Crusade background

[Brother_Cowboy]

For a while now I've been thinking about giving my crusade a bit of depth with a backstory.

 

Some of the more dedicated players at my local have a little background on their forces, eg; the blood ravens force who are trying to fight there way back to their recruiting worlds or the Guardsmen squad who are based roughly off of the Colonial marines from the Alien franchise.

 

For the most part they are interesting without being overbearing, and they usually bring a few interesting characters and senarios into the mix which at times gives the games a bit of wieght behind them.

 

After some thinking I've come up with a basic outline of my crusade,

 

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A third of my models are the survivours of an ill-fated splinter from my main crusade (The other 2/3rds). The Castellan leading them decided, against the better judgement of those around him, to assist a hive world plagued by an heretical insurgency so as to curry favour with planets officials and secure a large contingent of naval and ground forces that would then reinforce his efforts to regain Imperial control over a nearby system.

 

All seemed to be going well until the insurgency unexpectedly exploded into a fully fledged uprising by the majority of the planets populous and orchestrated by a cabal of high ranking military and government officials.

 

The Templars were spread thin across the planet and suffered heavy loses because of it. The Castellan was resolved to burn the Traitors from the face of the planet, but refused to see his pride tarnished by calling for assistance from the main crusade fleet.

 

The splinters chaplian, upon hearing of the Castellans arrogance, sent an urgent call for assistance to the main fleet. Main fleet arrived, rightfully pissed off and massacred the majority of the planets populous. But it came at a great cost to the Marines of the splinter fleet, who had suffered many casualties under the constant attack from the Traitors since the beginning.

 

The fleet is now pressing after the uprisings leaders who escaped.

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Now, here's where I'm sort of stuck. How would the Templars deal with such a folly by one of their own? I doubt whether they would outright kill him. It just seems a bit out of character for an Astarte, even with the temper of a Templar.

 

The idea I'd been working with was that he would be made to atone for his actions by being dubbed 'The reptenant', which I'd basically play as my emperors champion, but use DA Vet parts to make the model, though instead of being the 'Marked amongst the Emperors chosen' he would run with a more, 'for every brother lost, you shall slay ten-fold of the enemy'

 

I'd like to think I have a good idea of the Templar fluff, or at least what makes one tick, but for all I know I could be wrong. The backstory/idea itself sprung mostly off the whole 'repentant' thing, which seemed like a pretty good idea, but more and more I'm beginning to think I've taken the idea from somewhere else in 40k ficiton but just havent found where yet.

 

Anyway, what does the BT subforum of the B&C think?

[CastellanDeMolay]

Solo-penitent crusade, self flagellation, and wearing some kind of punishment armour with studs on the inside to remind him of the pain felt by his battle brothers sounds about right to me. Possibly also with the names of the dead etched into the outside of the armour, or collected in a book or scroll he keeps about himself at all times.