Imperium Asunder

Xenomorph Edition

Previously on Imperium Asunder This is a 40k alt-lore thread with new legions to replace the old ones, new xenos races in addition to the old ones, and a bunch of other wild shit , new posters are always welcome.
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Aren't the Illythid just meant to be a psychic parasite? Why would they develop stealth powers? As for the cabal, have we ever determined why it doesn't exist? Same with perpetuals, actually.

Both Saul and Graha'nak have a kind of nihilistic, pragmatic attitude. It just seems natural for them to get along. I'm not sure how Graha'nak and Gengrat would interact.

Quick bump to get us through the day/night

>Xenomorph Edition
So is this a crossover thing or is everything OC?

They have specialized infiltrators, it's not out of the question that they have a slave race with certain stealth abilities that they use to make them.

Everything is OC, or about as original as 40k itself is. One of the primarch has certain motifs that are xenomorph-like.

I suppose a certain 'breed' of Illythids could have stealth camo.

We've compared one of the primarchs, Graha'nak, to a xenomorph in the past due to his style of fighting and his origins on a space hulk.

.......but 40k has ripped off countless things....

Oh. Nevermind.

Exactly. Puns and references are the lifeblood of 40k. It'd be pointless to resist it.

Speaking of references, has anyone caught the one in Idrias Stern's blurb on the wiki?

A reference to that Blue Oyster Cult song? My favorite reference is still the incredibly charismatic Venerable Chaplain Kilgrave.

Yeah, that one. Also I had Kilgrave in mind for a name before I knew about the marvel guy to be honest.

I should have a properly written-up origin for Graha'nak done a little later tonight.

I feel like there's not much to discuss about his youth, seeing as it was relatively solitary and we all know basically how it went.

I'm toying with the idea that he's the only Primarch who never sees Terra in person.

The idea I was working with for Graha'Nak was that he was no more a nihilist than Nietzsche and that he was all over knowledge of self and improvement through terror.
The universe is cruel and scary and to survive, you must learn from it.

So while Graha'Nak is learning from the Xenomorphs he's purging, I think Gengrat, who respects Saul's professional, any horror for peace attitude, and has been keeping the voices in check would find Graha'Nak fascinating. Gengrat is a self aware psycho and has that whole gothic/German Romantic destruction and creation urge. So he's certain that are the core of being there is chaos. He has seen Saul, who keeps it buttoned down tight, Xun, who really doesn't like to talk about it directly, but uses it for manic bursts of activity, and his other brothers, all of whom pretend not to hear the voices to greater or lesser degrees.

So here's Graha'Nak, who can hear the voices! Recognizes their existence and lives with them!
Best conversation since he and Xun went to the Goya exhibit at the art museum!

So it would be like a psychotic, but still civil Goethe sitting down and having a chat with Nietzsche.

I like that idea. Emperor meets him personally and it's late enough in the crusade that he's needed on the front and there's not much on Terra for him to see since the Webway project is at full tilt now.

Another slow exam day, eh?

Got started on Graha'nak's history. Let me know what you guys think so far, if anything needs changing, etc.

Putting it up here or on the wiki?

bump

If FFG made RPGs for this continuity, what would they be?

I can see Only War working without change. Dark Heresy, with versions for each state and the Dark Imperium.

The really special one, I think would be Broken Blades. Then you could play as a dude from any legion or chapter in the Tempest Gap.

I think there would be an expansive ruleset for playing marines from all kinds of legions and chapters, seeing as they are the main focus of the setting. Knowing FFG, the ruleset would be separated into Loyalists and Traitors, both having extremely similiar rules but differently working insanity/corruption/infamy/fate systems and character creation.

Because perpetuals suck more or less.

Prompt:

Make up a specialist unit that a legion would deploy.

Using OU as an example, Deathwing Knights or Sanguine Priests.

>Knights Exemplar

Knight Lancer
>Special Terminator Armor with fuckhueg jetpack to allow for short burst, and a 2handed lance / glaive.

Would charge like jump infantry with bonus HoW. But otherwise be a terminator with +2S AP2 on charge.

I'm kind of indifferent towards them, but there should be some sort of reason why they're not here. With the Cabal we can argue that The Heir outplayed them.

I like it so far, nothing to point out.

I don't see a reason to reference them at all. They don't exist.

But why though?

why dont unicorns exist?

Why would random people be immortal and have the ability to reincarnate? Its not a matter of justifying why they don't exist - you need a reason for such a thing to exist.

Let me rephrase that then. Why don't they exist in the IA, while they do in the OU?

Because they are a stupid idea and it adds nothing of value and yet detracts from the whole.

Its really that simple.

They suck.

Because they're dumb.

I think the cabal has been referenced, but seriously, Perpetuals are fucking stoopid. Pius being a Perpetual is double stupid.

Right. Now the in-universe explanation. Perpetuals are a part of the setting and if you want to get rid of them you need to explain why they're not there. A good AU changes a lot, by changing very little. The only change IA should make is the primarchs and everything else should be a result of that.

please see
and as for
>in universe explaination

we don't need one. They are a shitty part of the OU which we have decided not to include in the AU. We don't need a reason beyond "its our shitty fan fic we do what we want"

>but you NEED to
incorrect

>only change IA should make is the primarchs
and it more or less is. Except removing shit that is mind boggling retarded as has no place in any version of 40k, OU or AU.

Seriously, how can you even attempt to justify their inclusion - the idea that someone is immortal and reincarnates for seemingly 0 reason.

Oh and btw, a Primarch is one as well despite being a test-tube baby.

Perpetuals have no explanation, so it's sort of hard to explain why they're not around.

Anyway, I don't think much more needs to be added to Graha'nak. Does that mean it's time for Anders? There's barely anything on him yet, so we'll have to start from scratch. All I know is that we wanted to go for the Superman-backstory. So, found by farmers and raised to be lawful good.

Anders is extremely idealistic for reasons that I'm not entirely sure of. He lets xenos be protected under his rule, gives a degree of religious freedom and is not afraid of fighting his brothers over this.

I think its not a matter of being unafraid, rather as you say he is extremely idealistic and willing to lose if it means he dies doing the right thing.

how about he is just raised on a planet with humans and abhumans. By a loving family.

Could have the planet come under attack from human pirates or something and have the raiders be defeated by xeno / abhumans.

This gives him a perspective that goodness isnt about being human its about doing what is right.

Sounds good to me. What level of technology is his homeworld?

I would say industrial, maybe victorian or a little later. Something that lets him see down harsh treatment of common folk

Ì dunno, the impression I get is that Anders' backstory should be mostly noblebright. He is raised by farmers, later adjusts to life in the city and rises up as a champion of all the people of Cydonia when it's attacked by an outside force.

By the way, Cydonia is an awfully generic and boring name.

Yeah actually thats right.

Maybe 1800ish then

Nah, we should go even further. This 'external threat' should be alien, or atleast from another planet in the system. So we're talking 21st-24th century tech.
That is not something a lot of primarchs have in the origin so far. Even in the OU only a few do, with Guilliman being the only one that springs to mind.

It does make it sort of odd that he learns to fight with a sword tho

Eh, power armor, power weapons. It's 40k, people get into melee combat, no matter how impractical it may actually be.

I think it's also important that he negotiates peace between his people and some xeno species in his home sector.

A big part of his backstory is that Alexios starts killing off the race that shares this system with its native humans, because humans deserve lebensraum, and Anders fucks him up personally and tells him if he ever sees that again he'll just straight up murder Alexios. This promise is ultimately fulfilled when the Tau dispute occurs.

Yeah I like that.

I also think that he shouldn't be a ruler of the system or planet or whatever. Delegating himself to an advisory position to avoid the corrupting influence of power.

bump

I keep picturing 1950's America for the whole Clark Kent vibe.

Could be he learns after watching a bunch of movies then popular on his homeworld staring the Masked Avenger or something. He's a hero who fights for TRUTH, JUSTICE, AND THE CYDONIAN WAY.

He sees it early and is obsessed with it and kinda does the whole I'm going to be just liked the Masked Avenger. Except then he does it.

Maybe he makes his whole legion recite an oath, it's basically the credo from the movies.

A legion of supermen sounds fun, but I think this is one of those rare cases where we don't want to be too heavy-handed with our references.

Oh, I was more thinking the Masked Avenger figure that he's a huge fan of is totally in universe. We just invent him whole cloth along with some sort of:
"Let tyrants beware, their days are at an end. I am the blade of justice, the shield of the innocent!"
Type oath which Anders has inductees swear as a reference to in universe stuff.

He's making the references, not us.


On a totally unrelated topic, a Sons of Horus Black Reaving force with volkite reavers as troops makes a decent Sky Serpent proxy.

We could even have Cydonia be a mixed xeno-human society.
Might work best if the Xenos near Cydonia are closer to Star Trek aliens than the average 40k xenos and really don't present any sort of problem for unification.
If it's Alexios who starts up the extermination, it seems likely that he's taking a hardline approach and that most commanders might not care.
Ie these Xenos are less objectionable than Tau and Alexios is being a dick or knows something, like one of these species has a latent psy-parasite that's going to kill everyone when navigators and Astropathic show up.

We could even go for the silly 'retro sci-fi' appeal, where it's all high tech, but still distinctly got that 1950's feel.

>Ie these Xenos are less objectionable than Tau and Alexios is being a dick or knows somethi

Alexios, like Faustus, is one of the Primarchs that doesn't believe in sanctioned xenos. He just gets rid of other species. Or any humans that happen to be in the way, often.

I think most the primarchs think like that actually. dont they?

Sarco, Raydon, Saul, Rubinek all dont sanction xenos.

I imagine there are others too

Most don't like xenos, yeah. There should be atleast one or two other primarchs that are kind of ok with them (besides Anders).

Oramar obviously.

Aodhan is their culture is cool or they're good to fight again.

Maybe The Warmaster, he seems like the kind of promise half a population their lives if they wage war on the troublesome factions in their species.

Have Malcador's thoughts on xenos ever been explicitly stated? Because the Warmaster would probably share his sentiment.

I can definitely see the Warmaster do9ng that.

Like I've said, the fact that Anders isn't censured implied to me that the greater Imperial establishment is pretty neutral on the issue of xenos. Or rather, is open to the idea of protectorates.
I think Gengrat's take on mutants also applies to xenos-- everyone can be useful. He's a psychopath, but he really doesn't have much in the way of prejudice. You're either a creator free of fetters or your a slave and he couldn't care less whether you're human or xeno or mutant.

Xun's ok with Xenos for pragmatic purposes but administers the fuck out of them. Victory comes from removing the enemy's will to fight.

I don't see pre-box Sarco being too anti-Xeno. I just don't see him putting the thought into it.
I think Klaus would be one for protectorates. I imagine his code of honor requires being open to negotiation and granting mercy. Most of the time, it ends in extermination, but I imagine Klaus holding human societies and xeno societies to more or less the same standard, same way Saladin is revered as a paragon of Knightly virtue in Medieval Europe.

Yes!

No idea.

He does seem more level-headed and rational than the Emperor, though. In fact, he seems like he'd have been a straight-up better Emperor.

Heresy aside, I've always thought of Malcador as the Emperor's Anima figure.

So, Anders.

He crashes down on the fields of Cydonia. IIRC Cydonia is a heavily oceanic planet, with about 30% of Earth's landmass, so maybe he's pretty lucky right off the bat. He is taken in by a kindly couple of small-town farmers who always wanted a child, and they watch in amazement as he rapidly grows into a young man of unparalleled strength and ability. Still, they manage to teach him to be a good guy, and he never forgets their lessons.

So, then we have the threat. Here are the best options I can think of:

1. Cydonia is cohabited by another intelligent species. Due to the small landmasses on the planet, there's always been conflict between them and humanity. Anders joins the Cydonian military, or maybe his nation's military, but ultimately finds that xenos are people too and his actions are instrumental in bringing the two races to the diplomatic table.

2. Cydonia is invaded by some xenos race. Again, Anders signs up to defend the people, and obviously excels to an extraordinary degree. It turns out that the main enemy species is being press-ganged into the war by some overlord types, who Anders defeats. Cydonia has a massive alien refugee fleet now sitting on it, which pushes the world's technology forward quickly.

What if he didn't sign up, but instead the battle front comes to him.

He sees then that he is a literal demi-god of war. So he reasons, that if he stays out of the war then that a good portion of the casualties will be his fault. Just by joining he will be able to bring the conflict to a resolution years ahead of time.

Apart from that I like option 2 the most.

>What if he didn't sign up, but instead the battle front comes to him.

Yeah, this might be better. Seems more fitting of Anders.

bump

Does he have a superman phase? How does he becomes well known?

Also.
Behemoth Guard daemon engine worthy?

That's pretty sick.

As for his 'Superman phase', I'm not sure that's a great idea. The backstory is already pretty goofy, let's not overdo it.

Thank you. Turns out BG Tartaros just look Alpha Legion, though.

>superman phase
That's probably true, but what brings him into the public eye? I mean what makes everyone run to some giant farmer when aliens attack?

Also, to the original Korfag, sorry for giving you a hard time at the start. In writing the repercussions of his idealism, we've ended up with something pretty cool.

The Alpha Legion are my favorite looking legion, so can't really go wrong there. Their tint of green should be slightly darker though, with ultramarine blue trim. Do you have the latest version of the color scheme list? I think mine might be outdated.

He could just save his farming villiage from an alien invasion. He kills a fuckton of them and leads people onto their ships?

Did the Korfag get a lot of shit? I must've missed that. I read the original thread and I remember the Paladins being one of the first suggestions, but I don't remember there being any opposition. Then again, back then this wasn't intended to become an AU, so whatever. Is the original OP still around, actually?

Hmm. I'll give that a shot-- I've been working off my Vorax scheme and it translated meh. I'll screw around. Worst case, it's a dual use model.

That works. He goes from farmer to leader of the resistance, saves the world, tries to go back to his farm, makes peace, tries to go back to his farm, gets pulled into the crusade.

Not quite. It's more that when it became an AU, the Paladins were crazy noblebright and there was trouble communicating the impact of that. It took a bit of time to turn MY PRIMARCH into a character who could get screwed over.
The issues around Faustus were worse. There were problems and we stuck with the concept and got something great.

>what makes everyone run to the guy who lifts tractors with his hand
>what makes everyone run to the guy who builds their sheds in an afternoon
Let me think...

Op was alexios pretty sure
Kor got a bit of shit for being noble bright
More people talkinh about how he'd be unbearable.

I suggest
>farm life
>invasion
>locals flee to him, savior
>joins resistance but leaves because they are too callous in seeking victory at any cost
>is literal 1 man army resistance
>people flock to him. Beacon of hope. Justice. Uncompromising good.
>resistance is forced to join him
>wins war. Returns to farm. Most shocked. Some "true believers" understand.
>Imperium arrives.
>oh hai. Imma farmer.
>not anymore boi. Youre a warleader.

I think he was talking about the entire world, not just the town.

Not suprised it was Alexios. Anders being too noblebright could be a problem, yeah. At this point it's just an interesting part of his character, being noblebright in a grimdark universe.

He shouldn't just leave the resistance. Anders is a primarch. He shows up, shows them how it's done and is made the leader. Also, it's not really a resistance yet, the aliens are still invading. It's an actual PDF, with structure and supply lines. Anders aids them at first, then gets given command and it very quickly becomes apparent this beast of a man is going to be able to save the world. Afterwards, when everyone expects him to take command the entire planets almost, he just checks out and goes home.

I don't like the currect color scheme for the paladins, so I attempted something of my own. Can't decide which one I like more. Or whether it's even good in the first place.

I'm a moron and forgot the pic

Bump

I think that's a bit too complicated for a first founding legion. Try for more solid colors.

Alright, tried that. Got this. Thoughts?

Also, I completely forgot to ever post these.

imgur.com/gallery/fFhWx

Looks a lot better IMO.

Thoughts on ?

Thanks for doing all these, they look great. My only suggestion would be to change the Rampaging Sons to the Scions Rampant. The Cyclopes continue to worry me.

These looks awesome.

The thing is, and this is pretty much his defining trait.

He does NOT accept anything less than his version of right.

He stands up to everyone who shits on the little guy. He and Raydon are the only ones to actually voice dissent to the Emperor himself, and He quite literally goes rogue prior to the heresy, setting up his protectorate. If it wasn't for the heresy - he would have been crushed by the Imperium as a renegade.

He most certainly wouldn't join an organisation and work by their terms unless they were as noble bright as he was - and noone is.

So its more fitting for him to join - leave - and have others join him.

Right. So he fends off the invaders in his hometown. The state brings him in, declaring him a hero, hoping to get even more people to join the armies. He gets involved with the military command, but doesn't approve of their methods. Eventually he has a falling out and leaves, taking the fight to the invaders himself. People massively flock to him as a symbol of hope. Eventually he wins the war, but offers the aliens peace instead of exterminating them. Anders allows the aliens to colonise a world in the system. He is massively popular and is expected to become the world's leader, but he wants to return to his hometown instead. He retires and goes home, but a few months later the Imperium shows up.

That sound right?

Bump

That sounds pretty good to me.

Do we have any ideas for people who come along with him when he joins his legion?

Jal Horden, Lord of the Psychic Chambers.

Ruthen Warryn, Lord of Scouts.

Bariah Vestis, Lord of Cavalry.

>not using Guy Gardner

FUCK

LOL

does anyone have anything resembling a compiled list of successor chapters?

sounds good to me.

>Using the worst of the green lanterns..
may as well use Sinestro

If anyone does, it's VANTH. The only list I have is Scions successors.

Clearly they're reading our threads.

What a marvel.
Works rather well. Master of the Forge Antonius Sterek?

There's a few Angels successors that have been floated. I think they're on that page.

Everything for Sky Serpents is somewhere on that morass of a wikipage that I really ought to fix. I know. I'm sorry. I'll probably be in the mood to work on it tomorrow or the day after. At the same time, they never broke up. They're just highly decentralized and allow for variant heraldry and identity. (But respond to central authority and have some positions that are centrally managed, warp passage allowing.)

There's a few battlegroups for Void Lords that are also on their page.

I think there's a few Storm Hammers successors up there too.


As for heretics:
At one point or another I was coming up with stuff for the 9 Holy Sees or Patriarchates of the Behemoth Guard.

Off the top of my head there's:

As yet unnamed world: Gengrat's Endless Forge

Rapture: Fleshcrafters and biomancers, tricked some Oathsworn into joining them, pillaged their stuff, made up the rest

Azazel: Siegesmiths

Xana II: AI and Cybernetica hunting packs. Get on great with Balthasar and friends

Dawnbringer? Something like that: Kalvas Elsophar's Ark Mechanicus with a forge for making Abomination Engines out of raw warpstuff

Mezoa: Daemon Engines. Have a theological spat/rivalry with Xana II about how to treat machine spirit

Somewhere in this, there's also:

--Traditional tanks and tanks and tanks guys who hearken back to the legion's earliest days, more like evil iron hands than anything else

--Kill Servitor and Thrall guys. Have an ongoing rivalry with Rapture to see who can make the most fucked up bodyhorror shit

--Technovirus dudes with mutilators and obliterators. I think they're more a mendicant order, bonding with radical mystics from the Myrmidax Order post heresy.

--A captured Nid Hive fleet? (Rapture?)

The idea of a 'captured hive fleet' always kinda rubs me the wrong way, though I can actually see the Behemoth Guard doing it.
About the 'Nids; we've already decided they are drawn to the galaxy by the Firewall/the Emperor's Ascension, but where do they arrive? Do they show up in east, like the OU, and fuck the Crusader States? Or do the plow their way through the Dark Imperium, leaving them to deal with it? Or do they come from all sides?

I think it makes sense for them to come from the same place.

Well sure, but if they were to come from the east, like they originally do, they would have to somehow get through the Firewall in order to get to the Dark Imperium.

In the OU, they kind of approach from all over the place.
They can definitely show up in the dark imperium--the Behemoth Guard incident is based on that one OU hive fleet that got lost in the Ghoul or halo stars and came out in Pacificus, warped by its experience. In the OU, they're quickly destroyed thanks to their weakened condition, but I figured the Behemoth Guard might have other plans.
Point is Nids approach from all sides in the OU.

Here there's no super beacon and the Archaeotech guys have been fighting them off screen.
Dramatically, the setting builds to the 13th Crusade, so I'd prefer not to have Nids crash it.
But I also don't like them as the primary antagonist.

Bump

They probably come via similar ways, just slightly askew. Not all of them come from the galactic east in the OU.

I'm not sure I have ALL of them, but I do have a lot of them.

Definitely all the Scions and Angels successors, as well as most of the Hammers'. I think a lot of them are up on the wiki now.

Scratch that.

All the Scions successors are up. I'll do the Angels and Hammers.

Are they in one place or all over the place?