Love Slaanesh, HATE Noise Marines...

[Dammeron]

Noise Marines were originally introduced to the game via White Dwarf in the run-up to the release of Second Ed 40K as a means of sanitising the previously quite dark and lewd imagery associated with Slaanesh. You see, the game was attracting a much more wide spread audience than ever before, including alot of younger gamers (I was one of them! Yahoo!) whose parents GW thought might be put off or otherwise offended by the Slaaneshi material. Hence, Noise Marines.

 

Now, I absolutely adore Slaanesh and pretty much everything associated with Him/Her/It, but I absolutely LOATHE Noise Marines for the very reason that they are cartoonish and entirely incongruous with the way Slaanesh and his followers had been represented up to their introduction. I also despise the patronising, "Children Should Be Protected From This Filth" attitude they represent. Even though Slaanesh was quite dark and overtly obscene in the older days, there was nothing that I would consider inappropriate for burgeoning young imaginations. If anything, the darkness and the "forbidden" nature of the material was what attracted the great majority of Slaanesh's younger converts, and provided ample fodder for us to get our vile little imaginations around.

 

Ideally, Noise Mariens would never have been introduced. Instead, something along the lines of sado-masochistic marines (working title) who gained some combat benefit from being hurt, wounded or attacked would have been much more appropriate. The fact that Noise Marines are now indellibly associated with the Emperor's Children is quite appalling, especially since it seems GW are currently intent on dragging us back to the horrible 40K cartoon days of Second Ed (just check out the up and coming Daemon range for evidence).

 

Just wonderign what everyone else's two penneth worth is....

[jamessearle0]

*long time lurker here*

 

you just made me sign up, i just had to reply, i mean come on...are you and i the ooonly people in the world that agree on this subject,

 

slanesh means to me:

 

noise ...no..

pleasure by any means... yes

 

also, how terrable are the new deamon models..especialy the "revamped 2 ed. deamonettes" ugh... im currently buying up deamonettes,the nice metal ones, from my local 2nd hand 40k shop, also, game wise...is it realy worth 5 pts for a glorified bolter??

[TheMarineWithTheSpleen]

First i have to add a big LOL here and again: LOL !!!

 

Noise Marines are the only thing which could made me play a Slaneshi force.I like their history, look and their rules :D .

They dont feel anything and to represent that GW had taken the hearing sense. For us its noise, for them its a weak whisper which tells them that they are still alive. Thats so cool IMO.

The rest of Slanesh doesnt attract me so much. I dont like the overall impression of it. I need something more clearly brutal and evil ;) ;) ;)

So here are my penneth.

[Marathon Prime]

Wahoo! Someone else who sees the true nature of the Dark Prince!

 

 

In my opinion, there is nothing flashy or bright pink about Slaanesh. A few days ago I was in my local GW store when a redshirt asked me what I played, I answered Slaanesh for WFB and Emperor's children for WH40K. Needless to say he laughed and said that EC and SLaanesh are all about men wearing tights and having flowers painted on their armour.

 

:cuss?

 

Slaanesh is way darker than than, even darker and more sinister than any of the other gods. Its all about sadism, torture, pain, and of course pleasure. Its about mortals liberating their desires and not being constrained by petty morals. Needless to say that this does not make Slaaneshi followers into hippies, more like sociopaths and psychopaths intent on living every experience to the full.

 

Sorry about being blunt here: people say slaanesh is about sex, but it is more akin to painful beat and violation, the subjection of everyone and everything to the status of a means to enhance and intensify all sensations experienced.

 

Thats my take on SLaanesh. Out with Sonic Weapons and bright pink, bring back the evilly alluring Dark Prince of Pleasure! :D

[Storm Hunter]

Whats so pleasurable about making a load of noise though.

[Dammeron]

My principle beef is that all of the other chaos Gods have cult units that accurately reflect something of their themes and aspects, e.g. Nurgle has the noisome and entirely foetid Plague Marines, Khorne his Berserkers. Noise Marines? The link between them and Slaanesh's aspects is tenuous at best, and has become moreso with recent updates to the fluff. As I said earlier, it was essentially a way of sanitising the Dark Prince of Delight for younger gamers who didn;t want him/her/it sanitised in the first place.

[Dammeron]

First i have to add a big LOL here and again: LOL !!!

 

Noise Marines are the only thing which could made me play a Slaneshi force.I like their history, look and their rules :P .

They dont feel anything and to represent that GW had taken the hearing sense. For us its noise, for them its a weak whisper which tells them that they are still alive. Thats so cool IMO.

The rest of Slanesh doesnt attract me so much. I dont like the overall impression of it. I need something more clearly brutal and evil :P :lol: :P

So here are my penneth.

 

 

Sorry, didn't understand a word of that.

[ironloki]

Whats so pleasurable about making a load of noise though.

 

Why do you listen to the bands you like or music in general? Some people prefer classical calm music, others prefer white noise and screaching guitars. Why?, because they cause diverse emotions within your mind, pleasure, pain or sadness.

 

I've always equated the 'noise' element to do with the heightened senses. Like the infamous sound a chalk makes on a blackboard - that noise becomes amplified forging new connections within the brain creating new senses and feelings, pleasurable to some. But like a drug the veins become dried up and you have to find a yet bigger kick and another way to 'inject' yourself. It is an obssession taking over your entire life as you try to reach that utopian high.

 

Personally I prefer that, and anything really, than to the cliche "lol i put teh boobs on marines" Slaanesh forces [Although I have seen this done rather well in some armies].

[Khestra the Unbeheld]

ironloki for the win.

 

To deny sound is to deny a sense. To deny sight is to deny a sense. To deny the senses, any of them, is hateful to Slaanesh. One cannot be an explorer in the realm of sensation with their tongue torn out, their eyes caulked shut, and their flesh deadened to feeling. I can understand the dislike for Noise Marines from the out-of-game point of view with their Disney-drivel reason for being, but as an in-game feature, I would say that any devotee to Slaanesh that thought that way would be considered a mewling novice at best.

[refuse]

The history of the Noise Marines (not updated with "fulgrim"'s change to the foundation of Noise Marines.

http://emperorschildren.net/wiki/index.php...e=Noise_Marines

 

 

My take on Slaanesh

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...t&p=1462305

 

 

I think (as I have said many times) sex is the easy imagery for Slaanesh.

That is the "Majority" thought of how Slaanesh would be envisioned.

 

I tried to open up people's thinking about slaanesh years ago. So I used the idea of the 7 cardinal sins. Lust is easy, but can you do the other sins?

http://29thgreatcompany.home.comcast.net/~...deas/7_sins.htm

 

And something I was working on years ago: Slaanesh Sloth

http://29thgreatcompany.home.comcast.net/~...deas/slothy.htm

 

Noise was the cartoonish 2nd edition imagery of Slaanesh. An archtype that was easy. Went in with the whole "Goth" (Orks) rockers.

 

The introduction of Pink as the color was a 3rd edition thing. To tie into the "black legion' studio army. So mostly black, with a splash of color. To tie into the debasement, I assume GW used pink.

 

I think reading the "Slaves to Darkness" and the Libera Chaotica Slaanesh really would expand the imagery of Slaanesh for people!

[Whizzer]

Noise Marines were originally introduced to the game via White Dwarf in the run-up to the release of Second Ed 40K as a means of sanitising the previously quite dark and lewd imagery associated with Slaanesh. You see, the game was attracting a much more wide spread audience than ever before, including alot of younger gamers (I was one of them! Yahoo!) whose parents GW thought might be put off or otherwise offended by the Slaaneshi material. Hence, Noise Marines.

 

Now, I absolutely adore Slaanesh and pretty much everything associated with Him/Her/It, but I absolutely LOATHE Noise Marines for the very reason that they are cartoonish and entirely incongruous with the way Slaanesh and his followers had been represented up to their introduction. I also despise the patronising, "Children Should Be Protected From This Filth" attitude they represent. Even though Slaanesh was quite dark and overtly obscene in the older days, there was nothing that I would consider inappropriate for burgeoning young imaginations. If anything, the darkness and the "forbidden" nature of the material was what attracted the great majority of Slaanesh's younger converts, and provided ample fodder for us to get our vile little imaginations around.

 

Ideally, Noise Mariens would never have been introduced. Instead, something along the lines of sado-masochistic marines (working title) who gained some combat benefit from being hurt, wounded or attacked would have been much more appropriate. The fact that Noise Marines are now indellibly associated with the Emperor's Children is quite appalling, especially since it seems GW are currently intent on dragging us back to the horrible 40K cartoon days of Second Ed (just check out the up and coming Daemon range for evidence).

 

Just wonderign what everyone else's two penneth worth is....

Total failure to understand slaanesh... so far as to say epic fail.

 

Noise marines have been devoted to "him/her/it" for so long that the obscene pleasures they have indulged in for the past 10,000 years has completely and utterly numbed them to anything normal space marines would register as excessive, let alone normal sensations. The depths of depravity and decadence they have to go to in order to feel ANYTHING is sickening, hence the noise marines and their noise weaponry.

 

To put it in more simpler terms, think of it like this. Every time they find new heights of pleasure, be it physical, mental, whatever, they become that much more numb to the sensation, forcing them to go even further and further into obscenity with every ounce of pleasure they find. Not only does this lead to some really cool fluff, it also matches slaanesh PERFECTLY, think about it, everytime one of his followers finds something they enjoy, he numbs them to it, forcing them further down the path to damnation and their soul further into his clutches.

 

Just because you can't think of pleasure past the "darker" version of slaanesh before (which was really just a bunch of penis, vangina and boob mutations designed to attract 13 year olds and horny old men :P ) and see the awesomeness of the newer slaanesh doesn't mean the rest of us cant. :no:

[Dammeron]

Noise Marines were originally introduced to the game via White Dwarf in the run-up to the release of Second Ed 40K as a means of sanitising the previously quite dark and lewd imagery associated with Slaanesh. You see, the game was attracting a much more wide spread audience than ever before, including alot of younger gamers (I was one of them! Yahoo!) whose parents GW thought might be put off or otherwise offended by the Slaaneshi material. Hence, Noise Marines.

 

Now, I absolutely adore Slaanesh and pretty much everything associated with Him/Her/It, but I absolutely LOATHE Noise Marines for the very reason that they are cartoonish and entirely incongruous with the way Slaanesh and his followers had been represented up to their introduction. I also despise the patronising, "Children Should Be Protected From This Filth" attitude they represent. Even though Slaanesh was quite dark and overtly obscene in the older days, there was nothing that I would consider inappropriate for burgeoning young imaginations. If anything, the darkness and the "forbidden" nature of the material was what attracted the great majority of Slaanesh's younger converts, and provided ample fodder for us to get our vile little imaginations around.

 

Ideally, Noise Mariens would never have been introduced. Instead, something along the lines of sado-masochistic marines (working title) who gained some combat benefit from being hurt, wounded or attacked would have been much more appropriate. The fact that Noise Marines are now indellibly associated with the Emperor's Children is quite appalling, especially since it seems GW are currently intent on dragging us back to the horrible 40K cartoon days of Second Ed (just check out the up and coming Daemon range for evidence).

 

Just wonderign what everyone else's two penneth worth is....

Total failure to understand slaanesh... so far as to say epic fail.

 

Noise marines have been devoted to "him/her/it" for so long that the obscene pleasures they have indulged in for the past 10,000 years has completely and utterly numbed them to anything normal space marines would register as excessive, let alone normal sensations. The depths of depravity and decadence they have to go to in order to feel ANYTHING is sickening, hence the noise marines and their noise weaponry.

 

To put it in more simpler terms, think of it like this. Every time they find new heights of pleasure, be it physical, mental, whatever, they become that much more numb to the sensation, forcing them to go even further and further into obscenity with every ounce of pleasure they find. Not only does this lead to some really cool fluff, it also matches slaanesh PERFECTLY, think about it, everytime one of his followers finds something they enjoy, he numbs them to it, forcing them further down the path to damnation and their soul further into his clutches.

 

 

Just because you can't think of pleasure past the "darker" version of slaanesh before (which was really just a bunch of penis, vangina and boob mutations designed to attract 13 year olds and horny old men :P ) and see the awesomeness of the newer slaanesh doesn't mean the rest of us cant. :tu:

 

As for your "total failure to understand Slaanesh" comment, that's soemthing of an assertion based upon one's individual interpretations of the Lord of Pleasure. You also seem to be of the opinion that I adhere to the definition fo Slaanesh as sex, obscenity and nothing else. I ahve been playing since Second Ed, and have EVERY piece of work EVER published on the Dark Prince, including the RoC books. It is evident to me that Slaanesh encompasses a wide variety of aspects, of which sexual desire is but a small (but significant) part. Personally, I find Slaanesh in his aspect as the personification of creative energy and passion as the most beguiling and intriguing.

 

Also, you fail to answer my initial (albeit implied) query, which is WHY Noise Marines? They are incognruous with the imagery of Slaanesh that went before their introduction into the game, and served to draw the God away from his somewhat more disconcerting aspects, which ahve largely disappeared from the background save in books such as the Liber Chaotica. As I noted before, they were simply a means of sanitising the Dark Prince of Chaos for a younger gaming dynamic, despite the fact that many of those playing Slaanesh before hand were fairly young, and hurt by it not a jot. All you have done here is paraphrase the standard GW description of Noise Marines and their utterly tenuous link to their patron without offering anything in the way of analysis or argument.

[Dammeron]

Whats so pleasurable about making a load of noise though.

 

Why do you listen to the bands you like or music in general? Some people prefer classical calm music, others prefer white noise and screaching guitars. Why?, because they cause diverse emotions within your mind, pleasure, pain or sadness.

 

I've always equated the 'noise' element to do with the heightened senses. Like the infamous sound a chalk makes on a blackboard - that noise becomes amplified forging new connections within the brain creating new senses and feelings, pleasurable to some. But like a drug the veins become dried up and you have to find a yet bigger kick and another way to 'inject' yourself. It is an obssession taking over your entire life as you try to reach that utopian high.

 

Personally I prefer that, and anything really, than to the cliche "lol i put teh boobs on marines" Slaanesh forces [Although I have seen this done rather well in some armies].

 

Why do people like art, or poetry or literature, or ice-cream? All are things that bring certain forms of pleasure and satisfaction, and are therefore all equally viable as reflections of Slaanesh's aspects as "sound".

 

I probably wouldn;t have such a problem with Noise Marines per se were it not for the fact that their imagery upon initial introduction was cartoonish and utterly incognruous with all that'd gone before on Slaanesh and Chaos in general. Then when they were crystallised as established parts of Slaaneshi armies in the second ed Chaos Codex, they were deliberately utilised as a means of detracting attention away from the potentially distressing or disturbing elements of Slaanesh, elements that to my mind are quintessential to the Dark Prince, and should be emphasised rather than shied away from.

 

In all seriousness, the double-standard between the representation of, say, Nurgle's followers (which are always horrendously graphic, going completely and delightfully overboard with the descriptions of pus, weeping sores, rotting flesh etc) and those of Slaanesh is astounding. It strikes me as akin to the hypocrisies bleated by those self-appointed keepers of morality who have no problem with the overt violence of, say, classic Wild West films, but fly into a frothing frenzy of righteousness over depictions of nudity of sexual congress.

[ironloki]

Well GW are a product of, and have to live by, the same rules that regulate advertising in this world. As such yes there is more of a taboo on sex than on blood, guts and gore. We can argue till the sun goes down on the philosophy and roots of this belief but the fact is some issues are more sensative than others. I wouldn't say it is really double standard just marketting sense, especially considering who GW are trying to market too. People are more comfortable with characters lobbing people's heads off than getting naked. So unless there is a change in society I don't really see it as being solely due to GW unless they want to lead some cultural revolution, which may not be the best thing for business :lol:

 

As for Noise Marines Im guessing it was the easiest way to personify and model certain aspects of Slaanesh. Art, poetry and icecream may well envoke the same feelings as loud music but they don't exactly lend themselves to modelling easily. Marines running around with guitars on the other hand is both absurd yet cool at the same time. It is the same with Khorne as they are not simply moronic rambling beasts, but the easiest way to market and model them is show them running around with everything make out of skulls.

[Whizzer]

If you can think of another way to weaponize something that would personify noise marines numbness to damn near every sensation in the known galaxy BESIDES sonic weaponry, lets see your ideas. Noise marines were implemented to show the Emperor's Children divergance from the old slaaneshi forms of worship (beat, pillage, pure excess etc etc) as they became more and more numb to it. Its been 10,000 fething years, I imagine they might have wanted to find new forms of pleasure, and with the Dark Prince numbing their senses to everything they find pleasure in as to drive them to new and more depraved forms of pleasure there isn't really much left to remind them theyre alive.

 

Could they have gone a different direction? Of course, they always can. Should they have? No, I don't believe so. From a purely fluff stand point, its not "marines with guitars", its desperate, depraved marines killing their enemies with sonic weaponry so potent it cracks power armor like an egg shell, deafens anyone who survives, and all they hear is the softest of whispers. That is one of the most brutal, tragic descents into madness GW has come up with to date, and I personally think it fits the entire idea of the Heresy like a glove, and is a great addition to the implied fact that the cost of the Traitor Legions gifts will eventually lead to their doom.

[Heru]

Whats so pleasurable about making a load of noise though.

It's all about "Sex (Daemonettes), Drugs (Combat Drugs), and Rock and Roll (Noise Marines) baby!!

[refuse]

If you can think of another way to weaponize something that would personify noise marines numbness to damn near every sensation in the known galaxy BESIDES sonic weaponry, lets see your ideas.

Besides the obvious, blinded, deafened:

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_iconbearer.jpg

 

I have some modelled up. Let's go left to right

http://i.pbase.com/u19/refuse/large/8783228.Champions.jpg

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_29lord.jpg

Gluttony - large fat/obese absorbers of experience. Like psychic ticks. He captures the enemies, steals their pain (the heads), their experience. Then uses this as weapons. He is a psychic vampire, that turns his enemies into weapons. The skulls at his waste become swollen with emotion and he uses them as sensation grenades, blinding/confusing/pinning the enemy or consuming their experiences for his pleasure and then discarding them.

 

http://i.pbase.com/u14/refuse/upload/4141429.Sorcerercloseup.jpg

Dommination: trading his physical form for that of daemons (possession). He channels different daemons (right now a fiend of Slaanesh). He steals the weapons of the enemy (his grey knights halbard).

 

Sonic weaponry

 

http://thump01.pbase.com/u18/refuse/small/8315467.b_ecapothicary.jpg

Chemical weaponry. Chemical sprays. With needle like weapons to inject the drugs/such out the opponent's blood. A perverse Apothicary. Stealing organs and rending the enemy down into chemicals.

 

http://i.pbase.com/u18/refuse/small/8315525.b_putthemup.jpg

Vamparism/indifference - stealing the opponent's sensations, through again needles, vamparic looks and feels. Near naked, lack of armor, more daring the opponent to hurt them, then really armor.

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_lordpowered.jpg

http://i.pbase.com/u16/refuse/small/5306210.MarineBelly1.jpg

 

Psycho-conditionng like Arco flagellation, instead of of dumbing them, heightening their senses.

 

http://i.pbase.com/u18/refuse/upload/8315478.b_ecchaplain.jpg

Perverions of the Imperial Creed

Anti-chaplains.

 

Sloth - semi-mechanical mindless monstrosities (Iron warriors), stripped of their emotion, while the Emperor's childre live and feel from a thousand thousand bodies (they control and feel the automatons).

 

 

Then there is perversion of "standard" beliefs. Bulls a fertility/War

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_DPfront.jpg

 

"Seven", style horror/slasher horror

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/paintedDread.jpg

 

I even stated above:

I tried to open up people's thinking about slaanesh years ago. So I used the idea of the 7 cardinal sins. Lust is easy, but can you do the other sins?

http://29thgreatcompany.home.comcast.net/~...deas/7_sins.htm

 

And something I was working on years ago: Slaanesh Sloth

http://29thgreatcompany.home.comcast.net/~...deas/slothy.htm

Could they have gone a different direction? Of course, they always can. Should they have? No, I don't believe so. From a purely fluff stand point, its not "marines with guitars", its desperate, depraved marines killing their enemies with sonic weaponry so potent it cracks power armor like an egg shell, deafens anyone who survives, and all they hear is the softest of whispers. That is one of the most brutal, tragic descents into madness GW has come up with to date, and I personally think it fits the entire idea of the Heresy like a glove, and is a great addition to the implied fact that the cost of the Traitor Legions gifts will eventually lead to their doom.

It's not Marines with guitars?

The original Noise Marines

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d81/TheDarkApostle/other%20stuff/noisemarinsewithguitar.jpg

A good image of the guitar (modified model) is here:

http://www.muschamp.ca/Muskie/MBAGallery/MBAGallery-Images/phantomOfTheRockOpera.jpg

 

And the 2nd edition ones:

http://kofler.dot.at/40k/units/Chaos_Noise_Marine_with_Blastmaster.gif

[Contaminus]

I quite like the idea of noise marines. It gives Emperor's Children armies a whole 'Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll' kind of theme that I find appealing. :rolleyes:

[The Raging Gaijin]

The beauty of Slaanesh is the possibilities open to a player when designing the look of their army. Noise Marines may not fit into everyone's idea of what Slaanesh consists of, yet they do show a path of excess that others my walk down. I love the idea of a CSM that lives in a grey fugue, where food is like ashes and color is drained from the world. Until they start to play, and then vitality returns!

 

You can tell how far down the path the devotees are based on the iconography and details of the army. :P

[refuse]

The beauty of Slaanesh is the possibilities open to a player when designing the look of their army. Noise Marines may not fit into everyone's idea of what Slaanesh consists of, yet they do show a path of excess that others my walk down. I love the idea of a CSM that lives in a grey fugue, where food is like ashes and color is drained from the world. Until they start to play, and then vitality returns!

 

You can tell how far down the path the devotees are based on the iconography and details of the army. ^_^

Exactly.

Sex, drugs/rock and roll. Tourists!

[Hergrmir]

It's not only Slaanesh that's hard done by.

 

Nurgle? Disease is the easy way out for despair and endurance. A miasma of sorrow and dread, miserable sermons, everything in a state of disrepair. That would be more my take on Nurgle. The visual representation necessary for a wargame takes one aspect of decay is what GW went with.

 

Tzeentch? Magic goes along with ambition and such because of the former's forbidden nature in both settings. The Thousand Sons nicely encapsulate the absolute will to master their fate that the Legion possessed in the face of having to pay the price for earning that knowledge that was denied them. The Thousand Sons fought against everything they ever held dear in order to know more, and then in return they were expected to give up everything they held dear, and rather than pay up Ahriman's cabal took their fortunes into their own hands. Better, in their eyes, to be reduced to dust than to give into the whims of another. BUt this isn't the only way to represent ambition and a desire to change your situation.

 

Khorne? Rage, really. It translates well into a wargame, but again, it doesn't have to be choppy. World Eaters with bolters would be perfectly plausible, or with massive amounts of firepower. But the berserker image is what they went with.

 

Slaanesh? Same thing. You could take the sex angle, the food angle, the art angle, and so on. The latter two wouldn't work so well for the game, and even if they played up the sex angle it's only one of many options. So they took the sensation angle, which sort of ties into the drugs angle. They crave sensation, each time wanting more, and so upping the volume. It makes sense. Is it the only way? No, but it's a way that's presentable to the masses and there's an in-game plausibility to how it's represented.

[Dammeron]

If you can think of another way to weaponize something that would personify noise marines numbness to damn near every sensation in the known galaxy BESIDES sonic weaponry, lets see your ideas. Noise marines were implemented to show the Emperor's Children divergance from the old slaaneshi forms of worship (beat, pillage, pure excess etc etc) as they became more and more numb to it. Its been 10,000 fething years, I imagine they might have wanted to find new forms of pleasure, and with the Dark Prince numbing their senses to everything they find pleasure in as to drive them to new and more depraved forms of pleasure there isn't really much left to remind them theyre alive.

 

Could they have gone a different direction? Of course, they always can. Should they have? No, I don't believe so. From a purely fluff stand point, its not "marines with guitars", its desperate, depraved marines killing their enemies with sonic weaponry so potent it cracks power armor like an egg shell, deafens anyone who survives, and all they hear is the softest of whispers. That is one of the most brutal, tragic descents into madness GW has come up with to date, and I personally think it fits the entire idea of the Heresy like a glove, and is a great addition to the implied fact that the cost of the Traitor Legions gifts will eventually lead to their doom.

 

Other ways of representing Slaanesh's minions on the battlefield? In then old days of RT and the RoC books (before Noise Marines were even on the radar) Slaanesh's minions were represented in a number of ways, including the provision of a leadership bonus when wounds were suffered (to represent the fact that they take delight in such experience and are invigorated by it rather than discouraged). Even in Second Ed, the Mark of Slaanesh for characters simply provided immunity from the psychology rules of the game (this was long before everything became Fearless of course). Also, have you ever seen the film Hellraiser or, better yet, read the book upon which it was based? Marines that have made an aesthetic and lifestyle out of endlessly twisting, contorting and sculpting their own flesh, and make an art out of performing similar surgery upon their enemies would be a perfect way to represent Slaanesh. Outside of that, you could have Marines that represent Slaanesh's aspect as the personification of desire and affection; a supernatural glamour or mirage that surrounds those blessed with his Mark, making the enemy hesitant in striking them down. Easily representable in game mechanics by having those that charge models with the Mark of Slaanesh or whatever in assault have to pass a leadership test, or lose an attack for charging rather than gain one, or suffer -1 WS or something like that.

 

How about Slaaneshi marines that are driven wild by an over-indulgence in the drugs and stimulants that the fluff explicitly states they imbibe in? Or that dance and cavort across the battlefield as described in more recent background materials?

 

There are any number of ways Slaanesh's servants COULD be represented on the battlefield that would be infinitely more demonstrative of the Lord of Pleasure's aspects than Noise Marines. Oh, and when Noise Marines were first released, they most certainly were "Marines with guitars," as Refuse has kindly demonstrated.

 

As Slaanesh and their excesses numbing their senses over the centuries, why in the heck would their hearing be the last to go, especially in the constant din and cacophony of battle?

[Dammeron]

If you can think of another way to weaponize something that would personify noise marines numbness to damn near every sensation in the known galaxy BESIDES sonic weaponry, lets see your ideas.

Besides the obvious, blinded, deafened:

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_iconbearer.jpg

 

I have some modelled up. Let's go left to right

http://i.pbase.com/u19/refuse/large/8783228.Champions.jpg

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_29lord.jpg

Gluttony - large fat/obese absorbers of experience. Like psychic ticks. He captures the enemies, steals their pain (the heads), their experience. Then uses this as weapons. He is a psychic vampire, that turns his enemies into weapons. The skulls at his waste become swollen with emotion and he uses them as sensation grenades, blinding/confusing/pinning the enemy or consuming their experiences for his pleasure and then discarding them.

 

http://i.pbase.com/u14/refuse/upload/4141429.Sorcerercloseup.jpg

Dommination: trading his physical form for that of daemons (possession). He channels different daemons (right now a fiend of Slaanesh). He steals the weapons of the enemy (his grey knights halbard).

 

Sonic weaponry

 

http://thump01.pbase.com/u18/refuse/small/8315467.b_ecapothicary.jpg

Chemical weaponry. Chemical sprays. With needle like weapons to inject the drugs/such out the opponent's blood. A perverse Apothicary. Stealing organs and rending the enemy down into chemicals.

 

http://i.pbase.com/u18/refuse/small/8315525.b_putthemup.jpg

Vamparism/indifference - stealing the opponent's sensations, through again needles, vamparic looks and feels. Near naked, lack of armor, more daring the opponent to hurt them, then really armor.

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_lordpowered.jpg

http://i.pbase.com/u16/refuse/small/5306210.MarineBelly1.jpg

 

Psycho-conditionng like Arco flagellation, instead of of dumbing them, heightening their senses.

 

http://i.pbase.com/u18/refuse/upload/8315478.b_ecchaplain.jpg

Perverions of the Imperial Creed

Anti-chaplains.

 

Sloth - semi-mechanical mindless monstrosities (Iron warriors), stripped of their emotion, while the Emperor's childre live and feel from a thousand thousand bodies (they control and feel the automatons).

 

 

Then there is perversion of "standard" beliefs. Bulls a fertility/War

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_DPfront.jpg

 

"Seven", style horror/slasher horror

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/paintedDread.jpg

 

I even stated above:

I tried to open up people's thinking about slaanesh years ago. So I used the idea of the 7 cardinal sins. Lust is easy, but can you do the other sins?

http://29thgreatcompany.home.comcast.net/~...deas/7_sins.htm

 

And something I was working on years ago: Slaanesh Sloth

http://29thgreatcompany.home.comcast.net/~...deas/slothy.htm

Could they have gone a different direction? Of course, they always can. Should they have? No, I don't believe so. From a purely fluff stand point, its not "marines with guitars", its desperate, depraved marines killing their enemies with sonic weaponry so potent it cracks power armor like an egg shell, deafens anyone who survives, and all they hear is the softest of whispers. That is one of the most brutal, tragic descents into madness GW has come up with to date, and I personally think it fits the entire idea of the Heresy like a glove, and is a great addition to the implied fact that the cost of the Traitor Legions gifts will eventually lead to their doom.

It's not Marines with guitars?

The original Noise Marines

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d81/TheDarkApostle/other%20stuff/noisemarinsewithguitar.jpg

A good image of the guitar (modified model) is here:

http://www.muschamp.ca/Muskie/MBAGallery/MBAGallery-Images/phantomOfTheRockOpera.jpg

 

And the 2nd edition ones:

http://kofler.dot.at/40k/units/Chaos_Noise_Marine_with_Blastmaster.gif

 

 

Well, there's more or less everything I was attempting to say in my original post eloquently summarised. Those're beautiful miniatures, by the way.

[Dammeron]

The beauty of Slaanesh is the possibilities open to a player when designing the look of their army. Noise Marines may not fit into everyone's idea of what Slaanesh consists of, yet they do show a path of excess that others my walk down. I love the idea of a CSM that lives in a grey fugue, where food is like ashes and color is drained from the world. Until they start to play, and then vitality returns!

 

You can tell how far down the path the devotees are based on the iconography and details of the army. ;)

 

I agree completely. The problem is that there seems to be an increasing shift in the representation of Slaanesh's minions in both the game and background towards Noise Marines to the exclusion of those that venerate or demonstrate the God's other aspects. Personally, I don;t like Noise Marines, but I would never have the temerity to say to someone that did they are WRONG for using them. It all depends on one's personal interpretation of the Lord of Pleasure. I simply feel that Slaanesh and his servants could have been much more appropriately represented through a more considered "Cult" unit than the one we are currently forced to use.

[refuse]

I missed some images (put them in, and didn't realize that others couldn't see them).

 

Blind guy:

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_standardbearer.jpg

 

I have some modelled up. Let's go left to right

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/Champions.jpg

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_29lord.jpg

Gluttony - large fat/obese absorbers of experience. Like psychic ticks. He captures the enemies, steals their pain (the heads), their experience. Then uses this as weapons. He is a psychic vampire, that turns his enemies into weapons. The skulls at his waste become swollen with emotion and he uses them as sensation grenades, blinding/confusing/pinning the enemy or consuming their experiences for his pleasure and then discarding them.

 

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/Sorcerercloseup.jpg

Dommination: trading his physical form for that of daemons (possession). He channels different daemons (right now a fiend of Slaanesh). He steals the weapons of the enemy (his grey knights halbard).

 

Sonic weaponry

 

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_ecapothicary.jpg

Chemical weaponry. Chemical sprays. With needle like weapons to inject the drugs/such out the opponent's blood. A perverse Apothicary. Stealing organs and rending the enemy down into chemicals.

 

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_b_putthemup.jpg

Vamparism/indifference - stealing the opponent's sensations, through again needles, vamparic looks and feels. Near naked, lack of armor, more daring the opponent to hurt them, then really armor.

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_lordpowered.jpg

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_MarineBelly1.jpg

 

Psycho-conditionng like Arco flagellation, instead of of dumbing them, heightening their senses.

 

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_b_ecchaplain.jpg

Perverions of the Imperial Creed

Anti-chaplains.

 

Sloth - semi-mechanical mindless monstrosities (Iron warriors), stripped of their emotion, while the Emperor's childre live and feel from a thousand thousand bodies (they control and feel the automatons).

 

 

Then there is perversion of "standard" beliefs. Bulls a fertility/War

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_DPfront.jpg

 

My avatar for years was that exactly:

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/thumb_dp2.jpg

 

"Seven", style horror/slasher horror

http://forum.emperorschildren.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/paintedDread.jpg