| rdfs:comment | - The origins of the 13th Great Company lie in the dawn of the Age of the Imperium, when the Primarchs were reunited with the Emperor and his Space Marine Legions. The 13th Great Company was formed from the followers of Leman Russ from his days on Fenris, before the coming of the All-Father (the Emperor). They were all old men by the standards of the Astartes, having been reavers and sword-brothers to Leman, King of the Russ. When the truth of Leman’s heritage was finally revealed, every warrior in the king's mead-hall had drawn their iron blades and clamoured to fight at his side, as sword-brothers ought. But they were all too old, the Emperor had told them; not a man among them was younger than twenty years. The trials they would have to endure would very likely kill them, no matter how co
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| abstract | - The origins of the 13th Great Company lie in the dawn of the Age of the Imperium, when the Primarchs were reunited with the Emperor and his Space Marine Legions. The 13th Great Company was formed from the followers of Leman Russ from his days on Fenris, before the coming of the All-Father (the Emperor). They were all old men by the standards of the Astartes, having been reavers and sword-brothers to Leman, King of the Russ. When the truth of Leman’s heritage was finally revealed, every warrior in the king's mead-hall had drawn their iron blades and clamoured to fight at his side, as sword-brothers ought. But they were all too old, the Emperor had told them; not a man among them was younger than twenty years. The trials they would have to endure would very likely kill them, no matter how courageous and strong-willed they were. Yet the men of Leman's mead-hall were mighty warriors, each man a hero in his own right, and they would not be dissuaded by thoughts of suffering or death. Leman, the king, was moved by their devotion, and could not find it in his heart to refuse them. And so his loyal thanes undertook the Trials of the Wolf, and true to the Emperor's word, the vast majority of them died. Out of hundreds, only two score survived, a number that still amazed even the Emperor himself. In honour of their courage, Leman –- no longer king now, but Primarch and rightful lord of the VIth Legion –- formed a new, elite company of Astartes around the survivors. Ever since, the other warriors of the Legion referred to the 13th Company as the "Greybeards". The members of the company, however, called themselves the Wolf Brothers. Immediately preceding the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the 13th Company was led by Wolf Lord Bulveye. Being the genetic progeny of Leman Russ, the Space Wolves carry within them a unique gift inherited from his gene-seed: the genetic traits collectively called the Canis Helix, the Mark of the Wolf that sets the Space Wolves apart from the Astartes of other Chapters. The Canis Helix invests the Space Wolves with the acute predatory senses of the semi-sentient wolves native to their homeworld of Fenris, but this gift comes at a price: the Curse of the Wulfen. Those Space Wolves Astartes who succumb to the curse degenerate into savage, malformed, werewolf-like parodies of their brethren, in most cases during their training, but in others many years later in the heat of battle. The Space Wolves' harsh induction regime generally ensures that these vulnerable individuals perish at an early stage in the process of being transformed into an Astartes. However, at the time of the Great Crusade, when the Emperor of Mankind and his Legions were conquering vast swathes of the galaxy in the name of humanity, those Space Wolves touched by the curse were banded together into the 13th Great Company, where their feral ferocity could be brought to bear en masse, as well as contained for the safety of the whole Legion. That the 13th Company accompanied Russ on the Great Crusade is for certain, although the details of the campaigns in which they fought are lost to antiquity. Only the names of actions, long since forgotten, appear in the Imperial archives, battles such as the First Siege of Methrix and the Battle of the Plains of Mo-Shan, the Fall of the Paramours of the Morpheus Rift, and the Crossing of Hangman's Void. The fate of the 13th Company is a subject of numerous myths, and the Space Wolves themselves will not be drawn as to which holds the true account. In truth, it is probable that an element of veracity exists within each, and that none are wholly inaccurate. There are some sagas which outsiders are never permitted to hear, ones told by the Rune Priests on only the most sacred of occasions. Though some sagas have been set to record by strangers, and the Space Wolves have spoken, some would say bragged, at length regarding certain aspects of their long and glorious history, there are certain passages that mean death should outsiders overhear them.
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