IA: The Stone Templars

[ANGRYMARINE]

I was thinking maybe Stone Lords? The planet might have oasis scattered around near mining towns. I'm gonna try and do up a new color scheme. For a sergeant from the first veteran squad in the first company if you want me to be really specific. Would it be acceptable and TOTALLY NON-HERETICAL if the sizes of the reserve companies fluctuated? They take very good care of their gene-stock.

Heres the paint scheme.

So this guy doesn't have a name (yet), but basically hes a first company veteran sergeant who has also served in the Deathwatch. I'm thinking of combining the position of Chaplain and Librarian in this chapter, I just need to come up with reasons for this.

[ANGRYMARINE]

Any more ideas that could help me out?

[Ecritter]

I disagree with Ace (sorry), names comes first ... personality later (unless you want to be like every chapter GW has made ... lol).

 

Color scheme looks ... busy.  If that's what you want, go for it ... not my style though.

[Quozzo]

You dont flesh out a chapter based on its name. I dont know of anyone that thought about a name before the concept. That's such a ludacris notion. GW have hundreds of chaper names with no personality, dont be a name on someone else's footnote, be a chapter.

[Ace Debonair]

I actually came up with the name 'Red Lords' before I had my ideas for the Chapter, but I find it's much easier to derive a name from the Chapter's character than to do it the other way around.

It's all good, in other words.

[ANGRYMARINE]

I'm gonna say that they were founded to maintain vigil over the borders of the Octarius sector, so they fight Orks and Tyranids pretty often. Although I might go with Necrons instead, my only army right now is a Necron one from the Ogdobekh Dynasty.

 

I actually like having them being founded to combat 'Crons, since the Ogdobekh Dynasty awakened pretty fast and efficiently. They haven't been mentioned in the fluff much but they seems to be one of the more powerful dynasties.

[Ace Debonair]

'Protect This Sector' is a nice, far-reaching order, though, that gives you leave to fight anything that you think is a threat to the sector.

Orks, Necrons, 'Nids, other imperial factions overstepping their bounds...

[ANGRYMARINE]

'Protect This Sector' is a nice, far-reaching order, though, that gives you leave to fight anything that you think is a threat to the sector.

Orks, Necrons, 'Nids, other imperial factions overstepping their bounds...

Its probably going to be the Atun dynasty, they're mentioned as being present in the northern galactic rim in the Necron codex, so the Stone Lords will be based in the Segmentum Obscurus. I think I'll have them completely cleanse a tomb-world with a copious amount of flamers and meltas. Naturally this will piss off the rest of the 'crons but it'll serve as their generic defining moment of Space Marine awesomesauce.

Would it be acceptable if they developed a mutation in the Betchers Gland that makes their spit flammable? I figure it could be a result of them eating certain things habitually. I'll name one of their noteworthy members Dylon, because he spits hot fire!

I also made changes to the first post. Some parts are blank but I will add stuff to that.

[Ace Debonair]

What I was saying is 'go here and protect this' is a better starting point than 'go here and kill these'.

If you don't wipe the Necron faction you were created to kill out altogether it seems like your guys have just been twiddling their thumbs for so many years. However, if the 'crons just keep showing up every once in a while as you're protecting the Sector, you have all the excuses for reoccurring battles you'll ever need.

[ANGRYMARINE]

The Organisation has been updated. Let me know if it isn't too heretical or something!

[Gripharius]

...drags out personal soapbox, straightens power armor, clears throat...

 

Ahem, I would like to reiterate my oft-asserted standard that Space Marines Chapters do not need a reason for their creation, and that including a reason in an IA, particularly a narrow reason, ultimately detracts from the Chapter.

 

 

The Stone Lords were created on the order of an Inquisitorial Representative serving as one of the High Lords of Terra to investigate reports of contact ceasing with worlds located on the Northern Galactic Rim.

 

The founding of a Chapter is a major event that takes many-many-many decades, even centuries, and involves the mobilization of massive amounts of resources from all branches of the Imperium. Its a hugely massive event, and the High Lords of Terra (generally) found Chapters based on very long-term plans and meta-needs rather than individual uprisings or specific incidents. There are exceptions to this, of course, but the founding of a Chapter is more about the High Lords weighing the overall effectiveness and strength of the entire Imperial combat forces against the threats facing the Imperium than any short-term or local considerations.

 

In other words, even if a Inquisitorial Representative did suggest that a Chapter be founded "to investigate reports of contact ceasing with worlds located on the Northern Galactic Rim," then in all likelihood the Northern Galactic Rim would be New Atunville by the time the Chapter was actually founded and set off to investigate. Its much more likely they would just ask one of the already existing Chapters to check that out.

 

Now, if all that preparation, creation, founding and training stuff just happened to get finished right about the same time as contact started being lost with worlds along the Northern Galactic Rim?  Hmm, well, then there are a whole bunch of brand new shiny Space Marines that are all newly armed and armored and ready to be sent off to die horrib--  er, I mean, investigate.

 

[Firepower]

Yay for brown marines! A man after my own heart

Now then, on to the critique. Note that I'm going off of the OP, and haven't cruised through the subsequent posts, so some of these may be based on changed information, or present issues already raised.

The name. The thread says Stone Templars, the spiel says Stone Lords. Which is it? If it's Templars, why, exactly (as a side note, it was the word that caught my attention and got me to click the thread )? It's a cool name, but it does evoke a certain imagery- thoughts of knights, of protectors of the weak, or of righteous zealots. Do any of these apply to their personality?

Relation to Petram? Is there a particular facet of the local culture worth mentioning? Does it carry over into the Chapter? Does the Chapter have relations with the populace like the Salamanders do, or are the pilgrimages/recruit hunts the principal form of contact with the world's native population? Do they play a role in its government?

Carry over from the Salamanders. The Sallies have a pretty well established religious identity in the Promethean Cult. How much, if any of it, carried over into the Stone Lords? It could be an almost duplicate religion, or small core tenets of the Cult like an emphasis on individual strength (which the initiation process seems to suggest), or there could be little to no connection at all. Or, the Cult may have existed in some sense at the beginning, and become distorted/perverted/adapted over the centuries to fit the Stone Lords' own needs.

Personally, I almost always find the Chapter's belief system to be the most defining feature, so I do tend to ask a lot of that particular subject. Different circumstances exist for practically every Chapter, and can be interesting, but I feel it is their reaction to those circumstances which really defines them.

That's all, off the top of my head.

[ANGRYMARINE]

Yay for brown marines! A man after my own heart

Now then, on to the critique. Note that I'm going off of the OP, and haven't cruised through the subsequent posts, so some of these may be based on changed information, or present issues already raised.

The name. The thread says Stone Templars, the spiel says Stone Lords. Which is it? If it's Templars, why, exactly (as a side note, it was the word that caught my attention and got me to click the thread )? It's a cool name, but it does evoke a certain imagery- thoughts of knights, of protectors of the weak, or of righteous zealots. Do any of these apply to their personality?

Relation to Petram? Is there a particular facet of the local culture worth mentioning? Does it carry over into the Chapter? Does the Chapter have relations with the populace like the Salamanders do, or are the pilgrimages/recruit hunts the principal form of contact with the world's native population? Do they play a role in its government?

Carry over from the Salamanders. The Sallies have a pretty well established religious identity in the Promethean Cult. How much, if any of it, carried over into the Stone Lords? It could be an almost duplicate religion, or small core tenets of the Cult like an emphasis on individual strength (which the initiation process seems to suggest), or there could be little to no connection at all. Or, the Cult may have existed in some sense at the beginning, and become distorted/perverted/adapted over the centuries to fit the Stone Lords' own needs.

Personally, I almost always find the Chapter's belief system to be the most defining feature, so I do tend to ask a lot of that particular subject. Different circumstances exist for practically every Chapter, and can be interesting, but I feel it is their reaction to those circumstances which really defines them.

That's all, off the top of my head.

I'm going to stick with Lords instead of Templars, I did not notice that I forgot to change their name at the very beginning of the OP. I'm going with Stone Lords since they are direct rulers of Petram.

The chapter does have a close relation with the populace, partly because they recruit from it, and also because they allow members of the chapter to maintain contact with their families, often times a Stone Lord marine will outlive his direct family but will maintain strong relations with future generations of their family.

I'd say that the Promethean Cult has carried over to the chapter fully.