"curses" for a 21st founder

[XKhalilX]

so i am trying to come up with a cursed founding chapter. but i cant seem to come up with good ideas. so far i have:

1. superiir strength. able to rip ooen tanks without a powerfist. not more durable like sons of antaeus, just freakishly strong.

 

2. phasing in and out so it appears as if the marine is appearing simultaneously in 2-3 spots in very cloae proximity. an enemy would see basically three. like when u swuint ur eyes and unfocus them.

 

3. short distance teleportation as a natural ability.

 

4. regeneration of limbs or can resserect from death once provided it wasnt a death that physically destroyed them. more like a bullet to head or shot up or stabbed up. NOT blown uo or melta death.

 

 

thats all i got. and im trying to think of a geneseed as well.

 

i dont know if i wanna go down the gene splicing multiple gene route or using a traitor geneseed or a combo of both ideas.

 

for traitor im leaning on alpha legion and deathguard. alpha im not a big fan of to be honest but nothing is really known abiut them so i thought that might be easier. deathguard just cuz pre heresy DG are just cool.

 

the whol appearing 2-3 images in onw idea has that alpha legion hydra feel to it. dopplegangerish

 

any ideas lemme know. and any idea on possible geneseed characteristics for all loyalist and traitor geneseed please drop ideas.

[securitas]

sounds alot like legion of the damned .maybe psychic geneseed, i do like the teleport idea but . maybe very attuned to the warp

[XKhalilX]

but each must be a flaw no? pros and cons. all the cursed are pretty much have some type of instability if i recall to go along with whatever makes them diff. either that or the inquisition slaughters em

[securitas]

inquistion not around during heresy ,and flaw could be once they recive geneseed they become mutated in some way physically not mentally just spit balling here. sorry if it sounds stupid

[XKhalilX]

cursed founding is long after heresy. several cursed founding chapters has had the inquisition run them down to either extinction or less then a company in strength

[securitas]

sorry thought you meant cursed legions

[XKhalilX]

lol no no. cursed founding as in 21st founding :-)

[Conn Eremon]

There is a pinned thread up top where the community took a shot at a Cursed Founding Space Wolf successor. The final idea we went with was that their boon was an increase of control over that which made the Wolves more wild and unruly, their Wulfen flaw, without taking away from that flaw's boons, heightened senses and such. The flaw that the Cursed Founding added was that the heightened senses went too far, and the older a Marine got the more maddened he became by his own senses. Imagine hearing a holocaust of explosions and screams because a pin needle dropped.

 

I don't have much time, so I will go with your first one, the extra strength. The flaw for that one could be that this boost damages the body too rapidly. Yes, this Marine can out-bench all others, but his musculature is more likely to tear, or for his augmetics to be damaged, or his suit of power armor to be damaged, or these things would cause further damage to the body. They are more likely to get worn out, and they become a Chapter of young, brash, super-hulks that have a much shorter lifespan than normal because their bodies can't support their boosted abilities for very long.

 

As an idea.

[XKhalilX]

i thought of another idea. that a dead brothers personality somehow lives on in the next brother who is implanted with his geneseed. not full on but overtime it would be somewhat a choir of voices per say. not split personality as the current bro still retains who he is, just that simething of the previous bearers of the seed live on in some subtle way

[XKhalilX]

cormac, that thought occurred to me as well with thr bodies wearing down feom such increased rate of say strength and endurance. say old in chapter would be 200 yrs. from what i read most captains and senior brothers average 200-500 years per chapter.

 

i was also thinking that instead of shorten lifespan theyd have to take mandatory rest in semi imduced coma. once they reach their limit their body falls into the coma that an astartes can self induce (forgot the name of it and what organ allows it). they can fight on normal without havin to use the strength but those in assault squads would commence melee fighting and.of course use the increased strength.

 

others such as tactical and such would use it in regards to endurance, their ability to keep on tracking running and moving. of course assault oriented squads would be effected the most by said drawback

[Conn Eremon]

That could be something to go with. The spirits of the dead speak to me!

 

Starts off useful, spiritual. Religious use in that Space Marines venerate the dead already. Tactical use in that you have a dead veteran giving advice. However, some Marines become overburdened by all these voices. They lose their identity, becoming possessed. Or they go mad, unable to function coherently.

 

If you go that route, I would make it vague the nature of the voices. Let it be known that the Chapter believes them to be the voices of the dead returned. But give evidence that the truth is more likely to be a psychological breakdown in a Chapter particularly noted for its morbidity and is rapidly becoming moribund.

[securitas]

i like that so there exp carries on from man to man

[XKhalilX]

securitas, it would play along into using alpha legion. alpha always had that collective identiyy thing going on. there squad based. there initiate trials were squad not.individual based.

 

idea of genetic personality inheritance is a literal army of one, lone operative that can also work in a team. think navy seals. they can operate solo with no issues. as a seal team no one is more deadlier.

 

a mix of jason bourne and navy seal combine as it were.

 

maybe ill make rwo cursed chapters. one with incrsd str and endurance. the other hearing the ghost whisperings from the past brothers.

[securitas]

sounds good brother let us know what ya do

[XKhalilX]

well keep the ideas flowing. im only got a very genrralized idea for both. cursed founders are difficult to fluff out properly

[Reyner]

I thought about making a Cursed Founding Chapter hearing the voices of the dead. It's a good idea - it wouldn't be apparent until a few generations in and would make for a slow painful fall rather than getting wiped out by their own mutations overnight. I think teleporting/phase shifting marines is a bit much but could be quite entertaining - would make space flight pretty risky for them if they suddenly shunt and reform inside a wall.

[XKhalilX]

the idea would be an attempt to.be subtle. no full out hearing voices but a ghostly echo that occurs at moments, not a regular basis.

that feelings of deju vu or intuition are.brought about.

basically some kind of mutation of the alpha legion where literally identity has been suppressed to point that identity in itself is almost incomprehensible to the individual brothers. a hive mind concept.

 

they operate in kill teams. 40k navy seals who are each the head arms and legs as one. and thode with the mutation acting as solo ops who are literally an army of one with the ghostly echks and.inutition. or perhaps all have the mutation and working in kill teams allows for a micro hive mind. its not they hold some psyker twlepathy but the intuitiom and training has made them five minds as one five separate and one simultaneously.

 

the idea is so hard to verbally express. its in my head. hard to explain. quick brothers link up....FORCE MELD!

[Malthe]

I prefer to develop cursed chapters the other way around: First I find an interesting curse that will absolutly cripple the chapter in question, then I try to figure out what the Magii were trying to improve upon.

Right now I'm working (very slowly...) on a cursed RG successor. My basic idea is that the Magii tried to fix the RG gene-seed, by using some of the same technology used by Corax after Istvaan. This works out well at first, with great implant success rates, but ends up coursing a hurricane of mutations, insanity and all around horrible things. Also the gene-seed starts killing recruits like crazy, meaning the chapter is cronically starved for recruits, why they forcibly recruit every adolecent boy they happen to come across. Should be fun.

Beyond that I like the dead people talking-idea. It seems appropriately tragic.

 

For some extra ideas:

A chapter with exeptionally fast implant rate, and regenerative capabilities. The downside is that they age incredibly rapid (dropping dead in say, forty years after being implanted), meaning individual battle-brothers will have very little combat experience. As such the chapter will basically have no veterans (and mostly likely a very strange philosophy, compared to other chapters).

A chapter unanimously gifted with foresight, but with a tendency to black out at inopportune moments and get killed. They are also prone to terrible depressions.

 

A chapter with greatly increased age spans (as in each living a thousand years) and healing capabilities, but the implant rate is horribly low (forty years for a recruit to become an actual space marine and only one in a thousand recruits make it that far). This is basically a severely understrenght chapter of kick ass ancients.

[XKhalilX]

malthe, the suggestions u mentioned i have all thought of as well LOL. minus the ancient marine concept. i dig that one alot.

 

i just got done reading the lex article on the alpha legion and that seemed to really gear my.interest to using them. i read legiom and fpund it boring i recall. of course that was yrs ago and probably didnt get it haha.

 

i had an idea on of using sallie geneseed to manipulate a mutatiom to allow semi immortality through vulkans perpetual designation. that could work with the old marine idea.

 

i feel quite hellbent on using AL geneseed with this "dead voice" psychological thing goin.on. not sure why im so hellbent on it but i seem quite enthralled by idea

[Dominion]

I'd go with a Vulkan successor that has a metallic tone of skin similar to Star Trek: TNG' s Data. It would more or less revolve around a home world that causes the discolouration via some sort of radiation.

[securitas]

I'd go with a Vulkan successor that has a metallic tone of skin similar to Star Trek: TNG' s Data. It would more or less revolve around a home world that causes the discolouration via some sort of radiation.

 or same premise after a certain amount of time they harden and are trapped in there bodys

[Nomus Sardauk]

If I may suggest a more subtle approach on the "inheriting personalities/memories" idea; perhaps it starts slow, over time an affected brother begins to unknowingly take on the mannerisms and habits of their predecessor across a timespan of a century or so. Things like tapping their left foot when they're getting impatient, cleaning their wargear in a certain order everytime or customising their Bolter the same way.

 

Over time it becomes more and more pronounced until they essentially become their predecessor in all but name, most don't even realise it, some do but don't care and a few try to fight it but gradually lose their mind as their own memories conflict with the inheirited ones, driving them insane.

[XKhalilX]

sanguinius, thats what my ultimate goal for the negative of the curse. that the subtleties would build overtime. small ripples make big waves theory.

 

many will be driven mad. others would become the jason bourne lone ops type.

 

so basically my idea is:

-alpha legion geneseed but will not be putrightly stated. hinted at

- they will operate in killteams and lone ops specialists

- their quirk as it were is a hive mind like psychological thing goin.on.

-the dead will subtle whisper with traits comin into their mannerisms and tactical choices and what sanguiniusreborn mentioned

-for many the echoes will become whispers the whispers become voices and be driven mad. flr others it will be the hive mind.concept

[XKhalilX]

so my basic idea is geneseed nkt revealed. records either lost or classified. chapter cannot find the data.

inquisitorial observers watch chapter (they know its AL geneseed). its noted the chapter takes 10 yrs to mature to full astartes instead of 5 yrs as standard. the genestock is pure.

within training its noted and observed brothers have exceptional bond notably in kill teams. they are observed initially for example to finish off esch others sentences and carry same mannerisms. in combat training they see things such as a brother putting out his hand to catch a brother whose misstepped and tripped, several seconds before the event even occurs.

 

they see the kill teams begin to have a bond thats instinctual and intuitive. without verbal commands.or hand signals the squad seemingly switch formations and react in unison. the way they move is akin to a squad of brothers who have fought side by side for years, only it is beyond that. they pick up on each other almost in telepathic manner. they are rexamined and the brothers show no signs of psyker genome.

 

after several millenia things go bad. first signs are some brother begin experincing "ghostly echoes". momentary thoughts or words that are not their own but at same time coincide with tbeir thoughts. over time the echoes become full on thoughts and sentences. the ghost voices resonate within.

 

the ch. believe it is their dead brethren from past speaking to the current generation. over time the geneseed mutates and more brothers are susceptible.

 

after several hundred yrs the voices are strong and hundreds are riddem with them. many go.insame from it losing their idsntity in.process. chaplains commit fratracide through emperors mercy. others maintain themselves with iron will and start to change. their personalities and mannerisms coinciding with those who carried the geneseed previously. these brothers begin to go reclusive, breaking with their kill team squad. thesw affected beother reform new squads based on the previous brothers within them alligninf with their ghostly squad mates contained in the current users psyche.

 

overtime more and more cannot handle it and fall insane. tbey are placed as lone ops but many cant even handle that. the chaplains commit the emeperors mercy in waves for each generation.

 

the chapter set council and decide to utilize a new geneseed. the inquisitors and ad mech note the flaw and grant them a new stock. the effects are not.neutralized as the new geneseed coalesces with the brothers and simply mutates to the genetic coding of the flawed geneseed the chapter was built on.

 

in 41.782, chief lib listens to his own inner voices searching for answers. eventually in the deep chasms of his mind he find the voices repesting a word, a name.of a planet. they cant find it in imperial archives and believe it was hidden by the imperium.

 

they send out three strike cruisers to thr location the chief libs ancestors speak of. knowing their inquisitorial wardens will accompany they cook up a fake chaos and daemon horde on a distant system. the inquisitors board said strike cruiser. unbeknowest to the inquisitorial staff aboard the marines on the ship pleged to sacrifice themselves for the othwr two cruisers to go off without being seen by inquisition. they set coordinates to exit the warp in the core of a supernova and incinerate instantly.

 

the remaining cruisers reach the planet. what is found or happend is known only to ch. mastwr chief lib and mastwr.of sanctity. its nevwr documwnted. what is known is tha after several generations the mutation stabilizes and the number of those going.insane plummets. while many can hear the voices, most are able to deal with them and the chapter begins reorganizing its squads based on the ancester voices who incline towards each other.

 

the stabilization however has made the implantation process and maturity to full battle brother even slower, takinf 15-20 years making any losses suffered an extreme hardship.

 

in a report dated 41.968, the chapter is said to be at approximately 440 brothers strong with a full squad being battle ready every 15-20 years.

 

thats my basic.outline. the chapter doesnt know their alpha legion and have an unrelenting desire to find their origims. whether or.not this is revealed on the currently unnamed planet is going.to be unknown in the IA.

 

the brothers in.squads are only ones to know each other real names. outside tbeir squad even to rwst of chapter they are known by a name and numeral such as "alpha two", "nova six", "helios four" etc. just as example. those in command posiions and HQ will be known by their real name or will have a hereditary name that is given to them (much like sgt. namaan in the dark angels).

[XKhalilX]

their tactics will be squad based guerilla warfare, deep infiltration and recon.

 

as i said the IA will never outright mentiin they are alpha legion. but tactics and discussion of identity and kinship will allude to this. i also wanted to make a short sidebar of them infiltrating a chaos cult or chaos warband and destroying it from within. this will be an indicator of their possible gene origins without having to state it explicitly