IA Redux: Retributors

[ale0x]

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INDEX ASTARTES

RETRIBUTORS

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Designer's Note: This is a revised version of an ollllllld writeup I did for my chapter years ago, which can still be seen here. Said link is now being retconned/cleaned-up into this new-and-improved IA, but I figured I'd post the old one so we could see how my ideas have been refined, etc. The theme of this army is uncompromising Old Testament biblical ass-kickery with a strong judgment/punishment theme.

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T

he Shields of Samekh chapter was created from the geneseed of Rogal Dorn during the Fourth Founding, tasked with the protection of the Samekh Sector of Segmentum Pacificus, home to many pilgrimage routes containing important shrine worlds. The members of the initial command staff of the fledgling chapter were taken from the ranks of the Hazoran Crusade fleet of Black Templar, with the especially pious Master of Sanctity Garroth Valbrecht becoming the first Chapter Master. The Fortress-Monastery of the Shields was built in the Sheol system, upon a world bearing the same name, a dusty planet of wind-blasted badlands and inhospitable slag-deserts where the indigenous population huddled in subterranean hive cities or eked out a migratory life as nomads of the great dunes and canyons. Despite its harsh and forbidding climate, Sheol was considered a holy place by the common people of the system, for it was said that the Emperor himself spent a full cycle in orbit above the planet during the early days of the Great Crusade. Over time and as new recruits were drawn from the hardy tribes of wasteland nomads, the chapter began to assimilate the culture and traditions of Sheol, including the adoption of various titles and roles drawn from the history of the planet and its earliest cultures. The traditional roles of the ancient warrior-kings of Sheol, known as shoftim (an antiquated Sheoli word encompassing the concepts of "warrior" "priest" and "judge"), were incorporated into the mythology of the chapter cult, with the Chapter Master, traditionally the acting Master of Sanctity, taking on the title of "High Judge."

During the Plague of Unbelief, after the primary events of the Age of Apostasy, the Shields of Samekh were called upon to engage the forces of Cardinal Bucharis and his allies in several pitched battles along the border between the Pacificus and Obscurus Segmentae. The conflict demanded nearly the full strength of the chapter, with just three companies kept in reserve in the Samekh Sector while the other seven companies fought bitterly across dozens of worlds. At the conclusion of the campaign, the crusading companies of the Shields returned to find their home system of Sheol engulfed in heresy and turmoil. Confusion and fear had taken root in the system, brought by agents of the Apostate Cardinal who had spread their lies and propaganda, spurring the formation of myriad cults and resistance movements. Soon, heresy was preached openly in the streets, with the citizenry defying the will of the Emperor and defacing many of the holy sites and shrines they had previously cherished. Before long, the taint of Chaos emerged among the dissidents, and the entire world of Sheol descended into madness and anarchy, blood filling the streets as the capitol world tore itself apart. The three reserve companies of Shields were engaged in brutal purges of the insurgency when the remainder of the fleet returned to the system. Unable to quash the uprising and having lost the support of the Planetary Defense Forces to Chaos, the Shields were locked in a bloody stalemate. It was then that the Black Ship bearing Lord-Inquisitor Damien Phaeroxis XII of the newly-formed Ordo Hereticus entered the system.

A hardline Monodominant, the Lord-Inquisitor had received an astropathic communique from Sheol's governor-elect some time earlier, detailing the rapidly-deteriorating situation within the system. Without so much as making planetfall, Phaeroxis declared the world of Sheol to be beyond redemption, summarily consigning the planet to the ultimate sanction: Exterminatus. The remaining Shields of Samekh withdrew to orbit and watched with burning shame as every trace of life on Sheol was eradicated, leaving nothing but a barren rock devoid of even microbial activity. Knowing that even if the capitol world had been pacified, they could not have quelled all the rebellions blossoming system-wide in their weakened state. A grudging understanding settled in that the cleansing of Sheol sent a clear message to the rest of the sector and brought many worlds to heel. The master of the chapter, High Judge Bosheth Kernn, then declared that the Shields of Samekh would embark upon an endless crusade of penitence for their failure to maintain order in the sector to which they were entrusted. They would visit destruction upon the enemies of the Imperial Creed with a fury born out of rage, grief and the desire for atonement in the eyes of the Emperor and the Primarch. It was then that the Shields of Samekh became the Retributors, forsaking their colors and insignia and taking instead the personal heraldry of Lord-Inquisitor Phaeroxis as their inspiration, honoring the puritan for showing them that there could be no room for leniency, pity or remorse within the hearts of those who seek to enforce order.

Organization, Beliefs and Current Status

S

ince the destruction of Sheol thousands of years earlier, the Retributors have been on crusade primarily within the Segmentum Pacificus. The battle-barge "Meggido" serves as their mobile base of operations alongside a modest-sized fleet of accompanying vessels. The overall combat doctrine of the Retributors is to bring the fury of their cause to bear in the most direct and personal way possible, preferring to burn and butcher the enemies of Man in close-combat. In the tradition of their Sheoli forebears, the Captains of each Retributors company share leadership duties with a Chaplain who takes the mantle of Battle-Judge and acts as intermediary with the High Judge. Apart from the standard company organization stand the Castigators, a sect of elite warriors that retain the bone-white color of the Shields of Samekh and accompany the High Judge into battle when he deigns to take the field, only against the most heinous of traitors and heretics. The Retributors openly deify the Emperor and worship him accordingly, unlike many other Space Marine chapters. Being zealous in the extreme and more pious then many members of the Ecclesiarchy itself, the Retributors maintain no Librarium, distrusting the institution of Librarians and preferring to adhere to the strictures laid down at the Council of Nikaea. Though Lord-Inquisitor Phaeroxis was killed some two hundred years after the events in the Sheol system and subsequently canonized as a Saint by the Ecclesiarchy, the Retributors continue to maintain close ties with the Ordo Hereticus. Neophytes are traditionally sent to serve for a time in the retinues of Hereticus Inquisitors, gaining valuable insight into dealing with heretics, witches and mutants. After their period of apprenticeship, the neophytes return to complete the transformation into full-fledged warriors of the Adeptus Astartes. Being roughly seven thousand years old, the Retributors retain a number of ancient dreadnoughts, bearing the greatest warriors of the chapter stretching back into antiquity.

In recent years the Retributors, led by High Judge Ibzan Proxis, have crossed paths with warbands of the traitorous Word Bearers legion, clashing in brutal skirmishes along the pilgrimage routes of Segmentum Pacificus where the Chaos-worshippers sought to topple ancient shrine worlds and erect monuments to their own dark gods. In addition, several industrial worlds in the Khirbet system of Samekh Sector itself have been plagued by coordinated campaigns of sabotage, disinformation and psychological warfare by cells of Alpha Legion cultists and traitor marines. A detachment of three companies has been dispatched from the main fleet, led jointly by Battle-Judge Melech Samson and Lord-Inquisitor Varix Mozius and tasked with rooting out the Alpha Legion operatives and restoring order to the system...at any cost.

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Well, thats my current official IA article! I've been out of the hobby and the game for a few years, so its exciting and fun to be enthusiastic about it again after so long. Let me know if anything doesn't sit right or if I've gotten my chronology wrong, but I think everything lines up properly and I've tried to be vague enough that it doesn't matter. Heh. One point I'm not sure about is whether Samekh should be a Sector or a Subsector...I'm leaning towards Sub, since it seems like a Sector is way too big for one chapter to be guarding, but I really am not sure. Let me know what you think! I will have a thread up with pictures soon, and if this thread ends up being viewed enough I may just dump them in here too. In the meantime, check my album "Retributors" to see some shots of my old chaplain Samson and a work-in-progress High Judge ;D

Cheers!

[InquisitorHayn]

First, I want to thank you. This was very fun to read. Very well thought out concepts. One thing stands out to me more out of curiosity than critique: If the Chapter is firmly against psykers, how do they feel about astropaths, navigators, and the like? And if they're on the end of the spectrum that accepts necessary evils, does that further play into their overall personality?

 

Also, I like the penitent crusade thing. Some might say that they're just a little too chummy with the guy that burned their world, but such extreme dedication to their oaths as Space Marines makes them the ultimate hardasses in my opinion.

 

Looking forward to this article's completion.

[ale0x]

Thanks man! Yeah, their attitude towards the Inquisitor was mentioned as being too tolerant in the first draft of this IA, years ago, but I feel like its a core part of their identity. i.e. it shows how extremist they are, etc. :)

[ale0x]

So uh, how does one go about petitioning to have their chapter added to the Liberis Honouris?

 

Also, does anybody have any feedback or suggestions, or an answer about the subsector vs. sector thing?

 

I abhor bumping posts, but this one's fallen off and I really wanna figure out the consensus on the subsector thingie.

 

Thanks!

[InquisitorHayn]

Let's see if we can't get the ball rolling on some more C&C, eh?

 

As far as the sector/sub-sector thing, I'd say it's really up to you. Chapters don't usually tend to stick to one spot, sometimes fighting wars clear across the Imperium. What you have to remember is that Space Marines are not Guard regiments or Battlefleets. Their job isn't really to hold territory. Where they end up is usually just conveniently located near, or in the path of, an existing threat. Whether this threat persists and whether or not they choose to supplement distant battlefields is for chance and the Chapter to decide.

(I personally used a sector for my Storm Stalkers.)

 

As far as critique...I really like your ideas and how solidly you've established the history. The problem for me is that you just brushed over the now. The second half of the IA has a lot of great one-line factoids, but there's no real meat to it. For instance, perhaps a bit on how the Castigators came to be. And maybe a little background on why the Retributors see the Emperor as a God when they know full well that he was a man? I think adding to this point would create a much darker irony in their conflict with the Word Bearers.

 

Which brings me to my next point. Unless you intend to use the Word Bearers as some kind of dramatic or ironic tool, the name-dropping really doesn't add anything to the piece. There are so many warbands that aren't even homogeneously composed that throwing names out there without some kind of purpose is pointless. Especially the part about the Alpha Legion. They don't exactly go running about looking like Alpha Legion. These guys are hard to spot, so just saying, "Oh, and we fought them, too" kinda kills the believability. Remember that when you mention established items, the little kid in all of us readers starts grinning like an idiot and wondering what kind of awesome John Woo action is coming next.

 

Also, the whole "Neophytes serving the Hereticus" thing. Nope, I'm not gonna say it's no good. :) However, given that this would significantly increase the turnaround time on recruiting, there needs to be some mechanism for how this works without putting the Chapter in peril. Recruits take long enough, to find, test, train, and implant as is. And I think you're about to tell me that it will substitute for their training. The problem with that is that only Astartes can teach an Astartes how to use the the implants of his body and the Space Marine methods of war. Even with the requisite knowledge, no mortal can physically replicate these things, necessitating tutelage by Space Marines.

 

Hopes this lends you a helping gauntlet. Oh, and as far as the petition thing. No clue.