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++ THIS ARTICLE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS ++ PREY FOR DEATH: ++ A MEDITATION AND REFLECTION UPON THE ORIGINS AND HUMOURS OF THE MANTIS WARRIORS ++ Order Origination: White Scars (primogenitor), Marauders (gene-foster) Founding: Unknown; alleged to be the 8th Founding (Mid-34th Millennium) Region of Control: Maelstrom Wilderness Zone Strength: Recovering (as current date, M.42) Affiliation: ...Complicated… 'I have always been equally fascinated and horrified by the terrible occurrences within the Maelstrom Zone at the time of the so-called Badab Schism, a consequence of staggering arrogance and foolishness. Several Space Marine Chapters drawn into heresy by the perfidy of the Astral Claws, who left the others to bear the burden, ensnaring them into misguided alliance. The true horror of these times cannot be understated: even in comparison to the Heresy, the differences are stark. In the perilous days when Horus rose in treachery, brother indeed fought brother, but under Huron’s banner, loyalist fought loyalist, in a different shade of damnation altogether. Appeals to honour that haunt it, command it, shackle everyone involved to the millstone, making the grim voyage into crushingly deep betrayal ever more the bitter. This is well evidenced by the petitions of clemency from some of those the Secessionists called adversary, who decried the forfeiture of worlds, who baulked at the demands of hot, perhaps even hard-headed dissenters. It is this then, a tragedy upon tragedy that sustains the once great Chapter Master of the Mantis Warriors, Khoisan Neotera in his deep incarceration, from whom whence this small treatise originates. It has been complied for completeness, for the official record, for the history and future of the Mantis Warriors.' - By Hyronimus Oberon Satii Esq, Interrogator First Class of the Ordo Hereticus, by the Emperor’s Divine Providence, at behest of his master, Lord Inquisitor Garrad Locke. +++++ Whenever I sign onto a Deathwatch Game RPG in the Nook, I go to Badab for inspiration, and judging by one of the Fantasy Flight Games splatbook supplements – Honour The Chapter – so did they. Roleplay, especially PBP is a strange medium and niche. In one instance, you’ve got the fact that everyone either knows or has access to, the lore of 40k, and yet in another, you may have picked a Chapter (or be running a homebrew) that has little known history. However sometimes you’ve got that weird twilight twixt recorded lore and general impressions of a faction, which leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Games Workshop are masters of this, painting with a broad enough brush to leave room for a Player to pick out what he wants, to tell his own story. The Mantis Warriors are one such Chapter, but that approach is not good enough for me, because the deeper you can go, the better and more realistic the character becomes, the more layers can be added. What language do they use? What are their customs? What spiritual paths lead them to the Emperor? There is just no concrete information besides some awful fluff about Mantisae Religiosa. We simply do not know them – which to be fair, is par for the course for an insular, isolated people. Or do we? +++ When I came to my man from Ootheca, thankfully, I had a starting point. The Endymion Cluster is right next door to Badab, and just as afflicted by the Maelstrom Zone. It is heavily suggested that the Astral Claws are (with a few exceptions) based on the ancient Sumerians/Babylonians/Akkadians, later becoming the country we recognise as Iraq. I had researched this already for a previous character, and other projects without the scope of this forum, and this avenue provided me with a lot of material. At the time, I knew very little of the Mantis Warriors outside the Imperial Armour IX/X books or the infamous WD 101, and would go on to consider their origins, modus operandi and naming conventions to place them further East. Indeed, there are several player-made articles and artworks which would suggest their propensity to make war via hit-and-run, proclivity to ambush, and Chapter credo placing them as either ninjas or samurai. Given their iconography looking suspiciously like Kamen Rider – a 1970’s TV series about a group of motorcycle riding superheroes with a Mantis-like insect motif, (and de rigueur exceptionally tight clothing), you can easily see the conflation. So, where do they hail from? "The winds of the desert care not whose bones they scour clean." — Endymion Cluster proverb. A solid compass heading for us to take! To be fair, my conclusions are nothing ground-breaking. Further research leads me to diminish Far Eastern influence/coincidence as a primary concept; however it is useful, as we will come to later. I now believe the Mantis Warriors are not so far flung, and are more at home in the ancient Parthian Empire, a major political and cultural power existing from 247 BC to 224 AD, initially spreading from the province of Parthia, to the Northeast of Iran. The Empire itself spanned many modern countries, reaching all the way from Greece to the Indonesian isles. Their battle methodology of shoot-and-scoot, so remeniscent of the dreaded Mongolian horsemen the White Scars are based on, is another hefty clue. That empire provides us with a lot of room to work in, and is quite a nice symmetry with the Endymion Cluster itself, with plenty of tropical haunts, and empty desert spaces, over which the Mantis Warriors provide their envelope of staunch protection. What further entrenched this idea was a snippet of the heroes fighting in the Badab War – in particular, a Hellfire-configuration dreadnought, the Venerable Secarssa, the Bow of Ma'Dan. (Imperial Armour Ten – The Badab War – Part 2, p.72). I submit that this likely refers to the Marsh Arabs, the inhabitants of the ancient Mesopotamian marshlands in the modern-day southern Iraq, these wetlands also straddling the Iraq-Iran border, and once again, the propensity of archery in both the name of the Honoured Brother and his devastating equipment loadout harken back to the Parthian Archers of so long ago, the bow a weapon with an unbroken lineage of over 5,000 years. +++ At some point in time, the Mantis Warriors, like most of the White Scars’ offspring must come to terms with the haunting dark side of the Khagan’s wildling power – because like every other Astartes in the Deathwatch RPG, they have something called the Primarch’s Curse, which is a psychosis lingering in the deep hollows of the Quintessence Sacred. How this manifests is tied firmly to their Primogenitor, and so, the terrible fury of Jagatai Khan flows thickly through a Mantis Warrior’s veins, bringing an echo of this potent Primarch into the present. So, how do they deal with it? This is a question we can answer now we have an idea of where our Character and the humour of his Chapter originate. Fervour and foresight play heavily into the mix with the Mantis Warriors, with the Chapter’s spiritual core ‘tempered by Dark Prophecy’. This isn’t a surprise considering the etymology of the Chapter name (Mantis, in Greek, means Prophet). Games Workshop love doing this, leaving little breadcrumbs for us to follow, and it would be rude not to. One of the main figures within the Badab setting is Ahazra Redth, the Dust Prophet, Guardian of the Endymion Cluster, and Chief Librarian of the Mantis Warriors, interestingly an incarnation who also bears a passing resemblance to Paul Atriedes (calm down, Stilgar!) from Frank Herbert’s Dune. I submit that his name also vaguely echoes the spiritual figure of Azura Mazda, the figurehead of the Zoroastrian religion – which again – was very common in the Parthian Empire, and Persia in particular. I make no other parallels; I just found the geographical and spiritual occurrences interesting in the context of the topic at hand. In a further coincidence, Zoroastrianism contains a figure which we recognise as Ahriman, who is reasonably board appropriate, so make of that what you will. Earlier, I mentioned that we should not entirely dismiss the Eastern or Oriental inflections of the Mantis Warriors’ origins. The ecological and geographical diversity of the Endymion Cluster is quite broad, and with training grounds on Tranquillity II and Tranquillity III we find the Mantidae Bellicosa hail also from a death world of deep jungles and mountainous, windswept crags. Indeed, the Mantis Warriors’ main established base outside of Ootheca, is placed within the Valley of The Nine Winds, which could be related to either the nine cuts of the sword as recognised by the ancient Celts, or the Nine Ryu Schools of Bujinkan Budō Taijutsu, which in turn are closely related to Ninjitsu. 'Kamen Rider! Henshin!' (Transform!) +++ The transformation of the Manga/Anime et al superhero mentioned above moves him into a battle-haze, with supernatural powers and speed. Here then, are those influences which interest us, loosely aligning with the particular condition of our eponymous Space Marines, the Mantisae Religiosa. Formed into a death cult within each Battle Company, it is a strange interaction between the Preomnor Implant and that quirky geneseed we mentioned before. The battle haze is a transformation wherein a brother finds himself with tunnel vision, ignorant of anything which is outside his immediate, murderous objective, but the condition provides him with uncanny agility and alacrity, not unlike the motorcycle warrior (and of course, the voracious predator). It is here, I think that GW beats us over the head with it, thankfully stopping shy of Mantis Missiles, Mantis-hawks, and Mantis Death Metal. Jagatai be praised. ‘To think is to do – to do; is to be.’ - The Principle of Alahk Geh. Given that the Far East has used the iconography of Mantids in many forms, and has some of the most beautiful living examples of the genus, it is easy to see where the influence bleeds in. One aspect of this connection we should not ignore is the prevalence of the spiritual married with the corporeal through Shintoism and Buddhism. The first honours the ancestors, the second we regard for the teachings of balance and atonement. Coupled with the desire to follow the path of enlightenment, and stand against the darkness from our Persian-planted roots; and we now have a powerful spiritual depth without contradiction, the press towards penitence in the contemplative pose of the prayerful supplicant. Obviously there is another martial exemplar here: the White Scars principle/performance of action-as-thought: Dreadful Perfection, Elemental Force. A broad scope you could call Zen Buddhist-led Bushido. The overriding tenet we are encouraged to take from this, then, should be as follows: that there is no disassociation between thought and action in the mind of the Khagan, there should be none in the locus of force exerted by the Mantis Warrior. How Inscrutable, mysterious and apropos. Perfect -and yet, as stated above, in my opinion, this should be considered a secondary theme, an overlay if you will, to the stronger evidence of Parthian heritage. +++

An ongoing project to knock up some kitbashed standalone minis from the chapters engaged in the Badab War, because Badab is cool and kitbashing is probably the part of the hobby I enjoy the most. I had intended to start out easy with just my idea of what a standard tactical marine from each chapter might look like and I did do a few of those already (pics to follow) but a particular combination of parts gave me an idea and so I went with it. Here's my rendition of Old Night himself, Thulsa Kane of the Executioners. The basis is Tortuga Bay Studio's Myroslav Kado mini, with arms and axe from their Fortress Destroyer model. The head is from the new GW Terminator Chaplain, tilt shield from Fafnir Rann. There's also a dagger in a skull-encrusted scabbard from one of the GW limited edition webstore minis because "needs more skulls" was a definite consideration i had while assembling him!

BELLIGERENTS of BADAB HOWLING GRIFFONS One wound of many. So, I'm not painting a lot of Space Marines these days, between my Tau Crusade Army and fun I've been having over in BFG. That didn't seem right. Now, I can't commit to a major project, but I can certainly muck around with single models, right? So begins BELLIGERENTS of BADAAAAAAAAAAB!! The crowd goes wild. Wanted to start out with something fiddly, so I've knocked out a Howling Griffon. Not just any Howling Griffon, however, this is a highly specific little conversion... You should see the other guy. Now, I'm not going to promise to do every model like this, being directly based on one of the original pictures, but some certainly will be. It's fun! I don't have a full army in someone else's scheme in me, I'm not built that way, but I can do a model in an existing style. Also, great excuse to try out some more freehanding! Now, I need to decide who's next...

Dan Morison, aka Dark Mechanic, has merged all his illustrations from the Badab War series, and put all of them into a downloadable booklet of just 44 pages (42.1 MB). Every colour scheme, every chapter, color and B&W, as well as some rejects and extra stuff. The title is Oath breakers, Traitors, Secessionist. In summary, we have in a booklet, some artwork for 17 chapters, from both contemporary and retro time periods, as well as some rough pencil work. And you can get it for free on his Gumroad page. And if you want, you can make him a donation. And here is his Twitter profile

Just a quick update from me today. Since I had a few moments in this busy week, I thought I'd tackle some low-hanging fruit for the Sigmar VI project and do some bases, this is generally because the Howling Griffons are Imperial and therefore lazy, where the Secessionists have to work for a living - er, I digress. I haven't really done many of the desert-themed ones before, so it was something nicely different from the lunar Khymara set ups I've been working on, and the warm tones are hopefully interesting to the eye. These are for the Eliminators (or true-scale scout snipers...) I mentioned, kindly donated by mad scientist, Huron advocate, and friend, @Xin Ceithan. Of the actual lore and significance to the Badab War of Sigmar VI, again, I could find nothing. Once more it's one of those throwaway little titbits, (like the mission legions, IMHO, I was there in the beginning, when Horus slew the Emperor, and to be honest he's doing a bad job of it, because he's had a four goes so far...ahem) that serve to just deepen everything. I did come across a few folks who'd done this before, a French chap over on DakkaDakka (If I can find the thread again I'll credit him - I'm a lazy Corpse Worshipper, see?), that came up with the idea of the Griffons doing a Heresy Raven Guard, becoming a guerrilla force, applying themselves in places where they could make the difference with reduced numbers. They had lost one of their Strike Cruisers and much of their heavy materiel at Khymara, so this makes a lot of sense, and opens up a few possibilities. Anyway, thanks for reading, and have a good one!

SESSION FOUR: I was harping on about doing a medical diorama based on the Howling Griffons actions at Khymara, and thought I had the parts, but I do not. However, I do have legacy models I will never use, belonging to armies I no longer have - I might have mentioned that. Anyway, I got to reading again, and found the segment about the death of Chaplain Armand Titus, hero of the Caradryad Campaign, which was the last action the Griffons prosecuted before the Badab War. Now, Khymara was a defeat for the Griffons, with the Executioners Space Marines butchering 70% of the 250-strong Loyalist Force. They had them at their mercy, but left them alone as soon as they became ineffective and all objectives were complete. One of their number refused to surrender. Armoured in his Dreadnought sarcophagus, and equipped with a power fist and twin-linked lascannon, he fought until his destruction. When the Griffons emerged to find him, they came upon his body, carefully laid out, surrounded by the broken weapons of his enemies, and a torn Executioners banner in his silent fist. Unfortunately, the Chaplain Dreadnought model is both expensive and rare, so I would never hack, chop and slice it up. I could do a little tribute to that magnificent end, though. I did drill up and hack his lascannon arm as well, with one of the barrels burst, but I have lost the image. I'll replace it if I remember. The model is technically finished, but I would like to try and add the banner, or maybe a Griffons' banner to add more colour to it. In other news, a very kind and generous soul (who is also obviously influenced by the Warp, obviously) has sent me some miniatures to complete another project mentioned earlier in this blog. I did have some bases like the one under the dreadnought made up, but this was wrong for the proposed camouflage scheme for the Sigmar VI Insurgency Force, so I made some more which will be desert themed. I do have one problem with this - there is almost no official fluff about Sigmar VI at all. I will have to do a lot more digging. Well, that's it. Hope you enjoyed, and thank you everyone who comments and reads the blog.

SESSION ONE: Just a quick one since I had some time today, and so I went delving in the boxes, the miniatures shuddering from fear and fright in the back of my attic, and I found the hull of a Land Raider Redeemer/Crusader with a goodly few bits. This fired up a few neurons, and I pored through the pages of Imperial Armour IX and found a very intriguing bit of artwork, namely the Howling Griffons Land Raider Prometheus. Well, you know, the FW kit has been out of production for ages, and there are a good few tutorials about, but I decided to go ahead and eyeball it, spending some time building the ABSOLUTE UNIT to the right. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly how I built this. I just saw parts and glue, and...yeah. I'm a little scared. I don't have the skill to completely render a full LR Prometheus, but I can have a crack at the sponsons. Unfortunately I was only able to complete one, and while it doesn't elevate, it does traverse, so I'm fairly happy about that. I've also decided on building it with assault cannons and the back of a Whirlwind launcher I found, and mounted by chopping up a spare Predator turret ring. Yes, that is the abomination (the Mazer-dubbed LR Khymera, after the Badab War Khymera campaign) to the left. I also unearthed a Vindicator...with the dozer blade... Send help?

SESSION ZERO: Welcome to the Blog! This is basically intended as a collection of projects - which likely won't ever get finished, but I don't want to clog up the WIP/HOH with my inane and meandering nonsense. You can see my very small pile of shame here, which consists of half an Infiltrators kit (Technically a Phobos Kill Team with the upgrades - I can't even remember the name), a Bladeguard kit, and two Intercessors. They've been sitting around for a while, doing not much of anything since I partially built and painted a Mantis Warriors KT, inspired by a character I've been playing in a Deathwatch RPG game over in the RPG Nook (Murderers In Black). I had the concept of a Librarian, but he didn't fit the game, and another player had suggested the Howling Griffons. Being an old hand at the Badab War, and my treasured WD101/Compendium, which sparked my greater interest in the hobby and drew me further into 40k from the 'gateway' drug of Space Crusade, I took a second look at them, and discovered a lot of ideas for the character aligned. I'll likely build the character bio etc, and leave him here for use (so I don't mess up anything elsewhere). It got me thinking, though - the Howling Griffons have an absurd paint scheme, and for me (my eyes are going) I thought it would be too much to try and paint a force of them, but then I saw a wonderful White Scars KT diorama (I forgot by who - I'll add it later) which had a complement of models on a magnificent display board. I was flicking through some Youtube channels as well, boning up on Howling Griffon lore for the character, and it struck me that the boys in Forgeworld had a partial solution, and the serried ranks of Mk VI in the Compendium came to my rescue. The Howling Griffons have three colour schemes: The classic gold and scarlet, the almost 6-colour choc-chip Sigmar VI Insurgency Force, and the Night World Livery of sable with quartered pauldron vignettes. I reasoned I could paint at least maybe one Intercessor or Bladeguard in the red and yellow scheme, the latter representing their bold attitude to oaths and honour, as well as their renowned swordsmanship. The Griffons have a lot of Psykers and the Deathwatch RPG paints them as Duellists, so this would be an excellent choice. I plan to modify the Mk X down to Mk VIII where I can, with minimal cuts to the poleyns, avoiding sculpting and other modelling work which is both beyond me and outside the scope of my time available. I also think it looks a bit cleaner, and I have loads of spare smol-marine heads. The other, sneakier miniatures will be in either the desert style camouflage, or the Night World livery, and I plan to acquire a single Eliminator who I can doll up with both (black armour, Sigmar VI cape). I can't go mad, since my budget is very, very small. I would also like a Librarian to round off the set (I'm not looking at many models - budget, budget, budget!) and the Phobos Lib looks like a good bet - since I'm weird and actually like Phobos armour. I'm not planning to do any significant conversions, but I will do what I can to make the models a little more interesting to me. Spoiler Warning: I like pouches. So that's about it for this post, I appreciate you taking the time to read it, and I know this isn't an innovative idea, but I thought it would be something to try and get me doing something with the remaining plastic crack, since I don't play anymore, and haven't rolled tabletop D6 dice since 2018. Just a note on expectations - I expect this blog to be slow. Very slow. I'll also be dumping a few ideas in here that won't be model related, but are RPG character, setting or history related, sprinkled with pics or brain-fluffs from my other projects. Be good.

CLAWS IN OUR STARS ADEPTUS ASTARTES: ASTRAL CLAWS PROLOGUE: To be lost is an error in judgement - old friend. We chose the path of honour against an uncaring Imperium. What right does anyone have to question our strength? Why do you not see? You thought as I. The Strong, are Strongest...Alone.

Hello Fraters, This is a public release to advise that the Cabal of Dead Ink will hopefully be publishing its first PDF project for general availability through the Downloads section soon. (Pending Admin approval etc). The release will be an original short story set in the run up to the Badab War, featuring new or barely known characters, and will hopefully be the first in a series from different perspectives and POV of both the Loyalists and Secessionist forces. It will also contain original artwork (covers and maybe interior art) of the same subject. It will not be a graphic novel product. You can rest assured that all artwork will be board and subject appropriate. The reason for this notice is to not only create interest, but also to prevent any concerns of improper use of the artwork. You can see one of our previous Notices of Interest for Graphic Designers/Digital Artists. We have sourced work from a professional artist called Dan Morison, who has been very generous in allowing us to use his art for this purpose, without remuneration as per GW IP Policy. We have permission to use it, and an email chain to provide evidence of what was agreed. Further, he will receive proper accreditation in the publications we make. The Cabal of Dead Ink would like to use this opportunity to highlight Dan's great style, and to give our public thanks to him for his trust and support. We would encourage anyone interested to go and see his stuff. We are still continuing with our plan in creating a BL Submissions Anthology, which will showcase the work of those who gave their shot to the recent Open Submissions window, but may have been declined, missed the window, or decided not to proceed for whatever reason. We are also working with Fraters within this forum to enhance and support our work with formatting and artistic skills, such as @TheTrans We look forward to discussing this further with any interested parties. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to PM me, or respond below, and I'll reply as soon, and as fully, as I can. I would also like to thank the help and support of the Cabal with getting us all this far. A lot of work goes on behind the scenes, for which I am eternally grateful. The Secession, and our Story, continues. Maz.

File location: Carnac Commodus, personal log Date of entry: 5901 715 m41 Security clearance requirements ###OVERRIDDEN### “The tyrants aspirations are bold, it has to be said, but I fear they are unrealistic. To recreate the power of a legion, to quell a sector and bring full compliance and imperial authority. The emperor and his sons failed to achieve this at the height of the crusade, how can one astartes, no matter how gifted succeed where even the most mighty have failed? These are perhaps delusions of grandeur, and I fear we will suffer the same fate as those who preceded us. History will mark us traitors to the imperial cause and then, cut off from the throne, who will we turn to in the darkness? My misgivings matter little, it has already been set in motion and now we are carried along with the tide. We are bound to his fate and therefore we must press on if there is any hope that his endeavour will succeed……” Arch Centurion Carnac Commodus

View File Down In Flames (A Fire Hawks Short Story) The Lycanthos Drift Campaign is almost over. To secure the Widowmaker Bastion, a force of Space Marines from the Fire Hawks Chapter is given the honour of subjugating the outlying Sentinel Fort. Infested with Chaos Space Marines of the Bleak Brotherhood and their traitor guardsmen, the Fort's existence prevents heavy siege guns being laid by the men of Krieg, and threatens the right flank of Lugft Huron's assault. As part of the task force, Knight-Sergeant Emeryk Zann is keen to win glory and honour for his Chapter and the God-Emperor, but as he discovers, this assault is little more than a deadly Forlorn Hope - one that even his Chapter Master, the gruff Knight-Commander Stibor Lazaerek wants to fail... Submitter Mazer Rackham Submitted 04/12/23 Category Background (Lore)