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Space Wolf Breakaways as DIY


Haywire

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Right...so...where to start with this.

 

Basically, I've been helping my girlfriend with her Space Wolf army and trying to come up with some semblance of a background for it. She loves the Space Wolves; their attitudes, aesthetics, and units. The problem is, she wants to use her own colour scheme, and her own names for characters.

 

What we have worked out together is the possibility of her 'Chapter' originally being led by a Wolf Lord who decided to break away from the Space Wolves with his Great Company after a dispute over the succession of the Great Wolf of the time (Maybe some time either before or after the Age of Apostasy)

 

My question is essentially this to those who may be in the know. How might the wider Imperium view this, given that this new 'Chapter' still fights for the Imperium and such as any Space Wolf would. They just do so with their own new name, recruitment world, schemes and structure.

 

If the Imperium wouldn't accept them, what does the community here think to the notion of them.....well..nicking the gene seed from a different Chapter (Maybe a White Scars successor), and then using that as their 'tithe' to try and pose as a White Scars successor whose records were lost during the previously mentioned Age of Apostasy.

 

Thank you in advance for any feedback you may be able to give to help resolve this conundrum.

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There is official fluff to support a Wolf Lord breaking away from the Space Wolves with his Great Company.

 

How the wider Imperium would view the Chapter is a matter of whether or not anyone else even knows that the Chapter has broken away from the Space Wolves. That might depend upon whether or not the Space Wolves told anyone (possible if the circumstances of the Great Company's departure necessitated informing the Imperium, or if the Space Wolves were really angry about the situation), or if the facts came to light through other circumstances (maybe an Inquisitor found out somehow - or the breakaway Great Company let the cat out of the bag somehow).

 

With the byzantine nature of the Imperium's power structure and lack of cohesiveness, it might even be possible for such a Great Company to establish itself as its own Chapter. This should be considered highly unlikely, however. The Sons of Medusa are known to have been created in this way, originally being a faction of the Iron Hands Chapter that followed heretical teachings and left that Chapter, later being recognized as an official Chapter. They are considered (somewhat?) unique in this. Note that the Iron Hands and their other Successors are not on friendly terms with the Sons of Medusa (and this is on top of how they're not really friendly with anybody).

 

There are other Chapters whose origins might be unknown to the Imperium at large, as records aren't really centralized and readily available.

 

The more likely scenario is that this is one of the Space Wolf great companies that departed the Chapter. They might have a strike cruiser and pass themselves off as Space Wolves, commandeering supplies and what-not from any elements of the Imperium that they come into contact with (not stealing, mind you, but acquiring materiel as is typical for Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes). Such a breakaway great company might not endure too long without resorting to piracy, though, as the logistics necessary to sustain a Chapter are immense and difficult to come on a long-term basis without prior arrangements.

You could say something like this: Several thousand years ago, at the time of a new Chapter Master succeeding to command the SW, there are 2 main candidates, both experienced warriors, both with very powerful Great Companies. One is elected, but the other cannot accept his rival as master. He and his GC and all their equipment (given the SW non codex structure this could potentially be 200 or more Marines with support and a pretty powerful fleet) leave the Fang on a crusade.

 

They stay away for hundreds of years, over which time they come to call themselves more and more by the moniker of their Wolf Lord (Iron Wolves, Death Wolves, Thunderfists, or whatever you’ve come up with) and likewise their colours gradually reflect this.

 

After a time, they rescue a world that they notice would provide suitable recruits and decide to settle there. At the time they call in several favours owed from local worlds they’ve saved (perhaps a local Forge World in particular) to help build a new home. Move on a few more hundred years and they’ve settled, grown, and become well established as the heroes of the Sector.

 

As Bro T said, they’d be unofficial, but given the fragmented bureaucratic nature of the Imperium, who’d know? Eventually, they’d probably just be accepted as one of the dozens of ‘Unknown Founding’ Chapters floating around the galaxy.

Strike Captain Lysimachus has the best sounding idea.

 

Better to also have them become residents of a world on the other side of the galaxy so they don't accidentally run into real space wolves and have their cover blown.

 

Are there any members of the chapter still surviving who remember the scism? An old dreadnaught perhaps?

Thank you all kindly for the feedback and ideas that you've presented. Shall be going over them with my girlfriend when I see her tomorrow. Hopefully, at some point, she'll write an IA for her 'Chapter'.

 

Then I need to get around to writing my IA as well >.<;

I contributed an article to the Librarium section of the board on just this subject a couple of years ago. Link below...

 

"Of Space Wolf Successors and Lost Companies."

 

It goes into what has been said about them in GW canon, and a few things to think about when writing up your own Lost Company. It sounds like you have a pretty solid idea already, but in any case, I hope it is of use.

Hi, I'm said girlfriend

I've read Aurelius Rex's article while trying to come up with the initial idea and after these helpful responces have decided to make my guys more of a Lost Company, rather than a full Chapter - Strike Captain Lysimachus' idea filled in the gap of why, which was great!

Cheers for the help and shall try to post the IA soon

In which case you have the Space Wolf breakaways claim and uninhabited rock. Then you either transplant a population from Fenris or have the Serfs set up home on the New World (bonus points if you call it Vin's World).

 

After a few hundred years, if using the technology that Krieg used after the nuclear war, you will probably have a large healthy population of Fenrisians ripe for the harvest.

 

They may be living underground where the world is pleasantly warm and not radioactive and they may be rather more technologically adept than Old Fenrisians but genetically they are all good.

In which case you have the Space Wolf breakaways claim and uninhabited rock. Then you either transplant a population from Fenris or have the Serfs set up home on the New World (bonus points if you call it Vin's World).

 

After a few hundred years, if using the technology that Krieg used after the nuclear war, you will probably have a large healthy population of Fenrisians ripe for the harvest.

 

They may be living underground where the world is pleasantly warm and not radioactive and they may be rather more technologically adept than Old Fenrisians but genetically they are all good.

That works for me.

  • 1 year later...

I contributed an article to the Librarium section of the board on just this subject a couple of years ago. Link below...

 

"Of Space Wolf Successors and Lost Companies."

 

It goes into what has been said about them in GW canon, and a few things to think about when writing up your own Lost Company. It sounds like you have a pretty solid idea already, but in any case, I hope it is of use.

 

Sorry to resurrect this old topic, but where can I find this article now that the link is dead?  I found a version of it here but it requires $9/mo to read past page 1.  Thanks for any help as I'd really like to read it.

That location where the article resides, the Librarium, is down. It's something the higher ups are trying to resolve and has something to do with the upgrade to the servers or some such that went on a bit ago. Until it's back, links to it or any articles in it are down.

That location where the article resides, the Librarium, is down. It's something the higher ups are trying to resolve and has something to do with the upgrade to the servers or some such that went on a bit ago. Until it's back, links to it or any articles in it are down.

 

Hey thanks Cormac.  I was about to say that's great news, but I guess it's sort of mixed news.  Hopefully things'll be up and running soon.

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