Draconists

[shandwen]

The Draconists

 

I started a new chapter when the codex came out and wanted to follow a historical knightly order in name a theme.  I read about the Ordo Draconists, a knightly order that included Vlad the Impaler, but which almost nothing is really known about a decided to choose that.  I very well couldn't use "ordo" in a chapter's name, so i did have to drop that, but i took their emblem and the name and ran with that.

 

 

 

Origins Organization and Doctrine:

The Draconists are a Ultramarine sucessor chapter of the Inceptors from a founding in the 39th millenium.  They were founded on a unknown home world in the Ultima Segmentum, in the .  Durring their founding the cadre requested from the Inceptor chapter was delayed in arriving, and the chapter was founded before and nursed by the Adeptus Mechanicus without the presence of the cadre for a short period of time.  When the cadre arived they were dismayed by some of the beliefs that had already seeped into the minds of the new chapter and they quickly lost the approval of their patron chapter due to their adaptation of many of the beliefs of the Mechanicus, and as such very early in the chapters life the Inceptors cadre left and disowned the chapter.  When they were disowned, and were not nearly up to par training wise, the chapter was fortunate to receive a small cadre from a Black Templar Detail returning from the Jerulas Crusade.  With their original cadre absent and having been disowned by them they discarded their ultramarine based livery and replaced it with a livery based on what they had learned of the Black Templars.  The current chapter emblem, always displayed on on the shoulder, is a squared white cross of a background of flame.

Their intended role was one of a Standing Force in the Segmentum, which they have only somewhat followed.  They quickly decided against taking a home world to create a chapter keep and decided to stay fleet based.  This has caused some issues as they have not been granted any forge-ships.  They have equipped themselves rather well by basically seizing smaller forges for periods of time as they have ran across them and rarely requesting material from larger forges capable of creating the heavier equipment to manufacture the equipment they believe they are in need of, but due to the lack of consistent resupply they rarely field the heaviest tanks, and rarely field more than one of any vehicle other than the basic rhino.  Also due to the infrequent supply they typically attempt to over-strength the chapter, but it is worth noting this is not following the pattern of the Black Templars in ignoring the Codex Astares in chapter size.  The key break from the Codex that the chapter made was to have ten companies all of nearly identical components, so as to have veterans and scouts in every company.  Their scouts start their training in crusader squads, but are required to spend time in separate units before their promotion to initiates.

 

Chapter Beliefs:

The chapter has had an odd time as they were abandoned very early by their cadre, and refused to set up a home world.  Their beliefs would easily call the attention of the inquisition to them, and the plain hatred of nearly every other chapter.  They had heavy early contact with the techpriests, and were taught the idea of the Emperor and the Omnisiah being different faces of the same deity, and took this concept further.  They hold to the belief that the Primarchs themselves were merely different qualities of the Emperor.  In such they actively worship a few of the Primarchs, mainly Rogal Dorn.  This belief carries over to a terribly heretical belief that Chaos legions are not pure evil.  They do not conspire with Chaos forces though, as they see it as their duty to continue the Emperors internal fight against evil to the universal fight against Chaos.

 

Notable Draconists:

-Marshal Nehring: Chapter Master of the Draconists.  Known for commonly using a flaming sword in close combat, and often separating himself from his honor guard mid-battle.  Considerably rash and overly aggressive in battlefield tactics, especially concerning the frequent lack of logistical support suffered by the chapter.  The Marshal realizes his failures in many engagements have led to unnecessarily high casualties.  He often places himself on the front line detailing one of his Castellans to organize the strategic planning and operations.

-Castellan Lecfast: Captain of the 4th Company, who focuses on joining a battle with scouts, drawing in the enemy with initiates, and finishing the job with counter attacks by close combat veterans. 

-Veteran Sergeant Shandwen: Vanguard Veteran Sergeant for 4th company section.  Equipped with a Relic Blade after killing a entire bike squad by himself in the assault, and commended for once again showing his prowess by destroying a traitor Vendetta after his entire squad was incapacitated.

 

Battlecry:

"Allons, Allons! Tue! Tue!"

 

Chapter Color Scheme:

Primarily black, with company trim color on one shoulder and the opposite knee.  Veterans and all Sergeants wear white helmets.  Long serving Veterans wear highly decorated armor, often even forgoing the chapter emblem from their shoulder.  The chapter emblem is, as mentioned before, a White squared-off cross on a background of flame.

[Demus Ragnok]

Some thoughts.

 

There is no 80th founding. Did mean 8th? There have only been 26 foundings in official lore.

 

How was this young chapter aware of anything to do with the Templars?

 

Seizing forges? That is not a good idea. Forges are the property of the Adpetus Mechanicus and they have substantial military forces. One chapter of marines would be destroyed attacking a forge.

 

Were did they have this heavy contact with the Tech priests to be taught of the Omnissiah.

[Bryan Blaire]

The latest Founding to have occurred is the 26th. Your Chapter can't be part of the 80th Founding, unless you are saying that it isn't part of the 40K timeline, but more likely somewhere in M60ish.

 

You give absolutely no explanation why this Chapter decided to abandon the beliefs and tactics of its progenitor, and the training cadre is who teaches the new Chapter their methods/tactics. Therefore if the training cadre was Ultramarines, there is no way for the Chapter to have adopted a fighting style and structure similar to the Black Templars. Also, why would they have been abandoned or taken up another Chapter's methods if they are firmly based in the Ultima Segmentum? These things make the idea less than believable, even for 40K, IMO. It's an interesting story, but even "That's Cool!" needs to be backed up by a little bit of reason.

 

The beliefs section seems totally unbelievable for a Marine Chapter to me. Why have they had heavy contact with tech priests when they were abandoned by their trainers? How, given than they didn't take a homeworld nor do they really have a Chapter fleet from the sounds of things? As far as the Chaos thing, it is less than believable for Marines, who would have been taught hate for the arch-traitor and his ilk by their training cadre, but it would also subject them to immediate Excommunicatus if it was known. It needs to either be a secret (with some explanation as to how it's kept) or more likely done away with.

 

You have some good concepts here, they just need some proper explanation and fleshing out.

[Lord Marshal Ragnrok]

interesting

[Veteran Sergeant]

Yeah, obviously the 80th Founding thing.

 

I think this one is suffering from trying too hard to explain why you use a certain Chapter's rules. If you want your Chapter to be all Crusadey, you don't need to jump through so many hoops. Just make them Crusadey. Remember, we, the fans, know the 40K universe. A freshly minted Chapter in the 40K universe, full of a thousand chapters and a bajillion zillion people, probably wouldn't even know who the Black Templars were, let alone how they fought battles. I imagine the Ultramarines, if they are training a new Chapter, isn't saying "This is how to be Space Marines, how to organize and recruit, and fight battles. But here's how these other guys do it, that's wrong." 

 

Make them fleet based. Make them like drop pod assaults and close combat. Heck, you can even use the Black Templars chapter tactics. Nobody's going to even suggest that's weird, let alone wrong.

 

Yeah, and stealing stuff from forge worlds, let alone siezing them, is a fast track to getting crushed and deemed heretical. The Imperium invests a lot of time, effort, and materials into Space Marine Chapters. They're not going to let them founder without supplies. 

[Bryan Blaire]

You don't have to say what their gene-line is anyway. Even GW does this, in the current C:SM, there are four specific Chapters named that have no known specifically known origin. Just leave it unknown and have their training cadre be from a "crusade" mentality Chapter (it doesn't even have to be one we know of).

[Prefect Apollyon]

The Founding is obviously a blip.

 

Being abandoned by the founding Cadre? If it resorted to that, they would have been declared Heretics and removed from the picture. The Founders, from such an illustrious Chapter would not have been ignored by the first raw recruits, the recruits would have been in awe of them. Why don't you have them founded by the Novamarines? Fleet-based Ultramarines successor, with the members of the founding Cadre being assault-orientated? Since then, they have slowly evolved to be very similar to the Black Templars in structure. Just a suggestion, but a much more believable one.

 

That is if they have to be from Ultramarine stock? I can't see why they aren't just founded by Black Templars or another Crusader-style Chapter.

 

Moving on, your Chapter would be long dead by now if it seized any (note I didn't say many) Forge Worlds. I'd scrap that, unless you're writing an Index Traitoris.

 

I do believe that is enough to be getting on with, perseverance is key when writing an IA, keep at it!

[shandwen]

Haha, i just saw what i did with the founding... that's what i get for filling it out at work. I put in the D100 roll from the chapter generator rather than the founding.

 

I also made a point not to say forge-words (and made it clearer in the edit) as the majority of forges would be on primary forgeworlds, but much smaller and less capable forges would be scattered across the imperium.

 

And i very much liked the advice of dropping to a less known ultra-successor chapter, i definatly couldn't justify being a templar-successor as they have only founded two known chapters though. A good amount of what is wonky here is from the chapter generator, where it was way crazy i often toned it down, but man, the crazy belief thing was too funny to let go. But hey, for a first time writing any of this this few amount of major edits isn't too bad.

[Sergeant Lowe]

just a couple of comments

 

if they're a Ultramarines successor then they would deify Guillamen rather than Dorn.

 

If the chapter had such close contact with the Mechanicus at its founding why are they always short on equipment. My thinking would be that they wouldn't have this problem and it would mean that they have a close relationship with the Mechanicus instead as they share some of the beliefs.