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Word Bearers - Where are we now?


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Problem is, in the Dark Heart short story in Mark of Calth, Anthony Reynolds again reconfirmed that there was a purge of Terrans, and implied that it was total.

 

Lame.

Perhaps a few got through cos they filled out the application form wrong....

 

Planet of Birth.................... Terra Colchis

Religion.............................. Jedi Whatever Lorgar tells me it is

Preferred Armour colour..... Grey Red

I am convinced we can find a loophole. Not necessarily a "Application Misfile of Birthplace". If Xaphen can get out because he's Gal Vorbak, others can get away too. Protection from COs, inaccessibility, being overlooked, or maybe even some sort of political status. Like being an Icon within the Chapter as a Paragon of the new faith, or a distinguished commander who has very few failures on his record and is loved by the men.

This is the quote WoT was kind enough to provide.

 

""It must have also been during this time that the legion was cleansed of dissent. The last of the old Iconoclasts, the terrans and those who would not embrace the new faith must have been put quietly to the sword"

 

Now, I dont know the rest of the context obviously, but thats what we have so far.

Not sure about that. The repeated mention of the purity of Colchisian blood, amongst a pack of religious zealots, worries me.

 

So far, the best I've heard was Noctus's Ruined King idea; a political backstop, laced with religion and overwhelming firepower, might be what does the trick.

 

It's what I'll be running with for my Word Bearer allies.

Ninja'ed by Heathens!

 

We have a few mentions of it being kept 'in the family' yes, but again the legion became, pre-calth, one of the largest right? I dont see how 1 world, after crusading for how long on the pilgrimage, supports that kind of growth.

 

This was my original post below...

 

Sure, and yes like the World Eaters, they likely where pretty liberal with handing out Astartes upgrade packages. However even back then it wasnt 100% success, and only males could do it. Taken in combination with the fact they where reaving the galaxy of life at the time, I am sure they just picked kids up at random.

They increased their legion size by around 200000 iirc they were a smaller legion then rivalled the ultras. I don't think Colchis could support it then again the DA were huge and only recruited from caliban.

 

So maybe the WB did pull off a higher initiation rates.

 

From one of zahriels reports to the lion on caliban was like a 87% success rate iirc

#1 Rule of 30K/40K fluff, try to not get stuck in the numbers, its tough to bend it to logical sense sometimes. :D

 

I'd have to crack open TFH, but yeah, my brain says 'if you recruit this highly, and you are mobile, you recruit from where you are.'

Hell, how did the Germans keep pitching young men into the meatgrinders of the eastern and western front, while supporting her allies in Italy during WWI? A legion that knows a war is coming, and has no restrictions on recruiting besides faith and survival of the process, plus having half a century to prepare, would definitely give them the numbers, despite restriction to a single planet.

Germany wasnt a feudal desert world that was intentionally kept from ascending up the technological ranks though either. biggrin.png

Now, granted, an entire world supplying one legion sure....still though, it doesnt quite sit. World Eaters methodology seems far more realistic, despite the fact they burned through their lives so quickly.

EDIT x III - Its funny though, we go 'OMG 200,000 Astartes!!!' when the reality of things like WW1 or WW2 makes us go...ok and? Like I said, numbers in the fluff can do your head in.

I don't know, I see the potential for recruitment outside of Colchis. I'm sure those "of the faith" would be seen as favorable, and it doesn't sound like they had any shortage of those, either tagging along or among the worlds they frequent.
But considering the populations of some of these worlds in the billions and the fact that there should be potential recruits in the thousands and attrition rates you would expect to be able to surpass 300000 easily. So maybe it's entirely possible to be mainly colchisian

Brother, I've been to Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq and Afghanistan. You'd be surprised how many people live in the desert and mountains. A DB's vision of Colchis, of hordes of people swarming the blessed lady, tells me there's plenty of folks.

 

second, the Terrans, as much as I like the idea, were a fraction of a fraction of the legion. Their deaths wouldn't harm them that much. Plus, the legion wasn't exactly small by the time the events of Monarchia happened.

 

third, if your prophet comes back home and says, "breed like rabbits, and give me all your sons for the holy war", that's exactly what they'll do.

 

Religious nuts don't apply logic. They apply beliefs, which are ten times more dangerous.

Ah. Well, in a way, it wasn't "stupid" to let Narek through. When it happened, he was probably unaware of the entirety of what turning against the Emperor entailed. So he was probably one of those who grabbed the Kool-Aid and went "Yeah! Kaoz! Argarbrinkschniss!", but was a little slow on drinking it. So when he saw what was happening to everyone else, he dropped it. He supported no longer worshiping the Emperor. He supported the Heresy. He just didn't support the price his Legion would have to pay.

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