Tuesday, June 28, 2011

The Ghost Riders, Conclusion

Last time, on Tales of Horror!

And now, the thrilling conclusion of The Adventures of Boss Groinkikka!

     The rest of the night passed uneventfully. The orks might have been a bit more restless that night. They might have held their choppas a little tighter than usual. They might have dreamed scary dreams, if orks dream the way we do. But the boss told them to go to sleep, and so sleep they did. Orks may be unique in the galaxy as being the only race that fears what they know more than what they do not know. Though capable of making great intuitive leaps, Orks lack in traditional imagination. They did not know about the Ghost Riders; they did not know about monomolecular blades or jezails or vicious mutie beasts. What they did know about was Boss Groinkikka and his big choppa and his big shoota, and therefore that was what they feared.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Better Know a Chapter - the Steel Revenants: questions and answers

Technically, it's Wedmesday, but I've been in and out of internet lately, so we'll just call it tuesday plus ten minutes and leave it at that.

I found these questions on the Bolter and Chainsword's DIY marines guide and decided to fill them in. It's helped me flesh out some of the details regarding the Steel Revenants. I suppose now that I accidentally created two new Chapters I should probably fill them out a couple more times for the Knights of Glory and the Dragons Rampant.

Origins:

* When was your Chapter formed?
Late M34 ~ Early M35 (16th Founding)
* Why were they created?
One of three chapters founded to assist the conquest of the Aetherium star cluster and consolidate the Imperium's holdings in the remote regions of the Segmentum Pacificus.

Homeworld:

* Does your Chapter have a homeworld?
Lucifer
* Where is it?
Segmentum Pacificus, in the Kokytus system.
* What is it like?
Scarred, meteorite-battered, fossilized remnants of a once-beautiful world. One of the least hospitable worlds in the Kokytus system, it was chosen for its defensibility and because the ruins of a forgotten Space Marine chapter's fortress-monastery were discovered in a high mountain. Within this fortress the ancient Dreadnought Vercingetorix slumbered away the untold millennia.
* How has your homeworld affected your Chapter?
Chapter organization shifted; due to necessity of subterranean living, each company prefers to exist independently, drawing as much upon its own resources as possible. The exceptions are the Scout and Terminator companies, which each contribute to the other companies. Each company tends to have a specialization that it does better than any other.

Combat Doctrine

* How does your Chapter fight?
Mobile armoured tactics, fierce drop-pod assaults. Special affinity for plasma weapons.
* Why do they fight this way?
Plasma is especially effective vs. resilient orks and the light vehicles they favor.
* Are there any examples of your Chapter's battle-history?
- The Waaagh! of H'roggut Goretoof, Slayer of Several
- The Waaagh! of Guthul Blackfist, Skurj O' Da Stars
- The Purging of Oxia
- First Waaagh! of Pug'Lak the Unclean
- The Eldar Incursion
- The Akeldama Heresy
- The Eldar Invasion
- The Seccond Waaagh! of Pug'Lak the Unclean
- The Cortez Nebula Incident
-The Third Waaagh! of Pug'Lak the Unclean

Organisation

* How is your Chapter organised?
The Steel Revenants are primarily a codex-adherent chapter. They deviate in that each Company strives to remain as independent as possible. They each maintain a stock of Terminator armour, a motorpool, and a command structure. The Council of Ancients, composed of the ten Company Captains, their seconds, representatives of the Forge, Cult, and Librarium, and the Chapter Master, governs the deployment of the Chapter's forces and the everyday workings of the Chapter. The Chapter Master holds the final say in all disputes between companies, but a Chapter Master can be voted from his position by the Company Captains if they unanimously agree upon a replacement. This has happened only once in the Chapter's history.
Beliefs

* What comprises your Chapter's belief system?
The Chapter worships the Emperor as a trinity: His physical form, a level of bodily perfection which no mortal flesh can attain; His spiritual form, which watches them constantly, guiding them through the Astronomican and protecting them from the perils of the Warp and the dangers of doubt and questions, and the Omnissiah, His eye which watches through every machine and moves the cogs which, in turn, move the Imperium.
* Why does your Chapter hold these beliefs?
Their fortress-monastery is in the same system as an Adeptus Mechanicus forge-world. Their close ties to the Mechanicus has lead to the prominence of the Omnissiah in the Chapter Cult.
* How have these beliefs affected your Chapter?
Because the Steel Revenants view their bodies, genetically modified though they may be, as inferior to the Emperor and incapable of approaching His perfection, they seek instead to invite the Emperor into their bodies through the Omnissiah. As such, bionic modifications are extremely common, with implants being regarded as nearly as precious as gene-seed. Steel Revenants will take great pains to retrieve the entire body of each fallen marine, as some implants date back to the Horus Heresy and before.

Geneseed

* Which Primarch does your Chapter descend from? Is your Chapter aware of its genetic legacy, or have they lost their records?
Iron Hands, with a Dreadnought of unknown age and unknown gene-seed, but presumed to be Iron Hands.
* Which Chapter was your Chapter created from? The original legion itself, or one of the successor
Iron Hands Successor Successor.

Chapters?

* Why have you chosen that gene-seed?
My chapter's affinity for bio-enhancement and mechanized tactics lead me to the Iron Hands.
* Has your gene-seed mutated in any way?
The Ossmodula implant sometimes fails to function. As a result some Steel Revenants are unable to recieve the Black Carapace implant. Marines who are incapable of wearing Powered Armour either become permanently attached to the Scout Company, or are assigned to assist the Chapter's Techpriests. The most prominent example of these are the Steel Children, heavily modified disciples of the techmarine known as the Steel Father.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Entombed V

Moar ENTOMBED!

"That was boldly done, Crusade-Captain. It may not have been wise." Vercingetorix and Aleksos stood atop Saint's Hill, surveying the wreckage of the morning's battle. The dreadnought's voice rolled down the hill like miniature thunder. On Vercingetorix's left side, a techmarine was directing servitors in the repairs of his damaged arm.


"I did what was necessary, Lord Revenant. The Commissar's incompetence may have already cost us this planet. He had formal charges written up for every officer at that table for dress uniform violations. By the Throne, there's a war on and he's worried about torn sleeves and tarnished medals. I did the planet a service."

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Crusade-Captain Aleksos - A Brief History (Part I)

Character bio time!

     Crusade-Captain Damion Aleksos is a great living hero of the Steel Revenants chapter, and one of the most respected members of the Chapter council. A native of the subterranean tribes of the Revenants' homeworld, Lucifer, Aleksos's life has been full of trial and hardship. Aleksos was considered too small and too weak by his family, and was sold into the serfhood to the Steel Revenants by parents who saw him as nothing more than a hungry little burden. They expected him to die on some far-off world or become a menial servitor. Xiphon Akefia, the Chapter Master at the time, took a personal liking to Aleksos and began to mentor the young boy, grooming him for a much more promising future as a battle-brother and, eventually, a leader.