IA: Stoic Guardians -WIP

[czertowicz]

Name: Stoic Guardians

Gene seed: Ultramarine

Founding: 26th

Chapter Master: Demos Volteir (MIA - 998.M41)

Homeworld: Verdania

Armour Colour: Black/Green

War Cry: Solidarity and honour

Current Strength: 350 approx

 

Origins

 

The Chapter’s history begins on a small planet on the Eastern Fringe. Recently formed from the Avenging Sons, the chapter’s newly appointed Master and honour guard began the training of new recruits. Were it not for the planet’s equatorial continent the world would have been designated deathworld, but a feudal culture and industrialised cities blossomed in the centre of this otherwise hostile planet.

The planet’s poles inhabited by viscous beasts provided the hardy population with a rite of passage which had served for centuries to separate the great from the good and it was for this reason that the as yet unnamed chapter, decided to settle here and turn the great into Gods.

After 7 years of successful recruiting, the first of their exceptional candidates were being inducted as fully fledged battle brothers. During the ceremony the chapter’s partially constructed monastery began receiving distress calls from the planet Tyran and before the final rites had been concluded, these calls had already fallen silent.

Once alerted, Chapter Master Volteir ordered that the transmission logs be scoured for any sign of what had transpired. As further distress calls came in over the days and weeks that followed, it became clear that the threat was more than a fledgling chapter could withstand. As the vanguard of the Tyranid hive was detected approaching the planet. Reasoning that the planet was already lost and that the chapter would need a hardy stock of humans to recruit from in future, Volteir mobilised the fleet and began the civilian evacuation. The process was at around 80% complete when the first of the spores landed. Volteir pulled his troops back to a single evacuation point to consolidate both his marines and the local PDF. In a bloody stand, Volteir and his men fought a disciplined and steady withdrawal to the ships, before boarding and leaving the planet and the population the fleet could not accommodate, to their fate.

A similarly disciplined withdrawal from the system allowed the unarmed civilian trade vessels to flee towards Macragge under escort while the Battle Barges Temperance and Riposte covered the withdrawal. Volteir ordered the withdrawal of civilians to safer regions of space with a contingent of scouts while he led the remainder of the chapter and the PDF to assist the Ultramarine defence of Ultramar. It was in the aftermath of Behemoth that the name Stoic Guardians was bestowed upon their chapter in honour of the dispassionate way that the chapter conducted itself and their increasing preference towards solid defensive tactics.

Commissar Philippe Marnet of the Planetary Defence Force wrote the following of them in the aftermath of a Tyranid assault.

“It’s like they expected to die. Nothing mattered to them except discharging their duty whilst under fire, because the worst dishonour they could suffer, would be to let their brothers down. It was unnerving to watch, but the guardsmen began to follow suit. These fresh faced giants showed my grizzled veterans the true meaning of devotion to duty.”

 

Blooding

 

In the years following Behemoth, the chapter spent time recruiting where they were able and scouting for a new homeworld. One such potential planet lead to one of the most crushing blows in the chapter’s history. The hive world of Dessacoa was selected by Volteir as a potential planet to make a home due to it immense population. Volteir, busy on an Ork campaign, dispatched Marshall Willem Clovis, Captain of the First Company to discuss the chapter’s arrival and the construction of a fortress monastery. He and the Sergeants of his company were invited to a ceremony in their honour at the planetary capital while other contingents of the company inspected the planets forges and defensive capabilities. The bulk of the company remained in orbit.

It was during the ceremony that the Planetary Governor opened a warp gate and became host to a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh. Marshall Clovis and his Sergeants began fighting for their lives as all around them guardsmen turned their weapons on the Astartes. Were it not for the fickle nature of the Chaos gods, the company may have been lost. But even as drop pods and Thunderhawks ripped through the skies to the aid of their brethren, the gate inexplicably closed and the weakened Daemon was slain.

The surviving Astartes began to fight their way through swathes of cultists to reach the First Captain. Without the leadership of their Sergeants, apothecaries and techmarines began to organise the marines with nearly disastrous results. Quickly, exceptional individuals within squads began to issue tactical direction and cut a channel through to the Governor’s Palace. They arrived to find Clovis and the only two Sergeants left standing surrounded by the dead and dying. As apothecaries began tending to the wounded, Clovis made his first battlefield promotions. He lifted a traitor’s body by the neck and instructed Brother Moreux to tear the heart from his body. He removed the heart and raised it for the others to see, his gauntlet dripping with gore. At that moment, Clovis spoke words which were thereafter written into the Chapter’s Codices’.

“Brother Moreux, forged in the fires of battle, tempered by the blood of the Emperor’s enemies. Your gauntlet is a symbol of your status and proof of your ability. Take your command, in the Emperor’s name, Sergeant Moreux.”

Thereafter, all squad sergeants within the chapter wore a red right gauntlet to signify their rank and the words spoken by Clovis that day became the standard script for battlefield promotion. Those who wear the gauntlet are often referred to as blooded brothers, the ceremony of battlefield promotion is prosaically known as a ‘battle blooding’ among the chapter’s marines.

 

The First Inquisition

 

After the ambush at Dessacoa, Marshall Clovis and his company found themselves under investigation for their actions which had led to what became described as the Dessacoa massacre. According to the inquisition, his pride had put the company in danger by allowing an overly elaborate ceremony to be conducted and leaving the rest of the Company leaderless.

They also questioned the necessity of the order to exterminate every living thing within 10 miles of the Governor’s Palace. After the re-unification of Clovis with the rest of his command, he issued a command to purge the surrounding area of life, declaring it all ‘tainted’.

His accusers cited first the taint of Slaanesh for giving in to pride, then of Khorne for embarking on a week long bloodbath. Eventually cleared of wrongdoing and certified free of taint, he withdrew for a month aboard the Temperance to meditate and calm his perturbed soul. Emerging refreshed and renewed, he spearheaded the search for a new homeworld, finding an ideal candidate in Orion’s Arm of Segmentum Tempestus.

 

Homeworld

 

When Verdana was first settled by the Stoic Guardians and their refugee fleet, it was a diverse world, each of its four major continents holding distinct personalities which reminded many of the planet they had left behind.

Around the equator is a single continent in which a meagre 100 mile gap prevents it from completely encircling the planet. This landmass is a dense tropical forest teeming with deadly life which allows the populous to continue their tradition of their youth completing their rite of passage into adolescence by bringing down a Verdanian Barghest.

It’s north most pole is inhabited by the chapter and its support arms, including an Imperial Guard headquarters. The landmass is scarred by great volcanoes which the chapter harnesses to power their forges. The fortress monastery itself is built on one of the largest of these volcanic mountains. Rising from immense re-enforcing struts to overlook the surrounding landscape, it is known as the Great House. Rumour has it that the local populous refer to it as Verdana’s idea hat, by keeping in the volcanic material it stops Verdana getting any ideas about kicking the Astartes off the planet.

Two further continents lie south of the equator, one a few hundred miles from the equatorial landmass is the primary population centre where the feudal population continues to thrive and weed out its own population through controlled conflict and provide the Stoic Guardians with the best recruits they can offer.

The fourth landmass, a frozen mass on the southern pole, was once also teeming with life, but Leviathan put an end to that.

 

Leviathan and the Second Inquisition.

 

Verdana was fortunate when Hive Fleet Leviathan began rampaging through the sector. Had it been in its path, the Chapter Master could easily have condemned the planet to death. On hearing that a splinter fleet was heading towards their system, Demos Volteir stood up from his throne and walked to a great stained glass window and looked out on the forges and barracks in the lands surrounding the Great House.

The only time the Chapter Master ever displayed emotion was in the moment that followed. His voice rippled with fury as he said, as a statement of fact so convincing that the Emperor himself may have said it, “Not again.”

Within hours plans had been drawn up and preparations were already being made. An outer planet would have to be sacrificed to the devourer, and then destroyed.

 

------- :cuss

 

I need a way of doing that here, I have two pretty Deus Ex Machina ideas, neither of which I’m wholly happy with. Giant volcano powered cannon and Giant space magnifying glass. One is a cannon obviously powered by the volcano on which the monastery sits. The other is a lens around 50 miles across in orbit which helps regulate planetary climate.

These don’t need to be planet killers per-se. I’m thinking of making it an Ocean world, so boiling away the seas would be enough to kill the tyranids in the boiling steam.

I’ll write up the rest of this later, but the basic points.

-The destruction of the planets slow the fleet but doesn’t stop it

-They’re shepherded to the southern continent, at this point similar to the equatorial one

- Battles break out across world but concentrated in the south.

- Nuclear devices are detonated across the south, rendering it uninhabitable

- Chapter Master leads a strike on the centre of the fleet, cuts the synapse ba-da-boom but goes missing along with his ship and crew.

- Marshall Clovis refuses to accept that Volteir is dead for reasons he won’t explain. As such he refuses the mantle of Chapter Master. There are no other candidates; all the other captains have been killed.

- This attracts the unwanted attention of the inquisition a second time, he is monitored as an individual of interest.

 

Organisation

 

-Ties in greatly with reduced chapter numbers and the inability to promote new captains as a result of having no chapter master to do so.

 

Combat Doctrine

 

Following their first contact with the Tyranid threat, the chapter developed an aptitude and indeed preference, for siege defence. They spend their time 2:1 in favour of marksmanship over close combat and hold regular inter company shooting competitions. In the past the winning company would be designated ‘The Oversight’ and would be chosen to provide precision cover to advancing troops on operation. Since their dramatic reduction in capacity, this honour has been restricted to a single squad within the chapter. Individuals within this squad are able to request whichever weapons they deem suitable on operation, effectively taking the role that Sternguard would in any other chapter.

The individual who proves themselves to be the Chapter’s best shot is bestowed the title of ‘Surgeon’. The current holder of the title is Brother Surgeon Faite, who won the title by hitting an out of sight target at a distance of 8 miles with an unmodified bolter, thereby setting a new chapter record.

Chapter Master Demos Volteir is incorrectly quoted as having said that if you can see the colour of an enemy’s eyes, you need to spend more time practicing your marksmanship. The chapter’s shooting coaches continue to attribute the quote to him in an effort to impress upon initiates the chapter philosophy.

[czertowicz]

This is obviously my starting point, I'm aware that there are points which really need to be explained better and that the chapter strength is particularly low. As a WIP I'm looking at ways to make sure it remains plausible without ending up as 'Ultramarines with different jumpers'.

 

Armoured giants fighting giant wasps in spaceships. Maybe I should just leave my plausibility at the door...

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who manages to stick with it to the end. I know there's quite a lot to get through. :cuss

[Andrew J]

First off Welcome to B&C! Glad to see you have signed up!

 

I just read through this. Its not bad but a few things stick out to me. First overall thoughts. Like the name. Definitely have not seen that one. Not many grammatical errors which is always good.

 

After reading through your chapter I noticed quite a few "awesome" moments. It almost reads like a hollywood movie script. Granted space marines are awesome, but for being an extremely new chapter they end up in quite a few awesome moments. I think the hardest thing about making up your on DIY chapter is making them sound awesome while also making them believable in the 40k universe. This comes to a head quite a bit with chapters that people try to tie into existing chapters or well known chapters or well known events like the Tyranid Hive Fleets. Another note is to make sure the timing of such lines up. I am not an expert on such things but I think that Tyranids come about well after the 26th founding. I would suggest looking into that to be sure.

 

Also it seems as though the 2 homeworlds are very similar. Why not make the second homeworld different? It would add a little extra creativity to the chapter. Same goes with Leviathan coming. Getting hit by Tyranid hive fleets is bad and rare. Getting hit by 2 different fleets is super unlucky and almost unbelievable. Maybe you could change either the beginning disaster to another race like orks, or the 2nd disaster.

 

I dont know if you have read through the DIY tips at the top of the page but they are helpful, along with Octaguide 2.0 if you have the time to go through it all.

 

Thats just my 2 cents. Its your chapter do what makes you happy and gives you motivation.

[czertowicz]

Thanks for the welcome Andrew, you've already given me a few new ideas to get working.

 

I think the homeworld is an easy one, I think I'll make the original one a straight forward ocean-free ice planet. No need to make it too interesting as it's going to get get squashed early.

 

I checked the dates prior to writing with the Warhammer wiki (I know, trusting a wiki isn't the greates plan in the world...) But it dates the 26th founding as 739.M41 and Behemoth as 745.M41 which was my reason for choosing the location and founding. They're hit in their infancy, nowhere near a full company of fully trained marines so evactuation and withdrawal.

 

I've made a conscious effort to make their history interesting without portraying them as infallible, for example the initial evacuation of (Yeah, I need a name for that planet don't I? we'll call it iceyrock for now). the decision to evacuate is made early precicely because they haven't a hope, by the time the 'nids show their mugs they're pretty much offworld anyway. It's probably something that needs to be clearer. Then they lose most of the first company officers, I need to date that, but its going to be something like 20-30 years after Behemoth. Then they find themselves on the business end of a splinter fleet.

 

Regarding that one, the bad luck again was a conscious decision re-enforcing the Chapter Master's motivation for not evacuating a second time. Also, the choice of Tyranids was for the speed at which the Hive Fleets advance and eat worlds. Although finding themselves staring down the barrel of a WAAAARGH! would work. I could perhaps leave them with a lasting Ork infestation which flares up periodically.

 

That's a whistle stop tour of how it came to look like it does anyway. Reading back over it, some of it looks like I'm dismissing what you've said, I'm really really not! It's just an explanation of how I came to where I am now. I'd appreciate thoughts on how to rein in the awesome a notch, although fair warning, most of my ideas so far for the Leviathan section end in a planet either blowing up or being otherwise rendered uninhabitable. If I go with the Ork idea that would be less of an issue.

 

I have one question actually, does anyone know the rules and regs behind Cyclonic warheads? Would it be possible for a chapter to deploy them without the Inquisition giving them the ok? Note - possible, not legal.

 

Edit:- I'm also thinking about changing to Imperial Fist gene-seed. Would fit with their combat doctrine a little better.

[Andrew J]

I didnt get that feeling at all. I can see where you are coming from with your ideas. After thinking about it a bit more I think the reason I thought that way was because this feels more like a story about the chapter and how they overcame terrible odds and such. While a story is great I think an IA is more geared towards the basics of a chapter. Where they came from, how they deal with the imperium and its factions, how they fight, the character of the brothers. Are they like warrior cyborgs with no emotions or are they like the space wolves who are essentially wolf loving vikings. What it seems to boil down to for most great IA's is the character of the chapter. What they think of the most important issues in the 41st millenium and how they got there.

 

I think you are a good writer with some good ideas. Writing an IA is very hard to do well. I feel like you need to find the right balance of description and story, enough info to keep people interested while having some mystery, and striking the right balance of 40k fluff and your own ideas.

 

I might have just started rambling. Let me know if that helps or if you would like some other ideas.

[Captain Juan Juarez]

One quick point.. The name sounds more like a description of their qualities, than a Chapter name - though i know these things are personal and open to interpretation.

[czertowicz]

Yeah, I have a habit of dropping into that. I need to trim down the stories and put them in cutaway windows really. I might start thinking of this as a project hand in hand with some short stories about the chapter and flesh out the background that way. I'm currently reading through a pile of IAs ansd re-reading what I've done, there's a definate need to move away from the story style.

 

Name-wise, yeah I can see that. There's often a certain degree of qualities being reflected in the name, but I see your point. If an alternative comes to me I'll post it up, get a consensus of what people prefer.