Imperium Asunder

Jade Empire Ninjas edition
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.

1d4chan.org/wiki/Imperium_Asunder

Thread starter: We really need to rewrite the intro flavor text, it seems rather poorly done upon rereading it.

Why not take the intro text from the 40k rulebook and use that?

I think I'll try my hand at it. The original was just kind of weird because it mentioned 1984 by name and also talked about the trenches of Verdun IIRC.

Ah, makes sense.

So, any of these legions need commissars?

Commissars? You mean chaplains?

They're discipline master cadres from the old pre-Russ VIth. Apparently order was kept only with summary executions. But to get them to follow orders, not to prevent retreats. They were fine about that. So... not really Commissars in the guard sense, more field police and discipline stuff.

Side note:
Just want to clarify something after looking at some of the new fluff from Inferno--mostly that discipline master image someone put up:
Besides the occasional ash blindness incident, the early Sky Serpents did not have issues with excessive brutality, not like the World Eaters or Space Wolves.
Violence was always controlled.
The legion was haughty and insular and was often intractable. More like the White Scars. The early Sky Serpents were similar to the the Medusan Clans, perhaps, or the Chogorian Brotherhoods, and they accepted few masters.
Xun sees all this and says essentially that part of being a superior being is holding oneself to a higher standard. Mortals aren't burdens, but can be inspired to greatness by greatness.
He also alters the nature of the organization to improve supply chains and allow those more complex strategies.
They always had complex strategy, maneuver war, etc, but were hampered structurally and by being little shits.
Essentially, Xun changes the warrior aristocracy to a more flexible meritocracy, making it so that siegemaster could actually direct a whole campaign and the infowarfare dude could advise and work directly with the forge lord.
Xun also standardizes constituents so that supply can be simplified while still being modular.
Xun takes the warrior code and modified it, redefined some terms, changed the structure a bit, and turned warlords into rulers and warriors into paragons.
TBC

Do you think the loyalists call the conflict with the Dark Imperium the Long War?

They wrote poetry, painted, and collected lore before Xun and they collected skulls and trophies, and marked kills in engraved plate after he came, but he changed their bearing and self conception, and that changed everything.
Hopefully that makes some more sense, since I feel like I've been inching closer to the nature of the change but just not explaining it.

If that is the cas, are there any veterans of the Long War that aren't dreadnoughts?

Definitely.
Same way that the Dark Imperium calls their ruler The Emperor.
It's too cool to pass up loyalist marines charging Chaos Guardsmen yelling "Death to the False Emperor".

So you can get images like Void Lords stepping from the shadows or the white clad hordes of the ... Sky Serpents Death Company equivalent..
Hmm.
Need names for that still. And their Red Thirst equivalent.

What kind of trophies do each legion collect? The Scions engrave the names of different campaigns and theaters of war on their armor. Each time an Undying Scion is promoted, they go on a hunt for a megapanther, whose pelt they fashion into a badge of office such as a cloak or tabard. Ancients of the chapter are draped in furs and covered in scrollwork depicting their long careers.

Long-lasting and fulfilling relationships.

Can't tell if you're joking.

Bet the Judgement Bringers have all sorts of medals and crests.
I bet they have an oddly hierarchical nature. Their leaders do so from the front and I imagine a sort of 'we're all soldiers' sort of deal, but at the same time they have very strict discipline and a rigid command structure.

Be interesting to contrast them with the Second Sons.
The Second Sons, by the way, gain nothing from campaigns except notches and flashbacks.

I think the Sky Serpents take skulls, pelts, horns, that sort of thing. Perhaps a weapon of a worthy opponent.
Ornamentation is all done in fine detail work on the plate. I'm imagining that the higher up you get, the more elaborate your insignia and armor get with essentially taotie motifs.
There's also a tendency to inscribe armor with poetry, typically composed about a battle or significant achievement.
Official appointments tend to come with special bling, worked jade emblems, silk cloaks, that sort of deal. The principle is similar to Ming Dynasty officials but the aesthetic is Shang Dynasty.

I don't think I've ever established what Sarco thinks of Anders. I should do that.

The Ash Bearers, formerly the vaunted Heralds of Hadrianus, are a renegade chapter of marines that worship the c'tan known as Nyadra'zatha, the Burning One. Baited into entering the webway by a Negators raiding party, the Heralds soon became lost in its labyrinthine construction, where they happened upon a shard of the Burning One sealed there in eons past.

The Ash Bearers emerged from the webway two thousand years later in a storm of fire, laying waste to dozens of star systems in both the Dark Imperium and the Crusader States. They left naught but smoldering ruins in their wake, not even the ash of their victims remained. The attacks seemed random at first, but upon closer scrutiny a pattern could be discerned...

Bump

Fun.
So do the Scions have more official/public Necron allies?

Actually, what are the more reasonable Necron dynasties up to?
There's definitely some who are trying to rebuild the Empire and purge the Xenos, but given the state of affairs, I imagine that I'd a dynasty woke up and claimed territory in Tempestus and fought chaos like the Old Ones while protecting the local humans, the East would ally.

>do the Scions have more official/public Necron allies?
No. Any chapters of Scions found colluding with xenos are cast out of the Vigil and most are hunted down. Very few know the Ash Bearers' origins and if they did they would be reviled.

The focus of the Ninth Crusade was a civil war within the Vigil between necron sympathizers and the rest of the region.

Ah, cool.

I was thinking that other states might find themselves intruiged by the potential of necron allies, both because they're too powerful to fight and because they're both anti-chaos.
Sort of an allies in odd places kind of deal.

Are you in the discord, user?

I was,then I restarted my computer and lost the link. Really I need to get back in there.
Unfortunately, I forgot my name, so I'm not a new contributor.

This is the disadvantage of anonymity.

Anyways, I'm thinking that a friendly Necron dynasty or two might be neat, the idea being less that the states are more tolerant than that things are so bad that they can't turn down a potential ally in the form of the Placeholder-ahk dynasty.

I've always liked the idea, but I also think it kind of defeats the purpose of the Ninth Crusade. Like, I could see alliances as short as individual battles and maybe even entire campaigns but nothing long-term.

Well, to put something out there, the 9th would be early in the rise of the Necrons. The ones in the Vigil are a real pain and sneaking about to the point where when a Necron dynasty rises in the Tempest Gap or by the Storm Kingdoms and offers support people don't even realize it's the same species. The Scions see it and keep their mouths shut.
Or maybe the Necron dynasty in question overturns everything the Imperial thought they knew about them. Or the newcrons are hostile to the dynasty in the Vigil.
Something like that, where the main body of the Necrons wake after the 9th and it just makes more problems and raises more questions for everyone.
It would be particularly funny if the Protectorate gets stuck with crazy oldcrons or Flayed Ones while the Jade Empire is near some reasonable crons like that dynasty with the Orrey.

Ooh, speaking of, where are they located anyways? I could see that being a major issue if anyone finds out about it. If it's in loyal space, the traitor legions could try to capture it and the loyalists can't figure out why the traitor legions are making for this tomb world.

Anyways, result would be the usually Xenophillic Paladins exterminate necrons on sight, while the more conservative legions are on good terms with the metal men.