"You see the shards of an ancient bowl, I see the history of man. Man would not rule the stars if he had taken flight among the stars. Man would have never taken flight among the stars if he had never soured among the sky. Man would have never soured among the sky if he had not ruled the land. Man would never rule the land if he could not conquer it. Man would never have conquered it if he could not survive. Man would never have survived without tools like this. Mankind was built upon this, hope your work might contribute a fraction of their worth in humanities continuation. A morte perpetua domine libra nos. Now fetch me tea and ink, leave my collection untouched and stop with your pointless questions"

-Record Keeper Dagda to an acolyte 572.M41

o00oo00o

The Record of Ash, or simply of the dead, is one of the oldest relics of the chapter along with the crusades flame. In there eternal crusade the chapter knew that it would not let the history it is brotherhood to be forgotten, every brother who gave their lives in service of the crusade had to be remembered, So when the book was found during a battle of the Scouring it became a cherish relic for until then they merely made do with a pair of obsidian walls aboard their flagship, now reserved for the chapters greatest heros.

Its was an ancient relic of a world that had been lost during the heresy to the sorcerer of the Thousand Sons and warp smiths of the Iron Warriors. It had been one among a number of ancient tomes that found their resting place on that world in the horror of old night that the traitor's fought to steal as they fled back to the eye of terror. The people made slaves of his small world though rebelled against their masters with the return of the imperium. The fighting was long and hard leaving the Mythril Lord's bloddied and in thanks the people offered their service and relics to the chapter. Only one thing was taken. A simple book with blank pages.

It is a fusion of ancient lost Arcana and Archeotech. The tome is large in the hands of even the Astartes which seems to generate new pages and store those which are unneeded in an infinitely small subspace located within hidden circuitry in the bindings. On each of its pages lies the names, titles, and history of every marine who has ever served and died in the name of the chapter. Upon its cover lay an icon of a scythe, an hourglass, a skull with an amethyst gem for an eye, and a thorny rose.

A single brother holds the position of Keeper of the Dead, it is his task to assure the record is ever up to date. For this task, he has a legion of serf scribes and chapters Apothecarion to assure it is perfect. For the name of every inducted member must be added. It also must be checked for those who fall from the great light of the crusade for they are not dead, their names and loyal history recorded before their records are locked away never to be viewed again.

It seems to have some level of deathly power amplified by ancient technologies for from the tome it is not unknown for the Keeper to call upon the spirits of long-dead brothers for advice and knowledge. In the midsts of battle masters of the tome's use have briefly called upon ethereal amethyst winds that strip the life from those it is used against. This power comes at the cost of willowing the one who uses it until they have a sallow face, skeletal frame, and clammy white skin.

homebrew has always been something I have enjoyed and mixing warhammer fantasy in 40k is something i have always enjoyed with fuedal worlds and what not. Though the idea of this grand record has existed before the small reference to fantasy

Check out the main Warhammer story I have been working on, Lost To The Warp.

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