Background help

[evolved23]

Hey all

So I recently decided to go back and have a look at the fluff that builds up my Night Lords force. See I've kind of managed to sort out the more recent background as to what's happened.

 

Bassically I play the Night Lords 14th Company. I have decided to call them the Sunderers due to the fact that recently the company had a bit of a split due to the arguments between the

two senior sergeants after the captain died.

 

My current commander is Fas Markale. He leads a puritanical split of the 14th whereas his rival Caliga seeing the haunters teachings as weakness has decided to abandon them and has uttelry

deserted the Night Lords legion for a Word Bearers warband that I am building.

 

What I can't decide is whether this would acutally work first of all. As far as I am aware the only 2 factions that seem to take on disparate forces and that is the Black Legion and the Red Corsairs.

Do you think its possible that Word Bearers would actually take on "faithful" from other legions?

 

So thats the first problem. The next is kind of more complex. See I'm trying to tie in a couple of weaving story lines as to why Caliga and Markale ended up on the wrong side of each other but

can't seem to make the connection. I also after reading in the SM codex on the Invaders want to throw in there the idea of this company of Night Lords destroying in a joint Op with another legion

an entire craftworld.

 

So can anyone suggest a way of filling in the Pre heresy/ heresy era gaps?

[Lungboy]

I can't help sadly, but you might want to change the sub-text of your thread title if you can. "Fluffer assistance" sounds like you need someone to work in a porn cinema.

[Dammeron]

All of the traditional legions have off-shoots, schisms and sub-cults; even when not specifically stated in the B.G., it is heavily implied in the more general background relating to the Chaos legions.

 

The bulk of the Word Bearers, for example, are split into two forces; those who exist under Lorgar's leadership on the Daemon world Sicarius, and those under Kor Phaeron's dominion in the depths of the Maelstrom. Furthermore, we know from the Word Bearers background that, though they operate with somewhat more cohesion than many of their fellows, each Great Host has its own idiosyncratic beliefs, structure, rituals, panoply etc etc, all dictated by the visions and revelations of their Dark Apostles. Furthermore, it isn't outside the realms of speculation that there have been various schisms and heresies from the bulk of the legion over the years, as ranking officers have received blessings or visions that have conflicted with the core tenets handed down by Lorgar, Erebus et al, and have taken off on their own with their own warbands.

 

The background is specifically tailored so that you can go wild with it; if you want to have a force of renegade Night Lords, for example, who have fallen under the sway of one or more of the Great Powers or some lesser divinity, then have at it; it should make for an interesting story telling exercise.

[the jeske]

as much as I like the lord of the night , how do people get the "puritan" faction armies . in the time line we have right now the "puritans" consist of a one armed company master and a one armed rogue INQ .

 

 

as to why hate . easy power . there is no equal dudes , one always has to be the better one , the leader . and if someone gains such status he cant accept people who question is rules and view of how things should be done .

[minigun762]

I think you hit the reasoning on the head when you talked about the faithful members. Night Lords have long been against the worship of anything or anyone, so a faction who starts worshipping would naturally cause problems.

 

As for joining the Word Bearers, my gut instinct is that they wouldn't accept members of another legion, at least not as equals. They may allow them to work alongside but keep them separate from the Word Bearers themselves, basically use them as a mercenary force. If you really wanted to integrate them though, you could have them join up with a recently defeated or weakened Dark Apostle who can't say no to bolstering his own forces.

[ScionsOfOrion]

Hmmm... Well if the two have had a falling out it might be over a Chaos artefact of sorts. For example: Chaos God gives one a vision of an artefact, the two guys team up and go look for it, they discover it and have a row over who gets to keep it, the one who had the vision or the one who commited the most men to the mission, they then battle over it and it is destroyed in the process, they hate each other.

 

If you wanted them to join up then maybe you should have them united under a Demon Prince or a badass Chaos Lord, who has brought them together to destroy a craftworld. :D Hope this helped :)

 

I can't help sadly, but you might want to change the sub-text of your thread title if you can. "Fluffer assistance" sounds like you need someone to work in a porn cinema.

 

And you would be interested in bolter & chainsword porn cinemas because? :P

 

*posts merged, remember that edit button*

[Rain]

It's actually fairly fluffy I think. The Black Legion are indeed the main precedent of lots of CSM joining up in the name of friendship and tolerance or whatever, but it's happened in other cases. Murchad Kite (Pete Haines's Chaos Lord) was a Thousand Son who became an Iron Warrior because he was a techmarine that never liked the whole sorcery thing so he left his Legion and eventually ended up as Warsmith of a very beaten up IW company.

 

It depends on the particular warband in question, as some would definitely reject an "impure" confederate as a bonafide member but since this is Chaos you can often take command just by killing the current leader and telling everyone else to follow you unless they too have a burning desire to adorn your trophy rack.

 

As for the "puritan" Night Lords idea, I've always hated it myself, but most people seem to like it so whatever, not my army. The original fluff heavily implied that if there were ever such NL that they have long ago (as in before the Heresy) been supplanted by various criminals and sadists that just kill for fun and have no illusions about much of anything.

[Amalricus]

since this is Chaos you can often take command just by killing the current leader and telling everyone else to follow you unless they too have a burning desire to adorn your trophy rack.

 

This is true for most of the chaos warbands, but doesn't apply to the Word Bearers, who have two very specific ways to deal with the death of their warlords.

The first and most common is to execute the officers under his command, and to merge his warband with that of an other dark apostle.

 

The second is to appoint a new Dark apostle to the old Warband.

 

Either way, it's the Dark council's choice, and it's most likely they won't just allow a NL warchief to take a host over.

 

And i can't really see in which circumstances the zealous Word Bearers would welcome Night Lords, who are basically atheistic sadists, to join them permanently. I even doubt both sides would manage to meet and walk away in good terms.

[Captain Semper]

... but since this is Chaos you can often take command just by killing the current leader and telling everyone else to follow you unless they too have a burning desire to adorn your trophy rack.

 

Sounds like Orks :P - just joking...

 

I have to agree with Dammeron though. I don't think any Chaos SM Legion operates as a pre-Heresy Legion. Some maintain a more rigid structure than others but in the end all of them are fragmented. The only Legion that I think resembles more the pre-Heresy structure (in that it has a clear leader and a clear(er) purpose) is Black Legion where Abaddon is the undisputed "hands on" leader. In ADB novels about NLs (which I really like) you can see how the NLs that do not worship any God are actually led by a Deamon (unligned apparently but a deamon nevertheless) and how one of their members is a borderline(?) Berzerker and another one can be thought of as touched by Tzeentch... So although the NLs are not defined by a God they 1) are not beyond the touch of Chaos and 2) do not operate as a Legion - they barely operate as a Company or indeed as a squad...

 

I think what "unites" Chaos SMs is the lack of a single purpose. It's a mix of different agendas and personalities operating under widely different ideologies. And as Dammeron said the background is promoting this diversity, allowing gamers to take on any theme and sub-theme they fancy and be prefectly legitimate.

 

Having said that I really would like to see some distinction in the rules between the various Chaos Legions...

[Rain]

Yes they have specific ways of dealing with the leader dying under "normal" circumstances. The thing is though that **** happens. Heck, the Sanctified are a Word Bearers warband that worships Khorne. A total heresy to vanilla WB and yet they are canon. Of course they also separated off right after the Heresy, but the point is that not all WB toe the line quite so rigidly, even if overall they are a fairly unified Legion by the standards of a Chaos Legion.

 

Also, and this is just my understanding from being a Chaos fluff-nerd for quite a few years, but overall all of the Legions have the same basic "structure". Essentially it's a large number of warbands, each of which flies the colors and considers themselves to be members of a given Legion. They fight amongst themselves, which often includes them fighting other members of their own Legion, so a Warsmith might fight a Warsmith or a Dark Apostle another Apostle. This is basically the normal state of affairs until either their primarch or Abaddon or some other individual of power tells them to cut the crap and get something done, at which point they do. Heck even the Wold Eaters get together when Angron says so, and they are described as among the most fractured.

 

In the case of the WB it's not really the primarch as he is meditating, but the Dark Council/Kor Phaeron, but the idea is very similar. Oh and yes, it is like Orks, and Dark Eldar, and the general "rawr Ayn Rand was right" trope of villainy. Does this honestly actually surprise anyone?

[Grimdarkness]

As for the fall out maybe one was a terran the other nostramin. One was a civil human before being selected the other was a beater and murderer. One felt worshiping the gods a waste and un Night Lord like.

 

As far as joining a Word Bearer war band it was WB chaplins who sowed the seeds of haresay so it might be an old freindship being renewed.

 

Good luck.

[Khestra the Unbeheld]

There are enough examples in fluff of Chaos Astartes from one Legion/Chapter/warband jumping ship to another one that it's not a difficult stretch to generate a believeable reason why one would change their colors. They may not ever reach a stupendous rank or earn the absolute trust of their newfound comrades, but as long as there's some modicum of loyalty or continued reason for him to be there and kill for their cause, there shouldn't be any more a hassle about his presence there than the occasional jerk he might have to beat up in the practice cages (or murder in a darkened hallway) for trying to bully him as some sort of "inferior".