The numbers of the gods

[Valkyrion]

The idea:

A chapter turning to chaos based on the numbers of the gods, i.e 6,7,8 and 9.

So there would be 66 marines that worship slaanesh, 77 for nurgle, 88 for khorne and 99 for tzeentch.

Due to some arcane/warp/chaos rite or ritual, for each space marine they kill they get to bind a daemon to their will, so there would also be 66 daemons of slaanesh, 77 daemons of nurgle etc and their ultimate goal would be to release four Apocalypse level daemon lords and rampage through X sector etc yadda blah

 

This would give me a total of 330 cult chaos marines and 330 of their daemonic equivalent, leaving (from a full strength chapter) 340 loyal marines left to battle it out.

 

Is this a workable idea for an IT/IA?

I'm thinking the chaos guys include the chapter master who kill the reserve companies, leaving the 340 loyalists as the returning battle companies.

 

My problems;

Timeline - how long does it take to convert a good portion of a chapter properly to chaos, not just renegade against the imperium?

 

Modelling - chaos are very spiky, loyalists aren't, and for distinction it would make sense to have the chaos guys look like chaos space marines, but where have the land speeders got to and why does the plasma pistol suddenly age by 10000 years? Have they forgotten how to use plasma cannons but suddenly remember the key for the autocannon cabinet? Do I use different loyalist codices or just the chaos dex?

 

Fluff - how does this happen? Daemonic possession of the chapter master is a bit weak, as is finding a magic book.

How could you justify the use of rubrics, obliterators, defilers? Is it the chapter masters idea or is he being manipulated. If he is being manipulated then who by?

 

Result - full chapter declared ET? Loyalists allowed to live and rebuild?

 

Where to start - the founding of the loyalist chapter? straight into the chaos stuff?

 

Anyone care to throw a few ideas at me? I have the idea, but no execution...

[Leonaides]

And what happens if you have 102 marines called to the Throne of Skulls and only 74 who follow Grandfather Nurgle? You're far mre likely to have squads grouped in to sacred numbers (so 8 khornate marines in a Khornate unit, maybe 8 Khornate squads in your traitor force, etc).

 

Timeline - it takes somewhere between 1 second and several lifetimes. Marine lifetimes. It may have been started by a single rogue initiate who manages to get accepted into the reclusiam, survives to become the Head of the Chapter Cult and introduces a few subtle changes into its traditions. He knows that he himself will never see the ultimate fruition of his plans, but that they will inexonerably lead his chapter into the hands of the Chaos Gods. Or it might be a rogue Librarian (or not even a rogue one) who reads the wrong passage in a book and tears his brothers and himself into the warp to become playthings of Daemons. after hundreds of years they re-appear, a split second after they dissapeared, with the survivors thoroughly corrupted by their experience and barely recognisable to their previous allies who see shadows of their former panoply amongst the desecrated war-plate now before them.

 

Landspeeders also require specific, intricate servicing and spares. A chaos warband will not be able to aquire these very much, so Landspeeders will not be able to be maintained. so they will eventually be discarded. Plasma is in a similar situation - tempramental, hard to repair and fiddly. They may be forced to fall back on earlier versions of plas pistol that were slightly inferior to modern versions but more reliable... Autocannons - they still have them (tho only usually seen on Dreads or Preds) but again, they are a reliable weapon that will see more use as the 'better' weapons fail. Why do so many modern day 'guerrila' forces use the AK 47 instead of the M16 or eqivalent? M16 is probably a better weapon, but the only thing you need to fix an AK is a hammer, and you can fill it with mud, dunk it in water, not oil it, etc... and it'll still kick out bullets. Do that to an M16 and you've got a short club.