Storm Warden Veteran Landes

The Storm Wardens descend from Sacris’ moon to the foggy moors and teeming tribes below to hold a series of games and ritual combats to select only the fiercest and most cunning warriors to join their ranks as aspirants. Often, aspirants must struggle against the fen-trolls and other highly dangerous native fauna of Sacris during the trials, battling their way up and down the shifting moors in a combination skirmish and marathon race. The aspirants must navigate past pockets of deadly swamp gas, through regions infested with swarm leeches, across quicksand-laden plains, and find their way to the Storm Warden’s landing site.

Those who survive that far then compete in games that pit aspirants against each other in contests of strength and skill at arms. Simply to compete in these trials elevates a man in the eyes of the tribes of Sacris; succeed or fail, he has tested himself against the greatest warriors on the planet, and that is worthy of great respect. After passing the trials, many Aspirants take with them the Sacris claymore, an heirloom weapon cherished by the tribesmen. It is also common that, when a Storm Warden dies, his claymore is ritually returned to his homeworld, and many blades have earned great honor for their tribe in this manner. -Ross Watson, Deathwatch author

Veteran Landes began as one such aspirant. Nearly two hundred years ago he competed for a right to taken to the stars and become one of the Emperor's Finest. He earned great honor for his tribe as he bested all others on the field that day.

During his first campaign donning the shield emblem of the Storm Wardens he further distinguished himself. As a scout he found himself deep within enemy territory, the rest of his recon team taken captive by a conclave of Eldar that were seeking a rare artifact on a tomb world, Using his combat knife and a seemingly endless supply of grenades we was not only able to rescue his team to a man, but managed to inflict enough casualties to the Eldar to force them to retreat back to their staging point. Landes was able to get word back to command who had the bulk of the Storm Wardens lying in wait. They ambushed the retreating Eldar and secured victory on the planet, in no small part to the efforts of a single scout.

Veteran Landes went on to achieve even more success once promoted to the tactical squads of the Storm Wardens. He continued to surprise his commanders as he filled many roles in the heat of the moment; picking up a fallen heavy bolter and holding off scores of Orks, commandeering a crashed Rhino and barreling it through a Dark Eldar coven, using a pair of freshly sheered scything talons to cut down the remaining Tyranid warriors, and the list goes on. It was this gallantry that catapulted him into the ranks of the assault company, where his tactical mind and sheer tenacity eventually landed him the rank of sergeant.

After a bitterly fought campaign against the Tau Empire it was clear Assault Sergeant Landes was destined for greatness. He was indoctrinated into the command squad of the company, serving as one of the elite few who work in conjunction with the captain himself and their specialists. It is with little doubt that Veteran Landes, should he survive his tenure in the command squad, will move on to the veteran first company, and perhaps from there one day he may even captain a company of his own.

[I derived the name of this trooper for the Storm Wardens Project from Eric Landes, the individual who won the first Storm Wardens mini-prize, a Storm Wardens t-shirt donated by the Minions of the Monster Master podcast.]