IA: The Roc Blades

[Captain Zamiel]

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T

he Roc Blades were created in the 25th Founding in early M41 with the dual purpose of combating the piratical Eldar raids in the galactic west of Segmentum Tempestus and pacifying the Crimson Stars, a grouping of star systems near The Veiled Region that are under constant Ork threat.<br />

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T

he home world of the Roc Blades is a world situated in the Crimson Stars known to the Administratum as Gamma Psi 496, but to the people of the planet as Iliyos. Iliyos was found by the Chapter very early on in their history where they assisted the people of Iliyos in destroying a force of Feral Orks that had plagued the world for a few centuries. Here the Roc Blades found a masked people with a great affinity for warfare and hunting that would make a fine recruiting pool.<br />

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Iliyos is smaller than Terra but has a larger core, resulting in a planet with roughly the same gravity. This large core also means that the temperature of the crust of the planet is higher than the surrounding atmosphere leading to perpetually rising warm air currents on Iliyos' massive plain system. Iliyos has one super continent that runs nearly all the way around the equator with only a 50 mile wide chanel cutting through it to connect the north and south seas. This continent has a plain that runs continuously across it, with many mountain ranges cutting into it but never completely severing it.<br />

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In the meter high grass of the plain live multiple insects, grubs, and small mammals which are nearly all poisonous to humans unless meticulously prepared for consumption . The next highest level of the food chain are the multiple types of man-sized and larger avian predators. These include the Snapclaw, a flightless bird taller than a man with large talons that have the ability to close in a split second (severing limbs and necks in the process), and the Blood Hawk, which can smell any wounded prey from over ten miles away. But the creature to be feared is the Giant Roc (thinking of a new name) . An alpha predator beyond compare, it is massive, can fly for days without end and on numerous occasions have destroyed whole villages in a single night. It can strike down from the heavens in a great arc so fast that there are many accounts of men getting cut in two at the waist with their legs standing upright.<br />

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The people of Iliyos protect themselves from the Giant Rocs (thinking of a new name) by making their villages small and partially sunk into the ground. Large pieces of metal are set up over the villages and are then covered in living sod. This is to make the village seem like it is just another hill when seen from the sky. The deception does not always work though and it is not unknown for a Giant Roc (thinking of a new name) to claw up pieces of the metal and feast. There are also some villages that have cut into the caves of the mountains that run through the continent, but they are still in need of the ancient metal because they have to have a way to bar the entrance of their cave systems.<br />

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This "village armor" was originally scavenged from a massive explorator ship that crashed into the planet thousands of years ago. The Chapter also sparks conflict between the villages if their has been too long a lull of peace by crashing smaller spacecraft or satellites into the great plain which causes the villages to send their war bands to the sight to seize any supplies they can. Usually pacts are made between war bands forming armies that will share the plunder once their foes have been repulsed. The men of Iliyos do not forget of the numerous predators that stalk the plains though and armies will band together to slay any beast that threatens them during battle.<br />

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arines of the Roc Blades are cool-headed warriors and hunters, thus they look for these qualities in their possible recruits. Unlike most chapters the Roc Blades see their Librarians as both Chaplain and Librarian, and are know as Voidwatchers. This stems from how the Iliysians see the psykers among their people. Members of the chapter will visit the sites of battles between war bands or armies that have reached their pitch of intensity to find new recruits. A Voidwatcher will walk before the armies, halting them in their quarrels, and pick out any recruits he has deemed as worthy. The recruits are then made to pair up and duel, with the army that has the most winners being chosen as the victor of the battle. In this way the Roc stop unnecessary blood shed between the villages and also gain new recruits, recently tested by war.<br />

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The recruiting of the psyker population is different though. The people of Iliyos have a larger than average psyker population and these psykers manifest their power earlier on and with odd signs. One notable sign is that happens early on in an Iliysian psyker's life is their eye change from their normal color to either the the black of a moonless night or the brilliant blue of a bright, cloudless day. Another easily seen sign is the ability to move much faster when running than a normal man should be able to. These young boys can bound easily across the plains as if the winds were lifting their bodies. So from the time these signs manifest the young psyker is taught the way of the hunt until they can then further their knowledge with one of their peoples' Skyhunters. Skyhunters are psychic men of the plains, the great men of the Iliysians who vanquish the beasts that are too great for the regular hunters to fight. They travel on the plain from village to village receiving some supplies in exchange for a service they could do, such as finding a lost group of hunters, bringing in game for the village to eat, or even being tasked with avenging a nearby village that was destroyed by a Roc. These men also take the psychic youths of the village and teach them their ways, thus the Skyhunters replenish their own number for their work is a dangerous one and the beasts are always hungry. But every now and then a youth will come under a Skyhunter's wing who is well beyond the average strength of a Skyhunter. These young psykers will often catch the eye of the Roc Blades Voidwatcher for recruitment. When one of these youths performs a particularly daring feat, such as saving a village from a rampaging Snapclaw flock or besting a Roc in combat, a Voidwatcher will come before them and ask if they want to serve the Emperor for the rest of their lives. If they accept they leave with the Voidwatcher. If not the Voidwatcher immediately kills the youth, for he is a threat to Iliyos and the Chapter.<br />

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<div style="border: 1px solid #000; margin: 0 auto; text-align: left; padding: 2px 2px 3px 10px; background: #a31010; color: #fff;">The Masks of the Iliysians</div>

<div style="border: 1px solid #000; margin: 0 auto; padding: 8px; font-size: 11px; background: #DDDDDD; color: #222;">Masks are a central facet of Iliysian culture and the act of always wearing masks no matter what has bled over into the Chapter. It started in pre-imperial times and has continued into the current era. Imperial (culture scientists) have a theory that when humans first inhabited Iliyos, the planet was covered in poisonous gases that facilitated the constant use of face covering re-breathers. Over the millennium the atmosphere cleared but the culture had already been heavily impacted by the practice. The practice evolved into a highly ritualized aspect of their life, where a person is only to be seen by their parents while they are alive and only shows their face to the world in death. But if a person unmasks themselves immediately before undertaking an act, they are expressing that they will give up the rest of their life to make this one final act their masterpiece. This act literally becomes their “Life's Work” and it is a great honor to see another undergo this task. Upon completion of this act the person will usually commit a type of ritual suicide in which they wander into the wilderness, alone and with no weapons or provisions.</div>

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<p>The Roc Blades chapter training and organization has been influenced mainly by two sources, their parent chapter, the White Legion, and Iliysian culture. In the White Legion every scout would learn the three disciplines of the Astartes, hand to hand combat, close range firefights, and long range firefights. Then when a brother was elevated from scout to full Astartes they would choose a discipline to follow for the rest of their life or until they were elevated to command their brothers. The Roc Blades followed a similar training method but over time had replaced the three disciplines with three martial orders. These are the Order of the Scimitars, the Order of the Spears, and the Order of the Javelins. The Order of the Scimitar focused on swordplay, which was prevalent among the Iliysians as both an art and a way to defend their homes. The Order of the Spears focused on the use of the most common Astartes weapon, the Bolter. They saw a parallel between the Bolter and their heavy spears used in hunting and in war, which were most often wielded with two hands for a balance of power and number of attacks but were still light enough to be thrown a short distance. The Order of the Javelins focused on the longer range weapons of the Astartes, namely lascannons and missile launchers. In these two weapons the Roc Blades saw both the distance that the javelins of their past could attain over other weapons and their ability to pierce the thick armor of their foes. Though these separate Orders see each other as rivals and often quarrel they rarely draw blood. Often as a sign of brotherhood Order units will ask for a brother from another Order to fill a gap in their ranks, either due to a need on the battlefield or because a brother has fallen in battle.<br />

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The number of brothers in each Order rises and falls as they wax and wane in popularity. A troublesome aspect of this is currently being experienced by the chapter in that the Order of the Javelin has fallen heavily out of favor with incoming brothers, leading to their being only about 80 brothers who have extensive combat experience with the chapter's collection of heavy weapons. This also means that brothers of the Javelin rarely fight in complete units as most are helping fill positions in other squads.<br />

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The Roc Blades do have a standard 10 company format though with the 1st company being composed of veterans from throughout the chapter who have been promoted personally by their Captain or the Chapter Master and the 10th company is composed of the Chapter's scouts but besides this the Roc Blades do not adhere to the structure of a chapter as the Codex Astartes lays out. The 2nd through 8th companies are know as the War Companies and are composed of as their Captains see fit. This often leads to companies with a heavy bias towards a certain Order with little representation by the other Orders. The most extreme case of this was when Captain Pandaros of the 7th had accumulated an entire War Company of brothers from the Order of the Javelin, leading to an entire company composed of what Codex adherent Chapters would call Devastator squads.<br />

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Another noted feature of the Roc Blades is that they use nearly no Tactical Dreadnought Armour, no Land Raiders of any sort, and nearly Jump Packs. The reason for the lack of Terminator armor and Land Raiders is that the Chapter is both young and has never requested to replace any that have been lost to battle. As for the use of Jump Packs being low, the Roc Blades see Jump Packs as a form of limited personal flight for a marine and as such they are limited in use to a select few. With the many great predators of the sky on Iliyos the marines see flight as an act reserved for the most deadly and noble hunters who these marines are supposed to symbolize. The small group that can use Jump packs is composed of the Chapter Master, the Captains and their Personal Guard, and a small number of the 1st Company veterans who have won the right through various heroic and amazing actions.<br />

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<p>The Roc Blades derive their geneseed from the White Scars by way of the Solar Hawks. </p>

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<p>"Descend upon His enemies!"<br />

"Attack like the Roc!"<br />

“Show your foes their death!”<br />

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Edit:<br />

v1.3 put in The Masks of the Iliysians.<br />

v1.4 put in Training and Organization and made Voidwatchers distinct.</p>

<p>v1.5 came back after a three year hiatus to fix a few spelling errors and choose a geneseed. </p>

[Captain Zamiel]

So this is my first one and I hope it doesn't have glaringly large holes in it or anything. ^_^ any help or critique is welcome!

So thanks for reading this far!

 

Edit: and here is my Chapter symbol in a couple different variations. The top left one is for regular marines, the one in the middle is for sergeants, and the one on the right is for vehicles, Captains, Librarians, Chaplains, and the Chapter Master. The bottom left is for Veterans, and the one on the right is for veteran sergeants. I am rather proud of these and I hope i haven't done something that is really similar to something anyone else has done on here... :P

http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff502/CaptainZamiel/Chaptersymbolrevised.jpg?t=1296270865

[Captain Zamiel]

I added another section...

 

<_<

 

Is anyone reading this?

 

Oh! It must be because everyone is busy with the Iron Gauntlet! :lol:

[Marshal Renatus]

It's a slow forum, so give people some time. First blush, I really like the symbol, but the scheme itself looks a little busy. I'll read through this after I eat, and get back to you.

[voi shet magir]

This is a straightforward, blue chip chapter. Congratulations on being classic as a glass of milk and two halves of an Oreo.

[Captain Zamiel]

This is a straightforward, blue chip chapter. Congratulations on being classic as a glass of milk and two halves of an Oreo.

 

That's funny because all I have put down is fluff about their home world and a small bit about their recruitment. Obviously that is where the big Chapter divergences happen if you expect massive changes from the good old boys in blue from just these few sections.

 

I don't know if what I am putting down is truly quality work but I prefer to work slowly, trying to make sure I have a minimum number of mistakes, holes, etc. in each piece I submit to this forum. But I won't waste your appraisal. I will have a new section up by tomorrow night and I will have some bullet points on all the sections that have "coming soon" in them. I hope these new sections will help make my chapter unique and a worthwhile addition to the 40k universe.

[Marshal Renatus]

@voi shet magir: I'm not sure how that post helped the OP in any way. Where you trying to say they are creating a solid, codex-adherent chapter or just being snarky?

 

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And on to the C&C:

The Roc Blades were created in the 25th Founding in early M41 with the dual purpose of ending the piratical Eldar raids in the galactic west of Segmentum Tempestus and pacifying the Crimson Stars, a grouping of star systems near The Veiled Region that are under constant Ork threat

You're probably never going to end eldar pirating and ork infestation. Eldar are sneaky xenos critters that have existed long before mankind was a twinkle in an amoeba's eye, and Orks grow, literally, like a fungus. Better to say that they were assigned the area around the Crimson Stars, itself buried deep within the Veiled Region, and have been combatting the growing Ork menace and under constant harassment from the eldar of the Biel Tan craftworld. Now everyone knows where you are, you've given them a canon opponent that lives in that area, and you've still left yourself lots of wiggle room for creativity by putting them in the Veiled Region (it's a big, strange area full of Chaos, necrons, and orks). Readers will now embrace you as something that makes sense in the 40k world.

 

Roc Blades

Not sure about the names. First, the Roc, or Rukh, is a fairly unknown creature, and I don't know that it matches with "blade" very well. As I said...really like the chapter symbol, but just because the chapter venerates/is impressed by the giant bird on their homeworld they don't have to take it as their name. If I had more on their beliefs or combat style I could do more, but a few ideas: Bone Reavers, Warhawks, White Ravens, White Legion, etc.

 

Iliyos

 

Ack. You are the proud owner of the seven billionth chapter with a homeworld name of greek or lain origin. Would a planet in the Veiled Region be called Iliyos? In the Crimson Stars? Maybe. More likely it'd be called Gamma Psi 496 because of how few explored/maintained planets there are in the area, or Kelden's Hope for the first founder, or take a word, lets say "battle," and put it in a different language and slightly change the spelling...Gverra. In spanish "battle" is "guerra" and you planet is locked in constant battle...so it ties without clubbing you over the head.

 

I'd also come up with a different name for the Rocs. I have a giant bird on my planet, inspired by the Roc, but called it a Gallian Kestrel. They could be the Gverrian blood eagle (for their coloring) or iron hawk (because it makes its nest from the metal it steals). Just thoughts.

 

That's all I can do for now. I'll try and get through the rest later today.

[Grey Hunter Ydalir]

This is a straightforward, blue chip chapter. Congratulations on being classic as a glass of milk and two halves of an Oreo.

 

This is far and away the polar opposite of good C&C. You've added nothing to the discussion, helped the Author in no conceivable way and have in fact only succeeded in alienating yourself from those of us who actually enjoy doing this sort of thing.

 

The Chapter also sparks conflict between the villages if their has been too long a lull of peace by crashing smaller spacecraft or satellites into the great plain which causes the villages to send their war bands to the sight to seize any supplies they can.

 

This is actually something that used to be fairly common in IA's a few years ago and is now rarely seen. The more callous side to Astartes nature and homeworld interaction has mostly been glossed over or forgotten. It's good to see and adds a hard edge to the chapter where the Ultras and their ilk do not.

 

Otherwise, Renatus has made a bunch of other good points.

[Captain Zamiel]

Okay so I put up a bunch of new information.

 

@Marshal Renatus

You're probably never going to end eldar pirating and ork infestation.

Yea I changed that sentence. I think it sounds better while also addressing your comment.

 

Not sure about the names. First, the Roc, or Rukh, is a fairly unknown creature, and I don't know that it matches with "blade" very well. As I said...really like the chapter symbol, but just because the chapter venerates/is impressed by the giant bird on their homeworld they don't have to take it as their name.

Yea I meant to put in there about how the name was chosen before the home world and it just so happened to match the name of the beasty that was already there. But that was cheesy. But then again now that I am changing the name of the bird it may work as a tarot chosen name... Also while i can see how the Roc not being well know can be off putting, I also kind of like that. And Roc Blades sounds to the ear like "Rock" Blades bringing a very different connotation to the chapter initially, which pleases me greatly as I like word play.

 

Ack. You are the proud owner of the seven billionth chapter with a homeworld name of greek or lain origin.

While I understand the overused nature of greek and latin names in 40k I am not really put off by it. I love ancient greek, which is why I am currently studying it. Also I just read the Iliad so all the awesome names and deeds of the great heroes are fresh in my head. So if i come back later and hate it I will change it but as of today I just can't get it out of my head! :D

 

@Grey Hunter Ydalir

This is actually something that used to be fairly common in IA's a few years ago and is now rarely seen. The more callous side to Astartes nature and homeworld interaction has mostly been glossed over or forgotten. It's good to see and adds a hard edge to the chapter where the Ultras and their ilk do not.

Thanks for the complement! But yea I believe I saw it in various places a while back and must have filed it in my brain under "believe it is your own idea until reminded that it isn't". :D

 

As for some new Ideas I was researching Chaplains and I saw that many of them tie their role as chaplain into something else but rarely does it happen the other way around. Decided to spice it up a little by making them a sort of Librarian-Chaplain. Still need to flesh it out and would really love any C&C! I am fine with going back to separate jobs if a Librarian-Chaplain would be really, really ridiculous or dumb. I would just need a cool Chapter specific name for Chaplains!

[Captain Zamiel]

Crap, I undid all my formatting stuff. Oh well. 

[Prefect Apollyon]

Ah bugger, code-splurge.

 

A moment of silence...

[Veteran Sergeant]

From what I understand, you need to use the Full Editor, not the quick one.

 

I also learned to keep a document with the full code in it. This forum software is quirky as hell. I had a / that I couldn't get rid of in mine for a while and I couldn't find it anywhere in the code, lol. Ifinally ended up just deleting the whole table. Another thing I did was take screenshots of the completed article, then uploaded the text boxes as image files so that all I had to do was insert them as images instead worrying about the code. If you check out my IA, every text, quote box, etc is an embedded image, not an actual coded table, lol.

[Captain Zamiel]

That is ingenious Veteran Sergeant. So I guess this just means that I should focus on the hobby side instead of the forum side for a bit! But I will definitely use another means to get all this posted again. 

[j31c3n]

Ugh, the same thing happened to me the other day when I was making a minor edit to my IA. I was lucky that I have the exact same post mirrored on dakkadakka and I was able to just lift and replace the bbcode from there to here. Since then I've only made edits and posts with "bbcode mode" turned on.

[Messor]

That's the best approach. Switching between bbcode and rich text is sure to mess something up and, as Vet mentioned, it's highly recommended to have an external copy of your work, code included. I'm so paranoid I've got on each of all my IA's in Word and notepad.

[j31c3n]

This website might help you recover most of your formatting, though size tags won't translate, so you'll have to redo those manually.

 

http://www.seabreezecomputers.com/html2bbcode/

 

One thing I'd recommend for your IA is making the chapter older. A few hundred years doesn't really seem like enough time to blend together the Chaplain and Librarian roles. I'd expect such a young chapter to be extremely similar to their progenitor at that point.

[Captain Zamiel]

 

 

One thing I'd recommend for your IA is making the chapter older. A few hundred years doesn't really seem like enough time to blend together the Chaplain and Librarian roles. I'd expect such a young chapter to be extremely similar to their progenitor at that point. 

 

Hmm, that is a good point. I guess that the main reason I wanted them to be younger was to help explain why they used more "newer" tech like razorbacks and stormtalons over older tech like termies, dreads, and land raiders. I guess if they are older but had a lot of their old tech destroyed a while back they would have a lot of the new goodies. It would also explain the divergence from their founding chapter. 

 

I am thinking they should be established in M36 because there were at least 8 foundings in that millennium but they aren't so old that they should be more widely known. 

[NightrawenII]

Ahem.

21st Founding was prior to Age of Apostasy, late M35/ early M36. 23rd Founding was in M37. Where do you get 8 Foundings?

 

 

~ NightrawenII

[Conn Eremon]

He might have been referring to the 13th through 21st Foundings, which all apparently occurred in M35. Considering the 13th is the Dark Founding, and the 21st is the Cursed Founding, larger than any other save perhaps the Second Founding, with a total of seven other Foundings in between, M35 was a very busy thousand years for Space Marines.

[Captain Zamiel]

Cormac Airt has it. Busy time in the Imperium and far enough back to explain the codex divergences. 

 

Also I finally picked up the new codex so I guess I have to pick a parent chapter because it affects the rules. 

[Messor]

You definitely do not have to do that, unless you really want to. Should you have a parent chapter? Yes, probably. But does it have to reflect the rules in the codex? Absolutely not. Just be sure to find one that reflects your Chapter, that they could conceivably descend from. If the two ideas coincide, great. If not, that's fine, too.