Arjac

[Jonny Wolf]

As I was running this a.m. a thought occured to me - is Arjac a former Iron Priest?

[dswanick]

I don't think there's any such thing as a "former" Iron Priest. And I know of no fluff indicating that Arjac was ever considered for such a role.

[DV8]

He was a blacksmith in his tribe, and was inducted straight into the Wolf Guard after Logan saw how awesome-sauce he was dual-hammering Kraken left right and center.

 

 

DV8

[old git]

What is "running"?

[Nrthstar]

I thought the story of the kraken was when he was in the iron priest isle

[Wulfebane]

I thought the story of the kraken was when he was in the iron priest isle

 

It was. Arjac was a Fenrisian thrall (or possibly a kaerl) on the Iron Isles, under the tutelage of the Iron Priests. He had not been given the Canis Helix yet, so he couldn't be a true Iron Priest without first being a Space Marine (Wolf).

 

It's likely that he was very similar in station to Morek Karekborn in Battle of the Fang. Regardless, Logan taking him from a human to a Wolf Guard immediately like that is a faster climb in status than even Ragnar, so it's baffling to me how the fluff was allowed to fly like this.

[MalachiOfRuss]

It was. Arjac was a Fenrisian thrall (or possibly a kaerl) on the Iron Isles, under the tutelage of the Iron Priests. He had not been given the Canis Helix yet, so he couldn't be a true Iron Priest without first being a Space Marine (Wolf).

 

It's likely that he was very similar in station to Morek Karekborn in Battle of the Fang. Regardless, Logan taking him from a human to a Wolf Guard immediately like that is a faster climb in status than even Ragnar, so it's baffling to me how the fluff was allowed to fly like this.

I always took it that he was an Iron Priest and a "full" Space Wolf at that point.

[fivepointedstar]

I would say that if he was in Iron Mt helping out the Iron Priests to have been allowed to be a helped of great vast machinery you think that Arjac was first a SM, then issued the task of apprentice to the Iron Priest...

 

Its said if I remember correctly (since im at work and codex is not near) that the kraken began to pour from the sea, and heading straight for the forge doors was arjac with hammer in hand smashing away at the foul crab-like things.

[SeanyPrawny]

Says in the book he was a blacksmith in his tribe before coming a sky warrior but then jumps ahead to him missing his iron priest bretheren suggesting he was an iron priest before he became a wolf guard then says about how he got elevated... the kraken story. So judging by how the iron priests recruit I think its safe to say he was a blacksmith did the trial to become an iron priest and a marine then when working the forge on the iron isle beat down the kraken-kin and became champion.

 

Simples.

 

EDIT: which means he will at least have a machanical hand right? At least...

[DV8]

The story is quite clear that Arjac is merely human at this point, with the terminology/titles very "fuzzy". The priests of the Iron Isles ignored the warnings and were ill-prepared for the Kraken attack; upon seeing the danger, the priests secured themselves in a mountain fortress and closed the doors, saving themselves but condemning the remainder of the tribe/inhabitants.

 

Arjac breaks down the doors, allowing the villagers to "escape" to safety, but with the breach in defenses (re: the door wasn't there anymore), Arjac (and a dozen other "priests") stood as a line of defense, fighting off the Kraken. When Logan and his company arrived to finish the beast, they found Arjac beset on all sides, his hammers swinging so quickly and thundering so loudly as if he wielded the power of lightning in his hands.

 

Rendered unto death, Logan takes Arjac, declares him to be the "bees-knees" and "made of total pimp-sauce", and makes him not only a Space Wolf, but inducts him into his Wolf Guard straight up.

 

I don't know why that would be of such contention? To be Wolf Guard, one needs only perform some supreme act of honor/valor/glory, typically when saving their liege Lord. But Arjac's defense of the village/inhabitants, and the strength with which he fought the Kraken might have been enough to impress the Great Wolf.

 

 

DV8

[Elric the Silvercoat]

It states in his fluff that he doesn't like fighting but working on machines and the only way it could have been working on marchines if he was a Iron Priest or a Thrall-servitor. And I can see a Iron Priest becoming a Wolf Guard I just wish he had the Special Rules to show this Iron Priest side too.

[commander alexander]

Slap a servo-arm on his back and call it dandy! If he did have Iron Priest rules as well, I would totally use his rules for my own Iron Priest fluff..... All the time...... Every day.

[Wulfebane]

It states in his fluff that he doesn't like fighting but working on machines and the only way it could have been working on marchines if he was a Iron Priest or a Thrall-servitor. And I can see a Iron Priest becoming a Wolf Guard I just wish he had the Special Rules to show this Iron Priest side too.

 

Not true. The Iron Isles are an established forgeworks station away from Asaheim, down in Midgard where the Fenrisian tribes thrive. It's comprised mostly of human serf-thralls that apprentice under a handful (though in 40k terms, a handful could be dozens) of Iron Priests who allow the humans (Fenrisians) a certain amount of knowledge in the ways of the Machine Spirit for the purpose of production. Another purpose for the Iron Isles is for trading foodstuffs and other products from the visiting tribes in exchange for steel/iron axe blades and spear tips. I'm fairly confident it's been discussed in other GW literature, but it's spoken of most prominently in the first few chapters of the first book in the Space Wolf Omnibus, depicting Ragnar's climb through the ranks.

 

The fluff on Arjac says that he "keenly misses his Iron Priest brethren..." That doesn't necessarily mean that he himself was an Iron Priest, just that he worked closely with them and considered them kin.

[Elric the Silvercoat]

It states in his fluff that he doesn't like fighting but working on machines and the only way it could have been working on marchines if he was a Iron Priest or a Thrall-servitor. And I can see a Iron Priest becoming a Wolf Guard I just wish he had the Special Rules to show this Iron Priest side too.

 

Not true. The Iron Isles are an established forgeworks station away from Asaheim, down in Midgard where the Fenrisian tribes thrive. It's comprised mostly of human serf-thralls that apprentice under a handful (though in 40k terms, a handful could be dozens) of Iron Priests who allow the humans (Fenrisians) a certain amount of knowledge in the ways of the Machine Spirit for the purpose of production. Another purpose for the Iron Isles is for trading foodstuffs and other products from the visiting tribes in exchange for steel/iron axe blades and spear tips. I'm fairly confident it's been discussed in other GW literature, but it's spoken of most prominently in the first few chapters of the first book in the Space Wolf Omnibus, depicting Ragnar's climb through the ranks.

 

The fluff on Arjac says that he "keenly misses his Iron Priest brethren..." That doesn't necessarily mean that he himself was an Iron Priest, just that he worked closely with them and considered them kin.

It just seems over the top that he seemed to become a Wolf Guard seemly over night really. It would be the biggest jump sense Ragnar from Blood Claw to Wolf Guard and Blackmane is still said to be the one that has raised in the ranks the fastest. Before long Arjac will have his own Great Company.

[commander alexander]

I'd say he was at least a space wolf recruit already, if not already a full space wolf with the canis helix and geneseed.

[Wulfebane]

Where I do agree that it's a huge leap, it's not uncharacteristic of Space Wolf sagas and as DV8 said, Arjac stood his ground against 1000 kraken-spawn. Not a toe-to-toe brawl vs a rival tribesman or a village raid. He took on a veritable invasion nearly single-handedly when the Iron Priests deemed it a loss and turned their backs. Feats like that don't simply make you one of the Chosen, it makes you a favored Chosen.

 

My only problem is that with the way it's written, the fluff seems to make Arjac one of Logan's Wolf Guard on the spot, still covered in gore and chitin and likely, for all intents and purposes, dead. It doesn't allow for the trials and the Test of Morkai or the trepidation of failure to the Wulfen, etc.

[Wulfebane]

Here's a couple excerpts from Space Wolf,

 

 

The people were strange and new to him and talked in a dialect

he did not understand. Many seemed small and hunched and undernourished. They were clad in tunics and britches of drab grey

and brown and they carried no weapons. They collected scraps in the streets and hurried along bearing burdens and performing

errands. Even here, on these islands rich with metal, there was poverty.

The rulers of the island were fewer and richer. All of them were garbed in metal armour and all of them carried blades of steel in

scabbards of dragonhide leather. They were tall men, well-made, with dark skins and brown eyes. They nodded to him with

distant politeness as he passed, and he responded in kind.

 

...

 

Two sentries armed with metal tipped harpoons guarded the way. They seemed as if they were

made of metal. Iron armour covered them like a second skin. Metal helmets guarded their heads. Shields of steel marked with the

same runes as those above the door hung from their left arms.

’Are they your kin?’ he asked Ranek. The old man’s head swung swiftly to look down at him. The keen eyes bored in Ragnar’s

own. This close Ragnar realised how big the Wolf Priest was. He was considered tall and well-made among his folk but compared

to this old man he was but the size of a child. Ranek was head and shoulders taller than he and would have been far more massive

even without the odd armour that encased his body.

’No, laddie, the Iron Masters are kin only to themselves. There are no others like them on all the islands of the Great Ocean. They

are a people apart.’

 

 

There's hundreds of thousands of normal humans that work among and with the Sky Warriors. Not every "Space Wolf" has to be implanted with the gene helix.

[commander alexander]

Points for him being a Iron Priiest/wolf already:

 

-When the senior Iron priest deemed the island and its people a loss, he ordered the vaults sealed and to wait it out. It clearly says Arjac didn't agree and busted his way "out". Then he stood with the last few priests that made it to the door, and they fought an epiic battle against the beasts.

 

-He was using a thunderhammer. It does say he was a strong brute for a fenrisian tribesman, but theres no way in kingdom come could a plain fenrisian lift it, let alone swing it around for hours.

[Elric the Silvercoat]

Yea because there is always Chapter Serfs and they are not Marines but that doesn't stop them from be members of the Chapter. They will fight to the death just like any Marine.

 

Points for him being a Iron Priiest/wolf already:

 

-When the senior Iron priest deemed the island and its people a loss, he ordered the vaults sealed and to wait it out. It clearly says Arjac didn't agree and busted his way "out". Then he stood with the last few priests that made it to the door, and they fought an epiic battle against the beasts.

 

-He was using a thunderhammer. It does say he was a strong brute for a fenrisian tribesman, but theres no way in kingdom come could a plain fenrisian lift it, let alone swing it around for hours.

And to add one thing too it says he busted out of doors that would have stopped the Kraken-spawn from coming it and the Iron Priest truthed they would. So that says something about this size and strength.

[commander alexander]

Exactly.

[Wulfebane]

It's too vague to determine. He doesn't have to be a SW to ignore the decision of a superior and he busted out because he didn't agree with Hengis and wanted to save the men left outside the barricade.

 

Your second example is dangerous grounds. 40k is a realm of space elves and green orks fighting super-steroid eunichs til the end of time with supernatural bad guys that live in an alternate reality filled with demons and horrors and ghostbusters' ectoplasm. Just saying. With all the tech at our disposal (within the realm of 40k), it's easily conceivable that he could have exo-skeletal augmentations or bionics (without the helix) to assist with the hammer.

[commander alexander]

Right...... Yeah, it does say he disagreed and busted out, but thats implying the door to the vault should have withstood anything those karaken could have thrown at it, let alone a mortal man. And do you really think they would let a thrall jump in some exoskeletol suit and bust down the doors? I have no doubt they wouldn't have any problem with promptly killing him before he did any such thing. Then, he stood outside the doors with the last dozen Iron Priests to make it, actual Iron Priests, then he outlasted them in the combat, and held the vault door on his own? Sure, there are smaller versions of astartes weapons that normal humans can use, like smaller bolter type weapons, and little chainswords. Where, may I ask, have you seen anywhere in fluff or rules, that a non astartes can use something like a thunder hammer? The Inquisition is the only other branch of Imperial forces that uses them, and only by inquisitors who have their own version of power armor and priceless tech and bio-tech surgeries to augment them. Would a thrall have any of that? He might have a failed batch of geeneseed in him, and thats about it.

[hendrik]

i always figuared arjac was one of those blacksmiths that had succeded in making the trip to the isle of iron and passed the tests in the forges etc

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

I always thought he was an Iron priest when he made sushi.. the idea of him going straight from fenrisian to wolf guard seems ridiculous just wish the rules for iron priests had been slightly better, would giving them 2 wounds have hurt so much? even if they had been made a HQ that wouldn't have been that bad, I miss the days of mine just taking his storm sheild and charging with the grey hunters....

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

double post