[Fluff] The Fractured

[Allerka]

Hey ya'll. Haven't been around in...looks like just over two years. My how the place has changed. Anyway, in my endless travels through 40K, I decided to work on a new Chaos Marine army, as the current codex largely invalidates the style of my Shadow Acolytes. This time around, I decided to go with an older group, one that's been around for long enough to be pure Chaos, and have reasonable access to all the goodies. I ultimately picked one of the Chapters that got corrupted during the Abyssal Crusade. So, here's a draft of the fluff I wrote, and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

 

 

Introduction

 

The Fractured are a Chaos warband that has plagued the Imperium for nearly four thousand years. Originally known as the Justicars, they were part of the ill-fated Abyssal Crusade in M37. However, as with most of the Chapters that entered the Eye of Terror, the Justicars were ultimately corrupted by Chaos. Unlike some of the newly formed warbands, the Justicars were neither wholly united in their new form nor devoted to a single god, hence their name of the Fractured.

 

 

 

Origins/History

 

The Justicars were formed in M34 as part of the Eighth Founding, from the gene-seed of the Imperial Fists. Their history was filled with countless victories against many of the Imperium’s foes, and they won great glory in the name of Rogal Dorn and the Emperor. Based in the Mecantor system near the edge of the Segmentum Solar, the Justicars recruited from three separate worlds within their home system, and typically had at least several Companies out on campaign at any given time. 

 

It was only by chance that the entire Chapter was home when Warp Storm Dionys descended, cutting them off from the galaxy for nearly three months. Although the storm was relatively brief by most standards, it left its mark on both the Chapter’s homeworld and the Chapter itself. Nearly half the Scouts of the Justicars fell to corrupting mutation, and thousands of mutation incidents across the system were reported. As the Justicars fought to clear their ranks of the corrupted and restore order to their domain, they were summoned by the ascendant Saint Basillius.

 

Submitting themselves to purity tests, the Justicars were found wanting, even though the corruption had been entirely contained to their newer recruits whose gene-codes were still in flux. There was some suspicion that the string of defeats they had suffered at the hands of both Orks and the Iron Warriors earlier in M37, leading to them losing favor in some circles, was a factor in the Saint’s decision. Whatever the case, the Justicars eagerly agreed to join the Abyssal Crusade once it was proposed, and the entire Chapter, save a handful of stewards to tend to the Chapter Keep, departed with the full resources of the Chapter for the Eye of Terror.

 

 

 

Into the Eye

 

As the Abyssal Crusade fleet translated into the Eye of Terror, they were almost immediately ambushed by Traitor vessels. During the fighting, one of the Justicars’ battle-barges, the Steel Confession, was utterly destroyed, taking some two hundred of the Justicars with it. The remainder of the fleet attempted to escape the massacre by dropping back into the Warp, and were hurled deep into the Eye.

 

When they emerged, the fleet was in orbit of a strange world near the heart of the Eye of Terror. Before they could reorient themselves and pull into a proper orbit, all their remaining vessels, two further battle-barges and four strike cruisers, were plunging towards the planet, which they would soon learn to be called Eidolon. Unable to arrest their momentum despite their best efforts, the Justicars braced for impact. The ships were scattered by the unusual gravitational fields, crashing all over the surface of Eidolon.

 

After crashing, the survivors broke out of their ruined vessels and assessed their situation. Attempts to hail other groups failed, leading each group of survivors to suspect either interference from the Warp or that they were the only survivors. Undeterred, the Justicars set out from their respective crash sites with what vehicles and aircraft they could recover, and made war upon the inhabitants of Eidolon.

 

As they fought on, they learned that Eidolon was once one of the Eldar’s core worlds, and a primary battleground in the fight between the Chaos Gods. Armies of all four gods battled each other across the surface of the planet, nearly oblivious to the sudden presence of Imperial forces among them. The Justicars used this to their advantage, launching surprise raids and destroying thousands of culists, mutants, and daemons. Occasionally, they would even discover other groups of survivors.

 

However, the landscape constantly shifted and changed as the influence of each of the gods waxed and waned, and groups of Justicars would find themselves split up or lost among the ever-changing landscape. Weeks of battle turned into months, and the toll of battle and being permanently surrounded by corruption began to leave its mark on them. Unit cohesion began to break down until there was little distinction between Companies or, to some extent, even squads.

 

On blood-soaked fields filled with leafless trees that spawned gore-filled fruit, the remnants of the 3rd and 6th Companies, led by Captain Jurlas, battled against crimson-armored humans and Space Marines alike. At first they cut their enemies down with disciplined volleys, but there were too many to gun down in time and the Justicars soon found themselves embroiled in a massive melee. As the battle raged against a seemingly endless tide of enemies, the Justicars discipline slowly broke down, their control and restraint began to erode with unusual speed as months of pent-up frustration boiled to the surface and began to consume their thoughts. After hours of fighting, the last of their enemies fell, but the surviving Justicars found themselves filled with a new bloodlust, and immediately drove themselves onwards, in search of new enemies to slay.

 

Elsewhere, the 2nd and 9th Companies, led by Captain Vorthad, descended into a vast cave network in pursuit of sickly creatures that were fleeing from them. The caves were large enough to accommodate most of their vehicles, and smaller branches of the caves were blasted shut, sealing in whatever foul creatures lurked within. The caves were full of sickly molds and glowing fungi, bathing the Justicars in pale light, and flamers were put to extensive use destroying the fauna, along with the variety of mutants and daemons that attacked them. As they pushed deeper into the caves, they came to a massive chamber from which hung a mass of twisted and rotting creatures, connected to each other by pulsing veins. As the Justicars moved into the chamber, they began to fire upwards, seeking to destroy the creatures. In return, the creatures vomited forth vast quantities of ichor and fluid, dousing most of the Space Marines and their vehicles in the sticky substance, and nearly drowning them. After the fluid drained away, many of the Justicars found their suits covered in rust or weeping sores, and their flesh within began to warp and become pox-infested. Minutes later, they began to return to the surface, no longer viewing the creatures around them as enemies.

 

The 5th Company and a handful of 1st Company survivors arrived within a massive jeweled city. They found thousands of displays of excess and debauchery, and immediately set about to putting the city to the torch. At first, the denizens reacted with joy, thinking the attack to be some new diversion, but as the Justicars set whole blocks of buildings to the blaze, the truth of the matter became clear, and they attacked. Countless cultists and other creatures hurled themselves at the Justicars, screaming with delight as they died in agony, and the sight confused the Space Marines. As they battled deeper into the city, the sights and smells of the city and its inhabitants began to overwhelm their senses. They saw buildings made of materials that were colors outside the normal spectrum. Even through their respirators, they could smell purfumes that slowly dulled their senses. Individual battle-brothers would find themselves lured away from their comrades and trapped within chambers of dazzling sights and sounds until they surrendered to the experience. The overall attack slowly faltered, until the last brothers still fighting reached a pavilion at the center of the city. At its heart stood a mighty statue of a divinely beautiful figure. Upon seeing it, the last of the Justicars still fighting fell to their knees and surrendered to the denizens of the city.

 

Finally, the 4th Company, under Captain Harstead, had spent much of their time engaged in little actual fighting, but rather simply trying to navigate the impossibly contorted realm they  had found themselves in. Mountain ranges soared to impossible heights and gave way to infinite labyrinths of stone and crystal, or turned into vast cities of ever-shifting configuration. It was in one of these cities that the Justicars engaged in battle against various groups of Chaos Marines and their daemonic allies. Warp-flame burned many of them alive, but still they pressed on with stubborn resolve. It was not until the Justicars were split up by the shifting streets that their advance slowed. As they were forcibly split into smaller groups, they found themselves charging into a vast plaza full of geometrically impossible statuary, and numerous enemies arrayed against them. Without hesitation, they charged these new enemies, but as the statues around them shattered, the illusions they didn’t even know were present began to disappear, and the Justicars realized they had been tricked into fighting themselves. Already pushed to the edge of sanity, this final revelation broke many of the battle-brothers, and they collapsed, begging for some sort of release from the nightmare they had been pushed into. Without pause, a Lord of Change descended from the sky, and offered to show them a way out of the city if they swore themselves to its cause. The Justicars agreed, and a perfectly straight crystal pathway appeared, leading them out of the city. By the time they emerged out the other side, they were more than ready to hunt down the enemies of their new master.

 

 

 

Reunification

 

Not all of the Justicars fell into service to a single god. Chapter Master Aurelion led his 1st Company veterans, along with elements of several other companies he found, in a lightning-swift campaign that saw them battle their way through all four domains on Eidolon. Although the brutal fighting took its toll on them as well, they did not stay within a single realm long enough for a single god to gain much sway over them. Instead, Aurelion’s personal ambitions were stoked and he began to carve a realm of his own on Eidolon, gathering more warriors, both Justicar and cultist alike, to him. In time, word came to him of other groups of warriors that sounded like the rest of his Chapter, and he sought out each of these groups in the hopes of reuniting his Chapter. Most of them, however, resisted his orders, and it was not until he defeated each of their champions in close-combat that the disparate warbands kneeled to his authority once more.

 

Although his Chapter was largely brought back under one banner, Aurelion quickly saw that there was still considerable in-fighting between members of his Chapter that had devoted themselves to one particular god. Taunts and blows were often exchanged, and it fell to the remaining Veterans to keep order between the disparate factions. On several occasions, Aurelion personally intervened and slew the most egregious offenders. To further discourage in-fighting, he forcibly re-organized the Justicars, mixing followers of different gods into the same squads, requiring them to work together or die in battle. The old Veterans were distributed across the Chapter to serve as Aurelion’s personal enforcers.

 

Once the reorganization was complete, Aurelion realized they needed to escape from Eidolon and find different enemies to distract them from the in-fighting. He declared the Justicars would now be known as The Fractured, in light of their divided loyalties. Their symbol was changed from a winged fist to an inverted pentagram with a baleful eye at its center. Their overall color scheme, a dark green with gold trim, remained largely the same, but many of them had already begun to alter the form of their armor, adding spikes, horns, and flayed skins.

 

It did not take long for the newly-born Fractured to find a way off of Eidolon. Several ancient human vessels belonging to the Iron Warriors were reported to be in orbit around the planet, with most of their masters on the surface. The Fractured made their way to mighty pillars of dust that connected the ships to the surface. Riding the currents up, they stormed the vessels and slaughtered every Iron Warrior they found, repaying the debt for the defeat suffered centuries previous. The servant crews readily surrendered to their new masters.

 

In less than a day, the new Fractured fleet was underway. It took only weeks to escape the Eye of Terror, and they found themselves back in realspace, though with a wholly different perspective from the last time they were there. Although it had been barely a year for The Fractured, decades had passed for the Imperium.

 

 

 

Campaigns of Terror

 

The first destination of The Fractured was their old home of the Mecantor system. They descended on the system with the intent of raiding their former Chapter Fortress and burning the whole system. As they stormed their former Chapter Keep, they found it abandoned and devoid of anything material they had hoped to acquire. Further investigation revealed that the Justicars had been reported lost or corrupted years previously, although how anyone could have known what happened to them within the Eye was beyond anyone’s guess. The surviving Justicars had either disappeared from the fortress for parts unknown, or joined the Deathwatch as Black Shields, never to return. Either way, they had removed every last piece of equipment, every last relic, every last memory of the Chapter’s history. Furious, Aurelion withdrew his Marines and proceeded to blast every last planet in the system into molten magma.

 

From there, The Fractured struck out across Imperial space, raiding worlds, striking at targets of opportunity, and wreaking vengeance upon the Imperium. Knowing that the best way to keep his men from in-fighting was to keep them focused on a common enemy, Aurelion drove The Fractured hard in constant battles against the Imperium, and sometimes even other enemies as they presented themselves.

 

In time, The Fractured withdrew once more into the Eye of Terror, and engaged in a considerable campaign of raiding against other factions within the Eye. These campaigns saw them acquire a vast array of daemon engines and other esoteric equipment, which they eagerly used in subsequent battles.

 

As long as The Fractured had an enemy to fight, they seemed generally content to work alongside each other. Still, Aurelion has enforced his will with brutal discipline. Even after many years of fighting as The Fractured, he must still settle disputes between rival groups and even crush outright rebellions. Should Aurelion fall in battle, the ability of The Fractured to remain a cohesive fighting force might dissolve.

 

 

 

The End Times

 

By the end of the 41st Millenium, The Fractured had become as hardened and bitter as any other force of Chaos. They have struck out from the Eye on numerous occasions to raid Imperial and Xenos worlds alike, traveling as far as the Maelstrom for both targets to strike and artifacts to recover. Aurelion still leads The Fractured, having acquired several powerful items to ensure his continued survival and dominance over The Fractured.

 

Despite constant battle, The Fractured are still estimated to number over five hundred Chaos Marines in total, plus untold thousands of cultists that fill the holds of their vessels. They have sealed pacts with numerous daemonic entities, able to call on their aid in battle with almost no warning. Whole systems have burned beneath their relentless advance.

 

Now, they march forth from the Eye of Terror once more as part of the 13th Black Crusade.

 

 

 

Also, here's a test-model I did.

 

http://th03.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2013/020/1/4/the_fractured_color_test_by_allerka-d5s3kbc.jpg

[Sith’ari]

Hey man, I love this background! It really encapsulates a loyal chapter's descent into anarchy and eventually outright rebellion. I especially love the story of the 4th & 5th - a suitably Tzeentchian tale!

Loving the test marine, though I would probably change the colour of the bolter casing, as right now it blends in with the armour too much IMO. Also curious to see how you'll be basing him.

Looking forward to seeing a full squad!

[Allerka]

Thanks! I realized I used the 5th Company twice, so I removed them from the Tzeentch entry.

 

Good point on the bolter, I had never really thought about that before. I checked all the GW armies, and noticed their bolter casings are usually a different color. Eleven years in this hobby and I never thought about that before. Jeez. Anyway, I'll think about what color to switch to. Probably black or metal.

 

As for the bases, I've ordered a number of Micro Arts Studio resin bases, they'll basically be on cracked earth with small veins of lava (with what appear to be skulls inside!) and small fires, a suitably daemonic appearance I think. :D

 

No idea when I'll get more done, these guys are pretty low priority right now, below my Lords of Oblivion Honor Guard I'm working on, and my Iron Hands.