Warhammer 40K Space Wolves: what is the lost 13th Great Company?

The Space Wolves of Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 are space Vikings with power armor, huge weapons and a whole lot of attitude. What surprised me is how much they remind me of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Their chapter is divided into groups called Great Companies, and once you look at them one by one, it's striking how different they all are.

Think of each Great Company as a legendary war band or a knightly household. Each has its own history, its own personality and its own leader, called a Wolf Lord. These Wolf Lords are like warrior kings, each leading his own pack into battle. There are twelve active Great Companies. Technically there's a thirteenth, but nobody talks about it much, because it vanished under some very mysterious circumstances. I'll get to that one at the end, because it's a good one. Along the way, some companies are noble and heroic, some are wild and feral, some want to smash everything with a giant axe, and some will surprise you.

Logan Grimnar and the Champions of Fenris: The Great Wolf's Own Company

First up is Logan Grimnar, the Great Wolf himself. He isn't just a leader, he's the leader. My best description is Captain America meets Odin meets your granddad, if your granddad were also a galactic warlord. Or imagine Father Christmas skipped Christmas and went straight to war: still the beard, still the fur, but instead of gifts he brings an axe and a pack of elite warriors who worship the ground he walks on. His lore is deep enough to need a whole piece of its own.

Logan has been the Great Wolf, effectively the chapter master of the Space Wolves, for 500 years. That's five centuries of pure, unfiltered Viking dad energy. He's one of the oldest and most respected leaders in the entire Imperium of Man. He's a legendary warrior with unmatched pride in battle, and rumor has it his taste for combat rivals that of Leman Russ, the Space Wolves' Primarch and mythic founder, who I'd call Warhammer's answer to Thor, Aragorn and a bar fight rolled into one.

Logan doesn't take nonsense from anyone: not other chapters, not the Imperium's paperwork people in the Administratum, and definitely not the space church. The Space Wolves have butted heads with the Imperium's bureaucrats so many times that they've been accused of heresy and treason more than once. His personal Great Company, the Champions of Fenris, are fiercely loyal. They're proud and competitive, constantly trying to outdo each other to earn Logan's favor.

Logan's philosophy is simple: a battle can be won by a few heroes in the right place at the right time. He sends in a handful of legends to flip the table while everyone else is still reading the rule book. To make that work, he has plenty of Wolf Guard, elite bodyguards crossed with medieval champions and a dash of wrestling showmanship. They show up mid battle and make the enemy want to leave. If you love main character energy, dramatic duels and a bit of Norse mythology mixed into your Warhammer mayhem, this is the company to keep your eye on.

Bran Redmaw's Company: Moon Hunters and the Curse of the Wulfen

If the Champions of Fenris are Logan Grimnar's shining lights of heroism, Bran Redmaw's company is what happens when you give those knights claws, moon madness and a taste for horror movie entrances. Bran, their Wolf Lord, is mysterious and intense, and he loves hunting under a full moon. That's the most werewolf thing I think I've heard of in 40K, and this is a setting with literal wolf robots and lasers. Their company symbol is a bloodied hunter, which sounds like something out of a campfire story, and it fits.

Bran and his warriors don't just fight. They stalk, they ambush, and they tear their enemies apart. People whisper that the Curse of the Wulfen runs strong in this company. The curse is a genetic flaw in some Space Wolves that causes them to slowly lose control and become more wolflike: claws, fangs, glowing eyes, howling at moons. And yes, Bran Redmaw himself may or may not be halfway through that transformation. It's all kept very hush hush.

They may sound like they just run at people and tear them limb from limb, and yes, they do that, but they're also very cunning. They fight like berserkers up front, and when the enemy tries to retreat, there are Grey Hunters waiting in ambush behind enemy lines, like a grimdark Scooby Doo trap. To me they feel like a cross between Wolverine, a Legolas raised by wolves, and the entire cast of The Northman. They're not subtle and they're not polished, but they're incredibly effective and slightly terrifying, and they leave a battlefield that looks like a horror movie crime scene.

Engir Krakendoom and the Seawolves: Kraken Hunters of South Fenris

With a name like Engir Krakendoom, you already know he wrestles sea monsters before breakfast. His company, the Seawolves, is made up of warriors from the kraken hunting islanders of South Fenris, which is probably the most metal backstory you can get in Warhammer. These are the kind of warriors who look at a tentacle the size of a Dreadnought and decide they're up for a fight. Think the Iron Islands from Game of Thrones, but way more brutal.

These warriors are dark skinned, shaped by generations of storm battered island life, killer sea beasts and probably the world's most dangerous fishing trips. They don't do small talk, only big axes and bigger impacts. When the Seawolves go to war, they come crashing in aboard armored transports and flying assault ships, with Swiftclaw Outriders, which are Space Marines on huge bikes with guns. If the enemy thinks it's safe behind a ridge, the Seawolves also have jet powered longboats blasting in from the sky like Odin's own air force.

They even decorate their craft with shields, which gives the company a wild storm raider look. There's a raw seafaring nobility to them. They aren't the howling berserkers of Redmaw's crew or the glory seekers of Grimnar's court, but storm hardened island warriors raised on waves, steel and stubbornness. Under Krakendoom they fight like the ocean itself: relentless, dark, and impossible to stop once they get going. Krakendoom has the personality of Poseidon on a bad day, and if you like storm mythology, biker squads and high speed violence from above, the Seawolves are your jam.

Erik Morkai and the Sons of Morkai: The Space Wolves' Black Ops

The Sons of Morkai are named after Morkai, the Fenrisian god of death and guardianship, something like the grim reaper with a big axe and wolf ears. This is a serious squad. Their leader, Erik Morkai, is described as grim and stern of aspect, which I take as Warhammer code for scowling so hard he probably cracks his helmet. He doesn't do speeches or grand gestures. He gives you a look, and suddenly you're triple checking your gear and writing a will.

Erik's Great Company is known for being packed with Wolf Scouts, veterans who know how to move through a war zone without making a sound. They blend into the shadows and strike with surgical precision. These aren't wild berserkers or bike riding storm pirates. They're covert ops, the black ops team of Fenris, and if you do see them coming, it's probably too late. They follow Erik less for his skill in battle than for his no nonsense, laser focused approach: no howling, no chest thumping, just cold efficiency and quiet brotherhood.

If Grimnar's crew are the glory boys and Redmaw's are the feral nightmares, the Sons of Morkai are warrior monks in camo cloaks, ghosting across battlefields and judging everyone who makes too much noise. Erik is the Space Wolf equivalent of a grim, bearded Batman. If you play stealth builds in every game and watch The Mandalorian for the brooding moments, these are your warriors. They won't make a scene, but they will make a war zone.

Gunnar Red Moon and the Red Moons: Heavy Guns and Folklore Horror

The Red Moons take their name from the wolf of the red moon, a terrifying creature from Fenrisian legend. It's a skeletal beast that stalks the seven hells, eating the bodies of the unworthy but never growing fat. In classic Warhammer fashion, the Red Moons looked at this horrifying death wolf and named their entire company after it, because subtlety is not a recruitment criterion in Warhammer. Leading them is Gunnar Red Moon, who took Fenris's creepiest bedtime story and made it his whole personality.

What makes the Red Moons stand out on the battlefield is big guns. While other Space Wolves charge in with axes and frothing rage, the Red Moons prefer to stand back and blast you into the warp. Their go to squads are the Long Fangs, veteran Space Wolves who specialize in heavy weapons, grumpy old wolves with zero patience for melee. Alongside them come Aggressors, power armored bruisers with flamers, bolters and storm gauntlets. The Red Moons hit first, hit from afar, and keep hitting until the battlefield is covered in smoking craters.

Their tactics might lack the finesse of the sneakier or swifter companies, but there's something beautifully brutal about their approach: hold this ground, and bring the fireworks. If you like Space Marines with a side of folklore horror, lots of big guns and a healthy fear of skeleton wolves, the Red Moons are calling your name.

The Deathwolves: Wolftime, Star Eaters and Cyberwolves

The Deathwolves' symbol is the ravening jaw, a wolf eating a star as part of Wolftime, the Fenrisian version of the end of the world. Picture Ragnarok with more fangs and zero survivors. In Fenrisian myth, this is when Morkai, the death god of Erik Morkai's company, consumes the sun and the stars and plunges the world into never ending night. The Deathwolves are your local doomsday preppers, except instead of canned beans they're hoarding cyberwolves.

In combat they're all about the lupine lifestyle. If it snarls, bites or howls, the Deathwolves have probably brought it to battle. They're known for fielding an unusually large number of wolves, both biological ones like Fenrisian wolves and Thunderwolves, and cybernetic ones. Picture a metal album cover come to life: warriors riding robotic wolves under a shattered moon, howling into the void while a star is slowly devoured in the background. Their specialty is wolves, more wolves, and some wolves with USB ports. They're grim, savage, and weirdly poetic.

The Stormwolves and the Iron Wolves: Speed, Noise and Tanks With Souls

When the Stormwolves roll out, it's not subtle: Sons of Anarchy in space, with bikes tearing across the battlefield, heavy weapons lighting up the sky, and Vindicators, big angry tanks with giant cannons. While other Space Wolves stalk their prey or set clever traps, the Stormwolves kick in the front door and start blasting. They rejoice in the din of battle: the roar of engines, the thunder of cannons, and enemy morale falling apart like flat pack furniture in an earthquake. You don't outmaneuver them. You hope your cover holds and they get distracted blowing up something else.

The Iron Wolves are the motorheads of Fenris. While other companies ride Thunderwolves or fall in on drop pods, the Iron Wolves roll into battle with a wall of armor and treads, specializing in heavy armored assaults and maneuver tank warfare. Their symbol is the iron wolf, a Fenrisian legend said to be so massive that mountains are the hairs on its back and its veins are seams of metal. Basing a company on a god wolf the size of a continent: totally normal, no overcompensating at all.

Here's where it gets cool. The Iron Wolves have a spiritual bond with machines. It's said that warriors who bear the saga of the Iron Wolf can rile up machine spirits, the semisentient souls inside 40K vehicles, make their tanks go faster and farther, and heal systems on the fly like space age shamans. Imagine a Space Marine banging on a Vindicator with a power wrench, shouting encouragement, and the engine roaring back to life. Their leader, Egil Iron Wolf, is a space Viking tank commander with the soul of a mechanic.

Kjarl Grimblood and the Grimbloods: Flamers and Faces Painted in Blood

The Grimbloods' style is built around flame, fury and controlled chaos. They bring cleansing fire in the most literal sense, not just to defeat the enemy but to purify the battlefield with heat and wrath. Their Wolf Lord, Kjarl Grimblood, is as intense as his name suggests, the kind of warrior who probably smells like promethium and victory, with a strategy best described as: if it's not ash, it's not done.

Their arsenal is packed with flame weapons: flamers, heavy flamers, combi flamers, and twelve Land Raider Redeemers, enough flame spitting tanks to cook an entire battlefield. The really spicy detail is a rite of passage for the Grimbloods' Grey Hunters. Kill your prey with fire, and you earn the right to paint your face with blood before battle. Only those who have properly roasted their enemies first get to do it.

The 13th Great Company: The Wolf Brothers Who Returned From the Eye of Terror

Every chapter has dark secrets, and the Space Wolves have an entire missing company of werewolf mutant Space Marines who vanished into a warp infested hellhole and came back even wilder. The 13th Great Company, the Wolf Brothers, was one of the original Great Companies of the Space Wolves Legion, back before the Imperium got so bureaucratic. They were noble and savage, a little too wild even for the Space Wolves. Then came the Horus Heresy, the galaxy breaking civil war in which half the Legions turned traitor.

Somewhere in that chaos the 13th vanished into the Eye of Terror, the warp rift where time stops making sense. For millennia the company was considered lost, possibly dead, or maybe cursed to roam the stars as wolf ghosts, a tragic legend told to pups around Fenrisian campfires. Then, during Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade, they came back changed. They weren't just aged or battle worn; they were warp touched. Many had fully succumbed to the Curse of the Wulfen, the mutation that turns battle brothers into howling beastlike hybrids.

They fight alongside their chapter again, but they're no longer quite human or quite Astartes. They're not officially part of the chapter anymore. They don't take orders, they don't follow structure, and you won't see their sigils on banners. They answer only to the ancient call of battle. Some Space Wolves revere them, others pity them, and most whisper that the galaxy should be afraid. No formations, no finesse, just primal fury. This is where the saga turns dark, desperate and unbelievably epic.

So what have we learned? Everything is better with wolves. Flamers are a lifestyle. Tanks have souls. Never trust a quiet Fenrisian forest, because there's probably a scout with a knife in there. Whether you're here for the lore, the models or the tactical chaos, every company somehow outdoes the last in unfiltered space Viking energy, and the Space Wolves are one of the most unique, characterful and outright entertaining forces in all of Warhammer 40K.