Vulkan

"Ours is a violent calling, but as adherents of the Promethean Creed we believe in the Circle of Fire. None can come back as they once were, but in death we are returned to the ash from whence we came to be born anew, our blood and bone bonded with the earth. Through fire are our remains made protean, through fire and the reunion with earth do we experience rebirth. After death, after our duty is ended, we give ourselves to these elements and in so doing become a part of them. This is the nature of the Circle of Fire." - Vulkan

Biography[]

Vulkan was one of the 20 superhuman primarchs and a Perpetual created by the Emperor of Mankind from altered versions of His own DNA to lead his Great Crusade and reunite the scattered peoples of Humanity within the Imperium of Man.

The XVIII^th Legion, created from Vulkan's genome and originally known as the Dragon Warriors, was re-named the Salamanders after the great fire-resistant reptiles native to his volcanic homeworld of Nocturne in memory of the legendary contest between the Emperor and Vulkan that had involved slaying one of those dangerous beasts. The outcome of this contest had revealed the Emperor's identity to Vulkan and restored the Primarch to the Imperium.

Like his genetic father, Vulkan was a Perpetual, a rare Human mutant with the ability to be resurrected from death over and over no matter how much damage his body suffered. Vulkan was able to regenerate fully from any injury, including a death that resulted in his complete disintegration. This ability was unknown to him until the Horus Heresy and his near-death at the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V.

During the Great Crusade Vulkan gained a reputation among its participants for his unusual empathy for a primarch towards average Humans as well as his extraordinary ability to craft unique and powerful items of advanced technology.

Approximately a thousand standard years after the Horus Heresy, Vulkan hid 9 sacred artifacts he had created around the galaxy for the Salamanders to find, intended as a test to see if they were worthy of his leadership.

He then disappeared, leaving his genetic sons with the message that whenever the Forgefather of the Salamanders had found all nine items, Vulkan would return to lead his Chapter to victory over the enemies of the Imperium in its final days of greatest need, according to the signs foreseen in the Chapter's book of prophecy, the Tome of Fire.