New to DA, need fluff resources/advice for DIY successor.

[Beardbattered]

Like many others, I have been wanting to build a DA force for years, and with the new dex I have a very good reason to take the plunge.  Also, like many others, I don't want my DA army to just be a bog standard copy of the main chapter.  So I started looking into established successors.  None of them really fit what I wanted, be it fluff paint scheme or something else that just rubbed me the wrong way.  So DIY it is, I decided.  Problem is I don't really know jack about the 40k universe or The Imperium.   

 

So I come to you all looking for advice or fluff resources that may have helped you with creating your own special piece of the 40k world.  I have read Angels of Darkness and Deathwing.  The HH series is next on my to-read list.  

 

My idea is very simple, and might be completely absurd to anyone who knows more of the fluff than I do.  So much of the DA is concentrating their efforts on hunting the fallen to atone for what their chapter has done.  My idea for the successor is that they track down and eliminate any threat to exposing all of the secrets of the DA and covering the tracks of the more extreme fallen hunts.  I would think this would be a very important thing for them to be worrying about, since some might say that what they've done to cover up their secret is just as bad if not worse than their original fall.  For all I know this might be something that the DA already do in established fluff, but I haven't seen anything to suggest it so far.  Please let me know.

 

Any suggestions/advice/debunking is welcome.  Thank you.

[Magos Valkamar]

The DA (and their successor) more or less do that already, as they usually eliminate anybody who's seen a Fallen. This also applies within the Chapter, as only the Inner Circle (the Masters, Librarians, Interrogator-Chaplains and the Deathwing) really know of the Fallen, any brother below this is either inducted into the Deathwing or  - if they can't hadle this harsh truth - disappear. Apologies if I'm giving you info you already know.

 

I would recommend that you skip the HH books for now, seeing as they aren't vital (apart from the short stories and novellas, which give you some insight into the DA's primarch) and read Ravenwing instead, as it gives you a look at how the DA hunt the Fallen. The Purging Of Kallidus isn't bad either, as it shows the DA actually being 'heroic'.

[facmanpob]

If you can pick up the short story 'Unforgiven', that's a good read too.

 

Maintaining the secrecy of The Hunt is important for the DA and their successors, I touched on it when I redid the fluff for the Guardians of the Covenant (see link in my sig), so I don't have any problem with their being a chapter dedicated to maintaining the deception. They could almost be thought of as a sort of counter-intelligence force, the MI5 of the Unforgiven ...... Sort of how the Alpha Legion operated Pre-Heresy.

 

Any thoughts on a colour scheme yet?

[Beardbattered]

Thanks for the reading suggestions guys!  I really like the counter-intelligence force idea Facmanpob.  As I said the concept is very vague at this point so I'm not married to any specific ideas.  I've had a few color schemes bouncing around in my head, though I'm not sure what I'm pleased with yet.  I was planning on naming them The Ashen Pride, so I was thinking some dark greys with some bone details.  So primarily slate grey with a bone helm stripe (inverted for sergeants and such)  other than that it's pretty much undecided.  I was also toying with the idea of them being fleet based, without a planet to call home.  The Exodus seems like a neat name for it... I dunno.

 

Edit:  Your Gotc are looking really good btw Facmanpob.  I really like the red-washed metallics on your bikes.  That's a clever idea.