Creating my own Knight Household: House Atreus

[Emperor's Furor]

This thread is aimed at formulating a history and background for my own home made Knight Household.

 

I'm in the process of sourcing and looking for information in regards to Orestes which according to new sources seems to be a Knight World now, however this contradicts it's depiction in Titanicus where it is a small forgeworld and a base of Legio Tempestus, but I'm going to go by the latest codices and create my own household based there.

 

Origin material

 

The first thing I did was to look up Orestes. I did some searches for it and the origin of the name appeared to be of Greek mythology. According to Wikipedia:

 

"In Greek mythology, Orestes (/ɒˈrɛstiːz/; Greek: Ὀρέστης [oˈrestɛːs]) was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and of various myths connected with his madness and purification, which retain obscure threads of much older ones.[1]"

 

Tracing it back along his bloodline it shows that he is part of the line of Atreus which descends from Tantalus.

 

"In the Homeric story,[2] Orestes was a member of the doomed house of Atreus which is descended from Tantalus and Niobe. Orestes was absent from Mycenae when his father, Agamemnon, returned from the Trojan War with the Trojan princess Cassandra as his concubine, and thus not present for Agamemnon's murder by his wife, Clytemnestra, in retribution for his sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia to obtain favorable winds during the Greek voyage to Troy. Seven years later, Orestes returned from Athens and with his sister Electra avenged his father's death by slaying his mother and her lover Aegisthus."

 

 

Originally I was going to call it House Tantalus, but then realised Tantalus is the name of the Forgeworld Dark Eldar vehicle, so instead went with Atreus. Relating that into the origin of the house hold I figured the House of Atreus acted as a sort of father to the world of Orestes so it was suitable.

Additional in the history of House Atreus it is said he "feuded" with his brother and this caused a split in the family that involved a curse by the greek gods.

 

This wasn't overcome until Orestes with the help of Apollo (the sun god, maybe a representation of the Emperor or fighting for the loyalists) helped him convince Athena to lift it. This I think could help with building a back story for the House's participation in the Horus Heresy.

 

The most famous members of the Atreus line is Agamemnon, who you may be aware off from the story of Troy and the famous figures involved in that like Achilles, Paris, Ajax and Helen. Agamemnon is actually the son of Atreus, who was eventually killed by either his wife whilst in the bath or by his cousin, Aegisthus who had also killed Atreus after he found out that Atreus had killed his brothers and fed them to his father who went into exile and ended up having a child by his daughter who'd become Aegisthus, but Aegisthus was cast off by his mother/sister in shame and was brought up by Atreus who didn't know who he was, Aegisthus finally found out and killed Atreus but not before the birth of Agamemnon. Orestes was sent into exile shortly after Agamemnon's death, he returned and although he would be cursed for doing so he had to kill his mother due to her involvement with the death of his father, he didn't want to but Apollo told him to and in doing so was cursed by the gods until as noted he was eventually forgiven by Athena.

 

The reason I write all this is because I think it's a solid foundation for the backstory of my house hold and was wondering what you thought about it and whether you had any ideas or suggestions on it.

 

Symbols

 

I've been looking into possible symbols for the Household and came across a site as notes the involvement of 2 or 3 symbols within the Oresteia line, this are.

 

• A Net
• A Snake
• Light vs. Dark / Old vs. New / Juridical Justice vs. Retributive Justice

 

The snake is so obviously a heretical sign, in fact one of the other houses changed it's symbol to a fist crushing a snake in memory of the Heresy. The light vs dark is obviously another symbol of heresy but I also thought it could point towards the idea the Household was split during the Heresy, with half turning traitor and the other half being loyal. That leaves the net, which is a possible symbol that could adorn a Knight, however I've yet to figure out a good way to represent the net, apart from maybe having a black and white checkered pattern to represent the light and dark within the net, that's just an idea though.

 

Anyway, if anyone has any points or ideas then feel free to let me know :) This is the first stage where I gather the ideas before I go full on backstory and incorporate the mythology and ideas into something that could fit into the 40k landscape.

[Nomus Sardauk]

I've an idea as to how you might incorporate the Net into your scheme, why not try painting a Spider-Man style web pattern over the top of the Knight's body as if a Net were laid over it?

[Father Mehman]

I've an idea as to how you might incorporate the Net into your scheme, why not try painting a Spider-Man style web pattern over the top of the Knight's body as if a Net were laid over it?

I really like this net idea. You could do a mixture of both of your ideas: have a thin checkered pattern alternating with black and white over a black and white snake with alternating black and white zones. Maybe a third idea was merged in there as well but y'all understand!

[Emperor's Furor]

I like the idea of the net on the carapace, something like the forehead of this picture?

 

http://marvelwallpapers10.net/wp-content/uploads/images/55/spiderman__400x300.jpg

Edited April 18, 2015 by Brother Tyler
Hot-linked image turned into a link.

[Father Mehman]

That looks like the ticket!

[Emperor's Furor]

Actually kind of weird because the colours I'm doing my knight atm is red with half the leg plates and the back of the shoulder pads in blue. Will end up looking like a spiderman imperial Knight lol. I can't get any pictures of it atm as I'm doing the armoured panels separately to the undercarriage, but it's kind of like a giant Brazen Claws Imperial Knight with the right shoulder having a black and white checkered pattern on the front half of the shoulder pad.

Edited April 13, 2015 by WoT

[Father Mehman]

That sounds like a great scheme ! Well, we'll just have to wait for the pictures now.

[Emperor's Furor]

Here's how it looks atm, all the bits ain't properly attached yet though, so the knee pads which wouldn't just sit in the slot ain't on it.

 

http://i57.tinypic.com/sc81uw.jpg

 

http://i60.tinypic.com/eqtsex.jpg

Edited April 14, 2015 by WoT

[Father Mehman]

The Knight's looking awesome ! The base screams "I just walked through a building!" Also, that checkerboard pattern looks very nice and straight.

 

Those knee plates are a bit fiddly. Nothing a bit of cyanoacrylate won't fix!

[Emperor's Furor]

The Knight's looking awesome ! The base screams "I just walked through a building!" Also, that checkerboard pattern looks very nice and straight.

 

Those knee plates are a bit fiddly. Nothing a bit of cyanoacrylate won't fix!

Thanks, I'm trying to decide on whether to add some blue to the shield near his shoulder, or perhaps do a quarter in blue and a quarter in white, I want to get over the idea he's seconded to Legio Tempestus like the Knight from House Krast in the Codex whose seconded to Legio Osedax (Cockatrices). Thinking of doing the chain sword in black and white lines as well.

[Father Mehman]

The quartered idea seems like it could work. That spot of blue and white would help break up the red that's on the chest piece, carapace, and left shoulder.

 

Black and white lines or chevrons on the blade would look nice !

[Emperor's Furor]

I've progressed quite a bit with the Knight, will try get some pictures later but it's in shape and just requires some highlighting and touching up some of the painting like the metallic areas. The chainsword has been done in red, but I've also done the banner that hangs underneath in a checker pattern so I think it balances it out.

[Emperor's Furor]

Here's how he looks at the moment.

 

http://i57.tinypic.com/2ij6wzb.jpg

 

http://i60.tinypic.com/vz94w8.jpg

 

http://i60.tinypic.com/2q3vxb6.jpg

 

http://i58.tinypic.com/2q3905l.jpg

[Emperor's Furor]

I was wondering if I could get an opinion. I've slightly altered my scheme to move away from having to much blue and now I'm considering whether I should drop my own house altogether and make them into House Taranis Knights since I like their black and white scheme and feel the checkered pattern could fit in with it. The benefit of switching means I can add more decals to my knights which I really want to do more of. Here's how it looks atm.

 

http://i62.tinypic.com/1z3cdxk.jpg

 

http://i62.tinypic.com/5dqd8l.jpg

[CommodusXIII]

If decals are what you're after, talk to Carlson793.  He always has a queue, but you'll get worked in eventually.  You've put a lot of work into your Househould - while established factions are all fine and good, I really enjoy seeing player-generated content.  It'd be a shame to see that disappear!

[Emperor's Furor]

I guess I'll leave it half way then, the main bit of my scheme is the checkered pattern really which I guess could work either way, it's just the decals and I know I won't be able to come up with a worth while decal for my house.

[marshall Egregorius]

Love the painting and the color scheme!

[Emperor's Furor]

Thanks I'm attempting to highlight it atm, not sure whether I should of done a full wash over it first though as I'd only done a wash in the crevices.