Black Book - Insurrection (PUBLISHED)

[Hesh Kadesh]

I'd rather you were up front, or if it is not your place to say (in which case, why say anything), then encourage those who have complaints to speak up.

 

I know I've make comment over rules; mainly because it is my thing. I play the game a lot, and have tested a lot with how rules interact, what works, what doesn't. I can't paint for the life of me, and my writing fluff is often twee and quaint, so I like to try and help by offering balancing advice.

 

It is hard to provide balancing advice without hurting peoples ideas, but trying to keep a ruleset current and arguably balanced among all of the legions is something that would be nice, and often times is something that can't be balanced by the author; I know I have trouble with it.

 

With the writing, we're mostly adults or adult minded, so criticism, provided it isn't personal should be taken and given as being constructive.

 

Stirring the pot like that isn't helpful for anyone.

[Kelborn]

*sigh*

 

I did not want to start a discussion. I did not want to stir in the pot.

I just wanted to help.

 

I'm not a tattletale. Therefore I will not name persons here. All I saw and all I noticed (via private messages) is that there is at least one person unhappy with the current situation when new fluff concerning their legion is posted, without being asked.

 

If you want names, go to the previous page. Someone already apologized. I did not intended to point at someone and say: Hey you! You're guilty of some weird kind of crap between you and this guy over there.

 

All I wanted is to prevent a situation in which some guys get so frustrated and angry about some other's work that it gets nasty. All because they were not able to find a solution.

 

If posting it in here was a false decision. So be it. I apologize for that. For now, I will not say anything more about that.

It is up to those persons to find a solution. Together.

[Skalpynock]

Coch'ise vs. Niklaas is what I'd personally like to see just because tactically talk about the the two most opposites.

Seconding this, both for the reason you mentioned and because we haven't heard much of the Ghost Walkers (and, in my opinion, not enough of the Fire Keepers). As for the other slot, I'm biased because both include a legion I created, but the Revolutionaries' hunt for Azus is a major point, that should be developed in due time in its own book. Instead, the Jackals attack of the Void Eagles, and how they managed to strike at a legion that is already scattered across the galaxy, may be better suited for one such infobox.

[MikhalLeNoir]

And Jackal hadn't much screentime either.

But I want to know how the story of Azus amd the revolutionaries end. Was really cool. How aboit Jafe captures him. We don't have much hostages.

[simison]

So, everybody agrees that Coch'ise and Niklaas deserve some screen time. But we seem divided on who gets the last slot, whether it's the Jackels or the Revolutionaries. I'll think on this.

[Sigismund229]

In an attempt to make up for the pigs ear I made of Alexos' attack on Gwal(sorry bout that Mikhal and AO, entirely my fault, should have read more of what you guys were posting instead of just rushing into it) I just edited the Death of the Bear. Hope I got it right this time and sorry for the wall of text.

The Death of the Bear
Of all the legions that stood against Icarion and whose loyalty he knew he couldn't sway, he foresaw that it would be the VI, the Iron Bears who would cause him the most grief if they weren't removed from play in the opening stages of the Insurrection. More numerous than the Crimson Lions and lethally better equipped than the Scions Hospitalier, if they weren't destroyed beyond hope of recovery before news of the Insurrection reached them and they mobilized for war, then Icarion foresaw that the Iron Bears would be a major obstacle on his road to Terra, one which would inflict heavy casualties upon his forces and slow them, perhaps even long enough for the other loyalists to gather upon Terra. With the full strength of those loyal to the Emperor guarding the homeworld, it would be impossible for Icarion to launch a successful assault upon it and support for his cause would gradually fade away, leaving him little more than an isolated rebel, doomed to be annihilated by his vengeful brothers. So it was decided. The Iron Bears had to be destroyed, crushed beyond any hope of recovery.

However, Icarion also foresaw that unless his brother, Daer’dd Niimkiikaa, was killed, then they would meet once again on a world of black hills and stormy skies but where once it would have been a brotherly re union, full of joy and laughter, this time there would be nothing but hate and sorrow. While in many paths Icarion emerged from this confrontation victorious, his brothers body at his feet and the VI legion scattered, in others it was the Iron Bear who was victorious, Icarion’s body lying broken at his feet as the Bear roared in triumph and a lightning storm began to dissipate, fresh rays of sun breaking through the clouds to illuminate a field of dead bodies in the white and black of the I. In no version of events did the Iron Bear turn to Icarion’s cause. Deciding that such a course of events could not be risked or even allowed to come to pass, Icarion was decided. His brother must die.

In this decision, Icarion also saw an opportunity to test two of his newfound allies, Koschei Kharkovic and K’awil Pakal. While both had declared that they would join their legions to his cause and rally beneath his banner, Icarion was uncertain of the exact loyalties of his two brothers. Koschei was motivated by his dreams, visions of legionnaires long since dead, their bodies rotting, visiting him to give him visions of a world in which all were equal and none needed to die for their ideals. In Icarion's insurrection, Koschei saw an opportunity to realise this dream. Icarion had foreseen paths where, instead of pledging himself wholeheartedly to Icarion’s cause, Koschei deserted him or, seeing through his visions and recovering his previous loyalties, stood beside their father at Eternity Gate, united in defiance of Icarion, blind to the ultimate fate Icarion had foreseen their father inflicting on them all. As for K’awil, K’awil had always been a mysterious figure, not truly close to any of his brothers yet never truly hateful of them either. Icarion could not be certain of his motives or true loyalties and even his attempts at seeing into his shadowy brothers future had provided little enlightenment in this regard. It seemed that even the warp was blind to K’awil’s true allegiance. So it was that the Stormborn seized the opportunity to test his brothers and seal their loyalty with blood. The blood of the Bear.

Two legions, the Godslayers and the Grave Stalkers, a total of 173,000 astartes, were to surprise the Iron Bears over the world of Kataii, a world whose governor had just declared his independence from the Imperium at large. While the Warmaster had dispatched the Iron Bears to bring the world back into the fold, by force if needs be, Icarion had persuaded his brother to send the VIII and XX to aid the VI. While he had accepted that such overwhelming force was unnecessary, he had persuaded his brother that presenting such a united front would send a simple but clear message to any potential rebels: any rebellion against the Emperor would be dealt with in such a manner that no man, woman or child of that world would survive the ordeal and all traces of them would be erased from the galaxy. A pre emptive strike. This also gave the two traitor legions the opportunity they needed to close the distance with the Iron Bears, bringing their ships within boarding range, some of them even boarding VI legion ships before the betrayal was revealed and inflicting maximum damage in the opening moments of the battle, crushing the VI before they even realised they had a battle on their hands. It would be a clean, relatively bloodless victory for the traitors, one which both removed any chance of Icarion having to run the gauntlet of facing the Bear in battle and one which effectively removed an entire loyal legion from play for a relatively small loss of rebel astartes, further widening the gap in terms of astartes numbers between Icarion and his father.

With these objectives in mind, the annihilation of the Iron Bears and the death of Daer'dd, the Godslayers and Grave Stalkers set out for the Kataii system, unaware that their loyalty was being tested, for Icarion had presented their mission as an honour rather than a test, for it was they who would strike the first blow against their treacherous father and deal the first major, irrecoverable defeat to the loyalists. It was with their hearts swelling in pride from the compliments that Icarion had heaped upon their legions and the fact that it was they who had been chosen for this task, not any of the other legions with whom it was known Icarion was closer to.

From the moment they went into the Warp to when they arrived in orbit over Kataii, the legions who had aligned themselves with the Lightning Bearers seemed to be favoured by some other worldly power. Whereas the Iron Bears had reported enormous amounts of turbulence in the Warp around Kataii, the Godslayers and Grave Stalkers arrived in orbit over Kataii within a matter of days, a miracle given that it had taken the VI weeks and they had been far closer to the Kataii system and even then they had arrived scattered and out of formation. By contrast, the VIII and XV arrived in perfect formation with all their ships intact. The only sign of Warp turbulence had been the whispers that many of the crew(mainly the unaugmented humans although some astartes and even, it’s rumoured, the primarch, Koschei, himself) had heard, a single word being repeated over and over again throughout the entire voyage: Nurgl’eth.

As soon as the VIII and XV entered into real space in the system, they were greeted with warm hails by their brothers of the Iron Bears, with Daer’dd greeting his brothers in person using a hololithic message, completely unaware of the intended treachery. The Godslayer and Grave Stalker fleets were even provided with honorary escorts by the Iron Bears, a formality that Koschei and K’awil were only too happy to accept. Soon, the flagships of all three legions were drawn up alongside each other and the squadrons of Iron Bears war ships began to intermingle with their brothers of the VIII and XV. Daer’dd even invited his brother primarchs and their astartes aboard his flagship, the Dragon of Autumn, nominally for a meeting about strategy in regards to re claiming Kataii in the name of their father but actually in order to him to greet his brothers properly and re acquaint himself with them, for he believed it to have been too long since he had last waged war alongside his brothers. Unwittingly, the VI were playing into the hands of the traitors.

With the legions combined strength assembled, the Godslayers and Grave Stalkers were able to fully observe the Iron Bears fleet. Of the legions total strength, only around 130,000 were in orbit over Kataii. The rest had either been scattered during the warp journey or were too far away to be assembled at such short notice as it would take them weeks, possibly even months to join their legion. Over the next few hours, the rebel ships moved into positions either amidst the Iron Bears fleet or on the outskirts of the system, so as to block the escape routes for any Iron Bears ships who managed to claw their way clear of the original ambush and the astartes of the Godslayers and Ghost Stalkers either intermingled with their brothers of the VI, maintaining full armour in many cases, although this was put down to the fact that they were to be prepared to assault Kataii at any time, or began to load themselves into boarding pods in preparation for the eventual betrayal.

The first shots of the betrayal were fired by a legionnaire of the XV on board the Iron Bears strike cruiser Heart of Iron. Within moments, as if some unspoken signal had been spoken across the vox that the Iron Bears hadn’t heard, the legionnaires of the Godslayers and the Grave Stalkers began to open fire upon their brothers of the VI, slaughtering hundreds in the opening minutes with precise bolter shots or knife cuts to the throat. Even on board the Dragon of Autumn the VI were slaughtered without remorse, as the warriors brought on board by Koschei and K’awil turned on Daer’dd’s elite Totem Guard, as helpless as the rank and file against this treachery. Aboard the bridge, Daer’dd could only watch the reports in horror as commanders from all across his fleet demanded orders. Were they to open fire? What was happening? Why were their brothers opening fire? The Iron Bear had no answer for his warriors and both his brothers had vanished from the bridge an hour earlier, going to, they said, prepare their warriors for an assault on Kataii in case negotiations should fail. Thus, the Iron Bear was left helpless as the Godslayers and Ghost Walkers warships opened fire, launching both lance weaponry and boarding pods, at the scattered elements of his fleet, who had dispersed themselves amongst their brothers some hours earlier. While this had been intended to present a united front in the face of rebellion, the result was that the Iron Bears were helpless against their assailants, isolated and cut off from the other elements of the VI legion fleet, the Iron Bears were gradually being annihilated. However, as the Godslayers and Grave Stalkers butchered their way through his sons on the lower decks towards the bridge, it didn’t take long for Daer’dd’s shock and horror to turn to anger. The Iron Bear would find his wayward brothers and look them in the eyes and ask why. And then, he would rip their treacherous heads from their shoulders and hurl their toxic corpses into the void.

Once they realised that there had been no mistake and that they were betrayed by those they had thought of as kin, the VI fought back with all the strength and courage they possessed, devoid of care for anything but the moment. While the Iron Bears continued to die in such numbers as never before seen by the legions astartes, each Iron Bear began to now take several foes to the grave with him for the VI now fought with the kind of savagery and determination that only men who know that they shan’t return from a battle possess. The first recorded ship kill was made by the Dragon of Autumn, a Grave Stalker light cruiser named the Hidden Shadow. Other kills by other VI legion vessels soon followed as the Iron Bears began to fight back and make their treacherous brethren pay for their betrayal. As the VI legion strike cruiser called Iron Soul was being overrun by astartes of the Godslayers, all but a token force of Iron Bears were launched in boarding pods at the warp engines of three near by Godslayer vessels and the remaining forces, and Sergeant Enoch Awanjish, who was commanding the remaining astartes on board the ship gave the following speech “My brothers of the VI legion, crew of the Iron Soul. Our enemies believe us to be easy prey. They think they will have a bloodless victory here. Well they don’t know the sons of Huron! Yes we are outnumbered and outgunned. Yes we can not hope to win. But we shan’t give up! We shall rail and rage against our fate with all the strength and might we possess and by the time we are done, not a single filthy whoreson of the VIII or XV will ever forget the last stand of the crew of the Iron Soul! We die as I speak but before we die, we shall carve a new legend from the flesh of our foes, a legend that will be repeated by the sons of Huron until the sun swallows our world, and even then from Terra to the Ghoul Stars all will know of the last stand of the VI! For Huron and the Primarch!”


Despite their anger at being betrayed and their desperation fuelled ferocity in combat, the sons of Daer'dd were gradually falling, outnumbered, isolated and outgunned. However, each Iron Bear who made it aboard the enemies ships died inflicting casualties of a hundred to one against enemy armsmen before eventually falling to the sheer number of weapons being shot at them. However, where lesser warriors would have given up in such circumstances, the Iron Bears were astartes and as such continued to fight with all their strength, even when knowing that death was coming for them. Fuelled by this undying spirit of defiance, the astartes of the VI began to experience some limited success. Several Iron Bears warships, battered and torn, some even still having enemy warriors on board, broke through the lines of enemy vessels and made it far enough away from the planet of Kataii to make an emergency warp jump. One party of some 600 Totem Guard led by Aandegg Niimkiikaa boarded a Godslayer battle barge and seized control of it, promptly using it to escape the massacre as their lord Daer'dd had ordered all Iron Bears capable of doing so to do. However, for the most part, such successes were just one small part of the battle and the brave sons of Daer'dd were cut down, fighting like men possessed but unable to stand against their fellow astartes or freezing to death in the cold depths of the void.

As his sons were slaughtered, Daer'dd was relentless in his hunting of his brothers. They had betrayed their father and slaughtered tens of thousands of Daer'dd's sons and that was not something that could go unpunished. Along with an elite force of 200 hand picked Totem Guard, he boarded the Grave Stalkers flag ship, leaving the remaining Totem Guard under the command of Shipmistress Lotara Sarrin. Daer'dd had only one objective: the death of his treacherous brothers, no matter the cost. While a small force of Totem Guard split off from the main group to seek out and destroy their enemies ships warp drives, the majority stayed with Daer'dd, willing to die to see their father enact revenge for their tens of thousands of fallen brothers. As they fought their way through the enemy flag ship, it soon became clear that without the element of surprise the normal Grave Stalkers were no match for the VI legion elite. Even a group of Grave Stalkers veterans was unable to do any more than delay the Iron Bears who ripped through(quite literally in Daer'dd's case) the battle hardened veterans of the XV.

However, following their death of dozens of XV legion veterans, the Totem Guard and Daer'dd finally found their quarry: K'awil Pakal. Standing before his brother accompanied by nearly three hundred of the fell Reapers of the XV, warriors without pity or remorse, it is said that in the weak light of the ships bowels, K'awil gave his brother a grin that spoke of treachery, death, and, ultimately, the joy of betrayal. Following this, the two primarchs and their warriors clashed, coming together with a sound that would echo down in history: the sound of betrayal and the anger of a betrayed brother. For a long time the two brothers fought, neither able to gain a decisive edge, Daer'dd launching great blows with his war maul at K'awil and K'awil darting in and out, attempting to bleed his brother dry. However, eventually, as the Totem Guard gained the upper hand in their battle against the Reapers, Daer'dd struck a decisive blow, smashing his brother aside, breaking bones and shattering any bonds of brotherhood that remained. Despite this victory, the Iron Bear was unable to strike the killing strike, the one that would end his treacherous brother for before he could, another force took his Totem Guard in the rear, a force of Godslayers led by the other traitor: Koschei.

While he already bled from a dozen cuts inflicted on him by K'awil, the Iron Bear burned with the rage of a brother betrayed and, with little left to lose, hurled himself at Koschei but this fight he couldn't win. With each swing of his maul he grew weaker and slower until finally, Koschei was able to move in for the kill strike. However, before he could, his brother, K'awil, although he had innumerable broken bones and bled as no son of the Emperor had bled before rose and, mustering what strength he could, drove his blade into the heart of his once brother and now mortal enemy, Daer'dd Niimkiikaa. So ended the tale of the Bear.
Lesser troops would have given in. With their primarch dead and their own casualties rapidly rising, many would have expected the VI to do just that. Indeed, that's what even a lesser legion would have done. Not the Iron Bears. The sons of Daer'dd fought on, exacting a bloody toll for their deaths, although there were ever fewer of them left and ever fewer were escaping. Among the ships that escaped was the flag ship of the VI legion which, commanded by the ever determined and capable Lotara Sarrin, fought its way free of the trap and managed, despite extensive damage to the warp drives and geller fields, to make an emergency warp jump as it was pursued by several Godslayer's vessels and with many hostile astartes on board(the last recorded order of the ship-mistress prior to translating into the warp was "Get these dog-screwing whoresons off my ship!"). Linking up and forming into ad hoc squadrons, dozens of Iron Bears vessels also managed to fight their way clear of the murderous trap designed to catch them all and destroy them and make warp jumps. Many more did not. Over the course of three bloody hours, the Iron Bears fleet was cut up into smaller and smaller pockets and destroyed through overwhelming fire power, their shields overcome and their weapons too heavily damaged to inflict any serious damage upon their enemies. Gradually, even these small pockets of resistance were extinguished, and the space above Kataii(which had now declared for Icarion) were left silent, the only disturbance being the hundreds of metal ship carcasses that littered the void and the thousands of astartes corpses that were drifting through the void, their wearers either killed in the fighting or frozen to death after their escape from their destroyed ships.

Occasionally these carcasses were added to when an Iron Bears vessel, scattered by the warp in translation to Kataii, drifted into the space above the world and was hunted down by the Grave Stalkers and Godslayers. The Grave Stalkers were especially savage, exacting a bloody revenge for the crippling of their primarch, flaying alive any Iron Bear who fell into their hands, making the Iron Bears suffer in place of their fallen primarch.

The battle could be considered a great success for the Insurrectionists. Over 90,000 Iron Bears drifted dead and frozen in the space above Kataii for less than a fifth of that number of Godslayers and Ghost Stalkers and most of their fleet was destroyed, effectively destroying them as a legion. What's more, their primarch had also fallen, leaving them leaderless and meaning whatever efforts they made from now on to strike back at the traitors would be uncoordinated and scattered, rendering them effectively useless as an asset to the loyalists and removing them from play, as Icarion had planned. The first loyal brother had fallen in the void above Kataii, and much of his legion had fallen with him. The first piece had been removed from the board.

@Redd: I still need a name for the sergeant who delivers a speech on board the Iron Soul?
@Grifft: Is that a better representation of the Grave Stalkers? What with cutting out the dreads and all
@Squig: Better reason for why Koschei turned or could it still use some tweaking?
Also general question. Is the name Kataii ok for the world over which this takes place? Just I couldn't find the name of the world where it took place in the Galaxy thread.
Also, question to Slips and Hesh before I continue the Underwater madness section. Is there anything you two have agreed on about this battle prior to now that I ought to know? And are there any absolute faux pas'?

[Chief Captain Redd]

How about Enoch Awanjish for the sergeant? Basically translates to Enoch the Stubborn.

[Sigismund229]

So be it!

[Grifftofer]

From my point of view it's great, a really good piece of writing. Congrats.

[Big Bad Squig]

Yeah, that's brilliant Sigismund.  It nails Koschei's motivation on the head as well!

 

EDIT:  Just got to the Nurgleth bit.  Very nice and suitably creepy.

[Chief Captain Redd]

Yeah, it's an absolutely grand piece! I'd been working on a longer novel esque version of the narrative and I'll edit it to match.

[simison]

I've decided that someone else should make that choice. And that person is random chance. Odds, the Revolutionaries. Evens, the Jackels. 

 

Rolled a D100 on this site: https://www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htm.

 

Result - 20. Jackels vs. Yucahu will get the red box. 

 

We'll cover the Revolutionaries vs. Azus in their book. 

[Sigismund229]

I had another go at writing the EW v WoL and I hope this one fits the way you imagined it more Mikhal.

 

The Death of a Dream(for the moment this title is just a place holder, what the segment's actually called is up to you Mikhal)

 

A historic meeting was set to take place in the space over the world of Gatra V. A world that was recently subdued by Gwalchavad and the Wardens of Light, Gatra had little real strategic value and the XII legion were preparing to move on and continue to push the borders of the Imperium ever outwards. However, before they could translate into the warp, another small fleet of vessels came out of the warp on the edges of the system. When long range hails were exchanged, the ships were discovered to belong to the Eagle Warriors and on them they carried Alexos Travier, primarch of the Eagle Warriors. When Gwalchavad and Alexos met via hololiths, Alexos stated that he came bearing news which would greatly change the course of the Great Crusade, news which he had to relay to his brother in person.

 

So it was that Gwalchavad met his brother on board the XIII's flagship, for, from what Alexos had said, the two had much to discuss. As the two talked on the bridge of the XIII legion flagship, they eventually came to matter which had brought Alexos to his brother, the great change to the Great Crusade that he had spoken of. Now alone(as both primarch's had dismissed their bodyguards) Alexos finally told his brother. Icarion the Stormborn was rebelling against Terra. Before Gwalchavad was fully able to process this however, Alexos introduced a modified variant of the drugs that had been used by the Qarith into his brother's body, totally overpowering Gwalchavad's nervous system, a neural and biological attack against which the XII legion primarch was utterly helpless to defend himself. As Gwalchavad collapsed to the floor, twitching from the massive amounts of adrenaline pumping through his body, threating to tear his muscles apart, Alexos Travier, reportedly laughing, went the bridge of the Red Comet, leaving his brother convulsing on the floor and trusting his own bodyguard to kill those Wardens of Light on board the Eagle Warrior's flagship.

 

From the Red Comet, Alexos ordered the XIII legion ships he had with him to open fire upon the Wardens of Light. As the Eagle Warriors opened fire, targeting the XII legion ship's warp drives mainly, thousands of members of the Wardens of Light perished in the fires of warp drive explosions, which hollowed out the ships, leaving them nothing but hunks of metal to rain down onto the surface of Gatra V(so many ships were destroyed, their hulks smashing into the surface of Gatra V, that the event is to this day known as the "season of steel"). As the Eagle Warriors ships kept up a relentless rate of fire, the illusions others called reality peeled back from where they had been covering Alexos' eyes and he now saw the universe in its true state.

 

The Eagle Warriors primarch now saw the souls of the thousands of Wardens who were being slaughtered gathering and coalescing into one and he also saw the gods, greedily feasting upon the souls. It was then that they granted him the first of many boons. He was imbued by them with a level of pyschic might that none of his brothers had been able to match and, so armed, his gaze turned to Terra. Seeing the wards guarding the world, he focussed his newly acquired power into one might fist of pyschic might and used it to smash his way through the Terran wards, opening the world to deamonic assault had the Emperor not immediately diverted a significant portion of his might to plugging the gap punched through the wards by Alexos and ensuring he would be unable to play an active part in fighting the Insurrection for years at the very least, confining him to the Golden Throne.

 

Their mission accomplished, Alexos and his warriors began to leave, with the XII legion fleet in dissarray. However, as they did so, word arrived from the Eagle Warriors on board the Warden's flagship: Gwalchavad's bodyguard were not dead and were now launching an attack to retrieve their primarch. With Blademaster Druss at their head, the Wardens of Light were fighting their way towards their primarch, hell bent upon retrieving him. However, the way was not bloodless, as the Eagle Warriors fought them every step of the way, forcing them to leave a trail of dead Wardens of Light behind them. Once they retrieved their primarch, it only became more difficult, with more legionnaires of the XII dying for every step they took. Eventually, Blademaster Druss volounteered to act as a rear guard and stay behind so tht his brothers and his primarch might live. He stood his ground, cornered and with no way out, cutting down wave after wave of the sons of Mexicatii. However, eventually Alexos Travier came for him. Knowing this was a fight he couldn't win, Druss employed the last card in his deck of tricks. Reportedly laughing and saying "Let there be light" he overloaded his armour's reactor, turning himself into a living bomb, killing dozens of Eagle Warriors and blowing off half of Alexos Travier's face, stopping him from being able to pursue Gwalchavad, whose bodyguard hijacked a XIII legion gunship and made their way back to their own flagship(Alexos Travier, recovering from his horrifying wounds due to Qarith gene tech, reportedly slew the Eagle Warrior who told him this news).

[MikhalLeNoir]

Nice. Three things tough:)

 

First: Where is the tea?

Real first: can you maybe emphasize, that travier and gwal where big buddies in the past (I call him travier to minimize the possibility of mixing up alexandros and alexos)

Second: druss the blademaster is now arngrim valten. There had been a dispute in canonverse where a homage begins and where it ends and in the end druss changed his name

Third: about the psychic blast: envision that with the ower of the gods alexos was able to use the pariah souls of the wardens to nullify the wards. I see it that way, that the sink was momentarily filled with enough mass to block it off but this mass was reduced on it s way to terra and when it hits the wards, the sink wa reopened and so sucked the wards inside or negate them ( as to stay with hesh metaphor)

 

But nice text and a good source for the inevitable short story. And we keep the death of a dream as a title. Like it.

[simison]

I have a couple of questions/points as well.

 

One, where is this piece going? Was this supposed to be the Book 1 red box? 

 

Two, the Pariahs, I know we aren't going with the 'they have no souls' aspect, and I think that's good. But, they should still be completely anti-Warp. So, the Chaos gods shouldn't be able to touch them, and they are essentially useless for ritual use. 

 

Third, can we add more to the ritual? Canonically, Magnus had to project himself into the Warp with an energy-heavy ritual before he borrowed a ton of power from Tzeentch to hit the Terran wards. Here, there is no prep, just power boost to a Travier who is still in the material plane, aim, and boom. Kinda lacking in Chaos weirdness.

[Hesh Kadesh]

Hmmm? Just spitballing here, but does it have to be a literal sacrifice? If we're having them immune to warp craft, what about using them in a more physical manner?

 

Getting them sent to Terra (here is where the Paternova could come in, arranging to have the Navigators all target Terra, rather than it solely being a legion undertaking?) and having the mass of the entire legion of nearly 150-160K of pariahs push against the wards of Terra; the psychic defences could get overloaded, the brief time it being down allowing Daemons to open a more solid warp rift into the palace, as well as cause the light of the Astronomicon to waver, causing even more damage to the loyalists. Forced to defend itself, Terra could power up its weapon defences which causes the Wardens of Light to get a bit annoyed at the Emperor and turn Renegade?

 

Alexos, his job complete, of having not only betrayed his brother, has forced his father to betray his son?

 

Again, nothing set in stone, just an idea present?

[Skalpynock]

Reading Massacre for inspiration, I found the "Chronicles of the final years of the Great Crusade" timeline (24 events from Monarchia to the Dropsite Massacre, 3 of which are redacted). Could be pertinent to have one such timeline, if only to fix dates for certain events.

[bluntblade]

I'd rather go ritual-heavy, and perhaps tie it to the destruction being wreaked on the Legions. Tears in reality through which scenes of fratricide and general atrocity are glimpsed. The Emperor's on convulsions on the throne, and the hypothetical camera's doing that Bad Boys spin around Malcador and the Custodians...

Aquillon: what is this?

Malcador (raising his eyes like Gandalf when the Balrog makes itself heard): treachery.

 

And then the real madness arrives.

 

On a more prosaic note, I can't see Alexos not going in for ritual. He's a deranged priest, after all :p

[Nomus Sardauk]

Gatra V and it's population could be the sacrifice Alexos needs, a few Virus Bombs or Cyclonic Torpedos and wala, a tasty atrocity for our Neverborn friends.

Also, perhaps a more subtle way of delivering the Qarith poison to incapacitate Gwal would be through the two having Tea together, Alexos has been taking the poison in small amounts to build an immunity/has Qarith implants that make him immune so he can drink the tea as well to avoid suspicion. That said, why does Alexos leave Gwal alive anyway? What's the reasoning behind it?

[Slips]

Nah, Virus Bombs and Orbital Devastation is too impersonal to be a sacrifice.

 

Emotions need to be felt: Fear, Hate, Rage/Anger, Sorrow, Despair, etc. Which means putting marines and materiel on the ground and manually scouring all life from the planets surface.

 

However, random wanton slaughter shall not suffice!

 

No!

 

One must do it while performing rituals on the Micro and Macro Scale, incantations, observing the proper rites, turning the population against their loved ones and making them do a portion of the work: Killing their Husbands, Wives, Children, Siblings, Lovers, Family.

 

Make it despicable, insidious, devastating and all consuming.

 

Not a single push of a button that atomizes or renders your targets down to their base chemical components!

 

To Nourish Chaos and Call it forth, one must feed it its primary source of sustenance: Emotion. The Stronger, the better.

[bluntblade]

This. We'll get enough mundane slaughter. This needs to be the point where Alexos earns his hype.

[MikhalLeNoir]

Gatra V and it's population could be the sacrifice Alexos needs, a few Virus Bombs or Cyclonic Torpedos and wala, a tasty atrocity for our Neverborn friends.

Also, perhaps a more subtle way of delivering the Qarith poison to incapacitate Gwal would be through the two having Tea together, Alexos has been taking the poison in small amounts to build an immunity/has Qarith implants that make him immune so he can drink the tea as well to avoid suspicion. That said, why does Alexos leave Gwal alive anyway? What's the reasoning behind it?

Hah!!! That is from princes pride. Pirate roberts vs veccini if i have it correctly.

 

About the virus bomb: we had it in an earlier draft( you can still find it in the general discussion thread) and we decided that that was too overkill back then.

 

Travier and Gwalchavad connects a deep band of respect and friendship and killing the sons of his "love", was the emototional katalysator we found enough. Of course before the fire opens we could implement rituals in board. Mexicaatii lhymns. Maybe a few children( millions) wo were sacrified in preparation starting thd rital and the massacre of the wardens its final. And important is that half of the wardens are no pariahs.

 

About the pariahs: as mentioned before, if we overload the "sink ability" so that there are to many souls at one moment so that the pariajs can't absorb them in that short amount of time and the souls envelope the pariah void and build some form of capsule and this capsule with is slowly eaten away from inside is then directed to the wards, we have the proper tools to destroy the wards so that the demons can enter.

 

Of course if we set up the ritual on the planet, it would be easier to have the wardens ship arrive cause alexos called for gwal and the planet was subdued by the eagle warriors and prepared for the ritual.

[Doctor Perils]

Getting them sent to Terra (here is where the Paternova could come in, arranging to have the Navigators all target Terra, rather than it solely being a legion undertaking?) and having the mass of the entire legion of nearly 150-160K of pariahs push against the wards of Terra; the psychic defences could get overloaded, the brief time it being down allowing Daemons to open a more solid warp rift into the palace, as well as cause the light of the Astronomicon to waver, causing even more damage to the loyalists. Forced to defend itself, Terra could power up its weapon defences which causes the Wardens of Light to get a bit annoyed at the Emperor and turn Renegade?

 

I'd be okay with that I think, but I'll have to see if there's a way to create An "alibi" for him, I was thinking that true allegianc(es) of the paternova would only be revealed at the very end (or the beginning of the attack on the solar system) with a battle between the iron bear's honour guard and the drowned experimental marine navig... oh that might still be secret ;)

 

Edit: also, for the grand ritual, the eagle warriors could split in eight forces and massacre the populations of eight planets that form a holy octed around terra in segmentum solar, each force and planet symbolising one of the eight winds of chaos (eg death world for the beast, forge world for metal etc.).

[Nomus Sardauk]

@MikhalLeNoir: Actually it was inspired by disease immunisation and a Deadliest Warrior episode I watched, where Zulu Warriors chew a poisonous herb throughout their lives in small, safe amounts that allows them to build an immunity to it. Then before battle they hold in their mouths a liquid form of the herb that they spit in the eyes of their enemies as they engage them in melee, blinding their foe with burning irritation, very sneaky stuff.

 

I like the idea of the planet being one big trap for the Wardens, maybe the Eagle Warriors found Gatra V several weeks beforehand and have secretly cultivated their Chaos cult as the planet's religion, then they call the Wardens to them. Alexos invites Gwal for Tea, Alexos spikes the tea, then trap is sprung as the Eagle Warriors and the entire population of Gatra V turn on the Wardens?

 

 

[Hesh Kadesh]

The taking of poison is something that is quite well known in history and is called Mithridatism, i think, after the Rebel king who seceeded from Roman rule, but became so scared of being assassinated, he took poison in small doses to build immunity.

 

I like the idea of creating an octed of Daemon Worlds. Belakor could help ensure that Ulgu/Shadow is created.

 

Sigi, I have a piece being written for the Drowned. Demus, is it alright to have a small contingent of Fire Keepers present on Untara Prime; i have written it as a world which is essentially a gigantic oil well with ocean floor drilling rigs, conquered and protected by the FK. Do you mind it to them being alluded to become traitors (500 or so?). Nothing explicit, of course, just rumours of a force siding with the Drowned? Perhaps a psyker heavy contingent kept behind as part of a 'prison'?