Blood Angels Sanguinary Priest

Blood Angels Sanguinary Priest

A Sanguinary Priest is a special officer of the Blood Angels Space Marines Chapter and its successors. The Sanguinary Priest performs the duties of an Apothecary in a Codex Astartes-compliant chapter, as well as other services inherent in the Primarch Sanguinius' genetic heritage. While the pharmacists of other orders monitor their charges for genetic purity and provide all necessary biomedical services, the duties of the Sanguinary Priests go beyond these mundane medical needs.

Some descendants of Sanguinius are driven by a terrifying, death-seeking madness called the Black Rage, triggered by visions of their primarch's death as he dies in the last days of Horus' terrible heresy. Others are afflicted by the terrifying Red Thirst, a craving for blood that some say may be the first signs of Chaos' corruption. The Blood Priests tend to favor Astartes affected by these genetic curses. They are also responsible for accepting all aspirants into the chapter as neophytes and overseeing their implantation with the gene seed and Astartes organs.

Sanguinary Priests are both medics and mystics, for they are called to counsel, preach and preach to the Battle-Brothers of their order as to the fault, how it may be overcome or, if necessary, harnessed. While it is the job of the Blood Angels chaplains to watch out for the outbreak of the Black Rage, it is the duty of the Sanguinary Priests to guide the brothers through the worst excesses of the Red Thirst while remaining noble and pure. The Sanguinary Priests call on the Blood Angels to embrace the Red Thirst and wrest it from their control; unleashes his power to bolster hers when the day is at its darkest and the battle turns bad.

For those Astartes who are wounded in battle and can be saved from the clutches of death, the Sanguinary Priest will do his utmost to save the life of his battle brother. The injured Battle-Brother will be restored to full Battle Health so the Gene Seed within will survive and the Order will endure. But for Space Marines mortally wounded in combat and unable to recover, the Sanguinary Priest can do little but quiet the spirit in preparation for oblivion, sometimes easing his charge's agony with a single shot . Once death has come, the Sanguinary Priest performs a final act on behalf of his fallen comrade, extracting the progenoid glands - the reservoirs of gene seeds - from the corpse. This is by far the most difficult part of a Blood Priest's duties, for the Red Thirst cares little about the nature of blood—only that it is warm and flowing. Thus, each Geneseed Extraction performed by a Blood Priest becomes not only a ritual necessary for the continuation of the chapter, but also a test of the Blood Priest's mind and spirit himself.

Each blood priest's veins have the blood of Sanguinius flowing in them so that they can continue to bleed the order's aspirants - the process by which the gene seed is activated using a blood sample of Sanguinius taken from a blood priest's body and drunk from the Artifact known as the Red Grail. As befits a legacy so powerful and blessed, there are few Sanguinary Priests who do not in some way share even the tiniest fraction of their Primarch's legendary grace. The presence of a blood priest is encouraging to all descended from the blessed Sanguinius, and few Astartes can deny the presence of a primarch's blood. However, for the Blood Angels, the Sanguinary Priests are so important that allowing one to fall in battle and be abandoned does not bode well. If a Sanguinary Priest is killed and his body and gear are not recovered, the shame of such an act belittles the honor of the Order as a whole.

This 11 part plastic kit makes one Blood Angels Sanguinary Priest armed with a double-edged chainsword. He holds aloft a chalice of blood and is equipped with a narthecium, the instrument used by all Space Marine apothecaries. It also includes a scenic 32mm round base.