Imperium Asunder

Ice Dinosaurs edition
This is a 40k alt-lore thread, new posters are welcome I guess
1d4chan.org/wiki/Imperium_Asunder

It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Galaxy has been beset by strife and torn by war. The Emperor, who had once dreamed of uniting the Galaxy under His banner, is long dead. Half of the Primarchs, his demigod sons turned against him, and in a climactic battle on Terra the Emperor was cast down. With his death, Terra was consumed by a Warpstorm and half the Imperium fell forever under the shadow of Chaos.

Other urls found in this thread:

1d4chan.org/wiki/Imperium_Asunder
youtube.com/watch?v=aM_fvZyx7eI
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

I think we should rewrite the introduction a bit, remove the references to 1984 and Verdun and such

Anyone there?

no

Yup.

Depression kicked in. 3/4 down the depth of a big bottle of Famous Grouse.

Was quite some way into Skorban's Elite write up in a last ditch attempt to make them not fucking awful.

But I'm just doing it for me rather than because it's good. Or even acceptably bad.

Have a Mirriam. everyone loves the good sister.

I agree with this.

It works as a description for discussing the concept, but as a setting overview it's sort of jarring.

So, Crusades.

There have been thirteen Loyalist Crusades. What about Black Crusades? Do they still call them that? How many should there have been? Less, right, since they're sort of in the position of the regular Imperium in main canon?

How many of the Daemon Primarchs would actually do what [REDACTED] says if he ordered a Black Crusade?

Whoops, forgot to put in the previous thread:

Sorry to hear that fampai. Who's Miriam?

Miriam Godwinson, from Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

More house Hekaton.

More knights in general

But first, Sarco and Fenris have inspired me. I may now work on the Karadon Cold Ones!

>Karadon Cold Ones

Ride raptor mounts.

Karadon is a world of ice and fire. Its seasons are at the mercy of the planet's tectonic instability and the dangerous asteroid ring too close for safety. When the world is stable and the skies are clear, the lands freeze and the oceans hide under thick ice. When the Ring of Fire around the equator erupts violently, it pumps gases into the atmosphere that trap the sun's heat and scorches the surface, plummeting Karadon into darkness and fire. But woe truly comes when the rare asteroid impacts the planet, shattering it and awakening ancient creatures from deep within the crust. To compete with the machinations of the universe, the Saurians of Karadon have evolved adaptations specific to each event, the ecosystem alternating with the cycle of ice and fire. In the times of fire, cold-blooded predators emerge from their slumber, smelling the sulfur and blood that choke the atmosphere. In the times of ice the cold-blooded Saurians hibernate and make way for the hot-blooded ones, who scour the land for prey.

The people of Karadon too have adapted to the cycle. They are a primitive collection of tribes, too backwards to be called civilized, whose culture is based on the Saurians. They hunt them, eat them, capture them, tame them, and ride them. When the Undying Scions come to Karadon and the Karadoni give their pound of flesh, they bring their beasts with them. Thus the Karadon Cold Ones are two regiments: The Cold Years who master the tundra and ice fields, and the Hot Years whose Saurians excel in the heat. Their pets are all manner of beast, from the miniscule petaraptors to the colossal gigarexes, their teeth all sharp and deadly.

Okay, now for Argon, then Hekaton.

So when I refer to the Fire-Eaters, does anybody know what real-world thing it references?

Those guys at the circus. Or people who suck at roasting marshmallows.

Crusades on either side always go into the same place: The Contested Zone. Perhaps a few of the biggest Black Crusades might even hit the Tempestus Gap, but whether any have ever gone any further is unlikely. Both sides are constantly fighting over the same lousy patch of space, with the Firewall preventing any more than nuisance raids on wider areas of the Crusader States or the Dark Imperium.

Prepare to have your mind blown. I know mine was when I chose that name.

>The performers
People who eat fire. You understand why a regiment of pyromaniacs would go by that name.

>The politicians called Fire-Eaters
These were Southern politicians during the Antebellum period who supported secession throughout the 1850's. They are partially responsible for the Civil War.

>Assholes with short tempers
According to the dictionary, a fire-eater is
a : a violent or pugnacious person
b : a person who displays very militant or aggressive partisanship

I called them the Fire-Eaters because it sounded cool, then I looked it up and I was like,"Yeah, these guys need to be space-Southerners."

So where is nocturne in this AU?

>House Hekaton
Greek dakka knights

Hades is a world of steep cliffs and plateaus, where the people live content as they plant seed and mine precious minerals. It is the ward of House Hekaton, the Chthonic patrons of wealth and death. From the underground lair of Tartaros they watch over the planet, keep it safe from repugnant invaders. When the Fists of Mars call upon them, the Hekatonkires answer. They bring fire and terror from the depths of Tartaros, and take a hundred weapons to bear against xenos and Chaos hordes. The modus operandi of House Hekaton is overwhelming firepower. They often forgo close combat weapons for additional weaponry, exchanging the sword and the clenched fist for the cannon. Their favored pattern is the Knight Crusader, a paragon of long-ranged destruction.

In your spouse. Shouldn't have gone to Sweden, man.

replaced with the homeworld of an AU primarch

Presumably just another Death World in the zone between the Crusader States. Hardly worth fighting over.

And is their color scheme a dull metal with hazard stripes?

>Argon Silverbacks

>Argon Apemen

Argon is a stormy ocean world, with only one large island that houses a massive prison. This is the Argon Correctional Facility, the home of countless inmates and the charge of the most brutal prison guards in the Jade Empire. The scum of the galaxy are in a constant conflict with their jailers, a never-ending battle between the criminals craving freedom and the guards who must violently repress their desire for such. It is prime ground for Chaos influence and infiltration, and the jailers must be ever-vigilant for the spread of heresy within the facility, and would not bat an eye if they had to purge the prison as they have many times before.

The inhospitable conditions are the perfect environment to raise tough and violent warriors, but it also creates violent sociopaths who have a disdain for authority. The Sky Serpents come by to sweep up penal soldiers from the planet, sending the weaponized criminals called the Argon Apemen to battle with explosives where one of their kidneys should be. They are a rabble of unlucky but undeserving souls, convicts trudged up from many gangs and cell blocks, an assortment of ogryns and ratlings mixed with less-than-pure aliens, that would be as prone to fighting themselves and their allies as the enemy if not for the scars on their bellies reminding them of their duties.

However, the Apemen alone are not sufficient for the war effort. From the jailers of Argon are drawn the elite troops, the Apemen's alpha so to speak. The Argon Silverbacks bring with them the tools of their trade: shotguns, lasguns, carapace armor, riot shields, repressor transports, and brutal techniques and inventions for controlling unruly cons. Behind a thick line of cybernetically-controlled bullgryns and rhinos they hide as they advance down streets, moving from building to building to clear them of the enemy.

I was thinking black and pink.

Which reminds me, Valhalla. Bastion World of the Jade Empire?
Where every day is Stalingrad?

Stalingrad is best Grad.

It's on the Firewall, so if it isn't gone it would be almost untouchable save perhaps by occasional Chaos Raiders. Dynath would be more of a Bastion World. It borders the Maelestron, which inside it would be a convenient place for Chaos Raiding Forces to lie low before striking out against the Jade Empire and the Undying Vigil. Indeed some Chaos forces may well be able to navigate through the Warp to the Maelstrom slipping through the cracks in the Firewall.

This setting needs catachans. Catachans that wear armor.. it needs.. Apocalypse Now.

It needs Apocalypse later.

Although I think I'll recycle my Avalon Guard concept as a sneaky British commandos regiment

>Avalon Manslayers
Sneaky totally-not-an-amalgamation-of-British-commandos-and-hunters

>space SAS
Fund it.

>Soapius?
>Pricus?

Pick one of the below, people. I still got an hour left.

>Tor Ironheads
Space-Prussians, ride cybernetic mounts.

>Corps 0
Super sekret semi-supersoldiers, literally Guard on steroids, close combat and suicide attacks

>Vytorian High Guard
Patton IN SPACE, armored warfare

>Grogan Thunderheads
Space North to the Fire-Eaters' Space South, artillery specialists

>idk yet
Sisters of Battle, but Guard.

>Avalon Manslayers
Sneaky totally-not-an-amalgamation-of-British-commandos-and-hunters

>House Conquista (Working title)
Spanish Conquistador knights.

>House Rammstein (Two "M"s)
Renegade Landsknecht knights

Corps 0.

[Projector whirs to life, showing a well appointed library room with an enormous, majestic figure standing, holding a book]
You've probably got a lot of questions, such as where am I? Who are you? Where is my prison shank? Where the fuck are my kidneys?
Well, I'm Han Feizi of the Sky Serpents Legion, praefector of the Imperial Correctional System.
As you probably are aware, most criminals are eventually brought back in to Jade Empire society as productive members.
[Image skips]
However, every so often, someone slips through the cracks and has to be sent to a world like Argon. And sometimes, even time on Argon isn't recompense enough, so I have good news and bad news. You'll probably see both as bad news, but that's ok.
The good news is that you are being given a chance at redemption in the service of the Emperor Ascendant.
The bad news, for you, anyways, is that this redemption can only be bought in the blood of the enemies of the Jade Empire.
Upon your death, if found worthy in His eyes, you will be reunited with your kidney and allowed to slay His enemies in the next world. Consider the kidney we took a down payment.
Now, you're probably sore about your prison shank. I know I would be. But that's ok, because we've got better things! Over the next few weeks you will learn to use regulation las-carbines and chain-swords, and be treated to delicious kidney-pie! How wonderful for you.
So, enjoy your service to the Jade Empire, we're counting on you.

>1st Crusade
The Loyalists recover after the insanity of the warp after the Emperor's death. Malcador manages to establish safe warp lanes and the loyalist survivors are all finally in contact after the flight from Terra. Engerand and Xun Tohilcoatl insist they push through the Tempestus gap, but Sarco Funerus and Alexios the White are more cautious, still cowed by the death of their father and their beloved brother Klaus Staffel. Sarco does not yet tell his brothers of the secret remains he took from the ruins of Terra. Hotter heads prevail, and crusader fleets move through the Tempestus Gap. They stray too far from Malcador's Astral Beacons, and warp travel becomes far more difficult. Iron Heart and Behemoth Guard fortress worlds in the chaos marches are assaulted as safe havens and beach-heads for further invasion. The Warmaster's response is overwhelming, sending every body and machine of war he could muster to shut the tempestus gap with dead crusaders. Long and bloody war lasts for centuries until Malcador the Sigilite recalls the loyalist Primarchs for a Council of Titans. The Council argues for many months, but finally it is decided to call an end to the Crusade, and instead fortify the East and rebuild what they could.

>Corps 0

The concerns of the Dark Imperium lie not in the preservation of its people, but the destruction of the galaxy. Aboard a secret space station in deep space are a myriad of dark projects conducted by the Dark Mechanicus, among them the production of suicide troops pumped full of combat drugs and low-quality bionics. Corps 0 is their designation, an impersonal designation that highlights their lack of humanity. Placed in cryosleep, a regiment of Corps 0 is shipped off in a transport to their first and last battle, where they shall achieve their one mission and perish.

Corps 0 burns quickly like a raging inferno, destroying everything in its path before succumbing to wounds or their own enhancements, both chemical and cybernetic. The Corps 0 regiment is given its target - a hill, a fortress, a titan or baneblade company - and unleashed on the battlefield. Zero Troopers rush their enemy in a suicidal charge, ignoring the pain of gunfire and flying shrapnel, and meet the enemy in close quarters. With reflexes temporarily enhanced they tear opponents limb from limb until either the enemy or the enhancements kill them, and without any concern for their own well-being they tackle vehicles and equipment with explosives strapped to them. The soldiers of Corps 0 were not meant to live; if their own cybernetics don't tear themselves from the flesh, or if their combat stims don't cause catastrophic organ shutdown, then the enemy would certainly kill them. However, even if the attack fails, it is all but certain that Corps 0 had inflicted enough damage for a follow-up attack to finish the job.

What if they're motivated by the personal belief that the Warmaster is watching their deaths? They're bleached of individuality, but are motivated by it, akin to the DeathKorps, but here it's a quest for definition via the ways of the warmaster, a full cult of personality for the warmaster.

>What if they're motivated by the personal belief that the Warmaster is watching their deaths? They're bleached of individuality, but are motivated by it, akin to the DeathKorps
>akin to the DeathKorps
Don't get me wrong, I love the Death Korps, but their thing is already "emotionless killing machines with no regard for their own well-being," which is a bit close to the Death Korps already. I imagine them not as thinking of themselves as equipment, but not thinking at all. Like they wake up, things happen in a blur, and then their bionic heart pumps so hard it tears itself from the arteries and they die.

Death Korps have a complex to the extreme. Corps 0 only has bloodlust and brainwashing.

I want to read a mystery novel set on spookyTerra where a hiveslave's brother is disappeared by the Eyes and he tracks him down and discovers Corps 0 x-files style.

Badass.
Do you think they have any concept of what's going on? Like some sort of obsessive stream of conciousness flow about the warmaster?
Or are just so stoned out of their minds that they're non-entities.

Also badass.

Terra should be a boringpunk dystopia

Engerand and the Storm Hammers seem like the faction which would always provide troops to such an endeavor. Their role is a bloody, messy affair where their sole purpose is to strike as hard as possible against the defenses of the Dark Imperium.

But they are also a crusader state. Too concerned with internal politics and the politics / land grabs of the other states.

As I understood it, they were pretty feudal in structure, with the worlds set up to hold against Bloodhound hunts and provide forces for the continual minor crusades of the Hammers.

They are like all crusader states, keen maintain their borders and defend from the occassional incursion. But the biggest thing in this setting is the fractious state the imperials are in. They wont help each other without a reason. They have trade agreements and unite against serious threats but by and large look out for themselves

>2nd Crusade
A gap opens up in the firewall near the Vigil Worlds on the far side of the Maelstrom. The light of the firewall which had bathed these worlds for centuries suddenly went dark. From the skies come screaming the Negators. Many border worlds fall and the Undying Scions are baited into a response. The region of space between the Maelstrom and the firewall is claimed by the Negators, and soon reinforced by Behemoth Guard, Bloodhounds, and Silver Spears. Rumor among the traitors is that Sarco Funerus managed to recover the Emperor's corpse from Terra as it burned, and the daemon primarchs wish to claim it for their own selfish ambitions. The traitors are able to use the Maelstrom as a shield, with chokepoints to the galactic north and south. Scions and Sky Serpents form an anvil to the south while the Storm Hammers crash in from the north.

A major distractionary raid on the fallen forgeworld of Ryza by the Fists of Mars buys time for the Sky Serpents to enact a ritual on the psycho-reactive world of Prospero to reignite the Firewall, but despite this cooperation, both the Sky Serpents and Fists of Mars come under criticism for a reticence to share their findings on these lost worlds, while the Scions accuse the Angels of Light of deliberate delays even as the other legions demand answers as to the disposition of the Emperor's corpse.

The door slid open and the prisoner entered.
The Astartes behind the desk looked up from his data-slate.
"Prisoner 3X91722, is it? Formerly known as the Butcher of Calwar Hive. I believe you had some sort of dispute with your selection for the Argon Silverbacks?"
The Astartes did not wait for 3X91722 to confirm this.
"I believe that you are laboring under the delusion that you have say in the matter. You can serve willingly and perhaps earn the Emperor's Peace, or we can take you out into the yard and execute you and use your body for a combat servitor."
He paused a moment.
"But I believe that your objection was more nuanced, that by resorting to these tactics we were somehow sinking to your level, that our sanctioning of servitor-conversion and the very existence of the Argon Silverbacks was an admission that power exists in what you can seize, the rest is simply window-dressing."
3X91722 smirked, this is exactly what he had in mind.
"And to this, Prisoner 3X91722, I say good job. Clever boy. You've found me out and now I am aghast. We do indeed rule through the implicit promise of force."
A pause. A smile.
"You have discovered what we teach in Imperial schools, and what we preach in the Cathedrals. The important detail you missed is that what we do, we do for the good of humanity. The life of an Astartes is a life of service. We are a race apart, created to serve baseline humanity, a species which, as you all too clearly demonstrate, is often our inferior. So yes, the Astartes rule and command the Chaotai. Mortals also sit on the Chaotai, but the difference between your murders and ours is that ours are part of a careful plan to protect these worlds.
3X91722, everyone must serve, either the whims of cruel and selfish gods or the cold calculus of a cruel state that does what it must to protect a species in a hostile universe. As a free man, you were weak and gave in to the voices and your own shortsighted caprice.

You are here offered a chance to atone, to stand strong as a human, as one of the Emperor's children. You are given a choice, a final choice. Do you stand in defiance of the gods and daemons? Or are you too weak, and do you surrender? Either way, 3X91722, you will serve the Jade Empire, either as a man or as a servitor. The choice is yours."

Posting this again

"Traitor!"

Rain fell like ice picks on Marius' ceramite form. Wind howled around him as lightning flashed nearby. If there was thunder, Marius did not hear it over what the words of the towering dreadnought before him.

"DO YOU NOT SEE, BROTHER?", Orpheus boomed, "THE DEAD ONES ARE OUR SALVATION!"

Orpheus' chassis was marred with filthy xenotech: obstructing the dark purple of their legion colors from view was a shiny black substance. Necrodermis, as the heretekal magos that Marius had purged called it.

"Xenos shall have no dominion over Mankind or its works," Marius replied, quoting one of the tenets that the Emperor had laid forth at the outset of the Great Crusade. One that he had oft repeated to himself during the past months. "They have naught to offer us but death and misery."

"THESE ALIENS ARE OLDER THAN MANKIND. OLDER EVEN THAN THE EMPEROR HIMSELF," came the retort. "HE HAD NO INKLING OF THE TECHNOLOGIES THAT THEY POSSESS. THEY CAN EVEN SAVE US FROM DEATH.”

“The path you go down can only lead to ruination!” Marius warned.

“THE IMMORTAL ONES SEEK TO EXTERMINATE THE CAPRICIOUS ELDAR. THEY CAN RESTORE TO LIFE THE INTERRED.”

“The sarcophagi grant us strength, brother. The Eldar can be beat back with the help of our ally states!”

“THEY CAN LIFT THE VILE WARP-CURSE THAT HOLDS OUR FATHER.”

It was then that Marius knew his brother was too far gone to see reason. There was only one way to cure him of his delusion.

Marius detonated the melta charges.

I'd imagine it's like fading in and out of consciousness. The low starts to come and you become slightly consciously aware of your surroundings, then the automated injection kicks and things just blur together. You can't make out whether you killed this guy first or the other guy, you just know you have to keep moving.

And then you punch somebody so hard your cybernetic arm's anchoring comes loose.

>Beaming with pride

>two years earlier

Marius waited in the council antechamber. While his actions at the battle of Callathrax were brutal, they were very necessary, and he intended to prove it.
"You may enter." came the monotone voice of the retainer servitor at the door. Their previous audience had not taken long; the councilors were impatient for his trial.

"Sergeant Marius", the dreadnought boomed, "You stand accused of destroying Primaris Hive on the planet Callathrax by way of orbital bombardment. This is a very serious charge. What say you?"
"I committed the charges laid forth against me, but if given the chance, I would explain my actions." The council gave pause. It was obvious that they were considering Marius's words. Pollux spoke:
"We have decided to hear your explanation, but speak carefully sergeant."
"The planet was under assault from an insidious xenos race. Their attacks came not from the stars, but from within the planet itself. The only way to halt their advance was to destroy their base of operations, which laid beneath Primaris Hive."

The councilors remained silent for some time, no doubt convening in private via an internal communication device. After several minutes, the High Councilor spoke with a solemn tone.
"We know of what you have seen. This is not an isolated attack and these are no mere xenos minoris. Their attacks seem to come at random, and they leave naught but dust in their wake." The gravity in the High Councilor's voice was palpable.
"Why hide this information?" asked Marius, "Why leave the worlds of the Vigil vulnerable?"
Because we have reason to believe that some of our brothers are in league with the aliens". Marius could not believe it. Astartes had turned on one another before, but betrayal from within the same legion? This was unheard of.
"Their culture seems to be obsessed with death. They awake from vast tombs that by all accounts have been sealed for eons." Deplorable as the thought was, it made some amount of sense. A race that could cheat death would hold some allure to the impulsive members of the legion.
"Marius, you are hereby absolved of all charges. However, we will assign you to a mission of utmost secrecy. You must seek out these "tomb worlds" and mark their positions for our loyal brothers to destroy. Sending entire battlegroups would make our Martian neighbors nervous, not to mention let any traitors in our midst on to our suspicions. You will be assigned a strike cruiser and a full company of marines who are ensured of loyalty to the fullest extent." Marius took a knee before the masters of the legion.
"I am honored by this, my lords. I will pursue this mission to the death if that is what it comes to. I will not fail you."

Are there still Explorator fleets?

In a setting as large as 40K's, there'll probably always be a need for something like them.

Next!

>Tor Ironheads
Space-Prussians, ride cybernetic mounts.

>Vytorian High Guard
Patton IN SPACE, armored warfare

>Grogan Thunderheads
Space North to the Fire-Eaters' Space South, artillery specialists

>idk yet
Sisters of Battle, but Guard.

>Avalon Manslayers
Sneaky totally-not-an-amalgamation-of-British-commandos-and-hunters

>House Conquista (Working title)
Spanish Conquistador knights.

>House Rammstein (Two "M"s)
Renegade Landsknecht knights

Wow, this list is so tiny now.

Lots of good little lore bites in this thread.

Working on a Crimson Warhawks ghost story of sorts.

The story of the Fire Hawk is one going back almost three centuries now. Curiously enough, the tale did not originate from the hearsay of its concerning Legion - the Crimson Warhawks - but eventually reached their ears instead. Since then, opinions on the veracity of the tale have been varied.

The first sighting, made by a successor Chapter of the Storm Hammers, was reported on a contested moon in the vicinity of Ahzhava. The loyalists were fighting a losing battle against the nightmarish ranks of the Behemoth Guard, when, without warning, a figure clad in Crimson Warhawks' regalia descended upon their foes. Wielding a tattered battle-axe in one hand and a severed helmet (and, presumably, head) in the other, the figure was clad in roiling flames, and strode across the battlefield with apparent disregard for the fact that it had no head. It sudden appearance turned the tide of the battle, and, as quickly as it had appeared, the ghostly warrior vanished into the smoke and flames of the battlefield.

Since then, there have been multiple similar reports. Details tend to vary - sometimes the warrior's armour is described as ornate, other times as simple. Sometimes it looms over any Astartes, while other times it is merely taller than average. Always, it is clad in a veil of shifting fire, and always, it arrives to battle the traitorous forces of the Warmaster.

There are many proposed origins for the being among the Crimson Warhawks, with many disregarding the apparition as a mere fantasy. Others remark that its first appearance is close to the final resting place of Brother-Captain Markus Victaren, who lost his life, and his head, when pursuing an Iron Hearts warbound deep into the Tempestus zone.

Whatever the case, one thing can be said for sure: if the Fire Hawk is real, and its reported sightings are accurate, then it is making a beeline directly for Holy Terra.

>Fire Hawk
Best girl anyone?

Avalon Manslayers.

Depending on how the Imperial Cult is set up, you might have a bunch of Holy Orders popping up keyed to various imperial theologies.

An obvious one, I suppose, would be shield maidens. I imagine that the notable lack of a female figure would present a problem in the culture and be resolved differently.
A quick fix would be to claim that the Emperor represented male and female and that, seeing as the Primarchs and Astartes are 'sexless', they represent male and female as well.
But I think the really cool solution would be the construction of a mythos of female divine figures/saints/mediums, positing a Freya or Frigg to the Emperor's Odin.
On these worlds, holy orders of all female warriors could be raised as shield maidens, based on an exaggeration and misunderstanding of the role of the Sisters of Silence.

>The Emperor's Waifu
Seems a tad... Esoteric. Not Catholic enough. Not enough DEUS VULT.

I was actually thinking it was only one very wealthy planet with a convent of VERY devout and VERY rich nuns.

This is me.

On top of that, I feel that having the Sisters of Battle here at all is a huge stretch, so I want them to be confined to one planet.

Once I get back from training.

>The Emperor's Waifu
Alternatively, the Emperor's transgender self.

I was thinking of the Jade Empire. Xun gets into the Imperial Cult very quickly after studying the reports of miracles and their whole gimmick is not being Catholic, instead being Esoteric and East Asian.

>Emperor
>Transgender
>Eastern

Also
>Jade Empire
>Sky Serpents
>Somebody named Xun Tohilcoatl
>East Asian

If we need a female figure then the obvious answer is to make one. I'll be back after formation to brainstorm.

Although I do like the idea of a handsome/beautiful, androgynous Emperor with a supple body and long black silky hair.

I still like the idea of having a successor order to the Sisters of Silence that are responsible for the Astral Beacons and stuff.

Exactly. I'm imagining statues of the Emperor Andharishvara bathed in insence smoke, the dull ring of the temple bell. I'm picturing Emperor Lingam and Yonni pairs, statues of the primarchs and saints like the thousands of Bodhisattvas.
Instead of the usual cathedrals, the Jade Empire has massive pyramids upon which psykers are sacrificed and deep catacombs where the Emperor is mourned and petitioned.

Sorry. I study religion and I've got several distinct lines of thought running at the same time that I should probably disentangle.
First off, was just thinking about sisters and females in religion.
Every society developes female divine figures. In monotheistic societies, we see female mystical approaches as with the Sufis, Kabbalah and the Sabbath Queen, or the elevation of a female figure, as with Mary. So I was picturing that to start with.

Secondly, I was thinking about Xun's response to the Emperor's death, since he's quick to support an Imperial Cult and eventually becomes obsessed with finding the Emperor.

Then there's the question of what everyone else does, since Malcador is still kicking and I think would support an ecclesiarchy. Catch is that Alexios, I think, would hold to the Imperial Truth as a matter of principle.
Meanwhile, I'd imagine that the dudes in Fists of Mars space are going crazy, and just going mechanicum with things.
So I think there's a lot of room for conflict via the issue of the introduction and form of the Imperial Cult.

Then there's the whole Jade Empire thing opening up room for all kinds of crazy, what with Mesoamerican practice and the way Buddhism evolved in East Asia. So there's a ton of ways that the Imperial Cult could evolve there depending on the initial balance of real world inspiration.

Cult of the Senpai Ascended?

That's more straightfoward.

I think we should stay with the Catholic inspiration for the totally-not-Sisters-of-Battle. Living Saints are a good way to fill the "Religions will in all likelihood have female figures" criteria.
I feel a holy war coming to the galaxy, and it's not just between Chaos and the Crusader States.

Maybe the relations between Crusader States break down as time goes on and they become more and more alien to each other.

Now to the Avalon Manslayers!

About successor chapters, what reason is there for different foundings? Something about dividing strength to cover more ground? I'd imagine that the bonds between chapters of the same progenitor legion would be stronger than in 40k proper.

Irreconcilable differences between a specific unit and the legion.

Change brother captain to either strike-captain or shadow-captain and it works a treat.

I really like the idea of a guy holding his own flaming head in his hand and using it as a weapon.

The only issue is if the hawks were going to have an avenging angel, that i assume is meant to be like a psychic manifestation of their hatred - it would more likely come in the form of a moriat/pilot/venator.

Thiughts?

>Change brother captain to either strike-captain or shadow-captain and it works a treat.
What about strike leader?

Das ist Sassy Sauron

So the ranks system was.
> primarch
> commander
> battle captain (authority over a fleet) / strike captain (authority over a land force) shadow captain (authority over the chapters infilitrator corps)
>wing commander (squadron) / sergeant (squad) / Primus (operators)

I think, ive got it written down on my laptop so ill post later with full details.

I chose the headless warrior look because it leaves his identity in the air. It could be Strike-Captain Markus, dead and mad about it, or it could be the ghost of Raydon himself, back to take Kashaln's head as payment for his own.

How does one get involved in this? Used to do lots of forum roleplay and on Warcraft etc.

You just read over this 1d4chan.org/wiki/Imperium_Asunder

And post your ideas about pretty much anything in the AU.

>oooooooooooooooh.

If you want to play up the raydon angel then he would have a sword not an axe unless there is some cool story for the change post death.

Do we have an equivalent of Blackshields or the Deathwatch? I like the idea of disgraced marines wandering the galaxy doing good to the following song.

youtube.com/watch?v=aM_fvZyx7eI

I did, but it turns out Kor stole the idea retroactively.

Any parallel to the Green Knight?
Perhaps a Warhawk Moriat goes on a quest to find the apparition and comes back with strange tales, eventually developing a following and a Sucessor chapter equivalent.

We have a few.

Kor has his errants / black guard
Where the hawks and blades joined together and formed the "true blades" which are essentially a loose knit group that shares resources and information and they continue the great crusade, purging heretics, conquering xenos worlds. The usual.

The True Blades also accept other astartes from the crusader states, having no other method of recruitment. They dont care about your past just that youll swear their oath and keep fighting the good fight.

Im confused. What i meant in the post you link to, was that if the hawks had a flaming ghost who foughtwith them occassionally, he would likely be armed with pistols, a sword, or a rifle. - rather than an axe.

Kind of like cypher come to think if it.
A headless cypher, whose armour was continually alight with eerie flames.

Shouldn't the emperor be reborn at some point?

Forgive my flimsy knowledge of 40k lore

The Emperor being a perpetual is just a theory people like because it means the people keeping him alive on the Golden Throne are idiots preventing his rebirth. It's not really well founded in any text.

Personally I've always given credence to the stuff the dark gods say to Horus and Lorgar: The Emperor is/was planning an apotheosis to warp godhood so that he could do cool shit all over the galaxy and help humanity.