Back in 2014, @Grand Master Belial ran the Brotherhood of Angels challenge. This was one in a series of similar annual challenges in which he challenged members to present articles showcasing their DIY Unforgiven chapters. After considering the challenge and developing my basic concept, I committed to the challenge with the following oath:

(You can click on that to see it in full size)

If I recall correctly, the "Throne Knights" name came from an earlier discussion, though I can't recall exactly where that discussion took place other than to suspect it was within the Liber Astartes forum. That name was not used by whoever it was that was discussing it, so I shamelessly appropriated it for my own use. I wanted to get away from names that were obviously related to the Unforgiven chapters.

As with all of my DIYs, I wanted to explore a specific concept. In this case, I wanted to explore what might happen if one of the successors of the Dark Angels legion ever decided to not take part in the hunt for the Fallen. Describing such a chapter was an inherent part of the article, but my focus was really on the consequences for that chapter, as portrayed through the eyes of the other Unforgiven chapters. Spoiler: the other Unforgiven chapters didn't react well.

Though I chose for the chapter to be mavericks of sorts (compared to the other Unforgiven chapters), I incorporated a lot of imagery that drew upon the traditions of the First Legion. The squad and company markings were straight out of Codex: Dark Angels, though I replaced the green of the Dark Angels with the dark red of the Throne Knights. Similarly, the broken sword motif of the Deathwing was kept, and though I didn't portray it, the winged sword motif of the Ravenwing was also present. Unlike the Dark Angels, however, the coloration of these two companies was the standard dark red of the rest of the chapter.

You can see the basic livery of the Throne Knights chapter at left.

I also wanted to show how this now-lost chapter was once lauded among the Adeptus Astartes. This wasn't to say that they were ever "better" than any other chapter - only that they, like other chapters, achieved victories that were worthy of recognition by the larger Imperium. To do that, I drew inspiration from the image at right, which shows the Eternity Gate on Holy Terra, with various banners of the Imperium's heroes throughout the millennia.

While I generally disdain the notion that planets are ever composed of a single biome (e.g., so-called "jungle worlds" or "desert worlds" etc.), I decided to use that device with the homeworld of the Throne Knights. The mechanic for doing this was to place the planet at the extreme outer edge of the so-called "Goldilocks zone" where life can be sustained. As such, the water-rich planet had a frozen surface, the inhabitants forced to live in underground arcologies fabricated from the remnants of the ships that had originally brought them to the world during the Dark Age of Technology. As a contrast, I also incorporated facial tattoos among the Throne Knights, theoretically a practice that they borrowed from the planet's human inhabitants. The inspiration for the tattoos I used, however, came from tribes of the Amazon, a rain forest biome. I never explored the fauna of the Throne Knights' homeworld, though it was conceptually important since hunting that fauna was a key catalyst for the chapter's recruitment process. My theory was that one or more of the lifeforms that the humans of the world hunted created some substances that were used in the facial tattoos of both cultures, that of the humans and that of the chapter. I figured that the consequences of the original planet colliding with some rogue planet, the impact on the environment as Urkona was thrown off its original orbit and shifted outward from its sun, and the survival of biological matter from both planets to evolve into lifeforms that could survive the devastated environment, led to some interesting and hardy lifeforms. The facial tattoo designs were copied straight off the cover of an issue of National Geographic magazine at that time, and bringing them to fruition using the Space Marine Scout Painter was ... interesting.

Unfortunately, this wasn't a chapter that I really considered much past the article stage. I know that I would like to get a few models painted up - perhaps a kill team or maybe a combat patrol (I'd love to finish a company master and some terminators, after all). It was more of an intellectual exercise in examining the story of the Unforgiven and their response to one of their own breaking ranks. I have some Dark Angels models, however, and these will almost certainly become Throne Knights if I ever get around to painting them.