Blades of darkness

[Elias]

hai mi neim is... well, now you know how bad my grammar could be. English is not my native language, so I think there will be some grammatical errors in the article, so don't judge me too hard.

 

Ladies and gentleman I present to you space marine chapter Blades of darkness. I hope you enjoy reading it and I will be grateful for any comments and critique.

 

 

 

History of Blades of darkness

Founding

Blades of darkness is chapter of 13^th(dark) founding of unknown origins.

Chapter was created to defend the abyssal starts region located in segmentum tempestus.

 

The abyssal stars

Regions was vital for rogue traders back in 35^th millennium, for it was almost on the edge of segmentum and warp there was very calm. It attracted not only traders, but also pirates, xenos and chaos marauders alike.

 

Planet Diadoch was chosen as a recruitment ground for the chapter, because it was marked several centuries earlier as a well suitable home-world for a space marine chapter. Recruits are  drawn only from northern part of the planet, because people there worship emperor and their gene-code is purer than  southerners’.

Several years after chapter became fully active, Blades of darkness showed themselves as a formidable  warriors. They managed to defeat strong Eldar and Ork fleets, hunted down major pirate parties and ended several rebellions with genocide.

Soon everyone in the abyssal starts knew their name. They were equally feared and respected.

 

Pharsman the wise

Pharsman became chapter master(amirspasalar) in 37^th millennium. He was great leader, cunning tactician and strong politician. He made allies in The Imperium by assisting various imperial organizations. Under his command chapter conquered several star systems and defeated ork WAAGH!.

When sector Halarax rebelled against The Imperium and chaos space marines assisted heretics, ruler of the cardinal world Arenan asked Blades of darkness for help. Pharsman sent three companies of the chapter under the command of captain(spaspet) Grjol. War for Halarax lasted ten years, Gjrol was killed in battle and captain(spaspet) Ardenos took his place.

When Adernos and his warriors returned from the Halarax, their beliefs were changed. Adernos(respected commander and good orator) believed that The Emperor was not just a man, but something divine and chapter should worship him like the rest of the Imperium does. Many warriors accepted that idea. Chaplains immediately became Adernos’s allies, seeing a way to gain more power in the chapter.

When Pharsman heard about this, he commanded Adernos to come to him and beg for mercy, but captain laughed at that idea and said:

‘’Pharsman, your time has ended. Give the crown of the amirspasalar to me or die like the ones who oppose me. It is time for chapter to change and accept way of truth, The Emperor defend us.’’

Chapter master was enraged, but he was never a man ruled by emotions. He summoned whole chapter to discuss their future. He warmly received Adernos and warriors of the ‘’new way’’, as his followers called themselves.

A day after gathering of the chapter Pharsman was wounded by his bodyguard, but announced that Adernos tried to assassinate him. Rebel captain was beheaded. Then forces loyal to Pharsman killed everyone who accepted ‘’the new way’’, chaplains were skinned alive and their dried skins are shown to chaplains even in 41^st millennium to show to what disobedience can lead.

After the chapter was ‘’cleaned’’ from the ‘’taint’’, Pharsman wrote his famous work ‘’True way of Diadoch’’ and exiled himself from the chapter for his crimes against his brothers.

 

Invasion of Belzebub

In 37^th millennium powerful daemon-prince, who called himself Belzebub, invaded the abyssal stars.  Using his warp power, he hid his fleet and region’s forces were completely unprepared for his attack. In several weeks three systems fell. Two companies of Blades of darkness were dispatched to assassinate Belzebub and defeat his elite forces, but daemon-prince foresaw this attack and Diadochian were annihilated, only 30 marines escaped death.

After this,  Belzebub divided his forces. His armies attacked several sectors at the same time. Blades of darkness also spread their forces. Large units were defending strategic planets such as forge-worlds and fortress-worlds, while Smaller ones assisted imperial guard, hunted for Belzebub’s officers and raided where they could. Apart from Mechanicum forces, Imperial guard and Imperial fleet units from various space marine chapters fought against Belzebub, but it was not enough. Daemon-prince’s warriors were too numerous: chaos space marines, dark mechanicum, cultists and daemons. A lot of planet rulers betrayed The Imperium and choose archenemy’s side.

Imperials fought well, but step-by-step Belzebub was destroying them. Blades of darkness were defeated in some major battles and abandoned forge-worlds which provided them with ammunition and other resources. But even then Belzebub could not win, for warriors of the emperor, space marines and guards alike, were in high-spirit, waiting for retribution fleet of The Imperium. Only commanders knew that they have already lost and retribution fleet won’t save them.

Belzebub was not pleased by slow progress his forces made, so he sent his chosen warriors(about 200 space marines) to conquer Diadoch, home-world of Blades of darkness. After chapter heard about that, all of the remaining 650(approximately) marines abandoned their positions and rushed to defend their home. Enemy’s fleet was destroyed. But Belzebub only smiled at that, he, seeing a chance to defeat whole chapter at once and get rid of them, gathered his army and set for Diadoch.

 

Battle of Aben system was hard and bloody. Mechanicus refused to assist Blades of darkness, but, hopefully, they did not helped Belzebub. Chapter fought heroically, but daemonic army won. Chapter master(amirspasalar) ordered remaining imperial forces and chapter’s fleet to retreat. One battle-barge was sacrificed to get through blockade. All Diadochians remained on the planet and prepared for their last stand.

Belzebub’s fleet bombarded area around chapter’s fortress-monastery and soon it was besieged by chaos horde, led by daemon-prince himself. For two months castle withstood siege, but in the end khorne Berserks rampaged their way inside. Soon whole fortress was filled with chaos army. Blades of darkness retreated to the inner walls, but Belzebub smashed their defenses. Chapter master(amirspasalar) took elite warriors of first company and cut his way to daemon-prince, but was killed in a duel.

After few days of unending battle only 50 Blades of darkness remained alive. They took genetic storage tanks and artifacts and managed to escape. Belzebub was furious when he heard about that and he ‘’left his body and (his) dark soul burned with darkness, seeking escapers’’, he found none. How Diadochians hid from him, no one knows.

Finally, Retribution fleet, led by raven guard marines, arrived. Belzebub, seeing that he had lost, avoided battle and ran to the border of the region. Then he sacrificed his warriors and his power for daemonic ritual and opened portal that burns with warp energies even nowadays.

 

After that…

Belzebub was defeated, but the abyssal stars were burning and the situation was grieve. Dark eldars and other marauders terrorized imperial worlds, traitors made alliances and whole systems were conquered by heretics. Chapter was almost destroyed.

But situation began to stabilize. Chapter master of the raven guard understood, that only under the protection of space marines region will be safe, so he greatly assisted Blades of darkness. He made general-fabricator(who refused to help them in battle of Aben) to help the chapter in everything and build new fortress-monastery for them.  He even left some veterans to prepare next generation of Blades of darkness, especially to teach them new tactics, for he knew that chapter with so little strength would need to adapt, to change.

 

Major events after the invasion of Belzebub

Blades of darkness recovered, but all of them remembered traitorous mechanicus and waited for their chance to take revenge. Chapter master(amirspasalar) Endors took revenge and by this he changed the chapter forever. He secretly contacted lord-inquisitor ‘’denied’’ and offered him his service, if he helped him to kill general-fabricator. Inquisitor accepted the offer.

For many centuries Blades of darkness and inquisition worked as allies, but ordos began taking reins. They wanted control the chapter. Soon Diadochians were independent only in word and even chapter masters(amirspasalars) were not free to make decisions. Many marines opposed that, but some part of them wanted to become servants of the inquisition.

In 41^st millennium chapter master(amirspasalar) announced, that chapter will serve inquisition, change its name and badge. For this he was killed by his own adviser, amirakhor Joann and Elias was chosen as a new chapter master(amirspasalar).

Some inquisitors believed that Elias would be weak leader and won’t fight for independence. They made a fatal mistake…

 

 

Beliefs

 

Culture of Diadoch has greatly influenced chapter’s philosophy. The unforgiving and deadly environment and even worse enemies had taught Diadochians that enemies must be killed and to do this effectively they should fight as one. Discipline and obedience are highly valued by Blades of darkness and undisciplined recruits are often punished with death.

Blades of darkness are brutal and unmerciful warriors. The major belief of the chapter is that all enemies must be annihilated in order to bring peace to The Imperium of man, so every Diadochian tries to kill as many xenos or chaos worshipper as possible before he dies.  Chapter does not view terrorist and partisan tactics as something not honorable, since its main goal is to kill everyone who fights against The Imperium . There are numerous reports in imperial archives saying that Blades of darkness have carried out cruel genocides and burchered even civilian population.

Blades of darkness do not have librarius, because psykers on Diadoch have been killed long ago and they do not trust people, who have close contact with warp.

According to chapter’s beliefs, ideal warrior is emotionless, pragmatic killer, who places victory over everything, including his personal honor, his life and death of civilians. Blades of darkness often use imperial guard as a shield from enemy’s fire. Sometimes battalions of human troops are sacrificed in order to gain strategic advantage.

In chapter everyone is equal and because of this no one has family name. When you serve The Emperor it does not matter are you highborn or just a peasant.

The Emperor

Blades of darkness view The Emperor as a king of mankind and rightful leader of the galaxy. There, of course, are celebrations and rituals in the name of The Emperor and primarchs, but they are not worshipped as a divine beings.

 

Combat Doctrine

Long before the invasion of Belzebub chapter’s combat doctrine was to strike as fast as possible and destroy enemy’s headquarters. But after chapter nearly came to extinction and in first years of rehabilitation, when Blades of darkness could deploy only handful of warriors(and most of them were inexperienced) they had to change in order to survive.

They began to use guerilla and partisan tactics. Their snipers hunted for enemy commanders and raiders attacked supply lanes, while shock troops were waiting for enemies to expose their weak points to strike one fatal blow and deliver quick death.

After years chapter got used to secrecy as a weapon. They never gave anyone any information about their strength. Sometimes even imperial commanders did not know that they were assisted by space marines and on turning point of battle Blades of darkness would appear to butcher enemies of the Imperium.

Every Blade of darkness have oversensitive occulobe, so chapter, if there is an option, prefers to fight during the night to have an advantage.

 

Organization

Blades of darkness follow codex astartes, but not completely.

First of all, companies(aseuli) are not divided into battle and reserve. Each of them is independent and fully active to defend abyssal stars from numerous enemies.

Second, units of tenth(scout) company are attached to other units to act as assassins, outriders(on motorbikes) and hidden agents.

Then, first company(Monaspa) is tasked with defending area around the portal which was opened by ritual of Belzebub.

Also, chapter officers have names of Diadochian origins:

Chapter master- Amirspasalar;

Regent- amirakhor;

Chief apothecary- apithecarthukhutses;

Master of the forge- meabjretukhutses;

Master of the fleet- amirbar;

Master of recruits- atabag;

Captain- spaspet;

Sergeant- atistav.

 

Special units

Monaspa- first company of the chapter. The most experienced and hardened warriors equipped with terminator armor(half of them) and the finest weapons.

Metsikhovne- company that defends chapter’s headquarters at the moment is called company of Metsikhovnes.

Chukhchs- chapter master’s(Amirspasalar’s) personal guard.

Hunters- warriors chosen for their bravery and willpower to hunt down enemy psykers. Armed with ‘’magic-eater’’ shields.

 

Homeworld

Diadoch

In imperium’s archives planet Diadoch is classified as a death-world. Despite its beauty, the planet is deadly. Dark forests, snowy mountains and deserts are inhabited by a large number of predators that often hunt for humans.

A lot of ethnic groups live on Diadoch: nomadic people of the desert, barbaric tribes of Darnels, conquering people of southern Diadoch, the most numerous of all, and, of course, warriors of the north, the ones chosen to fill the ranks of Blades of darkness because of their warlike nature and genetic purity.

Continents

Diadoch consists of five continents:

Diadoch, the biggest is home for the majority of population. Various tribes, kingdoms and empires are always at war.

Islands of Arkenor are covered by factories to provide chapter with Prometheum and other resources.

Darnel is home of barbaric tribes. This continent is used as training and testing ground for chapter’s recruits.

Southern and northern poles there are hidden bases of the chapter. Some of them keep chapter’s gene-material and artifacts, others- nuclear warheads and exterminatus bombs to destroy the planet if it is conquered by enemies of The Imperium.

 

Genetics

Genetics

Gene-code of Blades of darkness is considered pure, but there is one major mutation: every member of the chapter has oversensitive occulube.

Also, after becoming space marines Diadochians do not change their appearance(for example, raven guardians hair darkens, their skin becomes paler).

 

Chapter’s badge and colours

Chapter’s badge

Symbol of Blades of darkness is Diadochian khmali(sword) thrust through demon’s fanged, horned skull.

It is worth mentioning that only chief officers(The ukhutsesi) carry personal heraldic, because even captains(spaspets) are considered as equal sto their brothers.

Colours

Armor is jet black. Apothecaries and tech-marines also wear black armors and only symbols on their shoulder-guards indicate their rank. Neither captains nor veterans and specialists wear helmets of different colour on the battlefield not to become easy targets for enemy snipers.

Company badges:

1st-male gryphon, the defenders of the gate.

2nd-bull, the strength.

3rd-wolf, the hunters.

4th-flaming disc(barjgalo), the servants of the radiant one.

5th-Lion’s head, the bravest.

6th-hawk, the lightning ones.

7th- ram, fearless warriors.

8th-horse, the undefeated.

9th- Dragon, the dark ones.

10th- spider, hidden in the shadows

 

Colour Scheme:

http://s7.hostingkartinok.com/uploads/images/2015/02/b0dc5d2a31b4b4d4ed2b3582a2bedabf.jpg

[Erickson]

Nice chapter! Keep working on it.

[Welcheren]

There are a number of interesting ideas in the IA.

 

But I think a first step should be to stand back and refine the article a little. For example, some of the information is unclear and confusing, some of its needs to be fleshed out a little. Read through it all carefully and look out for possible areas of confusion. A case in point is the retribution fleet that pops into the war against Belzebub without any clarity as to its nature or how it would be capable of defeating the enemy.

 

The role of Adeptus Mechanicus and how it failed (or refused to aid) the chapter is also unclear. The chapter's desire to serve the Inquisition is also a little strange and would, perhaps, benefit from some revision.

 

 

 

The chapter schism also needs to be elaborated a bit, but I think it would be best to start with a close reading as suggested above.

 

 

As a purely stylistic feature, you might want to increase the font size a little to make reading easier on the eyes.

[Elias]

First of all, thanks a lot for commenting. then, I(and my friend, with whom I created chapter) have tons of information about chapter in Georgian language, but it is unnecessary to post every detail of every battle and action here. This article was written to introduce chapter's culture, philosophy and history. Main even of invasion of Belzebub is that chapter was nearly annihilated, but survived and recovered, but needed to change. If it is written that Belzebub run from the retribution fleet, it means that fleet had strength to defeat them. As I said it is not battle report, it is brief history of the chapter.

 

But I understand what you mean. I think I will translate(and write) more about chapter if anyone is interested, if not Russian and Georgian forums are my only hope :D

 

looking for for more comments and critique, feel free to express you thoughts, I will be grateful for every comment.

 

thank you in advance.

[Conn Eremon]

I think part of the confusion on the readers' part is the imperfect translation. But it'd be unfair of us to judge the article on that, as you have stated that English is not your first language. The only other language I have some understanding in is Spanish, and I can assure you that any attempts I could make of writing an IA in that language would end up far more confusing than this article is.

 

So I won't comment on the actual layout and delivery of the article. Please don't worry about that, it's understandable why it is the way it is.

 

So, just speaking about the concepts:

 

The schism mentioned by Welcheren was easily the thing that most got me to sit up and be interested in your Chapter. It's a nice concept, to see a Chapter find itself divided upon its beliefs of the Emperor, and to see the God-Emperor worshipers be so thoroughly uprooted and excised.

 

I would recommend changing up how it all begins, though. I just didn't really "feel" it, the way this one Captain was a born-again . . . whatever the followers of the Imperial Creed are called, leading to open challenges and sedition. If I could recommend, have this world be a source of recruits, possibly even only temporary or as a one-time collection. Unintended by the Chapter, these recruits do not fully relinquish their former beliefs. Slowly, gradually (and some conservatives would even say suspiciously), the belief of in the Emperor as a God grows, until one such recruit, a particularly charismatic fellow, is promoted to Captaincy. And he comes out with it, openly challenging the Chapter Master on this belief. All of a sudden, it's not that quiet little secret that everyone knows about but nobody admits to being real. Now, it's in their face. People are being forced to notice and take heed of it. Marines begin to take sides. Lines are drawn. A shot is fired . . . 

 

Aside from this, it seems that you have renamed pretty much all the ranks and organizations of the Chapter. While this is okay (after all, so have the Space Wolves, and to a lesser extent the White Scars and Dark Angels). But for the purposes of an IA, they don't really seem to ever flow that well, especially when presented as lists. What I would recommend, and this is advice which I follow myself, is to continue to use the basic, Codex-approved terminology in the article itself, reserving the Chapter-specific jargon for sidebars and quotes, and even then making it clear who is who and what is what. Basically, hold off on throwing the words everywhere. They're more effective the more sparing they are used.

[Welcheren]

Good points.

 

If I could clarify, my own comments were not so much aimed at language (read Conn Eremon's much better worded disclaimer above) but on areas that could benefit from expansion, such as the quick mention of the AdMec refusing support without further details.

[Elias]

well I agree that article is confusing, because Grjol(captain) really died, I mean he was chopped in half or like that, Adernos was just second in command and he took his place.

Article may appear confusing and you could think that some parts are missed, but I really couldn't write every detail of the story, there would have been too many words. Man It will take me whole novel to describe why Adernos changed his beliefs and what happened then, this is just very shortened version of it. My intend was to tell what happened to chapter and how it changed over centuries, not how different characters acted, these are for books I and my friend are planning to write in the future.

But I understand what you mean, as soon as I have some spare time I will work on it to make some points clearer. Thank for comments though, cheers!

[Conn Eremon]

It is okay, and in fact preferable, to lightly touch upon these matters rather than describing them in full. I think, in fact, that Welcheren's concern about this kind of thing arises from how much detail is already being given. If you have the full story, providing more detail can make it more evident that more is missing, which is where the article sits now. Increasing the details will exacerbate the problem until or unless you make the time and effort to post the whole thing. If you scaled the details back, it could help clear it up. And it would improve the article, think.

 

For instance, we don't really need to know details about the battle where Adernos came to the light. We don't need to know how he came to be an officer. We just need to know that there was an officer who did believe in the God-Emperor, and that he is there to represent this divide that occurred, up to and including his death.

[Welcheren]

My apologies if I came across as harsh. Conn Eremon's assessment is constructive. 

 

I suppose this also has to do with my personal experience on the Liber: when I wrote my first IA, for example, I claimed that the Libators (the obscure GW chapter I had selected) firmly believe that Roboute Guilliman is healing within his shrine and I it was suggested to me that I had better set the scene for the emergence and consequences of that faith properly.

 

Hence the lens through which I hope to offer assistance to others. 

[Brother-Sergeant Valorum]

This is a really good idea! My only suggestions are perhaps to elaborate a bit more on the relationship between the Inquisition and Elias, and maybe give a few examples of Inquisitor-Elias interaction. Good job though!