Blood Hawks

[Valkyrion]

Origins:

Founded in M38 in response to two Black Crusade and in particular, the devastation of the Blood Angels during the latter part of M37, the Blood Hawks spent much of their formative years fighting alongside their parent chapter in a supporting role against those worlds still in the thrall of chaos long after the Black Crusades had ended.

 

For the next five hundred years the chapter fleet remained within reach of the Eye of Terror, culminating in a successful defence against Abaddon’s 9th Black Crusade.

 

It was during this crusade that the Blood Hawks earned an unlikely reputation as siege masters, succeeding alongside their brothers in the Imperial Fists in reclaiming Haephastus Keep, as a force of over a dozen dreadnoughts, a score of land raiders and over fifty vindicators and predators demolished the walls of the Black Legion Citadel and ground the traitors beneath the tracks of a hundred armoured vehicles.

 

For the rest of the Crusade the Blood Hawks and Imperial Fists fought side by side forming a bond of brotherhood with the sons of Dorn that would serve them well in the millennia to come.

 

Following the end of the Black Crusade, with the Blood Angels Chapter now operating once again at full capacity, the chapter was relocated far to the eastern fringe to perform the role of executioner against a more familiar foe.

 

The Massacre at Sindragor

Word had reached the Blood Angels that one of their brother chapters had descended into madness. A distress call from the Blood Drinkers told of the Blood Dragons Chapter and how they had fallen to the Black Rage.

To a man the Blood Dragons had turned from the honourable descendents of Sanguinius to raving madmen and had turned on their brothers in the Blood Drinkers, each other and the citizens of their homeworld.

 

The Blood Drinkers detachment fighting alongside the Blood Dragons against the Orks on the nearby moon of Seredene had been massacred, not by the greenskins but by their own whilst a reserve company stationed on Sindragor met the same fate.

 

How this happened is unknown, that an entire chapter succumb to the Blood Angels darkest curse at the same moment was unheard of. The Blood Drinkers call for aid was heeded by the Blood Hawks and the chapter made remarkably swift passage to Sindragor.

 

The Blood Dragons homeworld was a world of some worth to the Imperium, not least because of its status as an Astartes homeworld, but also because of its hardy people and production worth both of which continue significantly to Imperial war efforts on the eastern fringe.

 

The Blood Hawks dispatched three companies to the moon of Seredene to deal with the dual threat of reckless space marines the ork horde, whilst the remaining companies laid siege to Sindragor itself.

The Blood Dragons had created five powerful fortresses on the planet, each a formidable bastion bristling with weaponry, but in their current state only the automated systems were still operational, allowing the Blood Hawks to make planet fall with ease.

 

The Blood Hawk companies on Sindragor operated in unison, attacking each fortress in turn keen to leave the structures sound and the surrounding areas relatively untouched by the slaughter.

The Blood Dragons fought like wild animals but without coherence and one by one the bastions fell.

 

The moon of Seredene told a similar tale. Almost two hundred Blood Dragons were embroiled in a vicious war against the Orks as three hundred Blood Hawks attacked the orks from the rear before ploughing into the Blood Dragons. The orks numbered thousands but could not stand before the machine like execution of the Blood Hawks and the murderous rampage of the Blood Dragons and in six bloody hours the ork threat on Seredene was ended.

 

Following the annihilation of the Blood Dragons, the chapter was officially recorded as annihilated by the Orks, with the Blood Hawks and Blood Drinkers exacting bloody vengeance upon the greenskins.

The Blood Hawks were granted fiefdom of Sindragor and claimed the planet as their homeworld.

 

 

Thoughts?

I think I've covered the when, why and who of their founding and why they claimed a homeworld far from their initial operations.

[Dosjetka]

I'm quite liking it. Solid and interesting, the siege master part being a nice twist, though IMO is a bit too common ^_^ Anyway, back to your IA, I believe that the Home world capture part is a bit too long, too much detail about the actual fighting, which is not very interesting. Maybe you could shorten it a bit?

 

Looking forward to an update :)

 

Ludovic

[Captain Juan Juarez]

# There is.. A house.. In New Orleans... #

 

I've decided to open up every post with some singing for today.

 

For the next five hundred years the chapter fleet remained within reach of the Eye of Terror, culminating in a successful defence against Abaddon’s 9th Black Crusade.

 

- Big events are generally a no-no, because if your Chapter was so important then why haven't we heard of them? Caliming a bit-part is cool, the way you phrase the above is not, amigo.

 

To a man the Blood Dragons had turned from the honourable descendents of Sanguinius to raving madmen and had turned on their brothers in the Blood Drinkers, each other and the citizens of their homeworld.

 

- Is this a "canon" event or the wild imaginings of a Liberite?

[Valkyrion]

Cheers.

 

I've made up everything. I chose the 9th Crusade because there has been nothing written about it, apart from the date. Having read it back it does sound like they were instrumental in it, but that wasn't my intention.

 

The Blood Drinkers/Blood Dragons bit is also made up.

 

I wanted my chapter to support a BA successor on an 'in house' matter, and the falling of an entire chapter to the Black Rage would be something to be kept secret to outsiders. It's just to add a bit of colour and to support the chapters progression from fleet based chapter to a permanent homeworld. It could have been any Blood Angel chapter instead of Blood Drinkers and I chose the name BLood Dragons just because. It could have been any name.

[Captain Juan Juarez]

# I like it, I like it.. I like the funny feeling being here with you... #

 

Potentially not the best song lyric to choose... ^_^

 

 

Those are some major made up events though; The Black Crusade aside, the annihilation of another Chapter without the saction of a higher authority? Bear in mind that no Chapter has the right to command another - some may have more history and prestige associated with them but each has the Emperor's own mandate.

 

Also, the "standard" - which is by no means always the best way - to write an IA is in the way of a formal document; would even an Inquisition Scribe have access to the internal workings of any Chapter? Let alone ones that guard themselves as closely as the Sons of the Mutant Sanguinius.

[Valkyrion]

But it was the 'orks' who annihilated them ^_^

 

Tis a cover up of believeable proportions and were it not for the Blood Hawks then the orks would have rampaged through the sector etc etc. The Blood Hawks are heroes in all of this. Honest.

 

The standard doesn't really work in this instance. The Dark Angels IA describes the fallen and unforgiven aspect of it, for example. In this case, the Blood Dragons are the fallen and the Mutant sons are the unforgiven.

 

Unless I've misunderstood what you mean by standard.

[Captain Juan Juarez]

The Mutant actually refers to Sanguinius as it goes.. Dude had wings! :P

 

What sort of character do you want for the Chapter?

 

What defines them and they way they act and operate?

[Valkyrion]

I know who the mutant was, I meant the mutant sons to mean the BA and their successors.

 

I've an idea for a chapter war which will go some way to defining their current state of mind, but their initial character would be similar to the Blood Angels inasmuch as they share their parents penchant for the artsy and assaulty, being both quite humane and quite ruthless.

 

I wanted the chapter to endure a sustained period of good fortune before being brought to its knees - e.g, not having anyone fall to the black rage for a thousand years or something, no disasterous campaigns, seemingly always there at the right time before a big crash.

 

I want them to have good relations with the Imperial Fists and their kids, as I already have a Crimson Fists army and would like to tie the two together somehow, although that isn't really important.

 

After the aforementioned big crash everything changes - they don't go nuts as such, but become more insular, completely breaking from even the Blood Angels tenuous grip on the Codex, changing their organisation to suit their depleted numbers and after the period of no black rage it starts to happen more frequently.

 

All just ideas..I need to flesh things out.

[Captain Juan Juarez]

# I love rock'n'roll.. So put anyother dime in the jukebox, baby... #

 

Ahem... :ph34r:

 

*flexes rending claws*

 

Blood Angels are not humane, not even close when you compare them to Chapters with a humanitarian bent such as the Salamanders or even the Space Wolves.

 

"Big Crash", "Chapter War", "Good/Bad Luck" I can tie in to one...

 

Chapter establishes itself within the Imperium, another loyal band of Sanguinius' Sons fighting for the Emperor, yada, yada, yada.

 

The comes Chapter Master X, who leads them to glory after glory with losses small and easily replace until he is killed in battlt; his legacy is an "Art of War" style work that shows the way he honed the Chapter into a more lethal blade against the enemy, how to maximise damage and minimise casualties.

 

Chapter Master Z, newly promoted, has differing opinions - which are like onions, but more useful - choosing to carve his own path as head of the Chapter but ultimately eroding all the good work of X; defeats, big losses and almost extincition. Eventually two camps form within the Chapter, those who venerate X and those who follow Y and this is but the first step down a path to Chapter civil war.

[Valkyrion]

More like a company sent home in disgrace who unites the remaining companies against those still on campaign, so that when those on campaign come home they get attacked, but the captain of the company who was sent home was actually a daemon(possessed or worshipper or whatever) who reveals himself during the course of the battle and many of those who sided with him are sent a bit mad thus bringing about the first onset of the Black Rage the chapter had ever experienced, who then fled yada etc yadetc etya ...

 

Not like the Soul Drinkers, more like the Dark Angels with a daemon possession/chaos worshipping twist.

 

As for not very humane - my guys will be a bit. After they saved their homeworld from the nutty former occupants the people rejoiced and they all had cake.

[Captain Juan Juarez]

The whole "It was the Warp/a Daemon" thing is one of those cliches to steer clear from, generally.. it takes alot of effort to make it work but go for it an see how it turns out.

 

The fact you mentioned the Soul Drinkers makes me a sad panda but as long as you don't actually write up "..and they all had cake..." you won't have to meet Terrence, the underfed Catachan Devil.

[Valkyrion]

I know its a cliche, but if GW can use it to excuse the existence of the Tau, the disappearance of the Fire Hawks and all manner of other things it remains fairly fair game.

 

Besides, according to the Daemons dex (or Apocalypse book, I forget which) there are several currently active warp storms dotted about various places.

What if I was to make it that the entire system was covered by a massive system wide warp storm, so big that the Blood Hawks don't even realise they are in a warp storm, allowing daemony things to 'infiltrate', so to speak. This could maybe explain an insular nature that I haven't decided they have yet, but the Blood Hawks don't realise they are insular because they have to be, they think it's because they want to be.

Time passes at a normal rate within the warp storm, but when it abates, a thousand years (or whatever) have passed resulting in much panic and very little cake.

[Captain Juan Juarez]

As someone once said to me - I think it was Abe Lincoln - just because GW can do it doesnt mean you can, it's their universe and their rules we choose - or not in some cases - to abide by.

 

I'm not saying don't go with it, that's your choice, but it's one of the harder ideas to make successful.

[Valkyrion]

Sure it wasn't Abe Simpson?

 

I know, it needs some work. I have the idea though, thats the main thing. As long as you have the idea you can make it work with some...erm, work. Right?

[NightrawenII]

Ok, some thoughts:

 

#A Do you know that the Baal is in Segementum Ultima? ie. not exactly in vicinity of Eye of Terror. ;)

#B Your Chapter is too much "made of win, powered by uber, and fire white hot awesome" for my tastes. Really, tone down the awesome aspect.

#C You have too much eggs in one basket, so to speak. The opening paragraph is mentioning four Chapters besides your own.

 

I wanted the chapter to endure a sustained period of good fortune before being brought to its knees - e.g, not having anyone fall to the black rage for a thousand years or something, no disasterous campaigns, seemingly always there at the right time before a big crash.

Too much cliche. I can't count how many times I read fantasy-novel with the beginning: "There was teh-Best-Dude and he has fallen from grace and :cuss hit the fan because of that....

 

Besides, according to the Daemons dex (or Apocalypse book, I forget which) there are several currently active warp storms dotted about various places.

What if I was to make it that the entire system was covered by a massive system wide warp storm, so big that the Blood Hawks don't even realise they are in a warp storm, allowing daemony things to 'infiltrate', so to speak.

Except the warpstorm has low to zero effect on the material world. Warp storm is *drumroll* storm in Warp. That's it kids. The only effect the storm has whatsoever is cut off Warp travel through certain regions and isolating systems from the rest of Imperium.

[Captain Juan Juarez]

Sure it wasn't Abe Simpson?

 

I know, it needs some work. I have the idea though, thats the main thing. As long as you have the idea you can make it work with some...erm, work. Right?

 

Honestly? No... Were you Shakespeare you might just pull of any idea you could think of in a semi-convincing way.

 

For the average Nerd it is asking alot though.

 

The thing is to make sure your idea is workable before you pour in the blood sweat and inevitable tears, beacuse if you don't you'll take it personally when people criticise you.