The Tarantulas Chapter

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

As mentioned in my previous thread, the Iron Dragons are no more. Everything Draconic you could do with a Space Marine has been done, and anything I did would just be rehashing it. So I'm gonna do Spider Marines instead.

 

Because it is midnight here I am kinda loopy, so you're going to get a super-short summary of what I've got after about a day and a half.

 

In the crappiest of all crappy possible futures, there was a planet named Aztlán. It was covered with shallow seas, blistering deserts, and steaming jungles. The native life was vicious and brutal. The people even more so. They spent their time hunting extremely dangerous wildlife, farming a variety of foodstuffs, and waging nonstop war on each other in order to satisfy the need for human sacrifices demanded by their Four Gods (guess who?)

 

Then one day, a ship full of Crimson Fists showed up and told them to cut that *BLEEP* out. They bombed the temples, killed all the priests, and brought the people into the Emperor's Light, blah blah blah.

 

Despite still being mostly covered in natural environments, Aztlán was designated a Hive World due to several large cities built later; so unlike most Hive Worlds, this one can produce all the food and water it needs. The primary exports are weapons, vehicles, pharmaceuticals, alcohols, narcotics, and men. While not initially set up as a Chapter World, occasional Chaos Cult insurgencies and it's location in a politically unstable Sub-Sector meant eventually the Imperium got tired of having to defend it. Now there's a Fortress-Monastery on it's moon, and particularly violent Underhive boys frequently disappear. The ones that don't generally get press-ganged into the Imperial Guard.

 

The unique Chapter Cult rituals involve ceremoniously eating dried cacti and tripping out from it. The Chapter-Preferred Strategy is to sneak attack the enemy and deliver debilitating strikes that render them incapable of defending themselves from the killing blow. The Chapter Colors are Black and Orange because I am not letting that go, get used to it. I don't know what their Battle Cry will be yet, or if they'll have a Gene-Seed mutation or not.

[Lysimachus]

Some very nice ideas here. I must admit, I started reading and thought 'ho hum, jungle Aztec Marines' but I really liked being surprised that by the end they were Hive ganger recruits.

 

I also like the mental picture of these pyramidal Aztec temples being replaced by the similar but far greater Hives (perhaps even built in the same spots to cement the Imperium's rule over the world?).

 

My only initial thought would be to lose the ongoing Chaos worshipping/uprisings, as I just can't see a Chapter turning up and saying 'hey these guys seem perfect for the honour of being part of our Chapter!'. Maybe tone it down a bit, make them Emperor worshippers but just very bloody in the way they do it (ok, so maybe a little bit of Khornate influence!)

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

Some very nice ideas here. I must admit, I started reading and thought 'ho hum, jungle Aztec Marines' but I really liked being surprised that by the end they were Hive ganger recruits.

I also like the mental picture of these pyramidal Aztec temples being replaced by the similar but far greater Hives (perhaps even built in the same spots to cement the Imperium's rule over the world?).

My only initial thought would be to lose the ongoing Chaos worshipping/uprisings, as I just can't see a Chapter turning up and saying 'hey these guys seem perfect for the honour of being part of our Chapter!'. Maybe tone it down a bit, make them Emperor worshippers but just very bloody in the way they do it (ok, so maybe a little bit of Khornate influence!)

Well the good news is that I've had as good a night's sleep as anyone with untreatable sleep apnea can have, so now I can be a bit more coherent.

 

To start off: yeah, they're not Aztec Marines, they're Mexican Marines. I thought the Spanish Conquest of the Aztecs would be a good base for a Chapter, so when the Iron Dragons fell through I fell back on this idea. Plus I get to create a canonical Chapter now!

 

Also, I like spiders. Spiders are our friends.

 

Expanding on what you mentioned: Aztlán is basically Space Mexico. There are Temples to the Emperor all over the place, and you can't throw a stone without hitting a shrine to some Saint or another. The other two possible targets are drug dens and street food vendors. Even the most vicious Underhive Ganger goes to church. Granted, as soon as he leaves he gets to work killing people and selling controlled substances, but he always gets to church on time like the good little Catholic-Space-Nazi he is, and he always listens to the Pastor.

 

Unfortunately, there are still enough ruins from Pre-Imperial times hidden deep in the jungles to cause the occasional resurgence in Chaos worship, so for a good few millennia the PDF had to divide it's attention between putting down local uprisings and fending off attacks from off-world. Combined with the fact that the Rural regions produced large amounts of consumables and the Hives produced machines and men, the rulers of the Sector decided that some extra security was called for.

 

I'm thinking I can adapt the previous Gene-Seed mutation ideas for the Tarantulas, so again, Cursed 21st, reintroduced Betcher's Glands and Sus-An Membranes, the Glands produce more than usual and the composition has altered to make it a potent neurotoxin, and the Membrane causes occasional bouts of freezing in place and barely breathing.

 

In summation, If the Crimson Fists are Noble Space Hidalgos, the Tarantulas are Inner City Latino Gangsters.

 

Well, it's the middle of the morning here and the small recharge I got has just about burned out, so I'm gonna go take a nap in a futile attempt to gain some energy. Later!

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

Because I am just that sad a person, I redid all the Painter images with the only change being the removal of the Chapter Logo.

 

Template:

 

Chapter Serf/PDF:

 

Scout Marine:

 

Tactical Marine:

 

Tactical Sergeant:

 

Assault Marine:

 

Assault Sergeant:

 

Devastator Marine:

 

Devastator Sergeant:

 

Veteran Marine:

 

Veteran Sergeant:

 

Terminator Armor:

 

Company Captain:

 

[paulJam]

like the color scheme, good references to the spider's coloring.

 

probably too late now but it you were going with a south/middle-american type feel you could have stuck with dragons and used the xiuhcoatl instead.

[Stercus]

I'm liking the ideas you've put forward. Especially I think there's a great core to work forward with the idea of mirroring the "Mexican gangster" archetype. I think you could do interesting things with the idea of the emperor cult being a hugely prevalent part of modern life on the planet, but ultimately being a veneer over an older, deeper belief system that your chapter have to work hard to keep submerged.

[Olis]

Two things, LCC - 1) Cartel Marines? I don't think I've seen that before. I'd like to see where you go with this. :)

 

2) The trippy cacti thing - that's going to have to be seriously strong stuff for it to affect a marine - do they attempt to overwhelm their normal bodily functions by chowing down on a large number of these cacti?

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

Two things, LCC - 1) Cartel Marines? I don't think I've seen that before. I'd like to see where you go with this. :)

 

2) The trippy cacti thing - that's going to have to be seriously strong stuff for it to affect a marine - do they attempt to overwhelm their normal bodily functions by chowing down on a large number of these cacti?

Well I was thinking that the cacti would simply be lethally toxic to any baseline humans that ate it. The Marines harvest some when they're down on the planet picking up mass-murdering adolescents, and then dry-cure it to increase the potency. The planet's basically a Hive World because it isn't quite dangerous enough to be a Death World. The biomass is pretty evenly split between things that can kill you and things that can't, unlike, say, Catachan.

[Olis]

Yeah, I can see there being hives on their homeworld, no problem. Can't have inner-city gangsters without the city. ;)

 

Are they going to be traditional hives?

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

Yeah, I can see there being hives on their homeworld, no problem. Can't have inner-city gangsters without the city. ;)

 

Are they going to be traditional hives?

If by 'traditional' you mean 'towering arcologies and sprawling industrial super-complexes who's populations almost never see the sky', then yes.

 

That said, they don't cover the entire planet, just the parts that aren't desert, jungle or ocean. It's not that rare really; Armageddon is a Hive World, and it has a jungle big enough to support an entire population of Orks.

[Olis]

I agree. Now, here's a thought - would these Tarantulas celebrate some sort of day of the dead? Or would that sort of symbology be better suited to tarting up your chaplains?

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

I agree. Now, here's a thought - would these Tarantulas celebrate some sort of day of the dead? Or would that sort of symbology be better suited to tarting up your chaplains?

My current thinking was that the 'Day of the Dead' equivalent would be part of the entire planet's culture, with the Chapter Cult containing it's own special version. Making the Chaplain's more death-oriented does sound good, though.

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

I'm thinking that, for some reason, the Chapter doesn't have many, or possibly any, Plasma Weapons.

 

It's either because they can't get them, or they just don't like weapons that occasionally explode in your hands, I'm not sure which at the moment.

 

They make do with lots of Flamers and Meltaguns instead.

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

Now that I think about it, they don't really need to be Cursed 21st, do they?

 

The rest of Dorn's kids do just fine without Betcher's Glands or Sus-An Membranes, after all, and I can't really think of a good Curse for them anyway. Apart from the faulty organs, I mean. Cursed 21sts are supposed to be one bad Crusade away from dying out, but I don't know what sort of misfortune should plague them.

 

Well, I did think of one disaster, but it isn't really a Cursed 21st kind of one. One of the Tarantula Captains, most of the Assault Marines, and a good chunk of the Initiates go bad and run off in one of the Chapter's two Battle Barges after setting up explosives all over the Garrison Moon as a distraction. As a result the Chapter has next to no Jump Packs and it's capacity to rearm and re-equip itself has been drastically diminished.

 

Oh yeah, about the moon. I'm thinking it's smaller than the planet, but possesses comparable gravity. The explanation given is that it's actually the heavy metal core of a planet that got shredded millions of years ago and it eventually wound up in orbit around Aztlán. The whole thing's completely covered in military structures now. Troop barracks, munitions factories, ammo dumps, missile silos, deep-space auger arrays, vehicle bays, shield generators, starship-grade ordinance, training facilities, cybernetic enhancement centers, fuel bunkers, interrogation chambers, landing pads, high security vaults, heavy fusion reactors, cloning labs, mustering grounds, comm towers...

[Olis]

Now that I think about it, they don't really need to be Cursed 21st, do they?

 

The rest of Dorn's kids do just fine without Betcher's Glands or Sus-An Membranes, after all, and I can't really think of a good Curse for them anyway. Apart from the faulty organs, I mean. Cursed 21sts are supposed to be one bad Crusade away from dying out, but I don't know what sort of misfortune should plague them.

 

I would say it is a wise move to reconsider what founding the Tarantulas are. Do you have any preferences otherwise? Maybe make them 20th, instead?

 

Oh yeah, about the moon. I'm thinking it's smaller than the planet, but possesses comparable gravity. The explanation given is that it's actually the heavy metal core of a planet that got shredded millions of years ago and it eventually wound up in orbit around Aztlán. 

 

In that case, the moon would be invaluable on it's own - if it's primarily made from the metal core from a larger planet that's been smashed, there would be gigatonnes of iron that the Imperium could make use of. Also, if the moon has comparable gravity to the world it orbit then two things come to mind - one, the two bodies would likely orbit a point outside of the parent planets surface, which would make approach into orbit more difficult than usual from a few billion kilometres away. Two - the tides on the parent planet must be huge (if the moon supposedly has at least 1G and isn't ridiculously far away). 

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

 

In that case, the moon would be invaluable on it's own - if it's primarily made from the metal core from a larger planet that's been smashed, there would be gigatonnes of iron that the Imperium could make use of. Also, if the moon has comparable gravity to the world it orbit then two things come to mind - one, the two bodies would likely orbit a point outside of the parent planets surface, which would make approach into orbit more difficult than usual from a few billion kilometres away. Two - the tides on the parent planet must be huge (if the moon supposedly has at least 1G and isn't ridiculously far away).

 

Hmmm. I thought of it because 'covering an entire moon in Grav Plating' seemed to me a bit beyond the budget of a minor Chapter. How likely would it be for an entire Fortress World and Chapter Base to be built on top of a Mining World?

[Olis]

Personally, I would forgo making the moon a Fortress World. Just make it a mined out husk or something. The tunnels would be useful, I suppose. 

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

Personally, I would forgo making the moon a Fortress World. Just make it a mined out husk or something. The tunnels would be useful, I suppose.

 

My initial planning was that the moon was both Chapter Headquarters and the base of operations for the system's PDF. I was thinking that the planetary government, as well as the PDF and System Defense Fleet, would present themselves as regular Imperial organizations but actually controlled by the Chapter in secret. Merchant ships would be directed to orbital facilities around the planet, and any unauthorized vessels drifting too close to the moon would get blown out of the sky. Any Chapter ships in-system would broadcast IDs labeling them as System ships.

 

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I had the idea that, due to their Recruiting World's high state of technological development, the Tarantulas had inadvertently developed certain practices similar to those of the Salamanders. Much like the Sons of Vulkan, each Marine can maintain his equipment independently of the Techmarines, and most of the vehicles are maintained and operated by Marines that aren't actually members of the Machine Cult. Since this frees up valuable time for the Techmarines, it might not make that much sense for the Chapter to not have Plasma Weapons, but if that's the case I can just say they used to have them, but when all that sabotage happened one of the places hit was the manufactorum for Plasma Weapons technology, and even centuries later they still haven't managed to replace that wing yet.

[Jape]

Love the colour scheme, very striking without being garish.

 

The Mexican theme is pretty cool too. One thing though, if the population is ultra-ultra-devout, how do the teenage gangers react to learning the Imperial Truth? Or have the Tarantulas veered towards Black Templar style Emperor worship?

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

Love the colour scheme, very striking without being garish.

 

The Mexican theme is pretty cool too. One thing though, if the population is ultra-ultra-devout, how do the teenage gangers react to learning the Imperial Truth? Or have the Tarantulas veered towards Black Templar style Emperor worship?

 

... Give me a minute.

[Olis]

Uh, the Imperial Truth was a doctrine during the Great Crusade. I don't think it's going to be a factor, even if the Tarantulas are relatively secular.

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

I kinda always thought of it as being that The Emperor was the ultimate potential of the human species made manifest, and his ultimate end-game goal was to guide humanitiy's evolution so it could catch up to him. The only problem is that 'Man-God' is really the only way to describe such a thing in the English language.

 

Confusing the matter is the fact that there seems to be two different kinds of Gods in the setting: Warp Gods and Chaos Gods.

 

There's no evidence that the Eldar sacrificed anyone or anything to their gods, so they clearly worked differently than the Ruinous Powers. (The Young King doesn't count, because that's done in order to manifest the fragment of Khaela Mensha Khaine into reality.). There's also the fact that the Warp Gods have distinct identities instead of simply being twisted and corrupted reflections of thoughts and feelings.

 

You also have to wonder where those special Faith Powers the Sisters have come from.

 

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

 

The Big Four aren't Gods but merely the greatest of Daemons?

 

The Emperor isn't a God, he's better?

 

All humans are Gods in potentia?

[EesiOh]

I kinda always thought of it as being that The Emperor was the ultimate potential of the human species made manifest, and his ultimate end-game goal was to guide humanitiy's evolution so it could catch up to him. The only problem is that 'Man-God' is the really the only way to describe such a thing in the English language.

 

Confusing the matter is the fact that there seems to be two different kinds of Gods in the setting: Warp Gods and Chaos Gods.

 

There's no evidence that the Eldar sacrificed anyone or anything to their gods, so they clearly worked differently than the Ruinous Powers. (The Young King doesn't count, because that's done in order to manifest the fragment of Khaela Mensha Khaine into reality.). There's also the fact that the Warp Gods have distinct identities instead of simply being twisted and corrupted reflections of thoughts and feelings.

 

You also have to wonder where those special Faith Powers the Sisters have come from.

 

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

 

The Big Four aren't Gods but merely the greatest of Daemons?

 

The Emperor isn't a God, he's better?

 

All humans are Gods in potentia?

how philosophical if you... certainly a fun point to wonder about

[Akuro Adennyciia]

Lets not forget about the C'tan either, despite their fragmented present nature.
As for the chapter itself, I like the moon idea- though I'd say it being mined out as well as being heavily fortified would be amazing. Just imagine trying to assault the super-crater only to be hit by the guns of hiding frigates. Maybe even surface lance batteries. I think a hive stylized like a gothic aztec temple would be mind-boggling, though less efficient than the usual cone hives. Of course, they may have become overgrown enough to organically shift away from the theme in areas. Too bad I can't art.

I like the idea for mutations- perhaps the mechanicus accidentally handed over some from a different legion? The differing genetics may have lead to the mutations as a side effect. Either that or non Imperial Fists. Dunno how caught up on them you are. (Dun worry, I thought of a DIY of theirs before. They're cool aside from the yellow).

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

Lets not forget about the C'tan either, despite their fragmented present nature.

As for the chapter itself, I like the moon idea- though I'd say it being mined out as well as being heavily fortified would be amazing. Just imagine trying to assault the super-crater only to be hit by the guns of hiding frigates. Maybe even surface lance batteries. I think a hive stylized like a gothic aztec temple would be mind-boggling, though less efficient than the usual cone hives. Of course, they may have become overgrown enough to organically shift away from the theme in areas. Too bad I can't art.

I like the idea for mutations- perhaps the mechanicus accidentally handed over some from a different legion? The differing genetics may have lead to the mutations as a side effect. Either that or non Imperial Fists. Dunno how caught up on them you are. (Dun worry, I thought of a DIY of theirs before. They're cool aside from the yellow).

The C'tan are entirely of the material realm; they don't have souls and are anathema to the denizens of the Warp. So they're either not gods, or Anti-Gods, probably whichever is worse.

 

The basic idea behind the Garrison Moon is that the whole thing is like the surface of the Death Star, crossed with the 'Macbeth' level from Star Fox 64.

 

I've actually decided to drop the mutation aspect. They're not Cursed 21st anymore, they're from one of the boring Foundings.