Vorpal Swords redux 2012

[Valkyrion]

Origins:

The Vorpal Swords are a secretive and isolationist chapter, eager to avoid contact with other Space Marine chapters for they are shunned by their brothers for perceived sins committed long ago.

The chapter was founded from the stock of Imperial Fists and Rogal Dorn and they were of the 22nd Founding, the first founding after the Cursed Founding.

 

Like most chapters from the geneseed of Rogal Dorn, the Vorpal Swords began life as a space borne crusade chapter before finally claiming a homeworld some two thousand years after their inception.

 

Their first engagement as a fledgling chapter was to support the Black Templars during the Great Cull, although this has only been verified by the Vorpal Swords themselves. It is supposed that the Vorpal Swords had been used primarily to secure landing zones and to mop up the survivors the Black Templars assaults.

However, the Black Templars have no record of the Vorpal Swords involvement in their part of the crusade, going so far as to deny the existence of their brother chapter.

 

The animosity of the Black Templars towards the Vorpal Swords quickly spread to the other Chapters of Rogal Dorn, and the Imperial Fists and Crimson Fists chapters backed the Black Templars to the hilt, following their example in ignoring their brothers.

Why this came to pass is unknown. The Black Templars are notoriously zealous and quick to anger over matters that other chapters would turn a blind eye to, but loyalty and stoicism is embodied by the Imperial and Crimson Fists and they would not lightly turn against their brothers.

 

Rumours abound that the Vorpal Swords denied the majesty of Rogal Dorn and refused to acknowledge him as their Primarch, or that the Vorpal Swords destroyed a Black Templar chapter keep that had been overrun, or that mutation had gripped them and their purity had been tarnished.

 

Whatever the truth, they are shunned by three of the most influential chapters since the Horus Heresy and in the five thousand years since their founding, the Vorpal Swords have not taken to the field of battle with any other chapter.

 

The Abyssal Crusade

The defining moment of the Vorpal Swords, and one that would shape their future, was the infamous Abyssal Crusade of M37. They, and twenty nine other chapters, had been found wanting in the eyes of the Emperor by Saint Basillius, and were dispatched in chapter strength to the Eye of Terror on a penitent crusade to atone for their sins.

 

The Vorpal Swords were outraged, believing this to be a ploy by their brothers to have them destroyed. Their service record since their exception had been commendable if not exemplary, though their increasing isolation had prevented the chapter from turning hard fought stalemates into decisive victories.

 

The charges levelled against the chapter were all true and the chapter admitted guilt; unnecessary and avoidable deaths of Imperial citizens on thirteen worlds due to excessive force, though the chapter argued that had they had the support of the Imperium, the thirteen worlds they virus bombed from orbit to stymie a growing tide of greenskins would have been claimed by bolter and blade.

 

A darker conspiracy was revealed when it was uncovered that all thirty chapters sent on the crusade to the Eye of Terror were of the 22nd Founding.

The truth of the crusade will lie deep in the annals of the Inquisition and may never be known to others, but the first Vorpal Sword chapter master had discovered growing unrest between those chapters sent on the crusade and their primogenitor chapters. Each of the thirty chapters had been shunned by their brothers, some even coming to blows with their parent chapter.

 

Despite this shared history, the Vorpal Swords still found themselves being kept at arms length by the rest of the crusade fleets, with not a single chapter willing to operate side by side on the field of battle. Yet the chapter master discovered that it was not just his chapter, for when the crusade finally entered the Eye, each fleet went its own way with none lending support to another.

 

When the crusade began, the chapter master divided the chapter assets amongst his fleet. All companies became battle companies, the reserve companies merged to create new full strength battle companies. Additionally, the 1st and 10th Companies were disbanded and divided throughout the battle companies, as were the chapters Land Raider and Predator tanks.

The result of this was eight battle companies each able to adapt to numerous threats and numbering 125 marines, virtually identical in make up and equipment.

When the 86 survivors of the chapter emerged from the Eye of Terror, a thousand Terran years had passed although the chapter had fought for barely a hundred.

Old grudges persisted and the Vorpal Swords were met by the entire might of the Imperial Fists and escorted to Cypra Mundi to await interrogation and quarantine at the hands of the Inquisition.

 

The survivors of the Vorpal Swords remained remarkably pure with no physical or psychic mutation evident in the chapter, though when the chapter master asked as to the status of the other chapters on the crusade he was met with blank looks and ignorance.

Despite their apparent purity, the chapter was ordered to serve under the guidance of an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor for the next thousand years, the risk of allowing the chapter to grow to full strength whilst under the influence of an unseen enemy deemed too great to ignore.

 

Homeworld:

By decree of the Inquisition, the Vorpal Swords were ordered far to the galactic south in segmentum tempestus, reasoning that further exposure to such powerful warp storms as the Eye of Terror or the Maelstrom may have an unwanted effect on the chapter.

 

The Vorpal Swords claimed the world of Seredene in the wake of the Abyssal Crusade. The chapter needed to regroup and recover their losses and Seredene was the innermost world of four imperial worlds designated Feral worlds, populated by primitive and barbaric peoples ignorant to the wider Imperium and ripe for recruitment into the Adeptus Astartes.

Seredene is a virtual paradise, yet it is devoid of animal life. Lush green meadows cover the landscape, punctuated by waterfalls and lakes. Mountain ranges pierce the clouds and the canopies of the rainforests are so thick that they block out the light of the sun. Despite being claimed by the Imperium many thousands of years earlier, the world had never been populated.

 

The Kaserne, the Vorpal Swords Fortress Monastery, was built largely beneath the planets surface, a labyrinthine network linking dozens of outposts and landing sites that were the only manmade structures to occupy the Seredene landscape, the most prominent of which was the Tower of Silence, domain of the Chaplains and home the chapters greatest secret.

 

Organisation:

 

The Vorpal Swords disbanded the 1st Company during the Abyssal Crusade, dividing their veterans amongst the battle companies. After the crusade was over, the 86 surviving space marines were inducted into the reformed 1st Company, retaining the purple and steel colour scheme that would later be reserved solely for use by the first company. The 1st Company would never number above 86 though each space marine was free to armed and armoured as he desired, forgoing the traditional concepts of terminator and veteran squads.

The new battle brothers were armoured in dark green, the traditional colour of rebirth, a philosophy embraced by the chapter.

 

The battle companies gradually reformed and largely adhered to the Codex Astartes although there are several subtle deviances that have crept in over the millennia that have passed since the Abyssal Crusade. Each battle company maintains a single squad of veterans in place of a regular tactical squad and it is from these squads that marines are promoted to the 1st company.

The battle companies largely operate autonomously from the rest of the chapter and as such the company composition can vary and the battle companies largely follow the combat doctrines of the current captain.

The 2nd Company, under command of Hurani Valt, has mutated into a dedicated Siege company, for example, whilst Captain Baeloc prefers his 5th Company to utilise a mass drop pod assault.

 

The four reserve companies number 100 battle brothers, with each brother again trained extensively in all arts of war, and it is from these companies that reinforcements for the battle companies are drawn. It is the duty of the reserve companies to respond to the most immediate threats to the chapter’s recruitment worlds and to perform the recruitment drives on those worlds under the supervision of the chapters Librarians, Chaplains and Apothecaries.

 

The Vorpal Swords are unusual in that they do not have a dedicated 10th Company. Instead, new recruits are immediately assigned to one of the reserve companies before eventually being permanently assigned to a battle company. Once a scout has been assigned to a battle company he will never leave that company until death claims him or promotion to the 1st Company is attained.

 

Combat Doctrine:

Due to the semi-autonomous nature of each company, the Vorpal Swords do not follow a single combat doctrine. Instead, each Battle Company Captain may organise his squads as he sees fit and though they broadly follow the Codex Astartes it is not uncommon for a company to have an extra assault squad in place of a devastator or vice versa.

Where the Battle Companies are diverse, the Reserve Companies are rigid in their organisation and training, identical to those of other more Codex adherent chapters. The one exception to this being the inclusion of scout squads within the reserve companies rather than a dedicated 10th company. These scouts progress through the reserve companies as though they were fully fledged battle brothers, learning to use heavy weapons, bikes and land speeders as they move through the companies before eventually joining a battle company.

 

Beliefs:

The Vorpal Swords beliefs border on heresy, or at least they would to outside observers were they to become known. The chapter is largely non committal regarding the Emperor, the Imperium and their Primarch. They believe that in order to survive, mankind needs governance and a figurehead, a purpose served by the Imperium and the Emperor, yet they also doubt the Emperor’s divinity and see the Imperium as self serving and corrupt. With regards to their Primarch, they believe it matters not which geneseed brought them into existence, simply that they exist. That they are of the blood of Rogal Dorn is a great honour and he is a figure that demands the greatest respect, but they do not venerate him above the other Primarchs.

Whether or not these beliefs are the cause of the schism that divides the Vorpal Swords and their brother chapters, or the result of it is unclear.

Similarly, the chapter may have fallen under the indirect influence of several of the Inquisitors in charge of overseeing the chapters rebuilding, and although such a thing would be intolerable, the chapter has shown some signs of the Recongregationist philosophy with their attitude towards the Imperium.

 

Geneseed:

The geneseed of the Vorpal Swords, as befits the geneseed of Rogal Dorn, was highly stable though still suffered from the defective Betchers Gland and Sus-An Membrane common to all Imperial Fists successors.

Further to this is a remarkable resistance to corruption evidenced by the 86 survivors of the Abyssal Crusade passing the most stringent purity checks without flaw.

Recently, however, mutation has crept into the chapter, resulting in a failure of the Catalepsean Node. The first sign of this degradation is an inability to sleep, followed by blackouts of increasing length until eventually the marine falls into a coma like state, still alive and awake to all intents and purposes, his body simply physically unable to perform any action whilst his mind remains lucid.

This has led to stringent tests and whilst not on campaign all marines are monitored during their periods of rest. Should any space marine go fourteen Terran days without sleep he is ordered to the apothecarium. Ultimately, that space marine becomes a dead man walking, for despite the efforts of the chapter Apothecaries not a single space marine has survived for longer than a standard Terran year before falling into a sleepless dream.

Those space marines still able to function are taken to the Tower of Silence and prepared by the chapters Chaplains for induction into the Broken.

Eager to die a warriors death rather than euthanized by the Chaplains, the Broken fight with reckless abandon and seek out the most dangerous targets in any given warzone. Often spearheading assaults, the Broken are unreliable and prone to ignoring orders, though such things are usually irrelevant as the Broken are unlikely to survive even a single engagement.

Only the highest ranking space marines are spared death should they fall to the Sleep before dying in battle, kept alive in the Tower of Silence under the watchful eye of the Chaplains, Librarians and Apothecaries, the Librarians in particular paying close attention to the thoughts of the unfortunate marine.

 

 

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Hopefully I've covered a few of the do's of DIY;

 

Original Idea - I think so; I've not seen many official or DIY chapters with beliefs bordering on apathy, or ones with a flaw in that particular implant.

 

Accept criticism - will do!

 

Have a theme and follow it through - I think so; I didn't want honour or duty or faith to be a part of the chapter but there are enough secretive kinda things to keep interest involving the Inquisition without being 'an Inquisitor did it'

 

Read background material/chapter research - I have - 5th ed rule book and codex chaos daemons with the Battle Missions book being the only sources for the chapter

 

Keep it simple - I think it is, hopefully without being dull

 

Heroic but believeable - erm...not really heroic, more functional

 

Ambiguity - why is the geneseed flawed? did the inquisition have a heavy influence on their ideals? why do their brothers hate them? why were the 22nd founding chapters all sent on the crusade?

 

C&C requested!

[Viray]

Wow, I'm super pissed. I had written quite a long post to review your IA and the window closed. I'm sorry that this post's second incarnation won't be nearly as long or as in-depth, but my frustration ate away much of my motivation to be helpful.

 

Anyway, to quickly summarize what I had been attempting to get across: explain.

 

Your Originis section, while extensive, is largely obscured, with the only information you actually attempt to explain in any detail being largely irrelevant to your Chapter's character as a whole. As an example, you give an account on your Chapter's first military action. I'm guessing this is to set up your point about their fellow descedants of Dorn being rather wary of the Vorpal Swords. You could have just easily said as much without the preamble. I understand that the veil of mystery is part of the atmopshere you are trying to build in your IA. That is all well and good. What isn't good is feeling like I'm reading about nothing due to this sections combined ambiguity and heavy-handed information dumping.

 

Your homeworld section, I felt, had some nice touches. With what little you wrote, you really gave the place a sense of foreboding. However, even here, I feel you could benefit from expanding on what you're currently giving your readers. Why hasn't the Imperium colonised the world? You claim it is a paradise, yet never give any indication why one would want to avoid it. I'm guessing it is/was an Eldar maidenworld, but I shouldn't really have to make so much conjecture just to explain something in an IA.

 

Again, for your Organization and Beliefs, you need to do more to explain the Vorpal Swords' deviancies. They're making quite a bold stand in an environment specically noted for being incredibly intolerant of philosophical deviancy of any kind. That your Chapter should hold so strongly to beliefs that contradict with the accepted norm is quite a significant point and deserves explanation; it's, in essence, their motivation for being.

 

Lastly, your Geneseed section seems contradictory. You first state that your Chapter somehow managed to escape their crusade free of Chaos taint. After establishing this already hard to swallow trait, you then undermine it by introducing a severe mutation entirely out of the blue. Really, you could remove this entirely and change virutally nothing about your Chapter. What does this even really add to your Chapter as a whole?

 

Bits I wanted to nitpick about:

- Spelling

- Grammar

- 86 Marines: chances are, your Chapter should be long gone if this was all that they had to work with.

- Using events specifically cited by GW. You never know if GW will expand upon that information; if they do, they may contradict the information in your IA.

[Rezial]

Hey Valkyrion. As you have seen I created a topic recently because I became very interested in this chapter. I also want that topic to be used for other lesser known chapters but so far it's still mostly Vorpal Swords related, not important here. I want to tell you I read your post before I actually started that topic and decided to go ahead with mine because from what I've read I really don't get it. I kind of see what you're wanting to do but it doesn't fit the vision I see for them from the granted little information there is. It seems more like it's for another chapter entirely.

 

Firstly I don't see them being from Dorn's gene seed. It's too complicated and has a history of wierd quirks. I think it's best to leave their progenitor unknown on purpose as it adds a mystery right from the start. Also I don't agree that they should be from directly after the Cursed Founding. It seems to me they should be from sometime just before the age of Apostasy, this adds to the lack of information in their record while still keeping them relatively young. I have a thesis going for them currently but it's still not ready. Some of the basic ideas differ greatly from your own here, including their general attitude and also their status after the Abyssal Crusade.

 

I believe that they could have emerged from the Eye of Terror at no less than a third full strength and probably somewhere around the number of 400 marines, including several established HQ such as Konvak Lann. Also their chapter organization should not deviate more than slightly from the Codex Astartes as this would undermine a lot of ideals necessary for loyalist marines to survive in combat situations. It would also seem strange to any Inquisitor that they should survive through deviation and not adherence to tried and true dogmatic tactics such as company organization. It's understandable in codices like BA, BT, DA, Wolves, and GK, since they all have significant differences from the codex chapters.

 

Next while I agree that the Inquisition would be keeping them on a short leash (understatement) at that time it's very obvious that they had strong influence and presence to be able to tear down an Imperial Saint and all of his legacy in one swift action. This is not something a black sheep chapter can do. It may also be that they learned of some secret about Basillius' charge against those 30 chapters while fighting Chaos on their doorstep. It is my opinion that the Vorpal Swords make the most sense as an honorable and generally respectable group and that Lann's action against Basillius was in fair retribution if not characteristic of their credo. I see them as wise swordmasters who value the soldier and his training and also the protection of the Imperium's citizens. I believe that I'm going to have them take over ownership of their original Fortress Monastery as well because I see it as important. They will still have a fleet of course, though not grand, and probably display holdover tendencies from the long crusade.

 

I don't believe that I will include any important flaw to their gene-seed as this would also cause confusion about their resiliency to chaos. I think it will be something in the way they conducted their chapter business that will be pointed to as the reason for the Judgement against them and largely circumstantial or misunderstood. Likewise it will be their actions that restore them to a fully honored chapter by the time of the Gheistos Cataclysm in M41. As for the rest I have some stats, tactics, and iconography nearly done and will be happy to share it soon.

[Malthe]

Since I've been working on a DIY-chapter for half a year, which also took part in the Abyssal Crusade, I'd appreciate if you didn't flesh out the crusade so much.

For example, my chapter is from the 20th, not the 22th founding, and I'm sure they thought with a number of the other chapters send on the crusade.

 

If you are interrested, here are my Emperor's Immortals ;)

Some of it will need to be rewritten, since GW decided to have the Vorpal Swords comming back like a bat out of hell, killing of poor Basillius, but that shouldn't be very problematic.

 

Other than that, I suggest that you spice up your article with some headlines, it's quite the wall-of-text right now.

 

Cheers!

[Rezial]

Since I've been working on a DIY-chapter for half a year, which also took part in the Abyssal Crusade, I'd appreciate if you didn't flesh out the crusade so much.

For example, my chapter is from the 20th, not the 22th founding, and I'm sure they thought with a number of the other chapters send on the crusade.

 

I wouldn't worry about that too much from my part because I don't plan to be detailing any large span of the Abyssal Crusade. I have some ideas for one or two specific engagements that the Vorpal Swords take center stage in but not any larger theatres. Since the information states that over 400 worlds are cleansed I'm sure that there is more than enough room for all our chapters to have a little piece of the Crusade Malthe. I am very interested in writing an arc detailing some evidence of foul play or taint of Chaos on the part of Basillius however. I plan to do it in a way that allows us to 'take it or leave it' and hopefully everyone will either then find it interesting or choose to ignore it and focus on other parts, their choice. Fair warning though I have received all I need to submit my work to GW and should they choose to use it or even pieces of it I hope they will include the treachery angle. I'm looking forward to reading about your chapter as well.