Vampire Counts in 40k

So a fellow Fa/tg/uy and I were recently dicussing the concept of Vampire Counts and how the could be implemented into Veeky Forums, and here's what we've come up with so far

Once upon a time there was an Imperial Sector full up with Nobles of all sorts who had existed within a strictly regimented eugenically based state before the IOM came and nommed them up.

Over time their incestuous ways [Insert webbed toe joke] and general dicking around with warpy drugs resulted in the whole nobility of the system falling under a simple very, very fucked up bloodline.

Along with most of the physical deformities and embarassment that comes with inbreeding to shit, the chaps had also somehow picked up an inherited birth defect that effectively acted as Sickle Cell on steroids: they could no longer produce any blood cells of their own and autosanguine was violently rejected by their body.

Fearing the extinction of their precious bloodline, the clan's members quickly set upon a solution: use the vast numbers of serfs accumulated on their planet sized feudal estates as a massive blood bank.

As things grew even more desperate, they skipped the blood bag entirely and went straight to the source, adopting cybernetic fangs that drew blood from their victims directly into their veins.

Of course, this rampant mutanting and mysterious dissapearance of large swathes of their peasants didn't go unnoticed, and the Imperium quickly dropped the hammer on the chumps.

Said chumps, however, due to the Counts unification under a certain Von Carstein and the mutation's secondary effects of spawning fucktons of really powerful Psykers with the ability to, albiet inneficiently, navigate the Warp (Some Navis Nobilite blood must have slipped in there somehow) and the Imperium's more pressing matters on other fronts, the bastards managed to hold off and survive.

Now, isolated and growing ever more twisted, the Transylv'an sector of the Vampyre Counts descends into a black mirror of the IOM

Other urls found in this thread:

warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Vampire
twitter.com/AnonBabble

Moar details incoming on

-Ships
-Infantry
-Culture

I'd think that if they're going to have chaos-y ties, they should generally be Slaaneshi. Khorne is oversaturated, Nurgle is pretty well represented in the playerbase, and Tzeentch has been getting all kinds of new toys in the latest updates.

Shedding blood only to sustain those weakened by sickness and for their own perverse pleasure would be suitably abhorrent to Khorne to be a good jab in the nuts from She who Thirsts. Besides, it's right there in the name.

Aight so ships first I suppose, as getting around is pretty important.

Even before they degenerated into disgusting mutants, the Counts had dwelled largely within massive austere sattelite-manors that orbited their planetary estates (preferring isolation to interacting with the scum on the surface) and they have continued to serve them well in their current form.

Their gloomy halls and windowless chambers provide protection for their delicate skin, and, as each Manor is equipped with orbital and ship-to-ship weaponry, a means of supressing revolts below and Imperial incursions from the outside.

In their years of isolation, the Counts have experimented out of neccessity with technology, applying their latent psychic talents to assembling great weapons of war.

This can be seen most prevelantly by the means in which they power their craft: not through fuel of any conventional means, but through raw psychic power.

Of course, powering an entire ship on ones own would invariably result in overexertion and subsequent death, so the Counts employ the assistance of thousands upon thousands of brainwashed Thralls who are literally burned out like cheap bateries as living fuel.

In mathematical terms, a Count wishing to take his Satellite-Manor to coordinates X, Y would need to expend X amounts of Thralls in order to do so.

Similarly, they would need to use X number of Thralls to fire a shot of X power level at an incoming ship.

As to FTL travel, this is supplied by the Counts themselves, who act in the role of Navigator (possessing, as I said, several degrees of Navigator blood in their complex pedigrees)

While the counts are perfectly capable of facilitating Warp Travel, this comes at great risk and expenditure to themselves, and most prefer to keep their manors fairly sedentary, using traditional STL travel methods and gravitational forces for travel when needed and large numbers of low ranking Vampires to supplement their strength when warp travel is needed

No, I actually had something non-Chaos related in mind instead.

Though their ways have quite divulged from Imperial Orthodoxy, the Counts still see themselves as being subjects of the God Emperor.

More so, in fact, than the filth of the Imperium proper, as many see their genetic uniqueness as proof of their direct relation to the Emperor himself (More reasonable Counts theorizing that they may be a distant outcome of one of the Emperor's many lost projects to uplift the human race)

Regardless of the case, the Vampires universally loathe ordainary humans, especially of the Imperium, as inferior examples of men and their rightful slaves.

Fuck it, it's late and the rest of this can wait until tomorrow.

Shouldn't start posts at this time.

Cool idea, are you going to make a homebrew army or just spit balling?

Will there be a Space Bretonnia?

Yes user, we can have Space Bretonnia

Well lesse, I suck at math and I'm shit at balance, but we'll see about it.

For now, I'm happy to propose a possibility

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I will sleep now like I said I would

You mean like other than Blood Angels, who are genetically engineered space vampires in power armor?

Which is exactly why Slaanesh should be keeping an eye on them. That kind of nose-in-the-air megalomania is Slaanesh's bread and butter.

BAngles are just another flavor of Space Marine, though. OP is talking about the idea of a faction meant to closely adhere to the feel of Vampire Counts and be actual vampires instead of 8 foot tall emos and their emotionally unstable mong cousins.

Pic related for superior Rip and Tear, anyways.

I return! (Temporarily)
Will be sporadically posting throughout the day, so bear with me if it takes a while to get this all down.

So Infantry.
Naturally, their core unit takes the form of the ubiquitous Thrall: a mindless husk enslaved to the will of a Count and armed with rudimentary armour (optional) and weaponry.

Just like in Space, the Vampires can consume these Thralls in order to fuel their Psychic powers and further augment their already impressive abilities.

This lends itself to a unique school of tactics and strategy revoling around managing the same plentiful resource for both infantry and artillery.
A Count might rush his Thralls into one side of an opposing force (causing them to mass on that flank) and then consume them to bombard their exposed and crippled flank with Psychic blasts.

In addition to these Thralls, most Counts employ a mass conscript army of their serfs that resembles an Imperial Guard regiment, except with shittier gear and far poorer morale.

Traveling further up the chain of command, Counts tend to possess elite units of personal bodyguard known as Ghouls kept fanatically loyal to him or herself through generations of service. This force tends to feature highly experienced veterans that the Counts have kept unnaturally young through the powers of the Warp and many even approach younger Space Marines in age. They employ these centuries of combat expertise to brutal use with their array of Archaeotech weaponry that has been kept in the Noble families since the Age of Strife.

To top this off, many of these elite shock troops have developed a taste for blood themselves, their ancestors having occasionally fostered bastard children with their masters.

The Vampire Counts themselves are also fearsome prescence on the battlefield, attacking the very minds of their opponents to inspire mass terror and blasting the enemy to smithereens with the raw power of the Warp.

Perhaps, but they have in no way gone FULLCHAOS yet.

They still like to at least *think* they aren't heretics

Basically this ^

Vampires have been a thing in 40k canon since day one, even if they hardly ever show up. As in, actual shapeshifting, bloodsucking bat people from space. warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Vampire

And a vampire has taken over a hive city at least once.

>dicussing the concept of Vampire Counts and how the could be implemented into Veeky Forums
Uh! Well I mean I guess we don't do much with vam-oh. Oh. You literally and automatically transcribed Veeky Forums for 40k. That's sad.

>warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Vampire
Meh. Unimpressed with them. Not really the cohesive military force I'm after. They are missing many elements of the original Vampire Counts.

Ey, forgive me it was fucking late when I typed that

I suppose I can round things out with Culture and Politics and then leave things be for a while.
Sorry to bother Veeky Forums with shitty concept threads, just felt a need to record this somewhere other than a word doc. Prolly should have done this in Worldbuilding

Although they all stem from the same major bloodline, there are variations in Clan amongst the Counts.

The most numerous and influential of these are, of course, the Von Carsteins.
The Von Carsteins control a majority of the agri and hive worlds in the sector and, as a result, are able to field massive armies of thralls and serf conscripts that put that of other clans to shame.

In addition, thanks to a surplus of 'fuel' to experiment with, the Von Carsteins are unquestionably the most powerful Pyskers of the Vampire counts, and have even been known to summon Daemons into battle and exert limited control over them.

The Țepeș are descended from Feudal Lords and Tribal Chiefs of Feudal and Feral worlds respectively, and possess a decidedly militant culture.

The Țepeș are die-hard advocates of "Might-Makes-Right", casting out any members who prove too frail for their standards.
Țepeș subscribe to an odd system of chivalry and insist on taking blood exclusively from the worthy, preferably after a fairly one-sided duel in the name of 'honour'

One of their more bizzare aspects, the Țepeș claim to have discovered a method of absorbing the ancestral memory of their kills. Whether this is mere esoteric nonsense or truth remains to be seen, but something must be said for the martial prowess the Țepeș display in battle.

The Țepeș prefer to engage in melee combat, and as such, have developed means of enhancing their deadly craft. By extracting iron from the blood itself, the Țepeș forge what they refer to as (fittingly) "Blood Iron", which they forge into warp-attuned power weapons and armour.

>Nurgle is pretty well represented in the playerbase
Was that a fat joke, user

>instead of drawing a bunch of skeletons, just draw three or four and then copypaste them

Last but not least, the Moreau are the sector's industrial powerhouse, claiming the forgeworlds of Transylv'an as their home.

While their powers are nowhere near as developed as their counterparts in other clans, they maintain a foothold through their unrivaled technological might, hoarding archaeotech wonders and manufacturing a seemingly endless line of cybernetically augmented Servitor-Thralls.

Though rumours, especially those spread by a Vampire, are never to be trusted, reliable sources of Imperial informants claim that the Moreau have or have at some point had relationships to the Dark Mechanicus.

That's what I have so far, anyway. Once again, apologies for wasting a whole thread on it. Feel free to comment or critique my shitty attempts at lore or faction-building. I might keep adding to this in future and input is useful.

>Space Bretonnia
You mean space commandos in knight-like armor towering over common peasants and worshipping lady of the throne? Hmm

Totally original 100%

But yeah, other than Genderswapped IOM no clue how Space Bretonnia would work, which is why I went for the Vampire Counts

user was referring to the Imperial Knights faction, methinks. The ik are space bretonnia.

yay Mechanicus

Nah, i meant spess murheens

Eh. Was trying to think of ways to differentiate them but for now, yeah, they're the vampire admech.

I do think it would be cool to give them a Gothic mad science aesthetic rather than standard admech.
Hence the Moreau name.

Hm. Might go further than that and outright pull things from popular early scifi.
Servitors cover Frankenstein, and it would be pretty easy to make some of them Mad Chirurgeons who splice human and animals together into writhing monstrosities.
Maybe a race of mutant Ratlings who serve them as nefarious little minions...

They'd technically be Empire Knights, no?

That's the way, user. They'd use chaos and xeno tech, anything to sate their needs for blood and power. And they gotta keep the classic gothic vampire motif.

> Are they sexy Vampires?

Hence their dealings with the Dark Mechanicus.

They may be filthy chaos worshippers not fit to lick the bootheels of the Noble House of Moreau, but the normal Admech won't play nice and they gotta get their fix of that shiny, shiny tech.

They'd probably end up sporting enough cybernetics to qualify themselves as techpriests, both to bolster their own mental, psychic, and physical capabilities and to help ease the suffering caused by their numerous genetic defects.

Wheras a normal Vampire Count could be expected to have only the standard fang-implants and a few augmentic limbs at most, a member of the House Moreau would sport a mouth full of razor sharp whirling blades and pnuematic jaws like a steel trap.

Probably something a bit like pic related on their heads to help them maintain control over their Servo-Thralls

>Inbred mutants
>Sexy

Fuckoff Slaanesh

so we essentially have a dark imperium faction here.....moar!

Basically.

The thought was "What if we took everything shitty about the Imperium (the Nobles, fanatics, corrupt bueracracy) and then removed everything remotely redeeming?"

Hence; a galactic state run by a hedonistic, corupt, and fanatically rascist nobility who literally drink their subjects' blood

Whaddya want to know? I have notes so far, but not cohesive enough to properly communicate without proper prompting

My memories of whf have faded - but, given that the vampire counts were undead....could these folks have some control over necrons/c'tan? Or their own mindless robot armies? Actually, that second sounds better - tho they could have stolen c'tan tech. Servitor and robot armies, with modded vampire elites/leaders, and grotesque-esque critters for heavies.
Hmmm, could i suppose also be a subfaction of necrons: necros have the tombkings/mummies, why not vampires too? A different style of necron, parasitic rather than overlord-y?????

Alright, that's getting pretty damn off topic.

A Necron-Sub race could certainly work, but given that I'm already working from a baseline of corrupted Imperial nobles, that would be a step backwards in terms of progress on this idea. Go ahead and make your own concept featuring such if you want.

>control over Necrons/C'tan
Why?
The Necrons aren't actually undead, they're just robots with uploaded souls/personalities.

Secondly, that's a lot of power. I mean, a LOT of power. The Necrons by themselves are one of the most technologically powerful (if fragmented) races in 40k
Something that could excersize control over them would need to be even more so, and that seriously destabilizes the balance of power in the Galaxy.

As to the C'Tan..
You do realize they are literally Gods. Like, probably Chaos God tier.

>Mindless robot armies
See my stuff on Thralls here.
The idea is that the counts use their vast Psychic capabilities to enslave the minds of thousands upon thousands of people to serve as their army, food, and even fuel (see further up on Vampire Count ships)

To better capture that undead look, I would imagine that these Thralls are underfed and basically hanging off of skeletons at this point (they can be kept alive by the power of the Warp and it's much easier to just make a new thrall than to somehow provide adequate food for such a large expendable force)

Pic related is about right

OH, i'm not here to help just you, user - i'm here to brainstorm for everybody who's gonna steal this idea.
>believes power is needed to control power
erm, no - the masses in our world are more powerful than their leaders, and yet.....
Cool ideas you have, but i am here to add to them, not be constrained by them.

Well alright then, but you replied to a post specifcally requesting questions to prompt further development of this concept so I hope you can understand where I come from.

And yes, power is absolutely neccessary to control power.
Those world leaders lack the raw physical power of an angry mob, sure, but they currently control political, cultural, and economic power through ownership of the Means of Production (factories, farms, that kinda shit) hence; their apparant power

Sure, the masses may be the true driving economic force behind any society (shit doesn't get built without the workers) but until they seize the MOP through a unified class-action against the rich, their power is checked and diminished by said world leaders.

But I digress, that was off topic.

Point is, making one of their key points the ability to control another major faction kinda makes them redundant. It'd be like if a new race was introduced who's defining trait was the ability to control Orks. What are they really introducing to the setting if Orks already exist?

Well, that's what I'm saying: the elites in our society do not have the actual power to rule; the power they wield is illusory, yet they are still in charge.