Adeptus Astartes Historium

The Adeptus Astartes Historium is an organization of the Adeptus Terra whose purpose is to record and catalogue the history of the different chapters of the Adeptus Astartes. Their agents travel from chapter to chapter, collecting information, which is then sent to their headquarters on Holy Terra.

History
The Adeptus Astartes Historium was founded in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy, to replace the Imperial Remembrancer Order in the assignment of recording the history of the space marines both to remember their history and to keep an eye on for shifts in behavior that could warn the Imperium about a chapter on the verge of going rogue. Upon their establishment, the High Lords of Terra decreed that this adeptus was allowed access to any history that a chapter had recorded.

For the next 10,000 years, the Historium would go on to collect and save all history of the space marines. Their duty would sometimes be forgotten for decades before suddenly showing up to share knowledge at foundings. They would sometimes appear and warn about possible chapters going rogue. This helped them grow to a powerful adeptus, and with more power, they were able to more easily predict chapters going rogue. Sometimes, chapters proved able to move under the radar, however this would do little against them. Until the Badab War.

Several chapters gone rogue and an entire civil war, with the adeptus failing to warn the High Lords. This was a devastating blow to the Historium. They were forced to give up many outposts and stations, in addition to a massive decline in historians. They would begin to lose much power over the centuries, which would only worsen their abilities. However, with the return of Guilliman, the rise of the primaris marines and the Indomitus Crusade, the Historium have been able to record almost every single piece of information regarding the primaris marines and aim to reclaim their lost power.

Over recent years they have been forced to surrender almost all information they keep to the Logos Historica Verita, under orders from the Lord Commander of the Imperium, Roboute Guilliman.

Organization
The members of the Adeptus Astartes Historium are divided in two different work formats. The Historians are those who work in the segmentum command centers and the Athenaeum, located on Holy Terra. Their job is to work through and file all the information that they receive. They are also in charge of making sure those who would need to learn about the history of the Astartes has access to the information. They present to the High Lords, information about different chapters before foundings. They work to maintain the vast libraries their entire life, from the time of their initiation to their death, never seeing anything besides the vast corridors.

The Proxies are the field agents of the Historium, those who go between the chapters and collect their history. They travel either alone or in small groups, as they know they carry valuable knowledge that cannot be lost. They are also heavily armed, with specialized carapace armor, bolt and plasma weaponry, and chain weapons, as to combat those who would steal their knowledge. They usually travel from chapter to chapter, however they may sometimes be diverted, if a chapters latest collected history is decades old. Proxies might also find themselves given guard duty over a Library or the Athenaeum, to make sure no knowledge is stolen.

The Historiums leader is the Grand Annalist. The Grand Annalist works in the Athenaeum, where he is directly responsible with directing the organization and keeping the High Lords and the Inquisition aware of the doings of different chapters. Directly under him is the 500 Annalists. Their job is to go through the information that may deviate from the normal doings of a chapter. If they find something suspicious, they will forward it to the Grand Annalist who will decide whether it should be brought to the attention of the High Lords and the Inquisition or be filed back into their vast libraries.

Also under the Grand Annalist is the Arch Librarian. His job is to direct the five librarians and the historians of the Athenaeum, in their daily work. Under him is the five librarians who hold control of one of the five Command Centers located at segmentum command, for each of the segmentums. They are in command of the Historium's doings in their respective segmentum and making sure that all knowledge is send back to the Athenaeum.

From here the ranks becomes blurry as the need for a sector outposts, change with how many chapters there are and how much work force they have. Over the last 10,000 years, the doings of the local sector divisions has been left mostly to the decisions of the Sector Chronicler who commands the actions of the Historium in a sector.

The Athenaeum is a vast library in the outer regions of the Imperial Palace. It contains the history of the space marines in the last 10,000 years starting from the aftermath of the Horus Heresy to present day. It’s filled with books, cogitators, audio recordings and other means of saving history. Thousands of proxies enter and leave every day to deliver knowledge and set out once more, agents of various chapters or organizations who comes to request specific details of something, and finally those who look through the library, trying to find evidence of heresy among the space marines. Of course, at least one Proxy will constantly stalk any who enter, in the event the visitor proves themselves a thief.

Relations
The relationship between a chapter and the Historium largely depends on the doings of a chapter. Chapters like the Ultramarines who follow their primarch’s commands and willingly cooperates with the Historium holds great favor with them and will have an easier time getting help to remember something forgotten. Then there is chapters like the Dark Angels, who give away very little, or if they can get away with it, just refuses. As expected these chapter will always be on their own when guarding their history and should they lose it, it may be gone forever.

Then there are those the Historium is required to work with, namely the Logos Historica Verita or if one such person does show up, the Inquisition. The Historium cooperates as is their duty, although not always gladly. Many within the Historium asks why they should share the knowledge they have accumulated, though of course these people are usually executed on the charge of treason.

Finally, there is the Imperial Navy. As the Historium possesses nothing more than small shuttles, they are forced to work closely with the Navy in order to move their agents through the Imperium.