My third foray into DIY chapter creation was the Inferno Wardens chapter. This grew out of a long-simmering concept about creating a chapter based on the Space Wolves rules, and it was impelled by @Greyall's challenge to members to present a character from their DIY chapter, with the winning entry being awarded a drawing (Greyall was/is an artist with a distinctive style). That challenge was posed 13 years ago today and can be seen here.

What follows is a summary of the development process I went through. If you want to see the more detailed version, you can see the original discussion here.

My goal was to create a DIY chapter that used the Space Wolves rules, but which wouldn't end up looking like a knock-off of the Space Wolves. My focus, then, was using the mechanics of the Space Wolves rules while using distinctive thematic imagery. I knew that there would be some things I would have to omit, such as the Thunderwolf riders. Fortunately, many of the elements of the Space Wolves rules were simply re-named versions of things from Codex: Space Marines, so I only had to focus on those elements that (a) were markedly different, and (b) which I wanted to incorporate.

My initial concept was going to tie the DIY chapter to the White Scars somehow (as a successor). As I perused the Space Wolves rules, however, two pieces of wargear spurred development along different lines. These were the Wolf Tail Talisman and Runic Armor, which have anti-psyker/anti-Chaos rules. These inspired a shift to a chapter that somehow had anti-psyker/Chaos concepts. I decided that this chapter would be a sort of precursor to the Exorcists chapter. The idea was that this chapter stumbled upon a process of temporary possession by a Warp entity, with the resultant Space Marine enjoying certain Illuminati-like powers. Unlike the (later) Exorcists, however, very few members of this chapter ever underwent this process. Somehow, elements of the Inquisition caught wind of this practice and decided that it was worth exploring, but not with this chapter. So things (which I never really explained) happened...

The color scheme was inspired by the battle gear of Prince Caspian when he's dressed for war, as seen here. The blue I used ended up being a little more vibrant on the screen, though I will probably use a more muted blue if I ever get around to painting any miniatures. The chapter badge grew out of the decision to make the chapter's gene-seed lineage unknown (I didn't want to draw from imagery that had strong associations with any of the first founding Legions) and the inclusion of the word "wardens" in the chapter's name (i.e., the shield).

For rules, I ultimately decided upon using Codex: Space Marines (or Ultramarines) as the basic set of rules, with the special units in the chapter represented by key units from Codex: Space Wolves.

This was the first DIY that I presented in the Index Astartes format. The initial "article" I submitted to the challenge, seen here, followed the format defined by Greyall, but the full article that I developed used the more common format (that will be posted in a separate entry as it serves as the "official" article about the chapter).

Index Astartes: Inferno Wardens