The Cerberus Guard

[Axlbush]

The Cerberus Guard are based on a world of mountains/volcanoes, plenty of lava flow and little flat land.

 

There is species of creature native to the planet that the chapter fight/hunt, the Jackavyles. A cross between a wolf and reptilian biped. Not sure how this will reflect on the chapter as yet. The indigenous people fight this creature with polearms as they tend to average 8 feet tall.

 

The Chapter contains a greater number of scouts than normal, relying on greater flexibility of lighter armour on the precarious terrain of their homeworld. Lot more jump pack equipped troops for similar reasons, as well as abundance of land speeders.

 

The Chapter prefers flamer and melta weaponry as inspired by the home world. Could be Salamander gene seed, but am thinking of make them ultramarines to avoid being too clichéd.

 

When first Chapter Master was killed fighting an ork waagh! his location was not recorded and the chapter have been searching for his remains ever since. To aid their early investigations they would capture any orks and torture them as well as make use of the omophagea gland to see if they could discover anything from eating the flesh of the greenskins. I am thinking that this didn’t produce the chapter masters whereabouts, but the Cerberus Guard have kept up this behaviour and over the years it has led to a mutation of the geneseed whereby the chapter has become addicted to eating the flesh of any of their enemies, ostensibly to try and uncover the remains. However they now also do it because they enjoy tasting the fear of their enemies last moments.

 

 

The Imperium has mining colonies in the lower lands as the planet is rich in iron ore although the volatile nature of the land, as well as possible attacks from Jackavyles, makes this a risky operation. Relationships between the natives and the miners are cool although not hostile. The native peoples live in the up in the mountains and for the most part have no inclination to descend to the lowlands, believing that beneath the ground dwells a creature of evil. A few of the more open minded have however come down to the small towns and some have even been hired by the mining companies as security. Even these natives believe themselves superior to the offworlders though, and their manner is aloof.

 

The Chapter mainly recruits from the indigenous people, although sometimes from the mining colonies. As the natives are technophobes the Chapter is very aware that the recruiting of some miners is beneficial; the Techpriests will certainly have once been from the colonies.

[TheWeepingMagician]

A lot of good ideas here, but perhaps too many for a realistic chapter. I think the search for a lost chapter master is great, the extensive use of speeders and jump packs suits their training terrain for sure, but be careful about lots of scouts, scouts are marines in training. Perhaps a lot of scouts as they are still a young chapter? Or their training regime takes longer than other chapters? A mutation that causes a slow marine 'puberty' as it were. The pole arm idea is good too as it makes for some interesting conversion ideas, take a look at the Iron Snakes fluff for how it can relate to chapter culture.

 

As for the cannibalism, it can be a good thing, but it's tough to write well. I'm writing it into an IA I'm playing with at the moment. I think it's something that's pretty big, so it should be central to the chapter, it's something that can endanger a chapters reputation as loyalist so for them to continue doing it it must be very important to them or if it is a compulsion it must be a measured one. Worth exploring as a mutation but just make sure you explain it well and it doesn't come across as something that has been bolted on for the sake of interest.

[Axlbush]

I was intending to make the cannibalism central to the chapter - it just so happened that it was the last section in my initial post. I'm not too sure how to handle it yet. Its obviously linked with the search for their chapter master. I'd appreciate some ideas on explaining away the Cerberus Guard's reasons for not knowing where he died. Was toying with a "secret mission" but i would expect he'd delegate such operatons to his underlings. Suggestions would be much appreciated

[Axlbush]

Dusting these guys off and having a crack at fleshing them out. C and C would be appreciated.