Warband Fluff

[darth_giles]

Here's the character fluff for the warband I'm working on. Can I please get a fact check on this to make sure it isn't too far out in left field? And yes, I do know that the DP's name is somewhat... derivative. Let's just say I seem to hit the EPIC FAIL button whenever I try to think of a name. Maybe I need to add another L to it?

 

Jemurael the Apothecary

Formerly the Warmaster's personal apothecary, Jemurael served with distinction in the Luna Wolves and later the Sons of Horus until the Heresy. During that time, he continued to serve with distinction and honor in stark contrast to the "other" apothecary- Fabius Bile. Where Bile sought to manipulate the geneseed like it was a toy, Jemurael tried to maintain its purity; corrupted geneseed produced corrupted warriors.

Jemurael fell into disfavor with the future Black Legion for several reasons. First, he was unable to save the Warmaster despite Rogal Dorn running up behind him, whacking him on the head, and then making off with the Emperor's corpse. He also declared Abbadon a coward during the retreat from Terra, and accused him of fleeing when just another brief push would've brought them victory. As a result the Black Legion shuns him and he returns the favor.

Jemurael was at the Iron Cage, fighting alongside the forces of Perturabo against Rogal Dorn, earned the Mark of Chaos Undivided during the thick of the fighting. His white armor was stained red with the blood of the Imperial Fists and Ultramarines, and his lightning claws claimed scores of lives. For every Ultramarine he slew, he reclaimed their pure geneseed for his private stocks; the Imperial Fists' geneseed belonged to Perturabo and was his offering to the Dark Gods.

After the Iron Cage, Jemurael resumed his wanderings, carrying with him the last pure geneseed of both the Sons of Horus as well as that which he reclaimed from his victims. He attempted to start his own legion using a few cultures of the Sons of Horus geneseed, only to draw the wrath of Fabius Bile. The Manflayer attacked Jemurael's castle with a horde of enhanced warriors and destroyed everything he could related to the production of new Chaos Space Marines. Jemurael managed to escape, however, although his precious stock of geneseed had been severely depleted.

In M35, Jemurael led a small warband of the Night Lords on a daring raid against the Howling Skulls space marines' homeworld on the edge of the Ghost Stars while they were away fighting Waaagh! Ruberick. Their attack came without warning or mercy, and the Night Lords were able to alight their corrupted gunships upon the Fortress-Monastery itself. The Night Lords were pleased to put scores of the Howling Skulls' vital support personnel to the sword; Jemurael's personal objective was the chapter's copy of the Codex Astartes and more relatively pure geneseed. The Howling Skulls had one of the newest editions to that date, and the Howling Skulls' geneseed was reputed to be derived from that of the Dark Angels, and thus among the purest available. Jemurael didn't remain with the Night Lords, however, because they desired to join one of Abbadon's Black Crusades and he was unwelcome in any of the Despoiler's forces.

In M38, an odd beacon in the immaterium called to Jemurael, luring him to where a battle barge of the Blood Angels was docked alongside several vessels of the Word Bearers. Jemurael passed through every layer of the Word Bearers' security like a ghost in the darkness, and found its commander embarked on an insane diatribe about donuts. Jemurael unsheathed his lightning claws, slew the commander, and then asked if anyone dared challenge him for command. Since taking command, Jemurael has tried to bring his warband back into line as the might traitor legion it was during the Heresy. With the aid of Silas Van, he implemented sweeping changes to restore discipline and order.

 

Dark Apostle Silas Van

Dark Apostle Silas Van is a relative neophyte; he was recruited on Thranx in M35 and began to serve as a Battle Brother after a trip to visit Fabius Bile. His service record was unremarkable. His commander, Lord Khorvaire, was prone to fits of incompetence following the minor injury of the warband's Dark Apostle shortly after the Thranx recruiting campaign. Lord Khorvaire proclaimed himself the only true leader of the Word Bearers, had the former Dark Apostle entombed within the shell of a Dreadnought, and attempted a campaign of assassination against the other leaders of his own legion. Silas Van became an Aspiring Champion during this time, and while generally obedient to his commander's orders would sometimes push his squad to other objectives if it would help ensure victory.

The last straw came in M38 when Lord Khorvaire attempted to secure an isolated battle barge of the Blood Angels' chapter to replace his own badly-damaged craft. The assault was completely disorganized with Chaos Space Marines being sent to secure objectives completely unrelated to the securing of a battle barge; two squads were sent to secure the ship's donut machine, while only half a squad went to secure the engines. Realizing the donut machine was of no tactical value whatsoever, Silas Van took his two squads and carved a bloody path from the refectory to the ship's bridge, picking up a fallen chaplain's crozius along the way. He removed his helmet to silence its vox and with it his lord's insane orders, and proceeded to secure the bridge with minimal casualties.

Lord Khorvaire refused to accept that Silas Van had secured the ship by disregarding his orders, and ordered both squads imprisoned until enough dreadnought sarcophagi could be obtained to "suitably punish" his wayward Marines. During this imprisonment, Silas Van obtained a prayer book and led a revival of prayer in the depths of the ship's dungeon, crying out to the Dark Powers to liberate them from the madman Khorvaire.

After several weeks of prayer and devotion which attracted the attention of many of his un-imprisoned brothers, a godlike being materialized from the warp. It told Silas Van that his prayers had been answered, and that he had served the Dark Powers well. She granted him the mantle of Dark Apostle, and unlocked the seals on the prison doors. When Jemurael took command of the warband, Silas Van was returned the crozius he had claimed and was formally recognized as the Dark Apostle.

 

Daemon Princess Usagi Tsuniko

Inquisitor Usagi Tsuniko had a very bad decade in M36. She was a moderate inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus, who had attracted the attention of a radical witch hunter whose name has been forgotten. This witch hunter noted that she was a Chaotician (a precursor to the Xanthite sect which studied the Daemonic in an attempt to better understand and destroy it), and began following her. Whenever she certified a family as clean of daemonic taint, he put it to the flame for the merest trivialities. Whenever she tried to bring him to an open confrontation, he danced away laughing.

The last straw came on Tobruk. There were a string of cult-style murders and while every shred of evidence pointed at daemon worship, Usagi was unable to find the specific taint of daemonic contamination. After six months' investigation, she finally reached the conclusion that the entire mess was a grand prank on the part of her nemesis. She filed a formal letter of complaint to the heads of the Inquisition, and took ship for Nemesis Tessara.

Unfortunately, her nemesis was a step ahead of her and was able to produce falsified evidence that she herself was responsible for the murders, and that she had been attempting to bind a daemonhost. The reply from Nemesis Tessara was that she was to stand trial for heresy.

After three trials which each resulted in a hung jury, her witch hunter rival began to accuse the jurors themselves of heresy. After threatening the jurors with an eternity of torment, he was finally able to obtain his conviction and a sentence of death. Usagi Tsuniko refused to accept this sentence, however. She penned a scathing criticism of the Imperium and Ordo Hereticus, and broke free from her cell. She somehow escaped Nemesis Tessara- details of how are sketchy- but she was not seen again for a hundred years. Her letter is still kept by the Ordo Malleus.

In early M37, Usagi Tsuniko had taken up the leadership of a vast network of chaos cults on the hive world Grymestack, and before the Inquisition could fully mobilize had exterminated every living soul in a massive civil war. Her birth-scream echoed through the warp around Grymestack for decades, cutting it off from astropathic contact. But what most disturbed the inquisitors who came to the dead world was the tome which she herself had penned. Written in the blood of male virgins, it described a possible universe where humanity had been snuffed out from existence by a xenos threat, except for a few who had been saved by the Ruinous Powers.

The Tome of Usagi Tsuniko is to this day kept by the Ordo Xenos despite the Ecclesiarchy's incessant demands of it being put to the torch, and is occasionally consulted as a resource by those fighting the necrontyr. Fully ten inches thick, it contains numerous diagrams and charts showing dead worlds where the Warp cannot penetrate, and several blasphemous illuminations showing humans being led to sacrifice by an unending tide of xenos warriors.

In M38, Usagi Tsuniko found herself drawn through the warp by cries of distress from a recently-captured battle barge. She took note of the occupant of an approaching shuttle, and revealed herself to Silas Van to tell him that his prayers had been answered. She prefers to work from the shadows, only rarely taking direct leadership on the field.

As a daemon princess, Usagi Tsuniko follows her own inscrutable plan to save enough of humankind that even the wrath of the star-god C'tan will be unable to wipe out humanity. She is believed to be favored by both Tzeentch and Slaanesh.