshi mutation that warps an individual's perceptions so that only the most outlandish and distorted colours and sounds have any impact.
The Emperor's Children no longer have a homeworld. Nor have they claimed one planet in the Eye of Terror; Fulgrim was raised to a daemon-prince by Slaanesh, and is said to rule over a world of unending pleasures - making it the subject of searches by many of the Legions warbands.
It is likely that the marines encountered by Jaq Draco and his entourage on the daemon-world where the Hydra was originally constructed where Emperor's Children.
Source: Realm of Chaos by Marc Gascoigne and Andy Jones, Draco by Ian Watson, Codex: Chaos, 2nd Edition by various, Codex: Chaos Space Marines, 3rd Edition by various, Codex: Chaos Space Marines, 4th Edition by various, Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter
Submitter: Simguinus
Hive World Terra