See the Emperor's sons standing tall
All for one and one for all
Enemies fall at their feet
Begging for their mercy
See the Emperor's sons standing tall
Conquer lands and slaughter all
Enemies fall at their feet
Victory and great defeat

Backstory: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6766606/

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Oooooooh yeaaaah! Finally I managed to do something that I feel actually happy about!
This picture took around... one and a half week to complete, though it was more about doing it around 2-3 hours per day. Funny that I got to doing it with this pace, since originally this picture started nearly a month earlier. It started off with simple posing and sketching out ideas, then kinda... died. I left it to rot in my files, only touching upon it to tweak it a little, then scratch the tweaking and kinda feel unhappy about it. Originally this picture had a chaplain replacing the company champion, a dreadnought in the background and the fore front looking at the viewer with a pistol + chainsword in hand. It also didn't have an apothecary, nor an captain. I moved the glaring space marines gaze off from the viewer because I thought it distracted the flow of action and broke the fourth wall, then added the additional characters to better illustrate an established unit in the canon. Does this make me a better artist for considering these?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this picture since I really did try over a dozen new things and am generally happy with how they all turned out! Oh, just mind you, the clouds behind are debris from artillery strikes. Just pointing this out if they just look like strange mushrooms. >.-.>;

Picture contains:

Top left corner: Company Apothecary
Lower left corner: Company Veteran
Middle top: Company Standard Bearer, holding aloft the 3rd company standard
Middle: Company Captain Arathu
Middle bottom: Company Veteran Sergeant
Far right: Company Champion

All veterans are awarded along with the crux terminatus an half cloak that is traditionally attached to the right pauldron. As the veterans are usually deployed where the enemy concentration is most fierce, these cloaks, or also known as "Scars of Honor", get worn and torn in the middle of it. As every Dragon Lord enters battle with fully polished armor if given the chance, these cloaks aren't replaced so that everyone can see what hell the warriors wearing them have gone through. If a veteran falls, their body will be burned along with his cloak, so that they have rightful proof to show to the Emperor of the sacrifice they have made in His name.

Ahead facing the lead
And army of Astartes performing Emperor's deeds
Showing no fear their judgement is near
Making their sacrifice
When then Lord and his men
Their enemies sight prepare for the fight
Banners held high ready to die
Hear how they praise His name.

Inspirational Music:

"Killing Ground" by Sabaton (MAJOR driving force!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUgCOFg9zeU

"Screaming Eagles" by Sabaton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFO0Xo9TZ54

Dragon Lords ©:  sylvio
Space Marines & Warhammer 40.000 © : Games Workshop