Drelthar Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 I've been working on lore for a couple of custom warbands for quite some time; one, the Hell Dragons, follow Khorne, and the other, the Dystopia Hydras, follow Slaanesh. In the backstory for both, they are bitter enemies, due to a grudge between their leaders. At this point, I've fleshed out the Khornate warband to a good degree, but the Slaaneshi one needs work. Which is why I've come to you guys for help! Since the Hell Dragons and Dystopia Hydras worship gods who are polar opposites, I want to include another aspect that would further differentiate the two forces - an elemental difference. The Hell Dragons contain an entire company of pyromaniacs who make heavy use of flamers and meltas, and the whole warband has a slight fire theme. What I really want to do is give the Dystopia Hydras an ice theme, but the biggest problem with that wish is that there aren't any ice-based weapons in 40K (at least none that I know of)! However, I'm incredibly tempted to bend the lore, and give the Dystopias Hydras icy versions of plasma guns, flamers, and perhaps even meltas. Plasma guns could be switched to blizzard guns, which fire freezing bolts, the ammo of flamers could be switched to be an incredibly cold liquid, but in the case of freezing melta guns, I don't think an ice equivalent would make sense... Anyway, I know that it's a pretty far-fetched idea, but I'd love to know what you guys think! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kol Saresk Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 Fluff is fluff. As long as the weapons are properly represented, there shouldn't be any problem from what I hear. As far as the fluff is concerned, maybe you could show us what you have for both warbands? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord_Caerolion Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 Personally, I'd look more on why they're ice-themed, rather than what weapons you can make frost-related. Theme is so much more than what weapons you use. Perhaps they worship Slaanesh as the Ice Mistress, demanding everything from Her supplicants, gifting only the slightest of glances in return, which only serves to drive her supplicants to new extremes in search of her favour? Perhaps the ice mirrors the numbness within their souls, which they will do anything to thaw, even for a moment? Remember, there isn't any one "standard" way to view the Chaos Gods, there are innumerable sub-cults and facets of their being. Play around with that a little, rather than going "these are ice-themed Emperors Children, so they use ice guns instead of sonic weapons!" Why exactly do they use ice guns? Why does the cold mean so much to them? How does it tie into their worship of Slaanesh? That's what you need to be looking at, to build a fleshed-out warband, rather than "how can I make an ice version of a melta-gun?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minigun762 Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 It would be a change from your ice theme but if you imagine the noise weapons as less about sound but more about air/shockwave, that could be an interesting view and it would still give you the "elemental" touch are looking for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drelthar Posted April 7, 2012 Author Share Posted April 7, 2012 Personally, I'd look more on why they're ice-themed, rather than what weapons you can make frost-related. Theme is so much more than what weapons you use. Perhaps they worship Slaanesh as the Ice Mistress, demanding everything from Her supplicants, gifting only the slightest of glances in return, which only serves to drive her supplicants to new extremes in search of her favour? Perhaps the ice mirrors the numbness within their souls, which they will do anything to thaw, even for a moment?Remember, there isn't any one "standard" way to view the Chaos Gods, there are innumerable sub-cults and facets of their being. Play around with that a little, rather than going "these are ice-themed Emperors Children, so they use ice guns instead of sonic weapons!" Why exactly do they use ice guns? Why does the cold mean so much to them? How does it tie into their worship of Slaanesh? That's what you need to be looking at, to build a fleshed-out warband, rather than "how can I make an ice version of a melta-gun?" Well said, I was definitely thinking too hard on how, and not why. I like how you brought up how they could interpret Slaanesh, haven't put too much thought into that...but here's what I've considered so far: 1) For anyone who has read 'Legion' the Heresy-era Alpha Legion book, you may recall that there was a psyker who specialized in using heat-based psychic powers. Going off of the possibility of specialized psykers, the leader of the Dystopia Hydras, Hliyal the Heavenly, could be a sorcerer who has a talent for ice-based psychic powers. Also, he was born in the coldest regions of Chemos (Emperor's Children homeworld), and thus not only thrives in cold weather, but loves it. 2) The warband could have come extremely close to running out of new experiences, which would have lead them as a whole to depression. During this time, members of the warband strived to find new forms of pleasure. In desperation, a member of the warband commits many different masochistic acts, and all of a sudden, he rubs Dry Ice over himself. The freezing pain is something he has never experienced, and he enjoys it immensely. He runs throughout the warband's stronghold, and throws dry ice at his battle-brothers. They too enjoy this new form of pain, and some begin to experiment with cold further. A brawl breaks out in one part of the stronghold during the celebrations, and one marine sprays another with a fire extinguisher. Suddenly, many members desire weaponry that will allow them to freeze enemies alive, because they crave to watch as their foes die in icy agony. The artificers of the warband work for sleepless weeks to craft weaponry that have icy effects, and after many failed attempts, succeed. 3) During a battle, the Dystopia Hydras are losing, and in desperation, they sacrifice one of their champions to summon a Keeper of Secrets. The greater daemon that they summon is an icy, many-headed being, and it obliterates the warband's foes with slashes of its freezing claws. After the battle, the warband pays tribute to this KoS (Keeper of Secrets), and mold themselves in its image. I hope that's all worth reading! Any suggestions based off of those ideas are definitely welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RolandTHTG Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Why not have something related to the battle at Scalanthrax (or however its spelled) Its remembered for Khârn the Betrayer, but both legions were shattered in that battle. Whos to say it didn't warp some champion into thinking if they could only embrace the cold, the legion could come together again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the jeske Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 the same sensation is not very slanesh . its more like a slanesh worshipers worse hell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacinda Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 From an "elemental" point of view, Water is the opposite of Fire. From a scientific point of view, the damage from heat and cold are both caused by the rapid transfer of energy; in other words there is no such thing as cold energy, it is just the absence of energy. So if you stay with your fire and ice idea (which I love, BTW) the flamers are liquid nitrogen or something similar, plasma are firing particles of perfect conductors cooled to absolute zero. Meltaguns .... maybe warpguns? They fire a beam of pure warp negative energy? It's a stretch but it's the best I can come up with. Well, either that or just call the Ice Lances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drelthar Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 From an "elemental" point of view, Water is the opposite of Fire. From a scientific point of view, the damage from heat and cold are both caused by the rapid transfer of energy; in other words there is no such thing as cold energy, it is just the absence of energy. So if you stay with your fire and ice idea (which I love, BTW) the flamers are liquid nitrogen or something similar, plasma are firing particles of perfect conductors cooled to absolute zero. Meltaguns .... maybe warpguns? They fire a beam of pure warp negative energy? It's a stretch but it's the best I can come up with. Well, either that or just call the Ice Lances. I'm glad you like the idea, and you've given some great suggestions; I was thinking of using liquid nitrogen for the flamers as well, but the conductors are something I wasn't thinking about, so thank you! As for the negative warp energy idea, I'm considering that, so I'll try and work with how it can make sense so I can justify it better. To everyone else, thank you so much for your comments; minigun762, I really liked the idea of a wind theme warband, but I'm sticking with ice for now. I personally think that wind would be a great theme for a nurgle warband; they could specialize in spreading airborne contagions. TJWyrm, I love your suggestion in regards to Skalathrax, the general idea of a champion believing that strength through embracing cold is wonderful. jeske, you have an incredibly strong point regarding how similar sensations over and over get boring for Slaanesh followers, so I'll have to work some more on why a warband would stick with similar sensations for so long. Also, Kol_Saresk, I don't have much for either warband besides concepts and a few miniatures, so there's not much I can show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eetion Posted April 14, 2012 Share Posted April 14, 2012 Adding to the Skalathrax idea. Warriors from both bands were trying seek shelter from the deathly cold of Skalathrax night, before Khârn burnt the shelters down that is. Your band could have been one of those forced into the freezing cold, yet Slaanesh saved them from their icy fate, demanding they spend eternity dragging people to experience the blissful kiss of blistering cold as they once had to. While they harbour a hatred of those who use flame based weaponry and especially those of khornate origin. This way Ice is a mentality rather a 'my boltgun fires snowballs' type deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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