IA: The Mourners

[Ulfir]

THE MOURNERS

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CHAPTER NAME: .............. THE MOURNERS FOUNDING: ..................9TH [M35] CHAPTER WORLD: .............LORIEN SECUNDUS FORTRESS MONASTERY: ........THE BLOODSPIRE GENE-SEED (PREDECESSOR): ...BLOOD ANGELS KNOWN DESCENDANTS: .........NONE "Remember the dead and honour their sacrifice" – High Chaplain Sizouze [272.M36]

B

orn from Blood Angels gene stock, The Mourners belong to the 9th founding of Adeptus Astartes and were tasked with retaking lost Imperial planets currently under the yoke of xenos oppression in the north-eastern region of Segmentum Ultima and safeguarding local Imperial systems against the xenos threat. As part of the crusading force, The Mourners brought a vast swathe of worlds back under Imperial rule, recruiting and resupplying from the worlds they helped conquer; however, after losing nearly a full half of their fighting forces freeing the worlds of the Lorien system from xenos rule, the upper echelons of the chapter agreed a change had to be made. They couldn’t rebuild and fight at the same time, crusading with so few Astartes would be nothing more than a slow death for the chapter. Under the bright sky of Lorien Secundus, Chapter Master Bethor decreed that, for The Mourners, the crusade was ended and the world underfoot, where they lost so many of their brothers, would be the chapter’s new home. To mark the importance of this day and in remembrance to their honoured dead a great funeral pyre was constructed, the chapter master vowing it would continue to burn as long as the chapter remained.

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The Lost Lights

The land surrounding the great funeral pyre is known amongst the chapter as 'The Lost Lights'. Outside the great domed structure, surrounded by a void shield to protect them, are thousands of candles; each one representing a lost battle brother. The candles are tended to by chapter's serfs in service to the reclusiam and each one burns for twice the length of time served by the battle brother it represents.

Lorien Secundus is a world of natural beauty that has been marred by many centuries of war and oppression; it is a small planet by Imperial standards and is orbited by 3 moons. From orbit one can see snow-capped mountains, clear waters and rolling grasslands interspersed with toxic lakes, foreboding ruins and vast radioactive wastelands. Before The Mourners freed this world the local populace suffered heavily at the hands of xenos invaders; their cities destroyed with atomic weaponry, the resulting fallout poisoning the water and killing or mutating wildlife in the surrounding area. The people were enslaved by their xenos conquerors and forced to toil in slave labour camps or fight in the arena pits. Since being liberated they have been welcomed back into the fold and have begun to re-settle their home world, small townships and villages working the fertile lands still left. All traces of the xenos taint have been scoured from the planet by the chapter.

The Bloodspire, fortress monastery of The Mourners, stands proud in the largest of the planet’s radioactive wastelands; the crimson tower jutting forth like a spear through the back of a diseased beast. At the base of the tower, void shielded and enclosed in a great dome of stained glass, lies the great funeral pyre; it is seen by the chapter as one of their greatest treasures, it's multi-hued luminance is still clearly visible from low orbit. The tower itself is surrounded by concentric walls of immense thickness and reaches almost half as far underground as it does above ground. Orbital defence platforms surround the planet, locked in geostationary orbit above key points; the largest of these is locked above The Bloodspire itself and is often used as a resupply station for the chapter fleet.

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The Mourners' geneseed has suffered further degradation when compared to other sons of Sanguinius. The sanguinary priests theorise that mutations to the haemastamen and occulobe implants are what has affected blood flow and pigmentation in the eye, causing the chapter to have constant bloodshot sclera and blood red irises; the changes usually occurring whilst the aspirant is undergoing their scout training, though some have been known to emerge from their sarcophagi already changed. Because of this the chapter only remove their helms when exclusively in the presence of their own battle brothers or other sons of the angel, knowing their strange eyes are likely to be met with suspicion and distrust. The Mourners also suffer the blessing and curse known as the black rage; the rage manifesting as free-flowing tears of blood alongside the more common berserker madness known in other chapters. In contrast, the effects of the red thirst, while still present, are far reduced amongst the chapter; the blood lust only becoming hard to control during the heat of battle itself when blood is already freely flowing.

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The Mourners chapter colours

http://oi62.tinypic.com/53jrjt.jpgORGANISATIONhttp://oi62.tinypic.com/53jrjt.jpg

The Mourners are sons of Sanguinius, as such their company colours and squad markings closely follow that of their parent chapter, the Blood Angels; red for tactical, blue for devastator, yellow for assault and gold for veteran. The only difference of note being that The Mourners only have the squad sergeant uses the company colour on his helm.

The Mourners paint their armour in a dark shade of red, with black pauldrons trimmed with gold. Other details are also often trimmed with gold, noticeably the Aquila often embossed on their armour. They have been known to wear loincloths, tabards and, rarely, robes of black cloth over their armour. The chapter symbol is a single blood drop on a field of black; this symbol is replicated with rubies on the left pauldron of every suit of armour in the chapter’s possession.

The Mourners possess fewer than 30 suits of tactical dreadnought armour, the chapter eschewing the extra protection offered by the bulky suits in favour of the increased mobility granted by standard power armour. The chapter is known for having artfully forged suits of power armour with personal items and trophies often adorning the armour and weaponry of each Astartes; The Mourners artificers believe this personal adornment pleases the armour’s machine spirit and assists it in protecting the suits bearer. Black tears are painted onto each Astartes helm as a mark of respect to those fallen, ash from the funeral pyre is used to colour the paint. Red tears are painted on the helms of those belonging to the death company as a further sign that they are in the grips of the rage, the black paint used to colour the armour also containing ash from the pyre.

http://oi62.tinypic.com/53jrjt.jpgSELECTED BATTLE HONOURShttp://oi62.tinypic.com/53jrjt.jpg

The Sundering of Akafur [973.M37]
The planet of Akafur rebels against Imperial rule and an Imperial Guard force is sent to pacify the rebellion. When the Imperial Guard request additional forces a company of The Mourners chapter is sent to assist with the pacification. Upon arriving the chapter discovers the entire planet, and the Imperial Guard forces sent to pacify them, has fallen to the worship of chaos. Despite breaking the heretics completely the Inquisition declares exterminatus on the planet.

The Arion Campaign [509.M39]
Isolated from the Imperium by warp storms for over 300 years, a force consisting of Astartes from The Mourners and The Storm Hunters, alongside numerous Imperial Guard companies is sent to reclaim the worlds of the Arion Sector. They soon discover that the previously devout worlds are now under the rule of chaos warbands. The joint force is eventually able to wrest control of the sector from the forces of chaos, completely wiping out the Baleful Screams warband in the process.

The Nightfall Shadow [656.M41]
The space hulk known as The Nightfall Shadow emerges from the warp on the edge of the Vatera system and Orks begin to spill forth from the wreck, falling on the lightly defended agri-worlds of the system with great savagery. A full battle company of The Mourners is dispatched to drive back the Ork invaders and destroy the hulking menace.

[Ulfir]

There we go, my first real draft of my Blood Angels successor. It's still a little WIP as there's more I want to add but this will do for now. Comments and critiques if you'd be so kind.

[marine7312000]

Awesome start so far. I'm curious on your thoughts on older equipment such as the Spartan, Contemptor, and other wargear from the Heresy.

[Ulfir]

It's funny you should mention the contemptor, I recently bought the relic model for this army. I'm not overly keen on the spartan, it doesn't quite fit in with the design ethic I'm going for as it's just too bulky. Might get a fire raptor though if I can convince the wife. Already have a pack of tigrus bolters and legion combi-weapons on the way for my sternguard, not sure what else from HH would fit in, might revisit the range when FW release the blood angels stuff.

[Teetengee]

Is there a reason the red thirst affects them less? I like your work though.

[Messor]

Fantastic start here, Ulfir, this is well thought out and put together; overall a very believable part of the "shared universe". I love the funeral pyre as a Chapter Relic. Like Teetengee, I would ask why you chose to have the Red Thirst weaker in the Chapter. I would also suggest having a look at some of the veteran articles for more you could include. I'd like to know more about the Chapter's beliefs and what cultures inform or are informed by those beliefs. There were also just a couple of grammar things that jumped out at me:

 

a small planet by imperial ~ That "I" in imperial.

interspersed toxic lakes ~ I'm pretty sure you need a "with" in there before toxic

 

Great job here so far, and nice touch with the symbol in the headers. Hope you'll add more!

[Resarys]

I like it! Very fond of the little detail about personalising the armour. I always felt the Blood Angels and their successors should have a certain amount of artistry to things.

 

A thought I've had, regarding the eyes, is that you could have the Red Thirst manifest differently, instead of more weakly. Perhaps, in the heat of battle with the scent of blood in the air, the Mourners are able to "see" blood. Not necessarily through armour and such and not Superman-style X-ray vision, but a limited infrared, in a sense. It would be rendered moot in a helmet, given the capabilities of power armour,, but hunting mutants on the homeworld or in a dire situation, it could be useful.

[Ulfir]

Thanks for the kind words guys. I've fixed the grammatical errors, this is why it helps to have a second set of eyes to go over things. Regarding the red thirst effecting them less, I was toying with the idea of drinking blood mixed with ash lessening the effects for a time. Not so much a cure, more like a painkiller that gets weaker the longer you take it, or even just a placebo as I don't plan on making the ash anything more than just ash, but I didn't want to keep coming back to using the funeral pyre as it's already pretty central to the chapter's beliefs and traditions(which I'll write up later once I've fleshed out the ideas some more). Any thoughts on the idea?

[Teetengee]

Seems like it might work.

[Messor]

Interesting. So in part, that ash is the ash of their brothers? So in the same way Sanguinius' blood makes them Angels, their brothers' remains keep them sane a while longer. I would buy it.

[Resarys]

Oooo, yes that is very good.