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Hi all- After several years I've finished painting up a Thousand Sons-centric warband. Full thread is here (http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/326299-the-unbound-brethren-wip-csmdark-mechanicus/), but wanted to share a few of my favorite models here since I got a lot of inspiration from this forum. I've posted these in a couple places, apologies if I've crossed over into spamming them. Lord Kaldour Zalav, warband leader (Ahriman counts-as) With familiar and two exalted sorcerer disciples Full leadership cabal Helbrute Hellforged predator Pair of Castellax-Achea (helbrute counts-as?) with heretek Datasmith First TS squad I painted, kitbashed from DV chosen All the TS elements of the warband Full warband with allies

Okay, so. I'm likely going to be able to get an Imperial Knight by Tuesday. That's three days from now. I only have one decision to make: Leviathan or Princeps Astor? I'm running a Nurgle army and an AdMech/Astartes army as it is, and both have Knights sworn to and/or running them in fluff. Both are Questoris-Class Knights. One is Lord Leviathan, a Nurglite Knight with his own personal back garden and small retinue of devout followers. The other is Lady Astor, Princeps of the House Astor, sworn to Forge World Ragnarus. Leviathan was Lady Astor's brother until his betrayal, and I'm building both in the end anyway, but I'm wondering which to attempt for my first Knight. I figure Leviathan's more difficult to pull off (I'd essentially have to base his back for him to match my vision of what he should look like), but, frankly, my Nurgle army needs the boost in strength. My Imperium already has a decent size to it (nearly 2k points) and my Nurgle army is just over 1k. Thoughts?

He was dreaming. He knew he was dreaming. It always started the same. The slow culminating headache gloom drummed into his awareness. The gloom cleared and he looked down at his hands. Gone was the pristine Imperial purple of his mark IV plate. A face had been pinned to his left vambrace. "Who's face is this?" he asked himself. His right vambrace and gauntlet were a shimmering purple, the color shifting in the light. Different shades of purple, blue and even pink shimmered on his vambrace. Colchisian script engraved his left vambrace. Colchisian? He remembered, or rather half-remembered: a token of esteem given to him. By who? A gift from a Word Bearer? He spat with disdain. He looked up and he saw the walls of the outer palace. The walls were breached. An Imperator-class titan loomed in the near distance, it's mighty ordnance opening the defenses of the Imperial palace. Flames and smoke choked everything. Terra is under attack?! He ran forward into the breach, his power spear gutting an emerging figure in yellow power armor, spilling his intestines. Blood gurgled out of the yellow armored warrior's mouth. The yellow figure slumped to the ground. On his back swing, he decapitated astartes in yellow. Yellow armor? A son of Dorn? What is going on? He looked at the spear-blade and marveled at the intricate engravings worked into the blade itself. Runes crawled and skittered across the surface. His headache boomed louder. Leathered human skin wrapped the adamantium shaft. He found comfort in his weapon and his grip tightened. He swore he could hear laughter. Out of the smoke an lithe, graceful creature of pure beauty and horror sprang onto another son of Dorn seeking to flank him. The creature's hooked claws eviscerated the Imperial Fist. Blood coated the warp-spawned beauty. She looked at him and licked at the thick blood on her face with a tongue that was impossibly long. More of the lithe warp-spawn seemingly materialized out of the smoke. He smiled at her and she smiled back, wicked, spiked teeth slicked with blood. He turned from the breach, looking to the habstacks of the Imperial City. The scent of burning promethium, smoke and blood filtered through his auto-senses. He laughed, the sound strange to him. It was thicker, yet more harmonious than his laugh. Was it his laugh? Again, he tightened his grip on his power-spear and again he felt reassured. Another dose of Fabius' combat stimulants pumped into his bloodstream. He felt agony and a rapturous euphoria. He laughed louder and the psychic-sonic shockwave powered through and were amplified by the screamers mounted into his pauldrons, clearing the path before him. He ran towards the habstacks, the daemonette and her sisters followed him. He woke up and screamed. He was back aboard the Andronicus. A bust of Fulgrim smiled down on him from a shelf. Fulgrim. He knew Fulgrim. Fulgrim was his gene-sire, Primarch of the Emperor's Children. He was Darius Valerius, he was a prefector and member the Phoenix Guard. His star was justly, albeit finally, rising. Fulgrim had favored him much recently. He latched onto that fact that he had earned and carried such favor and pulled himself out his meditative state. The headache had reached it's crescendo and began to ebb. Blood trickled from his nose. A sharp chrip sounded from the panel in the wall. He was being summoned for his augmentations. He didn't know how much longer he would be able to keep such an imperfection secret. Surely someone would find out. The alarm chimed again. Best not keep the Spider waiting. ++++++++++INCOMING TRANSMISSION++++++++++ +++CYPHER ENCRYPTION DETECTED [[foxtrot//juliet//echo//kilo//six//three//six]]+++ +++ACCESS GRANTED+++ +++WAITING+++ +++WAITING+++ +++To: Emperor's Children Battlebarge: Gloria Invicta. Location: [[REDACTED]]+++ +++Incoming Transmission. Ident: Eidolon, Lord Commander Primus of the Emperor's Children+++ +++Receiver: Communication Servitor 013-A1+++ Prefector Darius Valerius, your reinforcements are incoming. Third company veterans inbound on the Strike Cruiser, Claudii Nerones. Hold at all costs. Our gene-sire has seen fit to promote you again. Congratulations, Commander. Don't disappoint us. +++To: Eidolon, Lord Commander Primus of the Emperor's Children. Location: [[REDACTED]]+++ +++Incoming Transmission. Ident: Lord Commander Darius Valerius+++ +++Receiver: Communication Servitor 0988+++ Received and acknowledged. Death to the False Emperor. It has begun.

I wanted to start a thread where I could catalog the process of building up my House Malinax army. I've been collecting Knights for a few years now. Originally, I ran a House Taranis Army - I love Knights and the Skitarii, so the House with the closest ties to Mars seemed a great fit! The issue I ran into was one that I suspect is common to many - the availability of transfer sheets. House Malinax has an equally great colour scheme, is really quite well supported in fluff (for a Knight House), and has a very easy to get hold of set of decals thanks to ladies and gentlemen at Forge World. But a Dark Mechanicum aligned house comes with issues of its own. Typically, Knight Houses don't do well on the table top if run by themselves as pure Knights. If you're playing with Imperial Knights, it's not so much of an issue. You can take that squad of Rangers or Vanguard to screen or capture objectives and have a really fluffy force. With Renegades, not so much - unless you want to play 'counts as'. I really like to play fluffy armies. I'm probably a little 'OCD' in that respect and, over time, I started to research what I could about Xana II itself, it being the defacto home world of my House. (Interesting place Xana II. To describe it as 'slightly dodgy', is somewhat akin to describing water as wet - and they still locked up old Scoria for taking tech heresy a bit too far... it kinda begs the question O.o...) The Knight aspect of my army is pretty simple. I currently own 5 Knights with a 6th awaiting delivery from FW. I'm going in blind to an extent as I have no idea whether or not the upcoming codex is going to increase my options at all - right now, I have no access to units like the new Armigers, let alone fluffy troop choices like Skitarii via normal rules support. Xana II is most well known in the fluff as being the Hell Forge that designed and produces the Hell Blade fighter, and Hell Talon fighter bomber. These make sense then to be present in a larger force I might field. The issue is, they count as Heretic Astartes units and really share nothing but the general 'Chaos' Keyword with my Knights - in fact, pretty much nothing does apart from two infantry HQ choices. My idea to tie things together then is this; I plan to convert a number of Skitarii (I have a bunch of these models spare) to act as cultists on the table top. I have this brain-fart about cultists who have been *ahem* 'blessed' by Nurgle through their association with Chaos. Seeing various limbs start to decay, fall off, and other fun forms of Papa Nurgles affection, I wondered if a solution for someone in that position would be to try and bargain with a Hell Forge to have your rotting bits replaced with bionic bits - much as is done with Skitarii. (Of course, they find out down the line that instead of rot, they rust and corrode and are no better off, but it makes things far more fun for me in terms of painting and converting - I love heavy weathering). These unfortunates then become cheap and fairly decent basic 'retainer' style troops for my Knight House, and the general theme and concept allows me to reach quite far into the wider Chaos infantry range if I choose to later. Having a Mark of Nurgle works great on the table top for me too, as if I were to have a 'rusty' Sorcerer, I can ramp up some of the negative to hit modifiers on my flyers and the like (up to about -3, if my theory-fu is strong), allowing somewhat normally fragile units some staying power. Anyhow, the intention is really to use this thread as something of a hobby journal, and a fun place to discuss and share ideas on some of the fluff I'm drawing from, as well as hopefully get some painting and conversion pointers from you good folk, as it's quite different from anything I've done before. With no more ado, here are some (hopefully not too terrible) pieces of eye candy of my starting point (note, my two standard Knights are currently with the Hellwrights - apologies!):

= PERSONAL LOG: FABRICATOR-GENERAL ZEPHANIAH ADRIYEN, FORGE WORLD RAGNARUS = = ON THE SUBJECT OF HOUSE ASTOR AND LORD LEVIATHAN = = BEGIN LOG = I make this note to ensure the preservation of the knowledge of the events leading up to Lord Altair III's fall, in order to better prevent such failures from occurring in the future. Omnissiah willing, the current Princeps, Lady Lucienne Astor, will not fall to the temptations of the Dark Gods as Lord Altair did. In addition, I am doing this with the direct permission of Princeps Lucienne, which I have acquired both in writing and verbally. In late M41, Lord Altair II, then-Princeps, fell in battle to a Thousand Sons warband led by Exalted Sorcerer Asromiamun. His faithful armor and its then-loyal Machine Spirit, known as Leviathan, was recovered intact and repaired by myself and my then-apprentice, Enginseer Elias Traze, along with a team of servitors. Lord Altair III was just coming upon his Ritual of Becoming, and claimed the Knight Leviathan, as well as the throne of Princeps. Contrary to Lord Altair III's wishes, his predecessor had named Lady Lucienne as his successor, not Lord Altair III. In the various arbitrations lead by the various Barons of House Astor, there was much argument over the House's own traditions. Lady Lucienne would have been the first female Princeps of House Astor, and Lord Altair III was the firstborn of Lord Altair II. However, the fallen Princeps himself had named Lady Lucienne as his successor, against tradition. In the end, it was determined that Lady Lucienne would become Princeps, due to Lord Altair II's own order. Lord Altair III, in an act of hatred and jealousy toward his sister, attempted to poison her to death at her own coronation with a toxin of Chaotic origin, acquired from captured heretics whose public executions had not come to pass, in exchange for freedom. He failed, and was discovered almost immediately. He was brought up on trial and exiled. However, Leviathan itself, as well as my former apprentice, Elias, fought to preserve his status. In the end, the three were driven out of the Ragnarus sector aboard a Cultist-controlled ship formerly employed by Lord Altair III as his personal vessel. Elias, Leviathan, Lord Altair III and a small crew of hull-riding Cultists now harass House Astor's actions throughout nearby regions, as well as the actions of Forge World Ragnarus and the Crimson Knights Chapter. They go by the unified name of "Lord Leviathan", and have succumbed fully to the temptations of the Dark Gods, Leviathan's hull being reported as having grown large amounts of plant life as well as having its four Chaotic Attendants, including Elias himself. = END LOG = Lord Leviathan was just a little idea I had when looking over the Renegade Knight. I'm able to get a decent deal on an Imperial Knight from a friend of mine, and I'll be modelling this thing eventually. Came up with some cool fluff for him, too.

Ok. So. Long time lurker here on B&C, and though I've never played 40k I really enjoy the setting and the lore, read lots of Black Library, and so on. A couple years ago I started collecting and painting a Tzeentch-themed Warriors of Chaos WHFB army (was playing lots of Warhammer Online at the time), mostly as something to do other than staring at a screen again all night after doing it all day at work. But now I've been inspired by all the cool stuff I've seen here on B&C to start collecting and painting some 40k stuff. And since I've gotten so much from B&C, felt it was only fair to post my stuff here as well. So this will be a intermittent plog of my 40k stuff, focusing mostly on my favorite factions- Chaos Marines, Dark Mechanicus, and Tzeentch. Nominally I'm planning on putting together enough stuff to have a legal army (assuming some heavy "counts-as") in case I do want to play at some point in future, but mostly will just be painting whatever strikes me as time and budget allows. So enough stalling- thanks to everyone that stops by, feedback is always welcome, and let's kick off with a bit of fluff I put together as a backstory for this army, and some WIP pictures of its leader. *** The Unbound Brethren *** The Unbound Brethren are a warband of renegades and heretics, led by Kaldour Zalav, a former captain of the Thousand Sons. Once a rising star in his legion's Order of Ruin who served as a practicus to the Order's leader Ignis, Zalav seemed marked for greatness early in his career. But as his accomplishments grew, Zalav increasingly found himself out of step with much of his legion, including his primarch Magnus. While to Zalav the legion seemed ever more focused upon acquiring and debating esoteric knowledge for its own sake, he found himself drawn to finding new ways of applying his intellect and psychic powers on the battlefield, often through increasingly intricate tactics and battle plans. As the Great Crusade progressed, Zalav spent less and less time with the Thousand Sons, preferring instead to serve alongside battle groups from a number of legions, including the Dark Angels, Iron Warriors, and Alpha Legion. After the Edict of Nikea, he returned to Prospero with the rest of his legion, and was preparing for his next secondment when the Space Wolves came. Zalav's anger at the Imperium's betrayal of the Thousand Sons was eclipsed only by his disgust for what he saw as Magnus' betrayal during the razing of Prospero. To Zalav, Magnus leaving Prospero, its people, the legion and all their temples of accumulated learning defenseless while Wolves and their allies attacked form orbit, and then dithering with indecisiveness and regret as the Thousand Sons fought and died, only to emerge at the very end, symbolized all of what he had come to despise in his primarch's character. He quickly left Sortiarius with a number of like-minded individuals, and after they renounced their membership in the Thousand Sons, he spent the rest of the Heresy leading this first warband of renegade "Blackshields" in a series of raids upon the Imperium. As their success and notoriety grew, they were joined by Astartes from many other legions, particularly those who felt betrayed or out-of-place in their former lives, and so the Unbound Brethren was born. It was during this time that Zalav learned the truth of the Ruinous Powers, and accepted Tzeentch's patronage. Zalav and the Brethren fought at the Great Siege of Terra, and most of the warband fell there. Of the original Thousand Sons that had followed him, only a single squad, led by Dakor Zachtim, his second-in-command, survived. This squad had fought alongside a group of Gal Vorbak during the Siege, and in the desperate battle to escape Terra after Horus was slain, the former Thousand Sons bound themselves to their tutelaries in the same way as the Word Bearers had. The power they gained served them well in Scouring and Legion Wars that followed, but provided no protection against Ahriman's rubric. While Zalav and Zachtim saw their psychic powers amplified, all the rest became the unthinking automatons known as Rubric marines. The only signs of their previous nature now lies in the daemonic faces and metallic bone protrusions of their warped armor. In the millennia that followed the Heresy, Zalav rebuilt the Unbound Brethren, and now leads them across the galaxy, battling the Imperium, xenos, and other renegades as his whims and interests dictate. After masterminding the defeat of an Inquisition fleet attempting to capture the Arch-Heretek Ravion Nixios as he fled Mars to join the Sepktraal Cult, Zalav was rewarded by the Silent Forge with the Revenant Iterator, a Secutor-Class cruiser from which the Brethen now operate. Nixios himself joined the Brethren soon afterward for reasons he will not disclose, bringing with him a number of acolytes and skitarii servants. Other current notable members of the Brethren include the former Dark Angel Sar Baradiel and his fellow Fallen, as well as a number of former members of the Crystal Wyverns renegade chapter.

+ ++ Irradial Cogitator ∙ Online ++++++ ++ Establishing Comm-Link ∙ Connecting… +++ +++++++++ +++++++ +++ Productivity Protocols ∙ Initialized ++++ ++ Inquiry Request ∙ COROT ++++++++ ++++++ Request ∙ Access Authorization ++++++++++ Confirming Scan ∙ Stand-by… Confirming Scan ∙ Matched +++++++ ++ Compiling Data Results ∙ Displaying… +++++ http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/2017%20WIP%20Photos/Dark_Mech_COROT-7_01.jpg http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/2017%20WIP%20Photos/Dark_Mech_COROT-7_02.jpg ++ COROT-Exo-7b ∙ Atrum Laboris ∙ The Dark Works’ rotation is tidally locked to the orbital period of the planet; temperatures and geologic conditions on the sides of the planet facing towards and away from the star are dramatically different. Where the night-side hemisphere plunges to -350°F forming a stable planetary surface of desolate splendor, in stark contrast the day-side hemisphere is as hot as the tungsten filament of an incandescent bulb, resulting in the formation of a vast ocean of lava. The only natural atmosphere of this planet is produced from the vapors arising from the molten silicates in this vast ocean, causing weather events comprised of stone, as pebbles and rocks condense out of the air to rain down into the molten hellscape below. A round world made ostensibly flat, the division between the hemispheres is referred to as Horizon, and revered it as a sacred divide; the population of The Dark Works understand that while their world is a sphere it also has a very real edge, beyond which a hellish oblivion lay, but from that oblivion their power is drawn, quite literally. ++ The Mechanicus of The Dark Works have taken the concept of Forge World to a literal culmination with the construction of Mundis Fornax ∙ The World Furnace; where other Forge Worlds might hollow a planet for raw materials and build massive structures upward into the sky, the vast majority of The Dark Works burrows carefully into the night-side crust surrounding the molten mass that comprises the majority of the planet. Constructed over several millennia, with further progress continuing, a linked series of colossal geo-thermal extraction complexes of unparalleled scale harness essentially the entire planet, producing the massive amounts of thermal energy and motive force required for large scale production, power a multitude of experiments and explorations, and to maintain the remarkable equilibrium that has been created. The planet itself is considered so sacred by its population that it is never used as materials in common manufacturing, with the vast majority of any extracted material being ceremoniously returned to the molten ocean; only very small portions of specific constituents are extracted and reserved for the production of exceptional wargear and deeply sacred objects. A tiny sealed ampule containing a few grains of stone precipitation, presented to those servants of Atrum Laboris who have distinguished themselves in some significant way in their service to The Forge, is one rare and revered example. ++ The extremely close and rapid orbit of COROT-Exo-7b around its massive Blue Giant host star provides other pronounced advantages that have combined to make The Dark Works essentially unassailable, permitting it to assert its independence. Any spacecraft attempting to reach the Forge World has no choice but to follow a very small corridor, using the planet itself as a solar shield as it approaches; any attempt to flank the planet at ranges close enough to launch a meaningful attack must contend with solar energies and gravitational forces so intense that a fleet would be twisted, mangled, and turned to carbon cinders plummeting towards the star in short order. The intense gravity in particular, which was somewhat crudely compensated for during the construction of Mundis Fornax, became a force that could be carefully studied, experimented with, and ultimately harnessed, once the output of The World Furnace was online and able to internally sustain the required gravitational stability for a habitable environment. ++ In turn the Mechanicus of The Dark Works applied their uniquely deep understanding of gravity to construct a trio of Super-Heavy Graviton Cannons of unprecedented proportions to act as the ultimate gatekeepers to the planet. The brilliance of this Graviton Array lay in the way it operates; not only can it produce and manipulate its own gravity field, it can also create a form of gravity well to act as a giant amplifier that can harness, focus, and project, the massive gravitational forces of the star itself to catastrophic effect. Approaching craft that are expected will have the extreme gravitational forces of the massive star carefully compensated for, providing an effortless approach to the Forge World. Should anything undesirable attempt to close on the planet a series of options are afforded by the enormous Graviton Array; simply denying to compensate for the natural gravitational forces of the star is generally enough to stop an unwanted approach. However, the colossal array can easily use its effects to twist, sheer, and/or implode, dense or heavily armoured targets into so much raw material ready for harvest and re-purposing. Alternately, lighter targets that may attempt to rapidly advance on the planet can be effortlessly deflected out of the small safe-approach corridor and be forced to contend with the unrelenting solar energies of COROT-7. Given the abundance of motive force that can be directed from Mundis Fornax to the Graviton Array at a moment’s notice, it can be charged and ready to activate remarkably quickly for such an enormous device. ++ Given its uniquely defensible position, Atrum Laboris has chosen to carefully assert and maintain an autonomous standing. Understandably (and justifiably), there is considerable suspicion surrounding the nature of the research, experimentation, and development, undertaken in the darker recesses of this secretive Forge World; the Fabricator Generals, Locum, and High Priests of The Dark Works understand only too well that they must walk this path carefully and are therefore very adept in the manner of their negotiations with any given outside party. Great care is taken to conduct themselves accordingly through a selection of appropriate representatives who can engage in negotiations with a wide range of clientele, who in turn have a wide range of needs. Despite having a broad selection available that is absolutely unsanctioned, the care with which transactions are conducted has kept direct links to the Forge World well protected and obscured. With appropriate tithes consistently delivered, and quality legal munitions, weapons, armour, and wargear, on offer to those who can accommodate the price, suspicion alone has not been enough to warrant an attempt to test the intimidating defenses of this entrenched Forge World. +++ +++++ ++ Data File ∙ End ++++ +++++++ ++ Compiling Data Results ∙ Ongoing… ++ Stand-by… +++ ++ Comm-Link ∙ Active… +++++++++ +++ +++++ +

Hello fellow frater, some of you might now my stuff from the Chaos Space Marine subforum. I decided that now it is time to harass a broader audience at the B&C with my miniatures. If you want to see some older stuff, please see my thread within the Eye of Terror. I mostly work on Thousand Sons and Tzeentchian marines, as well as some Black Legion and Iron Warrior allies. Some Cyrabor Daek Mechanicum will follow soon, I hope. Here is what I painted so far. And my sorcerers. I love them. My recently finished Thousand Sons Chaos Dreadnought. A TS squad I finished for ETL IV. And the aspiring sorcerer. At the moment, I like him the most I tried to capture this awesome TS artwork. Hope there is some resemblance. __________________________________ Recently I started to add some "The Scourged" Chaos Space Marines to my collection. I wanted to use Grey Knight bits, as I thought it would suite the background of the Scourged pretty well. With still some clearly old loyal and inquisitorial symbols and symbols of their new allegiance to Tzeentch. Here is the "proof-of-principle": Pre-painted. Painted. And the next one. C&C is welcome!

+++ALL HAIL THE NEW FLESH+++ +++ERROR+++ +++ERROR+++ +++ERROR+++ +++CORRUPTION+++ I'm back again and kicking off another project; a BIG one. I've recebtly picked up a large commission project to build a Dark Mechanicus army. I've been given pretty free reign for the main part but am restricted to an army list that the client has going... about 6500pts worth of army list...! Yeah, this is going to be nuts. The basic premis is to use the Nighthaunt range for the bulk of the base models. This is nothing new I know but I'm hoping I can put my own spin on it. There will be plenty of other stuff to that isn't using those models either. The client has sent me a HUGE box of models to get started on and I'll also be dipping heavily into my own bitz boxes (plenty of good gribblies left over from my Iron Hands). Right, basic intro outof the way. On to the first pic: First unit on the chopping block is a bunch of Techpriest Corpuscarii. I really like the idea of these guys, have since the vague mentions of them I remember seeing of them when I started up in 2nd Ed. The problem is the models really don't do it for me. Not sure what it is. Anyway, for a Dark Mech version of these boys I wanted to go a bit more ragged and haggard. I felt like they should look emaciated and wasted as their vital energies are spent up, burnt up from the inside, they should also be hunched and knarled, broken backed thanks to that huge capacitor on their backs. I was looking at the Crypt Ghoul kits for this as I'd used them before to make Warcks in my old Haemonculus Coven but then I remembered there are now plastic Ur Ghuls, perfect. So there are around 19 more of those ugly little guys sitting in my bitz box. Still working on what to di with the manacles and wires leading back to the capacitor but I really like the look of this guy. 2 uints of them should look really nuts I think. Anyway, there will be updates soon and there is a whole lot of insantiy brewing in my monkey brain. Stay tuned. PHM

This is what I have as a start to my Chaos counterpart to my Bloodmoon Hunters. Chaos is not usually my thing but I wanted to show the dark side of the Bloodmoon Hunters way of doing things as well as the Hereteks of Mjorn who take their Xenarite beliefs too far. The Unchained Confederation is a chaos warband that was created from the thirst for innovation, power and knowledge. They are a grouping of warbands that no longer believe in the Sanctity or righteousness of the Emperor. They feel that the Emperor's rules and visions bog them down from acquiring the power and knowledge that could make them a Power House in the Universe. Although they do not share knowledge and information between the many parts of the warband, they are quite effective considering their erratic and adaptable fighting style. Not knowing exactly who their leader is, puts them at an advantage for their leader cannot be found and killed to terminate the warband activity and if, by happenstance, she was to be killed, any other member can keep the warband together because only a select few know who the leader is. This warband is very adverse to being bogged down by rules and are quite successful in their mission for knowledge and innovation. Warband Organisation The Unchained Confederation are a loose gathering of groups under various war leaders who provide mutual support for supplies and otherwise but mainly work their own individual objectives as dictated by their leaders. A mysterious female Heretek is the ultimate leader of this loose confederation but few in the warband know and even fewer if any outside it. The Unchained Cofederation is divided into numerous independent groups which have limited knowledge of their counterparts. This ensures that should one group be compromised, the others would not be captured. Combat Doctrine The Warband shows a high-degree of adaptability in battle, both in terms of tactics and the weapons its members employ. When an enemy counters one tactic used by the Unchained, the war leader plans accordingly, adapts, and changes strategy, enabling it to outmaneuver its enemies and catch them completely off-guard. Flexibility and willingness to adapt to their situation represents the core of the Warband's combat doctrine. As they prepare to engage their opponents, these members are always careful to identify all of their assets and utilize them to the fullest means possible. These often include assets that are not identified within the constraints of the Codex Astartes. These members often choose to take measures that others might consider dishonorable. The Hereteks of the Unchained are enigmatic figures in an expansive organization which trades in information and technology, always selling to the highest bidder. The Hereteks appear to be highly competent in their trade: all secrets and technology that are bought and sold never allow one customer of them to gain a significant advantage, forcing the customers to continue trading information to avoid becoming disadvantaged, allowing them to remain in business. These Hereteks supports the principle that any methods of advancing humanity's ascension are entirely justified, including illegal or dangerous experimentation, terrorist activities, sabotage and assassination. Their operatives accept that these methods are brutal, but believe history will vindicate them. Communication throughout the Unchained sometimes takes the form of steganographic messages embedded within broadcasts and other forms of media. Warband Beliefs Freedom from the shackles of the Imperium is one of the few unifying concepts of the Unchained Confederation. Most consider the lack of freedom as the greatest punishment and the greatest sin. The Unchained Astartes seem to bear little respect for anyone or anything, save for power and innovation. They tend to show no love for civility or deference when dealing with others, but they have been known to show pleasure in testing their skills against worthy foes. The Unchained Astartes have made deals with Hereteks, many from Mjorn to continue their trend of improving upon themselves seeking perfection. Many have fallen either to Slannesh or Khorne due either to a mentality for Perfection or Bloodlust of the hunt. What balances these forces of the Chaos Undivided leaders who unite them under their banners. A very very few fall to Tzeentch getting caught up in making ever more complex plans for ambush. Nurgle is represented as well for various reasons but these are another minority. A great many of the Unchained see the gods as a pantheon and a tool. A path to power and as a whole the groups follow no centralized set beliefs. Mjorn Xenarites Hereteks continue to pursue of forbidden xenos technology. Such is their curiosity, they wage war against the alien races of the galaxy not to conquer or exterminate, but to study. The Xenarites are dedicated to the study and exploitation of alien technology, a policy which most Tech-priests off of Mjorn find highly offensive. Xenarite Heretek expeditions attack alien populations, planetary garrisons, even the Skitarii Legions of other Forge Worlds. Open war with Imperial authorities common. These Hereteks pursue the dark path of tech-heresy completely on their own, forging their own roads to damnation independent of any direct connection to Chaos or the Dark Mechanicum, though still wholly in violation of the strictures of the Cult of the Machine God. They support the Astartes of the Unchained to improve upon them and use them as a steady supply source. It is among the Hereteks, Tzeentch has a greater following. Hereteks involve themselves in innovation and manipulation heavily. Homebase The Chained Barque is an ancient and highly complex device constructed by unknown Xenos as a superweapon, but never successfully implemented before their extinction. It is unknown who initially began the development of the Chained Barque. Countless different species obtained and made contributions to the design over the course of millions of years, but none successfully deployed it. Despite the Chained Barque's elegant design, techpriests could only determine that the device exploited the same technology, and were left to speculate on how it would ultimately function. Experimental mixtures of compounds were to make a more efficient fuel for Barque traveling long distances. The interferometric array into the Barque's systems results in a real-time map of a Sub-sector. The Chained Barque serves as both a data repository and stealth ship for the enigmatic information traders. The ship ingeniously draws it power from the thunderstorms raging constantly on one of their hidden base planets that they set it to orbit, relying on an interlocking system of kinetic barriers, grounding rods and capacitors to avoid being ripped apart. Cortical implants allow users to "see" screens projected in front of them. A user's eye movements are tracked, syncing to hand gestures as they sift through data. Notable Warband Members Ciara Ghlic - The Mysterious leader of the Unchained Confederation. What little is known about her other than she is a Dark Skinned Renegade from the Forge World Mjorn. She was a follower of the Xenarite principles. Known now as Mistress Shackle, she manipulates and controls the Unchained Confederation central leaders. Ruling from the shadows on her massive Barque, she has access to information through many and sometimes unknown methods. Her most dangerous weapons are her abilities to process information and her willingness to use such information.