Consecrators fluff

[danthemanmac]

Hi everybody,

 

Long time lurker, first time poster here!

 

I just wanted to offer my take on the Consecrators successor chapter, and ask anyone with more knowledge about the fluff behind DA and Consecrators if it is plausible. I'd also love some help fleshing it out a bit?

 

So without further ado...

 

Consecrators - pre heresy colour scheme, penchance for heresy era wargear - is it possible they are a group of Fallen? Perhaps they operate under the guise of a DA succesor chapter, "capturing" the Fallen and subsuming them into their ranks?

 

I've found a little in other posts where people suggest this, however I feel it doesn't get fleshed out enough. I'm already painting up a Consecrators army, and have some beautiful "angel" terminator style models from hitech minis that I'm planning on turning into a Command squad (I was thinking they would have been present at the Caliban battle, and mutated the wings during their warp "excursion.")

 

As I said I'd love to hear any fluff suggestions or help fleshing this idea out a bit!

 

Cheers

Dan

[facmanpob]

Try looking at this link for more information. Grandmaster Belial wrote up unofficial fluff for the main successors some years ago, and started a project after Xmas to update the fluff given the new DA codex. I updated the GotC stuff, which explains the links in my sig, but the Consecrators could do with some lovin' too :)

[Captain Semper]

Well, the Consecrators do not have the pre-Heresy colours, that's Angels of Vengeance... The pre-Heresy scheme was pure black and never is it mentioned otherwise... Many tend to believe the scheme is pre - Heresy because it's how DAs were depicted in the RT era. But RT was 40k if I recall... And that's a colour scheme GW gave up a long time ago for 40k DAs. Consecrators is a nod to GW past, not an in-Universe past...

 

As for fluff, I'd say Fallen is a stretch. Seriously, there in nothing to suggest it. I'd go for custodians of the DAs most precious relics... Maybe in a parallel quest to find lost relics? Other Unforgiven search for Fallen, the Consecrators look for lost (tainted?) artefacts to bring back to the Legion, to purify them?

 

Just a line of background you may want to build upon...

[Bryan Blaire]

It is also plausible that they "consecrate" the trappings of the captured Fallen, rededicating them to the Unforgiven and the battle against Chaos. After all, ancient tech = better than modern tech in 40K. No need to let good stuff go to waste just because some dummy decided that he wanted to follow Luther/Chaos.

[danthemanmac]

Thanks for the responses everyone!

@ facmanpob - That link is awesome. Cheers!

@ Cpt Semper - Thanks for the colour scheme tips, and your awesomely inspiring Consecrators painting/modelling thread! (I'm pretty sure that's whats turned me towards them). In regards to your fluff suggestion, I haven't found any evidence (from novels, codexes etc.) that goes against my alternative suggestion. Albeit my knowledge of the 40k universe is a little limited! Is there something I am missing?

I guess this is what drew me to the Consecrators in the first place - there is a lot of mystery surrounding their founding, their ideals/beliefs, and even perhaps their relationship to the Dark Angels, which leaves a bit of space for personal interpretation. I love the idea suggested in the novels "Fallen Angels" and "Angels of Darkness" that the Lion isn't necessarily loyal to the Emperor. This raises questions of which side was in fact loyal at the fight of Caliban? I guess I was thinking "what better place to hide (for those fallen who hadn't succumbed to chaos) than in plainsight?" (as a successor chapter that works alongside the Dark Angels).

I guess this view of Consecrator's brings up a bunch of other questions which need answering:

• Is it a whole chapter of fallen or have a few got into positions of power? (I'm leaning towards a few)
• If it's just a few, do those in charge keep the lower ranks in the dark about their leader's origins? (this lends itself well to the inner circle idea of Dark Angels)
• Where do they recruit from? How do they recruit Librarians and Techmarines? (I don't have an answer for these yet, techmarines would definitely be needed to maintain that sweet oldschool wargear)

There's probably a million more questions I haven't thought of

Thoughts?

Cheers

Dan

[Bryan Blaire]

The books of the HH series make it very clear that the Lion is loyal to the Emperor. It's not unclear any more. The loyal Dark Angels were with the Lion and attacked Caliban, which contained the traitors.

[Cactus]

While I agree with Bryan and wholeheartedly reject the notion that the Lion was loyal to anyone other than the Emperor of Mankind, there's no reason you can't alter or reinterpret the 'official' history for your own army. It's certainly an interesting counter-conspiracy.

[Bryan Blaire]

It actually doesn't have to be altered at all really, they could simply be those Fallen penitent enough to try and "make up for it," renew their vows of loyalty and try to fight for the Imperium that they once abandoned. The biggest question to me is "How do they keep the Librarians of all the other Unforgiven from reading the minds of the Consecrators' Fallen members and just discovering them outright?" Any obfuscation in the minds of Inner Circle members of the Unforgiven probably sets off warning bells any way...

 

What if they did keep penitent Fallen, but mind-wiped them and reprogrammed them to Loyalist personalities or some such, but let them retain their old arms and armor?

[danthemanmac]

Interesting suggestion Bryan...

Just out of curiosity, do you know which specific books in the HH series clearly show the lion's intents? After a quick reread of "The Primarchs" I agree that it is possible his loyalty to the Emperor wasn't a question (my bad), however I think his distrustful nature (of seemingly everybody, even his own legion members) and severe lack of people skills might give other people the impression of disloyalty to the Emperor. This is certaintly reflected by Astelan in "Angels of Darkness."

As to the librarian mind-reading problem, I guess the mind-wiping thing would work to a point. Does anyone know more details about the mind block Israfael used on Zahariel? Other than that I can only see the "Fallen" members of the chapter not interacting with other chapters. The brief accounts of the Consecrators do suggest that they are largely internal, not communicating with other chapters or the outside world/universe much. Maybe they just use non-fallen members for all communications? This reinforces the secretive nature of the Dark Angels geneseed thingy nicely.

Thoughts?

[Bryan Blaire]

I'll have to find the specific reference, but the fact that the Lion actually is willing to force anyone (like any and up to all of his brother Primarchs) into a protracted war to make sure that no one but the Emperor is ever able to claim the "Throne of Terra" is pretty telling.

 

I do think that taking the word of a pretty unreliable narrator (even the author's own comments in the more recent printing of Angels of Darkness state that he never actually thought that anyone might believe Astelan) as evidence for the disloyalty of a Primarch, especially a narrator that didn't seem to really know his gene father, isn't really justified.

 

I've also somewhat recently come under the opinion that the "secretive nature" of DA and the Lion himself isn't necessarily what the DA genetically inherited from the Lion/gene-seed (or at least not the only thing). Instead I would posit that the gene-seed nature of the DA is actually one of their good sense being completely overridden by poor judgement in a frustrating/having their will thrwarted situation. As evidence, I would suggest that the DA's overwhelming nature of making "last stands" even in the face of death when the wiser and more strategically optimal thing would be to retreat/re-position, and the fact that some of their Successors are even more known for this. Couple this with the several times we see the Lion himself make snap judgements (killing Nemiel is the one that comes to mind first), and I think there is a trend to set alongside the "secretive nature" concept. Either one could be learned behavior thought. I do think that the coupling of these two could lead to a situation where Astelan begins to believe that only his interpretation of events are correct and refuses to even acknowledge that they are in fact interpretations and not facts. I wonder if the "secretive nature" is simply something they do have a bit of gene influence from, but it has been taken to an extreme because of the nature of the secrets they have been forced to keep and the methods they have been institutionalized into using.

 

From the sounds of things, in the latest Codex, unless the Consecrators could always manipulate events so that their Supreme Grand Master, Grand Masters or Masters (if they are Fallen) are never in summit meetings on the Rock (which would likely be suspicious in its own right), it's unlikely that a Fallen in the Inner Circle could actually hide amongst his brothers with them remaining in the dark about it. I don't know that the Consecrators are actually that insular from the rest of the Unforgiven, just more insular than even the DA to non-Unforgiven. Just my personal view though, since they deployed alongside the DA at the Arrulas Intervention.

[Brother Degas]

Just skim read the thread and might have missed details but why do they need to be fallen or mind wiped?

 

Remember that during the fall the lion lead loyalist marines down to Caliban to face Luther and the heretics.  

 

It could be that the consecrators are in fact those original loyalist marines and this knowledge is one of the secrets held by the GM.

 

Ref:

I think the reference is in the end of Primarchs, the lion is given a choice, side with the emperor and lose his legion or side with chaos and keep it intact. Its a conversation with a watcher.

 

[danthemanmac]

Sorry for the delayed response everyone. Has been a busy time with work and as a result I've caught a gastro bug :( Not enjoyable.

 

@ Degas - In reference to your spoiler, I reread that section and I didn't get the same impression.

 

 

 

When the Lion is talking to the watcher, I got the impression it was in reference to the taint on Caliban. He is asked to return, assumedly to solve the problem. However he declines, stating he has to stop Horus and Guilliman, "even if he loses his legion." I don't feel that suggests anything about choosing Chaos over the Emperor? I feel this shows the 'distrusting' nature of the Lion.

 

 

@ Bryan - I haven't read the new version of Angels of Darkness. I'll have a search online for the author's comments and check them out!

 

Though to be honest I'm not really concerned about the truth behind whether The Lion was on the side of Horus or the Emperor (as interesting as the conversation is), as I think it's inconsequential to my story. Ultimately a schism was created within the DA, and the thing that most interests me is the perspective of the Fallen. I feel after reading various novels/codexes etc. that there is justification (even if incorrect) for them not trusting their Primarch, while also remaining loyal to the Emperor.

[Brother Degas]

Ill double check, been a while since I read it.

[Phoebus]

 

I don't think it has to do with his suspicious nature, either. I thought it was a pretty clear conversation: the Watcher warns the Lion of the developing events on Caliban (per 'Fallen Angels'). The Lion's choices boil down to taking care of Caliban while he still has a chance, or taking care of the Guilliman issue. His choice is informed by his loyalty to the Emperor; even Caliban comes secondary to that.

I think it's safe to say how this storyline is supposed to go from here on out:

The Lion landed on Caliban, and, among other things, fought a number of Chaos-corrupted beasts on his adopted homeworld. His isolation had an impact on his development. Luther brought the Lion into the Order, which he soon came to dominate by prowess and genius, if not outright charisma. The Lion later engineered the war against the Knights of Lupus not just to ensure the completion of the Crusade against the Beasts, but to also seize the largest stores of knowledge related to the greatest problem he was probably becoming all-too aware of by then: the corruption of Caliban and the effect it had on the Beasts themselves. To this end, the Lion recruited the individual we now know as Cypher (former Knight of Lupus), more or less as a subject matter expert on the problem plaguing Caliban.

The Emperor then shows up. His knowledge on matters pertaining to the Warp shed light on Caliban's problems. In a typical example of his "he may or may not be a hypocrite about psykers and sorcerers" style, he leaves behind "engineers" to banish the daemon plaguing Caliban. This makes the Lion's plans (and Cypher) rather redundant. Anticipating the Emperor's men would solve the problem, the Lion keeps the taint of Caliban a secret from his followers. This is part of his penchant for secrecy, which is probably not just due to his upbringing, but to the culture of the Order itself (as he himself expresses) as well.

Luther and Zahariel get exiled after the Lion discovers the former almost let him be assassinated and the latter tried to cover for him. He sends a few hundred warriors to maintain the rouse of the "training mission", to avoid the obvious fiasco and subsequent blow to morale.

The Terran "engineers" either screw up the "cleaning process" of Caliban or otherwise can't succeed at it. The taint causes all sorts of issues, which lead to outright insurrection. See the events of 'Fallen Angels'. Cypher, who has also been kept in the dark, tries to genuinely help Luther. Unfortunately, his help translates to sorcery and warp-related matters, which will only make matters worse.

Luther and his followers assume that the Imperium was either trying to hide the problem, were making it worse on purpose, or both. Without the Lion there to defend himself, it is also assumed that he is at least complicit in the matter. Zahariel is the only individual who clues in to the fact that the Imperium was trying to banish the daemon of Caliban. It remains to be seen what will happen with him.

Luther will thus feel like his rebellion is justified. Astelan will, in any case, be bitter about the fact that he was exiled for what he likely assumes to have been favoritism. By the time Zahariel tries to explain that their assumptions were wrong, Luther will probably be too far gone (usage of warp powers, Chaos seeking to turn him against the Lion, etc.). Zahariel and Israfahel may very well die or escape when someone comes visiting (see spoiler below). Either way, for Luther's followers to become as indoctrinated and convinced the Lion was out to destroy them and/or their homeworld, voices of dissension like Zahariel's have to be silenced.

It should be noted that, in the upcoming BL collection from their last big event, titled 'The Imperial Truth', we find out that while the Lion goes to Ultramar to confront Guilliman, he detaches two forces from his own:
1. The first, under Corswain, goes to find out where Leman Russ is.
2. The second, under a Chapter Master named Belal - not Belath from 'Call of the Lion' - is sent to investigate Caliban.

So, depending on how much Gav wants to tie in Astelan's obviously muddled recollections from his original novel to the current storyline, Belal and his forces will probably be taken out by Luther and his followers... which will end up being the reason why a few loyalists try to escape Caliban (as mentioned in 'Angels of Darkness') and why Astelan was convinced the Lion was going to wipe them out on arrival.

I'm pretty sure that goes somewhat hand-in-hand with what I assumed were mild dents being put in Astelan's already shaky credibility by 'Ravenwing'. The most prominent of those was that the Sacred Bands on Tharsis and their relationship to the people they ruled over/brutalized weren't just Astelan's innocent attempt at Great Crusade Part Deux... but a copy of the structure put in place by his "former friends" at Port Imperial... which wasn't destroyed as he'd claimed, after all.