The Ghost Brigades

[rpnightsend]

So this is meant to be a quick overview, and not go into too much detail about any chapter or character involved, but this is the fluff for my 3 DIY chapters and their characters.

 

The Typhoon Marines

The Typhoon Marines were an Ultramarines Successor chapter first designated to be created during the 26th Founding. Due to delays in the bureaucracy of the Imperium, the chapter was not ready to begin creation until shortly after the battle of Macragge. Due to the destruction of the Ultramarines first Company, the veterans sent to assist the new chapter were pulled largely from Chaplain Cassius' Tyrannic War Veterans. The Chapter Master himself, Robert Leerca, a Vanguard Veteran, was reccomended to Calgar personally by Cassius. Though young for a veteran and incredibly so to be taking on the role of chapter master, Leerca proved a skilled leader and by roughly 780.M41 the chapter was prepared to begin active participation on the battlefield.

With its core drawn primarily from Tyrannic War Veterans, the Typhoon Marines quickly proved to be experts at fighting these creatures, and aided the Ultramarines in clean-up operations in the wake of Hive Fleet Behemoth. However, after a conflict with xeno forces tentatively identified as Necron, Chapter Master Leerca decided to take a more active role in combatting all xeno threats, but especially those whose terrible power he had witnessed first hand: The Necron and Tyranids.

A fleet-based chapter, the Typhoon Marines have become adept at lightning assaults, utilizing armored spearheads of rhinos and bikes supported by drop pods and land speeder/assault marine combat drops. These skills have been especially honed against their favored enemies, who feel no fear at the sight of the Chapter's drop pods filling the sky or a line of their tanks rolling towards their lines.

The chapter acts with a great amount of autonomy, travelling to dead or quarantined worlds and even allying with xenos such as Eldar and Orks mercenaries against the Tyranids ad Necron. While they continue to fight on the side of the imperial forces, their great degree of freedom has brought the chapter under inquisitorial scrutiny. Seeing great potential in Leerca's goals, the famous Inquisitor Kryptman stepped in, offering one of his personal acolytes to join the Typhoon Marines and oversee them. Inquisitor John Galadonel was selected for his radical beliefs and Kryptman's faith that he would let all but flat-out heretical acts pass among Leerca's forces.

 

Characters:

Chapter Master Leerca: A brilliant, if inexperienced, warrior, leader, and diplomat, Leerca has gone to great lengths to carry on his and his chapter's mission. His hot-headedness has created tensions between him and other Imperial forces sometimes, but it has never amounted to a real conflict. He is constantly vigilant for signs of corruption or heresy within his forces, as he knows his leniency allows some of his men to come within inches of becoming renegade.

 

Captain Claudius: The Captain of the 3rd company, Claudius is a powerful warrior and tactician, but lacks Leerca's leadership abilities. He is much older than Leerca and often acts as his advisor.

 

Chief Librarian Argentus: Among all of Leerca's forces, Librarian Argentus is the one who walks the thinnest line between doing what is necessary and heresy. While Librarians are already closer than other Space Marines to the warp, he has gone as far as to consult and observe psykers of other races, including Eldar and Orks. He has never tried to emulate their witchcraft though, and maintains that understanding how other races manipulate the warp will help him combat them better.

 

The Froststalkers

A Dark Angels successor chapter, the Froststalkers have distanced themselves from other Unforgiven Chapters through their heavy use of stealth tactics, going as far as to have even their 1st and 2nd company's armor color match their chapter's blue and grey camo pattern. Their scouts act in tangent with their 2nd company in observing areas from afar where potential Fallen may be, while their Assault Marines are deployed alongside their 1st company to catch fleeing targets that the cumbersome terminator armor prevents them from pursuing. These tactics have proven nonetheless effective for the capturing of the Fallen, and the chapter has, since its creation in the 16th founding, captured more Fallen then all but the foremost chapters among the Unforgiven. This has earned their unconventional (by Unforgiven standards) approach to hunting the Fallen tolerated, if not accepted, by other Unforgiven chapters. After battling a tendril of Hive Fleet Kraken alongside Leerca and his forces, the Froststalkers saw potential in his goals, and dispatched their 4th company, along with elements of their 1st, 2nd, and 10th, to asisst him. It is said that the Froststalkers have deeper motives for joining Leerca, for he travels across the Eastern Fringe, an area relatively unsearched by the Unforgiven...

 

Characters:

Ghoststalker Raphael: The Captain of the Froststalkers 4th company bear the honorific title of "Ghoststalker", for he is expected to have mastered the use of stealth and the pursuit of fleeing foes. Raphael is a quiet individual, even among Dark Angels and their successors, but his knowledge and skill with stealth and ambush tactics have proven invaluable to Leerca's cause.

 

The Steel Avengers

Among all of the chapters who have mysterious or contradictory histories, the Steel Avengers are the most strange. There is no record of their founding, and even records of their participation in battle are difficult to come by. Until their recent involvement in Leerca's crusade, it's as if the chapter itself has not existed. What can be understood from their recent emergence and involvement in conflicts is they are either a very old chapter, have close ties to the Adeptus Mechanicus, or more likely, both. They bear numbers of ancient weapons and armor that come close to matching those of even first founding chapters, and have a large number of vehicles in their armory, especially whirlwinds and vindicators. They are stoic warriors, who speak rarely and spend much of their time maintaining their wargear. When fighting the forces of chaos however, their typical demeanor changes radically, and they are thrown into a battlefury that makes the brashness of the Typhoon Marines look reserved. They recently dedicated their 2nd company, along with portions of their 1st company and a significant force from their armory to Leerca and his mission. Their exact reason for this goes unstated, but many have made speculations about their perceived ties to Adeptus Mechanicus and Leerca's frequent engagement with the Necron...

 

Characters:

Chapter Master Starg: The current chapter master of the chapter himself has joined the forces allied to Leerca. He is markedly more vocal than the rest of his chapter and offers deep understanding of siege and defensive tactics, something the more assault-based Froststalkers and Typhoon Marines lack. He has shown great curiosity in the procuring of Necron artifacts and always is accompanied by one of his techmarines to battle when facing the Necron.

[Sigismund Himself]

When creating DIY chapters, generally people try to stand clear of using too many established characters and names in their IAs. It tends to come off as name-dropping to attempt to make their chapter fit into the fabric of the universe or look important. In the first case, the character of the IA should take care of making seem part of the universe. The 40k galaxy is a huge place in space and to quote Douglas Adams, "Space... is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is...". This isn't the Star Wars universe, where nearly everyone seems to have had a relative killed by Boba Fett or has some personal grudge against the Skywalker family ;) Generally stay clear of major characters, as we'll wonder why they haven't been mentioned officially. Of course there are ways around this but generally they're best left alone.

 

For the second part, care should always be taken around playing up your chapters relative awesomeness. If they're that awesome, why haven't we heard of them? There should be drawbacks to every advantage and this will help lead to the chapter being a well-rounded one. Always try to think of the consequences of every difference in your chapter from norm and apply them. This leads a little wobbily into my next point. The foremost thing in a great IA is the chapter's character. What is it that makes them get out of bed in the morning, brush their teeth and drop screaming through the atmosphere at a million miles an hour into the jaws of death and smite the enemies of the Emperor? How do they view normal humans and why do they fight? In other words, we know marines kick ass, tell us what flavour chewing gum they use :lol:

[rpnightsend]

Well I only mentioned Cassius and Kryptman, and that was because this group walks a very thin line between radicalism and heresy. Without outside support there's no way this kind of group would get away with this without being declared renegade. Acting freely is one thing, but they ally with xenos, observe xeno psykers, and act almost entirely outside the Imperial chain of command.

 

I thought I explained why you hadn't heard of them pretty well for each chapter. The Typhoon Marines are very new, and their deeds are yet to be well known. The Froststalkers aren't well liked by the other Unforgiven and, being Unforgiven, keep away from other Imperial forces. The Steel Avengers had barely been seen or heard of until recently. Additionally, the fact that they primarily bring the fight to Tyranids and Necron means they rarely have allies to witness their actions, as its hard to get a guardsmen to run headlong into a tomb world.

 

The last part you are right, I did skimp out a on that because I was trying to establish the fluff a little first. But to explain it in uneloquent terms:

 

Typhoon Marines - Love to throw themselves straight at the enemy. Using either mechanized assaults, drop pods, or combat drops, they get in the enemy's face as quickly as possible. They aren't suicidal, but they'll take risky actions that some chapters would think about twice about.

 

Froststalkers - They're a Dark Angels Successor, but they use a lot of stealth, especially making use of scouts and assault marines. They're experts at catching fleeing opponents.

 

Steel Avengers - They have TONS of ancient weaponry and wargear, from plasma weaponry to suits of terminator armor, and they use it with amazing effectiveness. Their close ties to the Admech also means they have plenty of tanks, and they're skill at sieges comes close ot that of Iron Hands.

[Mazer Rackham]

The Froststalkers

These tactics have proven nonetheless effective for the capturing of the Fallen, and the chapter has, since its creation in the 16th founding, captured more Fallen then all but the foremost chapters among the Unforgiven.

 

I was digging this right up to here - it's awesome, but it's too much Brother.

 

No-one captures more Fallen than the big bad 1st Legion. They're the best at it, been doing it for millennia, so much so they have Companies dedicated to it.

 

Maybe one Fallen, but no more - they're hen's teeth rare and wily as a Fox who was professor of cunning at Cunningham University.

 

Otherwise - more please!

 

MR.

[rpnightsend]

phew. sorry to get back to you so much later mazer, the hurricane knocked out my power.

I'm sorry if thats a bit ambigious, they dont capture more than the Dark Angels, or even some of the other Dark Angels successors. They just do it better than most other successors, sorry if that confused you.

Suggestions on how I could word that differently so it doesn't create more problems?