The Oriasoks of Sauromatia

[Jorus_Shadowmaw]

I wanted to start writing the IA at the earliest possible time so that I could get feedback as I go. Seeing the step by step IAs, I thought that it seemed like a great way to start writing, so this thread may be slow going. I plan to make an army made up of the chapter's honour guard and the chaptermaster (deathwing list). 

 

Initial Ideas:

I wanted to base them on a culture that is rarely used and that I still found interesting. So, my choice was the Sarmatians, but the amount of information about them is rather lacking, the wikipedia page is basically the full extent of the information.

 

I needed a second source of inspiration and so I searched dragons in mythology (Sarmatians used dragon standards and wore lizard looking armour). One dragon myth that stood out was that of the Hungarian Sarkany (dragons in the bodies of men), it sort of suited the astartes, so I decided to incorporate Hungarian mythology into the concept.

 

The only other thing I knew was that I didn't want my marines liked by the populace of their homeworld, I wanted them to be seen as evil spirits or something similar.

 

Edit: The name roughly translates to The Giants of Sarmatia, also this chapter has very little to do with dragons......

 

 

Also can I edit tags later?

 

Cheers

Jorus Shadowmaw

[JeffTibbetts]

Not sure about the tags. I like that you're doing some research ahead of time like this. Wish I would have done more. I had to read the Wiki page there because I'd never heard of them before. Could be pretty interesting for the home planet, but unfortunately as Astartes are all male you would miss out on some of the most distinctive aspects of the culture. You could work in the enemy concept by making the culture female-dominated and controlled (because 40K is all about pushing things to their logical limits) because the Astartes take all the most able young men away. Make the population small enough that this matters. Could be a nice bit of fluff. They do sound interesting and I like the idea of dragons in human form as their mythological heritage. Maybe the home-world is primitive and tells stories of the Astartes as some marauding mythical dragon-kin (in their fiery landing ships) that they have to sacrifice their virgin young men to appease. How's that for turning the gender equation on its head? 

[Hrvat]

This could get interesting. I hope that you understand that Oriasoks of Sauromatia would be translated into Low Gothic as "The Giants of the Land Ruled by Women" or "The Giants of those that are ruled by Women"

I will keep a eye on this topic.

Cheers

[Messor]

You can indeed edit tags in later. You just do a full edit (they don't appear in quick edit) of the first post, and the tags will be on of the first boxes after the title.

[Jorus_Shadowmaw]

Homeworld thoughts:

Homeworld: Sauromatia

Type: Feudal

• Sauromatia would be smaller than earth, perhaps three quarters the size
• 2 major continents, connected by a series of islands
• Axis of Rotation centers on the Chapter's fortress monastery
• Low prevalence of oxygen in the air (perhaps 15% instead of 20%), which leads to Sauromatians naturally being more physically fit than someone born on earth
• Rotation speed significantly slower than earth, leading to longer days of 32 earth hours
• Orbit of the twin takes 151.33 Sauromatian days
• Once every ten years Sauromatia orbits closer to the smaller sun (M class most likely, which is the least hot), which increases the temperature for a period of 300 Sauromatian days before temperatures return to normal
• There are two major kingdoms that fight over the islands (one on each kingdom), warfare is constant and early naval battles with galleys are starting to emerge
• Horsemanship is a prized skill amongst Sauromatians and almost all land battles are fought from horseback, although sieges naturally put a stop to this (Sieges and fortifications are new to Sauromatia as they just moved past the whole wooden hut kind of stage)
• Women hold the positions of power in both kingdoms, with one of the kingdoms not allowing their men to fight as they are seen as a too valuable resource
• There are a number of small kingdoms on the islands that are reminiscent of the way things used to be.
• I will add more to this as ideas continue to form

@Jeff: Thank you for the ideas about how do incorporate the woman aspect of Sarmatian history, I will indeed use something along those lines. I'm moving slightly past the primitive stage, but I'm thinking a very superstitious kind of society, maybe late Saxon era.

@Jeff and Hrvat: I hope it stays interesting , I have wanted to write up a chapter for a while now and randomly browsing wikipedia brought me to this idea so....

@Hrvat: