IA: Folksvang Angels (WIP)

[Savage Mortician]

This is a chapter I've wanted to put in writing for 3-4 years now and I figure with t he new codex and everything, this is the perfect time to do so. This is the first thing I've written and, indeed, posted in about 3 years so go easy on me . This is still very much WIP and fancy tags and such will follow when I get round to them, so any comments will be welcome. I hope you enjoy it, so without further ado:

Index Astartes: Folksvang Angels

Geneseed:

Ultramarines

Home world, Origins and Early History:

The Folksvang Angels were created in
the Twenty-First founding in late M35. Their home planet, Tyr, is located to the galactic west of Segmentum Ultima roughly half way between The Maelstrom and the Dominion of Storms. The planet itself is covered mostly in harsh, cold environments with little fertile soil. This has bred a strong race of people
with a warrior culture of raiding and exploring, and a large emphasis on personal honour. For this reason Tyr was selected to raise a new Space Marine chapter.

As the harsh environments and sparse resources are the key to creating the perfect environment for breeding the ideal Astartes candidates, the Folksvang Angels keep a close eye on the indigenous population of Tyr. Any individuals or societies found making any significant technological or scientific discoveries soon disappear, leaving behind only tales of whole tribes disappearing and rumours of ghostly, dark blue giants vanishing into the night on wings of fire. This lead to their
naming, the Folksvang Angels (Valkyrjur Volksfangr in the local language) who are creatures of legend that take chosen people to the afterlife to fight for
the Gods. In reality, those taken by the Angels are either killed outright or turned into servitors or mind-wiped chapter serfs.

Despite this practice, the Folksvang Angels are keen to protect their most precious resource; new recruits. Any potential outside influences will be eliminated with devastating precision attacks. One such event, in early M37 saw a small Ork invasion force land and wipe out several villages. The Angels reacted almost instantly, deploying all available forces stationed on Tyr to crush the invasion and wipe the attacking xenos out. The incursion was successfully destroyed, although a large area of land was incinerated in order to ensure no Ork spores survived. The operation was considered a success and the Angels managed to recruit a few survivors into their ranks. However, there have been tales as recent as M41 of huge green beasts hiding in caves and raiding unprotected settlements. The Angels do not consider these tales to be worth considering as the attacks are few and far between and in later years the chapter has had insufficient resources to deal
with such small threats.

In the chapters formative years they were mostly responsible for dealing with a recent increase in Chaos activity on nearby systems. These outbreaks were brought under control with a combined operation of Imperial Guard and strike forces from three Astartes chapters, the Folksvang Angels included.

The uprisings defeated, the chapter mainly dealt with xenos threats, particularly against Orks and Eldar but the Angels would find themselves in major engagements against Chaos and renegade marines in their latter years.

Combat Doctrine:

The Folksvang Angels generally follow the Codex Astartes with a few minor differences. Upon their founding, the chapter inherited a
larger than normal number of bikes for a new chapter. The cause of this logistical mishap is not known, but the Angels propensity for quick raiding
tactics in their previous human lives have lead them to adopt such vehicular warfare as a core tactic, and will always deploy biker units when the terrain
allows it.

Coming from a warrior culture, the chapter has a taste for close combat. Assault squads are highly prized and only the best and most fierce warriors are accepted into their ranks. However, every marine is well versed in close combat and routinely craft their own weaponry, each marine owning any number of axes, spears, knives, seaxes and shields. Although this is often just a practice in tradition, when a Folksvang Angel strike force deploys into a protracted conflict they will carry their full array of personal weaponry, particularly against close combat oriented enemies such as Orks where the marines’ superior skill and tactics make up for their
relatively few numbers.

Culture and Beliefs

The Folksvang Angels keep their planets own culture and traditions better than many chapters as they believe their ways are what gave them the inner strength needed to become Space Marines. Although they reject their old Gods for the Emperor and his primarchs, they still retain certain superstitions. They often mark their armour and weapons with runes of strength and protection and, during training and selection, try to integrate as many of their own beliefs with those of the
Imperium at large, in order to reduce the culture shock in new recruits.

A great emphasis is placed on names in the Angels’ culture. They believe a name is not just a personal identifier, but a powerful tool. They consider their names borrowed from their ancestors and must be returned to future generations untouched. Each Folksvang Angel marine keeps his birth name and patronymic. As the marine progresses through the ranks, committing ever greater deeds, they accrue additional names, titles and kennings. Long serving marines may be given many new names in their lives, the longest known belonging to the chapters’ oldest Dreadnaught, Brother Torvald, having earned fifteen additional names. In general speech and battle communications only the marines’ first name is used, occasionally with the patronymic added, particularly when specifying between two marines with the same first forename.

The importance of names also extends to the chapters’ wargear. The Angels believe that all weapons worth of a hero should be named. Therefore, every weapon from bolters to the finest relic blades have their own names and it is the responsibility of the weapon bearer to honour the past deeds of his weapon with his loyal service and true aim.

Having scarce resources, the people of Tyr relied on oral storytelling to pass on lore and accounts of great deeds and battles. This is a practice that extends to the chapter themselves. The chapters’ librarians are given the role of Skald, to honour their brothers’ deeds in speech and song. When a saga is being told, the subject will be called by his full name with all titles, honorifics and kennings included. The Sagas are often a tale of the lives of long dead chapter heroes or important battles the chapter, company or squad has partaken in, and can take days to recant in some cases. Skalds are also responsible for leading the war hymns and battle chants of the chapter, known as a Kvaedi or Tattur, sang in their native tongue. The Skald will sing each line of verse, interspersed with a refrain that all marines present will repeat, designed to fan the flames of the warriors’ battle lust. This is often accompanied by the rhythmic banging of weapons against
shield and armour.

As the natives of Tyr are a culture that honour their elders, so to do the Folksvang Angels honour their older brothers which has led to a controversial practice in some companies of offering promotions only to those older marines, rather than those better suited to the role. This practice was forbidden after the great chapter schism, but some rumours persist that it has not entirely stopped.

Personal honour is an important to the Angels and oath swearing is integral to their culture. Each marine will swear an oath of fealty to the chapter and to the Imperium and will be given an arm-ring to symbolise this. For each oath a marine completes, he will be given a new ring to be worn for ceremonial duties. Many longer serving brother attend important chapter events with their arms shimmering with oath rings. Iron-Arms is a popular kenning for those brothers who have earned many such rings.

Chapter Schism

After the death of 1^st Company Captain Ulfgardr, Captain Lokka of the 2^nd Company believed him better suited to the role than his peers. In a perceived personal slight, the position was given to the much older captain of the 5^th Company, Sigmund. It was well known that he was a close friend of Chapter Master Sjuryur and Lokka took the incident to heart and became insular and brooding. Shortly after the Badab War, the Folksvang Angels deployed their second and third
companied to crush a rebellion on a nearby planet. It was here that Lokka sprang his trap. Murdering the captain of the third company, he took those
marines loyal to him, some sixty to seventy marines, and fled the Imperium, reportedly joining an Iron Warriors warband. All of Lokka’s honours and names
were stripped from him, and his records deleted from the chapters’ data banks. The second and third companies, under the command of newly promoted captains
Thorsten and Trondur swore a crusade of penance to track down and destroy Lokka, now known as the Lord of Lies, and his renegades, a task that is still
in the undertaking. The Lokka Tattur is a tale all new recruits must learn and the ordeal is a closely guarded chapter secret.

Notable Characters

Sjuryur Tolaksson, current Chapter
Master of the Folksvang Angels

Thorsten Haraldson and Trondur Goturson, current captains of the second and third companies, promoted after
the Chapter Schism

Torvald Utnesson, oldest serving marine of the chapter, interred into a Dreadnaught sarcophagus in early M37.Has the longest accrued name of any warrior of the chapter, including the kennings Iron-Arms, Crow-Feeder and Death-Defied, is also the only brother
permitted to bear Folksvang as one of his names

Grimur Alansson- Current Master of the Fleet

Floki Torkilsson, captain of the 4^th company, killed in battle late M38, singlehandedly holding a bridge against a tide of Orks to allow the rest of the chapter to fall back and reform their defensive line. He reportedly survived over two hours, hacking away at the enemy, shouting oaths and curses at them in the language of Tyr, until a lucky hit from an Ork rocket ended his life. Posthumously earned the names Orksbane and Blood-Washed. Floki’s Kvaedi became a popular war chant for the chapter and a statue was erected in the chapters’ Fortress Monastery in his honour, bearing his last heard words in their native tongue “Eg skal standa eftir ein, luyvt mit dryt at keypa” meaning “Here I remain alone, my life dearly bought”

Known Fleet Assets

Battle Barge- Ormurin Langi

Battle Barge- Naglfar

Strike Cruiser- Ormurin Skammer

Strike Cruiser- Rage of the Skullgaffer

[Icewolf]

I do like the ideas of your combat doctrine that it was a clerical error that gave them additional bikes that they thought to put to use and fits with there background, also the idea that they prevent the civil action from evolving technologically by removing any advances that tribes make adds a certain amount of grim dark that I like, and fits in well in the 40k universe.

 

In your section about your home world you say that a small ork invasion occurred and this is fine but they way it is written suggests that they arrived on the planet surface unopposed, to me if it is a marine home world then there would be at least some defence force to oppose this invasion fleet and as your chapter has a home world I am assuming that there is a fortress monastery present which would be able to combat invading space forces. You could expand by saying there was a larger invading fleet that was fought and a small number of ork vessels broke through to the surface with the majority destroyed in space, which then resulted in the ground campaign against the orks.

 

In your chapter schism with how it is written to me at the moment it appears that a marine captain has gone renegade simply as he was not promoted to first company captain, this to me is a bit of a stretch as marines are heavily indoctrinated with loyalty and following orders., Also Ii believe that generally for other chapters that the new captain come from within the company that he commanded this I think would be due to logistical reasons as much as anything as two companies could be a different ends of a sector and if the captain of ones dies and the other is moved then there is a whole sector in between and both companies could be on campaigns which they can't just leave then it could be a while before the new captain gets there, a way around this could be that it only applies to the first company and the new company captain has to come from one of the captains for the other companies and not within it, this would fit with what appears to be your plan and avoid the logistical nightmare that may occur as previously mentioned. If there is a reason that a company captain would shift commands then you could expand and have another section on the different command structure used by your chapter, this leads to another question which is if a company captain has been killed and then another captain replaces him you are still a captain short so where does the new captain come from? This gives you another possibility a different command structure, perhaps a first company veteran is made captain of a reserve company in the moving around of commands. Also the part about the age of the fifth company captain being much older should not make much difference to fighting capability as marines do not suffer the affects of old age as mortal men do, e.g Logan Grimnar is about 500 and Commander Dante is around 1100 neither of which are slouches in a fight and if anything the age is a positive as it means more battle field experience and this can only be an advantage for a commander.

Perhaps the second company recently returned from an action against chaos somewhere and the second company is now tainted however marginal and this is enough to cause not only the company captain but a significant number of marine to turn renegade, or that first campaign is when the seeds of taint were planted and then they manifest themselves after the Badab war campaign.

 

 

I appear to have gone on more than I intended, ideas came to me and I sort of mind dumped, hope it is clear.

 

Icewolf

[Savage Mortician]

Thanks for your input Icewolf, like I said a lot of things are still very WIP at the moment so s fairfew of my ideas are only partly formed.

 

With regards to the Ork invasion issue, it isn't a full blown invasion, just a single Rokk that got split off from a larger fleet and crashed into a remote part of the planet, the whole incident lasting a couple of days at most. I did write a short story about it way back when, when the chapter was still called the Sons of Tyr but that has been lost to corrupted hard drives and other technological horrors, but these are important details that will be added.

 

I understand the Schism part is a bit rushed at the moment, it is one of my newer ideas so is still being developed properly. The intention was that Lokka's turning was down to a small Chaos corruption that fed on his bitterness at being passed up for promotion, possibly, as you said, caused by a previous campaign due to the Angels fighting against Chaos. Another idea was that perhaps Lokka and some of his men were implanted with gene-seed taken from brothers that died during one of the earlier campaigns against Chaos that became slightly corrupted by it being exposed to the warp, although I'm not sure this idea holds much water. I also intend for this to have more of an effect on the chapter, with inquisitorial investigations being conducted to see if the chapter has an underlying gene-seed flaw or corruption.

As for the part about Sigmund, it wasnt meant to be that he was too old to command and becoming enfeebled or anything like that, I'm an advocate of the functional immortality of Space Marines, it was more down to the fact that Lokka thought he was picked only because of his age, rather than his tactical acumen or raw fighting skill etc.

 

I appreciate your comments and any more would be most welcome, I'm keen to develop these guys as much as I can