Okay, so I had an idea for a 40K novel series: it'd be kind of like Gaunt's Ghosts...

Okay, so I had an idea for a 40K novel series: it'd be kind of like Gaunt's Ghosts, except based around a Chaos warband that'd be more protagonist-friendly than most, in the same way that the Gaunt and the Ghosts are. Is this decent or idiotic?

Not at all.

There are proofs of Chaos Marines/Chaos Worshipers who are bro to each other even after a shitload of years in the warp.

Good to know. Another question: Do Dark Eldar have soul-harvesting technology that stores souls until they can be later consumed (I think they do, but I'm not positive), and would "show us how this tech works or we sacrifice you to Slaanesh" be an effective threat against any DE captives?

Honestly, I think just having an obviously Slaaneshi heretic just stand near a captured E or DE is enough. They don't even need to say anything to have an effect.

All right.

I don't think that this warband would have any CSMs in it; it'd be entirely a Lost/Damned affair, led by a powerful psyker who went to Chaos in large part because she wants to find a way to solve the problem of all human souls being doomed to be consumed by the Warp (also, daddy issues). There'd also be a newly-recruited heretek who's doing a lot of experiments with AI and warpcrafting in attempting to get a proof of concept for possibly building an actual Machine God, as she believes that the Omnissiah is yet to be made, instead of preexisting. And then they fuck.

sounds lewd

I actually stopped myself from including any corrupted SoB. But I'll still probably use the Ecclesiarchy as villains a lot; if any Imperial institution is riddled with evil bastards and apathetic, corrupt wastes of space beyond any real likely usefulness, it's that.

>There are proofs of Chaos Marines/Chaos Worshipers who are bro to each other even after a shitload of years in the warp.
ADB, please.

The Eyes generally not that bad to you unless you're weak. Not all of the legion fractured like the WE and EC.

>Not all of the legion fractured like the WE and EC.
Actually all of them, read Black Legion supplement.

WB and IW have some organization left, relatively speaking

>read Black Legion supplement.
Enlighten us user. What do you mean?

Make it the Hogan's heroes of chaos worshippers. Include Wisecracking Nurgle cultists, midget khorne cultists, stuttering tzeentch followers, and a blind slaaneshi cultist ("that was a shrubbery, you just screwed a shrub"
"It was hot though, right?")

>Enlighten us user. What do you mean?
There were no legions since the Horus Heresy and before Abbadon created Black Legion, he was first traitor's warlord who managed to recreate old Legion structure.

Source your shit user. Sounds like skub to me.

>Source your shit user.
>Black Legion supplement.

Really user. A page number or something obviously.

Night Lords trilogy, user. Sure there's angst because ABLOOBLOOBLOO IN MIDNIGHT CLAD but First Claw are top tier bros.

Yes, soul cages, and yes, it was either the Word Bearers Omnibus or the Ahriman series, but "do shit for me or I open my mouth and call Her here" works in general with DE if you have a psyker/Chaos portal on hand.

All right, good. Then there can be a wacky scheme by our protagonists to learn to reproduce soul cage technology and use that as a base to A. keep dead souls from being eaten by the Warp and B. begin groundwork on a new Machine God.

>Night Lords
>ADB Night Lords
>bros
kek

>There were no legions since the Horus Heresy
I hate this phrase because all it does is get people unnecessarily mad, thinking that there are no CSM calling themselves Word Bearers or Iron Warriors.

What is meant by the legions shattering is like cracking a boulder apart. Some split right down the middle into two pieces, some pulverize into dust, some crack into half a dozen big chunks, but in every case there are always hundreds of little tiny slivers and fragments that break off either along the seam or from the edges. Every single piece of that boulder is a warband. Some can fit back together with a little leverage, others are weird irregular pieces that don't seem to go anywhere. This is how it can be said that the 30k legions don't exist anymore but there are warbands that call themselves by the old name or can operate together like old times.

>are no CSM calling themselves Word Bearers or Iron Warriors.
They aren't legions, Word Bearer divided between KorPhaeron and Erebus (not to mention shitton of small warbands) and Iron Warriors never was Legion since Iron Cage.

I wish you well on your novel, user.

I myself am personally very glad that we may get a 40K novel that isn't about the space marines again.

Thanks. If, by any chance, you felt like beta reading, that would be remarkably helpful.

As with everything, it depends entirely on the execution. If it's bad it's shitty fanfiction disregarding the base material, if it's good it's a much needed redefinition of the genre. But it's a nice idea.
And if you paint the warp as an infinity of little realms and dominions with independant daemons of varying powers instead of the current "big 4 and nothing else", you'll have my vote.

It won't hurt to use interrogation techniques and the instinctual tendency of dark eldars to backstab each other, but yes, dying and having their soul nommed is their greatest terror, you could make them do anything with such a threat.

Since we had a thread about him recently: You could use a not!Richelieu cardinal as an antagonist. He was an excellent antagonist in the Three Musketeers books, calculating, menacing and ruthless.

After doing some thinking, I have a bit more of a structure in mind: the leaders of the Unbroken warband consist of four prelates, one for each of the major Chaos Gods, and the magos mystika, heretek-in-chief who cannot be affiliated to any of them. The magos mystika in power at the beginning of the story will die and be replaced by an Imperial defector whom I mentioned in an earlier post. And because of your idea, I think that I will include some minor prelates who serve lesser powers, some of whom will be in the sphere of one of the Great Powers and some who won't.

The Richelieu idea seems good. I haven't actually read the Three Musketeers books, alas, but my conceptions for a cardinal villain were in basically the same direction.

You definitely should read it if you can spare some time. It's a great swashbuckling novel, and has a very interesting cast of nuanced characters (like the muskeeters being, well, french noblemen assholes instead of flawless romantized ideals)

Good luck with your novel, plan your work well, don't give up, and don't forget to keep us informed.

Yes but some of them will still call themselves Word Bearers or Night Lords or Emperor's Children or whatever. The 30k definition of a legion is gone, but the name is not.