Madrigal Falls: mapping the history of the II Legion

[Kor'Vesh]

I'd be very glad to help out with incorporating Vulkan, if you like to include him. I personally like depthcharges outline a lot. I can see Vulkan and the Salamanders being involved early on, possibly with a small force - say just one of the Realms - under his command. The Salamander involvement could be primarily in boarding actions against the Madriagal fleet, but their major engagement is against the Psi Titan world, under Vulkan's command. They should be victorious, but at serious cost in manpower and resources. Salamanders are good at dying, don't'cha know.

 

In terms of the departure of the XVIIIth, you could make it a key element - possibly coinciding with the arrival of the First Legion. I like the idea that the Lion was not consulted on the initial invasion, but on hearing of the action redirects his crusade fleet to the Madrigal sector to avenge the enmity between the first and second legions. I envisage a chance encounter, possibly fleet based, possibly during the initial stages of the assault on Akira, between Vulkan and either Icarion or Athrawes. During the clash of the two forces a small warp rift opens, spilling daemons into the area. The second instantly divert their attention to the invasion of the warp spawn, oblivious of their own numbers that are cut down by the continued salamader push. As the Sallies realise they are under attack from a new threat, they begin to move against it, working in unison with the second. They see the second protecting humans / civies, dieing for them etc. (both primarchs and legions are compassionate, reason for early respect and bond between them, and the subsequent fury of the XVIIth) causes them to doubt their actions and the things they've been told. You then have a meeting in battle between Vulkan, Numeon (one of the few named Salamanders out there, and the only one I'd involve in this), and either Raiden Athrawes or Icarion. No battle between them, but talk and, Vulkan's doubts about the war on the Second are stoked... anyway, the First Legion turn up in the midst of the talk - and begin attacking Deamon and Lightning Bearer alike - they even fell a few salamanders who are working with the IInd in battle.

 

Vulkan would rage at this injustice and intervention, especially as he lost the chance to learn more of his brother's actions. He pulls his now severely depleted force out of the battle - say Numeon and a few hundered remaining astartes. Has a bit of a confrontation with the Lion after the engagement (they annoy each other anyway according to the tarrot) and pulls his battered force out of the entire action, claiming a need for resupply and restrengthening to the Emperor.

 

Anyway - that's very sketchy, but you get the line of thought. The replacement of the XVIIIth with the Ist keeps your number of forces down, and lets you bring the Lion into play... and I really think the First Legion should be in there at the end, even if the Lion isn't.

 

If you definately want Vulkan involved (wooo!) I'll try and work up something decent about the relationship between he and Icarion, and their reasons for engagemnet, and there thoughts at and after withdrawal. This could be key, as the Salamanders and Vulkan are far more introspective than other Legions, and they could give you a useful voice for the analysis of the actions, and thereaction of the warriors involved and Imperium at large.

 

In terms of Conn's outline - well, its great isn't it. Especially the Russ stuff, and the spear. I like the idea of keeping only the earliest Primarchs involved too, but I do feel that this would have been a job that the Emperor is more likely to have sent Dorn on than Horus. If the Big E is in the fight himself, I'd expect Horus to be out there continuing the crusade. As depthcharge states, Dorn and the Fists were the masters of void warfare, and the Siege of Madrigal will all about that type of battle, combined with the assault of a heavily fortified world. Surely THE battle for Dorn. I would have Dorn in overall command of the fleet, with Russ and the Lion meeting Icarion at the end. Of course, as I said, I really like the idea of the first three primarchs ending things together too, so there is plenty of reason to go with Horus!

 

In terms of the location of Akira, I'd have it as an outlying world in the Madrigal system - it should be near the madevile point out of the system, and the first line of defence for the homeworld. The moon could remain a lesser fleet base.

 

Hope that helps!

[blackoption]

 

But Conn's purposal brings up a question: When does this campaign take place?  If it takes place in the first century of the crusade, that limits not only the legions able to partake, but also what equipment could be fielded: ie. No Mk4 armor, limited if any terminators, no seeker squads, potentially no jump pack assault troops (as Corrax and the Raven Guard played a major part, along with the Night Lords in fielding across the legions).  So I'd recommend the siege take place in the second century of the crusade.  Maybe that means you change the start date of the Ghost Crusade or extend it, but that is my recommendation.

 

Eh, I can still see there being precursors around prior that would allow people to use the same units, if this is going to become an actual campaign. I wouldn't, for instance, think that there were no jump-packs until the last twenty years of the Great Crusade.

 

 

Corrax's Moy Dethyan served for 8 decades of the great crusade. With that as a reference point (considering they joined the Raven Guard at the same time as their primarch)  I'd put jump pack utilization of the legions probably at year 130 or so. 

[depthcharge12]

What titan/knight legion should be there to assist?

 

I really like the idea of the First fighting in space while the Salamanders drop down onto the psi titan factory with loyalist titan assistance. That battle will be a crazy one as the psi titans can do some pretty weird stuff. That way you can incorporate your Skitarii too :)

 

Here's where there's a large consensus on who will be there, though again, it will all be up to you:

 

Primarchs-

Vulkan

Russ

Horus (though I think he's too vital to take away from the great crusade if the Emps is at Madrigal)

 

Legions participating-

Salamanders

Vlka Fenrika

Luna Wolves

Ultramarines

Imperial Heralds/Iconoclasts

Angels Tenebrium

Imperial Fists

[Conn Eremon]

Horus (though I think he's too vital to take away from the great crusade if the Emps is at Madrigal)

 

Just wanted to point out that until Horus is made Warmaster, and the Emperor leaves the Great Crusade, the two were usually together. If the Emperor was there, high chances Horus was too. If Horus was there, high chances the Emperor was too.

[depthcharge12]

 

Horus (though I think he's too vital to take away from the great crusade if the Emps is at Madrigal)

 

Just wanted to point out that until Horus is made Warmaster, and the Emperor leaves the Great Crusade, the two were usually together. If the Emperor was there, high chances Horus was too. If Horus was there, high chances the Emperor was too.

Quite true, though I wouldn't put it past the Emperor to leave Horus in charge for a bit.

 

So should Dorn take up the reigns of the great crusade while Dad and Horus go purge brother Iggy?

[blackoption]

and perhaps Dorn's literal mindness about the Emp's orders is some reason that the other Primarchs start to resent him?  I can see that working.

[Conn Eremon]

I don't think anybody would. I doubt the Emperor simply stopped being in charge every time he got involved in a battle, which would have been as often as everyone else. He didn't during the Ullanor campaign, which was the greatest Ork threat yet faced.

[depthcharge12]

and perhaps Dorn's literal mindness about the Emp's orders is some of the other Primarchs start to resent him?  I can see that working.

At the start of Horus rising there is a little chat between Horus and Dorn...

[blackoption]

I don't think anybody would. I doubt the Emperor simply stopped being in charge every time he got involved in a battle, which would have been as often as everyone else. He didn't during the Ullanor campaign, which was the greatest Ork threat yet faced.

 

I envision the Emperor during the Great Crusade to match the description of Guilliman during the Scouring (Being seemly every where and always where he was needed).  Only I see the Emperor doing it better than Guilliman (he is the Emperor after all).

[Teetengee]

 

 

Horus (though I think he's too vital to take away from the great crusade if the Emps is at Madrigal)

Just wanted to point out that until Horus is made Warmaster, and the Emperor leaves the Great Crusade, the two were usually together. If the Emperor was there, high chances Horus was too. If Horus was there, high chances the Emperor was too.

Quite true, though I wouldn't put it past the Emperor to leave Horus in charge for a bit.

 

So should Dorn take up the reigns of the great crusade while Dad and Horus go purge brother Iggy?

 

Perhaps leaving Horus in charge for a little bit laid the groundwork for Horus's eventual portrayal, as he now knew what it tasted like to rule, even before being the warmaster.

[blackoption]

I have a couple of questions for the initial phase of this project.

 

1.  How much is known about the Madrigal Webway project? Will the book give full disclosure or will it just be rumors and speculation?

2.  What caused the Webway project to fail?  Was it a faulty design, neglegence, or perhaps sabotage?  (I can see Dark Eldar under the Cabal as being a prime canditate for a group that would want humanity to fail)

3. How and where did the Warp Storm start?  I am assuming it starts at the site of the webway nexus, but was that on Madrigal or was that a nearby world/moon? 

4.  Does Icarion and the Emperor communicate at the start?  Psychic means or did the Emperor basically tell him that he would be Disavowed if this project went sideways? (if the latter, it helps establish the precidence the modern Inquistion uses for its heavy handed tactics).

5. What was the Lightning Bearers dispostion at the start of this whole mess?  I have a hard time believing they happened to all be in the sphere.  Did Icarion issue summons to his legion when this crisis started? If not, then the Imperium needs a phase where they hunt down any Lightning Bearers abroad in the galaxy.

[Teetengee]

I would guess that when the webway starts to fail (or before, divination), Icarius would summon most of his legion back.

[Athrawes]

Hopefully I can answer most of these questions, although I could certainly use input on some of the details.

 

1. The Madrigal Webway project will be fleshed out in a fair amount of detail, as without it, talking about the webway war at all would be pretty hard. 

 

2. There are basically two ideas I have been toying with. Option A is that the first attempt at the webway was through faulty design, that while it served it's purpose in allowing limited traveling between the several Sphere worlds it connected, it was 'permeable' and allowed the warp to flood in. This could be because of a lack of adequate warding that Old One webway likely possesses although I am uncertain. Option B is that the webway was a sucess. It worked as intended and allowed unfettered transit between Imperial worlds in the Sphere which were also test sites with their own webway Terminals. The problem then occurss when Icarion/ his magi attempt to connect the madrigal Terminal to the preexisting webway. Unknowingly they connect to a segment of the webway that has long been overrun and infested. At that point it becomes a war to keep that infestation from bleeding out into the Sphere webway and to those worlds with Terminals.

 

3. Im not sure I follow the question? A few possibilities, first there was a preexisting area of warp/realspace collide in the Madrigal system that is an arm of the Maelstrom. This 'Arm' was drawn towards madrigal because of the Experiments of Thunderking during the Long Night. If you are talking about the reason Madrigal had to be destroyed, that's different. Basically, if the warp breach was allowed to spill out from those (lets say) half dozen worlds Webways Terminals, the damage to realspace would be catastrophic. The fear is that, that many warp breaches concentrated in a single subsector could shift that entire area of space into the warp, thereby creating a new and growing warpstorm which would endanger neighboring sectors.

 

4. The emperor and Icarion do speak, probably psychically (since Icarions would be preoccupied with closing the webway). The Emperor became aware of Icarion's failed webway project and ordered him to destroy the worlds upon which the webway terminals were located in order to preempt them forming the warpstorm from question 3. Icarion refuses. After decades of purging worlds, and killing people who might  very well be innocents during the Ghost Crusade, Icarion and the II have become bitter and melancholic over their action. The Emperor asking them to purge their own worlds is the last straw, they snap and refuse his order. Icarion pleads for time to find an alternate solution, the Emperor refuses out of necessity to protect the wider Imperium from the emergence of another warpstorm. This is how the Maelstrom war starts in my mind.

 

5. In my mind, the Maelstrom war takes place between the 85th-100th year of the Great Crusade. By that time, I'd image their disposition to be as follows, bearing in mind that they had an empire to draw aspirants from and then need of enough Legionaries to FIght both the Ghost Crusade in Secret and the Great Crusade in Public.

 

• Somewhere around 65,000 Legionaries. At the time, they should be one of the Larger Legions for the reasons I stated above. But nowhere close to the Ultramarines. Is this number too low or too large?
• The Legion was spread out when the webway failed. But Icarion would have called as many back as he was able in order to try and stem the tide of the webway war. By the time the Maelstrom war was in full swing, I'd say that 90% of the Legion was present in the Sphere and the Maelstrom Zone. The rest would most likely have filtered in during the course of the campaign. I really don't want there to be very many Lightning Bearers left alive after the war, maybe 500 or less, and that is still really pushing it in my opinion. most likely it would just be small warbands of a dozen or so legionaries scattered to the winds.

 

Hopefully that answers your questions.

[blackoption]

Arthawes:  it does.  Thank you. 

 

3. Regarding the warp storm,  I can see using the warp storm as a framing element (like a ticking clock on a nuclear time bomb) for the story.  It motivates the Lightning Bearers to stand and fight to protect their people, just as it motivates the invading legions to contain and destroy the webway project as fast as possible to prevent the warp storm from spreading.  That is why I asked where the storm physically occurs.  I figure if we establish where the center was, the story could show it growing as it encompasses more worlds despite the Lightning Bearers efforts.  Whether the warp storm subsides due to the destruction of the Madrigal Webway or if it continues to engulf the remains of the Sphere, I'll not purpose and answer.

 

5. That seems like a decent number of legionaries.  I'd imagine they would also have auxilia (which I've seen your WIP shots) along with the Psi Knights. I'm inclined to agree that most of the Lightning Bearers should be recalled.  But if I may echo a purposal from Forge Master's thread, perhaps there is a break out attempt by members of the 2nd Legion.  The working idea Depthcharge and I had was that Legion Master (in leu of his final rank) Kastarius manages to do a break out from the sieging forces (perhaps as a diversion for Sentinel Arthawes's final mission) that succeeds.  This serves as the hook for the Void Claws to be honor bound to hunt them down in the galaxy. Neither force is ever heard from again.

[Athrawes]

3. That sounds like a good angle to address the warpstorm. Although I'm dubious of giving the Imperial forces widespread knowledge of the Webway project. I'd rather the Emperor simple points out "warp tears" created by the LB in their insanity that need to be sealed. The impression that the rank and file Imperials should have is that there is something horribly wrong with the II Legion. They must be insane because of the things they have done/are doing.

 

5. Oh, yes. There is definitely room for individual break out attempts once the LB realize it is hopeless, I don't have a problem with things like that.

[depthcharge12]

I like that the Webway is successful, or else why would the Emperor pursue his own if it doesn't work?

 

Maybe the legionaries sent through the Webway end up like the test subjects in Doom - they see hellish visions and maybe even become possessed by daemons and are spat out the other end. I know that the Lightning Bearers are guarded against daemons, but at this point in the crusade, it's more of trial and error rather than the exacting science/craft that the later grey knights have.

[Daemon2027]

I would imagine the Emperor wants to get his hands on any tech that could help him with his own webway project.

[Athrawes]

while Coldwinter is finalizing the map of the Sphere, I thought I share a sketch I made of Madrigal at the time of the Maelstrom War and the Fall.

Forgive the roughness of it but it helps me to get my ideas down on paper.

 

"Madrigal"

 

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/i327/nickfayette1/688C0D32-EC32-4E91-A493-399A5CB57776.jpg

 

Points of Interest:

 

• Haven: Capital city, comprised of three islands, Rhi, Komu and Sevesh. It is the largest single population center on the planet.
• Mound Exodus/Spire: Following the Thunder-Kings' experiments which destroyed the surface of Madrigal and created the Ever-Storm, the surviving uncorrupted Magi and scientists fled the world for Akira. Mount Exodus was their last stronghold before fleeing the world. Over the millennia of Old Night, the few remnants founded the Astral College on this site and named their monastery the Spire. After the establishment of Madrigal as a legion homeworld, the Spire was expanded to form the II Legion Stronghold with the ancient Astral College as it's heart. 
• Io Plate/Antius Solar Plate: Sub-Orbital plates created to house Madrigals growing population, additionaly necessary to facilitate the maintenance of Madrigals interstellar Empire; The Sphere.
• Nexus: Site of the Thunder-king's Ancient Forge, and the eye of the Ever-Storm. Considered off limits.
• The Shattered Land: The decaying remnants of the original Forges and Hearths of the Adepts that once ruled Madrigal before they fled to Akira following the Thunder-Kings' Calamity.
• Thermal-7: One of several geothermal taps which supply power to the Princedoms of Madrigal.

[AlphariusOmegon108]

I just had a new brain fart.. and a new idea rolled out..

 

As we all know, the world madrgal, is mostly a radiated wasteland. So that why everything is build above the clouds.

 

BUT, why oh why, wouldn't there be any liveable caves under the surface? Maybe mining facilities? Or.. Huge storages under ground? Or maybe even more intresting. Military bases of the second legion. And, that there are ways through the mountains, up to and through the clouds. A way from under the surface to above the clouds.

 

Just a random idea haha

[Brother Michaels]

As I myself is creating lost legion I wondered if I could place my legion at the battle? So that it could set a reminder that if any legions went out of line they could end up just the the thunder legion.