Skull Bearers Chapter

[Brother_Vaas]

Greetings Battle Brothers (and Sisters)

 

So as some of you may know I am starting up a Skull Bearer force and there is not a great deal of background for this chapter of the Astartes so I figured why not enlist the aid and opinions of my Battle Brothers here on B&C to help me construct some fluff for this chapter. I started by reading the background for the (alleged) parent chapter The Executioners and I think that I will adopt some of the restrictions onto my own Skull Bearer force.

 

So from Lexicanum this is what we know of the chapter.

 

Founding Chapter: Unknown (alleged Executioners)

Founding: unknown

Known Descendants: unknown 

Chapter Master: unknown

Homeworld: Keletros, Segmentum Solar

Fortress-Monastery: unknown

Colours: Yellow with Black Aquila, Chapter Symbol is a Black Skull on Yellow Background

Speciality: Close quarters fire fights and close combat

Strength: unknown

Battle Cry: unknown

 

History:

 

The 2nd company was involved in the Imbach Genocide, supported by at least one Whirlwind Helios from the Chapter Armoury.

The entire Chapter deployed during the Fourth Quadrant Rebellion, playing a crucial role in crushing the insurrection.

 

Appearance:

 

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/8/88/Skull_Bearers.jpg

 

Not a great deal.

 

So from the Executioners page of Lexicanum I would like to adopt the following restrictions from the Chapter into my own Skull Bearer Fluff.

 

Organisation:

 

The Skull Bearers adhere very strictly to the tenets laid down in the Codex Astartes, with only a few variations. The most notable of this is the replacement of the standard Devastator Squad in a Battle Company with a squad of Veterans equipped with heavy long ranged weapons.

 

Another change is that each Company is assigned three Chaplains instead of one, These individuals, called "enter name here" serve the dual role of recounting the tallies of the honoured dead, as well as keeping order in the Chapter.

 

The Skull Bearers seem to disdain the use of bikes and attack bikes, and instead rely on Landspeeders for scouting duties, often using a modified version as an artillery spotter when the Companies Whirlwind Helios are grouped into a suppression force.

 

Each Captain of the Chapter is allowed a degree of autonomy, as is considered a warlord in their own right. Although the Chapter Master, called the "enter name here", holds the ultimate authority in matters regarding the Chapter's practises, but if he should be found unfit or unworthy by the Chapters Chaplains then any Captain has the right to challenge the incumbent for the position. Such contests are fought to the first blood, but such is the skill of the Captains of the Chapter that first blood is typically a killing blow.

[Brother_Vaas]

Chapter History:
 

The Skull Bearers are a loyalist Codex Astartes compliant Space Marine Chapter of unknown founding who themselves claim to be a successor Chapter of the infamous Executioners Space Marine Chapter. Their exact Founding date is unknown as is the validity of the claim to their parent chapter.

This chapter’s Homeworld of Keletros is based along the borders of the Segmentum Solar and Segmentum Obscurus and as such the chapter is frequently in conflicts with separatist forces, chaos incursions civil unrest and encounters with the K’nid and Clawed Fiends, the contact with the Xenos known as Eldar and their rumoured cousins the Dark Eldar so far has been limited but there have been increasing numbers of activity reports from the imperial Navy in the Donorian Sector of these Xenos Pirates.  

 

Notable Campaigns:

Imbach Genocide (unknown Date.M41) – The Skull Bearers’ 2^nd company participated in the Imbach Genocide.

 

Donorian Errantry Crusade (unknown Date.M41) – The Skull Bearers 2^nd Company declared an Errantry crusade against the Xenos known as “Clawed Fiends” of the Donorian Sector. During this organised cull of the xenos species the 2^nd Company received an increasing number of reports from the Imperial Navy within the sector of the appearance of a Corsair Fleet of Xenos known as the Dark Eldar. While the exact number of Battle Brothers deployed to the sector remains unknown reports of the 2^nd company led by the Company Commander Kryptarus Rus seems to continue fighting the Xenos threat without many reported losses.    

Chapter Organisation:

The Skull Bearers adhere strictly to the tenets of the Codex Astartes closely, with only a few minor changes in orthodoxy which largely reflects their disdain for large numbers of long ranged firepower preferring to tackle the enemy in a torrent of bolter fire and brutal close combat fighting. This is reflected by the use of Company Veteran Squads armed with Long Ranged Weaponry usually supported with a Razorback APC utilised for anti-infantry support.

The 2^nd Company is currently undertaking an Errantry Crusade within the Donorian Sector of the Solar Segmentum following an increase in the amount of activity reports of Xenos Pirate activity within the Sector. When an Errantry Crusade is undertaken the Command of the Company is transferred to the highest ranking Chaplain within the Company for the active duration of the Crusade. In the meantime the Company Commander is placed in charge of training the recruits and undertakes many training missions and excursions within the 10^th Company.

The practise of Errantry Crusades is a custom often practised on the Skull Bearers Homeworld of Keletros where the bravest and most Zealous Knights of the various families will group together to rid an area of a dangerous beast or group of bandits. It is a great honour to take part in an Errantry Crusade on Keletros with those fallen Knight’s names sung in ballads in the great halls of the Dukedom and his personal heraldry added to the Tome of the Fallen.  

 

Donorian Errantry Crusade

 

• Mathias Dux - Chaplain
• Xpianus Maledoctus - Librarian
• 15 Company Veterans (including Andreas Rus)
• Aeneas - Dreadnought
• 45 Initiates
• 5 Neophytes
• 20 Assault Marines
• 2 Razorback Armoured Personnel Carriers
• 4 Rhino Armoured Personnel Carriers
• 2 Landspeeder Typhoons
• 2 Land Raider Crusader Pattern
• Whirlwind

 

Chapter Combat Doctrine:

Due to the Crusades regularly undertaken and encouraged by the higher echelons of the Skull Bearers command the Chapter is a hardened, veteran force able to embrace the concepts of the Codex Astartes with a few notable exceptions. All ranks are able to make tactical decisions and are encouraged to act on their own initiative to press an advantage. The Skull Bearers combine all arms in flexible balanced battle groups each of which can present an opponent with a diversity of threats, then counter attack so swiftly that the opponent is caught unaware. The Skull Bearers have skills in Urban Warfare and Boarding actions preferring to encounter the foe in closed quarters but are able to engage and defeat the enemy in open battle. They will use fortifications on the defensive, but only after all of the more aggressive options have been exhausted.

The Skull Bearers only weakness is perhaps a reluctance to accept defeat; this can often blind them to the risks inherent of their offensive and defensive stratagems.

Chapter Beliefs:

The Skull Bearers place particular importance and reverence on safeguarding their chapter’s future and preserving its gene seed. The Chapter’s number of Apothecaries exceeds the number normally present within a chapter; these apothecaries in addition to their usual role maintain a repository fortress below the chapters Fortress-Monastery upon Keletros. This secondary role is for practical as well as ritualistic reasons as the Chapter itself has suffered from situations where the gene seed of the fallen could not be recovered.

Chapter Gene-seed:

 

The Skull Bearers gene-seed is very stable and has never exhibited signs of mutation. However, over time they have lost the use of one of the special organs produced by the Astartes genetic template: the Betcher’s Gland, which allows the Space Marine to produce poisonous/corrosive spittle. It is for this reason amongst others that the Chapter Claim to be a descendant of the Imperial Fist chapter as both Chapters have experienced similar issues with the Betcher’s Gland, however unlike the Imperial Fists the member of the Skull Bearers Chapter still have fully functioning Sus-an Membranes allowing their members to enter a state of suspended animation.

 

The Skull Bearers have a passion for duelling; on the Chapters Homeworld of Keletros the nobles of the powerful families often arrange jousts and other exhibitions of martial prowess. The Skull Bearers chapter engage in countless duels against each other, sometime to settle a point of honour but more often to expand and hone their skills of swordsmanship.    

 

Chapter Relics:

 

Crusader Medallions – Many members of the Skull Bearers have been part of either a Chapter or Imperial Crusade at some point during their lifetimes. Crusader medallions come in many forms and are either symbols painted onto the greaves or braces of Battle Brothers armour or can be actual medals affixed to his weapons, chest plate or helmet. The presence of these tokens marks out the Battle Brother as a Crusader and will increase the respect of his peers; it can also alienate others as every crusade comes at a cost.

Notable Skull Bearers:

Chaplain Mathias Dux: Chaplain Dux served within the Deathwatch at a similar time as the famed Battle Brother Artemis, although no known records exist within the Skull Bearers halls of records and Matthias Dux has not disclosed any information of that time it is rumoured that Matthias took part in the purging of the K’Nib within the Donorian Sector at this time. Mathias Dux does seem to have an intimate knowledge of the Xenos race and his leadership both spiritually and tactically in the Skull Bearers encounters with this race has proved invaluable. Mathias also has an inherent knowledge of the Clawed Fiends from the same Sector which only strengthens the rumours. Mathias still wears the Deathwatch’s Silver Badge on his Left Shoulder plate

 

Librarian Epistolary Xpianus Maledoctus: Librarian Maledoctus survived the Skull Bearers rigorous screening and training to bend the powers of the warp to his will for the good of the 2^nd Company of Skull Bearers. He has served the company for the last 8 decades. He is often seen amongst the thick of the action so as to better record the mighty deeds of the company before maintaining the Chapter’s Storehouse of ancient lore.

Company Champion Veteran Brother Andreas Rus: Andreas Rus is the greatest warrior within the Skull Bearers 2^nd Company and his skill with a blade is legendary within the chapter. Part of the Command Squad issued to Mathias Dux Company Champion Rus can be seen in the thickest and bloodiest of the fighting. He has taken his charge of upholding the honour of the Emperor, Chapter and Company to heart and several times over the course of his tenure as champion has been revived and repaired by the Chapters Chief Apothecary. An exceptional close combat specialist Andreas Rus first distinguished himself during one of the many skirmishes against the Orks inhabiting one of the nameless Deathworlds around the Solar Segmentum. Cut off from the rest of the Battle Group Rus and the bodies of his squad was found days later by his Battle Brothers surrounded by the corpses of an Ork Warboss and its heavily armoured retinue, when questioned regarding the Black Power Sword that he carried Rus’s only answer was that he was awarded it by the Emperor himself who blessed the blade moments before the Ork Warboss had closed in on him.    

Dreadnought Aeneas Pacceus: Aeneas Pacceus was once the 2^nd Company Captain of the Skull Bearers Chapter, and under his command the 2^nd was considered a model of siege and urban warfare. Aeneas fell in combat battling several Clawed Fiends of the Donorian Sector along with the Piratical Raiders known as the Dark Eldar. The surprise appearance of some female Xenos Corsairs that have come to be known as Hekatrix Bloodbrides led to his untimely demise and the paralysed Astartes was set upon by the Clawed Fiend’s he was engaging. While he was being treated by the Chapter’s Chief Apothecary, the entire Chapter within the radius of Keletros assembled to await news of his death with 5 of the Company Captains and Company Champions standing over him until his soul would join the side of the Emperor. Eventually it was declared that his body was beyond the skills of the Chief Librarian to heal and was placed in the armoured sarcophagus of a Siege Dreadnought.  

[Brother_Vaas]

Homeworld: Keletros

 

The Astartes Homeworld of Keletros is located on the galactic border of Segmentum Solar and Segmentum Obscurus. Between the Armageddon sector and the Dead world of El’ Phanor, this location within relative centre of the Galactic Centre of the Imperium of Man has lead the Skull Bearers chapter to engage in conflicts with separatists forces and rebellions within the Segmentum itself as well as conflicts against Xenos threats such as the Orks of the Armageddon Sector, The Clawed Fiends and K’Nib of the Donorian Sector where the chapter routinely sends errantry crusades to test their recruits on the fields of battle.

Keletros itself is a Feudal World of the Imperium of Man located on the galactic borders of the Segmentum Solar and Obscurus Segmentum that maintains a late medieval civilisation and almost no advanced Imperial technology upon which the Skull Bearers have built their Fortress Monastery Khreak in the highest and most inhospitable mountains of the world’s northern polar ice cap.

Keletros is a Feudal world that is somewhat smaller in size than Terra. Humans colonised Keletros many thousands of years ago during the Dark Age of Technology and adopted a nomadic lifestyle almost immediately. The original landing site of the Colony, the Capital Ledesia, has grown into one of the three cities of the world. The bustling metropolis is a gathering place for the nomadic tribes of Keletros and the centre of its government.

This world possesses two giant continents that cover three quarters of it surface. Keletros Primus and Keletros Stella.

 

Keletros Prime is the largest of the two continents with its equator of this massive landmass being prone to such extremes of temperature that it remains uninhabited, a baking desert in the summer which becomes a sub-zero sea of snow and ice in the winter. Between these deadly lands of the continental center and the more habitable coasts is a belt of rich savannah lands thousands of miles deep, punctuated by mountain chains, mighty inland lakes, and vast rivers. Only towards the continent's coasts does the grassland give way to verdant forests, encircling the entire continent with a thin arboreal fringe.

Keletros Stella is dwarfed by the other landmass on the planet, a land of perpetual ice and snow. Vast mountainous ranges stretch high into the clouds and the Polar cap itself is only connected to Keletros Primus when the great freeze comes. Those nomadic people who feel the need to pilgrimage to the highest peak of the inner most mountain range brave the perilous crossing of the Ice Sea a shifting mass of ice that breaks and grinds with every passing second, those who are strong enough to make the crossing and survive the bitter cold and ravenous beasts of the mountains are met with the sight of the Fortress Monastery Khreak an imposing construction buried into the mountain side and night impenetrable for attacking forces to breach.

It is these pilgrims who make up the majority of the chapters recruits.

[Adeptus-Alaska]

 think it would be cool to have them feel a sense of attonement for the Executioners actions during the Badab war. keeping an eye on their progenators and a desire to hunt down the Red Corsairs and Huron Blackheart for his deceit.

[Brother_Vaas]

I was going to have 2nd company undertaking an Errantry Crusade in the Donorian Sector (due to DE players in my area running beast packs) so can incorpoate that idea behind the crusade fluff

[Brother_Vaas]

Right then guys I have uploaded some of my written fluff (2nd post) as well as a small amount of information regarding the homeworld.

 

Let me know what you think