Carrion Lords

[Ratboy1664]

Hi, I could use some thoughts on my idea before I plow on with an IA. I want to crate a Raven Guard successor chapter as I love the Raven Guard style of warfare but want to do my own chapter colours hence why I don't want to play as Raven Guard. I came up with the name carrion lords as I wanted to doff my had to the origional chapter but not be so obvious as the Crow Guard etc. I then decided I want all my minis to wear helmets as 1) any soldier going to war without a helmet stikes me as dumb not brave and 2) I can't paint flesh very well which is where I need some help.

 

I know the Raven Guard gene seed is weak after Corvax's attempts to rebuild his legion during the Heresy and that carrion is dead and diseased meat so I thought why not have some sort of minor mutation in some of the marines which the chapter covers up by never revealing their faces or bodies to anyone. So the questions are:

 

1) What kind of mutation? I am leaning towards some kind of physical decay or disfigurement

 

2) How was it contracted? This smacks of Nurgle and the Death Guard or maybe the Alpha Legion in an attempt to locate Corax using the Carrion Lords as the bloodhounds

 

The net result is a fleet based chapter who patrol the fringes of space to escape the attentions of the inquisition and to also search for their missing Primarch Corax who they believe can save them from this curse (think Dark Angels secrecy mixed with Alpha Legion deception). The lightning style of warfare suits a chapter who are looking for something rather than purging the galaxy of every xenos. All comments greatly appreciated.

[Erasmus of Baal]

Raven Guard, Death Guard, Dark Angels, and Alpha Legion...that's a lot of heresy going around. I think we can simplify this a bit.

 

The Raven Guard's gene-seed already has a mutation causing them to be incredibly pale with dark eyes and hair (I might be wrong on the details of that, but still). Especially given the precedent of the degradation of Blood Angels' gene-seed between Founding Chapter and Successor Chapter, it is not such a large leap of logic to think that the gene-seed discrepancy already present in the Raven Guard degenerated even further in your Chapter. THis results in an appearance that some extremely Puritan Inquisitor thought was Warp-influenced, so these guys are pretty badly shamed and seeking repentence and cure.

 

Sound good?

[Octavulg]

Option - Cursed Founding.

 

The Cursed Founding was the 21st Founding. They tried to basically fix a lot of geneseed flaws, improve Marines, other things of that nature.

 

Trying to fix the Raven Guard geneseed would be an obvious possibility, and it could totally go wrong in the way you mention. A bit simpler, too.

[Dexter Kong]

I like the Cursed Founding idea as well.

Since one of the genetic flaws of the Raven Guard gene seed causes them to have extremely pale skin, what if the attempt to fix this did something totally opposite? What if their skin now turns tan and leathery, to the point of disfigurement? I'm thinking of skin covered in scaley warts or tumors or something like that. Nothing that would compromise their bone or muscle structure, but enough that they are ashamed of their physical appearance and remain full concealed around all outsiders.

[Octavulg]

I don't know that they'd worry about the pale skin when the current geneseed is so unstable they need to ship more in from Mars.

[Dexter Kong]

That doesn't have to be the only thing they attempted to fix. They could have tried a complete re-haul of the gene seed, fixing every flaw with it, including the pale skin defect. I know that's far from the most serious flaw with the gene seed, but he was looking for something in the way of his Marines hiding some sort of deformity.

[Ecritter]

I have a novel idea. The attempt to fix the pale skin was a success, but now the Carrion Lords see their new, normal, skin as a flaw ... a separation from their heritage. To everyone else, they may appear normal ... but to them, they are now freaks.

 

Just a thought.

[Erasmus of Baal]

I have a novel idea. The attempt to fix the pale skin was a success, but now the Carrion Lords see their new, normal, skin as a flaw ... a separation from their heritage. To everyone else, they may appear normal ... but to them, they are now freaks.

 

Just a thought.

I don't know about Ratboy, but I like this one!

[soddinnutter]

@Ecritter

 

Would only work for a little while after the training cadre left. once how a Raven Guard is meant to look is lost to living memory the stigma of their completion perfection will diminish quite quickly.

 

maybe the attempt to fix the Melanochrome organ were 100% successful and it operates at peek efficiency. Side effect. Skin turns to a scaly hide not to dissimilar to a crocodile in texture.

 

Tough, resilient and ugly. On the positive side everything else seems to be working perfectly.

 

Mechanicus attempts to fix this problem have so far had very limited success. all attempts usually cause the original Raven Guard problems to resurface, even in the other fixed organs.

 

just an idea.

[Ecritter]

@Ecritter

 

Would only work for a little while after the training cadre left. once how a Raven Guard is meant to look is lost to living memory the stigma of their completion perfection will diminish quite quickly.

 

Not at all. They are still a Raven Guard successor, and to them the tampering the AdMech did with the geneseed is like a heresy. Remember, what is and isn't 'pretty' differs all around the world ... in space it'd be the same. The hatred of the new perfection is passed down from generation to generation. If you're told you're ugly long enough ... you will start to believe it.

[Ratboy1664]

After much thought I have come up with this mutation. The naturally pale skin of the raven guard has been exaggerated in the carrion lords to the point where the skin is transluscent. Being able to see the muscles and bones of the marines makes them look hideous and would also interest the inquisition to an extent. I think that by exaggerating a generic quirk in the raven guard it makes the carrion lords more fluffy, but what do you think?

[Phlegon]

Well I think all the idea presented thus far could work and work well. I think that since the mutation will not be represented on the models themselves you should choose which ever mutation will allow for the most dramatic change in your Chapters mind set. This will allow you to create this change through writing rather than modeling. Now that I've said that I can finally put my vote in. I would go with the fact the the AdMech did in fact fix the pale skin flaw and to an outsider your marines would look normal but to your guys they are ashamed that they have lost part of there genetic link to their father Corax and harbor a distrust and hateful resentment towards the AdMech for doing that to them. Well I think I've rambled on long enough, I hope I've helped.