Phoenix-born

[Rizara]

Hello all.  I haven't been on the forums in almost a year.    Been really busy with school work, but I wanted to start a new marine project.   

I have been deciding on going with an assault focused force so I decided to create a new DIY chapter to go along with a blood angels army.   With that in mind, I am not actually looking at building a Blood angel successor, just using the army list for my army. 

 

However I am at a loss on some names for units, as well as color scheme.    So I guess let me go with what I got first.  

 

Theme:  Phoenix based chapter, so phoenix iconography and flame motifs.   However, I am interested in using a blue phoenix, or a blue/purple phoenix.   This has me a bit lost on what other colors would be good with it.     I decided after much debate to call them the Phoenix Born, but if someone has a better sounding name, that would be greatly appreciated too.    Phoenix knights is used, and doesn't suit them, and Phoenix Guard seems better suited for a unit name.   I had thought about Order/circle/coven of the phoenix, but that doesn't sound too marine like, maybe for dark angels or a titan legion.  Not a lot of names goes well with Phoenix, and the plural form of it just sounds way off base to go with traditional marine naming conventions.  

 

Using a blood angel force, so will have two specialty forces that need names. 

Sanquinary guard I will probably call Phoenix guard, which will apply to basically all first company and bodyguard units.  

Death Company, this unit i have no name for, and keep drawing up blanks on it. 

 

Now my plan however is to limit the flame motifs to maybe vehicles, and death company.   I was thinking, the death company or reincarnated/phoenix driven marines would probably be all in black armor, with blue flame patterns on legs/shoulder pads/backpacks.   Essentially having their armor blacked by the flames, and encased in the blue flames of the phoenix.    This would set them out nicely but what should I use for the rest of my marines.   I had thought about grey armor in place of the black, with maybe white armor for the sanquinary guard, but that seems to simplistic and not really colorful.   Not to mention white is really not easy to paint and I will not be painting this army with an airbrush, since I have not invested in one.      I have thought maybe yellow or an orange base for the armor, but that might be a bit to bright and gawdy as well.  I could mute these and maybe lean towards a yellow oche color, or a Burnt Sienna color to create a more muted effect.   

 

I has also thought for my Phoenix guard and characters of the chapter, having them in the normal armor color, with the flame motifs while leaving the death company in the black with flames armor styling.    This then gets into a bit of a tricky mix with the chaplain/librarian colors.   I could easily say apothecary and tech marines simply have a helmet color change, and their special gear being in the tradition colors of white and red.  

Chaplains being in black, would have the blue flames as well, but they would look a lot like the death company.   Except I could have both the chaplain and librarian have white/grey flames to make them stand out, which then allows me to keep to their black/blue armor.   

 

The idea is to give myself a project I can take my time painting, and to have an assault focused force which mixes in flamers/meltas, plasmas and assault cannons.   

 

As for the idea behind them having the death company, well I was thinking maybe they have a select unit of marines, who seem to have been blessed by the phoenix.  These marines have been otherwise killed, or have survived incidents that surely should have killed them.  They are not marines who have lost limbs, or been paralyzed, simply marines who survived death experiences.   They also may have been changed in spirit, as they seem to have a rekindled fire in their souls that drive them to greater feats.    Was even thinking that once being inducted into this special unit, they have even been known to have a shimmering blue flame that seems to surround them, as if they are truly blessed by the phoenix and able to shrug off blows that would kill a normal marine.    Essentially this idea just fits with the feel no pain aspect, but I am at a loss on a name for them.  

 

So after a week of pondering ideas, brain storming, and dealing with real life stuff too, I decided to come to the forums to maybe see if I could get some help, ideas, or even directions to run with this.  

 

I am already thinking about how I want their phoenix logo to look (just have to get it sketched out), and was thinking about how much fun I could have painting blue flaming phoenixes on the tanks.   

 

As for chapter ideas, I was thinking they could possibly be a salamanders successor that has deviated from the normal codex and has focused on assaults, jump packs, and fast strikes.  

[Hrvat]

At first glance what comes to my mind for the name of the Death Company is - the Reborn.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Fulgrim was nicknamed the "Phoenician" pre-Heresy; the Emperor's Children had an elite cadre of Terminators, known as the "Phoenix Guard" (see here). If you name the Chapter "Phoenix-born", it is inevitable that others will suspect a link with the traitorous Emperor's Children, regardless of your intentions.

[Rizara]

ah yeah i know of that, but at the same time, he was regarded as the phonecian, but his chapter as a whole was not referd to as the phoenix.  That being said, that was also preheresy, so how many would probably cross reference a later founding chapter with the emperor's children when that was something simply refered to him because of the fact that his legion was brought back from the brink of extinction.    I also am aware fully of the EC fluff.     

 

So...can you think of any other name for a chapter with the word phoenix in it that doesn't sound over used as the few I mentioned but still sounds like a cool and proper space marine chapter name?  

[Bjorn Firewalker]

"Phoenix Kings" is one inevitable choice for a cool name with the word "Phoenix" in it. (I took it from 'Avatar: The Last Airbender', not from the High Elves of 'Warhammer'.) Alternately, you can use the word "Firebird" instead, e.g., "Firebird-borne" instead of "Phoenix-borne". (I think the word "borne," as used in "airborne," is more appropriate than the word "born.")

[Rizara]

yeah, I had wondered that myself, if I shoudl use -born or borne.  I like the spelling with the e on it anyways.   I had looked at firebirds, but it is so well...I just don't care for it honestly.   Synonyms do not always hold the same majesty at times.     I had also thought of the Dark Phoenix, but again that name didn't sound like a marine chapter name.   Honestly I think i am going to stick with Phoenix-borne.   If all future chapters we so worried about naming conventions and their relation to the fallen chapters of the heresy, you wouldn't have 1000 marine chapters since then, because so many names could be related.   Every marine chapter with the name Iron in it, could be considered linked to the iron warriors using that same mindset.   Same with night lords, bat iconography.   

 

That is the main reason I had thought about a purple phoenix to start with but decided on the blue one to be different and why I will probably narrow down their actual successor chapter at some point.   Right now, my biggest hurdle is the color scheme, because I am really up in the air on the color scheme, other than the blue phoenix and blue flame accents.  

[AnvilofFenris]

I was the in the same situation as yourself, trying to find a suitable name to go along with Phoenix. I've settled on Phoenix Warriors, after discarding Phoenix Guard due to the name of Fulgrims personal guard. Other names that I considered but didn't fit with my view of my chapter were Phoenix: Lords, Brothers, Wardens, Blades, Wings. Hopefully that may be of some help, and I like the sound of the blue/purple colour scheme, should look good. I've found the BA kits are a good source of winged parts too, if that was the sort of thing you were looking at incorporating.

[Rizara]

Actually I was considering that for some feather bits, maybe along with death company. I was mostly thinking of the feathery wings that I can convert with a little green stuff to have some fire mixed into the feathers.n however I was leaning more towards a fire theme over just feathers. However my honor guard may include a mix of feathers and fire, while my death company will be fire only, and maybe having the normal marines who are not apart of either would mabe have minor fire and feathers.

 

I do like the sound of phoenix wardens, phoenix lords, and phoenix brothers. I will have to give each of those names some thoughts to see which I like better. Thanks for those extra suggestions.

 

I have been debating over purple armor with blue fire to start, but as was mentioned I want to stay away from the ec reference. That being said, it might be something to mix the blue and purple in the flames instead of just straight up blue flames.

 

now to narrow down the armor color, if I go with black for the death company, I have to find a good color for the rest of the army. If I decide to just go with black armor for the chapter, then I have to decide how to distinguish the death company so they stick out some how.