Legionnaires V2

[Woolie Wool]

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n15/jstogie1/legionnairesmarinescopy.jpg

This is the revised version of the fluff for a chapter I came up with and posted on here a few years ago. This removes a lot of the outlandish aspects of their original fluff and generally is more interesting and makes more sense.

 

CHAPTER NAME: Legionnaires

CHAPTER FOUNDING: 7th Founding

CHAPTER GENESEED: The Legionnaires' geneseed is derived from that of the Imperial Fists. Each individual geneseed is checked rigorously, but over the centuries, the geneseed has mutated slightly despite the Apothecaries' best efforts. Legionnaires are relatively slender and slight by Astartes standards, though still far larger and stronger than normal men, and correspondingly weaker in close combat than most other Space Marines. This has contributed to a general distaste for close combat among the Legionnaires.

CHAPTER MASTER: Dux Victor Augustus has led the Legionnaires with distinction after the previous Dux, Dux Glenn Aurelius, fell to the traitorous Hellspawn during their treason at the Battle of Thalgrex 7 in 447.M41. He lost his right eye to the Hellspawn Grand Master Ussamah Qassim, whom he killed in single combat. Dux Augustus wields an ancient combi-bolter with attached meltagun, and an ornate power sword named Light of Judgment that was said to have belonged to the captain of an Imperial Fists captain during the Horus Heresy.

CHAPTER HISTORY: To be written

CHAPTER HOMEWORLD: Herculion is a Fortress World on the edge of Tau space, its inhabitants literally bred for war. Whether it be in the Planetary Defense forces, the Imperial Guard, or the Legionnaires, virtually every inhabitant of Herculion is under arms. Discipline, order, and martial prowess are the highest of Herculionian virtues, and this has provided the Legionnaires with an excellent stock to recruit from. A Mechanicus Forge World, Rephaim, is located only a few parsecs away, giving Herculion easy access to top-of-the-line military equipment. The people of Herculion are tall and slim with fair to light brown hair and gray or blue eyes, traits which are present in the Legionnaires recruited from this stock.

 

CHAPTER RECRUITMENT: Almost every child on Herculion is trained for the Herculion Devil Dogs Imperial Guard regiments or the Planetary Defense forces from infancy. However, the most promising thirteen-year-old boys are taken by the Legionnaires to their Fortress-Monastery for testing as prospective Space Marines. Only perfect specimens, ideal in mind and body are chosen; the rest are sent back to their youth training camps, or, if considered useful to the chapter in some other way, are trained to become Auxillae (Chapter serfs). Every year the chosen aspirants are taken from their youth training camps, and given two days to be with any surviving family they may have on the planet and say their goodbyes. After the two-day period, they report to the Grand Concourse of the Legionnaires' Fortress Monastery, where they stand to attention before a Legionnaires Chaplain and veteran honor guard. Here they take the Rites of Initiation, swearing oaths to the chapter, the primarch Rogal Dorn, the Imperium, and finally the Emperor himself. Each aspirant cuts his hand as he swears the oaths and allows his blood to run into a golden chalice. The blood of the aspirants is collected into a bowl by the Chaplain, mixed with promethium, and burnt, the Chaplain warning them that their souls will be burnt by the Emperor's wrath in the manner of their spilled blood should they break their oaths.

 

After giving the oaths, the aspirants are given the uniforms of Legionnaire initiates, a gray tunic, red trousers, with black boots and belt. Over the coming months they are drilled in advanced warfighting skills far beyond the level of the youth training camps, in whatever time they have not spent recovering from the agonizing and often lethal surgeries and procedures required to change their bodies into those of Space Marines. Some die during this process; others become crippled, or break down mentally from the horrendous pain of augmentation or the mind-numbing tedium of endless drills, and are euthanized by the Apothecaries.

 

By the time the aspirant is skilled enough and his physical condition has stabilized enough to fight, usually in his fifteenth year, he is required to pass three trials to become Leves, Neophyte Scouts of the tenth cohors (company). The first trial is the Trial of Combat. He is placed in an enclosed arena, the Chamber of Blood, with a dull sword and confronted with an unarmed, unarmored full battle-brother. Using his sword, he must draw blood from the older marine before being overcome (a very difficult task; as despite his weapon he is still slower, weaker, and less experienced than the full marine). If he manages to inflict a bleeding wound, however slight, upon the full Marine, he passes the trial. If not, he has two more chances to finish the trial before being transferred to the Auxillae. This is the only one of the three trials that aspirants are allowed to repeat if they fail. The second trial, the Trial of Spirit, occurs in a room known as the Chamber of Sin. Here Librarians psychically bombard the youths with all manner of sinful temptations, visions of heresy, of invincibility, of immortal life, of beautiful women and all manner of depraved pleasures of the flesh, and the deepest desires of their hearts. Those with the purity and will to endure the trial move on to the final and most grueling test, the Test of Courage, held in the total darkness of the Chamber of Terror (actually many chambers, with individual cells for each aspirant). The young aspirant is chained, naked, inside the chamber for a full week, denied food, water, and human contact. From time to time Librarians outside the chamber will torment the unfortunate youth with his deepest and most terrible fears. Alone, starving, lying in filth, occasionally tortured by visions from unknown sources, and no longer aware of time or when their torment might end many of the aspirants go mad, and are taken from the chamber and given the "Emperor's peace". Those who survive are deemed fit to move on to the next stage. They are bathed in the Pool of Purification (as much for practical reasons as for symbolic reasons, due to the ordeals of the Chamber of Terror), given Scout carapace armor, and given the title of leves.

 

Leves spend two years alternating between field training, combat, and receiving additional implantations. When their training is finally complete, the class of graduating leves are issued the power-armor and wargear of true battle-brothers, and gathered for review on the Grand Concourse. Their families are allowed to see them one more time, the last time the young marines will ever see anyone from their previous lives. A high-ranking officer in the chapter, usually the Dux himself is he is present, gives a speech to the recruits and the audience witnessing the ceremony, and the leves are formally inducted into the ranks of the battle-brothers. Their old surnames are cast aside, symbolizing the break between who they were and their current identity as Space Marines, and replaced with "war names", handed down from various heroes of Herculion and the Imperial Fists (the name "Dorn" is never used for this purpose, as no mortal Marine is considered the equal of the revered Primarch). From here, the levis units are broken up and the newly minted battle-brothers are assigned to companies as needed.

 

CHAPTER ORGANIZATION: The chapter is divided into ten cohortes or companies, each led by a Legatus (Captain). Most battle-brothers are milites, armed with bolters and combat knives (swords are a rarity due to Legionnaires' relative frailty and antipathy towards close combat). These form the bulk of most Legionnaires squads. Devastator squads are much rarer than in fully Codex-compliant chapters, the Legionnaires instead preferring to assign two triarii, heavy weapons troopers, to each tactical squad. One miles per squad is usually designated as a marksman, and wields a bolter modified with a shoulder stock and optical scope. A tactical squad can further be broken up into three fireteams for greater flexibility. The first fireteam (Alpha Team) has two milites, a triarius, and a Centurion (sergeant), the second (Beta Team) has two milites and a triarius, and the third (Gamma Team) has the remaining three milites. The Legionnaires also field hastati, assault squads, armed with bolt pistols and chainswords and equipped with jump packs. Only the largest and strongest Legionnaires are assigned to the hastati, although selection for assault squads was more conventional in the past, before the geneseed mutation that robbed the Legionnaires of some of their musculature and strength appeared.

 

Rather uniquely, each company except the tenth has a few two man sniper teams known as velites. Velites wear carapace armor and camouflage like the leves, but are hardened soldiers and exceptional marksmen with many years of experience. The preferred weapon of the velites is the "Punisher", a specialized bolter modified by the Chapter Forge. Each Punisher is lengthened dramatically from a standard bolter and carefully rebuilt to the tightest tolerances to assure accuracy. They fire a larger, more powerful round and must by cycled by hand after each shot. The purpose of velites is to provide long-range fire support for advancing battle-brothers, picking off critical targets at extreme ranges. Velites always travel in pairs, never alone or in squads.

 

CHAPTER BATTLE DOCTRINE: Legionnaires come from a culture with a long and storied martial history and value order, drill, and discipline above individual heroism or ostentatious displays. There is no tolerance for "vainglory", as they put it, among the Legionnaires, every battle-brother knows that he is only a small part of a larger organization. Accordingly, decoration or customization of one's armor or equipment beyond the standard livery for one's rank and position is strictly forbidden, and wargear is to be kept immaculately clean and repaired whenever practical. Legionnaires present a strikingly uniform appearance compared to many other chapters, with exhaustively detailed regulations on armor, paint schemes, hygeine, weapons, and equipment for all ranks, from the greenest levis to the Legati who lead the companies.

 

The Legionnaires have no battle cries, considering this another form of "vainglory" and an unnecessary announcement of their intentions besides. Legionnaires possess a frighteningly dispassionate calm in the heat of combat, which combined with their rigorously drilled coordination and marksmanship compensates for the physical disadvantages of their damaged geneseed. Some other imperial assets have remarked that in the thunder and chaos of a pitched battle, Legionnaires almost never shout or even appear excited. An Imperial Guard commissar once wrote that "the Legionnaires, to a man, are the coldest, most lethally efficient warriors I have ever encountered in the Imperium."

 

CHAPTER BELIEFS: The Legionnaires revere the Emperor and their Primarch Rogal Dorn, and hold feast days related to various important events in their lives. The Legionnaires believe that at some point in the distant future the Emperor will ascend to full godhood and resurrect Rogal Dorn, who will lead the Imperial Fists and their successor chapters (including the Legionnaires) to victory in a final "Battle of Battles" in which the forces of Chaos will be destroyed. The Legionnaires avoid the Inquisition if possible, believing the Puritans to be mindless fanatics and the Radicals to be borderline heretics and traitors. They refuse to fight alongside flagellants, daemonhosts, or other "tamed" daemons.

 

CHAPTER COLORS: Silver, gunmetal, crimson, and gold. Principes (veterans) are distinguished from ordinary Marines by the replacement of all the gunmetal color on their armor with silver and additional gold and crimson accents.

 

THEME/INSPIRATION: Roman Legions played a significant role in the conception of this chapter, especially with the color scheme and Latinized names, as well as 19th century Prussians (the Germanic appearance of the Legionnaires and emphasis on discipline, marksmanship, and drill). The fireteam formations and sniper pairs are inspired by 20th century infantry tactics.

 

QUOTES:

"Mingle not with Inquisitors, but neither should you provoke their wrath, for their ways are subtle and their vengeance terrible." --Chief Librarian Konstantin Scipio

"Resist the lust for carnage in battle; fight for your cause rather than your satisfaction. For giving into the thrill of the fight is the first step along the path of the berserker, which once trod can only lead to damnation." --Dux Victor Augustus

"Sometimes a kind word and a chainsword can get you further than either alone." --Hans von Stauffen (later Hans Lysander), the first Dux of the Legionnaires chapter.

"I am the supreme scion of Herculion, heir to eight thousand years of military tradition. In my long years I have slain cowardly Tau, barbaric Orks, filthy mutants, and countless of your traitorous minions. You will never cross the bridge while I defend it, daemon!" --Dux Glenn Aurelius to the Daemon of Khorne Molokk on Thalgrex 7, shortly before the duel that claimed both of their lives

 

NOTABLE CHARACTERS:

Dux Victor Augustus: The current Dux of the Legionnaires. Known for his oratory and ability to inspire troops.

Dux Glenn Aurelius: The previous Dux of the Legionnaires, Dux Aurelius was noted for his exceptional, some would even say irrational, fearlessness in battle. He was killed on Thalgrex 7 by a Bloodthirster, but not before defeating the monstrosity with the aid of a Librarian.

Dux Hans Lysander: Originally Brother-Sergeant Hans von Stauffen, an Imperial Fist veteran who was originally born on Herculion. Von Stauffen was one of the original handful of veterans selected to make up the core of the Legionnaires during their founding. He started the tradition of war names, changing his last name to Lysander after a notable Imperial Fist hero.

Franz Taelos "the Flawless": The most experienced veles sniper in the Legionnaires, Taelos has acquired over four thousand confirmed kills with his Punisher bolter. He has acquired the epithet "the Flawless" due to the fact that he has never sustained a single wound in battle, and thus has an exceptionally handsome, unscarred appearance for a veteran Marine. Some claim his uncanny ability to avoid being injured is due to being somehow favored by the Emperor. Some say it is his unrivaled command of stealth tactics and marksmanship. Taelos himself simply attributes it to luck.

[Arkangilos]

I like it.

 

I know you said devs are more rare, but might I suggest something? Since they don't like close combat, and you are using Triarii as your "ranged" warriors, maybe make your devs your more veteran (or even completely veteran) units. I read somewhere that the Romans had a saying or adage, "To have come to the Triarii" which would mean that the situation was bad indeed.

 

Triarii are already known for being the older, and more experienced of the early legions and formed their third line, so that would fit in with the "veteran" part. Also, your chapter could probably use the adage too, as when they call in the veterans, the situation is dire. :D

And the "spears" can be the las cannons or something :P

[Tyther]

Nice. The Adeptus Astartes are already somewhat thematically based on the ancient Roman legions, and you decided to take it a step further.

 

My biggest problem with this, though, is not the Roman flavoring in and of itself, though, it's that it's not explained. Why is all this the way it is? Why is the Chapter Master a Dux and not just a Chapter Master? Why is a Captain a Legate, and a veteran a Principe? Why are the Companies Cohortes, and why are the Battle Brothers Milites instead of just Astartes? Is it down to the local culture, or a battle alongside another Chapter that the first Master admired? Are their segmentation of the squads due to a battle where the Codex-standard squads weren't flexible enough? You've done a great job detailing what your chapter does, but I still don't know why they do it, or why they have the names they have. Remember- in the grim dark galaxy of the far future, nobody has ever heard of ancient Rome.