Name: Templars of Azul
Symbol: Still working have a few ideas, but they look almost a little like Eldar symbols...
Successor Chapter to the Iron Hands
Chapter Traits: depends on company. For the veteran company, it's Purity Above All, Uphold the Honour of the Emperor, for the battle companies, it's Purity Above All, Scion of Mars. The drawbacks are always Die Standing and Eye to Eye.
Homeworld: None, currently.
Background: Iron Father Azul, a leading techmarine of the Iron Hands, first began calling for a radical shift in the Iron Hands doctrine when he proclaimed that worship of the Emperor should reach above and beyond worship of the Machine Spirit, and other such idealogical thoughts that disturbed and outraged many of the venerable dreadnaughts and higher-ranking techmarines of the Iron Hands Chapter. So, gathering his 200 followers, Azul was declared Chapter Master Azul and founded the Templars of Azul.
The Templars of Azul are much more religious than many similar chapters, and are devout in their worship and praise the Emperor while they engage in battle. Battlegroups are almost always led by Chaplains, due to not only this near-fanaticism but that there were no captains from the Iron Hands that followed Azul when he created his new chapter. Techmarines are almost always attached to battlegroups as well; while the Templars do not have the extensive network of techmarines that the Iron Hands do, the Templars still maintain a higher-than-average count of techmarines in their numbers. Also, quite a few of the more venerable dreadnaughts followed Azul when he split from the chapter, agreeing with his views on the Emperor coming before the Machine God, meaning that there's almost always a venerable dreadnaught accompanying a battlegroup.
Due to their deep religious views, the Templars of Azul have a closer bond with the Inquisition than many chapters can claim to; they tend to go above and beyond the call of duty when an Inquisitor petitions them for aid, and the Templars take careful records of what inquisitors they are indebted to and which inquisitors are indebted to them. They work often for the inquisition, needless to say, and can often be seen on the battlefield accompanied by whichever branch of the inquisition they happen to be working with at the moment.
The 1st company of the chapter is made up of many of Azuls original followers; while the Chaplains still hold command over battlegroups including the 1st company, many times the growing Librarium attaches gifted Codiciers and Epistolaries to the force to act as advisors and to provide more leadership to the battlegroup.
At first, the chapter's battle tactics involved heavy mobility, with many rhinos providing the means to cross the battlefield in moments; however, these operations proved foolhardy, as the relatively fragile rhinos made it impossible to reach the enemy lines. Heavy casualties were taken against traitor guardsmen and marines who laid traps for the oncoming Templars, and the Templars numbers soon began to dwindle as their lack of a homeworld crippled much of their recruitment efforts. In the current time, a heavy base of firepower is created first, followed by the use of elite terminator squads to shock and crush the enemy lines with surgical strikes.
Due to the heavy casualties and low recruitment rates, multiple apothecaries are attached to battlegroups all the time, to help preserve as much of the chapter's geneseed as possible until a proper homeworld can be found for the chapter. This has also led to almost an obsession with keeping the chapter mutation free, which draws the admiration of the Inquisition, a trait which helps keep the Templars out of much of the politics other chapters find themselves drawn into whenever they deal with the Inquisition. The obsession with keeping free of mutations, however, doesn't keep them from restricting the Librarium at all; in fact, Azul believes psykers that are dedicated to the Emperor like his librarians are the next step up for the human population in evolution; he usually keeps those views secret, though, to avoid conflict with more puritan inquisitors.