Looking into the Ruinous Powers

[soshi kenpachi]

A group of friends and coworkers are going to be vacationing a few thousand miles south east of paris soon, and there has been a concerted effort by the 40k players in my unit to convert coworkers into 40k players. Once my greenstuff dried, and the conversion was complete, I ended up liking the blood angels. Then I discovered 4 other players have or are constructing BA armies. The only BA specific unit I've procured thus far is Commander Dante, the rest are generic sm units(2 AoBR SM sets, a librarian, and a dev squad). Then a sergeant spoke to me of the wonders of Chaos and all it had to offer. Things like Fabius Bile. So then... I had an idea so I won't be the 5th BA player stuck in the middle on nowhere with no reliable way to change armies: I will proffer my successor chapter to the ruinous powers.

 

Here's the idea: given a highly motivated gamer, scultping tools, and enough green stuff to do the job I can convert the existing Blood Angel army I'd been building. I can add needle marks in their armor, black ichor leaking out between the armor plates, small mutations, etc. These are formely unwilling victims of Bile, and haven't been turned to Chaos long enough to have any serious mutations or to have begun to decorate their armor differently.

 

The fluff side involves the demons clawing inside the head of a Librarian who'd fallen to the Red Thirst(Yes, I know the BA Libbys don't have RT as a game mechanic). The combination of blood lust and Khorne's offers of further power broke the librarian who turned to chaos. He corrupted the Chapter from the inside, until he had enough to sacrifice the remaining battle brothers to Khorne. Once the survivors had pledged loyalty to Khorne, the young Chaos Lord promised the Chapter's secrets to Bile in exchange for 'upgrades'. Bile consented in his attempts to learn more about The Flaw, and the young Chaos Lord began his journey towards becoming a Daemon Prince.

 

So then... the help I'm looking for would be general suggestions on how to convert the space marines into former lab rats, and how to modify the librarian into a Chaos Lord... or should I convert him to a Chaos Sorcerer? Khorne seems appropriate, but which Chaos God would be the best to corrupt a bloodthirsty Blood Angel librarian?

[minigun762]

One key element to remember, Khorne loathes psykers. This makes your arguement of a Librarian being corrupted by Khorne harder to make.

 

I always saw some connections between Slaanesh and the Blood Angels, mostly because they seem similar to the pre-heresy Emperor's Children. I'm not an expert on the Blood Angels, but I wonder if you could play the card of this Librarian seeking a cure and somehow comes across a Keeper of Secrets who confuses/tricks him onto a path of damnation. Promises of a way to beat the thirst by embracing a path to personal perfection or opening their mind to all experiences of battle and letting go instead of resisting, something like that.

 

I'm kind of stealing parts from Magnus, Fulgrim and Heartslayer so you have a fair precedent for this kind of action.

[soshi kenpachi]

On the Khorne thing, I was thinking 'Red Thirst! Rage! BLOOD THRONE!' and didn't let pesky things like 'Khorne hates psykers' bother me.

 

That being said, slaneesh would be a good idea fluff wise. If the corrupter said 'Sanguinius was our beloved child(being the primarch most touched by Chaos), and the most beloved of Slaneesh. Khorne tried to corrupt him. Raise up arms in the name of your lord's true father, and strike down Khorne!'

 

It makes sense. Hmmm...

[Brother Caleb]

It is my understanding that men turn to Nurgle in order to remove their fear of death, disease, and mutation. He removes this terror by altering his followers to embody the things they once feared. Perhaps a fear of falling into the rage drove your marines to seek Nurgle's help, and he obliged by sending them into the deepest darkest recesses of the rage.

 

Just wanted to balance out the suggestions you help you decide. Good luck.

[soshi kenpachi]

Nurgle, I'm not so sure about. The Blood Angels seem torn between falling to Khorne(Black Rage, Red Thirst) and Slaneesh(Their dedication to beauty/art). Nurgle doesn't embody anything they fear(Disease and disfigurement are pretty common in the radiation wastes the Blood Angel recruits come from, and they accept it), nor do I think Tzeench really taps into a primal Blood Angel preference(Change and plotting don't really seem to be their schtick.).

 

Vain Beauty and Violence seem to be right up their ally, though, with a good fluff background for either a psyker or non psyker to fall to the Chaos Gods.

 

The cool thing about going slaneesh, though, is that I'd be able to say they sold their souls, and the souls of their sacrificed Battle Brothers to attain the perfection that was their primarch... I.E. Wings, scars gone, etc. OOOOOO!!!! I could run the HQ unit as a Daemon Prince, and use a heavily modified sanguinary guard, Sanguinor, or Astaroth the Grim model to represent the chapter's misguided chapter master who sold his soul and committed hundreds of atrocities to rise to become the first 'Angel Prince'. Misguided, self absorbed, and vain seem to be realistic failures of a centuries old Blood Angel.

[Brother Kirus]

It is an interesting idea that you have. I was trying to develop background story for my Purge (everlasting project) and I found myself looking in to direction of Blood Angels successor chapter. The idea is that the chief apothecary from a successor chapter (no name yet) went too far in his attempts to find solution to the chapter’s flaw and made a pact with Nurgle (didn’t think about details of how it happened but it should be a trickery of some sort). He became Nurgle sorcerer and his experiment turned all his battle brothers in to plague marines. Also the chapter symbol – three blood drops, magically transformed in to a new symbol - three flies.

 

If Nurgle is not something that you are interested in, than I would go for Slaanesh. I agree with the previous statements that BA remind me a lot of EC.

 

In any case, good luck with the project!

[soshi kenpachi]

So the question I'm facing now is how to do it? Obviously, all of these would be heavily modified, obviously. An idea:

 

Dark Angelic Host: Take SM units, attach angel wings. White angel wings are for show, black angel wings are for Go.

Death Company as the Chosen

TacMarines as Chaos Space Marines

TacMarines as Raptors

Sanguinor as 'Angel Prince'

Fabius Bile as himself.

 

Fluff: As above. Once he attained Daemon Prince status, the former Bob, Chapter Master of the Sanguine Retribution Chapter, approached Fabius to enhance his troops in a fashion befitting his new stature. The weak were given to Fabius Bile to perfect his technique. Once he produced the right results, the surviving Space Marines of the Sagnuin Retribution were enhanced accordingly. Those who were not of the original chapter were given to Fabius as payment. Now Bob leads the Sanguine Redemption against Khorne's bloody followers, and the Imperium. Bob is determined to recreate the perfection of his primarch: A glorious and beautiful amalgamation of the warp and the physical universe. All who stand in the way of him bringing salvation to creation will end as bloodied footprints on the road to perfection. All because of the enlightenment visited upon him by Slaneesh millenia ago.