Charlo's Successor Chapter: -Symbol Brainstorm-

[Charlo]

Index Astartes: BA Successor

 

-“Battle cry to come!”-

 

Origins:

 

The space marine chapter that came to be known as the Hades Legion were founded in M37 as part of the 23^rd founding, joining their brothers the Marines Errant, Imperial Harbingers, Star Phantoms and Steel Cobras as a part of the Sentinel Founding. They were gifted upon Charlo Hades, captain of the Angels Encarmine 8^th Company. A fine commander, he had proven himself in countless battles leading the charge against Mutant, Xenos and Heretic alike bringing the fury of the Emperor with the howling ferocity that only a son of Sanguinius could.

 

Hades himself is a powerful giant of a man, more so than even an average brother Astartes standing a further half heads measure above his battle brothers. His rage is incandescent, burning like no other in the furnace of battle. One might think that he is nothing but bloodthirsty beast, but this couldn't be further from the truth, he is a level-headed and supreme commander, matching up to any other Chapter Master in his strategic brilliance, except for maybe those his very senior such as Commander Dante from his progenitor legion. Instead of suffering from the Blood Angel affliction of the Red Thirst, Hades has mastered it, embracing the inner rage to fuel his own actions, keeping the storm tempered and controlled both in battle and out, using its power rather than succumbing to it. He spreads his practise throughout his chapter, promoting mastery of the Red Thirst by channelling it into fighting prowess in battle and other pursuits such as artistry outside.

He was given the privilege of choosing his chapters name and heraldry, no simple task but one that was complete after counselling with fellow captains from other descendant chapters of the 9^th Legion. The others protested that they should be named in his own stead, as a testament to his iron will and deeds across the galaxy. And so it would be that this new chapter would be called the Hades Legion.

 

The colours would be Black and Red, not dissimilar to his original Chapter, an Armour Scheme that paid them tribute but looked overall darker in nature. The symbol is a two pronged black spear with a glowing orange eye in the middle, its pupil a drop of black blood. (Black Ultramarine symbol a sort of right place holder!)

 

 

With him Hades bought a handful of hand-picked warriors from his parental legion, including Rhonin the venerable Contemptor pattern dreadnought. A wise and hardened warrior, he had been in the service of the Emperor under the colours of many of the sons of the Sanguinius and as such his council was coveted.

While originally intended to be an added defence to the Imperium due to their sentinel founding, with such a, for lack of a better phrase, direct chapter master this practise did not come to pass. Once the fortification of their home world, now known as Hades Prime was complete the chapter sent its full strength to the eastern fringe to deal with the expanding Tau Empire and Tyranid threat...

 

Home world:

 

The home world of the Hades Legion is Infernum Prime, situated in the midrange of the Gothic Sector. Its name comes from its look, Low Gothic for “Hell”; It is a grey mountainous rock covered in superheated volcanoes that erupt and spew white-hot pale blue lava all over its cragged surface. The tectonic activity is frequent and harsh; with civilisations being toppled throughout its history purely by the planets own unwavering will. Such a world breeds a hardy individual, food is scarce but the skilled hunter thrives, stalking the wild mountainous alpha-felines. Die hard warriors are born and bred here, and they make perfect additions to the Astartes training program.

 

Also of note is Infernum Secondus, a forge world that makes up the other half of this small system. A much more stable world, it was picked up by the early Martian settlers during the original expansion of humanity and made into a mighty forge, harnessing its many streams of underground but stable lava rivers to temper the constructs of the Omnissiah. Throughout their history the Infernums have warred over technology, with the almost barbaric inhabitants of Prime staging invasions only to be perturbed by the superior firepower of Secondus. It was Hades himself who unified these two realms during his time with the Angels Encarmine, establishing trade routes and quashing a chaos cult that had formed as a sub sect of Secondus. He utilised the inhabitants of Prime and put in place a program to have them be trained into the PDF for the system and in return for a sturdy defence the Forges of Secondus would arm Prime.

 

Upon his ascension to Chapter Master, he knew no better place to construct his Fortress Monastary than on Infernum Prime. The recruits would be taken too from this world, with annual tournaments of strength, skill and also artistry held to determine who would become neophytes.

 

++INSERT FORTRESS MONASTARY DESCRIPTION HERE++

 

Hades was lauded as a hero and although Secondus is in control for the Adeptus Mechanicus, a few of the, less stricter forges gifted him with some relics as a sign of gratitude of his past actions in the unification of the system.

 

++Its a Spartan Assault Tank and Caestus assault Ram named suitably bad ass things, will update!++

 

Chapter Gene Seed and Habits:

 

++Update Soon++

 

Combat Doctrine:

 

The Hades Legion take an approach to combat that can only be described as Blitzkrieg. They seek the enemy’s weakest point and slam head long into it in armoured carriers and on wings of fire, decimating the foes battle line and advancing through the backline before they have a chance to react. They are not defenders of settlers; they are always on the offensive. The chapter prefers fast warfare and close range firepower using combined strikes to overwhelm the enemy as fast as possible, breaking morale in the process. This is not to saw the chapter has no heavy firepower or armour, far from it, they employ static encampments where necessary to first open the initial wound in the enemy that the main strike force and pour into and tear open.

 

Organisation:

 

Like their progenitor, they are a mainly codex chapter but they do retain some differences. Firstly, they are a crusading chapter, fleet borne until they return back to Infernum in due course. As such they need to deploy from orbit rapidly and due to their lust for assault, they maintain a further half company of assault squads, taking over half of their devastator company.

 

They are low in most forms of armour but what they do have is exquisite, expertly maintained in downtime by battle brother and Techmarine alike due to their unique way of focusing the Red Thirst into artisan pursuit outside of battle.

 

They have a larger than normal stock of dreadnoughts, each venerable chassis housing a storied warrior and owning multiple sets of war gear that is fitted due to the battle requirements, although sometimes this may be forfeit if the housed brother wishes to take the fight to the enemy, which they more often than not do.

As is the way for the Sons of Sanguinius they maintain a Sanguinary Priesthood and Sanguinary Guard, while on the other side of the coin they keep a Reclusium and Death Company. While they do not encourage it, those that fall to the Black Rage in the Chapter are seen as heroes to be to be revered, falling further than their brother chapters; they are a symbol and lesson about what being a son of Sanguinius means. Those who succumb are given ornate black armour with the traditional red crosses representing their Primarch’s wounds replaced with gold, representing his glorious eminence flowing out of them as they die an honourable and meaningful death, at the time the Emperor and Primarch must've willed it.

 

 

(If Death Company Terminators are a Thing I’ll add in something here about them being the only terminators the chapter really uses because awesome.)

 

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++

 

 

Original Post:

 

Evening Brothers!

 

Just figured I would get a thread going for what has technically been about 12 years in the making (since I got into the hobby of the ripe old age of 12!) my BA successor chapter.

 

I'm still stuck for names but here is a rough list I have made of possibilities:

• Blood Hammers
• Angels (of) Hades
• Angels Enraged
• Templars of Blood/ Blood Templars
• Angels Templarii (woo Latin!)
• Plus many more floating around in my mind, my opinions on these seem to change every day so I am still looking for one that says "WOW!"

In terms of background, I haven't gotten specific details yet but again, in list format:

 

• Not a fleet based Chapter but operate heavily from space for long periods of time, somewhat of a Crusade chapter.
• Like most Astartes used as a hard hitting strike-force
• Homeworld of Infernum Prime - Situated in the mid range area of the Gothic Sector, this rocky and somewhat desolate sphere is covered in deep grey deserts and mountains only broken up by bright blue Lava and other volcanic activity. This superior hot substance lead to it having incredible potential for smithing and as such it is a forge world.
• Infernum Prime supplys the Chapter with all of the war gear/ machines etc once every 50 to 100 years when they customarily return from war to feast and look for potential recruits if the need arises.
• Specialised in Jump pack use (like all BA really)
• See the Black Rage as something to be revered and while they do not encourage it, those who succumb are looked upon to be heroes and given ornate armour to channel the Primarch's eternal will.
• As such Dreads of all kind are considered a sacred honour and they maintain a lot of them, but still carefully deploying them as they do not get supplies often.
• Chapter Master Charlo Hades HAS succumbed to the black rage and survived regaining his sanity, but this is a secret known only the the chapter and their parent (my idea for this is using the Malakim Phoros rules for this guy).

As this is starting to sort of form as I am writing here I suppose the "theme" of the Chapter is based on the Greek God Hades and the Underworld but with BA flavour.

 

Now for the best bit, colour scheme!

 

Here is the basic scheme, I'm currently deciding on whether to have the helmets be pure black  or red or a mix as shown.

 

It's early days but any comments and Criticisms very much apreciated Brothers!

 

I will keep updating this post over the next few days too when more comes to me/ I have time!

[Jorre]

I dig the colour scheme!

[marine7312000]

I also like the color scheme. I'm kind of confused on the mention of red lava however.

[Charlo]

Glad you like the scheme! 12 year old me who came up with it is grinning madly like so:

Do you mean the blue lava marine7312000?

It's just something quirky I figured the planet could have! This is sci-fi afterall. Also would like to put it into the iconography for the chapter if possible!

[marine7312000]

I did mean blue lava. It would be interesting to put some in the chapter icon. Not sure how you'd do it but it sounds cool.

[Charlo]

Hi guys, am going to update this soon with some new ideas but a quick question:

Would it be out of line to use two geneseed for a chapter? Not mixed together of course but as an example the idea would be to use Blood Angel gene seed for marines to become the assault specialists and Imperial fist seed to become the shooters. This is mainly inspired by them being the Legions that held the Imperial palace during the heresy doing just that.

 

Thoughts?

[Leonaides]

But how to tell who would be best at each at the point of implantation? And then you'd have to keep both gene strains separate and have 2 implantation processes to manage...

[Charlo]

This is true, but coming from a forge world it could all start there I suppose, recruits being trained and selected based on what they show ability for. Anyone else?

[Tiberius Cato]

I tried mixing Dark Angels and Blood Angels for my War Angels DIY chapter. My thought was to have them be typical DA, but as they were meeting with the training cadre of DA the :cuss hit the fan and the War Angels were left without someone to train them. So, due to the close proximity to Baal the BA offered to train the War Angels and due to mistakes by Sanguinary Priests, geneseed had been mixed. This resulted in the War Angels engaging in the same brutal assaults the BA do, without the Black Rage and Red Thirst or atleast severely minimised.

[Quozzo]

Evening Brothers!

Just figured I would get a thread going for what has technically been about 12 years in the making (since I got into the hobby of the ripe old age of 12!) my BA successor chapter.

I'm still stuck for names but here is a rough list I have made of possibilities:

• Angels (of) Hades
• Angels Enraged

I like these two. Angels Enraged would be my preferred choice but without some fluff it hard to say if the name works well.

• Angels Templarii (woo Latin!)

Don't mix English and Latin, it doesn't sound right, instead try Angelus Templarii.

• Homeworld of Hades Prime - Situated in the mid range area of the Gothic Sector, this rocky and somewhat desolate sphere is covered in deep grey deserts and mountains only broken up by bright blue Lava and other volcanic activity. This superior hot substance lead to it having incredible potential for smithing and as such it is a forge world.

Did you change you mind half way through that sentance? Is it desolate or home to a fully functional Forge World? If the latter then no Astartes chapter would ever be able to claim it as a homeworld. Anything on the planet belongs the the Adeptus Mechanicus. The surrounding planets would probably be mined for resources to fuel the forge world.

• Hades Prime supplys the Chapter with all of the war gear/ machines etc once every 50 to 100 years when they customarily return from war to feast and look for potential recruits if the need arises.

Forge Worlds don't supply chapters. They supply the AdMech, the AdMech determines who gets what. (the supplies might come from the Forge World, but it would not be solely from that world, nor would it be of their choosing.)

• As such Dreads of all kind are considered a sacred honour and they maintain a lot of them, but still carefully deploying them as they do not get supplies often.

They may maintain a lot, but where did they come from? Having almost no reputation means they are unlikely to be favoured by the AdMech.

• Chapter Master Charlo Hades HAS succumbed to the black rage and survived regaining his sanity, but this is a secret known only the the chapter and their parent (my idea for this is using the Malakim Phoros rules for this guy).

If it's some fluff to justify the rules then fair enough, otherwise having a brother who has beaten the black rage without anyone knowing (don't they ally with other Sons of Sanguinius?) is a bit Mary Sue.

It's early days but any comments and Criticisms very much apreciated Brothers!

Well, you asked for it

Looks good overall, although I'm not intimately familiar with Hades. Another point actually is not to reference the theme. You should hide it as subtle hints, if someone guesses it, or is reminded of it them you did well.

Hi guys, am going to update this soon with some new ideas but a quick question:

Would it be out of line to use two geneseed for a chapter? Not mixed together of course but as an example the idea would be to use Blood Angel gene seed for marines to become the assault specialists and Imperial fist seed to become the shooters. This is mainly inspired by them being the Legions that held the Imperial palace during the heresy doing just that.

Thoughts?

Forgot to say, mixing geneseeds is forbidden. If you do then you better have a very, very good reason for committing fluff heresy

[Charlo]

Thanks Quozzo! As I am yet to master the art of multi-quote I shall answer your thoughts below:

• Regarding name: have since quite liked "Hades Legion" as an idea, but am quite partial to Angels Enraged too! More thoughts will have to be made!
• Regarding Homeworld: I probably had a bit of an idea explosion, think of it as a mountainous/ volcanic planet. Didn't know about the forgeworld/ homeworld paradox so that's some good info. I just wanted to convey the idea of a crusading chapter that returns home every 100 years to restock from the source, but I imagine this can be achieved with the homeworld being Hades Prime and having Hades Secondus etc as a Forge World that would in turn help supply the chapter and of course other things, just thinking that with proximity it would make sense, but I guess the Imperium is crazy.
• Regarding Dreads: I was hoping that the Chapter Master would simply have some sway on the forge world and be able to comission it to provide him with a nice number of dreads at the outset of the chapters creation or the like.
• Regarding Gene-seed: I just wanted to have a fluffy reason to use some IF Allies but painted in the same chapter colours really open to any other suggestions!

Basically, I'm looking to create my chapter and also give it a nice link to what I hope to be a future Ad Mech army, so any ideas on how I might do this and also keep with my current idea would be appreciated.

Also for a bit more fluff on the Chapter Master: I read some fluff somewhere that has a BA vs World Eaters situation where some Blood angels were buried alive by the attack and their bodies prevented from being recovered (source anyone?). Hades (as a blood angel at the time) was going to have gone Black Rage during this, kicked some Khornate ass and found his way back to a place where he could be recovered. He then overcomes the Black Rage and when a call for a successor is made he gets made a chapter master for being supremely bad-ass and they hope that his influence will help keep the BR in check.

Probably a bit iffy but that's my line of thinking so far!

[ElectricPaladin]

So, the Black Rage is meant to be the ultimate end of the Blood Angels. Like all ultimates in fiction, it's really only relatively ultimate, but you can't have people throwing it off or overcoming it willy-nilly. Of all the millions of Blood Angels to fall to their gene-curse over the years, only two have ever fought it off, and they were both irrevocably changed by the experience. We've got Lemartes, who didn't so much "resist" or "recover" from the Black Rage as he holds it in check every minute of every day, staying connected to reality by sheer force of will and only barely remaining a more-or-less coherent member of the Blood Angels. And we have Mephiston who now needs to contend for the rest of his nigh-eternal life with the possibility that in overcoming the Black Rage he has become something different, something other, something... daemonic.

 

Whereas your chapter master here has - if you'll forgive my flippancy - just said "Black Rage? Ha! Who cares?" and gone on to both be an entirely normal Astartes who is coherent enough to be trusted with the highest office a chapter has to give.

 

That's what I don't buy.

 

If you want to increase the number of Blood Angels to have survived or recovered from the Black Rage by 50% in your fluff, that's fine... but if you write it as done without cost, I cry "foul." Also "Sue!" As in Mary.

 

For whatever my opinion's worth. It's your army; do what you like. But, you clearly came here looking for opinions, and that's mine.

[Quixus]

Just have them embrace the Red Thirst not the Black Rage. IIRC that is what the Blood Drinkers do to keep "sane".

 

I agree with ElectricPaladin, the Black Rage should not be shrugged off. How does a Chapter Master that has overcome the black rage aid your story in ways that cannot be done by a more standard chapter master?

 

As for the good rapport with the AdMech, maybe the Master of the Forge and the local Forge Master simply get along well, possibly because they ahve similar views on religion and/or agendas. Maybe the forge world jutst is very well equipped to produce dreads, and not so well configured to produce other machinery.

 

I'm not sure but did GW ever clarify what the Space Marines produce themselves and what is shipped in from AdMech Forge Worlds? Maybe the dreads are made in house. AFAIK there is no correlation between good relations with the AdMech and the number of dreads in a chapter.

[ElectricPaladin]

As for the good rapport with the AdMech, maybe the Master of the Forge and the local Forge Master simply get along well, possibly because they ahve similar views on religion and/or agendas. Maybe the forge world jutst is very well equipped to produce dreads, and not so well configured to produce other machinery.

 

I'm not sure but did GW ever clarify what the Space Marines produce themselves and what is shipped in from AdMech Forge Worlds? Maybe the dreads are made in house. AFAIK there is no correlation between good relations with the AdMech and the number of dreads in a chapter.

 

Ugh... good rapport with the Mechanicus? That too? I'm sorry, but I've seen so freaking many chapters with the "good relationship with the Mechanicus" keyword to explain this or that profusion of supposedly rare toys that you're going to buy for your army... as far as I'm concerned, you really need to earn that particular trait in backstory, especially if your chapter is founded on Blood Angels geneseed. All the Blood Angels successors earned the Mechanicus's ire because any of them could pass along the Baal Predator STC and so far none of them have. If you want any chapter to have a good relationship with the Mechanicus, you had better explain it, and explain it good, especially a Blood Angels successor.

 

You know... just once I want someone to write a chapter with explicitly unusually bad relations with the Mechanicus, and then explain how the chapter has to scrounge, recycle, beg, borrow, and steal to keep their vehicles and relics running. That would be an awesome change of pace.

[Quixus]

He he half the chapter is do-it-yourselfers the other is pirates.

Was it the Marines Malevolent that don't get much gear and have to scrounge, steal or rob?

[ElectricPaladin]

He he half the chapter is do-it-yourselfers the other is pirates.

Was it the Marines Malevolent that don't get much gear and have to scrounge, steal or rob?

 

A few chapters have had to operate that way, including the Marines Malevolent, the Blood Ravens, and others.

[Charlo]

Sorry if my choices have offended you Electric Paladin! I'm just a big fan of the mechanicus really! And If I had the time/money to make a "beg borrow steal" chapter I would because that sounds cool!

I also didn't realise that all forge world were owned by the Mechanicus, I thought that some might be independent to an extent, using thier talents for planetary gain but still providing for the imperial tithe when demanded and as some Chapter Masters own a world/ system I figured my guy could be a ruler of the planet and thus have some tech made for his crusade every century.

I agree with the Black Rage though, I didn't really think too much about there only being two people fully overcome it, i'll re-purpose what I want to do to the red thirst.

As for Dreads perhaps upon the Chapters founding some of the Master's most trusted allies and brothers we're entombed in Dreads and he was allowed to take some with him as a war council of sorts to aid in the Chapter's founding. It would explain why they are respected and cherished perhaps.

[ElectricPaladin]

"Offends" would be a little too strong. But just a little.

 

Frankly, a chapter master who can honestly say that he no longer suffers from the Thirst would be pretty awesome, as far as the Blood Angels are concerned, even if the Rage is still a danger. If you want to make it really awesome, I'd take it a step further. Why does he no longer suffer the Thirst? What did he do to achieve this state? And what is the rest of the chapter doing in their efforts to emulate him? Have any of them pulled it off?

 

Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about... my Knights of Blood try to handle the Rage and the Thirst by creating an elaborate dueling culture. This also helps them to avoid killing each other, because even those battle brothers who have not succumbed to the Rage tend to fly off the handle when provoked. Whenever things are getting too slow, or a pair of Knights are grinding their gears and look like they might murder each other, the chaplains get together and approve some duels. The duels are elaborate, probably impossible for unaltered humans to participate in. I'm talking the Angel's Contest, where the duelists have to climb atop a twenty foot tall pillar and fight with combat knives and no armor - the first to slip off the pillar and onto the ground loses. This gets harder as the combat knife cuts leave the top of the pillar coated in blood. Or there's the Eagle Duel, where the participants wear no armor and shoot each other with stubbers (unlikely to kill a Space Marine) while zooming around on jump packs. Or the one where they wear full power armor except for their right hand, in which they hold a combat knife, and the fight is to first blood. Stuff like that.

 

So, what you've got here is that my chapter has a problem - the Black Rage, the fact that they are gradually degenerating into berserkers - and a way to handle it - an elaborate dueling culture that cordons off their uncontrolled violent impulses into an "appropriate" outlet - which work together to determine the chapter culture.

[Charlo]

Yeah that's a good idea, as I've said details are thin at the moment so I'm mostly collating ideas before I go and write and Index Astartes or the like.

 

How about something like he has overcome the thirst and encourages his chapter to do so by giving into it, now I'm not saying KILL MAIN BURN, but I am saying "we are the angels of death" if that makes sense.

 

The Chapter fights as much and as hard as it can during it's crusades (not to say that any others wouldn't) but it gives the enemy no quarter and is relentless in pursuit of the enemies of the emperor. They use the red thirst as a doctrine and in return it becomes a default state of mind for them that they can, with centuries of training, control. They are the angels enraged because that IS what they are, a tempered storm always thrashing out with lightning strikes at the enemy of the Imperium. They do not dig-in, they do not fortify, they purge and they move on, they can let another chapter/ the guard handle that.

 

Tieing into the forge aspect though, outside of battle the rage needs to be directed somewhere and also tempered properly, as such the Marines could take part in the pursuit of the artisan, all brothers performing repairs or creating works of art, all the while keeping the thirst in check, to help them attune to doing things other than battle in that state of mind. This also lets them keep thier tech in a usable condition on the crusade.

 

If they do succumb to the rage however, after the suppression, they would succumb much harder and while not a frequent it would be a sight to behold. They would not see this as a failure though, they would spiritually see it as thier time, that the Primarch/ emperors will has made it so that they can relive that dreaded battle aboard Horus' Flagship and use that to destroy the enemy this day. They can learn from these fallen brothers and praise them as heroes and examples to the chapters cause.

[ElectricPaladin]

Nice... I like where you're going.

 

I'd read up on the Blood Drinkers - they're a very similar chapter.

[Charlo]

Made a start on the write-up ladies and gents after being inspired from all the pictures of our lovely new codex

Let me know what you think. Is missing some parts and I'll flesh some bits out but I think it's heading in a nice direction!

EDIT: Doh, encase you didn't realise it's edited into the original post!

[Helias_Tancred]

Cool concept!! Good job. I wish you much success with your new chapter :)

[Charlo]

Hey guys, I started a WIP thread for the models that will make up this glorious chapter.

 

Check it out!

[Charlo]

Posting here as opposed to making another thread...

 

For my Chapters Sanguinary Guard I want to do something special, my DC will have the gold covered so I was thinking of amping up the greek mythology on these guys to make them stand out as the true elite of the Chapter.

 

One name I'm thinking of is the "Acheron Blades", Acheron being the "River of Pain" in greek mythology it seemed quite cool and could easily be tied to the chapters fluff in some fun ways that are already leaping into my mind.

 

Paint scheme would be aiming for a ghostly metal, so think the army of the dead from LotR but shinier! Then bright yellow/gold weapons.

 

I was considering Erebus Guard but that being the name of the dude who pretty much started the Heresy it seems best not to...

 

Thoughts brothers?

[Shaezus]

The paint scheme for your SG sounds great. The greek mythology thing made me think of a white marble with blue veins, that would just look awesome but it would be tricky to do it right. Well for me it would anyway :)