Imperial Fist Successor Chapter WiP: The Amethyst Lords

[PipX]

With the release of Betryal at Calth, and the range of IF bits from Forge World, I've jumped back in to make a chapter descended from Rogal Dorn. I've mostly worked on Chaos armies in the past, because I quite like the general aesthetic, but the lack of cohesion in the models from GW has made me give up on them. When working on Chaos armies, however, they pretty much always end up as renegade chapters that were bearers of Dorns geneseed. I've always liked how he and the Imperial Fists are kind of looked over when the legions are discussed, even though they were a huge part of the Imperial side of the Heresy.

 

 

The chapter I am working on are called the Amethyst Lords, a Crimson Fists Successor, first founded sometime in late M33/early M34 as the Emerald Death chapter. For the first 500 years they are a fleet based chapter, remaining under strength with around 500 marines pending discovery/reclamation of a planet for a home world. In late M34 they discover a planet under siege from an Ork WAAAGH, the discovery aided by following a "flicker" in the Astronomicon. The planet appears as a dead world, but the population and life of the world is concentrated in vast, interconnected subterranean hives. The Orks had made planet-fall by using a variant of Roks with giant borer drills on them, to breach the crust of the world and get at the human population.
The Emerald Death chapter forces launch an attack at the rear of the Ork army, and begins an ongoing onslaught that sees most of the Ork forces decimated, with some splintering off and going to ground in deep, remote caverns. In M41 many an Amethyst Lord recruit has killed several feral Orks before they are taken in by the chapter. During the war, the then Emerald Death chapter command notice iconography from the time of the Great Crusade, as well as the symbol of the Imperial Fists. Records indicated this was a planet brought to compliance by the Imperial Fists, but was cut off before the Battle at Terra by a great warp storm.

 

 

The Emerald Death marines were regaled with tales of a great battle between the "amethyst lords" and the "iron skulls," and were brought to a cavern filled with crystals that gave off a strong violet light, each containing an esoteric energy charge that set off warnings in the marines armor. Inside the cave was evidence of a great battle between several companies of the Imperial Fists and an absent enemy. All the Imperial Fist marines were reduced to skeletons in there armor, and the paint and non sculpted heraldry were removed from some catastrophic blast that had emanated from the center of the cavern. The tales detailed that the marines went to battle knowing that if they did not win the planet and all of its inhabitants would perish, as well as allowing a monstrous force to be released upon the galaxy. The ancestors of the Imperial Fists serfs, Imperial Army auxiliaries, and planetary inhabitants eventually only remembered the marines as the "amethyst lords" based upon the coloring of the suits of armor in the cavern. For millennia their was an honor guard placed at the entrance to the cave, and their lords were undisturbed.

 

In honor of there ancestors sacrifice, and the knowledge that they had not been at the battle of Terra or at the sundering of the Legion at the Iron Cage, the Emerald Death took up the mantle of the Amethyst Lords, and the planet, named Ostrinus Pugnus, as their home world. The Chapter Master at the time, Finn Braun, declared that a portion of the wargear found would be tithed to all Imperial Fist successors, in care of the Crimson Fists. Another proclamation was to turn the cavern into the foundation for the chapter fortress, starting with the mausoleum for interring chapter heroes, the first of which would be the long fallen Imperial Fists Legionnaires. It was decided that some of the colors of the Emerald Death would be retained within the heraldry of the Amethyst Lords, the knee-pads, shoulder pad insets, and lower helm armor would retain the green they bore into battle.

 

 

 

Amethyst Lords Heraldry:

 

 

So some kind of cliff notes things about the chapter that will be fleshed out at a later time:

• Well into M41, the Amethyst Lords go into battle using relic wargear, having a vast amount of spare parts and machinery to repair them from the IF Crusade era companies.
• Amethyst Lords have a keen interest in maintaining a useful gene pool for future recruitment. Scouts are returned to the planetary population for a time before they undergo implant procedures that would sterilize them, and on the way back to the chapter are encouraged to welcome any advances from females. The AL also collect genetic material from prime subjects they fight alongside, and have cultivated a rite on the planet for women to bear children from this genetic material.
• By M41 planetary administration is remote, with the chapters involvement with the planetary population overseen by serfs.
• The AL have a connection with the Ministorum, having allowed a delegation of priests to set up temples to the Imperial Faith. Some females that pass trials are tithed to the church Schola Progenium, ending up in several Orders that the Lords have good ties with.
• Females undergo trials alongside males for the chapters notice. While genetically compatible males undergo further trials for use in marine conversion, females undergo advanced training for specialized serf positions. It is rare for a failed male aspirant to rise above menial positions, as the Amethyst Lords are disdainful of such mortals.
• The planets general tech level is close to most hive worlds, with little to no interstellar communication beyond that which goes through the Chapter. The Amethyst Lords do not allow much, if any, unmonitored access to the planet proper.
• Even in M41, there are still feral ork tribes that popup in the planets deep caverns. The AL haven't done anything to remove this threat, as they view it as a test of strength for the planetary population.

 

[Dosjetka]

You've got an interesting start. Something I noticed and like is the fact that women are also in some way useful to the Chapter, which is usually absent from official lore and other DIY's.

Also, a Chapter called the Emerald Death bringing fire and destruction to the greenskins appeals to me.

 

However, a few other things caught my eye that I think could to with improvement or be removed:

 

- you mention that potential aspirants need to kill several Orks before being accepted into the Chapter. That sounds rather unrealistic and would provide the Chapter with very few recruits, even if they have a pool of several worlds;

 

- the colour scheme is rather eye-watering, don't you think? If you like it then by all accounts stick to it, but I find that it puts me off;

 

- if the Emerald Death Chapter find what is a graveyard of Imperial Fists, wouldn't the right (and honourable) thing to do be contact the Imperial Fist Chapter and let them know instead of what is effectively pillaging the corpses and splitting the loot? Perhaps the Chapter is rewarded by the Imperial Fists for their discovery, thus gaining a few suits of the older, rarer armour marks?

 

That's all I have for now but I hope you found my comments useful and I look forward to seeing this develop :tu:

[PipX]

Hey Dosjetka, definitely like the notes! For the ork killing thing, I mean't more that aspirants tend to have killed an ork or two, not so much that they have to. I figured having a feral ork outbreak every so often would allow the AL to recruit from a populace that still knows war. For the wargear, what I am kind of going with the AL is that, through their lineage from the Crimson Fists, they have as much claim to the wargear as the Imperial Fists would, which is why they gobbled it up where another IF successor may have done as you said. To them since it was gear from the Imperial Fists Legion, it was fair game. It's also my justification for the models I'll be working on being in Mk IV and III armor, rather than going a mysterious route like the Minotaurs or Red Scorpions.

 

For the thing with the women, yeah, that's a big source of manpower for the chapters and Imperium that don't get discussed enough in my opinion. If the population is capable of producing males suitable for conversion into Adeptus Astartes conversion, the women should be on a similar level, though unable to undergo the conversion. I view the Lords as a prideful chapter as well, and failed aspirants would have a stigma attached to them, as they would already have had a sizable amount of chapter resources put into them for it to go bust. Women could be trained into their role from induction rather than the "remedial" training male aspirants might need.

 

For the paint scheme, it's a lot more toned down in real life. It is a mix of my favorite colors though, so I probably won't be changing it, but it's also a color triad! I used a light bluish color for the eye pieces and plasma coils for my first small squad, will probably change it into an orange so it doesn't blend in as much. Once I can get a decent light setup I will start putting in pictures.

 

I plan on adding some more stuff next week.

[GastosRhor]

How your chapter goes? Any progress?

[Olis]

How your chapter goes? Any progress?

 

PipX has not been on B&C for the past (almost) six months. Unfortunately, once someone has been away for that long, then the odds of them coming back are down to a coin flip, really. That and he hadn't added anything more in the ten months since that last post... yeah. This thread probably should have stayed dead. :(