IT: The Lords of Nimea

[Grand Master Tyrak]

IT: The Lords of Nimea

Origins

The Lords of Nimea were created as part of the 19th Founding in order to increase the Space Marine presence in the western Imperium, and were instructed to select a homeworld during their founding rather than waiting until they were established. A semi-permanent base would be needed at the very least in order to fulfil the mission given to them by the High Lords of Terra. As a result the senior officers of the newly-founded Chapter were sent to select a suitable homeworld that could be given over to them without causing too much disturbance. Although this did not affect the Chapter’s composition, it did mean that the Chapter’s early history, culture, customs, combat style and beliefs are all dominated by the influence of their homeworld. This report shall therefore proceed immediately to examining their former homeworld, Nimea.

Homeworld

Nimea is located in the south-west of the Imperium, where the borders of Segmentums Pacificus, Solar and Tempestus meet. Despite being an uninhabitable wasteland following the Chapter’s excommunication, it still orbits its star as a mute reminder of the consequences of defying the Imperium.
It is likely that Nimea would eventually have found a purpose as a minor agricultural world once its population had grown enough to warrant investment, but this was projected to take place several millennia after the Chapter settled there. In the period prior to this, there simply wasn’t the will to provide the massive infrastructure and investment needed for an agricultural world to a planet with minimal prospects and a small prospective workforce. In the days before Space Marine rule, their Imperial tithe was provided in the form of a small number of recruits for scout companies, the Adeptus Arbites and occasional Inquisitors. The original treaty of annexation in the days of the Great Crusade requires the Imperium to provide a quantity of rifles and ammunition for use by the settlers, and the world provided a marginally higher tithe than is normal for feral worlds in return for this import. Despite this classification, the rifles are of good quality and despite being solid-shot are well beyond basic flintlocks. It is the almost complete lack of infrastructure that kept Nimea as a feral world.

Prieska’s Landing served as the main starport, named for the Rogue Trader Torlan Prieska who founded the colony. The settlers’ capital was Aliwal and was located in a former swamp, two days walk from Prieska’s Landing. Although much of the swamp was been drained to provide farmland, the bridges stretched across the farmland and provided the town with an unmistakeable landmark, regardless of which direction a traveller approached it from. The loose central government had its seat in Aliwal, and was responsible for collecting the small amount of tax from each community, summoning the PDF in times of need and maintaining contact with the wider Imperium. The government was also responsible for organising the all-important importing of rifles and ammunition for the settlers as part of the conditions of the tithe, something which was later organised through liasing with the Chapter’s administrative serfs housed in the old Arbites barracks.

The Fortress Monastery is in the Riebeck Mountains and its remains are still visible from orbit, hiding in one of the few small mountain ranges on the world. The terrain elsewhere was mostly undeveloped grassland, which can be divided into cooler high-lying plateau areas found further inland and warmer low-lying areas near the coast which are notorious for being disease-ridden. An Apothecarion investigation found these rumours to be baseless but perhaps the settlers still remembered stories of diseases in the early days of settlement, diseases which they became immune to later. The high areas were the location of the only cultivated areas – mostly used for grazing cattle, with occasional isolated subsistence farms scattered around the land or grouped into small villages. The majority of agricultural work was centred on Aliwal, as it and Prieska’s Landing were the only area that could be classed as “urban”.

Inquisitor Tomas Vorones

Little is known about Inquisitor Vorones as his Inquisitorial service records are still sealed. Nevertheless there are a few pertinent facts that are known about him and that may be of use to the Imperial scholar. He was known to belong to the Ordo Malleus, and he is first mentioned in Administratum records some thirty years before his involvement with the Lords of Nimea. The few times he appears in Administratum records seem to place his area of operations just to the west of Nimea, which would explain why he arrived to check on the disturbances. He was known to be a psyker, but his psychic power was not so notable as to make him a particularly choice target for the denizens of the warp. He disappears from Administratum records after the Nimea incident, but rumour has it that he was censured by his Inquisitorial peers for showing an unprofessional degree of sympathy towards both the settlers and the Chapter in his official report. Since he is never listed as an Inquisitor Lord it is likely that he met the fate of so many of his peers and was killed in action.

Life on Nimea was hard, divorced from the more civilised comforts open to Imperial citizens. Adult and child alike had to be strong to survive in these conditions, living with only their family or in small communities, which are sometimes formed from a single extended family. Infant mortality rates were high, but the survivors were tough, independent and capable fighters. The wildlife of Nimea was not dangerous enough to cause it to be classed as a death world, but it was still dangerous enough to the rural settler communities. A settler’s most precious possessions was his family’s cattle-wagon, sometimes handed down through generations, and his rifle. By far the most important contribution the original settlers made to life on Nimea was the introduction of the Terran horse, which remains the primary method of fast transport for the settlers. Every man in a family who possesses a rifle (a must amongst the settlers) bar one (who stays to defend the family and keep the community together) was obliged to report to Aliwal in times of need to form the ad-hoc PDF, although this had never happened since the original settlers expanded beyond Prieska’s Landing. Nimea had little in the way of value to make it a target until the arrival of the Space Marines, and once that had happened they were responsible for planetary defence.

It is not known what caused the wide lands of Nimea to be emptied of intelligent life prior to human settlement, although faint traces of an unknown civilisation have been found by Imperial archaeologists. The effect of this was to create vast uninhabited areas of land for any settler to set up home in. The stubborn independence of the settlers was matched only by their tendency to argue over community governance. In the event of one group becoming too dissatisfied with their community, they would simply ride off and re-establish themselves elsewhere. Nevertheless, the community officials and elders were tasked by the Chapter with keeping track of all the settler families so that someone, somewhere had a record. A group that splits off to found its own community was obliged to start its own records.

The newly-formed Chapter claimed Nimea as a homeworld despite facing opposition from the settlers, with fears of the status quo being changed leading to feelings of animosity towards the Chapter. Antaeus, the first Chapter Master, attempted to appease the settlers by swearing that although their tithe would now be in the form of recruits, the status quo would be maintained, and attempted to appease the settlers and show their commitment to the world by naming the Chapter “Lords of Nimea”, rather than choosing a title associated with the wider Imperium. This did not remove the tension entirely, but it did postpone any consequences until the original members of the Chapter had long since died and been replaced by settler recruits. With the Chapter composed of Marines who understood the culture and concerns of the settlers, the world returned to simply getting on with life in much the same way as it had before the Space Marines arrived. Indeed, the Chapter became every bit as independent and mistrustful of outsiders as the settlers, something that was going to cause their downfall.

Fall From Grace

Chapter Master Jozua Tiel

Much has been said about Jozua Tiel after the excommunication and flight of the Lords of Nimea, and most of it can be seen as myth. He was never a great warrior, a tactical or strategic genius or a great military theorist. He was capable of fulfilling the duties of his rank, of course, but his true strength was his leadership. His natural charisma was his greatest weapon, backed by a solid grasp of administration and a humanitarian streak that others were often surprised by. He was capable of inspiring men and Marine alike to great feats and never once lost the confidence of the Marines under his command, which added a growing self-assuredness to his charisma and led some to describe him as a visionary. This self-assuredness was tempered with the humility expected of a Chapter Master, but his fierce defensiveness towards the Nimean settlers overrode that humility if they were threatened by anything he saw as a threat. In hindsight, this can be seen as a prelude to the Chapter’s fall from grace and should probably have been identified as a problem much earlier.

The Lords of Nimea left the service of the Emperor in the middle of the 41st millennium through a series of events that were both avoidable and needlessly destructive. After nearly twenty years as Chapter Master of the Lords of Nimea, Jozua Tiel began to take an interest in the living conditions of the settlers due to an alarming drop in recruitment numbers, which may have been caused by over-recruitment by his predecessor. He felt that more could be done to decrease the infant mortality rate, which would lead to more of the settler children being available for recruitment without risking the survival of the isolated communities that they were taken from. The Chapter itself had extended its zone of protection to several more systems and needed the extra recruitment numbers in order to sustain that deployment. Tiel was therefore faced with a problem – should he keep the recruitment levels as they were and try to increase the settler population to match his needs, or should he withdraw his protection from the new systems that were now relying on him and had sent their Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy detachments for redeployment? There had already been resentful grumbling from the settler communities over the number of sons they were losing to the Chapter, and even the release of a portion of failed aspirants back to their families rather than making them Chapter serfs failed to reduce the tensions. In spite of this, Tiel fatefully decided on the former option, feeling that his duty to the wider Imperium demanded it and that by reducing the infant mortality rate he was satisfying a humanitarian duty to the settlers.

Tiel’s plan was for the settler infants to live with their mothers in centralised housing in their nearest permanent community for the first four years of their life. By ensuring that only one family member went with them, he felt that this would not disrupt the settlers too much. In hindsight, it is clear that his humanitarian streak had blinded him to the independence that the settlers (and indeed the Chapter) held so dear. Sure enough, the settlers did not take kindly to this idea of centralisation and the hindrance of their ability to move freely across the open plains, and the government in Aliwal was soon in a heated debate with the Chapter office over the issue. Although the settlers and the Chapter had not come to blows, the situation was unstable and word of the disturbances soon reached the ears of Inquisitor Vorones.

The Lords of Nimea did not have a history of denying Inquisitorial jurisdiction or attempting to thwart the efforts of the Emperor’s agents, which makes Tiel’s reaction to Inquisitor Vorones’ arrival all the more surprising. Vorones went to Nimea on a ‘diplomatic mission’ to the Chapter and was planning on ‘discovering’ the disturbances upon arrival. Both he and the Chapter knew that his mission was nothing of the sort, but it did signal that he was not here to muscle in on any policing actions – he was merely there to offer counsel and facilitate any help that might be needed. His services might not be needed at all, and his report hints that he did indeed hope that that would be the case. However, the Aliwal government derailed these efforts by declaring publicly to the settlers that the Imperium’s agents had arrived to rid them of the Chapter’s meddling and to enforce the terms of the treaty of annexation.
Inquisitor Vorones was observing a meeting of all the Space Marines present on Nimea when the message of the government’s proclamation came in. Suspicion immediately fell on him, and he was not able to wholly convince the Chapter that he was not here to deliberately interfere in Astartes business. Tiel (with the stress of the past few weeks and of being outmanoeuvred by the Aliwal government beginning to tell on him) believed that Vorones was up to no good, and demanded that the Inquisitor leave the room for the deliberations to continue behind closed doors. Those Marines who felt that the settler government had taken advantage of the situation, led by Chief Librarian Schreiner, requested that the Inquisitor remain present, but silent, declaring that there was no evidence that the Inquisitor meant to interfere and that his behaviour up to that point was consistent with that. Vorones noted at this point that the behaviour of the Chapter Master’s group mirrored that of the settlers, but felt unable to speak out for fear of angering the Chapter Master and his larger faction of supporters. This debate quickly developed into a heated argument between the Chapter Master and the Chief Librarian, with Tiel getting the upper hand as Schreiner tried not to appear insubordinate.

Inquisitor Vorones’ report is unclear about what happened next. He remembers the Chief Librarian expressing doubts about the Chapter Master’s mental health, then firing breaking out between members of the rival factions, and as the firing became general he saw the Chapter Master throw himself at his Chief Librarian. His report does not mention whether the Chief Librarian’s comments sparked the firing, or who fired first. At that point the Inquisitor fled, using his psychic abilities to cloak himself until he was clear of the Fortress-Monastery. He notes in his report that if the Chief Librarian had taken the side of the Chapter Master, it is unlikely that he would have been able to leave the room without being detected. Notifying the Aliwal government of the events as he passed through, he made his way to Prieska’s Landing and was able to leave the system before the Astartes fleet could be alerted to the events on the grounds. In his report he admitted he should have tried to alert the Astartes fleet himself, but in the event he felt that since he was alone it was more important that word should reach the Imperium. If the Chapter was still loyal then they would remain in place and demand a trial, but if not then the Imperial Navy would still be able to establish a cordon around the Chapter’s zone of protection until reinforcements could be summoned.

When the Inquisitor returned to Nimea, accompanied by an Imperial Navy Battlegroup and two regiments of Imperial Guard, the Chapter had gone. Aliwal and Prieska’s Landing were both smoking ruins, with the majority of the settlers still in their intact rural communities, and the Fortress-Monastery appeared to have been evacuated. The implications were obvious, but he was unable to contact the governors of the surrounding systems before the Chapter garrisons fled. Despite the sympathy evident in his report, he could not rule out corruption in the gene-pool or in the planet itself, so Nimea was subjected to Exterminatus through virus-bombing. The appendix to the official report notes that with Nimea’s little infrastructure destroyed the planet’s loss was barely greater than that of the Chapter.

As for the Lords of Nimea, little is known about them. At least one of the Chapter garrisons ran into an Imperial Navy Battlegroup at the moons of Ygmouth and was destroyed, but the others are presumed to have linked up with the rest of the Chapter. A loyal Chapter serf managed to get a garbled transmission to the Imperium before being killed, painting a bleak picture of the Chapter. The Chapter has fragmented, mostly along Company lines. The planet they have taken as a home is left to the Chapter Master and those he has swayed into loyalty to him personally, notably the remnants of the First Company. The planet’s location was garbled, but attempts to triangulate the transmission show that it is beyond the borders of Imperial space. Each of the Company Captains controls a Strike Cruiser as their personal fief, making occasional raids for supplies into Imperial space. The Chapter Master himself has gone insane, ruling the planet with an iron hand and spending his days planning and building great civic facilities for a population that does not exist. The Marines under his control keep the few natives and Chapter serfs in confinement under the Chapter base, formed by landing the Chapter’s only Battle Barge, and are still swayed by the Chapter Master’s charisma. Tiel is said to retain an eerie lucidity in spite of his apparent insanity, as though is plans and creations still make some sense. It has been speculated that this is caused by some sort of latent psychic ability within the Chapter Master, but this is pure guesswork and should be discounted until further evidence can be gathered. There is also no evidence of the Chapter turning to worshipping the Ruinous Powers either, and some of the more far-fetched speculation about the Chapter includes the idea that they may be rehabilitated. Given the Imperium’s current state and mentality, this idea is a discredited one from the start.

The fragmented nature of the Chapter lends itself to their tragedy. Despite the raids into Imperial space, the Chapter is classed as a negligible threat. The Imperial Navy has not had to increase its fleet in the area, and recently the Fifth Company’s Strike Cruiser was destroyed attempting to raid Varia X. It says much about these events that a Chapter that once stood proudly amongst the ranks of the Emperor’s finest and brought fire and destruction to His enemies can be reduced to such a pitiful state. They are a disorganised band of raiders, no more, contained by the power of a single sector fleet. Perhaps once Tiel is dead the Chapter may be reborn, and return to submit to the judgment of the Inquisition and their peers, and to face the Emperor’s Mercy. Perhaps a new leader will arise to forge the Chapter into a serious threat to regional stability.
Whatever the future holds for the Chapter, at present they are little more than a broken remnant, brought low by their own pride and hypocrisy, and the power of one leader. Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned here about centralisation of power, about the independence of the Astartes, and about the dangers of putting too much power in one man’s hand. However, that is not the function of this report, and such conclusions are best left up to others.

Organisation

Although the settlers’ culture has influenced the way in which the Chapter puts the doctrines of the Codex Astartes into practice (as outlined below), this never extended to the point of making them deviate from the adherence to the Codex.

Combat Doctrine

Thanks to the cultural influence of the settlers the Chapter places a great deal of emphasis on the independent streak that was carried over to the Chapter by the settler recruits. The officers of the Chapter typically keep leave the implementation of their orders up to their subordinates and do not dictate a particular method without taking the trouble to provide a good explanation. Squad leaders are expected to be trustworthy enough to be given access to some strategic information as well as the tactical information that they require. There have been cases where squad sergeants have been demoted purely for losing the confidence of their squad, and no Marine will become Captain without acquiring a reputation for trustworthiness that is strong enough to withstand a few errors of judgment. That said, it is whispered by the Chapter’s detractors that this practice was required in order to stop the ex-settlers from indulging in their tendency to argue amongst themselves. The squad is the base on which the Chapter’s military strength is built – the Company Captains are primarily responsible for coordinating the various squads, attached Armoury assets and orbital/air support. Although this has no effect on their organisation, this does lead to the Chapter being particularly resilient against a decapitation strike against the Chapter’s leaders. The Chapter’s officers are encouraged to trust their immediate subordinates implicitly and to delegate to them whenever possible.

The 10th Company is given a noticeably higher amount of respect than is considered normal for new recruits. The Chapter takes care to value good intelligence and the work of the scouts, as do all Chapters, but it seems that the Lords of Nimea take extra care to ensure that the scouts use their initiative and are praised for doing so successfully. It is likely that this phase of their training is key in ensuring that their independent streak is not buried beneath the need to adopt Space Marine discipline, a concern which must be balanced with ensuring that the scouts still follow orders. No doubt such a delicate balance is difficult to achieve.

Beliefs

The settlers accepted the newly-formed Ecclesiarchy with little fuss and embraced the worship of the Emperor with considerable fervour and piety. Since there was never any interest in learning of the wider history of the Imperium, the settlers saw the Emperor purely as a god and did not connect him with the being who walked among men and led the Great Crusade. They still believed that the two Emperors are the same being, but they had no knowledge of the Emperor’s continuing physical existence on the Golden Throne, believing that he had physically ascended to godhood.
However, the Chapter did not follow this line. Recruits are taught the basic history of the Imperium so as to include context in their training in the Codex principles, although this is now tainted with the bitter aftertaste of their excommunication. As a result the Chapter revered the Emperor as the leader and founder of the Imperium, not as a god. This was kept secret from the settlers for fear of causing trouble, but the Chapter had no quarrel with the settlers’ simple belief. Although the Ecclesiarchy had no official presence on Nimea, some settlers took it upon themselves to act as wandering preachers, travelling the land to pastor to different rural communities before moving on again. Since these men were accorded the respect that is normally only due to elders, the central government funded their preaching in return for their service as the government’s eyes and ears out in the wild.

Until the time of their excommunication the Chapter’s relations with other areas of the Imperium were not particularly noteworthy. The Chapter simply carried on with its own business and left the rest of the Imperium in peace, simply sending off tithes at the appropriate time and responding to requests for aid and the occasional Inquisitorial visit.

Gene-seed

The Lords of Nimea were founded from the gene-seed line of the Ultramarines and so their gene-seed does not display any traits or deficiencies of note.

Battle-cry

Other than the typical “For the Emperor!” employed by most Space Marine Chapters, the Lords of Nimea did not have a specific phrase that they use as a battle-cry. Instead they use an eerie ululating call to signal their attack. This wordless battle-cry is still used by the surviving members of the Chapter after their excommunication.


I hope I've not made the theme too explicit. Other than that, C&C please. :o

EDIT: Now updated to include the excommunication.

[Captain Juan Juarez]

First thing that springs to mind - haven't read anything either - going to have a lion connection? Or am I imagining the connection that is possible?

[Ecritter]

Is a Jack'o Lantern gonna be their symbol :)

[Grand Master Tyrak]

First thing that srpings to mind - haven't read anything eiher - going to have a lion connection? Or am I imagining the connection that is possible?

 

Hmm, and I thought that would be the least obvious part. Then again, I did have a big book on the real-life inspiration for the Chapter open in front of me at the time :P . Yes, the name is a corruption of "Nemean", but there aren't going to be any actual lions turning up. It's just a slight hint as to how they fall from grace.

 

Is a Jack'o Lantern gonna be their symbol ;)

;)

[Captain Juan Juarez]

First thing that springs to mind - haven't read anything either - going to have a lion connection? Or am I imagining the connection that is possible?

 

Hmm, and I thought that would be the least obvious part. Then again, I did have a big book on the real-life inspiration for the Chapter open in front of me at the time :P . Yes, the name is a corruption of "Nemean", but there aren't going to be any actual lions turning up. It's just a slight hint as to how they fall from grace.

 

I'm remarkably well-read, for a commoner ;)

 

 

EDIT:

 

Having had a read through, nothing jumps out screaming "I'm wrong, purge me!" in a high, girlish, voice.

 

However,

 

Ab Apothecarion investigation found these rumours to be baseless...

 

Danger! Danger Will Robinson! Typo off the starboard bow!

[Grand Master Tyrak]

OK, I've added in the excommunication, so all the past tense stuff should make sense now. :)

[Ace Debonair]

This report shall therefore proceed immediately to examining their former homeworld, Nimea.

Whatever the future holds for the Chapter, at present they are little more than a broken remnant, brought low by their own pride and hypocrisy, and the power of one leader. Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned here about centralisation of power, about the independence of the Astartes, and about the dangers of putting too much power in one man’s hand. However, that is not the function of this report, and such conclusions are best left up to others.

At the risk of sounding narrow-minded, I don't think talking about the IT like it's a formal report really suits the format.

Which is to say, not many IA/IT on the forum refer to themselves as a report to superiors or peers.

 

I dunno, maybe I'm alone in this. It just stuck out because it's different from the norm. ;)

 

I couldn't find anything else to critique, either.

This is a darn fine IT you got, GMT. ^_^

[Grand Master Tyrak]

At the risk of sounding narrow-minded, I don't think talking about the IT like it's a formal report really suits the format.

Which is to say, not many IA/IT on the forum refer to themselves as a report to superiors or peers.

 

I dunno, maybe I'm alone in this. It just stuck out because it's different from the norm.

 

Yeah, I came up with that as a way to avoid explaining things that I didn't want to. It's basically my excuse for why the IT isn't an omniscient source :lol:. All the stuff about how the Chapter Master convinces people to stay with him, where the Inquisitor comes from etc. is all very relevant, but it's off-topic. It's not that important to the IT and so I felt as though I should come up with an excuse for only mentioning those things in passing.

[Ace Debonair]

Yeah, I came up with that as a way to avoid explaining things that I didn't want to. It's basically my excuse for why the IT isn't an omniscient source :P. All the stuff about how the Chapter Master convinces people to stay with him, where the Inquisitor comes from etc. is all very relevant, but it's off-topic. It's not that important to the IT and so I felt as though I should come up with an excuse for only mentioning those things in passing.

Perhaps it's just me being fussy, then. :)

 

In which case, carry on! :)