Imperium Asunder

Whoops. Good point. In his case, then maybe a +1 to Deny the Witch. Something to represent that he's getting better equipped to fight Chaos.

Do we really need to do stats right now? I mean, we're not done fluffing everything up, and who's going to play using these, anyways?

Probably not, but I'm not going to lie, I'm going to paint up some dudes as Sky Serpents and run them with Deathwatch rules to represent a hunter cadre.
Also, LA rules did help me pin down the aspects to focus on with the legion.

Though I also have some prompts I want to respond to, but first errands.

I think people are just having a bit of fun with it. It's a nice way to get across some of your fluff ideas.

I feel like there should be a mesoamerican looking daemon of some kind, maybe multiple, trying to use the Jade Empire's relatively broad faith and the general difficulty of communication between planets to spread its cult through the Crusader State.

[REDACTED] puts a bolter to your head and demands that you choose a 90s song that fits your legion thematically! Quick, there's not much time, what do you choose?

youtube.com/watch?v=VGtCf4wwj3g

The 9 Lords of the Underworld from the Popul Vuh might work.

youtube.com/watch?v=Mr_uHJPUlO8

youtube.com/watch?v=0Uc3ZrmhDN4

On a related note, an Aztec lord of the underworld, Mictlan, is depicted as a skeleton with rotting flesh still on him.
Mictlan means place of the dead, while the Maya called it Xibalba, the place of fear.
So I think using them as daemon names would be relatively faithful to the original material, since they were at least as nasty as the grim reaper.

There's also a Macau who's name I forget who was the false sun in the Popul Vuh. He gets his lower jaw ripped off and replaced with a hand, so you can just imagine how creepy an avian daemon form with hands and arms extending from where it's jaw should be would be.
Ah, Vucub Caqix, and his sons Zipacna and Cabrakan, associated with earthquakes. All three were considered daemons.

It might make sense to have Vucub as a Greater daemon of Tzneetch behind it.

This said, the name means 7 Macau, so it may be less suitable.

Damn it, forgot name.

Who were the twins that killed that bird dude in Mayan mythology?

Angels of Light:
youtube.com/watch?v=6VCdJyOAQYM

Bloodhounds:
youtube.com/watch?v=Qkuu0Lwb5EM

Warp Raiders:
youtube.com/watch?v=3mbBbFH9fAg

One for Gengrat

youtube.com/watch?v=Et9b7LWfnxQ

Hun Ahpu 'one hunter' and Xbalanque (something about a jaguars, I think)
Hun can also be spelled Xun depending on the romanization.

The idea was to encouage people to try and refine peoples ideas. If for example you had to make a model with rules, I reasoned that people would need to write up only the most important aspects of their character.

The idea fell apart when people started posting random T10 and infinitely regenerating IWND monsters.

Wait, how can you infinitely regenerate with IWND? It gives you back a wound a turn at most. It's not like FNP where you negate a wound immediately if you pass your check.

One wound back every turn is actually pretty easy to cut through with enough killy. There are canon Primarchs that could do it. There's weaker things that could do it, like a ton of Kabalites with splinter weapons.

It makes a lot of sense to me. Maybe we should try it with Legion Astartes rules?
Though if people aren't familiar with the HH rule set and balance that would explain the weird results, for instance the guy who projected an aura of immune to psychology, a WHFB thing.

Jaguar Sun, Hidden Sun, or Jaguar Deer, depending on who you're asking.

Balthasar Draft #2, Now with 6 toughness, no Mastery Levels, and guaranteed infinite bloodletters forever!

The idea being that he rampages through your weaker dudes, slaughtering them and turning them into his own daemons until you manage to put him down. Against an Ork Army he'd wreck face, but against a primarch or other high-value deathstar, he'd lose.

>You roll 1 IWND roll per wound lost.
not one per turn

Lets all remember that this is just an exercise in fleshing out characters. Whilst an aspect of realism and gameplay is 100% good. We shouldnt get too caught up in balancing models we'll never play.

I think its best to just use this to compare the relative power levels / combat abilties of each.

Yeah, no.

>At the end of each of your turns, roll a D6 for each of your models with this special rule
that has less than its starting number of Wounds or Hull Points, but has not been
removed as a casualty or destroyed. On a roll of 5+, that model regains a Wound, or Hull
Point, lost earlier in the game.

Each model gets one IWND per turn, otherwise Smashfucker would be even more ridiculous.

Which makes me think a good Rubinek special rule might be 'Rubinek may continue to make IWND checks even if he has been reduced to 0 wounds.' sort of like reanimation protocol but he can even come back several turns later. Combined with 2+ though it'd be too much.

That's not at all how IWND works.

>On a related note, an Aztec lord of the underworld, Mictlan, is depicted as a skeleton with rotting flesh still on him.
>Mictlan means place of the dead, while the Maya called it Xibalba, the place of fear.

This is actually what I was thinking of.

Redone Rubinek. Toned down his regenerative abilities and merged the Nihil Cannon/Fangs into one weapon for crowd control. His Gaze of Destruction is now his shooty means of singling out one target for concentrated dose of fuck you.

By the way, do you guys see a maul as his weapon? I was torn between that and a pair of power fists. He seems like the sort for blunt instruments. What do you guys see as his weapon of choice?

Why would AdMech want to retrieve geneseed from Iron Warriors? Weren't they declared traitorus excommunicate which means doing anything except incineration to the corpses is a big no-no?

He's a loose canon, but he gets the job done.

PROMPT:

>Tell us about the primarch's Equerry: His closest council within the legion, his strongest warriors, and his best captains. What is this group called? Who are its members, and what are they like individually? Do any of them have famous deeds worth mentioning? If the primarch is unavailable (or dead) who is his second in command?

>Lets all remember that this is just an exercise in fleshing out characters.
Personally I just think making up rules is good clean fun.

On a minor tangent, how would you guys feel about trying to put together a PDF like the Dornian Heresy did?

>Baqar Hadbaal, First Captain of the 13th, The Storm Wolf
When the 13th Legion, then known by many names was reunited with Xun Tohilcoatl, it was Baqar Hadbaal who then commanded the legion.
Hadbaal was an efficient commander who had earned the name The Storm Wolf for his vicious encirclement tactics. The legion of his day struck hard and aggressively, and with a cunning that belied the savage trappings of their recruitment worlds.
In Baqar, Xun found a capable subordinate, able to coordinate legion campaigns. Baqar's technical expertise greatly aided Xun in his reorganization and Xun taught Baqar something of state craft, though Baqar personally preferred the life of a warlord.
After a time, Baqar was given a fleet of his own and given licence to conquer, with Xun reportedly saying "I would like to keep you at my side, but then, what would I do?"
Baqar's fleet served happily alongside fleets of the Warhawks legion, Void Lords, and Behemoth Guard during the later half of the Great Crusade, though he chafed under the leadership of Alexios during the Plaakat Compliance.
When the heresy broke out, Baqar's fleet was deep in Segementum Pacificus and the saga of his campaigns behind enemy lines and his eventually return to Xun's side is still the subject of legend in the Jade Empire.

Basically, I'm thinking he's Xun's Marius Gage, the guy who was doing a great job running a war, with the difference that Xun says 'keep up the good work, son' and sends him off with a renovated logistics corps.

Loving the prompts.

Equerry.
He has three of significance.
1. Darnios, His 2IC. A strategist and master co-ordinator. Able to read the flow of battle unlike any other in the Legion.
2. Garrek, Herald of the Hawks. Given the powers and authority to speak on the Primarchs behalf. His word is uncontested within the Legion, and any disrespect shown to him, is taken as a slight against the Primarch himself.
3. Cirion - his original name is known only to the Primarch, he is the Vigilator-Primus, the leader of the Spectres, a secret division within the Legion. Where Garrek is the Primarchs voice, Cirion is his eyes and ears. His existence is a closely guarded secret, only the Legions top council is aware of him, as well as the Warmaster, and one or two of Raydons closest brothers.

If we do, I would suggest we at least attempt a level of balance of the characters.

1d4chan.org/wiki/Negators#Davidian_Knights

Got a whole segment on this.

Actually, while I'm at it, some stuff from last thread I was working on about the development of the legion:

>Legion before Xun
In retrospect, the transformation of the Storm Wolves into the Sky Serpents is hardly surprising, Xun merely changed the balance of their humors.
However, at the time, the change was incredible.
The Storm Wolves was not the only cognomen of the Legion, nor did it cease in use after Sky Serpents came into use, but it is, perhaps, their best known early name and still evokes the Terran past.

The legion was much rougher then, and had yet to display the civilized edge they are now known for. They were a force known for their swift and brutal assaults, more akin to the Void Lords than anything else. However, unlike the Void Lords or Negators, the early legion displayed a seemingly paradoxical capability for discipline and cohesion. Perhaps it was this trait that gave rise to the appellation Wolves, for the legion would prowl and circle beyond planetary firelight before assaulting with the ferocity of a hurricane. Over time, the legion also developed techniques to impair enemy cohesion, such as diversionary strikes and raids on communications systems.

The biggest difference was the treatment of human auxiliae. Prior to Xun, human auxiliae were treated as a disposable resource, with very few exceptions for elite forces. One particularly common tactic was the Soot Talon, which relied on a largely sacrificial force to draw out the enemy for the legion to either surround and destroy, or strike a strategically significant and now vulnerable site.
Xun did not entirely discontinue the practice, and instead simply restricted the human units available for such actions to Penal Battalions and other such forces. These were the predecessors to the later famous Argon Apemen.

(In sum, the legion was a heck of a lot like the Luna Wolves before Xun.)

>If we do, I would suggest we at least attempt a level of balance of the characters.
The Dornian Heresy pdf doesn't have any rules, afaik, it's just a short document that goes over the setting with some neat artwork.

Alexios' Equerry is Eulodius Rex, a commander skilled with both a blade and a command vox. Eulodius tempers Alexios' cautious nature with a fervor for action and a resolved attitude of always doing what is right. While Eulodius is hyper-practical by most Astartes' standards, he is seen as reckless by his peers. He is Master of the Legion, and as he commanded the XIIth before Alexios' discovery, he commands it in his absences, which are frequent.

Alexios' inner circle is known as the Pantheon, a group of twelve Chapter Masters of what would one day become the Angels' most honored and powerful successors. They are chosen for the battle-honors they have won, the political clout they have mustered, and the knowledge they have gathered.

>Illuyanka Tlaloc, Chief Librarian of the Sky Serpents
I don't have much on him yet, except for the fact that he had been in Xun's court on Tepectitlan.
I think he goes on to become the first grandmaster of the Grey Knight equivalent. They replace his bones with adamantium etched with anti-daemonic runes and he is almost slain in a fight against a greater daemon, but another Sky Serpent psyker in need of a way to establish his credentials as a badass slays it and Illuyanka Tlaloc gets put in a dreadnought, probably a leviathan, you know, to keep that serpent theme going. They wake him up every so often, such as during a crusade, and when he is in stasis, they hook up an autoscribe to record his dreams. They're believed to be prophetic, and on a few occasions scryers claim that they include messages from Xun and the Emperor. Lately though, his dreams have been getting very, very weird because End Times. They're afraid to wake him up, given the deep state of reception he seems to be in, but they also are afraid they'll need him on the front. In particular, he was the only Librarian still alive who was there in M35 on Prospero with Xun.

>First Captain Hadrianus
First captain of the Undying Scions and Sarco's second. First among equals on Funerus' war council.

>Forgemaster Nersor Hembden
The Scions' primary liaison to the cult of mars, Nersor is responsible for "discovering" several pieces of archeotech that have later gone on to see extensive service in the legion's armory. Most notable among these is the annihilation beam, a lascannon that fires a continuous stream of energy.

Balthasar has the War Pack, his hunting buddies from the communist werewolf revolution back home. All of them bear shards of the Anathame, which they use during the heresy to harvest worlds for daemon crop. Balthasar's second is Gaspard Armistice, a man who sees the hilariously grimdark truth of the galaxy: there is only war. Like the Comedian from Watchmen.

While I type something up for this, I just realized I have to get thinking about the fact that the Second Sons are a Nurglite group. I think they fit pretty well within his thematic and emotional spectrum, but I realize they're really outside of his usual aesthetic ethos.

What would demons related to the Sons look like? If they summoned a Great Unclean one, would it still be a greasy corpulent blob of disease? What about nurglings?

I'd been imagining their daemon-princes as skeletally thin, rad-wraiths. They'd be death in its hungry aspect.

A Warp Monstrosity of the Behemoth Guard

a magos

Are daemons that physically mutable? I get Daemon princes are reflections of the person they once were, but the directly god-spawned daemons?

Not a Daemon just a sorceror

>Advisory Bodies
There are a few distinct elite bodies in the Legion.
First off, there's the Chaotai, which is sort of the ruling council, which consists of the Tzokin leaders and the heads of various inter Tzokin organizations.

>Warrior Lodges
Warrior Lodges didn't make much headway in the legion, in part because of the existence of inter-Tzokin organizations which filled much the same role as Warrior Lodges did in other legions. Many of these were functional things such as the Techmarines or the Librarius (called the Threefold Gate), specialized technology recovery groups, siege masters, disinformation cadres, but others were more social in nature, such as the legion dueling society or the bonsai arboritums and starship garden sections.
As a result of those, and the fact that the legion was united in purpose, meant that Warrior lodges did not have much to offer.
When other legions showed Sky Serpents their lodge, the Sky Serpent's reaction was typically akin to "ah, cool, yeah, we do the same thing. Sweet robes though."

Oh, and I made this 1d4chan.org/wiki/Imperium_Asunder_Timeline
Populating it with data from previous threads, if you all could help me organize it, I think it would help everyone keep track of what's going on.

What?

Also, are the giant AIs from last thread in or out? If they're in, I'll work on implementing them in the setting a little more.

Oh, I was replying not

Oh gods, those hands. That's fucked up, yo.

(Perfect.)

Like I said before,

>Noblebright robots vs communist british werewolves and Gustavus Adolphus in Space

Count me the fuck in.

I think they are workable, but we should look at them more as a tau like faction, cool - but small scale, not like a tyranid or necron faction - one that is inevitably going to have a massive end game.

Noble their intentions may be, there's very little bright about their methodology when push meets shove.

Hmm. Well, at least in the HH books, daemons apperantly take on a whole lot more forms than there are models for. I'd imagine that daemons might reflect the form of the ritual that summons them. With the withering of flesh, yeah, I could totally see them coming out looking different-- it's just a holder for the daemon in our world, after all.

Im reading the timeline and finding a few inaccuracies. In particular with the Council of Titans, it wasn't Alexios idea & Malcador initially called it to group everyone together to retake the Imperium proper, not to oppose the idea.

The place we end up, is far from the desired outcome, not the intended. More to follow.

>Malcador initially called it to group everyone together to retake the Imperium proper
This is what I thought all along. They don't decide to found crusader states so much as they fail to decide to stay unified. The council is a failure.

I just copy-pasted from earlier threads. (Thanks for proofing it)

Yeah.

Well it fails in a lot of respects, but it sticks around as a meeting place and way to resolve issues between the states.

So fails in a lot of areas, but not a total loss.

No problem. Still reading.

Major topics to be discussed over the course of the Council, and who raised them.
>Selection of a new Warmaster - Raydon
>Role of the Custodes - Malcador
>Role & Holding of the Mechanicum/Adoption by FoM - Equerry from FoM, supported by the new Fabricator General.
>The nature & reliability of the Fire Wall - Xun
>Responsibility, Duties, and methods of guarding the Tempestus Gap - Equerry from Knights Exemplar
>Location of Grashnak - Kor
>Authority over the Imperial Auxillia & Imperial Armada
>Establishment of the Warp Beacons, and the Astronomicon Project - Malcador
>Risks of further betrayal from within - Alexios

I asked a few threads back for topics that certain primarchs would want raised, unfortunately I didn't get many replies so I went ahead and thought about what they might raise. - Feel free to correct / suggest other topics they would want discussed.

ALSO IMPORTANT NOTE
The Council of Titans im writing about is distinctly different from the Imperial Senate that is established at the conclusion of the meeting. The senate is essentially the same thing but POST-State establishment.
Topics discussed at that are:
>The Codex and division into chapters
>Kors xeno-tolerance & risks allowing cults
>Imperial Cult vs Imperial Truth
>Border disputes
>Role of the Imperial Auxillia/Armada now Imperial Army and the Imperial Navy.
>Other things that occur between 31-40k period.
>Maintenance of the Warp Beacons
>Support for the Broken Blades
>Establishment of !Inquistion
>Rise of Necron threat
>Emergence of the Tyranids
>Launching of crusades
Things like that.

Is anyone opposed to this? Any suggestions one way or another?

If they are going to stick around, the rise/arrival/return of these guys Which raises an interesting question, how would they react to them? How would the Dark Imperium react? The Eldar/Dark Eldar?

The States I imagine would deal with them in varying degrees of seriousness, most likely those at more risk treating it more seriously, those far away down-playing them.

The senate would discuss it, maybe even establish a committee who recommends an investigation who finds evidence of things that will need to be discussed further, and on and on.

The Dark Imperium would attempt to corrupt & Manipulate

The Eldar would manipulate others into the way to shield themselves, or attempt to insert wrathbone into the system to turn it to their purposes.

Also what are they called?

The System, the Mainframe, the Collective, or a real name?

Do you want the timeline organised into faction based lots or a single chronological timeline?

Im partial to the later but dont want to undo your work if its not what you wanted.

Side note, someone please post something, I feel like im talking to myself.

Well, they could be the Collective and simply take over the areas the Extropians used to have. Seeing as their creator kinda dropped out and they're pretty similar as factions.

That said, they're less of a collective than a single massive but fragmented entity. So maybe something more like the System, even if that's a little awkward and heavy handed.

If the first line is fine with you guys, we can call it the Collective for the time being. I'll try to come up with something better by the end of tomorrow.

Sorting it by Faction would be pretty good, but I'm not Xun.

It's also pretty late on East Coast. That hasn't stopped us that much before, but I guess people are tired. Myself included.

>East Coast
Cursed time zones!

>pretty late
It's one in the morning lmao do you ever sleep?

Also, how should I play the formation of Battlefleet Vigilant? Did most of the loyalist remnants of the Imperium just end up in the Vigil or did the Undying Scions create the navy from scratch? Is that something to be discussed at the council of titans?

Who has overall authority of the battle fleet, does it come under the scions for being in Vigil space? or is it independent and if so how does it recruit, just press gang planets?

It works if its discussed as I said here one of the things discussed at the council is who holds authority of the Imperial Armada. and something that gets raised in the senate is the who has command of them.

The leader if Battlefleet Vigilant gets a seat on the Amaranthine High Council.

But is that an invitation, or is it mandatory.

In the first case, its like "we work closely together in a symbiotic relationship" in the other its "I own the fleet, and when I say jump they jump".

Which is important for the politics of the Senate to have discussed.

I can do that. Still gathering them from previous threads. Though I'm on the east coast and I teach my first class tomorrow so I'm going to try to get some sleep. (I'm a grad student.)

Also I'm going to try writing up some ideas for Grah'anak after doing some Sky Serpents stuff, and some detail on Behemoth Guard organization. Oh, and I have a few story ideas for Sky Serpents.
>Xun vs. Rubinek
Do we know when Rubinek was found and when he was purged?
>Anshul trying to bring Xun over to the traitor cause, or rather, the side of the pantheon
>Something about a mixed legion force on campaign together when the heresy hits and they need to decide what to do

>Risks of further betrayal from within - Alexios
Yeah this makes sense. Alexios is the one always warning of caution, of possible dangers, etc. Having been fooled by the Eyes of the Warmaster into fighting Void Lords and Fists of Mars in the early days of the heresy, Alexios is very paranoid about more of the Warmaster's plots.

>Do we know when Rubinek was found and when he was purged?
It should be before Nikaea, so that at Nikaea there is precedent for excommunication of a legion.

Maybe he's even one of the earliest found ones, and some of the later primarchs never even met him?

The way I read Rubinek, there's he's never really NOT a heretek. There's no old glory days before they fell to darkness, they just started out as dark, mutated freaks which the Emperor wishes had never been made. The Legion may have got some action before Rubinek was discovered, but that's before they became the Iron Hearts. Once they find Rubinek and he gives them the gift of the Iron Hearts, their days are numbered.

I'm thinking between 800-900 M30

Yeah I went with the person I thought most likely to be cautious, and the fact he later pens the idea of breaking up the Legions into the chapters indicating he wanted a division of power within the East.

>mutated freaks which the Emperor wishes had never been made
this doesn't sit well with me, if we are having them descend after Rubinek takes control as per
>Once they find Rubinek and he gives them the gift of the Iron Hearts, their days are numbered
Could we not perhaps have them be normal, with perhaps a dormant genetic mutation, which Rubinek activates when he takes control.

I just cant internally explain why the Emperor would allow a horribly mutated legion to survive without a Primarch.

Well, that's kind of what happens with the Thousand Sons. A lot of people were advocating them being purged, but the Big E waited until he found the Primarch in case he could fix it.

It's just that in this case the Primarch doesn't.

I see them as the black sheep, mocked and looked down upon by their peers for being twisted, weak, frail, etc. Then Rubinek comes along and offers them power and greatness at the cost of excommunication and enduring centuries as outcasts.

They're on the line as it is, and then Rubinek pushes them over it.

If we want them to have a big fall from grace that's cool too.

I see, I misunderstood. Thats cool.

Its just the imagery I get thinking about mutants isnt the same imagery of potent psykers whose methods are disagreeable.

But im onboard.

Same with the Emperor's Children.

Cool. I'll make him found at around the same time as Xun and Anshul, so that they all spend a little bit of time together on either the Emperor's ship or Terra.

No, the Thousand Sons were literally falling apart at the genetic level. They were mutating into all kinds of horrible shit at a massive scale.

Only a couple thousand were unaffected enough to even begin to be salvaged, and only a thousand survived that. Hence Thousand Sons.

>Its just the imagery I get thinking about mutants isnt the same imagery of potent psykers whose methods are disagreeable

They're not psykers at all. 'Horrible Mutant' in this case means inbred looking weirdos with hunchbacks and clubfoots and shit.

Yeah, Thousand Sons would spontaneously turn into balls of tentacles and shit. It plagued the legion in secret for a long time.

I didn't realise there was so much clamour for excommunication of astarte legions, i've not read the HH series, but I always imagined the idea of Marines fighting Marines to be literally unfathomable initially. Like loyalists almost standing their blankly whilst people are being hacked apart.

>but I always imagined the idea of Marines fighting Marines to be literally unfathomable initially

It is and it isn't.

There's comments that one of the two EXPUNGED legions was executed en masse by all of the legions, which is part of why the primarchs don't like talking about them. There's hints that the Wolves were used to purge the other one.

Leman Rus openly calls for the extermination of all Thousand Sons at Nikaea, and nobody really acts that shocked when he says it.

The Primarchs in the books react with angry violence whenever anyone mentions that civil war among the astartes is possible, but they're at each other's throats often enough to contradict that.

Overnight bump

Fists here, I missed the request for topics but you got what i would have put down anyway.

decided to contribute something. After the Codex is written up and the fists refuse to follow it a council is held within the forge space between the Mechanicus and the Fists. Taking inspiration from the Sinister Accords and the Codex Astartes the "Codex Sinister" is penned. Within its pages, after much arguing, it is decided that

>The Fists and the Mechanicum are to remain separate identities, with neither being an organization within the other
>The Mechanicum is never to take command over battle and shall rely upon the Fists for all efforts of war unless ordered by Fists to fight
>The Fists are never to attempt to intervene with matters of the mechanicum unless such an act is one of war and then must be given blessings of war before battle by a mechanicum member
>The organization known as the skitarii are to work and live directly under the command of members of the Fists and never independently nor under orders of mechanicus
>Skitarii are to remain loyal to the mechanicum and all members must take tests of compliance to the omnissiah every two years
>Each space marine squad must contain a member of the skitarii loyal to the mechanicum
>Knowledge must flow freely between members of the fists and members of the mechanicum, as such hiding knowledge from a member of equal rank is forbidden by the Codex Sinister
>The words of Marcus Sinistrum are to be obeyed always
>A "Master of Mars" is to be chosen from within the ranks of the Fists to represent the will of the chapter and of Marcus, there is no higher position within the Fists or Mechanicum
>A group ,dubbed "Sinister Prophets", of 10 high magos are to be chosen from the ranks of the mechanicus to see over the care of marcus sinistrum and to interpret his divine will
>Structure of the Fists is shown in pic related

maybe cont if i think of more, what do you guys think?

> skitarii are to work and live directly under the command of members of the Fists and never independently nor under orders of mechanicus

but then...

>Skitarii are to remain loyal to the mechanicum
and
>Each space marine squad must contain a member of the skitarii loyal to the mechanicum

I'm confused by this. How do they remain loyal to one organisation but are under the command of another, and unable to follow orders of the organisation they are supposedly loyal to.

In the following situation what happens.
>Fist squad sent to investigate the activities of a mechanicus agent
>attempt to seize him, only for questioning
>he refuses
>they attempt to use force
what does the skitarii member do? Help, watch, help him?

Also, whats the advantage of combining a single member of the skitarii to a squad of Astartes, I mean you can only move and fight according to your weakest link.

Anyway, looks good. Keen to learn more about the FoM

Saul Sheridan stood on the ashen plains of Armageddon. For a hundred kilometers in every direction there was naught but ash and corpses. His soldiers marched in a wide spread, a line stretching as far as the eye could see. Now and then a soldier engaged his flamer, spewing flaming green phosphex on anything moving. Their orders were simple, 'Let nothing live.' Behind the battle line came Astartes heavy weapon squads, spartan assault tanks, and anti-air Dreadnoughts. Floating in orbit high above were support bombers, prepared to turn any sector of the planet to radioactive slag. The bombers looked like great black bricks, floating immobile in the sky. Closer in the sky, the valkyries of Saul's Imperial Auxiliae ran strafing runs ahead of the advance.

Towering over the horizon ahead of Saul and his soldiers were the flaming ruins of Death Mire Hive, a jagged mess of collapsed towers and reinforced bulwarks. The Hive had belonged to the Orks for much of this war, but now a darker foe haunted its spires. Even at this distance, over the rotorblades of his close air support, Saul could hear the rhythmic screeching of gears. In that keening cry, Saul could swear he heard a voice. "Kill!" the voices said, "Destroy! Consume!"

Saul tried not to listen.

It's kind of supposed to be bad because of arguing between the fists and mechanicum. Something like
"Fists get to be in charge"
"No you only get to be in charge of the army stuff"
"Fine but then you don't get an army"
"ok but only if you let our guys hang out with you"

The idea is the Skitarii are under Fist control but are Mechanicus members and are there to make sure Fists comply with all the rules.
>Skitarii ... all members must take tests of compliance to the omnissiah every two years
That's there so that the mechanicum can come in and make sure they are all still looking out for the mechanicum and have not fully become fist members.

in that situation you pose due to
>Knowledge must flow freely between members of the fists and members of the mechanicum, as such hiding knowledge from a member of equal rank is forbidden by the Codex Sinister

It is in following of the Codex for the mechanicus agent to either share what he knows or report to a higher authority to share what he knows. as such the skitarii would aid the fists. its also worth mentioning here that

>The Fists are never to attempt to intervene with matters of the mechanicum unless such an act is one of war and then must be given blessings of war before battle by a mechanicum member

So if the Fists don't have the blessing of a mechanicum member to be intervening the skitarii is against the fists here. If they do then he would follow the fists lead.

After the integration of the mechanicum and fists the skitarii kind of become mechanicus inquisitors. They hold a much higher rank within the mechanicus then they do within the fists

one other thing on that note is that while there must be a skitarii member in each squad and they can't work alone under mechanicus rule or independently you will still see squads of skitarii acting alone on the orders of the fists

Hope that all makes sense and if it doesn't i'll rework it. Quite happy for feedback of any kind

Armageddon is deep in Chaos Territory though.

I dig it. Political squabbling and vying for power between the Military and Industrial parts of the Military Industrial Complex.

>I'm confused by this. How do they remain loyal to one organisation but are under the command of another, and unable to follow orders of the organisation they are supposedly loyal to.
How does a Corpsman serve with Marines if he's technically loyal to the navy?

This is during the HH