Index Traitoris: The Solemnitas Company (2nd Draft)

[Walter Payton]

Only In Death Does Duty Begin

Index Traitoris: The Solemnitas Company

You call us evil. Your ships, your Ministorum, burned our homeworld, razed the very heart of our Chapter. You call us evil. When your ever-so-sweetly-beneficent Imperium came to Capulus, nineteen million lives were obliterated in a single cataclysmic barrage, an entire culture reduced to ashes. You call us evil. You reduced us to dead men walking, cursed souls, prisoners of a capricious god. And you call us evil. We are not evil. Nightmares are not evil. And we are the worst of your nightmares.
Brother-Necromancer Falx of the Solemnitas Company

Introduction

It was my brief life in the Imperium that taught me the purpose of all life. The purpose of life, is to end. It is inevitable.
Lord Icarus, Reaper-Consul of the Solemnitas

W

hat flaws plague Man’s better character? What shames lurk in his heart? Fragile mortality, so tenuous, as a newborn babe, is his fear, his unknown. Man has pushed back the boundaries of knowledge, and now stands as ruler of the galaxy. But still, he dies. Many take juvenat drugs, have bionic, or geno-surgical alterations, or run like beasts from the terrors of the battlefield, to conquer Death. But for the cursed Marines of the Solemnitas Company, Death has conquered them. And he is not without a purpose.

Origins and Founding

Per Ardua ad Astra
Personal Creed of Captain Icarus Messor

T

he doom of the Solemnitas Company, formerly the Hell Panthers, lies scant centuries after their founding, as the Imperium cried out in the agonies of the Reign of Blood …

By the time of the 17th Founding, the Imperium was poised at the brink of a period of upheaval. The Ecclesiarchy was drawing the battlelines for its bitter power struggle with the Administratum, various figures within each organisation’s ranks decrying and indicting the other, a self-destructive spiral which would only be halted by the rise to power of a certain Goge Vandire…

Stubbornly independent of the troubles of the wider Imperium, the Adeptus Mechanicus and Legiones Astartes pressed ahead with the process of creating new chapters, and the 17th Founding was no exception. One of the many chapters formed was the Hell Panthers, bearing the noble geneseed of Roboute Guilliman. A cadre of marines from the Black Consuls chapter was provided to train the new chapter, under the command of a young but talented Captain, Icarus Messor.

Heraldry of the Hell Panthers

Messor’s tactics were based upon the ideals of perseverance and discipline. Impeccable drill and continued practice were his forté, and his reputation for
Codex -adherence and combat tenacity was well-known even outside of the Consuls. The Panthers were to be a space-faring chapter, plying the stars in an eternal monument to Roboute Guilliman’s glory, each enemy slain an offering to the Eagle of Macragge. They won several great victories over the Ork menace in the Segmentum Obscurus, though these old glories are now, tragically, stricken from the Imperial Record. At the centre of this, Messor’s unshakeable leadership, sure eye and keen blade were an example of what any Astartes should aspire to. Messor, whose name means ‘reaper’ in High Gothic, was, indeed, at the heart of the Hell Panthers’ rise and fall.

Under his leadership, the Hell Panthers, progressed from strength to strength. Claiming right of conquest over the Death World of Capulus, the Hell Panthers gained not only a stable recruiting base, but a staging ground for their crusades. Warriors, weary and wounded from the exertions of war, would return to this world to re-arm and recuperate. The marshy jungles, inhabited by savage beasts and feral tribes, provided fertile recruiting grounds for the chapter, and the planet’s debris rings contained several rich promethium deposits, fuelling the chapter’s engines of conquest.

Although it was this world, this cradle of martial prowess, that was part of the success of the Hell Panthers, it was their homeworld that undid them.

Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Ecclesiarchy

Will no-one rid me of this turbulent priest?
Chapter Master Icarus Messor, on the First Day of the Capulus Iconoclasm

A

s with many feral worlds, the tribes of Capulus worshipped the Emperor in an abstract manner, in this case through the worship of primal spirits of the forest, ruled over by the “Spirit King”. The natives believed that this entity ruled his lesser spirits from his great Garden, hidden in the depths of the marsh-forests. The pantheistic nature of this worship was believed by the Panthers to be the Emperor as Lord and his Primarchs as lesser deities. The natives had been thoroughly tested and screened for Chaos taint, or so the Panthers claimed. None now can say if this was the case.

A few centuries after the Hell Panther’s founding, the Imperium was in peril. Goge Vandire had appointed himself to the dual role of Ecclesiarch and High Lord of the Administratum. Simultaneously, the sweating jungles of Capulus had left their mark upon the marines of the Hell Panthers. The tribal beliefs and traditions slowly, over the course of decades, became a part of the chapter’s central belief system. Although the new beliefs were noticeable, few thought anything of it. Other chapters, such as the Ravens Incarnadine and the Mortifactors, were far more noticeably feral in their beliefs. For their part, the Hell Panthers killed for the Imperium and venerated the ‘Spirit King’ in his ‘Great Garden’. But they were all of them deceived.

As worlds burned in his Reign of Blood, Vandire’s grip on power tightened, with the Ecclesiarchy now seeking to integrate itself into every aspect of the Imperium. Even the glorious Legiones Astartes were no exception. The Black Templars, the Fire Hawks, even the mighty Imperial Fists felt the heat of his madness. One of the chapters to attract the maddened and covetous gaze of the Imperial Church was the Hell Panthers.

The Ecclesiarchy, hearing of the Panther’s pantheistic worship, and seeking to further demonstrate its lack of fear for the Space Marines, sent a quorum of officials to inspect the jungles of Capulus. Although secretly furious at this intrusion into their sovereign domain, and angrier still at the breaking of the solemn agreement between the Astartes and the Ecclesiarchy, the Hell Panthers felt bound by events to allow the officials to inspect and categorise the natives. Rumours of the atrocities committed by Vandire had no doubt reached their ears. Word of the thermal bombing of Zhoros, and the destruction of the Black Templars’ chapter keeps in the Sol System can only have reinforced the message.

Attr Lord Icarus

'And Capulus's spirit, raging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a reaper's voice
Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.'

The Ecclesiarchy expedition, led by a Cardinal Xemenus, spent four months on Capulus, categorising and analysing the native belief system and evaluating the tribes for piety and purity. Throughout this humiliating procedure, the Hell Panthers stoically tolerated the stinging criticisms and tribulations of Xemenus and his lackeys. At the end of the fourth month, Xemenus delivered his verdict upon the tribes. They were heretic deviants, and ordered Chapter Master Messor to enact a purge upon the world, before undertaking a hundred year penitent crusade. The Hell Panthers had endured weeks of slights and thinly-veiled accusations from the Cardinal and his priests, and for Messor, this was too much. On what authority could the Ecclesiarchy order the Astartes, what of the oaths between the organisations? The arrogance of the Ecclesiarchy, who thought that in their dominance they could defy oaths brokered by the primarchs themselves. After all, their spiritual father, Roboute Guilliman, had been a proud man-surely he would expect his sons to act the same way to slights upon their honour?

Messor told Xemenus that the only individuals who could order the Hell Panthers to do anything were himself, his primarch and the Emperor. Xemenus reacted in kind, calling the chapter master heretic and Extremis Diabolus. Messor told the Cardinal that he was a lawbreaker and a blinkered fool, and ordered him thrown from the Panthers’ fortress-monastery. Xemenus told the chapter master that he would return, and that the wrath of the Emperor’s Ministorum would come for the Hell Panthers. Messor blandly informed him that the only wrath he feared was that of the Emperor himself, not his infantile underlings.

What happened next is unclear, but it seems that Xemenus then began a tirade of insults, threats and furious declamations. A partially intact servo-skull recording was recovered after the event:

(fragment begins)

<MESSOR>: You threaten me with Excommunication, you threaten my chapter with death and humiliation. Who do you think you are, the Inquisition? Roboute Guilliman? I have bowed and scraped before you like you were the Emperor Himself. No longer. If you do not remove your person and your entourage from my world, then I shall order the defence lasers to destroy your fleet, and have you thrown into the dungeons.

<XEMENUS>: I speak with the word of the Emperor, as interpreted by the Ecclesiarch-

<MESSOR>: I see that the Tarot is very specific these days, then. You have ten seconds to leave.

<XEMENUS>: The Imperium is changing, Marine. Your autonomy is no longer a matter of course. Soon the Ministorum shall be the pre-eminent power, and you shall be subsumed.

<MESSOR>: Cardinal of the Ministorum, I gave you ample opportunity to extricate yourself from your net with some honour. But you have stubbornly refused. And you shall suffer for it.

(chainsword powers up, Xemenus screams)

<MESSOR>: Kill them all. (vox burst, static) Black King to White Knight. Authorisation to fire.

(bolter fire, further screaming, background noise indicates heavy laser fire)

<VOICE, UNKNOWN>: Oh, Emperor, what have we done?

(static, fragment ends)

In the Garden of the Dead

The horizon is black with their landers. The forests burn with their fire. The tribes die with their atrocities. The Imperium shudders in their grip. Oh Emperor, oh Guilliman, what have I done?
Personal Log of Chapter Master Icarus Messor

A

lthough blinded by arrogance and unprepared for the attack by the Hell Panthers’ laser batteries, the Ecclesiastical boats in orbit were not utterly annihilated. The now-deceased Xemenus’s Frateris Templar escorts put up a fire screen, allowing the Cardinal’s pinnace to escape, and bring news of the events at Capulus to the Imperial authorities. A month later, the Ecclesiarchy returned, with six divisions of the Frateris Templar, and fleet elements commandeered from the Imperial Navy under Admiral Brutus. The Hell Panthers’ fleet put up a furious defence, but the superior weaponry and numbers of the Navy vessels began to tell. Not a single Astartes ship managed to escape the invaders.

The Frateris then began to land on the surface of Capulus itself, and so began the war between chapter and church. The Frateris Templar, extolled to acts of atrocity and suicidal bravery by their priests, cut a bloody swathe through the tribes of Capulus. The Navy in orbit sent wave after wave of lance strikes and melta torpedoes into the lush forests, dust from their impacts blotting out the light of Capulus’s sun forever. The Hell Panthers fought back as best they could, and thousands of Frateris and hundreds of armour pieces were lost in carefully planned ambushes, hideous booby-traps and to the jungle itself. It was not nearly enough. By the seventh month of what became known as the Capulus Iconoclasm, the forests were burning and the Frateris, through numbers and suicidal frontal assaults, had pushed the Panthers back to their fortress-monastery. Despairing, the last five hundred Marines fell back to the fortress-monastery to regroup, and to put out desperate calls for aid to their brother chapters.

Attr High Lord Goge Vandire

'The Emperor died to forgive our sins. Dare we make His martyrdom meaningless by not committing them?'

It soon became apparent, however, that the Ecclesiarchy and their allies were well prepared for such an eventuality. The Librarian-Astropaths reported a psychic veil covering the world of Capulus, and told Messor that it was impossible to penetrate. There would be no help from the Astartes. One can only imagine the feelings of Captain Messor. Everything he had done, he had done for the right reasons, everything he had done, he had done for peace and the good of the Imperium, and now that Imperium was turning its back on him, and casting him and his chapter out of the fold. Yet still he clung staunchly to his faith in the Emperor, or rather, to the ‘Spirit King’.

As the Frateris launched their final assault against the Hell Panthers’ position, Master of Sanctity Iscariot offered to lead the chapter in one final prayer to the ‘Spirit King’. And the ‘Spirit King’ answered. It was here that the chapter suffered its last, most tragic betrayal. Perhaps they were naïve, perhaps they were deceived or perhaps they were truly corrupt. For the ‘Spirit King’ was no tribal facet of the Emperor. The ‘Spirit King’ was none other than Nurgle, Grandfather of Chaos, and Lord of Decay. Delighted with his deception, Nurgle took the souls of the Hell Panthers for his own, breaking them to his will.

“Witness Your New God”

Everything I did, I did for the Imperium. Everything I did, I did for Mankind. Everything I did, I did for Guilliman, the Emperor and the High Lords. No longer. Everything I do now, I do for revenge. Let the galaxy burn.
Lord Icarus, Reaper-Consul of the Solemnitas Company

A

s the Frateris forces swept over the crumbled redoubts of the Marines position, Nurgle sent forth his daemons. The sky flashed with green lightning, the forests echoed with the laughter of insane beasts, and the forces of the Ecclesiarchy perished in agony and disease. The forces in orbit heard garbled calls for help from their forward commanders, until finally the vox links were washed with insane laughter. The Frateris commander, upon realising the scale of the corruption, ordered the planet bombarded from orbit. The Ecclesiarchy had come to purify Capulus, and would carry out their objectives by any means. All life on the planet ended in a rain of thermonuclear warheads.

By this time, the Hell Panthers were long gone. Spirited away by the Dark Powers, to a realm of renegades and traitors, to a cancer in the heart of the Imperium. To the Maelstrom. It is impossible to know what Faustian bargains were made with the God of Pestilence as he made the marines his own. The men who emerged from a warp portal on an unknown world near the centre of the Maelstrom were changed. They were dead, and yet they did not fall, could still move and think. They had rejected the Imperium to escape death. Now, they were death itself. Captain Messor declared to his men that now, they were no longer the men of the Imperium, no longer the Emperor’s lapdogs. Now, they would taste immortality. Now, they would taste revenge. His men, possibly of their own volition, more likely because their minds had been broken by the Lord of Decay, knelt before him, and their new master.

Grandfather Nurgle, to Lord Icarus

'Now the gate has been unlatched, headstones pushed aside. Corpses shift and offer room, a fate you must abide!'

Casting away his old name and titles, Messor renamed himself Reaper-Consul, and took his first name as his only name. Icarus. Named for an angel of ancient Terra who had flown too close to the sun, and scorched his wings, the name seemed perversely appropriate. The Hell Panthers, he renamed the Solemnitas Company, after the High Gothic word for ‘fester’.

Over the course of the next fifty years, the Solemnitas Company conquered not only the world of their arrival, a small pirate-planet named Remas IV, but, capturing spaceship after spaceship, carved out a pestilential empire in the Maelstrom. Their great plague fleet now numbers over fifty warships, from ancient and decrepit trade vessels, to a mighty battle-barge, the Arca Archa, formerly of the Eagles of Guilliman chapter. Remas IV, now renamed Nova Capulus, is a daemonworld, shaped as a twisted facsimile of old Capulus, from which they have recruited anew. Now, Lord Icarus readies his undead warriors for a new Crusade, and to have their vengeance on the Imperium, and to drain the galaxy of life itself.

The Blight

A wise man once said that mankind is governed by two unassailable masters: Pleasure and Pain. Pain and pleasure, pleasure and pain. Thanks to the Blight, I can feel neither. So I dedicate my existence to maximising the pain of others, and minimising their pleasure.
Brother-Necromancer Valdir of the Solemnitas Company

The Necromancers

The Necromancers are the former Apothecaries and Librarians of the Hell Panthers. They spend every waking hour developing new plagues and finding ways of curing the afflictions of the Blight. They also study black texts, looted from the private libraries of many weaker scions of the Dark Gods, and have learned the secrets of resurrecting the dead, so that when the Hell Panthers march to war, they are accompanied by a horde of shambling zombies and subverted guardsmen, each seeking to spill the blood of the hated living.

T

he Marines of the Solemnitas Company are unique in that they are afflicted with the Blight, a blessing bestowed upon them by their patron Nurgle when they turned. Nurgle is a capricious and merciless god, yet, unlike any other Chaos God, he is possessed of that very mortal trait, a sense of humour. When Captain Icarus Messor turned to him in his attempt to save his chapter from death, Nurgle, never one to miss an opportunity to display his black sense of irony, did so, but bestowed upon them the Blight.

The Blight is decomposition. The men of the Solemnitas Company are alive, yet they are decomposing, their flesh sloughing away to reveal the bones beneath. Those unfortunates in an advanced state of this disease resemble little more than shambling skeletons in power armour, empty bones dancing with lambent and ethereal fire.

Without the guidance of their sorcerers or Lord Icarus, the Marines of the Solemnitas Company are often lost, the damage to the living tissue of their brains not entirely balanced by the sustaining daemonic powers of Nurgle. The sorcerers and Necromancers of the Solemnitas Company are therefore a powerful force within the warband.

Despite the effects of the Blight, even when a marine is little more than a walking skeleton, he will not die. Even as their flesh rots and falls away, they will not fall, save to the bullets and blades of the foe. A marine in the grips of the Blight will feel every second of his decomposition, and the only release from the agony is death. Yet the Marines of the Solemnitas Company view the Blight as a blessing, not a curse, and bear it stoically. After all, life is a prison, death a release.

Homeworld

A roiling hellworld of blood, sweat and pus, inhabited by the most evil and capricious beasts and daemons, eternally struggling with savage tribesfolk? No place like home…
Brother Mortimus, Third Brotherhood of Decay, Solemnitas Company

B

efore the Capulus Iconclasm, the world of Capulus was a death-world, populated by feral tribesmen and ferocious and strange beasts. After the Solemitas Company conquered their empire in the Maelstrom, they have been based upon the planet of Nova Capulus. The daemon world is awash with swamps of foetid pus, with vile mangrove trees rising from them like skeletal hands. Hideous beasts, Daemons of Nurgle and worse inhabit this nightmare landscape. It is from this cauldron of decay that the chapter recruits its marines.

Lord Icarus, Reaper Consul

At the time of the Capulus Iconoclasm, Icarus Messor was over seven hundred years old, though still as mighty and ferocious a warrior as he had been when he was twenty. After the Iconoclasm, he was the first brother to become afflicted with the Blight, and it is he who leads the warband to this day.

Clad in Terminator Armour taken from a battle-captain of the Eagles Argent chapter, Lord Icarus wields a mighty storm bolter and a pustulent sword in combat. He is an implacable reaper, and three Officio Assasinorum operatives have been sent against him to date, though none have returned.

Yet despite his glories and mighty daemon weapons, Icarus still rails against the shackles placed upon him by his decision. He wanted salvation, not slavery. His confused inner self manifests itself as a great battle rage, as he transfers his tortured inner self into the blood of his foes.

At the northern pole of the planet, the chapter has built its stronghold. Rising from the foetid marshes like a leviathan of myth, the massive fortress, studded with guns, redoubts, spiked battlements and cauldrons of boiling pus. It is referred to by the Solemnitas Company only as the Mausoleum. It is here that the potential acolytes of disease undergo the black ritual and anthropophagous ceremony necessary to instill and infect them with the hideous power of the Blight.

Nova Capulus is populated by tribes, feral and savage. Slaves, taken from the many wars in the Maelstrom fought by the Solemnitas Company, have been stripped of possessions and placed upon the world, a hideous game from which the Company draw their new recruits. Every year, the former Apothecaries of the Solemnitas Company, the Necromancers, hold gladiatorial trials and impurity tests. Only the most diseased and most determined warriors survive to be chosen, and only the most ruthless of those survive the implantation process to become Astartes, albeit corrupt and mutilated ones.

Beliefs

This is not war. This is pest control.
Sorcerer Victirix of the Solemnitas Company, prior to the Massacre of the Tyranids at Zaitsev II

T

he Solemnitas Company revere Nurgle, the Dark God of Decay. They have a great many solemn rites and reverences. They venerate their deity through acts of depraved worship, human sacrifice and blood worship.

Over time, and no doubt due to the effects of the Blight, the marines of the Solemnitas Company have come to despise life in all its forms. The motivation is undoubtedly envy, of those individuals who are still able to enjoy the touch of life. This has endowed them with an especial hatred for the alien Tyranid, as they view these as the epitome of life, a primal force of nature.

The Battle of Theodosius’s Gambit

In the latter years of M40, the Solemnitas Company received word of an Imperial Convoy passing through the shrouded region of the Theodosius’s Gambit. Although the omens and portents did not reveal what the convoy contained, Lord Icarus decreed that the Solemnitas Company would assault the convoy. The gibbering voices of the Warp told them that great rewards would be their if they did so.

For nearly a month the Solemnitas Company tracked their quarry, through the dust fields and asteroid belts of Theodosius’s Gambit. After several abortive attempts to engage, Lord Icarus set up a cordon around the entire area of space, trapping the Imperials. Then he sent in his personal Terminator bodyguards, aboard the mighty battle-barge Arca Archa, to scour the entire asteroid belt for the hidden Imperials.

Catching the Imperials at the Stronos Cluster, the Solemnitas Company Terminators teleported aboard the largest Imperial ship, as volleys of plaguefire from the Arca Archa took the enemy escorts apart. The Terminators, slaughtering barely armed navy ratings, found a prize worth ten times the expenditure of the mission. 500 suits of MkVII Power Armour, fresh from the Martian Forges. Taking both the ship and the armour back to Nova Capulus, the Solemnitas Company would be well stocked with armour for years to come.

The Company follows a twisted version of the Monodominant philosophies so often espoused by the more rabid members of the hated Inquisition. The Company believe that only those mortals that follow Nurgle have the strength and resilience necessary to rule the galaxy, and that, of them, only the Solemnitas Company, as marines already dead, have strength enough to endure. Such arrogance does not endear them to the other followers of Nurgle, many of whom view the Solemnitas as upstarts but the Grandfather of Chaos enjoys the petty bickering of his grandchildren. Robur quamquam pestilentias, strength through disease, is a central tenet of the Solemnitas company, and brothers take ever more insane tests of devotion, consuming the most destructive poisons and inhaling the most vile of disease spores, in pursuit of greater unity with their foul deity.

They revere daemons as the heralds and footsoldiers of Nurgle that they are, especially greater daemons, and remember the debt of gratitude owed to them since they saved them on Capulus. Despite this bond, daemons are rarely summoned, the company preferring to prosecute wars in its own way. Despite this, the Company often uses the warp to divine tactics, or as a source of some new biological weapon.

The Solenitas Company view themselves as missionaries for their cult of death. They are often accompanied by hordes of cultists, willing to die a glorious death in battle, and ascend to glory and into Nurgle’s loving embrace. Where they strike, uprising and plague will surely follow. Very occasionally, even Space Marines of the Imperium are captured by the Company, and at such times, the Necromancers will proselytise and offer such men the glories of the Dark Gods. Needless to say, such a process is never without the application of severe pain and plague. Most such unfortunates die, strapped to the Necromancers’ operating tables, still true to the Throne, choosing death over damnation. Yet some do not.

Most of all, however, the Solemnitas Company are defined by their bitterness and hatred for the Imperium. The Solemnitas Company watched with envy and bitter loathing as the perilous state of the Reign of Blood was righted by their former brothers, watched as the Capulus Iconoclasm faded into myth, consigned to the musty cellar of history, its relevance forgotten. They watched as the Imperium forgot about them and their toils. Their bitterness at being cast out is matched only by their sense of betrayal. Salvation came, but, as is so often the case in the war-torn galaxy of the 41st millennium, it came too late to save them from their agonising servitude to Grandfather Nurgle.

Their hatred for the Imperium and life has led them to declare a twisted parody of an Imperial Crusade, known to them as the Menagerie of Pus. Soon, they will tear out of the Maelstrom, and demolish the rotten cage of the galaxy, and put an end to life itself.

Organisation

Heraldry of the Solemnitas Company

I maintain that the effectiveness of the Space Marine stems from not only its massive firepower, but from its size. When enemies look at a Space Marine and then compare it to the men who might be mustered to attack it, they have a tendency to dismiss such a notion as suicidal rather than approach the problem tactically.
The Plague Charioteer, former Master of the Forge of the Hell Panthers

The Solemnitas Company, through careful recruiting and the assimilation of other Nurgle warbands over the thousands of years since their excommunication, has swollen to nearly two thousand marines. These are arranged into the Three Brotherhoods, each one numbering roughly 600 Plague Marines. Outwith these brotherhoods exists Lord Icarus’s household, consisting of the original 1st Company of the Hell Panthers, and the Necromancers.

The Company has a single dreadnought, Ancient Veridian, who was awakened for the final defence of the Fortress-Monastery on Capulus, and a handful of original Astartes battletanks. The bulk of their armoured strength comes from captured Imperial armour pieces, often engineered (at exorbitant expense) by the Dark Mechanicum to play host to howling warp-monstrosities.

The Company’s mortal allies, cultists and heretics, are left to their own devices and to organise their own squads and command structure as they see fit. Although this can lead to violence, the Solemnitas Company do not see this as a problem. After all, only by the bloodstained process of natural selection has Mankind risen to dominate the galaxy. As long as the mortals fight when they are told to, the Company cares not for their pathetic squabbles.

Combat Doctrine

Capture the fortress, by all means. Kill their leaders, by all means. Destroy their tanks, by all means. Strike such fear into their hearts that they cannot stomach the fight ahead, as you wish. Just make sure you leave behind a few good diseases. Nothing too fancy, maybe a few necrotic viruses, perhaps that disemboweller bacterium my brother Walfrid has been developing.
Brother-Necromancer Ebolas, to the Second Brotherhood of Decay, before the Assault on Kasr Karnak

When not supported by their mortal allies, the Solemnitas Company lean towards a sudden assault, allowing them time to seed the area with choice disease spores and then melt away, to watch as the enemy vomit and perish in Nurgle’s embrace. Certain champions, selected before the battle begins, are armed with mighty Plague Censers to spread the poisons of the warp amongst the Emperor’s subjects.

When they can call upon the support of their cultist allies, the Solemnitas Company tends to send them in first, and allow the enemy to chew through their ammunition and supplies before the main Astartes attack. They make heavy use of mechanised transports to cover as much ground as possible, and therefore spread their diseases over the widest possible area. Often, those Astartes. who have displeased Lord Icarus are forced to accompany the Cultists into battle, and into oblivion’s embrace

The Necromancers of the chapter are often arranged into their own fighting squads and unit. These often are the focus for daemonic summoning and zombie raising, and word of their terrible assaults, invariably accompanied by rapid decomposition and disease amongst the enemy, is often enough to force capitulation amongst weaker minded Imperials. None has ever been allowed to live.

Battle-Cry

Even Angels fear the Reaper!

[Walter Payton]

The B 'n' C ate my earlier post, so here they are in all their rotting glory.

 

Brutal C&C craved.

[Hrvat]

I just skimmed, will do a thorough read tomorrow.

 

21st founding was just before Age of Apostasy in M36 so the 12th would be considerably earlier.

[Walter Payton]

I just skimmed, will do a thorough read tomorrow.

 

21st founding was just before Age of Apostasy in M36 so the 12th would be considerably earlier.

 

Changed it to the 17th.

[Ace Debonair]

The Blight is decomposition. The men of the Solemnitas Company are alive, yet they are decomposing, their flesh sloughing away to reveal the bones beneath. Those unfortunates in an advanced state of this disease resemble little more than shambling skeletons in power armour, empty bones dancing with lambent and ethereal fire.

 

Without the guidance of their sorcerers or Lord Icarus, the Marines of the Solemnitas Company are often lost, the damage to the living tissue of their brains not entirely balanced by the sustaining daemonic powers of Nurgle. The sorcerers and Necromancers of the Solemnitas Company are therefore a powerful force within the warband.

 

Despite the effects of the Blight, even when a marine is little more than a walking skeleton, he will not die. Even as their flesh rots and falls away, they will not fall, save to the bullets and blades of the foe. A marine in the grips of the Blight will feel every second of his decomposition, and the only release from the agony is death. Yet the Marines of the Solemnitas Company view the Blight as a blessing, not a curse, and bear it stoically. After all, those already dead cannot die.

 

Now that's cool. Like a Nurgle version of the Thousand Sons, right? But the last bit doesn't make sense in light of the fact a few sentences earlier, you reveal they can indeed be killed. Perhaps "After all, few things provide equal protection to living death" would be a better fit, but I'm not sure about that either. :P

 

 

The Company follows a twisted version of the ideals of Monodominancy so often espoused by the more rabid members of the hated Inquisition. The Company believe that only those mortals that follow Nurgle have the strength and resilience necessary to rule the galaxy, and that, of them, only the Solemnitas Company, as marines already dead, have strength enough to endure. Such arrogance does not endear them to the other followers of Nurgle, many of whom view the Solemnitas as upstarts but the Grandfather of Chaos enjoys the petty bickering of his grandchildren. Robur quamquam pestilentias, strength through disease, is a central tenet of the Solemnitas company, and brothers take ever more insane tests of devotion, consuming the most destructive poisons and .

 

Destructive poisons and what? :huh:

 

They revere daemons as the heralds and footsoldiers of Nurgle that they are, especially greater daemons, and remember the debt of gratitude owed to them since they saved them on Capulus. Despite this bond, daemons are rarely summoned, the company preferring to prosecute wars in its own way. The exception is Greater Daemons, to whom the Solemnitas Company often turn for advice or orders from the Lord of Decay.

 

This bit is worded a little awkwardly. I think it's the fact you single out the greater daemons twice, but I'm honestly not sure how best to adjust it.

 

Oh, and your picture of the marine has the writing in the caption twice. :D

 

Apart from that I don't see anything wrong with the IT. I am a little puzzled by the choice of 'Company' for the warband's name, when they number more than a hundred marines. Perhaps Solemnitas Legion (aim big :) ) or even Solemnitas Panthers would sit better... or perhaps I'm being too picky. ^_^

 

My only other suggestion is perhaps hint less at the Spirit King being Nurgle, to make the betrayal a real 'wait, what?' moment for the reader.

 

In any case, though, this here's a decent IT. Good work.

[Walter Payton]

The Blight is decomposition. The men of the Solemnitas Company are alive, yet they are decomposing, their flesh sloughing away to reveal the bones beneath. Those unfortunates in an advanced state of this disease resemble little more than shambling skeletons in power armour, empty bones dancing with lambent and ethereal fire.

 

Without the guidance of their sorcerers or Lord Icarus, the Marines of the Solemnitas Company are often lost, the damage to the living tissue of their brains not entirely balanced by the sustaining daemonic powers of Nurgle. The sorcerers and Necromancers of the Solemnitas Company are therefore a powerful force within the warband.

 

Despite the effects of the Blight, even when a marine is little more than a walking skeleton, he will not die. Even as their flesh rots and falls away, they will not fall, save to the bullets and blades of the foe. A marine in the grips of the Blight will feel every second of his decomposition, and the only release from the agony is death. Yet the Marines of the Solemnitas Company view the Blight as a blessing, not a curse, and bear it stoically. After all, those already dead cannot die.

 

Now that's cool. Like a Nurgle version of the Thousand Sons, right? But the last bit doesn't make sense in light of the fact a few sentences earlier, you reveal they can indeed be killed. Perhaps "After all, few things provide equal protection to living death" would be a better fit, but I'm not sure about that either. :P

 

Sounds good.

 

The Company follows a twisted version of the ideals of Monodominancy so often espoused by the more rabid members of the hated Inquisition. The Company believe that only those mortals that follow Nurgle have the strength and resilience necessary to rule the galaxy, and that, of them, only the Solemnitas Company, as marines already dead, have strength enough to endure. Such arrogance does not endear them to the other followers of Nurgle, many of whom view the Solemnitas as upstarts but the Grandfather of Chaos enjoys the petty bickering of his grandchildren. Robur quamquam pestilentias, strength through disease, is a central tenet of the Solemnitas company, and brothers take ever more insane tests of devotion, consuming the most destructive poisons and .

 

Destructive poisons and what? :P

 

Aw, goddammit. :sweat:

 

They revere daemons as the heralds and footsoldiers of Nurgle that they are, especially greater daemons, and remember the debt of gratitude owed to them since they saved them on Capulus. Despite this bond, daemons are rarely summoned, the company preferring to prosecute wars in its own way. The exception is Greater Daemons, to whom the Solemnitas Company often turn for advice or orders from the Lord of Decay.

 

This bit is worded a little awkwardly. I think it's the fact you single out the greater daemons twice, but I'm honestly not sure how best to adjust it.

 

 

That'll be changed. It is kinda clunky

 

Apart from that I don't see anything wrong with the IT. I am a little puzzled by the choice of 'Company' for the warband's name, when they number more than a hundred marines. Perhaps Solemnitas Legion (aim big ^_^ ) or even Solemnitas Panthers would sit better... or perhaps I'm being too picky. ^_^

 

I quite like company. I could change it to Battallion, but I like it as it is.

 

My only other suggestion is perhaps hint less at the Spirit King being Nurgle, to make the betrayal a real 'wait, what?' moment for the reader.

 

Hmmm. Last time that was what I was going for, but people said that it was too abrupt, and that it didn't make any sense. I'll see what others say.

[Walter Payton]

The Blight is decomposition. The men of the Solemnitas Company are alive, yet they are decomposing, their flesh sloughing away to reveal the bones beneath. Those unfortunates in an advanced state of this disease resemble little more than shambling skeletons in power armour, empty bones dancing with lambent and ethereal fire.

 

Without the guidance of their sorcerers or Lord Icarus, the Marines of the Solemnitas Company are often lost, the damage to the living tissue of their brains not entirely balanced by the sustaining daemonic powers of Nurgle. The sorcerers and Necromancers of the Solemnitas Company are therefore a powerful force within the warband.

 

Despite the effects of the Blight, even when a marine is little more than a walking skeleton, he will not die. Even as their flesh rots and falls away, they will not fall, save to the bullets and blades of the foe. A marine in the grips of the Blight will feel every second of his decomposition, and the only release from the agony is death. Yet the Marines of the Solemnitas Company view the Blight as a blessing, not a curse, and bear it stoically. After all, those already dead cannot die.

 

Now that's cool. Like a Nurgle version of the Thousand Sons, right? But the last bit doesn't make sense in light of the fact a few sentences earlier, you reveal they can indeed be killed. Perhaps "After all, few things provide equal protection to living death" would be a better fit, but I'm not sure about that either. :P

 

Sounds good.

 

The Company follows a twisted version of the ideals of Monodominancy so often espoused by the more rabid members of the hated Inquisition. The Company believe that only those mortals that follow Nurgle have the strength and resilience necessary to rule the galaxy, and that, of them, only the Solemnitas Company, as marines already dead, have strength enough to endure. Such arrogance does not endear them to the other followers of Nurgle, many of whom view the Solemnitas as upstarts but the Grandfather of Chaos enjoys the petty bickering of his grandchildren. Robur quamquam pestilentias, strength through disease, is a central tenet of the Solemnitas company, and brothers take ever more insane tests of devotion, consuming the most destructive poisons and .

 

Destructive poisons and what? :P

 

Aw, goddammit. :sweat:

 

They revere daemons as the heralds and footsoldiers of Nurgle that they are, especially greater daemons, and remember the debt of gratitude owed to them since they saved them on Capulus. Despite this bond, daemons are rarely summoned, the company preferring to prosecute wars in its own way. The exception is Greater Daemons, to whom the Solemnitas Company often turn for advice or orders from the Lord of Decay.

 

This bit is worded a little awkwardly. I think it's the fact you single out the greater daemons twice, but I'm honestly not sure how best to adjust it.

 

 

That'll be changed. It is kinda clunky

 

Apart from that I don't see anything wrong with the IT. I am a little puzzled by the choice of 'Company' for the warband's name, when they number more than a hundred marines. Perhaps Solemnitas Legion (aim big ^_^ ) or even Solemnitas Panthers would sit better... or perhaps I'm being too picky. ^_^

 

I quite like company. I could change it to Battallion, but I like it as it is.

 

My only other suggestion is perhaps hint less at the Spirit King being Nurgle, to make the betrayal a real 'wait, what?' moment for the reader.

 

Hmmm. Last time that was what I was going for, but people said that it was too abrupt, and that it didn't make any sense. I'll see what others say.

[Walter Payton]

Minor edits done, please C&C

[Walter Payton]

I'm double posting now. Please C&C...

[Ace Debonair]

The Solenitas Company view themselves as missionaries for their cult of death.

:)

 

 

I quite like company. I could change it to Battallion, but I like it as it is.

It does roll off the tongue. Catchy. The only problem is that it's also commonly used to refer to part of a chapter. Upon reading it for the first time, I expected them to number roughly a hundred marines. :(

Battalion is also good, and has the advantage of not being commonly associated with Astartes in the first place. 'Horde' could also work, possibly.

 

I haven't really got any other issues with these guys. They're good.

[Walter Payton]

The Solenitas Company view themselves as missionaries for their cult of death.

:)

 

 

I quite like company. I could change it to Battallion, but I like it as it is.

It does roll off the tongue. Catchy. The only problem is that it's also commonly used to refer to part of a chapter. Upon reading it for the first time, I expected them to number roughly a hundred marines. :(

Battalion is also good, and has the advantage of not being commonly associated with Astartes in the first place. 'Horde' could also work, possibly.

 

I haven't really got any other issues with these guys. They're good.

 

I dan't edit now, but will do so later, when not crushed by revision.

 

Latin and French and Chemistry, oh my!

[Walter Payton]

Updated again, some minor formatting, and added a quotation

[Walter Payton]

I'm triple posting now. C&C OR DIE!

 

Is it the smell of pestilence? :)

[Ace Debonair]

Well, I've gone through this and don't see anything wrong with the IT.

 

'Tis a fine read you have there.

Although the smell of pestilence is a little offputting. -_-

[Iron Father Ferrum]

I like it. All of the nitpicky stuff's already been hit upon and/or corrected. . . I think you're ready for submission!

[Walter Payton]

I like it. All of the nitpicky stuff's already been hit upon and/or corrected. . . I think you're ready for submission!

 

Flattering :cuss

 

However, I want to make it as good as it can possibly get before I take the plunge and submit the thing. Any places where the 'everything is dying/dead' theme can be touched up or emphasised?

 

Oh, and I added in a few snazzy quotations for extra sparklyness :P

[Walter Payton]

Another streamlining done, please C&C.

[Pcm979]

Nice Halo quote. Always liked that one.

[Walter Payton]

Nice Halo quote. Always liked that one.

 

Thank you. I think it works. :ph34r:

 

Besides, the Gravemind talks exactly like how I imagined Nurgle, trochaic heptameter and all.

[RagingGriffon]

Real quick because I am posting from my phone. I didn't like the "blinkered fool" part. I think "fool would suffice. I would like you to expand on the planets cult and reduce the re-hash of Imperial history. We should know the history, we want to know more about the cult that ended up being Nurgle. Overall, I like it. I just think it needs to be condensed. It is a bit long. Also, I don't recall where they are located now.