The Grail Wardens: a Liber Astartes Group Project

[EesiOh]

Writing up a backstory for Cynothoglys Men’Gl, one of the 13 prophets of the confederacy. What are we naming the daemon world that they reside upon? 

[Sir Perfluous]

Arkham. Let's call it Arkham. Or Salem. And as for names of the Prophets, perhaps we should keep them on the side of pronuncablility! 

Edited June 17, 2016 by Sir Perfluous

[Doctor Perils]

I like Arkham in a weird way. Probably good to 40kify it though. Originally, I had thought that Mahkhg'Gtahvedd could be the world they came from but I'm fine with trying to find some other explanation.

 

Also, Cynothoglys Men’Gl is perfectly pronouncable :P (more so then Mahkhg'Gtahvedd)

[Sir Perfluous]

Mahkh-Gtavedd makes sense to me in a way that Cynothoglys Men’Gl doesn't. I have no idea why.  "Sigh-no-thog-liss men-(choking sound)-gull". There we go. I can do it after all. I'm not against the name at all, though I think we need to be careful to avoid the classic "evil alien name" trope with the apostrophies that you get often in fantasy/sci-fi, especially in Lovecraft. As in: "kneel before Mg'a'a'k'pesh'ngloth, queen of the Ixa'klot'l!". 

[EesiOh]

Arkham. Let's call it Arkham. Or Salem. And as for names of the Prophets, perhaps we should keep them on the side of pronuncablility! 

First name is the name of an Elder God (god of embalming) however i also did think it needed a shortening so thanks for that feedback,  second name is a reference to the rather horrible Joseph Mengele. As for Arkham, I love it, not super subtle but hey its such an evocative name so why not 

[Kelborn]

Arkham....the place where maniacs work with victims and invents monstrosities.

 

Why not calling the 13 rulers something like:

 

J-0-K4

B-4-N3

P-3-NG:U1N

F-4C:EX2

 

Edited June 17, 2016 by Kelborn

[EesiOh]

Arkham....the place where maniacs work with victims and invents monstrosities.

 

Why not calling the 13 rulers something like:

 

J-0-K4

B-4-N3

P-3-NG:U1N

F-4C:EX2

 

Amusing as it is Arkham asylum is actually named after Arkham which already exists in the Cthulu mythos. We (Im assuming here) dont want to move away from the Cthulu based idea. However its still pretty funny, worth keeping for a lighter project featuring admech/darkmech

[Sir Perfluous]

 

Arkham. Let's call it Arkham. Or Salem. And as for names of the Prophets, perhaps we should keep them on the side of pronuncablility! 

First name is the name of an Elder God (god of embalming) however i also did think it needed a shortening so thanks for that feedback,  second name is a reference to the rather horrible Joseph Mengele. As for Arkham, I love it, not super subtle but hey its such an evocative name so why not 

 

 

As I said, I've got nothing against the name at all. I wasn't aware of the origin of Cynothoglys and I the reference to Mengele completely passed by me. It's a clever name, and fits the character, so if you like it, keep it. Though if you feel it needs shortening, I'm fine with it. 

[Sir Perfluous]

So what do you have fluff-wise for Men'gl at the minute? We should probably start brainstorming themes and goals for each Prophet, and work out their relationships with each other. One could act as the Igor to another, for example.

[Kelborn]

We got 13 Prophets, right?

Is that not too much when everyone gets his / her / its own spotlight? Would rather focus on 2 or 3 who could act as dominant persons in this board (ant antagonists) with the rest being more like followers or schemers in the background.

[Doctor Perils]

We got 13 Prophets, right?

Is that not too much when everyone gets his / her / its own spotlight? Would rather focus on 2 or 3 who could act as dominant persons in this board (ant antagonists) with the rest being more like followers or schemers in the background.

 

Yeah, I think it's best not to dive too deep into the functionning of each of the different Prophet's and his realms. After all, could you say what the name of the current 7th captain of the Imperial Fists is ? If so, what is he known for ?

 

I think that, if we let the reader be aware of their existence, that's enough, as long as we show them a quick sample of Prophets important to this story line.

 

 

Also, where's Minigiant ?

[Sir Perfluous]

I think that we should name them and give them a defining trait, but then leave it at that for the moment. Perhaps leave one or two deliberately mysterious, for dramatic purposes. Then we can flesh out the few who are going to be the main players in the narrative, as Kelborn said.

 

He was online earlier today, apparently. Don't know what he's up to, though.

 

EDIT: Have you updated the first post yet, Thorn?

Edited June 17, 2016 by Sir Perfluous

[EesiOh]

i spent a short amount of time whipping this up, however if we want to make the prophets much less detailed, shadowy figures then that is fine. However I'll post this here anyway. Any C&C is of course welcomed

 

Cy’Noth Men’Gl is one of the 13 Prophets who hold equivocal power of the nightmare planet known as Arkham. The area Men’Gl has claimed as his own lies within the core of the planet itself. Ostensibly Arkham appears to be a solid planet, however due to the wills of Chaos and Men’Gl’s own design, a catacomb-like area manages to both exist and not exist where one would expect to find a planets molten core. The former Organicist of the Adeptus Mechanicus is considered even by the other prophets to be both extremely paranoid and reclusive. Currently Men’Gl concerns himself with experiments that focus on the nature and relationship between mortals and daemons. Looking down on the usage of Possessed as ‘unscientific’, because it ‘simply allows a daemon free reign of a mortals body’ Men’Gl instead tries to forcefully combine the two whether through the summoning of daemons to locations a prisoner is currently occupying (often ending rather messily) or attempting to use the same technology Heretks use to bind daemons to machines, but instead binding them to human hosts. So far his research proves bloody and horrific though of little use, though he firmly believes that the artifact once protected by the Grail Wardens might server him in his pursuits. However of recent he seems to have discovered an as yet unknown way of harnessing the empyrean itself and injecting it into the blood streams of his ‘patients’ This process creates a similar effect to Fabious Bile’s ‘enhanced’ soldiers, however Men’Gl’s have an even shorter lifespan than those of Bile’s and many of which meet their ends in a rather messy localized warp space implosion.   

I threw in the bit about Bile at the end because whether we go ahead with him or not i quite like Men'Gl and might try and kitbash a model for him and use him as a Fabious Bile proxy

[Doctor Perils]

EDIT: Have you updated the first post yet, Thorn?

 

I hadn't got round to it yet, but my supervisor's gone home and I think I'll allow myself a little "break" :P

[Doctor Perils]

I've started writing an introduction on the first post if you want to take a look. I haven't got to any of the juicy new information yet, but it's on its way :)

[Sir Perfluous]

I've had a gander and, I have to say, I would buy the book that had thst as its blurb. The last couple of paragraphs especially. Lovely stuff.

 

Sorry if it seems like I'm nagging you to to it, it's just that we've lost quite a few ideas beneath the sediment of later posts and I want to make sure that the stuff we have is preserved before it goes the same way!

[Kelborn]

If I could, I would like it again. Well done. :)

[EesiOh]

So where are we now, in terms of consolidation of information and general tidying up of 23 pages of pure awesomeness, confusion, madness and ideas better left where they are? 

[Minigiant]

So where are we now, in terms of consolidation of information and general tidying up of 23 pages of pure awesomeness, confusion, madness and ideas better left where they are? 

 

I think we are just writing the draft for the Red Crusade. That way it is a solid foundation for things that come afterwards

[Sir Perfluous]

He lives! I thought you'd abandoned us, Minigiant!

 

I think we have the draft for the Crusade more or less done, though it's true that there are one or two specifics that still need ironing out. The exact nature of the Grail and the battle in the Rift Cathedral, for example. The names of the Chapter Masters present to establish the Bloodlines would be another, as well as the nature of the BBEG beastie who led the forces on Golgotha and was sealed behind the rift - I still like the immaterial traffic jam idea.

 

After that, we've got the organisation of the Wardens and exactly how they operated - I'll scour the previous pages to see if I can find what we wrote about that earlier. We could work out a few conflicts that they participated in, and whether the Keep came under attack in the years leading up to their betrayal. Thorn had a few ideas in the original post that we could expand on.

 

Then there's the betrayal itself, the fall of the Wardens and the "Last Cardinal". Again, we have the bare bones of it but we may want to expand.

 

Then the "present day" wardens - how the alliance has changed, what the chapters' current relationship is and the current goals. There's also the Confederacy of Mahkh-Gtahvedd to work on, which has been happening most recently - their origins, current goals and the identities of the Black Prophets.

 

Quite a lot of stuff when it's all written down...

[Kelborn]

I can almost see it....

 

WARZONE: Golgotha

book 1: The Grail Crusade

book 2: The Red Crusade

book 3: In between the Crusades

book 4: Credits

[Minigiant]

He lives! I thought you'd abandoned us, Minigiant!

 

I think we have the draft for the Crusade more or less done, though it's true that there are one or two specifics that still need ironing out. The exact nature of the Grail and the battle in the Rift Cathedral, for example. The names of the Chapter Masters present to establish the Bloodlines would be another, as well as the nature of the BBEG beastie who led the forces on Golgotha and was sealed behind the rift - I still like the immaterial traffic jam idea.

 

After that, we've got the organisation of the Wardens and exactly how they operated - I'll scour the previous pages to see if I can find what we wrote about that earlier. We could work out a few conflicts that they participated in, and whether the Keep came under attack in the years leading up to their betrayal. Thorn had a few ideas in the original post that we could expand on.

 

Then there's the betrayal itself, the fall of the Wardens and the "Last Cardinal". Again, we have the bare bones of it but we may want to expand.

 

Then the "present day" wardens - how the alliance has changed, what the chapters' current relationship is and the current goals. There's also the Confederacy of Mahkh-Gtahvedd to work on, which has been happening most recently - their origins, current goals and the identities of the Black Prophets.

 

Quite a lot of stuff when it's all written down...

 

I am still around, reading this thread often. Posting less, as I am in the middle of writing my Masters dissertation. As you can imagine, writing that, doesnt make you want to write much else.

 

So we have a draft of the Red Crusade, think we need to concentrate on that, and iron out all the creases in it. That final battle needs to be written, and you mentioned the other stuff

[Doctor Perils]

I can almost see it....

 

WARZONE: Golgotha

book 1: The Grail Crusade

book 2: The Red Crusade

book 3: In between the Crusades

book 4: Credits

I have to admit, I'm still reluctant of calling looking for the Grail a "Crusade".

Also, logically, you'd put the Red Crusade first.

 

And I like having a whole book for credits ^^

[Arkangilos]

Sorry I've been away, I had my annual training. Also, being the new RTO for my platoon the last two weeks I was gone, I have a new respect for Vox Operators.

 

It looks like I have a lot to catch up on.

Edited June 22, 2016 by Arkangilos

[Sir Perfluous]

Good to have you back, Arkangilos. :) The complete timeline as it stands at the minute is on the last page, I think. If not, it'll be the page before that. And the little list above covers most of what we're working on now. The Confederacy is the only radically new thing, I think.

 

Y'know, we really need a convenient place to store all this information... Have you updated the first post yet, Thørn? :)