The Company of Misery is a Chaos Space Marine warband that started life as a loyalist unit called the Desolate Brotherhood. Ground down by endless suicide postings and failing gene-seed, they turned to Chaos and have been a sworn enemy of the Imperium ever since.
Origins and fall to Chaos
The Desolate Brotherhood were a Space Marine force whose gene-seed stocks began to degrade in M32. With their recruits and implants failing, the Imperium shuffled them into the worst jobs it had: garrisoning Death Worlds, boarding space hulks, and watching over quarantined planets.
Every time the Brotherhood thought they’d earned a break, they got handed something worse. That grind broke them. They finally turned to Chaos in the acidic swamps that gave them their new name, and they’ve been fighting the Imperium ever since.
Imperial records list the warband under more than one name. Codex sources call their original incarnation the Desolate Brotherhood, while a 4th Edition cross-reference also gives Brethren of Mysery, which looks like another label for the same group.
What they look like
Their armour is red with black trim, and most depictions add black flame patterns across the plates. One 8th Edition Codex illustration drops the flames and shows a plainer red-and-black scheme, so don’t treat the flame motif as fixed.
Notable actions
The warband first shows up in Imperial records on Maddean IV in M37. After that they kept busy across M41, hitting targets that hurt the Imperium’s memory and its psykers rather than its armies.
Their raid on the Archive World Mnemosyne aimed at destroying the records stored there, and it ended in a clash with the Legion of the Damned. Elsewhere, they joined the Dreadblade Knight known as Hatred of Krastellan to attack the Dysephamine System, enslaving the people of Dyseph IX and wiping out every psyker on the planet.
- 013.M41: The Death of the Witching Moon.
- M41: The Dysephamine Campaign, alongside the Dreadblade Knight Hatred of Krastellan. Dyseph IX’s population was enslaved and its psykers annihilated.
- M41: Raid on the Archive World Mnemosyne to destroy its records, ending in a fight with the Legion of the Damned.
Known members
Records only name a couple of individuals from the warband, but both are tied to its most famous operations.
| Name | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Akror | Captain | Killed in action on Mnemosyne |
| Engvarr | Battle-brother | Called the Destroyer of Dreams, first blade of the Misericordians |
Key facts
- The Company of Misery is a renegade Chaos Space Marine warband, formerly the loyalist Desolate Brotherhood.
- Its gene-seed stocks degraded in M32, after which it was assigned to Death Worlds, space hulks, and quarantined worlds.
- It first appears in Imperial records on Maddean IV in M37.
- Its armour is red with black trim and black flame patterns, though one source omits the flames.
- Known members include Captain Akror (killed on Mnemosyne) and Battle-brother Engvarr, the Destroyer of Dreams.
FAQ
What was the Company of Misery called before it turned to Chaos?
It was the Desolate Brotherhood. After its gene-seed degraded in M32 and it was stuck with one suicide posting after another, it fell to Chaos and took the name Company of Misery.
Who leads the Company of Misery?
Sources only name Captain Akror, who was killed on Mnemosyne. No overall leader is recorded.
What colour scheme does the Company of Misery use?
Red armour with black trim and black flame patterns. One 8th Edition illustration shows red and black without the flames.