ZetaMarines

[Void Stalkers]

this is my WIP chaos space marine warband, if you would, please point out any flaws with the background please!

 

HISTORY

when the word bearers fled the ultramarines atfter being defeated, 5 companies were sent as a strike force to pursue the traitors into the malestorm and wipe them out. en route, three were lost in the warp and persumed destroyed.

in fact only one of the companies lost was actually destroyed, the remaining two came out of the warp on the eastern fringe on the far side of the tau empire. the marines that came out were no longer the emperorers loyal servents. Believing they had been forsaken and forgotten, the survivers turned to the gods of chaos and became the Zeta Marines

APPERANCE

the zeta marines bear the pre-heresy ultramarines color scheme but have blasphamised the legion symblo with the greek symbol for zeta, Z, painted in gore.

blood spatters on their hands and weapons and their armor is all either scavenged or the same suits worn during the crusades

OTHER NOTES

The Zeta Marines take in renegades from other chapters, even the ultra marines

many cult troops join the warband for short periods of time before leaving

few tanks

high use of havoks

here is a quick done pic of their colors:

[incinerator950]

...Pre heresy Ultramarines were still Blue, that's Purple

[Uprising]

HISTORY

when the word bearers fled the ultramarines atfter being defeated, 5 companies were sent as a strike force to pursue the traitors into the malestorm and wipe them out. en route, three were lost in the warp and persumed destroyed.

in fact only one of the companies lost was actually destroyed, the remaining two came out of the warp on the eastern fringe on the far side of the tau empire. the marines that came out were no longer the emperorers loyal servents. Believing they had been forsaken and forgotten, the survivers turned to the gods of chaos and became the Zeta Marines

APPERANCE

the zeta marines bear the pre-heresy ultramarines color scheme but have blasphamised the legion symblo with the greek symbol for zeta, Z, painted in gore.

blood spatters on their hands and weapons and their armor is all either scavenged or the same suits worn during the crusades

 

First off the fluff for why they turn to chaos is very orginal but there are a few that i think need changing

*I really think that five company chasing some running marine is too much. Remember at this time everything is going wrong for the impeial inner systems, to be messing with some marine half way arcoss the gaxlary. I think two companies with boh being is good enough. Let the WB have a break. B)

 

*Next is the colorscheme. They look more slaanesh then ultra marines.

[Void Stalkers]

i agree, it does kinda look purple, but i tried to make it look like a darker blue than the regular ultramarines blue, i thought that worked, i was looking at a rouge trader picture soo i tried to mimick that,

about the companies... is 3 still too much? i would like to have part of the strike force destroyed in the warp...

[Iron Warrior w/ Servo Arm]

I would really like it if you elaborate further on the fluff. Now I am not sure about the Tau fluff, but maybe you could add a little about how they were attack by the Tau or attacked them, and their hopeless situation in the face of Strength 5 weapons made them call out to anyone who would aid them destroying the xeno scum. Therefore turning into chaos or whatnot. Add some twist to draw people in.

[Void Stalkers]

the tau part was just to give an idea of where they found themselves upon exiting the warp, and so i can have a reason to fight one of my tau playing friends B)

i was in a hurry when i posted the history so i wasnt able to put down everything I came up with, and now i cant remember....fail

anyway here is the second try at the colors

 

[Legatus]

A few fluff issues:

 

- IIRC the "Tau" were discovered 6000 years ago in the state of pre-technical savages, but they then made extraordinary technological advances in the last few thousand years. So 10,000 years ago when your Marines got lost there were no Tau around, and not for a few thousand years. Tau space is also still compareably close to Ultramar, so I wonder how all of their astro were unable to make contact with Ultramar.

 

- I am not sure the Chaos Legions were operating out of the Eye of Terror or Maelstrom before they lost the battle for Terra. The Ultramarines would not have chased the Word Bearers into those regions, as they were more likely moving to join up with Horus's forces at Terra or regroup in some region that was under their controll.

 

- I do not find the motive to forsaken the emperor because of technical difficulties in the least bit convincing. Perhaps you should elaborate a bit on that.

[Magnus Thane]

Love the colorscheme.

 

As for when they leave the Warp... that could be an eternity later. That way Tau are around.

 

You'd best try to come up with one or more specializations...

[DooshSahaal]

i think legatus and magnus bring up good points. the whole "oh snap we can't reach the imperium.. that sucks" type thing isn't a good reason to forsake your vows to serve the emperor.

 

HOWEVER if you were to combine magnus' idea of being lost in warp for ages, it fits in with the tau conflict more and also, the warp could have affected their gene-seed (since they all seem pretty faulty) or perhaps just triggered some free-thinking. and by free thinking i mean CHAOS free thinking which is basically "damn that emperor, he sucks, let's go loot the imperium for stuff!"

 

that's just my two cents (:

 

i like the legion overall though, it's a pretty cool idea. and the revised colour scheme looks ace!

[Brother Nihm]

They look almost identical to The Violators I'm afraid:

 

 

As an alternative you could go for a mix of the PH color scheme and the current one.

[Magnus Thane]

Yes well there is only a limited set of colors you know.

And his blue is distinctly darker. And his ornamentation too.

Though Void, i'd advise the ornamentation to be say... gold for example. To make it more different.

[Brother Nihm]

Yes well there is only a limited set of colors you know.

And his blue is distinctly darker. And his ornamentation too.

Though Void, i'd advise the ornamentation to be say... gold for example. To make it more different.

True, but there's a ton of combinations using said colors. Personally speaking I wouldn't use an exact color scheme that was 95% similar to an existing one.

 

You could even mix and match existing schemes, here's a quick example:

[Hellios]

Why Zetamarines? We have the Alpha Legion and the Ultramarines (Both GW nothing I can do) and then the various Omega variants and we probably have delta and gamma around somewhere and maybe even others. However why the hell would they call themselves zetamarines (or is this what the Imperium have classified them as?), why did they paint a Z in blood on their armour?

[Magnus Thane]

Zeta -> 'last'. You can easily play with that concept.

Give them a Slaanesh edge and they're evolving towards the 'ultimate lifeform'.

Or Undivided for that matter.

Khorne, last men standing.

 

Or just some other reason. Coordinates? A location? A past event.

 

As for the colorscheme, a good idea in itself but... i'd make the shoulderpad ornamentation golden too. Personally i never find a silver - gold contrast in the context of shoulderpads/boots good.

[Hellios]

Zeta -> 'last'. You can easily play with that concept.

Give them a Slaanesh edge and they're evolving towards the 'ultimate lifeform'.

Or Undivided for that matter.

Khorne, last men standing.

 

Or just some other reason. Coordinates? A location? A past event.

 

As for the colorscheme, a good idea in itself but... i'd make the shoulderpad ornamentation golden too. Personally i never find a silver - gold contrast in the context of shoulderpads/boots good.

 

Zeta isn't the last letter in the Greek Alphabet... Hence "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last."

[Legatus]

As for when they leave the Warp... that could be an eternity later. That way Tau are around.

The Imperium has only encountered the Tau a few hundered years ago, and I think the Tau were as surprised by the capabilities of the imperial forces as they were by the Taus. If the Zetamarines met them a few thousand years ago that means the Tau woud have had a routine in fighting Space Marines when the Imperium finally met them.

When GW was cramming the Tau into the existing 40K background, at least they made sure that there was a reasonable (--> warp storm) explanation why they had not been wiped out by the Imperium (or anything) in the past thousands of years.

[Void Stalkers]

im sorry.... I still dont know how to quote,

also sorry for not being clear on the tau issue, the zeta marines came out of the warp near the eastern fringe about 100 years ago, and to add something i came up with a little bit ago,

the zeta marines were first sited about 1000 years ago near the malestorm, then there were recorded sightings in the Segmentum Tempestus about 450 years ago.

 

Thank you DooshSahaal, the geneseed corruption idea is good!

the silver is supposed to be white, or a kinda grey, and i dont want to use gold because of looking TOO much like Ultramarines. What about bronze for the ornamentation?

if i ever get the squad painted, the armor will have rust and chipped spots on it with the occasional splatter of dry blood untill then i will take a copy of the color scheme to paint maybe....

 

Zetamarines just has a dark feel to it doesnt it? kind of like anti-ultramarines (if alpha legion or the word bearers havent taken that) The Z painted over the ultra symbol is kind of a challenge i guess, to show that they no longer fight for the Emperor

[Magnus Thane]

Zeta -> 'last'. You can easily play with that concept.

Give them a Slaanesh edge and they're evolving towards the 'ultimate lifeform'.

Or Undivided for that matter.

Khorne, last men standing.

 

Or just some other reason. Coordinates? A location? A past event.

 

As for the colorscheme, a good idea in itself but... i'd make the shoulderpad ornamentation golden too. Personally i never find a silver - gold contrast in the context of shoulderpads/boots good.

 

Zeta isn't the last letter in the Greek Alphabet... Hence "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last."

 

*beep* You're quite right. My mind must have wandered of again. -___-

But i'm sure he can think of something.