The Sons of Charon

[Ruewyn]

Chapter Name: Sons of Charon

 

Home World: Stygia Prime (Night World early Medieval , fractured imperial World) While not a Chaos world or even know to have been tainted by Chaos, many cultures on Charon worship Death Gods and Goddesses. The culture is very warrior based a stems around a fundamental belief in embracing death when its time, not trying to avoid or run from it. Death gods on Stygia are believed to bring final peace.

 

Battle Barge (Capital Ship of their fleet): Tears of Nyx

 

Other vessels of note: Charon’s Obol, the Desiccator  and Hells Gate

 

Battlecry: We reap the lives of those who would stand against his glory, burn the heretic, purge the unclean, kill the xenos.  For the Emperor!

 

Founding: A 21^st cursed very few official records exist of the chapter 

 

Chapter Symbol: Profile of a black hooded skull with a black wing behind it (on a white background)

 

Colors: Black, deep midnight purple and white (Bone white helmets (often skeletal in appearance), Black body (or deep purple  hooded robe). Shoulder pads are white with black trim with the chapter symbol on both arms.)

 

Special weapons: The sons of Charon have an  STC of unknown origin for their Chain and power  weapons and use Chain and power Scythes where other chapters would use swords or lightning claws. The existense of these weapons and the STC are a point of contention between The Sons of Charon and the AD-Mech.

 

Organization: Similar to the Blood Angels but have their own naming convention for positions within the chapter.  Of note the Sons of Charon do not adhere to the codex Astartes for Company Markings, Unit Markings and Identifications. They wear their chapter Symbol on both arms for all their units to include Terminators and they adorn their armors with many icons of death to include skulls of their enemies and their own fallen brothers.  None of their specialist, i.e. Chaplains, Apothecaries and Librarians where any of the traditional markings of their positions.  The only differentiating accoutrements is Marines in positions of leadership sometimes wear black wings affixed to their helmets.

 

The Thanaton (Chapter Master):  Haros Phlegas

 

Death Company:  referred to as the Stygian Brotherhood.

 

Chaplains: referred to as Keepers of the Black Mass

 

Librarians: referred to as the Death Whisperers.

 

Apothecaries:  referred to as Soul Reapers. 

 

Geneseed: Believed to be one of several chapters with experimental manipulation of Blood Angels geneseed to attempt to stabilize it.

 

Gene flaw: Because of their knowledge of their geneseed manipulation and the intent of the Imperium to use them as an experiment, they are extremely secretive. They do not acknowledge or openly affiliate with the Blood Angels or any of their successors. They simply do not see themselves and pure Sons of Sanguinius because they were experimented on so much all for the purpose of saving the progenitors. The experiments continued well into their early foundations of the chapter, thus scarring the brothers physically and making them very distrustful of their own bloodlines.  During the impending threats to Baal, the Sons of Charon have ignored the calls from the Blood Angels to aid in the systems defense. The experimentation had a few unexpected after affects to include a physical mutation causing the flesh on the face of the marines to appear desiccated and gaunt, to the point where the almost appear skeletal.

 

Because of this mutation the brother of the Sons of Charon NEVER reveal their faces outside of the chapter. They will also never willing leave the remains of a brother behind and will launch relentless entire counter assaults in attempts to regain all of their fallen brothers.  This is not solely to protect their mutation from being discovered, it also has to deal with their very intricate death rituals and burial rites on Stygia to ensure all their brother find the emperors final peace they have been promised.  Only after the rites and ritual are performed along the River Pitch (Gateway to the afterlife) which runs under their fortress monastery, through the catacombs, can a brothers essence transcend. In their very few interactions with agents of the Empire or other Marines, they refuse to remove their helmets or they will wear ceremonial Death Masks that only allow others to see their eyes  and highlight their chapters customs’ removing any form of individuality and warrior rituals as their reason.

 

The Sons of Charon also received the worstof both of their progenitor’s gifts.  The chapter does in fact succumb to the Black rage and the Red thirst, however unlike the Blood angels and their other successors, the Sons of Charon are able to somehow gain back control to a point through the pre and post combat rites of their Keepers of the Black Mass.  Only those brothers whom over many, many years of having succumb to these curses and start to demonstrate a resistance to the rites of the Black Mass, are then moved into a separate unit known as the Stygian Brotherhood. Because of the years of brothers fading in and out of the Black Rage through the rites of the Black mass, once a brother has completely given into the rage, they must be kept in stasis, and because they are nearly impossible to control at this final ascent into madness.  The only thing that seems to guide these brothers in the thirst for battle is each ones singular desire for their vision of their death to come to a brutal finale. 

 

The Sons of Charon have also developed the ability for limited precognition.  All of the brothers after their final ascension to full marines begin to see visions of their own demise.  The Chapters Death Whisperers are able to harness these visions and see more than just their own death; they can at times see glimpses into the future.  The culture of Stygia where the marines are recruited from embraces death as a final peace, therefor Marines of the Sons of Charon never attempt to cheat their fate, in fact the few marines who have, not by their own doing but by actions of others, have met a far more horrible ending then their visions.  The Death Whispers and the Chapter leadership, do not use the precognition visions as a way to change the conflict but as a way to prepare for what is fated to come. All the brothers of the Sons of Charon believe their visions are a gift from the emperor in its purest form, he allows them to see and prepare for their deaths in honor and glory to the Emperor and the Empire.

 

The Sons of Charon are furiously loyal to the Emperor and the Empire but because of their gene flaws, they are an extremely mysterious and solitary chapter, to the point they will only enter in to combat allied with other imperial forces if there will be no direct contact, interaction or joined campaigns. They are rarely called on directly by the imperium or other imperial forces because of their isolationist tactics.  The Sons of Charon typical prefer rapid assaults and like to patrol around the Eye of Terror and the Malestrom to harass Chaos forces and counter Dark Elder Piracy assaults.  They are fascinated with the use terror tactics and have spent valuable resources studying and searching for lost or secured archives of the battle reports and tactics of the now heretic Night Lords.  Because of how relentless and ruthless they are in combat, their insistence on using these darker methodologies and stratagem just adds more reason for them to limit their interaction with other Imperial forces.

 

COMBAT PHILOSOPHY:

The Sons of Charon strive to maintain their Solitary existence.  They are aware of any and all stigmas that come with the Chapters of the 21^st founding and seek to avoid any additional complications within the Imperium.  So much do they try to avoid direct combat that in recent times they have focused on reclaiming worlds lost to various Xenos and Demonic threats.  In these campaigns  they are acting in the Emperors will and attempting to help remaining Human populations regain control of these worlds, but these conflicts do not normally draw the attention of other Chapters or Imperial forces.  This strategy allows the Sons of Charon to explore all manner and types of experimental tactics without any threat of backlash from the Imperium.

 

CHAPTER BELIEFS:

 

The Sons of Charon also see there progenitor and own geneseed as flawed, tainted and heretical.  The very lust and rage that empowers them in combat is no different in their view than the curses gifted by the Chaos god Khorne to his followers.  In fact the Chaplains and Librarians within the Chapter preach to the brothers that it was Khorne who tainted Sanguinus as a child when the Primarchs were wisked away by the Chaos Gods and why he held this darkness within him. This philosophy adds to the brother’s belief of following their death visions through to their fruition.  They believe if they avoid the visions outcome than the Chaos god Khorne will eventually take hold of their soul and cast them into Damnation.  Only in a beautiful death in honor of the Emperor can they finally shed the curses of Sanguinus. For this and other reasons that go against the beliefs of the geneseed brothers, the Sons of Charon refuse any and all contact with other descendants of Sanguinus.

[Ruewyn]

Edited some content to make them less Legion of the Damned knock offs.

[Nineswords]

I quite like the basic premise but I would consider removing the bit about being a Night Lords / BA gene manipulation hybrid. Firstly, I personally think that being a Blood Angels successor with your particular twist is quite novel - other BA successors struggle with their curse but they are all united in one way or another, so having these guys reject their own gene heritage is pretty cool. Secondly, we've never had any indication at all in canon that anyone - not the Emperor, Babu Dukal, Fabius Bile, awesome Ad Mech Genetors, Corax etc - have ever spliced Primarch geneseed - it didn't happen in the Great Crusade, and it's even less likely to happen with the demise of technological knowledge after the Heresy.

 

Instead, I'd perhaps consider your chapter great sympathisers of the Night Lords combat doctrine but acknowledge what Night Lords have gone too far could make some great narratives and fit in with what you've already written. Unlike the Legion of the Damned, you guys do your thing ad the behest of the Imperium, you just never see them do it. Any Imperial forces will ever see is the destructive aftermath. Blood Angels fluff constantly explore the idea of self control - I think it's something again you can build in with an ongoing fascination with the Night Lords tactic of terror - the Sons of Charon exert a prodigious amount of self control.

[Ruewyn]

I thought the 21st founding was all about Geneseed manipulation? With that said, I could drop the geenseed splicing and look into developing the separatist mentality from other Imperial forces to include their gene sires because of their mutation and preferred tactics, while through all of that they still maintain a fierce loyalty to the Emperor.

 

Can someone please clarify the 21st founding though, I thought for sure their wear gen splicing and manipulations amongst that founding hence some of the horrible things that have happened to all the chapters. 

[Warlord Torvold]

I really only have one thing that I find a little off putting.  The mentioning of Kurze in the last paragraph with out any previous mention of the Night Lords.   Aside from that one thing I enjoyed reading about The Sons of Charon.  I like the idea of the death vision it really gives them character and a uniqueness that sets them apart from their gene-sire.  I would love to see a model done up with a chain scythe that just sounds cool.

 

 

As to the 21st founding from my understanding it was a series of experiments by the Magos Biologis to stabilize perceived and real flaws in well know gene seeds and possible the traitor gene stocks as well.  The history and records of that time are a little murky to say the least the only fact that is known is bad things happened to all the chapters from that founding.  The only two chapters still around from the 21st founding that I know of off the top of my head are the Black Dragons and the Minotaurs and now your Sons.

[Machine God]

@Ruewyn - The first paragraph in Gene Flaw seems to be in a smaller font that then rest of your post.

[Ruewyn]

I have fixed the font size in the first paragraph in Gene flaw, removed the erroneous reference to Kurze in the last paragraph and added paragraphs of combat philosophy and chapter beliefs.

[Warlord Torvold]

I do like what you've done so far as I mention in my previous post.   The removal of the Kurze reference makes things flow more smoothly in the combat philosophy in my opinion.  I'm not 100% sure I like the chapter belief that Khorne is the chapters boogey man.  Don't get me wrong I understand it,  Rage and blood thirst  sound like khornate attributes to me and seem the obvious choice.  That may be why it seems off to me it might too obvious.  Have you thought about Slannesh?  Blood drinking being a new and taboo sensation that the Sons struggle to keep in check.  While rage is an easy emotion to get lost in and take to extremes.  Just a thought to consider.

[Draakur]

I like your work here brother. I think with some polishing and careful expansion you could really have something impressive.

 

My main piece of advice is to be wary of over-doing your themes (like the wolf wolfy wolf-like Wolves from Space). With the skeletal facial features, Death Masks, death-obsessed culture and beliefs, scythe weapons everywhere, seeing their own deaths, covering themselves in death markings... you get my point.

 

It will be, as always, entirely up to subjective opinion as to whether you've actually crossed that "over-themed" line yet, and upon review you might be entirely happy with the state of things (you being happy is what ultimately matters here).

 

Just be mindful, is all I'm suggesting :)