The Thunder Knights

[Thunder Knight]

Index Astartes

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The Thunder Knights Space Marines Chapter

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Origins

The Thunder Knights are a Guardians of the Covenant Successor Chapter who themselves are a Dark Angels Successor Chapter. The Guardians of the Covenant passed on several suits of Master-Crafted Artificer Armour which have survived and still make it to battle since the chapters inception. The Thunder Knights also wear the dark red robes of the Guardians as a sign of their heritage, but also to better resemble the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars to whom the Knights give praise for their support.

 

Home World

<<Information on the Chapter’s home world>>

 

Combat Doctrine

The Thunder Knights take their name sake element literally, as it is a name that does well to represent how Space Marines fight on the whole. Thunder Knights seek to embody the coming storm of their enemies demise, utilizing orbital attacks, overwhelming force and air superiority to accomplish their campaigns. They are as Angels of Death descending from the very heavens themselves.

 

Thunder Knights favor the use of anything that generates electricity or energy similar to a lightning strike to great theatrical effect on the battlefield. As such, they tend to thematically favor Power Swords, Plasma Weapons and Bolters. Flamers and Melta weapons are used and respected, but are nowhere near as popular on a personal level with the average Thunder Knight.

 

Thunder Knight Techmarines observe a practice known as Thunder Smithing. This is where an engine on a Thunder Knight vehicle will be tuned to output as much noise and bass as physically possible by removing mufflers and altering torques. The deafening sound of a Thunder Smithed bike squad on the charge can be terrifying enough to instill untold fear into the hearts of mortal enemies. An important element of Thunder Smithing is to keep any modification reversible for stealth missions. Permanent modifications are frowned upon but often requested by individual pilots.

 

Organization

<<Information on the Chapter’s organization>>

 

Beliefs

The Thunder Knights follow a set of beliefs that may be described as Unification Theory by some in the chapter.

 

Religiously, the Thunder Knights worship the Emperor and his loyalist Primarchs as literal Gods, Demi-Gods or Angels depending on a particular brothers level of zeal, the exact definition used can be cause for schisms in the chapter and official chapter interpretations may rise, fall and vary between ages and the leaders who define those times.

 

Brothers commonly pray and meditate at shrines depicting the Emperor and his Primarchs, and some may even take up particular combat styles in honour of certain Primarchs, examples include "The Dragon" a Chaplain who models his resolve and strength on the Salamanders Primarch Vulkan and various assault squads in the chapters history dedicated to replicating the ferocity of the Space Wolfs or Blood Angels.

 

Above all however, Lion El'Jonson is the chapters Primarch, and he is always paid due as "The First" (in name and number) and most important of all Primarchs to the life of a Thunder Knight. It is his honor, wisdom and prowess they seek most to replicate, and the chapter uses the imagery of his Sword along with the profuse usage of power bladed combat to try to get closer to their Primarch. (Note: The Thunder Knights do not know of the possibility that the Lion is inside The Rock as it has never been divulged to them.)

 

The Traitor Primarchs are depicted as fallen angels, seen as once loyal and noble beings, corrupted by Chaos and torn from grace. These Primarchs are duly hated and hold their own Shrine of Hatred within the Thunder Knights fortress monastery, a place where Knights will come to vent rage under the ever watchful eye of the Thunder Knights Chaplains. This practice of enshrining traitors may be seen as Heretical even if it is to denounce and hate such traitors, but is an important part of the Unification Theory belief system. The shrines inclusion, it's is believed, is to be sure to include every aspect of the Unified Astartes history and fill in gaps that may otherwise be filled by the corrupting of chaos.

 

Gene-seed

<<Information on the Chapter’s gene-seed purity/mutations/lost organs>>

 

Battle-cry

<<The Chapter’s battle-cry or motto>>

 

USING A THUNDER KNIGHTS ARMY IN WARHAMMER 40,000

 

In 6th Edition the primary forces of the Thunder Knights can be represented by the Dark Angels or Space Marines Codices dependent on which Company is present. A Thunder Knights army may also take the following units from the Grey Knights Codex, under the Allies Special Rules, to represent various elements of the chapter:

 

HQ

Choose Only One of the Following:

• 0-1 Grey Knight Grand Champion
   
  
• 0-1 Grey Knight Librarian
   
  
• 0-1 Ordo Xenos Inquisitor - "House Ottendahl Trade Operative"
   
  The House Ottendahl Trade Conglomerate is a small Rogue Trader fleet currently led by Void Baron Ottendahl Volkos, a decedent of Ser Ottendahl Vame, current Grand Champion of the Thunder Knights chapter. Vame was inducted into the Thunder Knights at behest of his father Void Baron Ottendahl Olphoss, who upon discovery that his son was a Psyker, feared for the young Vame and sought professional training to hone his powers. Through trade deals made in centuries past with the Thunder Knight chapter, Olphoss called upon the chapter to induct his son, the chapter accepted only after Vame passed the requisite entrance exams. While not
   
  Due to close blood ties, House Ottendahl now provides fleet support to the Thunder Knight chapter on a permanent basis, and will occasionally send it's best security operatives into battle alongside the armies of the Thunder Knights to act as direct fire support or, more commonly, as trade diplomats with the vast fortunes of the Ottendahl Trade Conglomerate behind their words. It is well known, and accepted by the chapter that House Ottendahl uses these ties and opportunities to work to it's own ends. These schemes are overlooked so long as the Thunder Knights may benefit from acquisition of new technologies, allies, territory or resources.
   
  The "House Ottendahl Command Operative" may take an Inquisitorial Henchman Squad, as per the Grey Knight Codex, this squad does not take up a force organisation slot.
  

Troops

• 0-1 Grey Knight Terminator Squad - "Thunder Knight Storm Callers"
   
  The Storm Callers are a unique group from the ranks of the Thunder Knights Librarians. They act as a Seer Council to the chapters command structure and possess many other duties such as forming an Honour Guard, acting in place of First Company Terminators, providing Spiritual Council and performing Daemonic Exorcisms. When they take to battle they are grouped into squads of 5 and carry the chapters mightiest Power Blades.
   
  Storm Callers are restricted to taking the following hand weapons: Nemesis Force Swords, Storm-Bolters and Incinerators. Aside from this restriction, regular rules apply.
  

Fast Attack

• - 0-1 Storm Raven Gunship
  (Author's Note: I purchased and painted a Storm Raven for my army before Forge World released it's Storm Eagle model which I'd have much preferred to use given canon and rules restrictions. I basically wanted a budget Thunderhawk to represent the chapters orbital transports and the Storm Raven became my answer.)
  

[Thunder Knight]

Greetings Brothers!

 

I've been a Bolter and Chainsword lurker for many years now, but only with this Index Astartes forcing it's way from my brain have I decided to sign up and throw my stuff out there, and what better place than B&C?

 

Really I'm doing this because I find that keeping any creative work of mine on my computer just means it's doomed to rot like a furry old orange at the back of the fridge, posting to forums always means that I have a reason to come back, update and complete my works. Up until a few years ago when I stopped playing hardcore I was very active on RP Forums for games like City of Heroes, where our guild members would be encouraged to post this kinda stuff about characters regularly. I love that kinda stuff, and "Writing" is proudly on my CV in the relative hobbies section.

So, about the Thunder Knights...

 

They are a chapter I've been collecting since 2nd Edition, and it was with the release of 3rd Edition that I encouraged about 5 or 6 of my then school friends to grab an army that reflected their personality with which we'd have epic, but poorly executed games of WH40k in our various living rooms. This was before Apocalypse and before any of us could appreciate the game properly, so it was a often a bit of a mess when it was a 6 player free for all or 3v3 madness. Brilliantly though the crazy kids played Orks, and Dark Eldar, the guy most into the rulebook and history was all about the Eldar, the cunning and calculating one played an Abaddon army and the kinda dull guy who copied everyone was Ultramarines. Unfortunately, I was the guy he copied from, and I myself didn't really know better.

 

The Thunder Knights were originally Ultramarines as I said, because I thought, with my juvenile mind, that they were the biggest and best. Then this friend of mine started an UM army too, and I quickly sought to distance myself from him. First I painted all my UM's shoulder pads with a white trim and gave them white knee pads (an easy fix for limited abilities), renaming them Novamarines because I just thought the name was totally boss. Eventually I got bored with the whole project after my friends and I stopped playing and left to go our seperate ways. I packed my Marines in many boxes and left them there for a good half a decade.

 

It wasn't until recently that I unpacked everything in a crazed round of nostalgia induced by the Dawn of War games, and decided that I'd finish my chapter once and for all as a hobby I could properly do now that I wasn't so young and stupid that I'd be liable to cake everything in 20 layers of blue paint and call it a day.

 

This time. Paint shall be Thinned. :tu:

 

Inspiration

 

When it comes to 40k I'm heavily inspired by the brilliant books I read from the Black Library and tend to take interesting aspects of the lore encountered within to include in my in armies.

I only really got into the books when I got back into the hobby. So it's here's what I've read so far in chronological order:

• Titanicus by Dan Abnett
  
• Horus Rising by Dan Abnett
  
• Salamander by Nick Kyme
  
• Firedrake by Nick Kyme
  
• Nemesis by James Swallow
  

I've decided to incorporate the Rogue Trader elements of Nemesis", a story about the Officio Assassinorum during the Horus Heresy. If you haven't read it, Nemesis does a stellar job of showing you just what it's like to be a king amongst men as a Rogue Trader. It's like being a Fortune 500 today, but multiplied by THE UNIVERSE, essentially roaming planetary governors. They also tend to have a Writ of Trade, which thanks to loop-holes, makes them untouchable under Imperial law as it's considered the Word of the Emperor. As such I wanted to, in the future of my Thunder Knight Project, incorporate a Rouge Trader presence on the board to be used as a Count-As Inquisitor and Retinue. Definitely paying my respect to the origins of the 40k world.

 

I've also decided that my chapter will support/be supported by a Titan Legion of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Let's be honest it was always the city block robots sized that inspired me to the wildest fits of imagination as a kid and Titanicus was a better coverage of their role in the 40k universe than I could have possibly fathomed. Always my most highly recommended book I've read, simply because I found myself loving the human characters Abnett created, more than the stompy Titans themselves. I also have a collection of 5 Epic Scale Titan Miniatures to represent them. As such it'll only be a small Titan Legion (according to Titanicus) so it doesn't annoy anyone. 5 "Engines" is a suitably small-fry force that could easily be decimated by rivals, just the way I like it. (You don't want to be *That Guy* with the full forces of the Inquisition at his chapters beck and call.)

 

And finally, my colour scheme is inspired by the Salamanders, with the black shoulder pads and shiny trim. Change the Green for Blue and Gold for Silver and there you have a basic version of my scheme. The Thunder Knights were originally to be called the Storm Dragons, and use Salamander chapter symbols as the Dragon, but then I saw on the first page of the DIY mini gallery thread here on B&C someone posted pictures of a chapter called the Storm Dragons that are absolutely stunning. So I bowed down, changed their name, and with that I had to pick a new chapter to base them off. When the Dark Angels accessories kit hit the shelves I always knew it was awesome, but now, with the Thunder Knights I had a reason to incorporate the Squire like robes and prolific sword imagery. And so, the Thunder Knights and their style were born!

 

Undercurrent Themes

 

1. Unity: The Knight, The Magi and the Rogue
   The idea of the Thunder Knights seeking unity in everything actually stems from this idea that I wanted their fleet to include the Adeptus Mechanicus and a Rogue Trader flotilla. I realised that here you have a Thunder Knight, Mechanicus Magi and a Rogue Trader. The Holy Trinity! To explain this allegiance of forces I've developed a belief system for the Thunder Knights which is all about a drive toward unity. A drive that like all good Warhammer 40k stories and histories I enjoy, can lead to dark places like totalitarianism, avoiding the TK's becoming shining goodie goodie good guys who never faulter and are always right. (Boring.) So this drive toward Unity means that they seek to bring together disparate aspects of the Imperium into a whole, which explains why they have these tag-alongs in their fleet, and as a nice closed loop, the presence of AdMech and RT's means I can have a shiny Contemptor Dreadnought and nobody can say I can't! >:3
    
   Their allegiances with the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Rogue Trader House of Ottendahl sometimes leads them into direct idealistic conflict with other Chapters or Inquisitors, just as I can imagine it'd lead me into idealistic conflicts with other players and lore buffs. Nobody likes a non-conformist in the WH40k universe, and I intend to reflect that with the ability to play against other Imperial Armies canonically where heresy is declared of the Knights.
    
    
   
2. Thunder Storms!
   This one is totally obvious, the Thunder Knights have a thing for storms, surprise! One thing I like about this is how it fits in with naming conventions of Space Marine weapons. Storm Bolters, Thunder Hammers and Thunderhawks. Thunder Knights could easily fit right in there as a unit type or alternate name for Space Marines in general. So with any chapter when you look at their weapons you get a real sense that they are the coming storms, powerful, frightening and able to blot out the sky to rain down destruction upon you.
    
    
   
3. Every Marine Has a Silver Lining
   I challenged myself, upon seeing the first completed squad of Thunder Knights, to somehow include this phrase in my marines history. They have dark shoulder pads with a silver lining, and I thought it might be kinda fun to have this simple little phrase of Every Cloud, be passed down from now ancient history as a sort of eternally wise saying. It's the kinda idea I can't see having died out in a universe as grim and hopeless as it is. Life tends to require hope in order to flourish, so telling yourself that even all of this absolutely horrible bad luck will have a silver lining probably gives many denizens of Imperium what they need to stand back up again and move on.
    
   The Thunder Knights therefore are to be the embodiment of Hope. They are the silver lining for an otherwise embattled, crushed and demoralized Imperium. They bring hope and unity to loyalists, and an unending storm of destruction upon the Emperor's Foes. As I said before, in the spirit of WH40k, this form of hope is nevertheless flawed and grim-dark. The Thunder Knights see nothing of putting down the Iron Boot on worlds that don't want to be a part of the Imperium. The Knight's aren't fluffy lovely people, they're hard-nosed soldiers who know that to succeed there is strength in numbers and united forces.
    
    
   
4. Knights of Old, and the Inequality Therein
   One of my Chapters Grand Champions is actually directly related to the current Void Baron of the House Ottendahl Rogue Trader fleet. He and many others like him in the chapter are in the positions they are in, not through a grim ability to be the greatest warrior of their kin, but rather through a series of fortunate events of their conception that place them in "Noble Stock" or through cunning politics of a system that rewards honorable deeds and strategic thinkers. The Knights use a LOT of servitors who are often forced into this dismal state of existence by their masters and treat them like nothing. There's a strong sense of Heritage in the Chapter, that your particular squad has the greatest history, therefore you don't work well with a competing squad. I liked this idea in the Salamander/Firedrake books, where our main character is in direct competition with another in his own company who thinks he's simply better than anybody else because he was born to a family of nobles on Nocturne.
    
   This kinda element highlights things I want to highlight in our real world, about people who, through allegiances and sheer luck of who they're born to, believe they're better than anybody else. The Ruling Elite and Ultra-Nationalists fall into these categories, and those are the very people who form the Thunder Knights back bone.
    
   This is all inspired by the Feudal System of Knights where the King gave land to Barons, Barons gave land to Knights and Knights gave land to "Villeins" and as much pay as they felt like giving them, creating a vastly unfair system for anybody who wasn't born to power (Kings and Barons) or able to kill people particularly well (Knights).
   

 

In Conclusion

 

I've had the ideas for the Thunder Knights knocking around in my brain for ages, decided to spill it today and make it all official. I do welcome your feedback, and I hope to keep updating this post as time goes by. I hope you enjoy reading, and even if you don't, thanks for trying! This thread is primarily aimed at myself as an audience to inspire me to finish my Thunder Knight Project. Just getting it out of my head is enough for me, but yeah, I hope you enjoy it and it fit's the canon well.

 

I'll post pics in the future of my Knights, cos I'm quite proud of what I've manged to achieve when you compare it to the crap I churned out when I first started. A good portion of my army, unless it's a new release, has been totally stripped down and repainted from scratch. As I mentioned I also have Epic Scale models to represent my Titan Legion and I also have a collection of Battlefleet Gothic ships to represent the Chapters primary Battle-Barge and Rogue Trader support vessels. I plan on getting some AdMech ships in the future to round things off, but I'm saving those until the rest of my fleet is painted up and good to go.

 

So, again, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!

 

Thunder Knight

[Octavulg]

The Thunder Knights Space Marines Chapter

 

Just do "Thunder Knights". Indices Astartes are about Space Marine Chapters by definition.

 

The Thunder Knights are a Guardians of the Covenant Successor Chapter who themselves are a Dark Angels Successor Chapter. The Guardians of the Covenant passed on several suits of Master-Crafted Artificer Armour which have survived and still make it to battle since the chapters inception. The Thunder Knights also wear the dark red robes of the Guardians as a sign of their heritage, but also to better resemble the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars to whom the Knights give praise for their support.

 

I don't think the artificer armour detail is worth mentioning. Why does the chapter like the Ad. Mech so much?

 

Thunder Knights favor the use of anything that generates electricity or energy similar to a lightning strike to great theatrical effect on the battlefield. As such, they tend to thematically favor Power Swords, Plasma Weapons and Bolters. Flamers and Melta weapons are used and respected, but are nowhere near as popular on a personal level with the average Thunder Knight.

 

Omit the last sentence. If they favor X, logically they don't use stuff that isn't X as much.

 

Thunder Knight Techmarines observe a practice known as Thunder Smithing. This is where an engine on a Thunder Knight vehicle will be tuned to output as much noise and bass as physically possible by removing mufflers and altering torques. The deafening sound of a Thunder Smithed bike squad on the charge can be terrifying enough to instill untold fear into the hearts of mortal enemies. An important element of Thunder Smithing is to keep any modification reversible for stealth missions. Permanent modifications are frowned upon but often requested by individual pilots.

 

This...feels silly.

 

The shrines inclusion, it's is believed, is to be sure to include every aspect of the Unified Astartes history and fill in gaps that may otherwise be filled by the corrupting of chaos.

 

How would such a practice arise? Not necessarily worth mentioning in the IA, but you should have a logical explanation for how it happened. :D

 

The House Ottendahl Trade Conglomerate is a small Rogue Trader fleet currently led by Void Baron Ottendahl Volkos, a decedent of Ser Ottendahl Vame, current Grand Champion of the Thunder Knights chapter. Vame was inducted into the Thunder Knights at behest of his father Void Baron Ottendahl Olphoss, who upon discovery that his son was a Psyker, feared for the young Vame and sought professional training to hone his powers. Through trade deals made in centuries past with the Thunder Knight chapter, Olphoss called upon the chapter to induct his son, the chapter accepted only after Vame passed the requisite entrance exams.

 

He should probably be a relative, not a descendant (since Marines are recruited at age 14 or so, maximum).

 

A lot of the fluff in the army section should be in the IA proper (in Organization, Combat Doctrine or Home World, for example).

 

I admit, at this point I don't really have much of an idea what the chapter's like. They like thunder and lightning and get along OK with some Rogue Traders. That's not much of a personality as yet. :)

 

I've also decided that my chapter will support/be supported by a Titan Legion of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Let's be honest it was always the city block robots sized that inspired me to the wildest fits of imagination as a kid and Titanicus was a better coverage of their role in the 40k universe than I could have possibly fathomed. Always my most highly recommended book I've read, simply because I found myself loving the human characters Abnett created, more than the stompy Titans themselves. I also have a collection of 5 Epic Scale Titan Miniatures to represent them. As such it'll only be a small Titan Legion (according to Titanicus) so it doesn't annoy anyone. 5 "Engines" is a suitably small-fry force that could easily be decimated by rivals, just the way I like it. (You don't want to be *That Guy* with the full forces of the Inquisition at his chapters beck and call.)

 

You don't, but five Titans is still a lot more than any chapter should have.

 

Each Forge World has a Titan Legion, at least in theory. This Forge World could either be very small and weak (and thus suck up to the Space Marines) or have been badly battered by a particular enemy (and thus suck up to the Space Marines). That'd fit a bit better with the background, IMO.

 

The idea of the Thunder Knights seeking unity in everything actually stems from this idea that I wanted their fleet to include the Adeptus Mechanicus and a Rogue Trader flotilla. I realised that here you have a Thunder Knight, Mechanicus Magi and a Rogue Trader. The Holy Trinity! To explain this allegiance of forces I've developed a belief system for the Thunder Knights which is all about a drive toward unity. A drive that like all good Warhammer 40k stories and histories I enjoy, can lead to dark places like totalitarianism, avoiding the TK's becoming shining goodie goodie good guys who never faulter and are always right. (Boring.) So this drive toward Unity means that they seek to bring together disparate aspects of the Imperium into a whole, which explains why they have these tag-alongs in their fleet, and as a nice closed loop, the presence of AdMech and RT's means I can have a shiny Contemptor Dreadnought and nobody can say I can't! >:3

 

You know, there's this neat section of the IA where you could talk about how the chapter beliefs in unification of various aspects of the Imperium into one whole (and explain how that'd work, I think). ;) Do they long for the days when the Emperor was in charge and his kids were in charge too?

 

This is pretty interesting, and would make a great hook to hang a chapter on.

 

The Thunder Knights therefore are to be the embodiment of Hope. They are the silver lining for an otherwise embattled, crushed and demoralized Imperium. They bring hope and unity to loyalists, and an unending storm of destruction upon the Emperor's Foes.

 

If they think that, cool. If everyone else does, we need to have a talk about boundaries and making your marines too popular. ;)

 

This is also interesting, and could work well in conjunction with the previous one.

 

Knights of Old, and the Inequality Therein

 

Not sure this theme comes through, and not sure it's worth exploring (or can be well-explored) in an IA.

 

Also, Epic marine armies are surprisingly easy to come by. I'm not sure where you live, but various parts of the world have some fairly strong Epic communities. If you want to actually get to use those Titans. ;)