Remus Ventanus
- – Mehmet Emin Resulzade
- – Captain Remus Ventanus during the Purgation of Colchis
Remus Ventanus, also known as the Saviour of Calth, was captain of the Fourth Company, First Chapter of the Ultramarines Legion during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. Though he was already a respected veteran of the Legion, he truly came into his own during the Battle of Calth.
Great Crusade[edit]
Ventanus served loyally and well during the Great Crusade. He ultimately rose to the prestigious command of the Fourth Company, First Chapter, making him one of the most senior captains in the XIII Legion. Chapter Master Marius Gage personally honoured his ascension to the rank by presenting him with a master-crafted power sword known as Phaeton. During a war with the Eldar Craftworld of Jielthwa shortly before the Horus Heresy, Ventanus came to the aid of his friend and fellow captain Lyros Sydance, who was engaged in a desperate battle with thirteen Eldar warriors. Sydance slew twelve of the xenos himself, but did not notice the thirteenth; Ventanus charged in firing and killed the last Eldar with a lucky shot. Sydance was honoured for his feat of arms, but he and Ventanus would later make an inside joke of the incident. As Ventanus put it, the thirteenth Eldar might well have killed Sydance but for Ventanus' intervention, so which was more important: Sydance's twelve kills, or his one?
Horus Heresy[edit]
Captain Ventanus was present during the muster on Calth, believing that his legion and the Word Bearers were about to go kill Orks together and make up after what had happened at Monarchia. He was put in charge of overseeing the Erud regional muster, which he suspected was Guilliman's way of teaching him to do something other than kill shit, since the primarch believed that his Astartes had to have some kind of retirement plan once the Crusade was over. He was discussing a labor shortfall with some of the local officials of Numinus City when the Word Bearers launched the fleet tender Campanile through the planet's largest orbital dockyard and began massacring the unsuspecting Ultramarines on the planet and in orbit. He and his sergeant, Kiuz Selaton, narrowly avoided being killed by some marauding Word Bearers and set about trying to sort out what was going on. Along the way he found a legion standard in the hands of a dead Ultramarine, its shaft twisted by the Marine's death spasms, and took it along with him, using it as an improvised weapon.
He and Selaton were almost cut off and killed inside Numinus, but were saved by skitarii forces under the command of Magos Meer Edv Tawren and Master Arook Serotid. They were able to reestablish contact with Captain Sydance out at the Erud muster and reunite with him and what remained of the Fourth Company at the Leptius Numinus palace, which had a cogitator unaffected by the Chaos scrapcode the Word Bearers had infiltrated into the Calth noosphere. They made contact with more skitarii, Ultramarines, and Imperial Army elements along the way, assembling a sizable force under Ventanus' command. The Word Bearers eventually assaulted the palace, but were defeated. Their commander, Morpal Cxir, provoked another Ultramarine captain into killing him after he'd surrendered, which allowed Samus to manifest and start wrecking shit. Ventanus banished the daemon with Cxir's athame, after which Magos Tawren then informed him that she had discovered a killcode formulated by her predecessor that would allow them to purge the scrapcode and retake control of Calth's defenses.
Ventanus left a token force to hold Leptius Numinus as long as possible and took the rest of his troops to a spaceport near the city of Lanshear that possessed a data-engine of sufficient strength to run the Calth defense grid. They were nearly wiped out by superior Word Bearer forces under Hol Beloth, until Ultramarine, Army, and Titan reinforcements arrived, vectored there by the junior magos who'd remained behind at Leptius. They held back the Word Bearers long enough for Tawren to deploy the killcode and clear the noosphere and for a kill team led by Roboute Guilliman to knock out the data-engine the Word Bearers were using to control the grid. With Calth now being battered by lethal levels of radiation from its poisoned star, Ventanus led an exodus into the planet's underground arcologies, swearing to purge every single Word Bearer still on the planet. During the ensuing Underworld War, Ventanus served as one of the senior commanders of the loyalist forces, operating out of the newly renamed Arcology X. In gratitude for his leadership and skill, the civilian survivors began calling him the "Saviour of Calth". Though he disliked the title, he accepted its use after Captain Sydance pointed out that viewing him in this light was a critical morale booster for the refugees. Ventanus led multiple surface assaults against the Word Bearers, wiping out several major groups, and narrowly averted Dark Apostle Maloq Kartho's attempt to destroy Arcology X with a virus bomb, also killing the XVII Legion Captain Hol Beloth in the process. He managed to mortally injure Kartho with an athame known as the Shard of Erebus; however, Kartho was able to ascend to daemonhood, becoming the daemon prince M'kar (though it probably would have been less embarrassing for him if he had just died then and there instead).
Ventanus was retrieved from Calth some time later and became a senior advisor to Guilliman, helping him refine the treatise that would ultimately become the Codex Astartes. He discovered a flaw in one of Guilliman's tactical plans and pointed it out, whereupon the primarch told him that the Codex was meant to be a set of guidelines for Space Marines, not a dogmatic holy book to be followed without question. This lesson was lost on some people.
The Scouring[edit]
Ventanus survived the Heresy and continued to serve the Legion. During the Great Scouring, Ventanus led the Ultramarines to the Word Bearers' homeworld of Colchis and Exterminatus'd the shit out of the place in revenge for what they'd done to Calth twenty-five years previously. After his death, which occurred under unknown circumstances, he was laid to rest on Calth in a grand tomb said to have been designed by Guilliman himself, along with the Shard of Erebus he'd used to defeat Kartho. As the millennia passed, the location of his tomb was lost, and Ventanus' name faded into myth and legend.
41st Millennium[edit]
In the waning years of the 41st Millennium, a young Uriel Ventris rediscovered Ventanus' resting place while exploring the caverns of his homeworld. He kept the knowledge to himself, feeling that to boast of it would lessen the accomplishment. Decades later, when Honsou and his Bloodborn invaded Ultramar, M'kar ordered Honsou to find and destroy Ventanus' tomb and the Shard of Erebus, as he knew that the athame could be used to inflict True Death on him. Honsou had created a warp-twisted clone of Ventris who retained all of the original's knowledge, which he used to track down the tomb's location. There, he and his troops were confronted by Ventris, several squads from the Ultramarines' Fourth Company, and a few Raven Guard who happened to be there. Honsou and his boys gained the upper hand at first, only for Ventanus' spirit to appear at the head of the Legion of the Damned and start kicking ass. The ancient warrior's armour was blackening to match that of the spectral Astartes he led, but the symbols of the XIII Legion were still visible on his battleplate, along with his green cloak of office. After the Bloodborn had been driven off, Ventanus presented Ventris with the Shard of Erebus and M'kar's true name, giving his successor the means to kill the daemon prince permanently. With this task done, his spirit was finally at rest after ten thousand years.
Tabletop[edit]
Horus Heresy 1.0[edit]
| Pts | WS | BS | S | T | W | I | A | Ld | Sv | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Remus Ventanus | 155 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 3+ |
Ventanus is basically a souped-up Centurion with power armor (not artificer armor for some reason), bolter, power sword, an iron halo, a nuncio-vox, grenades, melta bombs, and the legion standard he used to smack Word Bearers on Calth. He has Master of the Legion, Adamantium Will, and Cunning Strategist: as long as Ventanus is alive, the opponent gets -1 to all reserve rolls and his player can reroll all their reserve rolls. Also, those bonuses stack, so if you were to put an LR Proteus and a Damocles Rhino on the table with him, your opponent will only be bringing in reserves on a 6 while you can tweak or reroll your reserve rolls as you please. His standard grants Fearless to his attached squad and any other Ultramarines within 6". If taken as the warlord, he has a fixed trait that gives him and all Ultramarines units in the army Stubborn if they're within 3" of an objective. Since he has Master of the Legion, he can also take a command or Invictarus squad, putting another standard on the table, and because he doesn't have to join them they can spread out and give you two 6" Fearless bubbles. Basically, you're not taking Ventanus because he's a combat monster like Sevatar or Sigismund, you're taking him because he's an awesome support HQ who can dick with your opponent, ensure accurate deep strikes and barrages, and bolster your army. He's surprisingly cheap for a character that has all this stuff (only 155 points!) so he makes a good option for a budget HQ even if you don't take him as your warlord.
Horus Heresy 2.0[edit]
Remus has seen some changes this edition. His Warlord Trait has been changed so that he now lets all units auto-pass morale and Ld tests when they're within 3" of objectives and grants a free reaction in each movement phase. He lost Cunning Strategist, though, so no more reserve-reroll dickery. He still has his melta bombs, nuncio-vox, iron halo, and Legion standard, and he finally got artificer armor and a master-crafted power sword with Rending. All in all, Remus has been made a little tougher and more Smurf-y and a little less sneaky, and he remains a solid support HQ.
