Black Book - Insurrection (PUBLISHED)

[MikhalLeNoir]

So I was right about gene therapy? Didn't counted on that ^^

 

I can live with Skals version and far better with Squigs^^

 

I guess togheter they make something great.

 

All win. Sometimes you have to wade through a sea of blood^^

[simison]

Squig, besides Koschei's experiment, I was thinking of adding this bit to the Godslayer history.

 

 

...Azus Bahmut and Raktra Akarro in particular never saw eye to eye with the idealistic Kharkovic, thinking his reliance on peace a weakness.  Despite his brothers’ scorn, Koschei was soon able to earn the respect of many of the more reasonable of his brothers, and was happily redeemed for the tension of his first encounter with the Emperor. One relationship of mutual respect quickly grew into close friendship as Koschei found a kindred spirit in Alexandros. Before the arrival of Koschei, Alexandros had established himself as the Imperium's foremost diplomat and was one of its most ardent supporters of peaceful integration. The two brothers were quick to collaborate and work in unison with their unusual interpretation of the Great Crusade's goals, and, for a time, Alexandros took Koschei under his wing to train him in the more fine arts of negotiation. Although similar in many ways, there were stylistic differences between the two which distinguished one from the other. Koschei excelled in small-scale negotiations where the emphasis was on battlefield integration between units of conflicting personalities and was skilled in persuading hostile human forces in foregoing their resistance. Whereas Alexandros' strength lay in manipulating and optimizing political situations on a much larger scale, along with sowing discord in opposition forces through his use of telepathy as an offensive weapon for deception and morale breaking. Despite these differences, the two brothers greatly enjoyed their friendship and commitment to their idealism together.

 

[How's that?]  

[Big Bad Squig]

Thought it was high time to join the discussion. I concur with simison that Koschei is not dying and being resurrected, and I don't think Koschei overly needs to be a pariah (oh the irony). However, I would say that the Godslayers shouldn't be able to 'switch on and off' their ability as I don't want to tread on the Wardens of Lights' toes. I understand this idea sprung up first out of the need for Nurgle to be able to reach and corrupt the legion and Primarch, but there is another possibility. In regards to the legion, they are killed prior to being corrupted and playing host to minor daemons, meaning their ability to stop psychic power will not be in use. In regards to Koschei, I'm assuming 'Nurgle getting to him' means communicating with him through visions? If that's the case, I think a chaos God could psychically overpower Koschei, as he works less to completely nullify psychic energy (like a pariah does) than to smother it, meaning a strong enough psyker could in theory overwhelm him. Also, as a side note, I believe it something was mentioned about having an elite cadre of warriors who are not zombified. In my opinion, the dread noughts already fulfil this role, and I would rather not have another group for the same purpose as I fear it would detract from the pre existing group. In terms of backstory, Skal's fits Pretty much perfectly.

Apologies for the nonsensical (I haven't properly been following this discussion, to my shame) and grammatically poor (posting on mobile - aargh) splurge of text. Hope this clarifies some of the issues surfacing.

[simison]

It does, and we'll go with that. Also, what do you think of my revised work in the previous post?

 

And was Redd outflanked by RL again? He sent me a PM that he had an idea of what he wanted to do for his RoWs but then never posted anything. 

[bluntblade]

I guess so. May seems to be a busy month

[Nomus Sardauk]

If I may, I've just had a thought about how Koschei can fall to Nurgle, inspired by an episode of House. Well basically, you know how some diseases attack or use DNA in their attack/infection process? Well here's what I'm thinking, Nurgle's zombie plague upon Zbruch is a Trojan Horse, specifically tailored to be the means of entry for a second virus produced in the bodies of the zombified population & marines to infect the Pariah/Psychic Suppressants/whatever. This second virus is transferred via bites with the normal zombie infection, but aggressively attacks the genes responsible for the Pariah's/Suppressant's powers, rendering them vulnerable to corruption & zombification.

 

As a result Koschei literally has to be dragged down and bitten by the swarms of zombified marines & civvies before Nurgle can truly take possession of his new toy, as Koschei's previously immunity to corruption fails as his Genes are killed off by the hundreds of infected bites and scratches.

[MikhalLeNoir]

that reminds me of another alternate heresy, where sanguinius(what a coincedence) is drank dry by his own sons^^.

 

I for my part like that^^

[Chief Captain Redd]

I'm still around reading at least, I've not had much time to post as I would like, but with no plans and the better half is out of town for the weekend; I've finally been able to catch up on what was bogging me down.

[Kelborn]

that reminds me of another alternate heresy, where sanguinius(what a coincedence) is drank dry by his own sons^^.

 

I for my part like that^^

Wasn't that in the Dornian Heresy where the BA fell to Nurgle and need to drink blood to stay (in a weird way) healthy? ^^

[MikhalLeNoir]

Could be. I know only the one where sanguinius stays loyal but his sons went traitor and thy sucked everz srop of blood from him.

[Nomus Sardauk]

 

 

that reminds me of another alternate heresy, where sanguinius(what a coincedence) is drank dry by his own sons^^.

 

I for my part like that^^

Wasn't that in the Dornian Heresy where the BA fell to Nurgle and need to drink blood to stay (in a weird way) healthy? ^^

Yeah, Nurgle's rot is slowly killing them via toxin build-up in their blood and organs, so they need to make raids to find healthy replacements. Their Death Company consists of Marines whose brains have been ravaged by the rot and have lost their higher brain functions and ability to feel pain.

[simison]

Alright, well, until Squig replies to my last question & Redd revises his RoW, I need a new target. Out of Alpha phase, we still have Harbingers, Scions, & Drowned to work on. I'll shoot Athrawes a PM, but where do we stand on the Scions since Hesh is MIA? 

[Big Bad Squig]

The latest bit of Godslayer stuff looks good, if that was the question you wanted answered. Also, while I have exams the week after next, I'm otherwise free for writing duties if anyone needs help.

[bluntblade]

Alright, well, until Squig replies to my last question & Redd revises his RoW, I need a new target. Out of Alpha phase, we still have Harbingers, Scions, & Drowned to work on. I'll shoot Athrawes a PM, but where do we stand on the Scions since Hesh is MIA?

 

We have Legion history, exemplary battles and a blurb on their tech. OK'd by Slips and sent to Grifft. It's all in the thread for your consideration.

[Chief Captain Redd]

I'll be finishing up my RoWs tomorrow along with the edits needed for my rules and characters. Hopefully several of the red boxes too.

[simison]

 

Alright, well, until Squig replies to my last question & Redd revises his RoW, I need a new target. Out of Alpha phase, we still have Harbingers, Scions, & Drowned to work on. I'll shoot Athrawes a PM, but where do we stand on the Scions since Hesh is MIA?

We have Legion history, exemplary battles and a blurb on their tech. OK'd by Slips and sent to Grifft. It's all in the thread for your consideration.

 

 

 

What about Legion Organization?

 

Athrawes replied and gave me the green light. So, I'm pivoting my writing to the Harbingers. Also, if everyone could help Redd refine his RoWs and his special characters that would be excellent. As soon as the Iron Bear rules are done, then they will have crossed the finish line. 

[Slips]

Sure, I'll give it a gander once I have some actual free time if somebody else doesn't. End of the School year and all that.

[simison]

The Harbingers – the Legion of the Sire of Insurrection, whose name now echoes through time and the shattered realms of mankind as a curse. Though an age of darkness would follow them in their wake, these heralds of the end times once trod a different path.  So great was their fall that few now remember that they and their master were once raised above their brothers of the Legiones Astartes. The First Legion, once held in highest in esteem and courage amongst their kind, were warriors cut in starlight, fierce and intelligent, gracefully bearing the Emperor's own lightning over centuries of glorious conquest during the Great Crusade. To humanity, they were angels of light, a bright star in the firmament of the Emperors greatest designs. To the Legions, they were the first amongst equals, paragons of all it was to be of the Space Marines and champions to the Great crusade. Once loyal, and trusted above all others, the Harbingers now stand as a mirror held up to the Imperium itself, a bright guiding light of hope, now corrupted and fallen to eternal darkness.

[bluntblade]

I've discussed structure a little with Slips, so I'm happy to have a crack at that.

[simison]

Origins: The First Among Equals

 

As the Emperor set his eyes to the stars beyond the unity of Terra, he raised new armies to fight his coming crusade. He drew these in part from the forces aiding him in Terra's Unification, and in part from his subjugated enemies, and standing besides the gene-breeds, war-wights, and battle emissaries were the first of the Legiones Astartes. These Legionnaires were far from the vast armies in their hundreds of thousands which would later unify the galaxy, but inheritors, bearing the legacy of the Thunder Warriors that had come before them, which together represented a fighting force singular throughout history.

 

The I^st Legion stood sentinel over the creation of the monolithic organization, the Legiones Astartes, as the Emperor's prototypes. Created in secret, bearing the first (and some would claim purest) gene-seed, the I^st legion was believed to have been hand crafted in their alpha stage by the Emperor and his closest gene-smiths. In stark contrast to the larger raisings of the later Legions, the First (as they had become known) were created in training batches of a dozen aspirants at a time. The remarkable children the Emperor choose for this earliest of experiments were drawn from across Terra from all walks of life, children of noted intelligence, genetic stability and, some would note in hushed circles, a predisposition for unusual gifts. The road to becoming an Astartes is one fraught with peril and difficult. It goes without saying that many of these earliest implantations would end in tragedy, but the aspirants who survived the prototype stage of genetic enhancement would prove themselves capable and cunning. The surviving proto-1^st Legionnaires trained relentlessly with the most vicious and skilled Thunder Warriors of Unity. It can be said that these early experiments in training regimen and instruction would form the bedrock of generations of Legionaries to come. These first warriors were baptized in the fires of Unification with squads of aspirants seconded to grizzled Thunder Warrior regiments. The aspirants who survived these grueling trials and combat missions would find themselves elevated to the level of the first true Legionnaires, bearing advanced and potent forms of Powered armor.

 

These first veteran inductees of the I^st eventually formed coteries of experienced officers who would come to oversee the training of future Legionnaires of the younger Legions. In this fashion, did the Emperor impart a sense of shared brotherhood amongst the earliest Legions, for even decades into the Great Crusade, the younger Legions would find themselves seconded officers from The First to help guide them and advise them on the surest way to uphold the Emperor's vision for humanity.

 

The final years of Terra’s Unification would see the I^st Legion achieve a series of faultless victories which would serve as examples and be lauded by their brother Legions until the dying light of the Great Crusade's End.

 

As prototypes to the wider Legiones Astartes, the I^st Legion mastered all manner of warfare in the name of the Emperor, to hone themselves as the perfect instruments of combat. To this end, they began conducting sieges, shock assaults, boarding actions and rescue operations, all the while learning and improving their warcraft, codifying their newly learned strategies for future dissemination. While they excelled in all styles of war, the I^st Legion applied themselves to each warzone in a truly singular manner, for the I^st Legion fought with controlled aggression, every situation and stratagem carefully measured and weighed, to best affect desired outcomes. Perhaps through the influence of their genetic heritage or the use the Emperor put them to, the First become synonymous with intricate, but swift and faultlessly decisive pinpoint assaults, locating a point in the grand scheme of each combat, a fulcrum around which the tide of battle could be swayed by their effortless intercession.

 

In such a manner were some of the greatest victories of late Unification won, wherever foes against the enlightenment of mankind could be found, the I^st Legion fought with honor and grace to illuminate mankind and fulfill the vision of the Emperor. If any event from this time speaks to the nature of the I^st Legion, it would be the razing of the Crystal Fortress, what came to be known as the ‘Silencing of the Eternal Dirge.’

[simison]

Silencing of the Eternal Dirge

 

From the darkness of old night came the Cult of Rapture, a society of human blood mages and gene-grotesques who reveled in the ritualized slaughter of millions. Over centuries the Cult subjugated the southern Polar Region of Terra enslaving entire generations of that once prosperous region. The Cult was comprised of more than the petty tyrants all too common across Terra at that time. They were instead, an organized religion, exulting the abhorrent mutations of the Psyker and worshiping dark and ancient false gods. Each day, hundreds of innocents were sacrificed to feed the bottomless hunger of their warlocks, creating in the process a great psychic malignancy afflicting the region known as the Eternal Dirge, a reality bending affront to the natural order of the universe, both twisting the perception of those enslaved and guiding those who abased themselves to the abhorrent cult. Wherever the Cult’s grotesques were lead by the dirge, a grisly pogrom was enacted to cull hundreds in order to strengthen their enclave and sustain the song which fueled them.

 

Until the coming of the Emperor.

 

As unity slowly began to encompass Terra, the Emperor turned his attention to the Crystal Fortress of the Cult, the diseased seat of the ritualized power. Every effort of the Emperor’s mortal soldiers and gene crafted thunder warriors to pacify the polar region had met with disaster. More often than not, entire armies were enthralled by the Dirge and turned back to cruelly assail their fellows.

 

The Emperor had foreseen the perils of warpcraft as a threat to his designs and turned to his 1^st Legion for the region's deliverance. While all Space Marines had been crafted to serve as the Emperor’s greatest warriors, the I^st Legion had been created with a further specialization in mind. To combat the malignancy of rogue Psykers and the repugnancy of warpcraft, the Emperor had looked to create warriors in his own image, the wider Legiones Astartes were all meant to reflect aspects of the Emperor, to become embodiments of his might, the I^st Legion however, had been crafted at the genetic level to reflect a shard of the Emperor's psychic might.

 

 

While it is true that many Legions contained warriors proficient in the use of psychic powers, indeed some legions where psychic power was relatively common place, no Legion shared the innate and widespread psychic proficiency that became manifest within the First. This genetic propensity towards unlocking humanities psychic potential was further expanded by the Emperor's focused efforts to recruit children with noteworthy and controlled psychic talents into the I^st Legion.

[simison]

[Waiting on some input from Athrawes. In the meantime, Squig, how do these tweaks look to you?]

 

  

In the months after the announcement, this reason’s absence was noted by Kharkovic.  As well as this, there was a growing tension within the Eighth Legion, one that not even the Primarch himself seemed to be able to fully remedy. For a Legion whole-heartedly dedicated to the ideals of enlightenment and truth, the Emperor's secretive actions appeared to undermine these principles. Many of the Godslayers, like Koschei, felt wronged by the Emperor’s withdrawal, and slowly, but acutely noticeable to those who knew where to look, the 67^th Expedition’s pace slowed, and morale dipped. Kharkovic feared how far the Crusade would deteriorate in the Emperor’s absence. On a more personal level, Kharkovic found the Emperor's behavior uncomfortably paralleling High Lord Samofrakiya's habit of keeping secrets, which further poisoned his mind against the Emperor.

               

And so when Koschei was approached by Icarion Anasem, he was more susceptible to the ideas that his brother put forward. Icarion, after all, was well-known for his honourable ways, and, like Kharkovic, was suspicious of the Emperor's unexplained absence. Ever trusting, Kharkovic allowed himself to be swayed by the honeyed lies of a new, more trustworthy Imperium his brother fed him.  After some consideration, it was decided that the mighty Eighth Legion, upholder of the Emperor’s will and beacon of light amongst the madness of the Great Crusade, would muster under the banner of the Stormborn in open rebellion against the Imperium of Man.

              

Thus it was that the Godslayers were sent to the mysterious and dangerous region of space known as the Ghoul Stars.     

[Big Bad Squig]

Looks all good to me!

[Sigismund229]

One linguistic quible: you can't poison someone's doubts against someone. Their mind yes but not their doubts

[simison]

Can you set doubts on fire?