Nova Bears

The Nova Bears are the 13th amongst the 20 legiones astartes and fought for The Emperor during his Great Crusade and the Great Heresy. They were commanded by the Primarch Cianan Usperian and gained a reputation as hardy warriors capable of fighting in incredibly harsh conditions, often acting as shock troops and vanguard forces. Following the events of The Red Feast and Edict of Nikea, the 13th were exiled to the edge of the galaxy on a crusade of atonement but returned to assist in The Shadow Crusade and Siege of Terra.

In the wake of the Heresy, the 13th legion was accepted back into the fold as a loyalist legion and adhered to the guidelines of the Codex Astartes, dividing their remaining numbers into Chapters and continuing their service to The Imperium.

Homeworld
The Nova Bears Hail from Baile, a Death world on the far edge of the ultima segmentum. A world which, due to the unique nature of its positioning, is stuck in a cycle where one side of the planet is constantly experiencing summer and the other winter, as the planet rotates, the winter is constantly sweeping across the world and forcing the natives to either build hardy settlements to resist it, or be constantly migrating in an effort to stay ahead of it. While the legion is open to the Nomads leading their lives, it does come with a price, a Tithe of Kin. every 5 years, the Nomads must find a settlement and offer their children as initiates, the families are compensated with food and supplies for the tribe. a minimum of 13 children are taken from each tribe, and raised in the legion, their unique genetic differences from the off world settlers makes them Ideal initiates, more so than the Settlers.

Origins
The 13th legion were part of the 3rd wave of astartes deployed during the unification wars, the legion was famed for their adoption of brutal strikes and endurance in heavy combat. When diplomacy and patience ran out for the nation of Boeotia towards the end of the wars, the 13th were sent to bring them to heel. When the legion was assaulting the capital city of Hydera, they were forced to traverse the city's formidable defences, withstanding miles of minefields and artillery fire. The 13th emerged on the far side of the defences bloodied but refusing to give up. The legion stormed Hydera and broke the wills of the defenders by doing so. Following the battle, the legion proudly adopted the title of 'Stormforged' and revelled in the knowledge that of their sibling legions, they could take the most punishment and yet remain standing. '' "How could we have beaten them? We poured a storm of death onto them and they just walked through it! What good would our rifles do?" ''

- Attributed to the Hyderan guard commander Ansila Teja

Crusade
During the crusade, the legion gained a reputation for their brutality and hunger for battle. While they were not the crazed berserkers of the Gorewalkers, they existed only for war. With each conflict they were present only for the combat and rarely remained for long following it's conclusion. Uncaring of the losses they suffered, the legion began placing great emphasis on the survival of the fittest, their command structure became one dominated by those who were the physically strongest and the legion rejected any attempts at strategy, preferring to face their enemy in open combat. This method of combat cost the legion dearly, and it is theorised that by the time of the primarch's coming, the Stormforged stood at only 27,000 strong.

When the Primarch Cianan Usperian was united with his legion, at first he did nothing but watch and learn how it was his sons made war. He was distraught to see how the humans the crusade was fighting to unite were left at the wayside while the legion pushed for the next battle. For 7 years, Cianan watched his sons before he took control of his legion and began their reformation. The command structure was broken down into what would become the Clans, those that believed in rank being earned by power were formed into Clan Cumhail, leaving them to continue their path while the primarch led the remainder of the legion. The Legion was reborn as the Nova bears and their morals realigned, making them protectors of man rather than a crude hammer.

The Nova Bears forged strong bonds with several of the astartes legions during the crusade. In Particular, the Emperor's Fangs and Frostwalkers were close allies. The 13th and 16th legion fought alongside one another on many occasions, with the warriors of the Nova Bears serving as the inspiration for the Frostwalker's Kolostriders. However, while the crusade continued, Clan Cumhail's anger at their demotion slowly began to fester and grow. Stoked by the incitement of Loz Sathrax of the 5th legion, the clan launched a part coup, part assassination attempt on their own primarch which culminated in The Red Feast. The clan was eventually repelled without achieving their objectives and was hunted to extinction by the warriors of the 11th legion following this event.

In the wake of the Red Feast, the legion was called to Nikea to face judgement for allowing a force of astartes to take up arms against the Imperium, the resulting judgement ruled that the 13th was to crusade for a century to the galactic west, far beyond the galactic edge. The legion and the primarch accepted the punishment without resistance and immediately departed for their new task, cleansing their armour of its blue markings and donning red as a sign of the blood on their hands. The legion began practicing the Riestrad as a serious method of punishment and due to their exile, were not present for the Hive Wars.

Riestrad
Born as an act of punishment following the Edict of Nikea, the Riestrad was a technique originally conceived by The Morrigan as a way to castigate those within the legion placed under heavy censure. Using the Morrigan's psychic abilities and later the skilled of the legion's librarius, censured astartes were subjected to intense biomancies, transforming the warrior into great furred beasts, that act with limited intelligence but possess immense physical strength and resilience. The legion used these "Ursfolk" as shock troops and clad them in mighty battle plate, sending them to their deaths in the hope they would cause as much damage as possible to the enemy. While the act of performing Riestrad was ended by the resolution of the Shadow Crusade, the curse of the Riestrad came back to haunt the legion in the millennia following the Heresy. Spotting no corruption in the Ursfolk's geneseed and short on new recruits, the gene stock of the fallen were used in fresh recruits, by the time of M32, the Nova bears and each of their successor chapters began to suffer the effects of the Riestrad without the ritual act. Dozens of astartes across the 13th's chapters began mutating into ursfolk and none knew how far the corruption had spread.