Species of Rubricae

[Dammeron]

A cursory trawl of the modelling areas of this forum will provide example of how the followers of Nurgle hereabouts are some of the most fervent converters the Chaos community can boast: you will find threads dedicated to everything from your classic, bloated Plague Marines, to undead Chaos Marine equivalents, and all manner of variations thereon.

 

Owing to the ostensibly somewhat more limited nature of the Thousand Sons Rubricae's background and traditional presentation, this isn't often the case for them. Often, they are quite standardised in both construction and paint scheme, not owing to any lack of capability or imagination on behalf of the hobbyist, but because of the manner in which they generally occur media-wise.

 

This is a great shame, as I feel there's a whole variety of ways in which Rubricae may be presented which can lead to characterful and interesting conversions.

 

Let's take the standard cults of the Thousand Sons, for example: each seemed to originally demonstrate their own imagery and symbolism, based on the occult principles they favoured. It isn't outside the realms of imagination, for example, for Ahriman's Corvidae, or what remain of them, to still sport crow or raven like imagery, maybe helms sculpted to resemble said birds, or even cloaks of feathers etc. One could easily look to the Tomb Kings range for materials and inspiration.

 

Regarding the general ancient Egyptian symbolism the Thousand Sons seem to boast, one might look to the cults and symbolism of that particular culture: maybe your Thousand Sons aer dedicated to a daemon redolent of Bastet or Sebek, and thus sport feline or reptilian imagery respectively.

 

You could even create Rubricae that, owing to being partially shielded from the rubric by some sorcerous contrivance, had their flesh stripped from their bones, but still sport skeletal remains of their old mutations or some such. Back when I was still at university, I used to play regularly against a guy who used skeleton and skull parts to reflect the souls still trapped inside the Rubricae's armour: he would paint them in lambent, spectral blues and greens then model the Rubricae to make it look as though portions of them had been blown off or sheared away, revealing the spectre within. Some even had spectral vapours escaping from wounds and vents in the form of dyed whisps of cotton wool.

 

We also now know that the Thousand Sons and their rubricae often dedicate themselves to other warlords and their forces for their own reasons: it definitely isn't outside the realms of possibility that the Rubricae themselves might be repainted and even remodelled to be more in keeping with the ethos of those forces. In that regard, you could have Rubricae of almost any style or structure.

 

There is so much possibility and potential in the archetype, and that's before we even start talking about how it might be used to represent other forms of accursed Chaos Space Marine.

[*Furyou Miko]

Bravo? Well said?

 

Not really sure what else I can add to this thread without derailling it with yet another wordvomit about my Armour Wraiths.

[Jareddm]

I'm reminded of the Jaffa warriors from Stargate who each had different armor depending on which of the Goa'uld they followed.

[Xenith]

Since I've been collecting TS since before there was more than one TS model, my Rubricae are a hotch potch of conversions and models from the chaos range.

 

One squad is entirely made from the original "multipart" CSM plastics, another few are from the metal chaos veterans with the topknots that represented the Thousand Sons in the 3rd ed codex.

 

One squad is the current metal/plastic hybrid kit.

 

I think you can really just paint models with suitably ornate headgear/horns in legion colours and they will be rubricae.

 

The next squad planned is 4x bolter chosen from the DV set (all identical, of course) led by the helmetless chosen, remodelled to have a force axe.

[Hellios]

I like all of my 1ksons being the same. If it was cheap I would buy a whole army of the old metal 1ksons. There is something wonderful about the bulk of the troops, in my army dedicated to the god of change, being unchanging, animated suits of armour.

[Dammeron]

I like all of my 1ksons being the same. If it was cheap I would buy a whole army of the old metal 1ksons. There is something wonderful about the bulk of the troops, in my army dedicated to the god of change, being unchanging, animated suits of armour.

 

Plenty of scope for that, too: the more traditional, uniform rubricae armies can look stunning. However, it would be enormous fun to see Thousand Sons players really flexing their imaginations, using the template to come up with some more idiosyncratic symbolism and imagery.

 

At present, I'm considering adding a Thousand Sons style contingent to my Severed Angels that consist of marines whose flesh and armour are covered in constantly roving eyes, allowing them to peer into potential futures and pasts that may or may not have been. Whilst this lends them some measure of supernatural prescience, and thus the ability to evade harm on the battlefield, it also renders them distracted, sluggish and next to insane, requiring their sorcerers to guide them.

[Architect]

We sure do have to have a hell of an imagination to keep playing these guys, huh?

 

Eyes on armor are always nice!