The Knights Eternal

[Paradill]

Hello, I'm a fairly avid fluff-nut so I thought it was about time for me to post a rough draft of my IA ideas for my DIY chapter. This is the final DIY I will be doing for a long time and, if truth be told has been 11 years of progressing through missing legions, uber powered marines, marines with special rules up the rear end, marines that want to be ultramarines etc. and now I feel I have matured enough to have a marine chapter that fits within the universe and background, with a few quirks to add character.

 

There wont be anything galaxy changing about these guys, they are the what the Emperor of mankind intended them to be, a bulwark against the darkness of the galaxy. So without further a-do, I present, the Knights Eternal:

 

 

The Knights Eternal are a chapter of a long and proud history, though records of their exact founding seem to be deliberately vague, they have battle honours stretching back for several thousand years, to at least M34. If not further. Descendants of Rogal Dorn, The Knights Eternal carry the stubborn refusal of defeat within their souls, learning from their gene-sire and the chapter he left behind.

 

A chapter of crusaders, TKE are based on a planet in the area of space known as the dominion of storms, close to the galactic core. This region of spaceis wracked by furious warp squalls which can cut off human colonies from one another and the Imperium as a whole for decades or even centuries at a time. Such turbulence has proven a haven for all manner of xenos and heretic, traitor humans and Astartes alike seek out planets to hide upon within these violent warp storms and TKE have been on constant crusade in this area since M35.

 

Their homeworld is a planet known as Ardia, a feudal world ruled by knightly orders in the vein of ancient Caliban. The entire Ardian system is protected from the raging warp storms by huge, pre imperial satellites which ring the system. The landscape is that of rolling fields and dense woodlands, the great, stone fortresses of the knightly orders dotting the surface of the planet. These are the green and pleasant lands ruled over by the constantly warring orders of Ardia, to the north of the world, however, a different type of man dwells.. At the cap of the world, where snow sheets the ground and a man can freeze in his steel plate, it is told that great hulking monsters dwell, once human, these beasts are said to be the guardians to the gates of hell, their hulking mass and balefire eyes, the truth of their origin is far darker.

 

Young knights who wish to join the sky gods must quest to these north lands, where they must seek the gates to hell and do battle with a guardian. In reality, the gate to hell is a vast plateau of landing pads, Thunderhawk hangars, defence laser batteries and auxiliary forge shops maintained by TKE. It takes an aspirant many weeks or even months of traversing the freezing tundra of the north lands before he has a chance of finding the gate to hell, and those that do are weary to the bone and frozen to the core. Once an aspirant succeeds in his quest, he will be confronted by a grotesque servitor, who will begin to attack the aspirant, during the fight, a huge warrior clad in armour will appear and destroy the servitor in an explosion of gore. Then the warrior will tell the aspirant that he will kill him, that he is all powerful and there is no point in resisting. Those Aspirants who kneel at their execution are taken to the forges and turned into servitor beasts, those that despite the inevitability of it, despite the cold and the weariness and the futility, clutch their sword and raise their shield are rewarded by being teleported to the orbiting fortress monastery of TKE and beginning their journey to becoming a space marine.

 

TKE are codex by organisation, with the only minor variation of the first company being a battle company and each battle company maintaining it's own cadre of veterans. The battle companies are known as crusade companies with each reserve company being highly mobile, allowing them to go where needed to support the crusade companies. The Chapter Master, as would be expected of such a peerless warrior, goes where he chooses, supporting whichever crusade he deems most important at the time, the current chapter master is attached with his honour guard to the 1st Crusade Company with elements of the tactical, assault, and devastator reserves in their actions against the Iron Warriors in the Astor system.

 

The gene-seed of the TKE is fairly typical of Dorn's line, being stable and missing the two Organs of that lineage, the only mutation noted is that of the occulobe. Whether it is due to prolonged contact with the warp storms of that area of space or a radiation caused mutation like that of the Salamanders is unknown, but upon receiving this implant, a marine's eyes start to turn blue, with no distinction between the whites, iris or pupil. As the marine matures, the mutation becomes more pronounced until the entire eye starts to actively emit blue-white light, though this mutation has been noted by both the inquisition and Adeptus Mechanicus, no cause has ever been found and the chapters' continued dedication to the Imperium and the Emperor has helped them hide a much darker side to their gene-seed, a flaw in the base code of their genetics that is undetectable until it is already too late..

 

The aspirants of The Knights Eternal are implanted with the same organs at the same time as any other Imperial Fist successor chapter, yet their transformation from human to astartes warrior is even more dangerous. One in every hundred or so marines will experience a sudden, uncontrollable acceleration of their gene-seeds effects, causing them to turn in to hulking masses of muscle with lightening fast reflexes and a hunger for raw flesh. Irrelevant of the age of the marine in question, from rawest recruit to most seasoned captain or even the Chapter Master himself, the results are as horrific and unexpected each time. Most are driven insane by this sudden mutation and are given the Emperors' peace by the apothecaries, but some remain some semblance of the man they once were and are taken to the north lands of Ardia, released into the wilds of the world to live out their days as the guardians of the gates of hell. Any brother may succumb to the change at any time, and whilst the mutation is thankfully a rare thing over all, every care is taken to ensure no word of the flaw leaves the chapter.

 

That is the base idea for now, I know it's not a massive amount but I want to work on this in chunks so battle doctrine, detailed organisation break down etc. will come when I feel I have got this bit nailed down. Any C&C is welcome, I really want this to fit in with established fluff and make sense in universe so feel free to rip away.

 

Paradill

[Codicier Lucion]

There are some quite interesting ideas here, I especially like the fact they let aspirants come to them and using the journey to weed out the weak from their numbers followed by a simple but effective test to see who of their number has the will to fight humanity's enemies.

 

I do have one question though, do the Knights ever attempt to retrieve the gene-seed from the aberrations who suffer from their genetic flaw?

[Paradill]

I was torn about this, the flawed marines are such a sporadic and unpredictable happening that the chapter wishes to find the cause and hopefully a cure or preventative. Equally the flawed marines are brothers still and any that don't go insane are allowed to live on Ardia, in the northlands where they can't hurt anyone but can still hunt/eat/survive etc. Those that do go insane are usually incinerated on site, so as to avoid any unwanted attention from the =I=.

 

I was considering vat grown clones being implanted with Astartes gene-seed and the apothecaries using them to study, though as this would deplete the gene-seed store and thus the recruitment rate, I'm not sure as to it's plausibility.

 

Paradill

[NightrawenII]

Hello, just few observations...

 

Teleport arrays

- The teleport technology is half-undeststood, rare and quite dangerous piece of technology. I'm not sure, if the teleporting of your aspirants is viable option.

 

One in every hundred or so marines will experience a sudden, uncontrollable acceleration of their gene-seeds effects, causing them to turn in to hulking masses of muscle with lightening fast reflexes and a hunger for raw flesh.

- This is, sadly, normal result of gene-seed malfunction.

 

Equally the flawed marines are brothers still and any that don't go insane are allowed to live on Ardia, in the northlands where they can't hurt anyone but can still hunt/eat/survive etc.

- Errrm, I'm not sure about the "can't hurt anyone" part, since the northland is the site of Chapter's recruitment. ;)

 

 

Cheers, NightrawenII.

[Paradill]

Teleport arrays, fair point. Maybe a standard starport type thing would suffice. And be more practical.

 

It's one in every hundred or so marines, not aspirants. Even a three or four hundred year old captain can spontaneously succumb to the change with no obvious catalyst. I need to make that part clearer though, so thank you.

 

The Northlands are not populated by the peoples of Ardia, they are barren with only large wooly, glacial beasts with horns, tusks and claws etc.. Though the abominations may attack and harm one of the aspirants if they chance upon him, they pose no threat to the people of Ardia as a whole. Plus, if an aspirant doesn't stand and face such challenges how can he ever dream of becoming a scion of Dorn?

 

Thank you for the comments, I will revise accordingly.

 

Paradill

[Brother-Sergeant Bohemond]

I like them, very interesting and well thought out. Id like to see their doctrine, beliefs and interaction with the rest of the Imperium please.

[Paradill]

Ok, update time. Sorry it's been a while, childerbeasts and the infernal workload keeping me at bay. So, on to combat doctrine I think.

 

 

Combat Doctrine

 

The Knights Eternal have, since their inception, seen the wisdom contained within Roboute Guilliman's great tome the Codex Astartes. The tactical and strategic brilliance laid down in the codex has lent itself to many a victory in the Chapters' long and illustrious history, but it is the legacy of their Primarch, the steadfast warrior Rogal Dorn, that defines the character of these warriors. On crusade in the dominion of storms for six millennia, fighting all manner of foes, this stubborn defiance has proven to be instrumental in some of the hardest fought victories recorded in the chapter Librarius. Here names like The war of falling hate, The Greenskin Massacres and The week of shadows are read aloud in reverence on holy days, but none more so than The day of untold heroes.

 

The day of untold Heroes tells the tale of the planet Chirodan Majoris. Chirodan was a minor forgeworld on the southern fringe of the Dominion of Storms, mainly producing the hulls and armament for various Imperial Guard war machines. Plagued by the xenos scourge of the Eldar since time immemorial, the Knights Eternal were no strangers to fighting in the toxic wastes and cathedral like manufactorums of the planet. Each time the Eldar would appear, make lightening raids on the Skitarii and machine adepts, slaying and taking slaves before disappearing into the nothingness. Consequently the chapter kept two squads in support of the forge world, to the appreciation of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

 

This time was different. The Eldar appeared in unprecedented force, bringing huge, blasphemous titans that moved with a disgusting grace and pulsed with warp magic. The first manufactorums fell within hours, their legions of augmented warriors no match for the heresies of the xenos war machines. The sergeant in command of the two squads of battle brothers ordered the capital city and grandest manufactorum, to be re-enforced, calling all available skitarii to the capital, the tech adepts surrounding the city were to raise the ancient void shields and defence turrets, sending word to the Chapter of their situation. Though made aware of the Eldar attack, the Knights Eternal's closest crusade fleet was four weeks away at best.

 

For the coming weeks, The twenty Battle Brothers of The Knights Eternal led the defence with all the valour and bravery of their kin, facing down incoming waves of dancing, lethally armed warriors and rallying the mechanicum adepts to righteous fury as they blasted elegant xenos tanks and troop carriers to oblivion from the turreted battlements of Chirodan. But the titans were coming. No matter the defence, no matter the number of aliens they blasted from the city's outskirts, the titans would traverse the ashen wastes and then all would be lost. The people of Chirodan lived in hope that aid would arrive before the titans could arrive, but it was not to be and after 43 days of fighting off ever larger raiding parties, the triplet suns rose to cast a terrible silhouette upon the city. Four alien titans stood on the horizon, great hooks and blackened spikey sticking out at angles, decorated with the still living flesh of adepts and slaves alike. Thick purple veins fractured the smooth white marble of the xenos titan's heads, pulsating with a sickening energy. Then the bombardment began.

 

For ten hours, the defenders of Chirodan hid behind their void shield whilst the alien war engines pounded at it with etherial energies and huge barbs of lethal dark matter. The Shield would fall, even the tech adepts couldn't re-route power at such a rate, and so The Knights Eternal gathered what forces remained, a few hundred skitarii, twenty or so functional Leman Russ Battle Tanks and seventeen space marines was all that could be mustered. Not nearly enough to battle even a single titan, let alone four. It would be a miracle if they even got in firing range with the Eldar infantry and grav tanks barring the way, their cruelly barbed craft loaded with equally cruel xenos. The Knights Eternal readied themselves to die in defence of the planet.

 

When the void shield's energies evaporated in bolts of lightening and fizzled to nothingness, the titans' weapons silenced and their kin surged forwards in their impossibly fast transports, howling and singing as they approached the slaughter. Alien transports and their passengers exploded as the counter-assault began, tanks raining hellfire down on the invaders, blasting holes in the earth and littering them with alien dead, but for each craft destroyed, three evaded the attack with acrobatic feats that the lumbering Imperial machines couldn't match. As the first wave of alien monsters leapt laughing from their craft to attack, they were scythed down by las blasts, gouts of purifying flame and the explosive fury of bolt shells. In the face of such alien hunger for pain, the Imperial line should have fell within minutes, but the Knights amongst their midst held firm, never giving so much as an inch of ground, and slowly but surely the xenos were forced to withdraw, their speed counting for little in the face of such stalwart defence.

 

So the titans danced forward. Their huge forms spinning and leaping with impossible grace, everywhere their feet touched corrupting the ground, spreading tendrils of warp into the soil. The Leman Russ' surged forward firing on the titans but achieving nothing. Entire squadrons evaporated under the intensity of the return fire, atomised or turned to molten slag under the archaic sorceries of the Eldar. As all seemed lost, the Astartes led the remaining defenders in a final charge, they would die taking down as many xenos scum as they could. As they leapt from their defensive positions, rage filled war-cries upon their lips, skitarii and adepts at their back, the force of defenders looked utterly insignificant, insects in the presence of gods.

 

An ear splitting shriek filled the air, then a roar of engines, a roaring that grew louder and louder until it drowned out the sound of the charge. The sky filled with shapes, some streaming from the sky in fire, others roaring forward on wings of admantium and steel. The livery of The Knights Eternal emblazoned on their proud hulls. The Chapter has arrived and in full strength. Drop pods crashed to the earth, sending dust and wrecked alien corpses into the sky whilst Thunderhawks duelled with Titans, firing destructive weapons at each other with force enough to level cities. The battle lasted the rest of the day, with each side suffering horrendous losses, but when the final titan fell to the ground in shattered pieces, the invaders lost their resolve and retreated into the shadows. 534 Battle Brothers were dead, 13 had been captured and taken by the retreating xenos, never to be seen again, The Knights Eternal had suffered greatly in defence of Chirodan Majoris, but the world remained in the hands of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Their duty done, the Knights set off with the gene-seed of their fallen, to crusade the dominion of storms once more.

 

Okay, slightly tangent-y but tried to marry the stubborn aspect with the codex application and never give up mind set. Did it come across?

 

Many Thanks

 

Paradill