Darog's Company

THE MYTHOLOGY OF FENRIS
The warriors of Fenris are brought up on talcs of monsters and heroes, sky-straddling wolves and world spanning sea-beasts. They have a proud tradition of storytelling, and value a good talc almost as much as a good fight. The mythology of Fenris is crowded with the deeds of heroes, and many of their legends stem from the Fenrisian Wolves that prowl Asahcim.
These pagan beliefs arc looked upon with scorn by the Ecclesiarchy. but the Sons of Russ refuse to give up their beliefs even when their fangs arc long and their skin wrinkled. Superstition is rife, and the Space Wolves enter battle festooned with totems and talismans to bring luck and ward off evil spirits. Central to their belief system is the Emperor, known to the Fenrisians as the Allfathcr. and his Primarch son Leman Russ. They look upon Russ as more than just a man. and attribute to him the deeds of a god. Heroes arc held in the highest esteem, and none more so than the Primarch. who they believe will return to fight with them at the end of the world.

VENERABLE DREADNOUGHTS
Priceless and indomitable artefacts steeped in centuries of battle. Dreadnoughts do not fall easily. Some escape their final death for so long that they fight on for a thousand years or more to truly become living legends. These venerable few are held in the highest esteem by their battle-brothers, for their wisdom is as deep as the cold ocean and their intuition as sharp as a Kraken's teeth. Each is a keeper of battle-lore and a custodian of forsaken knowledge, and their advice is humbly asked by the masters of each Great Company in the gravest matters of war. Though such ancients often lie dormant for decades at a time within the depths of the Fang, when these mighty warriors are awakened fully they fight as lords of battle, stepping from the sagas once more to hunt and kill in the name of Russ.

THE KRAKENS EGG
Fenris' weather is infamous: the winters arc icy cold, and the brief summers arc intolerably hot. However, every few years or so comes the season known as the Hclwintcr. The planet's long orbit takes it far from the sun. and it becomes deathly cold for many standard years. At the same time the planet passes through a swarm of meteors that bombard its surface like a rain of bombs. The contrails of the descending meteorites fill the night skies, and the impacts cause the earth to shake like a frightened beast. During this period the tribes of Fenris take to their longships and search the icy seas for places of relative safety. Some navigate their way through the labyrinth of icebergs to make their homes on mountains of ice. others arc lost to freezing tidal waves caused by meteorite impact. Many more will die when attacked by ice whales and the hideous monsters known as kraken.
Kraken are the most terrifying monsters of the deep. A full grown Kraken can measure as much as five miles long with tentacles that drag four times as far. Some have speculated Kraken arc the remains of a Tyranid bio-weapon from an ancient Hive Fleet invasion. Others say that the monsters arc as old as Fenris. and that they gnaw at the roots of the world. One of the most ancient talcs of Russ tells of how he went fishing one day and caught the Father of Kraken. the legendary monster whose tentacles encircle the world. Russ pulled the creature from the sea. but declared it too small, and that he would return later when the tiddler was full grown. As with many Fenrisian legends this may be apocryphal, though it would explain the source of the so-called Kraken's Egg. a giant leathery piece of flesh over fifty foot in length that lies within the Trophy Halls of the Fang.

BLACKMANED WOLVES
The Blackmaned Fenrisian Wolf is as tall and muscular as a warhorse. Blackmancs have a similar anatomy to that of the common Fenrisian Wolf, although their heads are proportionally larger and their teeth even more pronounced. Their perpetually drooling jaws can exert as much pressure as those of an ice shark, and they arc capable of hunting the largest prey through the thickest blizzard. Blackmaned Wolves arc usually only seen in the dead of winter when packs descend from the mountains into the lands of the Fenrisians to feed, leaving little more than scraps of bloody bone in their wake. The most celebrated Wolf Lords of the Space Wolves have been known to go to battle alongside these noble beasts, though they arc famously intractable -the Fenrisians refer to the act of attempting an impossible task as taming the Blackmane'. Leman Russ himself went to war with a pair of gigantic Blackmancs at his side, fierce monsters of near-human intelligence known as Freki and Gcri. meaning 'Fierce' and 'Cunning' in the Fenrisian tongue.
In the myths of the Fenrisian tribes, the Blackmancs serve in the afterlife as the minions of the wolf Morkai. two-headed guardian of the Gates of Death. Legend has it that one who crosses into the afterlife with a Blackmane at his side will never truly die.