Native Fenrissians

[captain fabian]

Hey Wolves. I've been reading some things about the battle of the Fang and I have some questions for you.

Since it was a full scale invasion with starships bombarding the fang/planet later being blown to pieces, carriers coming down with troops, drop pods arriving later and all sorts of mayhem and destruction being caused, how would the native fennrisians react? I always thought that normal humans were unaware of the fact that the Space Wolves were there on top of the fang. I always thought that SW were some kind of gods living on Asaheim and mere humans were doing their best to join them upon death. In fact just like vikings did. The way I see it they are still barbaric warriors fighting for land and of course none of this fighting involves guns and bombs. Plain old close combat is their way. Now they couldn't have missed all that noise and destruction around the planet.

Am I wrong in this? Is this a stupid question? I'm trying to see things from a fennrisians point of view if you know what I mean. So what do you think fenrissians thought and think of the Space Wolves?

[Lord Ragnarok]

I would think they'd believe it was the Ragnarok and that they were saved from it's ultimate peril.

[-Volsung-]

Not all Fenrisians are clueless about the Wolves, I think.

 

Some tribes might have never encountered a Space Marine, and might have never heard of them. But other tribes, and some organizations like the Iron Brothers and their island, might know of a greater and stronger faction, and might seek refuge during these times. They might have barely any clues as to what the Imperium is or what the whole scheme of the galaxy is, but I'm pretty sure they might have some knowledge of the Wolves, especially if their tribe is especially strong and have seen many battles with aspirants being picked for recruitment.

 

I mean, say you're the ... uhhh... Bloodsails. And your tribe has been around for centuries and every year, a war erupts and five or six of your best men are picked up by the power armored guy. It won't be long before the sight no longer brings surprise or awe, and you might start inviting him to your feasts and what not. In fact, one of Ragnar's battle brothers (Sven, I tink... the really annoying guy with the big mouth), was chosen for his amazing performance at a brawl inside a feast. So likely, the Wolf Priest went to the feast, or maybe was a former member of the tribe, and just chilled there until he noticed some strong warriors.

 

Also, even if they find out what Space Marines are, it's not like the Space Wolves are trying to keep their presence a secret and will kill people who find out who they are.

[Wulfebane]

Asaheim is huge. Literally a continent, and the cliffs separating it from the rest of Fenris is miles tall. Native Fenrisians cannot even see the Fang from below Asaheim. So when the Fang was being bombarded, at most the Natives probably only saw lights in the sky and thunder in the air.

 

As for Priests coming down and socializing, doubtful. Perhaps a few terse words, then they're in flight again with their new "acquisitions". It is inconceivable to the Natives to even begin to understand them as anything other than Sky Warrior gods, and the Wolves won't do anything to change that opinion. Only the Iron Isles, where Iron Priest apprentices go, is the only access to technology outside of Asaheim, and it is not shared.. Only scraps of iron swords are bartered.

[Valerian]

Read about it yourself:

 

The Battle of the Fang

 

It was during the 36th Millennium, at the time of upheaval known as the Age of Apostasy, that the forces of the Apostate Cardinal Bucharis invaded the Space Wolves' home planet of Fenris. Whilst all around, the Imperium was falling into disarray and ruin, Cardinal Bucharis had carved himself a sizeable empire west of Terra. For thousands of light years around the world of Gathalamor, the populations of dozens of worlds were enslaved under Bucharis' regime. Called the Plague of Unbelief by Imperial historians, Bucharis' tyrannical reign stretched northwards towards the Eye of Terror until his armies ran into the forces of the Space Wolves.

 

It was the strike cruiser 'Claw of Russ' that first encountered the advance ships of Battlefleet Pacificus, which had been subverted to Bucharis' cause by corruption and disinformation. The Claw of Russ destroyed a navy cruiser and a transport before escaping into the warp to carry this news to Harald Stormwolf, Great Wolf at the time. Forewarned, the Space Wolves prepared to defend their realms against this grave menace. If the Space Wolves were to fall, Bucharis' power would stretch ever further until he had the might of arms to invade Holy Terra and overthrow the Imperium.

 

As soon as Admiral Sehalla's fleet disengaged their warp engines to enter the Fenris system, the Space Wolves attacked. They took a massive toll of men and ships with their ambush before disappearing into the swirling dust and asteroid clouds that littered the heart of the Fenris system. From here, the Space Wolves fleet continued to launch countless hit and run attacks, forcing the traitor Admiral Sehalla to use almost two thirds of his fleet fighting these short-lived but draining space battles. Despite the supreme efforts of the Space Wolves' strike cruisers and battle barges, Sehalla managed to force a landing on Fenris itself.

 

Many of the transports were blasted from orbit by the huge planetary defense cannons of the Fang, while others were torn to pieces by the gigantic electrical storms that rage in Fenris' atmosphere. In spite of these losses, thousands of Bucharis' bloodthirsty warriors made planetfall and began the ground war.

 

Whole towns and villages of native Fenrisians were enslaved by Bucharis. They were forced to lay makeshift roads across the treacherous glacial flats, cutting down the huge trees of Fenris' forests to provide fuel for fires and the versatile engines of the rebel Imperial Guard tanks. However, the Fenrisians are a fierce breed and had to be guarded closely lest they tried to rise against Bucharis and strike at his army right at its heart. Defiant communities were slaughtered and the settlements razed to the ground. The few livestock of the scattered villages were captured for Bucharis and his officers to feed upon at lavish banquets while the Fenrisians starved to death. The young women were imprisoned for the soldiers' pleasures, and the old and ifirm were slaughtered and left in the freezing snows for the giant carrion beasts that prowl the ice of Fenris.

 

Bucharis' onslaught continued swiftly, his huge divisions advanced inexorably towards the Fang until the ancient citadel was besieged. More and more renegades were landed on Fenris, and although many carriers were destroyed by the Space Wolves fleet with hit and run attacks, the valleys and mountainsides around the fortress swarmed with the legions of the Apostate Cardinal. Immense siege guns thundered all day and night, the overcast skies illuminated with a thousand flares and the coruscating energies of void shields shuddering under the barrage of ten thousand shells. The mountains of Asaheim quaked with constant detonations, causing avalanches and rockslides, all ading to the spreading destruction. Plasma bombs and mass drivers from orbiting ships gouged deep ravines into the precipitous slopes, and yet the armored walls of the Fang stood against all this punishment. The Space Wolves smashed the traitors' seigeworks with surprise counter-attacks. Continuous assaults by the Wolf Scouts disrupted the supply lines of Bucharis' army and for months on end the guns would fall silent for want of ammunition.

 

All of Asaheim is linked to the Fang by a labyrinth of underground chambers and tunnels, which the Space Wolves used to penetrate behind the enemy army. Roaring oaths of vengeance, the Blood Claws would attack the soldiers of Bucharis in the darkness of Fenris' forests, ripping their foes apart with chainswords and sharp fangs. The heavy weapons of the Long Fangs squads blew apart the mountainsides to crush the enemies of the Space Wolves beneath a storm of rocks and debris. Grey Hunters formed execution squads, hunting through the thick forests to blow apart any invader they found with a hail of explosive bolts. Dreadnoughts crushed and maimed everything in their way, ripping apart the marching columns, leaving a trail of utter destruction behind them.

 

Month after month, the Battle of the Fang continued. Cardinal Bucharis ordered suicide squads to storm the armored portals of the Fang, promising massive promotions and rewards for the first berserk soldiers to break through. The Space Wolves repelled each and every attack, inflicting crippling casualties on the Apostate's forces. For three blood-stained years the siege carried on. Assault after assault, shelling for weeks on end, fell against the Fang and yet the walls of the ancient citadel of the Space Wolves remained unbreached. As the battle began its third year, it drew in more and more of Bucharis' soldiers, until almost three quarters of all his armies were on Fenris, many hundreds of thousands of men.

 

Even as Bucharis' second-in-command, Colonel Gasto of the Rigellian XXV, began preparations for what might have been the final, deciding assault, fate intervened. On the edges of the Fenris star system a war fleet broke through from warpspace. As Sehalla's fleet moved to attack, they were confronted by an armada of Space Wolves battlebarges and strike cruisers, returning to their home planet from a distant war. The fury of Kyrl Grimblood's attack was unbounded, smashing over half of the renegade fleet in a single cataclysmic engagement. As Grimblood's Great Company herded the traitors towards Fenris, the rest of the Space Wolves' starships attacked, catching Sehalla between two unstoppable forces. Sehalla managed to escape with barely a quarter of his ships intact. Wasting no time in pursuit, the newly arrived Space Wolves headed for Fenris.

 

The attack by Kyrl Grimblood's Great Company swept away tens of thousands of traitor Guardsmen in the first few days. They were flung from the mountain passes around the Fang and those few that survived to reach Asaheim were set upon by giant wolf packs and the savage Wulfen. Bucharis himself managed to avoid capture by escaping on a shuttle, meeting with Sehalla who dropped back out of the warp just long enough to pick up his master. For those that remained on Fenris, death was a certainty.

 

White Dwarf 244

[Pavement Artist]

That's not the same battle however. The one in the novel details Thousand sons invading Fenris.

[Russ Brother 92]

That's not the same battle however. The one in the novel details Thousand sons invading Fenris.

 

There are two accounts of a 'Battle of the Fang' currently written into our fluff - one is that shown above and the other is the one against Magnus and his mutated sons...

[dragon950]

The Thousand Sons only cared about the SWs, they had little time and personal to deal with anything else.

[maverik_girl]

That's not the same battle however. The one in the novel details Thousand sons invading Fenris.

Aye, but it stills sheds light into the perspective of the native population.

[Pavement Artist]

That wasn't a battle, that was a robust theological debate. :D

[Valerian]

That's not the same battle however. The one in the novel details Thousand sons invading Fenris.

 

Re-read the original post; he didn't mention anything about the novel or the Thousand Sons. Since there are two historical Battles of the Fang, how do you know which he was referring to?

 

Anyway, as Mav-girl has already pointed out, it doesn't really matter which BotF the OP had been reading about, as the snippet that I provided still provided insight on how such an invasion affected the Fenrisian population.

 

V

[Growler67]

From the Ragnar Saga (Omnibus) as mentioned above,not ALL Fenresians are unaware of the Space Wolves. From his own villiage his fathers boat and crew were "chartered" as it were to provide transport for an Iron Priest to the city of the smoking mountains, likely what many would call a Factorium, and he was paid with several pieces of "treasured iron". His arrival was via one of the "thundering sky machines" likely a Thunderhawk.

 

Granted not ALL Fenresians are fully aware nor have even witnessed first hand the Space Wolves. However it is within their cultural beliefs and inherant legends and mythology that they (as best as they can comprehend) do exist and that they are mighty and magical in ways that they cannot understand. When the "chooser of the slain" appears to claim his initiates, the remaining villiagers are removed from the site as a means to purge any witnesses. Perhaps taken into servitude within the Fang in performing those menial tasks required for day-to-day living, but where they are taken and specifically what happens to them is never elaborated. This would perpetuate the "mythology" of mighty armor clad giants transported by thundering sky machines. Stories passed on from distant booming sounds that are otherwise unexplained. These "sky people" are revered and feared and we know them to be the Space Wolves.

[Wulfebane]

to provide transport for an Iron Priest to the city of the smoking mountains

 

Ranek was a Wolf Priest. Also, I always assumed the vehicle, being described as a smaller vessel, was a land speeder.

[Growler67]

to provide transport for an Iron Priest to the city of the smoking mountains

 

Ranek was a Wolf Priest. Also, I always assumed the vehicle, being described as a smaller vessel, was a land speeder.

 

It's been quite a while but yes, I stand corrected on Ranek. However, I will disagree with the vehicle being a Land Speeder. Pehaps a shuttle or other flying craft, but I don't see a Land Speeder playing the role of taxi for a Wolf Priest. Why it was written the way it was I cannot answer - why didn't the transport just take him to the Factorium to begin with for example? Perhaps there are a few "special relationships "cultivated" and Ragnar and his father was just one of them. The inferrence is there but not specfically addressed. My point was that (regardless of which flyer it was) they are likely ALL referred to as "thundering sky machines" to the native villagers throughout the planet because it is of a technology that they do not have nor fully understand.

[greysquigg]

I always imagined a thunderhawk because when he was picked up, he was picked up in a thunderhawk.

 

Ragnar mentioned in the first book "space wolf", that he was transported in a "sky ship which he now knows is called a thunderhawk".

 

 

I loved all of Bill King's work in those first 4 space wolf books, and I believe he wanted the reader to see a thunderhawk at the beginning.

 

 

 

GS

[-Volsung-]

What I am curious about is how Annika, a Fenrisian, got her job with the Inquisition.

 

She knows a lot about the Space Wolves and their sagas, especially concerning the veneration of Bjorn. But how was she picked for the Inquisition? When was the Inquisition on Fenris, and where was the right place and right time for her to be to have been noticed?

 

Also, one must consider that not all Fenrisians live as sea raiders. The Iron Isles, or w/e they are called, is a bit of a city or a town, where people are living in alleys or hab units and there are bars and taverns and shops and temples. These are perhaps one of the few, if not only, urban Fenrisians. Could Annika have come from them? There must be at least one or two thousand if not more of them.

 

And are these individuals tribe-based?

 

Also, I would reckon these urban Iron Islanders would be perfect candidate for chapter serfs, considering the destitute Ragnar saw might be a sign of heavy poverty and unemployment. Can Space Wolves be recruited from these individuals?

 

Also, there is the possibility that the Iron Isles is not the only Fenrisian faction that is advanced enough to understand that the Space Wolves as real, or to know the Imperium.

 

Consider Annika's tribe. When Bjorn saw her, he knew her tribe, which existed when he was around. That means her tribe was over thousands of years old. Two thousand years was all it took for the Vikings of Denmark to go from eating roasted swine and swigging ale, to drinking coca-cola at McDonald's after work.

 

So did she discover the Space Wolves when she joined the Inquisition, then suddenly found a soft spot in her heart for them? Or was her tribe so powerful, it might have advanced to the point where it actually knows about the Imperium, and might be in contact with the Wolves? After all, it must be true that the tribe existed when Bjorn was still around. And it must be true that her tribe still exists, or else where would she come from?

 

It makes sense, if you consider that the Iron Isles is a permanent settlement, regardless of Fenris's land shift. And there are people living on Asaheim who the other tribes think might be "cannibals." But these tribes have solid land, living in Fjords of lower Asaheim or even on the main continent itself, and if thousands of years pass, they might become pretty advanced as well.

 

Thoughts?

[greysquigg]

Very interesting.

 

2000 years is a long time. Maybe the tribe Annika belongs too is a descendant of the first settlers, who could possibly have not been split up?

 

Due to the shifting nature of Fenris it's not unfeasible that the first settlers, cut off from the imperium of man, could degenerate into tribe like states.

How far the Tribe mentality stretched could go to show how Annika is part of the "modernist" style Fenrisian.

 

Also think of this:

 

Fenris was not always the snowy wasteland it is in the books. According to the tribal stories the skalds in "space wolf" (ragnars books) Russ came down, and created the ice swept world they live in. The idea keeps popping up in that particular book that Fenris was not always cold.

 

Maybe Fenris was terraformed into a cold wasteland by it's settlers, it got out of control, and they lost contact with the base camp of their colonial expedition.

 

Or maybe, their sun turned into a white dwarf after being a Red Giant. Thus chilling the planet significantly.

 

"there weren't always wolves on fenris" Remember that quote?

 

What if fenris was a warm planet similar to earth during the suns red giant phase, then was turned into a cold planet during the white dwarf phase..

 

 

 

Maybe this is a bit too ridiculous? Maybe I just had a brain fart?

 

 

GS

[captain fabian]

"there weren't always wolves on fenris" Remember that quote?

 

 

Could someone elaborate on this? I could never truly understand the meaning of this phrase.

[greysquigg]

In the Horus Heresy book prospero burns, the quote "there weren't always wolves on fenris" is used when they speak about the history of Fenris. (I can't tell you the page number I don't have the time).

 

It basically can be taken two ways.

 

1) There weren't always space wolves on Fenris.

 

2) There weren't always wolf like creatures on Fenris.

 

 

So the debate is, "is it that Fenrisian Wolves where introduced by man" or "where there always fenrisian wolves on Fenris"

 

Personally, I tend to lean towards the idea that the Wolves are brought in from earth, and over thousands of years have evolved. Possibly as the climate has changes from hot to cold.

 

There is some argument for fenrisian wolves actually being older wulfen. But this has very little evidence in the lore.

 

 

 

GS

[Growler67]

I personally take it that wolf or wolf-like creatures existed on Fenris, but the inferrence was meant to be related to the Space Wolves. Theere are several varieties of wolves on Fenris through various fluff references. That they exist isn't a question for me, nor that they may have evolved into the current variety either. Perhaps I am mistaken but I take it that the comment is directed at the Chapter.

[greysquigg]

It really has merit both ways I think.

 

What swung it for me was seeing a similar thing in the second Ragnar book. On the planet they steal the talisman from the orc, the river creatures had evolved from the species brought in by the humans and so on. Old Bill King actually made a point of putting that in there for fluff reasons.

 

Thinking back through all the books, it really makes sense both ways.

 

Maybe I've just added 2 and 2 and got 5, what do you think?

 

GS

[Wulfebane]

I believe that quote was meant to infer that those who have the Mark of the Wulfen and don't make it back to the Fang during the Blooding trial became wolves after a long period of (d)evolution.

[Hafdan]

I believe that quote was meant to infer that those who have the Mark of the Wulfen and don't make it back to the Fang during the Blooding trial became wolves after a long period of (d)evolution.

 

Don't forget the other more puzzling quote about fenris "There are no wolves on Fenris"

[Blacksad]

no wolves as we in our timeline in our universe know them on Earth. (or as they know them on Terra from the ancient teksts and cavepaintings and what have you not)

[Hafdan]

no wolves as we in our timeline in our universe know them on Earth. (or as they know them on Terra from the ancient teksts and cavepaintings and what have you not)

 

Everyone knows they're really daemons. :woot: