The Guardian Spears

[DaBoiKyknos]

Hey 40Millenials,

I`m new to the forum and like to share with you my (wip-) ideas for my custom Space Marine Chapter.

It is my first one. I played a little 40k back in 2007/2008 I guess, but Inever played sm`s before.

I`ve been turning this things in my head for quite a while and - while I`m not short of ideas still uncertain about many details, concerning lore, organisation etc. Since now I spend most of the time thinking about the homeworld, the culture of its inhabitants and - based on that - the culture of my chapter, so there are still quite a lot of white spots and I am as well struggling with myself over some different ideas.

Please feel free to add your thoughts and criticism, or give alternate suggestions concerning an aspect or two.

Okay: So I hope you enjoy reading!

Chapter Name:

Guardian Spears

Battleycry:

For the sake of menkind, hunt them down!

Geneseed:

Unknown/ Mixed Geneseed

Sucessors:

-

Home World:

Assagai

System:

Assagai

Sector:

?

Segmentum:

Ultima

Summary:

The Guardian Spears are a quite young chapter based on the desert world Assagai. They were founded on the initiative of a relatively unknown hero of the Death Watch named Caelius Falx, who rediscovered the planet which was unknown to imperial scholars and the rest of mankind since the Age of Strife, a planet called Assagai.

The charismatic Watch Captain/ Champion landed on the planet while trying to hunt down an important Tau official, in order to question him for knowledge about the Xenos` organisation and weaknesses in the name of his superior inquisitor.

Though Assagai mostly isn`t actually considered a death world, it is extremely hot almost everywhere except for the polar regions where a subtropical, mediterranean climate can be found though only in a small area compared to the rest of the planets. What is most striking about the world is the lack of water, which formed the natural species there. Animals and plants are mostly very enduring, which only need very few water or nourishment. Most of the planet consist of various forms of deserts, though some areas could be described as savannas as well. Real forests are only found at the far north and south. There he found human inhabitants which were isolated on their hot and generally hostile environment.

These people can be relatively easy identified as two very different groups:

A highly advanced society which lives relatively comfortable lives, hidden most of their lives from the dangerous climatic conditions in bunker-like complexes or by colonies which were protected under great domes of glass, with own micro-climates, planting vegetables and controlling the greatest amount of the (few) water of the planet by altering the ways of naturals streams and watercourses to their settlements and farming grounds. Those people tend to avoid being exposed to the normal conditions of the planet and prefer to live apart from the desert-dwelling people on the surface, which they hold in low regared due to their technological inferiority and their "barbaric" ways.

The other were half-nomadic tribes, dark-skinned, lean and used to the hardships life on the surface. They wander the desert with herds of cattle, exposed to enormously hot days and often freezing-cold nights, since they are old enough to walk and are divided in various families and clans. They have to defend their animals regulary against predators like lions, hyenas and such and are regulary (though not as often as other "savage" people) forced to fight each other for safe place like oases or pasture grounds. They despise in turn the other fair skinned people, who live most their lives under ground. They think of them mostly as weaklings, cowards and dishonest.

Their life is based is full of trials, though not in the form of permanent war or fighting but more in the way of the constant need to preserve and endure hardships. This leads to typically stoic mindset. Their strong will to survive and overcoming times of draught and misery is mirrored in strong religous beliefs and spiritality.

Caelius Falx saw the potential in those people to be good space marines, because they were hardened and normally extermely loyal to their leaders and kinsmen. So using his influence on fellow astartes, be it captains, battle-brothers or veteran sergeants he got to know in his time in the Death Watch and before then he was still an active member of the Astral Claws, he finally managed to convince the Administratum to get his leave to create an all new chapter in the Ultima Segmentum. Their main objective was to defend their system and neighbouring systems against the growing thread of the Tau Xenos, the Assagai sytem Being very close to the growing Tau Empire.

The Chapter was found only roughly 70 years ago around 930.M41.

It has since fought in a few conflicts, including various Deathwatch-led missions located in their own and neighbouring systems. Their primary enemies are as mentioned to Tau, but they also helped to stop local minor Orc invasions.

The Chapter

Strength:

About 300 to 500 Marines. The Chapter is considered by many to be still in the phase of being build. The primary obstacle here is not a lack of ressources but more the lack of people to recruit from.

Colours:

- Gold/Sand , White

- Troop Type shown with helmet colour

(Tactical Marine)

Organisation:

The Guardian Spears honour the Codex Astartes as a work of wisdom. However they don`t see it as binding set of rules, but rather as a guideline.

Partly due to its young age, the chapter consists of a great amount of scouts (about a third to half of the chapter members) and therefor has a second scout company.

Because of their deeply spiritual nature, the guardian spears hold chaplains in high regard. Chaplains are therefor not unusal to lead operations or entire missions.

Their scouts tend to operate for long periods of missions alone and are of high strategic importance. They are the usually the main ressource of intelligence on the enemys movements, weaknesses and terrain.

The different troop types can be telled apart by their helm colours and internally known by a predatory animal of Assagai, which they think their style of fighting fits to most:

- Scouts are known as Desert Foxes or "Fenneks"

- Tactical Marines are known as Leopards (yellow helmets)

- Bikers and Assault Marines are Cheetahs

- Veterans are known as Lions

- Devastators and Tank Drivers are known as Hyenas (black helmets)

Culture

The Guardian Spears see their reason of existence in their never-ending quest in the defense of people of mankind from outer foes.

They see the Emperor as a great hero and chosen by their gods, but usually not as a god, due to the spiritual beliefs of their home-world, which most of the battle-brethren continue to follow for the rest of their lifes.

The Chapter Name comes from their perceived role as guardian of mankind, the spear is the most common weapon of the people of Assagai.

The Guardian Spears are known for their deep spirituality which is very much rooted in the beliefs of the people of their homeworld.

They think the Universe is constantly testing menkind by sending them great obstacles to overcome and the foes of menkind are such obstacles which need to be overcome by those strong in spirit and will. Astartes are chosen by the gods and rewarded with great strength and abilities but for the greater good of menkind. "From great strength come great responsibility" is a sentence which would fit very good to the self-conception of this order. The Guardian Spears generally feel a great sense of responsibilty and deep-set, genuine love for the people which to protect they feel is their duty.

They lack the contempt some chapters like the Iron Hands feel for weakness or normal humans. They also lack the contempt for abhumans of other Astartes.

Ironically their feral-world beliefs are constant source of disharmony with other imperial institutions which led to several investigations by the inquisiton in the short time of the chapters history.

Other factions in the imperium, including other space marine chapters often wonder about their superstitious nature. The Guardian Spears seem to practise a cult like worship for their forbears, which are often "asked" before battles or other important events in rituals led by Chaplains. This worship also includes the concept of the machine-spirit. Battle-brothers often feel extra encouraged, if they wear the armor or weapons of a respected deceased member of the chapter.

Part of the beliefs of the chapter, however, is the demonization of psykers. Natives of Assagai who show signs of psychic abilities are feared as "witches" or "sorcerers" and almost always instantly executed. Therefor the Guardian Spears don`t field librarians and sometimes refuse to fight along other forces who do use psykers.

Fortress-Monastery

Skycliff

A building complex on a great monutain which is seen as holy by dunemen.

[DaBoiKyknos]

(... Part 2)

 

 

Homeworld/ The People of Assagai

 

The homeworld of the Guardian Spears is inhabitated by humans since a point of time somewhere in the Dark Age of Technology.

It was inhabited by human settlers mostly because of its richness of ressources, foremost its treasures of the soil. It is very rich in metals. Gold for example is so common on the world, that the inhabitants today normally don`t even consider it a valuable ressource. Diamonds and platinum are also common, as well as adamantium, though in far lesser numbers.

While mining must have soon appeared very promising at the world their was always a dire need for food and drinking water and for the most time the planet was dependent on food deliveries from allied planets and systems.

The gouvernment was run by a person called "Rhodesius", who was in fist accounts only referred to as a gouvernor, but later called himself vice-king and in the end simply king. He was a man of opulent taste, who loved to show his ridicolous wealth and host hunts. For this reasons animals of Terra, especially of Africa were some how  brought to this planet, which more or less got along with the hot climate. This enabled him to hunt animals like elephants, lions etc.

His reign was supported by a technocratic class of engineers, physicists and other scientists.

The vast majority of the people worked the mines, maintained machines and also began herding animals like gnus, goats and other cattle. Both as food for themselves, as well as for the predators, which very later hunted as amusement by Rhodesius and the upper class. But again, the world never reached a state of self-sufficiency. Rhodesius, though styling himself like an autocratic ruler, was always depending on other, higher authorities to keep his people fed and his system running. Though he was admired and respected by the elitary ruling class, he was soon despised and his name used as a curseword by the rest of the populationand seen as a useless ruler, who only cared for the pleasures and well-being of himself and his entourage.                                                                                                                               

 After decades of ruling his inner-circle received more and more disturbing reports about the warp. The warpstorms which were later mark The Age of Strife were steady rising. Rhodesius, whose colony had always been quite difficult to reach at best, kept this a secret quiet a time, while he was already planning the getaway of his family and a few chosen. As a part of his plan, he let his followers sabotage all planetary defense weapons and all space vessels, which weren`t already meant to be used by himself using explanations like these actions were ordererd by higher authorities or not letting those actions be known to the public at all.

Finally, he did tell the mid-level of the administration about the turbulences in the warpand announced, that he would personally seek for help in all urgency at the neighbouring colonies in order to evacuate the population as soon as possible. He then left in a vessel which contained him, his highest advisor and kin never to return again.

Since this point of time Assagai was completedly isolated an - robbed of his ability to travel space or contact other worlds left to his fate.

Rhodesius was never seen or heard of again and while some of his faithful followers who believed the image transported through his propaganda as a care-taker and patron still hoped for the next centuries for his return the vast majority, accepted the reality of their isolation pretty soon.

 

It was this point, which also marked the finaly separation of the population.

While the engineers and inhabitants of the few permanent settlements soon closed their gates and began to plant crops underground, the majority of the mine-workers  soon adapted to the way of life of the already mostly nomadic herders. They gave up almost totally on modern technologies and wandered the planet with their cattle.

This new population soon evolved into a greater number of different tribes and clans and began to change both physically and spiritually finding ways to better get along with the exposure of weather and environment. Some thousand years later almost all of them had developed a dark, mostly black skin and bodies which very more able to withstand long marches through the hot (and mostly barren) landscape.

After some times this big group of tribes began to call themselves the " dunemen " as a general differenciation to the former elite group of peoples, who now lived mostly underground in artificial and none-artificial cave system, which were by them refered to as "milkmen".

Those people continued to maintain a level of technology, which they used at the beginning of the colonization of Assagai, with the exception of space craft, which they were ultimately unable to regain. All necessary knowledge of spacecraft in general and especiallywarp-travels couldn`t be rediscovered and were widely unknown until the rediscovery of the world by Caelius Falx several millenia later.

 

The dunemen are fierce warriors, but don`t wage war as much on each other as the population of other feral worlds. Their individual clans are led by chiefs which are elected in a semi-democratic way after a time period of a single year. Why it is not uncommon for individuals to function as chiefs multiple years and sometimes even decades in a row, the process of re-/election by the adult men of the tribe is something which has a crucial importance for their society. Each young man who comes of age and passes different rites of passage is called a "warrior" by his people (a term which is generally used as a synonym for "man) and given a longspear with a heavy, usually iron tip.

The spear is of great importance in the societies of the dunemen as it symbolizes a mans pride, status, freedom, but also his responsibilities.

It is used mostly not for combat or battles against enemy tribes (a practice which is in fact highly restricted in the dunemens society) but to defend the tribes herds against predators.

This fact is mirrored in the guardian spears view of themselves as defenders of mankind, rather than conquerors.

[DaBoiKyknos]

Just updated the first post.

 

Does anyone care to give some feedback? You can call my stuff unoriginal or generic if you want to, but I would appreciate some reactions.

Maybe I should have started this thing differently, just presenting my general ideas first, befor I write a long text, but alas.

I am not really up to date about tactics or things like that, thats mainly a reason why I didn`t write that much about it.

I also lack characters and I don`t really know about "realistic" numbers for battle-brothers and equipment. 

 

Maybe someone could help me out here ?