IA: Vermilion Wings

[Evz]

Index Astartes


The Vermilion Wings

"For the Emperor. For Sanguinius. For every last citizen we spill blood for. Dine upon their flesh! Feast upon their marrow! Let none of them survive! In the name of Sanguinius, death! Death! Let all blood fly!!" ~ Commander Donal, current Chapter Master of the Vermilion Wings.

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Origins

They were one of the 23rd Founding. The High Lords of Terra found one area of space on the Eastern Fringe to be unprotected, within the Oshim system, and under constant threat of being invaded by the Greenskins. A petition had been signed, and the creation was underway. A training cadre was created from the Red Wings Chapter, and Mars had forged them a number of ships, arms and armor to begin with. The Brother-Captain Saon, formally of the Red Wings, was put in charge of this cadre while a larger force of Red Wings space marines led the fight into the Oshim system. Within they had discovered that the Orks were terrorizing the Imperial planets in the sector. The entire system was in chaos. From the Battle Barge Angel’s Flame, Saon sent his cadre to several worlds, alongside the large force of Red Wings space marines who had come in with their own small fleet, retaking the worlds from the Orks. The final battle against the Orks was upon the planet Callisto, where Saon did battle with the Ork warboss. The warboss was defeated within a massive desert valley in the largest battle of the campaign. Callisto, and the Oshim system had been conquered. Saon was named the first Chapter Master. The system’s local Techpriests began construction on the new Fortress Monastery on Callisto. Whilst the Fortress Monastery was being built, the newly formed Vermilion Wings used the Angel’s Flame as a base of operations.

 

 

Home World

Callisto is a temperate medieval world. It is much like Terra was in ancient times, with many different climates and cultures. It has several continents, each covered in kingdoms and cities. It was colonized just before the Age of Strife, but since then it had been cut-off from the Imperium and the people have since devolved, and had come under constant threat by Orks until the Vermilion Wings arrived. The people range from average people living in the cities, to barbarians living in the harsh north, to desert-dwelling dark-skinned warriors. A good group of people to recruit marines from.
 

Fortress Monastery

The Fortress Monastery of the Vermilion Wings, The Spire, is located in the Green Desert, named after the fact that the campaign against the Orks had first ended there, and is still littered with Ork and marine wrecks. The Fortress itself is a big gray structure within the center of the desert, built to look like an ancient castle. It is surrounded by high walls, which are bristling with cannons. Within, the corridors are lined with the bones of battle-brothers long dead.
 

Organization

There are ten companies within the Chapter, each made up of one hundred marines each, and led by a brother-captain. The first company is made of veterans, the tenth are entirely made of Neophytes, and the rest are full of a mixture of assault marines (including bikers and speeders) and tactical marines, with a few devastator squads.
 

Beliefs

They have embraced the fact that, even though that Astartes are by far much longer than the average human citizen, the vast majority of them die in battle. Due to their curse, they all expect to die in battle one day, and sometimes entire forces are wiped out if only to hold the line to the last man. But they pay love and respect for their fallen. Once a battle is finished, they collect their dead, and lay them out in rows, and then devour their flesh. This horrific act will give them the memories of those who have passed on, and will sometimes rarely give them a brief glimpse at the memories of Sanguinius due to their hyper-sensitive Omophagea organ. The only ones allowed to eat the body of a fallen brother are those within his own squad. The bones are then added to the corridors within the Fortress Monastery.

Before the body is consumed, a servitor sucks out the blood of the marine through a giant needle. This blood is put within the Pool of Rememberance. The Pool of Rememberance is a vast underwater lake beneath the Spire full of the blood of every dead battle brother, it is unknown what keeps the blood warm. When an initiate is first taken to the Spire, they must take a ritual bath for some time within the Pool, so that they may become one with their brothers before entering the chapter in-full.

Once a battle is over, and their own dead are separated from the enemy's dead, they cook and consume the flesh of their enemies in a great ritualistic feast. They eat most enemies, save for those aligned to the Chaos gods, the Necrontyr, Tyranids, and Greenskins. Such things are said to be impure. If a Vermilion Wing is caught devouring a chaos warrior, he is brought to a chaplain, who will put him out of his insane misery.

The Death Company is the same as it is in every other Blood Angels Chapter, as the curse of Sanguinius is still present. If a marine who had succumbed was felled in battle, they will be given a proper burial as to not risk eating the flesh and falling to the Black Rage themselves. They will also transport the bones of the fallen back to Callisto, where they would be put within the Fortress Monastery to decorate the corridors lined with bones.
 

Combat Doctrine

The Vermillion Wings fight with a tendency towards aggressive assault actions using mobile forces. They make extensive use of tactical squads and assault squads. They have little to no terminator squads, or transports besides Stormravens and Thunderhawk Gunships, as they believe hiding in tanks is silly and weak. The assault squads will swarm enemies, and rip them apart in close combat, whilst tactical squads sweep in and pick off whoever is left, and hold objectives. Tactical squads will also be used for smaller operations. All of the close-combat obsessiveness is due to their dark flaw.
 

Recruitment

Every year, a Chaplain travels the world, and visits several cities, picking up a group of young men from each. This day is like a holiday to the people. The boys are taken to the Saraphim Gorge, a heavily-forested mountain area on the eastern continent, where the Vermilion Wings have built an outpost. Here, in the gorge, where the water reaches up tot heir ankles, they are told to strip. The fifty young men strip themselves of their clothing, and are each given a combat knife. The Chaplain tells them to cut the symbol of the Vermilion Wings into their left shoulders. Some of the boys misunderstand, and end up cutting themselves all over, so that they are drenched in their own blood. Next, they are forced to pummel one another with their bare hands and knives and whatever else they can find, until twenty remain. These will be the next neophytes of the chapter. They are then flown to The Spire, where they are to bathe within the Pool of Rememberance. Following this, they will undergo the implantation and training process, and then finally become scouts.
 

Gene-seed

They have the Red Thirst and Black Rage. This is something that cannot be cured. Every one of them does not like it but they continue to do their duty to the God-Emperor. Along with this, they have a hypersensitive Omophagea organ. This, mixed with the Red Thirst, makes them bloodthristy killing machines on the battlefield. They will stop at nothing to get as close to the enemy as possible, and rip their hearts out and, if possible, devour it in front of their enemy. After a battle is done, they will build a camp and cook their enemies, then dine upon their flesh. They are forced to fight the urge to devour meat and blood when near an Inquisitor or any other Imperial of high status, and instead do it in secret. While the Red Thirst and Black Rage cannot be avoided, they can at least control their Omophagea organs to an extent. This flaw appeared not long after they were created. Even in the earliest days of the Oshim campaign, the newly-made marines were found ripping off their helmets and ripping into grots after a victory and devouring them raw, along with eating anything that died, civilians, battle-brothers, and greenskins. This was first thought to have been just the Red Thirst, but Sanguinary Priests of the chapter have discovered otherwise. Within months they had learned to control themselves.
 

Battle-cry

”Let all blood fly!”

[Sigismund Himself]

A very solid start to the IA :P

 

The only problem right now is that these guys seem a little bland. They seem very close to the Blood Angels and struggle to differentiate themselves from many other chapters. The Origins section is a good example of this. Right now, you could take it and apply it to about half the other marine chapters out there simply by changing the name of the chapter. You should aim to imbue it with more emotion and character. Why did the marines do what they did and how did they feel about it? Then do this for every section and it'll be an excellent article instead of 'just' a good one :P Tell us how these guys are different, what makes them get out of bed in the morning and the reasons for their actions.

 

The Spire, is located in the Green Desert, named after the fact that the campaign against the Orks had first ended there, and is still littered with Ork and marine wrecks.

This is an awesome image.

 

Good luck!

[Evz]

A very solid start to the IA

 

The only problem right now is that these guys seem a little bland. They seem very close to the Blood Angels and struggle to differentiate themselves from many other chapters. The Origins section is a good example of this. Right now, you could take it and apply it to about half the other marine chapters out there simply by changing the name of the chapter. You should aim to imbue it with more emotion and character. Why did the marines do what they did and how did they feel about it? Then do this for every section and it'll be an excellent article instead of 'just' a good one :) Tell us how these guys are different, what makes them get out of bed in the morning and the reasons for their actions.

 

The Spire, is located in the Green Desert, named after the fact that the campaign against the Orks had first ended there, and is still littered with Ork and marine wrecks.

This is an awesome image.

 

Good luck!

 

Thank you! Hmm... That is my problem... I am not sure what to do about this. The reason I gave em the hyper-sensitive omophagea was because I really didn't want to go with average BA or vanilla marines, I wanted them to be vicious and have a flaw that was a bit more interesting. But you're right.

 

Not sure how to go about this. This will require some thought... *Ponders*

[DarkCrusader]

Thats an awesome IA!i hope when i write one it will also fit together so well.

[Arkangilos]

A very solid start to the IA

 

The only problem right now is that these guys seem a little bland. They seem very close to the Blood Angels and struggle to differentiate themselves from many other chapters. The Origins section is a good example of this. Right now, you could take it and apply it to about half the other marine chapters out there simply by changing the name of the chapter. You should aim to imbue it with more emotion and character. Why did the marines do what they did and how did they feel about it? Then do this for every section and it'll be an excellent article instead of 'just' a good one :) Tell us how these guys are different, what makes them get out of bed in the morning and the reasons for their actions.

 

The Spire, is located in the Green Desert, named after the fact that the campaign against the Orks had first ended there, and is still littered with Ork and marine wrecks.

This is an awesome image.

 

Good luck!

 

Thank you! Hmm... That is my problem... I am not sure what to do about this. The reason I gave em the hyper-sensitive omophagea was because I really didn't want to go with average BA or vanilla marines, I wanted them to be vicious and have a flaw that was a bit more interesting. But you're right.

 

Not sure how to go about this. This will require some thought... *Ponders*

 

Don't worry, its the same problem I, and a lot of other, Blood Angel successor fans out there have. The Blood Angels are already very unique, so we have to go beyond the normal crazyness.

 

I think your flaw does add quite a bit to the chapter, and it should be expanded on. Go more into how eating the bodies affects your chapter's rituals, holidays, structer, etc.

 

When did this problem start? Why did it start? Do they hate themselves for it? Or do they love themselves for it? Who gets the first bite? Who takes the last bite? Which bite is more important? Do they get the memories of their fallen brothers? (in which case, you shouldn't cook the meat, but eat it raw). Do they hope to find a cure by this? Do they hope to keep their brothers memories (and so their minds, which might amount to their souls to you) alive? What do they do with their Death Company? Do they eat them as well? If so, why? Is it to get their memories of Sanguinius, thus preparing them for their own fate? What about Tech's and Librarians? What are you views on them, and do you eat them as well? Or do you shun them for being differant... You might get something you don't want from the Librarians, and the Techmarines might be too oily?

 

The answers to those questions should add quite a bit of character.

[Evz]

Thanks a lot! This is going to help me so so so much.