| abstract | - Corbulo is the Sanguinary High Priest of the Blood Angels and the keeper of the Chapter initiation mysteries for Neophytes. He is charged with the wardenship of the Red Grail, the artefact in which the blood of Sanguinius was preserved after the Primarch's death. This vessel is a key part of the induction mysteries of the Sanguinary Priests, but it is also a potent relic upon the field of battle, exhorting the Scions of Sanguinius to greater deeds. The physical resemblance borne by Corbulo to the Blood Angels' lost Primarch is uncanny, as his piercing eyes and noble aspect reflect the nature of the Blood Angels at its most pure. In the centuries since his investiture, it is perhaps this perfection that has driven the Sanguinary High Priest to work ceaselessly to isolate and neutralise the Flaw in his Chapter's gene-seed. This sacred quest has taken Corbulo across the width and breadth of the galaxy, traveling to numerous Apothecarions from other Space Marine Chapters, as well as to forgotten backwater worlds in search of forbidden archeotech related to the legendary genetic sciences of the Dark Age of Technology. Corbulo's resemblance to the fallen Primarch is not merely physical. His deep wisdom and canny insights are legendary, and his counsel has proven invaluable time and again. More tellingly, Corbulo shares Sanguinius' gift of the far-seeing eye, and can discern the patterns and shapes of a future yet to come -- a gift of the gene-seed that has manifested only sparingly through the many generations of Blood Angels. Those scant hours not claimed by duty or in search for the Flaw's cure, Corbulo spends poring over the Scrolls of Sanguinius, seeking to combine knowledge from the Primarch's visions with the fleeting insights distilled from his own. Corbulo's travails in this regard have borne fruit many times. That the Blood Angels arrived so swiftly on Armageddon following Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka's initial invasion -- and at full Chapter strength -- was due in part to Corbulo's divinations. Similarly, without Corbulo's guidance, the Blood Angel's Chapter fleet would never have known the hour and location at which M'kar the Reborn's world-breaking Daemon-Cruiser would enter the Baal System, and could thus never have ambushed and obliterated the vessel before Baal itself was laid waste. Yet these successful predictions have not been without cost. In recent years, Corbulo has grown ever more withdrawn and taciturn, and his eyes have taken on a haunted look that he cannot easily conceal. Though the exact detail of what Corbulo has learnt remains a closely-guarded secret, it cannot be doubted that the very blackest of times lie ahead for the Blood Angels -- events so dire that even foreknowledge is of no protection.
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