+ inload: Brother Isathon of the Zelians +
+ Bearing a prototype Godwyn-Daez pattern boltgun and encased in mark IV plate, Isathon was a veteran of numerous campaigns across the Eastern Fringe during the Great Crusade; including the 15th chapters' famed Hypon campaign – as marked by his wreathed skull on yellow field kneepad.
+ A survivor of the dark events of the Horus Heresy, Isathon served with the Zelians during the Great Scouring, and proved a ruthless and unerring enemy for the traitor Legions.+
+ This image shows him during a typical search-and-destroy deployment, his boltgun raised preparedly and his wargear gleaming.
+ His red, white and black personal heraldry marks him as being drawn from Argos, a far-flung world near the edge of Ultramar, which was wracked by warpstorms and isolated for much of the Horus Heresy.
+ The skull-and-crossed bones symbol is a common decoration used on Argos, which came to symbolise the inhabitants' grim determination to ride out the infamous Ruinstorm and hold true to Imperial tenets throughout. Many, many variants became common after the reunification of the Imperium, including skulls marked with rubricisation, and the bones replaced with weapons from spears and lances to stylised boltguns and chainswords.+
+ Following the Siege of Terra, the Imperium extended outwards from the Segmentum Solar and began to reclaim its supply lines from rebel-held positions – which included many entrenched by the Iron Warriors Legion during the Great Crusade. Forcing the rebels out of these firmly-held and vigorously defended planets proved difficult, as the Imperial Army crashed against intractable rebel lines. There were numerous instances where Iron Warriors or other rebel legionaries themselves were present, and these battles nearly always required the presence of loyal Astartes' to match these intractable foes.
+ Once brought back to Compliance – thought the euphemistic phrase was largely abandoned by the furious Imperial forces by this point – these worlds proved the true value of the Departmento Munitorum, as the motivated and resurgent men and women of the Departmentum ensured that plentiful arms, materiel and other vital supplies began flowing from the newly-regained Mars and vassal Forge Worlds to the newly-formed Imperial Guard – and loyal Astartes.
+ Mark IV plate, previously siphoned away by the Warmaster to rebel legions, became more broadly available to loyal forces during the Great Scouring; and this supply base allowed the Imperials to begin to capitalise on their superiority in equipment and numbers. Coupled with the refined Godwyn-Daez boltgun, which had a number of subtle improvements over the myraid marks previously used by the Legions – not least of which was ease of repair and replacement – and the punishing power of newly-developed 'venegeance rounds' designed specifically to penetrate power armour, the loyalists were resurgent.+
+ Isathon's equipment is rounded out by a boltpistol sidearm and grenades, but it is the cleanness of the lines and lack of additional webbing and ephemera that marked out Maximus armour. The pure lines and noble curves made this style of armour a popular propaganda piece for the loyal Astartes as they prepared for their changeover from crusading Legions to watchful Chapters.+
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