The Vorpal Swords

[Valkyrion]

As stated, this is about my 7000th attempt at starting a DIY chapter, but I'm really going to do it this time...

I've got the idea and I'm going to stick to it. Honest.

 

This is what I've got so far..

 

Origins:

The Vorpal Swords are a secretive and isolationist chapter, eager to avoid contact with other Space Marine chapters for they are shunned by their brothers for perceived sins committed long ago.

The chapter was founded from the stock of Imperial Fists and Rogal Dorn and they were of the 22nd Founding, the first founding after the Cursed Founding.

 

Like most chapters from the geneseed of Rogal Dorn, the Vorpal Swords began life as a space borne crusade chapter before finally claiming a homeworld some two thousand years after their inception.

 

Their first engagement as a fledgling chapter was to support the Black Templars during the Great Cull, although this has only been verified by the Vorpal Swords themselves. It is supposed that the Vorpal Swords had been used primarily to secure landing zones and to mop up the survivors the Black Templars assaults.

However, the Black Templars have no record of the Vorpal Swords involvement in their part of the crusade, going so far as to deny the existence of their brother chapter.

 

The animosity of the Black Templars towards the Vorpal Swords quickly spread to the other Chapters of Rogal Dorn, and the Imperial Fists and Crimson Fists chapters backed the Black Templars to the hilt, following their example in ignoring their brothers.

Why this came to pass is unknown. The Black Templars are notoriously zealous and quick to anger over matters that other chapters would turn a blind eye to, but loyalty and stoicism is embodied by the Imperial and Crimson Fists and they would not lightly turn against their brothers.

 

Rumours abound that the Vorpal Swords denied the majesty of Rogal Dorn and refused to acknowledge him as their Primarch, or that the Vorpal Swords destroyed a Black Templar chapter keep that had been overrun, or that mutation had gripped them and their purity had been tarnished.

 

Whatever the truth, they are shunned by three of the most influential chapters since the Horus Heresy and in the five thousand years since their founding, the Vorpal Swords have not taken to the field of battle with any other chapter.

 

The Abyssal Crusade

The defining moment of the Vorpal Swords, and one that would shape their future, was the infamous Abyssal Crusade of M37. They, and twenty nine other chapters, had been found wanting in the eyes of the Emperor by Saint Basillius, and were dispatched in chapter strength to the Eye of Terror on a penitent crusade to atone for their sins.

 

The Vorpal Swords were outraged, believing this to be a ploy by their brothers to have them destroyed. Their service record since their exception had been commendable if not exemplary, though their increasing isolation had prevented the chapter from turning hard fought stalemates into decisive victories.

 

The charges levelled against the chapter were all true and the chapter admitted guilt; unnecessary and avoidable deaths of Imperial citizens on thirteen worlds due to excessive force, though the chapter argued that had they had the support of the Imperium, the thirteen worlds they virus bombed from orbit to stymie a growing tide of greenskins would have been claimed by bolter and blade.

 

A darker conspiracy was revealed when it was uncovered that all thirty chapters sent on the crusade to the Eye of Terror were of the 22nd Founding.

The truth of the crusade will lie deep in the annals of the Inquisition and may never be known to others, but the first Vorpal Sword chapter master had discovered growing unrest between those chapters sent on the crusade and their primogenitor chapters. Each of the thirty chapters had been shunned by their brothers, some even coming to blows with their parent chapter.

 

Despite this shared history, the Vorpal Swords still found themselves being kept at arms length by the rest of the crusade fleets, with not a single chapter willing to operate side by side on the field of battle. Yet the chapter master discovered that it was not just his chapter, for when the crusade finally entered the Eye, each fleet went its own way with none lending support to another.

 

When the crusade began, the chapter master divided the chapter assets amongst his fleet. All companies became battle companies, the reserve companies merged to create new full strength battle companies. Additionally, the 1st and 10th Companies were disbanded and divided throughout the battle companies, as were the chapters Land Raider and Predator tanks.

The result of this was eight battle companies each able to adapt to numerous threats and numbering 125 marines, virtually identical in make up and equipment.

When the 184 survivors of the chapter emerged from the Eye of Terror, a thousand Terran years had passed although the chapter had fought for barely a hundred.

Old grudges persisted and the Vorpal Swords were met by the entire might of the Imperial Fists and escorted to Cypra Mundi to await interrogation and quarantine at the hands of the Inquisition.

 

The survivors of the Vorpal Swords remained remarkably pure with no physical or psychic mutation evident in the chapter, though when the chapter master asked as to the status of the other chapters on the crusade he was met with blank looks and ignorance.

Despite their apparent purity, the chapter was ordered to serve under the guidance of an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor for the next thousand years, the risk of allowing the chapter to grow to full strength whilst under the influence of an unseen enemy deemed too great to ignore.

 

Homeworld:

By decree of the Inquisition, the Vorpal Swords were ordered far to the galactic south in segmentum tempestus, reasoning that further exposure to such powerful warp storms as the Eye of Terror or the Maelstrom may have an unwanted effect on the chapter.

 

The Vorpal Swords claimed the world of Seredene in the wake of the Abyssal Crusade. The chapter needed to regroup and recover their losses and Seredene was the innermost world of four imperial worlds designated Feral worlds, populated by primitive and barbaric peoples ignorant to the wider Imperium and ripe for recruitment into the Adeptus Astartes.

Seredene is a virtual paradise, yet it is devoid of animal life. Lush green meadows cover the landscape, punctuated by waterfalls and lakes. Mountain ranges pierce the clouds and the canopies of the rainforests are so thick that they block out the light of the sun. Despite being claimed by the Imperium many thousands of years earlier, the world had never been populated.

 

The Kaserne, the Vorpal Swords Fortress Monastery, was built in midst of the Highlands, the foothills beneath the central mountain ranges. The peak of the Fortress Monastery rose higher than the highest mountain top and its depths burrowed deeper than the deepest ocean.

With their homeworld and source of recruits now settled, the Vorpal Swords began the long rebuilding process.

 

Organisation:

Through necessity, the Vorpal Swords abandoned much of the tenets laid down in the Codex Astartes during the Abyssal Crusade, and this has persisted in the years since the crusade.

 

The Vorpal Swords disbanded the 1st Company during the Abyssal Crusade, dividing their veterans amongst the battle companies, and this still holds true today. Each of the four battle companies number 125 battle brothers at full strength, with 25 of those being chapter veterans, promoted from within the company and never leaving it except in death.

The battle companies are free to organise their battle brothers how they see fit, either into tactical, assault or devastator squads, and this is usually shaped by the combat doctrine of their captain. For example, Captain of the 3rd Company has dispensed with devastator squads entirely, preferring his fire support to come from the company’s Dreadnoughts and Tactical Squads. Each battle brother is well versed in all methods of war, so should the current Captain be killed, the next captain could reinstate the devastator squads with minimum disruption.

The battle companies return to Seredene only for resupply and reinforcement and it is not uncommon for a battle company to be away from the homeworld for a century or more.

The Chapter Master is always the Captain of the 2nd Company and the fifty suits of revered Terminator Armour are split between the 2nd and 3rd Companies.

 

The four reserve companies number 100 battle brothers, with each brother again trained extensively in all arts of war, and it is from these companies that reinforcements for the battle companies are drawn. It is the duty of the reserve companies to respond to the most immediate threats to the chapter’s recruitment worlds and to perform the recruitment drives on those worlds under the supervision of the chapters Librarians, Chaplains and Apothecaries.

 

The Vorpal Swords suffer from a dearth of heavy armour, having only three Land Raiders, each assigned to the Chapter Master’s company, and barely a dozen Predators, Whirlwinds and Vindicators for the other companies. Fire support is instead provided by the easy to maintain Razorbacks, fitted with heavy bolters or Lascannons, or by the company dreadnoughts or devastators.

 

 

I know what I want my ideas to be, but they seem a bit flat when written down like this - the top and bottom of it is that they are an Imperial Fist successor chapter that have been abandoned by their fellow Dornian chapters, for reasons that remain unknown. They were regarded as a failure, served their penitent crusade in the Eye of Terror, and have ultimately developed relatively friendly terms with the Ordo Malleus (inquisition, rather than grey knights), resulting in their deployment to Gheistos (in the battle missions book, which this IA will hopefully lead up to).

 

Their homeworld turns out to be an Eldar world, they have no first company and a poor relationship with all space marine chapters, especially the IF's, CF's and BTs.

[soddinnutter]

Nice.

 

It's a Dornian Chapter with a realistic reason for not having the characteristic Arrogant Arse traits so prevalent in chapters of the IF's decent whilst still maintaining their tenacious nature.

 

Sort of a more aggressive Salamanders.

 

Do the Eldar know they have set up camp on one of their gardens? Do they mind? A resident Chapter, whilst an annoying neighbor, does make a very good meat shield.

 

Does the Chapter know what they are standing on? Does the Inquisition or any of the other Dorn Chapters? Do the =I= know whether the Blades know what they call home?

[Valkyrion]

The Eldar know everything, about everything that has ever happened. So yeah, there will be Eldar involvement, but neither the =I= or the Swords know they live on an Eldar world.

 

Regarding the 'no animal life on the homeworld' bit, I might throw in simple Eldar destruction and the removal of all trace. Or I might go down the opposite Eldar route of using mankind for their own goals, rather than just killing them.

 

Still working on the details but the ideas are there.

 

They will probably end up being unofficial daemon hunters - they would have learned a lot fighting daemons in the eye, they are under the watch of the OM with the implied threat of destruction for going against the Inquisitors wishes, so would probably end up being used as a tool. If the Swords railed against the Inquisitor, he declares them unpure and the Imperial Fists wipe them out. Hobson's choice situation - maintain their autonomy, or survive?

 

The chapter is basically involved in a big conspiracy from the get go - shunned by their brothers for no real reason, sent on a penitent crusade for flimsy reasons, part of the same founding as every other chapter on the crusade, watched by the Inquisition, chose (or given...?) a xenos world as a home world, constant exposure to daemons without the required training, equipment or moral protection etc.

[Valkyrion]

Sorry for double posting, but I'm also looking for any ideas regarding codex and colour scheme.

I'm going to use the dark angel symbol as my chapter symbol as it is the most swordy. Alternatively I could use the Ravenwing symbol, but the DA symbol opens up the use of the Veteran kit.

 

Secondly, my colour choices are a little limited. Imperial Fists have brought us yellow, black, blue, silver, purple and goldy/brassy if Minotaurs become an IF chapter. So I don't want to use those colours. This leaves green or red as the main colours that haven't been used, if you get my meaning.

 

If I use DA minis and paint them green, I should probably use the DA dex to avoid confusion.

I suck at painting red.

I want to use the SM dex because of the nature of the battle companies, using the chapter tactics thing to make four distinct armies rather than four identical armies.

I do like green though...

 

As Vorpal isn't even a real word I'm having difficulty in finding a colour to match. Vorpal Swords just puts the Shortest Straw song by Metallica in my head... 'Vorpal Swords, challenge liberty, down by law, living infamy, rub your raw, witch hunt riding through, Vorpal Swords have been pulled for you'. Yeah.

[NightrawenII]

You are incorrect about the Vorpal Sword not being the real word. Linky.

 

And the Pit Lord with Vorpal Sword is here.

[Valkyrion]

I know where vorpal comes from, but it is a made up word for that poem, just like runcible spoon. It has its origins in a nonesense poem, not in the english language, and has no etymological foundation.

[NightrawenII]

I know where vorpal comes from, but it is a made up word for that poem, just like runcible spoon. It has its origins in a nonesense poem, not in the english language, and has no etymological foundation.

And how do you think the new words are made? :)