Esau of Anakim

Captain of the 3rd Legion

Two twins were born to a wealthy family during the unification wars, named Jacob and Esau from the Europa house of Anakim. Gifted from a young age, by infancy most of the fighting within Europa was at an end, their land left devastated, there was little for ones of their ambition and potential. Using what currency the family still had the boys were sent to the Emperor’s newly formed military academy, with the aim of joining his elite Thunder Warriors. What little they knew was that soon that order would be culled and it wasn’t them they were destined to join but instead the newly formed Emperor’s Children Astartes Legion.
They grew and excelled within the legion and were noted for their martial pride and perfectionism in all areas. Winning wasn’t the acceptable, being seen as the best in doing so was. This was something both the boys felt very keenly in their souls. They exemplified this throughout the Great Crusade. They never faulted or failed, even when the numbers of their brethren fell into sharp decline through a series of near extinction level disasters. At last they were to meet their Primarch, Fulgrim.
On meeting their Legion father, both were awe struck by his majesty, how he oused elegance and grace, whilst a ruthless and deadly ferocity emanated from him. They both were immediately captivated by him. However just below the surface at that exact moment the first hairline fracture occurred. Jacob fell so much into his devotion to his newly found gene-father, he momentarily forgot about the Emperor. His composure was soon restored and no one noticed, but it was there now, rooted, it would grow. Esau did not forget his Emperor, Fulgrim captivated him in every way, but the Emperor and the Imperium still shone the brightest in his heart. Again, no one saw this, and to all including themselves nothing had happened, but it had and in time it would be their undoing.
Having already been sergeants at the time of Fulgrim’s reunion with the legion, and his determination to grow the legion back up with the veterans leading the recruits, it wasn’t long before they both became captains. Through this their pride began to show more and more through their actions, but they still didn’t fail. Their attention to perfection allowed them to get away with arrogance, something that is normally a commander’s death sentence. The two would go on to befriend another inseparable pair of captains in Saul Tarvitz and Lucius. Though truth be told Lucius grated on Esau and it more his brother who entertained Lucius and stoked his ego. Esau had a great fondness of Saul however, finding him odd within the chapter, like many seemed to, as he had little hubris and whilst dedicated to martial perfection, never strove to parade it.
Events took a dramatic turn in the planetary system known as the Laeran. In so many ways they were just like the Emperor’s Children. Their society strove to achieve perfection at every level and to many observers, it seemed the most obvious route was diplomacy and the race becoming a protectorate of the Imperium. To Fulgrim however they were an affront, only humanity could achieve perfection and he vowed to destroy them utterly, much to surprise of many, including a number of his captains. But whereas Esau inwardly questioned the rationale behind the decision, also knowing the cost to lives it would involve, Jacob shared Fulgrim’s arrogance that they didn’t have the right to perfection, it was humanity’s birth rite alone.
Both captains were deployed to the fighting. The Laer were exceptional warriors and highly efficient in their ways of killing, both Jacob and Esau learned quickly to respect their foes. It took all of their perfectly honed skills to remain alive and pushing the enemy back. During the final attack on the temple, where Fulgrim himself was present and the fighting the most fierce so far, Esau and his company found themselves caught in an ambush and seemingly massacred. Esau himself was gravely wounded. As it seemed his road had met its end at last, he could only think of his brother and hope the grief would not darken his heart, a ironic fore-bearing of what was later to come. At that moment however, relief arrived, it was his brother’s company. Jacob was however meant to be at another part of the palace, he had abandoned his position and compromised the strategy to rescue his brother. He succeeded, but it would later be at great cost to his standing amongst the legion. Esau was evacuated to medical while Jacob pressed on ahead, trying to regain their tactical standing. They arrived too late, as they entered the throne room, only Fulgrim greeted them, stood, admiring an enemy sword, one he would be seen with from then on. That throne room wasn’t natural however, and nobody that entered it, left the same person, everyone of them got their heart’s corrupted in there. Jacob was no exception.
Feelings buried, feelings he didn’t even realise he had began to plague his thoughts in the days following the victory. Thoughts of resentment, shame, anger, all swam around his brain, and little by little they consumed him.
Once back on the Pride of the Emperor, Jacob was heavily sanctioned by Lord Commander Eidolon for his compassionate instead of proficient behaviour on the planet and told how he could not be of the legion if he didn’t understand the sacrifices necessary to achieve perfection. After this treatment, no level of appreciation of his brother could save his darkening mood. Not long after, both brothers were banished back to Chemos, under official orders to help oversee recruitment and garrison the planet, but they both knew what banishment was.
A number of years passed and the brothers spoke less and less to each other. Similarly, less and less word returned home on the actions of the fleet. Rumours spread of rebellion, Horus uncovering and putting down a rebellion led by Magnus the Red. Infighting between legions who sided either traitor or loyalist and it seemed impossible to distinguish who was who, or where the Emperor’s Children sat within all this. Little hard fact seemed ever to present themselves. However amongst the Warrior Lodges, men spoke the most unspeakable of things, heretical things, they spoke that the Emperor himself had betrayed Mankind. Slowly this belief seemed to take more and more hold of the planet and its inhabitants.
Esau wouldn’t believe it, the Imperium was the Emperor, why would it make any sense for him to undo all he had strove to create, it made little to no sense. There was something at work here, something far more manipulative and sinister. Jacob was far more sceptical, Fulgrim had said Horus was the best amongst the brothers, all wise, why would he rise against the Emperor for no reason. The Emperor had already abandoned them once, showed he cared so little, so what did they really mean to him, they’d both been there when the Thunder Warriors were purged having fulfilled their purpose, was this now their fate. Horus would not allow it. Esau would not entertain such thoughts, the Legions are a band of brothers all created by the Emperor, if there was some internal regicide going on, Fulgrim and his children of the Emperor were loyal to the throne.
Then the Angels came. They struck with such righteous fury, Esau struggled to understand where the deep hatred came from. He was loyal, his Emperor’s Children were loyal, the Angels had fallen, the Angels had turned from the Emperor’s light. Yet they screamed traitor with such venom at them! They praised the Emperor, they were killing them as traitors!
Esau found myself unable to fight his brothers, He laid down arms and tried reasoning with them, crying that he was no traitor and he didn’t understand. This led to a squad sergeant telling his squad to hold fire: Under the poised ready guns of his squad Esau attempted to explain what he knew and didn’t know. No one had had anything official off Fulgrim for years, no one really knew what was happening. Except that of course they did. Those running the planet certainly did. They were a garrison of those disillusioned with the legion, Esau guessed they couldn’t trust their loyalties to tell them.
Esau reiterated his and his company as a whole’s loyalty to the Emperor and those fighting the Angels are mostly doing so believing themselves to be fighting traitors. The Dark Angels present found that notion a hard one to accept as they said it is easy to spot a traitor. They did however agree to take Esau as a prisoner to explain himself to their superiors. He could then at least restore some good name to their legion, whatever path Fulgrim had already led it down. At least he would have if a heavy bolter shell didn’t explode the sergeant’s head off his shoulders seconds later and Esau swivelled to see Jacob and his squad, fighting tooth and nail.
Esau jumped on Jacob’s back and knocked him to the ground, screaming at what he was doing. Jacob rambled in a barely intelligible voice that they were traitors, all of them, he’d burn them all. It was at this point Esau died inside, he asked his twin brother who the traitors were, he replied simply with ‘death to the false emperor!’
The following all seemed to happen in slow motion yet be over and life changed in a moment. Jacob scrambled to his feet and without a look back charged on forwards. That was until a bolt shell removed the back of his head. Esau then lowered his pistol and simply sat watching his dying brother unsure whether to turn the pistol on himself next. He was interrupted by his own squad however, who after failing to raise him to his feet dragged him away. From what little Esau could see of the fighting around him, his squad was killing simply to survive, they were killing the ‘loyalists’ to survive. They had subscribed to no dark gods and had fought and died in the Emperor’s name, but they were traitors now, they all were.