Fluff for the Fluffless

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>no rainbow warriors

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Widowmakers sound fun, I made Tormentors into my personal army when there was a similar thread to this one, I'll eventually make a Kill Team to represent them on the table.

All that's known about the widowmakers is that they fought in the war on Armageddon

They have a really ignoble name, so I'd imagine they're pretty cynical, as far as chapters go. Closer to space wolves and storm wardens in personality.

Or they're a bunch of miserable bastards with no illusions about what they do.

Grim and dour and self-loathing and full of cold hate. For themselves and the rest of the Adeptus Astartes who laugh about their work like they are big damn heroes.

No astrtes is a good man.

They dream of obsolescence.

I think it would be a nice break in the pomp and circumstance all the fucking chapters seem to have. One chapter that has at least an amount of self awareness

These guys already have fluff. They're Raven Guard who like dakka more than stealth.

So they're similar to Marines Malevolent except without being poor as balls? Sounds nice, it must be the current popularity of overwatch but I cant stop imagining these guys being purple and sniping their targets.

I was just using the Lexicanum, which only has their history, nothing about the culture of the chapter.

Not all of these are 100% fluffless, but I tried to make sure if they did, it was around a paragraph or less

I don't know if they should be massive cocks like malevolents, just disillusioned

Penitents could have a much higher recruitment age as their genetic quirk.

And they recruit from death row and long sentence denizens of the hive worlds.

Sort of the Space Marine equivalent of the Penal Legion.

They fight to earn forgiveness that they know they can never earn because there isn't enough forgiveness for the shit they have done and if there is then it's been sold short.

All they have left is the dream of a beautiful death.

Known for their masochistic rituals, inability to back down and humility. Even going so far as to accept orders from human commanders.

The marines of the Widowmakers are selected, not recruited. The best and brightest are picked to go kill shit so their home planet doesn't have to. A positive mutation in their geneseed allows them to give it to men well into their twenties (muh mary sues), which is seen by the people of the world as bad instead of good because it increases the likelihood that your life will be taken from you so you can go be a Marine until you die.

The whole planet is a bunch of dreary fucks who were basically a penal colony mixed with a bunch of mercenaries and assorted brigands. They are something of a rogue backwater, only really interacting with the Imperium when the tithe comes around (if the adepts remember their world even exists). Even the PDF, Guard and Stormtroopers from this place really just don't like anything.

However, one of the "corrective" measures instituted by the Imperium was an educational program that focused heavily on civic duty. As the world's government has drifted more and more from standard Imperial policy, the other bits have wavered, yet that one has stood firm. Every citizen is a trained PDF soldier. The government has almost never had to draft for the tithe--all of their regiments are volunteers. Despite the massive rates of depression and anxiety among the populace, their suicide rate is among the lowest of all imperial worlds.

Being a Widowmaker, though... that fucking blows. Unlike being in the other branches of the military, where you get to die pretty quickly or come home after like 10 years, when you're a Marine, you're stuck there for a century or two. No coming back for you.

I'm imagining a chapter full of Bronn and Edd clones from Game of Thrones.

Given their pauldrons and their religious implications, self flagellation must be huge for them. Spending hours on their knees in front of an icon of the emperor whipping themselves for theirs and humanities' sins

I like the idea that their homeworld is a penal colony.

Fresh imports are indentured workers. Once their sentence is up, assuming they survive, they are citizens of the shit hole rather than slaves. Yaaay!

Now you don't get a modest meal per day and a place to sleep. Boooooo!

Most citizens of the Shithole are descendants of prisoners rather than ex prisoners due to the high turnover rate of the prisoners.

Main exports, bar the soldiers, marines and mercenary companies, is uranium. The planet has lots of uranium. This is why there are so few ex-prisoners and those that do survive are often irradiated sterile or have undiagnosed cancer.

That's more direct grimdark. I was going for "these guys have this utopian republic where everyone serves together but they all hate life regardless." Like, they have the thing that billions turn renegade or to Chaos for, and they don't even give a fuck.

I do like the indentured servitude, though. Fits thematically. And the uranium (maybe sulfur too, for extra GRIM AND DARK FORTY-FIRST MILLENIUM).

An interesting twist might be that the Penitents have a problem with their Catalepsean Node that, during their hypno-therapy, they lose memories of their mortal past. This leads to a kind of need for redemption without any real knowledge of what they did. They're constantly fighting for redemption of crimes, and its the Marine's own psychological self doubts that force them onward. Some Marines zealously drive themselves forward believing they had a roster of crimes so heinous and black that there is no real redemption for them other than in death.

That looks like art from a Deathwatch book, but I don't remember it at all. Is it from an FFG product or something GW did which I didn't see him in? Or is it just super high quality fan art?

Chimeric Imperial Fist/Iron Hands geneseed.

They could make up for their geneseed flaws with tech. Sounds kinda cool

They could have something similar to the Guardiens of the Covenant where they inscribe their armor and weapons with texts holy to the Arbites, including the (probably needless long) list of sins and Imperial citizen can commit

I found it on deviant art, so it could be fanart, but I think it's official.

Here's another, just incase. He's an exsanguinator, which don't have a canonical color scheme as far as I know

Well, it would make sense if they're all exslaves and excons/decedent from convicts. Their life is shitty, but so is everybody else's, so let's join up together and try to make things not so shitty however we can. Probably low crime rates (excluding brawl-type violence and some forced slavery), good sense of community, and what I would imagine is a formidable PDF, although I'm picturing this place as pretty small and on some shitty moon/desolate world

The Knights of Dorn have an awesome color scheme.

Aren't these the Space Marines that got lost in the warp and are rumoured to be the Legion of the Damned?

I thought that was the Star Scorpians

There are some really good schemes tucked away in all these chapters

How's power flail for special chapter weapon?

Also, maybe instead of death row adults, they can use incarcerated child delinquents? Imperium's gotta do something with them

Pretty sure that was the flame falcons. Astral Claws became the Red Corsairs, maybe that's what your thinking of?

Fire Hawks you mongrels, Fire Hawks.

The Dictators are Iron Hands descendants who force their "flesh is weak" motif on the planetary populace in the typical grimdark fashion. Whole worlds populations are converted in what amounts to little more than a planet of servitors and servo skulls. Needless to say they aren't liked very much by the Guard or other Marine chapters, however they have good relations with some of the more Puritan members of the Mechinicus due to both their devotion to the Ommnisiah (some would say to the point of placing it above the Emperor), and because they provide them with millions of newely minted servitors as cheap labor after each conquest.

Right. Flame Falcons are just constantly on fire which implies and they may also be related to those constantly on fire guys who keep showing up out of no where and saving the day.

I'd imagine their chapter specialty would be fielding more techmarines. They could alternatively rely heavily on combat servitors, being an understrength chapter who make up for it with hordes of servos mounted with bolters

Of course, they'd be well within the Mechicums good graces to have plenty of Tech Marines within the Chapter. They'd recruit from Mechanicus Forge worlds that they visit to resupply and sell off their servitor "stock" to unscrupulous Magos'. Some would say they're a little too comfey with the Mechanicus, and much anger has been directed their way by more honorable chapters for their profiteering and the "slave trade" they help perpetuate of unwilling converts to Serivtorhood.

They would much rather go halfway across the Galaxy to defend a forge world than to defend and Agri-world just 2 sectors away...unless they have room in the shop for more "goods". of course.

Also they'd be fleet based, operating in more wild regions of the Galaxy. seeking to crush worlds that rebel against the Imperium in order to bring them back into the fold, this time with no possibility of rebellion.

I don't know how I feel about fleet based. Seems like these guys would LOVE to get into the nitty gritty of running a totalitarian military state.

Well, I suppose they could have a world or too that they come back to. Maybe it's a part of their own realm and they collect their own tithe of people to "convert" every so often? It would have its own planetary governor when they're gone, but it's de facto controlled by the Dictators.

Emperor's Shadows would be a pain in the ass, but they're so pretty.

What do you think for colors? I was thinking red, yellow, and black

The world would basically be an imperial world run like a 1984-esque dystopia. People would live their lives in fear that they next will be taken, but believe that if they work hard enough that they, somehow, might be spared from the wrath of their unforgiving masters once they come again. The Dictator marines themselves hold absolute authority and control over the populace, their word is law. Despite all this, the populace love the Dictators, seeing them as their guardians who thousands of years past freed them from the clutches of Chaos. Any price, be it their infant sons or their spouse, is seen by them as being insufficient enough to repay the marines for their protection. The Dictators, of course, are more than happy with this arrangement.
Sounds perfect. Their logo should be eerily similar to that of a fasces in my opinion, maybe with a Power Axe or a Hammer representing the Mechanicus.

Most certainly not the most original color scheme, but I gave it a shot.

Yeah, definitely a shit planet or moon. What planet would they be from? Maybe just some nameless, numbered imperial designation?

J10-2M5?

Sector initial: J
System: 10
Planet: 2
Moon: 5

Paint scheme ideas?

Orange, grey, burgundy?

Er, we could always roll? I don't see that color scheme working out at all

Just use whatever comes up
coolors.co/app

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I'd like to fluff out the Guardians of the Covenant more, but they actually have a surprisingly decent amount of lore for a background successor chapter. Only thing I can think of that could use some elaboration in regards to them is their homeworld, which I imagine as being a fairly typical feudal world. Although, I don't know why, I can't help but imagine it having some Eastern European themes, despite the chapter itself having a more Western aesthetic. Maybe it's just because I'm sick of "Generic Western European World XIV."

I also feel like they'd have an unusual amount of archaeotech due to:
>Successors of the Dark Angels
>Their mission to gather and maintain lost lore
>Being out in the middle of virtually unexplored space allows them to have first dibs on lost human tech

well I've played Black Templars for about 15 years, and over the years the warhammer artwork and the warhammer models in general have gotten a lot better. about 4 years ago I completely redid my army from when I was a kid and gave it a more refined look. I bought a bunch of dark angel veterans and converted them with templar bits to make robed templars, which I thought looks pretty cool. Now that im getting back into the game and painting my army up they're coming out very nicely, but I couldn't help but notice how similar the sister of battle look to the templars.

So I thought it would be cool to make my own custom chapter of templars/sisters and go for a medieval chapel/monastery vibe. Once I get the brothers painted up ill try my hand at making the sisters look a little more nun-ish, then write some custom lore for my crusade. Haven't thought of a name for them yet and I'd need to justify why they work together as one army, but thats all part of the fun.

now for chapters that don't have any lore existing I think the Twilight Swords sound pretty cool. all thats described about them is that they gain rank through honour duels and prefer 1 on 1 combat over any advanced tactical plans.

as far as anything else goes they are completely unknown, don't even have a colour scheme.

off the top of my head im thinking a dark blue lightning pattern over black armour would look cool.

Those guys are my favorite chapter I think. I remember that they stay in their fuckhuge cathedral on their homeworld, so I'd imagine they entire planet theocratic, ruled by monks and their hierarchies, with everyone being reclusive and self governed. And everyone would take a pilgrimage at some point in their life just to look at the cathedral

your chapter could have lost a lot of men fighting to save a sister's shrine world, and decided to make it a dual homeworld to commemorate their victory together and faith in the emperor, or some shit

Twilight Swords sounds badass, I'll think of some stuff while I'm trying to fall asleep

Theres a a lot of fanfic backstory on them on some obscure blog. It's pretty well written, to be honest: guardiansotc.blogspot.com

The writer has them partake in a Practicum and a Theoreticum, the former being martial sills and the latter being arts and science related.

pretty good idea, and similar to the one I had partially cooked up. I originally wanted my templars to be a spin off of the templars that fought at helsreach, reading the story again I see there were also sisters of battle at helsreach, so I think I have my event that brought them together.

Not bad, pretty good option

There's some cool Indonesian/Filipino dueling traditions that involve invoking one's ancestors into their machete's blade to get their vengeance, and summoning their gods to inhabit their weapon to ensure justice was met not at the wills of mortals.

It also sounds like these guys have very loose structure, so I'd imagine they're mostly a chapter that relies on strict hierarchy to stay in line. We could take an Asian influence to build off of to continue on with the above theme. The first thing that comes to my mind is Japan, could base the chapter of some pseudo-ryukyuan culture.

I'm (slowly) building a force of Knights of Blood. The minimal amount of canon infor there is says that they're a crusading Blood Angels successor who have been excessively bloodthirsty and wound up being declared renegades.

As far as my take on the matter goes, there are a dwindling number of aged veterans and dreadnoughts who comprise the leadership of the chapter, and who consider themselves honourable servants of the Emperor. They want the chapter to redeem itself and continue the crusade in order to atone for past misdeeds. The problem they're having is that new recruits are falling increasingly speedily to the red thirst and black rage, and that the younger members of the chapter are increasingly enamoured with war for war's sake. Heavy attrition and a need to keep on the move to avoid Imperial entanglements causes them to recruit large numbers of aspirants at a rapid pace from worlds they visit. These aspirants form an auxiliary force, which the strongest survivors are drawn from for induction into the chapter. This whole process has created a death-cult of sorts among the auxiliaries and newer troops, one which the chapter elders are blind to, whether by ignorance or denial. Unbeknownst to them, the lower levels of the chapter are verging on the Khornate, and for some of the death company in the depths of the black rage it is not visions of Sanguinius that they see, but the blood god instead.

I really want fluff for the Terror Tigers.

warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Terror_Tigers

Their Chapter Master commits suicide because he lost a fourth of his marines defending his planet from an invasion by a mutant warlord. And that's pretty much all she wrote.

Wot?

I was looking at them too!

I'm saying cyberpunk marines

I really like this idea, a chapter with a few morally worthwhile marines trying desperately to stop everyone from turning into huge peices of shit that they're eager to be. A delicate race against the clock to preserve their army without messing everything up. Have anything painted? I'm curious to see how that silver and red works out

I always like the name and emblem of these guys, I think it's cool

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I love it. Thanks a lot user

There's a story about the Angels Penitent that is about this exact thing. The chapter was introduced to new "methods" of controlling the Red Thirst, but only a handful of marines in the chapter realize that they're complete bullshit and are instead dooming the chapter to chaos.

The Blood Drinkers are going through a similar problem with the Rite of Holos but theirs has been a much more gradual descent.

We should do a new chapter: The "Crimson Red Angels of the Imperial Emperor."

Forgive the poor picture quality, here's some of the ones I'm a bit further along with.

I see it less as an attempt to control the red thirst, and more that instead of taking the care over recruitment and the spiritual welfare of their marines, the chapter veterans have prioritised keeping their numbers up so that they can try to crusade and win back a place in the Imperium. The idea is that that approach is eroding what remains of the chapter's more noble traditions and leading them ever further in the wrong direction.

That's some high quality painting, my man. I'm really digging that contemptor

Sucks about this chapter being dissolved, this is a really nice shade of orange, which is pretty under represented in the Space Marines

Guardians of the Covenant are my pet chapter actually. One thing that strikes me about them is their focus on knowledge and learning. I would think the chapter would have a large emphasis on their Librarius given this focus. Would it make sense to blend the Librarius with highr ranks of the chapter or even have a Librarian Chapter master? Or would that be too mary sue?

I've got an idea for the Halo Brethren:

>The Halo Brethren have a fucked up geneseed that takes a lot longer to be fully accepted into a neophyte's body, meaning they can't replenish their forces as quickly as other chapters. The Chapter got fucked over a lot harder than the Fists or the Sable Swords when they went to kill the Grand Master of the Assassin's, signifying the beginning of their downfall. Several key battles they took part in afterwards, victory or defeat, they lost many battle-brothers, leaving them at ~200 left. To mitigate their lack of manpower, they use highly battle serfs as auxiliaries along side their marines, as well as having two companies of Scouts, so as to have a constant stream of marines coming in. The battle serfs would be trained under members of the veteran scout and select few marines to make sure the serfs are battle-ready and well versed in marine tactics.

>The marines proper of their chapter spend most of their time in brutally intensive training on their homeworld to ensure their survival and effectiveness. The marines are incredibly skilled to make up for the fact that they'd essentially be deploying on a battlefield by themselves. As a result of the time, training, and diminished numbers of the marines, each marine is considered highly sacred, with the preservation of their battle-brothers being of the highest priority, both for marines and serfs. Serfs more often give their lives to put themselves in between a bullet and their angels, and the peasants of their home-world are raised in worship of their protectors, so they have no shortage of serfs. They are not above retreat to minimize casualties.

>Because of their uncommon structure, use of normal humans in battle, and self preserving nature, they are treated with little regard among their peers, despite the combat prowess of each individual marine.

Could use some refining, but that's what I came up with

I tried my hand at a color scheme. Anyone know the one sight that has all the gear and different MK armors and all that stuff?

That's some real shitty photoshop

>Family of males sharing a common parent numbering 1000
>Their symbol is a big M

Blood Ravens have a successor chapter?

Or it could just mean that each brother is a warrior-scholar.

Yeah, they're probably my favorite as well. I think it's because of they're kick-ass aesthetic combined with them apparently being the only Dark Angels successor that doesn't have a stupidly single-minded obsession with the Fallen.

I also dig their drove to preserve knowledge and seemingly being more caring of the average citizen than their brother chapters.

That's pretty cool. I know what I'm reading this afternoon.

Also, I agree with you on the larger Librarian emphasis. Maybe not leading the chapter, but likely having greater significance at least.

This

Celestial Lion brother chapter/successors?

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