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I play 40k with my family at home (the only good thing about quarantine was that we got most of our minis painted), and we’re using a heavily homebrewed 3rd-5th pastiche that allows us to create narrative campaigns without anyone feeling cheated because of a broken list. We also play 1st edition Space Hulk and Advanced Space Crusade with rule streamlining, so that’s the kind of family we are. When we were playing once, she commented that our game was an alternate universe 40k, like the anti-matter universe in Justice League. And that got me thinking. Now that the ideas are in some kind of order, I thought I’d share them. OK, so the idea behind the Chaos Marines is that they are sort of the dark mirrors of the loyalists already (SoH vs. Ultramarines, Blood Angels vs. Night Lords, Iron Warriors vs. Imperial Fists, and so on) with some deviations to keep the parallel from being too direct. But that’s not what an antimatter universe is. It’s not that the bad guys are twisted versions of yourself, it’s literally “evil twin” syndrome. That the idea that struck me as interesting – kind of like the Dornian Heresy this site did earlier. An alternate universe where all the details were backwards. Pre-Heresy The Emperor is still a powerful psychic, but his plan was to psychically consume all the Chaos Gods and become the One and Only God of All Things.Unification Wars. During his conquest of Terra, he discovered that his Thunder Warriors were being improved upon by the techno-barbarian warlords in the form of the Primarchs. Enraged, he led an attack on the clone labs where they were being grown and used the power of the Chaos Gods to scatter them across the galaxy.The Great Crusade. The Primarchs built small Dominions of their own, becoming powerful warlords. When the Emperor’s armies reached their borders, each one of them was reunited with their would-be assassin, and swore vengeance. The Emperor had teeming hordes of slave armies and Thunder Warriors corrupted (enhanced?) by the powers of Chaos. Each of the Primarchs creates a clone army from their genetic code, who come to be collectively known as Space Marines. At first, there were legions of them, but as they conquered regions further away, they became fragmented and independent. Soon, war has broken out in every region of the galaxy. Heresy Era The Horus Heresy. The War Against the Emperor was as much a galactic war with at least twenty sides at any given time – the only thing each of the Primarchs had in common was desire to keep or expand their own power base. Alliances rose and fell, the power of Chaos expanded and contracted, as whole parts of the galaxy were consumed and reconquered over and over again. The war took 20 years, during which time genetic instabilities in the Primarchs either begin to kill them or turn them into horrible mutations.The Siege on Terra. Eventually, a loose coalition of Marine Legions invades Terra (which by now is a full-fledged Daemon World), overthrows The Emperor and wires him into the Astronomicon on Mars so they can use him to navigate through the Warp. The remaining Thunder Warriors were given Mars to rule as long as they kept the Emperor imprisoned there and kept the Astronomicon working. Terra becomes a prison planet, where humans are exiled when they want you to die, but they want it to take a long time and be horrible.The next few millennia are spent with every planetary Dominion fighting against each other as each of them tries to conquer as much of the galaxy as it can, as well as reconquer the warp-infested regions of the galaxy. Modern Times The Galaxy is a massive patchwork of interstellar Dominions, ruled by Space Marine Tyrants (normal and Chaos varieties), insane political cults, Technocracies, military dictatorships, Daemon Lords, Genestealer-led cults, and alien civilizations. It’s a Machiavellian nightmare where Social Darwinism rules supreme.The galaxy has no memory – the past is usually ignored in favor of the present. What is known about the past is fragmented and passed along informally. People just aren’t interested.The major alien threats are the Kroot, the Hrud (Space Skaven), the Squats, and The Laer (basically Tyranids, but allied with Slanessh).Chaos is seen as a sort of semi-sentient energy, essentially a side-effect of Psychic power, and an occupational hazard. It can become dangerous, but it’s value seems to be greater than it’s threat (think nuclear power in our own world).There are no Tyranids – Genestealers are a species all their own that parasitically infect every other species like DNA locusts.The Ork race is under the control of the Brainboyz (highly intelligent runts) who direct their worker/ soldier slaves in an ordered society that might be the stable Dominion in the galaxy.The Eldar are basically pirates using the Harlequin rules. No greater civilization. So what does everyone think? I like it for the modelling opportunities, but the setting itself seems like it has some promise. Right now, I’m playing Omega Marines, and have started an Index Astartes article for fun. If anyone is interested, I’ll post it when I’m done. If not, I’ll keep this idea to myself... or inflict it on my long-suffering family. Comments welcome, and thanks for taking the time!

This thread will be an ongoing anthology of narratives set in the 5R AU. —- The Blood-Seekers by Sim Era: The Halcyon Age Factions: Halcyon Wardens Gregory read the orders with calm patience. A century and a half of life had taught him that much. His Chief Tribune, Stefan, stood at his side. Gregory's grey eyes finished the last bit of text. “We are heading for the outer edges of Ultima. It looks like we will be maintaining our offensive stance, after all.“ Stefan, a stout marine, nodded heartedly. “Someone has to.” “Indeed,“ Gregory affirmed as he passed the datapad to Stefan. As for himself, he clasped his hands behind his back as he surveyed the bridge. The Fifth Brigade boasted a legacy that only the original four could surpass. A legacy that Gregory had done his best to uphold and to honor. The Crimson Crusaders, as they were known, contained the largest portion of Terran legionaries outside of Irvin Ruel's First Brigade. Such a simple fact, yet one that had no doubt influenced the Crusader's tendency toward aggression and assault operations. At least, compared to the rest of the Wardens. His eyes studied the stars beneath his midnight colored hair. With so many brigades being rerouted to holding and defensive operations, Gregory could not deny a fierce sense of satisfaction for avoiding that fate. Perhaps the brigade would celebrate tonight with their traditional meal of raw meat. His mouth watered as the idea gained traction. An Astartes could consume many sustenances lethal to a normal human, but raw meat would not have been considered a favorite meal for any space marine. The Crusaders were an exception since it had originally begun as a habit to maintain the Omophagea. Then came that one incident on Volska where he and his officer cadre had explicitly eaten raw flesh in front of their enemies. The Volkan Confederacy had been flirting with either defiance or submission to the Imperium at the time. After that messy meal, with blood dripping down Gregory's chin, the Volkans had chosen submission. It ahead created their nickname as the Crimson Crusaders.

I intended to do this earlier. I'm starting this new thread to contain all the relatively finished Crimson Lions fluff so that it is separated from the ideas and such that I post on their regular thread for discussion. I'll post the fluff as I finish going through it and editing it. This is mainly to save Grifftofter the effort of going through 4 pages of ideas and small stories and trying to determine what is usable and what isn't. The Blood of Jurfik The origins of the IIIrd legion lie not in the eastern realms untouched by the ravages of the Age of Strife that so often provided recruits for the legions but among the fierce warriors of the realm of Jurfik. In the centuries prior to the Unification Wars, the warriors of Jurfik had carved out an enormous realm that spanned most of Albion and reached as far as Norsca and the tribes of Frys. As evidenced by their conquest of their neghbours, the people of Jurfik were warlike, always reaching for the axe instead of the plough, often at war with the eastern Nords, the Suomensku nomads, the Jermani and the remaining free kingdoms of Albyon. While the Emperor tried to negotiate with the men of Jurfik at first, they were a proud kingdom and the warriors of Jurfik refused to abase themselves before the Emperor, instead electing to stand firm and fight. So it was that the Emperor sent a large force to subdue this stubborn kingdom. However, when the two armies clashed at the battle of Mount Batonicus, it was the warriors of Jurfik, led by King Knut who emerged the victors, slaughtering the Imperial forces in a vast encircling manoeuvre from which few escaped. Seeing that this enemy would not be easily subdued, the Emperor changed his plans to account for this unexpected defeat and began to prepare a second invasion. This second invasion he would lead in person and it would be spearheaded not by Thunder Warriors or crack units of geno troopers but by the entire Vth legion of the Adeptus Astartes, a crushing force to apply against one kingdom. This second invasion was far more successful and inflicted a number of defeats upon the proud warriors of Jurfik. Eventually, outside the hive of Jurk upon the crossing known as Sternfald Bridge, the warriors of Jurfik turned and fought the Imperial forces in a pitched battle, intent on going out in one last blaze glory and joining their comrades in the halls of their gods. The battle that followed was vast and bloody, with the blood of those who had fallen pooling and flowing down the dry river bank on either side of the crossing to form a new river beneath the bridge that gradually became choked with the bodies of the slain. At the centre of this whirlwind of slaughter were King Knut and his Hirt, standing in the centre of the bridge, fighting beneath the raven flag of Jurfik and cutting down any who attempted to cross it. The climax of the battle came at dawn on the second day, when King Knut and his Hirt charged the Emperor and the elite of the Vth legion. As the leaders of the two armies met, the Emperor beneath his eagle standard and Artorus beneath the raven of Jurfik, their bodyguards clashed with a terrible roar that could be heard for miles. While the Emperor and King Knut were both skilled warriors, the outcome of their duel was not decided by martial skill. King Knut was not killed by the Emperor, as is often claimed, but by an unnamed Prussan Jaegar who put a precision shot through Knut’s neck, leaving the King of Jurfik to fall down to the Emperor's feet. While Knut’s Hirt and the nobility of Jurfik launched a last ditch attempt to rescue their King’s body and the battle raged on for another seven hours before the warriors of Jurfik conceded defeat, King Knut’s death was a turning point. The Emperor had won. However, instead of ordering the execution of the surviving warriors of Jurfik as many had expected, for they had inflicted grievous losses on the Emperor’s forces, the Emperor saw the martial potential of these proud warriors and instead offered them a chance to continue their lives as warriors: join his burgeoning empire and fight as warriors of his Legiones Astartes or die. While some of the proudest warriors of Jurfik chose to die rather than fight for the man that had conquered them, the majority chose to join the Emperor, foremost among them Rollon, the only survivor of Jurfik’s royal house and brother of King Knut. Undergoing the process that transformed them from ordinary men to warriors of the Legiones Astartes, these men emerged as the first warriors of the IIIrd legion. Emerging from the ashes of their defeat at the Emperor’s hand, the warriors of Jurfik began to carve a new legend both for themselves and their people in the blood and flesh of their foes in the remaining battles of the Unification Wars. Ferocious in the swirling chaos of melee combat, the IIIrd was often in the vanguard of the Emperor’s battle line and so developed a bloody reputation as melee specialists, a reputation that was cemented when they shattered the lines of the forces of Ursh at the battle of Muskova, killing the tyrant Kalaggan and encasing his head in silver to be carried on their banner. Fighting fiercely, the IIIrd, nicknamed the Blood Wolves by the units who served alongside them, fought in a hundred battles across Terra until finally, unity had been achieved, payed for with the blood of Jurfik and Albion. However, the Blood Wolve’s tale had just begun.