Dragon Brothers - WiP

[Bloodspeaker]

Very much unfinished chapter. Not really sure where I want to take them from this point. I was aiming at a sort of Aztecs with dinosaurs idea. I'm not really sure i've pulled it off. I think i'll have to think about this one.

 

* 01/10/2015 - Added major updates and changes to every section as well as adding a section about organization. Also uploaded an alternate (and to me more distinctive) color scheme.

 

Dragon Brothers

Warcry - Loud, draconic roaring

Founding - Unknown 

Primarch - Vulkan He'stan

Sucessor of - Salamanders

Homeworld - Pyrophrax Secondus, Ultima Obscurus 

Chapter Master - 

Allegiance - Imperium

Heraldry - Black (primary) fiery red (secondary)

History

Based on a moon in orbit around the volcanic jungle world of Pyrophrax Primus, the space marines of the Dragon Brothers chapter were created to guard against incursions from an area of the Segmentum Obscurus known as the Shifting Storms. Collectively these chapters form the Shifting Sentinels. This area is well known for it's short lived but extremely violent warp storms. It is a favorite hiding place of all manner of pirates, form orkish Freebootaz to Dark Eldar raiders and Chaos cultists and warbands. 

The Dragon Brothers must often spend long periods of time on crusade or patrolling the Shifting Storms. As such it is extremely rare for more than one Hunt to be present at the fortress monastery at any given time. Because of this the chapter has been forced to adopt several changes from the standard organization laid out in the codex astartes.

 

Although the chapters fortress-monastery is based on Pyrothrax Secondus, the Dragon Brothers consider Pyrothrax Primus to be their homeworld. This large jungle world is roamed by monsters much like the dinosaurs that used to live on ancient Terra, which the locals have named 'dragons. The humans of this deathworld survive by either constantly moving and trying to avoid the 'dragons' of their world, or living in the few cities built on the equatorial islands. Most of these cities are formed into large, stone pyramids. Technology on this world is at the stone age level.

Until the arrival of the Dragon Brothers, the natives of Pyrothrax practiced ritualized human sacrifice. This was not done in worship of the Chaos powers, as was the case in most other instances of such practices. These sacrifices were preformed as a way of sending the Sun God the strength to fight the Dark Fathers, as the Pyrothraxi knew the Chaos Gods. 

 

Recruitment

When a company of Dragon Brothers company drops far enough bellow strength the company Captain will send heralds from the Dragon's Cradle on Pyrothrax Secondus to the surface of Pyrothrax Primus and announce a Time of Trials.

 

Once this time is announced those inhabitants of Pyrothrax who are brave enough will try to fight their way to one of the Dragon Altars situated around the planet. The dangers of such a journey are many, as the Dragon Altars are all situated high in mountain ranges. First any aspirants much brave the fetid jungles and many carnivorous dragons. Many hundreds die for every one that succeeds

 

Even when an individual does survive the journey and make it to one of the Altars the Trial is not over. Each Dragon Altar is a great stepped pyramid, carved from enormous blocks of onyx. Potential aspirants must make their way to the uppermost level of the Dragon Altar. Deadly tests await within the Altars, designed to test each aspirants bravery, cunning and resiliance. 

 

Any that do survive are taken back to the Dragon's Cradle to begin the process of becoming Space Marines.

 

Gene-seed

Long known to be successors of the Salamanders chapter, recent information provided by the rogue trader Saldabron Brax has caused this lineage to be called into question. This information came in the form of a tome detailing the chapters of space marines active in the Segmentum Obscurus at the end of M.37. In this tome is a reference to the draconian sons of the Angel. The heraldry listed for these draconic sons is remarkably similar to the heraldry used for this chapter. Many of those who say that the chapter are not true sons of Vulkan point out that the Dragon Brothers lack the Salamanders characteristic black skin and glowing eyes. It is unclear if this is simply due to the Dragon Brothers not being descendents of Nocturne or if it is the result of them being from a different gene-stock altogether. Until more definitive proof emerges however, the Dragon Brothers maintain that they are sons of Vulkan.

 

Whatever the Dragon Brothers genetic lineage, their gene-seed is noted as being stable and remarkably pure. It has never been shown to show even minor mutations. Where it not for the chapters reluctance to allow it, it is likely that there would already be Dragon Brothers successors. The reason for this reluctance is not known. 

 

Organization

The Dragon Brothers are a mostly codex compliant chapter withh three major divergences. The biggest difference is that each hunt is double the size of a standard space marine company. Hunts are also organized so that it contains assault, devastator, veteran and scout elements. Both of these changes were made due to the fact that each Hunt may have to operate away from the chapters support for years at a time. Typically a Hunt will contain (listed as 10-man squads);

8 Tactical squads

4 each of Assault and Devastator squads

2 each of Veteran and Scout squads

In addition to this each Hunt will a codex equivalent command stucture with unit's equating to Captain, Chaplain, Techmarine, Librarian and Apothecary. Each Hunt Captains word is law and may only be countermanded by the Dragon Brothers chapter Master.

 

The last major divergence from the codex astartes is caused by the fact than many on their homeworld cannot read when they join the chapter. Because of this the Dragon Brothers have adopted a system of simple geometric shapes, with dots indicating the squad number placed above. Each Hunt is denoted by the squad markings colour, in rough accordance with the codex astartes.

 

Despite their larger company size, the Dragon Brothers currently only field 4 Hunts. The 5th Hunt recently suffered severe losses and is currently serving as the fortress-monasteries garrison force. 

 

Beliefs

Despite being sucessors of the Salamanders chapter, the Dragon Brothers do not follow the Promethean cult. Instead they follow the solar centered version of the Cult Imperial followed by the human inhabitants of Pyrothrax Primus. In this faith the Emperor is cast as the Sun-god Incarnate and it is believed that he sacrificed himself to renew all of creation. While such solar cults are not uncommon throughout the Imperium, many scholars are baffled to find that the Sun god and his children that form the basis of this one very closely match the physical descriptions of the Emperor and Primarchs. The reason this surprises scholars is that this cult seems to predate the creation of the Primarchs themselves. 

 

The Dragon Brothers revere the mighty beasts that roam the surface of Pyrophrax Primus an consider it a sign of great strength and skill to be able to slay one. Even for a space marine this task would prove difficult. Those who succeed in hunting and slaying one of these great dragons are usually judged worthy to either join a veteran squad or lead a squad of their own. 

 

Since the emergence of the Storms of Judgement the savages that the Dragon Brothers draw their recruits from have come to believe that they are living in a Time of Sacrifices, when the souls of the unworthy must be offered up to the great Sun-Father. This belief has bled over into the space marines, who believe that when every unworthy soul in the Segmentum Obscurus has died the warp storms will once again abate.

 

Dragon Brothers Veteran Sergeant with dragon skin.

 

          

Dragon Brother Veteran with dragon skin. Alternate color scheme

[Sir Perfluous]

I don't profess to be any great master of lore, but I may be able to add a couple of points for you.

 

Firstly, when you say that all the inhabitants gather on the mountain to hunt, do you mean the inhabitants of the entire planet? Because I imagine that would be a rather high number of people. And is the hunting party selected from amongst their best or do thay all take part? If it's the latter, then you may want to reword the "survivors" bit - I can't imagine that they'd be prepared to have the entire population of the planet killed every few years!

 

Also, red and black, whilst it does look cool, is a very overdone colour scheme (see the Octaguide - in fact, see it anyway if you haven't already). There's nothing wrong with it if that's the colour you want, because it really does look cool, but bear its heavy useage in mind.

 

And to the best of my knowledge, the black skin of Salamanders is caused by both a gene-seed thing and the environment of Nocturne. A successor needn't have the same features (though you'd probably want to replace them with another interesting quirk). I may be wrong on this, however.

 

Still, this looks like an interesting start - dinosaur/dragon space marines are a very interesting concept, so kudos for dreaming that up! Would the draconic themes tie into the fluff of the chapter in any way other than their backstory? Would their combat doctrine emphasise the brute strength of the beasts, the flaming weapons of dragons (and the Salamanders) or some other draconic trait, like flight via jump pack? If you have any skill with Green Stuff, you might be able to sculpt draconic decorations for models, if you intend to play this chapter on the tabletop. There are actually a lot of very interesting possibilities.

[Bloodspeaker]

Thanks for the feedback first off. It's always appreciated.

I was planning to play more on the idea of dinosaurs and Aztecs than actual fire-breathing dragons. I'm not really sure how to make that tie in to combat doctrine though, since i don't really want to make another melee heavy, honor based chapter. There are plenty of those loose in the Imperium already. I mean really, throw a stone and you'll hit a chapter that 'duz melee coz honor/animal totem'. I've been trying to write in something like the Aztec sacrifice rituals, but it always ends up looking like they would follow Chaos, not the Imperium by the time i'm done.

I might end up dropping the whole Aztecs thing. I'm also thinking of reworking the homeworld a lot.

[Kelborn]

Allthough I did an aztec chaos warband, I was greatly inspired by the Blood Jaguars. They were created by 1d4chan and are a loyalist chapter with a well written background. Maybe this could help. :)