Idea for a Chaos Warband - The Enlightened

[Verythrax Draconis]

I'm considering several ideas on building my chaos army around the codex, but since I have a month or more of waiting before me (it will take 1.5 to 2 months to my first chaos minis to arrive here in Brazil) I'm playing with the possibilities (as you guys can see from my latest threads so far :P). As much as I love the legions, I don't want to limit my builds' potential, and BL or WB armies doesn't cut to me.

 

Considering the actual fluff of those being the last moments of the Imperium, with the Tyranid fleets getting near to the solar system, chaos and mutation erupting everywhere, etc, together with the old chaos stuff, about chaos lords and the dark mechanicum, I started to develop an idea for a possible warband. Please tell me what you think, and if it's feasible or not:

 

- A great chaos warlord has risen (can he be from a splinter warband of a legion, or a renegade chapter, TBD). He follow the Chaos Undivided ethos (he can be a count as Abaddon, maybe), but during all his wars for supremacy, he formed some interesting alliances, incorporating a group of Thousand Sons sorcerers and their rubrics to his ever-growing army (more on them later). He gathered several warriors from other smaller warband and errant marines under his flag, and formed a pact with a Dark Mechanicum sect, where they would grant him access to their daemonic engines and equipment, if he waged war against a certain small, distant sector, so they could get access to its raw resources and to explore an specific planet, that could contain hidden secrets (STCs, daemon artifacts, remains of a lost forgeworld, TBD).

 

Coincidentally, this sector was on the route of the Tyranid incursion, since they are in the fringe of the Imperium, with the astronomican failing, the population where to their own luck. Using a smart strategy, The Lord took his most common, unmutated forces to make a first contact with it's populace, being received as heroes of the Imperium, that would defend them from the incoming menace.

 

In fact it happened - they fought the Tyranid forces, driving them away - since they couldn't afford to lose those planets to that xenos menace. But since the populace was unaware of the true origin of their saviors, they took them for their face value, and since most were backwater planets, very far from the Segmentum Solar (real location TDB as well) the format of the Imperial Cult there was very open to interpretation, so his Dark Apostles had their chance to easily take that to their advantage.

 

He started to insert chaotic aspects to the religious life of the population, and even full-fledged openly declared chaos cults were it was possible - even the other marines were easily introduced - marines are giants, with several anomalies compared to an average human, so later it was easy to make everybody believe that an extra limb, tentacles, horns or wings were just controlled alterations of the body to better serve the Imperium.

 

Of course, not all planets and groups openly accepted the marines views as orthodox, but they didn't stand a chance - with their sheer force and support of good part of the population, they sealed the sector's fate.

 

With the Tyranid incursion getting deeper and deeper in the heart of the Imperium, the difficult to keep communications open, and Imperial forces occupied with other things as the Tau, the activity in the Eye, the awakening of the Tomb Worlds and the incoming Tyranids, the sectors was considered lost for the Tyranids, since it already got completely isolated from the rest of mankind by the ever growing list of planets and sectors took by the Hive Fleet (maybe the sector could be locked between the Tyranid vector of entrance and the Tau Empire expansion, suggestions are appreciated).

 

That way the Lord was a able establish his own small empire, having the Dark Mechanicum in his favour.

 

***

 

About the Warband itself, I was thinking on something like a Black Crusade, formed by squads for all gods, and undivided ones as well, but all sharing the same base color scheme. The Lord is undivided himself, but the Tzeentch sorcerers, using the unending ploys taught by their master, started to pervert (as it was possible) his views, with a Tzeentch-oriented catechism and daemonology.

 

They preach that in fact Tzeentch is the main god, the ever-changing nature of the chaos, and his mutability is represented by the other gods, they being mere aspects of his ever-changing nature. The Lord don't really completely embrace the concept, but it's difficult to argue with sages in the subject, so he ends up giving, even involuntary, more prominence to those followers inside his forces.

 

Other aspect is the presence of the Dark Mechanicum, providing daemon engines, tanks and such to the warband, and possibly establishing a forge or something in one of the sector worlds. Other idea maybe is deliberately create a tear in reality and try to bring the sector to the warp, I don't know - the 40K specialists would need to help me on this.

 

The warband would be named "The Enlightened", as they consider their own knowledge of the warp putting them in a privileged position compared to the other minions of chaos. Their symbol would be the all-seeing eye, having the pyramid formed by 3 chaos star arrows.

 

The chaos marks of each squad would be variations of that logo, with the Slaanesh symbol having that "ball" at the end replaced by and eye, the 3-arrow Nurgle symbol having 3 eyes as well, and the Khorne symbol having an eye inside the triangular piece. Undivided squads would bear chaos star symbols, with a central eye look upward, but only with the upper arrows, as a symbol of ascension and enlightenment.

 

What you guys think? Ideas, suggestions, all feedback is appreciated!

[minigun762]

I don't see any obvious fluff problems with your background, nothing that makes me step back and say "Really? That seems difficult to believe".

 

Some things to consider though:

 

1) Are trying to justify an Abbadon level character leading your army? I'm not a huge fan of count-as characters and less so when it just happens to be one of the most powerful characters in any army at the moment. Its your army and your minis so in the end the choice is yours but I would consider going with a unique character instead.

 

2) Is there a reason for making him Undivided beyond wanting to include a variety of marked troops? It seems like it would be easier and more interesting to make him a Tzeentch lord who is decieving, tricking, bribing threatening and planning all of the various aspects of his warband to work together.

 

3) Depending on the timeline involved from the system's salvation to the Chaos occupation, I think the level of mutation they are willing to accept varies significantly. Even on backwater planets, the notion of fearing the mutant is common. Having the chaos lord hide his more "gifted" members either by keeping them on ships or in fortresses or using some sort of disguise and illusions would be easier to justify.

 

4) Its easy to have him gift a particular planet or continent to the Dark Mechanicus in return for their support. Explain that the planet or area in question is under quarantine because of the tyranids and no one is allowed in upon pains of death.

 

Anyway, thats my thoughts, hope it helps.

[Warsmith Aznable]

I think it's a good premise. The Imperium isn't there in force, so Chaos takes advantage of their fear and ignorance to subvert and usurp. I think your story needs an Eclessiarchy element, as they are a great vector for corruption of the general populace.

[Azekai]

They preach that in fact Tzeentch is the main god, the ever-changing nature of the chaos, and his mutability is represented by the other gods, they being mere aspects of his ever-changing nature. The Lord don't really completely embrace the concept, but it's difficult to argue with sages in the subject, so he ends up giving, even involuntary, more prominence to those followers inside his forces.

I am not much of a Tzeentch fan, but this is a pretty neat concept, and it would be fun to expand on. I always like to see detailed theology regarding the Ruinous Powers.

[Verythrax Draconis]

1) Are trying to justify an Abbadon level character leading your army? I'm not a huge fan of count-as characters and less so when it just happens to be one of the most powerful characters in any army at the moment. Its your army and your minis so in the end the choice is yours but I would consider going with a unique character instead.

 

In fact no, but I would like to keep using the named characters even if I create my own fluff, so I don't have qualms on using them as count-as :P

 

2) Is there a reason for making him Undivided beyond wanting to include a variety of marked troops? It seems like it would be easier and more interesting to make him a Tzeentch lord who is decieving, tricking, bribing threatening and planning all of the various aspects of his warband to work together.

 

Yes, the main point of the fluff is to create an undivided army with a strong Tzeentch influence. I don't think the Thousand Sons sorcerers would join any warlord with his rubrics unless it's a really great warrior, like Abaddon or such. So I thought that maybe the Warlord was a promising newcomer, and the sorcerer saw his potential, and "lend" his troops and services, when in fact he is trying to subvert the warband to do his bidding, so in fact he would be the true leader under the curtains. He would be like his advisor, whipering lies in his ears.

 

The deceiveing idea is tempting, but in gameplay terms it would be better to have an undivided Chaos Lord, and I think it would be cool to have the Sorcerer deceiving evebody and making the other gods work for him without noticing - that's how Tzeentch roll. And he would have the extra protection of having the Warlord as a cushion in case some of the manuevers backfires.

 

3) Depending on the timeline involved from the system's salvation to the Chaos occupation, I think the level of mutation they are willing to accept varies significantly. Even on backwater planets, the notion of fearing the mutant is common. Having the chaos lord hide his more "gifted" members either by keeping them on ships or in fortresses or using some sort of disguise and illusions would be easier to justify.

 

Good idea, just like in the old "V" series :) One idea that occurred to me after reading this i sthat maybe it would be nice to have the population always in the dark - they can even workship the chaos gods in the open, negating the God Emperor - but being completely anaware of what it really means, the destiny of his soul and the true horrors behinhd it :)

 

4) Its easy to have him gift a particular planet or continent to the Dark Mechanicus in return for their support. Explain that the planet or area in question is under quarantine because of the tyranids and no one is allowed in upon pains of death.

 

Awesome idea. One idea I had is that 4 god's lords under the Warlord would get continents or planets as spoils, like feuds, where the cult of their gods would be spread, under different guises, or without any disguise at all, depending on the population.

 

Anyway, thats my thoughts, hope it helps.

 

Sure helped! Thanks!

 

I think it's a good premise. The Imperium isn't there in force, so Chaos takes advantage of their fear and ignorance to subvert and usurp. I think your story needs an Eclessiarchy element, as they are a great vector for corruption of the general populace.

 

Yeah, I need to work this better - maybe the Sorcerers take control of the present Ecclesiarchy, and subvert the teaching, and the ones that notice it and rebel against it are persecuted as "heretics".

 

I am not much of a Tzeentch fan, but this is a pretty neat concept, and it would be fun to expand on. I always like to see detailed theology regarding the Ruinous Powers.

 

Sure! I think that one of the cooler aspects of the idea!