The Grail Wardens: a Liber Astartes Group Project

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Now as you know I am writing my own story between my Sisters and my Tau, this happens hundreds of years apart. Now I could easily have two seperate canoness's leading the order, but what if my canoness achieve living sainthood status during the 2nd Red Crusade?

That depends on how many centuries apart are these battles. For a Canoness who was named "Living Saint," I can see the Ecclesiarchy granting her rejuvenat treatments to extend her life by 200 years. For greater lengths of time, it's better to say a different Canoness were present at each incident, though they may share a name- it's common for people to name their children after great heroes, after all.

[Minigiant]

 

Now as you know I am writing my own story between my Sisters and my Tau, this happens hundreds of years apart. Now I could easily have two seperate canoness's leading the order, but what if my canoness achieve living sainthood status during the 2nd Red Crusade?

That depends on how many centuries apart are these battles. For a Canoness who was named "Living Saint," I can see the Ecclesiarchy granting her rejuvenat treatments to extend her life by 200 years. For greater lengths of time, it's better to say a different Canoness were present at each incident, though they may share a name- it's common for people to name their children after great heroes, after all.

 

Thank you Bjorn Firewalker, thats great help

 

Any progress people? Even if it is just draft work, please share it. We can all help. We cant really move on until we get the Red Crusade nailed! It is the foundation for the entire story after all

[Kelborn]

Knight House Valcorian is done and uploaded.

Need to work on it concerning layout and some fluff bits like thr red Crusade but the rest is finished.

[Doctor Perils]

I have to say, ETL, other fluff projects and work (in that order :P) are proving distracting :(

[Sir Perfluous]

I'm experiencing similar problems, though mine are fairly work-centred. I'm absolutely smothered in the stuff. I've got a bit of free time now, though, so I'm working on my foetal narrative a bit. To be honest, it's not even at the stage where I could present it to you for C&C yet. But I know where I'm going, and the details are presenting themselves as I go. Everything calms down a bit after Tuesday, so it'll be done soon after that, I promise. Sorry it's taking so long.

Edited June 10, 2016 by Sir Perfluous

[Sir Perfluous]

Another quick question -  do House Valcorian take part in the final assault on Golgotha? If so, what do they do?

[Kelborn]

House Valcorian participates in the Red Crusade as a detachment which offered their help against the forces of chaos. During this Crusade nearly all participating Knights die. Their legacy is held high withing the heirs of Lordahron. What do they exactly do? Purging Golgotha from the traitors, etc. Mostly against the bigger enemies, like daemons, tanks and so on.

 

Centuries later, when the Grail disappears, Grand Crusader Darion Valcorian declares that the loss of the Grail is a stain on their ancestors honor. Because of that, they are searching for it as well.

[Sir Perfluous]

So the Knights would be part of the main offensive to seal the rift, I presume. Or is there another objective we could give them? I just need to know whether to include them in my narrative or not.

Well, I've been writing and thinking a bit and I have a proper outline for the narrative on the assault. I'll run the ideas past y'all if that's OK.

---------------------------------------

I've already mentioned the basic plan for the two assaults covered in the story. The Knights Revenant and the Knights Resplendent are given the task of taking the palace of the Planetary Governor, a chap by the name of Solomon Graske, and executing him. Meanwhile, the [Crimson Knights] are sent to take out the Icarus Gate, a pair of Death Stars left over from the Dark Age of Technology or some similarly mythical time. The two moons that form the Gate are shielded in a similar way to Titan - a warp drive that lets the entire moon make short leaps through the Immaterium and fade temporarily out of realspace. The Knights take the first moon, but something goes wrong on the second and its attackers are killed. To save the lives of his allies on the planet below, the Knights' Chapter Master launches the moon his unit have captured through the Warp and crashes it into the other, destroying the chapter but saving the day.

The ground forces, meanwhile, have infiltrated the Planetary Governor's palace, fighting a desperate battle to get in. Once in, everything is eerily quiet and there are bodies everywhere. Eventually, they ind Graske in his throne room. He tries to bring them over to the Dark Side. As they teeter on the edge, unsure how to proceed, the moons collide in the sky, shaking them out of it. The shockwaves start to bring the palace down, so they hastily execute Emperor Palpatine and beat a hasty retreat before the're crushed under the rubble.

---------------------------------------

That's the basic outline - let me know if you see any glaring problems. Now some notes about characters and places that I've written up.

---------------------------------------

THE ICARUS GATE

Built aeons ago to guard Golgotha against a long-dead threat, these twin moons are essentially warp-phasing mini-Deathstars. The interior of the moons have been hollowed out to contain what I imagine to be the giant, glowing, circular ball of machinery that supplies them with their power. The interior of the moon, on the walkways that criss-cross across the hollow core, is where I imagine the climax of the battle taking place.

---------------------------------------

CHARACTERS

Some brief notes on characters that'll be featuring. I might include these in sidebars when I upload the completed version. I've left off the Chapter Master of the Knights Resplendent, because he's not really mine to create, but these give a brief overview of the contributing characters. Oh, and the Chapter Master of the Knights Revenant has a portrait, because I never really know when to stop.


AMBROSIUS CAESAR

The last Chapter Master of the Crimson Knights, Lord Caesar was considered a rash and impulsive leader by the leaders of many of the other chapters participating in the Crusade, preferring to steer the course of battle as it unfolded before him rather than planning all the details meticulously beforehand. Though these traits often set him at odds with his allies, Lord Vaes in particular, he was admired by all for his personal bravery and for the sense of comradeship he instilled in those under his command. During the Battle for Golgotha, he led his chapter in their last, doomed assault on the Icarus Gate.

HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS LORD SOLOMON GRASKE

Graske was the decadent and corrupt Planetary Governor of Golgotha at the time of the Red Crusade. When the planet of Golgotha fell to Chaos and its cults, so too did its rulers. Graske had maintained his position without the aid of the Imperium through backstabbing, murder and the terror he instilled in his subjects. Within the walls of his palace, he indulged in vile, depraved acts, dark experiments and his own foul, carnal desires. His reign of terror ended with his execution at the hands of the Crusaders.



LORD PELLINORE VAES

Pellinore Vaes was the Chapter Master of the Knights Revenant Lord of the Keep Ascendant at the time of the Red Crusade. He was known for being a calculating leader, considered in his words, actions and strategy. No action was taken under his command unless it had been thoroughly planned out, with all angles accounted for. He was given the responsibility of leading the assault on the Planetary Governor’s palace during the final battle of the Red Crusade for Golgotha, commanding a joint force of the Knights Revenant and their successors, the Knights Revenant. Following the Crusade, he continued to lead the Knights Revenant for many years, before falling in battle with Ork warlord Nazga on the Aeolian Fields.

The 1000-yard stare...

Edited June 10, 2016 by Sir Perfluous

[Doctor Perils]

Just had a PM from Eesioh saying that he is coming back :)

 

So, are there any major evolutions that we can recapitulate for him ? Off the top of my head, we've instituted the concept of the Bloodlines in truth, as well as the third, Imperial, faction.

[EesiOh]

Just had a PM from Eesioh saying that he is coming back

 

So, are there any major evolutions that we can recapitulate for him ? Off the top of my head, we've instituted the concept of the Bloodlines in truth, as well as the third, Imperial, faction.

Alright so I've had a bit of a look through the first page. New stuff seems to be sisters, knights and some more minor tweaks such as a few name changes and such. However despite the fact I consider myself a pretty avid reader i canot help but baulk at reading 20 more pages if they are all as filled with information. Can anyone give me a TL;DR on the most recent events and also where the Archangels currently stand within the situation (if they have moved at all) much appreciated.

PS. Its good to be back

[Sir Perfluous]

This is an annotated and expanded version of the history we've got at the minute - the tiatl;ihycra, or, This Is Still Too Long; I Hope You Can Read Anyway, if you like. It's pretty lengthy still. It's taken from what we have on page 18 but I've edited it to make it prettier and to add new details that we didn't have then. Hope it's OK, EesiOh.

 

---------------------------------------------------

 

Vandire had just been defeated, yet parts of the Imperium had yet to be reconquered following the dire events of the Nova Terra Interregnum and the Age of Apostasy.

 

In an effort to stabilise the regime of the Council of Terra, the High Lords declare a dozen crusades, targeting various parts of the galaxy, sending out contingents from more than fifty Space Marine Chapters, old and new, and it has been suggested that a thousand new Imperial Guard regiments were formed just in order to take part in them.

 

This time also marks the first Holy War launched by Sebastian Thor since his accession to the throne of the Ecclesiarch, during which several of the founding orders of the newly-formed Adepta Sororitas fight on fronts spanning the entire Milky-Way.

 

While the first founding chapters were called to contribute to these crusades, very few were in fact able to participate. In particular, the Blood Angels were randomly assigned to secure the Byzantine Reach, five sectors in the Segmentum Pacificus by the High Lords of Terra, who had at the time seceded alongside Nova Terra, but the IX Legion were at the time occupied with the final destruction of the forces of WAAAGH Vangrod and the Chaos Incursion of Silas Gorehand, and were constrained to pass on their regrets to the masters of Humanity. However, in order to preserve the reputation of the Sons of Sanguinius, the conclave of the descendants of the Blood Angels convened, and proposed a joint force of successor chapters: and so, the Sanguinary Crusaders, Knights Revenant, their successors the newly-formed Knights Resplendent, [Crimson Knights], Archangels, and the Carmine Cardinals would take part in a campaign that would go down in their annals as the Red Crusade.

 

As the Crusade progressed, its participants came into increasing contact with Warp-spawned horrors, corrupted humans and other abominations from the Immaterium. Despite this resistance, the crusaders managed to claw the systems of the sectors back into the grasp of the Imperium, including the capital planet of Byzantium itself, eventually pinpointing the epicentre of the Daemonic horde on the former Shrine World of Golgotha. 

 

Golgotha had always been an extremely populous planet, considered a shrine world for three different factions within the Ecclesiarchy for the past two millennia before the Nova Terra Interregnum. This, of course, had caused many tensions between the inhabitants, and the secession of the Planetary Governor did nothing but compound rivalries and enmities: finally, civil war broke out among them, a war that lasted for centuries, during which the earth of Golgotha saw countless deaths, murders and other atrocities. These proved to be fertile ground for Chaos Cults, and without supervision on behalf of the Inquisition or the Adeptus Arbites, the religious tensions progressively turned the combat into something unholy.

 

Little today is known of the events that transpired during those dark years, but when the host of the Red Crusade finally arrived at Golgotha, they discovered a gaping Warp rift, through which all manner of vile creatures came, tearing their bloody path through the system. Upon the surface of the planet, mortals, under the corrupt and decadent rule of Planetary Governor Solomon Graske, fought, drank, and cavorted with Daemons.

 

With the rest of the star systems returned to the imperial fold an all-out assault on Golgotha was being prepared. Initial intelligence reports were in,  an assault on the planets surface was impossible without first removing the two ancient orbital defense cannons situated on each of Golgotha's moons - the Icarus Gate. The cannons would easily cut swathes through any fleet, and effectively end any surface assault if allowed to remain intact. They proved difficult to destroy, however, as they were defended by similar ancient technologies to those which protected Titan, enabling them to phase out of the physical world for short periods of time for protection and to make short leaps through the Immaterium to better angle themselves in orbit to fire. Chapter Master Ambrosius Caesar of the [Crimson Knights] volunteered his chapter to take out the Gate, under the distraction of a heavy bombardment.

 

Reports from the surface indicated that the Rift was located somewhere within Golgotha's capital, the city of [NAME]. The Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes would be the Emperor’s instrument of divine justice upon Golgotha. They had to do everything they could to prevent the growth of rift. The Knights Revenant and their accompanying fledgling successor chapter, the Knights Resplendent, were assigned the honour of executing the Planetary Governor who was entrenched within his palace at the base of a canyon called the Maw. The Crusaders, Archangels, and Cardinals would be the first wave upon the city, were they hope to locate the epicenter and create an opening for any surviving Crimson Knights, and the Knights Resplendent to arrive and exploit.

 

With that the Marines readied themselves for battle. Boltguns and power armour were anointed and blessed one last time by the Company Chaplain for the final assault. Chapters ancient brothers were awoken and their their dreadnought systems checked and declared fully functional by Techmarines. The Chapters were preparing for war, and it would be a war few would forget.

 

 

THE TALE OF SIR AMBROSIUS

 

The [Crimson Knights] were to assault and destroy the Orbital Defense Guns, left over from ages past. In order to allow their fellow chapters an opening to assault the planets surface and close the every growing warp rift. The guns would be quick to respond to any ship so Chapter Master Cesar ordered for his brothers to prepare for an immediate launch to the moons upon exiting their warp drives. The Fleet would be divided in two and each half responsible for the taking of a moon.

 

The [Crimson Knights] fell out of warp space and quickly moved into position The order was immediately given to launch the drop pods and Thunderhawks. The launch operation moved with clockwork precision. One after another the Thunderhawks launched and drop pods sped away from the strike cruiser, burning through the atmosphere and plunging downwards, retro-thrusters re-orientating each pod so that it remained true to its pre-programmed landing co-ordinates.

 

The core of both moons in the Icarus Gate had been hollowed out to contain the vast generators needed to power the Gate. It was within this core, on the network of bridges and passageways that criss-crossed the centre of the moons that the climax of the battle took place. Chapter Master Caesar and his force took the first moon, despite the resistance of daemons and the traitorous PDF. But on the second moon, something went wrong. The incursion was defeated, though Caesar knwe not how. With growing horror, he realised that the second moon was preparing to fire on the fleet and the forces below. The battle, it seemed, was lost.

 

Unless...

 

Caesar sent the moon under his control through the warp, using the Gate's ability to make short leaps through the Immaterium to sent it crashing into the second moon. Though his chapter was destroyed, his brother chapters were saved. Presumably he had time to make a rousing speech first.

 

 

THE TALE OF SIR PELLINORE

 

The Knights Revenant and Resplendent broke through into the Palace after encountering heavy resistance. However, once inside, all was eerily quiet. The floor was littered with the corpses of servants and guards, and there was evidence of great revelry the previous night. After miles of silent corridors and halls, they encountered Graske alone on his throne, surrounded by mutilated corpses, knife in his hand. He tempts them over to the Dark Side (they have cookies). The Knights pause, unsure how to proceed and feeling the stir of something within them, some inner darkness that calls for them to comply. As they teeter on the brink, the two moons in the sky smash together. They are snapped out of it as debris starts to pour down from the sky and the throne room begins to collapse. Graske is pinned beneath some rubble - Lord Pellinor Vaes delivers a one-liner and beheads him, before the two chapters beat a hasty retreat, the palace crumbling around them.

 

 

THE TALE OF THE RIFT-ASSAULTERS

 

The Crimson Knights had succeeded in their mission, the Sanguinary Crusaders, Archangels, and Carmine Cardinals would not allow such a gift to be dishonoured with failure. As they assaulted the city they were joined by the Knights of house Valcorian. It was clear they had been embroiled in a brutal conflict here for some time. As they push on into the city the resistance began to increase, for every daemon they banished another two appeared. Eventually the brothers cut a bloody swathe through the horde, arriving at the source of the Warp-spawned evils.

 

A vanguard of the greatest brothers the red crusaders could muster pressed home their advantage, within their ranks walked the five chief librarians of the chapters. Upon entering the building a mile long, with a hundred spires reaching to the heavens, and with doors large enough to allow passage of one of the God-Machines of the Mechanicus, that they find the master of the Daemonic Horde, a Mighty Daemon-Prince of the Chaos Gods, larger than any the Crusaders have fought before, seated above a gaping maw into the Nether-realms of the Empyrion

 

This Daemon reveals to the Librarians that he aims on enhancing their power through the use of the Red Thirst, and thus lure them to be his minions.

 

• Insert epic fight scene with the Librarians fighting him back into the Rift, banishing him from real-space for a time.

 

This banishment would not last forever,  they know that if the Rift of Golgotha remains open, he will be able to return as soon as his Lord permits him. They must seal this rift, together. The Ecclesiarchy, the Inquisition or the Grey Knights must never learn of what transpired here, for they would surely discover the ties that the Daemon-Prince had been weaving around the Red Crusaders, and condemn them all as heretics.

 

Therefore, it is decided to  use the Holy Imperial Relic of Golgotha, a Chalice that was said to have once been used by the Emperor himself at a feast in his honour, at the time of the first compliance of Golgotha. With it, they craft a ritual to close the Rift, using their own life's blood as the chains to bind it, and the Chalice as the Lock.

 

Once the Chapter Masters of the Red Crusade arrive at the Cathedral, and realise what has occured, they have no other option but to make a blood-oath, swearing to always protect the Grail, and to never speak of what transpired. Slitting their palms to swear the oath, pouring their blood into the Grail and thereby completing the ritual binding their chapters and their descendants to always do their utmost to protect the Grail, adding a clause that, should they fail, their chapters will be consumed by the Black Rage, ensuring the destruction of their enemies. And so the bloodlines of the Grail Wardens were formed - the line of Pellinore, the line of X, Y and Z. (We need Chapter Master names).

 

In that moment a new organisation was formed, a Space Marine Order, to be known as the Grail Wardens, that garrison the Temple of Golgotha, twelve of their number serving for life as the inner circle of the Grail, the spiritual successors of the Librarians who sacrificed their lives to close the Rift, and who alone will know the full secrets of the Grail.

 

---------------------------------------------------

 

That's how we're looking so far. Any quibbles? Suggestions? Issues? And are we keeping the Crimson Knights as a name or are we changing it?

[Minigiant]

I think you got it @Sir Perfluous

 

I believe we are renaming the Crimson Knights, a few suggestions were made a page or two ago (off the top of my head)

[Sir Perfluous]

Well, they've got a bit of a Flesh Tearer-y, reckless attitude to things, so possibly a name that reflects that. Are there any cultures or themes we could base them on? Preferably something that contrasts with the knightly, angelic themes we have at the minute. Space Celts? Ambrosius Caesar was named after the Romano-British leader Ambrosius Aurelianus, but that could easily be changed. Something completely different? Space Imperial Germany had been something I've wanted to do for a while. Preferably it should stand apart from the chapters we have at the minute, though.

 

Have we given any thought to where the Byzantine Reach is located? Just for a quick map I'm drawing up to act as a visual aid.

 

 

EDIT: Another question. A few pages ago we discussed a warband that the Crusaders would fight against during the Liberation of Golgotha and which would return to aid the Knights Resplendent when they turned. Is that still a thing?

Edited June 14, 2016 by Sir Perfluous

[Doctor Perils]

Well, they've got a bit of a Flesh Tearer-y, reckless attitude to things, so possibly a name that reflects that. Are there any cultures or themes we could base them on? Preferably something that contrasts with the knightly, angelic themes we have at the minute. Space Celts? Ambrosius Caesar was named after the Romano-British leader Ambrosius Aurelianus, but that could easily be changed. Something completely different? Space Imperial Germany had been something I've wanted to do for a while. Preferably it should stand apart from the chapters we have at the minute, though.

 

Have we given any thought to where the Byzantine Reach is located? Just for a quick map I'm drawing up to act as a visual aid.

 

 

EDIT: Another question. A few pages ago we discussed a warband that the Crusaders would fight against during the Liberation of Golgotha and which would return to aid the Knights Resplendent when they turned. Is that still a thing?

Ooooh, I'd missed the Byzantine Reach name, love it :)

 

I'm trying to base the Crimson Host on the ancient Scythians, but that shouldn't change anything. When you speak about Imperial Germany, are you thinking of the Holy Roman Empire or the Bismarck style Empire ?

 

Has anybody had any more thoughts about the Dark Mechanicum army ?

[Sir Perfluous]

Thanks! I love naming things. Give me a thing and I will name it.

 

I considered Holy Roman, though with the amount of Holy Roman Empire themed things already floating around in 40k, they might not stand out much. And thinking about it, the Black Templars have the monopoly on Germanic things, so perhaps not at all. Space Romano-Britons could still work. 

 

The Dark Mechanicum army was supposed to be opposing the Imperial faction, in the same way as the Knights Resplendent, and perhaps the warband that called Golgotha home, oppose the Wardens. Maybe they're after some of the Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain from Minigiant's Ark, perhaps the Grail itself, for some dark and probably icky purpose.

[EesiOh]

This is an annotated and expanded version of the history we've got at the minute - the tiatl;ihycra, or, This Is Still Too Long; I Hope You Can Read Anyway, if you like. It's pretty lengthy still. It's taken from what we have on page 18 but I've edited it to make it prettier and to add new details that we didn't have then. Hope it's OK, EesiOh.

 

---------------------------------------------------

 

Vandire had just been defeated, yet parts of the Imperium had yet to be reconquered following the dire events of the Nova Terra Interregnum and the Age of Apostasy.

 

In an effort to stabilise the regime of the Council of Terra, the High Lords declare a dozen crusades, targeting various parts of the galaxy, sending out contingents from more than fifty Space Marine Chapters, old and new, and it has been suggested that a thousand new Imperial Guard regiments were formed just in order to take part in them.

 

This time also marks the first Holy War launched by Sebastian Thor since his accession to the throne of the Ecclesiarch, during which several of the founding orders of the newly-formed Adepta Sororitas fight on fronts spanning the entire Milky-Way.

 

While the first founding chapters were called to contribute to these crusades, very few were in fact able to participate. In particular, the Blood Angels were randomly assigned to secure the Byzantine Reach, five sectors in the Segmentum Pacificus by the High Lords of Terra, who had at the time seceded alongside Nova Terra, but the IX Legion were at the time occupied with the final destruction of the forces of WAAAGH Vangrod and the Chaos Incursion of Silas Gorehand, and were constrained to pass on their regrets to the masters of Humanity. However, in order to preserve the reputation of the Sons of Sanguinius, the conclave of the descendants of the Blood Angels convened, and proposed a joint force of successor chapters: and so, the Sanguinary Crusaders, Knights Revenant, their successors the newly-formed Knights Resplendent, [Crimson Knights], Archangels, and the Carmine Cardinals would take part in a campaign that would go down in their annals as the Red Crusade.

 

As the Crusade progressed, its participants came into increasing contact with Warp-spawned horrors, corrupted humans and other abominations from the Immaterium. Despite this resistance, the crusaders managed to claw the systems of the sectors back into the grasp of the Imperium, including the capital planet of Byzantium itself, eventually pinpointing the epicentre of the Daemonic horde on the former Shrine World of Golgotha. 

 

Golgotha had always been an extremely populous planet, considered a shrine world for three different factions within the Ecclesiarchy for the past two millennia before the Nova Terra Interregnum. This, of course, had caused many tensions between the inhabitants, and the secession of the Planetary Governor did nothing but compound rivalries and enmities: finally, civil war broke out among them, a war that lasted for centuries, during which the earth of Golgotha saw countless deaths, murders and other atrocities. These proved to be fertile ground for Chaos Cults, and without supervision on behalf of the Inquisition or the Adeptus Arbites, the religious tensions progressively turned the combat into something unholy.

 

Little today is known of the events that transpired during those dark years, but when the host of the Red Crusade finally arrived at Golgotha, they discovered a gaping Warp rift, through which all manner of vile creatures came, tearing their bloody path through the system. Upon the surface of the planet, mortals, under the corrupt and decadent rule of Planetary Governor Solomon Graske, fought, drank, and cavorted with Daemons.

 

With the rest of the star systems returned to the imperial fold an all-out assault on Golgotha was being prepared. Initial intelligence reports were in,  an assault on the planets surface was impossible without first removing the two ancient orbital defense cannons situated on each of Golgotha's moons - the Icarus Gate. The cannons would easily cut swathes through any fleet, and effectively end any surface assault if allowed to remain intact. They proved difficult to destroy, however, as they were defended by similar ancient technologies to those which protected Titan, enabling them to phase out of the physical world for short periods of time for protection and to make short leaps through the Immaterium to better angle themselves in orbit to fire. Chapter Master Ambrosius Caesar of the [Crimson Knights] volunteered his chapter to take out the Gate, under the distraction of a heavy bombardment.

 

Reports from the surface indicated that the Rift was located somewhere within Golgotha's capital, the city of [NAME]. The Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes would be the Emperor’s instrument of divine justice upon Golgotha. They had to do everything they could to prevent the growth of rift. The Knights Revenant and their accompanying fledgling successor chapter, the Knights Resplendent, were assigned the honour of executing the Planetary Governor who was entrenched within his palace at the base of a canyon called the Maw. The Crusaders, Archangels, and Cardinals would be the first wave upon the city, were they hope to locate the epicenter and create an opening for any surviving Crimson Knights, and the Knights Resplendent to arrive and exploit.

 

With that the Marines readied themselves for battle. Boltguns and power armour were anointed and blessed one last time by the Company Chaplain for the final assault. Chapters ancient brothers were awoken and their their dreadnought systems checked and declared fully functional by Techmarines. The Chapters were preparing for war, and it would be a war few would forget.

 

 

THE TALE OF SIR AMBROSIUS

 

The [Crimson Knights] were to assault and destroy the Orbital Defense Guns, left over from ages past. In order to allow their fellow chapters an opening to assault the planets surface and close the every growing warp rift. The guns would be quick to respond to any ship so Chapter Master Cesar ordered for his brothers to prepare for an immediate launch to the moons upon exiting their warp drives. The Fleet would be divided in two and each half responsible for the taking of a moon.

 

The [Crimson Knights] fell out of warp space and quickly moved into position The order was immediately given to launch the drop pods and Thunderhawks. The launch operation moved with clockwork precision. One after another the Thunderhawks launched and drop pods sped away from the strike cruiser, burning through the atmosphere and plunging downwards, retro-thrusters re-orientating each pod so that it remained true to its pre-programmed landing co-ordinates.

 

The core of both moons in the Icarus Gate had been hollowed out to contain the vast generators needed to power the Gate. It was within this core, on the network of bridges and passageways that criss-crossed the centre of the moons that the climax of the battle took place. Chapter Master Caesar and his force took the first moon, despite the resistance of daemons and the traitorous PDF. But on the second moon, something went wrong. The incursion was defeated, though Caesar knwe not how. With growing horror, he realised that the second moon was preparing to fire on the fleet and the forces below. The battle, it seemed, was lost.

 

Unless...

 

Caesar sent the moon under his control through the warp, using the Gate's ability to make short leaps through the Immaterium to sent it crashing into the second moon. Though his chapter was destroyed, his brother chapters were saved. Presumably he had time to make a rousing speech first.

 

 

THE TALE OF SIR PELLINORE

 

The Knights Revenant and Resplendent broke through into the Palace after encountering heavy resistance. However, once inside, all was eerily quiet. The floor was littered with the corpses of servants and guards, and there was evidence of great revelry the previous night. After miles of silent corridors and halls, they encountered Graske alone on his throne, surrounded by mutilated corpses, knife in his hand. He tempts them over to the Dark Side (they have cookies). The Knights pause, unsure how to proceed and feeling the stir of something within them, some inner darkness that calls for them to comply. As they teeter on the brink, the two moons in the sky smash together. They are snapped out of it as debris starts to pour down from the sky and the throne room begins to collapse. Graske is pinned beneath some rubble - Lord Pellinor Vaes delivers a one-liner and beheads him, before the two chapters beat a hasty retreat, the palace crumbling around them.

 

 

THE TALE OF THE RIFT-ASSAULTERS

 

The Crimson Knights had succeeded in their mission, the Sanguinary Crusaders, Archangels, and Carmine Cardinals would not allow such a gift to be dishonoured with failure. As they assaulted the city they were joined by the Knights of house Valcorian. It was clear they had been embroiled in a brutal conflict here for some time. As they push on into the city the resistance began to increase, for every daemon they banished another two appeared. Eventually the brothers cut a bloody swathe through the horde, arriving at the source of the Warp-spawned evils.

 

A vanguard of the greatest brothers the red crusaders could muster pressed home their advantage, within their ranks walked the five chief librarians of the chapters. Upon entering the building a mile long, with a hundred spires reaching to the heavens, and with doors large enough to allow passage of one of the God-Machines of the Mechanicus, that they find the master of the Daemonic Horde, a Mighty Daemon-Prince of the Chaos Gods, larger than any the Crusaders have fought before, seated above a gaping maw into the Nether-realms of the Empyrion

 

This Daemon reveals to the Librarians that he aims on enhancing their power through the use of the Red Thirst, and thus lure them to be his minions.

 

• Insert epic fight scene with the Librarians fighting him back into the Rift, banishing him from real-space for a time.

 

This banishment would not last forever,  they know that if the Rift of Golgotha remains open, he will be able to return as soon as his Lord permits him. They must seal this rift, together. The Ecclesiarchy, the Inquisition or the Grey Knights must never learn of what transpired here, for they would surely discover the ties that the Daemon-Prince had been weaving around the Red Crusaders, and condemn them all as heretics.

 

Therefore, it is decided to  use the Holy Imperial Relic of Golgotha, a Chalice that was said to have once been used by the Emperor himself at a feast in his honour, at the time of the first compliance of Golgotha. With it, they craft a ritual to close the Rift, using their own life's blood as the chains to bind it, and the Chalice as the Lock.

 

Once the Chapter Masters of the Red Crusade arrive at the Cathedral, and realise what has occured, they have no other option but to make a blood-oath, swearing to always protect the Grail, and to never speak of what transpired. Slitting their palms to swear the oath, pouring their blood into the Grail and thereby completing the ritual binding their chapters and their descendants to always do their utmost to protect the Grail, adding a clause that, should they fail, their chapters will be consumed by the Black Rage, ensuring the destruction of their enemies. And so the bloodlines of the Grail Wardens were formed - the line of Pellinore, the line of X, Y and Z. (We need Chapter Master names).

 

In that moment a new organisation was formed, a Space Marine Order, to be known as the Grail Wardens, that garrison the Temple of Golgotha, twelve of their number serving for life as the inner circle of the Grail, the spiritual successors of the Librarians who sacrificed their lives to close the Rift, and who alone will know the full secrets of the Grail.

 

---------------------------------------------------

 

That's how we're looking so far. Any quibbles? Suggestions? Issues? And are we keeping the Crimson Knights as a name or are we changing it?

I love it. Its great, No quibbles or Issues, thank you for such a concise and prompt answer to my question. 

[Sir Perfluous]

You're very welcome! :)

[Doctor Perils]

Beginning of an introduction for the Dark Mechanicum army:

In recent centuries, a new force has made its presence known in the Byzantane Reach, a host of twisted metal and corrupted flesh: the so-called Confederacy of Mahkhg'Gtahvedd, a loose alliance of Arch-hereteks and other renegade Forge Masters hailing from a Daemon World on the edge of Byzantane perception, just as a passing image is glimpsed from the corner of an Eye.

It is unknown if Mahkhg'Gtavedd was once a Forge World, corrupted at the same time as Golgotha; if it had always been lurking on the border of the conscious mind; or whether it has been spawned into existence within living memory. Considering the queer representation of time or cause and effect within the Empyrion, all three may be just as true as being false, all simultaneously. What is known however is that it is ruled over by an organisation calling itself the Confederacy, an entity led by thirteen rulers, nominally of equal power, and each master of his own domains on the Daemon World, wherein they conduct the research that they wish: on them, no rules physical or ethical are imposed, merely the limits of their own dark, damaged imaginations.

Edited June 15, 2016 by Lord Thørn

[Sir Perfluous]

That sounds good to me! The Confederacy wouldn't have been around at the time of the Crusade then? And how should we tie it in to oppose the Imperial faction?

 

Oh, and could we get a quick pronunciation guide on Mahkhg'Gtavedd? :)

[Doctor Perils]

That sounds good to me! The Confederacy wouldn't have been around at the time of the Crusade then? And how should we tie it in to oppose the Imperial faction?

 

Oh, and could we get a quick pronunciation guide on Mahkhg'Gtavedd?

I don't think it's presence would have been known at the time of the Crusade, even if they did exist. And since the Dark Mechanicum are always on the look out for new technological or warp-related artefacts, they are probably also tracking the Grail.

 

You probably don't want to know, as knowing how to pronounce such Warp-tainted words is susceptible to make significant parts of your Hippocampus and brain stem melt... :P

[Sir Perfluous]

If we're setting them up as the rivals of the Sisters and Knights, then we might need something more than that they're simply looking for the Grail. I think that the solution again might be to use Minigiant's Ark, if he's OK with it. If we connect the Grail to it and give the Confederacy a reason to be interested in it, then we have a solid way to establish all of the rivalries. These would become deeper emnities as the battles went on, of course.

 

Is that just an elaborate way of saying that you have no idea how to pronounce it either? :)

[EesiOh]

Spitballing for the Conferderacy (Maag Tah-ved is how I see that pronounced) 

The dark mechanicum apart from perhaps daemon princes of Tzeentch are essentially the patron saints of warp ****ery, perhaps instead of wishing to release the greater daemon bound to the chalice as the regualr chaos forces do (have I got that bit right?) they wish to perfect the ritual of binding a daemon prince in such a way so as to create ungodly mechanical monstrosities for the 3 of the 4 who are left out (Kytan deamon engines and those train looking ones being Khorne's) Remeber if you gave a dark mechanicus ample incentive (such as an undiscovered STC) they coukd make you a warp gate from a potato battery. Imagine what they could do with a device that was used to ensnare a greater daemon/daemon prince. 

[Sir Perfluous]

Did the Grail actually bind the daemon? I thought it just sealed the rift, though I could be wrong. Maybe it does both - binding the daemon in ethereal chains just within the rift, creating the Warp equivalent of roadworks on a motorway and stopping anything else getting through. The sealed rift could actually look like a host of black chains converging on a point in space and disappearing into thin air. That's quite a cool image. 

 

That could be a good reason. Though how would they learn about the nature of the Grail at all if the Wardens kept it such a secret and the Confederacy was only formed after the Crusade?

 

I've been pronouncing it "Maach Guitar-veth", with the "ch" pronounced like the German (as in "Bach") and the "th" pronounced like the start of "the" ( /X/ and /ð/ respectively for you linguists).

Edited June 15, 2016 by Sir Perfluous

[EesiOh]

Did the Grail actually bind the daemon? I thought it just sealed the rift, though I could be wrong. Maybe it does both - binding the daemon in ethereal chains just within the rift, creating the Warp equivalent of roadworks on a motorway and stopping anything else getting through. The sealed rift could actually look like a host of black chains converging on a point in space and disappearing into thin air. That's quite a cool image. 

 

That could be a good reason. Though how would they learn about the nature of the Grail at all if the Wardens kept it such a secret and the Confederacy was only formed after the Crusade?

 

I've been pronouncing it "Maach Guitar-veth", with the "ch" pronounced like the German (as in "Bach") and the "th" pronounced like the start of "the" ( /X/ and /ð/ respectively for you linguists).

 

Did the Grail actually bind the daemon? I thought it just sealed the rift, though I could be wrong. Maybe it does both - binding the daemon in ethereal chains just within the rift, creating the Warp equivalent of roadworks on a motorway and stopping anything else getting through. The sealed rift could actually look like a host of black chains converging on a point in space and disappearing into thin air. That's quite a cool image. 

 

That could be a good reason. Though how would they learn about the nature of the Grail at all if the Wardens kept it such a secret and the Confederacy was only formed after the Crusade?

 

I've been pronouncing it "Maach Guitar-veth", with the "ch" pronounced like the German (as in "Bach") and the "th" pronounced like the start of "the" ( /X/ and /ð/ respectively for you linguists).

The existing Chaos/Renegade froce brought them in for reason X, since finding out about the grail however the Confederacy are scheming to double cross the renegades and take it for themselves? 

[Sir Perfluous]

That could work. Though I doubt that the existing Chaos force would trust anyone enough to share the secret, let alone a collection of evil mad scientists. Perhaps they were forced to turn to them for help, then. But yes, they'd definitely be double-crossing them if they were in on it. Perhaps they already did, and so are at odds with the main Chaos faction.

 

Oh, and Thorn? Have you updated the first post with all the new stuff? Just to keep it all in a handy reference place. Some of the names and details listed there have changed, is all.

Edited June 15, 2016 by Sir Perfluous