Colchisian astronomy/astrology

[MaliGn]

I've been musing on what to use as aerial identifiers on vehicles for my Word Bearers and I believe I may have hit upon something that will work: The symbols of Colchisian astronomy that adorn many of the Forgeworld Heresy models.

 

Having not read any of the heresy books I was wondering if there are any charts or maps featuring these or will I attempt to piece things together from the patterns sculpted onto the figures?

 

If we think about the constellations that gave their names to pre heresy chapters of the legion as referenced in First Heretic (and others) and their links to the Old Faith of Colchis we have:

 

The Serrated Sun, - this is obviously strongly associated with the Gal Vorbak but takes the form of a circle with four main radiating points, with lessers in between much like a familiar eight pointed star.

 

The Osseus Throne - this is presumably the skull (bone) throne of Khorne or Khaane in the Old Faith of Colchis, a symbol exists for this one that could be mapped as a constellation.

 

The Tri-fold Crown - the chapter symbol for this one was a shattered skull aflame, however if we assume that the flames are a part of the legion symbol incorporated into the logo we are left with a skull, which doesn't translate to a constellation very well. If we take tri-fold to mean having three parts then a shallow curve of say five points with three above them as points would work.

 

The Star of Judgement - chapter symbol here was a mace, clasped in a fist with a shield with a flame design behind it, again not really translating into a constellation, with the theme of judgement then possibly something like a single binary star or something like our libra, I'm leaning toward the former as it is a singular star, rather than stars.

 

The Broken Scythe - this is pretty straightforward I think, could be a representation of Narag/Nurgle

 

The rest don't have any symbols as of yet but include

 

The Twisting Rune - could be a Tzeentchian (Tezen) origin but short of the tzeentch rune we already have I'm not sure.

 

The Graven Star - graven meaning carved or fixed, makes it a little tricky, could be a star that never seems to move in relation to the viewer from the surface, or possibly when compared to other constellations of significance, a guiding star similar to earth's Polaris or Sirius.

 

The asps of the sacred sands - this strikes me as a legend of the Old Faith, again leads me to Tezen's involvement somewhere.

 

The flayed hand - seems straightforward - a nod to either Narag or Slanat?

 

The exalted gates - again, should be simple

 

Unspeaking - I can't really see how either this one or the Inscribed (below) could be taken from a constellation

 

Inscribed - see above

 

The bloodied visage - I'm struggling to work out what kind of shape this could be, maybe some kind of rough face, after all there is a lot of room for interpretation when naming constellations since they are clearly not figurative.

 

The crescent moon - this could actually be a moon of Colchis that because of it orbit around the planet was only ever visible as a crescent.

 

The more I have been thinking about it the more ways I can see of potentially representing them, from star charts, to versions of the old chapter badges, to astrological symbols that represent this Colchisian Zodiac, to full on artistic realisations of the myths that inspired the naming of the constellations.

 

Well, that went full on ramble-a-thon, does anyone have any thoughts on this or can think of any other Colchisian constellations that I may have missed?

[MaliGn]

Furthering this thought experiment I am attempting to determine the location of colchis. I have studied various galactic maps, some from 30kish and other seemingly more recent. The 30k ones put it in the north edge of the segmentum pacificus, but trying to follow the relationships with certain other planets moves it to being virtually the other side of the eye of terror. I realise that it was destroyed, but I'm trying to work out roughly what the night skies of Colchis may have looked like in order to expand on the constellations hinted at by AD-B in First Heretic etc. There is a big gap in the rough area that it would have inhabited in most recent maps, and the best I have been able to fond filling the space is a rough ork waagh, but no detail of systems or planets involved. Anyone got any maps of the 40k galaxy that show the location of Colchis?

[Lucien Eilam]

The rest don't have any symbols as of yet but include

 

The Twisting Rune - could be a Tzeentchian (Tezen) origin but short of the tzeentch rune we already have I'm not sure.

 

The Graven Star - graven meaning carved or fixed, makes it a little tricky, could be a star that never seems to move in relation to the viewer from the surface, or possibly when compared to other constellations of significance, a guiding star similar to earth's Polaris or Sirius.

 

The asps of the sacred sands - this strikes me as a legend of the Old Faith, again leads me to Tezen's involvement somewhere.

 

The flayed hand - seems straightforward - a nod to either Narag or Slanat?

 

Unspeaking - I can't really see how either this one or the Inscribed (below) could be taken from a constellation

 

Inscribed - see above

 

These were described in The Underworld War in The Mark of Calth.

 

The Twisting Rune - "mangled sigil"

 

The Graven Star - "a beaten iron star"

 

The Asps of the Sacred Sands - "sinuous serpent"

 

The Flayed Hand - "red palm print"

 

The Unspeaking - "grey-painted skull […] its mouth was an iron lock, closed to silence all speech"

 

The Inscribed - "armour decorated with gold runes, god-sigils on arterial red"

 

The story also included:

 

The Iron Veil - "a face, pale against the dark background, shaped as a sorrowful masquerade mask"

[MaliGn]

Thanks for that, quite how to translate mangled sigil into anything meaningful could be tricky, as one would first need a sigil to mangle. One almost needs to write the myths that would have birthed the names of the constellations in the first place. After all this is what informs the names of so many of our own constellations.

 

I have had some success with working out the rough area of space that Colchis would have inhabited and suspect that although distant the eye of terror would have been visible, possibly appearing as a very large star with radiating points, known as the serrated sun.

 

My plan is to sketch out a vague mythology behind the names of the constellations, that draws on the imagery associated with them so far, with a dash of chaotic lore chucked in, ascribe shapes and symbols to the constellations and map their relationships to each other and use this to create a Zodiac of sorts. Then use maps of conjunctions of these stars with lunar orbits transecting them and associated symbols attached as vehicle identifiers. Relating the associated characteristics of the squad with their astrological symbols.

 

Because clearly, that's how Lorgar would do it.