Garon Nebula Crusade: A Black Templars Blog

[Noctus Cornix]

http://www.tribwatch.com/crossMaltese.png

 

People
of the Imperium. By Decree of Lord Marshal Gwynn, the Hell Stars of the
Garon Nebula and all its inhabitants have been deemed unclean and unfit
to bath in the light of Holy Terra. May the Emperor have Mercy on your
souls, for we shall not.

It's that time again, boys and girls. Time for another one of Noctus' ridiculous modeling blogs chopped full of conversions, fluff, and laziness. This time, we're going back to my roots. I may have started
40k as a Chaos player but during that time, I was simply too young to fully grasp everything about the game. It was only when Black Templars came out that I fully dedicated myself to trying to get this game down and as such, Black Templars were my first real army. Not only that but I was someone who grew up around traditional Catholicism, seen many old and beautiful churches, and delved into Crusade history like it was candy. That being said, These boys have always had a very special place in my heart.
 
At first when it was announced that Black Templars would be rolled into the Space Marine codex, I was fairly disheartened and was actually tempted to just sell my Templar army. But I took some time, did some thinking and in my little moment of evaluation, I somehow emerged more eager to make my Templars than ever before. Call it spite if you will, but I refuse to give up on my Crusaders simply because we don't have our own codex. We still have our fluff. We still have our pride. And I will make everyone remember what a real Templar is.
 
So with that in mind, I had to come up with a Crusade, something that would represent everything that is a
Black Templar. Vast, unrelenting, merciless, and utterly brutal. I know that many of my fellow Templar players prefer to focus on our knightly aspects, as though Templars are some Crusaders for humanity. But
honestly, while I respect their opinion, that's never been the same for me. The Templars care nothing for humanity. They will slaughter anyone and anything that stands in their path to cleanse the galaxy. They are Crusaders, that eternal march onwards to purge the with, the xenos, and the abomination. Which brings me to what is perhaps my favorite quote in the Black Templars Codex, found on page 24.
 

 

"I saw the scene of a massacre, where the dead lay on the ground in numbers like fallen leaves in a forest. The settlers had not died as soldiers die in the heat of battle, fired with ardor and courage, with weapons in their hands and exchanging blow for blow. They had died as the helpless must, with their hearts filled with horror worse than death itself."
               -Excerpt from Inquisitor Barzano's investigation into the Garon Nebula Crusade

 
And then it hit me, why not make the Garon Nebula Crusade? There's little info on it save for that one excerpt and apparently some small short story in a White Dwarf issue but the White Dwarf states that they fought against some sort of Crystalline xenos, which makes no connection for the quote in the codex. With that said, the fluff is mine to toy with as I wish so I will simply ignore it. Continuing on my research into the
Garon Nebula codex, the only other resource about them was on the astral chart in the back of the codex.
 
http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/ac352/Noctus-Cornix/CrusadeChart_zpsd4f2e476.png
 
And, as you can see, this only states that the Garon Crusade only had a little over a Company worth of marines, which is something that doesn't sit well with me because I wanted something vast and fluff scale to represent the immense size of the Chapter. Once more, I thought about it a great deal, trying to examine ways in which to have the Crusade in far larger numbers than the Inquisitorial report suggests. And then I remembered, back when the Templar codex was first released, a minor special mission on the Games Workshop website detailing an Inquisitor sticking his nose in Templars business, thus leading to a special Mission rule-set of Templars vs. Witch Hunters. Once again, this concept of Templars killing anyone who tries to hold them back is ruthlessly annihilated is something that really sings to me. So, with this in mind, I have decided to take the liberty in saying that the number is a falsified record laid into the database after messages were destroyed or intercepted and changed while Inquisitors and their agents were executed for their Heresy of interfering with the Eternal Crusade.
 
Inspired by Heathen's chart posted on his Iron Warrior's blog, here is a slightly more accurate representation of what the Crusade has in numbers. Do keep Note that this is mostly a Fluff-based chart. I have absolutely no intention of creating 1,000 or so Black Templars and several dozen vehicles. Good God that would be an ordeal. (and turn my wallet into a perpetual void.
 
http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/ac352/Noctus-Cornix/Chartcopy_zpse0a09d5c.png
 
 
Unfortunately, that's all for now. Models will be posted soon but not quite yet.
 
For now, enjoy.

[Marshal Rohr]

Are you going to pick a single Company to focus on, or will you be doing sections from the whole Crusade?

[Noctus Cornix]

Good question, actually, and the answer would be both. The plan is to focus mainly on the Company of Castellan Reynald and Marshal Gwynn's household, but I do plan to have a model of every Castellan and, model count permitting, atleast a squad from each.

[Marshal Reinhard]

Interesting. I will watch this with great interest. Also I might borrow the idea of a massive crusade approaching a thousand marines under a multitude of castellans. (would help explain why my marshals household is so... numerous)

[Noctus Cornix]

It would and its certainly not out of the question. Our Chapter has held numerous crusades over these hundred centuries with nearly 1000 marines. Our numbers are described to be, at minumum 5,000 to 6,000 marines which I often assume it is far more, encroaching on 10,000 (but that's just me.)

[Marshal Rohr]

Will this be the Templars going it alone 'Planetkill' style? Or will they be supporting another Imperial Endeavor?

 

 

I've always liked the idea that the High Lords give the Templars some room to stretch their legs, but when they need something completely eradicated they call in Chapter like the Space Sharks and Templars to erase problems. Less like the Minotaurs, because I feel like the Minos connection to Terra is a master and servant relationship, and the Templars have a independent relationship. 

[Noctus Cornix]

It's not simply Templars on their own. The Templars are moving, en-mass, towards an Imperial front that actually serves a great deal of significance because the Garon Neblua stands right between the Segmentum Tempestus and the Ultima Segmentum with essentially a clear shot for the Segmentum Solar. Increased enemy activity in the area can lead to some major problems and a great deal of the Imperium's forces is on the far side of the galaxy facing one of Abaddon's Black Crusades.

 

So, with that in mind, you'll see in the stories, excerpts, and models to come 'allies' of the Crusade, ranging from the Imperial Guard and the Inquisition to Space Marines of the Imperial Fists (you'd be surprised, but I see no love between them) and the Grey Knights (oh that will be interesting to write about) among other chapters and forces.

[Marshal Rohr]

I believe you. Part of the politics of the Thracian Relief Fleet is the brutality and aggressive strategies of my Crusade, compared to the Fire Angels and Imperial Fists.

[Noctus Cornix]

"We succeed from a Legion of failures and suicidal husks who have lost all honor and pride. They are walking dead who bear the gleaming yellow of the proud defenders who stood their ground at the walls of Terra and held off the forces of the Arch Traitor with their last
breath. Those who bear it now are liars who do insult to that lineage. Yet now you continue to do insult to those who gave their lives,
mounting defeat and failure upon a name that once struck fear in the hearts of all traitors. And now look at you, ragged dogs... Why do I
despise you yet still hold the name of Dorn in reverence. Make no mistake, 'Imperial Fist', our Gene-Father was no better than you... But
atleast he had the sense to end his miserable existence rather than continue this pathetic shame as you do."

[Noctus Cornix]

This actually brings me to an idea that I plan to put into motion, once I have ultimately decided how to do it. The Templars are unrelenting and completely merciless in their bloodshed. They have a code of honor and ethics (such as offering personal combat to those they deem as worthy foes) but such ethics applies to very few outside themselves. Humans are beneath their ethics and virtually all but the
most powerful xenos and heretics are deemed worthy of such an honor. As such, they have no qualms with orbital bombardments, virus bombs, unrelenting artillery shelling until the enemy is ground to dust and pulp beneath them. There is no need to act with 'honor' when there are so few worthy of it.

As such, something that was introduced in the Horus Heresy books was forbidden technology, Destroy squads using rad weapons and Phosphex, which is one of the most disturbing and sickening things in the galaxy. And I thought to myself. If the option was presented to them, would Templars use these weapons? I'm sure most of my brothers would disagree with me, but I say yes. What better way to purge the enemy but with the most powerful, devastating, and painful tools in the Imperium's arsenal? And so I am slowly devising a piece of fluff I call the Keepers of Antioch. An ode to the Holy Orbs of Antioch (the ridiculous grenades that could kill terminators no problem and in a piece of that destroyed an entire planet by throwing one into a volcano) the way its coming along is that this Master Artificer Antioch  unearthed in an ancient reclaimed Forge World lost and forbidden technology. Taking it for his
own, he has slowly integrated this technology into tools of warfare for the Chapter. While the Chapter has acknowledged some of his more mild tools, such as the Holy Orbs, some amongst the Chapter have shunned it, their false sense of honor keeping them from using what is necessary.

 

But for those who see what must be done to purge the Galaxy, an order of  initiates has been formed, calling themselves the Keepers of Antioch. They are those who take it upon themselves to wield these devastating and monstrous weapons onto the battlefield, setting the air itself ablaze and burning thousands alive in the crawling death of the Phosphex grenades and flamers.

[Marshal Rohr]

So are they real rad grenades or something similar?

[Noctus Cornix]

Are what real Rad Grenades?

[Marshal Rohr]

The holy orbs.

[Noctus Cornix]

The Holy Orbs? I have no idea, but given their power they might as well be.

 

But when it comes to my personal fluff, I will probably say yes.

[Marshal Rohr]

Gotcha. I think it's a great idea, personally.

[Noctus Cornix]

” My methods are a means to an end, no different than severing a tumor from diseased flesh. Those who stand in my way are but vermin and blinded fools who fear what I bring, what I represent. Salvation.

 

Do you know what I despise?... Seeing my own race, my own people being slowly corrupted and weeded out like common animals. To see the fate of mankind decided by debauchery and the will of monsters who wear our skin. You may ask me why, but I will not allow the light of humanity to be snuffed out by another.

 

...The Emperor has shown me this 'future' these heretics, and xenos offer, and that path leads not but the complete annihilation of our race. These daemons offer us nothing save a future where all that remains of our world is fading cinder...

 

We stand on the brink of annihilation where but one further step will leave all in ruin, and I will not allow mankind to plunge into the abyss. Instead, my brothers and I will exterminate these vermin down to the very last one and hurdle their bodies into the chasm until such a valley becomes a mountain where Man stands united atop their dead. There is but one future where mankind will once more be redeemed in the eyes of the God Emperor, and stand upon our rightful place of glory.

 

Only by bathing in the blood of the unclean filth as we erase them from this galaxy will we find salvation. And only one voice can guide humanity back into the loving grace of the Emperor.

 

Mine."

 

- Brother Osric Domalde, Champion of the Emperor

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Peace. It was a strange sensation to feel for one who has only known war all her life. Elissa Hectair was born upon a distant world caught within the strife of Civil War. When the renegade Lord Governor Alatana declared himself free of the Imperium’s tyranny, her family was among those devote to the God Emperor who stood up against the traitor’s blasphemy and waged a losing war against those ignorant pawns of a Heretic. When the forces of the Imperium came to her world, the traitor Lord was put to the sword and those amongst the rebel forces still left alive were rewarded with a place amongst the Emperor’s finest. Elissa’s found her home in the Imperial Navy where she felt she could best serve her beloved God first as but a simple Officer until she rose to the rank of Captain, commanding the stern and proud vessel “The Immortal Sword”. Her career as a Naval Officer was long and arduous but her retirement was well-fought and well-earned unlike those who led more Decadent lives of nobility who lived in wistful ignorance.

 

Elissa took her retirement, and with her savings moved across the stars to the shrine world of Iskandria. The world of Iskandria sat at the edge of the Garon Nebula, a peaceful world that has known no invasion nor civil war millennia with enough armament and Planetary forces to stave off most minor invasions. It was here that she had settled down to the life of a civilian, sitting comfortably on her Officer’s retirement pension, found a young man who served in the city’s Enforcer department, and the two now had a young energetic daughter. It was uncomfortable at times, living the civilian life, no longer bound by strict and rigorous codes and regulations, no longer in the heat of Naval warfare. Yet she found her peace in the visitation of Chapels and shrines, paying homage to her Lord Emperor whom she had devoted her life and service to.

 

The distant Sun shined favoranly upon the City of Faith, towering sky scrapers of marble and gold gleaming in the warm light as the echo of Chapel bells and peaceful hymns filled the streets below. The visitation to the Hanging Gardens of Glorias was perhaps Elissa’s favorite weekly event. While her husband was away on duty, here she carried her bubbly child with her to the natural beauty of the gardens that sat atop elevated ground overlooking much of the city. The child played with her ball or their pet Mastiff while her mother enjoyed the leisure of her books or data-slate entertaining the different philosophies of famous scholars across the Imperium. Today was no different as Elissa lounged happily upon the simple wooden bench beneath a leaning fern tree that offered her shade from the shining star above.

 

“Mommy.” Elissa rose her head from her data-slate to see her daughter Lilith standing before her, the child of long golden locks holding one of her mother’s books in her hand. “Mommy, what’s an Astartes?” The girl asked with an atrocious attempt at pronouncing the term. Her mother smiled soft as she lifted up her child and sat the small girl upon her lap, taking the book from her and setting it out for both of them to see.

 

“Do you see what this is?” Elissa asked softly as she extended a finger out and motioned towards a somewhat inaccurate depiction of a Space Marine, the Warrior wreathed in angelic wings with a gleaming halo dancing above his brow as he held a sword of purifying flame with both hands in solemn guard. “These are the Adeptus Astartes, my child. They are the angels of the Emperor. “Of course she knew that they were no angels. She had met them once before, during her service. The Warriors in Black Armour who bore the white insignia of a Raven with outstretched wings. They were distant and quite, but selfless and pure Warriors, of that she was certain. Were it not for the warriors of the Raven Guard, the Imperium would not have broken the Ork horde that rampaged across the Severus Sector and she would not have been saved from the killing strike of a xenos blade. She smiled fondly on the memory as her child looked up to her with wide eyes while mouthing the word ‘Angel’ with a sense of awe and wonder.

 

“What do the Angels do, Mommy?”

 

“They protect us, my love.”

 

“Protect us from what?” She paused at the question, fumbling for words. She had seen the horrors of the galaxy and she knew what beasts hungered for the flesh and souls of men, yet she would not speak of this to her daughter. She did not want that life for her.

“They protect us from all the bad people who wish to hurt us and make us cry.”

“Will I ever see an Angel, Mommy?”

“Of course not, sweety. The Ang-“But the woman’s words were cut short as something caught her attention from the very corner of her eye. The eyes of the Naval Officer were keen and even though she no longer served, such skills still served her well. It was something feint and distant, something that could so easily been construed as birds flying in the distant, but she could see the specks, the miniscule dots that appeared in reality from nowhere; orbiting vessels translating out of Warp space. After first it was only three, her thoughts immediately running to the possibility of a simple Navy patrol. But as time passed, another dot appeared, then another, and another, and another. Elissa’s skin grew pale as her thoughts drew to the worst notions. Raiders? No, they never venture out this far from the Nebula. An invasion? A fleet that size would have been detected easily. A lmperial fleet then?...

 

“Mommy? What’s that?”

 

Elissa’s thoughts and vision was torn away from the specks in the sky to turn to her daughter’s question, eyes following the direction in which the young girl’s finger pointed to see a single slender bead of red light focused upon the grass just before them, a thin opaque crimson stream leading from the ground all the way up to the heavens above. If there is one thing that Elissa Hectair would never forget from her service in the Imperial Navy, years of combat, training, and life aboard an Imperial Warship, it was the tracer light of an orbiting Titanforge Star Lance. Elissa’s lips parted to issue a cry of warning, to demand her daughter in futility to run and find shelter, but the words would never escape her. In a flash of blinding, searing light, former Naval Officer Elissa was overtaken with an overload of senses before being consumed in the swelling light of the concentrated beam.

 

The Holy City burned at the onslaught of orbital lances and macro cannons, beautiful monuments of the God Emperor turned to rubble and cast upon the screaming civilians below. Citadels and Cathedrals were pounded into marble dust laying waste to centuries of construction and craftsmanship dedicated only to the worship of the Immortal God. It lasted for five minutes, a mere handful of minutes that seemed to last on for an eternity for those who suffered and bled below. An entire City-State spanning across the entire largest continent of Iskandria burned, a golden surface now scarred and bleeding fire from the deep wounds that cut into the earth below rockcrete and metal plating.

 

And, just as sudden as it began, the bombardment ceased, leaving the city to toil in silence as the skies once more became calm and a tranquil unadulterated blue. But that did not last for long. The city was not given time to grieve for the sky soon became dark, with rain. A storm came upon the wounded city not of water, but of steal and fire. Metallic seeds screamed towards the surface of the earth, hammering home into the building and ruins alike that soon blossomed forth like the grotesque petals of a death lotus. Warriors in Black Armour emerged from these dark pods, not a single word uttered from them as they waded into the masses of screaming and running people before raising massive weapons of war and opened fire upon the hapless victims. Ebony ships soared across the sky like some massive bird of prey, venting beams of light and salvos of bolter fire into what city defense turrets were left, picking off the constructs one by one until nearly nothing was left.

 

One of the Black Lotus seeds hammered into the scorched crater where a lance fire had all but annihilated the ground below. It shattered the brittle earth beneath it, hissing and whining as smoke exhumed from its searing surface. It was not long before the ramps slid down with a pressurized hiss, blossoming open to allow its occupants to roam free. Warriors in black armour emerged from the pod, their armour adorned in purity seals and tabards giving praise to the Emperor. Their weapons bore thick adamantine chains, binding the weapons to their gauntleted fists. And upon each of the Warrior’s shoulder was born the Black Cross of an ancient order.

A single warrior wore his symbol in red, a both hands reaching upwards to remove his helmet. He gazed upon the ruined city with a single eye, the other side of his face a mess of scar tissue and burn marks no different than the earth he stood upon. With a casual motion, he mag-locked his helmet and rested his arm upon the handle of his ornate blade while his other hand reached upwards to activate the com-bead surgically infused with his ear. “This is Sword Brother Godfrey signing in, my brothers and I have made touch-down within the city. We will commence the purge immediately.”

 

“Let the Emperor’s holy light burn these heretics.”

 

 

And so the Garon Nebula Crusade has begun and the Warriors of Lord Marshal Gwynn shall begin their merciless purge of the Hell Stars for its sins.

 

And I will leave you brothers, with a Work in Progress of Brother of the Sword Godfrey, a veteran of 400 years of service to the Emperor and the Eternal Crusade.

 

http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/ac352/Noctus-Cornix/WP_000022_zps228f9a5f.jpg

 

http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/ac352/Noctus-Cornix/WP_000023_zps612b5921.jpg

 

http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/ac352/Noctus-Cornix/WP_000024_zpsba77042b.jpg

 

http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/ac352/Noctus-Cornix/WP_000025_zpsb0e76d21.jpg

 

Enjoy.

[Rykardh]

Quality stuff going to enjoy this crusade.

[Noctus Cornix]

Thanks, mate.

[Darrell]

I like the brutality, but why are the Templars assaulting a world that is written as being fanatically devoted to the Emperor?

 

Brother Godfrey is well done, I like it!

[Noctus Cornix]

That's a good question, and the truth will be revealed in time, but for now, I want the shock value to settle in. ;)

[Darrell]

Fair enough! I do love the merciless brutality of it, and am eager to see what has invoked the wrath of the Black Templars.