Gaming In a grim dark far future there is only war - A thread for Warhammer 40k

Nice.

What made you go with the Dark Angels? Their lore, colour scheme, both, or something else?

Just wondering, which Space Marine Chapter Creation table did you use?

 

This one, not sure if its a good one tough, the side is quite questionable in some regards:
https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Space_Marine_Chapter_Creation_Tables

They say its based of the Death Watch Book.

 

Jep, it's based on the ‘Creating Your Own Chapter’ system from Deathwatch: Rites of Battle. The original gives a bit more explanation for many of the results and suggestion on the different ways the results could mean for the Chapter being created.

I have my hands on that book if you want to ask about any of the results.

 

Thanks but I did understood pretty much all of it well enough, I think.

Would be open to discussing other 40k related topics tough, from the building of fanon chapters/warbands to theories or AU ideas like the classic "how would the Imperium look like if the 9 Traitor Primarchs had been the loyalists and the 9 loyalists the traitors?"

 

I'm all for that if people want to.

Also, here is the updated version of my Homebrew CSM warband concepts

Spoiler

1. Fight alongside xeno slave-soldiers.

2. The bandleader is entombed in a dreadnought.

3. The bandleader is not a CSM but a Navigator.

4. Has a vendetta against one of the Legions.

5. Distrust sorcerers and sorcery. Possibly try to capture Navigators and bound psykers to be able to do what usually befalls to sorcerers.

6. The bandleader is not a CSM but a powerful psyker.

7. Outcasts from one of the major xeno groups are part of the warband.

8. Has been infiltrated by the Alpha Legion that’s trying to use the warband for its own ends. If a Alpha Legion warband, then a rival Alpha Legion faction has infiltrated it.

9. The warband was relatively recently engaged in a longer confrontation with a xeno-group. Xeno trophies are likely found hanging from the warbands armours, and xeno-tech in their hands.

10. Eat the dead, both their own and the enemies.

11. Are scavenging the arms, armour and other equipment of any fallen Space Marines, friend or foe, they can find. Possibly also killing any lone /few numbered SM they encounter for their gear.

12. When attacking Imperial space do they always explain why they are the victims here and the Imperium is to blame for their acts.

13. They only have enough bolters and ammunition for the leaders and/or elite of the warband, the rest has to use lesser weapons.

14. Has allied themselves with a group xenos that navigate the Warp, or similar for the warband in exchange for protection.

15. Are consumed raiders, that strike suddenly, takes all that they can and try to disappear before the fighting gets prolonged.

16. The commanders, if not all the warbands CSM, have harems.

17. The warband is mostly humans, abhumans, mutants and similar with only a handful of CSM.

18. Notable numbers of CSM sorcerers, thrall-wizards, and psykers.

19. Use lots of walking dead.

20. Only the bandleader is a veteran of the Long War, all other are of later stock

21. There is a schism going on the warband between the veterans of the Long War and those who come later.

22. The warband follow the semi-cryptic sayings of a non-augmented human with prophetic visions and/or the god/s guidance. Or at least the warband believes that.

23. Allow targets a chance to give up before starting their attack, and keep their end of the deal.

24. Are the hunters and slayers of Deamon Princes.

25. Have large amounts of heretechial tech-priests among their ranks.

26. Don’t have any Librarians or CSM sorcerers, instead they use non-Heretic Astartes psykers and/or sorcerers.

27. The warband’s leader is on a quest to become a Deamon Prince.

28. Distrust those who have sworn themselves to any of the Chaos Gods.

29. Lots of fast attack units. Maybe swell their ranks with Ork Speed Freak mercenaries and/or similar.

30. The warband don’t speak and their presence seems so swallow sound, creating an eerie aura of silence around them.

31. The warband’s leader looks like a cherubic child.

32. Lots of melta weapons and flamers.

33. An intellectual warband that suffer from berserk tendencies ones fighting start, and the longer the fighting goes on the stronger their rage and bloodlust became. Is it a curse (or maybe a blessing) from Khorne, a failure in their gene-seed, or something else?

34. Use lots of warp-twisted and/or cyber-enchanted war-beasts.

35. Control a titan and much of the warbands resources go to keeping the titan functional and battle ready.

36. Is led by a Deamon Prince that was never a SM, the CSM may follow him but they have no respect for him.

37. Only have a few Astartes pattern chain- and power-weapons, just enough for the leaders and/or elite of the warband, the rest has to use lesser weapons.

38. The warband’s CSM are of Legion origin but has a different relationship with Chaos and the Gods than their Legion brethren, like Khorne worshipping Death Guard, Chaos Undivided worshipping World Eaters, Slaanesh worshipping Iron Warriors, unsworn Emperor's Children, etc.

39. Believes that the Emperor is a God in battle with the Chaos Gods and the Long War is nothing more than the divine beings moving piece against each other.

40. The core of the warband is made up by Veterans of the Long War who originated from the Loyalist Legions.

41. Lots of possesses.

42. Allied with a Dark Mechanicus’ Forge World, which have not just affected their wargear and equipment but also the warband’s culture.

43. Try to spare children when making war.

44. Controls the fine price that is a super heavy warship, if only it was just not in disrepair and needed more people to fully crew it than the warband has.

45. The CSM, and maybe other members of the warband, are followed by will-o'-wisps.

46. Consider their enemies’ flesh the main course of the victory feast.

47. A large amount, if not most, of the warband’s warriors are drug-jacked narco-warriors. Constantly having enough of the right ingredients for the drugs is possibly a main concern for the warband.

48. When making alliances, agreement or pacts with others do they write contracts and expect both parties to sign them.

49. The warband’s leader is a Daemon-Host.

50. The warband’s leader is a fallen Inquisitor.

51. Is still following the Codex Astartes in all possible ways.

52. See themselves as being still loyal to the Imperium and in theory only attack xenos, other warbands, and non-Imperial planets.

53. Have a deep hatred for the part of their original Chapter that did not forsake the Imperium.

As the list is now are some results really only working for Renegade Chapters or mixed warbands and not for Veterans of the Long War- or Legion descendants-only warbands.

Working on some God Sworn Warband tables for the big four. If people have suggestions just give them to me.

 

Sure:

Spoiler: Khorne

-Every Descision within the Warband is bound to trials by combat
-Attacking their own brothers is considered no big deal, any Marine who dies in these conflicts is considered worthless anyway
-Despite their Blood Lust the Warband still retains a rest of honor and has a taboo from fighting each other, the rest of the universe is fair game tough
-The Warband keeps Orkoid fungai in the debts of their ships so periodically new batches of Orks grow down there giving them something to fight
-The Warband has an arena on their homeworld/flaggship and the members of different squads face each other combarable to the gladiators of different school competing during Roman Times
-The Warband strickly forbids any kind of cleaning of their equippment
-The Warband has a soft spot for rebels and radicals, prioritising aiding them and recuiting young fighters into their ranks
-The Warband does not really considers killing helpess beings worth it so they may ignore them if not outright in their path
-Members of the Warband will always issue and accept challenges for single combat during battle
-The Warband consists of many mast smiths who are able to create a ellaborate brass decorated weapons and armor
-The Warband completly shuns ranged weapons, using one is considered a shame in any circumstance
-The Warbands strong sense of brotherhood is underlined with tattoos/ritual scars that every member has to earn
-The Warband has several sub cults rivaling with each other
-The Warband will inform any world they plan to attack 80 days in advance so the defenders can prepare themselves and give a good fight
-The Warband specializes in fighting Slaanesh forces
-The Warband enjoys fighting the Tyranids cause there is allways enough of them and the big monsters make for great challenges
-The Warband tollerates psykers as long as they don´t use their powers to kill diretly

Spoiler: Tzeentch

-The Warband spends more time planning that actually fighting
-The Warband will only attack worlds already at war, preferably a war caused by them
-The Warband is entirely made up of psykers
-The Warbands command elements are entirely made up of psykers
-The Warband enjoys fighting the Imperial Cult and mocking them about their anti psyker bias
-The Warband is skilled enough at infiltration they can pretend to be imperial forces with only few being able to see through the deception
-The Warband has contacts in the Imperium who resuply them and worlds they can recuit from
-The Warband selects its targets at random
-The Warband seeks to battle against every species found in the galaxy
-The Warband has no serves but deomic creatures fill their place

Spoiler: Nurgle

-The entrity of the Warbands weapons and armor are corosive
-Everyone on the Warbands ship is infected with some kind of disease
-When pilladging a planet the Warband will leave any sick civilians alone, sick kids might be taken as recuits
-The entire Warband is utterly accepting of death and thus will never run away
-In their freetime the Warriors enjoy creating new poisons/plagues which they test on themselves and each other
-The Warband treats its serves nicely
-Members of the Warband keep Nurglings as pets
-The Warband completly shuns tanks and is utterly focused on infantry combat
-The Warband has cultists spread plagues to planets they plan on attacking, in disguse as 40k counterpart to the Carnival of Chaos
-Members of the Warband are pretty much unkillable you have to burn them completly to stop them from putting themselves back together again
-The Warband likes to fight the Necrons and Eldar to see the ageless ones decay
-The commander of the Warband has become one with his ship
-If they have a homeworld the Warband treats its people pretty okay, even if everyone there has some sort of sickness
-The Warband will try to capture Apothecaries to torture them

Spoiler: Slaanesh

-Members of the Warband sexually assault their victims/slaves
-The Warband primarilly hunts Eldar
-After every battle the Warrior who had the least kills is brutally tortured to death by the rest
-Members of the Warband write poems about their exploits
-Members of the Warband paint picture of the people they killed
-Members of the Warband only consume the flesh of whatever they killed
-The Warband rejects "barbaric" weapons like Hammers and Axes prefering Swords instead
-Members of the Warband tend to not wear any clothing when off duty
-Members of the Warband have androdginous appearances
-Members of the Warband will only fight in utterly clean armor, killing their serves for even the smalles bist of dirt
-Being posioned is seen as a great pleasure for members of the Warband
-The Warband employs Sslyth mercenaries
-The Warband enjoys experimenting with Dark Eldar torture devices

Spoiler: Malice

-The Warband has no leader, all descisions are resolved by a direct vote of all members
-The Warband has a leader but he is changed randomly every 11 days
-The Warbands serves are organized like Anarcho Syndicalist Trade unions
-The Warbands only ever fights other chaos forces
-The Warband randomly determines who they fight
-The Warband employs various Xenos mercenaries
-The Warband will always fight their enemies in the way they like the least(Tau in close quarters, Khornates on long distances)
-Members can leave the Warband whenever they want
-The Warband enjoys fighting dogmatic enemies such as Word Beares, Tau or Adeptus Sororitas
-The Warbands kills the leaders of worlds they attack but leave the populous beind to fall into anarchy
-The Warband recuits children they come across on a random chance
-All members of the Warband wear featureless Masks to hide their identity
-Their faces have mutated into featureless masks by their patron god
-Instead of Names the members call each other with absurd, random nicknames

 

mostly lore also color scheme.

I found the fanmade web series of The Emperor has a text to speech Device about a year ago on youtube. I work 9pm to 6am shifts 5 days a week as a dispatcher for a car service and it can get slow between about midnight till about 4am(when the drivers come in to get there car for the day) most days, The pandemic has only made things slower. Once I got caught up with that I watched a couple other fan made web series like Astartes, Helsreach, and Rimmy Down under and his buddies playing a 40k mod for ARMA(seriously it's great, they place as Cadians and Commissar Digby is probably my favorite parts). This led to buying some of the novels, Horus Hersey from Horus rising to Flight of the Eisenstien, the Garo short story collections, and Helsreach went through them all in about a month.

The whole thing with the Fallen is interesting to me. I mean I love Lord Adornable in if the emperor had a text to speech Device but Canon Rogal is not the same and I am very into the medieval knight aesthics(have a bunch of books on plate armor, I am a member of the local HEMA club). Dark Angels are really the most Knight like of all the chapters. Heck they are more similar in organization and ritual to the real historical Knights Templar than the Black Templar's are. I am currently reading the Legacy of Taliban omnibus, have the Knights of Caliban omnibus next and then will into the stories from the Heresy era that focus on the Dark angels.

Also they are probably the best combined Arms force in the Imperium. Other chapter are better infantry,.and the White Scars are better cavalry cavalier cavalry but the Dark Angels and their successors have the Raven wing who a extremely good Calvary and the Deathwing are awesome. Making the Unforgiven able to do pretty well at everything even better than the Ultra marines who are supposed to be the Jack of all trades Marines. Plus DA Veterans wear robes over there armor which is awesome.

Because of my shift I tend to keep the same hours on my two nights off and with Covid making not lot of stuff is open after 8pmI got sick of watching tv and playing video games and wanted to try something new. Also there is a Games workshop retail store less than is mile from where I live which makes things convienent.
I am a new York jets fan so Green and white are my colors.

 

So been contunuing about writing my AU story of a HH with reversed fates. With the loyalists being the traitors and vice versa.
Of course this has been done before and one of my favourite fanfics of all time even is about this but now I wanted to try this type of story myself and have it be deliberatly different from the ones made by Tactica Imperialis and 40k stories respectivley and generally include a few, a bit more out there ideas.

For the basics the idea is that for each of the primarch something goes different in the run up to the Heresy that causes them to stand on a different side.
Here are my ideas so far, starting with the new loyalists:

Perturabo: This time instead of Manus he asked Magnus about his visions of the eye of terror and so instead of being rejected and seen as borderline crazy Magnus was able to explain to him what it was and possibly gave some advice on how to resist its influence. This made Perturabo feeling more welcome in the Imperium and had him join Magnus´s cyrcle of friends, who then push him over Dorn for the emperor to chose as architect of Terra, once and for all cementing Perturabo as a loyalist.

Magnus: Due to being better prepared manages to make a better case at the Council of Nuceria and has not just the Scars but also Word Bearers and Iron Warriors behind him(tough more due to their primachrs sympathy for him). Thus psykers are not disbanded and Mangus not put in trouble.

Logar: In response to a sarcastic joke by Perturabo about the Machine God Logar realizes there is a loophole in the emperors no gods edict and thus strenghtens his ties to the Mechanicum and has them spread their faith, the emperor is clearly unhappy but can´t sanction him.

Kurze: Fulgrim does not tell the other primachars about Kurzes secrets but keeps his word. Due to this the confrontation between Night Haunter and Dorn doesn´t happen and the Night Lords atcrotices remain under the radar.

Fulgrim: Is warned by the Kurze of the Dangers that lay within the Lear culture, which Kurze foresaw, deciding to give the warning to the one primarch he actually cares about.

Angron: This would possibly the biggest change as the emperor interviened on Nuceria and saved Angrons surviving rebels, this made Angron utterly devoted to his father. While he still has the nails the majority of the legion has not.

Horus: Is not the Warmaster, and neither stabbed with the Anathame Blade. While tempted to join his closest friend he refuses in the end due to the loyality to his father and council of his uncorupted Mornival.

Mortarion: Despite being upset about the edict of Nuceria he remainds with the Imperium due to Horus doing it, he will also take Russ´s role and assault Kahn who took Magnus´s

Alpharius: Omegon´s determination proves stronger this time and so the twins reject the Cabals proposal

Now for the new Traitors:

Jonson: He and Luthor find the hidden chaos tomes much earlier and everything changes through that. Also they this time manadge to absord the chaos affliated Lupus Order instead whiping it out. This leads to some chaos presence being around the DA from the start, slowly growing over the great crusade. With Jonson beginning to spread the taint into other legions after he fell himself. Luther on the other hand is utterly disgusted by this and thus banished back to Caliban where he begins to build up a force of loyalist DA.

Sanguinius: Made Warmaster in this version. Tough the DA find out about the flaw and send over Lord Cypher as a liason(comparable to OTL Erebus) who gleefully exploits this situation, suggesting that the emperor sees the BA as abomiations he will eventually purge just as the two lost legions. That he only made Sanguinius Warmaster because he wants him to be in the spotlight so the flaw would be noticed. Made worse when Cypher uses warp magic to halt the Red Thirst, offering to "teach" the BA libarians and thus get the legion to embrace chaos on a larger scale. After they fall Sanguinis begins to corrupt the four brothers closest to him besides Horus: Guillmane, Dorn, Manus, Russ.

Russ: Already unhappy with how the Imperium is run Russ is convinced by Sanguinius that the emperor is at best incomeptend and at worst utterly harmfull to humanity. Pointing out how Magnus and Kahn pratice devilish sorcery, how Logar weasles out of clear imperial decrees, how honorless monsters like Kurze have free reign, how the emperor once scarificed a considerable number of Astartes lives to save a bunch of dirty slaves. The emperor has become weak, dominated by Primachrs like Logar and Magnus, mankind needs a new leader, which convinces Russ to rebel for a better future.
Also just to clarify Russ won´t be the primarch to fall to Khorne here, every other AU I know always has him and I wanted to do something unique.

Dorn: Similar to Russ, the BA point out the flaws of Imperium to Dorn, how dishonest the Imperium has become, how liars and borderline traitors have free reign. How already there is corruption growing in the human senate of Terra, how the Mechanicum is withholding secrets from the rest of humanity. And how this cold maniac Perturabo has been chosen over the loyal son Dorn to watch over the cradle of humanity.

Guillimane: To break the Lord of Ultramar the traitors use their agents to spread a plague through the fivehundret worlds. All attempts of Guillimane to fight it, to protect his people fail. His quaranteens are mysteriously circumvented and even the help of numerous apotheraries of the IF and BA legions don´t solve the problem. Seeing his empire, his lifes work rot and waste away slowly begins to break Guillimane, even moreso when his adoptive mother dies in his arms. Crying over her body the thirteenth hears a new voice, coming out of her mouth, as the Lord of Decay speaks to him, offering him to save his people, his empire, for a small, yet eternal price. In his desparation the Lord Ultramar accepts.

Manus: Seeing the growing power of the Mechanicum throught the galaxy horrifies the Gorgon, already being worried about his own legion more and more replacing their human limbs with tech he is struck with a terrible vision of humanities future. Billions of dead husks only able to communicate via binary code. A lifeless clean and cold society, having lost any and all sense of humanity a long time ago. Seeing this vision convinces him that something needs to be done before its too late, humanity needs a new leader, before everything has become cold unliving metal.

Vulkan: The Salamanders take a prolonged campaign alongside the Night Lords and are utterly horrified at their methods. As the most empathic legion its even worse, ultimatley trying to get the Night Lords sanctioned Vulkan finds his loyality to the emperor shattered when his attempts fail, in no small part due to the intervention of Primarchs such as Fulgrim. Embittered over what he sees Magnus´s qlique is truning the imperium into more and more disgust grows within Vulkan. Where is the honor in massacaring civilians? In Sending their own sons to needless deaths in attritional warfare? Using devilish socery? What honor is there left in the Imperium? This leads to the Salamanders seeking a new path, a path warmaster Sanguinius opens them. And which include the worship of a new god, a god of honor, of fire, of brotherhood, or smithing, but most of all of blood.
I imagine the Salamders as a very different Khornate force than the World Eaters where. No mindless beserkers, but instead artisans of war, with a lot of ellaborate weapons and brass armor, as well as fire of course. But also retaining a sense of honor and brotherhood, at least amongst each other.

Corvus Corax: Over the years the Raven realizes more and more how the Imperium is ruled by a group of in his mind insufficent primarchs, how Mangus´s cyrcle as the loyalists call it is gaining more and more influence. Embittered at how they manadged to turn the council of Nuceria Corax´s disgust at them only grows as time continues. And with that his depression only grows, seeing how his pure and strong Raven guard is shafted for weaklings and mutants, how flawed primarchs can rise while the perfect ones are put down. More and more it seems to the Raven that he is back on Deliverance, forced to work for corrupt and cruel nobles. As his defiance grows the more does he seek ways to compete with these legions, to improve his sons even further. Experimenting with captured Xeno´s tech and various Xeno´s druggs that enhance their combat powers, but also, for the first time in life bring the depressed Corax pleasure, hours no longer filled with brooding but so much pleasure. The eventual alliance with the Warmaster only hastenes their fall into the claws of Slanesh

Kahn: Not much to say, his story is largley copy paste the one of Magnus. He foresees what is to come, tries to stop it, is framed for treason and as Mortarion send against him by Sanguinius.

Those are at least currently my core concepts.
Toughts? Questions?

 

Canon Khan kind of despises emperors and empires as it is - just dialling that trait up makes for a good rebel Primarch.

 

That is certianly an option, I could also see him not being happy, with despite all their friendship, Mangnus's manipulations and power plays with his clicque of Primarchs.

 

Can people give me suggestions on a voidship that could function as the fortress-monastery for a SM Chapter and is old enough that parts of it count as archeotech?

 

I like this concept. I have not seen it before and it do really work.

I think you also need to have that Kurze don't get his vision of an Imperial assassin slaying him, for what he believes is hypocritical reasons, which leads to him just letting lose. Or at least interpret it a different way.

My impression was that Russ did not see what Khan's Stormseers did as sorcery, unlike Magnus' people, so for him to think of the WS as sorceress do they need to dabble a bit more in things they should have left alone.

I like that, to just have him go to Khorne feels lacy and missing how nuanced the SW actually are behind their mask of barbarism.

As mentioned earlier under Russ do I suggest having him dabble a bit more in things better left alone. Maybe take inspiration from blood magic and rites from the real Euroasian steppe people (or others stories about them), or black magic from China - maybe the Khan spent some time among the cities before burning them and learned some things he should not have? - or maybe the WS picked up some thing during their travels farther away form the Emperor's light than anybody else? Maybe their sorcery is deep void based?

 

Thanks, glad you, like it, was mainly inspired to it by this video:



Also this really puts the emperors actions in the OTL concerning Logar in a much different context. He was able to tolerate some worship before so the destruction of Monarchia, less as the last resort to prevent worship and the idea of gods spreading through the Imperium and more as a cruel act of genocide because Logar wasn´t doing what he wanted.

That is an idea. One idea I had that the other loyalists primarchs eventually still decided that Kurze needs to die cause he has just gone too far so they send the assassin, tough Kurze more or less accepts it and welcomes death as an end to his guilt and suffering. Alternativley Corax gets him eventually.

Sure tough keep mind mind Kahn played a part in stopping Nicea and was part of Mangnus´s cyrcle. So Russ defenetly has enough reason to dislike him.

Yeah that´s pretty much my toughts as well. Others turn him just into Angron with a viking skin so to say, I wanted to do something different. Would have the Space Wolves as a generally more in control faction, somewhat detached from the chaos gods, like the OTL Night Lords, same with the Iron Hands who would switch places with the Iron Warriors.

Certianly some ideas of that could work. My general plan would be for teh Scars to have some extremly vague visions of what is to come and to clarify them they look deeper and deeper and use methods that become increasingly more questionable to the point even Magnus thinks they are going too far.


As for the Imperium my guess is that the imperial church doesn´t exists but instead the Mechanicus and Cult Mechanicum are much stronger. Also there is a higher tolerance of psykers due to the Thousand sons still being around. Think the Inquistion would still existst but probably be different as well. Generally I see this Imperium a bit smarter and less fanatical(which keep in mind comes with its drawbacks as well) but weaker due to loosing its two largest legions and many more stabilized regions during the Heresy than in the OTL.

The biggest change I was thinking about is also certianly the most controversial:

The Emperor does die in a mutual kill against Saguinius and instead of him Magnus takes his fathers seat on the Golden Throne. Of course the emperor dying would fit with the Christian imagery of the Cult Mechanicus. The Omnissiah/Emperor/Jesus dies for the Sins of Humanity, and ascendes back to heaven to be unified with his father the machine god. Also would in that sense make Magnus the equivalent of Saint Peter and Logar possibly Saint Paul as he spreads the faith everywhere he goes.

Now this is of course a very large change so I´m currently still uncdecided about it.

 

in Canon there are several Fleet based Chapters.

There most prominent are

Dark Angels - fits what you are looking for the best. Since I am a DA player/Painter and have just finished reading a story that climaxed with a battle between the DA and several of its Successors and the Deathguard that feature the Fortress monastery prominently.

the Dark Angels flagship is the remains of the Rock, their fortress Monastery from Caliban that was Destroyed shortly after the Horus Heresy. originally named Aldurukh, it was the fortress of the Calibanite monastic knights known as the Order during the Dark age of Technology. This was one of several Monastic Orders of Knights on Caliban that hunted the planets Warp Beasts. They Found the Primarch Lion El'q Jonson living alone and Feral in the woods on the northern most savage continent of Caliban and brought him to the Rock and educated him. When the Emperor arrived it became the Fortress Monastery of the Dark Angels and many of the members of the Order where either turned into Astartes(for those young enough to survive the process) or turned into Psuedo Astartes through non gene seed techniques, most notably Luther, the foster father of the Lion(similar treatments where given to the foster father of Lorgar, Kor Pharon). After Caliban was Destroyed the monastery was recovered and turned into a voidship.

It already features weird technologies not seen in other parts of the Imperium many of which are tied to the Watchers in the Dark, mysterious diminutive jawa looking beings that cohabit with the Dark Angels at the Rock. Doors and passages mysteriously appear leading to unknown rooms.

Black Templars- Dorn's Angry Boys fortress monastery i s there Flagship the Eternal Crusader. Ship. while brand new during the Horus Heresy it would be considered Archeotech by the 41st Millenium.


Blood Ravens- homeworld was engulf in warp storm. Bloody Magpies are. Likely thousand Sons successors but that is unconfirmed. make sure to bolt down all property around these guys, they have a history of stealing other chapters relics(due to game mechanic in Dawn of War video games)

https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Fleet-Based

 

I’m planning to try do a fic where I use one of the less explored Chapter’s from the Third War of Armageddon. Because I have an idea about the fic but not really any idea about the Chapter itself – it’s about an Inquisitor who want to go through their records from the Third War of Armageddon to see if s/he can find information about a thing that happened there – did I decide to use a combination of my own tables and the ‘Creating Your Own Chapter’ system from Deathwatch: Rites of Battle.

Because I wanted the possibility to have the Chapter’s gene-seed origin to be from one of the Traitor Legions or just fully unknown did I not use Rites of Battle‘s Progenitor-table, instead I created two of my own:

Progenitor Table 1

Spoiler

D12
1 Ultramarines
2 Blood Angels
3 Dark Angels
4 Imperial Fists
5 White Scars
6 Raven Guard
7 Iron Hands
8 Space Wolves
9 Salamanders
10-12 Unknown - either leave it as unknown or roll on Progenitor Table 2

Progenitor Table 2

Spoiler

D20
1 Dark Angels
2 Unknown
3 Emperor's Children
4 Iron Warriors
5 White Scars
6 Space Wolves
7 Imperial Fists
8 Night Lords
9 Blood Angels
10 Iron Hands
11 Unknown
12 World Eaters
13 Ultramarines
14 Death Guard
15 Thousand Sons
16 Sons of Horus/Luna Wolves
17 Word Bearers
18 Salamanders
19 Raven Guard
20 Alpha Legion

I admit that my table does make the chance that a chapter’s Progenitor is the Space Wolves just as likely as the Ultramarines, which in theory should not be. If people find that troublesome make your own table.

I rolled a 10 first, meaning that the Progenitor is unknown, and since I wanted to use my Legion Specific Concepts-table did I role again on table two, where I got a 20, which means that the Chapter is unknown to themselves (or at least the rest of the Imperium) successors to the Alpha Legion.

That actually fit perfect with one of the Chapters that were part of the Third War of Armageddon and has very little written about them: the Omega Marines.

I decided to begin with rolling on my tables to see if those results established anything that would make rolls on some of Rites of Battle‘s tables superfluous. I rolled a D4 for each to see how many times on each table, got 4 rolls on the common table and 3 rolls on the Legion specific table.

On the common table I rolled:

272. A Chapter that has an unusual high amount of Chaplains.
265. A Chapter whose fortress-monastery was built around a piece of archeotech. The Chapter may or may not know what it is and how to activate it.
463. The Chapter is known for their extraordinary skill in restoring and maintaining damaged and arcane wargear.
378. A Chapter that works closely with Crucible Resolviate Mechanicus' faction

And on the Legion specific table I rolled (with some rerolls because some results did not fit with the established lore about the Omega Marines, as small it now is):

49. A fleet-based Chapter with no know recruitment worlds and unknown recruitment methods.
16. Take those they have deemed fitting to become aspirants secretly, without any warning or explanation.
45. The Chapter’s fortress-monastery and ships are filed with concealed doors, secret corridors, and hidden chambers.

The results I got fit rather well together, with -
265. A Chapter whose fortress-monastery was built around a piece of archeotech. The Chapter may or may not know what it is and how to activate it.
463. The Chapter is known for their extraordinary skill in restoring and maintaining damaged and arcane wargear.
49. A fleet-based Chapter with no know recruitment worlds and unknown recruitment methods.
- easily translating to that they are a fleet-based Chapter whose main ship/fortress-monastery-station being of ancient origin with a archeotech heart (if not also many other components) which maintaining and repairs have given them the skills to do that to other arcane or damaged wargear. That they are fleet-based also fit with that the galactic map shows them moving across the galaxy.

That they have no known (to outsiders) recruitment worlds and unknown recruitment methods fit with them taking those they have deemed fitting to become aspirants secretly, without any warning or explanation. Meaning that if they have recruitment worlds (and not just take possible aspirants form wherever they go) the population there don’t know that.

That they work closely with Crucible Resolviate Mechanicus' faction (I’m working with the assumption that they also exist outside the Jericho Reach) can be that they function as an (unsanctioned?) explorator fleet for that faction, or maybe they have taken in many members of that factions. In either cause the Crucible Resolviate’s interest in xeno-tech and how it works is something that the Omega Marines will find useful; that they are dealing in stuff that is not really tolerated by the orthodox Mechanicus and need to be quiet about feels like a perfect fit for a Chapter whose gene-seed gives them a tendency for secret keeping.

I don’t know what to do about that they have an unusual high amount of Chaplains, why they have it and/or how that effects their organisation.

Now to move on to the tables in Rites of Battle – I ignore the Why Was The Chapter Founded?, Progenitor, and any of the Founding Fathers and Home Worlds tables. Which means that I start with the When Was The Chapter Founded? table. I roll 65, which means that they were founded during the 37th Millennium, which I reinterpret to mean that first known mention of them is from that era and their exact founding is unknown (secrets and lies and all that). On the Gene-stock Purity I roll a 6 – “A New Generation” – meaning that the gene-seed is lightly divergent from the original stock, I’ll keep that in the back of my mind but for now that really affects the Omega Marines (maybe making them less prone to constantly keep make stuff more complicated than they need to be?). It also means that I don’t roll on the Chapter Flaw table later.

I’ll ignore to roll on the Codex Demeanours table and just chose the “See, But Don’t Be Seen” demeanour.

When it comes to see if the Chapter have any mutations do I decide that Alpha Legion should have a 10% chance of mutation, like the Ultramarines, Dark Angels and Imperial Fists, but I increase that to 15% because their gene-stock was slightly divergent. I role a 43, so no mutations, a bit disappointed actually since part of me wanted to role on the mutation tables.

Since the Omega Marines are described as a Codex Chapter do I decide to roll on the Ultramarines Successor Chapter Organisation table when it comes to organisation and count a 10 as a Divergent Chapter result. I got a 10, the Omega Marines are followers of the Codex Astartes in most ways but have one or more divergents. Maybe it’s just that they have, as previously rolled, an unusual high amount of Chaplains? Don’t know jet.

Ignoring the Combat Doctrine tables and jump directly to the Belief table where I rule a 79: Death Cult – which do fit with the skull on the Omega Marines’ Chapter symbol and I do like the idea of lots of skulls (that a specialist group within the Alpha Legion was known as the Headhunters could fit with the whole skull thing).

On Chapter Status, Friends and Enemies do I roll 9, 59 and 45 respectively, meaning that the chapter is of Nominal Strength – fitting with a Primaris reinforced Chapter the Imperial side of the Cicatrix Maledictum – has Chartist Captains as among their notable friends, and Tyranids as among their notable enemies. I have no idea what to do with the Chartist Captains but the Tyranids could mean that they have been fighting a Hive Fleet during their travels in the void.

With all that done I feel like I want to expand the Chapter’s serfs and ship a bit more since they likely will interact with the Inquisitor and her/his underlings, so I rolled on my Ship history/culture/quirks-table, I decide to just roll eight times and pic the results that don’t class with what I have already rolled up or have decide on. I roll:

8. The crew is divided into groups that routinely fight each other in ritualized wars. The groups fighting could be different: clans; worker-gangs; guilds; etcetera.

145. Much of the ships inbuilt train system, lifts and similar don’t function or have been removed, leading to more or less all internal transport has to be done by muscle power or in motor vehicle.

18. The air in large areas of the ship is poisonous and filtration devises are standard equipment among the crew.

34. A pack/tribes of Jokaero lives on the ship. They are most likely considered good luck by the crow that will react violently to any attempts to hurt, kill or remove them.

91. Numerology is important to the crew, with some numbers seen as good and others as bad. Anything involving the bad number is evaded, even down to leaving stuff behind so it’s not corresponding to a bad number in amount.

98. Either because of deliberate design or as an effect of uncountable modifications and repairs so is the interior of the ship labyrinthal, with few, if any, straight paths. There is possibly a whole guild or cast of guides whose only job is to know the ways of the ship.

40. A death cult has a notable presence on the ship. Knowledge about them might be open, an open secret or only known to a few.

78. Large amount of larger herbivorous/omnivorous animals (like cows, groxes, pygs, lobobster, or struthids) are kept a-board the ship, for food and entitlement. Possibly something corresponding to bullfighting in the latter case.

Of those do 145 not fit one bit with what’s established so I ignore that one, and 98 is already established. 34 and 40 fit perfect with what’s already been rolled, and 8 fit together with 40: the crew fight each other as offerings to the Emperor, and to keep their edge. I don’t know if I’ll use 18 but I find 78 funny and have ideas for that and I could do some fun stuff with numerology (91) but the question being should they see three and twenty as good or bad (three as in the three heads of the Alpha Legion hydra and twenty as in their Legion number) but twenty-fourth is definitively a good number (omega being the twenty-fourth letter in the Greek alphabet).

I was first thinking of having the Chapter’s fortress-monastery be a ship of some kind but then decided that they could be using a star-fort instead. Originally I was planning to name the star-fort something that had omega in it or was an omega reference but then it hit me that WH40k make a point of having misunderstood history and something that could fit with the Alpha Legion’s Greek theme and the idea of cunning warfare is to have historians of M41 confuse Troy and the Trojan Horse into one. So they believe that Troia (which is the name I decide they know the city under) was an ancient Grecka-Romanus city-state, known for its horses and cunning warfare, and that makes for a good name. So the Omega Marines Chapter fortress is an ancient star-fort by the name of Troia.


To tie it all together we have:
The Omega Marines are a chapter of unknown founding and gene-seed (we know that they are of Alpharius gene-stock but not they do not), whose oldest recorded appearance are from M37, giving them three millennia to have history over where I can put any kind of rivalry or friendship when it’s needed.

They are a fleet-based Chapter whose main fortress-monastery is the star-fort Troia which has a archeotech heart (if not also many other components) which maintaining and repairs have given them the skills to do that to other arcane or damaged wargear. They also have a population of Jokaero living on Troia, much to the delight of their Crucible Resolviate Mechanicus allies that use the star-fort as a base and give the Omega Marines valuable information regarding captured xeno-tech.

The Omega Marines chapter-culture is one that respects the Codex Astartes and mostly follows it, with a preference for stealth and surprise tactics. They also have a (so called) Death Cult belief, which means that there are many images of Death and symbols for death all over their ships and on their wargear, many of them also rest among their dead, and use their bones for decorations or as parts for equipment. [I will likely expand on this.] Their chapter-serfs culture of numerology have also spread to the Chapter with twenty-four being known as a good number. Their death cult belief is possibly the reason for why they have a high number of Chaplains, coming from that many of the battle-brothers want to become the image of death that Chaplains are.

They keep their recruitment worlds and methods secret, even if the later involves them taking those they have deemed fitting to become aspirants secretly, without any warning or explanation – have not decided jet but this could be one of the duties for Scouts – possibly creating stories about dead spirits stealing children.

On Troia, and likely also on the Chapter’s ships, do their serfs share a similar death focused belief (unknown if the Chapter has influenced their serfs or the other way around), which has led to serf groups ritually fighting each other with the dead seen as an offering to the Emperor, this also keep them battle ready when needed. There is also one society of Death Cult Assassins aboard the Troia that support the Omega Marines whenever needed.

Both Troia and the ships in the Chapter’s fleet have labyrinthal interiors, with few, if any, straight paths. And notable areas of at least the Troia are used for keeping bovines that are both used for food and entitlement – in the latter case both bullfighting and bull-leaping. [I decide to go with bovines since the Alpha Legion are somewhat antique Greek-ish and bull-leaping appear on the famous fresco from Knossos, Crete.] There is also possible that Troia also have horses as a symbolic nod to the star-forts namesake (or rather the Imperium’s understanding of that namesake) and there exist Rough Riders among the ships defensive forces.


Honour markings:
[Some kind of horse symbol] – used by marines serving as Troia’s “homeguard”
A veteran icon with a lemniscate in it – a veteran that served among the Unnumbered Sons.
A stylised tyranid head with a gladius through it – Tyrannic War Veteran

 

Because my above creation of the Omega Marines' culture had them as a death cult culture and I am as I am I made a list of possible ways a death cult culture could look, for easy references, baseing it both on already established death cult Chapters' culture. Since I realised that it cud just as well be used in similar ways as my other Chapter homebrew lists did I ad numbers to it. I now share it here with the hope that it can be of some use for people:

Death cult
“The Chapter’s beliefs are centred not on one particular figure, but on the more abstract notion of death itself. As the so called “Angels of Death,” the Space Marines’ very existence is defi ned by their ability to slay their foes. While Space Marines are extremely long-lived, the vast majority die in battle and this Chapter embraces the fact. Chapters that follow this belief system to an extreme, adorning themselves in all manner of deathly fetishes and even partaking of gristly trophy taking.” / Deathwatch: Rites of Battle.

Spoiler

1. Secretly uses the forbidden Cybernetic Resurrection maletek.

2. Power sicles are the symbolic weapon-of-office for higher officers.

3. A Chapter that’s allied with an Death Cult.

4. A Chapter that after battles treat the dead with proper burials and death rituals. Be they allies or enemies (even if the burials and death rituals for the latter is very different than the formers).

5. The Chapter’s halls are filled with rows of skulls taken from the bodies of fallen Space Marines and the main chapel is filled with the skulls of foes claimed in the aftermath of victory.

6. Is seen as overtly morbid, their teachings focused on death and mourning.

7. Believes that each and every Battle-Brother is already dying and outwardly they appear consumed by grief at the approach of their doom, but as Space Marines they are immune to detrimental effects of such thoughts.

8. Knows that death is inevitable and believe that they are slowly dying themselves. Possibly this leads them to them being free of any inhibitions and doubts which one such as them, a Space Marine, may still grasp.

9. Power and/or chain scythes are the symbolic weapon-of-office for higher officers.

10. Have traditions of meditating before battle to reach a death-like trance in an attempt to commune with the Primarch and their ancestors.

11. The Chapter’s battle-brothers seal themselves away in vast stasis crypts when not on campaign.

12. Similar to the Blood Angels do this Chapter use medical sarcophagi to transform aspirants into transhumans.

13. A Chapter that recruits from the near dead.

14. The battle-brothers are seen as the revenants of the dead by the people of their homeword.

15. Use their dead’s skin to make leather and parchment.

16. Recruit from the young fallen on battlefields.

17. A Chapter that practise cannibalistic rituals of their own dead in such manner that they might be declared renegade if they was witnessed by outsiders.

18. A Chapter that make servo-skulls out of all their fallen brothers’ recovered skulls and every marine is accompanied by at least one of those servo-skulls.

19. Recruits solely from the children of workers and mourners of Cemetery World/s.

20. Their homeworld is also a Cemetery World.

21. The Chapter’s dead are ritually mummified.

23. The bones of the Chapter’s dead are used as building material or for parts in equipment.

24. The battle-brothers armour adorned with images of bones and/or similar symbols of death.

25. Many/all of the Chapter’s battle-brothers paint or tattoo their faces to resemble skulls and/or corpses.

26. See the Dreadnoughts as the honoured dead returning to fight alongside their kin again.

27. Are viewed by the population of their homeworld as cursed ghosts.

28. Their Librarians are able to reanimated the Chapter’s just dead to fight on for a short time.

29. Spend their time of rest in medical sarcophagi.

30. Honoured dead are mummified and kept near to the living so the later can ask them for advice. Holydays or rituals where the dead are taken out of their tombs and niches and carried around are possible.

31. Wrap themselves in bandages before donning their armour. The bandages may or may not be covered in glyphs, writings or similar.

32. Wrap themselves in bandages before deeper meditation. The bandages may or may not be covered in glyphs, writings or similar.

33. Specialise in fighting zombies and their master. Likely allied with Ordo Sepulturum.

34. The insides of the Chapter’s fortress-monastery and ships are covered in the bones of the Chapter’s fallen.

35. The battle-brothers’ armour are covered in the scrimshawed bones of the earlier wearers of the armour.

36. The Chapter’s battle-brothers rest in coffins and/or grave niches.

37. Executioner axes and swords are the symbolic weapon-of-office for higher officers.

38. Hangman’s noses hang from the battle-brothers necks.

39. Many of the Chapter’s helmets are painted or sculpted to resemble skulls.

40. Recruit from the children of Imperial Death Cult members and followers.

41. Chapter that try to protect cemeteries and areas used for burial, and maybe even stay after the conflict have ended to help the people rebuild their cemeteries.

42. A group of the Chapter (1th Company, [Xeno] War Veterans, rad weapon squads, etc.) is marked with their armour being covered in death shroud.

43. The Chapter use alchymyst fleshteks to resurrected their dead into a false half-life with toxic blood and their minds stripped of whatever shreds of humanity they once had. This is likely only done to battle-brothers of note.

44. In the Chapter there exist “slayer-prophets” who has perfect their art of killing to a religious and definitely unorthodox standard, with each type of wound caused being significant in some spiritual way.

45. A Chapter that, like the Moritat death cult, disdain non edge-weapons as crude and spiritually unfulfilling.

46. Only recruit their Chapter-serfs from widows/widowers and orphans.

47. Meditative rituals during which the battle-brother is buried alive and has to claw themselves out when finished.

48. Before becoming Scouts, aspirants are buried alive and has to claw themselves out.

49. Use alchemical- and/or cyber-resurrected war-beasts.

50. Try to capture enemies so they can ritually be sacrificed to the Emperor. The greater the enemy captured, the better.

51. They drinking the blood and eating the flesh of their enemies after battle. Possibly severing their heads and flensing their skulls before or after that.

52. Have a practice of letting their foes' blood and dedicating it as an offering to the Primarch and/or Emperor. Possibly they see captured enemies as making for the worthiest offering.

53. See their own death in battle as a sacrifice to the Emperor. This possibly makes some of the battle-brothers suicidal in their want to martyrdom.

54. The Chapter’s Chaplains drink the mixed blood of gathered battle-brothers to receive visions of guidance from the Chapter’s ancestors.

55. The Chapter place much spiritualism on blood; to them it represents the blood of the martyrs who have died in service to the those who are living and they believe that no lesson can be learned without blood being shed.

56. Recruit from those who have already been "marked" by tragedy and bloodshed to serve the Emperor as a bringer of death to His enemies.

57. After battle the Chapter dedicated the dead to the Emperor as they do the funeral rituals for the dead.

58. After battle the Chapter build mausoleums, catacombs and/or tombs for their fallen to rest in.

59. The Chapter is seen as grim, somber and insular.

60. Cremate their dead and the Chapter always take with them the right kind of wood for a proper cremation.

61. Cremate their dead and paint themselves and their wargear with the ashes from the funeral pyre.

62. Bury their dead in great mausoleums, the more important the greater the mausoleum.

63. The battle-brother paints themselves and/or their armour in calaca/calaveras style.

64. Chapter’s honored dead include not just Astartes but also chapter-serfs.

65. Chapter’s honored dead include not just Astartes but also machine-spirits.

66. The Chapter’s fortress-monastery is also a necropolis, and the Chapter and its serfs are constantly quiet and calm so not to disturb the dead. Possibly is there a “day of the dead” when it’s believed that the dead return for that day and its costume to have a great party to celebrate the dead and the living can let lose since the dead are already there and can’t be disturbed.

67. The Chapter highly respect the dead and punish populations they find wanting in their treatment of their dead.

68. Use flowers as a way to honour the dead, or maybe even offerings, and keep great flower gardens to constantly have access to flowers.

69. The Chapter’s fallen have been known to rise again and fight alongside the living.

70. Battle-brothers always carry around candles they light at any graveyard or lone grave they pass, including the ones they dig themselves.

71. Many to all of the battle-brothers mutilate themselves so their faces resemble skulls.

72. The Chapter’s members all have sunken eyes and their pale skin appear stretched over their skulls.

73. The brothers of the Chapter all have a gaunt and corpselike appearance.

74. When not on duty the Chapter’s battle-brothers are expected to clean and repair the gravesites on the Chapter’s world/s.

75. Part of the Scout training is that the aspirants construct their own gravesite, to mark their own inventible death and their acceptance of it.

76. Beside the normal nutrient-past and similar when on mission do the Chapter’s food only consist of what is traditional served on the day/s for prayer and remembrance of the dead on their homeworld/recruitment-world/near space.

77. When not on duty the Chapter’s battle-brothers are expected to leave prayers and offerings/markings on the gravesites on the Chapter’s world/s.

78. Go to battle to funeral music. Maybe with the battle-brothers singing hymns.

79. All the Chapter’s serfs are trained mourners.

80. The battle-brothers have sad, pathetic faces and an air of melancholy around them.

81. Are often more interested in protecting the dead than the living.

82. There is something wrong with the Chapter’s gene-seed, making them rot while alive. The battle-brothers are likely under constant medical check-up when not in battle and are followed by a smell of the grave.

83. The Chapter take with them their dead when on mission and anoint the soil of the planets they will fight on by bury one of their fallen on it.

84. Each battle-brother of the Chapter carries a vial of their dead’s ashes/grave-soil/similar with him when on active duty, and with which the soil of any other planet he steps on is anointed.

85. After battle the Chapter keep a great memorial service for the fallen, they will likely expect any allied Forces to participate, and react hostile to any who don’t.

If people have suggestions of stuff that I could ad to it I'm all ears



Also, did anybody notice the Star Wars reference I put in the Alpha Legion Concepts table? Just want to know.

Something you could have is that Kurze in your AU was actually taking in by some kind of parent/mentor figure that grounded him more in humanity? Another thing that would probably be good for him and the Night Lords is if the Imperium leave some kind of policing force on Nostramo so it not just fall back into its old ways, maybe have Guilliman be together with the Emperor when he arrives and taking it up himself to fix the worst problems with the planet's society and leaving some of his bureaucrats and justice bringers to help the incoming Night Lords with their new homeworld.

 

Primaris Captain will use as a Lt. For now. As Dark Angels that will become a Company Master(Dark Angels Captains are called Company Masters) once i get some wing bitz to add to the helmet.

This week painting a Reiver squad. Glued them together today, will Prime them tomorrow before work. Paint on my Thursday and Friday night's off.

Early next week Amazon should deliver my Deathwing Command squad. They are doubly important as I love terminator armor and since the kit comes with multiple head options including Famous Dark Angels hoods that I can use for kitbashing to make Marines like my profile picture.

After that I am going to try to find some where that has a Belial or Asmodai miniatures in stock.

Goal is to paint an Grand Master Azrael and have a decent sized army to play by early next year. And since almost all DA officers are firstborn I have to add a good deal of Firstborn mini's.

 

My guess would be that this could come due to him being introduced to Magnus´s clique via Fulgrim. I feel this one time he reached out of Fulgrim was possibly the one time his fate could have been changed for the better. But of course Fulgrim betrayed his trust near instantly and thus ruined that. Here he doesn´t and thus I see Kurze carefully opening up to him. Maybe eventually Fulgrim could get Kurze to talk to Magnus, maybe mentioning how Magnus was able to help Perturabo with his disturbing visions. With Kurze in return also helping Mangnus at Nicea, which of course also further digusts Russ, Dorn, Vulkan and some of the other future traitors.


Also I know this thread is for 40k but I just want to say I´m very disapointed that the Wood Elves will get the next big content update in TWW, in fact a larger one than anyone before them. Warriors of Chaos and Beastmen really need theirs, pretty much since the day they where released.

 

Do folks think that any Chapter in 40k would be naive/uninformed enough to use tutelaries?

 

Chaos Marines maybe?

 

That's possible, but I was more thinking of Imperial Chapters

 

Don't know of any offhand other than Thousand Sons - what time period are you looking at? Horus Heresy era or later?

 

Later. 40k era

 

I like French for his Ahriman novels but feel he isn´t as good with Iron Warriors, really turns them into generic, bland bad guys. But that´s something I notice with pretty much every BL author, they all have characters, factions they excell at but others they just ruin.