Warmasters' Triumvirate: XXVII

But that also leads to situations where legions aren't what they're supposed to become yet; different names, heraldry etc. The Ist legion would still be the Immortals, for example.

Yeah which is why I didn't reference them in my short. Whoever is writing might have to do a bit of research I guess.

Then it seems that Rogue Traders subscribe to the Separatist school of thought that they only owe fealty to the Emperor Himself, the Imperium and the Union States, and perhaps even the more organized Traitor terrotories bordeing non-Chaos space, being lesser constructs and irrelevant to their Warrants.

The Lords of Terra really don't like this, and I imagine that there would be a not insignificant Ordo dedicated to policing Rogue Traders, and Filibusters using the Warrant as cover for clandestine operation, as best they can. Their war with the Corsairs shadow cells would be a secret one, as to strike down a Rouge Trader for seemingly (to the rest of the Galaxy) no reason would set a dangerous precedent.

As for Chaos Orks, the only reason its not more significant is because at the psychic level these Orks ping to others as "un-orky" and are subject to krumpin'. With a comparatively organized Traitor state, these Orks would be afforded better protections and space in which they can fight and trade with impunity. As for Chaos Eldar, the only evidence we have for such a thing is a Black Library book of dubious canonicty. As for Minor Xenos there is a slew of Xenos that freely worship the Ruinous Powers, but in OU they are either so minor it doesnt matter or they were wipped out.

PROMPT:
What was The Emperor's plan for your primarch? I. e. What was their role to be in the Imperium after the Great Crusade?

Being a friendly fuck maybe? I don't know. Maybe Empy created Linares to warmonger, nothing much more. But yup, I dunno

The Emperor had two plans for Raj. On one hand, he was made to interface with the gigantic Titanicus warmachines. Most of his sons posses this ability as well, but the Titanicus never accepted marines as Princeps.

After the Crusade, Raj was intended to become one of the greatest architects in the Imperium. I have never really expanded on it, but part of Raj's cunning in the art of siegecraft comes from the fact that he has great knowledge of how to build fortresses himself.

Lambach was to be a fountain of knowledge. The greatest teacher. He was essentially meant to become 40k Wikipedia.

The Great Crusade was never meant to end for Einchurt, he was the Emperor's destroyer.

Maybe Linares and Einchurt were created for that purpose, with different focuses: While Einchurt would gas the entire planet, Linares would assault it and take control of it throught sheer skill tactics

I could see that, Einchurt being the one to deal with really bad shit, Linares the one to deal more with humans and shit.

Maybe just things that don't deserve utter extermination, or in places where that is not practical

History is written by the victors, but who alive would be worthy to tell it?

Kinnévail was always meant to be Lord of Propoganda, the peopliest people person, meant to quell rebellions before they even happen.

Not necessarily a statesman, but certainly a politician, and philosopher and mouthpiece of the Imperium.

Valorn was probably intended to be the Imperial Spymaster. He know how to stealth good

Deshain Kane was planned to be the emperors enforcer. Uphold the law and take care that the people follow it.

>Chaos Eldar
There's actually a panel in the 8th Edition BRB that suggests that Chaos Eldar are indeed a thing. Makes sense, I think. (Though could you imagine what the rules would be like? Even faster and glass-cannonier?)

>Rogue Trader Stuff
Hell Yeah. I support this.

>Elsu
Elsu was made for fightan and winnin and krumpin gits wot fink dey's bettah dan de Emperah.
Nah, in all seriousness, he was the warhawk. Elsu was intended to be something of an adrenaline junkie and outsider. The feathers were an accident. In his friendship with Kincaid, he was doing pretty much exactly what he was intended to do. Post Crusade, he'd have been there to serve as devil's advocate and an inspector for the various realms of humanity.
>Gyahdred
Gyahdred was intended to be the Imperial technologist. While the Emperor would have preferred him trained under the Terrawatt clans, one might surmise that being cast out towards the forges Stovokor, Tindalos, and Isekyo in the North Eastern Imperium, all noted for their deviant machine cult was no accident.

The Dusk Phantoms directly administer several types of area. For most of the Union, Dusk Phantom presence takes the form of watch fortresses. They're basically Deathwatch Fortresses.

There's also advisory groups on Manufactora and Forge Worlds.

Primarily, however, there's a huge swathe of space run by the Dusk Phantoms. This has a lot of forges and resource worlds.
Not all forgeworlds are Dusk Phantoms controlled, though, or even follow the Cult of Stovokor. Nor do the Dusk Phantoms attempt to regulate much in the way of orthodoxy.
None the less, the majority cult across the union is that of Stovokor, just because they're the major center of power.
The three big ones up north are Stovokor, Tindalos, and Isekyo. There's also Incaladion and Anvilius towards the middle. Those two kind of have their own cults but are tight with the Dusk Phantoms.
Stovokor, Tindalos, and Isekyo I'll get to later. They're the oddballs, but with some general doctrinal and cultural similarities to suggest they were settled by the same sect of the early Mechanicum.

I updated my sheet a little bit to reflect Lambachs knowledge of Elsu now. Before I had it as the Matil ect name. I also added how Lambach sees himself.
>Elsu Eyanosa
Another Psyker more powerful than myself, I find my brother fascinating.
I know many of them see him as an abomination to be abhorred which I find absurd.
How easily could his... unique appearance have been transferred to myself or one of my brothers? Would any one of them have Elsu’s strength of character when dealing with such wanton character assassinations? I think not. Thankfully Elsu seems happy with a close knit group of friends such as myself, Marduk and Kincaid. Both brothers earn my undying respect for their fair treatment of Elsu.

>Lambach Kropor (Myself)
I realise that many of my brothers consider me ill prepared for the role I am to play and believe perhaps that I am unworthy of leading the people of the Imperium.
I see no reason to dissuade the notion, I'll simply allow my combat records to show for themselves exactly how efficient my Legion can be.
The truth is that I have no care for it. Unlike Mot or some others I have no desire to rule over a populace of cowering mortals. The people of Miletus lived happy lives in service to my Father's Imperium without my help and I imagine they will continue to do so.
At the end of the crusade it is my hope to simply guide Imperial governance using the vast array of knowledge at the disposal of the formidable minds my father has gifted my brothers and I.
I doubt our Father intended for us to rule, should the mortals stray to far from the path Father has laid down it will be our job to guide them back, not to force them, unless absolutely necessary.

I also fluffed up the homeworld a little bit.

Homeworld: Miletus. A world at peace well before the arrival of the Primarch.
Once, after old night, the setters of Miletus had worshiped ancient Terran gods and goddesses of Grecian or Roman mythology. Gods like Bellona the goddess of war, and violence. Voluptus the goddess of pleasure and delight, Janus the god of changing times and human advancement and perhaps most noticeably Hecate the goddess of Death, Sorcery and Rebirth. Eventually these gods were seen by the people for what they were, mere myths and legends and nothing more. The Planet stuck to the teachings of these gods as the planet thrived peacefully in doing so but open worship of them was met with disdain and ridicule.
When discovered, relatively close to Terra, on the great Crusade Miletus embraced the Imperial truth and joined the Imperial cause with no struggles. As Lambach Kropor had no need or desire to raise to power and the vast majority of the Imperial forces did not need to spend much time occupying the planet The Primarch was at first missed as he happily continued his everyday life. A Primarch could not hope to escape notice forever though and Lambach was in no way trying to hide. So eventually word reached the Imperial governors who immediately sent reports to The Emperor. The paradise world of beautiful architecture would soon become one of the most important worlds in the Imperium and primary recruiting grounds of the Chosen of Hecate Legion.

Pacha was meant to be a protector, but at the same time of the reassuring type. Much like Kincaid would conduct his propaganda through high oratory, Pacha would be more of a man of the people, and someone who easily brought the mood up. And perhaps to test as to whether a Primarch could be entirely separated from his bellic duties at some point.

Bump

I think SOME RT do, not all. But given RT can interact with Xenos as long as it benefits the Imperium, them doing so with Seps makes sense.

Also, High Lords likely appointed their own Warrants after the fact too. The ones the Corsairs have just fall under Emperor granted

Running the economics, facilitating exploration and expansion.

Bump

Good stuff. Again, I really like how decent Lambach is. Makes it all so much darker.
Do we want to do a campaign with Marduk and friends?

And I'd think that when things are good, Seps aren't as bad as Xenos. When times are bad, then they're just called heretics. But I think there's some variability in the relationship, if that makes sense. I'd assume at times they collaborate against common xeno foes, at very long distance.

>The Core Forges
The three biggest forges in the North East are Stovokor, Tindalos, and Isekyo. They are, for all intents and purposes, Dusk Phantom worlds, or perhaps one might say that the Dusk Phantoms Legion is an extension of these three forges. All were settled in remote antiquity by idiosyncratic sects of the Mechanicum and seem to have kept in sporadic contact throught Old Night.

>Stovokor
Space Tibet Technobuddhists. They're the main flavor of Dusk Phantom.

>Tindalos
Tindalos is even further north. They're a bunch of paranoid fuckers and do things like hide stasis crypts with legions of spare automata in elliptical orbits so that when the stars are right, reinforcements will fall from the heavens. They have titan hangers in subsurface vaults so that in times of need, giants will rise from the deeps.
They obsessively keep complex calendars looking for patterns in state changes and machine cycles. They're not half bad at it, either.
They're also rather fond of their automata, which they treat as valued hunting hounds or falcons.
The whole world has a sort of feral, predatory edge about it and is kept environmentally stable to mask the presence of the forges from orbital scans.
Their reasonably similar to Stovokor in philosophy, though they hold that pure reality is ultimately incomprehensible to rational minds. It is madness and anathema to life. (This includes Chaos, most Xenos, and natural Entropy.) Reason and order are imposed over this madness. tbc

I think we had this prompt already.

Ashur was supposed to become the administrator of infrastructure and logistics, maintaining and overseeing both planetary and interplanetary travel and communications.

>Tindalos cont
You can never destroy it, and you need some disorder in the system, but you keep it in control in the bits of a hostile universe that humanity inhabits, not by right, but by force and by will.
(As you might imagine, this is also a popular view in the Dusk Phantoms)
In this view, Motive Force Karma is not wholly linked to causality. Some of it is, but there is a whole universe beyond cause and effect and understanding. The Omnissiah is something of a demiurge that creates the stable bubble of civilization and order, life, etc through its agents of technology and life itself. The Cult of Tindalos seeks to moderate the extremes on both sides (though the chaoskampf is dominant). So here the Omnissiah is an emergent property of chaos eddies. Sanity exists in these bubbles and Tindalos preserves and protects these bubbles. From there practice with sutras and meditation is similar, but Tindalos is paranoid as fuck because they know that when the stars are right, unheilige things will descend from the stars and order and sanity will fail.

So they've got a Lovecraftian-Mesoamerican sort of deal going on, always struggling against the dissolution of all things.

>Isekyo
Isekyo is more south-easterly. They are, for lack of a better descriptor, Shinto.
For them motive force is universal and all things have machine spirits. They're about playing up the animistic aspect of the Mechanicum. The Omnissiah isn't terribly important in their thinking. It's mostly some sort of powerful 'kami', a particularly powerful machine spirit.
In their view, the universe works best when the machine spirits are left to do their thing. The universe is full of complex cycles and before you go mucking about in them, you'd best know what you're doing.
The way you come to understand this is through things like physics and alchemistry. They're probably the closest to what we'd think of as modern science, though they don't conceptualize it that way. tbc.

>Isekyo cont
For them, electrons move the way they do because of the machine spirits running about, etc.
There are, straightforwardly enough, good spirits and bad spirits. Bad spirits come from the warp and are the results of strong negative emotions and imbalances in the cycles of nature. That's why reimposition of those natural cycles can texorcise them.
Because you're a machine too, you can better understand other machine spirits by understanding your own.
The magi of Isekyo tend to have very clever vehicles and the like. Their Machine Spirits tend to be much more relaxed. (Less likely to overheat, etc) They also have fantastic arae shrikes, data-djinns, etc etc.

Just as in the real world, these views syncretize, and its not uncommon to see elements of all three in Dusk Phantom practice and across their space. The forges themselves compete and vie for position, but ideology isn't at issue, all three paths are equally right, as are some of the more hermetic interpretations.
Later I'll do a bit on the Titan Legions and the like.

This does lead me to a question.

Do the Separatists split? Do they have successors, or do they stick with their original legions?

We could probably do a campaign with them. I'd happily sort something out.
We should also pen some details for Gren

>Kincaid and the Burned Prophet.jpg
>some of the slaves have been spreading stories about the burned man again

Good question. Splitting would give some balance, and if the Primarch disappears would be difficult to keep the whole Legions together, so splitting would be almost natural.

Depends on the Legion I would say. The Liberators would undoubtedly stay whole, the Dragoons may fall victim to infighting and arrogance, the Phantoms may split due to dogmatic differences and to experience the Omnissiah with fresh eyes.

The Hounds certainly do. Most of their successor chapters (or the reasons behind the formation of most of their chapters) are born during an event called "The Breaking of the Pack". Long story short, Valorn vanished after Zelbezis was killed by member of his Iron Guard, however he left someone to reign over Hound territory (often known as the "Hound's Regency") in his stead. This someone was however not a marine or a primarch, but a Mortal. One Dia Adras by name, a descendant of Guragol and a major in Advent's own guard forces, the Advent Armoured Brigade. She was given this position partially as recognition of her skill, but mostly as a way for Valorn to test mortals, as he had begun to doubt his initial estimation of them in the wake of his Separatist brother's death. Her appointment was not without its opposition, primarily from the master of the second chapter, one Tybalt Kennan, who gathered to him a myriad of malcontents from within the legion.

He claimed that Dia was unfit to lead and so should be replaced by the marine who had more right to it. Not all agreed with this estimate, some out of faith in Valorn, others out of a distrust of the ambitious officer, but many did. Dia decided to nip Tybalt's little rebellion in the bud before he could choose too much disruption. So she invited him to a meeting, on a planet that is best described as "Neutral territory", apparently to discuss handing over control of the Hounds to him. Instead she blew off one of his legs with a plasma pistol and teleported in a squad of very nasty terminators to arrest Tybalt and exile him. Tybalt was sent to an Ork infested mudball at the edge of the Regency, with the promise that he would be allowed to return to the legion once the planet was Xenos free. Suffice to say he was never seen again.

Whilst this action won over many of the marines who had thought her incompetent or unsuited for the job it alienated many of Tybalt's diehard supporters.

As such, these supporters buggered off to form their own chapters and do things their own way. Without a singular leader they split into far smaller groups to chase their own agendas. Dia allowed this mostly because she'd wanted to minimise disruption and murdering everyone who wanted to leave would probably cause more than it would prevent. Thus these marines left the Hounds, but stayed in the regency, mostly because their problems were with the Mortal Regent, not with the marines who served them or the territory they governed.

Many of the Chapters born after the Breaking of the Pack were formed for similar reasons to those first chapters, disagreements over the conduct or decisions of a Regent. If these actions are significant enough, they can lead to a large number of like-minded individuals breaking off and forming a chapter.

Others form from the remnants of multiple chapters that have been pushed to the brink of extinction and been unable to recover alone, or are formed by the Hounds themselves for the express purpose of dealing with threats in a certain area/way, but these are in great minority to those formed over distaste for a Regent.

>Another female mortal successor

I don't know what this means, but it's indicative of something

She's a little more mortal than Eris. She's dead within a few decades and then her firstborn son Saracen takes over. He sets up a bunch of laws called the "Saracen Concessions" which give the chapter masters of the Pale Hounds more power over things, including the power to oust Regents and veto their decisions.

However in the case of the first a Regent has to have been in power for at least two years before they can be deposed and in the cases of both at least two thirds majority in favour is needed to enact a veto/ousting.

Also after a Regent is deposed their successor must be from a different line of the Adras family, of which there are four, named after Dia's children. They are the Saracens the Aurelian's, the Tiberians, and the Fayes.

bumpz

I'm willing to pay for portaits

Hit me up on discord if you want me to hook you up

Don't you guys contradict your own stuff? A mortal leading a fiefdom in the union consisting of the astartes who split themselves from the imperium because they thought.it is their rightful place to rule over mankind?

Yeah, that does seem like something that'd be a problem. Having one of the seven constituent states be lead by a mortal is pretty much the only no-go for the Separatists.

I agree with you wholeheartedly

Is a good point, we should work it out

Yeah, that's the only problem I have with my own idea. I reckon that, if the Regents exist, the Hounds keep their very existence as much of a secret as they can from the other nations of the Union. But if people aren't at all happy with them as a thing I can scrap them and go a different direction. Maybe have Valorn not actually declare a successor leading to a brief conflict over who will lead? which ends in it being one of the chapter masters, possibly Tybalt? And after that the "Regent" just happens to be the highest ranking marine to hold the Geneseed of the previous Regent.

Maybe just an inherited position, that goes from chapter master to chapter master.

K, so lets forget these ideas for the Hounds cause they ain't seppy enough. Instead:
>The Master of the Hounds' first Chapter is known as the Regent, not simply of their territory, but of the Legion itself.
>Regent's control over the legion is less complete than Valorn's was, giving individual chapter masters a greater level of autonomy
>Valorn never declared an official successor before he vanished, so there was something of an argument about it initially
>half the chapter masters put their vote behind Tybalt Kennan, master of the 2nd whilst the other half voted for the first captain of the first chapter.
>Marines follow suit, privately or even publicly supporting one candidate or another.
>In the end the first captain is made Regent and Tybalt is banished for a variety of reasons
>Tybalt's banishment causes many of his supporters to abandon the Hounds to form their own chapters, though not a majority of the legion's members

This makes a lot more sense with how the Seps operate. I also like the idea of the Pale Hounds having to deal with hereditary disputes within the legion.

After the legion breaks, do the new chapters still attend some sort of council with their parent and brother chapters? I would imagine something like that would be recruired in order to keep the Hound's Regency together.

Gren?
Is there a Burning Man festival?

Less schism and more blend with the local cult.
See

Grenthor is what I meant. Phone must of cut off the end of the word.

With McGregor defeated, it's time for me to retreat into seclusion and begin by drinking of a swimming pool of my own salty, salty tears

Je'She was meant to be the builder of cities, and their defender.

Looks good

The Corsairs don't really but operate in small groups with lots of independence. But they technically are under one Legion Master.

I imagine that Fillibusters tend to slip inbetween the cracks and develop their own agendas.

It would be funny to have a less memey Alpha Legion-alike that has a parent organization that pretends that everything is fine and they're in complete control but there's hundreds of pseudo independent cells that they desperately try to reign in or stamp out

Like the CIA back in the day

Somewhat, though hypno-indoctrination helps. Honestly, I see RT-Captains being more rogueish than Filibusters cus the latter is more reliant. Stuck behind enemy lines, it the truth gets out or they're hung out they'll be fucked.

That said, there is likely Sep division in how the Corsairs operate and their close ties to stuff in the Imperium and running the trade may comprimise them.

>The Corsairs are like the CIA

The Corsairs should totally try to abduct Kincaid at some point.

>Ernesto Valverde, Gran Maestre of the First Tercio, IVth Astartes Legion.

An always curious, excepcionally quiet for a Silver Blade, and calm soldier, Valverde was recruited by the Silver Blades shortly after the Ullanor Campaign. Although his swordsmanship skills were deficent, he proved himself in the use of ranged weaponry. Quickly sent to the Devastator training, Valverde's skills with all types of heavy weaponry made him worthy of wearing one of the Legion's Templar-Pattern Heavy Support Armors, nowadays known as proto-Centurion suit. His weapons of choice usually were Plasma Cannons and Volkite weaponry, which used with extreme efficency in many situations.

His actions in many battles of the Brotherwar reached the Gran Maestre’s ears, and Valverde became part of his retinue, where he demostrated an above-average understanding of both tactical and strategical situations. In a certain battle against the Separatists forces, Linares himself came under attack by several squads of Separatists, that quickly overwhelmed the Primarch and his retinue with a hail of bolt fire. In that dire situation, the Gran Maestre and his retinue charged into the enemy lines, allowing Linares and the Escogidos to charge too, and eventually clear the area. But the towering figure of the Primarch was an easy target for an enemy sniper, who adquired him, and was about to fire when Valverde, using his suit’s enhaced sensors, detected him and positioned himself between the Primarch and the gunman, while firing volleys of plasma fire. The gunman retreated, but not before taking a single shot against the Primarch, that was blocked by the armored skin of the Devastator.

Linares spoke long with this man after the battle, and saw a great potential on him. Shortly after this battle, another was fought, but this time, things went badly for the Silver Blades, and had to withdraw. Many died that day, including the Gran Maestre of the First Tercio.

Linares had little to think. He placed Valverde in charge of the whole Tercio, and the Brotherwar showed that this decission was a correct one, indeed. His skills in both battlefield and tactics helped the Legion in winning several battles.

But his most important trial was the Siege of Terra. The massive Battle pushed every single commander in chief present to the limits. The units were spread throught kilometers of frontline, overlapping with other Legions and Auxilia. Valverde showed both leadership when leading his men in battle, and initiative planning actions and movements.

When the Battle finished, Linares left, but placed him in charge of the Legion while he was not around. This way, Valverde became the First Among Equals, the firts Chapter Master of the Silver Blades. His was the duty of leading the remaining Blades during the Scouring, and when creating the sucessor chapters. He slowly gained the respect of most of the Primarchs, and organized the reconstruction of the Silver Blades Chapter.

>Viento de Poniente, Viento de Levante
>(Wester' Wind, Easter' Wind)

Of all the Kadirian cities, there was one in the coast that was permanently struck by these two winds. Its name was Zahr. The city had a long fishing tradition. They mostly fished what in Terra would be called "Tuna", using ancient methods, called "almadraba" by the Kadirians.

There were two young brothers that helped their father in such an art, called Jorge and Pedro. Although they were fairly simmilar physically, in character they were polar oposites.

While Pedro was cold-headed and a natural leader, Jorge was impulsive and a brute. When Linares reunited with the Legion, he sent enlisters to the major cities of the planet, to look for fresh blood for the Legion.

One of those enlisters ended up in Zahr, and enlisted the kids. They proved to be great warriors, both in range fighting and in melee. While Jorge was sent to the Assault Squads trainning, Pedro was sent to Leading courses, in order to make of him a better leader.

When they finished training, Pedro requested to join his brother's Assault Squad, and so he did. The squad was exclusively formed by fresh recruits, and all of them were eager to join the fray.

The squad was different from the later Assault Squads of the Legion, as it still retained the jump packs and the hit-and-run tactics. It was sent to their first Campaign shortly after, being part of the 3rd Tercio.

The Squad's first deployment was highly succesful, and they were quickly dispatched to another campaign. This time, against the green tide, the Orks.

They entered the battlefield along two other Squads, carried in the insides of a Thunderhawk Gunship. They jumped into the heart of the action, deep-striking near the Warboss. The squads were quickly cut-off as the greenskins pushed the Legion's lines back.

Pedro lead the Legionnaires to a small hill, were they defended their positions with bolt pistol and chainsword. The Warboss, seeing that his boyz couldn't break the defenses of the Astartes, charged into the fray. And there, started the end of the brothers' life.

The gigantic ork smashed throught his own boys, charging infuriated towards the Assault Marines. Some tried to stop him, but he quickly dispatched them. The Astarted surrounded him and attacked at once, but the warboss just ignored most of the wounds and killed some Astartes. Pedro was left without a plan, and Jorge just tried to find a weak spot to hurt the beast. Pedro joined his battle-brothers, charging towards the ork, and jumping in his back while thrusting his sword throught his thick skin. Jorge did his best fighting head-on the ork, but nothing could be done. The beast grabbed the Astartes and broke him in two, and then grabbed the other brother and did pretty much the same.

Both were left laying in the ground. Pedro saw how his brother entered sus-an, while feeling his own life scaping from his body. Then, the Membrane did its work.

Little more is rembered by those young Astartes. The Legion fought back and broke the orks' lines, reaching the hill and slaying the warboss. The Apothecaries saved most of the sus-an'd Astartes, but couldn't bring back from sus-an the two brothers. They were taken to Kadir, were the most experienced Apothecaries tried their best to bring them back. And they brought them back to life, but for a short time. Their wounds were too severe to asure full recovery, and they could easily die any moment. So they were interred in Comtemptor Dreadnoughts.

The Brothers are always deployed together. They have fought in the most brutal and decisive battles of the Great Crusade and the Brotherwar. They were there when the Apocaliptican was blown up during the Siege, and they will still serve the Emperor millenia after their interrement.

They are known for those two, opposed winds, Pedro is Poniente, the cold and calm wind, and Jorge is Levante, the hot and strong one. Pedro carries an Assault cannon and a power fist, while Jorge carries a dreadnought-sized power sword and a heavy flamer.

They can be possibly the most ancient Dreads in the Imperium, and they will serve for the rest of forever if necessary.

hurried bump

Is the Imperium gonna be executing 'Golden Crusades' against the Seperatists? I can imagine Kincaid going beyond the Imperial Ring and trying to convert worlds to the Imperial Cult. That would leave the Seps with a significant issue, even if they beat off the attacks; the religious worship.

And the constant threat. It could be a good possibility.

Yeah, beneath the regent is the Circle of Wolves, is a large council made up of the leaders (or at least representatives) of all the chapters of/descended from the Pale Hounds, excepting the Regent himself. The council works to enact the regents decrees and also exists as a forum for diplomatic discourse between the many chapters that reside within the Regency. It also mediates between these chapters in times of dispute In addition to electing new Regents when circumstances force them to (eg, when the Circle successfully passes a No Confidence vote in the Heir Apparent. This doesn't happen often, but it does occur).

Of course, the Pale Hounds have more power in this council than others, as they have fourteen times the representatives of any other chapter and thus fourteen times the votes. Whilst this doesn't mean as much in M41 as it meant when successors were fewer, it does provide them with a slight advantage.

Linares: I know I said you could drop a single shell in the area. But I also told you not to use *that* shell, Einchurt!

Silence at the other side of the radio. The Silver Blades awaited orders, surrounding the shelled area, a small, promptly fortified village where a handful of Forge Lords were garrisoned.

The Silver Blades and the Death's Heads were sent to deal with the remaining Forge Lords in the planet, a force that, although rather small, was well entrenched, mainly in a bigger city, thousands of kilometers away. Several point-defense anti-ship systems were located in the city, so it had to be taken from the ground.

They were on their way, but those little villages full of Forge Lords were on their path.

The Command Rhino stood still behind the Blades' lines, along another Command vehicle from the Death's Heads that served as a radio repeater for their troops.

Comms Officer: Señor, tenemos un mensaje del Kryptora.
Linares: ¿Qué dice?
Comms Officer: Que les da igual.

The Death's Heads standing nearby looked at the Lord of Ale, trying to decipher what he was saying. Meanwhile, another Legionnaire tried to fix and aerial of the Blades' Rhinno.

When the smoke and dust cloud raised by the single shell dropped by Einchurt dispersed, the Legionnaires could clearly see that, although the village had been utterly destroyed, their main objective was largely intact.

DH's Comms Off: Sir, we barely scratched them. Looks like a void shield. Another round?
Linares: If they have a void shield, it could be up when your shell hits again. And we can barely move with that much debris, so please, hold your fire.

The Silver Blades advanced, slowly at first, quickier when closer to the village. The Legion was using Rhinnos, as their enemies had formidable defenses and massive orbital assaults weren't a good idea at all.

The first line reached the village and quickly advanced towards the Traitor's fortress. No need to finish any Traitor outside. There was none, and the shell had already killed hundreds, if not thousands.

Linares and his staff were behind. He was responsible of the ground forces' coordination ("Einchurt is too busy shelling villages from orbit to care") and had to keep an eye on everything that happened. That prevented him from fighting at the first line.

Along the staff, there were a couple of squads with him. His Escogidos, and a Tactical Squad that was escorting the staff itself.

They moved slowly, carefully. The Tacticals advanced in front of them, covering every possible vector of attack, but let a couple of kids that somehow survived the attack to slip between their fields of fire. Linares saw them, they couldn't be too old. 4/5 y.o. most probably. Brothers, that's for sure. Were they injured? No, great. Then, how could they survive?

The huge Primarch got closer. The kids were about to run away. What were those...things? Clad in silver armor, carrying guns...They were scary. Similar to the ones in bronze armor, but different at the same time. These weren't so creepy. They were friends or foes?

Linares squatted near them they looked scared, yes. He offered them his friendly hand. An open, huge hand, covered in the same silver armor of the others. This one didn't carried a helmet, and was much taller. He looked like a nice person.

A man showed off, and ran to catch the kids. The Tacticals nearly shot him, the Escogidos almost charged him.

Linares: Eh, ¡Tranquilidad! Are those your kids yours, good man?
Man: Yes, yes...
Linares: I'm Linares, the Lord of Ale, Primarch of the IVth Astartes Legion. Son of the Emperor of Mankind. We are here to fight the Traitors hiding there (points at the fortress). Do you know any weak point or something that could help?

And the man guided the staff to an underground facility, with hundreds of people there. He signaled a closed door.

Man: This way, my Lord. This door leads directly to their fortress.

And the Blades attacked. The Forge Lords were taken by surprise, as several squads poured into their fortress with ease throught the underground facility.

Linares looked for the man to thank him, and found him along his wife and the children.

Linares: I'm happy that you all are fine. Your help was of much importance. Thank you.

The villagers were handed some blankets and food by the Legion's serfs, and the next morning, the combined might of both Legions was on its route towards their objective again.

+++Extract of Einchurt's Diary+++
"Today, I witnessed the fall of a fortress. Not an ordinary fall. Although we shelled it from orbit, it remained unscathed. The Silver Blades attacked, and took the fortress in a couple of hours, without even storming the walls.

How was this possible? I don't understand. Reports from both my Brother and my Officers in the ground point at the collaboration of a man that ran to catch his sons. My Brother, being who he is, couldn't help but to talk with the man, who showed him an underground entrance to the fortress. Why would someone want to speak with a mere villager, I don't know. It was useful, but truly, I can't understand my Brother.

Villagers are collateral damage, not any kind of help"

Seeing as Zharr-Hadad is bathed in the light of the Maelstrom, is it close enough to escape the revenge of the separatists after Mot's eastern crusade?

...

If you're going to bump like that, at least respond to my question.

>Attempt to get through the Brotherwar

>Determine what happens at the Battle of New Hope

>Determine when the Ruinstorm is created, and exactly who does it
As far as my limited knowledge goes it's created by the Forge Lords due to the ascension of Hashut. Exactly when that is, is something we have yet to work out
>Determinate how the Eastern Black Crusade goes down
>Figure out what happens during the rest of the Brotherwar

>Describe the Siege of Terra
Will write more on this
>Explain the Scouring
I would just assume the loyalists chase the traitors 'north' while the ruinstorm is still raging. Allowing the loyalists time and a chance to focus their depleted resources on only one front.
Another thought, would Pacha be absorbed into his planet during the scouring?
>Finish up the Rise of the Ecclesiarchy
Aren't we waiting on Lady Karamanov?
>Start the path towards the War of the Beast
I don't know enough about this to say anything about this
>Make sure more busts get done
Indeed

The Ruinstorm isn't created by the Forge Lords, I think. Hashut's ascension only makes it longer/stronger.

About the Siege, I wrote about it in the last thread I think. It's in my doc too

don't forget to buy another box of crayons to write with guys

That entirely depends. So far we haven't expanded on the Maelstrom too much, but if it stays the same size as before, Zharr-Hadad would still be in realspace. That would mean it's open to the Separatists wrath.

The OP hasn't really been updated in a couple of threads.

>Ruinstorm
Hashut doesn't create it, he extends it long enough for religion to properly fester in the Imperium.

>Pacha
I think he doesn't become a planet until later, but I could be wrong. Maybe during the first Black Crusade?

>Rise of the Ecclesiarchy
Yes, Lady Karamonov is picking that up. This is one of those things that simply hasn't been updated.

>War of the Beast
Yes, I realized that most wouldn't, including myself. It's still quite a major events that, in the OU, explains the severely reduced amount of marines by the 41st millenium.

Ah shit, thanks man, we almost forgot.

I'd also like to get into this a bit more.

Chaos is even more volatile this time around, compared to the original timeline. That results in the extensive Chaos Civil Wars, primarily between Chaos Doomsingers and Leviathan Host. This would logically give the Imperium more breathing room on the northern front, though Cadia and the like would still be a thing.

This breathing room can set the loyalists on the path of 'Golden Crusades', crusades where Imperial forces attempt to convert Separatist worlds to the Imperial Cult. The Seps could even set up counter-Crusades, if we're looking to go in that direction.

A certain kind of pull-push between the two Imperial factions trying to bring planets under their control? Is a good idea, indeed. Probably a better approach than constant war all along their border.

I'll be honest, I'd rather do our own thing than rehash the Beast.

I see Corsairs getting pulled in heavy on this, particularly given their outlying worlds aren't directly under their control OFFICIALLY, and thus likely there are internal politics of planets trying to use the Imperium against erstwhile lords, potentially.

Missionaries would likely not fair well though; a shadow war between the Corsairs assets and Ecclesiarchy ones could be fairly big.

What like a different Cataclysmic event all together or another Xeno force takes the place of the Beast and the resurgent Orkish hordes.

Agreed. We don't need to have 1-1 events with the OU.

I don't mind skipping it, but then we have to atleast give some sort of reason as to why it doesn't happen.

Tbh, I feel like defending vs a Black Crusade seems more fitting, as Pacha would only take his gambit to defend a planet, and not while on the offense.

Black Crusades would still happen, the Loyalists simply strike out on Crusades of their own.

The reason could be that Ullanor was Exterminatus'd and left barren, only settled millenia after, so the Beast wouldn't be able to start his Empire there.

Maybe the orks themselves don't start to fight so viciously, instead, they just wage war as usual, beating and being beaten, so a warboss so fed with war like the Beast is improbable, thus nearly nulifying the probability of a Waaagh! that huge

I'd like to preface this by saying I'm sorry.
----------------------
Thunderhawk scene

On an airstrip overlooking a grey city rocked by artillery fire, a minimally decorated Corsairs Gallant marine, flanked by two others, stood in front of a Stormbird Transport. The Corsair, Cadmis Israfel Akiovius, watched the Land Raider pull up. Several marines in black armor jumped out of the tank, the marine driving the Land Raider shoving a magos in front of Cadmis.

“Magos Pavelnis, I’m Corsairs.” Cadmis said to the frightened arch-magos. Magos Pavelnis nodded. Cadmis handed the black-clad marine a dataslate.

“He wasn’t alone.” The driver spoke plainly. Three Astartes is white and yellow armor were pulled out of the Land Raider, bags over their heads. Confused, Cadmis looked at the magos, and said, “You don’t get to bring friends.”

“They are not my friends.” Replied the arch-magos. “Don't worry, no charge for them.” The black-clad marine said to Cadmis. “Why would I want them?” Cadmis asked. “They were trying to claim your prize.” The black-clad marine replied, “They work for the Doomsinger. The Burned Prophet.” “Kincaid?” Cadmis replied, the driver nodding. He turned to his fellow Corsairs and gave his commands. “Get them on board - I'll call it in.”

The Thunderhawk took off and flew over the nearby mountains. The winds were strong; strong enough to make even the sturdiest airship struggle. The three hooded marines were sat down by the side doors of the Thunderhawk, kneeling. Cadmis addressed them.

“What are you doing in this system?” Cadmis inquired. None of the Doomsingers replied. Cadmis drew his Bolt Pistol. “The flight plan I just gave to our battle-barge lists me, my men, and Magos Pavelnis here. But only one of you!” Cadmis opened the Thunderhawk’s side door. Two of the other Corsairs dragged one of the Doomsingers into the howling wind.

“First one to talk gets to stay on this transport!” Cadmis shouted over the howling winds as he loaded his Bolt Pistol. “So, who ordered you to extract magos Pavelis?!” No reply. Cadmis fired out of the opened door as the two other Corsairs dragged the Doomsinger away and clubbed him out.

“He didn’t fly so good! Who wants to try next?” Cadmis yelled as his Corsairs dragged out the second Doomsinger. “Tell me about Kincaid! Why does he wear the mask?!” The Doomsinger said nothing. Cadmis pushed the Pistol against the Doomsinger’s temple, but got no reply. “A lot of loyalty, even for an Imperial!”

“Or perhaps he was wondering why someone would shoot a man before throwing him out of a Thunderhawk .” The last Doomsinger said. Cadmis turned to the final prisoner and asked: “At Least you can talk! Who are you?”
“It doesn’t matter who are. What matters is our plan.” The prisoner said calmly, as Cadmis pulled the hood off of his head, revealing a burned man covered in bandages and a breathing apparatus covering his face. “No one cared who I was until I put on the mask.” “If I pull that off, will you die?” Cadmis replied. The burned man spoke again: “It would be extremely painful…”, Cadmis interrupted him, “You’re a big guy.”

“...for you”

The Thunderhawk stabilized as they cleared the mountain range. “Was being caught part of your plan?”, Cadmis asked, seemingly unphased by the reveal of who was underneath the hood. “Of course.” The Doomsinger replied, “Magos Pavelis refused our offer in favor of yours. We had to know what he told you about us.” “I’ve said nothing!”, the magos yelled through the aircraft. Cadmis smiled at his prisoner. “Well congratulations, you got yourself caught! Now what’s the next step in your master plan?”

“Crashing this Thunderhawk …” Kincaid rose from the ground and broke through his restraints without any effort, “...with no survivors!”

Before anyone had a chance to react, several power weapons tore through the outer hull of the Thunderhawk. Bolter fire quickly filled the aircraft, tearing the Corsairs present apart. The Burned Prophet lunged forward and brought his fist down upon Cadmis’ face, crushing it upon impact.

The Doomsingers on the outside of the Thunderhawk jammed metal hooks into the hull and tied cables between them and the Stormbird flying over them. The Thunderhawk’s pilots quickly lost control, causing the aircraft’s nose to dip down. The wings tore off; their very lives were now in the Doomsingers’ hands.

The Burned Prophet, Kinnévail Kincaid, hung off of one of the metal bars running through the ship, looking down at the pile of bodies now at the bottom of the Thunderhawk. He jumped down as several marines blasted off the top of the dangling Thunderhawk and climbed inside. He acted quickly. He grabbed Magos Pavelis, who had hidden himself away, and pulled him in. Meanwhile, two of the newly arrived Doomsingers dropped the body of another, different magos down the Thunderhawk, on top of the other corpses.

As the Doomsingers prepared to extract their genesire and the magos from the Thunderhawk, Kinnévail placed his hand on one of his gene-sons’ shoulders. “No!”, Kinnévail said to the Astartes, “They expect one of us in the wreckage, my son!” Without flinching, the Doomsinger nodded. “Have we started the fire, father?”

“Yes! The fire rises!” Kinnévail said triumphantly. He pulled the magos close to him, who was clearly panicked. “Calm down arch-magos, now is not the time for fear. That comes later.”

With the push of a button, the Thunderhawk gave way beneath them, crashing down towards the planet below, leaving Kinnévail, along with his sons and the magos, hanging in the air.

I hope you're proud of yourself.

I find difficult to understand the whole plot.

Cadmis should have ripped the mask off Kin's face