IA: Iron Hunters Chapter

[Conn Eremon]

“Ours is a simple creed. Mankind’s enemies are myriad. They seek to bring us to ruin. They crave to see our civilization crumble, and our species consigned to the dust. We deny these blades of our enemies. We will leave our enemies dead and forgotten. We will visit ruination upon them! We will not hide or cower within our homes. We will not be bound by the needs of the weak. Our place, our only place, is out there in the void. In the lands of our foes, where we will slay them where they stand and burn them where they sleep!”

- The Iron Hunters abandon their home world of Folgaria

 

Origins

“There will be no peace when we are done. No rest, not for us, we wayward sons.”

- Chieftain Sikhurt, 3^rd Chapter Master of the Iron Hunters

 

- 40th Millennium, 24th Founding and granted rights to a world for recruiting purposes

- Relinquishes claim to home world after two centures, fleet-based from then on

- Participate in multiple Explorator Fleet expeditions

- Currently on the hunt, as part of greater Mechanicus force, for STC data recently stolen by a cultist/daemonic army

- Targets believed to be heading for the Ghoul Stars zone, to a potential Dark Mechanicus holding

 

Home World

“Their lives were long empty. They cried for a heaven that waits for them no more.”

 

To the world of Folgaria was the Iron Hunters gifted by the Imperium upon its birth. An ancient world, twisted and at near depletion of its once copious resources, Folgaria had stood as the sub-sector’s dominant manufactorum world. However, millennia of stagnation, isolation and the ever-dwindling supply of natural resources eventually led to Folgaria’s current, obsolete status. What remained of Folgaria’s ancient past were the abandoned citadel-plants that dotted the rocky plains like the jagged tombstones of fallen gods, and the equatorial mass-assembly ring that could be seen from orbit as a dull grey ribbon bisecting the planet. But while the Imperium had long since found little use in Folgaria’s industry, deep in the ancient ruins there still remained the descendants of those who were stranded millennia ago.

 

These Folgarians had forgotten of their former industry, and had degraded fully into a tribal population, with few but remarkable instances of feudal states. The Folgarians saw the ruins of better days as the homes of gods, who had abandoned them in their impurity. Their lives were forever dominated by the need for the gods to return, while their harsh world, so full of manufactured horrors, enforced a rigid society built upon a hunter’s creed of duty, sacrifice and honor. The Folgarians had thought their salvation had come when the stars descended. Praise and adulation was raised in the name of the nigh-forgotten golden god, as his angels cast deific magic upon ancient metal husks, reviving and growing them from desolate earth. However, when these angels, the Iron Hunters, arrived they did not arrive alone. Half a dozen Omnitopia-class colony-ships, smaller than a battle-barge but far more grotesquely distended and engorged in appearance, contained a gift from the Chapter’s progenitors. accompanied the Iron Hunters.It was a gift of cold, calculating value, a gift of flesh. Within the cavernous holds of the colony ships dwelt the native-born denizens of Medusa, a large enough population to conceivably recreate the clan system of Medusa on Folgaria.

 

The Iron Hunters’ arrival brought confusion and strife among the Folgarians, who were brusquely brushed aside as the Medusan clans set about stabilizing, reviving and mobilizing the citadel-plants as their new homes. Those Folgarians who had lived within these relics for generations were often slaughtered wherever resistance was made. Similarly, the Folgarians found the cold, hard masks of the Emperor’s Angels to be wholly without mercy, as the equatorial ring came alive at their touch, antiquated defense mechanisms no less devastating in their dusty, skeletal state. The colonials and the Iron Hunters exiled the native Folgarians from their chosen domains, forcing them out into the wastelands without remorse. However, not all Folgarians were so treated. A vast quantity was detained, for one thing both the colonies and the Chapter needed in greater supply were servitors.

 

- Mechanicum is not so happy with the Iron Hunters, it’s their own fault, they had a perfectly usable world and they effed it up. Your problem, not ours.

 

- Recruitment among the Medusans is clearly less than ideal, and recruitment among the Folgarians does occur

 

Combat Doctrine

“We will rise above the confusion of noise, soaring ever higher, and glimpse what lies behind their illusion.”

 

- Excels in void war and boarding attacks

- Often approach more conventional types of war like boarding actions

- Mechanical precision, like the grinding of gears

- Heavy emphasis on the perseverance and fortitude of the infantry

- Reliance on allied forces for armour formations

 

 

Organisation

“We sail upon seas of moving emotions, tossed about by winds of fortune. But nothing equals the splendor of iron and cold rationale. Like a spear we pierce through the empyrean, to slay those foes that await us.”

 

- Adopts Iron Hands "Clan" structure soon after inception, when no longer supervised

- Clan identities intermingle with ship identities, eventually becoming interchangeable and, finally, one

- Strike Cruiser Clans represent more conventional, standard Company-sized formations

- Battle-Barge Clans are much fewer in number, but also greater in formation size

- Chapter is led by the Council of Captains, with Captains of the Battle-Barges being first among equals, and in effect hold the position of Chapter Master as a triumvirate

- Total Chapter size unrecorded, but close enough to Codex compliant and adherent as to make no difference

 

Beliefs

“Do you think we masquerade as men of reason? Your charade, this claim to be a wise man, surely means that you don’t know.”

 

- Reverence of the machine

- The "flesh is weak" mentality is inextrictably linked to, and is essentially an extension of, an intense hatred of all things Warp-related

- Strong connection with the Omnissian Creed

- Hate is purity, compassion is weakness, to doubt is to die, to revile is to live

- Big devotion to a founding lord, often called the Brother of Ruin, who triggered the early changes

 

 

Gene-seed

“Though their eyes could see, they were blind. Though their minds could think, they were mad. The voices they heard as they dreamed were visited upon us and our world in fury, and so we brought ruin upon them and theirs.”

 

- Iron Hands gene-seed

- Mutations causes problems upon implantation, causing necrotic tissue damage to the adolescent's body

- Augmetics are used to replace most damage, most commonly and evidently the throat/voicebox region

- The Iron Hunters share a similar, deathly pale and grey appearance brought on by the necrotic damage to their skin

- All have augmetic voiceboxes, typically turned too loud for mortal ears, heavily afflicted with static and in monotone

- I want people to hear the cry of a battle-company at war and stare at the sky wondering if an invisible Titan is sounding its horn

 

Battle-cry

No more!

 

 

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/hqnsdkz.jpg

 

2nd Revised Post

 

“Ours is a simple creed. Mankind’s enemies are myriad. They seek to bring us to ruin. They crave to see our civilization crumble, and our species consigned to the dust. We deny these blades of our enemies. We will leave our enemies dead and forgotten. We will visit ruination upon them! We will not hide or cower within our homes. We will not be bound by the needs of the weak. Our place, our only place, is out there in the void. In the lands of our foes, where we will slay them where they stand and burn them where they sleep!”

 

- The Iron Hunters abandon their home world of Folgaria

 

 

 

Origins

 

“There will be no peace when we are done. No rest, not for us, we wayward sons.”

 

- Chieftain Sikhurt, 3^rd Chapter Master of the Iron Hunters

 

 

 

- 40th Millennium, 24th Founding and granted rights to a world for recruiting purposes

 

- Relinquishes claim to home world after two centures, fleet-based from then on

 

- Participate in multiple Explorator Fleet expeditions

 

- Currently on the hunt, as part of greater Mechanicus force, for STC data recently stolen by a cultist/daemonic army

 

- Targets believed to be heading for the Ghoul Stars zone, to a potential Dark Mechanicus holding

 

 

 

 

 

Home World

 

“Their lives were long empty. They cried for a heaven that waits for them no more.”

 

 

 

The world of Folgaria was but a mockery of its former existence when it was presented to the newborn Iron Hunters chapter to be their home world. In ages past, it had once been a forge world of unparalleled importance within its subsector. But time ravages all things, and the death knell of Folgaria’s usefulness came from the ever-shifting tides of the Warp. Fickle as ever, warp travel to and from Folgaria became increasingly difficult, often shifting into impossibility for centuries at a time. As the sub-sector suffered, the mining world of Brevin IV began to be repurposed, its emptied mines turning into immense subterranean forges. As time wore on, Brevin IV completely usurped Folgaria’s place as a prominent forge world, and eventually Folgaria was simply left to its own devices, unheeded and uncared for.

 

 

 

Three thousand years passed before the shifting tides once more unveiled the forgotten world of Folgaria. Imperial contact was re-established, but it was clear from that very moment that the world had underwent extensive changes in the intervening millennia. The great forges were silent, but not empty. Hails went unanswered, yet human life was noticeable. The wildlife of Folgaria, which had been remarkably resistant to the damages often wrought by the heavy industrialization of Mechanicus holdings, was rampant. Though humanity still dwelled within the centers of civilization, they were debased things, surviving in squalor among the skeletal remains of ancient myths. With Brevin IV still prominent, the idea of reforging Folgaria was never seriously contemplated, though it was earmarked as a possible regiment world, the survivors testing pure enough.

 

 

 

When the 24^th Founding was declared, worlds such as Folgaria were selected as potential home worlds to the as-yet unborn Chapters, and to Folgaria was the Iron Hunters eventually dispatched. It is not unusual for a newly formed Chapter to carry with it something sacred of its progenitors. Ancient relics and devoted warriors are often passed from parent Chapter to child. But to the Iron Hunters, no antiquated weapons were passed. The relic granted was of the flesh. Native Medusans, collected from the various Clans of the birthworld of the Gorgon, were provided to the Iron Hunters, to take with them to their new home world for colonization. There, the Medusan Clans grew in separation, integrating the native Folgarians but overpowering and rewriting the native culture and history.

 

 

 

For three centuries, the Iron Hunters utilized Folgaria as their base of operations and the population for recruitment. The barren, downtrodden industrial ring that girded the planet was refurbished and enhanced, utilized as the Chapter’s fortress-monastery. The reason behind the Iron Hunters’ abandonment of Folgaria is unknown to the Imperium at large, though likely it was due to the influence of one of their early Chapter Masters, the Chieftain Sikhurt. The Iron Hunters, relatively wealthy in fleet power thanks to its heritage and those alliances that came with it, uprooted the Medusan Clans whole from Folgaria and departed en masse. Nearly two millennia later, the Iron Hunters still have yet to return to their home world, though no formal release of the world from their care has been recorded.

 

 

 

Combat Doctrine

 

“We will rise above the confusion of noise, soaring ever higher, and glimpse what lies behind their illusion.”

 

 

 

- Excels in void war and boarding attacks

 

- Often approach more conventional types of war like boarding actions

 

- Mechanical precision, like the grinding of gears

 

- Heavy emphasis on the perserverence and fortitude of the infantry

 

- Reliance on allied forces for armour formations

 

 

 

 

 

Organisation

 

“We sail upon seas of moving emotions, tossed about by winds of fortune. But nothing equals the splendor of iron and cold rationale. Like a spear we pierce through the empyrean, to slay those foes that await us.”

 

 

 

- Adopts Iron Hands "Clan" structure soon after inception, when no longer supervised

 

- Clan identities intermingle with ship identities, eventually becoming interchangeable and, finally, one

 

- Strike Cruiser Clans represent more conventional, standard Company-sized formations

 

- Battle-Barge Clans are much fewer in number, but also greater in formation size

 

- Chapter is led by the Council of Captains, with Captains of the Battle-Barges being first among equals, and in effect hold the position of Chapter Master as a triumvirate

 

- Total Chapter size unrecorded, but close enough to Codex compliant and adherent as to make no difference

 

 

 

Beliefs

 

“Do you think we masquerade as men of reason? Your charade, this claim to be a wise man, surely means that you don’t know.”

 

 

 

- Reverence of the machine

 

- The "flesh is weak" mentality is inextricably linked to, and is essentially an extension of, an intense hatred of all things Warp-related

 

- Strong connection with the Omnissian Creed

 

- Hate is purity, compassion is weakness, to doubt is to die, to revile is to live

 

- Big devotion to a founding lord, often called the Brother of Ruin, who triggered the early changes

 

 

 

 

 

Gene-seed

 

“Though their eyes could see, they were blind. Though their minds could think, they were mad. The voices they heard as they dreamed were visited upon us and our world in fury, and so we brought ruin upon them and theirs.”

 

 

 

- Iron Hands gene-seed

 

- Mutations causes problems upon implantation, causing necrotic tissue damage to the adolescent's body

 

- Augmetics are used to replace most damage, most commonly and evidently the throat/voicebox region

 

- The Iron Hunters share a similar, deathly pale and grey appearance brought on by the necrotic damage to their skin

 

- All have augmetic voiceboxes, typically turned too loud for mortal ears, heavily afflicted with static and in monotone

 

- I want people to hear the cry of a battle-company at war and stare at the sky wondering if an invisible Titan is sounding its horn

 

 

 

 

 

Battle-cry

No more!

 

Original first post spoilered below:

 

 

I've been needing a break from the Liber Cluster for a bit (I promise just a bit), and I thought I'd expand some more on another of my 20 DIYs. I mean to revisit the Crimson Specters and really revamp them, but I've been thinking of the next Chapter on the list to do instead.

 

At the moment, their article is just in an outline form, but I have a few guiding ideas from which to shape the Chapter.

 

First of all, it's an Iron Hands fleet-based successor that takes on the identity of Medusa in pilgrimage. The Clan-identities are grafted onto their ships wholesale, though centuries turning on millennia of distance from the origin has led to many variations. Over time, these identities take on religious aspects, epitomes of the machine, the spirits within, and the conquest of will over base flesh. The ships become temples of the very clans they were originally formed from, and it is from the sacred peoples that populate these vessels that the Chapter predominantly looks to for recruits. Examples of ship names include the Divinitas Avernii, Templum Atropos and Sanctus Raukaan.

 

 

Secondly, they are thoroughly intertwined with the Mechanicus. They have all the independence a Chapter should have, but willingly opt to tie their fate with that of scions of Mars. However, it is not an official binding, a subordination of one to the other, and is not restricted to a select few. Rather, the Chapter merely prefers to have its actions be in the pursuit of, and benefit to, the goals of whichever Mechanicus group they are temporarily aligned with. More often than not, this simply means that they are seen in the accompaniment of Explorator Fleets and other expeditions.

 

And thirdly, they suffer a genetic flaw. This one, I admit, is from Rites of Battle. Each of my Chapters was first created by those tables, though their final rendition is often far from what was rolled. I just like to use it as a base, and involve a little randomness to the process. This flaw is present during the process of implantation, but stabilizes through the heavy use of mechanical augmentation and continuing the implantation. It creates a higher than average rejection rate, and affects the Marine until the end of his days. The necrotic damage is not, itself, the flaw, but the effect of the flaw upon the body.

 

This Chapter was originally called the Iron Crusaders, but I eventually noticed it already existed. Though it's a throw-away Chapter, with nothing to it beyond a name, a hard to see symbol, and a general crusade path, I decided to go with a new name.

 

 

The Iron Hunters Chapter

of the Adeptus Astartes

 

Origins

- 40th Millennium, 24th Founding and granted rights to a world for recruiting purposes

- Relinquishes claim to home world after two centures, fleet-based from then on

- Participate in multiple Explorator Fleet expeditions

- Currently on the hunt, as part of greater Mechanicus force, for STC data recently stolen by a cultist/daemonic army

- Targets believed to be heading for the Ghoul Stars zone, to a potential Dark Mechanicus holding

 

Home World

- Chapter is Fleet-based, original home world an abandoned Forge World that had "gone native" millennia before granted to the newborn Chapter

- Ships were named for Medusan Clans, past and present, and share senses of identity with these Clans

- Recruit from among crew population within their own ships

- Will also recruit from allied ships or visited worlds

- Rampant prejudice of recruit origin has led to hostility and an informal hierarchy

- Marines born of the Clan-ships stand highest, those taken from worlds following battle the lowest

 

Combat Doctrine

- Excels in void war and boarding attacks

- Often approach more conventional types of war like boarding actions

- Mechanical precision, like the grinding of gears

- Heavy emphasis on the perserverence and fortitude of the infantry

- Reliance on allied forces for armour formations

 

Organisation

- Adopts Iron Hands "Clan" structure soon after inception, when no longer supervised

- Clan identities intermingle with ship identities, eventually becoming interchangeable and, finally, one

- Strike Cruiser Clans represent more conventional, standard Company-sized formations

- Battle-Barge Clans are much fewer in number, but also greater in formation size

- Chapter is led by the Council of Captains, with Captains of the Battle-Barges being first among equals, and in effect hold the position of Chapter Master as a triumvirate

- Total Chapter size unrecorded, but close enough to Codex compliant and adherent as to make no difference

 

Beliefs

- Reverence of the machine

- The "flesh is weak" mentality is inextrictably linked to, and is essentially an extension of, an intense hatred of all things Warp-related

- Strong connection with the Omnissian Creed

- Hate is purity, compassion is weakness, to doubt is to die, to revile is to live

- Big devotion to a founding lord, often called the Brother of Ruin, who triggered the early changes

 

Gene-seed

- Iron Hands gene-seed

- Mutations causes problems upon implantation, causing necrotic tissue damage to the adolescent's body

- Augmetics are used to replace most damage, most commonly and evidently the throat/voicebox region

- The Iron Hunters share a similar, deathly pale and grey appearance brought on by the necrotic damage to their skin

- All have augmetic voiceboxes, typically turned too loud for mortal ears, heavily afflicted with static and in monotone

- I want people to hear the cry of a battle-company at war and stare at the sky wondering if an invisible Titan is sounding its horn

 

Battle-cry

- RUIN THEM!

 

 

 

Chapter symbol is referred to as the Ferrum Crux

[Ace Debonair]

Interesting Chapter!

I'm wondering about how they'd deal with losing vessels, though.

It's always a risk for a fleet-based Chapter, but since these are dragging a population they recruit from along with them, it'd be extra-problematic.

Even if the AdMech could replace the lost ship, what would they do for a new recruitment base?

[Olis]

Interesting point. Losses would probably quite a hard blow for the Chapter to take, whether in battle or in transit through the empyrean. The replacement process could very well be a painful thing to watch as brothers are cleaved from their long-held clans to re-establish another. Would it be an honour or something more maudlin?

 

I like the flaw, as it goes. It adds character. I think some expansion on the inherent inhumanity of this chapter would be worth exploring, given their unusual complexion and the vox-voices. It would seem, as you've already touched upon, that they would be much more at ease associating with the Mechanicus. How other agencies would view this is probably a forgone conclusion. ^_^

[Conn Eremon]

Man, I hadn't even thought of that, Ace. You are right, that would be a serious blow. Quite possibly the worst thing that could happen to them, outside of a total Chapter kill or the fall of Terra. I'd have to say that I would have never thought it was something even close to likely to happen, but having read the fleet thread in the Ultramarines subforum,  it does seem to be something that happens often, even for such a lofty Chapter.

 

I would have to go with maudlin, because even those the new founders are technically being granted an honor, the whole affair is a revelation of weakness. They could continue to recruit from the populations of the new vessels, but would they be seen as equal to those of the original clan-ships? Would they even be clan-ships, or just replacements? I'm inclined to go with the latter, and tie it with the Chapter's prejudices against those not born of the clan-ships.

 

I'll definitely have to make the most recent loss and replacement of a clan-ship be a battle-barge, considering their primacy.

 

 

As for how the Chapter is with non-Martian Imperial factions, I could definitely see it not going well. I can imagine how disconcerting it would be for Guard regiments to be on the same battlefield as these Marines. They'd be like demi-gods, the Angels of Death, of the servitor caste.

[Machine God]

Some reservations.

 

- Big devotion to a founding lord, often called the Brother of Ruin, who triggered the early changes

 

Battle-cry

- RUIN THEM!

 

They are sounding somewhat Chaotic!  Tell me I'm wrong.

 

I don't like the Chaos Iron Hands idea!

[Conn Eremon]

I was going for a throwback to their originally rolled name of Brotherhood of Ruin, before I changed it to Iron Crusaders and finally Iron Hunters. I suppose it's an inside joke only I would get. I'm open for ideas. The Brother will be named, and I won't be relying on that epithet in the final article.

 

 

I'm going for a more brutal, less human Iron Hands, not Chaos Iron Hands. The drawbacks are that they are less mechanized (armour wings, etc) and autonomous (though they are not a pet Chapter like the Red Hunters or Grey Knights) than the Iron Hands.

 

And given the ideas Ace and Olis gave me, both the Hands and the Hunters suffer from a crisis of faith. Incidentally, my initial fluff draft, as the Iron Crusaders, was very close to the direction that the Iron Hands are currently on as of the Clan Raukaan supplement. Their refluff as the Iron Hunters, as above, is a step towards the extreme on the opposite side of the spectrum.

[Conn Eremon]

Ended up writing about their home world, and just went too far with it. Couldn't find an easy way to tie it up and move on, I just kept finding more to pile in. I'm honestly thinking of taking a different tact right now, but I wanted to post what I have so far and see if I could get some feedback on it that can help me with the new direction. You can see my current thoughts in the edited 1st post.

 

The Iron Hunters had been in need of a theme. Technically a Chapter doesn't need a historical or cultural theme, but it's what I like most about creating Chapters, so mine do. I've settled on two for the Iron Hunters: Medieval Germanic folklore/story-telling and the television show Supernatural. The former theme hasn't really been explored and researched yet for me to know how I'll be applying it, but the latter gave me an idea to be more brief and conclusive with the home world section: Demons.

 

Current idea runs thus: The home world granted to the Iron Hunters Chapter has a native population that had "gone feral" after millennia of isolation, but had nonetheless been deemed pure for the purposes of Space Marine indoctrination and implantation. However, the Iron Hunters Chapter don't arrive at their new home world alone, but accompanied by a large Medusan colonial fleet. Right off the bat, the Medusan populations are treated, comparatively, like first-class citizens. Not only are they more advanced than the native populations, nor is it simply because the Iron Hunters choose to recruit solely from the colonials, but the native populations found themselves under terrible threat, from extermination, forced relocation, enslavement or, worse of all, mass lobotomization into servitors. For three centuries, the native peoples suffer decimation after decimation, until at last they turn to darker allies to aid them in a resistance against the harsh, cruel lords thrust upon them.

 

The Iron Hunters, caring little for a planet with a rotten core, not even their own, will strip the world of all resources that mattered to them, including the Medusan colonies themselves. The Chapter will remold itself, cut ties to their home world and live on fleet-based.

But before they leave their old world behind, never to return, they will burn it. Pole to pole.

[Lysimachus]

I like this idea, maybe even go so far to say that the people of the world start off entirely suited to being Astartes recruits; warriors, honourable, etc, etc. But after several hundred years of oppression and prejudice from their masters, they're ready to blow, and that's when tribal/clan chiefs start hearing voices...

 

So it's basically the Hunters fault that an entire world population has been ruined, even if they don't see it that way. Grimdark.

[Conn Eremon]

Oh yeah, definitely. I've always loved the concept of hubris being the architect of its own doom.

 

I'll put a bit more emphasis on the suitability of the natives for induction, as simply stating that they were tested and found acceptable probably isn't enough to really convey what the Iron Hunters do to them.

 

Following this will be a period of lessened independence, as they're more or less forced (albeit willingly and probably not even noticeably to them) to rely upon what alliances they can gain among the Mechanicus (and not the Mechanicus, but Forge Worlds, Explorator Fleets, etc), and the steep prices that go with it.

 

Which is largely the Iron Hunters main, underlying element: the pursuit of freedom leading to greater enslavement.