Fire Keepers Chapter

[Lord_Ikka]

Thanks for all the help, especially Ferrata. Worked on my fluff when I've had a chance, and here is the new update. Let me know what you think. I’ve based this chapter on my wife’s American Indian tribe, the Prairie Band Potawatomi-the Keepers of the Fire. Any comments or questions are welcome.

Chapter name: Fire Keepers

Founding: Salamanders successor chapter (4th Founding-M32)

Primarch: Vulkan

Chapter founder: Captain Kheesan

Heraldry: White Portcullis atop a Red Field.

Armor colors: Gold with crimson shoulder-guards.

Origins:

The Fire Keepers were raised as part of the 4th Founding. Veteran Captain Kheesan of the Salamanders Chapter took a cadre of veteran warriors to the Ultima Segmentum, to combat an Ork Waagh led by Mek Deffskar. After successfully completing a minor crusade, the fledgling chapter retired to their newly granted home-world Vincras. After building the chapter up to strength, Chapter Master Kheesan led the first four companies on several campaigns, proving the new chapter’s worth and ability.

It was during these campaigns, on the world of Marnaz, that the chapter’s heavy armor was decimated by a combination of traitorous Guard battalions and the mass Dreadnoughts of the Iron Warriors legion. The Fire Keepers adapted quickly to the situation, employing many meltas, multi-meltas, and missile launchers in their Tactical squads and using many heavy-weapon toting Devastators to destroy the tanks of their enemies. From that long-ago campaign, the Fire Keepers have retained a specialization in anti-tank infantry tactics.

Home-world:

The home-world of the Fire Keepers is Vincras, a death world in the bleak northern end of Ultima Segmentum. Vincras is a world of clouds, constant rains, and vicious creatures. The clouds produce a never-ending stream of rain, and the jungle that covers the world has adapted to it. The jungle’s wood rots quickly after being cut unless placed in a completely dry container, and the Vincrasians have designed their habitation to not only protect from the deadly inhabitants of the jungle, but to protect the wood. Walled villages of stone form the basis of habitation on Vincras, with each tribe consisting of roughly thirty family bands. Constant rain is a detriment to farming, washing away most crops before they can be harvested, but the jungle has many varieties of plant life that can sustain humans and the local animals are also somewhat edible. Given that both the flora and fauna of Vincras is extremely deadly, the tribesmen face a never-ending war to gather food. Given that fact and the tribes’ constant raids on each other’s villages to steal fire and resources, Vincras is an ideal home-world for a Space Marine Chapter and the Fire Keepers are fiercely protective of the planet and its people. There are a few large seas, but no tribe has ever attempted to cross them, for the large creatures know as doomsharks are furiously territorial. Despite the dangerous creatures, or because of them, the fortress-monastery known as The Crucible is based on an island surrounded by rocky shoals, a mighty citadel that can house the entire chapter.

Cult Doctrine:

The Fire Keepers practice the religion of the tribal people of Vincras, the Cult of the Burning Man. The Burnt Priests (Chaplains) of the chapter cultivate the belief that the Emperor is the Lord of the Eternal Flame, the champion of light. The Emperor was a man, but the man who brought fire to the rain-soaked jungle, seemingly enflamed with his golden armour and shimmering halos. The Burnt Priests tend the Heart of Flames in the center of the Crucible, keeping the ever-burning flames bright and steady. In general terms, the Cult is similar to the Promethean Cult, promoting self-sacrifice and loyalty. In contrast to their founding chapter, the Fire Keepers do not make use of flamers, believing that only the Burnt Priests can use the sacred fires to destroy the enemy. The Reclusiam of the Fire Keepers has more members than most Chapters, reflecting their dogmatic nature and devotion to the Emperor. The Acolytes of the Reclusiam are recruiting while scouts, for their loyalty and faith, and serve several years attached to Command Squads, learning to both wield sacred flames in the midst of battle and to study leadership from the chapter’s captains.

Recruitment:

The tribesmen of Vincras face a grim world, full of creatures and plants that attack and maim at will. The pouring rain prohibits easy use of fire, making it a much guarded commodity and fierce battles are waged to steal another tribes’ ability to make fire. The Fire Keepers choose the most skilled and worthy warriors to train into Space Marines, hosting a great series of tournaments every decade. The initiates must first travel through the jungle to reach the sacred testing sites, a dangerous quest on its own. Most villages send four to five youths to a testing, hoping that one or two will survive the jungle and live to attempt the tournaments. For a period of two weeks, tournaments testing intelligence, strength, agility, and discipline are used to test each initiate. Many initiates do not survive, and many more are sent back to their tribe for failure. Those that fail are not judged as failures, but as living examples for the next generation to better. These “Fire-Touched” are viewed as blessed, and typically become leaders within the tribe, and this allows a closer relationship to the chapter, as the Fire-Touch have seen the Marines and the Burnt Priest of the Burning Man.

Codex Adherence:

The Fire Keepers follow the doctrine of the Salamanders, with only seven companies, six line companies of 120 men and a scout company of 60-100 initiates. This doctrine does mean that the Fire Keepers do not have the codex chapter amount of one thousand marines, and this is reflected in their trend of choosing very carefully when and where to deploy their companies. The first three of these companies are battle companies (the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th companies), while the 1st is the veteran company and the last two are reserve companies (the 5th is mostly Tactical squads while the 6th houses more Devastator squads). The Fire Keepers Librarium is currently under strength, having lost the majority of their members in M41.991 to seal a warp-rift in the Treta Incident. The Chief Librarian, two Epistolaries, and one Codicer remain to train the score of new apprentices. The overlarge Reclusiam has nearly twenty Chaplains and thirty Acolytes within its ranks. The majority of Chaplains are assigned to companies, each company having at least two, with the Acolytes serving rotating terms between the Reclusiam and Line Companies.

Combat Doctrine:

Hard, fast deployments specializing in infantry-based anti-tank tactics. It is characteristic for the Fire Keepers to either deploy a lone Battle Company, or two Battle Companies and a Reserve Company, with a tithe of 1st Company veterans. Dreadnoughts and tanks are usually held in reserve, used to counter enemy armor that overwhelms or to exploit sudden breakthroughs.

Battle-Cry: “From the Fire! For the Burning Man!”

Current Chapter Master:

Chapter Master Kosutik. Length of term-230 years. Appointed successor of Chapter Master Lukli, confirmed by unanimous acclaim by the Captains, the Librarium, and the Reclusiam.

Notable Deployments:

M32.230-350: Campaignsagainst Chaos raiders on worlds Tulo, Krakern, and Marnaz. Loss of many of the chapter’s tanks on Marnaz campaign.

M32-present: Providing as-needed assistance to Death Specters Chapter with containment of Ghoul Star sector inhabitants.

M35: 1st, 3rd, and 6th Companies embark on a crusade against the Ork Warlord Tufkill. Crusade ends early M36.

M40.903: Chapter Strike Cruiser Vukan’s Lament lost with all hands, Necron activity suspected.

M41.800-870: Minor Skirmishes with Tau forces in Northern Ultima Segmentum.

991.M41: Tetra Incident. Warp Rift opened by Khorne cultists on pleasure-world Tetra Novindai in Segmentum Obscurus. Resultant loss of approximately half of 4th Company and twenty senior members of the Librarium in the battle to close the rift.

990-999.M41: 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 6th Companies deployed to the Cadian Gate region to help defend against pending Chaos incursions.

Current Deployments:

1st, 2nd, 4th, and 6th Companies retraining and re-arming on Vincras after operations around the Cadian Gate. 3rd and 5th Companies deployed on roving duties in Northern Ultima Segmentum, 7th (Scout) company units attached to both.

[Ferrata]

Pretty good bar two littles things.

 

After two centuries of building the chapter up to strength, Chapter Master Kheesan led the first five companies on several campaigns, proving the new chapter’s worth and ability.

200 years is a long time to be out of service. The active part of the chapter will still be that, active.

 

The Fire Keepers’ homeworld of Vincras precludes the use of many vehicles, as the constant rain makes maintenance a struggle.

Then they would train on near-by moons etc. Your chapter hardly spends any of its time on its home world, instead it is out there in the big bad world.

 

What you need to do now is focus on your core themes and weave them through the rest of the chapter. Basically, write more :)

[The_Major]

i would agree with ferrata on his 2 points

 

also im not an SM expert but did the salamanders ever have succesor chapters?

i was under the influence they did not :/

[Lord_Ikka]

Yeah, I'm definitely going to write more. I can totally change the length of time on the startup. I wanted an Astartes chapter that wasn't at odds with the Mechanicus, yet still had very little tanks; so I used the rain-world concept as the reason for both the veneration of fire and a lack of tanks. It might be slightly iffy as they can easily train on other worlds, but I can't think of another reason to not use vehicles.

 

Salamanders have no "known" successor chapters, though the Black Dragons are suspected of being a successor. Every other 1st Founding chapter has successors, even if the Space Wolves successor was destroyed for mutation.

[Ferrata]

Salamanders have no "known" successor chapters, though the Black Dragons are suspected of being a successor. Every other 1st Founding chapter has successors, even if the Space Wolves successor was destroyed for mutation.

Salamanders have no known 2nd Founding Successors, the other 24 foundings are free game. The only reason they didn't have any 2nd founders is they got pummled on Ivstaan and then a warp jump went wrong.

 

It might be slightly iffy as they can easily train on other worlds, but I can't think of another reason to not use vehicles.

Beliefs! It is better to die on your feet then within an iron coffin (a la White Scars)

Series of campaigns when they got slowly destroyed and never rebuilt

Maybe they do, but the task force you are going to build isn't using them.

[voi shet magir]

warp jump went wrong.

 

fan material, I thought.

 

 

 

 

You know that story about the Imperial Fists lost ~ fifty brothers trying to recover their Rhinos from a ravine? It is easy to pretend that predators are scarce because they just are. Like they start with four, supplemental supplies never show up, and eventually they get down to three.

[Espada Azul]

It might be slightly iffy as they can easily train on other worlds, but I can't think of another reason to not use vehicles.

 

Ah, Flesh over Steel, how I miss you in 5th Edition.

 

There could be a lot of valid reasons for a Chapter to eschew fighting vehicles and rely instead on raw manpower. Ferrata already mentioned a few, though my personal favorite is the lack of resources (from cool relations with the Mechanicum or Munitorium, to just lack of accessible supplies in their areas of influence) to easily replace equipment. Stuff like Power Armor and weaponry get higher priority, with more complex machinery like heavy tanks getting less priority due to the complexity of the parts they need (I know I know, just stay with me here).

 

Have this happening long enough, it begins to influence the tactics the Chapter uses, where the raw manpower is now preferred instead of vehicles.

[Ace Debonair]

Codex adherence:

The Fire Keepers are a Codex chapter, although they use less vehicles and assault marines than most.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the Salamanders aren't codex adherent in their organisation. So, don't forget to explain why your guys do it by the book. :P

[Lord_Ikka]

Well, I think that both the climate of their homeworld and a lack of resources would be a good explanation of the lack of tanks. Yes, I also miss Flesh over Steel-would have been a great help here.

I was looking over the Salamanders' Chapter divisions (the 6 companies of 120 each and scouts of 60) and have decided to use that, instead of trying to make the Fire Keepers Codex. Makes sense if they were Salamanders successors. So they won't be codex in organization anymore.

Thanks all for responding to a newbie poster, I'll try to revise and re-write this weekend when I've got some time off.

[Lord_Ikka]

Updated and redone, welcoming all comments. Thanks.