The Lost and Forgotten: Building the II Legion

[MikhalLeNoir]

Wohooo, Nice Art als usual and The blind Praetor. Just awesome.

 

Where did you get bis cloak from?

Good to See, that i am Not The only one who gives his Jump pack Charakters cloaks. Style Beats physics;)

[Teetengee]

If he is blind, will he be getting any of the bonuses associated with that found through the rest of your army?

[AlphariusOmegon108]

Amazing!!!!

[Kizzdougs]

Awesome work! Anaris looks brilliant so far. He really reminds me of Eltharion the Blind, which is a good thing. The sergeants are looking really good too. This is definitely one of my favourite project threads on the whole B&C.

 

Can't wait to see what's next :tu:

[marine7312000]

Definitely with the cloak.

[Athrawes]

The Grace of Madrigal

 

 

Junior-submagos Sora reviewed the combat logs of Legio Telesto's latest walk. A brutal affair that was already becoming known as the pacification of Iax. 

 

A luminois burst flash seared her third iris.

 

++Data in-load progressing++

 

++Hex-gamma/L-Inload complete- Tolerances holding steady at .03cogN sustained.

 

Her mandibles flexed in what could never be mistaken for a scowl by those unaltered by communion with technology.

 

An inload tolerance of .03cogN was laughable, had she still the capacity to laugh. Working in such warzones as were found in the the great crusade was demanding, more at certain times than others. Nonetheless, her purview remained vital for the smooth function of the Legio.

 

Her duty remained , vital to the Legio's loremasters, the compilation of battle-field recorda, and tactical overlay for future command level data-bursts while in the field.

 

She pictured herself in a great river, made of data, the currents formed of tactical reports, after-action logs, combat pict capture and more, All rushing past her as she calmly manipulated information into a format easily digestible for a combat inload databurst. 

 

So much information at once would be daunting to a moderatii or a princeps, and so Analyticae like Soran worked hard to compose the storm of data collected from a battlefield into succinct and manageable data bursts to be directed towards Engines seeing action in the field.

 

The Iax campaign had proved particularly difficult for the Legio's Analyticae. Walks in which Astartes were present were without fail, messy, rapid affairs. 

 

As she snipped a portion of gun box camera feed from the Warhound Immanent Demise, for the inload, a file containing Thallax combat video cought her attention. It was a death moment recording, only 2 seconds, but it still struck her as noteworthy. 

 

In it, was an Astartes squad moving forwards towards a tactical objective, the files sub tag identived this as objective epsilon\Rg-09, In combat grid L4. The file itself would have been unremarkable if not for the warriors it captured.

 

Sora had seen footage of Astartes in action before. Warriors of the XIII Legion moved with regimented precision that was envious, warriors of the XVI she had witnessed moving with a caged ferocity that seemed dynamic. 

 

But the warriors whose images replayed before her eyes in armor of stormcloud grey left her entranced. They moved with a fluidity that seemed absurd. To her eyes, it seemed less like warriors advancing across a field of battle and more like a living gas drifting across the the rubble strewn warzone. obstacles and debris which other warriors would bound over or blast through, these warriors seemed to ignore. They moved as if every obstacle before them was already known, as if they had closed their eyes and had already walked the path before them a dozen times. 

 

There was a word for this.

 

Grace.

 

Though an initiate of the Machine cult would seldome use the word, Grace, did have a certain phlegmatic charm. 

 

These warriors were gracefull, less machined or regimented warrior and more subtle dancers, weaving around every obstacle on the battle field as if they had placed it there themselves.

 

Sora cursed herself, a three micro Cog data file on ammunition expenditure passed her by while lost in her contemplation of the Stormclad warriors.

 

She continued her work on the inload diligantly, but still the image of the II Legion warriors lingered. 

 

Grace.

 

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/i327/nickfayette1/3A93FACB-F40D-4355-AE94-3C16B3767915.jpg

 

 

[SalvationOfReason]

So I thought the fluff piece was fantastic, then I saw the artwork, and had to pick my jaw up off the ground. Astounding work

[MikhalLeNoir]

yeah, as always great work bro.

[Rojo]

Yeah, that's just beautiful.

[Brother Heinrich]

Seriously at some point FW is just going to have to cave and be like, "Fine, what Athrawes said. Yeah, that's how it happened."

[Soldier of Dorn]

Seriously at some point FW is just going to have to cave and be like, "Fine, what Athrawes said. Yeah, that's how it happened."

I wish I had something better to say than this, but I don't :D

In all seriousness though, this is the definitive II Legion. In my headcanon, the Fall of Madrigal is definite fact, and I am sure I'm not the only one. So, Athrawes, I wish you the best of luck in this project. May your fount of inspiration ne'er run dry.

[Athrawes]

Thanks for all the kind words, I'm glad you guys like the fluff and the artwork. I've found that I am well suited to writing historical summaries like what you find in the Forgeworld Heresy books, but I really struggle with anything else, this piece of fluff and the piece about Rasemon which accompanied the Webway piece is really me "testing the water," so hopefully it's not unbearable, it is just definitely outside my comfort zone.

 

Also, I forgot to credit the artist! The painting was by Ilqar on Deviant Art.

[Lemainus]

This thread is so good, all the time, no exceptions. 

[Dirus]

Amazing stuff! Can't wait for more updates. 

I have a question though.
Why is their homeword named Madrigal? For a legion with a japanese theme, it seems pretty out there. I'm not trying to say its bad, i just want to know what its significance is, if any.
 

[Athrawes]

@Dirus: (In my free time I'm chorister) and so the word madrigal always made be think of baroque grandeur. While singing pieces in that style.

 

At the end of the day, I did not want the Lightning Bearers to be a caricature of samurai in space, I have really tried hard to avoid overdoing the asiatic/Japanese theme.

 

So, when choosing a name for the home world I made a list with every other Legion home world (and left a spot in the center of the list blank). I then went through about three dozen different names Inserting them in the blank space, but in the end, Madrigal sounded right and looked right to represent an important world in the Warhammer setting.

 

Im sure I still have the list of potential names around somewhere, I guess I just didn't think the II legion needed a Japanese sounding home world name to hammer home their theme.

[Athrawes]

SO, I was perusing Deviant Art when I came across this:

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/i327/nickfayette1/2nd_legion___sons_of_thunder_by_blazbaros-d99pjan%201.png

Deviant Art Page

Blind, Psychic, Space Samurais with a lightning Theme as the II Legion...

Maybe I'm just vain but it seems a bit familiar..

[Brother Heinrich]

I would totally just put a link to this project in the comments with a polite *ahem*

[GhostMalone]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

 

As long as they aren't claiming it's their idea....

 

We all know your 2nd are the true second

[Conn Eremon]

Japanese, psychic and thunder/lightning motifs have been the most dominant Missing Legions I have ever come across since getting into 40k and DIYs. Like, four out of every five had at least two of those.

 

It's a testament to how people consider your work here that none of those things have featured in Missing Legions on the B&C since your work became popular, but it stands to reason they'd still be going strong elsewhere. I'm not saying this other work isn't influenced by you, but let's not sling accusations without confirmation.

[Athrawes]

I don't think i was accusing them of anything Conn. I just thought it was funny, that everything lined up so well even down to using the same color scheme.

 

That being said, they did reference to Saint-Max's artwork (icarion and Raiden I assume). So while they made no mention of of my project, by the transitive property of space marines, they are influenced from this material.

 

Again, it's no harm, I was just really shocked to see something so identical in so many ways.

[Conn Eremon]

Sorry, I was referring in part to the suggestion of accusing, and on the other part any possible, continuing talk along those lines.

[Mechanist]

Just found this and read through all 37 pages, wow what a roller coaster ride.

Loving the work here and despite the past Stigma the lost legions may have picked up over the years, projects like this are exactly why the lost legions exist, to give creative people the opportunity to do their own thing. I truly hope GW never fill out anything more solid than the few hints that they have done, allowing projects like this to flourish. The quality of this project brings so much joy and encouragement to others and even taking the lost legion portion out seeing such good well thought out fluff and models make me want to always do better.

I salute you. 

[Athrawes]

Volta 2.0

 

Two new members of what I am dubbing Oracle Terminator Squad.

 

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/i327/nickfayette1/ed1a9492-2b13-4067-88a4-9c8318520fbf.jpg

 

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/i327/nickfayette1/a8e520fa-aeb7-4a64-aaf7-79bab15adaea.jpg

 

I think that i have finally gotten the Sightless Crown the the Volta wear right.

 

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/i327/nickfayette1/580a0cce-6790-4ea9-a31c-b92410a69dd9.jpg

 

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/i327/nickfayette1/8dab4d47-2208-46fe-834e-66216b0c59df.jpg

 

I'd love to know what you think. How they compare to their new concept art, and how they compare with their original interpretations.

 

As for myself, I think I'm in love.

[AlphariusOmegon108]

While their armor looks fantastics, I feel like the "masks" should be smoothed out more and the edges should be defined more, also, the "tabards" with the layered plates on them, could use some rivets around the greenstuff edge.

 

Apart from that, nice unit! Love the name for them!

[Teetengee]

I would have to see them painted, but the masks still look a little rough to me. I like where they are headed though.